NOVEL ONLINE FREE Chapter 3: Musings
Musings
-From the perspective of Satoru Gojo-
"Enough for today," I finished my ordeal, with which I had annoyed Mayu once again, which made her sit down on the bright floor of the dojo room, only to lie down on her back and stare up at the ceiling, sighing.
Hadn't she just mentioned earlier in the kitchen that if I tortured her with fly heads again today, she would want to leave the dojo?
Well, unfortunately the pretty girl made this plan for herself. After initially protesting, she decided to exorcise my organized little curses after all. In contrast to the last time, when I gave Mayu a katana-like weapon to cast out, today I tried a longer weapon, such as a training stick.
Admittedly, she did better with it today than last time, but that didn't mean she was any less frightened.
"Tell me," she began reproachfully, but with an undertone of laughter, "have I done something to you to make you torment me like this? Can't you think of anything else to do but hurl curses at me?"
I grinned derisively, "you know that. Necessity is the mother of invention."
She immediately flashed me a glare, as if I'd hit a sore spot with that sentence, "believe me, I turned a blind eye again today, but next time I'm getting out of here."
Sweet threat.
But the way I saw it by now, it was only one.
"You didn't feel the power to curse today either, did you?" I switched to the topic that had brought us here in the first place.
She sighed again and turned her attention back up to the ceiling while I sat down on the floor next to her.
"Unfortunately, no. And there's nothing there either. I don't feel anything at all."
She propped herself up on her elbows, a long loose strand of her lilac hair falling onto her pretty cleavage.
"I see," I let my displeasure be known, "but I still think you must have curse powers."
"Think about it ... Maybe it's my fear?" she joked with a laugh, "no seriously, Satoru. We've already been through a few training sessions, I've had to deal with smaller curse spirits and the other two boys haven't felt anything on me yet. Even Kento doesn't see any residue on me like he does on you. I'm just an exceptional talent."
She sat up fully so that we were sitting at eye level with each other and supported her crossed forearms on my raised knee.
The fact that not even Kento saw any signs of cursing on her meant something. Among us, he was the one who knew the most about it and could do it.
"Exceptional talent?" I repeated skeptically, raising an eyebrow as I concentrated on the non-existent residual women around her.
"Exactly," she said seductively before the corners of her mouth moved upwards, 'one that can't do anything,' and began to laugh.
I shook my head with a snort. After all, she could laugh at herself and that made her incredibly attractive and had an immense attraction for me.
"Now, wait a minute," she caught herself again and became more serious, "you saved me from that 2nd rank curse spirit almost two months ago. Didn't you notice that I didn't have any curse power then either?"
Her ultraviolet soul mirrors looked at me questioningly as she rested her chin on her arms. At that moment, we were only a few centimetres apart and I noticed that I immediately began to immerse myself in them.
They radiated something extreme that I couldn't put my finger on. They kept far too many secrets that I was secretly interested in. In addition, I had asked myself far too often how she came to have such an unnatural eye color, but had not yet had the opportunity to ask her. Apparently, she wasn't albino and Sukuna, on the other hand, had blood-red eyes.
Mayu Ryomen - Ryomen Sukuna.
Why did she have the title of the Curse King as her surname? Did she even know who he was and what he was all about? She stumbled into our world without any prior knowledge of us Jujuzists and had no previous contact with our peculiarity, which led me to conclude that she knew nothing at all about the greatest evil. But who knew that for sure? It could have been that she was hiding this very information from us and that she had something to do with him.
Completely impossible!
Sukuna's soul was divided into 20 fragments in the form of his indestructible fingers over 1000 years ago, five of which were kept in the Academy's possession in the cursed camp.
So if one of these fingers ever got into the hands of an unsuspecting person, the worst of the worst could happen and Sukuna could be reincarnated. But we were still a long way from that, so I didn't have to worry too much about the pretty girl in front of me, even if it did give me a queasy feeling.
In other words, a relationship - of any kind - could not have existed between them.
Right?
Sukuna certainly had his henchmen operating all over Japan. But we were talking about over a thousand years here. That was almost impossible and I was beginning to realize that. Still, there was the fact that Mayu could see curses, as well as her name...
"Is everything alright?" her sweet voice brought me back to the here and now, as did her warm hand, which she placed on my cheek.
Oops! That was looking into her eyes for too long again, wasn't it? It's now or never.
"You have an extraordinary eye color," I now unabashedly tried my luck, "who did you inherit it from?"
