Short chapter this week, but a homebrewed story arc to replace the Gojo past arc, as I didn't think it fit with Sho's story at all. I didn't want to include the next set of planned stuff I had in this chapter, but expect a longer chapter next week. Enjoy.
Proceeding the days after Shohei had finished his training with Gojo, Shohei had chosen to return to the field. Shohei had not taken a mission since his ranking assessment mission with Mei Mei, and he had to restore his bank account while also giving her her agreed upon fraction.
In the countryside of Tokyo, Shohei stood over two disintegrating grade-one curses during sunset. He had taken the extermination mission solo so as to not split the pay.
The two curses were the accumulation of farmer's cursing the bad land and drought that plagued them all spring and summer. Little did the farmers know that the only reason they kept having drought difficulties was because they kept cursing the land, conjuring the spirits to torment them.
"Gotta love a plain and simple exorcism," Shohei heaved, patting himself down and wading out of the baren rice paddy fields. He pulled out his phone for a call and said, "Ijichi. I'm finished with my mission. Can you have the car pull around?"
"Of course," the auxiliary manager said. "We are on the way."
Shohei patiently waited, taking in the earth's mountainous air and dark night sky far away from the blinding lights of any city. The stars were especially bright, unencumbered by direct light pollution.
The black school car eventually pulled up to the curtain Shohei had erected, Ijichi opening the door from the back. Sho lowered the curtain and stomped his feet one last time to remove excess dirt and mud before climbing into the car.
"Mission report," Ijichi droned routinely, clicking away on his tablet.
"The usual," Shohei sighed, kicking his feet up on the limousine style seats across from them. "Well, less so. I succeeded with minimal property damage, mostly upturned earth. The two drought and plague-like grade-one apparitions were thoroughly exorcized."
"Good to hear," Ijichi said, cracking a small smile. He must have been relieved, as he was commonly Sho's assigned auxiliary manager on missions and has had to file away paper after paper dealing with excessive property damage.
"Ijichi," Shohei said with a lowered and kind tone.
"Yes Gojo-san?" Ijichi asked, his face illuminated in the dark car by his tablet.
"Thank you for helping Fushiguro out so much on the first-years' mission with the bridge curse," Shohei thanked, sitting up and placing a hand on his shoulder. "It means a lot to me you put in so much effort into something so important to me. I have yet to thank Akari Nitta too. And thanks again for making me take that break from guarding my sister. I needed it."
"Oh," Ijichi muttered, looking up from his tablet and not finding immediate words. "Well of course. I was just doing my job. Actually, it is more than my job. I feel the need to help all you young sorcerers as best I can at all times."
Suddenly, as if there were a nationwide disaster alert sounding on all devices, Ijichi's tablet and phone and tablet rang with notifications and calls.
Ijichi picked up the call on his phone. He sandwiched his phone between his ear and shoulder as he flicked through his tablet's surge of information.
Shohei looked at his own phone, looking to see if he got any sudden notifications. He did not.
Ijichi's tone turned from surprised, to almost overwhelmed and panicked. Shohei had never seen the man legitimately lose his cool. Ijichi was shuffling through files and apps on his tablet. He was making texts, emails, and messages in rapid succession.
Ijichi hung up the phone and said without looking from his tablet, "Shohei. There is an emergency at your Clan's estate. They have signaled their emergency signal only to be activated if under attack."
"What?" Shohei muttered. All that panic that swarmed Ijichi was over his family.
"No stupid questions!" Ijichi almost yelled. "All managers at this time including me are reaching out to the other Big Three Clans for aid. Only their heads of the clan and maybe their second in command know the hidden location of your Clan's estate. No other sorcerer has access to the knowledge and the higher ups don't wish to disclose the information still. That severely limits the number of sorcerers even possible to come to your aid."
"My aid?" Shohei asked, leaning forward in his seat, sweating.
"Yes. You are to leave this instance and make your way to your clan estate. You have the knowledge of where it is and are being summoned directly by the higher ups."
"I'm on it sir," Shohei said, given direction and a means of action. He opened the still moving car and leapt off in flight.
Shohei soared from the car and hooked around the mountain tops. As Shohei teared over and through the mountains, he pulled out his phone and called Satoru.
The phone rang and rang and before going to voicemail, Satoru picked up the phone.
"Satoru!" Shohei yelled over the whipping winds.
"I've been notified," Satoru said calmly, no panic in his voice.
"Are you on your way? I am," Shohei said, barrel rolling out of the way of a flock of birds.
"No. I'm not coming," Satoru said, straight to the point. This news made Shohei want to throw up.
"What do you mean you're not coming?" Shohei yelled into the phone. "The clan is under attack. No one is supposed to know the estate location anyway. This is serious."
"Listen Shohei," Satoru rationalized. "I'm out of the country right now. I could warp over, but I'm on a very important case."
"What the hell could be so important, you nut case?!" Shohei yelled. He halted his flight path and rose higher into the air to gather his surroundings.
"Another finger of Sukuna," Satoru said. "Signs of one reaching this far out of Japan is peculiar. It could be a curse that consumed it, or more likely, a curse user found it and is relocating it. Yuji accidentally ate the last one we found, making what he has consumed a round four. He has less and less time till his execution and that storm we talked about is still coming. I need to find these damn fingers."
"So, what?" Sho scoffed, taking off again. "I know Itadori means a lot to you, and I agree, those fingers need to be found, but you're gonna leave your clan to possibly die?"
