Title: zenith of stars
Rating: T
Summary: "It's not the Six Eyes," they said. So then, the question is –what is it? [OC, Mystic Eyes of Death Perception!OC, AU]
Warnings: Depiction of violence.
AN at bottom.
.
zenith of stars
"46: emergence"
.
There's a Curtain, here.
… One that has been repurposed from the standard template for means other than discretion, going by what she's currently seeing. The black dome in front of them obscures everything hidden behind its veil, and when Shiki presses her bare hand against it, the surface feels completely solid beneath her palm. That's not what Curtains are usually like. Then again, typically the Curtains that Shiki sees are primarily drawn for the purpose of preventing non-sorcerers from witnessing any ongoing exorcisms.
This one, however. From the looks of the barrier, its main purpose is preventing entry. Outsiders who have not received permission may not cross the threshold.
"Huh? What the heck?" Hakari-san slams a fist against the wall of darkness beside her. "Shit. I swear their hideout is supposed to be right here, this doesn't make any sense. I don't know why everything is suddenly blocked off with this… what is this thing, even?"
"It's a Curtain," Shiki informs him, and curls her hand, digging her fingertips into the ink-black surface of the barrier despite the resistance beneath her palm.
"Okay, sure. And what's a –woah!"
In an instant, the Curtain shatters. Uneven flecks of dark fragments break off and dissipate swiftly into nothingness, as long cracks spiderweb across the entire dome.
… Belatedly, Shiki realizes that she probably should've warned Hakari-san. The young man had been pressing his weight against the Curtain as he pounded away at the barrier with a heavy fist just now… only to fall over headfirst when she'd summarily destroyed it.
"Warn a guy when you're about to do something like that, geez," Hakari-san complains, although he doesn't seem particularly upset. He easily picks himself up from the ground, dusting off his hands as he does so.
Shiki inclines her head in acknowledgment of the reprimand, "I'll keep that in mind."
With the barrier gone now, what had previously been hidden becomes clear to see: A narrow alleyway, boxed in by a small cluster of run-down, abandoned buildings. One of the doors slam open –probably in direct response to the Curtain having just been broken. The scarred man who bursts outside is flanked by a cursed corpse doll at his feet, wearing an expression of visible agitation. His head snaps in their direction, and he–
–blanches.
"Fuck, I didn't sign up for this!" Eyes blown wide with sudden, newfound alarm, the man stumbles an instinctive step backwards into the room that he'd just torn out of. "W-why the hell is someone like you here?!"
Was that an actual question?
… Not that it matters. Shiki doesn't bother answering him, instead deciding to directly cut to the chase. "My classmate and teacher, curse user. Where are they?"
"What? What do you mean, your–?" Understanding dawns in the man's eyes, accompanied by a not-insignificant amount of horror. He swallows roughly, shifting uneasily. "… Jujutsu High. But no, that's… that doesn't make any sense! How are you even here so quickly? Negi-san has been watching Takagi all this time, there shouldn't have been any opportunity for Takagi to send for reinforcements–!"
Shiki's arrival isn't on behalf of the jujutsu school as reinforcement for Hoshi-san and Takagi-sensei, but there's no point in correcting the curse user's misconception. She doesn't think that she has anything to say to someone who decided that it would be a good idea to capture a student and teacher of Tokyo Jujutsu High.
Really, what did they even hope to achieve in the first place? There was absolutely no way that they would've gotten off lightly for something like this. The jujutsu school would not have allowed such a slight to besmirch their reputation. If it became known that curse users could attack sorcerers from the school with no retaliation, then it would be a severe blow to their authority.
Choki should've already updated the school on the current situation by now… Shiki doesn't know if they would send further reinforcements, though, given her own presence here. In most cases, a Grade One sorcerer was already all the reinforcement that one could ask for. Choki hadn't been very happy when Shiki told him that she planned to head in on her own earlier, and had even quietly protested against it.
If Geto Suguru is really involved in this, then it's dangerous to run headlong into an unknown situation like this, my lady.
