Chapter 3
The Higher-ups
The man stoically stood in the dimly lit chamber, shoulders slouched forward in apparent boredom. Six levitating shoji screens surrounded him, seemingly nothing below or behind them. It was a decent enough security charm, not that it could ever protect them from him.
It was not uncommon for Satoru Gojo to be summoned to a meeting with the esteemed Higher-ups of Jujutsu Sorcery. Though not officially part of the Council, as Head of the Gojo Clan and the single most powerful Jujutsu Sorcerer alive, his political pull easily tipped the scales. Much to the chagrin of his superiors.
What was rare nowadays was the subject of such a meeting being anything other than the Special Grade Vengeful Cursed Spirit that was Rika Orimoto.
"As you know, an unprecedented spike of abnormal Cursed Energy was detected yesterday at 7:37pm," an aged disembodied voice to his left wearily stated, "coinciding perfectly with a major blackout that left most of Shinjuku City without power for 32 minutes."
"Such a feat could only be possible for an exceptionally powerful Grade I Curse or-"
"You don't have to repeat to me what I already know." Satoru waved a hand callously, relishing the irritated grumbles that elicited from several of his elders.
"Then get on with your report, Gojo!" A different voice demanded, far more haughtily than the last. "What has your follow-up investigation determined?"
"Of course," Satoru drawled. "Evidently there was a skirmish, but it didn't last long. A Grade I Cursed Spirit was involved, a new kind we haven't encountered before at that."
Predictably, that triggered an slew of questions.
With a suffering sigh, Gojo tilted his head, allowing the glow of the Six Eyes to peek from above his round sunglasses. Like always, it was quite an effective silencer.
'Useless bags of wind.'
"I also confirmed that the Curse-User Suguru Geto was at the scene."
In contrast to earlier, these words had left an utter funeral-like silence in their wake.
Aside from Rika Orimoto, Suguru Geto was currently the greatest threat to Jujutsu Society.
It was an open secret that the ex-Special Grade Jujutsu Sorcerer was still at large and stockpiling Curses at every opportunity. As Geto had not acted openly against the brass in the last decade since his violent resignation, was indirectly working for their benefit by eliminating curses, and the fact he was too troublesome for all but Gojo himself to go after, the Jujutsu Inspector General had decided to put his capture onto the back burner for the time being.
'And now, it's backfiring.'
Satoru's fists clenched inside the pockets of his jacket, betraying his dispassionate exterior.
No matter how much time had passed, Suguru Geto's name still left a bitter taste in Satoru's mouth. A living consequence of his greatest failure, the ultimate embodiment of his shortcomings.
"Of course, he was long gone by the time we got there." He continued briskly. "But he wasn't what caused the blackout."
"An unknown party was present. They exorcized the Grade I Curse and also caused the blackout." Gojo stated. "The energy at the scene doesn't match any known Curse User or Jujutsu Sorcerer in Japan."
He stretched his shoulders, apparently stifling a yawn. "That's about it."
It was unsurprising when the Council immediately raised silencing charms, no doubt preferring to discuss this with one another before reconvening with him.
If he wanted, Satoru could easily peek into their little huddle with his Six Eyes, which rendered most charms and barriers paper-thin if not completely obsolete. Yet, there was no need.
"Satoru Gojo."
He clicked his tongue in irritation.
"Exorcise Geto and capture the unknown Curse User."
'Predictable old coots.'
"Deadly force is authorized."
The world flashed white when his skull smashed against the ground.
Yuta Okkotsu groaned, motionlessly laying spread-eagle on the dusty ground. His bokken had fallen several feet away with a clatter, far from reach.
His ears ringing, he heard a familiar baritone exclaim,
"You're way too rough, Maki! You barely gave the guy a chance!"
"I tried." Her face slowly came into focus, casually staring down at him, "it's hard when he's still so weak."
"Bonito flakes!"
"Yeah yeah, Inumaki" Maki sighed, a millisecond of remorse creeping onto her face, "he's come a long way in the last few weeks, but sometimes I forget he's still a noob. I'll keep that in mind."
Yuta shut his eyes with a groan, feeling a boot poking at his side.
