Chapter 5 Kenjaku

Yato was well-aware of Geto's past and knew of his hatred, or rather, distaste, for the non-sorcerers. Hiyori, in a sense, could be considered a "monkey" in his eyes, so letting Natsune stay with Hiyori, a harmless ordinary human girl, was a risk he decided to take after much contemplation.

In the end, he decided to trust Natsune. The man may be a conniving little thief who showed blatant disrespect towards the higher authority, but the current him was no bully. He was amnesiac, so he wouldn't remember why he hated the "monkeys." He'd have an innate distaste for them, but if he didn't know why, then he wouldn't act upon this emotion.

Plus, even the him in the past wouldn't kill non-sorcerers blindly. He knew when to kill, when not to kill. He knew when to show mercy to non-sorcerers, like those people who went to him for exorcisms and left satisfied and eager to spread the word about his greatness to lure in more clients.

Or the Zenin girl who, despite her inability to see curses and control cursed energy, which could lead to her contributing to the creation of curses with her negative emotions, was also spared because she dedicated her life to being a sorcerer and fighting for the betterment of this world.

Yato hadn't been with Natsune for long, but he knew Geto, so he had faith in Natsune to not harm Hiyori in the duration of his stay (he better not!)

After leaving Kofuku's place, Yato ran back to the restaurant to search for Fake Geto nearby. It took him about an hour to find the man, now alone without his Ayakashi friends, heading in the direction of…Hiyori's school.

Yato felt his heart jump to his throat.

Was it a coincidence?

Or did he already track her down and was planning on…

…on doing what? Killing her? In broad daylight?

School was already over, so it'd be suspicious for him to wander outside wearing that conspicuous monk outfit of his.

Not to mention he should probably be lying low for whatever plan he was concocting, so if he wanted to kill her, he wouldn't have blatantly shown his face at her school.

(And why would he even want to kill her? She was just a normal civilian who escaped. And it wasn't even from him, it was from that Volcanohead.)

So why was he here?

Yato sat down on top of a telephone post while the pigeons perching on the telephone line blinked at him in mirroring confusion.

Yeah, I'm confused too.

Fake Geto was leaning against a wall around the corner of the school, away from the prying eyes of any nosy students or guards. He looked content, with his eyes closed and a stupid smile on his face.

Yato wanted to rip that smile off of his face.

It took ten minutes for Fake Geto to finally move away from his spot, ten minutes of Yato's ass hurting from sitting on that pole while the pigeons cooed at each other, probably badmouthing him for invading their space.

Finally, a group of students began to trickle out of the front gate, chatting and laughing amongst themselves, unaware of the danger lurking right around the corner. They all carried extra bags with them, so it must have been club activities that kept them up so late.

Yato kept his eyes peeled for any student that stood out.

The guy with his head down while being jostled around by his "friends"?

Nah, just a normal bullied victim who'd probably fall under the influence of an Ayakashi and try to kill himself in the future.

The popular girl with dyed blond hair and skirt cut so short it barely concealed her underwear?

Nah, Fake Geto's eyes weren't even on her.

They were on…

It's him.

A boy chatting amicably with his friends, looking like just an average school kid with average height and build. Nothing about him stood out. Not his light brown hair, not his red eyes (okay red was kinda a rare color but Yato had seen people with purple eyes and orange eyes so it wasn't anything that weird), and not his mannerism either.

He looked just like your average high school boy.

So what did Fake Geto want with him?

Yato jumped down onto a roof that was still too far for them to notice him but it brought him closer so he could eavesdrop on their conversation.

He heard one of the boy's friends say "Hey Fujisaki! Let's go get some Mac!" before they headed towards the busier part of the town, with Fake Geto and Yato trailing behind one after the other.

The kids then took their sweet time ordering their food, eating said food, and chattering about the funny things that happened at school that day. Yato expected Fake Geto to express annoyance for having to wait so goddamn long, but he only patiently sipped his iced coffee while looking out the window from a few tables away.

"Excuse me Sir, are you ready to order?"

It took Yato a whole minute to realize the cashier was talking to him. It was rare (but not impossible) for humans to sense and see him, so he was expecting to be ignored as always. Not wanting to arouse suspicion and cause a scene, or worse, get kicked out for loitering, Yato ordered a cheeseburger to get the cashier off his ass.

By the time the kids were finally ready to leave, an hour had already passed.

