Jujutsu Kaisen : Death Trade

Chapter 68: Chapter 64 : Do It Again! This Time Properly.

Unlike what I boasted earlier, I honestly didn’t have much skill in cooking real food. Back then I just wished to break the ice between us and that’s all.

However, the dinner I managed to put together was decent enough that even I had to admit I was mildly impressed with myself, though the majority of the credit goes to that blond bastard’s memories, which remained one of the strangest things I had inherited after arriving in this world.

Even now it still baffled me that the blond lunatic had apparently known how to prepare proper meals, but for once I was grateful for it, because otherwise tonight would have ended with both me and Maki chewing on instant noodles in miserable silence.

The food itself was simple, consisting mostly of rice, grilled fish, soup, and a few side dishes I somehow managed not to burn, though despite the simplicity the warm smell filling the room created an atmosphere far calmer than anything either of us had experienced recently.

Unfortunately, that calm atmosphere also made the awkwardness far more noticeable.

I sat across from Maki while trying very hard not to think about the absolutely disastrous confession I had blurted out earlier in the heat of the moment, because now that the adrenaline had faded and my brain was functioning again, I realized just how incoherent and sudden the whole thing must have sounded from her perspective.

’No wonder she would call me a fool...’ I grumbled internally.

Meanwhile, Maki herself did not seem particularly bothered outwardly, though the unusual silence from someone like her only made me more nervous as we ate together.

For a long time neither of us spoke after dinner was ready.

The silence itself was hella awkward and grating on one’s nerves if I have to be honest.

"This is better than I expected," she suddenly spoke up while taking another bite, though the slight upward twitch at the corner of her lips suggested she genuinely meant it.

I scratched the back of my head awkwardly before replying, "Hmm well, it’s nothing special. I just can’t remember most of the things I used to know, so this was the best I could cook up given the time constraints." I added in, there was no way I was explaining to her that I got the skill by killing someone.

Nope. Not happening.

The conversation died again after that little exchange though, leaving only the sounds of chopsticks and the faint hum of the lights above us, and the longer the silence stretched, the more I became aware of every embarrassing detail from earlier.

My eyes kept darting between the food and her, yet I remained silent. To be honest, I was expecting her to be angry or something, but she seemed to be completely unaffected, which might be worse.

And maybe I was right since Maki too seemed to have had enough finally as she reached her limit.

"You know," she suddenly began while resting her chin against her hand, her eyes drifting toward me with an unreadable look, "you mentioned something earlier before your brain completely short-circuited."

’Short-circuited...!’

Well, that’s one way to put it, I certainly felt my brain ready to hang and make more of a mess so I just shut my mouth up.

"The kiss."

My chopsticks almost slipped from my hand. Did she have to bring that up now?

The heat rushed straight into my face when I saw Maki was looking directly at me, her head still resting in one of her hands. There was that teasing smirk on her face which I had become very accustomed to by now.

Even built quite an immunity to it with our time together, but obviously right now my composure wasn’t composing shit.

"So, you think about the kiss huh...," she teased lightly to my dismay.

Was there any right answer to this question?

If I do, then I become either a creep or a simp, and if I don’t then suddenly I become that strange dude who just confessed to a girl he doesn’t even think about.

"Well..." even while grumbling I started.

"I remember nothing before Shibuya, and what I do remember of Shibuya, most of it was filled with pain, blood, despair, or me either getting beaten bloody or running away.

In all that...

That kiss and that hug you gave me were the best moments of my life."

I decided to be sincere to the very end, what more wrong could it go right?

And perhaps the sincerity was too much, she turned her head away with a soft grunt from her throat.

"I see." She replied a little while later.

I paused, what else could I say?

"And....

"Well, that was my first kiss, at least from what I could remember. So, it’s kind of special, even if it was accidental. So..." I trailed off.

I looked away at that, suddenly finding the rice bowl in front of me extremely interesting, though my embarrassment eased slightly when her voice became quieter afterward.

"It was my first kiss too, you know."

That made me blink before slowly looking back at her in surprise.

Well, I knew she had a hard life growing up, but to think a girl like her never had a kiss before was... rare.

For once Maki was not smirking or teasing me. Instead she looked strangely casual about the admission, as if she had simply decided to say it because the silence was annoying her.

Oddly enough, hearing that eased some of the tension in my chest. Not that even if this wasn’t her first kiss it would have changed anything for me, but at least now we shared the experience and we both were equally clueless together.

"Oh," I muttered intelligently.

"Yeah, ’oh,’" she repeated dryly before taking another bite of food.

The awkwardness did not disappear completely afterwards, but it became lighter somehow, less suffocating than before, and for a while we simply continued eating in relative peace and talked about what little we could find of interest in.

"So, you’re going to the Zenin Clan, is that final?" I asked, just to keep the conversation going.

"Yeah." She grunted.

"What about you?" She stuffed more food in her mouth and started munching.

"Well... I’ll enter a colony tomorrow."

That seemed to snap her head directly at me. She seemed to say something but her mouth was full so she quickly chewed and swallowed what was unchewed before speaking.

