A week after the pink-haired sunshine bomb and his aesthetically-minded friend crashed into our lives, I was summoned.
Not by alarm. Not by curse. By the shrill, unforgiving sound of Gojo Satoru's idea of a 'discreet notification'.
My phone, the cursed-energy-resistant brick, vibrated on my nightstand with the force of a minor earthquake and played the first ten seconds of a hyper-pop idol song. Loudly.
I groaned, fumbling for it. The screen flashed with a single, all-caps message from 'BEST TEACHER 💀':
YARD. NOW. FIELD TRIP!!!
"He's like a toddler with a god complex," I muttered, dragging myself out of bed.
[Probability of 'field trip' involving high-risk combat: 68%. Probability of it being a frivolous errand: 32%. The ratio is concerning,] Great Sage noted.
"Everything about Gojo is concerning."
I found him in the main courtyard, along with Megumi Fushiguro, who looked like he'd been asked to volunteer for a root canal. The two first-years stood nearby. Yuji was vibrating with barely-contained energy. Nobara was examining her reflection in the polished head of her hammer.
"Kaito! My favorite human disposal unit!" Gojo sang, throwing an arm around my shoulders. "You have a special assignment today!"
"Do I get hazard pay?"
"The joy of mentorship is its own reward! Now listen!" He shoved a mission scroll into my chest. "Megumi here is in charge of taking the new kids on their first real mission! A simple exorcism job at an abandoned building near a cemetery! Low-grade stuff! A cakewalk!"
Megumi's expression said 'cakewalk' was not the word he'd use.
"And you," Gojo continued, pointing a finger at me, "are going with him! Consider yourself… the supervisor's supervisor! The backup babysitter! Babysitter-ception!"
I looked at Megumi. He met my gaze. In his dark, tired eyes, I saw a reflection of my own soul-deep exhaustion. A silent understanding passed between us.
We do not get paid enough for this.
"This is unnecessary," Megami said flatly, echoing my thoughts.
"Tell me about it," I sighed. "I could be napping. Or eating a less problematic snack."
Yuji bounded over. "Kaito-senpai! You're coming too? That's awesome!"
Nobara looked up from her hammer. "Hm. An extra pair of eyes. Good. I need a second opinion on the color palette of despair."
*[Mission parameters updated,] Great Sage intoned. [Primary Objective: Assist Subject Fushiguro in supervising first-years. Secondary Objective: Prevent catastrophic failure/death. Tertiary Objective: Keep Subject Kugisaki from 'redecorating' the spiritual crime scene. Threat Assessment: Minimal. Boredom Assessment: High.]
Gojo clapped his hands. "Great! Team bonding! Go forth! Exorcise! Don't die! Or do! It's a learning experience either way!" And with a wave, he was gone.
Megumi sighed, a sound that came from the depths of his being. "Let's go. The location is in the 4th Ward. We'll take the train."
==========================
The 'abandoned building' was less a building and more a skeletal reminder of one, slumped next to a overgrown, fog-draped cemetery. The air was cold, damp, and tasted like old grief and wet limestone.
"Standard residual hauntings," Megumi stated, his voice low and professional. He was in mission-mode now, the long-suffering student replaced by a competent sorcerer. "Low-grade curses formed from graveyard malaise and the building's own neglect. They'll be weak, mindless, and territorial. Our job is to clear them out."
He turned to Yuji and Nobara. "Itadori. You have the physical strength to disrupt them. Aim for their cores, the densest point of cursed energy. Kugisaki. Your technique is precise. Use your nails to pin them and exorcise from a distance. Don't waste energy. Don't separate. We move as a unit."
Yuji nodded, serious for once, cracking his knuckles. Nobara just smirked, hefting her hammer. "Got it, boss. Let's make this place… less tacky."
I leaned against a crumbling stone wall at the edge of the property, crossing my arms. My job was to watch. And, apparently, to provide commentary.
[Observation mode: Active. Scanning for anomalies. Initial readings confirm Subject Fushiguro's assessment. Multiple Grade 4 and low Grade 3 signatures detected within structure.]
They moved in. Megumi took point, shadows pooling at his feet. Yuji was a step behind, his whole body coiled like a spring. Nobara followed, her eyes sharp, a nail already between her fingers.
The first curse emerged from a shattered window, a wispy, humanoid shape made of swirling mist and the sound of muffled sobs. It lunged with pathetic claws.
Yuji didn't even let it get close. He took two steps and met it with a straight punch. There was a pop of displaced air, and the curse dissolved into nothing.
"Whoa," Yuji said, looking at his fist. "It just… vanished."
"That's called exorcism," Megumi said dryly. "Keep moving."
Inside, the building was a maze of decay. More curses appeared. Lumpy shadows that oozed from the walls. Floating orbs that hummed with childish spite. Apathetic puddles of gloom that tried to trip them.
