The sounds of its feet dragged across the floor, puppeteer'ed by external forces. A second and third shadow soon followed, and two other figures in rags appeared, blocking Nobara's way out.
Curses? Nobara sniffed the air. The unmistakable smell of something rotten. No. They're… Corpses?!
The dead raised its arm, its mummified fingers reached out for her. Its mouth agape. A breathless, deep, raw utterance heard from its throat. It hungered for warmth. It hungered for life.
Nobara immediately pulled out more nails from her pouch. She tossed them and fired with a swung of her hammer.
The iron nails embedded into the heads and chest of each dead, puncturing their weak flesh with ease. Their heads flung back from the force and they staggered to a stop. However, through the will of the curses, they remained standing and resumed after Nobara, mindlessly aiming for her neck and body.
"You might want to take those out first," Nobara said. "My cursed energy flows through them."
With a snap of her fingers, her magical power erupted from the iron nails. Two of the dead's heads exploded. The third, partially so. The curses tasted the burn of her exorcism, evaporating at its flame, and the bodies dropped to the floor.
"Gah! Gross!" Nobara stepped back to avoid the splattered bits and gunk, holding her nose to protect herself from the smell. "Geez... Since when could curses move dead bodies like this?"
It would have taken a particularly strong curse to do so. However, these curses weren't all that high graded. Was this just a rare exception?
It's hard to believe they broke out of their caskets too. Nobara carefully stepped over the bodies, heading towards the exit. Places like that are usually sealed tight-
A cold hand suddenly grabbed her ankle. "-?!"
The dead that had its head partially blown raised its chin. Its mouth unhinged as its rotten teeth aimed for her calve.
Nobara kicked the dead right off before it had the chance to bite her, knocking its head against the wall. There was a resounding crack of its skull, the harsh impact intended by the surprised sorcerer student.
"The hell-?!" Nobara backed out of the room, baffled. It... It's still moving?!
But she was sure she exorcised the curses. Nothing should have made that body move just now. So how the hell-?
At her distraction, a grotesque hand phased through the wall from behind, reaching for Nobara's face.
"-! Shit!" She sensed the presence of the curse too late and swung her hammer.
Slice.
The limb of the curse was cut off. Yuji's feet slid across the ground, holding out Demon Slaughterer. The severed arm of the curse immediately retreated, failing to grab Nobara.
"Itadori?!" Nobara didn't expect his arrival. She expected less so of a random girl, who ceased her run after catching up to them.
"This is why we should stick together!" Yuji exclaimed as the curse he cut reappeared overhead, its large gaping mouth and teeth emerged through the ceiling.
"S-Shut up! I don't need a newbie telling me off!" Yelling, Nobara then went in to assist.
Together, the shamans in training fought the curse. Yuji slicing off more of its mangled limbs, and Nobara firing her nails into the curse's tongue, until not a remnant of its existence remained, vanquishing it.
"-And who's the numbskull that brought a civilian down here anyway?!" Nobara accusingly pointed at Yuji, chastising him for bringing a normie into danger.
"I didn't mean to. She just kind of followed." More like took lead. She even gave pretty good directions to where Nobara was despite never being here before. "We bumped into each other and I didn't want to leave her by herself. This is Ci-"
"Someone who just stumbled into this place by chance," Ciel cuts in smilingly, her words like a rapier that halted Yuji's response before he would reveal her name. She really should have tested his immunity to spells first. Had she known he'd remember her, she would have given him a different alias. "Looks like I gotten too curious for my own good."
Nobara looked at the girl, confused by her interjection. Yuji gave Ciel another bewildering stare. She really was set on not being recognized. Was she on the run or something?
Noting their skeptical looks, Ciel resumed to redirect the shamans' focus. "That was incredible what I saw, by the way. You two work well together."
She folded her arms behind her back and gave a teasing look. "Makes me wonder how close you really are. You wouldn't happen to be dating, would you?"
"guh."
Whatever reaction Ciel expected, it was not this.
Yuji's and Nobara's face dropped in disgust, so deep a blind person could see it. Their eyes narrowed and their gaping mouths curled downward, as if they were about to throw up. Ciel intended to incite some embarrassment, some sheepish looks at least (maybe start a little something between them. She's a secret romantic after all). Instead, it just looked like she told them to kiss their sibling.
