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

"It's cold as expected."

When the Shinkansen came to a stop at Kyoto Station, the cold wind of early winter blew in from the platform, dissipating most of the warmth that the air conditioners had provided throughout the journey.

Rito zipped his jacket up to his chin, muttered something, and stepped onto the platform with a sports bag containing only a few changes of clothes and a file folder.

The address given by Ankagi is in Kita Ward, Kyoto City, an independent facility belonging to Kyoto Jujutsu High School.

Last night, Gojo Satoru replied to my message, saying that he had already made arrangements, and added at the end: "That girl is in a bad mood lately, so don't be scared back if you go."

Li Ren smiled, then put away his phone and hailed a taxi.

The car drove through the city and stopped at the bottom of a quiet slope in the northern part of the city.

After paying the fare, Li Ren walked up the slope and soon stopped in front of an iron gate.

The sign on the door read "Kyoto Prefectural Higher Specialized School of Jujutsu - Branch Office," with the font so small it seemed deliberately designed to prevent passersby from seeing it clearly.

"There should be someone here by now."

Liren pushed the door open and found it wasn't locked.

Without any hesitation, he pushed open the fence and went straight in.

He walked around a two-story office building and stopped in front of an open space.

In the center of the open space, a woman stood there, dressed in a red and white shrine maiden outfit, her long hair tied back with a plain-colored ribbon.

She held a wooden sword in both hands, and in front of her was a row of training stakes, their surfaces covered with crisscrossing knife marks and scorch marks.

Ankagi, Gojo Satoru's junior sister, is a sorcerer at the Kyoto Academy.

Before coming here, Li Ren had seen her information in the file.

As Rito watched Ankahime swing her wooden sword, leaving a trail of afterimages, he stood still and remained silent.

His intuition told him that interrupting someone who was venting their emotions with a wooden sword was not a wise choice at that moment.

Not long after, the songstress put away her sword, leaned the wooden sword against the wooden stake, and pulled a handkerchief from her sleeve to wipe the sweat from her forehead.

"You're Sato Rihito?"

She turned around, her gaze falling on Rito, and looked him up and down.

"Yes, Mr. Gojo should have mentioned it beforehand," Rito replied.

The songstress nodded, then tucked the handkerchief back into her sleeve, her tone ambiguous, neither welcoming nor unwelcoming.

"The matter with Kokichi will be handled by the Kyoto school itself; there's no need for anyone from the Tokyo school to get involved."

The person in charge did not move.

The early winter wind blew through the pine and cypress forest, causing the hair on his forehead to sway slightly.

He had anticipated this reaction. The songstress was Yukichi's teacher, and it would be abnormal if she handed over her student's position without saying a word.

"What if I insist?"

The songstress's gaze turned cold.

"For the sake of you being Gojo Satoru's student, leave here immediately. This has nothing to do with you."

Rito was silent for a moment, then said in a deep voice, "Yukichi will die."

The songstress's body trembled, and she turned to stare intently at Rito.

"What did you say?"

"If we leave him alone, he will die at the hands of the cursed spirit." Rito's tone was not exaggerated at all, as if he were stating a fact that had already been written.

"According to the information I found, he was dealing with two top-tier cursed spirits."

"Even if his body is healed, he has no hope of surviving against two top-tier cursed spirits."

The songstress remained silent, staring intently at Rito's face for a long time, seemingly trying to determine the truthfulness of his words.

The wind suddenly picked up in the open space, whipping up the wood chips that had been split off next to the stake, which rolled around on the ground a few times before falling back down.

She suddenly turned around, walked to the stone bench next to the open space, and sat down.

Seeing this, Rito secretly breathed a sigh of relief, put his gym bag at his feet, and sat down opposite her.

"I can cooperate with you, but before we begin, I need to ask you a question."

"How much do you know about Kokichi?"

Li Ren did not answer immediately.

The songstress is Yukichi's teacher, and her understanding of Yukichi is far deeper than any file.

She asked this question perhaps with a deeper meaning.