That was probably not the answer to her question that she had hoped for.
"Oh, is that why you're piercing me so painfully?" she giggled in amazement, stroking my skin with her thumb before tentatively pulling it away again, 'a perfectly valid question,' she began and became serious, which made me feel even more uneasy.
"I don't know exactly, but my parents told me that I inherited this eye color and hair color from my grandmother, who I only met as a baby. She passed away in middle age, so unfortunately I never got to meet her. My parents, on the other hand, are really typical Japanese. Dark brown, almost black eyes and hair. Back then, people used to joke that I might not have been switched at birth, but because of my grandmother, that was completely out of the question."
Stunned by my completely unfounded and senseless awe, I looked into her smiling face.
Not a word about Sukuna. As expected. But what if she was hiding something from me and deliberately telling me this story?
"So your hair isn't dyed either?"
She shook her head, "No, they're not. It's real, through and through. Even the length, because I've been asked about that often enough."
Unfortunately, more and more question marks came running towards me and tugged at my black trouser leg. If this was all pure nature was like me, why ...
"Who did you inherit that you can see the curses from?"
There must have been someone in her family who could do the same.
She faltered, widening her eyes for a moment. Did I just get too close to her?
"..." she gasped, pausing for a millisecond before she began to explain herself, "to be honest, I can't really answer that question, Satoru. My parents don't have curse powers, let alone can see curses like I can. My grandparents couldn't either, nor could my aunts, uncles or cousins. And I don't have any siblings. And precisely because I'm the only one who can see these monsters, I have a particularly difficult relationship with my parents."
And the next question marks raced towards me, grinning nastily.
What was that about exceptional talent? She was just living up to it.
During our first conversation, which we had held in the café, she had already let it be known that she was neither married nor in a relationship with anyone, which is why she had moved to the academy without hesitation. At least that would have explained the name, but like this?
I was itching to ask more questions, but judging by her reaction, I should have left it alone for now. So for now, I had to collect all the question marks as quickly as possible and go and sort them out at my leisure.
A riddle that would probably stay with me for the next few weeks. However, I should concentrate on tomorrow and the special training I had planned for her.
"You asked me something earlier that I admittedly forgot," I confessed to her.
"Well," she laughed, "I almost forgot it too, but I asked you if you hadn't already noticed that I don't have a curse power when I was cursed on the sports field."
The biggest question mark among all the others.
Why did Mayu have no curse power or curse technique, but could see curses without any aids? In a way, she reminded me of Maki, who had just been at the academy in Kyoto together with Panda, Toge and Yuta. Maki, on the other hand, could only see curses with tools and could only cast them out using curse tools, just like Mayu. Unlike my student sitting in front of me, Maki should have inherited any abilities from her family, but she did not.
Complete opposites, then.
"Of course," I recollected myself and finally answered her question, "but by now you're familiar with the subject and know more about it, which is why I won't give up on it. I'll make sure you become an exceptional talent."
I raised my index finger in front of her horrified face.
"Seriously?!" her lips stumbled, "I was only joking. I certainly don't intend to become one."
But I had intended to. Even if it had cost me countless more thoughts.
"That's why we're starting a new and different attempt tomorrow. We'll set off tomorrow after breakfast."
"Leaving?" she repeated, perplexed, "aren't we meeting back here?"
I shook my head in denial and brushed her soft strand of hair back behind her ear, "No. I've thought of something special for tomorrow."
"And what exactly?"
"You'll find out the details tomorrow morning," I gleefully exulted.
"Oh," she sighed listlessly, 'that doesn't bode well for you,' she mumbled contritely.
If only she had known that my plans for tomorrow weren't about the fly heads, Mayu would have wished for them back.
"Come on, let's go back to the dormitory," and I took my knee from her, which she had confiscated for herself during the conversation, stood up and gave her my hand to help her to her feet. Without further ado, she placed her dainty hand in mine and helped her up.
"Are at least one of the other two boys coming with you? Kento or Megumi?"
"No. Just the two of us alone," at least that's what I said.
No more dry training in the dojo. We needed more action.
"Oh no. That could be something," she remarked lazily and followed me to the exit, not wasting a thought on letting go of my hand.
If I had told her even one detail, she would surely have disappeared overnight without a trace. I knew my scaredy-cat too well from the very first second. Fortunately, I had saved her from the 2nd rank curse spirit together with Megumi almost two months ago. Even if it had been pure coincidence that we had walked past this place at all. She would have been just another unnecessary and appreciated victim.
