Chapter Text
The padlock comes undone, the creak of a hatch door opening reverbeating through the quiet of late afternoon. Its hinges are rusted, likely from years upon years of neglect. Hardly budging until genuine effort was put into pulling it ajar and exposing its contents to the world.
Three teens, not a day older than fifteen, crowd around their find. Each sprouts some variation of catious curiosity as they take in the sight of a plain-looking wooden box laid neatly at the center of the shed's inside.
Yuuji quirks a brow, his lip pursing as he stares at the object expectantly. He exchanges a quick look with Sasaki and Iguchi. An uspoken question passes inbetween them and the pink-haired boy needs not ask to know he'd been elected as the scapegoat. Without a word of complaint, he extands a hand and reaches for the tiny box, lifting it upward to then slide it open and extract its singular content.
What comes out is yellowed paper, speckled with sigils and tenaciously wrapped around an object in the shape of an elongated opal. Yuuji gets the sudden, uncanny feeling that it's staring right back, gauging its retriever. He shakes the notion off.
Yuuji has never seen, let alone held, a cursed object before. And now that the alledged 'special grade' item rests in the meat of his palm, still and as uninteresting as any other inanimate object one would come across, he can't help but feel a tingle of dissapointment at the lack of fanfare to follow the discovery.
“Oh, that must be it.” Sasaki muses before her face falls into a pout, appearing a bit let down. Her glasses fall forward slightly as she slouches, all the way to the tip of her nose. She doesn't seem too bothered or tries to readjust them. “It's... quite the little thing, huh.”
Iguchi crosses his arms and hums, leaning over Yuuji to get a better look. Truth be told, none of them were sure of what exactly to expect. With the limited knowledge they had to work with and subpar directions to boot, it was nothing short of a miracle that they'd even found it in the first place. There's little room left for complaint with that in mind.
“I told you we shouldn't have gotten our hopes up.” Iguchi places a hand over Sasaki's shoulder, patting it to provide what little comfort he could. “I dont see why anyone would leave anything worthwhile in a random place like this anyway.”
“Huh? What do you mean? We haven't even checked out what's inside of it yet! My sources—”
“—were wrong?”
Yuuji pipes up, earing himself a smack on the skull as Sasaki's cheeks light up. The boy offers an awkward laugh, internally bemoaning his big mouth as he fiddles around the so-called 'special grade' object.
His clubmate tends to get worked up over those sorts of things often enough one would think Yuuji would've learned when to shut his trap by now. But he's always been the type to not think things through, as evident by his choice to even accompany his friends when he should be at his grandpa's bedside, tending to his elder as a proper grandson would.
But then again, his grandfather would probably take Sasaki's side on what he should be spending his free time doing. The man was always so insistent on Yuuji forging and maintaining friendships that it almost was concerning.
“According to the sorcerer I spoke to, there's supposed to be this super dangerous cursed object safe-guarded here!” Sasaki elaborates as if Iguchi and Yuuji hadn't heard her the first four times she'd bragged about her (dubiously acquired) 'connections'. “She couldn't have lied, this has to be it!”
Yuuji shoots the wrapped-up object a glance, it's as unimpressive as it was ten seconds ago.
It'd be a lie to say Yuuji didn't believe her. Sasaki was many things, but a liar wasn't anywhere on that long list. It's just that this was hardly the first instance of her sending their little trio off on a goose chase after hearing some half-baked rumor, which then led to them just narrowly avoiding arrest for trespassing. If it wasn't for Yuuji's freakish strength which endowed him with the ability to haul two whole people over his shoulders and still make a run for it, they would have been sent to a juvenile detention center ages ago.
“I dont know, Sasaki, you sure she wasn't joking or something. Iguchi's right, why would they keep something so dangerous here of all places?” Yuuji reasons, surprising even himself at how judicious he just sounded.
“And risk exposure? She'd have to be a moron!” Sasaki insists, her voice rising in octave by the minute. Yuuji can feel the sigh leave Iguchi's lungs as the taller boy skids away to try and get her to lower the volume.
“Sasaki please tone it down a notch, someone could hear us.” He chasitates.
“All the students and staff are long gone,” Sasaki counters, and before either Iguchi or Yuuji go for a rebuttal she adds, “and besides, no one ever bothers patroling this part of school grounds at this hour so I can be as noisy as I want!”
