I had fun writing Shohei's interaction with Hanami and just as much fun writing the fight with Shohei incorporated into it. I hope I did a good enough job for everyone reading. Please enjoy the final chapter of the fight with Hanami.
"I saw you before with that field of cursed energy and force you keep around you!" the curse muttered, turning on the spot in the sky with its floating ball to face Shohei in the sky. "You dropped that shield when you landed and gained some sort of speed and strength boost. I could tell from your hair too."
"What?" Shohei asked the curse, his tone returning to his passive and casual draul. It sounded as if they were only discussing a question the curse had gotten incorrect on a test they had had returned and Shohei thought the question was the easiest thing in the world. "Did you think I couldn't fly without my Gravity Field?"
The curse didn't respond, but answered the question in its silence.
"Well you were wrong," Shohei mocked, sticking out his tongue and pulling down an eyelid to expose the pink membrane underneath. "That's just a technique I made up with my derived technique, Gravity Conductor. Gravity Conductor can let me fly, perform attacks, or put up the Gravity Shield exclusively."
"How immature," the curse scoffed at Shohei's face.
Shohei chuckled and released his eyelid. He looked down to see Todo and Itadori as dots on the ground, looking up at the conversation.
"I always kind of am," Shohei said, leaning back in the open air, as if a beanbag contorted to his body and provided him a seat in the sky. "Let's talk for a second before going back to fighting. You've met Satoru Gojo right? He said you rescued a friend of yours from him."
The curse answered Shohei's question again with silence. It seemed to not particularly take a step back from battle, but halted any attempts to attack the off guard boy. Whether this was because the curse was confused by Shohei's change in demeanor or because it also wanted to talk before fighting again, Shohei didn't know.
"I'll take that as a yes," Shohei said hurriedly, moving onto his point. "What I'm getting at here is that you know he's right outside the barrier, about to break in, right?"
The curse said nothing.
"Why risk breaking into a Jujutsu Sorcerer run facility where the strongest Sorcerer, and a plethora of other Sorcerers, run their everyday lives? Why risk getting exorcized?"
Shohei thought he was going to get another response of stone cold silence, but the curse raised a finger and pointed far off onto the horizon, at the mountainsides and forests visible in the distance.
"Because of that," the curse said. It spread its arms out wide, gesturing to the surrounding forest, leaving itself vulnerable, but not worrying as it put some faith into Shohei and his relaxed body language. "Because of all this."
"The forest?" Shohei asked, looking down to the trees below, wondering if they were related to the curse like a family as it looked like one itself. "I see the family resemblance if that's what you mean."
The curse laid its arms back to its side, its posture reverting to a semi-puzzled, semi-disappointed stance.
"You human beings are all so ignorant," the curse muttered, disheartened. "I've risked my appearance here to work towards a personal goal of mine and my acquaintances. To rid the world of its worst plague ever experienced. Humans."
Doing his best to focus on the curse's speech, but somehow glossing over the curse's supposed plan for mass genocide, Shohei said, "I don't think all humans are as ignorant as me."
The curse made a small flinch at the response, making its legitimately threatening goal fall flat and lay lamely in the air.
"Satoru says I'm a good Sorcerer and kid and all that, but I'm just easily distracted," Shohei told the curse as if they were just talking over some coffee and tea. "If you were here the whole time during the cursed spirit race, I wouldn't know since you're really sneaky, then you probably could've seen the moment where I blanked out and stood in the woods for a while. That mostly happens when I try to do something boring that can't hold my attention, which is a lot of things.
The curse looked around the air and to the ground like it was trying to find someone to confirm that some polka dotted hair teenager was going on a tangent with it after they had just been fighting to the death literally minutes ago, but Shohei continued his rant.
"Toge, Panda, and Okkotsu don't really mind and usually help me focus. They do a good job on catching me up if I ever miss anything important, whether it's during a briefing for a mission we're on or when we have an occasional lesson with our sensei Atsuya. Maki and Megumi just kind of scoff and let me fend for myself when I do that and don't usually bother snapping me out of it. When they do that only ever bothers me if it's something they know I want to pay attention to, but can't. Itadori and Kugisaki haven't really had to deal with me in an airheaded moment yet since they're kind of new around here or have't had too much one-on-one time with me yet. I don't blame Yuji for that though, especially since I think the Kyoto principal ordered his students to kill him, and since he had to fake his death and all that. You would know something about that wouldn't you," Shohei said, his final statement of Yuji, making him kind of gather some focus and think back on what Yuji said about the curse being aligned with a patchwork faced spirit.
