Yurui The Cursed One

“Eighteen.”

The masked woman says it to no one in particular, her voice nearly swallowed by the desert wind. Stephan goes still, and I blink up at her as moonlight glints across the white ceramic fox mask, stirring loose strands of purple hair around its edges.

No. I refuse to believe it.

Above me, Stephan’s fist tightens around a small rock. It crumbles to dust between his fingers.

“Hey ! Purple !”

She gives me a brief glance. “Stay put.” Then she turns and walks away, her coat whipping in the desert wind.

Stephan’s head snaps toward her. “Purple! Who the fuck are—”

“Seventeen.”

The woman keeps walking. Nara goes completely still.

“Boss?”

The woman does not even look at her. Stephan frowns.

“What?”

“Sixteen.”

Stephan inches closer to her, his body briefly cutting across my view of the sky. “Have you lost your fucking mind ?!”

"Fifteen."

Stephan charges. The segmented mass behind him contracts, then releases.

Holy shit.

He surges forward hard enough to throw sand in both directions, every section of that enormous body driving the next. Far too fast for something built like an elephant.

Stephan throws his whole body into the strike.

The woman tilts her head. “Fourteen.”

Stephan’s fist tears past the fox mask by less than an inch. She steps inside his reach. Her fingertips brush his forearm. Then she drops.

“Thirteen.”

Stephan’s arm sails over her head. Before he can pull the arm back, she hooks one foot behind his wrist and drops her weight, twisting sideways beneath him. His own punch drags his massive upper body forward. The trapped arm buckles. Stephan’s shoulder falls, then his entire front half plows into the sand hard enough to throw up a wall of dust. For a moment, the giant lies stunned.

The woman is already moving before he can recover.

“Twelve.”

Nara lunges in to block her path. The woman’s hand disappears beneath her coat before she even reaches her.

“Eleven.”

The woman flicks her wrist, and something flashes through the moonlight. Nara screams as a knife punches through the outside of her thigh, sending her crashing into the sand. I stare at the blade buried in her leg, my mind struggling to catch up. I never even saw it leave the woman’s hand.

“You fucking—” Nara grits her teeth and reaches for the knife.

“Leave it.” The masked woman says as she stares at her from above.

Nara's hand stops halfway. The masked woman turns back toward Stephan.

“Ten.”

He is already coming for her. His good arm whips around in a furious arc. She slips inside the swing.

A step.

A turn.

The heel of her palm slams up beneath his jaw.

Stephan chokes and staggers back half a step, one hand flying to his throat. He hesitates for half a second, but then the anger takes over. With a roar, Stephan lunges. Both hands sweep down toward her, palms open, trying to grab her. She shoots through the gap.

“Nine.”

One hand catches the base of his horn. Stephan jerks after her on instinct.

Bad idea.

“Eight.”

She plants a foot on the ground, drops her weight, and swings herself hard in the opposite direction. His neck twists with her. Stephan’s massive upper body follows right after, lurching sideways hard, dragging the first several segments of his caterpillar-like lower half through the sand. At the last second, Stephan throws one massive hand into the sand and catches himself before his face hits the ground.

Then he heaves upward.

“Seven.“

One hand catches the back of his head. She rises with him, then suddenly drops, dragging his head with her. All that upward force snaps the other way. His face slams into the ground.

He hurls his good arm backward.

“Five.”

She snaps sideways at the last second. His forearm misses her by inches.

“Four.”

Her knee slams into the side of his skull.

“Three.”

Stephan’s face crashes into the sand. He tries to rise.

“Two.”

The masked woman rides the movement, crouched low over him with one fist tangled in his blond hair. Her free hand darts beneath her coat, draws a pistol, and jams the barrel against the back of his head.

“One.”

The gunshot tears through the desert.

Stephan does not move again.

The silence that follows feels deafening. The woman remains crouched over him for a second, one hand resting against the back of his neck. Then she rises, brushes the sand from her coat, and lets out a long, tired sigh.

“Fucking exhausting.”

I stare at her, completely lost for words. My ears are still ringing from the gunshot, my chest barely rising as blood drips steadily from my nose, but none of it matters now. I cannot take my eyes off that goddamn mask, or the purple hair spilling around its edges.

“I know—“

Air stalls in my throat.

No. Impossible. She is dead.

Behind her, Nara rips the knife from her thigh with a hiss of pain. “What the fuck!”

The masked woman glances back. “What?”

