Jujutsu Executor

by CrafterofTales

News of an awakened, ancient living curse catches the attention of the Holy Church. Sent as an agent of the Burial Agency, Ciel must determine if the host: Yuuji Itadori is a threat, and exercise her duty as Executor within Jujutsu Sorcerer's territory.

18. Vampiric Impulses, Cursed Delights IV

Yuuji watched as Nanami sliced across the giant curse's body. He was about to step in to help when Ciel held out her cursed arm in front of him. "Wait!"

From the open wound Nanami created in the giant curse, smaller variants of curses squirmed. All of them writhing and exhaling phrases of agony and insanity. Ciel compared this giant to the one Satsuki unleashed in the sewers. Had Satsuki tried to use it against that patched-face curse? Or was it the other way around?

What a twisted way to treat human beings in such a manner. No wonder Yumizuka had been overloaded, she was completely stuffed with who knows how many lives.

I was mistaken to believe all the disappearances was because of Roa and Yumizuka.

But for that supposedly newborn curse to be capable of this much fatalities, it's simply unnatural that such an entity was here in Tokyo. She couldn't believe his existence was created out of just human emotions and rumors, but there was no point dwelling on that now.

Ciel threw several black keys to extinguish the curses. Her Cremation Rites instantly burning their bodies. The fresh scent of their corpses dictating their once living humanity. Yuuji watched over her shoulder, horrified at the scene of the cursed humans burning and crying out.

"-tch!" The motion of tossing her swords precisely strained Ciel's arm painfully. By now, her arm should have turned into a shriveled-up shell, but it remained intact as ever. The only issue lies with Satsuki's cursed technique slowly slipping past the binding around her arm. It won't be long before it invades the rest of her body. Yumizuka's cursed technique had evolved in its efficiency. While Ciel can stop it from withering her entire body too quickly, her magical powers are being sufficiently drained.

One of the cursed humans slipped out of the giant's corpse and ran for Nanami. The first grade sorcerer swung his hatchet down on the cursed human's head, and it crumbled into dust, eaten away by the remnant ability of Satsuki and Ciel's Cremation Rites. More curses began to emerge from the giant curse's body. Some of them barely managed to make it a few feet, while others lasted longer.

"Ciel-san. Can you exorcise your arm?" Nanami asked without looking away from the incoming enemies.

Ciel had already pulled out another black key in hand. "Yes. I just need time."

"We'll give it to you," Nanami declared. Since Ciel used her weapons to burn through many of the curses already, it'll be easy to get rid of them all himself. "Itadori-kun. Take her."

The executor was surprised by the order. Yuuji, on the other hand, was immediately on board. "Yes!"

He swiftly picked up the girl and hoist her over his shoulder.

"H-huh?! Wait!" Ciel's face flushed by the carry as Yuuji began his instant sprint away from the courtyard. He went into one of the entrances of the school and kicked the door open, setting down Ciel inside.

"You okay?" Yuuji asked her plainspokenly as he knelt with her. The door remained opened behind him to keep watch of everything that's happening outside.

"Y-yes. But you didn't have to carry me away like that," Ciel said, fighting off the embarrassment from her face. It was hardly a romantic gesture as well, and Ciel refused to acknowledge why that bothered her slightly. "It's my arm that's injured, not my leg. You two honestly worry too much."

I don't think you would have just left, though. Yuuji thought to himself as he looked at her arm, visibly disturbed and worried of her injury. "How can we heal your arm?"

Ciel held out her black key, "The only efficient way I know how."

Yuuji suddenly recalled what Ijichi mentioned before, and watched as Ciel pierced her cursed arm with her sword. He flinched and instinctively reached out.

"Stay back!" Ciel said, wincing at the immediate pain shooting through her dead arm. "No matter what happens, do not help me."

Before Yuuji could respond, Ciel's sword went ablaze.

Ciel clenched her teeth, shutting her eyes closed as she felt fire and life coursing through her cursed arm. Blood lurched up in her throat, but she swallowed it back down. She refused to let out even an utter of pain, not wanting to worry Yuuji. She would have preferred to do this without an audience, especially from someone whose heart bleeds so easily for others, but she didn't feel it safe to leave Yuuji to fight. Now, though, she must act hastily so to return to Nanami and assist the man in his battle against the other curses. She focused all her attention to holding back the painful contortions in her body, not letting go of her black key in the slightest.

Just treat it like any other injury... This is nothing compared to what I've went through years ago.

The several fires that the Church had casted onto her was especially hot. This was nothing more than a sunburn. She even imagined the famous Saint of Orleans wouldn't flinch nor falter to this, and though Ciel wasn't much of a Catholic, she prayed for that saint's strength anyway.

Yuuji was in turmoil just seeing her like this. He felt completely helpless as he watched her burn her arm, and it took him back to that moment when he watched Junpei die. His own uselessness, unable to do anything.

He hated it. He absolutely hated himself just sitting around and watching people suffer. Yuuji even felt responsible for letting Ciel get hurt like this. If he had just waited for her or Nanami to show up. If he had just listened to them...

Stop feeling sorry about yourself. Ciel needs you now. Yuuji forced himself to calm down, releasing tension in his jaw. She told him not to help her, but there's no way he could do that. She might as well tell him to spread wings and fly to the moon. Even if there wasn't much or anything he could do, he couldn't just let himself do nothing.

"-?!" Ciel felt a new warm embrace from her other side. Yuuji's arms wrapped around her waist and pulled her in closely. His chin resting on top of her head.

"Y-Yuuji-kun?!" There was a new kind of fire inside Ciel as she felt herself being held against Yuuji's chest.

"Just focus on breathing. I'll help you get through this," Yuuji said, his eyes closed as he felt Ciel's body grew increasingly hot.

"A-ah! But-!" You might get burned! Ciel wanted to break away. She couldn't let Yuuji risk getting hurt just to help her. She shouldn't even need to be helped. But his hold of her was secure and determined. His heart beating strongly in her ear.

"Don't worry about me." Yuuji did once tank the cursed womb's fire blast in the detention center. Even if he might get burned, he won't let go of Ciel. At the very least, if Ciel's hurting, then he wants to hurt with her. That way, she won't be alone enduring this pain. "Just get better, okay?"

Ciel gulped at Yuuji's tone, his voice full of softness and resolve. The fire in her arm somehow didn't seem all that agonizing as a multitude of emotions swarmed her chest. This is NOT the time for me to feel like this!

Even so, she couldn't deny how incredibly touched she was by Yuuji's action, while at the same time bothered by his lack of self-preservation. She held his arm with her other hand firmly, and he responded in kind, fastening his hold of her. The curse in her arm was soon neutralized, and Ciel let out a breath of relief.

"It's done," Ciel informed. Yuuji pulled back, stilling holding around her waist. Her fingers pressed against his arm to push him. "I'm okay now. We need to return to Nanami-san and-"

She looked through the open door and her widened eyes. Yuuji followed her gaze, and his heart was immediately assaulted with hatred.

They see Mahito in his winged form, hovering by the school building. It looked like he was either checking or talking to someone. They then spotted Satsuki leaping out from the upper floors, launching herself for the flying curse.

"No-!" Ciel shot up as Yuuji stood with her. They saw the giant curse beneath the vampire suddenly lunge up and opened its massive maw for her.

"Sacchin!" "Yumizuka!" Yuuji and Ciel sprinted through the doors and ran for Satsuki, but they were too late.

They met the girl's red gaze briefly, and watched as the curse giant closed its mouth around Satsuki completely, hearing its gulp.

Nanami had just finished off the remaining withering cursed humans when he noticed what happened. The dead giant curse beside him had steadily begun to evaporate. Ciel and Yuuji stopped beside the first grade sorcerer, and they look at the next remaining giant curse in the courtyard.

Mahito retracted the feathers in his arms and landed right on top of the giant curse-slug's head. "A pretty ironic ending for the 'Terror' of Tokyo. Hopefully, this big guy will keep her stuffed. She won't be moving for a while."

There is a chance she'll live and escape this giant, but she'll have to eat her way out, and after Mahito made some modifications to the souls inside this slug, she'll pop before she'll get the chance to try and fight the cursed spirit again. It almost seemed kind of a shame that he couldn't experiment with her anymore. If Junpei and Sacchin had stuck together from the start, they probably could have beaten Mahito.

But they were so focused on their own attachments, trying and failing to protect each other, that they couldn't save themselves. Their own individual flaws and insecurities – Junpei's tendency to overthink, and Satsuki's tendency to not think, led to their downfall. Unable to bite back the moment they should have. Satsuki had been the closest opponent to keep Mahito on his toes, but she was as naïve as Junpei. That's why Mahito never worried about defeating her, even though she had the power to kill him.

I kind of wished I turned her into a platypus too, though. I really did like her, and it would have been cute to put her together with Junpei. Mahito thought to himself before shrugging. Oh well, I'm sure they'll happily screw each other in heaven or hell, if either of those places exist. It's about time I stop fooling around anyway.

He turned his attention to the next set of people. All that's left to do… is to deal with the vessel and his friends.

He patted the head of the slug and ushered the giant curse to turn for the sorcerers and the executor. Now then, how should I fight them?

The interest to have Sukuna's vessel side with Mahito's group dissipated. But he'll probably get an earful from Geto if Mahito didn't at least try to have the vessel join him. Though in hindsight, he probably should have considered holding Junpei hostage if he wanted that to happen. Whoops. That actually would have been smart.

I could probably still do that though, Mahito thought as he eyed at one specific individual eerily, blood dripping from his injured nose. His body still suffering from the brute force of Yuuji's earlier attack. Even if it doesn't work out… I get to break his soul a little more.

Nanami's eyes widened when he saw Mahito's injury. This flexible monstrosity who could reshape his body, and seal his wounds, was actually injured. "Itadori-kun. Why is that curse's nose bleeding?"

"I punched him," Yuuji answered frankly, his eyes bearing anger as he glared up at the curse. Ciel also kept her eyes on Mahito, listening to Yuuji's and Nanami's conversation on the side.

"When?"

"When we started fighting."

"Did his hand touch you?"

"Yeah."

Ciel's attention broke away from the curse. "Wha- He did?!"

She was shocked. She had been up close to Yuuji personally when she was healing him and didn't feel any distortion to his physique or sense of transfiguration in Yuuji's soul. Technically Sukuna's soul as well. Wait. Could that be the reason? Could Mahito not change Yuuji's soul because of Sukuna?

"I see," Nanami said, internally grateful of this information. "My attacks don't affect him."

Yuuji was startled by the adult's reveal. "Huh?! Why-?!"

"I'll explain later. My technique may not work, but I can stifle his movements," Nanami informed. "I know you oppose getting Itadori-kun involved, Ciel-san, but if this curse's attacks don't affect him, then we need him here more than ever."

