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The next night, after Yuji introduced himself to Gloria, David stood shirtless in front of his bathroom mirror, staring at his reflection.
Cursed Spirit Manipulation... it was ironic. Even though he’d finally found a way to fight back against them, his technique wasn’t actually made for killing. It was made for subjugation.
Defeat, consume, control.
According to his teacher, one of the worst acts of jujutsu terrorism in history had been committed by a sorcerer who possessed the exact same technique. A curse-user, Yuji had called them—sorcerers who used their power with malicious intent, freely cursing whoever they pleased.
The thought of it made him sick. He’d seen firsthand how curses ruined lives, having lived alongside thousands of them for most of his life. Most prominently his mother, who’d had a parasite latched onto her for as long as he could remember. The fact that there were people out there actively inflicting that misery on ordinary citizens who knew nothing about the jujutsu world pissed him off to no end.
Sorcerer or not, some people really were rotten to the core.
Shaking his head, David redirected his attention to his own reflection—or rather, the monstrosity currently grafted into his body.
Flexing his core, he summoned the power. Four thick, sickly green spider legs sprouted from his back, twitching and scraping against the tile wall, while a giant grinning mouth opened across his abdomen.
“This is not what I expected from Cursed Spirit Manipulation,” David muttered to the nasty smirk on his stomach.
All he got in response was a creepy, slow wheeze rattling from the giant mouth on his torso.
Fuckin’ disgusting.
Yuji had claimed that he could summon curses, but he never said anything about the curses manifesting directly on his body. It was rank, but in a cool way.
What were his limits? Could he fly if he ate a bird curse? Breathe underwater if he ate a fish one? The possibilities were limitless.
David retracted the spider legs back beneath his skin, the mouth on his gut smoothing over. Sweat slicked his collarbone.
He leaned against the edge of the sink, staring down at his hands.
Something wasn't matching up.
When Yuji had broken down the history of Cursed Spirit Manipulation, he'd described Suguru Geto, or was it Kenjaku? He’ll have to ask later. He described him like a one-man army. Geto swallowed curses, stored them inside, and summoned them as separate entities to fight alongside him. Swarms of curses. Autonomous minions. A full army at his command.
So why was David turning into the curse instead?
He hadn't summoned the spider curse into the room; instead, the damn thing had sprouted and fused straight out of his spine and stomach, becoming his own flesh and blood
Maybe he was doing it wrong. Maybe he was forcing the technique into a shape he understood, rather than manifesting the Curse itself.
If that was the case, David acknowledged that he still had a long way to go.
Yuji did say a Cursed Technique can evolve through deeper understanding of Cursed Energy. Maybe he just didn’t understand Cursed Energy yet to reach his technique’s full potential.
He sighed and walked out into the main room, contemplating how much his life had flipped since he’d decided to train under Yuji. His eyes locked on the coffee table—or rather, what was sitting on top of it.
It was a sleek, matte-black suitcase. Its premium quality far surpassed anything else in the cramped apartment.
Click.
He popped the latches and opened it. Inside lay a neatly folded suit, with a pair of black hard-knuckle gloves resting right on top.
Instead of training—which David would have vastly preferred—he and Yuji had spent the entire day stuck at a specialized tailor. The result was a highly customized blazer with the JJE tag on the arm, a yellow spiral, and matching pants. The gear featured extra utility pockets slapped onto the shoulders and thighs, and heavy-duty elbow and knee pads stitched directly into the fabric.
David lifted the fabric out of the matte-black case and laid it flat across the worn cushions of his couch.
Yuji had said he could make the uniform his own thing, which meant the stiff, formal dress shirts the tailor had pushed on him were definitely out.
David walked over to his cramped wardrobe and began sliding hangers back and forth, trying to find something that actually fit the vibe he wanted.
He pulled out a crisp, white button-down first. He held it up and immediately shook his head.
Next, he tried a graphic street tee. Nope.
Digging deeper into the back of the closet, his hand brushed against a familiar, soft fabric. He pulled it out: his light blue hoodie. Holding it up against the dark blazer, the color pop instantly worked.
He threw the hoodie on first, then slid his arms into the custom blazer, adjusting the collar so the hood draped neatly over the back. After pulling on the pants and fastening the straps around the built-in knee pads, he walked into the bathroom.
Stepping in front of the mirror, David stared at his reflection. He looked good. But more than that, he felt different.
When he wore his Arasaka Academy uniform, it felt like crossing a one-way bridge that was slowly collapsing behind him. If he stopped for even a second, if he gave up, he would fall and die.
In his new attire, he still felt that pressure, but in a completely different way. At the Academy, he hadn't stopped because he couldn't—no matter how much he wanted to. He’d just endured it. But with Jujutsu Eye, he didn't want to stop. He wanted to keep moving.
Keep running.
All the way to the edge.
He would grow stronger. He would exorcise and consume every single Curse he came across, regardless of the vile taste. He would do whatever it took to protect his mother, and others if he could, from the Cursed Spirits.
The light of the Planning and Development Office hummed with a buzzing noise that Yuji was slowly learning to ignore. Across the scuffed counter, the clerk dropped her digital stylus for the fourth time in ten minutes.
She scrambled under the desk, hit her head on the edge with a thunk, and popped back up, her cheeks glowing red.
"I am so sorry," she stammered, frantically smoothing down her stained blazer. "The... the desk interface is just sticky today."
"Take your time," Yuji said, offering a warm, patient smile. She was obviously overworked. Why else would her face look all red and sweaty like that?
The clerk blinked, her eyes darting across his face. She leaned over the counter, squinting suspiciously at his face. "What skin-weave are you running?"
Yuji blinked back. "My what?"
"Your skin. What type of fashionware are you on?" She tapped her own cheek, which had a faint, metallic seam near the ear. "Nobody’s skin looks that good without help."
"Oh. I just wash my face with soap," Yuji said simply.
