Chapter Text
Megumi rested his head against the car window, watching the blur of pedestrians and street signs zip past. The soft scent of vanilla wafted into the backseats from the little tree dangling on the rearview mirror, aided by the cool air from the vents that twisted it around on its pale cream string. The light of the midday sun reflected off shop windows directly into his eyes and he flinched away in annoyance, directing his attention to the inside of the car while trying to ignore the floating black spot in his vision.
Kugisaki was scrolling through the mission brief on the tablet beside him while Ijichi drummed his fingers on the wheel, occasionally glancing back at them through the rearview mirror. After reaching the end of the document, she offered it to Megumi.
He held his hand up in refusal and gave a small shake of his head. “I read it over last night.”
“Of course you did,” she sighed as she laid the tablet in the empty middle seat.
His eyelid twitched in irritation. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Oh, nothing.” She waved her hand dismissively, then continued before he could press her. “So, there’s been no recorded deaths yet, right Ijichi?”
“Right. There has only been one person injured so far, but they’re being taken care of at the local hospital and are expected to recover soon,” the manager confirmed, adjusting his glasses.
The case was fairly simple. A second-grade curse had manifested at a summer camp outside the city, and was discovered in the boat house by counselors who were preparing for the attendees. The counselor who first encountered the curse received lacerations and a couple broken bones, but the others were able to rescue them. They reported that the curse didn’t pursue them once they left the building.
“It’s been confirmed there’s only one curse? And we’re sure it’s a grade two?” Megumi verified, successfully keeping any of the worry in his mind out of his voice.
Ijichi nodded. “We are certain of its grade, yes. Our windows did mention that there were a few grade four curses lingering around, but that’s to be expected.”
“Those won’t give us any trouble,” Kugisaki said flippantly, directing her attention to the green of the countryside as they exited the city limits. “This’ll be a breeze.”
“Cocky,” Megumi mumbled, which earned him a kick to his shins. “Ow, what the hell?”
“Not cocky - confident,” she corrected. “If we’re not confident we can succeed on a mission, we shouldn’t be going on it anyway.” In the front seat, Ijichi shifted uncomfortably, but the teen didn’t seem to notice and pressed on. “Besides, I for one know I’ve improved during our time away from missions. Do you not feel the same? It’s okay if not - there’s no harm in admitting I’m better than you.”
He rolled his eyes so hard he must’ve seen the inside of his skull and turned away from her.
“Is the silence a yes?”
“Shut up.”
It took another forty minutes to get to the summer camp. The drive up to the entrance was bordered by a thick line of trees on either side that sometimes broke to reveal a view of the lake. Its surface was brilliant and dazzling underneath the rays of midday sun, and it was still due to the lack of breeze. A group of waterfowl, drifting in formation across the water, suddenly rose into the vibrant blue sky in a calm flutter of wings. On the far shore of the lake, mountains rose and rolled, covered in a blanket of green. The two young sorcerers couldn’t help but lean across the car towards the windows to try and catch a glimpse of the scenery. Once they reached the flaking wooden front gate of the camp, Ijichi pulled the car to the side of the road.
Everyone stretched as they got out of the car, legs stiff and backs sore from sitting for so long. Megumi took in a deep breath as he tried to pop his upper back, the scent of leaf mold and fresh earth filling his lungs. After a moment, he paused. Aside from the shuffling of their feet on the dirt road and the soft sizzling from the engine as the car cooled down, there was a distinct lack of noise. No birds sang or twittered from the trees and the background buzz of cicadas was absent. The realization seemed to dawn on everyone at once; Ijichi fiddled with the cuff of his sleeve while he cast his gaze up into the branches, but Kugisaki seemed relatively unbothered other than the way her eyebrows pinched together.
“It’s the curse’s presence,” she pointed out. “Kinda like when there’s a big predator nearby.”
