"It's near a shrine, about five minutes from where we are now."
Betty checked the mission location on her phone while steering her drone, and her tone was casual. "But the shrine's in a busy downtown area with lots of ordinary people around. If we fly over, it'll be inconvenient. We'd draw too much attention."
The Jujutsu Society had a rule against revealing jujutsu in front of ordinary people, to avoid causing unnecessary panic. So in a busy area like this, they had no choice but to walk.
"So is there anywhere to get dessert around here?"
When Satoru Gojo heard they had to walk, he looked reluctant, and his voice went limp. All he could think about was something sweet.
Dealing with these cursed spirits wasn't exactly tiring for him, but it was still work. All the running around and fighting wore a person down, body and soul.
He urgently needed some dessert to reward himself and recharge his energy and mood.
"Probably. Let me check the map."
Betty pulled up the map on her phone and looked over the nearby shops. Then her eyes lit up, and she turned to Gojo. "There's a high school not far ahead. Near it there's an ice cream shop. Lots of high school girls say their ice cream is really good."
"Let's go, let's go. Ice cream first. I need a reward, or I seriously won't make it."
The moment Gojo heard the word ice cream, a lot of the exhaustion left his face and his eyes brightened. He said it with a weary, world-worn expression, looking exactly like an office worker crushed by overtime and late nights. It was hard not to feel sorry for him.
Betty laughed a little at the sight of him and nodded. She kept piloting her drone as she walked beside him, and quietly switched on its camera. She recorded this rare, pitiful, and kind of cute side of Gojo, planning to use it to tease him later.
The two of them walked side by side toward the high school. The whole way, Gojo kept going on about how the ice cream would taste, looking full of anticipation. His earlier exhaustion had completely disappeared.
They soon arrived near the school.
It happened to be the end of the school day, and the front gate was lively. Students who weren't in any clubs were trickling out in twos and threes, chatting and laughing, full of youthful energy.
It was a girls' school, so every student coming out was a girl. They wore matching uniforms and innocent smiles, chattering about funny things that had happened at school or their plans for the weekend.
"Let me see where that ice cream shop is."
Betty stopped and looked down at the map on her phone, searching for the exact location of the shop. She frowned slightly, completely focused.
But in the few seconds she spent looking at the map, Gojo vanished from her side.
Betty paused, then shook her head in exasperation. She didn't even need to think about it. Gojo was definitely off showing off again.
She looked around and quickly spotted him.
At the school gate, Gojo had taken off the sunglasses he usually wore, revealing a pair of clear, dazzling blue eyes. He gave two passing girls a gentle, handsome smile and asked in a friendly voice, "Hi there. I heard there's a great ice cream shop nearby. Could you tell me where it is?"
The two girls had been chatting and laughing as they walked. When they heard his voice, they stopped and looked up. The moment they saw his face, their eyes lit up, and their cheeks turned a little pink.
"Wow, he's so hot!"
"Look, a cute guy! He's way too good-looking!"
One of the girls whispered it under her breath, her eyes full of awe and shyness. Her face kept getting redder, and she even started to stumble over her words.
Other girls leaving school also stopped when they noticed Gojo. Every one of them turned to look at him, whispering to each other with starstruck expressions. For a moment, nearly every eye at the school gate was on him.
Gojo clearly enjoyed the attention. He lifted his chin slightly and his smile got even brighter. Every move he made was a deliberate show, like a peacock spreading its tail and flaunting how good-looking he was.
Betty stood a short distance away and watched with open contempt. She couldn't help grumbling to herself. This guy never misses a chance to show off, no matter when. He's hopeless.
She sighed and walked over to him, annoyed.
"You really never miss a chance to show off, huh."
When she reached his side, Betty kept her voice low, full of scorn and teasing. As she spoke, she quietly lifted her foot and stepped on his.
"Ow..."
Gojo hissed when she stepped on him, and his smile froze. He turned to Betty with a wronged look and complained under his breath, "I was just asking for directions. I wasn't thinking anything like what you're saying. Don't accuse me."
As he said it, he deliberately straightened up and acted like he had every right to be there. But the smugness in his eyes gave him away.
Betty rolled her eyes and ignored him. She turned to the two girls, who were still dazzled.
The two girls looked a little confused when they saw Betty, but they quickly snapped out of it and put away their shyness. One of them worked up her courage and smiled, her face still slightly pink. "The ice cream shop? I know where it is! We were going there anyway. Right, Miko?"
The one speaking was a round-faced girl who looked full of energy.
The girl beside her was about the same age, but she looked much worse. She seemed completely worn out, with heavy dark circles under her eyes, like she hadn't been sleeping well.
"Mm. Whatever you decide is fine, Hana."
The girl named Miko yawned as she answered her friend.
"Thanks for the help, then."
"To say thanks, I'll buy you both ice cream later."
Gojo's bright smile returned at once. He waved at the two girls and said cheerfully, "Thanks a lot, you're really helping me out!" Gojo, who had zero financial worries, was never stingy about this kind of thing.
When the girl saw his smile, her cheeks turned even redder. She nodded quickly and led Gojo and Betty toward the ice cream shop. The whole way there, she kept sneaking glances at him, looking shy and happy.
