Chapter 18 - Targeted

Sachiko was about to attack Todo with her cursed energy katana when a veil suddenly appeared.

"Why would a veil appear?" Sachiko frowned and Todo also seemed to be thinking the same.

"Nakamura! Look out!" Itadori shouted.

Huge roots appeared from the underground and separated Sachiko from Todo and Itadori. The roots continued spreading and Sachiko had to dodge further into the opposite side of the forest.

"You're the one who ambushed us back then!" Sachiko exclaimed as she recalled a curse distracting them and trying to take away Jogo. She also realized the curse was separating her from the others.

"You're the brat who killed Mahito and Jogo's death also have something to do with you. So, I'm here to end your life." Hanami said as he used diseaster plants to attack Sachiko.

"So you're here to avenge? Curses like you even have feelings?" Sachiko asked playfully and Hanami exploded, "OF COURSE WE DO! WE'RE GOING TO REPLACE HUMANS AFTER ALL!"

"Replace humans,huh? That's what Mahito said before he died. " Sachiko said.

As soon as Hanami heard these words, the plants got bigger and the speed became even faster.

Sachiko continued to cut the plants down with her cursed energy katana. More plants emerged from the ground Sachiko was standing on and when she cut off the plants, the plants disappeared making her seem vulnerable in mid-air.

Then, Hanami took the chance to attack with his wooden ball. Sachiko quickly manipulate her cursed energy to act as a shield and reinforced her body. The wooden ball couldn't penetrate the shield Sachiko made. So, She landed onto the ground without a problem.

"So you use curse energy to create those plants. Impressive." Sachiko commented as she cut down more of Hanami's plants.

She then heard a splash of water and sea monsters appeared from behind. Its attack power is not bad. In fact, Sachiko became wary as she also had to deal with Hanami at the same time.

"A shikigami user?" Sachiko narrowed her eyes. "That is troublesome."

Sachiko discarded the cursed energy katana and concentrated more cursed energy to make a bow and arrows. She then shoot out cursed energy arrows to destroy the Shikigamis. As soon as the Shikigamis were destroyed , Sachiko made cursed energy katana again. However, just before she could do so, Hanami shot out cursed buds towards her.

Sachiko subconsciously used cursed energy to defend the buds but her face paled as soon as she realized she made a mistake. Several curse buds grew inside her body and Sachiko winced in pain.

"It feeds on cursed energy? The more I use cursed energy, the deeper they will plant into my body.." Sachiko laughed rather bitterly. She just made a big mistake by defending with a strong cursed energy shield.

Hanami laughed at that and said, "So how do you feel? The more you try to use cursed energy now, the more pain you would feel. I'm sure the buds will grow quicker that way, too. You either get killed by us or the buds will grow all over your body and die."

"As if I'm going to get taken down by that." Sachiko gritted her teeth. However, she was thinking how she could get out of this situation.

'I can't win by not using cursed energy because it had been my main strength all these years. Besides , I don't have a superior physical strength like Itadori or Todo so even if I tried to fight without cursed energy, I can't win. I can't use reversed curse technique to heal yet because I don't know what effects it would have since the reversed cursed technique also uses cursed energy to heal.' Sachiko thought.

But, she didn't have the luxury to think for a long time as Dagon and Hanami continued attacking her. Sachiko didn't use cursed energy for now so she could only rely on her martial arts skills to dodge. Good thing she practiced with Gojo for two months or else she wouldn't even survive. She thought. However, she still knew it wasn't enough and it was only a matter of time until she gets killed if she didn't use cursed energy.

"Forget it. I will worry about what would happen later. If this goes on, I won't survive anyway." Sachiko said as she unleashed bursts of cursed energy to attack. She didn't have a choice. Even if using cursed energy now was practically speeding up her own death, she still had to use it to defend herself.

The cursed buds grew more as she used more cursed energy and Sachiko had to bit her lips.

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"My brother, you okay?" Todo asked and Itadori nodded. "Yeah."

They just saw a huge root emerging from the ground and Sachiko was separated from them. Just when they were about to chase that curse or curse user, a curse user appeared.