They wanted to go to karaoke (were they not going to study at all?) but Fujisaki turned down their invitation and left on his own. With his hands in his pockets, the boy nonchalantly headed in the direction of Fake Geto, then he proceeded to completely ignore Fake Geto as he walked past the man and rounded a corner.

But this was perhaps agreed upon between them, for Fake Geto pushed off of the wall and followed after the boy.

Yato continued to trail after them in secret and tailed them for exactly twenty-five minutes (he checked his watch) until they finally arrived at their destination after many twists and turns. It was a spot under a bridge where a train would come by every fifteen minutes.

"The tail is gone. Now tell me. What do you want?"

Fujisaki was the first one to break the silence.

Yato held his breath. Had they noticed him tagging along? If so, why did the boy lie? What could he gain from helping Yato get away with eavesdropping?

Fake Geto twirled a flower he picked up on his way here. "How rude. You're not even going to greet me after everything I've done for you?"

Fujisaki let out a low breathy laugh, his head tilted down so his bangs effectively hid his eyes.

"Let's not forget who's the one that got you this body. Without me, you'd still be getting fucked like a bitch by—"

"Watch your mouth." Fake Geto snarled, his expression darkening. "Keep disrespecting me like that, and I'll terminate your little experiment prematurely."

"Aww, such a cute comeback. You really think they're the only ones I can test it on?"

"Well, I don't see you testing it on anyone else, did I?"

"Can you blame me? I just so happened to have this box I have no use for, and you seem to like it a lot, so I thought a trade would benefit the both of us."

Even from a distance away, Yato could feel the thick atmosphere that descended upon the two. He had this inkling that a lot of important information had just flown over his head.

Finally, Fujisaki sighed.

"Alright, fine. Out with it. What is it that you want from me? A new body? A key for your treasure box? It can't be that you want to help me with my homework, can it? I do have this annoying essay I have to write today. Sensei wants us to write two-thousand words on–"

"The original owner of this body is still alive."

Fujisaki's eyes twitched. "...What?"

"He's become a Shinki. A cursed spirit working under me caught a glimpse of him."

"So what? You want me to get rid of him or something?"

"Oh no, no. Don't be so violent. It's the 21st century. We have to do this like civilized adults." Fake Geto fake laughed, waving a hand through the air and tucking it into his sleeve. "Rather than thinking about how to get rid of him, we should think about how to make use of him."

"I suppose you have an idea on how to use him to further that plan of yours."

"Indeed. And to make it plausible, I'll need you to break him for me."

Fujisaki lifted an eyebrow.

"Don't ruin him too fast, though. Time it just right for October 31, Halloween. A little backup never hurts."

Halloween?

This time, the important information didn't fly over Yato's head.

Fake Geto's plan takes place on Halloween? Why Halloween? And where will it be exactly? What's he planning to do?

Hoping to find out more about their plan, Yato zoned in on their conversation, but they'd already changed the topic.

And this time, the topic was on him.

"A boy wearing a tracksuit and a blue scarf?" Fujisaki shrugged. "No idea who he is. Never met him or heard of him before. Why? What do you want with him?"

"Are you sure? You've never seen a God with this description?"

"Hah! You really think I'd withhold information to try and, I don't know, protect this God from you?" The word "God" was said so venomously it might as well be poison on his tongue. "You know me, Kenjaku. You know how I feel about that wretched species. I'd rather kill them myself than protect them."

Yato mentally made a note: Kenjaku. Fake Geto's real name?

He jumped when his phone suddenly buzzed in his pocket and his ringtone began to play. He almost panicked, thinking the two below would hear him, but fortunately a train came by right at this moment and masked the sound of his ringtone with its rattling.

"Hey Yato, I need to tell you something. A man named–"

"I'm busy, call you back later!" Without waiting to hear what Hiyori had to say, Yato blurted out in a hurry and hung up the phone, turning his attention back onto the two baddies below him.

Their conversation after that didn't reveal anything worthy of note. Fake Geto asked about the well-being of Fujisaki's daughter (huh, wasn't expecting a teenage pregnancy situation here). Fujisaki asked about the wellbeing of his Ayakashi friends. The two exchanged some pleasantries and fake laughed before parting ways.

Night had already fallen by then. Yato waited until both of them were out of sight before leaving his hiding spot and walking in the direction he came from.

Kenjaku.

Fake Geto's name was Kenjaku.

Considering the man (or person) could change bodies, who knew how many years he had lived for. He could be someone from hundreds of years ago and survived for this long by constantly switching bodies.

