Chapter 59: Cursed Womb: Death Painting Arc
Although Larue escaped, the mission was considered complete under the circumstances. The unknown entity and Cursed Spirit were recorded. Based on Kamihara Hajime's description, after identification by specialists in Cursed Spirit origins and prototypes, it was determined that this Cursed Spirit might be a hypothetical Cursed Spirit, and its abilities could be related to the mythological Dream Eater.
This was another Special Grade Cursed Spirit that had never been recorded, which drew some attention. However, it had nothing to do with Kamihara Hajime, who had already completed his mission; others would have to deal with the headache.
Missions related to Curse Masters were still rare. Most of these rats had been hiding for over twenty years, lurking in dark sewers. The occasional encounters were extremely rare compared to the number of Curses.
It was almost summer, and with the unrest among people, the number of Curses had increased significantly. Fortunately, Special Grades were still few, most being around Grade 2 in strength. Everyone at Jujutsu High was very busy, and it had been a while since they had all met up.
Ginza, a high-end office building.
Recently, there had been two fatal cases here, both identical apparent suicides by jumping. There was actually a third person, but he was on a lower floor and fortunately survived. According to his description after regaining consciousness, it felt as if someone was controlling his thoughts at the time, and already emotionally unstable, he vaguely broke the window and jumped.
After the 'Window' observed traces of a Curse here, due to the sensitive location, the task was ultimately handed over to Kamihara Hajime, who was free at Jujutsu High. In a bustling city, without causing a big commotion, and needing to be resolved quickly—even Kamihara Hajime himself felt it was perfectly suited for him.
So he came. The people in the building had been temporarily evacuated, and the reporters downstairs were blocked by the cordon. The victims were from the same company, a major branch of a famous large corporation, so the incident naturally attracted the attention of these quick-to-respond reporters.
Therefore, although the matter was not huge, it was quite important and needed to be resolved quickly. When Kamihara Hajime arrived at the scene, this was the sight he saw: the Police were annoyed by the barrage of questions from reporters carrying cameras and microphones, just repeating the same old lines.
Nobara Kugisaki's smile on her face was almost frozen, and she couldn't get any breaking news from the police officer standing at the cordon. Those cold-faced police officers were like wood, not revealing any information no matter how nicely she spoke.
Thinking about facing the bald editor's spitting rage back at the office, she was furious. That lecherous old man made her teeth itch, but there was nothing she could do. Feeling somewhat discouraged, she even wondered if she should try to pull her collar down a bit to make it easier to get information.
Just then, her photographer called out to her: "Nobara Kugisaki, look! A young man is coming with that police officer. Is he going into the building?"
Hearing this, Nobara Kugisaki looked up. A young man in black clothes and sunglasses was walking alongside the perpetually stern police officer towards the building. The latter's face, usually as hard as marble, incredibly showed a smile as he spoke to the handsome man.
The handsome man must have a scoop! In Nobara Kugisaki's sharp eyes, this person would definitely be very photogenic. Even celebrities, without makeup, might not look as good as this young man. He was clearly related to the Police and this case. If she could interview him for a sentence or two, even if there wasn't much information, just putting it in front of the audience and adding some text and narration would definitely attract a lot of viewers!
Energized, Nobara Kugisaki decisively told her photographer to follow her, clattering on her high heels towards them. But she wasn't the only one who noticed the situation; other media outlets also swarmed over like sharks smelling blood.
Fortunately, she had mastered the art of squeezing through crowds on the subway, and she was also ahead of the pack, which allowed her to successfully push her way to the front. She only had time to tidy her hair before quickly handing over the microphone: "Handsome man! Are you with the Police? Or are you a special person invited by the Police? There are rumors that the building is haunted, what do you think?"
Kamihara Hajime looked at the female reporter who had broken through the cordon of sweating police officers, and the throng of reporters behind her. He also felt a headache coming on. He'd rather face a group of Curses directly. Now he felt like a piece of fresh meat being eyed by a group of zombies outside a barbed wire fence, with those microphones like reaching arms trying to grab him.
Officer Otani was displeased; his smiling face instantly dropped. He urged his subordinates to block these annoying people. Whenever there was an incident, they arrived faster than the Police, focusing only on news scoops without any regard for the consequences they might cause.
Nobara Kugisaki and the other media reporters behind her were only able to get a few front and back photos before being dispersed by the Police. They only stopped once the young man and the officer were out of sight.
"Quick! See if the photos are clear enough. Today's mission depends on this. With some packaging, it might even go viral. People online love to see this kind of thing now." Nobara Kugisaki urged the photographer to check the results, but what the latter said after frantically flipping through the photos, sweating profusely, sent her blood pressure soaring.
