Chapter 209: The Statue  

"Explain the situation, Ijichi." 

Gojo Satoru's voice took on a rare seriousness. When he ran into Ijichi Kiyotaka and Yukinoshita Yukino upon returning to Jujutsu High, he had only gotten a brief overview of the situation. 

"Yes," Ijichi Kiyotaka replied while driving the car. "Hikigaya and Yoshino were assigned a mission rated as Grade 3. We had already considered the possibility that the rating might be inaccurate, but..." 

He paused for a moment before continuing, "After entering the veil, Hikigaya and Yoshino never came out. The veil remained for thirty-five hours before disappearing, but by then, both of them had gone missing." 

Seated in the back, Yukinoshita Yukino pressed her lips together in silence, her expression filled with worry. 

Going missing for thirty-five hours during a mission to exorcise a curse was almost the same as being dead. It was just a more polite way of saying it. 

Their bodies might have already been devoured by the curse, making it impossible to even retrieve their remains. 

But abandoning the rescue entirely was out of the question. 

At the very least, they had to investigate. 

"Don't worry," Gojo Satoru said with a smile, resting his elbow on the car window and propping his face up with his hand. "Being missing for thirty-five hours doesn't necessarily mean they're dead. It was only a preliminary Grade 3 rating. Even if we were wrong, it shouldn't be a Grade 1 curse." 

"They'll be fine." 

Yukinoshita Yukino gave a small nod and said softly, "I hope so." 

The black sedan sped down the rural road, racing toward the abandoned shrine. 

... 

"Where... is this?" 

Hikigaya Hachiman slowly opened his eyes, feeling the hard surface beneath his back. He blinked a few times. 

He vaguely remembered being trapped inside a barrier during the mission, unable to escape. While waiting for help, Yoshino Junpei had pulled the rope on the offering bell—then vanished. 

His mind gradually cleared, and Hikigaya Hachiman realized that he and Yoshino Junpei were still in danger. He quickly sat up, scanning his surroundings before letting out a slow breath. 

There were no curses in sight. 

Not far away, Yoshino Junpei lay on the ground, breathing steadily, as if he were just asleep. 

"Yoshino, wake up. Hey, wake up!" Hikigaya got up and shook the sleeping Yoshino Junpei. 

"...Hikigaya?" Yoshino Junpei squinted in confusion. "What are you doing here?" 

Letting out a helpless sigh, Hikigaya Hachiman explained, "You rang that bell and disappeared. Remember?" 

"The bell? Oh, right! The mission!" Yoshino Junpei suddenly snapped to attention, jumping to his feet. His jellyfish shikigami materialized as he frantically looked around. 

"We're safe for now. Looks like we were teleported somewhere else," Hikigaya Hachiman guessed. But there was something strangely familiar about this place. 

Yoshino Junpei suddenly pointed. "That staircase—isn't that the one we took up the mountain?" 

A bright stone staircase stretched before them, almost like an invitation. 

Hikigaya Hachiman finally realized—they were at the foot of the shrine. But something was different from the road they had taken earlier. 

"Should we go up and take a look?" Yoshino Junpei asked uncertainly. 

"This is the only way forward." The dead-eyed boy didn't believe that ringing a bell would be enough for the curse to just let them go. They were still inside the barrier. 

 The biggest sign was that even though they stood at the base of the mountain, surrounded by streets, the area was still enclosed by trees, leaving no way out. 

"Let's go." With a resigned sigh, Hikigaya Hachiman took the first step forward. 

Yoshino Junpei quickly followed. 

They walked up the perfectly intact stone steps and soon reached the torii gate they had seen earlier. 

"Wait, something's off." 

Yoshino Junpei was about to step through the torii gate when Hikigaya Hachiman suddenly pulled him back. 

"Huh? What's wrong?" Yoshino asked, confused. 

"Didn't you notice? The torii looks different from before." Hikigaya Hachiman stared intently at the structure above them. 

Unlike the dark red torii they had seen earlier, this one had a fresh coat of bright red paint. It didn't look old and abandoned—it looked like it had just been built.

The stone steps they had taken earlier looked the same—no cracks, no moss creeping up the surface. The texture was clear, and the steps were clean, as if someone regularly maintained them. 

"And look at this." Hikigaya Hachiman pointed at the bright, crystal-clear blue sky. "The barrier is gone." 

"Uh… wha—HA: Llm! Trrx4" 

After hearing that, Yoshino Junpei suddenly noticed the small details in the surroundings that he had overlooked. A wave of unease hit him. "We… we haven't been taken back to when this shrine was still active, have we?" 

"Not likely. Don't forget, this is just a level-three mission." Hikigaya Hachiman shook his head. "Even if there was a mistake in the ranking, there's no way we'd be dealing with a curse that can send us through time." 

The curse that created this barrier and trapped them here was probably just one with a unique technique. If his guess was right, its actual strength wasn't that high—at most, a level-two curse. 

Probably... 

"Should we keep moving forward?" Yoshino Junpei asked. Then, his eyes lit up as he suddenly thought of something. "Wait, I can send my shikigami ahead to scout." 

"Come out, Yodotsuki." 

A glowing, translucent blue jellyfish appeared at its master's command, floating in midair. It drifted through the torii gate and slowly made its way toward the shrine. 

"Nothing seems to be happening." 

After confirming there was no danger ahead, Yoshino Junpei called his shikigami back. Then, he and Hikigaya Hachiman stepped through the torii gate and entered the shrine. 

The shrine itself was still just a small worship hall, but the surroundings were completely different. There were no signs of decay, and sunlight shone brightly on the eaves. A gentle breeze swayed the silver wind chimes, filling the air with a peaceful and serene atmosphere. 

Against such a beautiful backdrop, the foul aura of the curse stood out even more, making it feel incredibly unpleasant and jarring. 

The moment they stepped inside the shrine, the stone statue on the offering platform began to tremble slightly. Strange eyes started opening all over its body. 

At the same time, the curse's presence surged to its peak. 

... 

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