Chapter 22
Listen. I don't want to hear NO shit from anyone about how long this took. My computer died. I had to rewrite this thing twice. And this stupid chapter is almost 16k words. Give a girl a break :')
Unlike the rest of her friends, Utahime actually enjoyed the benefit gala. Well, maybe "enjoyed" wasn't the right word. It was more that she didn't mind it and that she was good at navigating her way through the guests and encouraging them to donate funds to jujutsu society. It was one of the reasons why Gakuganji pushed so hard for her to come to Kyoto. She was good at talking to people and swaying them to one side or the other.
The only thing was that she was not having a good time this year compared to others, and Gojo may or may not have been to blame for that. She didn't hold anything against him. He had been perfectly clear about their little arrangement but it seemed like they were making good strides until Kaia came back. And honestly? Utahime should have known better. She knew how Gojo felt about the redhead. But still. She didn't need to see them together all night and she certainly didn't need to see him kiss her like she was the very air he breathed.
She just didn't want to see them parade around together and she didn't think that was too much to ask.
"Iori," Mei Mei said, coming up next to Utahime by the open bar pressed against the side wall. The bartender was currently serving one of the higher-ups and the chief of police, so he hadn't even acknowledged Utahime yet.
"Hi, Mei Mei," Utahime said. She looked over her shoulder and shot her an easy smile. "How's it going?"
"Oh, it's fine. Thought I could use another vodka gimlet to keep me going. I always get so bored at these," she said.
Utahime nodded in agreement and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear.
"Me too."
Mei Mei gave Utahime a side eye and smirked. "How are you holding up? Can't be easy to see Gojo parading Kaia around like a proud husband."
Ah, there it was. One of the typical snarky Mei Mei comments that always hit a little too close to home. Utahime refrained from rolling her eyes and said a light, "oh, it's fine. They're happy and I think that's great."
Mei Mei only hummed in response and Utahime did not rise to the bait. They stood in awkward silence until the bartender finished serving his other drinks and finally gave his attention to Utahime and Mei Mei.
"What'll it be?" he asked.
Mei Mei ordered her vodka gimlet while Utahime ordered champagne. The bartender had just started pouring Utahime's bubbles when a loud shriek filled the event space.
Her eyes widened and every muscle in her body tensed, ready for a fight. One quick glance at Mei Mei showed her that the other sorcerer didn't look all that bothered, though her brows did rise slightly.
"Oh my. Wonder what happened," Mei Mei said, sounding incredibly unbothered. The bartender paused and locked eyes with Utahime.
"Should I be concerned?" he asked lowly.
Utahime frowned. "I don't know. There are wards up, so there shouldn't be any cursed spirits. Maybe someone fell and hurt themselves?"
"Uh oh," Mei Mei drawled. She touched Utahime's shoulder and pointed out Shoko and Gojo running out of the event space and into the hallway. Her stomach knotted and she looked through the crowd that was steadily forming to find Nanami not far behind.
"Ieiri, Gojo, and Nanami. That means Kaia is involved," Mei Mei said. She sighed and shrugged her shoulders before turning back to the bartender. "Don't worry. It's nothing you have to worry about. I'd still like my gimlet though."
Maybe against her better judgment, Utahime excused herself and joined the large crowd. She had to push her way through guests and sorcerers alike, only stopping when someone planted a strong hand on her shoulder.
"Iori," came Yaga's deep voice.
"What happened?" Utahime blurted right away.
"A guest went to the bathroom and found Kaia bleeding out on the floor," he explained. "She was stabbed by something in the stomach."
Utahime's eyes must have doubled in size. She leaned closer to her former sensei and lowered her voice. "Do you think it was a guest that did it?"
Yaga grimaced and shook his head. "I don't think so. I have to imagine that her curse is to blame for this."
"But Gojo placed wards," Utahime pointed out.
"I know but the Murakami curse might operate outside of the rules we're used to," he said. "I need to keep everyone in here to stop this night from getting any worse or else Gakuganji will have my head. Can you help me with that?"
Utahime knew that she should have immediately said yes but she hesitated. She may have been a little bitter towards Kaia because of what happened with Gojo, but she still didn't want the girl to die.
"Can I check on them and then help?" Utahime asked.
Yaga didn't hesitate to nod and he waved Utahime ahead. With his graces, she was able to cut through the crowd and enter the wide hallway. Her heels clicked against the marble floor and echoed from the vaulted ceilings. Even from a distance, she could see the emerald green of the fabric of Kaia's dress and something dark red spilling onto the floor.
When Utahime reached them she stood beside Nanami and looked down in shock to see Shoko pressing both of her hands to Kaia's abdomen. Red sticky blood coated Shoko's palms and fingers but she didn't stop working. Utahime looked at where Gojo stood on the other side of Kaia's body, but his expression was dark and she wasn't sure she wanted to risk provoking him.
"I don't understand. I thought there were wards," Utahime mumbled.
"There are wards," Gojo corrected. He crossed his arms and that was when Utahime noticed he had blood on his hands as well.
"You can't blame yourself. Her curse doesn't operate the way most cursed spirits do," Nanami muttered, though Utahime could hear the exhaustion in the blond man's voice. He didn't sigh, but his shoulders were deflated and slumped forward. His brown eyes didn't stray from the wound Shoko was working to close and Utahime thought for a split second that Nanami looked younger again. For a moment in time, she was reminded of seeing Nanami after Haibara had died and the heaviness in his expression and posture.
"Shoko, is she okay?" Utahime asked when she noticed the beads of sweat forming on her friend's forehead.
"Saying that she's 'okay' might be a stretch since she's lost a lot of blood, but she'll live," Shoko said tiredly.
Gojo exhaled in relief and wiped his bloodstained hands on his slacks.
"Gojo, if you're serious about breaking her curse then now would be the time," Nanami deadpanned as soon as Shoko gave the good news.
"I'm working on it," Gojo snapped. "I'm taking her to Okinawa first thing tomorrow morning."
Utahime had never been to Okinawa or the Murakami ancestral property and she couldn't say that she wanted to, but even Utahime knew that bringing anyone with Murakami blood to Okinawa was a recipe for disaster. She couldn't help it when her eyes widened and when she directed her attention straight to Gojo.
"Gojo, you can't be serious," Utahime said.
"You're doing what?" Nanami cut in. "Are you insane? Every time she sets foot on that land she is one step closer to death."
The grimace on Gojo's face was almost painful to look at.
"She can't be any closer than she was just now," Shoko said very softly. She withdrew her hands and all that remained of the injury was a ruined green dress with a large hole in the bodice that was stained with blood.
"I don't want to take her there but that's the only way to break her curse," Gojo retorted as his lip curled.
"Do you even know how to break her curse?" Nanami retorted right back.
Utahime awkwardly shifted from one leg to the other and shot a look at Shoko. Shoko simply shook her head and went back to assessing Kaia for any other injuries. Her hand curled around the back of Kaia's head and Utahime noticed fresh blood coating Shoko's fingers.
"I have theories," Gojo said.
Nanami scoffed loud enough to make Utahime almost jump. "Theories. As if that's enough."
Gojo's jaw clenched. "What would you have me do instead? Let her curse kill her?"
"I'd have you not take her to the place where she's most vulnerable!"
"I have to! She's going to die unless I do something!" Gojo shouted.
"She's absolutely going to die if you take her to Okinawa!" Nanami shouted just as loud as Gojo.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Gojo drawled sarcastically. "Last I checked, she was with me. Not you."
"Last I checked, she confided in me a hell of a lot more than you."
Utahime's eyes widened again and she immediately put herself between Nanami and Gojo before the two could get into a fight.
"Okay, let's all just take a second to calm down. Emotions are high and we don't need the two of you fighting," Utahime said quickly.
"It wouldn't be a fight. I'd kick his ass," Gojo quipped with a smug smile on his face. Utahime rolled her eyes and Nanami snorted.
"You're ridiculous," Nanami hissed.
"You're both ridiculous," Shoko said in a monotone voice. "Can someone get me a towel or something? I stopped the bleeding, but she must have hit her head harder than I…"
Shoko's words died on the tip of her tongue and she gasped, falling back and catching herself on her elbows as a shadow materialized and rose above Shoko.
Utahime's jaw went slack and her body acted of its own accord and forced her into a defensive position.
"It doesn't have any cursed energy," Utahime said in shock.
"What the hell is that?" Nanami asked, withdrawing his blade in an instant.
Gojo didn't look as surprised as the rest of them did, but he did frown as he scrutinized the shadow. It took the shape of a person and towered above them all by almost three feet. When Utahime looked at it, she got a horrific headache that made her stomach churn with nausea. But the shadow didn't actually do anything. It simply hovered directly above Kaia and… Waited…
"Kaia?" Shoko asked.
Utahime tore her eyes away from the shadow and glanced at where Kaia was slowly opening her eyes. The only problem was that when Kaia opened her eyes, they weren't their usual emerald green. They were black. Completely. Everything from the pupils to the irises, to the whites of her eyes. They were completely black.
"Shit," Nanami cursed when he noticed as well.
"Gojo, do something about the creepy shadow before it attacks us!" Utahime ordered.
