.
After finishing breakfast, their first stop is a bustling marketplace.
In addition to numerous shops lining both sides of the street, there are also many colorful stalls selling all manner of different wares –a wide variety of small trinkets and snacks that Shiki is quite unfamiliar with.
This is one of the places Sun Yongtai had visited during his initial sightseeing. And it's also the place where he'd had a narrow brush with Geto Suguru in the background.
It's been roughly two days or so since Sun-san's almost run-in. If there are any traces that he left here, then they should still be discernible –assuming that he hadn't taken specific measures to cover his tracks. Which was entirely possible, if Geto-san had noticed an oblivious sorcerer wandering around taking photos–
But even then, perhaps there is something to be gleaned from this.
"I'm not seeing any residuals around here," Sun-san leans forward and squints into their surroundings, drawing himself several strange looks from the locals in the streets.
"That would be because Geto-san didn't use any sorcery here, then," Zhang-san hastily tugs at his companion, attempting to cover up the 'unusual' behavior from the non-sorcerers around them. "Gojo-san, do you see anything that might be helpful here…?"
Not exactly, not in the sense that Zhang-san is asking.
Satoru-niichan's Six Eyes are excellent for picking up unobtrusive details hidden in the background when it comes to investigative work. Shiki's eyes don't quite operate in the same manner as her cousin's, but nonetheless–
"The shop on the left, three doors down from the stall selling fried foods," she points out.
"Eh?" Sun-san blinks. "… That just looks like a normal coffee shop to me, though?"
"The woman sitting by the window inside it," Shiki elaborates.
"What about them?" Sun-san frowns and tilts his head. "Looks like a normal person to me, although they're definitely not a local… probably a tourist, they've got those sunglasses pushed up in their hair and everything…"
"That's not a tourist," Shiki shakes her head. "That's a curse user."
"… How can you even tell?"
"Because I have good eyes." If Shiki had to take a guess, then this woman had purposefully chosen a seat by the window with an excellent view of the street. But if that was truly the case, then it unfortunately meant that her decision only backfired on her; sitting right next to the window made it extremely easy for Shiki to notice her.
It meant that Shiki immediately noticed the faint pink-purple lines crossing the woman's body. Lines that were indicative of a cursed technique.
"'Good eyes?' What do you… oh right, you're the Gojo princess with cursed eyes." Sun-san slaps himself on the forehead. "… Okay, I admit that was really stupid of me, please forget what I just asked."
The sorcerer gets a commiserating pat on the shoulder from Zhang-san.
Shiki begins moving forward towards the coffee shop. It appears that the woman has caught sight of them, however. Brown eyes widen, then narrow, and the woman promptly rises to her feet, rose-colored hair whipping over her shoulders as she whirls on her feet and heads deeper into the shop.
If the woman is outright running from them, then it's highly likely that there's something that she is hiding.
"Ken-jichan, will you circle around the left end of the street?" Since the woman is moving deeper into the store, then she's probably trying to slip out from some back exit or something along those lines before they can catch up with her. "Sun-san, the right end. I'll follow through the shop."
"Alright, be careful."
"Gotcha."
Having caught sight of the curse user earlier, it's not so hard to follow her trail. Even though the shop is a little crowded, Shiki manages to make her way through the people milling about easily enough. She does draw a few glances her way, and there are also a few irritated calls than she can hear, probably because the speed that she's moving at startles a fair few customers–
But it would be foolish to slow her steps simply due to that. Shiki acknowledges that in most cases, it's only proper to be considerate of those around her, but there are times when the task at hand takes precedence over such sensibilities.
The curse user appears to have abandoned all pretense of subtlety in favor of escaping rather than attempting to hide. There's a noticeable trail of cursed energy glittering like a beacon in the dark, winding around the corner and disappearing under a run-down door with rusted hinges.
Shiki opens the door, and is immediately greeted by a knife to the face.
She instantly tilts her head to the side, allowing the blade to pass by harmlessly while one hand snaps up to close over her attacker's wrist. In the next moment, there is a loud crack as the woman's bones break easily beneath her fingers, accompanied by a shrill cry of pain–
–that cuts off into a muffled sound when Shiki uses the offending arm as leverage to force the curse user down, and the woman falls face-first into the ground.
