The morning sun cut sharp lines across the courtyard as Souten made his way toward the briefing room. His travel cloak stirred slightly in the cool breeze, the faint smell of last night's rain still hanging in the air.
Inside, Maki, Panda, and Toge were already gathered. Panda leaned against the wall, casually tossing a rubber ball from hand to hand. Maki stood with her arms crossed, katana resting by her side, watching the door with her usual sharp gaze. Toge scribbled in a notepad, glancing up just long enough to give Souten a slight nod.
At the front of the room, Gojo Satoru lounged across a chair, spinning a marker between his fingers, sunglasses catching the morning light.
"Morning, my adorable students!" Gojo called, flashing a wide grin. "Hope you all got your beauty sleep, because today's assignment isn't exactly a walk in the park."
Souten joined the others, standing quietly as the room settled.
"We're sending you to a village about three hours outside Tokyo," Gojo continued, voice still casual but laced with something sharper. "Cursed activity's been reported—real party crashers. Oh, and bonus round: there's a Sukuna Finger involved."
The shift in the room was immediate.
Even Panda stopped tossing the ball. Maki's eyes narrowed. Toge's pen froze above his notepad.
"The mission's simple," Gojo said, leaning precariously back in his chair. "Retrieve the Finger. Squash any minor curses if you find them."
He twirled the marker once more and caught it neatly.
"But—and this is a big but—if some curse already had a snack and turned into a Finger Bearer, you run. Fast. No playing hero."
The weight behind his words cut through the casual tone.
"Why isn't Yuta coming?" Panda asked, frowning.
Gojo's grin widened. "Because the higher-ups are collectively losing their minds about the idea of Rika getting a whiff of Sukuna's leftovers."
He gave a lazy shrug. "And Yuta agreed. Sometimes knowing when to sit out is a kind of strength too."
Maki grunted softly. "So it's just us."
"It's just you," Gojo said, his grin flashing again. "But hey, no pressure!"
His expression sobered just a fraction, the air around him tightening.
"Listen, kids," he said, voice dipping lower. "A Finger Bearer isn't some big bad you fight because you're feeling lucky. They're walking calamities wrapped in cursed energy."
For a moment, something colder and deadlier flickered behind his shades.
"If you run into one, your only job is to survive. Live first. Fight another day."
Souten nodded sharply, though unease twisted in his gut.
"Good!" Gojo clapped his hands together, the sharp sound breaking the tension. "Ijichi's outside with the world's most boring sedan. Try not to fall asleep on the way."
As they filed out, Gojo's voice drifted lazily after them:
"Live today. Raise hell tomorrow. And for the love of everything, don't die doing something stupid."
Souten didn't look back. He tightened his grip on his bag and stepped out into the waiting dawn, the weight of the assignment settling on his shoulders.
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The drive out of Tokyo started quiet, the low hum of the engine blending with the fading noise of the city behind them. As the high-rises gave way to scattered houses and open fields, a heavy silence settled over the car like a thick blanket.
Ijichi sat stiffly at the wheel, his hands locked at ten and two, his eyes glued to the road as if looking anywhere else might make the situation more real.
In the cramped backseat, Panda had somehow managed to wedge himself between Maki and Toge, his massive frame taking up more space than he should have. Souten rode up front, his bag tucked at his feet, hands resting lightly on his knees.
Panda tapped his claws rhythmically against the door, breaking the silence with a grumble. "Man, couldn't we at least get a cooler car? Something with, y'know, a little soul?"
Maki shot him a sideways glance, unimpressed. "It's a mission, not a joyride."
Toge, wedged beside Panda, scribbled something on a notepad and held it up:
"I think we make a great Togefish sandwich"
Souten caught a faint smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. Even now, Toge was trying to ease the tension, to pull the group's mood up even if only a little.
Outside, the neat order of the suburbs blurred into the wild tangle of the countryside. Trees lined the road in dense clusters, their bare branches scratching at the overcast sky. The light had dulled to a washed-out gray, and the air felt colder, heavier, as they moved further from the city's warmth.
Souten turned his gaze to the window, watching the world pass by in a monotone blur. Gojo's words echoed in his mind, sharper now with the distance from home.
A Sukuna Finger. A Finger Bearer.
