Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The last rays of the setting sun shone down on Yuuji as sat in the waiting area of the the opening of the clinique where his grandpa gets treated. Or, where he got treated, would be the more appropriate to use.

His back was bent while he had his head put between his knees, thinking about how he really was alone now. He knew that this moment was a long time coming, but it still didn’t lessen the feeling of solitude that envelopped his entire being. His status already made him feel very different from others, he was scared that this would further make him feel alienated and isolated. Maybe he could take more missions to fill up his time...

Just as he was starting to fall further and further into a black hole of worries, he felt a touch of comfort pass over his head, as if to pat him and offer him comfort.

‘Better things are coming, Yuuji. Do not despair.’ were the words offered only to his ears by his Goddess. His eyes teared up, overwhelmed by her kindness and consideration for him (as was the usual). He was grateful and thanked her endlessly in his mind so that the nurses don't think he's gone crazy and is blabbering to himself (from their perspective). That’s right, he still had someone by his side ! Though, he wonders exactly what it was that was awaiting him-

"Excuse me, are you Itadori Yuuji ?" he heard from above. As he rose his head, he saw a black-haired boy, seemingly his age, looking at him with a serious look in his eyes.

"Ah, yeah ?" at the squinting doubtful look he received, he quickly amended; "I mean, my name IS Itadori Yuuji. What’s going on, man ? If it’s nothing serious, can it wait ‘till later ? I'm kinda going through something right now..."

"I’m sorry if I’m interrupting anything, but it’s urgent." with no respite, or even an introduction, the boy pulled out his phone and showed him the picture of a familiar box, then continued; "Can you please tell me how to find this ? It could potentially cause risk to people."

"Oh yeah, sure ! You’re in luck dude, cuz I actually have it here with me !" Yuuji multitasked between talking and pulling out the box from the occult club; "I’m in the occult club, so the members go crazy about objects like this ! I don’t know about its risks, but it sure feels pretty foul !"

He showed the box to the boy, who rudely took it from him in a hurry. Yuuji didn’t really feel offended, and even if he was, that offense would have quickly turned into worry when he saw how his companion’s naturally pale face turn paler.

"What’s wron-" he started and then stopped himself when he saw the empty box that was decidedly not so before.

"Huh !? I remember a fugly musty finger being here, did Senpai take it ??" he scratched his head confusedly. Then, he turned with a determined face to the unknown boy; "Mysterious stranger dude, you said that the object was dangerous, right ? Then let’s go to my high school, my senpais must have it, and they could be in danger now, according to what you said !"

"First of all, my name is Fushiguro Megumi. And, sure, lead the way but when we get there-" Megumi saw the pink-haired sprint away, and decided that if he didn’t want to be left behind, he should follow after him. Though, not without shouting at his back; "Oi ! Listen to everything before running off !"

Yuuji briefly shouted back "No time !" while running and leading the newly-introduced Fushiguro to his high school.

When they arrived, the school was empty, so Yuuji directly went to the occult club room. Just as he brashly opened the door, Fushiguro panting behind him, they saw Sasaki-senpai with the cursed object in her hands.

"Senpai, give me that thing, it’s dangerous !" Yuuji hurriedly spat out while throwing his hand out at his Senpai, so that she would hand it over.

"Huh ? What danger are you speaking about, Itadori ? Even if you’re part of the occult club, you can’t possibly believe that this thing is possessed by some ghost or something ?" as if to prove her point, she started to unwrap the binding around the finger that had some scriptures on it.

"Don’t-" shouted Megumi, and just as he did so, a foul aura surrounded the room. A moment later, the lights went out, which caused the members of the club to yelp in surprise. "Shit, this is bad. You guys better evacuate this place as fast as you can." Fushiguro spat out hurriedly, while he led the way out of the room and the school.

Yuuji, thanks to his abnormal senses, didn't take too long to take his two senpais, each one by a hand, to immediately follow after the black-haired boy.

Just as they reached the exit, a force took Sasaki forcibly from Yuuji back into the school. "Sasaki-senpai !" he tried to see if he could catch a glimpse of her, but he only found, looking back at him, utter and complete darkness.

"I’ll go back for her, this matter is now outside the realm of help of a civilian like you." he heard from his earlier companion and looked at him, as Fushiguro advanced to go back inside.

"Yeah, I already guessed by your uniform, but this is some dumb Jujutsu business, isn’t it ?" replied back Yuuji lamentably, which caused the other to turn his head brusquely in his direction with eyes wide with surprise, all while his other senpai watched the interaction in confusion.

"Before you ask me anything, Fushiguro, I’m used to doing tasks that pertain to getting rid of curses. That’s all I have the time to say, for now. And, I’m not letting you go back there all alone ! I’m sensing many foul creatures inside, I should help both you and senpai !" continued Yuuji, not allowing Megumi to interrupt him even once, while looking at him with honey-brown eyes shining with conviction.

Megumi stared at him for a second, as if to test his sincerity and will, then just sighed and did a ‘what can you do’ motion and told him; "I’ll begrudgingly put my trust in you. I hope you can fend for yourself." then, with nothing else to say, he went back inside Itadori’s school, ignoring the shiny optimistic gaze that said pink-head was directing at his back.

And so, they went back inside. Megumi summoned his dog shikigami and let them lead them into where the cursed energy was concentrated. When there was one turn left to arrive at the hallway where that accursed finger must have been at, Megumi breathed out a relieved sigh. However, that quickly turned into a shocked stare at seeing how utterly surrounded Itadori’s senpai was by various curses, all hungry for the power that the cursed object would give them, to the point that it was obvious that she would also be swallowed up.

‘At this point, they’ll consume her too, just to get to eat it!’ thought Megumi helplessly at the idea that a life may have to be lost that night.

At that same moment, Yuuji moved at maximum speed to send a powerful punch in the general direction of the curses, then rapidly took hold of Sasaki’s unconscious body to the side. Meanwhile, Megumi exorcised the mass of curses and sic-ed his dogs on them to eat them.

"I gotta say, I’m a little impressed by you, Itadori Yuuji." said Megumi. Even if his tone may be slightly condescending, he couldn’t hide the burgeoning respect in his eyes towards the pink-head that he didn’t expect to be of much help.

"I didn’t do much !" responded back Yuuji, averting his eyes sheepishly (while putting aside how pretentious the statement was). "Since i had the ability to help, there was no way I would just leave !"

In their distraction, a tiny curse unexpectedly appeared ( shit, the finger was still out ! thought Megumi) and swallowed the object that caused all the mess. Itadori and Fushiguro, gobsmacked and frozen in their respective places, watched as the now evolved cursed went up, presumably towards the roof.

"Okay, now I’m irritated. What the hell ?" declared Yuuji, for the first showing an genuinely obvious ‘negative’ emotion since the day started. "Oi Fushiguro, you can take senpai out into safety. I’ll chase after that little shit and take care of it." and then he followed, unimaginably faster than ever before, after the curse.

"Itadori !" shouted the sorcerer, but then he gave up on whatever he wanted to say and simply ordered his shikigami to take the girl outside, while he proceeded to take out his phone to call his teacher and track the pink-haired boy’s steps (at a more human speed).

‘This mission sure is proving to be more and more of a hassle.’ he thought, as the phone rang to call decidedly the most annoying person he knew.

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On his way to the roof, Megumi passed by the remains of some curses that had to be the results of Itadori’s fights with them. ‘Seriously, is he Zenin-senpai’s cousin or something ? It looks like they all faced their end by only punches and kicks.’

With his attention quickly turning to useless thoughts that didn't help, he focused instead on Itadori’s (admittably weird) signature. ‘I hope Gojo-sensei isn’t too late, preoccupied with whatever nonsense that kept him from this mission’.

Just as he finished that line of thought, he was relieved to see the open door of the roof. He rushed up the stairs and there he saw Itadori locked in a combat with the curse. Unlike before, when its form was much smaller, it now stood at their level of height, with a human-like body that parried out moves to fight back against the pink-head’s martial prowess.

He summoned his dog shikigami once again just in time for when Yuuji was pushed back in his direction. To his merit, he didn’t fall and stayed up, in position to fight even as he addressed the black-haired sorcerer. "Fushiguro, are my senpais safe ?"

Megumi blinked in wonder at how the other was more worried about other people instead of being concerned about his own self. "They’re fine, I left another shikigami with them just in case. Only slight problem is that they passed out from shock."

He expected the other to exclaim in anxiousness over his fellow students’ unconscious state, but his (potential) ally’s next words had him taken back. "It’s good that they passed out. That means that now, I can do this..."

When he heard him, Megumi turned his eyes away from the curse (which he would scold himself for later) and watched in bewilderment as, out of nowhere, a light-brown wooden staff with a pink crystal embedded in the middle of it appeared in Itadori’s right hand. It then transformed into a fairy-like bow with a pink rose on top. He absentmindedly thought that it looked like something of his sister's fairy tale stories.

In the background, he half-registered an annoying voice say "Hiya Megumi-chan !", but even that wasn’t enough to take his attention away from how the pink rose seemed to be on fire, and yet unharmed, by a flame of a similar color. Itadori then got into position to shoot an arrow made up of pure pink energy right at the center of the curse, where Sukuna’s resided.

Even as the curse disappeared, with nothing remaining of it, he saw Itadori shoot another arrow, this time solely at the finger. Then another, and another-

"I think that’s quite enough, Itadori, don’t you think ? Those fingers are known to be indestructible, so you’re just wasting your time and energy." intervened Megumi, which (thankfully) caused the other to put a stop to his shootings of weird energy, and turn to him with a pout.

"But, Fushiguro, just because nobody could destroy them, doesn’t mean that I can’t try to do it !" responded Yuuji in what seems to be his usual excited and determined tone of voice and eyes.

"I quite like the way you think Itadori-kun and totally agree !" joined an unfamiliar voice, which led the two boys to look at the other side of the roof, where a tall white-haired man with an eye cover and the same uniform as Megumi ‘innocently’ stood, with the cursed object that Yuuji was just shooting at (more like bullying) tucked away in his pocket; and his phone out and about, having just taken a video of everything that had just taken place.

"Uh, thanks, I appreciate it ! Uh.. do you know this dude, Fushiguro ?" asked Itadori after sheepishly responding to this new presence’s remark, not wanting to be mean and ignore him.

"Gojo-sensei, you’re late. Again." At his teacher’s unmoved smile, Megumi sighed and turned to his pink-haired companion. "You could say that this the superior who assigned me this mission."

"Oh, okay ! My name’s Itadori Yuuji, nice to meet you !"

Chapter Text

Gojo stared at the pink-haired teen that somehow, someway, gained some of Megumi's in such a short period, and demonstrated powers that he had only heard about before(which is honestly a crime in his eyes, he literally gets sent all across the world by those old fucks, and only now one of the mysterious prophets appears !?).

He was glad for his blindfold because, despite the fact that it was already nighttime, this Itadori fellow seemed to be trying his best to blind him with the power of his smile.

"Interesting powers you got there, Itadori-kun. If I'm not mistaken, you must be one of that certain Goddess's followers ?" asked the senior sorcerer while inspecting Yuuji from head to toe with his 'eyes', not seeing the need to introduce himself back when he could use his six eyes to try to figure out this newly introduced phenomenon.

"Ah, Gojo-san, was it ? Yeah, I'm actually Madoka-sama's prophet !"

"Oh really now, a prophet you say ? We'll see about that later. Anyways, you sure did a number on Sukuna's finger with your little energy arrows. I'm sure if someone put a pink bow on it now, it could even manage to be called somewhat cute, although in a slightly ugly way !"

Yuuji didn't pay much mind to the slightly dismissive reaction towards his status, only amused by the ‘pink bow’ comment. He was pretty used to the disbelieving stance that sorcerers held against his patron Goddess and everything related to her. He was kind of glad that it was only he who had heard the white-haired sorcerer, the other older followers tend to be more.. reactive.

"That would just be a waste of the ribbon. Anyways, it’s the first time I come across one of those.. things, it’s really sad that I didn’t get to get rid of it. Until next time I guess."

Yuuji easily shrugged off the disappointment, and turned back towards the younger sorcerer.

"It was nice working alongside you and meeting you, Fushiguro, Gojo-san ! But I really need to go now !" with that, Yuuji headed towards the edge of the rooftop.

"Hold up now, why so eager to leave us ? Say, I’m really interested in your whole religion deal and those arrows. Not to mention, Megumi-chan here will miss your presence too much, he doesn't really have friends, poor him. You don’t want him to cry now, do you ?"

Gojo wasn’t going to let this boy, with powers he always wanted to see in action, slip from his hands this fast ! (he also stubbornly ignored the powerful stink-eye Megumi was throwing him from the side and the way his hands formed twitching fists that showed his fading patience with his antics).

"Well, I have no problem talking about Madoka-sama to the two of you ! That's kinda my duty as her prophet... You didn’t need to throw Fushiguro under the bus like that if all you wanted was to ask questions, Gojo-san !" said Yuuji, laughing off the silly, white-haired sorcerer’s words.

"How about this, let’s meet tomorrow at café Délina tomorrow ? It’s very popular, so you won’t have trouble finding it, and we can talk at leisure’s ease then !"

‘Judging by the bag of traditional pastry that the man was carrying, I think he would really appreciate that bakery !’ was what was behind Yuuji’s mind when he proposed that. There surely wasn’t a problem with wanting to butter up the dude so that he didn’t try to bully him like he did his student, right ?

"You sure are a man after my heart, Yuuji-kun ! Alright then, it’s a date ! With Megumi third-wheeling us, of course !" gushed Gojo like a school girl in love.

"Oi ! That’s enough out of you, Gojo-sensei ! Do you always got to be so-" started Fushiguro, until a pink flash jumping from the roof caught his attention. He watched wild-eyed as Itadori jumped over the edge, from their kind of high height, with no hesitation.

He quickly went to check if the pink menace (and look at that, he's surrounded by menaces left and right, with Itadori and Gojo) had broken anything in his stunt, only to be even more shocked that before by the sight of him smiling unaffectedly at him from the bottom, with each of his senpais over one of his shoulders. With a last and loud "See ya !" he went on his way, like a poor imitation of a Sonic with pink hair.

"That guy sure is bonkers Megumi ! You really landed on a jackpot this time." and while his words may give the impression that it was a pejorative description, Gojo had an unhinged smile that told the black-haired boy all he needed to know about just how hooked his teacher was on said ‘guy’.

"Sensei, please keep yourself in check tomorrow when we meet with him." exasperatedly requested Fushiguro.

"That’s just mean to tell your teacher, Megumi ! You know me, I’m always on my best behavior, especially when it involves something sweet ! Anyways, see you in RanRan hotel, I’m really tired from my earlier outing- I mean, the mission I was taking care of before all of this !"

The white-haired menace then teleported away, not even allowing (poor) Megumi to protest or grumble. Really, the walk to the hotel would be good for him, he’s the teacher, he would know !

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Yuuji was just done with his first visit to his grandpa’s tomb. The weather had been lovely, the sun shining on him as he put a cup of tea as a sign of respect made him feel unexpectedly better, instead of being somber about being in the graveyard first thing in the morning (though, maybe that had more to do with the sorcerers he would be meeting again later).

As he talked to his grandpa about the unbelievable events that happened immediately after his death, the warm sun’s rays felt like one of his grandpa’s hugs, which he received plenty of as a child, and also reminded him that his Goddess was attentively watching over him.

It was with this positive energy that he went to the café where he was to talk more with the sorcerers from the day before.

He knows that if the other followers were to be aware of this meeting, they would scold him for meeting with, what they would call, ‘heretics’. Nonetheless, he carried on with his path, having faith that if they weren’t trustworthy, his patron Goddess would alert him immediately of their bad intentions.

As he arrived to the popular Sendai spot he told them about, he saw a disgruntled black-haired boy sitting alone in a table by the corner of the inside of the café. Without needing to let his eyes search too much, Yuuji saw his taller, white-haired counterpart happily ordering pastries and cakes and taking up place at the counter, making the person in charge quite satisfied with his many purchases in return.

"Yo, Fushiguro !" greeted Yuuji, feeling bad for the poor guy who looked like he wanted to become one with the floor.

"Hi. You don’t need to wait for my idiotic sensei to come back, just sit here and wait for him. He said that he would be ordering for us all." unenthusiastically greeted back Megumi, having the feeling that even on a better day, he wouldn’t be able to match the energy of Itadori, so he didn't push himself.

However, that wouldn't stop him from trying to be a decent person to Itadori, and so, he tried to carry on the conversation; "I remember us first talking in the hospital yesterday, I hope everything is okay."

