Chapter 2.1: Resurrection Puppet

Nanami did not dislike business trips.

After all, this could be considered an all-expenses paid vacation and he was able to openly visit places that he had no chance to visit.

Furthermore, the destination this time was Hokkaido.

Whether as a Jujutsu sorcerer or as a person who had stepped out into society, it was great chance to be able to be apart from his colleagues, to be alone, to relax himself, to create a space that allowed his soul to breathe in fresh air.

If the air that one breathed never changed, they would become depressed.

The key to being able to work for long hours laid in whether one was able to take a breather at appropriate moments.

For Nanami who had such a mentality, the company of a senior Jujutsu sorcerer had already made him lose all his enjoyment—in addition, as the person who came along was also Gojou Satoru, the situation had evolved into a painful errand that gave him a migraine.

“Nanami, let’s play a trivia game about Hokkaido.”

“Do it yourself.”

“Alright, first question. What is my favourite flavour of the local Hokkaido dessert “Sanporoku*”?

(T/N: A kind of Baumkuchen cake that has chocolate drizzled onto its exterior.)

“Please go and check what is the meaning of trivia ten times before you play this game.”

“Then let’s play a game about potatoes with butter. The rules are simple. Whoever likes eating potatoes with butter more wins. Alright I win. Because I’m number two in Japan when it comes to liking potatoes with butter.”

“Then who is number one?”

“Matsuyama Chiharu*.”

(T/N: A Japanese folksinger who was born in Hokkaido.)

“The number of times you spout lies is more than the number of times you breathe, isn’t it?”

“If that’s the case, I can reduce carbon emission.”

“The amount of carbon dioxide generated from my sighs probably offset that. After all, what situation in this world could be more tragic that two adult men, on top of that, two Jujutsu sorcerers having to come all the way to Hokkaido.”

“It’s not bad. It’s like we’re recording one of those variety shows.”

“Since when is there a variety show that is this boring.”

Nanami and Gojou were walking along the bustling road with clearly different expressions.

The roads of Sapporo were like that of Kyoto, designed in a grid pattern.

As long as one looked at the road signs, it was basically hard to get lost.

If they were just sightseeing, it would be troublesome to judge whether they were going down a one-way street, but as long as they leave the central district, it was pretty much a piece of cake. They could also find a location to get their bearings on their map pretty quickly.

“Even though the roads here aren’t all in the shape of a grid, it is quite easy to plan your route for sightseeing.”

Gojou held a small booklet.

After opening it, it was clear that the image that was in it was a simplified map of the central district and there were several red circles drawn onto it.

“What’s that map for?”

“Hey hey hey Nanami, hey hey hey, hey-“

“Your way of speaking is strangely irritating.”

“Will you get a grip on yourself? Of course the only thing I will pull out at this time can only be a map of Gojou Satoru’s chosen desserts.”

“Didn’t I say earlier to do these things yourself?”

“Even though I’m your senior, I’m not able to show my greatness in front of someone like you.”

“You aren’t any kind of respectable senior in the first place.”

Nanami had sighed so much that he felt that his own lungs were going to collapse.

When Gojou was having a private conversation with someone, ninety percent of the words are just nonsense.

Essentially, he would just care about what he wanted to say, so those who were listening would only tire themselves out if they tried to give a serious answer. But even just listening with the words in one ear and out the other was also annoying.

This may be difficult to understand for people who never worked with Gojou Satoru before, but once someone like him was your own boss, senior and a powerful individual who was considered invincible, it would cause an immense amount of stress. For people such as Ichiji, the problem just multiplied by many folds.

“….speaking of which, can you tell me honestly why you are on this trip with me? This case should not require the mobilisation of two Jujutsu sorcerers. On top of that—”

“On top of that there’s no need to mobilise the handsome and the strongest Jujutsu Sorcerer Gojou Satoru, right?”

Nanami was really tired of responding to such a conversation so he chose to ignore it. Even though Gojou did not receive a reply, he still continued to speak.

“I honestly am not worried about the case. Even though the upper echelons only sent one person to investigate, since the person handling it is you, you probably can complete it even if you are working solo.”

“Then why are you here.

“Probably because I want to transform a case that one did not have to be concerned about to a case that one “absolutely” did not have to be concerned about. Though it’s enough to just leave this mission to one person, they actually sent a first grade sorcerer out to do it. Also I heard that the situation this time had to do with a “vicious” curse user.”

“……You’re saying that the opponent could be a curse user whose abilities are on par with a first grade or special grade?”

“Right now, it’s still merely a “possibility”.”

“You can’t be the type that would specially make a trip here just for a matter that has such a high degree of uncertainty.”

“You know me so well, you have completely grasped every single part of me. Anyway, just treat the matter as such for now. Perhaps I’m just too tired from my hectic work and just wanted to come to the north for a vacation.”

“When you put it this way, it means you have something to hide….”