Yuji was a force of nature. He moved with shocking speed, his punches clean and devastating. He wasn't using cursed energy, he didn't have enough to shape, but the raw physical force, driven by his insane body, was more than enough.
Nobara was an artist. She didn't just exorcise; she composed. She'd nail a curse to a wall, step back, tilt her head. "The asymmetry of that one was offensive." Thwack. Hammer. Gone. She pinned two together with a single nail. "A matching set. How quaint." Resonance. Both vanished.
Megumi was the conductor. He directed with short, clipped commands. "Left." "Ceiling." "Don't let it retreat." He rarely summoned, letting the first-years handle it, his Divine Dogs a silent, shadowy presence flanking us, dealing with anything that tried to sneak up.
I watched, impressed despite myself.
[Subject Itadori: Combat Instinct – S+. Cursed Energy Application – Still F. Subject Kugisaki: Precision – A+. Creative Cruelty – S. Common Sense – Fluctuating. Subject Fushiguro: Tactical Acumen – A. Patience – B (and falling).]
"They're not bad," I muttered.
A particularly pathetic curse, looking like a melted candle with too many eyes, tried to scuttle away into a hole in the floor.
Nobara's nail shot out, pinning its trailing edge to the wood. It squealed.
She walked over, peered down at it, then looked back at Yuji. "What do you think? Too… monochromatic? Would it benefit from a little accent color?"
Yuji blinked. "I… think it's dead?"
Nobara rolled her eyes. "Ugh. You have no vision." She brought her hammer down. The curse dissipated. "It needed contrast. A deep crimson, maybe. Something to make the suffering pop."
Megumi pinched the bridge of his nose. "Kugisaki. Focus."
"I am focused. On improving the spiritual ambiance."
We were clearing the last room, a former office with a caved-in roof, when the atmosphere changed.
It wasn't a powerful curse. The energy signature wasn't any stronger. But it was… different. Sharper. Intentional.
[Anomaly detected. Single signature approaching from the cemetery side. Energy pattern is not residual. It is… directed.]
"Fushiguro," I said, pushing off the wall. My casual stance was gone.
He felt it too. His head snapped toward the broken wall that looked out over the gravestones. "Everyone, form up. Itadori, front. Kugisaki, flank."
A figure stepped from behind a large, mossy headstone. He was dressed in dark, practical clothes, not a Jujutsu High uniform. A scar cut across his chin. His eyes held a calculating, hungry look. A curse user.
"Well, well," he said, his voice a gravelly rasp. "The Jujutsu Tech kindergarten class. And… oh?" His gaze slid past the first-years, past Megumi, and landed on me. A nasty smile spread across his face. "The bonus prize. The Glutton."
My blood went cold. Fanmail.
"Who are you?" Megumi demanded, his hands already forming the sign for a summon.
"Just a humble admirer," the curse user said, his smile not reaching his eyes. "My former employer had such… interesting things to say about you." Geto. "He's gone now, but the curiosity remains." He raised a hand. In it was a small, carved bone talisman. "Let's see what you're really made of."
He bit his thumb, smeared blood on the talisman, and slammed it into the ground.
Nothing happened for a second. Then the shadows in the room thickened, coiling like living ropes. They shot not at me, or Megumi, but at Nobara, wrapping around her legs and arms, binding her in place.
"Hey! Rude! This fabric is new!" she yelled, struggling.
Yuji roared and charged the man. The curse user didn't move. He pulled a small, gourd-shaped cursed tool from his belt and uncorked it. A cloud of sickly yellow gas hissed out, directly into Yuji's path.
Yuji stumbled, coughing. His movements slowed, muscles locking up. Paralysis.
Megumi's hands flashed. "M..." He began the chant for MANORAGA.
The curse user flicked his wrist. A second, paper seal shot through the air and slapped onto the shadow at Megumi's feet. The shadow seized, writhing. Megumi grunted, the connection to his shikigami momentarily disrupted.
"A simple suppression seal," the man sneered. "Nothing fancy. Just enough to shut down the shadow boy. Now…" He looked at me, his eyes gleaming. "The main event. Let's see what happens when the eater can't eat."
He raised the bone talisman again, chanting. Dark energy coalesced into a spinning, serrated disk of cursed energy aimed right at Nobara's trapped form. A killing technique.
Megumi was fighting his seal. Yuji was paralyzed. Nobara was bound.
The curse user's grin was triumphant. "Geto-sama sends his regards..."
I was already moving.
I didn't run at him. I didn't try to eat the disk. I focused, with the crystal-clear precision Great Sage had hammered into me, on the source.
The talisman in his hand. The flow of cursed energy from the talisman to the forming disk. The point of activation.
My mouth opened. A focused, whispering pull. "Predator."
I didn't eat the disk. I didn't eat the talisman. I took a single, surgical bite out of the conceptual link between them, the "command" for the energy to become a cutting disk.
