Premise: Yuji Itadori dies. Yuta Okkotsu does not succeed in bringing him back. He dies, and then wakes up one bright sunny day in school, surrounded by his senpai from the occult club. He is dazed and panicked. He is lost and alone, flailing about a cold, strange world. He dies again and wakes up again. In between dying and living, he finds the truth.
Chapter art is in my tumblr account and on AO3 crosspost.
Chapter 2: A boy and his dogs come knocking
There was a man whom Sorrow named his friend
-Yeats -
It's a minute and thirty to ten PM, Friday night, and Megumi's feeling about how his day has been going hasn't changed. That is to say…
It's rotten. Even more rotten than the usual creepy, eerie, and very often macabre fair that is the standard for a sorcerer in training's life.
And it has been like that since the inexplicably empty Stevenson box this morning followed by that phone call to the no-good, very-bad sensei with the punchable face right after.
An outdoor thermometer box? For real? You're telling me someone's keeping a special-grade cursed object in a place like this?
I know! Hilarious right? Recovering it should be no problem for you.
It's empty. There's nothing there.
For real? Haha…
No going home until it's recovered, ok, Megumi.
I'm gonna punch you. Really. I will. Just you wait.
That was this morning, just a little before school opening. He had come early to avoid the rush-hour crush of students getting to school, and then after that revelation, has spent hours dithering and loitering around the area, sniffing for clues of the missing artifact and getting one too many side looks from the local populace. And now, in the absence of any solid lead, here he is, chasing down a relic that should never have left the vault to begin with in the middle of the night, and not preparing to tucker in in his small, cozy room in JJT high dormitory where he has built himself some measure of comfort and peace
Now it's ten PM. The moon is high and wan in the skies and Megumi is absolutely alone in front of an empty high school building.
He checks his watch, checks his phone, then checks his surrounding before vaulting over the gate of West Sendai Junior High. He makes landing, and once more, feels it immediately. The immense pressure of lingering curse energy. Albeit calling it lingering is probably a misnomer. It falls like a curtain upon the school. An underlayer of old curses, some of which is the taint left behind by the artifact he is looking for. Then, on top of that, something fresh and visceral. The taint of a new curse overlays the foundation of old ones. Newly-spilt blood on top a thick layer of aged tar.
Is there fresh murder somewhere on school grounds? Was his first thought upon coming to this place just this morning. The papers say no, but it might not have been discovered just yet. The taint feels too fresh anyhow, as in born this day fresh. If Megumi runs into a corpse or two in the midst of his search, or a newborn special-grade cursed soul, he will not be surprised.
He sweeps the ground with a look, eyeing the curses loitering here and there. They are agitated, he can see. They have gorged themselves on a buffet of curse energy coming from the artifact and whatever this new taint is. Another day or two, he thinks, and they may grow strong enough to start warping the place, start coming out in broad daylight and not just in the dead of the night. The principal will have to send a clean-up team after he's done being errand boy today.
He brings his hands together to form the head of a dog. Muttering quietly instead of yelling out, he summons his usual battle partners the Divine Dogs. They appear in puffs of white smokes, yipping softly and ready for his orders.
"Fan out," he says, offering them a tracker tag from the artifact vault. There is still a trace of the artifact on it, although it is quickly fading. " Don't start fights. Look for this. Call me immediately if you find anything."
They woof, his Black and White, and gambol off to different directions, one to the main building, the other to the yard and sheds in the back.
Megumi is not done, however. Clasping his hands together into a wing shape, he forms the seal to call Nue. The owl shikigami crackles into existence - "Fly high. And keep your eyes peeled." - and soars into the night skies above him.
Three shikigami for a track and retrieve mission, with another prepped up in his twitchy, sweaty palms. Some would call it overkill, but Megumi has a bad feeling about this whole thing.
He eyes the curses loitering on school grounds again. They went up a grade from this morning. He's sure of it. Grading curses is a wishy-washy science in the first place. However, there is generally a clear difference between first and second-grade curses. The pressure Megumi is feeling now, emanating in waves from the heart of the building, it's first grade for sure, if not multiple of them. But right this morning it hasn't been so, and that speaks to things Megumi doesn't want to contemplate when he's a lone sorcerer with his one backup faffing somewhere in the city and not around the vicinity. He primes a text message on his phone. If he doesn't check back in thirty minutes, the phone will automatically send the SOS signal and hopefully, that will be enough.
