~ Narrator POV ~
Maki was on her way to Seiji's dorm, Toge and Yuta had just left on an assignment, Panda was annoying, and she was feeling a bit restless so her solution? To call up Seiji for another spar or to just hang out… most likely another spar.
When she got to his dorm room she was about to knock when Seiji opened it himself, he had Rivers of Blood with him which is odd since the only time he has his katana with him is when he was about to exorcise a curse.
Seiji hadn't expected Maki to appear but was used to it by now, though he was confused on why she was here, she usually only comes to his dorm early in the morning for their usual spar.
"Off on an assignment?" Maki asked confusedly, and rightfully so in her opinion. Neither she nor Panda received an assignment from Gojo to go along with Seiji on his assignment.
"Yeah, apparently the old heads above thought it was about time I went on an assignment on my own." Seiji explained. He got a text that the car was ready to take him on his mission.
Maki followed behind him her confusion intensifying, "A solo assignment? But you've only been a sorcerer for a few months. Granted I think your progression is insane but still to send you to exorcise a curse on your own? You barely know about the big three families."
"Oh wow, thank you for the confidence, Maki…" Seiji said sarcastically.
"I'm just sayin." She shrugged.
The two kept talking about things, mostly sparring and weapons until they finally made it to the car that was waiting for Seiji.
"Hey…be careful, curses can be cunning." Seiji was about to get in the car when Maki called out to him, he looked back at her and nodded a slight smile on his face before he stepped into the car.
Maki watched the car drive off with a look of contemplation before turning around and walking back to the training grounds.
~ Seiji POV ~
We arrived at the spot where the curse I was supposed to exorcise is at, it was an old abandoned factory that was supposed to be getting rebuilt, but lately workers have been disappearing.
For some reason I was experiencing a sense of deja vu, this scene looked oddly familiar.
"I'll put up a curtain so all you need to do is exorcise the curse." The driver, one who has never made an appearance in the JJK manga, told me before chanting, "Emerge from darkness, blacker than darkness. Purify that which is impure."
Soon a black goop formed a curtain around the whole area.
"I still can't get over how cool that looks in person." I muttered and my motivation to hurry and learn barrier techniques.
I stretched to loosen my muscles up from the long sitting on the way here, before I made my way inside the factory. And immediately I was hit with a pungent smell.
The walls and floor were splattered with dried up blood, I was already used to the smell and sight due to some of the assignments I took in the past 3 months however I never liked the sight.
I offered a small prayer before stepping deeper into the factory.
Like all the times I've been on an assignment the weaker curses would go in hiding, while some grade three would team up and fight but I easily dispatched them.
~ Narrator POV ~
The head of a grade three curse flew in the air with its purple blood trailing behind it as it fell to the floor.
"Alright and that's the last one, now all there's left is the main part of the building…" Seiji said looking at the wide double door that led to the main part of the factory.
'This cursed energy…!' He swallowed, it was the same feeling he had on his first assignment with Maki. 'There's no doubt about it, the curse in there ate one of Sukuna's fingers. I can't afford to play around with it.'
Seiji didn't go in yet, he stood there allowing his cursed energy to flow throughout his body, in the three months of training Seiji had made the most leaps in cursed energy efficiency.
He could now reinforce his whole body with cursed energy, though it took a second of focus, it was still crude and nowhere near as efficient as Satoru Gojo's but still to be able to make this much progression in three months was astounding.
"Let's do this." Seiji pushed the door open and the moment he stepped in his eyes widened, his observation haki picked up an entity above him going for an axe kick.
Dust and debris erupted from the spot Seiji had been presumably struck.
Seiji ejected himself out of the dust having dodged just in time thanks to his cursed reinforcement and observation haki.
"You wasted no time, huh?" Seiji said to the curse.
The dust and debris cleared out showing the curse, the curse was the same exact curse that Yuji, Megumi, and Nobara encountered on their first assignment. That assignment was also sabotaged by the higher ups to kill Yuji, meaning…
'They planned to have me die on an assignment as well…I swear to god when I grow stronger the first people to go will be those old fucks!' Seiji cursed the elders in his head before putting his attention back on the curse.
The curse turned around perplexed as to how Seiji was able to dodge, then its stupid grin came back on its face before it disappeared in a burst of speed appearing beside Seiji and threw a punch.
"That won't work again." Seiji however, was ready this time with a quick draw of his katana. The cursed womb's arm flew through the air, but Seiji wasn't done, in that same motion he changed his grip on the hilt of the katana to a reverse grip.
He swung again but the curse managed to dodge in time by jumping back only resulting in a shallow cut on its chest.
The cursed womb frowned, it looked at its missing arm and then back at Seiji's katana before it regenerated, gaining its arm back along with sealing the cut it sustained on its chest.
"Tch, it's as I thought. Rivers of blood is only useful against weaker curses and sorcerers that don't have reversed cursed technique. Against stronger curses like this one and sorcerers that know RCT it's practically just a really sharp and durable sword." Seiji concluded, looking at his katana before sheathing it.
"If that's the case, then I guess I have to bring you out." Seiji said before holding his hand out, the curse was confused and wary, it knew this wasn't a human it could play around with like the others before.