“Ah, Nanami, look at that, look at that.”

“Can you please listen to other people when they’re talking? Forget it, there’s no point telling you.”

Looking in the direction where Gojou was pointing, there was an exquisite roadside store.

Large red words, “Potatoes with Butter”, that stood out were written on the orange gold sign board.

“Now that I think about it properly, people who set up stores to sell potatoes with butter much be super confident about their own dish. Because they are just selling a baked potato with some butter on it. This kind of dish is not that problematic to make at home.”

“This is probably the beauty of achieving the same dish through different means, that is, roasting potatoes over stone.”

“Now that you mention it, that’s probably the case. As expected of Nanami, your focus is under your shades.”

“You just talking about the location of my eyeballs, aren’t you?”

“Anyway, do you know what the Jagaimo in Jagaimo means?”

(T/N:ジャガイモ (Jagaimo) means potato in Japanese)

“There’s a saying that potatoes were imported into Japan from the harbour of Tanjung Priok which is why it’s named as such.”

(T/N: Tanjung Priok is a district in North Jakarta, Indonesia. So potatoes became termed as Jakarta-imo (root vegetable of Jakarta) and therefore Jaga-imo.)

“You’re really scary, why are you able to answer such a question without missing a beat?”

“I’m the one who wants to ask why the person who’s second in place in terms of loving potatoes with butter does not know the origin of the word Jagaimo.”

“Anyway, being second place in terms of liking something means I’m only second place. If I had to set a goal, I should set my eyes on the first place….so, boss, one portion of potatoes with butter please.”

While they were chatting, Gojou headed towards the roadside store far too naturally so Nanami was not able to react to the situation quickly.

“You want to eat that?”

“Of course. I am the man who takes the second place of loving potatoes in Japan.”

“We are here to work.”

“Then you don’t have to eat. I shall enjoy the delicacies of Hokkaido myself.”

“I intend to eat them.”

“So do you want to eat or not?”

There were two men seated on a bench in Sapporo Oodori Park. One was in a dress suit while the other dressed casually in black. The two of them were wearing sunglasses and they sat next to each other, eating potatoes with butter.

As this was the big city of Sapporo, even if there were performers or cosplayers on the street, most pedestrians would not find it strange, but these people were still pretty attention grabbing in this city.

“Wah, this is really good. It’s piping hot too, piping hot.”

“Even if I made this at home, I won’t be able to bake it to such a flavour.”

“Really, I have looked down on potatoes with butter. No wonder the store owner dares to sell this when all they do is bake it.”

“I feel like drinking beer. Looks like it’s better to wait till after work before eating something like this.”

“Beer….actually I don’t get it, this is already pretty good by itself so why must you drink beer with it? Eh, what’s this?”

“What is it?”

“Nanami, why is your potato with butter different from mine?”

“I added Shio-kara, it’s delicious. But I won’t give you any.”

(T/N: Seasoned seafood viscera)

“I don’t want it. And the appearance looks a lot like the cursed spirit that I exorcised a while back.”

“……………”

Nanami had looked forward to taking a relaxing break if the job in Hokkaido went smoothly.

Who knew that he ended up accumulating some stress.

*

As law abiding adults, after enjoying the steaming potatoes with butter, of course they took care of the trash properly. They went towards the Sapporo TV tower and headed for the east side of Oodori Park.

After they left Oodori park from there, there was a road that headed south east near the bus interchange.

This large road could be considered the artery of the city but unexpectedly, there was only a sparse number of pedestrians.

However, this had to do with the structure of this city known as Sapporo.

“Oh yeah, what kind of ambitious curse user are we investigating this time? Wait, actually we aren’t even sure if the other party is a curse user.”

“You came along without even finding out what’s going on?”

“The person in charge is you anyway, Nanami.”

“If that’s the case, can I request that you not follow……Also, you just ate a potato that requires some time to digest and now you’re actually eating a soft serve.

”Aren’t you eating as well?”

Gojou skillfully licked his cheese and milk flavoured soft serve while not letting the soft serve melt and drip everywhere. At the same time, he naturally walked in front of Nanami.

Nanami was rather puzzled at where the other man wanted to go. A person who did not grasp the contents of the mission fully should not be walking in front like this.

What Gojou said was that they have come all the way to Hokkaido, yet the soft serve that Nanami ordered was not chocolate flavoured but cookie flavoured. Because he could not bear to watch, he walked in front. However, Nanami felt that this should not be the words of someone wearing sunglasses upon his face.

Nanami wanted to tell Gojou “Don’t walk the wrong way” but when he thought about it afterwards, he might as well tell him about the mission first.

And logically speaking, if it were the usual Gojou, even if Nanami did not ask, he should have known the details of the mission already.

However, Gojou just intentionally questioned Nanami which would mean he completely had not received any information related to the task at hand. In other words, Gojou was very sure that this case did not require his intervention to get it done.

