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"Heroes don't always wear capes."
"Sometimes they wear school uniforms and commit morally questionable acts in the name of justice."
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(Curse POV)
I floated in the darkness of the abandoned construction site since my birth. Around me, other presences whispered and chittered in fear and hunger. My siblings, or as I call them 'competition'.
Today Something different was happening above. A new consciousness was forming, pulling itself together from wisps of cursed energy.
"New... kin... Weak...."
My thoughts were fragmented, barely coherent. I have existed for perhaps three weeks. The concept of language was still felt foreign to me.
I watched with fascination as the newborn curse began to take shape of a writhing mass of cement and despair.
"Birth... life... Death...."
Then came the sound.
*Boom*
A massive explosion from the entrance below, followed by the shrieks of curses.
Curiosity overrode survival instinct for me.
I drifted toward the edge of the floor, peering down into the darkness below. I could see movement, a shadow, perhaps.
I descended slowly, cautiously, trying to make sense of the chaos erupting in the lower levels. The sounds of combat echoed through the building, impacts, cursed energy.
Then something moved in the darkness directly below me.
Black tendrils erupted from the shadows with high speed, wrapping around my formless body and slamming me against the ceiling with a brutal impact.
I struggled, but the restraints were very strong.
A figure emerged from the darkness below. A boy, black-haired and dark-eyed, looking up at me with cold eyes.
The boy cracked the knuckle of his left index finger, the sound echoing in the empty space. Then he spoke, his voice soft, like a whisper.
"What is 1000 minus 7?"
I struggled to process the question, to form words in this strange language the humans used.
"Not... know..."
I managed, the syllables painful and wrong.
"Weak... small..."
But the boy's expression didn't change.
"Wrong answer."
The shadow tendrils began to pull.
My body stretched in four directions simultaneously, each tendril applying tremendous force.
"Pain... no... please...."
The curse burst like an overinflated balloon, dissolving into a cloud of blood-red smoke that dissipated into nothing. Its brief existence ended like a popped balloon.
The black-haired boy looked at the residue coating his clothes and sighed with annoyance.
"Tch. Ruined my perfect entrance."
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Three floors below, the construction site was a battlefield of light and clashing energies.
Haibara stood in the center of the floor, his right hand extended with index finger pointed forward like a gun. Concentrated cursed energy gathered at the tip, forming a sphere of white-hot energy beam.
"Critical Shot,"
he said calmly, and the energy launched forward with devastating impact.
The curse it struck, a malformed thing of concrete, rust and brics, disintegrated on impact.
But he didn't pause, already tracking his next target.
His finger blazed with another charge.
*Bang*
Another curse gone, fried to nothing by concentrated energy.
*Bang *Bang*
Two more, caught trying to flee toward the eastern exit.
The remaining curses scattered in panic, their survival instincts finally overriding their aggression. But they found no escape routes.
In the western corridor, a blonde boy unwound his tie casually. The fabric straightened itself, becoming rigid like a sword blade infused with cursed energy.
"Don't make me walk too much,"
Nanami said,
his voice carrying the exhaustion of someone who'd been asked to do work after a long day.
Cursed energy spiked around him, and his ratio technique activated.
Weak points appeared in his vision like targets, showing him exactly where to strike for maximum damage.
A curse made of abandoned tools lunged at him. Nanami's sword bisected it with a single strike.
Another curse tried to attack from behind. But a white beam disintegrated the curse immediately. Nanami saw Haibara smiling at him. He nodded as a gesture of thanks or perhaps it was the least he expected.
The three first-years moved through the building together, each one covering the others' blind spots.
A particularly large curse, possibly a Grade 3 by size alone, emerged from the loading area.
"Big one!" Haibara called out, already charging a shot.
"Need a little help guys!"
Immediately dark tendrils erupted from below the curse, wrapping around its limbs. Ryu emerged from the stairwell, his hands moving through gestures to control the shadows.
"I can hold for 10 seconds," Ryu reported.
"Attack it quickly!"
*Bang*
Haibara's Critical Shot struck the immobilized target dead center, the concentrated energy punching through cursed flesh like a railgun round. The curse staggered but didn't fall.
"This one seems durable," Nanami observed, moving into position.
"I've got this one!"
His sword flashed, striking a point just below the curse's core. His technique created a weak point which he hit perfectly. The curse shattered like glass, pieces dissolving into cursed smoke.
"Good Work," said Nanami.
The team started walking to the rooftop. With each step, a shift in cursed energy was observed.
The top floor was where the newest curse was forming, drawn by the concentrated negative energy that had accumulated over years of failed construction projects and accidents. The area hummed with unstable cursed energy, reality itself looked fragile.
In the center of the space, something writhed.
It was barely formed, cursed energy still trying to form into a stable shape. The sound it made was pitiful, like a newborn crying for attention.
*Waaaaaah... waaaah...*
Ryu raised his hand.
"Slice and Dice."
The invisible cutting attack bisected the forming curse before it could fully manifest, dispersing the accumulated energy back into harmless wisps. The crying stopped mid-wail.
Both Haibara and Nanami turned to look at him.
"What?" Ryu asked, lowering his hand.
"Spawnkilling is easier."
Haibara stared at the dispersing energy where the curse had been trying to form.