"What was he talking about with that?" Shohei asked harmlessly.
"You are odd, human," the curse said, ignoring Shohei's question, but still not attacking him.
"Kind of, yeah, but you've got to be a little nuts to be a Sorcerer," Shohei shrugged off, now floating aimlessly and slowly turning upside down.
"I'm Shohei Gojo by the way," Shohei introduced himself politely. "Can I ask you your name, if curses even have names, because you look a little too eccentric to not have one."
"Are you stalling for something?" the curse asked, not trusting Shohei's simple niceties and questions. "Do you have some sort of trap that you need to distract me from?"
Shohei shrugged innocently again and said, "Not really, no. Can't you tell I'm the type to get off on a tangent? I just wanted to talk since I've never really had a two way conversation with a curse before. Aoi and Yuji would bash your brains in if we were still on the ground so I figured we'd talk up here. I think the sky is a pretty place to talk anyway. I'd like to take Maki up here to talk sometime and show her the view."
"The strong girl with the glasses," the curse said, remembering Maki.
"Yeah, her!" Shohei cheered, excited to see the curse start talking back.
Shohei scanned the air like someone would be eavesdropping and whispered to the curse, "You're relatively well mannered, beside trying to kill me and my friends, along with Maki. You're also a clean slate to talk to who might die if Satoru ever makes contact with you again. Can you keep a secret?"
The curse returned to replying with nothing, but Shohei took no offense and proceeded.
"I kind of have a crush on her," Shohei giggled like a child would when telling a secret on the schoolyard.
"It's been there for a while and I never really try to make any moves on her because one, she could break my arm if I come off like a douche because I don't know how to flirt. Two, because we're great friends now anyway so why risk making that awkward. And three, because rather than being scared of strong curses like you, I'm a little scared of being rejected by the only girl I've liked in a long while since I liked her sister back when we were kids."
The curse stood as it usually did, stiff and immobile, like a tree and Shohei just chuckled and kept talking.
"Satoru is the only other person I've told and I kinda regret it because he always teases me about it, even if Maki is around. I think my other friends figured it out, but I'm not sure. Humans could just be an exception, but do curses have complex emotions and relationship issues like that?" Shohei asked, attempting to get the curse engaging in conversation again.
"Yes," the curse responded simply.
Shohei's mismatching eyes went wide with pleasure and surprise that the curse chose to answer.
"We do. Curses are the true humans."
Shohei rubbed his chin, chewing on the thought, engaged in the conversation that now held his true attention.
"How controversial is that at dinner parties?" Shohei chuckled, but got no laugh from the curse.
"Curses should replace the supposed "human" population as the real humans of this world," the curse continued, passion picking up in its voice and its arm becoming animated as it spoke. "We cause no harm to the world as you all do and we respect nature and all its gifts and wonders. We feel pain, fear, and sorrow all the same as you do, so why are we not labeled human as well."
"I don't fuck with global warming or carbon emission either, but that doesn't mean I want to commit mass genocide for the Earth's sake," Shohei offered as a couterclaim. "I'd offer coexistence and peace between races, but with the fact of curses attacking innocent humans, I don't think that'd change anytime soon."
"What about the unprovoked attacks on curses by Sorcerers?" the shelled curse countered. "What then? You attack our innocent. We've adapted to attack your's. With the human species gone, there would be no need for conflict and our kind could heal as the Earth would."
Shohei ran a hand through his hair and massaged his temples, a headache forming from the complex thoughts.
"I don't know man," Shohei muttered, rubbing his neck. "You're talking politics with the wrong guy. I don't even care about my own Clan's political business. I let the others handle it and only step in when I personally am required by some law or something."
"You are irresponsible with your duties to your own family, but you are given powers and the responsibility to hunt my kind. How twisted your reality is," the curse continued, holding out a palm and forming another wicker ball.
