"He was totally ogling my breasts!" A female's overly high-pitched voice whined loudly as she watched a teen with long dark colored bangs covering the right side of his face get punched hard on his left cheek sending his back crashing on the sky-high fence behind him and slumped down to the ground.
A dark bruise mark almost instantly forms from the impact.
"She does have a huge rack, so they bounce when she runs."
One of the males standing in a semi-circle surrounding around the fallen teen who just gotten punched, laughed at the boy's pitiful predicament, "I get why you'd do it, Yoshino-chan."
The fallen teen caressed his aching cheek as he glared up at his three attackers, 'if there was a button that would make everyone I hate die, I probably wouldn't push it.'
"Gross!" The girl grimaced at the boy standing next to her making hand gestures against his chest with his hands. "Shut up, you guys."
One of the bullies commanded while staring down at the teen on the ground.
'But if there was a button that would make everyone who hated me die, I'd push it without hesitation.'
_____________
"Excuse me." The teen spoke meekly standing at the ticket stand of a movie theater to purchase a movie ticket for 'Human Earthworm 3'.
The female employee inside the ticket booth however disregarded the teen waiting for service as she had a headphone covering her ears, all the while eating food with chopsticks.
"Excuse me!" Yoshino tried again, speaking more loudly this time he was able to catch the female employee's attention.
"Huh?!"
The dark-haired teen smiled softly and lifted up his index finger, "One adult for Human Earthworm 3."
"That'll be ¥1,800."
"Yeah, here." The teen replied — opening his wallet and handing the necessary amount of money for the movie ticket over to the theater employee.
As he was doing so, out of his line of vision a blue-haired patchwork male measly strolled past the teen and the ticket booth and into the theater, it's not like any normal human could see him anyways.
The female employee slid the leftover change and the movie ticket stubs to the dark-haired teen, "the show will be starting soon."
"I served as a doctor for many years, working to save lives. As I was saving countless lives, I found myself arriving at a particular question." A male dressed in a lab coat spoke to a female sitting in a chair on the movie screen.
The dark-haired teen had his eyes glued to the black and white show all the while trying to focus on what was being said in the film, however several rows of seating ahead of the dark-haired teen, three other various male voices obnoxiously spoke over the actors' voices on the big screen.
"And it turned out he had 50,000 on him! A middle school brat!"
"For real? That's awesome."
'This sucks.' Yoshino thought to himself as he rested the side of his face against his fist closing his eyes, the movie still playing on despite the interruptions from the three voices speaking loudly over the dialogue, "where does a person's life- their very soul- actually reside?"
'High schoolers shouldn't skip school to watch movies. Not that I can talk.' The thoughts of the dark-haired teen continued.
"So? What'd you do next?" One of the males who were conversing while the movie played on asked another male sitting beside him.
"I took it all."
"Man, so mean!"
"That's when I realized it!" The actor on the screen said, dramatically dragging his hand down his face, while the three loud high school teens laughed amongst each other.
"The shape of one's soul creates the body! So I began conducting research on the soul. All alone, in this lab deep in the mountains..."
'This seriously sucks. I can't hear the movie at all.'
"Then today's your treat!" One of the three high school boys proclaimed looking over at his friend.
"Screw that. We're splitting it even, obviously!"
'There are always people like that, even if they vary to some degree.'
Earlier that same day
"So, were you looking?"
The dark-haired teen gazed up at his bullies, a hand gingerly placed on his stomach. "I wasn't."
He denied honestly, his bully wasn't one to believe what the beaten-up teen was claiming.
"Then are you saying Tsubasa's lying to us?" The bully raised his leg up and kicked the boy further down to the ground.
"He was definitely looking at them!" The female interjected — egging on the dark-haired teen's punishment from the three bullies surrounding him.
One of the fellow high school boys chuckled as he scrolled through his phone, "you're nuts, man!"
Watching through a window within the school was a heavyset male with a dark colored undercut hair style, he however turned his attention away from the scene and disappeared down the hallway.
"Oh, there's a half-off coupon." The boy who was scrolling through his phone announced to the others.
"Huh? To where?"
"Hey! Teach him a lesson first!" The female exclaimed trying to get the three high school boys to beat up the dark-haired teen some more.
Said dark haired teen weakly raised a little bit of his upper body off the dirt to glance at the girl, 'shit. That woman's just using me to see where she stands, and she's enjoying it!'
The bully who kicked him just moments before positioning his body in front of the girl, blocking the dark-haired teen's line of sight of her when she giggled.
"You were looking, then." The bully kicked the teen once again, leaving more marks and bruises all over the teen's arms and face.
'Damn it.' Yoshino grit his teeth before glaring up towards the woman responsible for what he was going through, 'I'll tell her! I'll tell her! I'll tell her! I'll tell her!'
