For the next week or so, Sonzai slept poorly.

How could he sleep, when so much had happened so quickly? He'd been comfortable with his life, wealthy for his age, and confident that he could protect his mother from the bug monster things that attacked her…

But now everything felt like it had changed.

Now, the monsters were durable enough that he couldn't hurt them. Now, there were other people who could use the Blue Fire. Now, that blindfolded man's sheer presence haunted him and caused him no small amount of paranoia.

He had continued to send his duplicates out during the day, having no real other option than to continue going to school at least so that the authorities didn't hassle them, drawing attention to himself and his mother, and sending the other 4 to work was for a similar reason, not wanting anything to seem out of the ordinary to someone like those guys who broke into their house.

He planned to leave the house as it was for about a month, living in a hotel alongside his mother in the meantime, and hopefully give everything time to cool down, enough that those people would forget about him and his mother and then they could move back in.

And yet, he was certain that someone was following him. Or at the very least, following his duplicates.

Every time he dispelled his duplicates at the end of the day and inherited their memories -the headache doing so caused being something he had long adjusted to- He would feel the times that their skin crawled, the feeling of someone watching them appearing and disappearing now and then.

And the worst part was that it wasn't even just one of the duplicates. If it had been, then he could at least pinpoint what area he should avoid. No, the feeling of someone following him, watching him… It appeared in the memories of all of his duplicates, usually at conflicting times of the day.

It seemed mind-boggling for people to be able to travel that quickly from one side of the city to another…

But he was someone who could weave a magical Blue Fire into carbon copies of his body and make them do as he ordered, so now that he knew that other people could see, and likely use, the Blue Fire -his gut telling him that the people from the shady car being some of them- who knew what other kinds of abilities people could have?

And thus… Poor sleep, as nightmares and worry over his mother's safety forced him to be awake far longer than was healthy. But it was then, one week and a day since the monster, and those shady people had appeared outside his house…

That Sonzai Fukusu's worldview was shattered completely.

His mother was out shopping for food.

Sonzai's leg bounced against his will as he sat in one of the comfy chairs in the hotel room they had called 'home' for the last week or so. They had gone to a fairly high-quality hotel, Sonzai refusing to allow them to live in a hole-in-the-wall hovel, but it still didn't have room service for anything other than treats and snacks.

Sonzai had asked her to hunker down for as long as possible to let everything blow over, but after a week of being stuck inside their hotel room, his mother had finally decided that she was going to grab some food from a nearby store and re-make his birthday dinner.

He didn't quite know how to feel about it, to be honest. His focus had shifted from the fact that he had turned 16 the instant that the monster had appeared, and with how stressed he had been since… But it was nice to have her care enough about it to try again, even if it was stressful to have her out there without him.

He had offered to go with her but she had outright ordered him to stay put and 'relax' until she got back. He had briefly considered sending a duplicate after her, having enough Blue Fire to maintain an extra duplicate long enough to get to the shop and back, but she gently smacked him upside the head for being 'overprotective.'

So here he was, stuck in their hotel room, concerned about her and in no way able to relax, his leg bouncing up and down as she stared at the TV, not even processing the show that was playing, as he was too busy worrying.

Knock Knock Knock

Sonzai was on his feet the instant he heard the first knock, darting over to the door before pausing right in front of it. His mother had a key to the door, and could just open it if she needed to…

Gulping, he took a peek through the peephole and was confused when the top of a young boy's head was all he saw out in the hallway. He had light blue hair, of all things, which… He knew dyeing your hair was getting more common, but the kid didn't seem any older than ten or eleven.

It assuaged his worry about who was at the door, however, so he undid the chain-lock and opened it up, one of his eyebrows raising slightly at the overly formal outfit the boy had on. What kind of ten-year-old wore suspenders?

Checking to his left and right, he saw no one else in the hallway with the kid. Sonzai kneeled, putting himself at the same height as the kid, and stuck out a hand for the boy to shake. "Hey, kid. Did you need something from me? Or are you looking for your parents maybe?"

The kid bobbed his head back and forth for a moment before grasping Sonzai's hand. "That depends… Are you Sonzai Fukusu, son of Hikui and Kamibukuro Fukusu?"

Immediately Sonzai's guard was up. He rose back to his feet and felt the Blue Fire appear around his hands. But then what happened next shocked him. The boy's eyes flicked to his hands and he smirked.

The kid… The kid could see the Blue Fire too!

"Who are- AGH!"

