.
The remainder of the trip to Gifu passes without further incidents.
It's not Shiki's first time in Gifu. She's taken missions here multiple times in the past before, after all. But even so, the city itself is still largely unfamiliar to her.
The Kobayashi brothers, on the other hand, seem to be very well-versed in navigating the city's streets.
Kobayashi Tamotsu sets off at a brisk pace as soon as they arrive, confidently leading them into the city proper. It does not take long before their small group is standing in front of a nondescript building.
"Kon Shiu conducts most of his work from here."
… The choice of location is interesting. Instead of being tucked away in some back-alley as one might imagine of an individual engaging in shady practices, Kon Shiu's office appears to be located on an open street like any other regular business.
Which is quite sensible, if one takes a moment to stop and think about it. Refuge in audacity. Blending in among other businesses in the city makes for good camouflage, presumably.
More importantly, if Kon Shiu is constantly surrounded by non-sorcerer civilians… then even curse users would hesitate to cause trouble openly here. Because curse users were only left to their own devices by the Jujutsu Headquarters as long as they kept their heads down and maintained a low profile in the public eye. Those whose activities resulted in massive damage or high numbers of casualties became targets that the administration would no longer allow to remain at large.
"Since we've already set up a meeting beforehand, we can just go on in," Kobayashi Tamotsu says, stepping in through the doorway. His brother follows after him, holding the door open for Ken-jichan, who in turn holds it open for Shiki to follow. "Kon Shiu should be on the third floor, fourth door on the left. He usually doesn't –woah!"
The man's words cut off sharply as Shiki kicks him in the back of his knees without warning, forcing him to the ground. However, Kobayashi's half-formed indignant complaint from the rough treatment swiftly turns into outright alarm when a projectile suddenly bursts through the empty space where his head had been a second ago.
Which means that the projectile continues its way towards Shiki instead, unimpeded–
But unlike the curse user who'd failed to notice the imminent danger to his own person, Shiki is far better prepared for it.
She raises her sheathed sword in her hand, easily knocking the projectile aside with the scabbard.
The dart burrows into the ground, cracking the floor upon contact.
Kobayashi Tamotsu stares blankly at the small projectile that had nearly just torn a hole through his head, wide-eyed and wordless for a long moment before he manages to breathe out a quiet, incredulous, "What the fuck?"
Going by his surprise, Shiki takes it that this isn't the usual welcome that the Kobayashi brothers receive from Kon Shiu, then.
The doors swing shut behind them with a resounding thud.
"This– this isn't–" Kobayashi Tamotsu falters. "… Did something give us away? Wait, no, that still doesn't make sense. Why would Kon-san try to–?"
There's another quiet whistle that cuts through the air, interrupting Kobayashi-san's ramblings. This time, Ken-jichan is the one who steps forward and knocks it askance, resulting in another dart burrowing deeply into the nearby wall. The cursed energy surrounding the small projectile enables it to create another small crater in its radius. If this dart had found its mark in another human… the results would've been rather messy, to say the least.
"… Do we keep going?" Kobayashi Aoma asks carefully. "I'm kind of getting the feeling that Kon-san isn't welcoming visitors right now."
Kobayashi Tamotsu casts his younger brother an irritated look. "Now's not the time for joking around."
"Any time is a good time for jokes! And I'm not joking, anyways. Don't you think that–"
Ken-jichan coughs slightly, pointedly cutting off the brothers' animated bickering. "If Kon Shiu is in this building, then we'll still be seeking him out. Our objective hasn't changed."
The Kobayashi brothers exchange a silent glance with each other.
"… Suit yourselves, I guess," Kobayashi Tamotsu sighs. "I… Aoma and I are gonna have to sit this out, though. Those darts are Emoto's handiwork."
"Emoto?"
"Yeah, Emoto. He's a merc. We've run into him before and barely managed to escape… so you'll excuse us if we aren't eager to repeat the experience," the curse user grimaces. "Thought he died last year when he suddenly went off the radar, but I guess not. Emoto uses those throwing darts that can break through solid concrete, and he also has an exploding variant of it. That's all I know about him. Now, my brother and I will just be…"
Click.
Kobayashi Tamotsu trails off slowly, staring at the handle of the door that refuses to move. The man turns around, looking up and down at the door, then raises his foot and kicks at it.
