Chapter 7: Chapter 5
The next few days Tezuka spent training with Gojo and Yuji, learning the ways of the Jujutsu Sorcerer. At first it was confusing. Tezuka went to bed every night with a headache trying to grasp what she was being taught. Yuji was very helpful when it came to concepts she was having a hard time grasping. Like how a cursed spirit becomes a cursed spirit. For some reason her mind just couldn't grasp that people could harbor so much anger and regret that when they died they would become one of these monsters. They spent time working on hand to hand combat as well as jujutsu techniques. To Tezuka it felt a lot like taekwondo practice but with less kicks.
She felt her legs fall from under her and her head hit the hard mat bringing her back to reality.
"Ow," she complained holding her head and sitting up.
"Sorry," Yuji laughed sheepishly. "Let's take a break," he walked over to the wall to where their water bottles had been sitting. Today they were sparing, learning the body movements needed to produce cursed energy. They had been at it all morning.
Tezuka laid back onto the mat and looked at the ceiling letting her mind drift to Zakai. Was he at their grandparents? How did her grandparents react? Where they looking for her? She couldn't help but wonder if Sebastian or even Halle were worried or even looking. Probably not.
"Two timing backstabbers," she thought to herself as she sat up and walked over to her water bottle. She picked it up and squirt the water into her mouth like she would during softball practice then set it down and walked over to the grounded kicking bag on the other side of the mat. She widened her stance and squat down to preform a series of kicks that Gojo had taught them before he left on urgent business. She kicked the bag with her whole force and it tittered on the edge. She kicked it again and again and again.
"Calm down," Yuji yelled from across the room. "What's got you all worked up? It's not cause I keep kicking your ass is it?"
"You kick my ass? Please," she rolled her eyes and turned to him. "I let you drop me once. Don't let your head get too big."
"Really cause I counted three times now." he smirked walking onto the mat.
"You're trippen'" she responded.
"I think if I was tripping I'd be on the floor by now but I'm not." he said.
"Alright smart ass, one more time we'll see whose ass gets kicked." she said getting into the ready position.
"Fine, but if I win you owe me." he smirked also getting into a ready stance.
"We'll see about that," she said. She swept her leg underneath him and he jumped up. She did a quick counter as she turned aiming her next kick higher in the air. If Yuji wasn't so quick it would have connected between his ribs and hip, however he was able to block with his forearm. She took a step back creating distance. He threw punches left and right but she managed to dodge everyone of them. He fell down and did a low kick but he was too quick to dodge. She fell to the ground. He reached for her arm but she sat up, grabbed his arm, and twisted sending him to the ground as well. He lay face first on the mat as she twisted his arm behind him, sitting on his back.
"Who got their ass kicked now?" she smirked.
"Please this is nothing," he groaned. He managed to use pure strength to break his arm free from her grasp. He turned onto his back and grabbed her wrists then turned again so that she was now on the mat and he was on top of her. "Told you," he said with a smirk looking down at her, his warm breath brushing her face. She could feel the heat being emitted from his body and small sweat drops form on his forehead. She let out a smirk and hugged her feet to her body. She wormed her feet against his chest planting them firmly then shoved. When she did she grabbed his wrist and twisted throwing her legs around his arm and across his neck in an arm bar.
"Ah!" he cried out trying to free his arm as she twisted and pulled.
"Say uncle!" she remarked.
"What?" he asked painfully tapping her leg. She let go.
"Why would I say uncle?" he asked confused sitting up.
"Never mind," she smirked sitting up as well.
"Not bad," he stood up and approached her holding out his massive hand. She took it, feeling the tough calluses and firm muscles. He pulled her up with ease.
"I could say the same for yourself," she smirked then walked over to her water bottle.
"Yuji! Tezuka!" boomed Nanami's voice. the two snapped their head in the direction of the door. "Get ready we have a mission."
"Mission?" Tezuka asked.
"Sweet! Finally something to do other than spar with tiny over here." Yuji joked.
"Who are you calling tiny I just kicked your ass," Tezuka argued.
