"Hello, my name is Yuuji Itadori and you are?" the peach-haired boy introduced himself as he extended his hand towards her.
Nobara reached out to clasp his hand and her eyes instantly widened in shock when she sensed Sukuna's curse energy thrumming within him.
Why does he have Sukuna's curse energy? She silently wondered. Did he encounter Sukuna's fingers somehow that's why it left a mark on him?
"It's Nobara Kugisaki," she said, her eyes narrowing on the boy as they shook hands.
She was going to keep an eye on him after this. Perhaps Itadori knows about Sukuna's fingers as well.
"And this is Megumi Fushiguro. Your other classmate," Gojo-sensei stated, pointing towards the dark-haired boy standing beside him.
Nobara turned to the other boy and reached for the hand which was offered to her.
"It's nice to meet you Fushiguro-san."
"Likewise," the other boy said as he regarded her with a stoic expression.
This one seems to have a stick stuck high up his ass, Nobara thought as she met his dark blue eyes.
"Now that you've been properly introduced, let's finally go on a tour of the city," Their white-haired sensei clapped his hands while he smiled beatifically at them.
Nobara suddenly felt suspicious at the look the white-haired sorcerer was sporting. He looked far too excited for the upcoming tour.
"Yes, a tour!" the boy, Yuuji Itadori, exclaimed excitedly.
"Next stop Roponngi!" Gojo-sensei said just as exuberantly.
Nobara frowned but didn't say anything as she followed after her teacher as he began to lead the way.
Nearly half an hour after that, all four of them stood in front of a debilitated building, where Nobara could sense a couple of curses within.
She instantly knew that this was probably a testing ground for her. Gojo-sensei must really want to gauge her capabilities before sending her off to any mission.
I'll show him that I'm not weak despite my background, She thought in determination.
"Gojo-sensei, you lied!" yelled Itadori. "This is not Roppongi!"
Gojo-sensei simply laughed and replied, "Look on the bright side! You've got curses to exorcize within this building. So Nobara and Yuji, you get to it! And Yuji? No letting Sukuna out alright?"
"Ok fine sensei!" was Itadori's response, who still looked aggravated at the white-haired jujutsu user.
Meanwhile, Nobara remained silent as she walked towards the building with Itadori following not too far behind.
She could already tell where the curses were as she neared the building.
"Let's split up," she told Itadori the moment they entered the building, "You go search the first and second floor while I search the upper levels."
"I don't think it's wise that we split up, Kugisaki-san. What if something happens to either of us while we are searching for the curses?" Itadori said to her.
"It's better this way Itadori-san. If we split up, it means that we can search far and wide. We will also finish sooner than later and I would rather have this over soon than prolong it." She replied as she started climbing the stairs.
"Alright. Fine... Just scream really, really loudly if you need my help." Itadori said to her while he watched her climb up the stairs.
"Of course," Nobara responded, grinning at him.
Afterwards, they went their separate ways and Nobara immediately headed to the roiling mass of energy she could sense up the stairs. She ended up in a room full of mannequins where the curse seemed to be trying to disguise itself as a mannequin.
She wanted to roll her eyes at it but instead she focused on the curse mannequin.
The other reason she didn't want Itadori to tag along with her was because she wanted to use her magic as well when exorcizing the curse. As a Master of Death, Nobara no longer needed a wand to cast spells, especially now that spell-casting came easily for her due to years of practice with Sukuna's help.
As she stared at the curse mannequin, she didn't hesitate to cast the imperio curse on it and said, "Reveal yourself."
It's been a while since she used an imperio on a curse. Even though curses are not human, it still got affected by the imperio. Maybe because Nobara was still the most powerful magic-user to exist in this plane of existence. Either way, casting the imperio was always a matter of convenience for her when getting information from curses. More so when she was still searching for the whereabouts of Sukuna's fingers.
In a matter of seconds, the cursed mannequin in front of her shed its disguise and slowly transformed into its true form - the hairy kind - and immediately tried to attack her when it realized that the jig was up.
"Don't move," Nobara said before it could come near her.
At once, the curse froze two meters away from her with a whimper stuck in its throat. Its eyes suddenly widening with terror as it gazed at Nobara after it realized that it was following her orders.
Nobara regarded the curse for a long while until the curse started to shake in obvious fear.
She let out a sigh and moved her hands towards her utility belt where her tools were, but decided against it. She didn't want to waste her nails with a low grade curse such as this.
"Magic it is then," She decided to herself.
She raised her hand and chose to end the curse's existence with a simple spell.
"Evanesco," she thought while waving her hand.
The curse let out a screech of agony as its entire body was instantly shredded from thin air right before it suddenly burst into a thousands of iridescent lights. It almost looked like glitter before it completely disappeared. And just like that. The curse was gone and Nobara hadn't even used her curse technique to exorcise the thing.
