fics I read

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Even though there are never very many students attending the jujutsu school, the school itself is always well-supplied and possesses all manner of facilities that its students –or working sorcerers, depending on the situation– might suddenly find themselves in need of.

Which means that once Satoru-niichan gives Okkotsu-san the assignment to watch movies, somehow it immediately also turns out that there is a room on the Tokyo campus that is furnished with a large television and a soft couch, perfect for the occasion. Personally, Shiki suspects that it was previously one of the school's meeting rooms prior to being unilaterally appropriated for its new purpose.

Long curtains are drawn over the windows, heavy and dark. They do well to block out the light, giving the illusion of nighttime even though the afternoon sun is currently still shining outside.

There is also a low table with a tea set placed atop it, steam curling lazily upwards into the air.

"Why is there tea here?" Kinji squints at the glazed teapot and ceramic cups like they're foreign objects.

"Because I asked for it," Shiki informs him.

Kinji splutters, "Who drinks tea when you're watching a movie?"

Shiki tilts her head. "… What's wrong with drinking tea?"

"Absolutely nothing," Kirara interjects between them, one hand raising up to slap over the taller boy's mouth before he can make any further comments on this particular topic. Kinji, for his part, rolls his eyes before casually swatting Kirara's hand aside. "There's no rule that says you can't drink tea while you're watching a movie."

"But it's usually soda or juice, isn't it?" Kinji grumbles.

Kirara gestures towards Shiki. "I've never seen her drink soda, have you?"

Kinji pauses, and turns his gaze on her.

"I don't like soda." Shiki has tried melon soda before, courtesy of Satoru-niichan, and she isn't eager to repeat the experience –with any kind of soda, really. From what she understands, the beverages all tend to be overwhelmingly sweet, and Shiki isn't particularly fond of sugary foods.

Unlike a certain sweet-toothed cousin of hers.

"… Well, it's up to you, I guess," Kinji makes a face. "I still think it's a bit of a weird choice. The table here makes me feel like I'm sitting down for a mini tea ceremony or something, not a movie marathon."

Shiki blinks, nonplussed. The table looks perfectly fine to her.

"Don't mind Kinji," Kirara pats her on the shoulder, "You'll understand once we get you to a movie theater at some point. I take it that you haven't gone to one before?"

Shiki shakes her head in the negative.

"Yeah, I figured." Kirara smiles at her, and it should be a reassuring expression –except there's an almost strained edge of something else to the curve of his lips, too, there and gone before Shiki can make any sense of it.

"That another thing we're adding to the bucket list?" Kinji asks cheerfully.

"There's a higher chance of Suzurigi-san being willing to drive us to a movie theater than to a pachinko parlor," Kirara points out dryly in response.

"Hey, we could always hit up one of my old haunts after the movies," Kinji grins toothily with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

Kirara rolls his eyes, an exasperated gesture that is all fondness. "Careful you don't get knifed by Suzurigi-san or something."

"Hey, I'll have the ojou-sama on my side," Kinji instantly says. "And it's for research. Right, Shiki? You did say that you were interested in learning what my Domain Expansion is about, didn't you?"

Shiki nods.

"There we go." There's a hint of smugness to Kinji's victorious smile now, for some reason. "How else is she ever gonna get to know what pachinko is if she never steps inside a pachinko parlor and try out a machine herself?"

"I'm not arguing about this with you," Kirara huffs. "But don't say I didn't warn you when Suzurigi-san starts glaring daggers at you."

"… Anyways!" Kinji clears his throat, turning away from his classmate in favor of digging through the heavy cardboard box that they'd received from Satoru-niichan. "Come over here, Okkotsu, we got a heck of a lot of movies from Gojo-san, and I have no idea where to start with all of this."

"O-okay!" Okkotsu-san, who'd been hovering anxiously in silence during the last few minutes, gives a small start and hurriedly steps over at Kinji's invitation, nearly tripping over a cushion on the ground in his haste.

The cardboard box that Kinji is crouched in front of is filled to the brim with various disc cases, each featuring different movies. There are a lot of movies, and if Shiki is understanding her cousin correctly, then there should be a wide range of different genres that these movies cover, too. A sorcerer cannot allow their emotionally charged cursed energy to run amok under any circumstances, after all, which would require them to remain calm under any type of duress.