He looked like he was about to act, but then there were the sounds of more footsteps and Utahime turned around to see Gakuganji, Suzu, and a man dressed in all black with a black mask across his nose and mouth coming down the hallway.
All three of them paused though when the shadow turned to face them.
"Satoru, you are already on thin ice and then you put up faulty wards despite our explicit instructions to make this event as safe as possible. You're lucky Yaga vouched for you, otherwise, you'd be arrested," Gakuganji said.
Utahime watched as Gojo placed his hands in his pockets and looked at the higher-ups plainly.
The man in the black mask took a step back and the shadow suddenly seemed infinitely more interested in him than Kaia. Gojo seemed to notice that too because he seemed to feel comfortable enough turning around and focusing on Kaia despite the clear threat the higher-ups and shadow presented.
"Wow. I'm terrified. Shaking in my boots over here," he said while shrugging his broad shoulders. He crouched down and gingerly touched Kaia's cheek. She seemed to keep coming in and out of consciousness with those jet black eyes, blinking hard to stay awake. "Kaia? You there?"
She groaned in response and the masked man took a step forward. Utahime's shoulders tensed and Nanami blocked the man's straightforward path with his body.
"You're playing with fate," the man in all black said in a raspy voice. "That's why the shadow is here and why her eyes are black. The curse wants her and you've already interfered too much."
Gojo didn't even look over his shoulder as he said an icy, "oh, shut up, Suzaku."
"Suzaku? But—" Utahime turned around and looked at the man, completely stunned. She thought that Mei Mei was hiding Suzaku? Wasn't Gojo paying her a small fortune to do just that? What the hell?
"Gakuganji, are you comfortable letting the man who slaughtered an entire jujutsu family walk freely like this?" Nanami asked. Somehow, his voice was calm and level.
"Considering that we hired him to do just that? Yes," Suzu answered. She smoothed her silver hair back and shot Nanami and Utahime a tight smile. "Kento, Utahime, you're some of the good ones. Don't bring yourself down to Murakami's level."
Holy shit. What?
Utahime couldn't help but remember hearing the stories of what happened to the Murakami. The grisly murders. Kaia being left alone in the house for days, forced to stare at the bodies of her family.
What the fuck?
"You hired him?" Utahime blurted.
"Enough of this. Suzaku, would you—" Suzu's words died on the back of her throat when the shadow's form grew taller and quickly descended upon Suzaku.
Suzaku screamed and fell to the floor as it covered him. He rolled around, thrashing and crying for help, but the shadow never let up. Utahime watched in horror as the shadow went completely black so it was entirely opaque and made Suzaku disappear beneath its form.
"Gojo? You gonna do something or…?" Utahime asked, taking a nervous step back.
Gojo looked away from Kaia when her eyes fluttered shut yet again. He watched as Suzaku continued to scream and tried to get away from the shadow without success. Gojo didn't react and when Utahime looked at Nanami and Shoko, they didn't move either.
"Guys, what the hell? We need to do—"
Suzaku's screams came to an abrupt halt and the shadow turned transparent once more. It then turned to look at Kaia one last time before evaporating. The only thing left in its wake was Suzaku's crumpled up body on the floor. Utahime may not have been close enough to see if he was breathing, but she had seen her fair share of dead bodies, and she had very little doubt in her mind that the man was long gone.
Suzu and Gakuganji froze, staring at Suzaku's body listlessly.
Gakuganji then gave a very heavy sigh as screams could be heard from the event area. He pinched the bridge of his nose and said, "so much for this year being a success. We can kiss our funding goodbye."
"Mm," Suzu muttered. Her eyes sharpened and focused on Gojo. "Enough of this, Satoru. Give us Murakami so we can be done. Her curse has caused enough damage."
Gojo scooped an unconscious Kaia up, one arm behind her back and the other beneath her knees. For a millisecond, Utahime thought that he might actually do it. Just give in to the higher-ups' demands for sake of the greater good, but she should have known better. Satoru Gojo wasn't going to give up the single person he loved to the higher-ups of all people.
"I don't think so," Gojo said. "I'm going take Kaia home and let her recover there."
"Satoru, you are deliberately disobeying direct orders," Suzu hissed.
"As if I would take orders from the people who ordered an all-out execution on a jujutsu family. And an ancient one at that," Gojo quipped.
Suzu snorted and shared a look with Gakuganji.
"Maybe you should take care of the corpse you're standing next to. I don't think the guests are enjoying the view of it," Nanami suggested. He crossed his arms and nodded at the group of people crowding the main entrance into the event hall. Gakuganji seethed through his teeth and Suzu straightened her back.
"The night is already shot and I'm not letting anyone leave until I have Murakami," she snapped. Her eyes glinted. "This is your last chance, Satoru."
Gojo didn't look even a little concerned. He kept Kaia close to his chest and even cracked a smile.
"Make me," he said.
If looks could kill, Gojo would be dead on the floor with the way Suzu was staring him down. Not that he seemed all that bothered by it.
"This is your last chance, Satoru," Suzu warned.
Gojo pouted. "What a bad attitude."
Utahime grimaced and braced herself for a fight. She didn't want to go at it with the higher-ups, but she really didn't have a choice, did she?
"What the hell," came Shoko's voice.
Utahime looked over her shoulder to see her friend's eyes widening and her face turning ash white.
"Sho? What is it?" Utahime asked.
Shoko didn't say anything, but she did point a shaky finger ahead. Utahime followed the gesture to see the body of Suzaku, which had been crumpled on the floor, straightening up. Her jaw went slack and she took a step backward.
When Utahime looked a little closer, she noticed that Suzaku's eyes were completely and totally black. The same way Kaia's eyes had been mere moments ago. And then she noticed that there was something unnatural in his movements. They were jerky and stiff, almost as if someone had placed puppet strings on the man. It was very obvious to Utahime that Suzaku was not moving of his own accord and that something else was forcing him.
"Damnit," Nanami hissed. He kept his blade drawn and advanced forward just as Suzaku bolted across the space separating him and the higher-ups from Gojo and Kaia.
Gojo was too quick, even for the possessed corpse with inhuman speed. He easily sidestepped Suzaku and the man let out an ear piercing screech that forced Utahime to cover her ears and wince against the power of it. It was such a loud, terrible sound that it shattered the glass frames of some of the paintings along the hallway.
More screams came from the event space. Utahime knew that she had to go back in there and help Yaga with all of the chaos before it could get any worse (if that was even possible) but that was a lot harder to do with a corpse running around and blocking all of their exits.
"Gojo, get her out of here! I'll take care of this," Nanami called out. The blond sorcerer moved towards the corpse and for a moment, Suzaku's black eyes flashed red. But then Utahime blinked and they were back to black. It made her wonder if she'd imagined her.
Utahime didn't check to see if Gojo left, but she did feel his cursed energy flicker and she knew he was gone. She stood beside Nanami, ready to fight off the corpse and prepare for a counter-attack.
Suzaku's black eyes flitted around the hall, going from the event space, to Suzu and Gakuganji, to Nanami, and then to where Gojo had just been. Finding nothing there, Suzaku screeched once more, this time causing the marble floors to crack beneath her feet, before collapsing to the ground like a bag of bones.
Any cursed energy that had been imbued within Suzaku's dead body was gone and Utahime let out a heavy breath she'd been holding. She looked between Nanami and Shoko, but both sorcerers looked just as confused as she felt. Utahime then risked a glance at Gakuganji and Suzu, but the two simply stared with wide eyes and slack jaws as if they couldn't believe what had just happened.
Approximately three seconds later, Masamichi Yaga came thundering down the hallway surrounded by Mei Mei, Ino, and Ijichi.
"Would somebody please," Yaga started with a nasty scowl etched onto his face. "Tell me what the hell just happened!"
His voice echoed off the vaulted ceilings and ruined floors, giving Utahime a headache. She groaned and pinched the bridge of her nose as she shook her head.
Gakuganji's nostrils flared as he regarded Suzaku's crumpled up corpse.
"Good question, Masamichi. Good question."
Gojo had left Kaia on the bed, still in her evening gown as he went about the penthouse and tried to find everything they needed for a quick trip to Okinawa. He'd been in the process of searching for her ID when he heard a commotion from the bedroom, specifically the sound of someone falling over. He dropped everything he was doing and quite literally sprinted to the bedroom, terrified that he would find her bleeding out yet again.
But instead of finding Kaia's blood staining his nice hardwood floors, he found her on the floor, wearing a sheepish smile on her pretty face.
"…What are you doing?" he asked.
"I was trying to take off my bloody dress but I fell over. My balance is kind of shit right now," she admitted.
He could have laughed but was too concerned for her wellbeing.
"Okay, well I can help with that," he said quietly. He took her hand and pulled her up, steadying her by placing two hands on her hips. He could see that her equilibrium was off, purely in the way she swayed from side to side if nothing else. Gojo gently turned her around and unzipped the dress, letting it pool around her ankles.
"You're on edge. What happened?" she asked in a serious voice. She turned back around to face him with those big emerald green eyes and he swore he could feel the exact moment his heart broke.
"Nothing, Bunny. Why don't you take a shower and wash the blood off? I don't want us to get stopped at the airport because you look like a murder victim," he said quickly. Those green eyes flickered down his body and he could have shivered under her gaze.
