Curses

*****

Yuuka's very being jolted against the sudden intrusion of a foreign energy, one that is malignant and alive.

A soul.

Every fiber that made Yuuka Yuuka fought against the intruder that is until it tried to take over her human shell in a bid to possess and conquer. And for a moment, Yuuka let her control slip and she fell, the struggle ended and so does the pain of having something else squeeze in with her soul.

Yuuka sank and when she opened her eyes, she was now in a place that could be called a demon's territory.

She ignored the mad cackling that she can hear pounding at her ears in turn for observing her new environment.

It was red. Very red and gory and grand in a horrific way. It's like something out of the mind of a Horror Novelist ideal setting for a demon/monster's lair. The pool of muddled blood lapped against her ankles and the overarching gigantic rib cage above made quite the interesting sight, the demonic shrine at the middle was a nice touch to the throne of bones before her.

But really. The bone aesthetic is too much for her, even for someone like Yuuka who used to go by the name Skull. Whoever owns this place is probably someone who wants to be seen as very intimidating and demonic, the desecrated shrine with teeth sells that point.

Yuuka gives this terrain a 6.6666663/10, too many bones for her, too wet and smelling of too much iron too. Bleh. Even when she was the height of insanity centuries ago, she never bathed in blood nor did she drink it to keep herself young as the rumors suggested.

(Her fairness and youth is all thanks to the cheat of her magical soul fire. Hmm… she may or may have not stroked the flames of a vampire's existence. Really, she was not wrong in letting that cute Irish writer see her come back to life. He made quite the Magnum Opus out of one of her infamous identities.)

Sheesh, does the person who owns this place don't know the wonder of a cliche cushiony Evil Demon Throne™, where do they even sit in here?

Having seen enough, Yuuka wastes no time and tugs down the thing that tried to occupy her body and it fell down with a yelp, cutting off the thing's villain monologue.

When she is seeing through her eyes again she is greeted to the gruesome sight of globs smeared everywhere, bulbous eyes scattered on the forest floor alongside fallen trees, that are either dismantled or charred. The things are already turning into ash, meaning that they're all dead. 

Huh. 

Whatever occupied her had a knack for destruction, but the worst of all is,

"MY FAVORITE HOODIE AND CUTE PAJAMAS!"

Yuuka stands in the middle of the forest, her stomach bare to the world with her top ripped off like confetti on the ground. The saving grace of her modesty is that at least her cute bralette – with teddy bear patterns ehe – remained intact along with her pajama bottoms.

Grrrrrr…. This is all her new neighbor's fault! The freaking body snatcher! How can he just ruin her favorite clothes just like that! And how can he do something weird right as he wakes up? Are they some kind of exhibitionist? Can't they tell that they just took over a prepubescent girl? Oh, oh, oh what if the thing is a pedophile? 

…

…

…

…

…

Ew.

If that's the case, Yuuka has to eradicate the thing from her body. That's just gross. Bleh. But that should be easy enough to just— 

"What the fuck."

A deep and dark voice, akin to freshly brewed dark roast coffee. If a cup of espresso had a voice, this one would be it.

(It. Because she doesn't want to assume you know, and it is most certainly not human. So, it, it is for now, unless it tells her otherwise.)

Strange. Yuuka knows that she's all alone, except for her new body tenant. And that certainly did not come from inside her head, she would know if that's the case, rather, the voice came out from the open. From her to be exact, but not from her own mouth.

Hmmm…

Wait, why is she seeing things even clearer when she's not using her Flames to– wait, why did her right cheek moved in an odd way when–

SLAP!

"Shit! Are you crazy brat?!" A mouth sprouted to the hand Yuuka used to slap her cheek.

She took away the hand on her face and glared at it, puffing out her cheeks, one which is fully red with a handprint, the mark is already fading away.

"Hey like you're one to talk! You ripped off my clothes like some exhibitionist! Who even does that?!" Yuuka points at her right hand with an accusing finger.

The grown mouth on it sneers at her.

What a brat.

