Chapter 1
[Shigeo Kubo]
So far, Kyoto was… More or less what Shigeo was used to, really.
Bigger, more noisy and crowded, but the same as his smaller town, at the end of the day. Which was much better than he'd expected, really. After all, his parents' comments might or might not have wormed their way into his mind, after so long. However, he'd been stubborn enough to pull through and he was glad for that.
He was doing well for himself in Kyoto.
He could do with less of the… apparitions around him though, he mused, glancing to the side and catching the tail end of a kamaitachi-like creature scurrying away into some shadows. It'd been a while since he stopped caring about the apparitions that he came across every so often. For one, because it made him look crazy, but for another, because Shigeo had learned that they either would leave him alone or he'd make them leave him alone.
He could never be too grateful that he found a way to do the latter, or he'd have gone mad already, most probably.
Kyoto had more of those though, he'd noticed, and that was more of an issue than the shift the big city meant for him in every other way. 'Something to get used to, I guess,' he mused to himself. Apparitions had been more of an issue when he was younger. This was nothing in comparison to the times when he didn't understand that he was seeing something others just didn't.
That had been rough.
Especially with his family, but he'd pulled through that too. He could do so once more in Kyoto, even with more apparitions. Shigeo just had to avoid places like schools and hospitals. Piece of cake. On the other hand, he'd seen some of the creatures that looked a little too big at times, in the distance. He was a little nervous about coming across those. Some of the apparitions could be tricky even when they were weak, so he didn't know if he could handle a bigger one and he didn't want to risk it.
'Better than being back home, at least,' he thought to himself. His family might not think he was crazy anymore, after years of seeing him act "normal", but the same couldn't be said about everyone else. He never did quite manage to get them to warm up to him. Especially because not only had he acted like a "freak" – their words not his –, but he'd also always been much taller than everyone else. Something harmless in the grand scheme of things, but that had done him no favors against standing out for being weird.
Now he had a new chance, an opportunity for a new beginning. The apparitions wouldn't ruin that for him again. He refused to let them, even if he had to deal with more of them. He'd given up entirely too much for this gamble to go wrong. He'd make it work, if it was the last thing he did.
'Stop thinking about that,' Shigeo told himself. He had things to keep up with if he wanted his parents to let him stay away like that. So, stopping for a moment, he took a deep breath in, let it out and then continued walking. Things to do, places to be, people to meet, a busy day awaited him and he'd better keep his head in the ga-
The sound of an explosion in the distance gave him pause and, when he turned to the side, he knew what was the likely cause of it.
Apparitions, many of them, were flooding through the streets. Several of which broke from the main group and turned the corner towards where he was standing. The wasp-like – always close but never quite managing to be fully "identical" to either animals or myths – creatures rushed towards him and Shigeo groaned internally.
Externally though, he balled his hands into fists and pulled on his spirit. He let it flow towards his hands with practiced ease and then out around his hands and wrists, creating the spirit gauntlets he'd learned how to manifest years ago. Plates made of his very spirit floated around his fists, keeping something distance away from his skin, which increased his reach a bit.
It also helped keep the disgusting apparitions and their insides away from him, so that was neat.
Then he sent the first punch forward and one of the wasp creatures was immediately squashed. Many were following though, so Shigeo took his stance and followed that attack with many more. That was a lot more apparitions than he was used to, but they were just as squishy, which was good. He didn't fancy figuring out what the sting of those things would do to him.
'More are coming,' he thought with a grimace, managing to take out a few of the wasps with a single punch. He followed that with a step back, because he had a feeling that they wouldn't run out anytime soon and he didn't want to get flooded. He could keep up his spirit gauntlets all day, but he didn't want to find out if the wasps could keep coming just as long too. His body would probably get tired before that if it was the case.
'I knew there were more apparitions here but what the hell?' he asked himself, growing more concerned as the seconds passed by and turned into minutes.
