Chapter 3: A curse binds you
It was a morning of a weekend, and the bar did not open till very late so it was like I had a day off. I woke up slowly from the sprawling complex I was sleeping in and began to wonder around to the kitchen, eager to make myself some breakfast to enjoy the morning start I was going to have.
I brewed a fresh pot of coffee and began my breakfast, deciding an English breakfast would do, considering I wanted something heavy on my stomach. It took a minute to prepare, but the meal was mesmerizing to my eyes, and my stomach seemed to utter the words 'Feed me' in a gargling way.
As I dug in, I drank my coffee and wondered what I wanted to do that day when my cell phone, one I found in the vault, was beginning to vibrate in the back pocket of my pants. I picked it up and noticed the one calling was Gojo. "Why is he calling me in the morning?" I grumbled as I answered the call.
"Heya! What you doin?!" shouted Gojo in my ears as my grumbling seemingly got worse, and only lessened my anger through the caffeinated fumes of coffee. "Please have a good reason to call me this early in the morning" I grumbled at him as I slipped my coffee in agitated ways.
"Ahh so scary" I could hear him say over the phone. My agitation seemed to reach a certain height as my magic was reacting instinctively, converting itself into a fiery haze. I had to focus on cooling it down, lest I burn my plants in my agitated haze. "Gojo, please get to the point" I said to him.
"Alright then, how about hopping over to my world?" he asked me as my eyes widened in surprise. "Your world, thats the one thats cursed isn't it?" I asked him. "Of course it is, a place where curses roam" he said in a voice that seemed like he was mocking me. "Gojo" I said in a sickenly sweet way that seemed to put him on pause for a moment.
"Yeah, when?" I asked him. "Noon, I'll even bring my students" said Gojo as he cut the call. 'Welp, plans have been made huh' I thought to myself as I finished my breakfast and poured the coffee into an infinity can and prepared to get ready for my day.
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It was sometime close to noon, and I was waiting for gojo to come through the door to meet me. While I was waiting, I drank a glass of grape soda to pass the time, the zero sugar version anyway. It was a quite morning, and the passage of morning into noon was something that was going to pass with the sun in the apex in the sky.
It was when the clock struck noon that Satoru arrived through the door with some new faces in tow. "Yoh! Did you miss me?" asked Gojo as he looked at me with his blindfold covered eyes. I looked at him with the most deadpan of looks and said "No" which caused him to deflate within an immediate response.
"Sensei, who is this?" asked one of the people behind him. It was an unfamiliar boy, one who had platinum pink hair and was wearing a black school uniform with a red hoodie that was of the gakuran style. There was also a girl with brown hair and was wearing a female version of the same outfit, and another one with spikey black hair with an irritated look.
"Seriously, a bar" said the emo one with a drawl of disappointment. "Hey, were meeting a friend of mine from another world okay! So show some love!" he shouted in a way that only seemed to fit him and only him. "Other world? Now I know you have gone crazy" said the emo one. I raised my eyebrow as I closed the door and reopened it in London.
"Convinced yet?" I asked him as he looked stun and tried to find ways to explain it. Seeing how he might need concrete proof, and wanting to just prove him wrong at this point, I opened a door that had a good view of Hogwarts from the village my shop resided in.
"Okay, I believe you" he said in exsasperation while the others seemed to take pleasure in laughing at him. "Anyway Gojo, ready to go?" I asked him as he nodded and I switched the worlds the door led to. He opened the door and began to usher us through as he began to introduce me to his students.
"So, wheres the other ones? Yuta and Maki" I asked him. "Well, Maki is at the school while Yuta is on a training trip in Africa with a sorcerer named Miguel" said Gojo as he led us up a mountain trail embellished with a sea of trees, which apparently was not uncommon for places like Tokyo.
"So you're telling me when you took them to Roppongi, she killed a curse using what is essentially a voodoo doll?" I asked him as he nodded. "Yep! I killed that thing using my precious hammer!" shouted Nobara as she was almost on the verge of taking out her hammer and rubbing it against her cheek.
"There almost as weird as you" I muttered under my breath. "Huhh! say that again!" said Nobara, apparently catching my words about her under my breath. "Don't you know its rude to ease drop?" I asked her as she seemed enraged and I am pretty sure I saw phantom nails levitating behind her.
"What a lovely morning" said Gojo as we finally came upon the Tokyo Jujutsu Technical Highschool. It was apparently one of two schools, the sister school being located in Kyoto, which was apparently a place that was very important for jujutsu, besides places like the imperial palace.
