"Hmph!" Itadori grunts as he throws the ball with all the force he has. It landed...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It landed right on the corner of the soccer goal, leaving a deep dent.
"Uh, roughly thirty meters."
The students cheered loudly for their pink-haired classmate, who was also cheering along with them. Megumi and Mei both look at Itadori, stunned.
'Thirty meters? Uwah! That's impressive!'
"Yeah! I win!!" Itadori cheered happily, with a large grin on his face.
"He's more gorilla than tiger, isn't he?" The girl with glasses said as a drop of sweat fell from her forehead.
"That was a pitcher's throw," said the boy with a buzzcut.
The female with short, dark-brown hair and glasses walks over to Itadori, crossing her arms. "Itadori, you'd do well on a sports team," she says with a somber expression on her face. She didn't want to admit it, but Itadori was great at sports-related things. "You don't have to force yourself to stay in our occult club, y'know."
The pink-haired boy looks down at his upperclassman, tilting his head. "Huh? But as much as you two love scary things, you couldn't go to haunted places without me, could you?" The small female punches him in the stomach.
"We're scared because we like it," she says with an irked smile.
A group of boys nearby began to take photos of themselves with Takagi, the track and field coach who just lost to a student.
"Besides, this school requires everyone to be in a club, right? I couldn't keep up with this." Itadori said, smiling sheepishly while scratching the side of his cheek.
Flashback...
"You don't have to do anything! You can be a ghost member!" The female upperclassman tries to persuade the pink-haired male into joining her club. "We're the occult club, after all!" Itadori chuckled, seeing how determined Sasaki was.
Flashback end.
"I did say that..." Sasaki muttered to herself, placing a hand on her chin.
"I want to be able to go home by 5 p.m. for my reasons, so if it's okay with you, I'd like to stay," Yuji says with a cheeky smile spreading across his face. "I like the atmosphere of the occult club a lot."
Mei's heart swelled with joy as she carefully watched and listened to Yuji and Sasaki's interaction. It was very endearing to see Itadori talk about the occult club with such praise. The pink-haired boy suddenly felt someone's gaze on him, and he turned around, his brown eyes meeting with Mei's deep, cerulean ones.
'Who's that girl? I've never seen her before.' Itadori thought to himself as he continued to stare blankly at the ravenette. Kaminaga notices him staring and decides to give him a small wave and a smile. His face immediately ignited in flames as he turned away from the black-haired woman, who blinked once, puzzled by his actions. Yuji could hear his heart beating rapidly and loudly, as if it were about to burst from his chest.
Mei looks up at Megumi, who saw the whole scene unfold. His arms were crossed, and his face made it evident that he was unhappy. "Fushiguro?" Kaminaga called out his name. "Do you think that boy is alright? He looked away right after I waved at him."
Fushiguro simply looks down at Mei, shaking his head at how naive she is. "I'm sure he's fine. Don't worry about him," he assured you. Megumi looked back up at the pink-haired boy, who was standing in the middle of the field with his two upperclassmen. 'That guy's incredible. He pulled that off without any cursed energy. I wonder if he's like Zenin-senpai.'
"Oh, it's already 4:30." Yuji stated as he went to grab his backpack. "Well, Coach, I've got stuff to do. Later!" He said this while sprinting out of the field.
As Itadori ran past Kaminaga and Fushiguro, the two sorcerers felt a spark from the boy. The presence of a cursed object! "Hey, you!" Fushiguro attempted to call out to the boy, but he was too late. Itadori was already heading for the school gates. He's way too fast!
"I heard that he can run fifty meters in three seconds," a student whispered to another as they watched the trail of dust follow Itadori.
'Erk!'
"Is he a car or something?" a different student snickered.
"Let's go, Fushiguro! We can't let him get away." Mei said to her classmate as she began to run after the pink-haired boy. There was no time to waste. Megumi eventually followed suit, trying his best to catch up with the fast noirette.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Later in the evening, at Sugisawa Hospital, Fushiguro and Kaminaga finally caught up with Itadori, panting heavily. How is he so fast? The two sorcerers spot Yuji at the front desk, signing some documents without realizing Megumi and Mei are there, and they quickly make their way over to him while also trying to catch their breath.