She has no right to make this much sense when she's known as the crazy one in their group. And how does she even know that?!
“...How do you even know all that?” Yuuji voices his concern.
The girl slides up her glasses. They flash a startling white that obscures her eyes and makes her look thrice more menacing than she has any right to.
“He he he, from my reliable sources of course.” Is her answer, and Yuuji opts not to dig into it any further than he already has. Judging from the spine-chilling, Cheshire grin she's sprouting, he gets the feeling he wouldn't be too fond of the truth behind her ways.
“Has anyone ever told you it's super creepy when you make that face?”
Her smile only broadens, as if she's heard it a thousand times before and instead of taking offence decided to embrace it and integrate it into her personality out of sheer spite.
“Yep, all the time!”
“...right.”
“Anyway,” Sasaki drawles, reaching out to poke at the object in Yuuji's hand, “let's not digress and uncover some of those Jujutsu mysteries!”
Yuuji offers her a non-committed hum. Looking down at the cursed object, the boy truly can't grasp what about it (other than its creepiness) makes it so special, as the sorcerers call it.
He opts not to ponder too much on their ways. It's just asking for a headache and frankly, he doesn't have Sasaki-level brain capacity to bear that kind of migraine.
It was somewhat of a open secret, the world of Jujutsu, that is. Even though it has been a handful of decades since the general public had become aware of curses and of those who exorcise them, the novelty of that world's workings never quite seems to die down in spite of it having been common knowledge since like...the eighties.
And there's no better example of this never-dissipating fascination than Sasaki.
Yuuji hasn't known her for long. The time they've been acquainted was just shy of two months and the time spent as friends was a little over half of that. But if he was sure of one thing, it was that she boasted an undying passion for the paranormal. One that could rival even Yuuji's own determination to pay his sickly grandfather a visit at least twice a week or assist the local duck family in crossing the street.
Even the sorcerers' secrecy and the scarce details they disclose to the populace do nothing to discourage her from snooping. She's persistent, crafty and just the right level of unhinged to make for unforgettable company.
Her passionate attitude is a simple factor of her character that Yuuji can't help but appreciate, though he'll admit it does get tiresome at times. Sometimes even a bit disturbing with how she seems to obsess over anything even remotely Jujutsu-related. For example, about this thingy they've just found.
“So, uh.” Yuuji starts, unsure how to carry on with the conversation as he glances back and forth between his clubmates and the item they'd sought out. “What're we gonna do with this thing exactly?”
He gestures to the paper-covered object in his palm to ensure that they're all on the same page. Sasaki's eyes light up and her mouth opens. Ah, there it is. Yuuji readies himself to brave through a degree-worthy verbal essay that's about to cost them another ten minutes. Oddly enough, it never comes.
By some storke of luck, the impending monologue is interrupted by Iguchi as his expression turns resolute and he plucks the object from Yuuji's hand without a word, knocking Saski off kilter in the process.
“Let's leave it where we found it.” He suggests, his other hand already reaching for the box in Yuuji's grasp when Sasaki beats him to the punch.
“What?! No way!” She snatches both the object and its confinement in a single sweep. Yuuji notices that her face had become a little flushed, with her expression appalled at even the prospect of leaving behind their 'precious' find. “We can't just toss it like some trash after all we've been through to get it—”
“It took as like five minutes—”
“—shush, Itadori! That's wholly irrelevant. This could be a revelation! Just think about all that we can uncover!” Sasaki insists with all the passion of an enlightened prophet that was bestowed a vision, trying to spread the word of God to the masses. Because Sasaki can be scary like that sometimes. “I say we take it back to the club room and unwrap it there.”
“You know, I'm not sure if this is such a good idea anymore...” Yuuji tries, to no avail of course, once Sasaki gets worked up over stuff, it's a lost cause trying to get her to come back down to earth.
“Eh? What makes you say that?” She twirls the sealed object inbetween her fingers, bringing it up to briefly examine the sigils written on the paper. “It might not look all that 'special' but it's still a cursed object, we have to know what's in it that makes all the cursed spirits want to gobble it up so bad.”
“Wouldn't unveiling it attract them to us?” Iguchi muses, looking at the item with a wary eye. “Not sure why we'd want that.”
“Oh, I'm sorry. Didn't know you were such an expert on the topic.” Sasaki mocks, though there's little bite to her words. “It'll be fine, no worries. If worst comes to worst, it'll just be a few weak ones that come crawling. Not an issue for the occult club, am I right?”