"Oh ! Well, my grandpa passed on." as the other’s face slightly twisted in guilt, Yuuji quickly continued; "But I already made peace with it ! In fact, I visited him right before coming here ! The weather is so nice today, so I’m sure he would nag the shit outta me if I spent it moping over him instead of doing something else ! Not to mention, I always got Madoka-sama with me, so I’m feeling very okay !"

"My condolences for your loss then, Itadori. I’m glad you’re taking it well." offered Megumi after Yuuji’s rambling was finished, knowing that he went on that tangent to not make him feel bad. He still felt a little guilty for his aloof attitude towards him in the clinique the day before, but he won’t press on the issue more and waste Itadori’s efforts to let the talk end on a lighter note. After all, he knows quite a bit about loss of family, so this was the least he could do.

"Hey there, my dear student and Yuuji-kun ! I see that you’re getting on with each other quite fine ! GLG Gojo-sensei is back with the ultimate prize for us ! Better eat up or I’m putting everything in my tummy only !" Gojo said, as he abruptly popped up at the table they were all sitting at. It wasn't obvious if he had over-heard their previous conversation, but considering how much of an unapologetic gossip he was, Megumi wouldn't be surprised if he had used cursed energy to listen in on them.

"Hi Gojo-san ! Thank you for buying all of the food ! I hope you didn’t force yourself to buy all of this, though !" replied Yuuji, looking simultaneously grateful and worried at the thought of how much Gojo must have paid at the counter.

"Don’t think about it too much. This guy has a sweet tooth, too much money to waste, and can’t be forced into doing anything he doesn't want." reassured Megumi in Gojo’s stead while picking up a pastry that didn’t seem sweet enough to give him a heart attack, knowing that the other would just spout some bullshit about how he was ‘the strongest’ and how ‘sweets are worth all the money of the world, Megumi, you don't understand !’.

"Like Megumi-kun here said, don’t worry your little head too much ! Moreover, I can totally eat all of this on my own, so just eat what you can, and don’t worry about leftovers."

"That doesn’t really make me feel better about this big amount of sweets.. You better take care of yourself, Gojo-san ! Diabetes can be a pain to live with, you know ?"

With that advice said, Yuuji finally decided to start off with a lime-flavored pastry, not noticing how Gojo silently considered him for a moment (a smile still on his face) before he also grabbed what he wanted from the bunch.

After a few seconds of silent eating from the three table-mates, Gojo prompted Yuuji into talking with his head in his raised palm; "So, Yuuji-kun, mind telling us a little about your whole deal ? You see, your patron Goddess, Madoka, and her followers have been something of a mystery in the world of Jujutsu, despite how many years we co-existed with each other."

"That ‘mystery’ is mostly because you sorcerers don’t really believe in Madoka-sama due to.. a lot of reasons, don’t you think so, Gojo-san ?" retorted back Yuuji with a teasing smile at Gojo’s direction, who unabashedly ‘stared’ back and shrugged in agreement, remembering how dismissive he was of Yuuji's 'prophet' situation.

"I don’t really care about any existing enmity between the two parties, personally. After all, every person has the choice in what or who to believe in. So, I’ll just tell you what I know, okay ?"

At his companions’ responding decisive nods, Yuuji started; "So, long ago, before curses and sorcerers existed, there were witches and magical girls. It kinda sounds like a child’s fairy tale, right ? Well, it wasn’t as simple as it may seem on the surface. There were these things called incubators which mostly went by the name Kyubey. They would approach young girls and offer them the chance to fulfill any, and I mean any, wish they had, at the price of becoming a magical girl, which they didn’t realize was a heavy price to pay, despite the childish name of the job. You could wish, for example, for cancer to be cured, and boom, it's cured. Not to mention, if you know something from anime, magical girls are always portrayed as cute, sparkly, good..."

Yuuji paused briefly to finish his pastry, and picked up a strawberry cake next.

"Anyways, the incubators made contracts with the girls, which make it so their souls reside outside their bodies within these objects called soul gems that would allow them to transform quickly if faced by a witch."

"Itadori, what exactly is a witch ? Since they were curses’ predecessors, facing them must be equally as perilous." Megumi asked, leaving out ‘especially for young girls’.

"First of all, witches, at the basest of their essence, were born out of despair and souls fractured so much that they couldn’t pass on. That made them very vicious entities who could cause something as minor as random crimes to, or as extreme as natural disasters that could end countries. What made them more dangerous than curses was that they all had some form of .. domain, while the magical girls couldn’t have something like that."

"Their powers must’ve compensated for that, right ? That Kyubey thing wouldn’t have made them be weak if they had to fight something that risky. Each one probably had a unique move, like Sailor Moon." slightly joked Gojo to lighten up the mood while simultaneously asking their storyteller.

"The incubators didn’t really care about that, though you’re right about them not being necessarily weak. The saying 'careful what you wish for because you just might get it' holds true for this situation. They had their own agenda for the magical girls and weren't just some altruistic creatures who wanted to protect humans and handed out wishes to naive young girls. They actually used them to harness energy for their plane of existence. They’re sort of aliens who got interested in humans due to how much emotional energy we can produce, and even if they don’t understand emotion, they use it just as humans burn trees for fire, for life energy to sustain wherever they live. Which is why they target pubescent girls, they’re practically the perfect energy source for them, due to not only teenage angst, but how vulnerable they are in our society."

Following those last words, Yuuji stabbed his fork into his cake, showing how passionate he was about that topic. ‘This guy won’t last a minute in the misogynistic Jujutsu murks, definitely.’ secretly thought Gojo, tickled by the image of Itadori shooting down the Zennin clan members with his pink energy (they would probably have a breakdown about the color alone, the bigots) arrows.

"Anyways, so magical girls fight witches in life or death matches, and when the latter is defeated; they become something called a grief seed. It’s very useful since it absorbs the corruption in the soul gems."

"Wait, where does the corruption come from ?" asked Megumi, more and more disturbed by what was being revealed.

"Well, being a magical girl is in within itself a life-or-death predicament. Due to their souls being outside of their bodies, their negative emotions all culminate in the soul gems. The worse the feeling is, the darker the soul gem’s color becomes. This could happen due to a bad event like losing your family to a car accident, or not having your love reciprocated. While fighting witches, they, especially girls new to the job, were basically feeling a roller-coaster of emotion made up of fear, anxiousness, desperation, etc. This led to the grief seed being used up immediately, then to be consumed by Kyubey afterwards, cuz, energy. If they managed to stay in control of their emotions, they could save it up for later. But the corruption could never be avoided."

"Say, Yuuji-kun, these grief seeds seem to be eerily similar to soul gems. They both contain the essence of the souls of both the witches and the magical girls, respectively, right ? Is there a connection there ?" inquired the older sorcerer despite having a bad feeling about the answer.

This universe (was it still a story ? it had more technical details than was usually the case with religion) that the pink-head was telling them about seemed pretty dystopian, with young teenage girls being sneakily taken advantage of by extraterrestrial entities that wanted to use them as energy banks, and then bound by a contract to perform a deadly job until their death. From what Yuuji was saying, it was highly probable that some of them could have died on their first venture as a magical girl.

"That’s a very good observation, Gojo-san ! And the answer to it is that the witches were originally magical girls whose soul gems were completely corrupted due to being driven into despair. The magical girls belong to an unforgiving cycle, machinated by the incubators and simply by life, I guess. As selfish or selfless their wish might be, at some point the girls are eaten up by this system. They don’t even get to be spat back, since their souls have no way of moving on or recovering from the tragic, yet unavoidable fate of turning into what they originally fought against, with no memories about their life, only feeling regret."

Gojo and Fushiguro stayed silent, frozen by this new development, and unable to wrap their heads around it completely, especially if they were to make sorcerers and curses take the place of magical girls and the witches. A world where sorcerers were forever doomed to turn into the very curses they hunted. There would be no elders, for everyone would be too busy fighting a losing fight with themselves first, the curses second.

"This cursed cycle continued on for an uncountable amount of time. It could well be a millennia, for all that is known. Until came to be Madoka-sama. She was originally a magical girl too. What made her different was the big amount of good karma that she somehow had amassed, despite her young age. Well, there's a reason for that, but let's not get side-tracked. She had made the wish to get rid of all witches before they could even be born and get rid of the system of magical girls. I forgot to mention this earlier, but the wishes are granted instantly to the girls. So, in that moment, she broke the system the incubators had set using their own rules, and became a God, something above even their control."

"You know what, I actually fuck heavy with your religion now, Yuuji-kun. This Goddess sounds cool !" commented Gojo, smiling admiringly, at the thought of breaking the system and re-making it from zero. ‘I’m already considered something of a mortal God, now I just need to go up a few steps and actually become one like her to fix our shitty society ! It would be a great plus if I had cute, faithful followers like Yuuji-kun too !’

As if sensing his nonsensical train of thought (or maybe it was just a reaction to his, admittedly, brash words ?), Megumi sent him a chiding look that told him to shut his trap.

"Yeah, I also like that moment, Madoka-sama is really cool !" gushed back Yuuji, not one to be taken back by, apparently, anything.

"Anyways, Madoka-sama’s wish was so powerful that it erased that world from existence and gave birth to the timeline we’re currently living in. Since negative emotions will always exist, it just made sense for curses to manifest. And since there’s the whole indomitable human spirit thingie, humanity evolved so that some people can become sorcerers, or whatever other names humans with cursed energy can take on, to fight back. Alongside them, there’s us, Madoka-sama’s followers and prophets. We’re humans who have been blessed with one or some of her holy powers to erase evil. However, we are not only tasked to exorcise curses if we encounter them, we are also to eliminate the incubators."

"Huh ? Those still exist ? I never heard of anything like that. What do they look like ? I’m the most active sorcerer since I’m a special grade, I could have come across them."

"Well, they look pretty innocent, against what their manipulative nature may suggest. Kinda like a hybrid between a cat and a dog, with white fur, red eyes and a read circle in the back of their bod, and these golden rings around each of their ears."

Both sorcerers tried to imagine the creature, to no avail. ‘What even is a hybrid of both a dog and a cat ?!’

"They wouldn’t care for established sorcerers like you, by the way." added Yuuji, which mildly offended Gojo. He was the strongest, everyone was interested in him, one way or another. ‘I had assassins’ interest since I was a baby, thank you !’

"I don’t mean any offense by it. They’re just more likely to go after non-sorcerers. They’re following the same tactic as before. Offer them power, in this case using cursed energy, to grant a wish. Then, these fake sorcerers are to fight curses, no matter how powerful. If they’re not killed at their hands, they’re killed by cursed energy, since it’s corrosive in its nature for people who are not born with it, or haven’t naturally awakened it. Us, Madoka-sama’s followers, can sense their presence unlike you so we hunt them down like curses."

"So they also don’t harness cursed energy like Yuuji-kun, right ?" said Gojo, which was confirmed by the other’s nod.

With nobody having anything else to say, silence reigned over the table, with each one focusing only on eating. Since the pink-haired boy was done with his story that explained his powers and religion, he happily ingested more cake, his mind empty. Unlike him, Gojo had an uncharacteristically thoughtful air to him, which made Megumi curious about what his end goal could be with all of this.

"Yuuji-kun, what do you think about becoming a student where I teach, in Tokyo Jujutsu Tech ?"

His table-mates’ taken back looks urged him to elaborate a little more; "You see, we could make use of powers like yours. Yesterday you seemed to harness good control of them and was able to defeat what was considered to be a special grade. I may not totally believe in your religion just yet, but as someone who’s also interested in change, how about we finally create a link between both parties ?"

"I don’t know about that, Gojo-san.. I’m already in my last year of high school, won’t it create problems to transfer now ? Not to mention, who would take care of grandpa’s house ?"

"All of that can easily be handled, you won’t have to lift a finger for that. Our school has a four-year long program though, so no graduation for you yet !"

Itadori quietened and seemed to put a lot of effort into thinking about the white-haired teacher’s suggestion. At some point, it seemed like steam would blow out of his ears, which almost tempted Fushiguro to turn to his mentor and tell him to let the pink-head be.

"Ah !" abruptly shouted Yuuji while slapping his right fist on the palm of his palm. "How about you talk to Madoka-sama ! She never expressed disapproval for the sorcerers, but I still would like her to decide on this."

"Eh ? I can meet her ?" "He can talk to her ?" came the two responses from the sorcerers, not having thought it to be a possibility this whole time.

"Mhm ! She also thinks you’re pretty silly, so your premises are already looking good !"

Gojo fell silent for a moment, and then started to laugh to himself in amusement and slight disbelief.

"Alright then, Yuuji-kun !" he started, then stood up from his seat. "Consider yourself very special, I’ve never went to the lengths of facing a God-figure for any of my students."

‘I’m usually the God-figure too !’

"You’re so funny, Gojo-san ! According to the other followers, I'm something of a God-like figure myself haha !" said Yuuji as he followed him in standing. "Let’s go to my place, then ! It would be the safest and easiest way to go about this. C’mon, get up Fushiguro !"

Megumi just sighed and followed in his companions’ actions, the two of them already out of the café and talking eagerly with each other.

Chapter Text

Gojo sat next to his student on a love-seat sofa in a humble but cozy living room, as his (hopefully) future student set up some tea to be prepared as well as other refreshments.

‘It was the right to do as their host !’, was what he had said stubbornly, to counteract his reassurances that they really didn’t need anything.

It wasn’t because Satoru was particularly worried about being polite (though, he could admit to himself that their pink-haired host’s cute demeanor subdued his bullying tendencies, it would be like not patting a cute cat that wanted affection, which is a crime!).

He just was really curious to see how Yuuji would go about getting his Goddess to meet them. Would he just do some prayer ? Or would he do some kind of summoning spell ?

"Sorry for the wait, Gojo-san, Fushiguro !" said Yuuji as he came back from the kitchen with the tea and accompanying cute cups that were already filled, and sat by himself on an arm-chair after setting it on the table.

"You can drink the tea while waiting, if you want to. I need to focus a little for the next bit.." with that, Yuuji closed his eyes and seemed to enter a dimension of his own, oblivious (or maybe uncaring) about the curious gazes of his guests.

‘Madoka-sama, I know we talked about this, but you don’t need to do this if it’s just because I asked..’

‘Yuuji, you know I can’t be forced to do something I don’t want to do. Worry not and let's not keep our guests waiting any longer, hmm ?’

With that final reassurance from his Goddess, Yuuji harnessed the energy needed for her to appear, a pink aura-like light surrounding him. The sorcerers watched in shock, and then in wonder, as the living space they were in before slowly morphed to look like outer space. ‘Just like Infinite Void’ thought Gojo in bemusement, as his six eyes looked around, before returning back to Yuuji.

He seemed to glow from within, the sakura-like pink hue of his hair taking on a lighter shade as it fluttered around, then he opened his eyes and ‘oh’.

Gojo was used to people complimenting his eyes due to their unnatural but beautiful blue color, with some flirting with him by saying that he looks like an angel with them. However, as his six eyes drowned in shimmering honey gold hues, he understood how people who were mesmerized by his eyes might have felt. ‘With the good that seems to emanate from him, Yuuji-kun fits the word ‘angel’ way more than me’.

Despite how distracted he got with the boy’s ethereal looks in his effort to call upon his Goddess, his senses still registered a new presence before he even saw anyone.

From behind Yuuji, a window (?) that looked a flowered Mandela artwork tore into the galaxy-like surroundings. And though it spawned in a smooth manner, Gojo felt how much power flowed into the space around them when it cropped out.

The first thing that appeared from the window was a hand stretched towards Yuuji, and soon after, its owner’s body followed after.

A girl with long, flowing pink hair that seemed infinite, and short pigtails on the sides held up by large, white bows appeared. Her eyes look completely similar to Yuuji’s. She wore a long, white, three-layered, frilly dress, which is shorter in the front, and gets increasingly longer nearing its end. On its inside, the galaxy surrounding them seemed to be reflected.

Satoru briefly took note of the gems that seemed to be hanging on her collar, remembering what Yuuji had told him and Megumi about those so-called soul gems that magical girls had in that universe.

At that moment, he had the curious thought of; if he was to destroy those, would he be able to defeat the Godly entity in front of him ? He couldn’t really help that question, even if his instincts told him that task was impossible. He could count the number of times he felt intimidated on one hand, and this instance would have to be added to them.

He felt Megumi next to him try to hide how he trembled under the sheer power of it all. ‘Same, Megumi, same.’ he thought as he just watched carefully as the girl’s stretched hand finally landed on Itadori’s head in a pat, which in turn snapped the boy out of his focused stupor, and made him turn his head upwards in excitement at the succeeded task. The picture that both of them painted reminded Satoru of those renaissance religion-related paintings that he saw in Italy when he had been there for a mission.

