Chapter 16
They came within 48 hours.
The oldest of the elders waited to greet the people from the jujutsu of the divine arts located in Hong Kong. He wanted to meet in a neutral area, however their counterparts insisted on going to school. When they arrived, there were five of them, and yet their eyes widened and mouths hung open. "Hello, thank you for coming on such a short notice… is something wrong?" He asked.
"How can you not see this?!" one of them demanded.
He tried to look about to see what startled them so, but couldn't. One of them however regained himself and reached into his jacket, he gave him each a pair of glasses. "Wear these and see what we see,"
With a shrug, he did. The moment the glasses went on, his eyes were bombarded with all these strange creatures flying about the compound! Compared to curses, which are usually dark in color, these ones shined like balls of light and twinkled like stars! "What on earth…"
"There is such a high concentration of these spirits, normally they avoid areas with curse energy!"
"Let's speak inside about this…"
The five elders were silent as they continued to observe. "There should not be this many here…" whispered the eldest of the five, her name Kazue. She led the five along but kept her eyes on everything.
"I agree sister, this is not ordinary to say the least…" said her brother Kazuo.
"What bothers me is this… there is so much energy… something must be drawing them to this place," the youngest of them Mio. She kept her eyes on everything, but something then caught her attention.
One of the students was wondering about, when suddenly, the creatures all stopped and stared at him. They made a mad dash towards this student, many began to circle around him with great excitement. He smiled briefly for a moment before continuing on.
"Elder, that student there… what is his name?" Kazue asked.
"We will speak of this inside…" the elder replied once more and more insisting on the matter.
They ventured in and came to a room sealed off with talismans of both cursed and divine. When they entered and sat down, the elder turned to them and explained the situation. "We have been dealing with a boy who has become a demon vessel. We were going to execute him after he had consumed the cursed objects of one Sukuna. He did just that, however another sorcerer sought to save him and placed another in him to defeat the demon within." He explained.
They appeared to be all ears. "We're more than aware of Sukuna and know he has caused mass destruction, has he been destroyed?" Kazue asked.
The elder didn't know for sure. "I have been told he was purified."
The five froze to the statement. "Purified? That can only happen if there was a small bit of goodness within a corrupt soul… Sukuna had no such kindness!" protested Kazuo.
"We thought to too, but have since been told he saved one of the student's lives… out of his own greed, but still a small act of kindness was enough to validate goodness in him apparently…"
But the story still appeared to be confusing to his five guests. One put up her hand, she was a middle-aged woman, but has had the most battle experience out of the others. Her name is Hifumi, and this story appeared to have peeked her interest. "Purification is difficult to do, one has to have a massive amount of divine energy to accomplish such a task… What creature was put into the demon vessel?" she questioned.
"Yua Tooru claimed her family was the protector…"
"The platinum dragon…" Hifumi whispered.
This took the elder aback a little. "It possesses three eyes doesn't it?" he asked of her.
Suddenly, her face drained of color. "My God, a dragon… a real dragon…" she whispered.
"Now isn't the time to dwell on that, the fact remains that a dragon is in play now, we cannot take this lightly!" Kazue protested. Her eyes darted to the elder. "That boy you refused to speak of…"
He nodded. "The demon vessel, Yuuji Itadori. And yes, he is the one who possesses and contains such a beast."
Kazuo turned to his sister once more. "Sister…"
Her put her hand up to silence her brother. "Elder, tell me, this boy… how corrupt is he from possessing Sukuna?" she asked.
He fell awkwardly quite. "Well, that's the thing… he isn't. Sukuna did not corrupt Yuuji Itadori, despite what was casted upon him… somehow. The boy suppressed him, and he remained relatively the same until the day Sukuna was… evicted from him…"
"This… Itadori… how much control does he have over the dragon?" asked Hifumi.
The elder paused. "We have only seen the dragon once, and that was after the trial of body and soul forced upon Itadori by Sukuna. The boy managed to overpower him somehow, but was tricked when Sukuna destroyed his heart… after that, the dragon took possession of him. Sukuna and myself included thought the dragon would destroy everything and everyone, until the boy somehow calmed it down… then it lay claim to the boy, stating he was under the dragon's protection."
The five exchanged whispers. "May we meet the boy?" Kazue asked.
He nodded. "But be warned, he is safeguarded by a fox spirit…"
The five froze once more. "He has a fox spirit that looks after him!?" demanded Mio.
