As the three of us walked the streets of Kawaguchi, I couldn't stop my right hand from trembling. I was walking behind Inumaki and Usagi, hoping they wouldn't notice. I jumped at every noise. I didn't even know what we were looking for, or what to expect. I had never seen a cursed spirit before.
'Calm down. Calm down. Calm down.' I thought, but nothing worked. The longer we went without any sign of the cursed spirits, the worse my anxiety grew.
"Are you okay?" I nearly jumped out of my skin, tripped over my feet, and fell on my ass.
"I'll take that as a no." I looked up to see Usagi crouch down, and was face to face with me.
'How is she so calm?' I thought. She then placed a hand on my shoulder, and shot me a smile. Then, she pointed up at the night sky.
"Look up at the moon for me." She told me. I just looked at her with a confused look, and she kept poking me with her other hand until I did as she said. I looked up to see there was a full moon out.
"As long as there is a full moon out, I'm not going to let anything touch you. You're going to be in for a show. I'm just gonna need you to text Maki how impressed you are afterwards." She shot me another smile, and while I was still trembling, it was less than before. She helped me to my feet, and we continued along. After another five minutes, Inumaki stuck his hand out to stop us, and pointed ahead. Up ahead was what looked like oversized rats. They were black with red markings all over their bodies, and had bright yellow eyes.
"There they are! Let's get them." Usagi started walking forward, but Inumaki stopped her, and pointed for her to stay there. She protested, but he shook his head. He then walked out and unzipped his collar on his uniform. The rats took notice of him, and all five charged at him.
"Decompose!" I heard Inumaki shout. His voice sounded like it was amplified through a speaker. As the rats charged at him, their legs began falling apart underneath them. Their bodies were decomposing before our eyes, and their screams echoed throughout the empty streets. After thirty seconds, all that was left of the rats were their bones.
'That was terrifying.' I thought.
Inumaki turned back towards us, and pulled out a bottle that said' Throat medicine' on it.
"That was so cool!" Usagi shouted as Inumaki drank the medicine.
"Salmon." He responded.
'Was that all of them?' I thought.
"Wait! Was that it? I didn't get to show off!" Usagi complained.
"Bonito flakes." Inumaki responded, but then a bull came charging at us from an alleyway next to us. It ran into Inumaki, carrying him away from us.
"Shit! We gotta catch up to him." Usagi said, but before we could chase after him,a group of eight demonic dogs appeared in front of us, slowly circling around us.
'What do we do?' I thought. I felt my legs tremble. They eventually gave out from underneath me, I fell to my knees, and my vision started to blur.
'I'm going to die. I'm going to die.'
"What did I tell you, Fukoru? Nothing is going to touch you." Usagi stepped forward, and cracked her knuckles. The dogs growled at her as they inched closer.
"Alright assholes. You all picked a bad night. Normally, I could only take on a couple of you, but tonight-" She readied herself into some kind of stance, then it looked like her shadow extended towards one of the dogs towards one of the dogs, and latched onto its shadow. Then, it extended out to each of the other dogs, one by one, until she had all eight. Each of them struggled, but they couldn't move from their spot.
"Now that you're not going anywhere. With my technique, I can bind you into place as long as our shadows touch, and I can normally only grab a couple of you at a time, but under a full moon, it gets stronger. I can bind up to ten of you. I call it Cursed Technique: Shadow Stitching, but that's not all. Under a full moon, I can also do this." Usagi explained, then she closed both of her hands into a fist. The shadows began to wrap around the dogs' bodies, and started to twist, and compress them. They all screamed out in pain as one by one, their bodies fell limp to the ground. Afterwards, Usagi fell backwards, and I jumped up to catch her. She looked completely exhausted as she struggled to catch her breath.
"Well, what do you think?" She managed out.
'That was terrifying.' I texted her.
"Just make sure you leave a good word in with Maki for me."
"Ha...ya...shi."
My head shot up as I saw a fox walk out to the middle of the street.
"Your...grades...transfer...you." The fox muttered out.
'Wait. Cursed spirits can talk? How does it know my name?' I thought. Then, a picture of my old teacher flashed in my mind.
'There's no way.'
Usagi then held out her hands, and her shadow raced towards the fox, latching onto it. She closed her hands, but nothing happened.
"Fukoru, I don't have the strength left. I can only hold him here. You need to take care of him." She told me. I slowly reached into my pocket, and pulled out the piece of steel. I gripped it tightly, and tried to summon my blade.
Nothing happened.
I began to panic. I couldn't get the picture of my teacher out of my head, and I couldn't focus.
'I can't do it.'
Just then, another figure fell down from a ledge on one of the buildings, and sliced the neck of the fox, separating the head from the body with his katana.
"Are you two, okay?" I got a better look at him, and realized it was the same guy that arrested me.
'Yuta.'
"Yeah, we are, but who are you?" Usagi asked.
"Oh. My name is Yuta Okkutsu. I'm a second year at Jujutsu High."
"Then, why have I never seen you?"
