Chapter 1.- Different

Brutal as it was, the scene in front of him was nothing new.

He didn't bother to pay much attention to the shattered glass and destroyed displays that littered the ground. Blood stains now served as visceral highlights to the broken stores around him. Then again, this was exactly what he expected when he got the address for this particular assignment. A fairly popular mall in the middle of a weekend afternoon was bound to have some pretty heavy traffic, and with a curse stuck in the middle of it, all that translated to, was quite the number of victims. He should be horrified, he supposed; even experienced sorcerers would, at times, get unsettled.

Instead, the white-haired man kept up with his leisurely walk. At this point, he was too used to it.

Once in a blue moon, Satoru would be close enough to a site to find more than an empty building covered by dark stains and, if he's lucky, broken remains. However, even then, odds of recovering the correct body parts for anyone to identify the unfortunate victims were ridiculously small. Not as unlikely as finding even a single survivor, though. But that's just how things worked. It couldn't be helped. Special-grade curses were far too strong for most people to deal with on their own, and the one that created this territory most certainly fit those criteria. From what he'd already seen, there was more than just one curse here, although he'd found far less than he'd prepared for so far. Oficially, his orders were to destroy all curses and look for survivors. This domain hatched hours ago, swallowing the popular mall whole, and according to the intel he got, Satoru was the first jujutsu sorcerer to set foot in this place; his expectations might as well start digging a hole in the ground. The two jackal-looking curses he'd killed on the way here may be weak to him, but regular humans didn't stand a chance, so he wasn't in a hurry to decide whether to go up or down the stairs to continue his cursory scan.

Whoever was in charge of PR was not gonna have a fun time reviewing the aftermath and coming up with a decent excuse for the number of missing corpses. An explosion wouldn't quite cut it this time…then again, maybe they'd force some kind of tragic engineering oversight and throw someone else under the bus.

Satoru blinked once under his black sunglasses. A third curse was sprinting towards him, just a mindless beast that didn't realize it was running to its destruction. It wasn't unusual. The footsteps he could hear approaching from the left hallway, on the other hand... those were beyond weird.

He could feel no cursed energy.

If he hadn't been paying attention to his senses, he wouldn't have noticed them.

Tension filled him, his neck itching in phantom sensation. No. That man had been an anomaly, and even if there was someone else like him, there was no reason for any freelancer to show up here. But there was no way a regular human could've survived this long inside the domain. Plus, a curtain was placed surrounding the mall almost as soon as the expansion happened. This couldn't be a curse user with some kind of cloaking ability either. And yet, outlandish as this whole thing felt, the footsteps were picking up speed. Running towards the incoming curse. Exorcising the beast would only take a flick of his finger. He was far too curious for it now. A normal, innocent civilian who just so happened to not have any cursed energy wouldn't have survived by recklessly running around. No one had that sort of luck. Of course, on the off chance he was wrong, the curse wasn't fast enough to stop Satoru from destroying it; getting the potential civilian away was also always an option. So the sorcerer placed his hands in his pockets and kept on walking.

And then, the woman barged into the hallway, racing straight at the curse, a broken piece of metal in her hands, arms raised, as if trying to slice the monster. Maybe someone could be that lucky. Frowning, Satoru began to gather his cursed energy. An unbelievably lucky survivor with no sense of self-preservation was better than none. His blood froze in his veins. Something was rising, building up right in front of him. His energy fizzled out. Right in front of him, a soft pink light covered the metal on the woman's hand. His steps faltered, rooting him to the floor as he came to a full stop, hands stuck in his pockets as the pipe hit the curse, finally making contact with its flesh. It was fast, though not enough for him to miss it. But he had to fight the urge to try and rub his eyes as he attempted to come to terms with what he'd just seen. His senses couldn't be lying to him. There was no way his Six Eyes failed to notice any surge of cursed energy. Whatever this pink light was, it was something else. And yet…

The curse was gone…turned into dust.

