In the car heading to the mission site, Kugisaki rested her chin on one hand, looking at the scenery passing by the window and complaining.
"I didn't expect Itadori to still be alive. Gojo-sensei kept us in the dark all this time."
Megumi Fushiguro tried to rationalize Satoru Gojo's decision, attempting to explain.
"After all, the Higher-Ups have always maintained the stance of executing Itadori immediately. Hiding the fact that he's still alive avoids a lot of trouble."
"Maybe that was the original plan," Kugisaki said, taking out her phone and refreshing new posts on X. Occasionally, she saw posts that hadn't been deleted yet—the ones that slipped through the cracks—featuring short videos of Itadori leaping into the sky. "He's completely famous now, isn't he? They can't delete the posts fast enough. I'm afraid he'll soon become some kind of urban legend. Could that even give birth to a Cursed Spirit?"
But besides the posts about Itadori, in an inconspicuous spot on the rankings, there was also a news post titled: Signs of activity detected at Mount Miharayama for the first time in thirty years.
Although Megumi Fushiguro wasn't looking at his phone, even he had known about this before Satoru Gojo brought Itadori back, which showed how much impact it had.
"Gojo-sensei said the Higher-Ups are exceptionally furious about this. More than hiding Itadori's survival, they're even more dissatisfied with the display of supernatural power in front of ordinary people. It attracted too much public attention all at once. Plus, the mission they were on happened to involve a 'Cursed Spirit' that ordinary people could see. The cinema surveillance footage was posted online and went viral, causing the spread of negative emotions to spiral out of control. It's already considered a major incident."
After all, this was the world of jujutsu. Reducing the impact of incidents on ordinary people and preventing curses from spreading further was the first thing a Jujutsu Sorcerer needed to consider. Otherwise, curses would only grow stronger. This was why it was crucial for Jujutsu Sorcerers to cast a Veil when on a mission to minimize the incident's impact.
Kugisaki thought for a moment and asked Megumi Fushiguro, "That Jujutsu Sorcerer who went on the mission with Itadori... I heard he died a gruesome death. But he was a Grade 1 Jujutsu Sorcerer, right? Even a Grade 1 Jujutsu Sorcerer couldn't handle it?"
"You mean Senior Nanami. Senior Nanami was Gojo-sensei's junior. I've been on a mission with him before. He was very strong, so I didn't expect something like this to happen."
Akira Nitta, who had been focused on driving, couldn't help but speak up at this point.
"There have been quite a few casualties lately. Not long ago, Senior Ijichi went missing, and now Mr. Nanami has been sacrificed. It hasn't even been a month between the two."
Although they usually talked about how dangerous a Jujutsu Sorcerer's job was, it was only in situations like this that it felt real.
But from Megumi Fushiguro's perspective, it was more than that. It should be counted from when Itadori swallowed Sukuna's Finger, or even the incident with the Special Grade Cursed Spirit at the Juvenile Detention Center.
This year has been particularly restless. Last year, it was just the usual shortage of manpower, without such extreme situations as this year.
After Akira Nitta finished speaking, a long silence fell over the car.
On the way, they passed the stretch of road where Jogo and Satoru Gojo had fought their massive battle. Even today, it hadn't been fully repaired, with only half the lanes open for single-lane traffic.
Thus, the three of them finally arrived at the mission destination, a detached building located in the suburbs.
After parking the car, Akira Nitta repeated the known intelligence about this mission to Megumi Fushiguro and Kugisaki once more.
"From what we know so far, this was originally a small hotel-style guesthouse. A staff member who doesn't live on-site noticed yesterday afternoon when coming to work that the owner and the colleagues who were supposed to be on shift had disappeared. After the police investigation yielded no results, it was handed over to the 'Window' for investigation. The two 'Window' members responsible for the investigation also vanished mysteriously. However, the Cursed Energy and Cursed Residue emitted from the building are abnormally low, almost giving the feeling of being insulated from Cursed Energy."
But what Akira Nitta was saying was less like intelligence and more like the current information being practically zero.
Aside from the fact that the target causes mysterious disappearances and the abnormal Cursed Energy reaction at the location, leading to the judgment that it might be a space-related issue, there was no other useful information.
Akira Nitta sighed and added, "It seems that because of that incident with Itadori earlier, the number of curse incidents near Tokyo has been skyrocketing recently. Currently, you are the only ones at Jujutsu High who have time to handle new incidents. For now, this mission is tentatively set at Grade 2, but because the intelligence is incomplete, we can't rule out the possibility of it being Grade 1 danger. So, your primary focus is investigation. Only proceed with exorcism once you've confirmed the danger level is low. Understand?"
Despite the sigh, Akira Nitta spoke very seriously. A shortage of Jujutsu Sorcerers was the norm, but if even the first-years like them were sacrificed, it would be a truly unbearable price.
"Understood."
"Got it."
Hearing their serious replies, Akira Nitta immediately began the incantation.
"Emerge from darkness, blacker than black; purify all that is wretched and cursed."
A black Veil instantly enveloped the entire building.
"Divine Dog: Totality."
Megumi Fushiguro immediately summoned the Divine Dog and entered the Veil with Kugisaki.
Megumi Fushiguro had the Divine Dog go ahead to conduct the first round of investigation with its extraordinary sense of smell. After Divine Dog: Totality sniffed the main door for a few seconds, it turned its head to look at Megumi Fushiguro, essentially indicating that it hadn't found anything unusual.
Then, Megumi Fushiguro and Kugisaki stepped forward together. The two humans and one dog looked at each other, pulled open the door, and entered at the same time.
What appeared before Megumi Fushiguro's eyes was just a very normal, minimalist interior decoration. Even the items in the room were neatly arranged, not looking like anything abnormal had happened.
But after entering the interior, Megumi Fushiguro could clearly feel the concentration of Cursed Energy rising.
"You investigate further using your sense of smell. Kugisaki, you come with me to investigate the other side of the room," Megumi Fushiguro said, then suddenly noticed something wrong and turned his head to the right. "Kugisaki...?"
...
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