It was true. After reaching the age of twenty-five, he didn’t really notice any changes in his complexion, so he never saw the need to use any facial care products. If Nobara were to see him right now and discover that he didn’t need any skin products, she would freak!
The clerk stared at him for three solid seconds, opened her mouth, closed it, and cleared her throat loudly. "Right. Soap. Hilarious. Moving on to real estate."
She furiously swiped at the holographic terminal between them, bringing up a series of floor plans.
"Okay, option one," she said, leaning in a little closer than necessary. "A micro-studio in Little China. It’s compact, budget-friendly, and very... intimate."
Yuji looked at the blueprint. "It says it’s 1.2 meters wide. I’m pretty sure I’d hit both walls if I rolled over in my sleep."
"Well, yes, but you could sleep standing up!" she suggested, far too enthusiastically. "A lot of tech-workers do it! Keeps the posture straight."
"That can’t be true."
She swiped the hologram away. "Okay, option two: Watson! Two-bedroom, giant living area, incredibly low rent!"
"Oh, nice! What's the catch?"
"The building is currently controlled by a Scavenger cell, the plumbing runs backward, and the ceiling is seventy percent asbestos," she read off her screen, not even flinching. "On the plus side, no property taxes!"
Yuji rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah... let's pass on the asbestos."
"Wise choice," she purred, flipping through another menu. "How about a corporate executive pod in Charter Hill? High security, filtered air, stainless steel floorboards."
"How much?" If it was in corporate, it must be good. But he’ll probably refuse it because it was going to have an outrageous price.
"Seven hundred thousand eddies a month, plus a mandatory twelve percent convenience fee for using the elevator."
‘I am clairvoyant!’ He celebrated internally.
“No thank you.” Yuji winced. He had the money to afford it, but it just didn’t seem worth it.
That doesn’t mean he didn’t indulge in the occasional premium services like authentic sushi and such. He should take David and his mom to somewhere nice once in a while, like how Gojo-sensei took them out to eat revolving sushi once upon a time.
The clerk’s eyes lit up. "Wait. Hold on. I think I have somethin..."
She tapped frantically on her terminal, leaning across the desk so far her tie was dipping into her lukewarm coffee
“Umm, miss?” Yuji began. “Your tie?”
“Huh?” She looked down and saw a small part of it drenched in her caffeine beverage. “Oh! Silly me.”
She quickly composed herself before showing him what she found in her pad.
[LOCATION: THE GLEN APARTMENT - HEYWOOD LOFT]
It displayed a sprawling, industrial two-story loft encased in massive, multi-pane floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the city skyline.
Downstairs featured a sunken living area with a dark, curved sectional sofa wrapped around a circular table, positioned right in front of a giant wall-mounted screen. Tucked near the far window was a full-sized pool table with vibrant red felt.
An industrial steel staircase led up to an open metal walkway mezzanine. Up top, a bed was tucked into a high corner next to a full-height bookshelf grid, with a workstation nestled underneath the landing.
"The previous owner was... abruptly evicted by Arasaka," So killed? "It’s got soaring ceilings, steel structural frames, and tons of open space. Perfect for... whatever workouts keep you built like that."
Push-ups, sit-ups, and plenty of juice.
"...I could apply a 'Family & Friends' discount. Or an 'Inconvenient Waiting Time' waiver. Or I could just list you as my official dependent." Oh, how nice of her! But what did she mean by dependen– "I mean! An official applicant! Under my personal authority! As a clerk!"
Yuji chuckled, looking closely at the apartment. "This is perfect. I'll take it."
"Awesome! Nova! Preem!" She shoved the biometric signature pad toward him so fast it nearly slid off the desk. "Just put your thumb right here, sign on the dotted line, and I can give you the keycodes, my personal detes, and maybe we could—"
BOOM!
A bone-rattling explosion slammed into the side of the building. The office windows shivered violently in their frames, and the ceiling tiles rained fine white powder down onto the counter, ruining the clerk's coffee entirely.
A second later, the rhythmic THUD THUD THUD THUD of a military-grade gun echoed from the direction of the Militech Office Building.
"Cyberpsycho!" someone in the lobby screamed.
The clerk shrieked, instantly diving under her desk and wrapping her arms over her head. "Not again!"
Yuji didn't panic. He slowly pulled his thumb back from the glowing scanner, looking out the rattling front windows toward the rising column of black smoke down the street. He could feel the dense, jagged spikes of raw panic and bloodlust pulsing through the air.
He stood up, casually dusting off a bit of dust from his shoulder, and straightened his jacket.
He leaned over the counter and looked down at the clerk curled up by her shoes.
"Hey," Yuji said, giving her a reassuring, bright smile. "Keep that contract open, okay? Don't let anyone else grab the Heywood loft while I'm out."
The clerk peeked out from under the desk, her eyes wide with total disbelief. "Are you crazy?! There's a psycho out there!"
"I know," Yuji said, turning casually toward the screaming crowd running past the front doors. "I'll be right back to sign the lease. Ten minutes, tops."
James Norris, a former Lieutenant Colonel in the NUSA military, stood atop Memorial Park’s crystal dome as heavy rain poured over his bulletproof skin.
His HUD flickered violently with warning banners he’d stopped reading ten months ago. None of it mattered anymore. The noise in his skull—the screeching static building since he returned from the war—was finally quiet, replaced by a cold clarity.
Everything was clear now.
He began to walk. Walking toward his clarity. Toward their war. Toward his peace.
Overhead towered Militech Corporate HQ—his providers. They had supplied the chrome, the weapons, and the clarity in conflict he sought. The conflict he needed.
Below, police cruisers surrounded the building, red and blue strobes cutting through the downpour. They were looking for James. He had killed many people on his path to clarity, and the body count had finally drawn their attention.
They were in his way.
He walked up to the lead squad car. Through the passenger-side window, an officer sat scrolling on his phone, distracted by an active holo-call.
