𝑯𝑶𝑼𝑺𝑬 𝑶𝑭 𝑺𝑶𝑹𝑹𝑶𝑾⇢ Gojo Satoru

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐗𝐋𝐈𝐗 - 𝐎𝐇 𝐈 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 𝐈𝐓 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐈 𝐇𝐀𝐓𝐄 𝐈𝐓 𝐀𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐀𝐌𝐄 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄

KINZOKU MIKAZUKI WALKED AHEAD WITH SURE HASTENED STEPS. Her left leg dragged behind her slightly, but this didn't seem to slow her down as the sorceress threaded through the woods. It was dark, this side of the forest. Large trees and branches intertwined together, a thick layer of foliage covering the sky while the wind made the leaves blow in the silence. Mikazuki ignored the beautify of it, upping her speed while she continued her path through the cursed forest.

She could feel the leaves trembling with each step, the energy of The Beldam present in every inch of the world around her, like its essence had poisoned everything within sight. Going unnoticed with so many eyes and ears was hard, but Mikazuki never gave up, careful not to make any noise that could alert the foul creature of her presence. She'd done good so far, concealing her cursed energy within herself and slowing her pace whenever leaves crunched under her feet.

She was fast and agile, but not as much as she had been before the injury on her leg. The wound slowed her down – if only slightly, – and each step felt painful whenever her heels dug into the ground, her muscles sore from the strain. Mikazuki's leg always hurt on days like these, when heavy clouds lingered overhead, the smell of rain impregnating the air as a warning of what would come.

It wasn't only her leg, though – the other many scars that marred her body ached in this weather, from the thin line that dipped in her chest to the many cuts and slashes that covered her back. She'd forgotten what it was like, living with that constant foreboding pain at every turn. Argentina was dry, arid and hot; at least most of the time. This weather was something else, and with the rain came the agony, and with the agony came the memories...

The Kinzoku snapped out of the thoughts, powering through the pain as she did her best not to falter. Satoru was already playing The Beldam's game and, if the creature got a whiff of her own insecurity, the whole plan would crumble under its own weight.

She needed to stay positive, focused and driven, as far away from the memories of her past as she could. It was easy in enough – in theory, but the reality of it was a whole other thing. It was hard not to think back to that day, especially when her emotions were still raw from the creature juggling with her trauma. The sorceress gulped, a part of her was still in that abandoned factory, still haunted by that day, but she didn't allow herself to linger in any of it, holding her chin up and pressing on.

Mikazuki was close to the edge. The Beldam's influence was great and although it did not possess a Domain of its own, it was powerful enough to warp reality as it saw fit within a certain radius. The Kinzoku was threading across the edge of its plane, trying to find an opening to escape the illusion the Curse had created. Once outside of its range, she was no longer bound by its rules, which meant that one blast of her technique would be enough to bring it all down. That is, of course, if she made it out in the first place.

And maybe she would have, on another place in another world, were it not for one thing; one weakness The Beldam was able to exploit – one tiny little detail powerful enough to bring Kinzoku Mikazuki; the Queen of Nightmares, to her knees.

Mikazuki paused at the edge of the forest, stretching her hand out of the boundary as she felt a breath of fresh air greeting her bare arm. The world stilled and, as the sorceress rejoiced in this one small victory, the trees behind her rustled. Mikazuki was quick to turn around, blade grasped tightly in her fist as she prepared herself for an attack.

But what greeted the Kinzoku once she whirled around wasn't the grotesque skeletal frame of The Beldam; it wasn't its perfectly curated nightmares nor her memories wrapped up in cruel shadows. No, it was something else entirely, and as Mikazuki's breath got caught in her lungs, her entire reality shattered with a single voice.

"Hey, dove."

Turns out, the creature was right. They were playing the same game, but on an entirely different level.