However, he still followed Nanami to Hokkaido.

Now, it was Nanami who wanted to know Gojou’s motive for coming on this trip. After all, he knew that Gojou could not possible be so free that he could make a long trip to the north for a vacation to kill his free time.

At any rate, he can only quickly finish this “Disturbance caused by puppets” before he could get Gojou to reveal his true motive.

With the consideration of work efficiency in mind, Nanami decided to briefly explain the contents of the mission.

“The incident seemed to have originated from a website called “Yomotsuhirasaka*”.

(T/N: The road to Yomotsu – the afterlife)

“What an amazing naming sense.”

“That website seems to be fixed to an independent server so it’s not possible to find it using the usual search engines….Ichiji managed to dig it out using whatever information he had.”

“That guy is really great.”

Based on Gojou’s tone that did not have a shred of surprise, it felt like he was saying “Of course I know he was the one who found it.”

Once Nanami heard that statement, it dawned to him “Ah, seems like this guy placed Ichiji’s neck in a chokehold and forced him to reveal my whereabouts.”

Ichiji Kiyotaka was by no means some super hacker.

However, as long as this man had a clear idea of the target he was searching for, he would be able to find a “Method of locating the target”.

In this modern society where there is an explosion of information, sometimes the ability to look for information is more important than having knowledge of the profession.

When it comes to this point, Ichiji was a valuable asset.

Even though he was a valuable asset, it was another matter on whether he should use a kind attitude to show his gratitude to this person who had leaked information. Nanami planned to find Ichiji and get him to confess after they go back.

“Anyway, what’s the point of setting up that kind of vulgar website? There shouldn’t be some hilarious video clips that’s posted on there, right?”

“That website’s design is extremely simple, so simple that it’s nostalgic.”

“So there is a visitor counter and once they reach a certain number of visitors, it would be announced on the site?

“How annoying, I actually feel nostalgia.”

“We aren’t exactly young.”

Nanami noticed that he had eaten his soft serve to the point that it was a flat top so he ate a mouthful of the waffle. And after taking a breath, he continued to talk:

“In the end, it seems like that website is a window to contact a certain curse user.”

“Window?”

“There’s a simple text entry box on the website. You just have to input your request and submit it and then there will be a pop up of the address on where to send the cash to, then you can buy their products.”

“A mail order where you have mail your payment, how old fashioned.”

“The address that was indicated on the website is a property owned by a small real estate management agency in Hokkaido. I heard that it’s a shared house that’s about one tsubo* in size.

(T/N: Approximately 3.3 sqm)

“What kind of shared house is only one tsubo?”

“There are twenty mailboxes there and it seems like they become the personal mailboxes of the Yakuza to make their dealings.”

“Isn’t this method completely like what someone from the Yakuza would do? It doesn’t seem like an idea coming from a curse user.”

“Furthermore, you could count it as a good or a bad thing, a jujutsu sorcerer with a certain history or lineage would never come up with the motivation to set up such a business model.”

“……In the end, what is that website even selling? Is it some curse user who went astray scamming people by selling cursed tool that can only exorcise cursed spirits that are at the level of fly heads or are they earning some spare change by cursing others……But if the opponent is only at this kind of level, the upper echelons don’t need to send you to handle it, Nanami.”

“Your observation is ever so astute.”

“Who do you think you’re talking to now. The people up there have sent you on this mission yet they didn’t inform me of the details of this mission, so I suppose the old geezers at the top want to hide this case.”

“If the situation is as how you put it, then have you thought that I might have received orders that “forbade me from revealing anything details about the mission”?”

“It doesn’t matter if it’s forbidden or not. Even if I want to know, I can’t force you to spill the beans. Anyway, at the very most they can only “not let me know what had happened”. In other words, my appearance here has ruined all their efforts.”

“I keep thinking, since you’re so smart, why do you still need me to explain what’s going on? You would know if you just went to investigate.”

“For a problem like this where I can understand as long as I put my mind to it but the process is troublesome, it would be settled the fastest if I just order my junior around.”

“…………sigh…………”

Nanami let out a long sigh.

It was not as though he was hesitant to divulge the information, it was simply because he wanted to sigh at this Jujutsu sorcerer senior of his who did things in a tyrannical manner.

Nanami took in another breath forcefully. Finally, he was going to mention the crux of the matter.

“—resurrection of the dead.”

“…What did you say?”

This was a rare moment when Gojou doubted his own ears.

The matter that Nanami spoke about was that ridiculous. Nanami also felt the same way himself so his tone started to show signs of exhaustion.

“The object sold on that website is a “new vessel” that could call back the souls of the dead……the seller seems to call them “Resurrection Puppets”.”

“….why are you telling a joke that isn’t funny again?”

“Most likely it’s just some scam. Except…”

“Never mind, I get it.”

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