"Madoka-sama !" exclaimed Yuuji, his energy trembling around him in sheer joy and leaning his head even more into his Goddess’s petting, which she had just smiled indulgently at.

The affectionate gesture allowed Satoru and his student to finally relax in return. After all, how could they carry on being tense and wary, faced by the mother-son like picture. ‘Their looks sure don’t help with that too.’ thought the white haired sorcerer in contemplation.

"My blessed child, it has been a while since we saw each other face to face.. Before we forget ourselves, you had said that you had people you wanted me to meet.. " responded back the Goddess, reminding her prophet of the purpose of the meeting, before he forgot himself in his happiness.

"Ah, that’s right ! Madoka-sama," started Yuuji, then he gestured with his hand towards the sorcerers; "This is, officially, Gojo-san and Fushiguro !"

The mentioned figures didn’t know how to respond (a first for Gojo, that’s for sure), but then the white-haired sorcerer snapped himself out of his uncharacteristic daze; "Madoka-sama, I didn’t think the day where I would meet an actual deity would come."

Next to him, Megumi was surprised that his mentor added the honorific ‘-sama’ to the Goddess’s name, when he casually called her by only her name just a while ago when they were in the café.

However, with her otherworldly appearance and power, he supposed that even someone like Gojo could express respect when faced with something beyond even him, who was used to being, most of the time, the strongest in the room.

"I already knew about your existences, sorcerers.. I do try to keep up with the happenings of the physical plane and humans, especially anything that has to do with my followers." retorted Madoka, with amusement shining through her pupil-less golden eyes.

Gojo mused to himself that; yes, a Goddess would of course have a know on the happenings of the world that she had a hand in creating. He wasn’t going to ask if there were other deities besides her, but he decided that the Goddess could totally be the only one out there due to her.. evreything.

Yuuji had said that she created this timeline, and with the immense power that threatened to overwhelm his eyes (moments like these really reminded him of how useful his blindfold is), he felt like that story was 100% true. He wouldn’t be taken back if she was omniscient and omnipotent.

"It’s an honor for sure, just as it is to finally confirm today, with my own six eyes, your existence. To be honest, I also wanted to directly ask if you approve of Yuuji-kun becoming my student. He has great potential as a fighter, and I’m interested in how his powers could develop."

While the mentioned pink-haired boy only neutrally watched him, his Goddess’s eyes seemed to be trying their best to pierce into Satoru’s soul, as if to sus out if his intentions were genuine concerning her prophet. He didn’t allow himself to falter under the intense gaze, after all, he didn’t spout any lie, even if he didn’t state all of his reasons for wanting to be Yuuji’s teacher.

His goal was to nurture a generation that would become the change that Jujutsu society needed, instead of following rules made by dead people and upheld by dumb elders who only cared about themselves.

One of the reasons behind why they had decided that Madoka-sama’s followers were heretics, was simply because a woman was their figure of worship. How could bigots like that be considered wise enough to lead a society that was responsible over the safety of people ? It was the 21st century, for goodness’ sake !

Furthermore, sorcerers could use all the help they could use. If both parties hunted down curses, why not just work together ? It was only logical in Satoru’s eyes. Even if the followers didn’t harness cursed energy (another reason the those old farts discriminated against them), as was shown by Yuuji’s performance the night before, they were clearly strong in their own rights.

Not to mention, the pink-haired teen was easy to get along with and already started to grow on him. Their personalities mushed well together, which was a feat since Gojo tended to come off as too much for everyone and anyone.

Itadori just took everything he did or said in a stride, and even responded back in kind ! Maybe that could change in the future, but for now, tt was a win-win situation in the white-haired man’s eyes; he gets to create a link between sorcerers and Madoka-sama’s followers, and the person that represents said link will be someone who doesn’t hate him !

After a while, the Goddess finally responded back to his request; "I approve of whatever Yuuji chooses." just as Gojo started to droop, knowing that Itadori would need a push from her to accept his proposal, she followed her previous words by; "Nevertheless, I cannot deny that his future looks more compelling by your side.."

Subsequently, she smiled ambiguously at him, which caused Gojo to wonder briefly over what may be causing her to direct that expression at him, but he was too busy relishing in this win (the first among many to come, he was sure) to care that much.

Madoka then turned to her dearest follower; "Of course, Yuuji, you have the liberty to do as you want. But.. your heart has already decided on what it wants, didn’t it ?"

Yuuji bowed his head sheepishly and nodded in agreement; "Yeah.. Now that grandpa’s dead, I don’t really have anything that ties me to Sendai. Going to Tokyo will make my hunting work be more efficient, since it’s a busier city. And I really wanna see how the whole sorcerer thingie works ! So !"

He suddenly stopped, turned to Satoru’s direction, and bowed his head to him and Megumi; "Please take care of me, Gojo-sensei, Fushiguro ! I look forward to my future with you !"

Megumi shyly turned his head to the side and mumbled; "Same..", while Gojo stared for a moment in what appears to be disbelief, before a slightly unhinged grin split his face; "Haha, of course Yuuji-kun !"

"My child, time has come for me to leave.. As you know, someone is waiting for me." she stopped briefly to smile teasingly yet fondly at the thought of the person; "May you always conquer any evil you come across.."

With those last words, the Goddess turned to return through the window that he had come from, with Yuuji responding to her slowly fading back by; "Thank you, Madoka-sama ! Also, please greet Homura-sama for me !"

Once the deity left their plane of existence, the living room turned back to its initial state. It innocently appeared as if no supernatural event had just taken place, ‘And hey, time has stopped in here when we were in that place that resembled my domain.’ thought Gojo as he looked into a hanging clock which only started functioning again after the Goddess left, before his attention turned to a Yuuji with questioning eyes.

"Gojo-sensei, when are you leaving for Tokyo ?"

"Well, today. If you can collect all the belongings you need from here, we could still catch a train to Tokyo ! There’s still some time left, so make sure to take everything you want ! And before you ask, don’t worry about all the paperwork, I’ll take care of it !"

"Really ? That’s great ! I’ll immediately start packing then ! Fushiguro, come with me, let me show you my room !" and so, Yuuji stood up with an eager flair from his seat, dragging a mildly complaining Megumi behind him.

‘If he really was unwilling, he would have resisted a little more. He’s really such a tsundere.’ thought Satoru, chuckling at the image of the two teens, who despite seeming like polar opposites, already were on the road of becoming good friends to each other.

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"Wow, you’ve amassed quite the amount of luggage there, Yuuji-kun !" remarked Satoru, not actually surprised by that aspect about the pink-head. Judging by his style of fashion and the cute decorations in the house, he already knew that Yuuji was unique for a boy his age. ‘He’s literally a prophet, why not have more unique qualities, amirite ? He already gets along with me, too !’

"Ah, sorry Gojo-sensei, I just couldn’t bring myself to leave behind many of these thingies.."

"Don’t worry about it, Itadori. The rooms at the college are quite spacey." interjected Megumi to reassure his new fellow student (though he wouldn’t readily admit to that).

"That’s right Yuuji-kun ! I was just teasing !" added Gojo, though not without forgetting to throw a quick teasing smile at Megumi. "Besides, we have a ride to the train station, so everything’s good !"

While waiting for his students to finish wrapping up Yuuji’s belongings, Satoru had called upon a taxi. He didn’t believe in having to withstand unneeded discomfort, so he decided, why not ?

He didn’t pay mind to the pink-haired boy’s protests on how ‘he didn’t need to !’, and just pushed him towards their awaiting drive.

In very little time, they arrived at the train station and embarked on the train where Satoru had reserved seats so that they could arrive faster to their destination.

On the way, Gojo simply played some games on his phone or watched his two students interact with each other, adding a quip of his own whenever Yuuji involved him (he tried his best to do it too ! It left Satoru feeling even more endeared by this boy, who was quickly become a favorite student of his !). He was glad as well to see his ward coming out of his shell thanks to Itadori’s personality.

In about two hours and a half, when it was already the afternoon, the train stopped at Tokyo. Gojo had already called upon Ijichi to come pick them up from the train station, so they found him already awaiting their arrival. After briefly exchanging greetings and introductions (it was funny watching Yuuji and Ijichi bowing to one another !), they set out to the Jujutsu college.

After a while, the car stopped at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the school. Just as Gojo was pondering on whether to offer Yuuji to teleport his luggage to the top, the teen smoothly carried all his bags (as heavy as they were), and jumped up, like a rabbit on steroids, the long stairway without leaving anyone the time to give a helping hand.

‘I swear, it’s as if he’s hellbent on surprising me at every turn. Though, considering how he had jumped from the roof of his school that night, I guess it's not that surprising.. ’ thought Gojo as he looked at him skip ahead of them, and just decided to follow up and catch up to him along with Megumi.

When they arrived at the top, with Yuuji having barely broken a sweat, Gojo started; "Anyways, Yuuji-kun, I forgot to mention this earlier, but you actually need to be tested by the principal for him to approve of you as a student. You don’t need to worry though; all you need to do is act how you have been !"

Yuuji looked at him in slight worry still, but he quickly managed his nerves and nodded back at him in determination.

Megumi, tired as he was, left them to head towards his room, while Gojo led Yuuji towards the principal’s office, where, upon rudely opening the door without knocking, they found the man working on a new plushie while being surrounded by many others.

"Yo, Yaga-sensei ! I brought the prophet of Madoka-sama, Itadori Yuuji-kun, to become a student here ! And this is not a joke, by the way !" announced Gojo with no warning in a nonchalant manner while presenting Yuuji like a prize, as if he hadn’t just dropped a metaphorical bomb on the man.

Yaga looked at his former student with a deadpan expression that radiated extreme exasperation, but when he switched his eyes to said prophet, he found him sheepishly smiling towards him, just as helpless to the white-haired sorcerer’s antics, but not protesting against them.

"I see.. I hope this idiot didn’t force you to come here with him. Your kind of people don't make it a habit to interract with us, after all.. Nevertheless, I still have to ask you, why do you want to become a student in Jujutsu Tech ?" asked Yaga while rising from his chair, with a no-nonsense air and look to him.

"Well, I already hunt down the curses I come across, as is expected of Madoka-sama’s followers. We are the manifestation of her will to not let anyone suffer needlessly and to destroy and rewrite the cycles if needed. I don’t particularly care about Jujutsu, but if it helps me protect people’s hopes from despair, then I wanna be part of it !"

Across the few hours they had known each other, Gojo had never heard the other sound as serious as he did in that moment. It was then that he finally understood why the boy was Madoka-sama’s chosen prophet. With his energy having flared up during his mini-speech, and the drive shining through his honey-gold eyes, he couldn’t imagine his ex-teacher turning him down.

And as Satoru looked at him, he saw that Yaga’s stance had changed from intimidating, to somewhat be relaxed, while an approving glint shined qucikly though his eyes before disappearing; "Very well, I can respect your will. Itadori Yuuji, consider yourself officially a student at this school. Gojo, go show him the dormitory. And, next time, warn me when you want to have a new student."

Hearing that, Yuuji turned towards Satoru and shined a bright smile his way that bunched up his eyes and tempted his new teacher to either pinch his cheeks or ruffle his hair in cute aggression. He remembered the Goddess patting that pink hair, and now he really wanted to feel how it was like !

Gojo shook himself out of his intrusive thoughts, and with a quick smile thrown back at him and a non-caring "Hai, Yaga-sensei !", he gestured to the pink-head to follow him towards where he would be rooming.

As they walked, the easy air around them remained as they had a silly conversation about plushies (with Gojo telling Yuuji about Yaga's cursed technique). Time passed quickly, and they soon found themselves at the dormitory.

"Here, Yuuji-kun ! Welcome to your room for your remaining school years !" said Gojo, purposely loud.

"Wow ! You and Fushiguro really weren’t lying when you said it’s spacey ! I’ll actually be able to arrange all the stuff I brought with me from Sendai !" responded Yuuji in kind.

The door of the room next to his new one opened up, and behind it appeared a visibly annoyed Fushiguro with the rattle they were making, who looked like he had been readying to sleep; "Couldn’t you have given him a room that wasn’t directly attached to mine ?" he asked his mentor, who just smiled at him ‘innocently’.

"Your room is a direct reflection of what I came to know about you, Fushiguro ! You got so many books in here, and it looks so clean !" exclaimed Yuuji as he unashamedly peered into the back-haired boy’s room without his consent, which caused Megumi to harshly pull him away from his doorway.

"And who said you could just look into my room ?" scolded Megumi Itadori who only exaggeratedly rubbed at his arm in pretend-hurt and with puppy dog eyes at him.

"Well, I’ll leave you kids to your kid things; I’m gonna leave now. Also don’t forget to set your alarm for early tomorrow ! We’re going to meet your third classmate at Roppongi !" said Satoru, before they could begin to be too distracted. He then turned to do as he said, leave, before a voice halted him.

"Wait, Gojo-sensei, people don't just leave like that ! Good night and see you tomorrow !" were Yuuji’s parting words to him, which Satoru couldn’t help but return, even if he was unused to such thing (he wasn't just any kind of 'people', but he'll indulge the pink-head. Something told him that he'll do more indulging in the future though.. )

‘Yes, I’m really looking forward to what the school year will look like with you here, Yuuji.’

Chapter Text

Satoru trailed after Megumi and Yuuji, watching as the black-haired boy listened (while pretending to be disinterested) to his pink-haired companion’s animated chattering, who was wearing silly sunglasses, carrying a bag of sweets from street vendors they passed by, and, most importantly, wearing the uniform that Satoru had personally adjusted just for him !

The teacher had seen how unique Yuuji’s style was, not to mention, his student's bright disposition ! He didn’t think the usual all-black Jujutsu uniform would do him any justice. So, he decided to made it so the black blazer would be a little cropped (like the feminine version of it, correspondingly to the feminine accents Satoru had noticed when it comes to Yuuji’s clothes) and would have a red hoodie attached under it (Yuuji had after all gushed the day before, while they were talking about plushies, about hoodies and how they feel like being given a hug by a teddy bear). He also made it so, instead of just having boring black slacks, he would wear black shorts (which fit the youthful aura Yuuji had much better, Satoru would know, his eyes do not lie after all, even when it comes to fashion).

His new student was overjoyed when he had showed him the uniform, and thanked Satoru excessively for it even when he had said that it was really no trouble (that scene still brings immense satisfaction to Satoru’s heart when he remembers it). Yuuji had paired the uniform with cutesy, subtle, silver jewelry, and red, platform shoes with black accents. They looked as if they had been bought intentionally for the uniform too (and maybe to kick someone’s knees inwards, with how sturdy they looked) !

Satoru spotted the third student who they were supposed to meet, but didn’t have to call upon the boys to pause in walking, as they had stopped by themselves to watch the ongoing.. spectacle in front of them. There she was, in all of the glory of the Jujutsu female uniform, arguing with (supposedly) a model recruiter. He already knew she looked feisty in her profile, but damn ! Megumi looked quite unimpressed with her (that boy was quite judgey, Satoru would know firsthand), Yuuji on the other hand ...

"Wow ! She’s got a lot of guts for someone her height ! She reminds me of this person who’s also one of Madoka-sama’s followers !" said Yuuji all too nonchalantly with a happy smile, remembering said ‘person’. Satoru didn’t know how to feel about that. He had made the assumption (although an admittedly too early one) that all of the Goddess’s followers were like Yuuji, with only slight differences differentiating them. Oh well, with Yuuji as his student, he’ll most likely meet some of them in the future to confirm his theory.

"Oiii, Nobara-chan, here, here !" loudly said Satoru, once the girl’s eyes accidentally fell into his. She was starting to twitch with violent urges too, if he didn’t call for her attention, he’s afraid he would be watching that poor man be carried on an ambulance or piss his pants in public (which would be hilarious in his opinion, but they needed to get to moving ! He could act like the responsible teacher he was from time to time). Thankfully, she let him go and stepped in Satoru’s direction.

"Hi, I guess you’re supposed to be Gojo-sensei." was all she said to him while looking him up and down with criticizing eyes. She turned to her classmates and submitted them to the same treatment. Whatever she had taken from this activity, seemed to be generally disappointment with them. However, with Yuuji, she took a second, slower look at him, and nodded with begrudging respect towards him.

"The Rock shoes are a nice touch. I’ll admit, at first, I thought you were just a dumb potato, but you’re actually cultured, unlike the teacher and that emo next to you." she complimented him (although, a little backhandedly..), before she addressed all of them with her next words; "Anyways, I’ll be the only flower among you boys, I’m Kugisaki Nobara, I suppose that it’s a pleasure."

