Chapter Text
August 2017
The sound of footsteps on the gravelly road was what drew her attention away from the book she was reading. She glanced up at the dusty window. Ōma was too quiet a place for unexpected visitors, especially to her little apartment by the docks. Hastily, she drew back from the window upon seeing the approaching figure.
The door handle rattled and the door creaked open.
“Yo.”
She froze, trying to choose her reply. What should she say? It had been almost a decade since they had last spoken after all.
“How did you find me here?” she blurted out, cringing at how defensive she sounded.
He didn’t seem to take it personally. Instead, he threw his head back and laughed, replying pleasantly, “Not too hard to follow your residuals.”
He paused and continued speaking when she didn’t offer a reply, ‘you’ve been exorcising curses?’. He gestured to the cage in the corner of the room, his long arms almost smacking the tools hung haphazardly on the walls. The flyhead in the cage seemed to respond to the new presence by rattling the rusty cage doors.
‘There’s more curses in the area than you would think.’
‘Oh? Please tell me more’.
She hoped he wasn’t being intentionally condescending, though it certainly seemed that way.. She brushed it off as him being, well, him .
‘Tell me what you’re doing here first, Gojo-san’.
That was how they ended up walking along the pier, him smiling and kicking loose rocks on the gravel while she followed him warily.
“It’s better to talk in the open,” he had stated plainly. ‘And besides, don’t you want to show your old friend around?’ he said, prodding her with his elbow. As familiar as ever, she thought.
He had swapped out the sunglasses he used to wear back in school for a makeshift blindfold that pushed all his hair up, making him look a bit like a paintbrush. His long, stringy legs only added to the odd image, she thought to herself.
He finally sat down on an old bench, overlooking the gloomy sea and heavy clouds. Fishing boats bobbed lazily and the sharp stench of the day’s freshest catches lingered heavily.
“What were you saying about the curses here?” he asked amicably. She opened her mouth sharply, ready to demand why he had suddenly appeared on her doorstep without any explanation. She then decided against the choice words she had for Gojo and opted to humor him.
‘The sea makes for a lot of horror stories’ she said.
‘People go missing, or they come back hungry, thirsty and half-mad, raving about monsters and sirens, pirates and looters’.
He looked interested, as much as someone could through a blindfold. She continued, “There are a few old shipwrecks nearby, and half the people here believe the town is haunted because of it.” She sighed. “So yes, if you're questioning whether there are a lot of curses here, you would be right.”
Gojo tilted his head teasingly. ‘Noble of you to take care of the townspeople’.
She sighed. ‘Gojo-san, I'm sure you’re not here just to catch up with me and go sight-seeing.’ she said, her voice curt. ‘Please tell me the real reason you’re here’.
He smiled and looked back toward the sea. The knot that had formed in her stomach as soon as she saw him grew tighter and more frayed. She didn’t know why seeing Gojo Satoru, her senior from school (she wouldn’t have called them friends), sent her spiraling. He was two years above her and had never been particularly friendly to her anyway, and she had stopped being affiliated with Jujutsu Tech years ago.
Attending Jujutsu Tech had initially been a privilege for her when she joined in 2006. As an orphan who had only recently discovered her cursed technique at an age considered late in the jujutsu world, she was lucky to be admitted. The recommendation came from a grade-2 sorcerer, Nagisa Kairo, who had discovered her abilities during a solo mission to the orphanage where she lived with her two younger siblings.
At 15, she was fortunately at the right age to enroll in Jujutsu Tech. After being evaluated for her ability to see curses and use cursed energy and techniques against them, she was admitted to the institution. Kairo had soon afterward shifted to a managerial position, allowing him the flexibility to generously offer to take care of her younger siblings, Yuuko, then 5, and Ren, then only 2. He himself had only been in his early 20s, and she had been endlessly grateful for his help with her siblings, as well as his guidance when she was first learning to utilize cursed energy.
She had finally gotten the chance to be a normal teenager at the school. Well, as normal as you could be while exorcising curses. She had made good—no, great—friends and had even gotten into her first relationship with a boy a year above her. It had ended abruptly, just like all the seemingly happy times she had had at the school.
