Chapter Text
June 19th, 2010, San Francisco International Airport, San Francisco.
“Attention passengers, you have now arrived at your destination, San Francisco. Thank you for flying American Airlines. Please exit the airplane in an orderly way and enjoy the rest of your day.” A deep voice rumbled from the plane’s intercom.
At the sound of the pilot’s voice, passengers quickly unclicked their seatbelts and stretched. Except for one. Another boy was collapsed deep into his seat with his cheek pressed against the window. Drool dribbled down the corner of his mouth while he snored loudly. Four pairs of sleeping masks were wrapped around his head, each stacking on top of the other to block out as much vision as he possibly could.
“Excuse me, sir?” A flight attendant questioned meekly to the snoring teen. She tried to poke his shoulder, but when she tried, it seemed that she couldn’t even touch him.
‘How odd.’ The flight attendant remarked in her head, prodding once again to test the phenomena. It was as if there was an invisible wall between the young man and the flight attendant, keeping her finger from touching him.
“Sir, our flight has landed, and we need all our passengers to leave the plane.” She said to him in a louder voice than before.
No response. He was out cold.
Annoyed, the flight attendant rolled her eyes as she stuck an arm out, disregarding the previous failed attempts to poke and prod at him and tried to grab his shoulder to shake him awake. But before she could even get her hand close to his body, she felt someone’s large fingers wrap around her wrist and stop her from touching him. She looked to the side to see who’s arm it was, only to see that it was the boy’s other arm stopping her from touching him.
“Jeez, What’s the matter?” The young man said with a tone of irritation in his voice. He slung off the four pairs of sleeping masks one by one with his free hand to reveal a pair of sunglasses with pitch black lenses underneath them.
He let go of the attendant’s wrist and slid his sunglasses down his nose bridge, revealing his eyes. He raised an eyebrow at the flight attendant.
“What’s your deal?” The boy said as he frowned at her, looking at her quizzically with his eyes. The flight attendant remarked that his eyes were more blue than anything she’d ever seen. They shone and dazzled so much that it almost hurt to look at them for too long, like looking into the sun or a flashlight for too long. That said, they were a sight to behold, reminiscent of a gemstone.
The boy’s appearance in general was quite odd. Forgetting the freaky blue eyes he had, he also had fluffy hair as white as snow. Although he was clearly East Asian, he spoke English without a hint of an accent. The flight attendant couldn’t pinpoint a thing about him.
“I’m sorry for startling you sir, but you must leave the plane. We’ve landed, and we need to get everyone out so we can continue with business and such.”
Almost immediately, any trace of annoyance disappeared from him and was replaced with a huge, childish grin full of white teeth. He jumped out of his seat and gleefully skipped his way to the exit of the airplane.
“Man, I thought I would never get here with how long this flight was!” The boy exclaimed loudly. “At this point, I don’t even wanna go home if it means sitting through the same flight again.” He said happily as he twirled his sunglasses around the tip of his index finger.
“Wait! Sir, your luggage! It’s still in the overhead shelf, you need to get it!” The attendant yelled suddenly. “Mister…” She stopped to read the nametag on the duffel bag. “Gojo! Mister. Satoru Gojo!!”
Once again, Satoru Gojo didn’t hear a thing. He ran away at a freakishly high speed to the disdain of the attendant.
Satoru held his map up close to his face, with his eyes squinted behind the dark pair of shades he had perched up on his nose.
“So…San Francisco…And I’m supposed to go to Oakland?” Satoru muttered with a scowl etched onto his face as he examined the map once again. In one hand, he crumpled the map, while the other hand tightened its grip around the reclaimed luggage that the frantic flight attendant had chased him down for.
Not even an hour in, and he was already hating America.
“Fuck man, why did Mr. Yaga send me here alone? I’m like, the least qualified for this! They could have sent Suguru with me or just let that other Special Grade that’s always overseas do this.” He muttered under his breath, silently cursing his teacher.
According to what Mr. Yaga had informed him, the United States of America had recently been undergoing turbulent changes over the past few years.
In December of 2005, erratic and violent weather began with airplanes mysteriously being plucked out of the sky, before they stopped just after the Summer Solstice of the following year. In June of 2007, cursed energy levels began to drop drastically before they went off the charts by a huge margin and enveloped a part of Long Island, almost like a huge barrier technique had been erected there. There was such an excess of energy that even Satoru had felt it when it had occurred. It was like something or someone with incredible power had been revived. In the winter of that same year, Satoru noticed a new cluster of stars had mysteriously appeared out of thin air far in space, creating a constellation. Later on, he learned that it was named “The Huntress,” as it resembled a young woman with a bow in her hands. Oddly enough, Satoru didn’t remember it being there before. It was as if it had appeared out in outer space without warning, but everything he had tried to research had come up with legitimate results, like it had been there since the start. He could have sworn that the mysterious constellation never existed, but it seemed that everything proved him wrong.