No matter how he looked at it, there was nothing left of the monster as the woman fell to the ground. No, she wasn't falling. Her movements weren't panicked. She'd just let momentum guide her. With one fluid motion there was a piece of rubble in her hand. The same soft pink glow surrounded it in a split of a second. She was working on autopilot, her head not even turning to see him as her arm drew a clean arc in the air. The improvised projectile was slow but spot on. An old forgotten instinct had him raising his hand in front of him. The sharp edges of the piece of broken ceiling pushed against his palm... as in…it touched his skin, bruising his hand as it bypassed his Infinity without losing even a bit of speed. Whatever caused the curse to disintegrate didn't seem to react, though, no alarming burning sensation or agonizing pain exploding from the point of contact. Judging by the look of shock on the woman's face, she wasn't expecting the lack of reaction either.

"It..actually hit." His voice was faint, escaping him to try and see if saying it out loud made it feel any more real to him. No, it didn't do the trick.

"…you're human." The woman's voice was surprisingly soft. And yet her eyes looked guarded.

"That I am," Satoru grinned, playful tone back in place. "So, what are you?"

"I'm also a human, thank you very much. Geez, what's with overpowered jerks jumping to that question." With a huff, the unknown woman rose to her feet, placing her hands on her hips.

"Aww, I'm not the first one?" This was definitely a first for him.

"Sorry, but you're a little late on that one." Blue eyes rolled, clearly not finding his antics amusing. "So, who are you?"

Narrowing his eyes behind his bandages, Satoru let the silence hang in the air for a moment before giving up and lifting his glasses with one hand in a failed attempt to get a proper read on her.

Blood was splattered all over her petite form. Crimson stained both her clothes and flesh, making her white skin look far too pale, almost sickly, but as far as he could tell, there were no open wounds. And yet, her clothes were torn, a piece of her light red jacket was gone, and he could spy patches of skin from under her sliced skirt. She had to have gotten cut at some point. Her black hair was long, but it was a matted mess by now; the broken piece of rebar was clearly an improvised weapon. She'd fought off a couple of the weaker curses, at the very least, probably more. However, this couldn't be the first time this strange woman was in a real battle. Her movements were a far cry from the sharp, polished way a trained fighter would have, but despite it, he couldn't call her clumsy. Her breathing wasn't ragged, she wasn't shivering, her eyes weren't open in fear, and clearly, she was calm enough to keep up with his wit. So many little signs pointed at the woman having some experience in fighting beings that defied logic and clashed oh so loudly with everything that marked her as an amateur. If she had any training at all. Trying to assess her felt like finding one contradiction after another. Here was this woman, likely younger than himself, with no cursed energy whatsoever, looking right at home inside a territorial domain, and something told him the old farts had no clue this girl even existed.

Sparkling azure eyes shamelessly stared back at him, studying him in the same way he was trying to figure her out. Were the same questions that were whirling around in his head, swirling in hers?

"Gojo Satoru." Oh, she wasn't reacting. There was absolutely no recognition at all. "Strongest jujutsu sorcerer, best curse energy user in the world…not that you use cursed energy at all, it seems."

"Nope, I've never tried to use curses, not even once. I call it reiki, like spiritual energy and all that." Now she was smiling, the gesture probably as fake as his own.

I call it, she said; was the girl alone in this, then?

"Hmm, haven't heard of it." Well, now, if she wanted to try to keep her secrets, he could play along…for a little while. "So, anything interesting over there?"

"If by interesting you're talking about the thing that created the barrier about this place, then not a thing…" her voice trailed off, azure eyes glancing back to where she came from, her brow furrowing, completely distracted from their conversation. When she spoke again, worry laced every word. "You're trying to get rid of that thing, right?"

"That's the goal," he chirped.

"I can lead you to it," she said before turning on her heel sprinting right back into the hallway she came from. "Just follow me for a bit!"

"In the direction you said there was nothing interesting in?" Keeping up with her wasn't difficult. The still unnamed girl wasn't slow, but as far as he could tell, there was nothing enhancing her physical skills.

"Look, you clearly have questions you want answered, and I obviously know almost nothing about this, so let's make a deal." It seemed like whatever caused her to start running was important enough for her to change her mind about keeping her secrets. "My family has no clue I can do any of this. Keep them out of this. Help me destroy this thing, and I'll tell you all I can."

"Not gonna ask for protection for yourself?" He jumped over a shattered pillar. The girl didn't lag behind him even though her motions were clumsier.

