Chapter Text
Itadori Yuuji was having a second existential crisis within ten minutes.
The first was because of how hectic the summer festival was. The second was because of how suddenly the summer festival was gone.
Five minutes ago, he was still standing in an abandoned shrine on the quiet mountain side, but now the shrine in front of him was...perfect. Like someone had power-washed history itself.
Its vermilion pillars glowed under a moon that was way too big and way too close. Its roof tiles were immaculate, not a single patch of moss. The stone lanterns were all lit with real fire. Surrounding it, sakura trees were in full bloom, petals falling like slow pink snow, even though it was summer five minutes ago. The air felt more cleared, more cold. The stone under his geta was warm. Everything feels wrong.
The fireflies from before were still there. Hundreds of them, doing that silent, golden swirl. Faded bit by bit.
Yuuji stood there holding an empty plastic container that used to hold six cubes of A5 wagyu, covered in dirt, his expensive custom-tailored silk yukata now slightly dusty.
And a voice had just whispered in his ear in old, courtly Japanese that somehow his soul understood.
Save the world, and one wish shall be granted.
His brain, powered by 30% baseball, 30% helping others because Jii-chan said so, and 40% trash isekai manga his Occult Club friends forced him to read, loaded very, very fast.
“...Hah?” he said to the empty, perfect shrine. “I changed places? Just like that? I hear a voice and get teleported? Hahaha, what is this, an isekai trope?”
He did what any self-respecting isekai protagonist would do. He mocked it.
He crossed his arms, and in his best, most sarcastic inner-narration voice, said, “Wow, what are the chances I got isekai’d, right? What next? Some blue window will pop up if I say Status Open?” He said it as a joke.
TING!
[ STATUS ]
Name: Itadori Yuuji
HP: 10000 / 10000
MP: 10000 / 10000
Skill: Dimensional Shopper
Coin: 0
A blue window actually popped out in front of his face.
Yuuji choked on air.
“IT ACTUALLY OPENED?! WHAT THE FUCK!”
Of course it had to be called that, he thought but at the same time Yuuji frantically poked at [Dimensional Shopper]. Another window popped out.
[ FOOD ] [ CLOTHE ] [ SHELTER ]
Thinking fast, Yuuji poked at the food selection. And once again another window opened, this time looking exactly like an online food shopping app. With all the food he could see, Yuuji chose the most basic thing he could find (and the cheapest).
[ Spicy Tuna Onigiri – 2 Coin ]
Payment Method: Cursed Energy
“Cursed Energy?” Yuuji whispered, and this time he was genuinely confused, not sarcastic. “What the heck is Cursed Energy? Is that like... a point card? An electric token? Ugh, the only time when I don’t bring any credit card!”
His monologue was cut short when three men stepped out from the shrine’s side path. Two of them holding a spears with all of them using vest with different emblems on their chests. Not festival staff. Pretty sure they weren’t cosplayers either.
“Who’s there! Show yourself!”
Yuuji panicked and did what any modern kid would do with a suspicious pop-up. He thought close close close close and the window vanished.
“HI! HELLO! SORRY FOR TRESPASSING BUT I’M NOT A THIEF!!”
The oldest guard, the one with a scar on his cheek, didn’t point his spear at him. He was staring. Not at Yuuji’s face. At his yukata.
The silk, high-grade, heavy, dark crimson that faded to black at the hem, with those pale yellow threads running through it like faded lightning. In 2018, it was just “manager’s expensive taste.” In this place, it was a problem.
The scarred guard leaned toward the younger guard and whispered, thinking the night would hide it.
“Oi... it’s a bit different, but... doesn’t that look like a Yukatabira? Who’s using a bath wear in a shrine?”
The youngest-looking guard squinted. Then his eyes went wide. He completely forgot how to whisper.
“But look at the fabric and color! That dark red to black gradient and that pale yellow, he must be an upper-class nobles not to far below from Fujiwara Clan!”
Yuuji heard everything. “I’m Not! I don’t know for sure, but just from the name yukata and yukatabira looks like the same thing, so just to clarify this is just a festival yukata okay! It’s like 5 million yen, well-okay, maybe that’s a lot, but it’s not noble guys!”
The third man, who had the most muscle between the three of them and looked less like a soldier more like a gym-coach that so used to their client bullshit, stared at Yuuji’s face and delivered the final blow.
“My lord, with all due respect... no commoner looks like you. Your skin does look tanned but your teeth are white. Straight. No commoner can have teeth that white.”
Who knew the whitening effect from your basic mouth care could literally make you a noble, huh.
The three immediately got awkward. Scared, but in a polite way. The way you get scared when you might have just pointed a spear at someone who could have your family taxed.
