Warning: Before starting this chapter I want to warn you that it contains very graphic descriptions of violence. It may trigger the reader, so read carefully and responsibly.
Kasumi's awakening
Her heart cramped under her chest and a jar hidden among the food and clothing in Oguri's saddlebags. Never had her hands touched anything foreign, not even when Sochi was dying to eat a piece of bread fresh from the oven at the neighboring inn. Not even when the boys who used to play near her house forgot their toys on the floor and she wondered if she would ever have a doll. Now, guilt gnawed at her, especially after talking to Nanami-san.
Her tight, lying lips do not allow a single word to come out of them. The first few miles, as she walked away from Tengen's temple, she felt inclined to turn around and return Sanso. However, the very thought of retracing her steps empty-handed managed to dissuade her. If she has no one, at least she has Sanso, who could potentially be just like his older brother, Tanso, or who knows what else he could be. While she also doesn't know what kind of ritual will have to be performed to change his form, she prefers to take him with her and find the answer along the way.
Now, when she should return to Mei-san's palace, Kasumi stops between the fork of two paths as she ponders whether she really has the courage to kneel in front of Satoru's family. Will her poor manners be enough to prostrate herself in front of the leader? Or will she simply see the impenetrable fortification from its outskirts, as she did that time, upon arriving in the Shinmachi district.
Be that as it may, Kasumi ends up realizing after much meditation, that it is preferable to return empty-handed after having tried everything. After all, it takes an army to rescue Gojo Satoru.
...
Days and days go by of eating the same shit; half fish, tasteless, and a little rice. It seems enough to keep him alive, but every second that passes, cooped up there in a dark hut, unable to see daylight, unable to feel the breeze touching his cheeks, is a second in which his body weakens.
He has not managed to count the days either, it is difficult to do so without sunlight, when the visits of the one who feeds him are so inconstant. For a moment he wonders if they do it on purpose, so that he loses whatever sense of orientation he has left, that's why they appear at any time of the day, sometimes the door opens and light is seen, sometimes it seems like night, or maybe it's about to dawn.
The only thing he has been able to guess is that it has been at least five months since he left Mei-Mei's palace. He guesses by the length of his hair, shoulder-length. He just hopes the guards don't notice that detail and cut his hair, or he'll lose count.
They've found some pretty creative ways to torture him, and perhaps the worst was the bucket.
From the very moment he was locked up, he was given a metal bucket to use for evacuation. Of course, after living half his life in the imperial palace, it was not at all pleasant to take turns with Yaga to use it. The only thing they could do to spare themselves the humiliation was to avert their gaze and simply not talk about it.
Then someone would come in, take the bucket full of shit and leave. The same bucket would always arrive empty to be used again as a transport for excrement. The objective was clear, to strip him of all pride, to rub his face in the fact that he had become nothing more than a prisoner, stripped of all rights.
However, up to that moment this humiliation was tolerable. Not until the day Jinichi Zenin himself entered the hut with the bucket under his right hand, a broad, twisted smile on his face. Satoru was puzzled that he had the nerve to bring it himself knowing full well what that bucket usually had inside. But it wasn't until he set it down in front of him that Satoru understood why he was carrying it with such glee.
The smile on Jinichi's face grew bigger as he saw Satoru's surprised expression. The surprise then mixed with horror, disgust, and he couldn't hold it a second longer. Satoru pushed the bucket with his knee and the water fell to the ground.
Standing over the puddle, Jinichi laughed. He did it so loud the birds in the trees around him flew out of place. And when he could calm himself, he looked down to see Satoru's light blue eyes, bent, dirty, thin, humiliated, and with anger churning inside his body, spitting it out through his icy fire gaze.
"You don't want to die of thirst, do you?" Jinichi said to him before bending down to pick up the bucket. You dropped it, you need to be more careful, let me fill this up again for you.
He was still laughing when he left, he could still hear him when the door closed that day, or morning, maybe it was in the afternoon.
"He doesn't know..." Satoru whispers with the little strength in his starving body. "He doesn't know yet, he must not even picture it. How would he? If I could see myself in this state, I couldn't bet on it either, but... that's a dead man walking. I hope he makes good use of the time he has left, breathing in the scent of his sun-dried clothes, filling his belly like the filthy pig he is, even looking at his hideous reflection in the water. I hope he makes good use of the time he has left, because if not today... maybe it won't be tomorrow either. Shit, it may take years to figure out how to outwit these seals. But the day I get out of here... I'm gonna get my sword dirty with his blood."
