3rd POV
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Colith was now in front of the hospital. It was quite cold outside, so she assumed it to be around November or December. She looked around, still not recognizing the art style before shrugging as she suddenly got an idea. Why not see the date first? Her phone tended to automatically adjust to the universe's timeline so that might help narrow down her options.
[23/12/17]
Well, that's...interesting?
Oh her birthday already passed. She's 27 now. She thinks. God, everything's confusing as hell with the whole shifting realities that she lost count of her age!
'you know what? Let's just roll with 27. Yep.'
Moving on, how many animes aired in 2017 anyway?
...
Quite a lot actually.
"Y'all really serious about not telling me shit?" she looked upward where the sun was beginning its descent and received no response. She groaned, deciding to walk around instead. Maybe she'll recognize something on her walk? Plus it was a good occasion to visit a modern Kyoto! The Heian period didn't have-
'Wait, Heian...?'
She paused in her tracks, briefly getting some passersby's attention who quickly glanced away, carrying on with their lives, not bothering to discover why the Gaijin woman was standing in the middle of the street with a frown.
'huh...I think I meant to say Taisho. Yeah, Taisho! That's the only period I've witnessed!' She shook her head, massaging her temple with a little frown. 'ugh, this is so confusing tho.'
Despite her visible confusion, the woman decided to Google 'Heian' anyway and discovered that it was indeed an Era in the Japanese history that lasted-
'400 Years?! Well damn!'
She blinked in shock before quickly composing herself. It's not like she knew much about Japanese history, to begin with so she brushed it off and kept walking around. Although, she had a lingering feeling that something...tied her to that word in particular since it's the first thing that came to her mind instead of Taisho which was the period she knew to have experienced last time. At least that's what she thinks.
'Heian...'
Her stomach grumbled suddenly, startling her into focus.
'Hm. That's odd...'
She placed a hand on it. It's been a while since she felt any type of hunger, though she put it on the count of her body mending to itself, therefore used a lot of energy to go back to a semi-normal state. She felt like she wasn't completely in her prime. Maybe eating will resolve that issue? Or she could reset everything but hey, where's the fun in that? Also food.
'Alright, I should definitely eat something. But where to?'
With a skip in her steps, the woman strolled further into the city as evening rapidly approached while asking the locals about any good places to eat at. Some people weren't expecting her to actually be fluent in Japanese and even expressed shock about it. That's when she understood why people kept avoiding her gaze whenever she tried to ask for directions. Ooooh so they weren't actually trying to be rude, her bad then. After following a nice old lady's advice, she found a little restaurant where she then proceeded to eat like your average nekketsu protagonist. That is to say, a lot. She's pretty sure that the bills had a few additional digits by the time she was full and damn had she been hungry! After paying and leaving a stunned audience behind, Colith decided to keep wandering around. After all, she just woke up and with the infinite amount of money at her disposal, she'd be dumb not to take the opportunity to sightsee and buy whatever the hell she wished! As she walked past a movie theater, she couldn't help but chuckle at the sight of the 2D version of movies that were released that year.
At least she knew this world was heavily influenced by the real world and was that Jennifer Lawrence-
The next day, Colith took a shinkansen from Kyoto to Tokyo. Why? Well, first she was curious about the modern version of the city! Second, she had been longing to go there ever since she was a kid after hearing many positive reactions from youtubers she tended to watch back then. Even though it was an anime version of reality, everything was still accurate enough for her to nearly forget that she was in one! Maybe she'll be able to slap some sense into a certain douchebag who thought that filming a hanged corpse in the middle of a forest known for its high suicide rate would be a good idea. Or she'll just mind her own business and let the dude go to his own downfall. Hm. Yeh, she'll just do that. Moving on, she simply wanted to quench her curiosity about Tokyo! And she might even discover where she is by bumping into a character while shopping, therefore killing two birds with one stone! Genius!
Kyoto was chill and all but knowing the H-U, they probably dumped her there just to make things much more difficult for her to figure out since no anime she knew was set in Kyoto. Well except for Blue exorcist, though she didn't watch that shit so that was out of the window.
Arriving there, she immediately began sightseeing like the hopeless tourist she was, nearly forgetting to actually search for any clues but honestly, it could wait! She had things to discover! And more importantly, buy! As time passed and her excitement died down, she realized that she had bought quite a lot of things and discreetly sent everything into her house to not arouse suspicions. However, she found herself confused as to why she had bought babies...stuff. That was...weird. She only noticed it after sorting things out before, shrugging and sending them to her house either way. Oh well. She was unpredictable.
