-Snacktime-
-From the perspective of Mayu Ryomen-
Lost in thought, I now wandered out of my room, which was the last one in the corridor, across the hallway to the kitchen, while I was greeted by the warming rays of sunshine that had shone through the large windows and covered the dark wooden floor in a warm chocolate brown.
Another sunny day, which unfortunately seemed to be languishing in the in-house dojo. It was certainly over thirty-five degrees outside and we had nothing better to do than to simply tear apart the hallowed halls of the dojo once again. Let's hope that Satoru was a little more affectionate with me today than he had been the last two times.
But before he put me through the wringer again, I wanted to at least have a small meal, because I didn't want to start a training session like the one he had planned for me on some days with an empty stomach.
Apart from that, at that moment I had an unspeakable craving for my happiness booster - fruit! Fruit salads were even better!
There could never be enough of them.
Arriving in the brightly decorated kitchen, where there was no one else to be found, I happily grabbed a large peach from the large, full fruit bowl and a knife from the drawer and cut my favorite fruit into pieces.
Shh, I didn't like to just bite into it. I was a bit peculiar in that respect, as some of my colleagues had noticed.
Especially my black-haired colleague Hotaru, whose hearty laughter still echoed in my thoughts and who I could now also count as a friend.
Her skeptical look, which she had given me several times at the beginning, literally shone in the various inscriptions, all of which said something like 'you cut your fruit instead of just biting into it?
She found it particularly funny when I cut into a mandarin orange with a knife and then peeled it with my fingers. I would not soon forget such a warm-hearted laugh about it. Just like her question about why I wouldn't just rip it open.
I smiled to myself.
Yes, she probably hadn't asked herself that question alone, I'm sure everyone I knew had, but the reason couldn't have been more banal. I disliked having bits of shell under my fingernails and between my teeth.
I didn't like it and personally found it disgusting.
The peach was joined by a large, juicy pear, which I also cut into quarters and had a slice of.
Thoughtfully, I blew a short but powerful puff of air through my nose.
Instead of standing here in the kitchen, cutting fruit and about to start a special training session, I would actually have been standing in the operating theater with Hotaru, assisting in a difficult operation, where she would have given me valuable tips and tricks. The topic of surgery and the human body was a mixture of fascination and thrill for me at the same time. I saw this anxiety that everything would be fine afterwards and that the patient would be able to carry on as usual without any restrictions.
It's hard to believe that just under two months ago, I had given up half of my heart's desire and received sad and regretful faces from my colleagues and bosses.
It was crazy that I had gone through with it. Initially, I caught myself a few times getting ready for work in the morning and unfortunately realized that I no longer had that job.
Instead, I was now dealing with curse spirits. I was allowed to save people's lives again, hopefully soon, but I hadn't even dared to dream of this kind of rescue. It was pretty crazy.
I sighed slowly and added another peach to my fruit and cut it into pieces.
I missed it. I missed it immensely.
Even though I found these new tasks I had here at the academy fascinating and funny at the same time, it was quite contradictory to what I had learned and done. Even though I was out and about with Megumi or Kento, watching over their shoulders as they worked, how they dissected curses or the nasty training with Satoru, who was already hoofing it out the door. I had never really imagined my later years would be like this... Really never.
All this stuff about curses, curse spirits and curse power and so on and so forth. If someone had explained this to me or told me about it ten years ago, I would have stood there shaking my head and thinking that they had got it in for me, but what could I say? I was now in the middle of it. Instead of just being there... Including the waffle on my head.
Smiling, I took another bite of my snack.
What had the gentleman come up with for me again today?
Last time he literally chased my soul out of my body. The madman seriously came up with the crazy idea of unleashing so-called fly heads on me.
Fly heads!
Just the fact that they had a name at all, those bastards.
I shook myself in disgust as it sent shivers down my spine. My memory of the curses of the 4th rank almost made me feel sick again. And they looked particularly hideous.
