Satoru leaned back in his chair, legs crossed, sunglasses hanging half-off his face. The room was quiet except for the faint tick of the clock and the cicadas outside, and it wasn't just the room. It was the entire clan. It was a silence that stretched out and into the very world itself, like it was holding its breath. Somehow, everyone knew and recognized that this was the calm before the storm.
Jiki sat across from him, draped in the same indoor kimono as he was. His shoulders relaxed, one hand resting on the table. He wasn't brooding, not exactly, but his focus was elsewhere, yet Satoru did not mind. Such quiet times between just the two of them were rare, but he enjoyed it all the same. Didn't mean that he was not going to prod.
"You know," Satoru started, tilting his head, "you're a terrible conversationalist. Most kids your age would be talking my ear off by now."
Jiki didn't answer right away. Instead, his eyes stared outside, tracking a nearly invincible firefly, the corner of his mouth twitched in response like he was weighing whether to bother with a reply.
Before he could, the door slid open. Aiko stepped inside, balancing a tray with the teapot and cups. She moved carefully, not rushing a step till she got to where they sat. Then she set the tea cups and kettle down, the steam curled up in little wisps, catching the light. She straightened and glanced between them.
Satoru caught it, the flick of her eyes. But what he noticed more was Jiki. For once, his expression shifted. He smiled. It was a small and moderate one.
"Thank you," Jiki said, voice softer than usual. "Do you want to join us?"
Aiko gave a soft, matching smile in response, the scar that marred her face not taking away from her features. "Thank you, Jiki-san. But I've been away for too long. It is time to put the house in order." With that parting statement, she gave Satoru a deep bow. He waved her off in response with a matching smile on his face.
His cousin didn't smile often, but it was times like this when he did that made it all the brighter.
Satoru leaned forward, resting his chin in his palm, watching Jiki still looking at the door even after she left. "Huh," he said, drawing the word out. "I'm still undecided if you actually have a crush on her, you know?"
Jiki exhaled through his nose, almost a laugh. "You'll never know."
Satoru grinned wide, pouring tea into the cups. "Oh, I'll definitely find out sooner or later. This is big. Might even enlist a couple of others to find out." He slid a cup across. "Here. Before I drink it all."
Jiki accepted it with both hands.
"You ever think about what comes after all this?" Satoru asked, voice lighter this time. Gone was the teasing. "Not the fighting, not the curses. Just… days like this."
Jiki raised his cup in thought, then he smiled again; it was faint, but it lasted all the same. "I don't know about getting rid of curses permanently, but days like this... they are not bad."
Satoru took a sip of his own tea, and as the two Gojos sat, their attention focused on the clan illuminated by the full moon, Satoru soaked in the moment before replying. "Not bad at all."
x
Toji could already tell this job was going to be a pain in the ass.
Infiltration was an easy skill for him. He assumed that was one of the reasons the Gojos had given him the job. Yet it had taken him longer than he liked to get to his destination, starting with the boat he had hired breaking down in the middle of the sea.
"A hundred apologies once again, customer-san. I'm sure the failure will be fixed in no time at all." The sniveling, thin-eyed man who owned the boat said with a forced smile, while his son worked on the engine of the small boat.
Toji turned to the man and stared into his eyes with his own uncaring gaze, trying to express just how much this annoyed him. He must've done something right because the man yelped in shock and immediately spun around to go assist his son instead of staying in Toji's presence any longer than he should.
Once again blessed with blissful silence, Toji turned back to the sea. The water was calm. He'd checked the weather forecast before stepping out of his house, and today was supposed to be completely clear. He should've gotten to the island at least ten minutes ago, but you could never account for inefficiency.
Toji found himself missing his partner and old friend Kong once again. The veteran soldier was as connected as he was resourceful. He would've definitely gotten better transportation than this piece of barely-held-together boat he found himself on.
He turned from the empty ocean, wind ruffling his dark hair as he laid his eyes on the island in the distance. His gaze calmly settled upon it, and he eyeballed the distance, calculating what it would take him to reach it.
A little under a minute. He'd have to get off to a running start, which would mean condemning this boat to destruction with his initial burst of motion, which was no great loss in his opinion. Once he picked up that burst of speed, running on water should be easy enough. However, he hesitated.
There were more than enough people on the docks that he would be seen, coupled with the fact that this was supposed to be an infiltration mission. Blowing his cover before he even got into the inner part of the island was... Before he could finish that thought or even continue with his calculations, he heard the grunting of someone putting effort into something. A second later, the sound of the engine coming back on rang out.
