"HAH?!"
Maki Zenin jumped from her seat in a Jujutsu High classroom, glaring at a cheerful Professor Gojo sporting a bright smile on his face behind the class podium at the front of the room.
"Yup~!" The white-haired sorcerer said, "You, Inumaki-kun and Panda have a joint mission together~!"
The Jujutsu High Second-Year slammed her hands on her desk. "Oi, what do you mean, 'Joint Mission'?! You were assigned this investigation, not us!"
"Hey, hey, don't worry about the details, Maki~! It's only a measly Grade-2 that's haunting around an abandoned building not far from here, it's perfect for you three~!"
A disgruntled Maki slumped back into her chair, propping her feet up onto her desk and crossing her arms with a sneer on her lips. "Tch, fine, fine! Just debrief me on this thing again before I change my mind about listening to you."
Gojo clapped his hands together with a grin. "Yay~!" Grabbing a piece of chalk and turning to the board, he scribbled a simple square building with a couple of windows and outline of a rooftop onto the board, followed by an image of a toothy monster in the centre.
"Okay! So, here's the nasty beastie right here."
He then followed with a poorly-drawn Panda, Toge and Maki face on the side. "You three are to go in," Gojo drew a trio of arrows going towards the house, "Kill the beastie," and Gojo finished off with a big X over the monster, "And boom! Mission complete!"
Turning back towards Maki and pointing at the teenager with his chalk, Gojo said, "Capische~?"
Maki let out a long sigh, and got out of her seat. She really didn't want to be stuck doing her lazy professor's dirty work, but at the same time, if it was only a Grade-2, then she'd have no issue doing it herself, let alone with two other sorcerers.
Maki was strong enough to tackle the majority of cursed spirits in the world of Jujutsu; her cursed tool arsenal, combined with her superhuman physical strength, speed and durability granted her the power needed to combat sorcerers capable of harnessing Cursed Energy. Don't let her lowly Grade-4 sorcerer status fool you; she was more than capable out in the field. That was the very reason Satoru Gojo entrusted this mission to her and her friends in the first place; she was capable.
Nonetheless, she had an ache in her stomach at the thought of taking this mission from him.
Hm, don't like this, not at all....
After some thought, Maki did manage to quell her unease for a moment.
"Alright. Guess I'll tell Panda and Toge tomorrow about this."
"Great~! Thanks a ton, Maki-san~!"
As the white-haired sorcerer left the room and Maki was left alone with her thoughts, some of her doubts crawled back up in the form of questions that lingered in her head, long after she had left the classroom that evening. As she ate dinner, as she cooled off under the shower, as she brushed her teeth and put on her sleepwear, and as she lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, she was irked by the whole deal.
If it really was just a simple execution of a Grade-2, why was it given to the strongest sorcerer associated with the Technical College at all? Nanami, Ino, or even students like Megumi or Toge would be fully capable of taking it on singlehandedly, and yet, all three available second-years are assigned? Not to mention, if this was the case, why wasn't the mission assigned directly to those who could go off on solo missions, like Toge? Why did Satoru have to be the one to pass the mission on?
Tch, this whole thing just reeks, Maki groaned to herself.
She tried not to dwell on the matter any further; Megumi does have a mission involving the investigation of cursed spirits being attracted to a school in a neighboring district within the coming days, and Toge just returned from another mission, so she could chalk up her uncertainties to Gojo being unable to assign this to Megumi, and being considerate of Toge in pairing him up with her and Panda as support.
She turned to her side, clutching her pillow under her head and shutting her eyes.
Just sleep, don't fuss over the small things, Maki....
Little did Maki know what Satoru Gojo had in store for her, as deep in the murky, dim domain of the Jujutsu higher-ups, just the morning prior, he was in the midst of a briefing on the mission he had passed over to her and the second-years that same afternoon.
When he heard what the higher-ups demanded of him, he couldn't help but chuckle.
"Pft~, you kidding me~? You old geezers think there's an unregistered Special-Grade out there that I haven't picked up on yet~?"
A raspy, agitated tone spoke out from behind the doors of the domain. "Mind your attitude, Satoru Gojo! We've been getting reports that a powerful cursed energy signature has been detected throughout an entire three-block radius deep within the city, and it's all been coming from an abandoned apartment complex that was the victim of an arson attack several years ago!"
