"SATORU!"x3
The scream is a three-part harmony of pure disbelief. Shoko's voice is sharp with terror; Suguru's is a raw, guttural roar; and mine is a choked, stunned sound, unable to process how Satoru could lose so easily, and so suddenly.
The dust from the impact hasn't even begun to settle. The reinforced concrete wall at the edge of the park is spider-webbed with deep craters where Satoru—the man who is supposed to become the strongest—is buried in the rubble.
The fake "God" can now utilize the Maidens' techniques, and it can use them instantly unlike the Maiden's, making it far more deadly.
The Curse doesn't even look back at the carnage. It knows the "Strongest" among us is neutralized.
Instead, it tilts its pale, elongated head toward the sky, its gaze scanning my Balloons. Then, with a crack of its neck, it snaps its focus toward me and Suguru.
It raises its tentacles, the bone-spikes beginning to glow. It's channeling the Maidens' other ability, the Golden Blast.
"WALLS!" I hurriedly prepared myself for the incoming attack.
Four three-meter tall, dark-grey Walls slam into the pavement back-to-back just as the God fires.
It isn't the orb-like projectile from before; the attack has evolved into a barrage of high-temperature, laser-like bullets.
I crouch behind my barrier, sensing the attack's arrival. The first two Walls don't crack—they melt.
High-temperature, laser-like bullets bore a half-meter hole through the two-foot-thick stone as if it were wax.
They whistle through the gaps, slamming into my final barrier. I can hear the rock screaming as it liquefies halfway through, the sizzling heat stopping just inches from my face.
To my right, Suguru doesn't bother blocking the attack like I do; he simply jumps out of the way , to avoid the impact altogether.
"I've got it!" I yell, bracing against the heat.
But the God is smarter than we thought. The primary beams were a feint to keep us pinned. Its tentacles has also fires leading shots into the sky.
BOOM.
BOOM.
BOOM.
BOOM.
BOOM.
One by one, my five Balloons vanish in a series of violent, fiery pops.
Suddenly, Suguru's Samurai spirit lunges forward, aiming to bisect a tentacle while it is still in its firing motion, but the blade simply bounces off a shimmering golden barrier.
The God raises a secondary tentacle and fires a concentrated beam; the Samurai manages to deflect the blast with its rusting sword, but a third tentacle pierces through the spirit's stomach. With a sickening flick, the God flings the Samurai aside.
Ignoring us entirely, the Curse swivels its gaze toward Miko and Shoko.
"No..." I gasp, getting a bad premonition.
The God's torso twists, its dozen tentacles weaving together into two massive, pulsing limbs. They begin to gather a large amount of energy, preparing to fire two massive blasts which are many times stronger and bigger then before.
The walls won't be able to defend against it.
One targeted at Miko, who stands paralyzed in terror. The other at Shoko, who is positioned beside the Barbarian I have earlier switched places with.
The dilemma hits me like a physical blow.
If I jump for Miko, Shoko dies. If I stay to shield Shoko, Miko is erased from existence. Shoko is a friend, but...
... I like Miko-chan.
"EMIYA, PROTECT SHOKO!" Suguru roars.
He doesn't wait for an answer. He throws himself into a sprint toward Miko.
I spin, heart hammering. The blast is almost ready to fire. There's no time to run. I use the Switch on myself, switching places with the barbarian right next to her.
PEW! PEW!
The Ultra Golden Blasts fire. I hurriedly seize Shoko's hand and force a Switch with the Barbarian. I don't even know if it will work, but my techniques are working with the 120% output from the earlier Black Flash, making the impossible possible.
We vanish just as the golden light occupies the space where our hearts had been a millisecond before. But the timing is dangerously tight.
"AAAAAHHHHHH"
Just as the teleportation takes hold, the edge of the blast grazes my right leg. The heat is beyond agony. The flesh and bone of my ankle are vaporized instantly, leaving a charred, hollow gap. I fall to the floor, my foot is left hanging by a gruesome thread of blackened sinew and a fragment of shattered bone.
Across from us, the second Blast that has reached Miko. Suguru has reached her a fraction of a second before impact, wrapping his arms around her with his back to the searing light.
