[Spell Retaliation] Tunnel

After being discharged from the hospital, I returned to school and submitted a withdrawal application to the principal.

There are very few students on campus, and I heard that Wujo has been out on missions recently, so I just said hello to Nitro.Before I left, I finally mustered up the courage to knock on the door of Teacher Ye Moth's office——I am really sorry for failing to live up to your long-term training and care.The teacher accepted my apology silently, didn't say much, just gave me a white felt rabbit.I picked it up carefully and looked at it, and found that it seemed to be a pair with the pink rabbit I had received.

flower well.Teacher Noctua looked at me and spoke slowly.Even if you don't become a conjurer in the end, you will always be my proud student.

I hugged the silly white rabbit and walked all the way down the mountain.

"By the way," Nitrate suddenly said to me before saying goodbye, "I'll tell you five instructions, 'If you change your email address without saying anything, I won't forgive you'."

I laughed for a long time.How did he know I really thought about it.

Later, I went abroad, which is a country very far away from Japan, and I need to fly for more than ten hours.I tutored the language while taking classes, and when I was not in class, I worked part-time at a nearby coffee shop.Gojo Satoru was very surprised when he found out, and sent me a special email to confirm: "I heard you learned how to make desserts?"

"Yeah." I returned a picture of the kitchen to him.

"Don't come back crying at the end." He laughed at me, "We will all graduate by then, and no one can save you."

"No." I just replied to him, "When did you change your name?"

"It's been changed a long time ago."

I looked at that email and it seemed like a lifetime away.

I have little contact with my family, and I didn’t return to China during the holidays. I just continued to work, practice making desserts, and soak in the aroma of ingredients every day.There is no curse, no conjurer, those distant and dank memories have finally been completely separated from my body, only the white rabbit sitting on the bed in the apartment still connects me with the distant island country.Despite being out of hospital, I was not cured of my illness and still required regular visits to the clinic for prescriptions.Occasionally, there will be a relapse, then get better, and then relapse.Spring, summer, autumn and winter, over and over again.

One morning, when I walked into the kitchen, I found an unexpected visitor.

That day, I asked for leave on the grounds that I was unwell, and on the following weekend, I carried the cleaning props alone and scrubbed the inside and outside of the kitchen.

I've had nightmares all week.In the dream, friends from the high school appeared at the dessert school I was studying at, and Gojo Satoru told me triumphantly that they found a special curse in the school and wanted to go in and search it.I tried my best to defend myself, and followed the boy's gaze back, only to find that there was a rolling eye in every shiny bowl.

"I found a curse in the practice kitchen." I woke up in the middle of the night and typed a message to the culprit in my dream with my cold hands.

"And then?" It was morning in Japan, and Gojo Satoru's reply came quickly.

"Killed by me."

"You don't lose your skills."

I looked at the glowing phone screen and there was no reply.As if he had noticed something, he sent another message.

"Are you going to give up?"

"..." I typed word by word, "No."

I put down the phone, fished the white rabbit from the bed, held it in my arms, and finally fell into a deep sleep.

Instead of returning to Japan immediately after graduation, I got a job at a local hotel, making desserts that were served to hotel guests.Maybe it's because I'm more ordinary than I imagined, but I'm pretty good at this job.Occasionally, I would also contact my friends in the college. I heard that Wutiao had adopted a child and was still busy running all over the country. I thought he must be living a very fulfilling life.

"Today's new attempt." That year, I finally changed my smartphone and opened a social account under Gojo Satoru's repeated instructions, occasionally posting photos of desserts I made myself.

A reply came soon: "I'm hungry."

I clicked on it and saw the arrogant head of the white-haired man, so I sent him a message: "What are you doing?" It should be early in the morning in Japan.

After a while, he sent me a photo back.It is a night view of the city taken from a high place.

"Look at the scenery."

"You run to the sky at this point to see the scenery...?"

"No way, the mission requires." He seldom complained about such things anymore, and then another message popped up, "Speaking of which, I forgot to tell you, I will return to the high school to teach next week."

"...??" I read it several times, "Are you sure?"

"Oh, after all, there is no better teacher than me in the whole world."