Okay, steel yourself now, big boy. He thinks, wiping his palms on his shirt. He starts to walk in no clear direction. Closing one eye, he casts out his sense like a fisherman might cast his bait and hook. He's looking for a specific taint. It's there alright, seeped deeply into the school grounds. A faint trace that he could not detect due to the sheer crush of student bodies this morning is now clear to Megumi. He makes circles in the backyard, not too far from the empty Stevenson box where a mummified finger should have been, then slowly spirals out.
It was here and then it was taken. Very recently. Days, at most.
The taint traces to one of the sheds, which is surrounded by jittering grade three curses, then it veers off, ping-ponging between the court and the school opening hallways where rows of shoe lockers are built into the walls.
It is likely taken by a student, he deduces, because the teachers and staff have their own locker aisle and he doesn't feel the taint anywhere in that area. Multiple students, he appends as he eyes the trace jumping multiple lockers.
In his mind he can see, drawing from grim experience no boy his age should have, a group of wide-eyed high-schoolers investigating the spooky rumors of their school on a dare or some such, happening on a strange box and, buoyed by their naive curiosity and no small amount of mutual egging-on, take the horror movie prop item as a trophy.
It was passed around from one pair of hands to another, likely jumping between backpacks and book satchels. Each jump jostles the aged binding on the sealed box more and more, to the point that maybe the seal can be undone by regular mortal hands fueled by self-destructive curiosity.
It might even be, that whatever is behind the new curse this morning is linked to the artifact's presence in this school, which then prompts a cascade effect on all the curses in the surrounding area. It would explain the sheer… potency… of the new curse, if nothing else. He hopes it isn't so, but it's better to be prepared than bank his hope on unsubstantiated wish-fulfillment.
If he's lucky, the artifact will still be here, and not out there in Sendai city, in the house of some unlucky teenager who got too handsy for his own good. If he's lucky, this thing will end here tonight with him heading back to JJ High on the earliest train. If he's not… He scents the curse-thick atmosphere, the promise of horror and blood almost palpable, the bloating curse spirits whipped to a state of frenzy… If he's not, then they will need a clean-up crew for whatever unlucky teenager holds the finger now.
He walks the hallway now, up a set of tiled stairs. The clubrooms at the end of the second floor hold some amount of taint, but the trace doesn't stop there. He moves on. He checks the signboard as he crests the third floor. Year 3, class A, B, C,... There are more curses on this floor, owing to the pressure of the final grade and the looming senior high entrance examination. Years and years of piled-on teenage hormones and high school stress funnel to give birth to one too many obsessions in this small space. The air feels thick here, frothy almost. The hallway is long and looks on the verge of warping, the many doorways running on forever. And there in the middle of the hall, White stands growling at no one in particular, his hackles raised and his eyes bloodshot. Megumi wreathes himself with his own curse energy, mentally bracing. If it's not here, then it was here very recently.
He calls Black back to him, and flanked by both of his most loyal shikigami, he takes slow steps down the hallway.
'What time is it… what.. What timmeeee…..' the second grade curse nearest to him grinds its teeth as it paces the hall. It's twisting into itself. Its body bulges and pulls in odd places. It doesn't even notice him, too lost in the sheer buffet of curse energy. He keeps his distance, keeping a short leash on both White and Black.
He will pick his fight later, when he's not so outnumbered and outgunned. He has an objective now and it comes before everything else. The sooner he completes it, the sooner he can get the hell out of dodge and calls in the appropriate team to clean house.
He passes the first door. Class 3-A. The door is closed but the windows are open. He glances inside. There's no one there but two cursed spirits in the process of cannibalizing one another. They are both second grades and slowly - or maybe quickly - transitioning into first grade.
'I hate math…. math…. ' The smaller froggy curse mutters and kicks furiously as it slowly disappears down the drooling maw of the bigger fish-headed curse.
'The hand points… at… four… four…' blurbs the bigger curse, fish eyes blinking owlishly at nothing in particular.
The trace doesn't stop there in that room.
