Chapter 171 The Second Player

The failure of the "Star Magma Escort" mission was just yesterday. The miserable state of Kagome Kei and Saikai Haruto are still fresh in my mind.

The special cursed spirits "Rainbow Dragon" and "Rashomon" were both killed and completely dissipated. The Hongxing Palace was full of traces of violent demolition, and the debris of the buildings were scattered all over the ground. One could guess at a glance how much fierce battle destruction this place had experienced.

Large stains of blood formed an obvious, winding, rugged red line along the collapsed and ruined buildings in the Hongxing Palace. The fishy and salty smell of rust filled the entire space, making people wonder whether an entire person's blood had been drained.

At the end of the "red line" was Geto Suguru, who had fallen to the ground, leaning on the cursed spirit and was dying, looking extremely miserable - it was obvious that the guy had climbed up from the bottom by himself, which was why there were traces of blood dripping all over the ground.

Although Fushiguro Shinji's blow was not fatal, it was just as cruel. The injuries on Kagome Kai's body were equally tragic. There was a large stain of blood on his clothes on his chest. The red blood had almost dried up and solidified into black. The black uniform jacket and the white shirt inside were stuck together, making it impossible to tell the difference between the colors of the two pieces of clothing.

He did not comprehend the "reversal technique" like Gojo Satoru, and his wounds could not heal on their own. Naturally, his wounds looked much more miserable than Gojo Satoru and Saikai Haruto, who looked intact after undergoing the reversal technique. At least when Saikai Haruto saw him, his eyes were half closed, his lips were pale, and his face was equally pale. If his chest had not been slightly rising and falling and he seemed to be still breathing, Saikai Haruto would have suspected that he was dead.

Of course, facts proved that when Saikai Haruto and Gojo Satoru found him it was not particularly late, and he was still alive - not only because the cursed spirits controlled by his spell had not lost their restraints and run wild, but also because Geto Suguru was not unconscious at that time, and was even still somewhat vigilant, so he felt relieved after seeing the two of them.

Of course, although according to Geto himself, he insisted that he was waiting for their only real nanny, Kaori Nozomi, and had no plans to do anything else...but seeing as he didn't react for a while after Saikai Haruto cured him with the "reversal technique", both he and Gojo Satoru were skeptical about this.

...But the focus is not on Geto's miserable situation, but his reaction when he saw Gojo Satoru and Saikai Haruto, and even Amauchi Riko, and even when he heard Hanayamain Haruna's voice and saw her appear with Ieiri Shoko.

The surprise was absolute - after all, according to Fushiguro Shinji, Gojo Satoru and Hanayamain Haruna all died at his hands, and he saw with his own eyes that Amauchi Riko was shot in the head by Fushiguro Shinji, and now they all appeared in front of him intact... To be honest, when Kagome Jie first saw them, he thought he had fainted and entered a dream, or encountered some cursed spirit and entered an illusion - he was so surprised that he couldn't believe it and couldn't believe it was real.

Haruna, who Fushiguro Shinobu said "died foolishly at his hands", is not dead, Satoru is still alive, Riko, who died in front of him, is also intact, and Yuki also arrived in time - it really sounds like a dream.

Then the wounds on his body that were healed by the "reversal technique" and the pain brought by the treatment told him: Yes, this is the fact.

——His two companions defeated the killer from the Panxing Cult who was not a curser.

He was rescued by his companions.

But besides being surprised, happy and relaxed, Xia Yujie also felt a little lost, depressed and disappointed...

What are those low feelings and what causes them?

But maybe he himself didn't even realize it.

He simply took the candy from Xi Haiqing Dou's hand as a comfort, swallowed it as usual, and then frowned: "It's bitter."

So Xi Haiqing Dou also smiled and replied to him: "Yeah, there is sweetness in the bitterness."

So Geto smiled at Nishimi Haruto and stopped talking - but the bitter taste of the candy might have lingered for a while, so his frown didn't relax at all for a long time.