And, they both flickered and reappeared back at his previous position. His Gorilla Curse has used its technique—Classroom.
Although they are saved, the timing was razor-thin; the blast has touched his back just before the teleportation took hold. His Cursed Energy reinforcement is strong, the only thing that kept the beam from evaporating him completely.
But he doesn't come out unscathed. The entirety of his back is a map of charred, weeping burns. Suguru coughs a violent spray of blood onto Miko's shoulder before his eyes roll back, his body going limp over hers as he collapses into the dirt.
The park falls into a ringing silence, broken only by the God's skeleton, rhythmic clicking.
SHOKO POV
EMIYA.
I stare down at his leg, and the air leaves my lungs.
I've been able to use Reverse Cursed Technique since I was a child. Because of that gift, I've been treated as the ultimate asset to my clan—a future crown jewel of the Jujutsu world.
I've seen a thousand wounds, and I've seen just as many people risk their lives to shield me. But they always did it because they had to. They did it because I was a resource too valuable to lose.
But this?
This is different.
I've never seen someone—without any clan obligation, without any strategic motive—simply break themselves so willingly for me.
He isn't protecting some "RCT Prodigy."
He's protecting me.
Half of his ankle is simply gone—evaporated into a charred, hollow gap. Blood is finally beginning to hiss as it soaks into the ground, yet he hasn't let go. His fingers are still clamped around mine, the same hand that reached out to snatch me from the path of certain death.
He's not a hero. He isn't some knight in shining armor from the stories. He's just a teenager who, two months ago, was living a normal life. I can see the jagged edges of terror in his eyes every time we face something powerful; he's human, and he's afraid.
But he fights anyway. He fights bravely whenever it matters, and now, he's saved me twice.
I reach out, my own fingers shaking as they hover over the ruined mass of his ankle.
....EMIYA.
A profound, shocked realization washes over me, something that goes far deeper than simple gratitude or concern. I'm looking at a boy who is terrified to die, yet he still has reached out to me knowing he can die.
MIKO POV
I'm pinned. The weight of this boy body is unbearably heavy—and the heat of the blood soaking into my school uniform is a terrifying, sticky warmth.
Ever since I first started seeing them, my life has been a silent, waking nightmare. I lived every second behind a mask of glass, pretending I couldn't see the rotting faces in the crowd or the many-eyed horrors clinging to the ceilings.
I knew, with a cold and hollow certainty, that one day the glass would shatter. I'd be caught, and I'd die a gruesome death—dragged into the shadows to be eaten alive, watching my own life being consumed by this monsters.
But then... I met Emiya.
He was a stranger who looked so cold and scary at first, like someone who had already seen the end of his life and didn't care. But he was the first person to actually help me. He has saved me. He told me about this hidden world of Cursed and Sorcerers and promised I could learn to fight back.
He's a "good person"—probably the best I've ever met. Even when sometimes he's clearly just as clueless as I am, he puts on that mask of a seasoned sorcerer, pretending he has all the answers.
He reminds me of Kyosuke.
But now, he is bleeding over their; half of his leg is almost gone, and he's crying out in agonizing pain.
And he has such great friends around him. They came to help him—to help me—with just a single phone call.
There is Gojo-san, whome I have met before, who is incredibly annoying and never stops talking, but I can tell he's a gentle person at heart.
Then there is the girl with the brown hair. Earlier when fighting, she looked so detached and spoke so coldly, and seeing how the other three fight on the front lines while keeping her in the back for support, I can tell she isn't very strong. But it doesn't matter. She still ran into this nightmare to help him, regardless of the danger.
And this strange boy, whose name I didn't even know... he risked his life to save me.
Now, he's bleeding on top of me, his back a map of charred ruins because he chose to be my shield. I stare at his unconscious face, the features softened by the shadow of the monster looming over their. The terror that usually freezes my joints begins to shift. It turns into something heavy, hot, and utterly overwhelming.
It isn't just fear anymore; it's a desperate, burning rejection of "Curses."
How dare it? How dare it break the only people who ever tried to help me?
I can see the shadow of the giant Curse hanging over them. I don't close my eyes this time. I don't pretend I can't see it. I reach out, my small hand trembling as I brush the blood from this boy's cheek, and I stare directly into the Curse horrific face.