Her knife clatters into the dirt beside her, forgotten.
Overall, the entire exchange begins and ends in a heartbeat.
"What is your relation to Geto Suguru?" Beneath her feet, the woman stiffens and freezes at the question. So it appears that Shiki's guess is right, then –this curse user is related to Geto-san somehow. Possibly one of his fellow cult members?
And, if she is reading the situation correctly…
Since this woman had clearly been keeping an eye on the bustling streets from her convenient vantage point, Shiki presumes that even though Sun-san hadn't noticed Geto-san when they'd brushed past each other, the same was not true the other way around. Most likely, Geto-san had taken note of the sorcerer's presence that day, and subsequently decided to leave someone here to keep an eye on things.
If Sun-san did not return, then it meant that Geto-san had truly gone unnoticed and was safe to proceed as he pleased in this city. However, if Sun-san did return, then it meant that he suspected something awry, and Geto-san would know that he risked discovery from affiliates of the jujutsu school the longer he stayed in the area.
Sending low-ranked cursed spirits to follow Sun-san or sending curse users to follow the sorcerer around ran the risk of catching Sun-san's notice and causing him to become suspicious, which would potentially cause a whole host of other issues. It was a safer move to just plant someone here, then, and wait to see if Sun-san returned to investigate things.
Honestly, it wasn't a guarantee that this woman was connected to Geto-san. There was also the possibility that this was simply a curse user who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. However, that possibility was instantly discarded once the woman's reaction to Geto-san's name turned out to be freezing in place, rather than any expression of indignant confusion.
"… I don't know what you're talking about."
"It's a bit too late to be making that claim, don't you think?" Shiki is not so foolish as to take the woman's denial at face value.
"You don't know what you're getting yourself into," the woman hisses, looking up and glaring fiercely, "You're out of your mind if you think that–"
"Shiki!"
Rapid footsteps. Shiki glances over at the sound of her name, idly noting the way that the curse user beneath her feet freezes once more –but most of her attention is on her uncle, who rushes over from the left.
"Ken-jichan," Shiki greets, "I caught up with the curse user."
"I'd say that you did more than just 'catching up' with our curse user here," another voice breaks in. Sun-san is slightly slower than Ken-jichan, but the Chinese sorcerer also makes his way over from the other end of the narrow street swiftly enough. "Although this might not be the best sort of place to be holding an interrogation, I think. There aren't many people here because this is just a back alley for these shops, but there's enough people around that there will be curious passerby coming to check out the commotion–"
The woman on the ground suddenly leaps forward, making a desperate grab for her knife with her remaining good hand–
And Shiki stomps down on the curse user's hand mercilessly, without a single moment's hesitation. There's a crunching sound, and the woman lets out a slightly strangled scream.
"… commotion…" Sun-san falls silent with a slight wince. "Err, Gojo-san, this is just a minor suggestion, but. Maybe a little more… uh, discretion? We're kind of still in a public area right now."
Ken-jichan's gaze flicks down to the struggling curse user, then returns towards Shiki. "She's one of Geto's?"
"Yes."
"I see." Ken-jichan moves to stand in front of the woman. "I would advise you to cooperate with us, curse user."
"Cooperate?" A sharp, scornful laugh is the only response that he receives. "As if. You think I'd sell out Geto-sama so easily?"
"So he's the one who stationed you here, then?" Ken-jichan's expression doesn't change.
The curse user bites her lip, glaring. "… You won't learn anything from me."
It seems that Geto-san has managed to inspire genuine loyalty in his followers. Interesting. Is it because they believe in Geto-san's cause, or because they find the man himself to be charismatic?
… The answer to that is irrelevant, in the end.
What's pressing at the moment is to get some answers out of the curse user here. Unlike the Kobayashi brothers, who'd easily been convinced to share what information they knew of Geto Suguru, it's quite clear that the woman here does not share the same perspective.
But there are ways of coaxing someone to speak. Shiki is not particularly well-versed in those methods, but–
A sudden stillness in the air.
