Limiter (Jujutsu Kaisen x male reader)

Protect whoever you can (Part 2: Premature Death)

Of course it would to be difficult. In the two days preparation for the mission, Y/N kept training at his usual level but he wouldn't push himself. He'd live the rest of his life regretting that decision, it left him feeling too comfortable. Everything had been normal when they first arrived, the villagers seemed really glad there were people that could hopefully solve their problem. Nanami and Y/N were quite formal, it was their job after all, but Haibara was his usual enthusiastic. He made sure everyone knew he'd do his best to help them all with their problem and make sure they all lived a normal life after the three sorcerers had done their job. Y/N just went along with it and allowed Haibara to act as he wished around the village folk but as soon as it was time to exorcise the cursed spirit, Y/N kept Haibara and Nanami under his instruction. Something was off in his mind and Y/N didn't want to find out what was causing this feeling in his gut.

"Nanami, Haibara, I want you both to stand back a little bit while I try something." Y/N requested of his juniors as they had found their way into an empty field that used to be incredibly prosperous according to the villagers, now it was reduced to what looked like a huge patch of dirt.

"Why is that, Tanaka?" Haibara asked in his usual enthusiastic tone.

"From what the villagers have said, I think the cursed spirit is stopping any crops from growing. My guess on how it's doing this is by staying underground, that way it can use cursed energy to kill any seeds as soon as they're planted. That also means that the spirit is smart so we have to be more careful knowing that." Y/N explained. It was odd, Y/N's hypothesis on how the spirit was acting intelligently would make it a higher level of threat than any normal grade two spirit that gets the ranking based only of power. And while Y/N couldn't say for certain yet, he was almost certain that something was wrong with the mission. Though he kept a straight face and gave nothing away to his underclassmen as he cycled through different possibilities of what could potentially be wrong.

"So what should we do to exorcise it?" Nanami asked.

"It'd be better to wait for nightfall when everyone's asleep, the curse would be more likely to appear when fears are heightened. That would make night,when the villagers struggle to sleep, the best time for it to surface. We'll come back later and once we've devised a plan to draw it out and exorcise it with ease." Y/N turned away from the field as the sun was still poking out from the clouds, they'd have to wait at least four hours for it to set fully and be given their ideal opportunity to exorcise the spirit as easily as possible. Though it would never be truly 'easy' the idea of waiting did make the mission less difficult as there would be less unnecessary use of cursed energy from the trio, meaning they could use all of their strength to exorcise the spirit.
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The sun had set and the trio of sorcerer students had made their way back to the field, ready to truly begin the mission. Now that they had gotten to really survey the area, Y/N had been able to trace the cursed energy left behind by the spirit to the furthest away part of the field. And just from what he could sense, Y/N was now certain that something was up with this spirit.

"You two, you can sense the spirit too, right?" Y/N asked, receiving a nod from both Haibara and Nanami "Unfortunately, I think this mission may be a little bit more difficult than expected. From what I can tell, this spirit's energy Wouk place it as a grade one at this specific moment on power alone. We best hope it's not very intelligent for our own sake." Y/N finished as he walked ahead of his juniors towards the spirit's energy.

"What would you say the plan is moving forward?" Nanami asked.

"Well, I believe that if the spirit isn't intelligent then our numbers alone should overwhelm it. However, if it has even the slightest bit of intelligence, we'll have to do more than simply rely on numbers and plan accordingly. Though that much was obvious already. Right now, since we don't really know what it's capable of, I can only think up a basic strategy for an intelligent spirit that could work." Y/N paused "If we all attack from different angles and force the spirit to prioritise defending against one attack at a time, we should make some progress. Partner that with a constant switching of position between us, it should cause a fair bit of trouble."