Nana's POV (A few days later)
Right now my team and I were on a mission with the assistant manager of Tokyo Jujutsu Tech, Kiyotaka Ijichi. We were led to the source of the curse, an empty juvenile detention center that held a curse womb. Ijichi took the time to explain the scenario to us.
It was lightly raining outside as we stood at the main gate of the empty juvenile detention center.
"Our window verified the Curse womb three hours ago. Once 90 percent were successfully evacuated, they made the call to seal off the center. Citizens within a 500-meter radius have been evacuated, as well." Ijichi mentioned.
"Ijichi-san, question... What's a "window" here?" Yuji asked, raising a hand.
"A window is a member of Jujutsu High who can see curses. They aren't sorcerers, though." Ijichi replied.
"Oh, okay." Yuji muttered.
"Let's continue. Detainee Block 2... At present, five detainees remain three with the Curse womb. If this curse womb is the type that metamorphoses, we predict it will become a special-grade cursed spirit." Ijichi went on.
"Hey, so...I still don't really understand what 'special-grade' means." Yuji chimed in.
This made Megumi and Nobara sigh in disapproval.
"Then let me explain it to you really quick. First, there's grade 4; a wooden bat is enough for them. Grade 3; if you have a handgun, you can rest easy. Grade 2; it'll be a close call with a shotgun. Grade 1; even a tank may be insufficient. Then there's a special grade. Let's say you might be on even footing if you carpet bomb it with cluster bombs." Ijichi explained.
"That's really bad!" Yuji commented.
"Normally a jujutsu sorcerer on par with the cursed spirit would take on the mission. On a day like today, that would be Gojo sensei." I stated.
"I see. So where is Gojo sensei?" Yuji asked, looking around.
"Away on business." Megumi replied.
"Huh?" Yuji asked in confusion.
"He's not someone who should be loafing around at the school in the first place." Megumi sighed in annoyance.
"Unfortunately, we're constantly short-handed in this business. You'll often have to undertake missions beyond your power. The current case, however, is an abnormal one, and most urgent. Do not fight under any circumstances. If you encounter a special grade, your options are to either run or die. Please just listen to your fears. Do not forget that your mission here is strictly the verification and rescue of the survivors." Ijichi explained the situation further.
Then suddenly, an unfamiliar voice called out from afar.
"Excuse me!"
We looked around and saw a woman who was within a crowd of civilians that were held back by the officials.
"Excuse me, where's Tadashi?! Is Tadashi...is my son Tadashi all right?!" she asked worriedly.
I noticed Yuji was staring at the woman, feeling very sorry for her. Ijichi walked over and stood in front of Yuji, his back facing him, blocking his view.
"She's a guardian who was here for a visit." Ijichi said to Yuji before he looked at the crowd. "Please step away. There's a possibility that someone has spread poisonous gas throughout the center. We cannot share any more details at this time."
"No... Why?" the woman broke into tears and fell to her knees. "Why is this happening?!"
Seeing her tears, Yuji cracked the knuckles of both his hands and spoke up.
"Nana, Fushiguro, Kugisaki." Yuji called and furrowed his eyebrows together, determined to take on the mission. "We're gonna save them!"
"Of course, we are." Nobara reaffirmed.
Megumi and I didn't reply back but we were as determined as they were.
Ijichi then escorted us to the detainee and we were now only a door away from the Curse womb.
"Be careful. I'll put up my veil." Ijichi said as he remained put while letting the rest of us walk towards the sealed door, holding up three fingers.
He started to recite scripture.
"Emerge from darkness, blacker than darkness. Purify that which is impure."
The second he said that a black dome began to form above the detention center campus.
"It's becoming night!" Yuji stated in awe, looking at the sky.
"It's Veil. There's a residential area nearby, so this barrier conceals us from the outside world." Megumi explained it to him.
"That's incredible!" Yuji grinned.
"Ignorant." Nobara commented.
Megumi then formed a hand sign of a dog.
"Demon Dogs!" Megumi said and immediately summoned out a white dog that let out a howl. "He'll let us know if the curse gets close."
Yuji was now distracted by the white dog as he crouched down in front of the dog and gently patted his head.
"Oh, I see! Good boy, good boy! We're counting on you, okay?" Yuji cooed.
I smiled and patted Yuji's shoulder.
"Come on, let's go." I said.
"Yeah!" Yuji smiled back.