Anyway! Right now she was in Ikebukuro, standing right in front of the J-world's exit because who wouldn't?- debating between going to Shinjuku, Harajuku, or Odaiba next. It was currently 4 PM and she knew for a fact that she could've been able to visit the aforementioned neighborhoods on the same day if only she didn't hear about the freaking J-world's existence! Almost lost her mind and nearly spent the entire day inside, marveling at all the attractions before remembering that she was supposed to find clues. Yikes. At least she crossed paths with some brothers! Aye to see black people after so long!
They truly were fun to hang out with while they explored the j-world together, and she found out that one of the dudes was Malian! Just like her. A BROTHER- she will not admit that she nearly cried upon learning that and immediately begin chatting in her mother tongue with him. She had to excuse herself though to continue her research. They were sweet enough to recommend other places to visit -since they've been living there for quite some time and knew every nook and cranny of the city-she safely kept in mind for next time.
In the end, her guts told her to go for Shinjuku, so she went for it. She'll visit the rest another time. Exiting the train station about 25 minutes later, she began strolling around with no real purpose except to look around. It had become a habit to simply walk through the city and buy or taste anything she found interesting and it wasn't as if she was low on money either! While wandering, she didn't notice it immediately but the atmosphere shifted considerably. The lightness and good mood of the city gave way to glumness and an eerie silence that foretold the arrival of death. It was...weird. As if Colith just entered another dimension just by walking down the street and- How the fuck did the sky turn so dark all of a sudden? Wasn't it like, 5 PM? She wondered.
Shrugging, she was about to resume her walk when she noticed something in the distance and nearly dropped her milkshake in shock. Stopping in her tracks, eyes almost bulging out of their sockets once she noticed several hanged bodies dangling from a traffic light 50 meters ahead of her, she stared.
Now...that was unexpected.
Before she could even react accordingly, the ground began shaking as if an earthquake was on its way and everything went crazy as something was thrown into the building on her right, causing shards of glasses to fly in every direction, notably hers. With a lazy wave, the shrapnel coming towards her instantly disintegrated before they could reach her. Not that it would've harmed her. Nooo, she simply didn't want her newly brought Jojo jacket damaged, hell nah. It was collector.
Welp, slices of life were out of the window then.
Sounds of explosions and destruction resounded everywhere in the city as if several fights, could she even call these 'fights' with the number of explosions occurring, were taking place simultaneously. At least she knew she was definitely in a nekketsu. Now that she thought about it, the neighborhood had been strangely quiet for a while as though people went missing.
Huh.
She eyed the mess on her right with raised brows, debating whether or not to go and check if the fella- 'cause she was sure as hell that that was a person- was alright or even alive.
After sending her remaining shopping bags home and with a milkshake in hand, she was about to approach whoever that was but halted as she heard a faraway call.
"HEY YOU, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?! IT'S DANGEROUS!"
'?' She whirled around, spotting someone in the distance who was rushing toward her. She squinted as she slurped her milkshake, trying to guess if she knew the guy before huffing. She's not sure to have seen him before...or has she?
"Really what's a civilian even doing here?" he muttered, skidding to a stop right in front of her, a stern look adorning his face before it morphed into an anxious frown once he caught sight of her features. "Shi- a gaijin. How the heck am I supposed to communicate with her." he cringed, his fist on his cheek as sweat rolled down his face. "What's the word for 'safety' already..."
Colith was tempted to let him squirm a bit, amused by the way he immediately assumed her to not speak Japanese. She watched him with mirth as he did weird gestures, trying to form a sentence in English, before groaning and probably insulting himself as he managed a pathetic "Me. protection. you". Aside from that, her eyes fell on his features.
He had spiky dark hair, a rather severe face that seemed to constantly hold a scowl, and dark eyes with apparent stress lines. He wore a light brown coat that gave him detectives vibes with a dark suit underneath. And what really caught Colith's attention was the katana he was currently gripping as if ready to face danger. Now hold on a sec- was she supposed to know him?
"Seriously, what are the auxiliary managers for if they can't even lea-" he stopped talking once he noticed the dangling bodies behind her. "Huh" that explains it.
'auxiliary?'
Colith glanced behind her, about to ask something but was interrupted by a violent tremor caused by something that just so happened to crash heavily across the street, which caused the duo to stumble while the strong gust of wind created by the impact forced them to narrow their eyes momentarily.
She heard the man cuss loudly before she felt an arm sling around her waist and yelped as she was easily hoisted up over a broad shoulder to her shock. She knew she was quite heavy so it was quite a surprise to be picked up so easily! The man proceeded to book it, going straight up for the opposite direction of the impact, running with a speed that could've put sonic to shame. It was as if he's done that plenty of times.
