Latest Posts by waraningyo - Page 2

being a sorcerer meant risking life and limb,⠀⠀it meant putting yourself second and dedicating all that you could — all that you were able in jujutsu society, your aptitude for exorcising curses — in service of keeping innocents safe from what went bump in the night ( usually, the dreadful manifestations of their own makings, their fears: what haunts them ) and that's who she was. a student / a sorcerer. existent duality of a girl.⠀⠀more recently,⠀⠀she'd found herself walking to the med wing of  tōkyō jujutsu tech, gojō-sensei making it somwhat clear in the eccentric way that he spoke: that her individualized training in regards of effectively targeting the souls of slightly grade-high curses wouldn't be able to be pulled off without an effigy that wasn't made of straw. it made sense to her.⠀⠀even making her 人形 took crucial amounts of time and there was no obāsan to trail after as if she was a little kid⠀⠀( to watch with a keen eye ),⠀⠀to show her the proper way physically,⠀⠀to fix her screw ups.⠀⠀nobara was on her own.

so in this, she understood why gojō-sensei just didn't have her construct a large enough doll. making them took time, something she didn't have, wasn't necessarily afforded to her as their enemies grew stronger. there was a restlessness to gojō-sensei, a carefully crafted methodology to his actions that nobara found somewhat puzzling to decipher. still, this is what she signed up for. this is what she wants to see through. still, though, she makes her way until she crosses the door's threshold of ieiri-san's office and is greeted by a completely different voice, hall pass and request jotted down on a note held in ever-delicate hands.

“ oh, hi. yeah, that's me. ”⠀⠀she confirms her identity,⠀⠀interest slightly piqued at the sight of the other girl.⠀⠀somewhere she's heard that they'd be getting a slight, more influx of students⠀⠀—⠀⠀this had to be one of them,⠀⠀and she vaguely remembers ieiri-san mentioning that there was an incoming first-year who was to be studying under her in learning reverse technique.⠀⠀this had to have been her. “ it's nice to meet you too, did you dye your hair? it's a nice shade of auburn. ”

            ❛     oh!   hello.   it’s …   Kugisaki - san,   right?     ❜          𝘯𝘰𝘵  𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨  𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯  𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘭𝘺  𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘦𝘥  𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦  until now,   the girl nearly trips on her feet from the sudden entrance in the doctor’s office,  a space she’s been organizing for the past couple minutes for said doctor who,  coincidentally,  is not there at the moment.   not recognizing who  ʚ @waraningyo ɞ  is right away,  Orihime quickly pieces bits of information together and greets her fellow classmate with a smile.   with a trained eye,  she quickly scans for any visible injuries and relaxes when she finds none.   from what she’s heard between auntie and Gojō,  the incoming students are an interesting bunch   ━━━   she supposes that includes herself as well,  but she hasn’t exactly been able to show that to the others yet…   auntie promised it’d be soon,  though.          ❛     if  you’re  looking  for  Miss  Shōko,   i  sent  her  away  for  a  nap  after  lunch.    so  i’m  sort  of  in  charge  here,   for  the  moment.   um,   i’m  Inoue  Orihime,   the  other  first  year.   it’s  nice  to  meet  you!     ❜          there’s a short but polite bow from her,  long hair flowing down her shoulder in a cascade of orange.   the white lab coat is fitted to her size,  shorter than the one auntie wears,  and a pair of blue hair clips are attached to the left collar,  glinting in the fluorescent lights.          ❛     please  feel  free  to  ask  for  anything,   i’ll  do  my  best!     ❜

what’s nobara’s contact name in your muse’s phone?

a doctor's visit to ieiri shōko. 웃 starter.

here she was:⠀⠀laying down in a medical bed assigned to her by ieri-san and slightly battered. no one could ever say that she didn't put up a good fight, no one could ever say that she never puts up a good fight. being sidelined sometimes wasn't necessarily a defeat or a loss, it was simply part of the job. as long as one still had their life to live and give insofar as long as they had the strength to get up to fight another day, who's to say they suffered defeat if their foe was felled anyways? she'd long stopped feeling a bit irritated at the fact that she only slightly still felt like a liability to itadori and fushiguro, the reminder of how she got her current injury a nasty gash in her side caught from a curse that swiped her with extremely sharp claws still fresh in her mind.