"I have a knack for surviving impossible situations." Azure eyes were confident even as she took a turn and raced down the broken electric stair and sped up.

"You got a deal then."

Keeping a few civilians unrelated to the jujutsu world safe shouldn't take that much effort. It was a low price to pay, considering the girl was contradicting the rules of the world as he knew it. In all his life, he'd never seen anything close to this spiritual energy of hers that could effortlessly bypass his Infinity. Oh, once the elders got word about her, they'd rush to try to get rid of her; she was a complete unknown after all, and that bunch were nothing but spineless cowards. Satoru's curiosity wouldn't be easily silenced, and he wanted to get the answers her deal promised. Plus, this would give him a better chance at observing her by potentially giving him more ways to interact with her. So the sorcerer kept up with the girl as she upped her speed once more, rushing into a restaurant while jumping over a couple of broken tables. Already, Satoru could see a group of curses inside the restaurant's kitchen, sniffing around an unremarkable patch of wall. And the urgency in her motions as the girl swung her arm, a piece of paper unnaturally flying to where the monsters kept roaming, was beyond unmistakable. Bright pink light exploded from it; even with his glasses, it felt almost blinding. Ahead of him, he could see the girl glancing back at him before huffing.

None of these curses were all that stronger than the one she vaporized just a while ago. It would only take a moment to get rid of the whole bunch. Still, Satoru made no move to jump into the fray. This was a good way for him to get a better look at the weird power this odd young woman had. Besides, even if she slipped up and got herself in danger wouldn't be hard to push her out of a mess. Of course, if she were to ask for help in dealing with these curses, the sorcerer guessed he could be convinced to offer a hand…after a bit of time. After all, he really wanted to get his answers.

So he stood behind, arms crossed. One eyebrow rose when the girl chose to silently throw herself into battle. Without even a hint of hesitation, the girl ran to the closest curse, her grip tight on the glowing improvised weapon. Stunned still by the bright light, it wasn't hard for her to reach the first monster. Despite being prepared for it this time, it was hard to believe how quickly its flesh turned into dust. And once more, there were no signs of cursed energy being used. But it looked like the weird light was nothing but a glorified flash bang, and the time it bought her was running out. Claws went after her, the two remaining curses launching after her. It seemed like her instincts weren't awful, letting her turn in time to get rid of one of them with a simple swing of her arm. The motion was fluid, a decent strategic movement, but the girl didn't have enough training to follow through with it, stumbling after the monster vanished. Iridescent blue calmly watched the girl fall, her shoulder hitting the floor. For a civilian, her performance was impressive enough, she didn't let out a sound and immediately moved, kneeling and swinging her arm around her to keep the last curse away. Too bad she was hitting in the wrong direction.

It looked like she knew it, too.

With a flick of his finger, his cursed energy surged, the small energy bullet hitting its target before its claws could reach the girl's skin.

"Huh…so you can get rid of these guys quite easily…" His playful persona now firmly in place, didn't betray just how shocking almost every action of hers was. "But you're kinda bad at it."

Oh, now those words got him a response, brows furrowing and fists clenching as she glared at him. It was far from the fear-tinged hatred curse users he dealt with would show him; it wasn't the resigned frustration that came from his classmates and superiors either. After all, no matter how angry people got at him, everyone knew Gojo Satoru was an existence to fear. Maybe she didn't believe him when he called herself the strongest, although she did call him overpowered…

"I'm an archer, alright?!" The girl stomped on the floor; clearly, she'd reached a breaking point. "Had I known this demon or curse or... whatever... was going to entrap us in this hell-like dimension, I would've found a way to get in with my bow and arrows!"

"What? You're saying you'd have come to this hell. Even if you knew what it was from the start?" He mocked, he'd always been a cynic, but things had gone noticeably worse lately.

"Of course, I would," she looked almost offended as she crossed her arms. "Other than me, no one else would've been able to deal with these monsters." Azure eyes narrowed. "Not until now, at least."

"Wait, you can't mean…"

"Give me a sec, I need to get in first to disable my barrier. I'm honestly not sure how it would react to your…cursed energy."

Without a warning, the girl turned and walked straight into the wall.

