The sound of childish laughter and screams filled the good-sized playground. Everyone was enjoying their moment of respite from the classroom. Well, almost everyone. Danuja stood with her arms folded over her chest and her bottom lip stuck out.
"It ain't fair! Why do I gotta always be the demon?" the young girl couldn't help but whine out.
"Because the rest of us don't want to. And you have creepy eyes, so it should be you."
Danuja frowned at the pretty brown eyed and raven haired girl. She wasn't surprised when the other kids nodded their heads in agreement. They always seemed to do whatever Sachi suggested, something Danuja couldn't understand.
When she once asked her papa, he had just told her people often were drawn to following those who had a certain aura to them. Even if they weren't very nice, others would flock to them like bugs drawn to an electric zapper. They'd rather be near that dangerous light, despite the fact that they should avoid it, because the power and acceptance was too tantalizing to ignore.
Danuja found this even more confusing. She'd rather be surrounded by someone kind and fun. The good kind of light, not a bad one.
"Aren't you happy we're being nice and letting you play with us when no one else will?" Sachi voiced in a haughty tone.
Staring down at the ground, Danuja gripped at the light yellow and orange spotted smock she wore and murmured, "Y-yah...If nobody wants to be the demon, I'll be it..."
Still, she supposed if she didn't want to be alone, she needed to stay in Sachi's good graces. Even if she got burned in the end.
Allowing herself to be rapidly spun around, Danuja stumbled a little once she was released; Sachi and the other five kids taking off in all directions with pretend squeals of fear.
"Don't let the demon catch you or you'll become one, too!"
"Scary!"
"I don't want to be a demon like her!"
Once the world around her had stopped spinning, Danuja shook off the slight vertigo that lingered and glanced back at the school. Maybe ma eyes are funny, but if they saw a real monster, then they'd really be scared!
It was always startling to see the disturbing centipede like creature. With gray skin like a corpse, wrinkles all over its bulbous body, and those hundreds of short stubby legs, it looked like something straight out of the horror movies her papa liked. She was used to it crawling around the school's roof, yet today, it was wrapped around the janitor who was raking some leaves into a pile...A shiver ran through Danuja's body. Couldn't Mr. Takashi sense it was there?
But then, why was she the only one who could see it?
"What's the matter, demon? Did you forget how to run?" Sachi taunted. She wasn't too concerned about why Danuja looked worried, even a little scared. Danuja was weird, and was always just staring off into space and muttering confusing words.
It's fine. The worm thing is just resting on Mr Takashi's shoulder like one of those fancy scarfs Danuja told herself, taking in a breath of air while patting at her cheeks. She then took off straight for Sachi, grinning when she noticed the girl's surprise. She'd been practicing running, and had gotten a bit faster!
Instead of reaching out to grab Sachi once she closed in on her, Danuja tackled the girl to the ground. She knew it was bad to feel such emotions, but it was satisfying to see the girl laying face down on the grass.
"Looks like ya became a demon, Sachi!" Danuja chirped out, placing her arms behind her head once she stood up. The grin on her face faltered when the dark haired girl sniffled, and Danuja saw why. Her knee was bleeding a little. She must had scuffed it in the fall. "I-I'm sorry! Papa told me puttin' pressure on ouchies makes 'em stop hurtin'!"
"D-don't touch me!" Sachi whimpered out, trying to bat Danuja's hand away. Danuja persisted, though, and placed both hands on top of Sachi's knee.
Something strange occurred. A warmness spread throughout both Danuja and Sachi's bodies, and Sachi could feel the pain starting to ease up. In fact, it was disappearing altogether. Danuja was the one who now felt a slight stinging in her knee, something that made her let out a little, startled cry. Much to both girl's surprise, Sachi's injury was now on Danuja's skin.
"Wh-what did you just do?" Sachi trembled out, looking at the red and gray haired girl with wide, frightened eyes.
"I-I don't really know..." Danuja replied in a tiny voice. Nothing like this had ever happened before.
"You really are weird! Stay away from me!" Sachi screamed out a bit hysterically, shoving Danuja away from her before taking off.
Danuja didn't say anything to this. She just gazed down at her knee and the bit of blood that had trickled out. Maybe...there really was something wrong with her?
I need papa Danuja decided, ignoring the stares she was receiving and taking off back toward the school building. She wasn't certain why, but she found herself glancing over at the janitor; more so the monster. It seemed to be whispering in Mr. Takashi's ear. When the worm noticed Danuja's stare upon it, despite not having eyes, it's face met hers and a wide, deranged looking grin stretched out across its face.