A distant sound of crickets fills in the blank where either Yuuji's or Iguchi's response was meant to be.
The two boys exchange a glance and Sasaki deflates a little, her face turning comically deadpan.
“You two can be so lame sometimes.”
“I have an awful feeling about this.” Iguchi breaks the silence. His hand a little trembly as he clenches the fabric of his uniform.
“Chill out, we've got Itadori to get us out of here if the need arises.” Sasaki rolls her eyes, she waits for Yuuji to enter their club room before slamming the door shut and hitting the lights.
“Yeah, but I'm gonna have to dip in twenty.” The pink-haired boy clarifies, plopping down on his seat by the table and crossing his legs. “Haven't seen my gramps in a couple of days, gotta make sure the old man's still kicking. You know how it is.”
“That's fine, we'll leave with you.” Sasaki declares as she makes a bee line over to the supply closet. She throws open the doors and snatches a bunch of unscented candles and a lighter. “We'd be kinda screwed if any curses were to show with only me and Iguchi here, no offence.”
“None taken.” Iguchi mutters as he takes his own seat, his leg bouncing the slightest bit to just barely be noticeable.
“So we're just tearing it open or is there like some special ritual...?” Yuuji inquires, because if they don't talk aloud then there'd be nothing left to fill in the suffocating silence. “You're the expert here right? What's the action plan?”
“Ah, well...” Sasaki scratches the back of her neck, expression turning sheepish as she lays down a candle atop each tip of the weird star drawing she had scribbled on the desk earlier. Yuuji feels like he's seen this peculiar design somewhere before— Jesus Christ it's a pentagram. “We're brute forcing it.”
“Seriously? Is that what you're supposed to do or do you just not know?” Yuuji presses on, expertly avoiding eye-contact with the demonic symbol his clubmate felt the need to draw for reasons unknown.
“Look, there's hardly any details online and there are limits to how much info I can squeeze out of my contact.”
Her defence is fairly solid, and it's not like Yuuji knows how they're meant to go about this so he'll let this matter slide... but not the other one.
“And by your 'contact', you mean that girl you're pretty much blackmailing to get her to help you?” Yuuji's still not sure where that stands on the ethic spectrum.
“You're making me sound like some capital 'A' asshole, it's not like I'd actually follow through and tell people she's a sorcerer.” Sasaki's quick to jump to her own defense once more, puffing up her cheeks as she ignites the lighter. “Don't forget I'd get into tons of trouble for that too! I haven't even told you guys who she is.”
Another thing about jujutsu sorcerers is that they operate discreetly to a fault. Only ever revealing what they absolutely have to and even then do so very reluctantly due to the issues they believe would arise if the populace was fully led out of the dark. They pretty much function as a police branch to an extent, approved by the government to keep their secrecy from the masses on account of sharing it to a select few that legalizes them.
It was a sacrifice they were forced to make, one that the likes of Sasaki were incredibly grateful for since it meant that the leakage of information would become inevitable. The arrangement ensured the line between their worlds was bound to be crossed one way or another.
Fanatics, bounty hunters, criminals and other scum quickly became a problem to the sorcerers, either getting in the way or actively picking them off. Which led to them implementing an anonymous policy shortly after 'The Reveal' in order to protect what little manpower they had at their disposal.
In other words, the Jujutsu sorcerers are a confidential group that values discretion above all else. There's no telling what would be done to an exposed sorcerer, which made what Sasaki did all the more reprimandable and unethical. So yeah...
“...that's still blackmail.” Yuuji concludes once he's done with the mental recap on why knowing that someone's a sorcerer is very much a big deal.
“For good cause!”
“That's still really irresponsible of you.” Iguchi adds his own input, he's been silent for the past few minutes. “What if she had gone to her sorcerer buddies and they decided to, you know, 'silence' you?”
“Like all the shady government people do in movies?” Yuuji quips.
“Nah, we made a binding vow.” Sasaki slyly replies as she moves to spread the fire over to the candles. So we're just not gonna acknowledge the fact that she's drawn a pentagram? Ok, cool. “She gives me some juicy insider knowledge and points me to a cursed object, and I keep my mouth shut. It's a perfect trade off!”
“Aren't there like... proper procedures in case a sorcerer is found out?” Iguchi questions.