And then, he saw it… Or more precisely them, he supposed. There was a cloud of the flying apparitions moving towards him. 'Too many, definitely can't take that head on,' Shigeo thought, gulping and taking another step back. Punching another wasp, he considered his options for a single second before coming to a conclusion. 'Time for the strategy as old as time… running away.'
And that was exactly what he did, turning around and making a break for it.
[}-o-{]
[Hajime Haga]
"Why. Are. There. So. Many. Of. You?!" he asked the screeching dog-like monster. Each of his words was accentuated by a stab of his knife on the creature's torso, who continued to cough grotesque dark green blood all over the pavement.
He didn't really get an answer before the monster collapsed, dead, and started to disintegrate into motes of foul-smelling dark smoke, just like the other dead dog monster behind it… and the other ones that had attacked him at the corner of that very street. His breath came in raspy, heavy gasps and sweat matted his hair slick against his forehead as he struggled to keep his heart under control.
Hajime had been in some small cities before and knew that the monsters only he could see usually got worse in heavily populated areas. He hadn't known Kyoto could be this bad though. No matter how many he killed, the things just kept coming in droves. No matter where he went or what turn he took there was another one of those creatures just prowling around ready to ambush him.
He would say that this was exactly the reason he stayed far away from any big cities, but if he was honest he doubted things were usually this bad, it was just simply too much.
The sounds of explosions were accompanied by the subtle rumble of the earth below his feet. In the distance, from his position at an intersection, he could see a building falling over itself. It was the same direction most of the monsters were going towards, apparently gathering there in droves.
A shiver ran down his spine as he stared, gobsmacked, at the veritable giant of a monster that came crashing through the mentioned building. He had never seen a creature that size, the yellow-like lizard creature must have been at least 4 stories high, with a mouth filled with line after line of serrated sharp teeth.
It was utterly gigantic.
It was also utterly dead.
The creature started to disappear into the same smoke as the dogs he had killed. Green blood poured from its torn skin, patches of it charred black with cauterized flesh that was torn deep enough to let him see bone.
'I really don't want to be anywhere close to whatever killed that thing,' he decided for himself, ready to hightail out of that place. He had just come to Kyoto to get an autograph from his favorite author, who had organized a Christmas Eve gathering right there in Kyoto.
What had started as a serene, albeit slightly eventful, trip to the big city from the countryside ended up becoming a nightmare when monsters arrived like an invasion of locusts as soon as night fell. Dog monsters, bee monsters, scarab monsters, and some off-putting and abstract forms that he didn't even know what to call just seemed to fall from the sky with the last rays of daylight.
A series of barks and growls called for his attention at that very moment, snapping him from his thoughts. His body moved into position with practiced ease despite his exhaustion, knife in a stabbing grip, ready to face some more of the dog monsters' ilk. They were quite dangerous as some of his bruises and bite marks could attest, but nothing he couldn't handle. His body was far more resistant than most people's, after all.
The two dogs that came from behind him stopped their posturing and rushed to attack him. Their bodies moved with speed, which told him that he would have no chance of running away from them. However, there was no need for something like that if it was only this much.
After whole hours fighting against similar monsters, one was bound to learn their general attack patterns.
He swiftly ducked under the expected pounce of the first creature, his knife poised to strike at the soft underbelly rather than the rather tough top leather-like hide.
The sharp teeth missed him by centimeters as Hajime's arm and knife drew an upward arc, allowing the creature's momentum to do the heavy work for him. The special knife sunk into the flesh of the creature in a way a normal knife, even a sharp high quality one, couldn't. He felt the resistance of muscles slicing themselves as the dog passed by. A squeal of pain escaped it as its organs and blood fell onto the ground behind Hajime. By the time the creature reached the ground, it had already started disintegrating. Turns out, even monsters die when you gut them from chest to groin.
Hajime had no time to admire his kill, however, as the second proved to be slightly smarter. Opting for flanking him over rather than just directly jumping him. Its posture came from down low instead of losing its advantage by becoming airborne.