But the door does not budge.
Scowling, Kobayashi Tamotsu repeats the motion, this time with cursed energy infused within the kick–
–and fails to leave as much as a scratch on the unmoving door.
"… Not gonna lie, that was kinda lame, Bro."
"You can cut it out with the side commentary, Aoma," Kobayashi Tamotsu hisses, aggrieved. His face is also distinctly reddened with embarrassment from his failed attempt to break down the door.
"So, uh," Kobayashi Aoma shuffles away from his brother with a nervous little laugh, "I-I guess we're coming along with you guys?"
Although Kobayashi Tamotsu had failed to break through the locked door using brute force… Shiki knows that it would be easy for her to destroy it. Red lines gleam invitingly across its surface, and it would be simple for Shiki to reach out and cut.
But is it necessary for her to do so?
The only reason for her to destroy the door right now would be to let the Kobayashi brothers escape this office building… and if it turned out that Kon Shiu could not provide Shiki with the information that she was looking for, then it meant that the Kobayashi brothers were still needed. She suspects that the brothers would attempt to run the moment that neither Shiki nor Ken-jichan were keeping an eye on them, so allowing the Kobayashi brothers to leave the building like this would be a waste of time for all parties involved.
The Kobayashi brothers fear fighting 'Emoto.' That's fine, Shiki doesn't need the curse users to fight for her, and their concerns were a bit of a non-issue. Because if this Emoto intended to fight them, then it would be Shiki and Ken-jichan who Emoto would naturally be more wary of, as the stronger sorcerers in their group. As long as the Kobayashi brothers were careful and stayed out of the way and refrained from walking around front and center, then it shouldn't be difficult for them to stay alive.
Rather than being concerned about Emoto… Shiki is more concerned about Kon Shiu.
Initially, things had seemed to be proceeding smoothly back when Kobayashi Tamotsu first contacted the man and set up a meeting to 'introduce a prospective new client.' So for them to be greeted with darts on Kon Shiu's doorstep like this… clearly, something had gone wrong along the way. The what was still a little uncertain, but Shiki doubts that most new clients receive darts to their faces upon stepping through the doors of the building.
Had Kon Shiu discovered the identities of his 'new clients' ahead of time? … If so, then Shiki had to applaud the man's information-gathering abilities.
But even then, that still didn't quite make sense. Because if Kon Shiu knew ahead of time that Gojo Shiki intended to pay him a visit… as a mediator and handler who worked with curse users, it would've then been natural for him to see this as an opportunity to do business with the Gojo Clan.
Unless, of course, he was firmly in Geto Suguru's pocket and therefore had no desire at all to make contact with the Gojo Clan.
Yet… in that hypothetical scenario, however, it would make more sense for Kon Shiu to run instead of ambush them. If his goal was to avoid working with Shiki, then the best way to achieve that would be simply making sure that she was unable to make contact with him. So why would he decide to attack her instead? Was this some kind of deliberate provocation?
Perhaps Kon Shiu was in his office right now, or perhaps he wasn't. Maybe hiring Emoto to act as his muscle was an intentional move on his part, like some sort of… test? Screening process?
That didn't quite make sense, either…
No matter. In the end, there was only one way to find out the answer to their questions, and that was to find and speak with Kon Shiu.
Even if it turned out that the man wasn't here right now, this was still an office building that he used for his work. If push came to shove, they could–
"Watch out!"
The warning from Kobayashi Tamotsu is unnecessary. Shiki bats aside another dart and turns –only to find an entire volley of darts flying towards her like a wave of glinting metal. It appears that Emoto has grown tired of firing warning shots, and is now putting forth more effort into preventing them from finding Kon Shiu.
But if Emoto thinks that this will be enough to hinder Shiki and Ken-jichan, then they are sorely mistaken.
Another wave of darts fly towards them –this time from the other end of the hallway, in the exact opposite direction that the previous wave had come from. Shiki suspects that this is some aspect of the curse user's cursed technique; it's impossible for Emoto to have changed positions so swiftly without either Shiki or Ken-jichan having picked up on their movements.
But on the other hand–
"Ken-jichan, left." Faint lines flicker through the air, a tell-tale sign of an active cursed technique at work, and it's not so hard for Shiki's eyes to follow them to the source. "Behind the wall."
