Fast the young man sped amidst the wooden labyrinth, haste made him brush his shoulders multiple times against the rough barks of the trees as he kept his eyes on the tiny light guiding him through the forest like the yarn for the Greek hero Theseus. Gabriele opted to approach the new threat by foot, not wanting to waste any more precious essence maintaining the wings up, his breaths were laborious, and his overall tiredness and his sore muscles demanded a rest of sorts. He soon laid his back against the hardwood, sliding down to the ground as he let all the fatigue take over his entire body.

A quick check of his body unveiled the poor state his frame was in, to not talk about the conditions of the now tattered uniform, from the left sleeve reduced to shreds to the dry stains of dirt and blood which tinted the cloth. His gaze, though, was fixed on the dome of black mist standing above the horizon. Despite putting plenty of distance from the horrors occurring within it, Gabriele couldn't really take it off his worries regarding those he left there, lingering on the back of his mind in an odd sense of guilt.

You're hurt

The voice of the entity filled in the quietude of the moment, he chuckled a bit in his own way for how obvious that statement was, after everything that happened just this day.

You don't have to go, they'll understand

'Full commitment...' he replied, 'that's what he implied essentially, remember? We're not ought to give up just yet.' Slowly he tried to push himself onto his feet, his knees would buckle a bit as he got up but still he managed to stand, although leaning heavily on the tree. The exorcist proceeded to walk a few steps on the uneven ground till his foot hit a rock, and there his face met the dirt again.

He also explicitly said it's not worth it

The entity pleaded with the young man to reconsider, but he was determined to move forward, first by crawling, then by foot once he had the force to get up again. His eyes again fell upon the ignited finger pointing eastward, taking a hard right according to the little light. He ventured deep into the woodlands until he appeared back on the main path to the school, the small flame pointed right at the facility. The man watched the largeness of the plex, even though with his permanence he had a good mental map of the majority of the place, it was still way too big. And to make matters worse, the little light eventually died out, lacking the fuel to keep it alive.

Gabriele lifted his gaze to the sky and sighed the frustration out of his lungs, couldn't have better timing, for real.

Swiftly he went inside, bashing door after door despite knowing what was expected behind was yet another empty classroom. Anger and panic soon came by after the umpteenth clear room, one of the only three decks inside was the unfortunate victim of the lash-out. 'Fuck, fuck, fuck!' He knocked the furniture way back against the wall opposite the blackboard with a push of his leg, the impact with the concrete made some papers fly to the floor. He felt lost as if a blindfold was placed upon his eyes and forced to wander inside a dark maze, in other words, he lost sight of the objective. Hands on his hair as he exhaled his anger out through his nostrils, Gabriele was out of energy and patience, all his tiredness coming back to haunt his muscle once more.

brother...

His eyes suddenly lit up the moment the voice called for him, turquoise irides crossing with one of his own like in a mirror. The entity materialized before him, careless of the possibility of getting caught by one of the sorcerers that inhabited the school building. Gabriele, shocked by the sight, jolted forward and grabbed both wrists of the boney spirit.

'What are you doing?!' he would have screamed at them, desperation molded his expression into one of terror. 'If they find out about you, you're going to get exorcized.' he pleaded the entity to hide back to safety, far from the sorcerers' perception.

You can't go further than this

They gently held him close, their skeletal limbs belting the boy's body as they essentially climbed onto his back, much for the other confusion. After the initial wave of doubt, Gabriele could feel a new lymph running through his system, reinvigorating power now back at his service as flames came to life. Still, his worries weren't quenched, they understood what it was that blocked him. They wrapped their arms tighter around his neck, chin laid on his shoulder blade and silky hair pressing on his cheek. Gabriele turned his forearms around, his gaze switching focus between the fire and the entity on his back, this energy, somehow, felt different. This wasn't theirs...

Downstairs

All the thoughts came to a full stop in a matter of seconds, even the exorcist's face completely changed, retorting into the trained, warrior-like look of who was out for blood. He dashed through the door swiftly like an arrow, the entity's long raven hair flowing in the air as he ran in the school's narrow corridors. Even as the young man's mind was momentarily sedated, the spirit couldn't help but tense their embrace around his body, they were heading towards an unknown danger, which didn't put their own mind at ease. They buried their nose in the crook of his neck, not knowing if it was of more comfort to him who was going down a flight of stairs towards the enemy, or to themselves, who only cared for his safety.

And yet they follow, for they are united as one, and as one they will venture through joy and grief. Together.

Gojou swirled in mid-air, his senses luring him to focus his attention on the school building far away. An unknown force made its presence in the grounds behind him for a few seconds before subsiding till it was gone just as abruptly as it came, vaguely familiar if he must say so himself. Yep, it was the same as last night...

"Took you long enough, pretty boy." He giggled to himself, it was damn time he let go of any mental constriction he had put himself through, now getting a new measurement of what he was capable of. Sure, who would have imagined? An exorcist paired with a cursed spirit, and he thought with Itadori he had seen it all. The Sorcerer swung back into place on top of the black dome, breaking the curtain was now priority number one, he discerned three threats right before the veil descended completely upon his students, one of which was one of the special grades who attacked him and Yuuji that night, at least that was what the exorcist told him as he went on his way. Speaking of Yuuji, he wondered how he was faring down there...

