Tickets Please

Hoshi dwelled in silence, the looming darkness oppressing, like countless weights pressing down on him. Hundreds of emotions existing in swirling turmoil each fighting for control, wanting to be the one expressed.

Leaving him feeling… overwhelmed… and hollow.

So so hollow.

Staring blankly, obsessively, at the small window into reality. The window was shrinking, slowly, it has once been the size of his entire vision. But now it was barely the size of his head. Reality was a happy movie, one that he wanted to live in, this wasn't fair. This should have been his.

Atlas, laughing and joking with family and friends. Frank and Toji, people that Atlas was close with, people that HE should have been close with... They were meant to be his friends! This was meant to be his body!

Why did he have to live in such overwhelming darkness? Why did he have to exist in such dread? Why was it him?

If only he had found out about this power sooner. He could have had the same motivation that Atlas had, surely? He would have made progress and found a mentor and friend. And then he would be living such a happy life.

'Don't feel so sad, it isn't fair, but I created you, I made you to be special. He stole it from you, do not let the light fade and I will save you, child. You are precious.'

There it was, that voice was the only reason he could look out the window into what he wanted and not fall into insanity. Someone would come and save him soon enough, he just had to live. He would, his mind was his own. He would live.

His mind was his own.

He would live.

--- Kenjaku ---

Something wasn't right, about Hoshi. He had expected him to fail, and he had. As an experiment, he hadn't awakened the abilities that he has now. A special property that was as strong and versatile as a technique and could even be reversed. The perfect backup for dealing with six eyes and a certain other troublesome someone.

But it wasn't going as planned. Hoshi wasn't under his control, at least… his body wasn't. He was starting to suspect that something was up. It had been the day that he thought Hoshi would never awaken and had chosen to get rid of him that he had gone missing.

And then he had shown up again, being taught by a curse user and being able to use a special property that had never shown any signs of appearing up until then.

A failed experiment gone rogue.

Walking down the long dirt road he could do nothing but feel a slight headache coming on, his technique was still in effect but the body wasn't responding. A different mind was controlling the body. He was annoyed he did not see so sooner.

Staring over the hill at the rising sun he let himself relax. Things would be okay. He could still use the boy, it might just be a bit more work. But he couldn't help but shake the feeling that he should have killed the boy when he first saw him.

But now he was under the protection of that damn Ayumu.

Taking a deep breath he calmed himself, he had things to do and he needed to keep a level head.

Looking forward he saw the Zenin estate. Yes, they would help him. It wouldn't take much to push one of their younger members to hunt down Atlas and either one: Kill him, which would solve a headache and get rid of the variable. Or two: Help him grow, which would simply let him proceed with the current plan. Things would work out fine.

--- Atlas ---

"Knowledge is power, power corrupts, study hard. Become evil." Atlas said, his face set in a completely serious expression. His body leaned forward as he looked at the three first years in front of him.

"What the hell are you on about?" Gojo said, his face a mix of disbelief and confusion. "Did you take something?"

"Nope, just making sure you know how important your studies are. I think that it is important that young lads like you know that studying is a good thing. As your senior, I have to pretend to be a good role model." Atlas said matter-of-factly as he flipped through the pages he was holding. Something about requirements of keeping the kids safe. The Do's and Don'ts of being the responsible one on a mission.

"So you're telling us to be evil?" Geto asked, his eyebrow rising.

Looking up from the paper Atlas tilted his head to the side, honestly, Geto looked far older when he did that. "Well, you can be the responsible one on this mission then. Doesn't say anything about telling the students to be evil or not in the bullet points so." Shrugging he went back to reading, he hated how he had to do this.

Honestly, it was pretty lax though that all he had to do was read like 5 pages before he could be considered, responsible. Of course, he still had his favourite Assistant Director Furuta however but they really couldn't do much to keep them all safe.

After a few more moments he put the paper down on the table and said. "Alright, well now that I have done that and you are all bored enough. Let's get into some action!" Standing up, his hands clapping together shocking two of his Juniors. Gojo however just looked at him, his expression still sceptical of Atlas' authority.

