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He was strong.
Naoya Zenin had always known this. He was a sorcerer, after all, but that was not why he was strong. When he was younger, he would have believed that was the reason, but Toji Zenin proved that to be false.
No, he was simply strong. He was the only one who would ever be able to understand Toji Zenin.
People had claimed that Satori Gojo was strong, stronger than even him, but that didn't make sense to Naoya.
How could a girl be strong? A girl couldn't, of course. A woman who did not serve a man had little right to live. Women, after all, were weak.
This had been his thinking upon meeting her. There had been a meeting between the Zenin clan and the Gojo clan, and he had insisted upon going—mostly because he wanted to meet Satori Gojo, the girl allegedly more talented than even him.
She was a year older than him, he was ten and she was eleven. She looked at him, however, like he was completely inconsequential.
Naoya stood in the field within the Gojo clan grounds across from Satori Gojo. He had sought her out, not the other way around. He didn't know what she had been doing before, nor did he care. He was more important than whatever she had been wasting her time on.
It was useless for a girl to train.
Their time would be better spent in the kitchen.
"What do you want?" Satori asked, arms crossed as she peered at him with her unnerving, sky blue eyes.
Naoya stood casually. "I was wondering what you were doing in the training grounds when your time would be better spent cooking. A girl can't be a sorcerer."
Satori tilted her head, squinting. "I can't cook," she admitted, scratching her cheek. "I wanna make mochi, but the geezers won't let me. My time would be better spent cooking." She slouched, moping. She sighed dramatically. "I have to be a sorcerer instead 'cause I'm strong, they say. Hmph…you should tell the fogies that."
He stared at her.
"Tell them what?" Naoya confusedly asked, her word-vomit dazing him.
"That a girl can't be a sorcerer, weren't you listening?" Satori wondered, tapping her lips. "Then I'd get to make sweets all day—wait, why can't girls be sorcerers again? That seems stupid. I just don't wanna be one."
Naoya placed his hands into his pockets, staring into her eyes…at her forehead, her eyes were piercing. "Girls are weak. They have no right to be anywhere but three steps behind a man."
Satori's forehead scrunched. She pointed at him, then herself, and then back at him. He had no clue what she was doing, but she was on the verge of laughing.
"Heh. Girls are weak?" Satori asked, pointing at herself. She pointed at Naoya. "If I'm weak, what are you? A nobody? I don't even know who you are."
She didn't know who he was. Naoya did his best to not seethe with rage.
"Of course you wouldn't," he scoffed. "Girls don't pay attention to more than their looks."
She shrugged.
"You're still weak, Mister Nobody—wait, are you saying I'm pretty?" Satori beamed, pulling out a mirror and checking herself out. "I know I am. That was the smartest thing you've said today!"
He didn't react. "You only care about your appearance."
"Mhm!" she agreed chipperly. She gave him a confused look. "Weren't we agreeing about what I like?"
Naoya blinked. "We were?"
"Yeah! I don't really care about being a Jujutsu Sorcerer," she easily admitted. She moped. "It's boring. Everyone is so weak and everything is so easy. Are you from a clan? I don't know how you got here, Mister Nobody, but if you're strong in a clan, the clan makes you become a sorcerer."
His nose crinkled. "I'm Naoya Zenin," he pointedly said.
"Naoya…Naoya…" she repeated, tapping her chin. "Hm. Nope, don't know you. Why is a Zenin here?"
He stared at her. She didn't know him at all. He didn't know if he should be offended or what. Then again, she was a girl. He couldn't expect much from her.
"'I'm the Zenin heir."
"Oooooh," Satori oohed, eyes widening. "But…I thought you were supposed to be strong?"
He upturned his nose. "I guess I shouldn't expect the blind to see," he said, ignoring her Six Eyes. "And I thought you were supposed to be polite."
She frowned, looking away. Her cheeks puffed out. "I am polite," Satori protested. "I'm a princess. I'm polite to people who deserve it."
Naoya smelled blood in the water.
