"An outdoor thermometer box?!" Fushiguro asked astonished. "You're telling me someone's keeping a special-grade cursed object in a place like this?"
"No one credited these people with intellegence," I told him with a sigh. "Means recovering it should be no problem." I ran my hands through my waist length silver hair as he opened it.
Report - June 2018:
Sendai City, Miyagi Prefecture Sugisawa Town #3 High School.
Fusiguro opened the box and we stared at the empty box. Fushiguro searched behind, above and below the box before closing and opening it again.
"Do it a few more times," I giggled. "I'm sure it will just appear out of nowhere."
"This is serious!" He yelled at me before pulling out his phone and calling someone. "It's not here." He listened to the other person speak before answering. "I'm gunna punch you." Yep, definetly Gojo. "I'm really gunna punch him this time."
"What he say?" I asked.
"We can't leave until we find it," he told me and I nodded.
"Well, it still has to be in this prefecture, right?" I asked and he shrugged. "Well, let's get started.
"Hey, Yuji, let's make a promise."
"Huh?" he looked up at me confused. "What kind of promise?"
I sighed, sitting on the steps of the rugby field we were looking at. We'd been searching all night and all day for the damn cursed object.
"Why is finding one damn finger taking so long?" I groaned. "And what's with this rugby field?" Fushiguro and I watched a curse climb one of the goal posts and roost.
"Is there a dead body buried here or something?" Fushiburo asked.
"How the hell should I know?" I asked him.
"Even so, I'd say it's second-class level? In a place like this?" Fushiguro asked. "I wonder if it has anything to do with the cursed object."
"Probably," I sighed. "Better hurry up and retrieve it." He held out his hand to help me up. I took the offered hand and stood up and moved up the stairs.
"But the presence is too big for just us," I pointed out. "It could be right next to us or in another city and we'd never even know."
"At this rate, sneaking in might have been pointless," he pointed out looking through his phone again. I could have sworn he was addicted to that thing. "Special-grade cursed object... what a pain!"
"So wearing this dumb uniform was for nothing!" I growled holding up a fist at him before he surprised me by taking a picture. "What the hell was that for?"
"Satoru wanted a picture of you in that thing."
"I'M GOING TO BREAK YOUR PHONE!"
"Maybe we should close off the school. Once we expel the curse, we'll check every nook and cranny..."
"Over here!" I looked toward the voices calling out. "Hurry up!"
"The track coach, Mr. Takagi, is taking on Itadori of West Junior High!" Itadori? It couldn't be the same one, could it?
"What's the sport?"
"Shot put!" I moved towards the students and watched a teacher throw a ball a small distance away from him.
"Fourteen meters!" one of the students called out. Since the national record was eighteen meters, that was kind of impressive.
"Whoa Mr. Takagi! He's still got it! Waddya gonna do, Itadori!?" The teacher posed as his students praised him. Some of them then calling out Itadori's name and I got a good look at the back of the kid's head. The roots of his hair were black, but the top was salmon pink.
"Is Itadori famous or something?" A girl in front of me asked the guy next to her.
"It's a rumor, but apparently he's won "Ninja Warrior". That or hes the reincarnation of the croatian fighter Mirko Cro Crop!"
"But he's not dead!" the girl pointed out and I turned back to the salmon pink haired kid. I knew only one person with that color hair, but still... this would be too much of a coincidence.
"He was given the nickname Tiger of West Junior High."
"That's kinda lame."
"Excuse me..." Itadori spoke up. "I'm not sure how to throw this thing. Can I just throw it how I want?"
"Hm?" Mr. Takagi thought on it for a moment. "Well, we won't consider it a foul this time." Everyone watched Itadori wind up his hand before throwing the ball like it was a baseball. It donged on the soccor goal and everyone stared at it in shock.
"All right!" Itadori cheered. "I win."
"I know his namesake is tiger, but it should be more like gorilla," the girl close to me said.
"He threw it like a baseball pitch."
"Nishimura." I turned back to Fushiguro and joined him. "He's really strong."
"Yeah, he always has been," I told him with a fond smile.
"That's impressive. Without cursed energy, just natural ability?" Fushiguro asked and I nodded giving Itadori a look. I wonder if he's like Zenin senpai?"
"I hadn't thought of that," I said giving it a good thought.
"Anyway, we've wasted too much time watching. Let's get back to searching."
"You're no fun, Fushiguro," I sighed.
"Ah! It's already half past!" I made to follow Fushiguro when Itadori passed us by in a hurry. The pressence from the cursed object grew and followed Itadori as he ran off.
"Hey, you!" Fushiguro called out to him, but by then he was already at the gate of the school. "How the heck is he so fast?!"
"He apparently runs the 50-meter dash in three seconds," a student behind us said.
"What is he, a car?"
"He's probably headed to the hospital," I told Fushiguro. "His grandfather's really sick."
