[Flashback]
Somewhere in the snowy Japanese Alps, a group of tourists are climbing the mountain range. A hired tour guide helps the group climb the mountains, showing them the beautiful scenery.
Teeth chattering slightly, the tour guide pointed towards a narrower part of the mountain they were climbing. "To see the next view, we'll have to go through this narrow path. Put down your backpacks to have more mobility through the passage." A sudden, unfamiliar pressure crushed down on them, stealing the air from their lungs...
This energy was produced from the birth of the disaster curse, Yukiji.
The newly born curse looks around before setting their beautiful, yet vicious eyes on the group of tourists. Based purely on predatory instinct, the curse's energy surges outward, overwhelming the group's senses once more.
"I desire… food." The curses eyes widen slightly while looking at the tourist group before grinning madly, as if the thought alone pleased them.
[The Present]
Yukiji looks down upon Akari and Yami, frost spreading across the floor where it stands.
Akari musters up courage, putting up his fists in an offensive stance. "You must be the curse that harmed the factory manager! Aren't you?" He looks towards Yami, realizing he had already come to the conclusion that this curse was a special grade before himself.
With predatory intent, he looked Akari directly in the eyes. "I didn't simply just harm him; I experimented on him." It paused momentarily to see the two sorcerers' reactions. "First I made his legs frostbitten, then I froze his eyes solid, and then I stabbed him through the throat with a spear of ice."
Outside the factory, Hiraku had sensed the rise of malevolent cursed energy and immediately contacted Principal Cho.
Yukiji purposely said those words to anger Akari; this bait worked as Akari jumped up towards the curse.
"Don't fall for his words, Akari!" Yami yelled in desperation, but Akari was already mid-jump towards the disaster curse.
"Mad Man's Intent: Intent Declared!"
Akari immediately enters the first phase of his cursed technique, Mad Man's Intent, in an attempt to gain physical dominance in this fight. Within the same second of activating his cursed technique, Akari's leg comes into contact with Yukiji's chest from a powerful kick. The factory shakes slightly as wind is produced behind Yukiji.
Akari smirks, believing the attack must've hurt the curse, but Yukiji smiles as he grabs Akari's leg and swings him around wildly before letting go. Akari's head is violently hit on a metal beam, causing a concussion.
Seeing Akari getting injured, Yami immediately prepares his cursed energy for usage.
"Heavenly Beam!"
A beam of pure cursed energy is shot upwards from the palms of Yami's hand towards the curse, which hits Yukiji from below.
BANG!
The platform Yukiji stands on collapses underneath him, causing a large bang produced from metal clanging against the ground...
SPLASH!
Blood pours onto the ground from Yukiji's legs, bleeding heavily from the attack. But, this isn't enough to stop the curse, which uses its cursed energy to repair their body in an instant.
Yami's breath hitched.
He saw it clearly. The torn muscles knitting together in an instant, bones reforming like they were never broken, and veins coming back together like they didn't just gush blood. All that healing without any strain on Yukiji's cursed energy.
"...It healed," Yami whispered to himself, the words barely coming out of his throat. "This thing isn't fighting us seriously... It's toying with us, like we're nothing!"
Akari realized the curse wasn't taking them seriously, much like Yami did. He was incredibly angered by this realization. "Oi, pipsqueak. If this curse won't take us seriously, we'll give it a reason to!"
"Mad Man's Intent: No Turning Back"
Entering the second phase out of the four phases of his cursed technique, Akari's cursed energy surged to 120% of its normal amount, and his physical strength increased to 120% as well.
Akari placed his palms on the ground and launched forward, propelled by pure strength. He coats his fist with cursed energy, hitting Yukiji cleanly at the spine.
IMPACT!
Yami, Yukiji, and Akari's eyes widen...
Through what could only be described as a miracle, the sparks of black have decided to bless Akari Yamamoto!
"BLACK FLASH!"
The sparks of black radiate from Akari as he continues with a roundhouse kick to Yukiji's skull, an impact that temporarily stunned the curse, who was internally damaged from the black flash.
BLEH!
'Maybe this muscle monkey is someone I should take seriously... Maybe it's time to use my cursed technique.'
As Yami charged up another heavenly beam, palms pointed out towards the disaster curse, the temperature in the factory dropped...
80 -> 60 -> 30 -> 10 -> -5 -> -20
The teeth of the two sorcerers begin chattering uncontrollably. The charge-up of the heavenly beam is disrupted as the curse immediately appears in front of Yami, already in the middle of a swing towards Yami's chest!
The arms of Yami instinctively come together to reduce the amount of damage from the punch, but the force behind the punch sends Yami flying backwards out of the factory.
Akari breathes heavily, staying in the second phase of his cursed technique is very exhausting despite still being in the 'zone' from the black flash.
Yukiji's cursed energy reserves have barely dropped since the start of the fight, in an act of respect the curse leaves without killing the tired sorcerers. Having learned information about humans, and how there are people who can stand up to him...
As Ayumu arrives onto the scene as soon as he possibly could, he sees the unconscious Yami and the tired Akari being taken cover of by Hiraku.
Ayumu looked towards the clearly exhausted Akari. "Akari, tell me everything that happened on this mission."