City Lights | Jujutsu Kaisen

Chapter One

Growing up in a small town far from the city meant I only ever saw the same people every day. The same faces I'd grown up with were there when I went to pre-school and when I transferred to junior high. I hadn't always lived in a small town. I'm sure I once took a stroll with my birth mother and father in the middle of a busy city. However, that was only a blurry dream I had once.

At the age of two, I was adopted.

The person who took me in wasn't bad at all; she was a very lovely older woman who showed nothing but love and affection toward me. She was like a grandmother to me; I liked referring to her as Mama because, in a way, she was like a mother.

She did everything to keep me safe, even decorating the house with several Japanese talismans and always making sure I carried a charm with me as well. It was a strange act, but I never questioned it. Mothers always know best, right?

At the age of four, I discovered my gift.

The gift of teleportation; a secret I went out of my way to keep hidden. Not even Mama knew about it. The discovery was purely accidental. I was outside in the garden, sniffing flowers and unaware of the pollen inside them. The purple ones were my all-time favorite, but one large inhale was all it took for me to sneeze. It was an understatement to say that four-year-old me was confused to find myself inside a hotel resort from a beach magazine when I reopened my eyes after sneezing. The only evidence of it was the colorful sparks I left behind, like a firework. That was only the beginning of my small adventures. By the age of eight, I had been to almost every continent—a privilege only some have.

At the age of six, I started elementary school.

There were times when I came back home after hearing the same things about my lack of communication. Mama would tell me it was alright for a child to be quiet; she knew it wasn't because I couldn't talk but because I preferred staying quiet. She would remind me of how much I could talk when I wanted to. She'd list the times I'd get excited about something and how I would jump and laugh nonstop about it.

At the age of eight, I realized something.

As much as I appreciated the comforting words Mama always provided, the nasty comments from the kids in my small village never really got to me. They were nothing but bugs under my shoe. That and the fact that I could always go anywhere I wanted whenever I wanted. All I needed was a clear image of a place I desired to visit and a spark of fireworks. However, despite having the option to brag about all my adventures and my power, I never did.

At the age of ten, I got into my first fight.

Mama had been called by the school to come pick me up. Almost no information was given to her about why she needed to show up suddenly. When she arrived and saw my face from the green chair I sat on, she was more than terrified. One of my eyes was purple, and my elementary uniform was covered in mud. All sorts of questions and possibilities ran through her head, the main one being about her failing to protect me, but that was simply not the case. She was informed that I had gotten into a fight with another girl from my class.

From that day forward, I showed up home with a new scratch or bruise coating my body, always frightening Mama.

My response was always, "You should see the other guy, Mama!"

The number of conversations I had did not come close to the number of times I had gotten into fights. Simply put, I had no one I could call a friend in my town.

At the age of twelve, I started junior high.

On the first day of school, I met Koda, a new kid who had transferred into my classroom during my first year in junior high. He was a snotty kid who bragged about the money his family had. His temper was short and overall obnoxious. Still, that didn't stop him from making friends. By the end of his first month at the school, he had befriended everyone in our shared class, including me.