DISCLAIMER: I do not own Jujutsu Kaisen. No copyright infringement intended.
Nobara, Junpei, Arata and the driver Norikazu Katanokami. They are driving to a location for an extracurricular mission to exorcise a second-grade cursed spirit.
"You seem very happy." Junpei remarks. He can still see sparkles in Nobara's eyes.
"Hehehe..." She giggles. "I'm just thinking... Life's not so bad, you know."
Junpei knows she's specifically talking about her rebirth. He likes the idea of her spending her lifetime there with him and everyone else in that world, if she's content enough with staying and not leaving if they were to find a way back home.
"I couldn't agree more." Junpei replies.
"I'm so ready to crush this mission! Bring it on!" Nobara flares with excitement. "I just gotta get the hang of outputting positive energy and I'll be an RCT master."
"That's another thing Geto-sensei said requires a special aptitude as well. And that's within the question of being able to use positive energy in the first place." Arata says. "I'm sure you'd NAIL it though."
"Lovin' that POSITIVE energy, Nitta."
"Hahaha."
"Hehehe."
"You two are just adorable." Junpei teases. "I wonder how sensei is doing."
"His mission doesn't start until dark." Nitta says.
"Who's he rescuing?" Nobara says.
"A young girl our age. She was mysteriously kidnapped but she's being held on ransom." Arata shows them a picture of Fumi.
"I can't imagine being in her situation." Junpei says. "Right, Kugisaki?"
Nobara, still staring at the phone, had the likeness of a stone statue.
"Kugisaki?" Arata calls out. He then turns the phone's screen off to see if that would un-petrify her.
Nobara bows her head and cups her face with her hands.
She takes a long breath. She removes her hands from her face and the two boys see her eyes, now dyed pitch-black.
"Kodoku, you bastard..."
None of them say a word. Even Norikazu the driver senses the intensity in the air.
Eventually they arrive at a park. Nobara, Junpei and Arata walk into it.
Arata raises a Curtain.
"Emerge from the darkness, blacker than darkness. Purify that which is impure."
All three walk in.
"Alright, listen up." Nobara says. This is the first thing anyone said to each other since that moment. "We'll exorcise this thing in five minutes, tops. We head back to Jujutsu High. Join Geto-sensei's mission."
"Frankly, that's not gonna happen." Junpei responds.
"It's alright. I'll go myself. You sit back, Yoshino."
"I don't think it'd be possible for any of us, Kugisaki. For multiple reasons!"
"Okay? Name one."
"For real? Really?"
"She's a friend of yours, isn't she?" Arata asks Nobara.
"Yeah... Actually, she's my first friend. It hasn't been long since we parted ways but..." She then takes a long deep sigh. "How did it come to this?"
"Nothing's gonna happen to your friend." Junpei reassures. "It's gonna be a piece of cake for sensei."
"Yep." Arata agrees. "And if it makes you feel any better we will finish this mission in five minutes tops!"
"Yeah! Wait, what?" Junpei replies.
"Majority vote." Nobara says. "It's Yoshinover now."
"Alright, alright. We are all getting fired up, I get that but..." Junpei says. "I believe we should take our time. His mission starts in the night and the sun just started sett- Is that a stopwatch?"
Junpei looks at Arata's stopwatch. It starts beeping.
"The five minute count just started ticking." Arata says.
Junpei stares blankly at the two of them. He comes to the realization that he's actually the one holding the team's collective brain together.
"Don't give me that look, Sasuke. Let's get going and body this curse." Nobara says.
The three enter an abandoned building and see it immediately.
A giant butterfly with glassy iridescent wings.
"It's... beautiful..." Junpei says.
"DIE, CURSED SCUM." Nobara launches two nails at it.
Its antennae twitch and parry the nails with accuracy.
"Oh crap... I think I forgot my camera." Arata says, a short distance away.
"Your what?" Nobara asks.
The insect curse lets out a loud screeching sound.
"It won't look as good but I'll just use my phone!!!" Arata says, trying to be audible over the noise.
"WHY????" Nobara yells inquisitively.
"FOCUS." Junpei loudly interrupts.
The butterfly's antennae lash out at the two, who dodge.
"Moon Dregs!" Junpei summons his shikigami. He performs a hand sign with both hands.
"Onyx Sting!"
The jellyfish's tentacles join to form two black spikes. They extend and embed themselves onto the phantom's abdomen.
The curse lets out a low growl.
"I... I-I C-CAN'T ALLOW THAT TO-TO-TO-TO SHAAAAAAPE YOUUUUUU..." The curse utters.
"It always creeps me out when they talk..." Junpei says.
"Did your attack do anything?" Nobara asks.
