After the boy said, "Salmon," the girl took out her phone, dialed a number, and turned on speaker. The next second, a frivolous voice came through.
"Hi hi. This is the spicy teacher everyone loves, Gojo. Let me guess, my cute students ran into trouble. Did the Cursed Spirit at Yoshiwara Shrine mutate and you cannot handle it? No worries, just call out with love and Gojo Ultraman will arrive at once."
"No." The girl held the phone as far away as she could, her face full of disgust.
"So you knew the mission had issues, Gojo." Panda mocked.
"No, I was just guessing, based on the wooden heads of certain higher ups."
The girl snorted, a cold light flashing in her eyes, but her tone stayed calm. "Sorry, you guessed wrong. We do not know if the Cursed Spirit mutated, because before we arrived, someone already swept the place clean."
"Someone came before you? That should not be possible. The higher ups clearly assigned this area to me." There was a hint of confusion in the teacher's voice.
"You jerk, you dumped your own mission on us." The girl looked murderous.
The boy added, "Bonito flakes."
"It was originally requested for you. This is loving guidance from your teacher, no need to thank me." The teacher said it shamelessly.
"Go die." The girl cursed.
"Ah, I died. Ah, I am alive again." The teacher sounded carefree. "Since the mission is gone, come back first. I will investigate who took the target…"
"I refuse." The girl cut him off. "The prey was stolen from us, so naturally we will investigate. This is our first independent mission."
"Agreed."
"Salmon."
Panda and the boy both nodded.
"Hey, what about my opinion?" the teacher protested.
"We do not listen to your opinion." The girl laughed.
"I knew you would say that." The teacher sounded unsurprised. "Fine, just be careful. There are no signs of high level Cursed Spirit nearby, but curses are unpredictable. Contact me if anything happens."
"Got it, you are so noisy." The girl hung up and looked in the direction Akira had left. "Just who are you, exactly?"
"This System has to be copied from some trash mobile game…"
Akira rolled another Z Pure Crystal Shard between his fingers, his expression hard to describe, wanting to throw it away but unable to let go. For things like this, there were usually only two words to describe them. Barely useful.
"Sha, sha." Seeing her master in a bad mood, Gardevoir also became unhappy.
Akira hurried to comfort her. "It's not Little Sha's fault. It's the System that's the problem."
Today was the tenth day of Akira's monster grinding trip around Tokyo, clearing about one area per day, and the results were mixed. It was not that there were no gains. The drop rate was low, with one Z Pure Crystal Shard appearing only every two or three areas.
On top of that, none of the fragments were duplicates. What annoyed him most was that none of the fragments he had found so far could be used by Gardevoir. Adding to that the complete lack of any way to obtain a second Pokémon, Akira could only think of scammy mobile games when he looked at this kind of System.
He suddenly felt nostalgic for FGO and GBF. One was relaxed and friendly to casual play, while the other was generous with rewards and benefits that made people jealous. Compared to those, this felt especially shameless.
"Sha." A fourth brand new sound, meaning next.
Akira understood Gardevoir perfectly. "We'll keep clearing areas. Even if we don't get a Z Pure Crystal you can use, leveling up is still worth it."
After ten days, Gardevoir's level had risen rapidly, already breaking past level 35. She had mastered new skills, and both her offense and defense had improved further. If they went back to Yoshiwara Shrine now, there would be no accidents at all.
It was not just an increase in combat power, but also better understanding and control in battle. After all, her earlier levels came from fighting the same low level enemies for eight years, leaving her severely lacking in real experience. No matter how much Akira taught her, theory alone could not replace practice.
The old Gardevoir was more like a sheltered young lady hidden away from the world. The current her had truly stepped into real combat. Hearing Akira say this, Gardevoir tugged at his clothes with one hand and pointed forward with the other.
"You mean there are Cursed Spirit over there we can farm?"
"Sha, sha." She nodded, then shook her head.
Akira felt a bit puzzled. "Not just Cursed Spirit, there's something else too?"
"Sha." She nodded again.
"Good or bad?"
Gardevoir pointed at the red decoration on her chest, said to be the manifestation of her heart.
"That's good news, haha."
Akira smiled. Even though Gardevoir had not yet learned her final skill, Future Sight, she was already showing signs of that potential. It made him very glad about his luck on the first pull, enough that even a long stretch of bad luck afterward would still feel acceptable.
After all, there were only so many kinds of Z Pure Crystal. If they kept grinding, they would eventually get the right one.
"Then let's go take a look. Oh right, I should call Mom first and tell her I'll be back late today."
On the seventh day after moving into the new house, Akemi Aki gave up on going out with her son. The main reason was that it was too discouraging. She was the oldest, yet the weakest.
The experience she was proud of did not help much against Gardevoir's overwhelming strength and Akira's calm caution. In the end, aside from setting up the Curtain at the start and keeping things hidden, there was nothing for her to do. Her sense of presence also kept dropping.
Akira doted on Gardevoir in a way that was far from normal. Every time Gardevoir showed a bit of progress, he would praise her, pat her head, hold her hand, or hug her, and Gardevoir would be very happy, often forgetting her mother was even there.
A good relationship between son and daughter was fine, but at least spare a thought for the mother's feelings. Standing next to them made her seem completely unnecessary.
In any case, her technique, Barrier, allowed her to prepare a barrier in advance and release it when needed. Limited by her level as a Jujutsu Sorcerer, she could not deploy high grade barriers, and their scale and duration were restricted. Still, since Akira was not someone who stayed away from home for long periods, preparing before he went out was enough.
Akira fully supported this decision. Bringing his mother along while clearing areas still felt a bit awkward, and some questionable tactics were hard to use with her watching. This showed that his skin was not thick enough yet.
That said, his legs were more than capable. He rode like crazy, pedaling his bicycle. Before getting a motorcycle license, this was the most convenient way to get around, and it even gave the feeling of taking a girlfriend out for a ride.
The speed was seventy kilometers per hour. His mood felt light and free. The important point was ahead.
A school?
There was a bit of disappointment, but it was not strange. Student pressure in Japan was famously high, and negative emotions gathering at a school was completely normal. After finishing visits to those famous haunted locations, Akira planned to turn his attention to schools next anyway.