I TOOK A KNIFE AND CUT OUT HER EYE,
I TOOK IT HOME AND WATCHED IT WITHER AND DIE
girl with one eye,
florence + the machine
This world is a line running along the edge of the universe, swerving around stars and thinning out in the midst of sunny skies and porcelain clouds. You feel eternity in motion, in unrelenting rains and waves of sunshine pouring over your head when the warmth of your parents' empty hugs do no more than widen the gap in your heart.
And right now, the world centred in on Eishuu Juvenile Detention Center where the rain becomes more vicious as you think. It's the day after Harajuku and this atmosphere that has swallowed you up whole feels different to the daze from yesterday; tension swallows the air around you, thick and unforgiving as you struggle to breathe in the darkness.
An emergency had broken out at the juvenile detention center, and all four of the first years were dispatched to handle it - it was just as Gojo had said; this was likely your test. The dispatcher's words go through one ear and out the other, but you heard some bits. Your mission was to verify and rescue any survivors left inside with the cursed womb that appeared on the site.
"Our window verified the cursed womb three hours ago. Once 90% were evacuated, they made the call to seal off the center. Citizens within a 500-meter radius have been evacuated as well," Ijichi-san says idly, hands resting behind him in his suit.
You blink, realising you had dazed off again, "Ijichi-san, I have a question. What's a 'window' here?"
"A window is a member of Jujutsu Tech who can see curses. They aren't sorcerors though."
Huh, maybe I should be one of those people, you wonder briefly.
"Let's continue," He says, undeterred, and guides you and the others to Detainee Block 2. "At present, five detainees remain there with the cursed womb. If this cursed womb is the type that metamorphoses, we predict it will become a special-grade cursed spirit."
You shiver upon hearing that word, knowing it means something dangerous. Your eyes meet Kugisaki and Fushiguro, both of whom also have a hint of terror inside their hues.
"I must reiterate this to you: do not fight under any circumstances," Ijichi fixes his eyes which rest close to the ridge of his eyes, "If you encounter a special-grade cursed spirit, 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 survivors."
He pauses as soon as someone's terrified cries haunt the air; everyone turns and in the distance, the police hold back a teary-eyed woman. You find your nails digging into your palm, as if wanting to imprint crescent-shaped bruises. She calls out for her son, Tadashi, in such poignant agony and you hate it. You hate it so, so much.
This is the world you're trapped in, full of death and death and death.
For a moment, you're that little girl again and the web of lies is cut-throat as it spindles a veil around your skin, warping the beauty of the universe and helping demons emerge from the darkness. Mother's eyes are blacker than the ebony spat in the spaces between stars. She calls for you, as if that woman being barricaded by the police was now suddenly her.
Come back to me, she whispers. Finish what I started.
A second later, you fix your expression, forcing a plastic smile onto your face.
Fushiguro puts his hands together, fingers forming the outline of a dog. His pupils narrow as he calls out his shikigami, "Demon Dogs!"
From the slither of his shadow, a white wolf-like dog emerges playfully; the purity of its fur is brighter than the blackness the darkness of Fushiguro's shadow conveyed. As white as sclera of a dead man, or the wishing bones of templar skeletons, the wolf howls upon being summoned.
"He'll let us know if the curse gets close," Fushiguro explains - his expression was as still as the undisturbed surface of a lake beneath the moon.
"Oh, I see!" You muse, kneeling before the dog. Itadori does the same, an innocent and carefree smile locked on the ivory of his face, "Good boy, good boy! We're counting on you, okay?" You look unwaveringly at it's pitch-black hues and sun-yellow sclera.
Itadori accidentally brushes your hand when you both tickle the dog's fur, a final hurrah before battle, but you overlook it as Fushiguro ushers for the two of you to resume your stances.
Kugisaki opens the door and it creaks, reminding you of the untuned piano sitting back home, the one that screamed every time the rocking chair broke or the wind hurled it's fright into the room.
Chills creep along everyone's faces as the darkness stirs; the walls feel like they are narrowing the more you sprint down them besides Fushiguro.
But then suddenly, you halt in your steps and look up, a sinking feeling embellished in your stomach from all the built up of anxiety.