"One down. Two more to go," she muttered.
Nobara prepared herself to leave the room in search of the other curses. She would have pivoted around and be gone by then if she hadn't heard the sound of a child's voice nearby.
"Am…Hello?"
She turned around and immediately found a boy peeking from behind a wooden crate.
The boy stared at her and Nobara stared right back, waiting for the boy to speak.
"Is it gone?" the boy asked, still looking frightened.
"Yes, it's gone. You can come out now." Nobara said gently as she walked towards him.
"What was it? I couldn't see it but I knew it was there…" the boy inquired as he stood up to face Nobara.
"It was a curse," She explained to the boy, who looked blankly at her. "It was some creature that was created from human's negative emotions. You couldn't see it because you don't have the sight capable of seeing it. But you can probably feel it right?"
"Yes, I could feel it. I could sense it wanting to eat me." The boy shuddered.
He was probably shuddering at the thought of being eaten by the monster.
"You don't have to worry. It's gone now." Nobara assured him.
"Just that one. But how about the others? I could sense more earlier when that one took me to this room," the boy informed her.
"Yes, there's more but you don't have to worry about it anymore. I'm here to exorcise those things so that it can never harm anyone again." Nobara told the boy. "However, before I can do that, I need to take you away from here. Now, come. Let's go outside where it is safest. My teacher and my classmate can look after you while I exorcise the other curses once I know you are safe."
"Alright nee-chan." the boy said to her as he took the hand Nobara offered him.
"What's your name?" She asked the boy as they left the room and began walking down the stairs.
"My name is Shion Kanda nee-chan."
"How did you end up here, Shion-kun?"
"I was just playing in a nearby park when something hit me from behind. I lost consciousness. The next thing I know I found myself here in this building without any memories of coming here."
"Where are you hurt?"
"At the back of my head."
Nobara paused on the stairs to look at the boy's head where the boy indicated. She felt a lump on the back of the boy's head but that was it. No bleeding or anything drastic.
"Well, Shion-kun, I don't see any bleeding or cuts. So it's probably fine, but don't take my word for it. You still need to have it checked by a professional. You might even have a concussion from what you described to me earlier," Nobara said as they resumed walking down the stairs.
"Alright nee-chan."
Soon they were outside and Nobara hastily moved to her white-haired teacher with the boy still clutching tightly on her hand.
"Gojo-sensei, I found the boy inside the building," She informed him, who seemed to raise his eyebrows at her. It wasn't clear through his blindfold, but she could distinctively see movement behind his black eye cover.
"I only exorcized one curse, Gojo-sensei. But I will exorcize the rest of the curses once I know the child is safe," she added when Gojo remained silent as he continued to regard her with something akin to interest.
"I haven't really felt a spike of curse energy from you earlier, Nobara. Although I sensed something else instead. How did you exactly exorcise the curse?" Gojo-sensei asked her, sounding more intrigued to hear her answer.
Nobara, for her part, suddenly felt alarmed. Her heart jumped into a frantic beat after she heard the white-haired sorcerer's observation.
He sensed my magic? But how? I thought no one in this universe could sense it? Nobara thought while trying to calm her suddenly racing heart rate and her turbulent mind.
"I was trying something new, sensei…that's probably why you didn't sense anything when I exorcized the curse," She lied through her teeth and hoped that her teacher wouldn't question her more about it.
"A new technique huh?" the man said, rubbing his jaw with his pianist fingers. "I wasn't informed that you were developing a new technique, Nobara. It wasn't in your papers when I read them last night."
"This is just a recent one that I have been wanting to try, sensei." She replied, already desperate for her teacher to take the explanation as it is and not pry her further.
"Now, I'm interested!" the insufferable man exclaimed. "Why don't you personally show me your new technique Nobara? Let's get up there now and you can show it to me."
Fuck! Nobara mentally cursed as she stared at the white-haired jujutsu user with a look of dread in her eyes.
I'm such a fool! I shouldn't have used my magic! And now, Satoru Gojo is probably going to keep a close eye on me once I showed him what I did earlier. Should I show him a hint of my magic capability or find something else to fool him with? She thought in mounting anxiety.
"Nobara, let's go and head up while Megumi is going to watch over the boy." Gojo-sensei was saying and Nobara snapped out of her thoughts and focused on the present.
"Alright, Gojo-sensei," she replied as she handed the boy to Fushiguro right before she began to follow after her teacher.
Kugisaki Nobara could only hope that Satoru Gojo wouldn't suspect a thing if she executed her plans to fool him.
However, she knew that there was a high chance that the most powerful jujutsu user could see through her charade, especially when he had the eyes to see through everything.
Nobara was in for a hell of a day. Now that Satoru Gojo had shown interest in her.
AN: Thanks for reviewing AnimeLover229, MylaUchiha, SumeragiByakuren, ejjanesoco and Lunary!