Chapter Text
Fog swirled around Yuta’s ankles as he stepped between the hakaishi, hand resting on the hilt of his sword. The air in the cemetery was quiet - save for the sounds of his and Yuji’s footfalls on the gravel path.
They’d been assigned to investigate reports of strange activity in a small cemetery situated deep within the mountains, faraway from the hustle and bustle of the city. It was poorly maintained (which was a given considering its rural location), with weeds poking through the gravel and mouldering grave markers crumbling from decades of neglect. The dense forest surrounding it coupled with the soupy fog did nothing to help ease the eerie atmosphere of the place.
Yuta detected movement from the corner of his eye. He whipped his head around to look, but nothing was there.
“Did you see something?” Whispered Yuji, following Yuta’s gaze.
“I think it was just my imagination.” Yuta whispered back with a frown.
They continued onwards for a few more paces. The cemetery had a strange energy - one that felt like hundreds of eyes trained on his back.
Too quickly for either of them to react, a flash of black leapt from behind a headstone and barreled into Yuta, slamming him to the ground. He watched helplessly as his sword was jostled loose of its scabbard and skittered just out of reach.
The thing was monstrously heavy. Beneath the reek of damp fur and old earth was another smell, a sweet and fetid miasma that forced bile up Yuta’s throat.
He struggled against its weight, and in doing so, saw it clearly for the first time. It was a cursed spirit, though the term seemed strangely inadequate to describe the hulking thing pinning him to the gravel.
It was the size of a small horse, moving on four gangly legs that ended in paws appearing almost too human to be referred to as such. Its head resembled a dog - perhaps the only part of it that bore any resemblance to a creature he could name. As it snarled, Yuta could see rows upon rows of yellowed teeth that filled its gaping maw.
Then he saw the eyes. How could he not? They covered every surface of the creature, protruding from its stringy black fur. Some were large and glassy and clouded with cataracts while others were no bigger than a bead. Each one rolled and darted in every direction as though they were all observing something completely different. None of them looked at Yuta, save for the two on the creature’s face.
Yuta tried to swing at it, but the abomination moved first. Its jaws snapped shut around his left arm, pain tearing through him as its teeth punctured his skin. He instinctively tried to activate reverse cursed technique, but to his horror, he didn’t feel the wound closing.
The beast clamped down harder, sending white hot pain through his nerves and causing him to bite back a groan. Blood poured from his arm like water from a faucet. At this rate, Yuta feared it would be torn clean off.
That was when Yuji crashed into the cursed spirit from the side, throwing it off him. Yuta reached for his sword. The moment he felt his fingers close around the hilt, he swung in a wide arc, beheading the spirit in one smooth motion.
The thing fizzled into black wisps that vanished into the fog. Yuta and Yuji remained still, staring at the empty space where it had been.
Then, as the adrenaline finally wore off, a throb of pain ricocheted through Yuta’s arm. He winced and looked down to assess the damage - he was met with a chasm of dark red. It was deep enough that he could see bone, and he was losing a lot of blood. He tried to activate reverse cursed technique once more and felt the familiar warmth spread through his veins, but the wound stubbornly refused to close.
Yuji took notice and jogged over to him, anxiety plastered all over his face. “Senpai, are you okay?” He asked, but to Yuta, the words sounded muffled and far away.
“I’m purrfectly fiii-“ Yuta slurred before blackness closed in from the edges of his vision. The last thing he saw was Yuji’s startled expression as he crumpled to the ground in an unconscious heap.
“Hmmmmm…” Gojo sat backwards in a chair far too small for his long, spindly frame, blindfolded eyes most likely peering at Yuta’s bandaged arm with exaggerated concentration. “Yup, that’s pretty weird!”
“Thank you, Satoru, that was very insightful.” Ieiri sighed as she continued wrapping Yuta’s arm without looking up. He had awoken in the clinic some time ago, though the details of how he had gotten there remained obfuscated. Apparently, Yuji had called Gojo to come retrieve them.
“Ieiri-san,” Yuji said from the chair beside the exam table, “is it possible something other than a normal cursed spirit did this?”
“Possibly.” She frowned. “Or it could just be some kind of temporary curse. I’ve never seen an injury that my reverse cursed technique couldn’t heal. It’s odd.”
Yuta clenched his teeth. The pain had not ebbed in the slightest since he had awoken. It pulsed through him like muddy water in a narrow creek, thick with debris and pollution. It radiated through his shoulder and up to his jaw. He was simply not accustomed to this. Ever since he had learned to use reverse cursed technique, pain was merely a temporary inconvenience, something that could be removed instantaneously without much thought. But now, he was experiencing the full brunt of it, and he was reminded of just how fickle the human body can be.
“You’re going to need to take a course of antibiotics too, unfortunately.” Ieiri said.
She finished wrapping his arm and took another drag on her cigarette. In a daze, Yuta watched the pale smoke languidly twist and undulate around her, partially obscuring her face.
She shot Gojo a sharp look. “And that means no sparring for a few weeks, too. Maybe even months. That wound is deep.”
“Fine, fine.” Gojo put his hands up in surrender. “I’ll tell Kusakabe to not go so hard on him!”
“It’s not Kusakabe I’m worried about.” Ieiri muttered under her breath.
Yuta barely heard either of them. He felt like he was under a vast, dark ocean, with the clinic residing on an entirely different plane of existence entirely. Their voices were distorted, words losing shape and meaning as they finally reached his ringing ears. The throbbing in his arm was the only sensation that remained clear. All he wanted was to go lie down.
He slid off the exam table onto his wobbly legs, which almost immediately gave out under him. Yuji noticed him stumble and was at his side in an instant.
“Woah, careful!”
Yuta nodded noncommittally and tried to take another step. The floor seemed to sway beneath him, as though he were a tenderfoot sailor without his sea legs. His knees buckled. Yuji sprang into action and caught him before he even realized he had been hurtling towards the floor.
Yuji slipped an arm around his waist and helped drape Yuta’s good arm over his shoulders. He smiled awkwardly. “I’ll help walk you to your room. It’s on the way to mine anyways!”
His voice was so far away. The receding spring tide swept Yuta’s mind away with it. It was a new moon, after all. He was vaguely aware of Yuji’s touch - a pleasant warmth around his waist and pressed into his side that made his legs further unsteady.
Yuta had no memory of the walk back to the dormitories. If Yuji had spoken to him along the way, the words were swept away too, just like Yuta’s mind. The next thing he knew he was standing outside of his room, mourning the loss of contact with Yuji.
The thought of Yuji’s touch surfaced in his mind with uncanny clarity - the first clear thought he’d had since waking up that wasn’t related to pain. Then, it too was swallowed again.
He shuffled towards his bed, each step more difficult than the last, dragged forward only by his desire to be dead to the world. He collapsed onto the mattress without even removing his shoes as fitful sleep took him near-instantaneously.
“Sit.”
Yuta sat.
“Speak”
Yuta tried to speak, but all that came out was a rumbling snarl.
“Shake”
Yuta raised his hand, but what he saw instead was a gnarled paw, each toe slightly too long and ending in a hook-like talon.
“Good boy.”
Yuta wailed in agony as hot, sticky blood soaked into his fur.