"Are there any that look interesting to you?" Kinji gives the younger boy a friendly nudge on the shoulder.

"I… um…" From the looks of it, Okkotsu-san is at a loss with the many choices laid out in front of him. "… I'll just pick one at random?"

"That works too, I guess." Kinji straightens and stands up. "I'm gonna go get the TV set up and everything, then."

Shiki glances at the wide screen, and rises as well. "I'll help–"

"No, no, I've got this, you can just stay where you are," Kinji responds swiftly. To the side, Kirara lets out a muffled snort, while Okkotsu-san looks on in confusion. "You can just, uh… drink tea, I guess?"

Shiki gives her classmate an unimpressed look. Was this because of her latest mishap with one of the school's computers? She still maintains that she'd operated it normally –the computer screen suddenly going dark on its own and refusing to start up again no matter what she did afterwards was a technical error in the machine itself, wasn't it? Takagi-sensei agreed! And all the recorded video files mysteriously disappearing from the school's video camera the time before that wasn't something that could be blamed on her, either!

"Or, well, is there anything else that we're missing?" Kinji pauses briefly. "Hey wait, didn't that cousin of yours say something about giving Okkotsu a cursed tool or something for him to, uh, channel his cursed energy into while we're doing this movie marathon thing?"

"He did," she confirms.

"… So where is it?" Kinji makes a show of looking around the room. "Because I certainly don't see anything that fits the bill in here."

"Panda is bringing it," Shiki explains to her classmate.

"I still can't believe there's actually someone around here called Panda," Kinji mutters under his breath.

Surely it's not that strange. "You're exaggerating, aren't you?"

"Trust me, I'm not." Kinji rolls his eyes. "You've spent way too much time around sorcerers to have a proper sense of what's normal or not."

That's… not untrue. Shiki is aware that her irregular upbringing has skewed certain parts of her perspective, and her mindset is very different from the average civilian on the street. So, Kinji might have a very good point and be completely correct in this case here.

… She still thinks that Panda's name is one that makes perfect sense for him, though.

There's a knock at the doorway that interrupts her thoughts, and Shiki glances up at the same time as the others do.

She brightens. "Panda!"

The familiar silhouette of her friend emerges into the room, "Hello! Sorry I'm a bit late, I was–"

Panda's words are interrupted by a loud clatter; the sound of an open disc case falling back into the box from nerveless fingers. Okkotsu-san stares with wide eyes, and beside him, Kinji and Kirara aren't much better. Which is a little strange, because why would they be–

Ah, right. Introductions! A proper introduction to both sides should help smooth things over, right? Shiki remembers Yuzuki saying something along those lines at one point in the past.

"Panda, these are my classmates, and the new student-to-be who was recently picked up on their last mission," Shiki tells her longtime friend. "From right to left: Hoshi Kirara, Hakari Kinji, and Okkotsu Yuta."

"Hi, nice to meet you all," Panda raises a furry paw, waving it slightly in greeting.

Shiki turns towards the other occupants in the room, "This is Panda. I guess you could say that we're childhood friends."

She'd initially met Panda back when there had been that whole mess with Yaga Masamichi's trial being reopened, and Satoru-niichan had summarily stuck Panda with her. That had been when she was… six years old, during the first year that she'd spent in the Gojo Clan's care.

… It's been a long time since then, hasn't it?

"Wait, wait, wait," Kinji suddenly bursts out in a rush, "Are you serious? You can't just leave the introduction there!"

Shiki raises an eyebrow at her classmate's reaction. "… I told you his name and my relation to him. Was there anything else that you needed?"

"Yeah, like, an actual explanation?" Kinji says, and gestures wildly in Panda's direction. Beside him, Kirara nods rapidly and firmly.

Shiki doesn't understand what they're trying to get at.

"Shiki," Kirara holds a hand to his forehead. "Just saying that you have a friend called 'Panda' doesn't tell us that he's actually a panda. And pandas usually don't talk! … Err, no offense, sorry, it's just really surprising and I–"

"None taken," Panda nods graciously. "Most humans are sensitive and easily startled, so take all the time you need to calm down again."

