WOUNDED HEART [ ✓ ] | Jujutsu Kaisen

Chapter 13: The First Friend

Her eyebrows furrowed. She have seen a corpse caused by a cursed spirit. They are more brutal and more disgusting than this. The way their stomach was cut, it was too clean. Her eyes widened when she realized it.

There was no cursed spirit. Just a serial killer on the loose. He or she must be the one who started the rumor to divert their attention to him and blame it to a nonexistent creature. She have to talk to the old man earlier.

That's why she was a little bit hesitant, it's because of the presence she felt earlier. It wasn't a cursed spirit's, that presence is owned by a sorcerer.

She have heard of it before. Hideyoshi told her that there are sorcerers who uses their abilities for evil, the curse users. Then, she have to prepare herself. She have to kill someone. That's what he told her if she will encounter someone like that.

She entered the old man's house. Somehow, she felt eerie. Its atmosphere was different compared to when she first arrived here. She started to have a bad feeling to the house.

"Old man? Are you still here?" she tried to call him. As long as she remembered, there was two of them but he only saw the old man.

She immediately turned when she heard a sound of someone falling. Her eyes widened and her hands suddenly went on her mouth. It was another corpse and just like the previous ones, its stomach was wide open.

She sat so she can examine it. She checked its pulse and breathing but she can't feel it anymore. It was still warm so it wasn't very long time ago since she died. Blood were still flowing from her stomach.

"Concealing one's cursed energy is such a big help on finding sorcerers. They didn't even notice I was a sorcerer when they first saw me," she heard a man's voice. That was the presence she felt. She stood up and clenched her fist. "So you finally discovered?"

"Why did you kill them?" she interrogated. She does not expect that it was the old man who was behind all of this.

"Is there any reason for them to live? I do not see except for being my test subject. You know, I wanted to see if I will become a cursed spirit if I ate lots of people."

"You are crazy. If you badly wanted to be a cursed spirit, then be one in the after life." Reimi drew out her sword and cut him in the neck. "Rest in peace."

"Impressive!" Reimi turned around when she heard a woman's voice but she couldn't see her clearly because she was hiding in the shadows. She was clapping her hands. "You did not hesitate on killing your own kind. Scary."

"Who are you?" she threatened.

"My name is Kyuu, the nine-tailed fox." The woman stepped out. Reimi was mesmerized to her beauty. She possesses a waist-length red hair with orange highlights. Her eyes were blazing red, too, and her skin was pale. "And oh, I am a cursed spirit."

"You are a cursed spirit?" Reimi tightened her grip on her sword. "But you look different than those that I have seen so far."

"That's because I'm on a whole another level compared to them. Many people are too scared to my image and their negative emotions give me strength. How about you? What is your name?"

"My name is Fujiwara no Reimi."

"I think I have heard that name somewhere... Ah! In the capital, the vendors there are talking about the banished daughter of someone from the court. The one who was supposed to marry a high-ranked man but ran away with another man. Is that you?"

"What does the rumor says?"

"Well, very harsh, I would rather shut my mouth. I hate people, they are worse than cursed spirits. They ruin other people's lives, just like what they did to you. Then they will deny it, they slowly turn into monsters but they never noticed it."

"And you, cursed spirits, are better than us?"

"No, I am not saying we are better than you. You know, when I was born to this world, I witnessed how sorcerers, cursed spirits, and non-sorcerers interact with each other. It was... unfortunate. Is it weird if I have a dream?"

"Maybe? You are a cursed spirit, after all."

"I wanted the three kinds-sorcerers, cursed spirits, and non-sorcerers-live in harmony someday." When she heard that, Reimi couldn't help herself but laugh.

"I apologize, that was hilarious. You were kidding, right?" But Kyuu didn't answer. "But...that, that is impossible."

"No, it isn't. I believe it is possible and to be able to do that, I need your help, Reimi. Be my friend." The cursed spirit said that rendered Reimi speechless. No one have asked her that question before. It was the first time.