Megumi nodded slowly in understanding. It wasn’t something he was necessarily unaware of, just something he was unused to. He had almost always dealt with curses in the city, and the bustle of cars and people and streetlife never stopped in the face of danger, often going unnoticed under the pulse of the city. Being from the countryside, he supposed Kugisaki was much more used to the way nature held its breath around a curse. Not that it made the silence any less unnerving.
“I’ll be waiting just inside the veil, so please come right back to the main entrance if anything goes wrong,” Ijichi said, his worried gaze flicking between the two of them. “I don’t think I’ll survive if I bring you two back to Gojo within an inch of your lives again.”
Kugisaki clapped a hand on his shoulder causing him to yelp. “Don’t worry, Ijichi, we’ll be fine! Anyway, do we really need a veil all the way out here? I figured the camp was private property and we’re pretty concealed by the woods.”
“That may be, but there are hiking trails nearby and we don’t want the cursed spirit fleeing into the forest.”
“It’s common sense,” Megumi sighed. His classmate looked like she was about to pounce on him and give him a piece of her mind but he ignored her fuming expression, strolling into the camp proper with his hands in his pockets. “Let’s get a move on, it’s getting hotter.” He decided not to grace her grumbled ‘I’ll show you common sense’ with a response.
Once inside the front gate, Ijichi muttered the incantation for the veil, the gaps between the trees above turning dark as it cascaded towards the ground. They nodded farewell to him as they pushed farther in and he returned it with a pensive frown.
Dirt, sticks, and leaves crunched underfoot, and after a little bit of walking they came across a wooden board with a map of the camp. Megumi found the boat storehouse, denoted by a sailboat symbol, after a bit of squinting. It was situated on the far end of the camp up against the lake. He pulled out his phone and took a picture of it, then Kugisaki followed suit.
“So, I figure we can split up to cover more ground since it’s such a large area,” she began, placing her finger on the board and tracing a path along the map. “I can check through the cabins and exorcize any low level curses I come across. You do the same in the recreational areas. Then we can meet up at the boat house if we haven’t encountered the second grade and deal with it from there.”
Megumi looked at her like she’d grown a second head, an uncomfortable, twisting feeling taking place in his gut. Was she insane? “Are you insane?”
Kugisaki fumbled. “What?”
“We’re not splitting up.”
“Why not? It’s gonna take forever if we go through the whole camp together.”
He could feel irritation building up inside him, making his ears hot and his head ache. “Because it’s stupid. We’d have no way to contact each other.”
“Are we not both capable? If you’re so worried just send your Divine Dog with me. Have it howl if I run into danger and return it if you do.”
“And how would we find each other after?” Megumi shot out. He wasn’t sure if he was more annoyed with Kugisaki or himself. How could she even entertain something so reckless? Why couldn’t she see it’d be better if they just stuck together? Why couldn’t he get rid of the sinking feeling that everything would go horribly wrong the moment they split up? “It’d be easier if we both went to the boat house straight away and expanded the search from there. Together.”
“Why do you care so much? What are you so afraid is gonna happen? I just want us to show that we’re capable individually now that we’re back.”
He wanted to scream. “Are you stupid?” he snapped, distantly feeling a twinge of remorse at the look of hurt and indignation the remark earned him. He had barely gotten to her in time when they were separated last time. She was two seconds away from being eaten. Not to mention what happened with Itadori and Sukuna. All the fear and frustration clumped together, making it difficult to squeeze his true feelings past his throat. “We’ll have plenty of chances to show that later. It’s better to just go straight for the target together.”
Megumi stormed past her and down the main path, summoning Divine Dog in the process. “We’re going to the boat house.”
Kugisaki stood rooted in place next to the map, arms crossed and eyes filled with a slow building rage. “I’m going to the cabins,” she insisted and made to head off in that direction.
“I will carry you there with Nue myself,” he threatened, only stopping to send her a firm glare.They held eye contact for a few seconds waiting for the other to break. Kugisaki folded first - deciding cooperation was better than the ignominy of being carried in the shikigami’s talons - and let out an exasperated sigh as she followed him.