Megumi quickens down the hallway.
Class 3-B. Empty, except for a pile of cursed limbs, eyeballs, and grotesquely opened gullets gelling in the middle. There are parts, fleshy and bloody, sticking to the ceiling, the chairs and tables, and even the blackboard. Blood and bile on the checker-tiled floor. An orgy and a feeding frenzy. The mountain of cursed flesh is also rumbling, moaning, sometimes squelching. It is eating and fucking and dying and being born all at once.
'Miki-chan… go out… go out with me….'
'That teacher wears … red… lacy… pa…. paa... '
'... Calcu…. Calculus… is… the worst….'
Megumi suppresses a shudder and moves on. Black and White growls, uneased, and press tight against him. At this rate, by morning, this whole school will become a newborn special grade cursed womb. He slips one hand into his pocket where his phone lies and thinks of his sensei with the punchable face.
But no, because in the next room, he feels it. A heavy presence, heavier than even the tainted air in this whole school. Heavy and old and smelling distinctly like the tracker tag from the vault. It's got to be the artifact.
He braces himself. But before Megumi can take even one step forward, the door to room 3-C slides lazily open. A girl stumbles backward out of the darkness of the room, her face white with terror.
"Iguchi…" comes the name from her trembling mouth right before her legs give out and she plants her butt to the ground.
A figure shambles out from the dark room. It has the body of a burly high schooler, but almost the entire head has disappeared into the maw of the cursed spirit piggybacking on the human body. But more importantly, there, in the girl's lap, is a familiar wooden box with the lid missing. It looks to have been knocked loose during her fall. A string of grey wrappers trails out from within it.
There's the artifact he's looking for, Megumi thinks, and the attached unlucky high schoolers.
"Hey! You two!" Megumi moves by sheer training. His body coils like a spring. Black and White hurl themselves forward without a single command, bodyslamming wholesale into the cursed spirit and hooking their fangs into its flesh.
Megumi himself bolts towards the girl, one hand slinging around her, pulling her away from shikigami and curses, the other grabbing the box in a death grip.
A commotion starts to ripple across the hallway and through the many not-so-empty classrooms. Moans and mutters and unholy shrieks fill the air. The echoes ricochet from one wall to the next, creating an eerie, chaotic cascade of discordant noises.
"Waa! Who are you?!" the girl sputtered, seemingly snapped out of her stupor.
"That's my line! The hell are you doing here at this hour?" Megumi snaps back distractedly. He glances down the hallway, then at the boy. Black and White are in the process of ripping the cursed spirit from him, tearing and chewing into it in the process. The boy - Iguchi was it? - looks to be out cold, which is just as well because Megumi is not equipped to deal with not one but two panicking, flailing normies at the moment.
"It's my school…."
But Megumi is paying her no attention. All of his focus is on the box, with its lid missing and empty of the one artifact. There is only a mess of stained grave wrappers insides. Megumi's guts turn to ice in a split second.
Where's the artifact?
He shakes the empty box, willing it to manifest the finger inside.
Where the fuck is it?
He turns to the sputtering girl.
"You. Shut up and listen."
Her mouth closes with a click even as her eyes go wide in shock at him.
"The finger in here. Where is it?"
"What? What finger?"
She looks at the box, then back at him.
"It was a finger in there?"
It should not be possible to feel even worse, but here Megumi is, dread sloshing like acid in his stomach as his brain process the girl's words.
"What do you mean you don't know? Weren't you the ones who stole this from the Stevenson box?" He barely stops from yelling at her, if only to avoid attracting the attention of the curses.
"Stole!?" Her face flushes with indignation and surprised guilt. "Well I! We… It's yours?!"
"That's not the question. If you aren't the ones who took this? Then who did? And where are they now?"
Megumi's eyes go from the girl to the hallway to the unconscious teenager beside them, to the hallway with the frenetic curses again. His nerves ping erratically like torn guitar strings. This situation is not going to hold indefinitely. The trace he followed… that was merely residue from this empty box?! A curious mixture of relief and disappointment floods him. He has spent all this time trailing a dead lead. But on the other hand, he doesn't have to be in this terrifying, birthing hellscape a moment longer.
