Listen, I am not in highschool. I've graduated Uni. I have a job now. I have responsibilities. Yet, here I am, writing JJK fanfiction. I am an adult woman simping hard for Gojo. Okay. Like many of us. I'll try and keep the addition of this character as canon as possible. This fic is canon up until the *spoilers* beginning of the culling game. Then it goes AU. I've read up to chapter 151 and there's a hiatus so I must let the simp out somehow.
~A Couple Years Ago~
~Before the Itadori Yuji's consumption of Sukuna's finger.~
Six months into her supposed career, Reina was already worn to the bottom soles. Prevention- she kept telling herself. For prevention. Hospitals housed much hope and goodwill, keeping those eyesores away from her line of sight. Keeping her mind clean.
Being a nurse meant preventing curses. But it also meant being strong willed. Her will was worn. And the rest of her too.
A perfect time for something to strike. A weakened will meant that naturally, the spell she cast to hide her delicious scent wavered.
It was the end of her shift, she had just changed out of her uniform. Eyes swollen, head pounding, her aching feet not reaching the station fast enough.
She felt something. No- many.
It was too crowded, and she didn't want more admits for the next shift. She loved her coworkers and wished them an easy shift. Instead, she opted for an alleyway, clearing it into a wooded park.
She was alone. Sort of.
She debated death for a split second. It wouldn't be so bad, especially since her kind weren't so important to society's values these days. She knew a big change was coming, or trying to arrive. She wasn't a part of it. Or rather, she didn't want a part of it and had no intention of going that route.
"Alone? You always have to be alone? You humans can't stand to see each other torn apart. It makes curses all the more superior."
Reina sighed, "I try my best. I am what I am."
She was surrounded. A volcano thing, a tree thing, and a man- human likely. She felt the curses flow through them.
"What do you want?"
"Your head. Young priestess. Your existence screws everything up."
She cocked her head to the side in confusion. How did they know she was a priestess? She retorted, "I'm not into that gig anymore. I can't do much with my abilities anyways. The human to blessed user ratio surpassed our ability to eliminate curses centuries ago." She felt tears well up and her face swell slightly. Her tremors began.
"All because your kind is so benevolent and empathetic believed childbirth too violent to put on a woman. Eliminating your population."
"Well, I mean, sort of?" Reina shrugged. This is actually a hilarious part of Priestdom history, one of Reina's favorite ways to poke fun at her heritage. At one point a stupid priest stipulated that if they were closest to the all-forgiving God- childbirth was not to cause a priestess pain. Yet childbirth remained one of the most gruesome stages of life even in Priestdom. Therefore- the stupid priest concluded that Priests were not at all close to God and therefore a failure. He concluded eliminating priests from humanity meant eliminating yet another God-forsaken group, elevating the human population from their sins and misery. Best part: most of the Priests went with it. This was before morphine was a thing.
"Really? That's so weak." The volcano thing burst out laughing.
"I'm not interested in purifying anything, just let me be, I swear." Reina interrupted, hands in the air, "How did you know? No one can sense blessed energy unless you posse-"
The tree thing lunged after Reina all the sudden, and instead of dodging, she merely placed her hand on the curse's chest. The tree thing froze, fist inches from her face.
"I see... you were once named Hanami... And they burned your grove down to house a factory centuries ago. I'm sorry. They did terrible things to you. I'm so sorry," Reina drawled on apologetically.
The tree thing retreated, once rotting limbs sprouted sturdy bark. Hanami screamed as tree branches grew from its eyes. It's left arm fell off and dissolved into floating spark-like material, dissipating into the air. Hanami lay there motionless. A moment of eerie calm emitted from the creature.
The volcano thing and the strange man could only gawk at the sight. Hanami was weakened. The grief stricken Reina vanished.
Volcano thing approached Hanami, "Are you alright?"
Hanami spoke only in tongues. Before it could communicate just fine.
"Shit she's gone. I can't sense her anywhere. Better luck next time."
"Can't do anything? One touch and she has Hanami, the strongest of all of us on the ground."
