I THINK I STARTED SOMETHIN' / I GOT WHAT I WANTED
Standing in the domain, with the sharp taste of bile still in her throat, Jaewon realized truly how lucky she was. The curse from her childhood took two hits from her shikigami before it was dog food. The curse from the hotel took more effort, and broke her nose, but it still went down easily with the combination of Ryan and Dara. This one…
If they don't kill this thing fast, there will be no survivors. No one returns.
She could try summoning Yeongno again, but he'd probably rebuke her, claim it wasn't time while her head got sliced off. That fucker. So, other than the dogs which were probably too small to do anything significant, there was clearly only one option.
Her hands formed the sign to summon bonghwang almost instinctively, before a volley of shots caused her to lose focus. She looked up to see Dara firing several rounds into the curse, its flesh warping and exploding as her cursed technique took effect. Jaewon leveled out her own rifle, and fired a shot as well, but even with Dara's powers present, it seemed to be barely slowing it down.
"Don't-Don't let it get any closer!" The kid howled, clutching onto James' button-down, face ghostly pale and eyes wide. "Please! Please!"
The curse's eye turned towards them, its gaze seeming to bore into their souls. It raised one of its long, whip-like arms and slammed it down on Dara. Ryan had mere seconds to activate his own technique with a shaky flip of his hand, and a gap spat an unharmed Dara next to him.
"Fuck!" She shouted, slamming her fist down, before firing another shot at the curse from where she laid.
The bullets ricocheted off of its face, and it blinked once at the group. Jaewon had mere seconds to brace herself before its fist slammed down again, the vibration of the hit sending her face first into a nearby wall.
"Roast it, bonghwang!" Jaewon screamed as she stood up, throwing her gun down and pulling her hands into the proper sign.
The phoenix rose from Jaewon's shadow, screaming as it rocketed up towards the ceiling. It hovered there for a moment, flapping its wings before spewing a stream of blue fire at the curse. The flames incinerated half of it, and she watched one of its arms tear from its body and land in a pile of cinders.
Before the curse could rush at them once more, a flash of something resembling a twisted bipedal cat darted past her and slammed itself into the curse's good side, wrapping its long muscular arms around it.
"What is…?" Jaewon whispered, her eyes wide.
"Jaewon," Haoyu called out, his face tight. "Unsummon your shikigami, now."
Without hesitating, Jaewon quickly released bonghwang, watching it sink back into the shadows. The curse itself struggled against the attacker as they clawed and bit one another. The attacker let out a garbled howl, pulling at its limbs before…
"Domain Expansion!" Haoyu shouted. The tips of his index fingers and thumbs touched on both of his hands, the remaining three fingers extended out. One hand pointed up, the other hand pointed down. "Irreversible!"
In an instant, the world around Jaewon vanished, becoming nothing but a white void with a couple of black geometric shapes against it. Everything, the curses, her own body, her friends, became monochrome, and Jaewon found herself staring at the shaky black outline of her fingers against the world. The curse and it's attacker seemed frozen in place, unmoving, until they began to rapidly decay with a loud, ear-piercing screech that sounded like metal scraping against pavement. Within seconds, they became nothing but ashes.
And then, just like that, the domain slowly faded from existence. The forest returned, its ambient noise almost overwhelming against the ringing of her ears. The house that had stood before them as they entered was reduced to half-formed ruins, or perhaps it had always been like that. Who knows. Jaewon staggered as her head swam, her whole body screaming in pain, something warm dripping down her face and against her left eye.
"Are we all alive?" Haoyu asked, and Jaewon turned to examine her friends.
Ryan was rising to his feet, spitting something out off to the side, and Dara was sprawled against her ground, holding a weak thumbs up high. James was helping the kid to their feet, who was just staring empty-eyed at the ruins ahead.
When Jaewon's gaze flickered back to the remains of the house, she saw the figure of a man standing beside it. From a distance, she could make out a tan, chiseled face with dark bangs parted in the middle. He wore the clerical collar and cassock of a priest, tucked into jeans of course, but he looked young, about the same age as Jaewon was.
The priest didn't seem to notice her staring at him, as he wandered through the rubble of the house, his lip out in a slight pout. As she watched him, Jaewon felt the memories of Dara's report flood into her, the religious preaching playing in the apartment, the person who executed her suspect…
"You," Jaewon called out, and the priest whipped around to look at her. "You did this, didn't you?"
The priest stared at her, his eyes wide. His eyebrows were furrowed and his mouth hung slightly open as he began to step back. Bizarrely, she wasn't sure if it was a trick of the eyes, but Jaewon swore she saw a dash of pink across his face.