His mouth opened, questions stuck on his tongue as he watched her vanish into nothing. A barrier, she'd said, one that his Six Eyes couldn't see through or even register. With a couple of deliberately slow steps, Satoru got close to where he saw her disappear. No matter how he looked at it, there wasn't a single clue that a bounded field was anywhere near him. Earlier, when she used her powers, the sorcerer was able to sense that odd warmth, but right now, he couldn't feel that either. Was it made from the same energy? Just how much could this thing do?

Cautiously, the white-haired man lifted one hand, his finger nearing the spot this barrier had to be in. For once, Satoru had no idea what would happen if his infinity touched this mysterious energy of hers. Just a touch couldn't…

"Were you about to poke my barrier?"

The girl's annoyed expression was unmissable as she glared at him from the other side of a floor that came out of absolutely nowhere.

"I was curious." Satoru grinned.

"Just get in here."

Sending an annoyed glance at him, the girl reached for his arm. Her fingers closed around his wrist, her soft skin coming into contact with his in a surprisingly firm grip. Eyes widened slightly, tension making his muscles taut before the sorcerer could do anything to control it. A quick flash of concerned azure let him know the still unnamed young woman noticed his reaction, too. She'd broken through his Infinity without knowing she'd done anything shocking. Thoughts swirled inside his head, possibilities changing and adapting, and all of them screeched to a stop as he finally took in the insides of the previously invisible room. Over a dozen pairs of eyes were staring at him with a mix of tension, confusion, and hope. The group of people was an odd collection, all of them dirty and clearly haunted by the surreal situation they were in, but they were all still breathing. A handful of them sported stained bandages and ripped fabric to help with open wounds, but even then, more than half of the room seemed to have anything beyond scratches and cruises. One of the older women was even holding a couple of children in her arms. He barely registered how the girl began mumbling what sounded like a religious chant under her breath before pasting a couple pieces of paper on what had to be a kitchen storehouse door.

Because it had been over an hour since all hell got loose in this mall, and yet, all of these people were still alive and breathing despite the fact that none of them had any decent level of cursed energy.

"There are…survivors…" For the second time in a single day, his words left him without his permission.

"Some of them were close to me when shit hit the fan. Some others I found while I went out." The girl explained. As if keeping untrained civilians alive in a place like this was an easy task for anyone to accomplish. Only exceptionally strong sorcerers could afford to worry about civilians.

"Kagome-san?" A woman's hesitant voice broke his train of thought. "My brother…he's getting worse."

That was all the girl seemed to be all she needed to jump into action once more.

Hurried steps got her to the other end of the room, the rest of the survivors opening up a path for her to reach a scared teen cradling a younger boy. His skin had taken a sickly tinge, far too pale, and his breathing too unstable to be healthy. Satoru stepped behind her, keeping his sight locked onto the girl, Kagome, as she gave an authoritative "Pass me the first aid kit". With swift motions he would've expected from an experienced doctor, the young woman had peeled blood-soaked fabric off the boy's right arm. Inwardly, Satoru could only wince at the sight of the necrotic flesh and almost pulsating black veins. This boy was too far gone.

"W-what is this…"

"Poison, he'll die." His voice was cold, unbothered by the sister's anguished reaction. Bandaids were meant to be ripped off quickly. "That's an extremely painful way to go. It would be kinder to end it now. "

"No!" Screams like this were nothing new to him either. Non-sorcerers always had a more difficult time coming to terms with death. "No, you can't!"

"He won't die," Kagome's voice somehow managed to retain a soft quality even when she was glaring daggers at him. "There's no need at all, I can heal him."

"The poison's already running through his system. Even if we were to cut off his arm, his blood is already contaminated. This isn't a wound that can be healed." Not that they had any way to treat an injury like that, even if an amputation would be enough to save the young boy's life.

"Perhaps it can't be healed with your methods." The girl shook her head, determination shining in her gaze. "But I don't use cursed energy, remember?"

