The moment Yuta heard the sickening crunch, his stomach dropped, and despite the overwhelming swarm of curses bearing down on him, Yuta looked over towards the sound.
In slow motion, Yuta watched as Maki's arm bent at an unnatural angle as she sacrificed her limb to protect her more vulnerable ribs and organs. A frigid chill gripped Yuta's heart as Maki was sent flying, a pained expression on her face, 'No…'
"Maki!"
Without even meaning to, Yuta called out Maki's name as he felt his curse energy slip out of his control, rolling forth across the ground in a powerwave exorcising the curses closest to him, 'It wasn't supposed to be like this…you weren't supposed to be the one hurt…'
Yuta's blood was roaring in his ears as he recalled all the times he had been powerless to stop the violence that seemed to define his life, 'Whether it's Rika or anyone else I care about in the slightest, I've always been too weak and cowardly to stand on my own, but I'm never the one who ends up suffering for it…But I've had enough…I'm done being a curse on those I care about.'
Reaching up to his neck, Yuta tore off his chain with a sharp tug before holding up his hand and sliding the simple-looking ring onto his finger, "Come on out Rika, we have a job to do."
"YUUUTTTTAAAA!!!"
Suguru's eyes shot open as he heard an inhuman voice cry out, making the air itself tremble and vibrate, followed by a monstrous surge of cursed energy that easily dwarfed anything he had felt before.
Turning to face Yuta, Suguru watched as the air behind him darkened and a massive form manifested, floating in the air with a muscular upper body and a ghost-like torso that seemed both physical and incorporeal at the same time.
Staring at the monstrous entity, Suguru's heart couldn't help but race as he regarded the key to ensure his future, "Magnificent, truly magnificent! You truly do deserve the title of Queen of Curses!"
Yuta regarded Suguru with unveiled hatred as his hand tightened around the grip of his Katana that he slowly raised to point at Suguru's neck, "I'll kill you before you manage to lay another finger on those I care about. That I swear to you Suguru, I will be the one to exorcise you and end your dreams of a perfect world!"
"Then let us both agree to curse the other! Yuta Okkotsu!!" Suguru cried back with a look of pure elation and determination on his face as he launched himself at Yuta with a viscous grin.
---
"Ugh…mnnnh"
Maki groaned as she felt herself being carried, and through lidded eyes she looked over to stare at Kiniro, who was carrying her out of the rubble of the collapsed wall she had been buried in, "I'm…g-oing to break both your arms."
"Yeah, I probably deserve that, but keep it down; the last thing we need is to distract Yuta and have Suguru looking back over here."
"Y-you used me…lied!" Maki managed to grit out through the pain wracking her body.
"Hate to break it to you, but I didn't," Kiniro replied calmly as there was a loud crash followed by a flare of blinding purple light, "Hmm, looks like they're kicking it up a notch."
"Y-you said Yuta couldn't beat Suguru…that he needed my help," Maki groaned as her arm jostled, reminding her just how mangled it was.
"I told you that he couldn't face Suguru alone, and now he has Rika," Kiniro clarified with a chilling monotone, "You were just the encouragement he needed to finally stop holding back."
Hearing how Kiniro had so carelessly used her, Maki reached out with her free hand and wrapped it around his thumb before pulling it back with a sickening crunch "I-I'm going to kill you. One day, somehow, I'm going to kill you."
"I know, because one day you might be the only one capable of actually achieving such a lofty goal." Kiniro muttered as he carried Maki inside, set her down, and then healed her with his technique.
Suppressing a groan as the pleasurable surge of heat flowed through her, suppressing the agony from her arm as it snapped back in place, "You know I have half a mind to fight you right now for what you did."
"Save your selfishness for some other time," Kiniro muttered as he stood back up and, with a crunch, reset his thumb. "I have to make sure your boyfriend doesn't die."
Maki glared at Kiniro for a long second before she seemed to comply and lean back against the wall behind her,"I don't understand you; how you act so flipantly with the lives of others as if they don't matter at all, but then help at the same time. I used to think it was out of pure selfishness, but that isn't right, is it? Somehow, in your own twisted way, you care about others even if it's for the entertainment purpose of their existence."
Kiniro was silent for a second before he let out a sigh as a reminiscent smile crossed his face, "You're not ready to understand…but one day you will be. Now keep quiet and try not to get caught in the crossfire."
Maki managed to send one last glare Kiniro's way before he disappeared, seemingly vanishing, but Maki had managed to catch a glimpse of the burst of speed that Kiniro had taken off with, 'I don't think I could have reacted to that in time.'
Staring at the space Kiniro used to occupy, Maki realized once more the gap that existed between her and the strongest sorcerers, 'Should I even try to compare myself to them? My original goal was only ever to show the Clan that they couldn't determine my fate, but now I want more. I want to make people afraid of ever standing against me…I want him to be afraid of me.'
Remembering all of Kiniro's taunts over the year, Maki hand clenched into a fist, 'As long as it's possible, nothing will stop me…nothing and no one.'
---
'Damnit'
Yuta swore as he felt his katana, at long last, shatter after being forced to channel far more cursed energy than it was supposed to, 'With Rika summoned, I have all this power, but I have no way to control it.'
"It really is a shame," Suguru taunted as he regarded Yuta and Rika with a slightly condescending gaze, "Under slightly different circumstances, I would have trained you myself, making you into a sorcerer that not even Satoru Gojo can contend with. Unfortunately, I've gotten rather impatient, and with destiny becoming untethered, the times we live in are becoming increasingly unpredictable."
'Untethered destiny?' Yuta echoed in his head, trying to figure out what Suguru could possibly be referencing, only to quickly push aside his curiosity and focus on the fact that he was now without a weapon, facing one of the strongest sorcerers in the current era.
"You've done well so far, a truly commendable effort, but alas," Suguru continued as he held out his hand and dark black smoke began to pour from his fingers, "I can't afford to delay my plans for ever a second longer."
From the pooling black mist on the ground, a humanoid shape emerged. However, there was no mistaking the entity for a human. Its skin had a lacquer-like quality and, combined with the two lines around the edges of its mouth, made the curse look like a large life-size puppet. The curse's appearance was complete with its long black hair that extended down its back and the two sets of narrowed, slanted eyes.
A chill ran down Yuta's spine as he felt the aura coming off of the cursed spirit, 'That curse…it's almost as powerful as Rika.'
"This is Tamamo-no-Mae, the most powerful cursed spirit in my arsenal, one of the sixteen special-grade curses," Suguru announced as he held up his hands, and more liquid smoke began to emerge, but instead of spilling out, it condensed into a swirling whirlpool that writhed with haunting visages desperate to escape, "And the technique you see before you is Maximum: Uzumaki the full potential of my innate technique, allowing me to covert every cursed spirit in my possession in a singular attack of proportional strength."
Staring at the gathering mass of liquefied cursed spirits, Yuta couldn't help but feel a sense of dread as he felt the amount of cursed energy imbued into the attack, which grew exponentially as Tamamo-no-Mae was consumed as well.
'I don't have any choice,' Yuta thought as he realized there was only one way for him to match and possibly beat, 'I'll really need to put my life on the line.'
With a final exhale, Yuta's lips parted, ready to declare his undying love for Rika when a hand suddenly fell on his shoulder.
"Good job, you managed to get both his trump cards. I can take it from here."