9 Satoru/Special Grade

"Hmm? Really? Something like that exists? I heard about the fire lady, but I thought it was something the Zenins came up with out of desperation." 

"No doubt about it, saw it with my own eyes." Hakari said.

"Man, how strange. I've got no clue though."

"Leave Gojo sensei alone, Hakari, you were probably hallucinating it." Another first year student said as he walked side by side with Hakari and Gojo.

"Well, there have been sorcerers in the past with some pretty wild cursed energy." Gojo continued. "Hakari is one of those people, meanwhile the rest of us are stuck with boring old cursed energy." 

"That's irrelevant, she can burn through cursed energy like it's nothing." 

Gojo paused for a second to think.

"Well, it's probably a cursed technique she's unconsciously using." He said while adjusting the bandages over his eyes. "But anyway, two powerful sorcerers have appeared in the Zenin family, I can smell the trouble from here." 

"Huh? Who's the second one?" The student walking besides Gojo asked.

"You won't meet him for a while, but I'll get him to join the school." He explained. "Hm, but I guess he technically can't be called a Zenin though. He's a ten shadows user, by the way."

'So is he a Zenin or not?' Hakari thought.

'What the hell is a ten shadows?' The student internally asked.

Both students were fed up with their teacher's constant vagueness.

"Ah. Here we are." Gojo said as the trio arrived in front of an abandoned construction site.

"Here?" The student's confused frown deepened.

"There's a cursed spirit hiding somewhere around here. Exorcise it for me, pretty please." Gojo said as he walked away.

"Wai-"

"Can't. I have work." 

The two students didn't even attempt to refute their teacher. They only looked at the construction site with a dreary look on their face and a heavy sigh.

"Now, I have some investigating to do." Gojo's smile faded as he brought his hands together and vanished from where he stood.

*

"Can't dodge forever!" Maki yelled as she wildly swung her naginata at Naoko.

"Makiiii…" Naoko whined as she jumped over a leg sweep. "Please stop, you're gonna hurt me again."

As predicted, once Naoko had left the ground, Maki swung the butt of her weapon at her left arm, flinging her and sending her crashing into the dirt below.

The ground was damp and cold, making Naoko's crash especially unpleasant.

"Mai? How many is that now?" Maki turned her head to face her sister who was leaning against a tree.

"566 wins to Maki, 68 to Naoko."

"She started racking up wins recently, hasn't she?" Maki said.

Mai only rolled her eyes.

"Yea, be careful, a few more and she'll overtake you." She said, practically oozing sarcasm.

Briefly glaring at her sister, Maki walked over to Naoko who was still lying peacefully on the ground.

"Get up, I know you're not dead." She while giving her fallen cousin a hand.

"I might as well be. My entire body hurts from casting myself on fire the entire day." Naoko sighed as she grabbed Maki's arm.

"Every time I look at you, I feel a little better about not having cursed energy. But whenever I see anyone else's face, I revert back to normal." Maki said.

Naoko looked deep in thought for a second.

"Maki, do you remember what I told you?" She asked, now back on her feet.

"That you'll become head? Keep dreaming, it ain't happening." 

Mai averted her gaze from the two, knowing what was about to happen.

"Why? The only person who could've stopped me died years ago." 

"It's not about whether or not you can." Maki raised her voice as it slightly shook. "But whether you would. What if Naoya stood in your way huh? What about Ranta? Could you burn them down with the rest of the old geezers?" 

"They won't stand in my way. If not because they care, because they know what I'm capable of." 

"But what if they do. What if those two stick to the ideals they currently hold and go against you? They're much more likely to choose that hill to die as opposed to suddenly changing the way they view the world. Besides, I don't need your help." 

Naoko's neutral expression turned into a soft smile.

"I know. I know you don't need my help. But you've been my friends since before I could even walk, seeing you being treated like that…" Naoko trailed off as her smile turned bitter.

Despite initially thinking the twins were a pain, as they grew up, Naoko's perception of them changed. They went from annoying, glue sniffing, snot eating kids, to strong and reliable friends who were always there for her. Seeing how the entire clan treated them left a sour taste.

"You should focus on yourself. We're shunned and ignored, but not actively hated, like you." Maki sighed as she looked at Naoko who wore her emotions on her sleeve, something which usually never happens. "Don't worry, you'll probably become head in a few years anyway, after the old geezer dies." 

"Yea..." To put an end to the squabble, Naoko just agreed, she didn't like arguing with her friends, especially since she had so few of them between lives.

