Drowning in Cold Blue Devotion

Chapter 1: Don't Drink and Dial

It's a big deal when someone finally makes their Grade 1 rank promotion. It's a big enough deal that traditionally, you get your own party - whether you want one or not. Unlike lower rank promotions, pretty much no one gets that kind of promotion at the same time as another sorcerer, and the community has so little to celebrate it's a great excuse for people to come together.

It's little more than a nice dinner where you're the guest of honor, generally with a lot of drinking and a handful of gifts. Even the major clans send at least someone with some little trinket to acknowledge the accomplishment. Since you graduated from Tokyo Jujutsu High, your party is being held there in one of the nicer traditional buildings with a lovely dining hall and paper lantern lit garden.

You've had your hair and makeup professionally done, and squeezed yourself into a tasteful but eye-catching black dress for the evening. You've even rented some high end jewelry, at the recommendation of the event coordinator. None of what you're wearing feels very genuinely like your normal self, but these events are more about socialization and community bonds than the personal preferences of whoever the party is 'for'.

You're not really a classy party goer, but you can't exactly make up an excuse when it's your party. And to be honest, most people don't make it this far alive, so the recognition is pretty well earned and you're trying to enjoy it. There's only a handful of folks up at your new rank, so you all damn well celebrate it when it happens for someone. Even Nanami puts in the effort to show up to these kinds of things, and he's one of the least social sorcerers you know. Not that it's a very social bunch to begin with - unless you count Satoru Gojo.

The man has enough manic energy at these things and non-stop ability to talk for hours that he makes up for the rest of you combined. Especially after just one drink... you'd think someone had doped him with something since he just does not shut up. Having him as your teacher previously has given you a higher tolerance for him than most, but he's obnoxious enough tonight that Yaga and Nanami are trying (unsuccessfully) to get him to dial it back.

Not that you mind, because him being the center of attention at your party draws a lot of the focus off you. Which is great, because one thing that hadn't occurred to you with your rapid advancement was the amount of 'offers' it would bring... Offers from the top families with marriage proposals. And not just the Big Three either, everyone under the sun wants to get the progenitor of a new inheritable cursed technique into their fold. Even before the party, you've been getting unsolicited texts with pictures of attractive young men and offers to set up a date with them for you.

It's something you probably should have planned for, your being from an unknown family and gifted with a brand new bloodline ability means each of them wants to tie you into their own faction. Not just for bragging rights or to utilize your abilities, but for the potential of your future offspring's abilities combined with their own. Just your luck to have an ability that they're somehow certain can be inherited, despite being the first person in recorded history with it.

You're just barely twenty and in the top ranks of your chosen deadly profession, so popping out the next generation of jujutsu sorcerers just so that your abilities live on is not ranked high as a personal priority. Pragmatic as it may be to plan for your eventual death, the idea of picking someone to simply father your kids is a bit bizarre to you. You're being offered everything from financial security, servants, and luxury - even offers to have surrogates carry your children so you can continue to 'work' if you want, or in case you're just not into men. They're pulling out all the stops and some of them are really going for the hard sell any time they can get a word in with you.

So you've spent most of the end of night while the party winds down fleeing one awkward conversation to the next. You'd be flattered if it wasn't so damn creepy. And you know that you won't hear an end to it until you agree to put down roots somewhere. You tried to sneak to a quiet spot outside for a breather, but apparently you weren't as stealthy about it as you thought you were.