December 22.
Tokyo Jujutsu High.
The air in the meeting room was heavy.
The room was full of people.
Masamichi Yaga sat at the head of the table.
His gaze swept from left to right, then returned to the space directly ahead.
"Still no contact with Wangchuan?"
The meeting room fell silent for several seconds.
No one answered.
Ijichi sat near the door, holding a thick stack of intelligence reports. He leafed through them, then spoke cautiously.
"Yes..."
"Phone calls, cursed energy beacons, even messages sent through assistant supervisor channels... we've tried them all."
He paused.
"No response to any of them."
Masamichi Yaga's brow twitched.
He did not press further, merely shifting his gaze away from Ijichi, as though crossing an option off in his mind.
Then he spoke, changing the subject.
"The situation with curses in recent years..."
"Ijichi, give us a summary."
Ijichi nodded, opened the documents in his hands, and cleared his throat.
"Yes."
"Since the middle of last year, the number of curses has grown explosively."
"Whether it's rank-and-file curses of Grade 2 and below, or Grade 1 curses..."
"Their numbers have increased by nearly threefold compared with the same periods in previous years."
His finger slid down a column of figures in the document.
"As for Special Grade curses."
He paused.
"Judging by the number discovered and registered..."
"It's almost dozens of times the sum of all previous historical records."
Several quiet gasps sounded in the meeting room.
Mei Mei sat near the middle of the table, her legs crossed, her posture relaxed.
She was idly winding a lock of long hair around her finger, but her eyes brightened slightly after Ijichi finished speaking.
"That's right."
She picked up the conversation.
"In the past year or two, the Special Grades I've personally dealt with