7:3

Remember to join the discord, I put polls and information regarding the future of the story there so it'd be nice if yall could join and give your opinions. 

https://discord.gg/ZrWk2jqjbV (Discord Link)

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"Strange, he's not here." Ginko thought aloud as he walked through the hallways of the institution's classrooms. "He probably ran away the second he got a whiff of my presence anyways." He smirked, continuing until he arrived in front of one of the rooms. 

"Good, you're here." Upon opening the door, he was greeted by the sight of an all-to-familiar burly teacher leaning against the chalkboard behind him. "If you're looking for Satoru, I already sent him on his way before you arrived." Yaga grinned, causing Ginko to click his tongue in irritation.

"He won't be able to hide forever." The white-haired student muttered to himself. His attention gradually turning to the unfamiliar figure in the room. "So, who might this be?" He pointed at them. 

Stood in front of Yaga was a youth with blonde hair neatly combed towards the left, he donned the standard Jujutsu High uniform alongside a similarly-colored case which he held in his left hand. 

The faculty member walked towards the figure. "Go on, introduce yourself." He motioned with the flick of his hand.

"Very well." The newcomer adjusted his posture, bowing respectfully towards Ginko with his hands at his sides. "My name is Kento Nanami, as of today I'll be joining you as a first-year. It is a pleasure to meet you, Kyofu-senpai." His manner of speech quite aptly reflected his stiff demeanor. 

Instead of responding, Ginko decided to step right in front of the freshman. Leaning towards him as Nanami was forced to meet his senior's bright verdant eyes with his own. 

"Uhm, is something the matter?" He shot a brief glance towards Yaga as if he were looking for assistance. 

"Just try to put up with it for now." His teacher groaned, gripping his nose-bridge as he didn't even make an attempt to stop Ginko. After all, the years had proven such an endeavor to be futile. 

"Call me Ginko." He said, still intruding on his underclassmen's personal space. 

"S-Sure, Ginko-senpai." Part of him was tempted to just outright push Ginko away, only held back by the unintentionally intimidating stare of the man in question. "Would you mind giving me a little uh, space?" He asked with as much respect as he could muster at the moment. 

"Ok." Ginko pulled back, turning to face Yaga. "What do you want me to do with him?" 

"I believe Kusakabe has already told you why I called you here?" He replied plainly. 

Ginko looked up momentarily as he tried to recall. "I think he did, but I already forgot." It hadn't even been half an hour since he had left Kusakabe's house. 

"Of course you did." Very few things could surprise Yaga at this point, a natural result of having both Ginko and Gojo as his students. 

'Am I going to be alright?' Nanami wondered with a grimace, his faith in his supervisor waning by the second. 

"Nanami's going to be undertaking his trial mission today, and you're going to supervise him. I trust you can handle that much?" Part of Yaga was already regretting calling Ginko for such an assignment. Then again he had already sent Gojo to watch over the other newcomer, so at this point it really couldn't get any worse. 

"Oh that's it? Yeah I can do that easy-peasy." He beamed, not an ounce of his confidence transmitting to either Yaga or Nanami. "What's the mission?" 

"The two of you are going to be sent to Shinjuku." Ginko instantly began making a list of sweet shops he wanted to hit on the way. "We're investigating a park by the name of Toyama at the moment, where people have been going deaf despite there being no audible presence whatsoever. The reports say the victims have had their eardrums practically blown out from some sort of powerful shockwave. And all we have to go by is faint residuals of cursed energy found by the Window's at the scene, nothing more nothing less." 

Unlike Ginko, Nanami nodded attentively as he heeded Yaga's words. Whilst the former had his attention grabbed by a stray butterfly that had managed to enter the building. 

"Here's the full document just in case you need a refresher along the way." Knowing that handing one towards Ginko would be a blatant waste of paper, Yaga smartly chose to only give the file to Nanami. "There's a car waiting for you at the north gate so try not to keep your manager waiting. Any questions?" 

"None." Nanami replied. 

"Good, then get going." Ginko had already left the room, but before Nanami could step outside Yaga called out to him. "I almost forgot, Nanami, take this." The blonde student approached him, wondering why Yaga was holding a cup of sealed coffee jelly in his hands. 

"I'm not really hungry-" 

"It's not for you." Yaga interrupted, lowering his voice to a whisper. "If he ends up disappearing on you or you find yourself in a pickle, just open this." 

Nanami blinked repeatedly. "I'm afraid I don't follow?" 

"Don't worry about it too much, just think of it as an emergency summon." Yaga stuffed it into Nanami's pocket and patted his shoulder reassuringly. 

"I see…" His shoulder slumped as he left to catch up with his supervisor. 

As far as conversation went, Nanami wasn't entirely sure how to converse with Ginko's rather eccentric personality. Which led to them simply walking towards the entrance in silence while his senior somehow managed to attract the butterflies he encountered towards his finger. 