luckily, that curse had been not so tough as to fatally wound her. it had been weak. luckily, it's only a gash wound. nobara can't ever forget that she's considered one of the 'lucky ones' given her current state of still having her life, that the existence of a jujutsu sorcerer is a ruinous one and that physical wounds are the bare minimum of what you could walk away with. bandaged hand fiddles with her blanket, cautiously, as her mind wanders to just how long she'd be in here, when she'd get out ... because the truth was that she couldn't stay long. her portion of the amount of yen pooled into her, itadori's, and fushiguro's stipend was begging to be spent. they were practically a team. less of a student body accounted for meant less money and less money meant she'd have to shop frugally this coming weekend. nobara didn't want to shop frugally.

an impatient huff can't help but escape her as eyes find themselves idly looking around the room before they land on a photograph of a young ieiri-san, gojō-sensei, and geto suguru ( ' the worst curse user in existence, ' gojō-sensei had proclaimed one day! ). she can't help but study all of their faces, their demeanors, their youth. especially ieiri-san's. she was so very reminiscent, bore an uncanny resemblance.

“ say, ieiri-san, ” she starts when peripheral catches the older woman's coming into her room, clipboard out, tongue clicking. nobara promised that this year would be different, that she wouldn't be as much of a frequent visitor to the infirmary wing of tōkyō jujutsu tech. idle conversation can't help but be made, if not only to distract herself from the annoying sting of her wound. “ being responsible for the medical infrastructure of our school has got to be definitely unrewarding, right? what teacher taught you, anyway, how to hone your technique? i mean, reverse cursed technique is so complex — you've had to have a sensei of your own at some point, right? ”

wara ningyō are a popular kind of katashiro made of straw [ ... ] wara ningyō are used extensively as wards against evil. they are combined with something from the recipient of the curse, such as a piece of hair. this transforms the doll into a substitute for the intended target. long nails are pushed through the wara ningyō, harming the subject as well as the doll.

#waraningyo is an independent, privately selective, mutuals only, headcanon and lore-heavy rendition of kugisaki nobara from akutami gege's 呪術廻戦. delicately crafted by meenah and re-est. dec 2023.

their first year as tōkyō jujutsu tech students had come and gone.

her first year as a tōkyō jujutsu tech student had come and gone, just like that, leaving her second year open with possibilities and even more room to grow. days, weeks, months: a whole year's gone by since her move to tōkyō and nobara's decided that a passed year of self-indulgence, of living on her own terms, and the survival that comes with clashes against the cursed spirits of the city kind of makes her a bit of a professional in deciding if she's made the right move in the end, right?

she's coming into her own, blossoming at a self-set pace, and this eases her. definitely beats the what if scenario of if she'd stayed back home. she's done so much in one year, she's seen so much in one year, and it's thanks to gojō-sensei's initial teachings: he's wacky, sure, but efficient where it matters as a teacher and she dutifully carries his teachings into this current year.

with each passing day, week, month: nobara has found herself settling more and more into everyday life in tōkyō. she's sat at the communal space's kitchen table, face's cheek cradled in a dainty hand, idly scrolling social media. eyes lift to meet fushiguro's for a brief moment with barely contained excitement before she stands to tilt her chair back on its legs.

it was hard to rope fushiguro into much of anything, sometimes, and it was so nice out. it'd be a waste if the day was spent inside cooped up with some book or whatever he usually does, but she observes that it's easier to coax him, he isn't as non-compliant to her whims. really, he should thank her though. he needed a bit of vitamin d!

it's once they're shuttled outside to harajuku's shopping district, nobara fitted in a flattering sun dress with a paired straw hat to block out the harsh summer sun, and it's when they've fallen in step with one another that she speaks. “ i think encouraging him to reach out was the most amazing thing we've did recently, wouldn't you agree? i need to be frank, though, fushiguro ... i'm helping out itadori, he's a boy — he has no idea what to get her. me and him? we've talked a bit about this. sorry you weren't in on the loop, ”

their first year as tōkyō jujutsu tech students had come and gone.

kugisaki nobara.⠀⠀웃⠀⠀a glimpse into her instagram.

some to-knows:

maki, fushiguro, and itadori were among the first people she followed from tōkyō jujutsu tech. family members⠀⠀(⠀⠀some of those of her clan residing outside of japan included⠀⠀)⠀⠀and her favorite fashion brands, designers, + celebrities were among her first followings.

