Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Get crushed!” Inumaki’s voice booms over to the cursed spirit, right after downing a bottle of throat medicine. The curse’s head immediately squishes down, but, being a special grade, exhibits no significant damage. Inumaki doubles over, hot blood pouring out of his mouth from the feedback.

Fushiguro, Itadori, and Kugisaki back Inumaki up, delivering blows toward the curse while Okkotsu and Maki plan out the most efficient way to defeat it. 

✽

“This curse,” Gojo said, a smug smile across his face, “Is a special grade. One that has the rare power to distort space and time. From what I’ve heard, some sorcerers’ buddies got teleported to another dimension and still haven’t been found, so, be careful. I’ve chosen you,” he gestured to the five of them, “to defeat the curse and bring back the survivors, if any.”

“Alright, piece of cake,” Itadori mused.

“It’s a special grade. Even with this group, it’s still gonna be a challenge,” Fushiguro scoffed, rubbing his temple.

“Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention. Okkotsu’s joining you. That should help,” Gojo chimed in.

Itadori raised his eyebrow. “Okkotsu-who?”

“Yuta Okkotsu, when I catch you, you’ll regret destroying my dreams to go to Kyoto!” Kugisaki exclaimed, anger burning across her face.

“Once again, misdirected anger,” Maki sighed. 

“Salmon,” agreed Inumaki.

“Did I miss something?” 

✽

The cursed spirit is almost melted, pieces of fractured space surrounding it, sharing a striking similarity towards a distorted quantum dimension. Around its head, in particular, is a ring encircled by static spheres, enlarging and shrinking based on its commands. Its eyes glow in the dark, scribbled and uneven, topped off with an unsettlingly incomplete smile.

Okkotsu uses his katana, imbued with his cursed energy, to strike the enemy, to no avail as it is swift to evade. He falls back, gesturing to his teammates to attack amid the curse’s focus on him. The others abide, falling into formation to charge towards the foe. 

Fushiguro summons Nue, the bird shikigami, to discharge electricity in an attempt to daze the curse. At the same time, Itadori sends a kick towards its foot, while Kugisaki aims a nail to its arm. Maki comes from behind to strike the cursed spirit with Playful Cloud, a special-grade weapon relying on raw strength instead of a curse technique. All of these attempts, however, prove to be futile as the curse is completely unaffected. The spirit’s head ring expands, sending out a command to the space surrounding it. In an instant, everyone is thrown off their balance, Okkotsu being able to withstand the most due to his excessive cursed energy. 

Fushiguro spits on the ground and mutters profanity, gritting his teeth. Okkotsu steps forward and places his hand on his shoulder.

“Don’t worry. I have Rika.” 

Okkotsu places his finger on his ring, calling out to Rika. With a piercing shriek, Rika manifests, ready to eliminate the combatant. Their opponent, however, is unphased by this development, instead releasing another command.

“Tuna tuna!” Inumaki calls out, signaling everyone to look up.

“ᗪOᗰᗩIᑎ E᙭ᑭᗩᑎSIOᑎ: ᑎEᐯEᖇ-EᑎᗪIᑎG GᗩTEᗯᗩY.”

Its voice is thundering, especially for it being the first time the cursed spirit decides to speak. In a way, the tone is almost calming, a stark contrast to the motives behind the statement.

“It’s performing a Domain Expansion! Everyone –” Okkotsu is unable to finish his order as a bright flash erupts in their vision, giving rise to a sharp ringing within their ears. 

✽

Itadori’s eyes blink open, the boiling heat of the sun beating down on him. He sits up, dazed and dizzy, surveying his new surroundings. Immediately, he realizes he’s sitting in the middle of a busy, unfinished paved road, tents spotting the edges. People swiftly walk past him. 

The “people”, he realizes, are nothing of the sort. His stomach drops, as for a moment, he believes he’s completely surrounded by curses, but quickly learns that no cursed energy is being emitted from any of them. They’re odd creatures, some bearing a single eye, some looking like a weird mix between a crocodile-person or a centaur, and even fairies.

He stands up, brushing the leftover dirt off his clothes. Memories of the previous events come crashing down to the realization that he is probably not on Earth anymore, let alone Japan. He scans the area for any sign of his companions, only to find more weird creatures. His attention is caught by probably the most normal-looking being – a tall, pale woman with long flowing gray hair, a ruby-colored dress, and pointy ears – selling seemingly regular human junk enthusiastically, carrying an overconfident poise. She’s likely the easiest to approach, and with any luck, she’ll have seen the others around.

He walks up to the stand, and the woman smirks, dangling a thread of yarn in front of him. “Would you be interested in this fun human artifact?”

He almost laughs at the display — he’d hardly call that an artifact — but he refrains from it, instead smiling shyly. “Hey, sorry to bother you, but have you seen a group wearing a uniform like mine by any chance?”

“Woah woah woah, wait a minute,” the woman interrupts, her eyes narrowing. She leans a little closer, and Itadori feels his cursed energy tingling in his veins, ready for a defense. She rubs her chin, examining, calculating, and finally steps backwards. “You’re a human!”

He scratches the back of his neck. “Yeah?”

“I haven’t seen your friends anywhere, unfortunately,” she says, sticking her finger in her ear and throwing out a piece of lint ever so casually. Her voice drops, as though she’s discussing something secretive. “But how’d you get here?”

“Ah.” Itadori’s face falls at the previous comment. “It’s a long story. I’m not sure where I am, actually, if you could explain?”

She seems to consider this, and shrugs. “I mean, I’ve got all day. What’s your name, kid? I’m Eda,” she holds her hand out for a handshake.

Itadori accepts. “Itadori.”

“Alright, Itadori. To answer your question, you’re in the Boiling Isles!” She says that last part as though it’s a huge reveal, but it just leaves Itadori more confused. He’s never heard of that place in his life.

“Huh, is that so?”

“Yep,” she confirms, popping the ‘p’, “this place is home to witches, demons, and any other being you humans can think of.”

He blinks. “And you’re a witch, I’m guessing.”

“Of course!” she huffed. “You’re talking to the best witch on the island.” 

Her somewhat cocky attitude resembles Gojo, in a way. Itadori’s smile lifts the slightest bit. “Can you help me find the others, then? Fly on a broom or somethin’?”

She snorts. “Do all humans have this kind of view on witches, or is it just you two?” Itadori has no idea what she means by ‘you two’, and decides not to respond to her comment. “Well, anyway, I can help ‘ya, but you gotta do something for me first.”

He raises an eyebrow. “Like what?”

She smirks mischievously. “Well, you got any cool sellable human trinkets? Something worth a good few snails?”

Itadori scrunches his nose. “Snails?” 

“Yes or no, kid?”

Itadori delves his hand into his pockets, searching for anything valuable, and ultimately pulls out a Megan Thee Stallion figurine. Despite not wanting to part ways with it, he comes to the conclusion that he really has no other choice. “I got this.”

She picks the figurine up, rotating it in her fingers for inspection. “I guess this’ll do. Now, you’ll have to answer a few questions.”

Itadori’s eyebrows furrow. He’s not exactly sure if he has any more time to waste, especially with the cursed spirit on the loose. 

Eda crosses her arms. “You want help or not?”

“Okay, okay, sure, I’ll answer a few,” he relents.

“First, where’d you come from? Through a portal door? Magic?”

“Nah. It’s – it’s more complicated,” he says, dodging the specifics. One because of Jujutsu rules, and two, because a woman selling junk and stuffing lint in her ear isn’t the most trustworthy sounding. “I mean, you could say magic.”

“Thought magic didn’t exist in the human realm?”

He chews on his lip. “Depends on who you ask, I guess.”

Eda taps her fingers against the table of her stand, pursing her lips and taking a moment before she responds. “So, what do your friends look like, exactly?”

“That might take a bit to explain. There’s six of us,” he admits with an awkward chuckle.

She lets out a huff in amusement. “Dang. And I thought one was a lot.” A silent moment stretches on. He’s not exactly sure what to follow that up with, but to his relief, the lady continues speaking. “Well, since you are talking to the greatest witch on the Boiling Isles, I know just the spell to help you find all your lil’ buddies. C'mon, Owlbert,” she gestures to a tiny owl on her shoulder. It hops off, morphing into a golden line, solidifying into a long staff and floating midair. 

His eyebrows raise. He’s seen many things, but he’s gotta admit, that’s a new one. “Woah, cool!”

She mounts the staff, patting the spot behind her for Itadori to sit. He gazes at it for a second, a slow suspicion bubbling up. “Uh, not to be rude, but where exactly are we going?”

“Somewhere I’m not being chased by the law.”

He stares at her with a blank expression.

“For theft,” she clarifies. “What, did you think I was gonna murder you or something?”

“That’s still pretty bad, you know.”

“Eh, nobody’s exploded yet. Not that I know of,” she snorts, slapping her knee. “Now are you coming or what?”

As this is the only source of information he has, he has no choice but to oblige. In addition, he’s pretty confident in his defense abilities when push comes to shove, so he seats himself on the staff. “Hopefully we don’t crash into any airplanes,” he jokes.

“Any what?” 

“I’m just saying I hope the ride’s smooth.”

“Oh, that’s funny,” Eda snickers. She slaps the front of her staff, and unfortunately for him, it rockets into the air.

✽

“Listen here, minions!” A loud, squeaky voice commands. “You’re gonna make me breakfast, specifically a ‘milk and cereal,’ as Luz called it!”

Fushiguro’s eyelids flutter open. His muscles ache with great force, eyesight straining to simply meet his surroundings. With effort, he finally sits up, forehead bunching together. This isn’t like a domain in the slightest. His fingers brush against a couch to his side, and coffee table sits on his other. At first glance, it seems to be a regular humble home — until he notices a weird little walking dog thing with a skull for a head. No cursed energy radiates from it, strangely enough. Still wary of his location, he silently observes the little creature talking to its stuffed animals.

“And make it extra crunchy! Wait, I need to ask her if the milk or cereal goes first,” the little dog mumbles, picking up the stuffed animal and turning to go to the kitchen. His eyes land straight onto Fushiguro, expanding.

“What the!? It’s an intruder!” The little creature squeals. Fushiguro immediately jumps up from his spot, getting his hands in position to summon his Divine Dog.

“Hey hey hey, don’t throw gang signs at me! You’re in my house!” the thing demands, making a loud yelp and sending sound waves careening towards Fushiguro. The Divine Dog manifests, jumping onto the table and blocking the waves from damaging him. 

Then, a loud, annoying sing-song voice erupts from the door. It snaps open, and an owl-snake thing slithers out. “I can take care of the intruder!”

Before the owl-snake can reach Fushiguro, however, the shikigami runs over to bite it in the face, earning a loud screech from the monstrosity.

“You.” Fushiguro turns to the tiny creature. “Tell me where I am. Now.”

The dog huffs. “Like I said, you’re in my house!”

“That’s barely an explanation,” he scoffs. “You don’t have any cursed energy, so what are you?”

“I don’t like this interrogation! Eda ‘oughta throw you out of here!” The little creature points his claw towards the teen accusingly.

Fushiguro sighs. Clearly, he’s not going to get any useful info out of this thing. He turns to walk out the door before he hears a voice coming from the hallway to his right, and quickly calls back his shikigami, mustering up cursed energy for another potential summon.

“King? What’s with all the ruckus?” a woman asks, emerging from the doorway. She has pale-white skin paired with silky dark hair; one of her eyes, Fushiguro notices, is gray, the other one a teal green. Her stiff posture was giving off an intimidating image, until she freezes, her attention harshly snatched by the injured owl-snake across the room.

“Hootsifer!” she cries, hurrying over to crouch near the owl-snake and picking its face up frantically. “What happened to you?”

The owl-snake frowns. “That dog attacked me!”

Lilith’s eyes dart around wildly, settling on Fushiguro and narrowing, both her gaze and tone bitterly cold. “And who are you?”

He clears his throat. “I don’t want to be here either. I’ll be leaving.” 

“Not until you answer my question, young man!” She stands up, pulling out a piece of paper with an odd symbol on it.

Fushiguro rubs the side of his head, feeling a migraine from the situation. “Fushiguro.”

“What?”

“You asked who I am. My name is Fushiguro.”

“Well —“ she stammers, her fingers clenching further around the paper. “More than that! How’d you get in here?”

He decides that, considering the weird little wolf and owl-snake, this group of people should not be too surprised by the concept of magic. “Someone teleported me here.” 

“Are you with the Emperor’s Coven?”

He lets out a snort. “The what? That name is stupid as shit.”

“Bad word! He said a bad word!!” The little wolf screams, stomping his foot on the floor.

The woman ignores both comments, instead eyeing Fushiguro in suspicion. “You wait here. I’m going to contact Edalyn and see what I should do about this.” She walks back to the hallway. “Hooty, you keep an eye on those two.”

“You got it!” The door mostly closes, a small slit being left for the ‘Hooty’ owl-snake to slip through and keep a watchful eye on the living room.

Fushiguro weighs his options. On one hand, it would be no problem to shove past these two and leave, but on the other, he has no information on this place, where the curse is, or where his friends are. Although he doubts he could get a lot out of interrogating ‘King,’ if he manages to get on its good side, he has the chance of earning information from the random woman.

“Hey, sit down! I don’t like you standing menacingly!” King commands, once again pointing at Fushiguro.

Fushiguro, despite his growing irritation, settles down onto the couch. He takes a second to inspect the house further. Rows of cluttered objects and weapons line the walls, no rhyme or reason behind it. Some of them, he isn’t sure if he can even name. He glances behind him, his interest only piqued by a particular poster. The image is of King and a woman in a red dress, laughing maniacally with a fireball in one hand and an owl-like staff in the other. The bottom reads “Wanted: Owl Lady,” with a huge sum of money as a reward. 

Now Fushiguro is aware of two things: this house belongs to a wanted criminal, and King is likely her pet. Second, whoever she is, she must be pretty efficient in her endeavors to be worth that much, despite being impulsive.

“See? I’m incredibly formidable!” King exclaims, noticing Fushiguro’s examination of the poster. The teen has slightly more respect for the little dog with a skull; even with the over-confident attitude, it’s clear that there’s more to him than it seems. 

“Who’s the other on the poster?” 

“Hey hey hey, I’m the one asking questions.” With a slight struggle, King climbs up onto the coffee table, walking over to face Fushiguro. After a moment, the creature pauses, squinting. “Your ears!”

Fushiguro touches his ears with his fingers. It’s perfectly smooth, and even then, he can’t recall earning an injury there. He raises his eyebrow.

“They’re round!”

“Yes?”

“Like a human’s! Are you a human?”

Now that Fushiguro thinks about it, the woman from earlier had pointy ears, and so did the person on the poster. What were they, then – elves, perhaps?

“Answer the question! Do you know Luz?” King demands, sitting cross-legged on the table.

“I’m human. But, no, I don’t know whoever that is.”

“Hm.” King leans closer. “Do you have a portal to the human realm?”

‘Human realm,’ Fushiguro thinks. So this place is another realm. “I might. But I’ll only give it to you if you tell me about this place.”

King taps a claw to his chin, contemplating. So, that’s what they want. A way to get to his dimension. Fushiguro can use this to his advantage.

“Fine! But only if you pinky promise that you’re going to uphold your end of the deal!” King holds out his ‘pinky,’ which was more just one of the two giant claws on its paw. If Fushiguro were the type to display emotion more, he would chuckle. ‘Pinky promise’? They have those here? Regardless of how silly he finds it, he holds out his pinky to meet the claw of the little dog.

“So,” Fushiguro begins, deciding to start with smaller questions. “What are you, exactly?”

“The scariest demon on the Boiling Isles!”

Demons. That makes sense. As for King being the scariest, not so much. “What is the ‘Boiling Isles?’”

“The island we’re on! It’s surrounded by boiling water, which, according to Luz, isn’t normal in the human realm.”

So there’s another human here, too? How? Could they have been a previous sorcerer his teacher mentioned? Either way, Fushiguro’s now formulated his next goal: find them and ask them what the hell is happening here. “Your friend is right. It’s not.”

King falls silent for a moment, lowering his voice to a whisper. “You know, for a human, you sure don’t act like one.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Well, first off, the human I know can’t summon creepy wolves.”

“Ah.” Fushiguro pauses. “Well, only a few can, so.”

“And you’re also edgy!” he adds, a bit too enthusiastically.

The sorcerer scrunches his nose. “What?”

“Well,” King says slowly, “you’re not jumpy and didn’t immediately pick me up to smother me, and you’re also meaner. Like the cupcake-squishing girl before she became – uh – not mean.”

Fushiguro wasn’t sure he understood half of that sentence. “Humans have different personalities. Did you believe all of them were the same?”

King shrugs. “Maybe?”

Suddenly, the door swings all the way open. Immediately, Fushiguro spots the person on the poster, and, standing behind her, a very familiar face.

Itadori yells, “Fushiguro!?”

Chapter Text

Luz saunters through the forest, carrying a few plants in a small basket. Before she’d ended up in Belos’ mind, she was given a task to gather up some important things — yet another one of Eda’s chores. Her mentor probably would have called it off, especially considering the fact that Luz is probably wanted by the emperor, but she can’t sit back in the house and do nothing. She won’t let herself be useless. So, she snuck out while Lilith was asleep and Eda was out selling things to buy from the Night Market, hoping she’d at the very least benefit from the fresh air. But Luz’s mind keeps circling back to her situation.

Belos. The Day of Unity. Her fault. And, on top of all that, her promise to her mother to forever go back to the human realm.

It’s hard for her to ignore something of that magnitude weighing on her heart. Before she realizes it, her knuckles have turned white from gripping the basket handle so hard. She takes a deep, shaky breath, staring at her shoes as a burning sensation in her eyes threatens a cascade of tears. How could she have fallen for that? She put this whole realm in danger.

Her train of thought is interrupted by a huge thud somewhere nearby, followed by a loud grunt.

Her head snaps up from the ground, turning to follow where the sound came from. She tentatively peeks around a tree, finding someone who she assumes is her age with a white bowl-cut and a high collar with a zipper covering their mouth, slowly getting up. Luz glances upwards, but sees no place from where this new person could have dropped. However, her attention is soon caught by a key feature. Round ears. Holy guacamole, he’s a human too!

Wait. He’s a human too? 

She looks up again, eyebrows etching together and pupils darting between the sky and the human, mind racing. How could he have gotten here? Is there another gateway? As strange as this is, it feels as though a new possibility has opened its generous hands out to her. 

She jogs over to greet this new person, until she trips over a rock and faceplants with a loud yelp, her basket of plants scattering around the ground.

“Mustard leaf?”

She immediately jumps upwards onto her feet again, looking up at him as she brushes off some stray pieces of grass from her knees. “Hi! Sorry! I just noticed you’re human. Right?”

“Salmon.”

Luz smiles, tilting her head. “Huh?”

“Kelp!”

“Oh, I see, this is a reference! I don’t get it.”

He shakes his head. “Fish flakes.”

“Well, kelp-lo to you too!”

The other one stares at her, an unreadable expression on his face. Mostly because, well, half of it is covered.

Luz juts her hand out. “I’m Luz, Luz Noceda.”

He takes her hand, accepting the handshake. “Salmon salmon.”

She smiles, though her eyebrow is raised. “Your name is ‘Salmon Salmon’?”

“Fish flakes.” He shakes his head again.

She blinks. “Can you only speak in food?”

“Salmon!” 

Luz assumes she guessed correctly, seeing as the other’s eyes light up. “Did someone, like, put a curse on you, or something?”

“Tuna mayo?”

Luz hums. Clearly, this person just got here, so it couldn’t have been a Boiling Isles curse. Maybe a witch somehow snuck over to the human realm before the door was destroyed, or fell from the sky as this person did, which her head is still whirling at trying to understand. She needs to know how he did it, but they need to actually communicate for that.

She pulls out a spare piece of paper and pencil, the ones she often carries around in case she needs to draw more glyphs. She hands it over to her new friend. “Here, why don’t we talk with this?” 

“Salmon.” He sits down, writing on the piece of paper. Luz plops down to a cross-legged position next to him, excitedly looking over his shoulder.

However, when he hands over the paper back to Luz, she is dumbfounded.

It’s written in Japanese.

“Oh! I – I dunno how to read Japanese, sorry,” Luz hands the piece of paper back to him with an awkward chuckle.

“Bonito flakes,” he mutters. He writes in English on the other side, and gives it back to Luz. 

“‘Inumaki’. is that your name?”

“Salmon!”

Luz beams, pulling out more pieces of paper to hand over to Inumaki. “Okay, so, uh, where’d you fall from? There’s a ton of weird things that happen here, but I have yet to hear about it raining people.”

Inumaki quickly scribbles on the paper. “Sent here.”

“By who?”

“Can’t say.”

Her face falls. Can’t say? And here she was, hoping she’d be getting some answers. Maybe she needs a different approach. “Are you with anyone?”

“Salmon.”

She furrows her eyebrows. Surely he can’t be spitting gibberish. Despite only saying ingredients, he seems to be choosing his words carefully. There’s meaning behind it. “Is the food, like, a secret language? Think you can translate it for me?”

“Salmon.” He draws a small chart on one of the pieces of paper, sliding it over to Luz. “Salmon = Yes. Fish flakes = No. Kelp = Hello. Tuna = Look. There’s more, can’t fit.”

“It’s okay, this’ll do! Do you, uh, need help with any directions, or?” Truth be told, Luz just doesn’t want to part ways with this person. There’s clearly something she isn’t aware of, and obviously she’s not about to leave the one human she’s seen in months, especially if they may have a portal or something.

Inumaki seems to consider her offer for a moment. She chews on her lip, afraid he’ll refuse, but then he responds with a simple, “Salmon.”

“Okay, cool!” She stands, Inumaki doing the same. “So, are you looking for anything?” 

