The stuffed doll

The nameplate and the stuffed doll lay on Shoko's scanner for half an hour. The scanner gave off a monotonous hum as waveforms swept across the screen, one after another. Nothing. Shoko tried three scanning modes, checking for cursed energy residue, cursed energy waveforms, and cursed energy temperature. Every result read "No abnormalities." But the cursed energy residue on that doll was real. When Shoko's fingers touched it, her brow furrowed.

"It's not cursed energy." Shoko set the doll down, took a cigarette from her pocket, and put it between her lips without lighting it. "It's something else. It comes from the same source as Echo."

Suguru Geto looked at her. "The same source?"

"A trace left behind when a cursed spirit dies, but more fragmented and scattered than Echo. Its concentration is too low for the scanner to detect." Shoko took the cigarette from her mouth and laid it on the table. "Your Echo is an intact trace, a whole fragment. The trace on this doll was shattered and then glued back together. It's incomplete and unstable, but it exists."

Suguru Geto picked up the doll and turned it over to examine its back. A patch of fabric had been sewn onto it, embroidered with the name "Kumano." He shone his flashlight on the characters and discovered that the embroidery wasn't ordinary cotton thread, but human hair. Black and very fine, it blended into the doll's loose threads, impossible to spot without looking closely.

"Shoko, this is human hair."

Shoko came over and bent down to look. She ran her fingers over the characters, then drew her hand back.

"It is," she said. "And it belongs to a jujutsu sorcerer. There's naturally occurring cursed energy residue on it. This person wore the doll for a long time. Their hair rubbed off onto it."

Suguru Geto slipped the doll into his pocket and stood up.

"Geto," Shoko called after him. "Are you going to look for that person?"

"I don't know. I'll find out what Kumano is first."

He left the infirmary.

That afternoon, Suguru Geto went to the Old Library. A large map of the Kanto Region hung on the wall in one corner, its paper yellowed and its edges curled. Cities, rivers, and mountain ranges were marked on it. Dense clusters of red dots covered the entire Kanto Region. Suguru Geto found the small town in Chiba Prefecture. A red dot marked its location, with "Kumano Shrine" written beside it. He traced the red dots across the map with his finger, examining them one by one. There was more than one Kumano Shrine. There was one in Chiba, two in Saitama, three in Tokyo, and one in Kanagawa. They weren't the same shrine, but shrines sharing the same name. Branch shrines scattered throughout Kanto.

He took a photo of the map and saved it on his phone.

The next morning, Suguru Geto went to another Kumano Shrine in Saitama Prefecture. He had looked it up beforehand. The Kumano Shrine in Kawagoe was one of the largest branch shrines in the Kanto Region. Built during the Edo period, it was still active, with visitors coming to worship every day and priests tending to it. An active shrine was unlikely to be the site of the disappearances. But perhaps the name "Kumano" on the doll referred not to a place, but to an organization-one that used "Kumano" as its code name.

The assistant supervisor dropped him off at an intersection in Kawagoe and pointed toward the approach ahead. A red torii gate stood at its far end, with the shrine's worship hall behind it. Suguru Geto walked up the approach, gravel crunching beneath his feet. Other worshippers were walking along it, mostly elderly people moving slowly with canes. No one looked at him.

He stopped in front of the worship hall, bowed, then headed to the shrine office. Its door was open. A man sat inside, dressed in priestly robes, with graying hair and deep wrinkles on his face. The man raised his head and looked at Suguru Geto.

"How can I help you?"

Suguru Geto took the doll from his pocket and placed it on the counter. "Have you seen this doll before?"

The priest lowered his head to look at the doll. His expression didn't change, but Suguru Geto noticed him tap a finger lightly against the desk.

"No." The priest looked up. "Where did you get it?"

"An abandoned shrine in Chiba Prefecture."

The priest fell silent for a few seconds. "The Kumano Shrine in Chiba Prefecture has been abandoned for years. No one maintains it, and no one worships there. Someone may have left that doll there long ago."

"There's cursed energy residue on this doll." Suguru Geto looked into the priest's eyes. "Do you know what cursed energy is?"

The priest's fingers went still for a moment. He stared at Suguru Geto for several seconds.

"Are you a jujutsu sorcerer?"

"Yes."

The priest rose from his chair, went to the door, and closed it. Then he turned to face Suguru Geto.

"That doll doesn't belong to the shrine. It belongs to the Kumano Society."

Suguru Geto looked at him. "The Kumano Society?"

"An organization. A group of curse users set it up themselves." The priest's voice was low. "They use the name 'Kumano,' but they have nothing to do with us. They operate in various places, doing things the Jujutsu Association forbids."

"Such as?"

The priest was silent for a few seconds. "Controlling ordinary people with jujutsu. Subduing cursed spirits without authorization and keeping them for themselves. Researching forbidden cursed techniques. The Jujutsu Association has tried to capture them several times, but never succeeded. They're very good at hiding."

Suguru Geto put the doll back in his pocket. "How do you know all this?"

"Because someone came asking." The priest's voice dropped even lower. "Last year, a young woman came here. She had a doll just like yours and asked if I had seen it before. I said no. She left. The next day, she disappeared in Kawagoe."

Suguru Geto's fingers tightened inside his pocket. "Was she a jujutsu sorcerer?"

"Yes. A grade 2 jujutsu sorcerer. Her name was Kazuya Yamada? No, Yamada was a man." The priest thought for a moment. "Sato. Mayu Sato. After she disappeared in Kawagoe, the Jujutsu Association came to investigate, but they found no leads."

Suguru Geto took his phone from his pocket, opened the four photos on the mission sheet, and showed one to the priest. It showed a smiling young woman with short hair and a round face.

"Was it her?"

The priest looked at the photo and nodded. "Yes."

Suguru Geto put his phone away. "Where is the Kumano Society's base?"

"I don't know. No one does. They never stay in one place for very long." The priest went to the window and looked out at the approach. "But I know someone who might be able to tell you more."

"Who?"

"A man named Tokieda. He used to be a member of the Kumano Society."

Something jolted in Suguru Geto's chest. It wasn't his heartbeat. It was Echo. Echo was pulsing violently, like a plucked string. Tokieda. The Kumano Society. The missing jujutsu sorcerers. The doll. These fragments whirled through his mind, coming together into a hazy shape. Tokieda hadn't appeared at that abandoned hospital by chance. He had been looking for something. Not Suguru Geto, but the Kumano Society. Suguru Geto was merely an unexpected encounter along the way.

"Do you know where Tokieda is?"

The priest shook his head. "No. But ever since he left the Kumano Society, he's been tracking them down. He hates them because they killed someone."

"Who?"

"His younger brother."

Suguru Geto stood in the shrine office, listening to the wind outside the window. People were still walking along the approach, their footsteps soft.

"Thank you," Suguru Geto said to the priest.

He left the shrine office and walked down the approach.

Tokieda wasn't hiding from him. Tokieda was hunting. Hunting the Kumano Society. Hunting the person who had taken the missing jujutsu sorcerers. Hunting the person who had killed his younger brother. Suguru Geto was simply another Echo host he had encountered during his pursuit.

Night fell. He reached into his pocket and touched the doll. Its loose threads pricked his fingers, tickling them, like a tiny life breathing.