Chapter 3

After quite a while of driving in what looked to be the middle of no where, they finally pulled down a road that lead to a long driveway tucked back into a wooded area. At the end of the drive was a small traditional Japanese house made of a type of wood that she didn't recognize. Out front stood a man in a black uniform that looked much like Yuji's. This man had white hair and a sharp jaw line, though wore a black eye mask hiding his eyes. Was he blind?

"Where are we?" Tezuka asked.

"Master Gojo's house," Yuji answered.

"I thought we were going to the school?" she asked.

"Yeah well, we kinda can't." Yuji smiled sheepishly.

"Why?" Tezuka asked.

"It's complicated." he responded as he opened the door.

Complicated? What the hell was that supposed to mean? She swung open the door and got out following Yuji.

"Well I got time so spill it." she demanded.

"Jeeze pushy much, you know I did just save your life." he responded with a smirk.

"Really because if I remember correctly I was the one who killed that thing." she said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Maybe, but you don't even know how you did it. And really I could've left you there for more curses to find you."

"I'm sure I would've been just fine," she remarked crossing her hands over her chest.

"You're back already?!" the white haired man said loudly with a smile holding his hands out to the three. A feeling of panic struck her when the man took a step forward towards the steps. How could he see with that covering? Was he going to fall? She took a step forward ready to catch them man when he fell... but he didn't. Instead he walked down the steps and straight to her as if he didn't have the blindfold and could see her clearly. "And who is this beautiful young lady?" he asked grabbing her hand bringing it to his lips. Who the hell was this guy?! How could he see her? She eyed him suspiciously. Not to mention the fact this guy looked like he was in his 30's and was trying to hit on her. Her skin began to crawl and she immediately took her hand back.

"Gojo we have a problem," the older man said.

"Nanami it's not polite to discuss business in front of company." the man with the blindfold stated.

"She is what we need to discuss." Nanami stated coldly.

"Ah well," Gojo said with a smile standing up right though she still felt as if he was looking at her. "In that case lets go inside."

Gojo turned and walked up the steps. She watched him curiously. He still moved as if he wasn't blind. How the hell could he see with that blindfold? It was beginning to frustrate her. There were so many unanswered questions swelling her brain and not one of them lead to a solid answer, only more questions.

Tezuka followed the men inside, taking their shoes off as they entered the door and she did the same. She was amazed and also very lost as she stepped into the home. It was so different than anything she had seen in America, even in her own grandparents house. She knew it was the traditional style, however she couldn't help but feel out of place. She hugged Yuji's large jacket to her body as an empty feeling formed in the pit of her stomach. She just wanted to go home.

She followed Nanami into what looked like a dinning room, though there were no chairs, only small pillows and what looked like a coffee table that was only a foot high. She recognized this from her grandparents house, though they only sat at this kind of table during special family events when their cousins and other relatives would visit. She watched Nanami and Yuji walk over to the table sitting cross-legged at its sides. She did the same. A few minutes later, Gojo walked in with a pot of what she assumed to be tea. He set down small cups made of some sort of clay, though they didn't have handles like regular mugs. He then poured each one a cup.

"Alright," Gojo said sitting down himself opposite of Tezuka.

"Alright, so what seems to be the problem?" Gojo asked.

"We found this girl in the warehouse, she took down the cursed spirit herself but she claims to be from America and doesn't know how she got here." Nanami answered.

"I didn't claim anything, what I told you was the truth. One minute I was in San Diego and the next I'm waking up in some grungy warehouse being attacked by a freaking demon beast thing." she responded.

"I see," Gojo said putting his hand on his chin as if he were thinking. "You speak very good Japanese for an American."

"My grandparents taught me after my parents died." she said not wanting to look any of them in the eye. A silence filled the room, no one knew what to say.

"Do you remember anything?" Gojo finally spoke.

"No," she responded then sighed. "The last thing I remember was coming home from a party." Her heart sunk as the image of Sebastian laying on the bed with Halle. Her eyes dropped to the table trying to hide the tears of betrayal forcing their way up her throat. The thought alone of facing them made her want to throw up.

"She doesn't seem to know about cursed spirits, but she had to have killed it with cursed energy. That's the only way you can kill it right?" Yuji said.

"How did you kill the cursed spirit." Gojo asked her.

"I, uh, woke up and that thing came after me. I found a board that had nails in it and when I hit the thing there was a blast of blue and then I was thrown against the wall and the thing was dead." she said.

"So you use cursed energy," Gojo asked but it didn't sound like a question.

"I don't know, this has never happened to me before, I've never even seen anything like that before except in horror movies." she said.

"You like horror movies!" Yuji exclaimed. "Me too! Have you seen Rise of the Dead? or Dark Water? Or, or Kaidan?"

"That's not what were talking about." Nanami responded coldly.

"Ha right," Yuji said sheepishly putting a hand on his neck.

"I've never heard of someone developing the ability to use cursed energy as they grow." Nanami said.

"Because it's not possible, you're either born with it or you aren't." Gojo responded.

"So are there just no cursed spirits in America? Or maybe there just not as common?" Yuji spoke.

"No, there are thousands of Jutsu academies across America, its just not possible." Gojo said.

"Maybe there was some inter-dimensional innate domain malfunction?" Nanami said.

"Maybe, but I've never heard of such thing happening due to a innate domain malfunction." Gojo said setting his hands on the table.

"So what do we do?" Yuji asked.

"Do you have a cell phone?" Tezuka asked the group. "Or even a landline? I'd like to see if I can get ahold of my brother."