"We… we took it. Well, I had Yuji take it for me, but… oh... "
A look flashes through the girl's face, like a light bulb going off. She looks at the empty box.
"Yuji… took it? Maybe? This morning. But… he left school halfway. Said something come up with his grandpa at the hospital. He said… he said we should call off tonight, said something was wrong and that he would tell me… tell us… later. He… did he know… this? But how?!"
Megumi's mind snaps up that name instantly and starts crosschecking it with the research he has done this morning. Yuji. Didn't he hear that name just this morning? There is a student with that name taking absence today, isn't it? Is that the unlucky kid then, the one whose remains he's going to have to scrape from the walls of his house?
No matter, he will have to leave that for later. For the moment, he has a mission in pending and two civilians to take care of. And... with the artifact decidedly not on school grounds, Megumi no longer has a reason to stick around in this ticking timebomb of a place.
"Hey you, listen."
"My name is not Hey You! My name is Sasaki!" She snaps at him. Good, that means she has some presence of mind left to not get eaten by a mob of curses.
"Sasaki, if you want to live, listen very carefully to what I say." She must have heard the seriousness in his tone, because she shuts right up even as she glares at him half-heartedly.
"You see those ugly motherfuckers over there?" There's no question as to what Megumi is referring to.
Sasaki's face pales. She nods once. Her hands are shaking something terrible, her pupils blown wide in sheer abject terror. Normally regular people can't see curses, but in extraordinary cases where there is a high concentration of energy or at the site of some great tragedy, the veil may be lifted temporarily from their eyes. It is usually a sight that scars them forever, if they manage to survive the ordeal at all. Megumi has some sympathy, but now is no time for lengthy, gentle words. They have to get out of here fast as they can.
"They are busy eating each other now, but pretty soon, they are going to work their way down the menu to you and your buddy right there."
Saski gulps audibly, eyeing the black and purple teeth marks on Iguchi's face.
"You don't want to be on the menu? Then pick up your friend and start moving. Use the emergency exit stairs. White will go before you. Stick to the light and stay away from the shadow. I will follow behind and make sure none of those things come after us. Try not to make noises or draw their attention. Can you do that, Sasaki?"
Sasaki gives a shaky nod, then tries to stand up. She wobbles once, then grabs her pal. Megumi goes to give her a hand while keeping an eye on the hallway behind them. Sasaki is by no mean a slight girl, but Iguchi probably weighs twice as much as Megumi and some. Within a minute of some wrestling, the both of them manage to get Iguchi to lean on Sasaki's shoulders. Sasaki takes off her sweater vest, wrings it together, and makes from it a sling strap to tie the unconscious Iguchi to her. Then with a heave, they get him standing. Sasaki is barely able to support her friend's weight, but this will have to do.
Megumi makes a motion and White shoots forward, heading to the emergency exit at the end of the hallway. He nods at Sasaki, "Go on", and watches her take slow, heavy steps one at a time towards the exit, an unusually determined look on her face. Black trails behind her, a ready guard and extra support if needed.
Megumi turns around, giving the third-floor corridor one last survey. The box, empty, is in his side pocket. Thankfully, the curses seem preoccupied with their own gluttony still. But Megumi is not about to leave it to chance.
He crouches low, fingers out and crooked into a half seal. How does Ijichi do this again? Right.
Tobari, he mutters below his breath, and slowly, an opaque sheen comes down from the ceiling to the ground, cutting the hall in half. On the one side are the curses in their blind frenzy, on the other, Megumi, the limping teenagers, and his dogs. The curtain won't hold for long. For all that Tobari is an essential technique, it also requires a specific skill that not all sorcerers have. Unlike the absolutely gargantuan ones he knows the meek and mousey Kyotaka Ijichi is frequently capable of, Megumi's is small and brittle, in lieu of his limited experience. But it shouldn't have to hold for too long, only until he can get the others out of this place.
Nodding in satisfaction, Megumi turns to catch up to Sasaki and her friend. Hooking one arm under the unconscious Iguchi's armpit and hefting him up, he grunts at Sasaki.
"Come on. We don't have a lot of time."
They barely make it to the second floor when he hears Nue's shriek. It is as much a warning as the sudden boiler room level pressure that comes down like a ton of brick the very next second. Megumi's feet buckle beneath him. Sasaki collapses outright. Iguchi drags limply between the two of them.