A strange sensation crept into her gut and wrapped itself around her throat when she thought about Kairo, her siblings, and her time at Jujutsu Tech. Yuuko was now the same age she had been when she started at Jujutsu Tech, and she had developed the same cursed technique, which seemed to be common among close family members. Yuuko had also started her training early, at age 8. Maybe she could ask Gojo how she was doing, seeing as he taught at the school. Speaking of Gojo, she had almost forgotten that they were sitting together right now.
"...noticed, I’m sure,” he was saying.
“I’m sorry,” she said distractedly, blinking away old memories. “I didn’t catch what you said.”
“I was saying that you may have noticed there’s been an increase in the number of curses manifesting in the past month or so.”
“Well, yes, actually.” She blinked. “You know the reason why?”
“Bingo!” He clapped his hands together and stood up, far too smiley for someone talking about an alleged increase in cursed spirit levels. “That’s what I’m here to talk to you about, [Name].”
The sun waned in the grey sky as Gojo informed her about Itadori Yuji, a boy who had—in mysterious circumstances—consumed Ryomen Sukuna's fingers, much to the chagrin of the higher-ups at the institution. She nodded along as Gojo spoke. Of course, Ryomen Sukuna required no introduction. Even she knew about the legendary curse user turned curse, exorcised by the greatest sorcerers in the Heian era. Nonetheless, the circumstances under which this young boy had suddenly become Sukuna’s vessel seemed suspicious.
“So how did this Itadori Yuji even come across the finger?” [Name]'s brow furrowed. “If it was supposed to be a highly protected talisman, I mean.”
“I suspect,” Gojo paused, “someone at one of the schools is a mole.”
“You're saying it was planted?”
“Yes, and that’s why I’m here to take you back to Jujutsu High. We need more unbiased hands on this side.”
Her eyes widened at his abject audacity. “You cannot be serious.” She barked out a laugh. “You want me to go back to working for Jujutsu Tech after I’ve officially retired?”
“Why not? You’ve been exorcising curses for free here anyway.”
She kept silent.
Gojo turned to her, looking surprised. “Someone’s been paying you.” It was more of a statement than a question.
“So what if I’m getting paid to take care of the town’s misfortunes? At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter who they believe me to be or what they believe I'm doing if I'm keeping the people safe.”
His gaze turned upwards to the seagulls sitting on the rusty telephone poles. “You’d rather people think you’re some kind of kooky shaman than work for the big man, huh?”
He smiled, genuine and bright. “I can’t say I blame you for that.”
She looked at him. There was something unsaid in his words. She wondered if he wished he could simply quit too. But he was Gojo Satoru, the strongest sorcerer, the only Six Eyes user in the world.
“Besides,” she started, ‘You can't just force someone to come out of retirement!’
“Think of it more like a friend asking for a favor.”
She remembered how cocky and uncaring he used to be when he was a student. There was something different about him now. Something had caused him to change. And she had a feeling she knew exactly what it was. Her eyes trained on her hands, fiddling in her lap. “I heard about Geto-kun and what happened last year.” She wrung her hands, suddenly lost for words. “I’m sorry, I know how close you two used—”
“Not for a long time we haven’t been.” He interrupted, sighing. They both stayed silent for a while.
While Gojo had been brash and generally ill-mannered in their youth, Geto had always been polite and respectful, even to a half-baked sorcerer like her in her first year. He had guided her calmly as her senior and had never talked down to her, which she had never forgotten, even when he had left Jujutsu High in her second year and had murdered a village full of people before becoming a ruthless curse user. He had come back to Jujutsu High last year, claiming to want to kill all non-sorcerers and had released a thousand curses all around the Tokyo metropolitan area. She had heard hushed whispers that Gojo had killed him, and while all those who talked about the incident celebrated Geto Suguru’s death, she had silently mourned the loss of the boy he used to be. She was sure Gojo felt his death harder than anyone else.
“Still,” she said quietly, “I can’t imagine it was easy.” She turned to him. He was still looking up at the sky, face expressionless. She really couldn’t begin to understand what was underneath Gojo’s carefree exterior, but she imagined there was a whole puzzle’s worth of pieces one would need to fully understand the man.
Lost for words, she circled back to their earlier conversation. “So you were saying that there are more curses around here because Sukuna has now manifested physically?”
Gojo hummed. “Not just here. Reports are popping up all across the country, but I don't think anyone else has figured out why.”