"Enough arguing, get dressed and out to the car. I'll explain on the way." he said then turned and walked out of the house. Tezuka grabbed her water bottle and walked to the door. She went up to her room and changed into the new uniform Gojo had ordered for her. All the material and clothing was the same however the pants were a cargo pant, a belt with a matte black buckle and a button up cold shoulder long sleeve top with a turtle neck. At first she was skeptical though looking in the mirror now she kind of looked like a badass. She kept her hair into a long ponytail and walked out of the house to meet Nanami and Yuji at the car. The three got in and they sped down the drive.
"Hey nice outfit!" Yuji smiled. "No you officially look like one of us,"
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"Well, you don't look so much out of place," he said.
Tezuka scoffed. "Are you saying I looked crazy before?" what was with this guy?
"No no no, you look good, you always have looked good. I'm just saying you look like your from here now." he said quickly.
"Enough with the bickering. We need to talk about the mission." Nanami said stopping the two. They stopped talking and focused on Nanami. "Three high school students ditched class to go to the movies. Their bodies were found by a theatre employee deformed and swollen. Its our job to go in and figure out if it was done by a curse or not. If so, we find the curse and kill it."
"Sounds simple enough," Yuji said.
"That may be so for me however both of you are severely lacking in any kind of training." Nanami said.
"That's not my fault," Tezuka responded.
"That's not what I am saying. What I am saying is you both are novices and need to be careful and alert at all times." He snapped.
Silence filled the car. He was right, Tezuka had no idea what they were about to get into. When they pulled up to the movie theatre it closely resembled those in America and made Tezuka feel a tingle of comfort. However it quickly vanished after walking in and looking at the large, swollen, decayed and deformed bodies of three teenage boys who couldn't have been much older than she.
"Oh my," Tezuka began throwing her hand over her mouth as she felt her breakfast begin to come back up.
"That's gross," Yuji said casually and Tezuka looked at him curiously. How was he not almost sick.
"Do you notice anything?" Nanami asked the two.
"Their bodies look like cursed spirit bodies." Tezuka said.
"Yes, but I'm talking about the residual taint." Nanami said.
"Residual taint?" Yuji asked.
"You don't see it?" Nanami asked.
Tezuka looked around the dark movie theatre. No one else other than the police were here, blood on the three seats and the bodies. The dark floor, bare, not even a piece of popcorn.
"No," Tezuka said.
"Yuji, I'm disappointed." Nanami said.
"What?! Why me? Why not Tezuka?" Yuji exclaimed shrugging his shoulders.
"You've had longer to practice." Nanami said and Yuji grumbled. "Look here," Nanami pointed to the floor. "You can't see it because you're not looking for it. Residuals are what's left after a cursed technique is used. Try harder, focus your eyes."
Tezuka looked at the floor and did as told. Maybe if she tried to focus her cursed energy to her eyes, she would be able to see it. Is that what Nanami meant? Slowly she could see spots in the floor glowing a soft purple, its shape slightly jolting back and forth as if small bugs were contained in that shape.
"I see it!" Tezuka exclaimed.
"Me too," Yuji agreed.
"A good sorcerer can sense them before they can see them." Nanami said approaching the footstep like shapes.
"Why do I feel like he always hits us with a compliment and an insult at the same time." Tezuka asked Yuji.
"Yeah, you're telling me," Yuji said then followed Nanami. Tezuka did the same. They followed the residual taint down the hall and around the corner to another hallway. At the end of the hallway were stairs that the footsteps walked up towards. Tezuka looked up towards the ceiling trying to see if there was any other clues she could find. AS she did she noticed a security camera.
"This place has cameras, do we know if they caught anything?" she asked.
"They caught another young man leaving the scene." Nanami said.
"So he could be the one that did this?" Yuji asked.
"Maybe, or he could be an innocent bystander in need of protection." Nanami said.
"Poor kid," Tezuka whispered under her breath.