… He wasn't wrong. And, it wasn't as if the thought hadn't occurred to Shiki herself, either. But Hoshi-san is her classmate, and it would be very depressing if he was killed by curse users on his first mission as a sorcerer. On a smaller, secondary note… there are only so many students in the Tokyo school. Aikawa-senpai doesn't like her very much. Shiki still has yet to see any of the third and fourth years around. This leaves only Hoshi-san as the only prospective new friend that Shiki has…
And he's friendly enough, she supposes. Even though sometimes Hoshi-san's reactions and mannerisms are quite puzzling to make sense of. Probably due to his non-sorcerer background. But there have also been moments when Hoshi-san would haltingly explain Aikawa-senpai's perplexing behavior, which Shiki can appreciate, if not quite fully understand. So… it's only reasonable for her to look out for her classmate, right?
Whether or not Geto-san was really involved in this debacle, Shiki still needed to ascertain Hoshi-san and Takagi-sensei's states. She'll leave it to Choki to apprise Satoru-niichan of the situation and take care of Higa-san, while she goes ahead with Hakari-san.
But what if this is all just a trap, ojou-sama? This boy, Hakari… what if he's also in on this? You must admit, the timing of his appearance is… suspicious.
If Hakari-san proved himself to be part of another convoluted plot against Shiki, then it just meant that he was another enemy who she potentially needed to kill. Nothing more, nothing less. And it was probably for the best in that case that Shiki keeps an eye on him, anyways.
Still, from their interactions so far, Hakari-san doesn't strike her as the duplicitous type. And he has led her to a hideout of curse users, as promised –although whether or not Hoshi-san and Takagi-sensei were here would be something that Shiki needed to search and see for herself.
Right now, however, the curse user blocking the doorway before them with his cursed corpse doll was in the way.
"I-I won't let you pass. You might be the blessed one, but even you can't–!"
The man coughs, words choked into silence in his throat, as Shiki unfurls her ironclad grip on her cursed energy and loosens it into the world around her.
There's no specific intent behind it. More faint irritation than anything else, if she had to put words to it. But it's more than enough to make the curse user promptly stagger, and collapse in a boneless heap on the ground.
… His body is shivering uncontrollably. Trembling, like a leaf in the chill wind. His eyes bulge progressively wider as Shiki walks towards him, to the point where it looks as if he's hyperventilating. Or… maybe he really is? Shiki wouldn't know.
What she does know, is, "I won't kill you. Yet. As long as you will agree to–"
The man's eyes roll back and he passes out in a dead faint.
"…" Shiki resists the urge to sigh.
Alright, then. So much for questioning him for information, but… as she'd said just now, she'll leave him alive. The red lines call to her as they always do, but Shiki is practical enough to suppress the temptation, something that she's long used to doing by now. It also helps that she knows this man is a potential lead for learning about Geto-san's movement… if Higa-san's implications about the leader 'Negi' being involved with Geto-san are true.
Satoru-niichan would appreciate her restraint.
"You… you're really something else, aren't you?"
Shiki pauses at the doorway, and turns around.
There are faint tremors wracking Hakari-san's body as well, but unlike the unconscious curse user, he's still standing. And rather than fear, it's something more akin to excitement that she reads from that wide grin on his face.
Interesting. She hasn't seen a reaction like his before, when she's consciously exerting her cursed energy like this.
Shiki tilts her head. "Are you coming along, Hakari-san? Or would you prefer to wait while I take care of matters here?"
"Hey, what kind of guide would I be now if I left you on your own?" Hakari-san laughs, a slightly strained sound. But somehow exuberant, all the same. "'Sides, I think that butler of yours would kill me if I abandoned things halfway."
"Choki is my assistant, not my butler," she corrects mildly. Shiki watches as Hakari-san forces his legs to move, taking one step, then two, and by the time he reaches her he's still a little unsteady, but… he's able to walk normally.
Potential, a voice whispers in Shiki's mind. It sounds a lot like Satoru-niichan.
Hmm.
She shelves the thought for now, in favor of turning around and striding through the doorway that the cursed user had so desperately been blocking from her. The interior of the structure is dark and run-down, not unlike the building's outward appearance. It's not so surprising.
What is surprising, is the subsequent discovery of an entire underground bunker of sorts. Shiki only finds the trapdoor by following the traces of cursed energy that she senses, and there is an entire staircase hidden behind it. Hakari-san mutters something about 'secret villain lairs' that she doesn't really understand, but Shiki doesn't really have the mind to ask about at the moment.
Because she's finally found Hoshi-san.
