*World Building*

*Constructing more to the canon universe*

*Hehe nice*

One Week after Toying with Gojo's Memories

Being beautiful didn't just lure people, it drew curses too. Smelling good to other people meant smelling good to a curse. Being someone's type meant being a curse's type. Etcetera. One night a month Reina allowed it. Her coworkers went out on a night of dancing. These newbie nurses let loose, put on their best outfits, and sparkled until the alcohol took over. They were beautiful, gregarious, flirtatious, witty. This group was cream of the crop and lured many, begging for numbers or a dance. Reina was less interested in finding a suitor on these nights but rather a curse to purify. She didn't lie when she said she wasn't too much into the Priest gig. She only did it once a month, and it felt more like an obligation rather than something she was into.

There were a few ways to purify a curse. One was through touching their core with blessed energy, the second was prayer with a part of them, the third- a song, and the last was an entrapment dance. Entrapment dances were the most challenging but effective way to purify many curses at once. This is why her mother kept her in rhythmic gymnastics until she could object.

The girls were wearing their most eye-catching clothes and walking in a group. Reina moseyed slightly behind them, peering behind her, watching the entranced higher-level curses follow at their pace. She made sure there were no Jujutsu sorcerers around, sensing for individuals with cursed energy that felt balanced, instead of projecting, like the curses behind her. She was good to go.

There was a reason she purified on the Girl's Night Out. Alcohol.

She didn't remember why the cursed spirits became cursed in the first place. No remembering means purified souls and an unsullied mind. But raging hangover. Remember kids, blissful ignorance with hangovers works much better than taking in the suffering of hundreds after a night out.

Everyone at the club got to know Reina and her little ritual. Maybe this is how that cursed user knew? Yet, the amount she purified was little compared to what the sorcerers eliminate. Or so she thought.

Entrapment dances were complex because the conditions had to be right. Curses had to be seduced or coerced into purification, often brought on by a message of salvation. Which meant they needed to look her in the eye when she was in "blessed" mode. Then they had to be mobile enough to follow the Priest to their circle of choice, and then the beat and melody. It had to be a new favourite song that hadn't been on repeat over and over. Or you could sing. But Reina had no talent for singing. She once made an elderly woman cry in a bad way when she tried her hand at Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

The curses followed her into the club. People danced and walked through them. The malice that once fueled their hunger was calmed temporarily—enough time for Reina to drink to forget.

The DJ knew her signal. A drunken thumbs up that turned into a thumbs down all while sluggishly moving to the beat. The DJ never noticed. It actually took one of her coworkers to scream into the DJ's ear at the same time.

"Alright, my peeps, Reina's showing off her moooooooves." The crowd cheered on, clearing a circle on the dance floor. Reina took off her godawful heels and began with a curtsy. The cursed beings followed her to the ring. She started with sequential pirouettes to the beat. The crowd counted how many she did in a row. Very difficult to do while drunk. After 37 full turns, she was notably off-balance. The crowd cheered on nevertheless. So naturally, a sexy slithery backbend to the floor was next, and then she bridged to stand back up. The magic occurred when she spun in circles around the rounded cursed beings. A few more graceful arm movements and hip swings to the beat. What the crowd didn't see was the granulated Blessed energy she left behind, tracing her steps. She drew a circle with her granules and returned to the middle. The end of the song neared, and naturally, she ended in the splits, arms fanned out and back bent backwards. Sluggish but graceful enough to do the job.

The cursed beings disintegrated into sparks of light, leaving their malice behind with what they could make of a smile. She felt warm and fuzzy when the sparks touched her skin. The crowd, too, felt some elation from this, unknowingly.

And then the memories hit. She bowed as the crowd cheered and drunkenly stumbled towards friends.

"Hinata, Nana… I did it!" She started bawling, being flooded with all the tragedies that turned to hate. Hinata and Nana always interpreted her after dance tears as tears of joy. They pat her on the back and hugged her close. The bartender poured the trio a bunch of shots. Reina drank as much as she could- to forget.

Hinata and Nana looked at each other, counting down when she would pass out. As predicted, they caught her wobbling to the ground.