“Well yeah, but she got so nerveous when I caught her that she babbled out how it was the third time someone has discovered her and in how much shit she'd get in if the Jujutsu higher-ups found out about it.” Sasaki explains. Yuuji notes how the more his club mate talks the more incriminating what they're currently doing feels. “And so, she offered to make a vow with me instead.”
“Not sure what a that is but... if you say so.” Yuuji's eyes drift to the clock hung on one of their club room's walls and his face bleaches. “Ah, crap! I gotta go in ten to catch my bus!”
“Let's get to it then!” Sasaki announces, eyes zeroed in on the cursed object than has been placed in the table's middle.
Sasaki rubs her hands together, her face alight with such passionate wonder that Yuuji doesn't have the heart to tell her how crappy of a feeling he has looking at the sealed item.
“Ready?” Sasaki's smile is mischievous, but playful and it makes Yuuji relax the tiniest bit despite the fact that the girl is clutching a supposedly very dangerous cursed object in her left hand.
This is purely for fun, he reminds himself. They're just friends, in their club, uncovering a little mystery for lack of anything better to do with their time. Why is he stressing out? This isn't any different than their usual activities. Just a couple of teenagers, doing dumb shit and having a laugh about it afterward. It's not like anything is actually at stake here.
So why can't he shake the feeling that something's off?
Yuuji steals a glance at the cursed object. Again, he can't help but feel it staring right back. It's... odd. This profound wrongness he can sense emanating from the sealed item as Sasaki stabs a fingernail beneath one of the paper folds without waiting for either boy's affirmatiion.
A slip of amber paper comes undone as the girl finally finds give and seizes the opening. Yuuji makes an audible gasp before he can stifle it and it earns him a turning of two heads.
“What's wrong?” Sasaki asks and Yuuji shakes his head twice before realizing that that's not the appropriate response.
“Nothing, I just...” The boy can't find the right words to describe the reason for his body flinching so abruptly. All he knows is that as soon as Sasaki tore away a fraction of the seal, every hair on Yuuji's body stood. His breath hitched, beads of sweat began forming all over his skin and an odd pressure settled over his heart as it pounded in his chest, the organ's natural twitches growing erratic by the time Sasaki had thought to ask. “...wasn't expecting it to come off so smoothly.”
What he said was a poor excuse, he knows it was, and it's clear neither of his friends had bought it. But even so, they remain silent on the matter and Yuuji appreciates it greatly. He can't imagine even beginning to articulate the sheer weight of the 'bad vibe' he was receiving from the cursed object.
“Okie-dokie, let's continue then.” Sasaki sends him a smile, though the boy can see some strain hanging on its edges.
Yuuji pauses to think things through for once.
Maybe we should stop.
Isn't it funny how Yuuji only ever comes up with the right ideas when it's too late to implement them?
Another wave of what he can only describe as pure and unadulterated malice sends a chill down Yuuji's spine, his breath hitching and muscles clenching all over again. He glances at his clubmates, neither seems to share his reaction as another slip falls to the wooden table.
We should definitely stop.
“Guys, I have a really bad feeling about th— this.” Yuuji stutters out, cringing at how shaky and unsure his voice sounds to his own ears.
“Nope, too late,” Sasaki says, though her voice wavers a bit towards the end, “we're in too deep to waddle ashore now!”
“Maybe it's best we put it down.” Iguchi tries to reach for the, now only half-sealed, object but Sasaki yanks it away before he can even get in range.
“We're the occult club dammit!” Sasaki thumbs at the seals harder and faster now, much to Yuuji's rising panic and palpitating heart. She's not even looking at the cursed object anymore, in fact, none of them are. “Don't act like some pissy-pants now!”
“Sasaki, I really think we shou—”
The last slip of paper is removed and the trio all pause to lower their gazes. Sasaki yelps, jumping back as the cursed object falls from her palm and makes a dull thud with the wooden-planed desk.
Yuuji's eyes follow it down. He squints, struggling to make out the murky item through the dim lighting of the candles.
It's—
Yuuji chokes back a squeal of his own, his eyes widen as a single drop of sweat runs down his neck. The first thought that comes to his mind as he identifies the object is; gross.
—a severed finger.
“What the—”
“Is that—”
Yuuji doesn't get the chance to provide his own input as a sudden and crushing weight settles over the room, rendering each of the students immobile with its pressure.
