At the end of the lecture, as students left one another,

"Student Satoru Gojo. Stay please."

Nanao Ise called for Gojo to stop as he was walking with Hinamori and the gang.

Stopping, he shrugged before saying, "You guys continue. I will talk with the charming lady."

Smiling, he waved his hand before sauntering toward Nanao.

"Hello~ hello! To what do I owe the pleasure?”

Nanao frowned a little at the way he talked while wondering why all the geniuses she knew had such weird personalities.

“Good morning Mister Gojo, I called you because I was curious about something. Could you reproduce the spell I just used as a demonstration?” She said as she indicated towards the shooting range.

She was really curious. Was he really able to do as was said?

“Oh?” Gojo tilted his head for a short while, before smiling as understanding dawned upon him. “I could. Of course, I could. But, why should I?”

His earlier frivolous tone vanished as his demeanor became way more serious.

Even though he was still smiling, Nanao instinctively knew that he wasn’t playing around.

This abrupt change was a little sudden and she was taken aback as she asked, “Did I offend you?”

“Hum…” He looked at her up and down before shaking his head, and answered again with a voice full of mirth, “Nah, sorry. Seems like I was just being a little too sensitive.”

He was not a circus monkey that would perform at the demand of the public. In all his life, he had seen so many people act like this around him that he was sick of this. But, it seemed that it had been a misunderstanding.

Deciding to lighten the atmosphere, he condensed a little ball of Reiryoku above his finger, “So, let’s go back to the previous topic. I do not mind showing off a little to a beautiful woman, but I need a little something.”

Nanao nodded, “What do you wish? Though I must just warn you that I do not have much money on me.”

“Oh, this isn’t a problem at all. I don’t want your money.”

“Then, what?”

Raising his blindfold, he showed a charming smile as he said, “What I want is…”

“If you say something stupid like what I want is you — I am going to slap you.”

She said this in such a matter-of-fact way that Gojo’s smile cramped. Slumping a little, he couldn’t help but ask, “How did you see this coming?”

Nanao sighed as she shook her head. How could she tell him that she regularly heard such stupid and corny jokes almost every day from her captain? What’s more, she had long sworn off of any form of relationship. She didn’t wish to be yet another woman who made her loved one suffer because of the curse of the Ise clan.

“So, what do you wish in exchange for showing your skills?”

“Hah~” Releasing a sigh, Gojo completely took off his blindfold as he said, “You are really no fun. But it doesn’t matter. I wasn’t joking when I said that I wanted you. More precisely…”

Pointing at the target, he murmured, “Hado #31 Shakkaho.”

A fire beam, as powerful as the one launched by Nanao when she used the full incantation, was fired from his finger and thoroughly obliterated the target.

Turning his back to the explosion, he gave his brightest smile as he said, “I want your skills, your knowledge, your know-how. Absolutely everything about you. What do you think?”

Looking at the man standing in front of her, Nanano couldn’t help but feel a chill. At the same time, she couldn’t help but wonder.

How far could he go? How powerful could he become?

That’s why, without even stopping to think, she answered, “I will teach you everything I know.”

She knew that her curiosity could cause her many problems down the road. But, she couldn't let go of the opportunity to train a genius like him.

Perhaps she could witness the birth of another master level in Kido.

----

After this event; two weeks went past.