Then Seiji spoke and the pressure in the atmosphere grew suffocating, "Come, Ai."
All around the room a field of flowers bloomed and along with those flowers were an assortment of insects and arthropods. Then from behind Seiji she appeared.
Ai's cursed form was in all terms, beautiful, much like the flower fields that surrounded them.
Ai's cursed spirit form didn't change much in terms of her normal appearance, she looks like she did before dying, you could even say her appearance may have been enhanced somewhat.
The only big differences being a halo of flowers floating above her head and huge butterfly wings attached to her back. Her eyes which were usually bright were now pitch black staring into the cursed wombs soul.
The cursed womb, feeling the gaze of Ai instinctively jumped back trying to put some distance between them.
Ai tore her gaze off the cursed womb before turning to Seiji and pouting, "You only call me when you're in trouble, I want to be out more around you, but nnnoooooo! You would prefer to have that Zenin girl around you…"
"I'm sorry, but you know how the others react to your presence." Seiji said with a helpless smile, but seeing her still pouting he offered a solution, "How about this, I'll start bringing you out more so they can get accustomed to you, then once they get used to you, I'll bring you out more so we can spend time together."
That was another thing that changed about Ai. Unlike Seiji where he merely got the memories and background of this world's Seiji, Ai had fused with her counterpart on a spiritual level, making it so Ai thinks she lived this life as her own.
Ai was still pouting but less so, "You promise?" She asked and when she saw Seiji nod she squealed and wrapped her arms around his neck.
The cursed womb seeing the two not paying attention thought that it was the perfect time to strike! It gathered a large ball of cursed energy between its hands planning to finish the two in one fell swoop.
It smiled again thinking that after this it would go on to kill more humans.
"How impatient, can't you see I'm talking to my boyfriend?" Ai said and just before the curse could unleash its cursed energy blast, Gravity shifted and the world flipped. The blast instead of heading towards Ai and Seiji was sent straight up and out through the factory roof.
The curse womb started falling vertically along the floor while Seiji stayed upright, unaffected by his own cursed technique.
The curse stopped itself by digging its finger into the ground but that didn't last long as Seiji ran up and kicked its head sending it flying to the wall kicking up debris and dust.
Seiji then let himself be affected by his cursed technique allowing him to fall and dropkick the cursed pushing it further into the wall.
"!!!" Seiji felt the build of cursed energy but it was too late to dodge so instead he tanked it.
He was blasted away to the opposite side of the room but then he shifted gravity back to normal once more to soften the landing. The curse rushed at Seiji to try and catch off guard but Seiji with his observation Haki saw it and shifted the gravity around them once again.
"Hey, curse. I'm not the only one you're fighting." Seiji said and this time he flipped the gravity making the curse fall towards the roof inside of the factory.
There floating above the curse was Ai and in her hand was a katana, Magatsumi, her cursed technique. Ai didn't swing, she merely pointed the tip of the blade at the curse womb while dragonfly-like wings formed on the blade's spine.
"Dragonfly." Ai said and the moment the words escaped her lips an invisible force hit the curse, greatly damaging it and sending it flying back down to Seiji at an even greater speed.
Seiji was already in position and when the curse got into range he punched.
The hit connected and the curse was sent off to the side, but once again, gravity shifted. Its ascent slowed before it started descending towards Seiji again and once again it was met with a punch from Seiji.
But this time instead of flying off Seiji hooked the punch turning it into a slam, shaking the whole factory. Once the dust settled, the curse could be seen lying on the ground with Seiji's fist imprinted on its face.
"This fight's over." Seiji said as the curse was trying and failing to get up due to the spider web Seiji had drawn a few moments after he first punched the curse up to Ai.
"Hey curse, you still haven't noticed it yet, have you? Your cursed energy, the very thing you're made of, is being absorbed." Seiji told the curse.
"!!!" It was then that the curse had finally noticed even now, when doing practically nothing its cursed energy was being absorbed.
"So you finally noticed it? Well I did just tell you afterall, but even so, it's too late to do anything about it. The effects have already begun showing itself, see." Seiji pointed at its arm where flowers and branches began growing out of it.
"The field of flowers." Seiji gestured to the whole room where the field of flowers had yet to disappear after being summoned, "Have been absorbing your cursed energy the moment you made contact with them, basically from the moment I summoned Ai, it's her technique afterall." Seiji explained, pointing to the vengeful spirit behind him.
"Are we done? I wanna go on a date." Ai said bored making Seiji's eyebrow twitch, she was ruining his moment, Dammit! The cool moment where someone explains their technique after their opponent had already been trapped in it.
"Fine. She ruined the moment, so I'm just gonna kill you now." Seiji said before pointing both his index and middle finger at the curse, soon dragonfly-like wings manifested around his fingers.
"Dragonfly." The same invisible force hit the curse womb but in a more pinpoint blast that blew off the curse womb's head.
The curse soon began disappearing leaving nothing but a demonic finger behind. Seiji picked it up and he could feel the cursed energy radiating off of the finger, "To think I'd actually be able to hold one of Sukuna's fingers… but still, wasn't that fight kinda…easy?"
