"Let's try another house."
Still uneasy, Kento Nanami went door to door, asking more villagers about what had been happening lately.
A few minutes later, he returned with what he'd gathered.
"According to the locals, they think it's just some kind of wild animal from the mountains coming out to hunt at night. The sounds are weird, though—no one can tell what kind of beast it is. But one person swears they saw something that looked human. That guy's gone half-crazy since, so that's all I could get."
"So it really might be a Curse."
Riko Amanai frowned, her voice dropping a little. "But if it only comes out at night and eats people… doesn't that sound like—" She stopped mid-sentence, goosebumps creeping up her arms.
"Either way, it's definitely a Curse," Nanami said calmly. "Probably not a strong one, but don't let your guard down. I don't want to lose another teammate because of bad judgment."
"Hey, old man, you got anything to add?" Riko turned to Jinsuke Zenin.
"Who're you calling old man? It's teacher."
Jinsuke shot her a glance, then looked past the village to the dark mountain looming behind it. The whole settlement was tucked against the base of the ridge like it sat in a shallow basin. Whatever was lurking up there… didn't feel small.
"Fine, Teacher Jinsuke," Riko huffed, hands on her hips. "You're the one leading this mission, aren't you gonna say something? You're supposed to be the reliable adult here!"
"What's there to say? I don't have Cursed Energy. If a powerful Cursed Spirit shows up, I can't help you. No matter what happens, you'll have to handle it yourselves."
Riko blinked, then gawked at him. "You don't have Cursed Energy? Yeah right! You expect me to believe that? You caught a bullet with your bare hand!"
Nanami, on the other hand, looked like something had just clicked. "So that's why I couldn't sense anything from you. I thought you were suppressing your Cursed Energy perfectly, but you really don't have any at all."
"Exactly." Jinsuke smirked. "So, Miss and you—Mr. good luck out there. I'll keep you alive, but don't expect me to do your job for you."
"Whatever. As long as you keep us safe, that's good enough for me." Riko waved dismissively. She'd stopped caring by this point. If it came down to it, she'd just throw herself into the fight—worst-case scenario, Shoko could patch her back together.
The three of them waited until nightfall.
The countryside fell silent after dark. Every house was shuttered tight; the villagers were long asleep. The moonlight spilled across the empty paths, bright enough that they could still see the narrow dirt roads clearly.
The mountain behind the village, however, was another story. It loomed in total darkness, the trees so thick the moonlight couldn't pierce through. It looked… wrong.
They made their way to the edge of the woods where the mountain began.
"It's already past midnight. Why's it so quiet? Shouldn't something have happened by now?"
Riko's patience was wearing thin. They'd been wandering for hours without finding a single man-eating monster. Maybe the villagers had made it all up. Every town had its own bedtime horror stories—maybe this was one of those, and Jujutsu High had just been tricked.
Rustle...
The still night suddenly broke with the faint crunch of leaves and twigs.
Both Riko and Nanami tensed immediately, shifting into combat mode.
From the darkness at the trailhead, a hunched silhouette appeared—an old man, leaning on a cane, slowly stepping out of the shadows.
His wrinkled face twisted into a strange expression, his eyes sharp and gleaming—not the kind of eyes any human elder should have.
"Grandpa? What're you doing out here so late?" Riko relaxed a little, her guard dropping. For a second, she'd thought it was a Cursed Spirit. Turned out it was just some old guy, right?
The man didn't respond. Instead, he smiled—a wide, unnatural grin.
Under the moonlight, all three of them noticed what clung between his teeth: bits of raw, stringy flesh.
"Riko! Get back! He's a Cursed Spirit!"
Nanami's voice snapped through the night as he felt the surge of Cursed Energy inside the old man. He rushed forward, short blade wrapped in bandages ready in his grip.
"GRAAAH!"
But the old man moved first, lunging at Riko. His face split grotesquely, skin tearing open as coarse fur sprouted beneath. Fangs gleamed as he snapped his jaws toward her throat.
Riko's eyes went wide. She barely had time to coat herself in Cursed Energy before he struck.
Slash!
His claws raked across her arm, drawing a vivid red line.
Before he could attack again, Nanami was already there. Cursed Energy surged along his blade as he cut down in a precise arc—his signature ratio technique—sending the creature flying.
SHRRAK!
"ROAAAR!"
Blood sprayed across the dirt. The monster's chest split open, a deep gash running from shoulder to waist as it crashed to the ground, howling in pain.
Under the moonlight, its true form finally showed.
"A monkey?" Riko blinked.
No—Jinsuke frowned, stepping closer. "That's not a monkey. That's a baboon."
A bright red nose, a pale face. A baboon straight out of the mountains.
"So that's the man-eating Curse?" Riko said, ignoring the sting in her arm. "Doesn't seem that strong. Grade 3, maybe?"
If she hadn't been caught off guard, she could've taken it down easily.
"Grrrraaah..."
The wounded creature let out one last guttural cry before dissolving into black mist—its Cursed Energy dispersing into the night.
Then—
"Aaaooooh!"
Another howl echoed from deep within the mountain.
Then another.
And another.
The cries multiplied, overlapping, echoing from every direction in the dark.
Riko and Nanami froze. A chill ran down their spines.
They'd stumbled into a nest.
"We can't let them reach the village!" Nanami said sharply, gripping his knife tighter. "If they get out, the villagers are finished."
So many Cursed Spirits gathered in one place—and they hadn't sensed any of them earlier. The fact that the villagers had survived this long was nothing short of a miracle.
What none of them knew was that these Cursed Spirits had been born from generations of fear—the same ghost stories the villagers told their children to keep them from wandering too far.
Layer upon layer of terror, passed down through time, had taken form.
Riko's face darkened. "Don't tell me there's a Grade 1 hiding in there..."
The Cursed Energy pulsing from the mountain was growing stronger by the second.
She exhaled sharply, then grinned. "Looks like it's time for this genius sorcerer to step in!"
Her Cursed Energy flared around her, bright and fierce, as she charged straight into the trees.
She knew the risk—but if they didn't exorcise every single one, it'd be a disaster.
Nanami followed close behind, expression grim. "Stay sharp! And, sensei—be careful!"
Their figures vanished into the darkness of the forest.
Jinsuke scratched the back of his neck and sighed.
"Cursed Spirits, huh… Come to think of it, I haven't actually killed one since I got here."
He strolled forward at an easy pace, stepping into the shadowed woods after them.
The last time he'd seen a Cursed Spirit up close was when that long-dead bastard had tossed him, as a kid, into the Zenin Clan's sealed chamber full of them.
He smiled faintly at the memory.
"Guess tonight'll be nostalgic."