YUTA HAD LEFT FOR THE Annual Kyoto Sister-School Goodwill Event early in the morning with the rest of the upperclassmen. They were traveling by bullet train so the trip there would be quicker, but they still had to leave early for whatever reason. It was a shame too since Mizuhime had been dead asleep when he had to go and she wished she had been awake to at least see him off...

She texted him a goodbye and good luck, but when he didn't respond, she went straight to busying herself with classes and homework that everything else just completely slipped her mind. When a break finally came, the first thing she did was throw herself onto the bed with a book in hand while her phone lay ignored on her desk.

The book she picked out was Pride and Prejudice, one of the many recommendations Yuta had given her on... on the day of their outing (she promptly tried to push back the other bloody events that had happened during said outing).

She remembered Yuta telling her that it was a popular book in the West and that his mom had given it to him when his sister refused to read it. He didn't want to seem rude so he accepted the book and read it in fear that his mom would try to quiz him about the contents. In the end, he found the book enjoyable and simplistic.

She opened the first page and began to read...

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

And wow was it good. She had been reading nonstop for about three hours by now, too deep into the plot and romance to stop herself. She had never read a book like this, one where the romance was actually able to prosper and flourish. Most of the books she read had little-to-no romance, and when there was romance, it would end terribly for a multitude of reasons (they were killed, executed, arrested, separated, etc.).

But so far, Pride and Prejudice didn't seem to be going down that track. This book was so happy and light, so unlike the books she was used to reading, that she couldn't help but be absorbed by it. The romance here was so good that it left her heart pounding even though the two main characters have yet to hug or even kiss; Jane Austen's description of their feelings and their dialogue was enough to make Mizuhime sigh dreamily.

"If you will thank me," he replied, "let it be for yourself alone. That the wish of giving happiness to you might add force to the other inducements which led me on, I shall not attempt to deny. But your family owe me nothing. Much as I respect them, I believe I thought only of you."

Elizabeth was too much embarrassed to say a word. After a short pause, her companion added, "You are too generous to trifle with me. If your feelings are still what they were last April, tell me so at once. My affections and wishes are unchanged, but one word from you will silence me on this subject forever."

OH MY GOD, JUST SAY YOU LOVE HIM ALREADY! Mizuhime wanted to scream.

Suddenly her phone rang, causing her to nearly drop her book in shock. With an annoyed sigh, she placed her bookmark between the pages before reaching out to answer her phone.

"Hello Ijichi-san," she greeted.

"Uchiumi-san," he greeted back. "I have a mission for you tomorrow. Will you be available for it?"

Her eyes lit up. "Yes!" She said a little too loudly. "Sorry! I mean, yes, I'll be able to go."

"Alright, I'll send you the case file," he replied.

They hung up and several seconds later, her phone buzzed with a new message.

Record — September 2017, Sawara

Civilians of Sawara, Chiba have made multiple complaints of supernatural happenings inside the abandoned Sawara Mines. It is unknown whether any curses reside in the mines. An investigation must be launched to assess the threat level and, if possible, excorise the curses.

Selected jujutsu sorcerers: Nanami Kento (Grade 1) and Uchiumi Mizuhime (Grade 4)

While Mizuhime was glad to see a familiar name, she barely interacted with Nanami the last time they saw each other. It had been on her very first mission and the most that happened between them was him giving her and Megumi a lecture mid-fight with a high level curse.

I wonder if he's going to give another lecture tomorrow... She thought before giggling.

She glanced over at the clock on her phone. It was nearly time for dinner now. Quickly, she left her room to eat at the dorm's common room, making a mental note to go to sleep early for tomorrow's mission.

The next day, she woke up bright and early. She washed up in the shower and donned on her usual jujutsu school uniform.

When she stepped out of her room, she found Megumi already standing there, hand up as if he was about to knock on her door.

Her face brightened up just from the sight of him.

"Gumi!" She beamed happily. "What are you doing up so early? Your school doesn't start in at least two more hours!"

"I heard from Ijichi-san that you're gonna go on a mission today," he said, straight-forward as ever.

Mizuhime blinked. She had no idea why Ijichi would ever tell Megumi such information—unless Megumi asked for it himself... which would be weird, but oh well.

"Ah, yes, I am," she replied. "Is something wrong...?"

