There was always something strange in the house.
Whether it was the little brother who popped into existence without his mother getting pregnant, or the kitchen that was always fully stocked despite no one going to the grocery, it was all strange.
But, somehow, everytime Suguru was starting to feel suspicious, his attention would end up being redirected elsewhere, as though a higher being was forcing him not to think too much about it.
That was not to say that Suguru didn't think anything was amiss, because he did notice the strange things happening around him. He just didn't dwell too much into it.
Anyways, compared to the Cursed Spirits which brought death and bad luck everywhere they go, the strangeness in his home was ignorable.
"That would be ¥16,000, sir."
"Ah, yes, thanks." Suguru smiled politely as he pulled out his wallet.
...
"Eh?! Kusuke-kun won't be able to come home?!" Saiki Kuniharu, the father of the Saiki family exclaimed.
In the center of the Saiki house's living room, a giant screen took up an obnoxiously large space and projected the image of a young man with light blond hair wearing a lab coat.
"Yes, indeed." This was Saiki Kusuke, Saiki Kusuo's older brother who was currently studying in the UK. "Although it's unfortunate, I was asked to give a speech at the Future Tech Seminar in Germany which I am unable to decline."
Unlike Saiki Kusuo, who was born with psychic powers which separated him from the category of ordinary people since birth, Saiki Kusuke was a real genius whose kind was at the top 0.01% of humanity. Though, don't let his achievements fool you.
This guy was a bonafide masochist with the personality of a flaming trash can. To people other than his parents, atleast.
"Oh-hyu~" Saiki Kurumi, the Saiki brothers' mother, took out a handkerchief to wipe her eyes sadly. "Then, won't we be unable to see Kusuke until Summer?"
Kon-kon. The door was knocked on lightly.
From under the table, Shimizu, who was secretly eating candies, perked up and immediately crawled out. "Nii-san! It's nii-san!"
"Ah, that should be Suguru-kun! Kusuo, can you open the door?" Saiki Kuniharu called for his son as he comforted his teary wife.
"That's right. But, please don't worry." On the screen, the Saiki family's eldest son spoke, seeming to be typing something on a computer which wasn't shown on the image. "In order to compensate for breaking my promise to accompany you during the Spring Festival, I booked a fully paid trip to Osaka for you."
"Osaka?!" Both Saiki parents exclaimed in unison.
From the doorway, Suguru, following an expressionless Kusuo, finally arrived, and was immediately barreled into by a tiny blue rocket which started clinging on his leg before he realized what happened.
"Nii-san, you're late!" The little rocket spoke with puffed cheeks, pulling on his pants like an aggrieved kitten.
Looking down on such a cutie, Suguru couldn't help but playfully poke at the puffed cheeks with a relaxed smile. "Well, I'm back. Have you been good?"
"Hmph! Of course!" With his nose proudly lifted to the air, Shimizu boldly said so. "I am always good!"
Silently standing to the side, Kusuo gave no comment. "Yare-yare."
"There are five tickets in total so Shimizu-chan can come with his rat- I mean, brother too." Upon hearing his name being called, Shimizu reluctantly set his attention back to the big screen in the living room, causing his own older brother to finally notice it too.
"What's going on?" Suguru directed the question to Kusuo while picking up his younger brother with one arm who seemed to want to run back under the table.
But before he could get an answer, the collar of his shirt was suddenly pulled by little hands.
"Look, look! Nii-san!" Having successfully gotten his attention, Shimizu smiled excitedly and clapped his hands once. Almost immediately, Suguru felt curse energy begin to gather. "I have a Curse Technique now!"
When the two little hands spread apart, a row of cards appeared, causing Suguru to widen his squinted eyes in surprise.
"Shh!" Suppressing his shock, Suguru attempted to hide the cards by clasping Shimizu's small hands within his own larger hands, remembering the rules that Yaga, his future teacher, told him just a few hours ago, that all Jujutsu Sorcerers must follow. "You can show me at home. We're still in a civilian household."
Apparently, because Cursed Spirits are formed from the negative emotions of ordinary people, Jujutsu Sorcerers must not let them know about the existence of curses or else the panic and fear they emit would end up creating more curses.
"Ah? Okay.?" Tilting his head to the side, Shimizu couldn't really understand what exactly Suguru meant, but cancelled his Technique anyway.
