Chapter 12: Victims on the School's Back Hill
Emiya didn't have to wait long, as the promised Grade 3 Sorcerer soon arrived at the scene.
She was a blue-haired girl with slightly unusual bangs, appearing to be about the same age as Emiya.
She was dressed in a very formal, dark-colored outfit that at first glance strongly resembled the professional attire worn by Ijichi, but a closer look revealed hints of a standardized school uniform.
She also had a katana strapped to her waist... was she going to use that to fight Cursed Spirits?
As Emiya was carefully observing his temporary battle partner, she walked up to him and gently extended her hand.
"Hello, I'm the Grade 3 Sorcerer, Kasumi Miwa. A pleasure to meet you, kouhai."
"Ah? Hello... I'm Emiya, Emiya Shirou."
Emiya wasn't used to such a formal introduction and paused slightly before reciprocating the greeting.
Even if they were Sorcerers from Jujutsu High, strictly speaking, they were still just high school students. Why did their behavior seem so much like that of office workers?
Could it be that all Sorcerers were like this?
"I have to make one thing clear beforehand: if your performance in this mission isn't good enough, I will report it truthfully to Jujutsu High.
Because becoming a Sorcerer isn't necessarily a good thing for those who aren't skilled at combat, understand?"
Without giving Emiya a chance for pleasantries, Kasumi Miwa immediately stated her position.
At least during this mission, she would meticulously carry out her duty and record Emiya's performance during the exorcism process.
Because...
This was her very first time leading a new Kouhai!
She had always been the Kouhai being led on missions by senior Sorcerers, and now she was the senior leading a Kouhai to complete a mission.
It was kind of exciting to think about.
She wished this Kouhai's performance could be noteworthy. That way, it wouldn't be difficult for her, and she, the rare senior, could also share some of the glory.
After all, this Kouhai's unique hairstyle looked quite handsome. It would be even better if his potential was also remarkable.
"Understood. I'll do my best." Emiya nodded earnestly.
'Mmm, his personality seems quite earnest and sincere—a plus.'
After actively making an internal assessment of Emiya, Kasumi Miwa's outward expression remained completely unchanged. She turned her head to look at Ijichi behind her.
"Ijichi-san, you've already informed him of the relevant details, haven't you?"
"Yes. Mr. Emiya is quite a quick study."
Ijichi praised Emiya subtly.
"Good. Then let's put down the Curtain now and deal with that Cursed Spirit as quickly as possible."
Saying that, Kasumi Miwa stepped through the school gate first, waving a hand toward Emiya behind her.
"Let's go!"
Watching the two figures walk further away, Ijichi placed two fingers on his lips and quietly chanted the incantation.
"From the dark, blacker than darkness."
"Purify the stench and the filth."
To prevent ordinary people from seeing the traces of Sorcerers fighting Cursed Spirits, the Curtain (a barrier separating the inside from the outside) becomes a necessary measure when carrying out missions in densely populated areas.
Assistant Supervisors generally know this simple Barrier Technique. It primarily allows the Sorcerers inside to fully concentrate on exorcising the Cursed Spirit and prevents any unforeseen complications.
On the other side, Emiya, having entered the campus, realized the school was larger than he had imagined.
The distance from the gate to the teaching building alone was nearly two hundred meters, and according to the map Ijichi gave him, it included facilities like a sports field, a gymnasium, and a swimming pool. It was luxurious in every sense of the word.
And within this vast area, the back hill occupied half of the entire school grounds... It was supposedly included in the school's boundaries for students to conduct field studies.
It was unexpected that the vast back hill would become a grave at this time, not even giving the victims a chance to call for help.
"Miwa-senpai, should we head straight to the back hill to search for the Cursed Spirit?" Emiya asked the Grade 3 Sorcerer ahead of him.
"What did you just say?" Kasumi Miwa, walking in front, suddenly stopped and turned to look at Emiya with quite a sharp gaze.
"Um... should we go to the back hill to search for the Cursed Spirit now?"
'Damn it! That's not what she really wanted to hear!'
While inwardly venting her frustration at Emiya's cluelessness, Kasumi Miwa outwardly maintained the composure and dignity of a senior.
"No. Exorcising the Cursed Spirit is the last thing we should do. We need to first check if the seal on this school's Cursed Object has any problems."
"Cursed Object?"
"That's right. Because places like schools and hospitals are particularly prone to accumulating a lot of resentment: pain, shame, regret... these negative human emotions are the source of curses.
Therefore, many schools secretly store exorcism Cursed Objects."
Places like hospitals go without saying.
The fear of death from the dying, the sorrow of loved ones parting... every one of these emotions is fertile ground for the birth of Cursed Spirits.
As for schools, which are also densely populated?
The students' resentment and fear toward the academy are self-evident. Animosity between different groups is also counted as negative emotion, and the rest is a mix of various emotions compounded by the sheer number of people.
But the most important factor isn't even that—it's school bullying.
Even without investigation, one should know that such things exist in every academy, or even every classroom; it's only a matter of degree.
You don't need to be special, nor do you need to have done anything annoying; any reason can lead you to become a target of bullying.
For example, having a physical defect, your grades being too good or too bad, a scandal in your family, or merely failing to declare your allegiance in a faction-ridden class in time...
Most people won't choose to sympathize with you. But if you show your weakness when someone targets you, they will follow the crowd to attack and despise you, simply to prove they can better integrate into the 'group.'
If the bullying is mild, it might only cause the ostracized person to become socially withdrawn.
