CELESTIAL FLOWERS ( s. gojo )

arc vii ━ chapter iv. emergency

a r c vii.

❝ is your name a wish, a prayer, or a hope?

is your name a curse? ❞

━━ chapter iv. emergency

PEOPLE ARE DYING. So much blood spilling. Every day, an endless cycle of red stains their hands and the ground, and Kazuko wants to scream over the reality of this life they're leading.

"Danger?"

"She got dispatched alone on midnight. Now there's more curses swarming where she is and no one's going after her!"

"Hayami..." Kazuko stops on her trail and turns to face Kiyoshi. Hayami. Who is their classmate, who is always sweet and compassionate. Who radiates so much energy that Kazuko can't help but smile when she's around. Hayami, who gave her a box of premium potato chips all the way from Hokkaido the day after her birthday.

"The upperclassmen—" she begins and Kiyoshi shakes his head.

"Shouko-senpai can't be sent away because she's too important and Gojo-senpai is back at his household for an important meeting of sorts. The higher ups won't send for other Jujutsu sorcerers. It has to be us."

"What do you mean—"

"Kazuko!" He's screaming at her. Kiyoshi never screamed at anyone. She can see the tears forming on the sides of his eyes and she knows that she can't defer this conversation any longer. Hayami needs them. She clenches her fists. "Our friend is in danger, you have to use your Cursed Technique. We'll both go there immediately and save her. I'll tell you the details once we're there, but it's important that we leave now!"

Kazuko zips her duffel bag open, extracting the necessary tools. "I just learned how to do widescale Teleportation yesterday." She uses the tip of her jutte to draw figures over the ground. "But I think I can send both of us to Ikkebukuro safely."

The circle is finished. Kazuko clenches her fists before grabbing the veil Gojo delivered to her doorstep yesterday. The Cursed Tool will help her maintain the amount of Cursed Energy. She begins to apply Cursed Energy on the circle and instructs Kiyoshi to join her. When they're both standing inside of it, she thinks of a certain location in Ikkebukuro. In the back of the cafe Gojo took her to taste the 'out of this world tiramisu' which turned out to be a sham. Kazuko envisions the brick wall and the two half-open windows. The closed door that led to the cafe and the garbage dumps filled with black trash bags.

"Kiyoshi, brace yourself."

And they're gone. She lands on one of the garbage dumps, her back cushioned by the plastic bags, and Kiyoshi who was unlucky enough to land on solid ground, grunts.

"Sorry," she mutters before grabbing her jitte and markers. "Let's find Hayami and set up the curtain."

They both stop, hearing the sound of a flute over the air. Kazuko run towards the source, guided by what they assumed to be Hayami's Cursed Technique.

"Hurry," Kazuko tells Kiyoshi who's still disoriented from his fall and the rapid change in location. They pass by the narrow alleyways, into throngs of people (Kazuko tucks the jutte beneath her blazer, it still stucks out though so she hides it in plain sight, hopes that passersby dismiss it as a cosplay item of sorts), and there they see the curtain that engulfs two whole buildings.

Kazuko is the first to stick her hand into it and relaxes when she's allowed to enter. Kiyoshi follows and by the time they're inside the barrier, he's already drawn his sword. More music. This time louder and Kazuko can detect the smallest tremors in the way the melody flows. Kazuko had watched Hayami practice her flute multiple times and the way she played before differed from this time. The underlying tremor and the nervousness.