Saikyō || 最強

28 - 𝚂𝚎𝚝 𝚒𝚗 𝚂𝚝𝚘𝚗𝚎

"(F/n)-san!" It was Suguru's voice. He rushed to me, steps slowing down when I held up the necklace and handed it to him. He seemed to have more energy than me for now. "What's this?"

I looked around and noticed he was alone. "It's a cursed relic, the children are inside. Where's Yume?"

"Actually... I lost her." Suguru tried to explain, but he was also clueless about how it happened.

"We gotta split up again. I need some curses with me," I stated. Despite our fight yesterday, there was no way I could just leave Yume alone. "And let's contact each other once we find her."

Suguru readily complied, conjuring two semi-grade ones and a bunch of lower levels to guard me from the back. "(F/n), take care."

"You too, alright?"

He nodded and without any words, we parted ways to find Yume.

The halls looked empty, which was eerily suspicious. I had to remind myself every now and then to check my back. That spine-chilling feeling you get when someone from somewhere unknown was staring at you. It seemed predatory, like stepping into an empty opera house, or into a puppet show orchestrated by someone out of sight.

The monochrome halls provided no comfort every time I took a turn. I must have been running in circles, but somehow, I felt further and further from reality. From my consciousness.

Am I hallucinating?

I froze in fear when an unsensed attack came from behind through the form of an arrow. It landed on the wooden door, barely inches from my head.

This perfect aim.

Before I knew it, around fifties of men and women occupied the main hall. Their eyes looked deep and sunken, the colours as dull as the building, but the dangerous glint on them caused me to shiver. They looked murderous, insane.

I turned to my right and realized that even Suguru's cursed spirits were defeated.

It didn't make sense. There was no way I did not notice anything at all. It was an ambush.

I knew something was fishy right from the start. Something was wrong. There were too many of them, but for some unknown reason, I wasn't able to sense anyone. And that would have been impossible under normal circumstances.

"Is this the cursed speech user?"

"Yes. The source confirmed it, too. Careful, she's a smart one they said."

The source? Their source knows me?

"I think someone inside Jujutsu High might be working with them."

I shook my head to ward off Yaga sensei's words. That was a weird thing to think about right now. The person I knew would never do this.

Despite that, something told me I had to be smarter than this. I had to open my mind to every possibility. My gut feeling was pointing only to one thing. I glanced behind me, to the arrow that nearly hit me, and examined it suspiciously without fully taking off my eyes from the curse users.

No, there was no question here. I myself knew it too well.

It was indeed Yume's arrow.

"You can calm down, we won't hurt you," a woman with dark red hair and light blue eyes spoke. Her voice was very gentle, but not any gentler than her features. Appearance-wise, she was beyond enchanting. "All you have to do is comply to our small wishes."

It doesn't make sense.

We've always treated each other like sisters.

"We heard you're like us. Dumped. Disowned," the woman spat distastefully. "How about you help us and we help you back? Don't you just want to get even with those who humiliated you?"