This is specifically a Magica Record x JJK Fic if you're confused, but will include aspects of the original Madoka Magica, just wanted to give folks a heads up
To be a Jujutsu Sorcerer meant that the individual had to be at least a little crazy. Nanami had frankly heard the sentiment for much of his life and while he wished he was the exception, in his heart he knew that was far from the case. He had to be crazy to return to this life away from his cushy job as a salaryman. Where, while not incredible, paid enough that if he was careful he could have retired at a reasonable age. Not that money was anywhere near the primary reason he had returned to sorcery. No it had been mostly out of some desire to find fulfillment in his life…but with the money he made now he would be able to retire in his 40s, maybe even 30s so it certainly wasn't a detriment.
What was a detriment on the other hand was the stress that sometimes made him wonder if he would even make it to retirement age. Either a heart attack or a curse would take him out at the rate he was going, and he felt it was more likely the former. Being a sorcerer was shit, but so was being a salaryman, and if there was even a chance of escaping one sooner than the other he supposed he would take it.
Though, it wasn't all bad. There was no great reward or even verbal acknowledgement from the people he saved, but there was some from his students. Primarily Itadori as he was the one he spent the most time training. The boy was loud, reckless, and a bit of an idiot, but he also had a pure heart that only a child could have. A view of the world that wasn't quite black and white, but was far more kind than the one most Jujutsu Sorcerers would eventually develop. He'd be lying if he said that he didn't want to try and protect some of that innocence for as long as he could.
But he wasn't an idiot. In this line of work the other shoe would drop, sooner than later and Nanami would do his best to push that day off for as long as possible.
Being an adult, at the end of the day, was shit.
Regardless of how much he tried to be responsible, to take the burden off his students, he was still human. And since he was still human, he still got exhausted even if he hid it better than most people. Really, if he was honest with himself, he was exhausted all the time so when the rare break came up on his schedule he was more than eager to take the time off. Maybe catch up on some rest so he'd be ready to face whatever nonsense the higher ups decided to put these kids up against next.
It was mostly a habit that saw him heading to the district in which his old job was as he took the train the morning of his first day off. The tall buildings were packed together so tightly that they nearly covered the sky. They were yet to be filled by their hundreds of worker ants that were just trying to make enough to live at their jobs. Add Japan's work culture to the fact, and it was a lifestyle that often felt demeaning regardless of the money. The familiarity was one thing but it wasn't like he held any fondness for that hell hole.
Instead, what he did want to check out was the bakery he'd once frequented on his way to and from work. It had been a couple years since he'd been a regular but he still had their schedule memorized by heart. He'd left his home early in the morning, when the sun was barely creeping over the edge of the horizon. He wanted to be absolutely sure he managed to get to the bakery in time for their first batch of bread and his favorite sandwich.. After he'd had a good breakfast, he planned to relax at home for a few hours and maybe try catching up on one of the many books he'd yet to read. If he was really feeling it, he would even go for a nap in the afternoon. When was the last time he'd had time for that?
He arrived at the bakery right as one of the workers was unlocking the door for the day. While she wasn't one of the people he recognized during his time as a regular, he was still greeted with as warm a smile as she welcomed him inside.
The bakery was filled with delicious smells he could never quite find a candle that came close to. And he'd certainly looked. The outside had had a small chill to the air, but inside of the bakery he felt a sense of coziness that could put him to sleep.
As he placed his order, he couldn't help but think of the woman who had accidentally changed the trajectory of his life even if she wasn't there today. She was such a simple person living a simple life unaware of the curses to the world. At the time he had envied her. He wished he could have just ignored the many horrors that most normal people never had to face. But at the same time, it was because of people like him that such people were allowed to live their lives. It was hard work, but unlike working as a stockbroker, he felt it served a purpose.
Nanami carried his bag of baked goods outside into the chill morning air as the last of the night was beginning to disappear over the horizon. The streets were becoming more crowded and the world was becoming more noisy as people made their repetitive commutes towards their repetitive jobs.
It was typically considered rude to eat while walking in many parts of Japan, but today he didn't care as much for societal expectations. He pulled a melon bun from his bag, the sweetest thing he'd decided to grab since he didn't have the biggest sweet tooth. Their buns however had never been overtly sweet, making them a perfect breakfast snack while he'd save his sandwich for lunch.
