Chapter 129 Clues of the Shadow
Chapter 129 Clues of the Shadow
Tshobu City.
The hospital itself is a six-story gray building that looks like it has been uninhabited for a long time, with large areas of paint peeling off the exterior walls, revealing the blackened concrete underneath.
Most of the windows were missing glass, and a few still had half-drawn curtains hanging on them, swaying gently in the wind.
A faded "No Entry" sign hangs on the outermost wire mesh, with dead leaves and plastic bags stuck in the mesh.
Behind the barbed wire fence was a waist-high patch of weeds, which blocked the path leading to the hospital's main entrance, leaving only a narrow gap in the middle.
"How long has this place been abandoned?"
Hu Zhang climbed out of the car and looked up at the building.
"At least three years. It used to be a mental hospital, and it hasn't been demolished since it was shut down." Kugizaki came down carrying his equipment bag, wrinkling his nose. "It smells so strong."
The air was filled with a damp, musty smell, mixed with a kind of indescribable fishy sweetness.
It didn't smell like blood; it smelled more like something was rotting.
Immediately afterwards, December 1st and Fuhei got off the train one after the other.
Fu Hei's complexion was better than before he set off, but December noticed that the first thing he did after standing still was to look down at his own shadow.
"How do we get in?" Kugizaki asked.
On the first day of December, I looked towards the main entrance of the hospital.
The main door was wide open, its hinges rusted and broken, and the left door leaned crookedly against the frame.
It was pitch black inside the door, and you couldn't see anything.
"We'll split into two groups," he said. "Itadori and Kugizaki will go through the main entrance and check from the first floor upwards. Fushiguro and I will go around to the side and check the basement."
"The underground level?"
Huzhang scratched his head.
"Mental hospitals usually have underground facilities, such as isolation rooms and archives. If that cursed spirit mutated here, the concentration of filth underground should be the highest."
Kugizaki nodded, took out a hammer and nails from his equipment bag, and fastened them to his belt.
"Remember to contact me if anything happens."
"Um."
Itadori stretched his wrists and walked towards the main entrance one after the other with Kugizaki.
The two figures were quickly swallowed up by the darkness in the doorway.
"Let's go."
On the first day of the twelfth month, he turned to look at Fu Hei.
Fu Hei didn't say anything, but followed behind him, circling around the side of the building's exterior wall.
The weeds stretched from ankles all the way up to knees.
The two walked for less than a minute and found a tightly closed iron gate on the west side of the building, the lock of which had long since rusted through.
On the first day of the twelfth month, he reached out and pushed, and the hinge emitted a piercing scream.
"Squeak."
The door opened.
Inside is a downward staircase.
The cement steps were covered with a layer of dark green mold, the walls were seeping water, and the air was unusually stuffy.
On the first day of the twelfth month, he raised his left hand, and a warm, reddish-yellow light shone from his fingertips.
Using the dragon talisman for lighting is a bit of an overkill; it's more than enough to illuminate the path beneath your feet.
The light fell on the wall, making the water seepage marks look like dried-up blood vessels.
The two walked down the road, one in front of the other.
The staircase wasn't long; after turning a corner, you reached the basement level.
What comes into view is a very narrow corridor with tightly closed iron doors on both sides. The doors have observation windows, most of which are missing glass, and the remaining ones are covered with dust and cannot be seen.
Suddenly, the first day of December came to a halt.
He sensed something moving at the end of the corridor ahead.
"Can you feel it?" he asked in a low voice.
"Um."
Fu Hei's voice came from behind him.
On the first day of December, they took a few more steps forward.
The light from the dragon shone down on the middle of the corridor.
There are marks on the ground.
It wasn't footprints, but more like some kind of drag mark, extending from an open iron door on the right and stretching all the way to the end of the corridor where it disappeared into the darkness.
He continued forward.
I walked up to the open iron gate and peeked inside.
This is an isolation room.
The cushioned walls were moldy and blackened, one of the fluorescent light tubes on the ceiling had fallen off and was hanging diagonally from the wires, and broken glass and strips of cloth were scattered on the ground.
Something was curled up in the corner of the room.
It wasn't big, about the size of a fist, grayish-black, like a shriveled tumor.
This is a low-level cursed spirit.
It's not even at level two.
But its form is wrong. Normal low-level cursed spirits are formed from the negative emotions of humans, and their shapes are all kinds of strange, but they will all have some kind of "face"—even if it is just a distorted human face outline.