She'd never felt such absolute terror like this before. Danuja knew she had been wrong. The worm was bad. No, it was evil...and she wanted to get as far away from it as possible.
"I'm a freak, papa..."
Gently dabbing at the scrape with a wet wipe, Kisho just smiled as he made sure the injury was completely clean and sterilized before placing a pink band aid with little hearts on his daughter's knee.
"Now, why would ya go and say a thing like that?"
"I felt bad 'cause Sachi got hurt, but I did something bad...I scared her. She was hurt, and then I was hurt and her ouchie was gone," Danuja tried to explain in a cracked voice.
Letting out a hum, Kisho tapped at his head. "Let me see if I have this right...Ya helped that little girl, who's always givin' ya hell I might add, and instead of thanking ya, she just brushed ya off instead?"
"I-I guess so...But Sachi said what I did was weird. Why was I able to make her ouchie go away and I got it instead?" Danuja sniffled out, tears forming in her eyes. Normal people couldn't do stuff like that. So did that mean she wasn't normal?
Hoisting his daughter off the bathroom sink where she sat, Kisho carried her into the living room and sat down on the sofa with her. "Listen ta me, Dana-chan. Some might say what happened was strange, but it sounds ta me like ya were blessed with a gift. Like 'em superheroes ya like in that one show with the overly emotional green haired kid. I personally don't like the idea of ma little girl gettin' hurt instead, but sounds like ya healed that kid. Ya did a good thing, and nobody should tell ya otherwise."
Danuja gazed up at her father with watery eyes. "What if Sachi tells the others? They might hate me more than they seem to already..."
"Well, who cares what those little brats think? If they can't see what a sweet, kind-hearted girl ya are, then ya don't need them in yer life. You'll just have ta stick with yer old man as yer friend until ya meet some decent ones. Can't say I'll be perfectly pleasant ta any boys that come in yer life, mind ya." Kisho finished off with a wink.
She might not have completely understood what her papa meant, yet Danuja let out a small giggle and blew into the tissue that Kisho pressed against her nose. Remembering something, she surprised Kisho when she was suddenly clinging to him and he could feel her little body trembling.
"Papa...Can I stay out of school tomorrow...?"
"I know ya had a rough day, but that's no reason to hide,"
"I-it isn't that. I just...don't want to go back right away..."
Kisho frowned wondering what had spooked his daughter. He wanted to ask, but something told him she wouldn't open up. She took after her mom in being the closed up type.
"If you need some time off, then a few days can't hurt. We'll just play hooky together tomorrow."
"I'm so glad I was home-schooled until I could join Jujutsu High. This is bringing back memories of why I hate public school..." Danuja admitted, wrapping her arms around her body when it gave off a small shiver. There was a grotesque looking monster clinging to a goalpost on the school's rugby field of all places. It didn't seem to be showing any animosity, but you could never be too careful with these creatures.
"I wasn't expecting to run into a Grade 2 curse here," Megumi admitted, shoving his hands into the black jeans he wore. "Might have something to do with the cursed object. This gives us more of a reason to hurry up and find it." Noticing Danuja's already pale skin looked more sickly, Megumi's right brow rose upwards. "Something wrong?"
"N-nah. Just recalled something bad is all," Danuja voiced with a wane smile, running ahead toward a set of stairs that went up a small hillside. "I didn't expect for the presence to be this huge! It's like it's creepin' all over the area!"
Maybe it was a bad idea for Gojo to send her here Megumi pondered with a deep frown, slowly following after the girl.
Fushiguro wouldn't say he was especially close to Danuja-she was more like one of those annoying younger siblings that tended to follow you around everywhere-but he had learned a bit about her past considering they had worked together occasionally. One of her classmates had been killed when she was fairly young; butchered more at the sound of it.
Sachi Kamisato. She had come from one of the wealthy families of Kyoto, so it had been a shock to the entire nation when she went missing. A week later, her body had been found in an old shack. It had been mutilated beyond recognition. The school janitor, Miyamoto Takashi, had been found guilty of the heinous crime. He had been completely deranged, the reports had claimed. Swearing he heard voices that told him to murder the young girl and that it had wanted him to do the same to Sachi's classmates.