“Why tell me then?”
“Your technique, controlling electromagnetic frequencies, is important if we’re trying to do any kind of surveillance.”
That made sense, considering she could manipulate radio waves and infrared waves and, to a certain extent, light as well. She had used these abilities in school, and Gojo had seen how useful they were.
Nevertheless, she refrained from telling him the actual extent of her current abilities. She knew from personal experience how untrustworthy the Jujutsu Institute could be, so it made sense that Gojo had actively sought her out as an independent sorcerer for this task. Nevertheless, she refrained from telling him the full extent of her current abilities. Years as an independent (and unregistered) sorcerer had allowed her to freely experiment with her cursed technique. In some of the more unsavoury places she had taken up residence in the past few years, she had met sorcerers with unconventional and questionable methods.
Despite their immorality and unpleasantness, these sorcerers had fully embraced their abilities, helping her overcome the mental block that had previously prevented her from fully realizing her potential. At school, she had been too afraid to hone her technique, worried about the scale of destruction it could potentially cause, focusing only on refining her ability to manipulate mostly radio and and infrared waves. But now, at age 26, she had gained full control over the more volatile parts of the electromagnetic spectrum: ultraviolet, X-rays, and gamma rays. Still, she held back on using these abilities as they drained her cursed energy quickly.
‘Okay.’ she conceded. ‘But what’s in it for me?’
“Monetary benefits, of course. A salary from the Institute and a lot more unofficially, from yours truly,” he chirped, jabbing his thumb at his chest. “And I’ll recommend you to the council to get your grade pushed up. You’re a grade 3 now, aren’t you?”
“I’m not interested in sucking up to the higher-ups for a promotion, but I want to know how much you’re planning on paying me.”
Gojo brightened up. "Leaning in close, he whispered in her ear. Her face flushed with disbelief.
Millions? The thought was staggering. This would mean that she could support Yuuko after she finished Jujutsu High and continue paying for her extracurriculars as she was doing now, but without it making a significant dent in her savings. She had been agonising over how to secure the funds to support Yuuko, having dug herself into a financial hole when she took out a loan to go to college after finishing Jujutsu High almost seven years ago. She had still been exorcising curses on the side while attending college part time for law.
Then, a few years ago she had finished college and had worked through a number of small northern towns before settling in Ōma and working in the town council’s office in a small administrative position in the legal department for the mayor. This meant she communicated quite frequently with law enforcement and this position allowed her to learn about any unnatural disturbances in the town and promptly take on the task of exorcising the many curses that had manifested there.. The mayor’s advisor, a wizened old man by the name of Hikaru was aware of the significant curse presence in the town and had offered her a sum for each curse she exorcized.
She brought herself back to the present. “Yuuko’s in her first year now. Megumi must be around the same age, right?” She could still picture the dark haired boy, always trailing behind Gojo with an expression that rarely shifted from perpetual sullenness.
“They’re both my students,” Gojo confirmed. “Along with Yuji and a girl named Nobara.”
She spluttered. “You can’t possibly mean Itadori Yuji?!”
Gojo just kept smiling.
Her eyebrow shot up. “You mean to tell me that Ryomen Sukuna’s vessel is… attending school at Jujutsu High?” she hissed. “Isn’t that against the rules? And a massive security risk?!”
“Exactly why I’m here on my own dime, [Name]-chan. And you don’t need to worry about security if I’m around.”
She rolled her eyes at the patronising tone. “But you aren’t there right now,” she pointed out.
“The higher-ups want to exorcise Yuji immediately,” Gojo explained, ignoring her remark. “But I’ve convinced them it’s more efficient to feed him all 20 of Sukuna’s fingers before executing him, to ensure Sukuna’s complete eradication.”
“You don’t actually plan to do that, do you?” she asked dryly, narrowing her eyes.
“Nope!” he proclaimed grandly. “Just buying time until we figure out what’s really going on.”
He paused. “If you think about it, isn’t it strange that the one person who ate Sukuna’s finger in the last 1,000 years is a perfect vessel for him?”
While she agreed with the sentiment, she wasn’t sure what Gojo was scheming and wasn’t certain she wanted to be involved.
But the money is going to set you up for life.
She groaned internally.
‘'Let’s do it then.’'
Gojo’s grin widened with a glint of triumph.