Curse Reply: After choosing Nawa, the cursed spirit cursed me for being cruel.

Duanmu Yan cleared his throat: "It's me."

There was a moment of silence on the other side of the door, then another loud noise, more urgent than before, mixed with muttering "Oh no, oh no."

He stood outside the door, unconsciously zipping up his school uniform.

The door clicked open, and Riko stood in the doorway, barefoot on the tatami mat, the room behind her a blatant mess.

There were half-open storage boxes piled on the table, a half-folded coat draped over the chair, and a small mountain of clothes piled up next to the bed. This was probably the source of the commotion earlier.

"...Because I'm leaving tomorrow, Kuroi helped me clean out the closets. So the room is a bit messy." As she spoke, she quietly kicked a plastic bag under the bed with her foot.

Duanmu Yan withdrew his gaze. "Are you free today?"

Riko's hand froze in mid-air. Her eyes slowly focused from their dazed state, then she blinked. "Eh!!!"

"Since I'm leaving tomorrow, would you like to go out for a walk today...?"

Riko's face burned from the base of her neck upwards; her mouth opened, but she couldn't speak, as if it were stuck.

"A date? No, no... it's going out, yes, going out!"

She took a deep breath and clenched her fist on her clothes. "Okay. Where to?"

Duanmu Yan lowered his hand. "Let's go outside first."

Riko turned to grab her coat, "Wait for me!"

The door closed, and Duanmu Yan stood in the corridor, hearing the sound of Riko rummaging through drawers and cabinets behind the door.

The tram that departs from the college has only two carriages, and the seats are dark green.

On a weekday morning, the bus was nearly empty, and they sat side by side in the window seat.

Riko pressed her face against the car window, her breath condensing into a small puff of mist on the glass. She drew a crooked star on it with her fingertip, and sunlight filtered through the telephone poles, brushing against her eyelashes in segments.

Outside the car window, the paddy field ridges in the suburbs were receding. The paddy fields in early summer had not yet been planted with rice seedlings, and the flowing clouds were reflected on the water's surface. A white egret stood on one leg on the ridge.

Riko pointed at the egret and said, "Look, it looks like Teacher Moth."

Duanmu Yan looked in the direction she was pointing and saw the egret standing motionless in the field, its neck tucked in.

He burst out laughing.

They got off at Harajuku Station. Riko said that she hadn't gone shopping since returning from Okinawa and had been cooped up in her dorm for several days, feeling bored.

Harajuku's pedestrian street has nothing to do with any of the rules of the jutsu world, and it has absolutely nothing to do with terms like Tengen, Assimilation, or Special Grade Jutsu Master.

There are only people here, ordinary people, people rushing into the store to grab limited edition items, people taking selfies with crepes in hand, and people standing at the intersection spinning around in place while looking at their phone maps.

Riko was drawn in by the aroma of the first crepe shop at the street corner. She stared at the combinations of strawberry whipped cream, chocolate banana, and matcha red bean on the menu, her eyebrows furrowing into a knot.

Duanmu Yan stood next to her, watching her move her finger from the strawberry option to the chocolate option, then back again, and then back again.

"Can't choose?"

"I am making a major life decision."

Duanmu Yan turned to the shop assistant and said, "Two, one strawberry and one chocolate."

Riko took a bite of the strawberry-flavored crepe, and some cream got on her nose. She didn't wipe it off with one hand, but held a chocolate-flavored one in her other hand, eager to try it out.

Duanmu Yan helped her wipe it off.

Then they turned into a used bookstore.

The store was dimly lit, with bookshelves stretching from floor to ceiling. The aisle in the middle was so narrow that you could only pass sideways. The air smelled of old paper and ink. This store sold used books, which were piled up everywhere and categorized by the owner's memory.

Riko found an Edo-period picture book in the corner; its spine was almost falling apart and it was tied up with an old rope.

She flipped through a couple of pages, frowning at the crooked, grotesque figures in the picture book: "Is this a cursed spirit? Or just an ordinary monster?"

Duanmu Yan pulled a book out of the bookshelf behind him and flipped through it.

It was a sorcerer's notebook, written in tiny characters on yellowed paper, unsigned and undated.

He read a few lines, then put the book back in. The owner was an old man with white hair wearing reading glasses, sitting behind the cashier reading a newspaper. He didn't even look up when they came in.

As they left the bookstore, Duanmu Yan handed her something: a small, blank notebook with a kraft paper cover and a binding string.

“Ninety-nine Yuki is not very reliable,” he said, “but she knows a lot. Write it down; it will be useful later.”

Riko took the notebook, turned to the first page, and saw her name written on it.

She held it to her chest; the kraft paper cover was cool and thin, and she could feel the rhythm of her heartbeat through the cover.

She tucked the notebook into the inside of her backpack, zipped it up, and in that brief moment of looking up, asked, "This notebook is so pretty, where did you find it?"

"It's on that shelf right behind you. You've been too busy looking at the monster picture book." He said, looking around as he spoke.

It smells like a lie.

Because Riko knew that Duanmu Yan would never lie; if he did, he would look around furtively.

However, I don't intend to expose it.

