CELESTIAL FLOWERS ( s. gojo )

arc vii ━ chapter vi. sorcery

a r c vii.

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

is your name a curse? ❞

━━ chapter vi. sorcery

THE RITUAL IS ALREADY UNDERWAY THE MOMENT THEY ARRIVE. Kazuko was supposed to arrive earlier, but Gojo had decided to join her much to the Assistant's ire.

"Gojo-sama, the Nakano elders have only requested for Grade 2 Sorcerer, Koyama Kazuko."

Words were futile against him and so they rode off to the Nakano compound. The location was a little ways far from where the car dropped them. Surrounded by trees with only a few concrete steps, monuments and torii gates serving as proof that the forest had been touched by civilization.

Akifumi is watching a couple of meters away from Erisu who stands in front of a gigantic torii gate. Guards dressed in gold and white and red garbs surround her, most of their faces covered with cloth as they chant mantras following Erisu's lead.

A black hole opens in the sky, fragments breaking off as if the heavens was just an illusion and the true appearance was coming out. The air is filled with sounds of chanting, but then everything shifts when a gigantic creature slithers out of the hole. It's bigger than a house, no limbs in sight and crawling over the sky like an overgrown worm coated in darkness. There are chains wrapped around the lower part of its body and the upper part consists of a mouth that when opened reveals an uneven set of fangs.

"What the hell is that?" Gojo chuckles. "It's gigantic."

"A curse," Kazuko answers, even more bewildered than him. The curse makes her think of fire. Moving quickly, tearing a path for itself, and unconcerned with what wreckage it left behind. "It's the curse Eri has to exorcise."

The chains rattle as the creature shrieks, the sound sends some guards on their knees and the amount of Cursed Energy is extraordinary. Erisu who stands closest to it remains steady on her feet. Gojo can see her back shaking, but the expression on her face remains fierce. The sound of her voice is drowned by the Curse's shrieks and wails, but there's no falter in her chants.

Erisu continues moving forward, her hands and legs in sync as she continues the chant. Golden light emerges from her palms, an Inherited Cursed Technique, Gojo figures and the bands of light begins to strike at the creature's sides. The wormlike Curse stops shrieking when Erisu strikes at its face, but the temporary silence is soon broken when the burnt off flesh begins to heal, a handlike organ sprouting from where the golden light struck. Followed by more hands from the places where the golden light struck.

Erisu, who had been calm moments earlier, shows the slightest slip of emotion. Surprise claims her body and she unconsciously takes a step back.

"Creature that devours," Erisu speaks louder this time as she begins to walk forward. Her voice ricochets all over the place. She sounds glorious, every bit of the heiress of a powerful clan descended from the goddess of the heavens. "Creature that destroys. Oh curse of the ancients, you may not devour anything ever again!"

The bands of light create protruding tips, sharp enough that they resemble the tip of spears. Erisu strikes the Curse again. "Amaterasu's light, the brightness of the world. I hold it in my grasp and strike at those who wish to sow evil in this land!"

"It looks like a centipede," Gojo comments as more hands emerge from the Curse's flesh. His hands are on his pockets. The screams are getting louder and he can see trees being uprooted and thrown into the distance. Some of the guards near them are bleeding and he wonders if he should tell them to evacuate. He glances at Nakano Akifumi and decides against it. The old woman would chew his head off if he so much as expresses his thoughts. Those guards are probably never leaving unless otherwise stated by the elder.

"Will Eri be fine?" Kazuko next to him asks, but her gaze is still pinned on her bestfriend. Even in her sorry state, she still worries for Erisu the most. Gojo shoves the crawling thoughts of annoyance away.

"Probably not," he answers. The Curse wails again, but this time after the shockwave, it shuts its mouth. Maybe the events are contradicting Gojo's prediction, maybe Erisu is close to exorcising the Cursed Spirit that slithers about in the sky. Maybe it will all be over in minutes and whatever darkness that's hovering over everybody in the compound will begin to subside.

But then Gojo had a habit of being always right.

"Brace yourself," he announces.

The curse shrieks. It's more powerful than all the previous sounds combined. This time, it sends more trees into farther distances. One which bore gigantic roots crashes into the roof of the Nakano compound, another impales two people with its branches and crushes several more with its trunk. Some guards are sent flying and Gojo expands the layer of infinity surrounding him to guard those behind him. Rocks, pebbles and sticks begin pelting everybody.

Amid the chaos, Erisu surges forward.

Her voice can no longer be heard and the golden light emanating from her begins to break. She is pushed backward and soon she's on her knees, throwing up blood. It's obvious that she's reached her limit and in the brief seconds that Gojo considers rushing to her side, Kazuko has lodged one of her markers to a gigantic tree that landed meters away from Erisu and warps.

"Kazu, what the hell?" Gojo begins to walk towards her, but another gigantic tree is thrown towards the Nakano estate and he repels it back to the creature. In the time that it took him to repel the ancient tree, Kazuko is already nearing her bestfriend.

Erisu, on the other hand, probably cannot see her. Her eyes are pinned to the Curse thrashing wildly overhead. Another wail. Gojo would compare it to nails dragged across a chalkboard only louder and even more irritating. Extra limbs sprout from its limbs, creating an illusion of smaller stems growing from branches. The limbs extend and it's heading straight for Erisu, but the girl raises her hands and the chains around the Curse's body begins to pull it into different directions. The limbs almost reach her and Erisu takes a step back out of fear, but he hears brief words: part of Erisu's chants. The creature intends to roar again, but chains crawl towards its mouth, snapping it shut.

Gojo wonders why she didn't just do it earlier.

"She's failed," Akifumi comments. Gojo narrows his eyes at the old lady who has taken to hiding behind him. A smart decision, but one he doesn't like.

"The chain that wraps the Suneater's body take the same amount of Cursed Energy needed to purify it with the Light." She shakes her head in disappointment. "When Erisu-sama chose to use the chains against it, she has given up on the idea of purifying it with light. This is a blunder. The Curse will be freed in less than a year unless Erisu decides to do the ritual again.

"And with the amount of preparation needed, a ritual in less than a year will be difficult."

The chains wrapped around the creature begins to tug at it and slowly, the creature begins to be swallowed back to its prison. A circus freakshow that's finished performing its act.

Gojo can cast Hollow Purple, destroy everything. It could probably eradicate the creature in one go. The range and the power was enough. It was oozing bad vibes, but once there's nothing left of it but memory, he figures it would be fine. He raises his hand.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," a voice says and he doesn't even turn around to identify the old woman. The elder who had requested for Kazuko to come specifically. "You could kill it, but the Suneater is a creature of old. It's a curse that operates within its own bounds of logic. Once you've killed it, you, an outsider, the creature will spawn in an uncontained prison the next time it lives again. The ritual is the only way. This is a duty to the Nakanos. A destiny passed from generation to generation."

"Destiny, huh?" Gojo grins. What a bunch of bullshit. Let's see him crush that destiny and duty with his fists.

Akifumi does not falter. Her face remains vicious.

"I've heard of you, boy. The Gojo child who possesses the Six Eyes and Limitless Cursed Technique," she says. "I confirmed it when we asked you to guard Erisu-sama a year ago. You have no respect for tradition, no respect for your elders. I bet you're aching to destroy that curse with brute strength just as you've always sough to do with your power. It's in you to be impertinent. But do this one thing and risk the lives of thousands."

She leers at him. Almost a challenge. There are only a few people that can spark such levels of unpleasantness in Gojo's system. This old hag who reminded him of everything he hated about their cursed society is on a level of her own. "Let's see how much blood you can carry on those hands."

━━ to be continued.