"We'll find a way to deal with the priestess soon enough, if what she said was true- She may not even be a problem at all."
...
For a curse to grow that strong, bad things had to happen. And she saw only a part of it. That's all the horror she intended to see, but she hadn't anticipated it being that bad. It felt as though her gut dropped, her throat swelled, eyes welled. Her hands were so so numb as she continued grieving. She let the experience pass through her.
After a minute of bawling, it was only then she realized she wasn't in the curses' presence anymore. She teleported. She wasn't adept at using cursed energy because she abhorred it, but it was likely a moment of reactivity. She hadn't accidentally teleported since she was a child and felt like she had given herself whiplash along with the trauma.
Temples surrounded her. It appeared liminal and lifeless. They all seemed to sway and distort as though in a mirage. The beaming moonlight peered down on her as though critiquing her- saying she should've purified the thing to completion.
But poor baby didn't wanna go through more vicarious trauma.
She asked the question in her head again, where the heck did she teleport?
The sign was in front of her: Tōkyō Metropolitan Curse Technical College. The place her relatives warned against for so long. She found herself at the doorstep.
You know how you wish you'll never dream of something and then you go ahead and dream it? Well that's what happened.
Gojo Satoru felt an unusual disturbance in the school's veil while watching a good film. Eh. Maybe 7/10. Real-life was better anyway. It was this fated whim that would likely confuse the heck out of him for years to come and continue fueling his ever-expanding raison d'etre.
Principal Yaga felt it too. He stopped his crochet at a count he could remember.
They stood in front of a strange long-haired, casually dressed, sobbing woman.
Being well, guys. They both kinda examined the scene, deliberating they had no idea what to do.
She stopped crying, and Gojo had the first word, "You harbour some cursed energy. Do you want admission?"
Principal Yaga interjected, "That's not how admission works, Gojo. Are you hurt anywhere? You seem... upset."
She stood up, looking horrified and took a step closer to the men. She touched them both on their shoulders and whispered, "Please forget."
Gojo marvelled at how this woman could get past his infinity barrier. And then he took notice a red string appear before his chest connecting him to the strange woman. But then he stopped thinking about it. The string disappeared too.
"Yaga. What are you doing here?"
"I was just about to ask you."
"There's someone passed out on the ground."
Reina managed to both over-exert herself and have a panic attack, resulting in her loss of consciousness. Making someone forget took a lot of energy.
Principal Yaga rubbed his forehead, kneeling down to have a look at the woman, "Let's take her inside. I have a headache."
Gojo knelt down and picked her up, "I think she's behind your headache. As well as mine. Do you feel it behind your eyes?" Despite their headaches, it appeared the woman had it worse. Even resting, the sunken eye bags and eerily pale face indicated the poor thing was exhausted.
"Yeah! How'd you know?"
"Just a hunch. Apparently, water's supposed to help headaches behind your eyes."
"I've chugged water down when I've had these headaches and then I get weird gas pains, I find rest works best with headaches behind the eyes."
"Heh. Rest works best."
"I'm a total poet! Maybe this principal gig isn't my calling."
...
Reina woke up in a room not her own. Someone sat at the foot of the bed, asleep in a black uniform.
She checked her pockets and found her phone still had charge, thankfully. It was early in the morning, and she hadn't been out for long. Thankfully today was her day off, so if she needed to sleep in, there was room, but she'd instead do it in her own bed.
She inched out of bed, careful not to produce any creaking and made for a swift escape. She was lucky, quickly finding the exit, and found a bus station just as quickly.
Then she realized she left her wallet at work. But thankfully, all tickets could be scanned via phone anyway. Thank God for technology.
She preferred them not to know her name anyway. If the sorcerers found out blessed energy existed, it would turn her life upside down.
But those cursed spirits knew. How could they even sense it? The human like man with the scar on his forehead seemed the wisest. The other two didn't seem to know about anything he was talking about. He was a cursed energy user, maybe much older than he looked.
