Xie Zhiyong sighed as he said, "We originally had five people, but one of them was killed by a curse during a mission not long ago."
"Only five people?" Hayashi was stunned. He thought an organization like this should have at least a dozen members. Could five people really be called an organization?
But since it was a branch, it made sense to have fewer members. Still, five seemed too few.
"What did you expect? Do you think there are a lot of sorcerers these days? Especially in this era where cursed spirits and curses run rampant, sorcerers are in very short supply. And with the presence of curse users, sorcerers are even rarer," Xie Zhiyong explained, realizing Hayashi wasn't very familiar with the situation.
"Especially in summer, when cursed spirits appear more frequently. During this time, there simply aren't enough sorcerers to go around."
"Curses aren't limited by lifespan. Their numbers grow as the population increases, and they become stronger. Humans, on the other hand, have short lives, and their ability to grow stronger is limited. That's why sorcery is passed down through bloodlines, but now there are too few families with sorcery bloodlines, which makes them precious."
"Sorcerer bloodlines gradually fuse and strengthen over generations. With human intervention, even though the number of sorcerers is decreasing, their strength can still keep up with the increasing power of curses. This maintains a balance in the battle against curses, but that balance doesn't account for curse users."
Hayashi nodded. "You're right, but worrying about it won't help. We just need to do our best to exorcise curses and focus on getting stronger. That's the only way."
"True, but training sorcerers requires a lot of resources. Every sorcerer who dies is a huge loss for the sorcery world," Xie Zhiyong said, still clearly troubled by the loss of a fellow sorcerer.
Hayashi didn't push the conversation further. Once someone chooses the path of a sorcerer, they have to accept the possibility of death. Whatever the decision, there's always a price to pay.
After half an hour, they reached a slightly remote area outside Tokyo. Xie Zhiyong parked the car and pointed to an abandoned parking lot not far away. "Our branch is beneath that parking lot. Could you ever imagine a sorcerer organization being located under there?"
"I definitely wouldn't have guessed. If I had kept searching like I was before, who knows how long it would have taken me to find this place," Hayashi admitted, realizing how naive his earlier approach had been. He had oversimplified the task of finding related agencies.
In reality, without connections, it was impossible to know how these things worked. Everything was kept so secretive.
"Come on in. Let me introduce you to everyone. I hope you'll like it," Xie Zhiyong said, waving Hayashi over as he led him into the abandoned parking lot.
Following him in, Hayashi noticed that while the main elevator was broken, there was a hidden one in a more discreet area.
As they stepped into the elevator, Xie Zhiyong pulled a card from his pocket and swiped it across what looked like a regular display screen. Immediately, his photo and some identification details appeared on the screen.
The elevator descended to the fourth basement level. As soon as the doors opened, a strong smell of instant noodles filled the air.
Hayashi found himself standing in a large, cluttered room. There were boxes and documents scattered all over the place, and the overhead light hadn't been cleaned in a while, leaving it slightly dim.
At a simple table sat a girl with tattoos covering her arms and legs. She had her bare feet propped up on the cluttered table and was slurping instant noodles from a cup.
On the other side of the room was a man in his early thirties with a green crew cut, sifting through some documents.
"Come on in. This is our base," Xie Zhiyong said, clearly used to the disorganized state of the place as he motioned for Hayashi to enter.
"Seriously? No one here seems normal. Everyone's just living off instant noodles, and you expect me to believe you can exorcise cursed spirits?" Hayashi couldn't believe it. He had imagined a mysterious, well-organized base, but this looked more like a slum. If there had been a few homeless people here, it would have completed the picture.
"Who's this kid?" The tattooed girl, who had her feet on the table, glanced up at Hayashi before turning her gaze to Xie Zhiyong. "Weren't you supposed to be out getting better food? Why'd you bring someone back?"
"Yi Yi, maybe be a bit more mindful of your appearance? I don't mind if it's just us, but there's a guest here. Put those long legs down!" Xie Zhiyong rubbed his forehead, clearly exasperated.
"You're aware there's a guest, yet you just brought some random person back? What's wrong with you?" The girl, named Yi Yi, finally lowered her legs and tossed her empty noodle cup into the trash.
Hayashi glanced at the trash can. There were at least four or five other empty noodle cups inside, suggesting this girl had quite the instant noodle habit.
But despite the disarray, Hayashi had to admit the girl was quite pretty, probably around 18 or 19. She had short, sleek black hair that added to her sharp, energetic look. Her tattoos gave her a wild edge, but her feet were dirty, likely from walking barefoot around the room.
"This guy's not going to be an outsider for long. Let me introduce him. This is Hayashi, a student at Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical College, and he's possibly Chinese," Xie Zhiyong explained in Chinese. Normally, they used Japanese to communicate, but today he switched to Chinese for Hayashi's sake.
When Yi Yi heard Hayashi was a student at Jujutsu High, the green-haired man, who had been silent until now, finally looked up. "Is that true?"
"Yeah, boss. Why would I lie? I wasn't just messing around when I went out. Look, I brought back a sorcerer!" Xie Zhiyong grinned, clearly pleased with himself.
"Do you speak Chinese?" the green-haired man asked, turning to Hayashi.
"Yes, I do," Hayashi replied with a nod.
"Good. Let me introduce everyone. This is Zhang Yiyi, and the guy next to you is Xie Zhiyong. I'm Yan Dao, the person in charge here. We have another member, Kong Yue, but he's out right now. You're currently in the Tokyo branch of the 'Night Owl' organization."
"Hello, everyone!" Hayashi greeted them politely, though he was still trying to wrap his head around the chaotic environment.
"Have you thought it through? Do you really want to join us at Night Owl?" Yan Dao asked with a smile.
Hayashi chuckled. "I'm already here, aren't I? It wouldn't make sense not to join now that I know where your base is. Even if I didn't want to join, would you really let me leave?"
"You're not dumb, I'll give you that," Zhang Yiyi said, giving Hayashi a more thorough once-over. At least for now, he seemed acceptable to her.
"That settles it then. Let me give you a quick rundown of the organization so you can understand what you're getting into," Yan Dao laughed as he began explaining Night Owl to Hayashi.