Chapter 4
[Shigeo Kubo]
The chance that he was looking for came rather quickly when the Faceless Hulk pulled its fist back and went to use its other arm. Shigeo used that moment to focus as best he could… on his legs instead of his arms. 'Run Away 2: Electric Boogaloo it is,' he thought, dashing in the opposite direction of the creature. 'So far so good,' he added, grinning bitterly. He might have escaped the pan, but he was fairly sure he was rushing into the fire anyway.
Because where he was going was straight towards the group of apparitions.
Jumping, he stomped on a dog-like creature that lounged at him, doing his best to use it as a stepping stone to get himself further. It didn't quite work, leaving him awkwardly mid-air but he didn't stop, couldn't stop. He stepped on another and then he found the solid ground. A mantis-like monster slashed at him with its claw-arms and there was literally nothing Shigeo could do about it as the thing cut through the side of his right upper arm.
He needed the armor on his legs to give him more speed and mobility. He couldn't switch it for his arms or he'd trap himself where he was, unable to get away. No, he needed to move… move and hope that the apparitions didn't kill him on his mad dash to the upper floor.
'At least the others aren't trapped down here with me,' he thought, jumping over a turtle apparition only to be met with a group of bat-like ones that grabbed onto him and started clawing and biting at him. Fortunately, they were laughably weak. Unfortunately, he wasn't much better, so it was a struggle to get them off of him while continuing to run.
'Today's just not my day,' he thought wearily.
He knew the Faceless Hulk was right behind him, which was all the motivation he needed to push through the pain. He could hear the booming steps, shaking the building under his feet. The disintegrating bodies of some of the lesser apparitions soared through the air and slammed into the walls or ahead of Shigeo. It seemed to be gaining ground on him too, despite his spirit boots and the fact that he was trying to put the swarm between himself and the monster.
There was no escaping, he was slowly realizing.
He didn't even know where he was going.
Shigeo was well and truly screwed.
Still though, maybe he could attract attention. Maybe he could keep the Faceless Hulk on him. Maybe that way Haga and the woman – whatever her name was – would be able to get to the roof and escape. Maybe if he lasted long enough, he'd be able to help them.
Not much else he could-
He almost had a heart attack when something appeared out of nowhere at his side, a ghostly figure that moved in an instant, fast, precise, and deadly. The figure's attack moved but it was… off, unsurprisingly. Still, the slash while not cutting through any apparition, managed to strike one unfortunate feline creature, pushing it off.
'Haga, you magnificent bastard,' Shigeo thought to himself because that was exactly who it had been. His survival partner had saved his skin without even being present. Instead, one of his wispy figures had popped up right beside him. It hadn't done much, but he could appreciate any-
His attention was stolen when a similar figure appeared further down the hall. However, this time, it wasn't an attack. It was Haga, but this time moving, almost skulking down the corridor and- Shigeo's eyes widened.
'He can't make them where he hasn't been,' he remembered, following after the ghostly figure before it disappeared just as quickly as it appeared. A second later, another one appeared further down the hall. 'That means that we moved this way. This is the way up,' he thought, grinning widely.
He made a mental note that he owed Haga a whole fucking lot.
His elation was cut short, however, dying a quick death as the Faceless Hulk roared behind him. Maybe it was his imagination, but he almost could feel the thing's breath on the back of his neck. It spurred him forward, but it wasn't like he could run much faster than he already was.
The following stomp sounded entirely too close for comfort.
'How do I get that thing off my back,' he thought frantically, following Haga's ghostly clone. He needed to find a way to do something. There had to be one. 'Send it away, stop it, stall it, something, come on, think!' he urged himself, growling as he kicked the ugliest human-like apparition he'd ever seen, about as tall as a child, with a deformed head and a tongue as long as an arm.
There was a split second pause then, as he saw the apparition be sent back by his attack.
'That's it,' he thought, grinning in a way that held no amusement or happiness or… Anything remotely positive. He was already fucking mad. What was the difference if he went a little extra crazy, right? 'Fuck it.'
