Voila! The final prologue chapter.

I've set the scene for this story if I decide to continue it - I'll get back to you on that soon - and I'll give you a warning.

I believe in canon divergence! If that's not your thing, tell me why below!

In the meantime, here's this ending.

How the hell they end up in a McDonald's of all things after hightailing it from school, Percy doesn't exactly know, and yet here they are anyway.

At least it wasn't a seven-eleven this time, he thinks with some amusement as he drains his coke and reaches for a handful of fries.

Across from him, Shoko is unabashedly enjoying her ice cream sundae, Satoru is still cramming down a downright concerning number of chicken nuggets and Suguru is on his third Big Mac.

Yeah, third.

Which isn't really all that extreme, Percy's probably going to at least reach that threshold too after the spar he's just had - and what a rush even remembering that is - but at the speed he's going...

Apparently, his friend is a stress eater.

That should not be as funny as Percy finds it, and yet-

"Why?" His friend complains morosely, staring down at his half-eaten burger like he's begging it to reveal the answer to all his woes. "Why are you like this?"

See?

He tries not to laugh "C'mon, Suguru, It wasn't that bad."

Suguru stares at him incredulously, because yeah, it kind of had been. Percy can totally acknowledge his mistakes.

In hindsight.

Eventually.

"Does the concept of excessive property damage not mean anything to you?" Suguru asks, and beside him, Shoko looks like she's on the verge of laughing herself. Come to think of it, she's probably the most at ease Percy's ever seen her, and it does wonders for that usually tired slump she has going for her. "They're going to need ages to clean up the mess the two of you made, and we're all in for so much crap when we get back for ditching."

"Please." Satoru sprawls backward against his seat, limbs stretching out in comfort as he finally polishes off his meal. He snorts dismissively when they turn to him. "What are they going to do, expel us?"

He says it like the very idea is ludicrous - and considering who he is in the Jujutsu world outside the fact that sorcerers are in much too high a demand to ever be expelled over something so relatively minor, it probably is.

Not that Suguru acknowledges defeat.

"We're not all high and mighty untouchable clan heirs, Gojo. Just because you're used to getting off scot-free doesn't mean the rest of us would be so lucky."

Satoru snickers smugly.

"Sucks to be you then, peasant."

Suguru glares at him half-heartedly.

"Piss off."

Normally, this would be about the point where Percy would step in, only... he doesn't think he has to.

They're both heckling each other, but he can tell that there's no real heat or bite to it. Suguru's not nearly as aggrieved as he's trying to sound and he's only digging his feet in to prove a point, and Satoru's answers are missing that certain edge that used to graduate them from annoying to unbearable - like he's no longer wired up to the eyeballs on his own self-importance, or at least not actively channeling that pig-headedness at the moment.

The difference is like night and day, really, and Percy has to hide a smile when he clocks in on it.

Not so insufferable after all, then.

"-Make me, curse boy."

"Gojo, I have enough curses to fill up an auditorium and I am not afraid to use them!"

"I repeat: make me."

...On second thought, maybe he should step in. They're not alone, and while he knows full well that nothing short of an apocalypse would convince Suguru to unleash his curses in the middle of civilians, he also knows that beneath that wavering calm and zen facade there's enough repressed stress to see him leaping across the table and making a mess quite happily.

Satoru had been winding him up like a cuckoo clock for a week and a half, after all, and Percy knew from experience - very, very limited experience - that being the bigger person was exhausting - Zero stars, would not recommend.

"What do we do now?" He asks somewhat hastily when he sees Suguru's fingers beginning to twitch. Never a good sign, that. "We can't stay here forever, and we're going to have to face the music eventually."

And by music, he means Yaga's inevitable verbal evisceration to come - that's going to be just wonderful, he can already tell.

"It is getting pretty late." Shoko agrees, looking down at her wristwatch watch "We could start heading back."

"Boring." Satoru drawls immediately, and Suguru rolls his eyes.