"I was overseas for a while, until Gojo brought me back to look into the cursed beasts. They've been popping up these past couple months, but this is the most that's been together at once." Yuta helped us both to our feet.
"Well, what grade are you?" She asked.
"Special Grade." Yuta responded while putting up his katana. Then, he looked over at the bodies of the beast that they killed, and just stared at them.
"Special grade?!" Usagi shouted, but Yuta didn't respond. He just kept looking at the bodies.
"Bonito flakes." Inumaki walked back over to us. His uniform was a mess, but other than that, he seemed fine.
"Inumaki!" Yuta cheered, and ran up to him. They gave each other a high five.
"I'm glad you're okay. Do you guys think that's all of them?" Usagi asked, and Inumaki nodded his head. We all walked back to where we were going to meet with Ijichi.
'I was worthless. I couldn't help them with anything.' I thought.
"Is that Okkutsu?" Ijichi asked as we got to the car, and Yuta smiled and waved.
"Mind if I ride back with you? I have something I need to talk to Gojo about."
"Yes, of course. I'll let him know we're on our way." We all piled into the car, and made our way back to Tokyo.
"Hey. I wanted to apologize for arresting you." Yuta said to me. I pulled my phone out, and pointed to it before handing it to him.
"That's right. Give me a second." He took the phone, and put his number in it, then handed it back to me.
'It's okay. I have a place to live now.' I texted him.
'That's good. I didn't want you to resent me. I felt bad after Gojo explained your situation to me.' Yuta texted back.
'I don't resent you at all. Plus, you saved me today. So, I should be thanking you.'
'That's good. Your name is Fukoru, right? What do you think of everyone.'
'They're terrifying.'
'They're not bad people. It just takes some getting used to. I was new to all of this last year, just like you.' He shot me a smile, and I felt calm for the first time that day.
Gojo was waiting for us when we arrived. We all got out of the car, and walked up to him.
"Well, how did the mission go?" He asked.
"It went great. I took down eight cursed spirits." Usagi proudly cheered.
"Actually, that's what I want to talk to you about Gojo." Yuta stepped forward.
"Is something the matter?"
"Well, this was the first chance we had at fighting these beasts, and I don't think they're cursed spirits." Yuta explained.
"Oh? What makes you say that?"
"Their bodies never disappeared. There were bones of the remains of the five that Inumaki killed, all eight of the ones Usagi killed remained, and the one I killed was capable of speech."
"So, you think this is the work of a curse user?" Gojo asked.
"I do. I think they're turning people into curses."
"That is worrisome. We'll have to keep an eye on that. Anything else?" Everyone shook their heads.
"Well then, you're all good to go."
"Tuna mayo." Inumaki said to Yuta.
"Yeah. I'm kinda hungry. I can go for some food. What about you two?" Yuta asked us.
"I would love to. As long as you're paying." Usagi responded, and Inumaki nodded. They all looked at me, but I held out my hand, and shook my head.
"If you say so." Usagi said, then the three of them headed out.
"You should really go with them." Gojo said after they left, but I just looked down at the floor.
"Is everything okay?" He asked.
'I couldn't do anything. I was useless.' I texted him.
"You don't have to beat yourself up over it. You were there to see first-hand, what it's like being a jujutsu sorcerer. We didn't expect you to show results right away."
'But Usagi, Inumaki, and Yuta are all so strong, and I was too terrified to do anything.'
"So, what is it that you want to do?" Gojo asked me. I stood there thinking for a minute. I thought about how Yuta saved me at the end, and how cool he looked doing it. I also thought about how he was able to calm me down on the drive back. I wanted to be like him.
'I want to learn how to use a katana.' I finally texted him.
"Like Yuta?" Gojo asked, and I nodded my head.
"Well then, the night is still young. Follow me." Gojo walked to the exit, and I followed him.
We walked up to the weapon shack next to the running track. Gojo opened the door, and we walked inside. He walked to the back wall, grabbed a katana off the wall, and handed it to me.
"The first thing you need to know is that a normal blade can't kill a cursed spirit. Only a curse can kill another curse. You need to first imbue the blade with cursed energy. So, that's going to be your first lesson. Focus a small amount, and the more you do it, the more energy you can use. Go ahead, and give it a try." Gojo explained. I took the blade out of the sheath, and held it out in front of me. I closed my eyes, and focused on the blade. It felt different than how it normally did when I channeled cursed energy. I felt the sensation throughout my entire body.
"Well, isn't that interesting." Gojo said, and I opened my eyes. He walked up to me, and took the blade.
"Cursed energy was emitting from your body in large amounts. I want you to try and summon this blade now." He explained, and placed the katana on the other side of the room. I nodded my head, pulled the steel out of my pocket, closed my eyes, and focused my cursed energy again. A moment later, I opened my eyes to see the katana in my hands.
"It's as I thought. You can summon any number of weapons, but they need to be bound to you." He explained.
"That is just the first step. Tomorrow starts the real training. Meet with me at the classroom. We're going on a field trip before we start." Gojo told me before we left.