10 Chapter 10

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xxxx

He could not say how it began.

Where the care and love he had accumulated in this life began. No, that was a lie. Looking to his side, the smiling and clapping bright-eyed form of Aiko dispelled that notion. He knew the catalyst for this change.

He had lived his past life surrounded by expectations and responsibilities and ended it reviled, hated, and alone. The knowledge of how he helped end the war was left to a single person.

He begins this new life surrounded by family. He spots Satoru slamming the conical birthday party hat on the blonde head of Nanami.

Friends. Another glance to the side, and he spots Shoko bearing a smile while pursuing Utahime and looking surprisingly less tired than usual. Mei sat under the shade, drink in hand, and stared back at him with a half-lidded gaze and a soft smile.

All this was because of her. She was the one that pulled him out of his torpor. Stayed by him during the few nights when that particular deed came back to haunt him. She was the one that made him truly embrace this new life he had been offered.

He thought back to how the day started before he found himself surrounded by family and friends in a random park in Tokyo.

xxxx

He had just finished washing himself. After denying Aiko's aid for the seventh time after she tried to help him, she finally took the hint and left him to himself. Then she suddenly came back to help him a few times, stating his newfound disability, but he had disabused her of the notion that his lacking sight suddenly made him useless.

Stepping out of the bathtub, he stretched his hand and took the towel from its stands, drying his hair and body. He forced his hair into its bun and idly noted its increased weight. He would either have to cut it soon or change the way he carried it.

Going to the clothes he knew were spread out, he swiftly touched the two fabrics and noted Aiko had spread out two different styles. One was a formal-style kimono with a matching haori and a different-styled hakama. The other was a more casual oversized shirt and shorts. It was not a difficult pick.

He stepped out in the oversized top and shorts and noted Aiko must've been waiting outside for him, eye wrap in hand as well as a small box.

His eyes had been getting better ever since he started the reversed curse technique healing sessions, but he still covered it up on Shoko's orders. The eyes were still sensitive, and stressing them would render all the work she had put in useless.

"Shoko-san has set up a new location for your last treatment."

So it was not going to be in the clan compound, he mused while putting on the matching black earrings Geto had gotten him. That was not surprising.

The clan had grown very protective in a very stifling way ever since his injury, and outsiders like Shoko had borne the brunt of it.

"Where will we be going?" He started to walk out as he asked, heading towards the door of his modest-sized building with preternatural awareness of his surroundings.

The door was opened by someone his senses had noted was the driver, with his sharp-edged curse energy residual, as well as his steady heartbeat and the light scent of apples.

"Shiba Park in Minato City, Tokyo."

A park? He noted the absence of his other maids and extra guard and realized this must have been planned, especially if they had also gotten the clan head's approval, and they were not just sneaking out.

The car was opened by the driver, and he made his way in, before shifting further in and giving Aiko the chance to sit beside him. He was curious still.

As soon as she was seated and the driver had moved to his seat, he continued, "Is there any special reason why the final treatment is being done in a park?"

He could not see her, but he could hear the way her neck turned to face him. "Today is the 9th of June," she answered like that made any difference.

"Okay?" He knew she kept her head staring at him with what he assumed was a puzzled look on her face. The same puzzled look he was certain was mirrored on his.

She snapped her head forward and ignored his leading question which was even more surprising than anything that had happened today. Giving up and letting the mystery remain what it was, he closed his eyes and let his head rest back, allowing himself to sink into the blissful nothingness that was sleep.

xxxx

They walked into the park hand in hand. He could hear the joyful shouts of children as they ran around, as well as the heavier steps that were always behind them. Parents, he deduced.

As they walked further into the park, he realized they were moving towards a more isolated location. The sounds from the park gradually shifted from dogs barking, children's laughter and nervous parents fiddling with heightened heartbeats.

To the sound of birds chirping, leaves ruffling, and the soft whistle-like sound of the wind passage. A flex of his cursed energy noted only one person ahead as well as his driver a few meters away. Farther than he expected.

"Hiya Jiki, ready to finally lose those eye wraps!"

The person he had sensed shouted as soon as they got close, Shoko then. So this was not some elaborate attempt at an attack or kidnapping. He let his tense shoulders relax before giving her a formal bow.

"Shoko-san. I'll be forever grateful for your aid."

"Awwnnn, my cute and formal little Jiki-kun. How the hell did you and that bastard Satoru come from the same family."

The change in tone brought a smile to his face. He was directed to lay down on a blanket-covered portion of the grass, and with Shoko's hand on his head, he felt her go to work. He objectively noted Satoru's absence once more with a soft frown.

Something had been going on for the past few months. Something bad, something relating to Geto. Yet they were intent on keeping him in the dark for some reason.

With those thoughts in mind, he felt Shoko's positive cursed energy flow into him. It never seemed to stop surprising him how similar to chakra it felt, especially compared to negative cursed energy.

He could feel it travel through pathways before stopping on his eyes and sinking into them.

They stayed like that for close to an hour, and Jiki could feel his optic nerves connect and strengthen. Feel the great blots of nothingness that covered his vision most of the time gradually clear up. And with a great sigh from Shoko, he knew she was done.

Rising gently, he moved to remove the eye wraps that were surprisingly not taken off this time around, but he felt Aiko's slightly calloused arms stop him with more strength than he expected.

