Chapter 22

Revenge came swiftly, striking as fast as lightning, not giving me the slightest of chances to prepare myself.

"It's really simple to do," Magari quipped with a shit-eating grin. "You just have to look carefully inside yourself and consciously access the life stream. It took me a few minutes to learn this when I was just a little brat."

Magari, true to her words, immediately started teaching me about how to consciously access the life stream. She told me everything I needed to know and even provided me with a breathing and meditation technique that would put me in the right state of mind. Unfortunately, I wasn't having that much success with this.

I breathed in slowly, keeping my emotions in check. I had no talent for this. That was a hard to accept fact, but it was the truth. Strictly speaking–if I took the Celestial Grimoire out of the equation–I didn't have a talent for anything. There was no activity that I excelled at. As much as it hurt to admit, I was just your regular Joe, an average human with nothing exceptional to his name.

It was the Grimoire that made me into something more, into an individual that did the improbable on a weekly basis. My recent achievements had really gotten to my head since I expected that I would immediately succeed with whatever I picked up. However, my current situation proved how foolish that thought was.

My talent for Senjutsu was average at best and that might be an overstatement. But one might ask, "How did I make all those Senjutsu spells/techniques then?" I cheated and abused the overpowered Perk that allowed me to make spells just by studying different types of technology.

And that's exactly what I planned to do now. I don't have a talent for Senjtusu? Big fucking deal. I would cheat until people started believing I was once a millennia prodigy. Now the question was, how do I cheat here?

Simple, really. Magari explained that the life stream was like a river connected to every single soul. Obviously, studying rivers wasn't the way to go here. No, I had something else in mind. You see, in my eyes, the life stream was more like a web, or more specifically, a world wide web.

Megari thought it would take me a few months to consciously start drawing from the life stream? Heh. Just give me a few days of studying everything about the internet. In fact, I wouldn't even need more than a single night since Helel could upload all of that straight to my head.

I looked at Magari with a grin as I stood up. Get fucked, cat granny! I was a talentless fool today, but I would show you exactly how much of a prodigy I was tomorrow.

"What're you smiling about?" Magari asked, narrowing her eyes at me in suspicion.

"I'm done for today," I said, a grin still on my face as I stretched.

"Oh? Already missing your little girlfriend?"

Cori did leave earlier since she had no reason to stay for this. However, I wasn't in a rush to return to the Underworld.

"Nah." I shook my head. "Now we discuss what you're gonna pay me for the cooking technique and then I start teaching it to you."

"Oh? Is teaching you Senjutsu not good enough for you?" She clicked her tongue with an annoyed look on her face. "You're a greedy one, aren't you?"

"Nah, nah, nah. This and that are two different things." I stopped her right there and then. "You're teaching me Senjutsu because Nurarihyon promised he would get me his best Senjutsu master if I found him in our game of hide and seek."

Magari stared at me for a long moment before relenting. "Alright. What do you want?"

I could've asked for money or at least a percentage of what they earned with the technique. However, I had no need for that. I was already making enough, and I would be earning even more once I released my virtual reality. No, there was something else I wanted more than that.

"I want you to teach me to hide like you!" I confirmed my request one more time as I looked at Nurarihyon, who was sipping on some tea. "I also want the chance to use any unique ingredients you get your hands on at least once."

"You do realize that my techniques use Youki, yes? I specialize in Youjutsu," He said before nodding towards Magari. "You're better off learning how to hide your aura and life force from her."

"That's fine," I replied, not too bothered by that. "I still want to learn from you."

There was a chance I was greatly overestimating Nurarihyon, a small chance, but it was a possibility. Sure, his ability was incredible from what I had seen, but I wasn't sure if it was conceptual or not. Either way, it didn't matter because even if it wasn't, Nurarihyon was still the strongest Youkai and one of, if not, the greatest stealth expert in the entire world.

"Why?" He asked as he swirled his tea. "Humor this old man and explain why you're after something like this."

Because stealth archer's op? Of course, that wasn't the only reason, but it sure played a big part of it.

