"Hey, blue-haired hottie..."
The voice was lazy and confident, carrying the tone of soone addressing an old friend.
"What kind of won is your type?"
Kashimo's movent faltered. He chewed the last of the beef tongue, swallowed it, and tossed the bamboo skewer into his paper bag. He turned toward the sound.
The market lanterns cast a warm, crimson glow over the passing crowd, but the woman standing two paces away was impossible to miss. She was tall, her long blonde hair shimring under the lights. She stood with her hands in her pockets, her posture as relaxed as if she were taking a stroll in her own backyard.
She tilted her head, her expression a mix of curiosity and assessnt. There was a small, lingering curve to her lips, but the smile didn't quite reach her eyes.
Yuki Tsukumo. The only certified Special Grade sorcerer of the modern era.
Kashimo narrowed his eyes. He recognized her.
Yuki was watching him too. The casual smile faded from her face, replaced by sothing sharper and more alert. Her gaze lingered on him for a mont as she silently appraised his presence.
The volu of cursed energy in front of her was staggering. It was coiled inside him like an abyssal current beneath the waves. Calm on the surface but impossibly deep. She had t powerful sorcerers before, but there were only a handful of people in the world whose re presence forced her spine to stiffen.
He has to be Special Grade, she thought.
Her eyes traveled over the violet sigils at the corners of his eyes, his ssy teal ponytail, and the steaming bag of beef tongue in his hand. He didn't look like a sorcerer; they were rarely this aimless. He didn't look like a civilian either. Civilians didn't have eyes like that.
A curse user?
She didn't ask. She simply adjusted her hands in her pockets, a subtle shift into a more comfortable stance. She knew what she was preparing for.
The flow of the market continued around them, a blur of vendors, sizzling iron, and laughter. No one noticed the two figures standing at the mouth of the narrow alley, or the sudden, heavy silence between them.
The lantern light flickered.
Kashimo licked a bit of sauce from his lip, crumpled his paper bag, and tossed it into a nearby bin. He looked at Yuki. He didn't look nervous, nor did he look friendly. He just looked like a man who had been interrupted during a al.
"Huh?" He let out a short, rising sound of confusion. "You're a sorcerer."
Yuki's grin returned, but it carried a fresh edge of scrutiny. "Isn't it obvious?"
Kashimo arched an eyebrow. His blue eyes squinted slightly under the red light. His face remained flat.
"Yuki Tsukumo."
He said her na as a statent, not a question.
Yuki felt a strange numbness in her jaw. Her smile stiffened, and her mouth twitched with a mix of awkwardness and irritation. Where did this guy co from? She was a Special Grade. Anywhere she went in the jujutsu world, people treated her with respect, or at the very least, a healthy amount of caution.
And this guy? He just says her na and stops? He didn't even ask who she was or offer his own na.
"And yours is...?" she asked, her tone carrying an impatient edge.
"Kashimo."
Having answered, he stood there with his empty milkshake cup, his gaze already drifting back to a nearby stall. He seed to have developed a sudden, pressing interest in grilled oysters.
Yuki stared at him, feeling like she had just thrown a punch into a pile of cotton. He was impossible to read. He was more difficult to talk to than the silent types back at the Zenin estate. She opened her mouth to speak, but she felt as if anything she said would just be swatted away with another one-word answer.
The lantern above her swayed, light dancing across her gold hair. She stuffed her hands back into her pockets and tilted her head.
"Kashimo," she repeated, searching her mory. She found nothing. "I've never heard of you. Which side are you on?"
Kashimo finally pulled his gaze away from the oysters. He looked at her, his blue eyes unreadable.
"Neither."
He took a step toward the oyster stand.
Yuki's mouth twitched again. However, she could sense that he carried no imdiate hostility. That realization allowed her shoulders to drop an inch, but only an inch.
"If you're a sorcerer," she said, her voice becoming more serious, "have you ever thought about ending the world's pain?"
Kashimo pressed his lips together. He heard the weight in her voice. This wasn't a pick-up line or a test. This was the one thing she actually cared about.
"Sit down," he said.
A few minutes later, they found a small table away from the thick of the crowd. A single, dim lantern hung overhead, illuminating a plate of skewers, a few drinks, and two sets of chopsticks. The noise of the market was only a few yards away, but the space felt isolated, separated by an invisible line.
Kashimo sat, opened a bottle of cola, and took a slow drink. He winced as the carbonation hit his throat, set the bottle down, and looked at Yuki.
"Tell . What do you an by the world's pain?"
Yuki folded her hands on the table. Her long hair slid over her shoulder, glowing faintly in the lantern light. The playful grin was gone, replaced by a look of clinical, almost religious intensity.
"Cursed energy."
She paused, as if deciding whether he was worth the explanation. She studied his face for a second before continuing.
"I'm looking for a way to remove cursed energy from this world. Right now, I can see only two paths."
She held up one finger.
"One: strip all of humanity of their cursed energy. You know Toji Zenin? He's the blueprint. A Heavenly Restriction so absolute he was born with zero energy. If we could apply that state to every human on earth, cursed energy would cease to exist."
She held up a second finger.
"Two: teach every human to master their own energy. Not just a handful of sorcerers, but everyone. If everyone could control their output, the birth of cursed spirits would be stopped at the source."
She went quiet, watching Kashimo for a reaction.
Kashimo listened. He didn't interrupt. Instead, he finished his cola in one long draw. He smacked his lips and gripped the empty can in his palm.
He closed his fingers.
The aluminum screeched as it buckled under the pressure. The can was crushed into a jagged, unrecognizable lump of tal. He let go, and the scrap hit the table with a dull thud, rolling half an inch toward a plate of chicken skin.
He looked up at Yuki, his blue eyes cold.
"Are you kidding ?"
Yuki didn't move. She just watched him.
"Even Tengen's barriers can only concentrate the world's energy in Japan," Kashimo said, tapping the table with a finger. "Stripping the energy from every human being? It's physically impossible."
He paused, his mouth curving into a look that was sowhere between a smile and a scowl.
"And teaching everyone to control it is even more of a fantasy. Most of them don't even have an innate technique. They lack the hardware to process energy, let alone master it across a global population."
The table was silent. Steam rose from the skewers, and condensation trailed down the bottles. Kashimo's face remained lazy and unbothered, but his eyes carried a very clear ssage.
Your plan is nonsense.
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A/n: 600 power stones and an instant bonus chapter!! Our new goal is 800 power stones. Thanks to everyone for the support
For early access to 15 chapters ahead: p@tre~~/Demonic_Fiction (Link is in the synopsis and my profile).
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