"Huh?" The officer noticed James standing outside, locking eyes with him through the glass. "What the hell you doin'? Back it up! Lookin' to get shot—"
He didn’t get to finish. James raised a DB-2 Satara, a tech shotgun, leveling it straight through the window.
A high-pitched whine hummed as the weapon charged to max capacity, and then—
BOOM!
The windshield blew out in a violent spray of blood and shattered glass, instantly killing the cop.
Behind him, the rest of the squad swung their weapons around, alerted by the deafening shotgun blast.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! CLICK-BOOM! CLICK-BOOM! CLICK-BOOM!
A wall of lead hammered into James. Hundreds of rounds bounced off his subdermal armor like hail on steel. It didn't break his skin. It didn't even slow him down.
He turned to retaliate.
BANG! BANG BANG! BANG! BANG BANG!
Raising his M-76e Omaha in one hand and his HJKE-11 Yukimura in the other, James opened fire, dropping two officers instantly.
A third cop stepped up, annoyingly well-armored. James didn't waste time. He stopped firing the Omaha, locked his forearm forward, and primed his arm cannon.
BANG! BOOM!
The micro-missile struck the armored officer dead-center, detonating with explosive force that tore him in half and sent the pieces flying across the pavement. James immediately swapped his pistol for his HJSH-18 Masamune assault rifle, holding down the trigger.
RATATATATATATATA!
“Got us a cyberpsycho!” an officer screamed over the roar of gunfire. “Raise MaxTac! NOW!”
MaxTac?
No… no… NO!
He wouldn't let them get in the way of his clarity!
James shifted his aim toward the two cops shouting for backup, zeroing in with his Masamune.
SHING!
CLINK! CLINK!
The assault rifle went completely dead in his grip. Ignoring the steady hail of bullets still sparking off his skin, James looked down.
The barrels of his guns lay in the street, sliced cleanly in half.
“CEASE FIRE!”
The command roared through the street, cutting straight through the deafening noise of the gunfight.
Miraculously, every officer on the line stopped shooting. Even James paused, tracking the sound.
Every eye turned toward the new arrival.
He wore a black blazer over a red dress shirt and a black tie, paired with matching suit pants. Spiky pink hair stood out, and jagged scars marked his right eyebrow and the left corner of his lip. He strolled straight into the kill zone, hands buried casually in his pockets.
The strangest part wasn't his clothes or his face—it was the rain.
The downpour wasn't touching him. Every falling drop halted an inch from his body, sliding off an invisible barrier as if repelled by a personal shield.
“No need for MaxTac! I’m from Jujutsu Eye; I can take it from here. Everyone, just stand back,” the pink-haired man announced before shifting his gaze directly to James. “Sir, I’m gonna have to ask you to stand down.”
James didn’t listen. He couldn’t. The word MaxTac was still ringing in his skull, overlapping with the screeching static of his fried cyberware.
This pink-haired suit wasn’t peace. He was an obstacle.
CLICK.
The Sandevistan engaged. The world froze into a murky, crawling halt. Raindrops turned to stationary crystal beads in the air. James lunged forward at blinding speed, arm cannon primed and aimed straight for the intruder’s throat.
Yet, inside the dilated time, the pink-haired man casually shifted his eyes. He tracked James’s movement as if they were just strolling through a park.
SHING!
Without the man ever taking his hands out of his pockets, the thick metal barrel of James’s cannon was suddenly sliced vertically in two, rendering the weapon dead weight.
BZZZT.
Time snapped back to normal. James staggered back, his ruined cybernetic forearm sparking violently in the downpour.
"The hell is this guy?" one of the surviving cops muttered, ducking behind a shot-up cruiser. "Jujutsu Eye? What’s an agent doing all the way out here? I thought they were banned."
"Must be a high-ranker," his partner shot back over the rain. "Those guys get clearance the lower ranks don't."
The pink-haired agent didn't even flinch at the sparking machinery. He let out a long, bored sigh, blowing a strand of hair out of his eyes. His hands stayed firmly in his pockets.
"Look, big guy," the agent said, walking forward with zero urgency. "I get it. You got chipped to the teeth, and your brain is more circuits than nerves at this point. But you wouldn’t have stood a chance against MaxTac. Let’s just call it a day. Drop what's left of your weapons, sit down, and let's dial down the cyberware."
James’s optics flared a blinding, violent red.
The cold clarity was burning away into raw, scalding hysteria. The screeching static came roaring back into his ears, ten times louder, drowning out his thoughts in a wall of feedback.
No...NONONO!
This pink-haired agent was ruining his peace. He was breaking the clarity!
He couldn't gun down through the suit—fine! He'd kill the rest of them! He’d paint this entire block red! Swinging his large frame around, he yanked his charged tech shotgun toward the cowering badges behind the cruiser, his HUD flashing red errors across his vision.
BANG! BOOM!
A lethal spread of superheated metal tore through the downpour.
Then—the suit was just there. Standing in front of the bumper, his bare hand casually thrust out. He caught the entire blast. Caught it in his bare palm.
James’s optics glitched violently in rage.
"Whoa, hey," the agent sighed, barely turning his head toward the cops. "Told you guys to stay back."
The officer on the ground stared at the man's unblemished, smoking hand, his voice cracking in awe. "What the actual fuck..."
The agent turned back to James, his lazy eyes souring into mild disappointment. "Guess you're not in the mood to talk."
IMPOSSIBLE! CHEATER! DIE DIE DIE!
James's breath hitched into a wet, mechanical wheeze as panic tore through his fried brain. He yanked his remaining sidearm up, his hands forcing the target lock straight onto the suit's forehead.
This time—THIS TIME HE’LL BLOW HIS FUCKING HEAD OFF!
Before his finger could even twitch on the trigger, the gap vanished. The pink-haired agent appeared inches from his chest.
A light, almost effortless palm strike tapped against James's chest plate.
THUMP.