The four of us then reached the doorway of the detention center and Megumi opened the sealed doors. After his white divine dog entered, Megumi again spoke up.
"Let's go."
As we enter the building and ran down a hallway, Megumi suddenly extended his arm to the side as a signal to halt.
"Wait." He said.
We then looked up and noticed a series of steel pipes intersecting over one another, leading to an endless pitch-black ceiling.
"What is this?" Nobara asked in surprise.
"Wh-What's going on in here? This is a two-story dorm, isn't it?" Yuji asked.
"C-C-Calm down! It's a maisonette." Nobara stuttered out.
"No, it's not. It's the development of an Innate Domain due to cursed energy. It's my first time seeing one this big." I stated, staring up at the ceiling with furrowed eyebrows.
Suddenly realization hit me and I quickly snapped my head towards the direction we all came from.
"Where's the door?" I asked.
The other three followed my gaze and we all realized that the door had disappeared.
"Th-The door's gone!" Yuji exclaimed worriedly.
"How?! We just came in through here, didn't we?!" Nobara asked, pointing at where the door was.
Yuji and Nobara then began to dance in a circle as if they were performing a ritual dance.
"What do we do? Ah, what do we do about this?" they chanted.
This made me simply deadpan at their weird behavior.
"It'll be fine. The dog remembers the scent of the entrance." Megumi assured to them
"Oh, my!" Yuji and Nobara wore an expression of admiration and began to praise Megumi's divine dog.
"Good boy! Have some jerky!" Nobara exclaimed in happiness while Yuji nuzzled his face into the dog's fur, giving soft strokes on its head and chest. "Have all the jerky you want!"
"These idiots." I mumbled to myself.
"You are way too calm!" Megumi yelled in annoyance.
"You really are dependable, Fushiguro. Thanks to you, we'll be able to rescue people and save ourselves too." Yuji grinned at the black-haired boy.
Megumi was slightly taken aback by Yuji's sudden compliment and went silent while I sighed and shook my head.
"Let's keep moving." I said.
With that Megumi and his white divine dog led us into a narrow hallway before we enter a huge darkroom. As soon as we stepped into the room, we spotted a man leaning against the wall, right across from us. Yuji ran towards him and when he reached the man, he saw the lower half of the man was gone as if it was decapitated. It was safe to assume that the man was dead.
"Atrocious." Nobara muttered quietly.
"That's...three people, right?" Megumi asked.
The sight of the dead man made me quickly pull out my rifle gun from my rifle scabbard as I started to look around for the curses.
Yuji crouched down in front of the deceased man and grabbed a fistful of the uniform he was wearing. He read off the name tag printed on the uniform as Tadashi Okazaki. He let out a small gasp, remembering the woman's crying for their son, Tadashi.
"Let's take this body back." Yuji stated.
"Huh?" Nobara asked.
"It's that woman's son." Yuji added.
"But..." Nobara was about to protest.
"His face isn't too badly mangled." Yuji went on. "His mother won't accept it if we tell her he's dead, but we don't have a body."
At that moment, Megumi walked over and grabbed back Yuji by the back of his hoodie.
"We have to find and verify two more. Leave that body behind." Megumi stated.
"Quit joking around! We turned around, and the way we got in here was gone! We won't be able to come back for it later!" Yuji argued.
"I didn't say to come back for it! I said to leave it behind! I have no intention of risking my own life to save someone I had no intention of saving in the first place!" Megumi shot back.
"No intention of saving him? What do you mean?!" Yuji yelled, gripping a fistful of Megumi's high-neck jacket.
"This is a juvenile detention center. Jujutsu sorcerers are granted access to all information about the scene beforehand. This Tadashi Okazaki hit a little girl on her way home from school while driving without a license. It was his second offense of driving without a license. I know you're stuck on saving lots of people and guiding them to proper deaths. But what are you going to do when someone you saved kills someone else in the future?" Megumi asked.
"Then why did you bother saving me?!" Yuji questioned back.
"Cut it out!" Nobara yelled and stomped toward them. "What the hell are you two doing?! You're both idiots!"
And right at that moment, I noticed a tall creepy-ass-looking curse was about to attack Megumi's white divine dog from behind. Wasting no time, I pointed the barrel of my rifle gun at the curse and pulled the trigger.
BAM! BAM!
