-Art by lansecha on Instagram-
I stared darkly at the blue-haired girl who lay at my feet, wondering what I should do.
The girl in question was Miwa from the Kyoto school who I had just beaten in a fight. Usually I didn't care for my opponents but she seemed nice from the little time we had to talk before our duel so I felt bad for not holding back on her, even if she did ask me not to.
Knowing that there were cursed spirits lurking in the forest, I decided it wouldn't be safe for her to stay unconscious by herself.
Carefully, I lifted her onto my back and carried her to the main building where curses were less likely to appear since it was an open area.
My heels clacked against the cobblestone path as I spotted a nearby bench just outside the school entrance but as I lowered myself to lie her down, a dark shadow was cast over the sky. It was a curtain. Strange, considering we weren't informed that any veil would be created for the event. I furrowed my eyebrows as questions flooded my mind of the unexpected occurrence.
That was when I heard an explosion not too far from where I was. In fact, I had been hearing similar rumbling sounds while I was making my way there but thought of it as nothing more than a fight between students up ahead. But the longer I observed the smoke rising from the distant building, the more uneasy I became.
I gave one last worried glance to the sleeping Miwa on the bench, entrusting that the teachers would step in if anything were to happen to her, before dashing off to the source of the sound.
With the speed I was going at I reached the entrance gates within a few seconds. There was a long path from the gate to the tall school building and at the other end of the path was Toge, Megumi and Kamo. The three had their backs turned, clearly not having noticed my arrival.
But what caught me off guard was the thing they were looking at. Large tree trunks were sprouting out of the building's door in all directions and what stood on top of the disaster of wooden logs was a giant, tan beast with dark lines running across its buff body. Similar to the material surrounding it, the monster had branches growing upwards out of where its eyes should have been. Anyone could tell instantly from its lack of human features that it was a cursed spirit.
Some sort of special grade one too with its overwhelming presence.
While I analysed the situation, the curse remained dormant as the three boys standing below it talked calmly among each other, although they were too far for me to hear anything.
A hard gulp passed through my throat as I observed the way Toge and Kamo were fixated on Megumi typing on his phone.
The hairs on my arms stood up as I made a run for them without even knowing why. There was something about the way the curse stood perfectly still while the others prepared to call for backup which made me urge myself to get there, knowing that something was coming.
And my gut instinct proven correct when I saw it vanish from it spot to jump to the ground at lightening speed.
Without any hesitation, I spread cursed energy through my legs and flew to the three boys with more speed and more desperation than I had ever used in my life. I closed the distance just in time for the curse to also reach them as it aimed a fist for Megumi. They only noticed when it was already next to them, leaving no time to react.
Fortunately, I made it in time to step between it and the boy, raising my arms in front of my chest to block its punch. Rather than knock through Megumi's phone, the curse's fist collided with my arms with so much force that I felt myself swerve backwards, gritting my teeth at the pressure.
During the second it touched me I sent a wave of electricity through its arms so that I could weaken it. But my heart dropped at the realisation that the spirit took no damage. "(L/N) senpai!" Megumi gasped from behind me, finally registering what just happened.
"Don't move!" Toge suddenly yelled as he clutched his collar. That gave me time to jump away from it while Kamo used his blood manipulation, which had no effect.
Megumi sent Nue, one of his shikigami, to attack it, but again to no avail. Even when he brought a weapon out of his shadows to attack it with there was still not even a scratch. It was strong, that much was obvious.
The large curse began to mumble incoherent phrases which passed through our minds as some sort of translation, allowing us to understand it as it spoke of its desire to protect the planet. I was less focused on it's speech and more concentrated on Toge who I feared for the most; his cursed speech had little effect on it and from the way he swallowed, I could tell instantly that significant damage was done to his throat.
Between the four of us, he would be the first to fall.
With that in mind, I prepared to head for the cursed spirit again, practically blitzing from my spot to directly in front of it as I jumped high enough to grab its hard skull and smash it on my knee with a hard crack. "Run!" I shouted to the others and they obeyed instantly. I knew it was risky being so close to a special grade like that but I had to buy time for Toge's voice to recover.
And like I anticipated, a thick plant root spurted out of the concrete ground to fling me away. Megumi and Kamo screamed my name while they rushed into the school as I staggered to my feet and pushed myself forward, barely missing its following strike. I forced my technique to the maximum so that I could catch up to the others.
As another wave of tree logs sprouted for us, we sprinted away in a frenzy. It followed in close pursuit, closing in on us even while we scampered through the narrow hallways of the empty school.
