.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

❝ if pain can purify the heart, mine will be pure ❞

[ What is with JJK dudes and their lack of acknowledgement for personal space?? ]

┏━━━°⌜ 憑拠 ⌟°━━━┓

The group of three enters the building, it being dimly lit with the only light source being the open door that light poured in through and the burning candles against each wooden pillar lining the building.

"You're late, Satoru." A man surrounded by various animal dolls says, Y/N watching with curiosity as he stitches up a small doll, ignoring how the door shuts behind them. "Eight minutes late. Not enough to chastise you for, but I know I told you to fix your habit of being late."

"If it's not enough to chastise me for, then don't chastise me. You're just making dolls anyway. What's a measly eight minutes?" Gojo points out before looking at Itadori and Y/N who were both watching the man with confusion, "That's Principal Yaga Masamichi."

"So, this is the curse and the boy?" Yaga asks while sparing a scrutinizing glance at the two.

"Itadori Yuji!" Itadori bows deeply, "I'm into girls like Jennifer Lawrence! Pleasure to meet you!"

"Who?" Y/N stares at Itadori with dotted eyes, not recognizing the name before quickly remembering to introduce herself as she turns back towards Yaga, "Uh... I'm L/N Y/N... nice to meet you..."

"What did you come here for?" Yaga directs his questions towards Itadori as Y/N backs up, recognizing that her presence wasn't needed from this point.

"An interview."

"But why Jujutsu High?"

"To learn jujutsu?"

"I mean beyond that." Yaga sighs, sounding awfully exasperated despite only talking to the boy for a few seconds, "What do you hope to find once you've studied curses and learned how to exorcise them?"

"Well, I mean... I'm going to collect the fingers of Sukuna." Yuji explains like it's obvious, playing with his fingers absentmindedly, "It's dangerous to just leave them as is."

"Why? People you'll never know die every day due to crimes, accidents, and diseases in the natural course of life." Yaga refutes with a wise lilt to his voice.

"Here he goes again." Gojo looks away from the man.

Is this... Y/N looks between Gojo and Yaga. ...a regular occurrence?

"But you're telling me you can't overlook it when that death is caused by a curse?" Yaga asks pointedly.

"It was someone's dying wish. I don't care about the details. I just want to save people." Itadori frowns at the principal.

"A dying wish?" Yaga echoes flatly before tilting his head down in anger, "So you're saying you'll fight against curses because someone else told you to?"

Yaga stands up so the height difference between them was visible before delivering his final verdict, "You fail."

Itadori's eyes widen at the man, as though he hasn't expect that to be the result.

Yaga holds his hand over a green dog(?) doll as it slowly stands up, showing off its oddly realistic teeth.

"Those weren't dolls?!" Yuji asks, shocked.

"Cursed corpses. They're dolls." Yaga answers, "Dolls infused with my curse." Masamichi flicks his hand as the doll lunges at Itadori.

Itadori gasps, attempting to block the punch it delivers with his backpack only for it to not stop at the grunt of pain, nor him getting thrown back against the wall.

"Is that really a doll?!" Itadori gasps as the doll with wide eyes as it poses at its victory.

"A person's true nature reveals itself during a crisis." Yaga informs as Itadori simply huffs, looking up at the man petulantly, "It'll keep attacking you until I get an acceptable answer."

"Look, man, it wasn't just 'someone else.'" Itadori starts as he pushes himself off the ground, running towards the doll, "It was a family member's dying wish!"

Itadori punched the doll as it gets sent flying back against the wall. Unfortunately for Itadori, it comes jumping right back, bouncing against the wooden pillars as the candles blow out.

"Shit, where is it?!" Itadori exclaims to himself in frustration as he looks around the room for the doll.

Moments after Itadori said that, the doll lunges at him again, making him roll back against the wall.

"A family member is still 'someone else.'" Yaga says as he walks forward, re-lighting some of the candles, "A jujutsu sorcerer is constantly facing death. And not just their own death. Sometimes you must ignore those murdered by a curse to rend the flesh from it. It's an unpleasant job."

"You have to be a little crazy and highly motivated to handle it. You'd do that because someone else told you to?" Yaga glares at the boy, his expression hardening, "Don't make me laugh. It's be more believable if you told me you were doing it to postpone your execution."

"Screw you! I—"

"Are you going to blame your grandfather when you're killed by a curse, too?" Yaga cuts Itadori off curtly as he points accusingly at the boy.

"You say some pretty harsh things, old man." Itadori admits to the man.

"Education is about making people realize things." Yaga responds wisely.

"I'm not really..." Itadori puts a hand on his chin in thought only for the doll to suddenly run up and punch him.