"You're starting to sound like someone who's lost his mind."
"How bad would it be if that really were the case? Maybe I'll find my way out if I leave the confines of sanity, won't I? Don't you know that phrase... 'the mad create the paths that the wise later walk'?"
"Satoru, stay calm. Don't let his games get to you. What he just did with the water... he's just trying to play with your sanity. Do you really think it was the same bucket? Do you really think he's stupid enough to make his most valuable prisoner sick?"
Satoru is silent for a moment.
"Why do you think they didn't take us to the imperial palace?" he asks Yaga in a calmer tone.
"I think... he's afraid that if he moves you two things will happen, that they won't be able to maintain the strength of the seals... or that someone else will know where you are. I don't think a Zenin clan caravan would go unnoticed for long."
"And how long do you think they'll keep us here?"
"Long enough to break us."
...
What exactly will it be? Kasumi wonders at night, under the cover of a willow tree. Oguri sleeps and she seems unable to close her eyes completely. She worries, however, Utahime's seal seems to work perfectly. Not a single drop of curse energy escapes from the crystal, but for some reason, Kasumi can't get it out of her head. Perhaps out of guilt, of having stolen something she had willingly given up, or perhaps because of the idea that wanders through her mind and reminds her of the father of the hideous creature she holds in her hands. Not a trace remains of Akemi in that mass that from time to time turns and watches her, floating in a greenish liquid.
Perhaps, that twisted idea that wanders through her mind is only a product of Noritoshi Kamo, it is something that only someone like him would be able to do. Whether that gloomy idea that comes to her mind is only because of his memory, or if it is something else in the back of her mind that is telling her, she doesn't know. The idea that this transmutation she imagined it for herself creeps her out, it gives her the creeps.
For some reason, something Tengen said tries to come back to the present, but she doesn't fully remember it, and she doesn't know what connection it could have to Tanso's transmutation either.
After convincing herself that there must be a less grotesque way, Kasumi manages to find a way to sleep, or maybe she's just been won over by exhaustion.
Day after day, night after night, walking alone along the abandoned coastal paths of southwestern Japan, Kasumi gathers the strength to stand up to a powerful clan. She mentally lists her reasons for rescuing Satoru, memorizes them so as not to stutter, so that her conviction permeates the ears that will listen.
After half a month, Kasumi sees from afar the golden sea of a rice field, so vast that it takes her breath away. Its smell, the movement of the rice paddies mimicking that of the waves. Behind the field a long row of trees as tall as the Tengen's temple, and behind the trees the first signs of a village.
She can't hold back her smile and looks forward to finding an inn where she can spend the night, and hopefully a hot meal.
A dark stain runs across the yellow rice paddies, catching her attention. Kasumi turns to see two small hands holding a basket full of grains atop his tousled black hair. Behind him is something else, small, but vicious.
Oguri quickens his pace according to Kasumi's orders and they speed down the path to the foot of the crop field. The boy runs, trips and falls to the ground, and with him the bowl of straw and rice. He turns and opens his mouth, ready to scream as tears well up in his eyes, but just as he is about to cry out, a fleeting, celestial light passes in front of his eyes.
The flash of sunlight on Kasumi's katana blinds him for an instant, but when he opens his eyes there is only the girl, both feet planted firmly on the ground and her sweet, wide-eyed gaze watching him over her shoulder.
The boy's mouth is still open when she crouches down beside him. There's nothing more ash floating in the air, but he was sure it was going to catch him.
Kasumi smiles to herself, the boy is missing a couple of teeth and it reminds her of the last time she saw her younger brother. A few days before their separation, he had proudly told her that he had lost one more tooth, as if that made him 'more of a man' than before.
"Are you all right?" she asks the astonished boy and offers him her hand to get up. And although he hesitates for a moment, he accepts her help and broadens a smile. His brown eyes reflect a strange excitement.
"Are you a sorceress?" he asks her, his eyes sparkling.
