A sudden turn

The two kept feeling their way through the pitch-black, deathly silent building by the faint light.

At last, in the deepest part of the stairwell, they found an extremely well-concealed entrance to the basement.

The basement entrance was hidden in a secret compartment at the very back of the stairwell. It was so well concealed that it seemed to be trying desperately to hide something.

Akutagawa Shang forced open the hidden door, revealing a long, narrow staircase descending into darkness. A few scattered spots of dried, blackened blood lay on the steps, giving off a chilling eeriness in the dim light.

"Looks like we came the right way." Akutagawa Shang shone his flashlight inside and found nothing but darkness. The staircase was unusually long and narrow, and the flashlight's weak beam could not reach the bottom. But the fluctuations of cursed energy coming from within told him that the culprit plaguing the hospital was at the end of those stairs.

He bent down and slowly ducked through the hidden doorway.

"Oh, Yuta. If anything unexpected happens that I can't handle, make sure you call Rika out. Don't hold her back. Do you understand?" Akutagawa Shang suddenly turned back to warn Yuta.

"But Rika might..." Yuta Okkotsu bit his lip. He wanted to say that he did not want to use Rika's power.

"What are you afraid of? Satoru Gojo is right outside. If Rika loses control, he can come in and pin her to the ground at any time." Akutagawa Shang cut him off, his expression brooking no argument.

"...Understood." Though he agreed, deep down he hoped Akutagawa Shang could handle everything. Unless there was absolutely no other choice, he really did not want to call Rika out. He did not want Akutagawa Shang to get hurt because of Rika, nor did he want Rika to get hurt again because of it.

The two entered the hidden doorway and followed the stairs toward the basement. As they drew closer, Akutagawa Shang caught the smell of blood, and it kept growing stronger.

At the end of the stairs stood a heavy iron door. The entire door was reddish brown, dried blood mingling with rust to make it look exceptionally horrifying.

"Is this the place?" Yuta Okkotsu asked timidly.

Akutagawa Shang nodded and shoved hard against the door.

The iron door was unlocked and swung open at his push. A powerful, pungent stench hit them in the face and shot straight up their noses, making both of them squeeze their eyes shut.

"It stinks."

They looked through the doorway, only to see a scene straight out of hell.

An old operating table stood in the center of the room. On it lay the long-cold corpse of a middle-aged man, a battered hard hat still on his head. His chest and abdomen had been brutally sliced open, the ghastly wound gaping outward. His organs and intestines were scattered across the floor in a gruesome mess.

"Urgh-"

Yuta Okkotsu had never encountered anything as brutally shocking as this bloody scene. His face instantly went deathly pale. Unable to hold back any longer, he braced himself against Akutagawa Shang beside him, bent over, and retched violently.

"Looks like this is one of the missing workers... We were still a step too late." Akutagawa Shang sighed, seemingly regretful.

"Then where's the other one?" Yuta Okkotsu seemed to have recovered enough to ask.

"Up there." Akutagawa Shang pointed at the ceiling.

"Up there? What?!" Yuta Okkotsu looked up in the direction he indicated and instantly froze in terror at the sight. Countless chains tipped with iron hooks hung from the ceiling. Neatly cut chunks of flesh hung here and there from the hooks, some of the remains still vaguely recognizable as human. Bright red blood dripped steadily from the pieces of flesh with an audible patter, a horrifying sight.

It appeared that the poor worker had already been dismembered and hung from the ceiling.

"What kind of monster is this?" Yuta Okkotsu covered his mouth, struggling to suppress his fear.

"The information said this hospital seemed to be secretly involved in some illicit business. Judging by this, it must have been organ trafficking. After the patients brought here died, their organs would be harvested and sold on the black market. But simply dissecting corpses shouldn't have generated this much resentment."

"In other words, the dead weren't the only ones mutilated here. Large numbers of living people also had their organs forcibly removed. The resentment of countless horrific deaths gathered here over the years, eventually giving rise to this cursed spirit." Akutagawa Shang pointed beside the operating table.

A twisted lump of flesh was there. Its entire body looked like different human organs haphazardly stitched together, covered in densely packed sutures. It extended two tentacles with scalpels embedded in their tips and was continually carving up the disemboweled worker's corpse. Had they come a little later, he might have ended up hanging from the ceiling too.

"Whew..." Akutagawa Shang drew his cursed tool blade and took a deep breath. Silvery-white cursed energy steadily gathered along it.

He charged at the disgusting lump of flesh. Thanks to the fact that his cursed energy barely leaked out, the cursed spirit did not notice his approach at all until his blade slashed hard into its body.

Countless mouths on its body let out shrill screams in unison. The cursed energy slash left an extremely deep wound in its body.

In an instant, the densely packed sutures covering the lump of flesh writhed violently. Countless hideous tentacles bearing scalpels and surgical scissors burst out, swarming toward Akutagawa Shang in an attempt to tear him apart alive.

A few days earlier, he might really have been unable to handle this. But after these past few days of hellish training, his footwork had undergone a transformation.

"Tch, you're much slower than Maki." Akutagawa Shang taunted it while dodging the tentacles' attacks, steadily closing in on the lump of flesh.

"Die-monster!" He was now only a step away from the monster. With an explosive lunge, he delivered a fierce slash, cutting both the disgusting lump of flesh before him and the revolting tentacles blocking his way in half.

The two chunks of flesh fell to the ground. In other words, Akutagawa Shang had won.

"A Grade 2 Cursed Spirit doesn't seem as strong as I imagined." Feeling the lump's cursed energy slowly disappear, he muttered to himself. This time, the fight had ended before he even had a chance to absorb his opponent's cursed energy.

"That was amazing!" Yuta Okkotsu cheered sincerely from the side, inwardly letting out a quiet sigh of relief. He seemed glad that he had not needed to use Rika's power at any point.

"That should take care of it. Let's go." Akutagawa Shang waved, signaling to Yuta Okkotsu that they could leave.

The mission should have been over at this point... right?

Yuta Okkotsu walked to the doorway, only to find that the rust-covered door had closed at some point without his noticing.

"Akutagawa, the door seems to be stuck." Yuta Okkotsu pushed hard against it, but it did not budge.

"Hm? What's going on?" Akutagawa Shang walked over to the door and kicked it hard, even putting cursed energy into the blow.

Bang! A deafening crash rang out. In theory, that kick should have buckled even a brand-new steel door, yet this rust-covered door still did not budge.

"Wait... Something doesn't seem right."