Chapter 75
To reach Benzaiten Shrine, you not only need to take the tram to the last stop, but also take a sightseeing cable car to the mountainside.
By the time Hatori Kazuma and Natsuyuki arrived at Benzaiten Shrine, it was nearly dusk.
Tourists are leaving the shrine in small numbers—fireworks are allowed on the beach after 6 p.m., and at night, countless clusters of dazzling fireworks can be seen.
Despite the curious glances from passersby, Kazuma Hatake and Shigeaki Natsuyu first arrived at the Zensai Pond.
Whether the water flowing here is sacred or not is debatable, but it certainly attracts wealth.
Looking into the crystal-clear money-washing pool, the bottom was densely covered with a large number of Japanese yen coins.
In the center of the money-washing pool stands a small donation box. It is said that if you wash your coins with the sacred water and put them accurately into the donation box, your wish will surely come true.
At this point, there were no other tourists left by the pool, so Kazuma Hatake directly asked Natsuyuki.
"Have you found anything?"
Xia Youjie seemed to be staring intently at the pool, and after a long while, he nodded to Yuqu Kazuma.
"A faint trace of residual curse power can be seen, which is almost completely dissipated."
In other words, at least this shrine definitely has a problem.
Being able to sort out the situation so quickly, Xia Youjie's tense nerves relaxed a bit, and he remembered that when he was at the police station, Yuqu Kazuma seemed to have something to say to him.
"What were you trying to say to Mr. Ishigami earlier?"
"Um."
Kazuma Hatori roughly reiterated his previous conjectures.
"You mean it might not be related to curse casters...?"
In terms of knowledge of magical power, Natsuyuki and Hatake Kazuma, who are both non-family magicians, may have a similar grasp; however, in terms of understanding magical spirits, Natsuyuki has much more experience than Hatake Kazuma in terms of the magic formulas related to them.
"The victims' deaths were highly uniform in their characteristics, occurred at extremely regular times, and took place in regular but not fixed locations—completely different from the indiscriminate slaughter of ordinary cursed spirits."
Xia Youjie pondered, "If this is the work of a cursed spirit, then it must be at least of the highest level."
Kazuma Hatake: "It has to be Special Grade?"
Xia Youjie nodded: "Yes, cursed spirits below the first level cannot use curses, and their attack methods are relatively simple, let alone develop communicative intelligence. To achieve this level of almost selective curse killing, I speculate that it must be at least the special level."
If it is an excessively powerful cursed spirit, not only will it possess a natural domain, but the curses it can use will also be no different from those possessed by a sorcerer.
The dividing line between a near-first-level cursed spirit and a second-level cursed spirit lies in [whether or not they can use curses].
In this situation, if we were to consider the possibility of a cursed spirit, then the task would be beyond their current capabilities.
"However, I think that's unlikely."
Xia Youjie smiled and pulled out one of the mission documents from the stack to show Yuqu Kazuma.
"If this was done by a top-tier curse spirit, it wouldn't be as cunning as a curse master. Its modus operandi and thought process are very straightforward, and the residual curse power it left behind can be easily observed even through a [window]."
However, based on [Window's] on-site investigation, it was determined that there were no obvious traces of cursed power left nearby—it is possible that the traces were deliberately cleaned up to prevent tracking.
Cursed spirits are products of curses, collections of negative energy. Even if they wanted to do something similar to conceal their presence, they couldn't. Every move they make leaves behind a lot of filth, making them very easy to identify.
"I see."
Kazuma Hagoromo nodded.
“But assuming it really was done by a curse caster, it will be very difficult for us to find the target.” Xia Youjie thought hard. “What exactly did that person want to achieve? If we follow this line of thought…”
While Xia Youjie was racking his brains, Yu Qu Kazuma, standing next to him, silently rolled his eyes in his heart.
What more could I want? All I want is for you to trust me by more than 80%.
The phone in his pocket vibrated. Kazuma Hatori opened his email and saw the latest message from Satoru Gojo.
[Ta-da! Mission complete—oh dear, so easy! Even a level one cursed spirit is no match for you!]
This is followed by an emoticon that shows someone is extremely happy, with a hint of pride and self-satisfaction.
[This is amazing, definitely worth buying two souvenirs.]
Kazuma Hatori readily agreed.
[Yay!]
Gojo Satoru was probably holding his phone, waiting online for a reply from Yutori Kazuma. He typed quickly, and sent another message in just a few seconds, looking twice as happy.
A little while later, Kazuma Hatori received another email from Satoru Gojo.
[How's it going on your end? Is everything alright?]
[It's alright. The next attack location has been determined, and we're trying to find a way to locate the perpetrator in advance.]
After Kazuma Hatori explained to Satoru that they couldn't track down the culprit using the too faint remnants of cursed power, and instead relied on clues gathered by the detectives, and then thought about it from the perspective of cursed magic, and finally found the location of the curse much faster than expected, Satoru Gojo sent a very happy smiley face emoticon.
[Is this a euphemism for "I'm not stupid"? Hmph, well, I'm happy to compliment you! Look forward to the gift I'll bring you—]
[good. ]
Kazuma Hatori put away his phone, wanting to laugh a little, trying to hide the bittersweet feeling rising in his heart.