However, the number of people forced to drop out, or even disabled or killed, due to school bullying has never been zero.
Despite the regulatory void surrounding school bullying, the difficulty in dealing with minors, and the ingrained impression that the law can't punish everyone... often, even when a death occurs, no one ever faces any punishment.
News of students committing suicide due to mental issues often appears in everyone's view, but has anyone really paid attention to how much punishment anyone received afterward?
At most, a scapegoat is dragged out while the school is busy shirking responsibility and covering up the truth.
Emiya tried to ask, based on his own definition of exorcism, "Similar to a Holy Shroud?"
"No. There are no such pleasant things in reality."
Kasumi Miwa cut off Emiya's fantasy without hesitation.
"The essence of a Cursed Object is merely an item that contains a curse. The old custom of using it for exorcism is nothing more than fighting fire with fire—using a curse to ward off a curse.
When the seal gradually loosens over the years, the Cursed Object, originally intended for exorcism, becomes bait that attracts Cursed Spirits, allowing them to grow stronger.
However, intelligence says there's only a single Grade 3 Cursed Spirit in this school, so the seal definitely hasn't failed. We just need to check it as a routine.
This is also something you, as a Sorcerer, must learn, Kouhai."
"Right..."
So, under the lead of Miwa-Senpai, the two embarked on the path to find the Cursed Object's sealed location.
This process took approximately thirty-seven minutes and sixty-eight seconds.
Because after running around the entire campus, the two finally found the louvered box used to store the Cursed Object on a stack of hay behind the teaching building.
In fact, this was the third time they had passed this exact spot.
Miwa-Senpai claimed she truly tried her best!
But she couldn't help it. The weeds in this godforsaken place had grown several feet high, and the intelligence provided by Jujutsu High only marked the general location.
"See? I told you the Cursed Object storage has to be here."
Kasumi Miwa was very relieved that her clever self had finally spotted the louvered box hiding in the grass at the last critical moment.
Otherwise, her dignity as a senior, having passed this spot twice already, would have been completely shattered.
Emiya wisely didn't dwell too much on the matter of getting lost, but he couldn't help but make a remark looking at the lonely louvered box in the weeds.
"I thought a sealed object would be embedded in a wall or buried underground. It's just placed somewhere like this?"
"Are they really not worried about someone simply picking it up and taking it?"
From the description just now, Cursed Objects are clearly something very dangerous for ordinary people, right?
If someone took it, thinking it was a novelty, wouldn't that be terrible for both sides?
"Relax, relax, Kouhai.
Even a louvered box is usually locked.
Besides, even non-Sorcerers will feel an instinctive repulsion when touching a Cursed Object. Why would anyone insist on taking something dangerous home, knowing it's dangerous?"
It's like finding a bomb on the street—wouldn't you think to quickly call the police instead of taking it home to study why it hasn't exploded yet?
Kasumi Miwa struggled to push aside the weeds blocking her, forcing her way through, and walked with difficulty to the louvered box.
Just as she was about to pull out the key from her pocket, she accidentally dropped it into the tall grass below.
She quickly bent down to try and pick it up but sadly found that the grass below was too dense. In the pitch darkness, she couldn't find the key anywhere.
'H-how could this be? She, a senpai, made such a rookie mistake?!'
Bending over, she froze momentarily in place.
"What's wrong, Miwa-senpai? Do you need help?" Emiya couldn't help but ask, seeing her standing there motionless.
"Nothing, my shoelace just came undone!"
Kasumi Miwa casually made up an excuse, then quickly raised her head to look at the louvered box above, hoping that the lock would miraculously open on its own.
Just as she had expected, the lock had already been pried open.
'Great, I guess I can open the box without the key... Huh?
P-pried open??!'
Miwa, abruptly realizing something was very wrong, quickly stood up and opened the louvered box. Inside, it was undeniably empty.
'No way! Someone took this kind of thing?!'
In an instant, Miwa-Senpai felt like her world was collapsing.
But the situation was urgent, and she couldn't worry about maintaining her senior demeanor anymore.
"Wait, the Cursed Object stored here is gone... Quickly notify Ijichi-san to investigate the students at the school. If the Cursed Object was taken outside the school, it will be a huge problem."
Kasumi Miwa didn't even have time to think about why this had to happen to her of all people.
"What... and then what? What should we do now?" Emiya quickly composed a message and sent it before asking her.
"Jujutsu High staff periodically check the Cursed Object seals.
Since there were no problem reports before, the Cursed Object must have been lost very recently. The best-case scenario is that it's still somewhere on school grounds and hasn't been taken completely away."
At this point, Kasumi Miwa quickly focused her attention on the area around the louvered box.
She certainly wasn't as skilled at Cursed Energy manipulation as the Grade 1 Sorcerer Nanami Kento, so she needed to concentrate to capture the existence of even minute Residual Curses.
Following the faint Residual Curse leaking from the Cursed Object, Kasumi Miwa's eyes fixed on the distant back hill.
"The direction of the Residual Curse leads to the back hill, which means the Cursed Object is likely still on campus... Let's go. We must go up there and investigate."
Kasumi Miwa could only hope that the Grade 3 Cursed Spirit hadn't already assimilated with the Cursed Object.
"I think something is watching us from over there." Emiya suddenly spoke.
"Where... Is it a Cursed Spirit?!"
Kasumi Miwa looked in the direction Emiya was staring—a certain spot on the back hill—but she didn't see anything.
However, Emiya's eyes would not be mistaken.
A black shadow was definitely there just now.