Before the Golden Age of Jujutsu, there were Cursed Ones that taught and gave others the power to fight the curses plaguing the land. But eventually, as all things, Cursed Ones became forgotten and left common knowledge and fear.
After losing his fr...
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Hysteria. It blames others for what they did not do. A child saved them from the curses plaguing their village, but what is the difference for people who do not understand?
At the sun's rising, a young girl wearing a tattered and bloody kimono pulled herself through the snow that reached her knees. Her black hair blew wild in the wind, and her green eyes searched the horizon.
In the distance, she could see the Shinto shrine's entrance through the trees. Behind her, hunters and barking dogs chased after her relentlessly. They called her a curse. They called her a monster.
The girl tripped over a rock buried under the snow, and she rolled down the hill. The stairs to the shrine were before her, but she was on the ground and her pursuers behind her.
She rolled on her back, and when one dog dared to come close, she kicked it in the face. The dog flew back with a whine, becoming limp as it rolled across the ground. The other two dogs halted in their tracks and started to whine before retreating up the hill.
With laboring breaths, she went for the stairs and swore she saw someone watching at the top of them. But before she could stand again, the hunters caught up and started pulling arrows out of their quivers.
One of the hunters drew back the arrow on his longbow, aiming at the target. Then, with a breath, he loosed the arrow.
A crystallized red arrow lodged in the eye of a lifeless-looking humanoid curse lunging at Mikage, who leaned back to let the arrow fly past her face. The curse let out an awful shrill as it reared back, and Mikage stabbed the curse in the chest with a golden-hilted sword, reducing the creature into dust and ash.
"Nice shot, Chimiki," Mikage praised with a smile. Then the infinite room that spread around them turned into a regular basement.
"Thank you; I like you better when you are alive and whole," Chimiki mused, her bleeding arm sealing back into a stitched-up wound. Pulling the sleeve of her coat down, Chimiki started toward the stairs while Mikage lingered on the basement floor.
"Chimiki..."
"Yes?" Chimiki lingered on the first step and looked at her friend with worried red eyes.
Mikage looked over the drawn-out disfigured pentagram in chalk and the ash mixed with blood. Shaking her head, Mikage moved to follow Chimiki, mumbling, "nevermind."
Chimiki watched as Mikage moved past her before following behind. "I don't think we will ever understand the Damned; I sure don't."
Mikage hummed thoughtfully, stepping onto the first floor and into a clean living room. "It's a shame, really," she commented while looking around the room. "This is a nice house."
"It is," Chimiki agreed, her hand involuntarily reaching up to touch a scar over her left eye. "But nice things never last long...."
Mikage looked at her friend and gave her a soft, pitying smile. "Sorry, let's get out of here; I don't want to be here any longer."