"Ah… Is that not it? Was I off the mark?"
"Definitely off," the shamans agreed. Nobara shuddered at the idea, and Yuji, though held no interest in his classmate, was admittedly offended by the light brunette's visceral reaction.
"-ggrrrnnnnnhhhhhh."
They heard moans from the side and forego the conversation. Nobara turned and saw the corpse she had kicked step into the hallway. "-! Fuck!"
"Another curse?" Yuji held out his sword ready. Before he would pursue the enemy, Nobara answered.
"No. It's not," Nobara said. A trinkle of sweat fell on the side of her face. "That thing… That's a real body."
"Huh?" Yuji didn't immediately register, and Nobara continued.
"It doesn't make any sense." Nobara held her hammer by her side as she pulled out more nails. "It's not carrying any curses. And the curses it did carry wouldn't be strong enough to possess it. Right now, it's moving on its own. I'm sure of it."
"Wait. A real body…?" Yuji look at what stood before them, and he felt a coldness rush over his back. Ciel looked at his stunned reaction.
"That's… someone's corpse?"
The paling statement was marred into his expression. It was such an innocently stated question, like he couldn't accept something so barbaric. Ciel's brows furrowed slightly.
They heard more moaning behind them, and the startled shamans turned back.
"No way…" Nobara clutched her hammer tightly. "You can't be serious. They're-!"
From the other end of the hall, a number of dead began to appear. The bodies and their curses ambled out of the rooms, into the corridor where three of the living stood.
"If they're not curses, then…!" Yuji steeled himself as he stood back-to-back with Nobara, keeping his arm out in front of Ciel. "They're-!"
Glowing red eyes. The smell of their rotting flesh. There's no mistaking it. They're-!
"ZOMBIES?!"
"...Huh." A simple sound from Satoru as he stared blankly through his blindfold, sitting casually on a bench with Megumi next to him.
Megumi looked to his teacher. "What is it?"
Satoru thoughtfully hummed to himself as he rested his chin against his hand. "This place suddenly got a little more potent."
Like a crowd of smoke thickening in the air around the mausoleum. Curses underground seemed to have compiled there, drawing in more and more beneath the earth. Satoru considered going in and see what was happening, even if normally he doesn't like to interfere with his students' training.
It should be fine if she's with them, but if something other than curses is going on in there, I should- He stopped his train of thought when his ears picked up a noise, and he sniffed once. "Behind you, Megumi."
"-!"
Megumi's senses shook, and he darted out of his seat, narrowly avoiding the razor sharp canine behind his neck. He ignored the ache of his injuries as he created distance between himself and the attacker.
A black dog leapt over the bench and skidded across the ground on its paws. Steam rose from its blistering flesh. A hot heavy breath in its throat, hungry saliva dripping from its teeth. The wild dog faced the two shamans, its sunken eyes glared viciously, empty of all sentience.
"A familiar, huh?" Satoru said as he calmly stood up. "Just to be sure. Is it-?"
"It's not mine." Megumi clasped his hands together, shaping into the head of a dog. His own familiars were summoned by his side. The Divine Dogs appeared beside each hip, one black and one white, each holding a red triangular symbol on their heads.
"Thought so. Seems we've been getting plenty of new visitors lately," Satoru tapped his nose. "This one especially is due for a cold bath. And if you can smell it... means it isn't a curse."
Megumi was surprised by the information, keeping his eyes on the mangy dog across from him. It's not a curse?
Were they looking at a cursed corpse? No. His teacher would have just said it if that was true. Megumi could tell there some kind of energy within the wild dog, but it didn't feel like cursed energy. Who could have sent this?
The wild dog suddenly picked up its head. It sniffed the air, then turned its head towards the crypts. The low growl in its maw went silent.
-?! Its looking at the mausoleum? Megumi tensed. Something in there caught its attention. Could it be...?
Was it sensing Sukuna?
"Surround it," Megumi commanded his Divine Dogs, and his shikigamis lunged forward. The white dog jumped in front of the entrance of the mausoleum, cutting off the path. The other Divine Dog stood at the rear of the searing dog, blocking any means of escape.
