19 Worthy Prey

The old house sunk back into the buildings around it, hiding from the creeping sunlight that slowly ebbed its way down the street. The stretched shadow of the setting sun gave the entire suburban area an unsettling presence.

Tilting his head to the side Atlas crouched down on top of a lamp post that flickered beneath him. Tilting his head to the side he watched the young women, around the same age as him, 17 or 18. Sit by the window, reading a book that was held in shaking hands. The giant bags under her eyes were clear signs that she hadn't been sleeping well. It wasn't a surprise. Her entire friend group, all the girls in it at least, had gone missing over the past week.

Taken from their homes in the dead of night… that is what he suspected.

The reports however said that they just left, ran away from him. There wasn't any sign that they had been forcefully taken. All their belongings were still there, that was the only odd thing. No destroyed windows, no signs of a fight, made bed sheets. No struggling or thrashing.

Not a single sign of blood or torn-out hair.

As if they suddenly just… disappeared.

Gone.

Seeing her look out the window and up the lamppost at him just squatting there on top of it he smiled a bit before stepping into folding space. Appearing at her front door at that same moment.

---

Michi liked reading, even more so lately. The fantasy worlds that pulled her into joy and wonder were easier to manage than the mystery of her friends disappearing. Ever since they started to laugh about Yokai they had started to go missing. It must have been the spirits, they were displeased. She had wanted to go up to the shrine with her friends to say sorry or something. Ever since Naoko had gone missing…

But they never got the chance. All her friends were gone, she should go herself but she was too scared to leave the house. It all seemed so surreal. Just a few days ago she had been laughing with them. Now they had been taken by ghosts? Surely not… it must just be targeting her friend group for some reason.

But they hadn't done anything.

As her head spun with a twisted spiral of questions she felt her breath start to quicken. She was going to cry again…

Looking out the window as she felt a cold breath on her neck she looked shocked.

There was a boy, no older than her on top of the lamp post. Dressed traditionally.

Then he was gone.

Eyes widening in fear she wondered if he was the ghost that was displeased with her, the knocking at her door just a moment later sending shivers down her spine. This was terrifying.

She hated this, she had to say sorry? Was that what it wanted? Or would it take her in the night too?

Shakily she got up, making her way to the door, the voice of her mum yelling at her to answer the door echoed through the house. Her breath quickened in panicked silence.

She didn't want to open the door, to let it in. Her mother came into the room and was saying something to her in a raised voice. Something that she didn't hear. Her mind screamed at her to tell her mum to not let the monster in. But she already opened the door.

And in that moment things came back to normal, the panic vanishing in an instant when she saw just a normal boy around her age dressed traditionally standing there with a charming smile talking to her mother.

Wasn't he? No, he couldn't be. That didn't make sense. What didn't make sense? Why was she so confused she had never seen him before. Something was… missing but she couldn't put her finger on it.

Tilting her head to the side she heard her mother speaking to her, looking at her with a worried expression.

"chi- Michi? Are you alright? You're as pale as a sheet dear… do you need to lay down? A young man is here to talk about your friend's disappearance, he said he may know something but wants to confirm with you first. I can send him away if you need me to…" Her mother said, annoyance clearly turned to concern as she looked at her daughter's pale complexion.

"N-No it's alright. I… I am happy to help him… if he knows something." Why didn't he go to the police then? Well, it didn't matter.

Standing up she nervously made her way to the door. The unknown man leant against the frame looking out into the street, he had a funny air around him. One that made her relax, like she was safe for the first time in well… weeks. He had some piercings, and one of them looked very expensive. His attire was as she noticed before, very traditional. He was incredibly handsome, his features sharp and masculine but just soft enough that he wasn't scary. It was an odd balance...

Tilting her head to the side she slowly said, "h-hello? How may I help you?"

