Shadows unseen

1-Prologue

Y/n Okkotsu had always seen them monstrous, twisted creatures lurking in the shadows, their grotesque forms moving through the world, unseen by everyone else. At first, she thought they were nightmares, figment of her imagination that crept into her walking hours. But no matter how many times she rubbed her eyes or blinked, they didn't go away. They were real, they were always there.

It started when she was nine. One morning, she had walked into the school alone, the streets, quiet, and empty. That's when she saw the first one. A creature, hunched over, with elongated limbs and eyes that glowing yellow, stood on the rooftop, watching her. It skin looked like it was stretched too tightly over its bones, and its breath came out in slow, rasping hisses. She had frozen in place, heart pounding, unable to tear her glaze away. The creature didn't move, but it started at her as if it was waiting for something.

When she told her parents about it later, they dismissed it as a child's wild imagination. "It was probably a bird," they said, "or just a shadow." But Y/n knew what she had seen, the worst part was that the creature never left. Every day, they would appear some lurking on the edge of her vision, others standing in plain sight as though daring her to look closer. They took on all kinds of forms: one might slither across the ground it's body coiled like a serpent but with too many eyes, while another might lumber down the street, its gnarled hands, dragging across the pavement, leaving dark smears in their wake.

No one else seem to notice them, and when Y/n tried to talk about it, people just stared at her like she was crazy. The other kids at school her names: "Weirdo," "Freak," and "Monster girl." They laughed her when she jumped at shadows or flinched at things only she could see. At first, she tried to ignore them, to pretend the monsters weren't there, but it didn't work. The creatures seemed to glow bolder, more vivid, and harder to ignore as time went on.

In class, they hovered near her desk, sometimes sitting beside her, their twisted forms writhing like they were made of smoking flesh. At night, they pressed against her bedroom window, their eyes glowing in the dark, watching her with intensity that made her stomach churn. When she walked home, they followed her, their footsteps, silent, their eyes always fixed on her. Y/n couldn't escape them, no matter where she went.

She began to wonder if she was losing her mind. Maybe she was imagining it all. But the monsters felt too real too tangible to be hallucinations. They moved with purpose, always watching her, always staying just out of reach. She didn't understand why she was only one who could see them, why they seem to haunt her and no one else. And why didn't anyone believe her?

Her classmates' bullying got worse overtime. They mocked her for seeing things that weren't there, for reaching to creatures no one else could see. They would whisper about her behind her back, spreading rumors that she was crazy, that she was cursed. But the truth was, Y/n wasn't sure if she was crazy or not. The monsters were always there, lurking just out of reach, and the more she tried to ignore them, the more ruthless they became.

There were days when Y/n tried to convince herself that she was normal, the creatures were just a figment of her imagination, but deep down she knew better. The monsters were real, and they were getting closer. She could feel it in the way their eyes tracked her every move, in the way their long, sped fingers sometimes reached out if to touch her, only to retreat at the last moment. They weren't just watching her anymore. They were waiting for something.

What Y/n didn't know was that her older brother, Yuta, had been seeing the same creatures too. Ever since he had enrolled Jujutsu High, Yuta had learned the truth about the strange, monstrous beings. They weren't figments of her imagination. They were curses—dangerous manifestations of negative emotions that haunted people who could see them. And Yuta could see them, just like Y/n. But he hadn't told her.

For Yuta, it had been a shock to learn that his little sister had been living with the sight of these creatures for so long, unaware of what they truly were. He'd been able to see them ever sense Rika died. He began his training as a jujutsu sorcerer, when his own cursed energy awakened. At Jujutsu High, he had learned how to fight the curses, how to exorcise them before they could cause harm. But Y/n wasn't a sorcerer. She didn't know what they were or why they followed her, and Yuta didn't know how to tell her.

He had tried to keep his distance from her after he learned the truth. Not because he wanted to, but because it was safer for her if she didn't know. Yuta had learned that curses were drawn to negative emotions—fear, anger, sadness. Y/n was already vulnerable. If she found out that the monsters were real, her fear might make the curses even stronger. And if that happened, they would become more dangerous than ever.

For the past year, Yuta had watched from a distance, protecting Y/n in secret. He had tracked the curses that followed her, staying close enough to step in if they ever attacked. But the problem was, these weren't ordinary curses. They were different—more persistent, more intelligent. They seemed to target Y/n specifically, lingering around her like shadows, feeding off her fear. And as much as Yuta tried to shield her from the truth, he knew that the time would come when he couldn't hide it anymore.

Yuta stood outside her middle school one afternoon, leaning against the gate as he waited for her to finish class. His eyes scanned the area, alert to the curses that hovered near the school grounds. He could see one of them now—a tall, gaunt figure with limbs that were too long, its skin cracked and peeling, its eyes glowing faintly under the shade of a nearby tree. It didn't approach, but Yuta knew it was waiting for something, biding its time.

He had seen that curse before. It had been following Y/n for weeks now, always staying just out of reach, as if testing her limits. Yuta clenched his fists. He wanted to exorcise it, to rid Y/n of the curse for good, but he couldn't do it without drawing her attention. She didn't know what curses were, and Yuta wasn't ready to explain it to her yet.

As the bell rang and students began to file out of the school, Yuta spotted Y/n among them. She looked tired, her eyes scanning the ground as she walked, trying to avoid the gaze of the monstrous creature that trailed her from a distance. She couldn't see Yuta watching from across the street, but she could definitely see the curse behind her.

Yuta sighed. He had hoped to keep her in the dark for as long as possible, to give her a chance at a normal life before she was pulled into the world of jujutsu sorcery. But the curses were getting stronger. They were becoming more aggressive, and it was only a matter of time before Y/n would be forced to confront them in a way that she couldn't ignore......

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- Omg I love this so much 😭 Ik it was kinda long mb 😅 but im gonna start making things more interesting... iykwim😉