Akumu immediately turned around and started to run, but once he looked behind him, Misoto was getting ready to fight the curse user instead.
'What the hell is he doing??'
Of course, he quickly figured it out. Staying to fight would guarantee both of their deaths before a Sorcerer could come help them, but if they both ran, he could easily catch up and stab them both in the backs. In the end, one of them had to stay behind so that the other could have enough time to escape the school.
'Why did you have to make things so difficult??'
Akumu quickly rushed through the school, and even jumped through a window to save time. He quickly aimed for the destroyed gates the second he caught a glimpse of it. But then, a volley of swords spawned above his head, which made him panic.
He tried to dodge as best as he could, but he was cut and slashed in several places making him slow down.
If he was being attacked all the way from there, then Misoto...
'No.. I can't afford thoughts like those right now.. I have to keep pushing!'
Even more swords spawned, but this time he was too slow to dodge them as well as he did before. His body sustained even more cuts and wound, making his movements grow sluggish and poor. But even then, he kept moving.
None of them hit him critically, but carefully targeted so he wouldn't get off minimally either.
'This bastard.. he's toying with me. The second I cross that gate.. he'll kill me.'
But he still didn't give up. He needed to keep going, he had to keep going. Even if death was staring at him in the face, he needed to look at it too, just like Misoto did.
And then he finally made it. Just one more step. One more step and he could leave this dreadful place.
He reached his hand out and, but he could only feel the freezing glass surface in front of him. Around this entire school, something like a large dome had trapped everything inside. It was as if they were all pets in a hamster cage. Then, the reality dawned upon him.
"No.. No No No No No No No No No .. WHY!? A BARRIER!?"
This wasn't just any regular barrier, but a reverse curtain. Even today, curtains were used to draw hiding cursed spirits into the open, by trapping them in a barrier which made the sky as dark as night. But 100 years ago, they were also used to prevent normal people from seeing Sorcerers battle spirits.
A reverse curtain in this case, flipped the curtain, to make it so that anyone trapped inside would not notice it being summoned. But it appeared to have been modified, to make it so that even Jujutsu sensitive people like Misoto and Akumu couldn't see it too.
"Why did he use it? If he just wanted to trap us, he could've used a normal barrier..."
The answer was obvious. It was to inflict despair. So that if any cockroach were to somehow even escape the initial massacre, they would reach the edge of the barrier, and realise the futility of it all anyway.
All curse users were cruel, and this one was no exception.
Then, Akumu heard the sound of two footsteps approach him from behind.
The sorcerer stood there smiling at the boy, holding Dojima's severed head in his right arm.
"Well you see, this is something called a practical joke. A certain clown taught it to me a long time ago, so I'd thought I'd try it out today."
"Misoto...", Akumu whispered.
***
Akumu looked down on himself terribly. He was too weak to fight for himself or his dead family. And even the friends he once had began to make fun of him, however in that dark time in his life he still had some hope.
"HE'S STILL STRONGER THAN ALL OF YOU GUYS HERE!"
Misoto was the only one who supported him since that time in his life. When he had no one else to turn to, he was there to support him. But now the last connection to his humanity and life was dead.
**
"So are you just gonna sit there like some garbage?", the voices whispered.
He looked up, and found he himself in what appeared to be a void with nothing but white. In front of him, was a copy of himself. He was a perfect reflection of Akumu except for one stark difference, which was the eyes of pure darkness which he held. With that, it would be more accurate to call him a shadow rather than a reflection.
"This is our limit Akumu Saigo. Our life ends here. Misoto and the whole school is dead. Even if we survive we will truly have nothing. Not even a life to return to so, please let's give up. The suffering we have endured is already too much for us to handle, after all, you are me."
"THAT'S A LIE", he cried.
"When our parents died that day all this pain was too much to handle. Not even Dojima could carry that burden with you, so in the end, you decided to dump it all into me", the shadow said cruelly
"Your lying.. I accepted their deaths a long time ago.. your not real!", Akumu shouted back.
"I am you. It doesn't matter if you reject me, we will be the same anyway. You can hate me all you want, but that just means your hating yourself."
As Akumu continued to reject the shadow the white world around him began to grow darker and darker. Until even he had been consumed.
This Shadow of him was weak, in fact, it was weaker than him. However, what was strong about him were his words. The more he spoke the, more life seemed to drain out of the boy's body until eventually, he cuddled himself on the floor crying.
His world had grown too dark, and then not long after...
He was dead.
"Hey, Akumu.. do you think we can still do it? Become Jujutsu sorcerers?", Misoto asked him.
Akumu thought about it, and then shook his head. They were weak, even if they trained for the next 5 years, they would barely class as grade 4 sorcerers. But even then, Misoto laughed.
"I see.. then I'll just have to train for 10. And if that isn't enough, I'll train for 20. Do you wanna know why? It's because I want to. It may sound unrealistic, but I want to do it anyway. It's because that it's difficult, that I have to keep trying. I have to keep pushing forward."
And suddenly the empty world seemed to be filled with light once more. And with determination in his eyes, Akumu shouted:
"I may be a useless fool who continues to reject everything around him, but even I still wanted to live out my life as selfish as I was. But just now, I gave up. Misoto sacrificed his dream to protect me, and I just tried to waste it. Which is why I won't give up now. I won't allow myself to die."
The shadow smirked as it slowly cracked and faded away. Despite seemingly dying, it was awfully nonchalant.
"You still refuse to accept me, but at least we haven't given up on this life yet. However, know this. As long as you continue to reject my existence you will never be able to save others, for that is the curse we both share."
As the shadow finally faded away, Akumu began to breathe heavily. He looked up at the sky of his empty mind one last time as he realized this was his innate domain.
He snapped back to reality, but something had changed.
Cursed energy was now overflowing from his body, to the point that it began to spill out from him, as he started to emit more cursed energy than he was able to in the last 15 years. It was a large amount, compared to what he used to have before, but he quickly grasped ahold of it.
It wasn't just the amount that surprised him, but the very nature of it was starting to change too. The energy that spilled out of his hands, began to twist and contort into whips of darkness that wrapped around his arms.