He… doesn't look so good. Coming down from the staircase, the first thing that comes into sight is Hoshi-san laid out unconscious on a hard table not quite unlike one of the tables in Shoko-san's morgue, looking quite battered with the injuries littered across his body and sporting a spectacular black eye. There's blood generously trickling out from behind the bruised eyelid that's been swollen shut, which definitely doesn't seem good.
Beside her, Hakari-san sucks in a sharp breath through his teeth and whistles. "Shit. Not gonna lie, that doesn't look great."
"No, not particularly." Shiki walks towards Hoshi-san with calm, even steps. She ignores the wide-eyed man hunched over hands and knees on the ground, as well as the two girls frozen on a nearby couch with each other. Curse users, by her estimation. The brown-haired one twitches with a small spasm as Shiki brushes past her, cell phone dropping from nerveless fingers and landing on the ground with a distinct crack as the screen breaks.
It's almost as if it's a signal of sorts, somehow.
The sound of the phone breaking sets the man off with a wordless roar, as he jerks and bodily lunges forward at Shiki. The girls fall into a mad scramble over themselves. One grabs at a long length of rope strewn atop a table, while the other snatches a bedraggled doll from the cushion beside her, cursed energy sparking from her fingertips–
They're slow, all of them.
Shiki's heel drives sharply into the man's back and there is a loud snap beneath her foot, accompanied by a scream. The knife she'd drawn from her sleeve is already spinning through the air, and neatly cuts through the humanoid doll that the dark-haired girl is clutching, causing the plush toy's head to go flying. Shiki holds no fondness for cursed dolls like these. There's a pronounced thunk when the knife sinks to a stop in the wooden table, right next to the other girl's hand as it closes over the rope. The girl releases the rope as if burned, flinching back with a startled yelp.
"I don't intend to kill anyone," Shiki says into the ensuing silence. The more curse users there are to potentially question about Geto-san's whereabouts, then the more information they would be able to glean on the matter. "But if you force my hand, then I would not be averse to it."
Hakari-san whistles, eyebrows raised. "Going a little overboard, don't you think?"
"Oh. Is it?" Shiki blinks.
"… You're actually being serious?" The teenager squints at her. "Wait, hang on a second, why are you even asking me?"
"You're the one making side commentary here," Shiki responds dryly, lifting her foot from the curse user who shudders in pain beneath her.
"Okay, point." Hakari-san scratches his head. "But honestly, who goes for death threats straight off the bat like that? Besides, uh… isn't it something, like. Killing people usually creates more issues than it solves? Something along those lines?"
"I know," Shiki nods mournfully, feeling faintly wistful. If only all her problems were killable ones…
Hakari-san falls silent for a moment, then peers suspiciously at her. "… Look, I gotta ask, you're not some secret killer yakuza princess, are you?"
"What? No."
Truly, other people's thought processes were mystifying.
The two of them come to a stop in front of Hoshi-san, who's still unconscious. From a cursory glance, his injuries don't look so good, but they're not life-threatening. Moreover… it seems that he's received some form of basic treatment for them already. Shiki can see a hint of bandage wrappings peeking out from beneath his tattered shirt.
… What were these curse users after? They'd ambushed a student and teacher of Tokyo Jujutsu High in order to… beat them up? Then proceeded to treat their injuries afterwards? … What for? What did they stand to gain from something like this?
It didn't make any sense. Moreover, how would attracting the jujutsu school's attention like this be something that Geto-san would be pleased with? Wasn't he still doing his best to hide from the jujutsu school these days? … And thereby Satoru-niichan as well?
Shiki has no idea what's going on behind the train of thought here.
Thankfully, Hoshi-san's injuries aren't life-threatening. Painful, perhaps, especially for one unused to sustaining such injuries. But he's already received basic treatment, and he's not in any pressing danger at the moment. Shoko-san will easily be able to take care of things once he's back at the school.
Satisfied, Shiki steps back from her unconscious classmate and turns to survey the room again. Of the three curse users, the man sprawled over the ground is definitely down for the count. The two girls… the one with light brown hair has a defiant look in her eyes, but it seems that she is still sufficiently cowed by Shiki's earlier threat. If the skill gap between them weren't quite so large, then perhaps the young curse user would've attempted to attack her, but Shiki had made it patently clear that it would be easy for her to kill them all if she felt so inclined to. Thus, it was in their best interest to cooperate.