My teammates slightly jumped into the air because of the sudden sound of the gunshots and quickly looked at me and then at the curse with wide eyes in shock. In a flash, my cursed bullets hit the head of that curse while I gestured for Megumi's dog to immediately move away and come towards me. The white dog quickly rushed over and stood by my side.
"You guys need to stay more focused! Thank god I noticed that bastard or else this poor dog would've been dead by now!" I snapped at them before looking back at the curse.
I again pointed my rifle gun at it and was about to pull the trigger again when suddenly a hole appeared underneath me and I immediately fell right through the floor.
"Nana!!" the friends called out in horror, reaching out to me.
But it was already too late as I kept on falling through a black hole.
"What the fuck is this?!" I asked myself, gritting my teeth.
Soon after I came out of that hole and fell off the ceiling of a dark room and landed on the ground, crashing down hard. I yelped out in pain, gritting my teeth.
"That hurts now..." I muttered, trying to stand up.
Then I realized something was nudging me to the side. I quickly looked over and noticed Megumi's white divine dog beside me.
"Oh, it's you. Looks like you fell into that hole along with me, huh?" I asked, gently patting his head.
The dog simply barked in response and snuggled against me. I stood up from the ground and dusted my uniform before looking around. It was so dark that I couldn't see anything.
"Stay close to me, okay?" I said to the dog and it simply barked back in response as we looked around at our surroundings. "Damn it, where are we? It's so dark, I can't see a thing."
Then suddenly Megumi's dog and I felt the presence of a curse nearby and we immediately went into our fighting stance. My eyes widened in a fraction when I realized that I was caught in a strange area surrounded by several large mask curses floating in the air.
"Looks like we've no other option but to take all of them down, huh?" I muttered, smirking. "Demon Dog, eat them!"
And right on cue, Megumi's dog jumped into action and started attacking the curses while I started to shoot my cursed bullets at them, taking them down one after another. A moment later, I realized that the number of curses was too many and I didn't have that many of my cursed bullets stockpiled with me right now.
"Tch... Looks like I've to use my flames, huh?" I clicked my tongue before looking at the white divine dog. "Demon Dog, move away!"
The dog immediately obliged what I said and I raised my hands to the curses.
"Hellflame – Cremation!" I shouted out.
Right on cue, a huge blast of blue flames fired out from the palms of my hands and shot the curses, and within a matter of seconds, all the curses were cremated into dust and ashes.
"Well, that was easy..." I mumbled to myself.
When I realized all the masked curses were taken down, I looked back at the dog.
"Demon Dog, lead the way!" I ordered.
The dog barked in response and started to run in that direction. As the place was too dark for me to see anything, I engulfed the palm of my right hand with my blue flames to brighten up my surrounding. Megumi's dog led me to an entrance and I burned down the door with ease by my flames. We then started to run down the hallways taking turns after turns.
But then suddenly Megumi's dog let out another bark.
"What is it?" I asked.
Instead of any response, it simply led me to another hallway where I noticed Megumi standing in the middle of it with his black divine dog and Nobara in the mouth of his shikigami frog.
"Megumi! Nobara!" I called out, running up to them.
"Nana!" Megumi gasped in surprise when he noticed me there.
I immediately threw my arms around him and pulled him into a bear hug, pressing my face into his chest.
"Thank god you're okay! I was so worried!" I cried out, sighing in relief.
Megumi stiffened a bit because of the sudden physical contact but then slowly started to relax and snuggle into my warm embrace as he wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me even closer to him. He buried his face into my raven locks and let out a heavy sigh.
"I'm glad you're okay as well." He mumbled.
I smiled in response and slowly pulled away from the hug. I then looked over at Nobara, only to find her all beaten up and unconscious.
"Nobara doesn't look good." I noted out.
"Let's take her back to Ijichi-san." Megumi stated.
I simply nodded my head in response and we all rushed towards the entrance with Megumi's divine dogs leading the way.
It wasn't long before we finally found the main doorway and saw Ijichi standing there outside.
"Fushiguro, Osaki!" Ijichi gasped when he saw us. "Wait, where's Itadori?"
"He's still out there. But first, we need to get Nobara back into the car." I replied.
"Okay." Ijichi responded.
We all then went back to where Ijichi parked his car before I picked up Nobara into my arms and lay her down in the backseat of the car. I even used my Reversed Cursed technique to heal her wounds and wrapped a bandage around her forehead and on her left eye. Ijichi quickly hopped into the driver's seat and slammed the door closed.
"Please expand the evacuation area to 10 kilometers." I said to the older man.
"What about you two?" Ijichi asked.
"We're waiting here for Yuji to return." I replied.
"I see. After I take Kugisaki to the hospital, I will return as quickly as possible." Ijichi stated.
"No. There won't be much point in you staying here. If you want to do something, please ask them to send over a sorcerer grade 1 or higher. Not that I imagine any are around." Megumi responded, crossing his arms across his chest.
Ijichi let out a sigh and gazed straight ahead of him.
"I'll do what I can. Later." Ijichi responded before driving away.
As I watched the car driving away further and further away from us, I spoke up to Megumi.
"Is it okay just to wait for him here? Shouldn't we go inside and check on him? I'm getting really worried you know." I stated.
I turned around to see Megumi staring at the detention center with a straight look on his face. Even though his face wasn't showing any emotions, his eyes were filled with nothing but concern.
"He'll be okay." He muttered in response.
His response made me narrow my eyes at him.
"Megumi, you can't hide anything from me. I can literally read you like an open book. So, please tell me, what happened when I was gone?" I asked.
Megumi bit his bottom lip and clenched his fists.
"H-He... When you and Kugisaki disappeared, shortly after we were both suddenly confronted by the special grade cursed spirit. We were paralyzed by fear but Itadori tried to act first by attacking it with his knife. This action cost him his hand and broke the knife." Megumi muttered, explaining the situation.
My eyes widened and my mouth gasped open in shock after hearing his response.
"Yuji lost a hand?!" I exclaimed in shock. "But...how... what..."
I trailed off as no word came out of my mouth after that. I was getting more and more frantic by the thought of Yuji losing a hand and now facing off that weird-ass curse all on his own. I quickly grabbed Megumi's arm and looked into his eyes.
"W-We need to go and find him! He needs our help!" I stated in a worried tone.
"He said he would be okay, Nana." Megumi responded.
"How could he be okay after losing a hand dammit?!" I asked, deeply furrowing my eyebrows.
Megumi was about to respond back when suddenly we felt something strange that made us look back at the detention center. The innate domain had been deactivated and the detention center was back to normal.
"The innate domain is closed off! The special grade curse is dead." I muttered as my eyes widened in surprise.
"Now we just need Itadori to return safely..." Megumi trailed off.
But then, all of sudden both of us let out a loud gasp in shock and froze in our places when we sensed something ominous standing behind us. It was Sukuna.
"Sorry, but he is not coming back." Sukuna chuckled as he walked past us. "Don't be so frightened. I'm in a great mood right now. Let's chat for a bit."
I furrowed my eyebrows as Sukuna who had taken full control of Yuji's body walked over and stood in front of us with a large cocky smirk on his face.
"This is what he gets for trying to use me without any kind of pact. Feels like he is having some trouble switching back. Still though... It's only a matter of time. So... I thought about what I can do right now." Sukuna stated as he ripped off Yuji's jacket, showing off his muscular figure, and suddenly shoved his right hand into his chest.
This made both Megumi and I gasp in horror.
"What are you doing?!" I cried out, gritting my teeth.
"I'm taking this brat hostage." Sukuna replied, ripping out Yuji's heart and throwing it to the side on the ground.
"Hostage?!" Megumi asked.
"Yeah. I can live without this, but that ain't true for the brat. Switching out with me means he dies." Sukuna replied.
"You bastard!" I snarled out, clenching my fists.
He then pulled his cursed finger out of his pocket.
"Also... For good measure..." he said before eating the finger. "With that, I am free as a bird. You can be frightened now. I'll kill you. For no particular reason..."
"You just don't get it. He... Itadori's coming back. Even if that means he'll die. That's just how he is." Megumi stated, getting into his fighting stance.
"You give him too much credit. This guy is just a little tougher and denser than other humans. Just a moment ago, he was scared out of his mind, on the verge of death n prattling on about his regrets and all that nonsense. I know for a fact he doesn't have the guts to kill himself." Sukuna taunted as he let out a small chuckle.
I looked at his arms and noticed that his hand was restored. Healing; that was the only answer. He could use reverse cursed techniques. Sukuna had incarnated and even if he could live without heart, it should still be damaging to him. I had to make him heal his heart before Itadori returned. I just had to make him believe he couldn't beat us without a heart in his body.
I pulled out my rifle from my rifle scabbard and pointed the barrel at him.