Simply searching this name probably wouldn't yield any result. Fujisaki, whoever this boy was, said this name as if it were Fake Geto's real name, and not any of the previous names he'd used. So if Kenjaku truly had lived for so long, Yato doubted he could find this name anywhere.

Plus, if Yato were in his shoes, he would have erased all information on his real identity by now.

"Kenjaku" may not be a clue he could use, but there was a visible clue that might reveal something.

The only difference setting Fake Geto apart from the real Geto was the stitches across his forehead.

Yato had never seen anyone with these bizarre stitches before, but the sight of a horizontal line across the forehead felt a little familiar. He'd been alive for over a thousand years after all. He'd killed countless humans in the past, and to do so he'd obviously need to get close to the humans. Perhaps he'd crossed paths with one of Kenjaku's bodies, or they might have had an interaction before. All would be revealed with time if he could backtrack Kenjaku's identities.

If he was right in thinking this scar was a determining factor in whether a body was controlled by Kenjaku or not, then he could just search for every human who'd ever had this kind of scar on their forehead and eventually he would stumble upon a vital clue.

And the first target he had in mind was the three major clans.

All three clans owned a detailed archive of all family members and personnels who'd ever belonged to or worked for their clan. The authenticity of the files could certainly be challenged, since all of them no doubt had scandals they wanted to cover up, but they were still a great place to start. There was no better place to find a specific Jujutsu sorcerer than an archive full of Jujutsu sorcerers and Jujutsu-related individuals.

Unbeknownst to Yato, after Fujisaki parted ways with Kenjaku, he kept on walking until he was sure he could no longer sense Yaboku's presence anymore before calling out softly.

"Mizuchi."

"Yes, Father."

Mizuchi appeared in mid-air upon hearing the name he gave her. Her exposed arms and legs covered in names given to her by her various masters stood out even more so in contrast with her white kimono, which bore a striking semblance to a burial gown. Her straight, chin-length black hair swayed before her face as she landed before him, a strand of it getting caught on her lips.

Fujisaki knelt down and gently brushed it aside, his thumb grazing over her soft lips in the process.

"You heard what that man had said."

Mizuchi nodded.

"He seems like he'll be a threat to our dear Yaboku."

Fujisaki caressed her face, smiling when she leaned into his touch, and retracted his hand, wiping away the lipstick stain on his thumb onto his uniform.

"What do you want me to do, Father?"

Mizuchi, his ever so obedient little girl, knew he had a task for her without needing him to say it.

Fujisaki's smile widened.

"Go check up on Yaboku for me, okay? And go see that new Shinki of his while you're at it. I'm curious as to what kind of spirit he decided to choose as his new weapon."

"As you wish, Father."

Yato's first stop was the Gojo Clan.

It was protected by layers upon layers of barriers, but barriers only served to keep out Ayakashi and humans, not Gods. No human's or sorcerer's techniques could harm Gods. Only Ayakashi, Shinki, and other Gods could cause any lasting damage to a God's body.

So barriers casted by human sorcerers were essentially nonexistent to Yato, who just walked right in.

He'd been here before so he knew where to go. Keeping his nose out of human affairs didn't mean he wasn't allowed to trespass into their territory. He'd come here to advertise his Delivery God's business, so it wasn't like he'd done anything necessarily bad. He'd been minding his own business and spray-painting his name and numbers all over the clan walls with earplugs in both ears to block out the sorcerers' gossip.

The Gojo Clan didn't change at all. It was still full of people who loved to badmouth others, except now they gossiped with subtlety, while before they'd badmouth Gojo while being in the same room as him. Gojo was just a baby back then, an overpowered baby, but still a baby who had yet learned to speak and defend himself from these ruthless verbal attacks. If Yato had spray-painted "kick me" on these gossipers' backs, then nobody needed to know.

Almost thirty years had gone by since then, yet all they'd seemed to learn was some tact. Their rotten cores remained the same.

Yato made full use of the humans' inability to sense him by doodling on their faces, snickering to himself, and then rummaging around the clan, poking his head in every place he didn't belong and flipping through every file.

He didn't find anything related to Kenjaku, but he did find out that the Gojo clan were descendents of Sugawara no Michizane, who was currently going by the name "Tenjin."

Yes, the Sugawara no Michizane was indeed Tenjin, the God of Learning, the perverted old man with his harem of hot girls! The villain who stole Yato's ex-girlf— I mean, his ex-Shinki!

Thinking about all these hot female Shinki surrounding that old man while Tenjin laughed and stroked his beard and taunted Yato with his thick wad of cash pissed Yato off so much that he slammed the door to the Archive Room on his way out, startling an old clan member with a doodle on her face into dropping her ceramic mug of tea.

