Plane of Absolution
Chapter 1:
Ground Zero
"Isn't it a bit overkill to send two Special Grades for this?"
Gojo Satoru was distracted as usual; slouching on his back, feet propped on the table while simultaneously balancing a pen on his philtrum and himself on the chair's hind legs- a textbook image of a carefree individual. If you look up the word childish in the dictionary, Satoru's smug grin would greet you.
Yaga Masamichi just started the day and he already wants to go home.
"While I normally disagree with Satoru's attitude on missions, I do agree with him on this one." Suguru commented as he flipped through papers, confused at the urgent tone of the mission, "This seems like a normal scouting mission, a bit bigger scale than usual but at the very least you don't need two special grades for this."
"It's not so much about this mission being dangerous, it's more along the lines of we're short-handed why not give it to the kids' sort of mission." Yaga sighed, skimming through the papers as he leaned on the teacher's table.
"Oh, come on sensei!" Satori complained, slamming his palms on the table as he shot up from his chair, "Suguru can solo this one! Just let me off for today, I really want to watch the new Pokémon movie!"
"Pokémon? I thought you're more of a Digimon guy?"
"I'm just scouting the competition!"
Yaga wants to go home, he's too tired to deal with this. He can already feel a vein about to pop.
"Did you brush your teeth at all?" Suguru teased, pinching his nose while fanning the air with his hands, "The stench of denial is quite strong."
"Shut up! Digimon is better! I need to watch just to see what's the hype's all about!" Satoru countered while pointing accusingly at his black-haired classmate, "And stop distracting me from bargaining!"
He animatedly turns back to Yaga, purposely pushing down his blackout shades to show his puppy eyes. He knows the effect of his eyes on people and he's not above using it to his advantage! Nope, not at all! "Even Shoko can handle this sensei! Let's just watch Pokémon, my treat!"
"Oy don't bring me into this."
Irritated by her classmate's troublesome tendencies, Shoko let out an annoyed huff while lying catatonic on the floor in her comically oversized sleeping bag. "Tone it down, will you? Not all of us get our well-deserved 8-hour beauty sleep."
"Sheesh, what happened to you?" Satoru questioned, backing down to straddle the chair, eyeing his classmate's pallid form on the floor.
"Haven't you heard?" Suguru asked, leaning closer to his snow-haired classmate while whispering conspiratorially.
Satoru shook his head no, alternately staring at both his colleagues and teacher, waiting for them to explain things better.
"A second year died last night." Yaga sighed mournfully at the loss of such a young life, but this is the reality of being a sorcerer. Death is not an if but a when, it's always an absolute in their line of job but as educators, it's their job to prepare their students to prevent them from meeting the gods as much as possible.
Yaga knows it's not his fault but he can't help but feel guilty. Had he failed as a teacher? Did they overestimate their student's capabilities? Were they not ready yet? All these doubts keep appearing in his head since last night.
He's really tired, he just wants to go home.
"Mission went south, it was supposed to be a simple mission, exorcise a hoard of grade 4 curses haunting a cave." Yaga continued, pushing his shades up his nose to hide his tired eyes, "Turns out they were just clones, the real body was at least a high grade 1."
"A senpai died while the other one is injured but fortunately will make full recovery." Shoko continued tiredly, dark bags hidden behind her sleeping mask, "He's physically healthy as of my last check-up on him, but I can't say the same about his mind. He's probably traumatized and shocked, I won't be surprised if he quit."
"The fight took a violent turn, they managed to exorcise the curse but it caused a cave collapse. Daisuke-kun was too injured to move and was crushed by a boulder, we managed to retrieve the body but…" Yaga trailed off, unsure how to continue.
"It's unrecognizable." Shoko finished for him, deadpanned as she lay still in her sleeping bag.
An awkward silence filled the room.
"… well, that's quite crushing."
"Satoru! Don't be rude!"
"What was I supposed to say?!"
"Well don't let his mother hear you two idiots. She kept screeching the entire night like a banshee." Shoko sighed at her friend's lackadaisical reaction, turning over to get into a more comfortable position.
"Shoko be more respectful." Yaga reprimanded, frowning lightly at his students' casual disrespect, "She just lost her child, it's understandable for her to be unreasonable right now."
"Well, she can be unreasonable somewhere else." Shoko countered, words slurring from fatigue, "I'd feel bad for her if she wasn't asking for absurd miracles from me. I can't heal senpai if he's already long dead and looking like a mashed potato in the morgue. There's nothing I can do for him."
