They discover him on a regular mission. A simple group of grade twos that had been terrorizing an old forest.
Easy enough mission for the first-years coming off the disaster that was the Kyoto Exchange event.
Ijichi pulls into the shadow of a truly monstrous RV in the designated parking lot. Probably foreigners then. There weren't many people who hiked or spent time in the forest, likely due to the curses, but there also wasn’t a lot of parking space to begin with. Just… flattened dead grass.
Satoru’s darling first years are already out and walking towards the trees so he follows leisurely. With his hands resting behind his head, it’s easy to watch the stars, even behind the swirls of cursed energy in the air.
“Can you guys hear that?” Yuuji asks suddenly, making them all stop to listen, “Sounds like… somebody yelling?”
“Eii?? You sure you’re not just hearing the usual voices in your head?” Nobara shoots back grumpily. She’s about to open her mouth again when she stops- they all stop, turning their heads in the direction Yuuji had first looked. Because yeah, they can hear something. Or somebody.
The cursed energy in the area spikes. Briefly and just for an instant. Then again.
Satoru leans forward and peers into the darkness. No sooner does he spot a bright green cloud of cursed energy before he also spots the white t-shirt of somebody weaving through the trees.
The yelling gets louder and-
Aha, so it’s a teenager’s. A teenager who is running in a dead sprint towards them with two cursed spirits on their tail.
“Crap! Crap! Craaaappp!!!” The teen yells, finally close enough to make out. Dark hair, pale skin, frantic blue-green-blue eyes. The teen spots them, “Run!!!!”
Nobara sneers at the kid, “Not a chance!” She already has a nail in the air by the time she finishes shouting, sending it sailing towards the bear-shaped curse and another to its opposite.
The second one misses, but Yuuji runs forward to meet the curse head on, supported by Megumi and his hounds.
Satisfied with his student’s teamwork, Satoru turns to the boy who’s just barely skidded to a stop in front of him. He grins, “Hey! Nice to meet ya!” He waves cheerfully.
The boy’s face twists, “Hi???” He glances back at the curses, “uh..What the hell was that?!”
Satoru grins and gives a thumbs up, “That was cursed spirits!”
“That’s not…” The boy’s eyes dart back and forth from Satoru to the curses, “Who the hell are you?”
Satoru’s grin widens, “I’m Satoru Gojo, of course! And here to help!”
“Right…I’m.. Danny..” he looks back to the curse Nobara is fighting before he suddenly jumps to his feet, “Oh crap!”
The newly named ‘Danny’ is on his feet before Satoru can stop him, running towards the bear curse fighting Nobara. Satoru watches as a nail makes its home in the bear’s mouth, only to raise his brow as its maw opens back up and shoots the nail back at Nobara.
Danny is just in time to tackle her to the ground, the nail lodging itself in the tree above their heads.
“Get off of me!” Nobara screams, pounding her fists on Danny despite him already moving to stand. “What the hell was that, you idiot! You got dirt all over my uniform!”
“It can shoot back out anything it eats! I think it’s from the animals eating trash!” Danny yells back, dodging the bear’s swipes, “It barfed a vending machine at me earlier! Did you want me to let you get impaled!?!!”
Then Danny does something that completely flips Satoru’s perception of him on it’s head.
He jumps to the side, just out of range of the bear, and pulls something out from behind him. It’s a gun. A very odd, very B-movie Sci Fi gun, but a gun all the same. And then he aims and shoots at the curse with barely a seconds hesitation.
Weirder than that, the shot actually hits. A green blast of light that hits home on the curse’s side; the first makes it stumble back and the second shot pierces straight through.
Nobara is shocked, but not shocked enough to miss her own shot, sending a hairpin nail straight through its chest.
Danny looks equally shocked at the action, even catching sight of Megumi and Yuuji finishing off their own curse.
“How’d you…?” Danny starts, but he’s interrupted by another spike in cursed energy and a green light shooting up into the sky. Danny gasps, “Mom and Dad!” And then he’s running again, back into the dense trees.
His students follow, of course, but Satoru takes a second to pause, staring up at the green flare as it dips in the sky. He can’t help the way his eyebrows pull together at the bright glowing image of a man’s smiling face now seared among the stars.
Satoru follows after his students towards those spikes of cursed energy. It’s relatively easy to catch up to Danny, with Yuuji’s unnatural speed putting him ahead of the boy rather quickly.
Rather, he focuses his energy on the clearing they come across, nestled in what might have once been a dried creekbed. It is now the site of two people crowding around a glowing green net pinning a curse to the ground while a third—much younger—person stands atop the net hitting it with… a baseball bat?
“Eat creepstick, trip-wrecker!” The girl yells, unrelenting in her hits as the two adults cheer her on.
“Show that spook who’s boss, Jazzy!” The man yells. Or rather, bellows, since his sheer size and volume make the words echo around the trees.
A few flyheads zip out from the foliage, fleeing upwards and away.
“Daaad!” A voice whines beside him.
Gojo looks to the side, surprised to see Danny easily sliding down the rocky slope towards the group and-
Oh, that actually kind of makes sense.
The man brightens at seeing Danny, immediately coming over to ruffle the boy’s hair and lift him onto his shoulders while questioning after ‘those other two spooks.’