Eventually, he found a bench where he could sit and finish his bun in peace as he took a moment to just watch the world go by as folks began their commute.
But as he hesitantly finished the bun he felt the oh so familiar yet irritating sense of a cursed spirit not far from him. The aura it gave off told him it was stronger than the flyheads that sometimes lurked around musty areas like alleyways…..which meant he would have to do something about it. He sighed as he scanned the area, able to be somewhat discreet about it thanks to his glasses as he looked around for signs of the curse. He no longer felt its eyes on him, which meant it likely had turned to find a new target. Great.
Nanami got to his feet, hearing the clatter of something being knocked over in a nearby alley way. With his bag of goods still in his arms, he hurried towards the direction of the curse.
Through the sharp shadows of the morning, he could see someone run into the alley after the curse but he couldn't distinguish any clear features. He was unsure if they saw the curse, or if they were simply unlucky. "Dammit." he cursed, the last thing he needed was a civilian getting caught up in the crossfire in the event he couldn't destroy it in a single blow. Even if the curse was easily dispatched, however, he would still be in the awkward position of coming off as a crazy person in the event the civilian couldn't see the curse.
He dashed into the alleyway, and looked on in surprise.
Yes, there was the curse he had expected to see. Just as disgusting as they all were, taller than him and with bulging reddish flesh. It had wide, yellow eyes resembling a goat's, with a mouth housing blunt but numerous teeth. By now he'd grown quite accustomed to seeing the many horrifying ways they could manifest and it was incredibly rare for one to actually unsettle him.
What he was not anticipating was for someone to already be engaging it.
From behind, they looked to be a young woman with long, dark blue hair. The dress she wore was a similar blue in color with golden embellishments towards the bottom resembling stars and constellations. Around her chest, she wore white armor that was accented with gold with a similarly colored veil on the back of her head.
More obvious than her outfit however, was the long spear she threw at the curse the moment that he entered the alley. The curse had come at her, stumbling wildly as if eager to meet its next meal. Before it could get much closer to her, her spear collided with the curse, spearing it through the chest. It bulged disgustingly in a writhing mass before popping like a balloon, dropping purple blood that vanished almost as soon as it made contact with its surroundings.
It could have only taken a moment but Nanami looked on in surprise. No it wasn't as if he knew every sorcerer or student that was out there, but most tended to not dress so…flashy.
He opened his mouth to question her, but as she turned around, he realized he knew her, he'd known her since she was an infant really.
"Yachiyo?"
The woman, no girl,snapped to look at him in surprise. Her flashy outfit disappeared in a burst of light as she was left wearing a simple black and blue dress. It took a moment for recognition to cross her face before her eyes widened and in a single inhuman leap she jumped to the nearby roof and rushed away.
"Wait!" He called after her but it was too late. He was powerful and athletic in his own right but he wasn't about to go chasing her. The area was a busy one and he wanted to avoid drawing as much attention as possible. He sighed as he adjusted his glasses. As far as he'd ever known he was the only sorcerer, well, only person with potential to be a sorcerer in his family. His niece, Yachiyo, certainly had never shown any indication she could even see curses the last time he'd seen her, let alone fight them.
When he'd last seen her….she must have been 13 so 6 years ago. Prior to his return to Jujutsu society. Could she have been scouted in that time? But even so if she had, surely he'd have been notified, or at the very least seen her at some point? If it was the case she'd been scouted and he had not been alerted, then he was going to have some words with the higher ups.
A depressing thought crossed his mind. Could she be a curse user? Curse users, the name for sorcerers who used their powers to spread misery and harm people instead of helping them.
The level of control she'd had to dispatch what he guesstimated to be a Grade 3 curse would mean some level of training either with her own cursed energy or some cursed there was her outfit transformation. Really, there were far too many questions, especially this early in the morning.
He looked at his bag of bread which he had nearly crushed in his grip in his rush to get to the curse and sighed, so much for his break.
As it turned out, Yachiyo Nanami was a difficult girl to find. He'd reached out to her parents, well, primarily his sister, in order to see what he could find out about her. And frustratingly, it wasn't as much as he thought or expected from her own parents.
"You haven't seen her since she graduated highschool?" he asked, both surprised and frankly irritated with his sibling's lack of care for her own daughter.
