A full moon hung high in the sky.
Jujutsu High — Yaga Masamichi's cabin.
A burning candle crackled softly as its orange glow pushed back the dimness of the room.
Seated among piles of stuffed dolls, Yaga worked seriously, knitting with yarn.
Shoko, dressed like a medical doctor, glanced at the time on her watch and complained coldly,
"I warned you already. You should've notified that scumbag an hour earlier."
Without looking up from the doll he was stitching, Yaga replied,
"I already informed him thirty minutes in advance."
"It only proves that his habit of being late is getting worse."
Shoko replied flatly,
"Terminal stage. No cure."
Creak.
The person they had just been complaining about—Gojo Satoru—finally arrived, stepping in under the moonlight.
"Sorry, sorry."
"I didn't expect a busy person like you, Shoko, to still be here."
Although he said he was sorry, his hands were stuffed casually in his pockets and his arrogant posture showed not a hint of sincerity.
"You're too late, Gojo!" Yaga said sternly as he put down his needlework.
"I still haven't settled the matter of the residential area you destroyed!"
"Relax, it was only two or three houses."
Gojo waved his hand casually.
"Same as always—just deduct it from my salary."
Before Yaga could explode in anger, Gojo turned his head toward Shoko.
"For you, such a busy person, to stay behind and wait for me… did something happen?"
"Principal Yaga already told me about your earlier analysis of White Zetsu," Shoko said as she lit a cigarette with a frown.
"You weren't wrong."
"After dissecting that cursed spirit's body…"
She paused.
"Actually, maybe calling it a cursed spirit isn't quite right."
"Just like you said—it's more like a corpse wrapped in cursed energy and walking around."
"Dissected?" Gojo frowned.
At the right moment, Yaga spoke up and explained what had happened during the day after Gojo left.
Gojo raised an eyebrow, surprise flashing across his face.
"I confirmed with the Six Eyes that that pale thing wasn't a puppet being controlled by someone's technique."
"It could communicate too. Could it be some new species?"
He rubbed his chin, looking thoughtful.
"Or… maybe besides cursed spirits, this world also has ghosts and monsters?"
"Like a spirit possessing a corpse?"
"What nonsense are you talking about!" Yaga scolded.
If ghosts really existed too, the world would've already fallen apart.
"Shoko… you didn't actually believe him, did you?!" Yaga asked in disbelief.
"I think what Gojo said might not necessarily be wrong."
At that moment, not only Yaga—even Gojo looked slightly surprised.
Shoko took a deep drag from her cigarette, her tone serious.
"Actually… by the time you arrived today…"
"That cursed spirit was already dead."
"What?!"
Yaga's face changed drastically. The distortion of his expression even knocked the sunglasses off his face.
"Already dead?!"
"Do you even realize what you're saying?!"
he shouted.
Once a cursed spirit is confirmed dead, its body turns to powder and disappears.
This had been an unbroken rule for over a thousand years.
No matter how powerful a cursed spirit was, none could escape it.
"Seriously?"
"Shoko, you didn't make a mistake, right?"
Gojo opened his mouth, equally incredulous.
Shoko's expression instantly darkened.
"Who do you think you're talking to?"
Setting aside combat ability—
In the field of medical expertise, their doubt was a blatant insult to her.
Yaga quickly composed himself and spoke.
"Shoko, Gojo and I didn't mean it like that. It's just… this is too unbelievable."
Shoko waved her hand dismissively.
"The reason I didn't say anything in the infirmary earlier was because I didn't want the students to hear it—especially Maki."
"The moment I made the first incision during the dissection, I basically confirmed that thing's true nature."
"Afterward I also made small cuts in its brain and heart."
"Even a Grade 1 cursed spirit wouldn't survive that."
"Let alone that thing—it was at most a Grade 3."
Yaga picked up the sunglasses that had fallen to the floor and steadied himself.
"Then what Mirai-sensei said before leaving… wasn't wrong."
Shoko exhaled a cloud of smoke and murmured softly,
"Who knows…"
Zen'in Estate — Cursed Storage Vault, Underground Level Two
Naobito looked calmly at the curse user standing before him, who now wore a terrified expression.
Normally, this man was responsible for receiving the cursed spirits they captured at the entrance of the second barrier layer.
He looked like a harmless, skinny youth.
But in reality, he embodied bullying the weak and fearing the strong to the extreme.
If the escort team bringing cursed spirits contained injured or weaker sorcerers, he would sometimes suddenly attack them from behind.
No real motive.
He simply enjoyed slaughtering those weaker than himself.
But when he saw Mirai…
"M-Mirai Clan Head… what wind brings you here today?"
Haruta Shigemo hurriedly hid the dagger he had been preparing for a sneak attack behind his back, forcing a stiff smile onto his face.
"No wonder before I came out, I heard magpies chattering inside the cave. Turns out it was because you arrived."
Naobito couldn't help letting out a laugh.
Zen'in sorcerers wouldn't dare enter the underground levels without orders, and the people inside certainly wouldn't dare come out.
Were the magpies digging tunnels underground and flying out from the earth?
Even claiming he heard magpies chirping—this flattery was painfully awkward.
Shigemo lowered his head.
A hidden, vicious glare flashed toward the annoying old man before he carefully looked back at Mirai, waiting for instructions.
After being imprisoned here for several years, Shigemo absolutely did not want to experience again what happened when you offended Mirai.
Mirai's crimson eyes glanced indifferently at him before he continued walking forward.
"Yah-hahaha!"
"Chitter chitter chitter!"
After passing through a dark tunnel, the "cave" Shigemo mentioned came into view.
It was shaped like an oval cavern, with two enormous wooden doors half-open, dim yellow light leaking from within.
Naobito frowned as he listened to the strange noises coming from inside.
But when he followed Mirai into the cavern—
The sight before him made his hair stand on end.
Hundreds—perhaps thousands—of cursed spirits, from Grade 1 to Grade 4, hung upside down from the ceiling of the cavern, their bodies bound by iron chains.
Except for their heads, hearts, and other core cursed-energy organs—
Their bodies were completely restrained by chains infused with cursed energy.
Their torsos were covered with countless blade wounds, crossing over each other in uneven depths.
Thick purple blood dripped steadily into a large bathing pool beneath them.
The scene was horrifying.
Naobito examined the hellish spectacle with a frown.
For the first time in his life—
He actually felt sympathy for cursed spirits.
"Shigemo, just continue your work," Mirai said softly, practicing a faint smile that actually seemed genuine.
"Yes!!"
"I'll go right away!!"
Seeing the slight upward curve of Mirai's lips, Shigemo's face turned pale with terror as he rushed forward with his blade.
He nearly tripped several times.
His legs trembling, sweat pouring down his face, he sprinted toward the cursed spirits.
A devil's smile.
Shigemo vaguely remembered—
Whenever that demon smiled like this…
It was usually while patting his neck, crushing his leg bones, snapping his fingers, or knocking out his teeth.
Clutching the katana-type cursed tool forged by Juzo, Shigemo didn't dare waste even a second as he began hacking at the cursed spirits' bodies.
Splash!
Purple blood sprayed out violently, mixed with chunks of flesh that crashed into the bathing pool below.
And only then did Naobito understand the strange noises he had heard earlier at the entrance.
They were the screams and cries of pain from these weakened cursed spirits.
Outside, the cursed spirits they encountered roared with violence and mockery, filled with thick malice.
But here…
This place was hell—
A hell reserved exclusively for cursed spirits.