Megumi felt his shoulder relax incrementally. As long as he’d be able to keep an eye on his classmate he’d be fine. The voices in his head telling him he was going to lose another partner, another good person, and it would be his fault would become manageable - mere background noise amongst the usual chatter. If he was too focused on her wellbeing, he’d be too distracted to deal with the curse properly.
He mentally filed his thoughts away and locked the cabinet, returning to the task at hand. Falling into step beside Kugisaki, he tuned his perception to pick up any residuals as they headed down the main path. Divine Dog trotted a little bit ahead of them, head swiveling around and nose in the air to catch the scent of any cursed spirits. The straw doll user pointedly kept her eyes glued forward, chin raised pridefully as she marched on.
After a few more minutes on the forested path, they arrived at the main building. It was situated to the side of a spacious roundabout courtyard-like area with a flagpole and large flower bed in the center. Multiple paths diverged from the roundabout, each one headed by a little painted arrow sign. At the base of the flagpole stood a wayfinder sign that pointed to the trails.
Kugisaki took a few steps towards the sign, but stopped in her tracks when the Divine Dog growled and raised its hackles. Both sorcerers looked up to see an insectoid curse winding its way down the flagpole. It let out a gross gurgling sound, clearly offended by their presence.
Megumi raised his hands and settled into a combat stance, but before he could ready any cursed energy, Kugisaki had already sent a nail piercing through its thorax. The metal ricocheted off the pole into the dirt by his feet. He was about to pick it up for her when she promptly snatched it herself, not acknowledging him in the slightest. He rolled his eyes. Why did she have to be so prideful?
It only took her a couple of seconds to study the sign, and her light brown hair fanned out as she whipped around to follow the trail that led to the lake. Megumi glanced at the smaller sign at the trailhead as they entered. It read “Ropes Course, Boat House, Docks.”
The two of them were quiet a long while, the silence broken only by the occasional bark of the shikigami and subsequent exorcizing of a curse. Unsurprisingly, it was Kugisaki who broke the silence first. He could feel her frustrated bristling across the distance between them the entire trek through the woods.
“I’m so glad both of us are here to take care of these grade fours,” she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “I don’t know how I would’ve managed without you standing behind me doing absolutely nothing!”
“It’s better to be safe than sorry,” Megumi grumbled. He really wasn’t in the mood for her barbs and hurt pride.
“Good to know you don’t think I can handle a bunch of stupid bugs.”
He closed his eyes in an effort to keep his composure. “Deal with it. They aren’t the reason we’re here anyway.”
Kugisaki huffed but kept her mouth shut.
It took them about fifteen minutes to reach the boat house. It was an oversized shed more than anything; its dark gray paneling was smeared with dirt and algae and its aluminum roof was covered in an obscene amount of pollen. A couple of small, rectangular windows were set a foot or two under the roof and were covered in cobwebs and grime. A large barn door stood at the front facing the docks. The sound of water lapping at the old supports of the docks was the only thing that filled the air. It didn’t take a particularly adept sorcerer to notice the curse presence oozing out between the cracks of the door. The grade two was either still inside or had been very recently.
Hammer and nails at the ready, Kugisaki made her way around to the door. Megumi followed her, his Divine Dog poised close beside him. His classmate spared him a glance to be sure he was ready before she tugged the heavy door open, grimacing at the layer of dirt and pollen now coating her palms.
The inside of the boat house was dimly lit by the sunlight filtering in through dirty windows. Megumi pulled on a thin string that hung from the light in the center of the room to provide a bit more illumination. The bulb fizzled for a moment but decided to stay on. Various water related items lined the walls and shelves from kayaks and canoes to innertubes and wakeboards. It was painfully musty inside, and the air was riddled with a dank humidity.