"Hina… Nana…" Reina mumbled, "Whooo knew some- could hur so men childn?"

Hinata and Nana looked at each other confused and concerned. They somehow understood. Usually, she slurred dark and dirty jokes.

They left the club, all kind of stumbling. Reina clutched her heels in her one hand.

From the corner of her eye, Nana spotted a pretty boy, "EEEEEEEK!" Nana squealed like a mouse, "Handsome man! I'm going in," She let go of her side of Reina and readied her phone, going in for the kill.

"Nana, she's heavy… Dancer muscles are super dense," Hinata protested. The sound of Reina's retching stopped Nana halfway. Passerbys watched her retching in disgust, "Nana!" Hinata called out again, helping Reina to a trash can.

The scene got the attention of Nana's handsome man- Gojo Satoru, ordering some late-night grub while observing his batch of students. He smiled, "Looks like their night is over," he received his takeout from the vendor, looking back at the women now hastily throwing their passed-out friend into a cab. He caught a glimpse of her ragdoll-like legs, and the two less inebriated followed in, he sighed playfully, "to be young again."

"What'er ya talking about sir? You can't be a day over 20!" The vendor croaked.

"Oh sir," he chuckled, "my responsibilities add on at least 40 years!"

The vendor let out a hearty chuckle, "I don't believe it."

"Oh believe me, I'm working right now!" Gojo retorted, downing some candy. There was a concentrated amount of curses in that club not too long ago. Now it's gone…

For a brief moment, he felt something utterly unfamiliar to him. It's what drew him to the vendor. It emanated from the club but just as quickly dissipated by the time he got to the club.

Like that, Reina unknowingly escaped another fateful meeting by vomiting into a trash can.

…

Reina awoke with some recollection of the night before. She had snippets of the curses' memories. Particularly about children. The method wasn't perfect, but she felt it was the least she could do with her powers.

She called Nana and Hinata to see how they were doing. Nana tore a new one into Reina for drinking so much. Every month the same thing. Liver cirrhosis this, brain damage that. If only Nana knew of the emotional weight she carried.

The meeting with those stronger cursed spirits still bothered her, but no Jujutsu sorcerer or advanced curse had trailed her since the event. She was grateful her stumbles hadn't reached critical levels of stupidity.

Still, something nagged her. She had to call mom. She needed guidance.

Kira watched her phone screen light up. Confused to find her beloved daughter calling. They weren't so close, maybe a call every other week at most since she let her baby bird fly far from the nest. Reina was a good child and responsible enough.

"Hi mom," Reina's voice wavered, "I accidentally ended up at one of those Jujutsu academies but they didn't figure me out. But some powerful curses found out I'm a Priestess somehow."

Kira stood in shock and silence, wanting to scold and give advice instinctively, but she bit her tongue, "What do you want to do?"

"I want to leave, but I want to take control of my cursed energy too. And I've made a home here with work and friends and I fill my purification quota in a way that doesn't hurt my spirit," Reina continued, "And It's been a week and I haven't sensed anything on my trail. But I'm still scared."

"Anything else?"

"I saw my red string of fate, and I quickly concealed it for my partner."

Kira chuckled, "You don't wanna be tied to anyone, but you already are and have no choice. You're young I get it."

"I just got my place looking the way I want it to, and some idiot's dirty socks do not fit the picture."

"That's not important."

"I know," she sipped tea softly out of her pastel mug, one of many in a thoughtfully curated color palette, "but it makes life sweeter."

"So you're tied to a man then?"

"Yes, a Jujutsu sorcerer from what I can tell. His cursed energy… I felt it… It was limitless. It was like meeting the devil himself."

Kira frowned, Gojo Satoru. The Gods chose to have them become soulmates. She sighed, "It'll be inevitable then, the merging of the Blessed and the Cursed. We have no choice if we want to survive."

"What about dad? Wasn't he a sorcerer?"

"He was exiled by the time I met him. He was a curse user and curse user only and had no intention of telling the sorcerers about us."

"I see."

