Once Again: Nanami x OC

Chapter 9: story of the witch

|back in nanami's POV and we're in the present day|

nanami opened the car door, ducking his head as he slid into the back seat. he sat down, about to buckle his seatbelt, looking up to see both gojou and itadori staring at him.

"what?"

"so what did she say? did you two profess your love to each other?", gojou asked with his hands cupping his cheeks like a love-struck high school girl.

"ehh?? love?", itadori looked at nanami with wide eyes.

"please stop it", nanami said through gritted teeth, already feeling agitated.

"hehehehehe", the white-haired man poked nanami's arm.

"i will slap you", nanami said glaring at the mischievous sorcerer.

"if we could, please don't do that while i'm driving", ichiji said while looking in the rearview mirror.

gojou pouted, "ehhhh? you're no fun ichiji-san", he sat back into his seat.

"uh, nanami?", itadori spoke up, "why did miss. kobayashi get so upset when we mentioned sukuna?"

nanami hesitated before answering, "because, she's a jujustu witch. gojou-san most likely never told you this but jujustu sorcerers aren't the only humans who can use cursed techniques. jujustu witches were the first jujustu users. it was initially a closed practice with only women using jujustu. however, as time went on, witches started teaching jujutsu to men"

"wait really?", the salmon-haired boy asked in disbelief like he was a young child being told a fairy tale.

"really", nanami answered, "there is a significant difference in the cursed techniques that jujustu sorcerers use and the technique jujustu witches use", he explained to the boy. "jujustu sorcerers use cursed energy and create techniques to eradicate cursed spirits: like what you, me, and gojou-san use. jujutsu witches use that same cursed energy but they transform it into pure energy and use it to give closure to cursed spirits so that they can pass on peacefully".

"pure energy?"

"yes. pure energy is converted cursed energy. it's the opposite of cursed energy", nanami explained.

"how does that work?", itadori asked.

nanami tilted his head back, "cursed energy is made from negative emotions like grief and anger. however, witches train their minds to accept these emotions and let go of them. they have a deeper understanding of these emotions and how to deal with them. however, this is very difficult to accomplish on your own so jujustu witches often lived in covens. this was not only for safety in numbers but it helped train their abilities to recognize cursed energy around them and help each other deal with it"

"how do you know about all this?", itadori asked.

"we have contact with some witches. we found out that miss kobayashi is a descendent of a long line of witches. she might be the last one in her family", he said as he looked out the window.

"so why did sorcerers attack the witches if the witches were the ones that taught them jujustu?"

nanami sighed, turning back to the young boy, "the government became afraid that the witches would gain too much power and overthrow the residing emperor. they wanted to keep what they had been given and stay in power"

"so...they were just upset because women had power?"

nanami paused, "technically, yes"

that does make a lot of sense now that i think about it...

"but if sorcerers learned jujustu from witches, why did they end up changing the technique?"

"that's because they wanted to maximize quantity over quality. they thought it took too long to create pure energy and use it efficiently and felt that cursed spirits didn't deserve to go on to the afterlife", nanami answered, "even if some of the cursed spirits were once human, like sukuna"

"so how does this all tie back to her not wanting to work with us because i ate sukuna's fingers?", itadori asked looking at nanami with a raised eyebrow.

"sukuna was created to wipe out the witches", nanami said as he turned over to face itadori, "he was ideally supposed to be a weapon for the jujustu sorcerers but it ended up backfiring and he betrayed them. it's taboo for surviving witches to talk about him". he turned his gaze over to gojou, "we're lucky that she took it better than i expected", he said grimly.

unaware of his animosity, the silver-haired sorcerer sat smugly in the front seat humming to himself.

"do you think she'll let us come back?", itadori's voice pulling nanami back to their conversation.

nanami sighed, "truthfully, i don't know. it might take a while for her to feel comfortable around you itadori-kun". he looked over at the young boy, his usual happy demeanor gone as he looked at the ground with a solemn expression on his face.

half of nanami knew that this was just how it was. he knew that she would be upset by hearing about sukuna using a young boy as a vessel to collect and capture his fingers. but another part of nanami felt bad for the young boy, frustrated that she had turned him away when he hadn't done anything wrong.

"sounds like the two of you used to be close", gojou's smug voice breaking the silence.

nanami stiffened at gojou's interjection, "we were", he said curtly.

"ehhhh? how close?", gojou turned around in his seat to face nanami. a mischievous grin plastered on his face.

"that's not important right now", nanami glared back at him. "besides how did you know to bring her lilies?"

nanami saw gojou pull out a small black notebook, and flip through the pages before landing on one. "says right here, 'she loves lilies', see?", putting it in front of nanami to see.

nanami snatched the notebook away from him, feeling his ears burn. "where the hell did you get this?", he growled.

"i might've gone through your desk before we picked you guys up", gojou smirked.

"tch", nanami closed the book and put it in his coat sleeve, looking over at itadori who was leaning over trying to read the notebook.

"it worked though didn't it?", gojou said as he turned back around in his seat.

"...yeah. it did"

|hey everybody! hope u enjoyed this chapter, i felt like u guys needed some insight on saeko, her backstory, why she was upset, and what jujustu witches are, etc. i tried to put it in simple terms so people don't get confused and they understand it after reading it. next chapter is a surprise! thank u for reading :D|