It felt like a tank shell tore straight through his subdermal armor without leaving a single dent on the outside. A shockwave detonated inside his ribs, instantly halting his heart mid-beat.
James’s HUD glitched one last time before going to pitch black.
POW!
"FUCK!"
David hit the floor hard, tumbling off his sagging couch and landing in a heap on the carpet.
He groaned, rubbing his throbbing jaw as he glared up at the stuffed, sleepy bear doll with boxing perched on the cushions. The damn thing was already settling back into its neutral, motionless stance.
He’d quit pushing bootleg XBDs a week ago. The only reason he still ordered Doc’s dirtiest, most fucked-up scrolls was for training—forcing himself to maintain a steady flow of Cursed Energy while his brain was flooded with extreme, simulated emotions.
It worked fine right up until the end. Every single time a scroll hit its violent, sickening climax, David’s focus slipped for a fraction of a second, his energy spiked—and the doll clocked him straight in the mouth.
"I fucking hate you," David muttered at the doll.
The cursed corpse sat motionless on the coffee table, its glassy eyes staring blankly at the wall, completely unbothered.
David hauled himself off the floor, his spine popping as he stretched out his aching limbs. A glance at his HUD clock pulled him back to reality. Shit. It was almost time for Arasaka Academy. Yuji had promised to meet him and his mom outside the front gates.
He’d always wondered what his teacher actually did when he wasn't teaching him how to control Cursed Energy or beating David’s ass—where he went, or what kind of jobs Jujutsu Eye handed him. The scroll he’d just finished gave him a crystal-clear answer.
David flexed his fingers, looking down at his bare knuckles as a faint, weak ember of energy flickered beneath his skin.
"Man... I really gotta learn how to catch bullets."
The alternating flash of red and blue light cut through the heavy downpour as Gloria’s EMT transport rattled to a halt near Militech Offices. Rain hammered against her windshield, but the wall of police sirens and chatter over the dispatch radio completely swallowed the sound.
Another cyberpsycho call out in Corporate Plaza. Standard nightmare shift.
Snatching her medical kit, Gloria pushed her door open and stepped into the storm. The air stank of smoke, cordite, and copper. She looked around and saw there wasn’t much blood spread around.
Usually, cyberpsycho calls meant an Easy-Beef buffet—cops torn in half, blood across the pavement, and MaxTac executing the poor bastard who lost their mind.
But the officers were alive. Shaken, bleeding, and huddled behind their shot-up cruisers, but breathing.
"Get the trauma kit over here!" an officer barked, holding a pressure bandage to his partner's shoulder. "Bled out half his shoulder, but he's stable!"
Gloria dropped to her knees beside them, her gloved hands moving on instinct. She reached into her kit, pulling out hyposprays and bio-foam. Her back burned with a dull, throbbing ache that had been grinding into her spine for three straight shifts. Her eyes burned under the harsh streetlights, and a dull migraine beat against her temples like a drum.
Just a few more hours, she told herself, pressing the hypospray against the officer's neck. Just get through the shift.
"You're doing great, Gloria."
Gloria flinched, almost dropping her hypospray as a hand rested lightly on her left shoulder.
She whipped her head up. Standing over her in the pouring rain—completely dry, with every drop of water sliding off an invisible barrier an inch from his jacket—was Yuji.
"M-Mr. Yuji?!" Gloria stammered, her eyes wide. She looked from him to the cratered street, where a heavily augmented man lay unconscious in a heap of sparking metal. "What are you doing here?"
"Oh, just taking care of some real estate paperwork nearby when this guy started making a mess," Yuji said, giving her a bright, effortless smile. "Handled it before MaxTac had to blow up the block."
"You... you stopped him?" She looked at the giant, bulletproof ex-military borg, then back at Yuji’s pristine suit. He must have some sort of experimental tech that blocks off the rain. Corpo agents were just that rich.
"Yeah, took about two minutes," Yuji chuckled. He kept his hand resting lightly on her shoulder for a second longer. "Anyway, I'm heading over to get some coffee. Want Anything?"
As he spoke, a strange, soothing warmth spread from his palm directly into her skin.
It felt like stepping into a hot bath after being stuck in the snow.
In a fraction of a second, the agonizing knot between her shoulder blades snapped loose. The sharp, persistent throb in her lower back melted away. The grinding strain behind her eyes vanished, and the dull migraine pounding in her skull simply dissolved into nothingness. Her muscles felt relaxed, comfortable, and completely restored.
She was still exhausted—her brain was still heavy with sleep deprivation and thick fog from hours without rest—but the physical pain that had been tearing her body apart was completely gone.
“N-no thank you.” Gloria blinked, putting a hand to her neck in absolute shock. "What... what did you..."
"Don't push yourself too hard, okay?" Yuji smiled, pulling his hand back and shoving it casually into his trouser pocket. "David still needs you in his life. Kid’ll go off the deep end without you. I'll be waiting right outside the main gate for you and David later."
He turned and strolled casually away through the line of slack-jawed cops, leaving Gloria staring at his back in stunned silence.
He did something to her, she realized, her chest tightening with an overwhelming wave of relief. Somehow, he made the pain lessen. Without even asking... without a single word.
For years, she had carried the weight of knowing that if she broke down, David would have nothing. But looking at the Agent walking off into the rain, the fear in her heart finally started to give way.
David wasn't going to end up dead in a gutter or scraped off by other Meat Wagon EMTs. He was going to learn from a man who could take down a cyberpsycho in two minutes and heal a mother's broken body with a touch.
David was going to have a real life. A better life.
CRRRRK!
A mechanical winch groaned nearby, pulling her back to reality.
Gloria turned her head toward the center of the street. An NCPD retrieval unit was hooking cables around the unconscious frame of the cyberpsycho.
"Watch the arm cannon!" an officer called out. "Strip any of the dangerous chrome before we haul him to the lockup! They gonna want every piece of military tech off this chrome-dome."
