The curse cowered in the dark corner, it looked once over the abandoned nave that used to be filled with dozens of curses like itself. Never, in the long time that it infested the remains of a deconsecrated church in the middle of nowhere, never it had thought an exorcist would come to transform what had been the perfect hunting spot for many decades into a scene for a massacre.

One by one it had watched the exorcist slaughter its peers, first the bigger ones who had brought themselves forward to protect the rest of the pack. A mere punch was what ended them.

Then it was the turn of the little ones, the human manifested a bright globe that slowly floated upwards, once it reached the damaged ceiling it started convulsing, the odd spectacle caught the curses' attention. Panic ensued among the spirits when the convulsions got more violent with time, many tried to run away through windows and doors, a few paces out in the open and their bodies were soon enveloped in white flames. Those who were foolish enough to attack the aggressor met the same fate.

Then the globe exploded, and a cloud of luminescent feathers descended upon their heads. All Hell broke loose...

The curse could still hear the blood-curdling screeches of burning souls while it took cover under a bench to avoid the feathers. The exorcist strolled down the nave, finishing off every spirit his eyes laid upon until the loud cries turned into quiet whimpering, and into dead silence after that.

Now its back was against the cold wall, fear was something a curse should only instill in its victims, however, the legs felt so heavy the moment the exorcist knelt before it. A stain as red as the blood smeared on his left cheek slowly retreated around the pupils, now his glowing turquoise eyes showed nothing but indifference as he laid his gloved hand on the curse's head.

Splat...

Blood dripping off his fingers, the exorcist could finally draw a breath of relief, the place was finally secured, and the restorers would be finally happy to do their work on the church.

He sat on the uneven floor, taking off the bloody gloves only to find the scarlet liquid had passed through the cloth and drenched his hands, too. The exorcist rolled his eyes in annoyance as he attempted to scrape off the dried bit with his fingernail. Suddenly the phone in his pocket started buzzing, he reached for it but the wet substance made the device slip from his grasp a couple of times. The display flashed the name of his master.

Wondering what his mentor had to communicate so late into the night, the exorcist used the pinky knuckle to open the call.

"Rome sent a telegram early this morning."

Satoru Gojou is a carefree person, with a very childlike behavior which he has no problem fully displaying, even in face of utter danger and absolute evil. A few times he forced himself to truly change his ways to approach problems, and a few events have required him to put aside his childish mannerisms for a more serious attitude. He knew the King of Curses' revival would have kicked up a fuss in the sorcerers' world in the long run, but this soon? That's unusual.

"News sure spreads fast, uh?" He hung his head over the backrest of the couch, his arms left dangling behind him as he stared off the ceiling. Sitting across from Gojou, Gakuganji leaned into his wooden cane deep in his thoughts; fortunately, Sukuna's vessel was good as dead, surely the Church just wanted to reassure themselves that everything was in order.

"One of the Seraphim had already boarded a plane at the time they wrote this..." said the older man, "he should land by noon at the Haneda airport."

"Do you want me to get him?" Gojou asked, keeping his eyes locked up above him for no apparent reason. The elder shook his head as he helped himself up to his feet with his cane.

"Masamichi is already on it, you should inform your students of our special guest in the meantime." Gakuganji then slowly walked to the door, sliding it to the side.

"Do you want me to get you back at the airport, old geezer? Not sure you could get there all by yourself." the older man didn't even want to reply, such a pain in the ass was Satoru Gojou.

Once the Kyoto principal was out of the room, Gojou swung his body forward, his elbows now resting on his thighs. He exhaled a deep breath through his nostrils, then fished out his phone from his pocket. As the screen got alive, Gojou immediately looked for Megumi through his contacts. First, he was gonna give the two remaining first-year students a call, then he will pay a visit to the third one.

~Haneda airport - Tokyo, Japan ~

Masamichi checked his watch again, it shouldn't be too long before their guest would go past those doors. At the thought of it, the sorcerer couldn't help but scowl a little, the Church couldn't have picked a better moment to interfere. They were in the middle of the preparations for the exchange event, so much he had to leave behind for a stupid exorcist.

