The neon lights of the bowling alley flashed in sync with the heavy bass of a pop song, creating a frantic, energetic rhythm. Down on Lane 14, the scoreboard lit up with another flashing animation as the heavy plastic pins were swept away by the automated machinery.
Despite the casual setting, the atmosphere surrounding the two lanes had quickly turned into a miniature war zone.
On one side stood the Sugisawa Third High: Yuji Itadori, Takeshi Iguchi, and Setsuko Sasaki. On the other side stood the Tokyo Jujutsu High contingent: Oden Uzumaki, Maki Zenin, Yuta Okkotsu, Toge Inumaki, and Panda. To Yuji and his friends, the visitors were simply Oden's classmates from some highly exclusive, ultra-traditional religious boarding school in the mountains. They had absolutely no idea that the teenagers sharing their plastic chairs routinely risked their lives fighting horrific, invisible monsters.
"Alright, watch and learn!" Yuji shouted over the music, stepping up to the polished wooden approach.
He picked up a sixteen-pound black ball, balancing it effortlessly in one hand as if it were a light piece of fruit. He didn't use the finger holes. He didn't even look at the arrows painted on the lane.
With a bright, carefree grin, Yuji took three massive, explosive strides forward. The sheer force of his footsteps made the plastic flooring beneath the spectator chairs vibrate. He swung his arm back and released the ball with a smooth, terrifyingly powerful underhand snap.
The ball didn't roll down the lane. It practically levitated for the first ten feet, rocketing through the air before violently slamming onto the wood with a thunderous CRACK. It streaked down the center line like a meteor, completely ignoring the oiled patterns of the lane.
BOOM!
The impact was so loud that people two lanes over stopped mid-swing to look. The ten bowling pins didn't just tumble; they exploded outward, two of them flying completely out of the lane pit and bouncing off the protective padding above.
"Another strike! Hell yeah!" Yuji cheered, spinning around and flashing a double peace sign to his teammates.
Behind the seating area, Maki Zenin watched the display with her arms crossed, her sharp eyes narrowed behind her glasses. Her gaze wasn't fixed on the scoreboard, but on Yuji's shoulders and thighs. As a sorcerer with a Heavenly Restriction that granted her immense physical prowess in exchange for having zero cursed energy, she could read human movement better than anyone.
And what she was reading right now made her blood run cold.
'There's absolutely no cursed energy flowing through that kid,' Maki thought, her jaw tightening slightly. 'Not a single drop. He isn't reinforcing his body. He isn't using a technique. That was pure, unadulterated, genetic muscle fiber.'
"Hey, Maki," Panda muttered, leaning his massive furry head down toward her shoulder so the civilians wouldn't hear him. "Are you seeing what I'm seeing? That kid is a freak. His physical stats are completely off the charts."
"Yeah," Maki admitted quietly, her voice laced with rare, genuine respect. "He's ridiculous. In terms of raw muscle and explosive power without cursed energy... he's almost as strong as me. Where the hell did Oden find a guy like this?"
Yuta Okkotsu, sitting nervously beside them, let out a soft, anxious chuckle. "It's amazing. If he were a sorcerer, his physical reinforcement would probably make him completely untouchable."
"Inari," Toge Inumaki agreed softly, nodding his head while keeping the high collar of his uniform pulled tightly over his chin.
While Yuji was busy high-fiving Iguchi, Sasaki stepped closer to the Jujutsu High group. She had been observing them curiously for the past half hour. While they all seemed like nice kids, they were undeniably eccentric. Her eyes eventually drifted down to Toge, who had briefly lowered his collar to take a sip of his soda, revealing the sharp, intricate markings stamped on both sides of his mouth and his tongue.
"Hey, Inumaki-kun, right?" Sasaki asked politely, pointing toward her own cheek. "I couldn't help but notice earlier... is that a tattoo around your mouth?"
Toge flinched slightly, quickly pulling his collar back up over his nose. His violet eyes widened in surprise. He looked toward Panda for help, completely frozen.
"Uh... Mustard leaf," Toge mumbled through the fabric.
