"Is it about to start?"
Rikka and Sanae widened their eyes simultaneously, eager not to miss a single moment of what was about to happen.
Yukino and the others beside them also watched carefully.
Even though they'd seen Ryuji handle strange incidents before, the girls were still quite curious about the process of exorcising.
Yumiko, standing at the front, was a little scared.
But thinking about Yui and Hina behind her, she stood her ground firmly.
Ryuji didn't waste any time.
He raised his hand and began to pull down his collar. While there were many ways to handle this, Ryuji wanted to try the cursed technique he had just acquired.
At first, the others didn't think much of it.
But when they noticed a special curse rune appearing at the corner of Ryuji's mouth, they were all taken by surprise.
"What is that?"
Before they could think too much, Ryuji had already started the cursed technique.
"Dissipate!"
A wave of special cursed energy, accompanied by a gust of wind, swept over the three girls.
They didn't even know what was happening.
"Ah!"
Everyone heard a sharp scream.
In the next moment, something strange, with half of its face resembling a skeleton, struggled out of Yumiko and the others' bodies.
It looked as if it had suffered a serious injury.
Its expression was twisted in pain, and it only struggled for a brief moment before—
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Three consecutive sounds, like balloons bursting, echoed as all the weirdness vanished.
The exorcism was over!
Ryuji felt a little dryness in his throat, but with his RCT, it returned to normal almost instantly.
Ryuji pulled his collar back up.
"Is that it?" Yumiko and the others were in disbelief. They had expected some kind of dramatic battle.
For instance, they thought when the strange entity emerged, Ryuji would struggle to defeat it at first, then triumph through the power of friendship or something.
Wasn't that how it usually went in novels?
If Ryuji knew what Yumiko was thinking, he could only sigh.
It's best not to read too many ridiculous novels!
"What else did you expect?"
Ryuji shrugged, looking nonchalant.
It was solved in one move. What more could be said?
"What was that just now?"
Compared to the others, Yukino was more curious. The special rune on Ryuji's lips hadn't appeared when he was eating the strange entities before.
"Those are unique patterns used when casting cursed technique," Ryuji explained, pulling down his collar to reveal that the patterns had disappeared.
"I just acquired this ability recently, so I wanted to give it a try!"
It wasn't something he cared about keeping secret.
"cursed technique?"
"Yeah, you can think of it like 'what you say becomes reality.'"
It was too complicated to explain in detail, so he opted for the simplest explanation.
"Hiss!"
'What you say becomes reality?' Don't make something so terrifying sound so casual!
This ability was undoubtedly fearsome.
"..."
Just by looking at their faces, Ryuji could tell what they were thinking. Although the cursed technique was powerful, it wasn't invincible. Otherwise, the Inumaki family wouldn't have only one remaining member left to maintain the lineage.
Of course, that was partly because the cursed technique family hadn't produced a caster capable of controlling the cursed technique.
Without someone who could reverse the curse, it was inevitable that the family would decline.
"Don't be too shocked. The spell also has side effects. For instance, the more difficult the task, the greater the backlash when you speak it!"
This was akin to a curse, similar to how the Heavenly Restriction traded off power for a formidable physical body.
In addition to gaining powerful abilities, the spell inflicted a penalty each time it was used, essentially acting as a hidden curse.
Thinking about it this way, it made perfect sense.
"Side effects?"
The girls, who had been amazed at the spell's power, immediately grew concerned when they heard about the side effects, including Yumiko and the others in front of them.
"How do you feel now? Are you uncomfortable anywhere?" Yumiko asked, stepping closer to Ryuji.
"Don't worry, I'm pretty tough. The side effects don't really affect me!" Ryuji wasn't pretending to be strong. In truth, the backlash didn't really impact him.
Even without using the RCT, the worst he had felt was a slight hoarseness in his throat, which had quickly healed.
It was mainly because he had consumed so many strange entities through soul-swallowing, which had strengthened his body overall.
Seeing Ryuji speak so confidently, the girls finally felt more at ease.
Miko, standing beside him, gently held Ryuji's hand and spoke earnestly.
"You should use that ability as little as possible in the future."
The last thing Miko wanted was to see Ryuji get hurt.
"Don't worry!" Ryuji smiled and squeezed her hand in return.
Time passed, and soon it was the end of the school day.
"Yumiko!"
Now that the strange problems had been resolved, and the sense of dread hanging over the three girls had lifted, their moods lightened. They no longer had to worry about nightmares involving the skeleton woman.
Yui, while packing up her schoolbag, suddenly had an idea.
"Why don't we treat Ryuji to dinner?"
"Yes, we really should thank him for what he did for us!" Hina chimed in, nodding in agreement.
Now that they knew the world contained such strange things, it would be smart to maintain a good relationship with someone as capable as Ryuji.
"Ahem!"
Hearing her friends suggest this, Yumiko cleared her throat and spoke seriously.
"You don't need to worry about that. I'll take care of it!"
Yui didn't think too much about it, but Hina, watching Yumiko's expression, suddenly grinned.
"Oh, Yumiko, are you trying to have dinner with Ryuji alone?"
