Shibuya, early morning.
"Well you gonna tell me? What made you decide to use a precious finger on Sukuna? Trying to gauge how strong Sukuna is?" A curse spoke out to a man in monk's robes with an interesting stitching across his forehead.
The curse was a cyclops who's head resembled a volcano named Jogo. Behind them were three other curses, a tall muscular curse with branches protruding from its eye sockets while also keeping its left arm binded named Hanami. The second was a curse resembling an octopus of sorts, it was a large curse wrapped in cloth and looked a little cute too, it's name was Dagon. The last was a sea monster who rested on a giant clam with long tentacle-like hair that was styled widely, she wore make that made her look like a rockstar, and floating eyes surrounded her, then to top it all off she held a microphone in her hand made out of coral, her name is Scylla.
To the populace of Shibuya they were none the wiser to the monsters that walked the same streets they did while following behind the man known as Suguru Geto. "The test was half-baked, I'll admit that, but we did still learn a few things."
"Hmph hope that's not an excuse." Jogo scoffed.
Dagon made noises in agreement while Hanami made unintelligible sounds which seemed to annoy Jogo as he turned his head back to look at her with the volcano on head erupting "SHUT UP NO ONE EVEN UNDERSTANDS WHAT YOU'RE SAYING!"
Hanami leaned her head over to Scylla and with her unintelligible voice whispered something to her which the sea monster seemed to understand. "Oh my gods he does!" Scylla responded as the sea monster giggled, annoying Jogo even more.
The five of them traversed the streets of Shibuya until they came across one of the local breakfast places which didn't seem to be too busy. One of the hosts looked upon the group but in her eyes only saw one and asked "Table for one?"
"Yes, only one." Suguru Geto responded.
Suguru was seated and only Jogo followed him to his table, meanwhile the rest of the curses simply relaxed around the cafe waiting for Geto and Jogo's talk to be over. Scylla sometimes stealing food when no one's looking. Suguru then proceeded to start the discussion "So your boss… they want to reverse the roles of curses and humans, therefore making curses the top dogs of the world?"
"Not quite." The volcano curse corrected Geto. "Humans are made of lies, there's always a flipside to the positive emotions. But negative emotions like hate and hostility… they are truths without falsehood. Since we curses are born from these truths that makes us true pure beings! These impersonators should be eliminated!"
"Interesting… but at the current moment it seems you are the ones being eliminated?" Geto questioned.
"That's why we have come here to ask you for your help in defeating these Jujutsu Sorcerers."
"If that's the case you need to fulfill three conditions. The first is the removal of The Strongest Sorcerer Satoru Gojo, next is to make an ally of Ryomen Sukuna and his vessel and get them on your side, third is to kill the goddess Melinoe."
"Hold on a minute, Sukuna's vessel and that goddess both died yesterday?" Jogo questioned Geto.
"I wouldn't be so sure about that, because a little birdie told me that this Melinoe girl doesn't like to stay down for long." Geto ominously responded as he rested his head on his left hand, on said left hand was a golden ring on his ring finger with the engraving of an apple.
…
Underworld
40 days left
Melinoe crashed to the ground at great pace and landing on her feet as the ground crashed below her, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "No fear Melinoe… you've done this before… I'm coming father."
Melinoe sprinted to the exit of the first room where she was met with weak wretches that went down in only a few attacks from The Sister Blades. The glass on the room exit displayed her upcoming reward to be darkness and Melinoe ran towards the next room.
Melinoe was faced with aggression from the security of the underworld whose only goal given to them by the ruler of the underworld Nyx was to stop Melinoe. Six rooms in and Melinoe is pretty beat up, not looking like she'll be able to make it much further and something really became apparent… there were no boons for her to use, the whole reason she was able to become strong in the first place, no more Olympus means no more help. Melinoe was all on her own in this bet, but that won't stop her, she won't stop until she sees her-
A swing from a Wretched Thug club smashed into the goddess and making this the first of many failed escapes.
THERE IS NO ESCAPE.
"Blasted…" incoherent mumbling came from the goddess.
Melinoe emerged from the pool of Styx annoyed, she flicked her head back to get the blood out of her hair and walked forward to give it another go. That's before she walked by Hypnos who jolted awake and startled her, she will never be able to get used to seeing him awake. Hypnos yawned and spoke to Melinoe "Hey you're back already? Says here you barely made it out of this place, even Zag made it further the first time he went out."