"Ha!" The old man immediately exclaimed, turning to face Toji once more. "I told you we would do it, didn't I?"
Toji simply snorted in response, turning to the younger boy who had done all the work. The boy had immediately moved from the engine to the driver's seat of the small boat, and once again, they were off.
It took another fifteen minutes to get to the docks, and before the boat even landed, Toji leaped. The distance to the wooden port was not so far that the feat was extraordinary, yet it drew eyes regardless. He landed easily and began to move forward. He was dressed in a simple black sweatpants and t-shirt combo, with a pair of black slides.
There was something of a crowd. Indigenous islanders looking for distracted tourists they could fleece, pickpocket, and even scam. Then there were the tourists, not just people from mainland Japan. He heard a man speaking English in the crowd, another woman speaking French. The whole group was an assortment of different nationalities.
Toji muscled his way forward, his frame parting the sea of humans as he walked. Before he left the tightly packed crowd, his right hand snapped out and caught an arm by its wrist halfway into his pocket. Without even turning to look at the person, he twisted the wrist, not so much that he broke it, but enough that he felt the joints misalign as the wrist dislocated.
He kept on marching forward, uncaring of the cries of pain he left behind him. He had other things to do and had little interest in a spectacle. His first job was to find a way into the deeper parts of the island; however, it had been years since he had been here. The pathway was nearly nonexistent, which meant he needed a guide, at least until he got to somewhere familiar enough.
He walked about the tourist town for a bit, seeing the sights. He was taking it easy with the job, his dark eyes roving in what seemed random but was actually searching. So far, he couldn't see anyone that he could tag as a sorcerer, and if there were any curse spirits, then they were either too weak or they were moving too slowly for him to sense.
It took him another hour to find his way into a hiking group, guided by an indigenous islander, and as one, the group began the long trek up the mountain. He tuned out the words of the guide, as the older, weather-beaten man pointed out rock outcrops and gestured toward trees that looked older than the Zenin clan.
The walk continued, and they moved deeper and deeper into the forest. The hiking trail slowly began to grow rougher, the vegetation covering the path further ahead. There was the low whine of something in the distance, too strange to be human, too uncanny to be a beast. The guide immediately turned around with a worried smile.
"Alright folks, this is as far as we can go. Further inland is uncharted, and I doubt your insurance covers the kind of things we might face." The older man said, his accent thick, and the group broke into laughs and giggles at the joke. What nobody in the group noticed was that the old man was not laughing, even as they walked back down the trail, chatting and laughing. The old man continued to glance back like he was expecting something to strike from behind. Another thing they failed to notice was that their group was missing a single person.
Toji sat crouched on a giant tree, watching the group trail back down the forest. He kept his dark eyes on the older man. No doubt he was aware of curses, and of the small clan that lived in the Iya Valley that utilized them.
The last time he was here, his job had been to kill one of those sorcerers after they had massacred a family on the mainland, then retreated, confident in how hidden their village was. They never expected someone like him to be on their trail.
Toji turned away from the group and took the trail that followed further into the jungle. Taking the direct path opened him to anything, but he was familiar enough with this area that he decided to stick to the side. He leaped, moving from tree trunk to tree trunk, following alongside the path until finally the pathway disappeared as vegetation covered it completely, but there was no need. He had gotten to his destination.
Toji jumped down from the tree and came to a stop at the edge of a cliff, before a wooden bridge that groaned and moved with the wind. He could not see it, but he knew it was there, a barrier. It was in the way the very air felt different, the area before him had a different atmosphere to it. He cocked his head to the side as he searched for it, and he finally found it.
Talismans nailed to the outside of the bridge, most likely to keep it invisible and non-sorcerers as well as sorcerers out. Toji took a step forward, slipping past the barrier, his heavenly restriction treating it as nonexistent. He walked down the bridge, ignoring the way it swayed, a dangerous sway that would've sent most people falling into the depths. Then he crossed over and into the true inner part of the Valley.
This time he stood in place for a minute. His ears were tuned up to pick up even the sound of leaves falling, the rustle of critters moving through the underbrush, bugs clacking their mandibles, and birds singing. He expanded his senses until he could pick up on water flowing, a stream that led into a waterfall. More animals roam the underbrush. A hog tearing through a shrub, a wild dog ripping into a rabbit, human footsteps...
He focused on them immediately. On the footsteps, the owner was moving at a sedate pace, slightly behind it was another, just as unhurried and sedate. Toji smiled, then he disappeared in a blur of motion. It took him minutes to get to the owners of the footsteps, but when he finally did, he recognized them for what they were: a patrol.
