"Ough..?"
From the gradually opened door, a tall, dark figure appeared, half of it's body peaking out and looking around curiously while the bottom half was still on the other side of the door.
Slowly, it's white mask which should represent it's face, studied the surrounding and, eventually, caught sight of something which peaked it's interest.
Or someone, to be exact.
With deep blue eyes like a mysterious lake, black hair which shone with a blue gleam when hit by the light in certain angles, a child looked towards it with curiosity and anticipation.
Ah, that should be the one who called out to him. Kaonashi felt the connection they had immediately.
No longer hesitant, the dark being stepped out of the door and stood in front of the child.
"Ah." It said, conveying many deep emotions with a single sound, it's loneliness, happiness in being called specifically, and longing for a companion.
Unfortunately, Shimizu didn't understand.
Nor could the curse spirit.
"What-" Upon the wreckage of what was previously a nice bench beneath a perfect shade under a tree, a familiar pink head appeared.
Oh, Kusuo-nii is back! Shimizu took note distractedly.
Then, Saiki took one look at the cockroach-worm hybrid writhing in front of him and popped out of existence again.
For a moment, the world seemed to pause and all three left at the scene looked at each other awkwardly.
Kusuo-nii... You traitor!
"Food poisoning...? KruuooGHHHhh!!!"
"Ah."
...
In a place very far away, a pink haired teenager sat upon a sandy beach facing a vast ocean.
In this world, there was very few things that Saiki Kusuo didn't know. And if there was something he didn't know, it was because he chose not to know about it. But, even then, there would be things that would catch him unaware.
Like things which didn't exist before, suddenly existing out of nowhere, such as a different dimension merging with an already existing dimension so seamlessly that no one but him in the world noticed, or a pair of brothers suddenly becoming neighbors that his parents seemed to know for a long time when he was quite sure that they only appeared around 2 years ago.
And the worst part was the horrid things they brought with them.
Those things called Curses.
They were disgusting things produced by the negative emotions emitted by humans, normally unseen unless one was close to death or was a Jujutsu Sorcerer, and would cause bad luck or even death to the people they chose to attack.
The good thing was that really strong curses rarely appeared in the area where Saiki lived and the weak ones usually didn't attack unless he looked directly at them, so he gradually learned to just pretend they didn't exist.
The bad news was that, if he ever got attacked by a curse, he could only choose to escape and, no matter how hard he fought them, he wouldn't be able to deal damage to them since his powers had no cursed energy.
Only cursed energy can fight against cursed energy after all.
Really, why was this happening?
Initially, he should've had a normal life, going to school normally, graduating normally, getting a very normal job, and then dying as the most ordinary man you could find.
But, ever since those new neighbors appeared, he was forced to run for his life so frequently that he could've sworn the curses were targeting him specifically.
Though, most of those times, he wasn't actually in any danger. It's just that those curses looked too much like insects that he just had to... head out for a while.
In any case, it was all the fault of a single child that he was suffering so much.
Yes, it was him. That 5 year old boy who was sometimes too smart for his own good and always liked to think that he was the best child to have ever graced the world with his presence.
Who else but Geto Shimizu? Because he was just so special that he even had an invisible nanny taking care of his every want and need.
And the worst part was that, the kid didn't even know the effect he had on the world!
He had such a good brain, but, outside of using it to manipulate people into doing what he wants, he didn't seem to use it any other time.
The only reason the boy even knew that Kusuo had psychic powers was because he witnessed him having a conversation with his mother one time with his mother being the only one talking verbally and him replying directly into her brain.
And instead of thinking that Kusuo's mother just understood her son so well that there was no need for words to understand the thoughts he was trying to convey, he immediately reasoned that Kusuo was able to speak directly into people's minds. The explanation on how he deduced it was so concise that even Kusuo couldn't debunk it.
He couldn't even make him forget about it forcefully because, for some reason, mental interference just didn't affect the boy. It was like something was blocking his mind from foreign attacks.
Usually, he couldn't even hear what the boy was thinking unless his thoughts were being particularly loud.
"Oi, kid, do you know where this place is?" Suddenly, his thoughts were disrupted by a head with green hair popping out of the sand.
"Yare-yare." Saiki sighed, and stood up, dusting the sand off his pants. He dawdled for long enough, and Shimizu should have dealt with the curse by now. It was time to head back.
"The name's Roronoa Zoro and I-"
And then, Saiki was gone.
"...HUHH???!!"
...
"No, really. How are you actually doing that?"
"Ah...ah."
"Wait, wait! Don't just produce more out of nowhere! They're all falling to the ground!"
"Ah...?"
"Here, stuff them in my pocket. Quickly, before anyone sees! Help me pick the ones on the ground too."
"Ah."
"Hehehe... Gold, so much gold!"
On a deserted street filled with traces of battle and scattered debris, a child was laughing strangely to himself while a masked dark figure bent down in front of him, stuffing a handful of gold nuggets into the boy's pocket. The curse from before was nowhere in sight.
This was the scene Saiki returned to.
"Ah, Kusuo-nii! You're back. Again." Immediately, Shimizu noticed his presence and gave him a cute but strangely threatening smile. "You're going to buy me ice-cream later, right~?"
"..."
"It's such a nice spring day, but for some reason, Shimizu-chan was suddenly forced to become dirty and sweaty~ Uwah! A scary monster appeared and Shimizu had to run for his life~!" The child hugged himself, acting as though he really was frightened. "And it's all because Shimizu-chan's guardian left him, a 5 year old child, alone. Twice!"
"Ah~ It would be really bad if Shimizu-chan was to accidentally slip his tongue and tell his guardian's parents about this later~" Rapidly fluttering his eyelashes, Shimizu gave Saiki a mischievous look. "But, of course, if the guardian decides to give Shimizu-chan his favorite blueberry ice cream, maybe Shimizu might just forget about it~"
"..." With a deadpan gaze, Saiki watched this all happen in front of him. Really, why does all of the annoying things have to happen to him.
"Ah." The dark figure behind the little menace of a child said, notifying it's summoner that it had finished stuffing all the pockets with gold.
"Yare-yare." Saiki sighed in exasperation. "You can have an ice cream. But only one."
"Yosh!" Immediately, the child grinned victoriously, giving enough time for the mentally exhausted teenager to finally study just what that masked black figure was.
Seeing Saiki's meaningful stare and silent question, Shimizu paused his celebration to explain.
"Oh, that's Kaonashi!" The boy said innocently as though he were just introducing an ordinary person. "Don't worry, he just wants a friend."
Grruoogh ....
Suddenly, a particularly loud grumbling sound interrupted them, causing the three to look at the source of the sound simultaneously.
"Ah, I'm hungry." Shimizu commented, only just now realizing. "Let's go to Saki-Saki! Grilled eel donburi!"
Without any warning, the boy pulled Saiki's hand and began running towards a certain direction with Kaonashi following behind.
"Ah."
...
Not long after the three disappeared from the street, a black curtain surrounded the area and a Jujutsu Sorcerer appeared, looking around the area in confusion.
"So, where did the grade 2 curse go..?"