"It’s great to make your acquaintance, Kugisaki, I’m Itadori Yuuji and thanks for the compliment !" replied Yuuji in an eager manner and with an even more bright smile at her, while Megumi next to him, wasn’t exactly stoked to be called an emo upon first meeting her, so he just grumbled back at her; "Fushiguro Megumi."

"Yay, now you’ve all met each other ! Anyways, sensei has prepared a surprise for you ! We’re going to tour Tokyo !" said Gojo, as he clapped his hands and announced cheerfully to them what they were going to do. Yuuji and Nobara turned to him with stars in their eyes, with the pink-haired boy going as far as jumping to catch him in an enthusiastic hug (which Gojo lowered his infinity for, because, Yuuji), while Nobara was spouting all the places she’s heard about in passing. Megumi, unlike them, only watched from afar, knowing not to trust Satoru’s bullshit.

As it turned out, Megumi was right in not going along easily with his teacher’s words, as he took them to a haunted house, instead of one of the places that Nobara and Yuuji had been fantasizing about. With their dreams shattered, the two looked disappointingly at the building, as their teacher explained to them how they were supposed to exorcise it of curses, while he and Megumi would wait for them outside.

"So, Megumi, what do you think of your new classmates ?" asked Gojo as he leaned on a wall to help him support his height.

"I still have yet to build a well-formulated opinion about them, especially Kugisaki. But she appears to have strength to her, so I guess she can handle herself well enough. But Itadori, he’s too.. kind. He reminds me a little of Tsumiki, and people like them.. I don’t think they can belong to a world as dark and selfish as that of sorcerers."

"You know, being kind is not inherently a bad trait, despite what you might think. Maybe someone like you and I cannot truly understand them, but people like Tsumiki and Yuuji-kun.. kindness is their way of being strong. They get more strength from selflessly giving to others."

They then heard Nobara scream from the inside, which caused Megumi to get up, in a hurry to rush in, until he was held back by his teacher who held him back and continued to watch the building attentively. His superior vision allowed him to see Yuuji’s unique physical achievements along with a spark of pink energy, so he smiled and continued what he was saying to Megumi; "Besides, Yuuji-kun is not just any kind individual, though that makes up a big part of him. He is the prophet of that powerful Goddess and he has been fighting long before you found him. I’m sure that he has more to him than what we have seen."

After a little while, when the battle inside seemed to have reached an end, Fushiguro finally let the tension seep out of him, while Gojo showed his approval both non-verbally, by nodding approvingly, and by saying how crazy both of the students were. Said students came out of the once haunted building with a little boy in tow, whom they all escorted to where his house was.

As late as it was, Satoru decided to treat the third year students to eat out whatever and wherever they wanted in Roppongi. Yuuji and Nobara of course had many propositions and opposing ideas, so they decided to duke it out by playing rock-paper-scissors, while Megumi just played with his phone, having already been insulted by Nobara who called him ‘a narcissistic city boy’, and pouting over not getting to join on the fighting earlier. The brown-haired girl won over Itadori, which the boy wasn’t all that unhappy about, and so, sushi was officially on the menu for dinner.

Dinner passed spectacularly in the restaurant Satoru chose to take them to. Yuuji and Nobara filled their stomachs to the brim since Megumi had told them beforehand that they didn’t to worry over the bill with Satoru’s fortune of wealth. They even took dessert, at the white-haired sorcerer’s insistence, who firmly believed in the importance of dessert after every meal (or as every meal if you’re brave enough).

Nobara and Yuuji got along like a house on fire, talking about everything, from fashion, movies, aesthetics, and religion (specifically Madoka-sama, which Nobara already like the idea of, on the mere basis that she’s a Goddess and not some God). They also bullied Megumi into participating in their conversations. Satoru was satisfied with this, he already knew that Megumi’s third year would go differently that the years prior in Jujutsu Tech with them around. He would really like for Yuuji to scale back his cuteness, though. Like, worrying over him not eating healthy while looking at him with puppy eyes would sooner give him a heart attack, rather than some pastries !

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The day, the third-years are assigned a mission by Ijichi, while Satoru was absent due to being sent on assignments. He tells them about the mission details, which include a detention center haunted by a cursed womb that could spawn a special grade curse, while five detainees still remain inside with it. Yuuji, only hunting down whatever curse crossed his path without knowing anything about the grading system, asked about it, which Ijichi thoroughly explained to him, while warning them at the end that they could only escape if they cross paths with the special grade, otherwise they would die. With that, he casted a Curtain and wished them good luck on their endeavor of rescuing any survivors if found.

"Guys, let’s try to save everyone !" exclaimed Yuuji to his classmates with a fist raised, which they agree on with firm nods. As they enter the detention, Megumi pauses in surprise; "This is..."

"Looks like the Maze has already been set..." mumbled Yuuji, which caused his companions to look back at him in slight confusion, the sentence distracting briefly from their apprehension (Nobara’s having been much obvious compared to Megumi).

"You mean, the curse’s Innate Domain ?"

"Oh, so that’s what you sorcerers call them ! That’s cool !"

Leave it to Yuuji to not pay mind to the situation they were in, and instead focus on differences in terminology between sorcerers and Madoka-sama’s followers. Nobara shook her head at his silliness (although grateful for the change in the mood), then the trio moved on to see if they could find any survivors. Sure enough, they do find them, but not exactly alive ... Yuuji looks on, uncharacteristically grim but still wanting to carry their corpses outside so they can be properly burried, which caused Megumi to point out the crimes they had committed, which had led to their detainment in the first place.

"I know that one of your goals is for people to have a proper death, however, you have to accept the idea that someone you save can easily become a person who causes hurt to others." Megumi said.

"I’ve heard before that kindness leads to even greater tragedy. I might not be able or good enough to stop the hurt they could cause, but if I could help out people, I’ll be proud of the way I live. That’s the best thing I could wish for as a follower of Madoka-sama. We could continue this conversation another time, Fushiguro, but for now..."

Yuuji suddenly stomped his right foot on the ground, which caused a shining white pattern with many circles to be drawn on it. Megumi and Nobara looked down in bewilderment, and they saw how that pattern worked as some sort of barrier, as a curse’s hand that was trying to catch the brown-haired girl’s foot immediately pulled itself back underground as if burned. Just as Megumi was about to shout at them that they needed to escape, Yuuji summoned his bow and aimed three consecutive arrows at the hole in the special grade’s chest, when it suddenly appeared in front of them.

It caused the curse to crash into the walls behind it, while clutching at its chest, that showed cracks on it from the attack. However, it used regenerative powers to heal the damage and charged towards Yuuji, who put away his bow, and instead channeled pink energy towards his fists to counter back against the curse’s fast fighting. Megumi and Nobara just watched in frustration at not being able to help, due to the fast pace of the fight and due to not wanting to accidentally hurt Yuuji. With a well-directed punch to the face though, Yuuji sent the special grade crashing down bellow the floor.

"Guys, I’m gonna break the Maze, someone please do something about the curse."

Though Megumi didn’t understand how one could break an Innate Domain, he amounted it to be tied to one the pink-haired boy’s unique techniques, he proved to be a quick thinker though and he immediately summoned his winged shikigami, Nue, ordered it to attack the special grade, and jumped down with it to follow the curse. In the meantime, Nobara fought off other curses that came around to surround them with her nails to let Yuuji do what he wanted without distractions; ‘Itadori, you better hurry the fuck up ! I don't do well with large number !’

The prophet rose his hands up, in position to shoot one of his arrows, and in his hands appeared a larger version of his bow, made out of gold instead of wood, and the air around him seemed to shine pink, in the same way a Sakura tree in full bloom would shine under the sun’s rays on plain day, and he shot the biggest arrow he had used yet at the roof. Cracks began to show and grow from within the center, throughout all the domain, until it just fell apart like badly handled fragile glass. It didn’t end there, as from the area that Yuuji had shot at, hundreds and thousands of white arrows of pure energy started to rain down on the curses.

"Eh, not bad, Itadori ! Those powers of yours sure are handy ! Say, can I also use something like that if I become one of Madoka-sama’s followers ?" teased Nobara in a way of coping with the situation that could’ve easily landed them in their graves , unable to believe how despite his unassuming appearance, Itadori had just done.. that (which made her think about how weird it was that this was their first assignment.. did those shitty old men want to kill them ?!).

"I got to agree, Itadori. I already saw how good your techniques were, but this was something else. Gojo-sensei will whine about missing out on it." said a dirtied (but, most importantly, safe from injuries) Megumi, as he was carried up by his owl-like shikigami, back towards his classmates while carrying the finger that initially caused the birth of the cursed womb. He just knows that the teacher would whine like a child denied of its favorite toy about not getting to see the Goddess’s prophet’s abilities in action.

"Aiya, you guys, you’ll make me make my head grow too big for my own good. Also, thanks for having my back while I broke the, what do you call.., ah ! inner domain ! You sorcerers sure are creative with your abilities !" gushed back Yuuji in return, which made Megumi and Nobara react sheepishly, in the face of his genuineness.

"Itadori-kun, Fushiguro-kun, Kugisaki-san, I’m glad you’re all alright !" called out a relieved Ijichi, and almost burst into tears at the sight of them out of the detention center, having exorcised it of the curses that haunted it.

"Yo, Ijichi-san ! We’re safe, but the detainees.." started Yuuji to say, but didn’t know how to carry on.

"They’re all dead, Ijichi-san. But.. their bodies are solid enough and can be retrieved to be buried properly, right, Itadori ?" was what Fushiguro followed up with, smiling slightly at the pink-haired boy, who shined a glowing smile at him, accepting the olive branch that Megumi was extending towards him concerning their earlier slight argument. With that, the students finished the last details of their mission, and climbed on the car with Ijichi, to go back to their high school.

On the way there, Ijichi started to explain how he had called Gojo in his worry over them and continued explaining the grading system to Itadori, seeing as he didn't finish doing it.

When they arrived on school grounds, the students saw their white-haired teacher awaiting their presence. He was sitting down on the stairs on the bottom and seemingly dazed while staring off into the void, until the car stopped in front of him and he urged himself to stand up (ticked off that Ijichi hadn’t called him back to inform him about the state of his students).

"Gojo-sensei, It’s great to see you ! Today was really full of excitement for us !" uttered Yuuji in greeting after getting of the car, with his classmates following him but with lesser enthusiasm. He sounded and looked to be in much higher spirits at the sight of him compared to his classmates. Satoru smiled back at him, ultimately glad that despite going on a mission that they shouldn’t have been assigned to this early without his supervision, they had returned back safely and only a little dirtied.

"Mou, Megumi-chan, Nobara-chan, why won’t you greet me like dear Yuuji-kun here ? Sensei feels quite hurt !" said Satoru as he slumped over Yuuji once he arrived next to him. The pink-haired boy, being a good sport, didn't mind being that close to him and easily took on his weight and height, while Satoru looked hurtfully at his other students.

"Get off your high horse, sensei. We just came back from a shitty ass mission ! You’re just lucky that Itadori is too nice of a fool, hmph. Anyways, I’m going to take a shower and get out of these dirty clothes, see ya losers." spouted Nobara in irritation at being subjugated to the white-haired sorcerer’s antics, before deciding to leave them in favor of climbing up the stairs to go to her room. Megumi wanted to go along with her, but wanted to wait for Yuuji, who was still caught in his teacher’s tentacle-like limbs' hold. Said pink-haired boy seemed to sense his intentions, and only smiled at him in encouragement to leave if he wanted to, which the Fushiguro did, but not before sighing at his mentor’s shamelessness.

"Say, Yuuji-kun, how did the mission go, mmh ? You're not hiding any wounds from sensei, are you ?" probed Satoru at his student, as he shifted from his earlier position to just having an arm around Yuuji’s shoulders, while leading the two of them to walk up the stairs, with Ijichi following behind them of course. The pink-head took his actions in a stride (as what started to be the usual for the two of them) and started rambling about how everything went down for him and his classmates.

As Yuuji was recalling the day in a dynamic manner (which appealed to Satoru, just how he found himself appreciating a lot of other things that concerned Yuuji), the white-haired man pouted at missing out on seeing more of his pink energy tricks and exactly how his student destroyed an Inner Domain (or a maze, as his student cutely called it) from within. He would just have to take Yuuji with him on an assignment someday to see more of it ! He also wondered if it would work on a sorcerer’s Domain... just as food for thought of course.. As they arrived near where the dormitory was, Gojo bid his cute student good night (as was their started habit since Yuuji’s first night on campus).

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"Ijichi, this was totally set up by the higher-ups to try and get rid of Yuuji-kun, right ? Or maybe it was to test his abilities.. They’ve really got some guts though, to do this in my supposedly unintended absence. Ah, they really like testing my nerves and seeing how much it’ll take for me to help the world by making it have less wastes of oxygen like them.. I’m not blaming you or anything, but next time, try harder at keeping me updated, okay ? Wouldn't want the loss of the lives of my students on your shoulders now, do you ?" with that last ‘cheerful’ note, the Gojo teleported to his house to turn in for the night, not bothering to bid the manager 'good night' (that was a ritual unique to Yuuji and him).

Meanwhile, Ijichi was left wiping at sweat on his forehead, glad that he didn’t actually cry from fear and hoping that a situation like this wouldn’t re-occur in the future. What did he do to deserve being tugged between Gojo, who already favored Itadori-kun, and the elders’ personal agendas ?!

Chapter Text

Yuuji, Nobara and Megumi were sitting in quiet on the stairs of their school, just enjoying the nature that surrounded Jujutsu Tech and each other’s company, while they waited for their teacher to come join them, since he was, once again, late, despite two weeks having already passed since classes (in the most loose definition of a class) started. Yuuji and Nobara perked up in curiosity when they heard the sound of many footsteps climbing up the stairs, while Megumi remained unphased, already knowing who would be the source of the sound. Effectively, three heads show up, and as they approach them, they see the Jujutsu uniforms, at least until..

"Is that a panda ?!" "Oh my Goddess, it’s a panda !!!"

"Ah yeah, that’s Panda-senpai."

"... why are you talking like it’s normal to have a panda as a senpai ?" asked Nobara exasperatedly, while Yuuji was too busy fanboying to pay attention to the semantics.

"Oi, Megumi, who are the other two ?" asked a deep but feminine voice which camefrom the glasses-wearing girl in front of them.

"Zenin-senpai -" "Don’t call me by my last name !" "- these are the other first years, Itadori and Kugisaki."

"Nice to meet you, senpai ! I’m Itadori Yuuji, I look forward to fighting alonside you in the future ! Now, if you can excuse me for a bit.." introduced himself quickly Yuuji, before immediately heading towards Panda and attaching himself to him in a bear hug, while sighing contently about 'the smell of sunshine'.

"That idiot.. as Fushiguro said, I’m Kugisaki Nobara, nice to meet you."

"You may call me Maki-senpai. Like I told Megumi here, I don’t like being called by my last name. My specialty’s weapons. The panda is Panda, and that’s Inumaki Toge. He uses cursed speech so he can only speak in sushi toppings." Maki said while gesturing with her hands towards each person she introduced.

The three then turned to where Itadori was hugging Panda, he was also corresponding, as naturally as one could with someone who spoke in sushi-related words, to Toge, as if his brain had been programmed beforehand to understand the way the other spoke.

"There’s another fourth year student, Okkotsu Yuuta-senpai. He’s currently on a mission outside of Japan though." Megumi added absentmindedly.

"Why my dear students, how good it is to see you getting along and all in one place. We have quite a bit of work to do ahead of us !" said Gojo as he spontaneously spawned between the two groups, exactly behind Maki, which caused her to instinctively direct a hit at him with her staff, which (unfortunately for her) didn’t land.

"What the hell Satoru ?!"

"Maa, maa, Maki-chan, no need to be so violent towards your handsome teacher." replied Satoru, raising his hands, as if to keep her upset at bay. It would have come off as condescending in any case, but the mocking tone indicated that the white-haired menace intended for it to come off that way, which made the green-haired girl even more ticked off, while the other spectators weren’t surprised, just disappointed in their teacher's shitty character. Well, that is, except for Yuuji, whom Nobara theorized that he just chose to be blind to their teacher’s terrible actions.

"Gojo-sensei, good morning !" exclaimed Yuuji as he happily waved at him, finally letting go of Panda to do so.

"Morning, Yuuji-kun ! Did you have a good night’s sleep ?"