"Something like that..." Kasumi answers without the confidence or experience necessary to accept that name, a profession that has people like Gojo Satoru or Atsuya Kusakabe could never have a Miwa Kasumi.
"Great! Did you come for the notice? Hurry! Let's go to the village! We've been waiting for you!"
Before she could cross another word, the boy grabs Kasumi's hand and drags her along with him, leaving the rice and his straw bowl behind.
The forest becomes less thick as the trail progresses, and a few minutes later, Kasumi sees a group of women in the center of a small village of at least ten houses.
"Mom! It's a sorceress! She's come for the notice!"
As if it were big news, the brown eyes of all the women widen, some of them sigh, as if those words bring collective relief. One of them, with her hair tied back and several marks of age on her face, quickly approaches her. She is wearing a burgundy kimono, worn and folded for work.
"I'm so glad you've finally come!" she tells her and her voice cracks, she takes Kasumi with both hands and her chest squeezes when she sees that she is about to cry too. "I know the reward is not much, but each of our families has contributed. This is all we have to offer, please help us!"
Kasumi doesn't know what to say, or how to refuse the contract that everyone thinks she has accepted by her mere presence.
Uncomfortable, she takes the hands of the woman who looks at her with hope bathing her eyes and smiles at her with all the sweetness she has to ease the blow.
"I'm sorry... I didn't come here for any contract..."
"What?" the woman mumbles.
"But you're a sorceress! I saw you exorcise that monster!" shouts the boy suddenly, clenching his hands tightly.
Kasumi opens her lips to explain herself when she feels the woman's hands moving away, then sees how her expression has changed.
"I'm sorry, you were just a traveler and my son brought you here. Forgive him, we've been waiting for a shaman for a long time."
"I... I am not very powerful... But if you explain to me what is going on maybe I can help you," the eyes of the women around her light up again, "if it is something that is within my reach I will not accept for pay anything more than a place to sleep and a plate of food."
"If so, then come with me and I will explain why we need a shaman."
After taking the reins of Oguri again, Kasumi follows the slow pace of the woman and beside her her son. A question looms in her mind, where are all the men? In violent times like the present, she would not be surprised if they had been recruited as part of some kind of guerrilla and that is why the boy next to her was working in the fields.
The woman's house is modest, but it is clean and seems to have everything she needs for her small family. She takes a seat and politely tells Kasumi where to sit.
"My name is Amame, and this is Ohma. Weeks ago Ohma traveled to the nearest villages to leave ads, but no one has come and we haven't been able to harvest the rice. If we go on like this we will starve to death."
"That's why you were in the field? The women are afraid of being victims of the curse and you went in to get food for them?"
"What?! Ohma! Is what she says true? You went into the rice field?!" Amame shouts at her son, shaking him by the shoulders.
"I just wanted to bring you something to eat! We can't even get to the sea with that curse there! I couldn't just stand by and do nothing! Besides... I can see them mother, I can escape from them."
"That was very dangerous," Kasumi interrupts, "the one that attacked you was small, almost harmless. I don't think it could have killed you with the energy it had. However, it could have hurt you if it latched onto you. Please don't do it again."
"I'm sorry..." Ohma whimpers, clutching her mother's kimono tightly.
Amame abandons her annoyed expression and softens it at the sight of her child pursing his lips, straining to keep from crying. Then she lifts a hand and ruffles his hair, his stubborn, messy hair again reminding her of Sochi and Kasumi can't control her nostalgic smile.
"What has the curse done so far?"
"It murdered three women, one of whom was pregnant. At first it appeared when the sun began to set, so it killed the first two. Since then we have been careful to harvest when the sun is high. However, the last victim... happened at noon. My friend Himari was there, she said she could see the curse... although she has never had that gift. That day she said she saw it clearly, her partner... Cho... didn't notice anything."
"What does it look like?"
"It looks like a woman... with long, dark hair, dirty and tangled. She has a hat similar to the ones we wear, and her body... it's as if hundreds of worms were joined together, forming her legs..."
"First... I'll have to wait for it to appear. I must go to the rice field and wait for it to manifest. There are still a few hours of sunlight left so I'll take the opportunity to investigate before it gets dark."
"When you're done you can spend the night here."
