COULD'VE BEEN WORSE
Time ticked away slowly as Juri sat between Fushiguro and Gojo in front of the old building, biding her time by tapping the tip of her shoes together. It's only been about an hour since Yurei and the kids disappeared inside the building. It was somewhat noisy for the first thirty minutes but quickly became quiet after that.
"It's quiet in there. Sure things are going ok?" Fushiguro asked.
"If anything would've gone wrong, then Yurei would let me know," Juri said confidently with her usual kind smile. It gradually started to fade though and turned into an irritated frown. Juri then made a small, pained whimper under her breath before suddenly hunching over and holding her forehead which abruptly started to hurt. It was just a sharp pain at first before turning into that of a migraine.
Gojo turned his head up when he heard her start to whimper. "Juri? What's wrong?" He gave her a little nudge in the arm with his elbow, but she didn't even respond or acknowledge him. He got up after that and crouched down in front of her. He didn't force her to move her head up but did slip his hand against her forehead, and with his special eyes, he briefly saw a small flare-up of Kugisaki's cursed energy. "Hm, that's odd."
"What's wrong? Did something happen?" Fushiguro stood up and looked at the building. He was about to head inside when Juri reached out to his arm and forced him back down.
"Don't. Megumi, it's fine," she said with a sharp, pained whisper. She got up from off the ground and rubbed her forehead which clearly showed that it wasn't wounded. Which means it must've come from Yurei's side. It was because of the link between them that pain sometimes leaks through to the other side. Like if Yurei were to get hurt, Juri would feel it too. "Something happened. I have to go."
"What the hell...did you just do?" Yurei growled out, eyes blazing with this deranged anger. As she stood up, blood trickled down from the nail in her forehead, running over her bloodshot eyes and dripping onto the floor.
While holding her position as best she could, Kugisaki noticed the floor starting to crack and deform under the special-grade's feet. The curse energy from Yurei was so powerful that it actually caused the building to tremble. No…It was just Kugisaki who was trembling. The fear that she felt was enough to make her stomach flip upside down and turn her skin inside out. She could barely stand in front of the Cursed Spirit, let alone fight it.
Keeping her eyes fixed on Yurei, Kugisaki blinked once and the special-grade vanished completely from sight. She didn't even have time to react when she reappeared again directly in front of her, thrusting her hand out like she was about to grab the young girl. Yurei didn't get the chance to reach her though when her hand was suddenly intercepted and stopped dead still by Itadori. He pushed hard against her hand and managed to get her out of reach of Kugisaki.
"Wait, wait, wait! Can we all wait a second! I'm a little confused right now." Itadori pleaded with wild, spinning eyes. At first, he didn't know what he just walked in on. He initially thought Yurei attacked Kugisaki unprovoked, but quickly got more confused when he saw the nail sticking out of the Cursed Spirit's head.
"Yurei?!" Juri's voice echoed down the hallway as she and Gojo peeked their heads into the room.
Instantly, the maddened bloodlust in Yurei's eyes vanished and her body quickly started to relax. "You're alright…" she muttered as her arms fell limp at her side. Yurei backed away from Itadori and dropped to her knees, a look of relief stretching far across her face.
Gojo stepped into the room and looked between everyone inside, quickly putting together the situation judging by everyone's faces. He knew Yurei wouldn't attack someone unprovoked, so that must mean Kugisaki attacked her first. It would've only made Yurei angry though, knowing the pain would've leaked down to Juri as well.
"Oh, I get it now," he said with an excited grin. He walked up to Kugisaki and dropped a hand on her shoulder. If she was crazy enough to attack Yurei of all people, then she was crazy enough to be a jujutsu sorcerer. "Well…that could've gone better…but also could've been worse, too."
"What the hell are you mumbling over there, you idiot!" Yurei snarled.
"Hey, is it really a good idea, screaming like that with a nail sticking out of your forehead?" Itadori asked worryingly.
"Then get it out of my head already!"
"Alright, alright. You don't have to shout." Itadori groaned while walking up to her. He started to yank the nail out of her head as Kugisaki looked on, more confused than before.
"Wait just a freaking minute!" she shouted. "Are we not gonna talk about how everyone seems to know a Cursed Spirit so casually?!"
As soon as the nail was released from Yurei's forehead, Juri walked up behind her and began to soothe her by rubbing her back. "Nobara, I'm sorry. I should've explained a couple of things about myself before releasing Yurei into the building like that. You see…I have a situation very similar to Yuji. I'm a cursed person who's linked to Yurei by our souls. We're unable to separate from each other because of that."
It was brief but Kugisaki's brain stuttered a bit before freezing altogether. It was such an odd thing to hear, especially hearing it from Juri's overtly casual way of saying it.
"You…you got to be kidding me. You wanna say that now?! After I attacked a Cursed Spirit? After Itadori stopped her?" She then turned and pointed a finger at Itadori. "And another thing. How the heck were you able to physically hold back that Curse?"