"I don't see Negi around," Hakari-san mutters.
"There are two more people down here," Shiki tells him. Two others that she can sense, at least, although both of them are located slightly farther down a narrow corridor branching off to the side. She walks over towards it, and reaches for the handle of a rusty door–
"Ah, Takagi-sensei. There you are." The ashen-haired man certainly looks like he's been roughed up a bit since Shiki had last seen him this morning. Similar to Hoshi-san, he is also sporting a small collection of new injuries, but he's in better physical condition as compared to her unconscious classmate… even though he looks rather shaken. Pale-faced, brow beaded with sweat. He must've had quite a rough time of things.
His hands are also bound tightly before him, which probably doesn't help things any. Shiki idly slashes through the bindings with another knife and an easy flick of her wrist.
Takagi-sensei's mouth opens and closes mutely as he stares at her, as if he can't quite believe what he's seeing. That's understandable. Shiki hadn't thought that she'd follow after him for Hoshi-san's first mission this morning, either, yet here they are. Who would've thought that there would be a run-in with an organized group of curse users?
Curse users… just like the one sitting across from Takagi-sensei right now, who visibly tenses as Shiki turns her gaze towards him.
"That's Negi?" she asks. Dark hair, dark eyes. Wearing a headband. There's nothing about the man in particular that stands out to her eyes, save for the fact that there's a distinctly more refined edge to his cursed energy that she senses, compared to the other curse users that she'd encountered here.
"Yeah," Hakari-san responds, nodding. "That's him."
The man's fingers flex and tighten, slowly curling into fists in front of him. "What… what do you want?"
"To kill you," Shiki answers bluntly, causing the man to flinch. "… But I will refrain from doing so. Tell me what you know of Geto Suguru's movements."
"Never," his response comes swiftly. "You –you think I'd betray Geto-sama so easily like this?"
Ah, so Geto Suguru truly is connected to this group of curse users, and holds some measure of confidence with them. It's good to receive confirmation like this. At the same time, it also really means that Shiki shouldn't kill any of the curse users here, since they'll definitely be valuable sources of information.
"I don't plan to kill Geto-san."
"Ha! As if you could!" Negi bares his teeth at her viciously, voice scornful. "You're just another dog of the administration, too blind to see that all that lies ahead of you is an endless field of corpses."
Shiki easily identifies and registers the sudden spike of hostility in that taunting, mocking tone, even though she doesn't quite understand it. "You're provoking me?"
Now why would he do that? What could he possibly hope to achieve by angering her? … It was blatantly clear that Shiki was the one who currently held the advantage in this situation, especially given that the weight of her cursed energy alone was enough to neutralize the entire lot of curse users here. Negi, too, knew perfectly well that he was outclassed. So why would he antagonize her like this?
Either he was suicidal, or…
Distraction.
Shiki spins on her heel and throws open the door, because there's a sudden presence that appears to her senses at the exact moment of this realization. There had been no hint nor warning of it beforehand, almost as if it had appeared out of thin air, and –and Hoshi-san is still outside. She shouldn't have left him there. But Shiki hadn't discovered anything remotely threatening earlier, and so she'd thought it would be better for Hoshi-san to rest where he was in order not to aggravate his injuries with unnecessary movement.
Except she'd been wrong.
There's a familiar, familiar man standing outside in the room, crouched over the insensate curse user Shiki had left on the ground, and flanked by the two young girls whose hands are curled into the dark-colored fabric of the monk robes that he's wearing. One of the girls shrinks back as if to hide herself in the man's shadow upon catching sight of Shiki, while the other scowls fiercely and tugs pointedly on his sleeve.
"Geto-sama, she's the one who–!"
"I know, I know, Nanako. It's alright. We'll talk more about you and Mimiko sneaking out after this," Geto Suguru says, and looks up from where he'd been focused on the downed curse user. "Do be more careful with your strength in the future, would you? I think you nearly broke poor Furuda's spine, Shiki."
… Is that all he has to say?
"I hope you're not expecting to receive an apology," she responds flatly.
"Well, I suppose not," the man sighs, straightening as he stands back up to his full height. "But it is important to be mindful of such things, don't you think? Looks like your friend looks like he's having a tough time as is, and your teacher is about to pass out soon if you don't ease up a little on your cursed energy."
