The Inumaki Clan Prodigy [Jujutsu Kaisen]

Panda ducked through the door way as he entered into the class room. He sat next to Toga after greeting him as he was the only other person in the room. 10 minutes later the other Inumaki walked in on the coattails of Maki. 

2 weeks had passed since Inumaki began one on one teachings with Saturo Gojo. Maki had made some progress in that time, a lot of progress if you compare her to before Isamu joined. 

Before Inumaki came along, she'd only had Toga and Panda, neither being truly great sparring partners. But with Isamu, she finally had someone of her own size, maybe a bit bigger, that also had an affinity with cursed tools. 

So it goes without saying that she'd grown in leaps and bounds in the last 3 and a half months. Even more than that, she'd grown in a mental sense as well. 

Maki acted pretty much the same towards Panda and Toga as she did before, but she was a bit kinder. On the flip side, she'd gotten meaner to Gojo, mostly because of how rough he was on Isamu, even if Isamu didn't truly mind. 

Speaking of Isamu, he'd made very good progress with simple domain and had even taken the first steps in developing an Extension technique. 

His sword work had also improved a good bit as he'd finally convinced Kusakabe to give him some lessons. They were only once a week but the lessons were for a full day so Isamu still made good progress everytime. He'd even begun to keep his sword on him at nearly all times, even now he had a bag containing it slung around his shoulder. 

Maki and Isamu had grown even closer over the last few weeks. Isamu hadn't changed much, still as smart, kind, and silent as ever. It was mostly Maki that'd brought about their closer relationship. 

She started to be more open to furthering a relationship. To say she was now actively pursuing a deeper relationship would be wrong. It was more like she was no longer stopping herself from falling into a deeper relationship. 

Time would tell if they actually development into anything more than friends, but if Panda was a betting Panda, he would put some money on it. 

Isamu sat down, placing his black bag next to his desk. Maki placed her red one right next to his as she sat in the desk to his right. Maki began to talk to Isamu about a new subject she would be teaching, throwing weapons. 

She'd seen how much progress he'd made since starting with Kusakabe and knew it would be best to leave it to her senior to teach Isamu the blade. So she would focus on other, non-sword things. Namely, throwing knives. 

5 minutes pasted as Maki continued to talk. 5 minutes turned to 10 as Maki and Isamu turned onto a different topic. 10 turned to 20 as Maki grew annoyed. Finally, after 30 minutes, right before Maki was about to give up and leave, The Strongest of The Modern Day burst onto the scene. 

"Transfer student incoming! Get the party… started…" Gojo shouted before trailing off at all of their obvious signs of disinterest. "Well whatever, just be nice to him at least." 

"Pfft, I hear he's quite the punk, beating up his upper class men and all. I think I'll pass on being nice to someone like that." Maki said. Isamu gained her attention by poking her in the side lightly. 

When she turned to look at him, he was giving her a look. Maki had learned over the last few months what message Isamu was trying to send just based off the look he gave. This particular look was a castigating one. "Whatever." Maki said, turning away before Inumaki could make her feel bad. 

"Alright! You can come on in! Don't be shy! Maki's the only one that bites!" Gojo shouted towards the door. 

The door slid open as an average sized boy walked in. He was dressed in the average jujutsu high uniform, except his jacket was white instead of black. 

As soon as he took a step into the room, they all felt it. An overwhelming presence. A cursed presence. Three people jumped into action. 

Maki unzipped her bag and stabbed her blade into the chalk board right next to the boy's head. Panda stood to Maki's left with an arm reared back, ready to cave the 1st years face in. While Toga stood to Maki's left, ready to unzip his mask and udder a command at a moments notice. 

"Is this some kind of test or something? This is a place to learn about curses, not a place for the cursed." Maki said annoyed at both Gojo and the boy she was currently holding at spear point. 

All this took place in a flash. All while Isamu still sat in his seat, he hadn't moved a muscle. He'd felt the pressure, he probably felt it better than all of them besides Gojo due to his better cursed energy senses. But Isamu knew he wasn't in danger. 

The strongest modern day sorcerer stood not even 10 feet from the boy. So if he did turn out to be dangerous, Gojo would be there to protect them. And if Gojo was unable to fight whatever released that pressure just now, well what chance did Inumaki have against it?

He was glad he'd stayed back. Apparently the three 1st year students threatening the boy, Yuta was his name, had activated the curse placed upon him. This caused a special grade cursed spirit named Rika to appear and try to attack the three. Luckily, Gojo was there to push it back towards wherever it came from. 

Gojo then quickly went around the room, introduced all of Yuta's new classmates. 

"This is Maki, our cursed tool used. That's Toga, he only talks in the ingredients of rice balls. This is Isamu, he's from the same clan as Toga, the Inumaki clan, and is completely mute. That's Panda." Gojo said, pointing to the person he was introducing when he got the saying their name. 

"Yo, nice to meet cha Yuta." Panda said, trying to set a more casual tone to the conversation. 

"Kelp." Toga said, not having much else to say. 

Maki didn't give Yuta any sort of greeting, simply heading back to her desk next to Isamu. Isamu was a bit more polite, waving to Yuta. 

