"Damn it, in that case!"
Satoru, who had been frantically scratching at the wall beside them for a long time, suddenly pulled out his phone.
"Yes, yes, that's right, make it for me now."
Satoru hung up the phone.
In less than two minutes, a new "prize ticket" was delivered into Satoru's hand.
Satoru immediately ran to a suitable spot behind the building, then aimed the prize ticket toward the inside of the shop.
"Be quick, and be careful with your Cursed Energy manipulation. Eichi and Artoria's perception isn't weak, so..."
With the aid of the Six Eyes, Satoru shortened the distance between the prize ticket and the table inside the shop in less than 0.1 seconds.
In just an instant, the prize ticket appeared inside the beauty salon.
Then, a text message was sent to the handsome man's phone.
"Hmm?"
Artoria and Eichi, who had just walked out of the beauty salon's front entrance, turned their heads in confusion.
It seemed like a familiar Cursed Energy had appeared, but it was too brief for either of them to confirm.
Just as the two paused for a moment, the handsome man immediately rushed out with the prize ticket the new boss had just sent.
"Please wait, you two!"
He then took Eichi's hand and directly slipped the prize ticket into his palm.
"What is this?"
Eichi looked at the brightly colored item in his hand with confusion. It looked like some kind of advertising flyer.
"This is..."
The handsome man's mind spun rapidly.
"Congratulations to both of you for being our 100,000th customers. This is a special prize our shop carefully prepared to give back to our customers."
'One hundred thousand? Is this beauty salon really that popular?'
And yet, for the past hour or so, they had been the only two customers.
"We hope you two have a pleasant time."
The handsome man bowed slightly, then quickly returned to the beauty salon.
Eichi opened the prize ticket in his hand and found that it was a 1-yen all-you-can-eat hotpot voucher.
In simple terms, it was all-you-can-eat for 1 yen.
Eichi's eyes were full of confusion and doubt.
Although he had been running back and forth between Tokyo Jujutsu High and the various Jujutsu Sorcerer Families over the years, he had not gone shopping in a long time.
But had the current business environment really become this competitive?
Had businesses' cross-industry collaborations become this extensive?
Ramen working with beauty salons, beauty salons working with hotpot restaurants?
Weren't they afraid of spreading themselves too thin with such large cross-industry collaborations?
Moreover, going for hotpot right after a beauty treatment, which genius came up with this idea?
"What's wrong, Eichi?"
Seeing Eichi standing there without moving, Artoria came closer.
"Hotpot, huh."
"Want to try it?"
"Mm, I didn't eat enough just now."
Artoria felt there was still some time before the Summer Festival officially began.
She could satisfy her royal stomach first.
"Then let's go."
Seeing that Artoria wanted to go, Eichi immediately set aside his thoughts and led the way.
Inside the hotpot restaurant.
The manager, who had just received the news, respectfully led the two of them into a VIP private room.
Then, plates of exquisite food were brought out one after another.
"Sir, these are complimentary items for this event. Please enjoy."
The waiter enthusiastically brought over two bottles of exquisitely packaged sake.
"Thank you."
Eichi politely nodded to the waiter and watched him leave.
"Tengu Sake..."
Eichi felt that the sake in front of him looked a little familiar.
He seemed to have seen it somewhere before.
Because Eichi rarely drank alcohol, he did not know much about it.
This sake was a relatively famous brand in Japan. A bottle with this kind of packaging cost more than an ordinary person's entire hotpot meal.
However, the two of them did not know this and did not think much of it. Not far from the private room, Satoru was excitedly explaining his Plan B to the others.
Then he put on an expression that clearly said, 'Come on, praise me.'
"Gojo-sensei, how are Eichi-sensei and Artoria-san's alcohol tolerances?"
Panda seemed to have thought of something.
"Hmm? That really is a problem."
Satoru stroked his chin and fell into thought.
"You're serving them alcohol without even knowing their tolerance? What if it's not enough?"
Panda covered his face.
"Daijobu, even if the store's isn't enough, aren't there plenty of other stores around? Lots of good alcohol."
Satoru spread his hands, encompassing all the supermarkets, restaurants, and izakayas within his sight.
"But I remember that if humans drink too much, they lose interest in that kind of thing, right?"
Panda understood humans even better than Satoru did.
"Huh? Shouldn't it make them more excited?"
Satoru, the sheltered young master, who seemed to know a lot but surprisingly lacked common sense.
"Where did you get that conclusion?"
Panda was speechless.
"Da de~" [Because.]
"I often see news reports and stories about people getting promiscuous after drinking."
Satoru felt that since there was so much news about promiscuity after drinking, then alcohol should definitely be able to put the two of them on the fast track.
"No, no, no, Gojo-sensei."
Panda raised a finger and spoke in a serious tone.
"If you drink too much alcohol, it suppresses the brain's excitement center, so it actually becomes even less likely for those kinds of thoughts and behaviors to appear."
"Really?"
"Really. What you're talking about is basically mutual consent after getting slightly tipsy, or using the effects of alcohol to act on thoughts someone already wanted to carry out psychologically but usually did not dare to.
So the situation you're describing happens because that person was already like that. It's just their true nature showing after drinking. The question is, do you think Eichi and Artoria are the kind of people who would lose control after drinking?"
"No."
Satoru shook his head.
Neither he, nor Eichi, nor Suguru would take advantage of someone who was drunk.
Otherwise, Ieiri Shoko and Utahime could already have a whole football team of children.
Especially Shoko. She often had a few drinks to drown her sorrows when she was under stress.
And then she would pass out right there in the operating room, the infirmary, or somewhere else.
"It's okay. If this trick doesn't work, I still have Plan C."
Satoru did not dwell on this failure and immediately began preparing a new plan.
"What is it?"
"Still thinking."
"Eh?"
Panda's bear mouth opened slightly, then finally turned into a soft sigh.
'I just hope Satoru doesn't go too far. Otherwise, if a drunk Eichi and Artoria chase Satoru through downtown, the map of Japan will probably have to be redrawn tomorrow.'
Panda was speechless.
He really had not expected Eichi and Artoria to be this difficult to matchmake.
Suddenly, Panda thought of something and turned to look at Satoru.
'Gojo-sensei still hasn't made any moves, and Geto became a father without ever having a girlfriend.
Nanami also doesn't seem to have been in a relationship. Shoko, Haibara, Masamichi, Kusakabe, Utahime, Mei Mei...'
The faces of the Tokyo Jujutsu High group flashed through Panda's mind one by one.
Suddenly, a terrifying thought appeared in Panda's mind.
'Could it be that becoming a Jujutsu Sorcerer at Tokyo Jujutsu High comes with some kind of curse that makes you lose feelings for the opposite sex?'
Yuta and Rika were exceptions. They had already fallen in love before coming to Tokyo Jujutsu High.
Panda felt that he needed to investigate this thoroughly.
Not just for others, but also for his good father, Masamichi.
(To be continued.)