You and Inumaki enter the car. Ichiji-san drove you to the destination of your missions while explaining the damage the curses have done, and the goal after the mission— to exorcise these grade 2 curses.

"The location is a school and a supermarket. No one is residing at the places today because of the mission, but if you could minimalize the damage, that would be better. Since the two of your locations are practically side by side, I'll just put up a single curtain for you both." The two of you nod in response after Ichiji explained.

As you exited the car, you go to the front of the locations with Inumaki. "Leaf mustard?"

"Yeah, I think I'm ok. Even though I'm a little nervous, it's pretty exciting isn't it?" You gave a nervous smile at him and a thumbs up for reassurance. "Salmon ^^"

You smelt the curtain flow down like water above you and the buildings, queuing the start of your mission as shamans. "Well, see you after we complete our mission!" He nodded and made his way to the supermarket, while you to the school.

You encountered the first batch of curses right at the front lawn. There were 4 of them, all about 5 feet high with crab-like features, running towards you.

You raise the bandages on your eye higher, just so that you could open your orbs to look at the curses, but not high enough that you'd have to rebandage just to cover your eyes again. The once running curses were now walking in slow motion as you stared at them with your naked eyes. Using your bow, you load an arrow and shoot a curse, hitting it directly, and you watched as it evaporated into thin air. You did the same to the other 3 curses and after finishing them, your eyes teared up a bit because of your technique's strain. You reach for your pocket and grabbed the eyedrops you got from the infirmary with Inumaki, who got some cough syrup to aid him as well.

You went inside the school facilities in order to check if more curses are lingering around the campus after putting down your bandages once again.

A music room you passed radiated cursed energy and a swarm of bat-like curses erupted from the piano when you crossed by. The swarm of curses flowed like they were one, like a school of fish traveling through the vast ocean. You got another arrow and placed it on the arrow rest of your bow, pulling your bandage upwards again to gain sight of the swarm of curses right in front of you. Again, they slowed, and from once fast flying and overwhelming bats, they almost froze midair as soon as your gaze was set upon their bodies. Putting a generous amount of cursed energy on this arrow, you shot it towards the heart of their pack, then the arrow exploded with cursed energy, taking away the entire swarm of curses in one blow.

You continued walking through the school, spotting small curses here and there, exorcising them by poking the tip of your arrow into their bodies. The rest of your walk around the school was peaceful and you felt no more curses around the vicinity so far.

You stood in shock when your nose picked up a human scent, alarmed that a person was here even though the school was supposedly empty and evacuated to fulfill this mission. Following your nose to where it smelled the human scent, you felt more horrified the more you go near the location of whoever that person was. Because accompanied by the human scent you smelled just a few seconds ago, was a sudden burst of cursed energy that was filled with so much hostility, it almost drove you away from the school. And that cursed energy was in the same direction as the human scent you were picking up.

Even though you were engulfed in so much fear, you continued to follow the scent. Because you don't think that you could walk away with the thought that a defenseless human might have been victim to a powerful curse, and you just simply chose to walk away because of cowardice. You would rather die than have that thought stuck in your head until death.

After following the scent, you ended up in front of an isolated music room. From the scent of the room itself, it was hardly used recently and located far away from the other active and used spots around the school. With your heart beating as fast as a racecar zooming through a race, and so loud that it resembled taiko drums in your ears, you held the doorknob and opened the door. The person's gaze fell on you and immediately, you felt like you were about to get exiled.

Though you avoid using your curse towards humans, you felt that this situation called for it, considering that you couldn't avoid affecting the person anyway if you were to use your technique on the curse inside this room.

With shaky hands, you pulled your bandages up until your eyes could see. You saw a boy, knees to his chest, in the corner of the room, crying. Surprisingly, you did not see any curses. All the cursed energy you felt and smelled came from this boy. But something wasn't right. You felt like something was missing from the scene in front of you.

On impulse, you wield your bow and arrow, gulping in order to clear the forming lump on your throat before you speak. "Who are you? Why are you here?" you asked the boy. From what you could tell, the boy was probably around your age. He had hair as black as coal that spiked upwards, and his eyes were the darkest shade of blue you've seen that it was almost black. But probably his most noticeable feature was the dark circles around his eyes that were highlighted because of the soreness crying resulted to.

As soon as you set your eyes upon him, he felt heavier, his heart beat slower, everything was slow. And because he looked innocent and kind, you closed your eyes right away after you asked him your questions.

"P-please stay away! I feel Rika-chan nearby. She's gonna attack you!" He warns. This only made you hold onto your bow tighter, pulling on the string to get ready for anything that might threaten to attack you.