So, when he heard another stomp right behind him, Shigeo let his spirit boots disappear and let him drop closer to the floor with his legs. Ignoring the nearby apparitions, he turned to face the Faceless Hulk once more. It had its arm pulled back already for a punch and Shigeo prepared himself, bringing his arms up and his spirit gauntlets manifested to protect him.
Gritting his teeth, he ignored the sting on his shoulder, probably caused by some apparition biting on it.
The Hulk's fist flew towards him and he caught it in his gauntlets… after jumping.
In the span of a second, Shigeo felt a whole lot of things. He saw the hall turn into a blur. He felt the apparition on his shoulder cling to him, hurting even more. His body hit different things as it flew backwards, his legs most of all. He wondered if those were just random items or if he'd been sent straight into several apparitions. Ultimately, his flight was interrupted by his back smacking against something and knocking the air out of his lungs.
'Come on, come on,' he urged himself, rushing to a standing position even as he wheezed trying to get some oxygen in his body. His sight blurred and darkened, narrowing as his brain struggled to keep up due to the lack of oxygen. Idly, he noticed that he'd hit a wall instead of an apparition.
His almost useless eyes caught sight of a ghostly figure.
'Follow it,' he told his body and it responded, if sluggishly. He heard the Hulk approaching once again, but it sounded distant. Everything sounded distant. His spirit rushed through his body, forming his boots once more as he started moving after his new friend's clone. Clones, considering none of them stayed around for long before being replaced by some other one.
He saw several of them, attack ones instead of marker ones, but few of them actually did anything other than awkwardly smacking an apparition. They distracted and hindered though, so Shigeo thought that was good enough. They were a bit all over the place, he noticed, and it didn't take him long to figure out that Hajime was kind of just… guessing. He wasn't there to see what was going on.
Finally able to take deeper breaths, Shigeo felt his brain kick into gear. There was a chance, minimal as it seemed. Maybe he could do something to help though, other than rely on his partner. How could he do that though? Just shouting was unlikely to do anything. The ceiling/floor was in the way, muffling their voices and ruining any chance of accurate placement…
But maybe…
'Sure, why not?' Shigeo thought to himself. It was one of those days, it seemed. A day for him to just roll with the punches. He'd had plenty of days like that. The world loved to throw days like that at him. 'Bring it,' he decided, grinning widely.
Some unholy combination between a starfish and a spider as big as a dog and an eye in the center of it the size of a fist got a faceful of Shigeo's spirit boot while he used it as a platform to jump. Once in the air, he switched one of his boots for a gauntlet once more. He'd never done that much switching, but the desperation was a hell of a motivator, he supposed.
"Here!" he shouted, so loudly that his throat hurt, while punching the ceiling over him with his armor before letting it dissipate and turning it back into a boot. With any luck, Hajime would have heard and been able to locate him. If not… Well, he'd wasted a second or two, but who was counting?
The Hulk roared behind him, making his eye twitch.
Shigeo really hoped that move had worked, because he didn't think he could try again and not need to take desperate measures to put some distance with the giant again. Furthermore, he rather doubted his "trick" from before would work again… or work as well. It had been absolutely crazy to try that once, doing it again was just asking to have a limb broken, or worse.
So, as soon as he fell back to the ground, he continued his mad dash. His boots met floor and occasionally apparition shells or flesh to push himself forward as fast as possible. One time, he even managed to use one of Haga's wispy creations as a stepping stone – he really hoped that didn't hit his partner too hard, but it had been his best option at the time – to get ahead a little while the Hulk continued trying to make way through the horde of creatures.
Not that the swarm stopped the apparition much, but any second was something that he was grateful for. He needed every moment, every opportunity, and every bit of space he could get. His spirit had never run out before, but Shigeo was starting to doubt how long he could keep going. He had never, after all, dealt with such a situation before, not even close.