Melinoe's mood did not improve after hearing that and she replied back with "Well, I'm not exactly my brother now am I?" She said before storming off not attempting to talk to anyone. Going through her brother's messy room and ending up in the training grounds. This time she'll just have to be more careful and take her time with it, she doesn't need any boons, keepsakes, or arcana, she can make it out of the underworld just on her own. "Let's do this one more time…"
Smashed by a numbskull.
Stepped on a spike trap.
Blown up by an Inferno Bomber.
THERE IS NO ESCAPE.
About four runs in and very little progress has been made, she couldn't even make it past the first level of the underworld. As she emerged from the bloody pool of Styx she held back the urge to yell her frustrations, the enemies here were stronger than Erebus and without any gods to offer her boons she was left with only centaur hearts and items from the well of Charon who she has yet to meet in person yet.
Stomping her way over to her room, this time Hypnos didn't even bother to make some witty remark about her death because unlike Zagreus she didn't give any fun comebacks and compared to him was pretty stuck up so it wasn't as fun to mess with. Nyx was filing the endless paperwork on her desk when she looked up from the mountain of paperwork to see the angry Melinoe. "What seems to trouble you child?"
Melinoe didn't even look in her direction and responded with "Why do you care?"
That was not the answer Nyx wanted to hear as Melinoe felt a grip over her entire body and was pulled back to the front of Nyx's desk by her magic. "Child I understand at this moment we are enemies, but I don't wish for this wager to sour our relationship so tell me what troubles you."
"Maybe it's the fact that this task is almost impossible without any boons, as much as I'm gonna be compared to my brother while I'm here, even he couldn't get out without any help from the Olympians."
"Yes, he did receive a lot of help but it seems you aren't afforded the luxury he was given… But you aren't as powerless as you believe yourself to be. As princess of the dead and future lord of the house you are granted certain privileges, you are granted access to the house contractor and my mirror that you may find in your brother's room. May it serve you well much like it did your brother." Nyx freed Melinoe as she did take Nyx's advice and went towards the house contractor.
Looking at the catalog Melinoe skimmed through various offers which mostly consisted of items akin to decorations until she got to the work orders section which had various offers that piqued her interest. A cauldron for 50 gemstones, a rod of fishing for 1 diamond, and most interesting to her a cursed pass that was in the shape of a card. According to the description it allowed access to cursed energy to the one who wields said card while they are in the underworld, and only for 50 darkness which is all she had on hand. So with the remaining cursed essence she had she paid the house contractor and was given a card and upon acquiring the card she could immediately feel that very evil presence coming from her Sister Blades ever since she infused them with cursed essence.
"Alright, let's give this one more go…"
…
Tartarus had suddenly become way easier, while still being pretty frail at first the power from the sister blades made it so Melinoe's opposition barely had any time to hit Melinoe before they were vanquished. Clearing the rooms was way easier thanks to the cursed energy infused within the blades but there was still something left to be desired not having the power of her family's blessings. Another room was cleared and Melinoe could move on where the next room displayed on the glass a unfamiliar symbol she had yet to see on any of her runs through Tartarus, but with there being no other way Melinoe opened the gate and walked through.
That feeling… that presence of negativity she felt it. She walked inside the room as she immediately heard the voice of someone who noticed her arrival. "Another monkey, no…"
The Melinoe got closer and could examine the man better, he was a tall man who was currently lounging on the floor resting his head in his hand with both of his hands being in chains. The man had his long hair tied in a ponytail and a bang over his eye, his build was hidden by the monk robes he wore, and his expression displayed nothing but boredom. Upon Melinoe getting closer he sat up from his previous position as he then talked to the goddess. "You're not the usual tormenter? Like it matters, come on, let's get this over with."
"Sorry to disappoint but I'm not here to be your tormenter, I was just passing through and so happened to come across your chamber." Melinoe calmed his worries.
"Then if you have no business with me, leave." The monk said, waving his hand to shoo the goddess away.
"If you wish for me to leave then I will but I have a question for you. When I entered the room I felt a presence of negativity, do you happen to be a Jujutsu Sorcerer?" Melinoe asked, which made the monk raise his eyebrow at that question.
