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10:45, Harajuku. A young worker stands running a simple ice cream shop, music blasting through their earbuds and head lazily resting on the countertop. 15 minutes till closing is all that rings in their mind.
Despite working their job for years it never seems to stop the sense of boredom that permeates through their entire body. 10:46. 14 minutes till closing. Their heart races in anticipation.
But this story isn’t about them.
10:47. The door to the establishment flies open and slams against the wall. The employee’s head jerks up quickly: only to find there is no customer and the door slowly squeaks closed yet again.
They sigh. Yet then there’s the cold feeling of a hand on their shoulder. A murderous era fills the air as they attempt to make a final cry. It never comes.
“Idle Transfiguration.”
All that remains is a bloody pulp on the floor. And our perspective shifts to the ‘true’ world. Mahito stands behind the counter with a grin on his face, happily leaping over the counter to gaze at the multitude of flavors behind the glass.
“Hmm… I wonder what I should get?”
Hanami and Dagon are seated at the nearby tables, the Nature Disaster Curse turns to the embodiment of human hate with their face as stoic as always. “You’re just going to pick mint chocolate chip like you always do. Why bother pretending to pick another flavor?”
Hanami is unusually understandable today. Mahito laughs, stretching his soul to grab a nearby ice cream scoop.
“I may pick another one day, you never know!” Running the scoop along the container with his favorite flavor; Mahito gets a sizable scoop and places it on a transfigured human in the shape of a cone. “Just how I like it.” A cruel grin runs down his face as he takes a lick.
“Bwoo…..” Dagon lets out one of his signature gurgles while staring intensely at the glass, fixated on two key flavors. Noticing this, Hanami gets up and heads over to the counter. They snatch the scoop from Mahito and take out three cones. One for them, one for Dagon, and one for Jogo.
Jogo had to be left outside of course- the group couldn’t have him melting everything inside from his mere presence.
Quickly taking a scoop of mango and a scoop of sea-salt caramel, Hanami uses one of their roots to send the double scoop cone to Dagon. The sea cursed spirit happily takes it. “Hanami….” he cries out their name to thank them. If Hanami had lips, they would surely smile.
Hanami takes a scoop of Vanilla for themselves; nothing else here interested them, like every other parlor they visited in Harajuku. Perhaps there will be something more exciting at the next one.
A high pitched wail emits from Mahito’s cone, and he slaps it to shut it up. After a few seconds of waiting, he deems that the cone is sufficiently silenced; taking a massive bite of his frozen treat with his front teeth. Any normal human would feel uncomfortable but this was simply the way Mahito did things. He wipes a trail of green from his mouth. “When curses reclaim the world, I still hope there’s ice cream. Ooh, maybe there’s an ice cream cursed spirit! What if there’s a disaster curse of ice? Ice cream curse!”
The stitch ridden curse paces back and forth as the other two curses stay silent and wait. It only takes a couple minutes for Mahito to get bored and quickly turn to Dagon and Hanami. “Come on, it’s no fun going out to get ice cream if we don’t talk!”
“Bwoo….Jogo….” Dagon calls out the name of his dear friend out loud, and Mahito sighs; knowing exactly what he means. “Okay, okay. I’ll get Jogo’s flavor.” Kicking the scoop up and into his hand, he quickly pulls out another transfigured human and molds it into another cone. “Three scoops of rocky road with chocolate sprinkles…” For a fire cursed spirit, Jogo sure did love his ice cream, Stacking the scoops on top one at a time, Hanami opens the door for Dagon letting the curse walk outside and enjoy his treat.
“COME ON! HURRY UP!” Jogo’s voice screeches from outside. The glass of the parlor’s window warps from the angry heat bursting from the grumpy curse. “Enough playing around! If you wait too long the ice cream’s gonna melt!” He shakes his fist at no one in particular- before turning his gaze down to Dagon holding his cone. It quickly softens.