Nara glares at her, one hand clamped over the blood running down her leg. “What the fuck is wrong with you?! You just killed him for no reason!”

The woman stops. For a moment, she says nothing. Then she turns around. Something about her has changed.

She walks back toward Nara, slow enough that even I can feel the tension building.

Nara’s anger falters as the shadow of that mud-colored coat falls over her. The woman bends down until the white fox mask is inches from her face.

“No reason?” Her voice has lost every trace of amusement. “Is that what you two fuckups call screwing up job after job?”

Nara opens her mouth.

“You’ve been walking a tightrope for a long time now.” Her voice is quiet now. “Stephan’s just happened to snap tonight.”

Nara throws a hand toward his body. “But we didn’t fuck up this—”

The woman presses a finger to her lips. Nara goes silent.

“Didn’t you?” Her head tilts slightly. “You hit a Miracle Inc. transport without authorization. Without so much as checking with the person in charge, I might add.”

Nara’s face tightens.

“Moreover, you killed two of the three captives.” The woman raises another finger. “And the third?” Her gaze flicks toward me. “You mangled her so badly she’ll be lucky to survive the hour.”

A wave of nausea rolls through me.

“So tell me.” She looks back at Nara. “What exactly did you accomplish?”

Nara says nothing.

“That’s what I thought.” The woman sighs and straightens slightly. “Killing a Miracle Inc. agent isn’t the problem. We’ve done worse.”

Her hand suddenly closes around Nara’s throat. Nara chokes.

“The problem is that you have nothing to show for it.”

Her fingers tighten. Nara grabs at her wrist.

“You see, when we cause trouble, we usually bring something back. Money. Information. People. Something valuable enough to make the headache worth it.”

Nara’s boots scrape through the sand.

“But you two?” The woman leans closer. “All you ever bring me are headaches.”

Her grip tightens again. Nara makes a broken choking sound.

“Now what would you do if someone kept bringing you headaches day after day, hmmm ?”

Tears spill from her eyes. Saliva runs down her chin as she claws at the masked woman’s hand in vain.

“You have any idea how lucky you are to still be breathing?”

Nara stares back at her, eyes wide with terror. The woman lets go.

Nara collapses into the sand, coughing and clutching her throat.

“Now fuck off.” The woman turns away. “I don’t want to see your ugly face again anytime soon.” She takes a step. “Preferably ever.”

For a few seconds, Nara stays where she is, dragging air back into her lungs. Then she forces herself upright, takes two unsteady steps, and stops. Her arm shoots toward Stephan’s body.

“And what the fuck am I supposed to tell them about this?”

The masked woman glances at the corpse. Shrugs.

“Whatever you want.” She turns away. “Tell them he got jumped, or choked on dinner.” She waves one hand dismissively. “Hell, tell them he crawled into a ditch and died there. I don’t care.”

Nara gives a faint nod. Without another word, she limps backwards, then turns and disappears into the darkness as fast as her injured leg allows. I lose track of her almost immediately. The masked woman watches for a few more seconds.

“Phew.” She wipes the sweat from her brow and plants both hands on her hips, still staring into the darkness where Nara disappeared. “What a pair of jobbers. Barely made it eighteen steps between both of them.” She shakes her head. “Seriously. Shame on both of you.”

Then she turns toward me.

My entire body goes rigid.

She starts walking toward me.

I try to drag myself back, but my body refuses to move. My arms lie useless in the sand, and one leg is bent beneath me at an angle it should never reach.

I should probably care about that.

Instead, I can only stare at the black armor covering my skin. Hard, glossy plates overlap along my arms and ribs, gleaming faintly beneath the moonlight.

I can feel my skin crawling beneath the plates.

No.

For one second, my mind drags me away from the desert. I am back in the school, surrounded by screams and collapsing concrete as that enormous body twists through the building. Hundreds of legs claw over broken stone. And beneath my skin—

Something moves.

No. Fuck, no. Not again. I cannot—

The woman stops beside me. Her shadow stretches across the sand and swallows my face. For a moment, everything beyond her disappears. All I can see is that familiar white fox mask staring down at me. I force my eyes open wider, searching for some detail I got wrong.

There is none.

The mask is the same. So is the purple hair spilling around its edges.

Fuck.

I have seen that face enough times for the image to be burned into the back of my mind. The girl who wore that mask was supposed to be dead.

And yet every part of me is screaming that the woman standing in front of me is her.

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