"Because the easiest way to kill someone is to do it when they aren't expecting it and don't even know you're there for them?" I replied with a tilt of my head.

"Ah, you seem to be gunning after someone," Nurarihyon deduced as he leaned in. "It wouldn't happen to be someone that I know, eh?"

"Hmm. Maybe you do know them," I said and tapped my chin as I innocently revealed, "They are a bunch of humans that go around killing supernatural beings. Slaughtered all the vampires and Fallen Angels in my city before quickly leaving."

Nurarihyon's stance shifted in a split second as he changed from a whimsical old man into the leader of the East Youkai. "What else do you know about them?"

"Not as much as I would've liked," I admitted with a sigh. "I'm still trying to pinpoint where they are hiding, and I know of only three members of their group."

"Any information is better than nothing," Nurarihyon said, prompting me to go on.

"The first is a guy calling himself Heracles," I started.

"Bold of him." Nurarihyon snorted.

"He's pretty durable and can pack a mean punch, but he's kind of slow. He also has some explosive ability, which I think is from a Sacred Gear, but I'm not too sure about that."

"How strong would you say he is?"

"High-Class at best." He couldn't be stronger than that since I didn't even have my makeshift Kaio-Ken back then, and yet I still nearly killed him.

"You seem to know quite a bit about him," Nurarihyon probed.

"Eh." I shrugged. "I was about to kill him before his two buddies came to rescue him."

"Those two dangerous?"

"Very. One is called Georg and has Dimension Lost. I don't know the name of the other one, but he wields the True Longinus."

The silence that followed was pretty telling as both Nurarihyon and Magari intently stared at me, reevaluating what they thought of me. Because this meant that I had ended up in a confrontation with two Longinus users and lived to tell the tale. Sure, I would've died if I had actually fought against them, but they didn't know that.

"What's that saying again?" Nurarihyon scratched his chin before cheekily smiling. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend? If so, it's only natural that I help out our ally."

"I like the sound of that." I grinned back.

I could've bargained for more with this information, but I lacked any skills for negotiation. Though sicking yet another group on those fools was good enough in my eyes, especially since they had obviously taken a pot shot at the Youkai, judging by how Nurarihyon reacted earlier. Plus, this guaranteed that the old man would teach me with a bit more enthusiasm.

"And here," I said as I raised my hand, creating an illusion above it, cycling the image of the three people I just mentioned. "That's their appearance."

I let the illusion go for a bit longer, allowing them to completely memorize their appearances. Nurarihyon waved me off moments later, and he leaned back, deep in thought. I made myself comfortable, happy to sit back in silence while he made plans in his head.

"Bah, enough about that," he said as he straightened up. "What was the other thing you asked for? The chance to use any unique ingredient we get at least once?"

"Yup." I nodded.

"I'm almost hesitant to ask why… it won't lead to another similar story, will it?"

"Nah." I shook my head. I only wanted to expand my collection, so I could start producing new unique ingredients with my weird pocket space, but I couldn't say that.

"I want to cook a meal with every single ingredient in the world, and when I do that, I will make a full course meal with the best tasting ones," I declared passionately, taking inspiration from Toriko.

Magari rubbed her temples in exasperation, but Nurarihyon? He actually looked thrilled about this.

"Ohoho. This sounds intriguing!" He rolled his shoulders with an excited grin. "My Senjutsu is a bit lacking, but I will surely learn this technique of yours. Maybe in a century or so, we can compete to see who's full course meal is better!"

Holy shit! The old man was actually being serious about this as he really seemed stoked about this. Though…

"A century? I was thinking of creating it in a year or two at most…" I mumbled, blinking my eyes at him. A century just sounded like way too much time to me.

"Ah… I forgot you are a human. You guys are always in a rush, though that's understandable since your lifespans are pretty short." Nurarihyon sighed before grinning. "But you don't have to worry about that any longer! A Senjutsu master can easily live for at least a few centuries."

"Huh. That's good to know, I guess."