"How are you even doing this? How is a little wench like you suppressing me?" The velvety voice drips condescension and arrogance, and if it isn't currently on her body, Yuuka would have slapped it out of the creature. Literally.

And how dare it call her a little wench, she'll show it who's boss.

Yuuka huffs. "What else could be the reason?" One pink eyebrow rises. "Because I'm stronger than you." Duh.

The hand mouth scoffs and starts laughing. It was mocking her.

"Oh really now? If I remember correctly, you were having trouble with these low level curses and had to resort to consuming me." Ha! As if. And curses, so that's what those blobs are called.

"No I wasn't. I didn't consume you because I was having trouble. I was—"

Something rushed behind her, its intent clear as her instincts flared from sensing possible harm.

Yuuka doesn't even bother facing it. She absentmindedly flicks a finger to its, the curse's, direction.

"–just curious."

Behind her left flank, the creature bursts into messy chunks.

The demon curse thing residing in her body seemed surprised, she doesn't know if it was by her performance or her answer.

The thing scowls.

"So, killing a Grade 2 should be special or something?"

Yuuka is starting to get annoyed. What the fuck does it mean by Grade 2? Do these globs go to school or something? She doesn't think they're intelligent enough for that. Or maybe it's just talking about their power level.

"Look pal, I'm not trying to prove anything to you nor should I prove anything to you. But the fact stands." She grins but more like baring teeth, her eyes glittering in the darkness with an orange inferno intermingled with brilliant amethyst.

"I am the greatest."

The four spoken words held great weight behind them, the world seamlessly echoing the sentiment of her declaration, recognizing the one who resonates, the one it had chosen to continue the balance. The harmony. The cycle.

This world might not be the same as her old one, but it still has quite the same system.

And to make the very long story short, the world loves her, she's the only one that can hear their voice, the only one who can listen to their will and understand it. That's why she has the Voice of the World – or Omnia as she likes to call them – as her own personal warning system in any case that she faces danger. And right now, Omnia is both pissed and amused at her decision to eat the crusty soapy finger.

Whatever. The least that the world can do for her for always whispering to her ears is to let her bouts of insanity go. It's the least thing they could do for chaining her to them just because they love her so much.

(And it's not a stretch to say that her insanity and love for chaos all stemmed from their veiled whispers. There's just so much worldly secrets, truths, a being could take before they spiral down to madness.)

The cursed creature must have sensed the unusual response of everything to her declarative sentence, its laser focus suddenly bound to her.

"What…" Its tone shifted to interest and a demand. "Are you?"

Yuuka snorts.

"Honestly, I don't know that myself even after several millennia have passed." She looks up beyond the skyline, the stars winking at her musing, the echoes of their laughter a distant thing. They're all dead anyways. "But then again, I didn't bother to learn for all those centuries, and I'm not going to start now." 

A breeze blows, caressing her cheeks lovingly, whispers of the winds, the forest, the earth, and the creatures within go ignored to someone who was born to hear their voices. She used to listen to them attentively when she was young and lonely, trying to parse through their cluttered messages and vague words and even goes so far as to answer, but now she lets it all flow around her like white noise.

Yet even with her ambivalence and passiveness, they continue to love her, even knowing that she herself loathes and loves them for what their love entails.

(They turned her into something else. Not quite a human and yet not quite a monster. She's something more than that. Something great and terrifying.)

"After all, mystery is half of Life's adventure."

Her guest stays quiet.

Deciding that there's nothing for her to do in the forest, she starts her trek home at high speeds, careful to not step into a light source with her current state of undress. Who knows what humans might see her and get herself labeled as an exhibitionist. There's not many pink haired teenage girls around her town, so if anyone sees her, they would instantly know it is her.

Yuuka lets her Flames wash over her in comfort to the cold night breeze that threatens gooseflesh on her skin. The being inside her seems to relax and tense at the comforting warmth she subconsciously provided, wary at how it made it feel. 