Gloria’s eyes narrowed, locking onto the reinforced cyberware embedded along Norris’s spine.
Her EMT training recognized high-grade cyberware instantly. That wasn't standard street chrome. That was a military-grade Sandevistan—a piece of tech worth more than her entire apartment. And in the chaotic mess of a cyberpsycho cleanup scene, chrome like that had a habit of ‘getting lost’ in transport before ever hitting the police evidence locker.
She thought of Maine.
The edgerunner crew leader owed her a few favors, but a piece of pristine, military-grade speed chrome? That would command a serious price tag on the black market. Enough to give her and David an extra financial cushion while he transitioned into Jujutsu Eye. A small risk for a massive payoff.
Taking a deep breath, Gloria picked up her medical kit, wiped the rain off her face, and walked straight toward the recovery gurney.
Yuji leaned against a dark granite security barrier just outside the Tower’s main biometric check-gate, his hands buried deep in his trousers pockets.
Positioned at the heart of Corporate Plaza, the atmosphere here was suffocatingly sterile compared to the dirt and rust of Arroyo.
In a sea of tailored corporate suits and rigid Arasaka Academy uniforms, he blended right in.
Or so he thought he would.
Black-armored Arasaka guards with red-visored helmets gripped their submachine guns tighter as they passed his sector. Their optics locked onto him, running facial recognition that immediately flagged his high-level Jujutsu Eye clearance.
And then the whispers.
"The guy from N54..."
"Is that really him? The one who took down a cyberpsycho?
"What is a JJE operative doing at the main tower gate? Is there a psycho here?"
Academy students and low-level suits walked in wide arcs around him, keeping a ten-foot berth from the dark slate barrier. They stole nervous glances, terrified to look too long at a man who had casually flattened an augmented ex-military officer the night before.
Yuji paid them no mind. He blew a stray strand of pink hair out of his eyes, checked his watch, and waited for Gloria and David to show up.
HONK! HONK!
A dented, yellow utility car rattled up the sterile drop-off lane, its backfire echoing off the dark carbon walls like a gunshot. Half the Arasaka guards nearly drew their sidearms before realizing it was just a beat-up civilian vehicle.
It lurched to a halt right at the edge of the plaza, cutting off a polished black corporate transport.
Gloria stuck her head out the driver's window, her bright red hair tied back in a messy knot. She looked like she hadn't slept in thirty-six hours, which was around the same time he last saw her, still wearing her EMT jacket.
"Mr. Yuji! Over here!" she called out, completely ignoring the horrified stares from the surrounding suits.
The passenger door creaked open, and David stepped onto the pristine slate tile. He shoved his hands into his pockets, collar pulled high to hide the fresh bruise blooming on his jaw. He glanced around at the pristine Arasaka Tower perimeter, wincing under the weight of a hundred corporate eyes.
The veteran sorcerer pushed off the granite barrier and strolled over, his bored look instantly vanishing into a relaxed grin.
"You're late, Gloria," Yuji said, leaning against her window frame. "Guards were about five minutes away from bringing out artillery just to clear me off the sidewalk."
That wasn’t an exaggeration; Yuji actually heard something about a freaking bazooka when the guards were talking about him.
"Blame the traffic interchange," Gloria sighed, killing the engine with a rough cough. She rubbed her eyes and looked at him. "And blame your student. Took him twenty minutes just to get out the front door."
David grunted, staring down at his sneakers. "Had a rough morning."
“He fell off the couch and bruised his cheek.’
Yuji looked David up and down, taking in his student's unconventional interpretation of the Jujutsu Eye uniform.
David had layered the dark blazer they bought recently right over a light blue hoodie
"Nice fit," Yuji noted, eyeing the pale blue hood popping out over the dark jacket's lapels. "Doll give you trouble again?"
David tugged the hood lower over his brow, adjusting his sleeves as he avoided Yuji's gaze. "Scroll lagged at the end. That's all."
Gloria slammed her car door shut with a thud, taking a deep breath as she smoothed down her worn EMT jacket. Her eyes nervously swept the dark slate plaza, taking in the red-visored Arasaka security officers eyeing them through their tactical helmets.
"Just leave the jacket as it is, David," Gloria said softly, reaching over to adjust his hood. "We're already pushing our luck with the administration. Let me do the talking once we get inside."
"Actually," Yuji spoke up, stepping past them toward the entrance gates. "I'll handle the talking. You just sit back and look pretty."
Gloria froze. A sudden flush crept up her neck, turning her cheeks bright crimson as her fingers fidgeted awkwardly with her jacket hem.
Yuji noticed the sudden redness in her face and frowned slightly. Man, she looks really sick. Must be running herself into the ground with those extra shifts.
Hopefully, once they sorted out David's situation with the school, she could finally cut down on work and get some rest.
Also, he was pretty sure that her son’s soon-to-be salary would be triple her own.
‘So…Dismantle: Slash That Cuts The Crippling Debt, I guess?’ Yuji thought, semi-jokingly.
“We should get going,” David said hastily, cutting past the two adults.
David must have noticed his mother’s condition and wanted to get things over with as fast as possible.
Usually, David spent his mornings avoiding every single pair of eyes in the Arasaka Tower hallway. Today, every single pair was locked on him.
Yuji walked up front, hands jammed into his trouser pockets. Gloria walked right behind him, clutching the strap of her bag so tight her knuckles turned white, while David lagged half a step back, keeping his head low under his hood.
The moment they stepped past the main lobby, the usual morning chatter died flat. Students froze near their lockers. Low-level admin assistants carrying datapads stopped dead in their tracks, staring.
"Is that... Martinez?" a girl whispered, her optics glowing faint blue as she zoomed in on him.
"What is he wearing?" her friend muttered back.
"Look at the sleeve," another voice chimed in. "What is that, a yellow spiral?"
David pulled his hood down a fraction, feeling the heat of dozens of eyes burning into his back. But those eyes didn't stay on him for long—they quickly shifted right over to Yuji.