"I just wanted to tell you..." He trailed off, suddenly unable to make eye-contact with her. He quickly averted his gaze and mumbled, "Don't do anything stupid."

She would've broken out into high-pitched squeals and gushed over how cute her kohai was acting, but instead she thought back to the time she found Megumi during summer vacation; clinging onto her desperately while choking between gasps about his fallen partner who died right before his eyes.

She smiled softly and promised, "Don't worry. I'll be safe. I promise."

Megumi caught her eye before glancing away. He nodded stiffly, but his shoulders seemed to relax at her words.

"I shouldn't hold you back any longer," he said, stepping aside to let her pass. "Come back soon, senpai."

━━━━━━･❪ 💧 ❫ ･━━━━━━

Yuta was so glad to get out of that bullet train. He had nothing against any of his upperclassmen, but if he had to listen to Hakari and Kirara act all lovey-dovey with each other any longer, his head was gonna implode from how hard he was blushing.

"Welcome to Kyoto Metropolitan Curse Technical College," the second-year teacher that was chaperoning them, Kusakabe Atsuya, droned as they all huddled around each other at the entrance of their sister-school. "Come on, let's go meet up with the competition."

While the city of Kyoto was a sight to behold, the Kyoto high campus... wasn't anything new. In fact, all of it was pretty familiar to Yuta. Like with the Tokyo campus, their school was also hidden in the depths of a thick forest, away from civilization. It also had the same traditional style too; same Buddhist theme, same torii gates, same... everything. He wouldn't be surprised if both campuses were built to be exactly identical to each other.

Kusakabe suddenly stopped. "Ah, here's some of them. I take it you guys are our guides?"

Yuta looked ahead and spotted three students walking their way. They were quite an odd bunch, but most jujutsu sorcerers, he learned, were always odd anyway. One was a short girl with blonde hair tied up in pigtails that spiked upwards. For some reason, she was holding a broom. Beside her was a dark haired boy with small eyes. And the third person...

This guy's huge! He gawked, his face paling. The third person was an extremely tall and extremely muscular boy. There was a large scar running down the left side of his face, which only added to his fear factor.

Please don't tell me we'll have to fight against him!

"Welcome to our school," the boy with small eyes greeted them formally. "I'm Kamo Noritoshi. This is my classmate Nishimiya Momo, and this is—"

"—Todo Aoi," the huge one growled and Yuta noted with a gulp that even his voice was menacing. He sauntered up to their little group, his face set in a stern glare.

He lifted his hand... and pointed straight at Yuta.

"You," he said, glaring.

Yuta jumped. "M-me?"

"Yes you! You're Okkotsu Yuta, right?" He demanded. "The new Special Grade jujutsu sorcerer."

Yuta shrank at all the attention he was getting. His mouth ran dry when he looked back at Todo. Was this guy a new bully? Was he trying to size him up? See if he was worthy of his 'Special Grade' title?

Enough, he told himself. He needed to stop letting people push him around. It had been months since he had last been bullied, and during those months he spent time working his ass off to be where he was now. He had friends, his self-esteem was growing, he finally felt like he was actually worth something and he was not going to let all that go down the drain because a new bully showed up!

So he steeled himself, straightened up his back and answered with an unwavering voice, "Yeah, that's me."

He would've given himself a mental pat on the back, but Todo's next words caught him off guard.

"What kind of woman is your type?" He asked with utmost seriousness.

.

.

.

"...?" Yuta stared at him wordlessly, pure confusion written all over his face. He was vaguely aware of one of his seniors snorting in amusement. Behind Todo, his two classmates were all sighing and rolling their eyes as if this was something Todo always did.

"My... my type...?" He echoed.

Todo nodded, his expression not changing in the slightest. "Yes. So? What's your type of woman?"

Uchiumi Mizuhime was the first thing to pop into his mind, but he didn't voice it. He couldn't exactly announce to everyone 'I like short girls with wavy blue hair and blue eyes, big boobs, dewy pale skin, cute voice, a tendency to address everyone respectfully despite the fact she's known them for months now, and, oh, she can turn into a puddle'.

Yeah, that was way too specific. So he just settled with awkwardly saying, "Um... girls with nice personalities?"