Percy's inclined to agree, honestly. Just because they're going to get back eventually doesn't mean they have to rush, but there's only so much to do in the meantime.

So he turns and side-eyes Satoru curiously "Do you have a better idea?"

The grin he gets in return is positively, almost dangerously gleeful.

"Oh, don't I ever."

Then he tells them, and Percy finds himself lighting up in delighted surprise.

This actually sounds like fun.

Even Suguru looks interested, and Shoko seems more bemused than anything - as usual.

...

It takes Satoru only a single phone call to one of his lower-ranked clan members - who also happens to be an active Window - and a five-minute wait to get them an address.

Fifteen minutes more on top of Suguru's ever convenient manta-ray express - seriously, Percy's never been one for flying but even he's getting a little jealous - they drop out of the sky in front of a dilapidated, run-down office building in the end of the city he's never been before, and he immediately thinks that this place would be the envy of serial killers and asylum escapees alike.

It's a small, five-story place that was abandoned a couple of years ago for shoddy construction - apparently, but he wouldn't know - but it looks ancient. The walls are a bleak grey, the signs and the one billboard present are faded beyond all recognition, and not a single window isn't chipped or outright shattered from the ground floor and up.

It's also definitely cursed out the wazoo, the miasma of cursed energy almost thick enough that you could cut it with a butter knife. There's even a certain smell to it, like putrid decay and dead dreams - Percy's not sure whether that's an actual thing or just his own senses translating the foreign cursed energy to his brain in a way that he'd understand, and he doesn't much want to know.

"This is great," Percy says, staring up at the almost visible cloud of bad juju running through the place. "I mean, it sucks, but it's also great. Good job, you big-shot clan heir. You can actually be useful."

"Bite me, weakling." Satoru snaps back, but his answering smile is pleased as punch. "It was either this or we find somewhere nicely quiet and out of the way so I can keep kicking you around like a football."

Percy snorts.

"You wish it was that easy, you cheating hack. If it hadn't been for that technique of yours you wouldn't have lasted five more minutes."

And he's still going to figure out a way past that shield, one way or another. Infinity has nothing on the thickness of his skull.

"Excuses, excuses." Satoru crows mockingly. "Someone's a sore loser."

Percy's brow twitches, and he rounds on him with a sharp smile.

"You want go for round two right now?"

Satoru's eyes gleam, blue fractals betraying his excitement at the thought. Percy's not blind to the fact that he seems to want the fight even more than he does - and he's not exactly satisfied with their last bout himself.

"Maybe I do-"

"You two aren't actually going to have this out here, are you?" Shoko interrupts, sounding bored. Behind her, Suguru looks just as unimpressed, his foot tapping against the concrete impatiently.

The two of them stop to consider that for a second, before turning back on each other.

"To be continued?" Percy offers

"Done!"

They nod firmly and turn back to the utter eyesore of a building. Suguru steps up to stand next to them, and for a second, they're all shoulder to shoulder.

"I can't believe you talked me into this." So he says, but even he's not hiding the determined lilt to his tone. "I must be as crazy as you are."

"Absolutely." Percy agrees, before nudging Satoru with his elbow. There's nothing to stop him from making "Any rules? Besides no techniques outside an emergency?

After all, it was him who'd suggested they spend the night exorcising curses, and that's familiar enough a routine that Percy had immediately jumped on it.

"Hell no." Satoru answers, sounding downright skippy as he crouches and begins to stretch his legs "Get inside, find any curses and beat the shit out of them. The higher the grade, the higher the points, and the winner gets to choose their prize."

"Within reason," Suguru says at once, shooting him a suspicious look.

"...Right -reason. Sure." Satoru shoots Suguru a thumbs up, and Percy's sure it's exaggerated just to piss him off. "Whatever you say."

"Right then. Ready?"

Percy crouches, and Suguru tenses next to him.

"Set."

Their curse energy begins to rocket.

"Go!"