So, his mad dash continued as he ignored cuts, bites, and stabs as best he could when it was inevitable. It wasn't like he could fight back much, other than a kick here or there. He was too busy putting a foot in front of the other, keeping his spirit armor up and finding the path in the middle of the chaos.
Making it through while staying safe was just not possible.
'Come on,' he thought to himself, ducking under a flying apparition that looked like a swordfish with wings and what the fu- 'Not important,' he told himself, shaking off those useless thoughts. He needed to focus forward, focus on the path and Haga's ghostly figures that showed him the way. Shigeo needed to keep his head in the game, no matter how dire things looked or how weird the apparitions looked, or how much pain he was in… he needed to keep going, or all would be over.
And he refused to die there, just when his life was looking like it'd get better.
No, fuck that.
Fuck the apparitions.
Fuck Kyoto.
Fuck whatever had caused all that mess.
Shigeo was going to live.
As that resolution solidified in him, Shigeo stomped on an apparition that he didn't even bother taking a good look at, squishing it against the floor as one would a particularly disgusting bug. With that step, he pushed himself forward before kicking another apparition to the side against the wall. He pushed a bird with a rat's head out of the way with his hand, barely managing that. Apparitions weren't weak, after all, and he wasn't that strong without his armor to rely on.
A swipe from some four-legged, clawed apparition made him stumble and hit the wall to his side as he tried to regain his footing. Off to the side, he saw one of Haga's spirit constructs swipe at the air but stopping a few other creatures. However, there was something much more pressing at the moment, and that was the Faceless one that was on Shigeo's heels already.
Desperate not to have to go through the same thing again, he moved to kick an apparition in the way of the much more threatening creature and then did so again. The first one got stomped into the ground like it was made of paper, but the second one did buy him a second, which was enough for him to start rushing once more.
'Come on,' he repeated in his head, urging himself to go faster despite his legs protesting against the strain. He could feel the desperation and the fear gripping his heart so hard that his chest hurt, or maybe that was just his lungs demanding more oxygen and failing to get it. All of that only solidified Shigeo's resolution though, because above all else, he wanted to survive and he would survive.
He hadn't even gotten started with the life he wished for himself.
"Come on," he growled through his teeth, running on top of several apparitions to get through. The cacophony of apparition sounds blended together, even the Faceless one getting lost in the crowd as Shigeo focused on his goal and his goal alone. There was only the path forward and Haga's clones, nothing else matters. The injuries were irrelevant. The exhaustion was irrelevant. The apparitions were irrelevant.
The Hulk was irrelevant.
"Come on," he urged himself, dashing forward as best he could. He felt the air wash over him as he continued running, trying to go faster than he already was, although he was unsure of how successful he might have been on that endeavor.
It felt like he was blurring forward and yet was making no progress at all. The end of the corridor looked so close and yet so far. He could see it, the room they'd climbed before. It was right there, and yet it didn't seem to be getting any closer. Every step seemed to take forever, every movement he was forced to take seemed to slow him down an eternity, every stomp from the Faceless one seemed like it'd get him caught, every apparition getting in his way seemed like it'd stop him.
It was right there though!
He could make it. Shigeo knew he could. It was that close and he'd gotten that far. He had to make it. He hadn't done all that, endured all that, only to fail at the last stretch. He hadn't and he wouldn't. No way.
He refused.
"Come on, come on, come on."
[}-o-{]
[Hajime Haga]
'Come on, come on, come on.'
Hajime ran as fast as his legs could carry him. Previous exhaustion seemed to evaporate into what he could only assume was adrenaline. One of his hands dragged Aimi behind him. In any other situation, he would feel bad about the manhandling, but he had more important things in his mind.
'Think!'
That was all he could do. His focus was solely on past memories. Of every action, and monster they had encountered on the floor below.
–A humanoid monster tried to dash at him. Hajime jumped out of the way and ended its life with a downward slash. The hit ended perpendicular to the floor, five meters away from the corner we had just taken. The action took a second, more than enough for Kubo to kill a similar creature against the wall.–
'Kubo's speed should let him cross through it in 3, 2,1, now!'
