Floating Like a Lilo ── Itadori Yuuji (✓)

03 AN ANGEL TO GOD

I WAS SHY AT FIRST, BUT THEY WELCOMED ME
THERE'S WAY TOO MANY REASONS TO STAY HERE

leave me alone!
boy pablo

You sit with Sasaki and Iguchi, legs folded one over the other, huddled around the table.

The talisman in Sasaki's hands reminds you of the sky above a bloodied prairie. It heralds something soulful but at the same time, something utterly devoid of hope. Skin devours skin, bones crack under searing hell, an entity endowed with spine-chilling aura.

"I can't get it off," Sasaki-senpai murmurs, a little annoyed as her thin eyebrows knit together.

She's trying to peel back whatever tape was used to mask the contents. It felt ancient, and even though you weren't holding it now, as you had carried it back to school after parting ways with Itadori, your hands still shake from the omen.

It's one name. Carved onto the chest of samurais and soaking graves with venom. Ebbing death just from a loose tongue.

        Ryoumen Sukuna.

A name you had never heard before but it crawled into the crevice of your head and you hear the echoes of his shrieks, a lone wolf's howl that lingers in the gaunt air.

"You look like you're going to throw up," Iguchi-senpai notes, arms crossed as he leans over on the table the three of you are huddled around.

He spots your discomfort through the illumination of your eyes; the candle on the table is the sole source of light in the clutches of darkness.

A plethora of emotions run rampant in your veins and you are hugging your stomach from the nausea that creeps up your throat. Bile at the remembrance of warm blood. But when had you ever seen warm blood?

You sigh, "It's been a long day, Iguchi-senpai."

A flat response. But they don't push you any further.

Iguchi-senpai also sighs, "Did we really have to sneak into school to do this?"

        Scratch. Scratch. Scratch.

She's still trying. You don't deny the fear pulsing in your veins, trepidation at the thought of curses. It's something that interests you, of course, but not in the way that it might do for others.

        Because you're scared.

And yet, you still do it anyway. You try to look away from the talisman but it's like looking away from a train wreck. Impossible.

Humans are drawn to violent destruction in the same way an angel is drawn to God.

"I'm turning on the lights," Iguchi mumbles, standing up and his chair creaks as it moves against the wooden floor.

Sasaki retorts instantly,"No! The atmosphere's important! Enjoying the thrill is in the spirit of the Occult club, isn't it?"

"Mm," You nod weakly.

That's why you're there, right? You want to know the secrets, what lies behind the veil of deities' eyes. You want to hunt down the final piece in the jigsaw puzzle to feel whole again, soothing an addiction to knowledge made impossible to dwell on for infinity.

"It's not like anything's going to happen, anyway," Sasaki mumbles.

And just then, as if she jinxed it, the sound of tape unravelling filled the air.

How quaint that such a mundane sound could instill such fear and interest.

"Oh, it came off!" Your eyes widen.