"This is a school?" I said to no one in particular, as this place looked more like a temple than a school. "Well, the facade for the school in the real world is a religious school so the setting matches I suppose" he said with a shrug as he led us to a place that was reminiscient of a gymnasium, in fact it was a gymnasium.
"I didn't expect something like that" I said as Gojo laughed. "Well, if the oldies had their way it probably wouldn't be here" said Gojo as he suddenly turned around and headed towards a black box that contained somethinng. The box itself seemed to leak ominous energy but it was contained with some paper talismans.
"This here is a box of cursed tools, weapons and objects exposed to cursed energy over a period of time. We are gonna use these to see if you can become a sorcerer" said Gojo as he opened the box and retrieved a simple looking knife, but it seemed to contain some serious power.
"What do I do?" I asked him. "Well, all you have to do is meditate with the blade, sense its curse power and try to fill it with your own" said Gojo in a manner that seemed to simplify it, but I felt I was still missing something. However, another thought occupied my mind, the thought of becoming a jujutsu sorcerer, and gaining another set of powers. I mean, more strength is welcome for my profession, a multiversal bartender.
I sat down on the floor and I began meditating, trying to push all distractions away from my senses, trying to isolate myself and the blade. It took a minute, as it was difficult to pinpoint the thing, but I was able to sense the cursed energy inside.
'Okay, that's step one, now onto step two' I thought to myself as I tried to find cursed energy within myself as I felt something churn within me. The same feeling I felt when I first casted magic began to twist as I felt it consume a bit of the weapons cursed energy. After what seemed like a minute, I felt it began to produce cursed energy which began to flow into the blade and I felt no end in sight.
-Satoru Gojo-
"You should not bring weird people here" said Megumi, and I listened to his opinion and then promptly threw it in the trash as Thomas wasn't weird, and he was very nice to the students so he couldn't have been bad.
"He's not a bad person, and compared to me, he's the same one" I said back even though his own life was weird enough. It was quite nice to stumble upon his bar, and I couldn't regret it even if I wanted to, which I didn't. I got to meet some interesting people and learn a whole lot. Worlds where wizards and sages with powers over nature were quite interesting to him, as if appealing to his boyish charm.
"Still, any person who can stand you must be weird" said Megumi and I deflated at his answer. "My son is disrespecting me! Is he at that stage already?" I said in an overly dramatic manner, causing a tick mark to appear on Megumi as he attempted to strike me, but infinity stopped him.
I was observing Thomas and noticed the cursed energy he was passing into the blade was more than he thought he would have, around grade 2 to 1, and it was still increasing. It felt like he might even approach me in power, or surpass me. Sensing this, I quickly threw up some barriers to isolate him, hoping to keep his power in check, even if there was Tengens barriers.
"What's wrong?" asked Megumi. "I felt his energy was increasing to a concerning level so I made a barrier to isolate" I said. "Increasing? I didn't even feel anything" said Nobara. "Yes, but that's because you guys suck at sensing cursed energy, but I can perceive it way better than you guys could" I said.
I looked back over and saw that the barriers were bearly able to contain his cursed energy, as if it was boundless. "Okay, you can stop now!" I said to Thomas as the energy receeded, not even leaving evidence of its existence. I released the barriers with a simple command and I looked at him wonder.
"How did I do?" he asked me as I looked at him with a smile. "Doing well would be an understatement my friend" I said to him as I approached and tapped him on the back with my hand. "You did great!" I said with as much joy I could muster.
I looked at him with my blindfolded eyes and analyzed him and his cursed energy, which was surrounding him closely and tightly, as if it was trying to guard him from the outside influences of the world. It was quite fascinating, as if he was a sorcerer that had immense power and control over his own cursed energy.
"Next, we just got to find out your cursed technique, which will be more of a personal endeavor" I said to him. I was smiling at him, thinking something that would probably get me in trouble with the hire ups. 'I might be able to have an ally against them' I thought as I wanted to celebrate in the pub.
As I headed down the mountain, I could hear my students conversing with Thomas about the other worlds. "What about wizards? Do they exist too?" asked Itadori as Thomas nodded. "Yeah, Im friends with a wizard who is a headmaster named Albus" said Thomas as I remembered Albus.
He was a funny old man who was apparently the bane of his Vice Headmistriss. "Hey Itadori, you might be able to meet him today" I said to him as I saw his face become covered with extreme happiness. "Really?!" he shouted as I nodded and he pumped his fist in joy. 'Heh, maybe I might have them trained in another world' I thought as we entered the pub for some fun.