Gojo soaked up the girls' attention, chatting with them every now and then with a handsome smile on his face. He didn't notice Betty's expression getting darker and darker beside him.
Betty watched him and quietly gritted her teeth. She was already planning how to properly "deal with" this show-off later, so he'd learn what holding back meant.
With the two girls leading the way, the group soon reached the highly rated ice cream shop.
While they chatted on the way, Gojo learned that the tired-looking girl was named Miko Yotsuya, and the energetic one was Hana Yurikawa.
They stood at the counter of the ice cream shop.
"Get whatever you want. Don't be shy."
Gojo said it lightly, waving at Hana and Miko with his usual bright smile. Behind his sunglasses, his eyes seemed to curve into crescents.
He didn't give either of them a chance to be polite about it. He called out to the clerk at the counter and ordered a ridiculously huge ice cream boat, making sure to ask for extra chocolate sauce and crushed nuts.
When it arrived, the clear glass boat held five different flavors of ice cream. It was drizzled with thick chocolate sauce, covered in rainbow sprinkles and crushed cookies, and topped with two little decorative umbrellas. It looked sickeningly sweet.
Gojo grabbed a spoon without hesitation and shoveled a big scoop of vanilla from the middle into his mouth. He narrowed his eyes in satisfaction. There was even a bit of chocolate sauce at the corner of his mouth, but he was enjoying himself too much to care how he looked.
"Thank you!"
Hana gave Gojo a shy, grateful smile and thanked him again. Then she turned to the menu behind the counter, her eyes sparkling. She was obviously tempted by all the flavors.
She hesitated for a few seconds before ordering a regular strawberry ice cream. Miko, sitting beside her, barely glanced at the menu and quietly ordered matcha. She hardly looked up the whole time.
When their ice cream arrived, Hana immediately grabbed her spoon and took a bite. The sweet-tart strawberry and rich cream melted in her mouth, and her eyes lit up. She looked completely content.
Miko slowly stirred her ice cream with her spoon. The slight bitterness of the matcha didn't seem to clear the dazed look in her eyes. Every so often she mechanically put a spoonful in her mouth, chewing absentmindedly.
Betty sat at a table nearby holding a cold milkshake. She took a sip through the straw, and the cool, milky taste spread across her tongue.
Her gaze happened to land on Hana, and she raised an eyebrow, a little surprised.
Earlier, she'd thought the way this girl looked at Gojo was obviously starstruck, like there were stars in her eyes and she was full of admiration.
But watching her eat now, Betty suddenly felt that she wasn't so much starstruck as a genuine foodie.
Hana ate very seriously. She didn't even notice the strawberry sauce at the corner of her mouth, and every so often she narrowed her eyes in pure bliss. That focus was actually a bit like Gojo, who was wolfing down his ice cream nearby.
Then Betty looked at Miko, and she grew even more puzzled.
This girl had been distracted the entire time. Her eyes kept drifting, like she was zoning out, or like she was deliberately avoiding something. She'd barely touched her ice cream, and a ring of pale green liquid had already melted around the edge of the bowl.
That surprised Betty a little. She'd assumed these two would be like Riko Amanai's classmates before, unable to help gushing over someone as good-looking as Gojo and crowding him with questions.
But what was happening in front of her clearly wasn't what she'd expected.
As she was thinking this, Betty's gaze stopped on the entrance of the shop.
A little thing about the size of a sparrow came wobbling in through the door. Its wings made a faint buzzing sound as they flapped, and it didn't look like much.
Betty recognized it at a glance, and her expression didn't change at all.
It was a low-grade cursed spirit below Grade 4, called a Fly Head. It was weak and not dangerous at all. Fly Heads usually just hovered around places with dense energy and posed no real threat to humans.
After the Fly Head flew in, it didn't linger. It headed straight toward Hana and finally landed on the table in front of the two girls. Its tiny body trembled, and its antennae kept twitching.
It looked like it wanted to get closer to Hana but was too scared. It shuffled forward a little, then immediately retreated. It did this several times, never daring to get any closer.
Betty watched it for a moment, then looked away with no particular expression.
Compared to a weak little Fly Head, she'd much rather replay the video she'd secretly recorded of Gojo looking pathetic. That was way more fun than this little cursed spirit.
But before she'd even finished replaying the scene in her head, she heard faint wingbeats in the shop again.
Betty looked up on reflex and saw another Fly Head fly in. It was identical to the first one, and even its wings flapped at about the same rhythm.
It also landed right on Hana and Miko's table, squeezing in next to the first one. It had the same look of wanting to get closer to Hana but not daring to. Its antennae touched its companion's body, like they were communicating.
Now Betty finally felt that something was off.
She turned her head slightly toward Gojo, who was still buried in his ice cream nearby, and said quietly, "Isn't that girl a little strange?"
"Hm?"
Gojo slowly looked up at the sound of her voice, still looking satisfied from his ice cream. His sunglasses had slid down to the tip of his nose, showing a bit of his blue eyes.
He tilted his head in confusion. "What's up?!"