From the murky shadows that cloaked his superiors came an old photograph of the smaller complex with its coordinates written in its top corner, which Gojo snatched from the ground.
Studying it briefly, Gojo took note of several key features he could extract from the snippet of information given to him. The building, located between two empty lots of space, was nearly crumbling down on itself; black soot was coating a vast majority of empty windows, cracks scattered across the face of the apartment, unkept shrubbery dotting the lawn out front. Visibly beyond any repair, Gojo noted the demolition notices on the walls and vines creeping across the bricks as the last things of any significance in the photo.
Another voice of an old man spoke up, just as raspy, and just as malicious in its tone.
"Civilians have reported feeling senses of dread and overwhelming danger going anywhere near the area, it's more than just a measly cursed spirit! Get to investigating, Satoru Gojo!"
The sorcerer in question only brushed off the concerns of the superiors around him with a smile, shoving his hands and the photo in his pockets. "Gotcha, gotcha, let the younger generation take care of the problems you're too decrepit to handle any longer~."
As Gojo exited the meeting, ignoring the discourse over his nonchalant behaviour behind him, he thought to himself,
So, a Grade-1 mystery that has enough cursed energy to plague entire city blocks, huh? Sounds fun~......
The dim lighting of the room the higher-ups holed themselves into always were a hindrance to Gojo's eyes the second he walked back out to greet the rest of humanity, and he clicked his tongue when his shaded glasses let in a little bit of the morning sun.
Big downside of possessing the Six Eyes, one of the most coveted and powerful abilities in the Jujutsu world; that moment of eye adjustment to a brighter environment is brutal.
Soon finding himself in backseat of a black car with Ijichi as a driver heading into Tokyo, Gojo hummed to himself, patting the space of car seat between his legs like a drum in a slow, limp rhythm absentmindedly.
"Something up? You've got your head in the clouds again, it seems." Ijichi noted, taking his eyes off of the road to glance up at the rearview mirror.
"Ahhh," Gojo smiled after a moment, "just wondering what to do about the higher-ups and their little demands of me~."
The head manager of Jujutsu High only let out a sheepish sigh at the sorcerers words, keeping his words to himself.
How about you just listen to them, Gojo-sensei, that's not such a bad idea, you know.....
Gojo turned his attention back to his thoughts, crossing his arms over his chest.
Now, what to do, what to do.....
Ahhhh, let's just pay Maki-san a visit and see whether she'll take this off my hands....
"Yeah, so, that's why we're here, you two."
Holding the photograph up in front of the very abandoned complex that was their target, Maki, polearm on her back, turned towards her two friends and fellow second-years, the Cursed Speech user Toge Inumaki and Panda, the...panda. It was the late morning after they were assigned the mission, and the short Inumaki boy was finishing his onigiri while the trio took in the mission location from the opposite sidewalk.
"Okaka..." Toge spoke first in a curt mutter, visibly disapproving of the situation with food in between his teeth.
Panda chimed in on cue, raising his hand with a sheepish look on his face. "Um, yeah, Maki, I'm with Toge on this one. This whole situation is just mega-fishy- ah, and I'm not just talking about his rice ball."
A loud groan came from Panda's stomach, and the cursed corpse patted it with both hands. "See? Bad vibes, Maki, bad vibes. You know my stomach doesn't act up unless something baaad is coming."
"Oh, please," Maki brushed off her friends' concerns with a wave of her hand and a scoff.
"You're being overdramatic, this isn't anything new to either of you. Get your heads on straight!"
Toge deadpanned in response with eyes that screamed disbelief. "Shake, shake."
"Oi, don't gimme that look!"
The Zenin girl let out a sigh, recomposing herself, trying not to let her anger get the better of her again.
"Phew....look, whether you find it fishy or not, Satoru gave us specific instructions to take out whatever curse is in that apartment building, so let's suck it up, take it to the chin and just get it over with, yeah?"
Cutting the conversation off herself, Maki turned and strolled across the street, towards the abandoned apartment complex on her own.
The closer she approached, though, the more she felt it; a vehement sense of dread, enough to make her hands sweat and a cold jolt to shoot down her spine.