He was cut off mid-question by a flash of black fabric appearing in front of him, the sole of a boot impacting his chest. Instantly winded, he flew back and felt his shoulder dislocate as he slammed into the nice chair he had just been sitting on.

His eyes had closed on instinct when he had been attacked, and when he opened them he was shocked to see that someone else had appeared next to the younger boy, both of them entering the hotel room.

What was even scarier was that the older woman the kid had somehow seemingly… Summoned… Was carrying a fancy-looking Axe so large it was taller than the kid next to it, even as the woman planted the tip of it into the floor.

"Did I do good, sister?"

Sonzai was still wheezing, gasping for breath as the boy spoke, looking up at the woman, whose odd hairstyle blocked her eyes from his point of view. The woman's smirk, however, was still visible past the braid.

"You did indeed, Ui Ui. Splendid work. Although he did seem to expect something to happen, as he reflexively reinforced his chest… But it was sloppy work at best. Who taught you to use Cursed Energy, boy?"

Sonzai coughed as the woman directed the question at him, slowly and painfully pushing himself up into a sitting position against the shattered chair as he clutched his chest. How had a kick that had sent him flying not broken any ribs?

"Cough. W-Who… Who are… Cough! Who are you?"

The woman let out a long sigh at his question, and when Sonzai blinked, she had seemingly moved right in front of him, her face uncomfortably close. "I am either a new best friend or your executioner, depending on what that fool decides after I bring my report to him. So why don't you be a good boy and tell me who taught you to use your Cursed Energy?"

Sonzai coughed again and the woman backed up slightly, her hand coming to grab his collar. She didn't pick him up, but he got the vague sense that she could if she wanted to. "Do… Do you mean the Blue Fire? I taught myself."

Silence reigned for a moment before both the woman and the younger boy started to… Laugh at him. He felt his blood boil a little from it, to be honest. "What? What's so funny? You break into my room just to laugh and threaten me, you fucking maniacs!?"

Unfortunately, his anger just seemed to amuse them even further, the boy especially. Eventually, however, the woman calmed herself, shaking her head. The boy went silent the moment the woman did, seemingly following her lead.

"Blue Fire, he calls it. What nonsense. Although it does make your claim to have taught yourself seem much more likely."

She let go of his shirt and Sonzai felt a small amount of relief, only to have it shattered when she reached for her axe. She had said something about being his executioner… Was she about to kill him?

Fuck that. The two of them knew what the Blue Fire was, so he was safe to use it in front of them, and that meant he could outnumber them!

Throwing himself to his feet and getting ready to fight, four duplicates spun into existence next to him and rushed at her, three of them swinging their non-injured arms at her while the other lunged for the Axe.

He didn't have enough Blue Fire to maintain them for very long, but with it being five against two, surely he would have the upper hand, right?

His hopes were shattered as the first three duplicates vanished immediately with a single swipe of the woman's arm, and the final one was stabbed by the younger boy, who had somehow appeared above it and stomped its head into the floor.

Sonzai nearly threw up from the spike in pain that having all four of these temporary duplicates destroyed caused him, and his knees wobbled as she struggled to stay on his feet. "What… What are you two?"

The boy -Ui Ui, he thought his name was- took slow, deliberate steps towards him, and placed a hand on Sonzai's shoulder. All the while, the woman merely smirked at him, her arms crossing in front of her.

"We're Jujutsu Sorcerers, boy. And from here on out, if you want to stay alive… So are you."

He never saw the kick to the face that knocked him out. Nor did he see Ui Ui teleport them out of the Hotel room, leaving nary a trace of their having been there remaining but for the destroyed recliner, and the tiny hole in the floor where the woman had stabbed into it.

When Sonzai came to, the first thing he felt was his ears popping.

Following that, however, was pain, as his entire body seemed to attempt a mutiny against him. His arm was still dislocated, and he felt a bruise forming on his head. Not only that, but… As his eyes adjusted to his surroundings, he found that he didn't recognise them at all.

Wooden floors and paper walls… It looked like he was in an old-timey building, like the ones they had in the super-rich areas of the city where all the big, wealthy families lived. Shaking his head, he groaned as he started to hear people talking through the door he was slumped over next to.

They were muffled, more so than the paper walls really should have been able to, but enough that he couldn't hear what they were saying. He did recognise the voice of the woman who had beaten the shit out of him, however, which did nothing for his rising panic.

'She called herself a 'Jujutsu Sorcerer'… Did I piss off some kind of witch with my duplicates or something?'

