"Wow, Fushiguro, is this really a school?" Shin asked, glancing around the campus. "There are a lot of Cursed Spirits crawling around here, big and small. Even a weak Grade 4 curse is enough to give a student a nasty fever. Oh, look! Over by the rugby field! There is a Grade 3 curse that looks exactly like a giant tick."
"Schools naturally harbor massive amounts of negative emotion," Megumi explained flatly. "Incidentally, exploitative black-hearted companies have about the same density of curses. Wait, focus! Are we not here to find the missing Cursed Object? Take this seriously, Shin!"
Shin shrugged nonchalantly.
"I am taking it seriously," Shin replied. "Because I have already found it. Look at that pink-haired boy over there. The residual Cursed Energy clinging to his arms is incredibly thick. The guy and the girl standing next to him are also covered in a massive amount of residue. Let us go ask them first."
Megumi turned to look and let out a long, heavy sigh of relief. Finally, a solid lead.
Just as the two sorcerers stepped forward to inquire, Yuji Itadori suddenly bolted toward the school gate. Megumi instinctively tried to stop him, but the boy was already a blur. In the blink of an eye, Yuji vanished, leaving only a cloud of dust in his wake.
Megumi blinked in stunned silence. Was that really a human being? Was that a speed a normal teenager could actually run at?
Megumi shook his head and prepared to sprint after the dust cloud, but Shin threw an arm out to stop him.
"Hey, even if one of them ran off, we still have two suspects right here," Shin pointed out. "Is it not smarter to ask these two first? If they do not have it, we can just make them call their track-star friend."
The logic was sound. Megumi nodded in agreement, and the two of them moved to intercept Sasaki and Iguchi.
Shin briefly glanced back toward the school gate where Yuji had disappeared. He let out a quiet, knowing chuckle.
Today should be the day your grandfather passes away, Yuji, Shin thought to himself. You can focus entirely on handling his funeral arrangements. With you off the board, Sukuna will not find a suitable vessel, and you will not be dragged into the brutal Jujutsu world. It is a win-win for everyone.
Megumi pulled out his phone, swiped to a photo of the mummified Cursed Object, and held the screen up for the two club members.
"Excuse me," Megumi said politely. "Have you seen this item?"
Sasaki and Iguchi exchanged a panicked look. They immediately answered in perfectly synchronized unison.
"Haven't seen it! Don't know anything about it!"
Shin's brain stalled for a second. He had expected them to admit they had seen it but claim they left it somewhere else. He did not expect a flat, obvious denial. He immediately decided to apply pressure.
"Listen, this is an incredibly dangerous item," Shin warned, his tone dropping into a serious register. "If you have it, you need to hand it over right now."
The moment Shin said the word "dangerous," a spark of excited thrill flashed in the students' eyes, though they quickly tried to suppress it.
Unfortunately for Shin and Megumi, their all-black Jujutsu High uniforms made them look like juvenile delinquents. Combined with Megumi's naturally intense, underworld-boss aura, a group of nearby athletes misinterpreted the interaction as severe bullying.
A pack of tall, burly rugby players quickly surrounded the two sorcerers. A thickly built teacher, who looked remarkably like a gorilla, stepped to the front of the pack.
"Oi, you two brats!" the teacher barked. "Where are you from? How dare you march onto our campus and harass our students!"
Shin immediately raised his hands in surrender and plastered on a polite smile.
"We just lost something important and came to ask if anyone had seen it," Shin explained smoothly. "We mean no harm at all. It is just a massive misunderstanding. Well then, we will not bother you any longer. We will just be leaving now."
Without waiting for a response, Shin grabbed Megumi by the collar and sprinted away from the angry mob.
Once they were safely out of sight, Megumi glared at Shin.
"The Cursed Object is definitely on one of those two," Megumi stated.
"I know," Shin replied, pulling a glass vial from his inventory. "That is why I prepared this. A Splash Potion of Invisibility! It lasts for exactly eight minutes."
Crash!
Shin smashed the potion at their feet. Instantly, both of their physical bodies vanished from sight.
"Fushiguro, can you still see the flow of Cursed Energy in my body?" Shin's disembodied voice asked from the empty air.
"...Yes," Megumi replied, unimpressed.
"Fine. I guess this potion is useless against skilled sorcerers," Shin grumbled. "Alright, no more talking. Do not hold any items in your hands, and follow me closely."
Meanwhile, after shaking off the two strange boys in black, Sasaki and Iguchi immediately sprinted back to the Occult Research Club room. They pulled the mummified, cylindrical object out of a desk drawer. To ensure it stayed hidden, Sasaki quickly stuffed the relic straight down her shirt.
Shin and Megumi arrived in the doorway just in time to witness the incredibly awkward hiding spot.
Both boys stood in invisible silence.
Shin traced a message onto Megumi's back with his finger.
You go get it.
Megumi immediately grabbed Shin's hand and traced his reply into Shin's palm.
No.
Then are we just going to watch her? Shin wrote back.
That is fine too. Either way, I am absolutely not reaching in there to get it, Megumi confirmed.
And so, the two invisible teenagers stalked Sasaki for the rest of the afternoon until classes ended. They obviously waited outside when she used the restroom, but otherwise, they shadowed her every move. The surveillance would have been perfectly peaceful, if not for the fact that a glass bottle violently shattered next to her feet every eight minutes.
The repeating sound of breaking glass was slowly driving Sasaki insane.
The first time it happened, she assumed a windowpane had fallen somewhere nearby. By the third or fourth time, pure paranoia set in. The glass always shattered directly beside her. A coincidence like that was impossible.
She found herself constantly pressing a hand against her chest to feel the Cursed Object, while Shin's earlier warning echoed relentlessly in her head.
This item is incredibly dangerous. Extremely dangerous.
Megumi finally lost his patience. He aggressively traced a new message onto Shin's back.
Can you stop whispering ominous warnings into her ear? You are scaring her half to death!
Okay, Shin traced back sheepishly.
When the final bell finally rang, Sasaki met up with Iguchi back at the Occult Research Club. Sasaki was an absolute wreck. She was overly sensitive, jumping at every minor creak in the floorboards.
"I-Iguchi, do you hear the footsteps of two other people in here?" Sasaki whispered, her voice trembling. "I am getting really scared."
Iguchi noticed her pale complexion and suggested she just go home early to rest. They could always resume their club activities tomorrow.
But Sasaki was already deeply terrified of the heavy, wooden box hidden under her clothes. Unless she opened the seal right now to confirm it was all just an elaborate prank, she would never feel safe walking home alone.
Her fear had forced her brain into Olympic-level mental gymnastics, convincing herself the haunted object was just a joke.
"No, it is okay," Sasaki stammered. "Let us call Itadori and see if he is free. Even if he cannot come, we can peel off the seal while keeping him on the phone."
The call connected quickly. Yuji's voice sounded incredibly low and subdued on the other end, but he confirmed his family business was mostly finished. Worried about his friends' panicked tones, he promised he was already sprinting back to campus and would arrive shortly.
What the hell? Shin thought to himself, completely baffled by the timeline.
Sure enough, less than a minute later, Yuji slammed the clubroom door open. As soon as he stepped inside, his eyes instantly darted toward Shin and Megumi's exact location, as if he could passively sense their presence.
However, lacking Cursed Energy, Yuji simply shook off the weird feeling and ignored the two invisible sorcerers standing in the corner.