Chapter 14 - Yoshino Junpei

Itadori was having dinner with Junpei and his mom when Nanami called.

"Nanami?"

"Well, I'm having dinner now and we're going to watch a movie after this so, let's meet after two hours?" Itadori said.

"Are you at Junpei's house?" He heard Nanami asked.

"Yeah. Is it okay if I stayed for two hours here? " Itadori asked and he heard Sachiko instead of Nanami, "I'm going to come over to Junpei's house. Please ask them if that is okay ?"

"What...?"

"Oh, Nanami san is glaring at me now. Bye!" After that, he heard Nanami again, "Nakamura will come over there. She'll explain when she gets there."

"Okay!" Itadori nodded.

After the call, he asked to Junpei and his mom, "Is it okay if my classmate comes over too?"

Junpei seemed surprised, "Why would she come?"

Itadori scratched his head and said, "I don't know. She said she'll just explain when she gets here." Then, he thought , 'Is it really okay to just say this? Should I have created a better reason?'

"Even though this is a bit strange.., since she's a classmate of yours, I guess it's okay?" Junpei said after a while. His mom didn't seem to have any problems either. She just said Junpei needed more friends around his age.

When his mother fell asleep after drinking, Junpei asked, "Itadori kun is a Jujutsu sorcerer,right? Since she's your classmate, is she also a Jujutsu sorcerer?"

"Yeah." Itadori replied.

"How is it like? I mean being a Jujutsu sorcerer.. Have you killed someone?" Junpei asked.

"No."

"But what if you have to fight with bad Jujutsu sorcerers?"

Itadori answered after a while, "Even so, I don't want to kill them. I'm afraid that if I killed once, killing will become an option and the value of life will become ambiguous. "

"Is that so?" Junpei muttered. He then thought about his mother and shook his head lightly.

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About half an hour later, Sachiko showed up with Nanami at Junpei's door.

"Nanami? I thought Nakamura is coming alone." Itadori muttered.

"You must be Itadori's classmate." Junpei said as he opened the door.

"Yeah, nice to meet you, Junpei. My name is Nakamura Sachiko." Sachiko introduced herself with a smile.

"I'm Nanami Kento."

"Nice to meet you, Nakamura and Nanami san" Junpei said. "Although I still don't know why you showed up..."

"Right. We still need to explain to him, Nanami san!" Sachiko said.

"What have you told him, Itadori?" Nanami asked.

"Not much? He already knows I'm a Jujutsu sorcerer but I haven't told anything else." Itadori replied.

"Okay, so I need to tell you about an important thing first. We've just exorcised a curse and they revealed an important thing." Nanami started, "Although it might be strange to suddenly show up at your house and tell you and your mother is danger, this is an important case we can't delay."

Junpei was surprised. Why would he and his mom be in danger?

"So we decided to stay at your house tonight and kill the curses!" Sachiko announced. "From what we heard, it's a special grade curse that will attract other curses so we have to wait here until it appears and kill it!"

"The word is exorcise, Nakamura." Nanami said with a sigh.

"Yeah, yeah, I know that."

"What?" Junpei blinked.

"What she meant was we heard that a cursed spirit planned to sneak a special grade curse that will attract other curses into your house. So, we discussed and agreed that the best way is to keep watch in this house until they iniate an attack." Nanami explained.

"I don't know what a special grade curse is. But isn't it like dangerous?" Junpei asked.

"It is. That's why we need to stay close. We will be able to protect you then." Sachiko said, then looked around."Right, where is your mother? One of us needs to stay with her. Since I'm a girl, should I be watching her?"

"She's right there, in the dining room." Junpei said as she pointed over to the dining room. Even though it was a dining room, it was separated from the living room with a kitchen counter. So, if Sachiko looked over, she could see a woman sleeping while sitting on a chair.

"Oh, I thought she was your sister ! Your mom is so pretty!" She said with a chuckle.

"Tell that to her and she'll be happy." Junpei said.

"Noted haha." Sachiko said with a laugh.

"I'll just go and check there first." She then said and went into the dining room. Sachiko made sure that there was no Sukuna's finger in there before coming back to the living room. The kitchen and dining room was only a few meters away from the living room so she would know if something appeared.

"So, I already checked there and there's no Sukuna's finger." Sachiko said.

"Did they know he was killed and changed the plans?" Nanami wondered.

"Maybe but there's also a chance that they're waiting for us to leave." Sachiko said.

"Then, what should we do? If they came back after we leave, that's a problem, right?" Itadori asked.

"Yeah. So, we need to find a way to trick them into thinking we left. And when they showed up, we'll just exorcise them." Sachiko said.

"It's a good idea. " Nanami agreed.

Thus, they called Ijichi to come and pick them up. But, they didn't actually leave.

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Nanami, Itadori, Sachiko and Junpei sat in the living room. Junpei started, "So...can you explain me about what you said earlier?"

"Oh, you mean the special grade curse?" Sachiko replied.

"And how me and my mom are in danger. " He said.

"Then, I have to ask some questions to you, too." Sachiko asked, making an eye contact with Junpei.

"So, you can see curses?"

"I started seeing them only lately.." Junpei replied.

"Is that so? Then, have you heard of Mahito? You know , the one who killed three students in the cinema?" She asked while looking into his eyes. Junpei's eyes widened at that, his body rigid and he couldn't find a word to say.

"I…."

"so you've heard of him." Sachiko stated.

"I met him a few days ago." Junpei finally answered.

"Is that so? Well, we exorcised him today." Sachiko said.

"Wh..What? Mahito is dead? I get that you are enemies but..but I was saved by him.." Junpei mumbled to himself but then he laughed bitterly, "You knew about my relationship with him from the beginning, right? Coming to this house and claiming that my mother is in danger , what did you want to do? Did you just want to interrogate me? Or kill me? Tell me what you wanted to do!!"