They continued up the stairs until they reached a door to the rooftop. Once outside, there was residual taint everywhere. There was a baseball field which surprised Tezuka. In the corner was a small building that housed benches like a dugout. Inside this building was a green animal on all fours. Hair like a horses tail sprouted form its rear though its face was human. Its teeth bulged from its mouth and eyes didn't have eyelids. It let out a low growl. Tezuka felt her heart beat faster and the sweat on her palms form. She had already faced one of these beast though she had no idea what she was doing. Nanami approached the cursed spirit and pulled out a knife, though the knife was wrapped in a black spotted bandage.
"Want us to take care of this?" Yuji asked.
"No," Nanami said. "I'll take this one, you two take the two in the corner." he nodded towards second base where a cursed spirit with white skin and a vertical human mouth stood next to another cursed spirit with yellow skin, matted black hair, and creepy toothless grin. The white beast stood at about Yuji's height, and the yellow one towered over both, arms standing taller than Tezuka herself and thicker too. "If you need help, just holler,"
"I can tell he doesn't have much faith in us." Tezuka said taking a step back.
"I guess not," Yuji said. "I'll take the yellow guy,"
Tezuka nodded. Then the two cursed spirits charged. The yellow spirit came after Tezuka, it's short legs and long arms moved its body in the way a chimpanzee would. It was a disturbing sight and made the hair on the back of Tezuka's neck stand. Everything in Tezuka's body told her to run but her feet didn't move even as this creature barreled down to her. This beast was much to large for her to successfully defeat. There was no way she could over power a beast this large. Sensing this, Yuji attempted to jump between the two, however the white spirit tackled him to the ground. Before she knew it, the yellow beast picked up and arm and flung it at her, connecting with her ribs and sending her flying across the field. She hit the fence at the edge of the building and fell to the ground with a thud. Tezuka cried out in pain as she felt a burning scrape on her arm. HEr heart beating faster and faster, she had to ignore the pain and face the beast, whether she thought she could beat it or not. She had to ignore the pain and fight, not only for her life, not only for a good training session. She had to fight to get home, to get back to Zakai. She had to beat this thing if she had any hopes of getting back home. Yuji ran after her though the white spirit chased after him. The white spirit caught up to Yuji and grabbed him, throwing him towards home base. Tezuka stood up painfully looking around for something to use against this beast.
"Do you want a receipt," It croaked out then again began charging towards Tezuka.
This time she was able to dodge. It ran head first into the fence and slumped to the ground. However, it wasn't done yet. Another blood curdling cry came out of its mouth as it stood up, blood pouring out of its mouth. This was disgusting. Had her adrenaline not been pumping, fear running through her veins, Tezuka might have thrown up. Looking around, Tezuka found a small metal bat probably used by a little kid that played t-ball here. It wouldn't do much but it would help. She grabbed the bat and swung as the beast ran at her again, raising its large arm to crush her. She felt the same explosion of emotion in her body as she swung the bat that she felt during her very first encounter with a cursed spirit. She had closed her eyes when she swung the bat as she did every single time, though if her calculations were correct she would hit the beast. A splash of warm metallic liquid on her skin caused Tezuka to open her eyes where she saw the arm of the beast flying towards the opposite end of the field, blood spraying everywhere. The beast let out a painful cry as it lost its balance, falling to the ground. As it did, Tezuka focused her cursed energy to her foot, letting the warmth and rush of pure emotion bottle and bunch into her foot as it began to glow an uncontrollable fiery blue and connected with the beasts head. A crunch and rip of bone and flesh sounded as more warm red liquid sprayed her foot and leg, the soccer ball sized head flying upwards and then colliding with the ground a couple feet away. Tezuka looked down at the body to see blood pooling out of its headless neck to her shoes. She then looked at Yuji and Nanami, who had both finished off their spirits, both with looks of concern.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
KidaJ_
KidaJ_ I'm back! I'm so sorry I left for so long, I took a very much needed unplugged vacation however I am back and have a lot of great ideas and chapters waiting for you guys! Thank you for being so patient! I hope you guys enjoy the rest of the book! :)
Much love,
Kida
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