Chapter Text
Brockton Bay, New Hampshire.
A former shipping hub along the eastern seaboard for those not wanting to deal with the bustle of Baltimore and Florida, it is now a corpse of its former glory.
When there is a giant sea monster going around sinking ships for fun, the economy can be like that at times.
It was humid, but nothing that Yuta Okkotsu wasn't used to as he got off the train. The tall young man of Japanese descent had a white sweater with black jeans on as he put on his sunglasses. From what he recalled, many of the Asian demographics in this part of town were under the thrall of some Villain gang called the Azn Bad Boyz. Or ABB for short.
If Gojo-sensei were here, he'd probably mock them for cultural appropriation. In Mr. Miguel's name in all likelihood. Though given that his sensei was in town, there probably wasn't going to be too much craziness from the villains while he's around.
For now though, Yuta's phone buzzed, and he flipped it open.
"Gojo-sensei, what can I do for you?" The black haired man said.
"Awwww still being so formal to me Yuta~. I'm touched~. Just checkin' in on my favorite student!" Satoru Gojo replied on the other side. "Soooo, how was the train ride up from NYC?"
"Fine. Ticket was cheap."
"Good, now, I know this isn't your first rodeo in hunting Cursed Objects." Gojo said. "But, this is a whole different beast you're gonna be tackling." Yuta closed his eyes, recounting the mission that sent him to this city in the first place.
"A cursed finger." Yuta mused.
"Yeah, one of the sellers we have been tracking sold it to some collector in Brockton Bay. You just go find the buyer and, well, buy it from him. Problem is, the buyer may have connection with one of the Villain gangs in the Merchants this, Anthony Reali fellow." Gojo mused, going off the top of his head. "So find Reali, find the Finger. Assuming the Finger hasn't been found by the Heroes first. If it has, then well, have a nice chat while the talks are happening, you know everyone hates to have something explode while they're doing paperwork!"
"And if Reali isn't willing to cooperate?" Yuta asked.
"Well, we are Sorcerer's for a reason. I trust you can be… persuasive. Flex your muscle. Besides, the Bay has a huge amount of crime in it." Yuta looked around as he departed the station, seeing the squalor on the sidewalks as people kept to themselves. He could make out the sight of some gangster down the street, bunch of tattooed Caucasians with, nazi imagery. The third of Brockton's Villain gangs, the Empire 88.
"I can tell." Yuta said as he looked at his watch. 3 in the afternoon. "And if the Finger winds up with one of the Gangs?"
"You'd have all the permission in the world to bust heads my guy, considering the conferences with the Protectorate branch. After all, the Sorcerer Foundation wasn't established just for us to hide in the shadows like the wizards from Harry Potter." Gojo said, smirking like a cat. "Oh! Broadway show's gonna be starting soon, gotta get in line. You get that finger back soon, and maybe I can let Maki off of a mission early~"
Yuta blushed, and he felt the ring he had in his pocket stir. While her spirit maybe gone… Rika's shade wasn't exactly pleased to hear of his teacher's teasing.
"Gojo-Sensei…" Yuta sighed.
"What!? She's been working hard."
The ring twitched in his pocket.
"You're a cruel man, Gojo-sensei." Yuta toned.
"Hehehehehe~"
"I'm going to go hunt for the Finger now." Yuta went into an alleyway to the side, and channeling Cursed Energy, leapt up a Fire escape and parkoured his way to the top, one hand on his phone, the other pulling himself up the steel grader.
"Alrighty, have fun." Gojo said. "Be my guest, be my guest, put our service to the test~" He sang as Yuta rolled his eyes and hung up.
"Alright." Yuta closed his eyes, pulling out his ring from his pocket. "Rika, help me find what I'm looking for." He donned it, and using Copy, he drew upon a Cursed Technique he had encountered while partnered with Miguel in Cabo.
"Radar." He closed his eyes, feeling Rika's embrace from behind as the invisible beast surrounded him, her strong gangly white arms enclosing around.
"Yutaaaa~, those people down there were looking scary at youuuuuu~" Rika, the Queen of Curses, whined. "We should kill theeeem~"
Her spirit is gone, but her shade remained. And its bloody protective instinct with it.