Kasumi nods and as she gets up she can feel that Amame-san is about to say one more thing, however, she stops herself. After mounting back onto Oguri's back, she regrets having delayed her trip. She wishes she could ask Satoru, wherever he is, to hold on a little longer. Even if she could find the right words to leave, she could never utter them and leave a group of distressed women to their fate. When Kasumi returns to the path where she encountered little Ohma she is surprised to not feel a presence like the one she was described, leading her to think that perhaps there is some sort of ritual that must be fulfilled for the curse to manifest.
Kusakabe spoke to her at some point about these types of curses, he told her that there are even shamans capable of cursing people, so she would have to be especially careful.
While taking the scabbard of her sword, Kasumi walks carefully accompanied by the sound of the wind rocking the rice fields. When her feet touch the fertile soil, she feels in the pit of her stomach an immense emptiness. Something tells her that this must be part of the ritual and it seems obvious to her now, she has to harvest the rice.
"Be careful, I don't want another woman to die in this village!" a childish voice shouts at her and she turns away.
"Ohma! Whatever happens, don't step on the rice field!"
The boy nods. He clenches his fists and stares at her with a frown.
Kasumi takes a leaf from the waist-high plant and with her sword cuts off its stalk. She takes the stem between her fingers and pushes the grains with the back of her katana. The grains fall next to her feet. The feeling of emptiness in the pit of her stomach becomes more incipient, like a spiral growing inside her. A shiver runs across her skin and as she looks up, on the other side of the field, she sees it.
The curse is more horrifying than Amame's description, perhaps because she didn't see it with her own eyes, or perhaps because she knew that if she told her how it really looked, she would end up refusing the job.
Seeing her wild-eyed, though, she understands how difficult it would be for anyone to describe it. His humanoid eyes almost bulging out of their sockets, swollen and wrapped in red bouquets, like a spill of blood surrounding his pupils.
Most disturbing probably is his extensive smile, so large that you would have to stretch both arms to measure it. The long, blackened teeth, like those of a geisha, but at the same time spouting a dark liquid, like coal mixed with oil.
She moves on many feet made of insects, ocher-colored, dark and even in the distance she can see how they move and rearrange themselves to form new limbs.
In a fatal instant, Kasumi finds herself absorbed in its ghastly appearance and forgets to look for the core of the cursed energy. And in the blink of an eye the curse pounces on her, taking advantage of the speed of its multiple legs.
His head twitches and turns a hundred and eighty degrees, yet he does not lose sight of her.
Kasumi grits her teeth and leaps backward, raising her sword fast enough to protect her torso from the attack of one of its sharp legs, which resemble those of a praying mantis.
The impact sends her far away, crawling through the grassland. Losing focus for an instant has cost her dearly, she realizes this when she feels blood running down the back of her ear. She is a little dazed and her first instinct is to see Ohma, hanging over the branch of a tree surrounding the rice field, pointing fervently.
Half a second passes when she turns her face and finds the curse above her, so large, so immense that it covers her completely. Its black hair surrounds her, not letting her see anything, not even the sun that begins to descend to hide.
If Satoru were here, she would not have handled things so clumsily, but he is not here. There is no one, there is only her.
What advice would Kusakabe give her in a situation like this? Perhaps he would remind her of the basics.
She should look for the place where the most cursed energy is concentrated, perceive it with that extra sense that only shamans have, as if it were a scent, it's unseen.
Thick, greasy hair rises from her ankles to her neck. Kasumi feels an imaginary hand slowly strangle her, so much so that it seems like the curse enjoys every drop of fear that is released from her skin.
And the moment she feels she is about to lose consciousness; she can sense it. The core was not in her face as she thought, but higher up. As the curse lifts her into the air, drooling with pleasure at the sight of her life slipping away, Kasumi raises her sword and cuts the straw hat.
The sword falls to the ground, and then she falls, still choking, spitting and coughing up her own blood. The last thing she manages to see with her blurred vision is someone's shadow, hidden by the contrasting sun. Then she loses consciousness.
...
Jinichi returns at night, when there is not a speck of light that can sneak through the door. An idea comes to his mind as he watches him pass, that this door must contain a special seal, one that lets certain people in and out. But such sophisticated sorcery must have been created by someone extremely virtuous, or perhaps whoever enters must be wearing some other kind of amulet. The answer to that question he has asked himself entertains him so much that he even forgets to pay attention to the bucket of water Jinichi has brought him.