Outwardly, there is nothing to indicate anything amiss –and Shiki can't quite explain it in words, either. But there's something that prickles at her instincts when Sun-san steps forward and crouches down to ask the curse user another question, and it's for that reason that she watches the curse user unblinkingly.
So in the single moment when a swirling mass of darkness suddenly appears beneath the curse user's body without any warning, Shiki reacts immediately. Her blade is already halfway drawn from its sheath while her free hand closes around the woman's good wrist, yanking her out from the writhing shadows–
And unexpectedly finds herself pulled forward instead.
"Shiki!"
Disorientation. Vertigo.
The last thing that Shiki hears is her uncle's voice raised in alarm –and then, the sound cuts off entirely. Her surroundings become drenched in darkness, and there's nothing that can be seen in this strange space–
Nothing except the ever-present red lines.
Shiki lifts her blade to cut–
–and the darkness parts instantly like a curtain. Before her blade reaches the lines.
"Yo, Suda-san, I saw your text message and –holy fucking shit!"
Shiki's sword barely grazes a scarred man who stumbles back and ends up falling on his bottom from shock. His eyes are wide as he stares at her, slowly raising a shaky hand to his chin where Shiki's sword had nearly reached him.
His trembling fingers come away wet with blood.
"… What the fuck," the man says. "Suda-san, what the fuck?"
"Get a grip on yourself, Furuda!" The woman hisses in response to his shock, twisting sharply in Shiki's grip in a bid to escape.
"If you continue struggling, then I'll break this wrist, too," Shiki informs the woman, which causes her to fall still immediately. "And if you try to run, then I'll break your legs. Is that clear?"
Stiffly, the woman nods begrudgingly.
Shiki looks at her for a moment, and then lets go of the curse user's wrist–
–and somehow finds herself completely unsurprised when the foolish woman's first reaction upon regaining her 'freedom' is to sprint away from her.
"To me!" The same mass of darkness begins gathering beneath the curse user's feet–
But this time, Shiki is far better prepared to deal with it. The woman has barely managed to sink one ankle into the dark pool before Shiki's sword swipes through the shadows in three clean strokes, and then she yanks the woman back from it. There is a ghostly wail that echoes through the air when the dark blot –bursts, for lack of a better descriptor. And when it bursts, it leaves behind a viscous purple stain on the ground.
A cursed spirit.
Something about the sight finally jogs Shiki's memory. A teleporting cursed spirit. The day that she'd first encountered Kinji, back when Takagi-sensei and Kirara had been kidnapped by curse users during Kirara's first mission –Geto-san had showed up, briefly. And he'd escaped using a cursed spirit that could teleport. Its appearance had resembled that of a dark portal of sorts… an exact match to what Shiki had just killed.
The woman gapes at Shiki, "Y-You–!"
Shiki slides her sword back into its scabbard.
Then, proceeds to use her sheathed weapon to strike at the woman's legs. The curse user attempts to dodge, but Shiki knocks out the woman's retreating foot from beneath her, causing her to lose her balance entirely. And as she goes down, there is no room for Shiki to miss.
Two loud cracks, followed by a sharp scream, before the woman forcibly bites down on her lip to silence herself.
"… Huh. You really weren't joking just now, were you?"
"Why would I be joking?" Aside from Shiki and the downed curse user, Sun-san had also been brought along to… wherever their current location was. It makes sense, since Shiki remembers that the sorcerer had been crouched right in front of the curse user prior to the teleporting cursed spirit showing up unexpectedly in the middle of things.
"Good point." Sun-san gives a thumbs-up from where he's standing behind the other trembling curse user, tapping away at something on his phone. "Remind me to never piss you off, Gojo-san… ah. Okay, here we go."
Shiki cocks her head questioningly.
"I'm just checking the GPS function on my phone," Sun-san explains when he looks up again. "And I have good news! … Actually, I don't know if it counts as good news or bad news, if I'm being honest here."
"What do you mean by that?" Shiki asks.
"Well. The good news is: I know where we are!" Sun-san starts cheerily. "We're in Morgaon, Pune district right now. To be precise, we're on the outskirts of the Shri Mayureshwar Mandir. That's the first and most prominent of the Ashtavinayaka, the eight Ganesha temples."