Shohei frowned deeply at the forming attack and begged, "Please don't make me fight you again. I don't want to exorcize you after seeing how intelligent you are and having such a nice conversation with you. What if you went to the people of power in the Jujutsu world and tried to work with them to find some sort of peace. Our attitudes could always change towards each other. Humans have overcome racial and political differences amongst themselves before."
"Like you said," the curse muttered. "'I don't think that'd change anytime soon.'"
Two branches stabbed towards Shohei who stood up straight, but had no guard up.
"Wait," Shohei continued. "I read this quote in a book store once. 'Our attitude toward life determines life's attitude towards us.' Some American politician said that I think. Doesn't that strike a chord with you with your goals of peace for Curses? Is violence your immediate plan for fixing your issues?"
"Wasn't it yours when you first saw me appear before you and your friends. Wasn't it yours when you saw me attack your female crush?" The curse countered again, flinging cursed buds at Shohei in a volley.
Shohei dove in the air and spun in circles around the curse, evading any buds or wicker orbs sent his way.
"That was when I had no clue you were so intelligent and had such a powerful stance on real world problems," Shohei admitted. "I have never met an intelligent Curse and I had no clue Curses felt emotions and had thoughts like people do. You were just a threat to my friends then, and you're more than that unless you go back to just trying to kill us."
"How shallow of you to presume only human beings can have thoughts and emotions," the Curse scoffed, leaping from its longtime platform of a ball and grabbing hold of Shohei's uniform collar as he passed by.
The Curse spun in the air, dragging Shohei with it, disorienting him and his flight pattern so that he could not halt their struggle. The curse flung Shohei to the ground, several yards away from Itadori and Todo, landing with a more controlled crash to the ground as well.
"Sho!" Itadori called, running to the small crater where dust obscured any immediate sight of Shohei.
A small bit of commotion could be heard amongst the dirt and Shohei then stood up, emerging from the cloud with a dashed grimace painting his dirtied face.
"I didn't even get your name," Shohei murmured, reaching behind his back and into his waistline.
"But fine, if you're so set in your ways like you say all Sorcerers are too, then I'll put you to rest right here so you can't hurt any innocent people. I'll put you to rest so in another life you can make a difference in the world in a better way. I hope I get to meet you too, so then I can help you like I would've if it meant saving lives of innocent people and the life of the planet I live on!" Shohei spoke with an unfamiliar passion.
He unsheathed Iguana Talon, his cursed tool karambit. He stood up boldly and fixed, now undaunted in front of the Curse.
The Curse took a small step back in what Shohei thought was a moment of indecision at first until the Curse then took a fighting stance, and Shohei's task of fighting the Curse was set in stone as Todo and Itadori flanked his side and put up their own fists.
The three Sorcerers leapt at the Curse, Itadori first throwing a combination of punches only to get parried, but connecting a wide kick to its blocking arms rather harshly.
Todo hooked around and leapt above the curse making to kick the Curse in the head, but it blocked without looking and Todo spun through the block and landed gracefully back in front of the enemy.
Shohei came cutting across the Curse's side with a glancining slash of Iguana Talon bouncing off of the Curse's shelled chest. Shohei threw several punches with his off hand and bladed hand, still getting blocked by the curse before it slapped away both his arms, leaving his chest exposed. The Curse shoved him with a massive effort and sent him tumbling towards Todo's feet.
Shohei shot back to his feet, declining a hand attempting to help him up, but had a wave of peace wash over him as a small field of flowers, so beautiful that they seemed to glow, sprouted around him. He was stripped of all desire to fight, but a fluctuation of cursed energy below him demanded his body to move, leaping backwards and away from a cluster of spiked roots that exploded out from where he was just standing.
Shohei saw the Curse bask in the attack, a lipless, inhuman grin of teeth curving over the Curse's face as it held its arms out and reveled in the fight. Shohei was put out further after he witnessed the curse he was just rationalizing with so reasonably delight in the violence.
"Okay, Sho, brother!" Todo called, regrouping with the other two.
"Yeah!" Itadori and Shohei called in basic responses.
"Then it's time to unleash my technique!" Todo declared, a triumphant grin on his face.
