WellSpring of Curses - Jujutsu Kaisen

Lodestones and Memories of Blood

"Why is it so slimy and gross looking!" Haku ran down the street, utterly disgusted by the curse chasing after her. It looked like a giant purple slug, oozing purple goo and leaving a nasty trail wherever it went. The bulbous eyes were what did Haku in. They blinked out of sync and writhed around. So creepy! "It's not even nighttime! Why do I have to attract curses! Wah!"

Haku's plan had been to stay low, avoid the reincarnated and new sorcerers, and find Megumi and Yuji. Since she wasn't on Kurogane's list as a player since she slipped in past the barrier, she had hoped it would be easy to stay hidden. Of course, she forgot all about being a literal curse magnet, or had at least hoped she could avoid curses until the nightfall, when they were more active.

With a disgusted squeal, Haku decided to stop running around pointlessly like an idiot. A barrage of her cherry blossoms rained down on the curse, slicing through it like a knife through butter. The curse writhed before dissolving like a puddle into the ground and fading away.

Haku sighed in relief. The curse wasn't strong by any means, but was just so gross she couldn't stand it. Thankfully, neither Yuji nor Megumi were around to see that display. And if Gojo had been, oh Haku would be teased mercilessly. She sighed, this time a heavy one. She missed Gojo. And she wanted to find Yuji and Megumi as quick as possible.

Her relief was brief, interrupted by a metal pipe flying through the air, aimed directly at her. Haku just managed to dodge the attack, the pipe spearing into the ground a few feet away. Cursed energy seemed to wrap around the pipe, and Haku scanned the area, looking for its source.

"Not bad." Haku's eyes snapped to the voice, a man with short brown hair and a purple stripe across his face over the bridge of his nose. He wore a baggy black shirt with baggy black cargo pants. Various piercings covered his face, ear, tongue, all strangely more like needles than simple rounded piercings. "Strange, I ain't seen you around before, and I didn't see you come in at the entry point. Pretty much everybody is set up, waiting for little rabbits like you to come tumbling in. Free points."

Entry points? Must be what happened to Megumi and Yuji then. If there were specific areas they were sent to on entry, then that's why Haku had been separated from them. She bypassed all of that when she slipped through the barrier. Haku kept her eyes glued to the man, monitoring every fluctuation in cursed energy. "Oh. Well, we rabbits are quite adept in remaining concealed. We kick pretty hard, too."

The man laughed, using his cursed technique to bring the metal pole back to himself, where it floated beside him. "Feisty little rabbit. Makes things more fun. Name's Jishaku Jiki, I've got 35 points. You?"

Haku's eyes narrowed. If he had 35 points, he'd killed quite a few people already. And that surname, Jishaku, had a familiar ring to it. "Jishaku? The family known for mining lodestones?" Haku recalled a book Toshijin had at the shrine that mentioned a sorcerer family that specialized in a magnetic cursed technique and had mined lodestone around 500 years ago. This guy was either a descendant or a reincarnated sorcerer.

Jiki smiled pridefully. "I never expected anyone in this era to know about my family, little rabbit. You reincarnated as well, or am I really that big a deal?"

Haku looked at him, annoyed by his preening. "No. To both questions. I read it in a book. And my name is Namikaze Haku, not little rabbit."

Jiki's dark-colored eyes widened. "Namikaze? Now that's quite the clan name. Or was anyway. I thought they had been eradicated in this era."

Haku's jaw twitched. It wasn't like she had known anyone from her modern clan, aside from Toshijin, but the knowledge still hurt. She was the last of her clan, and her clan's greatest curse. Sorcery's greatest curse. It was her fault her clan had been killed by Sukuna in the Heien era, and then wiped the rest of the way out by Geto. "You're correct. I'm all that's left. And I'm afraid you won't get any points from killing me, and I won't get any from killing you. So If you'd so kindly get out of my way, I have friends to meet up with and business to attend to."

Jiki snorted. "How rude. Running away, like a little rabbit. And I think you're mistaken on how these games work. Anyone still in this barrier is undoubtedly a participant. If you won't tell me." He snapped his fingers. "Kurogane!" Within seconds, the little shikigami just like the one Megumi and Yuji could call for, appeared. Jiki pointed at it. "Show me the list of participants and their points. How many points does Namikaze Haku have?"

The little shikigami remained silent for a moment as if processing the request. The participant list appeared on a floating screen beside the shikigami. "Here is the list of participants. There is no player matching your request."

Jiki raised an eyebrow. "She's standing right here, you worthless shikigami. How many points does the woman in front of me have!"