some canon typical gore, canon typical violence, and guns in this one.

NECROFANTASIA

Instantly, Ryan rose to his feet, blinking the remaining sleep from his eyes. Haoyu rushed past him, sliding out one of the camera equipment cases and flinging it open. Ryan craned his neck, looking at the collection of pistols, shotguns, and rifles stuffed where camera equipment should be, before a pistol was pushed into his hands.

"We're going," James said, his voice uncharacteristically stern. "You remember how to imbue cursed energy into weapons, correct?"

The three nodded, standing awkwardly, before Haoyu quickly gestured for them to get moving. Ryan gripped his hands around the gun, feeling its weight in his hands. It was a lot heavier than it looked…

His hand wrapped around the magazine, and he concentrated on feeling his cursed energy deep within him. He'd done this before, with a knife during training that was probably somewhere in the weapons cache back in D.C. His cursed energy squiggled and quivered underneath his skin, like something alive, writhing. With his mind he pulled some of it forth, letting it seep into the gun through his palm.

The door to the back of the estate banged open, slamming against the wall, and the group quickly rushed out into the garden. The air was still, heavy and humid like most southern summers. In the distance, he could hear the shouting and lecturing from the guy from earlier, and the shouting of the teenagers. He couldn't hear any of it, but figured it must be some attempt at strategy.

"We're staying back," Haoyu hissed, adjusting his sunglasses. "We'll be here to back you up if necessary, but its best their teacher doesn't see us."

"Why?" Jaewon hissed, glaring back at him. "'Cause you're too much of a pussy to show your face?"

"No, smartass, because it'll blow our cover, and escalate into a fight between him and I! Now get moving!"

Ryan nodded, even if the thought of their handlers basically leaving them to the wolves made him feel queasy. He quickly ran out, peeking at the fight from behind a well-manicured brush.

No one was dead, yet, thank god. The girl had managed to crawl away, her left leg twisted at a sickening angle. The other two students were circling the curse, clutching polearms and swords in their hands.

His stomach lurched at the sheer cursed energy leaking from the scene, mainly from the bipedal monster. Now that he could get a better look at it, he could make out shallow, dead-eyed features, and how its limbs were twisted, as if they were put on wrong by some cosmic child. As one of the kids slashed at it with a longsword, his long brown hair pulled back into a ponytail, it began to convulse as its neck twisted at an inhuman angle to look at the kid, shouting, screaming.

"LoVE YOu LOoooVE YOU FOREVER LOVE YoU DArLiNG~!"

His blood ran cold, eyes widening. Something awful had happened here, something so terrible that it spawned this abomination…

Jaewon slid next to him, dropping her gun gingerly. He watched as she shifted her hands, making one of her summoning gestures. This one was different than they two he knew, her hands forming a long, beak-like snout almost.

"Yeongno," she called, and her shadow began to shift and gurgle.

A long, snake-like head poked out from the abyss, staring at Jaewon with its four beady eyes, but not moving further. Ryan watched as it spoke in Korean to her in a low, almost regal tone, and his eyes darted to her face. He watched as her expression became tight, eyes growing wide as it slunk back into her shadow.

"Fuck!" She hissed, slamming the ground with one fist. Quickly she grabbed her gun again, clicking the safety off.

"What happened?" Ryan whispered, as Jaewon covered her face with her hands.

"He doesn't want to come out," she complained, voice shaking a little. "Fucking bitch says it's not 'time' yet. God-fucking-dammnit."

"Well, you know who's time it is?" Dara exclaimed, cocking her shotgun once. "Mine, beyotch! LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Ryan could only watch as Dara leaped over the brush, landing on her feet. The curse turned towards her while it was holding off one of the kids, and only had seconds to react before she fired. It missed the chest and head area, but slammed into its right arm. The flesh of its upper arm began to warp and bulge until it finally exploded off its body in a splatter of vicera. As it's arm fell to the grass, a large distorted piece of metal fell with it, landing with a clatter.

Her cursed technique…!

