[Spell Retaliation] Tunnel

Gojo Satoru came to see me.

I was in a car accident and was knocked over by a bicycle that ran a red light. Fortunately, I didn't hurt any muscles and bones, and I will be discharged from the hospital tomorrow.Wutiao came at the right time, I was just hungry, but it wasn't time for delivery yet.He was carrying two boxes of strawberries produced in Fukuoka, which were big, wrapped in transparent cellophane, and fresh.The man sat down beside my bed and greeted me a dozen times. Before I had time to exchange greetings, he unwrapped the package very consciously and reached for strawberries to eat.

I glared at him.However, Gojo Satoru just picked strawberry leaves unhurriedly: "I heard that you were almost killed, why do you seem to be in good spirits?"

"Excuse me." I didn't bother to talk to him, and leaned back on the bed again, "Aren't you very busy, why do you still have time to see me?"

"Oh,"

He finished the strawberry in his hand and reached for the next one.

"The hospital you live in happens to be near the restaurant I often go to."

"……"All right.

It is reasonable to say that I should be extremely happy to meet my old classmates, but at this moment I have been defeated by a deep sense of burnout. "Put down the strawberries, you can go."

"It's so cold." Wutiao said so, took two pieces of paper from my bedside, and dried his hands carefully.Seeing that I had no intention of answering, he raised his head and glanced at me—at least there was indeed a line of sight from the man’s direction—and then a smile appeared on the face whose expression was hard to discern because of the cover: "You look refreshed Quite a lot, Huajing."

Ah yes.

I thought, I must have looked very strange then.

Gojo Satoru and I are students of the same grade in the High School of Magic.Or rather, used to be.Because I took a leave of absence during the summer of my sophomore year.

Teacher Noctua once called our class high-profile freshmen, and I think that must not include myself.In fact, apart from the homework that I could barely keep up with, it was difficult for me and my classmates to chat normally.Wujo Wu and Xia Youjie in the class are like two bad guys in their prime, they are noisy, restless and barren of grass wherever they go, beating gongs and drums.I was very afraid of the bright vitality behind those two people. Even the brisk rhythm of their speech seemed to have a kind of aggressive vitality unique to adolescent boys. ——And I went to a girls' school in middle school, and I have never had a serious relationship with boys. Answers of more than three sentences will make me confused.

The only one who has a good relationship with me is Jiaruizi, I like her very much.Nitro is quiet, beautiful and independent. When she entered school, she kindly helped me carry my luggage to the dormitory, but I still didn't dare to get too close to her.

Why?Later, Gojo Satoru, who came to visit me in the hospital, lay on the back of the chair and asked me with raised eyebrows.

why?

I don't know either.I chew the dry, warm air of the ward.Outside the window, cicadas sing like waterfalls.

The year we entered school was a cold spring, and the cherry blossoms bloomed late. I only remember that the petals were still flying in the sky until late April.I arrive at the classroom early, and usually take the initiative to be on duty. Only Xia You, who also arrives early, will help me.Gojo Satoru, who came belatedly, passed me by the door with candy in his mouth, and suddenly turned around when he noticed the garbage bag in my hand, "Burnable garbage?"

"……Correct."

So the boy cracked the seemingly few lollipops in his mouth, raised his hand, lightly threw the white paper stick into the garbage bag in my hand, and left casually.I squatted on the ground, ignoring him, pinched the two ends of the garbage bag, and tied them tightly into a cross knot.

A few seconds later, Gojo Satoru was kicked out of the classroom: "Go and help others take out the trash."

There are very few short-term campus memories. If I am assigned to the same task, I will only follow the boys as reinforcements.My spell learning is not bad, and I even occasionally get praise from the teacher, but I am not good at actual combat, and most of the time I hide behind others.After the first mission, we went to have dinner together, and the other three chatted while eating. Only I ate a few mouthfuls of rice after a while.It was Nitro who first noticed something was wrong with me, and stopped his chopsticks: "Are you alright?"

I shook my head and awkwardly raised my chopsticks under the unanimous gaze of the two boys: "Eat it. Leave me alone."

That night, I didn't fall asleep.