Iguchi walked over, overheard the exchange, and scratched his head beneath his mesh cap. "Wait, 'mustard leaf'? Is that how he always speaks? Ever since we sat down, he's only said things like 'salmon' and 'bonito flakes.' Is it some kind of extreme dialect from where you guys are from?"
Panda immediately stepped into the conversation, waving his giant paws frantically to draw their attention away from the Inumaki clan's cursed speech seals.
"Oh, don't mind Toge!" Panda lied smoothly, his deep voice carrying a tone of absolute, theatrical confidence. "You see, our religious school is incredibly strict about spiritual discipline! Toge here is currently undergoing a highly specific, sacred vow of linguistic purification!"
"A linguistic purification vow?" Sasaki repeated, her eyes sparkling with sudden, intense academic curiosity. "Like a spiritual fast, but for words?"
"Exactly!" Panda boomed, nodding his giant mascot head. "To cleanse his karma and prevent the speaking of negative energies, he is forbidden from using normal human language. He can only speak in the names of traditional rice ball fillings until the current lunar cycle ends! It's a very ancient, very profound technique for building character!"
Iguchi stared at Toge with profound awe. "Whoa... that sounds incredibly intense. I can barely go a day without complaining about video games, and this guy is out here surviving entirely on sushi ingredients."
"Salmon," Toge nodded solemnly, perfectly playing along with Panda's absurd excuse.
Before Sasaki could question the logistics of the vow any further, a soft voice interrupted from behind the ball return rack. A teenage girl, holding a pink bowling ball, was looking at Panda with wide, adoring eyes.
"Um... excuse me," she stammered, a slight blush on her cheeks. "I'm so sorry to interrupt your game, but your furry cosplay is literally the coolest thing I've ever seen! The texture looks so realistic, and the animatronics in the jaw are so smooth! Would it be okay if I got a quick picture with you for my social media?"
Maki instantly buried her face in her hands, audibly groaning at the sheer stupidity of the situation. Yuta looked like he wanted the floor to open up and swallow him whole.
Panda, however, didn't miss a beat. He puffed out his chest, flashed a dramatic peace sign, and leaned in close to the girl. "Of course! I take great pride in my craft! Make sure you use a nice filter, okay?"
The camera flashed, the girl thanked him profusely, and she ran back to her friends, gushing about the "amazing mascot actor" she had just met. Panda turned back to his team, entirely pleased with himself.
"See? Seamless integration into mortal society," Panda whispered proudly.
"I am going to hit you with a wooden sword when we get back," Maki growled.
"Alright, alright, cut the chatter!" Oden's voice broke through the bickering.
He stepped up to Lane 15, his sharp serpent eyes narrowing as he stared down the remaining pins. It was the final frame of the match. The scores were incredibly close, entirely due to Yuji's freakish physical ability keeping the Sugisawa team alive. If Oden didn't get a strike right here, Yuji's team would claim the victory and the free parfaits.
Oden weighed the bowling ball in his hand. He didn't have Yuji's raw, monstrous physical muscle, but his perception was flawless. His serpent eyes calculated the exact angle, the rotation of the ball, and the friction of the oiled wood down to the millimeter.
Without using a single spark of his massive cursed energy, knowing full well Maki would execute him on the spot if he cheated using jujutsu. Oden executed a flawless, elegant release.
The ball spun beautifully, curving along the outer edge of the lane before breaking sharply back toward the center at the exact fraction of a second required. It hit the "pocket" between the front pin and the secondary pin with mathematical perfection.
Clack-clack-clack-clack!
It wasn't an explosion like Yuji's throw, but a domino effect. Every single pin collapsed in a beautiful, fluid wave, vanishing into the darkness of the pit.
The overhead screen erupted into flashing neon text: *GAME OVER - WINNER: TEAM ODEN!*
"Yes! Parfaits!" Oden yelled, tossing his hands in the air and immediately turning toward Yuji with a smug, mocking grin. "Pay up, Itadori! I want the one with the extra strawberries and the gold leaf!"
Yuji collapsed dramatically onto the plastic bench, clutching his head. "Ahhhh! So close! I can't believe we lost in the last frame! My wallet is going to weep!"