"Intrusion?" Itadori was still surprised as they attacked the curse user together.

Todo took a quick glance at the direction where Sachiko was led to and frowned, 'It appears that they want to separate Nakamura from us and they didn't even want us to go and help her, judging by how fast the curse user arrived. Could it be they are targetting her?' He wasn't sure but there was a possibility.

"My brother, this is an opportunity to master black fist." Todo still said to Itadori. Itadori nodded and tried his best to use black fist.

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Meanwhile, Maki, Inumaki, Panda, Junpei, Megumi and Nobara were together when the barrier appeared.

"Why would a barrier appear now? Is it an intrusion?"

"It appears so." Maki replied as she readied her stance to fight the intruders.

Curses of Grade 2 and below appeared not long after and they had to engage in a battle.

"These curses....they are weak but there are too many of them. It's such a pain to exorcise them before getting to the boss." Megumi gritted his teeth.

"I don't get why they do it. They must know we can clear these low grade curses. It's pointless to just waste,isn't it?" Nobara frowned.

"That is unless they are trying to distract us from something." Megumi said slowly and Maki nodded. "It seems to be the case. They just want to buy time and they clearly needed to use the bosses for their other purpose so they used many low grades to slow us down instead."

"Sh*t, they're cunning." Nobara said angrily.

Junpei was confused by that. "But what could be their purpose? Do they want to kill someone?"

"Yeah, they even used barrier to separate us from the teachers so whatever they wants to target is within this barrier? Or did they simply want to distract the teachers? If it is the case, wouldn't they just make us meet with the bosses to make the teachers hurry?" Nobara asked.

"It doesn't make sense at all." Junpei said.

Megumi, on the other hand, seemed to have different thoughts as his eyes widened a bit. He said, "I think I have an idea. It might be wrong but..."

"But what?" Nobara asked.

"Don't you think they might be after one of the students? They want to get rid of that person and wanted to distract everyone else from that." Megumi said after a while.

"But who could fit the criteria? Itadori? But, if the intruders are curses, they shouldn't kill Itadori. Sukuna will die if Itadori dies." Nobara said.

"What if it wasn't Itadori but the other.." Megumi said and Nobara's eyes widened at that. "Now that you say it, it seems likely. If they really want to get rid of her, they would surely use special grades. It would make sense why we still haven't met high level curses yet."

"Exactly." Megumi nodded.

"I still can't find a reason why they would want to target her. It would make more sense if this is after the event and after she becomes famous but now? I can't.." Maki frowned.

"Gojo sensei sent her on some missions during the last two months. Maybe they encountered back then." Megumi shook his head, "I still hope it's just my overthinking."

"Me too."

"Me too."

"Well, let's just move forward first. The sooner we're done with these low grades, the sooner we can figure out what is happenning. We will only be able to help then." Panda saod and they agreed.

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Gojo, Utahime and Gakuganji stood in front of the barrier.

"Since it was already formed, let's just destroy it." Gojo casually said as he touched the barrier. However, he was knocked back by a force.

Utahime tried touching the barrier and she could enter without a problem.

"I get it now. This barrier is designed to keep Gojo Satoru out." Gojo said.

"Makes sense." Utahime said and she went into the barrier with Gakuganji first.

'Intruding right in the middle of an event..what are they planning?' Gojo thought to himself. He remembered Mahito mentioning Sukuna but he felt like there is more to the intrusion today. He couldn't help but feel a bit worried for some reason.

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A/N:

So, this was the chapter. I just want to clarify that I'm not a manga reader yet (I still haven't read it although I was planning to) so I'm not very sure of Dagon and Hanami's abilities. I did my research but I'm not sure if it's enough. I also make some changes to Hanami's cursed buds for the storyline. It has a reason to it and I'll reveal in a few chapters. As for Dagon, I'm just a little bit clueless. How many Shikigamis can he summon outside of his domain? Megumi can summon two but when he uses Max elephant, he can only use it alone. So, I wanna know if there are limitations for Dagon like that. I know he can use Death swarm but it is something he can only use in his domain right?

Please explain this to me if you know :)