Chapter 17: Exhaustion
Asuna stared at Inui Hinako with a deeply displeased look on her face. This expression made Hinako feel rather heartbroken, as though the daughter she had raised with so much blood, sweat, and tears had suddenly entered a rebellious phase.
Who is your daughter anyway? Asuna thought, practically dying to fire back with a scathing comment. The relationship between us is strictly that of a customer and a restaurant owner. Do you honestly think everyone is instantly your best friend, you overly familiar stranger?
Inui Hinako let out a soft chuckle. Then, as if suddenly remembering something important, she turned to Asuna and said, "Ah, I'm so sorry, Asuna. A highly distinguished guest is coming to Kirinoya today, so I won't be able to entertain you personally. My deepest apologies."
"But don't you worry! The moment I get this high-and-mighty guest to pack up and leave, I will come right over to serve you. Well? Aren't you just moved to tears by my devotion?"
Having reached this point in the conversation, Hinako couldn't stop herself from whining to Asuna. "I seriously have no idea what that old man, the Director, is thinking. He just had to schedule this VIP visit right when I'm at my absolute busiest!"
"He even warned me not to do a single thing to offend this person, and ordered me to give a hundred and twenty percent of my ability to serve them. Long story short, judging by the old man's incredibly tense tone, it sounds like this is someone even Totsuki Academy wouldn't dare cross."
"Could it be someone from one of those massive financial conglomerates?"
"Why would a person like that even come to Kirinoya? Shouldn't they be going to a three-star Michelin restaurant instead?"
Even though Hinako managed Kirinoya flawlessly, she knew that compared to those legendary Michelin-starred establishments with centuries of history, her restaurant was still technically a step below them.
This was a reality Hinako fully recognized.
However, she firmly believed that any shortfall wasn't due to her cooking skills, but rather a matter of fine dining service and atmospheric aesthetics.
When it came to pure culinary technique, she refused to lose to anyone.
"Besides, that crowd only cares about prestige and keeping up appearances. They can't even tell the difference between good and bad food anyway."
"They act like they have such sophisticated, high-class palates, but they're really just playing pretend and faking their way through it."
"It's a total waste of a chef's genuine goodwill."
Listening to Hinako's endless stream of complaints, and then glancing over at Yumesaki, who was just sitting there with a mild smile, Asuna felt a wave of intense second-hand embarrassment. She immediately cut off Hinako's rant before it could get any worse.
She pointed directly at Yumesaki and asked, "Is there any chance that the distinguished guest you're talking about is actually him?"
"Huh?"
Hinako blinked in utter confusion, her gaze shifting from Yumesaki to Asuna. In a fraction of a second, the cheerful smile on her face froze completely.
"Stop joking around, Asuna. What kind of prank is this? It's not funny at all."
After a few long seconds of dead silence, Hinako desperately tried to salvage the situation, praying with all her heart that this was nothing more than a bad hallucination.
Yumesaki spoke up at the exact perfect moment, utterly shattering Hinako's final defense. "Hello there, Miss Inui Hinako. That is your name, correct? I am Kazuma Yumesaki. I believe Nakiri Senzaemon should have mentioned me to you."
In an instant, Hinako's entire face went slack. Her normally pale, fair skin turned a brilliant shade of crimson, looking as though it were about to burst with blood.
"Aba... aba..."
Her entire body began to twitch uncontrollably, and her mouth completely lost the ability to form a single coherent word.
How on earth do you handle a situation where you are actively trash-talking a client, only to realize that very client is sitting right in front of you, listening to every single word?
For a moment, Hinako felt so deeply mortified that she wanted nothing more than to drop dead on the spot.
Left with no choice, Asuna spoke up to soothe the panicked chef, explaining that Yumesaki wasn't the type to hold a grudge, nor was he petty. There was no need to overthink it; she just needed to do what she came to do.
Is that really true?
Hinako's large, watery eyes locked onto Yumesaki. Though she didn't say a word out loud, her intense gaze was screaming that exact question.
Yumesaki offered a faint, reassuring smile. "What Asuna said is correct. As long as you don't try to deceive me, I won't hold any of this against you."
"Deceive? Me? Never! How could I ever dream of deceiving you!"
Hinako immediately smacked her chest, loudly declaring that she would put forth two hundred percent of her abilities to host Yumesaki. Her entire aura suddenly surged, erupting like an active volcano as her fighting spirit blazed with absolute fury.