Something interesting he had found over the years of hunting these kinds of monsters for money in remote villages was that some of them seemed to be far smarter than others, even if they looked just alike and gave the same feeling of power. It was annoying considering he used that latter one to decide if he could deal with something or not. There was just something different in those, however, something he couldn't recognize by feeling alone, sadly. A kind of intelligence that made them far more dangerous.
'I need to time this just right,' the dark-haired teenager thought to himself as he prepared. The hot feeling of anger helped him focus as he pulled at the pool of powers deep inside of him. It rushed through his body and into his arms, a chilling sensation that left his hairs standing on end accompanying it. Just like every time before.
The monster had reached him, which prompted him to swing his knife in a way that would have sliced through the creature's open jaw. Or at least it should have had the creature not come to a screeching halt. It was for just an instant, just long enough to let his knife sail past it and Hajime to fail to accommodate the sudden change in acceleration. In the end, he struck only air. Furthermore, his position placed his shoulder and head wide open for the creature's maw to take a free bite from.
He could have sworn that, even if it didn't have the muscles for it, the dog smiled maliciously at him as it took the first blood.
'It is always the smart ones that are the most dangerous.' he thought with relief, luckily predicting and timing his reaction just right. Hajime let his eyes move away from the creature for a moment and instead looked at the monochrome limb and weapon that manifested themselves like some kind of ghost.
It was just like his arm and his knife. The same wounds, the same dirtied nails, the same ragged and rusted, short blade traced the movement that had happened just a few short moments before. Without any deviations or mistakes, the ghost arm followed the traced arc he had with his original attack. The only difference was that the creature was right inside the range of the blade's edge this time.
With it letting out a howl, the monster's jaw was bisected. Hajime idly noted how half of the tongue sailed in his direction before splashing somewhere at the side.
He took his knife in a white-knuckled grip and stabbed forward with it. The hit was enough to damage but not pierce the creature's skull, sadly.
He wasn't done though.
A second stab, a by-product of another ghost-like hand, managed to crack the bone with a thrust equal in path and intensity as the first.
It was the third stab that followed immediately after that, the one that pierced right through and lodged itself into the monster's brain, killing it instantly.
Hajime let out a sigh, feeling the exhaustion in both his reserves and stamina. He could also feel a slight numbness in his hands. Even if they weren't truly part of his body, he could still feel the sensation of stabbing the creature's thick head three times in a row.
He didn't get as much as a breath before the rather ominous sound of more barking and the buzz of insects reached his ears. It seemed to be getting closer from the next intersection towards the right. He prepared himself for another fight.
However his plans were thrown out of the window as he saw a rather tall individual – who, judging by his appearance, was around his age – rush through the intersection at high speed. Far faster than a normal person usually ran too, Hajime noted.
That was odd, he hadn't seen a single person so far.
Most people seemingly had been evacuated somewhere given how empty the streets were. He didn't have a chance to ask about that or say anything, however, as the blonde teenager had reached speaking distance from him. Just close enough for him to hear his voice over the sound of battle explosions, barking, and buzzing that mixed in the background.
"Run!" he heard the blonde call.
"Run? Run from wha-? Oooh gods!" he said, instantly regretting wasting time asking the question instead of following along when what could only be called a horde of monsters poured from the same intersection the blonde teen had just turned from a few seconds ago.
'I just wanted my book signed! Why did this have to happen now of all times?!" With no more thoughts, he started to sprint as fast as he could in the opposite direction.
Towards the still-dissipating corpse of the giant monster.
'Of course.'
It was just his luck.
[}-o-{]
[Shigeo Kubo]
Things… weren't looking great.
His impromptu partner in survival and him were making their way through the narrow streets of Kyoto suburbs. Shigeo really didn't like the fact that their own way out of things was, unfortunately enough, straight towards where the most chaos seemed to be. Not like they could cut their way through towards the outside.
