The background stories that the pro circle didn't bother with were something the players enjoyed... Some were lamentful, some were shocked, and some had already started to write fanfiction.
-Blue Butterfly, The King's Avatar
__________
"Man, that fucked up."
"I know, right?"
It was long after they met that the full moon hung low in the sky, signalling the oncoming dawn. Akemura and Satoru, the latter of whom had put on a bandage to cover his Six Eyes, sat together in one of the many ramen stalls in Kyoto, their bowls of ramen right next to each other, casually eating while Satoru explained the world of Jujutsu to Akemura.
It was troublesome at first when Akemura was suddenly teleported into civilisation by Gojo, for he had no idea how to stop the life-draining property of his Cursed Energy, but the solution was much simpler than he could imagine.
He simply needed to control the Cursed Energy so that not a single drop leaked out, and to make sure it did not flow around him but instead stayed inside him. By reducing the amount of external Cursed Energy he produced, he could reduce it to the point where the life-draining effect became almost non-existent.
Gojo said it would take a bit of time for Akemura to achieve it.
Akemura took that as a challenge.
And he won.
"So you're telling me there are these invisible monsters killing, by estimation, thousands of people per year, and those who could put a stop to them are people who essentially weaponised depression?"
"Hey, you don't ignore something like anger, sadness, or fear; those are effective emotions as well."
"Right, right, of course."
The sarcasm wasn't missed by Gojo, but Soga didn't think much of it as he continued to eat.
"I know it sounds bad, but if we don't do it, then who else?"
Gojo finished, then went back to eating his ramen, while Soga quickly chewed through his ramen before speaking.
"I guess you're right about that, but that doesn't mean I have to like it," Soga explained as he lifted his bowl and started drinking the soup.
"Well, think of a positive side; you got a cool superpower out of it," Gojo responded before resuming eating.
Soga put down his bowl, then raised his hand as the owner looked at him. "Can I have another, please?" The man gave Soga a quick nod and started cooking.
"I guess you're right about that part." The bowl was quickly served to Soga before he picked up his chopsticks, but before he started eating, he continued, "Why are we in Kyoto anyway?"
"Ah, about that, have you played something like Persona?"
"Which one?"
"Well, I said from the third one onwards."
"Then yes."
"Ah, that's good then," Gojo said as he quickly finished his own bowl while Soga continued eating his portion. "You see, just like the protagonist, you must also go to school."
"What?" Soga was shocked; his hand stopped mid-motion before he took a quick glance at Gojo, then went back to eating, still watching the white-haired man.
"Yes, you might be a teenager with a superpower, but education is still very important, you know?"
Akemura chewed furiously, staring at Gojo with a mix of horror and disbelief. "So even while we're risking our necks to save people, we still have to do maths?!"
"Hey, don't be like that now. Maybe maths will come in handy in one of your future battles and bring you victory!" Gojo said dramatically, putting up a peace sign, and Akemura just looked at it with pure disgust.
"Right, I will certainly defeat these Cursed Spirits with the power of Pythagoras Theorem," Akemura said as he quickly finished the rest of his bowl. "This is ridiculous."
Gojo only laughed in response.
"So you got me here, in Kyoto, so that I could study here?"
"That's right. While I would prefer you go to Tokyo, where I taught, I feel like giving you here would be much better for them," Gojo clarified.
"For them? But not for me?"
"Of course, it would benefit you as well, but the Kyoto students, let's just say, need a bit more... pushed to make them better, and you are the perfect rock that I could throw into this still water to create some ripples."
Soga rolled his eyes, propping his elbow down and leaning on it, looking at Gojo. "You're not even gonna try to hide the fact you're using me?"
"Hey now, at least you're getting something out of this, too, no? Besides, I feel like being honest with you would benefit both of us in the long run."
"So you say," Soga could only roll his eyes at Gojo's statement before his mind came to another topic. "What about the finger?"
"What about it?"
"What do you mean, 'What about it'?" Soga's tone rose a little higher than usual. "This thing is leaking so much Cursed Energy that I feel like it could form another Cursed Spirit right now. So clearly, this thing must be very important."
"You could say that, I suppose," Gojo shrugged. "It's one of the fingers from someone called Ryomen Sukuna. Supposedly, he was the strongest sorcerer in the past, and after his death, his body parts, more specifically his fingers, were turned into a Cursed Object that would attract Cursed Spirits or be used to ward them off with the correct ritual."
"That sounds very important..." Akemura muttered, his eyes narrowing. "From what I heard, this thing is very important, so why the hell was it in the middle of nowhere?"
"Hey, come on now, Japan is a big country. Trying to find all 20 fingers would be impossible even for someone like me," Gojo answered casually.
"20?"
"Yes, 20, because he has four arms and all of that."
"Oh, that makes more sense."
"You were thinking it was his toes, weren't you?"
"Well, how in the world would I know he has four arms?"
Gojo laughed, then leaned in, his posture suddenly more serious. "You've been asking me all night. Mind if I ask a few questions now?"
Akemura simply shrugged, not caring what kind of questions Gojo was going to ask.
"First thing, then. What were you doing under that bridge in the middle of nowhere?"
Oh, of course, he started with that.