Her cursed energy–? But even Hakari-san is fine. And Takagi-sensei is a Semi-Grade One sorcerer!
"I'm fine," Takagi-sensei hisses from behind her. But his voice comes out shaky, unsteady. He breathes a soft exhale of relief from him when Shiki consciously reins in her cursed energy, but roughly shakes his head and –with a brief pause– reaches out to set a hand on her shoulder. "Do what you need to, Gojo. That's –that's Geto Suguru. He's a Special Grade sorcerer. One of the only three Special Grades that exist!"
… Yes, Shiki is aware.
"You flatter me," Geto-san laughs. "But compared to Satoru… well. There's a reason why he's the Strongest."
For a fleeting moment, Shiki suddenly remembers a sunny day on one of the beaches of Okinawa. Golden sands warm beneath her feet, and a salty breeze streaming through her hair. Two young men, standing side by side together, grinning brightly and laughing without reserve.
You're here with me, aren't you?
Together, we're the Strongest.
"Are you still running from Satoru-niichan?" The question slips from her mouth automatically, without any sort of mental filter before she can even think to stop herself, but… Shiki can't find herself regretting it. The words aren't so much accusing as they are simply confused, because Shiki just doesn't understand.
Because Geto-san is Satoru-niichan's best friend, isn't he? … His best friend, still, despite everything that's happened. Shiki doesn't understand why Geto-san suddenly decided to up and kill non-sorcerer civilians one day. He'd never seemed like the type to be driven by a killing instinct; even now, Shiki doesn't really get a murderous sense from him. Geto-san isn't like that. He's not that sort of person.
… Then, what sort of person is he?
Their last encounter with each other a few years back in the aftermath of her fight against a Special Grade cursed spirit had not yielded any particular insight on this matter. The only person who might understand Geto-san would be Satoru-niichan, except Satoru-niichan isn't here right now.
I hope Choki has already contacted Satoru-niichan.
"It's not the right time yet," Geto-san says vaguely. Shiki is perceptive enough to read between the lines and realize that the man still has no intention of facing Satoru-niichan. It's been years since their falling out with each other!
The young girl huffs, "You can't run forever."
"I don't intend to," the man informs her. "But unfortunately, there are still extensive preparations that need to be made before then."
"You talk like it's going to come down to a fight," Shiki frowns.
"Is that such a surprise?" Geto-san arches an eyebrow at her, "Do you think it won't?"
There's a note of unfeigned curiosity in his voice. Shiki obliges his question.
"Satoru-niichan doesn't want to kill you," she shrugs. "I don't think you want to kill Satoru-niichan, either. Not that you could."
The two girls behind him bristle at the last comment, but Geto-san only laughs. "No, but personal wants rarely factor into such things. What about you, then? Do you want to kill me?"
Red lines shine upon his skin, bright and vivid. If Shiki takes her sword to it, she knows that her blade will draw lovely scarlet ribbons into the air. There is always a part of her that looks upon these lines in the world around her, and desires to cut.
"… No," she lies. But at the same time, it's also nothing but the unvarnished truth, because, "Satoru-niichan doesn't want to kill you."
"And you care about Satoru," Geto-san's smile grows a touch more genuine, softening. "I see. Of course that's how it is. I'm… glad that he has you with him. That you have each other, at least."
Of course Shiki cares about her cousin, the only one who understands in a way no one else does. That's why she doesn't allow herself to be swayed by the quiet note in Geto-san's voice that sounds almost fond. "If you cared, then you wouldn't have left him."
"You're wrong on that count. It's precisely because I care that I had to leave," Geto-san shakes his head. "The jujutsu administration is blind to the suffering of the sorcerers in it. That needs to change. The endless fight against curses… it needs to stop somewhere."
A slight pause.
"Join me," Geto-san extends his hand to her, without fanfare. Shiki stares blankly at the proffered limb, because she hadn't expected this at all. Was he… inviting her to become a curse user like him? To abandon Satoru-niichan like he did?
In what world did he think she would agree to such a thing?