Toudou slapped Itadori across the face in a reprimanding manner, taking the Special grade they were fighting by surprise watching from afar as the two seemingly fought each other.

"Anger is an important trigger for sorcerers." The third-year began, "Sometimes they can be taken down purely because they accidentally angered their foe. But the opposite is also true: sometimes they lose because their own anger disrupts their cursed energy, so they can't exercise their abilities."

Itadori, yet shaken by the sudden serious attitude Toudou was sporting, stood silent to listen to the older and more experienced senior.

"Your friend has been wounded, and worse yet, they've rained down on your honeymoon with me, your best friend, so I can really understand why you'd be boiling with rage, but that's too much for you now." Another slap connected, this time Yuuji's right cheek. If at first, his mind was comparable

to a storm, now it matched the calmness of the open sea.

"Are those stray thoughts gone now?" He then asked.

"Yeah, not a single one left. Thank you so much, best friend." Itadori replied with full confidence as he walked back into the river under both Toudou and Hanami's close scrutiny. The moment he raised his guard, the curse noticed the deep state of concentration the human has put himself in, coming to the point of salivating down on his chin. Alerted by this, Hanami too brought his guard up, feeling the dangerous shift in the atmosphere.

"STOOOOOOP," Panda shouted right in front of the school's infirmary room while still carrying the injured Megumi and Maki on his shoulders, Shoko was already at the door waiting for them. "We reached our destination. On behalf of the Pandash railway company, we advise you to be cautious while stepping off the tra-"

"Ugh, shut up already!" The exhausted girl groaned, hitting the large animal with a light punch on top of his head. Megumi on the other hand was staring at the wall before him, feeling the roots of the sprout wrapping around his interiors paired with the sickness numbing his senses as the world around him began to spin. Shoko carefully helped Maki get down back on her feet, Panda motioned to the young man, asking him if he could walk on his own, but something seemed off about Fushiguro. The spiky-haired teenager was indeed gazing down the corridor, pallid in face as if he just saw a ghost.

"It's something wrong, Fushiguro-kun?"

"Uh? Oh, nothing's wrong, it's just that..." Megumi replied, "Was the school always loaded with cursed energy?" The bizarre question raised a few doubts in Panda's mind as he too was glancing into the bright hallway.

"I don't know. Perhaps by living here we grew so accustomed to it that we don't notice it anymore. Why do you ask?"

Megumi took his time to answer, not sure how to explain himself. He could swear, though, for a brief moment, he had perceived a particular yet strangely familiar spike of cursed energy, the same sensation you'd get while tasting a flavor that re-flourishes a memory so deeply buried in your subconscious that revelation felt like a lightning bolt on a clear blue sky. No matter how hard he tried to recall such power, none came to mind, an image that would always be too blurred to fully comprehend.

"Forget it, it's probably my brain playing tricks on me..." He dismissed the thing altogether, letting the still-present sprout be the center of attention as the two finally went into the doctor's room.

It was dark, the daylight forgotten as they made their way down into the basement of the school. From time to time, the shockwaves of the battle above made the dust rain upon their heads, the humid air instead tormented his sense of smell. His divine flames guided them through the poorly lit backrooms on their search for the special-grade cursed spirit and with every step he took, the more vigorously the flames moved.

'It's near.' He communicated to the spirit on his back as he proceeded, careful in his footing to not stumble on anything hidden behind the pitch-black darkness.

A sudden gasp made him stop in his tracks, his flames extinguished at a moment's notice to lie low from what could be a hostile creature looking for a sneak attack. He sat still for a few seconds, the only sound present in the room was this struggle the unknown creature had, seemingly trying to catch its breath but failing to do so.

Look

Gabriele collected himself, admittedly a bit hesitant but his left arm ignited again at his command, bringing light for them to see. Slowly he scanned the farthest corner of the room, exactly where all the whimpering was coming, his eyes were presented with such a horrifying sight. What was shown before him was a disproportionate humanoid curse, its head and torso way too big for its frail legs to handle, forcing the monster to lay down on its belly. Its face was greatly distorted, its eyes were misaligned and ready to pop out of their sockets, and its large mouth gasped and wheezed as if it got something stuck down its throat.

It quickly shielded its glassy lifeless eyes from the light with its huge arms, looking closer the exorcist noted blood in the fingertips, meaning it probably tried to crawl its way out but couldn't move.

Put it out of its misery

Gabriele obliged, walking to the curse and grabbing its wrist with his left hand. Immediately the creature started screaming in pain, wrestling its arm around to free it from the exorcist's grasp who let go without putting much thought. What's done is done, in a matter of minutes this low-grade will burn into ashes, and nothing of it will be left behind.