"That's right motherfuckers," Dara crowed, cocking her shotgun one more time. "Diana Lovelace, on the scene. Ready to-"

Dara was quickly swept off her feet by the curse's uninjured arm and slammed into the same side building from before, before he could use his cursed technique to teleport her to safety. Ryan held his breath, craning his neck to look back, trying to find Dara.

"Owwww," she groaned from inside the house, and Ryan let out a breath. Well, at least she took a good chunk off it.

One of the boys charged at the cursed spirit, slicing at its neck and upper body. It did pitiful amounts of damage, and Ryan watched with wide eyes as the stump of its arm began to shift and grow. Before it could progress further, Jaewon jumped up and fired four shots into its head and neck, causing the growth to tremble and freeze.

"Diana, now!" Jaewon shouted as she ran through the brush, turning to look over at her.

"Right on it!"

Another blast from her shotgun, hitting the left leg now. This time, the damage the shot does is minimal this time, only a gaping hole instead of a complete loss of a limb, as if it braced for impact. Fuck.

It lunged at the boy, sending him back far, even when he braced for the impact. Then, the curse turned to Jaewon, a hand slapping across her face before Ryan was able to open a gap between her feet, sending her falling behind the brush again. At a glance, he could see her clutching her face, blood pouring from her nose.

This is bad. Real fuckin' bad. If this keeps up, they're going to start getting picked off quickly. The thought of one of the kids dying made him want to retch. How are they going to win? Dara could pull something out of her ass, but what if she can't think of anything…?

His technique… All it seemed to be good for was getting people out of situations. The gaps in reality, they'd been good ways for the three to avoid security chasing after them, or getting from one place to the other without garnering unwanted attention. All it could do now was get them all out of this mess…

Or…?

When he'd opened the gap to get Jaewon out, he'd been able to shut it quicker than usual, preventing the curse from following her in. It was a new sensation, something that he'd started to get the feel of while training. If he could control it now…

"Diana!" He shouted, poking his head over the brush. "Run at the-run at it! Run at it!"

"What?" She shouted back, and Ryan could make out the crunching of glass and the scuffling of shoes against the ground. The curse seemed to sense her movement, making a low groaning noise as it stomped toward her.

"Just do it!"

Dara darted out of the house, visibly battered but still clutching her shotgun. The curse growls, and rushed at her, and Ryan closed one eye. The gap formed, splitting open the air like an opening eye, allowing Dara to pass through and she fell onto the grass next to Jaewon.

But this time, he waited until the curse noticed the gap, staring at it with those dead eyes. He waited for it to growl and lunge after her, waited until it was partway through until…

Close.

He half-expected the gap to get stuck, like an automatic door when an object was in it's path. Instead, it slammed almost instantly shut with a sickening crack, bisecting the curse in half nearly perfectly. Instead of a flood of gore, Ryan heard a sizzling noise, and an oddly sweet burnt smell permeated the air. The curse itself twitched, it's right arm still a malformed stump. Smoke rose from where its lower half once was.

Dara wasted no time, and immediately fired into its head at close range. Its head exploded like a ripe watermelon, and quickly, the curse itself began to disintegrate into ash.

The three stared at where it once was, waiting for it to somehow claw its way back from the dust it had become. As the reality that they'd just killed that curse, and saved themselves and the students kicked in, he felt himself tremble with the urge to start cheering and bragging a little.

"Miss… Lovelace…?" The girl called out, and Ryan peeked his head out to look at her. "You…?"

Her face was bloodied from a slash on his face, and her eyes were glazed over. She must be in shock, probably from both the broken leg and the injuries around her body.

"And to think you were going to shoo us away!" Dara gloated, hands on her hips, a toothy grin on her face. "You better all subscribe to our channel as tha-"

Ryan jumped as he heard a man shouting from behind the students.

"You three!" The teacher, Alan (?) shouted, running through one of the bushes manicured to be a perfect circle. "Get back here!"

As much as he'd love to interrogate or shout at these four morons, it'd probably end with their cover blown. So… sorry, Haoyu, he thought to himself as he prepared his cursed technique.

"Another Ghost Squad success story!" Dara crowed, before the gap spat the three out back toward the main building.