"You don't actually care for the administration's rules, do you? And monkeys don't matter to you, either," he continues calmly. "But because you had the potential to be a sorcerer, you were forced onto this path. Just as Satoru was. That's wrong, don't you see? Satoru shouldn't have to carry the weight of the world like this. And we can finally put an end to this cycle of cursing and being cursed, as long as–"
"Your so-called plan to get rid of curses is widespread manslaughter! Genocide!" Takagi-sensei suddenly bursts out harshly, causing Shiki to startle in surprise. This is the most emotion that she's seen her teacher express so far, and he's shouting at Geto-san. It's almost impressive. "I fucking guarantee you that killing off the majority of the world's non-sorcerer population would cause more problems than it would solve! Not that it would solve anything in the first place! For someone whose ultimate goal is supposedly to eradicate cursed spirits, have you even considered how many more of them you'd be creating while you're off merrily slaughtering–"
Shiki grabs her teacher in the middle of his tirade and hurriedly pulls him forward; just in time to dodge a strike from behind that comes from the man's blind spot. Her other hand whips out and closes around Negi's throat, yanking down. With cursed energy enhancing her strength, the man who'd attempted to attack Takagi-sensei out of nowhere goes down easily in Shiki's grip.
"What…?" Takagi-sensei's eyes widen, and then he grimaces. "Guess I shouldn't have expected anything else from you, Toshihisa."
'Toshihisa?' That was an oddly familiar form of address…
"You don't know what you're talking about, Hajime!" Negi snarls in the brief moment that Shiki's grip on him loosens ever so slightly.
"No, you're the one who doesn't know what he's gotten himself into," Takagi-sensei shakes his head. There's something almost pained in his eyes when he looks at Negi, but it's gone too quickly before Shiki can properly pin it down. "This is… this is insanity, Toshihisa. You really think that something like this is a feasible plan? Even in your best-case scenario that it does and the world is finally free of curses, all that's going to be left is a wasteland!"
"Calm down, Takagi-sensei."
Her teacher lifts his gaze to give her a sharp look, "'Calm down?' Do you even realize what this will–"
"Dude, not to rain on your parade or anything, but are you sure it's the right time for this?"
Takagi-sensei's head jerks towards Hakari-san incredulously.
"Geto-san. To be perfectly clear: I decline," Shiki ignores the both of them in favor of focusing on the main threat in the room. Who seemed to be rather disinclined to turn to violence; when Shiki had subdued Negi just now, Geto-san hadn't so much as even lifted a finger. But that didn't mean he wouldn't fight. Her only consolation is that it would be unlikely that Geto-san would fight to kill.
Especially not if he somehow intends to recruit her.
The man sighs, letting his hand fall back down to his side with a gusty sigh. "Can't say it's unexpected; I didn't think you would be convinced with just a few words. This wasn't how I wanted to have this conversation with you, either."
"You didn't plan this?" The familiar question hangs between them, an echo of their last encounter on the mountain when Shiki had asked Geto-san if he'd been involved with the Special Grade cursed spirit that nearly killed her and Iori-sensei.
"… You really have no confidence in me, do you?" Geto-san's voice is faintly wry. "I'm only here because Mimiko and Nanako decided to sneak out with Negi, and somehow got involved with the school's sorcerers. But I suppose it's a good thing that I decided to check up on everyone, given that you're here as well."
"What a coincidence."
"It is, isn't it?" Geto-san chuckles lightly and gives a rueful smile. "But I'm afraid that we'll have to cut things short, though. I've delayed here long enough as it is."
Not long enough, by Shiki's count. She really should've called Satoru-niichan herself or something earlier, before heading into this mess –but it had only been a potential lead to Geto-san that she'd thought she was investigating. She hadn't expected for him to show up in person. Shiki is regretting it now, not that regret is ever worth anything.
Still, "What makes you think I'll just let you leave like that?"
Geto-san responds by holding up a fisted hand, then splaying it open. A dark, shadow-like substance drips down from his fingers, almost like a waterfall, and cursed energy thickens in the air. From the pool of darkness, there is a slight tremor –and then it bursts upwards, coiling itself into a vaguely human shape. Long strands of pitch-black hair flow out behind it in a silken sheet, and a grinning white mask materializes over its face as it shakes out its arms to don crimson robes and turns towards Shiki.
… She recognizes it. Shiki has seen this particular cursed spirit before, years and years ago. It had saved her life when she'd encountered the Sorcerer Killer.
Tamamo-no-mae.
The Special Grade cursed spirit regards her silently for a long moment, then raises its hand –and points to its left.