Junpei subconsciously raised his voice and used his cursed energy to attack her suddenly.

Meanwhile, Itadori asked with a confused look.

"Nanami! what's happenning?"

"It's a long story." Nanami replied with a sigh.

"Shouldn't you at least interfere this?" Itadori asked.

Before Nanami could say and do anything, Sachiko said, "Wait, it's fine."

"None of that." Sachiko then replied to Junpei as she dodged the attacks easily. "I just know what Mahito said and I came here to save you and your mother!"

"As if I'm going to believe that!" Junpei shouted to her. He didn't know what to feel anymore. At first, he was worried that his mother would be in danger as they said so he didn't think much. But, he just found out that they knew his relationship with Mahito and they tracked him down. He wasn't even sure if his mother was really in danger anymore. Was that a lie to make him drop his guards?

Junpei summoned his Shikigami to attack Sachiko but Sachiko seemed unfazed by that as she dodged the attacks easily.

"you said Mahito saved you. But you don't even know what he was planning, do you?" Sachiko said.

"Then tell me what he was planning! And if it sounds convincing, I might believe you!" Junpei scoffed.

"Fine." She then repeated what Mahito said to her.

"It can't be true. Mahito said..he acknowledge my existence and he understands me... He can't be using me..." Junpei said as he shook his head.

"What? He was going to use Junpei to make me agree to a binding vow with Sukuna?!" Itadori gasped.

"If you don't believe me, you can ask Nanami san!" Sachiko said and Nanami facepalmed at that. What's the use of asking him to confirm her words ? Junpei knew they were literally from the same side and who would believe the words confirmed by someone from the same side? Did she lack common sense?

"....." Junpei was speechless.

"..What she said is true. He did." Nanami replied with a sigh.

"See. He just confirmed it." Sachiko pointed to Nanami.

"You're from the same side." Junpei said.

"I know. But he was the only one who was there when I interrogated Mahito." Sachiko said with a shrug.

'Is she serious?' Itadori thought. But, he decided to interfere anyway.

"Junpei, I know it's hard for you to believe what she's saying and I also don't know what happened there because I wasn't there myself. But, she's a good person if you get to know her and I don't think she's the type to lie about your loved ones being in danger. So, please, Junpei...." Itadori said.

"....Itadori.."

"Fine, I'll believe you just once." Junpei finally said.

"Okay. So can you tell me what exactly happened with Mahito?" Sachiko asked. "We'd like to hear your point of view as well."

Junpei nodded and explained what happened. He also explained he was bullied at the school and how he met Mahito at the cinema when three of his bullies were killed.

"..I think Mahito knew your situation and he wanted you to seek revenge at first. That would explain why he granted you power in the first place. He taught you how to fight,right? I don't know why he suddenly changed plans to use you to make Itadori agree to a binding vow with Sukuna but it was what he said" Sachiko said after a while. "Or maybe he didn't actually plan to meet with you at first but when he did, he just decided to include you in his plans."

"Maybe.." Junpei said.

"Right, you said you were bullied at school. I know you might want them to suffer because of what they did to you." Sachiko said after a while, "Maybe you might've thought about using your powers to kill them. But, if I can give you an advice, don't. They're not worth it. You just don't have to walk on a path of darkness for the sake of revenge. "

Junpei was silent for a moment, then he said slowly in a quiet voice.

"then, how am I gonna make them pay ? I just can't forgive them.."

"That's where the lawsuits come in! of course! We'll punish them legally like good citizens !!!" Sachiko said enthusiastically.

"But I don't even have enough evidence and I'm afraid that it would hardly make a difference." Junpei bit his lips.

"Don't worry. Don't worry. I have plans! We can also ask Nanami san to help out a little bit. He's the only one who worked in an office after all."

When Nanami heard what she said, he sighed. He was about to protest but Sachiko talked about how they really should be good citizens and file a lawsuit against the school and the bullies. She even said if those people bribed using money, they should bribe using even more money!

"You realize that's not legal anymore if you bribed a lot of money?"

Nanami asked with a frown.

"Yeah, but you get justice!" Sachiko tried to make her point.

"I don't even think that's justice if you do it that way." Itadori muttered.

"Junpei, you like that idea,right? Let's be good citizens and file a lawsuit!!!" Sachiko said.

"...." Junpei didn't know what to say so he just nodded?

"See, he agrees. Let's just do it this way!" Sachiko announced and watched the others' reactions. She laughed in her mind.

Junpei's mood actually improved after that and they became closer. Itadori also asked if he wanted to come to Tokyo Jujutsu Tech and Junpei agreed.

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"So you're telling we lost Mahito, too?" Hanami asked.

The curse user nodded.

"But didn't he claim that as long as he preserves his soul, he wouldn't die? What happened?" Hanami asked.

"It was a student. I saw her when I went to Mahito." The curse user said. He didn't reveal the fact he left Mahito when he realized he probably couldn't the battle shortly.

"Silver hair and hazel eyes?" Hanami asked as she recalled a girl by Gojo Satoru's side when she went to rescue Jogo.

"It was her." He nodded.

"I'm going to avenge for Mahito and Jogo. I'm gonna kill her!" Hanami said and Suguru Geto spoke, "I don't think we should rush now. We already lost Jogo and Mahito. If we keep going like this, we're going to get wiped out before we could do anything. We need a plan."

"But what about the plan Mahito made?"

"We need to change the plans for now, Hanami. Our priority now is to get rid of that girl. If she grows further than this, we'll be in trouble. We can only seal one person in prison realm after all."