Arriving in my room, I dropped blindly onto my large and cozy bed, took off my sunglasses and stroked my face laboriously before looking up at the ceiling. I reviewed the training we had just completed. Once again, I felt nothing today. Absolutely nothing. Not even a spark of curse power flowed through her petite body.
She dodged the fly heads and my attacks more in a panic than strategically and was more concerned with finally getting the whole thing over with. Nevertheless, I had noticed today that she secretly approached the training differently. More focused, less concerned with letting her fear get the upper hand and more skillful in trying to put an end to the cursing spirits.
That promised further training. Slowly but surely, we were getting on the right track. And all the question marks lay scattered next to me, waiting for me to sort them out.
The puzzle had started at the edge. Ryomen.
I had to find out whether she had ever found out about Sukuna or not. Whether she knew who he was and that he had wiped out almost all the Jujuzists during the Heian period. That he had been transferred into the hands of an ancient curse user after his death and thus still lingered among us, albeit only as a powerful curse object.
I should also do some internal research in the archive, which was also hidden here at the academy. Perhaps I could find out more about what I had left out so far.
The next big part was her parents and the environment around them. Her family. So she inherited her unnatural appearance from her grandmother, whom she never met. She claimed that her grandparents didn't have any curse powers either, but that could have just been a big secret and Mayu could have been clueless about it. What if the grandmother had secretly been a curse mage who had not passed on her abilities to her daughter or son, but to her granddaughter - Mayu?
Or even the grandfather she hadn't mentioned earlier.
It was certainly a possible theory.
But it could just as well have been that her parents possessed curse powers, but kept them secret to protect Mayu from any dangers they might have brought with them. However, their extremely poor relationship contradicted this.
Especially then, her parents should have prepared and taught her about everything. In my opinion.
But if they had concealed the fact from her, the bad relationship could have been related to that. My curiosity wanted to know why such a bad relationship had come about.
I puffed a huge gulp of air through my nose and put my forearm under my head while the other rested on my stomach.
Maybe that was one of my biggest fantasies that I was just weaving together here, but there had to have been an origin for everything. It could simply have been that she was the one who was born with curse powers without any previous inheritance. It was extremely rare, but it had been possible.
Maybe she accidentally swallowed a curse object as a small child?
Or what if I had just thought too big and the bad parental relationship was just a result of the big move she had made eight months ago? Who likes to have their children move so far away? What a load of crap! Compared to me, my relationship with my parents hadn't been shattered by the move from Kyoto to Tokyo, but because I kept my distance from them because they were a pain in the ass, but Mayu? Why did she move to Tokyo in the first place?
Shimoda was a magical part of Japan.
I had already been allowed to take a closer look at the pretty harbor city twice, which had only led to more question marks.
Just like her reaction to my questions, which I honestly couldn't interpret properly. Had I stepped on her toes and even awakened unpleasant feelings or memories in her? If she hadn't wanted to, could she have denied it or was she just trying to be polite?
Man, Mayu. You give me more thoughts than a curse hunt... In general - why do I care so damn much about one person? That was creepy...
I had to invite her for dinner later. Who could say no to sushi - especially at my favorite restaurant in Ginza? I was sure she didn't know this one yet, although I wouldn't have minded if she cooked us something. Because if there was one thing Mayu was unbeatable at, it was cooking.
Even though I hated to admit it, she had knocked Kento off his throne, who loved to cook.
But I was aiming for a cozy dinner tonight, where I started my new attempt to ask her a few questions. After all, I only secretly wanted to know whether there might have been a connection between her and Sukuna. Even if that was impossible. But I was talking about Jujuzists here - they were possible after all...
But first I longed for a hot and relaxing bath. I wanted to put an end to this hopeless headache about another unsuccessful day of training and this headache for the time being.
So I got up, left my relaxation spot and dug out some fresh clothes from my large wardrobe. I left my retreat, looked at the last door to Mayu's room, which was locked, and walked down the corridor to the front. I immediately noticed that the bathroom door was also closed.
It was usually only closed when someone was in the bathroom, otherwise it was always ajar.
Was I taking a chance and bumping into one of the other boys or was I perhaps even lucky and catching Mayu? Grinning nastily, I put my hand on the handle, yanked the door open with gusto and was immediately greeted by a hot, steaming, fruity-smelling mist. Including a sharp and startled cry.
"SATORU!"