"Yes, she has threatened if we did anything to Itadori… she would return the favor nine folds to us"
"A nine tail fox… protect this boy… we must see this!" Hifumi demanded.
#
Yuuji sneezed.
He's been doing that often as of late, well, at least for the past five minutes. "I don't think I have allergies… that or someone is really talking behind my back…" he muttered.
The moment he stepped outside he sensed them. Although he isn't quite adjusted to it yet, he has begun to notice the creatures of the divine when they are before him. His third eye opened, he stopped and smiled to see all these creatures flying around the compound without a care in the world. Some were glimmering like diamonds in the sunlight. He laughed as little fairy like creatures were buzzing around him in great excitement. "Hey, what's with all this?" he snickered. But soon their excitement was quickly put to an end, their smiles vanished as they appeared fearful. They quickly took shelter behind him.
He felt it, the curse energy of the elder. But he also felt something off too.
He closed up his third eye and made certain his smaller eyes closed up. He turned to see the elder, but with five new faces. He bowed respectfully to him but kept his back up. "Elder," he said. "Is something wrong?"
He shook his head. "Itadori, I would like you to meet the elders of the divine oracle school of learning. This is their elder Kazue and her brother Kazuo. Hideki accompanies them, he is their guard along with Hifumi. The young one there is Mio, she is their secretary," he explained.
He bowed respectfully again. "It's an honor to meet you… but why are you here?" he asked.
They looked about oddly. "Do you not see them?" the elder Kazue asked.
He paused to the question, but then remembered the creatures that were about when his third eye opened. "Oh… well… not at the moment…"
"They are clinging to you…" Kazuo muttered. "A lot of them are."
"Itadori, they know, so quite trying to hide it!"
He smirked and then the eye in the middle of his forehead opened. He saw all the creatures once more, but found many of them were avoiding the five rather carefully. "I see, just as we see curses… you see them, don't you?" he asked.
Kazue nodded her head.
Itadori found it weird that all five looked alike. Their heads are shaved bald, they wore white robes and kept their hands hidden. They appeared more like monks than anything, but he shuttered to think what they did to the divine spirits in their possession, after all, the ones around him were keeping close. Some looked down right scared of these elders! "Is there something you wished to know?" he asked curiously. "Because I need to get training"
The five exchanged looks. "Is it true you are being watched over by a fox spirit?" asked Kazuo.
"Well… more than one," he said and smiled. "Kitsune has been a great help to me and a training partner…"
"You trust the fox?" demanded Hifumi.
"Why wouldn't I?" he asked of her. "Kitsune has helped me far more times than I can count, and I just met her! Why, what's wrong?" he asked.
"The fox spirit is known for tricking people to get what they desire, the Kitsune spirit is especially tricky to say the least." Mio explained. "If left alone, the spirit will manipulate the events to favor them."
Yuuji snickered to the notion. "I think I have a good idea as to who I can trust. Kitsune has helped me more than once, she has been a great training partner as well, she helped save me when SOMEONE tried to seal me away" he said as his eyes darted to his elder.
"Yuuji Itadori, we want you to return with us to Hong Kong…" Kazue announced.
"No thank you," he said politely and smiled. "I'm good."
"You have a dragon within you!" protested Kazuo. "It will slowly eat away at your body if not removed!"
"Uh… about that, since I was possessed by a demon first… that affect is canceled out…" he said awkwardly. "I mean… I am not exactly human anymore either… so…"
Suddenly, the five turned to the elder. "He's not human?" demanded Kazue.
The elder sighed. "When he took in Sukuna, he became part curse… when he defeated Sukuna he has become a curse… and yet he remains oddly human… with a dragon in him…"
"Yeah, the more this keeps happening the odder it is to explain it all…" Yuuji laughed aloud. "Excuse me, I am going to go train…"
"You need to come with us!" insisted Kazuo.
"And I refuse," he said gently back.
Yet as he turned his back, Kazuo appeared before him in a fighting stance. "We are not taking no for an answer!" he said. "If you wish to go, you must first…"
It was like a blink. Yuuji moved too fast to be seen, he was quick to trip the elder and then force him to the ground. Yuuji summoned the curse speech ability. "Stay down and don't move,"
Kazuo was unable to stand up or move. He turned to the other four who stood there stunned. "I'll be leaving first, take care!" he said and walked off.
As he did, the creatures of the divine followed, staying oddly close to Yuuji out of fear of the five elders. "I wonder what they do with the creatures of divine…" he thought aloud.
Then again, a part of him doesn't want to know!