"You're not as cute as you think you are, Tsubasa-san." He slowly raised his aching body up again off the ground slightly.
"These three know that, too. The only reason they're fawning over you is because they think you'll let them bang you."
As soon as he finished speaking, another harsh blow was delivered to his already battered body.
End of Flashback
"Now to create the perfect human being!" The male on the screen proclaimed holding a large syringe filled with a mysterious liquid in his left hand, dramatic music blasting in the background adding suspense for the movie scene.
"No way. She won't let us bang her at all. She's no good anymore." One of the high school boys said to his two companions, referring to the girl they were all with at school just hours ago.
'Stop talking.' The dark-haired teen thought angerly, still resting the side of his face against his fist.
"S- Stop it!" The actress screamed trying to yield away from the incoming syringe the man in the lab coat held but ultimately couldn't move due to her being tied down in a chair. "No!"
A phone belonging to one of the boys then rang, "it's Tsubasa."
Yoshino clenched his teeth in annoyance, 'turn off your phone!'
"Hello?"
"What's up?"
The actress on screen released a blood curling scream from terror as tears uncontrollably streamed down her face.
"Right now? I'm free." The teen answered his phone, unaware of the patchwork curse that now stood directly behind the three high school boys.
"You three..." Mahito started to say.
"Well..."
"Need to mind your manners." He continued on grinning wide, placing his hand on top of one of the boy's face, disfiguring his skull as well as the other two high schoolers, killing them all instantly.
"There's no need to worry. Everything went well. It's all for the creation of the perfect human being..."
The dark-haired teen was left awestruck, the movie was now nothing of interest to him as he stared at the patchwork male's back.
Only once the showing room lights had come back on was when he noticed the three disfigured bodies of his bullies.
"Wha... What is this?"
He asked no one in particular as he gawked at the unrecognizable bodies as a bead of sweat dropped down the side of his face and then he gasped, thinking back to the blue-haired male he noticed just a little bit ago.
The teen turned away, sprinting out the theater room and out into the street, 'that person just now... No, a person couldn't do this.'
He looked around hoping to spot the patchwork curse he saw back at the theater, with no sign of the curse anywhere the teen continued to run down the street.
'And if they could, would they really be human?'
_____________
"What if I am the one who did it? Will you condemn me?" Mahito questioned the dark-haired teen who managed to catch up with him.
"Were those three special to you?" The curse turned to look at the teen waiting for his answers to the questions with a smile on his face. Yoshino blinked, a vacant look in his eyes as his mind thought back to what his bullies had done to him.
"Don't worry. Don't worry. He can eat it."
The sound of a picture being taken on a cellphone was heard.
"Harsh, man!"
"Poor guy! He's crying now!"
The female and three males laughed evilly at the battered body of Yoshino, enjoying the pain they were inflicting on the teen, as well as enjoying the power they held over him in that moment, they knew no one was coming to his rescue.
"Can I...do that, too?" Yoshino asked Mahito, a sudden downpour of rain coming down upon the both of them.
_____________
Back at the theater, Yuji and Y/N gazed down at the blood-soaked seats that once held the high schoolers bodies, next to them stood a tall blonde-haired male dressed in tan business suit.
"Can you see it? This is the residual taint of cursed energy." The blonde-haired male said pointing at the only entrance to the showing room where the murders took place.
Yuji looked back at the older male. "No. I can't see anything."
"I can, it's very faint however." Y/N responded; the blonde-haired male nodded slightly in her direction acknowledging that at least the gravity user was able to grasp what he was pointing out.
He expected Y/N to be the one who pays the closest attention then turned his focus back to the pink-haired teen stuffing his hands in his slack pockets.
"That's because you're not trying to see it. We typically see curses as if it's perfectly natural to. When a cursed technique is used, it leaves traces behind. That's what residuals are. But residuals are much fainter than cursed spirits. So, focus your vision and look closely."
Yuji cupped his hands over the sides of his face and squinted his eyes in concentration, "oh! I can see them!" He exclaimed happily, laughing in content.
"Of course, you can. A proper sorcerer can sense them before seeing them."
The older male quickly killed Yuji's joy as the pink-haired teen's shoulders dropped, balling his hands into fists, clenched his teeth and closed his eyes.
"Couldn't you give me a little more praise or something?" Yuji asked the blonde-haired male as they left the crime scene with Y/N following right behind them.
"I don't praise or disparage anyone. I adhere to facts and judge on that basis. That's who I am. There was a time when I mistakenly believed society operated the same way, but enough about that. Let's follow them."
Yuji punched his left hand with his right fist, determination burning in his gaze.
"Yeah! Let's go all-out!"
"No, where moderate effort will suffice, use moderate effort."
The pink-haired teen was taken back by the older male's comment again.
