After Ijichi and Junpei sent Nanami up, they headed to the place where the victim had been murdered.
The department store’s parking lot extended down to the second basement floor, and the incident had taken place on B2.
Because not much time had passed since it happened, the area had already been sealed off, so there were no customers’ cars parked there.
“Is this the place?”
“Yes. Both victims were killed here. One week apart.”
“A week apart? Someone died, and customers still came here?”
“Cases involving curses are cleaned up quickly. We have to keep our existence hidden from ordinary people as much as possible. That’s why B2 was sealed off, but for some reason another victim turned up. The car seen on CCTV entering B2 had somehow been moved to B1 by the time we checked.”
“Huh...”
As soon as they arrived, Junpei narrowed his eyes and began searching for lingering traces.
He found them easily enough. The cursed residue scattered around the murder site was plain to see.
High-grade curses are supposed to have a clearer sense of self and higher intelligence.
The measured reading was Grade 1.
For a Grade 1 curse to be this stupid, it was highly likely that it had sacrificed its brain in exchange for greater power.
It might have been deliberately made to look messy, but the traces were too chaotic to assume that.
If not, then the grade had been measured wrong.
Following the residue, Junpei stopped in front of a door marked “No Entry Except for Authorized Personnel.”
“What’s this?”
“Probably the security guards’ sleeping quarters.”
“The residue stops here.”
“Then they may have witnessed something. Let’s go in.”
Tap, tap
“Anyone there?”
When Ijichi knocked, a middle-aged man in a security uniform came out from inside.
The man, with a face that looked worn out from fatigue, eyed Junpei and Ijichi suspiciously.
“Didn’t you see the sign that says no unauthorized entry?”
“Sorry to bother you while you’re working. We’re here from a government agency and investigating the recent murder case.”
“Police?”
“You could say something like that. We’re not here to interrogate you, just to ask whether you saw anything at the time.”
“Some big shots, huh. Come on in, then.”
Still suspicious despite accepting their explanation, the guard led Ijichi and Junpei inside.
The sleeping quarters were spartan.
A bed barely big enough for two people took up nearly half the room, and various documents were strewn across the table.
A crumpled burger wrapper suggested he had just been eating.
Junpei looked around, wondering if the residue might continue inside, but found nothing else.
The guard gave his chair to Ijichi and Junpei and sat on the bed, giving them a sleepy side-eye.
“Ask whatever you want. I’m a busy man too.”
“I’d appreciate it if you could tell us what you remember about the day the incident happened.”
“Even if you ask me that, I don’t know. Just look at this place. You think anyone can work in a dump like this all week? We rotate shifts on set days, and I was off that day. I came in and heard someone had been killed. Now I’m worried I’ll get blamed for it and fired for nothing.”
“The victims were VIP customers at this department store. Did you ever run into them while working?”
“I’m not good at remembering names. If you had a photo, I might recognize them.”
“Here.”
Taking the photo Ijichi handed over, the guard clicked his tongue.
“So it was these guys.”
“Pardon?”
“They were the type to roll in with some absurdly expensive car, demand that nobody park near them, and throw a fit about why they couldn’t use the disabled spots. They didn’t come on the same days I was working all that often, so I didn’t see them much, but they gave me trouble a few times.”
“I see...”
(Could there really be a curse user among the security guards?)
(I can’t be sure yet.)
“But if that’s the case, doesn’t that mean there’s someone who works on the days those people usually come in?”
“That’s right.”
“Does that person still work here?”
“He quit not long ago. The day after the murder happened.”
A victim murdered at one-week intervals.
A basement security guard who had frequent encounters with difficult VIPs.
The puzzle pieces fit together far too neatly.
“Then could that person’s workdays be...?”
“Tuesdays and Thursdays.”
The day before yesterday, when the murder happened, had been Tuesday.
They had found a clue.
--------------------------
After finishing the interview, Ijichi and Junpei returned to the car and waited for Nanami to come back.
Before long, Nanami returned with the VIP list and opened the passenger-side door.
“Any progress?”
“We found the residue, but the curse hasn’t shown itself.”
“There were security guards stationed on B2 where the residue ended. It seems they had some grudge against the victims.”
Ijichi and Junpei explained what they had learned in the interview.
Nanami nodded with his usual blank expression and rolled his neck.
“Annoying. It’s likely a parasitic curse that latched onto a host. The residue ending right there is also suspicious.”
“What do we do now?”
“For now, Ijichi-kun, go back and investigate that retired guard. Yoshino-kun and I will stay here.”
“There are still a few days left until the next murder date.”
“Did you forget? That guard didn’t only work on Tuesdays. Today, Thursday, was also one of his shifts. Since it’s already killed two people, it may have grown stronger. We can’t be sure what it’ll do.”
“And that’s not all.”
Nanami spread out the VIP list he had received and pointed to two names.
“Here, Sonoda Kazuchi and Yamamoto Mie. These two are scheduled to visit the department store this afternoon. Both are wealthy enough to drive cars worth over thirty million yen, and their reputations among the staff are terrible. They fit the murder conditions.”
“Then the killing could happen tonight...”
“A battle may break out. Don’t let your guard down.”
Junpei swallowed hard.
His chest pounded with a mix of anticipation, worry, and fear.
The first mission he had ever taken on as a jujutsushi did not seem like it would be easy.
---------------------------
[Uryu Kazuya. Age 23. High school graduate. He worked as a security guard at the department store for a year and lives with his younger sister, with no parents. He hasn’t returned home for the past three days.]
Less than three hours after Ijichi left, the investigation results came in.
Junpei thought, a little rude perhaps, that this was a man who was good at everything except combat.
[After the murder incident, there were no major signs of abnormal behavior. As a notable point, he has a history of receiving counseling for alcoholism and depression.]
