Pickles ||Inumaki x Reader||

Eleven || Fire

-Art by lansecha on Instagram-

I stared darkly at the blue-haired girl who lay at my feet, wondering what I should do.

The girl in question was Miwa from the Kyoto school who I had just beaten in a fight. Usually I didn't care for my opponents but she seemed nice from the little time we had to talk before our duel so I felt bad for not holding back on her, even if she did ask me not to.

Knowing that there were cursed spirits lurking in the forest, I decided it wouldn't be safe for her to stay unconscious by herself. 

Carefully, I lifted her onto my back and carried her to the main building where curses were less likely to appear since it was an open area.

My heels clacked against the cobblestone path as I spotted a nearby bench just outside the school entrance but as I lowered myself to lie her down, a dark shadow was cast over the sky. It was a curtain. Strange, considering we weren't informed that any veil would be created for the event. I furrowed my eyebrows as questions flooded my mind of the unexpected occurrence.

That was when I heard an explosion not too far from where I was. In fact, I had been hearing similar rumbling sounds while I was making my way there but thought of it as nothing more than a fight between students up ahead. But the longer I observed the smoke rising from the distant building, the more uneasy I became. 

I gave one last worried glance to the sleeping Miwa on the bench, entrusting that the teachers would step in if anything were to happen to her, before dashing off to the source of the sound.

With the speed I was going at I reached the entrance gates within a few seconds. There was a long path from the gate to the tall school building and at the other end of the path was Toge, Megumi and Kamo. The three had their backs turned, clearly not having noticed my arrival.

But what caught me off guard was the thing they were looking at. Large tree trunks were sprouting out of the building's door in all directions and what stood on top of the disaster of wooden logs was a giant, tan beast with dark lines running across its buff body. Similar to the material surrounding it, the monster had branches growing upwards out of where its eyes should have been. Anyone could tell instantly from its lack of human features that it was a cursed spirit. 

Some sort of special grade one too with its overwhelming presence.

While I analysed the situation, the curse remained dormant as the three boys standing below it talked calmly among each other, although they were too far for me to hear anything. 

A hard gulp passed through my throat as I observed the way Toge and Kamo were fixated on Megumi typing on his phone. 

The hairs on my arms stood up as I made a run for them without even knowing why. There was something about the way the curse stood perfectly still while the others prepared to call for backup which made me urge myself to get there, knowing that something was coming.

And my gut instinct proven correct when I saw it vanish from it spot to jump to the ground at lightening speed. 

Without any hesitation, I spread cursed energy through my legs and flew to the three boys with more speed and more desperation than I had ever used in my life. I closed the distance just in time for the curse to also reach them as it aimed a fist for Megumi. They only noticed when it was already next to them, leaving no time to react. 

Fortunately, I made it in time to step between it and the boy, raising my arms in front of my chest to block its punch. Rather than knock through Megumi's phone, the curse's fist collided with my arms with so much force that I felt myself swerve backwards, gritting my teeth at the pressure.