The man received the death penalty without parole. Danuja had told him about the curse that had clung to Takashi, and Megumi gathered she blamed herself. Not that there was anything she could have done at the time, but Fushiguro had learned Danuja took things to heart and blamed herself for most things.
That was a dangerous trait to have, and Fushiguro felt like he was stuck babysitting the girl most of the time. She'd end up doing something stupid otherwise.
"Looks like there's some sort of competition going on down there," Danuja hummed out when Megumi stepped over the no unauthorized entry sign. She wasn't sure why the field had been blocked off, but with the curse down there, it was probably a good thing it had been.
Fushiguro just shook his head at this and moved to blend in with the gathered crowd with Danuja. For some small little thing, everyone was treating this like it was the Olympics.
The red haired girl blinked when hearing the name 'Itadori' being chanted excitedly among the students. Apparently the guy had a pretty interesting reputation if he had earned the title, 'The Tiger of West Middle', and Danuja felt her lips part when the spiky pink haired boy flung a pretty heavy looking ball so hard it had dented a soccer goal.
"Yeah, I win!" the boy known as Itadori said cheerfully with a bright grin.
"That was pretty amazing! The old man looks completely stumped!" Danuja voiced with a small laugh seeing the coach just standing with jaw slack and eyes practically bulging out of his head. He wasn't even acknowledging the students snapping pictures of him and comically posing around him.
"Yeah. He pulled it off without even using any cursed energy," Megumi muttered, his own curiosity slightly peeked, but he started to walk off when he noticed the teen had peered over at them with a confused expression. He had probably noticed they weren't from here, and they didn't need any unexpected problems. "I wonder if he's like Zenin-senpai..."
Placing her arms behind her back when following after Fushiguro, Danuja mentioned, "Cept' he don't seem all that intimidating the way Zenin-senpai is,"
"I'm telling her you said that,"
"E-eh?! Don't do that! She'll definitely hit me!"
"Oh! It's already half past four! Well, Coach, I've got stuff to do! Later!" Itadori exclaimed, rushing past both Danuja and Fushiguro without a passing glance this time.
That ominous feelin' was the cursed object, wasn't it Danuja thought startled, noticing Megumi had picked up on the same sensation from how big his eyes had gotten. The presence had been stronger on Itadori. But what's he doing with somethin' like that in the first place?
"Hey, wait!" Megumi shouted, gawking when the large brown eyed teen had stirred up a cloud of dust from how quickly he zoomed by. "He's way too fast!"
"I heard he can run fifty meters in three seconds," one kid spoke up as if to answer that remark.
"Is he a car?" another mentioned with an amused snort.
"It's hard to believe he's just a regular person. Human's sure can be impressive," Danuja commented with a small smile. "Must be somethin' pretty important for him to be in such a hurry."
"Doesn't matter. We're going after him."
The sun had already set by the time Fushiguro and Danuja had found themselves at a hospital. They had managed to track Itadori here after questioning a few people if they had seen him passing by. Danuja knew that getting the cursed object was important, but if he was visiting a place like this, was now really the right time?
She felt a bit more guilty when she noticed Itadori's eyes looked a little red. Had he been crying...?
"Yuji Itadori, correct? I'm Fushiguro from Jujutsu Tech. The one hanging back in the darkness is Ena. I'd like to have a word with you. Now."
"Um, I'm in mourning right now,"
"Sorry, but there's no time. The cursed object you possess is very dangerous. Hand it over to me right now,"
Does Fushiguro-san always gotta be so blunt Danuja thought while massaging at the back of her neck. Then again, Itadori didn't look too upset. More perplexed if anything.
"Cursed object?"
"This." Megumi answered, displaying a picture on his phone. It was of a small ornate case with kanji writing on the front, and an object, wrapped heavily in talismans, that rested on a red cloth inside of the box.
"Oh, yeah, yeah. I found that," Yuji confessed with a nod of his head. "I don't mind either way, but my senpai took a liking to it. What do you mean, 'dangerous'?"
"The number of unexplained deaths and missing persons with Japan exceeds 10,000 a year on average," Megumi explained while scrolling through his phone. "Most of those are the result of curses."
"Curses?" Itadori mumbled, languidly stretching out on the back of one of the hospitals benches.
"Really nasty stuff. Just be glad ya haven't seen 'em for yerself," Danuja spoke up with a smile, causing the boy to blink at her. "They're formed from the negative emotions of humans', ya see. Curses are pretty prominent in places like this here hospital or schools unfortunately."