"Huh?" Itadori souded, breaking the intense air with a confused look. "Didn't you use it before?" he referenced the time he and Kamo switched places.
Todo ignored this and went on saying, "However! I have no time to explain my technique! So there's only one thing I can say to you, Itadori, as Shohei already knows it. Don't stop! Believe in me!" This last note, Todo hammered home the point very intensely, staring down at Itadori with a glare.
Itadori took this information very casually compared to Todo. He gave a thumbs up and said, "Okay! That's two, though!"
Todo put a hand to his chin and seemed to be muling over the opponent's moves and actions as he stared it down.
"Give him a second Itadori," Shohei told the boy as Todo was thinking. "He's piecing together the opponent's hand. After this we'll get busy."
Shohei had fought using Todo's technique during their mission where they fought an unexpected special-grade they came across. It was an otherworldly experience with how fluid you could feel when fighting with Todo and his technique, and Shohei hoped it would be even better with Itadori added on.
And with Todo removing a hand from his chin and tapping his temple, all three lunged at the Curse.
Their climatic lunge was put to a stop rather abruptly as a root sneakily sprouted from the ground and caught Todo by his ankle. The Curse chuckled once and Todo was sent whipping through the air like a ragdoll.
"Dang!" Shohei grunted, running after Todo.
"Todo!" Itadori yelled, joining Shohei.
Todo was thrown by the branch, roughly tumbling and skipping over the ground and towards a patch of freshly erect spiked roots that he was sure to get skewered on.
"Todo!" Itadori called again, but the Curse cut off his approach. It threw a punch, but Itadori parried it, narrowly blocking two more right and left hooks.
Shohei's heart skipped a beat as he was also intercepted by the Curse landing a kick to the back of his knee as he ran by it and Itadori, seeing Todo still speed closer to the patch of spikes.
A clap from a pair of hands split the air and purple blood spilt from the clump of spiked roots as the Curse was impaled several times by its own roots.
In between where Itadori and Shohei stood was Todo, also replacing where the Curse had been standing, but a fist in his face from where Itadori was just throwing a punch.
"Todo!" Itadori called for a third time, but was simply surprised by his appearance.
"I see," the Curse said, pulling itself from its impalement and closing its wounds. "It's simple and therefore a troublesome technique."
"Yeah," Todo agreed, squatting low and bringing his hands close together. "My technique swaps my position with my opponent's. Boogie Woogie!"
"Todo!" Itadori said, attempting to get the boy's attention, but Todo shushed him with a wink.
"Shh! We'll end this before it can get used to it," Todo said, leaving out the fact that Boogie Woodie didn't only switch him and his opponent's position.
"Don't let up the pressure, Itadori, and keep up with me and Aoi if you can," Shohei giggled, lunging at the curse with the other two.
"By the way," Todo added, clapping his hands and switching positions with Itadori in their sprint, "clapping my hands," he clapped again, switching with Shohei, "is necessary to activate it!"
Itadori ran past the Curse, making it turn its back to Todo, but was soon replaced by Todo himself as he punched the Curse in the back. Todo kicked high, knocking the Curse in the face, and clapped again, switching himself with Shohei, who delivered a massive left hook to the Curse's body.
Todo clapped, and Shohei and Itadori switched, letting Shohei throw a right jab into the small of the Curse's back with Iguana Talon in hand while Itadori delivered his own jab to the Curse's diaphragm. Todo clapped again and he was then behind the Curse, throwing a heavy elbow into its back, comboed with a nice punch.
The Curse hadn't even had the chance to strike back. It turned around and where Todo was, was then Itadori throwing a superman punch, and before it connected, Itadori was behind the Curse, throwing that same punch to its back again with another to accompany it. Todo then placed his own two punches to the Curse's stomach.
Shohei leapt above the Curse, landing a flying kick to its head and launching it to the ground, and pursuing it with then a large axe kick to its stomach as it laid prone on the ground.
Itadori joined in on the kicking as he came crashing down onto the Curse with his own stomp, caving in the Curse's chest with a wicked crunch. Todo ran into the group and kicked the Curse across the armored head, rattling it further.
The boys stomped viciously for a short while, until the Curse wildly swiped Shohei's feet out from under him and escaped the stomping in the moment of hesitation from the others.