The whole area fell silent. He glanced back at Noritoshi and Nishimiya. The former just looked bored while the latter was shaking her head. He turned back to Todo and almost jumped for the second time that day when he saw literal tears streaming down the large boy's face.

"Are—are you okay?" He asked. Had he said the wrong thing?

Todo dipped his head back as if he was speaking to the gods to grant him the courage to keep going. Then he sniffled and looked back at Yuta, a fierce glare suddenly appearing over his face.

"Okkotsu..." He trailed off, his voice dark. "You're absolutely boring."

Yuta didn't even have any time to register what just happened because now Todo was striding towards him, cursed energy pouring out of his body like a death threat. Yuta immediately reacted, his hand reaching out for his sword—

"Alright, that's enough," Kusakabe cut in. "Save it for the event, boys. Can you guys show us where we'll be staying already?"

Noritoshi stepped forward and grasped Todo's shoulder. "Of course," he said primly. "Apologies for the hold up. Please follow us."

Yuta sighed in relief. While he was more than ready to defend himself when necessary, he wasn't exactly fond of fighting—especially for a stupid reason such as someone not liking his taste in girls...

Because the Kyoto school also had a small number of students, Yuta—as well as his upperclassmen and chaperones—was able to get a temporary dorm room all by himself. The way it was modeled was exactly like the rooms back in Tokyo, which no longer surprised him.

Jujutsu sorcerers really like traditional-styled everything, huh? He mused to himself, setting his bag down before splaying over the readily made bed.

He checked his phone and saw a few messages from his friends, all wishing him well (while Maki demanded in all caps that he kick everyone's asses), but his eyes were drawn back to Mizuhime's messages. They had been sent just a few hours ago.

💙Hime💙:
I'M SO SORRY! I was asleep when you left! Yuta please forgive meeeee 😭

💙Hime💙:
I hope you have fun in Kyoto! The competition is probably making you feel nervous, but don't let it get you down! No matter what happens, we'll still be happy for you! Stay safe 💖

Yuta nearly stopped breathing. A heart emoji. She had sent him a heart emoji. Did that mean she returned his feelings or—? No wait, that couldn't be it. He doubted Mizuhime understood the implications of sending a heart emoji to someone, she most likely meant it platonically... which was... painful.

Nevertheless, her last text was very sweet of her. She knew him well enough to understand how he felt about being chosen to join the competition. Even though she wasn't good at comforting people, that was fine by him. He didn't need a therapist, just a good friend willing to send him encouragement with loving words and Mizuhime did exactly that.

He let out a dreamy sigh, a smile blooming over his pink face as he reread her message over and over again before finally deciding to send her one back.

It's no prob, Hime-chan! We left early and half of the school was asleep too. The competition hasn't started yet but ill try not to let my worries distract me. I really miss you

The second he hit 'send', he immediately regretted it. 'I really miss you'?! What was he thinking, sending something so forward?!

It's too late now, he despaired. The message had been sent. Now all he had to do was wait for a reply.

Suddenly there was a loud bang against his door that nearly made him jump.

"Oi! Okkotsu!" One of his upperclassmen, Hakari Kinji, barked from the other side of the door. "It's time for dinner!"

"R-right!" He replied, hastily scrambling out of bed.

He tucked his phone in his pocket and left the room, following the rest of his schoolmates to the common room. Just like the one back home, the Kyoto school's common room was large, enough to fit about a hundred or so people. There were dining tables set off on one end, and a lounging area on the other that consisted of a bunch of couches and a huge flat-screen TV.

Some of the tables had been pushed together so the Tokyo kids could eat with the Kyoto students. Yuta found himself sitting at the very edge of the table, quietly eating his food while he listened to his upperclassmen threaten to kill each other during the competition.

Mizuhime, to his dismay, had yet to reply to him. Nor had she even read his message—or maybe she saw it in her notifications, felt creeped out by his last sentence, and decided to ignore him altogether. He hoped it wasn't the latter.

He finished his meal after about an hour, but stayed at the table since nobody seemed to be leaving. Bored out of his mind, he went to his photo library to look through pictures he had sneakily taken of Mizuhime while he blocked out everyone's conversation.

