𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐶𝑢𝑟𝑠𝑒 𝑊𝑖𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛|||𝑅. 𝑆𝑢𝑘𝑢𝑛𝑎

|||CHAPTER 21|||JUST ANNOYING|||

ONE MONTH LATER; SEPTEMBER 2018
Kanagwa Prefecture, Kawasaki City at the Kinema Cinema

    
After the end of a movie, an employee discovered the mangled bodies of three male high school students. They labeled the cause of death: strange deformation of the cranium, increased intracranial pressure, and paralyzed breathing. Not really a cause.
    
"It's a gruesome scene. Are you prepared, Itadori-kun?" The first-grade shaman, Kento Nanami, asked Itadori. Satoru couldn't come so he assigned Nanami to the two first-years. Even though Y/n could have advised the whole thing.
    
Itadori nodded, looking over at Y/n, who had a hand in her pocket, using the other hand to open the door.
    
"Come on, guys." Y/n said before she stepped into the building, the two following after her. They walked towards the theater that had the dead bodies.
    
Y/n squatted down on one knee, looking at the floor. Nanami pushed up his glasses, "Can you see it? These are remnants of magical power." He told Itadori, who looked at Y/n in confusion as she stood up.
    
Itadori looked around the hallway, putting his hands to his eyes, "Nah. I can't see it at all."
    
"That's because you're not trying to see it. Usually, we can confirm curses by sight like it's a second nature to us." Nanami looked over at Y/n, watching her peek into the theater. He continued, "When you exercise technique, you leave traces behind. We call them 'remnants'. However they're faint compared to things like cursed spirits. Please strain your eyes and look closely."
    
Itadori strained his eyes, trying to see the remnants, "Hmm? Ooh! I can see it!"
    
"Of course. An independent man must be able to realize something's presence before seeing it."
    
"Or woman." Y/n added, pointing at Nanami.
    
"You know, it would be nice if you could, like, give praise to encourage improvement or something." Itadori's teeth clenched and eyebrows furrowed.
    
Y/n started walking away as did Nanami. "I don't praise or speak ill of people. I conform to the truth and judge by that. That is the way I am." Nanami told Itadori, "Once upon a time, I though society was the same, but... you don't need to hear that story, right. We'll follow the remnants."

"Alright!" Itadori cracked his knuckles, "Let's go all out."

"No. If it can be done casually, let's do it casually." Nanami expressed, not even looking at the boy next to him.

"It can usually always be done casually, some people or curses are just annoying." Y/n crossed her arms, looking back at the two.

"She's referring to me, isn't she?" Itadori dropped his shoulders, pointing at himself.

"Noo, I am not." She looked back at him, putting her hands in her pockets.

______________

    
"Nothing appeared on the surveillance camera, right?" Itadori questioned as the three walked up the flight of stairs.
   
"Yes. Apart from the victims, there was only one boy." Nanami answered, Y/n nodding.
    
"So the culprit is a cursed spirit?"
    
"Well, that's—"
    
Y/n interrupted Nanami, "We've got company; two of them." She said as they started to get closer to the top of the stairs that led to the roof of the theater.

Once they reached the top, they saw a cursed spirit trying to speak, "Be... be... bento..."
    
Itadori got into a fighting stance, Nanami put his hand in front of him, "Stop. I'll clean this one up." He put his arm down, "Itadori-kun, you get that other one over there."
    
Itadori turned to look at the other curse peeking around the corner of the building. It clasped its hands together, "Goooood detergent..."
    
"What the hell are the curses talking about?" Y/n muttered as she leaned against the wall, crossing her arms.
    
"If you think you can't win against it, call Y/n-chan or me." Nanami told Itadori.

"Aren't you looking down on me a bit too much?" Itadori questioned, watching the curse carefully.
    
"It's not a matter of looking down on you or not." Nanami pushed his glasses up, "I'm an adult and you're a child. I have a duty to prioritize you over myself."
    
"If you're gonna treat me like a kid, I'd rather you just look down on me." Itadori told him, not taking his eyes from the curse in front of him, "Hey, why don't you look down on Y/n?"
    
"She's proved to me that she does not compare to a child, she may be 16, but she thinks and acts like an adult. She's been through too many bad situations." Nanami explained, starting to unbutton his suit jacket, "You've escaped death many times. But that doesn't mean you've become an adult. The accumulation of little despairs..." He pulled out his curse tool, a short sword covered in a paper, "that's what makes people adults."