For a moment Masamichi let his mind wander on what the foreigner would look like. In the past, they had met with some of the higher-ups on different occasions. They all looked like they were mass-produced, same attire, same bearing, same obsolete mentality that caused avoidable fractions between the two schools of thought. The Jujutsu World and the Holy Church of Rome weren't on best terms, but they knew better than pouring more gas on an already ravaging fire of a feud.

Finally, some people were walking through the gates, Masamichi held the sign with the exorcist's name written in romaji, there he waited for this person to come out. Minutes passed by, and Masamichi still hadn't found the exorcist until a young man stood right in front of him with his luggage and bag, apparently appearing out of thin air.

'Did I not sense him at all?' Masamichi looked at him better, he was young, maybe the same age as his students back at Jujutsu High, even though he had a ghost of facial hair under his almost feminine nose and chin. Curly black hair came down to cover his forehead, his turquoise eyes just below. He sported the exorcist attire, like many of his predecessors wore before him: a black high-necked coat resembling a priestly tunic with the St Michael sigil stitched above his heart, a tight white belt above his hips, black trousers, and shoes.

He glanced at him with his left eyebrow raised, as if he was waiting for something, not in a rude way.

Oh right.

Masamichi cleared his voice, that was awkward, to say the least. "Are you Esposito-kun?" The man asked, however, no response came from him. What he did instead was raise both his hands and immediately start to sign. This wasn't his first encounter with sign language for Masamichi, Inumaki used it for a while in his first months at Jujutsu High before he felt comfortable enough with everyone to use his method.

He seemed to struggle a bit but eventually came up with "Tokyo Jujutsu High?", to which Masamichi readily gave him an affirmative nod.

"Phew, at last. It is such a drag having to learn a whole new set of signs. "

Masamichi was taken aback, a voice flooded his mind like an intrusive thought, but more than a voice it felt like a distant memory of a conversation, something lost in time rather than in the present. The young exorcist seemed amused by the dumbfounded senior, the thin mouth had a hint of a smile adorning his slightly tanned face.

"Weird, isn't it? It's a trick I developed 2 years ago for lack of a better way. " He tucked the collar down to reveal his neck was fully covered by bandages. "Essentially it manipulates your thoughts into forming coherent sentences. The voice you hear isn't actually mine, but what YOU think my voice would sound like, and... " He rambled on and on, to the point where Masamichi couldn't even hear around him anymore. People were starting to throw glances as they passed by them. In a moment of self-awareness, the senior realized they'd been staring at each other for about 4 minutes without saying a word.

"It's a pleasure to have you as our guest, Esposito-kun." Masamichi interrupted the exorcist's continuous 'rambling', and the young man widened his eyes as if he just woke up from an hour-long trance.

"Oh, how rude of me! I forgot to introduce myself!" the foreigner caught Masamichi's hand in a firm handshake. "My name's Gabriele Lucia Esposito, thank you for having me on such short notice." As the hands touched, energy suddenly left the older sorcerer's body, and the weight of a boulder came down crushing his shoulders. Masamichi then saw, past Gabriele's horrified face, a pair of unsettling eyes of turquoise color like his, a mist of crimson breaking through the irises, staring deep into his soul.

"Are you okay?!" Esposito's voice was filled with worry as he let go of his hand, then hurriedly dug through his bag, eventually, he took out a red and white pamphlet, 'A tourist guide on how to approach Japanese culture.' written on its front, and started reading hastily.

Masamichi was left to watch the young man's pupils flying left and right as he read. An undoubtedly strong presence, of which he seemed to be unaware, that or he's consciously showing what he was capable of under a thick mask of ignorance. Besides, they wouldn't have sent a complete novice, even for a three-day visit.

"I'm fine, Esposito-kun. Should we get going? I'm sure the others are waiting." Masamichi informed the young exorcist.

'We'll better not let him out of sight.'

"So we got into a beef with the Christians on who can exorcize curses better?" Nobara put it bluntly. She and Megumi were called by the tall, white-haired, blindfolded buffoon of a teacher in their classroom, what they had hoped was a 2-minute chat instead turned out to be an extensively long lecture about the odd relations between The Church and Jujutsu Tech.

"For how much cooler it would be for this story to be just an overblown dick measuring contest, it is more complicated than that," said Gojou in his usual manner, back against the blackboard and hands in his pockets.

