𝑲𝑰𝑵𝑮𝑫𝑶𝑴 𝑶𝑭 𝑴𝑨𝑳𝑰𝑪𝑬 ⇢ Gojo Satoru

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐗𝐗𝐗𝐈𝐕 - 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐔𝐍𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐖𝐍

BEFORE THE SORCERESS COULD DO OR SAY ANYTHING, another blast reverberated through the air, this time shattering the ceiling above them. The floor above their heads began to collapse, and among with it came another hoard of rats who began falling through the hole. Mikazuki grunted, unsheathing her blade and cutting through the rats as easily as if they were butter. Satoru sighed, using his own raw Cursed energy to blast them away.

Still, no matter how many of them they killed, another hundred came falling down. Mikazuki turned, slicing through the rats and turning them into mere clumps of flesh before she paused, now looking at Satoru with intent.

"I swear, when we get back home, I'm going to kill Léa with my own two hands," The sorceress announced, trapping some of the vermin with her gold and freezing them solid.

"You keep jumping to conclusions." Satoru raved on, taking care of his own pile of rats which kept filling in from every corner. "This could just be a mistake, not everything is a ploy from the Magistrate."

Mikazuki halted her movements, lowering her nodachi and looking at Satoru right in the eye. She looked glorious in that instant – her body and clothes were covered in splatters of blood, tiny clumps of flesh sticking to her hair and ruining her leather jacket while her hair had come undone and fluttered with every single movement. But even then, it was like staring at the sun.

Except Satoru couldn't look away.

"You don't get to say that!" Mikazuki screamed; her voice raw with emotion. "You've never been fucked over by the Magistrate! You don't know what they're like, the lengths they're willing to go just to get their way!"

The sorcerer turned his hands into fists, stepping right into Mikazuki's space until they were nearly touching.

"Do you think you're the only one who's ever had to deal with them?" He asked, gaze clashing with Mikazuki's as a seething anger settled in his soul. "They made me kill my best friend!" He screamed back, a world of chaos unravelling around them as the sea of rats continued to grow.

It was like the air had been sucked out of Mikazuki's lungs. It wasn't a confession – she'd known for a long time, Satoru had told her in that field of wildflowers, but somehow, it hurt just as much (if not more) as then. Maybe it was because she'd seen Suguru – or whatever was trying to pretend to be him – not that long ago, or maybe because he was the father of her children, or maybe because she knew he wouldn't have died if she'd been there.

All of those possibilities, and yet, none of them were strong enough to bring him back from the dead. Except, he already had, hadn't he? Mikazuki had seen him, she had fought him – but it didn't feel real. Mikazuki's thoughts were quickly snuffed out as the floor under her feet caved in. Both sorcerers plummeted down, crashing through layers upon layers of rotting floorboards until they hit the ground.

Mikazuki grunted in pain, reaching out to take her katana. As her hand gripped the handle, the sorceress realized she was laying on a large puddle of wastewater. The heiress gagged, the smell so foul she could almost taste it. Satoru walked over to her, dusting off his pants before offering his hand.

"I don't need your help!" Mikazuki bit out as she struggled to stand.

The sorcerer rolled his eyes while Mikazuki quickly assessed her surrounding, eyes finally settling on the floor they had just crashed down from. The pair had fallen through at least three layers of rotten concrete, and although the opening was wide, there was no way to climb up. The sorceress Cursed, turning to look at the space around her. They'd fallen all the way down to the sewers, meaning there was no way to go but down.

Great.

"We can't let those rats get away, this sewer line is connected to the city." Mikazuki warned as she limped towards the tunnel in front of them.

Satoru dug a lighter out of his pocket, turning it on and illuminating the space. Although the pathway was narrow, there was still enough space for a grown human to go through – one at a time. Mikazuki grimaced, watching as the Cursed Rats scurried away from them and into the tunnel. If they wanted to keep the plague contained, they had to act now.

"There's too many of them, we won't be able to take them all out." Satoru commented as he began to crouch down to pass through the opening. "We have to kill the mother, then the younglings will follow."

"I'm guessing by mother you mean the special-grade." Mikazuki asked, adjusting her nodachi and lowering herself so she could fit through the entrance of the tunnel.

"Yep."