Humans are so simple it hurts. It is inevitable, the pathetic way they ruin their own life and then turn around and beg their Gods for a second chance. Anything to forget how mortal they are, how easy it is to feed off their agony until they're nothing but a babbling mess cowering on the ground.
The Oracle Curse they call him, but he prefers the name he gave himself when he was born. Jikan.
The palliative care station of Tokyo Metropolitan Hiroo Hospital is his favorite place to stay. The anguish, the desperate desire to live for one more day, a week, ten years. It's a delight when he leisurely steals their remaining time from them; loves when they start to realize how their life force slips through their fingers. He could get high from the feeling alone.
He has been alive for eleven years now, and no one has bothered him, so far. Maybe they're afraid of him, he thinks. Good.
The arrival of Gojo Satoru, however, is unexpected.
Jikan has heard of him, of course, but he never thought he would have to face him. He relied on the fact that they didn't know what he is capable of.
But it doesn't matter, in the end. Not when the blood of the strongest sorcerer drips off his claws, a bubble of laughter forming deep in his throat.
Gojo Satoru's body lies unmoving in front of him, his abdomen torn open, and his guts spread across the ground. His eyeballs, the proof of his Six Eyes, stare emptily into the distance, lifeless.
The girl he came with is speared on his sickle somewhere behind him. She put up a good fight with her Cursed Weapon technique, but she was no match against him.
Just another human who bit off more than it could chew.
Jikan activates his cursed energy. He sees himself walking out of the barrier while wiping the crimson off his hands.
He throws his head back and laughs manically. Of course, only a curse with his abilities could defeat the Six Eyes. It is almost too good to be true.
As he steps over Gojo Satoru's corpse, the alarmed voice in the back of his head whispers to him.
Too easy. It was too easy.
One hour earlier
"Can I ask you a question?"
"Shoot," you chirp and lean back into the car seat. Yoshio watches as you pull out a lollipop and wordlessly hand it over to Satoru.
"Well, I know that you can summon weapons with your technique, but I'm not sure how it exactly works," he starts, and you nod affirmatively.
"Hmm, how do I explain this? My technique is connected to celestial bodies. And stars are made of elements, right? Carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and so on. It's in every living being and found everywhere in the world. My innate technique allows me to draw them together from the atmosphere around me, and form them into weapons," you explain and move your hands like you're drawing a bowstring. "For example, if I imbue my cursed energy into my Ascella arrow, it always aims true as long as I stand still, and the target is in line of sight. Otherwise, it depends on my own accuracy."
Yoshio's eyes widen in curiosity. "And what else?"
You tap your finger against your chin. "My Orion dagger can slice through anything." You lean closer toward your underclassman and stage whisper, "Even Satoru's Infinity. I sometimes use it for cooking, as well."
"She also has an ocular jujutsu," Satoru throws in while licking his lollipop. You catch a glimpse of his blue tongue.
"I do, but it's weak," you shrug. "I can see the outlines of anything that's made of carbon, but it stops when there is a wall between us. It is useful in the dark, though."
The car pulls up in front of the hospital. The parking lot is empty thanks to the evacuation efforts. All three of you exit the vehicle and you violently shiver when the cold wind hits you.
"I still can't believe they put off the exorcism for over a decade," you grumble and pull your jacket tighter around you.
You turn to Yoshio. "Are you ready? You can still go back to the school if you're unsure."
Principal Yaga told you earlier that it's his first mission since he started at Jujutsu High, so you plan to be extra careful about his safety.
He assures you that he's fine, but you can practically feel the nervous energy radiating off him.
You show him one last encouraging smile and then turn around to look at the building in front of you.
" Emerge from the darkness, blacker than darkness. Purify that which is impure," you chant and watch as black liquid flows from the sky and envelops your surroundings in a barrier.
Satoru walks in front of you, his hands tucked in the pockets of his pants. "Let's get this over with. There is a store I want to check out after we're done," he grins and throws you a look over his shoulder. You show him an enthusiastic thumbs-up.
You make your way into the building, with you leading the way and Satoru at the rear end. Your footsteps echo off the white walls as your eyes carefully scan your surroundings for any cursed energy. There isn't a single person left, and the eerie silence makes the air seem emptier.