Kirara blinks at Panda, staring at him for a long moment, then turns towards Shiki with a look. Shiki can't quite decipher the meaning of it, but it's a good thing that her classmates seem to have taken Panda's advice to calm down. Neither of them appear to be quite so shocked anymore, and instead look towards Panda with curiosity more than anything else.

"… Childhood friends?" Kinji finally says. "Like the Fushiguros?"

Sort of. Shiki met Panda long before she met the Fushiguro siblings, but it's still different. With Panda, there had been playdates that Satoru-niichan arranged between them. But with the Fushiguro siblings… Shiki has lived under the same roof as Tsumiki and Megumi ever since her cousin suddenly came back with them one day.

If Shiki were to compare her relationships with them, she would say that she's closer to the Fushiguro siblings than she is to Panda. But even so, it still doesn't change the fact that Panda is an important friend all the same.

"Something like that," Panda responds for the both of them.

"Right. And your whole, uh…" Kinji falls silent for a moment. "… Being a panda and all. Is this a jujutsu thing? Like some sort of cursed technique?"

Panda nods, and shakes his head. "Yes to jujutsu, no to cursed technique. I was just born this way."

Somehow, the explanation only ends up making Kinji and Kirara look even more confused.

… However, they're all getting sidetracked. Shiki hasn't forgotten that the only reason why they're even all here in the first place is for Okkotsu-san's movie marathon, and the boy in question is still hovering awkwardly over that box of movies while Kinji and Kirara keep staring at Panda like he's some sort of exotic animal.

Fortunately for them, Panda is easygoing and doesn't take any offense at their gawking, but it's still a little rude, isn't it? Shiki supposes that she can understand that they're surprised; Panda is an abrupt mutated cursed corpse, and while his appearance is very distinctly un-monstrous –unlike some other cursed corpses that Shiki could think of– it's still unique and unusual. None of them are very well-acquainted with Yaga-gakucho, either, so they're unfamiliar with the man's particular style of cursed corpse dolls.

Still, there's a difference between being surprised, and being rude. Right now, Shiki thinks that her classmates are starting to teeter on the latter side.

"If you have any further questions about Panda," Shiki tells her classmates as she gestures for Panda to enter fully into the room. "I would recommend asking Yaga-gakucho about it."

"… That's… the principal? Oh, wait, I remember him from that interview thing he did when I entered the school," Kirara nods thoughtfully. "Why Yaga-gakucho in particular, though? I don't think I really see him around the school campus all that often."

"He's Panda's father," Shiki informs him.

Kinji, having chosen this particular timing to take a swig of the tea that he'd just poured out for himself, promptly ends up spewing said tea all across the table. Which includes the teacups and the teapot sitting on the table, and also spills over onto the ground. Loud hacking sounds fill the air as he chokes on his drink, trying and failing to catch his breath.

"I'm sorry," the boy manages, once he manages to recover from the severe coughing fit that ensues, "What was that just now?"

… Shiki isn't exactly in the mood to be entertaining his questions anymore, though. She gives the mess on the table a look, then pointedly lifts her gaze to him.

Which causes Kinji to give another slight cough –this one in sheepish surrender, rather than from choking on his drink– and grab a stack of nearby napkins. Okkotsu gives a small start and also hurries over to help the other boy clean up the mess. And it is indeed quite a mess that he's made.

Shiki recognizes that it was an unintentional mistake on Kinji's part, but this doesn't change the fact that he'd just wasted and ruined a perfectly good pot of tea!

The young girl shakes her head and lets out a put-upon sigh.

Panda reaches over and pats her on the shoulder with a friendly paw, then ambles forward to lend a hand with the cleaning as well. Shiki, after watching for a moment, eventually ends up joining the cleaning efforts along with him. In the end, they end up bringing in new cushions from the next room over to replace the ones that were unfortunately soaked by Kinji.

"So," Panda says pleasantly, once they've fully finished cleaning up the mess. "Okkotsu Yuta, is it? It's nice to meet you. You're the one who was picking out a movie earlier, right? Have you decided on what we're watching?"

