The rain kept falling

"Are you going out tonight?" Satoru Gojo suddenly asked.

Yang Jian paused. "How did you know?"

"Just a guess." Satoru Gojo leaned back in his chair, his hands behind his head. "You always buy cola before you stir up trouble. Two cans were missing from the cafeteria vending machine today."

Yang Jian gave him a mildly disgusted look.

"Don't look at me like that." Satoru Gojo smiled. "The Six Eyes can see more than you think."

Satoru Gojo stood and walked to the window. "Yang Jian, I don't know what you're investigating, and I don't want to know. But that lead on Kusumoto runs deep. Watch yourself."

"When did you get so long-winded?"

Satoru Gojo looked at him for a few seconds, then suddenly smiled. "Fine. Just remember to clean up afterward. Don't leave another steel-mesh door or something for me to deal with."

"Didn't you already take down the Veil last time?"

"The Veil is one thing. The cola is another." Satoru Gojo walked to the door and glanced back. "You owe me a favor for that can of cola. Next time, I want it ice-cold."

The door closed.

Yang Jian sat on the edge of his bed, looking at the can of cola in his hand.

Condensation coated the can, trickling down his fingers.

At nine fifty that evening, Yang Jian appeared at Jujutsu High's back gate with the black cloth bag on his back.

Suguru Geto was already waiting there, dressed in a black tracksuit and carrying a canvas bag.

"Let's go."

"How are we getting there?"

"I'll take you."

Yang Jian grabbed Suguru Geto's shoulder. A red light flashed, and they were standing outside the perimeter wall of an abandoned factory complex.

The wind was strong, making the sheet-metal roofs clatter.

The air smelled of rust and motor oil.

"This is..." Suguru Geto looked around.

"Ichikawa. The old industrial district." Yang Jian released him. "The entrance is behind the boiler room, one level underground. Two guards. Their shift change just ended, so they should both be inside."

Suguru Geto took two black face coverings from his canvas bag and offered one to Yang Jian.

"No need. They won't remember my face."

He headed toward the boiler room beside the factory building.

The iron door stood ajar and gave a piercing creak when he pushed it open.

Discarded parts and oil drums filled the room, and cobwebs in the corners trembled in the wind.

Yang Jian walked to the far wall and ran his hand over its surface.

One brick was loose.

He pried it out, revealing a keypad behind it.

"Do you know the code?"

"No, but I don't need it."

A slit opened in his forehead, and the crimson Ghost Eye opened.

Red light seeped into the wall, spreading downward along the steel reinforcement and concrete, taking Yang Jian and Geto straight to the other side.

Beyond it was a descending staircase with concrete walls and recessed yellow ceiling lights every three meters.

The air was cold, eighteen degrees, just as Shiu Kong had said.

Yang Jian went down first.

Suguru Geto followed, his footsteps light.

At the bottom of the stairs was a corridor lined with rooms on both sides.

The door on the left was open. Inside was a surveillance room, its screens glowing, but no one was there.

The door on the right was closed, with green light spilling through the gap.

Yang Jian walked up to the door on the right.

The Ghost Shadow spread out from beneath his feet and slipped through the gap.

A few seconds later, the lock turned with a faint click.

The door opened.

Inside were two rows of culture vessels on metal racks, each covered with a black light shield.

The green glow of instrument screens flickered in the darkness, their numbers constantly changing.

Twelve, just as the intel had said.

Suguru Geto stepped inside and lifted one of the light shields.

Inside the vessel was a dark red lump of flesh, its surface covered in vein-like patterns, pulsing slowly.

"What is this..."

"An experimental specimen." Yang Jian walked to the control console at the far end and brought up the data logs. "Kusumoto feeds living people to cursed spirits, then extracts some kind of substance to grow these things."

"What is he trying to do?"

"I don't know, but it can't be anything good."

Yang Jian drew the Chopping Knife.

Dark red rust stained the blade beneath the green light.

"You're going to destroy them?" Suguru Geto asked.

"What else? Leave them here until they grow into monsters?"

Suguru Geto watched the pulsing flesh inside the vessel, his Adam's apple bobbing.

"Let me."

He held out a hand, and a vortex of cursed energy formed in his palm.

But a moment later, he stopped.

"What's wrong?" Yang Jian asked.

"These things..." Suguru Geto stared at the flesh. "They give off cursed energy. It's very faint, but it's there. If I absorb them with Cursed Spirit Manipulation now, it might..."

"Contaminate your stock of cursed spirits," Yang Jian finished. "We don't know where these things came from. Who knows what's been mixed into them?"

Suguru Geto lowered his hand. "Then what do we do?"

Yang Jian raised the Chopping Knife. "Use this."

He walked to the first vessel, aimed the blade at the lump of flesh, and brought it down in one clean stroke.

The instant the blade touched the flesh, the vein-like patterns contracted violently with a faint hiss.

The flesh rapidly shriveled and carbonized, finally turning into a pile of grayish-white powder.

A system notification sounded in Yang Jian's mind: [Abnormal experimental subject eliminated x1. Points +50.]

Yang Jian froze for a moment.

These things actually counted for points?

He picked up the pace, swinging the Chopping Knife again and again.

One after another, the lumps of flesh in the vessels turned to powder.

Suguru Geto stood beside him and watched without speaking.

Twelve vessels. Six hundred points.

Yang Jian slid the Chopping Knife back into his cloth bag. "Let's go."

"What about the guards?"

"Asleep next door. I knocked them out and erased three hours of their memories. When they wake up, they'll think they fell asleep on the night shift."

Suguru Geto nodded.

They retraced their steps, passed through the boiler room, and returned to the surface.

The cold night wind cleared their heads. The rumble of a passing train came from the distance.

"Yang Jian," Suguru Geto suddenly said.

"Hm?"

"That knife you just used..." Suguru Geto looked at the black cloth bag on his back. "It can kill those things, but what about a living person?"

Yang Jian turned his head. "What are you trying to ask?"

"If you ever needed to kill a living person, would you use that knife?"

Yang Jian didn't answer.

He looked up at the sky. The clouds had parted a little, revealing a few stars.

Their light was so faint it was almost invisible.

"Depends," Yang Jian replied expressionlessly.

"On what?"

"On whether he's strong enough to warrant it."

Suguru Geto fell silent for a few seconds, then laughed. It was a quiet sound, scattered by the wind.

"You really are direct."

"No point beating around the bush. Come on. Let's head back."

The red light flared again.

The two vanished from outside the abandoned factory, leaving only the clatter of wind against the sheet-metal roofs and the faint whistle of a distant train.

It was past midnight when they returned to Jujutsu High.

Yang Jian dropped Suguru Geto off at the foot of the dormitory building, then turned toward the small warehouse building.

He returned to his room, closed the door, and opened the system panel.

His points had risen to 58,260.

He still had a long way to go.

He lay down on the bed.

Outside the window, the rain began to fall again.