𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐄𝐃𝐆𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐎𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐑𝐎𝐖 || 𝐉𝐔𝐉𝐔𝐓𝐒𝐔 𝐊𝐀𝐈𝐒𝐄𝐍

Chapter 9: Lost Broken Things

"I know your face now. I swear I'll curse you!" They heard Kugisaki's voice from up ahead, arriving just in time to see her about to be swallowed whole by a curse. Megumi called out his frog shikigami which grabbed her from the curse's grip as his snake shikigami exorcised it.

"Nice," Mina whistled.

"But we have company," she finished, indicating to the other curses surrounding them.

"We're escaping Kugisaki," Mina said as Kugisaki landed in the frog's mouth.

"I hate frogs, you know," she muttered weakly, blood caked at her temple.

"Yeah, sorry. Let's go," Megumi shouted as they continued running. They had gone deeper into the domain than they had thought, with the exit further away than Mina had expected. They navigated the seemingly endless maze of corridors, each a carbon copy of the last, leaving her feeling vaguely dizzy.

"MEGUMI! WAIT!" Mina screamed suddenly, her senses not betraying her as something shadowy darted towards them from up ahead, obscured by a thick fog that crept up on them from out of nowhere.

"What is it now?!" Megumi shouted, trying to mask the panic in his voice as a curse hovered a dozen meters away.

"Megumi, protect Kugisaki" Mina ordered, stepping forwards with her katanas ready, squinting as she tried to make out a shape in the grey fog, which was no doubt the work of the cursed spirit.

From within the fog, she saw a faint humanoid silhouette shift, before stepping forwards.

Ice sluiced through her veins as she felt dread settle into her bones. She couldn't move as fear rooted her to the spot. Mina didn't hear Megumi shouting her name over and over, unable to take her eyes off the man that stood before her.

"Impossible... You can't be here, not now," she whispered, her knuckles turning white as she clenched her katana's tightly.

The face that hovered beneath her eyelids every night. The face that tormented her nightmares, a face she would never be able to forget.

The man stared at her, unmoving, his gunmetal grey eyes pinning her to the spot as she cowered under his glare. No matter what she was capable of, she was reduced to a quivering child in front of him. The man smiled, shattering the illusion as it bared a row of needle-like teeth.

She blinked, tearing her eyes away from the figure, her eyes meeting a pair of deep blue ones. Megumi was shaking her, gripping her shoulders tightly.

"It's a shapeshifter curse! It looks into your heart and shows you what you fear the most!" Megumi warned her as she went rigid.

The person I fear the most...

"Close your eyes," Megumi said gently, placing a hand over her eyes, obscuring her vision. She did as instructed and closed her eyes as Megumi faced the curse, feeling pathetic at how a mere illusion of him reduced her to a cowering mess. She heard a small gasp and the hiss of a snake, which she knew to be Megumi's shikigami, and then silence, broken only by Megumi's ragged panting.

Before she knew it, Megumi tapped her shoulder to let her know it was safe to look again.

She opened her eyes, the curse nowhere to be seen.

"Let's go," she muttered, avoiding his gaze as he looked at her questioningly.

"Mina...who was that?" he asked quietly, but she just shook her head.

Megumi had never seen her look so terrified. Mina, the woman who had single handedly taken down first grade and special grade curses without fear.