chapter 1 new mission new meeting
Life was bustling on all sides in the bustling district of Shibuya, in the sprawling city of Tokyo. Here, activity never ceased, day or night, its face changing with the cycles of the sun and moon. People mingled in a motley stream of harried office workers, cheerful students and colourful neighbourhood workers.
Leaning against the mythical Hachiko dog statue next to the district's main station, Yujii Itadori watched distractedly as people came and went. He and his two classmates from the second year of exorcism had been given a new mission. A class 2 plague had recently been terrifying the local population. More specifically, it was attacking isolated women, cornering them in alleyways before devouring them, leaving them nothing but an unrecognisable pile of flesh and bone... The young man shuddered at the all-too-present memory of the clichés his teacher Gojo had shown him. It was all still so new to him... Just a few weeks ago, he was just another student whose only concern was to enjoy life and avoid the work overload that the Japanese school system was trying to impose on him. Before this, he had only seen mutilated corpses in TV series...
But now it was part of his everyday life... Jinx.
"Oy, kid, try not to make too much of a fool of yourself in front of such a weak demon. Your body will soon be mine, so don't you dare let anyone think my body is weak," Sukuna snidely interjected inside his head.
"No shit..." sighed the teenager, having acclimatised surprisingly well to the constant presence of the King of Plagues in his mind. "Can't you leave me alone for a bit? Go to sleep, I don't know..."
"Impertinent..." grumbled the other in his deep baritone voice.
For his part, in the shelter of his living space bathed in a bloody glow, sitting atop his improbable throne of buffalo skulls, the thousand-year-old scourge let out a deep sigh, sinking a little further into his uncomfortable seat. He'd slept for almost a thousand years and didn't really feel like wasting time in unconsciousness any more, even if he still did sometimes, at the height of his boredom. He wanted to move freely, to feel the air and the light on his skin... the taste of human flesh on his tongue... and also to crush this strange world that he saw through the eyes of the host of his murderous madness, to let them know the omnipotence of his existence. What a strange time this is, really...
"If you don't feel up to it, kid," he repeated into the skull of the schoolboy who was vainly ruffling his hair, as if that would allow him to escape, "you can leave the place to me... I'll sort it out in no time..."
"That's right, yeah!" the interested party replied immediately, starting to pace around the station square, attracting a little attention from passers-by. "So you can do anything with my body? Eat the victim with tartar sauce? In your dreams!"
Sukuna twitched at the mention of the unfamiliar culinary accompaniment, a smile both sadistic and amused stretching across his lips, revealing his predatory canines.
"Tartare? What is that thing? I hope it's something other than that disgusting stuff you call 'ketchup' and keep slathering all over the place every chance you get... I'm a gourmet... And I'm curious... I'd love to discover this tartar sauce you're talking about, kid. Go figure, with a liver a lot of things go together..."
"Shut up, you old psychopath!" Yujii exclaimed loudly, turning around as if expecting to come face to face with his demonic alter ego, who was far too engrossed in his inner conversation. His arrogance and obsessive passion for large-scale massacres and human meat could really get on his nerves!
Carried away in his momentum, the young man realised only too late that he was not facing the demon but a young woman standing right next to him, jostling her unceremoniously.
"Ah!" the unfortunate stranger blurted out, merely passing into his lap.
She was thrown to the ground by the impact in a cloud of violet tulle that formed her skirt, losing the cup she was holding in her hand in the process, which fell on her, soaking her shirt in the process. Yujii stood still for a moment, fully aware of his surroundings, staring in disbelief at the young woman he had unwillingly thrown to the ground.
He stared dumbly at the figure on the ground, her dark petticoats pulled up her pale thighs from the fall, the soaked fabric of her shirt clinging to her skin, her long, loose hair tousled...
"Aie aie aie..." she murmured, throwing back her autumnally hued mane, raising her face to him. "What a collision! Are you all right?"
Her eyes... This girl had the eyes of a cat, golden in hue, the likes of which he had never seen. There was something... inhuman in the soft look she gave him..."
"Er... hello?" she began again in a slightly deep voice.
"Itadori!" came a male voice from behind him. "What the hell have you been doing?"
The called man gasped, coming to his senses and turning towards the direction from which the furious injunction had come. A few metres away, he discovered his two classmates, Megumi Fushiguro and Nobara Kugisaki, swooping down on him like birds of prey.
The schoolgirl was the first to stand in front of the King of Plagues' receptacle, her hands on her hips.
"No kidding, Itadori! We've been looking for you for ages and now, when we find you, you're bullying a tourist! You're impossible!"
"Ah... but the poor guy didn't do it on purpose..." tried to temporise the victim in question, picking up his belongings spread out on the ground with the gallant help of Megumi, who was nevertheless grumbling under her breath.
"Don't encourage him, Miss," he told her in a calm voice that nevertheless showed a certain exasperation. "He's a bulldozer, he needs to learn to mind his manners..."
The young woman let out a slight, slightly tense laugh, and glanced sympathetically at the criminal who had been pilloried. He was staring at her, red from face to ears, more uncomfortable than ever. Nobara sighed loudly before poking the top of the teenager's head mercilessly.
"I bet you didn't even apologise! Come on, you could at least help her up, look at the state of her pretty blouse! This is your fault too, isn't it?"
The three students then turned their attention to the lemonade-soaked garment, the fine cream fabric with its lacy openings having been rendered partially transparent by the acidic liquid, revealing the elegant black lingerie that the young woman was wearing underneath. Faced with this unwelcome attention, the fire rose to the stranger's cheeks as the two teenagers realised their mistake, embarrassedly diverting their attention elsewhere and babbling incomprehensible words.