Ciel felt stubborn to refute that, but she can't deny the logic in it, furthermore with how strenuous the situation in front of them had become. She could only remain silent as Nanami added, "We'll need to deal with this giant curse first before getting to the one on top. Ciel-san, the spell you used to exorcise that spider-ghoul, can you do it again?"

Ciel's face tightened, her arm by now nearly completely replenished with life. "I could… Yumizuka's ability has drained most of my magical powers, but I could still cast that rite at least once or twice."

Which was a largely impressive, if not a downright terrifying feat considering how high the quantity of Ciel's magic circuits.

"One shot is all we need," Nanami said as he adjusted his tie. "We'll reserve that as our ace-in-the-hole for patch-face up there. After we render this slug immobile, Itadori-kun and I will weaken that cursed spirit's defenses, and you deliver the final blow. We'll worry about Yumizuka-san later. This curse is too dangerous to be kept free. We must exorcise him here and now."

Yuuji cracked his knuckles, "Okay!"

Ciel armed herself with another set of black keys, their red handles at the plan of both her hands. "Understood."

Their plan decided, they were on guard when they saw Mahito kneeling, speaking to the giant slug curse beneath him.

"Kill them," Mahito ordered his abomination, and the slug obliged. It dragged its own body across the field and wriggled for the sorcerers and the executor. The ground trembling at its efforts.

The three people on the field ran back. Ciel swiftly launched black keys at the curses. Mahito leapt up to avoid the swords, letting his cursed creation below take the hits and suffer the instant swarm of flames.

Fine by me. I'll start…

His arm shapeshifted into a mace-like weapon.

…With her.

His arm extended into a whip-like substance and swung for the executor on the field. Ciel was on alert and backflipped away from the spikes. Mahito continued his assault, chasing after the girl in her dash.

Nanami and Yuuji were taken aback. He's fighting her first?!

Their briefly discussed plan relied on Ciel's Baptismal Rite. If the curse is able to knock her out of the game first, they'll be in even more trouble.

"Ciel-!" Yuuji ran for the executor, but his attention was immediately taken by the slug curse who thrust forward for him. Yuuji braced himself for the attack with a cross of his arms, wanting to punch into the head of the slug but-

Help Sacchin.

His body was slammed by the head of the slug-curse, and he held onto it. Junpei's final plea shook Yuuji to his core, and it made him hesitate. Satsuki had already killed and hurt so many people, and yet Junpei cared so much about her. But if Yuuji doesn't do anything, Ciel will-

Nanami came to his assistance immediately and stabbed into the side of the slug. It threw off the curse's course, its body and movement staggered. Yuuji pushed himself off from the curse, landing right beside it.

Readjusting their plan, Nanami shouted for Yuuji. "I'll handle this! Get to Ciel-san!"

Yuuji thanked Nanami for his support and rushed back for Ciel.

The cursed spirit was delivering a multitude of attacks against the executor. His speed and strength constantly increase in bursts of assaults which Ciel was able to deflect or avoid. Mahito's limbs constantly shapeshifting into different weapons of either practical or exotic.

It's just like what Nanami said, Ciel analyzed. This curse's ability to maintain and flex the shape of his form, his 'soul', and thus rendering the likes of Nanami's strong technique useless. If this curse's power is to manipulate not only his soul but others as well, then I'm not sure I want to test the limits of his power against my state.

Ciel's soul is a special case, the likes of which nothing in this world had ever faced before. She was a living "error" that will again and again be corrected by the World to her original state, until the source of her contradictory existence is eliminated. Permanently. Due to this, as it was proven before, not even Ciel's soul can be killed, but to change its shape on the other hand…

I'm not sure what will happen. For now, I must stay clear of his reach. Although, that will be a difficult task indeed since even at this distance, the cursed spirit can easily close it by either his mobility or extending his limbs. However, there is one fundamental flaw in not only his powers, but his overall existence.

It's the fact that this curse, although could withstand the likes of Nanami's technique, is still a curse made from living negative energy. All Ciel needed to do-

Is to purify that energy, until nothing is left.

She takes hold of several black keys in each hand, holding them in between her fingers. She should only use her telekinesis sparingly, perhaps once or twice. Use what's left of her magical powers wisely and exorcise this curse in one blow.

Ciel jumped to the side and avoided another mace-whip of Mahito's arm. However, she was surprised when long needles protruded from the stretched-out limb and aimed for her body. She had her black keys ready, though before she could throw them-

A body tougher than stone broke through the spikes in a sprint, sparing Ciel at least a few stab wounds. Briefly surprised by Yuuji's arrival, Ciel nonetheless kept her focus. She tossed three black keys for Mahito's main body. To deal with the curse's extension is the least of her concerns, she must cut into the root itself!

Mahito raised his other arm and hardened it into a turtle-like shell. The moment his shield, however, came into contact with Ciel's black keys, the swords instantly scorched though his limb into fiery-like stabs. "Ow-!"

Genuinely surprised, Mahito dropped his sadistic grin. He retracted his limbs, tossing aside the black keys and sped back, his feet sliding across the dirt. That… actually really hurt. But why?

Mahito was sure he perfected his turtle-shell shield, even used cursed energy to defend it. Those blades shouldn't have been able to cut through, yet they did. He looked down at his arm, seeing the fresh flesh-wound that was difficult to close. His mismatched-colored eyes widened.

I'm having trouble maintaining my shape. That's not just any kind of sword? It didn't feel like it was made with cursed energy though.

Now that he thought about it, Mahito had heard of an executor who's fought with Sukuna. Although at the time, Sukuna had only swallowed three fingers, the King of Curses was still a dangerous opponent, who Mahito was briefly stunned to see the soul of so much blood. That same powerful curse had supposedly been in a tango with someone who was even able to deliver the finishing blow against the vessel. Could this girl be-?

Ciel jumped high into the air and right over the cursed spirit. Mahito seeing more black keys already in her hands. Oh-!

He may have messed around with the wrong opponent.

Mahito dashed back and avoided an onslaught of black keys. Six of them stabbed into the ground. Ciel casually landed on her feet against the red handles, glaring impassively at the curse.

"What's wrong? You look like you're not having fun anymore," Ciel taunted the curse coldly.

Her dark blue dress gently glowed under the moonlight, and the cursed spirit realized his miscalculation. Despite how she appeared, he wasn't looking at some young fighter. This was an executor who had seen many battles, on the same level if not more than the first grade sorcerer. Rather than a cute pup Mahito could play around with and hold her by the neck, it was like looking into the eyes of a Great Dane, and she was on the hunt for his throat. The black-tinted swords her fangs to bite into his flesh.

Yuuji appeared from the side around the curse's rear. Distracted by Ciel, Mahito did not notice him until at the last second, and Mahito was throttled in the face by Yuuji's curse-fueled punch. The curse's body was flung back twice, and he slammed into the side of the squirming curse-slug.

Another burst of blood fell from Mahito's nose. Before he could get up, a shadow fell over his head. Sensing another presence, he leapt to the side and avoided a direct slice into his body by Nanami's hatchet-sword, its wrapped blade stabbing into the body of the slug.

Mahito began to flee, hoping to gain some distance by sprinting around his opponents. I better separate these guys-

His idea was cut down when black keys flew for him again. His arms transformed into blades themselves and deflected the swords, though his limbs still felt the pain of Ciel's weapons. -! I get it now. These swords. They're made purely out of magical energy!

That's why they kept hurting. They were designed to deal with spirits like him. He didn't think that was possible. Could he do that with cursed energy? Or was the Holy Church only capable of this?

Man… I should have left one of those priests alive. I could have asked them. Mahito would have definitely gotten his answer, one way or another. These swords are bad news against a curse like me. And if this girl was the same executor who fought with Sukuna that night...

Then this was a really bad match-up. Just like with Yuuji, Mahito was dealing with another natural enemy of his. It's possible that all executors are if they have the same weapons as this girl. He should have left Satsuki out so to have the vampire deal with the executor longer. Though, to have Satsuki fight for Mahito, he probably needed Junpei alive. Wow, he really should have planned this out a bit more. So many mistakes, and no way to go back and fix them.

I doubt I would have done things differently, though, Mahito believed without any regret, his legs tensing into becoming like springs. His arm transformed into a mace again. In that case…

He'll just have to use a different hostage then.

Mahito's speed increased by near instantaneous, and he stood behind Yuuji. Yuuji was taken aback at Mahito's sudden disappearance and didn't realize where the curse had gone until he turned around.

On this side, Mahito grinned as he raised his spiky arm. That executor won't have a clear view of-

Two black keys fired directly for Yuuji.

-me? Oh, right. This was the executor who killed the vessel.

The swords, however, flew around Yuuji, and shot directly for Mahito's throat. Mahito hadn't expected the surprise attack at all, but he was quick enough to raise his other hand. The sword sliced through his palm, and he barely managed to stop it from getting into his throat. However, he couldn't stop the other sword from piercing through, and Mahito felt its sharp blade slice through his neck. Blood filled his throat and spilled through his teeth.

-! I have to destroy it!

His neck and hand expanded and flexed, veins popping out in intensity as Mahito quickly destroyed the black keys before they could unleash that dangerous-looking fire he saw Ciel used.

At Mahito's brief pause, Yuuji threw his foot back and kicked the curse in the stomach. The cursed spirit's core shook from the force and Mahito flew back, his mace-arm returning to normal. He back-rolled against the dirt and landed back on his feet, but he struggled to keep himself standing, grasping his bleeding, burning throat as he coughed out blood.

Just now... Was that telekinesis?

She could do that? Hold on. Wasn't this girl a bit too strong? Sure, she had to have been the one to fight Sukuna, but Geto never mentioned someone like this was in Tokyo, capable of this much power. Ah, wait a minute...

"Oh by the way. Make sure you avoid an executor with blue hair. She was the one who gave the King of Curses an actually decent battle and killed his vessel. I've heard a few things about her but not so much, so there isn't really a lot I can tell you to look out for. If you ever see her around, try not to fight her. Her people, unlike most Jujutsu Sorcerers, are absolute monsters."

That was what Geto told Mahito before the man left the area. While on the surface it was just general information, it wasn't as in-depth as he told about Gojo's ability, but even so, Geto still told Mahito to avoid this girl. Mahito had thought there wasn't anyone else to worry about so long as it wasn't Satoru Gojo. It looks like he was wrong. If this executor could cast telekinesis, fight toe-to-toe with Sukuna, use that fire spell to weaken spirits, who knows what else she was capable of.

Ah… This is starting to look bad for me… Mahito grinned through his bloodied teeth. So why am I feeling like this?

This excitement. This thrill. He never experienced anything like it before. This completely new feeling. His blood pumping with a strange sensation of elation. I wonder… if this is what Sacchin felt… when she hunted down all those people.