Her uncle lifts his cleaver and wordlessly smashes it against the wall to his left. The entire wall splinters and crumbles beneath the strike–
And then they are promptly met with even more darts, which is starting to get a little repetitive–
The darts detonate directly in front of them in a brilliant burst of light.
There's no force behind it, no scorching burn nor violent shockwave that accompanies the unexpected explosion. But the light is blinding, and Shiki instinctively closes her eyes against the harsh light.
Darkness.
And despite the darkness, it is also instinct that has her unsheathing her sword and swinging it behind her. There's a loud clang, the sensation of metal striking metal. Shiki slides her blade forward and twists, opening her eyes–
It's still hard to see, but she can make out the vague silhouette of another person in front of her. A person who rears back, arm raised overhead with some weapon in hand–
And Shiki uses the lacquered sheath of her sword to strike them directly in their midsection, movements laced with cursed energy.
The person instantly folds in half and crumples to the ground, darts falling from their fingertips and scattering uselessly over the hardwood floorboards.
"Shiki!"
"I'm alright, Ken-jichan," she responds, blinking rapidly. There are still numerous spots dancing in front of her eyes, which is rather disorienting on top of making it difficult to see. "I believe I've found our ambusher…?"
Shiki pauses, trailing off into silence.
… She can't tell if it's because she's still half-blinded at the moment, but it looks almost as if the person's face is… shifting?
"Bro, tell me that I'm hallucinating," Kobayashi Aoma murmurs dazedly, "Did Gojo-san just hit Emoto so hard that his face is melting?"
"I wish this was all a dream," Kobayashi Tamotsu grimaces, eyes squinted and narrowed in concentration as he stares at the curse user lying on the ground. "That… yeah, okay, that's definitely not Emoto. What the hell?"
The Kobayashi brothers had spoken of Emoto as being male. The person curled in half at their feet, however, is decidedly female… and currently making small, strange spasms. It's almost as if they're in acute pain, but their lips move soundlessly despite the twisted contortions of their body.
Then, with one last twitch, they finally stop moving entirely.
Dead.
…
… This is not the first time that Shiki has killed another person. This is, however, the first time that she has killed someone without intending to.
Actually, no. No, it still doesn't make sense. Had she really been the one to kill this curse user? Shiki has her doubts about it. She'd only struck them in their stomach with a blunt scabbard, after all. No matter how you look at it, a blow like that shouldn't have been enough to kill anyone. Incapacitate, perhaps, but not kill.
Moreover, the fact that Emoto's face had melted away to reveal another person entirely…
Was this another cursed technique, perhaps? One that was separate from the one that Emoto had wielded against them with his throwing darts?
Questions upon questions, with answers nowhere in sight.
"This is getting freaky really fucking quickly," Kobayashi Tamotsu lets out a short, explosive exhale. "I get that my brother and I don't really have much say here, but… could we please get out of here?"
"Not yet." Shiki glances towards the stairway. "You said that Kon Shiu's office was upstairs, right?"
"… You're still going to look for him?"
"Why not?" Shiki blinks. "That's what we're here for, isn't it?"
"Considering that we were greeted by a curse user who just tried to kill us, I'm not so sure that Kon Shiu will be waiting for us," Ken-jichan shakes his head with a small frown. "… But if we're already here, we might as well continue investigating."
Precisely.
"I thought it was strange to be attacked by the doorway," Shiki agrees with her uncle as they reach the foot of the staircase, sharing her thoughts on the matter. "If Kon Shiu discovered that the 'new clients' the Kobayashi brothers were bringing to him were us and wished to cancel this meeting, setting a mercenary on us is a strange way to express this sentiment."
"It would make more sense for him to contact Kobayashi-san and call off the meeting directly," Ken-jichan nods. "That, or just hide himself and not show up… but if that's the case, then why call in another curse user to fight us?"
"Maybe because he's buying time to run?" Kobayashi Tamotsu suggests as he follows behind them, sounding faintly wistful.
"Then 'Emoto' would've fought differently," Ken-jichan does not appear to be convinced. "They could've set up traps across the entire building, and made sure to remain at a distance from us, instead of following closely. And if their intention was to stall us, then they could've very well held their attacks until we were about to leave."
