Late?

Hm, only one way to find out. 

*Ring Ring*

…

*Ring Ring*

…

*Ring R..

„Yo Satoru hereeee …."

„Satoru I heard that th…"

„… you reached the mailbox. Don't leave a message, I won't listen to it anyway."

For f*cks sake. I should have expected that. He changes that stupid message so often. 

Well, no matter. I'll just go there personally and see how my bro's doing. It's been a while since we fought after all. Might as well see whether he slacked off. 

Hmm, I should finish my job first though. The only problem is that I don't know where this blasted curse is. There was talk about a curse that hunts at night and then hides during the day, like some Vampire. 

It was said to have struck in one of the villages nearby last. And I chose this forest to either find it or wait until evening to find it. 

Now though I am unsure whether to wait ... nahh. I still have time until Toji Fushiguro taps both Satoru and Suguru as well as Riko Amanai. So going by his knowledge ... he still has close to a day until shit hits the fan. 

And the fight between Satoru and Toji should not even go the same way it did in canon. Satoru is stronger than he was in canon due to sparing with me a lot. 

(3rd Person POV)

The hours passed and Hades was still waiting. He sat on a tree branch and tried to sense his surroundings while relaxing. 

When the sun set and the night began, Hades stirred from his half-awake state. It was now time to get to work. 

His plan was good but not foolproof. He chose this forest because it was close to a few villages where he thought the curse to be. But that did not mean that the curse had to hide in here. There were many other options. Still, he would wait and use a sliver of his divinity of death to feel whether someone died in the surrounding few kilometres.

21:53 was the time Hades felt it. Someone had died about 19 kilometres north of his location. That did not necessarily mean that it was the curse. People die all the time. 

But a very short time after the first death, he felt another and then another... That was not a coincidence. 

Without another thought, he focused on Lapse: Blue. He had worked a lot on his teleportation. Having to clap your hands was a weakness in his eyes and he managed to get rid of that detail. 

Space twisted and filled itself again. Hades stood inside a village and stopped for a moment. He almost saw nothing... It was so dark around here that even his eyesight had difficulty seeing. But that was only because of his seal. 

Without wasting time he took it off and his Six Eyes activated. Time slowed down and gave Hades the time needed to understand the situation. The darkness seemed to spread from one location. And all around villagers were dying due to this darkness. 

Hades could feel the foul and toxic nature of this darkness. How ironic, a curse that specialised in darkness. 

.

Hades walked towards the curse and stopped a few meters in front of it. Normally he would just get this over with but this ... mongrel had the gall to approach him with darkness that had some death elements to it. That just wouldn't fly. Hades felt disgusted. Like someone was using the towel you use to dry yourself after showering. 

"That's quite the amount of cursed energy you're leaking. Don't you think that's enough? You're bothering these good villagers."

"Hmmmmmmm .... you're strong, human. Oh goood test for meeeee. You will despaaaiiirr by my blackness, hihihi."

"Did you have a stroke? Juck, and to think that you are using some part of my domain. Even if only the tiniest fraction, disgusting."

It seemed like the curse did not like to be disrespected. It started to make strange gurgling noises and began to prepare for a move.

"Oh, you don't like my words? Probably a trauma then. Did your mommy not love you? Go figure. You have one of those: not even his mother would love, faces."

"AAARRRGHHH"

The curse started screaming and throwing a fit like a retarded chicken. No matter. Hades waited for it to make the first move. 

Just like the animal he thought it was, the curse moved towards Hades. It ran on two legs and his arms started to darken until they were only two tendrils of darkness. 

The curse swung these dark tendrils towards Hades. Normally this attack would look stupid. Imagine trying to cut or damage someone with just dark tendrils that didn't even seem to be solid. 

However, Hades knew that this attack was not harmless ... at least to others than him. He was very familiar with darkness and death. This attack would not even graze him. 

Hades did not act arrogant though. He dodged as if he could be damaged by the attack and decided to finish this fight fast. After dodging for a while, Hades slowly approached the curse and applied his technique Infinity: Void on his hand. 

Abusing the eradication property of this technique, he swiped his hand and used it similar to a knife. He felt less resistance than cutting through butter with a hot knife. 

With one clean strike, the curse lost its head and died. A quick and easy fight, just the thing he wanted right now. He still had to get back to Jujutsu High and see whether Satoru already fought with Toji.

. 

After writing a short report ... that said he had exorcised the curse, he left. Normally you had to write a long and detailed report stating what happened and how you exorcised the curse. That was not for Hades. He usually just said that the curse was killed and the job done, and told the respective person to go check and see for themselves.

This meant that payment took a while to arrive due to the people first having to check on things. Funnily enough Hades or his Moniker more like got famous due to that. The Cosmic Mage had no time to write yada yada...

Hades didn't care about that. If anything it sped up his payment as they were more prone to believe him than they were someone that was unknown.

.

Focusing once more, Hades focused on the place he wanted to go to. It was imperative that you knew where you were going and had a route planned. There were other ways to use Lapse: Blue to teleport but that was the easiest in his eyes. 

He focused on Jujutsu High. He had been there before and knew its location. After a few seconds, he disappeared from the village.

When he arrived at the border he noticed that they were on lockdown. The security systems seem to be active. That could only mean that Suguru Geto was already here together with Rika. Then our good friend Toji Fushiguro would not be far away either. 

(Hades POV)

Hades approached the barrier and put his hand on it. He was probably not registered but right now he had no time to go the easy way. He would try and get inside or force his way in. Because if Toji was here already, then no one would know about it anyway and Rika was as good as dead.

But maybe, just maybe Hades still had some time to rescue her. He didn't know her and also didn't try to speed up his mission to get here, but when he had the chance he would try to save her. 

Well no matter what, after he got through the barrier, he would automatically know what happened when he saw the surroundings. Satoru would go nuts and fire a big Lapse: Blue to clear the area.

(Suguru POV)

We walked through the corridors of the tombs. Misato just left us and now I'm alone with Riko. After all that's happened ... I don't know ... 

She should be able to decide for herself and I know that she probably ...

The way she said goodbye to Kuroi ... hm.

We both come to a stop. We've arrived at Tengen's territory now. 

"We're in Tengen-sama's territory now.", I say as we both look at the tree. "This is the foundation of the nation's key barriers, the main hall of the Tombs of the Star.

Only those invited are able to enter it. 

"Once you descend the stairs, pass through the gate and continue to the base of the big tree. Tengen-sama will protect you until the assimilation.

...

That ... or we can turn back around and go home with Kuroi-san."

"Huh?"

"When our teacher told us about this mission, Satoru and I already talked it over before we met you. 

I asked Satoru what we'd do if you refused the assimilation and he said: "Then the assimilation is off.".

I can only say that I wholeheartedly agree with him. We are the strongest. No matter what decision you make, we will guarantee your future."

I look at her and can see her thinking about it. I can see her unwillingness to leave everything behind. But I need her to say it. I need her to truly say that she doesn't want to go through with this. 

Then she starts to cry and says it out loud. Her feelings. 

"I want to be with everyone longer! I want to go to all kinds of places with everyone!"

I can only smile at that and reach out my hand. 

"Let's go home, Riko-chan."

*Bang*

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I am ready for your hate and the shitstorm that is to come.

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