The drive. The pain. The hunger. So this is blood lust.

"-I held back using a sacrament to save up on the Baptism Rite," Ciel said as she walked up beside Yuuji.

"That's fine," Yuuji said, rolling his shoulder, revving himself up to deliver a good and well-deserving beating to the cursed spirit in front of them. "Thanks for the save."

"…You're welcome," Ciel said, looking over to Nanami and saw that the first grade sorcerer had successfully immobilized the giant curse, letting it bleed out just enough to stop its movement completely. From there, Satsuki would be secured, and that's if she was even alive still.

"…Thank you as well," Ciel said after some hesitation, avoiding Yuuji's look as she began her walk towards the slowly weakening curse. "While I don't approve of you throwing yourself into battle like that, especially for my sake… Well, I'll lecture you another time. Let's end this quickly now."

Hearing Ciel accept his support at last, Yuuji felt more pumped than ever, and marched alongside with the executor. "Yeah. We still need to go back for Sacchin-"

Domain Expansion: Depletion Garden.

A chill crawled up on their spines, and everyone stopped in their place.

With Nanami, the first grade sorcerer felt something was off. While he was able to defeat the giant curse, observing its stilled body, he felt it had been too easy. There aren't any curses spilling out of this one. Was this monster an exception-?

The man then felt a horrifyingly dangerous aura, and instantly backed away from the large corpse. What-?

The giant curse-slug began to crumble away. Its flesh fell apart like ashes. Blood spikes spurted out from the corpse, overcoming the body like a porcupine. The body split apart, drizzling red that reeked of iron. A dreadful presence within the carcass, like an opening into the lion's den.

Ciel and Yuuji spun around. Mahito stood there staring as well. "Huh-?"

From the split-open ball of spikes, a single whip of blood was shot out, casually waved by the monster inside.

Ciel and Yuuji separated and jumped back, barely avoiding the blood whip that looked like claws up close. Mahito pulled one side of his body into the other like elastic, the fastest way for him to dodge the blood-claws that carved into the building behind him.

From the damage, the building looked as if it had been a sandcastle all along. Dusts of its debris fell into streams. Classrooms and hallways of several floors destroyed.

"...Haaaa..." From the carcass that seemed to breathe its final breath, red eyes glowed through the dark. The first to catch sight of them was Nanami. "Stand down."

Nanami's brain was assaulted with that simple command. His knees buckled under the weight, the point of his hatchet stabbing into the ground as he gripped its handle tightly. "Gngh-!"

"Nanami-san?!" Yuuji shouted, confused by the man's reaction.

Ciel's eyes widened as she instantly armed herself with black keys. "Yuuji-kun! Get out of here! Now!"

She swiftly threw her weapons for the vampire in hiding, but the instant they entered the carcass, they shattered into dusts. Their sacraments completley depleted.

"...I don't want you around anymore, Senpai." The soft, cold voice of the girl who was no longer human, the blood-drenched Satsuki regarded the executor. "Now that I think about it, you were always talking to Shiki-kun at school. I don't think I like that."

She raised her hand. "Do everyone a favor, will you? And disappear."

Another deliverance of Satsuki's blood claw. It wretched out for the blue-haired girl on the courtyard. It came like a cannon, faster than Ciel can imagine. She managed to jump away and avoid a direct hit of the blood claw as it carved into another building, but her leg was splattered by its blood.

"Gah-!" She felt her leg instantly drained. The fabric of her skirt torn through. The sharp pain that went suddenly numb. The nerves in her leg were just gone.

Behind her, Mahito was forced to let go of his bleeding throat as he summoned his feathers around his arms and flew away, watching the disintegration happen beside him. ...Huh.

He looked back over to the vampire within the carcass of his design. That doesn't look good.

The thrill of battle was gone. The cursed spirit understood that what he was seeing, it was annihilation at work. Maybe I shouldn't have taught her cursed energy after all.

"Ciel!" Yuuji ran for the fallen executor. He felt his body shiver and instincts screamed at him, and he turned his focus back to the bloodied vampire.

"Don't look at her eyes!" Ciel warned, but it was too late.

Satsuki smiled at Yuuji. The same kind of smile he had seen last night with Junpei, but there was no warmth or kindness in it now. "Yuuji-kun. Forget about her. Focus only on me."

The weight of her will surged into Yuuji. His body instantly locked up as he looked into those piercing, blood red eyes of hers.

"Obey me. I want you to come to me instead."He was looking into a crimson-filled world. It somehow felt familiar, yet different. Instead of the redness that flowed with the essence of the dead, there was only a dry desert that awaited him. A death without food or water. The total absence of life.

"Interesting... This really is one hell of an era." He heard the deep voice of the bastard curse inside him, and Yuuji pulled himself out of his trance. Forcing Satsuk's will out of his body with a shake of his head, he continued his sprint after the executor as if nothing had happened. He dropped down to the injured girl. "C-Ciel! Are you okay?"

Her exposed leg was completely blackened and shriveled up like a corpse, her boot mostly spared due to her bending her knees at the last second. The body fat and blood in her flesh was gone, and all he could see was the tightness of her skin around her bone. Ciel looked at Yuuji, surprised. But the one who was most surprised was Satsuki.

"Huh? He didn't listen?" Satsuki was confused, blinking widely before regarding the other sorcerer in the area. Nanami was still on one knee with his head lowered, struggling but most definitely under the influence of her vampiric gaze. "But... it worked on him. So why...?"

Was it the curse inside Yuuji? Was he resistant to her charms? If that's the case, then getting Yuuji to come to her won't be so easy after all.

She raised her hand to her neck. "Uwaaa... My throat feels so dry... I'm so hungry."

She was hoping to feed off of Yuuji and that powerful curse inside him, satiate her bloodlust all while making her stronger. But, well... It looks like she'll have to do the next best thing.

She hears the heartbeat of hundreds, taking the most of her attention as she turned for the gym. "I could use a drink."

Or two. Or ten. Or every single one of them.

"I guess if I can't have Yuuji for now..."

She turned back for the kneeling sorcerer. The closest one in the area, and whom she could tell was strong. "I'll take that man first, and then everyone else in the gym."

With that stated, she stepped out of the carcass. The moment her foot touched onto the field of the courtyard, the grass and dirt underneath her instantly dried.

The carcass around her became no more, leaving only a skeletal ribcage made out of blood, and the beast in the shape of a girl driven for life walked amongst the unfortunate land of the living. It was like a plague had been manifested with every step she took. The ground growing darker and spreading beyond her walk, her feet sucking the life force out of the earth itself.

"Nanami-san!" Yuuji shouted for the man, lifting Ciel with her arm around her shoulder. Ciel was about ready to force herself to fight even with her dead leg. However, the vampire ahead of them pulled her hand back, gesturing for the bloody spikes of the standing red rib cage.

"Play with them."

Dripping from the blood spikes, living, twisted cursed creatures were born. They were of Mahito's creation, stuffed within the giant curse-slug before Satsuki took control of them, now obeying her commands. They appear by the dozens, many of them spread wings, multiple legs, and incoherent ramblings. Simply utters of monsters with no intellect, and the blood cursed humans ran for Yuuji, Ciel, and Mahito.

Seeing new enemies gunning for them, Yuuji's arms swooped under and carried Ciel bridal style, sprinting for the other side of the courtyard. Ciel was far too concerned over this sudden new development in Satsuki to feel embarrassed, and simply had her black keys ready to fire for the bloody curses.

Mahito flew up further as other blood curses that grew wings went after him as well, seemingly sharing the same adaptability as he does. Hm... I kind of wish Geto really did stick around. I wonder if he's going to get mad at me for this?

That man did tell Mahito to keep a close eye on that vampire. The curse definitely should have taken his words more seriously.

As everyone was preoccupied with her minions, Satsuki drew closer to the kneeling sorcerer who was struggling to break free from her command. "Don't worry. I'll make sure my bite won't hurt too much."

...Collapse!With every ounce of Nanami's willpower, he utilized his technique into the earth he kneeled against. The dying earth cracked underneath them. Satsuki immediately noticed and jumped back once by several meters, avoiding stumbling like she usually would, and stayed at the very edge of the courtyard where her feet depleted more of the earth.

The field between her and Nanami easily fractured due to the vampire's depleting ability. Her gaze broken away, Nanami felt freedom in his body and dashed back. He held up a hand over his eyes, avoiding meeting the vampire's gaze again.

Every sorcerer who has heard about vampires knows at least a few things about them. Maybe not as in-depth as executors like Ciel, but just enough for Nanami. One of those is hypnotism. So long as my eyes are protected with cursed energy, I can resist her charm to a point.

But even with his specs, just her voice and eyes alone were enough to have Nanami's body compulsively give in to her order. If Overtime hadn't been active, Nanami was certain he would have had his mind completely robbed by that vampire also. He wouldn't be able to even think about breaking away from her gaze. It was the one reason he was able to shatter the ground in just that split second of free will in him.

This is what Ciel had been warning us about, Nanami thought to himself. Right now, no matter the fact that she is a child, Yumizuka intended to kill me and Ciel, and tried to lure in Itadori. She'll likely kill the people in the gym next for their blood.

It was a mistake to put Satsuki aside. This vampire, whose presence alone was turning the ground beneath her into a wasteland, she was an enemy more threatening than that patch-face curse. Nanami should have sliced into the curse-slug with Satsuki inside, but there's no point in what-ifs now. He will not make that mistake again.

Ciel and Itadori can look out for each other, Nanami's faith in the two held strong in his chest as he held out his hatchet. For now, it's time I put some manners into this unruly vampire.

He will not let this monster have her fill tonight. Not so long as he breathes.

Satsuki adjusted her skirt that was drenched in the blood of cursed humans. "That took me by surprise. You even managed to break free from my eyes. Maybe it's just something sorcerers can do."

Unaffected by Nanami's freedom, Satsuki merely smiled. "I knew you were strong. Alright, I guess I can play with you for a little bit. Now that I'm finally a proper vampire, I get to see what it's like to fight against a real Jujutsu Sorcerer."

She then lunged for Nanami, instantly closing the distance between them. Her face carrying a deranged and hungry smile, losing all reason and mercy.

---

Yuuji broke through the first-floor windows of the school and dashed down the hallway, carrying Ciel in front of him as a swarm of blood-hungry curses chase from behind.

Ciel threw her swords over Yuuji's shoulders, her blades piercing through each and every one of the pursuing enemies. Yet even as her black keys embedded themselves into the curses' bodies, igniting with holy fire, the metal didn't last long, their mana depleted and drained by the curses. But the holy mantra that was instilled within the swords nonetheless impeded and burned them, if only for a moment.

