Please, leave a stain on this vast emptiness

Chapter 3

Tsumi is allowed a short period of break before joining his first year class until his uniform arrives, instead of studying he could quietly observe daily life inside Jujutsu Tech from afar. Maybe Yaga's investigation is much more thorough than he lets on, enough he has learned about Tsumi's background to understand his feelings about going to an actual school for the first time in his life.

Tsumi has not experienced any type of relationship outside of his household, none aside from his parents and servants. He is anxious and uncertain, about how he should treat fellow classmates, senior classmates and teachers, the thought of meeting these strangers is already making him have a meltdown on the spot. So for now he is satisfied observing from afar.

For now his daily routine consists of staying in his room, familiarizing himself with the school, a bit of self-studying, and silently stalking fellow students during their lessons from the shadows.

One thing he learns after five days living on his own is that he cannot do chores, when he tries to sweep the floor it somehow ends up dustier than when he started, when he tries to do laundry in his bathroom sink he somehow floods the place, when he tries to stack up books and put them away he somehow manages to fall and strew every single one across the floor, every day his bed and clothes gets more creases and wrinkles than old skin. Tsumi can only learn to live with the fact that he might not be able to see a clean bedroom anymore.

Yaga is the one who brings his uniform to him when it finally arrives, Tsumi has just finished a rough pencil sketch on a piece of paper the size of a memo, he opens the door to his dorm with the drawing in the hand and admires his new uniform: "Thank you so much, it looks very nice."

Yaga looks at the drawing in his hand, it is the portrait of a young girl, her eyes are the only part that is coloured in, a very faint, gentle shade of pale pink: "It's good, is she someone important to you?"

"Yes." Tsumi replies simply as he searches for the breast pocket on the uniform, once he finds it he places the drawing inside and buttons down the flap to close the pocket.

There is not a photo of Komen that exists in this world, she is never included in any family photos either, so Tsumi creates a monochrome mock for himself.

"I will leave you to try your uniform on in peace. You will start attending classes tomorrow, are you prepared?"

"I'm not sure." Tsumi feels the negative energy as he starts to dread about tomorrow, doing his best to hold it down, he replies: "I will do my best."

The next morning someone knocks on his door just as he finishes putting on his uniform, opening it he sees his classmate, the ravenette boy: "Fushiguro Megumi, first-year, we are in the same class."

"Jūnisakura Tsumi." Tsumi regrets going to sleep in stress last night, negative energy has been building up while he sleeps. Now it feels brimming to the edge, threatening to spill out his body, he needs to keep his mouth shut as much as possible, if he wants to leave a good impression for his fellow students.

"Our teacher Gojō's gone missing since this morning, so the second-years volunteered to act as substitutes in his place, they are on the field now." Megumi briefly explains as he points his thumb in the direction of the training ground and walks away, Tsumi follows.

Arriving on the training grounds he sees the three second years sparring intensely, stopping when they see the two underclassmen approaching, the girl with myrtle-green hair tied into a ponytail smiles: "So we finally meet our secret admirer."

"You noticed?" Tsumi opens his mouth carefully, but he is not surprised, he had not been trying to conceal his presence anyway.

"It was hard not to." The girl stretches a little: "Although it is a pretty strange sensation to have an extra pair of eyes on me when I train, I didn't think I would be so self-conscious that I would mess up sometimes."

"... Sorry."

"Hey it's fine, I'm not going to blame others for my shortcoming. So, aren't you going to introduce yourself? Underclassman always go first you know."

Tsumi presses his palm against his throat, feeling around before confirming that nothing bad would come out when he opens his mouth, then he properly bows to the four students: "Jūnisakura Tsumi, please take care of me."

"Man of few words huh? That's okay, but you could speak a little louder. I'll make ours simple too, I'm Zenin Maki, but I prefer being called by my forename."

"Inumaki Toge, he speaks a bit different due to circumstances." She gestures to the boy beside her who greets Tsumi with a 'kelp'.

"And I am Panda, pleased to make your acquaintance." The gigantic animal greets: "I trust Megumi already introduced himself when he went to get you?"

"Likewise, and yes, he did." Tsumi briefly ponders about Maki's words: "So instead of using surname, I should say Maki-senpai, is this alright?"

"Sounds good." Maki grins.

I wonder if it is because of a family reason, maybe Maki-senpai is a bit like me when it comes to our feelings about family, I should ask that they use my forename as well since I would prefer not to be reminded of my family whenever I am addressed. Is what Tsumi has in mind when he opens his mouth, a question and request using polite and respectful words already forming on his tongue, but then he freezes.

He has the sudden urge to throw up, his telltale sign that it is going to happen.

Release.

As if waiting for this exact moment, cursed energy inside his spikes up without warning. From his abdomen, pulsing energy pushes up and up, aiming for the opening of his mouth. He tries to shut it fast but the urge is faster, a curse spews out in the form of ugly foul words: "And I'm guessing there's domestic reason behind it right? So, abuse? Am I right? I bet I'm right, how misfortunate to born this time, poor you, but I bet that this is not the end of your misfortunate, something might just happen very soon."

Ah, there goes his hope of getting along with his classmates for the next four years here, right out the window. Tsumi thinks through his haziness, his mind foggy and light as he just released some cursed energy. He did manage to forcefully cut off the flow, but he is not sure how large the curse would be with what he could not stop.

More importantly, not only did he just viciously insult an upperclassman out of the blue, he did it in front of every student in the school.

He should have known better than to relax his guard.