It retreated several paces and began healing its more grievous wounds, but not fully as Shohei got back to his feet and ran back to it with the others, preceding their Boogie Woogie powered combinations.
The Curse could not make a split second decision with Todo having the option to switch with it, Itadori, or Shohei who all had very different builds and frames which made it even more difficult to place an attack if it tried.
Todo clapped, switching with Itadori who was behind the Curse, and Itadori raised a massive fist to the sky, uppercutting the Curse and sending dribbles of purple blood into the air.
Clap, Shohei finally delivered a deep slash across the Curse's stomach that would've spilled all it's organs if it were a human. Clap, Itadori delivered a massive overhead hook to the Curse's ribs. Shohei kicked the Curse in the small of the back with a small crack renting the air. Clap, Itadori was delivering his own spinning kick to the back of the Curse.
Todo ran directly up to the Curse from a distance away and delivered a massive haymaker, sending the Curse's head wobbling in the air like a bobblehead. Todo's fist walloped the curse in the stomach as Shohei also delivered a combo flurry of lightning quick jabs to its ribs. Todo finished his assault with a strong punch to the Curse's face again, knocking it to the side where Itadori threw his entire body weight behind an elbow jab, spilling more blood from the Curse's teeth.
Clap, Todo and Itadori switched, punching the Curse intandem. Clap, Shohei replaced Itadori, slashing the curse three times with Iguana Talon and splattering blood over the smothered grass.
Todo performed a low kick, signifying the fracturing or possibly breaking the Curse's fibula with a loud crunch, if it had a fibula like a human. The Curse limped on the spot, hunched, and received a flying superman punch from Itadori, but no regular punch, but a Black Flash.
Shohei could sense the phenomenon occurring, and the Curse could too by the expression of looming dread on it's eyeless face. Itadori's eyes were adorned with cutting edge focus and his fist was winding up with the first vanishing cursed energy and rushing back of it. Shohei saw Itadori performing his all time best while in "the zone".
Black sparks fluttered from Itadori's first as it glided speedily into the Curse's middle, hunching it over in pain again. The Black crackle of energy seemed to linger on the Curse's body seemingly flooded with a wave of the spiked cursed energy from Itadori.
Itadori was not finished, as he squatted low and leapt above the Curse, and kicked down onto it, but with a second Black Flash tearing out from Itadori's heel. Violet blood came pouring out of the Curse's gaping mouth in a wave of gargling.
Still falling from his initial jump, Itadori came crashing down onto the Curse, delivering a third, powerful karate chop to its collarbone and shoulder, making it's arms flip wildly into the air.
Shohei's jaw hung low and open at the spectacle, as he couldn't believe what could happen. The record of most consecutive Black Flashes was four, and the title was held by a Sorcerer named Nanami Kento.
Nanami was an underclassman of Gojo when they were in school. Shohei knew him and liked the man. He was very put together and clean cut, always wearing a suit in the field or in his pass time, but he wasn't uptight like you expected him to be. Kento was very independent and thought both the jobs of being a Jujutsu Sorcerer and a basic working class civilian were shit, as he loudly exclaimed if ever asked his opinion on it.
That was all beside the point. The point was that Nanami had executed four Black Flashes, and Itadori was on a roll and not stopping short of landing the same.
"Don't get cocky," the Curse growled, less pressured by the semi-retreat of Todo and Shohei to witness Itadori's trio of Black Flashes.
Sensing the Curse's possible interference with Itadori's streak of blows, Todo lunged into its line of vision, putting his hands close together to clap. The Curse turned on the spot to face Todo, who was expected to switch with Itadori, who was the biggest threat to it with his series of attacks. The clap broke the tense moment and no one switched their positions, and Shohei almost physically saw the curse's heart drop to the pit of its stomach.
Itadori's fist glowed with already radiating cursed energy, as he swept into a winding motion for his punch, but Todo spoke out saying, "Clapping my hands doesn't necessarily mean I'm activating my technique! It's simple, but easy to fall for!"
Shohei had a roguish grin split across his face and an even more conniving look pierced the Curse with his almost glowing eyes of endless blackness and blazing orange. The Curse was ill prepared for this surefire fourth strike.