“Salmon.”

“Like?” she prompts.

Inumaki writes, “Friends.”

She pauses, opening and closing her mouth. Friends. There’s more? How? 

“Oh, okay,” she says slowly, her lips pulling into a polite smile. “Well, I doubt they’re hangin’ around this creepy old forest. Wanna check around Bonesborough?”

“Mustard leaf?”

“Y’know, the town.”

“Salmon.”

Luz grins and begins to walk, beckoning for Inumaki to follow her with a tilt of her head.

The two stroll for a few minutes, occasionally making conversation. It was, however, difficult to talk to someone who had very limited responses. It’s not that Luz pays much mind to that, for having company is a huge upgrade from before. It’s how she has this company that’s bothering her. So, as the two leisurely walk, her first mission is to find Amity. The witch is a much more efficient interrogator than she is, and with any luck, the two can get to the bottom of this. 

“Hey, I got an idea!” she pipes up. “When we reach Bonesborough, we should check the library first!”

“Tuna mayo tuna?”

“Oh, well,” she runs her hand through her curls awkwardly, chuckling. “I just think that’s the easiest place to check when you’re looking for someone!”

“Bonito flakes, salted fish roe.”

“Okay, well, maybe that’s not the only reason I wanna go there first.”

“Mayo?”

“It’s just that, uh, my girlfriend works there, and I kinda wanna see her.” Her face begins to flush warmly. It’s not really a lie. Amity is her girlfriend, and she does want to see her.

“Salmon.”

Luz groans, shoving her face into her palms. “Aghh, yeah, I know, I’m literally dating her and it still feels like I’m mega crushing on her!” 

“Tuna salad?”

That wasn’t a lie, either. Luz is beginning to wonder how much of this is her making an excuse or plain pining. “She’s just, so amazing and, I dunno, I’m not used to someone as cool and classy as that liking me back!”

“Mustard leaf? Tuna tuna, mayo tuna.”

“Sorry, sorry, I don’t wanna rant. I’m just excited to see her, is all!’

“Salmon salmon.”

Luz’s shoe suddenly bumps into something. She blinks, looking down at a small animal. It’s almost like a dog, being as small as a chihuahua with folded ears like a beagle. The new animal tilts its little head, and Luz immediately feels guilt worm up her throat for walking into it.

“Oh, I’m so sorry!” she squeaks. “Let me just —“ she tries to step around it, but it lets out a bark.

In an instant, the small creature starts to morph into an ugly manifestation, nails piercing its skin and crimson blood pooling at its feet. Luz yelps and jumps back, face paling as she watches the new transformation. 

Its tail extends, bearing a resemblance to a long, withered rope. More of its flesh starts to rip as its jaw opens wider, displaying rows of teeth. The body starts to grow bigger and bulkier, with buttons emerging from the center, making the whole thing look like a raggedy stitch doll. The only thing that remained the same were those cute puppy eyes, ones that symbolized the false innocence it displayed just a few moments ago.

In a panic, Luz pulls out a plant glyph from her pocket, slapping it onto the ground and sending out a string of vines to grab the monster by its feet. The creature roars, swinging at the vines with its tail and pushing them off with ease. It lunges forward, jaw unhinging to grab Luz when Inumaki runs in front of her.

“Wait, Inumaki –” Luz is cut off by the loud shout from Inumaki when he unzips the collar covering his mouth.

“Get twisted!”

In an instant, the monster shrieks as its entire body contorts, the sizzling of cracking bones erupting in the air. The command worked. Luz gasps, turning her head to the side as her stomach harshly churns. 

The remains of the beast tumble to the ground. Inumaki turns around to face Luz. “Mustard leaf?”

Luz would be shocked, impressed even, if not for the fact he chose such a dark way to make the creature leave them alone. Now, she isn’t completely sure what to feel. “Wow. I, uh…” Luz trails off, still looking away, her hand fidgeting with the other. “Didn’t know you could do that.”

“Salmon.”

She swallows. “You didn’t really have to kill it, y’know.”

“Bonito flakes, tuna mayo.”

A long, long silence stretches on. Okay, so, now she knows his curse is that any actual words he says comes true. If only this wasn’t how she figured it out. “Let’s just — um — go a different direction.”

“Salmon.”

They turn to follow another path. After a while, Luz asks, quietly, “So, is that why you speak in food ingredients? ‘Cause anything you say happens?”

“Salmon salmon.”

“I see,” she whispers. Maybe he said he wanted to teleport or something, and that’s how he ended up in the Demon Realm? Regardless of the explanation, she isn’t able to ponder too much on it, for all her focus is on keeping down a bunch of burning-hot bile.

“Mustard leaf?”

“Oh –” Luz tries her best to flash a small smile, “I’m just kinda shaken, is all.”

To Luz’s relief, they soon reach Bonesborough. She plasters on her previous enthusiasm. “Here we are! The town of the Boiling Isles! That’s, uh, the name of the island.”

“Tuna mayo.”

“Alright, library,” Luz whispers. “Here we come.”

✽

Children’s laughter fills the area, breaking Okkotsu out of his daze. He allows his eyes to adjust to the new lighting, being met with a huge shelf of books.

Oh. I’m in a library.

He slowly gets up from his position on the floor, stretching his stiff limbs. He looks around, quickly realizing that his friends are nowhere to be seen. They must have been transported to different areas.

“Yuuuuutaaa…” a voice grumbles. He turns to see Rika, standing in the same aisle as him. 

“Hi, Rika. I hope this didn’t catch you off guard.” 

Rika lets out a vibrating noise of irritation. She’s not a fan of their new situation either.

“Sorry, sorry. I’ll deal with this, don’t worry.”

Okkotsu, who had caught on to Rika’s discomfort, un-manifests her. He carefully walks out of the aisle, surveying the library. The floor is constructed of marble, the walls a peach-yellow complimented by the copper-brown bookshelves. His first instinct is to find someone to ask for directions, so he follows the noises of the children in hopes a staff member would be nearby. Eventually, he finds the source – a room with a giant “Kid’s Corner” sign taped over the window in the shape of a mouth. Most noticeably, a girl with lavender hair and pointy ears is sitting on a chair and reading to the kids.

‘Kids’ is a generous descriptor, really; they’re much more like foreign, mythical humanoid creatures. He’s certainly not in the same dimension. To his surprise, the girl speaks in one of the languages he knows, English.

“And then the huge monster, despite its terrifying appearance, actually wanted to protect the travelers!” She closes the book, a soft smile on her face. “And that’s the end of the chapter.”

The kids let out groans and protests. “But, miss Amity, we have to know what happens next!” one of the children insists, running over to shake her leg.

“Sorry, Fearrack, reading time has to end at some point, or your parents will start wondering where you are. We’ll finish the story tomorrow, okay?”

The little kid pouts, but nods their head. Soon, the children disperse to find their parents. The girl, who Okkotsu assumes is named Amity, stands up to get her things together to leave. Okkotsu meekly approaches her.

“Hey, sorry to disturb you, but,” Okkotsu begins. Amity looks up, a glint of curiosity in her eyes. “What is this place, exactly?”

She stares at Okkotsu for a few seconds. “A library, obviously?”

Her snarky tone made Okkotsu, despite being taller than the girl by at least a few inches, feel small. “No, I mean the – the whole area.”

“You mean the Boiling Isles.”

Well, that confirms his ‘alternate dimension’ theory.

The girl stiffens, her ears moving to slant down, a bit like the way a tense cat would flatten their ears against their head. “Are you a human?”

“Sorry. Are humans not – uh – welcome here?”

“Well, I used to hate them until she showed up.” Her eyes widen, and she awkwardly clears her throat. She looks at Okkotsu inquisitively. “How did you get here? Through a portal?” 

“Something like that.” Okkotsu tries his best to not reveal too much, both because this girl is a complete stranger and because it would be breaking Jujutsu Sorcerer regulations. “I just need to know, have you seen a group of humans nearby?”

“A group? No, no I haven’t.” Her face scrunches up. “How many of you are there?”

“Ah,” Okkotsu chuckles. “It’s not that important. But thank you for your help.” He turns around to leave, already feeling the air become tense from awkwardness.

“Wait!” Amity calls out suddenly. Okkotsu turns back around, eyebrows raising. “Are you a friend of Luz?”

“Uh, no, sorry, I don’t know who that is.”

“Wait, I just – can I ask you a few things?”

Okkotsu considers this. It might be better to talk to this girl anyway; she likely knows her way around. “Sure, go ahead.”

“Can you elaborate on the portal you used to get here?”

“Well, I don’t really remember much from the travel, actually.”

“How come?”

“I was knocked out when I fell here.”

“Fell?”

“Yeah, the – the portal had opened from the ceiling.”

Her face remains neutral, but Okkotsu can tell from her demeanor and rigid posture that she isn’t buying a thing he says. He doesn’t blame her, his responses were quite dodgy. Still, he wishes he can move on from the conversation soon.

“How’d you make the portal? The only one I know of is the portal door.”

“I wasn’t the one who made it, so I don’t know, sorry.”

“You don’t have to apologize every few sentences,” she sneers.

“Sorry – I mean. I’ll stop.”

She brings her hand to her mouth to stifle a laugh. “So, who made the portal, then?”

“Once again, I don’t know.”

She raises her eyebrow, now crossing her arms and looking Okkotsu up and down. “Have you gotten any sleep lately?”

“Hm?”

“Your eyebags. And you look like a mess.”

Okkotsu smiles awkwardly, trying his best not to take anything she’s saying too personally. She’s most likely coming from a place of concern, but still, ouch. What matters, though, is that he plays off the situation right. “I appreciate the concern, but, really, I’m okay. I think I have to head out soon, though. Unless,” he scratches the back of his neck sheepishly. “You could give me directions around the place?”

She looks at him a little longer. “Okay,” she says slowly. “Where do you want to go?”

“I just need to find my friends in town. Oh, by the way, I’m Okkotsu,” he holds his hand out for a handshake.

“Amity.” She doesn’t accept the handshake, instead walking ahead of him to go to the library door. “Coming?”

“Ah – uh, yes.” 

As Amity reaches for the doorknob, the door creaks open for her. For the first time since he’s met her, her eyes light up, both in surprise and joy.

“Sweet potato!” A pair of arms belonging to a slightly shorter girl with dark curls embraces her, peppering her face with kisses. 

Amity giggles. “Luz, we’re in public!” She lightly pulls Luz off of her, lowering to a whisper. “I found another human!”

“Really? Wait.” Luz gasps. “Inumaki, this might be your friend!” 

As if on cue, Inumaki walks in. “Kelp, spice cod roe!”

Okkotsu smiles warmly, approaching him. “Toge!”

“Ohmygosh, Amity, there’s so much I have to tell you!” Luz exclaims, taking Amity’s hands in hers. Amity nods, beaming at the girl’s excitement. 

She turns her head to Okkotsu. “Is it alright if we postpone the search to a little later?”

Okkotsu nods, wanting to catch up with Inumaki as well, and to ask him if he’s caught any sight of the others. The group walks back into the library, Luz and Amity holding hands as Luz eagerly begins talking about her adventure to her girlfriend.

✽

The four sit at one of the library tables, intently listening as Luz describes what happened before they arrived.

“And, somehow, I feel like I can translate all of Inumaki’s secret food codes! It’s, like, magic!”

Okkotsu, who is sitting across from her, chuckles. “That’s how I felt when I finally began understanding what he’s saying.”

“Tuna tuna, spicy tuna roe.”

Luz hears Amity grumble to her right. “I have no idea how you can translate any of that.”

She gives the witch’s hand a light squeeze. “It’s okay, you’ll get it someday.”

Amity shoves her playfully, earning giggles from the both of them.

Inumaki pulls out a notepad he got from the library, deciding to actually contribute to the conversation, writing, “Remember the animal?”

“Oh, right!” she snaps her fingers. “We came across this huge scary monster, too!” 

Amity raises her eyebrow. “Oh?”

“Yeah, it was originally this harmless little puppy, but then it morphed into a horror movie monster!”

Amity perks up. “That must’ve been a Euchilius!”

Luz blinks. “A what?”

“I was just reading a story about one to the kids. They appear horrific, but they actually want to make friends with people,” she explains. Lower, she adds, “In fact, if one transforms in front of you, it’s said it means it’s taken a liking to you.”

Luz’s face falls. Make friends? Taken a liking? She looks between Amity and Inumaki. “But it – it attacked us, didn’t it?”

He stares. “Bonito flakes.”

“I mean, I guess that I did technically…” she trails off, frowning. She hurt it first. She attacked it. The more she thinks about it, the more violently her stomach twists.

“Luz, what’s wrong?” Amity asks tentatively, her eyebrows etched together. “You look a bit pale.”

Luz chews on the bottom of her lip, eyes refusing to meet anyone else’s. She’s not sure how Inumaki manages to look so unphased. It’s not that death scares her – she’s a fan of taxidermy, after all – but the thought of actually killing an animal, let alone one that basically resembled a puppy in her realm, is enough to send her heart dropping. 

She turns, refusing to form any more words as she hastily leaves the room, ignoring Amity’s concerned calls for her to come back.

✽

Luz leans against the wall in her and Amity’s secret hideout, knees to her chest. The wooden room smells of old books and coffee, and little moon and star ornaments spot the ceiling, a candle burning on a desk and enshrouding the area with a warm glow. It’s a calming atmosphere. Normally, Luz would feel relaxed here. She, however, can only focus on staring at her shoes, a huge painful lump sitting at the base of her throat.

She hears someone pull a book out of the shelf from outside, causing the entrance to slide open. Luz buries her face in her knees.

“Luz?” Amity calls out softly, slowly sitting next to the girl on the floor. She places a hand on her shoulder, and Luz stiffens. Luz doesn’t feel like she deserves that comfort. “What happened?”

When Luz looks up, her eyes are swollen and red and full, and she can barely look into Amity’s. The concern on Amity’s face only grows, but she doesn’t say anything, waiting for Luz to speak first.

“The creature…” she trails off. “We thought it was dangerous. And, I tried to grab its leg with vines, and I just – I feel so terrible.”

“Luz, it’s okay,” Amity whispers, her hand trailing to Luz’s spine and rubbing circles. “They’re hard to hurt, I doubt it’s that injured.”

Luz turns her head away, swallowing, and her voice is weak. “We didn’t just injure it. We killed it.”

She’s unable to see Amity’s expression, but she guesses that the silence is a result of shock. Luz grits her teeth, blinking as a teardrop escapes down her cheek.

After a moment, she hears Amity inhale. “What happened?”

Luz rubs her hands together, speaking slowly, if only to keep herself steady. “After I attacked it with the vines, it started to head towards me.” Her voice begins to crack. “And Inumaki jumped in front of me, and told it to get twisted –”

“Wait,” Amity coughs. “He told it?”

“He was cursed, I think? And anything he says becomes true.”

“Ah.”

“So when he said that, it actually got twisted, and the sound was so horrible — and, and… now there’s the fact it wasn’t even trying to hurt us in the first place.”

Amity reaches over to take one of Luz’s palms in hers, voice softening. “It wasn’t your fault. You didn’t even do that in the first place, and neither of you could have known.”

“But I still was the one to attack it first!” she protests.

“Like I said, you didn’t know.”

Now, Luz actually looks at Amity, her hands beginning to shake. This isn’t the only issue, really. It's a myriad of issues, all stemming from Luz’s own impulsiveness. Her faults. 

Without thinking, she spits out, “But this isn’t the only time something bad happened because I ‘didn’t know’ something! I’m the whole reason Belos has power — that he’s hurt people!”

“Wait, what?”

Luz sucks in a breath. Crap. She didn’t mean to let that slip. 

But it’s too late, and Amity’s eyes are huge and confused, and Luz’s heart pounds against her ribs, and what she says tumbles out in what can only be described as a desperate explanatory word-vomit. “Basically, uh, I ended up in Belos’ mindscape, and he’s been using covens to hunt and kill witches for a long time, and he’s planning to finish them off on the Day of Unity, and the only reason he’s able to do that is because I went back in time and accidentally helped Phillip who’s Belos –”

“Luz, slow down. I don’t quite get what you’re saying, but you can’t keep blaming yourself for everything that happens.”

“But it was because of me. Both of those things were because of me.” She slips her hand out of Amity’s, instead wrapping her arms around her legs and avoiding the witch’s eyes again. “I just keep messing up, Amity.”

Amity falls silent, the crackling of the candle deafening in Luz’s ears.

A few seconds later, she continues. “Sometimes, I wish I never came here. That I wasn’t around to keep screwing things up, or harming people, because that’s the only thing I do.”

“Do you even realize what you’re saying?” Amity asks quietly.

Luz glances back at her. 

“You helped so many people here. Eda, Lilith, King, Gus, Willow — they love you, they appreciate you, because you brought light into their lives.” Amity cups Luz’s cheek, turning her head to face her. “And you helped me. You helped me become better, and if not for you, I still would be desperately clinging onto my parents’ approval. I would have been alone. But you changed that.”

She gazes into Amity’s eyes, so soft and golden, filled to the brim with nothing but affection. So, so much affection. Affection she doesn’t feel like she deserves. Still, it grounds Luz, tampering down her rampant thoughts, and she sinks into the hand on her cheek.

“You need to realize that you can’t hold yourself responsible for everything,” Amity whispers. “Some things are out of your control. You’re a good person, Luz. You’re trying your best. Don’t ever forget that.”

After a moment, the girl responds, her voice meek. “Thank you, Amity.”

Amity pauses, opening and closing her mouth. “Would you like a hug?” She blurts out the question, coming off as more aggressive than she likely intended.

“Huh?”

She speaks slower this time. “It’s just that, well,” a red hue begins to appear across her face, “I thought the fact that humans like to embrace was quite silly at first, but I did more research on it, and turns out it releases a chemical that actually makes you happier? So I was wondering if you wanted to.”

“Oh,” Luz holds in a chuckle. “Sure.”

Amity smiles warmly and pulls her into a hug, combing her hand through Luz’s curls. Despite Amity’s uplifting speech, Luz finds her eyes burning up again, and this time, she allows the tears to fall. She buries her face in Amity’s shoulder, quiet sobs beginning to fill the hideout, while Amity continues to caress her hair, knowing she’s been holding these emotions in for a while.

Not more is said. It feels nice – Luz hadn’t realized how soothing opening up to someone could be, and she’s glad that someone is Amity.

A few minutes later, Luz pulls away, leaving her hands in Amity’s.

“So,” Amity begins, and Luz makes eye contact. “Can you fill me in on that whole thing about Belos?”

Chapter Text

Itadori sits down onto the couch, casually leaning his elbow against Fushiguro’s shoulder. “Man, what have you been up to?”

“Being harassed, that’s what,” Fushiguro says, lightly shoving him off.

Itadori chuckles. “Glad to see you’re okay, Fushiguro.”

Fushiguro pauses. “I’d hardly call this okay, but… same goes for you.”

“That’s one of them, I’m guessing?” a voice chimes in. He immediately recognizes her as the woman on the poster, in other words, the alleged Owl Lady.

Itadori nods. “Yeah.”

She flashes a toothy grin, a fake golden one glinting. “Nice to meet you.”

Fushiguro hums in acknowledgement. He doesn’t feel an ounce of trust towards this group, especially with the knowledge of their adventures. But, at the very least, he was led to one friend, and hopefully the rest soon.

Just then, Hooty slithers into the room with a grating voice. “How come I don’t get a hello?”

“Does that thing ever shut up?” Fushiguro questions.

“Hey, I heard that!” The owl-snake indignantly replies, furrowing its eyebrows.

“Edalyn!” Lilith calls from the hallway, hurrying towards her. “I got some strange kid on the couch and I have no idea what to do with him, and–” She stops short, staring at Itadori. “Oh, there’s another one.”

“Found him at the market,” Eda whispers. “He and his little friend are humans!”

Lilith’s jaw drops slightly. Fushiguro isn’t sure he likes being surrounded by this many people talking about him.

Eda’s eyes dart around the room. “Where’s Luz?”

“She went to get the plants like you said,” King states, looking towards the owl lady.

Her eyes widen, and her arms fly out. “What? That was before the whole mind thing! She can’t be out alone, not when Belos is watching for her like a hawk!”

“She said she felt bad for making you sell stuff to buy ingredients at the Night Market and went on her own,” King shrugs.

Eda scoffs. “Why didn’t you stop her?”

“There was no changing her mind! And I was going to follow her, but she insisted it’d be safer for me to stay here!”

Eda sighs, rubbing her temple. “I’m gonna have a stern conversation with that kid when she gets back.”

Fushiguro glimpses at Itadori, who seems to be staring at the animal. 

“You know,” Itadori mentions, “he sort of reminds me of Panda. Without the cursed energy, obviously.”

“If Panda heard that, he’d be pissed,” Fushiguro responds.

“Good thing he’s not here, then.”

“Hey!” King interrupts. “I can hear you, you know. This ‘Panda’ guy you’re comparing me to better be as formidable as I am, or else I’m nothing like him!”

“As much as I love the little party going on here, I think we should cut to the chase. Got any idea where your other friends could be?” Eda asks urgently.

“I would assume they’re scattered around at different places on the island,” Fushiguro replies tautly.

The owl lady ponders for a moment, tapping her chin.

“Oh, we could use that potion we’re making that allows us to spy on or find people!” Lilith suggests.

“Good idea,” Eda praises. “Luz should be back with the plants for that soon, even though she shouldn’t have gone in the first place. I’m going to go send Owlbert to her and make sure she’s safe, you guys, uh, have your little conversations or something.” And, with a wave, she exits to go to another room.

“Uh, hello, I’m a little out of the loop here!” Hooty protests, slinking up into the air. 

Lilith chuckles, walking out the door while Hooty follows. “I’ll catch you up. King, keep an eye on things, please?”

