The Great Stomach

"Oi, Maki, how about we take a look inside? Something about this building looks strange to me."

"Sure." Maki answered, picked up her sword, and walked toward the entrance of the classroom building.

Akutagawa Shang hurried forward too, following Maki into the building.

It was pitch-black inside. All the lights seemed to have broken.

"There's something inside. Doesn't feel like just one... more like several. One around the corner, one on the chandelier, and two hiding behind the door..."

Akutagawa Shang followed half a step behind Maki, using his extraordinarily keen perception of cursed energy to keep reporting the cursed spirits' positions and movements to her.

The instant they pushed the door open, the two cursed spirits lunged out eagerly, only for the prepared Maki to finish them both with a single slash.

"Not bad, Akutagawa. I thought you'd be useless dead weight. Didn't expect you to be this handy." Maki smiled and slapped Akutagawa Shang hard on the back.

"Cough, cough-stop hitting me, Big Sis Maki. You're going to slap me to death." Akutagawa Shang coughed violently. Clearly, Maki had a very heavy hand.

Goddamn, how did this Heavenly Restriction give her such monstrous strength?

"All right, you're way too frail. I wasn't even trying. You'll have to work on that."

Akutagawa Shang crouched down, wanting a closer look at the two cursed spirits Maki had just sent flying.

"Still seems to be some cursed energy fluctuating, though it's very faint. Better finish them off, just to be safe."

The two cursed spirits lay sprawled on the floor, purplish-black blood pooling everywhere. They seemed to have completely lost the ability to move.

Akutagawa gathered his cursed energy, a faint white light coalescing around his fist.

Bam.

Akutagawa Shang threw a punch. Under the cursed-energy-infused attack, the cursed spirit disintegrated, never to rise again.

Akutagawa turned to exorcise the other one, but the immobile cursed spirit opened its mouth and spat out a compressed mass of cursed energy. It struck Akutagawa Shang square in the chest, blasting him off his feet and into the wall.

"Hey, you all right?" Maki crossed over in two strides and crouched before him, looking at Akutagawa Shang on the floor.

"Huh? I think I'm fine?" Akutagawa Shang slowly stood up.

Akutagawa Shang felt his chest. That mass of cursed energy didn't seem as powerful as it had looked. The instant it struck him, the cursed energy inside his body seemed to have blocked it automatically, protecting him. The damage the cursed spirit had inflicted seemed less than what he'd taken from hitting the wall.

But strangely, that mass of cursed energy didn't seem to have dissipated after hitting him. Had he absorbed it into his body instead? It was so small, though, that he almost thought he'd imagined it.

"Forget it. Probably imagined it."

Maki slashed the half-dead cursed spirit, finishing it off for good, then held out her hand and pulled Akutagawa Shang up.

"Be careful. If you go down here, there's no one to save you with Reverse Cursed Technique."

"Are you worried about me?"

"Want another smack? Get up and navigate for me."

"Okay, okay, okay."

Akutagawa Shang continued forward to scout the way for Maki.

Though the cursed spirits in the corridor looked few in number, there really weren't many, and they were all pitifully weak. Even a rookie like Akutagawa Shang, who had still been getting his back stomped on by cursed spirits two days earlier, could take them out with one punch each.

"Strange. Why are they all so weak? In theory, curses at this level shouldn't be able to make two living people vanish into thin air. Take another careful look. See if you missed something."

Akutagawa Shang scanned the corridor again. The cursed spirits that had been hiding in the corners had all been exorcised by him and Maki, leaving only cursed residue scattered across the floor.

"What exactly did I miss?" Akutagawa Shang kept swiveling his head like a globe.

Just as he tilted his head back to look at the ceiling, a sudden sense of foreboding came from his brain.

"Hey, what are you spacing out for? What did you see?" Maki called out in confusion at Akutagawa Shang's grave expression.

"Something's wrong. There's something above us, and it's fast."

A mass of black cursed energy was rushing down from the roof. Compared with the weak cursed spirits they had already exorcised, this mass was undoubtedly dozens, even hundreds of times stronger.

"Maki, watch out!!!"

Before he had finished speaking, a boom rang out, and the corridor ceiling exploded. Countless pieces of rubble and clouds of dust rained down over their heads.

An enormous cursed spirit slowly poked its head through the shattered ceiling. It was even countless times larger than the cursed spirit that had attacked him that day.

The giant cursed spirit opened its fang-filled maw. Grayish-white eyeballs and sharp barbs covered the inner walls of its mouth, a sight that sent goosebumps crawling over the skin.

Maki charged forward, instinctively swinging her sword. The blade cut into the cursed spirit's lower jaw, but the thing snapped its mouth shut, swallowing both of them along with the floor beneath their feet in a single gulp. Her sword struck the inside of its mouth, caught on the barbs, and was wrenched from her hand.

Akutagawa Shang felt the ground vanish beneath his feet, and the two of them fell into the depths of the darkness.

After an unknown length of time unconscious, Akutagawa Shang slowly opened his eyes.

His back throbbed dully, and his mouth tasted of rust. He moved his fingers, then slowly propped up his upper body.

"Where are we?"

Maki's voice came from beside him. She had already been awake for some time and was now furious. "Damn it, my sword's stuck in this thing's throat. Let us out, you idiot!!!"

Seeing Akutagawa Shang awake beside her, Maki seemed to have found a target for her impotent fury.

Maki rushed over, grabbed Akutagawa Shang by the collar, and began shaking him furiously.

"What's wrong with you? Aren't you supposed to be able to see where cursed spirits are? Why did you drop the ball when it mattered? Now we're both stuck in this ugly thing's stomach. Get me out of here!!!"

"Stop, stop, stop."

Akutagawa Shang felt as though his brains were about to be shaken into a smooth mixture. He remembered now: he and Maki had just been swallowed by an enormous cursed spirit.

He looked around. Everything was pitch-black, but he could faintly make out dark red walls of flesh contracting and expanding irregularly, accompanied by wet, sticky sounds. They were probably inside the cursed spirit's great stomach now.

"My sword got stuck in that monster's throat when I slashed at it." Maki released Akutagawa Shang's collar and sat on the ground, hugging her legs, her eyes somewhat downcast. "Without a cursed tool, I can't cut this monster's stomach open at all. Now there's no way for either of us to get out."

Her voice grew quieter as she spoke. She lowered her head and rested her forehead on her knees, both hands gripping the fabric of her uniform skirt until her knuckles turned white.

Akutagawa Shang tilted his head back and looked up. The cursed tool was lodged firmly in the enormous cursed spirit's throat like a fish bone.

"Forget it. Let's wait. Once the Curtain's time is up, that white-haired idiot will come get us out."

"Help... Can someone save us?" Akutagawa Shang was just about to reply when a faint cry for help came from nearby.

"Sounds like someone's there," he said quietly, getting up and feeling his way in that direction.

Maki stood up too and followed him.

Two small bodies were curled up in the darkness, their school uniforms covered in dust and slime, their faces almost bloodless. One was already very weak, lying on the ground with barely moving lips. "Help... help..."