Curse Returns, a gamble from the start, I awaken dual spells

An abandoned steel mill on the outskirts of Kawasaki City.

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

The air was damp with the smell of rain and rust, as if something had been slowly rotting there for a long time.

Snapped!

Nanami stepped off the car with his right foot, making a soft sound as it touched the damp earth.

"What a terrible place!" Kugizaki's complaining voice came from inside the car before he even got out.

Neither Rito nor Fukuro spoke; they stood quietly to the side.

"Everyone, let's go!"

Nanami led the way, heading towards the abandoned steel plant on her own.

Several people followed closely behind.

"I hope there won't be any unexpected plot points that don't exist in the original work."

As the steel plant drew ever closer, Rito thought to himself.

This plot point doesn't exist in the original work at all. The reason it happened is very likely due to the butterfly effect caused by his previous battle with the real person.

As you walk into the steel plant, the scent of damp earth fades.

Conversely, the metallic, decaying smell began to intensify.

Once inside, Nanami didn't rush to assign tasks. Instead, she stood there looking around, seemingly searching for something.

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

Humanity?

Rihime felt a chill run down her spine and looked in the direction Nanami had swept her gaze.

But apart from the dusty, abandoned equipment and the dense spider webs in the corner, he saw nothing.

"There."

Suddenly, Fu Hei spoke, raising his right hand and pointing in a direction.

Fukuro's voice immediately caught Rito and Kugizaki's attention, and they turned their gaze to the direction he was pointing.

It was a completely abandoned passage, which was quite common here; there were as many as five or six of them right in front of them.

"No, that passage..."

Rito's eyes narrowed, and after careful observation, he noticed something was wrong.

It's a spider web.

A small section of the spiderweb in this passage is missing.

Judging from the angle and direction of the damage, it does not seem to have been formed naturally; it looks like someone accidentally brushed it with their shoulder while passing by.

Other channels do not have this problem.

"Hmm." Nanami nodded, her tone carrying a hint of appreciation.

"Yes, that's the place. It seems things are more complicated than we thought."

Upon hearing this, the expressions on their faces all turned serious.

If they are merely cursed spirits, then modifying humans is fine, but these things lack human intelligence.

Once a trail is found, the problem is almost easy to solve.

But things get complicated when someone gets involved.

"I hope it's not a real person," Rito thought to himself.

Although I really want to kill him, now is not the time.

At that moment, Kugizaki pointed to that spot and suddenly asked, "Why must it be a human? Even a cyborg could create those kinds of marks."

"It must be." Before Nanami could speak, Rito offered his explanation.

"If it were a cyborg, the area of ​​the web wouldn't be this small, and judging from the location, the person must have been deliberately avoiding it but accidentally damaged it."

Fu Hei nodded in agreement.

Kugizaki understood and didn't ask any further questions.

"Now that we've found a clue, let's go!" Nanami adjusted his glasses and walked towards the passage where the clue was found.

"Aren't we going to split up?" Kugizaki asked.

Nanami didn't stop. "No need. Now that we've discovered an unknown expression, splitting up is too dangerous. Let's leave it at that for now."

"That makes sense," Kugizaki said, then quickly followed.

Soon, the four of them entered this unusual passage.

But behind the four people, in an unseen, dark corner, a blurry figure slowly shrank back.

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

In the deathly silent passage, Nanami suddenly spoke up and asked a question.

"A cursed spirit?" Rihito paused for a moment before realizing that Nanami was referring to a real person.

In the report he had previously submitted, he only provided information about the real person in written form, including only their abilities, personality, and fighting style.

Nanami must have seen that report as well.

So what he's asking now is probably unrelated to the report.

"A cursed spirit born from human malice." Rihito pondered for a few seconds, his voice somewhat low.

"He is very intelligent and is constantly growing. He can unleash a complete domain in just one battle."

"By the standards of our college freshmen, he is a once-in-a-millennium genius of sorcery, almost without exception."

Upon hearing this, Kugizaki couldn't help but roll his eyes at him.

Fuhei also wore a speechless expression.

Almost none? Then where did you, this monster, come from?

One day after awakening the spell, it can expand its domain.

Although it's only a half-finished product, as a newcomer, it can no longer be described as genius.

evildoer!

"Rito, I'm curious, how did you know about that cursed spirit's fighting style and its magical abilities?"

"Before this, you were just an ordinary high school student, nothing special. What made you suddenly possess magical abilities and become an enemy of that cursed spirit?"

As expected, it came.

Rito's gaze fell on Nanami's retreating figure.

When Ms. Gojo noticed her unusual behavior, she simply joked and said, "Never mind."

It wasn't that he didn't care, but rather that he was confident in his own abilities.

In other words, even if he had any problems, he was confident he could easily suppress them.

But Nanami was different. Given his personality, he would never have stood idly by when he first saw him.

Rito was silent for a moment, then slowly said, "Actually... I am also a product of that cursed spirit experiment."

When he said those words, Rito felt as if a burden had been lifted from his heart.

He was worried that his identity as a time traveler would be exposed, and that he would be ostracized because of his altered experiences, so he chose to keep it a secret.

Nanami didn't speak, but listened quietly.

"I was captured by that cursed spirit and taken to the sewers. It said my soul was strange, and then it did an experiment on me, and that's how I awakened the spell."

Regarding the experiment, Rihito chose to partially conceal it.

The story of time travelers is too outrageous to be told.

Nanami paused, "An experiment?"

"Hmm." Rihito nodded. "It should be related to his technique. Those cyborgs are the products of his experiments, but I just succeeded in the end."

"Looks like you're in pretty good luck, Rito," Kugizaki suddenly interjected, his tone not as offensive as Rito had expected.

Fushiguro maintained the same expression, as if he were listening to Rito recount what he had eaten that day.

"You should know what happened next, Shunping..."

"I understand," Nanami suddenly said, interrupting Rito.

Kugizaki and Fushiguro also had expressions as if nothing had happened.

"...Hmm!" Rito looked at them, but in the end said nothing.

As they went deeper, the passage became narrower, and walking inside, they actually felt a bit crowded.

The silence lasted for several minutes.

At that moment, Nanami, who was walking at the front, suddenly stopped.

The three of them stopped and looked ahead.

"arrive!"