Chapter Text
For the better part of your life, you thought you were insane.
Who saw grotesque monsters everywhere they went? Certainly, not the vast majority of people. And definitely not sane people. You came to accept that you weren’t normal a long time ago; some time between hiding from the monsters under your bed to being pumped full of medication since the ripe age of nine.
Not that it helped. You still saw the monsters: you saw them littering the streets of Tokyo, lingering around your school, and most prominently, you saw them surrounding your parents. As a child, it terrified you. Now? It was normal. You didn’t even flinch.
You even gave names to the little demons in the house. The one diggings its nails into your father’s shoulders you called Cyclops because it had a singular eye. The one perched upon your mother’s hair and constantly yanking her hair out was Grabby. They had been there for years, always watching you, but never clinging to you like they did to your parents.
You stopped wondering why that was some years ago.
School was agonizing. You were the weird girl on meds who barely spoke a word, so of course you were the target of ridicule. Not that people got too close to you nowadays. The few who had tried to shove you around before had inexplicably ended up with broken bones. You weren’t even sure how that happened; in every case you weren’t even close to your aggressors.
Your peers had learned to keep their distance while mocking you. You had learned to ignore them.
Your life sucked, but it was bearable. The medication kept you numb enough and your parents tolerated you as long as you didn’t cause trouble. It was fine, everything was fine.
Until it wasn’t.
That particular night was a bad one. Your parents were at each other’s throats, which wasn’t unusual, but they usually had the decency to keep their voices at a reasonable volume. But tonight, they were screaming themselves raw. Pointing fingers. Loathing one another, despising you. It had all come to a head, it seemed.
You would have known that even if you couldn’t hear them.
The house was… suffocating. More than it usually was. It was like the walls were caving in and pressing down on your chest, the air being forced from your lungs.
And then… It happened.
Silence, at first. Then, your mother’s ear-piercing shriek of terror. Every one of your instincts told you to get the hell out of there. But that was your mother, even after everything. So you stood on your wobbling feet, staggering into the kitchen.
And in the kitchen was a nightmare.
The biggest monster you had ever seen. It looked like a giant praying mantis with dozens of non-blinking eyes. Its head was bowed down, right over your father’s limp body as it tore into his torso. Your mother was in one of its claws, gripping her neck as she screamed and beat her fist against it.
…This had to be another illusion, right? Another hallucination from the crazy girl who everyone knew belonged in a mental hospital. Had you forgotten to take your pills? It had happened before.
But then you met your mother’s eyes. They shone with unshed tears, and in those tears so many emotions. Fear, pain, sorrow, and… regret. Blood dripping out of her mouth, she weakly uttered your name. And then-
“I’m sorry.”
Crack.
The sound was sickening. The monster had broken her neck. Then, it tried to put her head into its grotesque mouth.
Something burned inside of you. After so many years of being numb, you hadn’t thought that was possible. You stared the beast down, even as it hissed and moved towards you. It got closer and closer, yet you didn’t run.
You pushed .
Arms burst out of the monster’s shoulders; arms that did not belong to it. The hands were small, slender, human . They took hold of the monster's head, twisting and twisting until… its own neck broke.
You felt the crack before you heard it, as if it was under the flesh of your palms. As if it was your fingers wrapped around its jaw, turning it until it couldn’t turn any longer.
The monster fell, laying limp next to its victims. Your parents.
You drifted over to them, kneeling on the floor. Their blood soaked your pajama pants. You looked at your father, whose torso had been gnawed through his eyes were closed. Your mother’s were not; they were wide, glazed over, and lifeless.
Tentatively, you reached out and gently pulled her eyelids shut. “...It’s okay,” you whispered.
Whether or not that was true, you figured it would help her wherever she wound up. She shouldn’t be as burdened by you in death as she was in life. Right?
You weren’t aware that someone had entered your house until a loud boisterous voice reached your ears. “Damn!” came the exclamation. “That curse did a number, didn’t it? Look at this mess!”
“Seriously, Satoru? Read the room.”
They sounded like… two teenage boys. If you weren’t kneeling over your parents’ dead bodies, you might have questioned why two boys were in your house.
The first boy, Satoru, ignored the warning. Instead, he insistently nudged your shoulder. It was actually really annoying.
Funny. When was the last time you had ever been annoyed by anything?
You looked up, and they were indeed two teenage boys your age. Very tall boys at that. The first boy, the one who wouldn’t stop tapping you, had snow white hair and wore a pair of dark shades. The other boy was only a bit shorter, with dark hair tied into a bun.
The second boy smacked the first’s hand away from you. “Would you stop that?”
The first pouted, but relented. “Gosh, you’re no fun.”