"Then let's go," he told me. "We have to follow the residual and get that object."
"You go ahead," I told him. "I'm going to take another few pases here. Something feels... off here. That and I'll exorcise the second class on the rugby field."
"I call you when I have the object."
"You got it!" I grinned at him before getting to work.
Yuji laughed as he fished at the river with pole his grandfather had given him. I laughed at him not daring to follow him. I stared at the river remembering what was going to happen that night.
"Hey, Yuji, let's make a promise."
"Huh?" He looked up at me confused. "What kind of promise?"
"Let's promise oto meet up again," I told him. "After high school."
"What kind of promise is that?" he asked while laughing at me. "What? Are we 5 again?"
"I'm being serious, you jerk!" I threw my shoe at him, hitting him in the head. "I... have to go away for high school and with my mom in the hospital I have to move closer to a... family friend of mine."
"Oh yeah, I forgot your parents got attacked last week." He sat next to me and I placed my head on his shoulder. "How she doing?"
"She'll live, which is more than can be said for my dad," I told him. "He died this morning." Yuji wrapped his arm around my shoulders.
"I'm sorry, Saki."
"So, you have to promise me we'll meet up again after high school," I repeated. "I'm going to be going to a speciality high school, so I won't always be able to stay in contact with you with everything I'm going to have to do. That's why I wanna promise."
"Yea, okay." His arm squeezed my shoulders. "I promise."
I stretched my back while looking around the school building. The cursed energy was still present here, even with Yuji gone. I was on the third floor when the cursed energy hit full force.
"The special-grade cursed object... Ryomen Sukuna's finger... it's... unsealed! No freakin way!" I ran towards the room I felt all the energy pouring from and saw the two students from before. The girl was holding the finger between the two and I quickly looked up and saw a jumble of cursed spirits reaching for them. "We have to go!" I grabbed their arms and pulled them out of the room. "Run! Now!" They both do as I said and I turned to the cursed spirit. "Kitsune: Tengoku!" Two shikigami appeared beside me. The white one climbed onto my shoulder while the black one hissed at the cursed spirit in front of me. "Now, let's play." The two kitsune attacked the jumbled cursed spirit when I sensed others in the building. They must be after the special-grade cursed object. Which means they'll be after those students. Should I leave this cursed spirit and go after them? I clenched my hands before whisteling. The kitsune returned to me and I placed my hands together in front of me. "Barrier: Heavenly Gate!" I slammed my hands on the doorjam before running after the students. The barrier should keep it in the room while I dealt with those kids and getting that finger. After that...
"AHHHHHHHH!"
"Shit!" I ran in the direction of the scream with my two kitsunes in time to see a cursed spirit trying to eat the boy head first while holding the girl while several graby hands.
"Crap!" I heard Fushiguro shout from the other side of it.
"Fushiguro! The girl has the cursed object!" I shouted at him as I sent my kitsune after it They were almost there when we were all shocked to hear glass break. We turned to the window in time to see Yuji kick the cursed spirit away from both of us.
"Itadori?!" Fushiguro called out in confusion. Yuji grabbed the other two before jumping off it and skidding to a halt in front of me. He dropped the boy while holding the girl carefully.
"It's different than I was expecting," Yuji said looking at it.
"What were you expecting?" I asked and he finally turned to me while I stared at the cursed spirit.
"No way..." Fushiguro hit the cursed spirit and killed it.
"10/10!" I said grinning at him, throwing my arms in the air.
"Normally I'd be pissed," Fushiguro said walking to us. "But good job."
"Why're you all high and mighty?" Yuji asked him. "By the way, what's that eating the curse?"
"It's my shikigami," Fushiguro explained to him. "You can see it?" I looked at the Demon Dogs devoiuring the curse while my two kitsunes stayed with us. I released the pair and they melted back into me.
"Whoa! That's so weird!" Yuji shouted at me. "You've never done that before!"
"I told you I was going to a speciality high school," I reminded him. "This is just one of the thing's I've learned from it. You've never been able to see curses before either," I noted.
"Exceptions being when facing death or in special places like this," Fushiguro reminded me and I nodded.
"Ohh, now that you mention it, I've never seen a ghost before," Yuji stated. "Hey, Saki, why are you back here?"
"I'm with this guy looking for that finger your friend has."
"You're not scared, huh?" Fushiguro asked him.
"Well, I was... Did you know? People actually die."
"Huh?" We both looked at him like he was stupid. What the hell was that statement?! "So I figured that for the people I know I want them to die properly."
"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked him, still confused.
"I don't really get it either!"
"Uh..." Something popped out of the girl's pocket and nearly fell to the ground.
"This is..."
"Yeah," Fushiguro confirmed. "Special-Grade cursed object "Ryomen Sukuna"... Part of it."
"Ryom..."
"Forget it," Fushiguro told him. "It's dangerous. Just hand it over."
