⚜ EVENING, 25TH JULY, 1990, THE GOJO ESTATE ⚜
JASMINE AND ASHLEY exchanged a brief, puzzled glance before turning their attention back to Ginny, their expressions equally curious and wary.
"And what exactly does this 'surprise' entail, Ginevra?" Ashley asked, her tone light but sharpened with skepticism.
Ginny's jaw tightened ever so slightly, though she masked it with an airy shrug and a forced smile. Her voice, measured and sweet, held a note of something just a little too controlled.
"It's a surprise, Ashley," she said with a light laugh that didn't reach her eyes. "Wouldn't be one if I just said what it was, now, would it? I wanted to show it to Jasmine, but… since you're here, Ashley, I guess you can tag along."
Her words were polite on the surface, but the underlying tension wasn't lost on either of them. It was obvious Ginny wasn't thrilled about Ashley tagging along. Excluding her outright, however, would have backfired spectacularly, and Ginny likely knew it.
Ashley tilted her head, lips curving into a faint, knowing smile as she exchanged a glance with Jasmine. "Well," she drawled, "it can't hurt, can it?"
Jasmine sighed softly. She could tell that Ashley was more interested in figuring out Ginny's motive than whatever 'surprise' she had in store.
Ginny's smile twitched, and for a second, something sharp flickered in her gaze.
Jasmine studied her in silence. This wasn't the first time Ginny had pulled something like this — attempting to isolate her so as to stage some overblown effort to impress her — but this time felt… different.
There was something taut beneath Ginny's breezy demeanor, something trembling at the edge of control.
"Alright," Jasmine said after a beat, shrugging lightly. "Lead the way."
Ginny's expression brightened, though she tried to temper her excitement with a casual nod. "Great. Follow me."
Ashley raised an eyebrow, giving Jasmine a playful nudge as they fell into step behind Ginny. "Let's see what the grand secret is," she whispered with a grin.
Jasmine stifled a quiet laugh but kept her eyes on Ginny, who was moving briskly now, weaving through the garden paths with determined, almost frenetic purpose. Whatever this was, she'd clearly put some thought into it. Whether that was a good thing or not… remained to be seen.
The path twisted through clusters of elegantly dressed guests lingering beneath softly glowing lanterns, the golden light casting long, flickering shadows over the stone walkways. As they reached a narrow archway at the garden's edge, the noise of the party faded behind them.
Ginny led them through, into the estate's Dueling Courtyard. It was mostly empty because the main event of the evening had kept most of the guests in the grand hall, since the subtle art of political manoeuvring and whispered alliances took precedence over outdoor exploration.
While smaller groups of attendees still wandered through the estate, they mainly flocked to the gardens or lounged near the koi pond, leaving certain areas of the estate — like the courtyard — largely abandoned.
Ginny stopped abruptly at the center of the courtyard, turning to face them with a look that was just a little too smug, a little too self-satisfied.
Her eyes gleamed strangely in the flickering light, and for a brief, unsettling moment, Jasmine thought there was something… off about her.
"Well," Ginny said with a peculiar little smile, her voice light but brittle, "this is where the surprise happens."
Ashley leaned casually against one of the columns, her expression mildly skeptical. "Alright, Ginny," she drawled. "Show us what you've got."
Jasmine said nothing, but her gaze remained fixed on Ginny. Something wasn't right. The way her breathing had quickened, the slight tremble in her hands despite her confident front… it put Jasmine on edge.
Ginny stretched out her arms, her fingers splaying wide. Her pupils dilated unnaturally, swallowing the color from her irises as her hands began to glow with a faint, crimson-tinged light.
"I've been working on this," Ginny said, her voice oddly distant, like she wasn't entirely there.
Jasmine's frown deepened. That wasn't normal magic. Something about the energy felt… wrong. Rotten.
"Ginny, wait—" she started, stepping forward.
But it was already too late.
Ginny's lips moved in a whisper, her words indistinct but thick with power.
A sudden, deafening crack ripped through the air, and the ground beneath their feet shuddered violently. Jasmine's instincts screamed at her to move, but before she could react, a jagged, black-and-red glyph erupted beneath her, burning into the stone like a brand.
Jasmine's breath caught in her throat.
She recognized the design. A high-level barrier seal.
But this one was different.
More dangerous.
"Ginny!" Jasmine shouted, panic lacing her voice, but Ginny didn't seem to hear her. Her eyes had gone glassy, her expression slack, like she was trapped in some kind of trance.
Ashley had straightened, her face pale. "Jasmine, what—"
There was no time to answer.
The glyph flared brighter, and with a sickening lurch, the air above them tore open.
A jagged, festering wound in reality.
And from that wound, something emerged.
A small, red cube — grotesque and pulsating, its surface covered in writhing, unblinking eyes.