"Are we... are we still the good guys? That thing wasn't even fully born yet."
"It would have been once it finished manifesting," Nanami pointed out.
"We prevented future casualties."
"Yeah, but..." Haibara struggled for words.
"It feels kind of wrong, you know?"
"We are heroes," Ryu declared with absolute confidence.
He struck a dramatic pose, shadow tendrils spreading behind him like wings, an image suspiciously similar to a certain ghoul from that anime he'd been watching.
"Heroes who commit infanticide on cursed entities," Nanami added dryly.
"...When you put it like that, it sounds bad."
"It IS bad," Haibara said. "But probably necessary? I think? Man, this job has too many ethical gray areas."
"Welcome to jujutsu sorcery," Nanami checked his watch.
"We should move. It is almost time for the school investigation."
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Yamabuki High School looked scary at dusk, less like an institution of learning and more like the setting for every horror movie Ryu had ever seen. The building's windows reflected the light and the silence felt oppressive despite the distant sounds of city traffic.
A security guard stood at the main gate, a middle aged man with tired eyes and a thermos of what was probably very old coffee.
"You boys lost?" he called out as they approached.
"School's closed. No club activities tonight."
"We're from..." Haibara started, but Nanami was already moving.
"Look, a bird," Nanami said, pointing to absolutely nothing.
The guard's head turned reflexively. Nanami's hand chopped down on the back of his neck.
The man crumpled silently. Nanami caught him before he could hit the ground, lowering him gently against the gate post.
"Did you just....." Ryu stared in disbelief.
"Did you seriously just knock out a civilian?"
"Talking is too much work," Nanami replied, already walking toward the school entrance. "This is much easier."
Haibara laughed nervously.
"Haha, but you won't practice that technique on us, right?"
Nanami didn't answer, simply continued walking forward.
"RIGHT?" Haibara's voice cracked slightly. "Nanami, buddy, that was a question that needs answering!"
....Silence....
"I'm taking that silence as a 'no,'" Haibara decided.
"Definitely a 'no.' It has to be a 'no.'"
"Keep telling yourself that," Ryu muttered, stepping over the unconscious guard.
"I'm sleeping with one eye open from now on."
They moved through the empty school grounds, guided by the information from the viral video. Third floor, eastern wing, classroom 3-B.
"Guys do you also feel the heavy cursed energy lingering in the air?," Asked Haibara. "Definitely something's active here."
"The video showed activity in classroom 3-B," Nanami recalled.
"That's our primary target. Secondary objective is locating that student Yamato, if he's still alive."
"And if he's not?"
"Then we exorcise whatever killed him and file a recovery report."
They climbed the stairs in a formation, Nanami leading with his sword, Haibara in the middle ready to provide ranged support, and Ryu bringing up the rear with shadows ready to defend or restrain.
The third floor hallway stretched before them, classroom doors standing open. The cursed energy grew stronger with each step.
'Something's here. Something stronger than those construction site curses.' Thought Ryu.
They approached classroom 3-B, the door standing slightly ajar. Cursed energy leaked out like cold breath.
Ryu reached for the door handle.
*Tap* *tap*
Something tapped his shoulder.
His reaction was immediate and violent, shadow tendrils erupted from beneath him, wrapping around the presence behind him and slamming it against the wall with ample force.
"Wait!" a muffled voice called out.
"Friendly! I'm friendly!"
The three first-years turned, cursed energy blazing around them, ready for combat.
And found themselves staring at someone none of them had expected to see here.
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Status Update -
Ryu:
Combat Style: Aggressive crowd control with finishing strikes
Technique Usage: Shadow Grasp (restraint), Slice and Dice (distance elimination)
Kills: 8 curses (Grade 4-5 range)
Notable Action: Preemptive elimination of forming curse ("spawnkilling")
Psychological State: Increasingly desensitized to curse elimination
Haibara Yu:
Combat Style: Precision ranged elimination
Technique: Critical Shot - concentrated energy projectiles
Kills: 12 curses (most eliminations of the team)
Accuracy Rate: 98% (11/12 direct hits, 1 glancing blow)
Psychological State: Beginning to question moral implications of their actions
Nanami Kento:
Combat Style: close-combat
Technique: Ratio technique + improvised cursed tool (sword)
Kills: 7 curses (including 1 Grade 3)
Efficiency Rating: Highest, average 1.2 strikes per elimination
Notable Action: Non-lethal civilian neutralization
Psychological State: Pragmatic, views elimination as labor rather than heroics
Current Technique Arsenal of Ryu:
Shadow Grasp Advancement:
Demonstrated Capabilities: Ceiling restraint, multi-target immobilization
Precision: Surgical-level positioning
Application: Both combat and theatrical effect (pose-making)
Energy Cost: Moderate, sustainable over extended engagement
Slice and Dice Development:
Range: Confirmed long-distance effectiveness
Lethality: Instant elimination of Grade 4-5 targets
Precision: Can target forming curses before full manifestation
Team Status:
Physical Condition:
All members: Minimal cursed energy depletion
No injuries sustained
Combat readiness: 90%+
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(A/N: It's good to be back my dear Readers. I missed ya all. And I also hope you missed Ryu and his team too? Is that a no I hear? Look! a bird to your right)
*chop*
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