Chapter 175 : Madmen Match Best with Madmen
This time when Gojo Satoru came to dine at the dessert shop, he didn't cause a big commotion like before at the commercial district, perhaps because this small town wasn't as bustling as the central district, and there were fewer jujutsu world personnel.
Although this town was located below Jujutsu High, in reality, most jujutsu sorcerers who came to the vicinity wouldn't linger here: they'd either go directly up the mountain to the high school, or leave directly for their mission destinations.
......Perhaps this was the principle that the most dangerous place is the safest place. Jiang Lai's thoughts wandered for a moment.
Gojo Satoru had no self-awareness of being a wanted cursed user. Like before at the commercial district, he openly chose a small round table facing the window.
After sitting down, he leaned back comfortably and even waved to signal Jiang Lai: "Over here~"
Jiang Lai walked forward, then stopped, his gaze silently moving downward.
He saw those long legs sprawled out carelessly to the opposite side of the small round table, quite a dashing and casual posture.
"Oh, sorry about that." Noticing Jiang Lai's gaze, Gojo Satoru retracted his naturally extended obstructing long legs. "I'm used to occupying the entire under-table area by myself."
Jiang Lai: ......Showing off those long legs, was that intentional or accidental?.jpg
The mocking emoji flashed by, and Jiang Lai quickly collected his thoughts.
As the strongest, Gojo Satoru was accustomed to living alone.
When he was still a high school teacher, he would occasionally dine with colleagues, friends, and students. After becoming a cursed user, he completely lived in a world of one.
Jiang Lai understood in his heart: this invitation was just Gojo Satoru's momentary whim, or perhaps his subconscious at work. Gojo Satoru himself might be puzzled about why he was treating a stranger.
With thoughts flowing in his mind, Jiang Lai's expression showed no particular emotion. He smoothed down his navy blue kimono and sat down calmly.
Gojo Satoru held the menu in one hand and gripped a ballpoint pen in the other, marking checkboxes next to dessert names while saying: "What would you like to eat?"
"I'm fine with anything." Jiang Lai didn't know much about desserts. When spending time with Gojo Satoru, it was always the other who shared with him.
So Jiang Lai simply said: "Same as you, but half the quantity. Because the types you choose are usually too sweet for me to eat much."
This was quite familiar communication between friends.
After saying this, Jiang Lai realized he had unconsciously used his former attitude to interact with the other again.
He looked up at Gojo Satoru, expecting the other to give him a floating fake smile and casually mock him with phrases like "overly familiar and delusional," or start suspiciously wondering if he had gathered intelligence beforehand with ill intentions.
After all, they didn't know each other here.
However, Gojo Satoru showed no particular reaction. He naturally lifted his pen to make a few marks on the paper and nodded: "Mm, got it."
This usual attitude made Jiang Lai's form pause slightly, relaxing the tense nerves that had been prepared to face verbal barbs.
The white-haired man waved to signal a nearby server and handed over the marked menu.
This dessert shop served desserts very quickly. Before long, plates of exquisite and beautiful desserts were placed on the small round table.
Ice cream melted on his tongue into a refreshing coolness. Jiang Lai ate the dessert while observing Gojo Satoru across from him with his peripheral vision.
The white-haired man's attention seemed entirely focused on the desserts.
His pure black eye mask covered those uniquely beautiful Six Eyes. His slender fingers had distinct joints. Though he was cutting cake, it looked like he was playing an instrument, his graceful hand movements quite pleasing to watch.
Gojo Satoru didn't initiate conversation, so Jiang Lai didn't speak either.
The two sat quietly in front of the dessert shop's large floor-to-ceiling window.
Wisps of fragrance floated in the air, as if soaking in an ocean of candy. The dessert shop played soothing light music that made people involuntarily relax.
......Such rare peaceful time together. Jiang Lai lowered his eyelids. It was somewhat unexpected.
Just recently when they met at the commercial district, the other's attitude had been a mixture of coldness and wariness, and they'd nearly come to blows. Yet after only half a day, they could sit together eating desserts?
This pace of becoming familiar seemed rather fast.
Gojo Satoru was someone warm on the outside but cold inside. Usually appearing cheerful and approachable on the surface, in reality very few names were truly placed in his heart.
Human reflections appeared too small in those vast sky-blue pupils.
Logically, he wasn't someone who would invite a stranger to dine. That's why when Jiang Lai agreed, he thought the other planned to probe for his intelligence information.
Yet during this time sitting here, they'd had no communication whatsoever.
Jiang Lai held his dessert fork, feeling rarely confused and bewildered in his heart.
It was also at this moment that Gojo Satoru across from him finally stopped focusing entirely on desserts. He tilted his head slightly and said leisurely: "This avocado ice cream cake tastes different from last time. It doesn't seem particularly sweet."
"This isn't sweet? It's already at the sweetness level where you want water after one bite." Jiang Lai unconsciously responded to his friend. He also had this cake and after two or three bites found it too sweet, so he'd set it aside.
"Is it that exaggerated? I was thinking of asking the server for extra sugar." Saying this, Gojo Satoru actually turned his body and waved with a smile: "Hey~ server miss over there, could you bring another jar of added sugar? The one here was finished by the gentleman across from me, so there's not enough~"
Jiang Lai: "?"
Jiang Lai leaned back tactically: "......Wait, who exactly finished it?!"
Gojo Satoru laughed, his crossed leg swaying lightly in a carefree manner.
