Chapter 13

The next morning.

"Okay so we all have our briefings correct?" Sensei Gojo asked aloud. "Yuuji, you okay to go… never mind of course you are!" he laughed aloud.

He smirked to the joke, but after what Suiryu said last night, he couldn't help but feel something was off. After all, in recent days, his clothing has gone missing, no one knows where it went. Everyone is responsible for his or her own laundry so it was bothering him. Second, he hasn't seen the elders; it is as if they are avoiding this place now at all costs.

"Itadori…" he heard Fushiguro say. He snapped out of his train of thoughts.

"Huh?"

"I was asking if you're… okay… you seem distracted."

"Oh, right, no, I'm fine!" he said and smiled once more. "We better get rid of these curses before someone gets hurt. You guys be careful too, okay?" With that, Yuuji went into a car and was driven off to his assignment.

#

There was an odd sensation in Yuuji's gut. His instincts were on high, his mind focused, but he kept silent to it all. "I never thought they would send you on solo missions," said the driver. It was a little strange since it wasn't Ijichi driving him as usual. It was someone completely different and rather unknown to him.

Yuuji smirked. "Me either, I mean, the elders still don't believe I beat Sukuna… perhaps they think I am going to become him." He said and sighed. "It's so frustrating you know! It's hard being like this, but at the same time… I'm grateful too."

"Grateful?"

He nodded. "Well, if I wasn't like this, I wouldn't have beaten him… at the same time, had I not consumed the cursed object, I never would have met the people I know now. There are a lot of ups and downs with this, I have experience a lot of downs, but I look at the more positive things." He explained.

The drive was a good two hours, they did stop for a lunch before making their way to the final destination. Just outside of Tokyo, the driver pulled off to the side and came to an odd forest. "From what I have been informed, there is a special grade curse here that is attacking hikers." The driver explained.

Yuuji stepped out of the car, and took only a few steps towards the forest. He paused and smelt the air, he then sent a small pulse of curse energy out, but got nothing back. "There's no curse here," he said aloud.

He turned and found the driver holding an odd box. "Of course there is… YOU!"

The box snapped open, these strange flesh webbings ensnared Yuuji before he was pulled into the box!

#

"Really? Here?" Nobara asked in a depressing tone. "You know for a curse to be here, this seems a little far fetched…"

They were at a beach of all places, Gojo paused as he took it all in. Yet he soon turned back to the paper in hand and then crushed it up. "We've been tricked," he said plain and simple.

"Tricked? Why?" demanded Fushiguro. "Do they not think we can handle…"

"It's not about us… it's about Itadori…"

The two froze to his decree. Before he could continue to speak she appeared.

"My master… where is my young master?!" demanded Kitsune.

"Kitsune?" Gojo asked curiously.

"I sensed him just a moment ago… now he's gone!" she protested. "Where did they take him!"

Gojo turned to his students once more. "So that was it, separate us so we couldn't help him… he probably got sealed away…"

There was an odd flare in Kitsune's face. Her body began to surge with power as her anger grew. "This… will… not… STAND!" she protested. She then calmed herself for a moment, but shook her head. "Why do I sense his energy in four different locations?" she asked.

"Four different locations…" muttered Nobara.

"Wait, could this be what happened to his clothing? It's curse energy… his energy…"

"Trying to throw us off," Gojo said and nodded. "The elders are really trying here…"

"Enough of that, we must save him!" Kitsune then pause as she turned to Fushiguro. "Summon your strongest and fastest shikigami," she demanded of him.

He was taken aback by her demand but nodded. He summoned his black wolf and owl like creature. "I had one other wolf but…"

Suddenly, with a flick of her wrist her fan send a powerful wave towards his wolf, and it split and formed into two separate wolves!

Two wolves and an owl, she nodded her approval to it. "Do you trust your shikigami?" she asked of him.

He was weirded out by the question, but nodded. "They have always had my back, the animal ones that is, one I still can't control…"

"I am not concerned with that, but you trust your shikigami, the ones here and now?" she demanded. He nodded to her, and then Kitsune turned to the summons. "Do you trust him?" she asked.

The wolves howled with approval, the owl like one made a strange sound, almost like a hoot of an owl. But it sounded like approval as well. "Very good then, Fushiguro. I am about to teach you something difficult, but master it within the next twenty minutes!" she ordered. "This technique has been lost to the ages for it was abused… don't you dare abuse this!"

"Huh?"

"We're going to save my master!" she said with great determination.

Gojo was smiling wickedly. "Ooo I wonder where this is gonna go!"