I never imagined that Yumizuka-san would be capable of this, Ciel expressed her bafflement. These curses, they're no different from the undead, and yet they're far stronger than those I've faced before. Just like those flaming dead found at the institution and what happened with Nagi Yoshino. This is beyond talent and naturally gifted. Why did that idiot curse have to teach her about cursed techniques?!

Granted, Ciel felt slightly responsible for not finishing off Satsuki the moment she had the chance, but she's still going to blame that curse for this.

Yuuji glanced out the windows. He was relieved to see Nanami able to break himself free from Satsuki's control, but now it looked like the man was going to fight Satsuki by himself. I have to get back out there and-!

Please. Help Sacchin.

Yuuji gritted his teeth. His inner turmoil halted when more blood curses appeared in front. Shattering through the windows and its frames. Decrepit spreading across the foundation.

Yuuji curved his footing and dashed up the stairs, hopping over the railing with Ciel in his arms and proceeded up to the top floor. "Ciel! Is there a way we can stop Yumizuka?!"

Ciel held around Yuuji's neck, her expression troubled. "...My black keys won't work on her anymore. I don't think any of my sacraments or other abilities will. But…"

Ciel contemplated. "If we can just weaken her somehow, we might stand a chance. But going out there now is too dangerous. She's depleting everything in her surroundings. Unless we can completely protect ourselves with any type of magical power, especially against these cursed undead, we'll just end up withering away the moment we set foot out there."

Yuuji arrived the top of the floor and ran down the hallway. "Once my leg recovers," Ciel said, "I'll help Nanami-san fight her, but he'll need to keep her attention completely on him. I can last for at least a minute against her effects and reach her from behind."

And she'll have to unleash her Baptism Rite then and there, quickly before Satsuki could register what happened and immediately try to deplete the sacrament.

"I don't fully believe Yumizuka-san is in control of her powers. She doesn't look like she's sustaining herself with the energy she robs. No, she'll need human blood to do that," the executor explained. "Her depletion ability will spread outside the school, and I don't know if there'll be a point where it'll stop."

Yuuji stared ahead with a grimace full of dread. Then all the neighboring houses. The whole town. Everyone…

She's going to kill everyone.

The floor in front of Yuuji suddenly broke through. Yuuji stopped as Ciel turned her head back in surprise. A mangled-looking limb wretched up from the crumbling hole, digging its claw into the floor, and the assailant dragged itself up. A red bulging curse full of veins and distorted flesh, its black eyes crying tears of blood.

"Plllleeeeaaaaassseee..."Yuuji backed away from the long uttering blood curse, holding Ciel tightly as the girl held her black keys out ready. She felt Yuuji's arms trembled and looked back up at Yuuji.

"Kiiiiiiiilllllllll mmmmmeeeeeee..."The executor's hardened expression cracked when she saw Yuuji's reaction. It wasn't terror. It was horror at the sight of an innocent soul going through incomprehensible torment. The eyes of someone who couldn't imagine himself taking a human life.

Ciel grimaced painfully at Yuuji's expression, reminded once more how simple of a life he used to have before coming across Sukuna's cursed finger. You never should have to see this nightmare...

Yuuji Itadori deserved none of this. This reality of a cruel world.

Feeling her leg mostly recovered, Ciel forcefully broke out of Yuuji's grip and kicked him in the stomach. "Oomph-! Ciel?!"

Her strength pushed Yuuji back and away, far into the middle of the hallway. Ciel stood resolutely against the blood curse, throwing her black keys at its body.

I'll have to push my body to its limit. Whatever it takes-!

Several of her swords stabbed into the body of the blood curse, its screech inhuman as it instantly caught on fire.

Their bodies are infected with Satsuki's ability, but they can still be affected and harmed.

With a snap of her fingers, the black-tinted swords that broke under the blood curse's effect, their fragments individually erupted into contradictory abilities, Cremation and Internment, and the blood curse began to collapse into itself.

It might take a lot of black keys, but if I can keep disrupting the flow of what energy they drain-

Behind her, another blood curse broke through the floor. Ciel looked back with a tensed expression. I must save my Baptism Rite for Satsuki. No matter what happens-!

The blood curse from behind reached its disgusting hand out for the girl's back as she turned to face it. No matter how much blood they drain from me. I won't let them get to Yuuji-!

The cheek of the blood curse's face was smacked with a powerful, curse-fueled punch. The monster was flung to the side in a twice-impact affect, and its head squashed against the stone, brain matter splattering everywhere as the wall broke apart under the force of Yuuji's punch and its own cursed effects.

"Stop leaving me out of this," Yuuji said to Ciel. The hesitation and horror were gone, and he looked at the executor unwavering. Ciel was surprised to see that level of focus and quick emotional recovery, the likes of which she had not seen in others.

"I told you I'm not letting you fight alone. I won't let myself be a burden to you, Nanami-san, or anyone else. I don't care if you see me as weak or not, this involves me too."

Ciel stared back at Yuuji emotionlessly. She could sense the presence of multiple curses making their way up for them, but she paid them no regard as she regarded the sorcerer who walked up to her.

"I'm not the same guy who couldn't fight for himself that night. So you can stop putting your life on the line for me, it's so not attractive anymore." Not especially when Ciel was willing to get hurt, just so that he wouldn't have to. Standing a foot away from her, Yuuji said adamantly, "Don't tie yourself down because of me. If you do, then I'll just have to make up the difference for the both of us. You'd be holding me back just as you say I'm holding you back. You want to argue who's being stubborn then?"

Ciel opened her mouth, prepared to refute and to argue with him. She was quickly silenced when Yuuji clasped both sides of her face and pulled her close.

Ciel blushed at the sudden proximity. The stillness of his fingers that held her cheeks, no longer afraid or think twice of his actions. The unflinching soul in Yuuji's eyes, dark in the low light of the hallway, yet a fire was there, like the gaze of a hound ready to be unleashed.

"We're in this together. Like it or not, I'm coming down to hell with you. We'll get through this and save all those people together."

Ciel grasped Yuuji's wrists, seeing into his eyes that nothing was going to move him from his decision. An evolution of him becoming a full-fledged Jujutsu Sorcerer.

Eventually, Ciel sighed. "My word... you really are a stubborn one, aren't you?"

"Yup, pretty much," Yuuji said without apology. Ciel lightly laughed at that.

"Then it looks like nothing I say or do will change your mind." She grasped Yuuji's chin and pulled him even closer.

Yuuji resolute expression fell a bit as his forehead touched with hers. The slightest blush on his cheeks as he saw Ciel's alluring smile and soft gaze. Their lips a few centimeters apart from each other as she spoke to him softly. "You guard my rear and I'll keep to the front, and we'll switch when we need to."

Her thumb rubbed his chin as she added, "We didn't get to finish our lunch at the restaurant today. I'll be sure to plan something special to make up for that, so long as you can promise me to stay alive."

...I am so kissing her after tonight. It was probably the worst time to have this thought, but Yuuji was a self-admitted idiot.

Their moment of intimacy ended when they hear the moaning and movements of blood curses. Red bodies climbed up the stairs at each end of the hallway, surrounding the duo.

Ciel and Yuuji flipped around. Their backs pressed against each other.

"They're coming from both sides," Ciel noted, her leg now fully restored and seen between her torn dress. "I only have a limited number of black keys left, but I can use one for each of these curses. They used to be humans, which means I can stop them by piercing their shadows. I'll stun their movements, and you deliver the finishing blow."

Yuuji slammed his fist into his palm that was swarmed with cursed energy. "Got it! I'll hit them high. You hit them low."

---

Mahito ceased his flight the moment he broke into the school and proceeded to sprint down the hallway with his antelope-shifted legs. He held his bleeding throat as the flying blood curses chased after him, almost as if in vengeance for what the cursed spirit did to them.

And here I thought I had a sense of humor. Mahito's own transfigured humans are now being used against him. You never cease to amaze me, Sacchin.

Who knew humans could be capable of this? Let alone one girl. I really should have kept her around and experiment with her a little more.

Though, to do that, he'll have to survive first. The flying blood curses picked up speed, one of them even extending out a gnarly arm and whipped it for Mahito's back. He had a feeling that, if he gets touched by any of these curses, he's a goner.

His body shrunk and his head managed to just barely avoid the whip of the blood curse's arm reach. The child-size Mahito ran down the hall and threw his body into the first room he found.

The room appeared to be a teacher's lounge. Mahito's body sprung up and jumped over the desks in the middle of the room and ducked behind the furniture. The blood curses rammed into the room, but lost sight of the cursed spirit.

Hiding himself underneath the desk, the child-size Mahito reached out and opened the bottom drawer beside him. First things first, I need to close up these wounds that executor gave me.

Rummaging his hand inside the drawer, he found just what he needed and pulled it out. Ooh. This will do. It might not be first aid, but it's better than nothing.

As the dangerous blood curses searched the room for the stitched-face curse, Mahito grinningly pulled apart the strip of duct tape.

---

Satsuki's cursed claws of depleting energy clashed constantly with Nanami's hatchet. A sweet-sounding laughter escaped the vampire as she forced the sorcerer to back away from her powerful strike that cracked the earth. "Amazing. Your body is completely covered in your cursed energy. That's how you can stand against my cursed technique."

The field slowly died the longer Satsuki stood here. All the flowers and grass withering away. Nanami held up his hatchet. The wrapping around his weapon chipping away.

"But no one can give out energy forever. I'll just have to keep depleting your cursed energy, and then you'll be exposed," Satsuki analyzed, her arms pulled behind her back. "But you know, you really are strong. It almost seems too much of a shame to kill you. I think I'll turn you into my servant instead. I thought about turning Ciel-senpai, but I doubt it'd be that easy, and I don't want her around anymore."

She said it like she was picking out which dog she wanted at the animal shelter and decided to go for the older hound. "I definitely respect your efforts to protect the people here, Dai-senpai. If you let me, I'll even spare Yuuji-kun, and we can all kill that cursed spirit together."

"By sparing Itadori-kun, you mean to turn him into a vampire like you. That was what you were trying to do before, weren't you?" Nanami decided to humor the vampire with a conversation, at least taking this chance to think his next move. "And what about Ciel-san? You used to be schoolmates with her. What do you plan to do with her if you don't want her around?"

"Hmm. Well, I used to like Ciel-senpai. She was someone I looked up to. But she's been nothing but a big, fat liar," Satsuki coldly stated, her tone sounding especially mean. "I can't really kill her though, even though I tried so hard to. I guess, I'll just have to tear her apart until she stops moving completely. I might even play with her for a little bit. If I break her mind, I'm sure I can have her do whatever I say, and see how many times she'll slit her own throat until her arms fall off."

"..." Nanami quietly untied his tie and wrapped it around his fist. "You shouldn't call me Dai-senpai. I'm neither a student nor a teacher. You and I don't even go to the same school together."