"Oh, I almost forgot." Seeing his younger brother being so obedient, Suguru almost couldn't stop himself from hiding him under his sweater and heading straight back home to cuddle. Fortunately, his sanity remained intact when he remembered that he still had something in his pocket that should be given to Shimizu.
"Mm? This is-?" Looking at the shiny blue flip-phone with a cute, dangling cat accessory on it, Shimizu's eyes shone brightly. "For me?"
"It's for you." Suguru confirmed, gently placing the new phone on Shimizu's outstretched hands. "Since we might not be seeing each other as often as before, I thought it might be better if you had your own phone so you can call me anytime you want."
"Wah- Nii-san." Gently hugging the phone in his arms as though it were a priceless treasure, Shimizu looked up at Suguru with his shiny blue cat eyes and smiled brightly. "Shimizu likes you the most!"
"Ah-" Looking at the cute face beaming at him, Suguru covered his face with his hand and staggered back, as though he were suddenly attacked, but the redness that slowly spread from his cheeks to his ears revealed the truth.
Gradually, pink bubbles filled this area of the room. Meanwhile, Kusuo on the other side stared at this place with a deadpan expression. "Yare-yare. This pair of bro-con brothers are hopeless."
...
The morning of the next day, Saiki found himself visiting the Geto Household with a box of unknown gifts sent by Kusuke with a note that said they must be worn before the end of the week or else, an anonymous post containing a video of Kusuo's childhood and a collection of Suguru's past shameful deeds would spread all over the internet.
That guy really...
Also, regarding their trip to Osaka, it had been decided that they would depart two days from now and would last for a whole three days.
Well, atleast his parents were happy.
Meanwhile, the three youths were sitting around a box with apprehensive expressions, wondering just what strange things Kusuke sent them now.
"It's open." With the box cutter held in his hand as though it were a dagger, Suguru spoke solemnly, treating the box so carefully that one might think a bomb was hidden in it. But, considering Kusuke's reputation, sending them a real bomb wasn't all that impossible.
On the other hand, Shimizu, who had never experienced Kusuke's evil deeds before, dug straight into the contents, purely happy about the fact that there were gifts sent to them.
"Mmn, not mine... Not mine..." Plunging straight into the big box until only his little feet could be seen wiggling outside, Shimizu muttered to himself as he rummaged into the package. "Mine!"
Finally finding what was addressed to him, Shimizu's head of bluish-black hair was visibly messier as he popped out of the box.
"Yours is in there too, nii-san! I might have smooshed into Kusuo-nii's though." Shimizu smiled apologetically.
"Yare-yare." Saiki sighed as Suguru fixed Shimizu's hair, both older boys picking out their respective packages from the box with caution.
"It's a neko-mimi!" Unlike the two teenagers who were trying to delay as much as possible, Shimizu, having already torn apart his own package, held a pair of black cat ears into the air in awe. Looking into the torn up wrappings, it seems that there was still a clip on cat tail that came with it. "Nii-san, hurry up and open yours too! I bet it's a Kemono Mimi too!"
Seeing Shimizu's joy, Suguru looked at his own box thoughtfully before taking it apart as well. Unsurprisingly, it really was a pair of animal ears. Though, his were black fox ears.
With a raised eyebrow, Suguru's tensed shoulders slowly relaxed.
"A fox and a cat. Hmm, I guess that guy does have a keen eye sometimes." Suguru muttered. "Isn't this good, Shimizu-chan? Now we have something to wear during Halloween."
A gift from Kusuke which Suguru seemed to actually like..? That's impossible!
"Un!" Shimizu nodded in agreement and jumped back into the box. "Oh, there's something else here!"
Holding a pair of Oni horns which were otherwise normal aside from having the same function as his pink lolipop hair clips which could somewhat suppress his powers, Saiki frowned thoughtfully. There must be something amiss here.
Picking up a small black choker with a golden bell on it which mimicked the appearance of a cat's collar, Shimizu found his name written on the inner side of the elastic band and immediately deduced what it was for. "It seems to be an add-on for the Cat set!"
Suguru nodded. Adding a collar to the cat ears and tail surely did complete the look. "What about the Fox set?"
Somehow, as soon as the question was asked, Saiki felt an ominous chill pervade into the room.