"And deadlier..." Megumi added. He was facing the window watching the second-year train in the courtyard.

"See, there's a major difference between how the Church operates and how we do things. For starters, while we sorcerers convoy cursed energy to fuel our techniques or tools to exorcise, the exorcists channel divine essence generated by the prayers of their worshippers. The divine essence is more effective in defeating curses, although far less present in nature than cursed energy." Gojou explained.

"How come we fight each other when we essentially do the same thing?" Nobara scoffed in her seat, for her it was such pointless bickering, maybe they wouldn't have so much trouble behind every corner if they just cooperated. Maybe Yuji would still be alive...

"The Church firmly believes that for as long as cursed energy exists and is used, the cursed spirits' calamity will never cease. They see our actions as fomenting the catastrophe rather than repressing it, like trying to extinguish a fire using fans..." Megumi replied, turning away from the window, his eyes now laid their focus on the floor beneath his feet. "In other words, Sorcerers are just as good as the curses they eradicate for them."

Gojou slowly nodded, Nobara instead grimaced, her jaw clenched and eyebrows furrowed. She hated how probably neither of the two factions remember the exact moment the diatribe began, and yet they'd still battle each other because of anachronistic traditions. Will she be forced one day to harm people like her for mere ideals that should've been buried with those who came up with them? This sickened her to the core.

Then a lot of commotion suddenly came to their ears, all the attention was abruptly shifted to the courtyard. Megumi, the closest to the window, promptly turned to look outside, he noticed that the second year stopped their training to shout at someone. Even worse, Maki had her weapon in hand, Panda was struggling to keep her at bay.

"Kugisaki, we have to go. Something's happening with the second year." Megumi then sprinted towards the door, and Nobara followed suit, not before giving a glance at Gojou, who simply waved at her. He had other plans for today.

Once they got outside in the courtyard, the shouting became clearer as they approached the group. Both could swear that they never would have imagined seeing Maki Zen'in this furious.

"Why did you bring one of them here?!" She yelled, Nobara feared for the girl's throat for how loud she was screaming. Panda had to use all his physical strength to keep her from assaulting the person behind their principal, Toge looked away, he seemed unfazed by the situation until you glanced at his hands, his knuckles turned white for how tightly closed his fists were.

"Maki-san, please refrain yourself." Masamichi stood before the stranger, but Maki was having none of it. She wriggled in Panda's grasp, and after a few seconds of struggle, she bashed her polearm on her classmate's foot. As the cursed corpse winched in pain, Maki saw her opportunity and got free from him. On her feet again, she immediately charged forward, the weapon firmly grasped in her hands.

"NUE!" Megumi immediately summoned his flying shikigami, he intended not to hurt her but he wanted to stop her in her tracks. The Shadow sped through the air in an attempt to cut Maki's run short, but the girl quickly reacted by pivoting on her left foot as it flew past her.

"Curse you!" Maki raised her polearm ready to strike, Masamichi was the only one in the way to her target.

"STOP!"

Maki felt every fiber of her muscles stiffen, her movements came to a halt only four steps away from the stranger. She growled albeit she couldn't move, Maki stared at the young man hiding behind Masamichi with murderous intent, hoping that she could kill him with just a gaze.

"I can forgive Fushiguro-kun for he has no idea, but you of all people Toge?! Have you forgotten the reason he's gone?!" Maki shouted, Nobara could feel a mix of anger and sorrow in her voice, and from the expression on his face, Inumaki noticed too, but he kept this determined look nonetheless.

"Bonito flakes..." The cursed speech user replied, Panda took advantage of the situation and rushed to Maki's side, taking her away from the stranger.

"I don't need you to push me around, Panda. I am going." She looked one last time at the terrified young man, "Tsk, should they all burn in hell." As the group walked away, Megumi returned Nue and, together with Nobara, approached their principal while he was apologizing profusely to the stranger, who looked more shocked than before by the large man's sudden bow.

"Masamichi-sensei, did something happen? Why was she so upset?" Megumi asked, eyeing both the principal and what it looked like one of those priests he saw often in western movies.

