"Wow, Fushiguro, is this really a school? There are quite a lot of Cursed Spirits around here, large and small. Although most are Grade 4, even a Grade 4 Cursed Spirit is enough to give a student a cold or a fever. Whoa! Look, over by the rugby field, there's a Grade 3 Cursed Spirit that looks a lot like a tick."
"It's because schools harbor a lot of negative emotions. Incidentally, those black-hearted companies have about the same number... Wait! Aren't we here to find the cursed object? Kagura, take this seriously."
Shin shrugged nonchalantly and said, "I've already found it. Look at that pink-haired boy over there, the residual cursed energy in his arms is particularly thick. And look at the man and woman next to him—they're also covered in a large amount of residual cursed energy. Let's go ask them first."
Megumi turned to look and breathed a sigh of relief.
Finally, they found it.
Just as the two were about to step forward to inquire, Yuji sprinted toward the school gate. Megumi instinctively tried to stop him, but in the blink of an eye, they could only see Yuji's dust.
Megumi: ?
Was that an ordinary person just now? Is that a speed an ordinary person can run at?
He was about to chase after the dust when Shin stopped him.
"Even if one ran away, aren't there still two left? Wouldn't it be better to ask those two first? If it's not on them, we can have them contact the guy who just ran off."
Megumi thought it made sense, so the two of them stopped Iguchi Takeshi and Sasaki Setsuko.
Shin looked back at the direction Yuji had left and gave a light chuckle.
'Today should be the day your grandfather passes away. You can focus on handling his funeral arrangements. With you gone, Sukuna won't find a suitable vessel, and you won't have to enter the cruel Jujutsu World. Everyone wins.'
—
Megumi took out his phone, showed them a photo of a cursed object wrapped up like a mummy, and asked, "Excuse me, have you seen this thing?"
Iguchi Takeshi and Sasaki Setsuko glanced at each other and immediately answered in unison, "Haven't seen it, don't know."
Now it was Shin's turn for his brain to stall. He had originally thought they would say they'd seen it but didn't want to hand it over because it wasn't on them. He didn't expect them to just say they didn't know.
He immediately said, "This is a very dangerous item. If it's in your hands, hand it over quickly."
After Shin mentioned the item was dangerous, an excited light suddenly flashed in their eyes, which they quickly tried to hide.
Perhaps because Shin and Megumi were dressed in all black and didn't look like good people, or perhaps because the 'underworld boss' aura on Megumi hadn't been washed away by time yet, their behavior was seen as school bullying by a group of nearby athletes. A group of tall, burly athletes immediately surrounded the two.
One of the teachers, who looked like a gorilla, stepped forward and said, "Oi, you two brats, where are you from? How dare you come into our school and bully our students!"
Shin immediately stepped up to explain, "We just lost something and came in to ask if anyone had seen it. We mean no harm, it's all a misunderstanding. Well then, we won't bother you anymore, we're leaving."
With that, he grabbed Megumi and made a run for it.
Megumi said, "The cursed object is on the two of them."
"I know, so I prepared this: Splash Potion of Invisibility. One can last for eight minutes."
Shatter!
Shin and Megumi's figures vanished instantly.
A voice drifted from the empty ground.
"Fushiguro, can you see the flow of Cursed Energy on my body?"
"Yes."
"Fine, then this potion is pretty useless. Alright, stop talking, don't hold anything in your hands, and follow me closely."
On the other side, after shaking off Shin and Megumi, Iguchi Takeshi and Sasaki Setsuko immediately ran back to the Occult Research Club. They took out a cylindrical object wrapped in white bandages from a desk, and Sasaki Setsuko stuffed it into her clothes.
Shin and Megumi, who had just caught up, happened to witness this scene.
Shin, Megumi: "..."
Shin wrote on Megumi's back.
[You go get it.]
Megumi immediately wrote on Shin's hand.
[No.]
[Then are we just going to watch?]
[That's fine too. Anyway, I'm not going to get it.]
And so, the two followed Sasaki Setsuko until school was dismissed. Of course, they wouldn't follow her into places like the restroom.
Everything was peaceful, or it would have been if not for the sound of glass breaking every seven or eight minutes.
The sound of glass breaking every few minutes was nearly driving Sasaki Setsuko insane. At the first sound, she thought a piece of glass somewhere was about to fall. By the third or fourth time, she realized something was wrong. It was as if the glass shattered right next to her every time. There was no such thing as such a coincidence.
She began to touch the cursed object in her bosom from time to time, and Shin's earlier warning echoed in her ears.
"This thing is very dangerous."
Megumi couldn't take it anymore and wrote on Shin's back.
[Can you stop whispering? You're scaring her half to death.]
[Okay.]
...
Finally, school was over, and Sasaki Setsuko met up with Iguchi Takeshi again at the Occult Research Club.
However, Sasaki Setsuko's state was very off now. She seemed overly sensitive, jumping at the slightest sound.
"I-Iguchi, did you hear the footsteps of two other people? I'm... a little scared..."
Iguchi Takeshi saw that Sasaki wasn't in a good state, so he suggested she go home early to rest and that they could do club activities tomorrow. But Sasaki Setsuko was already feeling fearful toward the cursed object in her arms. Unless she opened it to confirm it was just a prank, she wouldn't dare go home.
Indeed, she had been so frightened that she used mental gymnastics to tell herself it was just a prank.
"No... it's okay. Let's call Itadori and see if he's free. Even if he isn't, we can open that thing while talking to him on the phone."
Soon, the call went through.
Yuji's mood on the other end was clearly a bit low, but he said he had mostly finished his business. Worried about the two of them, he was already rushing to the school and would arrive at the club soon.
Shin thought, 'What the fuck!'
Sure enough, in less than a minute, Yuji arrived at the Occult Research Club. As soon as he entered, he glanced toward Shin as if sensing something, but then paid no further attention to the two invisible people.