"So what if I am, what does a monkey like you wish to know about Jujutsu? Even a novice could tell that it's not you who is exerting cursed energy, it's your weapons, leave and come back when you aren't a filthy monkey who can't even use Jujutsu." The monk waved her away as the exit to the room glass displayed a bag with a skull on it.
"Rude." Melinoe mumbled to herself as she made her way to the exit and out of the room.
…
DING!
That familiar bell, Melinoe knew that sound well and what it meant. Running to the other side of the room was an assortment of items up for sale and the one who sold them was none other than the ferryman of the underworld, Charon. " Lord Charon!"
"Gguuhhhhhhh..!" Charon responded to the goddess and while his face may not show it, the Stygian Boatman seemed to be pleased to see her. Well at least she assumes that's the case.
"Long time no see Lord Charon, I'm relieved to see a familiar face after all this time. I'm thankful to see you again after all this time, from the bottom of my heart thank you Lord Charon." Melinoe said with a large smile on her face.
"Ssssssshhhhhh…"
Melinoe, having a lot of obols from this run, was able to buy the available items Charon was selling, which was a batch of darkness, a centaur heart, and some food to restore her health. With that she was off and before she left she waved to Charon and said back to him "It truly is wonderful to see you again Lord Charon!"
"Hhggggggggggnnnhhh..!"
Entering the next room up ahead Melinoe was greeted to a room unlike the other ones, where usually wretches would be all over the place ready to send the princess back to The House of Nyx. Instead there was someone else, One of the furies of the underworld, Megera. Melinoe could immediately tell what was gonna happen next, and judging by the Fury's sour expression she knew it too.
"Not another step further Mel." Megera said as she now brandishes her whip in her hand.
"Megera… should have figured that there'd be someone here to come stop me from making it out of Tartarus. I'm going to take an out there guess and say Nyx told you to come stop me."
"I know you want to see your family again, believe me I want that as well. But Nyx needs you here now more than ever so for the sake of all of us turn back home like a good little girl, or I can send you back home the painful way. What will it be, princess?"
"...Then I'll have to go with the painful way." Melinoe answered, summoning Lim and Oros to her hands.
"You really are Zag's little sister." Megera got into a lunging position ready to strike Melinoe as the clash between them had officially begun.
Megera lunged towards Melinoe which made the goddess drop down a cast ring before dashing out of the way. Megera went to chase after the fleeing goddess before she noticed her legs were entangled by the cast ring that was keeping her in place. "You have some tricks of your own too?"
She got into a stance and her one wing began to flap, sending a volley of rapid shots towards the princess who sprinted away from them and hid behind a pillar before any of them could hit her. The cast ring now gone Megera ran to the princess and with her whip whirling it slashes the area around her and cut through the pillar Melinoe was standing behind and hitting the goddess before she could react but she retaliated with slashes and stabs from Lim and Oros before she dropped an Omega cast ring and backed off while she then began to toss the dagger of the sister blades at Megera.
Megera thought that she didn't need to take this fight seriously because Mel was alone on this, she had no help from the Olympians like Zagreus once did, but the two blades in her hands hurt her like hell. The places where she got sliced and stabbed began to burn like hell almost like her body was on fire, she can't hold her punches at all with Melinoe. The cast ring beneath her exploded underneath her feet and left a cloud of smoke as Megera lunged through the smoke and crashed into Melinoe and sending her into a wall where she then lashed at her with her whip while the princess of the dead did her best to block with her arms.
Melinoe concentrated as best she could, getting lashed by Megera and was able to cast an Omega attack, teleporting herself behind The Fury and landing various backstabs towards The Fury as she flew away wincing from the pain. "Wretches!" With that call various wretches to support her in her fight against Melinoe. Wretched Witches fire their blasts and Megera begins to spin in the air resting blasts for flames to burst from Melinoe's feet as the princess ran to avoid them. Melinoe, while distracted with dealing with the Wretches doesn't notice Megera lining up a new trick she learned, her whip was like lightning when it wrapped around her neck and with a swift tug she brought the princess towards her.
Melinoe clung to the whip around her neck trying to release her from the Fury's grasp. Megera bent down and told Melinoe "No hard feelings princess."
She stepped on her neck and with a tug a loud snap was heard across the room as Melinoe was sent back into that pool of blood to head back to The House of Nyx.
THERE IS NO ESCAPE.