"Definitely. My Envenomation Technique works through mere contact." Junpei replies. "The stingers are for lethal measure but its exoskeleton is too tough."
The area starts to heat up. Embers come off the curse's body and form into glowing spheres. Four spheres are formed.
Two spheres pursue each of them.
Nobara prepares six nails.
"COME AT ME BRO." She says, in actual English. She fires the nails at the spheres which explode. The dispersed embers form back into spheres. Nobara notices a buzzing sound akin to tiny insects.
"Are those cinders what I think they are??" Nobara remarks.
"Did I hear you say what I think you said?" Junpei responds. "Come at me bro? Really?"
"Believe it." She responds, in actual English. "Yoshino, those fireballs are actually fireflies! A bunch of tiny fireflies!"
"I think I have an idea!" Junpei says as he changes elevation by going up a flight of stairs. He jumps off a balcony and Moon Dregs envelopes him to become a protective bubble.
The jellyfish collides into the curse and the ember bombs crash into it, releasing an even more violent explosion due to the firefles inhabiting the curse's body.
"Yoshino!!!" Nobara exclaims.
Moon Dregs bounces into the walls and around the area before its motion rests. Junpei emerges.
"My shikigami is very resistant to collision trauma and heat as well."
"Well now I want a shikigami too."
"Mine comes with my cursed technique. But I think you can still-"
The curse lets out a loud shriek.
"It's unfazed?!" Junpei exclaims.
"If anything you made it angry!" Nobara says.
However she notices that a bit of the exoskeleton cracked off.
Its wings begins to lift it up but it crashes back into the ground.
"Actually the explosion did hurt it!" Nobara says.
"No, it's my cursed technique taking effect." Junpei replies. "Its movements become impaired bit by bit. The speed of deterioration depends on the target."
Nobara realizes that he must have used it on other humans in his previous life. He had mentioned that he attacked his bullies.
"Probably hurt a whole stinking lot." Nobara says, her tone slightly aloof.
"Yeah I bet it does." Junpei says. He then notices the subtle detail with Nobara's phrasing. "Or rather, it did."
She then gives him an apologetic smile to ease his mind.
"?" Arata wonders.
"Anyway, I'm gonna try outputting Reverse Cursed Technique!"
The insect lets out a shrill scream and begins chasing Junpei by moving with his legs.
"Crap crap crap crap crap CRAP CRAP CRAAAAP!!!" Junpei yells as he runs away.
The four spheres then begin chasing Nobara. She remembers about the shard from its exoskeleton and begins running around trying to find it while avoiding the bombs.
"Even if I regenerate from literal incineration my uniform won't..." She says to herself. "Where is it, damnit?!"
"Kugisaki! Over here!!" Arata yells from a balcony above. He throws a shard of its exoskeleton to her. The temperature of the shard causes him to grimace in pain. "Use Resonance!!"
"Way ahead of you!!" She catches it. She carefully fires each of four nails one by one at the cinder bombs and they each explode with an ear-deafening boom.
"This fragment is of low value but that's all I need right now."
Nobara places the scorching-hot fist-sized shard below her straw doll. She deduces that this piece must be more brittle than the rest of the curse's exoskeleton.
"Straw Doll Technique! Resonance!!"
Out of two of the curse's legs giant nails spikes protrude out. It halts into its path.
"Huh?" Junpei reacts.
Before the ember bombs reform, Nobara levitates two nails on front of her.
The spectral green color of the cursed energy on the nails become a glassy, glacial white .
Two nails strike and instantly rupture majority of its abdomen. It turns around and roars at Nobara, before a third nail destroys its head.
"Whoa..." Arata says.
"Roll the credits." Nobara says in English, gleefully spinning her hammer in her hand.
"Kugisaki. I've... never been more... happy to have you as a friend." Junpei says, trying to catch his breath.
"Oh yes. Praise me more!"
"You're a bomb-ass talented young genius of a woman!!" Arata says with ardor.
"Five stars!! Junpei, you're next! Top that!!" Nobara smugly closes her eyes and leans her ear at him.
She hears nothing.
"Haah? You got nothing to say?" She pouts. When she opens her eyes, she sees the confused looks on their faces.
She opens her mouth to ask them about it but no voice comes out.
Junpei looks at Arata while pointing at Nobara, panickingly sharing his own silent words.
A fog begins to settle in, quickly shrouding the entire place.
From the fog on the ground emerges another curse, much bigger than the last.
It's a mantis-like spectre with a black exoskeleton and green eyes.
Nobara remembers a conversation she had as a child with her grandmother, Konoe Kugisaki.
Once every few summers there is a festival. People who make mantis forelegs out of paper mache and dance around.