Despite being known as one of the faster shamans, I was falling behind the three boys; since I used such a high amount of cursed energy against the spirit, the muscles in my legs cramped up. But most of all my fatigue was caused by the lightening I shot at it while blocking and kneeing it earlier.
Because, much like Toge, my powers had a large recoil. When used against something much stronger than me, I would suffer heavy consequences. Unlike with his cursed speech however, it was more difficult for me to regenerate since I didn't have something like throat medicine to rely on to heal quicker.
Kamo grabbed my wrist harshly, pulling me closer to him as the curse's roots shot the wooden floor where I was just a moment ago. "It almost got you, are you okay!?" The third-year panted as he yanked me along with him.
I nodded tiredly, turning my head to see an equally exhausted Toge gulping down more throat medicine before frowning at me with concern.
As the curse got closer, Kamo let go of me and swung around to strike it with his piercing blood as soon as Toge commanded it to stop its next attack. I stumbled up the stairs as sweat trickled down my pale face.
It was quite a troublesome situation we were in seeing as our plan was a barely stable one. It was no secret that Toge was reaching his limit and even then his speech couldn't hold the spirit for long. Megumi's attacks seemed completely useless while Kamo's only managed to do some damage and the same went for my electricity. I just needed to get enough energy back to send a stronger attack.
Together, the four of us leapt over the wooden railing of a nearby balcony and onto the red bricks of a roof with the curse still hot on our tails. We stopped at a short distance to direct another hit. With a deep breath, I prepared a strong current through my whole body while taking a stance, never breaking my eyes away from the monster.
Megumi noticed and held a hand over Nue to prompt it to aid me since he knew I wasn't at my fullest, "Inumaki will stop it for you. Go with (L/N) and attack it now!" As he sent his shikigami bird, I bolted as fast as the wind with Nue in tow. We were both shrouded in powerful static as we charged for the tall curse, expecting Toge's command.
"St-" But before he could finish, he fell to his knees, vomiting a mouthful of blood.
Even without the boy's help I could have easily dodged its attack and struck it with my fists instead. However, when I heard his curse speech fail, my heart froze; it was the first time something like that had ever happened.
I needed to see that he was okay. To see that he was alive. To just see him.
"Toge!" I looked back quickly to find him staring at me with contracted pupils which shook heavily with fear.
His face was as pale as a ghost with blood dripping down his chin. He knelt on his twitching hands, trying to call out but only managing to say the first letter of my name before spewing more blood.
When I realised why he looked at me with such frightened eyes, it was too late. Because the curse's fist flew through the air, aiming for my abdomen. It's punch went through my waist and punctured Nue's wing behind me.
Blood flew through the air as I gritted my teeth, gasping in pain. Megumi yelled my name but his words landed on deaf ears; all my senses shut down as the only thing I could feel in that moment was the fresh hole in my gut. It felt like I was on fire. My entire body on fire.
Nue vanished, leaving me to drop onto the clattered tiles alone as I held a hand over my ruptured stomach. I tried to apply pressure but there was no strength in my arms.
The cursed spirit just stomped in front of me and knocked out Kamo with a single hit before turning to Megumi. My trembling hands weakly gripped the roof tiles in front of me to push myself forward, every neuron in my brain begging me to do something, anything to help the younger boy.
Before the dark-haired boy could even attempt to fight, Toge rose to his feet with a hand on his shoulder. "Mustard leaf." He exhaled, staring ahead with a deathly glint in his eyes.
"Toge, don't-" I winced from where I lay while Megumi also beckoned for him to stand down.
Rather than listen though, the boy took slow steps towards the curse as it walked to him as well, crunching the bricks beneath its bare feet. I pushed myself up slowly, holding my bloody waist with one hand as I tried not to fall when Toge stopped advancing.
The pale boy inhaled a shaky breath until letting out a venomous demand, "Blast away!"
With that, the spirit flew past me as the wind from the impact swept though my hair. I opened my eyes quickly to see the silver-haired boy stumbling to and fro as the consciousness slipped from his weary eyes.
Even though I was well past my limit, I compelled myself to take those few steps forward in time to catch him in my arms as he fell forward. It felt like all the injuries I endured were nothing the moment his head fell softly against my shoulder. He was passed out, but alive. And that's what mattered.
Just feeling his chest rise and fall slowly with deep breaths was enough to make me collapse with so much relief that I also didn't mind blacking out right there and then too.
And when I turned around to see Maki sneaking up behind the special grade, I knew that was all that was left for me to do. As if a switch had been pulled, my remaining energy vanished as I lost consciousness just like the boy in my arms.
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i am a proud kamo simp 👍