"Oh, I see why your clan wants you to be a sorcerer," he began, smirking. "They saw that you make for a poor girl. Can't cook, no manners, and you dress like a boy!"
She narrowed her eyes, offended. Her lip quivered. "Hey! Take that back. I don't dress like a boy…" she weakly protested, looking down at herself to confirm. She wore a blue hoodie and sweatpants. Not very girly. She looked back at him with a glare. "Well, you can't talk when you're so weak!"
"And how do you know I'm weak?" he asked, annoyed. Never before in his life had someone called him weak. The fact that a girl, let alone one his age, was saying it grated on his nerves.
She tapped her eyes, still looking very unhappy. "I can see your cursed energy, and you aren't very strong."
He crossed his arms defiantly.
"Fight me, then."
"Whenever I win, you have to admit a girl is better than you," Satori declared, her lip finally steadying.
That wasn't going to happen. "Then whenever I win…" he tried to think of a good punishment. "You have to marry me because that is all a girl is good for."
"Good thing I won't lose," she taunted. "You can just say you think I'm pretty."
Naoya scowled. "Let's just fight."
"Fine!"
"Fine!'
They fought. Naoya lost. Badly.
Naoya was weak.
That was something he knew now.
Before, he thought that he was the only one who could understand Toji Zenin, but he was wrong. The only person who could understand Toji Zenin was Satori Gojo.
Shortly after he lost to her, hours later when he was back with his clan, he made several vows to himself. Before, Binding Vows had seemed like a cheap way to strength, something beneath him. Now, he knew that to beat Satori Gojo, he would have to take every single underhanded tactic to win.
He made a total of three vows.
He would treat those weaker than him with kindness and those stronger than him with respect; in return, he would receive greater returns from his training.
He would defeat Satori Gojo by his twentieth birthday or he would die; in return, he would receive greater returns from his CE training.
He would marry Satori Gojo by his twenty-fifth birthday or he would die; in return, he would receive greater returns from his physical training.
He knew he would marry her or die. Why was he so obsessed with it? He didn't know. He knew, now, that a girl could be strong just as a Jujutsuless monkey could be strong.
Naoya simply knew he had to be strong. If he didn't become strong, he had no right to live. Only the strong mattered in this world. Besides, what could prove his strength more than submitting the strongest girl of his generation?
"Teach me how to cook," Naoya demanded from one of the Zenin women—Ogi's wife, if he remembered correctly. "…please," he tacked on to the end.
He glanced down at the two little girls with her. Maki and Mai, probably.
He hadn't gone to her for any specific reason. She was simply the first woman he had come across.
"Why…young master?" she hesitantly asked, confused. "Would you wish for me to prepare you a meal, young master?" she offered instead.
Why was this stupid woman giving her own thoughts? Did she think that he would second guess himself? He wanted to scoff at her, but the vow prevented him.
He shook his head. "No. I will learn to cook. I will go to someone else if you do not wish to to teach me—" he turned his gaze to the twins. "—or if you are too busy to do so."
He had to learn how to cook. After all, Satori Gojo could not cook when she really, really wanted to be able to. He had to be better than her, and this was only one of the ways that he would do it.
She bowed lightly. "I do not have anywhere to leave my children, but I can teach you if you want, young master."
He waved his hand. "That's fine."
It was fine. He just needed a teacher so that he could be better than Satori.
"Fight me," Naoya demanded, approaching Satori. She was sitting on a bench, stargazing beneath the full moon. This time, she was in a yukata along with a pair of sunglasses.
It had been a year since they had first and last met. Once more, the Zenin clan had a meeting with the Gojo clan, and once more he had insisted on going.
Lazily, she turned her gaze towards him. She blinked. "Naoya Zenin?"
"Satori-hime," he replied flatly, secretly glad that she had not forgotten who he was. "Why are you wearing sunglasses?"
"Hime?" she echoed, surprised. Satori scratched her head. "I thought you disliked me…" she mumbled confusedly. "I'm wearing them because they block my vision."
His forehead scrunched as he considered her words. Why would she want to block her—ah. Her Six Eyes must be overstimulating. That made sense.