It wasn't about skill. It wasn't even about courage.
It was about surviving something built to kill sorcerers like them.
Maki broke the silence, her voice as steady as ever. "Once we get there, we move fast. Locate the Finger. Clear any smaller curses. No heroics."
Panda gave a noncommittal grunt. "And if there's already a Finger Bearer?"
Maki's fingers tightened on the hilt of her katana. "Then we follow orders."
But even she didn't sound fully convinced.
Souten shifted slightly, feeling the comforting weight of the old seal hidden inside his sleeve—the last gift from his father.
Trust in others. Protect when you can. Fight when you must.
He closed his eyes briefly, steadying the rhythm of his breathing, feeling the tension coil through his body like a taut wire.
One way or another, today would test more than just their strength.
It would test their resolve.
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The car rumbled to a stop near the outskirts of an abandoned shrine complex. The buildings, once vibrant with color and prayer, now sagged under the weight of decay—broken statues leaning like wounded sentinels, moss clawing up crumbling stone steps. The cursed energy was suffocating here, thick and stagnant, sinking into their skin with every breath.
Souten was the first to step out, boots crunching against gravel. The air was damp and sour, tinged with the sharp bite of something metallic, like blood left too long in the sun.
"No civilians around," Panda said, sniffing the air and wrinkling his nose. "But the cursed energy... it's nasty."
"Worse than I expected," Souten muttered, tightening the strap on her weapon.
Toge stepped beside them, scribbling quickly on his notepad before flashing it to the group:
"I think the Finger is gone."
Souten nodded grimly. They could all feel it now—a deep, resonant malice thrumming beneath their feet, bleeding into the stones and trees.
They moved cautiously toward the main shrine. Its wooden doors hung open on broken hinges, creaking in the light breeze. Inside, where the Sukuna Finger should have been sealed, they found only an empty pedestal—and the faint, sickly-sweet stench of old blood.
Souten's stomach twisted. Something about the emptiness felt wrong. Violent.
"We're too late," Maki said, her voice flat but tight.
A sudden pulse of cursed energy rolled through the ground, sharper, more violent. Souten's head snapped eastward, instincts kicking in before thought.
Beyond the treeline, far in the distance, something stirred—something massive, something radiating hatred so pure it was almost suffocating.
Maki's eyes narrowed. "There's a village that way."
Panda clenched his fists, cursed energy prickling around his form. "It's heading straight for them."
For a heartbeat, no one moved.
Gojo's words echoed in their minds: If you run into a Finger Bearer, you retreat.
But retreat would mean letting that thing reach innocent people. People who didn't even know they were about to die.
Souten's gaze swept across his teammates. Maki's jaw was tight with restrained anger. Panda's easygoing demeanor had vanished, replaced by grim focus. Toge's knuckles were white as he clutched his notepad.
No one needed to speak.
They already knew.
Souten clenched his fists, feeling his cursed energy thrumming under his skin, steady and burning.
They would fight.
Not because they were ordered to.
But because it was the only choice their hearts could accept.
Without hesitation, they broke into a sprint toward the surging wave of cursed energy, the weight of their decision anchoring every step heavier than the last.
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They found the Finger Bearer in a clearing not far from the shrine—a twisted, grotesque thing stitched together from layers of curses, human-like only in the vaguest sense. Its limbs were too long, twisted at unnatural angles, and its body pulsed with raw, unstable cursed energy. One of its hands still bore the grotesque remnants of the Sukuna Finger it had devoured, fused grotesquely into its form.
The cursed spirit turned toward them, maw stretching into a grotesque grin, its eyes gleaming with a feral, hateful intelligence that made Souten's stomach knot.
"There it is," Panda muttered, lowering himself into a ready stance, his usually light tone sharpened with tension.
Maki drew her blade in a fluid, practiced motion, the air around her crackling faintly with her cursed energy.
Toge stepped forward, voice low but commanding. "Crumble."
The ground beneath the Finger Bearer shuddered violently, cracks spider-webbing out as Toge's cursed speech sent the creature staggering, its footing thrown into chaos.
Souten didn't hesitate. He surged forward, cursed energy flaring along his arms. Haganen and Kazuki shimmered into view for a brief moment, flanking him like silent sentinels.
