Tokyo moved around Oden in layers.
Noise first.
Then light.
Then the constant motion of people who had somewhere to be and not enough time to get there properly.
He walked through it all with his hood up, white blindfold tied over his eyes, one hand lazily holding a cup of ice cream. The small snake around his neck remained hidden from ordinary sight, its tongue flicking at the air while Oden borrowed its senses as naturally as breathing.
To everyone else, though—
he looked ridiculous.
A blindfolded teenager strolling through Tokyo without hesitation, not once bumping into anyone, not once misstepping, not once even turning his head the wrong way.
It was unsettling.
He could feel the stares.
Hear the murmurs.
"What's wrong with that kid…?"
"Is he actually blind?"
"How is he walking like that?"
"Is this some fashion thing?"
Oden took another bite of his ice cream and ignored all of it.
Even if they could see the snake, he doubted it would improve the situation much.
If anything, it would just make the staring worse.
He turned a corner at an unhurried pace, passing beneath signs and storefront light. The city still felt new enough to be interesting. Kenya had sky. Space. Breathing room.
Tokyo had density.
Everything here felt stacked on top of everything else. Sound on sound, color on color, pressure on pressure. It should have been suffocating.
Instead, Oden found that he liked it.
Not enough to admit that out loud.
But enough.
He slowed near a traffic light, taking another spoonful of ice cream, when the snake around his neck shifted.
Oden's head turned slightly.
A woman stood near the crossing line, waiting for the signal to change. She looked ordinary in every sense. Office clothes, tired posture, handbag held close, attention fixed on the road ahead.
But perched on her shoulder—
was a curse.
It was small and misshapen.
Pathetic-looking, really.
Its fingers dug into her with the possessive familiarity of something that had been feeding there for a while. Grade 4, at best. Barely worth noticing.
Barely.
Oden stared at it for a second.
Then walked over.
The woman noticed him only when he stopped directly beside her.
Before she could react properly, Oden placed one hand on her shoulder.
She startled hard.
The spoon in his other hand tilted.
A few drops of melting ice cream hit the pavement.
"What—?"
Several snakes burst from Oden in a single smooth rush.
They poured out with terrifying speed, thin, black, furious and launched themselves straight at the curse. The thing barely had time to twist before the snakes were on it, biting and tearing in a blur of movement. Their attack was ferocious, efficient and absolute.
A wet, shrill sound escaped the curse.
Then it vanished.
Exorcised.
The snakes withdrew just as quickly, flowing back into Oden's shadow and sleeves as if they had never existed.
The woman stood frozen.
All she had felt was a strange teenager touch her shoulder without permission and stand there in unsettling silence.
Which, understandably, was alarming.
She took a cautious step back, clutching her bag tighter.
"…Who are you?" she asked. "What do you want?"
Oden did not answer.
He had already turned away.
The traffic signal changed.
People began crossing.
And Oden simply walked off in the opposite direction, continuing on as though the interaction had never happened.
The woman stared after him, confused and still slightly tense from the sheer strangeness of it.
Then—
she blinked.
Her shoulders felt lighter.
Noticeably lighter.
The pressure that had been sitting there, some dull, constant tension she had stopped consciously registering was just… gone.
She rolled one shoulder.
Then the other.
Her expression shifted from alarm to confusion.
She turned to look toward the street where the blindfolded boy had gone—
but he was already lost in the crowd.
"…Did that kid do that?" she murmured to herself.
A short distance away, four figures had watched the entire thing.
Zenin Maki lowered her gaze slightly, eyes narrowed.
Beside her stood Okkotsu Yuta, Panda, and Inumaki.
Panda folded his arms.
"Well," he said, "that was weird."
Maki didn't disagree.
"Panda," she said, "do you know that kid from Kyoto Jujutsu High?"
Panda tilted his head.
"Unless he's a new recruit," he said, "probably not."
Maki clicked her tongue softly.
"Then he's probably a curse user."
Her gaze remained fixed on the direction Oden had gone.
"We can't have curse users just walking around freely."
Yuta, as always, looked less eager to jump to the worst conclusion.
"Guys," he said carefully, "let's not decide that immediately. Maybe he's not a bad person."
Maki looked at him.
Yuta continued.
"We should talk to him first. See what's going on."
"Salmon," Inumaki said.
Panda nodded.
"That's fair."
Maki exhaled once through her nose, then adjusted the grip on her weapon case.
"Fine," she said. "We talk first."
Her eyes sharpened.
"But if he tries anything, we take him down."
Yuta nodded.
Panda grinned.
Inumaki gave a small thumbs-up.
And together—
they moved to intercept Oden.
---
Oden noticed them before they reached him.
Four presences.
He slowed slightly, the small snake around his neck lifting its head as shared vision slid across the crowd and settled on them one by one.
A girl with glasses and a long weapon case.
A white-haired boy with a softness to his face that did not match the strange weight around him.
A panda.
An actual panda.
And a boy with markings around his mouth.
Oden stopped walking.
They stopped too.
For one brief moment, all five of them just stood there in the middle of Tokyo, wrapped in city noise and the low hum of people trying not to stare too obviously.
Then the girl stepped forward first.
She did not look friendly.
Maki's eyes moved over Oden once, sharp and unimpressed.
"You," she said. "What were you doing back there?"
Oden stared at her through the snake's eyes.
He said nothing.