He observed and counted every weak point in Satsuki's body. Her limbs. Her vital organs. Her heart and her head. It might not be the best, efficient way to kill a vampire. He's no executor. But at the very least, he'll be able to weaken Satsuki until Ciel comes back. And if not, then he'll just have to try to exorcise this monster himself.

"And I rather not be spoken to as an equal from a blood-thirsty vampire. We are nothing alike." He clutched his hatchet. "I would have thought you were a victim, and accepted your need for survival as an excuse, but I see now that you enjoy the pain you bring onto others."

He readied himself, "My apologies. I shouldn't have thought that you were still a human deep down."

He quickly closed the distance between himself and Satsuki. Satsuki raised her arm, feeling confident to stop his hatchet from striking her.

A weak point was planted inside Satsuki's hand, and Nanami sliced into it.

"Huh?!" Shocked, Satsuki tried to back away, but Nanami was quick, cutting his hatchet further until it exits out of Satsuki's elbow, and he was quickly behind the vampire.

"Furthermore, I rather avoid working overtime," Nanami adjusted his specs, and swiftly cuts through the implanted weak points behind Satsuki's knees. "Doing the nightshift as a vampire is an automatic no from me."

Satsuki lost her balance and fell to the ground with a yell. -?! He hit my weak points?

But Satsuki was sure she enhanced her defenses with cursed energy, especially after taking chunks of it from Nanami. There shouldn't have been any weaknesses or cracks unless...

His cursed technique. He can plant a weak point into anything!

Nanami was not yet done with her. He quickly grabbed a fistful of Satsuki's hair and yanked her up to face him.

Satsuki shrieked slightly at the painful hair pull and looked at the cool-faced ferocity of Nanami. Her confidence gone, she raised up her sliced arm, "U-um-! Wait!"

He didn't. Nanami swung his hatchet directly into Satsuki's face and repeatedly struck her head with his weapon. Every attack was a slap of retribution for all the lives she's stolen up to this point. The pain she put Ciel through. The grievances of all the families whose sons and daughters were killed by this vampire. He acted like a father disciplining a child who stepped too far out of line.

"I may not have hunted vampires, and unlike you, I don't enjoy beating on a young girl," Nanami said as blood coated his hatchet-held hand. "But vampire or not, I won't show mercy to those who threaten my comrades."

Satsuki held her injured, bleeding and tear-streaming face, and then her sliced arm glowed with cursed energy.

Nanami took notice immediately and let's go of Satsuki. He jumped to the side and dodged the blood claw that stole a large portion of the earth's life, carving into the school and turning its section of the building into dust.

"Huaaaarrrgh!" With a yell and three quick rolls of her arm, Satsuki slammed her fist into the ground. A giant chunk of the earth popped out and Nanami backed away further.

"...You don't know who you're protecting," Satsuki uttered out through her tears and injuries. Glowing red eyes peering through her bloody, brown strands of hair. "Those two... they're monsters."

Does she know about Sukuna? Nanami wondered, holding up his hatchet and readying himself to deliver another cut-through attack.

"One day, I'm sure you'll see..." Satsuki's leg swarmed with cursed energy as she stood up slowly. "Just how much of a murderer Ciel-senpai really is."

Having seen Ciel's heart, this fact was undeniable to Satsuki, and the vampire kicked the ground.

The dead earth rises in a row of massive walls, as tall as the school building. Her unprecedented strength took Nanami by surprise, and he braced the incoming earth with his hatchet, forced to the other end of the school, where the giant shards of the earth crashed into the structure.

"Haa...haa...ha..." Satsuki gasped, her body shivering at the impact her head suffered from. If not for the amount of cursed energy she consumed from Nanami, she was sure her head would have just caved in by that man's cursed technique. She raised her arm for the bleeding ribcage at the center of the courtyard. Blood dripped from its spike, and a blood curse was manifested. Crawling towards Satsuki at her ushering.

She grabbed onto the curse and her fangs tore into the body. Ignoring it shrills of terror, like an infant crying out, Satsuki replenishes her body and her wounds began to close up. However...

It's not enough. Satsuki needed real blood. Real human blood that wasn't cursed. She yanked her head back, her teeth stained with red. "The... gym..."

She forced herself to stand. After recuperating for a brief moment, she started running for the gym that was full of people. "I have to... hurry... Jun-kun... he's waiting for me..."

The upper floor windows of the school suddenly broke through, where two bodies jumped out. Satsuki looked up at the noise, and her red eyes met the emotionless regard of Ciel and the fierce gaze of Yuuji.

"Ah..." Satsuki stopped and instantly controlled her breathing. "Looks like the liars finally showed up."

Ciel and Yuuji landed back onto the field. It was a standoff between them and the vampire. Satsuki couldn't help but smirk, "You know, executors and sorcerers are supposed to be mortal enemies. Do you guys really hate me that much? I guess I can't blame you."

Ciel did not respond as she examined the area. Yumizuka's ability has diminished. It seems Nanami was able to weaken her immensely.

But it's only a matter of time before Satsuki will gain a second wind and try to spread her depletion ability's influence again. Until then, they cannot allow her to drink a single ounce of human blood. Her powers will be completely revived, and nothing can stop her then.

Yuuji looked at the courtyard. The field was completely dead. Not a speck of life, grass, or flower. Not even the soil had any nutrients or insects. It was a desert, with the large standing ribcage made out of blood in the middle of the field. And a little away from it, a lone mutated corpse of a cursed human, looking to have been recently shredded apart and eaten.

"...I want to ask you something, Sacchin," Yuuji said, surprising Ciel and Satsuki. The executor remained quiet, carefully keeping her eye on the vampire.

"Hm?" Satsuki blinked innocently, curious to hear what Yuuji had to say.

"What was going through your mind... when you killed all those people?" Yuuji didn't have to clarify who 'those' people were. The murder victims reported on the news, killed by the Modern-Day Vampire herself.

Satsuki seemed to give his question some thought, tasting the fresh blood in her mouth. "What was going through my mind... If that's all you wanted to know, sure, I'll gladly tell you."

She smiled cheerfully. "At first, I've been sucking blood since I was cold and in pain, but now that I'm getting the hang of it, it's starting to become interesting. You see someone, and for no reason, your heart throbs, and your throat goes dry."

Ciel unconsciously curled her fingers into a fist.

"-Seeing red blood, you enter a stupor like you were drunk from alcohol. Stealing the life of others, extinguishing the life of others. I get why Mahito does it now. Even though I hate him. I get it."

Satsuki's red eyes shimmered as if she was a child on a rollercoaster ride. "It's just so much fun! Killing people is really fun!"

The wind gently picked up a cloud of dirt, carrying itself across the wasteland of the school's courtyard.

Yuuji calmed his heart with a deep breath. He picked up his fists that raged with cursed energy. "...That's all I needed to hear."

His emotional ties to Satsuki officially cut, Yuuji's eyes bore hatefully into the girl he no longer saw as a friend, but a monster.

I'm sorry Junpei. "I'm going to kill you, Sacchin."

Satsuki merely smiled at him. "Yeah. I figured you might. After all, you're just like me."

She launched herself for the executor and the sorcerer, her bloody claws bared as she gleefully unleashed herself onto them.

---

Nanami was able to use Collapse on the wall of the earth to save himself from any serious damage, though his body was still banged up after crashing into a classroom. It's going to cost heavily once Jujutsu High comes in to clean up the mess.

He stood up from the smashed desks and chairs and proceeded back out into the hallway.

Upon stepping out of the classroom, he heard some scurrying down the hall.

Mahito turned a corner and ran down the hall with the blood curses on his tail. His wounds patched up with duct tape and thus, he was able to keep the shape of his body intact, as well able to speak.

"Now how should I deal with these curses-?"

He sensed a new presence ahead of him and he turned to look.

"-!"

Nanami and Mahito spotted each other in the same hallway, surprised by this re-encounter, and could clearly see that they were having a rough night.

"Hey!" Mahito smiled brightly and waved at the man. "Want to work together?"

Nanami swung his hatchet for the curse. He was able to cut through the arm of the curse, but Mahito managed to avoid a greater damage by jumping over the sorcerer.

"Yeah. I thought so," Mahito chuckled. He resumed his run and waved back at the adult. "You can take care of those guys for me then!"

Nanami did not turn back for the cursed spirit. He saw in front of him a hallway full of flying blood curses, all of them hungry for his blood and energy.

"Try not to die!" Mahito shouted as he saw a few blood curses flying outside the window after him. "I still want us to have our rematch!"

Nanami heard the cursed spirit echoing down the hallway, and the man sighed. I'm surrounded by children.

---

Yuuji and Ciel broke through the side of the school, with Satsuki the pursuer as she unleashed blood claws that were smaller than before. The amount of blood she'd been gathering was starting to dwindle, but she still had enough fight in her to make trouble for both the sorcerer and the executor.

"I overheard your conversation with Junpei-kun last night. Tell me. How did it feel to kill, Yuuji-kun?" Satsuki smiled sadistically as she swung her arm, blood splatters flew for Yuuji and he ducked just in time. "Was it exciting? Did you taste their blood like I did? Did it feel amazing?"

Yuuji bolted for the vampire and threw his fist for her without restraint. He kept a cool-head no matter Satsuki's taunts. It was the same kind of taunt he'd been hearing from Sukuna, and Yuuji had already grown used to them by now.

Ciel covered for Yuuji, throwing several black keys for the vampire. Satsuki jumped back, avoiding Yuuji's punch that destroyed the wall beside them, and sends another blood splatter that caught every black key, draining their sacraments completely into instant shattering.

"I don't see why you're so angry at me, when you're just as bad as I am," Satsuki said before her smiled dropped, "I probably should have thought twice when I made you promise to look out for Junpei, since it was your fault that him and Ms. Yoshino died."

Yuuji's expression wavered, and Satsuki took this opportunity to slam her fists into the ground.

"Yuuji-kun!" Ciel called.

Yuuji backed away immediately, avoiding the sudden wave of depletion that turned the floor into sand, and he and Ciel stood at a safe distance from the vampire.

"...That cursed finger," Satsuki began, her whole surroundings crumbling. "I don't really get how, but you and that cursed finger are related. It probably belonged to whatever curse is hiding inside you."

She knows? Ciel showed discomfort in her face, standing close to Yuuji's side who was just as surprised to hear this.

"It was what all those curses were after, and they killed Ms. Yoshino for it." Satsuki lifted her head, her glowing red glare intense as she stared maddingly at Yuuji. "You lied, Yuuji-kun. You said that you would be there for Junpei. Help him when he needed it. Now he's dead."

Because of you.

