i'll bite your soul

13

Nishikawa attempts to calm himself down and pushes his palms out, focusing his cursed energy to gain control over the dragon.

"Stop hurting her!"

Before the boy was able to suppress his technique, another dragon much larger than his clamps it's mouth onto it's black body, tearing the serpent in half. The moment it's torso was bitten, Nishikawa's dragon disintegrated into a puddle of blank ink that stained the grass.

"___-sensei!" Nishikawa sobbed, immediately catching his teacher into his trembling arms as she fell to her knees.

"Are you alright, ___?"

Tilting her head up, ___ sees Geto running towards her apprehensively as he dissipated the dragon-like curse back into a black orb.

"Suguru-senpai.." she murmurs weakly, clutching onto her injured arm. She had never felt this much pain in her life, she had grown accustomed to being untouchable with her cursed technique and she had mistakenly let her guard down.

"We need to take you to Shoko." Geto said, taking ___ into his arms carefully. Beside him, Nishikawa trembles as tears rolled down his flushed cheeks, clutching onto ___'s skirt.

"I-I'm sorry, sensei.. This is all my fault." he sobbed and ___ shot him a reassuring smile. Raising her other arm, she pats the boys head tenderly.

"Don't be sorry, Hayato. Sensei will be fine." she said, resting her head against Geto's chest.

And with that, Geto and Nishikawa rushes to the infirmary as blood trailed behind them.

"You should've know better, Hayato." Geto scolded, crossing his arms angrily. "It's your first day trying your technique. Next time, start with something simple, okay?"

Nishikawa dips his head in shame as he fiddles with his ink-stained fingers, tears drenching his sweater. He couldn't bring himself to look at Geto. His heart felt heavy and guilt started to cloud his mind as he felt Geto's lingering gaze burning a hole through his head.

"Y-Yes, Sugu-nii.. I'll be more careful." he whimpers. Geto huffs in relief and crouches down to meet Nishikawa's eyes.

"Hey, don't be so sad now, buddy. It was an accident." Geto said, rubbing Nishikawa's arms soothingly.

"But I hurt mama.." Nishikawa starts to sniffle as hiccups erupted from his throat. Geto chuckles at the name. He had noticed that the boy was starting to call her mama more often.

"Your mama will be okay. Shoko-nee is healing her right now, so she'll be ready to go in no time." he replied. Digging his hands in the pockets of his oversized trousers, Geto pulls out a carton of apple juice and places it in Nishikawa's hands.

"I was planning on watching your training today because I've been busy these past few weeks. I wanted to make it up to you by giving you this.." Geto smiles fondly at the younger boy and with a shaky voice, Nishikawa thanks him as he stabs the straw into the carton.

"I don't mind. It's alright if you're too busy to play, Sugu-nii." he murmurs.

Inside the infirmary, ___ rests on the bed while Ieiri performs her reversed cursed technique on her injuries. She flinches lightly when she feels a sudden surge of heat engulfing her arm and she hisses sharply. It wasn't too painful, but it felt foreign to feel her flesh repairing itself.

"Just relax, ___. It won't take too long." Ieiri's soft voice calmed ___'s nerves and she immediately did as she was told. Inhaling deeply, ___ catches a whiff of smoke coming from the older girl's uniform.

"Shoko-senpai, you should stop smoking." ___ said, earning a giggle from Ieiri.

The two didn't really talk often before, only greeting each other when she was around with the two boys and she couldn't help but feel intimidated by Ieiri's dull eyes. She had always seemed bored out of her mind and ___ was afraid that Ieiri was silently judging her but after telling Gojo her concerns, he had assured her that that was just the way Ieiri is.

___ attempted to grow closer with her after hearing the piece of information and lo and behold, Ieiri was, to be blunt, a bit of an airhead.

When ___ had asked Ieiri to teach her about reversed cursed technique, she had given her a very vague explanation along with hand gestures that ___ didn't quite understand.

"You just fwoom, then swish and then it's going to be all bzzt!" she had told her. "You don't get it? It's simple!"

"Habits die hard." Ieiri replied, wrapping a bandage around ___'s arms.

"Well, I did the best I could. Your injuries are just small cuts now but just put ointment on them every night and it'll heal by the end of the week." Ieiri heaved a sigh and wipes the sweat off of her forehead. "I'm drained.."

"Thank you, Shoko-senpai." ___ said, admiring the neatly applied gauze.

"Of course! You're my cute kōhai, so I won't charge you this time." Ieiri shot her a crooked smile before leaving the room, a cigarette stick already snug in her fingers.

Feeling her injured arm throb in pain, ___ lets out a groan and shuts her eyes as she hears Geto telling Nishikawa to be more careful outside in the hallway.

"Yeah, maybe we should start with a bunny first."