Harajuku Station.
Araki Itsuki and the others waited around listlessly to welcome the last new student.
Nobara Kugisaki.
Itadori felt his new uniform. "It fits perfectly, but it's a little different from Fushiguro's."
Satoru Gojo took a sip of fresh milk. "You can request alterations to your uniform to suit your preferences."
"But I didn't request anything."
"I took the liberty of altering yours."
Itadori rubbed his forehead. What an unreliable teacher. Oh well, he liked it anyway.
"But..."
He turned toward Araki Itsuki, whose fitted black trench coat swayed behind him as he enjoyed some hot food, wearing a carefree smile.
"Why isn't Araki wearing a uniform?"
Araki Itsuki tossed Yuji Itadori a bag of pastries and explained, "Because I want to travel around. I won't be staying at school all the time, so I'm not wearing one."
Yuji Itadori looked puzzled. "Don't you need to study cursed energy and stuff?"
Araki Itsuki thought for a moment, then explained:
"Cursed energy has an onset. Before a jujutsu sorcerer activates a cursed technique, cursed energy surges through their body. Large-scale jujutsu like Domain Expansion always has an onset before activation."
"Once you understand that onset, you can gradually grasp its underlying nature."
"Mr. Gojo demonstrated it for me last night, and I've already learned it."
"That's amazing..."
The cursed techniques in Jujutsu Kaisen were essentially innate abilities, almost impossible to acquire through training or other means. That was why they were also called "innate techniques."
Araki Itsuki couldn't have one, nor did he need one.
The Death Omen Star's energy was of a higher order, but with Satoru Gojo's help the previous night, Araki Itsuki had already learned to imitate the fluctuations of cursed energy.
Meanwhile.
A girl wearing a blue-black school jacket, a matching pleated skirt, black tights, and brown shoes was roughly grabbing a talent scout by the shoulder.
"Hey, aren't you going to ask me?"
The overweight scout turned around and immediately broke into a cold sweat.
"Ask you???"
"About modeling. What do you think of me?"
"No... um, I'm in a hurry!"
Seeing such a violent girl, Araki Itsuki sighed inwardly. Why did anime protagonists always have girls like this around them these days?
Sakura was like this, Power was like this, Nami was like this, and so was Nobara Kugisaki!
He still preferred gentle girls.
He patted Itadori beside him. "Go call her over."
Wearing glasses shaped like the number 2018, Itadori looked thoroughly goofy. "That's kind of embarrassing."
Fushiguro said, "You're seriously worried about embarrassment?"
Satoru Gojo had to step in himself. "Over here, over here!"
The group met up.
Nobara Kugisaki put a hand on her hip. "I'll introduce myself again, then. Nobara Kugisaki."
"Rejoice, boys. Your rose among the thorns has arrived."
Yuji Itadori took off his 2018 glasses and pointed at himself with a smile. "I'm Yuji Itadori, from Sendai."
"Fushiguro."
"Araki Itsuki."
From Nobara Kugisaki's perspective, she quickly assigned each of them a label.
Yuji Itadori: an obvious country bumpkin. The kind who picked his nose as a kid.
Fushiguro: only gave his name. I'm not interested in guys who put on airs. He's definitely the type to set fire to a seagull covered in gasoline.
Then she held out her hand to Araki Itsuki. "Hello."
A little surprised, Araki Itsuki reached out and shook her hand. "Hello, hello."
Yuji Itadori protested, "Why are you only shaking Araki's hand?"
Nobara Kugisaki scratched her head. "I don't know. Women's intuition, maybe. I just feel like I should get on his good side."
Araki Itsuki hadn't expected Nobara Kugisaki to have such sharp intuition. He smiled without saying anything.
Seeing that everyone had arrived, Satoru Gojo suggested, "Next, let's take a look around Tokyo!"
Yuji Itadori and Nobara Kugisaki jumped up excitedly, while Megumi Fushiguro and Araki Itsuki sighed.
"What a lovely teacher... with such a twisted sense of humor."
Then they were tricked into coming to an abandoned building.
"You lied!"
"You lied!"
Satoru Gojo smiled. "Now that all four first-years are here, naturally, I need to see what you can do."
Yuji Itadori looked over the building and asked, "So cursed spirits really do appear more easily near cemeteries?"
"It isn't the cemetery itself. The problem is people's belief that cemeteries equal scary. Schools are the same."
Nobara Kugisaki looked surprised. "He doesn't even know that?!"
"I don't..."
Then Fushiguro explained Yuji Itadori's circumstances.
"Aaaaaah!"
Nobara Kugisaki went wild. What kind of teammates were these?!
Satoru Gojo stopped them and instructed the pair, "Yuji, Nobara, go exorcise the curses inside this building."