He tried to push himself to his feet, only to hiss in pain as he stupidly used his dislocated arm to it, thudding softly as he fell back onto his butt. The voices from the room went silent as he did so, and Sonzai froze.

The sliding door opened a moment later and Ui Ui opened the door, glancing down at him, before turning back to the others in the room. "He's awake, so you gotta decide now. Do you want him here or not?"

A voice he didn't recognise, but a presence he did recognise responded to Ui Ui. "Eh… He's too weak to be a real threat, but I don't wanna have him hanging around me, y'know? You don't have to kill him or anything like that, so just… Drop him on Utahime or something, I don't know."

Ui Ui just nodded and a moment later Sonzai heard the beep of… A money transfer going through? Sonzai felt his heartrate kick back up as the woman from before stepped out of the room, Ui Ui following along behind her and reaching down to grab him again.

"Ui Ui, be a dear and take us to Kyoto, okay?"

Sonzai's brow furrowed at that, confused. "How the hell is he supposed to do… That…"

His words trailed off as the world blinked around them, colours shooting past his eyes as if a painted rug had just been pulled away in front of him, and suddenly all three of them fell about half a meter, hitting the ground outside another old-timey building.

Sonzai groaned in pain as the woman reached down and pulled him up to his feet, pushing him toward the building in front of them slightly. "Go over there and knock on the door. I'm sure you're confused… Do everything the woman in there says, and she'll explain what's going on."

Sonzai just stared at the woman who had so effortlessly beaten him up, now talking to him with an almost fond tone of voice. A smile grew on her face as a hand fell onto Ui Ui's shoulders. "You were an easy paycheck and a good laugh. Don't go dying on us now, alright? And tell Utahime that Gojo sends his regards."

He saw her tap a finger to Ui Ui's shoulders and the boy gave him a small wave before both of them just… Vanished. That left Sonzai all alone in the middle of a courtyard who-knows-where dressed in pajamas that had been raggedy before he had been kicked around a hotel room in them.

Turning away from the spot that Ui Ui and his sister had vanished from, Sonzai looked towards the door that -apparently- led to the office of someone he had to listen to if he wanted answers… And the Spirits knew he wanted them.

He moved towards the door, tension rising as he got closer and closer. The scary dude with the blindfold had told Ui Ui and his sister to send him here, he was sure of it. He didn't know how he was so sure that the voice he had heard was the same guy from in front of his house, but… The Blue Fire within him just screamed danger in his mere presence.

Taking a deep breath, he raised a hand and knocked on a door with 'Utahime Iori' emblazoned on a sign out the front. While today had been a blur of activity and his memory wasn't the best with a dislocated shoulder and the aftereffects of being knocked out still affecting him, he thought he could remember Ui Ui's sister telling him to tell an 'Utahime' something about a 'Gojo' sending their regards...

Was Gojo the family name of the guy with the blindfold?

As he knocked on the door he heard shuffling start to sound out from inside and a woman called out to him. "One moment! I'll be there in just a second!"

Sonzai let his hand fall as he heard the rustling of paper and eventually the soft sounds of footsteps on the nice wooden flooring of the building he was standing in. A moment later the door was pushed open and a woman -who was for some reason, dressed like a shrine maiden- with a large scar across her face stared down at him.

Silence reigned between them for a moment as she stared at him, and nothing came to Sonzai's mind to introduce himself with. Eventually, the quiet was broken when her head cocked to the side, obviously confused.

"Who the hell are you?"

"- I SWEAR TO GOD I WILL COME OVER THERE AND BEAT YOUR ASS INTO THE GROUND! YOU CAN'T JUST DROP PEOPLE ON ME AND EXPECT ME TO DEAL WITH IT FOR YOU, ESPECIALLY IF YOU'RE NOT GOING TO EVEN BOTHER TELLING ME ABOUT THEM!"

Sonzai swung his legs back and forth and awkwardly twiddled his thumbs as he waited for the woman -Utahime- to finish up her phone call with this 'Gojo'. After he had been invited into her office he had explained that Ui Ui's sister had brought him to Gojo and then he had sent him here, and that he didn't know why.

That had been what started an almost… Sonzai checked his watch, seeing that she had now been yelling at Gojo for the last ten minutes or so.

He could vaguely hear Gojo's lackadaisical voice on the other side of the phone, but Utahime's rage overpowered anything he tried to say. Honestly, if he hadn't felt Gojo's overwhelming, terror-inducing presence already, he might have been more scared of Utahime.