The serrated edge of the technique frayed. The disk wobbled in mid-air, its form blurring, losing cohesion. It didn't vanish, but it became a harmless, dissipating splash of dark light that washed over Nobara without cutting her.
The curse user's chant died in his throat. He stared at the fizzling energy in his hand, then at me, his face a mask of utter disbelief. "You… you… what did you…?"
I looked past him to Yuji, who was shaking off the last of the paralysis. "Itadori."
Yuji understood. He pushed off the ground, a blur of pink and motion.
The curse user started to turn, to bring up another tool.
He was too slow.
Yuji's fist connected with his jaw with a sound like a baseball hitting a side of beef. The man's eyes rolled back in his head before he even left the ground. He hit the dirt and didn't move.
The binding shadows on Nobara dissolved. Megumi's seal peeled off and burned to ash.
Silence, broken only by the distant caw of a crow.
Nobara brushed dust off her sleeve, walked over to the unconscious curse user, and kicked him lightly in the ribs. "Show-off," she said, but she was looking at me.
Megumi let out a long, controlled breath, his shadows settling. "Hn. Efficient."
Yuji was flexing his hand, looking from the downed man to me. "Whoa, senpai! You just… cancelled his technique! That was so cool!"
[Threat neutralized. First-years demonstrated adequate crisis response under pressure. Host's targeted disruption was 94% efficient. Minimal energy expenditure.]
I walked over, feeling the adrenaline start to fade. "He was talking too much." I nudged the cursed tool gourd away from the man's hand with my foot. "And his technique was tacky."
Nobara's eyes lit up. "See? I knew it! No aesthetic sense!"
We secured the curse user with cursed-energy-suppressing bindings from Megumi's kit. He'd have a hell of a headache and a one-way trip to Jujutsu High interrogation when he woke up.
The train ride back was quieter. The first mission high was mixed with the reality of the ambush.
Yuji was pensive. "He knew you, senpai. He was waiting for you?"
"Apparently, I've got a fan club," I said, staring out the window. "The 'We Hate the Glutton' club. Membership is growing."
Megumi was silent, thinking. "This changes things. It wasn't a random haunt. It was a probe."
"Tell me about it," I muttered. "I can't even run a simple errand without fanmail."
Back at the school, Gojo was waiting, having apparently sensed the drama from miles away. He listened to the report, his playful grin not quite reaching his eyes.
"A remnant of Geto's little cult, huh? How nostalgic! And they're still fixated on you, Kaito! You're like a cursed celebrity!" He clapped me on the shoulder. "Don't worry! It just means you're important!"
Later, I was in the equipment room, putting away my unused… well, everything. The door opened. Maki walked in.
"Heard you had to step in," she said, leaning against a weapon rack. "The first-years okay?"
"They're fine," I said, slotting a spare knife back into its place. "One's a battering ram, the other's an interior designer. They'll be fine."
She was quiet for a moment, studying me. "You didn't eat the curse user."
I paused. "He was a person. That's a line." I looked at her. "Even I have standards."
She held my gaze, then gave a single, slight nod. It was the Maki Zenin equivalent of a standing ovation. "Good."
She turned to leave, then stopped at the door. "Oh. The pink one was looking for you. Seems you've made an impression."
I found Yuji in the courtyard, doing push-ups with Panda sitting on his back. He saw me and scrambled up.
"Senpai!"
"Itadori."
He bowed, deeply. "Thank you. For today. For… you know. Not letting Kugisaki get cut in half."
"It's my job. Annoying as it is."
He straightened up, his expression uncharacteristically serious. "How do I get stronger? Like… really stronger? Not just punching stuff harder. I saw what you did. You didn't even move. You just… stopped it."
I looked at him. This kid, with a death sentence hanging over him and a monster sleeping in his soul, was asking me for advice. The sheer, terrifying innocence of it.
"Control," I said finally. "You've got a powerhouse inside you. Sukuna's there, yeah, but you're the one with the body. Learn to channel your own energy. Shape it. Don't just let it explode out of you when you panic." I poked him in the chest. "And maybe don't eat any weird fingers you find lying around. Just a tip."
Yuji's serious face broke into a wide, grateful grin. "Noted! Thanks, senpai!"
As he ran off, probably to find Megumi to pester him about training, I looked up at the darkening sky.
[Mission complete. First-year combat viability: Confirmed. Team dynamics: Chaotic but functional. External threat level: Confirmed and rising. Host's 'no-person' consumption policy: Logically and ethically consistent. Preparing for increased operational tempo.]
Great Sage paused, running a new calculation.
[Next major event projection based on disturbance patterns and first-year integration: 'Juvenile Detention Center Incident', probability 87%. Threat level: Severe. Recommendation: Sleep while you can.]
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Word Count: ~ 2,600.
A/N: First canon mission done, tho there was a butterfly effect, the next arc is going to be the juvenile centre Arc with the finger bearer, and some twist, anyways, (throw some stones if you want to see more chapters)