Ciel looked at Yuuji in concern. His face showed nothing, but his lack of response to Satsuki's accusation implied an agreement to her words, regardless of its contrary to the truth.

Satsuki raised her bloody hands to her face, clasping over her eyes as if she was about to cry. "You liar. Liar. Liar. You and Ciel-senpai. You're both just murderers who never cared about anyone."

"That's not true, Yumizuka." Unable to hold herself back, Ciel countered Satsuki's claims. "I don't know what happened here, but Yuuji-kun did care about you and Junpei. He wanted all of us to spend time together before he found out about everything you did."

Ciel didn't know why she bothered to speak up. It's obvious that Satsuki had lost her mind. There's no reasoning with a vampire once they've succumbed to their bloodlust, but Ciel couldn't just stand by and let Yuuji be unjustly ostracized.

"What happened at Ms. Yoshino's house, it wasn't-"

"It's okay, Ciel," Yuuji interrupted Ciel, surprising her as he calmly stated. "She's right about a few things. I am a murderer, and I couldn't save Junpei or Ms. Yoshino. I'm not gonna deny any of that."

His glare grew intense as he regarded the vampire, "You can say whatever you want about me, but leave Ciel out of this. I won't let you badmouth her no matter how angry you are at me."

Ciel was baffled at Yuuji's words. He was upset about that? Pre...Preposterous! Why would Yuuji concern himself over something like that?! "Yuuji-kun. You're not-"

It wasn't your fault.

"I'm going to be executed someday," Yuuji declared, a factual statement that he held no more fear of and it startled Ciel. "I'll accept responsibility over what happened, but that doesn't mean you have any right to kill all those people, Sacchin. Junpei saw good in you, but after what you did to Ms. Yoshino, and what you're doing right now..."

He shouted at Satsuki, unable to hold back the emotion in his voice, "Don't you care that you're stomping all over Junpei's faith in you?!"

Satsuki stared at Yuuji with wide eyes, her hands lowered from her face as she seemed to register Yuuji's words.

"...What I did... to Ms. Yoshino...?"

However, she caught a completely different message from Yuuji's words.

"What do you... mean by that?"

Yuuji gritted his teeth in frustration at Satsuki's diverted attention, but then he became confused as Satsuki lowered her head. Her behavior suddenly changed.

"Ms. Yoshino... how did you know I did anything to her? Unless..."

Did Ms. Yoshino come back? Did she really come back to life after all? Ah. Aha! Ahahahaha!

"Ahahahahahaha! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

The vampire girl laughed madly, bending herself backward as her laughter filled the halls. Ciel's eyes narrowed while Yuuji was speechless.

"I see! I see! I understand now!" Satsuki's laugh full of joyful accomplishment, a single tear escaping her eye. "I honestly didn't think it would work. It never worked the first few times I tried it out myself. At least, not always. But..."

This was perfect. This was absolutely perfect! If Ms. Yoshino could come back, then that means...

I can still save Junpei!

She'd been worried if it was ever going to work. Now, she knows for sure that it was possible.

Her laughter dying down, she smiled at the sorcerer and the executor, as if they were longtime friends of hers. "If Ms. Yoshino could come back, then there might still be some hope for Jun-kun also."

"!" Yuuji and Ciel instantly understood what she was implying.

"The food can wait," Satsuki said as she stood up. "You couldn't save Junpei, but that's okay, I'll be sure to save him myself."

"Satsuki-!"

The vampire leapt through the ceiling in an instant, a rain of debris coating the floor. Yuuji spun around, facing the direction where Junpei's body currently lay.

"Yuuji-kun-!" Ciel started, but Yuuji had already started his sprint, and she quickly ran after him.

Satsuki sped down the hallway, dashing for where she last heard Junpei's heartbeat before it stopped. She eventually reached the location and spotted the lone corpse in the middle of the hallway. Its faint scent she recognized to be Junpei's, mixed with the distortion of his motionless, mutated body.

Mahito must have done that. But it's fine. I'll figure out how to fix Junpei back to normal later.

She ran for the body. There was a heartbeat she noticed underneath her, and Satsuki stopped. She jumped back in surprise when the floor suddenly erupted, Yuuji breaking through the stone with his cursed-fueled fists, and he landed right in front of Junpei's body. He faced the vampire with an almost desperate look, before he solidified his will to stop her by all means.

Satsuki frowned at Yuuji. "Move, please."

"I won't," Yuuji said. He will not let Junpei's body be desecrated the same way as Nagi Yoshino. "I'm not letting you turn him."

"...Fine," Satsuki said, and she leapt for Yuuji, "You can go first."

Three black keys shot up through the hole Yuuji made. Satsuki quickly flailed at them, but failed to deflect the fourth thrown sword that was hidden behind the others.

"Gah-!" The fourth sword struck Satsuki's face and she backed away. The black key instantly shattered upon reaching her cursed-blood face, but her weakening ability had left her momentarily exposed to its harmful effects.

Ciel popped up through the hole and stood beside Yuuji. She looked over to the sorcerer, and then noticed Junpei on the floor. There was a flash of remorse in her eyes, finally understanding Yuuji's earlier grief and hatred for the patch-face cursed spirit. I should have been here sooner...

There was a sudden chill in the air. The executor and the sorcerer tensed.

"Senpai..." Satsuki's patience reached its limit. Holding her face that bled from the blade of Ciel's black key, her blood red eyes glared between her fingers, feeling her lust for violence radiating. "That hurt. That really hurt."

Hurt. Hurt! Hurt! Hurt! Hurt!

The air around Satsuki began to shift, and the floor, walls, and glass around her started to crack.

"...I've had enough of you. I want you gone. Gone from my memories. Gone from everyone's life. Just go away. Disappear. Disappear!"

She dug her claws into the wall beside her. It instantly fell apart under her touch, and she thew chunks of cursed-fueled stone for Ciel and Yuuji.

Ciel threw her black keys, destroying the cursed stones. The weapons flew into the cloud of debris and Satsuki ducked under them. She bolted through the dust, like a wild animal pouncing out of hiding. A predator leaping out from the grass to bite into her prey.

"Disappear!"Satsuki swung her arm, and a large bloody claw was unleashed.

She still had one more-! Ciel was actually terrified. Not for her sake, but for those with her. There was only one path of escape, the stairs. But it would mean to leave Junpei's body behind, and she knew that Yuuji would never do that. That boy who would even refuse to leave behind the dead body of a stranger. I have to-!

She was about ready to brace the attack when Yuuji moved in front of Ciel and Junpei's body, and he tank the attack himself. Crossing his arms over his face, he guarded his eyes and felt the instant burning from Satsuki's cursed blood, but he was unphased by the pain.

"-?!" Ciel was shocked by Yuuji's daring act, downright suicidal even. Satsuki resumed her fierce approach, swinging her arms for another blood splatter attack no matter her exhaustion.

Yuuji met her half-way, sprinting for the vampire and caught Satsuki's arm before it would unleash another aerial attack. The vampire was shocked by his tenacity, and she looked into Yuuji's enraged gaze.

He was pissed. Just now, Satsuki was about to not only carve into Junpei's body, but kill Ciel. This girl who was supposed to be a friend of Ciel and Junpei. This girl who was supposedly a victim, but was acting no different than all the monsters he's met.

"Hnh-!" Satsuki swung her other arm, clawing for Yuuji's head. Yuuji ducked under the attack. As strong as Satsuki was, she wasn't a natural fighter. She was clumsy, and had no fighting style whatsoever. This was his advantage.

I'm not letting you hurt anyone else. A clash between blood-soaked warriors, drenched in their sin in the essence of the innocents. He struck Satsuki's arm and, with a fistful of cursed energy, decked the vampire straight in the face. Satsuki was surprised by the amount of power and rage behind Yuuji's fist. Not only that, but she felt as if she was hit twice, and she flew back down the hallway even further.

"-Gnh!" Satsuki dragged her claws into the floor, holding her face in pain. The stone withering from her touch until she came to a complete stop. Why? Why did everything have to hurt so much? She was stronger now. So why does she have to go through this much pain? Why couldn't she kill Ciel or Yuuji after getting so close to them? Why can't she do anything to them?

Ciel quickly came up to Yuuji. "Yuuji-kun! Are you okay?!"

She could see him covered in Satsuki's blood, head to toe. Yet, miraculously, he was still intact. Even casually wiping off the blood from his forehead so that it wouldn't get to his eyes. "I'm good. We got to get Junpei's body out of here."

He changed the subject quickly in regard for another. Ciel wanted to both admire his clear-headed quality and smack him for his lack of self-consideration. But what she can't ignore was how Yuuji wasn't turned to ash or even withering away. Had Satsuki's ability grown weak? Or did Yuuji guard his body with cursed energy at the last second? It could very well be for both reasons, or...

Wait. Yuuji is a half-curse. In theory, his body alone can be considered a cursed object, Ciel's eyes widened in realization. He's already protected by an energy source from within. That means...!

He was resistant to Satsuki's depletion technique to a degree. However, the blood had to be already eating away Yuuji's cursed energy right now, even if not his body. They have to kill Satsuki quickly, cancel her technique's effects through death, before her ability would exhaust Yuuji of all his powers, and there'd be nothing to protect him from the vampire.

Satsuki slowly picked herself back up. "...Why? Why do you want to get in my way?"

Ciel and Yuuji looked back at the vampire. The ground cracked further underneath Satsuki's feet. "Don't you want to help Junpei? Don't you want to help me?! Did you lie about that too?!"

Satsuki's words struck a chord in Ciel and Yuuji. A flicker of emotion in the executor's eyes, and a genuine look of regret in Yuuji's.

"If all you want to do is help people, then...!"

Help Sacchin.

"Help me!"

Satsuki slammed both her fists against the floor, caving into the material. Her depletion effect inserted into the stone, spreading across instantly. From outside, the standing ribcage shuddered, and their blood bones protruded.

"Help me! Help me! Help me!"

The vampire demanded endlessly. Her tantrum cracking the walls and windows. The stone floor withered at her every hit. Ciel realized what was about to happen, and then she notices the sudden change out on the courtyard, looking out the window. -?! That skeleton...!

Now that she thought about it, shouldn't that giant curse's skeleton crumble by now? Unless... it wasn't the curse-slug's skeleton at all.

Ciel's eyes widened as she saw the ribcage open further. No way. Did Satsuki-?!

It was a familiar sensation and scene. The very same one from when Ciel, upon reviving, had a personal show of Sukuna's Domain Expansion, and the devastation of that domain's power.

"RUN YUUJI!"

Yuuji looked at Ciel, surprised by her urgency, and then saw what she was afraid of through the window. Oh shi-!

The bones from the ribcage shot out. Its extension like blood red spears that aimed for every sign of life, and pierced through the buildings.

Ciel and Yuuji dashed away just in time, together picking up Junpei's body and fleeing from the giant red spear.

