you stood up and stretched your arms above your head. exorsicing a curse felt good, it was proof that you were getting stronger.

still smiling to yourself, you looked up once again as you noticed the sun was going down, it was sunset already. the sky had a yellow, orange-ish hue and looked beautiful.

but this was no moment to appreciate the sunet. you were in the middle of the sister school exchange event. you stood straight again and started walking, the sword still in place on your back.

'surely someone has to be around here, right?' you thought to yourself and you kept on walking while looking around you, making sure you were paying attention to your surroundings.

suddenly you heard a branch snap behind you, alerting your senses. you turned around instantly and saw something hide behind a bush.

you were confused as you thought it was a curse, but you just exorcized one that was fairly close to this one. and youre smart enough to know that the schools wouldnt release two curses in the same place.

therefore this thing could not be a curse, slightly startled by your own ideas, you approached the bush nonetheless.

with countless ideas clouding your mind on whatever it was that was behind this, you came closer and closer. eventually stopping right in front of it.

you crouched down slowly but not too much, just enough for you to reach out and see what exactly was behind it.

reaching your arm out carefully, you frowned your brows, slowly touched the leaves of the bush and pushed them out of the way.

using your other hand and pushing more leaves away, you were met with an empty sight. just an open place with nothing there.

standing up to investigate the bush more, you heard footsteps behind you, whatever is was, it was getting way to close to your liking.

now sure that it wasnt a curse, you drew your sword while slowly turning around. holding your new weapon protectively in front of you. whatever it was that haunted you, it sure had vital points so your sword could be proved useful.

you walked towards to where the sound came from, it was right behind a fairly big rock. crouching in front of the rock once again, you pushed your back against it and slowly walked towards the other side of it.

you made a swift movement and now stood in front of the back of the rock with your sword ready to slay. but there was once again nothing besides a few branches.

suddenly you felt the warmth of someone standing right behind you. catching you greatly of guard, your breath got stuck in your throat and your eyes widened greatly.

freezing totally in your spot, you didnt know what to expect. they were so close you could feel their hot breath on the back of your neck.

their arms wrapped around your shoulders from behind you in a swift but gentle motion, you then heard them speak up in an awfully familiar voice.

"tuna tuna!" he said with amusement in his voice and you turned around while still being in his arms. you slightly pouted and immediately spoke up, "inumaki-senpai you seriously scared me there!" you said while burying your head into his chest.

inumaki just laughed at your reaction and felt like he succeeded in giving you a scare for fun. you on the other hand had your head still buried in his chest while wrapping your arms around his waist.

returning the hug, you felt a wave of calmness overcome you and you felt at ease again, just what you needed. his warmth felt so familiar that you relaxed alot.

he took this opportunity to raise his hand and let it rest on the back of your head, eventually running his fingers through your hair once more.

after a while, the both of you parted from the hug and started walking through the forest together, in search of the first grade cursed spirit.

the two of you kept on conversing, "inumaki-senpai you wont believe what i did earlier." you spoke out while looking at him excitedly.

"tuna mayo?" he asked you to tell him, and you understood his sentence in an instant. you spoke up with a smile, proud of your achievement, "i managed to exorcise a curse on my own!"

you spoke while still cheering in yourself and continued, "i was looking for you guys but there was litterally no on-" you wanted to tell him how there was no one after you fought mai but got interrupted by your senpai.

it really was the first step of becoming stronger, inumaki knew that but still grew concerned for you. "mustard leaf?" he asked with worry. he knew that your last encounter didnt go very well, as it was a special grade and one of your comrades had died.

he was now standing in front of you while maintaining eye contact, the two of you stopped walking too. you raised your eyebrows at him and then gave him a reassuring smile. "im really fine, thank you."

you tugged at his arm as a gesture to keep walking. while you did this, he slid his hand into yours. you felt your fingers interwine on their own around his. its as if they were destined to be there.

looking at your now interwined hand, you then looked at inumaki who was admiring the sky which was still blocked by branches and high trees.

with birds chirping and the wind gently flowing through your hair, it almost felt as if you werent fighting curses at the moment, it felt peaceful, with him.

his face was covered in the soft, red orange-ish hue from the sunset, he looked beautiful. the few light streaks that managed to go through the trees illuminated his features.

you felt yourself smile at the sight and looked back forward, you spoke up again and broke the comfortable silence. "oh senpai, i got this cool sword from maki too."

reaching over your shoulder to grab the sword, you pulled it from the back of your uniform and showed it to him while still holding his hand with your other hand.

he took it and inspected it upon closer look, "salted salmon cod roe?" he asked you while looking at you and the sword. this was still close to your vocabulary of his rice ball ingredient language and you translated it in your head. 'can you already fight with this?'

you shook your head while speaking up. "not really, i tried to practice on that curse earlier but i didnt have much time to do so." you smiled slightly embarrassed, remembering that you had lowered your guard greatly then and coulve been seriously injured.

inumaki nodded and understood what you meant. "salmon, seaweed?" he spoke while making some fighting moves.

you laughed at him and replied. "yes i do want to get stronger, that is in fact one of my main goals here at jujutsu tech." you spoke while still smiling at him.

the both of you were laughing now, still holding hands and walking through the forest, completely forgetting about your main objective in the first place.

but then that main objective reminded you why you were really here. you felt an ominous presence coming from your side and inumaki felt it too.

inumaki squeezed your hand, making sure you wouldnt go anywhere without him. you squeezed his hand back in reassurance that you would stay with him.

right at that moment, the thing you had been looking for revealed itself from behind a thick tree. that one thing everyone was looking for and would decide the outcome of the entire event.

the first grade cursed spirit had finally revealed itself. now al you had to do was fight it, with inumaki by your side.