And there they went again, rambling to each other about how their morning went, what food they ate, and whatever came up along the way; with one’s energy bouncing off the other’s, while the others just watched them. Megumi and Nobara were already used to the unusually close relationship that Yuuji and Satoru had developed in only two weeks' worth of time, while the fourth years watched in slight surprise how their teacher transformed in front of their eyes into a gushy mess. It’s not like Gojo was cold to them, after all, he annoyed them and teased them like it was his life’s mission. However, he does keep a certain distance between him and .. practically everyone, even with Megumi, whom he was a legal guardian for since he was a child.

"Are they always like this ?" asked Panda, with a scheming glint in his eyes, that eerily reminded Maki of how he acted with Toge around her and Yuuta.

"Yeah, they are. It’s like the idiot energy is squared when they talk." replied Megumi, with Nobara snorting over the comment and how true it was.

" (...) By the way sensei, why did you mention that we have a lot of work to do ?" asked Yuuji in the background.

"Ah, thanks for reminding me Yuuji ! In two months, the Goodwill Event between our school and its Kyoto counterpart will take place. Which means that it’s training time, baby !" announces Gojo flamboyantly.

"That’s great ! I think.. What’s that though ?" tilted Yuuji his head to the side in confusion, with the other students staring disappointingly at Gojo, not surprised in the least that he forgot to tell them about it.

"I didn’t talk about it.. ? Oh well, it’s never too late ! There’s still two months left until it happens after all ! All you need to know is that you need to train to beat up students from Kyoto !" Gojo clapped his hands as he said the last thing, already excited at the idea of his students beating Utahime’s students. The picture his imagination had conjured up of him gleefully T-posing over Utahime was interrupted by phone ringing that sounded faintly like the beats of some bubblegum pop song.

"Ah, that's my phone. Sorry, Gojo-sensei, everyone, I need to take this call, it’s from fellow followers, so it could be important." Itadori sheepishly said, then he distanced himself from his companions to answer the coming call.

Satoru stared after him in curiosity, but he decided against indulging it and following after Yuuji (for now). Instead, he decided to tell the rest the third year students to head to the training field, while letting the fourth years leave to their rooms as they had just come back from a mission (he wasn’t that much of a bully).

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An hour had passed since the third years’ training started, with no Yuuji in sight during the whole time. As (deservingly) narcissistic as Gojo was, he knew that his pink-haired cute student liked him and wouldn’t ditch class (and consequently him) for nothing. So he decided to let Megumi and Nobara take a break, while he decided to use his six eyes to spot Yuuji.

It was quite weird how despite the lack of cursed energy, he had no problem spotting Yuuji, unlike with the case of Fushiguro Toji. The energy around him was very bright, and adorably pink (as what seemed to be the usual case with all things related to Yuuji).

"Ah, here you are Yuuji-kun ! You really took your time with that call of yours, you made your classmates worried about you. So me, being the kind teacher that I am, I let them take a break." Satoru announced his presence after teleporting (without Yuuji noticing it) when he finally found his student standing by the school’s vending machine, while drinking strawberry milk.

"Ah, I’m really sorry Gojo-sensei !" Yuuji said in return, bowing his head multiple time while blabbering out apology after apology.

Satoru waved it all away nonchalantly with his usual smile on his face and asked; "So, what was that call about ? By the amount of time you took, I’m assuming that it wasn’t just someone doing their social duty and reaching out innocently to you."

"Yeah.. it wasn’t. Sensei, remember the incubators I talked to you and Fushiguro about ? Apparently they’ve been on the move and were spotted in Shinjuku. The situation could even involve a labyrinth.. or a domain as you sorcerers prefer to call it. Since the situation is a little dangerous and I’m closer to the localisation, I will need to take care of the issue. So sensei.. is it okay if I take a few days off for it ?" Yuuji explained the purpose of the call, and then turned big puppy eyes up at Satoru to beg him.

Satoru was going to agree anyways, but the eyes his student was directing at him had him frozen in place. He already thought that Yuuji was the cutest human he had ever encountered in his thirty years of being alive, and he had had the thought that his younger self would snatch him up to be his little boyfriend at the speed of light. But this instant was really awakening something in him. When he finally returned to his senses, Satoru decided that he would take revenge on Yuuji for making him drown in cuteness-aggression and thoughts that he shouldn't really be entertaining wbout his student (as screwed up as his morals were, he still knew that).

"Hmm, I don’t know Yuuji-kun... You would be missing classes and possibly even missions if this quest of yours takes too long." just as Yuuji seemed to wilt in front of him, seemingly about to cry from how much his eyes sparkled, Satoru continued; "But ! It would be just fine if sensei can accompany you ! I even own an apartment near Shinjuku if we happen to need a place to stay at."

The white-haired sorcerer really felt like he hit many birds with one stone in this move. He would get to finally see the dog-cat hybrid that Yuuji talked about, he would see his student’s powers in real time, and, beyond anything, he would be spending quality time with Yuuji !

"Eh ! Really ! That’s so cool of you sensei, thank you so much ! I’m so glad I get to do a hunting mission with you ! Madoka-sama respects your prowess, so I really wanna see how awesome you are at fighting. Please take care of me during this, sensei !" Yuuji excitedly went on a tangent while jumping around like a rabbit on steroids (again), finishing it off by bowing down and then directing a dazzling smile at his teacher.

Satoru was once again stuck in a daze because of Yuuji (which was so unfair, Yuuji was the one supposed to be panicking about his handsome teacher tagging along on with him on this task !). He was unused to being on the receiving end of genuineness like that of Yuuji’s. He already realized how much Yuuji tolerated his antics and brash personality, but he didn’t know that the pink-head appreciated him this much, enough to jump in joy and smile like that (because of Gojo Satoru alone, without knowing that he was the strongest or anything else).

After staring in wonder at the strange boy in front of him, Satoru decided to snap out of it and grinned brightly (in a way that was too genuine) back at Yuuji; "Haha, of course you would love my company Yuuji. Be prepared to be blown away by my powers ! I also leave myself in your care, so let’s take care of each other, Yuuji-kun !"

The two smiled at each other for a few minutes (just like some idiots, would say anyone who saw them), until Yuuji stopped; "Ah, Gojo-sensei, do we still have some classes left ?"

"Oh yeah, you actually do, you should probably get back to Megumi-kun and Nobara-chan. It’s just some boring Jujutsu history stuff. Anyways, I’ll give you four hours to get anything you may need from your room, since I know that Yuuji-kun is particular about those things. I’ll come get you then, okay ?"

"Mmhm, okie dokie sensei ! Thank you for being so considerate ! I’ll go join Fushiguro and Kugisaki now ! Bye bye- or I guess, see you later sensei !"

The sorcerer watched the pink blob fade away, when he was sure that the other was out of his talking range, he disbelievingly muttered to himself; "’Considerate’ he says.. who knew someone would call you so to your face Satoru.. Only Yuuji-kun, I swear to God, or is it Goddess now ? Haha, he even has the ability to change something that's supposed to be seemingly common belief like that.. Mmh, I’m really craving some strawberry milk now..."

As he bought the drink from the vending machine, he looked at its pink color for a while before drinking it, taking his time with it instead of finishing it in the blink of an eye as he usually would.

"Huh, it’s sweet, exactly just like him."

Chapter Text

"WAAAAA ! Your house is so cool, sensei ! I’m not a big fan of the modern and clean look, but damn !" with sparkles in his eyes, Yuuji turned to the white-haired man standing next to him. They were both still wearing their uniforms, standing in the middle of Gojo’s apartment that looked more like a penthouse with how luxurious it looked, with Yuuji’s bags deposited in the floor.

"I’m the one who owns it, so of course it’s cool Yuuji-kun ! I know it can’t compare to how your little house in Sendai was, but I’m glad it met your approval haha ! Anyways let me show you the room you’ll be staying in so that you can put away your things." Gojo smugly laughed off Yuuji’s compliment (anything positive said about something that belongs to him, is a compliment to him !), and led Yuuji to the room he’ll be occupying the entire duration of his mission.

While watching the pink-head organize his belongings in his temporary room, Gojo remembered that both of them have yet to eat dinner. "Yuuji-kun, what would you like for dinner ? I can order us some takeout-"

Just as Satoru pulled out his phone so he can look through the list he composed of his favorite places that could deliver their food as fast as possible, Yuuji’s hand shot out and caught his hand to stop him from proceeding with what he was trying to do with a determined face. "You don’t need to ! You already did more than enough by giving me somewhere to stay at and accompanying me to do my duty, besides other stuffies too ! Please let me make you dinner in return ! I promise that I know how to cook, you won’t regret it sensei-"

Just as Yuuji was about to go on and on about all the reasons why he should be the one to cook their food, his teacher’s hand landed on his mouth, cutting off anything more that he wanted to add. Gojo had been staring at Yuuji throughout his rant, almost laughing at the thought of someone compensating him for things that weren’t even that difficult for him.

He had many titles to his name, among them was that of the strongest sorcerer (weapon). He could have made it so Yuuji never had to lift a finger to exorcise another curse; he would only have to sit and be a pretty and nice liaison between the Jujutsu world and Madoka-sama’s sect followers.

And yet, it was these simple actions that made Yuuji satisfied. He was sure that Yuuji already knew about Gojo’s status within this world, whether it be from his other students, his coworkers in the school, or his precious Goddess. He wondered if seeing him in action would make Yuuji see him the way everyone else seems to do, but something tells him that wouldn’t happen, even then. It was that thought that made him decide that being paid by having someone cook for him made him more special than any title could.

When he realized how long he kept his student’s mouth slapped shut (with said student staring at him with the deadly weapons that were his teary eyes), he smiled down at Yuuji and released him from his enforced silence, only to put his hand back on him, but this time on his pink hair to ruffle away at its softness. "Why Yuuji-kun, of course you can cook if you want to ! You didn’t need to convince me all that much. Say, am I the first person you cook for in school ?"

"Thank you for agreeing sensei ! And hmm... technically, yes ! I showed Fushiguro how to make ginger meatballs, but we never got to making them together. You actually just reminded me that I’ve been wanting to cook all of us something. Maybe after this is over and all of us are free.. Anyways, I hope you recently did a grocery run."

With that, the pink-haired boy headed towards the kitchen, having already seen it earlier and leaving his teacher to follow up. Satoru stayed behind, still relishing like the cat who got the cream being the first person in school who will personally get Yuuji to cook for them.

Suddenly, he remembered that his fridge was painfully empty. He didn’t always have time to stay in this apartment. He, most of the time, made the choice of sleeping at the school’s dorms for teachers and other personnel, due to how crammed his schedule can get with missions. He also mostly ate takeout food, not seeing worth in the activity of cooking for himself. He had told the housekeepers that occasionally did rounds in the house to not bother with keeping the fridge full. He had a mini-fridge in the master bedroom where he put snacks and water whenever he slept here, but even that was empty at the moment.

And so, he hurried after Yuuji to the kitchen. He found the boy standing stock-still in front of the open fridge. Sensing the white-haired man’s arrival, he turned to him with a concerned face. "Sensei.. why is your fridge looking like it was barely broken in ? How do you manage to eat usually ? Do you suffer from an eating disorder ?"

"It’s nothing like that Yuuji-kun ! It’s just that I rarely stay here. Not to mention, I live alone, so I mostly eat out or get takeout. It would be a waste of groceries if I left food in there always, since I don’t always have time to cook. Also, I’m a perfectly healthy man, you don’t need to worry about none of that." Satoru was quick to appease all of his student’s worries. He may be a nonchalant person about many matters, but he still took his health semi seriously, despite how many sweets and deserts he consumed on the daily ! Not to mention, he has to conserve his cool image in front of Yuuji, he couldn’t let a mere empty fridge stand in the way of that.

"How about this, there’s a convenience store nearby, we can go there to get what you may need ?" So as to dissuade Yuuji’s worries, Satoru proposed this quick solution.

"Okay sensei ! What would you want for dinner, by the way ?"

"Well, I don’t mind anything. But since you’re asking, maybe Hambagu ?" Although taken back with the question, Satoru didn’t show it and answered fastly. He couldn’t keep acting surprised every time Yuuji acted good to him.

"Great choice sensei ! I’ll make some side dish along with it !"

"Alright then, let’s go to the store now. Here, grab my hand as tight as you can."

Yuuji did as he was told, between one moment and another, Satoru teleported them outside of one of those convenience stores that were always open. As the white-haired man let go of the other’s hand and turned to his companion, expecting to find with a motion-sick facial expression, he found instead the other staring up at him with starry eyes of admiration, as if Satoru had brought the moon down for him.

"OMGSENSEITHATWASLITERALLYSOCOOLHOWDIDYOU- !!!"

"Careful there Yuuji-kun, you’re turning a little too red. Gotta say, your reactions are never a bore ! Well then, since you’re so interested, sensei will tell you how that works while we do our shopping, okay ?" Satoru couldn’t help wanting to boast, finally one of his students was realizing his greatness as their cool teacher !

An hour later found them in a, dare Satoru say, domestic scene. With Yuuji in a cute apron, over a shorts and cropped hoodie combo, that has Pochako on it, jumping around the kitchen in order to finish their dinner as soon as possible (which was too fast, considering Yuuji’s abnormal physiology), all while responding to whatever his teacher says from his seat at the dining table for two, dressed as he was in more comfortable home clothes and having forsaken his blindfold for black sunglasses with rectangular lenses.

"Here ! I hope you enjoy the food sensei !" Yuuji said as he finally sat his little butt down after having set the table for the two of them.

"The view and smell alone are appetizing Yuuji-kun, thank you for your hard work. Here goes the first bite !" as Satoru put said first bite inside his mouth, he felt like he was teleported inside his domain, with stars all around him.

".. Yuuji." Satoru put his utensils down and reached across the table with his long arms to put each of his hands firmly on each of Yuuji’s shoulders, all while staring at him sternly. "Did you put some of your cute magic in this ? Because.. that was too damn good !!!"

Yuuji, who was apprehensively expecting to be berated by his teacher, gaped at the way the other unexpectedly complimented him, and felt as his face slowly but surely began to burn from embarrassment at the way his teacher was staring at him. He only saw a glimpse of something blue from beyond the sunglasses, but even with the obstructing felt small under that intense gaze.

"Eh !? No, I didn’t sensei, I literally cooked that in front of you, I don’t think it’s that great to say that-"

"NO ! This is seriously one of the best things I tasted, and I’m not even a guy who prefers savoury food. You could totally become a chef."

"Ah, I actually tried to make the food as sweet as I could, since I know about sensei’s sweet tooth." responded Yuuji, his blush not going anywhere due to the white-haired man’s compliments.

".. Yuuji, you’re too considerate. I’ll seriously never let you leave if you continue to be so, so-"

"Alright, that’s enough out of you sensei, dig in already, the food will go cold !"

"Hehe, don’t mind if I do !" Satoru giggled at being scolded for the first time by Yuuji. The other really looked at that moment like a mad Kirby meme that he saw on Twitter some days ago.

With that, the whole dinner ordeal went peacefully, with both table-mates immersed in eating their fill. Satoru mischievously sneaked in some more compliments to Yuuji whenever he could, relishing in the pink-head becoming even pinker (a pink glob of an existence, if you will). When they were done, Yuuji stood up to clean up, and Satoru stood up alongside him, dismissing the other’s tries to dissuade him from helping with "Yuuji, let me at least pretend to be a decent host. Trust me, I’m only this polite because it’s you."

After being done with that, Satoru invited his student to watch movies on his couch (he was pulling all the nines !). The other excitedly asked him if he had any Studio Ghibli movies in his collection, and Satoru, of course, answered with "yes". He figured that since the pink-haired boy cooked them dinner; he could choose what they get to watch (he ignored the voice telling him that he wasn’t usually this considerate for anyone, he was just a nice guy who cared for his students !).

And so, they spent the next hours taking in the crisp quality of the animation and relishing in the familiarity of the movies. Amazingly enough (as seemed to be the case every time with Yuuji, apparently), Yuuji wasn’t bothered by Satoru’s comments that sometimes coincided with the characters’ dialogue. He even contributed his own opinions ! At a certain point, Satoru glanced at his smartphone and saw how late it was. Just as he was to tell his student so, Yuuji spoke.

"You know sensei, every one I’ve met since getting into your school has only ever mentioned your strength and how seemingly annoying you were. I was curious, so I asked Madoka-sama what made your powers so well-known. I gotta say, I’m excited to see all that I’ve heard about you in real life ! Till’ now, all I’ve been introduced to is sensei’s silly and cute facets, so I’m looking forward to knowing new one tomorrow."

"... Ah, I think I’ll get diabetes from how sweet you are on me, Yuuji-kun. Never change though, in return, sensei will keep on being .. silly and .. cute, as you said. I’m also looking forward to seeing that weird incubator thing. Now, don’t think I didn’t see you yawning, time to get in bed."

