After school, Utaha went to the clubroom as usual. In the small activity room, only Sawamura Spencer Eriri and Kato Megumi were present.
Eriri, the blonde, twin-tailed, mixed-race doujin artist with delicate features, was pacing anxiously, constantly refreshing her phone screen.
"That idiot Tomoya! What the hell is he doing. He's this late and hasn't replied to a single message." Eriri complained angrily, her cheeks flushed with irritation.
Megumi, sitting quietly to the side, wore her usual placid expression. She looked up and said in her signature, flat tone, "I asked his classmates. They said Aki-kun didn't come to school at all today."
"Didn't come to school?" Eriri's voice shot up an octave.
"Could something have happened? A cold? Or did he stay up all night gaming and drop dead?"
Leaning by the window, Utaha listened to their conversation, an inexplicable unease flickering in her heart.
Just then, Sukuna's voice sounded, tinged with a sense of schadenfreude. "Yo, looks like there's trouble in your little circle too."
"Finger-san, do you know what happened?" Utaha inquired.
Sukuna rolled his eyes internally. "Since when did I get a nickname? And how should I know? Do you think I'm some kind of god? Able to foresee the future?"
He paused, then added, "Also, 'Finger-san' is a terrible nickname."
He scoffed, "Who is it? Worth you all worrying so much?"
At that moment, Eriri noticed Utaha and habitually switched to her sharp-tongued mode. "Hey, black-stockings fatty, do you have any idea where Tomoya has gone off to?"
Utaha immediately retorted, temporarily suppressing her earlier unease, sweeping a condescending glance over Eriri's chest, "Rather than worrying about others, Sawamura-san, perhaps you should be more concerned about your own pitifully underdeveloped condition? Maybe Aki-kun got tired of a certain childhood friend who never grows up and is hiding because of it."
"You! Who are you calling underdeveloped!" Eriri bristled like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.
"Alright, alright." Megumi interjected at the right moment, cutting off the daily quarrel.
"Instead of guessing here, why don't we go check Aki-kun's house? Maybe he's really sick and needs help."
This suggestion was immediately met with agreement from Eriri.
Utaha hesitated for a moment, then nodded. That inexplicable sense of unease made her unable to ignore it.
...
Tomoya's house was an ordinary two-story building.
They rang the doorbell for a long time with no answer, and the windows were tightly shut.
As the childhood friend, Eriri knew the ropes and found the spare key under the flowerpot by the entrance.
"Tomoya! You idiot, are you home or not!" Eriri shouted while unlocking the door with the key.
The moment the door opened, an indescribable, foul stench—a mix of decay and some fishy, rank odor—assaulted them, forcing all three to cover their noses and mouths.
"Ugh... what is that smell?!" Eriri grimaced, her brow furrowed tightly.
Almost simultaneously, in Utaha's mind, Sukuna's voice suddenly turned serious and cold, carrying a predator-like alertness. "Be careful, little girl. This smell... it's not right. Doesn't smell like ordinary garbage stench, more like... the smell of a wild dog. No, worse than that. It's the scent left behind by a thing soaked in negative emotions and filth."
"Wild dog?" Utaha was startled internally, unconsciously repeating the words.
Just as her words faded, a chilling, bone-penetrating coldness suddenly and silently swept through the entire entryway. The air instantly congealed, as if the temperature in the whole house had plummeted by over ten degrees. That piercing cold seemed to rise slowly from the ground, cold enough to make one doubt their own spine was about to shatter.
Almost instinctively, all three simultaneously looked up towards the shadowy corner of the ceiling.
There, a faint, swaying reflection produced an eerie, wet, scraping sound, like fingernails scratching glass, chilling to the bone.
Finally, the three saw clearly the terrifying figure entwined in the shadows—a monstrous, grotesque creature was clinging upside down to the ceiling.
It roughly maintained a humanoid outline, but its limbs were twisted and deformed. Its skin was a gloomy, rotting gray-green, its smooth, wet surface constantly oozing a viscous fluid, emitting a nauseating stench of decay.
The monster lacked normal facial features, instead having a mouth that seemed to burst from its skull. Its lips were thin and twisted, opening to reveal a row of strange, sharp teeth. Drool dripped slowly, emitting a turbid, fishy stench.
Most horrifying of all, where its eyes should be, there seemed to be a faintly moving 'gaze', filled with hunger and malice, seemingly able to see through the darkness and sense the vibrant life force of living humans.
Eriri and Megumi almost screamed simultaneously, their voices filled with undeniable terror and shock. A look of wailing and trembling flashed in their eyes.
Both were ordinary people, completely unable to see such supernatural entities. But under the extreme stimulation of fear, a crack was forcibly pried open in their consciousness, finally allowing them to glimpse the true form of this otherworldly monster.
The monster on the ceiling seemed disturbed by the heart-rending screams, letting out a shrill, unpleasant shriek. Then its body suddenly lunged forward, swift and fierce, rapidly scaling the ceiling, heading straight for Eriri, who was at the front.
At this moment, Sukuna's voice suddenly exploded in Utaha's mind, jolting her senses. Contrary to his usual lazy, joking tone, Sukuna's voice this time was severe and urgent, filled with unshakeable authority. "Kasumigaoka! Release control of the body! Now!"
Utaha's eyes were filled with shock and fear. She felt her whole body stiffen as if crushed by a boulder, her mind blank, as if her soul were tightly gripped by invisible hands, unable to break free.
Watching the ferocious monster pouncing towards them, her heart pounded like a drum, tearing at her chest, all her strength seemingly drained in an instant.
However, just as life teetered on the edge of helplessness, Sukuna's voice grew more urgent in her ears, urging her to relinquish control of her body.
Instinctively, at the critical moment, Utaha relaxed her will, completely surrendering control of her body.
In an instant, an indescribable sense of strangeness welled up from within her. She felt as if her soul were being pulled from her body, turning her into an outside observer watching as the body that originally belonged to her underwent an earth-shattering transformation.
Her red eyes suddenly surged with a deep blood-red hue. Her pupils were no longer soft circles but had transformed into thin, sharp vertical slits, like a predator coldly eyeing its prey. Beneath those blood-red eyes, the skin abruptly tore open, revealing another pair of eyes that were deeper and filled with even more tyranny and killing intent.
Four blood-red eyes opened simultaneously, filled with a cold and ruthless light, like rough and sharp blades staring directly at the lunging Cursed Spirit.
With "Utaha" as the center, a cold and massive pressure erupted instantly. That aura was filled with destructive power, like an endless darkness surging from the depths of hell, causing the air to be draped in a heavy shadow.