"Nice move. I'll let you handle this one," Satoru expressed his faith in his student, giving a slight wave of his hand. "Don't worry. I'll provide cover if you need it. Don't want you pushing yourself too hard now."
The wild dog lets out another ferocious growl, showing its teeth at the shikigamis. Whatever this familiar was, it was dangerous. Megumi couldn't let it get past and reach his classmates. They'll have to take it out.
"-No way! No way, No way! Zombies are real?!"
"A-Aren't they?! Don't you know?!"
"How should I know?! I fight curses! Not the undead!" Nobara fired more nails into the heads of the dead. As three fell, more of them still remained, and Nobara swore even louder.
The students rushed to get out of the mausoleum. However, their only way out was blocked by the living dead, now emerging as curses clung onto their rotting corpses.
They're surrounding us! Realizing they'll have to make a break for it, Yuji grabbed around Ciel's waist and lifted her off her feet.
"Eh-?!" Ciel was completely caught off guard by this act, suddenly hoisted over Yuji's shoulder like he was a Fireman carrying her. She instinctively grabbed onto Yuji as he turned to a different corridor.
"This way!" Yuji went ahead as Nobara covered their flanks, keeping the dead and curses off their backs with her ranged weaponry as their advantage.
"There's got to be another exit somewhere!" Yuji then saw curses emerging from the hall ahead. With his free hand holding Demon Slaughterer, he sliced through the curses. "Hang on!"
"Y-Yes," Ciel did as he said, a little embarrassed of this position even as she was just putting up a front. Although it was a foolish worry, she wished she hadn't decided to wear a skirt today. She never needed to be in this position that required this performance until now.
The group rushed through the halls, going left and right, but nowhere up or down. Each time they turn a corner, a new horde of the dead and curses appeared, and the shamans had to defend themselves, protecting the "civilian" with them.
Yuji sliced through the leg of one dead that got too close - the guilt will surely come to him later - and slid across the floor to avoid its grasp, clutching Ciel closely over his shoulder.
Behind him, Nobara smashed her hammer into the head of the dead, breaking through its skull before she pushed the corpse away from herself. "Ew! Ew! I touched it!"
She could handle exorcising curses - the ugliest, the scummiest, all of them a tendency to be total perverts, it's whatever, she'd extinguish them no problem. But handling these smelly bags of flesh, crawling with maggots and decomposition, that's where she drew the line. This was too much for a simple entrance exam! As soon as she sees her teacher again, there'll be words! She won't let that man get away with this!
They resumed until eventually reaching a dead end. The last room at the end of the hallway had an iron gate, with a space much larger as a singular coffin made out of stone was set in the middle. The shamans ran right in. Nobara slammed the gate shut behind them. "Who the hell designed this place and not think to make a second entrance?!"
"Don't yell or you'll bring them over here!" Yuji said as he went to the furthest corner of the room, putting down Ciel much to the girl's relief. "Haven't you seen those zombie flicks? We got to keep a level-head!"
And with a civilian here, they had to at least show they know what they're doing. Even if they were just first years on their literal first assignment.
"You're yelling too! And how am I supposed to be level-headed when it's the apocalypse out there?!" Nobara said as she unfastened her belt, tying it around the iron bars. With the dead rising, she's pretty sure a rain of fire was next on the list, or was it a rain of blood? She might be getting her theology mixed up.
Nobara collected what's left of her iron nails from her pouch, cursing at what little she had left, having spent so much on the dead and curses they came across already.
"Then why did you come to Jujutsu Tech High?!" Yuji asked as he looked around the room, hoping to find something that could help them out of this apocalyptic scenario.
"Because I hated the countryside and wanted to live in Tokyo!"
"Huh?! That's it?!"
"That's right! I didn't come here to fight zombies! I want an open casket at my funeral, and I'm not letting these dead weights bite my face off to stop that!"
"That's some skewed priorities there!"
Standing in the corner, Ciel watched as the two shamans shouted and argued, frantically debating on what to do next. It didn't take a lot for her to realize that, while their skills are undoubted, they weren't quite experienced sorcerers yet. This definitely didn't shout "level-headed" as it was wisely proposed, and even the proposer wasn't following his own advice.