Shiki pauses for a moment, "Does your assignment involve visiting this temple?"
"Yup," the older sorcerer nods. "So, that's also the bad news. I have no idea what a Special Grade sorcerer might want with a temple like this, but if he's here specifically, then I'm betting that it has something to do with the temple itself. No matter what he's planning, we definitely have to report this. This is a pretty popular spot, after all, so there's usually a lot of people around."
A lot of non-sorcerers, he means.
Therefore, if Geto-san's plans meant that there was a risk of things in this area taking a dangerous turn… that would be very inconvenient.
So. What would be Geto-san's agenda here?
Shiki knows that Geto-san's ultimate goal is supposedly the eradication of all non-sorcerers. That much is obvious. And in order to achieve this, he is building up his own base of power through his cult. By using his cult, he has been slowly gathering allies, money, and cursed spirits.
So then the question became: Which one of these three options here was applicable to their current case?
Was Geto-san hoping to recruit a local, conduct a business deal, or hunt down a powerful cursed spirit? Or were they instead looking at something else entirely? Such as… running away from Satoru-niichan? No, that still didn't explain why Geto-san chose India of all places to run to–
Shiki is getting nowhere with thinking in circles like this.
She glances down at the woman who glares fiercely back at her despite the pain of her broken wrist and legs, and turns towards the other curse user instead. The fearful one, who might be easier to motivate towards cooperation than the woman. "What are Geto Suguru's plans here?"
The scarred man swallows roughly, but shakes his head firmly. "I'm not betraying Geto-sama's confidence."
"Not even upon pain of death?"
Her question causes the man to pale, shrinking back slightly in trepidation –only to bump against Sun-san's legs and come to a solid stop in his tracks.
He swallows roughly. Then, quietly, "I owe my life to Geto-sama. If it means giving up my life to protect his secrets and contribute to his goals, then… then I'll gladly do so."
Sun-san scratches his cheek idly. "… For some reason, I'm kind of starting to feel like we're the villains here."
"Execution of curse users isn't a crime." Not in the eyes of the Jujutsu Headquarters, at least, although they did tend to prefer it if peaceful recruitment was attempted before drastic measures were taken. So 'villain' is stretching things a bit, really.
"Not exactly what I was referring to, but okay," Sun-san gives her a strange look and shrugs. "You're really just going to kill him like this, then?"
… The curse user is an enemy. Someone who's willingly working with Geto-san, and attempting to cover for him. There's no particular reason for Shiki to let him live–
Ken-jichan would be upset.
–but there's no particular reason why he has to die, either. Shiki doesn't usually make idle threats, but… that question had only been half-threat at best when she'd asked it. It had also been… half-curiosity.
Were these curse users loyal enough to Geto-san to be willing to die for him? To give their lives for his cause?
"Maybe," Shiki tells Sun-san, then crouches down in front of the curse user who continues to tremble uncontrollably –yet remains defiant. "If I kill the two of you, then do you think Geto-san would come looking for your corpses?"
"No!"
"No!"
Their responses are immediate. So immediate that it borders on being suspicious, but Shiki supposes that there's also a slight chance that they're telling the truth here. Geto-san has several allies; would he really be so protective of all of them?
So the option of killing both of these curse users could be saved as a viable last resort, then. And even though both of them were being uncooperative… there was still information that Shiki could get out of them. She just needed to be a little more subtle about it.
"Is that so? You don't think Geto-san would collect your corpses if you died for him?" Shiki stands up, dusting off her cargo pants. "That's a shame. Do you think it's because he doesn't care enough about you? Or because he has other followers to take his place? I've heard rumors that he's gone out of his way to personally recruit members for his cult before. Maybe you simply don't compare to them?"
The questions are careless, nonchalant. But they're the sort of sharp, probing questions that Shiki has seen her clan members wield like knives in the walls of the Gojo compound. The kind that are intentionally refined with ever-sharper edges until they finally draw blood.
