Coming clean

On the outskirts of Kawasaki City stood the Abandoned Steel Factory.

From a distance, the massive building looked like a dead monster lying motionless on the ground.

The air carried the damp scent of rain and rust, as though something had been slowly rotting here for a very long time.

Tap!

Nanami stepped out of the car, his right foot landing on the damp earth with a soft sound.

"What a lousy place!" Kugisaki's complaint came from inside the car before she had even gotten out.

Rihito and Fushiguro said nothing, standing quietly to one side.

"Everyone, let's go!"

Nanami took the lead, heading straight toward the Abandoned Steel Factory.

The others followed close behind.

This never happened in the original story. Hopefully, nothing unexpected comes up.

Rihito thought this as he watched the steel factory draw closer.

This event had never existed in the original story. It had most likely happened because of the butterfly effect caused by his earlier fight with Mahito.

As they entered the steel factory, the smell of damp earth faded.

In its place, the stench of decaying metal grew stronger.

Once inside, Nanami did not rush to assign tasks. Instead, he stood where he was and looked around, seemingly searching for something.

"There are signs of human activity here," Nanami said after a moment of silence.

Human?

Rihito's heart tightened, and he looked in the direction Nanami had scanned.

But apart from abandoned equipment covered in dust and thick cobwebs in the corners, he saw nothing.

"Over there."

Fushiguro suddenly spoke, raising his right hand to point in one direction.

His voice immediately drew Rihito's and Kugisaki's attention, and they looked where he was pointing.

It was a completely abandoned passage, a common sight in this place. There were five or six of them in front of the group alone.

Wait, that passage...

Rihito's gaze sharpened, and a closer look revealed what was wrong.

It was the cobwebs.

A small section of the cobwebs in that passage was missing.

Judging by the angle and direction of the damage, it did not seem to have happened naturally. It looked as though someone had accidentally brushed against them with a shoulder while passing through.

None of the other passages had that problem.

"Yes." Nanami nodded, a hint of approval in his voice.

"Good. That's the spot. It seems things are a little more complicated than we imagined."

At those words, their expressions grew grave.

If they were only dealing with cursed spirits and transfigured humans, that would be manageable. Those things lacked human intelligence.

Once they found their tracks, dealing with them would be relatively easy.

But if a person was involved, things became complicated.

Hopefully, it isn't Mahito, Rihito thought.

Though he wanted to kill him badly, now was not the time.

Just then, Kugisaki pointed at the passage and suddenly asked, "Why does it have to be a human? A transfigured human could leave marks like that too."

"It has to be," Rihito explained before Nanami could answer.

"If it were a transfigured human, the damaged section of the cobwebs wouldn't be this small. And judging by its position, that person probably tried to avoid them but accidentally damaged them anyway."

Fushiguro nodded in agreement.

Kugisaki understood too and asked no further questions.

"Now that we've found a clue, let's go!" Nanami adjusted his glasses and headed toward the passage where they had found the signs.

"Aren't we splitting up?" Kugisaki asked.

Nanami kept walking. "No. We've discovered an unknown factor. Splitting up would be too dangerous, so we'll stay together for now."

"Makes sense," Kugisaki said, then hurried after him.

Soon, all four entered the suspicious passage.

But behind them, in a dark corner beyond their sight, a shadowy figure slowly withdrew.

"Rihito, how much do you know about that cursed spirit?"

Nanami suddenly asked the question in the deathly silent passage.

"Cursed spirit?" Rihito paused before realizing Nanami meant Mahito.

In the report he had submitted earlier, he had only provided written information about Mahito's abilities, personality, and fighting style.

Nanami must have read that report too.

So his question now probably concerned something beyond its contents.

"He's a cursed spirit born from human malice." Rihito considered his words for a few seconds, his voice somewhat low.

"He's very intelligent and grows almost constantly. In the span of a single fight, he managed to deploy a complete domain."

"If we judged him by the standards for new students at Jujutsu High, he'd be a jujutsu prodigy you'd be lucky to see once in ten thousand years. Almost without equal."

Hearing that, Kugisaki could not help rolling her eyes at him.

Fushiguro also wore a speechless expression.

Almost without equal? Then where did a monster like you come from?

He had been able to deploy a domain just one day after awakening his cursed technique.

Although it was only half-finished, "genius" was no longer enough to describe him as a newcomer.

An absolute freak!

"Rihito, I'm curious. How did you know that cursed spirit's fighting style? And the abilities of his cursed technique?"

"Before that, you were just an utterly ordinary high school student. What suddenly gave you a cursed technique and put you at odds with that cursed spirit?"

So it finally came.

Rihito's gaze settled on Nanami's back.

After noticing that something was unusual about him, Gojo had simply made a joke and let it go.

That was not because he did not care, but because he was confident in his own strength.

In other words, even if there was something wrong with Rihito, he was confident he could easily keep him under control.

But Nanami was different. Given his personality, he would never have ignored it from the moment he first saw Rihito.

Rihito remained silent for a moment before slowly saying, "Actually... I'm also a product of that cursed spirit's experiments."

As he said those words, Rihito felt as though a weight had lifted from his heart.

He had feared exposing the fact that he had crossed over from another world, and feared they would reject him because he had been transfigured. That was why he had chosen to conceal this.

Nanami said nothing, simply listening in silence.

"That cursed spirit took me into the sewers. He said my soul was strange, then performed an experiment on me. After that, I awakened my cursed technique."

Rihito chose to conceal part of the truth about the experiment.

The matter of his arrival from another world was still too outlandish to reveal.

Nanami's steps faltered. "An experiment?"

"Yes." Rihito nodded. "It probably had something to do with his cursed technique. Those transfigured humans are the products of his experiments. I was just the one who succeeded in the end."

"Sounds like you got pretty lucky, Rihito," Kugisaki suddenly chimed in, her tone lacking the aversion Rihito had expected.

Fushiguro's expression remained unchanged as well, as though he had merely heard Rihito mention what he had eaten that day.

"You should know what happened afterward. Junpei..."

"I understand," Nanami suddenly said, cutting Rihito off.

Kugisaki and Fushiguro also looked as though nothing had happened.

"...Yeah!" Rihito looked at them and ultimately said nothing more.

As they went deeper, the passage grew narrower. With all four walking inside it, it actually began to feel cramped.

The silence lasted for several minutes.

Then Nanami, who was walking at the front, suddenly stopped.

Rihito and the other two stopped at the same time and looked ahead.

"We're here!"