Celebrations - Chapter 240
"Gah!"
Panda slammed a glass of yellow, fizzing liquid onto the table with a theatrical flourish. He let out a long, satisfied exhale, his fuzzy shoulders slumped in an exaggerated state of relaxation. "Ah, that hit the spot! Man, beer is the absolute best!"
Almost immediately, Panda's face began to flush—a feat that should have been biologically impossible for a cursed corpse—and he started swaying in his seat like a sailor in a storm. Across the table, Toge Inumaki was blissfully ignored, his cheeks puffed out as he methodically demolished a mountain of tuna mayo rice balls.
Ren sat in the middle of the chaos, staring down at a massive, butter-drenched lobster that he hadn't even ordered. He picked at the expensive meat with a look of profound scepticism.
"Ah, how is it, bro-bro? Hmm?" Panda leaned over, his voice slurring with suspicious precision. "Bah! Don't look at me like that! I am not... hic... drunk at all!"
Ren blinked, looking from the "beer" to the panda. "Uh, okay. Why don't you actually eat some of this lobster instead of just hoarding it?"
"What do you mean, bruh?" Panda gestured wildly toward a plate of Calpas sausages. "I am eating! This is the food of champions!"
Nearby, Kinji Hakari stood up so abruptly his chair nearly toppled. He drained his own glass in one go, slamming it down with a grin that promised trouble. "HA! I'm just getting started on my high! Let's go again!"
On the other side of the long table, the Kyoto High students watched the spectacle with varying degrees of horror and confusion. Kasumi Miwa leaned in, her eyes wide as she whispered to herself, "What? They're drinking? Is that even allowed for minors? Wait, is Panda even a minor?"
Mai Zenin, however, wasn't looking at the drinks. Her eyes were fixed on Ren.
'Where is Maki?' Mai wondered, her grip tightening on her glass. 'I thought she'd be stuck to Ren like the leech she is. I still don't understand how she even became friends with someone like Ren Sato. Look at him... eating a lobster like it's a chore. It's one of the most expensive meals on the menu, and he looks like he'd rather be eating a bowl of plain rice.'
Mai bit her lip, a surge of complicated jealousy and curiosity washing over her. She stood up, smoothing out her skirt, and walked toward Ren's section of the table. Without waiting for an invitation, she slid into the empty seat next to him.
"Hi. Uh, you must be Ren, right?" Mai's voice was uncharacteristically soft, lacking its usual venom. "I'm Mai. I don't know if you know who I am, but—"
"You're Maki's sister, right?" Ren interrupted, his eyes meeting hers.
Mai froze, her heart skipping a beat. Ren, too, found himself caught in a moment of sudden realisation.
'Wait, Mai... I almost forgot about her,' Ren thought. 'Maki's twin. Her construction technique—it was one of the most fundamentally broken abilities in the series if used with enough cursed energy. And then there's the Zenin clan itself...'
A dark, calculating spark lit up in Ren's mind. 'I have plans for Maki, but I hadn't even factored in the clan's politics because I assumed Maki would eventually just massacre them all. But that hasn't happened yet. Holy shit... the Zenin clan is a literal gold mine of resources, techniques, and cursed tools. Why didn't I think of this sooner?'
Mai watched his expression shift, her own thoughts racing. 'What? Why does he know me? There's no way Maki told him about me... right? There's no way they're that close, where she'd share me with him!'
Ren softened his expression, offering a calm, practised smile. "I know you. Maki mentions you sometimes. You're her twin sister. She... she misses you, you know? She says you're one of the few things she actually misses from her old life."
Mai's eyes went wide, a flash of genuine pain and shock crossing her face. 'WHAT? What the hell did that bitch say? She misses me? Why?! If she's talked about me, it must have been nothing but insults... right? Shit, now this is awkward!'
Before she could form a retort, Ren reached into his pocket and pulled out a pen. He grabbed a clean tissue from the table and scribbled a series of numbers on it.
"Happy New Year, Mai," Ren said, sliding the tissue toward her. "Here's my number. If you ever find yourself in a position where you need help—real help—give me a call."