Melinoe stepped out from The Pool of Styx and was greeted to the usual scenery of the house as she flicked her head to get the blood out of her hair. A pretty eventful outing, she met Charon once again, got her neck snapped by Megera, and met a sorcerer in Monk's robes who she didn't get the name of. There's something more to that man she could feel, but it was clear that he didn't want anything to do with Melinoe, after all she didn't have any cursed energy, only her weapons did. But just maybe, she could find a way to get herself some cursed energy.
Melinoe went up to the house contractor and looking through the catalog she had just enough to afford a Cauldron, after placing the order in a mere instant they had one brought in her brother's old room. Running into the room she was greeted to her brand new cauldron, one marked with signature house red with skulls scattered around the cauldron. "Smaller than Hecate's but it will do.!"
Upon contact with the cauldron the information was beamed, recipes for incantations and Alchemy flooded her brain but the one she focused on the most, Cursed Corruption.
A brew that corrupts all magic in your body into cursed energy. Results are permanent, only a fool would do this.
A fool Melinoe is indeed, 50 cursed essence, 1 shadow, and 3 star dust, and an empty glass. Melinoe took a deep breath, it's only been 2 weeks since she's performed one of these, she's done it a thousand times by now. Why is she nervous? Melinoe even with worry in her system began to chant the words to complete the incantation "Grant me the strength to conquer my enemies even if it corrupts me very being. So mote it be."
Perfectly done as the cauldron burst with magic and from the boiling pot came a pitch black bottle with cracks all over the glass as a purple pungent ooze seeps from said cracks as the goddess held the bottle. The smell was foul and made her want to throw up just from the smell, she didn't want to drink this but it was either be weak for the rest of her immortal life as lord of the dead, or drink the foul concoction and gain the strength to free herself from the underworld and find her family…
Pulling off the cork of the bottle the smell worsened as she had to hold back a gag. With one hand she pinched her nose so the smell wouldn't reach her nose as her hands trembled bringing the brew to her mouth. "Down the hatch…" She brought the bottle up and she almost immediately regretted it. Her eyes were wide open as she downed the bottle, the taste was worse that it smelled, the best way to describe it was like drinking the excess of a rag used to clean vomit. But she downed all of the cursed liquid and threw the glass away as she used a nearby desk to hold herself up and keep herself from fainting. She never wanted to do that again, she could barely even hold herself up It was so disgusting. Her body begged for her to lie down and she made her way to her brother's old bed as she stumbled towards it, but alas she couldn't make it and passed out on the floor as she lost consciousness. Melinoe could only barely see a shadow coming from the entryway to her brother's room before she passed out.
Unbeknownst to Melinoe that shadow was the current lord of the house Nyx, seeing the daughter of Hades passed out on the floor after consuming the cursed concoction. Stepping into the room, Nyx picked up the princess of the dead in her arms and brought her to Zagreus' bed and tucked her in. The Goddess of Night stood beside the princess watching her rest.
This was one of the few breaks Nyx allowed herself to have, she wanted to spend time with the princess. While she had only known her for what must have been one or two days by now and she had only caused the house trouble, Melinoe felt like a child of hers, in the same way she felt about Zagreus. It was ironic they were put in this same position Melinoe's family was all those years ago. She hated having to oppose Melinoe but with the current state of the underworld she needs Melinoe here more than ever. She only hopes that Melinoe doesn't hold a grudge towards her if she happens to prevail.
"Mother." Nyx turned her head behind her to see one of her children, but not one that directly appears in The House of Nyx. A horned god who represents Misfortune, Inevitability, and doom.
"Moros, welcome. You usually don't leave your office unless it's important." Nyx asked, turning to her son.
"What's wrong with the princess? Don't tell me I'm already too late…" Moros asked with dread in his voice, knowing what he represents he already knows the answer to this question.
"What troubles you child?" Nyx raises an eyebrow.
"This is the first step from the final prophecy of The Fates. Mother, if you let Melinoe escape… The age of man will come to an end."
…
Back in Shibuya
Inside the cafe besides customers questioning where some of their food went, Suguru Geto and Jogo were still conversing about their deal. A server was about to be sent over to the Geto but the server got cold feet, there was something about that monk with scars that made the server get a really bad feeling. Such a bad feeling that he thought if he stayed here any longer he was going to die, he needed to get out of here but he couldn't. He has four sisters at home that need to go through college, what to do…
"So Satoru Gojo, do you think we can kill him if we all teamed up?" The volcano curse asked.