They slipped in through the front door quickly, trying to evade the sorcerers that might be coming behind them. But then again, they should probably worry about their fellow students, who got pretty badly hurt. Speaking of, Jaewon was clutching her nose still, blood pouring down her face, and he quickly fished out some napkins to pass to her.

"Nice work," Haoyu called out, and the three whipped around to see their handler standing behind them on the staircase.

Haoyu himself seemed odd, mouth turned in a feline smile, and eyes warm, crinkled at the edges. His hands were on his hips, fingers jittery on his suit jacket. James, on the other hand, seemed as pleasant as ever, grinning up at the three.

"Sorry for not interrogating them," Dara said, wincing a little. "I don't think we would've gotten much answers, your friend was pretty pissed."

"No, no," Haoyu waved a hand dismissively, still smiling. "The objectives of our mission changed, and you carried them out perfectly. Well done."

Ryan sighed, feeling something unclench within him.

"I think my nose is broken," Jaewon said, voice muffled from the hand up on her face. James walked over, examining her face, before placing a hand on her nose. His hands light up for a moment, and Ryan watched as her face relaxed.

Reverse Cursed Technique, Ryan recalled James lecturing. Something something reversing negative energy into positive energy so healy hands. Either way, only James had mastered it right now, though he seemed rather insistent that Dara would be able to master it soon.

"Thanks," Jaewon said, blowing her nose. "Now what?"

"We wait for those idiots to retreat, then we head out," Haoyu said, as they walk up the stairs to their room. "Then we'll write our report at headquarters, and catch the first train home."

"Can we grab McDs first?" Dara said, clasping her hands together. "Pleaaase? I'm starved..."

"So," Ryan said, between bites of his burger. "That place, something real bad happened there, didn't it?"

The van was parked in the McDonalds parking lot while they finished off their dinner. Ryan hadn't realized until he smelled the fries how hungry he was, perhaps it was adrenaline? Fear?

"Yes, a murder-suicide," James replied, wiping his mouth. "Couple, on their honeymoon. Long before our time, the details are not really that important."

"Nice of you not to tell us any of that," Dara huffed, before slurping on her soda. "Really nice."

"Well, we didn't believe one event thirty years ago would spawn a special grade. I honestly thought the curse that formed from that was long exorcised. I apologize."

"But then, why would the curse be active now?" Jaewon asked, the red light of a nearby stop-light illuminating her face. "Why not however many years ago?"

"Who knows?" James said, drumming his long fingers. "Maybe it needed a push to fully gestate? Maybe it was hibernating? It's long gone now, and we can't exactly interrogate those things, can we?"

Jaewon nodded, making a low noise of agreement. There was silence in the car.

"Those kids would've died if we hadn't intervened, wouldn't they?" Dara asked, looking out the window at the highway behind them.

"Most likely," Haoyu said, as if discussing the weather. "Or Alec would've finally stepped in."

"That's the other thing! We did all the work! I get why you two held back, but why would he watch his students fucking die?"

Haoyu was silent. Ryan could see his hand moving up and down his chin. Rain was beginning to fall, landing with a low noise against the windows.

Finally:

"I don't know," he said, firm. "Even that moron would usually protect his kids. This… This is completely out of character for him, or what I remember of his character, at least."

"Maybe he was feeding them to it," Jaewon suggested, tapping the window once. "Making it feast on their suffering before it ate them."

"Perhaps," James said, looking back at them. "But jujutsu sorcerers don't emit any cursed energy, so it'd just be feeding on their remains for sustenance, and I don't think that'd force a curse to grow into a special grade..."

Ryan shuddered at the thought.

"Could we not talk about the values of eating children right now?" Ryan asked, already feeling his belly lurch. "I literally just ate."

"Whatever the reasoning is," Haoyu said, drumming his fingers against the steering wheel. "I worry that the next time we'll get called we're going to be too late."

Rain pelted on the roof of the car, and thunder boomed in the distance.

authors note:

chapter name is from necrofantasia, yukari yakumo's theme from touhou. if u know the games u know why

i started watching the xfiles again! i guess my main characters are in the x-files division of their FBI, haha