♡ ♡ ♡
I take it, I take it, this unfulfilled wish washed up ashore
♡ ♡ ♡
'Give the prison gate's boundary to me! I'll add it to my collection.'
I came here partly to play. I thought that if I couldn't kill him, it wouldn't matter.
But...
He thrust before me the difference between us.
My pride as a cursed spirit, as a new-found human...
Absolutely cannot accept this!
"The most effective measure against a domain is also expanding your own domain." Gojou started to slip down his blindfold. Hanzō still wasn't paying the most attention, he gnawed at the cigarette stick. "When a domain is simultaneously expanded, a more polished sorcery will control that place. Though it depends on things like compatibility and the amount of curse energy."
Hanzō clapped his hands over his ears as soon as Fuji-san opened his mouth wide, expecting another round of shouting.
"Not even you ashes will be left, Gojou Satoru!" Fuji-san screeched shrilly and Hanzō was glad he had covered his ears and likely wouldn't be going deaf anytime soon.
Gojou brought his blindfold to his neck and once again lifted a nonplussed Hanzō by the scruff. "Domain expansion: Immeasurable void."
The world around them splattered into white paint and the dark blue swirling of the universe.
Throughout the transformation of the domain, Hanzō saw flashes of a sewer-like place filled with liquid and shrouded in black. It went on forever in all directions and had nothing at all inside of it. The liquid acting like a floor remained unidentifiable and Hanzō thought there might be nothing at all in the dark domain, until he saw an image of a refined torii emerging from the dark waters. Its red paint was decorated with white rope and tassels strung along it.
The torii drew him in and enraptured him so, he couldn't focus on anything else—he couldn't think of anything else. He just wanted to stroke his hand on its wooden surface and feel its every detail.
He didn't even notice when Gojou explained why Fuji-san couldn't move.
Hanzō just... wanted to walk through it...
The image zoomed in closer and closer and closer, it felt like he could stretch out his hand and cross through it.
The temptation grew stronger and he could no longer differentiate the torii in the sewer from actuality.
A skeleton grinned at him with a lipless smile.
The images shattered and boundless amounts of anxiety rose in him; he jolted with wide eyes, no longer in the world of endless sewers.
Gojou's aesthetic domain greeted his eyes and so did a terrified curse, its human-like expression full of a begrudging fear. Hanzō's heart didn't soften, neither did Gojou's, and Yuuji had a drop of sweat caressing his cheek.
"It's ironic isn't it? When you're bestowed with everything, you slowly die, unable to do a thing." Gojou mocked the curse who preached strength and pride, but was like sand underneath him. "But because I have something I want to ask you, I'll spare you."
Hanzō watched with no feelings, other than some awe, as Gojou effortlessly ripped Fuji-san's head off its neck.
Fuji-san's head rolled on the grassy ground when Gojou released his domain and the miniature lake and forest were clear again.
"Now then," Gojou's voice was different from his usual cheerful tirelessness. "By whom were you told to come here?"
His dark tone was just another reminder that this man is not only their supposed teacher and man-child, but also the strongest shaman.
Gojou stepped on Fuji-san, pressing down hard enough to hurt.
♡
"What should we do? Should we save him?" Getou smiled towards Hanami, languidly watching the show. "I can't have my face seen by people related to Jujutsu college. So I'm going to go home now."
Getou side eyed the curse beside him. "If you want to save him, you should go ahead. Although I don't know if you cursed spirits have that kind of compassion."
Hanami walked past Getou. ".lla retfa, snamuh uert eht er'eW. od eW"
"How dare you say that," Getou smiled irritatedly. "When you're nothing more than a cursed spirit."
Hanami didn't respond, they jumped over the cliff edge.
♡
"I wonder if you'll gain something from killing me?" Gojou's blindfold was now only half on as he lifted an edge of it up. Hanzō peered up at the kaleidoscope jeweled blue and felt it familiar. Almost the same as the images from before in the way that it nagged at him softly, like a pesky mosquito. "Either way, who's your partner?"
Gojou pressed more on Fuji-san's head, producing a creaking sound of bones being squeezed. "Tell me already! I'll exorcise you, you know?! Hey, hey! I'll do it for real, you know? Though I'd still exorcise you if you told me."
Hanzō watched from the sidelines as Gojou whined childishly and noticed that his cigarette was no longer in his mouth. He tried to think of all the places that it could have gone and groaned, he would have to spend ages just trying to look for it. He didn't want to litter, after all. He just hoped that it fell out somewhere in the lake so that it wouldn't start a fire or anything.
"So curses can have conversations, huh." Yuuji pondered out loud, apparently not at all bothered by their teacher's actions which could be classified as a police forcing a confession out of someone. Although it didn't bother Hanzō either, it didn't matter that the curse wasn't human or anything, it was just that he didn't care. "It felt so normal, I let it pass."
Gojou swiftly evaded a long and sturdy flower stalk thrown like a javelin at his face, crouching in a readied stance.