To Xihai Qingdou, his smile was more like a mechanical mask covering his face - it was superficial but not deep.

Yesterday, Geto was silent and distracted more often than ever before. It was as if he wanted to say something, but felt that there was nothing to say... so he stopped talking. He didn't even realize or understand what he wanted to say, but why he was silent.

Xihai Qingdou certainly knew the reasons for his gloomy and misty emotions. After all, no matter how obscure and deep the thoughts of a young man are, he is still a young man. For someone like him who has been crawling and rolling around among old foxes for so many years, in the eyes of adults with the same deep thoughts, they are as easy to see through as stones in clear water.

But "Yuuki Igarashi" would not know - even if his intuition was sharp and he could see the silence of his companions after the mission was finally completed, he could not distinguish every subtle emotion concealed by his companions - so he remained silent like "Yuuki Igarashi".

This is also the reason why even when Nishimi Haruto was feeling so depressed yesterday, he still joked with them from time to time - as "Igarashi Yuuki", even if he couldn't tell the difference, he didn't doubt that Geto Kagome would be able to overcome this "hurdle" in the future, but at this moment, beside his companions, he still hoped to help Geto Kagome cheer up as soon as possible and get out of this haze.

Igarashi Yuuki privately thought that Fushiguro Shige might have caused a certain degree of psychological shadow on Geto Suguru - and this psychological shadow was quite large.

Gojo Satoru, however, didn't think so.

He felt that Saikai Haruto was overthinking - "Really? Why didn't I notice it? Don't worry, that's Jay. We are the strongest - even if we fail this time, we will still be the strongest in the future. Nothing will be difficult for us. Yuuki, you worry too much - when did you evolve into a nagging... erm, 'male mother' like Noctua?"

Gojo Satoru was grinning, his eyes full of assurance and trust in his companions, as well as confidence in his own vision.

Saikai Haruto secretly thought that Gojo Satoru's nerves had become so thick and big that even cats couldn't stand looking at him.

Saikai Haruto thought about it for a long time yesterday, and felt that perhaps, probably, Geto's bad mood could be largely attributed to the fact that he was unable to participate in the fight between them and Fushiguro Shiji yesterday, and was unable to witness Fushiguro Shiji's escape with his own eyes - after all, he was beaten up by Fushiguro Shiji, but he didn't see the scene of him being beaten, and his companions saw his miserable appearance. It must be very unpleasant, right?

He didn't admit that maybe Geto was a little scared by them - not to mention that Tenuchi Riko "resurrected from the dead", he and Gojo Satoru hadn't sorted it out yet, especially Gojo Satoru, who would definitely scare all the children to tears if he walked out with blood all over his head... maybe even adults would be scared to tears by him. His expression looked calm, but he seemed half crazy, as if he was walking on the dangerous edge of madness and disorder and extreme calmness.

And him - not only was he forced to become an "exhibitionist" with his "shirt missing", he was also covered in dust, his face inexplicably looked "evil and crazy", and his smile was full of evil. He looked completely different from before, and was surrounded by the aura of a cursed spirit that was both familiar and unfamiliar to Kagome Jie.

——When Xia Yujie saw the two of them, he suddenly thought he had seen two extremely dangerous and ferocious beasts.

Especially Gojo Satoru and Saikai Haruto, they looked at each other, but they both smiled and said that they and Satoru/Yuuki were exactly the same as before, with no difference.

...Well, it seems normal for Geto Suguru to be frightened for a moment?

In short, Saikai Haruto has made up his mind to mention Fushiguro Shiji and the things that happened in Kuroshoshigu in front of Geto Suguru less in the meantime.

Yesterday, he and Gojo Satoru had tacitly agreed to skip over what happened between Geto Suguru and Shigekiro Fushiguro in the Kuseigumi Shrine.