"Holy shit..." an admin assistant muttered, tapping her temple to pull up a feed. "That's him. The guy from the N54 news last night."
"The Jujutsu Eye guy?"
"The one who took down that cyberpsycho with his bare hands?"
"What’s the agent doing here?"
‘They’re actually scared of him,’ David thought, watching a group of upperclassmen hastily shuffle back toward the wall to clear a path.
"Sir Yuji..." Gloria whispered, her voice tight. "Everyone's looking at us."
"Let 'em," Yuji said casually, not even bothering to look around. "What can they do? Provoke us like how those cliché rich spoiled brats do on TV?"
"HEY, GUTTER RAT!" a familiar voice called out across the hall.
Way to jinx it, teach.
The three of them halted in their tracks, turning toward the voice.
Striding down the hallway was Katsuo Tanaka—a blue-haired corpo brat with a smug, punchable grin plastered across his face. Flanking him were his usual two shadows: a skinny blond kid, and a heavy-set buzz-cut cracking his knuckles behind him.
Yuji let out a slow sigh, rubbing the back of his neck. "...David, lesson fifty-something: never tempt fate."
‘You were the one who tempted it!’ David shouted in his head, gritting his teeth as Katsuo strutted right up to them, completely oblivious to who he was actually walking toward.
“What with the clothes? Did your uniform come to life and run away from the stench of your fucking Mega?” Katsuo mocked very lamely
The skinny blond guy let out a loud, performative snicker, while the heavy-set one chuckled on cue. Katsuo puffed his chest out, completely blind to the fact that the rest of the hallway had gone dead silent around them.
David didn't even get mad. He just looked at Katsuo with something close to pity.
‘This gonk is really standing in front of a Special Grade and running his mouth.’
Gloria reflexively took a half-step back, her voice tight with panic. "Katsuo, please, we're just here to—"
"Didn't talk to you, street trash." Okay, now David was mad. "What's the matter, Martinez? Did your mom here finally run out of scavenged Eddies?"
Yuji tilted his head, looking Katsuo up and down with genuine, mild curiosity—the kind you give a tiny dog barking at a semi-truck from those old pre-krash vids.
"David," Yuji said smoothly, not taking his eyes off the blue-haired kid. "Is this one of those 'bullies' you mentioned?"
"Yeah," David muttered under his breath. "That's Katsuo."
"Huh." Yuji shoved his hands deeper into his pockets. "And his dad is...?"
"Executive Tanaka," Katsuo bragged, taking the bait without a second thought. He smirked, puffing out his chest even further. "Which means I basically own this floor, bitch. So step aside before I have security drop you."
Yuji took a single step forward.
David could feel the Cursed Energy release from the sorcerer’s body. It wasn’t like a beacon like the first day they met, but it was concentrated enough to make him sweat.
He turned to his mother and saw her face had paled like a ghost. Looking around, he saw most, if not all, of the surrounding people react to the Cursed Energy.
A suffocating pressure washed over Katsuo and his goons.
The skinny blond kid staggered back, clutching his neck, while the heavy-set goon turned dead pale.
David swore he could hear Katsuo’s heart spike violently. Sweat broke out across his forehead, his knees trembling under the sheer weight of Yuji’s gaze.
"W-Whatever," Katsuo stammered, trying to force a smirk back onto his face. He sneered, pointing a shaky finger at his former fellow student’s mother. "Just take the gutter rat and the cheap whore mother back to the gutters where they belong—"
CRACK!
David moved before the last word even left Katsuo’s mouth.
He bridged the gap in a blur, his right hand shooting out like a hydraulic piston. Five fingers clamped tight around Katsuo's face, his grip digging viciously into his jaw and cheekbones.
The young sorcerer had enough of this arrogant bastard.
"MPGH—!"
With a single jerk, David lifted the blue-haired kid clean off his feet, hoisting him three feet into the air by his face alone.
CRUNCH!
Katsuo’s skull groaned under the pressure of a Curse-imbued hand. Cursed Energy flowed through David’s skin, the output dangerously immense for the non-sorcerer in his grasp.
His fingers sank deeper, squishing Katsuo's face into a distorted, agonizing mask. Katsuo thrashed wildly, his hands clawing uselessly at David’s wrist, but David’s arm didn't budge an inch.
All this time of being a punching bag, he finally lost the reason to be scared and gained the power to fight back.
"D-David!" Gloria gasped. She grabbed his elbow, pulling desperately. "Stop! David, put him down! You're going to seriously hurt him!"
"Hey, kid."
Yuji’s hand settled gently on David’s shoulder. His grip was light, but the subtle weight behind it pulled David right back to reality.
"Take it down a notch; save that energy for training later," he said so quietly that only David could hear him.
The young Latino ground his teeth, but he forced his fingers to uncurl, dropping the dirtbag like a sack of garbage.
THUD!
Katsuo hit the floor hard, curling on his side as he gasped violently for air. Blood trickled down his lip, smeared right across a deep, purple imprint of David’s palm.
“Y-you’ll... pay for this!” The blue-haired gonk wheezed, his voice trembling as he glared up through bloodshot eyes. “I’m gonna make sure you die like a JoyToy on the street!”
“Sure, whatever you tell yourself for the sake of your broken ego.” The JJE agent waved off. “Now come on, the faster we get this done, the faster we can get boba.”
What’s up with him and fucking boba?
David sat with his elbows on his knees, staring at the polished floor. The air in the office was cold, filtered, and smelled faintly of artificial pine—a scent he’d grown to hate every time he got dragged in here for minor infractions.
Beside him, his mom sank into one of the plush leather chairs, her shoulders hunched. Across the desk sat the Principal, adjusting the gold links on his cuffs while looking at Gloria with a familiar, patronizing disgust.
"Ms. Martinez," the Principal began, his tone dripping with rehearsed sympathy. "Agent Itadori. I assume you are here to discuss David's recent... less than appropriate way of handling Mr. Tanaka?"