Yeesh, what a cursed energy signature....
Before long, she found herself at the base of the stoop staircase that led to a black door that had seen better days, chipped with a rusted doorknob. Taking her first steps up the stairs, she awkwardly wiped her hands on her uniform skirt and gripped the stone guardrails on either side of the staircase.
It's not even just the potency of it, it's just so....cold, and eerie.....
For some reason, she suddenly couldn't stomach the graininess of the stone beneath her fingers the more steps she took up to the entrance, and quickly pulled her hands back. Maki came to the door, less than a half-metre from the entrance. Standing still, staring at the doorknob. She gulped audibly, looking back on that unease from when she was first given this mission by Gojo, and cursing herself out for not listening to those warning signs before.
Just from staring at the doorknob, Maki knew there was a different kind of beast she would have to tackle inside. Nonetheless, in an effort to stick it to her ever-so-kind teacher Satoru Gojo, with a deep inhale through her nose, she gripped and turned it in one fell swoop, pushing the door open, half-expecting to see a myriad of Flyheads leap out at her. To her relief, however, there was nothing but a long entryway into the rest of the complex, with broken glass and graffiti lining the walls, save for the busted-open mailboxes to the right of the entryway.
Maki let out a long sigh, turning back towards her friends. "Hey, guys, let's-
She was met with the duo hiding behind the pillars of the stoop, peeking over like children. Toge had a sickly paleness to him, while Panda's ears were drooping down. As she faced this pathetic image of her two sorcerer friends superior in grade, they were met with veins popping out of her forehead.
.....are you joking?
"OI! STUPID 1, STUPID 2! GET UP HERE, DAMNIT!"
"H-Hey, don't shout! You absolutely felt the creepiness too!" Panda tried to meekly protest, pointing out Maki's hesitation to turn the doorknob. "We were right behind you, and we saw you freak out too!"
"Shake, Shake!" Toge nodded, pointing out Maki's hypocrisy.
"DOESN'T MATTER, ISN'T IMPORTANT! YOU HAVE A MISSION, AND I WANT TO SHOW UP SATORU BY COMPLETING THIS DAMN THING A.S.A.P!" Threatening the two with violence, Maki vetoed their argument and hurried them into the apartment complex.
As Toge and Panda begrudgingly stepped in before her, however, Maki unzipped her polearm from its bag on her back, steeling her nerves.
Hm, if anything comes out at us, I'll be ready too....!
The first floor posed no problems at all, no difference to the eerie cursed energy signature the trio of second-years were sensing at all. Toge searched ahead at the further abandoned rooms due to his experience taking on solo missions, while Panda took the closest, and Maki was left with the central rooms. They found very little, save for meek Flyheads spawned from lingering negative emotions tied to the arson, which were exorcised without issue.
In one room, on the floor, she managed to find the charred remains of a stuffed animal, along with half of a portrait photo of two young girls standing aside one another, with their heads torn from the photograph. She picked both items up and crouched down to examine them, and for a moment, the freakish cursed energy thick in the air dissipated around her.
For a moment there, her tough exterior took a hit, thoughts of her own sister slipping through the cracks. Memories of their time together, how she was the stronger twin, though not in sorcery, but in spirit. Pushing Mai along whenever she felt fear, unease, distress, she managed to patch her back up. Only to exile herself from the clan, casting off her Zenin name.
She understood Mai's feelings of resentment and hatred towards her. Mai had every right to be upset, furious even, for her abandonment of the clan. It was not as though she wished things would have been different between the two. But, with a sigh, she got back to her feet, consolidating her emotions the same way she usually did. She told herself that she would never be happy if she slipped back into the family and didn't reach the pinnacle of sorcery like she had always aspired for.
Returning to the other guys, Maki tossed the photo and animal back into the room, and shut the door.
"aGH! Aw, man, I stepped in something!"
As the trio of sorcerers climbed the stairway up to the first landing, Panda suddenly jerked his foot up and visibly shuddered when he saw a miniature Flyhead smushed beneath his sole.
"Yeesh, those things are everywhere, huh? No letting up," Maki noted, raising an eyebrow at Panda's whines, passing him by on the stairway.