When I read that message, I couldn't help imagining the scene of Gojo Satoru teaching on the podium, worrying that he would lead the students to blow the roof over. ——I originally wanted to make some jokes about him, but for some reason, the image of the boy with short white hair who was sitting on the roof many years ago and illuminated by the moonlight suddenly came to mind.

He still didn't go to conquer the world in the end.Who knows what we all end up becoming.

"It looks like it's going to be lively in the future." Finally, I replied to him.

Wutiao gave me a smug expression.

In the second year after Gojo Satoru became a teacher in a higher education institution, I returned to China.

A senior who took good care of me abroad opened his own dessert shop and invited me to help in the shop.One bright morning, I was helping at the counter when a customer came to the store suddenly.The person who came was tall, and even carefully hid the eaves above his head when he entered the door.Seeing me, the white-haired man smiled and raised his hand, comparing the position of his neck.I knew he was laughing at me for cutting my hair.

"You are too tall." I couldn't help complaining to him.

Perhaps because of the reunion after a long absence, Gojo Satoru looked very happy: "How does it feel to be in Japan after a long absence?"

"It's still the same." I smiled, "There are curses everywhere, and I'm a little out of breath."

"That's not Japan's problem," he replied sharply. "Tokyo has too many people."

"……you're right."

"Is it too late to escape now?"

"No way." I put the cake chosen by the man into the paper box, "As you said, as long as there are people, it's the same everywhere."

Finally, I no longer need to take medicine.

However, after many years, I was admitted to the hospital because of a bicycle accident caused by a high school student running a red light. "You're not too young, how could you be hit like this by a high school student." Gojo Satoru picked up another strawberry and laughed at me mercilessly. "Just kidding," I rolled my eyes angrily, "How can you compare your body with high school students. You don't even think about what you were like in high school."

"I'm in a special situation." The man boasted without humility.

I sneered: "You just said that your temper has improved."

"Then," the man stood up after the strawberries were almost finished, and helped me clean up the trash on the table, "I have to go back to see the students. Recently, a very powerful transfer student has arrived. The young people nowadays are really It’s getting more and more exciting.”

"Let's go." I saw off the guest mercilessly, but suddenly remembered something, "Wu Tiao."

The white-haired man looked back at me.

"I met Xiayou a few days ago."

I met Xia Youjie in Harajuku.The man had long black hair, and was accompanied by two girls who looked like middle school students, each holding a fresh crepe in their hands.Xia You walked between them, holding hands, with a familiar smile on his face.At that time, I was leading the way for my friends who came to Japan to play. Through the moving crowd, I saw Xia You and his party from a distance——then I stopped.

A friend called my name.

"...Ah. I'm sorry." I looked at the black-haired man walking across the road for a long time, and came back to my senses as if I had just woken up from a dream. "Let's go."

At that time, the man who had been listening to the two girls with his head down raised his face and cast his gaze in my direction.I know he saw me.Then he looked at me, raised his left hand as if nothing had happened, and touched the long hair under his ear with a smile.In the next instant, the man and the girls around him drifted away like clouds.

"...Really." Gojo Satoru's tone was very light.It seems like we haven't talked about the name for a long time.

I poured myself a glass of water: "What will you do next time you meet him?"

"Of course it is to kill."

There was no expression on the man's face, and the words he said were exactly the same as they were many years ago.But we who are standing here at this time are not children anymore. "After all, I let him go in the first place."

After that, Xia Youjie killed many people.This is what Wutiao told me after returning to China.

I'm not surprised: "That's it."

"...Hanai." On the contrary, Wujo laughed, "Do you like that guy?"

"?" I glanced at him, and finally just shook my head with a smile. "Is it weird that I cut my hair?"

"Hmm...? No. I think your hairstyle looks better." He was curious, "Why do you ask this all of a sudden? How many years have you had this hairstyle?"

I still just smile.

A long time passed after that.Once you turn 20, the days seem to fly by unknowingly.In the second year, when cicadas were singing all over the city, Wutiao Wu sent me a message saying that Teacher Ye Mo would like to hold a class reunion while the college was on vacation.I replied coldly: Except you and Nitro, whoever remembers my name and name, don't go.

However, on the day of the appointment, I still stepped on the bus stop at the foot of the mountain.