"-! Look out!" Ciel yelled, and the shamans ceased their arguing.
Several humanoid arms slipped through the bars. The students backed away, staring face to face at the crowd of cursed dead that have gathered before them. Nobara's belt held the door together, preventing the dead from entering, if only for a moment.
"Crap. I don't have enough nails for this!" Nobara said, holding her last batch of artillery in her hand.
We're cornered! Yuji clutched his weapon in front of him. He glanced over at the coffin in the middle of the room and had an idea. He went to the coffin and pushed the stone cover halfway with ease, thankful to see that it was empty. He really didn't want to desecrate anymore human remains today.
Nobara began firing the last of her iron nails, determined to take down a dozen of them before they would break down the gate. As this was happening, Yuji puts away his Demon Slaughterer and ran over to Ciel.
"Sorry," he gave a quick apology before picking up Ciel again, inciting another startled noise from her. Her stomach was on his shoulder once more as his hand pressed behind her waist, his other arm under her knees.
"Th-There's really no need for this!" Ciel protested, a faint blush on her cheeks. Undercover or not, there's a limit to how much of a damsel she should let herself be. Yuji surprised her further when he carried her over to the coffin in the room and placed her inside.
"Stay in here while we take care of these guys," Yuji instructed, his voice now steady and calm. "Someone else will come down any moment and let you out. Just hide until then."
He'll have to leave the coffin partially open so that Nobara would have a chance to climb in too. He'll hold off all these zombies in the meantime.
Ciel was taken aback by his proposition, so much so she didn't resist when Yuji gently position her to lie on her back. "Stay quiet, don't breathe too fast, and don't come out until you know it's safe."
Is he planning to…? Ciel watched as Yuji reached for the cover, moving it back into place though not completely. The last Ciel saw was his slight, comforting smile, a face that assured "everything is going to be okay" before he left a gap in the coffin, and he returned to his classmate's side.
"…"
Outside the coffin, Yuji pulled out his weapon again, his mind refocused onto the enemies as he stood beside Nobara. "How many of them are there?"
"Don't know. There's probably more we're not seeing," Nobara answered, resigned to their fate as the iron gate rattled in front of them. She was surprised to hear Yuji's even-tempered tone, though. Guess he had more guts than she realized. "I've taken down twelve of them, but there's still a bunch at the gate. I'm all out of nails too…"
"I opened a coffin behind us. I already hid that girl inside but there's room for one more," Yuji explained.
Nobara inches away from the gate, looking back at the coffin. "Huh. Not bad. Curses don't give a damn about physics, but at least against these zombies..."
They wont get to her as easily. Nobara felt relief she didn't have to worry about the girl's safety now. While she's all for pragmatism, and if the girl slowed them down then they would have to cut the cord, Nobara doubted she'd be able to fully commit to that.
"We still need to buy time until Fushiguro and sensei realizes something's wrong," Yuji swung his sword when a curse phased through the bars and sliced it apart. "Go hide in that coffin with her. One of us has to make sure no curses slip in. I'll hold these guys off."
Nobara side-eyed him. It certainly sounded like the most logical move, a lot smarter than she expected of him. Even if these zombies didn't break through, or if all of them hid, there's still curses to worry about. Those things could just slip through any surface. It would make sense that one of them should stay with the civilian while the other kept the heat off until their last breath.
Nobara couldn't help but feel ticked off by that.
"Don't act like you're coming out of this as a martyr." What did that make her then? Nobara stopped at the coffin. With her foot, she shoved the cover into position.
"-!" Ciel was surprised by the coffin's closure. Even in the dark, though, she could hear everything happening around her, and picked up Yuji's sudden exclaim.
"Why did you-?!
"Shut up. How about you hide in that coffin instead?" Nobara knew better, though. For as little as she's come to know him. She could tell the guy beside her was a selfless imbecile. The worst type to have in a setting like this. "I'm not letting some amateur tell me what to do, let alone owe you twice."
She gave a soft grin, her aggressive disposition lightened as she stated, "Think of it as thanks for having my back earlier. Now let's get through this, and take out these guys together."