Whoever the other guy was, his special ability – he was still kind of processing that there were more people like him, even if it wasn't shocking – was that he left… some kind of ghostly version of himself to attack the monsters. It seemed limited to actions he actually did and places where he'd been though, which meant that it only worked as a sort of trap set up power. This, in turn, meant that they needed to keep moving to allow him to set up his ghostly creations.
Not that Shigeo was one to talk. His armor was keeping him safe and it meant that he could resist and buy time, but it only covered his hands and forearms. Furthermore, his power wasn't enough to push through the horde of creatures that kept coming their way. Most of the creatures he was coming across were much more dangerous than any of the apparitions he might have found throughout his life too, as if things weren't bad enough already.
The worst part was that, as they made their slow and reluctant way to the center of the chaos, the creatures started to become not only more numerous, but stronger too. Every block they were forced to retreat seemed to up the difficulty a notch. If he'd been worried before, then he was doubly so by then.
At least none of them had managed to pierce through his spirit gauntlets, he supposed.
"There's no end for this," his impromptu companion said, between heavy breaths. It seemed that whatever he was doing, he wouldn't be able to keep it up forever. Not surprising. If those ghost clones of his were anything like his armor, he couldn't imagine making them was cheap.
Both of them retreated step by step warding off the different monsters that came from the sidestreets towards them like a horde of zombies. No matter what they did, they were being surrounded and reluctantly pushed toward the chaos.
Shigeo paused his movement and grabbed at the spiked tongue of a frog-like monster. Then he pulled strongly, sending the weird amphibian with a mouth full of sharp teeth towards a wall like it was a flesh flail. If there was any comfort in this situation he found himself in, was that at least these monsters weren't out of his league. He could react and plan around their attacks. His spirit plates would hold and his energy was still plenty.
He could keep going.
The same couldn't be said for his partner in survival, however, so that was a little more concerning. The only reason he wasn't exhausted right now was, ironically enough, because of the sheer amount of monsters. Once they realized that they would just keep coming they both entered a tacit agreement. They'd take advantage of the narrow streets by letting the weakest and slowest of monsters pass through and only focus on killing the fast or dangerous ones.
As such, the horde sort of clogged itself on its own. Most of the fast monsters had to either push through or maneuver around the slowest ones to reach them, which made them relatively easy pickings for his companion's set-up clones. Meanwhile, he focused his energy on keeping the weaker first line out of the way of the "traps" by shoving them back without killing them to save some energy. While he was at it, Shigeo also got rid of anything that bypassed their little impromptu plan, like the tongue-shooting frogs or flying monsters.
Speaking of, he smacked a rat-bat creature, hearing the crunch of one of the wings snapping.
They were very lucky that the apparitions seemed to be more interested in going towards the center of the whole disaster than in attacking them. Hell, most of them only took a swipe at them because they were on the way… Or, at least, that's what most of the weaker and smaller ones did. However, anything remotely special did seem to find them more "appealing" as it were.
Good thing the rest of the vermin got in their way, at least.
Shigeo didn't stop and neither did his fellow survivor, but the roar that reached his ears did give him pause, if at least in his mind. 'Where was that?' he wondered, hoping against hope that whatever that creature had been, it wasn't as dangerous as it sounded. Mainly because… 'It sounded close, but where-?'
His thoughts were interrupted and he did actually stop when the wall further down the street was cracked, the boom of the hit almost making the whole surroundings tremble. Unfortunately for them, there was no way to go but in that direction.
"Faster!" Shigeo called, because they needed to get past that thing before the wall came down, that was for sure. So they ran, no more traps, no more hits. They rushed forward in their path, trying to get ahead of whatever- 'Fuck!' he cursed internally as a second boom broke through the wall. Right when Shigeo was almost past that point. Bricks shot around and he was forced to call for his spirit armor, but more.