Maki turned to look at Isamu, he was looking at her, humor dancing in his eyes. "Shut up, it's a special grade." Maki muttered angrily. Inumaki just smiled and turned away. 

"Alright class, today's activities will be conducted in teams. Toga and Panda will team up while Maki, Isamu, and Yuta will take up the other team. 

"Gah." Maki grunted at being paired with the new kid. 

"I'm looking forward to working with you." Yuta said, his voice shaking. Isamu couldn't blame him for stuttering either, Maki could be scary sometimes. 

"You were bullied, weren't you?" Maki asked. "Thought so. I'd totally pick on you too." She continued.

"That's enough now. Let's get going." Gojo said, sliding the door open and heading off. 

——

Gojo brought Yuta, Maki, and Isamu to an elementary school, a cursed one. While Gojo lectured Yuta on cursed energy and how it could gather around certain areas and create cursed spirts, Isamu was writing Maki a note. 

'I won't ask you to be nice to him, but please don't go out of your way to insult or belittle him. I'm sure he's had plenty of that recently.' Isamu said. Inumaki rarely got mad at anything, but Maki purposefully and needlessly insulting the clearly struggling kid had frustrated him. 

"Hhhh, whatever. Fine." Maki sighed before responding. Maki felt a little guilty, not for insulting Yuta, but for making Isamu mad. Isamu just smiled and nodded in response, happy he got his way. 

"Exorcise the curse, rescue the kids and retrieve the dead, if any. Emerge from darkness. Blacker than darkness. Purify that which is impure." Gojo said seriously. 

"It's turning into night!" Yuta shouted, surprised. 

"That's a curtain. It'll make you all invisible to the outside world and reveal the curses." Gojo explained. He then padded Yuta on the shoulder and with a few parting words about not dying, Gojo exited the curtains range.

"Die?! Wait! Sensai!" Yuta shouted after Gojo. Isamu tapped him on the shoulder to gain his attention. Once he had, Inumaki pointed towards Maki who was currently facing off against three curses. 

The curses were all weak, grade 3 at best. Maki suddenly jumped into the air with ease and grace before swinging her sword spear down into the cluster of curses. None of them put up a fight as Maki cleaved them all in half with a single attack. 

They all turned to dust as Maki regained her footing. "Transfer student. Here's a quick lesson for you. Weak curses tend to team up." Maki said, the teaching instincts she'd developed from sparring with Isamu kicking in. "I guess the same applies for humans." She added. 

"Wow, one swing." Yuta had never seen such a feat before. He considered if the weapon was the reason, maybe it was just extremely sharp. But upon a second glance and considering a panda was his classmate, Yuta guessed it was possible for her to just be that powerful. 

Isamu meanwhile just walked over to Maki and gave her a thumbs up. Maki just smirk before looking back at the transfer student. She quickly regretted doing so, as just looking at him soured her mood. 

"C'mon, let's go." Maki said, nodding towards the building. 

"Um, where?" Yuta asked, still somewhat in a daze from watching Maki clear out the curses. 

"In side the school, obviously." Maki said a little meanly. She was really pushing the boundaries of Isamu's "don't be mean" rule. 

They soon entered the building. Maki walked ahead of both of them, ready to take the front line should they encounter any curses. Isamu followed close behind her, his sword strapped to his waist, having left his bag in the car. Yuta was behind them both, hiding behind them in a way. He made sure not to get too far away through. 

They walked through the rather gross hallway. Water, or was it oil? Some kind of liquid dripped from the ceiling. Filling the hallway with a haunting sound. 

"Aren't you scared Zenin?" Yuta said, walking a bit faster to walk closer to his team. 

"Don't call me by my last name!" Maki yelled. She knew the kid didn't know any better but she really didn't like being called by her last name. She hated being called by the same name as those womanizing old farts with their stupid traditions. 

"Oh, sorry." Yuta apologized. "It seems like there should be ghosts… Well, I can sense there already were." Yuta continued, looking around like a monster would jump around the counter at any time. It wasn't a nonsensical fear either. 

"So, Inumaki. What's your deal? Like, what's your cursed technique?" Yuta asked, having learned the term from Gojo. 

"Isamu is a cursed speech user. A cursed technique he inherited from the Inumaki clan. It allows him to speck commands and force someone to act out, or be acted upon by, that command." Maki explained. She kinda liked flexing Isamu's power. 

"I… have no idea what any of that means." Yuta said, briefly forgetting his fear in favor of his curiosity. 

Maki sighed before dumbing it down. "Basically, he can tell you to do something and you're forced to do it. He can tell you to explode and you would. There's more to it but I doubt you would understand that either." Maki said, a bit annoyed at his ignorance. She was glad Isamu was such a quick learner. 

"Really?! He's gotta be strong right? Is he stronger than Gojo?" Yuta asked. His questioning of Gojo's strength would be a dead giveaway to any observer that he knew next to nothing about jujutsu and the jujutsu world. 

"Huh? Of course not. No one's more powerful than him, at least no one currently living. But Isamu is strong, he's a semi-first grade sorcerer." Maki explained. At Yuta's confused look, she sighed and clarified. "That's the third highest grade."