someway, somehow, she makes the time to be a brand ambassador for one of her favorite makeup brands.

she's somewhat slow at following people back⠀⠀(⠀⠀if she even chooses to⠀⠀) and extremely selective. between in-class jujutsu lectures, classwork, personal time to herself, and fieldwork on top of that:⠀⠀nobara is extremely in-demand!

whenever she goes live it's usually when she's sightseeing or trying new foods, or visiting her favorite, more popular stores and malls. sometimes, she'll stumble upon the most simplistic nook-and-crannied little spot in tōkyō ( like that one non-descript coffee shop that she's claimed for her own for studying, because she loves their coffee, and it's hers because she says so ).

she has profile reels that have become popular, and that've went viral, of her constructing wara ningyō 「 藁人形, lit. " straw dolls " 」: of her showing step-by-step how they're made. these videos have not only become a hit in her native japan, but outside as well, particularly in the west: her following is accredited to this, largely. before they were ever thought of to be used as a clever device in exorcising curses, before they were ever thought of to be ever-useful proxies by the women in the kugisaki clan, they were apart of her culture. nobara takes immense pride in that.

she has a select, private groupchat on nearly every social media app and instagram is not exempt. members obviously consist of itadori, fushiguro, and herself.

makes it a point to block mai everywhere. it works for the most part, but nobara soon learned she has ample burner accounts one day. luckily, she isn't at all afraid to run blockchains through third-party apps.

The bitter taste of defeat, Megumi remembered that. A belly full of blood and guilt. A heart which wanted to tear itself apart upon seeing Yuuji die with a hollow chest cavity, Megumi remembered every detail. What he could not recall however, was carrying the limp and macabre body of their fallen friend to their driver nor the gruesome drive back to Tokyo's Jujutsu Technical campus . . nor the couple of days proceeding the death — a mess of regrets and mourning which could not take full shape. Was Nobara as broken up about it as he? Megumi suffered on three levels having lost Orochi, Shiro, and, most grievous, failing to protect Yuuji.

With gloom clinging into every pore of his body, the onyx haired teenager emerged from the hermit-like dormancy of his room and attempted to move through the shared living area as stealthily as a shadow. Reclusive plans were shattered the instant eye contact was accidentally initiated from across the room. He didn't know how to feel, he didn't know how to react; he always guarded his feelings from the outside world and even from his own self. Gaze dropped to the wooden floor, and the teenager shuffled his feet with uncomfortable energy. ❛ How are . . you . . Kugisaki? ❜

just how long had it been since she allowed herself to feel so utterly saddened by something well out of her control? only twice: this was one time, a bygone happening in her past ... when saori's parents saw it fit to move her out of the village and away from nobara because of all the harrassment received due to them not being from there, them being gossipped about, them sticking out as much as she in their little non-jujutsushi way. them being outsiders.

she had been age seven then and at age seven, saori and her family were gone.

at an age that young, being the jujutsushi child that she was, emotional regulation was something that she was taught with a more refined finesse. it'd had spell disastrous if she ended up cursing the villagers for their act of transgession against her childhood friend, so she did what all children did when their hearts were broken and she cried in front of saori's abandoned home instead, hand holding fumi's.

the seat she reserved for saori became empty, vacant, and the pain twisting her heart like a knife stab turned into resolve over the years. sure, fumi was still seated at her table but it wasn't the same. it wasn't like saori died or anything, and she promised to meet up with both her and fumi when she got to tōkyō, but still — —

it's been near a week or so following itadori's demise and sleep doesn't find nobara any easier than it did a few days ago. put out early in their mission, she had to learn of its aftermath through a visit from fushiguro while recovering in the hospital from injuries sustained on their mission in eishu.

just how long had it been since she allowed herself to feel so utterly saddened by something well out of her control? only twice: this was the one other time. only more recent and the stakes raised were higher, the probability of meeting again lesser because death was always hot on your heels.

itadori had died and left their group down to just them two, only her and fushiguro. but the seat itadori dragged to her table of his own volition was one decidedly bolted to the floor by none other than nobara herself. she puts up a good front, attends classes with as straight a face she could manage, but at night instead of scrolling social media she'd sometimes find herself poring over the text thread in the groupchat she shared with fushiguro and itadori.