There was no immediate sign of the curse, but the two didn’t let their guards down as they checked through the shed. Kugisaki moved to the back wall, which held an assortment of fishing poles and tackle supplies. Megumi, on the other hand, went over to a barrel full of life vests that stood beside a table with random water toys on it.
He squinted his eyes, trying to find any sort of trail the curse may have left behind, but it was futile. Its residuals were all over the walls and floor. Wherever it was now, this was definitely its lair. He checked to see if his Divine Dog had picked up a trace of the thing, but his shikigami had its nose to the floor as it paced around in small, frustrated circles. Megumi crouched down to check under the table and his eyebrows raised in interes when he noticed scrawlings on the wall underneath.
Endou Kobi - 30 minutes
Iwasaki Rei - 2 hours
Kaneshiro Kaede - 1 hour and 45 minutes
Honda Takaba - 3 minutes
Sasuki Daigo - 10 minutes
The list went on and on. Some names were even written on the underside of the table. His brows furrowed in thought. This was some sort of test of courage among camp-goers he realized. No wonder a curse had formed here. He was about to tell his partner of his discovery when Kugisaki’s voice cut through the air accompanied by the deep snarl of his Divine Dog.
“Fushiguro behind you!”
Megumi whirled around as best he could on his hands and knees, smacking his head on the lip of the table in the process. Despite his bumbling, he was able to catch the last of the curse seeping up out of the floorboards and brace himself for the angry swipe that sent him into the wall. He grunted in annoyance, now stuck uncomfortably beneath the table and trying to wriggle out.
Two blue darts of energy shot into the curse’s side and drew its attention from him. It lumbered and slithered towards Kugisaki, giving him the opportunity to get out and back on his feet. His shikigami pounced on the monster’s thick tail and bit down firmly, resisting when the thing tried to shake it off.
Now that he was upright, Megumi was finally able to see the curse completely. It had the body of a crocodile, though there were too many legs and it had a thick shock of wet brown fur on its back. He could see that its mouth was completely lined with teeth as it snapped at Kugisaki’s legs. She dodged the attack deftly and lept around its bulky frame so she was no longer cornered in the back of the boat house, coming shoulder to shoulder with Megumi.
“Are you alright?” she asked, keeping her focus on the spirit.
“It barely grazed me,” he affirmed. The scratches from the blow were shallow - barely any blood beaded from them.
Focusing on the depths of his shadow, he reached down to grab the handle of the sword he’d stored within the abyss then brandished it. His classmate prepared another round of nails to volley at the curse and sent them flying as he closed the distance. Divine Dog raked its claws down its rough hide, a splatter of purple ichor dashing the floor. Megumi weaved around, trading places with his shikigami and slicing at the curse with his blade as he ducked and weaved. Three more nails embedded into the flesh of its jaw, the force whipping its head to the side. It let out a furious hiss and clawed at Megumi with two of its left feet, but he was able to spring backwards towards the door and his fellow sorcerer.
Once he was cleared from the area, Kugisaki snapped her fingers. “Hairpin.”
Blue energy surged and her nails dug further into the curse’s mouth before the technique pierced all the way through in an explosion of deep violet blood and cursed energy. It bellowed in agony and staggered backwards, knocking fishing poles and kayak oars to the ground. As they began to push their advantage, the marred flesh knitted itself back together and the curse spun its entire body around. The low sweep of its tail caught Megumi’s legs and he hit the wooden floorboards with a thud. Before it could bring its claws down on his torso, his shikigami tugged it away from him by its tail.
He took advantage of the opening and scrambled to his feet, ignoring the ache in his tailbone. It shook the Divine Dog off which slid across the floor towards him, though not without coming away with a chunk of the thing’s tail in its mouth. The curse dashed forward with its mouth gaped unnaturally wide, strings of saliva connecting the top and bottom rows of its teeth together, and the two students instinctually hopped backwards to avoid the maw closing in on them. They passed over the threshold, their backs now to the docks, and quickly resettled into battle stances. Divine Dog followed suit, crouching beside Megumi with a growl.
