ITSY BITSY SPIDER. ― ( Jujutsu Kaisen )

PROLOGUE. fall from grace

"At the temple there is a poem called 'Loss' carved into the stone. It has three words, but the poet has scratched them out. You cannot read loss, only feel it."
( memoirs of a grisha )

( August 2007 )

Residuals of an agonizing headache lingered inside her skull as the wooden bristles gently massaged her scalp like the slender fingers of the Gojo Estate's silver-haired maid used to. Her eyelids were heavy, body was yearning for a deep, uninterrupted sleep her brain was depriving her of since she set foot on the vast campus grounds of Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical College. No one had bothered to warn her that the school also acted as headquarters for the alumni. Too many strangers dropped by, too much cursed energy wandered around.

One. Two. Three. Four. Five.

Arisu inflated her lungs with a deep breath and let it out quietly; the wooden walls weren't built to keep the noise inside. Her eyes shot open like a switch button to a more presentable version of herself. There was a certain way she was expected to look, a certain way she was expected to walk and talk; although she rarely complied with the latter unless someone from the clan was within earshot. She put on her red-tinted shades to hide her light-sensitive tired eyes. It was her second pair since the school year began – her beloved cousin's shenanigans. (You need to learn how to go all out to master the Calamity, Gojo Satoru had told her with a devilish grin parting his face, not asking if she wanted to master the cursed tool he had burdened her with. You're lucky your favorite cousin is here to help you, unlike a certain someone.)

The girl wasn't having a good day. Until she turned the door knob.

"Nanami," Arisu cooed, hands tied behind her back, violet eyes sparkling behind the glasses at the sight of the blond boy. There was no point in acting surprised to find him leaning beside her door. She could feel the great amount of cursed energy circulating within his lean frame from miles away, distinguish it amongst hundreds of others, and he was very well aware of it. "Weren't we supposed to meet at the parking lot?"

Nanami revealed all of the height he often hid behind a bad posture. His earth-colored eyes found hers. He cleared his throat. "Kanzaki." She had to wait an entire year for him to drop the honorifics. Her hope for getting on a first-name basis soon was dim. The boy revealed the small bottle in his palm. "I wanted to give you this before it got warm. I read somewhere that grape juice is good for migraines."

"Thank you." Vending machines on the campus didn't sell anything in glass. "My cousins didn't even bother to check on me. They wouldn't be so miserably single if they were half the gentleman you are."

He averted his gaze. Her grin grew bigger. "It's nothing. I was in the store, and I thought–"

"You thought of me?" The words playfully rolled out her tongue in a way that would have earned her a lecture from her guardian.