His friend rolled his eyes, but lowered himself down in front of you. He offered you a kind smile. “Hi, there,” he greeted softly. “What’s your name?”
You blinked at him. You should have answered; it was only polite. But you couldn’t bring yourself to. Your name was one of the last words your mother had spoken.
It wouldn’t leave your mouth.
Fortunately, the boy wasn’t mad at your none-response. He just gave you a sympathetic look. “I’m sorry we were too late,” he continued. “Why don’t you come with us? We can get you some help.”
You would have just stayed on the floor, but something about the boy’s dark eyes settled you. Quieted those voices in your head. Promised safety.
Still, you hesitated. But then, he reached his hand out for you. And it dawned on you that no one had ever done such a thing for you. Not that you could remember.
So, you took it. His palm was warm as his fingers curled around yours.
XXX
If you had known you would end up in a hospital room, you would have slapped that hand away.
Not that this was like any hospital room you had been in. There were a few beds and not a lot of equipment. The “doctor” attending to you was actually a girl your age dressed in a uniform similar to the other two.
She shone a flashlight in your eyes. “Well, she isn’t concussed,” she concluded. “And I don’t see any other injuries.”
The boy from before with the dark head smiled. “Well, that’s good.”
The other boy, Satoru, groaned. “I don’t get why we had to bring her here ,” he complained. He was kind of whiny. “Why couldn’t we dump her at the hospital like every other normie?”
The girl rolled her eyes. “Maybe because she isn’t one?” she pointed out. “Don’t act dumb, Gojo, you can tell even better than me that she’s a sorcerer.”
Sorcerer ; the word caught on your brain. What did that mean? You were pretty sure you weren’t a wizard or anything like that.
Then again .
Satoru scoffed. “Barely,” he replied. “She’s weak.”
He wasn’t wrong, you had never been particularly strong. But it was pretty rude to say that about someone you barely knew.
“She killed that curse,” pointed out the other boy, the nice one. “It was at least a Grade One, wasn’t it?”
The white-haired boy waves his hand dismissively. “She probably got lucky.”
The girl rolled her eyes. “Both of you get out,” she demanded. “You’re clearly agitating my patient. Besides, I’m pretty sure Yaga will want to talk to her alone.”
The nice boy looked like he wanted to argue, but Satoru slung an arm around his shoulders. “Come on, Suguru,” he urged. “I’m hungry.”
Suguru rolled his eyes. “Your useless ass just wants me to cook for you.”
“Duh.”
The girl slammed the door behind them and turned back to you. “Finally, I thought those morons would never leave.” She sighed, wiping off some blood that had gotten on your cheek. Her eyes were a rich brown, calm and tempering. Her presence was like a soft breeze against your skin. “You’ve had a hell of a night, huh?”
That was an understatement. In just a few hours you had been orphaned by a monster and essentially (if not, willingly) kidnapped.
She waved a hand over you, her palm glowing a soft blue. “Physically, you’re fine. Though, I’d say you’re a little fucked up in the head, aren’t you?”
Another obvious statement. This girl sure didn’t sugarcoat things.
A man entered the room, he was tall with short hair and a beard. He sized you up, analyzing you; this must have been Yaga. “How is she?” he asked gruffly.
“No injuries, Sensei,” the girl reported. “But she won’t talk.”
The man nodded. “I see,” he replied. “Get to bed, Shoko.”
The girl, Shoko, nodded. She gave you a pat on the shoulder before leaving you alone with the man.
Yaga sat across from you. “It’s been a long night for you, hasn’t it?” You didn’t answer, but he didn’t expect you to. “I’ll make this quick; you’re a jujutsu sorcerer. You possess cursed energy, which is how you did what you did. The thing that killed your parents is called a curse, they’re made from the negative emotions of non-sorcerers. They’re common in places like Tokyo especially. It’s the job of a jujutsu sorcerer to exorcise them.”
You took in all the information. So they had never been a figment of your imagination. Every monster you had seen was… real . You weren’t crazy.
Unless, of course, this was an extremely vivid hallucination. You weren’t ruling anything out at this point.
Yaga, oblivious to or simply ignoring your mini crisis, continued. “This is a school called Jujutsu Tech. I’m a teacher here and the three numbskulls you met are my students, Satoru, Suguru, and Shoko.”
Satoru. Suguru. Shoko. The names burned themselves into your brain.
“I won’t force you to enroll,” promised Yaga. “But I’ll have to put you in the system otherwise. Is that what you want?”
You shook your head. Your crazy ass was not going to survive the foster system. That was a great way to get yourself committed to a mental hospital (again).
Yaga nodded. “Alright then. I’ll start on getting you enrolled.” He stood, holding out his hand. “Welcome to Jujutsu High.”
You shook it, and it kind of felt like you were selling your soul.