"U-um, yes!" Once again, it seems that Panda's friendliness is very helpful in setting others at ease. Despite the initial shock, Okkotsu-san seems to have adjusted to Panda well enough. The dark haired boy sends a small, tentative smile Panda's way, to which Panda responds with an encouraging smile. "I think I just set it aside over here…"

Kirara peers over Okkotsu-san's shoulder, squinting at what he picks up. "Human Earthworm 3? That came out last year, didn't it?"

Okkotsu-san blinks, "You've watched it before? Uh, I can switch to something else, then–"

"Nah, I just know that because I've seen ads for it in the theaters when it was released, I've never actually watched it myself," Kirara shakes his head.

"I've never watched it before, either," Kinji shrugs. "Does it work as a standalone film on its own, though? Or do we have to watch 1 and 2 before diving into that?"

"I'm not sure about that," Kirara hums softly. "… Although if we're starting from 1, then we'd have to look for it in this box, and I don't think it's actually categorized or anything."

All four of them stare at the box of movies in silence for a moment. Satoru-niichan had been very thorough in ensuring that there was a wide collection of films for them to choose from, but there was no denying that it was a bit of a mess inside the box…

"On second thought," Kinji says, "Let's just start with 3, yeah? And we can just complain about all the things that don't make any sense together."

"Sounds good to me," Kirara agrees.

"No objections here," Panda chimes in.

"Looks like we've got a majority, then," Kinji stands up, and takes the movie disc from Okkotsu-san. "I'll get this going, then…"

"Oh, before you do that, actually," Panda reaches behind him and pulls out a small plush toy in the shape of a round little sparrow, then proceeds to pass it over to Okkotsu-san.

"… Thank you?" the boy says, evidently bewildered.

"You're welcome," Panda responds cheerily. "That's the training tool that you'll be using for learning to control your cursed energy."

Somehow, Okkotsu-san only ends up looking even more confused by Panda's explanation.

"That's one of Yaga-gakucho's cursed corpse dolls," Shiki elaborates for the boy, who seems to be under the impression that he's holding a regular stuffed animal.

Okkotsu-san fumbles and ends up dropping it to the ground. "Corpse?!"

"It's just a name, don't worry," Panda pats the startled boy on the back, and reaches down to pick up the small round sparrow for him. "A 'cursed corpse' is what you call an object imbued with a curse that allows it to move, that's all."

"O-oh, I see," Okkotsu-san accepts the sparrow from Panda again hurriedly. "Thanks."

"You're welcome," Panda waves a paw. "Now, the way this one works: Once the movie starts playing, you're going to have to feed a constant stream of cursed energy into it. If you don't use enough cursed energy, then this little guy is going to start pecking you. If you use too much cursed energy, then it's going to start chirping. From what I understand about the exercise, your goal is going to be trying to make sure that it stays nice and quiet in your hands while you're watching the movie."

It seems that Yaga-gakucho has specifically customized one of his cursed corpse dolls for this particular exercise, then. From what Shiki knows, cursed corpses are usually designed to act as scouts or decoys, or to perform simple tasks for sorcerers. Which is quite different from the role that this little sparrow doll plays. It's a mark of Yaga-gakucho's skill with creating cursed corpse dolls that he is capable of refining it in such a manner.

But that is no surprise, really. Yaga-gakucho was the one who'd created Panda, an abrupt mutated cursed corpse with their own will and conscience. Sense of self, and agency independent of their creator. Yaga Masamichi is currently the foremost expert when it comes to cursed corpses in the jujutsu world, and Shiki doesn't know of anyone who even comes close to matching him in his field of expertise.

Neither Shiki nor her cousin possess any outstanding talent when it comes to creating cursed corpses, and she has no doubt that Satoru-niichan requested this doll from Yaga-gakucho for Okkotsu-san's training.

The boy in question gingerly pokes the sparrow doll. "I… think I understand what you're saying? But I, uh, I'm still not sure how cursed energy even works. Like, how to use it or anything."

"That's what you're here to learn, isn't it?" Panda gives Okkotsu-san another pat. "Everyone starts somewhere, don't worry. Even Shiki wasn't always so well-controlled with her cursed energy."

And so saying, Panda reaches over to pat Shiki on the head, only to pause and think better of the action when Shiki gives him a pointed look for it.