"What is this?" Kugisaki looks around, her orange eyes startled at the infinital height of the room. It seemed like the walls never ended and the black corners haunting the air above you grow thick upon the scent of your fear.
Itadori stumbles, eyes widened in confusion, "Wh - What's going on in here? This is a two-story dorm, isn't it?"
Kugisaki inhales, hands raised as she frets, "C-C-Calm down! It's a maisonette."
"No, it's not," Fushiguro looks stunned, struggling to remain calm, "It's the deployment of an Innate Domain due to cursed energy... I've never seen one this big." Suddenly, he whips around, sweat trickling down his brow, "Where's the door?!"
"Th - The door's... gone?" You tilt your head, realising the entrance was now barred by a litany of long and winding pipes on the walls. "Didn't we just walk through it? I..."
Naturally, panic sets in like water filtering through a crack in a wall. Fushiguro seems to be the only one whose nerves are not frayed or weathered by the obstacles in the mission; he does have more experience than Kugisaki, Itadori and you combined, you guess. "It's fine," He says dully, watching Itadori and Kugisaki mutter their final prayers, "The dog remembers the scent of the entrance."
"Ah, good boy," You ruffle the dog's fur, "You can have all the jerky you want when you get out."
"You are way too calm now!" A tick appears on Fushiguro's forehead at his friends' antics.
But the playful mannerism you briefly adorn will shed when the horror unfolds, and as you trail deeper into the darkness of the hallways, you realise that the world is eclipsed in black and white; a merciless reality awaits you, the one you refuse to think about.
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About an hour into the search, you find a door that isn't locked, but upon entering it, the world shakes and rattles like a dying heart in a ribcage. The stench of blood is pungent and it froths in the gaunt air, rivalling your capacity for not vomiting upon instinct - it's a putrid and sad wave of death that rolls over the room like a blanket.
"Atrocious," Fushiguro murmurs; he seems too calm. Maybe, he's just more used to it than you. You can feel your knees buckling, eyes dancing around the room, not wanting to look at this reality that is staring at you. "It's three people, right?"
You cover your mouth, stumbling towards the corpses, but you cannot even call them human. Pale are their faces, dried up like a vampire in sunlight, having lost the image of being alive. The trail of blood is heavy but fleeting, pooled beneath the severed flesh and soaking the concrete ground. Slumped against the wall is the torso of a young man, and the curled up spine of an unknown creature cuddles the muscle and bone of his inmates.
Itadori runs immediately, his legs carrying him to a place his heart doesn't; he looks out of the corner of his eye and sees you. You. You in your fresh school uniform, a round tear escaping the eyes' edges, trembling lips threatening to spill bile and a body that is being hollowed out from the memories of a dark past.
He holds your hand tightly, feeling the same emotions rotting inside you in that very moment. And you watch, not sure what to even do, as he tugs on the nametag stitched onto the navy blue jumpsuit, and it reads very faintly Okazaki Tadashi.
The woman's words come hurrying back into the conk of your skull, wine dripping into a chalice as it brews over this tragedy. Is my son, Tadashi, okay? Where is he? Please help him.
"Let's take this body back," Itadori says suddenly, a dark expression scrawled on his face.
Kugisaki blinks, "Huh?"
"It's that woman's son," You murmur, eyes gently roving over him, "His face isn't too badly mangled. His mother won't accept it if we tell her he's dead, but we don't have a body."
Fushiguro walks over and pulls the two of you by your hoods, "We have to find and verify two more. Leave that body behind."
How can you be so heartless? Can't we do anything? Anything? ANYTHING?
"Quit joking around!" Itadori yells, "We turned around, and the way we got in here was gone! We won't be able to come back for it later!"
Fushiguro argues back, equally passionate, "I didn't say to come back for it! I said to leave it behind!" He inhales, thin eyebrows still knitted together, "I have no intention of risking my own life to save someone I had no intention of saving in the first place!"
His words incite something in Itadori, who leaps forwards and holds Fushiguro by the collar as well, "No intention of saving him? What do you mean?!"
"This is a juvenile detention center," Fushiguro replies, trying to stay calm, "Jujutsu sorcerers are granted access to all information about the scene beforehand. This Okazaki Tadashi 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."