Wow, word gets out fast.
"I'm here to sign David's official withdrawal papers," Gloria said, forcing her chin up despite the tremor in her hands. "He's leaving the Academy."
The Principal leaned back, intertwining his fingers. "I'm afraid it isn't quite that simple, Mrs. Martinez. You have yet to pay the remaining twelve thousand eddies worth of tuition from last month. Until your debt is cleared, we are not allowed to let him go."
David felt a cold knot twist in his gut. Twelve thousand Eddies. They barely had enough for rent this month.
"Furthermore," the Principal continued, "an abrupt exit automatically triggers Counter-Intelligence Protocol 4-B. Standard protocol requires holding David for a full data audit, during which all linked family accounts, medical registries, and municipal work clearances are frozen."
David turned to look at his mom. Her face had gone entirely pale, her breath catching in her throat. He knew what that meant—if they froze her EMT credentials, she couldn't work. If they locked their accounts, they couldn't even buy groceries tomorrow. They were going to ruin her life just to keep him trapped.
"Please," Gloria pleaded, her voice cracking. "He’s just a boy! He doesn't have any of your data—"
Before she could finish, Yuji stepped directly between her chair and the desk, completely blocking the Principal from view.
David blinked, leaning back slightly. For all the time he’s known him, Yuji as a laid-back, easygoing guy who was a total powerhouse. He’d only seen Yuji act like an actual authority figure once before. And that was towards his mother.
THUD!
Yuji slammed a datapad straight down onto the desk, right over the Principal's control interface.
[JUJUTSU EYE: FIELD APPRENTICE ONBOARDING]
A golden spiral crest flared across the screen, overriding the office terminal with a sharp, high-pitched chime.
"Skip the script," Yuji said flatly. He didn't raise his voice, but something about the tone made everyone in the room shut the fuck up and listened. "Gloria signed the parental release. Process the transfer. As of right now, David is officially onboarded as a high-ranking JJE field apprentice under my direct supervision."
The Principal froze. David watched the man's corporate optics flicker rapidly as a bead of sweat rolled down his temple.
"Arasaka Counter-Intel has legal authority—" the Principal started, his voice wavering.
"Arasaka Counter-Intel doesn't mean a damn thing against us," Yuji interrupted smoothly, leaning forward. "His signature hits our system today. That means if any of your security goons so much as look at David or his mother sideways, you're provoking Jujutsu Eye."
Yuji casually reached out and double-tapped his datapad screen.
BEEP!
[WIRE TRANSFER SUCCESSFUL: 12,000 EDDIES RECEIVED FROM JUJUTSU EYE RECRUITMENT ACQUISITIONS]
The Principal’s monitor flashed bright green as the entire debt vanished from the ledger.
David stared at the screen, his brain struggling to keep up. Twelve thousand Eddies—an amount that was about to destroy his family—was dropped in a single double-tap. How much money did Yuji make?!.. How much money will he make?
Questions for later.
"As for the tuition," Yuji added, resting his hands back in his pockets. "JJE standard onboarding covers all pre-existing academic liabilities for new talent. Invoice paid in full. Arasaka got its Eddies, you have zero legal grounds for a data audit, and David walks."
The Principal sat completely frozen, his eyes darting between the green payment confirmation and Yuji's completely relaxed posture. David realized then that the man was terrified. He was just a middle-manager who relied on intimidating people who had nothing, and he had no idea how to handle someone with actual corporate power standing over him.
With an exhale, the Principal pressed his thumb against the biometric scanner.
BEEP!
[TRANSFER APPROVED: ACADEMIC WITHDRAWAL COMPLETE]
Gloria let out a long, shuddering breath beside him, her shoulders finally dropping.
Yuji scooped his datapad off the desk, slid it into his jacket, and turned around with a quick wink toward Gloria. "Appreciate the cooperation. Come on, Gloria. David. Let's go get something to eat."
David stood up, looking at Yuji in a whole new light as they walked out the door.
Wsshhhh…
The cold tap water ran over David’s knuckles, washing away the lingering heat from his skin. He leaned over the basin, staring at his reflection in the mirror above the chrome faucet. His chest felt tight, the adrenaline from the Principal’s office slowly ebbing into a dull exhaustion.
He didn’t really do anything, so that exhaustion personally felt unwarranted.
He didn’t know Yuji could be so…intimidating. In a corporate sense, of course. When it came to sorcery, his intimidation could only be described as hella.
Behind David, a stall door unlatched with a soft click.
Someone stepped out, casually whistling a cheerful, familiar tune.
What was it? Oh, yeah, Itsy Bitsy Spider.
David didn't bother looking up until the man stepped right up to the sink next to his, turning on the sensor-activated faucet.
"Gotta hand it to you, kid," the man said, his voice light and strangely melodic. "Snagging a golden ticket with Jujutsu Eye? That’s one hell of a career pivot."
David turned his head slowly.
The man was wearing a sleek, black Arasaka lab coat, tailored high at the collar. Across his face ran jagged, stitch-like lines of silver EMP threading, crisscrossing his nose and cheekbones like surgical scars. His long, grayish-blue hair was pulled back into a loose, low man-bun, with a few stray strands hanging around his jaw. His right eye was a pale, milky gray, while his left was a deep blue.
David dried his hands on a paper towel, keeping his expression entirely flat. "Just transferring out. Nothing special."
"Nothing special?" The lab-coated man chuckled, rinsing his hands with idle care. "JJE Special Grades doesn't just walk into an Arasaka facility to personally pick up academy students. Usually, JJE just sends a low-level, unaffiliated handler with a stack of non-disclosure waivers. But a Special Grade taking you under his wing? You must have something really not not special on you."
David tossed the crumpled paper towel into the chute. He didn't like the guy's vibe, nor the way those mismatched eyes seemed to pick apart his entire frame with a single glance.