“Of course!” King turns to the two teens on the couch. “Don’t try any funny business, or I’ll destroy you!”

Itadori leans backwards, unphased by King’s threats, and turns his attention to Fushiguro. “You think the others are fine?”

“If you’re somehow alive, I’m sure they are too,” Fushiguro quips.

“What? Give me some credit, dude. I could beat you in a fight without using cursed energy,” Itadori waves off. “I’m an athletic prodigy, you know.”

Fushiguro lets out a huff of amusement. “Yeah, right.”

“I don’t like being ignored like this,” King grumbles, crossing his arms. “You two are way more boring than the other human.”

“Oh, speaking of that other human,” Itadori pipes up, “can you tell me about her? Eda mentioned her name, but that’s about it.”

“Luz? She’s the best person I know, apart from myself! And the first human to do magic!”

Now, this catches Fushiguro’s attention. “Magic?”

“Yeah. She’s becoming a witch, and she’s already found all the glyphs,” King boasts. “That we know of, that is.”

“A glyph?” Itadori queries, his eyebrow raising.

“It’s basically –” King stops short. “Hey, you’re not the one I made the promise with! I owe you no information!”

After a few minutes of bickering, Eda re-enters the room, a smirk on her face. “Okay, great news, Luz isn’t dead. As for your friends, we’re gonna have to wait for her to get back with the goodies before I can perform the spell.”

Itadori sighs, slumping into the couch. “Guess we can just ask her directly, then.”

“Hopefully she’s easier to talk to than this thing,” Fushiguro murmurs.

King lets out an indignant noise. “Hey!”

Chapter Text

Shoving branches out of her way, Maki steps out of a crowd of trees, searching for the exit to the huge forest. It’s been a while since she woke up, and her main goal is to find the others, if they’re even here.

Sunlight streams through the canopy, the air heavily humid. By now, Maki’s already figured she’s not in Japan, perhaps not even the same realm, considering the abnormally orange hue of the leaves and odd shapes of the trees.

She stops in her tracks, reaching to pull out Playful Cloud when she hears voices nearby. She sneaks closer, making out the conversation between what she assumes is a boy and a girl about her age.

“But we need our project to be outside the box!” The boy exclaims.

“I dunno, Gus, don’t you think it’d be simpler to just leave that out? We could get an A anyway.”

“Above and beyond, Willow. Above and beyond.”

Maki peers around a bush, finally seeing the two – a short boy with dark skin and a teal shirt, and a girl with black hair styled in french braids and round glasses, both having pointy ears. They seem to be making a presentation about some weird giant… plant?

She considers turning and going a different direction, not seeing why she should waste time observing these two any longer now that she knows for sure she isn’t in the same dimension, when she hears a growl nearby. The two kids must have noticed it too, because they stopped talking, turning towards the sound.

A creature emerges from a bush nearby, resembling a panther with a wolf-like snout. The color of the coat is a dark amber, with horns in the shape of a flame atop its head, and a long tail trailing behind it. The animal prowls towards the two kids. The girl draws a circle in the air, and huge vines sprout out of the ground to entrap the beast, but it easily breaks out. 

As Maki begins to draw out Playful Cloud, she hears another, raspier voice yell out, “Abomination, rise.”

Purple goop slides around the floor to form into a robotic shape, catching and picking up the animal. Although the creature tries to scramble out, it fails, stuck within the abomination’s grip as the abomination walks away to release it somewhere else.

The source of the voice walks into Maki’s view, a pale girl with pointy ears and lavender hair, followed by a girl with curls and a purple hoodie and two strikingly familiar people – Yuta and Inumaki!

“Are you okay?” The lavender-haired girl asks, walking up and engaging in a conversation with the two. 

As they’re explaining their situations, Maki sneaks up behind the sorcerers and places her hands on their shoulders, saying, “Hey you two, mind introducing me to your new friends?”

Yuta and Inumaki whip around, surprised by the sudden entrance, but smiles form on their faces. 

“Maki!”

“Kelp.”

The girl with the purple hoodie notices this new development, and asks, “Oh! Is this one of your friends?”

Yuta nods, turning to Maki. “Here – let me explain everything.”

“Yeah, you better.”

Just then, Maki notices a small owl fluttering towards the group. The girl with the purple hoodie beams and pats the owl. “Hey, Owlbert! What’re you doing here?”

✽

“Fushiguro, please? My phone died and I want to play Subway Surfers!” Yuuji begs. Boredom has taken a huge grasp on his brain, and he needs to feed his dopamine.

“It’s not smart to waste all the battery like that.”

“Well, what else are you going to use it for?”

“I don’t know, but I’m not going to use it on a mobile game .”

“You’re no fun!”

Just as Yuuji was preparing a sound argument, the door swings open. A huge group of people pour in, half of them being Yuuji’s fellow companions and the other half being completely new faces, Owlbert flying close behind.

“Hey! You could at least give me a nice greeting or something!” Hooty whines.

“Sorry, Hooty, we’re kinda in a rush!” A girl with a purple hoodie replies.

King runs back into the room to hug the leg of that girl. “Luz! You were gone for so long, I was worried you got human-napped or something!”

“Aww!” Luz picks King up and gives him a hug, making the little demon laugh. “I’m fine, don’t worry.”

“Guys!” Yuuji hops up from the couch, walking up to greet Inumaki, Yuta, and Maki. However, someone’s missing. “Where’s Kugisaki?”

“She isn’t with you?” Yuta asks, eyebrows furrowing in worry.

Yuuji shakes his head.

“Guess our next mission is to find her,” Maki replies.

“This is… a lot of people,” a short boy Yuuji doesn’t recognize remarks.

“Maybe we should start with introductions?” A girl with round glasses suggests.

The rest agree. After a few minutes, they all introduce themselves, sitting in a huge circle around the room, Yuuji and Megumi taking up the couch. While they wait for Eda to return to the room, they break off into their own small talks. Megumi, however, doesn’t look like he wants to converse much.

“Hey, if you don’t mind me asking…” Luz asks from the floor, staring up at Yuuji. “Are those scars on your face or a makeup thing?”

“Huh?” Yuuji puts his hand on his face, realizing that she’s likely talking about the closed Sukuna eyes. “Oh, yeah, it’s a… makeup thing.”

“Oh, cool! They’re like little crescents!”

Yuuji nods, glad he was able to dodge that bullet.

“Hey, is your friend okay?” Luz points to Megumi on the couch, who’s staring off into the distance with his arms crossed.

“Oh, yeah, he’s just sulking or something.”

“I’m not sulking,” Megumi snaps, glancing at Yuuji.

“He’s totally sulking.”

Luz giggles. “You guys seem super close!”

“Yeah, we are!” Yuuji exclaims. Megumi doesn’t say anything, but, hey, he didn’t deny it, and Yuuji takes that as a win.

“Sooo… how long have you been living here for?” Yuuji asks, curious as to how another human with presumably no powers managed to survive with a bunch of terrifying demons walking around everywhere.

“A few months, I think? I’ve been trying to get home, but…” she trails off for a moment, a hint of sadness in her eyes, but immediately plasters a smile on her face. “I like it here, really!”

“How’d you manage to not get killed?”

“Well, I’m kinda a witch-in-training.”

“Witch-in-training?”

She hesitates for a moment, but after some consideration, pats the area of the floor next to her, signaling for Yuuji to sit down there. Yuuji abides, and Luz pulls out a piece of paper and a pen, drawing some odd symbol on it and tapping it. To his surprise, it turns into a small ball of light, floating up into the air until Luz conceals it with her hands.

“Woah!” He beams, still staring up at the space where the orb once was. “How’d you do that?”

She lowers her voice to a whisper. “It’s the secret language of the island. It’s like sending out a command to make something form.”

“That’s so cool!”

She grins. “I know, right?” She draws another symbol, this time making a small flower form. “And there’s others, too!”

Yuuji stares at it in awe, slightly wanting to show off his own powers now, but knows that it wouldn’t be a wise thing to do, at least not yet. “Can I try?”

“Sure! Here, I’ll show you. First, you gotta start with the basics, a circle – then you draw this little person-looking thing, and then…” she continues to explain the light symbol, slowly drawing it out to demonstrate to Yuuji. Then, she hands the pen and a small piece of paper over to him. “Now you do it!”

Yuuji attempts, but gets stuck on the first step. “How do you even draw a perfect circle like that?”

“Years of learning how to draw my favorite anime characters.”

He draws the rest of the light symbol, but when he taps it, the orb blinks and dissolves. “Aw…”

“It’s okay, it takes practice!”

Well, turns out ‘talking to the island’ takes a lot more skill than anticipated. Eventually, he gives up, deciding it’s best to leave it to the professional.

All of a sudden, a pair of arms wrap around Luz, and a girl peeks from behind her head. “Hola batata!”

“Sweet potato!” She pecks the girl on the nose, causing a blush to completely invade her face. 

Amity scrunches her nose, ears turning downward. However, after a quick second of planning, she decides to take her revenge, and starts kissing all over Luz’s face. Luz giggles. “Amity, stop!”

Although the scene is very sweet, it makes Yuuji feel lonely.

He turns his head towards Megumi. “See, Fushiguro, why can’t you be that friendly?” He asks jokingly.

“What the hell?” Megumi replies, a bead of sweat trickling down his face. “Just smooch your Megan Thee Stallion poster if you’re that unloved.” He looks away, hiding his face.

“Geez, okay,” Yuuji pouts, sticking out his tongue angrily.

Suddenly, Eda enters the room. “Alright, prep for the potion is –” She stops, taking a glance at all the new faces. “Woah.”

“Yeah, everyone’s here – except Kugisaki, we need to find her,” Yuuji says.

“Right… Luz, since you went out anyways… you got the plants?” Eda asks.

“Oh, yeah it’s –” Luz pauses, eyes widening. “...Oh, crud, I dropped them earlier and forgot to get them back!”

Eda sighs. “Don’t worry about it – anyway, where did you lot even come from? I’m not sure I believe the whole ‘magic spirit’ thing.”

The sorcerers all glance at each other, a silent decision being made. Although it would be preferable to keep it a secret, they really have no other choice – not if they want help in getting out of this place.

Yuta sighs, accepting that this situation is too much of a blunder to beat around the bush any longer, and begins to explain. “We’re Jujutsu sorcerers. We fight ‘cursed spirits’ born from negative human emotions, and the one we fought sent us here. We’re not sure how we will be able to get back, but we do need some help.”

The room falls silent, the witches contemplating over that response. Eda turns to Luz. “Luz, you heard of these things before?”

“No…” Luz pauses. “But I think they’re telling the truth! A few hours ago, Inumaki said something out loud and it came true – and there’s no mistaking he has some sort of powers.” 

“Okay…” Eda, taking Luz’s word for it, turns back to the other sorcerers. “I want to help, really, but it’s gonna be a task with what’s happening right now.”

“Is there something going on?” Yuta queries.

“Emperor Belos – the one running the Boiling Isles – is trying to kill everyone on the island on the Day of Unity, which is a week from now,” Amity chimes in.

“Wait, the one running the island? Shouldn’t he be, y’know, protecting you guys?” Yuuji asks.

“He’s a witch hunter pretending to protect us,” Luz replies gravely.

“Wait, what?” Willow’s voice is filled with shock from across the room.

“Luz, what happened??” Gus adds at the same time.

“I’ll – I’ll explain later,” Luz mumbles.

“Hm…” Yuta thinks over the new information. “How about this – if we help you stop this ‘Emperor Belos,’ you help us get home?”

“Yeah, but, we’ve been trying to get Luz home for months, and we still found nothing!” King calls out, sitting next to the girl.

“Well… there might be a way for us to get home.” Megumi begins. “Remember what Gojo told us before we went out?”

✽

Yuta finally showed up, and Gojo was going over all the information one last time before everyone headed out.

“So… what happens if we get caught in its dimension thing?” Yuuji asked curiously.

“Well… worst case scenario, try killing it!”

The students stare at Gojo for a few seconds before Maki questioned, “How would we kill it if we’re stuck in a completely different place?”

“Chances are, there’ll be some cursed energy residue in the place you end up. That should manifest as some version of the curse. Kill that, and the cursed technique is broken, so you should probably end up here.”

“You could’ve said that first…” Megumi sighed.

“Let’s hope we don’t end up trapped like the previous sorcerers,” Yuta muttered. 

✽

“Oh right! I almost forgot about that.” Yuta remarks. “Since the curse was the one that sent us here, there’s a chance we’ll be sent back if we kill it.”

“Okay, so, you help us defeat Emperor Belos, we help you defeat the… ‘curse.’” Eda hums. “Sounds like a deal, what do you say, Luz?”

“Yeah!” Luz agrees eagerly.

“Then the deal is set,” Yuta smiles, shaking Eda’s hand.

Yuuji, still wondering where his other friend is, blurts out, “Wait, guys, what about Kugisaki?”

“Hm…” Megumi ponders for a moment. “Since Luz is… being hunted right now, half of us should go look for her tomorrow and the others should stay here.”

“Salmon.”

“Yeah, but – we’ll have school tomorrow, so you’ll have to split amongst yourselves,” Amity adds.

“I can most likely track Kugisaki the easiest due to my abundance of cursed energy,” Yuta suggests.

“I want to look for her too!” Yuuji insists.

“I’ll go too,” Megumi states.

“Then it’s decided – Yuuji, Megumi and I will look for her tomorrow, the witches go to school, and the other sorcerers stay here,” Yuta confirms.

“Okay, then – you kids make yourself comfortable for the night, and head out tomorrow morning. I’ll bring some extra blankets and pillows from the storage room. And, Luz,” Eda places her eyes on her, “we need to talk.”

Chapter Text

“Students, please join me in the gym for an important announcement,” a voice booms over a speaker near the roof.

“I’m not sure what you’re going through, but that much Hex Mix cannot be good for your stomach,” a boy says, and the sounds of footsteps leaving the theater room follow.

Nobara stirs, finding herself laying in the middle of a stage behind a blue curtain. Her stomach immediately growls, ravenous from her prolonged sleep. She slowly stands up, pulling out her hammer when she hears rustling of the curtains. 

A tall boy with messy, unwashed blonde hair, a scar across his cheek, pointy sharp ears, and horrible fashion sense walks in, his eyes widening when he spots the sorcerer. A little robin next to him turns into a wand, and he bares it in defense.

“Hey, what’re you pointing that thing at me for?” She snaps, eyes narrowing as she inspects this new person.

“Who are you? What’re you doing here?” He demands, the grip on his wand shaking slightly.

He’s one of those guys that try to be tough. I can tell he’s scared, she thinks, looking him up and down. “I’d ask you the same question.”

“You’re not a Hexside student, are you?”

“Hexside student? Is this some elf highschool or something?”

“We’re not elves. We’re – they’re witches.”

“Where’s your broom, then?” 

“Just answer me – what’re you doing here?” He growls.

She sighs. “I just woke up here.”

He considers this for a moment, then seems to lock his eye on her ear. “Your ear’s round…”

“Thanks, genius. Never seen a human girl before or something? Not surprised, you don’t seem like you get any ladies…”

“What are you even talking about – wait, you’re human ?” 

“Yeah, obviously.”

“I’d never thought there’d be another human lurking around here–”

Suddenly, a shout is heard from outside the theater room. The guy’s ear twitches as he turns his head around. “That sounded like Gus!”

“Like who?”

He snaps his head back towards Nobara. “You – stay here. I’m gonna come back.” With that, he runs back behind the curtain.

Well, I’m not listening to that bedhead, she decides. She sneaks to follow in the direction that he went, also curious about the commotion. On her way, she notices the odd sharp teeth jutting out of the lockers, closed eyes right above. This is definitely not Japan.

By the time she reaches what she assumes is a gym, the landscape of the entire school shifts, now appearing as a street between a bunch of Medieval-styled buildings, knocking her off her balance.

“What the… what’s going on here?”

Just as she’s about to pull her hammer out again, she’s knocked into by the same boy, this time with another kid, both falling over.

The blonde boy rubs his head and looks around. “Why are we here – hold up, it’s you again!”

The other kid, who has an aqua-glowing eye, spots Nobara, and stares at her for some time. Not long after, he snaps out of it, “Wait wait wait – are you that missing human? Kugisaki, right?”

“How do you know my name? Am I popular around here?” She smirks.

“Gus, your eye…” The blonde boy points out. 

“Oh – my spell, it’s still active,” Gus replies, blinking.

“Well, you’re a witch, un-spell it!”

“No, I – I don’t know how. I’ve never made one this big before.”

“Well, if we’re still in Hexside, we should find a teacher…”

“ Hello? Did you forget that I’m right here? Geez, you’re not much different from those two.” Nobara waves her hand in front of the blonde kid’s face.

“Are you talking about your other friends? They’ve been looking for you!” Gus exclaims.

“Well, where are they now?”

“Don’t know… they said they’d look for you using ‘cursed energy’ or something.”

So he’s telling the truth… still, why the hell haven’t those peanut-brains found me yet? I’m pretty sure no one else in this building has any cursed energy, so it shouldn’t be that hard.

“We should really start moving. Your… friend can come along, I guess,” the blonde guy states, placing his hands on the buildings to use as a guide as he continues walking down the ‘street.’

“ My name is Kugisaki , not ‘your friend,’” Nobara sneers. Gus follows the other guy, and, not knowing where else to go, so does she.

“Hunter, why’d you save me back there from getting a sigil? Don’t those guys work for you?” Gus asks.

“I owed you – for the food,” he replies. He stops at some stairs leading down. “Are these… real stairs, or illusions?”

“Save you from getting a sigil? What?” Nobara questions, turning to Gus.

“You know – to join a coven. You get a sigil, you have to use a specific type of magic.”

“Well, why don’t you specialize in one magic then? Aren’t you witches?”

“We want to learn all the others, too. And, besides, I don’t want to be under Belos’ control.”

Hunter whips around, mouth agape. “You – you know about Belos?”

“Luz told me.”

“Wait, what did she tell you specifically?”

“Just that Belos is trying to use a Draining Spell on the Day of Unity to kill everyone.”

“Who’s Belos?” Nobara interrupts.

“The evil emperor,” Gus responds.

“Oh – in that case, that’s why I helped you. Because I figured out what he’s doing too,” he turns back around to step forward, but falls down the empty space as the stairs were in front of him. “Ow! Real stairs…”

Nobara can’t help but let out a laugh. “No way you thought those were fake!”

“We’re under an illusion, don’t blame me!” Hunter retorts. 

“Hey, it’s the kid!” An unrecognizable voice shouts. Two people in some weird-looking bird outfits, ( wait, were those plague-doctor masks?) emerge from behind a building.

Hunter transforms his bird into a wand, teleporting in a flash of golden light to hit one of them behind the head. Another one sends a sea of purple goo to wrap around the kid, but the robin pecks them in the head.

“Hunter!” Gus calls out, running over to help. The stranger from before draws a circle in the air, growing vines to entrap him. 

“Wait, aren’t you the Golden –” just before the other person can finish their sentence, Nobara runs up to swing her hammer at their head. The other one tries to retaliate, but she sends a flying nail towards them.

She brings her fingers to a snapping position. “Move one muscle, and your arm is gone.”

“Don’t listen to her, she’s just a human! See, look at her ears!” The first one shouts.

She sticks a nail into the building behind her, snapping her finger and exploding the structure. Pieces of magenta flesh scatter to the ground, belonging to the old monster-locker that used to stand there.

The two strangers freeze. Just then, Gus traces a symbol into the purple slime underneath his feet. As he steps on it, a burst of fire is sent into the air, knocking them off their feet and destroying the goo around Hunter. He dashes forward and grabs Hunter and Nobara’s hand, yelling, “Follow me!”

They run into an alleyway and phase through the wall, ending up in what appears to be the room of some house, posters scattered all over the walls.

Hunter gasps for air, running over to sit against the dresser. “Oh Titan, he’s looking for me! They know I’m here, I – I gotta run, I gotta hide – I gotta…” 

“Hey, try to breathe,” Gus places his hand on Hunter’s shoulder.

As he calms him down, Nobara stands in the corner awkwardly. Yeesh, I wasn't expecting all that to happen. 

She feels pity for the blonde boy, though, seeing as the way he’s panicking. Whatever happened, it must’ve been serious. She watches as Gus teaches him a breathing trick and gives him a motivational speech. 

Nobara considers adding to the conversation, but, in all honesty, she doesn’t know what to say – after all, she knows nothing about these people. The only other thing she can think about is where her friends are. If Gus is right about them looking for her by sensing her cursed energy, then they should be here. Are they caught up in the illusion?

“Alright, tough guy, let’s keep moving. C’mon, Kugisaki,” Gus beckons for both of them to follow him out the house. 

Hunter sits there, staring at the photos on the door. The photos show Gus and his friend group, smiling and having fun. 

As Nobara walks by, she catches his attention by lightly stomping on the ground. “Hey, stop sulking. You wanna get outta here, right?” She holds out her hand to help him get up, and after some hesitation, he accepts.

The trio end up in the school hallway. 

“Yes, we made it through the illusion! High-five!” Gus and Hunter high-five, Hunter seemingly confused by the gesture.

Nobara sighs. “Left out, yet again…”

Just then, Gus notices a girl running towards the group. “Willow, you’re okay!”

“Augustus! I’ve been looking everywhere for you!” She stops in front of them. “Woah, why is he here? And – is that another human? How’d another human get here?”

“Wait, what? Don’t you remember yesterday?” Gus asks.

“Oh, um, yeah!”

“What exactly do you remember, Willow?” Hunter questions, a hint of suspicion in his voice.

“Um… uhh…” As the girl struggles to find her words, a fist punches through a wall, sending debris and hitting her in the head. As she’s knocked back, a cloud poofs around her, revealing one of those plague-doctor-cosplayer looking people.