"It's not like she was using any kind of technique! Well…at least I don't think she was." Itadori quickly turned his head to Juri for confirmation.
"She wasn't," Juri nodded enthusiastically while still comforting Yurei.
"See? There was nothing to it!"
"Not the point! It's still impossible!" Kugisaki snapped back.
Itadori groaned when he saw he was getting nowhere with her. "You've been asking all the questions, you know. What about you? Why did you come to Jujutsu Tech."
This question only seemed to irritate Kugisaki before she boldly answered him. "That's because…I hate living in the countryside…and I wanna live in Tokyo!" she said loudly.
Itadori turned pale with shock at the simplicity of her answer. While Juri looked on in amazement, the makings of an amused smile slowly creeping to her lips.
"Wow…so simple," she said gleefully.
"Regarding the matter!" Kugisaki then suddenly pointed to Juri and made the girl jump. "I know when I step over the line. So to make it up…I'll take you out shopping next time, you got it?!"
Juri felt herself shrink a bit at the young woman's bluntness. Even though she was offering such a kind thing, it felt more like a demand than anything. "O….ok. Since you're new to Tokyo, I can show you around. I know quite a few sweet shops," Juri said with that super sweet smile that made Kugisaki stutter and turn somewhat red.
"That…that's fine," she said awkwardly before storming out of the room.
TWO WEEKS LATER
"Kugisaki…I'm not sure about that girl." Yurei hummed inside Juri's head.
Juri pulled her eyes away from her personal studies and tilted her head to the side. She slipped her glasses over her head and sank into the living room couch of her and Gojo's apartment. At the moment, only Yurei and her were home, so the room was exceptionally quiet, aside from the soft clicking of the keyboard.
"You're only saying that because you don't know a mind of a teenage girl," Juri said with a small laugh escaping her lips. "It sounded like she just wanted a friend to go out shopping with."
"And how can you be so sure?"Yurei said skeptically.
"It's because she wanted to go out the very next day. Practically dragging me all over Tokyo." Juri pointed out the incident from a couple weeks back. They had spent the whole day exploring Tokyo and checking out as many shops as they could. Juri lost count of how many outfits Kugisaki bought. Ones for her and others for herself. It was a sweet gesture, really. "It's fun being a kid and getting able to do things like that."
"Can you really still call jujutsu sorcerers children anymore?"
Juri stiffened a little and laid her hands on her lap. "That's a… precarious question. Young jujutsu sorcerers tend to grow up faster than normal non-sorcerers, but…there's nothing wrong with being able to act like a kid for just a little longer," she said somberly while glancing to the side, seeing her phone light up with a silent notification.
"Who's that. Gojo? Ain't he busy with his business trip?"
"No, it's Ijichi-san," Juri said while checking her phone.
"What does he want?"
Juri laid her phone back on the table and pulled her laptop closer to her. She dropped her glasses back over her eyes and began to pull up her emails, seeing that she got a new one.
"I asked that if any of the first-year kids got a mission, to send me the information too. Just as a precaution."
Yurei manifested behind Juri and leaned on her shoulder to get a look at the email sent. "Protective, are we. So what do we have."
Juri adjusted the screen slightly before reading the email out loud. "'And unnamed apparition of potential Special Grade was witnessed by multiple non-jujutsu sorcerers. Since it was deemed an emergency, three first-year students were sent… to the scene.'" Juri frowned at first when a wretched gut feeling began to turn her stomach inside out. She felt sick and became ghostly pale in an instant.
Yurei narrowed her eyes and grabbed Juri by her shoulder, leaning closer to the screen. "They did what?" she said with a gravely dark voice before continuing to read the report herself. "'It was confirmed by sources to be a Cursed Womb approximately four hours ago. Evacuation of the premises commenced but only made it to 90 percent when the decision was made to close the facility. Five inmates are currently trapped inside along with the Curse.'" Yurei bit down on her bottom lip and backed away from the screen, seemingly falling into deep thought. "Something's not right about this mission," she speculated.
"I know, right!" Juri cried out while whipping her head around. Already, she looked quite panicked. "This is a mission that should've been given to someone like Gojo-san or Nanami-san. Not first-years!"
"That's beside the point. It's the fact that they had the first-years specifically. In a normal scenario…I don't think this would've happened." Yurei closed her eyes for a second and tilted her head to the side. Like Juri, she too had a bad gut feeling. Something was making the air stale and the whole situation just felt off. "How long ago was this mission given to the kids?"
Juri looked back to the screen. "About an hour ago. So they're probably already there and inside." She tightened her jaw after those words left her mouth. Juri suddenly slammed her laptop shut and got up to head for the bedroom.
"Juri?" Yurei followed close behind and saw Juri slipping on her black shoes and coat. "We're going," she realized.
"Yes. I have a bad feeling about this." Juri rushed right up to Yurei and grabbed her shoulder tightly. For once, her words were deep and steadfast. "So send me there. Now!"