"Oh, I knew it." Gojo Satoru who came to pick me up smiled all over his face, "Hanai, you are not the kind of cold-blooded and heartless person."

"Hurry up." I didn't bother to talk to him, "It's too hot on the mountain."

So, we walked through the green forests of the mountains, stepped on the familiar slopes, and walked deep into the mountains.I walked behind the man with an umbrella. Not long after we set off, Gojo Satoru turned to look at me with a smile on his face: "We have to go faster. Why don't we take a shortcut?"

"You mean..." A certain answer came to my mind.

"Bingo!" The man snapped his fingers, "How about it? It's a touching revisit."

"...not touched at all," I sighed even full of dark campus memories, "then let's go."

"It feels like you're very lacklustre today." He asked knowingly, "Are you too tired from work?"

"You are too energetic."

"Of course. Otherwise, how can we mobilize the students' emotions." The tall man walking beside me spoke briskly.We walked through the familiar forest and came to the lush grassland we had walked through. Even the weeds blocking the tunnel entrance have not changed a bit.Maybe it's because no one really passes by at ordinary times, and the twiggy shrubs seem to be more rampant than I remember. "...It really hasn't changed at all." The man standing beside me said with a smile, "It's still as broken."

"Yeah." I turned on the flashlight on my phone, "You should pay for a repair."

"That would be boring." Gojo Satoru raised his hand and pushed aside the branches blocking the entrance of the cave, motioning for me to go in first, "I plan to leave this place for the students to experience the fun of adventure."

"Yes, yes." I bent down and stepped into the tunnel first.

Nothing inside seemed to have changed.The sand and stones under his feet were a little rough.I held up my phone, carefully avoiding the low-hanging spider webs on both sides. In the darkness, I could only hear the rustling of Gojo Wu and I stepping on the dirt.I suddenly had a hazy feeling like traveling through time, as if I was still 16 years old, holding a flashlight, and timidly following Gojo Satoru, and everything was just a dream I had in a trance.

"...five."

This time, however, it was me who was leading the way.

I held up my phone and turned around. "Do you understand now?"

"?" The man with half of his face illuminated looked blank, "What do you mean?"

"All kinds of things."

I turned back and looked at the lit patch of road ahead. "When Xia You left, you asked me why I stayed in Gaozhuan for so long before I left, and about Nitro... You also said that you were 'completely incomprehensible'." I almost heard the wind echoing in the distance, " Do you understand now?"

Summer oil is gone.It was in the Hundred Ghosts Night Walk he planned last winter.Gojo Satoru sent him off for the last time with his own hands.

At that time, I just held the phone and said softly: "This way."

"Are you crying?" Wutiao asked me this time.

"I don't." I smiled. "My cake is baked."

I looked out the window and found myself calmer than I expected, maybe because the weather was so beautiful that day, or maybe it was just because we had said goodbye so long ago.

"……yes."

After a while, Wujo Wu's voice finally sounded, with a slight smile, "I can understand now. But it doesn't make any sense now."

"That's okay," I started again, "not everything has to have a meaning."

"..."

Wutiao's voice was sneering, "Do you regret it?"

"Yes." I asked back, "Don't you regret it?"

"It's a pity." The man smiled bitterly, "I used to decide to live my life without any regrets...but in the end I still seem to be the same as you."

Only the irreparable regret keeps growing.

Sitting in a dessert shop, devouring cakes, eating cakes with red eyes, and laughing at each other while eating - that age is long gone.On the contrary, I often miss Gojo Satoru, who always has a sinister tone, seems to be omnipotent but knows nothing about others.At least he was much easier to deal with then than now.However, like all ordinary humans, Gojo Satoru eventually became a cunning adult.It was blunt, grotesque, unreasonable, and messy.

However, all of this will eventually be separated and evaporated from my body just like the irresolvable resentment at the beginning.I know.In the end, all that is left are some indifferent and brightly colored fine gravel.

From a distance, it seemed that there were cicadas singing in the mountains.

"It's funny," I recalled in a light tone. "As a result, I'm no longer afraid of cursing....Of course, if you want me to be a conjurer, I will definitely not do it."

The man finally followed up, "It seems that you have really recovered from your illness in the past few years."