"Heaven has ordained me," Rito said.

"Born without a right hand and limbs below the knees, skin unable to withstand sunlight, and no sensation below the waist."

"As a price, the range of the cursed power output covers the entire Japan, and the technique is puppet manipulation."

"The one I fought at the exchange meeting was his remote-controlled shell; his real body has never been revealed."

The songstress remained silent for a moment, then shifted her gaze from his face to the shattered wooden stakes.

"You've investigated quite thoroughly, but there's one thing you missed." She paused, "I know the location of his true form."

Li Ren looked up, a hint of surprise flashing in his eyes.

He originally planned to gradually narrow down the area by monitoring the curse power data and then lock the location with the help of the songstress, but she skipped all the steps.

"After he abstained from the exchange meeting, I retrieved the spell power monitoring records from the Kyoto school over the past two years."

"There is a very weak source of magical power that appears in the mountains northwest of Kyoto at fixed intervals."

"That area is an abandoned sand-trapping dam, located in a very remote area. There were no signs of cursed spirits around. I guess he probably buried the barrier underwater. Water can isolate most of the cursed energy fluctuations, allowing it to evade regular monitoring."

"Based on my understanding of him, I can be pretty sure it's him."

After the songstress finished speaking, she looked away from the wooden stake and turned back to Rito: "I can take you there, but I have a question."

She paused.

"What do you want with him?"

The question landed on the open ground, and Rito felt her gaze fixed on his face.

Rin knew that if he couldn't come up with a suitable reason, the songstress would never take him anywhere.

However, it wouldn't be appropriate to say that Yukichi is a spy.

Leaving aside how I would explain the source of the intelligence, with the limited clues available, it is impossible to definitively say that Yukichi is the traitor.

How should I answer this?

Thinking about it, Rito looked up and met her gaze.

"He must be very tired."

The songstress's expression remained unchanged, but her silence itself was an answer.

If there is a spy at Kyoto High School, then Kokichi is undoubtedly the prime suspect.

Combined with the abilities of that cursed spirit (a real person), the suspicion surrounding Kokichi was amplified almost infinitely.

Such a clear exchange of benefits—the songstress couldn't imagine anyone else besides him doing such a thing.

"Yes, he is indeed quite tired," the songstress said, her voice slightly softer than before.

"Heaven and the curse bestowed upon him great power, but robbed him of his freedom."

"If it were me, spending seventeen years in a place with no sunlight..."

She looked down at her fingers resting on her knees before continuing.

"Perhaps I will also choose to cooperate with the cursed spirit."

"That's why I'm going to find him," Rito said.

The open space was quiet, and the pine needles were blown by the wind, casting dappled shadows on the muddy ground.

In the distance, a window in an office building wasn't closed properly. The curtains were lifted by the wind, then fell back down, repeating this several times, like a slow heartbeat.

The songstress took a deep breath, then stood up, smoothed her sleeves, and looked at Rito again.

"Come find me here at six o'clock tomorrow morning." Her voice regained its previous crisp quality.

"I'll arrange the car and plan the route in advance, but you need to be prepared, that place won't be very comfortable."

Li Ren nodded and bent down to pick up his gym bag.

He had just turned to leave when the songstress called him back from behind.

"Sato."

Li Ren stopped in his tracks.

"What do you plan to say after you see him?"

The songstress's tone concealed a hint of nervousness that she herself was unaware of.

After thinking for a moment, Rihito said, "I will tell him that what he wants is not to cooperate with the cursed spirits, but freedom."

"Freedom is never given by others."

The songstress stood quietly in place, her eyes, which were adept at discerning emotions, twitched slightly.

In the end, he didn't say anything, he just nodded.

Rito walked out along the gravel path.

As he walked through the corridor next to the office building, the afternoon sun of Kyoto shone from the west, casting his shadow, which was dragging his gym bag, into a long, slanted line.

A flock of crows took flight from the pine trees, skimming across the grey-blue sky, heading towards the mountains in the northwest.