"Uncle, you are such a bastard."
Gojo Shun walked alone along the streets of Sendai.
A moment ago, he had just received notice from the higher ups. Because of work, Gojo Satoru's exorcism mission in Sendai City had officially been transferred to Shun, who just so happened to also be in Sendai.
So much for that vacation he had been dreaming about.
His face was full of sorrow.
Was this the fate of every corporate drone, even when your "company" was the jujutsu world?
One day, he was going to defeat Satoru and make sure the man could never drag him around on whims again.
But for now, the priority was to gather some clues.
"That cursed spirit's energy really was pretty special."
Shun rubbed his fingers together. A faint residue of cursed energy flickered between them. It was the trace left behind when he had destroyed the female curse's clone earlier.
He snapped his fingers.
The cursed energy in his hand crumbled into particles, then reshaped into a butterfly made of pure cursed power, invisible to ordinary people.
This butterfly would follow the scent of that energy back to its owner.
This was Shun's second most commonly used method for tracking enemies.
As for his first choice...
"Why are you not reacting at all now?"
He grumbled inwardly.
He was referring to that "system curse" Satoru had evaluated as special grade.
In the past, every time he arrived in a new area, that curse would automatically mark out multiple cursed spirits for him, like a built in radar sweep.
On top of that, other curses would be drawn to the curse stuck to him.
After all, it was special grade.
When he had been little, that had been a hassle. Fortunately, he had Satoru with him back then. Most of the curses never even got a second look before they were erased.
After he grew up, things only became more one sided. No curse that entered his field of vision lived to see the next day.
A certified cursed spirit reaper.
Unfortunately, for some reason, that system curse was not working properly today.
It could still mark out various cursed spirits scattered across Sendai City, but none of them were the one he was looking for.
"What is that curse's technique, exactly?"
Shun kept replaying the earlier fight in his mind.
There was no question that the female curse's offensive power was nothing impressive. She had not even been able to counter his Black Flash.
Which meant the only reason she had survived so many hunts from sorcerers was the nature of her technique.
"Is it something like shedding a tail to survive, or a rabbit with three burrows, or some kind of misdirection?"
He pondered as he followed behind the cursed butterfly.
As he walked, the pedestrians around him grew fewer and fewer until he finally arrived at an unfinished, abandoned building.
The place was deserted. From time to time the harsh cawing of crows echoed in the air, adding to the bad omen.
Here, the cursed butterfly's trail vanished completely.
"This is it?"
Shun studied the building before him.
"By common sense standards, this really looks like a place a curse would hang around."
Gloomy, eerie, no people in sight. Judging from the look of the construction site, someone had probably died here too.
Just one look, and Shun could feel layers of resentment clinging to the concrete like mold. There was no doubt this was an ideal environment for curses to exist.
Or rather, it would not be surprising if quite a few curses had been born here.
According to the markers from the "system", there was indeed a cursed spirit inside. The grade, however, was not particularly high.
"But is it really going to be this easy?"
Shun shook his head.
He did not believe it in the slightest.
If that curse could be found so easily, the higher ups would not have had so many sorcerers throwing themselves at it in vain.
"What a bunch of useless adults, sending a kid like me to do the job."
He muttered under his breath and rolled his shoulders to loosen up his limbs.
Just then, a scream came from inside the building.
"Ahhh!"
The sharp cry shattered the stillness of the abandoned lot. The crows nearby flapped their wings and scattered.
The unfinished building had already been creepy. Now it felt downright suffocating.
Shun stepped into the stairwell.
"So is this a curse trying to lure me in, or just some idiot thrill seeking students doing a courage test?"
For a sorcerer, the worst thing when dealing with curses was impatience. Shun was very good on that front. No matter what curse he ran into, he would calmly analyze its strength and technique before making his move.
Once inside the building, he quickly spotted a curse that was practically filling the entire corridor. It had wrapped its long, grotesque appendages around a girl in a JK uniform.
The uniform girls wore in japanese schools.
Her eyes were screwed tightly shut, her face flushed red. She looked like she was on the edge of passing out from suffocation.
"Do all these curses have some kind of tentacle monster kink?"
Shun shook his head helplessly.
If you are going to kill someone, just kill them. Make it quick and clean. Using those disgusting... whatever they were supposed to be, arms or not arms, to strangle a human, did they not get tired?
"Save... me..."
The girl seemed to sense someone's presence. Struggling, she managed to reach one hand out toward Shun.
"..."
He froze for a second.
His previously casual expression shifted at once.
The girl in front of him...
Was that the cursed spirit he met earlier?
Because the resemblance was too strong. The two of them were almost identical, as if they had been carved from the same mold.
But Shun could not sense even the slightest hint of cursed spirit energy from her.
The corner of his mouth curled up.
"Now this is getting interesting."