"It's not easy to imagine how you'll feel in the verge of death." Yaga starts, staring down at Itadori, "However, I can say one thing for certian. At the rate you're going, you could end up cursing your beloved grandfather. Jujutsu sorcerers never die without regret. I'll ask you once more: why have you come here to Jujutsu High?"

Itadori's eyes suddenly narrow at he lunges at the doll, restraining it as he lands a few feet away from Gojo and Y/N.

"Consuming Sukuna is something only I can do." Itadori declares firmly, "If I managed to escape my death sentence and run away from this responsibility, I'd be there eating food, taking a bath, or reading manga. And the moment I stopped to think, I'd go, 'Oh I bet someone's dying because of Sukuna right now,' and become depressed."

"'That doesn't involve me.' 'That's not my fault.' You expect me to just tell myself that?" Itadori's hold on the doll tightens, "I refuse to do that. I don't know how I'll feel when I'm dying, it I don't want to regret the way I lived!"

"...Satoru. Show them to the dorm." Yaga turns away from the three, "Explain the security and everything else to them, too."

Y/N let's out a sigh of relief, shoulder's relaxing as Itadori mumbles a confused 'Huh?'.

Yaga turns to look at Itadori again, "You pass. Welcome to Jujutsu High."

Itadori stares at the man mildly surprised as he accidentally loosens his hold on the doll, letting it jump up and punch him across the face, making him land face-first on the ground.

"Oh, sorry." Yaga apologizes as the doll does a victory dance, "I forgot to release the curse."

━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆ ☀︎ ⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━

"This place is huge!" Itadori exclaims as he looks at the nearly empty dorm.

"Woah..." Y/N mumbles, looking around the room with wide eyes, Will she get her own room? Ah... probably not, she doesn't need sleep...

Y/N ignores the small tinge of sadness at that as she looks at Gojo who had started to speak, "All the second and third years are out at the moment. But you'll meet them soon enough. There aren't many of them."

"But there's really no reason for you to fight, too, is there?" Gojo asks as he catches Itadori's (who had been running around the room excitedly) attention. "Y/N, Fushiguro, and I could retrieve Sukuna's fingers. You could just wait here."

"It's fine! I said I'd do it, and I'm doing it!" Itadori replies firmly as he puts up a poster of a blonde girl in a bikini. "Though lazing around while Fushiguro came in all beaten up to bring me a finger would be a funny sight."

"That's true." Gojo agrees with a grin, "Well, I know there's no way in hell you're not gonna fight."

"Hey! You were testing me?!" Itadori turns around with annoyance only to pause as Gojo puts a finger over his lips.

"If they were that easy to find, we would've found them all already. Some have a presence that's overwhelming. Some keep very quiet. Some have already been absorbed by a cursed spirit." Gojo starts to explain, "There's nothing more troublesome when it comes to searching for them. But now we have you."

"The Sukuna within you will tell us where the fingers are to trying and regain his power. You're both a vessel and a locator, our very own radar." Gojo explains as Itadori blinks in surprises, "So we won't get anywhere without you in the field."

"Can he without Sukuna actually helping, though? Because unless there's something in it for him..." He won't help, Y/N finishes her sentence inside her head.

"Don't worry," Y/N feels a hand pat her head briefly before Gojo turns to exit the room, "I think we can come up with a win-win agreement there."

"Mh..." Y/N makes a faint sound of acknowledgment as she twists her fingers nervously.

"You're next door?" A familiar voice says as the three look up to see Fushiguro rubbing the back of his head tiredly.

"Oh, Fushiguro!" Itadori exclaims with a relieved smile, "You look like you're doing well now."

"There were plenty of other empty rooms, weren't there?" Fushiguro turns to frown at Gojo almost accusingly.

"But isn't livelier better?" Gojo asks rhetorically, "I thought it'd be good for—"

"Classes and missions are enough." Fushiguro cuts Gojo off, crossing his arms.

"Wow, it's so organized." Itadori says suddenly as Fushiguro startles, turning to look at the boy who was peaking his head through the door of Fushiguro's room.

"I just said you're unwelcome!" Fushiguro snaps, slamming the door shut against Itadori's head as the peach-haired boy grunts.

"Well, it's all good." Gojo holds his hands together happily as the three turn to look at him.

"More importantly, we're heading out tomorrow! We're gonna go pick up the third first-year."

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

❝ 𝐈 𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐖. 𝐈 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄. 𝐈 𝐒𝐀𝐖 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐓 𝐕𝐎𝐈𝐃 𝐈𝐍 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐒𝐎𝐔𝐋, 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐒𝐀𝐖 𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐄 ❞