DEVOTED
Chapter four — "Fearsome Womb"
HER FISTS GRIPPED onto the side of her coat as (Y/n) peered up at the sky. Not a single spot of blue seeped through the ocean of grey clouds. Her gaze fell to the suit-wearing man in front of her, whom she recognized as Ijichi Kiyotaka, the Assistant Manager of Jujutsu High School, "Our windows confirmed a curse womb approximately three hours ago. When the evacuation process was 90 percent complete, the decision was made to close off the facility. Detention Center Building 2! Five inmates are currently trapped inside along with the curse. Curse wombs that grow and change shape can be expected to become a curse close to that of a special grade."
"I'm still not sure what the special grade thing is all about," Itadori commented.
"Then allow me to explain it so even idiots can understand. 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 special grade—Let's say you might be on even footing if you carpet comb it with cluster bombs," Ijichi explained.
"Normally, a jujutsu sorcerer will be assigned to a curse of a similar grade. Gojo-sensei would be called in today, for example," (Y/n) said as she placed her hands into her pockets.
"And where's the man himself?" Yuji flipped his head from side-to-side, searching for a tall white-haired man.
"On a business trip. To be honest, he's probably not someone who should be wasting time at a place like Jujutsu High."
Ijichi pushed up his glasses, "Our line of work is always lacking manpower. And being overwhelmed by missions is common place. This time, however, it's an extraordinary emergency," he looked at each of the students, "Do not engage! When confronted by a special grade, the options are to either run away or die. Listen to your fear. Do not forget—your mission is to locate and evacuate any survivors. Nothing more."
"Hey! Excuse me! Is Tadashi... Is my son okay?" a woman stood before the barricade tape, waving to the group. Yuji attempted to step forward, being stopped by Ijichi who held an arm out in front of him.
"She came by for a visit with her son," Ijichi said to the pink boy behind him, "There's a possibility that poison was spread in the facility. We cannot disclose any more information at this point."
Another man behind the tape directs the lady away as tears stream down her face, "It can't be..."
"Fushiguro, Kugisaki, (L/n). We have to save him!" Yuji clenches his fist in determination.
"Of course."
The four teens follow the older man, "I'm going to lower the curtain. Be careful and good luck. Emerge from darkness, blacker than darkness. Purify that which is impure."
"It's turning into night!" Yuji exclaims, looking at the unnatural sky.
"It's because of the curtain. The residential are is nearby, so it acts as a barrier to hide us from the outside," Megumi explains as they walked towards the door, summoning his Divine Dogs, "If the curse gets close, it'll let us know."
Petting the shikigami's fur, (Y/n) walks through the door, taking in a sharp breath as she notices the completely unexpected setting inside. Cables and tubes connected two buildings together, resembling an eerie alleyway in a large, rundown city.
"What's going on here?! This is supposed to be a two-story dorm building, right?!" Yuji looks around the area.
"C-calm down! It's a maisonette!" Nobara attempts to hide her panic.
Megumi stays quiet for a short second, "...Wrong."
"It's a domain that expanded due to cursed energy... It's—" (Y/n) quickly whipped her head backward, "The door?!" Following her gaze, her friends were met with the sight of multiple pipes where the door once was
"The door is gone! How?! We just came from there!"
"You got this?" Megumi leaned into his dog as Yuji and Nobara danced as a way to cope, "We can track the scent of the exit." Yuji and Nobara smile at the panting dog.
"That's a good doggy!" the two approached the dog, ruffling it's fur as it panted some more, "Beef jerky! Bring all the jerky you got!"
"Hey! Stay sharp!"
"You're so reliable, Fushiguro. You've saved a lot of people. Including me!" Yuji smiles as he pets the dog one last time.
"...Let's go," (Y/n) notices her friends silence and brings everyone's attention back to the mission. The white dog leads the four teens through a dark hall, eventually arriving at a tall room with nasty stains all over the cement floor and walls. Near the opposite corner of the room were three bodies, only one of which was not completely mangled, "That's brutal."
Yuji walks toward the bodies, straightening out the man's uniform and reading the name tag as Okazaki Tadashi, "We're bringing this body back. It's that lady's son. His face isn't that messed up. She's not going to be satisfied if we just tell her that her son is dead."
"We have to confirm that the other two are dead. Leave him," Megumi approaches Yuji, gripping his hood to pull him away.
The pink boy looks at his friend from the side, "Every time we look back, the path is different. How're we gonna get back here?"
"I never said we'll come back, I said leave him. He's not even worth saving alive. Why would I save his dead body?" Megumi's words prompt Yuji to stand up straight as grip his shirt back.
"What're you talking about?"
