Qingxiao felt a constricting urgency, as though a python had coiled around him. He had not felt this much pressure even facing Sukuna.
"No! Shoko, hear me out!"
Qingxiao hurried to explain himself, speaking faster and growing increasingly incoherent in his haste:
"It was cursed technique burnout! She used her cursed technique to cover the important bits! The whole scene looked awkward, so I just tossed her a cloak to cover up! I really didn't look!"
He was frantic inside, and the more he said, the worse it sounded. It had clearly been a casual gesture, so why did everything he said sound so ambiguous?
Fuck! Why does this sound like I cheated on her?!
He would have been better off saying nothing. Mentioning "covering the important bits" and "keeping out the wind" only made the image more vivid.
Uro stood beside them, her expression calm throughout, but a flash of retaliatory satisfaction darted beneath her lowered lashes.
She still remembered his remark in the ruins of Sendai: "Why does an old crone need to pretend she's a maiden?"
She nodded calmly, as though stating something utterly ordinary:
"Yes, keeping the cursed technique running is no trouble. It's just a little chilly in the mountains."
Qingxiao's mouth twitched on the spot. Inside, he begged her to stop talking. All he had done was call her an old crone. Did she really need to do this to him?
Hajime Kashimo could not hold back a laugh from his hospital bed. It tugged at his wounds, making him hiss in pain, yet he still forced himself to twist the knife:
"Nicely done, Gu Yue! Ancient sorcerers really do get special treatment, huh?"
"Shut up!" Qingxiao glared at him, then hastily turned back to Shoko, his voice much softer and cautiously pleading:
"It