Chapter 183: A Sufficiently Unique Curse
If the freelance sorcerers were also ranked by strength, the final tally would likely be twenty-one Grade 2 sorcerers and seven Grade 1 sorcerers. In other words, the weaker sorcerers hadn't been affected at all; instead, more than half of the high-end combatants had lost contact.
Worse yet, the intelligence received wasn't that they were wounded or dead, but that their whereabouts were unknown.
One must remember that the entire Shibuya District is the undisputed economic and commercial heart of Tokyo. There are very few genuine blind spots for surveillance here, save for a few "necessary" dark alleys.
After all, unlike curses and cursed spirits, jujutsu sorcerers are individuals who can be captured by normal technological equipment. Unless they possess specific professional skills and are intentionally avoiding detection, it should be impossible for them to vanish completely and inexplicably under the gaze of various monitoring facilities.
Yet, the news Emiya received from Romm was exactly that.
He said that as soon as Masamichi Yaga received this news, he immediately contacted various relevant government departments to retrieve surveillance footage—both official and private—but the end result was a total lack of findings.
Clearly, before a specific point in time, everyone's movement footage was perfectly normal, showing no anomalies or signs of trouble. Yet, at a certain moment, they all vanished one after another without warning.
Had Masamichi Yaga and the others not realized this and promptly ordered the Shibuya sorcerers to stop tracking the "curses," the number of missing persons might have continued to rise unnoticed.
But what use was that? The most critical problem remained unsolved.
They had no idea why this phenomenon was occurring. Even if those Grade 1 sorcerers weren't the absolute strongest of their rank, it should have been impossible for any enemy to deal with them silently.
If the enemy's strength were truly that exaggerated, why would they bother with such roundabout tactics? Wouldn't it be easier to simply lie in wait and pick off the jujutsu world's middle-to-high-end combatants exactly as they were doing now?
"To precisely eliminate so many sorcerers through combat without leaving a single trace or message... that's absolutely impossible. Even that Special Grade cursed spirit who excels at hiding couldn't pull it off.
Besides, doesn't your monitoring equipment catch even the slightest movement of cursed energy? If there had been even a tiny disturbance, it would have definitely been noticed.
So, when we discard that impossible option, what remains is a possibility that is low-probability, but actually has a chance of happening..."
According to Emiya's deduction, since it was impossible for all those sorcerers to have been killed in such a short time, they must have been simultaneously transported somewhere by some means.
Furthermore, this transportation effect must have a "cognitive impairment" characteristic, preventing people from noticing their disappearance—or even if they did notice, preventing them from reconstructing or deducing the process.
Emiya couldn't quite reconcile this theory with logic yet, but fortunately, Romm's thoughts not only coincided with his but had even reasoned out the cause and effect to a fairly plausible degree—
"For example, a highly targeted, infectious, or wide-range curse has appeared in the Shibuya District.
The target it focuses on are sorcerers whose cursed energy has reached a certain level. It teleports them directly into an unknown domain or space, followed by a series of unknown consequences.
You think this is the more likely possibility, right?"
This sounded like something that wasn't impossible. Was there something wrong with it?
Events like the curse at [Yasohachi Bridge] had specific infection conditions, such as crossing the river at night. So why couldn't there be a curse whose trigger and effect happened to involve teleporting sorcerers of a certain strength level away?
While it sounded somewhat incredible, it was far more acceptable than the previous theory.
The only thing unknown was whether this highly targeted curse had been born naturally by chance or if it had been cultivated by the enemy through some special means.
"But in the end, this is just a guess... Regardless, we can't remain indifferent to the sacrifice of so many sorcerers."
These Grade 2 and above sorcerers were the mainstay of the current jujutsu world. If they all met with an accident at the same time, this gap would undoubtedly cause a more terrifying avalanche effect.
Moreover, even if they weren't jujutsu sorcerers but merely a group of missing ordinary people, Emiya would absolutely still attempt to save them.
"Indeed. It's a very difficult situation when the conditions can't be detected. But the missing sorcerers have already proven that this is not a problem that can be solved by Grade 1 sorcerers alone.
Assuming the curse we've theorized is real, then the best way to solve it is to dispatch a powerful sorcerer whose cursed energy meets the criteria and whose strength is reliable enough to resolve the issue in one go..."
Although Romm didn't explicitly name names, with the conversation reaching this point, Emiya fully understood why the other party had sought him out in the first place.
In Romm's mind, Emiya was clearly the best candidate to solve this problem.
Even if one were to bring over the "Strongest" of the jujutsu world, Gojo Satoru, he wouldn't be much more reliable than Emiya for this specific task.
"I see... So, can I set off now?"
Realizing this, Emiya didn't waste any more words and went straight to the point.
"It's alright. All the remaining sorcerers in Shibuya have already been urgently evacuated by Principal Yaga.
From an efficiency standpoint, there's no meaning in rushing these few moments. If you need rest, Emiya-san, then coming to handle this tomorrow would be the best option," Romm replied objectively and rationally.
"I don't really need intentional rest. The time it takes to get from the college to Shibuya is enough.
If there's any more important intelligence, just send it directly to me. I should head out now... Perhaps the nighttime is also one of the main conditions for triggering that curse."
After learning the [Reverse Cursed Technique], long periods of sleep were no longer a necessity for Emiya.
His schedule over the past few days had been almost identical to Gojo Satoru's, who only slept three hours a day. However, while Gojo had to go to various places to put out fires, Emiya had been working hard to increase his stockpile of Noble Phantasms for the battles ahead.
At this moment, it was precisely time to show what he could do.
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