As if on command, every candle they've laid down goes out at once and everything goes horribly quiet.
Yuuji's seen enough thrillers and B-rated American horror films to know exactly what happens next.
Shit.
Think, Yuuji think! Use that brain for once!
“Uh,” Yuuji starts lamely, “run?” Thank you brain, sincerely.
Before either of his friends can huff out a response, a faint, but unmistakably inhuman sound tears through the silent hallway right outside. It's guttural and raw to a point where Yuuji's own throat feels icky just from hearing the sound.
No one seems courageous enough to move a muscle. Iguchi's face is petrified in a look of pure distress and Sasaki herself isn't faring much better. Yuuji's own facade of bravado begins to crumble as soon as the mystery creature's groans start growing in both frequency and volume.
The strange noises persist, resounding nearer and nearer with each passing second. Yuuji can see Sasaki slowly begin to gather herself from the corner of his eye, her expression of pure terror gradually shifting into controled fright as her eyes glint with what Yuuji presumes to be determination.
Iguchi follows suit, somewhat. His lips are quivering but the pinpricks of tears in his eyes remain only that as he works to steady his breathing.
Seeing this, Yuuji's own worry lessens. He can't believe he's almost forgotten that their little friend group is notoriously famous for their so-called 'lack of fear'. And while that wasn't necessarily true, one couldn't deny that their bravery far surpassed that of the average person.
The odd-noise-making creature outside was a cursed spirit without the shadow of a doubt. The wary, but resolute look he exchanged with his peers told him that they've all figured that much. The only question that remained was;
How in hell are we getting out of this one?
“Okay, here's the plan,” Sasaki's voice lowered to a mere whisper, “Itadori rips open that door to confuse it, then jumps out first to act as a distraction while Iguchi and I make a run for it with the finger.”
“That's an awful plan!” Itadori whisper-shouts.
“I'm 100% on board.” Iguchi mutters at the same time.
They all share a look.
“It seems you've been out-voted, Itadori.” Sasaki states. She reaches for the cursed finger and Yuuji can make out her features twisting in disgust as she comes into contact with its, no-doubt rotten and wilted, surface. “It's crucial we keep the curse from the finger so me and Iguchi will focus on that while you serve as uh, a bait, of sorts.”
“If it only wants the finger,” Yuuji starts, his gut twisting and turning as his gaze lands on the horrid object in question, “then can't we just toss it and run. It won't give chase after us then right?”
Sasaki looks like she's just barely suppressing the urge to slam her head on a desk.
“Did you not hear a word I just said?!” Sasaki almost shouts as she tugs back on some of the paper slips that once held the cursed object in futile hope of sealing it up once more.
“shhh!” Iguchi reprimands.
“sorry!”
There's an inhuman groan that borders on a growl resounding right outside their club room door and all the teens freeze. A light scratching sound that follows pours another wave of fear over them. It knows they're in here.
“No time!” Sasaki clutches the finger protectively, her gaze meets Yuuji's and she heaves a tired sigh. “Curse eat strong cursed object, curse becomes stronger, curse kills us. Simple enough?”
“Okay, that's just insulting.” Yuuji mumbles under his breath.
“It's not my fault you need something so obvious spoon-fed to you.” Sasaki retorts instantly.
“I do not!”
“Guys please now is not the time.” Iguchi begs, his hands flailing in front of his chest and looking every bit as a lost adult trying to appease two tantrum-throwing children.
The scratching grows in intensity, and it's probably mostly that that gets Sasaki to drop the subject for later debate.
“We're going with my plan then. Everyone ready?” She asks as she rises from her chair and cautiously moves towards the scratched-at door.
Iguchi gives a shaky, but resolute nod and Yuuji relents with a defeated sigh, murmuring a faint; “How am I supposed to fend off a curse, I can't use cursed energy.”
Surprisingly, Sasaki's expression turns sympathetic as she reaches out to lightly pat him on the back. “Just until me and Iguchi are at a safe distance.”
“Sasaki's right, we need someone to assess the situation and out of all of us. You're the most likely to make it out in one piece.” Iguchi explains, elaborating on Sasaki's point and unfortunately making a whole lot of sense.
Yuuji hums, he gets it. After all, he did explicitly agree to be the occult club's meat shield when he'd applied so honestly he should've seen this one coming from a mile away. But still. Really?