"I know. But they're not in our jurisdiction." Yuta replied. "The Heroes will handle it." Heroes handle the material world, and Sorcerors the Ethereal world. That is how it is.
He focused, as the Cursed Technique activated, the world going monochrome. And from the city, he sensed it. Small flickering black lights. Minor Curse Spirits roaming about, all due to the negative air this city had.
But he sensed one… and it was starting to blaze as Yuta opened his eyes.
"Found it." He picked up his sword, channeled his Cursed Energy and leapt from the top of the building in but a single bound, Rika flying by his side. He rushed, jumping from roof to roof as he focused on the suburbs.
"I sense it Yutaaaa~ Dangerous! Dangerous!"
"It's fine." Yuta urged. "I have you with me." The monstrous eyeless Cursed Spirit let out a 'squee' and a giggle, and calmed down. In a way she was like a clingy dog; give her attention, and she'd be satisfied.
Though, he wasn't exactly satisfied when he landed in an alleyway close to his target. A target that clearly was the last place that he would've liked to find the finger. He hoped it would be a drug den, or some sleazy bar.
That said, what he had heard about American highschools, it might not be far off.
Yuta glanced at the sign.
Winslow High School.
The place was practically bathed in cursed energy, he'd have to get a call from the Foundation and permission from the city to exercise it as soon as he found the finger. Rika's presence was scaring off minor ones, no bigger than crows or cats.
Walking through the front door, he kept his senses open, trying to find the light that marked the cursed object. It wasn't too late in the day, but most of the students would be in their final classes.
"Hey, who are-"
Yuta turned to the voice, a teacher by the looks of him. Bit on the fraying side but well, Yuta didn't have time. His eyes were wide with apprehension, considering Yuta held his clothed sword. The black haired man reached into his pocket and pulled out a badge.
"It's alright sir. My name is Yuta Okkostu," he said in English, displaying the Sorcerer Foundation license.
His name, picture, and rank as a Special Grade Sorcerer were on full display with such authenticity that even a Tinker would be hard pressed to copy it.
Didn't hurt that it was glowing a bit.
The teacher paled instantly at seeing it.
Not surprising, considering the reputation of the two top Special Grades, and that there were only four in the world.
"Wh-what can I do for you Mr. Okkotsu?" the teacher asked.
"You have a Cursed Object on the premises, I need to find it and-"
"YUTA!!!" Rika screamed in his mind.
He felt Radar ping again, greater, and far brighter this time. Without even waiting, Yuta rushed down the hallway in a blur of cursed energy. He moved through halls, around corners, until he saw it.
A group of three girls, stuffing a fourth into a locker.
One of them, a darker skinned girl saw him, her eyes widening in recognition.
The other two didn't, and finished their work.
Stuffing a finger down the throat of a struggling girl with glasses.
Yuta flashed his ring, and poured as much cursed energy as he could into Rika. She appeared, and the two moved as fast as they could.
Rika grabbed the two that were distracted, Yuta grabbed the girl that noticed him.
They got halfway through the hall before the marks appeared on the final girl.
They were able to run out of the door, bursting out of it.
The school exploded.
Yuta felt the biting cursed energy, Rika's form cut up by the explosion of cursed energy, using herself as a shield from the blast. He felt cuts dig into his back as he used Reversed Curse Technique to heal as he rolled along the ground.
And what a blast it was.
The school, or that section of it, lockers and all were gone, the roof blown off and leaving a small hole where the lockers were.
Standing in their place, was the girl.
Black hair turning darker, her form covered in blood, not hers.
But she wasn't just a girl anymore…
Marking were formed, and Yuta spotted… eyes forming on the black haired girl's cheeks.
"W-Wha…I…"
One of the girls that Rika was protecting, a redhead, looked around in surprise.
"What-?"
Yuta didn't answer her, he had to move before the curse that was the brown haired girl did anymore damage.
Rika got to her first, grabbing hold of her with her hands and flying out of the hole that the curse had made. Yuta followed close behind, sword coming out of it's sheath. He lept from the roof of the school onto the street, just as Rika threw the curse onto the sidewalk hard enough to crack it.
