Chapter Text
Kugisaki Nobara steps off a bullet train covered in the dust of something that was cleaned yesterday and rigorously used today. The scent of flowers heavy in the air.
Nobara tilts her head up to the sky to get an eyeful of that famous Geo-Tokyo skyline. Half rectangular bricks with fancy triangles and spheres mixed in, half tree top. The sky thinly visible beyond is a bright baby blue.
Her first impression of Tokyo is that it’s a more cramped, taller version of where she grew up. The basics of solar architecture is the same everywhere, and the skyscrapers work the same as vertical farms. The major difference is there is about sixty times more people than cattle. That’s new.
Nobara has never been more than a fifteen minute walk away from the closest cow before. It is strange that’s what she is currently thinking is strange?
Whatever. She shrugs and brings her gaze downward to scan the crowd. There’s more faces in this barely busy train station than she’s ever seen in her life, and she only has a vague reference for who to look for.
There’s a reason Nobara is alone in this massive city, with her entire life cradled in one suitcase. It’s nothing fancy, really. She’s just cursed.
Being cursed doesn’t make her that special. The school pamphlet equated it to having an extra finger, it just happens sometimes.
And when it does, you need special accommodations. Nobara was sent here to gain exactly that.
The weight of cursed energy hits her before the sound does.
“Kugisaki!”
She turns around, coming face to face with a living legend and a dopey grin.
Gojo Satoru saunters easily through the crowd that consciously or unconsciously parts for him, a boy her age following behind.
“Sensei!” she greets, giving a slight bow.
The boy huffs, “Don’t flatter him,”
“Kugisaki!” Gojo ignores him, “This is Fushiguro, your classmate. Say hi!”
Nobara and Fushiguro give each other a friendly wave. This motherfucker looks like a sea urchin with eyebags. This’ll be fun.
“We have a quick errand to run, and then we’ll head out to the school and get you all unpacked. First time in Tokyo?” Gojo asks.
“Yeah,” Nobara nods, “This is the furthest I’ve been from home,”
“A real country girl, ey?” he smiles.
“A real one,” she agrees.
Like ducks in a row, the three head out of the overtly floral train station and into a long black car.
She wonders if driving through the crowded streets choked through with people and greenery should feel more bizarre than it does.
Despite possibly spending the rest of her (probably short) life here, Nobara feels like a careless tourist briskly passing through. Her peaceful gazing out the window is cut short by Fushiguro jumping to attention beside her.
“Wait, this is the wrong way,” he says.
Gojo quirks his head back, legs sprawled up on the dashboard, “Hm?”
“You bitch!” Fushiguro raises his voice, “You are not taking her on this mission!”
Gojo is quick to defend himself, “It’s not a mission! It is a quick errand. Ten minute adventure. Barely worth my time,”
“What mission?” Nobara asks, brows folded and arms crossed.
“A single finger isn’t going to hurt you. Calm down,” Gojo dismisses.
“Maybe not me, but an untrained sorcerer should definitely not be gallivanting around a contagion site!”
“She’ll stay next to me,” he shrugs.
“That’s the problem! You arrogant-“ Fushiguro gives up and sighs.
Mission? One finger?
This better not be what the curling suspicion in her stomach is telling her it is. No fucking way.
Fushiguro turns to her with a frown, “Ok, Kugisaki? Just stay in the car,”
“You can go wherever you damn well please,” Gojo attempts to correct.
Fushiguro’s eye twitching is the only evidence he heard him. Nobara is catching his annoyance like the flu.
“What mission?” she asks again, more pointed this time.
Gojo makes a sound like explaining this is so beneath him. Perhaps none of the rumors she heard about him are that exaggerated, if this is the man she’s in the process of meeting.
“Some high schooler got one of Sukuna’s fingers out of some dingy grave, and we’re going to go take it from him. This is supposed to be a quick exercise in why we’re sorcerers in the first place, but apparently Megumi is too scared,”
“Fucking Sukuna?” Nobara’s jaw drops.
Ryoumen Sukuna is the bastard that unleashed curses upon humanity a thousand years ago. Before that, only blessed energy was available to be manipulated by humans. Sorcery was a lot fucking simpler.
Now, only a mere century has passed since humanity got curses under control. The dangers of a thousand splintering wars are over, science and peace have prevailed.
She’s heard rumors that that newly attained stability was threatened by the birth of the man in the front seat. He’s apparently that powerful.
And, if a cursed object related to the King of Curses’ himself is a “ten minute adventure”, it’s clearly true.
The car ominously comes to park with a click before a high school. The place is mid-evacuation. Blessing Folk raise their hands to check each student as they cross the quarantine zone to the outer world.
This really is a contagion site. Nobara feels a silly, amateur smile cross her lips.
“You can come if you want~” Gojo says in a sing song voice.
Fushiguro gets out of the vehicle in a huff, “Stay in the car,”
Their doors shut in sync. Nobara is left alone, inches away from a curse contagion site, left with two opposing options.
She probably should stay in the car. That’s the responsible thing to do. If she was a horror movie character, everyone watching at home would be yelling at her to stay in the fucking car.
But, Nobara is also a sorcerer. A cursed sorcerer. Her weapon of choice is literally resting on her hip right now.
Plus! She was also invited! By Gojo Satoru himself! It’s probably safer to stand next to him than just sit in this lousy car, right?
Whatever. She’s impulsive, and sort of desperate to get a look at her first bonafide cursed object. Her hand reaches for the door handle.
Not a second after she makes contact with the cool metal, an explosion rings out high along the second story.