Okay, so this is now a story.
I'm weak, I know.
Don't expect super regular updates though, especially not in the coming future. I'm sick, studies are ramping up and I write for fun first and foremost. Deadlines are the opposite of fun.
Other than that, here we go!
Prospective Sorceror Jackson.
On behalf of the venerable-
"Eh, another one?"
That's all the warning Percy gets before the letter is yanked out of his hand by an impatient Satoru, who spares the words on the page a glance, a derisive snort and an eye roll before he promptly spares him the effort of shredding it by doing it himself.
Just like he'd done for the last - oh, half a dozen or so.
"I was reading that, you know."
"Like you weren't going to do the same."
Percy just ends up staring at his unrepentant friend for a long second before sighing and collapsing onto the couch across from him.
"Still. That was my letter."
"I'll get you a phonebook, and you can readthatinstead. I'll bet you an entire platter of daifuku that it'll be less of a waste of time."
The thing is, he's not wrong.
It'd been the same song and dance ever since Yaga had shown him the first handful of missives a couple of months ago.
The way his not-sensei - Really, the man is weirdly involved in their lives for someone who wouldn't even be their teacher for another year - had explained it had been pretty straightforward: Percy's enrollment - read: existence- in Jujutsu High had caused waves across the lake that was shaman society, and several parties had ended up looking for the source of the disruption and looking for a way to address it once they'd found it.
Or, as Satoru had put it about five seconds after the fact - Percy was a new, shiny and unclaimed bauble in the political mess that was sorcery outside of eradicating curses left and right, and many - the clans in particular - were either swallowing lemons, ignoring him entirely or desperately trying to drag him into their corner to milk him for every advantage and benefit they could possibly get.
Honestly, most of the lecture had ended up flying over his hide, but he'd gotten the gist of it. The attention was bad news and he should ignore it until it went away - in as much as it ever would.
Which was fine. Great, even.
Yaga really shouldn't have wasted his breath - Percy's default state of being involved not paying attention to his problems unless the situation around him was actively going to shit, and then powering through it anyway - because he was awesome like that.
This was, is, and would be more of the same. Clearly rinse and repeat was the way to go.
Still, the amount of snobbish invitations, thinly-veiled offers of wardship and guidance and even outright demands to show himself for what basically sounded like interrogation at their earliest convenience he'd gotten was downright unsettling. Some of them were iffy enough that they'd nearly given him stranger-danger vibes, and he hadn't really had to worry about those for a literal lifetime.
They'd only gotten worse after Percy's sorcerer ID had finally arrived last week - Grade 1. The same as Suguru - the same asSatoru, courtesy of their romp through Tokyo on that second week after they'd gone at it and ended up hightailing till the next morning over.
That had really poured the kerosene onto the fire, despite the fact that, since he was technically a ward of Jujutsu High, the most anyone could presently do was badger him with more letters till they went blue in the face.
Not that Percy would have cared either way, mind you - he did his own thing, always, and becoming somebody else's prized show pony was currently at the very top of his 'When hell freezes over' to-do list - but the downpour of borderline-stalking he's still being subjected to had gotten old and dull, fast, and it hadn't been any fun to begin with.
"Think they're going to quit anytime soon?"
The look Satoru gives him for that one is flatter than paper, and Percy sighs.
"Yeah, I figured."
Someone laughs behind them, and they both turn around just as Suguru drops onto the couch across the room, carrying a bag of groceries in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other.
"Terrible, isn't it?" His other friend murmurs in commiseration, and Percy tips his head back again his seat in silent agreement.
Suguru would know, too. He sure as heck wasn't being spared clan attention either. Not with a cursed technique like his.
Potential sorcerors of Percy's caliber didn't just show up, after all - and to be fair, they still didn't. He and Suguru were the exceptions, not the norm, and for wildly different reasons - and both of them were going to be hot commodities for the considerable future.
Fun, that.
"Oh, Shoji-sensei is calling for us, by the way."
Huh?
Percy sits up a little.
"Now? On a Saturday morning."
Their sensei generally made a rule of not approaching outside of class hours unless it was to assign them missions - and even that was rare. Part of it was probably professionalism, and another part of it was likely-
"The hell does wimpy-sensei want?"
-that.
Suguru frowns half-heartedly. "You really shouldn't call him that, Satoru."
Satoru didn't care for Shoji-sensei.
Not that he's said anything to the man - in fact, Percy doubts they've exchanged more than a few minute-long conversations in class, and definitely none outside of them - but sometimes silence speaks louder than words, and Satoru's irreverence is plenty obvious.
Percy honestly has no idea how to deal with it - if he even wants to, really. It's not like the rest of them are that much better.
Which is a little unfair - Shoji-sensei knows his stuff, and he's a competent sorcerer who's diligently teaching them plenty (on the technical side of things, at least), but their relationship is about as 'bare minimum' as it can possibly get and there isn't much reason for that to change.
Eh. Problems for later.
"Yeah, yeah." Satoru rises from his seat, hands sliding into his pockets and already looking halfway bored. "Let's go get this over with."
...
"The five of us have been assigned a mission."