“Alright fine, best of luck.” Yuuji waves the two of them goodbye as he stands up and makes a straight line for the door. He cracks his knuckles and then, as an afterthought; “You guys are covering all the repair costs, by the way.”
And with that, he punches the door with all of his might.
It's more than enough to send it flying off of its hinges and raming straight into the opposite wall, and naturally, squashing anything inbetween the two.
As the pained groan of what must be a curse small enough for him to not see, Yuuji rushes outside the club room, swiftly turns his head left and right before turning back around to face his astonished friends.
“Coast clear, follow me!”
Iguchi and Sasaki stand frozen for a moment before the girl snaps out of it and takes her friend by the hand, she shoots Yuuji and appreciative smile as the two fall into step behind the stronger boy. They each turn their heads to catch a glimpse of the curse, but it's to no avail since it's far too dark to properly make out anything worth seeing.
They barely make it halfway to the staircase when a giant, absolutely massive glob of darkish navy skin (if you could even call it that) emerges from around the corner and makes the trio halt in their pursuit.
Yuuji's only ever heard of what cursed spirits looked like. They're only ever described as grotesque abominations with bulging bodies and too many limbs and odd features to really compare them to anything other than some sort of fucked-up-looking bugs at best. They're referred to as horrendously ugly and appalingly disgusting by anyone who's ever had a close encounter with one to the point where the word 'curse' had become synonymous with the word 'ugly', and for good reason, too.
Now that Yuuji fits into the category of 'having a close encounter', he can confidently back all of those claims.
That thing truly is too repulsive to look at without going mad.
“Ah, shit.”
The swear slips out on its own as the cursed spirit's many, way too many, eyes drift to meet his before snapping to Sasaki's clenched fist as the giant mouth on what Yuuji presumes to be the creature's middle grins. All tooth and disturbance to the human psyche as it breaks into a crawl towards them.
A total of three seconds of the trio standing still passes before Yuuji's expression falls from frightened to mildly confused as the curse only seems to have moved about a singular meter in their direction.
Damn, that thing is slow slow.
“Um,” Yuuji glances back at his friends, they seem equally embroiled, “let's go the other way?”
A pair of nods is what he receives in response.
They spin on thier heels and backtrack, letting Yuuji take the lead as they speed past the squashed curse which has now slowly began picking itself back up. Yuuji catches a small glimpse of it and instantly averts his eyes. It's just as ugly as its larger kin.
They make it to the other staircase this time, the moon acting as their only guide as its reflective light shines down to illuminate the path. Yuuji absently wonders when it'd gotten so dark.
“Itadori watch out! Above you!”
Yuuji hears Iguchi scream from behind him as the sound of crumbling concrete rains down from above. The boy glances up, sees cracks on the ceiling and in a split-second decision opts to dash forward instead of jumping back.
The choice has likely just saved his life.
The tremors are enough to knock a grown man off of his feet as dust and debris scatter everywhere. Yuuji wastes no time before turning right back around to access the damage done, both to the building and his friends. The boy's heart sinks as for a moment there's no sign of life coming from the other side of the pile of debris that has formed inbetween them.
He dashes forward, stopping right at the foot of the heap as he navigates his sight through the settling dust. He doesn't even stop to consider the curse that must've caused the collapse as his eyes desperately search for any sign of his friends amongst the ruins.
“Sasaki! Iguchi! Are you guys okay?!” Yuuji shouts out, hoping against hope for a quick response and feeling his heart sink deeper with each milisecond that passes without any trace of his club mates to be found.
And that's when he sees the third curse.
How do they keep on getting uglier?
It's back is turned to him as the creature pays him no mind and obscures most of his view. It's far bigger than the super slow one and it makes Yuuji wonder just how ginormous those things could truly get.
It also makes him wonder how in the hell he's meant to protect his friends all while it stands in his way to even get to them.
“Itadori!” Pure relief sings in Yuuji's veins at the sound of Sasaki's voice, no matter how shaky it is. “W-we're okay, but I think Iguchi fainted!”
Yuuji still can't see either of them, but the verbal confirmation is enough to soothe his nerves. They're alive. That's all that matters. He can figure out the rest as he goes, hopefully before this behemoth gets a hold of its surroundings.
It seems that composure truly is key, because Yuuji suddenly gets a brilliant idea.
“You still have the finger, right?” Yuuji shouts over the gurgles. The curse suddenly stops wiggling and turns away from the boy, it must've spotted the finger.