He must have had around a thousand pictures of her at this point. There were pictures of her walking to school, reading books, doing homework, unlocking the door to her room... then there were the more creepier photos. He would be embarrassed if anyone knew he was taking photos of her, but if anyone discovered these certain photos... he knew he would be in deep trouble.

His more creepier collection of photos consisted mostly of perverted pictures; like moments where he caught her bending down while wearing short skirts or dresses, times where she had taken her blazer off and her white blouse was drenched in water to the point it became see-through—and, his personal favorite, the photos he captured during their trip to the beach.

He was so wrong for this and he knew that, but similarly to his feelings about stealing her personal belongings, he just couldn't help himself.

This was lovesickness. To be so in love with someone to the point that you couldn't behave normally. Tons of people had gone through it, Yuta was no different. Sure he may be taking things to the extreme (killing boys who looked at her wrong and stealing her things so he could jack off to them), but he just loved her that much.

He had never felt this way before. Not even with Rika, and he had literally tried to get hitched with her when he was ten.

I love you so much, he thought, gazing down at a picture of a scantily clad Mizuhime, who was oblivious to the camera lens aimed at her. So, so much. Please... love me back. Love me, love me, love me—

"Okkotsu," a deep voice said, right next to him.

He froze. Stiffly, he turned to the side, horror dawning on him when he saw Todo Aoi standing behind him, bent down at the waist so he could peer over his shoulder to inspect his phone screen.

Hastily, he flipped his phone over but he knew it was already too late.

"I—I wasn't—I was just—!" Pitiful attempts at an explanation spilled his lips, but it was useless. Out of all the people he had to get caught by, he couldn't believe it was Todo fucking Aoi!

"There's no need to explain yourself," Todo said in a deep rumble. He straightened up, taking a deep whiff of the air like he was trying to hold himself back from crying.

Yuta scrambled to his feet, his heart racing in his chest. He was very much aware that everyone in the common room was watching them now, and he wanted nothing more than to melt into a puddle of shame similarly to Mizuhime.

"It's not what it looks like—!" He squeaked, but Todo raised a hand.

"Enough," he said. "I... have misjudged you, Okkotsu."

Yuta froze.

"Your taste in women," the older boy continued, squeezing his eyes shut and shoving a fist against his chest. "Is immaculate."

"Um, what is going on here...?" Kirara whispered.

"I have no clue," Nishimiya whispered back.

"You were just too shy to admit it!" Todo barreled on. "Well, there's no need for that, Okkotsu! You've impressed me! You should be proud of your taste in women! Girls with cute faces and big boobs are definitely something worthy of attention! While I personally prefer big butts, big boobs are just as amazing!"

Oh god, Yuta thought, glancing at the ceiling. Please kill me already.

"Okkotsu..." He could sense Kusakabe giving him a very weird look. "Just what the hell were you looking at on your phone?"

He swallowed thickly. "U-um..."

Because the world hated him so much, Todo answered for him, "Okkotsu was looking at a picture of a semi-naked blue-haired buxom beauty!" He announced, his voice so loud that all of Kyoto could probably hear him. Yuta wanted the ground to swallow him up. "She's not as cute as my Takada-chan, but I admit, she's a close second! Who is she, hmm, Okkotsu? A model? A singer? Someone you know?"

Kirara's jaw dropped. "Oh my god. Are you talking about Uchiumi Mizuhime? The first-year girl in Okkotsu's class?"

They know! Yuta internally wailed.

Hakari raised his brow in his direction. "Uh, why do you have a semi-naked photo of your classmate?"

"It was a beach trip!" He tried to explain himself. "I took photos of all my friends! N-not just her!"

"Yuta has a cruuuush," Kirara teased.

"Ooooohhhh~" Hakari joined in.

Yuta buried his face in his hands. He was half-tempted to grab his katana and commit seppuku right in the middle of the room.

"Now look at what you've done, Todo," Noritoshi sighed under his breath.

The rest of dinner went on with his schoolmates teasing him while the Kyoto students watched on in pity. A few had the decency to scold Todo for exposing his 'crush' (though what he felt for Mizuhime went way beyond a simple 'crush').

The one thing that relieved him was the fact that Todo had only seen that one picture of Mizuhime in a mint green bikini. He hadn't seen any of the other hundreds of photos of her. If he had, the conversation would've gone way differently.