Itadori connected his fourth Black Flash, rivaling the all time record. The attack burst with a rippling of cursed energy trailing behind the path his fist took to crash into the Curse's now surely decimated gut.
Shohei had to give the Curse credit and due respect as a special-grade. He expected that no other Curse that he's ever come upon could've survived as many Black Flashes as it did, even other special-grades. It's durability was commendable.
The Curse faltered no less than two seconds before it sent up three wicker balls with spikes protruding from them to chase down the boys, but the wicker balls were no real threat to them on their own.
Itadori leapt sideways and one tried to skewer him and kicked it into splinters. Shohei pivoted to one side and slashed it through the middle. Todo ran temporarily and sharply turned back to cleave it in half with his bare hand, but he also had to counter a jab from the Curse as it chose to pursue him as soon as it recovered.
Todo smoothly parried the punch and pulled the Curse into a judo flip, sending it over his shoulder and tumbling across the forest floor. As the curse pulled itself up, it narrowly dodged both Shohei and Todo coming crashing down with stomping kicks. Todo spun around, kicking the Curse, but it blocked only to be blindsided by Shohei lobbing off one of it's sensitive eyebranches with his blade.
The Curse leapt away and attempted to crash into Todo, but Todo ducked low and the Curse rolled harmlessly over his wide back. They lunged at each other again, but Itadori took up Todo's potion with a clap and kicked the Curse so hard that it was thrown several yards back.
All three Sorcerer's lunged towards the Curse in what they thought would be another moment of weakness for the Curse, but it managed to leap away through an opening in the circle and conjure a pillar of roots to come jetting out of the ground.
The Curse perched itself on top of the about six meter structure of spiraling plantlife, gesturing for the boys to approach if they dared. Todo accepted the bait unfazed, clapping and switching with the Curse to now stand on top of the roots that immediately attacked him. The Curse had predicted Todo's swap and began predicting the switches.
The Curse, back amongst Itadori and Shohei's company, was greeted with a massive hook from Itadori that it countered with it's own hook reaching underneath his. They both had their cheeks thoroughly bashed in, their respective colors of blood splashing from their mouths.
The Curse was adjusting to Boogie Woogie, but the Black Flash rush hurt it and it's reserves of cursed energy from it requiring massive amounts of healing to still fight. Together, all three boys could exorcize it.
Todo leapt down after blocking all the roots and joined the Sorcerers, now standing before the Curse who threw its arms out wide and conjured a massive, blooming flower that played host to cursed buds. The buds were all clumped together in the middle of the flower, biting and gnashing their small teeth in their purple heads, hungry for the boys' cursed energy.
All in a split second, Shohei looked to Todo and flicked his eyes to Itadori, as that was all there was time for. Shohei wanted Todo to swap Itadori with the Curse because he thought the boy wouldn't be able to defend from the lethal buds like they could. Todo understood, nodding back.
The Curse thrusted its arms forward, firing cursed buds erratically, but deadly accurate. Todo clapped his hands, swapping Itadori for the Curse, who was physically settled by a new facet of Boogie Woogie being able to switch two other people instead of Todo.
"Todo! Sho!" Itadori called, safe and beside the cursed flower, now empty as the buds flew towards the three, seemingly in slow motion as all played out.
The buds were faster than when the Curse fired individual ones itself, leaving no time for Shohei to do anything but activate his Innate technique, Stygian Void. Shohei didn't want to gamble by simply hardening his body with cursed energy, as he thought that's what Fushiguro would've done, and he was now seriously injured from just a few of the cursed buds. Stygian Void was worth revealing at that moment in the fight, as Shohei was already thinking of using it to exorcize the curse quicker, alongside Todo and Itadori now that it was safe to use around allies.
The buds were inches away from the curse, Todo, and Shohei, and each attempted their means of defending themselves. Todo put up his arms and dissipated all his cursed energy, proving Shohei's suspicion right, as the cursed buds posed no threat against a cursed energyless target. The Curse simply welcomed the buds and reabsorbed them into its body. All the buds targeted at Shohei simply vanished, the source of his defense appearing and disappearing in a flash that none of the others saw.