Flowers erupted from the ground and skipped the early stages of sprouting and budding, they bloomed all around them in a mini sea of pastel flora. And flooded their noses with relaxants.
Hanzō felt a sickening sort of comfort that only the worst quality of bottled pills could bestow. It curled in his stomach and made him feel sick, but he couldn't fight against it as it forcibly wrenched his lurking violence into submission.
He grit his teeth at the involuntary sensations, he takes it back, it's nothing like pills. This made him feel ill. He gnashed his teeth on his tongue and cut into it. The metallic rustiness of the blood overroad the faux serenity and swallowed it whole.
Sorcery? It must be. My fighting spirit is weakening. Gojou slapped his own cheek, instantly evaporating the warm and fluffy feeling.
"Gah!" Yuuji cried out when a vine wrapped around his ankle and tossed him into the air like a ragdoll.
Hanami took the opportunity to scoop the severed head of Fuji-san and make a run for it, sprinting off into the night while Gojou and co. were busy with the captured child.
"Sensei! I'm okay! Go after that guy!" Yuuji yelled out while dangling in the air like a bouquet hung out to dry.
Yuuji let out a shrill sort of cry when he noticed the tree monster thing had teeth, "Sorry, I lied!"
Hanzō sprinted from his place and kicked at the tentacle thing that almost certainly came out of some kinky hentai. The vine shredded apart and Gojou took care of the actual tree-curse-thing with ease.
Hanzō caught Yuuji who fell into his arms, resulting in a princess carry.
Yuuji smiled up at him, "Nice catch, bro!"
"Huh," Gojou mused about something neither of them really understood, still too green to the world of jujutsu and curses.
They escaped. He's good at erasing their presence. He's way creepier than volcano head...
"Thank you and sorry that they ran away because of me. But you're the one who brought me here, right, sensei?" Yuuji mumbled while kowtowing, blaming both himself and Gojou for the escaping curses.
"So cursed spirits of that level formed a faction, huh." Gojou placed a hand to his chin, ignoring the still kowtowing Yuuji. "It's getting interesting."
"Yuuji," Gojou addressed the somewhat nervous teen. "More importantly, I want you guys to become strong enough to beat that."
"That. Huh?!" It took a bit for Yuuji to process that Gojou meant the volcano guy and creepy flower curse.
Hanzō wasn't bothered. He knew that he'd have to become even stronger than them. If he ever wanted to actually protect Yuuji, he'd have to surpass all of Yuuji's limitless potential, which meant going passed every curse he came across and becoming stronger and stronger.
"It's best to have a concrete objective, right? Well, I'm glad I brought you here."
"Nah, I don't get what was what, you know?"
"If you set an objective, all you have to do is bolt through with all you've got. I'll hasten our plans a bit, and have you fight me and watch movies over and over again for a month."
I wonder if I'll be alive a month from now. Yuuji gloomily prepared himself for what's to come.
Gojou then explained the exchange event and that Yuuji would be revealed to be actually alive then.
♡
"Hey, Gojou, I need to find my cigarette. Go back." Hanzō demanded after Yuuji was back in his hideout and Gojou was about to walk off to who knows where.
"Huh? Why?" Gojou asked with a blank face and Hanzō felt that he looked really dumb, in a cute kind of way...
Hanzō rolled his eyes, the man-child cute? Never.
"What if it starts a forest fire or somethin'?"
When Gojou gave him the 'Who are you?' look he grumbled a bit. "I'm an addict, not an uncaring bitch."
Stop seeing Gojou's look of non belief he scowled. "Just take me there, dipshit."
At this the white haired bastard sagely nodded, now sure of his identity. He warped them back and watched as Hanzō scoured the lands for the sacred cigarette butt.
This went on for a while, Hanzō looked and Gojou leaned on a tree, until Gojou got bored and started to actively look around too.
"Ah, found it," Gojou announced from the edge of the lake, a wet cigarette butt pinched between his fingers.
"Thanks. We should go back now."
"'Kay!"
♡
"Hey, can you..." Hanzō mumbled off inaudibly with an embarrassed expression.
"What?"
"Can you help..."
"I still can't hear you."
Hanzō glared at him, "Can you help me train?"
Gojou cockily smirked and Hanzō already regretted the question, but it was too late and he still needed help. "Of course I can. You didn't think I would only help Yuuji, did you?"
The man poked at Hanzō's squishy cheeks and teased, "You did, didn't you?"
A vein popped on his forehead, but he couldn't really deny it because he had thought that. He could only frown, "Shut up..."
He scoffed and started walking off to his dorm.
"'Night," Hanzō didn't look back as he walked away and lazily waved. "Gojou sensei."
A surprise Gojou smiled faintly, so I've earned the ever elusive title.
He couldn't be gladder.
♡
Hi!
So this chapter is almost twice as long as my other chapters. Take it as a peace offering for not updating on Monday.
Stay frosty, ciao~♡
Word Count 1850