Takashi informed you that the curse likes to stay in the western part of the hospital. After memorizing the pathway from the layout plan, you lead them toward the curse, although the hassle is barely necessary.
Its cursed energy signature unnerves you the second you are close enough to read it. It borders on special grade, and the thought of dragging your underclassman to such a dangerous mission makes you uneasy.
"Stop," Satoru signals and puts up a hand when you arrive. As much as he wants to rush in and finish it off, he doesn't want to waste more time by having to chase it.
"It's close," you whisper and grab Yoshio's shoulder in a firm grip. "You remember what you need to do?"
He nods determinedly, a bead of sweat running down the side of his face. For a moment, it looks like he's going to faint.
Turning so his palms face the door, he lifts his hands and crosses his thumbs.
"Cursed Technique: Space Illusion."
Jikan realizes the moment the illusion fades that he has been tricked. He seethes when Gojo Satoru and his female companion stand in front of him. Alive.
His eyes roll back when he activates his foresight, and chokes when he sees himself lying among debris, heavily injured.
He let his triumph throw away his caution. If he hadn't been so sure about his victory-
The Six Eyes comes at him first. In a flash, his fist connects with his jaw, sending him flying across the room. Before he hits the wall, Jikan drags his hands down to the ground to slow his fall. As soon as he regains his footing, there is a flash of light behind him.
A flaming dagger is all he can make out until it's slicing open his arm along its length, from in-between his fingers up to his shoulder. An inhuman screech fills the air.
She doesn't give him time to recover and lifts her dagger to slash down, undoubtedly aiming for his torso. Pain, hot and fresh, blooms across his chest when he jumps back too late to avoid her attack. Blood gushes out of his wound.
He didn't plan for this, never considered the possibility of not getting out of a fight-
He summons his scythe and wildly starts to aim for the female, nicking her leg before she jumps into the air and out of his sight.
Gojo Satoru approaches him with his hands in his pockets and kicks him in the side of his head, the impact slamming him into the ground. He slowly grabs Jikan's wrist, holds it up and stomps down on his arm, breaking it off and throwing it away.
"Just finish it off, Satoru," the woman sighs.
It?
"What? It was so boring to watch it get fooled by Yoshio's illusions," the Six Eyes pouts.
There is a rustle, something akin to a plastic wrap, and Jikan looks up just in time to see that Gojo Satoru is eating a piece of candy in the middle of ripping him apart.
"You want one?" he asks her, a bonbon placed in the middle of his palm.
She rolls her eyes and crosses her arms. "We're working right now if you haven't noticed."
"Always so uptight," he snickers and pops the sweet into his mouth.
Jikan can't believe his eyes. Liquid fire starts to spread through his body at the blatant disrespect in front of him. His violent anger starts to overwrite his pain, his shame and most importantly, his self-restraint.
He will make them regret underestimating him.
Being in existence for eleven years is enough time to accumulate an enormous amount of cursed energy. All those dead humans and their stolen time fed him over the years, their agony filling him up to the brim. He feels it even now as he draws it into his palm, whirling it into a dark galaxy, breaths growing heavier with every second.
If they weren't so occupied bickering with each other, they would have noticed that the world had gone silent around them.
You look to the side just in time to see the curse lift its hand. The space behind you distorts, and the dreadful energy makes your stomach flip when you realize something horribly wrong is about to happen.
There is a sudden magnetic pull that makes you fall backward. Your arms flail in the air as you try and fail to keep your feet on the ground.
"Satoru!" you cry out when you see the shock written across his face. You reach out to him, but your fingers grasp nothing as you lose your footing and plummet into the infinite darkness.
Suddenly, all sound vanishes. There is a void around you, and it's like your senses are shutting off one by one. You can't see, can't speak, can't feel anything other than this growing sense of dread and fear.
The sensation of falling in this strange dimension could make a lesser human go mad. Your body gets torn in every direction, and you're not sure if you are falling upwards or downwards, or whether you're moving at all. Every time you think you're going to hit the ground, there is just another endless pool of darkness around you.
It's a never-ending nightmare. You want to die, if only to escape this feeling.
And then, someone grabs your arm and you're being sucked back into your body. Your eyes snap open when you're pressed tightly against a familiar chest.
"Don't worry," he murmurs closely into your ear, his arms wrapped around you. "I got you."
And together, you fall.