On his way to his next location, the Zenin clan, Yato snuck a few meat buns from a stall at a nearby festival. Some delicious food and a good ole ruffle of his fluffy fluff blue scarf later, Yato was feeling better enough to continue his search.

He briefly wondered if Tenjin knew that the strongest sorcerer in modern days was one of his descendants?

Knowing him, though, he probably couldn't care less about anything that wasn't related to his harem. The only way to make him care was if money and/or hot girls were involved.

Urk! That sick old man!

Yato shook his head vehemently and rubbed his face against his fluffy fluff scarf, its soft material warming his heart and lifting his mood.

"Alright, enough of that old man. Let's see what the Zenin clan has waiting for me!"

After much pestering by Gojo, Hiyori finally caved in and gave him something to shut him up.

She couldn't directly tell him who Yato was and what his role was in the restaurant incident, because this was Yato's decision to make, not hers.

And so, Gojo Satoru left the Iki residence with a new contact named "Yato" added to his phone.

Yato was probably still busy with his investigation, so after her phone call ended abruptly, Hiyori sent him a text message instead, telling him that a man named Gojo wanted to meet with them tomorrow morning.

She hoped he wasn't so busy he forgot to check his messages.

Yato indeed forgot to check his messages.

He spent hours digging through the Zenin Clan's files and then traveling to Kyoto to fish around the Kamo Clan, but nothing came up. Not a single mention of the name "Kenjaku" nor any description of a sorcerer with stitches across their forehead. The outcome was to be expected, but it was still disappointing that his efforts were in vain.

By the time Yato finally left the Kamo Clan mentally exhausted, it was already well past midnight. The only place left to investigate was Jujutsu High, but to get there he'd have to travel back to Tokyo. He was so tired that he decided to leave it for tomorrow.

Yato nearly passed out when he arrived at the nearby Yasaka shrine owned by Susanoo, a bigshot God in Japan and not someone he would call a friend. The shrine was open to visitors 24/7 with no entrance fee, so it'd be rude of them to allow human visitors but not Yato. Considering he hadn't been kicked out yet by Susanoo's Shinki, he took it as permission to stay for the night.

The Gion Festival had ended a few days ago, but the hundreds of lanterns lighting up the main stage sustained the celebratory mood and continued to attract visitors from afar. Hooray for tourists, but too bad for Yato who wanted a good night sleep without all these lights piercing through his eyelids. He was too exhausted to search for a darker spot, so he collapsed onto the stage and fell into deep slumber as soon as his head hit the floor.

The next morning, he was awakened by the sound of his ringtone instead of his alarm.

Ringtone?

His befuddled mind didn't immediately understand the meaning of his ringtone sounding so early in the morning. But once the grogginess cleared a little, Yato immediately picked up the phone.

His phone would only ring if a new client were to call. Someone must have been under severe stress to see the numbers Yato had drawn and calling him to solve their problems.

The matter with Kenjaku still took priority, but it shouldn't take too long to complete some minor tasks. He'd never turn down any opportunities to make money (it was only 5 yen but they'd add up to much more!) He could only hope it was a manual task like fixing a hole in the drywall that didn't require the use of a Shinki. Since he didn't have Kakki with him, he'd have to rely on Nora if the task was an exorcism request.

The thought of using her left a bad taste in his mouth, but he'd already made up his mind when he left Natsune with Kofuku and Hiyori. It was too risky to walk around with Natsune right now since Kenjaku was still out there. So in the meantime, if he truly was backed into a corner, then he'd have no choice but to call upon Nora.

"Thank you for choosing this fast, affordable, and reliable Delivery God! My name is Yato!" While saying his signature introduction, Yato had already teleported to the location of his caller. "How can I—"

He fell right into a seat, almost as if it was placed there just for him. His words echoed in the enclosed space of a tiny room and his voice trailed off when he saw the seals and talismans covering the walls.

"Hello there, Yato."

Yato stiffened when that voice spoke. It was a voice he had become so familiar with despite having never met its owner.

It was the voice of the one and only ("My one and only") Gojo Satoru.

"Have a seat." The man wearing a blindfold smiled, crossing his long legs and interlocking his fingers on his knees. "I think it's about time we have a talk."

AN:

Fujisaki: yato? yato who? i don't know any yatos :3

Also Fujisaki: *intentionally says Kenjaku's name to give Yato a lead*