"This is a juvenile detention center. We jujutsu sorcerers receive all sorts of information about a location before infiltrating. This guy was driving without a license and hit a girl who was walking home from school. That was his second time driving without a license. You always want to save as many people as possible and focus on going out with a natural death. But who's to say that someone you save won't kill someone in the future?"
"Then why did you save me?!" Yuji tightened his grip on the boys jacket. Nobara storms toward the boys.
"Knock it off! This isn't the time or the..." Nobara's words fade as she sinks into a dark hole in the ground.
"Kugisaki!" (Y/n) dives to reach her friend but only gets a face full of concrete. She looks back at the two boys who stare at the spot Nobara once stood.
"It can't be! My divine dogs should be..." Megumi shifts his alert gaze from the ground to the head of his white dog stuck out, it's blood dripping down the cracked wall, "(Y/n)! Itadori! Run! We'll look for Kugisaki after we get away." All three figures froze, feeling a new presence in the room, beside the two boys.
'There's no mistake—it's a special grade!' (Y/n)'s mind roared, telling her to do something but her body was still frozen, 'Run. Fight. Something! Just move!'
Yuji lifted his hand to slash at the blue humanoid curse. The silence in the air was deafening as (Y/n)'s eyes shifted from the blood dripping to the floor to the dismembered hand and broken knife in front of her, 'What just happened...?'
"He already closed the distance. There's no running away now. If I die, you die too. You don't want that, do you, Sukuna? Then help me!" Yuji used a strap of leather as a tourniquet.
"I refuse," a mouth appeared on Yuji's cheek, "Even if I die inside of you, I still have 18 more spirit fragments scattered around. That said, I am unfortunately not in control of this body. It's up to you to switch. But when that happens, before I kill the curse, I'll kill Fushiguro here. Next is Kugisaki. She's got spunk, so that should be fun. I think I'll drag (L/n) around for a little while—though that might be a little personal."
"I won't let that happen," Yuji's words brought comfort to the girl behind him.
"I figured as much. But if you get too distracted with me, your friends might really die!"
The Finger Bearer took a breath in before pursing it's lips as if it were to blow the air out. (Y/n)'s eyes tracked the force that was spat out, 'It's...' The boys moved out of the way, leaving the projectile heading straight towards the girl on the floor behind them.
"(Y/n)!"
"I-I'm fine," she coughed out as the dust settled down, revealing her against the wall at the back of the room, arms crossed over her face, "It was pure cursed energy—I just absorbed it..." She wiped the dust and dirt off her face, "Though that didn't stop me from being blown back... I should've coated my skin in it."
"Fushiguro, (L/n)! Find Kugisaki and get outta here! I'll keep this thing distracted until you three make it out. I don't care how you do it, but give me a signal once you two are out and safe."
"There's no way you can do this! You're up against a special grade and you've only got one arm!" (Y/n) ignored the two, reaching into her pants pocket and pulling out a red pocket knife.
"Look closely," two teens looked at the curse as it laughed, "It's totally underestimating us. Buying some shouldn't be too hard."
"I can't!"
"Fushiguro!" Yuji looked at Megumi with wide, certain eyes, "Please."
Using the curses laughing fit as a distraction, she flicked her wrist, sending her knife spinning towards the Finger Bearer's head, "Damn right it's underestimating us." Smirking widely, (Y/n) watched as the knife zoomed past her friends, catching their attention moments before it embedded itself into the curse's face.
The curse's laughter quickly turned into a loud shriek of pain as the knife dug itself into its head at an odd angle, latching onto one of its frontal eyes. Sukuna's mouth appeared on Yuji's cheek again, matching (Y/n)'s smirk, "Damn, girl. That was personal."
"Hand-for-an-eye, yeah?"
"(Y/n), let's go!" Megumi yelled for the girl, frowning when she didn't move from her spot and instead got into a fighting stance. Quickly, he lifted her over his shoulder and ran from Yuji and the Finger Bearer, ignoring her protests and tightening his grip.
Megumi ran through the halls, summoning his black divine dog, "Find Kugisaki!" He watched as the dog ran ahead and disappeared from his sight while he lowered the girl to run with him.
'Please don't let my worry become true.'
The pair began falling down a hole, Megumi summoning Nue before grabbing his friend and holding her tightly to his body. Nue set the two on the ground and they continued running through the halls in search of their ginger friend. Eventually seeing Nobara being held upside down by a curse, Megumi summoned two of his shikigami, sending a snake to chomp the curse while a frog wrapped its tongue around the girl, pulling her into its mouth safely.
"I'm not a fan of frogs."
"Too bad."
The three ran straight for the door, Ichiji held onto a tired Nobara as he walked her to the car while Megumi quickly plopped down onto the steps, breathing heavily as his dog howled, signaling they were safe. (Y/n) leaned against a wall, waiting for her friend to catch his breath before they walked to the car.