"Come on, ready up." Maki said with a grin while spinning her weapon around.

'I'd have to grow a second head before Naobito makes me head over Naoya. All this power and I'm still getting fucked over for not having a cursed technique.' Naoko thought as she prepared for combat once again.

"Ready?" She asked.

Maki's grin got wider.

"Rea-" 

Her words were interrupted by approaching footsteps. 

"Naoya?" Naoko asked, seeing her brother walk into the little clearing they used as a battleground.

"Hello, dear sister." He teasingly said as he gave the two other present parties a brief glance before totally ignoring them. "Your presence has been requested."

"I thought you guys declined any and all requests for me though." Naoko said.

"Huh? You knew? Who told you?" 

"Whatever, what is it about?" 

Naoya shook his head.

"Well, since you're old enough to make decisions on your own, you can decide whether you want to go visit the Tokyo jujutsu school." He explained.

"Just a visit? Why?" 

"Well, it's less of a campus tour and more of a formal summon by the higher ups." 

"Do I have a choice?" 

"If you want to be able to get a proper grading, no." 

'Fucking geezers.' She thought as she looked at Maki and Mai.

Mai looked profusely disinterested while Maki's eyes were practically shining, despite her neutral expression and Naoya's presence.

"Can…" Maki's eyes intensified in radiance. "Can Maki come along too?" 

Naoya frowned at his sister's words. While he didn't know what to think of Naoko's powers, the choice was much easier with Maki. Subhuman, inferior, worthless and a whole other slew of insults was all that Naoya had to describe her. Thus, he was very reluctant to agree to her request.

However, Naoya, despite hating it, respected the bond between his sister and the twins. So much so that his perception of them also slightly shifted to the point where he wouldn't be disgusted whenever he saw them.

"I don't see why not." He shrugged, causing Maki's eyes to shine even britghed as for her, that school was the best and only ticket she had out of the Zenin family. "But you need to leave, right now." 

*

"Are you nervous?" Naoko asked as the van they were in rounded a tight corner.

"Not really. I need to take this chance to talk to the principal though." Maki replied.

"The principal? Why?" 

Maki was about to speak when the van took another hairpin turn.

"To join the school." 

"What?!" Naoko said in disbelief. "Wait, actually, that makes sense." 

"You should also join, maybe we'll be in the same class." 

"Hm, I never really thought about it. I know almost nothing about it either, but if you're going I might as well go too. It would be sad if I just hung around the Zenin clan all my life." 

"Really?" Maki blinked, surprised by how easy it was to convince her.

"There's nothing better to do anyway. I feel like a frog in a well." 

As they talked about the prospect of joining the school, the van took its final turn.

"We've arrived." The driver simply said.

Stepping out, they noticed a campus composed entirely of buildings built in a traditional Japanese architectural style, not unlike the Zenin household. However, what set the school apart was it's guise as a Buddhist temple.

The campus itself is hidden in the mountains on the very outskirts of Tokyo so naturally, the whole area was surrounded by vegetation.

Aside from the architectural style, the campus was also place to many Buddhist mementos, such as shrines dedicated to various deities, statues and torii gates.

'Wow.' Naoko thought, not amazed by the look of the place, but by the veils surrounding it.

Hundreds of veils with complex internal structures shaped and hid the school away from prying eyes. Unless it wanted you to see it, you couldn't see it.

Just as the two were admiring the grounds for their own reasons, an unfamiliar voice sounded out from behind the gates.

"You're here." 

Both Naoko and Maki quickly snapped their heads, only to be met with the figure of a tall, white haired man wearing a blindfold.

'Who's this dork?' Naoko thought as the cogwheels in her brain spun at top speeds trying to recall the almost familiar face.

"Who're you?" Maki was much more direct with her question.

"Eh? You don't know who I am?" The man seemed genuinely shocked. "Really?" 

Naoko snapped her fingers.

"Ah! Satori Gojo, right?" She said while nudging Maki with her elbow. "Strongest sorcerer alive, you know?" 

Gojo's crestfallen face only got worse upon hearing the girl in front of him butcher his name. 

"It's Satoru. Satoru Gojo." He said. "Anyway, I called you here to test something."

Naoko frowned.

"You called me here? I thought it was the higher ups." She said.

"Nope, it was me." 

"Why?"

"Well, I couldn't come to you since I'm not allowed anywhere within a five kilometer radius of the Zenin household." 

Naoko gave him a scrutinizing look."Figures." 