"I don't know what you're talking about, choom," David said dryly, turning on his heel toward the heavy exit door. "I'm just a kid leaving a school I couldn't afford, off to make some real money."
He reached for the door handle, ready to push out into the hallway and put Arasaka Academy behind him for good.
"Tell me, Martinez," the man called out softly behind him, the faucet shutting off with a hiss. “How do we taste?"
“What?” David turned around, and the man disappeared. Like he vanished out of thin air.
He looked left. He looked right. The bathroom was completely empty.
"What the hell...?" he muttered to himself.
There had been no sound of a door swinging open, no footsteps, no nothing.
How do we taste?
The words made zero sense. Was he losing his mind? Was he hallucinating? It couldn't be early-stage cyberpsychosis. In fact, Yuji expressly forbade him to use any implants other than the standard.
David stood there in the middle of the room, rubbing the back of his neck, completely lost. He had no idea who that guy was, what he meant, or where he went.
Deciding he didn't care enough to stand around and figure it out, the confused sorcerer shoved the door open and got the hell out of there.
Unbeknownst to him…
“Hehehehehe.” Chuckles emanated from the sink of the empty bathroom.
The man in the black lab coat was just the prologue of the events that were yet to come.
After leaving the tower, Yuji decided to take the mother-son duo out for a meal for the second time. David was not complaining.
“So, where to now?” David, who was in the passenger seat next to his mother, who was driving the yellow vehicle, asked his teacher.
The teacher was at the back, doing something with his phone, doing something the young man couldn’t tell what.
“Embers.”
…Did he just say embers?
David whipped his head around, staring at the back seat so fast his neck popped.
"Embers?" David repeated, his voice dropping an octave. "As in... the Embers? In Vista Del Rey?"
Gloria’s head snapped toward the rearview mirror, her knuckles turning white on the steering wheel. The yellow utility car veered slightly before she jerked it back into the lane.
"Mr. Yuji, you can't be serious," Mom stammered, her voice filled with disbelief. "That place sits high above the Heywood skyline—it's strictly for Arasaka board members, foreign diplomats, and high-level corporate execs! They serve real organic meat, not scop! They won't even let civilians into the private elevator without a top-tier corporate clearance code!"
Yuji didn't even look up from his screen. His thumbs flicked casually across the holographic interface. "Yeah, I know. I just reserved us a private dining space."
"You what?" David blurted out.
"The host tried to tell me there was an eight-month waitlist for non-executives," Yuji said, tapping the screen with a satisfying chime. "Then I told him who I was and suddenly a private table opened up right away. Don’t worry, I have more than enough money to pay for it."
And yet, he still lives in a shitty motel.
He glanced at his mom. Gloria looked utterly stunned, like she was just presented a treasure that could set her up for life.
Any non-existent regret he had before about joining JJE was then confirmed to be really non-existent because his life ruled right now!
The yellow utility car rattled onto the highway interchange around noon, merging into the heavy midday traffic heading toward Heywood.
All was calm until—
RATATATATATATA!
The violent, deafening thrum of automatic gunfire tore through the air.
David's eyes snapped to the left. A modified, neon-pink car came roaring down the lane right alongside an Arasaka corporate transport. Leaning out of the pink car's roof was a massive, heavily augmented gangoon, a red-and-yellow rotary arm cannon whirring as it spewed a continuous hail of lead into the transport's side.
Did he jinx himself this time?
"Shit!" Gloria gasped, slamming her foot onto the brake.
The pink car swerved aggressively into their lane. Stray heavy-caliber rounds chewed up the pavement, punching straight through Gloria’s hood and spider-webbing the windshield in a shower of glass and sparks. Hundreds of glowing brass shell casings rained down over their hood.
David’s eyes widened. Instinct took over—he flooded Cursed Energy through his core and arms, throwing his torso across his mother to shield her from the incoming lead and brace her against the kinetic shock.
“David?! What are you doing?!”
“Keeping you safe, duh!”
David saw his teacher casually roll down the rear passenger window, stick two fingers out flicked his wrist without dropping his phone.
SHING! SHING! SHING! SHING! SHING!
All firearms from the Animals were sliced cleanly to pieces mid-burst. Before any of the animals could react to their sudden loss of weaponry, Yuji flicked his wrist a second time.
SHING!
The chassis of the pink car split straight down the middle. Sparks showered the road; both halves veered outward and ground to a complete halt against the concrete barriers, completely disabling the assault.
Gloria sat frozen behind the wheel, her hand clutching her chest, while David slowly pulled himself back into his seat, breathing heavily. He looked down at his arms—coated in a faint hue of raw Cursed Energ.
He then looked at his mother, who, other than looking way more stressed than usual, was completely fine.
Overhead, three Trauma Team AVs descended, armed medics in white and green armor rappelled down toward the Arasaka transport.
A Trauma Team squad leader swept his rifle toward Gloria’s car, his optics flashing warning red.
Yuji leaned out the rear window and flashed his Jujutsu Eye badge.
The squad leader's red optics instantly flickered to blue. He lowered his weapon, offered a rigid hand gesture of acknowledgment, and ordered his squad to clear out and give the yellow car a wide berth.
David watched the short interaction in awe.
He wanted to learn from him. Not just sorcery but the way he just takes control of the situation. That confidence. That authority.
"Well, highway traffic’s gonna be a mess now," Yuji sighed mildly, checking his map overlay. "Gloria, let's drop our stuff off at my loft in Heywood first, then head straight over to Embers. Don’t worry about the car, either. I’ll take care of it."
David turned in his seat, staring at his teacher in utter disbelief. "Since when do you have a loft in Heywood?! And handle the car how? The hood's shot to hell!"
"Bought it last night," Yuji replied, flicking through his screen with a casual thumb. "Money moves ridiculously fast in this city if you have enough Eddies. As for the car, I'll just call a mobile repair crew. It’ll be fixed before we even finish dessert."
How rich was this guy?!