Thirteenth Step

"It was said that if you walked the stairs of the teaching building at midnight, a nonexistent thirteenth step would appear. Whoever stepped on it would cross the boundary between the human world and hell..."

The three Occult Club members listening intently to Keisuke's story all looked somewhat nervous, but Gen Naine seemed completely unfazed. She even asked, "Everyone already knows that legend. Is there anything that really happened?"

Keisuke's eerie expression shifted slightly at her words. "Well... there was. But it was supposedly four years ago, so I only heard about it from upperclassmen..."

Keisuke cleared his throat and continued, "Apparently, a security guard disappeared from the main teaching building while making his rounds. The police came afterward but couldn't find any explanation. The school cameras didn't show where he had left from either, but they searched the entire campus and still couldn't find him."

"A whole bunch of scary rumors sprang up after that. Some said he had been killed by an evil spirit and his body was buried beneath the playground. Others said his vengeful ghost would seek out students who were alone at midnight... Anyway, there were all kinds of rumors. In the end, the school banned any discussion of the matter to calm things down, and it became a secret legend."

"And the security guards at our school quit and get replaced all the time. Some people say it's because of that incident."

After hesitating, Keisuke still said to Gen Naine, "Naine, you're not thinking of trying out this urban legend, are you? You've never been scared when we went ghost hunting before. Everyone knew those things were just rumors. Even the people who got frightened were scared by the atmosphere, or just scared themselves."

"But... this one is really a little sinister. You'd better not go. You know Risa and the others from Class Three, right? A few days ago, they supposedly made a girl test this thirteenth-step legend at midnight. That girl ended up getting badly frightened, though I don't know the details..."

Gen Naine frowned. "Was that girl named Ayako? The thin, frail-looking girl from my class?"

Keisuke said uncertainly, "Probably. Those people only dare bully easy targets. They often do bad things by relying on their family connections. Naine, is that girl your friend?"

Gen Naine nodded with an ugly expression. "Yes. I noticed something was off about Ayako before. I didn't expect..."

"Keisuke, I'm going to find Ayako. Thanks for the information."

Keisuke watched Gen Naine and Shen Yuanyi leave, then shouted after them, "Don't you dare go! Don't do anything stupid!"

"Got it."

Gen Naine led Shen Yuanyi all the way to her classroom. There were not many people inside at the moment, but Ayako seemed to be there. Shen Yuanyi leaned against the wall outside the classroom to wait. He heard Gen Naine being greeted by many people after she entered, and before long, she came back out with another girl.

The girl was clearly the delicate, timid sort. Even while walking, she kept her head slightly lowered, as though she did not dare look straight ahead. When she saw Shen Yuanyi standing outside, she hid behind Gen Naine and timidly asked, "Naine, who is he?"

Gen Naine took her hand and walked ahead, quietly introducing Shen Yuanyi to her. Behind them, Shen Yuanyi carried the instrument case as he observed the building. As expected, he found no trace of a curse. According to Keisuke, the most recent unexplained disappearance or death had been four years ago, and no one seemed to have gone missing since then.

If this curse truly existed, it was likely either one with particularly strict or difficult-to-meet conditions, or, more likely, one that posed little danger. Otherwise, if it caused trouble, it would probably have been discovered quickly and dealt with by Jujutsu Sorcerers.

Gen Naine led Ayako to a gazebo on campus. Dense vines climbed along the entire corridor, making the place cool and secluded.

After hesitating, Gen Naine finally asked, "Ayako, were you... bullied by Risa and the others?"

Ayako's shoulders trembled faintly. Fear visibly appeared on her face. Then she lowered her head, pressed both hands against her thighs, and clenched her school skirt. After a moment of silence, she said, "Naine... don't get involved in this."

Gen Naine immediately stood up in anger. "Risa and the others have gone too far! I-I'll report them to the principal! Ayako, another friend told me that they forced you to test that thirteenth-step urban legend."

That frightened expression appeared on Ayako's face again. She grabbed Naine's hand. "Don't... Naine, don't ask anymore, because..."

Shen Yuanyi, who stood a short distance away, spoke at that moment. "Because it's real, isn't it?"