Yumesaki nodded in satisfaction. "Then I will leave the rest to you, Miss Inui Hinako."
And so, for the duration of the ensuing meal, Yumesaki thoroughly tasted the absolute pinnacle of Hinako's heartfelt dedication.
Dishes were brought out in a relentless, flowing stream, every single plate practically radiating the sweat and grueling hard work Hinako had poured into it.
Yumesaki ate with immense satisfaction.
Granted, Hinako's pure culinary technique wasn't quite on the legendary level of Dojima Gin, but she was vastly superior to Nakiri Erina. While Erina possessed the miraculous God's Tongue, she was still far too green at this stage in her life.
She simply couldn't compete with these elite graduates of the Totsuki Elite Ten.
However, if one were to talk about their ultimate latent potential, Erina far outstripped Hinako.
Unfortunately, that was a matter for the distant future. For now, Hinako's culinary mastery was firmly above Erina's, and the depth of flavor in her food was incredibly rich.
This was also the very first time Asuna had ever witnessed the sheer, terrifying eating capacity of Yumesaki and his companions. Every single one of them was an absolute monster at the table.
Enough food to feed dozens of grown adults disappeared straight into their stomachs, yet their midsections didn't show even the slightest hint of bloating or expanding. They remained completely flat and smooth. Were these people even human?
Or rather, did it mean that humans who wielded supernatural powers were all completely absurd like this?
If that was the case, didn't it mean that as long as you mastered supernatural abilities, you never had to worry about getting fat from overeating ever again?
Isn't that an absolute dream come true for a girl?
Asuna's heart began to thump with wild excitement. She made up her mind then and there that the moment she got back, she would train with everything she had. She would pour her soul into kneading her Cursed Energy as early as possible to become a full-fledged Jujutsu Sorcerer.
Not for any grand, heroic purpose, but solely so she could freely indulge in delicious food for the rest of her life without consequence.
"Oh no, this is terrible, this is awful..."
While Yumesaki and the others were still happily devouring their food, the Sous-chef of Kirinoya suddenly burst through the dining room doors. Tears of pure anguish filled his eyes.
"Chef Inui... Chef Inui, she..."
Asuna gasped, instantly jumping out of her seat. "What happened to Miss Inui?!"
The Sous-chef's face twisted into an expression of utter grief. "Chef Inui... she has completely burned herself out."
"Huh?" Asuna blinked, her mind going entirely blank.
The scene shifted immediately as the group hurried over to the kitchen. There, they found Hinako sitting slumped in a far corner. Her face was a ghostly, ash-white pale, and her entire body radiated a heavy, crushing aura that practically screamed, "I am completely and utterly exhausted."
What in the world is going on here? Asuna turned her head toward the Sous-chef, her eyes brimming with confusion.
The Sous-chef solemnly explained that in her frantic desperation to satisfy her customers, Hinako had pushed her body past its absolute limits. Every single dish had been prepared with the maximum possible effort. But unfortunately, the guests' appetite was simply too monstrous.
As a result, under the crushing weight of such high-intensity labor, Hinako had gradually withered away, ending up in the catatonic state they saw before them.
Asuna stood in stunned silence.
Oh, wow. She slowly turned her head to look at Yumesaki, silently asking him with her eyes how they were supposed to handle this bizarre mess.
Yumesaki calmly pulled out a napkin, elegantly wiped his mouth, and tossed the crumpled paper into a nearby trash can on the floor.
"Since the restaurant owner, Inui Hinako, has hit her absolute limit, then we shall call it a day."
He looked over at the trembling Sous-chef. "Even though I am only about fifty percent full, I am highly satisfied. Once Hinako comes to her senses, you can let her know that today's meal was excellent."
The Sous-chef bowed deeply, promising that he would absolutely convey those words to Chef Inui.
Yumesaki gave a single, satisfied nod, then turned on his heel and led his group out of the restaurant.
After leaving Kirinoya, the companions strolled down a bustling street bathed in bright, warm sunlight. Crowds of ordinary people moved past them in every direction. Every now and then, a few low-level Evil Spirits would pop out, blocking the paths of random pedestrians while shrieking into the void, "Can you see me? You can see me, right?"
It was a view full of vibrant life, where everything was constantly growing and thriving.
Regrettably, this lively supernatural display could only be seen by Yumesaki and his two companions.