Sonzai wouldn't admit it but he lost focus on what she was saying as she continued to yell at Gojo and instead looked around her office. It kind of felt like he was in the den of an incredibly dedicated cosplayer.

The walls were adorned with all manner of spiritual paraphernalia, most of which he didn't recognise, and the shelves behind where Utahime was sitting had legitimate scrolls in amongst books that looked so old they probably dated back to the Heian Era.

His focus was brought back to Utahime by the sound of her slamming her phone down on the desk and letting out a long, deep sigh, one of her hands coming up to massage her temple. After a moment of that, however, she took a deep breath and seemed to force herself to calm down.

"I'm sorry you had to see that."

Sonzai shrugged, wincing as his dislocated shoulder flared up from doing so. "That's, shit, that's alright. I'm so confused and I'm kinda panicking so much I've gone back around to being calm. You're fine."

Utahime seemed relieved to hear that, but he couldn't really tell why his opinion even mattered at this very moment. Getting beat up and teleported to… Somewhere… Didn't really fill you with a feeling of control in your interactions with people.

"Anyway, let's start again. My name is Utahime Iori, and I'm a teacher at Jujutsu High in Kyoto, the holy land of Jujutsu. May I get your name?"

Sonzai was silent for a moment. This woman was a teacher? He searched through his memories of school and couldn't remember a single time he had ever seen a teacher in a Shrine Maiden outfit.

Her forehead creasing reminded him that she was expecting a response from him, and he jolted in his seat as he bowed his head slightly. "Sonzai Fukusu. Uh… Could you please tell me what's going on? I was… I was kinda just kidnapped."

He swore he could see a vein starting to bulge on Utahime's forehead, but the woman remained outwardly calm so he didn't comment on it. Utahime leaned back in her chair, sighing. "To really give you a proper answer, I need to know how much you already know. How much do you know about Cursed Energy and Cursed Spirits?"

She looked at Sonzai expectantly and he frowned, racking his brain. He couldn't think of anything… Oh, wait! "Ui Ui's sister said something about 'Cursed Energy' when I talked about the Blue Fire. Is Cursed Energy what it's really called?"

Utahime's eye outright twitched at his question, but she schooled her face quickly. He saw her write something down on a pad of paper next to her that looked remarkably like the words 'Yell at her later.'

"So you basically know absolutely nothing and they just kind of picked you up off the street, I assume?"

Utahime sounded so done with the whole situation already, and he could relate. He was in a lot of pain and not really in the mood to answer questions… But if this woman was able to yell at Gojo, the scariest feeling person he had ever been near, then how strong was she?

"Actually, Ui Ui's sister broke into my hotel room and beat me up, then they teleported me to Gojo… And he told them to take me here."

The sigh that elicited from Utahimet was almost enough for Sonzai to feel sorry for her. Unfortunately, he was too busy nursing a dislocated shoulder he had no idea how to fix to really care about how bad her day was going.

"I see… I will deal with that later. For now, Welcome to Jujutsu High Kyoto. You are being… Forcibly enrolled here, it seems."

Sonzai just nodded… And then froze as his brain realised what she had just said. Half rising out of his chair, he glanced around for an escape route… But didn't find any he felt quick enough to take.

"Excuse me? What the fuck?"

Utahime raised a hand at him and he sat back down immediately, not wanting to piss off any more of these people who seemed to know more about the Blue Fire -or Cursed Energy, as they called it- than he did.

"You see, we are a school for young Sorcerers, usually from the major clans, but also people like you. We teach you how to utilise your 'Cursed Energy' and your 'Cursed Technique' to combat 'Cursed Spirits.' I believe Gojo mentioned there was one at your house, and that's why he was there with his students, and able to spot you."

Sonzai nodded slowly, the sight of the large, weird as fuck creature that was inside his house coming to mind, as well as all of the little ones he had killed over the years. "Right… Cursed Spirits and all that. I've killed a couple. But I don't want to go to school here and learn to become some kind of Monster Killer Exorcist. I just want to live a quiet life and provide for my mother."

Utahime seemed to perk up at that, while also somehow looking more uncomfortable. "And I wish I could allow you that, truly. But… You use Cursed Energy and you have a Cursed Technique… Plus with Gojo taking an interest in you…"

Sonzai sighed, already seeing where this was likely going. "I don't have a choice, do I, ma'am?"