Once dinner ended, he retreated back to his room. The second he stepped through the door, his phone dinged. His heart leaped when he realized it was a message from Mizuhime. Suddenly all the embarrassment he felt during mealtime faded away, replaced by an explosive happiness.

💙Hime💙:
HEY! Sorry for the late reply, I was reading one of the books you recommended for me! 😊
Has the competition started yet? How's it going?

It's ok! And no, I just came back from dinner. The competition starts tomorrow morning
Dinner was so bad

💙Hime💙:
Oh no :(
Was it the food? Do you have food poisoning?

No the food was great. But there was this guy
He kinda unintentionally?? embarrassed me in front of everyone

💙Hime💙:
WHAT? IS HE BULLYING YOU? YOU SHOULD BEAT HIM IN THE COMPETITION

Oh I will

💙Hime💙:
Thats great! We're all rooting for you, Yuta-kun!!! 💖

Yuta's breath hitched. Another heart! God, did she know what she was doing to him with all these heart emojis she was sending him?!

Ur so sweet Hime thank you 😭

💙Hime💙:
No problem, but why are you crying...?

Uh thats just tears of joy
So u know about how my day went, how was yours???
I hope you had a better time

💙Hime💙:
I have! I was even assigned a mission!

His face fell when he read the words on the screen. Another mission? His heart squeezed painfully. What if her partner tried to steal her away from him? What if she got hurt? What if she got killed?

Whats it about?

💙Hime💙:
Nanami-san and I need to investigate these abandoned mines.

Nanami?

💙Hime💙:
He's a professional sorcerer! I worked with him before on a mission with Gumi. He gave us a lecture while exorcising the curse

Abandoned mines can be pretty dangerous...
Please stay safe
I don't want you to get hurt

I think I might actually die if anything happened to you, he wanted to say, but he knew it would be too much.

💙Hime💙:
I'll be fine, Yuta-kun! 💖💖💖

And that was the last message she sent.

━━━━━━･❪ 💧 ❫ ･━━━━━━

The rest of the week went by slowly. The competition lasted only two days and he dominated the whole thing. He even went against Todo during the individual battles on the second day, but slicing him up didn't bring him any joy like it should've had.

Why? Because Mizuhime hadn't contacted him since Monday and he was becoming increasingly worried. He sent her a flurry of messages asking about her status and her whereabouts, but there were no replies. She hadn't even read the messages. He tried calling her too about a thousand times and got the same results.

He couldn't focus on anything else. Even when his schoolmates dragged him out of his room to explore the city of Kyoto, all he could think about was Mizuhime and if she was okay.

Maybe her phone broke or maybe she lost it, he tried to tell himself, but he knew that wasn't it.

When he returned to the Tokyo campus, his fears had been confirmed.

"Hime hasn't come back from her mission," Maki told him grimly. "Neither has her partner. They've been gone for a total of six days now."

— author's note —

I JUST READ CHAPTER 180 OF JJK AND IT WAS AMAZING BUT ONE THING STILL CONFUSES ME...

400 years??? He's 400 years old??? I thought he was from the 80s-90s because of the pompadour??? I know he's an incarnate kinda like Sukuna, but I thought that that's his original appearance? I mean, during Uro's flashbacks she looked exactly the same as she does now, so I figured "ah so the incarnated sorcerers we see now look exactly the same as they did back when they were alive" but apparently Ryu's 400 years old?????? HE HAS SUCH A GREASER AESTHETIC THO????

Lowkey, I'm so confused as to how Kenjaku managed to incarnate them. I know he turned them into cursed objects somehow, but did he bring a bunch of random people and just force them to ingest the cursed objects, and thus the sorcerers took over?? Similarly to how the Cursed Womb: Death Paintings were brought up, they fed them to human vessels and they took over their bodies?? Because of that, I assumed that once the sorcerers took over their vessels, the body would change into what they originally looked like in the past, but I guess I was wrong cuz Ryu's 400 years old and pompadours definitely weren't a thing back then... He probs regained the memories of his vessel who had a thing for greasers and thought 'lol imma make this my whole aesthetic'

Anyways, rant over, here's some memes I made and posts I found!

POV: You're Yuta and Todo just exposed you for being a pervert

^ Honestly, same. They're both so hot