"What…. What… was that?" she manages to get out from between her chattering teeth. Her whole body is shaking like a leaf in the wind.
Before Megumi can say a word, a blood-chilling scream slices through the air. Then another follows after it, and another. Together, they weave a macabre cacophony. Then a twanging sound like a rubber band snapping. His tobari on the upper floor goes down in a snap. The checker-tiled ground beneath them dips and swings lazily. Space warps.
Something is here. Or something is born. Megumi is not sure which, but neither is good.
Megumi lets go of Iguchi and makes for the balcony railing. He sticks his head out, sweeps the school grounds. He sees a riot of wretched creatures spilling from the various classrooms, and the school ground twisting like playdoh.
It's manifesting a domain expansion. The collective wretchedness of this place, low-grade curses born from the hormones and frustrations of teenage boys and girls. How the hell is it even doing that?!
But there is no time for question nor incredulousness. The time to get the hell out of dodge is the minute before. Megumi's hands fly through the seal for Datto. Shadows rise around him, flame-like, then coalesce into a fluffle of rabbits. They flow like a small river, filling the floor and the empty space.
"Scatter!" He yells his command with a sharp motion, sending the river of rabbits up and down the stairs. Sasaki is gaping openly at him. Megumi yanks on Iguchi's arm, and stands with a heave. His movement startles Sasaki out of her daze. He looks her in the eyes, and with as much graveness as he can muster, says.
"Run for your life."
Her face whitens. She closes her mouth with a click, then starts to scramble. Just in time too, because in an explosion of rabbit gore and shadow, the curses upstairs start to crawl down the stairwell. A chimera with a scaled fishhead and frog legs sticking out of its cheeks peer down.
"The hands… po…. Poo…. points… at… fou," it croaks, fixing its hungry, beady eyes on the teenagers.
Sasaki jumps like scalded cat and runs. Megumi follows her, leaving behind Black and the rabbits as a distraction.
They almost fly down past the first floor. A low-grade curse meets them at the end of the stairs on the ground floor, chittering with braced teeth too big for its insect face. Megumi releases Iguchi, takes two strides to get in its face, and throws a mean hook. The thing's head disappears in a mess of gore. A dog yips somewhere behind him.
"Keep running," he screams at Sasaki and Iguchi, who immediately legs it.
Fortunately, West Sendai Junior High's front yard is not big. Unfortunately, it is now teeming with curses. Low-grade most of them, but their quality buoyed by the heavy energy in the air is more than enough to kill two regular teenagers.
White bolts forward, toothy mouth open. It cleaves a bloody path to the gate for Sasaki. With a snap of his fingers, Megumi sends more rabbits after them to stem the tide against the curses. Then he turns his attention back to the stairs where the chimera is making its way down. It turns its head, looking at him inquisitively. Black is hanging limply from its maw.
Adrenaline and terror run like fire through Megumi's vein. A first grade for sure, after one curse ate the other. And that's not counting what else is out there, and whatever that new thing that brings with it this black miasma. Megumi is only a second-grade sorcerer. In normal circumstances, he would never be sent here just by himself. But reality has a way of being cruel.
He grits his teeth and lets his hands fly. Darkness coalesces again, right before a massive snake the size of a small train springs from within it and collides into the chimera curse, open-jaw first. But he's not done.
"Nue!"
The owl shikigami tears down from above with a shriek. Lighting crackles and flashes through the chimera, frying it in the process.
Megumi's guts unclench minutely at the sight of it. It's a newborn, he thinks. It's not as strong as it can be yet. Perhaps he might get away from this place without too much trouble.
But not a moment too soon, something gargantuan falls out the third-floor balcony and right on top of him and sends him to the ground. Megumi hears something snaps in his ribcage. Something wet and tangy goes flying from his open mouth. Stars explode in his eyes and cloud his vision. He yells out in shock and pain. The meat thing from room 3-B warbles with its many mouths.
" Go out… wi… with… meeee …. Red… pa. Paann…."
It tries to wrap around him with its many fleshy appendages, tries to open new mouths close to his face. Nue slams into it before it can do any more. Megumi takes that chance to roll out from underneath the thing. He hacks wetly, crouching on the floor.
