絆 | bond | gojo satoru

にじゅう | twenty

絆 | kizuna | bond

20

4 years later...

Suguru

THE TOKYO NIGHT SPRAWLED OUT BEFORE ME, a pulsating metropolis that never slept, its streets teeming with life during the day, but at night, secrets were whispered in the shadows. I walked down a dimly lit corridor of the abandoned hospital, the uniform of Jujutsu High clung to my frame, a symbol of my duty to protect the living from the darkness that lurked.

Around me, the very air seemed heavy with the presence of cursed spirits. It was a place where many had gone missing, or worse, where the boundaries between life and death blurred into obscurity. I moved with purpose, each step echoing through the desolate hallways.

Deeper into the corridor, I spotted it—an abomination of cursed energy and flesh. The cursed spirit that held an almost lifeless body in its grotesque grasp. It feasted upon the hapless soul, its maw opening wide in a gruesome display.

Disgusting.

I approached the scene calmly, my thoughts a silent mantra: Exorcise, absorb. Exorcise, absorb. With a mere lift of my hand, a torrent of blue light radiated from me, engulfing the cursed spirit. It screeched and writhed in agony, a discordant symphony of pain.

I watched with an impassive gaze as the cursed spirit dissipated, its malevolence extinguished. The almost lifeless figure fell to the ground, free from the clutches of darkness, but not without scars that would linger. The spherical mass of cursed energy I conjured pulsed within my palms, a vortex that devoured the remnants of the cursed spirit, leaving nothing but an empty, eerie silence.

In that moment, as I absorbed the remnants of malevolence, It tasted like shit. The darkness I consumed, the curses I devoured—it was a necessary evil, a burden I bore as a Jujutsu sorcerer. I was the protector of this city, the unsung guardian who walked the line between humanity and the supernatural.

I sighed deeply, the weight of the world pressing down on my shoulders as I absorbed the cursed spirit's remnants for the fifth time tonight. Each time was an ordeal, an unsettling communion with malevolence that no one else could understand. It was a burden I bore alone, and with each intake, it felt like a poison seeping into my very being.

I couldn't help but grimace, a shudder coursing through me as I tasted the darkness once more. No one knew what this felt like, this vile, nauseating sensation that clawed at my insides. It was a sensation that twisted the depths of my soul, leaving an indelible mark that could never be erased.

It was a duty I had accepted willingly, but it came with a heavy price—one that I paid in the form of this foul taste that lingered long after the cursed spirits had been vanquished. I knew that this was the path I had chosen, the path of a protector, but that didn't make it any easier to bear. The darkness I absorbed, the curses I devoured—it was a necessary evil, a grim reminder of the horrors that lurked in the shadows.

Suddenly, an unfamiliar voice, soft and mocking, shattered the silence that had enveloped me. I tensed, my senses on high alert as I tried to locate the source of the voice. It was a girl's voice, one I had never heard before, and it sent a chill down my spine.