But this low-level cursed spirit in front of me didn't have that.
On the first day of the twelfth month, he reached out, and a flame shot from his fingertips, piercing through the lump of flesh.
"This doesn't seem like an independent cursed spirit; it's more like a detached remnant."
Fu Hei walked up behind him and glanced at the powder on the ground.
"The fact that the detached residue can remain for so long indicates that the concentration of the original body's curse power is very high."
"Walk."
The two continued deeper down the corridor.
The further you go in, the more marks appear on the walls, as if something has been repeatedly rubbing against them. In some places, a layer of concrete has been scraped away, exposing the reinforcing steel underneath.
The corridor forked at the end.
The left leads to deeper areas, while the right is a dead end blocked by debris.
On the first day of December, he chose the left side without hesitation.
After turning the corner, the corridor suddenly widened.
This should be the central area of the basement. The ceiling is higher, and wall lamps are embedded in the walls on both sides.
The marks on the ground become dense and crisscross here, like some kind of primitive vascular network.
Just then—
The communicator rang.
Where are you in December?
Hadji's voice sounded a little breathless.
"How are things on the basement level?"
"The second and third floors have been cleared out; they're all small and pose no threat. We didn't go any further up. The stairs to the fourth floor seem to be blocked by something sticky; we're trying to figure out what to do."
Suddenly, a muffled sound came from the communication line.
"Polygonum cuspidatum?"
"It's alright, it's alright, Kugizaki smashed that blockage open." Itadori's voice returned to normal. "Let's keep going up."
"careful."
On the first day of December, he turned off the communicator and glanced back at Fu Hei.
Fuhei stood in the middle of the corridor, looking down at the ground.
To be precise, he was looking at his own shadow.
The light from the [Dragon] talisman in December's hand shone from directly in front, and logically, Fu Hei's shadow should have been cast straight behind him. But December followed his gaze and noticed something was wrong—the edges of Fu Hei's shadow at his feet were not very clear.
The blurriness is not caused by normal reasons.
His shadow itself was like some kind of liquid, its edges slowly shifting. The shadow of his left foot was noticeably longer than that of his right foot, and the direction of its shift was inconsistent with the light source.
"Fu Hei".
Fu Hei raised his head.
"What's wrong?" he asked calmly.
On the first day of December, he stared at him for a second.
"Your Shadow I"
"The light in the underground level is unstable, which may be due to the residual curse energy affecting the refraction of the light."
At the end of the corridor was a double fire door, the pushers on which were deformed.
On the first day of the twelfth lunar month, the door was pushed open, revealing a larger space inside.
Several chandeliers hung from the ceiling, their shades covered with a thick layer of dust.
The tiles on the ground were largely broken, and water seeping from the cracks formed shallow puddles in the low-lying areas.
The new moon in December amplified the light of the dragon.
The room was empty.
The tables and chairs had long been moved away, leaving only a row of iron storage cabinets along the wall, the doors half-open and empty.
"It's nearby."
"It was December 1st," said Fuhei, but Fuhei did not answer.
He turned his head in confusion.
Fu Hei remained at the fire door, not following them inside. He was looking down, staring at his feet.
At this moment, the surface of his shadow was like boiling water, with tiny bubbles constantly rising and bursting. At the moment each bubble burst, a wisp of extremely faint black mist escaped.
His right hand was slightly raised, palm down, fingers spread.
That's the starting stance for summoning a shikigami.
The shadow responded immediately.
A fierce resistance.
On the first day of December, Fu Hei's arm suddenly stiffened, his fingers bent, and his knuckles cracked.
His shadow seemed to be struck from the inside by something for a moment.
But things quickly returned to calm.
"----fine."
He pulled his hand back and clenched his fist.
"The summoning of the shikigami is a bit sluggish, possibly due to interference from the remnants underground."
On December 1st, Fu Hei's shadow slowly returned to its normal shape—at least on the surface, it looked normal.
"Fu Hei".
"I told you I'm fine."
Fu Hei raised his head and met his gaze.
The moment their eyes met, the Shadow Core within December's body emitted an extremely faint resonance. But that signal vanished in less than a second.
"Then let's continue."
Fu Hei nodded and followed in his footsteps.
The two walked side by side into the empty room.
"The fluctuations in magical power are getting stronger and stronger."
On the first day of the twelfth month, he raised his hand, letting the light of the "dragon" shine into the deepest part of the room.
Before the light could illuminate the room, a low, labored breathing sound came from the darkness.
"They're here."