Although Hina was known for her love of yaoi stories, she had excellent emotional intelligence and quickly caught on to what was happening.
"How did you—" Yumiko started in surprise but quickly turned her head away, her words trailing off. Damn, she'd been found out!
"Hey!!!" Yui exclaimed, finally realizing what was going on.
"Does Yumiko want to ask Ryuji out alone?"
"Oh, I thought you liked Hayato?" Yui added, confused.
Hearing this, Yumiko immediately refuted.
"Don't make it sound like there was ever anything between me and Hayato. I just had a little crush on him, that's all!"
"So, you like Ryuji now, right?" Hina pressed, eager to get to the bottom of it.
"..."
Yumiko was silent for a moment, then shot a cold glare at Hina.
"So what if I do!"
At this point, there was no point in hiding it.
"Yumiko, you're so bold!" Yui exclaimed, impressed by her friend's straightforwardness.
Hina gave Yui a helpless look. Was that really the point right now? Forget it this girl was too simple to think any deeper.
"I just think that for our first meal together, we should all go. After all, Ryuji helped all three of us!"
"That's true. Alright then!"
Yumiko nodded, thinking it over. It would probably be too forward to ask Ryuji out alone the first time. Wouldn't he think she was too casual?
So, she agreed with Hina's proposal.
However, Yumiko didn't notice the sly look in Hina's eyes after she agreed.
Heroes love beauties, and beauties love heroes.
"Come to think of it, I forgot to check those two entries!" Ryuji suddenly remembered after school that he still hadn't checked the entries he had gained.
The purple entry from Yumiko and the golden entry from Yui.
"Purple entry: Queen of Fire!"
"?"
What was this? Sure, Yumiko had the "Queen of Fire" nickname at school, but that was just something her classmates came up with.
Then again, not long ago, he had triggered an entry from Yukino called "Mountain Flower."
He quickly glanced over the description.
It was similar to Yukino's, both abilities that altered a person's temperament, giving them an air of dominance like a queen.
"Tsk, a queenly vibe, huh?"
It felt a bit odd for a grown man to have a queen-like temperament. It just seemed out of place.
"Forget it, I'll decompose it!"
After decomposing the purple entry, he received 1,000 points—not bad at all.
Next was Yui's golden entry.
"Golden entry: Dark cuisine!"
"...?"
Another strange one.
He glanced at the description.
"Dark cuisine: No matter how carefully you follow the recipe, whatever you cook will always turn out as dark, inedible cuisine."
"..."
Ryuji was speechless.
Come to think of it, Yui really was a disaster in the kitchen.
Forget it.
"Decompose it!"
He didn't want to deal with it.
"Points: 73,120!"
After decomposing both entries, Ryuji's points had now surpassed 70,000.
The 100,000 points required to extract a golden entry weren't far off!
"Speaking of which, Shizuka is also terrible at cooking. I wonder if I can trigger a similar entry from her!" Ryuji mused curiously.
Since he had promised to visit Shizuka that evening, after dropping Miko off at home, Ryuji made his way over to her place.
Late that night!
Ryuji found himself sitting next to a thoroughly exhausted Shizuka, feeling somewhat dazed.
But it wasn't because of anything inappropriate; it was because...
"Purple entry: Dark cuisine!"
Yes, Ryuji had indeed triggered the "Dark cuisine" entry from Shizuka, just like he had with Yui.
However, Yui's "Dark cuisine" entry was golden, whereas Shizuka's was only purple.
Was her cooking just one level below Yui's in terms of disaster?
No wonder Shizuka's cooking was so terrible.
"Sensei, can we discuss something?"
Feeling a bit mischievous, Ryuji suddenly called out softly to her.
"What is it?" Shizuka responded lazily, completely worn out. Her posture was relaxed, and her tone sluggish she didn't even bother moving her head.
"Maybe... you should stop cooking?"
"???"
Shizuka blinked in confusion, thinking he was going to say something important. But it turned out to be that?
Wait, are you looking down on me?
She turned her head to glare at him.
"..."
Facing her intense gaze, Ryuji quickly waved his hands defensively.
"I'm just saying, you can cook if you really want to!"
"Ugh! What the hell!" she exclaimed.
Feeling provoked, Shizuka who had been exhausted moments ago somehow found the energy to roll over and prop herself up on both hands.
"What are you doing?" Ryuji asked, caught off guard.
"Round two!" Hiratsuka declared, her eyes locked on Ryuji.
She wasn't about to let this slide. She'd make sure he wouldn't be able to move by tomorrow.
As it turned out, though, Shizuka had overestimated herself. The next morning, she was so tired she couldn't even get out of bed.
Thankfully, it was a weekend, so she didn't need to request leave from school.
Around noon, as Ryuji finished tidying up, Shizuka staggered out of her room, barely managing to stay upright.
"Hey! You're awake? I've made lunch!"
On the table was a freshly prepared meal, still warm and fragrant.
Seeing the food, Shizuka felt a wave of warmth in her heart. This kind of life... was really nice.
"It's the weekend today. Are you going somewhere?" she asked.
"Yeah, I'm meeting up with a junior from school."
"..."