"She applied for emancipation when she was 15 for her modeling job and was able to find an apartment with the money from it. After that she only visited when she had the chance, then when she went to college she stopped visiting altogether. She still calls though so we know she's okay! We know she has a lot on her plate between school and work. By the way, have you seen some of her photoshoots? She looks gorgeous! If something was wrong we'd know don't worry!"
He wanted to reach through the phone and find a way to get it through his sister's head
how irresponsible she was. Even if everything regarding emancipation and everything had been done legally, they still should have kept tabs on their only child, "Do you have any idea where she's living?"
"She was living in an apartment near one of the high schools, but I think she moved to my mother in law's villa her senior year."
"You think?" he asked with a sigh, doing his best to maintain his composure, "Do you have the address, I…." he had to think for a moment for a lie, he'd never liked lying to his sister but as she couldn't see curses or was even aware of their existence, it had always been a necessity. He felt that now, even if it was regarding her own daughter, he had to do the same so as not to freak her out. At least until he could figure out what was going on, "My job is looking for a model for the next quarter's advertisement campaign and I wanted to recommend her."
"I was wondering!" she laughed, "Ahhh, I'll have to ask my husband. He's away from work for a while though but I can pass you her number. I'm sure she'd be happy to chat with her uncle for a bit."
"Please."
His sister had always been rather ditsy, but as soon as he had the chance he'd have to take the chance to have a serious talk to her even if she was his older sister by a near decade.
Getting Yachiyo's phone number was ultimately useless as it was clear she was ignoring or even silencing his calls. Most likely, she either recognized his number or suspected he was trying to reach out to her.
Ultimately, the only good information he'd gotten from his sister was the city Yachiyo was living in, Kamihama City.
The city wasn't all that far from Tokyo and sat roughly in the area around Yokohama. The distance however wasn't the problem, he could make it in less than an hour. The real issue was the city itself.
Already, Kamihama stood out as an unusual city even to those who dealt with the impossible on a daily basis. For one, it had an astounding lack of cursed spirits compared to what would be expected of a city of its size. At least, according to the reports that had been the case recently. Despite having a low rate of violence, the city had seen a massive uptick in disappearances over the past year. The lack of curses had been investigated shortly after the fact was initially reported, but the sorcerers sent to investigate had been unable to find the source
At the time he hadn't thought much of it, not that he was assigned to the mission anyways. But now things were starting to get more confusing. To the point that as he sat in his room thinking things over, he could feel himself developing a headache.
He pinched the bridge of his nose, really he had only gotten two days off but he didn't want to leave this for after. And, given that the city was already on their radar, maybe the higher ups could approve him going to investigate himself.
‐-
It hadn't been hard to be officially assigned the mission, though he had received some questions regarding his interest in it. He'd avoided any mention of his niece directly as he worried that the elders could consider her a threat if she was unknown to them. He knew they weren't above executing children. So instead, he'd merely voiced his concern for a family member living in such a mysterious area. With his reputation as a responsible sorcerer, that had been enough to sway them.
Though, not without having his own tag along for the mission in the form of Yuji Itadori. The pink-haired teen had already been through far too much. While Nanami had done his best to mitigate the worst of their shared missions, with the higher ups dead set on killing him it was difficult. No doubt, this was another effort to try and discreetly get the boy killed. Not that Nanami would let that happen while he was still alive.
That left the two of them heading out by train to the city with Satoru promising to catch up once he finished his own mission. Really, he suspected Gojo's main interest was the potential to find another powerful student. Yachiyo was 19, four years older than they typically began training sorcerers, but he didn't think that would stop him.
As Nananmi took the train ride to rest his eyes for a bit, Yuji was ecstatic to be going anywhere. That's right, he'd spent most of his life until recently secluded to his small town.
"Look at how green it is out here!" he exclaimed with a smile as he looked out the window like a little kid. "So Kamihama City huh? This is the first time we've headed this far from Tokyo. Have you ever been?"
"No." Nanami replied, eyes still closed as he absently listened to the conversations of the people around them, looking for anything that could be useful. Eavesdropping wasn't something he typically did, but with what little information they had anything would be welcome.
"Is there some curse causing a lot of trouble here?" Yuji asked as he hushed his voice slightly.