He realizes it only when he notices that the monkey doesn't move, it is there, arms crossed between him and the door. Satoru looks up with annoyance, he is waiting for a reaction like before, to horrify him for having to drink from the same container that contained his excrement and urine. But this time he's not going to succeed, because when Satoru looks down he notices that the container is intact and the one Jinichi took had the mark of his knee.
He is about to smile and mock, when Yaga interrupts him.
"Do you want to kill us with an infection?! You son of a bitch! You stupid ape! Don't you realize that if we drink that we're going to get sick, or is your head so full of shit that you can't understand what I'm saying?!"
Satoru's eyes widen, not only at his sudden intrusion, but at his colorful language. He had long ago heard a rumor that Yaga Masamichi had extremely foul language, but that he controlled it by being part of the emperor's court. He only manages to snap out of his surprise when Jinichi starts moving again, this time plotting an accurate course towards Yaga.
"You just shut your mouth, you idiot," was the last thing Yaga mumbled before being dragged away by Jinichi.
"I think I get it..." he whispers once alone with the bucket of water.
If Jinichi realizes that they both know that this is not the same bucket for their shit, he will find some other less metaphorical way to torture them. Satoru smiles and then crouches down, his arms motionless above his head, his fingers nearly dead, numb and dangerously pale. He drinks like an animal as he stares at the door and imagines how he will get out of this place in one piece.
...
When she opens her eyes again, she is still tired. Her immediate reaction is to bring her right hand to her head and feels with the tip of her digits a bandage. Then she realizes that she is lying in front of the warmth of a fire, inside Amame and Ohma-chan's house. With effort she manages to sit up and immediately feels a couple of glances. Amame serves food in a wooden bowl while Ohma plays with two rag dolls. Ohma's enthusiastic, gap-toothed smile makes the corners of Kasumi's lips curl up. Amame's warm expression comes with a plate of hot food and the young sorceress feels her stomach growl, as if to thank her. Eating on the side of the path doesn't compare to something fresh in any way. Perhaps her long stay with Mei-Mei has managed to spoil her.
Kasumi smiles and sips from the bowl, then relaxes as she feels the warmth of the broth traveling down her abdomen; payment for a job well done, or sorta.
"You look very tired, please stay with us while your wounds heal. We can't let the person who freed us from such a horrible curse leave without the promised payment and with wounds all over her body..."
Kasumi is about to speak, but her throat hurts so much that she regrets it a second later. She remembers that she was about to be strangled and accepts the invitation by nodding softly.
In silence, Kasumi eats and swallows with difficulty. For an instant this small hut reminds her of those nights she spent taking care of Satoru, after falling from Maki Zen'in's blade poisoning. Her heart squeezes, but there is nothing she can do now. She has to get the Gojo clan's help and prove to herself once and for all that she is not really useless.
Despite the discomfort, Kasumi finishes her plate quickly and decisively. Surprised, Amame offers her a second plate and she accepts. If she wants to leave as soon as possible, she has to eat to recover, no one would pay attention to an injured and weak girl.
Slowly, one plate of food at a time, Kasumi speaks again. It's only been two days, and what's two days after so many months? The marks on her neck are still there, more visible than the first day. They have turned dark, maturing different colors. The cut on the head has almost completely closed. And somehow, removing that curse in exchange for so much food and care doesn't seem right to her.
On the third day Kasumi gets up despite Amame-san's retorts.
"Don't worry, I'm stronger than I look," she replies with a weak smile and takes a basket of herbs to help harvest the rice. After seeing them work so hard to care for their children and cultivate the fields, a blow to the head seems insignificant. "Let me repay your kindness with work, at least for one last day. Tomorrow I plan to continue my journey."
"Then I will put a sack of rice in your horse's saddlebags. I won't stop you if you want to help us some more, the field is too big for us... But at least let me share some of our only wealth with you."
Kasumi nods and then strides off into the golden field of rice paddies. Ohma plays with other boys, having heard him several times telling his friends about the brave sorceress who exorcised the curse from the field. The boys listen to him with fascination while Kasumi feels like a fake, yet a part of her feels good.