"That mine?" she asked, pointing to his hands that were covered in her dried blood.
The corners of his lips tugged downward and he let out a heavy sigh.
"Yes," he said. He reached forward and cupped her face with his soiled hands but she didn't pull away. If anything, she leaned into his touch and it only broke him even more. "Circumstances have changed. We need to go to Okinawa now."
Her brows furrowed and right when he was about to pull away, she held his wrists and kept him close.
"What happened, Satoru?" she asked.
He didn't mean to wince but the reality of it all was starting to suffocate him and he wasn't sure he would be able to get out from underneath it all.
"I'll tell you on the way. I'm packing some things and we're getting on the first flight to the island. Just do me a favor and wash the blood off. Please," he said as he ran a thumb across her cheekbone.
There must have been something troubling on his face because she didn't argue with him at all. She simply nodded and disappeared into the bathroom. Gojo exhaled and finished up his tasks of getting the essentials together, washing the blood from his hands, and changing into his work clothes. He kept his sunglasses on for sake of flying on a public plane, but he pocketed his blindfold for the inevitable fight that was probably going to take place on the island.
Kaia emerged from the bathroom not long after he finished. She was dressed in black jeans, black ankle boots, and a fitted black shirt with long sleeves that had a mock turtleneck to cover her scar. Her red hair was held back with a single clip and her eyes seemed anxious.
"We going right now?" she asked.
He nodded and ushered her out of the penthouse, making a beeline for the elevator.
The clock was ticking. He figured it was only a matter of time before sorcerers showed up at his place, and he was bound and determined to not be there when they arrived. He wouldn't play their stupid little game and bargain for Kaia's life. Not when he just got her back.
They arrived at the airport in record time thanks to his speeding and even though Gojo didn't typically like doing it, he used his money to get them through security quicker. No questions were asked and no long lines were waited in. Nothing. They sat at the gate in silence as he bounced his leg, replaying the night's events over and over again. The higher-ups. The shadow. Suzaku… Suzaku's corpse.
Shit. Things were spiraling out of control, weren't they?
"Something bad happened when I was out, didn't it?" Kaia asked softly when it was announced their flight would be boarding in a few minutes.
Gojo refrained from sighing and brought an arm around her shoulders, resting his forehead against hers.
"Yes. We have to break your curse tonight. I don't think we can wait any longer," he admitted. "Between your curse and the higher-ups? It's now or never."
Her eyes widened for a fraction of a second, but then she schooled her face into a more neutral expression.
"I see," she murmured.
He pulled back slightly and continued with a soft, "Mei Mei told me some things about Suzaku. He had a few theories for breaking your curse."
"Oh yeah?" she asked. There wasn't much hope in her voice. If anything, all he heard was disdain.
"Yes. He thought that there was some cursed tool on the property that could be used to raze the land. He thought if you could destroy the land, then any ties to it would be broken and that would include your curse. The other suggestion was digging up the little girl's bones from the pond and properly laying her to rest," he said quickly and lowly, hoping that no one was listening.
"And when exactly did he say all of this?" Kaia asked suspiciously.
Gojo sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "He told Mei Mei. Who then told me… After she let him go."
Kaia's eyes grew to the size of saucers and she pulled further away with him.
"What?" she hissed.
He shook his head and tried to calm her down by grabbing one of her hands and squeezing it tightly.
"You don't have to worry about him. He's dead," he said right away. "The shadow that I've seen around you since we were in school? It killed him. I watched."
Kaia's lips parted in shock and she scoffed.
"Satoru, what the hell happened?" she demanded. Her eyes were absolutely wild and her pupils dilated until most of the green in them disappeared.
"I'll tell you once we're on Okinawa with fewer people around. I promise," he assured.
She huffed and crossed her arms, leaning back in the seat without uttering another sentence. He rested his hand on her thigh and let her fume quietly. There would be time for conversation as soon as they were away from the general public and on that godforsaken island that was a constant reminder to him of his failures.
They boarded the plane not long after and settled into their first-class seats. Kaia took the window seat and scowled out of it for the entire two-and-a-half-hour flight. Gojo was just fine with that. It gave him time to try and formulate a plan for when they arrived on the Murakami ancestral property.
They should search for the cursed tool first. That was the safer option. Over his dead body was he going to let Kaia go swimming in that nasty pond to look for bones from a thousand years ago without having tried other alternatives first.
He just hoped that at least one of those solutions was the correct one. If they failed, he was going to lose Kaia for a second time.
And Gojo didn't think he could take another heartbreak. He really didn't…
Exhaustion seeped into Kaia's bones as she followed Satoru through the woods in Okinawa which eventually would lead them to her family's property. He had given her the abridged version of what happened at the benefit gala and her heart sank to the floor. Even if she came out of this alive, the higher-ups would surely try to punish her for ruining the gala. It seemed like every time she took one step forward, she got knocked two steps back.
The path ahead of them morphed into something that was irritatingly familiar. She recognized the mangroves along the watery areas, the centuries year old trees with gnarled roots, and the weakening seals left behind by her father.
Her heart twisted painfully in her chest at the thought of her father and his dying seals. Once they were gone, all traces of him would also be gone.
It hurt. Worse than the stab wound to her stomach.
Kaia looked up at the sky and withheld a sigh. It seemed like every time she came to Okinawa it was in the dead of night. The sky was navy, the stars were peeking out between passing clouds, and the white moon hung high above their heads, revealing only half of its face. She didn't know if that was a good or bad sign, and honestly, she didn't want to know.
She kept her eyes on the uneven ground beneath her boots to keep herself from falling, following Satoru down the faded dirt path covered by brush. She couldn't trust her eyes to keep her on the path, but she could trust her ears. She listened to the sounds of wildlife all around them. The buzzing insects, running streams, and rustling leaves.
They passed beneath a tree with a thick, low hanging branch, and all the sounds she'd been listening to for the last twenty minutes vanished.
No more wind or animals or insects. Nothing.
Kaia remembered seeing sigils carved into the bark of trees the last time they crossed the threshold, and she shined the flashlight Satoru packed to see if they were still there. Sure enough, they were. Carved in palm trees and others that she couldn't identify. The sigils were of crescent moons and salamanders, and Kaia tried to find solace in the fact that some part of her father was guiding them.
Her headache worsened with every step closer to the property but she refused to give into it, even as it made her vision blur with pulses of pain.
As they walked, Kaia smelled the pond before she saw it. The putrid odor emanated from it, filling her nostrils and making her stomach churn with nausea. She grimaced and looked for the dirt path that should have led them away from the stagnant body of water and towards the house on the little hill.
"I don't remember it smelling this bad last time," Satoru muttered, pulling his flashlight away from the thick algae on the surface and gesturing for her to follow him toward the house.
"Maybe it swallowed up some poor little forest animals and their corpses are decaying in there," Kaia said absentmindedly.
"Well, that was dark. Especially considering that your nickname is Bunny," Satoru said with a low hum.
Kaia laughed in spite of herself and shrugged. "True. It's even worse if you think about the fact that my father's seals keep away all wildlife. Maybe I'm the poor little forest animal the pond is going to eat next."
Satoru huffed but didn't reprimand her. He just shook his head and shot a disapproving frown in her direction. She chuckled to herself as they continued up the path until they stood in front of the place of her nightmares.
Bile rose in her throat as she looked up at the house on the small hill. It was always so underwhelming to look at, but considering that she almost let the little girl kill her the last time she set foot in it? Well, she wasn't exactly excited to go inside.
"I can come with you," Satoru said when she stared at it for what felt like a century.
"I don't want you to break the seals though," she admitted a little sadly.
"Kaia," Satoru said. He cupped her face and made her look at him directly. "If this works, it will be the last time you ever have to set foot here. I think it'll be okay if I break the seals to keep you safe."
He wasn't wrong. He was absolutely correct, but the image of her father flashed in the back of her head. She didn't know how her father put the wards up, but she imagined him walking around the land and pouring all of his cursed energy into sealing everything off to keep the family safe. There was something so final about destroying his seals that broke her.
"These seals are pretty much all that's left of my dad. I'd rather they stay intact," she said.
Satoru frowned and released her. "And what happens when the little girl shows up and stabs you again?"
She flinched but couldn't find a good rebuttal, so she said nothing.
"His other seals are still intact. Let me do this. Please, Kaia," he said softly.
She bit down on the back of her bottom lip. Her gut told her to listen to him. He was right. Of course, he was. He was the strongest sorcerer alive and she was toeing the line between life and death on the regular and there he was, offering the best assistance a person could ask for.
So why did something in her push back so violently against the idea of breaking the seals so she could have better protection?
"Satoru, I don't—"
"The land is making you think this way. If you walk in there without any backup, you're dead. Please, Kaia. Let me help you. I already lost you once and I can't let that happen again," he all but begged. His shoulders were pulled taut and his neck was so tense that she could see his muscles straining in a way that looked painful.
Her heart stuttered and even though there was something in her that did not want his help, she nodded anyway.
Satoru sighed in relief and said a soft, "thank you."
He turned his attention to the open gate they stood outside of. The house loomed ahead of them. It beckoned her to come closer, to dig a little deeper and uncover the family secrets. She unknowingly took a step forward, about to cross the threshold of the open gate when Satoru held both of his hands out.