Hearing the howl, Yuji switched with Sukuna, "No matter how you slice it... You're such an annoying brat," Sukuna turned his body, patting the Finger Bearer's shoulder, "Hold on, I'm thinking..."
The curse watched him in wonder, 'If I go after Fushiguro and (L/n), the kid will change back, and if that's the case, then the most troublesome case for him would be...' Sukuna visualized him and the curse going after Fushiguro together, 'This! It's back to the original plan.'
"Hey, let's go kill the brats. Come on!" Sukuna let's go of the curse and begins walking away, regenerating his fingers to signal to the curse. He continues walking as the curse behind him generates a large ball of energy. Turning his head, Sukuna regenerates his other hand, holding it out and protecting himself from the attack, "Ah, shit. I healed this one, too."
The curse stared at Sukuna in shock, "Not a fan of walks, huh? Well, I guess curses are supposed to linger at their point of origin," Sukuna offers a false smile before springing forward, hand raising to the Finger Bearer's face as the smile vanishes, "You can die here!" Sukuna smashes the curse's head into the cement bridge and yanks (Y/n)'s knife out of its head as it screeches.
Sukuna smiled sadistically at the helpless curse below him, "C'mon," he lifted his foot, "You can do better than that!" Sending his foot down onto the curse, the bridge collapses and they fall. Feeling a hand grab his ankle as it tries to throw him around, he ends up sitting atop a piece of the falling rubble, resting his head on one hand while the other holds an arm.
"Even a cursed spirit needs an arm, right?" Sukuna laughs at the curse's dismay while it falls into the water with a large splash.
"Please expand the evacuation zone to ten kilometers."
"What about you two?"
"We're staying," (Y/n) spoke up as she allowed the rain to cool her down, "If things go wrong, it's our responsibility to finish him." The girl chose to stay in case her friend wouldn't be able to kill the pink-haired boy, 'You didn't want him to die. And although my opinion has formed, I am willing to shoulder the burden for you.'
"After I take Kugisaki to the hospital, I'll be back as soon as I can."
"No, you won't make much of a difference anyway. But if you do come back, please bring a grade 1 or stronger jujutsu sorcerer. There's probably no one available though," Megumi said before he and (Y/n) watched the car drive away.
"Did you know? You and I are categorized as special grade... Me," Sukuna grins up at the dismembered curse, "...and this insect?" Freeing itself from the wall, the Finger Bearer regenerates its limbs before landing in front of Sukuna, "You look so proud of yourself—should I applaud? But using cursed energy to heal yourself isn't hard for cursed spirits, unlike humans. And you and this brat don't have the slightest idea of what a curse can do. How about I teach ya..." Sukuna raises his hands, leaving his middle and ring fingers up and touching while the rest curl, "true jujutsu sorcery?!"
"Domain Expansion," Sukuna smirks as his eyes close, "Malevolent Shrine."
Sukuna walks forward as his eyes open, "I was going for three slices. Sheesh! You're weak," his gaze falls onto a hole in the curse's chest, "Oh, right! Can't forget about this!" Sukuna digs the old finger out of its chest, "I'll take that."
Walking away as the curse bursts into pink and blue flames, Sukuna yells, "I'm done! ...How annoying! If you're going to change, get on with it already..."
"...Brat?"
More silence passes before a maniacal grin spreads across Sukuna's face.
Megumi and (Y/n) looked into the sky, looking back at each other once they noticed the domain had disappeared. "It's dead. All that's left is Itadori," (Y/n) said before quickly looking behind herself to come face to face with a familiar pink head of hair, except...
"He ain't coming back," Megumi followed his friend's gaze, landing on the body of their friend who was currently possessed by Sukuna, "It seems like he's having a hard time changing back. This must be a side effect of using me without restrictions. Don't worry, I'm in a good mood right now, let's talk—It's most likely a matter of time, though... So I've been thinking of my next move," Sukuna starts ripping his shirt off.
"Jeez man, what's with you and being shirtless..." (Y/n)'s eyes widened when Sukuna plunged his hand into his chest, "What—"
"I'm taking him hostage!" In Sukuna's hand was Yuji's beating heart, "I can live without this thing, but he can't! Switching now means his death. Also..." pulling out a familiar old finger, "Just to make sure." He slides it in his mouth, swallowing it whole, "Now then... I'm finally free. You can be scared now. There's no real reason for this, but... time for you to die!"
"This is just like last time... except now the roles are reversed."
"I'll even it out a bit for you two—(L/n), catch," Sukuna tossed a familiar red knife into the air.
Grabbing it and turning it over, (Y/n) scoffs, "Oh, thanks... What the—" Her finger traced over the R.Sukuna that was engraved into its red handle, "I don't want your stupid autograph!"