Friends? What Are Those?

The afternoon sunlight fell warmly across Rihito's face, but a gust of bone-chilling wind soon swept that warmth away.

He stood before the sewer entrance. The cold wind was blowing from inside.

"Third attempt. Hopefully I'll have better luck this time."

The space inside the sewer seemed completely cut off from the outside world, with a faint stench of decay lingering in the air.

The concrete beneath his feet was wet, and every step made a faint, sticky sound.

"Phew-"

Rihito steadied himself, his gaze turning resolute, then walked deeper inside without looking back.

As he ventured farther in, the sound of running water echoed through the sewer, and the light grew increasingly dim.

But Rihito had come prepared.

He switched on the small flashlight he had brought, instantly illuminating the path ahead.

"The flashlight's battery will last two hours at most. I can only spend an hour looking around before I have to head back."

Thud!

Suddenly, an enormous crash shattered the sewer's deathly silence.

It was loud and dull, like a huge slab of meat slamming into the ground.

The instant Rihito heard it, his body froze involuntarily, and instinctive terror engulfed him.

He held his breath without thinking. All he could hear was the pounding of his own heart.

Only after the sound had completely faded and nothing else happened around him did his rigid body gradually relax.

"Phew..."

Rihito wiped away his cold sweat, then abruptly realized something.

His shirt had become soaked with cold sweat in that single instant.

The fabric clung to his skin, icy cold.

With a self-deprecating smile, he composed himself again and decided to investigate the source of that dull crash.

Tap! Tap! Tap!

Soft footsteps echoed through the sewer.

Occasional patches of graffiti marked the walls on either side of the passage, left by street kids who knew how long ago.

After walking for a few minutes, Rihito reached the source of the strange noise.

"A dead end? Then where did that sound come from?"

The flashlight beam shone straight ahead, only to be blocked by a thick wall.

The wall looked somewhat different from the surrounding concrete structure.

Its color was darker, though, and its surface rougher, as if it had been built there later.

Holding his flashlight, Rihito began searching the area for clues.

"Huh? Wait."

His brow furrowed as he examined a basketball-sized hole in the concrete to his right.

He seemed to have been here yesterday.

His previous two explorations had given him a rough idea of the routes in this area, and he had seen that hole in the wall the last time he passed through.

He remembered it clearly. He had even shone his light into the hole, but there had been nothing inside except darkness.

"I definitely came this way yesterday. It shouldn't be a dead end."

Rihito stared at the wall blocking his path, utterly puzzled, sweeping his flashlight around in search of clues.

To silently block off the entire sewer passage within a single day...

That was definitely not something a human could do.

Only a cursed spirit could.

The next second, without any warning, Rihito froze completely.

Instinctive terror engulfed him. He wanted to move, but his body refused to obey.

In the spot illuminated by his flashlight, a fist-sized eyeball swiveled around.

In the shadows beyond the beam, he could faintly make out a nose, a mouth, and another eye.

Those features were several times larger than a normal person's, all crammed onto a distorted, dark bluish-green face.

The eyeball rolled around twice, then stopped.

Its pupil pointed straight at Rihito.

That wall wasn't a wall at all.

It was an enormous transfigured human that Mahito had altered.

Seemingly sensing Rihito's presence, the mouth opened and closed, oozing disgusting slime.

A stench of decay far stronger than the one lingering in the air hit him full in the face.

The lips moved, directing indistinct syllables toward Rihito-

"Help... me..."

He had prepared himself mentally and already knew what transfigured humans altered by Idle Transfiguration looked like.

But seeing a human being twisted into this shape while still alive made Rihito's stomach churn all the same.

He forcibly suppressed the urge to vomit, but his back struck the cold wall before he could stop himself.

He had backed away that far without even realizing it.

Rihito lowered his head and glanced at his still-trembling hand, then clenched it hard before slowly relaxing it.

His nails dug several white marks into his palm.

Only when his fingers had stopped shaking completely did he start walking toward the transfigured human again.

"Hey, can you hear me?"

Rihito stopped about ten meters away from the transfigured human and called softly.

"Help... me..."

This time, the transfigured human's voice was a little clearer, but their mind seemed to have been destroyed. They simply kept repeating those words.

After trying for a while, Rihito couldn't help feeling disappointed.

This seemed to be nothing more than a transfigured human Mahito had casually discarded. There were no clues to be gained here.

It looked like he would have to keep trying his luck if he wanted to find Mahito.

"This route's blocked. I'd better try another direction."

Rihito took a long look at the transfigured human, then turned and walked away in another direction without hesitation.

In Rihito's plan, there were two possible ways to encounter Mahito.

The first was to get close to Junpei, follow the original story's course, and ultimately take Junpei's place, allowing Mahito to transform him into a jujutsu sorcerer.

The second was to wander around and try his luck in places Mahito frequented.

In practice, however, the first method had one fatal flaw.

Junpei was a student who had suffered prolonged bullying. If he encountered an opportunity to gain power, he would never pass it up.

If Rihito chose to approach Junpei and they encountered Mahito together, Junpei's presence would expose Rihito to unpredictable danger.

So Rihito intended to pursue both approaches.

Ideally, he would run into Mahito by chance.

If that failed, he would use Junpei to make contact with Mahito along the original story's course.

There were plenty of variables, but he had no other choice.

When life and death were at stake, there were no perfect plans, only workable ones.

Before he knew it, Rihito had spent well over half an hour searching the sewer.

He stopped walking,

and sighed softly as he looked at the noticeably dimmer beam ahead.

"Well, looks like another wasted trip. But since there's a transfigured human here, Mahito has to be nearby."

Coming away empty-handed was only to be expected, as far as Rihito was concerned.

If this attempt failed, he would simply come back next time.

He had never expected to succeed on his third attempt.

Beep, beep, beep-

Feeling a vibration in his trouser pocket, Rihito took out his phone.

The screen's glow was especially harsh in the dark sewer, making him squint.

There was a friend request in his message list.

[Rihito, thank you so much for today. I'll treat you to a movie sometime.]

"It's that kid."

Rihito smiled faintly at the message on his screen and accepted the friend request.

Receiving a message from the normal world in a place like this felt rather absurd.

"If this were an ordinary world, Junpei would probably make a pretty good friend."

Unfortunately, it wasn't.

Muttering to himself, Rihito put away his phone and turned to head outside.

"Friends?"

A curious voice rang out without warning in the empty sewer.

"What are those?"

An icy hand rested gently on Rihito's shoulder.

Clack.

The flashlight fell to the ground with a soft sound.

It flickered twice, then went out completely.