Where he'd been covering mostly his hands and up to his elbows, this time plates floated all around him. Good thing too, because the gigantic, faceless, hulking humanoid creature flexed its clawed hand before sending a punch towards him. Crossing his arms in front of him, planting his feet, and calling for as much power for his armor as he could, Shigeo was still sent flying backwards and through the wall behind him.
He'd barely recovered from the hit, standing up in the middle of a building he didn't have the time to check, when he had to defend himself. As it was, Shigeo barely managed to bring his hands up and catch another punch with one of his spirit gauntlets. Good thing too, because he wasn't very good at keeping his full armor up for long. Even with his reaction being fast enough, he was left gritting his teeth and with his feet scraping against the floor as his body was pushed back.
'Fucking hell,' he thought to himself. Good thing his armor didn't actually touch him, instead floating around him. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been surprised if the apparition's hits would have left him with a broken bone or two. To make things worse, the thing didn't give him any time to think, plan or otherwise react at all in a way that wasn't just stopping the next punch. 'What am I supposed to do here?' he wondered, being shaken once more by the apparition's attack.
He didn't think he could get away anytime soon, which was concerning, since he could see the smaller apparitions crawling through the hole he'd been punched through. If this one creature wasn't going to let him do anything other than standing there and defending, then he was screwed. No way out of that…
That was the case, at least, until his partner in survival made another appearance, slashing at the thing's knees from behind and making it kneel. Unfortunately, that was as much as he could do, because the apparition shifted to sending a punch and making his fellow jump away. Shigeo took the opening and punched the faceless creature right in its jaw. One of the thing's fangs flew out of its mouth, the only facial feature it possessed, but he didn't seem to affect the apparition at all besides that.
Now up close and having a second to recover, Shigeo was able to disturb the apparition's barrage of attacks. 'Gotta keep it disturbed though,' he thought, punching at the thing's arm before it could pull it back for a proper punch. 'And avoid getting grabbed,' he added, barely managing just that before delivering another punch at the apparition.
Off to the side, he caught sight of the other boy cutting down at the other smaller creatures that got inside the building.
Unfortunately, Shigeo could only do so much against an apparition that was clearly much stronger than him, even if it couldn't break his spirit armor. This meant that, no matter how much he tried to stop it from attacking properly, he could only do so much. Furthermore, he'd been moving so much that when he finally slipped, he could catch the hit with his gauntlets, but was sent flying against a wall.
"We…" he breathed out, noticing that he'd been hit towards his fellow human. "... might be in a bit of trouble."
[} Chapter End {]
Adrian: Off to a great start with our boys, huh? Love to see it.
Arc: A rather unlucky day for them. Christmas has been thoroughly ruined.
Adrian: As is becoming usual, we set up a skill list for the characters and then rolled to see their talents in those. The Cursed Techniques are derived from some of those numbers that we thought could fit too.
Arc: We tried to keep the numbers a bit more realistic this time. I have always felt that it was a shame we didn't get to explore the lower grades of curses and what they were capable of in the show. The fact that the cast was already fighting against special grades since almost the beginning kind of made all other ranks redundant for the story. We kind of want to change that, and show how terrifying Grade 3–1 can possibly be without god-mode characters around.
I'd say the main aim of this story is to explore what the life of an average sorcerer that is not freaking Gojo levels of bullshit would have to deal with, while also maintaining decent progress to not be irrelevant when canon kicks in.
Adrian: So, yeah, our guys will have it rough for a while. I agree with Arc that it's a shame that anything lower than Special Grade doesn't get much to do. Hell, I tried to read JJK and I dropped it in like chapter 10. The pace is just bullshit. So, if anyone knows how I like to write, they will know that this will take its time climbing the ladder up to the crazy levels of the series.
Arc: From Zero to Hero all the way. With that said, I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter and stick with us for this particular project since we are kind of hyped about it. We would love to hear your thoughts and ideas.
Random Question: I am sure some of you already got the answer to this given that there are some clues about it across the chapter. But where in the timeline do you think this story is starting?
Discord Link: discord .gg/UTDransjJZ