"Really? That's impressive. Oh, what's my grade?" Yuta asked. 

"You don't know it? The blind folded dumbass should've told you." Maki said. 

"Blind folded dumbass?" Yuta asked, wondering if it was really ok to insult Gojo like that. 

"Just give me your student ID. It will show it on there. Since you don't have any experience, you should be grade 4, the lowest grade." Maki commanded. 

Once Yuta presented his ID from his pocket, Maki snatched it from his hands and examined it. Isamu leaned in and looked over Maki's shoulder. They both looked at it for a second before looking back up at Yuta. 

But before Maki could say anything about the ludicrous idea of the loser in front of her being a special grade sorcerer, Yuta spoke. "Zenin!! Behind you!"

Isamu spun around at Yuta's shout. Maki did to and what they found was a giant cursed spirit blocking the entirety of the hall way with only its head. It looked like a cave diver crawling through a particularly tight space. 

It was odd looking. Like an octopus mixed with a gerbil mixed with a fat human. The cursed spirit stared at them for a long second, before reaching toward them. 

Suddenly, before Isamu could even unsheathed his sword, the cursed spirit began to stand up. The ceiling cracked and the walls collapsed. One of its newly revealed arms came up and flung Maki, Yuta, and Isamu high into the sky from the now open aired room. 

"DAMMIT!!" Maki shouted as she tried to gain her bearings. "Kinda big, aren't ya?" She said as she readied her cursed tool. Meanwhile, Yuta was doing flips in the air and Isamu was gripping his sword tightly, not wanting to lose his grip on it. 

The cursed spirt looked up at them and opened its giant mouth. It was circular and had jagged teeth and spikes inside. But Inumaki wasn't all that worried about falling in. 

"Close your mouth."

It did. The cursed spirits mouth closed in an instant. Instead of falling in, Maki, Yuta, and Isamu all landed on its lips and face. Inumaki and Maki wasted no time. Maki plunged her blade into the cursed spurts eye while Isamu sliced one of its face tentacles clean off. 

 The curse roared in pain but fortunately, none of them were still on the lips. Maki jumped off the curse, her blade still stuck in the cursed spirit. Her blade cut through the curses slide as she used it to slow her descent while still doing damage. 

All the while, Isamu grabbed Yuta, slung him over his shoulder, and hopped off the curse onto the roof below. He stuck the landing with some grace and walked to join with Maki. 

Isamu shot Maki a questioning and slightly worried look. Maki just rolled her eyes at his worry and said she was fine. The recently released Yuta was busy freaking out behind Inumaki. In Yuta's opinion, they were both far too relax considering what they'd just gone through. 

Maki and Isamu were used to it by now though. They'd done plenty of missions together. Isamu, being above grade 2, could of course take on solo missions but he preferred Maki's company. 

"Gahh!" Yuta yelped as he nearly jumped out of his skin. The cursed spirit had just let out yet another guttural roar, it wasn't dead. Isamu turned in its direction as Maki just focused her attention on it once more. 

"Explode."

The head of the cursed spirit suddenly became a ball of flame as purple blood and flesh splattered across the roof top. The curses body flopped over the edge of the building, dead. It plunged from the roof top, turning to dust before it could even hit the ground. 

"W-wow…" Yuta said in amazement. 

"Help… Help me!!!" They all heard. Isamu rushed to the edge of the building, Maki and Yuta following quickly. There, hanging precariously from a piece of broken rubble on the side of the building were two kids. One was unconscious, being held in the grip of the other, a grip that was quickly losing in strength. These must be the survivors Gojo mentioned. 

"Ascend." 

The kids started to float upwards through the air. Normally, such a command would result in the target being flung harshly into the air, but Isamu was far from normal. Amidst the Inumaki clan, he was considered a rising star. 

He was currently the third most skilled cursed speech user known to jujutsu society. The first was one of the few higher ups, holding one of the top positions in the jujutsu world. 

The second was the clan head of the Inumaki clan. While some might be confused on why the higher up wasn't the clan head. It was similar to how a governor isn't a major of a town in their territory. 

The position of a governor was simply better than the position of a major. A governor also had authority over said major. Put simply, the position of clan head was considered lesser than the position of a higher up. 

Anyway. Maki and Yuta grabbed both kids once they'd crossed the distance. Isamu rubbed his neck, his throat a bit pained. He would have to take some medicine once they got back. 

——

"They said the kids will be fine and that their parents will handle the rest. So we're good to go." Gojo said, leaning back on the hospital wall. "You did good work today Isamu." 

Isamu simply nodded in appreciation as he sucked on the cough drop in his mouth. Considering how often her and Isamu hung out together, and how much Isamu forgets to buy some at the store. It had become a habit of Maki's to always carry a few with her. 

Yuta spoke. "Gojo, can I start to train with Panda, Maki, and Inumaki? I felt useless today." Yuta asked, ashamed of his performance during the mission. 

"Well of course. What else did you think you'd be doing?" Gojo said while laughing, embarrassing Yuta. Causing him to blush and for Maki to shoot him a look.