---
Ten minutes later, the group was packed into a spacious booth at the brightly lit café located on the ground floor of the entertainment complex.
True to his word, Yuji had purchased a massive, colorful assortment of custom parfaits for everyone. The table was practically buried under towers of whipped cream, fresh fruit, chocolate syrup, and wafer sticks. Oden was already halfway through his massive strawberry parfait, looking exceptionally pleased with his financial victory.
As Yuji dug into his own chocolate parfait, he leaned across the table, his expression shifting from playful defeat to genuine curiosity.
"So, seriously though," Yuji began, gesturing with his long spoon toward Maki and Yuta. "What exactly do you guys even do at that elite religious school anyway? Is it all just chanting, meditating, and weeding ancient shrines in the mountains?"
Yuta froze mid-bite, a thick glob of whipped cream hovering dangerously close to his nose. He looked frantically toward Maki, his social anxiety spiking instantly.
Maki, completely unfazed, swallowed a piece of kiwi and leaned back casually. "Pretty much. It's a lot of spiritual discipline, historical study, and managing... environmental anomalies. We basically travel around to old properties, historical sites, and specialized areas to perform 'purification rituals' to keep the local areas peaceful."
"Purification rituals, huh?" Sasaki's ears practically perked up at the phrase. She slammed her hands onto the table, leaning forward so fast her glasses nearly slipped off her nose. "That makes perfect sense!"
"Uh, it does?" Yuta blinked, completely bewildered.
"Of course it does!" Sasaki declared, her voice dropping into an excited, conspiratorial whisper. "You see, the three of us are the core members of the Sugisawa Third High Occult Research Club! We specialize in investigating the supernatural, urban legends, and hidden spiritual phenomena that the media tries to cover up!"
Iguchi nodded solemnly, adjusting his mesh cap. "Yeah. We look into curses, haunted buildings, ghost sightings. All that crazy stuff. We've been trying to find real spiritual experts for months."
Sasaki locked her eyes onto Oden, then onto Maki, her expression deeply intense. "Since you guys are basically saints in training at a highly specialized spiritual academy, you must have incredible resistance to evil presences! We could absolutely use experts like you to accompany us on our expeditions! With your purification skills and our research, we could ward off real evil spirits and uncover the truth of the occult!"
Maki stared at the teenage girl for three consecutive seconds. Her expression remained entirely blank, but internally, her mind was a storm of absolute disbelief.
'This is, without a doubt, the single dumbest thing I have ever heard in my entire life,' Maki thought, a vein subtly pulsing near her temple. 'They want to bring Special Grade and Grade 1 sorcerers along to look for 'ghosts' in abandoned buildings? If these idiots actually ran into a real curse, they'd be digested before they could even turn on their flashlights.'
She opened her mouth to deliver a brutal, soul-crushing rejection to the entire concept.
But before a single word could leave her lips, Oden suddenly slammed his spoon onto the table, his eyes wide and shining with pure, chaotic excitement.
"Whoa! That sounds totally awesome!" Oden yelled, leaning completely over the table, his serpent eyes practically glowing under the café lights. "An Occult Research Club?! Exploring creepy, abandoned places and hunting down weird mysteries?! We should definitely do that! Count me in, Yuji!"
Maki's jaw dropped. She spun around to face Oden, her eyes burning with immediate, murderous fury. "Are you completely insane, you idiot?! We have a schedule! We have—"
"Come on, Maki, don't be a party pooper!" Oden interrupted, waving his hand dismissively. "Think about it! It's field research! It's community service! It's... highly spiritual!"
Yuji's face lit up instantly, matching Oden's chaotic energy completely. "Hell yeah! The Occult Club and the Religious Academy, teaming up! We're gonna find some real monsters!"
While Maki silently calculated the exact amount of paperwork it would take to cover up Oden's premature demise, Yuta could only sit quietly in the corner, staring down at his melting ice cream, praying that their upcoming school event wouldn't become the least of their worries.
---
Find early chapters on my patreon
[Patreon.com/tenten100?]