"Get up!" She chastised, pressing against his ribs hard. "That wasn't even ten seconds!"
Standing a few meters off to the side, Panda and Inumaki watched with matching expressions of exasperation.
"I'm surprised he's survived a whole fortnite being her punching bag."
"Salmon."
"Give Maki some credit." The two startled at the voice suddenly behind them, turning around to face the man who had so easily snuck up on them. "If she wasn't so harsh, Yuta's growth wouldn't have been nearly as rapid."
With a steadying exhale, Yuta dragged himself back to his feet, picking up the bokken with his eyes still on his adversary. He had learned that lesson early on.
He could have sworn he saw something brighten in Maki's eyes as he did so, and that alone was enough to reignite the fight in him.
'Maki is truly kind.'
"Sorry, I'll try harder!" Yuta promised, slipping back into a swordsman's stance with a smile.
He almost shivered when Maki smirked, raising her naginata off the ground.
"Look at you working so hard!"
Yuta screamed when hands suddenly clapped on his shoulders, stumbling in fright.
"Gojo s-sensei?" He clutched his hammering chest, glaring at the blindfolded man. "You wanna give me a heart attack!"
"Just testing your spatial awareness," Gojo smiled insolently, nodding. "Needs work!"
"Can you get to the point already?" Maki crossed her arms, clearly annoyed at her sensei for interrupting her training.
"Cheer up, Maki." Gojo spread his arms wide. "It's my pleasure to-"
"You guys have been assigned a team mission." Atsuya Kusakabe stated, walking up to the pair alongside Panda and Inumaki.
"Aw!" Gojo stumbled, dramatically clutching his chest. "You spoiled it!"
"Woe is you." He muttered, shaking his head and addressing the students. "It's your first one as a group, isn't it?" He asked, ignoring the taller man still brooding next to him.
"Yeah, we usually go in pairs." Panda said.
"Normally that's how it works," Kusakabe nodded. "Optimizes resources and all that. But for this mission, we need all the manpower we can get."
"What about sensei?" Yuta glanced at Gojo. The man appeared uncharacteristically quiet, somber even.
"I have a mission of my own." Gojo's lips curved upwards in a ghost of a smile. "So I'll have to let Kusakabe here have the honor of leading you this time. He's more than capable of looking after you guys."
Kusakabe just scoffed.
"In the last few weeks, the prevalence of Cursed Spirits in Tokyo has starkly risen." Kusakabe explained, leading the group through the bustling streets near Shinjuku Station. "But it's not that more Curses are being created."
He glanced back and saw Yuta's eyes widen in recognition. "They're being drawn to something."
The other First Years looked mildly puzzled, but Kusakabe nodded. "That's right. I get now what Gojo sees in you, kid."
"But for that to happen on a scale like this," Panda realized, voice muffled underneath the thick scarf obscuring most of his face. Along with large sunglasses, a floppy hat and a large trench coat, he was blending in quite well despite being a large panda-shaped Cursed Doll. Such was possible only in the streaming crowds of rush hour.
"You'd need a Special Grade Cursed Object." Kusakabe confirmed gravely. "Not many are capable of this. The few exceptions are the Fingers of Ryomen Sukuna, but all of those are currently accounted for."
"Cursed Objects?" Yuta blinked, "Ryomen Sukuna?"
For a moment, Kusakabe just stared at the boy as if he'd grown a second head. "Oh right, you're new."
He succinctly retold the tale of the King of Curses, then explained the concept of Cursed Objects to an increasingly worried Okkotsu.
"Most Cursed Objects ward off other curses, even used as protective charms and talismans. But there are exceptions." Kusakabe came to a stop at a busy intersection. "It appeared to be moving, so it's likely a Curse is in possession of it. Unless we're especially unlucky."
"Whatever it is," Kusakabe grimly turned to the students, "We're here to find the source and neutralize it."
Since his encounter with Suguru Geto two weeks ago, Killua's life had been surprisingly mundane.
At first, he had tried to track the robed man down. But that strange beast had evidently provided more than enough of a diversion for Geto to get away without a trace.
What was worse, he'd been forced to reveal Narukami.
