Hi, I'm currently not at home, so I can't run my usual autocorrect program. So don't mind if this chapter has more misspellings than usual...

The abandoned church's garden must have been pretty once. It was isolated by railing with an elaborated pattern and bushes. The many flowerbeds had roses in different colors. In the center of the open grass field was a round well.

Now it was abandoned. The grass was overtaken by weeds, the bushes surpassed the railings height, blocking the view of the outside world completely. The roses grew out of the flowerbeds with stalks filled with big thorns, hidden by the colorful petals. The many roses filled the air with a pleasant sweet scent.

(Y/N) knew this place. It was popular with the teens at night to hang out, while during the day it was mostly abandoned. That's why she had suggested it to Gojo to bring the curse there. She never thought she would go against it though.

Her legs were shaking as she watched the curse that reminded her of a werewolf. The young man that looked to her more like an overgrown kid because of his behavior, just stood there with his eyes hidden behind sunglasses, a grin on his face and hands in his pocket. (Y/N) still wasn't sure if he really wanted her to confront a first grade curse when she herself was only a third grade sorceress, but she wouldn't chicken out.

With slow movements, she reached behind her back to take out her pair of sai that were hidden under her jacket. As she began to assume a fighting stance, she prepared her mind for the fight too.

'Come on (Y/N), you can do this. Gojo has already weakened the curse, so you should be able to at least get some punches.'

The curse made its move then, launching itself forward at the sorceress.

Claws clashed with metal in a fight of strength.

(Y/N)'s arms began to shake as she desperately tried to hold back the big werewolf.

Soon she knew there was no chance for her to push it back, so she stopped blocking. Allowing the curse to go forward, she sidestepped it.

First attack was avoided, but she didn't expect for the beast to turn around that fast. The curse crushed with its head against her, sending her flying against the well.

The air in her lungs was pushed out with the crash. As she desperately tried to fill them again with new oxygen she missed the curse starting a new attack. Gojo prepared himself to protect the girl, but stopped when he saw what happened next.

(Y/N) raised her weapons with shaken hands. She knew she wouldn't have the necessary strength to make the curse stop. Desperately she held her weapons stronger while guiding all her cursed energy into her arms and sai.

She closed her eyes in fear as she felt a rush of energy leave her body. The beast let out a pained roar.

(Y/N) opened her eyes to see what had happened. The middle prong of her weapons had grown and were piercing the curse. She didn't understand what had happened until she felt blood dripping from her nose and a dizziness that only could mean she had overused her cursed energy.

'Did I finally manage to use my innate curse technique?'

After that thought, the girl passed out for a few seconds. When she gained consciousness again, she was laying on the ground and saw how Gojo exorcised the curse. Something fell off from the disappearing curse's body.

'Is this one of those Russian dolls, a matrioska?'

Gojo picked the fallen doll before making his way to the girl that was still laying on the ground.

"Are you okay? Can you walk?"

His eyes peeked over the sunglasses worriedly, stunning the girl a bit more as she looked into them for the first time.

"I... I think I can."

"Good, we need to hurry before your classmate gets in danger."

Gojo was helping her up. He saw her scared and bloody face.

"Peter? Why, what's happening?"

Through gritted teeth he spoke.

"That's what I would like to know too."

They ran through the city and soon enough found a barrier. As they stepped inside, the day turned into night and they saw Peter and the assistant fighting with a curse.

Considering that Peter was a semi grade sorcerer and the assistant a second one, they were holding good against the curse. But then again, this one seemed to be weaker than the other.

Gojo wasted no time and exorcised the curse in an instant. Another doll fell from the curse and (Y/N) wondered how many more were out there.

The girl went to her classmate worried about his well being, wile Gojo discussed something with the assistant.

"Peter, are you okay?"

The boy looked at her, worries showing on his face too.

"You ask if I'm okay when you are the one with blood on your face? I'm fine, what happened to you?"

She told him what had happened before they were interrupted by the assistant.

"You two should get back to school to check if you're okay, then you are dismissed."

