The Devils of Jujutsu

Chapter 18: Stolen Future

(Yuji's p.o.v.)

Me and Todo heard Nash screaming off in the distance, it made us get up and run toward him to see what's going on. When we got there, there was a cursed spirit tearing the poor boy to pieces, it horrified us both. We drew our cursed tools, and charged at the curse, to exorcise it before there was nothing left of the kid. As soon as I got close enough, I did a flying kick and hit it right at the side of it's face, knocking it back a few yards. It regained it's footing, and charged toward us. With my sword in hand, I waited for it to get close enough for me to deal a killing blow. Once it did, I coated my sword in cursed energy, which made the blade grow, did a rising slash, cleaving the cursed spirit in half as soon as it hit the ground, the body disappeared. I dispelled the cursed energy on my xiphos and the went back to it's original length before sheathing it and heading over to Todo, who was looking sadly at the mutilated body of the kid, Nash. I stopped right next to him and he said, "It's a tragedy for someone so young to fall victim to a curse." With a sad tone I answered, "Yeah, it is." I looked at Nash's body and thought, 'Why was there a cursed spirit all the way out here? We didn't sense one when we arrived in this village!" Then I theorized that since Geto can control cursed spirits, what if he could order them to follow someone else's orders, and that someone sent that curse here as a scout. But I knew that wouldn't work, while cursed spirits can have some level of intelligence, they don't have the communication skills to have a conversation. I decided to push those thoughts to the back of my mind, because it was not the time. We had to go tell Nash's family at the church about his untimely demise, but one of us had to stay with Nash's body, it wouldn't feel right to just leave him there for the scavengers to get. "Yuji, you go to the church and tell them about Nash, I'll stay and keep watch over him." Todo said. I nodded and ran off to look for the church, and it didn't take me long to find it. Luckily the lights were still on, so I made my way to the door and knocked. When the door opened, I was greeted by a nun pale grey eyes, and she asked, "Can I help you?" "Does a boy named Nash live here?" I asked her with a sad expression. Her face now had a look of concern, she said, "Yes, he does. Has something happened to him." As soon as she said that, an old priest came up to the door and asked, "What's going on?" The told him that I asked about Nash, and he too looked deeply concerned about the boy. Still with a sad look I answered the nun's previous question, "I don't know how to tell you this but, Nash.......just died." The priest and nun looked absolutely mortified at the sudden news. I explained how we met Nash and told them that Nash was in pieces when we arrived. By the time I was done explaining, tears were uncomfortably streaming done their faces. I couldn't blame them, a boy they were practically raising like a son was just robbed of his life. The nun asked me, "Where's Nash now?" I replied, "Still where we found him, my friend is there keeping an eye on him so the scavenger won't get to him." The priest asked, "Can you take us there?" I nodded and we all headed toward where Nash's body is. We arrived and were greeted by a still sad Todo.

The next day, they held a funeral for the poor kid. Todo and I also participated, because we felt responsible for not getting there in time to save him. Why did we care about the boy, one of the people who didn't help Asta in his fake trial? We gave him the benefit of a doubt,  because he was a kid what could he have done. After we talked to him, our suspicions were confirmed, he truly cared about Asta, though Asta wouldn't believe it if we told him. After everyone said their piece and Nash was buried. We saw that two boys, standing at Nash's grave. We were within earshot when we heard them mock the deceased boy, "The weakling died so early." Boy #1 said. "Yeah, serves him right for thinking he can be a magic knight." Boy#2 said. This made us angry, so we went up to them and Todo said, "Hey, show some respect for the dead!" I followed up by saying, "Who do you kids think you are, anyway?" The boys didn't like being talked back to, I could only assume that they were nobles, visiting the village with their parents. Boy#1 said, "Don't you dare talk like to us, commoners. Remember your place!!" That proved my suspicion, their aristocrats, so we didn't feel bad about what we did next, even though they were still kids. We kicked them away so hard, they went flying for what looked like a mile. Yeah it was kinda cruel to do that to kids, but apparently their dad hasn't disciplined them at all so we had to.

With that done, Todo and I packed up camp and continued our journey to the capital to fight off Geto's army. When we left the village, Todo asked me, "By the way Yuji, when you fought the curse that killed Nash, how did you get your sword to grow like that?" That's when a realized I didn't explain it to him yet, so I decided to do that as we walked. "Asta told me that he used his anti magic to make his demon slayer sword's blade to grow, so I thought that I would reforge my cursed tool so that I could imbue it with a technique that could do that too. Figured it would give me an advantage in the upcoming battle." Todo answered, "I see, if you extend your reach, you'd be able to keep the enemy at a distance." I nodded. "I think that's a good idea, we'll probably need every advantage we can get for this fight." Todo stated. I replied, "Yeah, we have to be ready for everything and anything."