He stood up, leaving a stunned Mai staring at the paper.
'I'd love to chat more and dig into her head,' Ren thought, 'but this is the perfect opportunity to escape. Panda is too busy trying to out-drink Hakari with apple juice.'
He began to move smoothly toward the exit, his heart set on his warm bed.
"Don't move."
Ren's whole body locked up instantly. The command hit him like a physical wall, freezing his muscles in place. He looked over to see Toge Inumaki lowering his collar, a mischievous glint in his eyes.
'There's no way,' Ren thought, screaming internally. He just used Cursed Speech on me for a joke! Let me go!'
Panda, sensing the "escape attempt", dropped to all fours and scampered over with terrifying speed. He wrapped Ren in a suffocating bear hug. "HEY! My favourite buddy! We won because of you! Where do you think you're going? You have to take at least a few shots with us!"
The "shots" turned out to be a gruelling marathon of apple juice…
By the time the sun began to peek over the horizon, Ren had been forced to consume two full jugs of the stuff.
Panda had eventually "passed out" from a sugar crash, acting as though he was drunken…
While Ren and Panda had teamed up to force-feed Inumaki enough juice to negate any throat problems he might have had.
'How are you even using Cursed Speech so easily?' Ren had wondered, throwing an arm around a Toge who suddenly felt a cold chill on his spine!.
"You aren't going anywhere until you finish this jug!"
The night went by... morning came around; everyone had left other than...
one...
Mai Zenin stood awake, the morning chill nipping at her skin. She reached into her pocket and felt the crinkle of the tissue.
'He completely destroyed me in that conversation,' she thought, her brow furrowing. 'No, it's Maki's fault for talking about me! It was just too unexpected. But... she misses me? There's no way. There's no way that's true.'
Despite her scepticism, she tucked the tissue deeper into her pocket, guarding it as if it were something precious...
Ren woke up in his own bed, his head throbbing from a sugar-induced hangover. He groaned, rolling over to look at the clock.
'Ugh, I totally wasted the night. Can you even call that a party? Watching Hakari and Panda pretend to get drunk on apple juice was... an experience.'
He climbed out of bed and headed to the bathroom. As he brushed his teeth, he thought, "I have new plans for the Zenin clan now that I remembered they are not gone yet… but, uh, other than that, what was I planning about my training? What was it?…
Yeah, for now this week I will try to study Maki's heavenly reaction and start working on making my 'perfected red cursed circuit' better from the input I got from Gojo's special training and wait till Mei Mei and Ogami reach me when their missions are over.
Wait… Now that I think about it, where was Maki? I didn't see her last night… How weird. She normally is always hanging out with us… I should go and find her since it is a happy new year; I should wish her at least. …'
Ren hopped in the shower, the hot water easing the tension in his muscles. He dressed simply: a grey t-shirt and a black shirt on top without buttoning it up and black sweatpants. He ran a hand through his damp hair, pushing it back. 'Hmm, not bad, but I need new clothes… I have just been wearing whatever Gojo gave me anyway; it should work.'
He stepped out of his dorm, hands in his pockets…
Meanwhile, the person occupying Ren's thoughts was also thinking of Ren.
Maki sat in her room. The lights were off, the only illumination coming from the grey morning light filtering through the blinds. On the desk before her sat the letter from the Zenin clan—a cold, formal demand from the elders.
'Me? Seducing Ren?' Maki thought, her face twisted in a mixture of disgust and exhaustion. 'Impossible. No, it's not that I couldn't do it... but I will never give Ren to that clan. I will never even let them get close to him.'
She stared at the name "Naobito" on the parchment. 'That old fox... he won't let me just be his friend. If they think they can use me as a bridge to pull a Special Grade talent into their fold, they're idiots...'
Maki buried her face in her hands, her eyes rimmed with heavy dark circles. She hadn't slept a wink. 'The only way to truly keep Ren safe from my family's mess... might be to end things with him forever. It would be better for him… to just stay away from me… and the Zenin clan's mess …'