HEART THIEF || JUJUTSU KAISEN

the beast and the prophet.

Not too long ago, a shadow sleuthed through the night markets of Shinjuku, trailing the footsteps of a beast. He searched, picking his spot carefully, before drawing his bow in a single soundless movement. With great caution, the point of his arrow homed in on the back of a tall slender girl with tattoos of various yokai decorating her body. The corner of his lip bent upward in a tiny smirk as he teased the bowstring in his hands, tensing and relaxing, pulling it taut until the waxed polyester dug painfully into his fingers.

How easy it was to kill with an arrow, he mused, a simple draw and release by a good eye and steady hand, and a body would hit the ground. It was clean and quick, just how he liked it.

However, his intent was not to kill tonight, and the arrow's point dropped to the ground. His focus returned to surveying the girl who now stood confronted by a pair of navy-clad policemen.

"Oh but I'm just staying for a little while? It's not like I'm up to no good." She pouted, pressing the tips of her index fingers together as she batted her eyelashes down at the two men. Even a blind child could tell she was just toying with them.

"With all due respect, your tattoos are unacceptable in a public space. There are families here, and you're scaring them. Please either cover them up or leave the area." They were shorter than her, which made the whole scene that much more ridiculous to the sniper who watched from afar.

"There are?" She gasped, her glossed lips parting into a little 'o' before melting into a mischievous cunning smile. "Oh my bad, I guess I'll just get rid of them then. I hope you don't mind."

Around them, the atmosphere grew heavy with sinister foreboding. The marks on her body darkened, grew heavy with weight, and appeared to ripple across her skin like reflections in disturbed water. The shadows around her feet seemed to dance more fervently, elongating, swirling, extending beyond the woman's figure.

"I already told you once that I'm not up to no good. Back off." She suggested, smiling sweetly. "If you don't like it, don't look."

Nonetheless, after the officials retreated hastily, she stood for a while in silence, concentrating, until the black curves and motifs on her body thinned to near invisibility.

"Man, how hard is it to just shop for a god-damned birthday present? People judge with their eyes way too much."

"I'd say dig them out, but they're not very pretty, not worth wasting precious energy to preserve." A figure emerged from the crowd, a gangly skinny boy with green and pink eyes. He was odd, and good-looking in a way that was unsettling to look at. With his perfect body and facial proportions, his soft dark hair that fell in perfectly styled waves around his face, he was so flawless that he seemed fictional.

"You've got a lot of nerve showing up here, Taichi." The sorceress faced him with a subtle yet threatening edge in her tone. From behind, another person appeared to flank her side, a thin young man with messy black hair and a dead look in his eyes.

"Kai." His voice matched his appearance, intelligent, but bland. "It was not wise to expose yourself while we are surrounded by the commons. I cannot foresee immediate events, that was a reckless decision."

"Makoto!" Taichi exclaimed excitedly. "You're looking– normal as ever? Fancy meeting you two here, it must've been a surprise to see me running around this far from home."

"I have been aware of your potential appearance at this time and this place for a while now. Your presence brought little surprise. Ours, on the other hand, should pose quite a shock to you, as we were rumoured to be in Sendai not two nights ago." The quiet man replied. Simply Makoto, he was Kai's partner and close companion, the two were best friends, and very reliable sorcerers. Like many others, neither held any personal love for the upper echelons, they acted by their own interests only, but no one could deny their capabilities. Amongst them, and another, they were known to have never missed a target, regardless of curse or shaman.

"Now where's your third? I'm sure he'd be hiding around here somewhere? The little shadow you adopted last year." Taichi snickered into their hands and peered around the crowd.

"It's just us two tonight." Kai rested her palm on Makoto's shoulder and they exchanged a warm smile. "Date night."

Date, was their word for hunt. They were on active duty, but lucky for Taichi, their run-in simply happened to be a coincidence, he would go on to exist for another miserable day.

"Cute." Taichi ran his tongue over his teeth, his slimy gaze darting to the side. "Well if you'll excuse me then, I'll be on my way."

Makoto watched the curse slink away like a wisp of smoke, his piercing dark eyes were narrowed as he searched the crowd. "Right on time."

"As predicted?" Kai caught his gaze, and followed it towards a young teen sporting a shock of snowy white hair and a sleek dark uniform.

Gojo Satoru, alone.

"Indeed." But he wasn't watching Gojo. His gaze darted upwards, where a shadow, another male perched atop one of the building rooftops, the blue steel of his bow glinting beneath the moonlight.

Naoko watched Taichi subtly creep his way towards Gojo, one step at a time. The shapeshifter blended into the masses easily, with an uncanny ability to hide his presence. This was the first time he saw Gojo in real life, even if it was from a distance, and he didn't want to admit it but the white-haired boy piqued his curiosity.

So this was the strongest sorcerer? Naoko thought dubiously, watching him inspect a sweets stand with a casual and charming smile. At first glance, this tall skinny boy with a terrible sense of humour really didn't look like much, but he had a great presence. He seemed like the sort who could turn every head just by entering the room.

Taichi was getting closer now. Part of Naoko wanted to let it happen, he wanted to see Gojo fight, see him take down the special grade flamboyantly and easily as he was rumoured to be able to, but his plans came first.

When he said the curse had a major hoarding problem, he wasn't kidding. Taichi was addicted to anything they deemed antique and beautiful. He stole artifacts from museums and precious metals from jewellers, but his little hobby had a gruesome, unspeakable side.

While he was yet to see the collection with his own eyes, Naoko had heard enough stories about how they would lure in unsuspecting men and women, the siren he was, and steal what he thought were their most beautiful traits: their faces, their hands, their eyes.

Taichi was a special grade curse that stemmed from jealousy and avarice, the ancient religious ideal that humans were the most divine of mortal species. One of the older special grades, the shapeshifter held the mind of a greedy emperor, believing that he alone was destiny in its purest form. He was polite and charming on the outside, but his interior was a rotting black mass of pure envy so concentrated that just the sight of a potential competitor would tempt his kill switch. He was a curse at the end of the day, no matter how human he liked to appear.

And Gojo, well, it wasn't a surprise that Taichi would eventually try to target him, even if he technically stood no chance. Naoko needed them alive though, he'd been hot on the trail of Mikuzume's most recent victim, and that woman had crossed paths with Taichi before disappearing. So in a split second decision, he attacked the white-haired boy, took his eyes, and broke his nose so that Taichi would change course and go after him instead.

It was the first time Naoko saw him up close, and while it wasn't what he was focussing on in the heat of the moment, he realized why the curse was so attracted to him.

Even with his face contorted in anger, Gojo was easily the most beautiful person Naoko ever met.

He wasn't sexy or desirable like a movie star, and he didn't think handsome would've been the right word either, handsome was too rugged. Ethereal might've been more fitting, an ethereal, angelic beauty that made one pause in their tracks and think: "People this breathtaking can exist in this world?"

It was just like Makoto, the sorcerer with foresight, expected.