"What? You didn't get the shot? How could you make such a rookie mistake? You said you did take it but it's gone? It's not like the ghost in that building came out and deleted what you photographed, right?"
The perpetrator, Kamihara Hajime, entered the building and took off his sunglasses. Officer Otani had escorted him in and then returned. White Wolf trotted in through the sealed side door and, at Kamihara Hajime's instruction, excitedly ran inside.
Thirteenth floor.
Kamihara Hajime was chatting with everyone in the Line chatroom on his phone. In front of him, the much-larger White Wolf was chasing a humanoid Cursed Spirit with no facial features, darting around. The Cursed Spirit tried to escape but was cut off by Kamihara Hajime, who was blocking the doorway. Just by displaying his condensed Cursed Energy, he scared off the Cursed Spirit.
He sent the photos of White Wolf to the group. Since he couldn't capture an image of the Cursed Spirit, there was only the sight of White Wolf foolishly pouncing on air, completely unaware that he had become the topic of idle conversation for a few bored individuals.
"Bang!"
The Cursed Spirit, cornered by White Wolf and with its escape route cut off by Kamihara Hajime, didn't even have a chance to try to break through the wall. Finally, as death constantly approached, it could only break the thick floor-to-ceiling window on the outside of the building, attempting to escape from there.
Kamihara Hajime looked up at the sound and saw the Cursed Spirit break the window and leap out of the room. This was the thirteenth floor, he wondered what would happen if a Cursed Spirit jumped from here. This sudden commotion also attracted the attention of the reporters downstairs who hadn't dispersed yet, but when they looked up to find the source of the sound, they saw nothing.
Time Wheel - Reverse
The shattered glass became an illusion, and the Cursed Spirit reappeared in the room, staring blankly at the intact glass. Its incomplete intelligence couldn't comprehend the sight before it. Before it could make another move, its vision spun upside down and then fell into nothingness.
Kamihara Hajime put Totsuka-no-Tsurugi away, shaking his phone at White Wolf: "Emergency mission, let's go."
West Tokyo City, Eishu Juvenile Detention Center.
"Three hours ago, the 'Window' observed the presence of a Cursed Womb. When 90% of the evacuation was complete, the entire facility was sealed based on the situation on site. Five inmates in the second dormitory are currently still inside with the Cursed Womb."
Ieiri pushed up his glasses, his expression serious: "If the target is a type that can undergo abnormal growth, it might generate a Special Grade Cursed Spirit. Gojo Satoru is on a business trip and temporarily unable to come. The second-year student Kamihara Hajime has already been notified. This line of work is often understaffed, and encountering missions beyond one's capabilities is commonplace, but this situation is both urgent and abnormal."
"Before Genichi-kun arrives, there is only one thing you all need to do: confirm if there are any survivors. If so, rescue them as much as possible."
"Absolutely no fighting! If you encounter a Special Grade Cursed Spirit, there are only two options: run or die. I repeat, your goal is to confirm survivors. You must avoid encountering and fighting a Special Grade Cursed Spirit. Reinforcements will arrive soon!"
Yuji Itadori listened obediently to Ieiri, then raised his hand to ask: "Um… how are Cursed Spirits graded? I still don't understand what Special Grade means."
After Ieiri briefly explained it to him, Yuji Itadori showed a look of realization: "Oh! So that means the second-year senior is very strong?"
Megumi Fushiguro calmly said: "Jujutsu High currently has only three Special Grade Sorcerers. One is Gojo Satoru, another is Yuta Okkotsu who is temporarily abroad, and finally, Genichi."
Nobara Kugisaki also didn't expect that the second-year senior she had met once would be a Special Grade Sorcerer. Unlike Yuji Itadori, she had some understanding of the Jujutsu World, with her knowledge coming from her grandmother back home.
Ieiri added: "Genichi-kun has had several experiences of single-handedly exorcising Special Grade Cursed Spirits. This mission probably won't be a problem for him. However, the incident happened suddenly, and he is currently on another mission, so it will take him some time to get here. Therefore… everyone, please be extra careful!"
"No problem! Then we'll do our best!" Yuji Itadori said with great enthusiasm. Megumi Fushiguro and Nobara Kugisaki were not as optimistic as he was. Nobara Kugisaki silently grumbled in her heart: This idiot, Special Grade Cursed Spirits are not comparable to low-grade ones. This mission is extremely dangerous, even if it's just searching for survivors within it…
"Masao… is my son alright?!"