Yuji was a little taken aback by her response, and he answered after a brief moment. "...This isn't the time to be cool, you know? Now we're both pretty much screwed."
He wasn't impressed in the slightest. It hadn't been that long since this girl called him a numbskull either, so he wasn't all that moved by her speech.
"Whatever! I bet you were hoping I insist! Cramming next to that innocent girl. Don't think I didn't know what you were planning, casanova!" Nobara angrily retorted.
"What are you implying-?!"
The belt around the gate lock reached its limit, and it ripped in half. "-ah."
The gate swung opened. The horde of dead stumbled in. Their moans loud and ceaseless as their arms stretched out for the shamans.
"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" Like a horror movie scene, the shamans clung to each other and screamed, unable to hold onto their bravado for long. It was a good effort while it lasted.
A long sword with a red handle shot past them. The blade tore through the head of the first dead, and then several more behind it, instantly killing those that had forced themselves through the open gate, and the bodies fell to the ground.
The black key flew to the other end of the hall. The tip of its sword jammed into the stone wall, cutting through like butter. Orange flame surrounded the metal, and it expelled. The corridor was engulfed in fire. The dead and curses were all swallowed by it, and within an instant, everything became ash, leaving nothing but an empty hallway full of dust.
"...huh?" Yuji and Nobara blinked.
"You were right about one thing. You really shouldn't make too much noise."
The shamans turned their heads. They watched as the girl they were protecting walk by them without a hesitation in her spirit. How she got out of that coffin herself was something to wonder, and she continued to speak.
"One: noises attract the dead. When their eyes fail them, their other senses are heightened." Ciel stepped out of the room and into the hall. "Two: always stick together. It would have been better had you done that from the start. There may come challenges where acting alone limits your options, especially in the face of multiple enemies."
"Ciel...?" Yuji lets go of Nobara and followed after the other girl. He stopped when he saw more curses and the dead appearing up ahead, rounding the corner.
"Three." Ciel halted in place. "When dealing with the likes of the dead, whether they're simply moving corpses, or otherwise..."
She flicked her wrist. It was so swift, Yuji didn't even see it. He only caught a glimpse of the black key that flew past his face, inches from his cheek. The sword shot under Nobara's hair, and it perfectly stabbed into the head of a tumor-like curse, the entity emerging from the wall at the end of the room, pinned under the blade and was quickly exorcised.
"Always come prepared. With ranged weapons and artillery. At least a hundred or so. Though, having something that helps you fight monsters up front is not discouraged either."
The sorcerers in training looked back in shock at where the second black key was embedded. Ciel did not follow their gaze, instead, she looked directly at the enemies in front of her. "...That's right. I just remembered. I did invite you for some tea and cakes, Yuji-kun."
"Huh?" Yuji looked back at Ciel.
The heel of her foot was firmly pressed against the floor. "I'm sorry. I'll have to make an arrange check."
Grabbing her blue coat, she removed her disguise with a swipe of her arm. Her pixie-cut blue hair was unveiled. Her cold, turquoise eyes locked in onto her targets. A flowing nun habit dressed her figure, with a golden cross necklace dangling in front of her chest.
She dropped her disguise by her feet, and pounced. Her blue figure a single streak as she cuts through the group of the supernatural. Picking up her black key from the wall, she sped across the halls, mowing down every single enemy in the crypts.
Yuji stood silently as he saw Ciel vanish from view. He was unsure how to react what just happened. He just stood there with a dumbfounded expression as Nobara went up to him.
"Hey. Do you know that girl?" Nobara asked, though based on that tone of familiarity, it was self-explanatory.
Yuji came back to reality and looked at Nobara, "Oh. Yeah. We met this morning. I mean, she kind of knew me back at my other school, but I don't really remember. I guess we just never talked until recently."
It was such a lackluster response, but that was the frankness of Yuji Itadori. Nobara looked back at the scene of ashes on stone. "...Do girls really like you?"
"That's what you want to know?" Yuji was honestly hurt.
Truthfully, Nobara just found it hard to believe that a girl like that would spend time with a guy like Yuji, to the point of being on first-name basis.