"Wha-"
"Tch! I can't fight like this with a civilian around! Better find somewhere safe to drop her off then rush back to take care of this curse! Where's that brat Ino anyway?!" he swore.
Colith blinked as she briefly caught sight of what they were running from and couldn't help but deadpan as she recognized it. She knew she could be slow sometimes but this...this was effing absurd.
.
.
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Either way, it wouldn't take long for anyone with enough brain to guess that this situation didn't sit well with Atsuya. Screw that, he hated this! Fucking Geto and his delusions of grandeur! Couldn't let people live in peace and enjoy a peaceful Christmas with their families, but nooo, that freaking buddha-looking ass woke up one day and decided that "Oh I should probably, I dunno, wage war against the entire jujutsu world!" and how would he do that you may ask? By releasing hundreds if not thousands of curses at the same time and ruining people's Christmas! That brat! Unbelievable!
The male threw a quick glance behind him and nearly cussed out loud. Crap, the abomination has seen them and was now chasing them.
'And it's fast as hell!' his eyes widened.
See? This is priorly why he couldn't stand people with innate cursed techniques and no that wasn't jealousy speaking! They were just a hassle to deal with and guess what happens when the strongest among them decides to turn rogue? They start a fucking war and ruin Christmas. Figures.
All this shit because one guy couldn't stand 98% of the human population. Sure he couldn't stand some people either, BUT that in no way justifies flooding Shinjuku and Kyoto with curses on the same evening! ON CHRISTMAS EVE. Couldn't he have chosen another date? You know, like Monday? This was beyond criminal! Did he mention how much he wanted to strangle Geto? No? Well, he does.
Hopefully, he managed to outrun the cu-
*SCREEEEEEEEEECH*
Nevermind. That's just bad.
'Just by looking at it, that thing's probably a grade 1 or a semi-grade 1. Shit, It's getting closer!' he thought as he easily jumped away from getting slammed by a vicious tendril. This went on for a while with him easily avoiding every hit with relative ease. He knew he could effortlessly take on that curse. Only little detail being the probably traumatized civilian woman currently on his hold that would make it difficult.
Ah.
A groan left his lips as he grimaced, now preoccupied with something other than the atrocity currently chasing them. And what could be more threatening than a direct threat to their lives? A fucking lawsuit that's what. What if she sued him after this? Now hear him out, she might not even see the thing and he did grab her without explanation and proceeded to run which would be highly suspicious to anyone! Great, she's gonna think that he's a creep trying to abduct her while he's just trying to save her life!
You know what. Who cares, he was not letting a harmless woman die even if she might end up suing his ass for sexual assault. He just hoped this shit didn't come back to bite his ass later-
"You should probably kill that curse with that katana of yours."
A vein bulged out of Atsuya's forehead. "Can't you see that I'm busy right no-" though he cut himself off, puzzled by the new voice addressing him, "Wait-who the hell is even talking to me? Who's there?" he quickly glanced around, jumping to avoid being pierced by those weird tendrils. Finding a safe place was starting to become an old dream with the curse hot on his trail! He felt a light tap on his back that nearly made him release the grip he had on the woman.
"Me"
"EH?! YOU CAN SPEAK JAPANESE?!" Atsuya bellowed, blinking quickly as he nearly tripped. Which would've been dangerous. He liked living, thank you very much.
"I'm amazed that's the first thing you bring up instead of thinking of a way of dealing with...whatever that thing is." She said, her tone laced with distaste.
"WHY DIDN'T YOU JUST TELL ME?!" he ignored the other statement, feeling dumb for being made fun of.
"You didn't ask. And it was funny hearing your attempts in English." She giggled, adding more to his outrage.
"you little-hold on, you can see it?" He heard her hum in response as straw slurping noises reached his ears. What th- "are you seriously drinking juice in this situation?" he deadpanned.
He was starting to wonder why he didn't just...leave that brat and go on his merry way before remembering that he wasn't a sociopath. That fool wasn't probably even aware of the dangerous situation they were in right now. Non-sorcerers tend to only see curses when their lives are in jeopardy and her non-existent cursed energy level didn't hint at her being a curse user either, so it was safe to say that she was harmless. Though her current lack of reaction was...unnerving. Usually, Non-sorcerers would freak out, show denial, or worst case being, stand there like morons trying to record the otherworldly creature for the first time and die because they didn't run away. Though he shook it off, too busy trying not to become Swiss cheese.