They burst into motion, cackling and hollering respectively as they rocket for the door. Satoru - the freaking prima donna that he is -actually kicks off the ground and leaps a story up, bypassing the door entirely as he blasts through the broken window and sets off on his own rampage.

Shoko is left standing in their wake, staring after them with a curious look before she sighs and turns around. The cold night breeze ruffles her hair as she pulls her pack of smokes from her pocket and goes reaching for her lighter.

(In another life, something like this would be the start of it. The Strongest charging on ahead and leaving her trailing so far behind in their shadow that she's eventually swallowed and forgotten within it.

In another life, she would have even grown used to the fact.

In this one, though,-)

"Oi, Shoko!"

She startles, turning back to stare at the building.

Percy is standing there by the doorway, having sprinted back a little and stopped to eye her impatiently and wave furiously.

"Do you need a private invitation or something?" He hollers, "Put that crap away and get the hell in here!"

For a long moment, she just stares, completely stunned.

Then she smiles.

"Suguru's right. You're all nuts."

She takes off after him.

...

It goes like this:

Satoru wins - just barely, but between fly heads and second-grade curses, he manages to eke out a victory.

Naturally, neither Percy nor Suguru accept this, and Shoko comes in at fourth place and is seemingly content to just laugh at them.

So they call Satoru's contact, get the next address down the line and set off there.

Then they go to the next - Suguru manages to get ahead.

And the next - Percy this time.

And the next.

By the time the sun rises and they stumble through the front gates of Jujutsu High, the three of them are flagging, Shoko is outright about to black out but is also somehow more content than she's ever been before, and everyone's stopped keeping count a while back.

They're so collectively out of it, in fact, that the sight of an utterly furious Yaga waiting for them beside a nervous Shoji-sensei doesn't do much more than make them blink and wave warily.

"In our defense," Percy decided to take one for the team and call down Yaga's full attention on him, and yikes, was that thing ticking across his forehead a vein? That can't be healthy. "We just wiped out, like, every curse for a mile in every direction. Doesn't that make up for the mess we made, just a little?"

The vein starts ticking.

"Going on unsanctioned exorcisms without reporting them up the chain of command? No, I think not." Yaga growls, before he actually smiles.

It's not a nice smile.

"But don't worry. You'll certainly be making up for your mess."

And suddenly, Percy is afraid.

...

"I hate you." Suguru groans as he hefts the tree trunk up. "Truly, from the bottom of my heart."

Yaga is forcing them to clean up the mass deforestation catastrophe Satoru and Percy had made of the grounds. They have to dig out all the uprooted trees, move them across the grounds for disposal, and actually cut them up into pieces small enough for firewood themselves to help with said disposal.

The bitch of it is that they can't use any cursed energy beyond the very bare minimum because Yaga had sicced a small army of - get this - cursed puppet plushies on them, and the things start attacking and reporting back to him if they sense them using any more power to cheat.

Percy turns around, stares at how much work they have left to do and how little they've done comparatively despite being at it for hours, and he sighs. He and Suguru and Satoru and Shoko were taking it in turns, but at this rate it'd take them a year to finish up.

"Yeah, I think I hate me too."

"Shut up and lift, Jackson!"

...

Percy would have probably slept for a week after that, but he wakes up early a few days later when he hears a commotion in the hallway.

Blearily, he stumbles to the door and peeks his head out, before blinking at the sight of Satoru dragging behind a suitcase in one hand and carrying a cardboard box under his other arm.

"Satoru?" He yawns tiredly. "What are you doing here?"

It was a weekend, after all.

"I'm moving in!"

"...Huh. Cool."

"Right? Here."

Percy blinks again as Satoru forces the box into his arm.

"What's this?"

Satoru trades back with a question of his own.

"What do you know about the Kamo clan?"

Percy stares.

"They're... a big deal?" it ends up being a question more than an answer.

See, he remembers Yaga talking about them in his general explanation of Jujutsu, but he hadn't really registered all that much beyond them being vaguely important, along with the Ze'nin and Satoru's clan too.