Not far from the bookstore, in the window of an electronics store, a row of large screens were playing the same image. The scene was divided into four equal squares: the sea, a forest, mountains, and an old town illuminated alone by the setting sun. The camera moved slowly; the clouds shifted, the waves rose and fell like breaths, and a white tower gradually emerged from the morning mist. There was no language, no narration.

Riko watched for a while. He stood beside her, watching the clouds and waves reflected in her pupils.

The streets were still noisy with the sounds of cars and the chatter of pedestrians, but there was a quiet little space between them.

A line of text silently scrolls across a corner of the screen, saying that this is the last day of a national tour for a certain photography project.

She looked up at him.

What she liked wasn't any particular scenery in the film, but rather that she hadn't been to any of them yet... Perhaps that was what she wanted to confirm through his eyes.

However, she still didn't ask.

Chapter 89 Departure

As darkness fell and the sun began to set, the signs on both sides of the street gradually lit up.

They found a spot to watch the sunset, a small shrine.

The stone steps were narrow, and the two of them couldn't walk side by side. He walked in front, and she followed behind. He held her hand, and it felt very warm.

At the end of the stone steps is the shrine. The torii gate is so small that only one person can pass through at a time. Moss climbs on the pillars, which are shaded by trees all year round and feel cool to the touch.

The worship hall was empty, the incense offering box was bare, and a few leaves lay on the donation box.

Beyond the fence is a low cliff, from which the view suddenly opens up. At the foot of the mountain is the edge of the city, beyond which are farmlands, and at the end of the farmlands are mountains, where the sun is burning its last arc on the ridge.

She sat down in front of the fence, and he sat down next to her, with less than 5cm between them.

The sky began to change color, a thin golden edge was drawn along the mountain ridge, and the clouds were burned into fluffy shapes, spreading out in patches across the sky.

She suddenly remembered that evening in Okinawa, when everyone was sitting on the beach. Gojo Satoru startled Riko by burying a crab in the sand, iced coffee cups were passed around among them, and Kuroi's nagging was mixed with the sound of the waves.

That day, the sun sank into the sea in the same way, its light layered with orange-red and pink-purple hues.

Less than a week has passed, and everything has changed, yet it seems like nothing has changed at all.

The sun sank faster than he had expected. In the instant its final arc was swallowed by the ridge, the sky suddenly became even more intense in color, as if someone had added the last splash of paint to a palette.

Riko turned to look at Duanmu Yan and said, "Today..."

"Ah."

"I'll write it in that journal when I get back."

"Seriously?"

She shook her head: "Seriously."

"Then write it."

"Ok!"

On the stone steps leading back, the two walked one after the other, the twilight filtering through the trees and their shadows overlapping and intertwining time and time again.

The tram seats on the return trip were still dark green, and there were fewer people in the carriage than on the way there.

She rested her head against the car window, her eyelids drooping, and as she fell asleep, her head slid off the glass and rested on his shoulder.

He didn't move until the stop before the tram arrived, when he gently woke her up.

When she woke up, she found his hand hovering on her shoulder, and her forehead seemed to still feel his warmth.

On the way from the station to the college, the streetlights were already on, the short bamboos on both sides of the stone path rustled, and the cicadas in the mountains were much quieter than in the city. The college was not far ahead.

Just as she reached the door, Kuroi's footsteps approached. She came to greet Riko and asked, "Miss, how was your day? Did you encounter any danger?"

Riko looked up. "No. Duanmu has been taking care of me."

……

The following day, Gao, a specialist, spoke.

Yuki Tsukumo's motorcycle was already parked under the torii gate. She straddled the motorcycle, her helmet visor pushed up, revealing half of her face.

Kuroi stood to the side carrying a large suitcase. He had gotten up before dawn and checked it three times inside and out to make sure nothing was missing.

She raised her sleeve to pat the corner of her eye, and Riko stood on tiptoe, put her arm around her shoulder, patted her back twice, and then turned around.

"Kuroi, it's not like I'm not coming back. If you keep crying, Tsukumo-senpai's motorcycle can't fit a third person on the back."

"Miss, I got some wind in my eyes." Kuroi pulled down her sleeves, her voice muffled. "Don't be picky about food outside, don't kick off the covers at night, and don't push yourself too hard during training..."

"Kuroi".

"If you encounter danger, hide behind Lord Ninety-Nine..."

"Kuroi." Riko cupped her face in her hands, squeezing her mouth into a goldfish shape. "You stay here at the vocational high school. There's a cafeteria here, and you have Senior Shoko. You've taken care of me for so many years, now it's my turn to learn some skills to come back and protect you. Don't make me nag you again."

Kuroi paused for a moment, then lowered her head and handed the suitcase handle to Riko. Without saying anything more, Riko took the suitcase, lightly touched the back of Kuroi's hand with her fingertips, and then turned around.

Today, Gojo Satoru was wearing his sunglasses properly, as he stood next to Xia Youjie with his hands in his pockets.

Xia Youjie had a small cloth bag hanging from his arm. Riko had given it to him last night. It was filled with seashells he had picked up on the beach in Okinawa, which she said were gifts for Haibara and Nanami.

Haibara squeezed to one side, while Nanami stood on the outermost edge.

Shoko leaned against a torii gate pillar, an unlit cigarette between her fingers, and gestured with her chin toward Riko.

Riko walked up to Shoko first. "Shoko-senpai, thank you for these past few days."