"You're a heavy one..." grumbled the budding young exorcist, running a disillusioned hand over her forehead. "Itadori, the apology!"
The interested party then turned towards his victim still on the ground, intermittently fleeing his unsettling gaze, holding out an insecure hand.
"I... sorry... I'm... I apologise... I didn't mean to knock you down... Or damage your... well... I... sorry... not on purpose..." he murmured in a clumsy machine-gun flow, amusing his interlocutor.
With a slight smile on her lips, she reached out and grabbed his hand, bringing his attention completely back to her, as if capturing her.
"There's no harm done, I assure you... Itadori-kun... Is that it?"
He swallowed, nodding as he helped her to her feet, which she did with a soft rustle of tulle. She clutched her large bronze leather satchel, which Megumi had returned to her, to her chest to hide the transparency of her top, and tucked her hair behind her ears with a delicate hand.
"Your... Your shirt..." the teenager repeated awkwardly, unused to this kind of situation.
Too focused on the person he was talking to, he barely noticed the shrill ringing of his dark-haired friend's phone not far away, nor the conversation he began with a particularly blasé air that he should have recognised from all the times he'd seen it.
"It's nothing, I assure you," resumed the young woman, whose intonations did indeed suggest that she was a foreigner. "We're in Shibuya, I'll just go and get a T-shirt somewhere and that'll be that."
"But I... I want to make it up to you... your drink... your..."
She stepped towards him, staring intently, cutting him short. She plunged her golden gaze into his, coming to rest a light hand on his powerful shoulder. She smelt of lemon from the liquid that had spilled over her. And there was something else... a scent, no... an aura perhaps... an impression... a little special... ... there was something... unsettling...
"appetising" Sukuna corrected inwardly with a toothy grin, making the teenager jump and blush, but he had absolutely no need for his personal demon to add another layer.
"It's nothing, I promise, Itadori-kun," she continued in a gentle voice. "You had nothing to do with it..."
They stared at each other for a few seconds before Megumi spoke again, breaking the silence that had lasted between them.
"Itadori! Gojo sensei told us where the flail was..." he stopped short as he looked at the young foreigner, obviously very intrigued, moderating his words. "where we had to go. We need to go there. We need to go now. Give her your number so we can compensate her later, but we need to move."
"Ah!" blurted Yujii, abruptly remembering her original reason for coming to Shibuya "Yes, of course... Wait, Fushiguro, I need to find some paper..."
Nobara sighed again as he handed her a sheet of paper and a pen, rolling his eyes.
"Guys, I swear... You have to do everything to them..."
"ah yes... thank you... so my number... What is it again..." murmured the pink-haired young man, even more dazed than usual.
Megumi snatched the paper from his hands, quickly scribbling down the precious sesame before holding it out to the stranger, staring at them in turn, amused.
"We apologise again for the inconvenience, Miss. We must be off now, have a nice day." the dark-haired man greeted her after she had picked up the piece of paper, giving her a slight nod which she returned.
"Yes, sorry again about that idiot! Goodbye!" the high-school girl greeted her in turn, following in the footsteps of her colleague who had already started to walk away into the crowded square.
"Wait!" exclaimed Yujii, helpless in the face of his own embarrassment. "Megumi, how come you know my number by heart? Hey, wait for me!" He turned back to the young woman standing next to him, a slight blush still spreading across her face, her soft features still slightly marked by childhood. "Er... really, sorry again." He bowed deeply to her, solemn." Please send me a message, I really want to apologise properly! But I have to go now!"
She remained silent for a brief moment, staring at the clean-shaven neck of the young man in front of her, before letting out a slight laugh, causing him to raise his face towards her.
"Very well, Itadori-kun. I shall do so. But right now, I think you'd better run along, your friends are getting farther away."
"Ah!" exclaimed the latter, straightening up completely and looking in the direction they had gone, realising, dumbfounded, that they hadn't really been expecting him "You're right! Not cool!" He commented before starting to run away without further ado. He turned one last time, however, to call out to her, shouting half-heartedly to cover the noise around him, attracting stares from passers-by. "Sorry again Miss! See you soon... without fail!"
Then he resumed his run at full speed, soon disappearing from the sight of the young stranger who remained planted in the middle of the square, drowned in the surrounding faceless mass. She remained motionless for a few seconds, staring at the paper on which the teenager's number was written in neat, precise handwriting. She slowly raised it to her lips, a mischievous, victorious smile slowly spreading across it.
"First contact... check" she murmured to herself, her voice lost in the incessant hubbub of the Tokyo district that never slept...
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A word from the author:
M: The meeting! Who what? Who is it?
Sukun(interromping her): a potential snack...
Yujii: I swear it's obsessional! You need to see a shrink!
Sukuna: You can eat it?
Yujii: No way! I'm going to become VEGAN my boy, you'll see if you like it!
Sukuna: Ve... What? It's an insult, isn't it kid? Do you want to die?
M: That's enough! What are you two doing here anyway? Go and play further away!
Sukuna: You little imperti...
Yujii (throwing turnips at Sukuna): Die, you evil monster!
Sukuna: What... HOW DARE YOU, YOU LITTLE BRAT!
M: Well, we'll let them have their fun together if you don't mind (ps, Yujii, that's garlic you'd normally use for exorcism, isn't it, or coarse salt... it's going to be a mess in here with all these turnips...) I hope this chapter has been of some use to you, dear readers! See you soon for the rest ;)
