BELOVED ONE ❪ jujutsu kaisen ❫

DEALS WITH THE DEVIL

THREE YEARS AGO

Fujino Kazue knows that those who belonged to the Tachibana Clan were doomed to a fate that was savage, an ending so gruesome it would set your hair on edge when you heard even the slightest mutterings of it. All of the great clans hailed from twisted, deceptive origins but the Tachibanas were the first to plague themselves with Curses - delighting in the torturing of Curses to the degree that they would bring even humans to keep the Curses alive for the products of their experiments - and for that they earned notoriety that beat even the once renown Fujinos.

The boy in front of her is the madness of the clan brought to life.

Tachibana Minato's once brown hair has turned black and is soaked in blood, so arid that it dyes his hair the colour of cherry blossoms erring on the side of being burnt, and there is a wildness in his eyes that have the guards around him tense. Kazue isn't supposed to be here, not with the low position she holds in the clan, but was dragged along due to her younger cousins' insistence - their siren song of 'something wild this way comes' too much for her to bear. They most likely just want her in trouble, want her caught for spying and flayed for the offence, but the curiosity is too much for her to bear.

She peeks around the corner, making sure not even her shadow graces the courtyard, half of her yukata clutched between her fingers to stop the wind from whipping it into view. The Fujinos are stationed around the dilapidated shrine they had built eons ago, enriching the soil with runes to make sure it stood proud even after years of ruin, their backs strong and proud. It's the first time the Fujinos have had any say in the matters of Jujutsu society, something they're only able to do because of how ancient the soil of the shrine is - the perfect prison for the Cursed boy in front of them. If not for the upheaval the boy's appearance caused, then the gathering of the clansmen would have had her mother fainting if she was alive to witness how their obscure clan garnered enough attention.

Blood weaves through the stranger's tightly drawn wrists, the technique of the Kamo Clan binding him as a hand firmly presses down on his back, Gojō Satoru smiling down at him with amusement glimmering in his crystalline eyes. To his side stands a woman made out of solid black lines, from the thin purse of her lips to the hair that hangs around her sharp cheekbones in a kiss, Teshima Reiko. Even Zen'in Naobito has ambled out of his parlour, stinking infernally of sharp alcohol but the most bright eyed Kazue has ever seen him. "Tachibana Minato, was it?" Gojō questions in a lilting voice, the tendons in his hand flexing as the boy stiffens at his name, turning back with no care for the pressure the restraints put on his bones - lips marred in a vicious smile, like a knife has carved a mockery of a smile on his face. "The devil boy,"

"Is that my new moniker?" Kazu is entranced with the first sound of his voice, body swaying in his direction unconsciously. He's her age, lanky and thinly built for a boy of twelve with a body that seems like it's been tortured to hell and back, but there's strength in the curl of his body, head arched backwards to survey the gathering of adults - eyes piercing through the blanket of darkness that night brings. "How charming; so many revered ones for little old me," a man steps forward from the crowd, striking Minato with such strength that the boy crashes onto the ground, blood dripping down his split lip.

"You bastard," he seethes, fists clenched by his sides so tightly the knuckles of his hands flare white, dark hair hanging into his bloodshot eyes. "You have no idea what you've done, what you've stolen,"

"Stolen?" Minato barks out a laugh, shoulders shaking as he giggles and the adults around him exchange wary glances. "How can one steal what has always meant to belong to them? The Tachibana heir deserves what he goes after, and by 'Tachibana heir', I mean the real one," another slap, this one having others hurry to restrain the man, the veins in his forehead bulging as he reaches fruitlessly for Minato.