It didn't so much as damage the curse as it did the street.
She got up, stretching her shoulder and looking at Yuta as he landed.
"Oh?" What came wasn't the voice of a girl, but of a man. Rank and oily with sadism. "So both times I wake up, I end up finding more of you sorcerers." The possessed one spoke, all four eyes on him.
Yuta didn't answer, blade held at the ready while Rika got behind the possessed. Inhuman eyes flicked between the two, before she tilted her head.
"Well then, aren't you interesting?"
"DIE! DANGER!" Rika roared as she slammed her claw down, and the possessed dodged, leaping away.
Yuta didn't blink, he simply waited.
"You're practically a babe yet you have so much cursed energy!" And the Possessed turned on Yuta, holding his sword in one hand, the other carrying the stunned red haired girl in his other. "Oh? She's bound to you?"
"Release her. Now." Yuta ordered, and the Possessed smirked.
"How about you die with that girl in your arms first, human!" She leapt, and Yuta raised his blade as the red haired girl screamed
The curse had the chance to take to the streets, and given who said curse was….
Only for a massive Eastern Dragon to slam into the girl, the Possessed screaming in pain as the Dragon slammed him into the ground, Yuta's eyes widening.
"Oh Yuta, there you are, I missed you at the conference."
He knew that dragon… or rather, that cursed spirit.
Yuta's head snapped around, and he saw someone he didn't expect.
A man in black monks robes with a green and yellow overcoat smiled at the other sorcerer. He was eating a thing of Lay's Potato chips casually, looking between the three of them there with a tilted head.
"You making a new friend, Yuta?" He mused. "And carrying around a girl like a superhero? Maki ain't going to be pleased about that."
"W-What…. Is going on…" The red head uttered.
"Geto-sensei!" Yuta exclaimed, "What are-"
"UNHAND ME!" The Possessed roared, Koryu keeping her pinned to the pavement as it buckled. "So Sorceror's in this era are so weak they must enslave Spirits now! How pathetic!"
"D-Don't kill her!" The redhead said. "I-I can't see whats going on but… you're crushing Taylor!"
"Be silent you curr!" The Possessed, this Taylor apparently, yelled. "Once I'm finished with these weak sorcerers, I will eat your hear-BLARGH!"
And an octopus spirit was wedged into Taylor's mouth, gagging the Possessed as Rika flew over. Geto-sensei walked by, munching still.
"Do you mind? I'm meeting my student again, I'm trying to have a conversation." Geto looked down at the frothing mad Possessed as if one looked at a cockroach. "Besides, who are you, if I'm weak?"
The Possessed let out a muffled roar, but Koryu's jaws tightened.
"Geto-sensei!" Yuta called, "The girl, she ate the finger!"
"I could tell," Geto said, casually eating another chip, "She's practically a carbon copy of Gojo's report."
"A report?" Yuta asked.
"Oh yeah it was super recent."
Geto nudged the Possessed with his traditional Japanese sandal-covered shoe to the head. If looks could kill, Geto-sensei would have been dead a hundred times over.
"Sleep." He ordered, and Taylor's eyes widened… before she slumped, her hair returning back to its normal chocolate sheen and the marks and eyes on her face vanishing. Relaxing as Koryu and the octopus spirit vanished.
In the crater a brown haired girl blinked and sat up in the crater.
"W-What… where am I? I-" She turned around, seeing the sight of the burning school…
"W-Winslow…I-" She turned, and saw the monk and scampered away.
"Easy," the monk said, hands raised, a warm smile at ease as he offered his hand, "I'm not going to hurt you."
The girl's head snapped around, looking around, her entire form was shaking.
"I… I was in a locker… then… then I…"
She hugged herself tight, and Geto leaned down gently placing a hand on her head and she stilled. Yuta set the redhead down, as she looked at Taylor with fear.
"Don't worry, you're safe now. Nothing bad will happen to you." Geto said in perfect English, offering his hand to her. "I am here after all."
He smiled, and Yuta saw that familiar smirk.
"And I am the strongest."