Beside the station, an old green-painted electric train rattled past along the tracks.
The rails stretched from west to east, pressed tightly against the coastal highway that ran alongside them. Beyond it lay a gently curving shoreline and the vast, surging sea.
A young man in formal attire stood near the platform, eyes closed as the ocean breeze swept over him.
"Kamo Sorcerer."
A middle-aged man's voice came from behind Noritoshi Kamo. It was Shisei Tagoto, a veteran support who had survived countless missions.
Behind Shisei Tagoto stood a blonde girl—an intern support named Akira Nitta.
"What about Support Tanabe? He's been in charge of assisting our class."
"During last night's emergency, Support Tanabe failed to act decisively and made an incorrect judgment. We nearly lost three Jujutsu Sorcerers because of it.
The higher-ups have decided he's currently unfit to lead supervision support, so he's undergoing retraining…"
Noritoshi Kamo gave a small nod. His license hadn't been revoked—just retraining. That meant this wasn't a real punishment. Support Tanabe would likely return to work soon.
Shisei Tagoto turned to him.
"Has Todo-dono already explained the details of this mission?"
Noritoshi Kamo nodded.
"Yes. Todo and I will split up and head to the two locations calculated to be the most likely marker points based on the Cursed Spirits' activity."
Akira Nitta seemed like she wanted to say something. But everyone present was either a frontline sorcerer or a senior support. As someone about to graduate, she felt she should simply handle her responsibilities and keep quiet.
Noticing her expression, Shisei Tagoto spoke.
"If it's related to the mission, just say it. Thinking it through together makes it easier to solve."
Encouraged, Akira Nitta took a breath, summoning the boldness she once had as a delinquent girl.
"I think this is being handled in a pretty roundabout way. Why don't we just post our own names on that website and wait there? We could let the Cursed Spirits come to us."
Shisei Tagoto nodded.
"That idea isn't unreasonable. But it has several drawbacks."
"Drawbacks?"
"First, if we choose to wait like that, we're essentially handing the lives of the hundreds of already-marked people over to that Cursed Spirit. It would only turn its attention here after most of the earlier targets are dead.
Neither the group that insists 'Jujutsu Sorcerers must protect ordinary people' nor the group that believes 'compromising with Cursed Spirits means surrendering dignity' would accept that.
Second, this is a Cursed Spirit incident, not some rule-bound horror story. After marking you, if it senses danger on our side, it can simply choose not to come."
"I see… Then what about the internet side of things…"
"We've tried that as well.
Right now, the most effective way to minimize casualties is still to use data analysis to narrow down the Cursed Spirit's location. In theory, we could assign hundreds of Jujutsu Sorcerers to guard every marked point—but that's the least realistic option."
"Uh…"
"Nitta, remember this. In the real world, just because something seems doable doesn't mean it is. There are always more factors to consider.
In Cursed Spirit incidents, manpower and timing are constant constraints. That's why we often have to analyze victim profiles and the behavior patterns of survivors to develop an exorcism plan."
Noritoshi Kamo stood off to the side with his eyes closed, silent. It was impossible to tell whether he was dissecting their discussion or already thinking ahead to his next move.
He glanced at his watch.
"It's almost time. Let's head to the marker point."
Shisei Tagoto understood that the Jujutsu Sorcerer was the one carrying out the mission. He immediately ended the conversation with the trainee.
"Yes. We'll leave the rest to you."
...
The sun had already set. Four black sedans moved slowly through a narrow alley.
Akira Nitta sat in the front passenger seat, watching the cars behind them through the rearview mirror.
"I didn't expect we'd need 'window' personnel for reconnaissance…"
Shisei Tagoto drove with an unreadable expression.
"In Cursed Spirit incidents with high mobility, deploying a Curtain is difficult. So these personnel are responsible for getting close to the site and observing the Cursed Spirit directly. When it teleports in, they draw it out and immediately report its position to the Jujutsu Sorcerer."
There was something Shisei Tagoto did not say. Aoi Todo, with his superior mobility and strength, only needed to lead a single team. And the people he brought with him were far safer…
"Then what about them…"
"That's right. Those who can see Cursed Spirits and have some combat training, yet lack the talent for Cursed Energy… they are the true 'abandoned children' of the Jujutsu World."
Noritoshi Kamo, who had been resting with his eyes closed in the back seat, suddenly spoke. He still did not open his eyes.
"Have battlefield medical measures been prepared for them?"
Akira Nitta quickly flipped through her notes. She remembered there being a section about the equipment assigned to those teams.
Shisei Tagoto nodded and answered directly, as if driving, thinking, and responding at the same time was second nature to him.
"For this mission, direct participants operate in teams of three. Each team is required to carry battlefield medical supplies, including epinephrine, hemostatic gel, and portable suturing devices. The goal is to treat any wound immediately after it occurs.
According to autopsy results from the specialized response unit, if the death at the previous marker point was not caused by burning, meaning the Cursed Spirit was in its first or third form, then applying hemostatic gel followed by timely suturing raises the survival rate to over sixty percent."
Akira Nitta finally found the relevant page in her notebook.
"Wow, that's exactly the same. Do you have a memory chip installed or something?"
"Memorizing mission details is a basic requirement for support personnel."
"This is depressing. I suddenly feel like I'm not even qualified to be a support supervisor…"
Noritoshi Kamo frowned slightly.
"Are we certain it's one Cursed Spirit with three forms, not three separate Cursed Spirits?"
Shisei Tagoto nodded.
"That's confirmed. This Cursed Spirit changes its appearance based on the manner of death at the previous marker point: 'death by sharp weapon,' 'burning,' and 'hanging asphyxiation.'
That's precisely why we had difficulty determining its movements and behavior before.
However, after calculations and field investigations by the Special Response Team, it has been confirmed that this is an inherent trait of the Cursed Spirit itself."