"It's kinda hard to imagine that," Kirara comments from the side. "Like, logically I understand that no one starts off being perfect and all, but somehow I still can't really see it for Shiki, y'know?"

"I completely understand what you mean," Panda nods sagely.

Shiki doesn't. "Just because I grew up with the Gojo Clan doesn't mean that I automatically knew everything about being a sorcerer. I didn't know anything about the jujutsu world until I was six years old, and everything I learned about sorcery came after that."

"Six years old is still insanely young to start training to be a sorcerer, though," Kirara makes a face, disapproving.

"The clans prefer starting young." Younger than six, actually. Children born to sorcery clans are closely scrutinized and assessed for any signs of budding talent during childhood. In some instances, it's easy enough to discern whether or not a child has any talent for sorcery from the moment they're born –the Gojo Clan's Six Eyes, for example, is something that's simple to identify as soon as a newborn opens their eyes. But this isn't necessarily always the case. Many cursed techniques do not show any signs in a child until they are several years old, and even then it can never be confirmed for certain until the child actually manifests the technique.

Satoru-niichan would belong to the former category, and Shiki the latter.

It's not so difficult to understand why the sorcery clans would be so focused on training their children from a young age. On one hand, they are simply utilizing their advantage to produce stronger sorcerers using the resources that they've accumulated through the ages. The more sorcerers that they have and the more powerful those sorcerers there are, then the more power and influence they would hold in the jujutsu world.

But unfortunately, sorcery is by and large an innate talent. Not everyone born to a clan also possesses a talent for performing sorcery, which means that there's all the more reason for the clan to focus on the ones who do possess such an affinity.

"That's kind of depressing," Kinji says.

"Perhaps," Shiki shrugs.

It's simply the way things are, with those who are capable of becoming sorcerers as few in numbers as they are and the sorcery clans determined to cement their authority through the strength of their sorcerers. Perhaps that's not quite the case for smaller sorcery clans that aren't as focused on collecting power and influence unto themselves, but Shiki is less knowledgeable regarding the smaller clans. Choki would know more about it, probably.

Aside from various clans' desire to hoard power, it's also an unavoidable truth that the number of curses in the world far outnumber the number of sorcerers there are to combat them. So, of course they would want to train as many sorcerers as they could to deal with the growing threat.

Satoru-niichan, as the Strongest, played a key role in exorcising curses –but at the end of the day, he was only one person, and even he couldn't be everywhere all at once. It didn't help that the higher ups were constantly causing trouble, either.

… Sometimes, Shiki really doesn't understand what the higher ups are thinking.

"I don't think anyone does," Panda agrees commiseratingly.

"Who cares what they think?" Kinji rolls his eyes.

"Certainly not you, that's for sure," Kirara remarks dryly, which causes the other boy to let out a sharp bark of laughter.

"Well, you've got that right." Kinji takes two steps and flops down into the couch, jostling Okkotsu-san and the round little sparrow cupped in his hands. This time, Okkotsu-san manages to grab the cursed corpse doll before it tumbles through his fingers again. "Right, enough of that stuff already. I'm gonna be starting the movie now!"

Panda takes a seat on the couch on Okkotsu-san's other side, which instantly fills up the rest of the seating. Shiki and Kirara end up pulling together a few cushions on the ground instead for themselves as seating in lieu of this. It's good that they took a few clean cushions from the other room earlier, because Shiki can't imagine sitting on a tea-soaked cushion and being very pleased about it. There are parts of the ground that currently still remain rather damp, but unfortunately there's nothing that can be done about that for now.

Kinji aims the rectangular remote in his hands at the television, and the screen blinks and flickers to life.

"Oh, yeah, let me just make sure this little guy is working…" Panda reaches over with a fluffy paw to the sparrow doll that Okkotsu-san is holding. Almost instantly, it starts chirping, causing Okkotsu-san to flail slightly in panic. "Yup, it's definitely working now."

The chirping increases in pitch and urgency.

"Can you adjust the amount of cursed energy that it's sensing for?" Shiki suspects that the main barrier to Okkotsu-san being able to properly control his cursed energy is the simple fact that he has far too much of it, and the lack of control is only compounded by his relative inexperience. Like having an entire bucket of water, and trying to pour out only a single drop. "It might be easier if you increase it."