"No," Satoru said. "I'm entrusting you with them. I will admit, it is strange that the clan estate was discovered. No run of the mill curse user or curse could crack that case. The estate's location was hidden centuries ago by all the members of the clan. Several of the previous six eyes users were killed when they were only several weeks old by someone and the perpetrator was never caught. The actual estate was downsized and physically moved via mass warping, like how I teleport. The location was then hidden with every technique, barrier, binding vow, and tool the clan could think of. It was once more secure than Jujutsu High, but with time and neglect of the clan to uphold the defenses, it has assuredly become less secure. Only the active higher ups and head's of the Big three clans and their right hand man are made known of the location. After they step down from their respective positions, they make a binding vow to never disclose the location. Not even other minor but respected clans like the Inumaki know of it."
"All the more reason for you to get here. Some powerful or at least intelligent enemy is behind this," Shohei said.
"And what? You're not powerful?" Satoru asked, insulted on Sho's behalf. "You got this. Don't expect help from the Zenin, but don't think it's them. They're too scared to wrong me by doing something so treacherous. Not that killing the others would cripple the clan or our power. The Zenin would see us weakened to any extent due to their long standing rivalry with us. They'll find some excuse not to come. The Kamo are more likely to help."
"Good to know," Shohei sighed.
"Be prepared for the worst, Shohei," Satoru warned. "Put our training to good use."
A second call came to Sho's phone. It was Noritoshi Kamo, the head of the Kamo clan and a student at Kyoto High.
"I've got to take this call, Satoru," Shohei said shortly, impatient with the man.
"Good luck Sho. I know you can do it," Satoru encouraged, but a minor tone of guilt creeped forward in his voice.
Shohei ended the call and answered Kamo's call.
"Kamo-kun," Sho said. "So you've heard?"
"Yes," the third-year boy said. "I received the call from the higher ups. I canceled the mission I was on over here in Kyoto and am on my way. It's just me. The higher ups wouldn't allow me to share it with a fellow sorcerer in my clan since they thought I was too young."
"That's okay," Shohei admitted. "Any help is welcome. Have you heard from the Zenin clan?"
"Actually, I have," Kamo grunted in frustration. "The snakes say their head and his son who knows the location are occupied."
"That's rich," Shohei sighed. Everyone knew the head of the Zenin was a drunk who never took missions, so he had no excuse not to come besides being blacked out. His son was no better, both simultaneously a narcissist and misogynist. He was probably locked in the bathroom, preening himself in the mirror.
"Well I can't wait any longer Kamo," Shohei said, coming up on the familiar twin mountains that signified Sho's closing in on the estate. "The sun has set and I'm already here."
"I understand," Kamo sighed. "I'll do my best to hurry. Good luck Shohei."
Shohei thanked him and hung up.
As Shohei passed the twin mountains, the estate came into view, or where it was supposed to be. The Gojo Clan estate was enshrouded in a curtain, like a black dome tent pitched.
Shohei soared down to the edge of the curtain, reaching out a hand. Shohei examined the curtain with his prying eyes and sensing. It appeared to be a standard curtain, simply obscuring the view from the outside to sorcerers and hiding it further from non-sorcerers, not that there would be any out this far in the mountains.
Shohei had nothing to do besides enter it. He glided through the curtain, and the estate came into view. Shohei had returned to his place of birth. There was no sign of life, as nobody was walking out in the open, but with his sensing confined to the smaller area of the curtain, Shohei could sense them all.
The property had no walls or outer defenses, but had its border seamlessly merge with the surrounding forest. The treeline along the border had its canopy pruned to reach even further over the estate, giving it the appearance of trying to be half covered by the trees themselves.
There were no excessive buildings, but only buildings of necessity. There were three traditional minka style homes all interconnected with a kitchen via pathways and overhead bridges.
There was what seemed to be a large weapons vault turned into a general storage area. Shelves of cleaning supplies had been tossed from it and laid spread at the entrance. Shohei could sense all cursed energy signatures present on the property in that building.
About five dozen meek energy signatures sat huddled together in the center of the vault. About twenty four more lethal and distorted signatures surrounded the clan members, holding them hostage. They all seemed to be no less than a second-grade, but Shohei could not tell if they were a sorcerer, curse, or even shikigami.
One signature stood out the most, more powerful than any other. It was more powerful than a grade-one curse, assuredly special-grade.
The last building was clearly a watch tower, standing tall and skinny at the edge of the property by the treeline. The tower seemed to not be as well kept as the other buildings, seeming semi neglected or possibly entirely unused. The most standoffish feature of the building was that the top where a lookout would sit collapsed, like it had been destroyed.
Before Shohei tackled the situation in the storage vault, he glided over to the top of the wrecked watch tower. Shohei landed atop of it and when briefly examining the ruble, he discovered a bloodied hand buried underneath it all.
Shohei used Gravity Conductor to lift and neatly pile the rubble at the base of the tower. Shohei half wished he left the body obscured. It was a fully grown man with his skull bludgeoned to a pulp, scattered on the floor. In the man's hand that was protruding from the ruble was a torn seal, possibly the emergency signal.
Shohei removed his uniform jacket and draped it over his kin, leaving Sho to stand in the cold Fall air with just a black undershirt.
"He did not cry for mercy," informed a voice.
Shohei spun on the spot, face to face with Hanami, the special-grade curse Shohei had thought was long exorcized.