Y/N tried her best to resist the urge of giggling at Yuji's deadpanned expression, although she did pat her friend on the back in a comforting way. "Let's go."
Yuji pouted watching the blonde-haired male walk away from him and the gravity user still patting him on his back, 'we're just not clicking. I'm not getting anything from him.'
Small Flashback
"I won't be able to lead you two this time. But don't worry. I've called in a friend you can trust." Gojo informed his two students as the three of them walked down an area somewhere.
A door slid open revealing a tall blond-haired male with his hands in his pockets facing away from the teacher and two students. Gojo suddenly appeared next to the blonde-haired male, an arm slung over the blonde's shoulder and a huge smile apparent of the white-haired sorcerer's face.
"This is Nanami Kento, the ex-salaryman jujutsu sorcerer!"
"Please don't call me that." Nanami sternly said, stone faced and arms crossed already tired of Gojo's nonsense.
"Plenty of jujutsu sorcerers are oddballs, but since he worked for a company, he's got a good head on his shoulders. He's a first-grade sorcerer, too."
Nanami pushed his glasses further up his face, "I'm sure no one would want to hear you saying that about them."
'A lot of these people wear sunglasses and stuff to hide their eyes.' Yuji thought as he looked over at the blonde-haired male whose name he now knew as Nanami.
"Ex-salaryman? Why didn't you become a jujutsu sorcerer from the start?"
"We should greet each other first. Nice to meet you, Itadori-kun. You as well, Nakahara-kun." Nanami slightly bowed at the two teens, who immediately bowed back at the older male. "Oh, yes, nice to meet you, too."
"Nice to meet you, Nanami-san."
"I studied at Jujutsu High, and one thing I learned... is that jujutsu sorcerers are shit!"
"Huh?" Both teens blurted out at the same time, not expecting the male to slander the existence of jujutsu sorcerers as he once was one himself.
Nanami thought nothing of the teen's questioning looks they were throwing at him as he crossed his arms once more.
"Then I worked at your typical company and one thing I learned is that work is shit!"
"Really?!"
"If both are equally shit, I'll take the one I'm more suited to. That's the reason I came back." Nanami looked into the distance with his back turned to the four other sorcerers in the room, behind him, Yuji along with Gojo each had one hand raised and huddled close to one another.
"That's dark." Yuji commented whispering to his teacher
"Right."
Y/N sweat dropped at the two of them and shook her head, "you two have got to be the loudest whisperers I've ever met."
"Itadori-kun, Nakahara-chan, please don't believe I'm of the same mindset of Gojo-san. I do trust and have faith in him," Gojo chuckled and struck a pose, placing his chin in between his thumb and index finger with a smirk on his face, Yuji looked away to the side making a face at his teacher's cockiness, "but I do not respect him!"
"Huh?!" Gojo cried out, sounding offended.
"I hate the way the higher-ups do things, but I believe in rules and regulations. This conversation is dragging on. In short, I don't recognize you as a sorcerer, either. Even if you do carry the bomb we know as Sukuna, please make an effort to prove that you are useful. Nakahara-chan, I have basic knowledge on your capabilities, the blood, sweat, and tears you put into building into that reputation you are so proud of I've heard about did not come easy I'm sure, so for the time being, you are the only one amongst the three of you standing here today that I can solely recognize as a sorcerer."
Yuji inhaled deeply hearing what Nanami had to say about him and then Y/N.
"Lately, I've been forced to realize how weak and useless I am. But I'll become strong. I have to be strong, or I won't be able to choose how I die. I'll make you recognize me, even without that advice. Just give me a bit more time." Yuji said smiling with one eye closed, his right hand raised up to his head almost like a salute, Gojo standing beside him a proud smile of his own plastered on his face.
"Say that to the higher-ups, not me."
"Oh, right."
"Frankly, I don't care!"
"Okay, I get it!"
End of Flashback
"There wasn't anything on the surveillance cameras, right?" Yuji asked as he, Nanami, and Y/N walked up flights of stairs, "right. There was only one young man aside from the victims."
"Then a cursed spirit was behind it?"
"Well, most likely." Nanami confirmed, the three sorcerers then reaching the rooftop if a building, the downpour of rain didn't falter. "There's a small chance the young man could have done it, but identifying him is the police's-"
Nanami cut himself off as he came to a stop and glanced over to his left, spotting a sickly green curse that had a tail resembling some sort of animal, an exposed ribcage, big bulging eyes, and exposed teeth.
'Lu, lu, lu, lunchbox!'
Yuji tossed aside the umbrella he was using to shield him and Y/N from the heavy downpour of rain and raised his fists up readying himself to fight the curse until Nanami put his arm out in front of the boy.
"Stop. I'll take care of this one. You handle the one over there, Nakahara-chan will take the one on the far-right corner." The blonde stated calmly folding his umbrella up while the two students glanced at the curses Nanami was referring to.