Directly towards Hoshi-san.
Rationality tells Shiki that Geto-san wouldn't kill another sorcerer for no reason like this, but the cursed energy that she can see exploding from the cursed spirit's hand in a long beam of destruction is not a lie. Shiki darts forward in an instant, ignoring the twin startled shouts from Takagi-sensei and Hakari-san, and grabs her unconscious classmate–
"White."
Impact. Except it doesn't exactly register as impact to the physical senses, not really; there's no corresponding force or anything of the sort when Tamamo's strike makes contact with them. Shiki squints her eyes a bit to avoid being blinded by the overwhelming deluge of light. But she's careful to keep a tight hold on Hoshi-san in order to extend her technique over him, so that the flood of cursed energy washes over both of them harmlessly.
Shiki shrugs her sword off from where she carries it over her shoulder, fingers closing around the hilt and drawing the blade–
Something rumbles precariously above them.
"Oh dear," she thinks she hears Geto-san mutter, before everything abruptly caves in.
Shiki immediately slashes upwards with her sword, slicing through the lines on the rubble so that she and Hoshi-san aren't completely buried beneath it. She's getting a strong sense of déjà vu to that last mission of hers that involved the mountain Special Grade, which she isn't particularly enthusiastic about. But this cave-in is much easier to force her way out of as compared to a cave-in in the heart of a mountain, and it also helps that White is highly effective as a defensive technique.
This isn't like last time, either. Shiki isn't injured and exhausted, running on the last dregs of her cursed energy. She can still–
Hoshi-san coughs at her side, twitching.
Ah. "You're awake?"
"I… I'd have to be dead to sleep through something like this," the boy wheezes. Fair enough, Shiki supposes. Hoshi-san blinks blearily a few times, then squints, "… Wait, Gojo-san? What are you doing here?!"
"Looking for you," Shiki scans her surroundings. Hakari-san bursts out from a pile of rubble, tossing aside a crumbling piece mildly stained with blood, then reaches behind himself to pull out Takagi-sensei. The teacher looks to be a little dazed, but he doesn't seem to have gained any new injuries, not aside from a few minor scratches. That's good. "Unexpectedly, I've also ended up finding more than what I set out to look for."
"… Huh?"
Cursed energy spikes. Shiki whirls away from her classmate and teacher –only to find Geto-san and the other curse users with him stepping inside a cursed spirit affixed to a nearby wall. One of the girls supports Negi carefully as she walks into the swirling mass of darkness, and disappears entirely.
That was… spatial transportation? A cursed spirit capable of teleporting? To think that Geto-san found a cursed spirit with such an ability–
The man turns around and smiles at her. Friendly and genuine, even though his subordinates had kidnapped her teacher and classmate and he himself had nearly blown a hole through Hoshi-san using Tamamo.
"It was good to see that you're doing well, Shiki," he says lightly. "Next time, I do hope that there will be the opportunity for you to properly hear me out… without any interruptions, well-meaning or not."
His gaze cuts towards Takagi-sensei towards the latter half of that sentence, and something in his expression turns just a tad sharp.
Shiki responds by hefting her sword and throwing–
Geto-san takes a single step backwards, falling into the darkness–
The cursed spirit disappears. Kuji slams into the empty wall, blade sinking deep and quivering silently, uselessly, in an echo of the same frustration that Shiki currently feels.
…
… She shouldn't have let things drag out with Geto-san. Shiki might've had her people to watch out for in a violent confrontation, but so did Geto-san with his curse users. Allowing him to take things at his own pace gave him time to set things up in his favor and make a clean escape. No, what she should've done instead the moment he'd appeared in front of her was break his legs so he couldn't run.
How is she going to explain this to Satoru-niichan? … Would he be upset with her? Would he ask her why she didn't–
"Well, that was fun," Hakari-san says brightly. "So, think we can talk about a bonus? Or hazard pay, at least?"
Shiki sighs tiredly. "… Ask Choki."
.
.
…
.
Author's Notes:
As of this chapter we've officially hit 300k words! (Discounting ANs, formatting, etc.) First year students are finally together, so that's another small milestone achieved. :) Takagi is going to have a fun time with this class haha.
Extra tidbits, update notifications, etc. are all on my Tumblr! Link is on my profile.