“Oh – my bad! Are you okay?” Yuuji emerges from the wall he’d just destroyed, looking down in concern at the person.

“Ow… my head…”

“Severine! You had your chance, and you blew it!” A man with a long tail, pointy ears, and an earring in the shape of a mirror walks in from behind them, rubbing his temple. “Not that I’m surprised…”

“Itadori!” Nobara calls out. Yuuji turns around, eyes widening when he notices her.

“Kugisaki! There you are!” 

Yuta and Megumi walk through the hole in the wall too, confused when they see the strangers in the hallway.

“ You guys, ” the unrecognizable man gestures to all of them, “are making my job very difficult.”

“Fuck did we do? We just got here…” Megumi grumbles.

“If it’s the wall, we’re sorry about that,” Yuta apologizes.

“He’s evil, he’s trying to help Belos!” Gus yells out, pointing towards the man.

Two more plague-mask people walk in from behind them, attempting to grab Hunter. Nobara immediately knocks them down with her hammer.

“Geez, what’s with your obsession with kidnapping kids?”

Megumi summons his Divine Dog, sending it to attack the man. He poofs away instantly, appearing a few feet away from them. He calls for reinforcements, and more people in those outfits come running in.

“Where are all these coven scouts coming from?” Gus asks out loud.

“We don’t have to hold back on these guys, do we?” Megumi mutters.

“Well, don’t kill them… just get ‘em to retreat or something,” Yuuji replies.

 Megumi sighs, but nods.

“Since when did you listen to others?” Nobara teases.

“Shut up.”

“Uh… guys, my head doesn’t feel so good,” Gus goes to sit against a locker.

“Is now really the time to get a migraine?” Nobara complains.

“It must be because of the spell – here, I’ll protect him, you guys take care of everyone else,” Hunter commands.

“Okay, game plan,” Nobara begins. “Itadori, Fushiguro, you hold off the… ‘coven scouts.’ Okkotsu and I will try to capture the annoying dude.”

The others nod. With that, they split into their respective groups. Nobara and Yuta turn to follow the man, who’s already running away to make an escape.

“Yuta Okkotsu, you better not ruin this!” Nobara growls.

“W-What? What’d I do?” Yuta whines.

Just then, a tall man appears in front of them, bearing a golden mask with tall horns and a long robe, a red glow seeping through one of the eye holes.

“Ew, who’s this fugly-lookin’ dude?” Nobara scrunches up her nose.

Yuta pulls his katana out, imbuing it with cursed energy and slashing at the tall man – which turns out to be an illusion and just two coven scouts. The scouts fall over from the impact of the blade.

“ What the heck are you!? ” The man shouts, rage overtaking his eyes.

“Your worst nightmare,” Nobara grins. Yuta cringes, looking to the side from the cheesy comment.

She throws a nail into the air, striking it with her hammer and directing it towards the man’s foot. She snaps her fingers, and it explodes, earning a blood-curdling scream from him.

“Retreat! Retreat!” He yells, crawling backwards on the ground. Nobara laughs, heaving her hammer in the air to deliver another blow.

“As if I’m gonna let you escape that easily,” she snaps. However, before she can carry out another action, a wall appears in front of her. 

She kicks it, her foot phasing through. It was an illusion. By the time she walks to the other side, the man is nowhere to be seen, just the earring being left on the ground. She picks it up.

“Damn it! This is your fault, Okkotsu!”

“ What!? ”

“They’re retreating!” Yuuji calls out.

The others return back to the area they were, Gus still sitting on the floor with a hand to his forehead.

“Hey, when’s this weird illusion-thing gonna end?” Megumi asks, looking around.

“I don’t know how to control it! I keep acting so dumb – I can’t even trust myself anymore!” Gus blurts out.

“Hey – I thought my whole life was helping people, but in reality, it was a lie. Some part of me still believes in that lie, just like you believe you’re ‘dumb.’ But it’s not true – I promise, I wouldn’t mess with you,” Hunter reassures.

“Maybe the reason you can’t control your powers is because you don’t believe that you can,” Yuta suggests, walking up to stand next to them.

“Exactly! Now, how’d that breathing thing go again?” Hunter makes an attempt to take a deep breath as Gus taught him earlier, but fails miserably and ends up just… wheezing.

Nobara slaps her forehead with her hand, while Yuuji side eyes to Megumi, who sighs and shakes his head. Yuta smiles at the poor attempt, knowing that the blonde boy is just trying to help calm Gus down.

Gus chuckles, and the illusion fades away. 

“The power of friendship wins, I guess,” Nobara comments sarcastically. Even so, she’s grinning lightly. 

“Oh, hey, the annoying guy dropped this – you’ll probably find a better use of it than me,” she adds, tossing the mirror earring over to Gus. 

Gus smiles and accepts. “Thanks!”

Sounds of footsteps echo through the hallway as a group of people walk towards them.

“Is the illusion finally up? Wait – who are all these people?” A man at the front of the group – who Nobara assumes is the principal – asks.

“They’re with us, don’t worry,” Gus explains.

✽

The sky’s a blazing orange as the sun sinks, signaling the end of the day. Everyone has gone outside and stands at the front steps, cheering as the coven scouts dejectedly leave the school.

After they’ve gathered outside, a crowd forms around Hunter, asking him questions about being ‘The Golden Guard,’ what happened, and who the mysterious group of teenagers are. As he’s answering them, Nobara, Yuuji, Megumi, and Yuta break off from the rest, trying their best to avoid attention.

Yuuji runs over to give Nobara a hug. She pats him on the head, but after a few seconds, tells him to back up.

“At least you don’t hate me,” he says, proceeding to glare at Megumi.

“Were you at the school the whole time, Kugisaki?” Yuta asks.

“Yeah – seems I woke up a little late,” she mutters.

“Aww, did you get your beauty rest?” Yuuji laughs.

“Whatever, at least I don’t look like a zombie. You seem like you haven’t slept in days.”

“Is that more of an insult to me or Okkotsu?”

“Why is everyone ripping on me…?” Yuta sighs.

“We should head back to the house soon. The others are probably waiting for us,” Megumi states.

“Hey – I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but…” a girl with lavender hair walks towards them, interrupting their conversation. “Can I come with you? With the whole Belos thing… I just want to make sure Luz is okay.”

“Wait, not to be rude, but, who are you?”

“Oh, I’m –”

Before the girl can finish her sentence, Yuuji interrupts her. “That’s Amity!”

“Hey, don’t cut her off, dumbass!” Nobara flicks Yuuji’s head.

“Ow!”

Amity lets out a giggle, covering her mouth. “Yes, I’m Amity.”

“I’m Kugisaki, nice to meet you. So sorry that this idiot doesn’t know manners,” Nobara smiles and shakes her hand.

“C’mon, guys, let’s hurry it up,” Megumi insists.

“Yeah, yeah, always in a rush,” Yuuji shoves him playfully.

With that, the five of them say their goodbyes to the other witches and head to the Owl House.

✽

“We’ve found the house,” a coven scout whispers to a communication device. “We’re ready when you are.”

“Seize it,” a voice commands.

Chapter Text

“What were you thinking ?” Eda questions, pacing around the room. Luz sits at the windowsill, fiddling with her thumbs.

“I just – I wanted to help.”

“Belos has eyes everywhere, the best way to help is to stay hidden!”

“I’m sorry, but I felt bad when you had to work at the market to buy ingredients, and I thought it’d be faster if I went to get them myself, and – I’m sorry, Eda.” Luz looks down at the ground, tracing random shapes in the dark wood with her shoe.

“And what would’ve happened if you got caught by Belos’ coven scouts? Do you know how serious this is? You could’ve been hurt, Luz.”

“I know! But I know how to defend myself.”

“No, you don’t. Not against something like this.”

“I can’t believe you’re still underestimating me!” 

“You’re just a kid.”

“But I have fought before, it doesn’t matter if I’m a kid,” Luz stands up, fists clenching at her sides in frustration. She meets Eda’s gaze, shocked when she sees the witch’s eyes puffy and red.

“I’m worried about you.”

“Eda…” Luz pauses, her mouth running dry. “Are you okay?”

“You want the truth?” Eda chuckles, crossing her arms and looking away. “No, not really.”

The girl winces, anger redirecting towards herself and creating a pit in her stomach. She believes that it’s her fault Eda feels this way, and she certainly didn’t mean to rub salt into the wound. Luz looks back down to her feet, unknowing of what she can do to make the situation any better, and a hug probably isn’t going to cut it.

She saunters towards the door, palm hovering over the knob as she contemplates if she should say much more, and ultimately decides that what the owl lady needs right now is space. She steps outside, slowly closing the door behind her with a solemn look upon her face.

The second she turns around, she almost jumps, as someone is leaning against the wall right next to the entrance of her room, arms crossed.

“Tough conversation, huh?”

“Oh – uh, hey. Maki, right?”

Maki nods, her long, flowing ponytail swaying. “Sounded like an argument.”

“You were listening in…?”

“Not on purpose.”

Luz highly doubts that, considering she’s been coincidentally chilling right next to the room. Still, the girl doesn’t want to cause any conflict, so she lets it go.

“I wouldn’t say it was an argument, but…” Luz pauses, frowning. “Okay, maybe it sort of was? I don’t think Eda’s in a very good mood right now.”

“Wanna talk about it downstairs?”

Luz nods. The two head to the living room, Inumaki and King hanging out in the kitchen. She’s glad about that, honestly. She isn’t sure she feels like talking to too many people right now. They sit down on the couch, and Maki turns to face her as Luz begins explaining the situation.

“Eda’s mad that I went out to the forest to get plants for potions. I was trying to help, but… she doesn’t think I can defend myself. I’m not mad at her, I know she’s trying to protect me, but – I’m tired of being looked down on, you know?”

Maki hums. “I get the feeling.”

“Really?”

“She underestimates you because you’re human, right? ‘Cause you don’t have magic powers like everybody else here?”

“I mean – I have glyphs, but, I guess that’s not far from the truth.”

She pauses. “You wanna know the number one requirement for being a Jujutsu sorcerer?”

Luz blinks, looking up at Maki. “What?”

“Having cursed energy.”

“Do you not have any?”

“Nope.” Maki takes her glasses off. “I use these just to see curses. Because of that, the Zenin clan – the one I’m from – looks down on me and thinks I’m not a capable fighter.”

“Oh! But you’re still a sorcerer?”

“Of course. Call me spiteful, but I wanna prove them wrong by becoming Grade 1.”

Luz smiles, a sense of admiration building towards the other girl. She wants to adopt that sentiment, too – to become a great witch despite everyone’s doubts of her abilities. “That’s really cool.”

“Thanks. You seem pretty strong, don’t underestimate yourself,” she gives Luz a playful shove, which is a little too hard, but Luz just chuckles in response.

“I appreciate it… hey, if you don’t mind me asking, are there curses around here, too? I dunno about my friends, but I can’t really see them.”

“Not in this area, no, but the damned curse that sent us here is probably somewhere on the island. Hey, just in case you run into it, you might need this.” Maki reaches into her skirt pocket, pulling out another pair of glasses. “It’s my spare.”

“Oh – wow, thank you!” Luz graciously accepts them, shoving them into her jacket pocket, beaming at the other girl. 

All of a sudden, a bunch of footsteps erupt outside the house. King runs into the room, Inumaki following close behind.

“Tuna tuna!” Inumaki yells, pointing towards the window.

“There’s a bunch of coven scouts outside!” King explains.

“Oh, crap!” Luz jumps up from the couch, pulling her hoodie over her head. “King, can you get Eda and Lilith from upstairs?”

King nods, scurrying over to the hallway to find them. She hears Hooty shouting at the coven scouts from outside, who is soon silenced as a loud knocking booms from the door. Luz pulls her glyphs out as Maki takes out a large three-section staff, while Inumaki unzips his collar.

The door slams open, and a horde of coven scouts come flooding in. 

“ Freeze! ” Inumaki shouts. Immediately, the scouts are suspended in time. The three slip through the crowd and make it outside, the fiery red of the sunset sky adding to the tension. Sure enough, more are surrounding the house, abomination goo and vines crashing into the window.

Inumaki, who’s throat is raw from the previous command, opts not to speak any further.

“What are you doing here?” Luz demands, standing up straight as to display her best confidence.

“Emperor’s orders. Hand over the owl lady,” One of the coven scouts order, pointing a spear towards her.

That’s who they’re looking for… Luz thinks for a moment. Obviously, they aren’t going to let Eda get arrested. She gives Maki and Inumaki a look, one that says, I have a plan.

“...Fine, but only if you promise you won’t hurt her,” Luz mutters. 

“Deal.” 

Liars.

Luz walks back into the house, then dashes towards the hallway and makes it up the stairs. She sees King frantically telling Eda and Lilith to come down, but the three stop when they see the girl.

Luz hands them a bunch of pieces of paper with symbols on them – the invisibility glyph combos. “Use these and escape out the back door!”

“What – what’s happening?” 

“The coven scouts are outside and looking for you. So if you leave without them knowing, then Inumaki, Maki and I can hold them off –”

“Luz, stop,” Eda locks eyes with Luz, concern all over her face. “I get what you’re saying, but I can’t leave you here to fend all of them off.”

“Edalyn’s right – you could get hurt,” Lilith adds.

“I have two sorcerers with me! They want you, and you need to escape, and if I don’t go down there soon they’re gonna suspect something and then all of us will be in trouble. Please, just trust me.”

Eda takes this into account, weighing her options. Finally, she sighs. “The only reason I’m letting you do this is because those two can protect you.”

“Yes! Thank you, Eda!” Luz beams and pulls her into a hug for a few seconds, then backs up. “Wait, uh – you have a place you can go, right?”

“How about the knee? I don’t think those dummy-heads will think to check there!” King pipes up.

“Good idea, King,” Eda praises. “We’ll set up camp, and you better meet us there in a few hours or I’m going to find Belos myself and get you back.”

“I promise, I’ll be okay.”

Before any more words can be exchanged, a shout is heard from outside. “Hurry up and hand her over, or we’re storming in!”

Luz gives the three of them one more glance, and turns back to run down the stairs. She stands at the doorway, pulling out a glyph and smiling at Maki and Inumaki.

“Sorry, but, deal’s off!” 

However, she is suddenly shoved to the ground from behind, as Inumaki’s cursed speech wore off on the coven scouts within the house. She yelps and flips over, crawling backwards and placing an ice glyph on the ground. The shard shoots towards the scout, causing them to back up in shock. Luz scrambles to her feet, taking out more glyphs as the ice is shattered by a fire spell from one of the other enemies.

She hears clattering noises from behind, and turns around to see Maki knocking down three coven scouts with the swift motion of her staff. She moves effortlessly through the crowd, striking anyone who dares cross her path.

Luz feels a vine wrap around her ankle. She throws an ice glyph onto the area of grass next to it, stomping on it and summoning an ice fragment to pierce through one end of the plant. She shakes her foot out, looking up to see a blast of fire heading in her direction.

“ Move! ” Inumaki calls out, causing Luz to jump to the side. The sorcerer’s hand swings straight towards his throat, face twisting from the side effects of the command. She feels disoriented for a moment, unexpecting of how her body moved on its own. As she tries to steady herself, a coven scout runs in her direction, slashing at her arm with their spear. 

She lets out a cry and grasps the area that was hit, feeling the fabric around the torn area dampen as blood pours down. Tears spring into her eyes and she bites her lip, her shoulder stinging with great ferocity.

Maki kicks the coven scout’s leg, making the foe fall to the ground with a loud thud . The only scouts left conscious are the ones stumbling out of the house, in which she walks forward and makes quick work of knocking two out with her weapon.

As one is about to summon an abomination, Inumaki roars, “ Stop casting spells! ” coughing up a great deal of blood as a consequence of overusing his technique.

The coven scout stands, confused as their magic halts, and Maki ceases the chance to hit them over the head with her staff, leaving all the coven scouts laying on the floor. 

“Everyone okay?” Maki asks, letting Playful Cloud be engulfed by the shadows once again.

“Yeah…” Luz mumbles, still clutching her shoulder. Inumaki nods, zipping up his collar.

“You look like you took a hit. Let me see,” Maki gestures to Luz’s shoulder. Luz carefully removes her palm, staring at a tree nearby.

“Is it bad…?”

Maki inhales. “Well, it doesn't look good … but not life-threatening. You got any bandages in the house?”

“Um… maybe a tiny bandaid, but not, like, the ones you can wrap around a limb…”

“Caviar,” Inumaki whispers, voice raspy.

“Eda or Lilith might know a healing spell or something… we should meet them at the Knee,” Luz suggests.

“You know where that is?”

“Yeah – wait,” Luz pauses. “We need to let the others know we’re gonna be there – do you know when they’re coming back?”

“Nope.”

“I dunno how long we can wait before Belos sends in more scouts…” the girl trails off. “Oh! What if we leave a message for them? Like a picture of the knee or something?”

“That could work.”

“Salmon salmon.”

“Oww, my head! What just happened?” Hooty questions, slowly blinking awake.

“Sorry – we got stormed by Coven Scouts, so we gotta leave somewhere, fast. Can you turn into Portable Hooty?”

“God, being a door is so much work!” Hooty whines. He soon morphs into a tiny house, but Luz looks away as she refuses to witness that entire process again. The last time almost made her puke.

Maki and Inumaki look over in disgust, seeing the absurd transformation of the owl. Soon, the doorframe is completely empty.

“Oh, yeah, can one of you hold Portable Hooty? I’d appreciate it!” Luz requests. After some hesitation, Inumaki nods and picks him up.

With that, Luz enters the living room, frowning when she notices that the coven scouts had burned and torn down a bunch of furniture during the fight. The walls were almost bare, very few decorations being left, and the couches were reduced to darkened fabric laying about the wood. How could this have happened within such a short time?

She prepares to draw a diagram of the Knee, however, begins to reconsider – what if one of the coven scouts wake up and see the map? Although it’s unlikely, she doesn’t want to compromise their location.

An idea comes to her mind. She walks over to one of the shelves and, although torn down, looks to the ground where all the items have scattered. She digs through until she finds – yes! – the invisible pen!

She takes out a piece of paper, lightly sketching a map of the Boiling Isles (and feeling a flood of relief that her non-dominant right arm was the one that was injured), making sure she points out where the house is relative to the Knee. She then draws a little sunshine drawing in the corner with her regular pencil, and writes “PLEASE HELP” in the middle.

Luz then creates a light glyph and activates it beneath the paper, and sure enough, the true contents of the map are displayed. The girl trusts that the others are quick-witted and can figure it out, and, worse case scenario, can find them using the sense of Inumaki’s cursed energy.

With that, she exits the Owl House, nodding to the other two that it’s time to start heading to where Eda set up camp. She only hopes that everyone else is alright.

Chapter Text

The pleasant night breeze grazes past Yuuji’s cheek, leaving behind a fleeting sense of coolness before it dissipates. The trees of orange hue contrast the darkening sky, signifying the end of the sun’s reign and the beginning of the moon’s. The chatter of his friends fills the air as they quickly walk through the forest, avoiding the prying eyes of the coven scouts that are currently on their tail. 

Yuuji’s mind begins to drift to the start of their adventures in this world, and the friends that they made throughout the short period of time. He can’t help but melt in the comfort of this trip, even with the crazy events that had just transpired a few moments ago. He just hopes that nothing too chaotic has happened with his other friends since their departure.

“Never thought there’d be a time where you’re not boasting around. What’s on your mind, Itadori?”

Yuuji turns around to see his friend, Fushiguro, staring at him with eyes that are not so subtly harboring a hint of curiosity. It’s rare to see him strike up a conversation, especially when there isn’t a need to.

“Eh, not much really,” Yuuji begins, a smile dawning on his face, “Just thinking about our journey here and stuff, probably not your kind of thing to think about.”

“You’re reminiscing already? We haven’t even left the place yet.”

“Oh shut up, can I not think for just a moment?” Yuuji pouts, sending a glare towards Fushiguro.

“I don’t really expect someone like you to think at all,” Megumi retorts.

“What do you mean by that? I think all the time!” Yuuji voices out, “You’re just mad that I can be social and smart!”

“ Smart? ”

“Yeah, smart,” Yuuji huffs. 

“Let’s talk about your intelligence rank compared to the class.”

“What about it?”

“You’re second to last.”

“Tsk tsk, don’t you know there’s more to smartness than academics?”

“Hey, you guys! Stop dragging, you’re holding the group up!” Nobara snaps, staring daggers at them. 

Megumi sighs, speeding up his walking pace to stride ahead of the group. Soon, they reach the edge of the crowd of trees, the Owl House coming into view. 

“Ugh, we finally made it, took us a–” Nobara stops in her tracks, eyes widening. “Dang.”

The house appears completely battered, windows fragmented into pieces and cracks spotting the building. Scorched walls replace the once pristine bricks. Vines peek out from the structure, making the place resemble a brownfield. Most noticeably, however, is the egregious amount of blood staining the grass and mass of coven scouts laying around the floor – most knocked out, some likely dead.

Amity gasps, horror striking across her face as she runs over to the scattered unconscious coven scouts – but her worries are of a different matter. “Luz? Are you in there? Are you okay?” She calls out, pausing as she notes the empty doorway.

“Seems like the coven scouts came to take the place down,” Yuta remarks, walking over to peer at the bodies. 

The group of sorcerers reach the entrance, Amity already searching within. The inside was affected, too, seeing the lack of any of the objects. The place looked completely ransacked.

“The hell happened here?” Megumi mutters, crossing his arms and surveying the walls.

Yuuji examines the area, dread creeping up his back. It had only been a few hours since they’d left, how did a situation of this scale occur during their absence? Nevermind that, where have the rest of them fled to? His mind begins to spiral, thoughts of concern overtaking the delightful musings that once occupied his brain.

“I’m assuming it didn’t look like this before,” Nobara comments, also unsettled by the ambience of the barren living room.