instead of reading messages over and over that equally made you cry or laugh, any sane person would have just left, however nobara is crazy and honestly? it'd feel a little wrong leaving. kinda like an unspoken betrayal, so no: she wouldn't. still groggy with sleep and emerged from her room, palms knead her eyes in an attempt to further wake herself up. a pick-me-up was so needed and she moves, a young woman with purpose, only to pause when:

she sees that familiar dark haired mop of spikes. fushiguro, he'd been there when itadori had ... they both felt his loss, were kindred in that. isn't it tragicomic how history repeats itself? fushiguro's more visibly shaken up about it than she is and she doesn't blame him. after all, he witnessed the ordeal and it'd been the first time he'd lost a classmate in the way he did. the way they both did.

“ i'm ... okay, but jeez, you look like you haven't slept a wink. wanna go get coffee with me? it'll be my treat just this one time. ”

queen of expressions, nobara

one thing about me is that I'll never move on, if I said goodbye to you 10 years ago I still miss you today

kugisaki nobara

I like to mess around and find out and that’s my exact problem

憶ー　memory

my sleep schedule isn't even a schedule anymore it's a freestyle

@kusattainu⠀웃⠀plotted starter!

when she was sent over the school uniform she'd be wearing as a student at tokyo prefectural,⠀cementing that she'd be leaving the lush green for miles that'd a younger her had grown so sick of seeing⠀(⠀she deserved to see more than the same village faces,⠀their condescending ways a thorn in her side⠀),⠀her grandmother allowed her to go shopping in shinjuku as a dual treat and apology.⠀wary of the upper echelons,⠀the big dogs in jujutsu society,⠀she'd initially hidden the letter of recommendation from nobara:⠀under the impression that what she didn't know wouldn't hurt her⠀(⠀hoping that one day she would come to understand why the village functioned the way it did,⠀why the villagers were the way they were,⠀how tradition kept them on the fringes,⠀yes,⠀but ultimately safe⠀)⠀and she hoped and prayed to any ancestor that'd hear her out that this was the best course of action to take to protect her granddaughter.

[⠀...⠀]

but nobara was too much like her obasan, ⠀too headstrong and not easily swayed by the opinions of others,⠀nor petty tricks, ⠀a near perfect reflection.⠀a reminder of how her elder acted in her bygone youth.⠀in brash teenaged excitement does she done one of many carbon copies of her official school uniform,⠀double-checking herself and how she looks in the mirror,⠀a hand's nimble fingers carding through recently dyed tresses.⠀gloss-slicked lips upturn into a triumphant smile as once brown eyes⠀(⠀man,⠀these contacts sure stung while being put in!⠀)⠀twinkle with the promise of keeping their shine:⠀no matter the glitz and glamour of the city proper.⠀ nobara wouldn't be so easily sucked into assimilation,⠀not like how so many who moved away did⠀—⠀her sights were set more internally,⠀her mind's eye always more so focused on the appearance and being of self,⠀overall.

the tohoku shinkansen makes quick work of bridging the distance between nobara and her destination:⠀mylord,⠀a shopping mall in shinjuku with a knack for attracting young shoppers much like herself.⠀the ride is relaxing enough to where she's soon lulled to near-sleep by the steady rock of it,⠀exacerbated by the early 2000s' j-pop playing through her headphones.⠀soon enough,⠀this would be her life⠀—⠀living it up,⠀sticking it to city curses⠀(⠀'⠀they can't be so tough,⠀'⠀she surmises⠀),⠀showing the higher-ups not to underestimate the likes of countryside sorcerers⠀—⠀and oh,⠀what a life it'll be!

to say that kugisaki nobara was excited for this new development in her life,⠀wherein independence would be wholly in her grasp after being watered so delicately by her grandmother:⠀her roots⠀(⠀her potential as a jujutsushi carefully cultivated into what it was⠀)⠀finally growing after a period of stagnation,⠀brought forth by the somewhat unfavorable⠀(⠀until she got sick of village life⠀)⠀conditions she found herself in,⠀was an understatement.⠀finally,⠀she was allowed to blossom on her own terms and she wanted to keep it that way.