Once he'd realized that the creature was only strengthened by slashing attacks and that dealing with it left him vulnerable to attacks from Geto himself, he'd had little choice.
Luckily, there were power lines nearby he was able to cut and use to assimilate electricity into his aura, though he seemed to have gone overboard causing a blackout in the entire area. An inherent flaw of his Nen ability was requiring perfect control over his aura, which still seemed to escape him.
After confirming that Geto had retreated, Killua had quickly left the scene himself, knowing that such a flashy display would definitely attract more of those supposed Jujutsu Sorcerers.
He entered the geography aisle of the library, grabbing several different editions of the world map.
Killua had spent the last two weeks exploring the city and learning the language, accomplishing the latter through books and audio guides he had found in libraries such as this one. He was finally at a fluent level, though his reading skills still left much to be desired. For whatever reason, "Japanese" seemed to have three different scripts, hiragana, katakana and kanji.
Killua went through each atlas, his scowl deepening. 'Damn it.'
Each edition testified the same; the world map was totally wrong.
Killua could recognize none of the countries or even continents, the latter seemed to be crude inversions of the ones he knew. What's more, there was no mention of the Dark Continent.
It was common knowledge that most of the world was still yet to be discovered, what with the Dark Continent surrounding the lake which housed the Known World, though some of the public had begun to think of the Dark Continent as a fairytale.
Killua knew the contrary. Even if Kakin failed to find it on its famous ongoing expedition, he knew that it existed. His great grandfather, Zzigg Zoldyck, had even set foot on that mysterious land and lived to tell the tale.
Yet Killua could find not a mention of such a landmass in any of the atlases. The only "dark continent" he found references to was a nickname of an entirely different, and inhabited continent called Africa.
Closing the last book with a snap, Killua tossed it on the stack on the table, ignoring the glare of the librarian as he slumped back on his chair with a grumbled sigh.
It seemed like the more he learned, the more questions he had.
A new city, no, world, new languages, creatures….
'Maybe this place is like Greed Island?'
Out of all the possibilities, being trapped in a Nen-powered RPG made the most sense. Although as far as Killua was aware, Greed Island was one of kind.
But unlike in Greed Island, the NPCs here seemed far too life-like. There did not seem to be any set quests or objectives, and the dialogue was amorphous.
Greed Island had never been so intricate. It had taken place on a real island after all, Nen just generating the card system and NPCs, and it had still taken a group of the most skilled Emitters to pull it off.
He had already ruled out the possibility of this being a Nen Ability, the conditions and restrictions it would require just made it too impractical to exist.
And so, he was no closer to figuring out where the fuck he was.
Hands shoved in pockets, Killua exited the library with more questions than ever.
To make matters worse, his memories still hadn't returned. There was still a four day gap after the outing with Alluka that he was just incapable of filling no matter how hard he tried, no amount of meditation seemed to help.
It reminded him of Illumi's needle, how it had made him just forget that the most important person in his life even existed.
It pissed him off.
Killua had kept close tabs on his eldest brother since the beginning of his travels with Alluka, mainly through Canary and Gotoh, even bribing Milluki whenever necessary, so he knew that Illumi was currently preoccupied with a job on the Black Whale One
But old habits die hard, he couldn't help but still suspect his eldest brother.
Killua liked to think his Nen had advanced to a point too far for that trick of Illumi's to work on him. He had mastered subconsciously maintaining his ten at all times, which should make it quite difficult for a Needle to pierce his defenses without him knowing.
But ruling out his big brother just meant he had no lead.
Approaching a park, Killua suddenly tensed, raising his guard when he noticed the eyeballs boring into his skull.
There they were again, more Curses as Suguru Geto had called them, watching him from the shadows of buildings and vegetation. The sun had begun to set, and these creatures seemed to have a nocturnal preference, though Killua had noticed them in the daytime as well, they certainly became bolder after nightfall.
'Doesn't seem like they're working for Geto.' Killua only spared them a glance, detecting no hostility from them at all, continuing on his walk.
'They've been following me ever since I ended up here, but they never move or so much as twitch funny. And no matter how many I kill, more come out.'
Focussing too much on them seemed like a wasteful distraction at this point, but it was difficult to let go when all of his ingrained instincts screamed at him any time he was being watched.
Killua paused, suddenly realizing how turbulent his aura flow was.
Hours of daily ren training had helped center his Nen after it had seemed so unstable since arriving in this place, but even now whenever too many Curses gathered around him Killua felt small frays in his usually refined aura.
He breathed deeply, centering himself and focussing on his aura nodes. Using ren, he thickened his aura shroud, with it came a noticeable increase in his supernatural perception.
Killua's eyes widened.
With so many Curses watching him, he'd been blinded to a gaze far deadlier.
He took a step back, but it was too little too late.
His body spasmed against his will, legs rooted to the spot.
"Sleep."
Kusakabe froze, eyes widened in shock.
They had just discretely evacuated the area after spotting the target, but it was only now that they were getting a good look at him.
He knew his own expression must've mirrored that of the First Years next to him, the three crouching hidden behind a second story balcony overlooking the area, a hundred or so meters from the target.
Said target wasn't a cursed object at all, but a brat who looked like he was barely old enough to be in junior high.
But that was hardly the pressing concern.
"Why does he look like Gojo sensei?" Okkotsu had only verbalized the question running through all of their heads.
Then their target had paused, that strange shimmering Cursed Energy flashed and rippled, exuding a pressure that even Kusakabe with his meager sensory abilities could sense with far too much clarity despite the distance.
A sudden recollection made him recoil, one from his own time as a Third Year student nearly a decade ago. The day he had first met the new freshmen, one the epitome of a respectful junior and the other an overconfident silver-haired punk. When meeting the latter's eyes, Kusakabe still vividly remembered the chill he had felt deep in his very being, the primal sensation of being utterly eclipsed by the presence of a true monster.
The present sensation was startlingly similar.
A single horrifying hypothesis came to mind, and Kusakabe cursed.
"Gojo, that fucking idiot!"
Then an explosion engulfed where the spot where the boy had stood.
Overhead, a veil formed a dome over the area, a Jujutsu operative raising the barrier to seal off the zone.
It had quite impressed her, Toge Inumaki's initiative.
The unexpected nature of their enemy had surprised even her. She had heard rumors that Suguru Geto was raising young Curse Users to fortify his ranks, but one that looked like a shoo-in for a Gojo was not quite what she had expected.
Still, not that it changed matters too much. It suddenly dawned on her why exactly the brass had been dead-set on getting her on this case.
They knew that with her, as long as the cheque was handsome, the details hardly mattered.
"Sleep."
The Command had been ingenious really, it would neutralize the target without causing him bodily harm. The Cursed Speech user could never be taken lightly, it was no wonder he was already a semi-Grade II Sorcerer at a nearly unprecedented age.
But then Inumaki had doubled over, his eyes widened in unbridled shock as he painfully hacked out mouthfuls of scarlet.
The target had actually resisted the Cursed Command, only swaying slightly on his feet. His unblinking gaze immediately fell in their direction. That eerie Cursed Energy then flared, the sheer malice pressing down on her from all sides nearly making a cold sweat break out over her skin.
Panda should have taken the opening, already being in his Gorilla Mode, hidden within the target's blindspot at the other side of the street. But the Cursed Doll had hesitated.
Of course he had. How was the First Year expected to maul a "defenseless" kid, much less one who looked and felt far too much like his notorious sensei.
Thus, Mei Mei had only taken the next logical step.
A crow suddenly dived at the still sluggish target at an impossible velocity, pulsing with Mei Mei's Cursed Technique.
The resultant explosion leveled the street, creating a crater the size of a house
"Bonito flakes!" Inumaki cursed, shielding his face from the shower of rubber and shrapnel.
"Oh don't worry," Mei Mei brandished her Cursed Tool, rushing into the dust cloud, "if he can resist your Cursed Speech, a little explosion like that shouldn't kill him.
She barely whipped her head in time, a cut opening up on her cheek where the blow had grazed her.
"See?" She narrowed her eyes, readying her great-axe, watching the silver-haired boy crouch down several meters across from her, indeed quite untouched save for a few minor burns and burnt off sleeves.