"Yeah, yeah..." My eyes widened as a hand started to reach down towards Yuji and the other two students. I grabbed Yuji's hood and pulled while Fushiguro pushed him away from the attack.
"Run!" We managed to get him out of the line of fire seconds before the hand smashed down on top of us.
"Fushiguro! Saki!" I coughed as the smoke cleared to reveal the second-grade spirit from earlier. Crap! I didn't have time to exorcise it before all this happened! My hands were trapped in the things hand as it squeezed us. Fushiguro tried to summon another shikigami but he was thrown into a wall harshly causing blood to splatter from his head and back. I watched my friend fall to the ground and didn't think twice about biting the thing holding me. It screamed and slammed me down onto the ground. I screamed in pain, releasing the things hand from my bite before it smashed through the wall next to Yuji, forcing Fushiguro and I outside onto the top of the walkway that connected the two buildings. In it's haste to not fall off, it threw me from its grip next to Fushiguro who was groaning in pain. I stood up holding my ribs with one hand.
"Kitsune: Jikan Nogitsune!" A black kitsune with purple designs covering its body appeared and hissed at the spirit. Yuji suddenly appeared and knocked the cursed spirit on its side with a single punch.
"You okay?!" Yuji asked us. I felt the blood dripping from the back of my head. It must have happened inside the building when it was throwing us around.
"I thought we told you to run," Fushiguro told him falling to the ground again.
"Forget it!" Yuji told him. "I'd be having nightmares if I left now! Besides... I've actually got quite the curse myself." The cursed spirit attacked us, but Yuji dodged it and kicked it away before getting punched in the head back onto the ground with a grunt.
"What kind of idiot are you?!" I asked him as he slid towards us.
"A curse can only be exorcised by another curse," Fushiguro told him.
"Coulda told me sooner!" Yuji told him.
"Uh... I told you to run away," Fushiguro struggled to rise next to me.
"Jikan Nogitsune!" The kitsune attacked and used its ability with time in cordination.
"You're the only one who can carry those two to safety," Fushiguro told Yuji. "Hurry up and get outta here before we all die. Someone like you with no cursed energy will just get in the way." I unwrapped my arm from my ribs and reached for the sheath in my boots. I drew my sais before joining the attack with my kitsune.
"Hayai!" The speed of our attacks sped up, but the second-grade still caught the kitsune and me. "Release!" Jikan Nogitsune vanished before the cursed spirit slammed me back down.
"Hey, why is the curse targeting the finger?" I heard Yuji ask as I used both my sais and quickly dragged them across the arm holding me forcing the spirit to throw me away from it and into Fushiguro.
"It plans on eating it to gain stronger cursed energy," Fushiguro explained while helping me stand up again.
"So there is a way to save everyone..." Yuji said.
"Huh?"
"I just need some cursed energy, right?" We watched as Yuji opened his mouth wide while bringing the finger to his mouth.
"You idiot!" Fushiguro shouted at him.
"Don't!" I reaced out to grab the finger, but it was too late. He swallowed the finger. He just swallowed a special-grade cursed object! That's just as lethal as poison! Especially that one! But... there is that one in a million chance... The cursed spirit run full speed at us, but Yuji just swung at it and it died on the spot. I stared wide eyed at my childhood friend as he stared at the cursed spirit. I looked at his hand to see claws in place of his fingernails. I jumped when he started chuckling maniacally.
"Ah! I knew it! Light is best appreciated in the flesh!" He screamed grabbing the hoodie he wore. He had markings going from where two new eyes were opened under the corner of his actual eyes down to his chin where there were two small markings. His forhead had a strange symbol on it and he had a mark going acoss his nose. Now that his hoodie had been ripped off, we could see the two bands around both his wrists and upper arms. There was a circle on his shoulders with a smaller filled in circle and his chest was the last of the markings on his front going over his shoulders reaching around to his lower back. And smaller markings started on the side of his neck to his shoulder blades. Each marking had a twin on his body so it was completly symetrical. This is... the one in a million worst case scenario... the special-grade cursed object incarnated! "A cursed spirit's flesh is no fun! Where are the people?! The women?!" I did my best to make myself smaller at that one. He looked at the view in shock for a moment before grinning. "What a wonderful age it has become! Women and children spawning like maggots!" Despite my fear, I felt a tick of anger at his words. "Marvelous! It'll be a massacre!" Suddenly, his hand grabbed his chin and forced him back a few paces. "Huh?"
"What do you think you're doing with my body?" I heard Yuji's voice ask from Sukuna. Is he... really still in there? "Give it back."
"How're you able to move?"
"Um... it is my body, you know?"
"Don't move!" Fushiguro shouted at him. "You're no longer human."
"Huh?"
"Under the regulations of Jujutsu... Yuji Itadori... as a curse... I will exorcise you!"