Insinuate that Geto-san doesn't think they're important. Make it seem like you're trying to drive a wedge between them. And then, judging by the way they respond–
"Geto-sama isn't like that." The curse user finally stops trembling. There's a faint fire in his eyes now, a hint of visible anger at the negative implications that Shiki is purposefully making about Geto-san's character. "He isn't like that. We're family."
"Furuda!" The woman calls out sharply, warningly.
"Ah. 'Family,' is it?" Neither of them had made any particular reaction when Shiki mentioned Geto-san recruiting cult members. That meant it was unlikely that this was Geto-san's goal in Pune, then –otherwise with how desperate these curse users were in denying Shiki her answers, they probably would've had some sort of reaction towards her brushing closer to the truth. "But if I'm not mistaken, Geto-san killed his own parents."
The woman scoffs lightly. "Those were only monkeys. Not making any exceptions only proves Geto-sama's commitment to his goals."
A sign of commitment? Or a sign of insanity?
"Ah. Is that the reason?" Shiki turns towards the woman sprawled out in the dirt. "I've had cousins informing me that Geto-san killed his parents and then took their wealth to fund his own cult."
This time, the woman openly laughs, a scornful sound. "Oh, there are much easier and more profitable ways to earn money than killing two monkeys who weren't even particularly rich to begin with!"
"Like selling cursed spirits?"
There.
Just now, there had been a slight fluctuation in the woman's cursed energy. A faint tremble. Outwardly, the woman's expression does not change, but–
"Geto-san's cursed technique is Cursed Spirit Manipulation," Shiki keeps her tone light and conversational, but keeps a close eye on the curse user despite the air of nonchalance that she's putting on. "So it's quite easy for him to subdue cursed spirits without… hmm. 'Damaging the goods,' I believe would be the term for it."
Continuing the conversation along the lines of profit does not elicit any interesting reaction from the woman. In fact, she almost seems to relax slightly instead.
That's not what Shiki is looking for.
"It's to Geto-san's benefit to collect cursed spirits. Some of them can even be quite useful –like the teleporting one here, right?" Shiki gestures vaguely in the direction of the dark splatter on the ground which is all that remains of the cursed spirit in question. Even as she speaks, these last traces are beginning to crumble away into nothingness; soon, there will be no signs of it that remain at all. "Teleportation is a rare ability. I wonder how long it took for Geto-san to find a cursed spirit like this."
"… What are you trying to get at?" the curse user grits out through her teeth.
"I'm just curious." Shiki looks at the rose-haired woman for a long moment. "For someone like Geto-san, it makes sense that he would make an effort to look for cursed spirits with useful, interesting techniques."
The curse user's eyes slide away, unable to hold Shiki's gaze. "You're just stating the obvious now, princess."
She hurls the word princess at Shiki in a mocking tone, like an insult. A transparent attempt to rile her anger –which is a foolish thing to do in her position. Both of her legs are broken. What good would angering Shiki do?
But it would take more than just biting, mocking words to make Shiki upset. Not to mention, there's also what seems to be a defensive note in the woman's words, if she is interpreting what she hears correctly.
Shiki waits for a moment, then continues, "Is one of the reasons why it was difficult for Satoru-niichan to find Geto-san because he kept traveling all over the place to find interesting cursed spirits?"
"Ask all the useless questions you want, Gojo," the woman spits out, "You're not getting anything out of me or Furuda."
But these questions aren't useless. And in fact, Shiki finds their reactions to be quite informative in their own way. From the way that the woman is tensing and repeatedly attempting to provoke her, to the way that the man is nervously holding his breath at Sun-san's feet.
Perhaps she is finally on the right track, then?
Shiki decides to take a guess. "What kind of cursed spirit is Geto-san trying to find here?"
If she's wrong, then the woman will immediately scoff and laugh derisively at her, going by the behavior that Shiki has seen so far. But if she's right–
The woman's breath hitches in her throat, eyes widening. Only for a brief moment, before she turns to mocking laughter again. But there's a decidedly strained edge to it that makes her laughter unconvincing; rather than mocking, it almost appears panicked instead.
Cursed spirit. Is Geto-san searching for a cursed spirit here?
