Chapter 8: The null

The pink-haired boy writhed in pain, Itadori was in darkness, this feeling... It was similar to when the boy was Sukuna's vessel, it was a horrible feeling, it wasn't just a physical pain, it was mental too. -  "Guys... Megumi... Choso... Yuta... Maki... I can't.... I can stop.... I can't lose anyone now... I can't lose anyone again .... I... DON'T WANT TO FEEL ALONE AGAIN!" - Itadori screams in despair.

Irisviel was outside the castle together with Maya, the girl who worked with Kiritsugu. Irisviel seemed worried about something. - "Madam. We have to go." - Maya said, going deeper into the forest. Irisviel would continue walking, until she feels another presence. - "Madam?" - Maya repeated.

"I sensed the presence of another intruder. Exactly in the direction we're heading, we'll run into him if we go that way." - said Irisviel. - "Understood. So, we'd better go around to the north side... Madam?" - said Maya. - "The one coming is... Kotomine Kirei." - said Irisviel, Maya seemed surprised.

"K-Kotomine Kirei?" - said Maya. - "Kiritsugu ordered you to protect me, didn't he?" Irisviel asked. - "Yes, but..." - Maya is interrupted. - "But what? We can't allow him to get to Kiritsugu, no matter what we have to do. Is that what you thought?" - said Irisviel.

"Kotomine Kirei probably represents the biggest threat to Kiritsugu. The two of us will have to stop him here. Is that okay Maya?" - said Irisviel. - "I hope you forgive me for saying this, but I ask you to prepare yourself, madam." - Maya said carrying her gun. - "Yes, you don't need to worry about me. If something happens, I will call Itadori here. I simply want him to do his duty. Not what Kiritsugu told him to do, but what you believe is necessary." - said Irisviel smiling.

"What is it, madam?" - asked Maya. - "Nothing, the human heart... It's a mystery, isn't it?" - said Irisviel smiling again.

Inside the forest

A man with a garment similar to that of a priest ran through the black forest, this man was Kotomine Kirei that they talked about so much. When he stopped running, several shots came in his direction. Kirei dodges the bullets, takes a sword from his clothes and throws it in the direction of the shots. The bullets stopped.

It doesn't take long for them to fire again, only this time in another direction, Kirei does the same thing, but it doesn't seem to be having any effect. - "An illusion?" - Kirei said. This time he is hit with several shots and falls to the ground, apparently dead, Maya reveals herself from the shadows and slowly goes towards him.

"Maya, don't do that!" - Maya is stabbed in the leg, Kirei goes to Maya at an absurd speed. The dark-haired girl was shooting, Kirei just covered his arms, which ricocheted the bullets. When Kirei reached Maya, the two exchanged blows with swords and knives.

Maya managed to dodge Kirei's cuts, her knife blade grazed Kirei's sword, she was going to hit Kirei in the face with the knife, but the man dodged the blow. Kirei grabs Maya's wrist, immobilizing her by elbowing her in the chest, then throwing her to the ground and then stepping very hard on her stomach.

Thus making her faint. Irisviel reveals herself to Kirei, seeing that she no longer has a choice in hiding. - "Woman, it may come as a surprise, but I'm not here to eliminate them." - said Kirei. - "I know that very well... I know what you are trying to do. But I certainly won't allow it. You will never be able to reach Emiya Kiritsugu. We will stop you. Right here" - Said Irisviel After pulling a thin blue thread from your chest.

Thin strands of it hung over her body. - "Driving a car wasn't the only thing Kiritsugu taught me. He taught me how to live. And also, how to survive! His form carries life!" - the blue threads come together and form an eagle.

The eagle that was on her shoulder quickly flies towards Kirei who avoids it with some ease. Kirei tries to punch the animal, but it was a trap, the eagle wrapped itself around the man's arms, mobilizing his arms. Even so, Kirei attacks Irisviel.

"IT WILL NOT WORK!" - said Irisviel after pulling his wires, throwing him into the tree and definitively trapping his arms. But the man didn't seem worried, he just took a deep breath and simply began to press on the tree, making it creak.

Irisviel was frightened by Kotomine Kirei's monstrosity, the man with just his brute and superhuman strength managed to break the tree in half. - "I-it can't be!" - said Irisviel. Kirei frees himself from the blue threads and goes towards Irisviel.

Somewhere else in the forest.

Saber and Lancer were protecting the children and killing all those bizarre creatures. - "Tell me, Saber. Where is your man?" - Lancer said being sarcastic. - "M-man? Are you talking about Yuji, he was just captured by Caster." - Saber said, finishing killing a curse.

"What a pity, I wanted to at least thank you for removing my curse, but it looks like I'll have to thank you another time." - said Lancer Landing a critical blow on another curse.