It was interesting to see how he reacted to things, his perception was insane even without fully training it.

"So, question. Combat ability, how confident are all of you? Gojo you don't need to answer as I have already seen your skill." Atlas said, wanting to know where they thought they were. It was something Frank did with him, checked in once every month and asked him where he thought he was in terms of skill level.

It helped him get a sense of their confidence, arrogance and estimated skill level.

Depending on those factors he could decide what they could and couldn't handle in a mission. Since if the principal got his way this would not be the only mission he oversaw.

"I'm fairly confident I guess. I mean I have nothing to really compare myself to since I haven't fought enough to get a solid estimation but I have taken out the few cursed spirits I have come across with my technique." Geto said, answering first as Gojo sank back into the couch with a winning smirk.

"I don't like fighting. And I suck at it, I am more interested in becoming a healer. I heard you can heal your wounds. Can you show me how?" Ieiri asked. Her face was expectant as she smiled at Atlas, her eyes fairly sunken already despite her age.

"No, not unless I get hurt which doesn't happen often anymore," Atlas said, looking between the both of them before nodding his head. "Awesome, well let's go. We have a long road ahead of us. Furuta let me drive, give me the keys." Atlas said as he stood up and held his hand out towards the nervous man.

"Do you even have a license? No way you do, you're too young, I can't let you." Furuta said, going through his normal nervous mini-monologue.

"Well you can't stop me" Atlas responded, smirking.

---

Looking out the passenger window Atlas kicked his feet up on the dash. Damn… that fucking principal had shown up and got in his way again. The old wrinkly nut-sack of a man. Well it wasn't the end of the world, it was nice to kick his feet up.

Feeling the car stop he fazed through the door before looking at the three kids that got out behind him. "Stick together and don't run after distractions got it," Atlas said, turning back around and walking into the old train station.

"Got it." He heard Ieiri say from behind him.

Looking up he watched the sky slowly go black, the curtain appearing as Furuta cast it. Looking back at the old station he ran his hand along the crumbling brick wall, the mortar worn and giving out from the years of neglect.

As they walked into the sheltered area that looked onto the rusted tracks he swore he heard the faint sound of the tracks shaking, as if a train was coming down it from a far distance but he knew that this line was out of commission since the new metro systems had been built.

Odd, the spirit was clearly nearby.

Hearing the flicking of a lighter behind him he turned around to see Ieiri having a smoke. The fire caught the end of the cigarette as Geto looked at it with distaste. Then at Atlas as if to say, 'Do something about it.'

"You gonna tell me off?" Ieiri asked, waiting to see what Atlas would say.

"Not if you offer me one." He replied with.

Now with a freshly lit cigarette, he continued to make his way down the station platform. Looking at one of the old-time boards that hadn't been written on for years. Slowly flick open, a few of the numbers changing. A train would now be arriving in 10 minutes. Well wasn't that good?

"Keep your eyes peeled," Atlas said, not registering the scoff from Gojo. Of course, that saying was funny to him.

Making their way down a bit further Atlas kept a timer in his head. Counting down the seconds, listening to the changing of the numbers in the distance as the card counter flipped over and over. The tension in the atmosphere slowly rose.

Gojo was the first to feel it, his back straightening as he took his sunglasses off and hung them from his neckline. His relaxed posture stiffened slightly.

"Should we take a seat until the spirit shows up?" Geto asked, moving towards one of the station benches. "Aren't curtains meant to make the spirits appear?" He finished asking, turning around to sit down.

"Yeah, they normally-" Atlas started to say before suddenly saying, "Don't sit down." Grabbing Geto by his collar and pulling him away from the bench as he stared at it. He felt it, an innate domain had started to open before fading.

"Don't do anything that would be… waiting for a train in a way. If you sit down or stay on the platform for long enough you will 'willingly' yet unknowingly enter the spirits domain. Did you see it Gojo?" Atlas asked, turning to the most advanced student here.

"Yeah, just then." The boy said, a bit disturbed as he looked at the spot on the bench.