Satoru switched off the TV and stood up so that he can lead the way upstairs, where the bedrooms were, with Yuuji following him from behind. He left the pink-haired boy with one last ‘good night’ and headed off towards his own room, where he decided to plop face-front onto the bedding, and then kicked at the air a few times with his long legs.

"Ugh, this is too much for my heart. Why is he so- so-! I’m not a weirdo, all my students are cute in their own way, it’s just that Yuuji is cuter and funnier.. Aah, I wanted time just for the two of us, but by the end of it, I think even my RCT won’t be able to take care of the diabetes I’ll get from being around him.. Heh, never thought someone would unironically call my attitude cute to my face.." with that, Satoru (unfortunately ? fortunately ? who knows with him) fell asleep to thoughts about a certain pink blob of a human.

<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3

Before fully waking up, Satoru smelt the smell of something sweet invading (in the best way possible) his room. Even with his mushy, half-asleep brain, he had an idea about who could behind the smell, but the careful knocks on the door and the voice calling "Sensei ?" further confirmed his supposition. Though he realized that he should wake up and get his student, he couldn’t muster the effort to do anything besides letting a zombie-like grumble.

Yuuji, bless his heart, must have heard the sound he emitted and taken it as a sign to open the door calmly and approach his teacher’s lying form. "Sensei, please get up to brush your teeth and wash your face. I already prepared breakfast."

".. Five more minutes..."

"Aww; but sensei, I made pancake just for you. All that’s missing at the table is you. Please, get up, for me ?"

Yuuji’s sweet voice that talked to him so indulgently (almost adoringly, which made Satoru inwardly do a key-smash) was too much for the white-haired man who still had his eyes closed. When he opened his eyes, he discovered that the sight was even more undeniably better/worse, even though he was somewhat aware of it thanks to the six eyes.

Yuuji, in all of his pink glory, was still in his sleepwear, and was sitting on the unoccupied side of Satoru’s bed, all while looking at him with cute small smile and eyes that seemed like just-melted honey because of the few rays of the sun that escaped Satoru’s dark curtains and hit them just right. At that moment, a ‘Satoru.exe error’ sign flashed through his mind; he could’ve sworn that he had blue-screened.

And so, Satoru got up from his place as if the devil (Gakuganji) was on his tail, and headed off to his bathroom, but not before a quick ‘good morning !’ and a ruffle of Yuuji’s fluff, with his student giggling from behind him as he left (most likely at what he perceived to be another instance that showcased his sensei’s silliness).

Besides that slight morning.. accident, the rest of their morning went by just fine, and Satoru relished (again !) in Yuuji’s cooking skills (and also relished in making him blush from many compliments too). They once again talked about whatever ("I didn’t expect you to like Tokyo Ghoul, Yuuji, talk about a gap moe.." "Hehe don’t judge a book by its cover sensei !" and "OMG! Finally someone whose favorite genre is also pop, sensei is so real for that. Wait, do you like BTS ?" "I actually never listened to a song of theirs." "... I’ll introduce you to Jin and J-hope even of it’s the last thing I do !").

Afterwards, they got to dressing up so that they could immediately head off to the place that Yuuji’s acquaintance pointed out. Satoru could have teleported the two of them, but Yuuji insisted that he shouldn’t tire himself out needlessly and that they could unknowingly land themselves inside the labyrinth ("Domain expansion, Yuuji." "Yeah, no, labyrinth sounds cooler though."). And with that, they went on their way.

Gojo noticed that the more they approached the location, the lesser the amount of people that populated the area, while the smell of cursed energy became stronger along with something .. foreign. Yuuji stopped next to him, seemingly out of nowhere, when they arrived at road which had a sign that spelled out that citizens would be hurt if they decided to take it.

"Long time no see, Itadori Yuuji. I got to say, it was never in my calculations that you would be in the company of the strongest Jujutsu sorcerer Gojo Sator-" and before the robot-like voice could finish saying his name, said sorcerer saw his student shoot (in what he initially thought to be an overkill manner) two arrows at a curse-like .. cat and dog hybrid. Oh, wait, is that-

"Yuuji-kun, you’re right, it’s a cat and dog hybrid ! Somehow, the more I take it in, the uglier it looks, not gonna lie. Like, it’s cute, but in an ugly way, and we all know that the reverse is the only truth !" Satoru gasped in mock-amazement as he watched the (decidedly) ugly alien burst up like a balloon. Yuuji, whose face became an unfamiliar stone of a deadly expression, cracked up just a little (for him !), but turned back to the sternness it decided on upon sensing the alien.

"Those weaker humans must have sent you here-" PLOP "Don’t you think it’s unfair, Ita-" PLOP "Honestly, with our old laws, you-" PLOP "A win-win situation, we get energy from-" PLOP "And you don’t have to be the burdened hero-" PLOP

Satoru watched how each time, the incubator thing spawned again and again, seemingly unaffected, even as his student eliminated it each time without failure, as if he was merely take care of a pest problem in some room, not tiring even after shooting pink arrow after or at the same as another. He had an idea, from Megumi’s detailed report about a large-scale attack that Yuuji had in his arsenal, but he guessed that his student must’ve judged that the situation didn’t demand it (or, at least not yet).

"You’re as impossible as always to talk to, It-" PLOP PLOP PLOP "Rude, let’s see if you and your companion will be able to not fall victim to nostalgia like-" PLOP !

"Okay, I think that’s the final one, sensei. Now all we gotta do is deal with the curse ! But before we get in the maze, I must ask you, are you definitely alright with going in with me ?"

"Huh, who do you think you’re talking with here Yuuji, I’m the strongest, of course I-"

"Strongest or not, sensei must have his boundaries and could maybe not want to face nostalgia, with all the yearning it could bring. I say this because I care about what happens to sensei. Because there’s courage and strength even in backing down, no matter what anyone says."

Satoru must have already started growing a little immunity against Yuuji’s whole.. sunlight, as all he did in response was smile indulgently down at the boy, and then hid it by ruffling his pink hair that his hand was slowly but surely growing obsessed with messing it up. "Yuuji worries too much ! Wasn’t it Yuuji who wanted to see how cool his teacher is ? Besides, I promised that I would take care of my partner in this mission, so let me do my job correctly, Yuuji-kun !"

Yuuji smiled brightly at him in response, and then,

And then,

They fell.

Chapter Text

Well, this is a new experience even for the likes of Satoru. Rare were the times that he allowed himself to get caught up in a domain, even more so when the domain induced him to free-fall with no near end in sight, while being surrounded by funnily shaped clouds (Was that a flying pig as a cloud ?). He looked at Yuuji next to him, and the boy was calmly looking around him with his bow still firmly in hand.

"Yuuji, is it just me, or you look way too comfortable with this. Don’t tell me that you also have some flying powers now ?" Satoru exaggeratedly pouted at his student, which caused the latter to finally crack up his stern facade and giggle; "Don’t be silly sensei, Madoka-sama is the one with the wings, not me. You never really know what to expect from labyrinths, so I just roll with whatever comes my way. Oh, I think we’re about to crash."

Accordingly to what his student said, Gojo saw how close they were to the ground that wasn’t even observable a few minutes ago. It was then that he decided to act like the GTG he was, twisted his body in the air enough to balance himself into standing up and caught his student from around his waist, carrying him under his arm as if he was a bag. Channeling infinity around them, he made it so they were both able to stand in the ‘sky’, overlooking the ground where a city started forming, a city that was very familiar...

"Tokyo ? No, I know that it’s Tokyo, but something about it feels .. old ?" mumbled Satoru to himself, seeing the world beneath him shape up to become a sight that he thought lost to time.

"Sensei, this may be a curse that shows memories, let’s be careful, okay ?"

"Yuuji, how many times do I gotta say it to you already, your sensei is a very capable person-" and the words choke themselves before he can continue comforting (gloating to) his student, as he sees walking down one of the streets, a tall dark figure that he remembered being well-acquainted with in the midst of his blooming youth, holding hands with two young girls that were smiling at him as if he was the sun itself shining down on them.

‘Suguru.. ‘ he thought after removing his blindfold (for the first time around his student, not that it was taken into consideration at that moment), as he remembered exactly which day this .. memory was showing them, using the white-haired man as its source. He had just finished a mission and was just enjoying looking down at the city and its citizens (feeling so powerful- so powerful- the most powerful- until-), when he saw him with what seemed to be the new family he made for himself.

Just like now, he had been stuck paralyzed at the sight, not knowing what to do, or if he should do anything. Whether he should have gone down there and confront him in front of his.. daughters (maybe it would make a difference, since neither he nor Shoko were able to create one-), or whether he should follow the orders he had of killing the curse user on-sight since he had ‘failed’ to do so the first time around.

Other than that, he had ultimately felt.. left behind, as if he was the only who was stuck in a time that he could never get back to, that they could never get back to, and watching the other move on (even if it was to execute genocidal plans, but still, he was planning something that had to do with the future, not the past). Somehow, this had inspired a sense of betrayal within Satoru that was worse than that of that day, of that question.

Now though, all he felt was a painful stir of nostalgia from deep within his heart. Suguru looked more at peace now that he ever did (at least, from the few time Satoru saw him after that disastrous mission) at Tokyo Tech. What if he gone down to him to simply talk, that day ? What if he had noticed his friend’s suffering after their failure ? What if he had been strong enough to kill Fushiguro before the other did him in first ? What if- What if-

"-SEI! SENSEI ! WAKE UP ALREADY !" Satoru saw a flash of pink light (pink- pink- wait, was there something pink like that back then-) before he felt two hands that had pink energy (isn’t that-) slap his face from each side of his cheeks, consequently squeezing his face and bringing it down a level so that two honey-brown eyes can defiantly stare him down with a stubborn light in them, belonging to a boy with sakura pink hair that looked so fluffy, so pet-able, so cute- His six eyes feasted upon him and his pink aura as if he was an oasis (and he was one !) found after days of being lost within a Sahara, he kinda felt spacey from the pink (cute-) energy that encased his face- and it was then that he remembered- "Yuuji ?"

"Yes, sensei, it’s me. I’m glad I finally got to you. You may not have been aware of it but the curse has been feeding on your memories and showing them to us. I don’t know if it sounds better but I tried to not see everything, I’m very sorry for invading your privacy sensei-"

"Now, now, what are you apologizing for, dear Yuuji-kun ? As far as I know, it’s not you that is peering into people’s privacy without their consent; it’s this goofy curse. And it was by a mere slip on my part that it got to me. That said, did you really have to slap my poor face ?"

Sheepishly smiling while closing his eyes in shyness, still forgetting to let go of Satoru’s face, only softening his grip, almost absentmindedly squeezing his cheeks (and what a contrast that painted in contrast to the bold look in his eyes as he faced just a few minutes ago), Yuuji said; "Sorry for that sensei, it was a last resort kinda situation, since you were kinda out of it. Not to mention, you kinda deserved it; I told that we should stay on guard ! I know that sensei is the strongest in his world, but just like me, you’re only human at the end of everything !"

"Yuuji-"

"No, sensei has to take better care of himself ! The emptiness of your house and the lack of healthy food in the fridge, and now this !"

"I don’t think we can compare this and that-"

"Sensei, respectfully, shut up. What I’m trying to say is: please take better care of yourself, if you can’t do it for yourself, then at least do it for the people who care about you." ‘like me’ went unsaid.

".. I feel like a useless adult now." Which does agree with what Megumi usually says about him, doesn’t it ?

"Giving up decisively also counts as an act of courage, so giving up, or thinking about giving up on the way that you used to live, doesn’t have to mean that you’re useless. Besides, even someone as new to Jujutsu like me knows that sensei is anything but that. After all, you are my teacher ! So all sensei needs to do is to make some adjustments to his lifestyle." and after being done saying his piece, Yuuji smiles proudly at him.

And with his face still smushed between his student’s warm-pink hands, Satoru thinks that the sun comparison feels more and more lacking, since the pink-haired boy might as well be the sun itself, or maybe even a star at the center of its very own system, with Satoru being but a helpless planet, that couldn’t help deviating from its orbit and choosing one that brings it closer to the star.

Satoru brought his hands up from where they were limpidly hanging by his sides to gently grasp his student's smaller hands and make them let go of the grasp they had on his face. Yuuji, as if finally realizing how long he’s been holding his teacher hostage, widened his eyes in stupefaction and his mouth opened and closed multiple times (most likely to spout apologies, silly boy), while his ears gained a pink tint to them, as if blushing-

And that was what induced a mirthful storm from Satoru, who couldn’t help himself a laugh from the deepest, most genuine place within him; at the pure ridiculousness of the situation, and at how adorable Yuuji is. ‘Who even blushes from their ears ? He had the courage to say all of that mushy stuff, worrying about me out of all people and being proud for having me as a teacher, and holding my face is what pushes him to become shy ? Pfft-’

On his part, Yuuji pouted as his teacher continued on laughing (at him, most likely), only then noticing how blue the man’s eyes were, which caused him to lose his temporary pout and to instead gape at his teacher’s face. A few weeks of knowing the other, and yet this was his first time seeing that ! And those ! He has just been mindlessly smushing at that otherworldly face a few seconds ago ! Just thinking about how careless he was with someone’s face, made Yuuji feel a little embarrassed, but he shrugged it off before the sorcerer could notice, he would most likely tease him, and they still had a curse to slay !

As if finally remembering that they had a duty to fulfill, Gojo ceased his loud mirth and looked down at Yuuji with a smirk, calmer than before; "Yuuji, never change. Now then , I think that it’s high time that we took care of this pesky curse and its annoying domain, hmm ?" and with that, the white-haired man directed his technique ‘Blue’ to attack said curse, which his eyes had identified the moment they were out of that fog of, as that ugly alien said, nostalgia. ‘Time to impress my adorable student a little bit!’

He was slightly surprised when his attack created a crack in the ‘sky’ in which they were standing, but it still confirmed his theory that wherever they were, it was enveloped by some sort of of shield. "Sensei, let me try something out.." he heard from his student, and so he turned to him while trying to hide his excitement. ‘Finally ! I get to see the bling bling powers live !’

He saw how Yuuji’s former bow turned into a bigger version of it, more golden, with the rose at the top of it flaring brightly than ever. His student raised his arms until he was aiming upwards, where various circles started forming and when they got connected, the pattern as a whole started shining brightly, making the bright blue of the ‘sky’ seem like a cheaper background in contrast. Satoru contemplated the view, low-key impressed by how much it was brimming with power; power that had a glint of that of the Goddess, but mostly screamed ‘Yuuji’. And then, the pink-head shot the mightiest shot yet right at the center of the magic circles.

While his ‘Blue’ might have done some damage earlier, it was clear that this move from Yuuji cracked, quite literally at that, the world around them. Like cracked glass, not only did the ‘sky’ start falling part, the world itself was shaking at its seams, as chunks started to fall around them, as Gojo’s infinity kept them well protected from the growing chaos. Abnormally enough, flowers fell all around them, white tulips, yellow roses, and forget-me-nots, along with .. ‘Are those teeth ?’ Satoru asked himself internally; ‘This domain is truly proving itself to be more developed than expected..’