They would chant the name of the local deity over and over. The first time Nobara saw that was when she was sure the other villagers were crazy. She asked her grandmother about it the next day.
"Oh that? Yes, little one. Indeed, we are all crazy." Konoe says. Then she goes into a laughing fit.
"Grandma... Can we move?" Nobara asks, her brain trying to find a way to stay calm with this newfound alertness.
"That seems like a waste of time."
"Eh...? Why?"
"Because I'd still be there by your side."
"..."
"And I'm the CRAZIEST OF THEM ALL. AHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAH!!!!"
"Oh wow! Look! It's past my bedtime. Good night."
"It's nine... heheh, nine in the morning." Konoe responds, fighting her laughter.
"This conversation lasted twelve hours inside my mind so I think I'm justified."
Konoe grabs the tiny Nobara and traps her inside a relentless hug.
"I will politely ask you to let me go."
"I'm getting to the best part."
"Please no..."
"It's an ubusunagami. The guardian deity of our village."
Konoe holds Nobara back from covering her ears.
"It's a mantis that lives underground, listening to everything that happens on the surface. All sounds reach its ears, as long as the sounds exist in our village."
"Unhand me, woman!"
"Hikokuju-no-kami doesn't sleep. Its only goal is to preserve peace above ground. But it never ever visits the surface. So that doesn't necessarily mean the villagers are safe. Do you understand where I'm going?"
"Yes, of course. Actually, no. Never mind."
"It operates by sound. Any voice that sounds like violence, regardless of whatever is actually going on, becomes its target. Threatening words, falling items, those war cries you make whenever playing video games. Once it happens twice in a row, a giant mantis forelimb comes out of the ground and splits the perpetrator in TWO!! Oh-ho... HohahahaHAHAHAHAHA!!!"
"That makes no sense. I always yell the word 'die' whenever I play video games!! And I say it a lot!"
"Oh my sweet grandchild. I never said I believed in Hikokuju-no-kami. I do not. But I'm a different sort of crazy, which you will come to know."
"Oh sweet. That's... that's fantastic..."
"But keep in mind that I never said that Hikokuju-no-kami doesn't exist."
"That's... That's another twelve hours..."
"Don't forget this. Whenever you despair, rage, loathe or fear something enough, it will often come back to greet you with its own face."
Nobara's mind comes back into the present, staring at the mantis. She realizes that the act of killing the butterfly was an act of violence, earning Hikokuju-no-kami's ire.
...
Suguru and Yu Haibara discuss with the front desk receptionist, Momo Manzaki. The discussion was primarily about how Manzaki shares her first name with Momo Nishimiya.
Just then Nobara, Junpei, Arata and Norikazu enter through the front door.
"Excellently done, my students." Suguru greets. He notices their clothes having tears and Junpei and Arata having mild injuries, while Nobara's body is unscathed. The midsection of the top of her uniform, however, had a massive hole. "Looks like you got roughed up. I'm glad you are all okay."
"Yeah, thanks to Moratorium." Arata responds.
"Kugisaki had it the worst, but thank goodness she can use Reverse Cursed Technique now." Junpei adds.
"Yeah." Nobara says. "If I wasn't a bomb-ass talented young genius of a woman, I'd be extremely dead by now." She pats the bare skin of her midsection.
"That sounds awful." Yu remarks. "Must have been a really tenacious second-grade."
"The second-grade wasn't that big of a deal but... after that..." Junpei responds.
"Their faith in ubusunagami. It was a nomadic apparition of a local deity. That thing was a first-grade..." Arata says, with a subtle tone of frustration in his voice.
Nobara cringes at the thought of dying a second time to another cursed spirit.
"I don't mean to be a voice of gloom right now but being a jujutsu sorcerer is visibly not what it's cracked up to be." Norikazu remarks. "It's a very dangerous profession. Anyway, bye now."
"Wait, sir!" Yu Haibara trumpets. "You! Sir!!"
"Wha...? Me? Is it something I said?" Norikazu responds nervously.
"Heh... I wanna see where this goes..." Nobara says to herself.
"Go ahead and call up Larue." Suguru says to Manzaki.
"Right away, sir."
JUJUTSU NUGGETS: In the new world, Kento Nanami was immediately going to retire after his rebirth. But he changed his mind when he met Haibara, who had reached adulthood, once again.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thank you for reading another chapter. So, maybe you noticed and maybe you didn't, but the chapter is a tad smaller than my chapters usually are. See, recently I've had new things to add to my schedule but I don't want to keep readers waiting long in between chapters so I decided to release shorter chapters but at a higher frequency. Thank you for your patience!!