A small smile creeps over her face as she walks and wonders if Sochi and Ohma could be good friends. There are no boys Kano's age, they probably get recruited young. But eventually, maybe, one day everything will go back to normal and this place would be a good place to come back to.
She could guard the village from future curses, help the men with hunting or the women with childcare. After all she likes them, and unlike the children she has met in the past, they do not disdain her supernatural abilities nor have they questioned her about the strange color of her hair.
Perhaps because they know she is a shaman, because they know she is different.
She leaves her katana with the rest of her things, in Oguri's saddlebags. Then she adjusts her hair and walks quietly through the meadow, with the sun on her head. With a small tool Kasumi cuts the stalks into sickles, one after the other, until her basket is full. She ties them into bundles and sets them aside to continue.
After a few hours, Kasumi wipes her sweaty forehead. Oguri stands by the path, watching her carefully.
"I think I overestimated my own strength..." she says to herself.
She looks to the side and sees two more women working beside her, the breeze tousles her hair and brings her some relief. A little nap under the shade of the trees begins to seem like a wonderful idea.
She just needs to regain a little more strength.
After sitting against the broad trunk of a tree, she closes her eyes with a smile and falls asleep soon after.
Dreaming of Satoru has become a routine from which she cannot escape. Somehow it makes her feel that he is alive, waiting somewhere. But this time the dream is not like the previous ones, when she would open her eyes and find him sleeping next to her like so many times.
In her dream it is dark, damp and lonely. Satoru is wounded and she can only be a bystander as another guy fiercely grabs his hair to face him, his eyes empty.
In this dream Kasumi has no voice, no matter how many times she screams his name he cannot hear her. No matter how hard she tries, the desperate feeling of not being able to part her lips drives her mad.
From the shadows a beast approaches, from behind his back, where he can't see it. It opens its maw so wide it could swallow him whole in one bite. Its saliva drips onto Satoru's shoulder and only then does he notice its presence.
Kasumi screams so loudly that the wounds in her throat reopen. Satoru's name echoes across the field and the birds scramble out of their nests.
The sun turns orange as it touches the horizon line and the moon rises prematurely behind it. The sky mixes blue and pink, orange and black. But, as Kasumi emerges from the initial dread of her own nightmare, she realizes that the colors of the horizon and the sky above her head are unnatural. The black line bursting over the firmament is a black cloud of smoke, and judging by the direction of the wind, it is coming from the village.
There are no more women in the field, there is only her. Quickly she stands up and without a single thought, Kasumi runs in the direction of the village. But when she arrives, her eyes do not believe what she sees.
The entire village is on fire.
The young sorceress stops her steps, her big eyes reflect with horror the fire that is making its way through every thatched roof, through every wooden structure. Everything burns, the tools, the baskets, the clothes lying in the sun.
Her hands tremble at first, when confusion prevents her from thinking clearly. Then a question comes to her mind; where is everyone? After taking a breath of air, Kasumi continues to run, covering her face with the sleeve of her kimono so as not to breathe in the smoke. She runs to the house she has slept in for the past few nights, and despite seeing it in the distance, beginning to be consumed by flames, she keeps going until she opens the door.
The incoming air suddenly fuels the fire and pushes Kasumi to the ground. At first she struggles to see, but, when she sits up her eyes widen like plates as she recognizes the lifeless body of Amame-san, embraced by her son. There is blood everywhere, her clothes are in tatters, torn to shreds, completely disfigured.
Kasumi feels tears welling up in her eyes, she covers her mouth with one hand and with the other she steps back on the ground until she bumps into something, warm and soft. A shiver runs over her skin as she turns her face and meets the dull gaze of a neighbor, so brutally stabbed that all that is left of her face are her eyes.
Crawling shakily along the ground, she ends up hidden between two houses that have not yet fallen victim to the fire. After screaming Satoru's name so loudly, she cannot scream again in horror at all she is seeing.
The children, the women, who did this? Who was capable of such an atrocity?
A laugh echoes through the sparks of the wood and the burning of the fire. So creepy is it for Kasumi to hear it that she is completely petrified, her eyes wide, almost wild. With no air in her lungs, Kasumi listens intently.
"I found it, the reward... Here it is. How stupid are those women."
"All this... for a stupid reward?" comes from Kasumi's lips unable to control the impulse.