"The opposite." Nanami said, by now he was fairly used to Itadori not reading the mission breakdown beforehand. "The city has an overall lack of curses."
"Eh? Isn't that a good thing?" Yuji asked.
"Curses are, as awful as they are, a natural part of the world like birds or insects." Nanami explained as he opened his eyes and looked over at Yuji who was looking at him curiously, "Animals flee before a natural disaster, curses stay. So then the higher ups are wondering, what disaster could be scaring the curses away? From the records I saw they noticed the lack of curses around a year ago and it doesn't seem to have changed."
"So…could it be like a bigger curse is like, eating them all?" It wasn't the worst theory, curses were capable of devouring their own kind to get stronger and there wasn't a known limit to this behavior. But Nanami felt that if that were the case something like that should have been noticed.
"Possibly….But there is no way to tell until we actually get there and start investigating."
"So is this an all out or like a moderate effort type mission?"
Nanami couldn't help but give a small smile to the question, "We'll begin with moderate effort, but this is also a reconnaissance mission. I trust you not to tell anyone but, a few days ago I saw a family member of mine exorcize a curse, a family member I believed incapable of even seeing them."
"Yo really? That's pretty cool so are you coming here to meet him then? I mean aren't sorcerers super short staffed?"
"She, is only a bit older than you and she seemed to know what she was doing. I'm worried about the worst case scenario. That she's become a curse user. If she has, or even if she hasn't, I want to get to her before anyone else from the school does. You know better than most where that road can lead."
A dark look came across Itadori's face, and he silently nodded, his gaze returning to looking out the window.
Nanami knew he could have phrased it better, to not remind Itadori of such a dark time in his life. At the same time he wanted to stress the importance of finding her. He wished he didn't have to drag Yuji into his family's business, but in this case he didn't have much of a choice.
Yachiyo had always been a very quiet girl when he'd known her back when he had seen her more regularly, before her family moved away from Tokyo and closer to the countryside. Polite, but rather blunt at times even as a preteen. He wondered at what point she had found herself wrapped up in this mess. His personal guess was around the time she was emancipated, that would have her be Itadori's age now. Which checked out for the age that rogue Sorcerers or Curse users were likely to fully develop their powers if left on their own.
At the same time however, he was sure after he was scouted the rest of his family would have been investigated for possible sorcerers. Had she any innate cursed energy ability, she surely would have been picked out. Not that he would have ever wanted someone else in his family to be involved in such a life, but there were certainly worse outcomes.
His hope was that she'd developed her skills as a way to protect herself, rather than to harm. It wasn't unheard of, albeit rare, for a person to become a sorcerer in their own right without understanding any of the world they were a part of. The one thing that dragged his thoughts down was her reaction to him. She'd been shocked to see him and clearly recognized him. Yet she'd panicked and run away instead of even bothering to try and explain herself.
"Have you heard the rumor?"
It was the whisper of a girl. Normally he would have tuned it out, but something about the girl's urgency caused him to glance over to where the voice had come from.
There were two girls actually, roughly of middle or highschool age who sat close together, speaking in hushed voices. There was nothing overtly odd about them and really it probably was schoolgirl gossip, but the concerned, no, desperate looks on their faces said otherwise.
He tried to listen in a bit more carefully but due to the group of people who began to enter as the train stopped, he was only able to catch the end of the statement.
"-can be saved in Kamihama City."
Can be saved? What could that mean? And more importantly…is it relevant to…
"Oh Nanamin! Next stop is Kamihama City! Good thing right, would suck to have to start looking around after dark?" Yuji chimed, evidently Nanami had missed the announcement over the intercom.
He wanted to ask the girls more but was aware of how it would look to bystanders, so he refrained, "Yes, we should get there before dark, that should give us some time to investigate. Since curses are stronger at night, and we're in such an unknown area, I would like to avoid putting ourselves in unneeded danger."
"Do you know where your niece is? That way we can rush over soon as we get there!" he asked, now more mindlessly watching the world go by.
"Frustratingly, her parents didn't keep track of where their teenage daughter was living. Which means we're on our own on that matter as well."
They sat in relative silence after that though Nanami's focus was back to the two girls he'd heard talking earlier. Like Yuji, they seemed content to just watch the world go by as the train neared thing he did notice about them however, was that they each had a simple silver ring, and he could swear he felt some sort of energy emanating from them. It was different from cursed energy, and he couldn't place it as something he recognized.
