Chapter 17 – The Monkey Spirit? A Terrifying Legend
"Let's try another house."
Nanami Kento wasn't satisfied, so he knocked on another villager's door and asked about the strange events.
Before long, he returned with some information.
"According to the villagers, they suspect wild beasts from the mountains come out at night to hunt. The sounds don't match any ordinary animal. Some even claim they saw something—something that looked human. But the witness isn't mentally stable anymore. That's all we've got."
"So it really could be a curse spirit… but only moving at night, treating villagers as prey. Doesn't that sound a bit like—"
Amanai Riko's face paled, clearly recalling some unsettling rumor.
"My guess is still a curse," Nanami said cautiously. "Probably not too strong, but we can't let our guard down. I don't want to lose another comrade because of misjudgment."
"Hey, old man, what do you think?" Riko turned to Zen'in Shinsuke.
"Who are you calling old man? Call me teacher." Shinsuke shot her a sidelong glance, then turned his eyes toward the mountain looming behind the village. The settlement rested snugly against its base, like a tiny basin carved into the land. Whatever lurked in that mountain wasn't going to be small fry…
"Fine then, sensei! You're the team leader—aren't you going to share your thoughts?" Riko pouted, hands on her hips. This teacher really didn't inspire much confidence.
"What's there to say? I don't have any cursed energy. Even if a powerful curse appears, I can't help you. Whatever happens, you'll have to handle it yourselves."
"No cursed energy? Impossible!" Riko's eyes went wide. No cursed energy, and yet he could stop bullets bare-handed? Did he think she was stupid?
"So it's true… Sensei really doesn't have cursed energy?" Nanami murmured, a flash of realization crossing his face. That explained why he hadn't sensed anything from him. He'd assumed Shinsuke was so strong he could completely mask his aura. But in reality… there was nothing to sense.
"Exactly. So, flowery schoolgirl and you, the gloomy salaryman-in-training—you're on your own. I'll only step in to keep you alive, not to finish the mission for you."
"…Whatever." Riko waved it off. "As long as you keep us from dying, that's good enough."
At worst, she could fight the curse head-on. Even if she lost an arm or a leg, Shoko-senpai could patch her up.
And so, the three of them waited until nightfall.
The village grew eerily silent. Doors shut tight, lamps extinguished early. The moonlight bathed the dirt paths in silver, clear enough to see the roads at night.
But the mountain beyond loomed like a wall of darkness. The trees swallowed the light, leaving only a suffocating blackness.
The trio stood at the entrance to the forest.
"It's already past midnight. Why is there still no sign of it?" Riko muttered. Hours of wandering, and not a single monster. Was this some clerical mistake at Jujutsu High? Maybe the villagers' stories were just another folk tale to scare kids.
"Rustle, rustle…"
The stillness shattered. Something moved among the leaves, twigs snapping underfoot.
Riko and Nanami instantly tensed, cursed energy flaring as they prepared for battle.
From the darkness of the forest emerged a stooped figure—an old man, leaning on a cane.
Riko blinked. "Grandpa? What are you doing out here this late?"
She exhaled, relaxing slightly. Not a curse, just an elderly villager.
But the man didn't answer. Instead, he smiled. Under the pale moonlight, they noticed the meat caught between his yellowed, jagged teeth.
"Riko! Careful—he's a curse!" Nanami's warning came sharp and fast. He sensed the malevolent energy boiling inside the "old man." His bandaged short blade flashed into his hand as he dashed forward.
"Grrraaaah!"
The old man lunged first, face splitting grotesquely as fur sprouted across his skin. His jaw widened, revealing beastlike fangs dripping with hunger. He pounced straight at Riko.
Her pupils shrank. Heart hammering, she hastily cloaked herself in cursed energy—
"Shhhhk!"
The creature's jaws snapped shut on empty air. A claw lashed out instead, raking across Amanai Riko's bare arm and leaving bloody red welts.
Before the curse, still wearing its human mask, could pounce again, Nanami was already at its side. His bandaged short blade gleamed as cursed energy surged along the edge.
"Seventy-to-thirty ratio—strike."
With a clean slash, he sent the curse flying.
"Riiiip—!"
"GRRRAAAH!!"
Blood sprayed. A deep gash split across the monster's chest. It crashed to the ground, wailing in agony.
At last, they saw its true form: not a man at all, but a grotesque monkey.
Or more precisely—
A mandrill.
Zen'in Shinsuke narrowed his eyes. Red nose, long pale face—yes, it was unmistakably a mandrill spirit. He hadn't expected to find something like this here of all places.
"This is the man-eating curse?" Riko muttered, ignoring the sting of her wound. She bent closer, scrutinizing its exposed form.
"It's weak. What, a grade 3 at best? If I hadn't let my guard down, I'd have crushed it already."
But the dying mandrill let out a long, eerie howl as its body dissolved into cursed energy.
"Grrraaaah—!"
"GRRRAAAH!! GRRRAAAAH!!"
The entire mountain answered back. A chorus of howls rose from the darkness, chilling Riko and Nanami to the bone.
They hadn't slain a lone curse.
They had stumbled into a nest.
"If they get out, the villagers are finished!" Nanami's grip tightened on his blade, jaw set. So many curses, and yet they had sensed nothing until now. The fact the village had survived this long was nothing short of a miracle.
What they didn't know—was that the villagers' "stories to scare children" had been whispered for generations, feeding fear upon fear. That negative energy had condensed into the swarm of curses.
"…Don't tell me there's a grade 1 in there," Riko muttered, her expression darkening as the cursed energy waves grew stronger from the mountain.
Then she straightened, forcing a smirk. "Guess it's time for a genius sorcerer like me to shine!"
Her body flared with cursed energy as she dashed straight into the forest. She understood: if these curses weren't destroyed, if even a few slipped out, the result would be catastrophe.
Nanami followed immediately, no hesitation. They'd already stirred the hornet's nest—now there was no choice but to fight.
"Sensei! Stay sharp!" he called back, before both students vanished into the shadows of the trees.
"…Curses, huh?" Zen'in Shinsuke muttered, strolling in after them at his own pace. "Funny. I've been in this world so long, and I still haven't killed one myself."
His mind flicked back to his childhood—thrown into the Zen'in clan's curse storage room by that long-dead man. Other than that, he had rarely crossed paths with strong spirits.
But tonight, the mountain itself reeked of them.