It's kind of subtle, like I'm about to get a pat on the head...
He turned his head and saw Xia Youjie still squatting by the money-washing pool, seemingly still unable to figure things out.
Seeing that Yuzuru Kazuma was looking in his direction, Natsuyuki shrugged slightly, indicating his helplessness.
"If all else fails, we can choose the most foolish method—surround the shrine with the cursed spirits I possess. Once an enemy appears and exorcises the cursed spirits, I will sense it."
But this also means that the enemy will know he is being targeted, which can be considered a two-way notification.
A slightly chilly breeze blew by, causing the paper strips tied to the nearby wishing rack to rustle, like a low, buzzing hum of wings.
"I've seen these two young men standing here for a long time. Is there anything I can help you with?"
There were probably no tourists left at this point, and Kazuma Hatori and Suguru Natsuyuki had been standing there for too long, attracting the attention of the shrine staff.
"Oh, it's nothing. Are you getting ready to close? We'll leave now."
Xia Youjie quickly got up from the money-washing pool and said apologetically.
"It's alright. Since you're here, why not make a wish before you leave?"
The old woman, dressed as a shrine maiden, stood with her hands behind her back and smiled at them.
"No, we will..."
Xia Youjie instinctively wanted to refuse, but after the old woman's repeated invitations, he felt embarrassed to keep turning down his elders.
"Then...then I'll cast one."
He took out a fifty-yen coin from his wallet and was about to ask Kazuma Hatori if he wanted to try putting it in the donation box when he noticed that Hatori had reached into the pool and picked up a one-yen coin.
Seeing Xia Youjie looking over with a puzzled expression, Yuqu Kazuma explained calmly.
"Randomly select a lucky passerby and fulfill their wish."
Xia Youjie: "..."
The old woman: "..."
Even the old woman, who maintained her kind expression, couldn't help but twitch her eye slightly.
But she could no longer force Kazuma Hatake to put his own coins into the donation box, so she could only watch as they followed the procedure, washing the coins in the water of the money-washing pool before throwing them into the donation box in the center of the pool.
Two clanging sounds.
Both coins landed steadily in the donation box.
Afterwards, Xia Youjie successfully said goodbye to the old woman and walked out of the shrine with Yuqu Yizhen.
Do you think there's something wrong with that old woman?
Xia Youjie asked Yu in a low voice, "Take a truth."
But both the coin washing and the donation box process went smoothly, and he did not detect any signs of a curse along the way.
“It’s hard to say,” Kazuma Hatake replied, “but in any case, I don’t want to spend money.”
“…”
Xia Youjie was speechless at this answer.
However, instead of following the mountain path they had taken to exit the torii gate, they turned and ventured into the increasingly dark forest, approaching the Benzaiten Shrine once more.
Along the way, Xia Youjie continuously released cursed spirits, controlling them to scatter and set up a defensive line around the shrine.
Kazuma Hatake was unmoved by these cursed spirits, because he had already tried it in his first playthrough. Exorcising these cursed spirits controlled by Natsume didn't give him any [Curse Power Crystals].
After the spirits were set up, Xia Youjie and Yuqu Kazuma sat down on clean stones on the outer edge of the shrine, which was closest to the center of the circle.
To avoid revealing their location, Xia Youjie did not light a fire, and the two of them hid in the forest almost in the dark.
Their college uniforms were also pure black, allowing them to blend in with their surroundings almost instantly without needing to take any extra camouflage measures.
Kazuma Hatori sat opposite Natsuyuki, watching this future villain who had already released almost all the cursed spirits. His defensive instincts, which had been trying to nip him in the bud, began to stir again.
Killing him now might just be a matter of a few [Black Flashes]... Then we'd go back and say Xia Youjie died in the mission, shed a couple of tears, and there would be no way to prove it...
Stared silently at by those deep, dark eyes, who didn't blink for a long time, Xia Youjie began to feel a chill run down his spine again.
Strange, even though he felt he was getting along quite well with this Hagoromo Kazumi... why does he always give him a subtle, almost terrifying feeling, like he's survived a catastrophe, at certain moments?
"Uh, you before..."
Xia Youjie gave a tactical cough and could only make small talk, "I haven't heard you mention your family before."
Kazuma Hatake: "..."
This person is really good at chatting.
"Both my parents died. I had a distant aunt who adopted me, but she was busy with work and didn't take care of me at all."
In the end, Kazuma Hatori simply used the fake identity introduction that Ayako Sakami had given him.
Xia Youjie took a quiet breath, probably never expecting that his classmate's background was so tragic.
"Excuse me……"
He even apologized.
"It's okay, I don't mind."
Kazuma Hatake spoke calmly—after all, this was an identity set up in the game, and had nothing to do with him personally.
But this seemed to make Xia Youjie misunderstand something even more. After placing his hands on his lap and hesitantly adjusting his sleeves, he was about to speak.
"you……"
Cluck cluck—
A faint sound, like bones being crushed, came from nearby, causing Xia Youjie to suddenly stand up and turn his head to look in a certain direction.
"My cursed spirit has been eaten? No, that's not right..."
Immediately afterwards, countless twisted, teeth-grinding lewd laughs came from all directions, overlapping and echoing, voicing incoherent questions at him.
"Hehe...Are you the one making a wish?"
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