Satoru catches Danny’s glance towards him and realizes he must mean the curses that had been chasing Danny. And just in time for the red-haired girl to land a final hit on the curse under the net, exorcising it with a loud bang as it explodes.
Curse blood splatters against infinity as he approaches with his students behind him.
“Hai! Thanks for doing our jobs for us!” He greets with a wave and a grin, “We were just coming here to take care of these spirits!”
The two adults blink at him, but the man’s grin doesn’t falter, “Jazzy! Could you come help us?” He hollers to the girl—Jazzy?—despite her being well within speaking distance. And despite the boy on his shoulder speaking fluent Japanese earlier.
The girl sighs as she approaches, “He said something about thank you for doing his job? I think? Uhh and they were here to deal with.. oh, I think they were here for the ghosts too.”
Something happens to the man’s face, his expression brightening with enough excitement that it flashes like a glare across Satoru’s Six-Eyes.
“You’re Hunters! Always great to meet fellow spook chasers!” The man says, in English, and really it’s only because he can process infinity that Satoru catches any of it at that volume.
Danny looks distinctly uncomfortable, sliding down from the man’s shoulder with ease. He doesn’t make it far before a hand pulls him close again.
“I’m Jack, this is my wonderfully amazing wife, Maddie, my daughter, Jazz, and my son, Danny!” Jack smiles, gathering each of them into a tight hug that lifts them each a foot off the ground. “We’re the Fentons! Of the Fentonightingale hunters!”
Satoru’s smile stiffens, just a bit. It was never… great when a sorcerer introduced themselves with a family name. And apparently these were foreign sorcerers, if the American accented English was anything to go by.
He chuckles and switches to the ever dreaded English he uses abroad, “I’m Satoru Gojo, these three are my students. Nice to meet you!”
He steps aside to let them introduce themselves, with Nobara stomping on Yuuji’s foot halfway through Jennifer Lawrence’s name.
Satoru takes the chance to inspect the Fenton clan members in front of him. Danny, evidently, has the most cursed energy by far, though it feels oddly stifled. Not controlled, just… stifled. Jazz has significantly less but still more than either parent, who have barely any. Rather… the family’s cursed energy seems to largely be centered in Jazz’s bat, and in the weapons Satoru can tell the parents have stuffed in their pockets and hanging on the belt.
He glances back to the net they’d used. It also had a decent amount of imbued cursed energy.
Satoru jumps into the conversation, “So what are you all doing in Japan?”
The mother is the one to answer, “A ghost tour of course!” She exclaims, “We’ve spent the whole summer taking a family trip together!
“And taking out those nasty spooks wherever we find them!” Jack adds in.
“A family that kills ghosts together stays together!” Maddie says, hugging her kids close despite the curse blood on one of them and the uncomfortable grimace on the other.
“You know, I haven’t seen your weapons before, can I ask where-“
“Well of course you haven’t seen them before!” The woman cuts in, brandishing what appears to be a silver coated, glowing, grenade launcher, “These are Fenton patented Ecto-guns! We make all of our own ghost hunting equipment!”
Yuuji’s eyes light up at the fancy weaponry, and Satoru can even see the interest in Megumi’s eyes as he leans forward. But Satoru can’t help but feel his hackles rise with suspicion.
“Yep!” Jack jumps in again, “That’s three generations of Fentonightingale family know-how right there! Crafted into the perfect spook-destroying package!”
Something about their cursed objects is off to Satoru, the cursed energy bright and erratic despite not matching either parent’s energy output. It doesn’t sit right.
Still, he smiles, about to ask another question when he feels his phone buzz in his pocket.
He pulls it out, not surprised to see a message from Ijichi inquiring about the lack of a veil. Satoru glances up to the Fentons eagerly showing his students their equipment; another oddity: they hadn’t put up their own veil.
Satoru plasters on a smile and claps loudly, drawing their attention, “So sorry to interrupt! But my students and I have to be going! I hadn’t realized how late it was,” He slings an arm over Megumi’s shoulder, undeterred when he shoves it off, “What kind of example would I be setting as their teacher letting them stay out at night?”
Megumi looks ready to rebuke that statement but doesn’t get the chance.
“Of course of course! We totally understand!” Maddie says. She hums, “Oh! Jack, we should be getting the kids to bed soon too! We still have to find a good place to set up the GAV’s Port-Lab!”
“Right you are dear!” Jack shouts, running over to their tools and weapons scattered around the clearing. Jazz is already helping pick things up—including the net from earlier, though Maddie seems more interested in inspecting the curse blood on ground under it.
His students have started to talk amongst themselves at the lack of distraction so Satoru takes the time to look back at the only Fenton left in front of him. Danny. Who is staring at him like Satoru stole the last slice of cake at a cafe.
Satoru smiles back and gives a jaunty salute, “Nice to meet you, Danny-kun! Nice fighting!”
The kid’s brows scrunch ever closer together, “..Right….you’re like, super weird, you know that right?”
Danny gives him another look before turning and jogging over to help his parents with their bundle of gear.
Satoru lets his students lead their way out of the forest themselves. Instead, Satoru doesn’t take his eyes off that flare of suppressed cursed energy the whole way back.
At least not until he lays eyes on the looming RV beside Ijichi’s car.
He has more than a few questions.
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