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

"Big brother!"

Seeing the swelling, he suddenly froze on the spot. Xue Tu quickly approached, his eyes filled with worry.

Upon hearing his younger brother's voice, Zhang Xiang finally looked away from the bloodstains on his fingertips, his eyes turning bloodshot, and his entire being instantly filled with rage.

"Damn it, they actually made me attack my brother. I almost killed him just now."

These words were practically squeezed out from between his bulging teeth.

Bloodstained seemed to realize something, but simply stood quietly to the side, doing his job of giving a warning.

"Cough cough—!!"

At this moment, due to his severe injuries, Haddock couldn't help but cough up a mouthful of blood.

"Polygonum cuspidatum!"

Despite the excruciating pain from the poison, Rito staggered toward Itadori.

Upon hearing Huzhang's voice, Zhang Xiang's expression visibly softened.

He turned to face Huzhang, opened his mouth, but couldn't bring himself to say the words "brother".

"Rigoletto, Khajiitsu!"

Meanwhile, seemingly noticing the situation on this side, Fushiguro Kugizaki rushed over from the other side.

However, both of them looked to be in very poor condition. One was poisoned by blood, and the other had exhausted too much energy from developing a half-finished domain, leaving him with less than one-tenth of his original fighting strength.

Bad Guy followed closely behind, suffering some minor injuries. It seems that the combined efforts of the two had still caused him some harm.

At this point, the two sides met again, forming a standoff on either side of the dried-up riverbed.

"Big brother, you..."

Just as Huai Xiang was about to speak, Xue Tu tugged at his arm, interrupting him.

He turned his head and saw Xue Tu make a shushing gesture.

Seeing this, the wicked fellow obediently shut up and stopped asking questions.

The silence lasted for about a minute, then the bulging face opened its mouth.

"I'll let you off this time. I need to go back and verify something."

Zhang Xiang's voice grew softer and softer, and the second half of his sentence sounded more like he was talking to himself.

"Brother, that person's orders..." Huai Xiang was getting anxious.

"Don't worry about it for now."

Mentioning that person, a murderous glint flashed in Zhang Xiang's eyes, almost undisguised.

"Even if he doesn't contact me, I will. I need a proper explanation for this, otherwise..."

The words about the swelling phase were left unsaid, but their meaning was quite clear.

Although Huai Xiang and Xue Tu were worried, they could only nod and follow their elder brother's advice.

"Oh, right." Before leaving, Zhang Xiang suddenly turned to the side, his peripheral vision fixed on the kneeling Hu Zhang.

"Please take care of him. I will apologize to you again next time for what happened."

After saying that, the three left and quickly disappeared from the group's sight.

"Should we go after them?"

Watching the three brothers leave, Kugizaki pressed for an answer.

"No need," Rito shook his head.

Although the process was somewhat tortuous and unexpected, the result was good.

Moreover, judging from their current state, chasing after them would be futile, and might even be considered suicide.

"Let's go back first, treat your injuries, and then report back to school," Rito said.

"Wait a minute." Just as the group was about to leave, Fu Hei suddenly called out to them.

He reached out and groped around for a while, then took something out of his pocket.

"This thing fell out of his body after the cursed spirit was exorcised."

In an instant, an indescribable aura of curse gathered on the dried-up riverbed, a cold wind rose without warning, and even the moonlight dimmed instantly.

"Sukuna's fingers!" Rito frowned, his tone heavy.

Could this finger be one of the ones that the real person stole from the college? But the curse of the Eighty-Eight Bridges has been around for a long time, so it might have been left here a long time ago.

A jumble of thoughts surfaced in Rito's mind, but he quickly suppressed them.

After thinking for a moment, he pondered and said, "I will give Sukuna's finger back to Teacher Gojo, and I will write the report after we get back."

"Yes!" The group nodded in unison.

Although I'm puzzled as to why Zhang Xiang's attitude suddenly changed, now is not the time to delve into it; we'll have to deal with it when we get back.

After confirming the attitudes of his companions, Rito turned around and walked back the way he came.

"Let's go, it's time to go back."

As the car drove away from the Eighty-Eight Bridge, the early winter night had completely fallen.

When the group returned to the college, it was already completely dark.

Shoko Ieiri stood at the school gate, a cigarette dangling from her fingers. She watched as the four people got out of the auxiliary supervision vehicle one by one, her gaze lingering on each of them for a moment.

"Two poisoned, one's curse power depleted, and one's blood loss excessive." She stuffed the cigarette back into her pocket. "Your mission was quite well-organized."

Because the blood poisoning from the swelling was very strong, and because she was worried about the students, she arrived at the school gate early to prevent any accidents from happening.

But seeing how they were doing, I finally felt relieved.

Kugizaki opened her mouth to retort, but the movement pulled at the wound on her left arm, causing her to gasp in pain and swallow the words that were on the tip of her tongue.

Li Ren walked at the back, the toxins slowing his pace a few steps slower than usual.

"Come with me to the infirmary."

Jiaru turned around and walked into the school gate, followed by the others.

Under the treatment of the reversal technique, the injuries of the group recovered quickly.

The family told them to rest in the infirmary for the night, but the manager insisted on leaving, saying he had a mission to complete.

The family couldn't persuade him otherwise, so they had no choice but to let him leave.

After saying goodbye to his companions, Rito headed towards Gojo Satoru's room.

Half a minute later—

"Teacher Gojo!"

As he turned the corner of the corridor, Rihito paused.

Gojo Satoru stood at the end of the corridor, his back against the window, the moonlight outlining his figure in a silver silhouette.

"Oh, it's Rito-kun. Welcome back."

When he saw Rito appear, Gojo Satoru showed no surprise and spoke in his usual relaxed tone.

"Teacher Gojo".

Rito quickly approached and, without saying a word, took out the finger from his person.

"It's Sukuna's finger."

Gojo Satoru took the finger, turned it over at the fingertip, and the moonlight shone on the dry knuckles, reflecting an ominous dark red hue.

"Yes, it's genuine." He tucked his fingers into his sleeve, the movement casual, as if he were receiving an ordinary package.

"Unfortunately, this finger wasn't thrown from the college's warehouse. The grime on it is old, accumulated over at least several years."

Seemingly guessing Rito's question, Gojo Satoru explained to himself.

Li Ren nodded silently.

This assessment was consistent with his previous guess, but hearing Gojo Satoru confirm it himself still put an end to a certain lingering thought in his mind.

"Let's talk about the report tomorrow." Gojo Satoru patted Rito on the shoulder.

"It's getting late, let's go back and rest."

Rito paused for a moment, then swallowed back the words that were on the tip of his tongue.

He vaguely sensed that Gojo-sensei seemed to have something on his mind.

"Riri-kun, don't overthink it. I'm just a little tired."

Gojo Satoru rubbed Rito's head, his tone revealing nothing unusual.

But for some reason, Rito sensed something was off.

Is it because of the rope? He wondered to himself.

"Okay, Mr. Gojo, I'll submit the report on this matter to you tomorrow."

Rito didn't press the matter further. After saying that, he turned and left, leaving Gojo Satoru standing alone at the end of the corridor, staring blankly at the moonlight.

He stood there for a moment, then turned and walked to the other end of the corridor.

The sound of footsteps faded into the distance in the corridor.