[You ignored the slightly probing looks from Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto behind you and turned away alone, shutting the somewhat sultry air and noise outside the hotel lobby behind its glass doors.]
[Stepping into the lavishly decorated hotel lobby, you walked steadily and without the slightest hesitation, heading straight for the dedicated elevator to the twentieth floor, where Riko Amanai was staying.]
[The soft carpet absorbed your footsteps, but it could not conceal the chill gradually spreading deep within your heart.]
["Ding-"]
[The elevator doors slowly slid apart before you. Yet the small, enclosed metal car was not empty.]
[A man was already standing inside. He was a middle-aged man of around fifty, dressed in a somewhat wrinkled gray suit. He was not particularly tall or imposing, and was even slightly overweight. His face was utterly ordinary, the sort that would instantly be forgotten in a crowd.]
[You stepped into the elevator without expression. The moment you turned and came to a stop, you keenly caught the man's pupils contracting. When his seemingly clouded gaze swept over your highly recognizable black Jujutsu High uniform, his breathing paused almost imperceptibly, for only a fraction of a second.]
[At the same time, a faint gleam flashed deep in your eyes. "Phantom Parade" silently spread out like an invisible radar, swiftly analyzing the surrounding space.]
[The information it returned was unmistakable: the man before you had cursed energy flowing through his body, and an innate cursed technique engraved within him.]
[Your mind worked rapidly like a precision processor. At this extremely sensitive moment, he had appeared in the hotel's direct elevator, mere steps from the Star Plasma Vessel, and he was definitely not a jujutsu sorcerer registered with Jujutsu Headquarters or Jujutsu High... Taken together, these conditions meant that even if this