---

"Hello, ma'am! How are you today, sorry to interrupt your day but I assure you I will not be long. I am currently investigating the disappearance of a few young women your daughter knew? Is it okay if I ask her some questions? The people I work with have formed some conclusions but it may be unsafe to act without confirmation." Atlas said, his smooth voice low and charming as he appeared as friendly as he could, a smile that carried to his eyes.

"Of course, dear, let me just go ask her if she is willing to talk. Michi, Michi?" She said as she walked back into the house and to the right, to where Michi was sitting by the window.

Leaning against the door frame he smiled a bit in amusement at the scepticism that the mum had looked at him with when he said he was investigating. It was funny, as a sorcerer the design button he had on the edge of his Haori counting as a 'uniform' also kind of counted as a 'badge.' Jujutsu High was one of the 'departments' that investigated abnormal disappearances.

It was how Jujutsu Sorcerers were allowed onto crime scenes that involved the deaths of humans. Made sense.

"h-hello? How may I help you?" He heard a meek voice to his right say. Turning he looked at her with a warm smile.

Responding with a warm voice he held his hand out for a pleasant shake, relaxing his shoulders and lowering his chin a bit, trying to appear smaller and safer. Less threatening. "Hello. My name is Atlas, I am investigating the disappearances of your friends on behalf of the people I work for. I understand that it might not be comfortable to talk about but any help you could provide would be extremely useful. Do you mind if I ask some questions, we can either do so here or sit down. Whatever you are more comfortable with." Shaking her hand when she offered it.

"I-I mean you can come and sit down… it's a bit of a mess, sorry." She said. Tearing her eyes from his face and nervously getting out of the way.

Making his way inside Atlas soon found himself at a small table, tea served and a tray of snacks offered to the both of them by Michi's mother. The older woman was incredibly sweet and caring.

Taking the prepared cup he took a sip before he started to go through basic questions. Had she done anything supernatural recently? Such as finding a strange object or doing an old ritual as a joke with her friends. After a bit of hit-and-miss, he seemed to hit the nail on the head.

"Have you mocked any old tales? Called them false or anything related to the locations they were said to take place in?" Atlas asked, leaning against the table when he saw her react to his question.

"u-um yeah, we went up the nearby mountain a few weeks ago and there is this cave an old spirit was said to have lived in. We yelled that he wasn't scary… it was like a trial of courage thing that Naoko wanted to do… the disappearances started happening then. I-I'm sorry but you're asking a lot of s-spiritual questions… do you think a ghost is doing this?" Her voice catching, the line of questioning was odd for what was happening.

Why did any of this matter if her friends were kidnapped? Unless she was right, they had angered a spirit.

"A-Are you a psychic or something?" She asked, hesitant, a blush appearing on her cheeks. God that was such a dumb question. Why had she asked something so stupid! Of course, people like that were not real, she had always wanted to believe it though.

Chuckling lightly Atlas put his cup down as he shook his head slightly, "No no, I am not a psychic, some kidnappers or serial killers masquerading as evil spirits for some reason. We simply investigate odd cases." Atlas lied smoothly.

Thinking back through what she had answered it practically confirmed it, one of the most well-known folk-law demons of Kyoto.

The strongest Oni warrior who they had read some old stories about and as a test of courage had gone up the cave he was once said to have lived in and yelled that they weren't scared into it. Something along those lines at least.

The Imaginary Vengeful Spirit he was hunting was the Shuten-Doji. One of if not the most powerful Oni warriors.

---

He felt so weird, this was wrong. He shouldn't be doing this. But it was necessary…

He kept his eyes closed, it would be rude not to. He just needed to feel cursed energy, that was enough. He needed to do nothing else. With his back facing to the room he kept his head facing towards the wall, eyes shut tightly.

Despite living two lives he had never actually slept with a woman. Never even seen one naked, he spent most of his old life in a monastery and the rest in the army. So it wasn't that surprising.

He didn't know when the Oni would attack, so it was better to be safe than sorry.