"I've had enough of you all," I muttered.
Something in me awakened.
EMIYA POV
My vision is blurring. Satoru is down. Suguru is down.
"Shoko..." I wheeze, my voice hoarse from the pain. "...Take ...Miko–..chan ... over their.. and run.....I ....will create an.... opening for..yo—."
The Curse jumps, closing the distance in a single leap to appear barely five meters from Shoko and me.
Its massive face splits into a hideous, mocking grin, savoring the sight of its broken prey. It raises the combined, colossal tentacle once more, the golden energy reaching a blinding, high-pitched hum as it prepares a point-blank execution.
"Don't... underestimate me..." I wheeze, my vision tunneling into a dark pinprick. "I won't... die... agn."
My mind flashes back to that first, pathetic death—the slip, the 'banana peel', the sheer, humiliating absurdity of it.
DEPLOY BARBARIANS!
But in my half-conscious delirium, my focus slips. I miss the familiar troops and reach into the very bottom of the barracks, dragging out a unit I haven't touched since the moment I unlocked them.
I don't even know what they are capable of. In my fading state, I'm not even able to summon the all 35 of them.
Only a fragmented few Ten small, green shadows flicker into existence. To a Special Grade "Curse" of this calibre, they look like pathetic pests. It doesn't even bother to dodge or block as they scramble up its legs like lice.
Against a Jujutsu sorcerer, they wouldn't be anything more than a nuisance. But to a Curse made of pure Curse Energy?
They are Parasites.
They don't attack.They begin sucking the Cursed Energy directly out of the God's body.
For a being made of Curse Energy, it is like suddenly removing the cells from human body.
The Goblins' bags bloat, beginning to glow with a sickly, stolen violet.
"Aragabs..." the Curse gurgles, its movements slowing as its attack cancels and it becomes momentarily powerless.
Its form begins to destabilize under the alien sensation of its Cursed Energy being siphoned away.
To any weaker curse, this would have been the end—but this is a Special Grade. It possesses a vast, churning ocean of energy, and even as the Goblins drain it, the "God" begins to adapt, recovering it's energy just as fast as it is being eaten.
With a shuddering effort, it forces its massive tentacle upward again. The movement is sluggish, fighting the parasitic drain, but it remains lethal.
It hangs over us like the sword of Damocles. I can't move; my leg is still useless.
In a final act of seeking comfort, I pull Shoko closer.
"It was great knowing you all," I whisper.
If Satoru or even Suguru is still available we would have won.
Suddenly, the shadow shifts and I open my almost closed eyes. A small, trembling figure lunges into the space between us and the monster.
It's Miko.
Her hands are cupped together, cradling an orb of terrifying, ethereal light.
"I HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF ALL OF YOU!"
She screams, her voice shaking the very foundations of the Curtain. She throws her hands forward, and the God's mass begins to distort, its physical form being dragged toward the light she holds.
It struggles, fighting the suction while simultaneously recovering from the Goblin drain.
Seeing the opening, I muster the last of my strength—a reservoir I didn't even know I possessed. I force my mind into the housing space one last time, summoning the remaining twenty-five Goblins.
All thirty-five Goblins are now latched onto the fake 'God', their violet-glowing bags pulsing in a frantic rhythm. The energy drain accelerates, rendering the 'God' completely powerless.
With Miko's and my final, synchronized scream of."DIEEE!"
The God's form collapses. It is sucked entirely into the light in Miko's hands, vanishing into it.
The silence that follows is deafening. My consciousness begins to slip, the world fading to a dull grey.
"EMIYA!"
Shoko's voice is the last thing I hear before the darkness takes me.
(Author note: Many of you might be dissatisfied with this Chapter, but this is the reality of the Jujutsu world. You don't get everything you desire just because you're the Main Character.
And some real life advice: If you like someone, show your intentions. Don't be the kind of person who hides how they feel forever; who knows if she will see you as a brother if you keep being a nice guy without showing anything romantic. Life is too short to hide behind a mask.
This is not a NTR.
AND none of it has happened to me😑😑.)