Hajime felt his clone form on the floor below, 5 meters from the corner in a downward swing. The familiar muted sensation of tough flesh torn apart by his knife spread to his arm accompanied by a muffled screech from the floor below. Hopefully, not Kubo. It didn't sound like him, so he guessed he was in the clear.
–He eyed a hallway from the corner. Reptile-like monsters munched on a poor family while fighting each other for a torn leg. He crouched along with Kubo making sure to maintain a careful pace so they wouldn't be noticed, before turning left.–
His focus was on every position and every turn. Both past and present. He timed the clone turning so Kubo could spot it as soon as he took the previous intersection. A single mistake could lead to Kubo's death. He couldn't fail his promise.
'Remember the speed of the flying monsters and the land ones we have seen so far. Think of previous actions in that corridor that match their positions. Need to take out as many as possible to clean the way for the next turn,' Hajime thought to himself as he continued his dash. Aimi was right behind him, only able to keep up because he held her arm.
He struggled to synchronize both past and present in a way that he hadn't before.
Remembering during mid-combat to use his ability to his full potential was already hard. That was child's play compared to trying the same thing by defending someone he couldn't even see.
It was only the fact that he was trying to follow the same route and Shigeo's warning hit against the floor that allowed Hajime to at least fine-tune his ability just a little bit.
–He rolled backward. The claw of the reptilian creature missed him by a hair, which left its side exposed. An opportunity he took to plunge forward with his knife.–
Hajime felt his clones manifest, the feeling of them striking against something told him that he had partially succeeded. Given that the numb sensation spread through his shoulder and stomach rather than his knife hand, he assumed that it hadn't been a clean hit. But as long as they were stopped for a moment, that meant that Kubo had gained yet another step to reach them.
A map of the floor below and his actions edged firmly in his mind with a level of clarity he had never experienced before. He didn't quite understand what was happening or how his energy was replenished, but he wasn't complaining. It helped him save Kubo, and it would help him take him and Aimi out of there, so that was all he needed to know.
Step by step he followed his mental map, both present and past matched and mixed to reach his desired outcome.
–His knife impaled the offending tongue against the wall. Now trapped, he prepared to–
"Urgh!" Hajime stumbled for a second as he felt the ghost sensation of every single bone in his body breaking apart as he was turned into a pulp by what felt like a truck. Even so, he didn't fall and, in a single shaky breath, he recovered his pace, already adding the lost second into his calculation for future clones.
"I'm alright. Sorry for that, we are almost there," the monster hunter tried to calm down Aimi who let out a startled shout as he almost brought her down with his sudden stumble.
'That was the giant for sure,' he grimaced. If the simple ghost sensations feedback he usually got from his clones felt that way, he shivered to think what being run down by that thing with his real body would be like.
The grim thought made him hurry his steps. Kubo was down there with that, and a whole horde of monsters on top. The room was right there too and they were getting closer and closer. Hajime had to be at the top of his game there, because if he didn't time it right, then Kubo was screwed and he'd fail.
That was not an option.
So, reaching the edge of the hole, Hajime's mind worked overtime to try and guess the best timing.
"Haga!" he heard Shigeo call as he approached. "Push me back!"
Hajime's mind screeched to a halt. 'How? I don't have a clone for that down there,' he thought, blinking repeatedly as he tried to make sense of that. Hell, why would Shigeo want to be pushed back towards the giant? And how did he expect him to do that? He'd need to…
Set new clones…
Hajime's eyes widened before narrowing.
Well, it seemed like he had to work on more than he'd first thought.
– He crouched, his hands together and then he pushed up.–
And he felt the pressure on his hands before he saw Kubo jump up and appear in front of him. He was a mess, with cuts and bruises and blood all over him but undeniably alive.
Hajime didn't stop there though. No, he proceeded to move as quickly as possible and then, pushed his arms out while Shigeo maneuvered himself.