"Nope, most likely he'd flutter out of your grasp or destroy you all in the blink of an eye. I suggest you pour your energy into sealing him rather than attempting to fight him." Suguru replied.
"Explain."
"We'll use the special grade cursed object PRISON REALM."
"Prison realm!?" The volcano on Jogo's head began to erupt as all the curses inside the cafe began to stare at Geto when he brought up the special grade object.
Scylla went over to Hanami and whispered "Hey, Hana. What's a Prison Realm?"
Meanwhile over in the back with the servers, the manager was speaking to one of them about the fact the man in monk robes has been here for 30 minutes and has ordered nothing. "That guy is hogging up the table, I'm gonna ask him to hurry up."
Just then the server, who has been deathly afraid of said table, went up to the manager sweating like he ran a marathon "I'm sorry boss, but I quit!" before running out like the building was on fire.
"Wait, you come back here!" The manager yelled then grumbled when he realized that the server wasn't coming back. He'll handle that later, he needs to go hurry up that table. But since when did it get so hot in the cafe? Was the air conditioner broken again?
"Jogo, you're overheating." Geto stated.
"Hello sir, can I get you anythi-" The manager was about to ask Geto if he wanted something to order, but like magic the man combust into flames immediately charing his body to an unrecognizable state. His body flopped to the floor and one of the servers screamed in terror as many others in the cafe likewise did.
"I wish you wouldn't cause such a commotion Jogo…"
Meanwhile as this was happening Scylla tore and arm off the charred corpse and began to chew on it before quickly spitting it out. "Bleh! Overcooked again Jogo!"
"Oh this? This is nothing." Jogo said with a smile as a flick of his finger led to the combustion of customers and employees. One by one they all burst into flames as the people could only scream in agony as the entire area began to smoke, leading Geto to cough. "I'm glad we didn't choose finer dining."
"Hey Dagy! I think their hearts and brains are still good!" Scylla said as she opened one of the charred corpses skull's to grab the brain as Dagon ran over to her puffing as they ran over.
"Give me an estimate, how strong would you say I am in terms of Sukuna's fingers?" Jogo asked with a smug expression on her face.
"Hmm… giving you a generous guess, I'd say about 8 or 9 fingers."
"That's plenty! Hand me the prison realm, I'll add it to my collection. In return, I'll kill Satoru Gojo."
…
Melinoe's body hadn't shown any signs of movement for about 3 days in surface time. She still was breathing but it was faint, whatever that cursed concoction did to her body was certainly having a big effect on her. So much that those in the house began to worry, especially Nyx who feared she wouldn't wake up anytime soon as while she preferred if she stayed put in the underworld, she didn't want her to be deathly ill.
But at the current moment, in Melinoe's slumber she began to dream. Not the dreams that she used to have telling her about events that had happened in the past but instead a more strange dream. One that felt more like a nightmare as she found herself buried in a deep pool of sand. She tried to swim up for air but she only sank further and further in the pool of sand that felt more like an ocean to the goddess, who knows how long she was swimming for until she finally hit the bottom. More accurately fell to the bottom as she finally stopped sinking through the sand and ended up hitting the floor inside a blank white room.
Even in the dream-like state it still hurt when she fell face first to the floor, grabbing her head. She got up slowly and what she saw shook her to her core. A familiar throne with the last person she ever wanted to see sitting on top of the throne covered in gold scars when he was cut up after the Titanomachy. The Titan who sat on his throne chuckled at the arrival of Melinoe and said to the young goddess "It's been awhile hasn't it, grand daughter?"
"Wha… what do you want with me… GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"
…
Authors Notes
Omg I finally had the strength to finish this chapter, sorry if it's not that good because I've been pretty sick with who knows what.
I went to three graduations this week because my homies irl finally graduated so shout out to them.
Not sure what else to say but thank you for all who read my fics. I really appreciate it when people actually give a damn about what I'm doing.
Oh yeah I seen people going for the Yuji x Melinoe ship for this fic, and while I think Yuji does deserve someone to make him at least a little bit happy (gods know he needs it) I'm not really sure how I would implement that sort of thing and where I would put it, or even if I would ship those two together. But who knows I may find a way, I'm a sucker for romance after all.
So that's about it, leave a review if you feel like it because I like reading them.