Location Confirmed, and Gojo Satoru's Discomfort

Half an hour later, Dongfang Che, Shoko Ieiri, and Supervisor Kinoshita, who had finished investigating the remaining locations, returned to the intersection not far from the shop they had first entered.

After questioning the proprietress, they had left and split up to confirm and record what had happened at the other locations, including information such as cursed energy fluctuations and residual traces.

Although assistant supervisors possessed a certain degree of sensory ability, most of them lacked much talent in that regard, so their senses were comparatively weaker. It was more reassuring for them to inspect the places personally.

"From what we can tell so far, the directions of these cursed energy residues seem to have something in common."

Looking at the marked map in his hand, Dongfang Che recalled the directions of the cursed energy fluctuations he had sensed at those locations and came to that conclusion.

Beside him, Shoko Ieiri deliberately stepped back and hid within his shadow, as though she did not want the atmosphere of this chaotic yet prosperous street to touch her. Upon hearing that, she merely glanced at him without saying anything.

Noticing that she was somewhat uncomfortable, Supervisor Kinoshita thought for a moment before handing her one of the drinks they had brought.

Though Shoko wanted to refuse, she saw the smile on the other woman's face and silently nodded in thanks before accepting the drink.

When another can was offered to Dongfang Che, who was deep in thought and analysis, he paused.

"This is repayment for the crepe you treated me to earlier."

As if anticipating his question, Supervisor Kinoshita gave him the answer in advance and held the drink out a little farther. Hearing that, he could only thank her and accept it.

Before long, several sets of footsteps approached them.

"Dongfang, the investigation of the western half is complete. We marked the map as you instructed."

The pair that had gone to investigate the other side, along with two other assistant supervisors, had returned.

Geto Suguru handed the map in his hand to Dongfang Che while trying to guess his intentions.

"Just as you thought, the cursed energy residue at the scenes was difficult to track, but it still had a general direction. So you were planning to..."

After piecing together the maps of the two different areas, Dongfang Che considered them for a moment, then drew several straight lines across the map. Finally, he circled the center where those lines converged.

"That's right, just as you thought. Since we haven't found the corpses of the abducted people... for now, let's call it Flying Succubus. That means Flying Succubus must have a fixed base."

Geto Suguru agreed with that assessment.

Although many cursed spirits harmed humans for various reasons, they generally did not destroy corpses or deliberately dump bodies elsewhere.

They left the corpses directly at the scene.

If the people who had been abducted were eaten or killed on the spot by Flying Succubus, some traces would certainly have been left behind. Since there were none, it meant they had definitely been gathered somewhere.

As for why they had been gathered, he could not guess, nor did he have an answer.

"So you had me pay attention to the direction of the cursed energy residue in order to..."

"Although it abducts people at various locations, it will inevitably return to its own base. If we compile the traces left by the directions of the cursed energy, we'll get the approximate location of that base."

As he spoke, Dongfang Che showed the map to everyone.

Looking at the circled area in the center, Supervisor Kinoshita searched through the information on her device and provided details about the place.

"That location is a large abandoned bar. There was once a fire there, and the owner ran off with the money. No one has taken it over since then.

"And because of the accident, no one developed the site either, so it has remained abandoned until now. Looking at it that way, it really would be a suitable place for a base."

After hearing her, Geto Suguru's gaze toward Dongfang Che grew more complicated.

At first, they had had no idea how to find the cursed spirit. Kabukicho had far too much foot traffic, and with only a few of them searching, there was no telling how long it would take.

It was this classmate who had proposed this line of thinking. Though Geto had figured out the reason halfway through, he had still been a step too slow.

"You're really good at analyzing intelligence and drawing conclusions from it. No wonder Yaga-sensei told you to discuss things with the assistant supervisors."

Dongfang Che merely smiled at the praise, then put away the map. When he noticed that a certain voice had yet to speak up, he looked over curiously.

"No need for compliments. But what's wrong with Gojo? Why hasn't he said anything this whole time?"

Upon hearing that, Shoko Ieiri, who had been quietly drinking her beverage, also turned her gaze to Gojo Satoru and revealed a slightly surprised expression.

That guy who always acted cool, arrogant, and like he was the strongest in the world was actually frowning tightly, looking distinctly uncomfortable.

"Is he okay?"

If it had been the usual Gojo Satoru, hearing Shoko's instinctive concern for him would have made him crack a joke immediately.

But he remained standing there, as though he had no reaction to anything.

Looking at Gojo Satoru like this, Geto Suguru shook his head. He did not know what was going on either. At first, he had thought this classmate had realized what kind of place this was and felt awkward about some of the things that had happened earlier, making him unwilling to talk.

And Geto had been busy questioning shop owners and witnesses, as well as recording the traces of dispersed cursed energy, so he had not paid close attention to Gojo's condition.

"Gojo, what's wrong?"

After spending several days together, he had even begun calling Gojo Satoru by his surname alone, because Gojo called him the same way.

Of course, whenever he did that normally, Gojo would roll his eyes at him, then keep repeating his surname as if stubbornly competing like a child.

But this time, Gojo Satoru merely frowned and shook his head, his tone full of unease and irritation.

"I don't know what's going on either. Maybe this place's environment is affecting me.

"You know, the Six Eyes lets me see a lot of unusual things, and I've seen a lot of distorted cursed energy here. This feeling makes me... extremely uncomfortable."

He had never been in such a complicated environment or encountered so many unusual people before. In a short period of time, an enormous amount of distorted cursed energy had washed over the Six Eyes' recognition system, making him instinctively feel uncomfortable and resistant.

Combining this with the information from the original work, Dongfang Che quickly understood the key point and offered a suggestion.

"Then let's pick up the pace and resolve this quickly. It should be fine once we leave here."

Geto Suguru nodded as well.

"Right. The sooner we finish the mission, the sooner we can leave."

After taking a short break, everyone headed together toward the abandoned bar marked with a red circle on the map.