Because it wasn't as if they'd been expecting to be attacked here; if 'Emoto' wished to stretch out the time, then it would've been better for them to hold off on their ambush while they searched the building for Kon Shiu, instead of alerting them to the fact that something was wrong the moment they'd stepped through the doors.
Emoto's actions here… didn't make sense.
Why would Kon Shiu arrange for Emoto to ambush them like this? … And it wasn't even a particularly effective ambush, either. If Kon Shiu was as shrewd and well-informed as Kobayashi Tamotsu described him to be, then it should've been obvious that someone of Emoto's level would not be able to deal any substantive damage to Shiki or Ken-jichan. Unless Emoto was the only mercenary that Kon Shiu was able to hire on short notice?
But even then, there were still numerous aspects to the situation that remained unclear. Not to mention, Emoto wasn't actually Emoto, either, according to the Kobayashi brothers…
Shiki frowns. For what was supposed to be a straightforward visit to a handler who worked with curse users to uncover information on Geto-san's cult, things seemed to be getting far more complicated than she'd expected.
… Did this have anything to do with Geto-san, perhaps?
If that was the case, the Geto-san's intel network was quite impressive–
"Kon-san's office is here," Kobayashi Tamotsu's voice interrupts Shiki's thoughts, drawing her attention. "That one. I have no idea if he's in there, but…"
The curse user reaches out with a cautious hand, and briskly raps at the door. Beneath his knuckles, the tap-tap-tap echoes loudly in the silent hallway.
"Oi, Kon-san? Bit of a rude welcome you gave us downstairs, don't you think?" Kobayashi Tamotsu calls out.
His words are received with complete silence.
"… Somehow, I'm not surprised," the curse user grumbles. "Guess we're gonna have to do this the hard way, then."
Kobayashi Tamotsu shifts, stepping away from the door. One leg moves backwards as he settles into a solid stance, and cursed energy begins gathering in the limb. Maybe it's because of his previous failure to break through the main door at the entrance of the building, but there's a distinct look of concentration on Kobayashi Tamotsu's face this time as he narrows his eyes at the door in his way.
"Ha!"
The curse user lashes out with a forceful, explosive kick–
–and the door splinters easily beneath his foot.
Kobayashi Tamotsu stumbles, nearly tripping over himself. Clearly, he hadn't been expecting the door to break so easily… which results in a brief moment of the man hobbling about in an increasingly-awkward, unbalanced position. One leg is shoved clean through the newly-made hole in the wooden door, while his other leg stumbles on the other side with the rest of his body.
"Bro, this really isn't your day, huh?" Aoma remarks, impressed.
"Shut up and give me a hand, Aoma," Kobayashi Tamotsu grits out through his teeth. Once his brother steps forward as additional support, Kobayashi Tamotsu instantly yanks his leg back through the broken door, and readies himself for another kick with a readjusted stance.
"Wait, wait, just hang on a sec, Bro," Kobayashi Aoma leans forward. Large fingers close down over the doorknob. "Can we just try to…"
With a soft clack, the door swings open inwards.
… Evidently, the door was unlocked this entire time.
Kobayashi Tamotsu freezes, leg still half-raised into the air in preparation for another kick, face reddening rapidly as his brother grins cheerily at him. Ken-jichan turns and coughs briefly into his hand, stifling a small smile at the brothers' antics.
The good-natured amusement doesn't last long, though.
Kobayashi Aoma brushes past his older brother to open the door fully –and then instantly loses the smile on his lips, as well as all color in his face. The younger curse user blanches, stumbling backwards unsteadily and nearly knocking his brother over.
"Aoma? What's wrong?" Kobayashi Tamotsu hastily attempts to catch his brother, but ends up tripping over his own two feet instead.
Ken-jichan silently reaches out and steadies both brothers to prevent them from falling gracelessly to the ground. There is a faint frown on his lips, however, and a distinct crease between his brows as he looks past them into the room.
It's not difficult to guess the reason for their reactions.
After all, there is a strong scent of blood currently pouring out from the open doorway. Thick and pungent, with a metallic bite to it. If that's any indication to go by… Kobayashi Aoma had most likely been greeted by a fairly gruesome sight when he'd opened the door just now.
Shiki steps around them and peers into the room.