"No." I retorted him, "I was able to stop the drug with great difficulty, but it relapsed immediately. Repeatedly, especially this season," the most prosperous, long, bright and bitter season of the curse, "... ...Looking at it this way, I really am just an ordinary human being."

We walked forward step by step, and seemed to have walked a long distance, when suddenly the light of the mobile phone passed a colorful ink mark on the wall. "Ah," I stopped and pointed at the light source, "it's this one."

"Banana man in pajamas." Gojo Satoru reminded me of the name of the graffiti with a smile, "Old friends are still there."

"...Looking at it this way, it's really scary." I looked carefully at the blurred colored ink blot again, and the familiar chill gradually ran up my spine, so I turned the direction of the phone.Gojo Satoru, who was following me, didn't say anything: "The last time we walked through this tunnel, we must have come in from the other end."

"Ah."

I looked ahead, "So the exit this time is the starting point of last time."

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.The hole at this end is not covered by weeds, so the light can be seen even from a distance.One step, two steps, three steps... I held my mobile phone and walked patiently and step by step.I haven't figured out what to say after seeing the teacher.I brought my own desserts as souvenirs, and I don't know if it suits other people's tastes.In the end, there was no clear reason why I agreed to the five abrupt invitations——

"what--!!!"

"Eh……?"

Suddenly, Gojo Satoru who was walking behind me let out an exclamation.

I was so frightened that the paper gift bag I was holding in my hand also shook. "What's the matter...?" Seeing that no one answered, I turned around in a panic, "... Wutiao?"

I turned around, and the light of the phone passed over the tall man with short white hair that was shimmering in the light standing behind me.Then I saw a young face distorted slightly from a suppressed smile.After half a second of silence, almost at the same time I finally came to my senses, Gojo Satoru burst out laughing: "Hanai—why are you still so timid. Pfft."

"..."

I kicked him hard.

"Okay, okay," after a long while, the man who was still laughing at the belly finally restrained himself, "Let's go, or we will be late."

"you know too."

Without looking back, I strode forward, "Your gift is gone."

"I'm sorry—" came from behind Wutiao Satoru's rising voice, which was so comfortable that it made teeth itch, "Thank you for leading the way to this point—you worked hard."

I ignored him. I wanted to say something, but I just laughed and shook my head.The exit is close at hand.

Five steps, four steps, three steps, two steps, one step.

The midsummer sun and the sound of insects are coming.The rainy season has long since left.

We came out of the tunnel.

end

tree

First draft 2020.11.1 at 4:05 a.m.

The author has something to say:

*Games and things that just click on the vending machine are real, I don't know if they are popular or not.

*About Gojo Satoru's swearing, forgive him, he's really angry after all (not

*Hanai is going to Paris.

* "Only irreparable regrets are growing", for the quote.

Speaking of which, this article was originally intended to write a warm story of a failed person who finally returned to society (?).After writing, I found that every character failed, but everyone still has their own way to stand up (not to mention whether the means are suitable or not).Although I can't describe the process of growing up one by one, I still focus on the comparison between the past and the present in the [next] chapter, including the reaction to similar incidents and some subtle tone of voice. I hope that some friends can understand noticed x

The tunnel was inspired by Spitz's "Song of Spring".

In addition, the content of the text in this book is basically the same (except that there may be changes in the future), only FREETALK is different.

In the end, I imitate Akutami and attach a character design x, which will also be included in the book

Character design

Hanai

16 → 28

I had long hair when I was in high school, but I cut it short after I went abroad.

I like milk.I often read shoujo manga and picture books.

Hate social software.

His father is a magician, and his mother is an ordinary person.

The technique used is mind-type, which is actually a rare technique.But because Hanai himself is very afraid of the curse spirit, every time he uses the spell, it will bring great side effects.So she is not "not talented", but simply "bad luck".

When I first entered school, I was so shocked by Gojo Satoru's beauty that I didn't dare to talk to him.

In fact, I prefer salty to sweet.

Thank you all for reading.see you next story

2020.11.19 Modify BUG

I want to read comments

CP27 booth is out!Both days are in Jia 72-73, curse back to the special area, I am in two days~

If you are interested, you can search for the community "Great Wind" in cpp to learn more about the details of this book, and there are special codes

In addition, there is a publicity transfer on Weibo (@御手洗树