“F-forgive us, my lord! This city shrine is dangerous at night even with Master Tengen’s Barrier.” The youngest-looking guard told Yuuji with face full of anxiety like someone who’d had too much of snappy, snotty, over-pampered noble on the daily basis.
Yuuji looked past them. Past the torii gate. Five minutes ago, this shrine was on a mountain. Now, past the gate, he could see streets. Houses with paper lanterns. A city. A real, living, old Japanese city like in historical books or dramas.
The shrine hadn’t just become perfect. It had moved. From a quiet mountain to the middle of a city.
“Okay, okay, I’ll go,” Yuuji said, clutching his empty wagyu container like a shield, thinking if he’d really gotten isekai’d –well, even though he didn’t get hit by an isekai truck- it would be better if he followed the guard to show that he doesn’t mean any trouble “Just... have you seen an owl? Small, brown, haughty face?”
The oldest of them nodded like this was the most noble thing he’d ever heard. “A fukurou! As expected of a noble’s pet. Sacred birds always return to the sacred shrine. We will look for your pet, my lord. When the sun rises my lord can come back here or let one or your servant to take my lord’s pet. But, please, for now let us escort you to the city center, where all the nobles are staying.”
“It’s not my pet!” Then Yuuji sighed. “You know what. Sure. My pet. My very picky eater pet.”
They started walking down the stone steps, which now led to a street full of lantern light instead of a dark forest.
While walking, the scarred guard cleared his throat. “Forgive me, my lord. Are you from the Minamoto? Or the Taira branch family? Your clothes do explain your nobility but there is no symbol whatsoever. We need to know so we can escort you to your residence, my Lord.”
Damn. He is a baseball prodigy, not an academic prodigy. Yuuji surely did NOT have enough historical knowledge to bullshit his way through this.
“Ah! Ahahaha, I’m not from here so I’m just nobody you know, just keep it lowkey.” He was hoping cosplaying as a humble noble was the answer.
“Oh! Did you come here for the examinations, Young Lord?”
“Examinations?” Yuuji blinked.
“Yes! Many young masters come to the city for them at this time of the year,” the youngest-looking guard explained, happy to be helpful. “The Sorcerer Exam, to get a license to work as an Imperial Sorcerer. And the Administration Exam, for those who want to work as a government official in the Imperial Court.”
“Ah—“ Yuuji filed that away. Exams. Jobs. This old-time Japan had a job market. “Like all of you?”
The scarred guard puffed his chest proudly. “Aye, not all of us are Imperial Sorcerers but yes, Young Lord. Before becoming a temple sorcerer, this lowly self was an Imperial Sorcerer. That young lad is a sorcerer too, even if not an Imperial Sorcerer — he’s from the sorcerer guild and stationed here”
“And I am just a regular mercenary,” the gym-coach guy, apparently having an axe strapped on his back added, tapping his green vest. “Not a sorcerer.”
Yuuji frowned, with all this sorcerer talk he tough sorcerer was just other name of guard, all his movie-addled brain could remember Sorcerer were either Doctor Stranger from Marvel or that one alchemist guy that succeeded at making stone-something are called in Harry Potter series. “I thought you were all sorcerers?”
The mercenary laughed and tapped the vest again. “You can tell from the vest, my lord. Dark blue vest means sorcerer — they can see and manipulate Cursed Energy. Green vest like mine? Means we can see cursed spirits, but we cannot release or manipulate Cursed Energy. We have to fight with tools.”
Cursed Energy again, Yuuji thought. Everyone keeps saying it. What is it? Is it like chakra? Like nen? Do I have to scream to use it?
He opened his mouth to ask because even with all movie-related and all otaku knowledge he had, at his core, Yuuji still normal high schooler with no powers. Abnormal human genetics, yes. Superpower? no. But suddenly the cicadas stopped. Even with many people on street the sound somehow a bit muted and temperature dropped so fast.
The paper lanterns on the city street flickered, even though there was no wind.
GROOOOOOOOOOAAAAAR
It wasn’t an animal. It was too deep. It made Yuuji’s teeth ache.
The white thread on the sorcerer guard’s dark blue vest started to glow faintly on its own. The mercenary’s face went white.
“The thread is glowing! How can a Grade 1 be here when the barrier has been set!”
Yuuji turned around.
From a dark alleyway untouched by the light from paper lantern, something was rising. Taller than a two-storey building, with too many hands and too many mouths, a grayish monster arose. At that time Yuuji realize something. Even with all his horror-related knowledge, nothing could prepare Yuuji how a real horror entity would feel.
Yuuji had never felt so small.