"Uhm, Ginko-senpai. Do you mind if I ask you a question?" He decided to try breaking the ice.

"Shoot." 

"How do these trial missions normally work? Are you just going to act like a teammate during the mission or…?" He queried. 

"I don't know. I think I'm just meant to watch you or something. Also I'll probably be the one to retrieve your body if you end up dying." He shrugged, the comment making Nanami feel like a bucket of cold water had just been dropped on his head. 

"Wait, so you aren't going to fight the curse with me?" He asked in mild disbelief.

"I mean, I think I'm allowed if I want to. But you should be able to handle it yourself." Ginko boldly proclaimed, without so much as even a basic grasp on what Nanami's abilities were. 

It was now that he had become internally grateful that Yaga had given him the "summon". If it even worked, that is. 

Eventually they arrived at the entrance, which is when Nanami was greeted by the sight of what would be one of the handful of people that could be considered "normal" in his life. 

Waiting in front of the car was a well-groomed man with neatly combed black hair, accompanied by a black suit and vermillion tie. 

"You're still alive? Hoshino." He greeted the only man currently capable of acting as a manager for either Gojo Satoru or Ginko Kyofu. 

"Indeed I am, Ginko-san." The manager turned to face the newly enlisted sorcerer. "You are Nanami-san correct?" His manner of speaking remained both polite and dignified. 

"I am, it's a pleasure to meet you." 

Hoshino smiled as he opened the passenger door. "Likewise. If you have any questions along the way please do not hesitate to ask me." 

Nanami gasped internally, noticing the saint-like aura coming from the man's kind being, truly a feat only achievable by someone capable of retaining their normalcy in a sea of Ginko's and Gojo's. 

"I shall do just that, Hoshino-sama." 

'-sama?' The manager flinched. 

※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※

"How eerie." Nanami observed as the trio arrived at the park under the blanket of night. "It's rather barren." 

"Is that what you think?" Ginko asked. "This place is filled to the brim with residuals. Just look at the place." 

"Is it? I don't see anything." His eyes scoured the landscape, not seeing what Ginko saw. 

"Are you blind? Look harder, use your cursed energy to enhance your eyesight and observe the leftovers before you." He ordered, to which Nanami obliged. 

"Oh." As his upperclassmen had said, the park was indeed teeming with cursed energy residuals no matter where one looked. "You're right." 

"Of course I'm right. A sorcerer should be able to sense residuals before they see them anyways, after this mission I suggest you work on your perceptiveness. Otherwise you'll end up with a knife in your back before you know it." It was brief, but for a second Ginko actually seemed like a reliable senpai. 

"Noted." Nanami set his case on the ground, opening it up and revealing a short blunt cleaver with polka-dot wrappings fitted around it. 

"You already have a cursed tool?" Ginko inquired with mild intrigue. 

"Yaga-sensei gave it to me this morning, I'm not really sure how to use it but he said it would help me enhance the performance of my cursed technique." He clasped its wooden hilt tightly. 

Ginko hummed. "Well good luck then, I'm going to go check out the new Daifuku shop they just opened." 

Hoshino stepped forwards, putting his index and middle finger up. "Shall I draw the veil?" 

"No, I'll do it." Ginko made the hand-sign. "Emerge from darkness, blacker than darkness. Purify that which is impure." An emerald colored liquid started to form up in the sky, descending in the shape of a dome. 

"What is this?" Nanami marveled at the spectacle. 

"It's a veil, it makes it so civilians can't see what's going on while we work. It'll disable once you've exorcized the curses inside so I'd suggest you hurry up." The second-year yawned as he left to stuff his mouth with sweets.

"I shall stay here on standby just in case anything happens Namami-san. I wish you the best of luck." Hoshino brought out his tablet. 

"Thanks." Nanami gulped nervously as he stepped through the barrier. Immediately catching the sight of numerous low grade curses peeking at him from behind the foliage and sparse infrastructure. "The curse population here is pretty dense, which should mean the target is relatively powerful. Right?" 

There had been no actual sightings of the cursed spirit in question, which meant that it was possible for him to just pass by it unsuspectingly. Granted that would mean the curse was intelligent enough to actually contemplate whether it should attack a sorcerer or not. 

Which hopefully wasn't the case.

"You guys wouldn't happen to know where the curse is would you?" Nanami turned around, facing down a group of Semi Grade 2 curses that had taken the form of distorted mammals. 

Obviously, they couldn't do much more than bellow a few unpleasant gargles and groans causing Nanami to roll his eyes. "Guess not." He stretched his arm briefly before starting to pour cursed energy into his weapon. "Is this how you do it?" He held it closer to his face. "Yeah, this looks about right." 

They each charged at him, spreading themselves out as inhuman roars bellowed from their maws. 

SLICE! 

