5 Chapter 5
He was six and a half when he got a ludicrous gift. His pale grey eyes went from the black eye wrap in his hands to the grinning face of Satoru. "You're aware of the fact that I can't see past this, yes?"
His white-haired cousin's smile only got wilder. Before pointing a thumb at his own eye wrap. "Common brat, try it on. We might discover a new part of your dojutsu"
He gave a heavy sigh and tried his best to ignore the soft laugh Aiko let out behind him. If only he was born with the byakugan. Then maybe, just maybe he could've given his whimsical cousin what he desired. Recalling old texts he had read from even older Uchiha outposts during his days as a missing Nin.
The obscure texts gave vague descriptions of a progenitor of both eyes. Giving the Uchiha and Hyuga a shared ancestry.
"Common kid, try it on". With another sigh, he gently wrapped it around his eyes, before sending a miniscule amount of cursed energy to his ears and nose. His attempts on forming rudimentary cursed energy pulses in a bastardized version of what chakra sensors did had hit a stalemate at just a meter away from him, The solution to the particular problem eluded him… for now.
Yet even without his sight and complete chakra pulse, he knew his cousins' grin must've gotten bigger. The things he did for his family.
GETO POV
Cursed spirits were like maggots. Slippery and always at the edges of your vision. Willfully ignored by the mundane till it was impossible for them to.
He walked down an alley filled with the heavy tang of excessively spilled blood. The splashes on the walls of the too-slim alley painted a grotesque picture that he felt oddly at home in.
The hungry gnawing of teeth tearing through supple flesh in the dark was like a buzzsaw at a mill, but like everything that had to do with curses, mundanes were oblivious to it as they walked past the alley. Their disbelief a shield. Their lack of knowledge, an armour. His steps were unfortunately louder than he intended as he was stuck within his thoughts. A mistake that he would not abide a second time.
The multi limbed monstrosity snapped its neck back in a maneuver that would've killed any living thing, before letting out a screech that would've forced lesser men to run. He stared at it with boredom on his face as it jumped from the corpse it was feeding on. Hopping from wall to wall.
In the tight confines of the alley he won't be able to summon his preferred curses. But against this juvenile, he doubted he'd need them. He let out a disgusted sigh at himself. What should've been an easy task was about to be dragged out. The cursed spirit must've sensed something cause it suddenly jumped even higher and disappeared above the alley . Yet he knew it was not gone yet.
Just waiting. He had been hunting cursed spirits since he was ten. The only thing more alluring to cursed spirits other than special grace cursed objects, were jujutsu sorcerers.
The rabid desire to increase their cursed energy and metamorphosis into something greater than their ilk was like a hunger in them. An Intense unquenchable thirst only matched by their hatred. Most jujutsu sorcerers had a rudimentary way of sensing cursed energy. It was mostly vague and could not accurately be trusted.
Especially in places where death or blood had been shed in copious amounts. It interfered with the ability to pinpoint other's cursed energy. So he waited, in the middle of the alley. Patience trained from years scouting cursed spirits. stilling his outward motions, while his muscles were coiled beneath his baggy blue jujutsu high school uniform. A shift from above, the subtle clack of claws on brick behind him, and his nerves fired.
He spun on his feet with an arm outstretched and repeated a mantra he has hated since he realized his cursed technique.
Exorcise. Absorb.
The lunging cursed spirits deconstructed before him. It's fanged maw set in a featureless face screeched at him with its hands outstretched, as a bubble of blue cursed energy deconstructed and forced it into a small orb before dropping on his palm. He looked at the orb in disgust.
The condensed essence of a cursed being. A putrid blue that seemed to infect everything around it. He shoved it into his mouth, ignoring the familiar taste of a dirty rag used to clean up shit and vomit. It scrapped past his tongue and blissfully went down his gullet.
He held the wall as he forced himself to stop the urge to vomit that viciously rose up. But this was not the first. It was hardly even the worst. Wiping the side of his mouth he stood up straight. For all his hatred for his curse technique, it was what made him stand shoulder to shoulder with Satoru, the strength he wielded.
A phone call drew his attention away from the desecrated body a few meters behind him. He tucked his hand into his pocket before flipping the phone to his ear. "Geto here"
"Ah Geto-San, you've been assigned to a scouting job. Two sorcerers have been missing for the past two days, Utahime-San and Mei-san".
He raised an eyebrow at that. Utahime was a second grade, and not a particularly strong one in his books. But Mei was no slouch. A First-grade sorcerer with the ability and experience to back it up. The man on the phone continued.
"Your team is being dispatched, Meet us at Hamamatsu district. The old manor in the forest. Leiri-San would be with me. But I've called Satoru-san and he has promised to be there.
Grunting an affirmation at the overly formal handler he shut the phone and started heading to the bus station hands in his pocket and back in a lazy slouch. Hamamatsu should be a stop away. Maybe this time he would get there before Satoru. The thought brought a soft smile to his face.
Thirty minutes later and he was walking up a broken cobblestone path that led deep into the forest. His cursed spirits had scouted ahead and informed him that there were only two people present. As well as a massive manor that radiated so much cursed energy he felt it from this far off.
Bypassing the broken gate and getting to the front of the mansion, he was greeted by the presence of the glasses-wearing, corporate-dressed handler who gave a short bow, and a lazy glance and wave from Shoko who stayed stuck on her phone typing.
Giving his own lazy wave back, he asked after a brief glance around for Satoru. "He's not here yet is he" He directed the question at Shoko, yet the handler replied.
"Ah, Gojo-san informed me he would be a little late as he was already preoccupied before I called " The reply drew a crease on his brow. A familiar soft sound of displaced air draws his attention and ends what he is about to say. Shoko and the handler remained oblivious to what happened. But he knew. He was familiar enough with Satoru's means of transportation to know he had arrived.
