You arrived at the location Gojo had sent you around nine in the morning, carrying your bow on your back. It turned out to be a children's playground, surrounded by tall vegetation that prevented a good view of the interior.
Just setting foot on that street made you feel suddenly sick from the amount of cursed energy the place gave off. That couldn't be a minor class curse. The organization had once again underestimated a mission, they were a little too prone to making those kinds of mistakes.
At the entrance of the park, you found the worst. There were traces of blood as if a body had been dragged across the sand in the play area, though you didn't see anyone.
You took your phone out of the back pocket of your pants and put it to your ear, waiting for the answer on the other end of the line.
"Hello?" The voice of a nervous man answered.
"Ijichi, I'm in Shinjuku and it's looking really bad." You said hastily.
"Wasn't Goj-?" The man on the phone began.
"I went instead." You answered before he finished the question. "I feel the energy of a high-rank curse, send someone when you can. Someone is injured."
You cut off the call without waiting for his response and began to conjure the veil over the area. It had barely touched the ground when you heard a noise behind you, in the distance.
You turned sharply, nocking an arrow to your bow and instinctively aiming for the source of the noise.
Your blood ran cold.
There were two children no more than 6 years old, alive. They hugged each other in the corner farthest from you, tears falling down their cheeks but their eyes empty, unmoving. With a sigh and the pulse beating hard in your temple, you lowered the arrow to the ground so as not to scare them any further.
But in that millisecond, a curse materialized behind them. It walked on two legs, white as snow, and its eyes were bloodshot. The curse raised his arm with long, sharp claws menacingly.
With a growl of rage, you imbued the arrow with cursed energy, giving off a bluish glow, and fired it with the precision of a scalpel toward the shoulder of the curse. But it was too late.
The curse clawed its way through one of the children's chests, through its heart, and the infant's body fell facedown in the sand with the expression of terror immortalized on its face.
Too late, your arrow pierced the limb of the curse, being ripped apart by the force of your cursed energy, and pulled away with a wail. Seizing the moment, you sprinted towards the other boy and shouldered him, running in the opposite direction of the curse.
"My mom and my brother..." Sobbed the boy, behind your back.
"Was your mom here too?" you asked panting, thinking about the traces of blood that were all around the floor.
Instead of responding, the little boy burst into uncontrollable sobs. You frowned and tried to distance yourself from his emotions. There was a problem to solve first: with the child on your shoulder you couldn't use your bow.
Reaching the opposite corner of the park, you lowered the boy to the ground. You looked at him carefully, and you grabbed his hand firmly to try to comfort him a little.
"Listen carefully." You murmured trying to find the most comforting tone. "I have to finish off the bad guy in this park. You have to run away and hide. Okay?"
The boy was slow to react but finally nodded. You shook his hand hard.
"Run there and hide in the trees, don't go out under any circumstances until I come for you." You said pointing towards the vegetation.
The boy was staring at you, but he didn't react. Behind you, you heard the noise of the curse's heavy hooves running towards you. You gently pushed the child out of the playpen and yelled "Now!!!"
The boy finally ran off, and at the same instant, you turned towards the curse. It was too close and you didn't have time to load the bow. You grabbed an arrow from the quiver behind your back, clenching your fist around it and charging it with cursed energy. When the curse was close to you, you lunged at it and drove the arrow with all your might into its chest. The creature's skin began to smoke and screeched, but you hadn't stabbed it deep enough to kill it.
You felt an impact on your side, and you went rolling on the ground. You were on fours on the floor, feeling a sharp pain in your ribs. The air passed with difficulty through your lungs, and you reached behind your back to catch another arrow, but your hand closed on nothing. They weren't there.
You looked up in horror at the curse, who held your quiver in his hand. It was playing with the arrows, watching them carefully. That thing was smart. The curse had watched you fight and had distracted you to disarm you.
You crawled back to the ground, the sand and stones digging into the palms of your hands, and the curse turned on you with renewed interest. All you had left was fight with your bare fists and pray to be stronger. You've always hated hand-to-hand fighting.
"No offense, but you suck at this."
You were on all fours in the training field, after being thrown into the air by a clean hit from Gojo. You spat on the ground noticing the taste of copper in your mouth. When it came to training, the boy never gave anyone the cold shoulder.
"I'm used to shooting from a distance. Hand-to-hand fighting is not my strong point." You sighed as you struggled to get up.
It had already gotten dark on the training ground and although Yaga had finished today's class, Satoru had insisted on continuing to practice. The lanky frame of the boy towered over you.
"You can't always depend on your weapon." He said with a smile on his face. You were sure he found some satisfaction in knocking you down over and over again, though he said it was for training's sake. He extended his left arm towards you, showing the palm of his hand. "Come on, hit me with all your might."