"You could wear contact lenses with the pupils blocked out. If you make them into a cursed tool, you could have them blacken and clear with cursed energy," Naoya said helpfully.
Her brows raised, her eyes presumably widening. "That's a good idea," she said with a smile. "Thanks!"
He nodded, grabbing something from a bag he had hanging from his right shoulder. He presented her with a small plastic container. "You mentioned that you like mochi. Here."
She blinked in surprise before greedily stealing the box from him. She opened it, delicately picking up one of the sweets and gingerly tasting it with a small bite.
"This is pretty good," she complimented, looking up at him. She gave him a pretty smile. "Where did you get this from?"
A surge of pride went through him. "I made them."
"You made them?" she repeated, looking between the mochi and him. "Wow! You're really good at cooking, Naoya." She pointed at him, nodding her head. "I know! You will bring me food regularly!"
"I will?" Naoya curiously asked. "Aren't you jealous that I can cook when you can't?"
"You will!" she confirmed cheerfully. "Besides, why would I be jealous? I could just have you teach me, then." Satori took off her sunglasses and batted her eyelashes. "You'd do that for me…right?"
He looked away. "I thought you weren't allowed to learn."
Satori slumped.
"The old fogies don't let me," she agreed, pouting. She perked up, eating another mochi. "But I'm stronger than them now, so I can do what I want, and I want you to teach me to cook."
He continued to look away. "I asked you to fight me."
"Oh. Right." She nodded her head. Gently, she placed the box of mochi on the bench, standing. "When you lose, you have to teach me!"
"And when I win, you marry me," he shot back, getting ready to fight.
Her cheeks pinkened ever so slightly. "As if you'll win," she mumbled, shaking her head. "You're too weak. You're stronger than before, though—"
"Let's fight," he cut her off, getting tired of her constant rambling.
He was forced to block a hit from her, and she hit like a truck. Sliding back, he began to move around her, building up momentum as he was divided into frames.
He had theorized a way to get around Infinity. Projection Sorcery divided his existence into twenty-four frames per second. He didn't move between frames, he appeared between them with increasing velocity.
If he timed the frames properly, he should be able to appear on her, bypassing Infinity.
She watched him casually, not deeming him a threat. Her hands rested at her sides as her eyes followed him. He was far faster than she was, but her reflexes were well beyond his.
"I'm waiting~" she teased playfully.
It was then that he struck. He launched forward, timing the frames perfectly. He saw her eyes widen as his fist appeared on her, forcing her back with a sharp punch. He started to slow rapidly.
His world instantly froze as he became a frame, Infinity messing up his trajectory.
Once more, he lost, but the gap had been considerably closer. If he had a reliable way around Infinity, he could even win someday.
Satori reached down, grabbing his hand and smiling brightly at him as she hoisted him up.
"You're the first person to ever land a real hit on me," she chirped, impressed. "We're gonna be friends," she decided.
He didn't have much of a choice.
"How long is this going to take?" Satori asked, staring into the oven as the cupcakes baked. Her sunglasses were gone, replaced with contacts. She wore a blue and white kimono.
Naoya turned the timer, setting it to twenty minutes. "Not long, Satori-hime," he said, placing it down on the counter.
Getting access to a kitchen hadn't been very hard. His dad didn't care about what he did, and no one was willing to challenge Satori. After a few months of her barging into the Zenin clan compound, people were used to her presence.
"It feels like forever," Satori said, leaning against the counter. She was pretty tall for a girl their age. She tilted her head. "Do you even like sweets? You barely even eat them when we make them."
He didn't.
"They're fine," he said instead, hands in his pockets. "I don't like cooking, but this way I can leave the cooking to you when I marry you."
Once more, her cheeks gained a light pink coloring that she forced away. "Oh yeah? And why would I marry you? A girl is supposed to marry a guy stronger than her, you know, and I'm going to be the Strongest."
"Then you'll be a spinster," he shot back. "Unless I beat you, which I will."
"Which you won't!" she denied, lightly punching his shoulder.
His nose crinkled.