Saber was very worried about Itadori, but she could still feel that he wasn't that far away from her. - 'I hope everything is fine with you, Yuji.' - thought Saber worried about Itadori.

Itadori's mind was clouded, as if he was slowly being consumed. Itadori wakes up from his deep sleep completely scared.

Looking for a way out, but he only saw darkness. - "I'm feeling so... Powerless, that's how you were feeling Megumi.... a useless, an anomaly... That's how I felt when there was that incident in Shibuya, this horrible feeling of Not new..." - the boy closed his eyes accepting his fate... until someone hugged him from behind.

"Don't cry, my little one.... As a son of the hunt, your duty is to keep fighting... You are bigger than this, you know better than anyone your true potential, you and your brother knew that. So , fight!" - said the girl who wore a kemono and blue bow. Her hair was pink, just like Itadori's. In addition to having tails and fox ears.

Without understanding, it was obvious that he was scared. - "W-who are you?" - asked Itadori. - "You don't need to know... Know that I just want to help you. So, take a deep breath and get up." - said the mysterious girl. - "You're right... I can't just stand here. I need to help Arturia, Irisviel and Kiritsugu! If we want to save more people... If we want to save the entire world... We will have to win this war!" - said Itadori, getting up.

The boy was about to turn around to see the face of the girl who helped him, but she disappeared in an instant. - "She... disappeared?" - Itadori said confused. He started to worry about where he was. - "Anyway, it seems like I'm trapped in a domain..."

The boy walked around the dark and empty domain, trying to find a way out, but it didn't seem to be working. - "How am I going to get out of here?... Maybe by punching the ground?" - that was the best idea he had at that moment.

Before Itadori can punch the ground, he is hit by something and falls. - "W-what?" - he looks around and sees that there was no one there, or that's what he thought. - "It's not possible, the enemy is...-" Itadori is interrupted by a sequence of blows that he had no way of defending.

"I-I've got to be joking... This thing is attacking me and I can't even see him!" - Itadori said angrily about the situation. The boy is hit in the back, Itadori quickly turns to throw a punch, but doesn't even come close to hitting him.

The pink haired boy was starting to get angry. - "It's so fun to play with you." - said the unknown voice, apparently that of a guy. - "Reveal yourself at once! Who are you?!" - Itadori said, preparing to fight.

"If I reveal myself, it will lose its appeal..." - said the voice that landed another blow on Itadori. - 'Damn it! Because I'm inside that domain, I can't feel your presence!...' - thought Itadori after taking another blow.

"Usually when I do this to my victims, they tend to cry and ask for mercy, but you're still so serious... I'm going to love breaking you." Said the voice after enjoying another barrage of blows on Itadori.

The boy felt another blow, this one was stronger than normal, so much so that he actually knocked him down. - 'Something tells me that there is something else within this domain, this guy is not alone.' - thought Itadori.

"From your weird way of talking, I believe you are the master of Caster. Tell me, what do you get for participating in this war!" - Itadori said after taking another blow, this time in the face. - "Um... Nothing! I'm just having fun, you know? It's a necessity of mine." - said the voice.

"You do this... For fun?!" - asked Itadori perplexed. - "Yeah, like I said, it's pure instinct, we do a lot of things out of instinct. We eat when we're hungry, we cry when we're sad, and... We kill when we're angry. But I'm not like those guys, I don't feel angry from anyone. I don't know how to explain it, it's almost an art." - said the mysterious voice. - "You sick man... Tell me one more thing, are you the one who kidnapped those children?" - asked Itadori nervously.

"Yeah, it was me, Caster helped me too." - said the voice. - "Did you kidnap other children?!" - said Itadori. - "Ah, yes! I've killed, strangled, stabbed, skinned, done everything you can imagine. The human body is a mystery, isn't it?!" - said the voice, laughing at what he had just said. - 'This guy... His carefree and unpretentious way of talking about human death... Reminds me of a certain someone, his way of disdaining life... His almost childish way of thinking but at the same time as if he knew everything about human life... He reminds me of Mahito!' - Itadori said after taking another blow.

'I need to concentrate!' - Itadori said after taking a blow to the face - "How annoying, you regenerate very quickly!" - said the Caster master. - 'I remember a situation similar to this, it was the day I entered the Jujutsu school, Professor Yaga taught me this...'. - thought Itadori.

The boy closed his eyes. - 'I need to stay calm, facing a situation like this can be scary, but it's important that I stay calm and try to think clearly to find a way out.' - Itadori said after taking a harder hit, but managed not to fall.

'There's no way I can seek help outside this domain, so I'll have to fend for myself here. Exploring the environment I realized something, the more I walk, the environment gets fainter... there is also something that moves with me, something is following me.' - thought Itadori after receiving another punch.

