Curse Returns, a gamble from the start, I awaken dual spells

The college's magical artifact warehouse is hidden deep in the back mountains. Above ground, there is only a double iron gate; the rest is buried in the soil and within a barrier.

The administrator in charge of night patrols is named Yamada, is fifty-two years old, and has worked at the vocational high school for seventeen years.

He wasn't a sorcerer, just a quasi-assistant supervisor who could see cursed spirits. In his youth, he had fantasized about exorcising cursed spirits with a knife.

Later, recognizing his talent, he quietly became a warehouse keeper.

"It's so quiet today."

Yamada shifted his gaze from the surveillance camera to the empty playground in the distance, through the thick bulletproof glass.

"Oh dear, I almost forgot, today is the day of the exchange meeting with Kyoto high schools. It seems that my memory is getting worse as I get older."

Yamada slapped his forehead, looking as if he had just realized something.

Drop drop drop-

The patrol alarm clock rang precisely at noon.

"It's time for patrol. I've finished my work, and now I need to take a good nap."

"Oh right, I promised my wife I'd be home early tonight, she said she had some kind of surprise for me, I'm really looking forward to it."

Thinking of his wife smiling as she saw him off at the door today, Yamada couldn't suppress a smile.

He reached out and turned off the alarm clock, then stood up and stretched his back.

Then he went outside and headed towards the cursed item warehouse.

In the past, patrol work was carried out by Yamada. Although it was a bit troublesome to patrol the entire area around the warehouse, it was safer.

After all, this is the territory of a highly skilled sorcerer, and those dangerous cursed spirits would never be able to come here.

"Huh? Why does it feel colder around here?"

Shortly after leaving the house, Yamada tucked his fingers into his collar.

The weather forecast said it would get colder today, but the temperature shouldn't be this low right now.

Sensing something was wrong, Yamada stopped and looked around warily.

"If there is a reaction from the cursed object, the main control room will notify you. You just need to check the status of the door lock and the barrier node."

This was what a senior colleague said to Yamada on his first day at work.

As it turns out, what the senior said was right.

After all, nothing has happened here in the past seventeen years.

"Maybe I'm overthinking it. This is a high school of sorcery; how could anything happen here?"

Yamada chuckled, shook his head, and continued walking forward.

"It must be tough working here all by yourself."

Just then, a curious voice suddenly rang out from behind Yamada.

The voice sounded like it was greeting someone, but also like it was talking to itself.

Upon hearing the voice, Yamada froze, turning around stiffly like a puppet.

Less than five steps away, there stood a person, a person whose body was covered in stitches.

The sutures on his face stretched from the corners of his mouth to the roots of his ears, and then across his nose from his brow bone, as if forcibly splicing together different facial features.

The sutures continued downwards until they covered the person's entire body.

"Who...who are you!?"

Yamada took a step back, his voice trembling uncontrollably.

He had been in this school for seventeen years and had seen many remnants of cursed spirits, but he had never been so close to such a thing, face to face.

That malice, just by looking at it, made his body tremble uncontrollably.

Instead of answering Yamada's question, Masato took a step forward.

With that single, light step, at a speed Yamada could not comprehend, he arrived before him.

The next second, the real person extended a finger and pressed the fingertip against his forehead.

"Don't be afraid, it will be quick."

In that instant, Yamada's body froze.

Then it twists, expands, and in just one second, it becomes a deformed monster with twisted limbs.

"It's boring."

The real man shook his head and reached into Yamada's shirt pocket.

He quickly produced an access card.

"This place is boring, let's grab our things and leave quickly."

The real person shook his head and then walked towards the door of the cursed item warehouse.

The cursed artifact warehouse was buried deep in the back mountain, with only an iron gate on the surface. It didn't take the real person long to stand in front of the iron gate.

"I think... that's how it's used, right?"

The person held the access card in their hand for a moment, then stuck it to the sensor window of the iron gate.

Opening the iron gate reveals a downward-sloping passageway, with a constantly lit magic lamp embedded every five steps.

The light cast a long shadow on the real man, trailing behind his feet.

The real person did not hide their whereabouts.

His feet echoed evenly on the concrete floor, and he occasionally glanced to the sides, as if he were strolling through a museum.

"Sukuna's fingers..." Makoto's gaze swept back and forth across the doors on both sides.

His eyes lit up quickly, "Found it!"

It was an unnumbered room, but the color of the door paint was noticeably different from the other doors.

It's red!

drop!

The person swiped their card again and then quickly went inside.

The room behind the door was not large, with wooden latticework for sealing embedded in three of the walls.

On the left side, in the third row from the top of the wooden grid, are six dark purple fingers, each wrapped with three layers of talisman paper.

These fingers vary in thickness and length, but their only common feature is their sharp nails and twisted knuckles, as if they had been burned in a fire and buried in ashes for a long time.

"Sukuna's fingers." The real man picked up one and weighed it in his palm.

"Xia You said the remaining magical power inside is enough to attract a large number of cursed spirits, but..."

The man put his fingers in his pocket and walked to the wooden lattice on the right.

Nine glass jars of different sizes were neatly arranged in a row in front of me.

Under the cold light of the magic lamp, the contents of the jar appeared in varying shades of dark red.

Some of them already have a vaguely discernible human outline, while others are just a huddled, dark shadow.

"The Nine Phases Diagram... it's time to let you out for some fresh air."

The man chuckled, then flicked the side of the can with his finger, producing a short, crisp sound.

After he finished speaking, he took the glass jars out of the sealing cabinet one by one, his movements unhurried and deliberate.

I always check the label before taking it, just like getting medicine from a prescription at a pharmacy.

But the next second, his hand stopped.

At the same time, the magic lamps in the entire room began to flicker on and off.

"It seems that Rihito-kun's concerns were indeed justified."

Upon hearing this, the real person froze for a second, then slowly turned their head to look.

There stood Gojo Satoru at the entrance to the storage room.

He had his hands in his pockets, and his ever-present black eye patch covered the upper half of his face. His slightly long white hair looked somewhat dazzling under the flashing lights.

"Good evening." Gojo Satoru's tone was as relaxed as usual.

The man placed the glass jar on the table next to him and turned to face him.

"It's Gojo Satoru." When he called out that name, the smile on his face didn't diminish; instead, it deepened.

"Wouldn't it be more fun to turn you into a toy than Rito-chan?"

"Oh?" Gojo Satoru tilted his head, then chuckled softly. "Then let's give it a try!"