Relinquishing his grip, he felt her hands move to the eye wrap and gently loosen it. The immediate spike of multiple cursed energy signatures around him sent his instincts into fight or flight.

Were they hiding behind a barrier to ambush them?

He immediately shifted his eyes from its dull gray form to its three eyes tomoe. The sudden clarity of vision nearly brought tears to his eyes. The sight of Satoru, Mei, Nanami, and Utahime with bright smiles on their faces with a big cake in the middle did.

"Happy Birthday, Jiki!!!!!!!"

This image was something he knew he would never forget. The purity of the memory would forever remain untarnished thanks to his blessed eyes.

Aiko dragged him by his hand and forced him into the festivities.

xxxx

"How's the new eyes Jiki kun!!" He looked up just as Satoru plucked down beside him and rested an arm around his shoulder. This close to his cousin, he realized this was the first time they were meeting in over a month.

His eyes noted the dark circles under the teen eerie blue eyes, as well as the flushing of his cheeks that indicated his intoxication.

Satoru had been very busy since he was acknowledged as a special-grade sorcerer, and the burden of those expectations seemed to weigh heavily on his slim shoulders, especially with the disappearance of Geto.

"What've you been up to, you look tired," he countered.

"Mau Mau, traveling around and putting the more pesky curses down," Satoru answered with a comical flex of his arm. Knowing him, he probably decimated them with Red while he watched them flail against limitless with a grin on his face. His cousin's first option in combat hardly ever came down to close quarters.

"I heard about that, how's that been?"

"Boring mostly," Satoru answered before lying down on the grass. Jiki gave a glance at the grass before joining him to watch the skies.

"Few real special-grade curses to actually prove a challenge, it's been mostly hordes of weaker second or first-grade curses. With the rare rogue sorcerer."

"Rogue sorcerers?" He asked with an amused voice. The name brought back memories of his time as a missing-nin. For all his early education under the clan and his tutors, a lot of deeper details seemed left out.

The heavenly restriction of the sorcerer killer was one. Now rogue sorcerers. If he was a less trustworthy person, he would assume the clan was keeping details away from him, but objectively he knew it was one of the things he was expected to learn when he got to Jujutsu high.

"Mostly self-taught sorcerers, sorcerers that follow the old ways of master and apprentice, or sorcerers that refused to join the Jujutsu society. The higher-ups deem them rogue and generally blacklist them from a lot of opportunities frequently offered to sorcerers."

He gave a thought to the situation.

Blacklisting an entire group of sorcerers would only force them to go dark, purposely creating an underworld community of Jujutsu sorcerers. He wanted to call it stupid, but he also had to admit he had little to no knowledge of the wider world.

"Why are you filling my cute little Jiki's head with such dreary topics on his own birthday?" Mei-san interjected. He had not even heard the blue-haired woman's movement, despite the way she always seemed to saunter around.

"He's going to be the next big bad special-grade sorcerer like his big cousin. I'm only getting him ready," Satoru answered with a fake pout.

Special grade. A weird and vague system of ranking that the Jujutsu society seemed to have. A grade system that went beyond just the people but cursed objects, cursed tools, and the cursed weapons they fought with. Starting from grade 4 to grade 1. Then there were the Special grades.

From the little he had been taught, they were not necessarily the strongest. They were just built differently, their abilities scaled outside the more rigid structure of Jujutsu grading, and all of them seemed to possess a spark.

A spark that always preceded them, a spark that made them better than most, a spark that spoke of greatness. A spark that he supposedly possessed from birth. Something he didn't care much for he had to admit.

"It's lonely at the top, you know," Satoru finished in a more subdued tone. He looked at his cousin and changed his mind on the spot as he remembered the particular conversation they had a few months ago.

He might not care for it, but his cousin seemed determined to change the way the clans and Jujutsu society worked in general. He reminded him of another Idealistic cousin he had in another life. A cousin he failed in the end. It was going to be different this time, he promised himself. He was not going to fail, not again.

He didn't know what prompted him to speak the words. What made power sink and reverberate into them as the words left his lips? Why those words forced the world to stop for a moment, but he said it anyway. With all the conviction formed from two lives of struggle and bloodshed, he made a promise.

"You won't be for long."

The moment he uttered them, the world seemed to hold its breath. He could feel multiple eyes snap to their location. Chirping birds went silent, while summer winds stopped stirring up the grass. The clouds stood suddenly stagnant and refused to continue their unearthly voyage among the sky.

Eerie blue eyes stared into sinister red, and at that moment they knew, they knew that come rain or high water. Come disaster or tragedy. Neither of them would ever have to face it alone, ever again.

"Never felt the world bend and fold over for a binding vow like that," Mei broke the moment with a focused stare that she aimed at him from her usual serene facade, "If it was anyone else I would've laughed in their face and awaited their funeral, kid or not."

"But he's not just anyone is he?" Satoru broke in and He looked to the side and realized everyone was looking at them with wide eyes. Satoru continued headless of the ridiculous look everyone was giving them. Mad with laughter and joy, even the heavy feeling that seemed to weigh so heavy on him seemed to have disappeared.

"He is my little cousin."

With all the commotion happening around him, he only had one real thought in his head, what the hell was a binding vow?

Note: Jiki's birthday was generated by a QQ reader "MichealdGabriel," June 9th. Finally done with the prologue arc. Seat tight.