Ayako turned to look at him, wanting to speak but stopping herself. Gen Naine clasped Ayako's hand in return. "Ayako, Genichi-kun specializes in dealing with this sort of thing. Don't be afraid. If you know anything, you can tell him."

It was clear that Ayako trusted Gen Naine quite a bit. After hesitating for a while, she finally said, "I actually didn't see anything... But those things seemed to really exist after I saw the thirteenth step."

Gen Naine and Shen Yuanyi exchanged a glance. Yes, even if there was a curse, Ayako should not have been able to see it. That instead served as evidence.

Ayako stared blankly ahead and murmured, "Even though I didn't see anything at the time, it felt like something was hiding in the darkness around us. And we all heard faint crying and screaming. Risa and the others ran away in fright. My legs went numb, and I thought I was going to die... but even after I dragged myself out of there, I never touched those... things."

Seeing that Ayako's emotional state was becoming abnormal, Shen Yuanyi gave Gen Naine a look and stepped aside, letting her comfort Ayako. After calming her down, Gen Naine even got her leave from school and escorted her back to the dormitory area.

"So what do we do now?"

Rather than answer Gen Naine, Shen Yuanyi asked, "Are you really going with me?"

Gen Naine nodded firmly, as though she wanted to say something. Shen Yuanyi raised a hand to stop her. "As long as you're prepared. We'll probably act tonight. I'll teach you some techniques first, so you can protect yourself as much as possible."

In truth, he was just teaching her some basic methods of using Cursed Energy. The last time she had driven back that cursed spirit, luck had played a large part, and if he had not guessed wrong, Dojigiri had also been part of the reason. The unknown curse on campus seemed to pose little danger, but they still could not afford to let their guard down.

They did not remain at school. After finding White Wolf and Sugihara Riko, the two returned to the Gen Family by car under her arrangements. They cleared out a courtyard, and Shen Yuanyi began teaching Gen Naine.

The basic techniques were fairly simple. After an afternoon of practice, Gen Naine had initially mastered how to actively draw out Cursed Energy and reinforce her body with it, allowing her to gain strength beyond that of ordinary people. This delighted her immensely.

Night came quickly. Shen Yuanyi had not spent the entire day merely training Gen Naine; he had also requested help from above—or rather, from Gojo Satoru-sensei. Because the campus was relatively large, the school had moved both staff and students to the other side. The main teaching building and its surroundings were now completely deserted.

Shen Yuanyi and Gen Naine stood beneath the teaching building, which looked somewhat eerie under the night sky. Neither showed any fear. Then Shen Yuanyi formed a hand sign and recited, "From the darkness, emerge. Darker than black. Purify that which is impure."

A Curtain descended, concealing the teaching building. Gen Naine watched the scene with curiosity before following Shen Yuanyi at his signal. Shen Yuanyi then removed Dojigiri and Annihilation from the instrument case, and the two began climbing the teaching building stairs.

"One, two, three... twelve."

Gen Naine counted the steps with some disappointment. "Still twelve. Will there really be a thirteenth step?" White Wolf also seemed to have found nothing. Shen Yuanyi took the lead and continued toward the fourth floor. "Don't rush. Let's keep looking."

Yet even after they reached the rooftop, they did not see a thirteenth step. Gen Naine raised her hand to check the time. "Could it be because it isn't exactly midnight yet? There are still five minutes left."

The legend said the nonexistent step would only appear after midnight, but it was just a legend. Could a curse really choose a time before appearing? Or was this some kind of binding?

Thus, the two returned to the first floor, staring closely at the steps while watching the time pass. When the final second of the day passed, Shen Yuanyi's expression changed. White Wolf beside him also assumed an alert stance.

"It appeared."

From Shen Yuanyi's perspective, a nonexistent step seemed to be squeezed out of thin air above the orderly twelve steps. It connected seamlessly with the turn in the stairwell.

Gen Naine cried out, "The thirteenth step! It really appeared!"

Everything on the stairs could be seen at a glance. There was nothing unusual there. If not for the strange step and the faint aura of a curse, there would have been no way to tell that anything was wrong.

"There's another possibility. This curse may also have an Innate Domain trigger condition. It's probably stepping onto that step. We'll have to test it, but before that..."