He wanted to try and talk to them once the train stopped but he didn't get the chance to. They were off in the sea of people the second they reached the station like they were in a rush to do so. He just hoped he wasn't missing something bigger. "We're here. Be prepared for anything." Nanami nodded to Itadori as the two of them departed from the train to the city.
Kamihama, along with Mikitara and a few other cities, had a reputation in the wider country of Japan of being particularly focussed with climate friendly architecture and infrastructure. This was made obvious the moment they stepped off the train platform. Most buildings had some form of greenery growing from planters attached to the outside of them, while sidewalks and rooftops were designed to function as solar panels during the day and light sources at night. With the growing problem of climate change, Nanami hoped this type of architecture would catch on in other parts of Japan but knew in his heart that governments were typically stubborn about these kinds of things.
The city, despite its size, had a much cleaner atmosphere than the pollution that was typical of the larger cities. Despite the purpose of their mission, Nanami could feel a sense of ease creep over him at how peaceful the city seemed from the outside. Yet he could feel something beneath that ease that he couldn't immediately place as he and Yuji stepped off the train platform. The sun had already begun setting which didn't leave them much time for their first day in the city if they wanted to avoid investigating at night.
Looking around, Nanami tried to work out the source of the uncertain feeling. It was familiar, but distant at the same time. He looked up at the sky, for some reason expecting something to be there. And while it took a few moments, it finally clicked.
"Itadori. Be extremely careful. We've just entered a barrier." He was certain of it, even if it felt nothing like any barrier he'd experienced before. But he was less certain of its purpose.
Could it be someone had set a barrier over the city to prevent curses from entering? Possibly, but that shouldn't have stopped new curses from forming. Not to mention, to hold such a massive barrier for an entire year would take immense power. He doubted such power would have gone unnoticed by the previous team that had come to investigate.
"A barrier? Oh like those veils that we put down to fight curses…But I don't see anything like that around." Yuji said as they walked, looking around the sky oblivious to the odd looks he received.
"They're not always visible. And I don't know what it's for. It's not preventing ordinary people from entering or leaving, and it's not preventing us from acting either. Until we know what's going on, stay close to me." Nanami instructed the teen. Why wasn't this mentioned in the report? A barrier that covers an entire city, weak or not should have been noticed. Or was it weaker then? A weak enough barrier could theoretically be ignored if you weren't looking for it. "Keep an eye out for anything and anyone suspicious, but don't go acting without me, got it?"
"Yeah yeah I got it." Yuji said casually, looking mostly like he was taking in the city more than paying attention to his surroundings as the two of them walked, "So are we just going to wander around and hope we find something?"
"More or less. We don't have any leads either way and it's going to be too late to start asking around soon. For now I wanted to investigate the lack of curses, but it feels like the city has an overall lack of cursed energy altogether." Nanami stated, which didn't make sense. Despite the strength of the barrier, weak or not it should have still emitted large amounts of it, yet that wasn't the case. Nanami stretched his neck and looked back at Yuji. He doubted they'd make much progress today anyways, maybe it would be better to just wait until the next day instead.
Something seemed to catch Yuji's attention as he pointed across the street from the intersection they'd stopped at. "Does that count as suspicious?"
Nanami was surprised that Itadori had spotted them when, despite his own efforts, he'd missed them entirely. Following where the teen was pointing, he could see three teenage girls sneaking across the rooftop. He imagined more people would have spotted them were it not for the intense shadows created by the sunset obscuring them."Yes, yes it would. Let's go."
The second the crosswalk light was green the two were rushing across the street and towards the building they'd seen the girls on. It seemed abandoned, or at least in the middle of remodeling. Which thankfully meant they were able to hurry into the building without many people noticing them.
Normally Nanami would have disregarded the girls, teens were naturally stupid and always pushing boundaries. So some kids exploring an abandoned area wouldn't have been the most out of place thing. But he was beginning to connect some dots. That being between Yachiyo, and the two girls on the train, there seemed to be something going on with teenage girls in the area of Kamihama that he believed to be more than just coincidence. If it turned out to be nothing, he could explain himself as a concerned adult and threaten to call the cops on them for trespassing. The building appeared unstable, that that was probably for the best either way.
