Thirteen cards laid in a row in front of Shimizu. With their faces blank and their backs painted black, showing only a simple gold ring symbol, they provided no clue about what they were apparently supposed to do.
But, instinctively, from the moment the cards appeared and he acquired his new Curse Technique, Shimizu seemed to have been stuffed with information on how to use it directly into his brain as though it were something he had since birth.
With no hesitation, he reached out a hand and pulled out a card.
...
Far away in Tokyo, Geto Suguru, who had just come out of the principal's office, was blankly staring at his phone, contemplating whether to call his neighbors and check in with his younger brother or not.
He had just passed the principal's strange test and was set to attend Jujutsu High a year from now along with two others. But before that, he was given a set of textbooks which introduced the situation of the Jujutsu society and curses to study.
Along with that, during the year before he was set to study in the High School, there would be teachers who would teach him to fight curses when they were free.
That meant, he would have less time to spend with his younger brother than he already did. He was already spending too little time with him as it was, with him having to go to Middle School and leaving his brother to the care of his neighbors, the Saiki family, who fortunately, didn't ask too many questions.
Right now, he fully regrets not giving his younger brother his own phone. Suguru sighed, stuffing his phone in his pocket and hauling the stack of textbooks out.
Unknown to him, at an unseen corner of the corridor, a pair of crystalline blue eyes were watching him curiously.
...
"We got kicked out." There's a weird smell.
"..." The weather seems nice today.
"Your parents kicked us out." Is there a sewer nearby?
"..." So far, no disaster that required his intervention has happened.
"They said they were going to do something that kids aren't supposed to know." Wow, it kinda stinks here.
"..." Eating coffee jelly in this weather must be nice.
"They kicked us out because they want to secretly do something Adults Only and we're being a bother!" Passing by a children's playground, a certain blue-eyed, black haired 5 year old shouted, causing a few nearby adults to raise an eyebrow in concern. Though, they soon looked away in confusion after Saiki forcefully made them ignore what happened.
"Yare-yare." He shook his head, inwardly agreeing that his parents could be too much sometimes.
He could be enjoying his coffee jelly right now while playing his newly bought game but his parents just had to destroy that because they needed some alone time that they could have gotten in any hotel. And they couldn't even be bothered to make an acceptable, child-friendly excuse. Just why?
Saiki and Shimizu sighed at the same time, sharing a similar helpless feeling.
Passing by a restaurant which was mysteriously closed despite it being lunch time on a weekday, Shimizu pulled Saiki to sit down on a shaded bench. Is there a public bathroom nearby?
"Kusuo-nii, can you smell anything?" Shimizu crinkled his nose, looking around for the source of the stench. "Like a really stinky smell."
"I can't smell anything." Saiki's nose twitched, as if trying to catch the smell the boy was talking about. "What does it smell like?"
"It's kinda like a really bad case of diarrhe-" Suddenly his words paused.
From the corner of his eye, Shimizu saw something move at the back of Saiki's shirt. Immediately, the topic flew out of his head and all his attention was focused on that particular location.
"Kusuo-nii, I'm going to tell you something but you must promise me that you won't panic and teleport to Antarctica." Shimizu said slowly, his face donning a solemn expression unfit for a child his age.
(What is it?) This time, the question was spoken directly into his brain.
"There's a spider on your back."
"Ah." And just like that, Kusuo was gone.
"..." With dead fish-like eyes, Shimizu stared at the now empty space beside him before gradually furrowing his brows and shouting in exaggerated grief. "Kusuo-nii!! You promised!!!"
This was bad.
Originally, this forced outing should have been simple. Just take a walk around the neighborhood, eat lunch outside, go to an arcade or something, and come back before dinner time.
But, now, his reliable guard disappeared and he was left alone. A weak, helpless 5 year old who was so cute and lovable that people can't help but want to kidnap him immediately and take him home! Soon, he'll be surely be taken away by some stranger with weird hobbies of collecting cute children!
And it was all because of a spider! Why?!
Also, why is it so stinky?!
Finally, Shimizu couldn't help but complain about the stench, pinching his nose with a disgusted expression. It was like someone had diarrhea and the latrine was left open to dry in the sun.
And the worst part was that, no matter where he went, the scent seemed to follow him everywhere. Why was he the only one who seemed to be able to smell it?!
"Uuoohhh... Bad food, bad food..." Suddenly, a groaning voice was heard coming from the closed restaurant. "There's... A worm in my soup!!!"
"Huh..?" As a strange monster appeared from the shadows of the restaurant, Shimizu tilted his head in confusion, checking to see if anyone else could see it and belatedly realized that he was the only person in the entire street.
CRASH!
And the world just had to prove that bad situations often came hand in hand with even worse situations.
With the ear-splitting sound of glass shattering, an ugly curse which looked like a giant worm with a cockroach's upper body began wriggling towards the dazed boy.
"It's... super ugly." Taking a few steps back to avoid the flying glass shards, Shimizu looked at the... thing with a dull expression, not knowing what exactly he was looking at. "Oi, I'm not exactly sure what you were going for here. Whether it's a worm or a cockroach, you should choose one or the other. Don't just put two together and hope it works. You're not Frankenstein."
Speaking of Frankenstein...
Seeming to be unable to comprehend his words, the ugly monster mindlessly lunged towards the boy, causing him to have to dodge and roll to the side.
"Oh, I remember!" Dusting off the dust on his clothes, Shimizu sat cross-legged on the pavement and knocked his fist on his palm. "You're that curse thingy that the brother stealing old man talked about! As he said, you really are ugly."
The boy nodded to himself, sniffed proudly, and immediately contorted his face. "And very stinky too. Eugh!"
"Manager! Manager! Food... POISONING KEUK-KRUUU!!!"
Enraged with it's target's nonchalant attitude, the curse screeched loudly, chasing after the boy who seemed to be dodging it with ease.
"Ah, I really didn't want to run around today! I feel so sweaty and sticky now." Shimizu pouted and complained as he rolled under the bench which was soon demolished by the curse. "I guess it can't be helped."
With a helpless smile, the boy distanced himself from the curse and clapped his hand once before spreading them apart, and, like a magic trick, thirteen cards appeared in the space between his two hands, floating as though gravity didn't exist.
Though, except for a single card in the middle, all of them were blank, but that didn't matter. Just that one card was enough.
In truth, he didn't plan on using his Curse Technique yet. The original plan was supposed to be him surprising his older brother after he came back home later today by staging a (Surprise! Your cutest younger brother suddenly awakened his Cursed Technique because he was so happy to see you!) play and then it would end with them hugging and cuddling sweetly.
But, now, because of the appearance of this no name curse which didn't even deserve a name in the end credits and can only be said to be the most extra amongst the extras, his plan had to change. So to say, he was really annoyed right now.
"Summon." The word was squeezed through gritted teeth, revealing the speakers actual mood even though he was still smiling. As soon as the word was spoken, the cards released a golden glow, like a sleeping creature which had just been woken up.
"Kaonashi."
Rising into the air, the chosen card separated from the deck and quickly grew in size, immediately surpassing the height of a normal adult and turned into an ominous black door which slowly creaked open.
"Ouhm..?"