One bud desperately tried to cling onto Todo's wrist after the assault, but he tore it off effortlessly with only a trickle of blood and muttered, "Her next one's the national?" Shohei thought he must've been referring to some handshake event with his idol crush, Takada. "I'll have to thank her then, won't I?" he continued, opening one eye to peek at the curse as he basked in his success.
"All that brainpower and you still use her in your thought process?" Shohei asked the boy, cringing at Todo's obsession with his crush. Todo told Shohei that he used Takada as a voice of reason in his head when problem solving long ago.
"I see you improved your cursed technique," Todo noted. "It looks much more refined."
Shohei had no time to respond, as the action began again with Itadori coming flying into view with a kick, but missing. Todo ran up to the Curse, who was preparing to lunge at Itadori, and delivered an ax kick down onto it's shoulder, crunches renting the air. Todo's foot mangled the shoulder. Shohei joined in the assault, driving his foot down onto the Curse's knee, folding it backwards and making the Curse stumble onto one knee.
The Curse made a wild slap at Shohei and quickly healed its knee, jumping to its feet and retreating several yards as Todo, Itadori, and Shohei all still chased after it. They all striked at every chance they could, but the Curse evaded and blocked rather well.
With the Curse evading and the boys pursuing for a rather long while, they all ended back up at the stream where they first gathered.
In the middle of their pursuit of the Curse, Todo clapped and replaced Itadori with a special-grade cursed tool, Playful Cloud. It was an intricately decorated, red, three section staff with no special curse other than being several times more powerful in parallel with the user's strength.
Seeing Todo pull out the powerful weapon that Maki or Megumi used and must've dropped somewhere nearby, Shohei understood that Todo was attempting to fatally wound the Curse and finish the fight with powerful moves. Shohei disengaged his Innate technique and activated Gravity Conductor again, taking flight and passing over the Curse and stopping behind it. He focused, gathering his cursed energy into a lethal attack.
Todo began twirling the tool and grunted, "Special-grade cursed tool," he swung the weapon blazing with cursed energy. It pierced the ground and dragged through the solid earth like water, bashing the Curse in it's sensitive eye trees. "Playful Cloud!"
The Curse was lifted off its feet, bleeding heavily again, but it was not killed or incompasitated even. It swiped its hand in the air and sent a pillar of roots to attack Todo, but the boy dodged with a flip.
The Curse laid vulnerable on the ground on all fours, stunned and regenerating its trees, unaware of Shohei. The air was rippling around Shohei, humming with cursed energy like Shooting Star did when it reached its cap of power. Enshrouding Iguana Talon was a coat of such heavily condensed cursed energy, that it sounded like a swarm of hornets buzzing, their nest distrubed. It was prepared to fire and aimed at the prone Curse.
Shohei threw a cross punch with Iguana Talon in hand, breaking the blade on purpose from the hilt of the weapon with the cursed energy. The blade rippled through the air like a flying boomerang, and when making contact with the Curse, tore through it. It was like a regular human getting hit with a figterjet gun round, perforating the Curse's chest and shoulder, leaving a gaping wound, and tearing off it's right arm with the excess force. The ground below it was bathed in purple blood and upturned by the blade that had gone sinking into it.
Shohei and Todo were baffled at the moving Curse. It had survived a blow from Todo using a special-grade cursed tool. It even survived a brutal attack from Shohei using some of his best energy reinforcement on Igauan Talon, which had regenerated its blade as if it never were broken, and was a grade-one cursed tool. It was inconceivable how resilient the curse was.
Todo and Shohei managed to look past their gawking and see that energy was visibly flowing into the Curse's remaining black arm. The grass around it withered and turned ash gray and the life and natural energy of all planlife like the trees and shrubbery around them was sucked away. Whole grown and healthy trees wilted and shriveled into baren stalks of hollow life as their leaves fell away, like a colorless autumn came early. The entire clearing that they had moved into from the stream had been turned lifeless and barren and as unnatural as a sick wasteland being placed into the still vibrant surrounding forest.
"Plant's don't generate cursed energy," the Curse said, the flower bud on it's shoulder ablaze with yellow-golden light. "So my left arm steals the life from plants and converts it into cursed energy."
The flower bloomed, and with the pedals blossoming out, a lidded eye could be seen in the center of it.
