"Hey, handsome with the teal hair up ahead-"
The voice was neither loud nor soft, carrying a natural air of nonchalance and easy confidence, as though she were calling out to someone she had known for years.
"What kind of women do you like?"
Kashimo paused. He swallowed the beef tongue in his mouth in two gulps, tossed the bamboo skewer into the paper bag, and turned toward the voice.
The lanterns of Asaichi swayed overhead, casting a warm red glow. People streamed back and forth, but the woman standing a couple of steps away stood out at first glance. She was tall, her long blonde hair faintly gleaming in the lantern light, both hands tucked into her trouser pockets. Her posture was so casual that she might have been strolling through her own backyard.
She tilted her head as she looked at him, her expression somewhere between curiosity and scrutiny. The corners of her mouth lifted slightly, but the smile did not quite reach her eyes.
The only officially recognized Special Grade Sorcerer of the current era, Yuki Tsukumo.
Kashimo narrowed his eyes, recognizing her.
Yuki Tsukumo was watching him, too.
At some point, the smile had vanished from her face. Her pretty features shifted from easygoing to something more serious, more alert. Her gaze lingered on Kashimo as she quietly assessed something.
Come on, this guy's cursed energy was terrifyingly vast. That heavy mass of cursed energy coiled within him like a bottomless current deep beneath the sea. The surface was perfectly calm, but even a shallow probe revealed its depths. She had met plenty of people with abundant cursed energy, but people like this... people whose mere presence instinctively made her back tense were few and far between.
He had to be special grade, right?
Her gaze