"You were there too, at that apartment building, right? Fuckin' ran off like a little bitch?" She sneered, reaching down toward the ground for her rifle. "Dodge this."
Jaewon held the rifle up, and fired at the priest. Somehow, someway she completely whiffed it, the bullet flying way past his shoulder. He still jumped back from the sound with his eyes wide, and he clutched his arm. She growled, flinging her rifle to the ground and running at him… before her head lurched and she collapsed against the ground in a heap. Any attempt to stand up was futile, her legs felt like lead and her vision was shaky at best.
In the distance, she could hear the crunching of his feet against the gravel, and she let out something between a howl and a shriek against the forest floor.
"You motherfucker!" She screamed after him. "If I see you again, I'll fucking kill you! I'll gut you like a goddamn fish!"
"Enough!" James chastised, rushing to her side. "You're concussed and delirious. Just stop talking, let's pull out of here."
Jaewon tried to counter, but could only groan and grasp her rifle weakly before Haoyu rushed to her side, pulling her up. All she could do was stare into the forest, down the pathways that the priest could've scampered through, away from her grasp.
Even after two rounds of Reversed Cursed Technique had been ran through her, Jaewon still found herself squinting against the bright sterile lighting of the diner. Her head pounded, and she found herself tilting her head up to look at the ceiling more often than not.
The kid was beside her, sitting almost like a limp marionette, arms slack beside them and face dull and empty. They hadn't spoken since the mission. Jaewon, frankly, could not blame them at all.
In fact, no one really seemed to feel like talking. They'd given their orders to the waitress, who looked just as exhausted as they must've looked, and then just sat in silence letting the radio speak for them as they waited. All Jaewon could do was lay her head back and try not to think of the pink dancing across that priest's face, or his chiseled face. Why couldn't he be an ugly creepy priest?
Finally, James spoke.
"I don't think I have to tell you to never pull that stunt again, Jaewon," he said, his face tense.
"You don't," Jaewon said, rubbing her eyes. "I'm sorry, sir."
A couple of excuses bubbled in her throat, 'he looked like he was the guy Dara talked about', 'I'd just seen the worst carnage of my life and thought that guy did it', 'I had a concussion'... but she said none of them. It wouldn't help her case to say them.
"Even if he is our guy," James said, tapping his finger on the table once. "You shouldn't make a habit of firing on whoever you think is suspicious. I'd like to think I've taught you all better."
"You have," Jaewon said, her voice raspy.
"Speaking of that," Dara said theatrically, swinging her leg out. "What was that tiger thing that tackled the curse? Anyone know?"
"Oh, that was part of my technique," James said simply, the smile back on his face. "Cursed Spirit Manipulation."
"Really," Ryan replied, polishing his glasses. "What's that do?"
"It allows me to control any cursed spirit I exorcise."
"Okay," Dara grumbled, her lip pulled into a scowl. "So, why hide it from us if its so goddamn useful? Not like you two have told us anything about your techniques…"
"Well that's because-"
"It was Suguru Geto's technique."
Jaewon turned to look over at the kid, who was now looking up at James, their eyebrows furrowed. Ryan and Dara stared back at them with wide eyes. The name sounded familiar to Jaewon, and the conversation about the attack on Tokyo one year ago came back to her.
"Yes indeed," James said, his face stoic once more. "We both have the technique. Or, I should say had, heh…"
James sighed, leaning back on the diner booth. His head turned to look out the window, at the highway rushing by.
"We'd only met once before he lost his mind. I think I was about seventeen, and he was fifteen. Talking to him, I got the feeling that despite his friends, deep down he was truly alone. No one could understand his burden."
Haoyu's head turned to face him, and for a moment Jaewon swore she saw his hand move on top of James'. His eyes seemed softer too, and it made something in Jaewon bristle slightly.
"After his defection, I was kept on a tight leash by higher ups. I have a feeling they thought we were closer than we actually were, and were colluding for some master plan. I wasn't informed of it until several months after, but even before then I knew something had changed. It was like everyone saw me as a threat, even though I'd always been on my best behavior. Eventually, I got sick of the treatment and decided to enroll in college outside of that world. That's all."
"So," Jaewon said, rubbing her chin. "You don't use your technique because you're scared of the higher-ups?"
"Sort of," he sighed, turning to face her. "I'm pretty sure for sorcerer society, whenever a curse user attacks, my residuals are one of the top ones they're looking for. I don't want to blow our cover early."
"That makes sense," she said, nodding her head.
"Yeah, sorry for thinking you were some wimp making us fight for you," Dara said, face pinched.
