After the incident, Satoru quickly gathered the documents she asked for. It was easy for him since no one doubted the strongest member of the Gojo clan. Also, all of them were scared for their life as he would threaten to kill them if they did not give him what he wanted.
"Satoru is definitely an asshole" - she shook her head, telling him to be nice to people was like talking to a rock. He was Gojo Satoru and he did what he wanted. But thanks to him, she knew where the artifacts were hidden, kinda.
The Gojo clan hid a total of 8 cursed artifacts. She already obtained the Uchiha katana in Kyoto and the necklace in Tokyo. For the other 6 cursed artifacts, the Gojo clan never documented what they were, only the buried locations. By the time she completed translating the general location of each artifact into the modern world map, the middle school ceremony and summer arrived.
The 6 artifacts were buried in Sapporo, Nagoya, Osaka, Nagasaki, Fukuoka, and Fuji Mountain.
There was no documentation of the ninth artifact.
2005, Middle School Graduation Ceremony
_When are you leaving? - Satoru whispered from behind.
_Ahhhhh, Satoru-samaaaa, you are back! So handsome! Did you grow talller? How could he be so handsome! Ahh his sunglasses, I'm dying… - always a fan club where he went. Surprisingly, she was not upset at all. She missed these reactions ever since he left.
"How nostalgics." – she snorted looking at the crowd.
_You should say hi to your fan club - it seemed every time she saw him, he grew taller. He must be 190 cm now. She got taller too, but only by a few inches.
_Are you jealous? - he teased, pecking her right on the cheek.
Her face darkened as his fan club booed at her.
_I'm leaving now! Goodbye and never see you again.
_Wait, wait, I'm joking! But seriously, when are you leaving?
_Probably tomorrow, I need to take care of some stuff.
_Hm…How about we have goodbye sex?
Cricket
BANG~
She punched him right in the face with all her might. If Satoru had not activated his infinity barrier, his face would probably be gone.
_That…that…is not something you ask a girl for, jerk! - she ran back into the orphanage, yelling before closing the door - we are not even married!
_Wait… Kira,…wait - he fucked up. He sighed. He completely forgot, that even though she was an adult, she was an adult from the Heian period. Sex was a forbidden thing that should not be spoken out loud.
Kira was drafting a letter to the orphanage when she heard a rattle outside.
_It's me - Satoru knocked, his silhouette painted her window.
Her face turned red thinking back at the conversation earlier. She could not believe he asked her that in broad daylight. She knew that sex was normal in the modern world, but both had not even said the 3 words to each other.
"Ugh, stupid Satoru" - she decided to ignore him, focusing on writing the letter.
_Kira, I'm sorry. Please let me in?
She remained silent.
"Keep apologizing, asshole" - she cursed.
_Kira - he whispered next to her ears.
_Ahhhh - her heart stopped as his warm breath embraced her ear. She could not hold back her scream and almost fell over from the chair, but he caught her.
Footsteps approached and a few kids peeked into her room.
_UZUMAKIIIII? - the orphanage's director shoved the kids away and yelled at her. Kira did not know if his face was red because of all the drinking or because of his yelling.
_I'm sorry I fell asleep on the table and had nightmares. I'm so sorry Tobi-san - she bowed, hoping the director would leave without making a huge ruckus.
_Tsch, be quiet! It's late - he spat, then turned to the other kids and yelled at them too - you all, go back to your room! Annoying kids.
After everyone was gone, she sighed and glared at Satoru, who was standing in the corner of her room.
_You have to live with that? - his brows arched.
_Not everyone was born rich like you - she rolled her eyes, sarcasm filled her voice - also, can you stop doing stupid shit?
_I don't like waiting, I cannot wait, especially when it comes to you - his voice was smooth and alluring. His eyes roamed around the room for the first time. It was surprisingly empty. No picture, no personal stuff, no sign at all this was her room.
_Such a kid - she darted her eyes away from him, returning to the letter she was drafting.
_This may be our last night together for a while, you don't want to spend it with me? - she ignored him again, pushing his already thin patience to the breaking point.
_Hey, listen - he picked up the entire chair and spun it around, forcing their eyes to meet. His arms rested on both sides of the chair, caging her in between. He already took off his sunglasses, his shiny blue eyes bored down to hers. His face was so close that she could not turn away, their lips were inches apart and she could feel his warm breath on her face when he spoke, his tone was so low sending chills along her spine - I don't want what you are not ready for. I'm sorry I said that. It was supposed to be a joke. I'm sorry.
He quietly put a hand in his pocket to pull out something.
_I promise I will wait for you and here is my promise to you - he gave her a small white marble comb.
Everything went silent. She could hear cricket sounds outside her window and the water droplets from the bathroom shower next to her room.