"It's a long story, Fushiguro-kun, and it's better if you ask Maki-san about it, she may give a better explanation than I could." The principal simply replied, Megumi made a mental note to eventually confront the rogue Zen'in about it. He glanced to his side, Nobara was staring intently at the stranger, much like she had done in the past when he and Itadori met her for the first time.

Nobara's vision started to change, the intimidated guy's face slowly morphed, losing details until it became a caricature of itself. 'He's definitely from overseas, must be an otaku or a weeb in the closet. He would be on the cuter side if he wasn't this frightened all the time. Also, that sad excuse of facial hair? Ugh.' She thought.

Megumi was estranged from Nobara but decided to not press further, he had enough headaches for a lifetime this week alone.

"Anyway, this is Gabriele Lucia Esposito, a fairly experienced exorcist from Rome. He'll stay here for the next three days, so please make him feel welcome." As Masamichi introduced him, Gabriele bowed way too forward, he nearly lost his balance in front of the two.

"Nice to meet you, thank you for having me. " The message was picked up by both teenagers, curiosity immediately spiked, but for different reasons.

"Did you just use telepathy on me? Can you read minds as well? If that's so, you must have never lost a game of rock paper scissors in your entire life..." Nobara then gasped in horror, and with newly found anger, grabbed the poor exorcist by the collar and shook him back and forth, "are you reading my mind?! Don't you ever dare to read my mind or you're dead meat, you pervert!"

"I can't read minds, I don't even know your name! Please let me go!"

Megumi watched the scene with slight annoyance, Masamichi left telling him to show Gabriele around, not that there was much he was allowed to visit. What a pain...

"Esposito-kun, may I ask you a question?" Megumi called the foreigner, the latter directed his full attention upon him as they walked down the hallway. Nobara excused herself, saying that she wanted to talk with Maki about earlier, so it was only him with the exorcist.

"Of course, Fushiguro."

"Your way to communicate..." Megumi began, "is it something you came up with recently?"

Gabriele was shocked, his jaw left wide open as if Megumi just told him the most blasphemous aberrance one could imagine.

"What makes you think that?!"

~ Fushiguro P.O.V, 25 minutes earlier ~

Megumi was estranged from Nobara but decided to not press further, he had enough headaches for a lifetime this week alone.

"Anyway, this is Gabriele Lucia Esposito, a fairly experienced exorcist from Rome. He'll stay here for the next three days, so please make him feel welcome." As Masamichi introduced him, Gabriele bowed way too forward, he nearly lost his balance in front of the two.

"Nice to met you, rank you for having m."

~ Back to the present ~

"

It's hard enough to rearrange one's thoughts, but trying that with two people at the same time?! It's excruciating!" Gabriele protested, a shade of red was dusted on his cheekbones, clearly embarrassed about it. Then he looked at the ground to avoid Megumi's stare. "In all honesty, I've never actually tried with two or more people... or talked this much in the first place," he confessed. "The exorcist is a lonely profession, the only acquaintance I speak to is my master, and certainly don't want to freak out the normal people who request my aid."

He had a point there, however, Megumi would have thought that an organization as big as Rome's Church, would have more connections.

"You got any family?" Megumi asked, changing the subject. The exorcist stopped on his track, a hand went up to brush his throat and a look of uneasiness took hold of his face, the sorcerer noticed for a moment the outline of a couple of invisible arms wrapping around his neck.

"Are you oka-" "I used to live with my mother... before all of this," Gabriele interrupted him.

"My father ditched her while she was pregnant with me and my sister, never to be found. My mother now lives in a mental hospital, I visit her whenever I can."

"Your sister?" "Died before she could draw her very first breath. My middle name, Lucia, was supposed to be hers."

Megumi felt a pang of guilt weighing on his heart, everyone has a story in this world, the cursed world, different reasons that keep them up straight right before the claws of death every day. He should know better by now, though it doesn't mean Megumi couldn't feel empathy towards what he's been told was a sworn enemy of Sorcerers.

Family tragedies cannot be avoided, apparently.

"Oi Fushiguro." Both the young men looked behind them, Nobara came back with an empty plastic bag in her hand. "We've got errands to run." Then she glanced at Gabriele, a smile adorned her face, "Care to join us? I want you to try some things at the vending machines."

Vending machines?