The disappearances had all happened at various times of the night or were found at various times so it could happen as the sun set or as she fell asleep.

So for that reason.

He was hiding in another plane.

In Michi's room…

And feeling like he should be punished for just this act. It was to find the spirit OKAY! He didn't need to justify this to himself.

He didn't actually feel that unsettled, it was more that he didn't like doing this, it was not like he was looking at anything that was happening, whatever was happening. His eyes were closed and he was just feeling for cursed energy that might come into the room. That was it.

He had done his best to hide, it was something he could only do if he fully went to another plane but even then powerful sorcerers such as the principal or Gojo could still see remnants of his energy leaking over. So he could no longer sneak around as even travelling in another plane he wasn't invisible anymore.

Curse his overwhelmingly large reserves of cursed energy, oh woe is he. He couldn't sneak around anymore.

Focusing back on the matter of hand, he knew that she was in bed right now and that something in the room had shifted when she got into it.

This wasn't a time to be weak-willed, he needed to keep himself focused. So he did, honing his mind. Sharpening his senses. He could hear her breathing, the faint clatter of something out in the living room as her mum cleaned up dishes that were left behind. The creak of a floorboard… just the house creaking in the faint wind.

Before he felt it, cursed energy. It was slow, an almost imperceptible trickle. Like the faintest wisps of fog coiling through the smallest gaps in the window. But he felt it because hiding in the fog was the spirit he was hunting. The Oni-King. Shuten-Doji.

He was known for his strength and intelligence but Atlas couldn't rely on what the myths said about his powers. This was a real spirit that had formed from people's collective fears, even the slightest thought that he may be able to do something might influence his technique, of which he was sure that this spirit had.

And it looked like it was something to do with Oni's lightning and thunder. Or storm clouds.

Turning around he looked into the room to see the faint clouds rolling onto the floor. He was going to pull her into his fog and then return to his cave? Was he able to do that? Could he teleport between destinations or something?

That would make sense at how he had been able to abduct so many girls without struggle. But teleportation abilities were almost unheard of, all he knew to have them was him and Gojo but that was only through creative use of their techniques. It was probably something the same.

Reaching forward he found the main source of cursed energy, where the Oni was. And in a single moment, he stepped into his native plane. His gaze was dangerous as he held his hand out and with a pull of his fingers towards himself the fog was forced to condense down into a horribly disfigured humanoid.

His body coiled and spread like fog filling the room as his giant mouth was pulled up at the edges forming a horrid forced smile that split his face, giant tusks coming out of either side of it holding it open.

His body was a crimson red with five horns sprouting from his skull in a wicked crown, 15 eyes littered around his face from his chin to his forehead. All blinking out of time as they stared directly at Atlas. One leg was white, the other was black. One arm was yellow and the other was blue. His whole body seemed to distort as Atlas forced it to solidify by forcing energy into it battling whatever technique was allowing it to transform into fog.

With a shattering roar, he watched as Michi woke up. Her eyes widened as she saw the spacial cracks that tried to free her from the giant hand that grasped her waist. The beast that stood before her, holding her captive letting out a shattering cry.

The strange boy from before standing before her, his fingers wound together and pointing at the beast as the spacial cracks condensed at the point of his fingers before a shattering split was blasted into the Oni's chest causing it to pull back.

Staring at the Oni, Atlas' held the gaze of the 15 now unblinking eyes as it seemed to… smile. "Worthy prey! Come save!" Was all it said, its broken voice hoarse and deep as if it was a talking earthquake.

Surprised that it could speak Atlas tried to stop what was about to happen, but was a moment too late, the last thing he saw was Michi mouthing, 'help' but the words were never heard as both the Oni and her suddenly exploded into fog. Disappearing.

Staring at the empty spot he cursed. Clasping his hands together, and feeling the trail of cursed energy he left behind with the movement. He was just a very fast-moving cloud, not teleportation. He could follow it.

Stepping into another plane he chased the cursed spirit.