On the second day, during the class break, Gojo Gojo shouted to me, holding his voice, "Hua——" Seeing that my shoulders trembled in fright, he showed a very innocent blank look: "The teacher said that the next task Let's go together."

"……Oh."

"Enlightenment. Don't bully others." Xia You, who was sitting beside him, poked out half of his head.

"I didn't bully her."

Ah ha ha.I smiled and nodded slightly to the black-haired boy.

The location of the High School of Conjuration is remote. After leaving the school, the mountain road is rugged and very difficult to walk. The nearest bus station also needs to go to the residential area at the foot of the mountain.If you want to save time, there is a tunnel that can be used to take a shortcut, which can save about ten minutes of walking. ——This is the experience imparted by our predecessors in Gao.Gojo Satoru just heard about this incident not long before departure, so he proposed to take me to find the tunnel when we went down the mountain.I was hoping to delay some more time, so I agreed.

The seniors only said that it was a shortcut, but did not tell us the specific situation of the tunnel.When Wujo and I wandered on the mountain for a long time and finally found our target, we fell silent by coincidence.

"Did this thing be built by Taisho?" Half a second later, the boy frowned unabashedly.The outer wall of the tunnel is actually an old stone wall, with weeds growing in the gaps, which looks quite old.And the other end of the tunnel—this road is really too long. From our position, we can only see overlapping and swaying white spider webs in the corner, and there is darkness ahead.A gust of wind blows behind us.Woo.

I turned my face to look at him, and the tall boy narrowed his eyes through the sunglasses, "Okay, let's go."

"Eh?! Do you really want to go?"

"That's right." He didn't look back, "It's all here. At worst, it's just a few curses."

"..." I couldn't refute, and I was afraid of being left behind, so I had to trot to catch up with him.

As soon as we stepped into the tunnel, our field of vision was engulfed by darkness, and a tide of silence flooded us in an instant.Snapped.I frantically turned on the spare flashlight, and the white-haired boy walking in front looked back at me and said nothing.The tunnel was wider than expected, and the sand and stones under my feet were a bit rough.I held up the flashlight, carefully avoiding the drooping spider webs on both sides, and suddenly saw a dim colored ink stain on the old stone wall, which seemed to be graffiti left by someone a long time ago.

"Mr. Wutiao." I reminded him softly.The boy looked closely at the direction of my finger, and seemed very interested: "Oh... this seems to be a sign of a curse?"

"what?!"

He glanced at me, and then suddenly laughed out loud: "No. Look carefully,...it's the banana man in pajamas. That cartoon that was very popular in the 90s." The already blurred yellow and blue graffiti: "Yes—is it?"

"Yeah." Gojo Satoru seemed to hold back his laughter, straightened up, "Okay, let's go."

"……Um."

We walked back to the depths of the tunnel, but the boy who always loves to be lively didn't say a word to me again.The sudden silence made the strange graffiti just now replay in my mind, vivid, and even more weird—after all, it was five words.I have never believed in myself, even if it might just be nonsense, Gojo Satoru's sentence "It seems to be a sign of curse" is more reliable than my own eyes.

Even though summer has just entered, my palms are already sweating.

"--what!!!"

Suddenly, the boy walking in front of me let out a loud exclamation.

"?!!"

"..."

"...Uh, eh...?" I was so frightened that I almost dropped the flashlight, and seeing him standing still, I cautiously called out the boy's name, "Wu, Gojo-kun...?"

"……puff,"

"?"

After a while, the boy with short white hair who was standing in front of me and was slightly illuminated by the flashlight finally turned around slowly.I saw a young face distorted slightly from a suppressed smile.Meeting my expression, Gojo Satoru, whose shoulders were tense, finally burst out laughing: "Hanai—you're too timid. Pfft."

"Ah...?" I finally gradually realized the reality of the shock in front of me, and my panic gradually turned into shame.As if observing my emotional changes, the boy even explained to me very considerately: "After returning from the last mission, Jie told me that you seem to be afraid of cursed objects, so I tried it. I didn't expect the effect to be so good."

"...So?" I couldn't help imagining how the two big boys talked about this in private, and turned from embarrassment to annoyance, "The graffiti just now—?"