"That's why most schools secretly keep a cursed object such as a protective talisman," Fushiguro continued. "The object you found is one of them."
"If it's protecting us, shouldn't we be grateful for it?" Itadori inquired, raising up his hand as if he was asking a question in school.
"Let me finish," Megumi responded curtly. "Placing a cursed object of greater evil is a deadly poison that keeps other curses away. It's a bad practice that only claims to protect. Over the years, its seal weakens, and then it becomes bait to lure in and fatten up other curses. The one you found is a dangerous object classified as a special-grade. Hand it over before people start dying."
"Hey, I already said I don't mind that," Itadori said nonchalantly, tossing Fushiguro the box when he hopped off the bench. "So go tell it to my senpai."
Peeking over Megumi's shoulder, Danuja bit at her lower lip when seeing that the case was empty. She could understand Megumi's frustrations, but maybe he was being a little excessive when he roughly grabbed at Itadori's yellow hoodie, when he tried to casually walk off, and demanded the teen tell him where it was.
"I already told you, my senpai...have it..." Itadori paused a moment when he recalled something. "Actually, they were talking about removing the talisman from it tonight at the school." When Fushiguro started to back up away from him with an aghast expression, Yuji rubbed at the top of his head. "What? Is that bad?"
"It's worse than bad. They're going to die."
When Danuja and Fushiguro rushed out of the hospital, Itadori quickly pursued after the two when understanding his friends were in danger. Following close behind them, a curious thought happened to pop into Yuji's head.
"Do talismans come off that easily?"
"No, it's impossible for people who lack cursed energy. Normally," Fushiguro spoke up with furrowed brows.
"Go right! It's a shortcut!" Itadori suddenly shouted, causing the male and female to quickly divert from the path they were on.
"The object were after is pretty powerful,' Danuja said with a troubled expression. "And it's old, so yer friends will easily be able to remove the seals. It's seriously bad."
"I still don't get all this stuff about curses," Itadori mused. Informing the Jujutsu High students what floor his senpai's would be on, he winced when it felt like he ran straight into an invisible wall. "What is this pressure?"
"You stay here," Fushiguro instructed, not bothering to explain as he climbed up the closed school gate.
"I'm coming, too! It's dangerous, right?" Itadori exclaimed with a firm look. "I've only known them for a few months, but they're my friends. I can't just stand by!"
"Stay here," Fushiguro repeated. "You didn't bring your weapon, so you stay here and keep an eye on him, too, Ena."
"Couldn't very well carry a chain-scythe with me on school grounds, could I?" Danuja responded, huffing when Megumi had dashed off without another word. Noticing the frustration on Yuji's face, Danuja gave the pink haired male a small pat on his shoulder and understanding gaze. "It'll be okay, even if yer friends get horribly traumatized or have some limbs ripped off, Fushiguro-san will make sure to save 'em."
"That sounds just as bad!"
Letting out a small laugh, Danuja rubbed at the side of her head. "Ma bad. I'm not so good at comfortin' people. Fushiguro-san might be emotionally constipated, but he's a good guy. You can rely on him,"
"Still, I don't feel right just listening to him and waiting here like he told me," Itadori revealed, his right-hand balling into a tight fist. "Even so, I can feel the sensation of death all the way out here."
"It's pretty scary, isn't it? We all know we're going to die one day, but it isn't right when someone's death happens sooner than it should," Danuja spoke up in a soft and sad tone. To Yuji, it sounded like she was speaking from experience, something that caused him to stare at the girl in surprise. "We Jujutsu Sorcerers try to prevent some of those deaths from happenin'. I'm kinda useless when it comes to that sorta thing myself...but at least ya can say ya tried. Doing nothin' just leaves ya with a feelin' of regret..."
Memories of his grandfather's face and final words caused Itadori to grip at the gate's thick black bars. He had made his decision. He wasn't going to let fear hold him back!
"You coming?" he asked Danuja with a grin.
"Nah. I'll catch up later. Besides, it's better for me if Fushiguro-san and you get yerselves beaten up some," Danuja replied back with a cheery smile of her own.
These words made Yuji tilt his head. "You really say some weird things, you know,"
"I get that a lot," Danuja confessed with a chuckle, watching Yuji dash off before she turned to face forward. A grin formed on her face when noticing a curse swimming right in the concrete toward her, and she removed the white gloves she wore upon her hands. "Looks like that massive energy is luring smaller curses in the area here. Better take them out before I meet up with the others."