"it's a milkshake." She corrected.
"Who cares if it's a milkshake-"
"Ah, watch out."
He swiftly reacted to the warning and swung his fortunately unseated katana, skillfully slashing through the curse's numerous tendrils that were almost about to puncture the two. The curse produced a high-pitched screech from the sudden injury and immediately retracted its limbs with a painful cry which allowed Atsuya to use that small window of opportunity to escape on the roof of a random building, out of the curse's sight.
Atsuya briefly peeked down as the curse regrew its limbs, now rightfully riled up. It emitted a mighty roar as it disappeared in another direction in their search, leaving destruction in its wake.
"So, are you gonna release me or should I scream and potentially draw this thing's attention?" He was startled out of his surveyings by the woman's voice. He immediately let go of her and regarded her with a frown that held too many questions.
"Okay-What the hell is wrong with you?"
"Me? Nothing. Just didn't expect to be swept up by a stranger who booked it the second a monster got here."
"IT WAS FOR YOUR OWN SAFETY YOU DIMWIT!" he barked "Tss, and don't think I'm over the whole 'I can perfectly speak Japanese and will act like I can't and fuck with people's brain'! You did earlier!" he accused.
"Sheesh, Calm down man, there's no need to be mad!" She waved her hand which pissed Atsuya who then let out a resigned sigh. He was already dealing with someone like Gojo every day so there was no need for him to alienate himself because of an unaware brat. Also, Gojo was ten times worse.
She lazily glanced up. "So...you called these things curses, right? There's a lot. What's going on anyway?" she inquires, noting the vast amount of curses currently circling the sky and gliding down, probably to attack people downward and vice versa.
Atsuya sighed wearily, massaging his temple at the nonchalance the woman was exhibiting. "it's not something you'll understand. Just focus on avoiding them."
She hummed unhurriedly before turning to the male as she pointed a finger to the sky "Huh. So anyway, need help with that?"
Atsuya paused, looked at the woman, then up to the sky before looking back at her but this time in utter disbelief. "And what're you gonna do? Throw your milkshake at them? Don't be stupid. I should just find somewhere safe enough to drop you off and get back to work." he grumbled as he fished out a lollipop he promptly popped in his mouth. "They probably need all the help they can get right now. Ugh, I just wanna go home and sleep...!" he muttered wearily.
"What? Don't believe me?" she tilted her head.
He tsked then whirled to her, his back facing the street. "No, what I believe is that you're here, thinking that this is a joke and don't seem to realize that we could both die at any moment IF we're not careful enough." he snapped back, his lollipop still in his mouth. "so keep it down and do as I say so you can potentially live for another day." he started walking to her "now come on, let's get out of here"
"I see, I see." she held a hand to her chin, nodding, "I think it might be too late for that."
Atsuya produced a confused sound from his throat as his pace faltered "Hah?" he watched as the woman pointed past him.
"Our lil friend's already here."
' 'lil friend'? ' he glanced behind him only to nearly choke on the candy at the sight of the same curse propelling itself toward them at breakneck speed using its tendrils as meanings of travel. And boy it looked bloodthirsty.
*SCREEEEEECH*
" SHI-" Atsuya immediately rushed to grab her arm, ready to bolt out of here with the woman only to discover that she wouldn't budge. He blinked in surprise toward the female who seemed unbothered by the curse's rapid approach "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?!"
"Now relax, I'll take care of it."
He gritted his teeth. COULDN'T SHE REALIZE THAT HE WAS DOING HER A FAVOR?! WAS SHE OUT OF HER MIND!?
"that's mean."
"Oh, I said that out loud. My bad-NO! JUST STOP THIS NONSENSE OR I'M KNOCKING YOU OUT!" he threatened with his katana in the air. The woman just rolled her eyes and freed her arm to drink the rest of her dessert which startled Atsuya who wasn't expecting such strength coming from a non-sorcerer.
They weren't supposed to be stronger than sorcerers and he had quite a grip, so how...?
He watched with utter disbelief as she lifted her hand which got the male's attention. He was about to question what the hell she thought she was gonna accomplish until the curse's entire form froze mid-air, its tendrils merely centimeters away from the two as it was covered by a golden glow. There was a beat as both the curse and Atsuya exchanged startled looks before the woman hummed and closed her fist, causing the creature's demise as it imploded in itself before disappearing altogether.
Atsuya's lollipop hit the ground.
"Huh, so I can still do that." he whipped his gaze to what he had considered being a harmless...civilian who was now staring at her hand in wonder, opening and closing her fist before shrugging.