“No, not at all,” Amity whispers, biting her lip from what Yuuji assumes is anxiety. “Titan… what if she’s hurt?”

Yuuji walks over and places a hand on Amity’s shoulder. “She seems strong, I’m sure she’s fine! Especially if she’s survived this long already.”

Amity sighs. “I hope you’re right…”

All of a sudden, Yuuji is yanked backwards by the ear.

“Ow! What was that for?” He cries, looking over to see that it was from Nobara.

“Don’t put your hands on a girl without asking, weirdo!”

“I was just tryna comfort her!” Yuuji protests, crossing his arms.

“Guys, guys, calm down. We need to stay focused,” Yuta interrupts, a worried look upon his face.

Yuuji and Nobara shoot each other one last glare before returning to their separate searches.

He begins to walk over to take a look at the shelves, but hears a crinkling beneath his shoe. He looks down and moves his foot, revealing a crumpled piece of paper with the words “PLEASE HELP” written on the top in pencil. He gently picks it up, unfolding it completely, but sees nothing but a blank sheet. He’s about to ask his friends what it could mean until he spots a little sunshine sketch in the corner.

The gears in his brain turning, he crouches down, taking a spare post-it note and pen from the pile of items dispersed about the floor. Yuuji thinks back to when Luz taught him the light glyph and draws it for himself – although it looks shaken and amateur, with the tap of his finger, it’s close enough to summon a weak light orb. He holds the paper in front of it, and his jaw drops when a detailed map is shown to be inscribed into the sheet.

“Guys, look at this!” He calls out, garnering the attention of his companions. They walk over to see for themselves.

“It’s a map,” Megumi points out.

“Since when did you learn light magic?” Nobara questions, raising her eyebrow.

“Luz taught it to me,” he replies curtly.

“Wait, can I see that?” Amity asks, holding her hand out. Yuuji nods, handing over the paper to her. The witch casts a much brighter light orb, inspecting the contents of the paper. “It’s a map to the Knee.”

“Huh? The Knee? Like the human body part?”

“It’s a place on the Boiling Isles. I’m assuming this is a message that they’re hiding out there, but…” Amity trails off. “It is incredibly far. It’d take days to walk there on foot. I’d suggest using my palisman, but only about two or three of us can fit.”

Everyone falls silent, seemingly thinking of ways to combat this problem. Yuuji reflects back at the drawn map and ponders on methods of transportation that could be useful in this sort of situation. 

“What if we cut across by sailing with a raft?” Yuuji suggests, beaming.

The sorcerers stare at him for a few seconds, absorbing the absurd idea he’d just proposed.

“And you called yourself smart not so long ago…” Megumi rolls his eyes.

“What? Wouldn’t that work?”

“Ah… as far as I remember, the sea is boiling, isn’t it? The wood would soften, losing its ability to support our weight,” Yuta observes.

“Why would that be an issue?” Amity cuts in, catching the rest’s attention. “Wood’s burning point is far higher than the temperature of the water.”

“Yeah, but that’s the burning point. The heat will still end up breaking the hydrogen bonds in the wood and the material within will become too flexible.”

“Hydrogen bonds break at around 332 degrees celsius, though. The water is only 176 degrees celsius.” 

“332 degrees?” Megumi points out, furrowing his eyebrows. “What are you talking about?”

“Oh, I get it! This environment is different from our realm’s,” Nobara pipes up. “Chemistry must work differently here.”

Yuuji considers adding to the conversation, but he has no idea what any of the words coming out of their mouths mean. Not wanting to be left out, he nods along– hoping no one catches on.

“You don’t understand what we’re talking about, do you?” Megumi teases.

Well shit.

“I do! I just… think you guys have a better grasp of physics and stuff,” Yuuji responds.

“ Physics?” Nobara laughs.

“Whatever, same thing!” He sticks his tongue out at her.

“Anyways… as far as I’m aware, a raft made from the wood here should be just fine on the sea. The only issue is making a stable one, and quickly,” Amity continues.

He leans his head back, looking up at the now scorched ceiling. Now what? They could use his raft idea, but then it’ll cost them more time and brain power just figuring out how to build it. If only he had a cursed technique that could transport them anywhere. Other than Gojo, he can’t think of another person with an ability of a similar caliber. He racks his brain for something, especially after that fumble. No way in hell will he allow Megumi to win.

Speaking of Megumi, wouldn’t his ability be useful here?

“Wait!” Yuuji interjects, eyes lighting up. “Why don’t we just use Fushiguro’s shikigami?”

“ Nue! ” Nobara exclaims, snapping her fingers. “Itadori, you’re a genius!”

“See, told you,” Yuuji smirks, shooting a triumphant glare at Megumi.

“I suppose that could work…” Megumi mutters, ignoring Yuuji’s brag. 

“Pardon my interruption, but, ‘shikigami’...?” Amity asks.

“It’s his cursed technique – he can summon ‘animals’, basically. One of them being a giant bird-thing!” Yuuji smiles.

“That… would be a pretty efficient mode of transportation,” she states.

With that decided, the group exits the house. Megumi puts his hands into Nue’s summoning position, wrists crossed and fingers spread apart, mimicking a bird's wings. Immediately, the shadow is summoned, a large owl-like creature with orange feathers and a white rectangular skull mask draping across the upper half of the face, human-esque teeth gleaming in the moonlight. How fitting for the situation, Yuuji thought.

A cough breaks his line of thought. He turns around and finds Amity, holding out the map to the Knee.

“I figured you’re going to need this. Y’know, since you’ve never been to the Knee before.”

“Oh, thanks!”

Amity hands the map over to Yuuji – however, all of a sudden, a mouth opens up in his palm, devouring the paper.

“What the –” Amity stares at where the paper once was, shocked.

“Shit! Why did you do that?” Yuuji scolds, glaring at his palm. All that came out was a deep, low chuckle, the mouth closing and fading away.

Megumi whips around. “Did you seriously let him eat the map ?”

“It wasn’t on purpose! How was I supposed to know he’d do that?”

“First the finger, now this!” Nobara adds, putting her hands on her hips.

“Um… who? What are you guys talking about?” Amity questions, concerned.

“I’ll explain on the way,” Nobara offers, her tone a stark contrast to a few seconds ago. “Wait… how do we even get there now?”

“I see… it’s fine, I know where the Knee is,” the witch responds, her demeanor returning to calm and composed.

Megumi sighs, “Sorry about him. He really doesn’t know how to behave.”

“You’re talking about him , right? Not me? Cause this is not my fault, I’m the victim here!” Yuuji protests.

Megumi scoffs and turns around, walking towards Nue. One day, he’ll give him a piece of his mind.

The sorcerers mount the shikigami, Amity opting to use her palisman and lead the way to the Knee. They take off, riding into the crisp air of the dead of night.

✽

“I think I underestimated how long this walk would take.” Luz comments, strolling next to Maki and Inumaki along the edge of the mountains formed upon the huge ribcage of the island. They’ve been heading towards the knee for an hour, and the sky is completely devoid of light now. Her legs run sore as she desperately tries to ignore the ache of her arm. 

“How far away is the Knee, exactly?” Maki asks curiously, hefting a huge sack filled with anything that they deemed important within the house, while Inumaki carries the Portable Hooty on his back. Luz offered multiple times to hold something for them, but the other two insisted that she needed her arms to rest given the injury.

“Um… we got there pretty fast by flight…” Luz trails off, stopping to stand on her tiptoes and look upwards, spotting where the mountain is.

Yeah. That’d probably take days. Luz sighs dejectedly, hope beginning to slip from her mind. They could be spotted by coven scouts any second, and she doubts any of them have enough stamina to fend for themselves.

“Tuna tuna!”

Luz and Maki look over to Inumaki questioningly as he points into the sky. A few familiar people are – floating? – in the air. Amity is riding on her palisman and looks down in shock when she notices Luz. She calls something out to the others, and they all descend near the trio.

The group dismount from the invisible flying space as Amity comes to a stop near the ground and allows her palisman to transform back into a cat. As Maki and Inumaki walk over to reunite with the sorcerers, Amity and Luz run to each other to embrace, but Luz lets out a yelp when she feels Amity’s hand brush past her arm.

“What – are you okay?” The witch asks, her eyes rich with concern. Her eyes lock onto Luz’s wound, and she frowns. “Titan, what happened?”

“Oh, that’s –” Luz immediately tucks her arm behind her back, shooting Amity a soft smile, “it was just one of the coven scouts, it’s nothing bad, really.”

Amity grabs Luz’s hand and pulls her arm into view, inspecting the injury. She scrunches her face up in thought while Luz avoids her gaze. In all honesty, Luz hadn’t taken a good look at it herself, as she didn’t want to fill her own mind with anxiety while there’s no way to heal it until they get to the Knee.

“Have you washed this out yet?”

“Washed it out…? I don’t think so.”

“Then that’s the first thing we’re doing when we make it to camp. It could get infected.”

“Yeah, yeah – sorry,” Luz chuckles.

“What for?” Amity lowers her voice to a whisper, confusion spreading across her face.

“I don’t want to cause you any worry or trouble, y’know?”

“Luz, you’re never causing me trouble. And, also, don’t apologize so much, or you’re gonna end up like that guy,” a small grin spreads across the witch’s face as she points a thumb at Yuta.

Luz can’t help but let out a little laugh, “Aw, don’t be mean to him. He’s trying!”

“Trying to be a wimp, sure…”

“Amity! I thought we were working on you being more nice!”

“I know, I know.” The two burst into giggles, soon interrupted when they’re approached by the sorcerers.

“I just felt a shiver up my spine…” Yuta mutters, his arms wrapped around his body.

“You’ll be fine,” Maki retorts.

“No, you don’t understand. I think someone was talking about me…”

“Cut it out, drama king. We don’t have time for you to be fussing around.”

“Can we please get moving? We could get caught at any moment,” Megumi urges.

“Salmon salmon,” Inumaki agrees.

“Wait, how were you guys even flying?” Luz asks, the question hiding at the back of her mind for a while now.

“Using Nue!” Yuuji exclaims, pointing over to an empty space.

Luz tilts her head and squints, inspecting the area, when Maki suggests, “Put on the glasses I gave you.”

Luz pulls them out of her pocket and puts them on, her mouth agape when a giant bird forms in her vision. Well, that explains it.

“Wait, Amity, can you see that?”

“Yes – you couldn’t?”

Luz blinks. “Not until now!” She takes her glasses off and shoves them back into her hoodie pocket, as they are too big for her face.

“Okay, well, let’s get movin’, my legs can’t take standing in this musty grass,” Nobara whines.

“Since when was grass clean ?” Yuuji questions.

“You’ve never seen the kind-of grass you’d want to eat because it’s so pristine?” She retaliates.

“No, you’re just weird.”

Megumi sighs, turning around to mount the bird again, the others following. Amity re-summons her palisman, Luz sitting behind her on the staff and wrapping her left arm around her waist so she doesn’t fall off, causing the tip of the witch’s ears to turn crimson.

They depart from the ground, returning to their original path to the mountain.

✽

“Geez, are we there yet?” Yuuji whines, dragging his feet across the ground while he shivers.

“The camp should be nearby, I doubt they’d go somewhere we can’t find,” Amity replies, walking at the front of the group.

They had switched to walking once they reached the peak of the mountain, finding that it would be difficult to spot the camp from an aerial view. The snow is thick and soft, the high altitude making the environment a brisk cold as few snowflakes drift from the clouds. Luz and Amity hover light orbs above their palms to make up for the lack of illumination.

“Hey, that place looks like a suspiciously good place for people to hide!” Luz calls out, running over to a huge cave jutting out of the ground. Yuuji shortly follows, eager to finally find it.

“Wait, you should be careful before –” Megumi is cut off by a loud snap , a net raising from the ground and trapping Luz and Yuuji. Megumi sighs and shakes his head, while Nobara bursts out laughing. The second years eye each other, holding back their own set of giggles.

Amity walks over to cut the net open using a knife formed from abomination goo, the two humans falling into the snow. At the same time, someone calls out, “Looks like someone activated the booby trap!”

From the shadows of the cave emerges Eda, a blanket made of fur wrapped around her. She stops in shock, but a smile forms upon her face when she notices everyone standing outside the camp. “There you are! I knew you’d show up… eventually.”

Yuuji slowly stands up from the ground, while Amity lends a hand to help Luz get up. 

“We weren’t exactly sure how to get here at first,” Luz chuckles.

“Oh, yeah, do you have any clean water? We need to wash out the injury Luz got,” Amity asks, gesturing to Luz’s arm, much to the human’s dismay.

“Let me see that,” Eda puts her hand under her chin, looking at the wound. “Geez, what happened?”

“Uh… I can help with that – if you want,” Yuta pipes up sheepishly.

“Oh, yeah, he technically has healing powers,” Maki adds curtly.

“Woah, really?” Luz’s eyes light up, turning towards Yuta.

“Yeah – here, let me see the wound,” Yuta says.

She holds her arm out. Yuta hovers his hand over it, a soft glow emitting from his palm and enveloping the injury. Everyone watches intently as it fades, causing her skin to look completely unscathed.

“I didn’t know you could do that, Okkotsu!” Yuuji beams.

“It looks just like a healing spell…” Amity whispers.

“It’s my reverse cursed technique,” Yuta explains. “By producing positive energy, I can apply it to others and heal them – though, it could also be used for other means.”

“That’s so cool!” Luz praises, flexing her arm. “Thanks!”

Yuta nods, smiling. “Any time.”

“It’s pretty late – you kids must be hungry. Lilith and I have some food and a fire inside, I think all of you can fit. Hopefully,” Eda snorts.

“Yes please, I’m freezing out here…” Nobara murmurs, walking into the cave first.

The rest hurry behind Nobara inside, eager to avoid the freezing winds outside. As they walk in, items are scattered throughout the cave – swords, crates, and multiple empty boxes of HexMix cereal. Ropes hang lanterns near the roof, and paired with the swarm of fire-bees in the middle, the area was highly illuminated. Pieces of fur spot the ground, signaling places that they can settle into their new hideout. Exhaustion dawns over them, and they relax in the comfort of their temporary peace.

Chapter Text

“I’m pretty sure that Adrian Grey is not coming to bother our school ever again,” Amity giggles, referring to the coven head that was thoroughly defeated by the sorcerers just the day before. Luz gives a chuckle in response, her arms wrapped around herself in a warming position despite the fluffy grudgby jacket she wears. 

It’s early dawn, clouds blanketing the sky as flurries fall lightly. Bounds of snow cover the branches of trees lining a clearing within the cool forest. A huge, glistening pool sits in the corner, half frozen over by rock-solid ice.

Since Eda and Lilith are preparing breakfast back at camp, and the sorcerers are getting situated, Luz and Amity made the decision to take a walk through the Knee. The two wanted to clear their minds after the entire string of events which recently transpired. 

Luz lets out an exhale, seeing the air condense into a small cloud. She looks over at Amity, wondering how the witch is bearing the chilly weather. Since they weren’t given much time to bring clothes suited for winter, all they had was what they’re currently dressed in along with the fur blankets from the cave. 

The human chose not to wear the blankets, though; it was obvious the fur was “recently acquired” and Luz couldn’t help but feel bad for whatever poor creature found its way in Eda’s path – that, and, she was afraid of contracting any diseases from the recently deceased animal.

“Y’know, this place looks exactly like how I imagined the Bitter Woodlands in Good Witch Azura 3,” Luz comments, a soft smile forming upon her face.

“Oh, I can see it! Though I think there were a lot more animals roaming around.”

“Well, yeah, but the landscape! It’s so pretty. I wish I had my canvas and paints with me right now.”

“Hm…” Amity taps her chin, and with a flourish of her hand, summons her scroll. She takes a picture of the clearing, scrolling through the filters until she finds one perfectly suited. “Here, now you can look at the photo once you have the chance to paint it.”

“Wait – do you think you could contact Willow and Gus there?”

“Theoretically, yes, but I don’t think it’d be wise to give away our current position.”

“Right…” Luz sighs.

“Do you miss them…?”

“Well, they’re my friends, so of course. But it’s okay – at least my awesome girlfriend is here!” The human beams. Amity’s pale skin on her face is replaced by a deep shade of red. It happens every time Luz compliments her, and she finds it absolutely adorable.

“I’m glad I’m here with you too! But…” Amity trails off, her face returning to its original color.

“Buuut…?”

“I’m just worried about Ed and Em, I guess. And my parents have no idea I’m here, so I’m certainly getting an earful when I get home.”

“Oh, Ami…” Luz hadn’t thought of that earlier. “Don’t worry, I’m sure they’re fine. And your parents better not yell at you, or they’ll have to face me!”

Amity lets out a little laugh, amused by the human’s high confidence. “My savior.”

“Is there anything else on your mind?”

“Well… I wouldn’t say that’s all, but I really don’t want to add more to your plate.”

“Amity! You’ve been so kind and heard all my rants for the past few days, you should talk to me if you need to. It’s not good to keep all your emotions bottled up.”

Amity raises her eyebrow. “You’re the one talking.”

“Whaaat? I don’t bottle up my emotions. ‘Open book’ is basically my middle name! Anyways, tell me what’s snapping at your brain.”

The witch thinks over Luz’s offer. Her shoulders relax, and she lets out a sigh. “Okay. First off, if you’re an open book, then all your chapters are written in invisible pen. Second, I guess… I’m just baffled about the fact Belos is trying to drain us on the Day of Unity.”

“I couldn’t believe it either at first. He’s vile.”

“Yeah,” Amity continues. “My whole life, my parents told me I could end up in the Emperor’s Coven. It became my goal, the one thing I should strive for, and to learn that it’s all a lie… I just can’t help wondering, what’s my purpose anymore?”

Luz takes Amity’s hands in her own, slightly tilting her head up to look at the witch in the face directly. “Your purpose was never based on some… ‘prestigious’ coven everyone’s told you to join when you grow up. And it definitely isn’t now. And, well, this might be getting into more philosophical Aristotle-y stuff, but I don’t think anyone has a set purpose in life. All that matters is that you’re the best person you can be, and I think you’re already the best person possible.”

Amity smiles warmly, taking in everything Luz has said. “Thank you, Luz – but… who’s Aristotle?”

“Oh! He was a super famous philosopher in the human realm. I only really know a lot about him because a show I watched mentioned him all the time.”

“I see… the human realm is intriguing.”

“Trust me, the Boiling Isles is way more interesting.”

The two girls relish in the normal-esque conversation they’re finally able to have after all the crazy things going on lately. Flakes begin to drift more frequently, and Luz sticks her tongue out so one falls on it, earning a confused smile from Amity. “Luz, what are you doing?”

“Tasting the snow!”

Amity’s smile transforms into a giggle now, her laugh the most melodic thing Luz’s ever heard. “If you’re hungry, we can go back and eat something at the camp.”

“No way. The walk with my sweet potato would come to an end.”

“You act like a lovesick puppy.”

Luz gives her a pout. “But you’re not lovesick for me?”

A blush forms upon Amity’s cheeks. “I said you’re lovesick, not that I’m not.” The witch surveys the area more, coming to the conclusion that it’s tiring to be standing out in the open for no reason. She spots a log near the lake, and turns back to Luz. “Want to go sit down?”

Luz nods, and the two clasp their hands together as they walk over to sit down. Luz lets out a small shiver, which the other girl quickly notices. She takes off her blanket, wrapping it around Luz.

“Wha-?”

“I know you said you didn’t want to put these on, but I made sure this one was cleaned.”

“Wait – what about you? Aren’t you chilly?”

“Not really. Besides, I don’t want you getting the mold. Humans get sick easily.”

“Oh, well, if you say so… Thanks!” Luz feels her heart speed up as she graciously accepts the blanket. Amity is so thoughtful, it’s hard to believe they were rivals just a few months ago. She looks down at the fluffy snow beneath her shoes, and traces a little heart into the ground. “There. Now this is like a little romantic date!”

Amity lets out a chuckle. “I suppose it is.”

Luz pauses, taking a deep breath. “I’m really glad we went on this walk, Ami. Talking to you is, like, my favorite thing ever.”

“I feel the same way about you.”

“I love you,” Luz blurts out, eyes widening when her words catch up to her brain. “Crap – sorry, was that too early?”

After a moment which seems to be an eternity, Amity finally replies. “Is it? I don’t think so,” she murmurs. “I love you too.”

Luz turns her body to look over to Amity, inspecting her silky lavender strands of hair and lemony eyes. It’s the kind of eyes she gets lost in all the time, and there’s been multiple accounts where Amity has talked to her and asked if Luz is even listening because all the human’s attention was on appreciating them. Now, those eyes are filled with a mix of curiosity and fondness. It’s enough to make Luz smile, a warm, blossoming feeling budding within her stomach.

Amity brings Luz’s hand up, intertwining their fingers. Now the human’s attention is on admiring the witch’s nails – they’re painted in a deep midnight shade, and the texture is so perfect. It’s sophisticated, and charming at the same time, and so Amity.  

Before she realizes it, Amity’s leaning in closer, placing her hand under the girl’s chin and brushing her thumb against Luz’s lips. Sure, the human has read romantic fanfiction before and experienced a flutter of butterflies in her stomach, but this time they morph into full-on cartwheels, not ever having anticipated this. 

The girl’s eyes flick between Luz’s gaze and her mouth. After some consideration, she decides to close the space, giving her a tender kiss.

A few seconds later, their lips separate, a still silence hovering in the air.

“Wowie,” Luz breathes.

She immediately wants to slap herself. Did she really just say ‘wowie’ after her first kiss?

Amity lets out a soft giggle, her face still centimeters away from Luz’s. “You’re such a dork.”