Just as it was about to chase them out of the boat house, it skidded to a halt in front of the door. They relaxed their stances in confusion and watched as the curse paced angrily along the length of the threshold but never crossing it. It stood on its hind legs and hissed in a show of dominance before slinking further back into the shed.
“It can’t leave,” Megumi realized.
Kugisaki hummed in understanding. “That must be why the counselors were able to get out without any fatal injuries.”
He thought for a moment. It didn’t take him long to figure out the best way to deal with the curse, though he was fairly certain his classmate wouldn’t be too keen on it. Oh well. It wasn’t his problem if she got mad, only if she stayed safe.
“Stay out here. I’m going back in the shed.”
“What?” she balked, and he was a little worried she would beat him over the head with her hammer.
“Just trust me and stay out here.”
Before she could argue, Megumi darted back into the boat house with Divine Dog close on his heels. The curse roared at the intrusion of its lair, its feet thundering against the wood as it surged forward.
“There’s no way you’re leaving me out of this,” Kugisaki shouted, making to enter the boat house as well.
“Just wait!” he barked as he ducked under a blow. His shikigami clawed at the curse’s side and it snapped its other attacker. While it was distracted, Megumi severed one of its feet with an upward slash and caught it before it hit the ground. Then, he threw it outside towards his partner. “Here! Exorcize it!”
Kugisaki snatched it out of the air before it went flying into the lake and placed it on the ground at her feet, then dropped her straw doll onto the limb. She knelt down, bringing up a nail to levitate beside her head before hammering it into the heart of the doll and through the flesh of the foot. At the same time, Megumi plunged his blade into the monster’s chest.
“Resonance.”
The curse let out a harrowing shriek as multiple silver spikes erupted from its body. It seized and convulsed for a moment before disintegrating in a spray of purple blood. As they stood there catching their breaths, the sound of life gradually began to return to the surrounding forest. Megumi smiled in satisfaction and was about to commend Kugisaki when she shoved her finger hard into his chest.
“Tell me the damn plan next time, Fushiguro.”
“It worked anyway, didn’t it?” He smacked her hand away.
“Yeah, because I’m not an idiot. Would it kill you to not treat me like one?”
“You were our best bet at killing it in one blow. If you had gotten hurt it would’ve just slowed us down.”
“I’m perfectly capable of finishing a job when injured. I’m a sorcerer, not a child,” Kugisaki snapped. She stormed off before he could say anything else. Megumi rolled his eyes. She could be mad all she wanted as long as she wasn’t dead.
The walk back to where Ijichi waited at the edge of the veil was quiet and tense. It seemed his classmate was back to ignoring his existence, and he really couldn’t be bothered to care. She would get over it. All he could think about was getting back to the school and soothing the minor scratches and bruises he’d accumulated over the course of the fight. And maybe a nap.
Ijichi perked up at the sight of them and the dark veil of night immediately began to ebb away from the sky to reveal the late afternoon sun. “Glad to see you two safe. Did everything go alright?”
“It was fine,” Kugisaki said curtly, heading past him towards the car.
The manager tipped his head in concern. “Are you sure?”
“We’re fine,” Megumi confirmed. He dismissed Divine Dog when he reached him, the shikigami melting into his shadow. “Let’s just get back to Jujutsu Tech.”
The bespeckled man looked between the two students for a moment, his face warring between what variation of pensive frown to fall into, before following them to the car. The ride back was made even more awkward by Ijichi’s silent fretting from the driver’s seat, but Megumi was more focused on the way Kugisaki’s foot tapped in irritation the whole way. He sighed. He knew she was strong and capable, but Itadori had been too. Despite her brashness and quick temper, there was no doubt that she was a good person, and Megumi didn’t want to lose her to his own mistakes. The thought was too much to bear.