– and then, pushed his arms out –
– and then, pushed his arms out –
– and then, pushed his arms out –
And Kubo landed with his spectral boots against Hajime – against all five of him – and while he pushed – all five of him pushed – sending him right back at the giant. In a blink, Kubo's boots disappeared, replaced by the more familiar gauntlets.
And he punched the giant right into the wall.
[}-o-{]
[Momo Nishimiya]
Momo twisted in the air, channeling her cursed energy to the tip of her broom. The cursed tool compressed and molded the energy, transforming it into wind. With a swift exhale she swung, releasing the power with the force of a speeding truck.
The bee-like curses who were either too stubborn or too stupid to learn from their dead fellows were caught in the vortex of unseen force. Their bodies hurled towards the ground, crashing into the pavement below with a wet smack.
Before gravity could take her, Momo maneuvered the broom beneath her feet, letting her power take control of the cursed tool. She took a moment to admire her handiwork with a satisfied smirk before returning to her task. With a quick command, the broom sped between and above the buildings, giving her a clear view of the chaotic world below.
Kyoto's night was painted in hues of orange as the fires continued to rage unimpeded. Large columns of thick black smoke rose into the sky, forcing her to move even higher. All the while, the harsh winds barely managed to muffle the sounds of battle below.
Momo continued her search for new targets, her broom carrying her across the battle mostly unimpeded save for the occasional flying curse. A mix of fear and anger settled like a rock in her stomach as she looked at the destruction from above.
Nanami's group continued their path to cover the north side of the city, their advance momentarily halted as they faced off the lower-graded curses that spilled from the nearby alleys.
To the West, the headmaster played his guitar. The amplified notes reached even her ears as he boosted his portion of the sorcerers below and destroyed large swaths of curses with soundwaves alone. Momo knew their teacher, Utahime, continued her fight in that area.
Her eyes scanned the different battlefields, those two groups were the least likely to need help, after all. However, not all battles were going as smoothly. She noted that the Northeast group was slowly pushed back as a pair of twin Semi-Grade 1 curses made itself known. Both creatures made their way from within the rubble of the fallen building where the remains of a large yellow dinosaur-like Grade 1 curse Nanami had slain continued to dissolve.
"Why do men have to be so reckless?" she muttered, her hand moving towards the small communicator in her ears. "Oi, we are moving to sector B6. Two Semi-Grade 1," the second year reported and waited for the upcoming affirmatives from their team.
While she and the rest of the students from the Kyoto branch were strong enough to handle any frontlines, the headmaster saw fit to charge them with acting as a support and strike team both. Momo understood the reasoning behind it, of course. They had useful abilities to stay highly mobile at all times and provide help wherever needed, be it by assisting or getting rid of troublesome targets.
"I understand," came the slightly distorted voice of Miwa through the radio. The rest also gave their respective affirmative responses to her calling soon after.
Well, all except one.
"TAKADA-CHAN! I AM SORRY!" wailed the admittedly most annoying of the lot.
Momo removed her earpiece for a moment and rubbed the ringing away before she put back one with a frown on her face. A booming explosion followed by the dying groans of a high-grade curse reached her from where she knew Todo was located. At least he had stopped being catatonic and was actually helping them get the job done.
However, his tantrum was causing just as much damage to the infrastructure as to the curses.
It was all for that stupid bimbo idol show of his. He could always just watch the recordings later, so she didn't understand the problem. The woman wasn't even that good as a singer, though Momo would never utter those words out loud when her madman of a classmate was in the vicinity.
"Todo, calm down-," Mechamaru said, attempting to reason with the wailing man.
"-TAKADA-CHAN!" the strongest of them cried inconsolably.
"... Can someone explain to me what's happening?" asked the timid voice of their new classmate, Arata Nitta. The poor guy had only joined for a week and he was already involved in one of the worst disasters modern sorcerer society had seen.
"Todo's idol girl was supposed to be on some show today," came the soothing voice of Mai, between huffs of exertion. Momo, for her part, hovered over her location in case assistance was needed. "He thought we could finish this in time."