As expected, there is blood, and a lot of it. Only a tiny corner of the cream-colored carpet covering the floor retains its original color; the rest of it is completely soaked through with dark splatters of blood. And as for the source of all this blood–
Several misshapen chunks of flesh are strewn haphazardly across the chair and desk in the center of the room. There's also half a leg lying listlessly beneath the table, and an arm that appears to have been thrown carelessly onto the nearby bookshelf. But aside from that, most pieces of the body appear to be present and concentrated over the chair and desk. From the exposed half of the cut-open torso, there is what appears to be part of a bony spine stabbed deep into the mess of dark-colored organs, all of it spilling down the edge of the table like a macabre waterfall.
… What a mess.
"Shiki." Ken-jichan's voice is low, terse. Shiki blinks, and suddenly finds her view of the bloodied room blocked by the sight of her uncle's back. "Contact Choki, please."
"Contact Choki?" Wasn't it more important that they determine the identity of the deceased individual in the room first, before calling Choki to help clean up the situation? "That comes later, doesn't it?"
Although it was certainly a messy sight that greeted them, it was good that the victim had only been dismembered and not mutilated beyond recognition. It should mean that their face would still be easily identifiable. If this was the Kon Shiu whom they'd been looking for…
Shiki can't say that she'd been expecting to find a dismembered corpse in Kon Shiu's office. And if Kon Shiu was dead, with this sort of timing… then it's definitely not a coincidence.
But why, and for what purpose?
Why would someone want Gojo Shiki to come across Kon Shiu's corpse?
…
Shiki turns towards Kobayashi Tamotsu and politely requests, "Could you confirm if this is really Kon Shiu?"
Kobayashi Tamotsu's face does not look any better than his brother's. Shakily, he steps into the room… and only manages to make it a grand total of five steps towards the dismembered body before suddenly pivoting and throwing up on the bloodied carpet.
That's surprising. Shiki would've thought that a curse user would be used to the sight of blood.
"G-give me a moment…" Kobayashi Tamotsu manages, before retching again. Bile splatters onto the ground as he heaves, emptying his stomach.
"There's no need for you to force yourself," Ken-jichan tells him, then turns towards Shiki. He still hasn't budged from blocking her view of the room and the corpse within it. "Have Choki call in the people to perform the remainder of the investigative work here –we're most certainly not getting any answers from Kon Shiu ourselves."
There's reason in what Ken-jichan is saying. And if this is Kon Shiu's office, then perhaps there might be useful information in some of the documents still lying around.
"Too many things don't add up here," her uncle grimaces. "Getting attacked by a curse user as soon as we entered the building, and now a dead man in Kon Shiu's office…"
"I-it's Kon-san," Kobayashi Tamotsu's voice is hoarse, shaken. But he's managed to draw himself up to his feet again, and reach the bloodied desk. The curse user stares at the upper half of the bifurcated torso on the desk, at the slackened face of the dead man that stares sightlessly back at him. "This is… it's definitely Kon-san. How…?"
So that was a confirmation, then. Kon Shiu, dead and dismembered in his own office before they ever even reached his door.
Something tells Shiki that this isn't unrelated to the strange way that they'd been ambushed by 'Emoto' earlier.
She quietly mulls over the situation. "… Kon Shiu didn't hire Emoto."
They'd naturally assumed that Kon Shiu had hired the mercenary when they'd been attacked at the doorway. But if that wasn't the case… then, there was a new possibility to consider: Had Emoto been the one to kill Kon Shiu?
But if their goal was to assassinate the man in order to prevent him from leaking any information –then why attack Shiki and Ken-jichan?
"Do you think Emoto was hired to kill Kon Shiu?" Ken-jichan's question echoes Shiki's own thoughts.
"It can't be Emoto," Kobayashi Tamotsu shakes his head. "Emoto uses darts! This looks like Kon-san was –like Kon-san was cut apart with a sword, that's not what Emoto does."
"Didn't we establish that the curse user who attacked us wasn't Emoto?" Ken-jichan points out.
"But they were wearing Emoto's face, and using Emoto's abilities," Kobayashi Aoma speaks up from the side, his tone unusually subdued. Likely by the gruesome sight inside Kon Shiu's office. "Just looking at Kon-san… If I didn't know any better, I'd think that it was Gojo-san who killed Kon-san instead… of…"
The curse user trails off slowly, eyes widening as what he'd just said processes through his mind.
