62 Storm Is Coming

"You okay with this, Itadori."

"Yeah!"

With the arrival of the new foes, Hanami held its guard up and resisted the urge to charge in and attack. It waited for them to finish first so that Hanami could focus on less targets.

"Panda, can you take her away?" Todo asked as he brought Maki who he carried in his arms to Panda.

"Sure." Panda nodded as he took Maki.

Before he could give her off, Maki grabbed Todo's neck and whispered to his ears. "My special grade cursed tool 'Playful Cloud' is by the riverside, its eye trees are weak compared to the rest of the body and I beat it a lot so its not at full strength. It uses roots to attack but be most careful about when it blooms flowers, it lowers down your guard and makes you relax."

Maki then let herself be carried by Panda and left the scene.

"I'm surprised you didn't resist, normally you're all jumpy when you can't join the fight." Panda commented as he piggybacked her to safety.

"Heh, well one needs to know when to stand down. I got beaten up pretty badly." Maki said as she slumped to Panda's back enjoying the fluffy pillow that was his back. "Wake me up when we get there."

"Will do, ma'am."

At the edge of the barrier, Utahime and Gakuganji entered the veil. Immediately both could feel the immense amount of cursed energy in the air. 'What a strong presence, is there a special grade somewhere? The students are even more danger if this is true...'

Jus then the two looked ahead to see a newly arrived cursed user. The man was a muscular build with a dark colored apron over his bare chest, dark colored pants, and dark colored boots with metal tips with black markings over his body. Kumiya Juzo was his name.

"Hey hey hey hey hey!! Gojo Satoru isn't here!"

"That curse user isn't the source of this presence but he's quite capable." Gakuganji said analyzing his foe.

"That degenerate monk tricked me." The unidentified cursed user muttered in frustration.

"Utahime, go ahead first. We need to prioritize the students safety. Avoid any unnecessary fights." She nodded and ran past them.

Juzo took out an axe and aimed it at the principal. "Wait, wait!! At least let the woman stay! I can't make anything with old fragile bones and wrinkly skin!!"

The principal threw the box he held on his back and revealed a red electric guitar.

"Why don't you kill me and find out whether they're really hollow?"

"Go off and drink some milk first, old fart!"

The man charged at Gakuganji and and swung his axe like a madman but before he could get too close, the principal played a tune on his guitar amplifying the sound of his guitar with his cursed technique and launching it at the man. Though Juzo managed to block it, the after effects left him sliding backwards.

'I see, I already got a grasp of that old fart's technique. He acts as an amplifier and uses that amplified tune to launch cursed energy at a target. A predictable mid-range fighter, I can already tell he'll keep his distance.'

"I'll make a wallet with that old man's smell." Juzo said smiling maniacally.

The fight was about to continue but something interrupted them. The two immediately turned to the side as they both felt the immense amount of cursed energy concentrated into one area. That area was a figure that had just entered the veil.

At first they saw black boots entering, then a light blue colored kimono with dark blue edge and red samurai pads and finally they saw the face of the figure. Wearing an oni black mouth mask with his light blue hair, Gakuganji instantly recognized who this was.

It was Isao Arai, who had somehow managed to pass the barrier placed down.

Though just this small gap in the moment that they felt his cursed energy, he closed his eyes and in an instant they felt it disappear the next moment.

"Quite the veil you put down." Arai commented as he walked up to the two of them.

"Hahaha! I was wondering why they wanted me to put down those two barriers. I'm better of with you than that old man. I'll make you into a chair with that hair color!" Juzo laughed crazily and charged at Arai with his axe in hand.

But before he could even take a step Arai lifted his index finger and pointed it at him.

"Bang."

Uttering this, the next moment Juzo found his arms and legs having holes in them. With his bones and flesh completely vaporized.

"AAAHH!! IT HURTS!! It hurts!" He cried out in pain before being stomped to the ground shattering the stone floor flooding with his own blood. Arai still having his foot down the back of Juzo's head turned to the principal.

"I'll deal with you later. Gakuganji take care of him so that he doesn't die. I've got some business to attend to."

Arai left and took off in a direction, he could feel the immense amount of cursed energy being exuded. 'A special-grade cursed spirit is here. How did they pass Tengen's barrier? This seems too coordinated and planned. Is their goal to attack the students and eliminate them? Seems too dumb to me, they would of attacked in missions and not here where their teachers are. So are they aiming at the principals and teacher? Attacking Gojo with this small scale of power is suicide. So they must have come here not for the people but the setting. Something is here and they want it.'

Arai realized something. 'Tengen's treasury! Where he hides powerful items capable of being ranked special grade. Yaga should be going to Tengen and warn him about this but if there is a special grade then he can't stop them. They're attacking students so that we can't go protect the items.'

A group then came galloping their way to him, Arai could see them struggling to come his way. He frowned as he found who they were. It was Megumi and Panda carrying Inumaki, Noritoshi and Maki on their back.

"Isao, here!" Panda shouted at him.

Megumi looked to where he shouted and sighed in relief before falling on his butt.

Arai quickly rushed to them and helped them place down the students. Megumi and Panda were the only one conscious, the rest were completely knocked out and were injured.

Arai checked the students one by one. "No serious injuries. You kids did a good job holding on. Leave the rest to us."

A tug on his clothes made him turn to Megumi still full of sweat of him and exhausted. He looked seriously to Arai. "Itadori and Todo are still fighting the special grade."

Arai nodded and reassured him. "I'll go there myself, the veil isn't far from here and Gakuganji is still nearby. Go to him and he'll bring you out."

He then left the students letting them be taken to safety but not without looked one last time. At his daughter having injuries all over her. Blood dyed her clothes and although her injuries weren't life threatening, they were still good enough to put her into the infirmary for a couple of weeks.