As the last of the pieces of the world fell, large hands with pointy nails, that vaguely reminded Gojo of a witch, which had weeping eyes all over them appeared and tried catch within their hold the falling flowers, teeth, and even the glass, which caused a sore sight for the eyes, as blood and tears started to mix up on the distorted hands. And then they heard:

n̴͍͉͇̩͎̺͗͐̅̃̓o̵̢͎͉̾͊͊͌̃͊̑̈́̎̾͘̚͝͝Ŏ̷̡̢̪̱̞͈̩̗̬̮͖͈͆̓͘o̷̢̨̢̹̪͍̫̠̟̘̭̬̩̾̅͊͛͆́͝͝ ̸̡̢̖̘͉͔̗̹͓̟̯̓́͆̓́̓̐̕͝͝.̸̧̭̥̈́̂͑̊͊̂͌̏̚͝.̵̧͎͍̬̖̦̭͕̱̦̟̖̾̈́̊̔͘͜͝ͅ.̵̛̝̈́̓͛̍͆̐͂̿͘ ̴̢̨̣̭̮̠͚̏͑̔̓́̄i̸̤̹͕̎͆̌͋̑͂͋͆̃̋̆̃͠F̵̧̧̛̹̤͈̝͈̫͕̗̉̆̈́̈́̃̐͑ ̵̟̦̓̈̔̽͐̇̇̆̓͑̄̚͝o̷̢͐̓̎̀̀̏́͐͑͂͋̌͛̀̚ņ̷̙̣̜̣̠̱̹̘͓͔͍̐̆͑̉ͅL̴̘̪̝͔̄́͊̑̊͜y̷͈̗̠̳̰̩̤̰̬̭̳͊̂͜͝-̴̢̛̛̹̜̻͕̫͛̐̿̈͆̇͘͜ ̸̙͎̉̍̒Í̸̪͔̝̳̦̺̈̎͆̋͂̍͝f̷̝͕̲̪̘̬̬͉̂̌̾͐͑̉͆͑̾͂͑̕̕ ̵̢̛̳̹̜̗̺̣͉͇̈́̎͗̊͌́̅̊̃̏̍O̶̡̡̙̲̯̩̥̯̘͓̦̭͇̳̽̆̏ͅṇ̶̲̫̰̹̬̻̎͂̅͐͒͂̋̿̐̕̚͝l̷͉͍̰̱͈̩̪̰̲̄̀̑̅̐̃̀̈́̈̈́̐́̀͘͝Y̶̧̭̰̩͔̙̪̤͑͒̌̎͐͌̄̐̊̅̀̅̈́̎̓ͅ-̴̧̯̂͑̆̉̈́̉͊̃͑͝ ̸̨͔͂̑̑̿̈͝͝͝͝w̴̻̪̾͂̊́̐h̵̡̩̣͕̖̲̫͍͉̪̥̩̲͉̅͛ͅ-̴̨̖̺͉̗̰́̂̊͆͝ͅW̷̛̤̭̯̋̃͒̀͐h̸̠͎̱͕̟̞̺͑̀͂̾͗̈̍͗̚Ỵ̴̡̡͓̪̗̻̲̪̤̞̙͓̤̔͛

The sight, while disgusting, clearly inspired some pity from within his student, as he saw how despite how the other rose his hands to shoot it down, he momentarily paused before doing so. It was quite the anticlimactic ending though. Satoru had expected the curse to at least fight back a little before its end, though, he guessed that most of its energy went towards the vaguely impressive worlds-cape which plunged whoever fell victim to it in their regrets. The world briefly flashed white, before the teacher-student duo found themselves back where they stood before falling into the domain.

Satoru saw how his student suddenly set his hands (that were now free of any weapon) in praying position and closed his eyes to focus. He politely (shockingly enough) waited for the other to be done. When finished, Yuuji opened up his eyes and rose his head to face his teacher, who was already looking at him inquisitively with a raised eyebrow. And so, without being asked, Yuuji said; "I was just praying that Madoka-sama brings peace to the poor soul that got swept up in Kyubey’s schemes. They hadn’t even died at the hands of a curse, they.. they had killed themselves."

As Satoru didn’t know what to say (he never really had to comfort someone, being quite stunted with any of those fragile motions), he merely stayed quiet, offering silent companionship to his student until he pulled himself together. This goes to show how different his mentality was from that of the rest of Jujutsu, where every one was so used and desensitized to loss of life, that they just brushed it off as any other facet of life (including the strongest of them all), instead of pausing to at least pray for the lost soul, a last act of hope (even if sorcery was never really built on anything like hope or the betterment of humanity as a whole, now was it..)

Yuuji came back to himself quickly enough, as was his usual, and he brought out his phone to check the time, all seemed to be going fine until.. "Eh ? This wasn’t the date when we fell down that thingie though ? I also have missed calls from Fushiguro and Kugisaki.. Sensei.. I- I think that a few days have passed while we were in the labyrin- domain ?" This caused the white-haired man to also check his own phone and, surely enough, it wasn’t Tuesday anymore. His phone showing instead that it was Friday, and that 3 whole days have passed, despite how short the time seemed when they were still stuck there.

"Megumi-chan called me here too, which is rare of him.. Guess they must have grown worried about you at our unexpectedly long absence. Oh well, you can call them back later, as for now, I think it’s long time for us to go back to my place and rest up !" Satoru announced and then clapped his hands, immediately teleporting them back to his apartment, without waiting for an answer from his student.

Upon spawning in his living room, Yuuji turned his head up and (cutely-) frowned up at him; "Warn a guy the next time sensei ! Anyways, I’m going to get started up on dinner immediately after I shower and change my clothes, okay ? You should also go and do the same, but before that, do you want anything in particular to eat ?"

Satoru temporarily paused, and stared down at his student (with his eyes still out in the open, he forgot to cover them up) who was reminding him too much of those anime stereotypes about domestic wives with the whole «would you like dinner, a bath, or me ?» shabang. Just thinking of the other in that context had Satoru wanting to groan (not knowing whether it was at himself or at the image itself-), so he used the sudden aggression to pinch away at the pink-haired boy’s cheeks (to make them look even pinker).

"How cute of you, worrying about what your sensei wants to eat. I’m thinking about these cheeks of yours, how about that ? When you pout, they look like mochi, maybe they even taste like it, hmm ?"

"Shttop ish shenseiii-"

"Why so, dear Yuuji ? You sure had your own share of fun kneading away at my face earlier though." and Satoru pouted after his words too, making sure to do also his best imitation of puppy eyes since his eyes were not hidden for once. This; however, caused his poor student’s ears to flush pink and his eyes to look anywhere but the man’s direction.

"I’m showwy.."

"Are you ? Then why are you not looking at me ? Is something wrong Yuuji-kun ?" Satoru watched in wonder as the pink flush spread to his student’s face and his eyes glanced back at him, only to shyly look away again. Curious, he let go of the boy’s cheeks and continued staring at him until the other decides to crack down under the pressure and answer him. His student immediately raised his hands to rub at his cheeks, as to alleviate the pain, looking so bullied, that the idea of biting at them flashed across Satoru’s mind.

When it was clear that there was no perceived escape from the questions (and the man’s attention), Yuuji finally opened his mouth to talk; "Uhm, it’s just that, today, I finally got to see sensei’s eyes, and they have so many shades of blue to them, that I’m too dumb to remember the names, and they look so pretty.. I couldn’t help feeling embarrassed while you were looking at me.."

The Gojo felt something in him (his sanity, perhaps) snap. The sheepish confession, the shy stance, the way those honey-brown deer-like eyes glimmered as if they were about to shed a tear or two from embarrassment. It was everything and more than made Satoru say ‘Fuck it’ and wrap the smaller figure (made even smaller in his arms, with infinity falling down for Yuuji) in hug and squeeze it tight to him, while closing his eyes and smudging his face in the pink fluffy hair that was now a inch away from his reach.

He felt how the other froze up at his actions, understandably so, since Satoru never initiated a hug, mostly going for pats or a casual swing of his arm around the shoulders, but not full-blown hugs; it was the pink-head who did, and even then, never like this. Yuuji being Yuuji hugged him back without questioning him, even as the older one nuzzled his head (breathing him in simultaneously, feeling like a pervert, but at the same time unable to deny himself the sweet scent of honey and lemon, with the underside of something flowery, that felt very.. Yuuji).

"Yuuji you’ll really be the end of me.. why are you so- so- so damn sweet !"

Hearing that, in his teacher’s usual attractive voice, but made more breathy and low due to their proximity, caused Yuuji to grow conscious of their proximity and jump like a startled cat (or tiger, considering his size) and pushed the taller man away with his arms, with his face still flushed and averted to the side.

"I’m not so sensei ! Since you didn’t say what you wanna eat, you clearly don’t wouldn’t mind whatever I decide to cook, so you better finish up your food later ! I’m going to shower now, since sensei can’t be serious right now, hmph !" with that, Yuuji stomped away (his steps sounding like those thumps that bunnies do when they’re angry or want attention), leaving the other to watch him go. Satoru couldn’t help smiling, as if the other was truly mad, he wouldn’t still be cooking them food.

Which was exactly what happened later. Satoru took his time showering and dressing up in his comfortable lounging clothes, and when he finally decided to go downstairs; he found his house partner already halfway done through cooking while animatedly talking on the phone with voices he recognized as belonging to the other’s fellow third year classmates, seemingly saying his goodbye’s to them just as Satoru stepped into the kitchen.

"Ah, you could have continued talking on the phone with them, I don’t mind."

"It’s OK sensei, we actually have finished talking ! And even if we didn’t, I would have chosen to do so, because it would be rude to talk on the phone while I have the company of someone in real life !"

Seeing as the other was passionate about the issue, Satoru conceded to the other's point and moved onto asking if there was anything he could do to help his cute student. That made the other briefly give the taller one of the two a stink eye, but then he told him to help set the table as the food was almost done cooking. While waiting for it to finish doing so, Satoru leaned on the countertop, watching Yuuji (once again in his cute cooking apron) occasionally stir the food. After a few minutes of comfortable silence, the pink-haired boy decided to talk.

"I won’t ask sensei about what happened back then inside the labyrinth, but I think it would be unfair if I don’t share something about myself too." Without allowing the man to interfere, Yuuji went on; "I know I may not have looked like it, but when we were falling, I actually was pretty scared. You see, one day I had a bad fight with grandpa when I was younger, because I was a little delinquent back then. I didn’t terrorize innocent people, only those who actually did some shitty stuffies. So I sent some punks to the hospital, and upon hearing that one of them might be stuck in a mini-coma, my old man sure wasn’t happy about it."

"So we fought. And I said some nasty stuffies. My grandpa and I, we both could be pretty hard-headed, even if it was mostly me who conceded first. At that time though, I wasn’t ready to raise the figurative white flag first. Madoka-sama took pity on me and let me visit her and Homura-sama. They talked to me, which I’m still grateful for, but because of an accident, I accidentally fell. I fell down the sky so fast it made me dizzy and had me thinking ‘this must be how Lucifer felt while falling from heaven’, because, yeah, that was the equivalent of that. After some point though, the delusion turned into my regrets and my nostalgic memories flashing one by one behind my eyelids, among them them that of not apologizing to my gramps."

The cooking was done, and Yuuji began to plate the food, all while Satoru was listening intently, not finding it withing himself to interrupt Yuuji’s story of one of his regrets that he trusted him with. Yuuji multi-tasked between plating and story-telling; "It was a moment that I’m not really proud of haha, for not only was I doubting my grandpa’s love for me, love big enough that he would forgive me, but also doubting my Goddess’s benevolence and omnipotence to protect my life from any damage. And so, I finally hit the ground, coincidentally enough, right in front of my grandpa, who had been dying of worry about me, and isn’t that ironic, considering that he’s not here anymore. I remember bursting into tears like a baby, as he also cradled like one all while grumbling !"

And as Yuuji gave him the last plates to set on the dining table, he looked at him straight in the eyes (despite the sunglasses that Satoru was wearing) and finished with; "I know I may not have lived as long as sensei, so I may not have as much regrets, but like, if sensei feels like it’s too much, please talk to someone, or pray, or cry, or even scream ! Sensei feels like one of those people who compartili- compartiment- that difficult word ! Please know that I’ll cheer you on ! So find please find some good ways to cope ! Sensei is amazing, so I know you can do it !"

Satoru set down the plates, and before Yuuji could start removing his apron, the older man helped him in his endeavor, and when he turned around to face him, his teacher gently put his hand on his head, and instead of ruffling it, he left it there for a moment; "Thank you for sharing, even if you really didn’t have to. Sensei is a big boy, I can handle myself. But still, thank you, I’ll try to do as you said, maybe I’ll become like one of those people who scream at the sea to get rid of their stress."

"It would be super duper cool though ! Kinda like you’re doing a kamejameha or a rasengan !"

"Eh, my powers are way cooler than that, and I don’t even have to scream to do ‘em. Though, I guess the idea has merit, since Yuuji said it. Anyways, let’s enjoy the delicious food you cooked. Curry, huh ?"

"Well, yeah ! It’s easy enough and I put sweet potatoes in it since you have a sweet tooth and all ! I hope you find it to your taste, sensei !"

"I’m sure I will, at the first taste I had of Yuuji’s food last time, I was sure that I would enjoy anything you would cook ! So let’s dig in !"

With that, the two of them dug into the food, with Satoru doing his routine of compliments (as would become the norm whenever he ate Yuuji’s food), as Yuuji pouted at him from across the table, even attempting to kick at his feet once to shut him up, all while trying to hide how pleased he truly was with the flattery. Afterwards, they took care of the washing and drying, and then decided to watch some movies again from the couch (Satoru’s pick this time, which he devilishly picked with the intention of spoiling it for the other while they’re watching).

And so, the night passed.

Chapter Text

The next morning, Satoru made sure to wake up before his pink-haired temporary roommate could. His student was so determined to play the ‘well-mannered guest’ role by waking up early and preparing every meal they ate. As much as the white-haired man appreciated his student’s actions, they couldn’t exactly eat one of Yuuji’s yummy big breakfasts and train immediately afterwards. Today, Satoru decided, he would see how his student would fare against him in a purely physical show of strength. Since the origins of their powers were too different for Satoru to guide him in how to use his abilities (Yuuji had said that cursed energy was corrosive in nature for people like him and Satoru hadn’t seen enough of those.. ), he decided to coach the other in physical fighting.

Satoru knew that his student was very disciplined when it came to his physique, and that he was most likely born gifted in that way already, judging by his superior physical strength’s feats that could most likely be matched only by Maki. Yuuji himself had said that in that last mission (that could have ended a disaster), he had punched and kicked around the curse born from the cursed womb. The day before (which apparently lasted three whole days), Satoru didn’t really have the chance to witness the other’s martial prowess. Maybe if Yuuji lasts long enough against him, he won’t tease him that much with his infinity.. Hmm, choices..

"Ah, good morning sensei ! I didn’t expect you to be already awake, lemme prepare something quickly-"

"You don’t need to Yuuji. I intentionally woke up before an early bird like you so that... drums please !" Yuuji accordingly made his hands look like they were playing drums while making ‘dududun’ anticipatory sounds with his mouth; "You can have a training day with your GLG sensei ! Exciting right !"

"Waaaaaaaa, for real ?" Yuuji, with stars in his eyes, exclaimed.

"For real, for real." Satoru confirmed.

"That’s sooo- wait, how will that work with techniques and stuff ?"

"Well, considering that you don’t use cursed energy, there’s not much I can teach you on that front. Though, I’ll see if we can do a mock fight and see how you fair against someone who uses cursed energy. After all, you may have to defend yourself against something other than curses.. Ahem, anyways, we’re gonna be training with pure physical strength, I’ll even try to not cheat, just for my favorite student, how about that ?"

Satoru watched in wonder as Yuuji’s ears turned pink and pinker, staring at him with a deer caught in headlights expression as he processed the last of his words. While he was talking, he had slowly gotten closer to where the younger was standing. He had thought that it would be fun teasing Yuuji by telling him that he’s his favorite (and it is the truth) while leaning down until his face was within his student’s height level of sight. He even added a flirty wink, to add to the lightheartedness of what he was saying.

However, he hadn’t had the slightest clue that it would cause that much of an adorable reaction. Yuuji, at that moment, looked an absolute sweet, pink dream, while his eyes sparkled with embarrassment. Then the adorable sight was hidden by his hands, which added even more stress on Satoru’s heartbeat. And so, Satoru brought up his own hands to (gently) remove the other’s hands, only to then boop Yuuji’s nose (it was to snap him out of his fluster and also so that Satoru doesn’t lean on his meaner side and do something that would make the pink-haired boy blush even more).

"Ah, thank you for the boop sensei, sorry about that.. And don’t joke around like that ! How can I be your favorite student, when you’ve, for example, taught Fushiguro for the last two years. It’s barely been a month since you’ve become my teacher, you know."

"Well, like it or not, Yuuji is my absolute favorite-"

"Okay, okay, I get it, thank you sensei, you’re also my favorite ! Sooooo, training ?"

Satisfied that Yuuji finally accepted the position that he gave him and deciding that both of them were wearing clothes that allowed for movement, Satoru led Yuuji to the combat training room that he had only used before with Megumi, when his prickly student deigned to accept his invitations to lunch. A sharp contrast to Yuuji’s accepting and goofy attitude, which must surely create a necessary buffer between Megumi’s emo-ness and Nobara’s loudness, Gojo muses to himself.

Once inside, Satoru reminded his student of the rules he had told him before his blushy-blushy accident, which Yuuji accepted through nodding his head and shouting a "Osu !!!". And then, they immediately started. Throughout the whole deal, Satoru took note of the pink-head’s fast reflexes that clearly hinted at a background in martial arts or maybe even street fighting. He had a good fighting instinct, mixed with a little bit of battle strategy, which Satoru will make sure to help him polish even more. Another thing was that-

"Sensei, please stop with the praise already ! You’re distracting me and I feel like my cheeks are about to fall off ! Mercy please-"

Before Yuuji had the chance to finish whining and complaining, Satoru slipped a leg under his feet and made him fall down into the training mat which covered the whole room. However, he didn’t fall alone since the white-haired man kept a solid grip on him and leaned into the motions of the fall instead of fighting against it. Yuuji grunted due to having to bear the weight of the muscles of the taller man, who only smiled a lazy, satisfied-cat like smile at him when he mutinously glared at up him from under.