"Why tomorrow? Everyone has decided to enter on the 11th." She asked, a bit baffled and there was something else in her tone which I couldn’t quite catch on.

"I know..." I nodded, "but I won’t be able to team up with anyone either way, so there is no point wasting one more day here in Jujutsu Tech. It would be better if I go in there first and get a scope of what’s going on there."

Maki for a second paused when she realized what he really meant, of course he couldn’t team up with anyone unless he wished to reveal his technique. And that also when she recalled he wished to go with her, he had asked her back at the Tomb of the Stars.

Her lips tightened, she hadn’t even thought about this issue back then.

His argument sounded logical to Maki at least but she didn’t wish for him to enter a colony alone.

An unease started to flicker in her mind, as she wondered perhaps letting him come to the Zenin Clan alongside her would have been a better option.

"There is no need to hurry, you should rest, perhaps wait until I come back from the Zenin..."

"No..."

She was cut off midway, making her purse her lips even tighter.

"Why?" She asked, annoyed.

I didn’t reply immediately, would saying that I needed to farm other candidates even be a right option here?

Don’t know how she was gonna take that but I’d rather not sour our mood more with that topic right now.

In fact, now that I think about it, it’s better she wasn’t coming with me. I shouldn’t have asked her back at Tengen’s in the first place.

"I have decided to go inside the colonies alone..."

Maki made a face which definitely didn’t feel like she was buying my half-assed explanation.

Maki opened her mouth but wasn’t sure what to say at this point. She didn’t like how this was developing.

"It’s dangerous." She finally said.

"I know... and that’s why I’m going alone."

Her jaw clenched up tight.

"Don’t worry, I’m not that easy to kill." I smiled, reassuring her.

Maki didn’t seem reassured though, she wished to argue but let it be. Though she made a mental note to look for him after she was done with the Zenin Clan.

And then the rest of the dinner was spent in small chat between us.

By the time dinner ended and the dishes were cleaned, the night had already grown late.

I let out a quiet sigh before standing up from my seat. Ultimately I couldn’t bring up the topic of the confession again.

"Well... I should probably head back to my room," I said awkwardly while rubbing the back of my neck.

Maki, who had been leaning against the doorway with her arms crossed, pursed her lips tight.

As if dissatisfied.

"I’m not answering your confession while you’re walking away you know."

I froze mid-step.

Turning back I saw her hands folded while she looked at me with glaring eyes.

For a brief moment, disappointment settled heavily in my chest, because honestly the outcome was expected. I had confessed out of nowhere to someone I barely knew properly, and the confession itself had been such a confused mess that even I could barely remember what I had actually said anymore.

"Right," I replied quietly after a moment, forcing myself not to dwell on it too much. "That’s fair."

"Sorry about bringing that up out of nowhere, just forget I said anything." I waved my hands to move on with the topic.

It was awkward as it is. Just be done with it.

To my confusion she looked even more annoyed at that, even scowling.

"That’s not why I’m not answering, idiot." She retorted.

I stopped again before slowly turning back toward her.

"Huh...?"

Maki rolled her eyes before pointing a finger directly at me and letting out a big sigh as if I was testing her patience or something.

"Your confession was terrible," she stated bluntly.

I could only blink at that.

Well, I knew it was terrible, but did she have to point it out?

"Seriously, what the hell even was that? You sounded like you were confused whether you wished to confess in the first place."

My face burned in humiliation.

"I..." I muttered weakly, to be honest I was... "I’ve never done that okay, that’s my first time. And I..." Sigh...

No point getting worked up about it.

"What I’m trying to say is that I just said what was in my mind. I couldn’t put it into words properly but I didn’t lie there."

She snorted loudly at that before shaking her head.

"Okay." She nodded.

I blinked.

"Okay?"

She grunted again as if she herself found putting the thoughts into words a hard task.

"If you want an answer, then do it properly," she said while a faint smirk appeared on her face once more. "Give me an actual confession like a man instead of whatever that disaster was earlier."

I simply stared at her for several seconds, my brain completely blank from the sheer unexpectedness of the response.

"Wait... so you mean—"

She didn’t let me complete it...

"And don’t you dare die before that, or I’ll kill you."

Before I could even reply, Maki winked at me once, looking entirely too smug for her own good, before sliding the gate shut directly in front of me.

The door closed with a sharp click, leaving me standing there alone outside.

For several long seconds, I remained there wondering what she really meant.

Was this another tease?

Did she like me too?

Is this her giving me another chance to decide whether what I said was real or just a slip of the tongue and if I intended to make it real, I had to confess again, this time with more confidence?

Maybe an easy way out for me to take back my words before either of us felt too troubled by this matter.

"Argg..."

"Who freaking cares, to even give an answer to this puzzle, I have to survive the Culling Games first." I grumbled but still smiled at the end of it.

At least there was another reason not to die for me now.

Not that I was intending on dying anyways.

"Fine... go to sleep.

One last peaceful sleep before shit hits the fan."

xXx

A.N : This is the end of the preparation Arc, of course Omakes will follow this, but yeah, this is the official end of this arc and we are entering the Culling Games Arc...

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