"Mentaiko," Toge added with a soft look on his face, patting Panda on the back as he followed suit.
The cursed corpse only let out a sigh, and dragged his foot across the edge of the first step, causing the measly cursed spirit to squeal as it burned away.
Maki had picked up on something now that she was first to walk up the stairs, and she put her free hand behind her back, signaling for the other two to stop their climb.
"Oi. You feel that?"
Toge tilted his head to the side with a questioning look on his face, before shaking his head.
"Nope. What's up?" Panda replied.
Tch, so I was right...! Maki turned to face the two with a grim expression.
"Exactly that. That heavy cursed energy in the air, it's all but dissipated completely."
Toge's eyes widened at Maki's observation. "Ehhhh...."
Panda seemed doubtful, however. "Erm, then that would mean that there's nothing here, wouldn't it? That makes no sense-"
"Nope," Maki interjected, "it just means the curse in this building has the strength to hide their presence consciously."
I'm willing to bet that it's caught notice of us by now, if it's masking its energy....
"Look, just keep eye and ear out for any sign of the curse again, alright?"
The trio of second-years reached the second floor, and Maki turned the knob leading out into the desolate hallways and empty rooms. She turned to Panda, nodding her head out to the floor. "Hey, you mind, Panda?"
Panda straightened his back and put his hand to his brow in a salute. "I'm on it, Maki-ma'am!"
Knuckle dusters primed and ready, the cursed corpse raced out in a march to the open floor. The Zen'in girl could only raise an eyebrow and turn to her friend in confusion at the name. "Maki....ma'am....?" She mumbled.
Inumaki only shrugged.
The remaining two reached the third floor, but before turning the doorknob to the halls, Maki turned to Inumaki. "Right. We'll take this floor ourselves. The curse is most likely to be up here, so be safe, got it Toge?"
The Cursed Speech user gave a thumbs up, and with that, Maki grabbed the doorknob, and-
Wait...!
She froze, picking up the sound of an object whizzing through the air, approaching fast.
Something's coming!
"Oi, duck!"
Maki quickly tackled Inumaki down to the landing floor, just as a powerful slash cut straight through the door and caved out the stairwell wall behind them, sending the debris out into the street.
Maki jolted upright and turned back to the now-halved door as it fell to the ground, bewildered.
Just what the hell was that?!
Down at the very end of the hallway, past apartment door after apartment door, Maki locked eyes with the curse responsible;
A sleek, black salamander only a meter and a half standing on its hind legs, with glowing red eyes, bright red underbelly, and shimmering orange crystalline spikes on its head, trailing down its long, serpentine body.
The beast was almost rabid in behavior, snarling and bearing sharp, beaming orange crystals for teeth at the two sorcerers.
Despite its stature, its sudden release of cursed energy at the sight of her made Maki shiver.
O-Oi, that's not a Second-Grade curse....!
"Toge, up! Now!" Maki scrambled her fellow sorcerer to their feet and they rushed out of the stairwell, staring down the curse with Inumaki's zipper down over his face and her naginata polearm at the ready.
For the first time, the cursed seemed to speak in a disconnected tone, undulating and shaking as it did so.
"mm-...m-my home...this...is my home..."
As it did so, the crystals on the Salamander Curse's back began to pulse in orange glows, flashing different brightnesses in response to its words.
"Toge, go down the left hall and flank it, I'll chase it down from the front!" Maki ordered, pointing down the corresponding hallway.
"Takana...!" The cursed speech user raced down the hall, leaving Maki staring down the cursed spirit.
Right! Maki galvanized herself, twirling her polearm through the air and taking aim at the Salamander Curse with the blade on the edge. Get ready!
"You all....all of y-....y-you....!!" The Salamander Curse let out a shrill screech in anger, suddenly lurching over and digging crystalline claws into the floor. The Salamander suddenly began to spin in a circle, jabbing its claws into the concrete floor, with every rotation rapidly increasing in speed.
Mh? What's it up to...? Maki raised an eyebrow at the curse's behaviour, but kept her eyes locked onto it nonetheless. She knew better than to drop her guard against any enemy, and this one, despite its great cursed energy, was no different. She gripped her polearm, finally taking her first slow, steady steps towards the Salamander Curse.
