Chapter 160: The Bustling Atmosphere of the Food Stall
Inside the underground assembly hall, the silence was so deep that even a falling needle would have sounded loud.
The overwhelming heat left by Shiranui still lingered in the air, fierce enough to make every breath feel scorched.
Suguru Geto stared at the back of the blade resting on his shoulder.
The dark red glow on the metal reflected in his eyes.
His nails had already dug deep into his palms.
Fresh blood dripped onto the cold concrete floor.
"My blade…"
His voice was hoarse, like sandpaper scraping against stone.
"Was pointed in the wrong direction?"
The words carried despair, unwillingness, and a pain he had suppressed for far too long.
"Yami, look at them!"
Geto suddenly raised his head.
His gentle eyes were now streaked with red, bloodshot lines, like those of a beast driven into a corner.
He pointed toward the Star Religious Group members huddled in the corner. They were shaking in fear, and some had even soiled themselves.
"They feel no guilt for Riko's death."
His voice rose.
"They're here worshiping that disgusting monster."
"They treat being eaten by a curse as a gift from god."
Geto's body trembled.
"We risk our lives, we swallow Cursed Spirit Orbs that taste like vomit, and all of it is for this kind of hopeless trash?"
His emotions finally broke.
He roared at Yami, as if trying to pour out every grievance, every doubt, every pain, and every piece of self-loathing that had built up over the past year.
The Star Religious Group members in the corner scrambled desperately, trying to crawl toward the exit. But the remnants of Shiranui's sword pressure pinned them in place, leaving them unable to move.
Yami did not speak.
He simply watched Suguru Geto, who stood on the edge of collapse.
There was no blame in his deep eyes.
Only calmness.
And tolerance.
Clang.
Yami turned his wrist, and Shiranui slid back into its sheath.
The suffocating heat and pressure faded with it.
"Put away Rainbow Dragon, Suguru."
Yami's voice was not loud.
But it carried a steadiness that allowed no refusal.
Geto froze.
He had thought Yami would refute him with some grand principle.
Or lecture him about a Jujutsu Sorcerer's responsibility.
He had even prepared himself to fight Yami right there.
But Yami said none of that.
Those clear eyes were like a mirror, reflecting Suguru Geto's current appearance back at him.
Ugly.
Twisted.
Pitiful.
Geto's clenched fists loosened weakly.
The black Cursed Energy surging through his body faded like a tide pulling back from the shore.
Rainbow Dragon, hovering in midair, released a low growl. Then it turned into black mist and sank back into Geto's body.
With the support gone, Geto swayed hard.
He looked like a deflated ball.
In an instant, he seemed to have aged ten years.
Just as he was about to collapse, a strong arm wrapped steadily around his shoulders.
"Let's go."
Yami supported him without another word and turned toward the basement exit.
"Where?"
Geto asked instinctively.
His voice was empty and exhausted.
"I'm taking you somewhere."
Yami did not look back.
He did not even spare a glance at the Star Religious Group members.
"As for this trash…"
His steps paused slightly.
His peripheral vision swept over the trembling cultists.
"The police and the law can deal with them. Whether they live or die isn't worth dirtying your hands."
After saying that, Yami walked out of the underground air raid shelter with Geto.
They left behind the musty smell.
The malice.
And the darkness that had almost swallowed him.
One hour later.
Far from the suffocating heart of Tokyo, Yami brought Geto to a late night food stall in the suburbs.
It was a small roadside stall lit by warm yellow bulbs and hanging red lanterns. Even at this hour, it was still lively.
"Boss, fifty yakitori skewers!"
Yami found an empty table by the street and sat down without restraint.
"Two bottles of iced Ramune soda. And two orders of your signature stir fried noodles."
"Coming right up!"
The owner, wearing a headband, answered with enthusiasm.
His hands moved quickly over the iron plate. The spatula scraped and flipped with a sizzling sound.
The aroma of sauce, oil, and charcoal fire filled the air.
Around them sat construction workers who had just finished their shifts, office workers loosened from their neckties, and young couples out for a late night snack.
They gulped down draft beer.
They laughed loudly.
They bragged, complained, and argued until their faces turned red over trivial things.
There was none of Jujutsu High's oppressive silence.
None of the sewer's nauseating Cursed Energy residue.
Only the most ordinary, lively atmosphere of human life.
Suguru Geto sat awkwardly on a plastic stool.
He looked around in confusion.
It had been a long time since he had entered a place where ordinary people gathered like this.
In his eyes, ordinary people had gradually become only two things.
The weak who needed protection.
Or monkeys as selfish and ignorant as the Star Religious Group.
But now, watching these ordinary people who spent their days struggling to live and still laughed loudly in the middle of the night, he suddenly felt a strong sense of unreality.
"What are you staring for?"