Inwardly, she was concerned.
'I barely saw him move.' More than that, though it had been far from full capacity, for the crow to not even majorly burn him was ludicrous.
'Curse Amplification?' The most terrifying possibility flashed through her mind's eye along with the figure of the Strongest, and the Mei Mei instinctively tightened her grip.
"One chance." The boy spoke with the slightest accent, tone level, soulless. "Or I kill you."
His icy gaze pierced through her like jagged shards of glass, dissecting, sharpened to a knife's edge. This boy was clearly no stranger to killing.
"Talk." The air around him positively pulsed with killing intent.
With his speed, she knew managing to land another one of her crows was a tall order, so a test of close-quarters combat was the most likely course.
'As if I'm a stranger to that.'
Mei Mei smiled, feeling a bead of sweat trail down her neck. "Looks like I can't hold back against you."
Fortunately, she wasn't alone.
If his ren hadn't already been active to fortify his defenses, that blast would have been far more troublesome.
Even now, as he assessed the tall woman before him, he tried to determine what exactly had hit him. A projectile, definitely, but she only possessed a big great-axe.
'She must have allies!'
His suspicion was proven correct when a massive shadow suddenly fell upon him.
His reaction time was still muddled, his muscles still recovering from whatever had paralyzed them earlier.
And so, the clawed paw slammed into his face, the ground beneath his feet rupturing from the force that his legs were forced to bear.
Killua grunted, but not skipping a beat he latched onto the large furry arm, tightening his core and swinging his lower body to blitz a crushing kick into the creature's neck.
The large bear-like thing flew into a street lamp, bending it upon impact, staggered but not badly damaged.
Killua barely had the time to duck, the swing of a great-axe still slicing through a few strands of his hair, his reflexes the main reason he hadn't lost an ear.
'This thing isn't Conjured!' A cursory glance with gyo had confirmed as much. 'So a Manipulator?'
Knowing too little about these "Jujutsu Sorcerers", acting based on his knowledge of Nen was the only rational course.
To defeat Manipulators, one would need to separate them from their tools.
Killua ducked, evading the gray-haired woman's swings, he backflipped to create distance.
Planting his feet into the ground he pounced leaving a small crater in his wake, feinting in multiple directions, pivoting into a gap in the woman's onslaught to land an uppercut.
Her head snapped upwards, exposing the vitals within her neck.
Killua closed in, prepared to end the fight.
Only to jump back barely in time to avoid another slash of that great-axe, narrowly avoiding the bait.
"Remarkable." She rubbed the bruise blossoming on her cheek, staring at the boy with a calculating gaze. "So you saw through it."
With that, her eyes flashed and she rushed forward again.
Killua sidestepped and weaved, avoiding her strikes. Despite the speed gap, she was quite agile and could attack from odd angles, clearly a master of her weapon.
'She packs a punch!' He noted as he watched the corner of the building behind him explode from a swing he had narrowly avoided.
Killua tensed, suddenly noticing movement in his periphery.
Without warning, the bear smashed the ground he had just stood on, having capitalized on the dust clouds created by his ally, he seamlessly shifting to pursue its elusive target.
While the bear was pesky, the woman definitely held the greater threat. Killua easily dodged the bear's strikes, it may have strength but its agility was quite lacking.
'I can't let this thing keep me distracted!'
Slipping behind it, he channeled aura into his lower body and kicked the bear's left leg, the limb immediately bending at a grotesque angle from the impact causing it to fall to one knee.
He tensed his phalanges, the nails sharpening and elongating.
Before he could land the final blow, the great-axe was arching down above his head once more.
An attempt to slice through the handle failed and Killua was forced to give ground.
"Move, Panda!"
Killua almost rolled his eyes at the unimaginative name, grabbing the handle of the great-axe, he capitalized on her mistake and kicked into the woman's abdomen with a ryu-strengthened strike.
She grunted as ribs audibly snapped.
But to Killua's surprise her grip did not loosen.
The Zoldyck rammed another two thunderous kicks into the same spot.
The woman sputtered blood, unable to stop her own weapon from being pried off her fingers as she dropped to her knees.
