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Nobara grinned maniacally as she struck another nail, sending it flying into the head of the pale skinned curse, it's mandibles twitching as it let out a death cry. It was possible that she enjoyed her job too much, but she didn't care. Currently, the first and second years of Jujutsu tech were on a mission at a school that had seen an outbreak of small spider-esque curses. The school had been evacuated, they had been called, Ijichi had put up a veil and now here they were, cleaning up the infestation. Yuuji, panda and Inumaki were running through the building clearing out the curses while Nobara, Megumi and Maki were in the courtyard facing the horde of attacking curses.
Nobara flicked another nail into the air, striking it with her hammer and sending it into another curse, dispatching it easily. She turned, ready to take out the next, when a loud screeching sound drew her attention to the roof. On the roof of the school was another curse, but this one was bigger. It was humanoid, it's body black and tall with four long spider-like limbs sprouting from its back which were holding it up. It had a spuders chelicerae, one on each shoulder and eight eyes, four on its head and four on its chest. The curse stalked across the roof, then jumped off and landed on the ground before letting out another screeching battle cry.
Nobara, Maki and Megumi all started towards the curse, but swarms of the smaller creatures intercepted Nobara and Megumi, forcing the two to engage them first. Maki however, made it to the curse, spinning his glaive before slashing at it. It deflected his blow with one of its long limbs and stabbed at him with another, but Maki simply dodged. The two exchanged blows for a while, all of them blocked or dodged, until Maki's combat prowess showed it's superiority and he slashed part of one of the curse's limbs off. It screeched in agony, withdrawing it's limb. Before it had a chance to recover, Maki delivered a powerful slash, taking its head off. The curse crumpled to the ground, as did all of the smaller ones. It appeared that the smaller curses were merely extensions of the larger one.
Maki turned around and rested his glaive on his shoulder, a smug look on his face. Nobara smiled too, but it soon disappeared as the spider like curse started to get back up. "How is that possible?" Nobara thought to herself. Then it hit her. It's head wasn't its head, merely some kind of antenna for controlling the smaller curses. "Maki, behind you!" Megumi and Nobara shouted together. Realization dawned on Maki, and he spun around, weapon at the ready, but it was too late. The curse struck him across the face, sending his glasses flying. Unable to see it anymore, Maki brought up his glaive in a defensive stance and started backing up. Nobara and Megumi started sprinting to Maki's aid. They saw the curse's fingers form an intricate seal, it was using a domain expansion. Thick strands of what looked like webbing engulfed both Maki and the curse.
Maki found herself standing in what looked like a giant spider web. He held his glaive up across himself in a futile attempt to protect himself. There was silence. His eyes darted around instinctively, despite the fact that his enemy was now invisible to him. The silence dragged on painfully, a few seconds feeling like hours. Suddenly, Maki felt something strike his abdomen, pain started to radiate throughout it as he felt himself being lifted off the ground. It was at this point that Maki realized what had happened, he had been impaled. The curse brought Maki towards itself, and the chelicerae on its shoulders extended, ready to sink its fangs into him,when it was suddenly struck by a piercing pain, spikes emerging from its torso.
"Give him back!" Nobara screamed, striking another nail through her straw doll and into the severed piece of the curses limb, "resonance!" She threw another nail into the air, "resonance!" she shouted almost desperately as she hammered in a third nail. The domain finally released and Nobara was horrified by what she saw, Maki impaled on one of the creatures limbs. It threw her off to the side, the way someone might discarded a used tissue, and screeched at Nobara . She wasn't paying attention to it, she was still staring wide eyed and speechless at Maki's crumpled form, blood beginning to pool at his stomach.
Nobara's blank mind was soon filled by an explosion of red hot rage that engulfed her. She charged the curse, Megumi doing the same, but he would not be getting a chance to do anything. Nobara threw a nail into the air and swung her hammer at it. There was a flash of black light as the hit connected, sending the nail into the course's torso with an insane amount of power. The curse screeched and reeled back, but Nobara already had another nail in the air, she struck it, black light erupting again. The second nail hit just as hard as the first, and the curse collapsed onto the ground. It twitched as it struggled, using all eight of it limbs to try and push itself up. "Hairpin!" Nobara yelled. Explosive energy ripped trough the curse blowing a hole in it's torso, destroying it for good.
