Ms. Gojo thought she was dating an ordinary person's boyfriend.

The day of departure arrived quickly.

Early that morning, Tomoyo and the others all came to the Kinomoto family home to see the two off.

"These are for Mr. Wu."

Sakura handed him a bag that was full to the brim.

Besides the sweets from Tomoeda Town and a few small gifts, the most eye-catching item inside was a glass jar filled with candy.

The jar was large, and the candy wrappers inside were colorful, shimmering in the sunlight. Each candy was slightly different in shape.

Gojo Satoru recognized it at a glance: "Lucky Candy?"

"Yes, it's all freshly made." Sakura nodded earnestly. "You've probably eaten most of the ones that Sumi-nii gave you, right? So Tomoyo and I made some more."

Tomoyo stood beside her and gently added, "There are different flavors inside. In addition to the sweet flavor that Satoru-sensei likes, we also added some of the flavors that Kikawa-kun usually eats."

"Each one carries a blessing." Sakura put her hands behind her back, smiling a little shyly. "Although it may not be of much help, I hope you will all be safe and sound in the future, and that everything you encounter will have a good ending."

Gojo Satoru, holding the heavy candy jar, was unusually quiet for a moment.

Then, he smiled and smiled with his beautiful blue eyes.

"I really like it. Thank you, Sakura, and thank you, Tomoyo."

Snow Rabbit smiled and nodded, "No matter what happens, don't force yourself."

"We will."

Sumire Kikawa smiled gently and acknowledged their responses one by one.

Sakura looked at them, her clear eyes revealing obvious reluctance: "You must come back often."

"Okay." Sumire Kichikawa took Satoru Gojo's hand and promised gently, "We'll come back when we have time."

Gojo Satoru held the candy jar in one hand, his other hand intertwined with his. He waved to everyone, smiling brightly: "See you next time."

After saying goodbye to everyone, the two left the Kinomoto family home side by side.

Throughout the journey, Gojo Satoru studied the jar of lucky candy.

He examined it through the transparent glass for a long time, turning it over and over, and finally chose a light blue one. He unscrewed the cap and prepared to open it.

Kikawa Sumi reacted quickly, reaching out to grab his wrist.

"I just had breakfast."

"Fortune candies aren't exactly ordinary sweets," Gojo Satoru argued confidently.

"It's also sugar."

"But it brings blessings."

Even with blessings, you shouldn't eat too much at once.

Gojo Satoru turned his head to look at him, trying to argue, "I'll only eat one."

Kikawa Sumi didn't budge an inch, her grip on his hand remaining firm: "We'll eat when we get back."

The two stared at each other for a moment on the roadside.

In the end, it was Gojo Satoru who compromised.

"All right."

He pursed his lips, put the candy back in the jar, and tightened the lid. Finally, however, he couldn't help but mutter a complaint under his breath: "Xiao Cheng can be really strict sometimes."

Kikawa Sumi squeezed his hand, accepting it all without hesitation: "Mm."

Gojo Satoru stared at him for a while, then suddenly smiled without any anger.

"But I like it."

Kikawa Sumi paused slightly and glanced at him sideways.

Gojo Satoru, however, acted as if he hadn't said anything, casually turning his gaze away and continuing to walk forward with the candy jar in his arms.

This time, unlike when they left Yahara last time, the two did not follow the same path they had taken to find the boundary between worlds.

Sumire Kichikawa, still holding Gojo Satoru's hand, returned to the room where they were staying.

Gojo Satoru initially thought he had come back to retrieve something he had forgotten.

Upon entering, Susumu Kikkawa neither checked his luggage nor inspected the room's furnishings. He simply closed the door behind him, then took Satoru Gojo's hand and headed straight for the bedroom.

Gojo Satoru glanced down at their clasped hands, then looked up at Sumi Kichikawa's back.

He felt a vague sense of confusion.

However, he did not ask any questions.

Xiao Cheng must have her reasons for bringing him here.

Sumi Kichikawa stopped in front of the bedroom door.

Before them was just an ordinary wooden door. The doorknob even bore traces of their presence over the past few days, making it seem completely unrelated to any entrance to another world.

Kisakawa Sumi held Gojo Satoru's hand, her outward appearance remaining calm, but her consciousness had already sunk into the depths of her origin, and she slammed it down hard on the system that had been feigning death for so long:

[Open the door.]

The system was silent for a moment.

Perhaps recalling the standoff that had just ended, this time it neither shirked responsibility nor continued to feign being out of contact.

Kikawa Sumi grasped the doorknob and pushed the door inward.

Behind the door was the bedroom that should have been where they stayed for a few days.

However, the moment he stepped across the threshold, the atmosphere around him underwent a silent and dramatic change.

The clear, soft sunlight of Tomoeda Town vanished instantly behind me, replaced by the familiar indoor lighting of my Tokyo home.

The furniture arrangement, the faint scent lingering in the air, and even the faint sounds of the city outside the window were all exactly the same as before they left.

Gojo Satoru stopped in his tracks.

The first thing he saw was the digital clock on the bedside table.

The numbers flashing on the screen were exactly the same as when they left Tokyo.

It was as if they hadn't stayed in another world for several days, but had simply pushed open the bedroom door and taken a brief stroll outside.

Gojo Satoru's eyes widened slightly.

"The time hasn't changed?"

He glanced at the digital clock, then abruptly turned around to look behind him.

But the door behind him had returned to normal. Outside the door was the familiar corridor of his Tokyo home, with no trace of the temporary house in Tomoeda-cho.

Gojo Satoru's eyes showed surprise.

This time, it was different from the time with Yahara.

When they returned from Yahara last time, time in Tokyo had flowed normally again. Because of this, Gojo Satoru had always taken it for granted that time was synchronized between different worlds, only the way they were connected and their spatial locations were different.

But now it seems that things are clearly not like that.

Sumi Kichikawa naturally noticed the fleeting surprise on his face.

In fact, this is the proper state that cross-border channels should be in when they are functioning normally.

To ensure that mission takers are not affected by the different time flows of different worlds when carrying out cross-world missions, the channels established by the Time and Space Administration are equipped with time anchoring functions.

When you enter another world, no matter how long you stay there, when you return to your original anchor point, time should stop at the moment you left.

The flow between realms should not interfere with each other in the first place.

The reason why so much time seemed to have passed in Tokyo after my last trip back from Yahara was entirely because the system refused to open the official channel.

With no other option, Sumire Kichikawa could only follow the unstable cracks in the world and return the way she came with Gojo Satoru.

That wasn't a normal crossing of boundaries; it was a forced crossing of the edge where two worlds temporarily overlapped. Naturally, the stability of the time anchor point couldn't be guaranteed.

Just as Sumire Kawakawa was about to explain, the person next to her suddenly fell silent.

Gojo Satoru stopped looking at the digital clock on the bedside table.

He turned around, his gaze, hidden behind his sunglasses, landing directly on Kikawa Sumi. The surprise and curiosity he had just displayed had vanished without him noticing.

Through the dark lenses, that penetrating gaze slowly swept along the outline of Kikawa Sumi's body, finally stopping precisely at a certain deepest point that could not be reached by ordinary eyes.

A bad feeling suddenly welled up in Sumire Kikkawa's heart.

The next second, Gojo Satoru spoke softly:

"Cheng".

Sumire Kichikawa paused, then asked, "What's wrong?"

Gojo Satoru did not answer immediately.

He casually put down the candy jar in his arms, grabbed Kikawa Sumi's wrist tightly, and gently pulled her in front of him.

Those pale blue eyes stared at him intently through the sunglasses.

After a moment, he asked in a low voice:

"Is something wrong with your body?"