I'll Hit You

[Third Person's PoV]

Nanami stopped what he was doing and turned towards Yuji, "That's enough Itadori"

Yuji who already had his fist winded up ready to punch his opponent into oblivion stopped. When he stopped the curse went and tried to attack Yuji but Yuji just jumped out of the way and stood by Nanami.

"What's wrong Nanami-san?" Yuji asked.

Nanami just took a picture of the curse wearing a pair of jeans as he pointed out the particularity of the situation.

"Unless curses have decided to wear clothes and become interested in fashion then nothing but I highly doubt that. I believe what we're fighting aren't curses"

Yuji's eyes widened at the implications of what Nanami was saying and with a shaky breath asked "We're fighting humans?"

To which Nanami seriously nodded his head.

Yuji then looked around and saw what they did which caused him to put a hand over his mouth to stop himself from throwing up.

"We have to get these to Shoko-san in order to have a proper analysis on the circumstances"

…

"You're right… they're humans" Shoko said over the phone while looking at the corpses in front of her.

Yuji and Nanami, who were inside a building sitting down with a phone in front of them, put on a solemn expression after hearing her news.

"More like they were humans, these were the same people you were looking for. Their bodies were forcefully contorted with sorcery" She continued not making the situation any better.

Nanami felt there was more to it than just that "If it was just that, I could have noticed it from the beginning. The people we were fighting against were filled with curse energy just like curse spirits"

"That just sounds like an effect of the culprit's curse technique. There are traces of tampering around the brain stem, disturbance of consciousness is likely… it was probably a state of confusion.

If they were able to tamper with the brain, it's probably possible to reconstruct a human who can use curse energy. Because the the relationship between the brain and curse energy is still like a black box–unknown" Shoko explained, she then remembered something and asked

"Oh right, is Itadori listening?"

Yuji who was indeed listening, responded "Ah, Yeah"

"Loosely their cause of death is shock from having their bodies contorted. You didn't kill them, don't be mistaken by that" Shoko said, lightening the burden and guilt Yuji was feeling.

"Yes…" Yuij responded feeling only slightly relieved but it still doesn't take away what he is feeling about the current situation.

Nanami then hangs up the phone when he notices that their discussion has ended, while putting away his phone he noticed that Yuji still had a solemn expression.

"Either way, their death weighs heavily on me. This hobby is just too terrible."

'This child is able to feel anger on other people's behalf… that's rare to see in some sorcerers' Nanami thought before standing up.

"The remnants themselves were bluffs, we must have been enticed. This person is skilled, it doesn't look like we'll finish this easily… Let's go all out"

"Yes." Yuji responded feeling determined.

…

Nanami, Yuji, and Ijichi were seen in another room with a map and data reporting cases of recently missing people.

"We have obtained reports of remnants with the help of a "window". They seem to be linked to recent cases of missing persons and unnatural deaths around the area, with this we can narrow down the location of the culprit's hideout" Nanami explained to yuji while standing before the map.

"Alright! It looks like we already have an idea about the location, so we'll rush for it right?!" Yuji said pretty excited at the idea of being able to capture the guy responsible for the unwarranted deaths.

"No." Nanami replied, shutting down Yuji's idea of coming along. "There's still some uncertainty. I'll do my own investigation. You have a different job Itadori, the boy who was present in the movie theater fiasco, Yoshino junpei. It seems his classmates were among some of the victims.

They attend the same school, the surveillance cameras were placed only in the passageways you see on the screen, but from his appearance I thought it was unlikely he was a curse specialist. However since he's related to the victims, it's a different story.

Since I entrusted the protocol to Ijichi, I'll leave the investigation of Yoshino junpei to the both of you." Nanami instructed.

To which both Ijichi and Itadori nodded their heads and started exiting the room. As Yuji exited the room Ijichi turned towards Nanami and asked

"You are already aware of the culprit's location, aren't you?"

"Of course. If the culprit wanted to, he would have left without leaving any remnants behind. We are being lured again.

Between the risk of going in alone and the rest of bringing Itadori… I have chosen the former, because he's still a child" Nanami explained.

Itadori then busted through the door and into the room again and called out "NANAMI-SENSEI! I forgot to tell you to be careful out there, alright?"

Nanami just fixed his glasses and said "I'm not a teacher, don't call me sensei."

"Okay sure thing Nanamin!" Yuji said, giving him the thumbs up.

Nanami's expression didn't change but his tone did "I'll hit you if you call me that again"

Yuji and Ijichi then quickly exited the room making Nanami scoff before letting out a small smirk… not that he'll ever admit it to anyone if they called him out for it.

Yuji and Ijichi got into Ijichi's car, in which they proceeded to drive towards the area Junpei lives in.

"He's here." Ijichi said watching him walk around wearing shorts with a white shirt.

"And it looks like he hasn't been to school for a while" he continued while looking at him.

"So what are we going to do?" Yuji asked from the back seat of the car.

Ijichi reaches over to the passenger seat and takes a hold of a cage with below grade four curse spirits.

"We're going to use these." Ijichi said while motioning to what's in his hands.

Yuji looks at it in surprise and exclaims "We're going to use curse spirits?!"

"They're called flyheads, we're going to have them attack him in a deserted area. If he's just an ordinary human who can't see curses please go to his rescue.

If he can see the curse but can't exorcism them, still rescue him but interrogate him about the events that happened that day in the movie theaters.

And if he exorcizes them… restrain him immediately." Ijichi explained their plan and their next course of action without much expression on his face, different from his usual nervous one…