The basement stairs creaked under his weight as Fuin descended into the storage area beneath the school. A single bare bulb swung from a frayed cord, making the shadows dance. The ceiling was low, barely two meters high, with exposed pipes and wooden support beams that looked older than the school itself. Cracks spider-webbed across the concrete walls.
A curse crouched in the far corner, hunched over something that glowed with a faint purple light. Some scattered sealing paper could be seen on the floor next to a broken offering box. Clearly it was to seal some kind of relic and might even be the same fragment the curse was holding. All the ominous energy was coming from the relic itself... it seemed to be special grade relic fragment.
The curse itself stood roughly two meters tall when it straightened, its body covered in matted black fur that seemed to absorb the light. Its limbs were long, arms reaching past its knees, ending in hands with fingers like iron spikes. The head was vaguely canine, but the jaw unhinged too far, revealing rows of teeth that curved inward like a shark's.
It turned toward Fuin with dull eyes.
"Can I pet y-ou?" It stuttered unintelligently.
Fuin's shoulders dropped slightly. His eyes narrowed in disappointment. He had thought it would be more interesting that this. It had to be only a grade 3 at best.
The curse lunged.
It moved fast for a Grade 3, crossing the distance in a single bound. Its clawed hand swept toward Fuin's head with enough force to crack concrete. Fuin side stepped with minimal effort to put him just outside the attack's range. The curse's claws gouged three deep furrows in the metal shelving behind where he'd been standing. Boxes tumbled to the floor, spilling their contents across the concrete.
He didn't bother with a counter-attack yet. He still held out hope that this thing might at least have some kind of cursed technique.
The curse spun, using its momentum to drive a knee toward Fuin's ribs. Again, he moved with a slight pivot, his feet barely leaving the ground. The knee passed through empty air. The curse's follow-up came immediately, a backhand strike that would have taken his head off if it connected.
The curse sped up its attacks. Lashing it's beast-like claws and long limbs around at him like an animal. Fuin avoided each strike with the bare minimum of movement, his expression growing more distant with each exchange.
The curse seemed to sense its attacks weren't landing. It backed up half a step, then charged forward with both arms spread wide, trying to catch him in a crushing bear hug. He finally moved with intent. He stepped forward into the curse's guard, inside the reach of those long arms, and drove his palm into its chest.
*Boom*
The curse flew backward, crashing through a shelving unit. Metal shrieked as it bent and collapsed. The curse tumbled across the floor, leaving gouges in the concrete. It scrambled to its feet immediately, shaking off the impact like a dog shaking off water.
Fuin's expression was completely empty now.
"I got my hopes up for nothing."
The curse charged again, this time on all fours like a beast. It was faster this way. Its claws tore chunks from the concrete floor as it built momentum. When it leaped, it aimed for his throat, jaws unhinging to reveal that nightmare of inward-curving teeth.
He caught it by the face, his arms wrapped with his massive reserves of cursed energy and energy output. The curse thrashed, claws raking across his arms and leaving shallow cuts. His expression didn't change. He slammed the curse into the floor with just enough force rattle the shelves across the floor.
The curse bounced once, then rolled away, putting distance between them.
Fuin stood in the center of the room, arms at his sides, and waited. He didn't even bother tracking the curse's movement with his eyes. His posture was relaxed and bored.
The curse feinted left, then attacked from the right. Its claws came in low, aiming for his legs. He lifted his foot and brought it down on the curse's wrist, pinning the arm to the floor. The curse's other hand came up in a wild slash. He leaned back, letting the claws pass a centimeter from his face, then drove his knee into the curse's maw.
The impact sent the curse sprawling. It crashed into another shelving unit, this one loaded with old sports equipment. Basketballs and volleyballs spilled across the floor, rolling in every direction. The curse pushed itself up, slower this time.
"C-can you pet me?" It growled out in a animalistic voice.
Fuin watched with his eyes half-lidded now, the disappointment clear in every line of his body. He'd been hoping for something that would make him work for it. This curse was barely worth the walk back to the school. He didn't even need to use his technique.
The curse sensed it was losing. Its movements became more desperate, more frantic.
His fist drove into the curse's sternum.
For a fraction of a second—less than 0.000001 seconds after the impact, cursed energy flowed through his strike in perfect harmony with the physical blow. The timing was so precise, so perfectly aligned, that the cursed energy and physical force merged into something greater than the sum of their parts.
A Black flash.
The phenomenon occurred naturally, without conscious effort on his part. It was simply the result of his superb cursed energy manipulation and perfect timing. The impact point glowed with a brief flash of black and red light, and the curse's body bent around his fist like paper around a stone.
The shockwave from the black flash rippled outward.
The curse shot backward like a cannonball, crashing through the far wall.
Fuin walked forward through the shelves and debris, his hands in his pockets. Dust coated his uniform and hair, but he didn't bother brushing it off. Pieces of ceiling bounced off an invisible barrier of cursed energy around him, deflecting harmlessly to the sides.
The curse lay in the rubble beyond the broken wall, its body twisted at unnatural angles. The black flash had shattered its cursed energy core, and now the curse was dissolving, its form breaking apart into wisps of black smoke that dissipated into nothing. The special-grade relic fragment lay nearby, still glowing faintly in the dust.
He picked up the fragment and examined it. It was warm to the touch, pulsing with residual cursed energy. He'd have to report this to his father. A special-grade relic fragment shouldn't be sitting in an elementary school basement. He grabbed the sealing papers on the floor and rewrapped the relic fragment, stopping the cursed energy from leaking any further. He glanced at the small box in the corner where it had been kept and hesitated before deciding to pocket the relic.
Parts of the wall collapsed behind him. The structural damage from the black flash was spreading but he had controlled the damage enough to keep things steady. He turned and walked back toward the stairs, stepping over fallen shelves and scattered debris. The bare bulb that hung above had shattered, leaving only a few small flickering fluorescent lights in the hallway to guide him.
His uniform was dusty. His arms had shallow cuts from the curse's claws. But thankfully, because he rolled up his sleeves his uniform was completely undamaged. His shallow cuts would heal perfectly fine in a few days.
As he climbed the stairs back to ground level, his expression remained flat and disappointed. The fight had lasted less than three minutes from start to finish. The curse had been fast and strong for a Grade 3, but it had no technique, intelligence, or surprises.
He rolled down his sleeves and started walking back toward the fence where he'd left his bag. The girl classmate was gone now. It was a bit odd that no teachers had heard the fight while it was happening, but not that surprising. The school he was at was in a poor neighborhood and gangs often roamed around here.
He picked up his bag and slung it over his shoulder, then continued his walk home.
'Hmm. The black flash came naturally this time. At least I confirmed that after enough practice, it can become a habit.' He thought to himself as he kicked a rock while walking home.