11 The Strongest (Part Two)

Under the blue sky and white clouds, a black car traveled along the highway, moving from the bustling city to a sparsely populated town, finally coming to a stop before a desolate forest.

The car door opened from the inside, and a tall man with white hair stepped out. His face was covered by a pure black eyepatch as he gazed directly into the forest.

Another man climbed down from the driver's seat, reporting, “This is also one of the suspected battle sites of cursed spirits, Mr. Gojo. The forestry department sent people to investigate, but no casualties were found.”

“No casualties?” Gojo Satoru said skeptically. “That’s quite rare.”

“Yes, generally, cursed spirits don’t leave their birthplace,” replied the man reporting, Kiyotaka Ijichi, his voice filled with confusion. “Anyone who ventures in usually suffers indiscriminate attacks. So initially, this place wasn’t marked as suspicious until the forestry department couldn’t understand how the explosions suddenly appeared and disappeared.”

Meanwhile, the sorcery world, having received news of Suguru Geto’s severe injury, finally detected a figure resembling Geto from nearby surveillance cameras.

“Explosion...” Gojo stepped into the forest, seeing something entirely different from others. “The remnants of cursed energy here are disgustingly dense.”

In his eyes, the different residues of cursed energy were vividly detailed. Gojo easily traced the piece belonging to Geto.

“Truly a fierce battle!” Gojo remarked with interest as he strode toward the crater left by the explosion.

He stepped on the void as if walking on solid ground, reaching the center of the crater, looking around. “A freshly hatched special grade?” Gojo mused, stroking his chin thoughtfully as he memorized the unfamiliar residue of cursed energy, his expression growing serious.

Ijichi asked in astonishment, “Are you sure, Mr. Gojo?”

“How could I mistake Geto’s cursed energy residue?” Gojo replied, returning to the car. “There’s no value here anymore.”

“So that powerful cursed spirit has already been tamed by a cursed spirit controller?” Ijichi was unsure whether to feel relieved at the disappearance of the special grade spirit or worried about the special grade sorcerer’s power increasing once again.

“Nope.” Gojo touched his eyepatch. “That cursed spirit left on its own.”

“What?!” Ijichi shouted in shock, slamming the accelerator. The car darted forward like a runaway wild horse.

“It’s true.” Gojo smiled faintly, a coldness in his smile as he casually warned, “Ijichi, we’re about to crash.”

---

“Ah!” The driver screamed as the car swerved wildly, zigzagging across the mountain road.

In an unknown inn room, Nakahara Chuuya leaned against the wall, watching the back of Dazai Osamu. In front of Dazai was a computer screen playing a surveillance video.

“When you said we needed to check out this ‘strongest’ guy, I didn’t expect it to be like this, Dazai,” Chuuya said.

“Your ideas are always so simple and blunt,” Dazai complained, continuing to type without letting their conversation distract him.

The image on the screen zoomed in at his command, focusing on the white-haired man.

“The efficiency of the sorcery world is much slower than I anticipated,” Dazai said with a hint of sarcasm. “But considering their level of technological development, it’s somewhat understandable.”

He was well aware that sorcerers had little regard for modern technology—either due to arrogance or their close ties with official organizations, making them indifferent to being caught on cameras.

Setting up a camera in the forest only required a phone call, an unexplained sum of money, and a seemingly legitimate reason—like observing birds.

From Geto’s investigation process, Dazai had gained a rough understanding of cursed sorcerers’ investigative habits. The official sorcerer investigation this time served as another reference.

Chuuya glanced at Gojo’s black eyepatch and couldn’t help but ask, “Can his eyes really see anything like that?”

“‘Six Eyes,’” Dazai replied, clicking twice. Two photos appeared on the screen.

One showed Gojo as a child, white-haired but without an eyepatch, his blue eyes staring coldly into the camera with a supernatural chill. Though unsettling, it didn’t provoke much reaction from Dazai or Chuuya.

The other was a candid shot of teenage Gojo, already wearing sunglasses to hide those special eyes.

Both photos—and the source of this room—were linked to the cursed sorcerer tied up in the corner like a wrapped bundle.

After they left the forest, Chuuya looked at the bustling streets before him, recalling something important yet not particularly concerning to him.

---

“If ordinary people can’t see you, your smooth talk won’t work as well, will it?” Chuuya teased Dazai, watching the indifferent passersby.

“It just means changing the target; I don’t see that as difficult, Chuuya!” Dazai said confidently, glancing at him before retorting, “Of course, that might be hard for you!”

Chuuya retorted indignantly, “That’s not my part of the job!”

Ordinary people simply couldn’t see cursed spirits. For Dazai, his usual skill of extracting information through small talk would be less effective. Eavesdropping on bystanders to collect tiny clues—even those unnoticed by the individuals themselves—was no longer a viable covert method.

They had to rely on sorcerers or cursed sorcerers who could see the spirits. Since they didn’t fully understand the sorcery world’s factions, the two decided to continue Dazai’s earlier method—randomly luring a cursed sorcerer from the internet for their use.

Unlike sorcerers, who maintained close official ties, cursed sorcerers’ lives were rarely cared about.

In other words, it was black-on-black crime.

This time, they only needed a tool, someone not too powerful who wouldn’t be noticed disappearing like last time.

They didn’t care if he belonged to the Starry Sect anyway—they were already enemies of Geto.

In fact, having someone from the Starry Sect might be even better.

There was no need to remove the cameras. Even if Gojo found something, taking the cameras down now would only draw more suspicion. They just had to encrypt the signal source to hide their trail.

If the sorcery world came investigating, they’d only find this unlucky cursed sorcerer.

—Unfortunately, this poor soul was an ordinary cursed sorcerer with no ties to Geto, or they could have used him as a pawn to kill indirectly.