In under a minute, she's back in her room, no sign of her excursion aside from her windswept hair and half nakedness. Yuuka can feel her new bodymate observing her space, taking in the pastel purple walls with idol groups and anime posters, her gauzy white curtains with a sakura printed pattern, her veritable collection of soft plushies on her bed, two bookshelves filled with books, mangas and magazines and to the other wall where her ukulele and guitar was displayed, her electric piano that was given by one of her Jii-chan's friend and her study desk where her laptop and her finished lay. It was a decent sized room that fits all her wants without being too cramped, her Gramps told her that it used to be her Father's room when he was still under his roof.

Her guest appears curious, fascinated with the unfamiliar objects that littered her organized room. Shrugging to herself, Yuuka makes way to the family bathroom, taking a change of sleepwear as she goes. 

A shower would be great, she feels icky all over and it had more to do with her current passenger rather than being drenched by the curse remnants.

"You better not peek at me, pal." Yuuka says out loud, staring at herself in the bathroom mirror.

And wow, she has an extra set of eyes underneath her regular ones, it's blood red and staring at her intently. Trying to decipher her from gaze alone.

A mouth full of sharp teeth forms on her left cheek. It scoffs and its mouth curls into a snarl.

"As if there's anything to look at in a chit like you."

Oh, Demon Curse creature has quite the attitude, as expected from someone that reeks of all things evil and shit. Hmmm… is this being perhaps the Big Bad of this Plane of Existence. It seems like the final villain in some shounen anime so that might exactly be the case.

Plus, Yuuka's Intuition and Omnia – Voice of the World – is telling her to be cautious and to eradicate this being Immediately with a capital, italicized and bold I.

But instead of listening to their sage and reasonable advice, she glares at her reflection and into those cold red eyes.

"Hey you, I'm still growing, you know!" She pouts with all the petulance of a preteen girl. "You'll take those words back once I'm an adult and the greatest Idol ever."

The being just scoffs, rolls its eyes and disappears. The lids under her eyes closed, looking like a pair of identical scars. She tsked and pinched it with her fingers, grimacing at it. Because an Idol's face is part of their selling point, it's the first thing that people see and judge them for.

Yuuka can distinctly feel her passenger observing her, its tone amused by her predicament.

Gah! What a nasty creature!

Well, it's a good thing that Yuuka has an all cure for any sort of blemish or wound. She's actually surprised that it stayed on her because her body just automatically heals itself from anything and everything. But the existence of not just one, but two, sitting on her face is a new experience. From her years of continued existence, if she wants something to scar, she would have to consciously stop her Flames from healing it, tedious but sometimes she just wants to have a cool scar okay!

(The coolest one she had is when she was a noble lady, the executioner thought she died when he chopped her head off, but instead she slunk away when they buried her and for a while she pretended to be the ghost of her falsely accused self haunting the castle walls, singing, sometimes crying or even dancing. The results of her stunts were the funniest shit she's ever seen. It even intrigued a famous detective that later on cleared her name. That one was a good life.)

Time to get that scar off her face, heh, that will show it. How rude, it didn't even introduce itself when it's the one barging inside her body!

Yuuka casually sets her face on fire and she vaguely hears her very rude guest choke on something inside her head space. She felt her skin knit together into one before casting out her Flames when the job's done. Curiously, there is a thin, curved white line in place of it, almost unnoticeable if she wasn't looking closely. 

"That's new." She does it again, only this time she's focusing on what she wants to heal, but no matter how long her abnormal Flames try to heal it, it won't disappear.

Another point is notched to her rude guest's intrusion.

"This is all your fault." Yuuka says quietly as she glares at her reflection, hoping that it would redirect to her current audience. Said audience is more than confused with her and curious for who she really is.

It's not wary nor is it alarmed with her abilities. It's too arrogant about its own strength to be cautious of what she is.

(It'll soon see why it should be.)

It's not important that the fact stands that she was the one to invite her rude guest in via ingesting it.

With one final pout and huff, Yuuka entered the shower to just get it over with.

She wants to talk face to face with the entity she voluntarily hosted, and Yuuka's not facing it while smelling like the foul curse thingies. Very Rude Guest better be grateful she has yet to exorcize it out of her body! Or else she'll do it for realsies if it pissed her off enough.