With precision born of instinct and training, Souten slammed Black Ledger's sigils into the creature's flesh—this time a binding formation designed to paralyze, to cage.
The Finger Bearer snarled, struggling, but its limbs seized and locked under the pressure of the marks.
"Now!" Souten barked.
Maki and Panda moved instantly, their timing flawless.
Maki sprang high, bringing her blade down in a brutal arc aimed for the creature's shoulder. The blade sank deep, carving through cursed flesh with a crack of force.
Almost simultaneously, Panda launched from the opposite side, his massive form descending like a hammer. His fist crashed into the creature's skull with a sickening crunch, sending tremors through the earth.
The combined assault drove the Finger Bearer to its knees, stunned and vulnerable.
Toge seized the moment, his voice slicing through the air: "Stand still!"
The Black Ledger marks Souten had placed flared violently, amplifying the cursed command. A heartbeat later, a roaring explosion of cursed energy tore through the clearing. The blast swallowed the Finger Bearer, ripping apart the ground and sending shards of debris raining into the trees.
For a long, breathless moment, there was only silence—the kind so heavy it smothered even the sound of their own heartbeats.
Souten coughed, shielding his face with one arm as the dust began to settle. Every muscle in his body screamed to stay ready, to move, to react.
"Did we get it?" Panda asked, voice low, uncertain.
Through the thinning haze, they could see the crater where the Finger Bearer had stood. Its body lay sprawled and broken, the cursed energy leaking from it weakly, dissipating into the air like mist.
Maki didn't lower her sword. Her stance was rigid, sharp.
"Stay sharp," she warned, voice tense.
Souten's heart hammered against his ribs. The cursed energy felt wrong—fading, but not gone. Like something lying in wait.
Still, despite every instinct screaming otherwise, a fragile thread of hope began to wind itself through the space between them.
Maybe—just maybe—they had won.
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The dust hung heavy in the air, swallowing the clearing in a suffocating gray mist.
Panda cautiously stepped forward, peering into the crater. "I think we actually got it," he said, his voice low, almost disbelieving.
Maki didn't move. Her knuckles whitened around her blade, eyes locked on the settling smoke.
Souten's senses screamed at him. The cursed energy wasn't fading—it was shifting. Condensing.
"Wait—" Souten started, but the words barely left his mouth.
A vicious pulse of cursed energy erupted from the crater, and before anyone could react, the rubble exploded outward. A blur of red and black tore through the air.
The Finger Bearer reappeared behind them, faster than their eyes could follow.
Souten barely turned before agony lanced through his right side.
A wet, sickening rip echoed through the clearing.
He was airborne before he registered the pain, the world spinning violently around him.
He hit the ground hard, the impact rattling every bone in his body. Dirt and blood smeared across the ground where he skidded to a stop.
For a split second, he lay there, stunned, breathless.
Then he saw it—
His arm.
Severed cleanly below the shoulder, lying discarded in the dirt, blood pooling fast and dark.
A raw, ragged gasp tore from his throat, and panic surged, hot and dizzying.
Across the field, Panda roared, charging the Finger Bearer with reckless strength. Maki moved almost simultaneously, her blade gleaming, but the creature twisted away, its movements a blur of savage speed.
Toge's voice cracked through the chaos, sharp and commanding—"Collapse!"—but the strain was clear.
Blood trickled from the corner of Toge's mouth, his body trembling under the effort of trying to restrain something so monstrous.
The Finger Bearer snarled, its form grotesquely larger now, cursed energy leaking from it in wild, unstable bursts. Every breath in the clearing felt thick, heavy, poisoned.
Souten groaned, forcing himself onto his knees with his remaining arm. His vision swam—darkness creeping at the edges—but he shoved it down, gritting his teeth until he tasted iron.
He couldn't pass out.
Not now.
His friends needed him.
He staggered upright, blood streaming from his wound, soaking into the dirt at his feet.
The Finger Bearer's malevolent gaze slid from him toward Panda and Toge, sensing weakness, sensing opportunity.
Souten's heartbeat pounded in his ears, each thud screaming the same thing:
Move. Fight. Protect.
Through the blur of pain, through the haze of fear, he stepped forward.
The nightmare had only just begun.
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