wasteland, baby! [fushiguro megumi]

31: a devil's card

31 october 2018   

tokyu department store

third person pov

leaving ieri shoko with barely a full sentence and a man on death's door, keiko found herself approaching the tokyu department store before she could catch her breath. something sinister lingering in the air irks her as she follows a familiar trace of cursed energy into the building.

crimson irises take their usual bone-chilling glow as keiko raises her naginata, hurling it towards the brash curse user she found attacking her friend.

"kugisaki, watch out!" the injured ginger catches on immediately, ducking back to avoid getting pierced by the ablazed spear, while the blonde ponytailed curse user – shigemo haruta – jumps back with a presumptuous laugh.

"so you're the girl with that dragon technique!" he marvelled at her power and speed.

"and you're that slimy bastard with no bitches." keiko stated matter-of-factly, pulling kugisaki up from the ground before gently pressing a thumb into the ginger's cheek to work her reverse cursed technique.

kugisaki notices how keiko's fingertips burned a little, swallowing the need to wince in pain after taking note of the way keiko's uniform had been drenched in blood.

"my my ... and i think i might just have even more fun with you-" keiko didn't let shigemo finish, slamming her fist into cracked concrete ground while spreading her cursed energy through the loose gravel and launching them towards him in an instant.

shigemo barely dodges her attack, allowing a couple of hurdling shards to pierce into his chest. he raises the sword in his hand for his next strike, before abruptly stopping when another had entered the fray.

"i can't remember ... is it okay for me to kill non-black suits too?" shigemo taunts a welcome to the new face, though very much familiar for keiko to feel a drop of relief in her veins.

"nanami ..." she watches as the grade one sorcerer approaches them, wrapping his dotted necktie around his fist.

"hey hey! can't you read the situation here? what're you movin' around for?" shigemo raises his sword again. "i've got this girl here hosta-"

his eyes trail up to nitta akari struggling to climb up the escalator behind them, before turning back to be barely a breath away from nanami's alarming gaze.

"where and how many of you are there?"

"dunno." shigemo absurdly swings his blade forward before shoving his foot into what he almost believed was a solid wall of stone.

"where ... and how many of you are there?" nanami's voice rumbled in the pit of his stomach and a fist had sent him seeing stars while being pummelled several feet away.

"mizuki," keiko snaps back her attention to kugisaki. "nitta san needs help. you can go, i'll be okay."

dashing up the escalator, keiko rushes towards the incapacitated nitta who's grasping on the thin thread of life as desperately as she can. keiko kneels by her body, cautiously tracing her fingers over the bloody gashes on nitta's back with her reverse cursed technique.

"i haven't mastered the reverse cursed technique, so i can't heal you fully. we'll have to get you to shoko san to properly patch you up." keiko slides an arm under nitta to support her body upright, ignoring the pool of blood that grazed her sleeve.

"easy there, mizuki." nitta chokes while she stumbles to find her centre of gravity.

"where ... and how many?" nanami questioned again, to which shigemo began to finally come apart as he chokes up with a sudden burn that fanned out from within his chest.