The taxi pulled up smoothly in front of the gates of Sugisawa Third High School.
Fushiguro Megumi paid, got out carrying the bag of Kikufuku Ayato had shoved at him, and stood looking at what appeared to be a completely unremarkable campus.
His frown kept deepening.
“Hey, Uchiha — you sense the air here, right?” Ayato climbed out the other side, unhurriedly rolling his neck in a long stretch.
Bones cracked pleasantly in a chain.
He narrowed his eyes and did a quick sweep of the school’s main structure.
“Yeah.
Radiating a prickling malice.
The seal on that cursed object has deteriorated badly.” In the eyes of ordinary people, the sky above the school building was a perfectly clear day.
In a sorcerer’s vision, thick, dark-purple cursed energy was slowly circling up there — like a massive spider’s web.
The two of them avoided the crowd and cut through the campus path, making straight for the rugby field where the cursed object was stored.
In a corner of the field stood a small weather station box, paint peeling off its sides.
These boxes were supposed to measure atmospheric data.
Nobody would ever guess one contained cursed objects used for “exorcism.” Fushiguro picked up his pace.
When he saw that the latch on the box had no lock on it, his stomach dropped with a bad feeling.
The next second, he wrenched the box open — Empty.
“Tch!” Fushiguro stared at the bare bottom of the box, face darker than the bottom of a pot.
“The object’s gone!” “Well, what did I say — whatever you’re most afraid of, that’s what shows up.” Ayato walked up, made a show of examining the scene traces, and narrated: “Judging by the evidence, I’d say it wasn’t so much stolen as someone spotted a weird antique-looking thing and just pocketed it as a curiosity.” Fushiguro was already listening with one ear while yanking out his phone to dial the number that gave him a headache.
“Moshi moshi~ That’s me.” Gojo’s insufferable voice came through the line, the background faintly noisy.
“It’s me, Gojo-sensei.” Fushiguro kept his temper pinned down and made his report in a low voice.
“Mission failed.
The object from the weather box at Sugisawa Third High School — it’s no longer here.
The cursed energy trace suggests it was recently handled by someone.” “Oh?
It went missing~” Gojo drawled it out.
You could perfectly picture the grinning face to go with it.
“Well, that makes things interesting!
Maybe Sukuna’s finger wanted to go for a walk?” “That’s not funny at all.
What do we do now?” “What do you mean what do you do?
Find it and bring it back!” Gojo’s voice suddenly jumped up, taking on that completely unreasonable cheerfulness.
“I’ll be very troubled if you come back empty-handed.” “This is a non-optional mission.
If you can’t complete it, you’re not coming back to Tokyo — you two can just stay in Sendai indefinitely.” “Good luck~ I believe in you!” Beep beep beep…
The call was ended unilaterally.
Fushiguro stared at his phone screen.
His white-knuckled grip on it trembled slightly.
The vein at his temple was trying to escape his forehead.
“That guy…” “Easy, easy.” Ayato patted Fushiguro’s shoulder and casually helped himself to one of the Kikufuku from Fushiguro’s pocket, unwrapping it and taking a bite.
“That’s just the strongest sorcerer doing his thing.
But — hunting for one little finger across a search area this big is no small amount of work.” He chewed thoughtfully, glancing around.
“The cursed energy readings in the school are getting stronger by the second, Fushiguro~” “Once Sukuna’s finger leaves its seal, it works like a black hole — pulling every cursed spirit within several kilometers straight to it.
If we don’t find it fast, this place turns into a cursed spirit nursery.” “I know.
You don’t need to tell me.” Fushiguro forced himself to calm down, formed hand seals, and his shadow underfoot began to shift restlessly.
“Uchiha, stop eating Kikufuku.” “Let’s start the search.
Any leads?” “Asking me?” Uchiha Ayato tilted his head, then flicked the empty wrapper neatly into a distant bin.
“Split up.
I’ll check inside the building.
You take the athletics track over there.” “Saw a decent crowd gathering there when we came in.
Something seems to be going on.” At the same time, his hand was already typing at speed inside his pocket, message going out to Gojo Satoru — Get me into the CD signing lottery for sumimi’s Sendai mall event tomorrow.
Tonight’s mission won’t wrap in time.
Ten minutes later.
“That guy’s seriously something else…” Fushiguro Megumi stood at the edge of the athletics track, watching the pink-haired boy not far away chatting easily with upperclassmen — looking completely at ease.
Not long ago, this same person had casually hurled a heavy shot put nearly thirty meters.
The teacher he’d been competing against was still standing frozen in place, unable to process what he’d just seen.
No cursed energy.
Just pure body.
And you could do that?
He’s in the same category as the Zen’in senior.
No question.
Fushiguro had scanned the athletics track with no results.
He shook his head and turned to leave, ready to regroup with Ayato.
At that moment, the school’s main clock ticked past the half-hour mark.
The pink-haired boy seemed to have somewhere he needed to be — he quickly said his goodbyes to the students and teachers around him and shouldered his bag.
An instant later, the boy brushed past Fushiguro in the opposite direction.
In that split second — A thick, stale, crawling-up-from-hell wave of cursed energy, saturated with malice, washed across Fushiguro’s senses.
The cursed object!
And the readings were insane…
Sukuna’s finger — without a doubt!
“Hey!
You in the hoodie!
Stop!” Fushiguro spun around, arm shooting out to grab the pink-haired boy.
But unfortunately, the boy — already muttering something about “Gramps, I’m coming” — was moving like a cannonball that had just left the barrel.
In the blink of an eye he was gone entirely from Fushiguro’s field of vision.
Fushiguro’s outstretched hand hung in midair, catching only the tail end of a breeze.
From a passing student nearby came the verdict: “Did you hear?
That guy runs the 50-meter in three seconds~” “Is he even human?
What a beast — no wonder they call him the Tiger of the West!” Fushiguro Megumi: ???
Fushiguro stood there listening to the two students, feeling his grip on the situation beginning to crack.
“Tch…
what kind of speed is that?” Fushiguro clenched his teeth and yanked out his phone, eyes still nailed to the direction Itadori had vanished.
“Uchiha!
Stop wandering around the building!” “I just ran into someone — the cursed energy density on him is completely insane, the object has to be on him!” “Target bolted outside the school.
Get over here now!” To be continued…