"I will," Naoya promised. He would die if he didn't, after all. He stared into her eyes, sticking up his nose. "You should be honored that I am choosing you as my future bride."
"You wish," she said, grinning. She squinted, looking him over. "What's wrong with your cursed energy? It's…"
"Positive?" he offered, nodding. "I'm using Reverse Cursed Technique."
Satori's eyes widened. "Wait, what? Since when could you do that? I can't even use it."
"Since I took a Binding Vow that, for a month, I can't use negative cursed energy. In return, for this week, all of my cursed energy will turn into positive energy."
"And that worked?" she asked, curious. "I didn't know Binding Vows could do stuff like that—" she cut herself off, eyes widening. "Wait, and you're wasting your time with me instead of training? Aw! You really do like me~!"
He scoffed. "Shush." He reached across the counter, grabbing a knife. He stabbed it into his hand and pulled it out. The wound instantly healed. "See? I want to get the feeling down so I can do it without the help of a vow."
She grabbed his hand, looking at it intently. "Woah, that's pretty cool. How does it work?"
He focused on the energy inside of him, feeling it out. He was still producing negative cursed energy—it simply turned into positive cursed energy instantly.
"It multiplies against itself to make positive energy," Naoya told her after a moment, unsure if it was a good idea to do so. If she figured it out, it would be that much more difficult to beat her.
Satori nodded. "Right. Well, I'll try it later. Oh! Can you do Cursed Technique Reversal?"
"I can," he said, feeling a bit smug. Being able to do things that she couldn't always did that to him.
Her eyes widened excitedly. "Show me then!"
Naoya did so. With a surge of energy, he activated his Cursed Technique, appearing right behind her. She jumped and turned, spinning to face him.
"What did that do?" she curiously asked him, peering at him.
He thought over how to explain it. He probably shouldn't explain it at all—it would remove an advantage when fighting her—but he couldn't help himself from gloating.
"Projection Sorcery plans out the next twenty four frames of your life," he began to say. "The reverse does the opposite. My entire life is divided into frames, one per second, and I can pick any frame to go back to. If that frame was in the past twenty four seconds, my physical state is also returned to what it was in that frame."
"Ahhhh," Satori hummed, leaning forward. "So if it is outside of the twenty four second range, it is just teleportation, but if it is in the twenty four second range, it resets your stats? Does that include cursed energy?"
He smirked. "It does."
"Huh. I guess you aren't so weak, Naoya!" she cheered, poking him on the cheek. "If you use it right, you should have infinite cursed energy. Can you choose to only reset your cursed energy?"
He paused, blinking slowly. "I don't know."
"Well, that's your issue." She looked over at the counter, dipping her finger in a container of chocolate icing and jabbing him on the nose. "You aren't very creative. Don't worry—I'll help you!"
There was a ding as the timer ended.
Being…friends…with Satori Gojo was an experience. Firstly, she was a genius well beyond him, which was humbling. After he managed to figure out Reverse Cursed Technique, it didn't take her very long to figure it out, either.
That had been the general trend with them. If he figured out something, she could pick it up fast. If she figured something out, it took him a while to do it.
It drove him to better himself, however, and she was motivated to help him become strong. It was daunting, the gap between her and everyone else.
He was the strongest in the Zenin clan by a massive margin (besides for, perhaps, Toji-now-Fushigoro). Even then, she was still superior to Naoya. He had sent out finders for cursed tools because of that—he needed a consistent way past Infinity.
"What's that?" Satori curiously asked, looking at the weapon in his hand.
He held an oddly shaped dagger that had two pointed heads. It had been expensive, but money wasn't an issue for him. He had been trying to get something like this for years now.
"It's called the Inverted Spear of Heaven," he told her casually, holding it out. "You'll find out what it does soon enough."
"Ooh, cryptic," she teased, placing her hands in her pockets. "Maybe if you beat me, I won't forget about you at Jujutsu High."
She was supposed to go there in a week. He wasn't very happy about it, but Satori was stubborn as a mule. He had to wait for next year to go—if he decided to go, that is.