With one final shout into the air, however, the curse attacked.
"STAY AWAY FROM MY HOME...!!!!"
In a sudden flash, an orange circular blade of raw cursed energy screeched down the hallway, gunning towards Maki, completely taking her off guard.
Woah!
Barely managing to parry the disc upwards through the roof and into the sky, Maki clicked her tongue, scowling to herself.
D-Damnit...!
My hands...they're shaking like crazy from deflecting that just now...!
Quickly getting back into form, Maki made a mad dash for the Salamander Curse.
Gotta get an opening for Toge before he reaches us, and then we'll blow this piece of trash sky-high!
I'll stall it, keep it busy for now!
The Salamander Curse let out another sickly howl and raced towards Maki, and claws clashed with her naginata as she hacked away at the Salamander's body, forcing a grunt out of her.
Kgh...! That's some strength...!
Her boots dug into the floor, yet she was still being pushed back by the smaller curse.
Maki managed to break the deadlock with a parry over to the side and a following twirl of her polearm into the curse's midsection, sending it reeling backwards.
Now!
Maki unleashed a wide array of thrusts and slashes from every direction, clubbing the Salamander Curse with the blunt tip of her polearm and using the opening to cut at the vulnerable flesh with a follow-up slash.
Yeah, that's it! She told herself, slipping past a wild bite at her throat by the Salamander Curse, Just keep your cool, and strike when it leaves itself open!
Maki let out a two-handed swing at the curse's back with substantial force, grunting when she made contact with the curse's body that sent out a clanging through the hall.
Tough as nails, too...!
The Salamander Curse was thrown through the entryway of an abandoned apartment, and Maki pursued, rushing back into the fray. She threw a lightning-quick thrust at the curse's chest with the goal of exorcising it in one fell swoop, clicking her tongue when she hit nothing but air.
Tch..! Fast, tough and stronger than appearances let on, what a pain...!
The curse countered; somersaulting forward and lashing at her with its crystal back spikes, Maki could only weather through the buzzsaw of an attack and bring her polearm up across her body as a guard, wincing under the pressure.
Kgh...come on, push through...!
Her guard was slowly being whittled away by the force of the Salamander Curse; pieces of orange crystal sprouted off of the curse's back, digging into her face and body like shards of broken glass being thrown at her, nicking her in shallow wounds and tearing through her uniform.
D-Damnit, this sucks, this sucks, this sucks....!
With one large shout, Maki stepped past the blow, narrowly evading the sweeping attack that cut through a chunk of the complex like tissue paper by the skin of her teeth.
The Salamander Curse soared off through apartment wall after apartment wall with the weight of its own momentum, crashing into the steel doors of an elevator shaft beside the stairwell. Maki could make out the faint sounds of the curse screeching as it tumbled down the walls of the shaft, and, to her relief, the sounds of the curse banging against the walls of the elevator in rhythmic thuds.
Despite a desire to continue the pursuit, she collapsed to one knee, breathing heavily. Maki consolidated and welcomed the moment of repose with a sigh.
"Tch-.....that really did a number on me..." She mumbled to herself. Leaning on her polearm to slowly get back to her feet, Maki calmed her breathing, composing herself. In a brief moment, she regained her strength.
"Hah.......alright, I'm-
The Salamander screeched and burst out from the floor less than a metre away from her.
Claws outstretched, itching to rip her apart, blood-stained eyes staring her down, crystalline fangs and spikes charged bright vermillion red gunning straight for her.
Maki's eyes widened by the slightest amount in response, and time slowed to a crawl.
.....oi, she hissed to herself, parry it, parry it now.
Guard yourself, Maki.
The Salamander's fangs were now centimetres from her face.
Do-....something...!
"CRUMBLE AWAY!"
Just before the curse could tear into her, Inumaki sprinted through the doorway, and let out a powerful shout.
In the blink of an eye, the curse was sent hurtling down the floors, crashing through the ground floor and landing in the basement with a splat, crushed under the weight of Inumaki's cursed speech.
....eh?
Maki slowly turned towards the doorway, exchanging stares with a panting Inumaki visibly as tense as she was. A few seconds of silence between them broke out, before Maki let out a long, heavy sigh of relief and collapsed onto her back on the floor.