The only indication that the seals were broken was the pulse of energy that surged outward, powerful enough to force Kaia to stumble back. She winced and blinked a few times against the power from the seals being shattered. Once the energy calmed, Kaia watched in surprise as Satoru walked straight through the open gate without any difficulty.
"You coming?" he asked.
She swallowed nervously and stepped through the gates, trying to ignore the overwhelming sense of guilt for having just destroyed her father's seals—things he set in place as a way to protect them. She walked on the overrun path that led up to the house with Satoru at her side. The walk was short and the light of their flashlights only illuminated tiny patches of darkness.
"Kaname's journals said that Yua found a cursed tool in the basement. We should check there first," she said. "I don't know where the basement is though. I never even knew that there was one."
Satoru followed her into the house and she led them through the entryway and into the sitting area right by the kitchen. It was the room filled with paintings and Kaia made it maybe three steps before her eyes locked on the portrait of the black crescent moon on a bed of white. It reminded her immediately of the drawn moon she saw behind the eyes of her cursed technique when she had been looking at Kaname's journals.
Kaia paused and stared at it. Every bone in her body started to thrum in response until she found herself looking at it with her cursed moon technique. Her sharpened vision showed her the same "residuals" from the last time that almost took the shape of fingerprints without any cursed energy. She reached forward to touch the painting but was stopped when Satoru's hand closed around her wrist and pulled it down.
She blinked and deactivated her technique, looking at Satoru over her shoulder in confusion.
"You don't want to touch that," was all Satoru said.
She swallowed hard and rubbed the back of her neck.
"I didn't even realize I was trying to," she mumbled.
He frowned and placed a hand on her lower back, guiding her out of the room and deeper into the house. Her head began to pound the longer they walked through the creaky old home. Her temples throbbed and pain jolted behind her left eye but she pushed forward.
"Here," Satoru said. He touched her elbow and pulled her away from the staircase that led upstairs and over to a narrow door that was between two wooden panels. Satoru placed a large hand on it and slid it to the left. When Kaia shined her flashlight at the opening, the only thing she saw were steep stairs covered in a thick layer of dust and cobwebs. The smell that emanated from the room was a lot like moldy parchment and it did nothing for the pounding inside Kaia's skull.
Satoru went first and she followed closely behind. They reached the bottom of the basement and stood on a floor made of nothing but packed Earth. Kaia looked around the room, taking in walls that were speckled with mildew, the centipedes and spiders that were crawling in the corners and away from her light, and the two wooden dressers that were pressed up against the wall behind the staircase. The room was empty aside from that.
"I don't like it down here," Kaia said, the words slipping from her mouth without her permission.
"I don't like anything about this property," Satoru replied calmly. He strolled over to one of the wooden dressers and opened the top drawer. Kaia watched a cloud of dust rise up which made Satoru sneeze.
"Doesn't your infinity keep dust away?" Kaia asked with a chuckle. She walked closer and stood shoulder to shoulder with him, opening the other dresser's top drawer.
"Well, yeah. I still don't like it though," he said.
She smiled and waved away the grime that floated up towards her as she looked inside. It was as empty as the basement, so she opted for trying the second drawer.
It gave away with a hard yank and Kaia almost went falling backward, but Satoru kept her upright by placing his hand on her lower back to steady her.
"Thanks," she said before she walked back up to the piece of furniture.
Kaia fully expected the drawer to be empty when she peeked inside with her flashlight, but then her eyes landed on a simple knife.
"Think this is it?" Kaia asked, nudging Satoru with her elbow to get his attention. He towered over her shoulder and hummed as he reached forward and pulled it out.
The silver blade was bent completely in half and it was absolutely rusted from the inside out. She wondered if she was going to get tetanus from touching it, but she reached out anyway.
"Doesn't look like something that could raze the land," Kaia thought aloud. She curled her fingers around the handle of the blade and her vision fractured in varying shades of gray and white as she plummeted backward.
Kaia blinked a few times, turning around in a circle to try and get her bearings. She stood on dirt and leaves, beneath a sky of red from the setting sun. When she looked over her shoulder, she could see the family house sitting on the small hill. Ahead of her, there were trees and an empty patch of land where she thought the pond was supposed to be.
Her legs began to carry her forward into the trees of their own volition. She didn't fight against it and let it happen as the open sky above her became crowded with the canopy of the trees. Kaia walked further ahead until the sun was almost entirely blotted out. She continued forward until she could no longer see the house or the path. Her legs then came to a halt in front of one particularly large tree with gnarled roots rising from the ground.
"Please," Kaia whispered in a voice that wasn't her own, completely stunning herself.
"Did you do it?" a wispy voice from inside the tree asked.
She felt her body wince in response.
"I can't. It isn't fair to her. I can do it to someone else, but not her. She's just a child," she spoke. Kaia tried to walk closer, but her legs wouldn't move. She realized that she was stuck in a memory or an event from the past and that she had no way of breaking out of it.
A figure began to emerge from the tree with red eyes and long, almost spidery, limbs.
"The power you seek has a price that must be paid. You know this, Arata," the voice said. It was feminine and when the person fully emerged from within the tree itself, Kaia was greeted with the sight of a beautiful woman with skin the color of milk and jet black hair that reached her hips. She wore a brown skirt that touched the ground and fluttered in the wind. Her breasts were covered only by her thick hair and her red eyes bore directly into Kaia's goddamn soul.
"I don't seek this for no reason. My clan faces extinction without it!" Kaia spat.
The woman gave no indication that she heard her. Kaia narrowed her eyes and wondered if she was a cursed spirit? Maybe she was a curse user?
"That doesn't change the laws of nature. I can give you the power you seek only if you give me what I seek," the woman said. Her voice seemed to echo despite being surrounded by the forest.
"What you seek is the blood of an innocent child," Kaia replied, her voice stony and cold.
The woman cracked a smile that was full of sharp, pointed teeth.
"A child's life is a small price to pay for unlimited power and eternal ownership of your lands," she said.
Kaia could feel her body seethe as she said a desperate, "what about my wife? My brother? Do you want my father's blood? You can have any of it, but you cannot have my daughter's."
The woman took a step forward and Kaia found herself immediately shrinking back.
"That's exactly why it has to be her, Arata," the woman said. A fresh wind blew between them, blowing her hair back, and surrounding Kaia with the smell of fresh rainfall. "You could seek help from someone else. Maybe Sukuna could give you what you want. Assuming he lets you live long enough to ask."
Kaia's jaw clenched and her fingers curled into fists.
"If I give you Mitsuki, then you'll do it?" Kaia asked.
The woman nodded. "I'll do it. Bring me the child and your clan will be protected."
Kaia's instincts screamed at her to get away from the woman. Everything about her radiated danger. Cursed spirit or not, Kaia didn't want to be around her for a second longer than she had to.
"...What are you?" Kaia asked under her breath when the woman didn't back away. Instead, she reached forward and stroked Kaia's cheek with long nails that were coated in a thin layer of dirt.
"You have until midnight or else our deal is off," was all she said.
Her body moved of its own accord again, carrying her through the woods and towards the house. Everything happened so quickly that her mind could hardly keep up. One minute she was standing amongst the forest, and the next minute she was inside the house with a little girl with blonde hair and brown eyes staring up at her.
Kaia's heart clenched tightly in her chest as her hand produced a knife. The little girl's eyes went right to the blade, and she stepped back.
"Daddy?" she whispered.
"I'm sorry, Mitsuki," Kaia said right as something wet slipped down her cheeks.
The little girl's eyes widened and she shook her head.
Icy cold dread settled deep in Kaia's gut. The little girl, Mitsuki, gulped and turned on her heel so she could pivot and bolt out of there. Kaia's own body sprang into action and she launched forward, chasing after the small child. She sprinted after the girl and with her longer legs, she was able to reach Mitsuki in only a few strides. Kaia reached for the child and gripped Mitsuki's wrist hard enough to bruise right in front of the painting of the crescent moon.
"Daddy, stop! I'll be good! I promise!" Mitsuki shrieked. "Please don't hurt me!"
A sob ripped through the little girl's throat as she struggled against Kaia's grip. More tears fell from Kaia's eyes. She sniffled and clenched her jaw hard enough to crack her teeth. The hand that clutched onto the knife began to violently shake.
"I'm sorry," Kaia whimpered. "I have to do this."
Kaia's eyes snapped shut of their own accord just as she jerked her hand forward. There was a tough resistance against the knife, a sign that she had hit something hard like bone before the knife sank deeper. When she opened her eyes, she saw the grisly image of the knife buried in Mitsuki's back—in the same spot where Kaia's mysterious bruise always appeared. Her white nightgown bloomed with red and Kaia cried as she stabbed Mitsuki once more, this time in the softness of her belly. When she stopped, Mitsuki's hands touched the steadily soaking fabric of her gown and pulled them back to see her blood coating her palms and fingers with wide eyes.