"To tell you the truth, I have no idea. Believe me, I was as lost as you. The last thing I remembered was going to sleep, and the next thing I knew was waking up there."
Ain't no way I'm telling him that I died and somehow ended up there.
"Is that so..."
Gojo, of course, knew there was more to it, but he held back, curious. He could tell that what Akemura had just said was true, even if it was not the whole story.
But that begged the question. Why would someone, presumably, kidnap this boy, who knows nothing about Jujutsu, and put him in a situation where he could have died if he were not awakened to his Cursed Technique and learn how to control the energy?
But what if that was the purpose?
If that were the case, it would raise even more questions.
But he stopped that train of thought for now and continued his questioning.
"Well, what about your family then? Any relatives? We could make some contract with them and at least tell them what you're getting yourself into?"
"Don't have any. Been living alone for quite a while now." A lie so natural it might as well be the truth.
"Oh, well then it just made our job much easier!" Not a single drop of sympathy could be seen in the man named Satoru Gojo, who seemed more relieved than anything.
"It's nearly morning, so we should get going and introduce you to that old fossil." Gojo stood up from his seat, put the money on the table, and the owner simply nodded.
Akemura quickly followed suit, and both stepped outside.
"I'm curious, though, was it wise to talk about something like this in front of him?" Akemura's face tilted slightly towards the owner, and it was clear to Gojo what he was implying.
"Oh, don't worry about him. He's someone who is in the know. There is a reason why I picked this place, you know?"
Akemura just shrugged, accepting Gojo's answer. Suddenly, Gojo grabbed his arm, and in a blink, Akemura found himself standing in what looked like a temple complex, surrounded by traditional Japanese buildings.
"Come on, let's get moving. I'm sure they probably noticed that we're here," Gojo said before beginning his walk deeper into the mountain.
"You could at least warn me first before doing that." Akemura quickly followed behind as his eyes continued to scan his surroundings.
"And what's the fun in that?"
As they continued to walk, step by step, they finally arrived at a building, passing through the forest and trees, revealing even more buildings deep inside the mountain. What caught Akemura's eye was the man standing as if he had been waiting for them this entire time.
An old man with thick grey eyebrows, slightly hunched forward, his eyes narrowed as he looked at Gojo with what Akemura could only describe as annoyance.
"Satoru Gojo, what brought you an unwelcome present here?" the old man said.
"Oh my god, you're awake! And here I thought you would be sleeping to stop those wrinkles of yours from multiplying!" Gojo exclaimed, ignoring the question entirely at first. "But to answer your question, I bought you a new student."
Gojo moved in the most dramatic way possible as he pointed at Akemura, who was standing right beside him.
"Hello there," Akemura greeted quickly, ignoring Gojo entirely.
The old man's eyes narrowed slightly as the insult that Gojo threw at him seemed to get under his skin, but he quickly let it go, as if he was already used to it by now, before turning his eyes towards Akemura.
"Unimpressive."
"Huh?"
It was Akemura who said that, as he seemed quite shocked by what the old man had just said.
"I admit your control is quite impressive, but with that amount of Cursed Energy, it would have done nothing, considering you have as much as Mai, if slightly lower." The old man said. "At best, if you were to train your whole life, you'd be Grade 2 at best."
Akemura had no clue who Mai was, but she sounded weak—and that alone soured his mood.
Gojo turned away, trying to hide his face, but when his shoulders shook, and a stifled sound escaped, it was clear he was barely holding back a laugh, which meant...
He was trying to hide his laugh.
He knew why the old fossil like him would say something like that; after all, it was his idea for Akemura to suppress his Cursed Energy as much as possible to prevent his Cursed Energy Trait from affecting the whole area, so knowing what the old fossil was in for couldn't help but make him laugh.
"Ah, of course you said that," Gojo said after calming himself down, "Always judging by the surface level and never thinking about what one could achieve despite the hindrance. That's the mindset I'm trying to break here, Akemura."
The last part was directed at Akemura, who quickly understood what Gojo was saying, but instead of saying anything, he let Gojo continue.
"Let it go, Akemura, and show this fossil why we don't judge the book by its cover."
The moment those words left Gojo's mouth, Akemura immediately understood what Gojo was implying, and, driven to prove the old man in front of him wrong, he let go of his Cursed Energy control and let it flood out like a tsunami.
And as a result.
All hell broke loose.
__________
A/N
I, for one, think that if there was anything that had a lot of potential, it's the Kyoto students.
I know they are a bunch of fraud except for our goat, Todo, but that's why fanfic exists.
We want more of these characters because we know they could achieve much more.
That's why I will try my best to use that wasted potential and give us what we want.
One could even say that, "It will no longer be if, but when."
I'm not saying that Gege is a bad writer, btw.
It's not Gege's fault that he didn't do it, for he has a story he wanted to tell, and he tells it excellently in that regard.
But it's not flawless, we all know this.
Which brings me back to the main point, and that was the fact that this is a fanfic, and I write and read them because I like the original stories, and I want to have more of the story and seeing all of the possibilities that the story could be is one of the many fun parts of it.
Anyway, sorry for the roundabout explanation for why I chose Kyoto Jujutsu High over Tokyo.
Hope you like this chapter. Leave a review if you want to!
Ciao~