"Of course," Gojo said standing up. "Follow me,"

She did as told and followed him into what looked to be a living room. A navy blue couch sat in the middle on top of a bamboo rug. A coffee table in front and two navy blue chairs on either side. A window was on the left and under it a small table with banzai trees at each end, a few books stacked just under the window, and a landline phone on the farthest end.

"Here, you can use this," he said pointing to the phone.

"Thank you," Tezuka responded walking over to the phone. She picked it up and listened to the dial tone. Then she dialed her brother's phone number. There was a jingle signaling an international dial tone, then she heard the ringing. It took three rings before the phone was picked up.

"Zakai?!" she asked an instant relief settling on her shoulders.

"Zakai? There ain't no Zakai here. You got the wrong number," the person responded in English.

Tezuka looked at the screen to make sure she had dialed the right number and the feeling of relief quickly vanished. The number was right, so why wasn't Zakai answering.

"Oh, I'm sorry for bothering you," she responded in English then hung up the phone.

Maybe she should try her grandparents. Quickly she dialed their phone number and the same international tone chimed. Before it even rang a soft female voice spoke. "I'm sorry but the number you are trying to reach has been disconnected and is not in use. Please check the number and try again." then the line hung up. Frustrated Tezuka typed in the number one more time and got the same message. What the hell!? Tezuka slammed the phone and stormed out the door. She paced back and forth across the dirt in front of the steps leading into the house.

Her head ached and she couldn't help the frustrating tears that began to stream down her cheeks. What the hell was going on!? She was in a strange place with strange people with know knowledge of how she got there or what happened to her brother. Why weren't they answering the phone!? She didn't even have hers. She last remembered having it in the car but didn't know what happened to it after that. If she didn't get back soon, Zakai was going to freak and no doubt have an episode. Not to mention her entire team was counting on her.

Hell what's the use. She sat on the steps defeated. If she went back to the team she'd have to face Halle and if she had to face Halle, she'd have to face Sebastian. Anger burned inside of her, she never wanted to see them again. The people she loved most and thought they understood her the most had been lying and deceiving her. How could she call them friends? She didn't have anyone.

"Are you okay?" she hears Yuji's voice behind her.

"I don't know," she scoffed quickly wiping her face. She heard his footsteps approach then a pressure on the board next to her. "It's all just a lot,"

"I know what you mean," he sighed.

"I doubt that," she scoffed. "Unless you suddenly woke up in a strange place surrounded by strange people being hunted by monster's that aren't supposed to exist."

"Well, maybe not that much," he said. "But I do know what it's like to find out about these creatures after thinking the world is a completely normal and safe place."

Tezuka looked at him questioningly. "What do you mean? I thought Gojo said you were either born with it or you weren't,"

"That's true," Yuji said. "Unless someone who is born without cursed energy consumes a cursed object."

"What's a cursed object?" she asked.

"A cursed object is an object that past jujutsu curse users have used to seal away powerful cursed spirits." Yuji answered.

"And what you just decided it was a good idea to consume one? What was the object?" Tezuka asked.

Yuji laughed and looked out at the foliage in front of them. "Its not that simple,"

"Can't be more complicated then what happened to me." she said curiously.

"Well, you see, my friends and I had this club in school where we talked about horror movies and scary stuff," he began. "Well I had heard rumors about this thing hidden away that supposedly was cursed. So I found it and gave it to a friend of mine in the club. We were all supposed to unwrap it together to see what it was but..." he trailed off.

"But what?" Tezuka asked intrigued.

"My grandfather died and so I went to the hospital instead." Yuji answered.

"Oh," Tezuka said softly. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to pry."

"It's okay," Yuji said. "I made a promise to him that day to help as many people as I could and live without regrets. Which is why I work so hard to be a jujutsu sorcerer."

Tezuka stayed quiet. He had lost someone too. She could tell by the tone of his voice that his grandpa was very special to him. He knew how she felt.

"Anyway, my friends ended up unwrapping it without me. Turns out it was the finger of some super powerful curse user who became a cursed spirit when he died." Yuji said.

"Wait hold on, you ate a finger?!" Tezuka exclaimed sitting upright clearly disgusted.

"Yeah," Yuji chuckled and looked at her with a bright white smile. "I kinda had too, see cursed objects like that emit a lot of cursed energy that attract other cursed spirits. Anyway there were these other cursed spirits and they attacked my friends, almost killed them. I swallowed the finger so that the other cursed spirits couldn't get to it and when I did, Sukuna's cursed energy flowed through me and he was able to take over my body. Since then I've been able to see curses and use cursed energy."

"Wait so basically you ate a cursed object and became possessed by a cursed spirit?" she asked eyeing him cautiously.

"Basically," he smirked. Yuji took in the look of caution on Tezuka's face. "It's okay I can control it. I hear him a lot in my head and sometimes he makes an appearance but I just have to put more effort in taking control."

"Sounds rough," Tezuka sighed.

"If I had to do it again I would," he said. "I'd do anything to save my friends." he smiled causing Tezuka's lips to curl in a soft smirk.

"They're lucky to have a friend like you." she said softly.

"What do you mean?" he asked curiously eyeing her. "They would've done the same for me. That's what a friend is."

Sure. Friends. There was a time that she would've taken a bullet for both Halle and Sebastian. All the while they would've been fucking behind her back. She turned to the greenery and let out a sigh. She had no one. She was alone. Zakai was her family, but he relied on her to take care of him, she had to protect him. He didn't understand the things she went through.

"Alright you two, its getting late." Gojo's voice sounded behind them. "Time to call it for the night."

Tezuka nodded and stood up. She then turned to face Gojo.

"Yuji show Tezuka where the spare room is. If you guys need anything just let me know." Gojo smiled giving her a thumbs up. He then turned and walked inside.