Satoru actually laughs like a hyena when Percy tells him that.

"I'm so taking you with me to the next interclan meeting. The looks on their faces will be priceless." He grins and points to the box. "But that's for later. See, the Kamo clan has this prized technique - blood manipulation. A little too icky and weak for my taste, but they get by with it, and the Gojo clan has a nice little catalog of all the expressions and sub-techniques of blood manipulation they've encountered over their history. I took a few copies for you to read up on."

"But my technique isn't blood manipulation."

And he wouldn't want it to be, either.

"No shit, but your Water manipulation's got a few overlaps. That cutting water jet you shot at me when we sparred got me thinking." It did? Would wonders never cease? "It reminded me of a couple moves some of my stuck-up tutors used to describe, so I went looking. Your technique is new and fresh, totally undocumented - that means you don't have any training wheels to fall back on. That should help you come up with some tricks to keep up."

Oh.

Percy looks at the box, a little dumbfounded - and not just because Satoru was calling someone else stuck-up- before staring back up at him warmly.

"This is... Thank you, Satoru."

He means it, too.

"Don't get sappy on me, this is just an investment." Satoru snaps, which would be a lot more convincing if he could do anything at all to hide how pleased he sounds. "You and Geto might be the only two sorcerers who'll ever be able to spar with me without boring me. I don't want you falling behind and being a real weakling."

Right.

"Don't worry about me falling behind," Percy smiles menacingly "I've already started looking into ways to get past that infinity you're so proud of."

Or rather, Shoko had, once he'd begged for her help.

In Percy's defense, he had tried to go at it solo, but when he'd looked for answers on his own, he'd come out of it with one more headache and a ton more questions.

The heck was a 'domain amplification' anyway?

"Perfect defense or not, I'll be trouncing you soon enough."

That's the point where Suguru finally stumbles out of his room, trying to look for the source of all the commotion.

He freezes when he catches sight of them.

"Gojo. What the hell are you doing here?"

"Hey, buddy. I live here now!" Satoru sings, an unholy glee suffusing his tone. "We're going to be roomies!"

Suguru pales and stumbles back at once. "No."

"Uh, Suguru-?"

"No."

He keeps stumbling back until he's crossed back into his room, then he promptly slams the door shut and double locks it. From inside, they hear the sounds of things being knocked around and clattering to the floor.

Percy sighs. "So dramatic."

"I know, right?"

He and Satrou exchange a look, both perfectly straight-faced.

Then they start laughing.

...

Later that day, after the four of them are done trying to work through Yaga's punishment and decide to tap out for now, they end up sprawled out in the grass.

"This going to take forever," Satoru complains loudly, and Percy ends up laughing despite himself when he catches sight of the dirty glare Shoko ends up shooting him.

It's the first time he's ever seen her angry, and it's so far out of the left field that it's utterly hilarious.

"Next time we fight, we'll take it someplace else," Percy promises, and Satoru raises his fist in agreement.

"If you don't, I'm going to have my curses eat you. Here, Shoko."

A shadow falls over him, and Percy turns to look up at Suguru. His friend stares down before crouching down and handing him a soda can, and he grins.

"Thanks."

"Oi! Don't I get one?"

"Silence, Antichrist!"

Still, he tosses him one anyway and Satoru beams.

They don't do anything after that. The four of them just sit there, drinking their sodas and watching the sunset in the distance - but it feels a little more meaningful than that.

It's a great way to end the day.

...

Elsewhere, the news of a third potential special grade enrolled in Tokyo Jujutsu High begins to make waves.

Across Japan, the clans begin to sit up and take notice.

In the shadows of society, curse-users and other slinking threats begin to ponder.

In their base of operations hidden from all but a scant few, a figure with dark hair and a line of stitches running across their forehead begins to plot, rearranging the pieces on their board.

And behind all of this, the tapestry of fate began to unravel.

...

Gojo giving Percy valuable clan resources and trying to play it cool:

/qmsAVow/

Percy:

/FGQiVEp/

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