Something's wrong

They watched as the curse tossed and turned on the ground with tears streaming down its face, it took them 17 seconds to realize the reality of the situation unfolding before them. Little by little, the flames that enveloped the monster's arm died out, its skin though presented no damage whatsoever, apart from several second-degree burns. Gabriele stood there in total terror of what the implication was, the cursed energy the creature emanated was just at a surface level. "Kill me..." the human felt his heart skip a beat when he heard the anomaly speak amid hiccups, his jaw left loose as it was essentially pleading to be killed.

'What in God's name are you?...' The answer to his question was laying there in the corner of his right eye. A pile of tattered clothes was left on the ground, the exorcist resisted the urge to puke at the sight, the cursed spirit instead attempted to get closer to him, still begging for the sweet release of death by his hands. Cursed spirit... this wasn't a cursed spirit at all.

Suddenly, a loud mechanical noise clanked into the empty silence of the room, a portcullis began to rise and light immediately banished the darkness away. Fearing being caught, Gabriele instinctively stepped out of the light just in time for the gate to fully open with his back against the cold wall, the Entity vanished into thin air. In silence, he gazed at a tall figure passing under the gate with a sack hanging behind their shoulder. They appeared to be human, but their face had stitches all across as if sewn together. Their long grayish-blue hair came down past their neck and hid the color of their eyes with their shadow. They seemed content with themselves, pride for a job well done perhaps judging from the grin on their face.

The creature let out a moribund wheeze, Gabriele's eyes went wide open the moment he felt a tug on his leg, it was still glancing at him while facing away from the stranger, fear was what he could read in its expression. Are they responsible for this?...

The sound caught the attention of the stranger who in a sinister delightfulness started to chuckle.

"That's mission complete." The stranger had a youthful voice, almost childish to an extent. But that's not what the exorcist was focused on, rather the artifact they were toying with in their hand. The amount of cursed energy radiating from that object made his essence act up, then the realization hit him full force like a truck:

"He grows more powerful with each finger he consumes. We plan to feed him all 20 fingers and then eventually execute Itadori..."

So that artifact is one of the cursed fingers Gojou mentioned earlier today, this was the real objective behind the incursion. His hands tightened up into fists as a newly found rage filled his mind with a killer instinct, he couldn't let this cursed user get away with the loot under any circumstances, possibly the entirety of the human race depended on him now.

'Strengthen my resolve, for martyrdom awaits my call.' Gabriele commanded as he summoned all the power he had left in his body. Divine essence warped itself into fiery wings that, with one strong clap, catapulted the exorcist above the cursed user, his feet planted firmly against the wall. Just as the enemy was about to look over their shoulder, he pushed off the wall with his might and directed a kick right at his head, a loud crack as the stranger's neck snapped at the impact of his flying blow. Gabriele landed back with his feet on the floor, sliding a bit due to the momentum of the push. The cursed user simply stood there in the backlight, his head left dandling behind his back as it exhaled his final breaths...

"You know it's rude to break other people's necks without introducing yourself first?" Or so he thought.

He then watched in pure astonishment as the presumed human took their head and put it back together like how you would do with a broken plaything. Their eyes, one gray and one blue, danced around to capture every single detail, from his wings to the flames ever-present on his hands. His bloody turquoise eyes, though, left quite an impression on them, he could tell.

"Not quite the talkative type are you, sorcerer?" the cursed user insisted, "As much as I'd like to chat, my friends are waiting for me outside. So if you excuse me, I-" The exorcist blocked him with a flush of fire as he tried to get past him. The cursed user puffed his cheeks like a child whose whim had been denied, "Hey! If you want to talk, just say so!" he said.

Then something clicked, and a creepy grin grew on their face.

"It is you, indeed." They covered their smirk behind a hand, "You know, it is thanks to you if now I can get away basically unscathed. You played your part exceptionally."

"And why do you think I'd let you leave this place alive, monster?" asked.

"Cuz I'm in a hurry and you, my friend, ran out of time." Just as they finished their sentence, the exorcist felt his power depleting very quickly, the essence no longer present to fuel his fire caused it to puff out together with his wings, his eyes too came back to normal. He looked at his hands trembling in fear, not noticing the stranger had approached him on the sly, putting their hand on his shoulder, mouth so close to his ear Gabriele could feel their breath. A sense of doom washed over him, at this very moment he was staring at Death's door.

"Please call me Mahito." they then let go of him.

The cursed spirit waved the exorcist goodbye as they walked off into the darkness with their loot, basically unscathed, just as they said. "Send my regards to our mutual friend, Exorcist. Sure you met in a sense, even though he hardly leaves his room." and with that Mahito the basement got out of the room, leaving an utterly defeated Gabriele alone with his thoughts, his dangerous thoughts.

He couldn't let them escape. He couldn't let them escape. HE COULDN'T LET THEM ESCAPE.

He instantly turned on his heels, he was still in time to fix everything, they couldn't have gone that far, full commitment like Gojou said, he will chase them down, he will catch up and he will kill them, with his bare hands. KILL. KILL. KILL.

Tug...

Memories became blank from the blind rage

Only sound remained

Stomp

Stomp

Stomp

Stomp

Stomp

Stomp

Stomp

Stomp

Stomp