"That's disgusting Shoko! Don't use mashed potato in a sentence like that ever again!" Satoru complained, turning green, "Look even Suguru looks like he's gonna puke and he eats curses on the daily!"
Yaga sighed exhaustedly, there was no hope for his students. He guesses this is the price of being powerful at their young age, the lack of common awareness and sensitivity should have been expected of them.
This is why Suguru is his favorite. What an unproblematic child, they should learn more from him.
He can't blame Shoko for being irritable and cranky, Daisuke's mother did put her through the wringer last night. He, himself, wasn't able to escape her wrath as well, out of consideration he let her exhaust her emotions on him as a scapegoat for her grief.
"This mission was supposed to go to the second years but because of the situation…"
Yaga continued but was ignored as the first years continued to squabble with each other, until Satoru suddenly stood up and climbed on his table, stepping on his unread mission papers.
"Well since I'm the great Gojo Satoru and I'm the pinnacle of kindness and consideration, I hereby declare that I will take this mission!" Satoru declared dramatically, pointing at Suguru, "And since I'm also a kind and considerate senpai, I will guide the newly promoted Special Grade Geto Suguru on how to do missions, Special Grade style!"
"We got promoted together idiot, don't get too high up on your ego."
"Nonsense!" Satoru denied, turning away from his black-haired friend, arms crossed, "I was born a Special Grade!"
Everyone just stared at him blankly.
"Come Suguru! We must vanquish evil!"
"So, what's this mission about?"
"You threw all those dramatics and you don't even know about the mission?" Suguru asked with a raised brow at his companion, stepping out of the car to follow him.
"Ehh, there's no need~" Satoru sang, walking ahead of his friend with arms behind his head, "You're here anyways, so there's no need for me to read~"
"You need to treat missions more seriously." He sighed, sometimes it's so exhausting dealing with Satoru despite being good friends with him, "What if there are important data in there? Not knowing information like this can cause danger not only to you but also to the people around us."
"Ehh, we're the strongest, we can handle it." He stated frankly, unconcerned about anything that lies ahead of him, "There's no need to worry too much, besides you said it earlier. This is just a bigger-than-average scouting mission!"
Suguru doesn't know how to feel- should he be annoyed at his partner's irresponsible nature? Or should he be flattered that god-incarnate himself put him on the same pedestal as him? Regardless, it's quite warming really, coming into this unknown world of jujutsu-shi and being acknowledged by the strongest sorcerer to be born in the last hundred years or so.
He can't help but feel more on the latter though, but that's something Satoru doesn't need to know, "I guess it can't be helped."
"Last night at around midnight, an explosion of highly concentrated cursed energy occurred in San'ya." Suguru explained, casually following his friend, "It exorcised all curses within range."
Satoru whistles, slightly impressed, "No wonder this part of the town kinda feels empty. "
"The source of the explosion is currently unknown, but it's suspected that high-level curse users are the cause."
"Oh goody!" Satoru exclaimed giddily, "We might actually get some stretch here."
Suguru agreed, looking forward to whatever challenge they will face in this mission. They walked in a comfortable silence as Suguru jogged a bit to properly catch up to Satoru's giddy hops when he suddenly stopped in his berth, remembering something.
"Well, that is if they are still around." He exclaimed, disappointment creeping in his tone, "Incident happened at around midnight, it's already almost 8 am, and there is a high chance that whoever is responsible already left hours ago."
"Oh yeah, I forgot about that." Satori pouts, blowing a raspberry like a child, "That's a bummer."
"Well, there's nothing we can do about that, let's just investigate the area maybe we'll find clues." He replied, looking around looking for any landmarks mentioned in the mission briefing, "We have to walk for a bit, the streets here are compacted and the car can't go thru."
The white-haired teen up looked up as if he was searching for something, then with a confirming nod he said, "Ah, I can see the curtain up ahead; the windows are already there."
"We can go to them to get another briefing on the situation. Maybe they found something new." Suguru added, nodding to himself.
"Let's finish this fast! We have a movie to catch!"
"Good morning Gojo-san! Geto-san!"
A window greeted them as they arrived, bowing deeply to show respect to the two high-ranked sorcerers.
The place is swarming with windows, curtain already set up in advance- probably as a precaution since the white-haired teen has a tendency of forgetting them and he has a bit of a proclivity to excessive property damage.
"Ah, Ryuu-san right?" Suguru confirmed, looking out the window with some familiarity, "You handled my previous mission."
"It's an honor to be remembered by a Special Grade sorcerer!" Ryuu beamed as he bowed again, confirming Suguru's statement, "But yes, Takahashi Ryuunosuke at your service, Geto-san, Gojo-san! But please call me Ryuu!"