Before the human can reply, Amity cups her cheek, leaning in to meet her lips once again. Luz reaches up to tuck a strand behind the witch’s pointy ear, letting her world get absorbed into this one moment. She’d do anything to experience this feeling for the rest of her life, this gentle, safe feeling… one that, despite how cold she is physically, mimics how one would feel at a warm summer field filled with soft-petaled sunflowers in the orange glow of the early rising sun.

It’s strange how so much love, so much affection, so much reverence is poured into such a simple gesture.

All of a sudden, Amity’s ear twitches, and she pulls away quickly. Luz looks at her questioningly, and Amity tilts her head to the side, signaling for her to look in that direction. 

When she does, she sees Megumi standing a few feet away, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck. “...Eda sent me here to make sure you weren’t dead. And that you should come back soon, breakfast is almost ready.”

“Oh,” Luz whispers, out of breath from the kiss and shocked by the intrusion. “Uh… tell her we’ll be there in a bit.”

Megumi nods slowly, avoiding looking at either of them in the face. “I’ll let her know.” He turns around, stiffly walking away.

Luz immediately groans and buries her face into her hands, probably redder than she’s ever seen Amity’s. “I can’t believe that just happened.”

“Yeah,” the other girl agrees, also heavily embarrassed, “me neither.”

Luz stands up, handing Amity back her fur blanket. “Guess we should start heading back now…”

“Mhm,” Amity replies meekly, wrapping the blanket around herself. 

The two settle on going a different route than Megumi, not wanting to experience another awkward moment where they run into him again straight after that. 

Silence drifts between them . Amity finally decides to break it, unable to bear the mood any longer. “So… did you like it?”

“Huh?”

“The kiss, I mean.”

“Oh,” Luz chuckles, picking at the sleeve of her jacket. “Yeah! You’re a really good kisser. Not that I’ve ever kissed anyone before, but, uh, y’know, you’re like, the best first kiss ever. Does that make any sense?”

“Barely,” Amity says, her tone teasing, “but I know what you mean.”

Luz smiles at her, glad that the tension has dissipated. “So… do you remember what they’re making for breakfast, exactly?”

“Probably cooked mountain goat.”

“Wait, there’s goats here!? Why didn’t Eda ever tell me? I’ve been fed eyeballs and weird glowing slugs the past few months!”

“Guess she just never had the chance to find one,” Amity chortles.

Luz crosses her arms, letting out a huff. 

“You’ve never gone hunting yet?” Amity asks.

“No! Is that, like, a normal activity here or something?”

“Well, I mean, I’ve caught a few fairies once in a while.”

“Are fairies even edible…?”

“Of course! Didn’t you have that fairy pie I gave you?”

“Uh…” Luz trails off, remembering the fairy pie she threw away out of disgust (and empathy for the little baked fairies). “Oh, yeah! It was – it was great.”

Amity abruptly comes to a stop, looking around.

“What’s up?” Luz asks.

The witch freezes and pales, staring ahead of them. Luz looks over, but sees an empty space, and concern starts to fill into her mind.

“Amity, talk to me. What happened?”

“You don’t see it?” She whispers.

Luz looks back and forth between Amity and the direction she’s staring. All of a sudden, it clicks. She reaches into her pocket and pulls out the glasses, placing them over her face.

Her guess is right.

There’s a curse in front of them, looking straight into her soul.

✽

“No way, you caught them kissing ?”

If Megumi had one wish, it’d be to disappear right then and there. In front of him are his two friends, Itadori and Kugisaki, holding back their giggles as they berate him for interrupting ‘young love’ . He never planned on telling his two companions in the beginning, but relented after being grilled to the bone. If he could name a talent for the two of them, it’d be their unending stubbornness.

—

It was just an average day, so to speak. The chilly wind breezed through the entrance of the cave, entering and embracing the inhabitants inside with a cool hug. His body shivered, the presence of the raging flame in front of him failing to provide warmth. As he bundled himself with the spare blanket he borrowed, the sounds of footsteps echoed behind him.

“Hey kid, you got a minute?”

He could tell by their use of vocabulary that it was the owl lady, as she tends to lean towards a more casual way of speaking. Turning, he saw her with her hands on her hips, face filled with worry.

“Shoot.”

“Well,” Eda began, exhaling a big sigh. “I wanted to ask if you could go and check if Luz and her girlfriend are still alive. Breakfast is almost ready, but those two lovebirds aren’t back yet.”

He stared at her for a good few seconds, confused. “Why me?”

“Keep this between you and me, but…” Eda looked around, bringing the volume of her voice to a whisper. “You’re the only person I believe would get this task done the quickest.”

Megumi couldn’t help but find the comment ironic. Thinking back, Itadori would most likely get sidetracked, playing in the snow as it’s scarce in Japan. Kugisaki would complain about going out and about in the cold, saying that there’s no need to since they’re in a secluded area. And the second years, they’re probably busy looking into the potential locations of the special grade curse.

That left Megumi as the last and only person for the job. “Yeah, alright. Do you know where they’re most likely hanging out?”

“They wouldn’t stray that far from here. Probably in an area with a good view.”

Megumi sighed, “That’s not really helpful, but thanks I guess.”

“Good luck kid, hope you don’t see anything unexpected.”

Nodding, he got up from his spot, blanket falling off his shoulders and landing on the ground. He walked towards the entrance of the cave, but was stopped by a wave from Itadori. He grinned at him, seemingly telling him ‘goodbye’ and ‘come back soon’. He gave a small wave back, feeling his ears flush and a small flame building up inside of him. As he walked out of the cave, the brisk weather enveloped him in a blanket of the bitter cold, extinguishing the warmth he was feeling just a second ago. He sighed and began his journey of finding the two girls, unaware of what he was about to witness.

—

“Seriously, Fushiguro, you should have just walked away! I can’t believe you stood there and watched that happen! Such an invasion of privacy!” Nobara rambles, pacing around the cave.

“I told you, it was an accident. I didn’t mean to walk in on them.”

“You still stared, which is weird and awkward! There’s so many ways you could have handled being in that situation, and you chose the worst way possible, you creep!”

“You were just laughing about it a couple seconds ago, I don’t get why you’re mad now.”

“I’m mad because you ruined their intimate moment, and they’re probably going to remember that forever!”

Megumi feels his embarrassment being replaced with irritation as Nobara continues to lecture him about stumbling in on the couple. It’s not like he wanted to interrupt them, he was just there at the wrong time. Sighing, he turns to look at Yuuji, who is still cackling.

“Will you stop that? It’s not funny.”

Yuuji wipes his eyes, tears forming due to his intense laughing. “Yes, yes it is, Fushiguro. I can’t believe you, out of all people, happen to experience that!”

“I don’t know how many times I need to say this for the both of you to process it in your brain. It was an accident,” Megumi glowers, tired of their teasing.

“Aww, are you grumpy because you haven’t had your first kiss yet. I bet you’re really jealous, huh?” Yuuji chimes, puckering his lips to Megumi.

Megumi felt his blood rush up to his ears, eyes slightly widening at Yuuji’s words and actions. If he wanted to disappear before, then he simply wants to melt out of existence now. Instead of a flame, he feels butterflies flapping around his stomach. Not wanting to be caught, he averts his gaze and brings his head down low – trying his hardest to hide his flustered expression.

“Shut up,” He scowls, slapping him across the face. 

“Ow! What the heck, I was just joking. No need to go extra grumpy on me,” Yuuji cries, leaning back on the crates.

“Uh-huh, yeah, extra grumpy …” Nobara mutters, eyes narrowing hard on Megumi.

“Y’know, instead of talking about what I saw, we could help out the second years with finding that curse,” Megumi scoffs, finally lifting his view up and stares at Nobara.

“I don’t want to work with Okkotsu. Last time I did, he got in the way and allowed our enemy to escape,” Nobara retorts.

Yuuji sits back up, “Uh, last I remembered, an illusion allowed him to escape, not Okkotsu.”

“Oh please, he’s a special grade, should’ve seen that trick ahead of time and blocked his path.”

“I think you’re just salty about him winning that Goodwill Event…”

Bored with their bickering, Megumi stands up and walks towards the second years. They’re huddled in a circle with some sort of parchment paper in the middle. Inscribed on the sheet is a map of the Boiling Isles and a bunch of x’s.

“What’re those x’s for?” Megumi questions, kneeling down to a squat.

“Oh, Fushiguro! We’re just crossing out possible locations for the curse to be at!” Yuta exclaims, looking up at Megumi.

“Salmon, salmon roe.”

“Based on what we know of the curse, it probably likes secluded places. So we’re looking for areas of low popularity,” Maki adds, spinning her pen around her fingers.

“Yeah, the sooner we find this curse, the better. Gojo and the rest must be worried about us.” Yuta mumbles.

“That idiot? He’s probably out and about doing some sort of tour in Greece or something,” Maki bemoans, not having any hope for their teacher.

“Salmon. Tuna mayo, caviar.”

“What? C’mon guys, Gojo wouldn’t do us dirty like that!” Suddenly, Yuta’s head snaps up, his pleasant mood souring. He’s frantically looking around, seemingly trying to locate something, or someone. Both Maki and Inumaki seem puzzled by this sudden change, concern mixing into their expressions. Megumi himself has never seen Yuta this alert, feeling a sense of dread creeping up his back.

“What is it, Okkotsu?” Megumi queries.

“Did you guys feel that? I swear I sensed a curse nearby.”

“What? A curse?” Maki says, shock plastered on her face. “There’s no way a regular curse is lurking around here. Do you mean the special grade?”

“No, not the special grade. Just your typical curse. If it was a special grade, we would have all felt it immediately.”

“That’s… concerning. We should go check it out.” Megumi states.

“Mustard leaf. Salmon, cod roe.”

“Yeah… Fushiguro, get Itadori and Kugisaki at the entrance of the cave. We need to investigate this.”

“Got it.”

He stops squatting and hastens over towards his two friends. They both perk up from his loud footsteps, confusion swirling in their eyes. 

“What? Did you have a revelation or something?” Yuuji asks, perplexed by his actions.

“Okkotsu just said he sensed a curse, we should go to the entrance and meet up with the rest quickly.”

“Hey, where you guys headin’ out to?” Eda walks towards them, eyebrows raised.

“There’s a threat nearby,” Megumi explains hurriedly. “Can you and Lilith stay here and protect the camp? We’ll be back once we neutralize it.”

“A threat?” Eda mutters. “Wait, what about Luz and her girlfriend? They’re still out there!”

“We’ll make sure they’re safe!” Yuuji assures, beaming.

Eda hesitates for a moment, but relents, “Fine, ok, you go get rid of that… threat thing. But come back here if you need any help.”

Megumi nods, gesturing for Yuuji and Nobara to follow him out the cave. They meet up with the others, and after walking out into the open, Megumi begins to sense the cursed energy for himself.

After a few minutes of trudging through the snow, the group comes to a halt when they hear a loud yelp and the sound of crashing. The weather picks up, resembling more a blizzard than light snow. One of the sorcerers yells something out, but it’s drowned out by the sounds of the intense storm. 

A pinkish-red hue dampens parts of the snow beneath Megumi’s feet. Someone’s gotten hurt here. He squints as his vision is completely clouded and he loses track of his companions. After some struggling, he shoves a branch out of his path, and he finally spots the source of the chaos.

It’s definitely a curse, and a giant one at that, its height just a much taller than the trees surrounding the area. It looks as though someone tried to carve out a monster from the mountain; the skin is composed of rough granite and limestone, and its head is uneven with the jaw constantly unhinged. Its teeth are jagged and seem to be made of icicles – in fact, those icicles hang from almost every part of its body, including its long, slender arms. It doesn’t bear hands, its forelimb instead ending in sharply pointed ice. The eyes are by far the most unsettling – hollow and cracked, as though the rock surrounding it had been beaten and worn out.

“Fushiguro!”

Megumi whips around to see Amity kneeling to the ground, clutching her shoulder. He runs over and squats down next to her, but doesn’t see her girlfriend nearby.

“What happened?” He asks, glancing around the area to see if he can make out any sign of the others.

“I – I don’t know, this… ‘curse’ showed up and attacked us,” She grits her teeth and winces, her grip on her shoulder tightening. He inspects it, but there’s no visible injury – unless…

“Lift up your sleeve.”

“What?”

“Your arm. Do you know why it’s hurting?”

She rolls her sleeve up, and sure enough, the source of the pain is visible. A chill runs down his spine – he’s unsure if it's from the cold, or from the horrific sight. The entire forearm is frostbitten, the skin pale blue-purple in color, reaching all the way up to her shoulder. 

The curse had put her arm in a hypothermic state.

Chapter Text

“Can you feel your arm?” Megumi questions, wide eyed from the state of it.

“...No, I can’t,” Amity replies, fingers hovering over her now dismally blue skin.

Before Megumi can respond, a grating noise erupts from an area blocked by the blizzard. It’s almost like nails to a chalkboard – Megumi squints, and he realizes that it’s the icicle forearm of the curse scratching against one of the trees and swiftly knocking it down.

Judging its location from the position of the ice, he gets his hands ready to summon his Divine Dog. It manifests, running towards what he assumes would be the leg of the curse and clearing a line of vision for him. The shadow violently bites off a huge chunk of rock skin, but to Megumi’s horror, it immediately reforms.

The curse turns its hideous head towards them, stabbing its arm into the snow and sending a wave of ice shards rising from the ground in their direction. Amity manages to summon an abomination wall, absorbing the attack before it reaches them, but lets out a cry immediately after, clutching her shoulder again in pain.

“How the hell did this thing even get here?” Megumi mutters.

“It’s a curse, right?”

“Yes, but it shouldn’t be in this place. The only curse that should be present in this realm is the special grade that sent us here.”

“Is this ‘special grade’ able to summon other curses?”

“Hm…” Megumi thinks over this possibility for a moment, still staring at the huge enemy, who’s attention was luckily somewhere else. “It might. The special grade transported us here, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it could transport other curses.”

Amity hisses. “My hand is completely numb now.”

“We should find Okkotsu— all of them are somewhere around here, he should be able to heal your arm using reverse cursed technique.”

“Then I guess we should go quickly.”

“What about your girlfriend, where is she?”

Amity looks around, narrowing her eyes. “I don’t know — we got separated, but I don’t think she got hit with frostbite yet.”

The two stand up, sticking near each other so they don’t get lost. It’s hard to move through the harsh weather, but they don’t have to worry about being hit, as it seems like the curse temporarily forgot about their existence. This, however, did not soothe Megumi’s nerves; all it means is that one of their other friends is probably battling it off right now.

Interrupting Megumi’s train of thought, he bumps into Yuuji, who whirls around in shock. His voice is muffled out by the wind, but Megumi can just barely make it out. “Fushiguro, there you are!”

“Where are the others?”

Yuuji shrugs, eyebrows furrowed in concern. Just then, a loud, low rumbling emits from the curse, and it stabs its forearm into the ground. This time, the blizzard disperses, creating a massive electric blue dome surrounding everybody. Megumi’s now able to spot the rest of the sorcerers, who are scattered about the…

“Is this a domain?” Yuuji interjects, wide-eyed.

“I think so…” Megumi murmurs.

Standing within the sphere of hard ice, tall spruce trees lurch from the harsh winter winds, blankets of snow shrouding their leaves. The frigid cold traverses through the landscape, biting past the rolling hills and snowy bushes of the bitter forest, reaching the mountains in the distance. The sharp scent of frost and pine wafted through the air, mixed with the overwhelming cursed energy that came from the opponent. The enemy was standing in the horizon– icy-rock body thrashing around and knocking things down within its proximity.

As Megumi looks around, he spots a flash of green hair amid the trees, swinging around a three-section staff at the blades of ice in their direction. Near it was a white uniform, one that a specific sorcerer always wears. “Zen’in! Okkotsu!”

“God, didn’t I tell you not to call me by my last name?” Maki yells, shattering an icicle that was sent in her direction with her weapon. “Yuta, this does not look like a regular curse!”

“I’m surprised, too… Everyone stay at a distance, we don’t want to give the curse an easy target!” Yuta shouts, surveying the area. “Does anyone know where Inumaki is?”

“Tuna tuna!” Inumaki calls out from behind, sprinting towards their direction. “Salmon cod roe!”

“He’s with us!” Yuuji hollers, moving closer towards the other second years so that they can hear.

Crackling noises echo behind Megumi, startling him to turn around. The bush shakes, and he brings his hands up to summon one of his shikigami. His eyes narrow hard on the bush, waiting for the intruder to attack. Entering his view was a short brown-haired girl, who currently carries a scowl on her face.

“There you guys are!” Nobara grumbles. “This bitchy curse keeps on throwing shards of ice, it’s getting really annoying…”

“Tch.” Megumi mutters.

“What do you mean, ‘tch’?” 

“Okkotsu, we can’t go in blind,” Megumi shouts, ignoring Nobara and glancing towards the curse’s direction. This curse seems to regard one person at a time. “Yuuji, Maki, can you distract it while the rest of us gather?”

The two sorcerers nod, quickly running into the curse’s area of vision – it takes the bait, garnering its attention towards them and hurling chunks of ice, giving the others a chance to meet up as a group under a crowd of pines, hidden from sight.

“Where’s Luz?” Amity demands, eyes frantically darting around. 

“She’s not with you?” Nobara asks, twirling her hammer in her hand.

“Mustard leaf?” Inumaki adds.

“ No! ” Amity snarls, “I wouldn’t be asking if she was!” 

The others are stunned by her sudden anger for a moment, but Megumi focuses on the curse. Yuuji and Maki seem to be avoiding attacks very well – he, however, notices something on the curse.

“Is that your girlfriend up there?” He questions, pointing up to the curse’s knee.

“ What? ” She turns, jaw dropping when she sees Luz climbing up the curse. “Luz! What in Titan’s name are you doing!?” She yells, which is of course in vain and unheard considering their distance.

Luz grips onto the jagged rocks of the curse’s leg, pulling out a small piece of paper. She slaps it onto its knee, and it erupts into a burst of flames, earning a loud shriek from the enemy. It kicks her off, throwing her onto a ledge on the side of the mountain.

Yuuji skids to a stop near the curse and turns to run in her direction. The curse stabs into the ground again, creating a row of ice blocking his path; at least, that’s what seemed to be the only purpose of the curse’s move. Megumi’s eyes widen once he realizes the true attack, sensing cursed energy channeling around.

Luz staggers upwards, dazed. A jolt travels through her, and she lets out a cry as her body gives out, falling.

“Luz!” Amity shouts, preparing to dash to the mountain when she’s blocked by Yuta’s arm.

“There’s cursed energy surrounding her. If we get too close, we’ll also get hit — besides, she’s too far away right now to just run all the way there,” he explains. Amity glares daggers at him.

“Well I’m not leaving her there!” She snaps, shoving Yuta’s arm out of the way.

“I’m not telling you to leave her, I’m saying that it’s a bad time right now.”

The witch attempts to summon an abomination on the ledge to pick Luz up, but it is immediately melted by the cursed energy. Amity stares for a few more seconds, taking a deep breath. “You better have a really fucking good plan.”

Yuta pauses. “I couldn’t help but notice that one of your arms is limp – is something wrong?”

“It’s frostbitten.”

“Can I see?”

After some hesitation, she nods, rolling up her sleeve to reveal the arm. He hovers his hand over it, covering it in an aura and healing it. The skin reverts back to normal, and she mutters, “Thanks.”

“Itadori, get out of that area!” Maki hollers, still dodging chunks of ice.

Yuuji abides, sprinting towards the other sorcerers instead. He comes to a stop, hissing as he lifts a pant leg up, revealing blue skin traveling up his ankle. “Geez, just a bit of that cursed energy gave me frostbite…”

“Wait – that means Luz’s entire body is in a hypothermic state!” Amity glowers, paling.

The curse stabs towards the ground again, this time forming ice and rocks jutting out of the mountain Luz lays on in a slanted direction, appearing as some sort of small fence.

“Not that I want her to die, but…” Nobara begins. “Why’s it not trying to kill her off?”

Amity glares in her direction, anger seething through her eyes. 

“It’s using her as bait,” Megumi remarks, observing the curse’s behavior. “It wants us to try to get close to her so it can attack us while we’re distracted.”

“We might have to take that bait,” Yuuji concludes. 

“It’s too dangerous,” Megumi argues. “We need to focus on exterminating the curse.”

“ Excuse me? ” Amity spits, whipping around to look at him directly. “You’re telling us to just… let her freeze !?”

“We get close, we die, and then nobody makes it out alive,” Megumi asserts. “We can save her after killing the curse.”

“There won’t be enough time to save her!” Amity growls, stepping in his direction and clenching her fist.

“Guys, stop! We can’t fight like this!” Yuuji comes to stand in between them, and then turns to face Megumi. “But Amity’s right. We need to save Luz.”

“Priorities first,” Megumi states.

“She is the priority,” Yuuji protests.

Megumi maintains eye contact for a few seconds, then sighs. “Fine. We’ll save her first.”

“I think I can heal her with reverse cursed technique,” Yuta adds. “We need to clear a path to her, though.”

The curse lets out another piercing shriek and hurls another stone at Maki, who’s unable to block it this time. She jumps back and grimaces, rubbing over the hand that was hit. She darts back towards the group. “This thing is difficult. It might be a Grade 1 – or worse, a Special grade.”

“Crap,” Nobara mutters. “I’m going to get rid of some of those obstacles. Itadori, Maki, can you continue trying to distract it?”

The two sorcerers nod, bolting towards an area of clearing and calling out to the curse. The curse roars again, speeding up the snow into a light blizzard. The rest of the group begin to rush towards Luz, but abnormally huge hail storms in their direction.

“Now that I think about it, that fire attack actually did some damage…” Nobara points out, throwing a nail and exploding a piece of ice flying through the air. “Hey, Amity, you got any fire powers or anything?”

“...Yes, actually – it’s not my specialty, but I’ll try,” she replies, summoning a small, pink flame in her palm. 