Most of the world's cursed spirits all manifest in Japan, but there's still a not-insignificant number of them that appear in other countries across the globe. Some of which turn out to be quite dangerous, even. There's a reason why Satoru-niichan takes as many overseas trips as he does, and even Ken-jichan gets sent on overseas missions several times throughout the year.
So. What kind of cursed spirit had drawn Geto-san's eye here in India?
And, more than that… there's also something that doesn't quite add up here. Sun-san had called his mission here a routine assignment. He'd said that there weren't any notable cursed spirits that he'd been called to exorcise specifically. Was this a mistake? Had his mission been misranked? Or had the Window in charge somehow overlooked the danger? … The danger that Geto-san somehow knew of from all the way in Japan?
A cursed spirit that had somehow escaped a Window's notice. That had also drawn a Special Grade curse user's attention, and was interesting enough for him to specifically come here in person.
… And the 'here' in question was temple grounds. Could that really be a coincidence?
Shiki leans down towards the woman. "Is Geto-san looking for a divine curse?"
There is no verbal response. But the woman stares at her with an expression of unadulterated shock, mixed with disbelief, and that is also its own sort of answer.
"What's a divine curse?"
"A rare type of cursed spirit," Shiki glances back towards Sun-san, who appears to be confused by the term. He's a Grade One sorcerer living in a country that has its own rich cultural heritage; surely this would be something that he's at least peripherally encountered before? "It's somewhat like the kind of cursed spirits that are born from ghost stories and legends."
Sun-san wears a thoughtful frown. "Yeah, I understand how that works. The collective fear of a common entity can end up actually giving shape and form to it as a cursed spirit. But what's up with a divine curse? 'Divine' makes it sound like it has something to do with gods, but… oh wait, I think I might get it. It's like those kinds of curses that are somewhere halfway between a cursed spirit and a nature spirit, right?"
"Not quite." What Sun-san is mentioning is a curse like the land god that Shiki had killed when crashing one of Ken-jichan's missions so long ago. The curse had called itself a god, but it wasn't a 'divine curse.' "Your first supposition is correct. 'Divine' does mean that it's related to gods –or to be exact, the legends surrounding a well-known deity. A divine curse is what's born when cursed energy gathers in a place like a temple instead of the usual areas where it's drawn to, such as schools or hospitals."
Sun-san's face scrunches slightly, "Does that even happen? I've never heard of a temple being infested with cursed spirits before."
"It's less likely, certainly, but… not impossible."
Cursed energy is born from negative emotions. As such, it has the unique property of gathering in places where negativity is the strongest –where negative emotions are associated with the memory of the location by most people. Schools, hospitals, and the like. Shiki has also seen several workplaces with a fair number of cursed spirits prowling its halls before.
There are ways of deterring this, such as using extensive specialized seals and complicated wardings. But those require constant maintenance, and to date Shiki has only ever seen them regularly used in older sorcery clans.
Planting powerful cursed objects nearby is another way of drawing curses away from where they might otherwise gather, and it does not require nearly as much specialized knowledge in terms of maintenance. But using this method, it's very important to keep careful track of such cursed objects acting as 'beacons.' Because too many curses gathering in a single area is a problem, and this also runs the risk of creating an even more powerful cursed spirit. Especially if things spiral out of control to the point where curses end up subsuming the original cursed object.
Circling back to the original point, though–
Cursed energy gathers and condenses most commonly in places of significant negativity. Temples are generally not among the list of places that fit such criteria. But it is known to happen under various circumstances.
Such as: Being built upon an ancient graveyard. Corruption among its priests. Worshipers' praises turning into curses instead, when they lose their faith.
In short, there are all manner of reasons why a cursed spirit might be born in a temple instead of a hospital. It's not impossible for such a thing to happen.
The trouble isn't a cursed spirit being born in a temple, though. A flyhead is a flyhead no matter where it originates from. The problem here is when the cursed spirit is born as a twisted reflection of the temple's faith. When it feeds on the legends of the enshrined deity, yet its own nature is undeniably warped by what it is.
For example: In a temple that worships a god for granting wealth to their followers, the divine curse born there might be one that forces its victims to pay money to them. A toll that might seem insignificant at first, but will increase and increase and increase, all the way up until its victim isn't able to pay up anymore. And then they would drop dead on the ground, and the divine curse would proceed to seek out its next victim.