The man watches her emerge from her hiding place with a shadowed face, hidden behind her uneven bangs. Then she looks up, her teeth clenched and her brow furrowed.
"All this..." she repeats, gnashing her teeth, "For a few fucking coins!"
Kasumi feels the blood in her throat stain her mouth, her tongue fills with iron.
"And this one?" says the guy, stout, with his hair cut in a traditional ponytail, wearing a ragged suit that goes down to his knees. He raises his hand and whistles loudly, and after that call Kasumi hears footsteps approaching, the steel of his swords clanging against the scabbards. In an instant, she finds herself surrounded. "Guys, is this the only one left?"
"I killed all the ones I found."
"There were no little girls?"
"Only boys."
"And what did you do with them?"
One of them shrugs his shoulders with a smile.
"Then we'll have to share," replies the one who found the bounty.
"This one is... just the way I like them," says one more and steps forward.
"Me too."
"And me too."
"I want to go first," says another with a smile.
"No, the one who was last in the previous village gets to go first this time. The woman was practically dead when it was his turn. If we don't respect each other, no one will respect our band."
"You..." Kasumi whispers, "You people are worse than curses!"
Kasumi's confidence vanishes in her hands as she reaches for her katana, not realizing she doesn't have it with her. She doesn't even have the harvesting tool, or a knife, or a dagger. She has absolutely nothing. Her face pales and the gang leader seems to notice, his smile widens as Kasumi's eyes are enveloped in the most intense horror she has ever felt in her life.
Before she knows it, a man grabs her by the wrist. As she is about to strike the first blow, another one stops her and immobilizes her left arm.
"No!" shouts Kasumi and kicks, but a third man grabs her right leg, "Don't touch me!" She screams again and feels she can't move her left leg, "GET OFF ME! GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME! DON'T TOUCH ME! ENOUGH! STOP! STOP IT!"
Subdued, Kasumi feels foreign hands run over her body as they walk down the path to lead her to the field. She clenches her knees, tears streaming down her face as she continues to scream and anger quickly turns to fear, and somehow ends up begging this group of wretches for mercy.
"Please! I beg you! Don't do this! No, please!"
As they lay her on the ground, she denies and closes her eyes tightly. Suddenly she remembers Mei-Mei and regrets not even having that bottle of poison to end her life right then and there.
This was supposed to be for him. This would only be for Satoru.
At the precise instant that one of the bandits kneels between Kasumi's legs, she completely loses control. She screams and jerks so hard that the entire gang must hold each of her limbs tightly. Anger returns overcoming her resignation and when she finally thinks all is lost, Oguri's furious whinny breaks through over the bandits.
But she doesn't care if she ends up dead under the horse's hooves, she wishes with all her might that this group of men would share her fate. But none of these unfortunates want to die as much as she does at this moment and that is why they all let her go at once when the horse, like a black storm, jumps over Kasumi's body and continues on to stop on the other side.
Kasumi turns and runs with all her might without looking back. She almost stops when she hears a sword's scabbard grind and someone shouting "kill the horse", but she can't control her own legs, all she wants to do is run away.
Her body is full of marks, every part hurts. Tears fall from her eyes as she runs through the forest. She cries for Ohma, for Amame-san, for the women of the village, she cries for the dignity they were about to take away from her, she cries for being weak and waiting for Satoru to come out of his confinement to rescue her. She cries because she wishes all these men would die a terrible death. She cries from helplessness, uneasiness, fear, all mixed together so terribly that curse energy begins to overflow from her small body.
Tears blur her eyes and Kasumi ends up falling to the ground, to discover with horror that they are not too far away. Their voices call out to her, echoing through the forest, hunting her like an animal.
With an injured knee, Kasumi tries to stand up, but her whole leg buckles with an electric sensation. With no air in her lungs, no sword over her hand, Kasumi refuses to die this way. If she found a nearby cliff she would even be able to throw herself off and die from the impact, but suddenly Satoru's words appear in her mind.
'You place so little value on your life that your death would mean nothing at all. It's detestable, it nauseates me that you think like that.'
She furrows her brow as she hears Satoru's voice rumble in her ears. She looks around for something, anything, and all she sees are trees around her. Without a second thought, Kasumi grabs a branch, plants her foot on the trunk and forcefully breaks it off. Now at least she has a stake, and if she stuffs it with cursed energy, at least she has a chance. And... if that's not enough...
