Chapter Text
Tokyo’s entertainment district stunk of booze and vomit at this hour. Sprinting through the fairly dense crowd of people littering the streets, it was easy to tell who the offenders were. Men and women puked into the open roads. People stumbled out of clubs, bars and love hotels to add to the mass outside.
Not even five minutes prior I was following behind Yuji and Nobara to meet up with Gojo. But with my luck, one of the thousands of people in the streets decided to slam into me, leading to just about everyone trampling me until I could stand up. And by the time I was standing, they were of course nowhere to be seen. I knew the destination and how to get there thankfully. The thing that annoyed me, was that they left me behind, again. It wasn’t even as if they didn’t notice. I was right in front of Nobara when I fell. I quite literally watched her step over my body as if it were a stick on the ground.
“Every damn time, I swear they do this shit on purpose,” I mumbled to myself. “Remove the weakest link.”
All my self pitying was quickly squashed as I suddenly bumped right into what I could only describe as a brick wall. Which was… odd, seeing as a mere few seconds prior there wasn’t anything but other people there. As I peered up, I came to realize that the wall was merely a person. A very tall, shit brick house of a person. But a person nonetheless.
The moment his frigid eyes met my own, I instinctively took a step back. My body was telling me that I should keep my distance from this man. His features were sharp, messy black hair slightly falling into his face. To be honest, the man before me reminded me of Megumi.
“I’m so sorry.” I gave a curt bow before moving around the man and continuing onward. Much to my surprise however, I was nearly yanked backwards as something tightly grabbed my arm. And when I glanced behind me, I found the man's hand wrapped around my forearm, eyes intent on the Jiu Jitsu button on my outfit.
Prying my arm away from him, I gave him the dirtiest look I could muster, doing my best to not listen to my deep desire to use my cursed technique on his ass. “Did your parents never teach you to keep your hands to yourself?”
“Sorcerer, huh?” His voice was much deeper than I anticipated. And for whatever reason, the sheer sound of it made me shiver.
“How do you-”
The man cocked his head as his eyes raked over me, one hand pressed against his face in thought. “Your face seems familiar.” After a few moments, he shrugged, turning on his heel to walk away. But this time, I was the one to grab him. I wanted answers. This man gave off no cursed energy, and there was no way that he was also a sorcerer. So how did he know?
As soon as my palm made contact with his arm, he spun back around - faster than I could even comprehend - grabbing onto my wrist. “Did your parents ever teach you to keep your hands to yourself?”
I bit the inside of my cheek as he used my words back at me. “How do you know about sorcerers?”
“Tch, who cares?”
“I do.”
The man huffed, and in the blink of an eye I was being dragged into a nearby alley and out of the public eye. Not that any of the drunk citizens would’ve cared or helped if anything happened anyways.
Yanking my hand out from his own for the second time in a mere five minutes, I stared up at him with fire in my eyes. My cursed energy swirled like a brimming storm within me, begging me to release it on this creep.
“You seem like you want a fight,” he uttered with a wicked smirk.
I huffed. “I’m not fighting a citizen.”
The man shrugged, shoving his hands into his sweatpants. Turning around, he began to make his way out of the alley way without another word. Before I could even think about what I was doing, I held my hands out towards the man, heat scorching my fingertips as a bolt of flames flew at his back.
As the fire was about to slam into the man, I squeezed my eyes shut. Not wanting to watch in horror of what I just did instinctively. It was as if my body was telling me to attack him. That he was dangerous. A threat to me and others.
After a few moments, I finally decided to pry my eyes open. But once I did, nothing but pitch black stood before me. Or should I say, a man's tight black t-shirt stood before me. I didn’t even give him a second to speak before I began to throw hands at him. Every punch I threw, he defected far too easily.
This man had to have done boxing or some sort of martial art training. I was sure of the way he moved as we fought one another. Though, it was easy to see that he was either holding back or not trying at all. And that frustrated me to no end.
“Do you always fight like a child? Or is it just with me?”
The man growled and his attacks came in sharper, harder, than before. Anytime I made an attempt at using my cursed technique, he would swiftly avoid the flames before they could so much as graze him. Not even sparring Gojo made me feel so damn frustrated, and he was the strongest sorcerer alive.
Right as the man finally landed a rather hefty right hook into my gut, he backed away from me as I knelt over, catching my breath. “I just got bored,” he sighed. “Plus, I still need to check the outcome of that poker game.” Turning around, he made his way out of the alley as if nothing had just happened.
“Get back here and fight me you creep!”
Instead of giving me any sort of response, his shoulders bounced slightly as he laughed, giving me a wave of his hand before merging with the crowd. So much for me keeping my cool and not wanting to fight some random citizen. But something told me he wasn't just a normal citizen.
~
The entire trip to my meeting spot with Gojo, Yuji and Nobara, the mystery man occupied my mind like a disease. I had so many questions. All of which would never be answered, because there was no way that I’d ever see the creep again.
If he was a mere citizen, why was he so damn strong? How did he know about sorcerers? And how did he so easily avoid my cursed technique without an ounce of cursed energy himself?
The moment I stepped into the sprawling mall, I took note of the fact that the entire building had already been evacuated. Albeit, the mall was about to close in an hour anyways as it was already ten o’clock at night. In the distance I recognized the distinct fluff of white hair being propped up by a thick blindfold. Gojo stood in front of the elevators, talking to Yuji and Nobara.
Gojo’s head turned towards me as I approached, “Y/N, late as always.”
“You’re one to talk.”
“Sure, but when you’re as strong as I am you’re allowed to be fashionably late.”
I rolled my eyes, biting the sarcastic comment on my tongue. Yuji and Nobara didn’t need to see me talking to Gojo the way I did behind closed doors. “Sorry, I ran into some creepy asshole back near that dessert shop you like.”
Gojo sighed. “I really hope this story doesn’t involve that dessert shop being burned down, because they’re the only place that makes red bean mochi just right.”
“I was wondering where you were, I asked Nobara and all she did was shrug,” Yuji rambled.
“She did more than shrug when she left me behind.” I crossed my arms, glaring at Nobara as she stared at me wide eyed. “Did you really have to hop over me like trash in the road back there?”
“You were in my way, I was so locked in that I didn’t even fully notice that it was you that fell.”
“Okay ladies, we don’t wanna start a cat fight. Unless?” Gojo wiggled his eyes at me rather suggestively and I smacked him in the arm. “Okay so no cat fight, that’s fine.”
“Don’t worry your dumb dessert shop is safe. He pulled me into an alley and we fought there.” I pursed my lips, staring at the floor as I thought. “He had no cursed energy, and yet-”
“What did he look like?”
I glanced up, brows pinched together in confusion at how serious Gojo's demeanor had become in seconds. His tone was low and firm. “He… he had messy black hair, built like crazy, and I think a scar across his lip.”
Gojo pressed his lips together, jaw tensing. And for the first time ever, I sensed his cursed energy become slightly erratic, but only for a few seconds. “Toji,” he whispered.
“What’s wrong?”
“If you ever run into him again, call me right away. And whatever you do, don’t try and fight him again.”
As much as I wanted to ask him a multitude of questions, I remained silent, merely nodding in agreement.