The Night Parade of a Hundred Demons had officially come to an end.
As the morning sun slowly rose over the horizon, its golden light illuminated a city that looked nothing like it had the previous day. And remaining curses also become dust by the first ray of sunlight, due to the combined effect of jujutsu sorcerers.
Entire streets had been reduced to rubble. Buildings stood broken and scorched. Emergency vehicles moved through the aftermath while exhausted sorcerers and support staff worked tirelessly to account for the wounded and the dead.
The battle of survival was over; so did the war yet the cost remained.
Maki, Panda, Inumaki, and Yuta had all been admitted to the hospital. Of the four, Maki's injuries were the most severe. Had I arrived even a little later, the outcome could have been far worse. Thankfully, the Reverse Cursed Technique and immediate medical attention had stabilized her condition, but she still hadn't regained consciousness yet.
A part of me longed to stay by her bedside until she regained consciousness, but duty pulled me away. There were tasks that could not be delayed and a meeting I had to attend; a new target had surfaced on my radar, flagged by a tip from my Zenin clan informant.
I leaned against the cold hospital wall, staring out the window as the first rays of sunlight began to chase away the remnants of the night. Under different circumstances, witnessing a sunrise after surviving such a battle would have brought a sense of relief. Instead, it left me with nothing but a gnawing sense of unease.
As I know what the presence of Jogo means, I wasn't a that much of a fool not know. Somehow, Kenjaku has taken control of Geto but still decided to follow through with the attack.
In my plan for Geto, I did consider a what-if scenario of Kanjaku taking control of Geto. Like I was actively trying to find Geto's location to put an end to him, and Geto being on Kanjaku's watch list must have noticed someone is tracking Geto.
So it would be foolish for me to not consider the what-if scenario, but what I didn't expect was Kanjaku following the plan of attack. I didn't expect that at all, like Geto would do that to cause a distraction and to capture Yuta; because of that, I brought Yuta to the battlefield for me to quickly come to help.
But If it Kanjaku there is no need to for that, if look at face value it will be lose, as he is relesing lot of curse that he can use to a slaughter house.
Yes, it's true that I go distracted a bit with helping other sorcerer and exorcising curses, but this is a war; I can't just focus on Yuta alone and cause other to die.
"Why am I self-explaining my own incompetence? I should have kept an eye on them; it's all my fault that Maki was wounded. It was my own arrogance that I thought I could reach them before things got hard, which led to Maki being burned in Jogo's fire."
Wait a minute, Jogo is cursed, right? So what if for some reason Geto managed to get Jogo due to his curse manipulation. Yes, that's also possible. I need to meet the person to confirm it.
It a slim possibility but that still is a possibility. A man can dream even in hell, right.
The vibrations of my phone cut through the quiet, jolting me from my thoughts. I glanced at the screen: Mai.
I answered immediately.
"How is she?" she demanded, skipping any greeting or preamble.
I understood the urgency in her voice perfectly. "Maki is stable."
A heavy silence followed, thick with the weight of everything left unsaid. Then, I heard her release a breath she had likely been holding since receiving the news.
"What happened?"
I briefly explained the encounter with Jogo and the injuries Maki had suffered. The further I got into the explanation, the quieter Mai became. By the time I finished, there wasn't even the slightest trace of her usual sarcasm.
"I'm coming there."
"I figured."
"Mei Mei is coming too."
"Also figured."
Mai and her group was in Kyoto and her group didn't get into any trouble and I also told to Mei Mei to look after Mai, just in case.
Another moment of silence hung in the air, thick and heavy.
Then, Mai spoke again, her voice barely a whisper. "You're alright, right?" The words sounded awkward coming from her. When she talked to me, she always had that teasing sound; She spoke to me in such a tone only couple of times.
"Yes, I'm good. Healthy as a horse, actually." I tried to force a lighthearted tone, hoping to bridge the distance and bleed some of the tension from the conversation.
"Good, I will be coming soon." Then she ended the call.
I stared at the phone for several seconds before slipping it back into my pocket.
Following my conversation with Mai, I made my way to a quiet coffee shop. I scanned the room until I spotted the person I intended to meet. As I approached, I took a seat across from her and said, "You know how suprised I was when my contact told me you wanted to talk to me, Manami Suda."
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