"-U! M! I! That's the countdown! Point goes to Megumi-kun!" Satoru cheered his student from the side, posing like a referee in a wrestling match.
Megumi was not amused by his teacher's antics. His Divine Dogs had the searing dog pinned, their teeth respectively holding down its neck and hind leg.
Megumi's head picked up when he felt a change inside the mausoleum, and he looked over. "All the curses are gone?"
It happened so suddenly too. It couldn't have been Sukuna. He and Gojo would have felt it. Which only leaves...
Was it Ciel?
As he looked away, the eyes of the searing black dog turned red, and the heat in its maw intensified.
"-! Megumi."
Satoru's serious tone pulled back Megumi's attention. The searing dog was flailing madly. The red veins in its flesh was glowing a hot, bright red-orange. Megumi's eyes widened. Is it-?!
Satoru ushered. "Call them back."
Megumi instantly commanded his Divine Dogs to retreat. The shikigamis released the searing dog and ran back to Megumi. The body of the corpse hound convulsed, letting out an ear-splitting howl.
Satoru immediately stood in front of Megumi, he went up to the hound and held it down by its neck. "So much for taking us back to your owner. Or maybe a treat might change your mind-"
The searing dog exploded under his palm. A big ball of fire blossomed in front of the mausoleum. Megumi shut his eyes and raised his arms, bracing the heat as his shikigamis helped him stay in place.
Satoru took the incinerating flames head on. He was completely untouched by its effects, and had he not held the corpse hound down, it would have been a much larger outcome.
The flames soon died out. The grass around them was completely burnt. Blackened to brittle substance. The nearby potted flowers in front of gravestones were scorched in the blast, killing its fresh flowers, and even the gravestones were affected.
"No treat for you then," Satoru said as he stood up, letting the ashes of the hound fall from his grip. "Or maybe I should have offered a bone instead?"
He lets out a smirk. "I know that's how the agency likes to treat you guys. Throw a bone with a cold meat attached to it. But this is a different kind of "bone" than what you usually hunt."
He turned his head to the mausoleum. "Crows like us especially don't like sharing their meals, but that's hardly something that'll scare you off. Right, Ciel?"
"...I suppose it was wishful thinking that you wouldn't notice me this soon." Walking up the stairs, the girl in her nun habit revealed herself. "Now it makes sense why I came across your class here."
Megumi was surprised to see Ciel. The tails of his Divine Dogs wagged at the sight of her in recognition. She hasn't changed a bit...
His teacher had already explained it to him years back, yet seeing it for himself, it was a little jarring. The girl he met long ago, like looking back an old photograph, perpetually unchanging.
"I was just stopping by to say hello. By the looks of it, you were in the middle of a "cleansing", weren't you?" Satoru asked, knowing the answer already. "You could have let me know you were coming. I would have met you at the airport."
"I don't see why I have to report to you. If anyone, it'd be your principal, wouldn't it?" Ciel curtly responded as she walked past Satoru. "Even then, I didn't find it necessary."
"How cold..." Satoru raised his chin to the sky. "You're as uptight as ever. You and Nanami would get along great."
"Ah-! Sensei!" Yuji then appeared, rushing out of the mausoleum with Nobara close behind. He saw the damage done to the area and was stunned. "W-What happened here?!"
"Did a fire broke out?!" Nobara shared his reaction. Or was that nun girl's power so potent it touched the earth outside?
"Yup! But I took care of it. No worries," Satoru gave a nonchalant answer as he leaned against a gravestone. "Leaving so soon, Ciel? You're not even gonna say hello to Fushiguro?"
"Unfortunately, there are other matters I must attend to. An anomaly has taken place here and at an abandoned building close by. This mausoleum being the source, but the cause of it yet unknown."
She stopped between the graves. "...If you intend to inform your superiors of me, feel free to consider my presence as an observation from the Church. An added surveillance to your current 'project'."
Yuji pointed at himself, wondering if she was talking about him.
"Your school relies on your abilities greatly," Ciel said, "which often leads you out of this city. If it's proven that not even you can keep up with overseeing the vessel's condition, then I'll have to act as I best see fit, so long as I'm around."