As they climbed the stairwell towards the rooftop, Nanami could feel an odd energy growing around them, though again, it was different from cursed energy. He reached into his suit, pulling out his covered blade, "Something is coming, be ready for a fight. It doesn't feel like a curse, so if I feel it's something we can't handle, we run."
Nanami turned around to Yuji as they reached the door to the rooftop to make sure that the teen had understood him, and as he expected, Itadori looked ready for a fight.
He reached his hand to open the door, and felt an overwhelming sense of dread hit him that he hadn't felt in years. It was enough that his hand froze for a moment on the handle as a sense of fear had hit him. It was such a strange feeling now after years of being a sorcerer, but he pushed through it. With his hand tight on his weapon, he pressed the door open.
Every one of his senses told him what he was seeing was impossible as he looked out at the scene in front of him.
They were still on the rooftop, the very one he had expected to open the door to. But instead of the city of Kamihama being around the rooftop, they were in a field, no, a sea of flowers that stretched as far as the eye could see. The flowers themselves of various types and species, but were all far too large to be real. Not to mention the fact that inside those flowers, he could see flashes of…his own memories. Not just his however, based on Yuji's reaction the boy was seeing his own as he looked around the impossible scene.
"A domain?" Yuji asked, stepping into a battle stance turning his gaze to the sky.
Nanami looked up as well, seeing fish-like creatures composed of the same flowers floating through the sky around them.
Glancing around, he could spot the same three girls he'd seen on the rooftop, and he could have sworn they were wearing different outfits than when he'd first seen them. They were at the edge of the roof, watching as a larger group of flowers began shooting into the sky, forming what Nanami could describe as a dragon made of the same flowers. It was all starting to give him a massive headache.
He watched the dragon open its…mouth and could guess whatever was about to come out from there would not be good for any of them. He turned on his heel and held his weapon out, preparing to charge the monster himself before it could get to the girls.
"Itadori!" he called to his student, it was meant to be a warning to stand back but in his rush instead it seemed to only spur the teen to follow his lead and rush into the fight.
Only for them to both be blocked by a massive sword wielded by one of the girls. "Stay back!" she warned as a horrible cry came from the dragon. Her outfit was odd, and if Nanami was to be honest, despite it being armor it was certainly not appropriate for a girl of her age. Her long blonde hair was pulled up into a large ponytail, "Kaede! Get the civilians back, Rena and I will handle this one!" she shouted over to one of the other girls. The blonde and the other girl, Rena, jumped into action and blocked the blast of roses that came from the dragon's mouth.
"Got it! Sorry guys!" 'Kaede', a girl with short red hair, dressed in what looked to be somewhat of a witch costume agreed as she hurried towards Nanami and Yuji.
Nanami wasn't sure what he was expecting the girl to do when she rushed over to the two of them as the other girls began fighting the dragon, but it certainly wasn't for her to pick the both of them up with relative ease despite the fact she was likely less than 5 feet in height.
"I know this is all really scary but Rena and Momoko are really strong, things will be okay I swear-" despite her words the girl sounded less than sure of herself even with her impressive strength that had the two men looking at each other in blunt surprise, "Oh no, the roof!" she cried out as the structure below them began collapsing.
"We don't need to be carried!" Itadori protested but when he tried to hop from her arms vines pulled him back and helped her carry him.
"I'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorry!" Kaede carried on, even as she eventually had to jump with the two of them in her arms from the roof and onto the giant flowers. On closer inspection, Nanami noted they looked more like artificial than real flowers which just made the whole situation even odder.
Nanami had to be honest, he had no idea what the hell was going on.
Based on the size of the monster the other two girls were fighting, was it a curse he'd have felt the energy coming off of it, the girls as well, but there was none of that. And now it wasn't simply a small amount of cursed energy he felt, but a complete lack of it that was nearly unheard of itself.
He tried not to think about it too hard, especially as one of the smaller creatures came flying towards them mouth open. He managed to break away from Kaede's grip for long enough to swing at the thing and while he felt his cursed technique make contact, the creature shrugged it off like it was nothing. Its mouth gaping and preparing to swallow him whole were it not for more of Kaede's vines sprouting from a staff she summoned, grabbing Nanami around his waist and yanking him back down. She dropped both him and Itadori as the two of them landed along with her on the petal of one of the massive flowers.
