ayame's flower realm . JUJUTSU KAISEN

thirty eight . resolve

24th november 2016, 12:01 am.

30 minutes after the students takayuki yasuhiro and ohashi ayame entered the veil surrounding an empty park.

takayuki yasuhiro was currently engaged in a fight against a young woman, presumed to be possessed by a cursed spirit. ohashi ayame was 50 metres away from the scene.

someone else was watching their movement.

.

yasuhiro charged forth and slashed his sword towards the spirit's neck. the latter fell backwards, avoiding the slash, before it swept its foot towards yasuhiro's legs. yasuhiro clicked his tongue, jumping into the air.

taking the chance of his immobility in the air, the spirit leaped to its feet before stabbing a hand right into yasuhiro's face. yasuhiro quickly tilted his head, but the spirit managed to graze his cheek with its nails, leaving behind a trail of red.

landing onto the ground, yasuhiro turned around and took off in a sprint, trying to conceal himself in the forest. in his hand, calamity's edge trembled as if it was protesting its wielder's retreat.

"sit still, you cursed sword!" yasuhiro hissed through his teeth as he dodged a rock that was coated with cursed energy. "this is why i always keep you in that 'coffin' of yours!"

as soon as he finished his sentence, yasuhiro took a sharp turn to the right and hid himself behind a tree that was two times wider than him.

'it still hasn't used its technique yet. why? surely a spirit of that grade would be so eager to show off its strength, so why...' yasuhiro bit back a grunt as he touched his side - the bleeding has stopped for now, but he definitely will have to visit shoko after this... 'is ayame still at the fountain? i better not lead this one back to her.'

yasuhiro briefly recalled the incident at the fountain. at the time, they had only just arrived at the park and was following the traces of the cursed spirit. when they arrived at the fountain, though, they were somehow separated. the second yasuhiro took his eyes off his junior, she was gone as if she was never there.

at first, yasuhiro was going to peel off every inch of the concrete and whatever there was at the fountain, in case ayame was somehow buried into the ground or something. before he got the chance to move, though, a girl had showed herself in front of him. at first, she acted like a normal human, and even introduced herself...

'right, she said her name was tsubasa riku.'

but it seemed like the real tsubasa riku was long dead.

yasuhiro sighed as he lifted up calamity's edge in front of him. a shame, he thought. if he had been a little more earlier, could tsubasa riku had been saved? could he have prevented the cursed spirit from taking over her body?

the male lifted his eyes up and looked at the girl in front of him. her face was covered in cuts, bruises and blooming reds, and her glasses, though cracked, was still sitting on her nose. under the moonlight, yasuhiro's yellow eyes was glowing.

"how long have you been staying in that girl's body?" he asked.

the spirit stared at him, unmoving.

yasuhiro lifted an eyebrow. "don't wanna talk anymore? or, ah," he glanced at the blade in front of him,"are you nervous with this little rusty blade right he - "

"where is ohashi-san?"

yasuhiro froze.

ignoring the 'little rusty blade' that was buzzing in his grasp, yasuhiro furrowed his brows towards the... girl. he turned over the few words she had spoken inside his head a few times, as if not believing his ears.

he must've taken quite a while to process those words, because the girl spoke up once more, repeating her question. yasuhiro jolted out of his trance and tightened his grip around calamity's edge.

"you..." yasuhiro cleared his throat. "what is - what was your relationship with ohashi?"

'if it's the ohashi that i know, then...'

the girl - tsubasa riku - slowly blinked, her empty eyes never once leaving yasuhiro's own pair. for a moment, yasuhiro had the thought of striking her - them down right then and there, thinking that it was simply the spirit messing with him. after a while, the girl pushed up her glasses.

"i was her only friend in middle school." riku answered.

"and the reason you want to see her?"

"the reason..." riku lowered her head and took a step back.

"time's up."

yasuhiro barely managed to lift up his sword in time to block the attack. the black blade reflecting the night sky parried a sharp piece of wood. the spirit had taken over once again.

so, she still has her consciousness.

in that moment, as yasuhiro brought his knee towards the spirit's chest, and slashed a deep cut onto its abdomen, he told himself one thing.

destroy this body before ayame comes.

as soon as it sank into his mind, yasuhiro increased his cursed energy output, channeling it onto calamity's edge. the sword shook, and if it had a mouth, a crazed laughter would surely be heard. it was always eager to kill.

the spirit's eyes widened after sensing the sudden spike of cursed energy. it lowered its body into a defensive stance and clasped its hands together.

yasuhiro lunged towards the spirit with the blade in hand. his eyes were focused on the spirit and the spirit only, no other sounds registered into his brain as if the world only had the two of them.

this was yasuhiro's binding vow, resolve.

ayame shouldn't see this.

in the second he had lunged towards the spirit, something white bloomed in his vision. then, yasuhiri's senses felt as if they were all overloaded as they drowned in the sudden burst of cursed energy that had exploded in front of him.

after that, his face felt numb.

frosty snow pierced into his skin, clothes, wounds, and hair. it stabbed into every inch of his body, and though they did not hurt him too seriouslu, they limited his movements.

the spirit swiped its hands outward, and multiple shards of ice formed in the air. from a simple lift of a finger, they came raining down onto the male.