A pale white curse peeked around, its hands pressed up against each other like it was praying, the eyes were slanted and its mouth was vertical. 'Good detergent!'
Y/N licked her lips — eying the curse she was assigned to, a disgusting looking purple octopus like creature. The eyes were hallowed and black as night, it had a long tongue that was visible from its open mouth as well as sharp looking teeth.
'Orange rings!'
Y/N chuckled under her breath and cracked her knuckles, "this will be fun. I've been itching for a fight, other than being tossed around by Gojo nonstop. Stupid overpowered pretty faced jerk."
The gravity user grumbled her thoughts reminding her of all the tough sparing sessions she had so far with her teacher, not once has she landed one measly punch on the man and that fact alone irritated her to no end.
"If you decide you can't beat it, please call me. Nakahara-chan, I trust you can handle a weakling like that, correct?"
"Yes sir!"
Yuji dropped his fighting stance looking a bit dejected, "aren't you taking me a bit too lightly here?"
"It's not a matter of underestimating you or not. I am an adult, and you are a child." Nanami unbuttoned his blazer and loosened his tie from around his neck, he then walked away from the two teens and moved forward to the curse.
'Lu, lu, lu...'
"I have a duty to prioritize your life over my own."
Yuji regained his stance, a look of clear annoyance present on his face. "I'd rather you underestimate me than treat me like a kid."
"You've faced several life-or-death situations. But that does not make you an adult."
Nanami opened the front of his tan blazer, revealing a blue button-down dress shirt while having a holster attached to his clothing — unsheathing a blunt weapon wrapped in spotted bandages out from the back his blazer.
"Finding more fallen-out hairs on your pillow, watching your favorite stuffed bread disappear from the convenience store... The accumulation of those little despairs is what makes a person an adult."
"My cursed technique allows me to forcibly create a weak point on any opponent. Seven to three. Striking the point at that ratio when you draw a line along the target's length causes a critical hit. That allows me to deal a fair amount of damage to those ranked higher than me," Nanami spoke accordingly to the two students fighting the curses spread out around the rain-soaked rooftop as he dodged with ease every time the cursed spirit he was facing cartwheeled towards him trying to attack.
"And if their cursed energy is weak, I can cut them in two, even with a blunt blade."
Yuji was locked into a power struggle against the pale white curse, he racked his brain to get the upper hand, "are you listening, Itadori-kun?"
The pink-haired boy tore his focus from the curse to the blonde-haired male, "huh?! You were talking to me?!"
The curse took advantage of the distractions and flung him backwards, the teen soared in the air smashing into the fencing that was placed behind him before he crashed down, hunching his back as he groaned in pain.
"Ow... Is it okay to reveal something like that?" Yuji piped back up cupping his left cheek.
"It's no problem to reveal that technique to that opponent. Also, all the better if revealing it misleads them."
'I want to focus on the curse, but it feels like I should be listening.' Yuji glimpsed back and forth from Nanami and the curse, letting the blonde know he was paying attention to what he was lecturing but also keeping an eye out for more attacks from the curse.
Hearing some joyous laughter Yuji glanced quickly over at Y/N who had her ability active as she gracefully dodged the octopus creature's arms that grabbed for her before she smirked wanting to get a rise out of it.
"Ah, come on now you can do better than that can't you? You're starting to bore me to tears here!" Her wish was granted when the curse frustratingly dashed towards her all of the arms aimed cursed energy at the gravity user, the girl stood her ground looking unfazed by the incoming attack, once the cursed energy was close enough, she stuck her hand out.
The instant the cursed energy came in near millimeters of her gloved fingertips the cursed energy halted in a similar style to Gojo's Infinity, at that moment Y/N grew even more ecstatic.
'When Gojo-sensei suggested manipulating the cursed energy from my opponent's and using that against them, I honestly didn't think it would work, didn't think it was even possible, until now that is.' Y/N 's lips perked up into a devilish smirk, with her arm still raised the cursed energy the curse aimed at her now swirled around the red headed teen fully at her disposal, she giggled melodically.
"That was a cute attempt, but now it's my turn."
She aimed the manipulated cursed energy back at the octopus curse who was frozen in fright, her ability amplified the cursed energy attack, slicing the curses into numerous pieces. Y/N smiled happily at her handiwork feeling extremely proud of herself, as did a certain King of Curses watching in interest from the inside of his Innate Domain.
"There is merit to it," Nanami's voice continued.
""Revealing one's hand" is a pact that increases the effectiveness of one's technique. Like so." The blonde took a stance as his cursed energy welled up massively while the curse charged at him. Using his cursed technique, he had just explained to Yuji, the blonde struck down the curse cleanly slicing off its arms and legs.
"That's all from me."