COTE x JJK: The Witnessed Monster

Prologue

So, you want to know about that day?

He crosses his legs and leans back against his chair. As he does, the sunlight gleams off his beige-white suit and dark specs, highlighting his formal outfit.

I was on an assignment at the time. The curse I was chasing had escaped from the sewers and ran towards open ocean, where I managed to corner it in a nearby dock. That part was nothing special. It was just another cursed spirit, another day of work.

Then, as I was preparing to clean up, I felt a huge influx of cursed energy from the sea.

He reaches into his pocket, pulling out a dandelion pressed into a plane of plastic.

This is a flower I picked up from the dock. The moment that huge flux of cursed energy rippled over, strange things started happening to the objects next to me, including this flower. I picked it up, among other things, for later analysis, but this is the only one that's remained.

As he says that and holds up the flower, it suddenly disappears, leaving only the plastic mold. He could only say this after having witnessed the flower return to the mold, for while that flower was gone, he could not realize a flower used to be there, and that something had disappeared. When the flower came back. It was only then that he realized it was gone. And when it returned, it seemed to blur and stretch at the edges before coming to form.

You can't help but be surprised by it, but you can get used to the feeling.

He says, pocketing the flower.

Afterwards, as it was still within my working hours, I attempted to perform my job and investigated the source of the cursed energy. The dock was abandoned, so I contacted some associates to try and bring me a boat. However...

He pauses a moment, leaning forward and massaging his temples as if he had a migraine. He lets out a despondent sigh, then continues.

Instead of a boat, Satoru Gojo showed up.

He simply flied in, saying the situation sounded interesting, and dragged me along with him towards the cursed energy.

Taking another pause, he stirs his tea and takes a bite of his breakfast croissant.

In that moment, being dragged through the air by Gojo Satoru, I had the space of mind to wonder. As you know, he is the strongest. And as the strongest, he is afforded freedoms, yet also responsibilities.

I asked myself. Was Gojo Satoru here, simply because he could be? As the strongest, he has the freedom to irresponsibly charge into danger. He was certainly capable of making that choice, for no reason other than he could.

But, I also wondered. Wondered if this was him exercising his responsibility as the strongest.

His responsibility to fight the things those weaker cannot handle. His responsibility as the strongest to use his strength.

His finger scrapes the edge of his palm, following the lines of a faint scar on his hand.

When we arrived at an island far off the coast, the cursed energy was somehow fading. The waves around the island were large and strong, as if moving to envelop the meagre land.

We went deeper, finding a giant facility that was completely wrecked. There were no signs nor plaques to identify the place, and everyone within was crushed by rubble and long dead.

Based on the clothes, there were scientists. There were combat instructors. There was people from every imaginable profession, combined with equipment far too luxurious and expansive for the place to be anything reasonable. There was even a swimming pool.

He slowly turns to look, his hands folding into themselves on the table.

For the sake of decency, I will skip over several unmentionables. I will get straight to it: this is where we found him. In the middle of the rubble, sitting on top of a mountain of debris in a white robe and nothing else. A blank expression staring at the turbulent sky, in the center of the destruction.

By this point, the cursed energy had disappeared from the vicinity. I asked Gojo Satoru, and he stated that there was no one else around. There was no one but the boy: no people, no animals, no cursed spirit that could've caused the destruction.

We walked up to the boy, who seemed to be blurry around the edges. Do you know how old tv's would have static? The kind that would distort the black and white, breaking the continuity of whatever was on screen? It was as if that kind of special effect was being applied to his outline.

We were now close to the boy. Gojo Satoru asked the boy something frivolous and unrelated, and it was only then that he turned around to meet us, eye to eye.

He looked down, staring all around at the destruction of his former residence. He looked down at himself and his unharmed body, seemingly rippling with static. He then finally turned back to us, stood up and approached.

And that was how we met. That was how the day went, from how it began to the meeting itself. Is this sufficient?

He finishes his tea and croissant and fixes the crinkles of his suit before getting up from his seat.

It is almost time for me to clock in. I will be leaving now.

As he moves to leave, reaching for his briefcase, he stops. Then, he turns back for just a second.

My thoughts on the boy?

He scratches his chin and glances at his watch. Perhaps he decided there was enough time, for he answered.

The boy seems to paint himself a monster. I see him as an efficient student. Either way, I think there is very little difference.

Student or monster, this world of curses could hardly care less.

In that sense, perhaps, there is a more accurate descriptor... Yes, I think this is apt.

He is a frog that has left his well.