Clang!
The locker door slammed shut.
After locking it and slipping the key into her pocket, the girl straightened up, planted one hand on her hip, and looked the four men in front of her up and down.
Gojo raised a hand and pointed toward the girl.
“All right.
Introduce yourselves.”
The girl’s expression remained calm.
Her chin lifted slightly, and her voice carried the kind of confidence that made everything she said sound self-evident.
“Nobara Kugisaki.
Boys, rejoice.
I’m the flower among all these thorns.”
Yuji immediately pointed at himself with his index finger and stepped forward enthusiastically.
“I’m Yuji Itadori, from Sendai.”
He grinned broadly, showing a full row of teeth, acting as friendly as though they’d known each other for ages.
“Megumi Fushiguro.”
Megumi kept both hands in his pockets, gave only his name, and stopped there.
“Jin.”
Jin followed right after him, his introduction so short it sounded like he was clocking in for work.
Just hearing those two absurdly brief introductions made Nobara complain internally.
‘Two pretentious jerks who only say their names and try to act cool.’
Her gaze first fell on Yuji.
‘He looks like such a country bumpkin.
Definitely the kind of guy who ate his own boogers as a kid.’
Her gaze moved to Megumi.
‘Gloomy sea-urchin-head.
He looks exactly like the kind of person who’d set a seagull covered in oil on fire.’
Jin stood beside Megumi.
The tight black tank top outlined the smooth, defined muscles of his body.
His broad shoulders and narrow waist stood out especially clearly beneath the open jacket.
Nobara swept her eyes over him once, then snorted internally.
‘The gray-haired guy has a pretty good body.’
‘But one look and you can tell he’s the self-centered narcissist type.
Not interested.’
Feeling Nobara’s gaze linger on him, Jin could more or less guess what she was thinking.
Whatever it was, it definitely wasn’t anything nice.
He wasn’t interested in women of her type either.
Right now, the only thing on his mind was getting out of the crowded city as quickly as possible and lighting up a cigarette.
Jin rolled his neck, making several cracks.
“What are we doing next?
Hurry it up.
I’m dying over here.”
Megumi wasn’t interested in the noisy downtown area either and, unusually, agreed with him.
“Same.”
Gojo looked at the united front formed by Megumi and Jin and let out a strange laugh.
“Heh heh heh, don’t be so impatient.
It’s rare for all four first-years to finally be together.”
“And three of you came from outside Tokyo.
Of course we’re going to have an unforgettable Tokyo sightseeing trip!”
Nobara and Yuji’s reaction:
Some original canon content won’t be repeated here.
I’ll try to avoid writing too much that’s exactly the same as the original.
Megumi: (￣_￣|||)
Jin: ←_←
………..
Tokyo, Roppongi.
Instead of the bustling shopping district Nobara and Yuji had imagined, what appeared before them was a gloomy abandoned building.
The walls were covered in mold.
The windows were either shattered or coated in a layer of gray grime.
The rusted iron gate at the entrance hung half open, as though something had violently bent it out of shape.
Megumi raised his head and looked at the building calmly.
“There’s a curse here.”
The reality was the exact opposite of what they’d imagined.
Yuji and Nobara immediately began protesting with wild gestures.
“Liar!
You’re bullying us because we’re from out of town!”
Jin had expected this outcome from the beginning.
He lit a cigarette and took a deep drag.
Then he slowly exhaled a cloud of white smoke, tilted his head back, narrowed his eyes, and looked utterly blissful.
“Haaah~~”
“This place is great.
Fresh air and barely any people.”
Nobara had originally been frowning at the abandoned building.
The moment she smelled smoke, she immediately turned toward Jin, waved a hand in front of her nose twice, and frowned even harder.
“Hey, you!”
Nobara stepped half a pace toward him and pointed directly at him.
“There’s a lady here!
Can you not casually produce toxic gas?”
Jin looked sideways at her, cigarette still between his fingers, his voice completely unconcerned.
“It’s fine.
You won’t be staying here for long anyway.”
Nobara’s eyes widened, and she was just about to fire back when Gojo clapped his hands with a smile, drawing everyone’s attention.
“Jin’s not exactly wrong.
Anyway, let’s get to business!”
He dragged out the ending of his words and looked back and forth between Nobara and Yuji.
“I want to see what the two of you can do.
Think of it as a practical exam.”
Gojo raised one finger and pointed toward the abandoned building.
“Nobara, Yuji.
Go exorcise the cursed spirits inside that building.”
Yuji froze, blinked twice, then raised a hand and scratched the back of his head.
“Huh?
I thought only curses could fight curses?”
He tilted his head toward Gojo with a confused expression.
“I don’t know jujutsu.
How am I supposed to fight them?”
Gojo tilted his head and looked back at him.
“Yuji, you count as a curse now too.
Cursed energy is flowing through your body.”
“You just don’t know how to use it yet.”
As he spoke, he somehow produced a short blade and handed it over.
“This is a cursed tool—Slaughter Demon.
You can use it to kill curses.”
Yuji instinctively took the cursed tool.
He drew the short blade and lowered his head to examine it carefully.
The blade had a matte sheen beneath the afternoon sunlight, and the edge had been sharpened to a fine point.
His eyes lit up and his mouth formed an O as excitement took over.
“Oh!”
Nobara turned her head toward Yuji, obvious confusion in her voice.
“What do you mean, he’s a curse?”
Megumi kept both hands in his pockets and answered without expression.
“Exactly what it sounds like.
He swallowed a Special Grade cursed object—one of Ryomen Sukuna’s fingers.”
Nobara fell silent for two seconds, then offered a heartfelt reaction.
“Ew!
That’s so unhygienic!”
Her voice was filled with disgust, and Yuji’s smile immediately froze.
“Hey!”
He looked indignantly toward her, only to see Nobara already striding away with her back to him.
Yuji had no choice but to follow, running toward the building entrance.
Just before he entered, a somewhat serious voice came from behind him.
“Yuji, one more thing.
Absolutely do not let Sukuna out.”
Yuji looked back and nodded.
“Yeah, I know.”
His figure disappeared from sight a moment later.
Jin burned the cigarette butt in his hand to ash, and a trace of golden light flashed through his eyes.
“Are you sure it’s okay to let the two of them handle this?
There’s still a person inside.”
Through his Observation Haki, aside from the large amount of dark, gloomy presences inside the building, Jin could also sense one extremely faint presence.
Gojo froze and turned toward him.
“You’re sure?
Is this that intuition of yours again?”
Jin lightly nodded.
“Yeah.
I can’t be certain from this far away, but I can usually tell what’s going on when it’s right in front of me.”
Megumi pulled both hands from his pockets and frowned slightly.
“If there’s a hostage…”
He stepped forward, clearly preparing to rush in as support.
“No.
I’m going in too.”
Gojo extended one hand and lightly blocked him.
“Megumi, you just recovered from serious injuries.
Behave yourself.”
Megumi opened his mouth, obviously wanting to argue.
But Gojo had no intention of listening.
He had already turned back toward the building.
“Trust them.
Besides, Jin and I are watching.”