With his head tilted in confusion, Shimizu slowly pulled out a piece of clothing. "It's seems to be... a maid costume?"
"..."
"..."
Ah, so that was it. Saiki nodded in realization. There just was no way Kusuke would be nice to Suguru.
With the same kind smile still on his face, Suguru, who's facial expression darkened visibly, turned to face Saiki.
"Hmm... Kusuo." With cold dark purple eyes, Suguru gazed at the silent pink-heared boy. "Please control your older brother. Otherwise, I might do something I definitely will not regret to him."
And, here it was.
For some reason, Kusuke just didn't seem to like Suguru at all. No matter what, he'd always find some way to get under the boy's nerves.
Perhaps it was because of Kusuke's jealousy towards the fact that Suguru had a 'normal' younger brother. In any case, things like this would often happen.
"I'm sorry. I really have no way to control that guy."
Because of this, Saiki could do nothing but apologize.
"Tch!"
"By the way, Kusuo-nii, there's also a long wig and a pair of red heels addressed to you!"
...
"You have arrived at Osaka Station. Please make sure to depart with all your belongings."
As the train came to a stop, passengers began standing from their seats and grabbing their luggage.
"Yah~ Riding the Shinkansen really is a different experience, isn't it?" Saiki Kuniharu stretched his arms and yawned as his wife made sure their bags were complete.
Behind the couple, the Geto brothers sat, along with Kusuo who should have been there but disappeared shortly after the train's departure in order to get away from the intrusive thoughts of the other passengers.
But where exactly was Kusuo?
Well, it seems that he wanted to get some air for a while and decided that the roof of the bullet train was the best place to relax.
"We're here, Shimizu-chan." After shaking the sleepiness off, Suguru leaned towards his younger brother and gently picked him up. "Wake up. We're in Osaka!"
...
With the pleasant temperature of spring, the singing of wild birds could be heard in the silent forest along with the musical rustling of leaves blown by the wind brought by a passing rented tourist bus.
"Are you sure this is really the right way to the resort? It seems to be getting a bit too far away from civilization, don't you think?" A lady wearing a sunhat asked the driver hesitantly.
"That's what is written in the map though!" The driver, although he said so, was actually also unsure.
They were lost.
Yare-yare. Kusuo shook his head, watching his parents try to help the driver with the map while, on the backseat of the bus, the two Geto brothers busied themselves by pointing at whichever caught their attention and taking pictures by the window.
"See that red gateway over there, Shimizu?" Suguru pointed at the gateway they just drove into.
"Un!" Shimizu nodded, taking a picture of it with his phone.
"That's called a Torii. In Shintoism, it represents the divide between the mortal world and the spirit world." Suguru explained with a smile.
"Eh? Then wouldn't that mean we just entered the Spirit world, nii-san?" Shimizu said curiously, not at all aware of the severity of the matter.
"Mn. It does." Suguru nodded, but otherwise did nothing else.
Meanwhile, it was the eavesdropping Kusuo who frowned. Oi, you should do something about this, Jujutsu Sorcerer!
Seeming to feel his intent, Suguru looked towards Kusuo and smiled meaningfully. Sorry, he's technically not a Jujutsu Sorcerer yet, so this isn't his problem.
"Hmm? Why's there a car abandoned all the way out here?" Fortunately, before they got too far, the bus was forced to stop because a car was on the way. And it just happened that the road they were on was single laned.
"Heh. They probably went the wrong way and got lost." Scoffed the driver, as though they weren't lost themselves.
"Ah, found it! There's a road we missed a while back! If we turn back and go from there, the onsen should be straight ahead." Finally making sense of the confusing map, a middle-aged man who claimed to be a police officer exclaimed, much to the relief of the passengers.
"It's a bit hard to make a U-turn here though..." Scratching the back of his neck, the driver spoke in embarrassment. "Nevermind, let's just drive in reverse. Not like anyone else will be driving on this road."
During the rest of the ride, most of the passengers sat in silence, each doing their own thing as they went back where they came from.
"Hey, about that abandoned car we saw a while ago... Should we be concerned?" A college boy whispered to his friend.
"Let's just mind our own business. If they're really in trouble, they'd probably call the police themselves." The friend whispered back, not wanting to get into trouble on their vacation.
As they went through the Torii again, Suguru looked at it with suspicion. Ah, there's really a strange feeling here.