"Alright Ryuu-kun~, so what's the sitch?"
Suguru raised an eyebrow at his partner's casual tone, fortunately, Ryuu doesn't seem to take it as an insult and just answered back.
"We've covered the area with a curtain for approximately an hour now, and we've been monitoring the situation since early this morning. We found no civilians at all in the vicinity so it's fortunate that no casualty has been found." He confirmed, "As of 5 AM, there has been no one who exited or entered the perimeter."
"So, whoever's responsible is either inside or has already escaped." Suguru trailed off, hands under his chin.
"Yes! That is possible! Our team ha-"
"Well then if that's all!" Satoru cut him dismissively, already going ahead inside the curtain while Suguru followed him, already used to his theatrics but the same can't be said about Ryuu who stared abashedly at the carefree figure of Satoru entering the hazardous area.
"It's time for the pros to show everyone how it's done!"
The sudden change in the environment is jarring as they entered the curtain; from the sunny morning skies outside the curtain to the dark foreboding atmosphere of that within the barrier. If it was the Suguru of a few months ago, he'd be a bit anxious but now it's just another Tuesday for him.
"This place is creepy!" the white-haired teen blurts out, turning around to face Suguru while walking backward, casual as ever despite his description of the place.
Suguru agrees, it's almost uncomfortable how void of feeling it is inside the curtain. It feels like they're in the middle of a black hole; he thought if nothing can physically exist, then these streets would be their manifested form.
Cursed energy exists anywhere as long there are humans, even the weakest human has the smidgen of it in them and they can unconsciously leave their mark everywhere- you'd have to be a corpse not to have it. So, it says a lot about how much this place feels unnatural considering even a forest in the middle of nowhere could at the very least not feel like a barren place.
"I thought only curses got exorcised? There's nothing left here, not even traces of human activity."
"If you have read the mission briefing, you wouldn't be asking." He answered smugly, waving his finger in front of his friend. Satoru immediately tried to bite it but fortunately, he removed it out of harm's way just in time.
"Come on! Don't be stingy~ share it with the class!" He replied, going to the black-haired teen's side while putting his arm on his shoulder, pulling him closer to himself.
"This area is up for development for months now. The local yakuza own the properties around here but they can't fully develop it due to an empty lot." Suguru answered, shaking his arm off but Satoru didn't budge, "They can't buy it due to the owner's being unknown, so there's probably some sort of land conflict going on here."
"Ah yes, power struggle and drama!" Satoru shouts out, hastening Suguru's pace with his grip, "Very on brand for such a sketchy place!"
"This area has been abandoned for a while now since the Yakuza kicked the locals out, but I'm surprised that no squatters are lying around." Suguru reasoned, allowing his classmate to just take the lead, "They have a tighter grip in this area than I thought."
Abandoned areas like the borders of Southwest San'ya would have attracted curses like moths to fire, especially if the yakuza were involved. A high-stress environment can make the nastiest of curses and he highly suspects that this place at least contained some grade 1's. Suguru figured out the curse user responsible must've been at least semi-grade 1 for completely obliterating everything here.
"Yes, intimidation does wonders in getting what you want!" Satoru said while nodding, sagely rubbing his chin, "Hey Suguru! What do you reckon will happen if I intimidate the elders, yakuza style?"
"Who knows? Maybe they'll finally kick the bucket or something?" Suguru replied, playing along with his friend's blasphemous remarks. He's pretty sure that the white-haired teen is serious about the statement but he doesn't care much to be honest, those stuffy elders had it coming.
"Hah! That'd be a pipe dream!" He laughed joyously, pulling Suguru to his side even more, "Maybe we'll finally get some actual progress! Those fossils need to understand, we're not in the Heian era anymore!"
Satoru's distaste for the higher-ups is common knowledge and he doesn't hide it either, and while Suguru feels the same, he has no real power within the inner circles of sorcerers. He doesn't have the luxury of showing his open dislike of the elders compared to his classmate, who's essentially god-incarnate himself and happens to be from a prominent sorcerer clan.
But he supposed he can let go for a bit in the void and participate in trash-talking those elders, they won't know anyways. They continued their light-hearted conversation while walking until Satoru felt it- wide-eyed in shock from something only he can see. His grip on Suguru's shoulders urgently tightened, forcing him to halt in his berth.
They stopped in front of a seemingly ordinary apartment complex.
"A domain's been opened here."
"Are you sure?"
