Kamo Shizumi pushed open the revolving door and entered the lobby of the hospital’s outpatient department.
He expressionlessly looked around before turning into the men’s restroom in a corner.
Seeing his pale, frightened face reflected in the mirror, he hurriedly splashed some water on his face…
Holy shit!!!
‘Why is Kamo Noritoshi here?!’
Considering which side he had chosen and all the various problems that might arise in the future, Kamo Shizumi had theoretically already accepted the current situation.
But encountering something like this was still inevitably nerve-racking…
After all, although Kamo Noritoshi looked rather weak in the original storyline (meaning Kenjaku toyed with him, Choso scared him badly, and Naoya nearly crushed him)…
He was still, at the very least, a Semi-Grade 1 sorcerer.
Fighting him would still be like hitting a speed bump.
Honestly, Kamo Shizumi should have run away the moment he saw him.
But in reality, by the time he noticed Kamo Noritoshi, the distance between the two of them was already only a dozen or so meters.
Showing even the slightest sign of panic could easily expose that something was wrong, so he was better off forcing himself to stay calm and seeing the act through to the end.
Judging from the result, he had fortunately made the right gamble.
‘First, calm down.
Although we just passed each other, he did not react at all.
That means Kamo Noritoshi probably did not notice anything unusual about me.’
To be honest, there was far too little information about being half-human and half-cursed spirit.
Without experiencing it personally, Kamo Shizumi had no way of accurately judging the specifics of his own condition.
As for the situation right now, at least he had obtained a useful point of reference…
Before he actively used cursed energy, Kamo Shizumi should be indistinguishable from an ordinary person.
‘Hanami has already infiltrated underground and started recovering the finger.
It should not take too long.’
Because Hanami was a plant-based cursed spirit, it could easily conceal itself and escape quickly without making a move.
In the original work, it had even managed to sneak one over on Gojo and rescue Jogo, taking both the man and his head away right in front of him.
When it came to running away, Hanami was undeniably an expert.
Thus, after calming down, Kamo Shizumi quickly reached a conclusion and sorted out the entire chain of events.
‘I understand…
Although we can encounter each other, as long as Hanami does not want to cause trouble, the two sides can completely operate separately, avoiding any conflict without coming into contact with each other.’
After all, recovering the finger was the objective, and Hanami’s ability to carry out its orders was beyond question.
Fundamentally, this part of the plot should also have unfolded in this order…
The two sides had no opportunity to meet, which was why the exchange event would become their true “first meeting.”
And Kamo Shizumi had obtained information that was, in a literal sense, closer to that of an ordinary person.
That was equally crucial.
Good enough.
He had gained quite a lot.
All that remained was to safely bring the finger back, then think about everything else…
Uh, but wait.
Kamo Shizumi suddenly interrupted his own train of thought.
He abruptly raised his head and stared directly at himself in the mirror.
He went over his thoughts again from the beginning…
Because he suddenly felt that he might have overlooked something.
His thoughts continuously churned, gathering together everything that had happened yesterday before combining it with the current situation.
Finally, as though he had remembered something, Kamo Shizumi slightly opened his mouth.
There it was.
That was the problem!
‘Kenjaku was the one who arranged this job for me…’
That was right.
Prison Mom had deliberately assigned Kamo Shizumi to accompany Hanami.
On one hand, it was to familiarize him with the process of carrying out missions.
On the other, it could naturally be interpreted as targeted training.
Then…
How should he interpret what Kenjaku had said over the phone?
‘Although it might sound a little exaggerated, is it possible that this was deliberately arranged by Kenjaku?’
He had deliberately assigned him to accompany the seemingly most dull-witted, yet easiest-to-get-along-with cursed spirit.
And then they happened to encounter a student from Kyoto Jujutsu High…
A coincidence.
That was certainly a possibility.
However, considering Kenjaku’s calculating personality and his extremely twisted values, Kamo Shizumi had reason to believe that if he performed too ordinarily and inconspicuously, the other party might even have some other twisted methods and arrangements waiting for him…
Of course, this could also just be his imagination running wild.
But an opportunity to make a choice had appeared before Kamo Shizumi.
Should he take the initiative to change something and seize this opportunity to become stronger?
Or should he obediently follow the plot and see whether there were any other opportunities to continue “milking the system”?
To be honest…
The latter was safer.
But he could not ignore the variable that was Kenjaku…
All he could say was that Prison Mom really was the strictest father of the Death Painting Wombs.
When it came to pushing his children to improve, he was simply too authoritative.
After thinking it over repeatedly, Kamo Shizumi finally made his decision.
Looking at himself in the mirror, he took a deep breath before raising both hands and gently pressing them against the sides of his cheeks.
Applying a little force, Kamo Shizumi squeezed his cheeks and muttered as if talking to himself.
‘Since I am already here, I have to hurry up and become stronger…’
After all, if he was too cowardly and Kenjaku judged him to be a failed product, and then pulled some kind of energy-recycling stunt on him, he would truly have nowhere to cry.
Do not underestimate it.
With that kind of shell around him, Kenjaku really could grind him down and turn him into a whirlpool…
As he thought about this, a rough plan soon emerged in his mind.
…
At the entrance of the hospital, Kamo Noritoshi was scrolling through the messages on his phone while quietly waiting for the other two to arrive.
The Kamo family’s private driver was already waiting.
From the outside, the black luxury seven-seater revealed nothing about its interior and appeared extremely understated and reserved.
—Surely those two would not be late?
As he thought this, Kamo Noritoshi seemed to notice something.
His eyebrows rose slightly as he suddenly turned his head.
It was coming from the direction of the inpatient building.
As if he had been drawn by something, he revealed a slightly puzzled expression.
He raised his hand and tapped on the driver’s window.
“Wait here for me once they arrive. I will be back shortly…”
With that, he broke into a light jog.
As mentioned earlier, the hospital itself occupied a considerable area.
Kamo Noritoshi ran for nearly five hundred meters before approaching the vicinity of his destination.
However…
The closer he got, the more tightly his brows furrowed.
As though he had discovered something strange, he stopped beside a flower bed.
He raised his hand and casually jabbed at a black shadow flying through the air.
Pop.
A mosquito no bigger than a fingernail instantly burst apart.
Blood mixed within it splattered silently onto the ground.
It was blood.
If that had been all, it would not have been worth paying attention to.
What truly caught Kamo Noritoshi’s attention was the residual cursed energy contained within the blood.
Blood containing cursed energy…
There was a subtle yet familiar sensation to it that immediately aroused his intense curiosity.
But before he could finish thinking, a tall, pale figure emerged from behind the wall beneath the nearby steps.
Hanami silently walked past.
Right under Kamo Noritoshi’s nose.