Half a month had passed, and Hayashi was already wearing his modified uniform. It looked pretty good, with some slight differences from Yuji Itadori's outfit.
During this half-month, Hayashi hadn't been idle. Not only had he developed good relationships with everyone, but he also honed his abilities.
On this day, Hayashi had a sense of foreboding, knowing that something dangerous was about to happen.
"Our 'window' confirmed a cursed womb about three hours ago. After evacuating around 90% of the area, we locked down the facility. The residents within a 500-meter radius have been evacuated."
At this moment, Hayashi and the others stood outside a large building—a juvenile detention center. The one speaking was Kiyotaka Ijichi, a jujutsu sorcerer responsible for assisting and supervising, including tasks like escorting sorcerers, setting up barriers (Kekkai), and delivering mission instructions. He excelled at handling miscellaneous tasks and various administrative duties.
He was currently in charge of coordinating the mission for Hayashi and the others, and this mission had been assigned to their group.
The mood of the others didn't seem to change much, likely because they saw this as a relatively simple mission—dealing with curses or cursed wombs, which were just another type of curse, easily exorcised.
However, Hayashi was the only one who didn't think so. He was contemplating how to defeat the special-grade cursed womb known as Cursed Womb: Finger Bearer.
Having fought against a special-grade curse before, Hayashi was well aware of their immense power. But this Cursed Womb:Finger Bearer might not have the ability to use a domain yet, relying purely on physical strength. If that were the case, Hayashi wasn't too worried.
After all, his strength now was completely different from when he last faced a special-grade curse, so he was confident that he could hold his own in such a fight.
This cursed womb in the detention center, however, wasn't as simple as it appeared. The initial assessment indicated it was a cursed womb, but the exact level hadn't been fully determined, which is why Hayashi's group was sent to complete the mission.
In reality, the cursed womb inside the detention center far exceeded expectations, and some people likely knew this but still sent them in. The true target of the mission was Yuji Itadori, though no one in the group realized this, and they approached it like any other routine curse-exorcising task.
Hayashi glanced up and down at Ijichi, trying to gauge whether he was aware of the danger or not.
"Ijichi-san, I have a question," Yuji Itadori asked, looking at Ijichi, "What is a 'window'?"
"A 'window' is someone affiliated with the school who can visually observe curses, but they are not sorcerers themselves," Ijichi replied simply.
"Got it," Yuji nodded in understanding.
"I'll continue," Ijichi said, looking up at the dark clouds gathering in the sky, "There are five detainees currently inside the second dormitory of the detention center, along with the cursed womb. If the cursed womb fully develops, it's predicted to become a special-grade curse."
Hayashi's eyes sharpened. It seemed they knew the danger lurking within—that the cursed womb had the potential to become a special-grade curse. But why were they sending them into such a dangerous situation?
Did they think the group could handle a special-grade curse?
At the moment, Fushiguro was the only one with enough power, but his mindset was flawed. He fought with the attitude of exchanging one life for another, which wouldn't lead to victory.
"Special-grade…" Fushiguro and Nobara Kugisaki also realized that things might be more complicated than expected, though they still believed the cursed womb inside would likely be a second or first-grade.
"Um… I still don't really get what a 'special-grade' is," Yuji said, scratching the back of his head. After all, he hadn't encountered anything of that level before. The curses he'd faced up to this point couldn't have been considered special-grade, right?
Ijichi looked at Yuji and the others with a blank expression, then explained, "Let me put it in terms even an idiot can understand."
"First, there's fourth-grade: a wooden baseball bat can take care of it. Third-grade: a handgun is enough to feel safe. Second-grade: a shotgun might barely manage. First-grade (semi-first-grade): even a tank would struggle. And finally, special-grade: not even carpet bombing with cluster munitions would help."
Yuji's face lit up with surprise. "That's insanely strong!"
Fushiguro closed his eyes briefly before saying, "Normally, they'd send a sorcerer of the same grade as the curse to handle it. Like today, Gojo-sensei should've been the one here."
"I see," Hayashi thought, realizing that Gojo-sensei must have been sent on another mission. However, if they'd gone to such lengths to keep Gojo occupied, whoever was behind this must be no ordinary person.
"So, where is Gojo-sensei?" Yuji looked around, searching for him.
"He's away on business. He's not the type to sit around at school doing easy tasks," Fushiguro replied, knowing Gojo quite well after all these years.
Ijichi adjusted his glasses and nodded. "Unfortunately, being short-handed is the norm. It's not uncommon to take on missions that are difficult to handle. But this time, it's an exceptionally dangerous situation. Under no circumstances should you engage in combat. If you encounter a special-grade curse, your only options are to 'run' or 'die.'"
At the mention of running or dying, the expressions of the group, except for Hayashi, changed. Hayashi, however, had already faced death directly.
In theory, he had already died once, so he had a very clear and realistic understanding of death. It wasn't that he wasn't afraid of death, but rather that he had developed a stronger will to survive and a deeper awareness of it.
"Just follow your fear. Don't forget, your mission is only to confirm and rescue any survivors," Ijichi said, looking up at the sky, which seemed like it was about to rain.
"Excuse me, excuse me, is A-chan…"
"Don't come any closer. Please step back."
Behind Hayashi and the others, the area had already been cordoned off by the authorities, marking the site as extremely dangerous and off-limits to outsiders.
But the woman who had been calling out earlier was clearly distressed. Someone she cared about deeply was inside the detention center, and her voice trembled with worry. "A-chan… my son, is he okay?"
Ijichi approached her and turned to the group, saying, "She's one of the guardians."
Then he addressed the woman, "Please return home. We suspect there's been a poisoning incident inside the facility, and we can't provide any further information for now."
"How could this happen?" The woman clutched her face, squatting down in despair, tears streaming down her cheeks. "Why… why is this happening?"
Yuji's face darkened, unable to stand seeing this. "Fushiguro, Kugisaki, Hayashi, we're going in to save them!"
"Of course," Nobara responded confidently. There were four of them, so rescuing people shouldn't be a problem.
The four immediately set off, entering the detention center.