They had white feathered wings and a wrinkly naked body with eyes that were far too big and had tried to attack me. Ewww! They were small and fortunately could be driven out with just a stick-like weapon, but the guy with the white hair said dryly to me that I should have driven them out with curse power.
With curse power...
Which, even after the past training sessions, still hadn't shown itself from its vacation or even the afterlife.
Otherwise, they wouldn't have had to save my ass on the sports field when that fucking thing hit me seven weeks ago. And by God it was monstrous. This devil thing was all oversized teeth, ready to devour me with one bite. Its hands and feet were just as small as those of those fly heads, which had been a joke in comparison, and yet it raced at the speed of light.
And that was beginning to be my everyday life...
I sighed again and brought another piece of fruit straight to my mouth.
"Oh, a peach for me?" I was immediately startled out of nowhere by the bright color of Satoru's voice, who suddenly stood behind me and snatched the piece of fruit from my hand over my shoulder, "that wasn't necessary."
"Oh my God!" I sucked in my breath sharply and turned to him in a flash, "Holy Mother Mary, fucking Joseph and whoever else belongs here! Can't you please make yourself known in some other way first?", I snapped angrily and pressed my hand against his chest, which was covered by his beige T-shirt.
What a bad time!
Couldn't he have come ten minutes, a few trains of thought and a normal heartbeat later? I was already aware that the academy would most likely not be frequented by curse spirits, but if I was still mentally attached to those bastards, it wasn't funny, as the gentleman in front of me seemed to think, who had just started laughing at me from the bottom of his throat.
"Why should I? So that I'm denied the sight of my terrified pupil?", and he took a hearty bite of his stolen piece of fruit.
"No, well, yes, too! But mainly so that I don't have to suffer a heart attack here!" I reprimanded him, glaring over his sunglasses into his bright blue eyes before I started laughing myself and took my hand away from him again, "you must know better than anyone that I'm totally terrified."
Please don't ask anyone how many times this ninja in the making had already scared me at night when I had to go to the bathroom again. Just knowing that I had to be quiet so that I didn't wake the other sleepers... I almost always turned out the lights so as not to disturb anyone's sleep and crept silently across the corridor to meet Satoru of all people, who, as so often, came home at night or was still in the kitchen or in the bathroom himself.
Even his snow-white hair didn't help when he was otherwise dressed in dark clothes. On the contrary, it only made things worse, especially when he wore his black blindfold. Ever since I'd been dealing with curses, even my frightfulness had become frightened.
"Shall I trample next time?" he teased me theatrically, letting the rest of the peach wander into his mouth, "but yes, that's right! You really are the only one I know who is extremely scared."
"Ha. Ha," I said sarcastically, putting my hand on my hip, "but I'm happy to accept your suggestion. And don't forget to toot your horn."
We both laughed in amusement. My mental movie, which I had available in Ultra HD and 4K, immediately started the mini-movie of Satoru stomping and trumpeting like an elephant through the corridor. Not to forget that he shouted: 'Ma-ayuu, I'm coming! Don't scare yourself!
"That way," I gasped with a laugh, "I wouldn't be scared when you came."
"And even then, he'd still manage," Megumi, who had just joined us in the kitchen, intervened with a grin, making Satoru laugh again.
I stopped immediately and looked over at the black-haired man in horror.
"Seriously?" I made sure and reviewed his words.
Had he really just stabbed me in the back?
"Seriously," he replied briefly as he scratched his head and I noticed that he probably wouldn't have been out on any missions today with his casual style of dress, "you're one of the scariest people we've come across."
"My words," Satoru agreed and helped himself to my snack again.
That was mean!
"Ey!", I protested miserably, "I know I'm jumpy, but then so exaggerated?"
"Oh yes!", the two gentlemen in front of me agreed in sync and simultaneously cast their glances at me, while I eyed them both suspiciously.
Shit... One to zero for Megumi and Satoru, if I may say so myself.