Jasmine's heart plummeted.
She had seen illustrations of this in forbidden texts. Warnings scrawled by those who had barely survived encounters with it.
The Prison Realm.
A powerful ancient trap designed to bind and consume.
Before she could react, the cube's corners unfurled, twisting outward into fleshy, blood-red tendrils.
In the center, a massive, bloodshot eye opened, fixing its unholy gaze upon her.
Jasmine barely had time to draw breath before the tendrils shot forward with blinding speed.
One tore through her abdomen.
Another punched through her shoulder, cracking bone and tearing muscle.
A third impaled her thigh, twisting savagely as it pierced flesh.
Agony exploded through her, raw and all-consuming, stealing the air from her lungs.
Blood gushed from her wounds and mouth, pooling beneath her as the tendrils tightened, dragging her toward the cube's gaping maw.
The air was thick with the stench of charred stone and something far worse — something ancient and foul, like decay left to fester in the dark. The cube pulsed, a slow, sinister rhythm that seemed to mock the fading thud of her own heartbeat.
Through the haze, she saw Ginny, still standing there.
But her expression was blank.
"JASMINE!"
Ashley's scream shattered the air, but there was nothing she could do.
Jasmine choked, her vision blurring as pain roared through her body. She struggled weakly against the tendrils, but their grip was iron. Her strength was fading.
Her world tilted wildly, each breath ragged and shallow, each heartbeat faltering beneath the crushing weight of agony. Blood soaked her kimono, pooling beneath her as the cube closed around her.
She gasped, each breath more labored than the last. The pain was all-consuming, tearing through her in waves, but through the haze, she could just barely hear the sound of footsteps — rapid, hurried, like a distant stampede.
Her vision narrowed, tunneling into flickering shadows that danced at the edges of her mind, threatening to drag her under.
And yet, even as the cold fingers of unconsciousness clawed at her mind, even as the darkness began to swallow her whole, one thought rose, cold, clear, and strangely out of place, slicing through the haze like a blade of ice:
Whoever did this… whoever is behind this…
They just made a very, very big mistake.
Her lips curled into the barest ghost of a smile — a promise, silent and deadly.
Then, with a final, shuddering gasp, Jasmine's world went black.
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"JASMINE!" Ashley screamed, but there was nothing she could do. Her breath came in ragged gasps, her heart pounding wildly in her chest.
Ashley's ears rang, a high-pitched whine drowning out every other sound as the world blurred at the edges, slipping out of focus. Her breath hitched in her throat, and her chest heaved, each inhale ragged and uneven.
Her vision tunneled, narrowing until all she could see was the scene before her, unfolding like a nightmare in slow motion. The grotesque cube hovered ominously, its dark tendrils still dripping with blood. Jasmine's blood.
Suddenly, a surge of voices accompanied by the hurried footsteps of a crowd rose behind her. Figures burst into the area — other guests, drawn by the commotion. But they were too late. Far too late.
The cube's grotesque tendrils pulsed one last time, tightening around Jasmine's limp, blood-soaked form. Her head lolled to the side, her body slack and motionless, crimson streaks trailing from her wounds.
With a sickening inevitability, the cube's fleshy, blood-red tendrils retracted, folding inward with smooth, nightmarish precision. The grotesque mass twisted, compressing itself until it sealed shut with an ominous, bone-deep thunk — the closing of a tomb.
Ashley felt her body shaking violently — no, it was being shaken. An earthquake?
She couldn't tell. Everything had blurred into a chaotic whirlpool — colours, sounds, sensations all twisted into an incomprehensible haze. Her legs wobbled, and her arms hung limply by her sides, cold and useless.
"Ashley! Ashley, snap out of it!"
The voice was distant, like it was being spoken underwater. She couldn't focus on it. Her legs felt numb, her arms limp at her sides. Blood still pounded in her ears, drowning out everything except the ragged echoes of her own shallow breathing.
The shaking continued, more frantic now, jostling her like someone trying to rattle her awake from a nightmare. But Ashley couldn't tell where it was coming from — she wasn't even sure she was still standing upright. Her vision swam, dark spots blossoming at the edges.
She blinked sluggishly, her lips parting in a wordless gasp. Whoever was trying to pull her back to reality was failing.
Her mind spiraled deeper into the dark void as her consciousness began to fade, her body slipping further and further out of her control.
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Author here. 🥸
Sudden, I know. And yes, I do realise that the Prison Realm Cube never actually damaged Gojo when he was being sealed. I changed that mechanic for a number of reasons, one of them being that I wanted to have some decent amount of bloodshed. 🥸
Yes, I also realise that there are other very conspicuous things that don't make sense, yet. Please just trust the process and let me keep cooking — it'll make sense, I promise. 👨🍳
Ight. Ciao! 👨🍳