The van arrived at the city where the mission would take place while it was still day but almost night, and they exited the car.

During the trip, Nitta provided the details that she knew about their mission.

She said that the mission objectives were to find the cursed mirror location and if they reached the conclusion that it was safe, they should secure it as fast as possible. It was not much but it was more than what Gojo had said to them.

Knowing this new information, they spent half the trip debating their course of action and arranged some strategies. For example, they should scour the city separately, and if someone finds any lead, he should alert the others and communicate with each other from hour to hour to confirm they weel-being.

After that, the trip was starting to get boring so Katsuo returned to his CE training, while the others started doing their own things.

It was June and the rainy season had started, which could be seen from the wet floor and the cloudy skies.

Katsuo looked around and he saw some people walking by and displaying curiosity while looking at their direction and that made him remember something.

"Panda, how are you going to get around without attracting attention? "

Katsuo was genuinely curious when he asked but as he looked at Panda's comically shocked face and the others' clueless expression he concluded.

"Well, it seems like we have to brainstorm a solution."

They agreed and began thinking and throwing ideas like disguising him, but with his volume, it would be a little impossible to completely do it.

After a while, with the agreement of Panda and Katsuo, they decided that Panda would fake being a big plushy, and Katsuo, who was the biggest and physically strongest would carry him.

Panda climbed to his back and Katsuo while supporting Panda with his hands, reasoned that he weighed around two hundred kilograms, something that was very easy for Katsuo to carry.

"Wow~, you're so strong Katsuo, amazing~!"

Said Panda in a girly manner. Katsuo knew that Panda was poking fun at him so he only laughed.

Nitta Akari, who remained silent until now said while pointing at the building near them.

"This is the TJK's base of operations in this city, we will stay here while conducting the mission."

Then she started to enumerate the resources that were at our disposal and a few things about the city while they entered the building and took them to their assigned rooms.

They put their personal belongings there and officially started the mission.

Well, Katsuo and Panda officially started, since they didn't need to rest, but Maki and Toge resolved to sleep first and start looking early in the morning.

They exited the building and taking advantage of the shadows created by the setting sun, which Panda needed the most, separated and started searching.

In their early talk, they decided that each one was responsible for a cardinal direction of the city. Katsuo was in charge of the west side.

He spent the entire night looking and besides finding and exorcising curses, he didn't notice any clue or possible location of the mirror but he did notice some suspicious individuals with a high amount of CE also moving like they were looking for something.

The first rays of sunshine started to brighten the cloudless sky, so he went back to the base to report what he discovered to his classmates.

He arrived there and saw that all of them, including Nitta, were already together and at the same time they saw him too.

"Katsuo, Panda said that he noticed some suspicious people moving around." "Shake!"

Maki said as Katsuo walked over. He nodded at them and said.

"I also noticed and surveilled them for a while. They were probably sorcerers but didn't seem to belong to TJK, and their moving patterns suggested that they were looking for something, so unless this is a big coincidence, that can only mean we have the same target."

Panda, who looked thoughtful, remarked.

"Hmm~, so you also think so, Katsuo. Then we should report first and continue to look for information."

They all agreed and Nitta reported to the higher up and the response was that they should proceed with caution.

Suddenly, Katsuo remembered something.

"Why hasn't Gojo-sensei arrived yet?"

"Okaka!"

"Hmm~, don't you know Gojo-sensei by now?"

"Well, it's normal"

Gojo indeed said that he will meet them here but they knew from experience that they shouldn't take Gojo's words at face value.

Soon, they dispersed through the city again, but this time in pairs because of the unknown danger those sorcerers around the city represented.

Katsuo paired with Panda due to their previous "mule" arrangement and started gathering intel from the city residents about any rumor related to mirrors while keeping an eye out for any unknown sorcerer or abnormal CE fluctuation.

Katsuo wasn't expecting anything from asking around but it must be because the figure of him carrying a huge panda "plushy" and asking weird questions was intimidating enough to a few people, so they actually made an effort to remember and gave him a few useful leads.

They told him a rumor that had recently been spreading and that rumor was that some female students from the surrounding schools were constantly feeling observed and some even had a mental breakdown but the main point is that some of the victims said that they felt the stare coming from the surrounding mirrors.

'This is highly probable to be related to our mission.'

"Let's take a look at those schools, Panda."

Katsuo whispered to Panda while he sent via message what they found to Maki, Toge, and Nitta.

Panda just grunted in agreement since there were people near.

Katsuo went into an alley and they started running through them and using the rooftops as shortcuts. Soon, they were upon one of those schools in the rumors.

"Panda, it's better that I go alone into the school while you hide and watch for suspicious people, so as to not attract attention."

Panda agreed and asked.

"Should I engage if I see any one of them?"

Katsuo thought for a moment and answered.

"If you think you can take them on, try to capture them without causing a commotion, if not, just flare your cursed energy and I will come as fast as I can."

"Okay~, be careful, we don't completely know what's going on here."

Katsuo nodded and walked through the entrance of the school.

When he saw students, he would ask if they knew the rumor and who was it referring to.

He received a few answers and was moving to the location of one of those girls when someone called him out.

"Hey, you are looking for those girls to ask them questions, right? I can give you the information that you need, so don't go bother them!"

He looked at the girl who was speaking. She was a petite and cute girl with big inquisitive eyes.

"Hello, my name is Tetsuo Katsuo, what's your name and how can you help me?"

As if realizing her rudeness the girl bowed and introduced herself.

"My name is Misaka Rina and I'm from the Journalism Club, so whatever questions you have for them, they already gave the answer to us!"

Katsuo looked at the confident Misaka and knowing the nature of his questions, he highly doubted that, but he would ask her the questions first and if she didn't know something he would ask the victims themselves, since he had to personally check them anyway.

"Okay, where should we talk?"

"I will take you to the Journalism Club room and we can keep talking there."