Kaia dropped the knife and gingerly touched Mitsuki's cheek as a sob wracked through her. Mitsuki said nothing but she reached forward and grabbed the white robes Kaia wore and clutched onto them with two tiny, bloodied hands.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," Kaia cried. She fell to her knees and brought Mitsuki into her arms just as the child released Kaia's robes. Kaia gathered Mitsuki closer and kissed her forehead between sniffles and apologies. She didn't know how much time had passed but at some point, Kaia found herself standing up with the bloodied body of a child in her arms. She said nothing. She did nothing. She simply held the little girl for what felt like an eternity.
When Kaia left the house and returned to the woods where the woman should be, the sun had completely set and the full moon hung in the sky. It was almost blinding.
The woman eventually materialized and Kaia said nothing as she approached. The wind blew her hair back and that same smell of rainfall filled her senses. It would have been pleasant had it not been for the small body that Kaia held close to her chest.
"Well done, Arata," the woman said. She ran those long fingernails along Kaia's cheek once again before she took Mitsuki's body away. "The moon will be your source of power. Use your cursed energy to activate the technique I'm about to bestow on you and you'll be able to use immense power. You'll even be able to see into the future."
"What are you doing with her?" Kaia asked.
The woman didn't answer. Kaia took one step forward but all it took was a single flash of red eyes to keep her frozen where she stood. The woman looked back at the body in her arms and began whispering something Kaia couldn't make out. Cursed energy began to pulse from the woman and something awful cracked through Kaia's skull. She grunted and put her hands to her temples, crumpling forward until her knees were on the damp earth below.
The pain sharpened and Kaia screamed. She wanted to know just what the hell was going on. Why her skull was pounding away from the inside. Why it felt like she was dying.
But then there was a thump beside her and the pain stopped. Kaia strained her neck to look up at the woman and Mitsuki's corpse lying directly to Kaia's left.
"A few instructions for you," the woman hummed. "Bury the body. Bury her close and let the land take her as payment. You're tied to it now and it will expect recompense if you want to keep my gift. You may never leave the property. If your blood were to abandon this place, it would anger the ghosts residing here, and trust me when I say you do not want that."
Kaia said nothing. Did nothing.
She thought nothing.
"One last thing," the woman said. "As a token of appreciation for what I've given you, I expect payment as well."
"I thought Mitsuki was payment," Kaia said, voice rubbed raw from her sobs.
"Oh no. Mitsuki was the catalyst. My payment is simpler than that. All I ask is that you erect four shrines in my honor and pray at them every so often. Offer up your cursed energy. You reap what you sow, after all," she said. Her red eyes twinkled and Kaia's stomach twisted.
"Four?" Kaia asked. The implication was not lost on her.
"Four. I'll be taking my leave now. I've earned a nice, long rest and I believe it's going to rain soon."
The woman walked toward the trees in the north, her black hair swaying with every step until she completely disappeared from Kaia's sight, taking the sounds of the forest with her until it was dead silent.
Kaia hiccupped on another round of tears and kissed Mitsuki's forehead. Then through her tears and endless sobs, she began to dig with her bare hands until her bones ached and her fingernails all had broken off.
The scene shattered into a million pieces and memories flashed all around Kaia in such rapid succession she could make nothing out. She saw the painting in the house of the crescent moon. She saw a man with long, red hair staring it while possessed with the cursed moon technique. She saw shrines being built with the words 'she sleeps in Northern rain' transcribed on them. She saw the man with his children. Saw him fight off invaders and other sorcerers. She saw him grow old and pray religiously at the shrines every morning and night.
And then she saw the little girl, but she was no longer Mitsuki. Instead, she had blonde hair that was ruined with mats of blood and all black eyes. She stood ahead of Arata late one night with hatred in her eyes and Arata sobbed. He begged for his life but it wasn't enough. The little girl stabbed him in the back and then the abdomen.
Kaia watched distantly as Arata bled out.
And then she watched the cycle repeat itself over and over and over again.
Kaia dropped the knife and scrambled backward, stumbling and falling toward the basement floor when Satoru's arms reached out and held her up before she could hit the ground hard. She panted and let Satoru help her onto steady legs and whipped her neck around to see the tall sorcerer already looking down at her with his lips pursed into a tight line.
"You saw something," he said.
"Mitsuki. That's the little girl's name. Her father killed her to get the cursed moon technique. There's a…" Kaia stopped herself and tried to find the right words but they wouldn't come. "There's some type of spirit that's hiding in the Northern part of the woods. It's a woman. She's the one who gave us our power. My ancestor, Arata, made some sort of deal with her and I don't think the saying on the shrines, 'she sleeps in Northern rain' is talking about the little girl. I think it's talking about the woman. It's her. She's the one who can break my curse!"
Satoru looked at her carefully before responding with a measured, "spirit? What, like a cursed spirit? That's impossible. Your father's wards would destroy any curse within a mile of this place—obviously not including the little girl, but she has her own rules."
Kaia shook her head. "No, not a cursed spirit. I think she's something else. She seemed almost like a deity or something. We have to find her."
"What about Suzaku's theory? The knife is broken, but supposedly it can destroy the land. Shouldn't we—"
"I'm pretty sure that's the knife that was used to kill Mitsuki. Why else would it trigger a vision? I don't think it can do anything for the land either. The little girl isn't the curse, she's a product of the curse. This woman is the one to blame for everything. I saw it with my own eyes! I was Arata! I lived what he lived."
Bless him, because if Satoru thought she was absolutely insane, he didn't say it or give any indication that he thought it. He merely nodded and let her lead him back up the stairs and into the main area of the house. She might not have found some all-powerful cursed tool that could raze the Murakami lands, but finding the dagger had given her something tangible. Something that actually had answers.
Or so she hoped. She didn't even care if she looked completely and totally insane. It was the first time in her entire life that she had actual answers which could lead to a breakthrough.
"Do you see anything unusual? Cursed energy or something supernatural?" Kaia asked once they stepped outside. The sky looked darker somehow, no longer a deep navy but almost black instead. She hadn't realized they were inside for so long but then again, time moved differently in the house. She was just a little surprised that time continued to move differently despite the seals being broken.
Satoru tugged his blindfold off and let it hang around his neck. He plunged his hands into his pockets and looked around the dark landscape. Kaia herself could hardly see anything with how dark it was, though she could see the ethereal blue of his eyes that glinted in the moonlight.
"The pond," Satoru said plainly. "It looks wrong, but it always looks wrong."
"What does that mean?" she asked.
He shrugged. "It just looks wrong, Bunny. I can't explain it."
She nodded and followed him down the overgrown path. As they continued, her eyes slowly adjusted to the night, though she still relied on the flashlight. The house on the hill steadily grew further and further away until they arrived at the pond.
It smelled just as terrible as it always did. Sweet with rot and other heavy odors. She coughed and stared at the thick algae. The shrine stood in the center of the body of water and Kaia flinched when she looked at it for too long and her vision blurred.
The woman had to be nearby.
Kaia walked around the pond, her ankle boots sinking slightly into the soft earth with every step she took. It made her wonder how often it rained on the island and whether the woman truly did sleep when it rained.
She didn't know how far she walked. Probably only a few yards at most when the trees became too thick for her to walk any further and the brush was beginning to snag on her jeans. She reached one particular tree that had such powerful roots that they warped the ground she stood on and somehow she knew.
Kaia cleared her throat and looked at the tree. She waited in silence but nothing happened. She then remembered the vision where she lived as Arata and said a soft, "please" the way he had.
Satoru stood behind her and waited patiently. When she looked over her shoulder at him, she saw his eyes were still revealed… Which meant he saw something that he perceived was enough of a threat to bare his Six Eyes.
"Do you see anything?" Kaia asked.
Satoru was quiet, but he did walk up to the tree she'd been staring at and placed his hand on it. She felt a wave of his cursed energy followed by a powerful swell of additional cursed energy. She took a step back and squinted her eyes against the heavy wind that had picked up. When it died down and her eyes adjusted, Satoru was beside her and a woman stood directly ahead of her.
She was beautiful. Her skin was pale, her hair was jet black, and she wore a skirt that was slightly tattered and touching the ground. Her eyes were red and she regarded Kaia with a vague look of disinterest before she focused on Satoru and quirked two thin eyebrows upward.
"A Gojo with the Limitless technique and the Six Eyes. Hm," was all she said.
Satoru cocked his head to the side and smirked.
"Well, this is certainly a disappointment. You're the one to blame for what's been happening to the Murakami all these years?" Satoru asked.
"Disappointment?" Kaia echoed quietly, her eyes doubling in size.
"Yeah. Disappointment," Satoru said casually. "She isn't a deity or a ghost or anything like that. She's just a cursed spirit. An ancient one and obviously a special-grade, but that's all she is. Looks like she can mask her cursed energy within the land itself which would explain why we couldn't see cursed energy in the first place."
"…I didn't know cursed spirits were capable of thought or speech," Kaia murmured, refusing to take her eyes off the woman. Though, she didn't seem all that interested in Kaia. The woman hadn't looked away from Gojo even once.
"I didn't know that either," Satoru admitted.
The woman finally turned her attention to Kaia. Her lip curled as she sneered, "Arata's spawn. You've been the problem child of the Murakami line."
Kaia blinked dumbly a few times but she didn't dwell on the confusion for long.
"I saw Arata make a deal with you. He killed his daughter for the cursed moon technique," Kaia said. "How the hell does a cursed spirit give a sorcerer their technique?"