Shoji sensei announces the fact the second the three of them stroll into class. Shoko is already there, and she spares them a low wave as they walk in one after the other.
"All of us?" Suguru's eyebrows rise. "Together?"
Percy gets it. Sending the four of them on a mission tends to be... overkill.
Hilariously so.
Heck, they'd gone ontwomissions as a team in two months, and one of those had just involved Shoji-sensei demonstrating his use of curtains to ward off civilians.
The curse lasted about three seconds after that.
Shoji-sensei hesitates.
"Yes. You'll have to pack for an extended trip." The man clears his throat. "We will be traveling to Genjiro village, out in the Akita prefecture."
Out of the corner of his eye, Percy sees Shoko go ramrod straight. He turns to stare at her in confusion, but she doesn't even look at him. She doesn't look at any of them, actually.
Her eyes had gone wide, her jaw tense, and her hands had closed into fists almost entirely of their own accord.
It's the most emotion Percy's ever seen from her.
She relaxes a second later, shoulders dropping and face going blank, but it's the kind of false-casualness that someone puts up when they know they're being watched, and no one misses it.
He exchanges a confused look with Suguru, and even Satoru seems caught by surprise.
"-hours by train." Shoji-sensei continues to explain, either missing or choosing to ignore the reaction and what it might mean. "Several civilians have been cursed, and standard exorcism procedures have failed. The head of the local sorcery clan has requested Ieri-san in particular in the hopes that her reverse-cursed technique will achieve better results. We will, technically, be her escort, and we'll investigate the source of this curse with haste while she works."
He clears his throat and turns to pass his eyes over the four of them.
"Any questions?"
You could have heard a pin drop in the following silence.
Suguru is frowning, Satoru is still looking bored - and vaguely irritated - and Percy is caught glancing at Shoko's downright eerie stillness in poorly disguised concern.
"No? Good. We leave tomorrow."
...
The five-hour bullet-train ride out to Akita station was an experience, and not in a good way.
It was the first time Percy had left Tokyo in this new life of his - it should have been fun. The early summer air was great, and Satoru had used Shoji-sensei distraction to buy a truly terrifying amount of snacks from the station before they'd set off.
He'd even stocked up on Percy's favorite brand of blue jelly beans.
It should have been great.
The operative words being 'should have'
It isn't.
Instead, Percy spends the entire trip worrying about Shoko.
There's something wrong here, something that he's missing. An undercurrent of wired tension that turned her usual companionable silence cold, and a dullness in her eyes.
He can't even ask her about it - the moment they make it through the station and onto the train, she takes the window seat next to Shoji-sensei, pulls a black sleeping mask out of her pack and clocks right out - or at least pretends too well enough that Percy can't do a thing about it.
Suguru and Satoru pick up on it too - they've all figured it out from the start, really - though there's not much they can actually do but brace and wait for the cause of... whatever reaction this is to show itself.
And Percy has a feeling it won't be too long now.
...
Naturally, he's right.
...
The situation with Shoko doesn't change when they arrive at Akita Station. It doesn't change when Shoji-sensei leads them to the Window, some lady whose name Percy doesn't even try and remember, and it doesn't change over the drive across the countryside that follows.
By the time they reach Genjiro village, it's been hours and the most he's managed to coax out of her was two words, and that had been a 'thank you' for handing her a water bottle.
Still, progress is progress, right?
And then said progress goes right to hell in a hand basket.
They don't stop along the way - Genjiro village is a quaint little place, all traditional with worn stone paths winding through the entire thing and surrounded by a cedar forest that gives it character, but it's dark out and none of them are in a mood to be paying attention to the sights anyway.
Instead, they drive up until they reach the elaborate gates of a sprawling, enclosed estate, and they're barely out of the car when the other shoe drops.
They find two figures standing outside of what had to be a main house of some kind and clearly waiting for them.
One of them is a short woman in a plain blue Kimono. Her hair is tied back in a bun, her face is drawn with visible stress, and something about her is immediately familiar.
Standing in front of her was a tall, greying man with dark eyes and a gleam in his eyes that Percy instantly mislikes. He tilts his head in what could generously be called acknowledgment as they walk over to them.
"First-grade sorcerors Jackson Percy, Geto Suguru, and Gojo Satoru." His words linger on the last name meaningfully, for blatantly obvious reasons. "Second Grade Sorceror Hora Shoji. Be welcome."
"Karasu-sama."
Shoji-sensei bows - but none of the rest of them do. Not even straight-laced Suguru.
Then his gaze turns, lands on Shoko, and his lips immediately curl into an ugly, disdainful sneer.
"And I see you've brought my recalcitrant wretch of a granddaughter."
What?
"Yo, Kiyohira-sama." Shoko tosses him a peace sign, complete with the deadest smile Percy had ever seen from anyone ever. "Long time no see."
"Oh." Satoru makes a sound of understanding and nods. "See, that makes sense."
What?
...
Shoko, when it's her backstory exposition time:
[URL unfurl="true" /ryVTvct/URL]
Me writing it all out:
[URL unfurl="true" /OS3oP7K/URL]
As always, leave your comments and ideas, and if you don't like it, please be courteous.
If you feel like it, please consider supporting me on Ko-fi:Firewillreign