Then he handed Yuji Itadori a cursed tool resembling a kitchen knife with holes in it and explained:
"Slaughter Demon. Weapons imbued with cursed energy work against curses too. Also, don't let Ryomen Sukuna out."
"He would eliminate the curses inside, but he'd drag everyone else into it too."
Then he looked at Araki Itsuki. "You don't need to go. That would make it too easy."
Araki Itsuki thought for a moment. "It's a little boring out here. I'll go in and have a look too. Don't worry, I won't interfere with their trial."
"All right."
Inside the building.
With Yuji Itadori's formidable physical abilities, the low-level cursed spirits that appeared were no match for him.
Soon, however, Nobara Kugisaki ran into trouble.
"A kid? Did you wander in here to play and get caught by a curse?"
"It's all right. You're safe now."
But the child only stared at her timidly.
She gave an awkward smile. "Guess it's true that kids don't warm up to beautiful women. Should I go get Itadori?"
But just then.
An ugly, low-level cursed spirit suddenly emerged and seized the terrified child.
"Don't leave me!"
Nobara Kugisaki hurriedly raised her hammer, ready to activate her Straw Doll Technique.
But the ugly cursed spirit lifted the little boy by his head and pressed its sharp fingers against his neck.
If Nobara Kugisaki so much as moved, it would pierce the boy's neck.
"A hostage!"
Looking at the little boy's face, twisted in agony, Nobara Kugisaki's pupils contracted.
"This curse is intelligent!"
She had never encountered anything like this in the countryside.
For a moment, she froze, gritting her teeth.
Damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it!
This kind of curse is nothing! Grade 4, or the bottom of Grade 3 at most, right?!
It knows that too. That's why it took a hostage.
Yet despite desperately trying to calm herself, she ultimately lowered her weapon and raised both hands.
"I've dropped my weapon. Let the child go."
A smug smile spread across the cursed spirit's ugly face.
But just then, footsteps sounded from the stairs behind Nobara Kugisaki.
Araki Itsuki walked up, deep in thought, only snapping out of it when he saw the scene before him.
"Having trouble?"
Nobara Kugisaki hurriedly explained, "This curse has a hostage. Hurry and think of something."
Araki Itsuki put on a mysterious, theatrically brooding expression.
"Do you know?"
"All misfortune in this world stems from the inadequacy of those involved."
"If you were as strong as Mr. Gojo, this curse's threat would be a joke."
Nobara Kugisaki nearly laughed in anger. If she were as strong as Satoru Gojo, why the hell would she be going to school?
"Hurry and think of something."
"All right, all right. I was just teasing."
Araki Itsuki rubbed his chin. "Let's try something I just learned: using the Death Omen Star's power to simulate the fluctuations of cursed energy."
Araki Itsuki half closed his eyes, and under his control, the Death Omen Star's energy took on the characteristics of cursed energy.
An immense surge of dense cursed energy erupted, blotting out the sky as it swept in every direction from Araki Itsuki.
An aura of death rolled out like a tide, enveloping everything around him, as though death's scythe might fall at any moment.
Araki Itsuki opened his eyes and smiled at Nobara Kugisaki. "There. It shouldn't be able to move now. Go save the kid."
But cold sweat beaded on Nobara Kugisaki's forehead. Her body trembled slightly, and she couldn't move at all.
She screamed inwardly, What's with this ridiculously vast cursed energy?!
I can't move at all!
Only when Araki Itsuki noticed the cold sweat on Nobara Kugisaki's forehead did he realize.
"Sorry, sorry. I forgot you couldn't withstand this aura either."
Then he reached his right hand toward the low-level cursed spirit by the wall and made a grasping motion, as though plucking out its soul.
"Uwaaah!"
The cursed spirit howled in pain as purple-black Death Omen Star energy instantly engulfed it, savagely devouring the negative emotions within its body.
Squelch!
It snuffed out every last trace of its life.
Outside.
Satoru Gojo and Fushiguro suddenly sensed a vast, terrifying surge of cursed energy shooting into the sky.
"Araki really is going overboard!"
Satoru Gojo covered his face in dismay, but immediately broke into a smile.
"That cursed energy is already at Special Grade level. Counting Yuta Okkotsu, I've trained two Special Grade Sorcerers."
"Just what you'd expect from me, Satoru Gojo."
"Ha ha!"
Fushiguro steadied his heartbeat, trying to ease the crushing pressure. A moment ago, he hadn't been able to move, and even breathing had become difficult.
"What's going on?"
Satoru Gojo waved a hand casually. "Araki Itsuki felt that having no cursed energy at all would make people mistake him for someone with a heavenly restriction."
"So he wanted to simulate some cursed energy and pass himself off as an ordinary person. That way, he wouldn't stand out so much."
The corner of Fushiguro's mouth twitched.
"With this vast, terrifying cursed energy, you're calling him ordinary?!"
"That's why I said he was going overboard."
Before you continue