But despite his blade's bluntness as a result of the cloth wrapped around its alloy, it somehow managed to slice through their hide like butter as if something was helping it cut through. 

"Small fry like this shouldn't be a problem, but if they wear me out before I face the big boss then this might get troublesome." He cleaned the blood of his blade with a single flick before continuing to observe the landscape. "Isn't it about time you came out?" 

He waited. 

And waited some more. 

Until- 

SCREEEECH! 

Nanami reflexively covered his ears with cursed energy, protecting himself from the oncoming sound but still getting exposed to the initial attack. 

"Shit." He muttered, experiencing a ringing in his ears as his body struggled to maintain its balance. "So, you're the one?" 

He was faced with a strange purple velociraptor-ish looking creature, armed with an enormous jaw that looked like it could fit an entire tree in it. Its large scarlet colored beady eyes were laser focused on Nanami, observing each and every micromovement he made. 

"You look surprised. Did you expect me to go down after just one measly attack?" The rookie forced himself upright, preparing himself for whatever the creature was about to throw at him. 

It shuffled its legs across the dirt, leaning forward as if to rush at him. 

'It knows I'm still disorientated, can't say that's ideal.' He wisely opted for a more defensive approach as the creature began charging at him. 

Once it was about a meter away from him, it lunged into the air with its jaw wide open in an attempt to bite his head off, but with his cursed technique Nanami was able to create a weak point on its snout before its near endless rows of jagged teeth could reach him. 

CRACK! 

With all his might he struck at the opening, and although he hadn't managed to cut through his skin, the sounds of bones crunching whilst the raptor howled in pain were enough to let him know his attack had been effective. 

'It has a rather troublesome ability, in terms of physical combat it isn't actually as strong as I imagined. Honestly it's probably only a little tougher than those lower end curses I just killed.' 

The prehistoric curse staggered for a bit, before shaking off the damage and facing Nanami down again. 

"What's wrong? Aren't you gonna attack again?" The blonde sorcerer corked his head, a feeling of uneasiness stirring within his guts as he could've sworn that it was smiling at him. 

SCREEEECH! 

He guarded his ears in advance, but for some reason the intensity of the soundwave felt significantly weaker than before. No, it was like it wasn't even targeted at him to begin with.

'Well, this is quite the pickle I've found myself in.' 

Weaker curses started to gather around the velociraptor en masse, all staring Nanami down as if they had been placed under its command. 

'Of course it had another ability.' Just as luck would have it, the curse could use its screech to place weaker curses under its direct command. 

An ability that was extremely problematic for someone like Nanami who's technique wasn't suited to dealing with multiple enemies at once. 

'Think, what's the best course of action in this situation?' He scratched his chin as he fell into deep thought, his mind racing for answer as the curses inched closer. 

"Very well, if you're going to use a hidden technique against me then it's only right that I do the same." Nanami sheathed his cleaver, stretching his legs as his eyes gleamed with a look of resolve. 

"I'm outta here." He declared boldly, sprinting towards the veil at full speed, his legs hastened by the sound of curses stomping in his direction. 

What use was there in fighting if it would result in guaranteed death? Only an idiot would play ball with a terrible hand. 

Even if he faced some sort of punishment as a result of fleeing during his trial mission, he would take discipline over death any day of the week. 

"Oh right, Yaga-sensei gave me that." He reached into his pocket, pulling out the small tub of coffee jelly Yaga had given him. "I still don't get how this works, but it probably won't be able to reach him from within the veil." 

His breath slowly grew labored as the border of the curtain entered his field of view, which would've filled him with hope if not for the fact that the curses charging after him were only a few feet behind him. 

"I won't be able to reach it in time before they catch up to me." He grimaced. "Guess there's only one thing I can do." He ripped the plastic cover off the tub, arching his arm back before throwing it through the veil with all his might. "Yaga-sensei, if you lied to me I swear I'm going to haunt you." 

"I guarantee you he'd still find a way to punch you even if you become a curse." A voice replied, belonging to that of his upperclassmen. "Looks like you're in a bit of a pinch." He said casually, stepping through the barrier with a bag filled with sweets in one hand, and the tub of jelly in the other. 

"I am, mind giving me a hand?" Nanami requested in a monotone corporate voice as he continued to charge towards the veil. 

"I already did." The newcomer stopped in his tracks, turning around only to be met with the sight of a sea of decapitated curses, the velociraptor included. 

"When did you-?" Ginko had made no hand signs, no incantations, hell Nanami hadn't even sensed the curse energy leaving his body.

"Just now, obviously." He replied with a raised brow, reaching into his bag of goods before pulling out a melon bun. "Catch." Ginko threw a pink-colored one towards Nanami. 

"T-Thanks…" Nanami was still stunned, sure he had expected Ginko to be strong based off what Yaga had told him, but witnessing it first-hand was another thing altogether.