"Why didn't you damage that thing you hit it straight on right?" Itadori asked, still holding his fighting stance though Nanami could tell at least a small amount of his pride had been hurt from being carried like he had.
"I don't know." Nanami replied bluntly as more of the smaller enemies began to surround them. "You, Miss Kaede, was it? What's going on?"
The girl held her staff rather awkwardly, occasionally firing blasts of red energy or sharpened vines at the monsters, killing them with relative ease, "It's umm, Kinda a lot to talk about. But don't worry I'll keep you safe! Rena and Momoko, they should be defeating the witch soon!" she promised, stumbling ahead in time to destroy one of the creatures before Yuji even had the chance to punch it. "So please! Stop trying to fight these things! I can do it!"
Nanami hated, truly hated, the fact that in his heart he knew she was right. A sorcerer at his level should have been able to take out the small fry easily. But as he watched in the distance the other two, Momoko and Rena, fight the larger dragon with attacks and blasts that would make even Satorou jealous, he could tell he was painfully outmatched. "Itadori, we need to stay out of her way."
"Whaaaat? But I thought we were here to fight whatever was up here."
"And I told you that if we faced something we couldn't handle we would run, and as both seem out of the question we will just have to endure it for now." Nanami said, weapon still up, though by now he questioned its usefulness in this situation.
They went on like that for what must have only been a few minutes of dodging and trying to avoid getting in between Kaede's attacks and the creatures, her occasional apology spouting whenever she got a little too close to hitting one of them. Nanami figured that compared to the other two girls she was the weakest, hence why she'd been asked to protect them while the other two fought whatever that 'witch' was.
In the distance, he heard a massive cry as the world around them began to shake. Turning back to where the dragon had been, they watched as it began to fall apart into flower petals as the bizarre world around them dissipated until the 5 of them were back on the abandoned rooftop. By now, it was nighttime.
The sudden change in scenery had knocked Itadori over and Nanami reached over to help him up, not taking his eyes off the three girls as they whispered to each other. He watched cautiously, and in a flash the three were back to wearing school uniforms.
The blonde, Momoko, approached them first, "Are you two okay?" she asked, a clear look of genuine concern on her face.
"Yes." Nanami nodded.
"Yeah just like, a little confused." Yuji laughed.
Momoko glanced back at the other two girls, while Kaede looked nervous, the other girl Rena, who had pale blue hair lighter than Yachiyo's, looked rather irritated, "Uhh…how much do you remember?"
"Giant dragon thing made out of flowers, like the whole world was weird flowers that were flashing things I don't really want to be reminded of. That kind of thing, right Nanamin?"
Nanami adjusted his glasses, pushing them back up, "That sounds about right." he agreed, he debated asking them if they were sorcerers but decided the less information he gave them, the better. "So could you please explain what that was."
"I told you we should just smack them in the back of the head and hope they forget it." Rena shrugged a pout on her face.
"We are not doing that." Momoko sighed with a face that Nanami didn't doubt he wore quite often himself, "Listen, you weren't supposed to see what you saw…And even if you had, you shouldn't have been able to remember it."
"Are you guys sorcerers or something?" Yuji asked and Nanami inwardly groaned.
"I mean…kinda…" Kaede muttered to which both Momoko and Rena gave her variations of the 'please stop talking' look, "Oh! Sorry.."
It was becoming increasingly obvious that this conversation was going to go nowhere, whatever the girls were hiding it seemed that they were determined to keep it hidden, not to mention the mention that he and Itadori should have forgotten what they'd seen, really, it didn't make sense but nothing had the past few days.
"I'm looking for my niece, that's the main reason we chased after you three so let's start with that. Her name is Yachiyo Nanami, and I want to know if she's involved in whatever this is." he said bluntly, regardless if they answered truthfully or not, he was relying on their reaction to the name.
And they did as the girls all shared a look of recognition. Momoko took a moment to steady herself before she replied, "Yes we know her…and yes…but if you are family, it will be better if she explained." she said, giving a weak smile, "I have her address."
Not gonna lie, I have like nearly 50k already written, but to keep ahead of the curve I'll upload maybe every two weeks. Lemme know what you think!