The Boy With The Red Shawl.
There was an urban legend going around near Tokyo recently. In the whispers between elementary kids and the teenager’s gossip, people say they’ve met a blond boy with a red shawl in their moments of despair and misfortune.
He had blond hair and eyes like rubies. Fabric the colour of blood draped over his shoulders while he appeared from thin air. And then he would asked with a smile—
“Let’s make a deal, shall we?”
They said he’d grant you one wish. Any wish. Be it wealth or fame, health or anything else! he can make everything come true...for a price of course.
“That sounds very cliche,” Gojo commented while he stuck a lollipop inside his mouth. “And super unreliable. What kind of ‘price’ are we talking about anyways? Money? What if he wants your kidney or something like that?”
Getou shrugged. He was just repeating what Shoko heard. “It’s just an urban legend but so far there hasn't been anyone coming out to claim that he wants body parts or souls in return. Oh, wait, if a cursed spirit can be born from that, it might be really cool.”
Urban legends usually have a higher chance of giving birth to curses because they were well known (and feared). He wasn’t sure what kind of abilities it would have but a wish granting curse does sound interesting. Getou knew he would be itching to add one like that to his collection if he ever ran into it.
“So is that why we’re out here? To find the possibly evil genie?” Gojo asked. They were standing on the busy streets of Tokyo. People moved past them without giving them too much thought because well, big city, everyone was too busy to give a damn about other people’s lives. A few girls giggled when they walked by them though, a common reaction both teenagers were used to because of their good looks and above average height.
“No.” Getou took a sip of the coffee in his hand. He knew that Gojo wasn’t listening to the mission outlines when the assistant director was talking. Probably didn’t even bother to read the summary emails either. “There’s been a few missing children around these parts lately and the heroes can’t figure out what’s going on. It’s like the kids just vanished according to them. The newest one to disappear disappeared about an hour ago.”
“So it’s a spirit away kind of thing?”
“Yeah, hopefully they haven’t got snatched into a cursed spirit’s domain...” They both knew that wasn’t likely. If they hadn’t found the kid by now there was a very slim chance they were still alive. Cursed spirits don’t tend to keep its prey alive for very long.
Gojo sighed and took off his sunglasses to scan their surroundings. Nothing could hide from his six eyes. He quickly picked up a trace of the cursed spirit and they moved away from the crowds. The road that Gojo led them down was nearly deserted but neither teens felt any sense of worry. They wouldn’t be the strongest if they were scared of a few spooky alleys.
They heard something then. A soft melody that sounded like singing. It wasn’t a bad voice, while it didn’t sound professional, it was still nice to listen to. Gojo and Getou shared a glance. Abandoned hospital. Possible curses involvement. Singing. Great combination. If this was a horror movie that usually meant someone was about to die. They sped up but just as they got to the second floor, both of them stopped. The singing had stopped just before they reached the room at the end of the hall and they immediately noticed a few things that were out of place. For starters, there were a lot of curses here. At least a few dozen like a small army and they occupied nearly all of the empty space in the room. Weak curses liked to gather in groups but when there were this many, even second grade jujutsu sorcerers would find it troublesome.