"Yuuji is really bad at accepting compliments even though you keep handing them out freely to people like me. You really gotta learn how to deal with it because what I’m saying is merely the truth, I don’t lie about this kind of thing, you know ?"

"My future enemies won’t compliment me though, that’s only you-"

"And, you saw how risky getting distracted by something in the middle of a mission can be from our outing. So distractions are bound to happen; I don’t know about cheeks falling off though.." Satoru seamlessly steamrolled over Yuuji’s muttering, proceeding to poke at said soft cheeks.

"Like I said, only sensei would say all that about me while fighting me, Kugisaki and Fushiguro would most likely rather curl up and die than say something like that out of nowhere, they would be too embarrassed compared to how shameless sensei can be. Also, wasn’t it sensei who got distracted last time ?"

Yuuji looked up at the sorcerer when he didn’t hear any reply, and he got spooked by the serious stone-like face staring back at him. The pink-head at first just froze in response, but then the panic set in afterwards. He remembered that the memories that Gojo had seen had made him look almost.. sad. He was scared that he had stomped all over his teacher’s feelings by this faux pas. But just as he was about to start blubbering apologies, he felt the other’s fingers move down to his waist, where he immediately started a tickle attack on the poor pink-haired boy.

"AHAHAHAHA WHAT ARE YOU- SENSEI- STOP-" Yuuji yelled out as he tried to escape, with no avail.

"This is punishment for talking back at your teacher."

"I’M SORRY-"

"I don’t know if this apology is genuine, what if Yuuji only wants to escape the tickle monster ?"

"NO- I’M REALLY SORRY- AHAHAHA"

Of course, Satoru ignored the offerings of remorse and continued on torturing his student, for it served many purposes. First, Yuuji wouldn’t feel bad over his words; Satoru was a big boy, and he could handle being reminded of that stupid nostalgia curse. Second, this was the first time that Yuuji was this cheeky with him, so he gets to return the playful mischief right back at him; after all, Satoru considers himself the indisputable king of tomfoolery. Third, he had wanted to test his theory on whether Yuuji could be tickled, and it has been a great success so far. Though his poor student was starting to look too red and was crying, so maybe he should put this at a stop now...

And so, he did stop and he helped Yuuji stand up, since the other had wobbly feet due to all the tickling. He then told the boy that they should take a shower to get rid of the sweat, and then they could eat breakfast together. The pink-head agreed with him and zoomed off at the blink of an eye, most likely so that he could finish his shower before the older can and then prepare their meal. Satoru has understood that fighting against Yuuji’s stubborn will to be nice is almost impossible, so he just thought fondly and also headed off to his own bathroom.

After they ate their food (which of course Yuuji cooked while Satoru helped set the table and clean up), the white-haired man, clad in his teacher uniform, told the pink-haired boy to not await his presence for dinner because he had to leave for Kyoto in order to meet the principal of the Jujutsu Tech branch there. He made sure to leave his card for the younger to spend from if he wanted to go out, making sure to shut all of his complaints of "You don’t need to sensei-" and "This is too much-" or even "I have my own money-" before he left.

Yuuji stared at the closed door long after his teacher left, sighing to himself about him being too nice to him, as he sat on the couch after putting on a random movie while he contemplated how his life changed instead of paying attention to the events of the film. While he gets that the man can act up, he thought that he was too cute, like a mischievous cat, to act all that mad about (unlike his classmates who always look exasperated at the older man’s actions). These few days that they’ve spent together really helped him understand a little Madoka-sama’s words on the day Gojo and Fushiguro met her.

He cannot deny that it has been a while since he has enjoyed life this much. While slayers like him existed out there, their numbers weren’t as significant as those of the sorcerers. Most of them were reincarnations from the Old World, and though they didn’t remember their past lives all that much, they were either older than him and treated him with too much respect, to the point that Yuuji feels too idealized by them, or younger than him and treated him like a teacher. He has always loved the fact that some of his features resemble those of his Goddess, but it was those similarities that put a line that couldn’t be crossed between him, the prophet, and the other followers.

And while he has long since accepted this treatment and made sure to act likewise, the people from Jujutsu society that he has come to meet or know have been a good change. Although many people might think that he had many friends, it was the opposite case in reality. Throughout middle school, he had gone through something of a rebellious delinquent phase, which didn’t exactly encourage people to become friends with him, even when he protected them from being bullied. That reputation followed him into high school, and though people became friendlier to him due to his participation in clubs whenever they invited him, by then he had become busier with his work as a prophet to truly form any deep, meaningful connections with anyone.

Meeting Fushiguro and then Gojo-sensei really opened up a door that he hadn’t even thought was available until the white-haired sorcerer extended the invitation to study at Jujutsu Tech in Tokyo. Yuuji knows that Gojo has other intentions for wanting to be his teacher, but he has never felt evil intentions from the man, just like Madoka-sama also hasn’t. He has also grown from finding the man interesting due to his appearance and his title as the proclaimed strongest sorcerer, to genuinely liking the man and enjoying spending time with him. Despite their age difference, he felt like the man was like a close friend to him, like Fushigurou and Kugisaki were quickly growing to be. He was so fond of the man that he ashamedly wanted to hug him whenever he acted cute, instead of getting the urge to hit him like other did...

Although Satoru had told him to go out if he wanted to, Yuuji felt like he would only enjoy doing that if the older was with him to accompany him. So he pulled up his phone and sent his teacher a message where he told him that he would be staying home for the day. The older immediately responded back with crying emojis and a text saying "Yuuji only doesn’t want to go out to not use my card, I see how it is :((((", which the pink-head immediately responded back to by reassuring him that he’ll command some food and pay with the older’s debit card, which the man answered back to with a "Yaaaaay XD !". Yuuji shook his head at his teacher’s silliness while not bothering to suppress the fond upturning of his lips, and then decided to change the movie he had put on earlier, in favor of an anime series he had been putting off watching for a while now.

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Inside a café in Tokyo and to the normal eye, a man with long dark hair, clad in a traditional outfit was seemingly sitting on his lone, despite the curses that were keeping him company. The man, reaching inside the folds of his wear, pulled out a restrained creature that, despite its state, only stared eerily back at the curses with its beady red eyes that rested innocently on its small furry face.

"What the hell is that cat-dog hybrid ?" The curse with stitches all over him said with childlike wonder in its voice. "I’ve never seen the humans talk about anything like it; I wonder what’ll happen to it if I touch its soul..." And just as he reached out to relieve his curiosity, the creature was pulled out of his reach by the black-haired man with stitches across his forehead.

"Not now, Mahito; we still need to know what it is first. Which I’m sure it can answer for us, hmm ?" The man looked down at the creature in his hold, while smiling at it that was supposed to be comforting but only came off as unnerving.

"How did you know that I’m capable of communication ? Well, it’s not that important at the moment. This is the first time that we have seen curses with the ability of speech or have been approached by them."

"Waaaaa, it didn’t open its mouth to speak; did you talk from inside our heads ? How does that work ?" Once again, the curse with stitches reacted in excitement.

"That’s quite the interesting ability you have there. Say, what are you ? Across the years that I’ve lived, I’ve never come across something like you. Despite this appearance, you’re not exactly a curse."

"Very well, curses, I’ll answer you since I see no problem in doing so. My name is Kyubey, and I’m an entity who seeks to cultivate energy for the plane where incubators like me exist. We have never met because we are not interested in sorcerers or in already existing curses. We are more interested in how humans can obtain cursed energy without being born with it, thus getting unnatural curses that are born out of them, and we can raise through them a lot of energy. We are also trying to see if we can get the law of cycles under our control so that we can go back to the traditional way of cultivating energy from otherwise useless humans."

"Law of cycles, you say ? I’ve heard about that before... It has to do with that Goddess, if I’m correct ? Sorcerers have always condemned her believers and treated them like clowns, and I can admit that I’ve never paid it all that much mind..."

"Yes, Madoka the Goddess is a confirmed existence, and so are her followers. They have truly been a nuisance in front of our mission. Her prophet has recently joined hands with some of the sorcerers, which will be quite problematic to our calculations."

"Ah, you mean Itadori Yuuji ? Yes, I have heard about that. It’s too bad that the Goddess has gotten her hands on him first; he’s quite full of potential... Oh well, we have acquired his replacement... Say, from what I have understood, sorcerers and humans are as much of your enemies as they are ours, right ? Then why not join us in our mission ?"

"I agree with Geto, we share somewhat similar goals. For us, we want to make curses go back to their rightful position as the dominant species, back to our golden age. We will defeat those pesky sorcerers and anyone who stands with them, and we’ll get the king of curses to join us on our crusade once he fully incarnates. In fact, tonight I’ll go take care of that Gojo Satoru. Let’s see if the strongest sorcerer will be able to stay alive after my flames confront him." A curse with one eye and a volcano head finally deigned to speak since the discussion started between the curses and the alien.

"You go do that, Jogo. Let yourself be the judge to Gojo Satoru’s prowess. Try not to die, okay ?" Geto, with the same smile that hasn’t left his face the entire time, mockingly replied back to the volcano-head’s outlandish convinction in its powers. This of course caused the proud curse to become angry, so angry in fact; that he lit the entire café, with its workers and clients, on fire. The only survivor was the server who trusted his instinct and quit his job immediately after serving Geto.

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Back with Yuuji, the sun has already set, and he had just gotten done eating some food that he had commanded from a place which had good ratings on the internet. After throwing away the trash, he returned back to what was becoming his favorite spot in Satoru’s house; the couch. He had been alternating between checking his social media (which was just him going through his Pinterest) and texting his classmates, all while listening to music that he put on through the Youtube in the TV. That was until his teacher spawned behind him and made him almost throw his phone at him in surprise.

"WHA- Sensei, what are you doing here ? Weren’t you-" But before Yuuji could finish his line of questioning, the sorcerer picked him up from his scruff as if he was a misbehaving kitten.

"Sorry, Yuuji, no time for much explanation. All I can say is that you’re going to learn about the pinnacle of jujutsu battles; Domain Expansion, but like, how it’s used !" With that said, he teleported the two of them to an abandoned road, where a cyclops-looking curse with a volcano head was standing in the middle of a lake.

"Ah, it’s Mt. Fuji !" Yuuji exclaimed as he pointed at the curse.

"Woah, you’re right, Yuuji-kun ! Anyways, Jogo, was it ? Yuuji here will watch the fight."

"Bold of you to bring your student here, Six Eyes. Aren’t you afraid that I’ll crush the both of you ?"

"Well, I’m sure it won’t be a problem. After all, you’re kinda weak." Gojo smiled cockily at the curse, who let out fire all over the place in its anger at the sorcerer’s arrogant words.

As nonchalant as Yuuji usually was, his countenance got a little serious at the fire show that the volcano curse put on. He understood that this curse must undoubtably be a special grade and much stronger than most of the curses he faced. "Sensei, is it really okay to anger it this much ?"

"Don’t worry, Yuuji. Just stay by my side, and no harm will befall you." Satoru reassured his student, his hand falling behind the boy’s head and holding him with a secure grip.

"Doman Expansion: Coffin of the Iron Maiden !" The cyclops yelled out as their surroundings morphed to resemble the insides of a volcano, with hot lava going in circles all around them. The curse smiled an eerie, victorious smile back at them, as it had already won the fight.

"Alright, so this is Domain Expansion, or as Yuuji calls it in your cute terms, a Maze/Labyrinth. Since the environment is imbued with the creator’s curse technique, it makes it so all attacks they direct at you are guaranteed to get hit." Gojo proceeded to explain to Yuuji, trying to not get too technical with his words, since he knew that the other had enough experience fighting, just like any well-seasoned Jujutsu sorcerer.

"Heh, yeah, that makes sense; that’s why I always try to make them fall apart as fast as I can." Yuuji replied, jumping around while staying near Gojo so he could avoid being burned by lava.

"Stop ignoring me and treating this as a moment to teach a lesson, Six Eyes ! I figured that if I used a dense enough domain, I could neutralize that Infinity of yours..." Jogo shouted in frustration, not only at the nonchalance of the duo in front of him but also in fear that maybe the domain wouldn’t be enough to get rid of Gojo Satoru. Which he was proven right about immediately afterwards.

"Anyways, haha ! Yuuji, only you would speak about breaking a domain; that’s hilarious ! For us sorcerers, you essentially fight a domain with your own, and whoever has a stronger willpower and cursed energy will come out on top. And that’s why.. Domain Expansion:" Gojo took down his blindfold, revealing fully his crystalline blue for the first time to Yuuji without any shades standing in the way, as he continued with "Infinite Void."

An infinity of stars immediately flashed in front of Yuuji’s eyes, while a load of information invaded his brain and made him stand still in his place. He didn’t really panic, since the plane that Madoka-sama appeared though looked similar to his teacher’s domain, and it inspired in him that same sense of wonder every time he looked at his Goddess. In contrast, Jogo was frozen in his place, overwhelmed with fear, even as Gojo came up behind him and gripped his head tightly.

"So, how’do you like the inner world of Limitless ? A world where you’re granted everything but can’t do anything with it all. You know, through you weren’t that much of a big deal, you annoyed me with all that self-righteous talk you did earlier, especially since you couldn’t back that up. So, this is a light punishment for you..." Satoru said before he decapitated the head of Jogo in one smooth brutal move, dispelling his domain immediately after it. Yuuji was watching impressedly on the side, finally getting why the man was regarded as the strongest.

Gojo stomped on the volcano head, further pressing more salt into the injuries of the thing’s pride, before asking: "Before I exorcise you, who the hell sent you after me ? Full offense, but you don’t seem like the type who uses their head all that much. Heck, you even knew my name and exactly where I would be tonight, that’s quite weird, wouldn’t you agree, Yuuji-kun ?"

"Ooh, this makes me feel like I’m in a Detective Conan episode, and yeah, I didn’t even know that there were curses that spoke as fluently as this guy did tonight..."

"Wait, sensei-" Yuuji had started, as if to warn the sorcerer about something, before he got cut off as a tree vine wrapped around his right leg and lifted him into the air. He quickly summoned his bow and shot some arrows at the vine, which made it flinch back and drop him as if shocked. Yuuji then dropped on four like a feline and stood up quickly in order to shoot at the tree curses that accompanied what seemed to be a wooden monster-like special grade; which is most likely the reason behind the field of flowers that spawned around them. Gojo momentarily got distracted by the flowers while Yuuji was too busy fighting off the weaker curses, which gave the wooden curse the optimal opportunity to grab Jogo’s head and run away with it.

"Heh, that last special grade was able to hide its presence long enough to perform this stunt, maybe it’ll give me a more fun fight than Mt. Fuji." All the happenings of the night have given Gojo a lot to think about, but he pushed all of that aside to look at Yuuji, who was coming towards him while jogging. "Sensei, what the hell was that ? Special grades working together is something I’ve never heard about, especially in this age... Things like this, according to what Homura-sama taught me, only had the possibility of happening in the Golden Age of Curses."

"Well, isn’t that interesting ? Maybe they ARE in fact working towards something like that... Well, sensei will try to take care of it, so don’t worry that much about it-"

"I’m sorry, sensei, but it’s kind of my duty to worry about something like this. Madoka-sama will most likely want to talk to me about all of this some time soon..." Yuuji stopped furrowing his brows once he helt his teacher’s hand land on his hair and ruffle it.

"If it’s that important to you, then at least try to leave most of the worrying to me. Won’t you do at least that for sensei ?" Satoru asked in an almost lulling tone, and along with the words he spouted, Yuuji couldn’t help but blush in response ‘Sensei is a really reliable guy...’ he thought, while nodding his head so fast, as if possessed.

"That’s a good boy. Now, sensei will take you back to his house, where you won’t worry your pretty little head and instead will sleep until I come back tomorrow, okay ?" Seeing that Yuuji only stared up at him with his eyes sparkling shyly and a pretty little blush on his face, Satoru smirked knowingly and wrapped his arm around the boy’s shoulders to teleport him back to his apartment, further flustering him. Once there, he decided to give the pink-head a little space to get his nerves back together, and with a final pat on the head and a promise to get back before dinner time the next day, he went off on his merry way to Kyoto. With that, his mood was a million times better that before, especially considering the bag of bones that he would have to meet once there...