"Ahhhhhh.....holy shit.....thanks alot, Toge," She called out from the ground, "You saved me, big time."
Zipping up his jacket collar and running over to Maki, Inumaki flashed a peace sign with a smile.
"Shake!"
Maki returned the expression, holding her hand out to him. "Mh. Now help me up, already."
Inumaki pulled her back to her feet, and just as he did so,
A wave of cursed energy coursed through their body, and the duo of sorcerers froze like statues, glaring at one another.
O-Oi....no fucking way....
The dread that followed mirrored the aura from when Maki approached the apartment in the first place.
That thing is alive...!?
No, no, no, that's not it....
From the hole carved into the apartment floor by the Salamander Curse came Panda's upper half, legs and torso shredded from his body, rolling across the floor.
Both sorcerers jerked their heads in his direction, visibly shaken by their friend's destroyed state.
Rapidly losing consciousness, Panda could only muster a handful of words before going silent;
"T-There's.....a-...another....."
A figure leapt up on the other side of the hole, slouching over. Despite not making but the slightest of sounds, they both felt the presence suddenly spike. Both Maki and Toge were wary of turning their heads away from the body of their fellow sorcerer, or, more specifically, turning to face whatever was behind them.
Her palms sweat profusely, even more so than when she approached the door to this very apartment complex, and her breathing collapsed on itself into utter disarray. The figure turned, the only way the two sorcerers could tell being the scraping of their feet against the rocks of the ground, an agonizing sound piercing the silence.
The slow scratching came to a halt, and a voice followed.
Scruffy, deep, yet evidently no older than her, the voice of a boy.
ah.
A Cursed Speech user of the Inumaki Clan, and a small fry Cursed Tool user along with them...?
How.....mundane.
*Author's Notes*
Hey
So in this story I've decided to include a handful of notes at the end of every chapter to either bring some context into a certain event that just happened, give some inspiration for a certain character, or simply just to ramble on for a bit about the story's direction itself, etc. etc.
Basically this is just rants on rants here.
So for the inaugural ranting session; Inspiration for this story and what I plan on doing with it.
A H
Before that
The enemy in this chapter is what I called the Salamander Curse, which is simply a spirit brought to life by the fear and aversion of colorful, poisonous salamanders. It's only about 162-165 cm tall, but packs a punch; it's a high-Semi-Grade 1, so around or just above the strength of the Grasshopper Curse in the Shibuya Arc (Hope that's not a spoiler to anyone, it gets barely a couple chapters of time anyways), which is why a Semi-Grade 1 sorcerer like Toge managed to snuff it out with a bit of help from Maki softening it up a bit on her end.
It's got strength, lots of speed and agility for its size, and is able to fire bright orange saw blades from its body by spinning itself like a beyblade and sending a wave of cursed energy out from the jagged crystals on its back.
Also it's loosely based off of Randall from Monsters Inc. because idk he looks kinda goofy and I figured he looked close enough :)
Anyways I'll keep the rest of this vent short and sweet lol
I was inspired to do this story because, while she's cool and all, Nobara isn't so much of an interesting character in my eyes, at least not in comparison to Maki and the depth of her character. I think Mai is funky looking and it would just be a pain to try and wedge a love interest into her development, Momo wears water bottles under her hair to make it stand up, Miwa belongs with Mechamaru and that is non-negotiable, and the teachers are too busy wrangling these petulant children back in to even think of pursuing a love life (though knowing that Yaga got dunked on and was handed the divorce papers in his 30s made me snort the first time I read that information)
So, yeah. Maki is goated.
Anyways
This story is going to be a slow burn, I've got around half a year's worth of available time to build this relationship up between Maki and her love interest, so it's not a Haikyuu x OC situation where I make everything happen in the span of like a literal summer, or a Demon Slayer x OC situation where I gave myself like two years and had to smush in a timeskip or two to make the pacing even out, it's a good amount of time.
Also, every 'arc' will be divided into numbers and titles for the arc itself, not individual titles for every chapter. This is because I am far too lazy and my brain is far too smooth to come up with unique titles for every single new chapter and I think it's more coherent this way >:)
So
This is the Introduction Arc, or Estella as I call it.
Hope you enjoy :)