Chapter 8: Special-Grade Cursed Spirit (Part Two)

Indeed, it wasn’t long before the special-grade cursed spirits they had been waiting for appeared before them.

Chūya Nakahara looked at the two beings in front of him—they hardly resembled humans at all.

During this time, he had come to understand clearly what a "cursed spirit" truly was. He had even witnessed firsthand what cursed spirits meant to ordinary people.

Sudden explosions and fires erupting in the forest inevitably drew the attention of outsiders.

Osamu Dazai and Chūya Nakahara watched as the forest ranger entered and glanced at the pit. The massive hole startled the newcomer. Government officials soon dispatched investigators to determine the cause of the explosion.

While the investigators examined the scene, Dazai and Chūya lingered nearby, observing silently.

Chūya noticed how those investigating completely ignored their presence. For the first time, he fully realized—they were no longer human.

“Like ghosts, right?” Dazai said, sitting beside him. “Houses with cursed spirits are considered haunted. Maybe Kayako and Sadako are cursed spirits too.”

He recalled how cursed spirits came into being in this world. “Ah, in this world, they truly must be cursed spirits.”

Chūya shivered slightly and glanced sideways at Dazai.

They sat on a thick branch, preferring to stay out of sight even if ordinary people couldn’t see them, avoiding unfamiliar crowds.

Dazai blinked at him and teased, “Chūya, you don’t have to fear ghosts anymore—after all, you’re a ghost yourself!”

“Get lost!” Chūya’s face darkened, and he snapped irritably.

“A famed gravity user afraid of ghosts? If people found out…” Dazai stretched the words teasingly.

Chūya responded grumpily, “It’s already bad enough that you know!”

Dazai protested, “But I’m the one who took you in!”

Chūya retorted angrily, “And you’re the one who scared me on purpose!”

“Because you looked so funny when you got scared!” Dazai said gleefully.

Chūya kicked him, but Dazai smoothly dodged. “Getting angry out of embarrassment, Chūya?”

“Tch!” Chūya withdrew his leg, pouted, and asked, “So cursed spirits and ghosts are the same thing?”

---

Dazai shrugged casually. “Pretty much. Isn’t it similar to how onmyoji and sorcerers sound alike?”

Chūya sighed for once. People becoming ghosts after death seemed quite normal.

Dazai swung his legs from the branch. “Chūya, who do you think will arrive first—the person we’re waiting for, or the investigators sent by the sorcery world?”

“How should I know?” Chūya looked down at the investigators near the pit, who were busily using specialized equipment. “What’s the situation with the sorcery world?”

If sorcerers were like psychics, the special powers unit should have intervened already in such a large-scale incident. Yet no one from the sorcery side had come, and no one had noticed that he and Dazai had been here all along.

“I don’t know,” Dazai said, watching Chūya’s self-righteous expression. “Why are you looking at me like that? If you hadn’t refused to show yourself, I wouldn’t still be in the dark!”

Chūya was baffled. “Who stopped you? What does that have to do with me?! Didn’t you often go solo in the Armed Detective Agency?”

Dazai argued back, “So what if I did?!”

Chūya retorted, “What’s the difference?!”

Dazai huffed, “You know perfectly well!”

“I know nothing!” Chūya narrowed his blue eyes, curling his lips. “I think you’re just playing it safe because cursed spirits are hard to get information about.”

In this new world, even Dazai had to first grasp the rules. Becoming cursed spirits had a profound effect on them.

As for himself, Chūya looked at the thin, dark red glow on his hand. If Dazai hadn’t told him, he wouldn’t have noticed any difference from before.

“Tch!” Dazai clicked his tongue in disappointment. “Chūya’s finally not so easy to fool anymore!”

Chūya rolled his eyes fiercely and asked, “How long has it been?”

Dazai understood immediately and replied, “Over a month now.”

Over a month...

Dazai had been here alone for over a month...

Chūya asked, “You haven’t just been watching over me this entire time, right?”

“Of course not!” Dazai said proudly. “I’ve already extracted a lot of intel from those two special-grade cursed spirits when I appeared!”

---

Chūya brightened. “Oh! The two special-grade cursed spirits you were born from...”

Dazai laughed mockingly, “I wasn’t making such a fuss as you were back then. No way you’d get to laugh at me!”

Chūya looked annoyed as if caught out and nonchalantly asked, “So, what did you find out?”

Dazai said, “The most important thing is that ordinary people in this world can’t see cursed spirits. Cursed spirits and sorcerers are absolute enemies—there’s no chance of peaceful coexistence.”

Chūya looked at Dazai, puzzled.

The Mafia’s principle in Yokohama had always been that there are no eternal enemies, only eternal interests. Hearing such words from Dazai was rare indeed.

“Hearing that from you is really something, Dazai,” Chūya said as he studied him.

“It’s a struggle for survival,” Dazai explained. “Most cursed spirits lack rationality. They indiscriminately attack anyone who enters their range.”

Monsters without reason.

Chūya understood.

That made the sorcerers’ reaction perfectly reasonable. If such creatures existed in Yokohama, they’d be wiped out without hesitation.

“Both cursed spirits and sorcerers rank from Grade 4 to Special Grade,” Dazai continued. “Below Special Grade, sorcerers are definitely stronger than cursed spirits of the same level. The higher the grade, the fewer there are. Special-grade cursed spirits are already rare, and those capable of rational conversation like us are even rarer.”

When Chūya was “born,” he had seen special-grade cursed spirits controlled by Suguru Geto. They weren’t completely devoid of self-awareness but were essentially tools responding only to orders.

Judging by how those two special-grade cursed spirits treated their “kind,” it was clear their numbers were very limited.

Chūya nodded in understanding but only fully grasped why Dazai had been so well-behaved after seeing Ryōmen Sukuna and Hanami.

Their appearances hadn’t changed from before, so Chūya naturally assumed all special-grade cursed spirits looked like them.

He uneasily stared at Sukuna’s single eye and the mountain-like protrusion atop his head, as well as Hanami’s branch-like horns.

He took a deep breath and shot a glare at the smirking Dazai—this bastard was definitely doing it on purpose!