"How can you not be afraid of curses like that?" I tried again.
"If it were only the curses for you," Megumi smiled at me and also snatched a piece of my sliced fruit, "it's enough for someone to quietly wander around near you and you get scared."
In my mind, I hurriedly went through the few missions I'd already been on with him and was horrified to realize that there hadn't been a single one where I hadn't been scared. In my defense, I was also allowed to mention that the overall situation had never been kind to me either. Not to mention Megumi.
"Well, wait a minute," I began defensively, "you've always set out to do it and scared me on purpose... That's a bit unfair, isn't it?"
"Yes, that's true," he admitted guiltily, but not seriously enough, and added again the next moment, "but it's also very funny to see that I get you every time."
Pah! He might have had fun with it.
I completely ignored the fact that my snack had been eaten in the meantime, partly because I hadn't been thinking about food myself. It was too shocking for me to see that I had apparently been chosen as the victim of horror.
"You're really mean," I sulked theatrically.
"Speaking of which," Megumi finished the short fact, "how are you getting on with your training?"
"Well, what do you mean by progress?" I replied gloomily and crossed my arms in front of my chest, "I'm still standing still. Nothing at all is stirring inside me. No power to escape, no escape technique or even escape energy. I simply don't have any," I listed dejectedly.
"That's nonsense, Mayu," Satoru denied, "you can see curses without any aids and that's the basic requirement of a Jujuzist. I know that you have an escape technique."
What did he see that I didn't?
I furrowed my eyebrows, "Anyway, our teacher is teaching me valuable knowledge that I can't put to good use at the moment."
"Don't think so negatively about it," Megumi gave me an encouraging smile, "I agree with Satoru. It just takes a lot of practice."
"Exactly," Satoru confirmed euphorically, 'and that's why we're going back to training now,' he already exulted conspiratorially.
I, on the other hand, had a bad feeling: "If you sic fly heads on me again today, I'll leave the dojo!"
"Didn't you really?" Megumi was partly surprised, but also partly horrified, and turned his attention to Satoru, who was grinning ear to ear and raising his index finger in the air.
"You know - necessity is the mother of invention."
"No wonder she's so depressed," at least Megumi was a little more empathetic than before, "I hope you've helped her at least a little."
"He gave me cursing tools," I grumpily let his help be known, as well as my displeasure at his 'necessity is the mother of invention' thing.
In other words, of course, he hadn't lifted a finger. Instead, he retreated to the far corner and had seen enough of the spectacle. I could only count myself lucky that I was not completely unfamiliar with small curses that were of the 4th rank and that I unknowingly knew how to drive them out. Without any cursing power at all.
"She did have a curse tool," he defended himself, feigning ignorance.
"I don't even want to know what that lunatic is planning to do to me today," I muttered to myself into my non-existent beard as I turned to the counter to actually take a piece of my small meal, but instead found that there was nothing left of it at all.
Well, Mayu, that's what you call bad luck if you don't just bite into it...
"Do you want some more fruit?" I asked over my shoulder and started to take another peach.
"No, thank you," Satoru let me know, his tone delicately perplexed.
"Uh, no," Megumi stuttered, initially confused, which in turn made me wonder.
Had they expected me to react differently to their raid? That wouldn't have occurred to me. After all, there had been enough of it.
"I'll go ahead to the dojo and wait for you there," Satoru addressed me and was already moving towards the kitchen exit.
"All right," I confirmed and started my snack all over again, while Megumi continued to keep me company.
"Sorry," he squeezed out crumpled.
"Sorry for what?" I asked in surprise and bit into the sweet fruit.
"That I just helped myself to your fruit."
"Please," I said, almost indignantly, "you can always help yourself to it when I'm making something to eat or, as in this case, cutting up fruit. If it's empty, it's empty"
"But you cut it for yourself."
