After requesting reimbursement for the taxi fare, Geto finally left the police station.
He checked the time—it was already close to 2 PM.
The scorching sun shone down equally on everyone who dared to stay outside at this hour. Even the occasional breeze was hot, and the air seemed to shimmer with heat waves.
Even though he had modified his Jujutsu High uniform to be looser and cooler, the bun-haired teenager was still sweating profusely under the blazing sun.
Dragging that bald yakuza around had caused him to miss lunch.
Summoning a thin film-like curse spirit to act as a sunshade, Geto quickly found a nearby family restaurant and slipped inside.
Only when the cool blast of air conditioning washed over his face, taking away the heat clinging to his body, did he finally feel alive again.
Because of the hot weather, he had little appetite. He ordered a small meal and a drink to serve as lunch, then started thinking about how to complete his mission.
The mastermind behind the incidents was undoubtedly the one who posted a request on the dark web, looking for a cursed user with mind-control abilities. But a website used for transactions between cursed users would definitely have strict confidentiality measures, making it difficult to track down the employer or the hired mercenaries.
After all, they were jujutsu sorcerers, not some elite hackers.
And the people being manipulated were just ordinary civilians. The technique used seemed to be affecting random individuals, making them create chaos and spread fear without any clear pattern. That made it even harder to pinpoint the culprit or guess their true motive.
Could it really be just some lunatic doing all this for fun, just to spread fear among people?
If someone else had been assigned this mission, they might have had no choice but to give up.
But fortunately, the one handling it was him.
The power of controlling cursed spirits has an advantage over other innate techniques because it allows for a variety of tactics that can be adapted to different situations.
And Suguru Geto just so happens to possess a cursed spirit that can track down enemies.
More specifically, a cursed spirit that can cast a curse remotely.
As long as he obtains a target's cursed energy, he can use it to directly place a curse on the target's blood, causing mild poisoning. While the effect isn't very strong, once the curse takes hold, Suguru Geto can pinpoint the target's location.
He had already gathered residual cursed energy left behind by the bald Yakuza. If he could collect a few more samples, he would be able to cast the curse successfully.
As he ate his egg fried rice, the young man with a bun hairstyle gazed out the window at the blazing sun. Just thinking about having to search for ordinary people controlled by a technique under the scorching heat made him sigh.
… 8
… 5
What was worse than searching for samples under the brutal July sun was spending an entire afternoon baking in the heat without finding a single target.
Instead, he ended up taking down a mugger. At first, he thought the robber was another ordinary person under the influence of a mental technique, but after checking, he found no traces of a technique or residual cursed energy on him.
"Man, seriously..."
Letting out a helpless sigh, Suguru Geto handed the stolen bag back to the woman in high heels who had rushed over in a panic.
"Oh my! Thank you so much, handsome young man!" The woman, seeing her expensive handbag returned, burst into tears of joy, her chest heaving with excitement. "If it weren't for you, I don't know what I would have done!"
"It's no problem. Just be more careful next time and keep a close eye on your belongings." Suguru Geto didn't think much of it, giving the woman a warm smile as he spoke gently.
Seeing the soft smile on the young man's face, the woman froze for a moment, her eyes widening slightly as she stared at him. After a while, she finally snapped out of it, her face flushing red.
She reached up to fix her slightly messy hair from running and, while taking out her phone, bit her lip shyly. "If you don't mind, let's exchange numbers. I'd love to treat you to a meal to thank you properly."
Suguru Geto smiled and politely declined. "That won't be necessary. I didn't help you for a reward—it was simply the right thing to do."
With that, he walked past the stunned woman and continued weaving through the streets, searching for cursed energy samples.
However, after noon that day, he didn't encounter any more ordinary people controlled by a technique.
He considered asking Yukinoshita Haruno if any of the terrorists from the Chiba Airport attack were still around, but he was told that only one had survived and had likely been taken into police custody.
He wandered around the Minato district until nearly 3 AM without finding his target, so he had no choice but to end his search for the night.
Over the next few days, he roamed various parts of Tokyo. But aside from one incident on the fourth day—where he found another controlled individual and prevented a brutal street stabbing—he didn't have much luck.
"Thankfully, it's the same residual cursed energy. If the enemy had hired multiple sorcerers with the same type of technique, the investigation would've been even more difficult."
The bun-haired boy let out a relieved sigh as he successfully collected another sample.
Two days later, in Ikebukuro, Suguru Geto found another sample in the middle of a crime scene. While searching, he stopped a case of school bullying, teaching the bullies a lesson. However, he failed to save a man who was killed in the street.
When the police were chasing the murderer, he managed to intercept the controlled killer.
In just a few days, Suguru Geto had stumbled upon three murder cases on his own. The rate of violent crimes was starting to feel like something straight out of a Detective Conan episode.
It left him feeling a heavy weight in his heart.
Even if these killers were under control, the people they murdered were real victims. Their families would never forgive the ones who took their loved ones, no matter the circumstances.
Meanwhile, the true mastermind was still hiding in the shadows, untouched.
Three weak samples of residual cursed energy weren't enough to meet the conditions for casting the curse. He needed at least two more.
Only by finding the mastermind quickly could he prevent more innocent people from getting hurt.
With that thought, Suguru Geto cut down his sleep hours as much as possible, pushing himself to search day and night.
But there was only so much one person could do. On top of that, finding controlled individuals was mostly a matter of luck. It took him nearly a week before he finally found a fourth sample.
And today, he was about to find the last one.
2 AM, Shinjuku, Tokyo.
The late-night streets had become much quieter, and even the night breeze felt cooler.
"Let go of me… Ugh… Please, let me go!"
A faint cry for help reached Suguru Geto's ears from a nearby alley.
Without hesitation, he rushed toward the source of the sound.
Hayashizaki turned a corner into a dark and narrow alley. Under the dim moonlight, Suguru Geto spotted a middle-aged man with messy, unkempt curly hair, a weary face, and a scruffy beard—looking like a homeless person. The man held a fruit knife that glinted coldly under the light, pressing it against a young woman he had taken hostage.
His other hand was yanking at the woman's clothes, while the knife's tip rested against her pale neck. Because of her struggle, a thin line of blood had already appeared on her skin.
Feeling the sharp sting on her neck, the woman immediately stopped resisting. She didn't dare move and could only let the man tear at her clothes.
But the moment she saw the ponytailed boy appear, her teary eyes lit up with hope, and she cried out desperately, "Help me!"
Suguru Geto reacted instantly. The moment the man lifted his head to look at him, Geto raised a hand, summoning a curse that knocked the fruit knife from his grip. At the same time, he lunged forward.
His hands moved swiftly, grabbing the man's wrist and twisting it back, forcing his left arm under control.
The man groaned in pain and had no choice but to release the young woman. He immediately swung his free right hand behind him, trying to grab Geto.
But the moment he let go of the woman, Geto tightened his grip and dislocated the man's left arm in one quick motion.
With a sharp scream, the man collapsed, pleading frantically, "Please! Let me go! I was wrong! I won't do it again!"
Suguru Geto's sharp gaze wavered for a moment, his expression shifting from cold determination to unexpected shock.
This guy… isn't one of them?
…
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