From another building, Nanami had dealt with several blood curses in the hallway when he felt an ominous presence from outside, and he jumped away just barely to avoid the blood spear.

Inside a classroom, Mahito also sensed something was wrong, casually using a chunk of the ceiling to crush the blood curses underneath, and barely hopped just in time to avoid a blood spear that killed the cursed humans instead.

The final spear reached the gymnasium, shattering through the window and stabbing into the wall from across the court. The barely conscious professor inside was stunned by the arrival of the spear, hovering menacingly over all the fallen students' and teachers' heads.

"Wha...what is that...?" Sotomura had no idea what's been going on. He'd been hearing noises of destruction happening outside the gym, and he couldn't move throughout it all, like being in a nightmare that reminded him of his uselessness as a teacher. He then witnessed to his added horror a dark-shroud spilling from the spear, staining the stone into black coals, like a virus spreading out, and heading closer to the students. His survival instincts screaming at the sight of that infection. "H-help... Someone... help!"

Ciel and Yuuji ran down the hall, only to be cut off by another red spear and they jumped back.

"Be careful! They're infused with Satsuki's depletion effects!" Ciel warned.

Yuuji clutched Junpei's body. He heard the spear behind them start to move, pulling up towards the roof that withered more stone, causing the whole building to tremble. He turned around to look at the damage.

"Help me...!"

Yuuji spotted Satsuki kneeling on the floor. Her hands clasped over her face, the monster reverting back to a helpless girl. The sight of her left him speechless, and his earlier hatred of her seemed to dissipate.

"Please..." The girl cried out, tears spilling between her fingers. "Help me..."

Help Sacchin.

Ciel stabbed several black keys around herself and Yuuji. "Hang on! It's all coming down!"

A barrier was summoned by the swords, surrounding them to protect them from the collapsing building. However, the depletion energy from the spear made its way to her swords, and it broke them, completely nullifying Ciel's barrier.

"Damn it-!" To think she would curse for not being able to use magic. This really is an insane situation.

Yuuji quickly took hold around Ciel's waist and carried her surprised self, along with Junpei's body in his other arm. Without another moment to lose, he jumped through the window, his body breaking through the glass.

The entire wing of the building came down. Everything fell apart, including all its belongings. Rooms at every floor caved in, and many of them turned to sand.

Yuuji landed back onto the wasteland field and held Ciel and Junpei's body close, shielding them with his body from the clouds of dirt that came from the collapsed building.

Ciel took immediate note of the field they were on. There was no depletion effect underneath them. They were safe. She looked up at the standing ribcage at the center of the yard. It must be focusing all of its depletion effects into those spears. This isn't a perfect domain yet.

But it is a deadly one, and a feat that no Jujutsu Sorcerer of this era had ever accomplished. Usually, domains are summoned within a sphere, or any kind of structure to work as a substitute like what happened at the detention center between Sukuna and that cursed womb. For someone like Satsuki to do something like this, it's nothing short from incredible. Like painting a mural in thin air.

Ciel looked over to where the other bone-spears have embedded themselves in, and spotted one piercing through the gym. Oh no! The people-!

Yuuji followed Ciel's gaze, and his mind clicked with immediate understanding. "Crap. We got to-!"

Claws punctured into his shoulders, gripping tightly over his bones. Yuuji's eyes widened at the instant sensation of a warm breath over his neck, and he instinctively swung his arm back. His elbow struck the face of Satsuki, sending her flying into rubbles of the building.

"Yuuji!" Ciel saw what happened and reached out for Yuuji's shoulders, where blood soaked through his uniform. She tried to heal his wounds with Reverse Cursed Technique, but the effects were nullified.

Satsuki's cursed technique! It's inside him!

The vampire was gasping as she pulled herself out from the wreckage, her nose bloody from the elbow-punch. "I got you... I finally got you...!"

Yuuji and Ciel stood up, panic in their expressions as Satsuki raised Yuuji's blood to her lips.

"Now... you're both mine."

She slurped the blood clean from her fingers. Getting back up, her arm was swarmed with cursed energy once more. A sweet, delightful, tangy taste of Yuuji's blood. Like drinking from a wine bottle that's been mellowed just right.

"It's over. It doesn't matter if you're fully human or not, so long as you share a body with that strong curse inside you, then your blood is all I need." Satsuki's eyes glowed a brilliant, terrifying red. "It's been fun. Goodbye now."

She swung her arm and unleashed her bloody claws.

The blood splatter fell uselessly, dripping over about a couple of feet across the ground in front of her. Like she just merely swung a paint brush.

"...huh?"

Ciel and Yuuji blinked, having their arms out for each other instinctively to protect. They watched as Satsuki looked back at her arms confused, and tried to toss another cursed blood attack. It only failed again, dripping to the dirt.

"Wait... what?" She saw her cursed energy growing weaker around herself, no matter how much she tried to push. "Why...? Why isn't it... working...?"

Her head felt light. A strange sensation of fatigue coursed through her body. I don't understand. What's happening? Why do I feel so...?

"What's happening to her?" Yuuji asked Ciel, keeping his eyes on the vampire who seemed to be wobbling where she stood, as if the dead earth was shifting underneath her feet.

Ciel frowned, just as lost as Yuuji was and could only theorize. "Could it be... Is her body rejecting your blood?"

That seems the most likely explanation. Yuuji was a special case where he, a one in a million, became a vessel of Sukuna. No matter how gifted Satsuki was, her body was not Yuuji's, who had an especially questionable resistance to survive the likes of Sukuna's cursed finger that would kill any other human being.

"Your body is harboring Sukuna's soul," Ciel said. "It might be that, after the amount of cursed fingers you've eaten already, his energy that flows inside you acts as some kind of poison."

"Poison..." Yuuji slowly fathomed, and then he was struck with revelation. "Poison. Junpei!"

"Huh?" Ciel broke her gaze away from the staggering vampire, looking at Yuuji.

"Earlier, I was fighting Junpei," Yuuji began to explain, "He tried to knock me out by poisoning me, but it didn't work. He gave a lot of it too. It's what he used to knock out everyone in the gym."

The question of what brought about Junpei and Yuuji's fight was put aside for now. The executor grasped Yuuji's explanation and looked at the vampire again. "A type of sleeping medicine that lasts after his death? Or some kind of anesthetic."

"Yeah. Probably."

Ciel's confidence came back in full swing. Then... this is good! If Satsuki has taken in Junpei's poison, and it's stagnating her cursed technique in her body...

Then they might still have a chance to defeat Satsuki! If Ciel is quick enough, she can still save Yuuji from having his blood drained as well as the people in the gym.

"Why...?"

They then heard the vampire utter.

"Why can't I do anything right?"

Satsuki's breath shuddered, full of frustration, agony, and sorrow. "Even when I'm killing people, I'm just so bad at it. I always try to twist their heads from behind so they can die quickly, but I could never get rid of all the evidence after that! I can't even kill you two properly!"

Yuuji's fury and disgust resurfaced at Satsuki's genuine distorted admittance of regret. Seriously? She was upset that she was bad at murdering people?

I shouldn't have felt bad for her. In the end... she's a vampire.

"Now even Junpei's against me, and I'm trying to save that idiot!" Satsuki had soon recognized the poison inside her to be that of Junpei, and she stomped the ground. The earth cracked under her still lingering vampiric strength. "It's not fair! It's not fair!"

She stomped the ground again and again repeatedly chasing the unfairness of it all. The earth trembled under her tantrum, their cracked reaching across the field and to Ciel and Yuuji's feet.

"I don't care anymore! I just want my body to stop hurting! I just want you two to die already! Just die already! No one's going to miss murderers like you! So just do everybody a favor and die!"

Her words full of cruelty and unrelenting malice, cursing with all her heart at the sorcerer and the executor, Satsuki pounced for them. Her tear-stained and bloody face full of rage and hunger. The semblance of her humanity, it's already far away.

Yuuji and Ciel parted from each other. Dodging the up-close claw strike from Satsuki. Ciel instantly threw a black key but Satsuki wildly backhanded it, sending it in front of Yuuji's feet who tried to strike at her from behind. The weapon remained intact, meaning Satsuki's powers truly had been nulled, but her bloodlust drove her body to pursue her next pair of victims regardless, all while the blood spears of her Domain continue to wither and drain away the school, threatening ever closer to all the life it carries.

...What a pathetic creature.

Sukuna's eyes peer open as he witnessed this display of mindless rampage from the vampire girl. He'd been entertained for a while, but now it's obvious that this girl needed to be put down like a rabid, wild dog that she's become. So much power, potential, and talent, and she couldn't handle any of it. She really would have been better off dead in some back alleyway.

The vampire made no rhyme or strategy. She simply swung her arms in hopes to crush or cleave into her two most hated people. Without any chance to pull out another black key, Ciel blocked with her arm under Satsuki's wrist and swiftly redirected Satsuki's ever flailing attacks. The blood on her body is no longer in effect. I can attack her upfront without repercussion.

Yuuji took hold of the black key and sprinted for Satsuki. He ducked under Satsuki's back swipe and grabbed her arm, swinging his leg behind her knee to throw her off balance. The vampire refused to let herself fall under the brute force, and just blindly pulled his body aside, ripping away from his grip and kicked back for Ciel who blocked the hit with a cross of her arms.

"-Help me! Help me! Help me! Help me! Help me! Help me!" The vampire said, and nothing more. A broken record of a dispirited girl who could only attack the world for turning her this way.

Ciel expressed visible sympathy for the desperate vampire, while Yuuji kept his focus. Their attentions were disrupted when they heard the corner roof of the school gym crumbling, the entire building slowly cracking, threatening to fall apart and crush the students and teachers inside. Satsuki took their brief distraction as her opportunity and punched Yuuji's chest. The sorcerer was forced back, winded by the earth-crushing blow, but still clutching the black key he had intended to pass off to Ciel.

"Gnh-!" Ciel uttered as Satsuki quickly clasped for the executor's throat, digging her claws into Ciel's veins.

"Help me! Help me!"

Yuuji saw what was about to happen. Not another thought came to him, his mind and emotions cleared of everything, his body instantly moved on its own.

"HELP ME-!"

Seconds before Satsuki would rip out Ciel's throat and punch her fist right into the executor's heart, a black-tinted blade pierced through Satsuki's chest, slicing through the vampire's heart.

...I'll help you, Sacchin, Yuuji promised with solemn eyes.

Ciel raised her hand and snapped her fingers, a painful regret slipping out her face.

The vampire's body was encased in blue fire, and Satsuki's heart was instantly vaporized.

The depletion effects within the blood spears of Satsuki's domain ceased suddenly, inches away from taking the life force of the people within the school.

