Chapter 6
When the lunch bell rang, the school building of Toyonoki Academy instantly came alive.
Classroom doors opened one after another, and students poured into the hallways in twos and threes. The sounds of laughter, lunchboxes clattering, and running footsteps blended into a symphony of chaos unique to a school at noon.
Eriri sat at her desk, slowly packing up her textbooks. Her golden twin tails swayed gently with her movements, perfectly maintaining the elegant image expected of "Sawamura-san."
"Sawamura-san, want to eat lunch together?"
Three girls gathered around her desk, led by Yumi Sato, the class activities coordinator. She held an elaborate multi-tiered bento box in her hand, and her face wore that standard friendly smile.
Eriri looked up and responded with an equally flawless smile. "Sorry, Sato-san. There's something going on at the art club today. I need to head over there."
It was one of her usual excuses. Eriri herself hated these superficial social gatherings, but she was afraid of being isolated, so she had to go along with them from time to time.
"Eh—again," another girl pouted. "Sawamura-san has been so busy lately. She hasn't eaten with us at lunch several times now."
"Sorry, sorry." Eriri pressed her hands together in an apologetic gesture. "Once this busy period is over, I'll definitely have lunch with everyone."
After she sent her classmates off, Eriri sighed in relief. She quickly packed her school bag, took out a bento box wrapped in pale blue cloth from her drawer, and quietly left the classroom.
At the end of the hallway was a rarely used staircase leading to the roof of the school building. Eriri walked the path skillfully—this was one of her secret bases, and almost no one came here during lunch.
Pushing open the heavy iron door to the roof, the April sun and wind rushed in together.
The roof was empty and quiet. A water tower cast shadows in the corner. A few forgotten PE uniforms hung on a drying rack. In the distance, the Tokyo cityscape and the silhouette of Skytree could be seen. Eriri found a spot in the shade and sat down, placing the lunchbox on her lap.
"Come out," she whispered into the air.
The shadow rippled like water. Genji's figure appeared, the sleeves of his hunting robes fluttering softly in the wind. He sat down next to Eriri—or rather, hovered half an inch above the ground.
"Your school's lunch break is quite lively," he commented, looking toward the playground in the distance where boys were playing soccer. "Much more energetic than my high school in my previous life."
"That's because you were a boy in your previous life," Eriri said as she untied the cloth wrapping her lunchbox. "Girls usually find a place to eat and chat during lunch. Someone like me, who hides on the roof, is the exception."
The bento box opened, revealing contents that were a little too elaborate.
The two-tiered lacquered bento box was neatly arranged. On the top layer: tamagoyaki, fried chicken, broccoli, and octopus-shaped sausages. On the bottom layer: rice balls shaped like rabbits, each decorated with black sesame seed eyes and carrot ears. The color scheme was exquisite, the arrangement delicate. It was clear at a glance that a lot of thought had gone into it.
Genji raised an eyebrow. "You made this?"
"Of course!" Eriri lifted her chin. "I got an A+ in home economics! My mom usually makes my bento, but I do it myself sometimes—"
Halfway through, she suddenly stopped. Her cheeks flushed slightly as she took a pair of disposable chopsticks from her school bag and shoved them toward Genji.
"Here. Take them."
Genji took the chopsticks, looking a little surprised. "I… need to eat?"
"Why else would I give them to you?" Eriri turned her head away, her voice growing quieter. "I-I just made too much. It would be a waste to throw the rest away. And didn't you say you can touch things? Then you should be able to eat them too, right?"
That was true, but not the whole truth. After the milk tea incident yesterday, she had wondered whether this thousand-year-old ghost could taste food. If so… she wanted him to try the bento she had made.
Genji looked at the chopsticks in his hand, then at the side dishes in the bento box that were so delicate they looked like works of art. Suddenly, he smiled.
"Then, thank you for the meal."
He picked up a piece of tamagoyaki and put it in his mouth.
He chewed. Paused. His eyes widened slightly.
"This is delicious," he said seriously, then added another piece of fried chicken. "This is delicious too. Crispy on the outside, tender on the inside. The seasoning is perfect—marinated with garlic and soy sauce, right?"
Eriri's eyes lit up. "You can taste that? I also added a little honey to give it a better color when frying."
"Mm. The balance of sweet and salty is good." Genji nodded and tried a rabbit-shaped rice ball. "The rice is cooked to just the right softness and firmness. The seaweed is crispy. Your skills are really excellent."
Receiving such direct praise made Eriri a little embarrassed. She lowered her head and picked at her bento, mumbling, "It's nothing special… It's just ordinary home cooking."
"This isn't ordinary." Genji set down his chopsticks and looked at her. "In my time, women who could make bento boxes this exquisite were either imperial court chefs or the wives of great aristocratic families. And—" He paused. "From the taste of the food, you can tell that the person who made it put a lot of care into it."