“Inumaki, can you tell it to thaw or somethin’?” Yuuji shouts, barely dodging an icicle.

“ Melt! ” His voice blasts over as he runs closer to be in range of the curse. The command slightly works, defrosting part of the curse’s face, but it recovers easily. He coughs up a great deal of blood, holding his throat. Yuta, who’s far ahead of the group, swivels around to quickly heal him, but is blocked off by something dropping in between them.

It’s…

Another curse!?

It stands up, resembling a blue blob with eyes opening from everywhere. More, similar curses begin to rain down, disgusting noises plaguing Megumi’s ears.

“The hell is this?” He mutters, staring up at the ugly thing.

“The cursed energy doesn’t belong to the ice one…” Yuta notes.

“Abomination, rise,” Amity commands, causing a huge abomination to form and smash the curse’s head in. 

“Uh, guys…” Yuuji sprints toward them, eyes filled with concern. “Something’s not right here.”

“You think?” Megumi deadpans.

“Yeah!”

“There’s not enough time to deal with your stupidity…”

“Hey, I’m warning y –” Yuuji is cut off by a loud noise – a curse had come up behind Nobara and thrown her to a tree a few meters away.

“Kugisaki!” he calls out. Maki runs over to her while Yuta hurries over to slice the curse that threw Nobara with his katana.

“She’s fine, just knocked out,” Maki yells. “Focus on getting to the other girl!”

“I’ll distract the other curses,” Megumi gets his hands in position to call for Rabbit Escape, summoning a huge number of rabbits to dash through the crowd and trees, throwing some of the curses off their feet. Two curses, however, turn towards Megumi and Yuuji, stomping over to them. Yuuji kicks one in the shin, causing it to fall over, while Megumi summons Divine Dog to chomp at the other.

The ice curse’s head tilts to the side, letting an unsettling cracking noise boom through the domain. It hunches over and stabs its forearm into the ground again, causing icicles to form in Megumi and Yuuji’s direction, simultaneously stabbing a few curses in its path. Inumaki shouts, “ Blast away! ”

The phrase works, shattering the icicles before they reach the two sorcerers, but Inumaki coughs up even more blood. His throat is completely ripped from the cursed energy feedback, passing out from the pain.

“Shit, we’re dropping like flies!” Yuuji exclaims.

Megumi summons Gama, his big frog shikigami, to pick Inumaki up in its mouth. It carries him, dodging curses and plants to get to Nobara and Maki.

“Itadori, Amity, you two fight the ice curse off,” Megumi orders, turning towards them. “I’ll help Okkotsu get to Luz.”

“ Please save her, ” Amity whispers solemnly.

“We will,” Yuta assures. “Once it’s damaged enough, I’ll summon Rika to finish it off.”

“Why not summon her now?” Yuuji asks.

“I can’t tell you…” Yuta mutters. “Just know that it isn’t the right time.”

Yuuji nods, though visibly confused. With that, Amity and Yuuji take off, sprinting towards their enemy.

✽

Yuuji dodges another curse’s slimy hands, jumping over and stomping on its head. He lands to the ground, eyes locking on the curse’s lanky legs. 

“I got a plan,” he says, turning his head to Amity, who’s also analyzing the ice curse as they continue running.

“Shoot.”

“If you can damage its leg using fire, I can use one of my abilities to break its ankle and knock it off balance.”

“Got it,” Amity slides to a stop, tracing a pink circle in the air. A blast of magenta fire shoots out, landing straight onto the curse’s shin. The curse snaps its head down, the unnerving hollow holes in the upper half of its face piercing through them. At the same time, she grabs at a separate curse’s head with abomination goo, squashing its head until its eyes pop out.

Yuuji releases Black Flash, sparks of red and black emitting from his fists. He runs forward and punches the ice curse’s burnt leg, cracking the stone with huge force. Amity sprints and places her hand on the curse’s other foot, setting it ablaze, which Yuuji punches with another Black Flash. They repeat this pattern, weaving through the curse’s legs and damaging the curse faster than it can regenerate. The curse roars, stabbing both of its ice forearms into the snow as its feet slide back from injury. This time, cursed energy travels through the ground in all directions, and Yuuji is unsure where it will strike next. 

He’s suddenly shaken by cursed energy spreading throughout his body. An overwhelming feeling of the biting cold crashes upon him, breathing shallowing as exhaustion consumes him. He staggers and grips the hem of his uniform, trying to collect himself.

“Are you okay?” Amity queries. 

“Yeah, just gimme a minute, I think I got hit… just focus on the curse.”

Amity eyes him in concern, but nods, turning around and rekindling a fire in her palm. She examines the huge curse once again, and traces a blazing circle in the air, shooting a blast of flames towards the curse’s icy arm. It melts instantaneously, and a deafening shriek erupts from the foe. The corners of her mouth lift into a smirk, which Yuuji wonders as to why until he realizes her plan – she draws two more circles, having a better grasp of her newfound abilities, and releases a wave of fire, this time aiming for the upper forearm. It falls off as it liquefies, and the entire limb collides with the ground.

Before it can stab its other arm into the snow, she uses the same method. The curse shakes, utterly off balance and legs struggling to reform. 

“This would be much easier if I didn’t leave my palisman at the cave…” she mutters, shaking her hand out to let the blaze die down. She glances at Yuuji. “How are you holding up?”

“I’m okay for now, but that hypothermia is no joke…”

“Wait, is it that easy to recover from it?” Her eyebrows raise, eyes glinting in hope.

“I’m pretty durable, so, I’m not sure.”

Her shoulders slump. “I see…”

Interrupting their conversation, the ice curse screeches, a blizzard brewing up within the domain. The teens take it as their sign to get out of proximity, deciding the state of the curse is injured enough to be finished off by Rika.

“C’mon, our job here is done,” he beams, wiping his hands on his uniform triumphantly.

Amity rolls her eyes, but smiles. 

✽

Megumi and Yuta trudge through the snow. The sorcerers took a pathway dense in trees, allowing them to stay hidden from the ice curse and avoid most of the lingering extra curses. 

Keyword – most . A huge, gooey hand reaches over to shove a tree branch out of the way, gurgling as it stomps over to block their path. Yuta pulls out his katana, making quick work of it while Megumi surveys the area for any more.

“I don’t think I can handle summoning more shikigamis,” Megumi sighs.

Yuta looks at him sympathetically. “It’s okay, you’ve done more than enough, leave the rest to me.”

Megumi huffs. “I can still fight.”

“If you say so…” Yuta grins.

Just then, a wail from the ice curse echoes through the domain, and turbulence begins to increase. 

“I hope that’s a good sign they’re winning,” Megumi mutters.

The two continue walking through the forest, picking up their pace so as to not get stuck up in another blizzard. Megumi peers through the gaps between the trees – even far away, the main curse is not easy to miss considering its colossal size, and he finally spots it stumbling. 

Yuta abruptly stops walking, Megumi bumping into him.

“What gives?” He grumbles as Yuta whirls around.

“What about Nue? Now that the ice curse is struggling, it’d be much easier for us to fly up there without getting hit.”

He stares at him for a few seconds. “Shit – why didn’t we think of that earlier?”

“I don’t know,” Yuta rubs his temple, stress apparent on his face. “Sorry to ask this, but can you try summoning Nue? I know you’re almost out of cursed energy, but it’ll really help us out here…”

“Yeah, I can try.”

Mustering up the last of his cursed energy, he gets his hands in position and summons the bird shikigami, the huge owl looming over them. 

“Let’s not waste more time, who knows what state Luz is in now…” Yuta murmurs, signaling Megumi to follow.

They climb up onto the bird, lifting above the treetops and gliding towards the mountain; since they’ve previously covered most of the distance, it only takes a few seconds, and the bird stops to hover above the ledge Luz lays on, curled up into a ball and clutching her jacket sleeves while shivering. Yuta slides off, frowning as he crouches down, tentatively tapping her shoulder.

Megumi views the scene as he climbs off of Nue to stand on the ledge. Luz is unresponsive, but she’s alive at the very least – still, Megumi can’t help but feel a pang of pity for her considering her condition.

Yuta lifts his hand into the air, activating his RCT and engulfing her body in positive energy. Her trembling slows down, but still has lingering side effects from the hypothermia, leaving her in a daze. 

“What happened…?” She whispers, turning to look at Yuta in the face. “Is Amity okay?”

“From the looks of it, yeah,” Megumi reassures, peering down to see Amity and Yuuji running away from the ice curse. “Worry about yourself first.”

Luz chuckles weakly, slowly sitting up. “Thanks…”

Yuta lifts his left hand up, placing a finger over his ring. “I’m going to summon Rika now.”

“Who…?” Luz mumbles.

“You’ll see soon,” Megumi responds.

Rika manifests. She matches the color of the snow, inky black splotches spotting the snake-like hair flowing behind her. Her bony structure and non-visible eye adds an extra level of uneasiness to her appearance. She floats in the air and faces Yuta. “ Yυυυυttttαααα ...”

“Rika, can you get rid of that curse over there?” Yuta asks, pointing over to the ice curse, who’s still swaying around as it fights to keep balance.

She whips around, mouth opening to reveal an array of knifelike teeth. “ I'll ƙιll yσυυυυυυ…! ”

Luz stares, eyes widening as she stares up at Rika. “Wow, that is one… eccentric looking ghost!” 

“She’s not… exactly a ghost,” Yuta laughs awkwardly.

Rika flies over to the ice curse as it whirls its head around to face her. She shrieks, digging her claws into the foe’s head, tearing blocks of ice and rock out. Megumi grins slightly as Rika completely dismembers the curse’s limbs, ripping it to shreds. “No wonder she’s called the ‘Queen of Curses’...”

“ Queen of Curses!? ”

“Yeah, it’s a long story. I’ll tell you later,” Yuta offers, gripping onto his katana. 

At last, the curse is finally down, pieces of stone scattering onto the snow. The domain shatters, revealing the sun gleaming from above as the clouds have dispersed. Megumi observes the area, eyes settling on his friends — even with the bitter environment, seeing them, alive, he finds himself feeling ever so slightly warmer. Sighing, he brings his gaze back to the two behind him, watching as Yuta squats down beside Luz. Exhaustion starts seeping into his bones, shoulders beginning to sag. His mind wanders back to a question that lingered in his thoughts before, of who the real perpetrator of the attack is.

Chapter Text

Amity watches intently as Rika demolishes the curse, pieces of rock slamming to the ground, and discovers herself dawning a light smile. She and Yuuji had found themselves within the area of trees, catching their breath after their part of the fight. 

Her ears perk up and she glances over to the ledge, squinting for a better view. While she can barely make out what’s happening that far away, her muscles relax when she sees the shapes of two other people, signifying that they were able to make it to Luz. 

She gazes back at her hand, allowing pink magic to wrap around her finger and spark a tiny flame at the tip, small embers flicking off and drifting into the snow. Amity had always considered abominations to be her strength. She excels at it, and never dared to explore other types. Apart from the Emperor’s Coven, no other coven solely utilizes elemental magic, and specializing in such would be a downright disgrace to the coven system as a whole. However, considering what she recently learned about Emperor Belos, and the spite she has of her overbearing parents, she can’t help but feel a surge of power when she uses it.

“You were really blazing through there,” Yuuji jokes, noticing her strained expression.

Amity stares at him for a few seconds. “...Blazing through what?”

“The…” Yuuji trails off, sighing. “Nevermind, don’t worry about it. Are you okay?”

“Oh — yeah, I am. Thanks for asking, though.”

After the extermination of the main curse, the weather clears up, ice hanging off of tree branches glistening at the reveal of the sun. Some of the tinier curses still spot the area, and she squints to see Maki making quick work of a few of them. 

“Seems like we still have some things to take care of,” Amity mutters, drawing a circle in the air and shooting at one of the weird blobs with a fireball. 

The witch steps out into the clearing, and out of pure curiosity, she releases some abomination goo from her pouch and floats it in the air, letting her fire wind around it. After throwing the mixture at one of the curses, it erupts into a huge burst of flames, pieces of the curse flying in different directions. Although that got the job done, it wasn’t particularly what she meant to happen, and that tells her that she should experiment more.

Yuuji sprints out to kick a curse in the face, causing surrounding curses to turn around and  slowly trudge towards him. Before now, Amity had never seen a cursed spirit, but they didn’t seem odd to her – they’re not far off from the creatures who regularly scurry through the Boiling Isles, albeit the curses are much more distasteful to look at.

Deciding to save her mixed magic endeavors for later, she opts to summon more abominations, who crush a large amount of curses with ease. At the same time, Yuuji uses his own physical strength to kill some of them off. It doesn’t take long to clear the area out of the majority, and Amity sighs in relief when she realizes more aren’t being summoned, although she intends to figure out why. Despite the sorcerers’ explanations, she has many unanswered questions, and she guesses that they aren’t keen on providing clear answers outright. Loud sounds of flapping wings fill the air, but she is too focused on her own inner thoughts to take notice.

Just as one of the last little curses whirl around to attack her, a huge shadow falls over the area, and Yuta jumps down onto its back, stabbing his katana straight through its head. Slush of the curse spurts out, and he hops off as it collapses and melts into the snow. The huge bird shikigami, Nue, lands onto the ground, its intimidating stature making Amity tense up despite its good intentions.

Megumi slides off, and Luz follows as she takes her curse-seeing glasses and shoves them into her jacket pocket, looking exhausted – but alive . Amity feels a smile tug at her lips, and she hurries over to wrap her arms around the girl in an embrace.

“Luz! I was so worried about you!” She pulls back, keeping her hands planted on Luz’s shoulders. Her smile drops when she notices the other girl’s eyebags and drooping posture. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah! Yeah…” Luz mumbles, her eyes unfocused. Her body abruptly falls forward. Amity’s eyes widen as she catches her, paling when the human goes limp. 

“She’s okay,” Yuta interjects. Amity looks over to meet his gaze, still holding Luz from meeting the ground. “She just wasn’t in the best shape earlier, so she might need some rest.”

Amity nods slowly, taking a deep breath. She reaches over, lifting Luz up from behind her knees and placing her other hand on her back to support her. 

Maki walks over to the group, carrying an also unconscious Nobara, followed by the frog shikigami holding Inumaki in its mouth. Amity lets out a little shudder – she hopes she never ends up in that frog’s slimy jaws.

“We really need food…” Yuuji mutters.

Megumi shoots him a glare. “That’s the most important thing you’re thinking about?”

“I meant that none of us have eaten in a while,” Yuuji retorts, giving him the same look. “And we’re out of energy.”

“I think we deserve a break after all of… this,” Yuta sighs, looking back at the two knocked-out sorcerers. “Looks like my work here is still not done.”

“Don’t push yourself too much,” Maki warns. “We don’t want you to be burnt out more than you already are.”

“Yes, yes, I know,” Yuta smiles, rubbing the back of his neck. “I think my energy should be somewhat replenished by the time we get back to camp…”

✽

The group stands outside the cave. Lilith hurries to the entrance, Eda following close behind.

“Titan, what happened to you?” Lilith inquires, hands folded taut in front of her.

Eda steps forward, eyeing the group and frowning when she spots Luz being carried. “Obviously nothing good. Come in, you’re probably freezing more than a shaved Slitherbeast.” She gestures for them to move into the hideout.

I don’t want to imagine what a ‘shaved Slitherbeast’ looks like… Amity thinks, arms beginning to ache from supporting Luz’s weight for the past few minutes. 

Once inside, the sorcerers settle onto the blankets scattered about the hideout, breathing out sighs of relief from the newfound warmth. Yuta walks around the cave, healing the injured with his restored energy. Amity gently places Luz down onto the pile nearest to the campfire, muscles relaxing from the release. She seats herself next to her lover, biting the inside of her mouth as she mulls over the previous events. Why had Luz been so… reckless ? It’s one thing for the human to be impulsive, but climbing up the curse was just dangerous.

She glances over to see King watching her and Luz carefully. She musters up a small smile and pats the ground. He gets the hint, crawling towards the other side of Luz and sitting to lean against a crate.

“So…” Eda begins, standing at the other side of the cave and awkwardly scratching her hair, “Tell me what happened.” 

After a long stretch of silence, Amity’s ear twitches, realizing that everyone is looking at her expectantly. “Oh, yes – Luz and I were just taking a stroll and encountered some… ice giant on the way back. And then some sort of blizzard appeared out of nowhere and we got separated.”

“A blizzard? Did the thing that attacked you summon it?” Lilith queries.

“I’m… not so sure,” Amity says hesitantly. “I know that it can give you frostbite – but I don’t know all its powers.”

“Wait, frostbite ? Did you kids get hypothermia or something?” Eda asks.

“Yes. That’s why Luz – that’s why we’re all exhausted. I don’t know exactly how the curse’s hypothermia works, but it’s dangerous.”

“Is Luz gonna be okay?” King pipes up timidly.

Amity stiffens, tightly gripping the hem of her shirt. “Yes… I think? She needs rest,” She tries to sound collected but her voice wavers, uncertainty slipping through the seams.

“If I may,” Yuta interrupts, garnering the attention from everyone in the cave. “I might be able to explain the curse a little clearer…?”

Amity nods slowly, hoping her eyes depict a silent thanks. As Yuta continues where Amity left off, she finds herself tuning out the conversation, instead fixing her gaze onto the small flame burning in the middle of the cave.

As much as she appreciates the help of the sorcerers, she can’t help but wonder where all this… came from. At first, she had assumed her previous uncaring of anything human-related before she met Luz was the reason she never heard of such a thing as “cursed spirits” in the human realm, but considering Luz had no idea either, it struck her as incredibly odd and almost suspicious. Not only that, but why can witches and sorcerers see them, but not regular humans? For a second, Amity’s heart stops at the chance that this is all one huge trick – but that wouldn’t make much sense, either. Luz trusts them to some degree; but if her recklessness with the curse was anything to go by, her judgment can be flawed at times. The witch stifles a frustrated groan, instead pinching her temple and closing her eyes in a futile attempt to collect her thoughts.

“Hey,” she hears a voice mutter. She looks up to see Megumi squatting down in front of her, holding a plate of cooked mountain goat. “Your food.”

“What?” She looks around, noticing that the rest of the group had moved on to eating. Yuuji sits on one side of the entrance; Inumaki had already woken up and was healed, sitting on the right-side cave wall with Yuta and Maki. Eda, Lilith, and Hooty hang out far to the left, everyone having broken off into their own conversations.

“Oh, thanks…” Amity stiffly accepts the plate. Her tone was strained, still resentful towards the sorcerer for what happened at the domain.

“Sorry about walking in on you two,” he states, looking back and forth between the two girls.

“Really? That’s what you’re apologizing for?” She hisses, staring daggers down at her food.

“What else…?” Megumi pauses before the realization hits him. “Ah.”

“Yeah.”

After a terse moment of silence, he adds, “Sorry about that too.”

Amity doesn’t respond, snatching the cooked mountain goat by the bone and sinking her fangs into it. Megumi, thankfully, leaves wordlessly, walking back to his original spot next to Yuuji.

“These sorcerers, I swear…” she mumbles, chewing her food. Although it’s only been a while since she hasn’t talked to Luz, she already misses her presence, finding it cumbersome to have nobody to confide her thoughts to at the moment. There is Lilith, her previous mentor, but she’s busy talking to the bird tube at the other side of the cave.

Amity takes a deep breath, turning her head towards Luz. She might as well let her emotions out, even though the human wouldn’t hear. 

“You’re such an idiot, you know that?” She chuckles, keeping her voice at a whisper. “I can’t believe you just started fighting without thinking.” Amity pauses, a lump forming at the back of her throat. She quickly swallows down. “You really scared me, y’know? And now you’re unconscious, so I can’t even say it to your face.”

“Geez, sorry, the hell did I do?”

Amity jolts, whirling her head around to look for the source of the voice. Oh . 

Nobara had been sleeping to her right, eyes now fluttering open with confusion. 

Embarrassment churning in her stomach, she quickly attempts to diffuse the situation. “Sorry, that wasn’t – I wasn’t talking to you. I was talking to Luz,” she points a thumb to her girlfriend, who’s unfortunately still asleep.

“Oh,” Nobara slowly sits up, still groggy and dazed. “Nevermind then. What happened since I was out?”

“A…. lot. But we defeated the curse,” Amity replies, placing her plate onto the stone ground.

“Oh my god, is that meat? I haven’t had that in forever, ” the sorcerer rubs her eyes, becoming more aware of her surroundings.

“Kugisaki, you’re awake!” Yuuji exclaims, loud enough for everyone else to hear. 

“Salmon cod roe,” Inumaki gives a peace sign.

“Are you okay, Kugisaki?” Yuta asks, pausing from eating his food.

“Guys, chill out! Give a girl some time to adjust,” Nobara retorts, rolling her eyes. “But yeah, I’m fine. Can someone give me some of that?”

Maki grabs a drumstick and waves it in front of her. Nobara doesn’t wait a second to snatch it, devouring it aggressively while everyone else returns to their own conversations.

All that leaves is Luz, who still hasn’t woken up yet. Amity furrows her eyebrows and frowns. Luz deserves rest, especially after everything that’s happened, but still…

“Waiting on her?” Nobara questions, somehow already finished with the food.

Amity nods lightly.

“Hm… Did Fushiguro apologize for interrupting you two yet?” She adds, putting her hands behind her head and lounging against a box.

“Yeah. Horribly, but yeah. Titan, humans are so complicated for no reason. No offense.”

“Eh, none taken,” she grins. “You know, you’re not so different from him.”

“ What? ” Amity snarls, ears slanting down. “After he prioritized a curse over Luz? Absolutely not!”

“Hey, c’mon, he’s not the devil or anything,” Nobara titters. “He’s a good guy at heart, actually. He’s just trying to look out for the people closest to him.”