"This spirit is more than the grade it is suspected to be. They say it's grade 2 but with what we saw its strength would be at least high grade 1 to make a domain like that." Atlas stated as he checked his mental clock. 4 minutes left until the 'train' arrived… or they were pulled into the domain.

"In 4 minutes we will enter the domain, stick together, don't do anything that would let you get pulled away from each other. I am sure that I can handle this but be careful alright." Atlas said, his voice held a real edge of caution now. His change in attitude shocked the students that have seen him be nothing but relaxed so far.

Letting go of Geto's collar he patted the boy on the shoulder. "Always be aware that spirits are tricky things. Especially in densely populated areas, they have far more cunning than you would think. We know that this location has one because people have been disappearing when they have come here. But that lack of bodies should have let us know something more was going on." Atlas lectured as he kept his eyes on the surroundings around them. He could feel with his dimensional sense that the air around them was shifting. The domain was strengthening.

It was a level that he could easily handle, however.

This would be a good eye-opener for Gojo.

Or a jump in his arrogance...

Feeling the air shift they suddenly were in another area. The inside of a carriage. The rattling of wheels against the track sounding through the air and the whistling of wind came from a crack in the window. Looking through one he saw that there was nothing but darkness outside.

Looking back and forth he saw the countless carriages spreading as far as he could see, each door open, lights flickering inside them all.

The seats were laid out in odd ways sometimes, ways that didn't make sense.

"I diDn'T mEan ToO bE LatE" They all heard, echoing with the wheels of the train, the words torn from a broken throat, a high-pitched soft whine of remorse.

Grabbing Ieiri he didn't even pull her aside, just forced her body into another plain with his positive energy for a few seconds as a giant clawed hand ripped through the air where she was standing. Gojo already turned around to try and counter but Geto simply jumped back in surprise as he noticed the action, if the attack had been directed at him he would have been a moment too late.

The hand had come from nowhere, speeding out from behind one of the carriages' seats before darting back to cover. Staring at it he watched the faint trace of cursed energy hide away in the shadows under the seat.

A small cursed spirit running around in the shadows… well Gojo could handle that much at least.

Just as he thought that Gojo countered, pointing his finger at the seat as he suddenly charged up limitless and let all the loose objects crash towards that one point where he could clearly see the spirit because of his enhanced sight.

Grabbing Geto as well now Atlas held onto both of them forcing their bodies into another plane as seats were torn from the floor and slammed into where the spirit was.

Waiting for Gojo to finish he pulled both Geto and Ieiri back and let them fall to the floor, clearly confused by having been sent to another plain.

"Well that was stupid… and you clearly didn't kill it," Atlas said, looking at the mangled mess of seats as Gojo looked around, his eyes darting to every part of the train before settling back on the mangled mess of metal and fabric.

The train still existed, and the spirit was still alive despite being crushed in the centre of all of that, in fact, it wasn't even damaged. Letting go of the other students he said, "If I hadn't grabbed them you would have pulled them into that mess. Think about others snowflake."

"Well, they shouldn't be so weak then! They're in my way, I could have gotten it if I didn't have to worry about you, weaklings." Gojo spat, his eyes turning to glare at Atlas.

"You couldn't break out of this domain even if you tried, you have no real-world experience. You could break it from the outside sure, but not from the inside. Not after willingly entering it" Atlas stated as he put his hand on one of the walls that was unaffected by Gojo's discharge.

Suddenly Gojo ducked, a clawed hand swiping out from within the mangled mess Gojo made, hiding inside the crushed ball as it attacked, its claw only appearing for a moment before it darted back inside between one of the tiny gaps. The hand moved like liquid to flow back into the gaps.

"It lives in the shadows, as long as the train exists I don't think it will be easy to kill," Atlas stated, surprised Gojo had been able to dodge that, he probably shouldn't be though. At least it wouldn't attack when people were focused on it. "It will be a good soldier for you Geto." Atlas started to say, going to speak some more but the air plummeted in temperature, interrupting his thoughts.

"TiCket'S PleAsE?" A deep voice said, grumbling from the floor of the train, a harsh sound that shook the metal of the floor and made the lights flicker.

There were two spirits, one controlled the train. And the other killed the passengers.

This was getting complicated.