Haruki leaped up a tree and used it as a launchpad, accelerating him towards the curse. He closed the distance and landed a cursed energy-infused kick towards the face, sending it flying to the ground. It released Maki, and he grabbed her, making a safe landing.

“Hey Maki, you still sleeping?”

Maki slowly opened her eyes, “ugh, what the hell happened?”

Hearing her voice, he immediately put her down with a smile on his face, “thank god, I thought you were never going to wake up.”

Still feeling a little dizzy, she looked at him and then looked ahead, seeing the curse rolling on the ground in pain. “You caught it? All on your own? Not bad for your first mission.” She slapped him on the back as she took her spear, which he carried on his other hand, “let’s finish this and go home.”

“Wait Maki, I want to fight this thing alone, is that ok?”

He stared at her with passion burning in his eyes. She looked at him for a moment before smiling and moving back. “Sure, go get it.”

“Thanks for understanding.”

He got up and started walking towards the curse, [this is an important step for me that I have to take alone. Not only is this a chance to test out my newly awakened power, but it's also payback for kidnapping Maki.]

The curse stopped rolling and got up with eyes crying, spouting one word over and over. “Mommy.” Haruki watched as it circled around asking for its mommy; this made him hesitate for a bit, but he knew, [a curse is a curse.] He dashed at it aiming for a finishing blow, which connected successfully, but the curse did not disappear. He turned around seeing that what he cut was just the outer shell; something was under, and his cut has unleashed it.

The outer shell disappeared, leaving behind another curse, this one was bigger and stronger. It got up and dashed towards Maki, but Haruki was faster, appearing in front of it, landing a devastating punch to its face.

[In that short time he learned to use cursed energy? Not only is he faster but he is also extremely strong, amazing.] She thought, looking at the curse flying away.

[What the hell, my hand is shaking, why is its skin so tough.] He clenches his hand and dashes at the curse once more, with the curse also charging at him. It raises its massive arm trying to crush him, but he dodges and punches one of its legs making it fall to its side. He lands a barrage of punches to its stomach, damaging it severely, but it still fights back trying to bite him. He jumps back and witnesses how it heals itself back to full health.

[Tch, I have to finish it in one blow. Not sure if it can work, but since the time I controlled my cursed energy, I felt something come along with it, engraved in my body like I have known it my entire life, a curse technique.]

He dodges the attack by climbing on its back and raising his sword, [curse technique, shadow sword.] His sword gets covered by shadows making it longer and sharper. [Cugh, my cursed energy is being drained fast, gotta end this.] He jumps up in the air and swings his sword towards the curse, at first, nothing happens, but a few seconds later, the curse falls down with its whole body cut in half.

[What the hell kind of technique is that?] Maki thought seeing the damage he just caused.

[Holy shit, did I just make that large sword cut in the ground, this is str-] He passes out while falling, but Maki catches him.

“Looks like we switched places.”

She carried him back home and reported on their mission the following morning while he was still sleeping. He opens his eyes, finding himself in his room, “this has to stop happening.” He said getting up from his bed, he starts walking towards the exit until he spots the cursed tool that Maki gave him leaning on the wall next to the door.

“Huh, why is this here, did she forget about it?”

He picks it up and exits his room to look for Maki, [I bet she is at the training grounds again.] On his way there, he thought back to their mission, something was still not sitting right with him, [those gazes, why did they look at us like that, am I just overthinking it?]

He arrives at the training ground but Maki was not there, [guess she is not training today.] He walks in the field and starts jogging to warm up before his training. [So my technique is shadow, it’s almost similar to Megumi’s minus the shikigami. It's a technique with a lot of potential, I have to train to use it efficiently.]

After running a few rounds, he begins training with his sword, trying to improve his close-range combat even further. While focused on training, Megumi and Nobara showed up, halting his training.

“Sorry to disturb your training, do you have a minute to spare?”

Megumi asked with his usual casual face while Nobara looked annoyed for some reason. He stared at them for a bit before wiping the sweat from his face.

“Sure, I can spare some time.”

“Thanks.”

They walk over to the vending machine because Haruki wanted a cold drink; while he drank, Megumi started talking about their reason for being there.

“So we came here because we were wondering if you could come with us on a mission? Since you are also a 1st year, it would be beneficial to you as well.”

[Hmm, are they trying to move on from Yuji’s death? Well, guess I can help them out, Maki is not around anyway.]

“Sure, I don't mind going on a mission with you guys.”

Hearing this, Nobara starts mumbling to herself, but Haruki could not overlook this.

“Is something wrong?” He asked her in a cold tone.

“Yeah, something is wrong, I don’t want to work alongside you.”

“Why?”

“It’s none of your business.”

“Alright.”

He walks away leaving them to go on their mission alone; this really annoyed Megumi as he really wanted to work with Haruki.

“Dammit, what’s your problem? He was going to help us.”

“We don’t need his help; we can do this mission on our own.”

“Tch, look, I know you are sad about Yuji’s death but you have to move on; otherwise, you will only end up dragging us down.” He coldly told her and runs after Haruki.

"Asshole"