Jiang Lai's eyes went half-moon as he set down then picked up his dessert fork again.
This interaction pattern felt familiar. Jiang Lai belatedly realized it resembled interaction between friends.
Quietly accompanying each other without awkwardness, chatting about daily topics without boredom, playfully blaming each other without real anger. Just like that.
Could it be that Gojo Satoru remembered......?!
This thought emerged instantly, making Jiang Lai's heart leap with joy. However, immediately after, he quickly calmed down.
No, something seemed off.
If the other truly remembered the past, they wouldn't still be trapped in this Zhuangzi's dawn dream crossroads world. The existence of this world was precisely the result of Gojo Satoru firmly believing this place was real.
......Then why was the other showing such an attitude?
Jiang Lai's gaze fell on the white-haired man in front of him who was waving to signal the server. The other still looked casually relaxed as usual, but from this side profile, that smile at the corner of his lips seemed somewhat elusive.
Jiang Lai silently watched him.
As the Six Eyes, Gojo Satoru could naturally notice Jiang Lai's gaze. Without turning his head, he said in a rising tone: "What's wrong? Do you mind that joke just now?"
Jiang Lai paused for a second, not following up with a reply, but abruptly asked: "Why did you invite me to eat dessert?"
"Hmm, wasn't it you who said I should treat you?" Gojo Satoru propped his chin with one hand, his index finger resting beside his lips.
"I mean, why did you agree?" Jiang Lai asked.
"Just as I said before, because I'm in a good mood of course~" Gojo Satoru's voice rose at the end as he shrugged and answered with a smile. "Do you think it's unreasonable? I never do things based on logic or reason."
Jiang Lai's brown eyes were calm as water. He silently looked at the white-haired man before him without responding.
For a moment, only the melodious instrumental music from the dessert shop filled the air, neither of them speaking.
After a moment of quiet, Gojo Satoru lowered his hand from beside his lips: "Fine."
He wore a strange smile that had shed its falseness at the corner of his lips, spreading both hands: "You have delusions, I have obsessive madness. Don't you think we're quite suitable for dining together?"
Being called delusional again, Jiang Lai's attention wasn't on that. He focused on the latter half: the other had actually called himself 'obsessively mad'??
Though these words carried a certain mockery and jest, they had some bizarrely real sense of madness.
Jiang Lai's expression paused.
This......could Gojo Satoru mean he was planning to invite him to join in annihilating Kyoto?
Jiang Lai's grip on the dessert fork tightened slightly. He hadn't yet figured out how exactly to handle the upcoming Sunday Kyoto incident.
However, Gojo Satoru didn't follow up with an invitation. He just leaned back against the chair back, tilting his head slightly to gaze distantly out the window.
Jiang Lai followed his gaze toward the distance: overlapping mountain shadows and forests.
But beyond the mountain shadows and forests invisible to the eye stood Tokyo Jujutsu High.
It was precisely at this moment that Jiang Lai seemed to understand the real reason for Gojo Satoru's invitation.
It wasn't because he was in a good mood, nor was it to invite Jiang Lai to join him. It was simply, as literally meant, just [dining together].
This upcoming Kyoto incident, due to the existence of the strongest cursed user Gojo Satoru and the high probability that the higher-ups would bring out Ryomen Sukuna, regardless of the outcome, was already predictably grand and tragic.
Jiang Lai's eyelashes fluttered gently.
Ieiri Shoko's voice seemed to echo in his ears: 'If madness has no end, it will devour even the self.'
Before such a battle, Gojo Satoru had come to the familiar small town below the school, found the dessert shop he'd loved most during his high school days, even treated the unfamiliar Jiang Lai, plus using that friendly interaction attitude just now:
Perhaps......probably......the other wanted to reminisce about the past one last time before the final madness.
In the current situation of the Crossroads Tower, Gojo Satoru could no longer invite Geto Suguru and Ieiri Shoko, who symbolized youth, nor could he invite former friends and students. That would bring them trouble.
And Jiang Lai, this delusional, unfamiliar, powerful "friend," was undoubtedly a suitable choice.
Because having delusions meant he'd cooperate with this friendly interaction, because being unfamiliar meant no need to worry about revealing hesitation and weakness through genuine emotion, because being powerful meant he wouldn't be leveraged and retaliated against by the higher-ups.
Thus he could become final companionship: calmly dining together before the storm of madness swept through.
Before him, this dessert meal had reached its conclusion.
Gojo Satoru wiped his hands with a wet napkin. Having already composed his emotions, he returned to his distantly aloof demeanor, casual and free in his movements.
He had already paid in advance and now planned to get up and leave directly.
But Jiang Lai called out to stop him at this moment: "Wait for me."
Gojo Satoru paused slightly, turning his body somewhat to look at Jiang Lai.
The black-haired youth in navy blue kimono also stood up, holding a thin book in his hand. He raised his brown eyes: "I know your next step is to go to Kyoto."
Gojo Satoru's eyebrows rose under his eye mask. He didn't ask how Jiang Lai knew, just said in a slightly rising tone: "So you want to stop me?"
"No." Jiang Lai said.
He added in his heart: At least not now.
Jiang Lai gazed at the white-haired man before him, a bright smile spreading across his face: "I have delusions, you have obsessive madness. If that's the case, we're not only suitable for dining together, but also suitable for traveling together."
He proactively suggested teaming up.
Jiang Lai's eyes curved as he covered his lips with the book: "After all......madmen match best with madmen, don't they?"