"I don't care if you forget about me," he dryly said, lying through his teeth.
"Ouch, mean, and here I thought you looooooved me," she playfully told him, raising a hand to beckon him to come. "Well, I guess we should just fight, then."
He nodded, appearing behind her and stabbing forward. The knife went straight through Infinity, piercing through her left lung. She pushed him away with a kick, and he skidded back as she healed.
She watched his weapon with much more caution than before, raising a hand to fire—he didn't give her the chance. He rapidly built up speed, blitzing at her. Infinity couldn't stop him as he landed several slashes across her torso and arms—all were superficial.
He couldn't bring himself to target her head.
Her hand batted away a strike from his dagger, and he was sent tumbling as he became a frame. He lost a second of time, and he awoke to Satori's foot slamming at his face. He instantly rolled to the side, activating his Cursed Technique Reversal.
He appeared several feet away, just as he was at the start of their fight, loading a frame from exactly twenty four seconds ago.
Satori turned, watching him with a wary look. "Where did you get that weapon?" she asked him, looking at it as if it were something nasty.
"I think I'll win this one," he casually said instead, yawning. "If I went for your head at the start, I would have won."
She swallowed. "You would've," she agreed. Then, a big grin split her lips. "I guess we both are lucky we aren't going for the kill, huh?"
That was certainly true. If Satori used her Domain Expansion, he would lose if he couldn't get Falling Blossom Emotion and Simple Domain off fast enough.
Satori tapped her lips. "You know what? I surrender."
"What?" he dumbly said, staring at her. She…surrendered?
No.
No.
That seemed wrong. She couldn't just surrender. He was supposed to beat her in battle, a real battle. This wasn't how he wanted to win.
"I surrender," she repeated, smiling at him. "I have no way to beat you without killing you, and you have no way to beat me without killing me. I don't really want to kill you, so…" she shrugged. "You win."
"No." He stared at her, offended. "You can't surrender."
"Can and did," Satori quipped. "If I don't instantly kill you, you'll just rewind. You won't run out of cursed energy. I won't run out of cursed energy and can heal from anything unless you instantly kill me. Do you want to kill me or something?" She pouted.
"No, but…" This wasn't how it was supposed to go. He was supposed to win fair and square. "But I didn't win."
She walked up to him, her yukata covered in blood. She patted his head—he was taller than her, he realized. "Sure you did."
"No, I didn't," he repeated, scowling.
Satori squinted at him, stepping back. "Why do you even want to win so much, anyways? Do you want me to say that you're strong? You're the second strongest, then!" Satori said, sticking her tongue out. He just stared at her, and she slouched. "Seriously, what's wrong?"
It should've been obvious what was wrong.
He had been trying to beat her for years, and this felt cheap.
"I'm not stronger than you," he dully said.
"You aren't," she agreed, bobbing her head. "So?"
"So it is wrong for me to win!" he snapped, gritting his teeth. "The strong don't lose, especially to those weaker than them."
Satori turned her head to the side, trying to figure him out. "But you really wanted to win, and I had no way to beat you without killing you. If we kept fighting to incapacitate, you'd eventually win after, like, a thousand years because I still use cursed energy while you can't run out."
He looked away. He hadn't even gone all out. She hadn't even used a fraction of her strength.
"Sheesh, you're such a tsundere," Satori noted. "Are you still on that whole marrying me thing?" she said, and there was a light pink coloring to her cheeks. "You could've just asked me out. Are you scared of me or something~?"
He made eye contact with her. "You said you'd only marry someone stronger than you," he pointed out.
"I was joking," she retorted, snickering. She raised her hands in surrender. "You won. Oh no, I guess I have to marry you. Ah! I'm so upset." She rolled her eyes. "If it were up to my clan, they would have had me betrothed, like, three years ago."
He stared at her.
Satori lightly punched his shoulder, grabbing his hand. "C'mon—did you make me any mochi? Stop being so lame. You won, blah blah blah. As your prize, you get a date with me."
He clenched his teeth,
He unclenched them and interlaced their fingers.
This wasn't so bad.
Not at all.