The Queen of Curses; A Jujutsu Kaisen AU

Meanwhile

   Yuta was aghast upon hearing his name come out of the gnarled mouth of the being before him. His eyes widened as he began to hyperventilate as Rika reached out for him from the other set of stairs. He didn't recognize this creature, but it...oh god it sounds like rika. 'Why does it sound like rika?!' he screamed in his head as he swallowed hard, not wanting to accept the truth. Deep down though, Yuta knew this cursed spirit before him was his soulmate, the one and only girl he'd ever want to love. And she had just pushed an innocent girl down the stairs so hard she had obviously snapped both legs and an arm bone. Blood pooled on the floor as rika's mind instantly recalled what she had done.
        For a moment all she could see was yuta. Everything else was covered in a dense fog, the cursed energy literally blinding parts of her vision. Rika stood there confused, after seeing the look on yuta's face, the vice grip of jealousy released her just as quickly as it had blinded her. deep sorrow took its place, and her thoughts returned. She began to ask questions again. Most importantly, why was yuta looking at her like that?
'He looks..horrified, why is he so scared?' She thought to herself as she looked down at herself expecting to see her normal hands and legs. she was met with absolute horror. She began to shake as she gazed down at her hands. They were no longer that of a young girl's, they were the hands of a powerful cursed spirit, huge, gnarled and clawed. Completely taken aback by this she slowly began to realize what happened when she looked past her hands at the young girl being quickly wheeled away by emergency medical personel. Rika didn't care so much about how the girl on the floor felt, she cared that her lack of restraint caused actions towards this girl that made Yuta scared and hurt. This above all else, crushed rika. Like a rubberband snapping back into its relaxed position after being stretched taught, rika's more monstrous form was shed in an instant. On the step stood a normal looking rika in the pink dress he had bought her. There were tears flowing heavily as she ran down the steps and outside of school grounds, she didn't want yuta to see her right now. The shame of knowing yuta was horrified and harmed by her actions was suffocating. she felt as though she couldn't breathe in this building. Without thinking yuta followed despite how horrified he was. He ran after her but she was too quick, she turned a corner and was gone.
      In that very instant rika decided to actively mask her presence from yuta for a while. She needed some time to get a hold of herself, of these powers, of this..cursed energy. The sudden knowledge that she was capable of losing grip so easily, and doing so much damage bothered her to her very core. Her jealousy had literally distorted her human form, the very same form yuta had worked so hard to solidify a connection to through the building of her very own sacred spot. She wondered if the jealousy had somehow corrupted her shrine. She knew where she needed to go. In this very moment rika decides to hide for a while. She really did not want anyone, especially yuta, to follow her. Her powerful cursed energy reflected this by instinctively masking every trace of her presence including any residuals.  She ran all the way to her shrine, opening the door and slamming it behind her. She unknowingly put up a veil as she climbed underneath the covers of a princess style bed with a canopy near the far left corner of the large room. There she stayed underneath the cover of her veil and her blanket.

           Rika had left yuta there on the corner, alone and traumatized, While his fate took a twisted turn. Back at the school whispers already began to flow like a river, damning yuta's once normal reputation. As staff began calling home and notifying parents, students began walking home. A boy who was close to yuta at the top of the steps when it all happened began to talk to his little group of friends he walked home with.
"Hey you guys, so ya know how I was at the top of the stairs when that girl was pushed? Well I was standing next to that boy..the one who witnessed that one girl's death a while ago? Im pretty sure he said that dead girl's name?" The student was unaware one of his friends in his group was actively gossiping about it on his cell phone.
"What?! No way, we don't talk about her or what happened to her. It's bad luck." The student said without even looking up from his cellphone. The group walked on home soon coming to a intersection where they all split up different ways. The boy with the cellphone soon repeated what the other had said in an online forum him and his friends were on. That was all it took. The spark of rumor, which would soon turn to such a roaring flame it would burn any and all who neared it.
Yuta was dripping sweat in the summer heat, but his face and body suggested otherwise. He was deathly pale and shaking, as if he'd been out in freezing weather for hours on end. His mind raced with thoughts overlain by gruesome images of the things he has now witnessed in his life. The walk home was nonexistent in his head, he had simply gone from the school second story to his room in a flash. He did not remember the walk or getting home, or taking off his shoes, or showering, or getting into bed, or falling asleep.
Next thing he knew he could hear birds chirping. As his eyes adjusted to the light, dim but still peeking through his curtains as if trying to wake him from the nightmare of it all. For a moment yuta had totally forgotten about what occurred the day prior. He wondered where rika was, usually she was the one to open his curtains every day and wake him up with a kiss and a hug. That was when he remembered it all. He could feel the color drain from his face and the panic well up in his stomach. His fingers tingled and he lost feeling in them. As far as he knew, the girl was still alive just badly hurt- no, she IS alive. He would not think otherwise. He could not think otherwise.
He laid in bed motionless, stricken with panic and horror at what had happened. He was almost scared to look around his room and see that..thing. No, it wasn't a thing..it was rika. That thing didn't look like her, but it sounded and felt like her.
'When did that even happen?' He asked himself as he cautiously traced every awful step back to the beginning of the day. He had only spent that brief morning moment with her but it was all it took. There was only one thing out of the ordinary that day. The note. Rika saw the note. And that girl..she must've been the one who wrote it. Yuta felt sick as he slowly began to scan the room out of his peripheral vision. Rika was nowhere in sight. Somehow yuta felt better knowing she wasn't around at the moment. In a way he could sense her intentions of staying away for a while. He slowly got up and took a full scan of the room. He felt his fear and panic slowly ebbing. Right now, yuta was afraid of rika and did not know what to do. His mind's only option was to ignore it. And he did.