Utahime shook her head with an almost sad look on her face. He appreciated that she was likely not the person who was deciding to force him to learn how to hunt monsters and use Multiplicity, but… At this very moment, he didn't like her very much.

"There are two types of people who can use Cursed Energy. Jujutsu Sorcerers, who are registered and take jobs to exorcise Cursed Spirits -monsters made out of Cursed Energy and humanity's collective negative emotions- of varying strength based on their capabilities… and Curse Users, people who are unregistered while having access to some form of Cursed Technique or Shikigami."

She motioned towards him, her hand coated in Blue Fire -Cursed Energy, he corrected himself- and frowned. "Because you have been unregistered with Jujutsu Society for all of your life, likely due to your father's criminal nature, you are unfortunately also a criminal by the letter of our laws, and would usually just be hunted down and killed. It is only the fact that Gojo seems to want to start picking up stray kids with talent that you weren't just outright killed."

Sonzai felt weird about that. Gojo had felt so dismissive of him, and had outright said that he didn't want Sonzai anywhere near him… But had protected him and even called him talented for some reason? Also… How the hell did Utahime know his dad was a criminal?

"How do you know about my dad? And wait, why on earth would he protect me? From the way he talked, he wouldn't have really cared if Ui Ui's sister had killed me."

Utahime nodded, a pensive look on her face. "Yes, well… While I don't understand Gojo all of the time, I can tell you this. He likely feels a little responsible for you. So even if you spark memories of a really bad time in his life… He probably wants to pay you back a little."

Sonzai was confused now, his head cocking to the side as his eyebrows furrowed. She still hadn't told him about how she knew about his dad… And he was sure that he had never seen Gojo before that day at his house. "Why would I spark bad memories for him? And what the fuck does he need to pay me back for? I don't even know him!"

Utahime tapped at a folder on her desk, looking quite forlorn as she spun it towards him. The paper folder had the words "STAR PLASMA VESSEL INCIDENT" written on the front in bold red writing.

Sonzai hesitated for a moment but finally opened the folder, reading through it until he saw a snippet of a report Gojo had given at the time.

"There was this one guy, too. Paper bag over his head with some Halloween pattern cut into it to let him see or something. My Six Eyes told me about him. He could make copies of himself and teleport around between them. It was a pretty cool Technique, but he was just so damn weak."

Sonzai swallowed, the sound audible in the silence of the room. As Utahime let him read in peace, he realised how she had known his dad was a criminal. But he didn't need to read further, already able to guess exactly who the report was talking about. Placing the folder back on the desk, he leaned back in his chair.

He was silent, so Utahime continued. "That's right. He likely intervened in your being hunted because, well… He felt bad for you, in some small way, for… For killing your dad."

He'd known it was coming after reading from the folder, but it was surreal to hear that someone had killed his father. He'd vanished, sure… But Sonzai had never thought the man dead. He had been far too slippery to be killed, surely… But by a man like Gojo, whose presence inspired him with so much dread?

Sonzai could see it.

He wasn't sure how to really feel about it. It was confirmation that his father was dead, which in most cases would bring some form of grief, surely… But he felt none. He had never cared for his father. Never loved him.

How could he when he treated him and his mother so poorly? The whirlwind of emotions that shot through him calmed as he came to a realisation. Looking up and meeting Utahime's eyes, he gave a small grin.

"I'll call us even, then."

He continued, his smile growing, even as he could see the confusion on Utahime's face growing by the second. "He did a favour for me by dumping me at this magical, monster-killing school so that me and my mother won't be hunted down, right? Then we're even."

Utahime cocked her head to the side, her lips pursing. "I thought you said you'd never met him, and that you didn't know why he would do anything for you. What favour could he possibly be repaying if that is the case?"

Sonzai let out a bark of laughter at that, a hand coming to wipe away tears from his eyes that his father didn't deserve. "We're even now because that bastard Gojo stole my kill. I'll never get to be the one that killed my father, and it's Gojo's fault."

His answer seemed to unnerve Utahime a little, but she just sighed, shaking her head softly at him. "Well, I've heard all good sorcerers are insane in some way, so maybe Gojo is right and you have some kind of potential."

She then stuck her hand out to him to shake -reaching for his non-injured one- and he clasped her hand. If attending some crazy ass magic school was what he needed to do to stop him and his mother from being hunted down and killed, then, well…

Everything else he had done was to protect her, and he didn't plan on stopping now.

"I guess I'm your student then, Miss Utahime. When do I start?"