You pause, feeling your morals getting twisted in the palm of God. This information evoked a change in emotion, as if you were thinking differently now. All you can think about it is that little girl; that could have been you had your mother chosen to let you die instead...
"I know you're stuck on saving lots of people and guiding them to proper deaths," Fushiguro explains, "But what are you going to do when someone you saved kills someone else in the future?"
You sulkily retreat, prying Fushiguro's fingers off your bubblegum pink hood and standing silently next to Kugisaki, who holds your hand.
Itadori, however, does not relent, "Then why did you bother saving me?!"
Kugisaki hurries over with you, "Cut it out! Christ, what are you two doing?! You're both idiots! Think about the time and place if you-"
She stops speaking and you turn, realising in horror that she had actually fallen through the ground and left you. It still felt like she was holding your hand but you could see her flailing expression as she slipped through like sand.
A scream leaves your mind before you can even comprehend it; you have lost all means of remaining calm. Everything -the corpses, the hardship, mother, and now this - was destroying you mercilessly.
"Kugisaki?" Itadori turns with a frown, looking at the puddle left behind in her wake.
You fall to your knees, perplexity written on your features; fingers clawing at what was left, you blink at what was happening. Nobara had definitely slipped through an Innate Domain. That word feels vaguely familiar to you, like you had heard it once years ago.
"No way... The Demon Dog should have sensed the curse!" Fushiguro mutters, horrified.
But you see why the dog didn't - it's head was sticking out of a punctured concrete wall, blood seeping from a cracked skull. The stain of red over white is unlike anything you have ever seen before; it was not beautiful at all, but it still conveyed beauty.
As your throat clamps up, you find you have so many things you want to say. You can feel the aura of a cursed spirit hanging in the air tightly woven around you. The power it reeks off is so innately different that you cannot even come close to comprehending it.
There's a cursed spirit. There's a cursed spirit. There's a cursed spirit.
But, before you can tell anyone, it happens before your eyes, standing between Fushiguro and Itadori.
Their eyes are widened at the proximity of the monster and you can tell their brains are screaming at them to move but they're paralysed in natural fear; they are frozen in place like time had stopped.
Even if you wanted to move, what would you do anyway? Your mind is blank because you have never done this before. Nothing in your head is telling you anything and it seems like instinct is the only thing you can rely on.
You watch Itadori's shaking hand hover over the hilt of his demon weapon, the same one that he used in Roppongi. And then, he pulls it out and all you see is a gleam of silver reflecting from the nearby flickering lights and... and...
A jutting sound comes next, like a fine and thin cut - it was not the sound of his blade hitting the curse. The blade lands a few metres away and Itadori's hand is still tightly curled around it's hilt.
"Itadori?" You whisper, terrified. You cannot take your eyes off the blood and the hand and reality was finally starting to sink in.
Itadori pulls out a line of bandages and starts to wrap his hand, watching the cursed spirit crow in amusement.
"Hey Sukuna," He says, "If I die, you die too, right? If you don't want that then help me out!"
"Nope," Sukuna's cruel-lipped mouth prods from beneath Itadori's eyes. "If you want to switch... then switch. But once you do, I'll kill this brat before the cursed spirit can! Then I'll go for that woman. She's a lively one so I'll have fun with her. And finally..."
His eyes swivel and fixate on you with a malicious grin, "You. I think I'll save you for last, [First Name] [Last Name]."
How does he know my name?! You stagger back, disliking how familiar the darkness of that entity is. His serpentine smile lingers as if collecting the dust of a thousand years memories.
"I'm not going to let you do that," Itadori furrows his eyebrows angrily.
You bite your lip, "L - Let me distract it. Fushiguro, you retreat and Itadori, you lure Sukuna out. Let me... let me help. It's the least I can do."
As you say this, the monster bellows a burst of fire and sends cataclysmic damage to the floor. It was enough to make the ground shake angrily like the earth was struggling to fight back.
Fushiguro's eyes widen; he snatches your hand, "It's not jujutsu. It just unleashed pure cursed energy."
Your nails dig into the back of his palm, "Fushiguro! Fushiguro! Fushiguro!"