An ordinary woman frantically pushed past the blockade personnel, her face etched with the marks of life, showing unreserved worry and fear. Ieiri stepped forward to explain: "There might have been unknown individuals releasing toxic gas inside. That's all I can tell you. We are organizing personnel to enter and conduct rescue operations."
Watching the mother, who couldn't stop crying, Yuji Itadori's expression became resolute: "We must rescue everyone. Fushiguro, Nobara Kugisaki…"
"Got it."
The three stepped through the gate, heading towards the cursed land.
Megumi Fushiguro summoned his Jade Hounds to scout and search ahead. As the three entered the building, they suddenly found that the interior was not a two-story dormitory building, but an apartment-style building with five or six stories. Looking back, the entrance they had just come through was gone, replaced by a wall covered with pipes.
"This is… a domain created with Cursed Energy! It's the first time I've seen one this large-scale…"
Megumi Fushiguro already felt a bad premonition. Yuji Itadori and Nobara Kugisaki, seeing the entrance gone, were both a bit flustered, as this concerned their future evacuation and survival. Megumi Fushiguro, seeing this, could only explain: "My Jade Hounds remembered the scent of the entrance. This place has only changed its environment; the entrance hasn't disappeared out of thin air. After we find people, you can follow the Jade Hounds to evacuate from the entrance."
"Oh, oh! What good dogs!"
Looking at the two who weren't very nervous, Megumi Fushiguro couldn't help but feel a bit speechless. After Yuji Itadori finished petting the Jade Hounds, he turned to praise Megumi Fushiguro: "Thanks to Fushiguro, the people inside should be saved, and I was saved by you too, haha…"
Megumi Fushiguro's expression was somewhat inexplicable. The three then moved further inside, and soon after, they saw a tragic scene in a spacious room.
There were probably three bodies there. Two vaguely discernible human-shaped, twisted spherical objects on the ground were identified by their approximate limbs and tattered clothes. The only relatively intact one was half a person leaning against the wall. Its upper body was mostly intact, with only some blood below the mouth and nose, which was much better compared to the tragic state of the others.
Yuji Itadori silently went up to examine the relatively intact deceased. On his clothes, he saw his name—Okazaki Masao. This was… that woman's son.
"I'm taking his body out. This is that person's son."
Hearing Yuji Itadori's words, Megumi Fushiguro walked over, grabbed him by the back of his collar, and pulled him up: "We still need to confirm the lives of two other people. Don't worry about the body for now."
"But there's no way back if we turn around, we can't come back…"
Megumi Fushiguro said word by word: "It's not about coming back later, it's about forgetting it!"
"These aren't people we particularly wanted to save anyway. If they're dead, there's even less need to waste power."
Yuji Itadori, suppressing his anger, grabbed Megumi Fushiguro's collar. The latter's expression remained unchanged: "This is a juvenile detention center. Didn't you read the intel? Okazaki Masao, driving without a license, hit and killed a schoolgirl after school, and this was his second time driving without a license."
"Are you going to save everyone you meet? What will you do if the person you save kills someone in the future?"
Just as the two were about to argue, Nobara Kugisaki ran over from the side: "I say! You two should pick the right time and place to argue, okay?!"
Following the direction indicated by Nobara Kugisaki, the group saw the White Jade Hound, dead and sealed within the wall with only its head exposed. A shocked Megumi Fushiguro's heart sank to the bottom; he hadn't detected the Shikigami's death at all. Such a swift, silent kill…
And at this moment, a black hole appeared beneath Nobara Kugisaki's feet. Unprepared, she instantly fell into it. Megumi Fushiguro turned and shouted to Yuji Itadori: "Run! We'll look for her later…"
Before he finished speaking, a terrifying aura enveloped them both. Something… had descended upon this place!
With difficulty, they shifted their gaze to the entity that appeared behind them. It was a powerfully built humanoid monster, with a gaping mouth almost devoid of lips, and eyes located on strip-like protrusions on its head. Just by standing next to them, its terrifying aura pressed down on them, rendering them almost unable to move.
"No mistake, it's definitely a Special Grade! Is this the pressure of a Special Grade?!"
Yuji Itadori, eyes wide with fury, was suddenly approached by this unknown Special Grade Cursed Spirit. Struggling with all his might, he finally regained some mobility. He raised the cursed tool, 'Slaughter Demon', that Gojo Satoru had given him for a previous mission and unhesitatingly brought it down on the Cursed Spirit.
But then he felt his hand lighten, and the Slaughter Demon, split in two, fell to the ground. A familiar hand was still on the hilt.
"Wasn't that my own hand? When did it…"
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