The woman stared harder at Kaia. Those red eyes seemed to bore directly into Kaia's very soul, just as they had when she saw Arata in her vision.
"Why have you called me?" the woman asked, directing her question at Satoru.
"Because we want to break this curse. Although, I can probably just exorcise you and break it that way," Satoru said. He smirked and rolled out his neck until there was a series of little pops.
The woman didn't react immediately. She stepped forward and Kaia found herself taking a step back.
"You can exorcise me but that won't do anything for the curse. It's already set in place," she said to Satoru, though her red eyes were glued on Kaia. "Your father took you away from here. He deprived me of what was rightfully mine."
"And what was rightfully yours?" Kaia asked, hoping that her voice didn't shake with the fear that had settled deep in her bones.
"The Murakami," the woman said without hesitation. "You are all rightfully mine."
"Well, you unfortunately missed out on your chance to get my family. It's just me now," Kaia said a little nervously.
"Yes, but I will have you. You're on borrowed time anyway. You should have been dead a long time ago," the woman drawled. She moved forward with the speed that only a cursed spirit could have, gripped Kaia's neck with those long fingers, and pinned her to the tree.
Kaia grunted as the breath left her lungs from the sheer brunt of the impact and from the sensation of the bark digging into her back. It took every ounce of self control she had to keep her fear in check and not immediately start panicking. She stayed as calm as she possibly could, reminding herself that Satoru was nearby and that he wouldn't let a cursed spirit kill her so easily. She braced herself for the worst and looked directly into the cursed spirit's red eyes.
"I'll let you kill me and I won't even put up a fight, but I want answers first," Kaia said.
"Kaia," Satoru said sharply.
The ethereal beauty of the cursed spirit made her all the more terrible to look at, but the woman slowly smiled and revealed her pointed teeth.
"You can put up a fight but I'll still kill you easily. You're nothing without the technique I gave you," she said.
"Yeah, but I'm not the one you need to be worried about. I didn't bring Gojo just because he's pretty to look at. You think you can take on the Six Eyes?" Kaia quipped.
The woman's eyes glittered and she very slowly turned her head around to direct her attention to Satoru.
"No. I don't," she said. She looked back at Kaia. "But he can exorcise me and it won't matter."
Kaia narrowed her eyes for a fraction of a second. What did that mean?
"Do we have a deal or not? You answer my questions and I go quietly into the night," Kaia said. She didn't bother looking at Satoru. She didn't want to see the look on his face when she said it. She didn't want to see his blue eyes so disappointed.
The woman chuckled and released Kaia but she didn't step back. She lingered and the scent of fresh rainfall filled Kaia's nose. She'd never been around a cursed spirit that had such a pleasant aroma. They usually smelled of sulfur and death.
"Ask away. I've been starved of blood for too long," she said.
"What was the point of the curse? You could have killed Arata and kept the land for yourself. So why didn't you?"
The woman stared Kaia dead in the face. "Because if Arata didn't take the land, someone else would have. It was a different time and sorcerers were killing each other left and right to try and stake their claim. It was better to bind him and keep an eye on his family.
"But what did that do for you as a cursed spirit? Sorcerers were still living on your land," Kaia said.
"They were living on my land but they were bound to me. Every time a Murakami dies here, I get a little more powerful. Besides, it was an easy way to have a fresh supply of blood without having to risk myself unlike other curses," she said.
"What about the cursed moon technique? I've never known a cursed spirit able to do something like that."
The woman shrugged and said an almost bored, "most cursed spirits aren't as old as me. I'm even older than Sukuna. Being this old gives you power."
Kaia's eyes flashed to Satoru's. The white-haired sorcerer stood with his arms at his sides and even though his body looked relaxed, Kaia could see that his shoulders were pulled taut and that he was on edge, ready to act at a moment's notice.
"Why was Mitsuki's death so important?" Kaia asked.
"She's the anchor that ties everything together," the woman said. "Are we finished?"
"One last question," Kaia said. "Is the pond where Arata buried her?"
The woman said nothing for a long time. The night was silent around them. There were no animals. No insects. Nothing at all, save for subtle gusts of wind. She wondered how much of that was due to her father's seals and how much of it was due to the woman.
"Yes," the woman said.
Kaia didn't even have time to blink before the woman was on her again, gripping her neck and squeezing tightly so that her nails dug into the flesh. Kaia wheezed as the woman lifted her off the ground with nothing but a grip around Kaia's throat. She kicked her legs out and suddenly, the woman was ripped away and Kaia fell to the ground.
"That's enough," Satoru hissed.
Kaia planted her hands on the soft dirt beneath her and pushed herself up. She didn't wait for Satoru and bolted out of the wooded area, accidentally dropping her flashlight on the way. She could hardly see anything with the darkness all around her but her legs carried her forward. Satoru could deal with the woman but Kaia was the one who needed to deal with the family curse.
She stumbled on the uneven ground and tree roots, tripping a few times and scuffing up her knees while putting tears in her jeans. Her lungs burned and her blood was pumping so loudly she could hear it in her ears.
Kaia could smell it before she could see it. The rot of the pond was always so pungent that she couldn't miss it even if she tried. She skidded to a stop directly in front of it, hesitating right at the edge. The algae was stagnant and would block what little light the moon provided. And given how dark it was, she needed every single ray of light that she could get. Kaia sucked in a breath and released blue fire that consumed the green plant matter on the surface of the water.
It burned away and the stench worsened.
Kaia fought back the urge to gag and took a single step into the pond. Even without the algae, the water was brown and murky. She winced and steeled herself. She didn't want to do it but she didn't have another option. The woman practically confirmed it herself. Mitsuki was the thing that tied everything together and her bones were somewhere at the bottom of the pond.
She focused her cursed energy in the center of her forehead, activating the technique that granted her increased physical prowess. She would need all the help she could get if she wanted to pull this off.
Without waiting any longer to do it, Kaia took the plunge and walked out into the pond until the icy cold water reached her chest. She shivered and took in a deep breath of oxygen before diving down.
Her eyes burned when she opened them and the water felt slimy with every stroke of her arms. She couldn't see much. It was just so dark, but the eyes of her cursed moon technique provided an extra level of clarity where she could at least make out shapes of plant life deep within the pond. She swam deeper and deeper, waiting to hit the bottom of the pond. It couldn't be that deep, could it?
Kaia's lungs began to burn. How long had she been swimming? It didn't feel very long and with her technique activated, she should have been able to hold her breath much longer without—
Something seized the back of her shirt and yanked her out of the water. Kaia's cursed moon technique fell away as she was flung out of the pond and landed hard on her back, coughing harshly and trying to catch her breath.
She whipped her head around, expecting to see Satoru but instead saw a massive figure. It was the black shadow without cursed energy hovering over her. It formed long limbs that were spidery like the woman's and reached for her. It pinned her to the ground, pressing her body into the soft ground with a nauseating pressure on her ribs.
Kaname's journal entries suddenly popped into her head, referencing the shadow that should have obeyed him. She reactivated her cursed moon technique and prayed for a miracle.
The shadow did not react to the technique but the pressure on her began to ease up. Kaia reacted and covered her body in cursed energy to kick her legs out and make contact with the shadow to force it away.
But the shadow hardly moved. It backed up, but only enough so that it had a better angle to grip the back of her hair and drag her back to the pond. Kaia thrashed and flailed her limbs, but they bounced pathetically off the shadow's form. She absentmindedly wondered why the shadow was trying to kill her when it was supposed to obey her as the holder of the cursed moon technique.
And then the shadow reached the pond and shoved her head down with so much force she damn near got whiplash and so her face was submerged in the dank water.
Kaia planted her hands on the wet earth at the edge of the pond and pushed herself against the shadow's hold, but it pushed her deeper so that she couldn't get her palms on any steady ground. Her hands groped around in the darkness for a sandbar or something else to give her leverage, but it was all sediment around her fingers and they passed through the mud like water. Not even her cursed moon technique was enough to give her the strength to free herself. The shadow was so much stronger, even with her technique.
Her lungs started to burn and the overwhelming urge to suck in a deep breath started to overcome her. Gritting her teeth so hard that she was pretty sure she chipped a molar, Kaia fought against the urge and tried to fight back. Her head pounded from the lack of oxygen and her jaw quivered.
Just one breath. One breath and it would all be over. No more cursed spirits. No more little girls waiting to murder her. She'd be free. She'd be able to see her mother and father again. She'd be able to see Maha.
Kaia's heart ached. She wanted to see them again so badly. She was exhausted. She'd been trying so hard and fighting against the inevitable for so long. Why shouldn't she do it? Why shouldn't she let go?
"Fatima," Kaia started nervously. She scratched the back of her head and tried to find the right words but her brain seemed to fail her. "There's a possibility—a likelihood that something terrible will happen to me. I might not—you might…" She sighed. "We might not ever see each other again."
Fatima's hazel eyes flickered and Kaia noticed how glassy they were in the setting sun from her window.
"I know that," she said. She sniffled and wiped away a tear before it had a chance to fall. "But you have to promise me that you won't let it happen so easily, okay? Promise me that you'll put up a fight whenever that time comes."
