"I'm lowering the Curtain now."
"Born from darkness, darker than darkness; purify every trace of tainted Cursed Residue."
The moment the words fell, a black mass appeared in the sky and rapidly spread downward.
"The sky's turning black!"
Yuji leaned over the railing like some rich landlord's dim-witted son, shouting gleefully.
"...This is a Curtain. Since we're close to a residential area, we need a barrier to hide us from the outside."
"That's so cool..."
"You're so clueless."
"Huh? But I don't know how~" I clung pitifully to Nobara's arm.
Nobara immediately perked up, stars shining in her eyes. "Ah! If you don't know how, Zhi, I'll teach you!"
"Aw... Nobara, you're so sweet. I love you so much~" I threw my arms around Nobara and rubbed my chin against the top of her head.
"Hehe, hehehe..."
And so a world where only Yuji got hurt came into being.
Looking at the dazed Nobara and me hanging off her like a human accessory, Megumi shook his head helplessly and summoned the Divine Dogs from his shadow.
"Awoooo!"
"Aaaaah, is this the dog from that day? So cute! I want to pet him so baaaad!" I stamped my feet excitedly and turned starry eyes on Megumi Fushiguro. "Can I pet him, Megumi?"
"...Ahem, sure." His ears turned red again.
"Woooow!" I buried my face in the Divine Dog's fur, my words coming out muffled. "Waaah, Megumi, you're the best. My life is complete, waaaah..."
"What are you even saying..." Megumi Fushiguro turned away, the tips of his ears red.
"Huh? Does petting him really feel that good? Let me try."
Yuji Itadori copied me, stroking the Divine Dog's head and savoring the soft fur.
We petted him for quite a while.
"...All right. He'll let us know if a curse gets close."
I reluctantly pulled myself out of the Divine Dog's fur. "Good boy, we're counting on you~"
"Wait!" Megumi Fushiguro suddenly stopped and reached out to block our path.
"What is this?"
"What's going on?"
I raised my head and warily surveyed our surroundings. The place was so eerie it might as well have had "Curses in here" written on the door.
"This... was a two-story dormitory, right?"
"Stay calm! It's a split-level building!"
The dormitory had looked only two stories tall from outside, but inside, we couldn't even see where it ended.
Megumi Fushiguro suddenly realized something. "Where's the door?!"
We whipped around.
"Huh? The door's gone!"
"Why? We came in through here just now, didn't we?!"
"What do we do? Oh man, what do we do?" ×2
The two of them launched into a comedy duet. Seriously, they didn't look nervous at all...
"Don't panic. He remembers the scent of the entrance."
"Oh maaaan~"
"Great doggy! / Good boy, have some jerky!" ×3
"Jerky, where's the jerky?! Give it all to the good doggy!"
"Bring me all the jerky!"
Nobara Kugisaki threw her head back and laughed, while Yuji Itadori and I practically glued ourselves to the Divine Dog.
"Uh... Could you take this seriously?!" Megumi Fushiguro looked utterly exasperated and was about to lose his temper.
"But we've got you, Megumi. You're the most reliable~"
"Huh?" Megumi Fushiguro froze.
"Megumi's the most dependable! With you here, we can all relax! Right, Yuji, Nobara?"
"Yes!!!" ×2
"...Let's keep moving." Megumi was so tempting to tease when he was like this!
"Hehe, he's blushing."
"Hehe, he's blushing."
"Hehe, he's blushing."
"..."
As we passed through the hallway, Yuji Itadori suddenly stopped at the front, then ran straight ahead.
I was just about to look that way when Nobara and Megumi Fushiguro blocked my view.
"Don't look. You'll have nightmares."
...I remembered what this was.
I assured them I was fine. "I'm okay. As a Jujutsu Sorcerer, I'll have to face things like this sooner or later, won't I?" I smiled, gently pushed past them, and walked forward.
"This is awful..."
Even though I'd braced myself, this was my first time facing a corpse, looking death straight in the face.
Before I transmigrated, I'd been a little flower of the twenty-first century, growing up in the sunshine beneath the red flag. Even though I'd grown up in an orphanage, I'd never faced anything this bloody.
The skin had already turned bluish, the eyes remained open in death, and blood had poured from the mouth and nose. All of it made clear that Jujutsu Society was nowhere near as simple as I'd imagined.
I thought my face must have been frighteningly pale, but I couldn't back down.
If I couldn't even face this, how could I protect them, protect everyone?
By then, Yuji Itadori had seen the name tag on the corpse and realized this was the "Tadashi" that mother had spoken of.
"I'm taking this body back."
"Huh?"
"This is that woman's son."
"But..."
"You can still recognize his face. If we tell his mom he's dead without bringing back his body, she'll never be able to accept it."
Megumi Fushiguro strode forward, grabbed Yuji Itadori by the collar, and hauled him off the floor.
"We still need to confirm whether the other two are alive. Leave this body here."
"Are you kidding me?! The way we came in vanished the second we turned around! There's no way we'll get another chance to come back!" Yuji Itadori shouted, agitated.
"I didn't say we'd come back. We're leaving the body here!"
"I never intended to save him in the first place, and I'm not planning to drag his corpse back either!"
Yuji Itadori grabbed the other boy's collar in return. "What do you mean, you never intended to save him?"
"This is a Juvenile Detention Center. Jujutsu Sorcerers receive all the information about a site beforehand. Tadashi Okazaki hit a little girl on her way home from school while driving without a license. And it was his second time driving without one."
"You're always trying to save people and guide them toward a proper death, right? But what if someone you save takes another person's life in the future?!"
"Are you sure... you still want to save someone like that?"
"Then why did you..."
"Aah!"
I cut off their argument with a terrified cry. "Nobara!" A hole suddenly opened beneath Nobara's feet, and she fell straight through.
"How is that possible? The Divine Dog didn't detect any curse!"
Megumi Fushiguro turned to look. The Divine Dog was already unconscious.
"We need to run!"
It was too late.
Before you continue