summer solstice.

{ 01; first impressions. }

{ chapter 1 }

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first impressions.

yellow eyes looked into blue ones, neither party pulling away: bewitched. nao barely managed to open his subconsciously clenched fists, a bead of sweat rolling down the back of his neck. his palms were sticky, and it was definite that the room lacked air-conditioning.

"nice to meet you, i'm nao," he announced. "nao hakaze."

"megumi fushiguro," the boy nodded with a short reply.

nao blamed it on the weather, but he knew that it wasn't the reason why his heart was racing. he cringed internally at the sorry excuse that he had thought of. it was a repetition of opening and closing his hands; an attempt to calm down his nerves.

"oi, nao," maki called as she turned to face him. "did gojo-sensei say anything about the mission?"

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long story short, the trio was gathered to go on a mission together as they were seemingly 'well fit'. gojo satoru, their dearest, most questionable teacher, was the very person to make such decisions. perhaps he was right, but nao would much rather be asleep at that moment than anything else. as usual, he lacked sleep, which further supported his tiredness despite his nerves.

shoved into a small car in the middle of summer with the maximum number of people, it was difficult for nao not to start dozing off at the warmth. in mere minutes after the black-haired boy sat in the car, he was fast asleep on maki's shoulder. for fushiguro, this came as quite the surprise, seeing maki allow for someone to just lie on her shoulder like nao had just done. he looked to the side and out the window, though his eyes continued to trail off to the reflection of the older male instead. how can someone even fall asleep that easily? or maybe he lacked sleep so much to the point he could only fall asleep so easily. that would, probably, make more sense. but why would anyone lack so much sleep?

nevertheless, it wasn't too long before they arrived at the scene of the crime- or whatever you'd call it. in all honestly, there couldn't be a creepier building in the middle of the day. nao rubbed his eyes to be awake, ruffling his black hair to put it back to shape. he took a peek at fushiguro, whose hair was the same as before: defying gravity. he clicked his tongue at the sight. if only his own hair could stay the same. yawning, nao began to speak.

"this shouldn't be too hard since it's a third grade curse," he stretched his arms in front of him. "let's get this over and done with- i need to catch up on some quality sleep after this."

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the building was as creepy on the inside as it was on the outside. the hallways were dark despite the sun being high up in the sky, the walls made up of aged concrete. they had heard earlier that the building had been a hospital in the past, which made the building look even more frightening than before. fortunately, or unfortunately so, nao had been desensitised to this kind of environment for all the times he was forced to fight in them. humans were, and will continue to be, animals of adaptation.

"this building is huge," maki began as she impatiently tapped at her weapon handle. "maybe we should split up."

nao visibly furrowed his eyebrows, his golden eyes looking at maki in a disapproving manner- not that it did much. before he could do anything, he noticed something from across the hallway- something big. the size of the curse that came in his direction was unsettling and it seemed that he wasn't the only one to notice it. fushiguro's dogs growled as maki readied herself for the encounter.

"it's coming," nao warned as he too prepared for the soon coming fight.

he carefully unsheathed a black katana, it's blade shining under the sliver of light that had entered through the window. meanwhile the actual curse that was coming in their direction was doing so at an alarming rate. it seemed, however, that it was nothing the three couldn't handle. in a swift move, the curse was cut in half, its muscly figure split vertically in two. it was a clean cut, not a single droplet of blood on the hilt of the blade used to cut it. it was over before it started, it seemed- or so they thought.

the curse had regrown itself and somehow managed to duplicate itself through its regeneration on both parts of its body. it smirked with its distorted face, its eyes going back and forth rapidly to and from each person in the hall. nao let out a dissatisfied sigh before he sheathed his sword, signalling for the start of their short game of chase.

"fushiguro-kun," he began as he pointed to the now doubled number of curses behind them. "can your shikigami eat curses at all?"

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the curse was easily overtaken by the trio, their teamwork almost impeccable in swiftly completing the mission. it was almost magical how well the three worked together despite it being their first time doing so. fushiguro was slightly impressed at nao's plan in eliminating the curse.

"if maki and i cut the curse even more, it's only going to keep replicating," nao started as the trio ran from the said curse. "so i was thinking that maybe if we manage to capture it, your dogs can just... have a feast, yeah."

it would have been a ridiculous plan if nao didn't (magically) bring out chains to tie the curse down. this piqued fushiguro's interests though, as he began to wonder what the older male's cursed technique was. he couldn't get an answer out of him now, but he hoped to get some sort of reply in the future. it may have been childish, but it wasn't fair for nao to know about fushiguro's cursed technique but not vice versa. or maybe, he could get an answer now. i mean, why not?

"it's manifestation," nao stifled a yawn as he replied, tears welling at the corner of his eyes. "i manifest and objectify my cursed energy in any way i like."

he clicked his slender fingers as a small bullet manifested into his hand with a blue swirl.

"like this," he placed the bullet in between his fingers before crushing it. "i can also turn it back into cursed energy."

fushiguro could honestly see why that damned teacher had thought it would be a good idea to put the trio together. nao was an endless resource supply and maki was a seasoned warrior, while fushiguro could play the role of support. it reassured him to know that his abilities were unneeded: perhaps this team wasn't so bad.

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