Bound In Love's Curse [Gojo Satoru x Female Readers]

129 ~ Hundred And Twenty-Nine

[N]anami had briefed you earlier on how places steeped in negative emotions become breeding grounds for curses.

Schools, hospitals—places where fear, anger, and sorrow linger—were prime locations for hauntings. Which was why your first mission was set at a high school, a site recently plagued by mysterious deaths of teenagers.

Convenient, really, that your journey into becoming a Jujutsu Sorcerer had coincided with this mission. You didn't think it was a coincidence—nothing ever was when Gojo Satoru had a hand in it.

Halfway up the stairs to the first floor, a sudden sensation jolted through you, stealing the air from your lungs. You froze, a ghost of a gasp escaping your lips.

Nanami's voice came from behind you, steady but with a hint of concern. "What's wrong?"

His presence was grounding, a reminder that you weren't alone. But that didn't change the fact that something was deeply, unnervingly wrong.

A slow, sickening churn in your stomach warned of danger, yet fear didn't grip you the way it should have. Death didn't seem to scare you as much as it should, and maybe that was because the man behind you—a seasoned sorcerer with precision and control—made you feel somewhat secure.

"We're not alone." The words tumbled out before you could stop them.

Nanami paused. "And what's that supposed to mean?"

"There are kids here," you replied, your voice strained but firm. "I thought the school was cleared."

The shift in Nanami was subtle but noticeable. His stance stiffened, his gaze sharpened. "How many?" He asked, his tone clipped, but he knew you'd already sensed them.

You breathed in, focusing on the curse energy around you. You were careful to raise your inflow to two percent—just enough to heighten your awareness, not enough to tip you into a seizure.

The air thickened with the leaking energy of the children, filtering through you, like distant echoes trying to break through a wall.

"Four," you whispered, the image becoming clearer in your mind. "They're in a classroom, far corner of the first floor."

A rush of visions filled your mind—pieces of memory, fragments of what had been.

The four kids sat huddled on the floor, fear and excitement mingling in the air between them. A sheet of paper lay before them, a torii symbol drawn at the top-center, the words "yes" and "no" scrawled on either side, with a grid of letters and numbers below. In the dim light of a single candle, a 10-yen coin hovered over the paper.

Your heart sank. You knew this game.

"Kokkuri." The name slipped out, barely audible. "They were playing Kokkuri."

Nanami's gaze flickered with recognition. The Japanese version of the Ouija board. A dangerous ritual, especially in a place already contaminated with curses. What were they thinking? And worse, what had they summoned?

Without another word, Nanami pushed past you, his footsteps growing quicker. The tension in the air thickened as the two of you moved, urgency overriding the creeping dread. "Where are they?"

"Last class to your left," you answered, feeling the cold tingle of curse energy growing stronger with each step.

"First floor?"

"First floor," you nodded, falling into step behind him as he ascended the stairs two at a time.

The deeper you ventured into the school, the heavier the air became. It felt like walking into a different world—one where the veil between life and death was paper-thin. The faint glow of moonlight barely illuminated the hallways, casting long, jagged shadows that danced with the weight of unseen eyes watching from the dark.

A sense of impending doom gnawed at your chest as you neared the classroom. You could feel the malevolent presence inside, lurking, waiting.

Nanami slowed as you approached the door. He didn't speak, but you could feel the shift in his energy—ready, controlled. He reached for the handle and pushed the door open slowly.

The scene inside was worse than your visions had shown.

The children were still there, but they weren't moving. Their eyes, wide and vacant, stared up at the ceiling, mouths slightly ajar, as though frozen in mid-scream. The candle had long since burned out, but the paper and coin remained untouched, perfectly placed at the center of their small circle. The air around them rippled with something far more sinister than the presence of mere curses.

The hair on the back of your neck stood up as you stepped inside, your curse energy tingling in response. This wasn't just a lingering curse. This was something far worse, something that had already claimed them.

Nanami's voice was steady, but there was an edge to it now. "Stay back."

But you couldn't. Not yet. You focused again, trying to tune into the energy, seeking answers. And there it was—a faint, almost imperceptible fluctuation in the air, like a breath being drawn in. Something was here. It was watching, feeding.

"Nanami-san..." you whispered, your voice barely audible, but the warning was clear.

He didn't need you to finish. He'd felt it too. His grip tightened around the sheath of his weapon.

The temperature dropped like a stone, sucking the warmth from the air as the shadows in the room began to twist unnaturally, stretching toward you. The paper quivered, and a low scraping sound—a metallic whine—pierced the silence.