𝖂𝖍𝖆𝖙 𝖎𝖋 𝕲𝖊𝖙𝖔 𝕴𝖘 𝖄𝖔𝖚𝖗 𝕸𝖆𝖘𝖙𝖊𝖗 (𝖝 𝕱𝖊𝖒 𝕽𝖊𝖆𝖉𝖊𝖗)

5-1: ℌ𝔢 𝔗𝔬𝔬 ℌ𝔞𝔡 𝔅𝔩𝔞𝔠𝔨 ℌ𝔞𝔦𝔯 (𝔓𝔞𝔯𝔱 1)

❤︎ 1480 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚍𝚜, 5.5 𝚖𝚒𝚗 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎
❤︎ 𝚃𝚛𝚒𝚐𝚐𝚎𝚛 𝚠𝚊𝚛𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐: 𝚐𝚘𝚛𝚎, 𝚟𝚒𝚘𝚕𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎

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In school, Geto and Gojo were opposites of each other. Geto had long black hair while Gojo's was white and short. Gojo was boisterous and loud but Geto was reserved and cryptic. Geto carried himself like a man beyond his years; meanwhile, I'd sometimes forgotten that Gojo, who never seemed to have time to sleep, was older than me. 

Even their Jujutsus were nothing like each other's. Gojo was infamous for using flamboyant Jujutsus complete with explosions, flashes, blinding colours, and the like. On the other hand, while Gojo was a solar flare, Geto was an absorbing black hole. Literally and figuratively. Geto had an innate talent for taking in curses, malleableizing them, and capturing them into fist-sized spheres. He swallowed them whole, digested them, and in turn, metabolized them into powers of his own. He inhaled all the shadows he encountered until some day, he became one himself. His taste buds reeked of unending, pungent echoes of vomit, dirt, and despair. He took all of that darkness in and watched as his shine dimmed.

Is it a surprise that he took me in at the lowest point of my life?

It was August, my birthday month. I was born at a bright summer noon. Perhaps that's why I dislike sunlight so much: it reminds me of having been thrust into existence without knowing what I was. 

That month, I went on one of my first missions. I was paired up with Geto. I had never been on a mission with a second-year before–Yū and Nanami weren't there because they were on another mission with Shoko. I improved significantly on my Curse-Reversing but Yaga wanted me to work on my field experience. 

"You're there to watch Suguru's back, y/n. You're a decent healer now. Help him when he needs it. He doesn't know how to ask for it," Yaga instructed me before we left.

A second-grade curse had enveloped an abandoned hospital which stood derelict at the edge of town for two decades. The whole area was by a river and smelled perpetually wet and mouldy. 

"Be careful, especially in the basement. There seems to be a great amount of cursed energy coming from there. Several kids from this area have gone missing after 'exploring' the hospital," the school's assistant told us as he parked the car in front of the building. 

"Only one child survived. She came back in deep shock and couldn't speak for a month. When she finally awoke, she told us... that... they never reached the basement... They were stuck in an endless loop... trying to find the stairs leading down to it. So be on the lookout, you two. And... good luck." The assistant handed the both of us cursed tools: a bowie knife for Geto and a longsword for me.

"The local kids believe that a ghoul inhabited the hospital and devoured anyone that was sick, weak, or 'naughty'," Geto told me as we stepped towards the building. He always researched before going on missions, down to local lore. 

"Oooohaaaeeeeooo..." I looked up, the building was soot gray and a cacophony of eerie voices was erupting from within. They were abstruse, discordant. 

I stopped in my tracks: I saw Mom, Dad, a fetus... I felt my memories seeping out like unannounced period blood, or as if my skull was a ripe mandarin, being opened by a pair of shapeless hands. 

Geto stood still as well, his jaw clenched. "The sounds... They could be a cursed spirit, or a Jujutsu illusion to disorient us," he placed a hand on my shoulder. "Ready, y/n?" 

I blinked and the ghosts were gone. "Emerge from the darkness, blacker than darkness. Purify that which is impure." Synchronous with my incantation, a dark, almost liquid matter flowed radially from the sky to form a dome that encased the hospital.