Chapter 113: Chapter 113 - Sharing the Burden [bonus]
"Satoru, enough already!"
One afternoon, a vein pulsed at Geto’s temple as he glared at Gojo, who was currently hanging off Hayase’s shoulders with all the dignity of a parasite.
"The number of tis Hayase can demonstrate things for
is already limited because I have to prepare spirits first. You can ask him questions whenever you want, and you’re still barging in on the little ti I manage to carve out? What are those precious Six Eyes of yours even for? Decoration? Don’t tell
you’re actually too stupid to learn no matter how many tis he shows you."
Gojo imdiately bristled.
He shoved his sunglasses up his nose, exposing those bright blue eyes, and snapped back at full volu.
"The hell do you an I can’t learn? I’m doing this for Hayase’s sake. Have you looked at your technique? It’s disgusting. I don’t want him choking down those vomit-flavored cursed spirit balls you’ve already spat out just so he can teach you."
Geto’s expression didn’t crack. If anything, it got more dangerous.
"Then all the more reason to give him to ," he said with a smile that looked way too calm. "If you stop sticking to him every second and let him co out on missions with , he can absorb fresh spirits on-site. No need to swallow my prepared ones at all. That should make you happy, shouldn’t it?"
"Bullshit. You just want private lessons."
"And you don’t?"
"Not a chance. Absolutely not."
"You’re asking to get hit, Satoru."
"Co try it."
From there, things went the sa way they always did.
A few more increasingly nasty lines. A spike in cursed energy. Then both of them dumped Hayase where he stood and started fighting each other in the middle of the field.
Fists cracked.
Cursed energy slamd into cursed energy.
Dust shot up. Gravel sprayed. The ground took another round of abuse.
This had happened often enough over the last few days that Shoko Ieiri, who had taken to sitting on the steps at the edge of the field like this was so terrible sport she couldn’t stop watching, barely even reacted anymore.
She bit down on her unlit cigarette and rolled her eyes so hard it looked physically painful.
"I seriously don’t get it. It’s only been a few days. How the hell did they end up like this? Weren’t those two saying behind everyone’s backs that bringing along two non-combat support types was totally unnecessary dead weight? And now they’re about to cave each other’s skulls in over one support guy’s schedule."
Whenever it got to this stage, Hayase would just sigh, dust himself off, put a safe amount of distance between himself and the disaster zone, and head for the steps.
That made him, by default, part of the audience.
As the school’s other smoker, Shoko always tapped a cigarette from the pack and offered it to him without needing to be asked.
Click.
The lighter flared.
Shoko took a drag, watched the two idiot Special Grades currently rolling around on the ground with both hands wrapped around each other’s throats, and let out a perfect ring of smoke.
Then she glanced at Hayase.
There was actual sympathy in her eyes, which felt rare enough to be alarming.
"You really have it rough," she said. "You’re a first-year too, but sohow you ended up training yourself and babysitting those two idiots at the sa ti."
Hayase leaned in, borrowed the fla, and lit his own cigarette. The small sting cleared his head a little.
He watched the dust churning over the field for a mont before turning slightly toward her.
"Shoko... actually, I’ve had so new ideas lately about Reverse Cursed Technique. The energy conversion part of it. If you want, I could..."
"Stop."
She cut him off before he could finish, like she’d already heard the rest.
Her hand paused halfway through another drag.
For a mont she just stared at the field, quiet. The weariness in her eyes was so plain it almost hurt to look at.
She exhaled slowly.
"It’s fine," she said. "Things are... okay like this."
Then she turned and t his eyes directly. The curve at the corner of her mouth wasn’t really a smile.
"I’m not ready... to face more casualties."
Hayase froze.
And then it hit him all at once.
Of course.
If Shoko’s Reverse Cursed Technique made a major leap under his guidance, if she suddenly beca faster, more efficient, more capable, that wouldn’t make her life easier.
It would make the higher-ups lean on her harder.
It would make them use her more.
It would an more work. More bodies. More broken sorcerers dragged to her table in pieces that no one should have to look at, let alone put back together.
Gojo and Geto fought cursed spirits.
Shoko dealt with what left behind.
And that ant, in its own way, she was looking at sothing uglier than either of them.
More despair. More death. A different kind of horror, maybe, but not a lesser one.
Hayase looked at her face, at the casual expression she was forcing into place, and felt sothing tighten in his chest.
He took a long drag, held it for a mont, then let the smoke out slowly.
"Sorry..."
That hadn’t been what he wanted.
None of this had.
He hadn’t ant to turn his own burdens into everyone else’s problem, hadn’t ant to spread them out across other shoulders just because he couldn’t carry them properly yet.
The simple truth was that the version of him standing here now still wasn’t strong enough to handle everything alone.
The cigarette burned down to the filter.
Hayase stubbed it out on the stone step beside him and lifted his eyes past the training field, toward the horizon.
The sun was dropping behind the mountains, red enough to stain the whole sky.
He went through the list in his head again.
The mysterious woman who had appeared inside the Star Religious Group.
Toji Zenin.
Riko Amanai.
The mastermind who would one day hijack Geto’s body.
gumi Fushiguro, and how to use him as leverage to crush the Zenin clan.
Kusakabe’s nephew, Takeru, and the tragedy waiting for him.
Rika Orimoto before she could beco a Vengeful Cursed Spirit.
Nanako and Mimiko.
And woven through all of it, the biggest problem of all: finding a way to permanently end the cycle of curses and cut out the root of every tragedy still waiting to happen.
Sotis Hayase really did wonder how many lifetis it would take.
Real ones. Simulated ones. However you counted them.
How many before he could finally put all of it to rest.
---
Next target 800PS
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