Yuta immediately stepped in, raising both hands slightly in a pacifying gesture.
"Sorry," he said. "We're not trying to start anything. We just wanted to ask a few questions."
Oden's shoulders tightened a fraction.
Too many new people.
Too many eyes.
He could already feel that familiar stiffness climbing into his chest. That awful, clumsy pressure that made every simple response suddenly feel like a test he hadn't studied for.
Maki either did not notice or did not care.
"Who are you?" she asked.
Oden answered after a pause.
"I was eating ice cream."
Maki blinked.
"Huh! That's not what I asked."
Oden shifted slightly.
"The chocolate flavor was better than I expected."
Panda looked at Yuta.
Maki's brow twitched.
"I asked who you are."
Oden's fingers brushed lightly against the side of his blindfold.
"Tokyo is louder than Kenya."
There was a silence.
Then Panda quietly said, "I think he might be answering whatever question he wants."
"Salmon," Inumaki agreed.
Maki took a slow breath.
The sort of breath one takes before either regaining patience or losing it entirely.
Yuta tried again, voice gentler.
"It's okay," he said. "We're just curious. We saw what happened with that woman near the crossing."
That got Oden's attention.
Maki immediately pushed forward.
"Did you use a cursed technique there?"
Oden turned his head toward her.
Then, without the slightest change in tone, said:
"Mind your own business."
Maki's face went blank in the way faces often did right before anger became visible.
Panda very subtly leaned away from the blast zone.
Inumaki's eyes sharpened with interest.
Yuta smiled the kind of smile people used when standing between two lit fuses.
"Okay," he said quickly. "Let's all calm down a little."
Maki rounded on him.
"He's clearly hiding something."
"He's also clearly not good at speaking to new people. Like me," Yuta replied.
"I can see that."
Oden stood there in the middle of it, grimacing this situation.
Not because he thought he was in danger.
He just hated this.
The talking part.
The meeting new people part.
The part where everyone expected him to say normal things in a normal order with normal timing.
He could fight just fine.
He could exorcise curses just fine.
But this?
This was terrible.
Maki turned back to him.
"Look," she said, visibly forcing herself into something more controlled, "we're trying to figure out whether you're a sorcerer or a curse user."
Oden frowned faintly.
"…What are those?"
Maki's eye twitched.
Before she could say anything else, Yuta stepped in front of her slightly.
"How about this," he said. "Instead of doing this in the middle of the street… would you like to come to dinner with us?"
Oden blinked.
Yuta gave a small, careful smile.
"My treat. We can talk properly there."
Oden answered immediately.
"I'm not hungry."
The moment the words left his mouth, his stomach growled with enough force to betray him publicly.
Everyone heard it.
Oden looked down at his own stomach in betrayed silence.
Then lightly punched it.
"Traitor," he muttered.
Panda made a strange choking sound that was definitely laughter.
Even Inumaki looked amused.
Yuta's smile turned real this time.
"So," he said, "dinner?"
Oden hesitated.
Then nodded once.
"…Fine."
---
The restaurant was not as Oden expected.
To be fair, very few restaurants in Tokyo were prepared to calmly receive a group consisting of:
a blindfolded boy in a hooded outfit,
a girl carrying an obvious weapon case,
a literal panda,
a quiet boy with markings around their mouth,
and one pale teenager who looked normal at first glance but still somehow gave off the distinct impression that something about him was deeply strange.
The moment they stepped inside, heads turned.
Then stayed turned.
A conversation near the window faltered.
Someone near the back whispered, "Is that a panda?"
Another whispered back, "Why is the blindfolded one walking with such accuracy?"
And somewhere near the register:
"Are they in a band?"
Oden sat down without reacting.
Once they were seated, a waiter approached with the strained professionalism of someone refusing to acknowledge that his workplace had just been invaded by a supernatural fever dream.
"Welcome," he said. "Can I start you with—"
Oden lifted a hand.
"Can I order anything?"
Yuta nodded.
"Yes."
That was apparently all the permission Oden needed.
He looked down at the menu, frowned at it for perhaps half a second, then started pointing.
"This. This too. That one. That looks good. I don't know what that is, so that too. And this."
The waiter's eyes widened slightly.
Maki stared.
"Oi, This is not a buffet!" she said.
Yuta quickly waved a hand.
"It's fine."
"It is absolutely not fine."
"He's hungry."
"He said he wasn't."
Oden continued pointing.
"That one also."
The waiter looked at Yuta with the desperate eyes of a man seeking financial confirmation.
Yuta nodded.
"It's fine," he repeated.
The waiter wrote faster.
Yuta cleared his throat gently and turned toward Oden.
"Alright," he said. "Let's start again."
He placed a hand lightly against his chest.
"My name is Okkotsu Yuta."
He gestured around the table.
"We're Jujutsu Sorcerers. We'd like to ask you some questions."
Oden listened.
Then gave a thumbs up.
"I'm Oden," he said. "I like you because you bought me food."
Yuta blinked once.
Oden continued, with complete sincerity—
"So I'll answer your questions."
Then he tilted his head toward Maki.
"Not like this rude Shimura Shinpachi wannabe."
The table went silent.
Maki's face turned red instantly.
"…What did you say?"
Yuta smiled awkwardly in the way one smiled when trapped between disaster and comedy.
Panda lowered his head onto the table.
Inumaki quietly said, "Salmon…"
---
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