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

Actually, this time, Sumire Kawakawa really misunderstood.

For the first day or two, Gojo Satoru was indeed holding back his anger and harbored a malicious intention to "deliberately leave him hanging and let him experience the feeling of discomfort."

But after a few days, that aura had mostly dissipated.

I was angry, but I also felt really sorry for her.

Moreover, when Kisakawa Sumi was held in his arms that day and promised to try her best not to hide it anymore, his heart had already softened considerably.

Later, he deliberately filled his schedule with tasks, which was less a punishment for Sumire Kichikawa and more a reflection of not yet knowing what expression to use to face him when he returned.

He simply underestimated Sumire Kichikawa's reaction.

These past few days, my phone has been receiving several messages every day without fail.

Ask him when he'll be back, how the mission went, and which shelf in the refrigerator he needs to heat up.

Although Sumi Kichikawa acted as if nothing was wrong, Satoru Gojo could still discern a hint of cautious probing between the lines of her seemingly ordinary words.

Not to mention that every morning when she leaves, Sumi Kichikawa never tries to stop her; she just stands quietly a few steps away.

Her face was expressionless, but her gaze was like a hook, sticking to him all the way until the front door was completely closed.

It was so melancholic that it was hard to ignore.

On the way back, Gojo Satoru thought about Sumi Awaki's reactions these past few days and couldn't help but chuckle to himself.

It seems he's really been spoiled a bit by Sumire Kichikawa.

But this one thing actually dragged on for so many days, making both of them unhappy.

However, we're all adults, and he certainly understands the principle of knowing when to stop.

Therefore, today, Gojo Satoru deliberately sped up the task progress.

He unusually didn't stop to buy desserts on his way home, nor did he take on any of the tasks that were originally optional. He planned to go home early and have a nice dinner with Sumi Kichikawa.

As for what happens after we meet—

First, give your boyfriend, who's been trembling with fear for days, a big hug.

Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned. Before he had driven far, an emergency call came in from the supervisor, demanding that he go to the conference room immediately.

Gojo Satoru stared at his phone screen, the smile on his lips gradually fading.

"...Why did they have to pick today?"

He clicked his tongue in annoyance, but had no choice but to tell the driver to turn around. Before getting out of the car, he hurriedly sent a text message to Kikawa Sumi:

I can't make it back today, I'm not going home.

He wanted to add, "Eat first, don't wait for me," but the phone kept ringing incessantly, so he had no choice but to put it back in his pocket in frustration.

Little did he know how his seemingly cold words, spoken out of haste, would be misinterpreted by Sumire Kichikawa.

Little did he know that the person he had been thinking about the whole way had just gone on a rampage, taking over most of his work for the day, and was feeling incredibly wronged because of those few words.

When he pushed open the conference room door, Gojo Satoru raised an eyebrow.

Surprisingly, quite a few people came.

At the Kyoto school, Yoshinobu Rakuganji sat near the head of the table, and Ian Kagi was also there; on the Tokyo side, Masamichi Yagami and Shoko Ieiri were summoned.

In addition, there were several assistant supervisors responsible for recording and reporting the situation.

This kind of commotion doesn't seem like a trivial matter.

However, Gojo Satoru clearly did not become much more restrained despite the serious atmosphere.

He strode in, his gaze shifting to the geisha first: "Oh, the geisha's here too. You arrived before me, didn't you get lost on the way?"

Angehime's forehead instantly contorted into a cross, and she gritted her teeth: "When have I ever been lost?! And you're late, Gojo!"

"It was a last-minute notice," Gojo Satoru said, shrugging his shoulders with an air of self-righteousness. "I just finished exorcising the cursed spirit and rushed over here. The songstress isn't as busy as me, so it's only natural that she arrived early, isn't it?"

"You bastard—"

Before the songstress could lash out, Gojo Satoru had already smoothly shifted his target to Rakuganji, who had a gloomy face.

"Even the old man came all the way from Kyoto?" he said lightly. "At his age, he still has to travel back and forth. The management department really doesn't know how to respect the elderly."

The veins on the back of Leyan Temple's withered hand bulged as he gripped his cane tightly: "Hmph. Disrespectful brat."

"I'm just concerned about you," Gojo Satoru blinked, looking utterly innocent. "You're getting on in years and still have such a temper. Be careful of high blood pressure."

In just over a minute after entering the room, he offended everyone, both those he should and shouldn't have.

"Enlightenment!"

The moth, having reached its limit of tolerance, issued a stern warning.

Gojo Satoru reluctantly withdrew his supernatural powers, casually pulled out a chair, stretched out his long legs, and slumped into the back of the chair as if he had no bones: "Okay, okay, I won't say anymore."