"Sorry for destroying your cursed spirit with my domain, if we're doing apologies," Haoyu butted in, a lopsided smile on his face as he nudged James on the shoulder.
"All forgiven," James laughed, rubbing his chin.
"Also you!" Dara exclaimed, pointing at Haoyu, who held a finger to his lips. "You. What's your deal? You didn't tell us either."
"Time manipulation," Haoyu replied simply. "That's not important right now."
Jaewon would argue that it was, but she was on thin ice already. Haoyu turned to face the kid, who seemed to have lightened up slightly.
"What's your name?" He asked, resting his arm on the booth behind him.
"Vel Mnemonic," the kid replied, voice almost robotic. "I'm from the Richmond School of Sorcerery."
Cool name, Jaewon noted.
"Are you up to telling us what happened back there, Vel?" James said, resting a hand on their shoulder. 'You don't have to tell us everything if it's too hard for you."
"I'll try," they said softly, their face controrting.
"I'd… heard rumors about that one before, the cursed spirit. It wasn't called a cursed spirit, but it was something that gave the school luck, at least that's what I remember. And it worked, I think… We had a good showing at the Goodwill event, not a lot of dangerous missions, we got better grades, even if I thought I was going to fail…"
Jaewon's eyebrows furrowed, mouth tight.
"All we had to do was feed it something. Just one little feeding session every month. This was my first time going to feed it, and e-everyone said 'oh it's super simple, don't worry about it'. I… I don't know what happened! All I saw was that Mr. Reeves was feeding it some sort of meat and then it just reached over and…"
Vel trailed off, their eyes full of tears and lip wobbling. James rubbed their shoulders as they rubbed at their eyes, face scrunched up.
"It's alright, we can talk more about it when you're up to it," he said, his voice soft. "Don't strain yourself."
There was a silence between them again as Vel cried hysterically into James' shoulder. Jaewon was no good with crying kids, so she found herself looking over the diner. It was old-timey, white with red accents and reflective metal all around the kitchen and bar. Other than a few waitresses that came in and out, their side of the diner was completely empty. It was like they were the only people in the world.
"Who are you people…?" Vel asked, wiping away their tears.
"Sorcerer cops," Jaewon replied.
"Sorcerer feds, actually," Dara chimed in.
"We are from the FBI's Sorcerer Affairs department," Ryan huffed, glaring at his two friends.
"From the FBI…" Vel said, their eyes widening. "Why were you sent here?"
"To investigate that curse," Haoyu said, before either three could start talking. "We observed a similar one in Maryland, and came on suspicion of imminent threat to life."
"A similar one…?!" They whispered, eyes wide and mouth contorted. "Other schools have those things?!"
Haoyu nodded, his eyes closing.
Vel's face contorted further, their eyebrows furrowing further as they looked down at the table. Their fingers thump against the table, trembling. Finally, they shut their eyes tight for a moment, then look up at the group. There was a fire, an intensity in their gaze, and their mouth was tight.
"Then, let me join you."
"Hm?" Jaewon replied, tiling her head.
"I'm serious," Vel said, her lip trembling. "I don't know why I was spared, but I… I can't let all those deaths be for nothing. And I can't go back to a place that let this happen to them… I'll do anything!"
The three agents looked over at Haoyu, studying his face. He seemed as stoic as ever, mouth tight, but there was a softness in his gaze as he looked over at them.
"Yes," he said, with an almost unnatural softness. "You can join us."
Vel's posture drooped, and their hand went to rub at their eyes. They smiled, a weak, shy one but a smile nonetheless.
"Thank you," they said, voice choked. "I…I won't let you down."
"Don't worry," Ryan said with a grin. "It's pretty hard to let them down after Jaewon's sudden hatred of the clergy."
"Shuddup, I regret that," Jaewon groaned, shutting her eyes again. "Fuck, find something else to taunt me with right now."
Vel laughed weakly, crossing their arms.
"So," they said, looking over at Jaewon and the rest of the trio. "Why did you guys join?"
Jaewon looked over at Dara's face, whose complexion had suddenly gotten significantly paler. Ryan's eyes went wide, and he adjusted his glasses with one hand.
"Oh, well, uh-" Ryan started to stammer.
"Oh shit, our food's here," Jaewon said, looking up at the waitress, who was carrying about twenty plates of food.
It was perfect timing. By the time they had finished eating, Vel had long forgotten their question.
chapter title is from novacane by frank ocean
the handsign for haoyu's domain is the dharmachakra mutra, which is the handsign symbolizing the wheel of dharma and the persistence of reality in buddhist mythology. wanted something to do with time sort of lol.
see u