Kaia had to look up at the ceiling so her tears didn't ruin her makeup.
"I promise," she said under her breath.
No. No, she couldn't let go. She promised Fatima she wouldn't. Fatima, the one person who put Kaia back together, painstakingly bit by bit, told Kaia she couldn't give up so easily.
Kaia squeezed her eyes shut and fought against the shadow one last time. Only instead of pushing back against the shadow, she let it shove her deeper into the pond and used her center of gravity to push her over the edge and back into the water so the shadow lost its hold on her.
She let her body go limp and fell completely forward into the pond. The shadow's grip disappeared and she was free to turn herself around and break the surface of the water for a desperately needed gasp of air.
"You okay?" came Satoru's voice. Kaia panted and relished in the sweet oxygen as she swam over to the edge and grabbed his hand.
"Where's the shadow?" Kaia asked as she looked around quickly. She saw no cursed spirits or creepy shadows. Nothing save for the path up to the house, the trees, and the moon.
"I took care of it," he said.
"And the woman?" Kaia asked.
"I sealed her off for now. Thought it might be useful to keep her around for a little longer," he said. His eyes were bare still and those icy blue irises glanced at the pond. "Care to explain what you're trying to do?"
Water dripped from Kaia's hair and clothes, soaking the ground beneath her feet and causing the dirt to form into a puddle of mud. She crossed her arms over her torso and shivered lightly.
"Mitsuki's bones are down there and I think they're cursed objects. You heard the woman, she said Mitsuki was the anchor and that killing her would do nothing. What if she's like Sukuna? To kill him, you have to destroy all of his fingers. This curse is older than him. Why should she be any different?"
Satoru's eyes flickered. His lips parted as if he was about to say something and then his face darkened.
"Kaia, activate your domain. Now," he said.
She didn't know why he suddenly looked so serious and why he demanded her to do it, but she wasn't going to argue with him. Keeping her technique activated, Kaia arched her fingers on both hands and brought them together until her hands formed a wide circle.
"Domain Expansion. Blood Moon."
Her domain encircled and trapped them. The area hardly changed since they were in Okinawa, but the moon turned full and the white of it became dowsed in a bloody red color that illuminated them and everything else around in the same hue.
She felt a third presence in her domain make itself known and when Kaia turned towards the trees, she saw the woman standing there. Her long black hair hung over her face and Kaia noticed black seals curled around her neck, wrists, and waist. Her red eyes sharpened and she let out an ear piercing scream that sounded an awful lot like the little girl's screams.
Kaia reinforced her ears with cursed energy and turned towards the pond.
"Kaname," she barked. "Show yourself."
Moment of truth. Either it really was Kaname in her domain or it was something else. But honestly? It didn't matter. Whatever it was, it was in Kaia's domain and she was the one that commanded it.
Her grandfather emerged from the pond with his long red hair and traditional robes. His eyes glowed along with the circle in the center of his forehead, showing off the cursed moon technique. The rage of the technique screamed inside her head, but it mixed with the sound of the woman's screams and for some reason, it didn't bother her.
"What?" Kaname deadpanned.
Kaia completely turned her back to the woman, relying solely on Satoru to keep her safe.
"There are bones somewhere at the bottom of the pond. Bring them to me," Kaia ordered.
The woman let out a loud shriek and Kaia felt her move with inhumane speed inside the domain, bracing herself for the moment of impact.
Kaia forced herself not to pay attention to the woman and instead kept a laser-like focus on Kaname.
"Well?" Kaia pressed.
Kaname said nothing as he held his hand out, palm facing upward. Kaia hesitated and took one step forward, reaching out her own hand.
Everything would be fine. They were inside her domain after all.
Kaia placed her hand in Kaname's and his fingers curled shut around hers almost painfully. She blinked up at him in confusion just when her vision cracked and Kaname Murakami no longer stood in front of her. Instead, the figure holding her hand was that of the little girl. Her hair was bloodied, her eyes were black, and she squeezed so tightly Kaia felt the bones in her knuckles crack.
For what might have been the first time in all of Kaia's life, she didn't feel any fear as she stared at the little girl. If anything, it was anger and exhaustion.
"Fine! Let's end this!" Kaia snapped. She pulled the hand that the little girl clutched onto closer right as she took a step into the pond. Kaia wrapped her free arm around the little girl's shoulders, holding her tightly against her chest, and jumped forward so they both fell into the pond.
The water was neither cold nor warm as they sank deeper. And despite the darkness of the night, the blood on the moon provided enough red lighting for her to make out the little girl's face in the filthy water. Mitsuki thrashed against Kaia, but Kaia held onto her tighter. She released Kaia's hand and beat Kaia's chest with tiny fists that packed way too strong of a punch for her small stature.
Kaia refused to let go.
They sank further down until her feet hit the bottom of the pond and the eyes of her cursed technique showed her Mitsuki's face clearly, despite the water and sediment floating around them. It wasn't until Kaia's boots were on something solid did she release the little girl and opted for reaching down toward the bottom of the pond. Her movements were slow, hampered by the water, but she managed.
Kaia's breath was starting to deplete and there was the terrifying fact that the little girl floated within arm's reach silently. Thankfully though, she didn't move to strike or kill. She simply… Waited.
Kaia's fingers pushed through the wet dirt, uselessly moving it around and revealing absolutely nothing. Her lungs started to tingle, signaling that she better find what she was looking for or get the hell out of there.
She moved faster, sinking to her knees and digging. They had to be there. Had to be. Arata buried Mitsuki in a shallow grave a thousand years ago that became the pond. Surely, they couldn't be far. The pond must have been twenty feet deep. If they weren't there, at the bottom, then they probably didn't exist.
The tingling in Kaia's lungs started to shift into a light burn. She dug harder, catching her nails and breaking them on a buried rock.
No. No, no, no. If she went up now, she would die at the hands of the little girl or the land itself. She couldn't—NO.
Little bubbles escaped Kaia's nose as she dug harder, splitting all of her fingernails and making her broken knuckles ache.
It was to no avail. There was nothing to be found save for tree roots, rocks, and mud. Bubbles slipped out of the corner of her mouth, joining the ones from her nose as her vision started to go blurry.
Kaia was about to give up and accept her fate when another set of hands started digging beside her. Kaia's eyes widened and they snapped to Mitsuki. The little girl seemed to know exactly what Kaia was looking for because after only a few seconds, she uncovered something and started tugging on it. Kaia joined her and grabbed the saturated fabric Mitsuki was clutching onto and yanked it back as hard as she could.
The fabric came free and with a heavy heart, Kaia realized it wasn't just fabric. It was a rough material that encased something hard and small, kept rolled shut with heavy iron chains that were rusted from the water. Kaia held the makeshift bag to her chest and pushed off the bottom of the pond, barely managing to swim to the top where a blood red moon reflected off the surface.
Kaia broke through and gasped, the cursed moon technique and domain falling away with her exhaustion. Her cursed energy was depleted and she barely had the energy to pull herself out of the water. Had it not been for Satoru slipping his hands under her arms and hoisting her up, she might have sunk back down to the bottom.
"How did you find those? They were sealed!" came the woman's voice. It was pitched so high that Kaia thought it almost sounded like bells.
"You were right," Kaia wheezed from where she was hunched over on her knees, clutching the bag of bones tightly to her chest. "It wasn't Kaname in my domain, it was the little girl. She's the one who showed me where they were."
The woman screamed and it was then that Kaia realized she was oozing purple blood from her bare chest and crumpled up on the ground a few feet away.
"I'm right, aren't I?" Kaia asked the woman. "About Mitsuki's bones being cursed objects?"
The woman said nothing but she did stare darkly at Kaia with those eerie red eyes. In the darkness of the woods at night and with her dark hair hanging over her face, she almost looked like a vengeful spirit straight out of a bad Hollywood movie.
Kaia set the bag down and ripped it open without taking off the rusted chains, not even noticing the pain of her shattered knuckles as she performed her task. After a millennium of being submerged, the bag and the seals keeping it intact gave away without much of a fight. The bones tumbled out, not even held back by the chains used to keep them encased in the bag.
She felt sick. The bones were so small, clearly having once belonged to a child. And yet despite that, a nauseating amount of cursed energy exuded from them, confirming her theory.
"Oh, Mitsuki," Kaia said sadly with tears pricking the backs of her eyes. It was no wonder the little girl was so furious. No wonder every time Kaia activated her technique, she felt a terrible rage consume her. Not only was the child killed by her father and her remains were left to rot in a shallow grave, but her body was used as an anchor for a cursed spirit to latch onto.
Kaia was thoroughly drained of cursed energy after using her domain to dig up the bones, but she had to do something. She had to at least tr—
Something cold and sharp pierced Kaia's back, in the same location where her mysterious bruise was.
"Kaia!" Satoru shouted.
"Wait!" Kaia cried out. She swiveled around and saw the cursed spirit that was once Mitsuki Murakami. Her hand was slick with Kaia's blood and her lip was curled in a snarl. "Let me help you," she tried.
The pain in her back was unbearable, so much worse than the pain from her powdered knuckles. Part of Kaia wondered if the pain was worse because of the implication. Because of what it meant to be stabbed in that particular spot on her back.
