10 Special grade/Combustion (1)

Before the trio could even discuss or acclimate to their situation, the cursed spirit whipped the ground below them, forcing them to dodge away.

The student's brows were knitted into a tight frown as he looked at the new arrival. He was starting to get tired of Gojo's antics.

'Will she cooperate? Is she going to help or will she be a hindrance?' Were just some of the questions he had on his mind.

Hakari's stoic face remained that way for the most part, he already knew what Naoko was capable of. The problem was that his classmate didn't.

Naoko looked around at their faces, noticing the trace amounts of doubt hidden within their expressions. Even then, she understood where that doubt stemmed from.

She didn't at all expect Gojo Satoru, the strongest sorcerer and someone even she knew about, to simply place her in a situation like that with no warning whatsoever. Naturally, she knew the same went for Hakari and his classmate, they weren't expecting someone to just appear like that and cause their plans to crumble in seconds.

Even so, she knew Gojo must've put her there for a reason. Maybe he was a sick, sadistic man who took pleasure in watching people struggle or maybe he was testing her to satisfy his own morbid curiosity.

Regardless, Naoko knew she wanted nothing to do with the man.

Her short, braided silver hair rustled with the air waves generated by the cursed energy whips constantly breaking the sound barrier, while her dark brown eyes could barely keep up with their movements.

'Fuck it.' 

She snapped her fingers and suddenly, a wisp of flaming cursed energy shot its way towards the curse, bypassing its defenses in an instant. As the two energies collided, the curse's energy began igniting, causing its whips to slow down slightly while it battled the fire trying to consume it.

This brief period of respite is all the trio needed as both Naoko and Hakari jumped into the fray of action. Hakari shrouded his fists with his serrated cursed energy while Naoko shrouded hers in a hellblaze.

Hakari leaped into the air and brought his fists together while amplifying his cursed energy output. Meanwhile, Naoko got low and went for a direct punch aimed right at the curse's crooked teeth.

The serrated cursed energy was the first to strike as Hakari descended on the cursed spirit, slamming his fists into it with all the power of a raging bull and all the pain of falling in a pit of spikes.

"IT… IT HUUURTS!!" The cursed spirit yelled out in pain as the ground below it cracked under the pressure.

The worst was yet to come as Naoko's flame-imbued punch connected square with the curse's teeth, causing its cursed energy along with its body to ignite into flames, spreading the foul stench of burning flesh throughout the construction site.

"AAAAAA!" Burning, the curse roared in agony.

Being set on fire seemed to drive even the most vile of curses to the brink of desperation. Naoko wondered if there was a God they prayed to in their final moments. Maybe there was a god kind enough to listen to their cries, yet cruel enough to allow such a tragedy to happen in the first place.

That specific curse was not one to give up after being burned alive however, as it soon started outputting a ludicrous amount of cursed energy to combat the flames trying to purify its wretched soul.

When backed into a corner, that is when a creature is in its most dangerous state. A fact that rings true to all walks of life, including curses. With imminent death around the corner, they would have nothing to lose, but everything to gain.

It wasn't long until the curse retracted all its whips back into itself, preparing to launch them like javelins like it did previously, only this time, the process went by quicker than either Hakari or Naoko could react.

They both noticed what was happening when the whips were all back in the curse's body and the curse itself was reduced to a normal looking sphere with eyes.

They both dashed backwards to avoid as much damage as possible, but they were ready for the worst.

Yet, the worst never came. The curse successfully put out the flames and retracted its tentacles, but didn't attack.

Even through the looks of confusion lining their faces, the three students refused to take their eyes off the smiling sphere.

The worst never came, but something far more sinister was about to take place.

"Let's finish this." Hakari said while taking a step towards the seemingly defenseless curse.

"Wait!" Naoko yelled. "Don't get close." 

She snapped her fingers towards the sphere again, in hopes of exorcising it before it had the chance to try anything else.

As the wisp traveled through the air, a tentacle suddenly sprouted from the curse and intercepted it mid air. The tentacle caught fire, but the cursed spirit simply severed its own cursed energy, destroying the burning tentacle and making it so the fire had nothing to consume.

Naoko snapped her fingers again, and again and again, only to be met with the same result. The curse would intercept the wisp and then cut off its own cursed energy made limb to stop the spread. It was a simple but effective counter. 

The trio was left with very few options. Their enemy possessed a deceptively simple skill set, the power to create tentacles made of cursed energy. But, it was that simplicity that allowed the cursed spirit to achieve such dominance over opponents. In that aspect, it was the complete opposite to the casino cursed spirit.

Suddenly, tentacles numbering in the thousands shot out of the curse's spherical body and into the air. After reaching a certain height, the tentacles would bend toward the ground through which they dug and exit on the opposite side before looping around in a circle.

With thousands of tentacles, the cursed spirit quickly created a large spherical space encapsulating its opponents. It mimicked the appearance of a domain expansion veil, yet the space inside didn't change, signifying that a domain expansion had not been cast.

"What the hell is this?" Looking up at the thousands of tentacles making up the domes surrounding him, the student spoke up.

"A prison." Hakari responded, similarly breaking his neck to look up.

As she stared at the unmoving cursed spirit, Naoko felt an object of some sorts tightly wrap around her ankle.

"Ew ew ew!" She yelled as she expelled cursed energy to blow the tentacle off the face of the earth. "Gross." 

"What now?" Hakari asked, seeing dozens of cursed energy tentacles burst forth from the ground.

"Get as far away from me as you can." Naoko calmly advised. 

She snapped her fingers again, but this time, instead of a wisp of fire being shot towards a target, it manifested above her hand. Swirling spirals of fire converged towards the little wisp, creating a basketball sized fireball levitating just above her hand.

Snapping her fingers again, the fireball started morphing. Two distinct bumps appeared on its surface, which over the span of a few seconds, elongated and thinned out, creating what was effectively a pike made entirely of raging flames.

Naoko made a simple forward motion with her hand.

"COMBUST!" 

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(A/N: Splitting this in two parts cus I got work to do.)