“Y-yes!” Comes his friend's reply.
“Throw it over to me!”
It's hardly a second later that the previously mummified finger is thrown over the curse separating them and landing right at Yuuji's feet. He picks it up without hesitation. That same God-awful feeling washes over him, but he braves through it and holds the object still and secure in his grip.
“Hey, curses!” Yuuji waves around the severed finger tauntingly. “Come get your treat!”
The giant cursed spirit that had crash-landed on the school's rooftop snaps its disfigured head in Yuuji's direction. Its appearance can only be compared to a short and fat millipede with greenish skin and human hands instead of its typical pointy little legs. Its head adorned by red orbish eyes that bear no soul behind them.
The creature lets out what Yuuji assumes to be its battle roar and the boy winces when he sees that it has a perfect set of human teeth that part to reveal a flat tongue with numerous eyes on it.
God, these things are ugly.
The curse lets out a blubberish cluster of half-words half-moans as it begins trudging over his way, it gains speed as it goes, fast.
“Sasaki! Take Iguchi and run!” Yuuji manages to get out just as the cursed spirit launches itself at him. The boy side-steps the attack, the cursed abomination passing by him in a flash as he narrowly avoids being snatched by one of its many limbs. The curse crushes into a window, shattering it as it struggles to pick itself back up and not fall out. “I've got this!”
Yuuji can make out faint movement through the dust cloud, not enough to see his friends but enough for their silhouettes to show. The one he assumes belongs to Sasaki shakily stands up.
“I-I can't carry him!”
...ah.
Right, sometimes he forgets most people don't have the raw physical strength to bench-press a vehicle as he does.
The boy stands before his friends in a blink, noting how the second curse had crawled its way over a bit too close for comfort as he contemplates on how to carry his friends out of this one and decides to go with their usual.
“Hop on.” Yuuji orders and Sasaki only takes a second to process his words before she's wrapping her arms around his neck and hopping onto the boy's back.
The pinkette then bends down, securing Iguchi in his hold and just like that, they're off.
“We should've went with this from the beginning.” Sasaki mutters as they rush past the squashed curse for the third time now.
“Told ya' your plan sucked.”
“Oh shut up,” The girl mumbles into his ear as they pick up speed, the extra weight is restrictive, but nothing Yuuji can't handle, “you'll have all the time in the world to gloat about it later!”
A roar interrupts their little chit-chat, it's the second curse, the slow one, the one blocking their path with its wide body. Yuuji's face twists into a frown. They'll just have to jump over it then.
He launches himself off of the ground, feet missing the curse's open jaw by a hair's breadth as he lands on its back.
This seems to piss the ugly creature off. Its limbs start flailing in all directions and make it increasingly difficult to retain ballance. To make matters worse, Yuuji trips on one of the curse's limbs and stumbles forward, his grip on Iguchi faltering the tiniest bit as he struggles to keep his body upright.
“Behind us!” Sasaki shouts.
The curse who had crashed through the ceiling and window swings at them with one of its meaty limbs, missing just by a hair thanks to Yuuji upping the tempo. The creature fumbles behind them, Yuuji risks a glance back only to see it launching itself straight at them.
He makes a split-second decision to fling his two clubmates aside and take the brunt of the blow himself. Igachi rolls over to the wall and onto his side while Sasaki tumbles gracelessly away from the striking range.
“Yuuji!—”
The scream of his name is abruptly cut off as the boy takes what must be the equivalent of the impact of a car collision square onto his back and front at once. The air is punched out of his lungs as both the boy and the curse smash trough a wall and fall together with the debris onto the school's lower rooftop. His ears ring and his face stings with at least a dozen tiny cuts and soon-to-be bruises that were sure to have been inflicted by shooting face-first through a wall.
As Yuuji's body thuds against the rooftop, he feels his bones rattle and briefly wonders if anyone other than him could survive what he just had. Probably not, but it's best if he never finds out.
Yuuji's body ragdolls over the concrete, coming to a halt a decent distance away from the curse.
Looking down, Yuuji notices the severed finger lying a few meters from him and just as he gets half a mind to rise and snatch it, the cursed spirit makes the first move. Its tongue lolling out as it runs over to its desired dinner.
Ignoring the ache in his backside and spine, Yuuji rushes to meet the curse halfway. His calves scream in protest but the boy pays them no mind as he does the only logical thing and socks the cursed spirit right where it hurts, the teeth to be exact.
