WHAT MAKES US HUMAN • yuuji itadori

04. best interest

there was only floor.

darkness reached out farther and farther, and satsuki couldn't see an end. she didn't want to risk moving too far.

retching noises sounded from all around her, and strange mushroom like figures emerged from the shadows. curses.

satsuki rolled her eyes. she saw a sea of grade three's, and a couple grade two's. piece of cake. she tapped her boot against the ground, testing - it felt like stone. that was good, it was probably the easiest material for her to work with.

in front of her, a group of seven curses, those with wings, had gathered. they screeched together and shot forward.

she shifted her heel inwards.

a huge wall of stone slid up from the floor with an ear piercing grating sound. the curses exploded upon impact, instantly exorcised.

corruption technique: battlements.

she dropped to a crouch, her palm flat on the ground and spun in a low 180 degrees.

following her hand, a huge semi-circle slab of stone with a sharp edge slid from the ground, thrown forward into the surrounding curses, slicing through half of them.

corruption technique: nature's blade.

she continued these two techniques until only one curse remained. it was small and inoffensive — just a flyhead. there was no use wasting any energy with her techniques to exorcise it. just as she unsheathed her knife, the flyhead was snapped up in the jaws of a black dog, torn in half.

megumi ran up to her, slightly breathless, and rested his hands on his knees. "itadori...distracting. kugisaki—" he cut himself off, looking at her questioningly.

satsuki shrugged. "haven't seen her."

"she disappeared the same way you did, so she's down here somewhere."

"let's go then," she grabbed his wrist and started pulling him along, following his black demon dog that had bounded on ahead.

a couple more minutes of jogging, and they caught sight of another mushroom-like cursed spirit. three of them, and another curse holding kugisaki by her ankles. it opened it's mouth to eat her—

the floor underneath the curse exploded and it was forced back. the long tongue of one of megumi's frog shikigami caught kugisaki and reeled her into it's mouth.

satsuki grimaced. she would not want to be im kugisaki's position right now.

"we're out of here, now. let's go." megumi said as his snake chowed down on the cursed spirit satsuki had blasted back.

"you know... i really hate frogs."

"well that's too damn bad!"

satsuki offered a sympathetic smile.

↯

"we need to expand the evacuation area to ten kilometres," megumi instructed ijichi.

"what about you two?" he questioned.

"i'll stay. i'm going to wait for itadori." megumi glanced at satsuki and she raised an eyebrow. "you should go with kugisaki."

"i'm not injured."

"that's not the point. i don't want you doing something rash."

satsuki frowned. "the hell's that supposed to mean?"

megumi sighed and shoved his hands in his pockets. "all i'm saying is that you get stressed when lives are on the line. this may sound cruel, but it's better if just itadori dies, rather than itadori and you because you tried to save him, if there's danger. im just looking out for your best interests."