The older man and younger girl duo walked in silence, their path meandering as Toji followed them from above until the girl decided to speak up in a huff.
"What are we even doing this far out?" She started as she caught up to the older man, her frown twisting her features. "We are only supposed to patrol around the clan then come back, we've never had to patrol so close to the bridge before."
The older man nodded his bald head in agreement before tugging on his brown kimono that had gotten stuck in the shrub. The two figures carried swords, which for sorcerers meant either their cursed technique was not worth mentioning or it was weak. There were outliers, but that was the general rule.
"I understand your confusion, Shion. But what we do, we do because our honored benefactor advised the great elder that it would be in our best interest to tighten up our security."
"That's another thing I don't understand. Honored benefactor? That woman doesn't look a day over forty. How is she the same person that led us here and helped us to hide in the Iya valley centuries ago? Then she also brought along a lot of weird and strange things and people, and clustered herself on the outskirts. Are you sure the creepy woman is not a frau—"
Before the girl could finish the statement, the old man spun and roughly clasped his hand over her mouth, before slamming her into the tree behind her. Toji watched as he scowled down on her, his other fist closed into a tight fist and ready to bury itself into the girl's midsection, but the old man held back.
The girl stared at the man with frightened wide eyes, as the man put his head close enough to her ears to murmur.
"If you ever say something as stupid as that about our great benefactor once again, don't blame me if the great elder casts you out of the clan. I'm sure you know what that means."
Death, Toji guessed with a dark smirk. All sorcerer clans were the same, even the ones hidden and isolated from the rest of the world. They still found a way to take up the same traits and paths.
The older man saw how appropriately scared and shivering the girl was, so he released her mouth and took a step back before smoothing over his cloth.
"Be mindful of your words next time, Shion-kun. Do not think the great elder has no means of identifying the identity of strangers, and if the stranger somehow bypassed such identification, do you think it smart to provoke such a figure?"
The girl shook on the spot, her dark brown hair falling in waves that hid her face. "I-I'm sorry."
The older man let out a tired sigh before moving on. "I know your words come from a place of worry and care for the clan, so I would not mention it to the great elder. Now hurry up. It's about time for our patrol to end. We're turning back."
The older man turned around and began to walk back, while the girl scrambled to keep up with his strides. There were no true paths in this part of the valley; every turn and step they took looked completely random, yet there was no hesitation in the movement so Toji followed them, moving above and slightly behind them, invisible to their senses.
He had a better idea of what he was stepping into now. The honored benefactor was probably Kenjaku. The strangers were probably the curses and reincarnated sorcerers Megumi had told him about. That they stayed on the outskirts was another piece of critical information. It stopped Toji from running about the village at risk of being caught while also putting them in a remote area, making it easier for him to slip in and out.
He brought out his phone and predictably, there was no network this far in. Still he typed a message down and hit send before slipping it back into his pocket. The duo got close enough to the village that Toji didn't need them anymore.
The village was a collection of surprisingly well-built buildings surrounded by a wall. The architecture was old Japanese, with sliding doors, wood and stone structures, red torii gates and guards with halberds. The village seemed like a place forgotten by time.
Even the most staunch clans on the mainland like the Zenin still used a lot of modern conveniences like light bulbs, electricity, etc. This village didn't have a single modern trapping. Toji switched tracks, instead of following straight behind them he began to circle, his path taking him around the village in the distance. He slowly came to a stop as he finally found what he was searching for, a set of buildings positioned and placed on the outer part of the village.
The buildings were subtle, deliberately unremarkable. Low, squat structures with weathered wooden walls and moss creeping along the bases. Their design matched the rest of the village, but the placement gave them away. They were too removed from the main compound, too isolated for normal village functions.
Toji crouched low, hidden in a thicket of trees that grew up the side of a slope. He watched the buildings for several minutes, taking in the patterns. There were no visible guards, but that didn't mean much. He had done his research on his target and had acquired extra information from Gojo Jiki alongside pictures and recordings. When someone as notorious as Kenjaku was involved, a barrier or a curse was more likely than soldiers.
Still, he had expected some movement, some enemy. Another person he had been told to expect was Kashimo and Mahito. He had read their profiles and Jiki's analysis on the duo, and while Kashimo seemed like a fun person to fight, Mahito seemed like the real danger, considering that unlike curses, his transfigured humans could spot him and be intrested in what he was doing here if he slipped up. However, there was nothing.
Toji exhaled softly through his nose, his expression tranquil, his pulse steady. Then he moved.