Slipping that under-the-table warning, Ciel turned slightly, looking over her shoulder. "Do keep an eye on your teacher, Fushiguro-san. I imagine how much of a headache he already is to his coworkers, let alone his superiors, on a daily basis."
"Yes, Senpai," Megumi responded with a nod.
Yuji and Nobara gasped.
"Whoa! Even the cool Fushiguro is giving his respect!" Yuji said.
"So he isn't just some empty shell made out of metal that thinks he's all that," Nobara clasped her chin in awe. An angry vein appeared on Megumi's temple as he turned to his classmates, daring them to repeat what they said.
"For your information! I'm a popular and well-liked guy!" Satoru shouted after the executor. The nun said nothing in response, and she proceeded down the path. Satoru lets out a huff, though his amusement slipped through in his curled lips.
"Do you know her, sensei?" Yuji walked up to his teacher and asked.
"Yeah. We've met a couple of times in the past," Satoru answered. "I have a small suspicion why she's here, but curses aren't usually her jurisdiction. It's definitely got something to do with this undead familiar Fushiguro-san and I came across."
"There was another undead out here?" Yuji then turned back to the mausoleum. "We fought off a bunch of zombies inside too. It was super creepy!"
"Oh yeah! What the hell were you thinking sending us into that death trap?! You don't just throw surprises like that!" Nobara held out her hammer, wanting to smack her teacher in the head with it.
"Zombies, huh?" Satoru thoughtfully said. This was getting more interesting by the minute. "Sorry. I didn't realize how bad it'd get, but I knew you'd be alright if Ciel-san was there with you."
"Oh. Is that it?" Yuji looked to where Ciel had just left. "So... is she a jujutsu sorcerer too?"
"Nah. She's an exorcist, but not one aligned to mages like us," Satoru explained, showing his hand. "More specifically, she's an Executor. She works for the Holy Church that's stationed overseas, but her duties are a little different from nuns and priests."
Yuji and Nobara looked at their teacher curiously. Megumi remained stoic, having known this information beforehand.
"Like how?" Yuji asked.
Satoru scratched his chin. "Well, if I'm right about why she's visiting, and she already knows about you. Chances are, if everything goes according to the Church's plans..."
He then smiled at the boy. "She might just become your executioner."
"…Eh?" Yuji looked dumbly at his teacher.
"Oof." Nobara covered her mouth, a look of pity towards Yuji. "Now that's just cold."
Yuji stared at his teacher a while longer. When the punchline never came, he once more exclaimed, "Eh?! EHHHH?!"
Ciel walked at a calm pace through the quiet neighborhood, making her way back to her apartment that was on the other side of town. Despite her composure, Ciel was bothered by something.
What happened at that mausoleum was strange. She wasn't referring to the gathering of curses and corpses. No, that in itself was very abnormal, but what she was mainly concerned over was the reaction of the shaman students she accompanied.
Even for new sorcerers, there should be some level of training to endure unprecedented pressure. A moment of it, at least. Nobara, for example, while clearly unnerved, managed to keep her head enough to retaliate efficiently. Yuji on the other hand...
The way he looked in shock at the sight of that living dead for the first time. The moment he expressed in such a way, Ciel felt a faint discomfort in her chest. She wondered just how separated from the world of exorcists had he truly been.
Is he really a shaman?
Author's Note:
omg I finally done it?!! Yes! Chapter 3 is out at last!
Keep in mind! There are sure to be editing and updates but I'm just so glad I done it! I couldn't hold off on posting it. Now that I have, time to go to bed!
Spideyboy159: I lost interest continuing that fic. My new focus when it comes to multi-crossover is A Promise Between Worlds now. Although I'm glad to see how much people loved WTAMA when I started it. I was in high school at the time, so imagine where I got my inspiration from? XD.
I think if I were to get into it again, I'll probably make some changes and re-writes like have the characters live in shared dormitories, in a new city outside Konoha (on some distant planet maybe). Pretty much live life like college students for all ages. Have characters visit each other's worlds, diverge plotlines, make it a lot more fun to write.
Deidrax: Go for it! I would love it for people to make drawings based on this story. That'd be awesome!
For any questions, please PM me. Leave a review also! I love having them.
Let's have a great summer. Take care everybody!