Two first-grades, his mind goes numb at the thought, and what else is out there. His hands move by instinct. A knot of human-sized toads leaps from the shadow to pounce on the meat thing, driving it back. Megumi makes another seal. Bansho. But this time, nothing comes, as he fears. The shadow flags weakly around him.
He's running on fumes, he knows. Five shikigami and the rabbits all in less than an hour. And then to attempt Bansho, which he has only ever been able to summon by pouring in everything he has before. Even trying to make the hand seal at all is a fool's endeavor. But something deep in Megumi's guts tells him that tonight if he doesn't pull out all the stops, he's not likely to walk from this wretched place.
Fuck whoever decided to put the King of Curse's finger in this place, he thinks furiously. Fuck him and the goat he rides in on.
Where is that sensei with the punchable face when I need him? Comes another thought, weaker this time. There are black spots in his vision now. He's hurt, probably badly. He touches his torso. It stings something horrible. His jacket is soaked through.
He has to flee. He wills his shikigami to gang up on the meat blob, then wills his legs to straighten out and move. He makes three feeble steps before the world lurches sideways. The chimera curse blinks at him with its flash-fried fish eyes. Megumi blinks back at it.
"The hand… points… at… at…. Fouuurr…" it croaks at him. Megumi sees his own arm, severed at the elbow, in its mouth. He brings up his arm, which is now a stump, gushing blood.
The chimera pressed its advance. In the background, he hears pained yips and croaks and horrible crashing sounds.
Oh, he thinks numbly. This is it then?
It opens its horribly toothy maw. He tries to stop it with his one remaining hand, tries to push it away. The thing squats it aside contemptuously.
I didn't even get to punch that creep's face in. I didn't even tell Tsumiki I…
There is a curious moment when the world goes topsy turvy once more. Something flashes in Megumi's darkened vision. Black. White. Then… pink….
Pink?
A face fills his vision, framed by a shock of pink hair. The mouth is flapping but Megumi isn't sure he's comprehending.
"Oh god, oh god I'm so sorry, Megumi. I wasn't sure if I even should come here. I told senpai not to do it. I thought it might do the trick. But I ran as soon as I found out! I ran fast as I could I swear!"
Why is this… boy? Boy… Boy his age apologizing profusely?
"You are bleeding! You are hurt!"
The boy is wreathed in curse energy. His entire being is suffused in it. It's like a black hole that walks. Dazedly, Megumi realizes this is the thing, the new curse that takes shape this morning, the presence that drives all the other curses mad just from feeding on the background trace of its dark aurora. And it's in the shape of a boy, with pink hair and a shirt so yellow it threatens to stab Megumi's eyes. What even is this anymore?!
He opens his mouth, but nothing comes out but puffs of air and spits of his own blood. He has nothing left. His tank is empty. Dazedly, Megumi realizes he's crying. He's dying, here, in this place, in the embrace of a cursed spirit. Because what else can this boy be?
"But don't you worry, Megumi. I'm here. I'm not going to let you go like this. I swear it."
But if this is just a being born out of obsession and malice, then why is it looking at him like… like…. He doesn't recall anybody ever looking at him like that with maybe the exception of his mother and Tsumiki.
..
..
It's crying. The curse… the boy… the curse with the too human eyes is crying. It's doing something, and it's not doing a very good job at it. Is it trying to heal him? Can curses even do that? Something twinges in Megumi's stomach, even as his vision darkens and darkens.
It's bawling its eyes out now. How embarrassing. A man's tears shouldn't come so easily. Megumi's remaining hand twitches feebly. He's not even sure what he's trying to do.
"You always have to be dramatic, don't you, Megumi? Always have to play the damsel in distress, ever since the first time. And I always have to play the hero. It's like fate, isn't it? Some people just have to meet. Some roads just have to be passed. Doesn't matter which way I go, the junctions stay the same." Now it's smiling, grinning a big stupid grin, even when tears are coming down its cheeks in streams and snots hang from its nose. What kind of weirdo cursed spirit is this?
Can you please stop using my name so intimately? I don't think I ever even gave it to you. Thinks Megumi as his vision swims, and then blacks out entirely.
End Chapter 2