The Cursed Hero of Jujutsu

Inconvenient Mission Pt. 2

The apartment building looked to be seven stories tall and oddly enough, in use. As Izuku and Hatsume approached the building, Izuku noticed more and more out of place features around them. A store that looked to be thriving, recently fixed pot holes, and other clear signs of population.

Izuku: "Um, Hatsume?"

The pink haired girl stopped at the door way to the building and turned back to face him.

Hatsume: "Yeah?"

Izuku: "I though curses usually manifested in places with built up negative emotions like dilapidated neighborhoods, but this block seems to be the opposite of that."

Hatsume looked around curiously.

Hatsume: "Huh, you're right. Oh well, they probably just moved in!"

Izuku: "They can do that?"

She nodded before turning back to the door.

Hatsume: "Yeah, now c'mon! We should hurry this up!"

Izuku: "Right."

They both entered the building and approached the front desk, which was empty.

Izuku: "I wonder what the residents and workers were told to get them to leave. Anyway, where should we look?"

Hatsume out her hand to her chin and looked up before looking at him and shrugging.

Hatsume: "No clue! We just gotta search! I'll start at the top and move down to the fourth floor. You start at the third and move down to the basement."

Izuku: "The basement!? W-why me?"

Hatsume: "That way there's only one way out! If one tries to escape out a window I can give chase, but down there, you can let loose! I'll start now, good luck!"

She then ran back outside. Izuku watched as two metal hooks shot out of her belt and his electricity surrounded the device. The rocketed upwards and out of sight. Izuku then sighed and made his way to the stairs.

Izuku: "Alright, first time being left alone on a mission. You can do it."

He quickly climbed his way up to the 3rd floor and took note of the 14 apartments before walking to the far end of the hallway and facing the first apartment.

Izuku: "Apartment forty-two. Seems a good place to start."

He tried to open the door just to find it was locked.

Izuku: "Who has time to lock their door during an evacuation order?"

He coated his fist in cursed energy before punching next to the doorknob, breaking it and letting him open the door.

Izuku: "A little breaking and entering never hurt anyone."

He stepped inside to find a neat looking apartment. An organized kitchen with zero dishes in the sink, freshly emptied trash cans, not a speck of dust anywhere. He searched the entire apartment but found no sign of a cursed spirit. He moved on to the next apartment, which wasn't locked, and found it was largely the same. Again and again he entered apartments that looked almost exactly the same. Clean, spotless, no signs of dirt, like no one ever lived there at all. It wasn't until Izuku reached Apartment 12 on the 1st floor that anything changed.

He opened the door and walked inside. This time he could tell the apartment was freshly cleaned. The scent of cleaning supplies wafted into his nose. He couldn't take it in for long when he heard a noise come from the bedroom.

???: "UaAaAaAa. KeEeeeEEee."

He cautiously opened the door to see a short, rotund, dark blue cursed spirit laying on the floor in what seemed to be pain. He kneeled down in front of it. From what he could tell, it definitely looked like a 3rd Grade cursed spirit, but he couldn't sense enough Cursed Energy to power a 4th Grade.

Izuku: "What happened here?"

Knowing he wouldn't get an answer from the curse, fully powered or not, he coated his hand in lightning and placed it on the spirit's head, frying and killing it instantly.

Izuku: "One down. Hope Hatsume found another."

He quickly left the apartment and continued his search, though he didn't find any other spirits on the 1st floor, only more perfect apartments. He finally made his way over to the basement door and slowly opened it, revealing that the lights we already on.

Izuku: "At least this makes my job easier."

He made his way down the stairs to find an open basement. The far corners were used as washing and drying stations in case the tenants' machines broke down and there was a single door leading to another room, more than likely where the electrical and water access points were. Other than that there were shelves with various items along the walls, but nothing else. Suddenly, the lights flickered and turned off.

???: "Clean."

Izuku: "W-wha-"

???: "Dirty."

Izuku activated his technique, creating some light for himself to see. Almost immediately, a feather duster was swiped over his hand and his technique was deactivated.

???: *Yelling* "FILTHY!"

He felt the duster swipe at his back. It was then he realized what was happening.

Izuku: "This curse... it's wiping away my cursed energy! It's trying to clean away the impurity!"

He activated his technique again and began to throw his lightning. He couldn't get a good look at the curse as it sped between attacks, wiping them clean as fast as Izuku could throw them.

Izuku: 'This curse, it's trying to wear me down. It can think and it had a purpose. This must be the unknown curse Nezu mentioned.'

Before he could throw another bit of lightning, a force harder than Izuku had felt before hit him in the side, sending him into a nearby wall that he bounced off. He was now laid on the floor.

Izuku: 'I can't see it and it deletes my attacks before I can guess where it's going next. Maybe One For All can buy me time? No, I can't risk destroying the building. I can't do this alone. Where's Hatsume?'

Izuku activated his technique and rolled out of the way of a powerful kick, though his technique was quickly wiped away. He got to his feet and just began to run around the basement.

Izuku: 'Come on, think! There has to be a way. Hatsume is probably double checking her floors and mine before coming down here. How can I stop this thing from moving? Just a couple seconds will do.'

A bright red fist made contact with Izuku's stomach, making him tumble back. Knowing a second attack would come, he rolled backwards and launched himself into the air just for a foot to break the concrete where he jumped from.

Izuku: 'If this thing is obsessed with cleaning, then I should just make a mess. Like Hatsume said, I can let loose down here!'

As soon as he landed, he activated his technique.

Izuku: 'Use it. Contain it. Make more. Force yourself to hold it.'

He clasped his hands together, making his generated lightning cycle through his body as he made more and more. Then, he hit his limit.

Izuku: "Cursed Technique..." *Yelling* "THUNDERCLOUD!"

From his body, an uncountable amount of bolts of lightning stuck. Landing on the walls, ceiling, floor, shelves, everything. The room became filled with his lightning, and his cursed energy. The spirit became visible. It was nearly 8 feet tall, covered in red scales and wearing what looked to be a blue janitor's uniform. A feather duster in one hand and sharp claws on the other. It began to speed around the room, attempting to neutralized all the cursed energy.

Clean Curse: "Clean clean clean clean. Filthy, all dirty. Perfect, no filth."

As it tried, it too would be hit. For every bolt it cleaned, three more struck it. It darted around, trying to clean the room, trying to rid the basement of filth, but it wouldn't succeed. In the end, it was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of lightning. In the end, it was fried inside and out. As it began to fade away, the basement door opened.

Hatsume: "Midoriya? Didn't I tell you to start here and go up?"

She walked down the stairs as the lights finally flickered back to life. As they did, the spirit fully faded away and Izuku collapsed from exhaustion.