A civilian...who just...took down a grade 1 like it was nothing and...were her eyes glowing just a second ago? Atsuya immediately brought his katana to her neck, caution seeping out of him.
"Who're you?" He glared.
The woman lightly pushed the tip of the sword away with a scowl, "Now I don't think we have time for this, do we? You said they needed help right?" He didn't respond, a sweatdrop rolling down his face as she rolled her eyes. "You'd already be dead if I was an enemy. Now, want me to help y'all or not?"
"You don't have cursed energy." he asked instead, debating whether or not to eliminate this unknown. Would she be a threat? Scratch that-she was definitely a threat! "How did you kill it? Are you with that bastard Geto? Were you the one who killed the auxiliaries ?!" he demanded, cursed energy oozing out of his being, ready to attack at any moment.
They already had enough on their plate to let a potential foe roam free in the streets. Who knows what she's up to, and the current lack of jujutsu running through her was freaking unsettling! There definitely was some kind of energy she used that he couldn't pinpoint and he had a feeling that she was allowing him to feel it, otherwise she'd be completely undetectable which did not alleviate his worries. At all.
"Questions questions, that's not important." she sighed, waving her hand in dismissal. "Remove that sword of yours from my neck before I snap it. It seems to have cost you a lot so I wouldn't want to do this."
Atsuya scoffed. "I'd like to see you tr-"
*Snap*
Atsuya mutedly watched as she broke the katana with no hesitation whatsoever and stared at the metal now dangling between the het fingers. He quickly glanced back and forth between the shortened blade he was holding and its other half.
Now cursed tools weren't supposed to break this easily unless when used against stronger opponents and his katana was no exception. The only problem was that it was a grade 1 tool, therefore one of the most efficient weapons against grade 4 to 1 curses. And it could even destroy special grades if used to its maxed potential, though he wasn't crazy enough try that. He was a grade 1 sorcerer, not a suicidal fool. Moving on, he's been inducing it with cursed energy ever since his teenage years so the thing should be sturdy enough, right?
Now, how the fuck did someone with seemingly no cursed energy manage to break it like a mere twig? And more importantly, how the fuck was he gonna work now?
He blinked in surprise as his sword seemingly fixed itself after hearing a finger snap and promptly glanced at the woman who was cracking her neck while looking upward. His jaw dropped. WHAT IN THE WORLD WAS SHE?!
She walked past him and stood at the edge of the rooftop before pointing to the curses.
"Well, Imma destroy these guys. Is that okay with ya...erm. What's your name?"
"...Kusakabe..Atsuya." he couldn't help but mumble dumbly.
"Atsuya huh?" she said as she finished her milkshake and began casually floating in the air, further shocking the male. She side-eyed him. "Well think of this as payback for trying to protect me even if nothing obliged you to. See ya someday!" with a last grin and wave, what he assumed to have been a civilian moments ago propelled herself toward the army of what could be considered grade 1 if not, special grade curses at full tilt while releasing whoops of joy, leaving a flabbergasted Atsuya behind, alone on the roof.
The male just...stood there in a daze, wondering if he had consumed some shrooms beforehand before snapping back to reality as he heard someone call his name. He turned to look down and squinted to see a masked young man he quickly identified as Ino at the bottom of the building, waving wildly at him with what appeared to be an injured person on his back.
Atsuya blinked before jumping down to join them.
"I thought that curse got you when we got separated!" the young man expressed before pausing "Eh? What's with that face Kusakabe-san? Did you see some terrifying curse or something?!" he began glancing around in worry, disturbing the person he was carrying who let out a displeased groan because of the movement which got him an apology from the masked man and a quick promise to find Shoko.
Atsuya blinked slowly as he glanced at his katana with a contemplative look before looking up. He could briefly see flashes of gold going on and off in the sky. This got Ino's attention too who mimicked him.
"Huh...? The hell is happening up here? Is Gojo finally taking care of these curses?"
Atsuya slowly shook his head still flabbergasted by what he had witnessed five minutes prior. "That ain't Gojo."
Ino produced a confused sound as he started jogging alongside his senior toward Shoko's location. "it's not him? Then who is it?" he asked cluelessly.
"I'm not sure I want to know."
"Eh?"
Who'd believe him if he said that an Otaku pulled up and started decimating curses without using any jujutsu? That's a direct trip to the mental asylum he was not inclined to risk.
Lil side note:
Colith died before the movie's release back home and therefore didn't immediately realize that she was in JJK. She only briefly read about jjk 0 around 2019 and promptly forgot about it and died in 2021 so yeh, she had no memories of the thing whatsoever.
Heh.