"One hundred percent," Satoru replied, uncharacteristically solemn as they entered the premises of the complex. Crystalline eyes sharpen with focus as he glances around the area looking for something out of place.
Suguru couldn't blame him, he is pretty alert and cautious as well. Activating one's innate domain is a big deal, not just anyone can open it. There are even recorded special grades in the past who weren't able to achieve a domain expansion as it has very strict requirements. You have to have a prodigious grasp of cursed energy theory, innate skills and talent, insane energy reserves, and an understanding of oneself to even hope of achieving it.
As of right now, even Satoru can only do partial domains and although Suguru's a Special Grade himself, he barely started his career as a sorcerer- a domain is just wishful thinking.
"I don't know if the domain activated was complete or not, the traces are too faint to properly tell." The white-haired shaman trailed off, climbing up the stairs languidly, "But definitely a domain."
"Hmm… looks like things are a lot more serious than we thought."
"The cursed energy here is flowing weirdly, it's strangely just contained in this complex like a dome, and not extending itself outwards like it normally would." Satoru contemplated, glancing around the faint cursed energy surrounding them, "It's acting like some sort of veil-like it's hiding or protecting something to remain out of view."
"That is quite worrying." The black-haired shaman said apprehensively, faint hair raising at the back of his neck, "This can only mean something or someone worth hiding is here."
"I would have spotted this a mile away if it weren't for this weird camouflage aspect." Satoru confirmed, quite confused at the strange phenomenon, "If I didn't have the Six Eyes, I wouldn't even notice this. That's quite a feat really, whoever's responsible is quite talented."
"We have to remain quiet then, so we can have the upper hand and ambush them if they're still here."
"This has become a stealth mission all of a sudden! What an exciting development!"
They continued climbing the flight of stairs in tense silence, making sure to mute their footsteps and their cursed energies tightly hidden. Once they reach the fourth floor, they went around the corner to enter a darkened hallway that exudes an ominous aura the closer they get to a conspicuous-looking door.
"So, this is ground zero…" Satoru muttered, reaching his hands on the doorknob when he seems to consider something. He turns to his partner and asked, "We have to make an impression, don't we?"
"Huh?"
BANG!
"FBI OPEN UP!" He screeched obnoxiously; feet raised as he destroyed the door in one shattering kick. He quickly entered the unit with a dramatic rollover on the floor, then proceeded to put his back against the wall, hands pointed like a gun- acting like some cop in a shoot-out.
Suguru was left speechless, what happened to stealth? He was almost disappointed with himself; he should have expected something like this.
"You're under arrest!" Satoru bluffed maliciously, looking over his shoulder as he peaked through the wall as if he were talking to criminals in a hostage situation, "We have you surrounded! You better give up now if you don't want to get hurt!"
Suguru stayed planted outside the apartment unit, slack-jawed at his friend's childish actions. He stared in disbelief before palming his face in disappointment.
"I'm going home Satoru, you're embarrassing."
"Come on Suguru! Live a little!"
"What's that? Must've been the wind." He turned back to walk away from the crime scene, sticking a finger in his ear, pretending not to hear anything.
"Suguru don't leave me!" Satoru begged as he crawled out of the door to grab his friend's pants. The black-haired teen sighed as he turned back to finally enter the apartment unit, dragging his friend with his legs.
"We're lucky nobody's around." He commented as he observed his surroundings. Satoru stood up from the floor to cooly shrug off some dust and grime that stuck to his clothes.
"Why do you think I was playing around?" Satoru pouted as he sulked, "I saw no suspicious activity from the outside- well apart from this mess."
He was right, Suguru concluded, everything is in shambles inside the apartment. Parts of the walls are collapsed, ceiling and floors cracked, furniture's destroyed and rubbish is thrown all over the room- clear signs of struggle happened in this room.
Satoru whistled playfully as the both of them navigated the space to inspect anything dubious, nonchalantly kicking any debris that might have gotten in his way when a rift in the air was seen by the Six Eyes when a rock rolled over an inconspicuous space in the corner of what seems to be the remains of the living room.
"Hey Suguru, check this out."
"What is it?" He questioned, as he exited one of the rooms to approach his friend.
"Look at this." Satoru pointed at the air; eyes transfixed at something any normal eyes couldn't see. He promptly dispelled the subtle camouflage with a casual flick of his hands, causing a sudden gap in space to appear.
"A kid?!" exclaimed both the shamans at the same time, surprised at the reveal.
Suguru instantly kicked into action, kneeling in front of the kid to check for a pulse and any mortal injuries that he may have. He released a relieved breath when he found that the kid is still breathing.