"I-increase it?! But I don't–"

"Chirping means that you're using too much cursed energy right now, doesn't it?" she points.

Okkotsu-san stares at her. "I don't feel like I'm doing anything in particular, though?"

So it's subconscious on his part, then? It figures that a boy with so much cursed energy wouldn't even realize when he was using it…

"You definitely are," Kirara informs him. "I'm guessing it doesn't feel like much to you because you already have a lot of cursed energy, and you're probably already used to it all so it doesn't really feel any different for you."

"I'll increase the sensing," Panda reaches out for the sparrow again. "So the first step is just making sure that he can keep his cursed energy stable, right? And then we can think about lowering the threshold for practicing precision afterwards."

Shiki nods in agreement with the plan. It's more or less along the lines of what she'd been thinking.

"You'll get the hang of it," Kirara comforts the boy.

There is a brief moment of silence after Panda readjusts the sparrow doll's cursed energy sensing, before it's broken by a soft exclamation of surprise from Okkotsu-san when the little bird starts pecking him. The soft beak shouldn't hurt, so it's probably just because he was startled by the sudden movement. But all the same, the short lapse in concentration means that the sparrow doll promptly breaks into loud chirping again.

"Man," Kinji says, "I can't hear a single word they're saying in the movie, and we don't have any subtitles. Does anyone here know how to read lips?"

"Nothing like learning in the present," Kirara pats the boy on the leg that's dangling down from the couch beside him.

"I'm sorry!" Okkotsu-san continues struggling with the round little sparrow, which has gone back to merrily pecking away at his fingers again.

"Maybe we should just pause the movie for now?" Panda suggests. "At least until he gets a hold on maintaining a stable flow of cursed energy first."

"That might be a good idea." Shiki can see the sense in that. It's not as if playing a movie right now when Okkotsu-san clearly isn't even watching it has any effect on the boy, and it's supposed to be for Okkotsu-san's benefit that they've even gathered together here to watch a movie in the first place.

"Right, let's do that, then." Kinji aims the remote at the television, and the screen freezes to a stop on the image of a man strapped down to an operating table while a doctor wearing a lab coat raises a scalpel above him. "Well, that's charming."

"I mean, it is a horror movie, right?" Kirara shrugs.

The timing of the sparrow doll's chirping right as he says that makes it seem almost as if it's chirping in agreement with Kirara's words.

"… Guess there are drawbacks to having so much cursed energy, too," Kinji remarks, and raises a thoughtful hand to press against his chin. "Ten yen says that we're going to be watching Okkotsu wrestle with that round little bird for the next ten minutes."

"It shouldn't take that long." Shiki doesn't share her classmate's opinion. Judging from how the sparrow doll is rapidly alternating between happily pecking at Okkotsu-san and loudly chirping, clearly the boy has already found some grasp over the cursed energy that he's feeding into it. He's already on the right path.

"Oh? Is that a 'less than ten minutes' that I'm hearing from you, then?" Kinji grins. "Kirara, what do you think?"

"I think it's safer to agree with Shiki," Kirara says. "She probably has a better estimate when it comes to this sort of thing."

"Fine, fine. And you, Panda?"

"Five minutes," Panda decides. "And I'm putting a bag of calpas on the line."

"Calpas?" Kinji blinks. "Not something like bamboo leaves?"

Panda sniffs, turning his nose up slightly. "Bamboo is absolutely disgusting. Bleh."

"… Eh? Really?" It's clearly not something that Kinji expected to hear about Panda's dietary preferences. Kirara also glances up in surprise at the response.

Certainly, Panda's outward appearance is that of a panda, but it's not as if he's actually a panda…

"Would you rather eat bamboo leaves over calpas?" Panda challenges.

"Uh. I mean, I guess not…?"

Panda nods, satisfied, "There we go, then."

Kirara blinks. "… That makes sense, but somehow I can't help but also feel that there's something a bit weird going on with your logic here."

"Same," Kinji nods in agreement with those words.

"Don't think too hard about it," Panda advises the two of them.

"If you say so…"

.

.

…

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