"What... should I do if they catch me?"
"That's not going to happen as long as you're by my side. I'm going to protect you."
"But... if it did happen. -How would I..."
"Kill yourself? If you didn't have a weapon, if you were under torture... I suppose the most effective thing to do would be to bite your tongue until it was cut off."
"My tongue?!"
"Yes... it would bleed so much that you'd choke on your own blood. At least that's what I'd do if I were that weak and wanted to end it all. Would you have the guts to do something like that?"
"Yes, Satoru... I have the guts..." she answers him in a whisper and hides behind the same trunk.
The sorceress tries to control even her own breathing, just so she can focus her senses on the footsteps around her, on the voices calling out to her as they laugh and boast about what they plan to do to her. Kasumi feels her heart begin to shrink as they approach and, as if her body is growing smaller, she presses her arms against her body, her makeshift weapon in her hands.
So many steps, so many men. At least twenty of them against her alone. She doesn't want to sound pessimistic inside her own mind, but maybe she should start saying goodbye to her loved ones.
She would like to be somewhere else, where no one could see her. Hidden in a meadow, in a small house. With Satoru, even if he was only her guardian. With her family, living a simple but happy life.
She doesn't realize it, but the more she wants to disappear, the more her cursed technique manifests itself.
The mist born from Kasumi's body spreads so quickly through the forest that the bandits have no way of finding her. But she, with her eyes closed, cannot notice it. The men lost in the immensity of the mist cannot see each other, they can no longer distinguish the path they have come from, nor the direction of the village, nor the moon itself.
They can barely see beyond their own nose. But for Kasumi, as she opens her eyes again, it is totally different. Yes, there is fog, but somehow she can see through it. The men wander beside her and do not see her, do not hear her breathing, do not perceive the terrible beating of her heart.
They look confused and for an instant she is fine with the idea of killing them from behind, taking advantage of the moment, seeing them raise their hands in the air in fear of banging their heads against a tree.
But she doesn't know how long this mysterious fog will last, nor that she herself has caused it, so she fears wasting her time in revenge when she should be escaping.
The answer comes when she sees Oguri in the distance, as confused as the bandits themselves.
N/A: It's been a while, but I'm still around. It seems like our protagonists have been separated for ages and it's still a while longer until their reunion. The next chapter will be a bit difficult to write since it will be about the Gojo clan and Kasumi's request for help. I have to decide a couple of things regarding Sanso and the meeting of all the characters for Satoru's rescue, but your comments keep me motivated despite what was jjk's ending.
I already said this in another story, but since there are people who read me exclusively on or ao3, I don't want to leave out how unreal the last 5 chapters of the manga felt. Maybe I'm in denial, but I feel like the ending was nothing more than bad fanmanga, there are things I still can't make sense of. Maybe if the story had closed better, today I would have another perspective of Satoru's death, but no, personally I think it was nonsense.
I guess I was hoping that Gege would be able to overcome the contempt he feels for his creation and give him the space he deserved, even if it was with a grave. The perfect example of this is Akira Toriyama (may he rest in peace), whose least favorite character was Vegeta. Toriyama had Vegeta's ending planned to be on Namek, and his death at the time was completely dignified. With a speech in which he abandons his supremacist idea of saiyajin classes and leaves his revenge against Freezer to Goku. They even took the time to bury his body at the time. But Vegeta was so charismatic, in his own sadistic way, that he ended up winning over the audience. Vegeta far exceeded Toriyama's expectations and grew on his own, he is a character that got out of control, but the love of the fans and if I remember correctly, his own daughter, made Toriyama reconsider his involvement. Today, there is no Dragon Ball without Vegeta, just as there will never be Jujutsu Kaisen without number 1, Gojo Satoru.
Call it denial, but I'm going to take jjk's open ending, the absence of a tomb, and Satoru's total lack of recognition to continue writing my own stories. Where there's a void, there's always a fanfic.
Thanks for reading, see you next time.
P.S: Also, for anyone who wants to see the poor attempt at a doushin, I started one that I posted on wattpad. I leave the link here: story/376652533-curse-of-love-english-version