Most recently, the majority of citizens of New York City were reported to have all fallen asleep, with a scarce few eyewitness reports stating that they saw “monsters,” flying horses, and a handful of teenagers bearing swords, spears, and bows. One even remarked that a miniature hurricane had brewed up right in Manhattan. The Jujutsu society over in Japan paled at the sound of the report.
But aside from the odd occurrences in New York City, it seemed that energy levels in San Francisco in particular had been going off the charts since the start of the new year. Whether the energy they were talking about was cursed energy or something else entirely, Satoru didn’t know. He wasn’t informed that much.
Satoru could definitely tell there was a vast amount of energy permeating the air though, thanks to his eyes. It definitely wasn’t cursed energy. It felt much more different than the usual eerie vibe of cursed energy.
The energy he felt had a more refined look, but it had explosive potential. It felt…divine in an odd way, contrasting the ghostly presence cursed energy had in his eyes.
His eyes were pretty cool for being able to tell the difference. Satoru could literally see with his eyes closed and with a blindfold on too. Hell, throw in the dark shades he always wore, and he’d still be able to see fine.
‘The Six Eyes were the reason why Mr. Yaga sent me after all,’ He thought to himself with an inward chuckle. Satoru could tell that the way people treated him like he was some kind of deity was because of his special eyes.
It was no surprise at all that Satoru Gojo was nothing but brilliant. He was regarded as a prodigy in the Jujutsu world by all around him. Considering that he was the first person in four hundred years in his family to be born with the ocular Jujutsu, the Six Eyes, in tandem with the Limitless technique, he’d won the jackpot in the genetic lottery in terms of Jujutsu inheritance. Pairing that with the natural talent he had for Jujutsu and his physicality, he was cut out to be perhaps one of the greatest sorcerers of the modern era.
He probably already was the greatest sorcerer alive now that he really thought about it. Not really any competition after all. Suguru came real close, but Satoru was pretty confident that he could beat him in a fight if it came down to it. Ever since Satoru had fought and killed Toji Fushiguro, the millimeter wide gap in strength between Suguru and him had begun to widen.
While Toji had scarred Satoru into having Infinity turned on 24/7, he brought out the true potential in Satoru by bringing him so close to death that he would grasp how cursed energy functioned at its core. Learning Reverse Cursed Technique opened up countless doors for Satoru to improve and further cement himself as the strongest.
In a way, he felt grateful to the Sorcerer Killer for being the key to his success.
But to be sent all alone for the sole reason of his eyes? It felt rather foolish. As strong and as smart and as fast and as dashingly handsome and indubitably perfect as he was, he lacked the experience necessary for doing overseas missions. Overseas missions were rare since curses and sorcerers hardly ever showed up outside of Japan. Being sent alone as well without any managers was also odd. If he didn’t have Suguru or Shoko with him, then he’d at least have a manager to make sure he wasn’t up to anything stupid. But he didn’t have one for whatever reason. He also had Megumi and Tsumiki to care for, though he was sure Shoko would have that covered.
Overseas missions were also a sign of extreme danger. Oftentimes, even some of the most accomplished sorcerers wouldn’t always come back in one piece, whether it was physically or mentally.
Either way though, Satoru wasn’t one to back away from a job like this. It was simply too enticing for him after all. Missions in Japan had become much too lackluster ever since he had mastered Infinity.
The U.S though? To be honest, he didn’t really want to be here. He’d much rather be somewhere further down, like South America. That was where the good food and the spectacular views were. Not to mention the beautiful girls! He felt a smirk creep onto his face when he thought of the girls.
The trip through South America could wait though. For now, he had a mission to complete. Several sorcerers had been sent to Long Island in New York to investigate the year before, while Satoru was now being sent to the opposite side of the country for the same reason. The main objective was to find the source of the spikes in energy. Secondly, if curses were to be found, he was to immediately exorcise them.
Satoru fished a dollar bill from his pants pocket and slipped it into a nearby vending machine and pressed the button indicating Coca-Cola. The dusty old contraption rumbled for a few moments before it spat out a cherry-red aluminum can. He quickly opened the can, took a hefty sip out of the can and belched.
“Shall we begin?” The strongest sorcerer grinned as he pushed his sunglasses further up his nose bridge and took another drink of his soda.