What confused him where the amount of steps that came up the stairs. The confusion deepened when he saw two Satoru climb up the stairs and for a moment he considered if he made a mistake swallowing that particular cursed spirit, before he realized the second person was way shorter than Satoru.
The white-haired kid had his hair tied up in a bun similar to his with a few strands falling to the side of his face, while a black wrap covered his eyes. He wore a black long-sleeved sweatshirt, with a watching colored short as well as a pair of brown geto sandals.
Satoru had a wide grin on his face as they all stared at the duo in surprise and confusion. "What the fuck" was Shoko's eloquent opening. Her tired eyes finally left her phone to stare at the white-haired duo. "When did the bastard multiply" Satoru's only reply was to grin even wider, with a hand on the kid's head. "This is the new and improved Satoru 2.0. You all should say your hellos"
The kid let out a sigh before shaking Gojo's hand off and smoothly transitioning into a formal bow. "My name is Gojo Jiki, nice to meet you" At the mention of his name, he could see the tumblers click in Shoko and the handlers head.
He had heard of the Kid too of course. For the title of once-in-a-lifetime genius, the Gojo's seemed to breed them like rabbits. His rumored mutated six eyes were supposed to be the icing on the cake. Shoko pocketed her phone and walked up to the kid introducing herself with a smile.
"I'm Shoko Leiri, nice to meet you" she offered with a handshake, which the kid took with a soft smile of his own. "Not to break up the moment but we've two sorcerers missing and presumably dead in that scary manor over there" He ignored Shoko's glare and the whispered 'trash' that accompanied it and focused on the kid who turned his head to face him.
He had heard the kid's eyes were different from the six eyes. So how the hell did he manage to maneuver so easily with his eyes blindfolded. "Mau Mau, leave it to you to spoil all my fun" Satoru walked forward and stretched. "Let me give you a peak behind a real technique Jiki-kun" he turned his head behind him as he spoke. Before focusing on the building once more.
The glow of his eyes gave him an idea of what he was about to do. It wasn't exactly a technique. More of a subtle application of Satoru's Limitless. With a hand sign, he formed a blue sphere above the building. A second later he could feel the building shudder and tremor as old rain-beaten planks, windows, and bricks were broken apart and sucked up by a sudden gravitational force.
The demolition of the building was fast. With the destruction of its barrier, the cursed spirit would be forced to face them in direct combat. He took a step back and prepared for the creation of a portal. The broken building stayed mid-air for a second before dropping along with a screaming occupant. Utahime.
He considered the drop and the angle of her fall and deemed it an acceptable outcome. Moving to arrest her fall would leave him unable to act when the curse finally finally made its move. Shoko and the handler would not be fast enough to catch her.
He didn't factor in the little white-haired missle that blurred past him fast enough to almost trigger his reflexive summoning of a special-grade curse.
JIKI POV
He had not expected to do much today. It was one of his rare rest days when he finger-painted with Aiko as his muse and assistant. But they had gone from preparing his paint to licking ice cream on the streets of Tokyo where he had spent the past couple of hours reacquainting himself on how to maneuver without sight to teleporting to a hunted house.
When the call came in, he had requested to join. It felt like the perfect time to see actual jujutsu sorcery at work. Satoru was all too happy to comply gladly talking about his teammates. Shoko and Geto. Shoko distinctly reminded him of a teammate he had during his anbu days. But her technique while important, was not something that interested him much. Geto's curse manipulation on the other hand…
Their Introduction was quick and to the point especially when the person he guessed was Geto from his voice highlighted the fact that they were here to save people. Then there was Satoru's subsequent destruction of the house and the scream that drew his attention. He moved. Instinctively.
Cursed energy-enhanced muscles sent him blitzing past Geto and the still-shocked Shoko. The speed at which he moved loosed his eye wrap and he activated his sharingan with barely any thought.
A leap left the cobblestone cracked and sent him soaring into the air. Flipping mid-air he landed in a crouch on a falling part of the wall that held pictures of an old couple holding each other.
With his Sharingan doing the heavy work of calculating the angles of the falling building he jumped off his perch, twisting mid-air in a feat to match any trained acrobat he avoided debris mid-fall, and skipped off bricks barely bigger than a palm before catching the much larger woman in a bridal carryy.
The fall was easier and he angled for the area where he calculated the least amount of debris to fall. His reinforced feet slammed hard into the ground as he tucked his knee and braced as stone, wooden frames and a huge slab of the wall fell around him, his position on the ground the sole exception.
He had barely taken in the surprise and growing red blush on the woman's face with his single revealed eye before he felt the ground shake beneath him.
A mud-colored hand broke out of the ground. Pulling up its full body from beneath the earth. The accompanying roar from the curse's lip-less maw, sent his hair blasting back. He could feel his eye reacting to the new threat. The three tomoe shifting and reforming into his Mangeyko.
A reflexive Amaterasu was halfway formed before an even greater monstrosity ripped the earth apart from beneath the monster. A white and green maggot-like curse that bit it in half.
A hand on his shoulder stopped him from burning the two monsters to nothing. "I'm not sure Geto would like you burning his pet all that much" Accepting Satoru's warning for what it was. he turned his head to look at Geto. So this was curse manipulation.
The earring-wearing teen looked at him with a raised brow and his body instinctively set in a stance. He had noticed the spinning of his mangeyeko had that effect on people.
"Didn't think I'd be seeing you again so soon kid" The familiar voice sent his eyes to a particular rubble where a familiar beautiful blue-haired woman sat with a soft smile on her face, as well as an umbrella that covered her head. "Mei-san"