The red glow in Satsuki's eyes faded as she dropped to her knees, releasing Ciel. Yuuji lets go of the black key and rushed for Ciel, grabbing her body and pulling her away from the vampire.

"Kirei..."

Ciel said sorrowfully, no longer able to hold up her cold exterior. "Elesion."

The limbs of Satsuki were next to be vaporized, and her body on fire slumped onto the dead earth. "...ahh..."

Ciel and Yuuji were surprised to hear the vampire's sound. The girl's body not instantly fading, but her fate was sealed. Likely, there was still some ounce of her depletion effect that was stalling the complete exorcism of the rite, but not strong enough to completely cancel it. In other words, the process of Satsuki's incineration was slow, yet there was not an utter of pain from the vampire anymore.

"It... doesn't hurt anymore..."

Yuuji's eyes widened, his heart beginning to crack as he saw that peaceful expression in Satsuki. He held Ciel's body in a hug as the executor clutched his arm.

"I'm relieved. It actually feels warm. You... really are a kind person, Senpai..."

Ciel's mouth trembled, biting down lips. Yuuji's gaze flickered over to Ciel, worry and sorrow filling his chest at the sight of the executor's face, and he felt the need to apologize.

"Don't feel sad, Yuuji-kun."

He looked back at the burning girl and his breath hitched. Her warm brown gaze regarded him with kindness, freed from her vampiric impulse, her humanity resurfaced in her final moments. "It's okay. You did the right thing..."

A painful lurch in Yuuji's heart, full of conflicting feelings as he thinned his mouth, and watched Satsuki's body break away with shimmering eyes.

"I'm sorry for all the means things I said to you guys," Satsuki said. "I don't think either of you deserved to die, no matter what you did."

The girl casted a knowing glance to Ciel, and the executor nearly flinched under it.

"You're good people in the end. Senpai, take care of Shiki-kun for me..."

The executor gave it her all to not let her mask break. "...I will."

Satsuki smiled, "Thank you. I was honestly jealous... but now... I'm happy you and Yuuji found each other..."

With just her head remaining, Satsuki gave one last look to the mutated body of Junpei, lying motionless on the dead earth, and wishing with all her heart that she could reach out to him, one last time. "Just like... Jun-kun... found me..."

I know I deserve hell, but I still hope I get to see you again... I'll be sure to answer your feelings properly this time...

The eyes of Satsuki then burned away, and all that remained were her ashes, lying lifelessly amongst the wasteland.

"...Ciel," Yuuji started, holding Ciel's shoulders as he looked down at her.

Ciel did not turn to meet his gaze, her bangs hiding her eyes. "...We need to get back with Nanami-san."

Yuuji was quiet for a moment. He wanted to say something, to ask if she was alright, but he knew that Ciel was right. He'll be sure to talk to her tonight, though. Solidifying his gaze and keeping himself strong, he answered, "...Yeah."

---

"-Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow."

Mahito crawled out of the collapsed classroom, worming his way through the flexibility of his soul, and seeing for himself that the entire school wing had fallen apart. "Whew! That was a close one..."

When he dodged that blood spear just now, he actually touched the spear to push himself over it. That turned out to be a mistake, as the spear was infested with depletion ability, and his arm started to fall apart no matter how much he tried to reshape his soul. He was able to avoid letting it get to the rest of his body by stretching out his arm, and while he felt that he was a little bit screwed, he did use the opportunity to use his 'dead' arm to attack those blood curses, who seemed to have all evaporated by now.

"I almost had to cut off my own arm," Mahito breathed out his relief. He stood up over the rubble and patted away the dusts on his pants. "I think that's about enough excitement for one night."

He wondered if the vessel, the first grade sorcerer, and the executor are still alive. Well, it's probably best that he leaves before he should find out. That depletion effect definitely had him hanging by the ropes and pushed his body to its limits. He'll need to recover before he can hope to fight anyone next. He looked over to the sight of the destruction. The gym being the only building not destroyed.

I wonder what made all those blood curses disappear? Mahito wondered. That giant ribcage on the field is gone too... Wait. Could it be? Did that executor killed Sacchin-?

Behind him, Nanami burst out from the rubble. His hatchet raised up high, his coat gone, and his specs cracked.

"Eh-?" Mahito turned his head and saw the apathetic look of the first grade sorcerer. Are you serious?

The cursed spirit jumped to the side barely in time. Nanami's attack destroying the large piece of stone Mahito had been standing on. This guy still has some fight left in him?

What terrifying tenacity, it was honestly impressive. Mahito wanted to laugh at it. The grinning cursed spirit hopped away and faced Nanami's direction. The cursed spirit could see that, although the sorcerer managed to survive the draining blood curses, it was clear how hurt Nanami was, yet the man was toughing it all out, intending to fulfill his mission in exorcising Mahito.

Do I fight back? I don't really have a lot of cursed energy left in me. But that's probably the same for him. It's still gonna be tough to keep maintaining my soul's shape after just surviving Sacchin-

A black key pierced through the stomach of Mahito from his back. Blood spurting out as the cursed spirit looked down at it. Oh-

He heard running footsteps from behind. Mahito ducked just in time, dodging Yuuji's powerful fist that broke through a standing slab of concrete next to them.

Mahito leapt away, yanking out the black-tinted sword at once. "-! Huh."

Just now, wherever the executor was hiding, she could have used her Fire Spell to harm Mahito further. Was she low on power? Sacchin must have done a number on her.

"Still alive, huh, vessel?" Mahito said, noting the appearance of the young sorcerer as if he just got out of a blood bath, "By the looks of you, I wonder... did you helped that executor kill that girl?"

Nanami walked up beside Yuuji, casually discussing with the teen. "Is Yumizuka-?"

"Dead," Yuuji bluntly told, his eyes focused on the cursed spirit, his hatred of the thing still very strong. "I killed her."

Him. Not Ciel-san? Nanami side-glanced at the teen and his blood-coated state. Yuuji looked to have just gotten out several close calls. An etch of maturity in his eyes, one who is now able to differentiate the necessities of one's actions. He could have said they both did it, but he might be taking full responsibility anyway.

And if either was true, then Yuuji and Ciel had just put down someone they considered a friend. The emotional and mental toll that could weigh on someone like Yuuji, and no doubt Ciel will simply push her true feelings away for the sake of professionalism.

"We'll discuss it another time," Nanami said, returning his gaze at the cursed spirit. "The cursed spirit is weakened. Kill him."

"Right!"

Mahito raised his arms up. Smiling in anticipation.

"I will kill. I will let live."

Mahito's eyes widened and he looked behind himself. But there was no one in sight. He had to pull his attention back at Yuuji and Nanami who rushed for him again. Their cooperation a silent agreement as if they have never even left each other's sides.

"I will harm and heal. None will escape me. None will escape my sight."

Mahito moved around like a snake at every incoming attack, trying to endure their attempted beatings with his own fighting skills, but he wasn't in the best shape.

"Be crushed. I welcome those who have grown old and those who have lost.

Devote yourself to me, learn from me, and obey me."

Is that from the Bible? It was coming from the executor then, but Mahito couldn't find her anywhere. Not only that, but he felt something stirring in his body. Was it the holy effects of the black key? No...

"Rest. Do not forget song, do not forget prayer, and do not forget me."

It was Mahito's survival instincts. His body warning him of some impending, unforeseeable force.

He lost focus for a brief second, trying to find or pinpoint the location of the hidden speaker when Nanami struck Mahito in his side. Yuuji, in turn, slammed his fist against Mahito's face, forcing the spirit to spit out more blood.

They're trying to keep me in place. Break down my defenses. And then-!

And then they intend for the executor to deliver a finishing blow. That's what this mantra is! It's an Exorcism Spell!

"I am light and relieve you of all your burdens.

Do not pretend. Retribution for forgiveness, betrayal for trust, despair for hope, darkness for light, dark death for the living."

He can't find the executor. Of course not. He did hear from Geto that executors were well trained assassins. They're not supposed to be easy to find. But she had to be somewhere close by if he could still hear her. But where-?

No. I shouldn't focus on that. I have to break out of these guys' pressure somehow.

Mahito could unleash several spikes from his body and try to impale the sorcerers. But the problem was that he was low on stamina, and his body was pushed to its limit. He can't afford to expend himself anymore without tearing himself apart.

"Relief is in my hands. I will add oil to your sins and leave a mark.

Eternal life is given through death."

It's coming-! It's coming-!

Mahito felt his body continuously berated by beatings. Both fists and weapon. He was losing consciousness. His breath dwindling. His heart was racing and a strange sense of not only urgency, but pleasure flowed through his bloodstream.

This is...! A new kind of enriching, enlightenment in Mahito as his eyes rolled to the back of his head. Death!

"— Ask for forgiveness here. I, the incarnation, will swear."

I get it! I finally get it, Sacchin! I get how you were able to do it!

The impending reach of Death. Getting closer and closer. Mahito's truest potential was unleashed, like a flower finally blooming.

From behind a pile of rubble, Ciel had her black keys out ready. Her presence completely silenced. Her heart rate slow, so that no one, not even a mind-reading vampire could detect her. She peered around the rubble, ready to finish off the cursed spirit in one blow.

"Kyrie-"

And it was at that moment that something changed. Ciel's focus shattered, and her mantra was cut off abruptly.

Nanami was about to deliver the decisive blow directly into Mahito's head when he saw inside the cursed spirit's open mouth, tiny arms appeared over the tongue, and crossed their hands into Jujutsu signs.

Domain Expansion-!

A black shroud appeared behind Mahito. It grew around the cursed spirit as a wall, large hands separating Yuuji from Nanami. The first grade sorcerer watched in astonishment.

Self-Embodiment of Perfection!

Acting without another thought, her body moved on its own. Ciel sprinted out of hiding, pushing her legs to the highest exertion, and slammed her body against the first grade sorcerer's.

"Gh-?!" The man was forced back, and out of the domain's reach.

And taking his place was Ciel.

Yuuji's eyes widened. No.

It was like everything was happening in slow motion, as he watched the girl before him be surrounded in darkness.

No. No. No! No! No! No!

In an instant, Ciel's figure was encompassed by Mahito's sphere, trapping her within the cursed spirit's domain.

---

Author's Note: And there you have it, the conclusion of Vampiric Impulses, Cursed Delights. Get ready for the next chapter, because it's the one I've been waiting for. Please let me know your honest thoughts about this chapter. I know it was a hefty one. I nearly cried when Sacchin died. I hope ya'll did too.

Anyway! Look forward to the next chapter, and after that, it's probably best that I go into hiatus. Otherwise, hope for at least one more chapter, just to make this a good 20-chapter fic, but don't hold any hopes, and I really should take a break after writing so much.

Take care everyone! Please leave a kind and honest review. I love you! and Happy 4th of July!