Mitsuki didn't respond and Kaia felt her energy draining. She craned her neck over her shoulder and tried to breathe fire on the bones, but her cursed energy was gone. Completely and thoroughly depleted after having used her domain.
"Satoru, the bones," Kaia groaned when the pain jolted through her back and made it difficult to move.
He got the hint and she felt a wave of his cursed technique connect with Mitsuki's bones. Kaia watched with relief as they turned black and began to burn until they started to disintegrate. The woman cursed and struggled to stand, but Kaia paid her no mind and focused on Mitsuki instead.
She stood almost at eye level from where Kaia was on the ground and her black eyes flickered between Kaia and the woman. Kaia shook her head and reached forward with her broken hand, gingerly touching the little girl's shoulder.
"Mitsuki?" Kaia asked softly.
Those jet black eyes snapped to Kaia, but her expression did not soften. Her lip was still curled in a snarl and her brows were furrowed.
"You're free," Kaia tried. She didn't know if she would need to be exorcised one final time or if she would disappear with her bones, but Kaia hoped it would be the latter. It seemed so cruel to exorcise her one more time now that she wasn't bound to the curse against her will.
"…Daddy?" came Mitsuki's tiny voice.
Kaia risked a look at Satoru as if he would have the answers.
"Your cursed energy," he offered. "It must look like Arata's."
She looked back at Mitsuki and the child's lip began to quiver. Kaia said a gentle, "I'm so sorry," in hopes it would pacify her, but that didn't seem to be the case.
Mitsuki's lip trembled harder and bloody tears filled those black eyes.
"Why?" she asked in a wretched sob.
Kaia's own eyes watered and she shook her head.
"I don't know, Sweetie. I'm so, so sorry," Kaia said.
Mitsuki sniffled and let out a whimper which broke Kaia's heart. Unsure of what else to do, Kaia reached forward for the second time that night and wrapped her arms around the cursed spirit's small figure. Mitsuki choked on more sobs and clutched the front of Kaia's shirt, the same place where she had held onto Arata with bloodied hands.
"It's time to go now. It's time to rest," Kaia said as gently as she could, stroking Mitsuki's dirtied blonde hair with a shaky hand.
The grip on Kaia's shirt tightened to the point that she heard the sound of the fabric tearing.
"It's time, Mitsuki," Kaia whispered.
The bottom half of Kaia's shirt tore open and something hard pierced her abdomen for the second time in less than twelve hours. She didn't have to look down to know that Mitsuki's hand stabbed her again. She didn't have to see the wound to know that it was the same killing blow Mitsuki received over a thousand years ago as she stared at the painting of a crescent moon.
Kaia didn't care. She hugged Mitsuki tighter as the little girl began to wail. Her shoulders violently shuddered and were kept steady only by Kaia's embrace.
"It's okay. You can go now. I won't be mad," Kaia murmured against the child's ear. "I promise."
She heard Mitsuki sniffle and felt her body relax.
"I'm tired, Daddy," Mitsuki cried.
"I know," Kaia said. "But now you can take a rest and let it all go. I'll see you soon, okay?"
Mitsuki's arms curled around her torso and her bloodied hands made a mess of the rest of Kaia's shirt. But she refused to release the little girl until she was ready. Tears streamed down Kaia's cheeks. How many times had she felt a rage that was just like Mitsuki's after being left alone? How many times had she cried out to the spirit of her father for guidance? How many times did the anger of it all become all consuming?
"It'll be okay. I promise," Kaia murmured.
Mitsuki sniffled and squeezed a little tighter. But eventually, her embrace started to weaken until Kaia was left hugging nothing but air.
The world around her started spinning and she placed her broken hand across her abdomen. It came away wet with blood and one look at the sheer amount of it made it painfully clear to Kaia that it was deadly.
Satoru was at her side in an instant, one hand putting painful pressure on the wound in her back and the other pressing down on the one in her stomach.
"Kaia, stay with me," he said quickly. "I know you can use reverse cursed technique. You did it when I was evaluating you for a promotion. You did it again when Suzaku attacked you. Come on, Bunny. I know you can do it."
Oh, wow. The way the woods of the property were spinning made her feel like she was high again. It wasn't entirely different from the way the drugs made her feel in clubs around the world.
"I'm out of cursed energy," Kaia murmured. She blinked up at the break in the tree canopy, giving her a perfect view of the white moon.
"You have to try. Come on, Kaia. Just give it a shot," Satoru encouraged.
"I'm tired," Kaia said, echoing Mitsuki's sentiments. She chuckled softly, "Maha is going to be so mad at me when I see her again. She's going to give me such a hard time about all the partying and drugs."
"Kaia, focus. You're gonna have to wait a little bit longer to see Maha, okay? Just—come on. Just try for me," Satoru begged. He sounded absolutely wrecked. His voice kept cracking and he kept pushing harder on her wounds as if they would magically heal if he pressed hard enough.
She looked away from the tree canopy and focused on Satoru's blue eyes.
"I love you, Satoru," she said weakly.
His jaw clenched and she swore she saw his eyes starting to water.
"I love you too, Bunny. So much," he croaked.
Kaia smiled and closed her eyes.
She had no regrets.
Gojo held Kaia tightly against his chest and continued to place heavy pressure on her wounds. Fuck! If only he had learned how to use a reverse cursed technique on other people. What good was being the strongest if he couldn't even fucking do that? He should have brought Shoko with him. He should have exorcised the little girl before Kaia decided to go all fucking noble and risk her life.
He felt her heartbeat slowing with every passing second. His eyes burned and a heavy weight sat on his stomach. He already lost her once and here he was, losing her again.
"I can save her," the woman said.
If he didn't have Kaia's literal dying body in his arms, he would have gone over to the cursed spirit and ripped her apart limb by limb. He would have dragged her into his domain and let her die in the agonizing pain of Limitless. His eyes flashed to where she was sitting up, still nursing the near deadly wound he inflicted when she tried to attack Kaia.
"I can't wait to exorcise you," he threatened in a low voice.
The woman pulled her hand away from her wound and sat up straighter, the wind blowing her black hair away from her bare chest and pale face.
"Let's make a deal, Six Eyes," she started. Her voice pierced his ears like windchimes, only it wasn't pleasant. "A binding vow. I save Arata's spawn and you let me go."
He scoffed, "this coming from the same special-grade that cursed a family for over a thousand years? I don't think so."
He felt Kaia's heart stutter beneath his touch and his stomach twisted. Only a few more minutes and she'd be gone.
The woman sneered, "I'm a cursed spirit that's been alive for over fifteen hundred years. I'm not so keen to die at the hands of the Six Eyes all because his lover succumbed to a curse. No tricks. My life for hers."
If it had been any other person on the face of the planet, he would have spat in the curse's face and exorcised it right then and there.
But it wasn't any other person. It was Kaia Murakami. The girl he had loved since he was just a boy. The girl he lost once already. The woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.
Having Kaia around was a weakness. Gojo knew that. She was something his enemies could use to exploit him. Mei Mei had already proven that, and she was a "friend." He could only imagine what his true enemies would use her for. And truthfully, they would be smart to use her against him. She was his weakness.
But he didn't care about any of that. What he cared about was the fact that the woman he loved more than anything in the world was bleeding out in his arms and he caved.
His eyes flashed to the cursed spirit. "I'll agree to let you get away tonight if you save her life and swear to never come after her ever again."
The curse's red eyes seemed to brighten in the darkness of the Murakami ancestral property.
"Deal."
The woman stood up and hobbled over to Gojo. She dropped to her knees and her red eyes raked across Kaia's frame from head to toe. Her lip curled but she said nothing as she placed one hand over the wound on Kaia's stomach and the other on Kaia's back.
"I've never seen a cursed spirit like you. You hide your cursed energy well," Gojo said almost absentmindedly as she worked.
"I was born from the forest and the island itself. My cursed energy is hidden through nature," she muttered. "I hope you know that this goes against my very existence. She's supposed to belong to me."
Gojo's hands curled tightly around Kaia and he held her a little closer if that was at all possible.
"Is the shadow yours?" he asked.
"Yes. It's been…" she paused, seemingly searching for the right words. "Difficult for me to leave the island with Kaito's seals. The shadow was an easy way for me to observe what was going on."
Gojo nodded as a feeling of numbness washed over him. Then he remembered Suzaku screaming about the ghost of Maha Murakami and his eyes broke away from Kaia and homed in on the woman.
"The person who killed Kaito claimed that Maha Murakami was haunting him. Kaia said she saw Maha in a shadow that stalked him and ultimately killed him. You know anything about that?" he asked.
The woman looked up from Kaia and withdrew her hands with an unnerving smirk.
"This particular one may have held the cursed moon technique, but all of the Murakami belonged to me. That man took what was rightfully mine and I needed to remind him of that," she said.
Gojo narrowed his eyes. "Have held the technique?"
She didn't answer him. She rose to her feet and licked a single stripe across her palm to savor the taste of Kaia's blood.
"I held up my end. Now you hold up yours."
She vanished without uttering a single word, leaving Gojo alone with Kaia. He felt her heartbeat, weak but steady. Felt the warmth return to her body.
He sighed in relief and kissed her forehead.
She would live. She would live…
She would live.