Yami grabbed two cold bottles of Ramune soda.
With two crisp pops, he pressed down the glass marbles at the bottle mouths and placed one bottle heavily in front of Geto.
Cold bubbles overflowed from the bottle, carrying a refreshing chill.
Soon, the owner came over with a large plate of sizzling yakitori, each skewer glistening with sauce and oil.
"Eat while it's hot. This is our shop's specialty."
Yami picked up a golden skewer of chicken and green onion and stuffed it straight into Geto's hand.
"Stop thinking about that disgusting curse taste. Try this."
Geto looked at the yakitori in his hand.
Oil still dripped from the roasted meat.
His Adam's apple moved slightly.
He had not eaten a proper meal in a long time.
After swallowing Cursed Spirit Orbs, the nauseating taste that felt like rotten vomit always ruined his appetite for normal food.
But under Yami's unquestionable gaze, Geto lowered his head and took a small bite.
The crispy chicken skin broke apart.
Tender meat and rich sauce spread across his tongue.
The aroma of charcoal fire burst through his mouth with a warmth he had almost forgotten.
This was not the taste of a vomit soaked rag.
This was food.
Real food.
Something full of life.
Geto's eyes widened.
Like a starving prisoner who had gone three days without eating, he began tearing through the meat in large bites.
One skewer.
Two skewers.
Three skewers.
He ate too quickly and choked on the hot meat juice, coughing hard.
Yami said nothing.
He only pushed the iced soda closer.
Geto grabbed the bottle and tilted his head back, gulping down the cold drink.
The sharp carbonated bubbles mixed with the rich taste of yakitori and flowed down his throat, suppressing the nausea that had been building in his stomach for an entire year.
"Cough, cough…"
Geto lowered the bottle.
His eyes were red.
Physiological tears had even gathered at the corners of his eyes.
He looked at Yami.
His lips trembled slightly, but no words came out.
Yami picked up a yakitori skewer and began eating as well.
Then he looked at the noisy crowd around them and spoke calmly.
"Suguru, I know what you're thinking."
Geto's fingers tightened around the bottle.
"You think the people in the Star Religious Group are hopeless. You think the non sorcerers you risk your life to protect are all ugly monkeys."
Yami took another bite, then turned his head.
"I admit it. There's plenty of trash and scum in this world."
His black eyes met Geto's directly.
"But you can't decide the whole world stinks just because you saw rats in a sewer."
Geto froze.
Yami pointed toward the next table, where a young couple was feeding each other.
Then he pointed toward a construction worker in the distance, exhausted but still smiling while speaking to his daughter on the phone.
"Look at them."
"They get jealous. They get greedy. They're weak."
His voice remained steady.
"But they also love people."
"They try to live."
"They do their best for small, insignificant happiness."
Yami leaned back slightly.
"This is the real world, Suguru."
"We exorcise Cursed Spirits not to judge who deserves to live or die, and not to stand above everyone as saviors."
He raised his soda bottle and tapped it lightly against the bottle in front of Geto.
"We draw our blades so ordinary people can keep eating yakitori, drinking soda, and laughing out loud in this shitty world."
Clink.
The crisp sound of glass touching glass rang clearly amid the food stall's noise.
Geto stared blankly at Yami.
You can't decide the whole world stinks just because you saw rats in a sewer.
That sentence struck him like a bell, shattering the paranoid and frantic thoughts tangled inside his head.
That was right.
He had pushed himself too hard.
He had treated protecting the weak as an absolute doctrine, yet he had forgotten to look at the parts of those weak people that were truly worth protecting.
He had been blinded by the shadow of the Star Religious Group.
And he had almost destroyed the belief he had held onto with his own hands.
Geto lowered his head and looked at the empty bamboo skewer in his hand.
A warm tear fell silently onto the back of his hand.
This time, it was not because of the pain of swallowing a Cursed Spirit.
It was because of the warmth of the human world, something he had not felt in far too long.
"Yami…"
Geto took a deep breath and raised his head.
His eyes were still red, but the dead silence and madness inside them had disappeared.
"Thank you."
The moment those words left his mouth, a subtle curve appeared at the corner of Yami's lips.
He picked up two handfuls of yakitori skewers and dropped them heavily in front of Geto.
"Enough nonsense. You're paying tonight."
Geto stared at him.
Yami's expression did not change.
"And if you don't finish all fifty skewers, no one's leaving."
Geto looked at the small mountain of yakitori in front of him.
For the first time in a long while, he showed a helpless but genuine smile.
"You really are unreasonable."
This late night meal, filled with the warmth of ordinary people, finally began to fill the emptiness inside Suguru Geto's heart.
But beneath this brief peace, the gears of fate quietly turned once more.
Because soon, a Special Grade Sorcerer was about to arrive.
....
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