it happens in a blur:⠀her unboarding,⠀briskly leaving the train station with the trusty help of her dated smartphone's GPS⠀(⠀really,⠀she couldn't wait to invest in a new one, this one's camera quality sucks!⠀), staring a bit doe-eyed and marveling a bit at her sight of the city's ward, people bustling around her, before moving on to the mall:⠀she wasn't in tohoku anymore.⠀soon enough,⠀shopping bags weigh a bit heavily on her arms⠀(⠀where was a boyfriend when you needed one???⠀)⠀and what's in them is any other teenaged girl's correct guess.

she doesn't feel like the odd one out here.

it was deliberate,⠀her choosing to stick out like a sore thumb.⠀when she dyed her hair,⠀the villagers,⠀who long held her grandmother in high regard,⠀stared at nobara like she sort of grew an extra head or two.⠀trading her lush natural brown hue for a seemingly eccentric shade of ginger:⠀the outgoingly spirited young girl,⠀with the ancestrally wise obasan,⠀seemed astute in the choice that conformity in regards to long-held village customs and ways of living was something she'd hold an aversion to.⠀always.

perhaps,⠀this was her rebelling and lashing out against the bulldozing of saori's home years prior after she'd left,⠀having been ostracized and run out by their stupid views on outsiders.⠀nobara had been devastated and enraged by this,⠀but she was a growing and in-training jujutsushi:⠀she'd have to settle for pouting,⠀angrily scribbling in her diary,⠀and keeping her emotions on a regulated leash⠀—⠀lest cursed spirits would fester near.

she was never the odd one out.

just set apart,⠀consecrated by her bloodline's inheritance of their technique,⠀by her status as a jujutsushi.⠀to non-jujutsushi others she was the outlier,⠀but who gave a damn about what they thought?⠀she wears her pride in her heritage,⠀in what's been passed down,⠀overtly.⠀it's an integral part of her:⠀makes up a big chunk of who she is.⠀it helps that her new school uniform grounds her in a way that exacerbates that pride.⠀it's a good fit on her and it isn't gaudy.

any other,⠀regular-degular non-jujutsushi human looking at her would assume she attends a private school⠀(⠀they aren't wrong in a sense⠀).⠀to them,⠀city folk:⠀she'd perhaps just be another country girl who got fed up of seeing rolling plains of green,⠀the lack of opulence to be seen there instead of here,⠀a budding assimilationist who'd readily toss herself to the wind because she'd become enamored with skyscrapers and convenience of walkability.

they had her pegged wrong.⠀

to the trained eye,⠀to another jujutsushi,⠀it'd be wholly evident that she's wearing a personally custom-made uniform because she'd be soon to be set to attend only one-of-two jujutsu educational institutions as a student.⠀she's all smiles as she walks into the nearest konbini,⠀shopping majorly over,⠀it was time to stock up on her personal stash of snacks before sightseeing and eventually heading back home to tohoku.⠀tokyo would see her again,⠀soon enough.⠀it's with a pep in her step that she flounces up to the cash register,⠀yen in hand,⠀dumping her allotted treats and flashing a friendly smile at the person working the register today.⠀

a keen eye catch their name-tag and gaze soon zooms in on their face.⠀she was much like her obasan,⠀too much,⠀one would argue:⠀astute to a trained degree.⠀

jujutsushi knew their own.⠀she looks around,⠀they're the only two in the konbini.⠀good,⠀she feels less scandalized when she takes back her bagged goods from them,⠀leaning in she asks:⠀“⠀ne,⠀suiren!⠀you wouldn't happen to be a fellow jujutsushi,⠀would you?⠀”⠀

FOUND family??? you think i just found them like this??? babes this is FORGED family. Me & the bros were scrap metal in a junkyard (very valuable, very sharp, very dangerous, uncared for) and we GOT IN THE FUCKING FIRE TOGETHER. WE did this. we said I AM NOT LEAVING YOU and melted into each other for better or for worse (it’s for better) and we are A FUNCTIONAL UNIT now. DO NOT SEPARATE. BATTERIES FUCKING INCLUDED. FOUND family my ass, we built this non-nuclear family unit from the ground up, don’t devalue this!!! it was is and will be a labour of love!!!

If you miss the first year trio clap your hands 👏 👏 If you miss the first year trio—

@duefault.

shopping 🛍️