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

"June, Morioka Kaneda Taichi; August, Yokohama Shimada Kasa; September, Nagoya Yamato Hiroshi."

"The three of them died in almost identical ways!"

On the city's elevated highway, assistant supervisor Akira Nitta sat in the driver's seat.

While driving, he reported the cursed spirit murder incident to Rito, Itadori, and others in the back seat.

"Coincidentally, they were all stabbed to death by the cursed spirits at the entrance of their own apartment buildings."

"And starting weeks before their deaths, they complained to the property management company about the same problem—the automatic door at the entrance was always open."

"But other residents have never encountered such a situation."

Holding a tactical tablet, Fuhei asked with some doubt, "But the dates and locations are too far apart. Could it really have been done by the same cursed spirit?"

"Um... is the automatic door staying open related to the cursed spirit? Can cursed spirits be detected by sensors? I remember that cameras and the like shouldn't be very useful, right?"

Itadori leaned over from the back seat, his gaze fixed on the file folder in Nitta Akira's hand, and then asked three questions in quick succession.

"It's not the sensor..." Nitta Akira said, "The automatic door malfunctioned due to the influence of the cursed spirit."

"Oh~" Huzhang seemed to understand but not quite.

"Then, regarding the question of whether it was the same cursed spirit that did it," Nitta Akira answered Fushiguro's question.

"We can't be sure just from the remnants, after all, so much time has passed."

"So, we investigated what these three people had in common and found that they had all attended the same junior high school for two years."

"If that's the case, it's very likely that these three people have all encountered the same curse, which is only now taking effect?" Kugizaki said thoughtfully, stroking his chin.

"Yes, that's very likely." Akira Nitta agreed with Kugizaki's statement. "So our destination for this trip is that junior high school."

"We've already used all the previous investigative methods. This time, we hope you'll conduct the investigation from the perspective of a sorcerer."

"You're amazing, Kugizaki." Itadori exclaimed dramatically.

"Hehe, of course." Kugizaki accepted Itadori's praise without any hesitation.

Fu Hei stood in the middle, speechless.

"A new cursed spirit incident...?"

Rito leaned against the car window, the cold glass pressing against his temples, ignoring his companions' playful antics.

The first part is similar.

He repeated the name in his mind.

The original plot is still clear.

Three victims, the entrance to the same apartment building, an automatic door that keeps opening but no one ever passes through.

The source of the curse, however, lies beneath the Eighty-Eight Bridges.

Beneath the bridge lies the corrupted form and bloodstains of the Nine Phases of the Cursed Fetus Diagram, and perhaps even the bloated form is there.

Although it wasn't mentioned in the original work, what I experienced was no longer the original story, but a real event that actually happened.

In the original story, after Itadori and his two companions tracked down the clues and found the place, they were ambushed by them.

After a fierce battle, they finally won.

But now...

"Although the third part of the Nine Phases of the Cursed Embryo Diagram was still stolen by the real person, the process was quite different."

Will there be any unexpected events this time?

Li Ren gently shook his head.

He didn't know, and couldn't even predict, what would happen this time.

"Sigh, the best solution would be to decline the assignment, but ultimately someone still has to carry it out."

"I'm not going, but Itadori, Fushiguro, and Kugizaki are still going."

"The plot has changed because of my intervention. If I don't go, I'll definitely regret it if something unexpected happens."

Thinking it over, Rito suppressed all those chaotic thoughts.

"Forget it, since we're already here, why bother thinking about this? Even if Zhang Xiang and the other two show up together, the four of us aren't without a chance of winning."

"There's nothing to worry about."

About half an hour later, Akira Nitta drove his car to the gate of a middle school.

"There should be something to find in this school, right?"

Standing at the school gate, Huzhang looked up and muttered something under his breath.

"I hope so." Nitta Akira nodded. "Anyway, I've already made an appointment with the teachers at the school, so I'll go and ask them first."

After saying that, she started walking towards the school.

Several people followed closely behind.

"Oh?" Kugizaki suddenly made a strange sound.

Rito's eyes flickered, and he followed her gaze.

Two delinquent teenagers were squatting in the corner of the corridor, smoking and looking annoyed.

Kugizaki jogged over, saying, "Those two guys should know something. Let's beat them up first and then ask them."

"Huh?" Itadori looked puzzled. "That violent?"

"What are you whispering about? Are you looking down on us?"

Noticing that Kugizaki and his group seemed to be pointing and whispering about them, the two delinquents stood up, their expressions becoming even more impatient.

"Um..." Itari stepped forward, just about to say something.

Unexpectedly, the two thugs' expressions changed drastically in an instant, their bodies stiffening as if they had seen something terrifying: "We're so sorry to have startled you!"

"Oh, isn't that quite sensible?"

"You were scared by me? I'm so sorry."

Seeing the two delinquents bowing at a ninety-degree angle, Kugizaki and Itadori immediately looked satisfied.

But the next second—

"It's been a long time since we graduated, Fushiguro-senpai."

Click!

Kugizaki and Itadori froze instantly, and a faint cracking sound could be heard in the air.

The two turned their heads to look.

Suddenly, Fu Hei turned around, his back to everyone, as if he had encountered something shameful.

"My...middle school...is here."

"What?!" Itadori Kugizaki and the other person rushed over instantly.

"While that's surprising, that's not the point!" Kugizaki grabbed Fushiguro's shoulder and shook him repeatedly.

"What did you do? What did you do in junior high?" Huzhang grabbed Fu Hei's head, trying to make him turn around.

"Oh! I almost forgot, it's faster to ask them."

Suddenly, as if enlightened, Huzhang turned to look at the two delinquents.

"Um... all the delinquents and thugs near this middle school have been beaten up by Senior Fukuro."

"Hmm..." Fuhei nodded with difficulty, seemingly regarding this experience as a dark chapter in his life.

"Why are you hesitating about this? Look over here!!"

After a brief pause, the two continued arguing about Fu Hei.

Watching the three of them playfully frolicking, Rito stood aside with a smile on his lips.

Suddenly, an old voice came from afar.

"Hey! You guys, people from other schools can't just come in like that."

Soon, an elderly man dressed in school janitor's uniform walked over from a distance, looking at Li Ren and the others with dissatisfaction in his tone.

"Who do you think you are, yelling at me like that!" Kugizaki said with a displeased expression.

Itadori secretly tugged at Kugizaki's sleeve, looking utterly exasperated: "Hey, hey, he's a school janitor, right? Why are you acting so arrogant?"

Akira Nitta stepped forward and explained, "Hello, we have already received our admission permission, please don't mind."

Upon hearing the words "school admission permit," the old man's expression gradually softened.

"Oh, it's you guys. You're quite young."

Prior to this, someone had told the elderly man that several professionals were coming to investigate the case.

"You want to ask about Kaneda, Shimada, and Yamato, right?"

Rito nodded and continued, "Yes, if you have any leads on them, please be sure to tell us."

The old man nodded, showing no resistance.

"Although they were all troubled youths, they were ultimately just ordinary students. It's such a pity that they passed away like this."

"Excuse me, do you know of any strange rumors or bizarre stories about this school?" Akira Nitta asked from the side.

"Strange rumors?" the old man repeated, his head bowed as if deep in thought.

"Wait, if we're talking about retribution..."

"You mean that one? The bungee jumping at the Eighty-Eight Bridges?" a delinquent suddenly asked.

Eighty-eight Bridges!

Upon hearing this word, Li Ren felt a chill run down her spine.

coming!