Before the curse had even started to vanish, Nobara was running to Maki. She fell to her knees and grabbed him, shaking him. "Maki! Please! Just hang in there!" she yelled, hysterical. Megumi knelt down beside Maki, looking him over. "We need to get him to a hospital, now!" Nobara fumbled for her phone, she pulled it out, but her hand was trembling so much she couldn't even unlock it. She was relieved when she heard the dailing tone from Megumi's phone. It rang for only a few seconds before the call was answered. Megumi's voice was urgent but controlled as he called for an ambulance, the complete opposite of Nobara.
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Nobara stirred, groggily becoming aware of the world as her senses slowly woke up. She groaned as she shifted in her seat. She opened her eyes a crack and winced at the bright artificial light of the hospital, she sat up, her jacket falling off her front. She stretched and rubbed her eyes, she was at least ninety percent awake now. Reaching into her jacket pocket, she pulled out her phone an checked the time, three seventeen. She stood back up and put her jacket back on, looking around as she did up the buttons. Everyone else, apart from Panda of course, was sitting in the waiting area, reading magazines or on their phone. Nobara headed out past the waiting area, looking for a coffee machine.
Nobara put her coins into the machine, standing patiently with her hand on her hip as it despensed a cup and filled it. She took a sip and closed her eyes, savouring the simple yet comforting taste. The past day had been quite a ride, a thrilling battle had turned into a nightmare with Maki been critically injured, followed by hours of Nobara being an anxious mess while he was in surgery, and now waiting, thankfully less anxiously, for him to wake up.
Nobara disposed of her empty cup as she walked back to the waiting room. When she got there, she saw one of the doctors talking to the group. She hurried over, "what's happening?" she asked, her now frantic demeanor bleeding into her voice more than she wanted. "the doctor turned to her, "I was just telling your friends here that your friend is awake," he said kindly, "you can go see him now if you want,"
The group followed the doctor as he showed them to Maki's room. The doctor left as they went in and finally saw Maki. He looked up at them, "hey guys," he said, confidently as ever, as if he hadn't been impaled through the gut. "You gave us quite the scare there," Yuji said, rubbing the back of his neck. "Yeah, you need to be more careful in the future," Megumi said, "you can't show up your family if you're dead," "Cod roe," Inumaki said. Nobara said nothing. "Heh, yeah," Maki laughed, "I guess I gotta be more careful in the future," "So," Megumi began, "Is there anything you need?" "Nah, I'm fine," Maki said, waving his hand dismissively. "Okay then, if you don't need anything, I guess we'll be off then." Megumi said, "We're glad you're okay," he added. They turned and headed out the door, all except Nobara. Yuji turned to her, "Kugisaki, you coming?" he asked. "Just give me a minute," she said vacantly. "Okay," he responded, not inquiring any further before turning and leaving.
There was a few seconds of silence after the door closed. After that, the only sound was the clacking of Nobara's shoes as she walked up to Maki's bed. Nobara just stood next to his bed, arms at her side and face expressionless. Maki started to feel awkward. "So," he began, "I guess I'm going to have a scar, it's gonna be bada-" Nobara's hands came down hard or the railing of the bed, gripping it tightly, "How could you be so careless!" she shouted. "Do you know how worried we were! How stupid are you?" she continued to scream. "Hey, that's not fair" Maki retorted, offended, "It was an honest mistake, how was i supposed to know the curse-" then he saw it, the tears streaming down Nobara's face.
She threw herself against him, wrapping her arms around his chest as she continued to cry. "I was so scared. thought I lost you!" she sobbed. Maki stroked his right hand down the back of her hair, "hey, Nobara," he said gently. Nobara pulled back to look him in the eyes and he repositioned his had so it was cupping her left cheek, wiping away a tear with his thumb. "I'm sorry," he said sincerely. "I'll be more careful in the future. I promise," she smiled a little.
In a flash Nobara leaned in, crashing her lips into his in a passionate kiss. Maki was caught off guard, but as soon as the shock wore off, he returned the kiss, just as deeply. Nobara flicked at Maki's tongue with the tip of her own before retracting it, inviting Maki into her mouth. Maki accepted the invitation and slid his tongue into her mouth. Nobara placed her left hand on his strong chest and gripped his muscular bicep with the other, feeling his muscles and letting out a low moan. Their tongues danced together slowly for a while, before the two finally broke apart, panting and staring into each other's eyes. Nobara rested her forehead against Maki's, and the two both closed their eyes, savoring the moment.
The sound of the door opening snapped them out of their daze. Nobara retreated back and stood next to the bed, blushing furiously. Yuji came into view, "Hey Maki," he said with a wide smile, "I know you said you didn't want anything, but I got you a chocolate bar. I mean, who doesn't love chocolate."