That Time When I Fell Down the Stairs and Became a Jujutsu Sorcerer

Chapter 56 - Time to Be Kids

“Alright.” Toudou huffed, brushing yet another bug off of him, “ Alright.” He grumbled, swatting at leaves that hit his face, “ Alright.” He grunted, pulling his feet out of the mud, “ Alright.” He growled, pushing thin trees out of his way.

“I hate this place.” Suguru grumbled, wiping sweat off his forehead as he followed behind Toudou.

“Yeah?!” Toudou said, turning to face him with his eyes wide and wild with frustration and a huge grin on his face.

Suguru chose to ignore this, walking past him and holding the bushes out of the way for Akie. He'd put her hair up into a bun, but he was still worried the little girl might overheat. Her face was flushed, but she seemed okay for the moment. They had quite a ways still to walk, unfortunately.

The sun was just coming up and it was already so humid it felt like walking through soup. The dark canopy held the moisture down and it was almost foggy. The ground was wet, their shoes sinking in with each step. Everything that brushed against them stuck a little bit to the sweat.

“It's hot.” Akie whined, “I don't like dinosaurs time anymore.”

“Akie, I told you it's not dinosaurs time.” Suguru said calmly, looking down at the little girl, “We’re just in a rainforest somewhere.” Suguru said, looking up at the trees, “I can't say I know for sure, but I'm assuming the Amazon since that's what they always base the images off of for some reason.”

“Wish I still had my shirt.” Toudou grunted, scratching at his bug bites. He looked remarkably in his element anyway, the most like a gorilla the man had ever embodied

“Can't we fly on your dragon?” Akie asked, tugging on Suguru's sleeve, “Please, Suguru?”

Suguru shook his head, “No, little duck, we have to be careful. I already saw a lot of non-sorcerers when I flew up to see where we were.” He patted her head gently before taking his hand away and cringing at how sweaty her head was, “W-we’ll just have to continue this way for a while. We can get to a place where we can call for help. I know I saw a crew working somewhere ahead that probably has cell phones or something.”

“Wanna try a portal again?” Toudou asked, looking down at Akie.

She nodded, the three of them stopping for a moment. Focusing hard, she closed her eyes and created that ball of energy again. Her little teeth were gritted as she tried to maintain the energy as long as she could, but it wasn't quite enough. The ball harmlessly disappeared from her hands with a grunt of frustration from her.

Shaking her head she looked up at Suguru and then Toudou with tears in her eyes. Toudou patted her head, “None of that, Kiddo.” He said, “We're gonna be fine.”

“Can you make a curse that looks like a monkey?” Akie asked, looking at Suguru, “Can you?”

“No, I can't make curses.” Suguru sighed, “I just…” he trailed off, “I do have one that kinda looks like a monkey… but it's not… I don't usually…”

“Well use it!” Toudou said gruffly, “C’mon! I want to get the hell out of here.”

Suguru summoned forth a curse, and when he said it kinda looked like a monkey it was more like vaguely could remind someone of a monkey from a distance. Monkey-esque. Monkey-adjacent. What one might dream a monkey looks like in one of those hyper vivid nightmares you have after eating too much sugar before bed.

“I hate it.” Akie said, shuffling to stand behind Suguru as she stared at the curse.

It was short, probably about the side of a regular chimpanzee. Completely hairless, every muscle was prominent on its body. Its eyes were beady and a deep black, its mouth hanging open with horribly straight human teeth. Its tongue lolled out as it panted, thick saliva dripping down its tongue. If a scientist saw this thing, they'd probably initially think it was the missing link before they realized it was somehow also directly out of a nightmare.