He is too focused on the maniacal laughter the sentient spirit exudes, watching it's muscular and pale arms twirl at the excitement of playing with humans.
Itadori's voice finally jolts him back to reality, breaking through the air which was shrouded with a painful, ringing sound, "Take Kugisaki and [First Name] and get out of here! I'll keep him busy until you guys are out. As soon as you're out, give me some kind of signal. Once you do that... I'll switch with Sukuna."
"You can't do that!" Fushiguro's hands ball into fists, "Not with only one arm against a special-grade!"
You do the same, "Don't do it! You know what the mission is..."
But Itadori just looks sadly at the two of you; only one word is enough for you to give him your heart, "Please."
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Fushiguro and you find Kugisaki after what feels like hours being pressed into your palms. She's swallowed up in the darkness, being played with by some curses. And naturally, her temperance come in handy when it came to stalling for time.
You arrive and the build up of agony inside your soul starts to unstitch itself unsettlingly when you evoke cursed energy. Every atom in your body trembles from the thoughts of the night, the blood and the screams and the eyes of that cursed spirit as it toyed with you.
You don't know what really happens, because your mind seems to blot it out when you use your jujutsu. It's like a nightmare that doesn't wash away when the tide comes - tethered and growing in strength.
The world falls away just enough for you to implement your emotions onto the flesh of cursed spirits and the air around them starts to tear at their skin, like acid rain which melts away their insides.
Fushiguro summons a viper and a frog to assist you but the mass amount of energy you used did not go to vain; you destroy eight cursed spirits in the matter of a few seconds. They are no more than the dust that gathers inside a derelict room, like all the spaces in the house back home.
"We're escaping, Kugisaki!" Fushiguro resumes a battle stance while you smile wryly at Kugisaki sitting in the mouth of a frog.
She looks glum, "I hate frogs, you know."
You smile, "You look so funny, it's cute."
"Yeah, well, sorry!" Fushiguro replies, irked.
But thankfully, there are no more troubles, other than Kugisaki complaining about the insidious tongue of a frog, as you exit the building safely.
As you lay Kugisaki gently and look at her injuries, one of Fushiguro's shikigamis howls beneath the moonlight. You lift your head, "Is that the signal?"
"Yeah," Fushiguro replies grimly, sinking as he rests against the wall.
You get to your feet, brushing dust off your black skirt, "Right, I'll go help Itadori. Try to see if any of the two detainees managed to get out as well."
"What?!" Fushiguro reaches out to stop you but you move away. "What the hell, [First Name]?! Sukuna's been unleashed."
Your hands shake as you speak, "I can't just sit here and do nothing!"
"Wait... first, let's go speak to Ijichi-san. We can wait for Itadori to return."
You bite your lip, unamused. But, you don't have the strength to fight, "Fine."
Ijichi-san is in his car near the evacuation area, and he rolls down his window when Fushiguro goes over to speak.
"Please expand the evacuation area to ten kilometres," Fushiguro requests, grimly thinking about how powerful that special-grade cursed spirit was.
Ijichi nods, "And what about you guys?"
You hold your breath, nervously, "We're waiting for Itadori to return."
"I see," Ijichi replies calmly, "After I take Kugisaki-san to the hospital, I'll return as quickly as possible."
Fushiguro shakes his head, "No, there wouldn't be much point in you staying here."
You arch an eyebrow. He says it so bluntly!
"If you want to do something," He continues, "Please ask them to send over a sorcerer grade 1 or higher. Not that I imagine any are around."
Ijichi lowers his head as Fushiguro folds his arms, "I'll do what I can."
And he drives off, leaving you and Fushiguro, who looks at you with unrelenting worry, "Are you sure you don't need to go to the hospital?"
"I'm fine," You muster a reply. "Besides, we have more pressing concerns to worry about."
The two of you cast your gaze on the juvenile detention centre. A low murmur leaves your lips as your eyes look worryingly at the darkness shrouding the place, "We both know there's a chance that Itadori might not regain control."
You take a step forward but Fushiguro's hand curls around your hood again, "Stop. Don't go. You're just walking towards your death."
"Then what do you want me to do?!" You yell, exasperatedly.
"Wait."
I guess you were right all along - it really is a waiting game.