Mei was the first to approach Itadori, gently tapping him on the shoulder to get his attention. The pink-haired boy turned around, and almost immediately, he felt his cheeks become warm when he saw the girl that waved at him earlier.
"You're Yuji Itadori, right?" She says with a soft smile. "I'm Mei Kaminaga, and this man," Mei points at Megumi, who was standing beside her, "is Megumi Fushiguro. We're from Jujutsu Tech. Could we possibly have a word with you? It's very urgent."
Before Itadori could respond, Megumi grabbed him by the shoulder and dragged him to a more private area in the hospital, as Mei followed them closely behind. When Fushiguro finally lets him go, Itadori dusts off his shoulder, trying to fix the crinkles made by Megumi's hand.
"Um, I'm in mourning right now." Itadori said with a somewhat dismal look in his eyes. Just when Mei is about to say something to comfort the poor boy, Megumi interrupts her.
"Sorry, but there isn't time." He apologizes briefly. "The cursed object you possess is very dangerous." Megumi holds his hand out. "Hand it over to me now." He demanded.
"Cursed object?" Yuji looks at Megumi, bewildered. He had no idea what he was talking about. With an annoyed sigh, Fushiguro pulls out his phone, showing Itadori a picture of the cursed object.
The cursed object was a finger wrapped heavily in talismans. It came with a little box for the sealed finger to stay inside of. "This," the black-haired man points at the picture on his phone. Yuji immediately recognized the contents of the photo.
"Oh, yeah, yeah. I found that." The pink-haired boy says calmly. "I don't mind either way, but my senpai took a liking to it." He pauses for a moment, remembering Megumi's words from earlier. "Wait, what do you mean, 'dangerous'?"
"The number of unexplained deaths and missing people in Japan exceeds ten thousand people a year on average. Most of those are the result of curses."
"Curses?" Yuji questioned the ravenette male.
"To put it simply, curses are the embodiment of negative emotions. They're created by the negative emotions that humans give off, and they usually form in places that accumulate negative energy, commonly hospitals, schools, and so on." Mei tried to explain to Yuji as easily as possible. "Do you understand what I'm saying so far?" Itadori intently nods his head in response. "That's why most schools secretly keep a cursed object as a protective talisman. The object you found is one of them."
"If it's protecting us, shouldn't we be grateful for it?"
"I suppose, but there's more to it than that," Mei said, trying not to undermine Itadori's words. "It's true that the cursed object successfully kept other curses away and protected your school, but that would mean the cursed object has a great evil. It's not a good practice." Yuji nods his head again, listening carefully. "Over the years, its seal will weaken, and then it will start to attract other curses instead of keeping them away. The one you found is classified as a special-grade cursed object, which is the most dangerous type."
"So hand it over, or people will start dying," Megumi interjected, demanding that Itadori give him and Mei the cursed object.
"Hey, I already said I don't mind that. So go tell that to my senpai." Itadori tosses the box containing the cursed object to Fushiguro. He opens the box and finds nothing.
'It's empty?! I was just following the taint clinging to the box?' Megumi clenches his teeth angrily. As Itadori started to walk off, Fushiguro grabbed his arm, preventing Yuji from moving any further. "Where are the contents?!" he yelled as his grip on Itadori's arm grew tighter.
Itadori winces in pain. "I already told you, my senpai has it.." he grunted.
Megumi and Mei look at him in shock. "What?"
"Actually, they were talking about removing the talisman from it tonight at school."
Fushiguro loosened his grip on Itadori's arm, gradually letting it slip out as he took a step back from the pink-haired boy.
"What, is it bad?"
"It's worse than bad." Mei said with a slight tremble in her voice.
"They're.. going to die." Megumi finishes her sentence.