So they did. The nurse checked them out but they were okay, only needed to rest for a while.

The teens were walking home together, but Peter felt too excited to go home.

"Do you want to grab lunch?"

"Yeah, why not. Only my father should be at home and I really don't want to hang out with him right now. He will only ask how the mission went and I don't want to be lectured by him how I overdid it."

"But you finally were able to use your innate technique. Is it as principal Anthony said? Can you really create objects with your cursed energy?"

"I only managed to extend my sai's prong. I don't know if I will ever be able to create an object out of nothing. Only with that, I was knocked out and left without cursed energy."

Peter shook his head. (Y/N) was so amazing, always pushing herself to do better. She maybe had only a little amount of cursed energy, but she tried hard to do the best with what she had. There was no wonder he had fallen for her a long time ago, but he had no courage to confess to her...

(Y/N) knew nothing of her classmate's feelings. She only saw him as a friend. Focused on improving herself she had no time to think about boys anyway.

They spent the afternoon together before they parted, each one going to their homes.

(Y/N) entered her parents' apartment. She hoped her mom would be already back from her mission, not wanting to deal with her dad's lecture.

"Hi, I'm home."

As she removed her shoes, she was only met with silence. Not giving it any thought, she made her way to her room with her phone in hand. Only when her socks began to be soaked by something did she look to the ground.

A pool of blood was on the ground, it's origin were two bodies that lied on the living room's ground.

The girl fell with her knees on the floor as she recognized her parents. She didn't even feel the presence of the cursed spirit that was roaming through the house.

"Mom, dad?"

She whispered not wanting to believe what her heart already knew. Tears were already falling from her eyes, losing themselves in the blood as they fell to the ground.

With shaken hands she reached for her parents. First shaking her father softly, then her mother.

That's when she felt a presence coming closer behind her, but her brain couldn't process the danger she was in right now.

As the curse was about to make her third victim, it's head was ripped out. Gojo stood behind it, infusing his cursed energy into it to exorcise it.

He had spent the entire afternoon following traces of cursed energy from the Matrioskas. He was suspicious of why such strong cursed artefact was spread through the city.

All pieces were found, only the biggest doll was missing. He had followed it's residual cursed energy to this apartment, being surprised when he saw (Y/N) there. The two bodies must be her parents. He recognized that the woman had similar features as the girl. No surprise she was broken with their deaths.

Gojo pulled her back, turning her face away from the scene. She clenched at his uniform burying her face in his chest as she sobbed. Satoru hushed her while giving her back soft pats.

"Shh. It's okay. You're safe."

He knew his words were hollow, but he didn't know what else to do.

Sobbing, (Y/N) managed to ask:

"Was another Matrioska in that curse?"

"Yes. It was the biggest one."

"Why was it here? There would be no way my parents would bring such a dangerous object back home. Someone must have put it here to harm them."

Satoru remained silent. He had come to that conclusion too. Someone must have distributed the dolls around town with some intent.

'Was it to kill (Y/N)'s family while hiding it's intent with the other dolls spread around town?'

"I will kill him."

Surprised Gojo looked down at the girl that was still in his arms. She had stopped crying, her face now ferocious and decided.

"I will find whoever left this cursed object here and kill him."

The first time Satoru saw (Y/N), he thought she was cute. He wanted to know what she had in her when he let her go against the curse. She was fearless but sadly, her cursed energy was very low. If she would try to find the person responsible for this, there was a high chance she would be faced with someone stronger than her. He didn't want for her to have the same fate as her parents. That's why he wanted for her to drop her vengeance.

"You're too weak, you will only get yourself killed."

(Y/N) looked shocked at the foreign sorcerer. His condescending tone hurt her. She knew she was weak, but she couldn't just go one with her life as if nothing happened.

"I will find a way to get stronger then."

The resolve in her eyes made Gojo believe in her words, but he didn't think that would be possible.

*** Back to the present ***

Knowing Yuna's true name and from where she was from made him remember her. He mentally scolded himself for not recognizing her before.

"So you did it. You really got stronger."