“This is probably the one. Ijichi-kun, please keep investigating places the suspect might go from there. I’ll be back before tomorrow morning.”
[Understood.]
Beep
After hanging up, Nanami spent a while just staring at the CCTV.
In a way, it was a professional attitude, and Junpei had no complaints about that, but the atmosphere made him a little uncomfortable.
Just sitting in the same space without saying a word, even though they weren’t that close, made him feel restless.
Junpei was trying to think of something to say when he remembered something strange from the investigation and spoke up to Nanami.
“Um... Nanami-san?”
“What is it?”
“About the second victim. You said the car had been parked on B2, but then it was moved to B1, right?”
“Yes. The curse probably had a technique that could move touched objects to wherever it wanted, or shrink them.”
“But the murder method was dismemberment, wasn’t it? Does that mean it had two techniques?”
“It’s not that simple. It may not have been just a curse. Uryu could also be a curse user with a technique. One would have directly killed the victim, and the other would have moved the car. As a security guard, Uryu would also know the blind spots where CCTV doesn’t reach.”
“Ah...”
That made sense too.
Junpei accepted it on his own and nodded, then fell silent. Once his question was answered, he had nothing else to say.
Just as Junpei was awkwardly shifting around, a rumbling cry for food burst from his stomach.
Grrrroooowl
“Ah.”
“Come to think of it, it’s already dinnertime.”
“R-right.”
Checking the time, he saw it was already almost 6 p.m.
The VIP still hadn’t arrived, but outside the window the sun was already sinking low.
“Are you hungry?”
“No, I can hold out for this much.”
“We can’t stay here forever. I’ll go buy something light, so wait here.”
“You really don’t have to...”
“We’re all just trying to make a living. Office workers shouldn’t skip mealtimes.”
But I’m the one being punished here...
“Pardon?”
“Nothing.”
If Nanami had been alone, he would never have left his post, even if he had to endure hunger, but now Junpei was with him.
Junpei’s strangely uneasy demeanor had softened his resolve a little.
Junpei almost told him to go ahead and come back, forgetting his duty for a second, when an odd sense of unease suddenly struck him.
In movies, something always goes wrong the moment someone leaves their post.
“What if a VIP comes into the parking lot while you’re gone, Nanami-san?”
“Call me first. Tail them until I get there, and if they make it safely through the parking lot and into the building, come back here. If things get dangerous, just step in and buy time.”
“Okay...”
Seeing Nanami walk away, Junpei sat there blankly and imagined what would happen if a fight broke out.
If it’s a slashing-type opponent, that’s bad match-up. Nanami-san will handle that better than I can, so I’ll leave it to him...
After the battle at Satozakura High School not long ago, he had come to feel how lacking he was.
He wasn’t especially combative, nor did he have some burning desire to improve, but if he had chosen to become a jujutsushi, shouldn’t he get stronger than this?
He absolutely refused to die to some random trash mob before he even got the chance to kill Mahito.
What Junpei thought he needed most right now was firepower and physical ability.
Attacks his [Moonlit Wave] couldn’t cover had to be dodged with his body, and if poison didn’t work on the opponent, he’d need to win with brute force—but he had neither.
Physical ability could be trained over time, but the absence of a decisive finishing blow was a painful weakness.
For now, firepower would have to wait.
My specialty is defense, attrition through poison, and long fights.
It was nonsense to look at impossible things before he had even refined what he already possessed.
Junpei summoned a small [Moonlit Wave] in midair and stroked it.
Its soft texture made him feel strangely calm as he touched it.
As his impatience settled, he could quickly figure out what he needed to develop first.
“For now, mobility, I guess.”
Most physical blows could be blocked with [Moonlit Wave].
Slashing attacks? As long as he didn’t get hit, that was fine, right?
He had also considered using [Moonlit Wave] like a structure, but it would take time to form hand signs, and its surface was too smooth and slippery. It didn’t seem efficient.
At the very least, he’d need a body capable of keeping up with that kind of use, or enough mastery over cursed energy to skip the hand signs entirely.
Junpei raised his cursed energy and looked down at his hand.
The shimmering aura seemed to greedily shout that this wasn’t the end, that he could still become stronger.
And just as it said, his technique was not finished yet.
Poison is the nature of your cursed energy. Rather, the shikigami side should be called the technique.
It was only the faintest sign, but he could tell instinctively.
The shikigami he could summon was not limited to [Moonlit Wave].
He still couldn’t bring them all out because his control was too rough, but they definitely existed.
“More freely... the interpretation of the technique...”
The CCTV changed the moment Junpei was concentrating.
The car he had seen on the list passed through the gate and headed underground.
“VIP!”
Junpei hurriedly pulled out his phone and called Nanami.
As if he had been expecting it, Nanami answered and asked in a hard tone.
[Yoshino-kun, has the VIP appeared?]
“Yes. Judging by the car, I think it’s Sonoda Kazuchi, but...”
Junpei was giving a situation report while watching the CCTV when his face twisted.
It was because of another car following behind it.
[What is it?]
“There are two! Yamamoto Mie came in at the same time!”
[Understood. I’ll head down as quickly as possible, so Yoshino-kun, keep watching the CCTV until I give you instructions.]
From the other end of the line, he could hear the sound of rapid footsteps.
One of the cars on CCTV entered B2, while the other entered B1.
[Sonoda is on B1 and Yamamoto is on B2, then. I’ll head to B2, so Yoshino-kun, please go to B1. I’m hanging up now, but answer immediately if I call. The actual battle is likely to happen on the second basement floor.]
“Yes!”
After hanging up and stuffing the phone into his pocket, Junpei ran quickly toward B1.
His eyes burned with resolve.
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