"Well?" Nurarihyon said as he stood up. "Shall we go and see if we can learn this technique?"

"Alright then," I said as I got up as well.

"First things first, you have to infuse the food with your Ki while your cooking it. Otherwise, it doesn't stick," I said as I grabbed some ingredients to demonstrate. First by just holding them without doing anything before I started preparing a simple meal, showing them how it was done.

"I see. I figured it was something like this." Magari nodded to herself.

Yeah, I was sure they would figure it out with enough time and experimentation. That's why I was so eager to teach them as quickly as possible and gain something out of this.

"But how do you make it taste better?" She questioned while she intently stared at my hands.

"Your intent is the most important thing. You have to envision enhancing the taste of the food throughout the entire process, though there are a few tricks I've picked up along the way. Watch my Ki closely."

After displaying it a few times, I started instructing Magari how to do it herself while Nurarihyon silently observed the entire process. It took her a few tries, but she finally managed to get the hang of it.

I wasn't that surprised by that since she was a Senjutsu master. Magari knew what she was doing, and she saw how I moved my Ki while cooking. Really, it would've been more surprising if she didn't figure it out. However, there was one tiny little problem.

"Bahaha!" I couldn't help myself. Magari was something special, alright.

"Shut up!" She glared at me, eyes filled with fury, promising a world full of pain should I say anything about this.

"How?" I asked amidst my laughter. "How did you even manage this? How bad of a cook are you?"

"Shut up!"

Magari figured out the technique, but in reverse! Well, that wasn't exactly what happened, though the outcome was the same. Her cooking was just so bad, that when she enhanced its taste with the technique, it made it taste even worse! It was honestly baffling. I didn't even know how she managed to do this!

"Hmm." Nurarihyon stroked his chin. "It seems only skilled chefs can use this technique. Perhaps I can set up a cooking academy to teach those Senjutsu users that are willing to learn? Maybe even two of them? A friendly rivalry will promote their growth. I can then sponsor the ones that perform admirably and set them up with their own restaurants."

I looked at him curiously. This… was starting to sound like the setting of a particular manga. I kind of liked the sound of that, though I figured I could nudge him a bit.

"Maybe just one academy will be good enough," I spoke up.

"Oh? Why do you say that?" Nurarihyon turned to me with a curious expression.

"Well. A friendly rivalry can promote growth, but it can also lead to discord. Instead, why don't you urge the West to set up their own cooking academy? You do plan on visiting the Youkai there to extort them with the technique, after all." I offered an alternative. "Then you can set up an yearly competition, where the students of both academies will do their best to impress the leaders of both factions."

"Ooh? I like the sound of that." Nurarihyon savagely grinned. "Though we'll have to rely on you to impress them with your skills."

"Naturally, I will do it for a price," I said shamelessly.

"Of course, of course. You'll probably be the one teaching them the technique, so you will naturally be paid, but we can discuss this in a few days once we are prepared to visit them. For now, I have to see about setting up the academy to get a nice little head start."

"Just make sure Magari isn't one of the teachers, else you will be shooting yourself in the foot." I looked at the fuming Nekomata with a grin.

"You…"

Revenge was a dish best served cold, and it tasted absolutely divine.

I nodded to myself. My job here was done. Not only did I take a pot shot at Magari, but I also set the Youkai on a path of creating a supernatural Food Wars.

"I'll be back tomorrow," I said with a little wave. "I'll bring a small cookbook with me, and I'll make sure to include some basic cooking recipes. I'll even ensure that they are so easy, that even a kid won't have trouble following them."

The last line was a jab aimed at Magari. She clearly understood that, judging by the look on her face. I chuckled in my mind, feeling a sense of accomplishment after seeing her expression. A moment later a Magic Circle sprang to life beneath my feet, courtesy of Helel activating the spell in my phone, teleporting me back to the Underworld.

A/N

Wasn't planning on writing today since I had a bit of a headache, but things happened… Anyways, I rolled for his talent and Magari's cooking since gamba is the way to go!