Gojo Satoru: I still don’t quite understand it, but my unusually clear mind yesterday told me that I don’t want to know at all. So I’ll just not know.

Nishimi Haruto: Is this a case of good fortune for fools, or is it an "intuitive warning" from the "strongest"?

And today... Xihai Qingdou felt a little annoyed: How come I mentioned Hongxing Palace again without noticing? What if Jie Lian is reminded of the bad things that happened yesterday and gets in a bad mood?

Fortunately, Geto Suguru's mental state seemed very strong, and he recovered in just one day... It seemed that his mood had improved?

Looking at the empty seat that belonged to Hanayamain Haruna because she was absent, Saikai Haruto touched his chin and suddenly felt that what Gojo Satoru said might have some truth - he was really reassuring. In any case, he was much better than Haruna who was scared and took a leave of absence.

Perhaps this is also one of the good qualities that the "strongest" must possess?

Kagome Kei gave Saikai Haruto a smile that was exactly the same as usual and could not be more natural. After receiving the same sunny smile from Saikai Haruto who turned his head, he narrowed his eyes and nodded, then naturally turned his head slightly and lowered his eyelashes.

As a good friend who had been together for more than a year last night, Geto Suguru naturally knew the thoughts of "Igarashi Yuuki" very well - it was nothing more than that his companion noticed that his mood was low, and although he couldn't find out the reason, he still felt sorry for him sincerely and wanted to comfort him in his own way.

That guy... maybe he thought he was hiding it well, but to Xia Yujie, it was as if it was written all over his face.

Even that guy Wu must have seen it at the first sight - no, Yuki probably never thought of hiding it from Wu, he must have told Wu about it as soon as he found out.

And based on his understanding of Wu, the guy would probably say something to Yuki like "Are you overthinking it?", "Why didn't I notice it?", "I believe in Jie" etc.

Of course, Yuki's guy would not be satisfied with Wu's reaction, but would become even more anxious and angry.

This good friend of his... is just such a natural "innocent heart", able to keenly perceive the subtle abnormalities of his companions, and then comfort people and solve problems in his own unique "considerate" way, and treat it as a natural and normal thing, which makes people at a loss for words...

But this time, Xia Yujie didn't want to make him worry so much again - how could he not see that something was wrong with "Igarashi Yuuki"? This guy wanted to hide it from him and Wu, wasn't he looking down on him too much? He had a lot of problems of his own, why should he spend so much time on him first?

It's not like he can't solve his own problems - they're just some minor mental problems. He knows his own situation very well, and all he needs is... a short period of time. It's not a big deal.

At least - he felt that the problem of "Igarashi Yuuki" was much more serious than his - that was a complete "cursed spiritization", how could there be no sequelae? He was not a three-year-old child who could be easily fooled.

Of course, although he didn't want to cause trouble to Saikai Haruto, Geto Suguru didn't think about hiding the secret from him at the beginning. After all, although none of them could compare to Gojo Satoru in terms of the sharpness of the cursed spirits' cursed power, "Igarashi Yuuki" was also an expert in detecting subtle abnormalities in his friends.

So what Geto wanted to do... was just to make himself look like he had "returned to his original state" first, and then try his best to return to "normal" as soon as possible.

In order to make himself look the same as before, Xia Youjie smiled countless times in front of the mirror yesterday and this morning - almost smiling until his whole face was frozen. It was almost impossible to tell who was in the mirror.

Fortunately, the result is not bad?

Fortunately, Yuki is a guy who is very smart, but he is also completely defenseless against his companions... and is also very easy to be "fooled".

Xia Yujie breathed a sigh of relief quietly.

Gojo Satoru looked at Geto Suguru who was smiling naturally, then looked at Saikai Haruto who was shining brightly in the sun, and turned his head away in confusion.

I don't understand what the two of them are doing...but I don't see anything wrong, so it shouldn't be a problem either, right?

Well - everything seems normal. He knows that everything will be fine with him around!