Then just as you did, the already malice-filled aura and scent that suffocated the room grew heavier and stronger. You opened your eyes to look at the most petrifying curse you've seen in your life. Though you wanted to do more than just let out a terrified gasp, you were too terrified and too shocked to do so.

Without thinking, you fired your bow towards the monstrous curse. This barely did any damage and only angered the spirit more, which resulted to its power increasing.

You continue to stare at it to slow its movements, and at the very least, it's still effective. But unlike the other curses who almost looked like they were being filmed in super slow motion, the effect of your technique on Rika-chan is like trying to stop a flowing faucet with your bare hands— it makes the water's flow hindered, but the water still manages to flow freely.

"RIKA-CHAN, PLEASE STOP! YOU'LL HURT HER!" Yuta shouted at Rika, but she almost ignores him completely.

You fire another arrow at her and ran. Since your gaze was removed from her as you ran forward, you were able to feel her speed at top form and it was so overwhelmingly fast that it made you trip a little while running away from her in fright. Her speed picked up and in a flash, she was right behind you. Using her powerful hands, she swatted you like a fly, causing you to fall several feet backward.

Looking towards her again, she slowed, and using as much cursed energy as you can, you placed it onto your arrow and fired it at her. This time, you thought she received even the smallest damage.

You feel your eyes giving up. They were red and bloodshot from restraining a powerful being such as Rika. But you were not about to blink, because if you blink you might never be able to see and live in this world. After all, you're sure that this curse is going to kill you once you give her the opening she needs.

You were about to run out of arrows. So each arrow you still had was filled with the most energy you could put into it, but with every arrow you were consuming, you felt weaker since it drained a lot of your strength.

Your eyes were in tears because of the duration you've been using your technique and because of the long minutes that you've left them open. You were almost at your limit.

"RIKA PLEASE STOP! YOU'RE GOING TO KILL HER!" Yuta cried at the curse, who in turn, gave him a face that looked like it was out of confusion.

Of course, the curse proceeded. You were now down to your last 4 arrows. You think that your eyes were starting to cry with blood.

3 arrows.

2 arrows.

last arrow.

You collapse on your knees after you finished all your arrows. Wiping your cheeks tainted with the mixture of blood and salty tears, you got the dagger that Maki let you borrow, just in case the situation was in a desperate emergency. It was your last resort.

Finally, after the longest 5 minutes of your life, you blinked. And Rika ran faster than ever towards you.

You wouldn't let all the training with Maki go to waste. You would still fight even without sight. After all, if you would die anyway, you'd at least want to go out as someone who fought until the very end.

Rika's claws swiped and dug deep into the flesh of your whole front, your whole torso. The dagger, with all the cursed energy you had left inside of you, stabbed the eye of the cursed spirit and with your weight and force, allowed it to slide down its face. If you were not in such a bad condition, you would've cheered for yourself since this was the first time you've made such prominent damage on the curse.

You were on death's doors. Rika wailed at the damage you've done to her face, causing her to forget about you for a second while you struggled to stand on the floor.

Opening your eyes for what might be the last time you would in this lifetime, you stared at your body and the situation right in front of you. Yuta was now carrying the saddest and guiltiest expression you ever saw a person wear. "Rika. I love you, so please stop already. Thank you for protecting me." Rika stopped and for once, wholeheartedly listened to Yuta.

And with that, she disappeared. Yuta on the other hand, collapsed right after.

Probably the work of the adrenaline still rushing through your veins, you were still able to stand up and walk to Yuta. Covering your eyes with the bandages, you slung his arms around your shoulders and walked towards the entrance of the school, with pools of blood trailing behind you.

Inumaki, who was already waiting right in front of the school, grew anxious that it took you so long to exorcise curses who were relatively low grade. He debated whether or not he should enter and interfere already, but he was worried that you'd get offended if he entered your mission too early, thinking that you might think that he believes you were incapable of completing the mission on your own.

He saw your body limping towards the pathway, then with a pause, collapsed onto the ground. Panicking, he ran towards you as fast as he could, reaching you in a heartbeat.

"Leaf mustard!?"

"Inumaki... lets g-go... home..."

He carried you onto his arms, trying his best to avoid the areas that were deeply wounded, especially the front part of your torso. He slung Yuta's arm on his shoulders and carried the two of you towards the entrance.

Just right on time, the curtains lowered, and Ichiji was so shocked at the sight displayed in front of him.

Calling Gojo to inform about what came of the mission, they drove back to Jujutsu High as fast as they could to give you a chance of survival at Ieiri's care.

Inumaki held you so tightly throughout the silent ride, wishing that he could curse you to health with his speech, but unfortunately, he knew he could not.

Before handing your limp and barely breathing body to Ieiri's infirmary, he whispered to your ears.

" 生きる." Ikiru. Live.