Years ago, he would have immediately ended her life.
But as it was, Killua merely held the great-axe against her throat, allowing a bead of red to slide down her neck. "Talk. Who sent you?"
Despite the situation, the woman's composure remained, her gaze merely assessing, likely weighing her options.
". . . Jujutsu Tech…" she finally gasped.
Killua frowned. He had half-suspected Suguru Geto, not yet another unknown entity.
"Wh-"
A collision of something against his face knocked him back before he could finish the question, the great-axe slipping from his grasp.
Killua's scowled at the newcomer, a black-haired bespectacled girl brandishing a naginata.
Without ceremony, she charged.
'Why couldn't I sense her?'
With the other fighters so far, though their Aura had felt wrong, it had still been just as detectable as any person in his world's, often even more so.
But with this girl, it was different. As if she was using zetsu.
Fortunately, her strength and speed seemed seemed to be several tiers below that of the great-axe wielder. Killua easily dodged her swings, gaze cold as he prepared to immobilize her by breaking her legs.
"Stop!"
Once more, his muscles spontaneously seized up against his will.
Killua's head snapped towards the source of the shout, a white-haired boy with blood dripping down his mouth, tattoos of microphones on his cheeks.
'So it's him!'
Sensing the bear and the gray-haired woman make moves behind him, with no method of escaping and forced to face the onslaught of these new opponents, each with unknown abilities, Killua processed the situation and came to a singular conclusion within a split second.
'Godspeed!'
Electrified Aura entrenched his being and innervated every cell in a blinding display, enabling his body to react upon any stimulus with a preprogrammed response, his reaction speed increasing to a point otherwise unfathomable.
Killua had already had the advantage in raw battle speed, with Whirlwind the ensuing battle was over near instantaneously as the gap became insurmountable.
The gray-haired woman's attack was the fastest, her great-axe poised to chop off his right arm.
Instead, a shimmering fist dove into the woman's vulnerable midsection.
The bear was incapacitated by a simple slash of sharpened fingernails, losing its other leg in the process.
The white-haired boy had opened his mouth, likely to shout another Command.
But a swift chop to his blood-stained neck had stopped him in his wake.
As he approached the naginata wielder, Killua allowed Whirlwind to deactivate.
He deftly ducked beneath her swing, knocking her down with a kick to the liver.
"Damn it!" Killua gritted his teeth, fists shaking.
Though it had only been for a moment, he had been forced to reveal his greatest trump card to the enemy.
If he'd had his yo-yos, he would've had more options available. Unfortunately, his phone hadn't been the only thing missing on his person when he'd first awoken in that street.
As he glanced at his fallen foes, three of whom had passed out from the severe electric shocks of his ability, he could only hope he had been swift enough so they would not be able to piece together Godspeed.
Keeping his guard up, Killua approached the still prone black-haired girl.
He really needed to leave. But before he could, he needed to know why this "Jujutsu Tech" had sent these people after him.
"Hey." He turned nudged her, pushing her onto her back. Her eyes were hazy with pain, but still very much alert.
"I won't ask again."
His bloodlust permeated the air, crashing down on her with the weight of a skyscraper. His gaze turned icy, an ocean of killing intent.
"Why were you after me?"
Her lips had only begun to move, but before even a hushed sound could escape-
"GET AWAY!"
Killua pivoted and leapt back, narrowly avoiding the swing of a katana.
With a jagged gaze, he appraised the newcomer before him.
This black-haired, white-clad boy, seemingly a few years older than him, with his thunderous expression was not nearly as intimidating as the sheer presence that he exuded.
As a twisted miasma amalgamated into a giant, inhuman maw above the, the jagged grin of Neferpitou forcefully flashed in Killua's mind quickly giving way to this new threat.
The boy pointed his katana at Killua, coating it with his Cursed Energy not unlike Shu.
"Rika."
A/N: Saw it coming?
Writing a fight with so many characters is hard. That's mainly the reason this chap took a bit longer.
Do tell how I did.
I really appreciate the comments, please keep coming, genuinely motivates me. Your observations, critiques, theories, I wanna read them all. How was the flow? How was the fight?
Til next time!