"Reina, you're strong, you have an innate talent for cursed energy as well as blessed energy. Perhaps the sorcerers have realized the devastation they caused by now and will treat Priests with respect."

"I… I somehow doubt that."

Kira agreed, but she had to guide her daughter to what the Gods wanted, "Take your time and enjoy your life."

"I'll try," Reina looked out her window, finding new blossoms on the tree outside her window. The bird's nest newly hatched some little ones, "mom, I purified a bunch of spirits last night, and it looks like the souls were turned to baby birds and seedlings! I think it'll be a good day."

"I hope so too."

…

Before Jujutsu sorcerers, there were Priests. They were nature's way of responding to cursed spirits. They purified rather than exorcised. Meaning they gave the soul freedom from its sorrows, blessing onto them. It allowed for a more peaceful progression into the spirit world, and brought upon equilibrium to life on earth. Each time a curse was purified, a new life was born. A seed sprouted. An egg hatched. A child born. After purification, the being soon brought on was carefully selected by the Gods to ensure the equilibrium of beings and souls on earth.

That equilibrium shifted significantly when humans began their experimentation with just about anything, including cursed energy. Priests and priestesses were taught by the Gods and reminded not to intervene violently and chose peaceful methods of protest. They warned the sorcerers of the dangers of practicing with cursed energy. For a while, the Priestdom carefully monitored sorcerer activities with a council. But that didn't last too long. Sorcerers quickly dismantled Priest's status in society with their abilities to kill curses, as their numbers exceeded that of Priests. They could kill a cursed spirit much faster than an average Priest could purify. And to a non-user, it didn't matter if the curse was purified or killed.

As a whole, Priestdom wallowed in self-pity as they became mocked instead of revered. Eventually, populations dwindled due to the choice to not have families because of a foolish priest's conclusion and the idiots that followed. The Gods tried to nurture their children, keeping their sense of community and making sure they were able-bodied, but sometimes even Gods fail.

A few lineages continued despite the great child-free movement. Mainly because they broke their community's celibacy policy via, well, urges.

Fast forward to Reina. She's a lucky person that can trace her lineage down to 500 years, to two teenage clerics running off and doing the jiggy. They were both from elite families, then banished for having a child. They said fuck it and decided on having many more. The couple went on to pass the techniques and teachings of Priestdom within the family as they witnessed their original tribe die off from old age and the like.

It hadn't been smooth sailing after that, as the tales of Priestdom were seldom shared. The descendants of those two teenage clerics often faced public execution since they didn't follow the popular religion of the time. Somehow Reina, her older sister Mieko (going by the stage name Copa!), her mother Kira all survived to carry the Priestdom on their backs. As far as they knew. There were probably more scattered around the globe, but they weren't aware of any other Priests in Japan.

Reina's father (scratched out of the picture) was a Jujutsu sorcerer, allowing her and her sister to wield some cursed energy. But it physically hurt to do so, as the blessed energy would try purify the cursed energy and remind them of how the curses they wielded came to be. Kind of like an emotional autoimmune disease.

To better describe it, the blessed energy was free flowing throughout the body, and the cursed energy encapsulated deep in the heart. Only to be opened in dire situations and in little amounts. Like emergency teleportation and mind altering techniques.

Because of the emotional impact of their rituals, a Blessed user can easily become traumatized or heartbroken to a fatal point.

If the Priests stayed in power, Reina concluded, we'd have way more counsellors available to the public. The memories they endured qualified for a PTSD diagnosis. No doubt, these God-chosen or forsaken martyrs absorbed a ton of society's damaging collateral.

Reina chose to live for herself in the best way possible with no clear role, purifying when she could. The Gods often smiled back by keeping the nearby flowers blooming or introducing a new family of baby bunnies in the bushes of her apartment complex.

The smaller presence of curses in her neighbourhood dropped crime rates as well. Life was pretty damn secure. People were kind, her neighbours looked out for her, she participated actively in building her community. This was her impact and something she worked so hard to balance. No one knew just how much weight she carried for her neighbourhood.

So screw those trying to rip her from it—even the Gods.

This'll be posted on AO3 once I get invited!

Hopefully the other fans will like it too.