The roots of Eriri's ears turned red again.
The two of them ate their lunchboxes quietly for a while. The only sounds were the wind and the faint noise of traffic from the streets below. The sun was warm but not scorching—perfect April weather.
"Hey…" Eriri suddenly broke the silence. "That 'cursed technique' and 'cursed energy' you mentioned yesterday… what are they really about?"
She looked up, her blue eyes full of curiosity. "And cursed spirits? You said ordinary people can't see them, so what do they look like? Are they scary?"
Genji set down his chopsticks and looked at her thoughtfully.
"Do you really want to know?"
"Of course I want to know!" Eriri leaned forward. "You're living in my house, and I don't know anything about you, right? And—" She hesitated. "If I ever run into things like that in the future, I should at least know how to handle them, shouldn't I?"
"Generally speaking, ordinary people can't encounter cursed spirits," Genji said. "Unless the cursed spirit is already strong to a certain degree, or unless the person's perception of cursed energy is particularly sensitive. But…"
He reached out, his fingertips tracing the air. A faint, almost invisible indigo light lingered at his fingers.
"This is cursed energy," he explained. "A product of negative human emotions. Anger, fear, hatred, jealousy… these emotions accumulate and coalesce, and they transform into cursed energy. Most people naturally generate cursed energy, but they unconsciously emit it and disperse it into the environment."
"What about cursed spirits?"
"When that scattered cursed energy accumulates to a certain degree, or converges due to intense emotional events, it forms cursed spirits." Genji lowered his hand. "A cursed spirit is essentially a collection of cursed energy with a simple consciousness. It instinctively attacks people, especially those who generate negative emotions."
Eriri listened intently. "So… cursed spirits live by devouring negative emotions?"
"That's one way to understand it," Genji nodded. "And sorcerers are people born able to see cursed spirits and control cursed energy. We fight using jujutsu—special methods of using cursed energy—to exorcise cursed spirits."
"Reverse Cursed Technique…" Eriri remembered the warm current in the bathroom yesterday. "Like your 'Reverse Cursed Technique'?"
"Yes. Reverse Cursed Technique is one of the advanced applications of jujutsu, which converts negative energy into positive energy for healing." Genji paused. "My main technique is the 'Ten Shadows Technique,' which summons shikigami to fight from the shadows. But that's more complicated. I'll explain it to you in detail another time."
Eriri processed this information. A supernatural world hidden beneath everyday life. Cursed spirits. Sorcerers. Jujutsu. It all sounded absurd and yet convincing.
"What… what level of sorcerer are you?" She asked. "Are you powerful?"
Genji bit the tip of his chopsticks, and his expression became a little subtle.
"In my time… I was decent," he said lightly. "But in modern times—"
He thought for a moment, then gave an answer Eriri hadn't expected at all:
"I'm probably a Grade 3 or Grade 4 sorcerer."
"What?!" Eriri's eyes widened. "G-Grade 3 or 4? Isn't that the lowest rank?!"
Although she didn't understand the detailed classification of the jujutsu world, the term "Grade 3 or 4" didn't sound very strong no matter how she heard it.
Genji looked perfectly natural. "That makes sense. A thousand years have passed. The jujutsu world has definitely changed a lot. I left behind many self-created techniques, enchantments, field research findings, and papers on the nature of cursed energy. Future generations of sorcerers will surely stand on my shoulders and go further."
He counted on his fingers. "Think about it: a thousand years of technological progress, combined with my systematic theories on cursed energy—the average level of modern sorcerers should be much higher than mine back then. In my time, very few people could have made such a big leap in this field. Now, it might be a required course."
Eriri stared at him blankly.
The logic… seemed sound, but she always felt like something was off.
"So you're actually…" She asked carefully. "Not that strong?"
"You can't say it like that," Genji touched his chin. "I should still have solid fundamentals. But I don't know how I compare to modern special-grade sorcerers. Maybe… fifty-fifty?"
He said this with a serious expression, not joking at all.
"What… what is the jujutsu world like now?" Eriri changed the question. "Is it organized? Like in the manga?"
"Yes. There was a jujutsu department in my time, but it was fairly organized." Genji said. "It should be much more complete now. There might even be special jujutsu schools that systematically train sorcerers. After all, the textbooks I left behind are enough to build a complete educational system."
As he spoke, he laughed. "Maybe the first chapter of the textbook used in the modern jujutsu world is 'Basic Theory of Cursed Energy by Zen'in Genji.' Then the students curse me out: 'What is this old man writing? It's so hard to understand!' as they painfully memorize the formulas."
That mental image made Eriri laugh too.
"So you're not some great founding ancestor?"
"Not really," Genji shrugged. "But it is a little embarrassing for an ancestor to be mingling with Grade 3 or 4 sorcerers."