"Didn't I tell you. Banana man in pajamas. Did you watch it on TV when you were a child?" He seemed to have finally had enough of laughing, but the corners of his mouth were still curled up, showing a subtle smugness.

“…I didn’t watch TV as a kid.”

I stopped talking to him, bypassed the boy, and walked out alone holding a flashlight.

A few seconds later, Wutiao's footsteps reappeared behind me.He seemed to know that he was wrong, and he didn't talk to me tactfully, but I knew he was watching me from behind and took pleasure in it.The boy's gaze was pressed against my back, making my steps stilted, my blood surging, and my heart full of rage, pushing me head-on towards the darkness ahead.I will definitely not be going back.Absolutely, absolutely.Not once will I look back.I swear viciously in my heart.

Gradually, the light of the exit can be seen.

At first it was just a distant point of light, but as we got closer, it became clearer.Five steps, four steps, three steps, two steps, one step.It turned out that the overgrown shrubs blocked most of the opening, so the tunnel looked so deep and dark, as if it had no end.A kind of unreasonable anger and grievance suddenly surrounded me like the long-lost sunshine in front of me. I waved away the branches in front of me, the branches covered with mud and insect eggs, held my breath, and strode out.Snapped.I stepped on the soft grass again.

"Hard work, hard work." From behind Wutiao Satoru's rising voice, which was so comfortable that it made teeth itch, "You worked hard."

"..."

A feeling of exhaustion welled up in my heart.Even though I haven't started the mission yet, I seem to be about to collapse.

In the mountains and forests in early summer, the chirping of insects came one after another among the shadows of green trees.

On the way back to school, Gojo Satoru and I had dinner at a fast food restaurant.I ordered a small beef rice bowl and looked palely at the slightly trembling hot spring eggs wrapped in green onion leaves. "Eat quickly." Seeing that I hadn't moved my chopsticks for a long time, Gojo Gojo urged him while fetching water for himself.I didn't answer, and ended up drinking the miso soup cautiously while it was still hot, and the rice bowl in the bowl was barely touched.

"I see." When we finally arrived at the school, two white lights had already been hung in front of the courtyard gate.The silver edge of Gojo Satoru's expensive sunglasses was faintly glowing. "You are really afraid of curses."

"It's not just curses." I followed him and corrected, "I'm afraid of many things."

That's just a coward.I seemed to read what the boy wanted to say from his raised smile, but the five questions that followed were hotter than ridicule: "I'm curious, how did you get into a high school?"

"...There is no rule that people who are afraid of curses cannot enter school."

"You're right." He briskly stepped up the stone steps at the school gate, "But if Teacher Noctua were the principal, he would definitely give you some spiritual guidance before entering the school."

I didn't answer, just followed behind him.

He was right.

I am indeed a coward.I'm afraid of bugs, blood and wounds, horror legends of strange powers and gods.Afraid of all damp, dirty, things that seem to be taboo.Even a cut from chopping vegetables can make my scream stick in my throat.

And among them, what I fear most is the curse.I am extremely, bone-deeply, almost physiologically afraid of curses and the existence of cursed spirits.But in the short ten years of my career, there are very few people around me who can empathize with my fear. --Why?Why are they not afraid?Why can they still eat with peace of mind when they see a corpse that has been gnawed into pieces?Why don't they scream when they're hurt?I don't understand.Compared with other conjurers, even my fears seemed remarkably ordinary.

These questions have been bothering me for a long time.Day and night, the back is like a light.

In this case, why did you go to a higher education institution in the first place?During the break from school, Gojo Satoru once came to visit me alone. As soon as he sat down, he poked the straw into the drink box and asked me while holding the carton. ——I vaguely suspected that he might have been thinking about this question for a long time, so I leaned on the bed and thought for a while.

"Is it because of...?" I looked at the cloud outside the window, "It seems that when I came to my senses, the only option left in my life is to enter the high school of conjuration."

"What's that?" The boy held the straw in his mouth, "So stupid."

"Right." I just laughed.

"..." Seeing my smile, Gojo Satoru suddenly stopped talking and just stared at me through the sunglasses.

A shadow suddenly fell by my window like a cloud.It is a fallen leaf.