"Rats really are annoying." Arai muttered coldly as he concluded his plan of action.

Out of his ears two being emerged crawling their way out until they finally got their body completely free. The two people were sorcerers that had been enslaved by Arai. "Go warn Yaga about Tengen and tell him that you are my people. He'll know what to do."

The two nodded and left the scene doing their tasks.

With no one left here, Arai's eyes glowed green as he lifted his arms to the air. A small cyclone of wind picked him up levitating him in the air. Soon the entire area he was at was completely filled with powerful winds wreaking havoc. A storm filled the area he was at not caring anymore about the damage to the property.

"A debt needs to be paid." Arai encompassed by a tornado darted at where the special grade was.

At where Arai was headed, Hanami stumbled back and held its stomach in pain before being punched in the face. With a flash of black light, it reeled its head back in pain as purple blood spilled out of its mouth.

"Black Flash!"

"Urgh!"

"Nisu brother!" Todo shouted before kicking it in the stomach.

'Their teamwork is too good! That girl from earlier injured me too much and I'm running out of cursed energy. Yet my delight in this battle isn't waning!' Hanami thought as it saw the two preparing to deliver another strike at it. 'I know Geto told us not to kill these children but if I want to win then I need to go all out.'

Behind it, a newly formed creature emerged from the ground.

A flower that bloomed revealing a multitude of smaller plant life with sharpened teeth inside of it just itching to devour the students. The army of plant life shot out at the two like a gatling gun at rapid speed.

Todo seeing this immediately clapped his hands switching Hanami's and Itadori's position making sure Itadori was safe.

"Todo!" Itadori yelled out concerned.

'Don't worry brother, if I focus my cursed energy and body on hardening, these dumb seeds will just bounce off me!' Todo thought.

{And he began having a monologue about some girl with knowledge that she shouldn't have because she's just a normal person. Her saying that the curse buds sucks off the cursed energy to grow and feed itself making so that Todo protecting himself was actually detrimental. Wait a second is that girl secretly a sorcerer with a technique to somehow communicate with someone at vast distances and holds info on sorcerers all over the world.

Maybe... she is more powerful than Sukuna and Gojo are!

Yep, new fanfic idea at just the spurt of the moment.

Also I don't want to write that weird moment because words cannot explain how odd that monologue is.}

At the last second, Todo retracted the cursed energy enveloping his body, tanking the hits with his bare body.

Hanami was shocked seeing Todo unharmed and crushing the buds. 'He withdrew his cursed energy at the last second. Did he figure out that my cursed seeds grow more by absorbing cursed energy?!'

"I'll have to thank her the next time I see her, right?"

Itadori then arrived and kicked Hanami on the chest pushing it towards Todo. He reeled his leg up and slammed it down on the shoulder delivering a devastation axe kick to the cursed spirit spurting out blood.

Though the next moment, they both backed away as roots emerged from the ground unbalancing them. They both jumped back and saw the cursed spirit lying down with its left arm palm facing the ground. Slowly they witnessed the surrounding trees and plant life withering away as all life sucked away from them.

"Plants do not generate cursed energy. So my left arm steals the life to convert them to cursed energy but none of it gets returned to me. It all goes to this flower offering." Hanami explained to them making the binding vow to increase the effectiveness of the technique. Slowly the red rose stuck to its left arm bloomed and at the center laid an eye ball eerily similar to that of a human. An in front of it was the gathered cursed energy flashing light as its quantity surpassed anything it did before.

"Todo!"

"Fall back, brother! Its emitting an enormous amount of cursed energy!" Todo exclaimed.

*Rumble!*

Everyone felt the rumble on the ground at that moment, the ground shook like an earthquake and the wind was oddly freezing and getting stronger by the moment. Everyone was confused as they felt no cursed energy coming from it showing that this was naturally made and not from the opposing sides. But as they directed their gaze to the eye of the storm, they found themselves shock.

A giant cyclone of wind was heading straight for them, and it was not aimed vertically like tornados but horizontally. Carrying trees and earth all around it.

Todo with his quick thinking immediately gathered a couple rocks and imbued them with cursed energy. Throwing it as far at the opposite side of the storm as he could and clapped his hands twice switching both him and Itadori out of the battle.

Hanami quickly reacted as well and used the gathered cursed energy but before it could use it. The giant cyclone of wind crashed on it creating a loud explosion and destroying everything in its path.

"That's on our side, right?" Itadori said to Todo a bit stunned.

Todo glared at the crashing site. "Yeah, but we should get out of here."

"Why?"

"Remember this brother, that man is ruthless when he fights. The moment he gets hold of you, he won't ever let go of you. He will brutally beat you up and won't give you any chance. He is the definition of efficient fighter." Todo said as he reminisced his encounter with him last year when Geto terrorized. A storm came upon Kyoto and with finesse, all cursed spirits were exorcised or later on captured.

At the crashing site, if someone saw this from the outside, they would think a meteor came crashing down. It seemed as if something was dragged to the ground and finally stopped in the forest.

On the ground, laying on its back, Hanami coughed hard as it recovered from its impact. The storm that was just there a moment ago disappeared as if it was an illusion. But Hanami knew it wasn't, because right in front of it was the man responsible for this disaster. Arai's shadow casted on Hanami and he brought up his foot enveloping it with wind and clay.

"Nice to meet you, curse spirit. My name is Isao Arai." Arai said before stomping Hanami to the ground shattering it and blasting a hole through its chest.

"You've got a debt to pay with interest."

Hanami screamed in pain but Arai caught its jaw stopping it from uttering a word.

"And unfortunately for you, I'm your debt collector."