"Anyway, let's get started." Gojo announced, teleporting in between Maki and Naoko and teleporting them away into the nearby forest.

Maki reacted instantly and grabbed Naoko's hand while she jumped backwards, away from their kidnapper as Naoko prepared to blast him away.

"Whoa! Easy, I'm not your enemy." Said gojo, moving his hands in a placating manner.

Seeing as Naoko and Maki continued to glare at him, he quickly explained the situation.

"Sorry for this. There wasn't any other way." He said. "And for why I brought you here, you'll find ou in a bit." 

Explained is a strong word. Gojo's vague words only served to further confuse the girls.

Ignoring their confusion, Gojo appeared behind Naoko again, this time placing his hand on her shoulder and teleporting her away, leaving Maki all alone in the forest.

"What the…?" Said Maki, a cold breeze rustling her hair as she looked around the empty forest. "Have I… been abandoned?"

*

"Where is Hoshi-san when you need him!" The student accompanying Hakari said as he sidestepped a tendril of energy aimed at his heart.

"That last mission really took a toll on him." Hakari calmly responded as he similarly ducked under a tendril. "But what rotten luck, two special grades in the same week." 

The two students broke a sweat dodging the whip like cursed energy tendrils coming from the cursed spirit in front of them. It seemed like it was throwing strategy out the window, instead focusing on pure speed and power to overwhelm its opponents as it wildly swung its tentacle things around.

Two sliding doors began closing around the sphere shaped cursed spirit in hopes of squishing it between them, however, just before they could close, a whip moved and intercepted the doors. 

"My technique is useless here." Hakari said as he barely moved his head out of the way of an incoming attack. 

Despite the two student's combat prowess, the cursed spirit in front of them wasn't something they could exorcise with pure power.

The curse itself looked like a sphere with eyes and a mouth containing weirdly shaped teeth. The kicker, however, was the cursed spirit's impenetrable domain.

By utilizing the eyes all over its body and its dozens of cursed energy tentacles, it could completely defend itself from any and all attacks, be it ranged or melee, making it so that no one can approach it without getting pierced, cut or whipped.

"At least it can't move. We can retreat if we need to!" The other student said, jumping backwards to avoid a horizontal swipe.

Just as he did that, the cursed spirit stopped two of its tentacles and brought them close to its body before pointing them towards the ground. The curse sprung its tentacles and released the pressure, causing it to launch upwards.

Looking up, Hakari noticed that all the whips were retracting back into the spirit's body while it levitated in the air. 

"Run! It-" He clamped his mouth closed as he was forced to dodge the onslaught of piercing tendrils aimed at every part of his body. Unfortunately, he could not dodge all of them.

The cursed spirit had retracted every tendril back into its body just so it could spring them up and launch them forwards like javelins, taking its opponents of guard.

Hakari barely got away with just a shallow wound on his thigh while his classmate got away completely unscathed, due in large part to his cursed technique.

"Hakari, scratch what I said, we can't get away from this one. It's fight or die." The student said.

"I know that." 

The two steeled their expressions as they prepared a final, decisive attack against the cursed spirit. Without so much as a word, the two could tell what the other was thinking.

'Should I use it?' Thought Hakari while moving his hands.

His classmate, spotting his attempt, quickly interrupted him.

"Don't. If you fail, there will be no hope." The student interrupted. "Let's go."

Hakari made the first move by taking a step towards the curse while dodging one of its tentacles. The student, meanwhile, gulped down and activated his cursed technique.

They knew that it was highly unlikely to get away from the fight without injury, yet with their options running low and cursed energy reserves equally as low, their backs were against the wall.

Just as they were about to execute the plan, they felt a powerful and oppressive presence coming from behind them. Being pre occupied with their fight, they didn't have time to differentiate the presence as friend or foe.

The jumped backwards to put distance between themselves and the curse while turning around to face the new threat, only to be met with a familiar face.

"Yo!" Gojo said with a grin on his face. 

"Sensei! Thank God you came, this curse is special grade, we need help." Said the student, a relieved expression finding its way onto his face.

"Haha, I won't be helping you. She will." Gojo said, plopping a pissed off looking girl in front of them. "I'll see whether or not she can do what you say she can, Hakari." 

'Strongest sorcerer is a fuckhead. How unpredictable.' Naoko thought, a dead expression resting on her face.

"Naoko-chan, show us what you're capable of." Gojo said.

'I feel like a monkey in a zoo.' 

Then, just as quickly as he appeared, Gojo disappeared, leaving behind a very confused trio of people.