The reverse cursed technique was an immensely difficult skill to master; even Satoru struggled with it, and he could only use it for himself. People like Shoko who could heal others were more than just rare, and for that, incredibly valued too. Already, Kagome showed talent in several other areas, far more than many of his peers, and if she was untrained, then it was quite an accomplishment. Yet here she was, closing her eyes, mumbling what sounded like random prayers, and letting that pink glow she'd used before enveloped her hands. Once again, the sorcerer could feel a faint warmth coming from her and watching the energy flow into the wound, pushing against the poison. In front of his very eyes, the black-tinted skin regained its healthy parlor, the jagged open wound slowly knitting itself back together. Her brow furrowed slightly in concentration as she healed an injury he'd thought unavoidably fatal.

People lied. And they did so often for far too many reasons to count. Thanks to his position, Satoru had learned to be skeptical. Idiotic sycophants tried to say what they thought the Gojo heir wanted to hear with so much frequency that he'd grown tired of it. But when she said she would've still found her way into a special grade's territorial domain all in order to save a bunch of strangers, he could detect no hint of deceit in her words. She was an unknown. A mystery with a fiery temper and held an unbelievable amount of potential. As long as Satoru could make sure to keep his part of the deal and ensure her family remained safe and away from the risks that came hand in hand with the jujutsu world, he could see her standing her ground even in front of the old guard. Chances of her being corrupted by greed or ambition were also low. It was painfully obvious that this odd girl knew nothing about curses or sorcerers, and yet, she'd been willing to come here and reveal herself as some sort of freak just so she could try and help others. And quite honestly…his curiosity was piqued. What else was this archer who came to fight curses with only paper charms capable of?

"So…" he started, a smile tugging at his lips. "You did heal him."

"I told you, didn't I? We are definitely not using the same kind of energy."

"Alright…what do you say about a new deal?" His grin was wide at the sight of her cautious glance. "After we go and vaporize this curse, I will personally guarantee your safety as well; in exchange, you'll become my assistant once I start as a teacher six months from now."

"What…?"

"I forced the guys in charge to let me teach the next generations, and the old farts would absolutely despise you. Which means you'd be perfect as my teacher assistant." She was the right kind of crazy, and there was way too much potential for him to let her to fend for herself. Not when he recently decided that this was the path he wanted to walk. "We still need to work on your close-range combat because you suck at it right now, but this stupid determination of yours, the reason you came here and committed yourself to protect a bunch of strangers, that's what the brats will need to learn. You'd have good pay, too. So, do we have a deal?"

She was clearly taken aback, head tilting while attempting to process the offer.

And then, the confusion vanished. Her gaze sharp as it went down to his open palm. Satoru's grin widened. Uninvolved with the jujutsu world as she may be, Kagome was clearly far from a naïve, sheltered girl. Retired from his side of society, he could be sure that she wasn't working for the interest of one of the ancient clans, and those old farts were more likely to try to attack her than recruit her. Even if, for whatever reason, her moral compass were to falter, the girl would become a useful piece for him to disrupt the current corrupt status quo. If anything, it'd be entertaining to watch her navigate his world.

Taking a deep breath, the girl closed her eyes for just a second before opening them again. A petite hand grasped his, her grip firm, and her gaze was more than just determined and still unaware that she'd just bypassed his Infinity yet again.

"Alright," she said, looking straight at him. "I'll be your assistant."

He grinned perhaps a bit too widely since the girl's eyes narrowed when he gave her hand a firm shake. Oh, he was sure now. This decision was one he wouldn't regret.

"Well now, we have a curse to vaporize."

A/N: So sorry for the delay, this was meant to be out last week but my heath decided to just take a vacation this year so as soon as I got out of my cold I ended up getting a nice little bout of fevers and nausea that ended up lasting entirely too much.

Anyway, here we are, if the dialogue seems a little familiar it's because this is the same scene that was in Random Reveries only from a different pov, partly because I figured this way would be a little more dynamic, and partly because I wanted to try my hand at it. As for the questions about pairing my current plan is to keep the intended pairing of the chapter, meaning, Satoru/Kagome, but I haven't written too far ahead in this story so I'll see where this goes as things progress. Regardless, these two are gonna have a close relationship, partly because Kagome is just breaking every law of the world Satoru thought was set in stone and he's never been shown to be someone who stood back in fear of the unknown.

As always, thank you guys so much for reading and any and all review/comment/criticism is greatly, greatly appreciated.