You looked at him suspiciously.
"I'll let you touch me." He said impatiently.
You raised your arms in an attack position and threw your fist with all your strength at the boy's hand. Satoru took the impact and didn't move an inch. His smile widened even more as he wraped his fingers around your fist and despair spread across your face.
"You are weak." He said almost in a whisper.
With a graceful wave of his arm, Satoru threw you back to the ground with just the grip on your fist.
You whined from the floor. "Everyone is weak compared to the strongest."
Satoru crouched down next to you, and he held out his hand to help you up. You glanced warily at the boy's hand, the long, pale fingers reaching toward you, and pushed it away. Seeking to regain some dignity, you tried to get up on your own, but your own body failed you. This had been the umpteenth time you hit the ground that afternoon and your muscles were sore.
Your friend chuckled, and he grabbed you from behind and below your knees, hauling you against his chest. You stifled a surprised sigh.
"Always so cocky." Teased Satoru as he made his way through the training ground, back to school. You felt his warm breath on your skin, a shiver running through your body.
Your cheeks were stained pink, and you turned your face away so he couldn't see it. Suddenly you were very aware of how his fingers dug into the skin of your thighs.
"Oh. Are you suddenly mute? he asked her with a hoarse voice. With a motion of his arms, he shifted the balance of your body so that you were pressed against his chest, your head wedged into the crook of his neck.
You felt your gut twist and you were livid. Was he even aware of what he was doing to you?
"No, I'm just planning how to pay you back for today." You murmured against the skin of his neck and you heard him chuckle.
This is not the time to think about this, you scolded yourself.
The monster's slimy body prepared to launch a new attack, but something moved behind it. A burst of light and the sound of an impact flooded the park, and the monster's body fell to the ground with a crash.
Above him loomed the figure of a man you knew very well. Saved by the bell.
"Nanami." You sighed with relief.
Nanami rotated the body of the curse with a kick and picked up the quiver from its claws. "You shouldn't let yourself be disarmed so quickly." He told you impassively.
"I didn't do it on purpose." You grumbled. "There was a..."
You left the sentence halfway and ran towards the vegetation, where the kid was hiding. You found him curled up in a bush, and carefully picked him up. He didn't protest.
When you returned to Nanami, you pointed your finger at the lifeless body of the brother, trying not to make any noise. You didn't want to draw the attention of the kid you were carrying.
The shaman was petrified for a second at the sight of the corpse of the little kid, but he pushed his emotions away the same way you had a few minutes ago. After all, it was your job.
"I'm going to call Ijichi to clear the area." Nanami muttered pulling out the phone.
You were startled by the cold contact on your skin. Shoko looked at you with tired eyes, a silent warning to be still. She pressed her hands to your side as she transferred her energy into your body.
"You have three broken ribs." Your friend announced.
"Shit." You muttered as you writhed on the cold gurney in her office. Shoko had made you remove your shirt, leaving only your bra, and the cold metal bothered you in direct contact with your skin. Even with the doctor's skill, it would take a good time to join up three broken bones.
"They have found the body of the children's mother." Nanami announced, sitting on a chair in the corner of the room and checking his text messages. He had walked you to school to make sure you weren't badly hurt.
"Where is she?" you asked urgently, sitting upon the stretcher. Shoko pushed you down again, clicking her tongue.
Nanami sighed, leaning back in her chair. "In the stomach of the curse."
"Fuck." Shouko cursed.
Time passed in silence as Shoko continued to heal your wounds. None of the three had anything to say. As shamans, you must have been used to this kind of incident. You didn't know how your colleagues felt, but no matter how many deaths you saw, you would never get used to it. You couldn't get the boy's expression out of your head when he ran the curse through him. You closed your eyes tightly trying to erase the image.
"Thank you for coming Nanami. If you don't show up I'd be in trouble."
"It is my duty." He said in a monotone voice, looking at the watch on his wrist, despite having the phone at hand. "But there is something that bothers me. The cursed energy I felt in that place was much more intense than the curse we encountered."
"I felt it too," you added. "But there was no one else in that park. The veil was lifted as soon as you killed it."
Nanami hummed from the chair and put the phone in the inside pocket of his suit. "I have already reported the situation." The man waved goodbye and left the room.
"This would be it." Shoko said, removing her hands from your skin and leaving room for you to get dressed. "But you better not make any more effort today while you finish recovering."
You nodded. "Can you tell Yaga? I had a class this afternoon."
Shoko assured you that she would report your health status and you said goodbye to her too, thanking her for her services once again. Physically you were fine, but the emotional weight of the scene that morning did not leave you.
You needed a drink.