Asuna, who had yet to grasp the ability to perceive Cursed Energy, couldn't see a single thing.
"Were you really only fifty percent full?" Asuna asked, her mind still entirely stuck on the words Yumesaki had spoken back in the kitchen. To eat enough food to satisfy dozens of people and only be half-full... that level of consumption was just terrifying.
"To be perfectly precise, I am about thirty percent full."
Yumesaki replied in a perfectly casual tone. "The actual energy contained within the food of this world is simply too minuscule. Don't be fooled by the sheer volume of what I just ate. The nutritional energy it provided was barely enough to hit thirty percent. I only said fifty percent back there out of consideration for how exhausted she was. I was just saving her some face."
Asuna fell completely silent, utterly speechless.
As they walked on, chatting and laughing, an Evil Spirit entirely cloaked in a thick, billowing black miasma suddenly materialized right in front of Yumesaki.
"Can you see me? You can see me!"
"Ah, yes. I can see you quite clearly, actually."
The Evil Spirit froze in sheer shock for a split second before exploding into a state of wild ecstasy. The black smoke swirling around its body began to boil violently, resembling a starving wolf that had suddenly stumbled upon a magnificent, gourmet feast after months of roaming an empty wasteland.
"You can see me! You can see me!"
The Evil Spirit roared, its voice practically dripping with psychotic joy. It unhinged its massive jaw and lunged directly for Yumesaki's neck, fully prepared to make him cosplay as a headless upperclassman.
Yumesaki, however, thoroughly rejected this idea. He had absolutely nothing against cosplay, nor did he have any complaints about beautiful upperclassmen. But he had less than zero interest in cosplaying as one himself—especially a decapitated one.
Innate Technique activation: Soul Manipulation!
A sharp beam of light erupted from the very tip of Yumesaki's finger, piercing straight through the center of the charging Evil Spirit. The creature's movements ground to an instantaneous halt.
In the very next second, the monstrosity, which had been covered in grotesque features and pulsing black smog, began to rapidly regress at a mind-boggling speed. Within the blink of an eye, the horrifying specter melted away, reverting back into a perfectly normal human soul.
It was a young girl with long, flowing hair—and an exceptionally beautiful girl at that.
Yumesaki didn't find this surprising in the least. After all, this was a two-dimensional world; even the background extra characters were bound to possess a decent level of visual appeal.
Attractive girls weren't rare in this universe at all. If anything, truly ugly people were the real anomalies.
Most ordinary citizens fell somewhere right in the comfortable middle.
The girl, whose face had completely returned to its human form, stared at Yumesaki with a look of utter daze. As the seconds ticked by, the lost memories of her life before she died and corrupted into an Evil Spirit began to flood back into her consciousness.
Gradually, she understood everything that had happened to her.
"Um..."
"I don't want to hear it, nor do I have any need for it. Just go on and attain enlightenment."
Yumesaki didn't give her even a fraction of a second to finish her sentence, using his power to forcefully send her spirit straight down into the Yellow Springs.
Since you are a minor background character, please refrain from triggering a sudden emotional flashback, and do not try to steal any extra screen time. Just be a well-behaved extra.
One had to remember that just a few moments ago, this very spirit had been actively trying to swallow his head whole. The fact that he didn't just obliterate her with a single casual slap, but instead chose to manually restore her humanity and afford her a clean shot at reincarnation, was already an act of supreme benevolence and grand charity.
As for whatever else she had to say, it wasn't his problem, and Yumesaki was far too lazy to care.
Medea and Nero didn't offer a single word of criticism regarding his actions; they felt his handling of the situation was completely flawless.
If it had been either of them facing an aggressive Evil Spirit like that, they would have had only one single thought.
Annihilate it.
The fact that Yumesaki went out of his way to turn the entity back into a human and send her peacefully to the afterlife proved he was incredibly soft-hearted.
Only Asuna, completely blind to the existence of Evil Spirits, had absolutely no clue what had just transpired.
Her entire brain was practically overflowing with massive question marks.
What on earth just happened?
Just as she opened her mouth to ask for an explanation, she suddenly spotted a teenage girl sprinting toward them from a distance. Without a single moment of hesitation, the girl dove straight into Yumesaki's arms, clinging to him tightly. "Darling! You're finally here!"
Asuna's jaw dropped. What?!
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