After meeting up with Kento Nanami, the three of them boarded the vehicle headed for the mission site. Akira Zenin smoothly slid into the back seat and lay down, while Yu Haibara promptly claimed the front passenger seat.
Kento Nanami folded his arms and squeezed sideways into the narrow space left in the back, letting out a helpless sigh. Seriously, aside from Suguru Geto, there wasn't a single second-year senior who could be called decent or easy to deal with.
The driver introduced herself as Assistant Supervisor Kairi Miyu.
During the drive, Kairi kept glancing at Akira Zenin through the rearview mirror.
It wasn't that Akira Zenin was exceptionally good-looking. It was just that when they first met, she had enthusiastically greeted this legendary Special Grade, only for him to casually wave a hand and lie down on the spot.
More importantly, the entire left side of Akira Zenin's face was hidden behind his hair, making it impossible to see his full features.
It felt like trying to finish a puzzle in her head with the final pieces missing. With her severe OCD, Kairi was desperate to get a look at Akira Zenin's complete face.
"Even if Akira-senpai is really strong, you should rein in your curiosity for now," Yu Haibara said loudly from the passenger seat. "Stop sneaking looks into the back. You're driving."
Kairi Miyu's face instantly flushed red. She whipped her head around and shouted at Haibara, "H-hey! You single-track-minded idiot! Do you ever think before you speak?!"
Even as she turned her head, she guided the car through dense traffic using only her peripheral vision. With a smooth burst of acceleration, they shot straight to the front.
Yu Haibara stared in shock. "Amazing—!"
The noise made Akira Zenin open his eyes. He reached up, casually adjusted his hair, and sat up. Finally satisfying her curiosity, Kairi let out a long breath and refocused on the road.
"Haibara," Akira Zenin said, "give me a quick rundown of the mission."
"It's a remote mountain village. An intelligence support agent spotted Cursed Spirits there. Since the local population is extremely small, it's been classified as a Grade 2 incident."
"The intelligence support agent… you mean an external collaborator, one of those 'Windows'?"
"Yeah! You've never seen one before, Senpai?"
"My assignments are always the extremely dangerous kind."
Akira Zenin, of course, wasn't about to admit that he'd shoved most of his missions onto Naoya Zenin.
"Oh, I get it now," Haibara said earnestly. "I heard support personnel can't even get close to those high-risk missions."
"But," Akira Zenin continued, "is it really enough to label it Grade 2 just because there are 'very few residents'?"
Yu Haibara scratched his head. He never thought too deeply about things like this. He took missions as they came, carried them out, and did everything he could. In the end, he could only look to Kento Nanami, his so-called "external brain," for help.
Kento Nanami, who had been silent until now, finally spoke.
"As beings formed from aggregated Cursed Energy, the strength of Cursed Spirits fluctuates with human negative emotions. The higher the population density, the more concentrated those negative emotions become. That's why areas with fewer people tend to produce weaker Cursed Spirits."
"Based on the support personnel's assessment, the upper limit there shouldn't exceed a Grade 2 Cursed Spirit."
Akira Zenin turned his gaze to Nanami.
"Sounds like the support team was a bit lazy. Did they consider persistence and directionality?"
"Persistence and directionality?"
"Think about it," Akira Zenin said. "Places like schools or hospitals accumulate a huge amount of resentment, right?"
"Right."
"But does all that resentment really come only from students or patients who are currently there? And do students and patients stay in schools or hospitals forever?
"If population were the only factor, you couldn't explain why Cursed Spirits in abandoned hospitals or abandoned schools can still be so strong."
Kento Nanami's pupils shrank.
"So you're saying that even if the mission site is in a remote mountain area, if there's something memorable there, people who've already left might still continue feeding emotions into that place."
"In that case, the upper limit of the Cursed Spirit's grade can't be based solely on the local population."
"Bingo."
Kento Nanami looked toward the driver. Talking to the driver while in transit was usually dangerous, but if it was Kairi Miyu, it was probably fine.
"Supervisor Kairi, are there any notable landmarks in that area?"
"Uh, let me think."
Apparently, the memory wasn't very clear. Kairi started rummaging through her briefcase, steering with just her left hand and her peripheral vision. In the process, she even executed a sharp turn with impressive stability, once again leaving Yu Haibara stunned.
"Found it, found it. Let me see…"
She glanced at the file. "There's an abandoned Ubusunagami Shrine nearby. It was supposed to be developed into a tourist attraction at one point, but the project was shelved."
"Ubusunagami Shrine…"
Kento Nanami leaned back against his seat.
Jujutsu sorcerers were garbage. Killing Cursed Spirits and getting killed themselves were both everyday affairs. Death could come tomorrow, maybe to someone else, maybe to him.
As Satoru Gojo liked to say, you had to keep your head "crazy." In other words, when something sudden struck, you needed to be ready to switch gears instantly.
"So," Nanami muttered, "even though we haven't actually faced a Cursed Spirit yet… Haibara and I just brushed past death again, didn't we."