"Ubusunagami"

Yu Haibara and Kento Nanami soon reached their destination.

It was a small village deep in the mountains. Before they even reached it, the uneven road made it impossible for the car to go any farther.

Kento Nanami and Yu Haibara could only get out and continue into the mountains on foot, leaving the Assistant Supervisor behind to watch the car and keep it from being stolen.

"Nanami! What kind of jujutsu sorcerer do you want to become?!" Yu Haibara was brimming with energy, not at all tired by the rugged mountain path.

"Work hard, save enough money, and retire." Kento Nanami had none of Yu Haibara's enthusiasm. He worked so he could retire.

"Uh... don't you want to work hard and become a jujutsu sorcerer like Geto and the others?! They'll probably be classified as Special Grade Sorcerers this year, right?"

Yu Haibara couldn't understand Kento Nanami's desire to retire. He believed youth was meant to burn bright!

"Those three have exorcised practically every special grade cursed spirit in Japan! Our survival rate as lower-grade jujutsu sorcerers has only gone up because they've taken on all the dangerous cursed spirits!"

Over the past year, Suguru Geto had subdued a large number of Grade 1 Cursed Spirits and a handful of special grade cursed spirits. Special grade cursed spirits generally hid themselves well, and a few of those associated with natural disasters could even appear without anyone noticing.

"Haibara, a jujutsu sorcerer's ceiling is decided the moment they're born. No matter how hard you and I work, we'll only ever reach the strength of a Grade 1 Jujutsu Sorcerer. For now, just protect your own life and try not to die before you retire."

The young Kento Nanami didn't particularly hate working as a jujutsu sorcerer, but he also had no heartfelt desire to save others. All he wanted for now was to complete his exorcism missions, slowly save enough money, and enjoy a leisurely retirement.

"But Geto is really good at hand-to-hand combat. Surely that can't be something he was born with too?" Yu Haibara spotted a flaw in his argument and pointed it out.

He believed cursed techniques were innate, but hand-to-hand combat skills came from training, and applying a cursed technique was something one learned through exploration. The great families could reliably produce the same cursed techniques for centuries, so their understanding of those techniques could be passed down from generation to generation, creating a consistent, efficient, systematic method of using them. Ordinary jujutsu sorcerers couldn't achieve that.

But was that a reason not to try? Hard work offered a sliver of hope. Without it, there was no hope at all.

"Reverse Cursed Technique and Domain Expansion don't have much to do with family background, and we have seniors around us who've learned those skills and are willing to teach us." Yu Haibara had always been that optimistic. He could always see the bright side of things and strive toward it.

"Yeah... I can't win an argument with you. The village we're here for is just ahead. Let's get moving." Kento Nanami said nothing more. Perhaps he, too, had realized that his seniors' overwhelming talent had simply discouraged him, though his wish truly was to enjoy a leisurely retirement.

They chatted as they walked and, before they knew it, reached the vicinity of the village where their mission would take place.

The mountain scenery before them, filled with green bamboo, felt peaceful and secluded, as though they had stepped into a paradise cut off from the world.

The lush mountain bamboo formed stretches of green ocean. A breeze passed through, setting the leaves swaying with a soft rustle. In such surroundings, they should have felt nature's peace and harmony.

Yet gravestones stood haphazardly throughout the bamboo grove before them. Though it was nearly noon, the village encircled by bamboo seemed eerily still and dark.

"Hello! Is anyone there?!" Yu Haibara shouted toward the houses ahead.

They waited a moment, but the bamboo grove remained silent. No one answered.

"Something's wrong, Haibara. The report said this mission was passed on to the Jujutsu Association after a villager who escaped from here reported it to the police station."

"In other words, there might not be any survivors apart from that villager." After explaining, Kento Nanami took his glasses from an inside pocket of his jacket and put them on, then drew his short blade from behind his waist.

"...Right." Yu Haibara concealed his anger and answered. Then he focused, scanning their surroundings warily.

There was still no unusual movement in the bamboo grove, only the rustling of windblown leaves rubbing against one another.

"No cursed energy residue. We may need to go farther, into the village," Kento Nanami told Yu Haibara after checking.

"We'll move slowly, one in front and one behind, and cover each other," Kento Nanami added.

"Got it." With a grave expression, Yu Haibara headed into the village alongside Nanami.

Suddenly, Kento Nanami stopped and held back Yu Haibara, who had been walking backward while watching their rear.

Together, they looked at the village ahead, where roughly a dozen houses stood clustered together.

"We should be on the outskirts now. There's a dense concentration of cursed residue ahead. Get ready to fight," Kento Nanami told Yu Haibara.

"Nanami! The village in the report didn't have this many houses," Yu Haibara said to Kento Nanami, his expression grim.

"An innate domain... at least a Grade 1 Cursed Spirit..." Kento Nanami froze, muttering to himself.

Suddenly, strange sounds came from the bamboo grove around them, as though something was crawling out of the ground.

Yu Haibara looked toward the source of the noise. Beneath the gravestones in the bamboo grove, cursed spirits crawled out one after another.

Their appearances varied, but all had humanlike bodies. Strange noises spilled from their mouths as they ran toward the pair.

"Nanami!" Yu Haibara shouted at Kento Nanami, who was still rooted to the spot.

"Is today... going to be the day?" Kento Nanami murmured.

Yu Haibara's call snapped him out of it. He assumed a fighting stance, and they stood back-to-back, covering each other.

Cursed spirits lunged at them one after another, but each fell to a stroke of Kento Nanami's blade, turning into ashes that scattered away.

"Nanami! Hold them off! I've found the source!" Yu Haibara realized that cursed spirits were emerging endlessly from the gravestones, seemingly without limit.

Yu Haibara used his cursed technique to accelerate his blood flow, broke through the cursed spirits' encirclement at tremendous speed, and began kicking apart the gravestones that were producing them.

As Yu Haibara destroyed the gravestones one by one, the number of cursed spirits around them dwindled, easing their situation. But Kento Nanami knew their biggest problem remained unresolved.

Suddenly, as Yu Haibara was destroying another gravestone, he sensed an astonishing surge of cursed energy beneath his feet and hurriedly dodged away.

The instant he moved, an enormous cursed spirit emerged from the ground.

The cursed spirit that crawled out was covered in a gray, mudlike substance, with human remains embedded all over it. There were broken skeletons and more recent, rotting corpses, but most conspicuous of all were the villagers still dripping blood.

Its body was not humanoid, resembling a dog instead. It had no eyes, and its gaping mouth was filled with impenetrable darkness. The hideous teeth framing that pitch-black maw made it look all the more bottomless.

"We hit the jackpot..." Veins bulged across Kento Nanami's hand as he gripped his short blade. He realized that their chances of surviving this time were truly slim.

Yu Haibara, who had already retreated to Nanami's side, patted his companion's shoulder.

"Nanami, I'll keep it occupied. I'll leave exorcising it to you." Yu Haibara's eyes held nothing but resolve, without the slightest regret or uncertainty. The moment he finished speaking, he charged out and began drawing the "Ubusunagami's" attention.

Ubusunagami was the name of a deity in Japanese Shinto, generally referring to the guardian deity worshipped in the birthplace of oneself or one's ancestors. It could also be called the local deity. For some unknown reason, the "Ubusunagami" here had become a cursed spirit.

The hand Kento Nanami had reached out to stop Yu Haibara hung in midair. Looking at Yu Haibara's skin, flushed red by his rapidly circulating blood, he clenched that hand hard and broke into a run, heading toward the Ubusunagami's flank. He prepared to wait for an opening and slice its head open at the right moment.