Reina calculated her next steps carefully. She valued her friends and job. She didn't want to move and go through the hassle of switching jobs.
Thankfully, she was out of her uniform, and they didn't see her leave the hospital. Parts of her soul carelessly leaked out halfway to the station since she was tired. Not in the hospital. She was fortunate to forget her wallet, or the sorcerers would've known her name. Fortunately, the curses didn't get a grasp at her name either.
She determined this situation be a write-off. A breath of relief passed through her. Life goes on as it were before.
But then she remembered seeing the red string appear on her chest, and it was clearly connected to that white-haired man.
She felt a veil of sweat coat her body as the anxiety flowed through her. How long could she play this game of chicken with fate? How long before her life be drastically changed forever?
...
Gojo prepared a lovely breakfast for the unexpected guest. Only to find her missing and a remorseful student.
He chuckled, "It's fine, have some breakfast with me instead."
The poor student could feel the tension as they ate breakfast. The silence was suffocating.
"Did she tell you her name?"
"No Sensei."
"You were asleep."
"Yes Sensei."
"You know what that means."
"I have to have principal's dolls in my room for the next month."
"Good kiddo. Ok! Finish your breakfast!" He smiled childishly, "How does it taste?"
"Like good punishment Sensei." Tears streamed down the kid's face.
"What?"
...
Principal Yaga and Gojo sat across from one another, trying to recollect how they ended up outside in the dead of night and finding the woman. They knew there was more to it than the feeling of deja vu they shared.
Why'd she run off? Maybe she was a regular citizen who had a job?
But how did she get past the veil if she didn't possess any cursed technique?
Nothing out of the ordinary emanated from her.
Why didn't she have her wallet?
Maybe she was mugged?
By cursed spirits?
Gojo had a quick flashback of her crying face and her hand on his shoulder. How? Not everything came back, but it was enough to warrant the need for investigation.
Principal remembered something too.
...
Gojo and Principal Yaga summoned an old sorcerer, known only as The Projector, meant to use their cursed energy to project memories onto a wall. This was used only on those willing to relive memories. The Projector's technique found use only in end of life, weddings, and other commemorative events. The Projector was known as a less than grade 4 sorcerer for it's lack of curse killing abilities. A glorified wedding DJ at best. The Projector had bomb playlists to go with the memory reels. Or so they thought.
"We think someone tampered with our memories. You might be useful."
The Projector shook in anticipation and pure joy. The thought that Gojo Satoru said that The Projector might be useful was the day pigs flew. Coincidentally, Reina arrived at her home, to find a flying cursed pig chasing a crow as prey a few hundred meters outside her window. But we digress.
"How can I help?"
"Can you project our memories side by side on this date at this time?" Principal Yaga handed The Projector a piece of paper written with the estimated time they found the woman.
"Of course of course," The Projector frowned, "I cannot guarantee true accuracy, and I cannot guarantee that visualizing the memory will have it's intended effect."
The two retrieving the service nodded.
The Projector sighed with exhilaration, "Well, let's begin." They sat in between the two, clapping both hands together as though to pray. Cursed energy flowed into Gojo and Yaga's ears. The energy retrieved back into The Projector. Their eyes glowed bright, projecting the memories on the wall in front of them.
What was projected for Gojo and Yaga to watch was spotty. From Gojo's perspective, he was checking her out. Yaga focused more on her face, which he had a difficult time recollecting so it was a mashup of features. Then it went black again. And then another memory of her standing up. And then black again.
None of the memories projected answered why they arrived there in the first place. Gojo's screen suddenly flashed red, and then black, and then it was an image of the woman face flat on the concrete. The Projector ended the show.
"That's all, I'm afraid you've been tampered with. Whoever that woman is, she is quite capable."
Gojo burst out laughing, "Ha! If she is worthy, I'm sure our paths will cross again sometime!" The Impenetrable Gojo, was amusingly bamboozled.
…
I don't know if I'll write more. I don't know what I'm doing with myself. We'll see. I have ideas of adding to the JJK world with a few more characters.