"Out of all the things we would find, a kid isn't it," Satoru commented, as he crouched down to observe the kid closer, clear confusion on his face. There's something familiar about him but he just can't put a finger on it.
The kid seems to be around toddler age, barely out of the cradle. He appears to be scrawny, with dusty gray hair with specks of debris and ashes splattered all over his body, and torn clothing.
"Fortunately, he seems to be uninjured," Suguru confirmed, as he looked over the kid a second time to make sure. They found him lying lifelessly on the ground, almost corpse-like in appearance with how pale he was so he was a bit worried about his condition. "But his curse energy is frighteningly low and unstable, we have to get him to Shoko soon, or else he might die."
Satoru agreed, curse energy exhaustion is dangerous, a human with no cursed energy is no better than a corpse. Well, he did hear about that Zen'in anomaly but that's beside the point! They needed to get the kid some help soon.
"I'll go ahead to school and get Shoko for medical help." Suguru ordered, scooping the kid carefully into his arms as he ran to the balcony to get into the open air to summon one of his curses in his roster, "You go inform the windows outside about the situation and look for more clues in the area."
A giant bird-like curse appeared flying just outside the balcony, Suguru got in its spacious beak as he attentively supported the unknown child in his arms. He nodded to his friend as a greeting as the bird shoot up the sky, flying with maximum speed.
Satoru sighed, reaching for his phone to contact the windows outside the barrier, this mission is more than what they signed up for.
"Huh, well I guess we'll have to do a rain check on that movie?"
"Be a sorcerer, mom said; it'll be fun, she said." Shoko complained as she plopped down the extra bed on the side, exhaustion clear in her form as her bone cracked in overwork, "You know, I thought today should've been my day off, especially after last night."
"Sorry about that Shoko, I'll treat you later for dinner." Satoru apologized, sitting on the side chairs in the medical bay as he watched over the unconscious kid, worry obvious on his usually carefree face.
"Well, let's do that some other time, I'm too tired today I just want to sleep." She replied as she turned over the side to better observe her patient. "Prepare yourself, I'll eat you bankrupt, rich boy."
"Now that the kid's a bit cleaned up, doesn't he kinda look like Satoru?" Suguru whispered, sitting just beside the white-haired teen. He made sure to mute his voice a bit to keep this information from reaching unwanted ears. An unknown Gojo is a big scandal, they don't just pass around their lineage unchecked due to the possibility of passing Six Eyes to outsiders. It's both enforced not only by the Gojo clan but also by the Jujutsu-shi higher-ups, as an unleashed Six Eyes is a disastrous outcome no one wanted.
He can feel the uncomfortable air emanating from his friend as he restlessly tapped his foot on the floor. It's very rare for Satoru to be distressed by something so this has to be something big.
"That's what I'm worried about."
"There's something you need to know." Shoko said, fatigue suddenly washed out from her face as her gaze sharpened, rising from the bed to stare at her friend's blessed eyes, "It's doctor's protocol to check for eye movements on unconscious patients."
"I didn't say anything at first since I was waiting for you to come back…" Shoko trailed off when a sudden movement caught her peripheral view.
The kid seemed to wake up from his slumber, sluggishly raising himself while confusedly staring at the three strangers in the room with him.
They looked into the kid's eyes.
"Well shit."
Author's Notes:
Manage to post this in time, thankfully! I got sick and didn't have the energy to write. I fr thought it was COVID but fortunately, it's just the common flu. Also, I just realized that I posted the depressing prologue during Valentine's lol, very thematic, I guess.
This chapter is a lot more dialogue-heavy than I anticipated but I needed to establish the dynamics between the pre-canon trio at the beginning in order to get the hang of their personalities and so far, I really enjoyed writing them! Hopefully, they were in character and I didn't get too carried away with creative license lol.
I might've written Suguru to be a bit of a stick in the mud but I thought since he's still a first year and he just met Satoru within 5 months of school - he hasn't adjusted to the madness of being a sorcerer yet lol. Satoru and Shoko (or at least in this fic) are born from sorcerer families so they're desensitized, meanwhile, Suguru is civilian-born.
Reference:
Pokémon: Lucario and the Mystery of Mew was released on July 2005, it was the 2nd highest-grossing film in Japan right after Howl's Moving Castle that year. The current timeline of this chapter is early August 2005 so I thought it would be a fun easter egg to drop since the timing was right.
I am re-imagining San'ya's red-light district to be like Kamurocho and the empty lot is a reference to Yakuza 0- one of my favorite games of all time. It's just an easter egg and doesn't mean much to the plot- it's just there for world-building.