"Give Yuji back, Sukuna. I'm warning you." I said in a threatening tone.
"What are you gonna do if I don't do it?" Sukuna asked with a smirk, stepping closer to me. "You're quite interesting, you know that? Smart, strong, and beautiful... Someone like you shouldn't work in such a dangerous field. So, why don't you just-"
BAM!
Sukuna couldn't even finish his stupid speech as I pulled the trigger and fired a bullet that grazed his cheek, blood leaking from his wound. Sukuna went stiff on his spot with wide eyes in surprise.
"My bullets are my cursed tools made from my cursed energy. If I shoot a bullet straight into your body, your body will explode with one snap of my finger. And if I did do such a thing, you won't be able to survive, because you don't have a heart. I know you don't want that to happen, right Sukuna?" I stated.
This made Sukuna smirk widely at me.
"Then come and fight me!" he announced, opening his arms. "I am finally outside after all. Let's use the open space!"
With that Megumi immediately dashed towards Sukuna, summoning his bird Shikigami Nue and engaging Sukuna in close-range combat. But unfortunately, Megumi wasn't able to land a hit on Sukuna as Sukuna easily dodged all his attacks and simply toyed with him.
"Interesting... You use Shikigami, but you will still come to me yourself?" Sukuna asked, grinning in amusement.
Now that Sukuna told us to fight him, I realized that my rifle gun wouldn't give me many benefits in hand-to-hand combat with the Curse king. Besides I couldn't use my bullets on him just like that. After all, that body actually belonged to Yuji, not Sukuna. I immediately put my rifle back into the scabbard and rushed over to Sukuna to fight him.
"Hellflame – Cremation!" I stated.
I blasted out a huge amount of blue flames from the palms of my hands towards Sukuna but he immediately dodged my attack. The flames instead hit the trees around us before burning them into ashes in a few seconds.
I noticed Sukuna was then about to attack me back with a powerful punch, so I quickly activated my other cursed technique.
"Black Beast – Rashomon!" I stated.
With that, a black beast came out from my body and shielded me from Sukuna's attack. Sukuna and I then got engaged in closed-range combat where I kept on attacking him with the cursed technique Rashomon and whenever Sukuna attacked me and Megumi back, I immediately shielded myself and my friend with the black beast. But unfortunately, I couldn't take him down as Sukuna was also able to dodge my attacks.
"More, more, more! Put more curse behind it when you strike me!" Sukuna laughed at me and Megumi, dodging our attacks.
I noticed that whenever my attacks hit Sukuna and left deep large wounds on him, he immediately healed himself up with his reversed cursed technique. The black beast went for an offensive attack in the form of a gigantic clawed appendage that extends from my right arm and with that beast I was able to slash him on his left arm, but he immediately healed himself up.
At one point in the fight, Megumi unleashed Orochi who lifted Sukuna into the air with its mouth where Nue could strike the cursed king repeatedly.
"Gang upon him!" Megumi ordered them.
However, Sukuna destroyed the Great Serpent with his pure cursed energy, making me and Megumi gasp out in shock. Megumi and I were so shocked and caught up in the moment that we didn't even realize Sukuna already landed on the ground and held Megumi from the back with a fistful of his jacket.
"Hey, what did I just say?" Sukuna stated in a low tone before his voice got a bit louder. "Let's use the open space!"
And with that in a flash, he used the open space to throw Megumi high up in the air using power and agility.
"Megumi!!" I screamed out in horror.
I watched Sukuna dash into the air and go after Megumi and with one kick, he sent Megumi crashing through countless trees and buildings. Without a second thought, I immediately rushed toward the direction where Megumi was now at. I frantically ran down the road and before I could even realize it, I made it to the place where Megumi and Sukuna were at.
My eyes went wide open in shock when I noticed Yuji's body lying on the ground, face-planted, covered with mud, blood, and rain while Megumi, who was all beat up with blood rolling down from his forehead, looking up at the cloudy sky with eyes closed, his lips quivering. I slowly walked up to them to get closer and by analyzing the situation, I realized the worst possible case had occurred; Yuji was able to switch back and died immediately after that. I stared down at Yuji's body for a moment in absolute shock before looking back at my black-haired best friend.
"M-Megumi..." I mumbled out quietly, tears rolling down my cheeks.
Megumi looked at me and his face softened a bit when he noticed my tears.
"I'm sorry, Nana... I'm sorry..." he muttered in response.