“Yeah, well, that doesn’t excuse it.”

“Wouldn’t you do the same for her?” She motions to the sleeping human. “If it were between defeating something that might harm her, or saving someone you just met, which would you do?”

Amity pauses, her mouth opening and closing as she tries to form a response. As much as she wants to believe she wouldn’t abandon someone else, a tiny, selfish part of her knows she would treat her girlfriend as more important. “You have a point, I suppose…”

Nobara hums. “You really care about her, huh? Actually, you act a lot sappier around her, too.”

“Oh,” Amity blushes, looking away. “I mean… she does bring out that side of me. She’s made me a better person overall.”

“I dunno…” Nobara begins. “I think you’re better when you’re snappy.” She playfully nudges her shoulder, causing the witch to chuckle.

“Anyways,” the sorcerer continues, “Cut Fushiguro some slack, yeah? He’s trying his best.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Amity responds, glancing over to see Megumi in deep conversation with Yuuji. She wonders if they’re close. “I’m gonna go talk to him so we’re not left on bad terms.”

“Cool! I’ll let you know if your sleeping beauty awakes from her slumber,” Nobara chortles.

Amity shoots her a smirk, getting up and walking around the fire to stand in front of Yuuji and Megumi. The two look up when they notice her presence.

The witch fiddles with her hair, unsure of how to begin. “Uh… Fushiguro, can we talk for a second? Like, privately.”

Megumi blinks at her, standing up. “...Sure.” He glances down at Yuuji. “Excuse me for a moment.” 

Yuuji nods, smiling warmly. 

The other two walk into the cave hallway. A stretch of silence hangs in the air before Amity blurts, “I accept your apology. And I’m sorry for acting cold.”

“Oh – It’s fine.”

Well, that went easier than I expected. Amity feels awkwardness beginning to permeate the ambience, and contemplates if they should head back into the cave or if she should say anything else. She decides on the latter.

“I just – I care about Luz a lot. As you, uh, have seen.”

Megumi stares at her blankly. “Yeah...”

“I guess I didn’t consider how protective you were with your own friends.”

“Again, it’s fine,” Megumi hums. “Your reaction is justified.” He’s staring at Yuuji.

“Sorry if I misunderstand, but are you two really close?”

“Hm?”

“You and Itadori.”

“Oh… uh,” Megumi puts his hands in his pockets. “Sort of.”

“It’s nice having someone special in your life, isn’t it?”

The sorcerer nods, shifting his feet. “Yeah. Even though he’s annoying at times.”

“I get what you mean,” Amity chuckles. “Not that Luz is, but I thought she was when I first met her.”

“Really?”

“Really. I couldn’t stand her. But, I was a complete mess too, so.”

“I see. I’d say being a Jujutsu Sorcerer makes some of us act like a mess as well.”

Amity pauses. What exactly does being a ‘Jujutsu Sorcerer’ even entail? She can’t help but feel her inner questions bubble up again, and decides to change the subject in search of answers.

“Can I be honest? I don’t really get this… this Jujutsu stuff you guys keep spewing about,” she splutters, bringing her hand up to massage her temple. “From what I know, humans don’t have any magical abilities, but here you are…!”

Megumi falters for a moment. “Yeah… no, most humans don’t have any abilities. It’s actually pretty rare.”

“Yet there’s a whole group of you,” she interjects, sighing. “Listen, all I want is clarification to what you guys actually are. You don’t seem to be like regular people.”

“Like what we said before, we’re Jujutsu Sorcerers. Our purpose is to defeat curses and protect humanity, that’s all.”

“That doesn’t really explain anything!” Amity exasperates, snapping her head up to meet Megumi’s gaze. “Sure, I get that you’re sorcerers… but if you’re ‘protecting humanity,’ why didn’t Luz, another human , know about you?”

“We do our work in secret. If she doesn’t know, then that means we’re doing a good job,” Megumi answers monotonously.

“But that doesn’t…” Her voice dies down, staring at the wall beside Megumi. “Y’know what? Nevermind, you’re not the best at small talk. Or giving straight answers in general.”

“Like you’re any better…” Megumi mutters, glancing up at the cave’s ceiling. “Your questions aren’t clear in the slightest.”

“Excuse me?”

“Hey! Do you know when Luz is waking up?” A squeaky voice asks. Amity looks down to see King standing at her feet, patting her knee to get her attention – how did that demon even sneak up to them unnoticed?

“King, I told you not to interrupt them, they could be talking about something serious!” Yuuji jogs over, swiftly picking King up so they’re face to face.

“Hey, put me down this instant!” King commands.

“Aw, don’t you like the view from up here?” Yuuji throws King into the air and catches him like a newborn baby.

“I’m not a little kid!” King fumes, thrashing around Yuuji’s hold.

While Megumi silently watches, Amity can’t help but let out a few giggles. She summons her scroll, opening her camera and recording the debacle.

“Hey, cupcake girl, stop laughing and help me!” The little demon snaps. “But I will admit that it’s nice feeling taller than all you simpletons for once.”

“Drop him,” Megumi deadpans.

“His poor tiny legs can’t handle a fall from that height! Here,” Yuuji props King up on his head. 

“Hmph. This will do, I guess,” King crosses his arms, though his tail is wagging. “Hey, edgy kid, what about that portal you promised?” 

“Huh?” Megumi glances at him questioningly. “Oh. I don’t have one.”

“What!? Your pinky promise was a ruse!”

“I said I might have a portal, not that I do .”

“Yo,” Nobara’s voice echoes through the cave’s hallway. “You guys done bickering? Your friend woke up.”

“Luz!” Amity exclaims, unsummoning her scroll and rushing over back to the main area of the hideout. 

“C’mon, steed, take me over to the other human,” King orders, patting Yuuji’s head. The sorcerer laughs, following Amity and Megumi.

Luz is sitting cross-legged on the other side of the cave, her cheeks stuffed with food. Even with the fire paired with sunlight streaming into the cave, the human manages to feel like the brightest in the cave. She waves with her half-eaten food, exulting out a muffled, “Hey guys!”

Amity goes to sit down in front of her, shoulders relaxing. She hadn’t realized it beforehand, but she’d been incredibly tense until now. “Don’t talk with your mouth full, stupid,” she teases. 

She considers sparking up a conversation about Luz’s actions from before, but decides to leave that for later – after all, the girl just woke up after getting horribly injured, the least Amity can do is let her have a content moment.

Luz swallows, shoving her plate to the side. “Did ‘ya miss me?”

Amity grins, wrapping her arms around the human. “Of course – I’m so glad you’re alright!”

“Look at those two love birds,” Eda snorts, whispering over to Lilith and Hooty on the log sitting near the fire.

“Luz! You’ve been gone for so long, I had to use this blockhead as a replacement!” King declares, still sitting atop Yuuji’s head, who’s standing a few feet away.

“What – replacement ? I thought we were friends!” Yuuji cries, scrunching his face up when King’s collar medallion dangles in front of his eye.

The second years snicker in the background, while Nobara views the scene with an amused smile. 

“Oh, wait, I forgot! You’re my minion !” King recalls, tapping his chin.

“Hey! This is so unfair,” Yuuji retorts. He picks King up off his head, holding him by the shoulders and placing him on the ground. “Fine, go talk to your ‘original’ friend, then,” the sorcerer huffs.

King scurries over to Luz, jumping into her arms and giggling as he’s greeted by a bunch of kisses on the forehead. 

“As much as I’d hate to interrupt this,” Lilith begins, “We don't have much time before the Day of Unity, and we still have no plan.”

“We can never catch a break…” Nobara sighs.

A silence falls over the cave. Lilith is right. 

Judging from the battle with the ice curse, defeating Belos should be a piece of cake for this group. Still, they need a way to get to him… Amity’s ears perk up, an idea striking her mind. There’s something she noticed about the abominations the coven scouts used on the day Gus’ illusion went haywire over the entire school – they belonged to her parents.

“We should begin by stopping the Blight Industries factory,” she suggests, causing everyone to look at her.

“The ones owned by your snobby rich parents?” Eda questions snarkily.

“Yes. Their abominations have been helping Belos. If we find a way to let them know about the draining spell, or tear the factory down, it’ll hinder his plans. From there, we can think of a way to find Belos and stop him directly.”

The owl lady nods. “Sounds like a plan. Sort of.”

“...We still need to find out where the ice curse came from,” Megumi interjects. “I have a feeling that’s not going to be the only curse we come across.”

Before further discussion can be made, Amity jostles as a sound erupts from outside the cave.

“What was –” Luz begins to ask before getting cut off by Eda.

“Everyone get in a defensive position,” Eda lowers her voice. “Someone activated the booby trap.”

Chapter Text

Hearing those words escape Eda’s mouth, Luz’s eyes widen. Barely an hour has gone by since their last fight, and as she looks around, none of them are eager for another to occur. Eda hurries towards the entrance with Lillith, their palismen trailing behind.

“I’ll go check too,” Yuta announces, reaching out for his katana. “Just in case.”

Luz gets up, about to offer to join when she feels a palm wrap around her hand and tug her backwards.

“Wait until they confirm it’s safe,” Amity warns.

“What? I can protect myself…” Luz retorts.

“You just recovered, you shouldn’t endanger yourself,” the witch murmurs, meeting her gaze. 

“Whatever it is, Okkotsu can probably take care of it, so you should listen to your girlfriend,” Nobara chimes in.

Luz looks between the two of them, and after a second of hesitance, sits back down next to Amity, who sends her a small smile. She responds by giving her hand a light squeeze, then turning towards the cave entrance as she collects her thoughts. The human can’t help but wince when the memory of being thrown off the ice curse – and needing to be saved by her friends – pops up. Guilt swirls hot in her stomach, and she shifts her eyes to the ground, tracing the little shapes and bumps in the stone with her finger.

“Wow, that’s the first time I heard you compliment Okkostu, Kugisaki,” Yuuji teases.

“Shut it,” Nobara snaps, shooting a glare at him. “You know very well –”

“No, you guys are not going to start anything, alright?” Maki interrupts.

“Salmon, tuna mayo.”

Amity tucks a strand of hair behind Luz’s ear, and whispers, “They’re always bickering, huh?”

Luz chuckles and nods, glancing at the sorcerers. Her smile falls as something else begins to gnaw at her mind; the fact that humans with powers genuinely exist. Humans don’t have bile sacs attached to their hearts used to perform magic like witches do, but a path to Luz’s dreams opened up when she had discovered glyphs – a way of gaining those skills in her own, unique way. When she heard of the sorcerers, the first thing that occupied her mind was curiosity and admiration over their abilities, albeit over time, they made Luz’s own capabilities seem weak in comparison. And when she had tried to utilize hers, it backfired and caused the rest more trouble than benefit. What did that say about the girl’s personal ambitions? What did that say about her efforts over the past few months, about her entire newfound purpose?

“Ow – Luz!” Amity hisses. Luz’s head snaps upwards, looking at Amity in alarm, who points at their intertwined fingers. “You’re squeezing my hand too hard.”

“Oh! Sorry, sorry!” Luz slips her hand away and folds them over her lap.

“It’s fine… are you alright?”

“Mustard leaf?” Inumaki adds, seeming to have tuned out the other sorcerers’ conversations.

“Yeah I – I am,” Luz plasters a grin on her face.

“Bonito flakes.”

“That wasn’t very… convincing,” Amity chides. “What’s wrong? You can tell me.”

“It’s nothing important, really,” the girl assures, avoiding her gaze. 

“Luz –”

“Good news, kids! We’re not being attacked,” Eda announces, striding into the cave. Luz breathes out a sigh of relief, thankful for the interruption. Behind her, Lilith and Yuta follow. With them is a brunette witch with a horn sticking out the right side of his forehead, donning a yellow shirt with the word “ STEVE ” across it. 

“Who’s that?” Nobara questions.

“Former Coven Scout, and member of a secret group trying to overthrow the emperor!” The mysterious man laughs. “But just call me Steve.”

“Wait… group to overthrow the emperor?” Luz speaks up. She hadn’t considered that possibility before – everyone on the Isles seemed so adamant on betting all their trust on Emperor Belos. 

“Huh, nice. The more the merrier,” Maki grins, stretching her legs out. 

“And,” Eda continues, lips pulling up into a smirk, “They have a plan to stop the emperor. Sort of.”

“That’s great and all, but…” Amity furrows her eyebrows. “Does that interfere with what we were about to do?”

“Well, I was thinking that Lilith, Hooty, King and I can go check out the group,” Eda explains. “Since you sorcerers seem pretty capable of not getting torn to pieces, the rest of you can go to the factory and do your little shenanigans.”

“I wanna go with Luz!” King suddenly pipes up, earning a confused expression from Eda.

“You’d be safer if you came with us.”

“C’mon, I haven’t seen her in forever! And I’m sure these guys can protect me well, right?”

Eda taps her chin. “Alright… we can talk this over in a sec. First we gotta establish when we’re leaving and where we’re gonna meet up after.”

“Okay, wait,” Megumi interrupts, crossing his arms. “This is… sudden. How are we sure this guy is trustworthy, exactly?”

“I know Steve pretty well,” Lilith reassures. “Besides, the guy’s been pushed around by Belos the whole time, I think he’s ready for a change.”

“Yeah… I never understood his whole titan spiel anyways,” Steve mutters.

“Plus,” Eda begins, “I think this relates to another rebellion group I know of.”

Megumi narrows his eyes, “But –”

“It’s alright, Fushiguro,” Yuta interrupts. “I don’t see any ill intentions from him, and if he does do something, we can always make him regret it.”

“Hey man, no need for threats alright? I won’t betray you or anything,” Steve affirms, lifting his hands up in the air.

“Alright…” Megumi sighs.

Luz has to take a moment to absorb all the conversations being thrown about in front of her. Everything is suddenly moving so… fast. She feels the urge to fidget with something, taking out her pen and clicking it a few times. What’s a useful thing she can do here that won’t automatically backfire? She stares at her writing utensil, and eventually offers, “I can mark up the map of the Boiling Isles real quick.”

“What? Why?” King asks, looking up at her.

“Sounds like a good idea,” Yuta smiles. “It will help us plan more clearly.”

“Salmon, salmon,” Inumaki agrees, holding his thumb up.

With that, Yuta reaches over into the crate behind him, taking out and sliding the map over to Luz. She notes the locations of the little x’s scattered about, wondering what they’re for. Paying attention to small details like that momentarily shifts her attention away from the situation and the continued conversation of the others – she should be alert, she knows that, but her brain feels so fried from everything going on that drifting off is simply too easy. However, Luz immediately scolds herself internally, shaking her head and lifting her pen up. She draws a little circle around the Knee and the factory, displaying a clear path of where she and the sorcerers need to go.

“Fuck off!” A voice snarls from across the cave. Luz looks up to see that it came from Yuuji, who now slaps his hands over his mouth as though he didn’t mean to say that out loud.

Everyone’s discussions halt, heads turning towards the embarrassed sorcerer.

“Something wrong…?” Megumi asks tentatively. He must be as concerned as Luz.

“Sorry, that – ignore that,” Yuuji stammers, looking at the wall. Luz furrows her eyebrows, contemplating if she should ask him if he’s alright. The other sorcerers seem to move on, Yuta hastily saying something to continue the previous discussion. After a moment, she shelves that concern for later, returning to her task at hand.

“You should point out where Coven Scouts would most likely be stationed,” Amity suggests softly, placing her nail over the factory location.

“Yeah…” Luz mumbles. “Where do you think they’d be?”

“I’d say around these places,” she points, fingernails sliding across the paper to different spots as Luz marks them up. It’s a simple gesture, and a crucial piece of information for the group to be aware of, but the way the witch talks so soothingly makes Luz feel at ease despite their predicaments. 

After a few minutes pass by, voices bouncing around the cave as discussions are yet to end, Luz and Amity finally finish marking up the map. Luz bites the end of her pen softly, playing over the string of events in her mind. Go to the factory, confront Amity’s parents, stop abominations, meet up with Eda and the others. It’s a decent plan, and considering all the sorcerers’ abilities combined, there shouldn’t be much issue combat-wise. Still… she feels unsure. Which, of course, harbors some confusion. She’s used to jumping into things impulsively. So why is anxiety digging its claws into her brain so hard? Is it because of the ice curse? Is something like that really enough to knock down her morale?

“Not to interrupt, but…” Nobara begins, causing the couple to lift their heads. “Is your little, uh, friend, related to the island thing?”

“What?” Luz tilts her head. “What little friend?”

“The… dog with the skull.” 

The mention causes King to face her as well, tail swaying behind him. “My name is King!”

“Yeah, King. He a part of the Boiling Isles or something?”

“What makes you say that…?” Amity looks between Nobara and King.

“It’s just that the head looks exactly like his skull,” Nobara points out curtly. 

Luz peeks at the little demon, and then down at the map. She’s right. The head looks identical, almost.

“I doubt that means anything, King is a…” Luz trails off. They don’t know what species King is. A chill runs down her spine, and she meets Amity’s gaze, the possibility settling in on both of them.

“We haven’t figured out what I am… Hooty did a ton of tests, and, heck, took a whole pint of blood outta me and examined it, and still found nothing!” King whines, looking away.

“What color was the blood?” Amity demands.

“Uh… blue.”

“ Oh my Titan, ” she breathes, staring at the little demon.

“Did I just cause a whole revelation…?” Nobara mutters.

Luz’s eyes widen along with King’s. Holy shit, that changes… everything. She glances at the others, who are still conversing. She has to tell Eda – but she isn’t sure if she has time to talk privately right now. Besides, it’s still technically a guess, even if it’s a well supported one.

“Hey – you guys done yet?” Steve calls out. “Not to rush you or anything, but my leader’s probably waiting for updates.”

“Yes,” Amity replies. The talks die down, attention shifting onto her. “The map’s done. We should start moving.”

“What about…” Luz begins. 

“We can tell her after the mission,” Amity whispers.  “I don’t think now is a good time.”

Luz nods slowly. Amity takes a photo of the map with her scroll, picking it up and walking over to give it to Eda. 

“We’ll meet up back here afterwards. Are you guys ready to go?” Amity turns to the other sorcerers.

“Yeah,” Yuta responds, stretching his arms out.

“Wait – I’m coming with you, right?” King asks, tapping Luz’s knee.

“You would be pretty helpful… those abominations don’t stand a chance against your colossal soundwaves,” Luz chuckles, picking him up. “Is it okay if he does?” She looks to Eda for reassurance.

Eda sighs. “How did I manage to raise my children to be so stubborn? Sure, alright, but he better stay close to you. I don’t want to hear news of my kids getting ripped into shreds.”

“Ay ay, captain!” Luz beams.

✽

“Sad how panicked these losers are, huh?” Sukuna snickers in Yuuji’s mind. 

Yuuji ignores his comment, trying his best to focus on the conversation between the sorcerers and Eda while Luz and Amity mark the map.

“I would’ve been able to beat the hell out of that ice curse if I wanted to.”

“Will you shut up already?” Yuuji snaps in his head. “I don’t have time for your yapping.”

“You’re just mad that I’m telling the truth. You lot don’t stand a chance against a real threat.”

“We did just fine,” Yuuji retorts. “Don’t you have anything else to do?”

“Yeah. But pissing you off is far more amusing.”

“Fuck off!” Yuuji seethes, slapping his palms over his mouth the second he realizes it came out aloud. Everyone stops talking, eyes bearing into his skull, and he winces. Sukuna’s laugh echoes in his head, and Yuuji desperately wishes he could slap that dumb curse in the face.

“Something wrong?” Megumi mutters. Yuuji wonders if there’s a warning within that question, as if telling him to keep the curse under control. 

“Sorry, that – ignore that,” Yuuji pleads, cowering and shifting his gaze to the wall. Megumi stares in his direction for a few more seconds.

“Let’s get back on topic,” Yuta suggests hurriedly. “What were you saying, Steve?”

With that, the dialogues resume, leaving Yuuji to wallow in his own thoughts again. He clenches his fists, nails digging into his palm, head knotting in tension. 

“Sure would be a shame if all your friends were badly injured, right?” Sukuna teases.

“Don’t even try hurting them.”

“C’mon, why would I do something like that?”

Yuuji doesn’t respond.

He still feels sweat trickle down his face. He’s kept Sukuna at bay, for the most part – but the way the curse acts so confidently makes him uneasy. Sometimes, Yuuji ponders what life would’ve been had he not gotten roped up in any of this. Better, probably. But… meaningless. At the very least, being a sorcerer provides solace in the fact he can help people, that he can be useful to some extent. That he isn’t going to die alone, that his hospital bed wouldn’t be surrounded in stiff air and bright ceiling lights illuminating nothing but the tile floor. Will he ever get that, though? If he can’t keep this curse from murdering everything in his vicinity, his death will still be solitary, instead coveted in the stench of blood and guilt. 

Guilt is such an infuriating feeling.

Sukuna’s laughing from earlier replays in his thoughts, and for a moment, he’s taken back to when the curse and Mahito cackled at his inability to help Junpei. Not only did they make a mockery of him, but guilt tore at his gut. And it sits at the back of his mind, threatening to strike again at any time, to chew every other emotion up until it's the only thing bearing its ugly head the second he messes up. 

He takes a deep, shaky breath. Now is not the time to drown in his own misery. The sorcerers have a job to do, and a home to get back to.

“You ready?” A voice cuts in his train of thought. He looks up to see Nobara twirling her hammer. The others have already left the cave.

“Yeah. Sorry, I was thinking ‘bout some stuff.”

“Don’t sweat it,” Nobara smirks, offering her hand out. Yuuji accepts, standing up and smiling back. They walk through the cave hallway and outside to catch up with the others, the sunlight still spraying across the landscape.

Something feels off, though. Yuuji squints at the sky. 

Is that cursed energy he’s sensing?