'Using my senses, I realize that I don't smell anything. I don't feel the presence of the enemy, but if I stay quiet, I hear their footsteps, it's very difficult to hear, but I can hear them.' - the boy with his eyes closed heard the sounds of footsteps and tentacles crawling.

'I need to improvise some weapon... Create some trap using my power to deceive him.' - After using the full potential of his brain, Itadori began to act.

Itadori placed both hands on the ground to test his strategy. - "I apparently can't use it here..." - the pink-haired boy closed his eyes again to concentrate his senses.

'It's the first time I'm going to use Choso's super nova.' - a huge amount of blood appeared on his back, similar to wings. - 'Now I'm going to compress them, and make them tiny.' - after decreasing the compressed blood, it multiplied into several tiny red blood cells.

Itadori hears the sounds of footsteps, still with his eyes closed, the pink-haired boy simply avoids the blow that would be thrown at him. Unfortunately for the Caster Master, there was a small red blood cell next to him, it doubles in size and explodes. - "Huh?! " - said the voice. - 'I hope you're happy, Choso. I learned a lot thanks to you...' - Itadori thought.

Even though it was invisible, the blood that exploded exposed its real location. - "I FOUND YOU!" - Itadori said, seeing his plan to expose the location of the mysterious boy was successful, he punched him right in the chest. Almost making the Caster master faint.

His appearance is finally revealed, he was a boy with red hair and wore purple clothes. - "You... You're just a brat!" - Itadori said after giving the boy another blow to the chest.

The boy flies away, seeing that his fun is over, he decides to leave. - "T-thank you for ruining everything! You're really awkward, but it's okay. We'll see each other again... By the way, my name is Ryuunosuke. See you!" - said the boy after simply disappearing from the domain.

The other red blood cells exploded exposing the mysterious creature's location. - "Well... It looks like there's only the two of us left." - said Itadori after creating a kind of blood sword.

The boy runs towards the creature. The monster tries to attack from afar with one of its tentacles, Itadori just dodges and uses his sword to cut the creature's tentacle. The creature's appearance has been revealed. It was a monster full of thorny tentacles, it did not have a humanoid body, the center of the body was a mouth full of pointy teeth.

"Let's just get this over with!" - Itadori jumps on top of the creature and uses his sword to hit the center of its body. The boy no longer had difficulty killing Curses. The blood sword pierced through the monster's body and tore it completely apart.

After killing the creature, Itadori was alone. - "Okay... I have an idea how to get out of here." - the boy started running at high speed.

Back to the forest.

"Woman, I have a question. Apparently, the three of you defied me... To protect Emiya Kiritsugu, but... Whose will was that?" - said Kirei, hanging Irisviel.

"Since you have Command Seals, you are the master of one of the servants. I just need to know who it is. Something tells me you are in charge of protecting the container of the Cup. Someone like him would never be stupid enough to risk fighting in the lines head on. I will ask again, woman. Under whose orders did you face me?" - said Kirei, still choking Irisviel. Maya gaining some consciousness, holds Kirei's leg.

"Kirei-sama. Caster, Lancer and their Master have already left this forest. Soon Saber and the mysterious servant will arrive here. It is dangerous to stay here, my master." - Kirei's servant said. The man steps on Maya to knock her out again and uses his swords to pierce Irisviel in the stomach.

Irisviel screams in pain and squirts blood from her mouth. - "I see... So it's red?" - said Kirei. - "I-Itadori....YUJI! COME HERE!" - Irisviel used all the strength in her body to scream and call Itadori with her Command Seal. Her hand began to glow, indicating that she used her first Command Seal.

Within the domain.

Itadori was still running at high speed, until he felt something. - "I-Itadori....YUJI! COME HERE!" -It was a recognizable voice, it was Irisviel, his master. The boy felt as if his body was possessed by something. His only desire at that moment was to save Irisviel. - "My master is calling me!"

Itadori started to run faster, almost the speed of light. He needed to get out of there as quickly as possible, his body was asking him to, his body was asking to go to Irisviel, she was in danger. The hold was getting weaker and weaker, until it broke, thus releasing Itadori from this damn cage.

"I'M COMING!" - Itadori said running desperately, he returned to that dark forest. He felt his master's presence, she was very weak, but he could still feel it.

Several thoughts came to the boy's mind, something told him the worst possible fate, told him that he would lose someone again, he was fed up with it. Running at high speed between the trees, Itadori feels three more presences.

One of them was from a Servant. - "Don't tell me it's Caster! Arturia lost the battle?!" - Itadori said. When he arrived at the place, he saw it. It was the scenario he imagined, he saw Irisviel and Maya lying on the ground bleeding.

Irisviel was pierced by several swords and was lying on the ground. Itadori was still running when he saw this whole scene, all that was going through Yuji's mind was...

'I'm going to kill this guy!'

End of chapter 8