“Ah, thank you Dagon. Mahito just always messes around. I’m getting tired of his attitude.” The curse snatches up the cone and shoves it straight into his mouth, gulping with a sigh of relief. He has to eat his ice cream quick or else it’ll melt from his natural heat. Jogo takes a minute to savor the flavor… then suddenly reaching into his throat and pulling out a now magma and spit covered transfigured cone.
The volcano on Jogo’s head rumbles violently, teeth gritted and gaze pointed straight at the duo of Mahito and Hanami exiting the parlor.
“DAMN YOU, MAHITO! YOU SNUCK ANOTHER HUMAN INTO MY ICE CREAM!” The magma contained in his dome bubbles and bursts high into the air– a few stray citizens being caught in the deadly rain and burnt alive. The streets are filled with screams.
“BAHAHAHAHA! YOU FELL FOR IT AGAIN!!!!” Mahito bursts into maniacal laughter as his ally turns the cone into ashes and stomps on it violently while fire rains
upon the populace that just so happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. “Your face! You should see your face!!” Doubling over in laughter, Mahito wipes a tear from his eye while Jogo takes his anger out on the ice cream parlor; using his flames to burn it into nothing.
The streets lie in absolute chaos from Jogo’s meltdown. Dagon sits on a bench and happily licks his remaining ice cream with Hanami standing close by, waiting for Jogo to finally calm down. Charred corpses litter the street and buildings lie half melted from his rampage.
This’ll surely attract sorcerers– but damage control is the job of “Geto.” The volcano on the flame curse’s head finally simmers down, and Mahito is quickly met with a pointed finger at his face.
“Gah! Look what you made me do, Mahito! I should have never brought you along tonight!” Jogo curses at the soul manipulator with another shake of his fist. Mahito chuckles.
“Aww, come on! Lighten up. Killing all those humans to blow off some steam felt great, didn’t it?”
Hanami speaks up. “And you weren’t that upset. You managed to avoid burning any of the decorative flowers around.”
They were right– out of all the carnage the small flowers scattered around the street remain perfectly intact. Jogo attempts to stammer out an excuse before ceasing. “Tch. If I touched them you would have gotten upset, Hanami. I already have Mahito to deal with. I can’t have you in the mix as well.”
Hanami emits something akin to a grotesque chuckle. “Thank you then, Jogo.” They know how much Jogo aims to please his comrades when they’re around. When he’s alone? Not so much. But it’s the thought that counts, especially when humans have done much worse.
Smoke slowly emits from the embarrassed Jogo’s dome. “Don’t thank me. I simply couldn’t take your wrath tonight. Now! Enough talk. Dagon, have you finished? We need to go find another one of Sukuna’s fingers.”
The water curse looks up with its face smeared in ice cream. “Bwoo…Hwoo….” However, rather than that being a yes–”HHRRRRFFF!!!” Dagon releases a torrent of ice cream from his mouth that flows into the street.
Mahito’s laughing fit only intensifies from this sudden torrent of frozen goods. “NO WAY!!! HAHAHAHA! THAT’S SO GROSS!!! HAHA!!” He falls to the ground; pounding his fist in a comical fashion. “YOU ATE ALL THE ICE CREAM BEFORE WE LEFT!!!!”
Hanami pats a huffing and visibly uncomfortable Dagon on the back and looks at the mess coating the street.
“Well, now we can frame this as an explosion at the ice cream parlor.” They set Dagon on their shoulders, turning to Jogo. “Let’s go.”
“I hear you, I hear you! Let’s pick up some seawater for Dagon to gurgle. I don’t want his throat to be full of dairy gunk!” Jogo marches off in a hurry, waving for his comrades to follow. Hanami follows him, Dagon riding on his shoulder with a tired smile.
“Wait for me! Don’t leave me behind!” Mahito quickly scrambles to his feet and jogs after the trio; still cackling to himself.
The sun begins to rise with the four’s departure, the section of Harajuku they paraded around left a wreck. But it’s only right that they get to treat themselves sometimes. They take what they want at the moment, like natural instinct.
A behavior fitting that of the true humans.