It howls, not in pain, but frustration as it's massive body is thrown back.
Yuuji can relate to the sentiment, it's annoying as hell to know that the strongest punch he could muster dealt no meaningful damage whatsoever.
The finger is back in his palm right as the two previously evaded curses slither out through the hole Yuuji had just fallen out of and join their brethren in their pursuit
A 1v3, huh... what a bunch of losers.
What follows is a battle of wit and endurance. Yuuji dodges and out-maneuvers the cursed spirits with relative ease, his muscles and tendons straining to keep up with his bones as he moves at speeds no regular person could ever hope to achieve. He can't help but be grateful for his able body. His physical prowess has always been a point of pride for the boy, and right now, it's also his savior.
The largest of the creatures swings at him and Yuuji jumps high in the air to avoid it, his grip on the cursed object unyielding as he fights to buy his friends (who are hopefully getting the hell outa there) extra time to get to safety.
Yuuji's momentum carries him to land atop the massive curse. His feet stomp over its furry back as he struggles to maintain ballance. The boy can taste copper on his tongue, stinging pain on his face and numbness in his bones. Suddenly, he trips on the curse's ridge and loses his footing just as suddenly.
A disfigured hand closes around his torso before he can even fall, lifting him far above ground to dangle in the biggest curse's grasp as he trashes to break free.
His breath hitches as the fist tightens around his middle, intent on not letting him catch a single intake of oxygen as it pries open its monsterous jaws. Yuuji swears under his breath, regreting it instantly as the action allows for the curse to tighten the vice even further.
It's lowering him now, much to the boy's horror, straight into that horrid mouth.
Yuuji's pulse sky-rockets, he swiftly twists his legs so that they can support him on either side of those awful mimics of a human's set of teeth.
The curse doesn't let up, and despite Yuuji's utmost efforts, he knows it's only a matter of time before his knees buckle and he falls prey to the monster's unsatiable hunger. Yuuji's heartbeat tunes out every sound that comes his way other than that of his futile efforts to suck in air and the curse's roars.
A thought strikes him.
Is he really going to die here? Like this?
All that's left in his memory would be the tragic tale of a boy who sacrificed his life to offer his friends a chance of survival while he easily could've ran and thrown them to the wolves. His blurry photos in his home, the yellow hoodie he almost always wears no matter how many times people tell him that it's tacky and clashes too much with his hair. Will people remember him by his smile or his words? His kind acts or the genuine care he expresses even to the people who might not deserve it?
Is this a proper death?
Maybe. By his definition, it's either the one where he's surrounded by all the people he loves, or the other, were it's for a cause he had truly put his heart and soul into. Like a firefighter, or a policeman, or something else along those lines.
He's never thought his life would end so abruptly though.
Does this count as a proper death?
It doesn't feel like one.
For some inexplicable reason, Yuuji feels as though there's still some greater purpose he has yet to have served in this life time. Call it a gut feeling, call it the desperate last thoughts of a teenager that's about to meet his maker, but Yuuji's not convinced he'll be dying.
At least not tonight.
“Curse eat strong cursed object, curse becomes stronger, curse kills us. Simple enough?”
Sasaki's god-awful explanation echos in his headspace as his knees begin to wobble under the pressure. Yuuji's eyes lock onto the severed finger that he has clutched in a death-grip and his brain supplies him with, hands down, the worst idea to ever come to his half-witted mind.
Curses becomes stronger by consuming cursed objects...
...
But what if a human was to eat is?
Yuuji isn't given the time to expend on that notion as his legs start shaking faster and faster, forcing the boy to hastily go to test his hypothesis in live practice. Fuck it. He raises his clenched hand and sends to severed finger a final parting glance before tossing the object into his mouth.
Yuuji hesitates only for a second before gulping down, cringing at the feel of that wilted flesh sliding along the walls of his windpipe and down to his stomach where it will (hopefully) dissolve in acid.
It tastes like he imagines shit must taste like, no surprise there.
What does come as a shock however, is the fact that all the curses in pursuit of him suddenly freeze. The boy seizes the chance to refill his lungs at last, about to shed tears of joy as a gut-wrenching ache comes from somewhere within.
As if asleep, his whole body goes limp and pliant.
The last thing Yuuji hears before passing out is the faint echo of joyful cackling coming from within his own head.