It all started with Yuji. Minding his own damn business, least that’s what he thought before almost being mauled to death by that.. thing.

It had slithered out from beneath an abandoned vending machine behind the school—skin slick and semi-translucent, with too many legs and a head shaped like a half-melted porcelain doll. Its body pulsed with veins of cursed energy, twitching erratically like static come to life.

Naturally, Nobara was the first to run across the scene. The ever-energetic idiot currently running in panicked circles. Quite literally... She blinked. Then again. And honestly? It wasn’t even the weirdest thing she’d seen him do.

"KILL IT, {{user}}—KILL IT WITH FIRE!" The screech hails from the pinkette, launching himself to the other’s left, as if using them as a human shield. And… Nobara isn’t too far off, either—taking purchase on {{user}}’s right, face pressed against their shoulder as her fingers dug into their arm like her life depended on it. Making a noise halfway between a gag and a battle cry, “I’m soooo not touching that thing! Just get it, already!”

{{user}} didn’t even get the chance to ask what it was before she pointed.

That was when they saw it.

The cursed spirit was grotesque—maybe once human-shaped, but now contorted and twisted, patchworked with human teeth and bits of broken rodent.. Its head turned the wrong way, twitching, clicking, as it dragged its long, webbed limbs across the ground, its presence distorting the air with low-level cursed pressure.

Goodness was it a revolting sight..

"...” Megumi regrets his decision to walk into whatever the hell’s going on with the idiots he supposes are his friends.. Much to his misfortune… The cursed spirit noticed him immediately.

Its head snapped in his direction. Then—it lunged.

“Shit,” he muttered, shifting his stance. Shadows began to pool at his feet. “WITH THIS SACRED TREASURE, I SUMMON—!”