To present a comb to someone meant to ask the person for marriage.
This was the tradition back in the Heian period. How did he know?
_Tell me you will accept it, please?
_Yes - she nodded. Right at the moment, she could not see anything besides his sparkling blue eyes, angled jawline, straight nose, thin chin, and delicious lips. She was completely mesmerized by the boy in front of her. Kami-sama, she was falling for him, hard.
They spent the night together before her departure to Sapporo the next morning.
She took everything with her, leaving only an empty room and a note of farewell behind.
Late 2005, Nakafurano
It took her nearly 2 months to track down the one artifact in Sapporo. Her calculation was wrong by a lot. The artifact was not in Sapporo, it was in Nakafurano, near the infamous Tomita farm where they held the Lavander Festival every year. By the time she reached Tomita farm, it was already October and the weather was getting cold.
She followed the cursed energy to a huge empty field near the farm.
The landscape of the field led her to believe that this land was once a farm. However, everything was black and dead. The soil was brittle and dry. With every step she took, the soil crumbled beneath her. There was an oval object standing weirdly in the middle of the field. It must be more than 5 meters tall. The closer it was to the object, the darker the soil and the stronger the foul smell. She covered her nose and cautiously approached it, trying to sense any curse energy from it. Once inches away, she decided to touch it and the object moved.
She jumped back immediately, hand on her katana, ready to draw.
"What is it? A cursed womb? Its energy is rising. Was it hibernated before I touched it?"
The object vibrated intensively before breaking in half. Black smoke rushed out and filled the air. The foul smell got even worse despite her covered nose. She squinted her eyes, trying to look past the smoke screen to see a black creature slowly stepped out. This one also took after human form like the curse womb she fought before. However, compared to the other 2, this curse was even bigger, probably more than 3 meters tall.
It made a loud static noise and tilted its head left and right, assessing the situation, and looking for the delicious smell that woke it up from the slumber. It stopped when it noticed Kira.
The curse's head had 2 horns, shaped like dry branches. It had no eyes, but there was a mouth where all the noise came from. White stripes ran through its body like blood vessels, pumping with white fluid.
"We are too close to the farm, I need to draw it away" - she started running toward the forest, as far as possible from the farm and all civilians. The curse followed immediately - "Good, it's targeting me."
When it was far enough, she stopped and faced the curse head-on. She felt excited, just like old times when she was on missions. She evaluated the curse from top to bottom and saw the artifact, embedded within its legs.
"I see. This curse must find the artifact, consume it, and evolve into this. I'm surprised no sorcerer has exorcised this one yet."
_Are…are…you coming…to…be…meal - the curse spoke brokenly, cutting Kira from her train of thoughts.
_Huh, you can speak? - the corner of her mouth turned upward, she drew the katana slowly bending her knees to get into the attacking form. The contact between the rusty blade and the cover (saya) created a screeching noise.
_What…what..noise - the curse held its head and charged at her, wanting to stop the noise by biting off her head as quickly as possible.
_Too bad you can't stand such noise - she smirked - let's hear more.
Both charged at each other with an incredible speed. Kira determined to cut through the curse with as much strength as she could and as fast as possible. She needed to finish this with minimum strikes to preserve her curse energy. The curse jumped and easily dodged the attack, making a shrieking noise.
_Tsch, not yet - she rubbed the katana and the saya together. The rusty part of the katana and the roughness of the saya created a noise that made the curse drop on its knees, covering its head again. Wasting no time, she kicked the ground to gain momentum, pushing herself back to where the curse was.
"This katana was specifically made to kill Sukuna. No normal curse can withstand it. Goodbye, poor soul." - with one rapid yet rough strike, the curse's head rolled on the ground - "phew, I guess it was not a special grade. If it was, things would not end this quickly."
She put the katana back into the saya, making a mental note to fix it soon. A shiny katana would be better than a rusty one. She also kinda hated the sound when the katana came into contact with the saya. It was helpful, but she hated it.
As she was busy extracting the artifact attached to its leg, a pendant with the Uchiha symbol, the curse's body slowly rose from the ground. Its shadow cast over her and before she could react, its steel arms wrapped around her torso so tightly, that she could hear her ribs break one by one, crunchy like tree branches.
Besides her breaking ribs and the fact that she slowly ran out of oxygen, the worst thing was not just one, but 2 heads popped out from its severed neck.
She called for the katana, trying with all her curse energy to free one arm and plan to stab the curse in the chest.
However, before the kanata could make contact with its chest, one of the heads lengthened and stopped her katana with its teeth.
The curse bit down and the ultimate weapon of the Uchiha, the sword that was forged to kill Sukuna, broke in half.
"Heh?"