Curse Return: Demon Void Girl Doesn't Want to Be a Weakling

After hearing what Nanami said, Itadori remained silent for a few seconds.

He certainly knew he wasn't strong enough, but should he just stand by and watch the real person continue to harm others?

He clenched his fists and looked down at the three modified remains on the ground that had not dissipated like the other cursed spirits.

One of the victims was even a child; when the attack came, all the books in his schoolbag were scattered on the ground.

Don't those things that were once human even deserve to return to dust?

"I know." Itadori loosened his fist, the blood on the back of his hand already dried. "That's why I'm learning from you."

Nanami glanced at him and nodded.

He sheathed the dagger at his waist and took out a handkerchief from his suit pocket, handing it to him.

"Wipe your hands clean. Next, we'll learn how to track the caster from the remaining traces of cursed power."

Huzhang took the handkerchief and wiped the sticky residue off his fist, turning the white cotton cloth of the handkerchief grayish-brown.

Nanami crouched down and gently placed her palm on the modified corpse.

A very faint trace of cursed power remained in the modified body, left by the caster.

"Place your hands on it and activate the incantation."

Haddō did as he was told. His perception of curse power wasn't as precise as Nanami's, but he still felt it when his palm was close.

As my fingertips touched the cold corpse, a strange feeling welled up inside me.

Flowing, distorted, and unsettling fluctuations of cursed power.

"Is this the technique of that guy called 'True Man'?"

"It's the residue left by the spell." Nanami stood up, adjusted his glasses, and said, "Normal spell residue wouldn't be this obvious. He's deliberately giving us clues."

He paused, waiting for Huzhang to remove his hand.

"Can your magical perception detect this strange feeling?"

"Yes, it's disgusting." Itajimaru rubbed his hands on his pants a couple of times, trying to get rid of the feeling.

"Remember this feeling," Nanami said. "If you sense the same filth in another place next time, you'll be able to pinpoint his area of ​​activity."

"The first step in tracking is not finding the enemy, but knowing where the enemy has been."

With his eyes closed, Itachi let the distorted feeling run through his mind before opening them.

"I've got it."

Nanami took her phone out of her pocket and opened her LINE chat with Mashiro.

"Nanami": An old residential area in Tokorozawa City. The three cyborgs have been exorcised, and the caster's activity area is expanding to the southeast.

The reply arrived within seconds.

"Mashiro": Received. I'm also tracking a target near Risaku High School.

"Nanami": A high school student?

"Mashiro": I saw her yesterday. She was touched by a real person, but she wasn't modified.

Nanami tapped her thumb above the screen and began to think.

"Nanami": Did you leave it there on purpose?

"Mashiro": Hmm, it seems there's some kind of plan.

"Nanami": Do you want us to come over?

"Mashiro": I'll observe by myself first, you can have Itajiro come over later.

Nanami put her phone back in her pocket. "There's also progress on Ms. Mashiro's side."

Huzhang squatted down, picking up the scattered textbooks one by one and arranging them neatly: "What's the progress?"

"A high school student is being targeted by a real person, and she is now stalking that target."

Itadori looked up, his expression turning serious. "Are we going to help Mashiro-nee?"

Nanami looked into Itadori's eyes, which held the same calmness he had shown when he had blasted the modified body's head apart with a single punch.

But Nanami also understood that, like Mashiro, beneath the calm surface lay a turbulent undercurrent of fury.

"No need. What she needs now is to confirm the purpose of the contact between the real person and the target, not to fight."

Nanami turned and walked out of the alley, her leather shoes making a scraping sound on the gravel. "But she wants you to wait a while, so there must be something she needs you to do."

Itadori watched Nanami's retreating figure, then glanced down at the stack of textbooks on the ground.

He straightened the crooked Chinese textbook on top, stood up, and followed Nanami.

At the end of the alley, the setting sun dips below the roofline of the old residential area.

The sky transitioned from dark red to grayish blue, and the air was filled with dust and the remnants of cursed power blown away by the wind.

……

Rissaku High School, 4 PM.

Half an hour after the school bell rang, most of the students had left.

The shouts of the sports clubs came from afar in the direction of the playground, and after being dispersed by the wind, only a faint echo remained in the air.

A figure walked out of the school gate on the outermost sidewalk.

The uniform of Riying High School was a little wrinkled, with a few inconspicuous wear marks on the fabric of the left shoulder. The headphone wire was draped over her shoulder, but the headphones were not in her ears, hanging gently on her chest.

He walked slowly, his shoulders were slightly tucked in, and his gaze was always fixed on the ground.

Occasionally, students would pass him by, but no one greeted him, and he never looked up, simply walking towards his home on his own.

The boy with the shady corners of his eyes and a face that looked like he was easily bullied was Yoshino Junpei.

Mashiro sat by the window in a family restaurant diagonally opposite the school gate.

On the table sat a strawberry milkshake that had only been taken two sips from and a huge plate of fries that was almost finished.

She rested her face on her left hand, a straw dangling from her mouth, and her fingers gently tracing circles on the edge of the table.

When she saw Shunpei come out of the school, a smile appeared on Mashiro's face.

Unwrapping the bitten and tooth-marked straw, Mashiro finished the rest of the fries and licked her fingers.

The filth on Shunping's body was even thicker than yesterday, and the traces of the transformation of non-action were layered upon layer in his body.

The real person didn't completely transform him all at once; it was a gradual process of infiltration, slowly penetrating his soul.

Each layer penetrates deeper than the previous one, seeping from the surface of the skin into the budding stage of the curse's core.

Most of the test subjects were handled once and then discarded on the street to await the results.

But Shunpei is different; he is a toy that real people are interested in, and also a means for them to break down Hisahito's psychological defenses.

The real person is waiting, waiting for an event that will completely break Shunping's mentality.

For example, in the original story, he had just made friends with a sorcerer when his mother was killed by the sorcerer, which immediately triggered his hatred level.

But Mashiro won't let him do whatever he wants.

She took out two thousand-yuan bills from her wallet, placed them under her milkshake cup, and walked out of the restaurant.

There weren't many pedestrians on the street, just a few housewives carrying shopping bags, and the automatic doors of the convenience store opening and closing repeatedly.

The distance to Shunping is about fifty meters, which is within the range of the spell's perception, and the tracking rhythm can be adjusted at any time with the naked eye.

Shunping took the same route as yesterday: he went out of the school gate, passed by the movie theater, and stopped to look at the poster for two seconds.

Today's poster is different; it's for a newly released horror movie, and the image is a split face.

Shunping looked for a moment, then looked away and walked home along the alleyway beside the movie theater.

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The other chapters will be released a little later.