"And we could have!" Todo screamed between sobs, thankfully not as loud as before. "We should've already been done with this by now!"
"For once, I agree with him," Notori admitted, sounding like the mere notion pained him. "I'm sure we should have already killed more than five hundred."
"Because there's not only five hundred," she reported with a frown as she looked toward the edges of the large veil that covered the central part of Kyoto. Her trained eyes caught sight of a crow-like curse that entered through it, making small ripples as if passing through water. Behind it, others followed, be it by air or land. Curses from all over Kyoto congregated inside the veil, attracted by the massive concentration of negativity.
Momo's temper rose as she saw some curses, these just barely reaching Grade 4, rip apart an unlucky civilian. Someone who had been left behind when the attack began, she guessed. It was a gruesome sight, but she had grown used to them during her long two years as a sorcerer.
However, she had never seen death in such numbers.
Even with the help of the government and twenty-four hours' notice that had been oh so gracefully given by Geto, the perpetrator of all this, it was still simply impossible to relocate everyone. That section of Kyoto alone had hundreds of thousands of people without counting the tourists attracted by the Christmas festivities. For every hundred they had managed to get out in time, at least one was left behind, which meant that there were still thousands of unprotected civilians.
'Curse Geto and his Parade,' she thought even as she flew to the edge of the barrier and killed as many of the weak monsters as possible before having to return to her post, her group already moving toward B6.
Momo spared another look behind her and clicked her tongue as she saw even more curses pour from the other side of the veil attracted to the building negativity of the area like sharks to blood. Schools, prisons and hospitals tended to have curses around more often than not. Some of them were born from the negativity at those places, but many others were drawn by the energy, exacerbating the problem when their own negativity was added to the problem. Old cursed items tended to attract curses to them once their seals weakened. The creatures converged into a single place by instinct alone.
Which was similar to what was happening.
The death of thousands of civilians, the appearance of hundreds of curses and the curse energy thrown around by sorcerers attracted more of the creature like a brightly shining beacon. Five hundred curses soon became a thousand, which soon reached two thousand, and now she was sure it was close to four. They poured in without stopping from all of Kyoto, attracted to the negativity that continued to spike bigger and bigger like a large pyre. The senses of the damned monsters were overwhelmed by the building energy, so thick that she could almost feel it crunch between her teeth.
Momo cursed Geto once again. The mastermind of this whole nightmare probably expected this. He hoped Gojo would make his death a painful one if the man didn't go back on his word and actually showed up in Shinjuku.
"No use crying about the numbers," she said to herself and her classmates. "We will continue until there is not a single curse left. Let's move." she declared before shooting towards the location at high speed.
[} Chapter End {]
Adrian: ... Someone please kill me…
Arc: If someone is wondering why he is complaining, it is because it is 2 am and he has basically been writing all day so he is kind of out of it… but on more cheerful news, here is the 4th chapter of this story! Things keep escalating constantly and death is just around the corner at all times for our characters. Very Jujutsu Kaisen style, if I say so myself.
Adrian: … Editing sucks… Anyway, what? Oh, right, the notes. Yeah, our guys aren't having a fun time, nor an easy one. I kind of like that about this story. No stomps here for the foreseeable future… I think, at least. Shigeo ran out of options like a chapter ago and he's still going somehow, surprisingly. Then there's Hajime, who probably used brainpower borrowed from the future or some shit, because damn, that's some marco polo skill.
Arc: Finally, we got a bit of Momo explaining the overall situation from the sorcerer's society standpoint. I admittedly used quite a bit of headcanon here, but the idea of this disaster snowballing just made too much sense to me. The idea that cursed items and negativity attract more curses was something that was explained in canon since episode 1. So I felt like such an incident would be a bigger version of it.
Adrian: And I trust his knowledge, considering I didn't get past chapter 10 or so. Either way, we hope you enjoyed the chapter.
Random Arc Question: Which of the Natural Disaster curses is your favorite and why is it Jogo? No other answers are allowed.
Discord Link: discord .gg/UTDransjJZ