"So what?" and handed him another piece, which he hesitantly accepted, "I'm not petty. On the contrary, I really enjoy sharing. And apart from that, I also love to cook."
"You can taste it too," he admitted, barely noticeably embarrassed, "thank you."
"I suppose you're staying here today?" I asked with interest, to which he nodded.
"Today I'm doing nothing but the lazy ones."
"Oh, I don't begrudge you that, but I wouldn't mind if we swapped."
He laughed, "I'll take your word for it, because I know all too well how Satoru builds up his exercises in curse powers."
I glanced at him brightly, "don't tell me he massacred you like he did me."
"I don't know much about your training, but I can well imagine that it hit me harder than you, since I already knew how to use my Shikigami as a child. Nevertheless, he throws you mercilessly into the deep end, but when it comes down to it, he immediately helps you out of danger."
I would have signed the first part of his statement without protest, but the second? I hadn't seen anything of that yet.
"Sounds like he did the same to you," I guessed off the top of my head before eating my piece of pear, which I had sliced again.
"More than enough, but it also made me grow."
He sat down on one of the black upholstered chairs that had provided ample seating at the large white dining table.
"You're not unaware that I have the ten-shadow technique, but I haven't gone into much detail with you about my escape technique. Unfortunately, just because I use this technique does not mean that I have mastered it completely. Summoning Shikigami is one thing. But controlling them is another. Before I can use them at will, I first have to defeat them. And preferably alone in battle, otherwise the so-called ritual is a waste of time."
I hung on his lips eagerly. I loved learning about these trivial peculiarities that we Jujuzists had brought with us. With the exception of me.
"I must honestly confess that I naively assumed that you had been able to do this since you were born," I revealed, pressing my lips together in shame.
"That has nothing to do with being naive. After all, you're not that familiar with these topics yet. That's why I'm explaining this to you. Those born with the ten-shadow technique only have the hellhounds at the beginning. The repertoire of Shikigami grows the more you defeat them in the solo ritual. In other words, if the Shikigami summoning ritual is performed with help, it will nullify the effect of the technique."
"And then you would have to start all over again?" He nodded at my question before I asked further, "so it could well happen that you could die from your own summoned Shikigami?" I thought about the ritual I had just mentioned.
"That's exactly what could happen."
I widened my eyes in surprise.
"Oh my!" my lips rolled down my throat, "and how do you do that then? So, could you mistakenly summon a shikigami that's too strong?"
"No. Shikigami can be summoned using my finger forms and a call. As well as with my existing curse energy, which I have at the time. With every shikigami I learn," and he put the word in quotation marks with his fingers, "my curse energy grows and so does the ability to tame it."
Jackpot! Once again, I'd learned a new topic that had brought my interest out of hibernation. I loved it when the boys explained such features to me.
Too bad, though, that there hadn't been more time for it. Nevertheless, I had just noticed a detail that we hadn't yet been able to discuss in full due to the situation.
"When you first summoned your hellhounds, you explained to me that if one of them died or was exorcized, its energy and power would be transferred to yours - we were interrupted then and hadn't talked about it since."
"That's right, I'd forgotten about that. The power and energy of this shikigami is then distributed to the others and is thus strengthened and sometimes takes on a different form."
Even if I didn't fully understand what was going on, this topic about his technique sounded amazingly powerful and not to be underestimated. It made a huge impression on me and increased my respect for Megumi. At the same time, however, a latent desire grew within me that would never be fulfilled and that I would also like to possess this ten-shadow technique.
Let's be honest, it would have been really brilliant if I could summon such cursed spirits and have them fight by my side, wouldn't it?
"I'd love to chat with you some more, but you know. Satoru is already waiting for me," I complained, grimacing.
"I know, I know," Megumi sympathized, "good luck with that."
"Thank you," I smiled at him and walked to the kitchen doorway, "and have fun doing nothing. Oh and don't overexert yourself," I winked at him before his laughter echoed after me as I ran towards the exit of the dormitory.