He slipped from his perch, landing silently in the undergrowth below. From there, he moved, body fluid and every step calculated. He didn't disturb a single twig beneath his feet, didn't rustle a single branch as he closed the distance to the outermost structure. Up close, he sensed it once more, another barrier.
Then he reached out, slowly.
He was not certain what this particular barrier did and he did not care to find out right now, however there were always a few staples when it came to barriers. They recognized cursed energy, rejected it, and even lashed out at it. But Toji had none. His Heavenly Restriction rendered him invisible to such defenses, a blind spot in their design. His fingers passed through the barrier like a hand through smoke, and he stepped inside.
He continued moving closer until he was saddled up to the house. His senses could pick up the presence of people, four people, but his spatial awareness spoke to him of a fifth. A fifth that he couldn't see most likely meant a curse.
He tracked the heartbeats to the base of the building. Luckily for him, there was a window that gave a clear view of the basement. Toji ducked and cleaned the dust before peering in. He was greeted to the sight of a boy strapped to a chair and being force-fed fingers by a woman. There were a boy and girl duo strapped to the wall, and the final fifth presence that he couldn't see behind them.
He had already identified the woman as Kenjaku, which meant that the boy was Itadori Yuji. Toji frowned and for a second, an uncharacteristic thought went through his head, doing more than he was paid for. Itadori Yuji was one of Megumi's close friends, even Tsumiki seemed to have met him at least once and judging by her words, liked him. What would it take him to tear his way through this pitiful obstruction?
All it would take was a cut throat, and he could be out with Itadori Yuji before anyone else could react. The thought lingered in his mind longer than it should have. This wasn't part of the mission parameters, but the kid was right there, and getting him out would be a significant blow to whatever Kenjaku was planning. Plus, Megumi would probably appreciate it, not that Toji would ever admit to doing something for sentimental reasons.
"Whatcha doing here?"
Toji acted on instinct, his foot shot out, striking behind him, but he must've missed because he felt no purchase. He shifted to his feet, dark eyes searching for the person who had spoken up behind him a split second ago.
"Judging by how quick to attack, I'm guessing you're an intruder then."
Toji's head snapped upward, and he was greeted to the sight of a woman standing on top of the short, stocky building. A naked, tanned woman with floating pink hair. She raised her thin eyebrows at him as those large eyes with black sclera and dark pink irises looked into him in confusion. Her presence was a bonfire to his senses where there had been nothing before.
"Huh, that's odd. I can't sense a single bit of cursed energy from you."
Toji immediately spun on his heels. He didn't have time for a conversation. This was supposed to be recon only. How had she even snuck up on him? He shelved the question and immediately blurred backward, his feet eating up the pace as he hurled himself out of the barrier and into the forest. But the moment he took a single step out of the barrier, he felt it.
A sudden shift in the atmosphere, and his instincts were screaming of danger. His eyes widened as he stepped out of the barrier fully, and immediately the sensation disappeared. The barrier stopped sensations, or cursed energy? He was not certain, and he didn't stay long enough to be.
He tore his way forward, but already he could tell he would not make it out of here unscathed, at least. The time for subtlety had passed. All that was left was speed. He ran past trees and grasses, leaving everything behind him as he blurred forward, until he heard two pairs of heartbeats.
A second later the owners came into his vision, two nondescript men wielding katanas. The new patrol. He would've cursed if he had the breath to spare. Instead, as they turned to face him, he acted. Using the momentum he had built, he barreled into the first man just as he unsheathed his sword.
Toji clasped a hand over the man's head and buried it into the tree behind him, cratering his head, and in one smooth motion, he ripped the falling blade from the dead man's hand and buried it through the eye socket of the other man.
The entire process had taken a second, from analyzing to acting. Yet that had been a second too much. He felt it a split second later, a change in the atmosphere as air split apart to accommodate something as it passed through.
Toji dove forward and spun, watching the two dead men as well as the trees for at least a hundred meters ahead be cut down by a bisecting invisible slash. He rolled to his feet a split second later and watched as everything began to fall in slow motion. This time he didn't bother to keep running, not against an attack like that, especially since he could hear a heartbeat fifty meters away.
As the debris and dust began to clear slightly, a figure walked out of them, and this time Toji saw his opponent clearly. Itadori Yuji? Then he caught the extra pair of eyes, the black tattoo markings across clear skin and the malevolent grin that had nothing to do with the earnest boy he'd heard so much about.
Sukuna.
"I'm not getting paid well enough for this," Fushiguro Toji grumbled to himself in annoyance.