Shen Yuanyi raised his hand and fired a mass of Cursed Energy at the thirteenth step. The step shattered like ordinary stone tiles, leaving a gap. But then something unusual happened: the scattered fragments quickly "melted" into black mist and disappeared, while the damaged section rapidly restored itself as though it were growing back.

Shen Yuanyi considered it briefly before striking again. This time, he used more Cursed Energy. With a loud blast, the entire section of stairs was destroyed by the Cursed Energy he released. Then an even stranger sight appeared before them.

The rapidly restored Thirteenth Step floated motionlessly in midair, connected to nothing around it. It seemed this was not the source. After a simple attempt at destruction proved ineffective, Shen Yuanyi activated Wheel of Time: Reverse.

Then the intact staircase reappeared. Gen Naine, who had nearly begun to doubt her own memory, looked startled, but ultimately treated it as just another part of this place's strangeness.

"Let's go."

Shen Yuanyi stepped onto the stairs first. Stopping before the Thirteenth Step, he said to Gen Naine beside him, "Step on it together. If I'm right, once we do, we'll enter that curse's Innate Domain. We might get separated. Hold onto Dojigiri for now. If we do get split up, just hang on. I'll deal with it quickly."

After handing Dojigiri to Gen Naine, the two of them and the dog stepped onto the final stair at the same time. The separation they had anticipated did not occur, but the surroundings changed instead.

Like a camera pulling away in a movie, Shen Yuanyi watched everything around them recede. The scenery stretched, vanished, and in mere moments, they found themselves in a corridor-like place, its ends extending into darkness in both directions.

Closed doors were evenly spaced along both sides of the corridor. Shen Yuanyi gestured for White Wolf to search for traces of the curse. Just as White Wolf led them a few steps forward, it suddenly gave a low growl ahead.

Shen Yuanyi watched the handle of the door before them slowly turn. He held out a hand for Gen Naine to pass him Dojigiri, and the two of them and the dog stared intently at the disturbed door.

Before long, the door was pushed open from within by a pale hand. The figure that emerged came into view—a boy wearing an unfamiliar school uniform. After stepping out of the room, his vacant eyes stared straight at them.

Shen Yuanyi drew Dojigiri. Beside him, Gen Naine stammered, "I-Is he a curse too? But—"

Before she could finish, Shen Yuanyi vanished, only to appear behind the eerie student. The student suddenly lost the support of his legs and collapsed to the floor.

Shen Yuanyi looked at the figure whose legs had been severed. No blood flowed from the wounds; only a small amount of some unknown purple-black fluid seeped out.

"Just as I thought... no ordinary living person could survive in a place like this. Its expression and movements are all wrong. This thing may look human for now, but it's hard to say what it really is."

With a raised hand, he drove his blade through the thing's head as it struggled to get back up, pinning it to the ground. Cursed Energy spread along Dojigiri's blade. The destroyed creature soon stopped struggling and slowly decayed into black ash on the floor.

Shen Yuanyi looked at Dojigiri in his hand. He did not know whether it was merely his imagination, but when he had cut through that body—whether it had been a curse or not—he had felt no resistance whatsoever.

Perhaps that was simply because it had been too weak... But the next change quickly drew both their attention away. One after another, the doors began to stir, and amid the continuous sound of doors opening, more than a dozen figures emerged.

Gen Naine looked up in confusion at the Dojigiri Shen Yuanyi held out to her. Shen Yuanyi tilted his head toward the figures, whose bodies had already begun to mutate. "These are yours. I'll cover you from behind."

"I-I-I..."

Shen Yuanyi had already shoved Dojigiri into her hands. Smiling, he gave her a thumbs-up. "Don't worry, you'll be fine. These aren't the main body of the curse from this school legend. They're all weak. Just do what I taught you—draw out your Cursed Energy and reinforce yourself with it. You've learned swordsmanship before, right? Even if you haven't, it's fine. Just swing and slash."

"I have learned some, but..." Gen Naine said nervously. Looking at the group of figures whose faces had been distorted beyond recognition by swollen tumors of flesh, she took a deep breath, and her expression turned resolute.

"Then... I'll give it a try."