Chapter 0-1

The Cursed Child (いの) is the first chapter of Akutami Gege's Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical School.

Summary
In November 2016, Yuta Okkotsu is at school in Tokyo when bullies attempt to intimidate him. The ringleader believes that Yuta is begging for them to stop, but he's actually speaking to a Curse named Rika. Rika stuffs all four of the bullies into a locker, severely injuring them.

Satoru Gojo and the Sorcerers of Tokyo Jujutsu High learn of the incident and hold Yuta at the school in a room sealed with many talismans. In order to avoid hurting anyone else, Yuta agrees to stay in the room forever, to be executed by total isolation. He even tried killing himself, but Rika wouldn't allow it and destroyed the knife he attempted to stab himself with.

However, Gojo wants to give Yuta the chance to become a student of the school and learn to use his powers for good. Yuta initially refuses, but Gojo points out how lonely Yuta would end up being if he continued down this path. Gojo tells Yuta it's not too late to use the Curse he's been afflicted with to help others.

Gojo's three first-year students; Maki Zenin, Toge Inumaki, and Panda hear rumors about the new transfer student and what he did at his old school. When the time comes for Gojo to introduce him, he asks his students to get excited and welcome their new classmates. Maki refuses because she feels like Yuta is sulky-type and decides to ignore him.

Yuta enters the room, and the three students are shocked to see a powerful Curse following him. As soon as Yuta introduces himself, Maki sticks her spear close to his face, threatening the cursed boy. Maki points out that Jujutsu High is place to study and learn how to defeat curses, not somewhere for someone who's cursed.

Gojo explains that in Japan, over 10,000 people go mysteriously missing every year. This is due to Cursed Spirits, which are born from Cursed Energy, the manifestation of a large collection of raw negative emotions. At Jujutsu High, they teach students how to use Curses to defeat other Cruses. Apparently Yuta had no idea since Gojo didn't explain this beforehand and he expected the other students to be more like his situation.

Gojo tells the other three students to step away from Yuta quickly. Two arms appear from the blackboard, one of the hands grabs Maki's spear and the other attacks the students for bullying Yuta. After the skirmish cools off, Gojo and Yuta explain his past.

Yuta was childhood friends with his beloved Rika, but she died in a traffic accident and has been haunting him ever since. After introducing Yuta, Gojo introduces the other students to him. Maki is a Cursed Tool user, Toge is a Cursed Speech user, and Panda is a Cursed Corpse.

For that day's Jujutsu Training, Gojo pairs off his students into two groups: Maki & Yuta and Toge & Panda. Maki is less than pleased to be paired with Yuta and she points out that it's easy to tell he was bullied a lot growing up. She says that he shouldn't try to act innocent or like a victim when the Curse haunting him is actually protecting him and finishes her statement by claiming he'll never become a Jujutsu Sorcerer without a real goal in mind.

Panda and Toge stop her from berating Yuta, but he believes that she's right. Soon after the class travels to an elementary school where children have been mysteriously disappearing. The two teams are tasked with rescuing two students that were recently abducted by Cursed Spirits and exorcising all curses. Gojo puts up a Curtain to hide this place from the outside world and leaves after asking his students to make sure they don't die.

Terrified, Yuta watches Gojo disappear and asks what he meant by dying. Maki tells Yuta to focus, as three Cursed Spirits appear in front of them. Yuta panics as the curses threaten to eat them and charge towards the students. Maki tells Yuta that curses who appear in swarms are weak and instantly kills all three of them with a swing from her spear.

Next, Maki says they're going inside, further scaring Yuta. He asks why Maki isn't afraid, expressing his concern that more swarms of curses could ambush them inside. She mostly ignores him and thinks about how most of the curses around aren't attacking because of Yuta. While they search the inside of the school, Maki asks to see Yuta's Student ID so that she can see what rank he is. She expects him to be Grade 4, but he's actually Special Grade.

They're both taken off guard when a giant curse appears inside and attacks them. It breaks openm the side of the building and launches the two students into the air. Maki loses her spear after she's hit by one of the curse's teeth and both students plummet into the belly of the curse.

Maki is angry, but she's confident Gojo will eventually save them. They're both surprised when they find the two missing boys trapped inside the curses stomach with them. They've been poisoned by the curse and before long, Maki passes out as well. None of the other three have the same resistance to curses that Yuta has and Maki's leg is festering with curses.

Shortly after the conscious one of the two boys asks Yuta for help, Maki regains consciousness and asks why Yuta decided to attend Jujutsu High. He reveals that he doesn't want to hurt anyone and that he doesn't want to be alone. Yuta wants to gain connections with other humans and gain the confidence to feel like he deserves to live and have a place in this world.

Maki tells Yuta that he can do so by exorcising curses repeatedly, and with that confidence and connections will come because that's the kind of place Jujutsu High is. Inspired by Maki's words, Yuta opens his uniform jacket and pulls out Rikia's ring from the inside pocket. He calls out to Rika and puts on the ring before asking for her to lend him strength.

The full power of Rika's Cursed Form explodes from inside the giant curse. Once outside it crushes the head of the enemy curse, allowing Yuta to escape with Maki and the two children. Gojo watches from outside the curtain, impressed by the Special Grade Curse Rika Orimoto. Yuta struggles to carry the three injured victims to the outside of the curtain, but he pushes himself to do so because he can hear Rika's voice telling him to do his best.

Afterward, at the hospital, Gojo tells Yuta that everyone will be okay. Yuta reveals that this was the first time he ever summoned Rika himself and reveals that it helped trigger memories about her. In their childhood, Yuta told Rika they would be together forever. He feels like he cursed Rika and not the other way around. Due to this, Yuta actually believes love is the most twisted curse of them all.

Impacted with new resolve and a goal, Yuta tells Gojo that he's going to find a way to release Rika's curse by training at Jujutsu High.