Ken-jichan's lips flatten into a thin line at the implications.
Shiki hums lightly. "You think it might be a trap for me? An attempt to put the blame for Kon Shiu's death at my feet?"
That's… hmm.
… Well. It certainly does explain some of the irregularities in this situation. If someone had known that Shiki had found the Kobayashi brothers and intended to visit Kon Shiu next, and wished to ensure that Kon Shiu would not reveal any important information while simultaneously causing Shiki trouble… killing Kon Shiu and pinning the man's death on her would be a method of achieving that. And if word spread around curse users that Shiki killed a well-respected mediator, then how many of them would be willing to cooperate with her?
From this new perspective, the actions that 'Emoto' had taken make a little more sense. They'd attacked Shiki in order to draw her into a fight, and their death would only be further evidence to add to the pile –the Gojo Clan's blessed child had killed both a mediator and the bodyguard that he'd hired under the pretext of holding an amicable meeting.
If this is true, then Shiki suspects that there would be new rumors springing up about her very, very soon.
But all of this is a secondary concern.
Kon Shiu is a dead end now. There might be useful information left behind in this office of his… but if the purpose of killing Kon Shiu was to prevent him from leaking information to Shiki, then it's likely that his office would've been tidied as well.
Was it Geto-san who had ordered this? One of his allies, perhaps? If the Yagyu Clan could give information about Geto Suguru to the Gojo Clan, then there was nothing stopping them from selling information to other sorcery clans as well. Perhaps the one behind this was someone who intended to obstruct the Gojo Clan –and by proxy, Shiki as well?
Or was there yet another third party that Shiki had failed to take into consideration?
… No matter who was the true culprit behind Kon Shiu's death, it didn't change the fact that Shiki still intended to search for Geto Suguru. Kon Shiu's unexpected death was regrettable, but he couldn't be the only person capable of leading Shiki and Ken-jichan to Geto-san.
The Kobayashi brothers could still be useful. It was a good thing that Shiki and Ken-jichan had brought the curse users along with them.
Shiki sighs.
Kon Shiu might be dead and unable to answer questions now. But even despite the setback, they still need to continue moving forward and plan out their next move to find Geto Suguru.
…
After leaving Kon Shiu's office, Ken-jichan is the one who takes over the interrogation of the Kobayashi brothers. Both of them are still shaken by their experience in Kon Shiu's office, and since Shiki is also vaguely aware that both of them find her to be more intimidating than her uncle, perhaps this is for the best. Although if they truly hadn't been lying about not knowing how to contact Geto-san's cult on their own… then that means there are still more measures for Shiki to take.
"How is the investigation, Choki?"
"Both bodies have been identified," her assistant responds. "The dismembered body that you and Nanami-sama discovered in the office belongs to Kong Si-woo. A Korean National who formerly worked as a detective before becoming involved with curse users after a complicated case involving cursed spirits. No family aside from an aging mother whom he hasn't contacted ever since moving to Japan. The other body has been identified as that of Inoue Himari's."
Ah. That would be 'Emoto,' then. "A curse user?"
"No, actually," Choki shakes his head. "Inoue Himari went missing from an orphanage over a decade ago. No relation to any curse users."
… Which makes it quite curious that they've turned up as a curse user now, doesn't it?
"They were able to use cursed energy," Shiki thinks back to the brief fight. "They were also wearing another curse user's face and using their abilities… a cursed technique like this would definitely have records of it written down somewhere. Look into matters on this front as well, please."
"Of course, ojou-sama."
If someone else had intentionally silenced Kon Shiu before he could give Shiki any answers, in order to prevent her from finding Geto-san… then this meant that they were close to Geto-san, right? And if Shiki could find them through 'Emoto,' then that was another potential lead that would allow her to reach Geto Suguru.
If they refused to let Kon Shiu answer Shiki's questions, then they could do so themselves.
Briefly, Shiki takes an idle moment to wonder if her experience thus far has been anything like Satoru-niichan's own experience hunting down his erstwhile friend. If there are always complications like this coming up, then it's no wonder that he hasn't been able to make much progress on this front in between his other duties.
Shiki can't say for certain if she will be able to succeed in this endeavor, but that won't stop her from doing what she can.
.
.
…
.