This is a real example, one that's even a recorded incident. Satoru-niichan had been the one to exorcise this divine curse, one that had been a headache and a half for Windows to identify at first because it seemed like a slew of people who'd fallen into debt at first, rather than all being cursed by the same cursed spirit.
In this case, the divine curse was one that had been born from greed. One could argue that it was the greed of worshipers who continually asked for more more more that had acted as the driving force in the core of this particular cursed spirit.
Supposing that Shiki was currently looking at a situation where Geto-san was searching for a divine curse here, in the nearby temple, then in all likelihood–
"There's a chance that we're going to see a divine curse based on Ganesha?" Sun-san twitches, not seeming very enthusiastic about the prospect at all. "… No offense to you, but I'm really hoping that your scary conjectures are wrong here, Gojo-san."
That would be ideal, wouldn't it? And ideally, Geto-san would just appear in front of her right now and save Shiki the effort of looking for him in the temple. Unfortunately, that did not seem particularly likely to happen in the next few seconds.
And they've already wasted enough time here as is. Now that they have a general idea as to what Geto-san's plans might be, there is another element that Shiki is aware she needs to account for –potentially, a divine curse. Given how quiet their surroundings are and the fact that no other curse users have shown up to search for them this entire time, Geto-san is likely preoccupied; Shiki killed one of his cursed spirits, there's no way the man wouldn't be aware that something was wrong here.
Would Geto-san release the divine curse on the non-sorcerers in the temple? Currently they were alone in the outskirts, but Sun-san had said that the temple was a popular spot. Zhang-san and Sun-san had only recently arrived, and neither of them had made any preparations beforehand to clear out the temples.
If Geto-san decided to turn this into a hostage situation… then Shiki is duty-bound to prioritize protecting non-sorcerers over apprehending him.
… Maybe she should kill these two curse users in front of her right now? If they called themselves Geto-san's family, then surely they held some importance to the man. Supposing that Shiki could kill them in order to draw Geto-san out from wherever he was right now–
No, there was no guarantee that Geto-san would abandon whatever he was currently working on and come immediately. And if he then decided that killing non-sorcerers would be an appropriate response to his curse users dying, then that defeats the entire purpose to begin with.
"You're thinking something scary right now, aren't you?" Sun-san's drawling voice interrupts her thoughts. "Should I be worried?"
"A last resort," Shiki responds simply.
"Uh-huh." The older sorcerer looks at her with a look of vague consternation. "Do you think that we should contact–"
The ground shakes beneath their feet, cutting him off in the middle of his words.
… And it's most definitely not a natural earthquake. Because all of a sudden, there is a burst of cursed energy that appears out of nowhere to their left. The abruptness of it is quite startling, but more concerningly–
If Shiki isn't mistaken, that's the direction where Sun-san had mentioned the Ganesha temple to be in.
She glances towards the other sorcerer; all traces of joking cheer has vanished from the man's countenance, and he's staring in the direction of the roiling cursed energy with a certain intensity.
"That's not Geto Suguru, is it?" he asks.
"No." Although the amount of cursed energy is nothing to scoff at, particularly in comparison to the average sorcerer… that's definitely not Geto-san's cursed energy signature. To Shiki's senses, "It feels more like a cursed spirit instead."
"That's definitely not any type of cursed spirit I've come across before," Sun-san mutters to himself, then glances briefly at her. "You… don't really seem surprised. Is stuff like this common in Japan?"
Sort of? Shiki wouldn't call it common, but… considering her experiences to date ever since becoming a sorcerer, dangerous situations coming up unexpectedly hasn't exactly been infrequent, either.
There's no good answer to this, so Shiki simply shrugs noncommittally.
"Seems like you guys have it rough," Sun-san comments, turning his attention back towards the temple's direction. "I just texted Zhang Tong about the situation, but it's probably going to be a while before we get any reinforcements. Considering all the regular non-sorcerers that must be here… I don't think we can afford to sit around on our hands and wait."
It seems that they are in agreement on this, then.
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…
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