"Are you disappointed?" Ai asked Seiji standing beside him, also looking at the finger.
"It's not that I'm disappointed, it's just that I thought the fight would be more challenging. I guess I underestimated just how strong I had gotten… alright let's go, I owe you a date right?" Seiji said smiling while walking towards the exit of the building.
Ai squealed again and rushed up to Seiji before latching onto his arm. "Ah! But what are you planning on doing with that finger?" She asked as they made it out of the building.
"I'll give it to Gojo when I see him, I don't trust those old higher-ups a single bit." Seiji replied, the curtain dissipated now that the mission was over.
Ai's eyes darkened more than they have been before, a thick wave of killing intent rolled off of her, "Those old bastards…They wanted you to die on this assignment-" Her anger was quelled by Seiji as he patted her head.
"It's fine isn't it? The curse wasn't that much trouble…also you're scaring our driver." Seiji said, looking at the tense driver as he stared at Ai warily. "Come on, the sooner we go back the sooner we can go on that date you wanted."
Ai's anger was all but forgotten when she heard about the date, the both of them hopped in the car and they soon arrived at Jujutsu High.
~
After dismissing Ai with the promise that he'll call back out soon, Seiji wasted no time in going to find Gojo. Fortunately for him, Gojo was there talking with Ichiji about something, 'most likely Geto's return.' Seiji thought,
"Gojo-sensei!" Seiji called out, catching the attention of the two adults.
"Oh, Seiji, you're back from your assignment. I take it the curse was easy for you to exorcise?" Gojo asked with the same casual relaxed smile on his face.
Seiji chuckled, "I wouldn't say easy, but it wasn't that hard either." He said lifting his torn sleeve from when he tanked that blast of cursed energy from the cursed womb. "Although that's not why I sought you out." Seiji pulled out the Sukuna finger he had taken after killing the curse.
"I thought you might want it." He said, handing the finger over.
Gojo didn't say anything as he stared at the finger, no one could tell what he was thinking under that blindfold.
"Gojo…?" Ichiji called out hesitantly.
Gojo's smile returned then he looked at Seiji with something akin to pride, "Thanks for bringing this to me. But my~, I must say you're even more impressive than I thought, Seiji. Keep this up and you might just be second strongest."
Seiji's eyebrow twitched, then he sighed in resignation. There was no need to argue with this guy. "I'll be heading back to my dorm room, see ya." With that Seiji left the two adults to their devices, after all he had a planned indoor date with his vengeful spirit girlfriend.
~ Seiji POV ~
After giving Gojo the finger and talking with Toge and Yuta about their assignment, I went back to my dorm and summoned Ai again. She was a bit disappointed that we didn't do an outside date but got over it.
We were now watching some old movie that I thought looked a bit interesting. However…
"This movie's a bit boring isn't it?" I sweatdropped staring at the black and white screen.
"Why'd you even choose this movie?" She asked.
"I thought watching old school movies is what couples watch?"
"Yeah, old couples. Like 50-60 year old couples."
"…"I wanted to rebuttal so badly, but I couldn't because she was right. It was weird hearing Ai make sense, she's usually the one that says the dumb things. Maybe the merge with this world's version of herself raised her IQ.
"You're thinking something rude of me aren't you?" She asked suspiciously.
"N-Nope, not at all." I involuntarily shuddered. Man, women's intuition is scary…
"…I've got my eye on you." That was all she said before turning her attention back to the movie.
"…" Even though I was watching the movie, my mind couldn't focus on it at all.
"…You're thinking about them again?" Ai suddenly asked me, and I knew what she was talking about, my loved ones back home.
"Yeah, it's been 3 months since I last saw their faces…" I admitted, seeing no reason to hide it from her.
Suddenly I felt a pair of hands on my face and my head was gently forced to turn to Ai.
"Then I guess we better hurry and make it back, huh?" She said with the brightest smile I've ever seen on her. And her eyes which usually had pitch black stars in them since coming to this world transformed back to their bright white color from before she became a vengeful spirit.
I smiled back, "Yeah!" She let go and turned her attention back to the movie and it was then that I truly realized our situation.
"…Pfft- Hahaaha!" I looked at her and couldn't stop myself from bursting out laughing at our situation.
Ai immediately pouted when she saw I was laughing at her, "You find anything funny mister?!" She shakingly raised her fist threateningly.
I raised my hand in surrender, "No, no! It's just…I never expected my first girlfriend to be a ghost! Hahah!" I laughed again.
She blinked and began laughing with me, "You're right that's kinda sad for you, huh? But look on the bright side! Who else can say they dated the ghost of an idol?" She said teasingly.
My laughter died down a bit, "Yeah, you're right…" I paused, then looked back at the movie.
"…Hey, Ai." I spoke up.
"Yeah?" She answered not looking away from the tv screen.
"Let's grow stronger so we can make it back home unscathed."
"Yeah."
-
Chapter End.
Have ya'll noticed if you read Chinese translations, those MF's are the biggest larpers of all time!
Next upload will most definitely be another fic, The Frieren Fic!