He lifted his long leg, his tone still nonchalant.

"So? Why did you call us all over so urgently? What happened?"

The meeting room fell silent for a moment.

An assistant supervisor stood up and distributed a stack of documents one by one, his expression solemn: "I've invited you all here today because some inexplicable abnormal events have occurred recently."

Gojo Satoru casually flipped through the documents.

The auxiliary supervisor continued to report the incident: "We had previously detected the spirit's reaction multiple times, but by the time the sorcerer arrived at the scene, the target spirit had vanished into thin air."

"Disappeared?" The songstress frowned.

"Yes. No traces of any magical technique were found at the scene, and we have absolutely no idea who did it." The assistant supervisor nodded.

"This has happened several times before. The director's department even hired Ms. Mingming at a high price to assist in the investigation, but they still haven't found any substantial clues."

Gojo Satoru leaned back in his chair, his fingertips tapping the table absently.

Although he was somewhat surprised that the discussion was related to this matter, he did not show any reaction.

The assistant supervisor's voice grew even deeper: "But just today, it happened again. And unlike the few sporadic incidents before, similar incidents have erupted on a large scale across Japan today! Not only are the numbers staggering, but the traces left by the perpetrators this time are also very obvious."

As soon as he finished speaking, the conference room door was pushed open.

Mingming walked in, smiled calmly, and took over the conversation: "Sorry, I was slightly delayed on the way. Let me explain the rest."

The assistant supervisor stepped aside, and the projector was turned on by a mysterious voice.

A map of Japan immediately lit up on the screen, densely covered with dozens of red dots, scattered all over the country, without any discernible pattern.

"As I just mentioned, there have been cases of cursed spirits suddenly disappearing across Japan today."

Mingming pointed at the screen, seemingly lost in thought.

"The biggest difference this time is that the other party left quite obvious traces."

"In the past, those incidents were handled very cleanly. Neither the residual curse energy at the scene nor the surrounding surveillance footage could reveal much that could be used. But today is different."

"Judging from their route of operation, the other side made almost no attempt to conceal their movements. There were also signs of fighting at some of the sites."

Moth Master asked in a deep voice, "Did the other party deliberately expose themselves?"

"It cannot be determined at this time."

Mingming gently shook her head.

"But in my opinion, it doesn't seem likely. That person doesn't seem to have any intention of revealing their identity; they're just handling things much more hastily than before."

She paused briefly before offering her assessment: "It's as if he suddenly encountered some unexpected situation, causing him to only want to use the most brutal method to cleanse these cursed spirits."

As she spoke, she clicked on a video.

That's a security camera outside a convenience store.

The scene was set in daytime, with passersby coming and going. Ordinary people wouldn't notice anything unusual, but the sorcerers present immediately focused their attention on the area above the gate.

That convenience store has been corrupted by the power of the cursed spirit.

The surveillance footage continued to play forward. The magical power attached to the gate kept increasing, and the originally blurry outline gradually solidified.

Before long, a fully formed cursed spirit emerged from the distorted shadow.

Just then, a blurry figure appeared at the edge of the surveillance camera.

Due to the distance and angle, the image quality was very blurry, and not even a side profile was visible; one could only vaguely make out that it was a tall man.

He seemed to notice the movement on the door and paused for a moment.

Then, without even making a hand seal, he simply raised his hand and waved it in that direction from a distance.

The next second, the cursed spirit that was about to go berserk was as if it had been paused, frozen in mid-air.

Immediately afterwards, the person in the picture suddenly clenched their five fingers.

A horrifying scene unfolded—

The enormous cursed spirit seemed to be squeezed wildly from all directions by a terrifying absolute force. Its twisted body instantly collapsed inward and was crushed into a thin "paper" in the blink of an eye.

The man stepped forward and punched the thin sheet of cursed spirit.

"Splash—"

The thin sheet shattered like glass, and the cursed spirit instantly dissipated completely.

From the moment he entered the painting to the moment the cursed spirit vanished into thin air, the entire process took less than ten seconds.

The video freezes on the moment the person turns and leaves.

The meeting room was completely silent.

The songstress stared intently at the large screen, seemingly racking her brains to figure out what kind of bizarre spell it was.

Masamichi Yagami and Rakuganji's faces were so dark they could drip water, and even the usually lazy Shoko sat up straight.

Only Gojo Satoru blinked.

The video quality was so blurry that no one else would recognize who it was.

But that figure—

That dress...

And that indescribable sense of familiarity when you raise your hand...

Gojo Satoru stared at the screen for a long time, his expression gradually becoming subtle.

The more I look at her, the more she resembles their Xiaocheng?