"But that never gets returned to me. It all goes to this flower offering."
"You're a hypocrite!" Shohei roared. "You preached to me about saving nature and the Earth. You whole-heartily claimed humans alone desecrated and destroyed it. Look at you now!"
The Curse stood up, weak and feeble. Its cursed energy almost completely expended from the constant healing and many attacks. The eye of the flower radiated light and swirled with power, forming either an attack or technique, Shohei could not tell.
"Todo! Shohei!" Itadori called, running into the deceased forest and onto the scene from wherever he was swapped with.
"Get back, Yuji!" Shohei yelled, trying to protect Itadori.
"Stay away, Brother!" Todo yelled too, holding out a hand to stop him. "It's cursed energy output is incredible!"
"But it will be easy for both of you to avoid using your techniques," the curse admitted. "So what shall I do? Domain Ex-"
Shohei's heart dropped but immediately restored as the Curse was cut off and its attack dispersed as the curtain in the sky was dispersed, crumbling away in sparks and ashes of cursed energy.
From the origin point where the curtain disappeared in the sky was Satoru Gojo, his blindfold off and azure eyes like the sky visible to those even on the ground. He stood perched in the sky, a truly transcendent force, exuding power, fear, and safety all at once to allies and enemies both without even letting his cursed energy run rampant. His exuding force was infinitely more powerful than Shohei's previous display of power.
"The veil!" Itadori said.
The sky had turned back to its unobscured azure now that the veil had gone and the forest returned to its typical shading.
Satoru disappeared in a flash to the ground below, his cursed energy now only visible to Shohei. Shohei could tell he released some curse technique while fighting a curse user and was by Principle Gakuganji.
"Any last words?" Shohei asked the Curse.
He was doleful but relieved that Satoru made it through the veil and was surely about to exorcize the special-grade.
Roots emerged from the ground around the Curse, not to attack the Sorcerers however, but to slowly engulf the Curse from the feet up. The Curse turned and the boys saw it's butchered trees, unable to heal any further, making eye contact with Shohei's star and abyss.
"I'm withdrawing," the Curse said. "I'm not arrogant enough to face Satoru Gojo."
"Screw you!" Itadori yelled. "What were you all trying to do here?!"
Itadori was about to spring across the clearing at the Curse again, but Todo and Shohei held out hands to stop him.
"Wait, brother!" Todo yelled.
"Why are you stopping me, you two?!" Itadori asked, frustrated. He could see the Curse on its final leg, unable to regenerate and fleeing.
"Don't take another step forward…" warned Todo, in a low serious tone.
"It's about to get messy…" Shohei continted, sensing the massive attack Todo did.
"And you'll get caught in it," Todo finished, aware that Gojo's strongest attack was about to be launched at the Curse, only yards away from them.
With a crackle of power and cursed energy, a massive purple orb tore through the forest, leaving a decimated path in its wake and approaching the targeted Curse. The Curse had not fully been wrapped in the roots that were attempting to whisk it away when the technique, Hollow Purple, had engulfed it. The boys had to shield their eyes from the kicked up ground and rubble from the attack as it proceeded to tear past them, even after it had already seemingly destroyed its target.
After the roaring, powerful attack moved further away from them and dissipated Todo chuckled as the final dust settled around them and said, "He's just as nonstandard as ever."
Itadori's jaw hung as low as his feet at the sight of a formed canyon from Hollow Purple's path.
"Now we can't tell if it was exorcized or not," said Todo.
"This is about what I expected," Shohei muttered, exasperated at his cousin's dramatic showing, staring down into the freshly made canyon.
The boy's exasperation didn't last however as he mauled over the Curse's final words. Shohei had been the only one to hear the words over the roaring attack. The Curse had told Shohei its name was Hanami, and he felt rather sad to have lost the spirit to the fatal attack and corrupt means to an honorable goal.
A nice and subtle change I decided to make was to capitalize the word Curse like I do with the word Sorcerer after Hanami kind of gave Shohei a new perspective. I'm not sure how I want to handle Shohei's further encounters with Curses or even if I want to change his ways after Hanami kind of went back on their word. Either way, I loved writing this chapter and I look forward to writing Shohei's other encounters with the disaster spirits like Jogo or Mahito.