Chapter Text
Yuuji woke up early in the morning and let out a grunt as he fumbled for his mobile phone. Still half asleep, he managed to turn off the alarm and, after yawning, reluctantly got out of bed.
He went to the bathroom attached to his bedroom and stopped in front of the sink, observing his reflection in the small rectangular mirror. The young sorcerer frowned at how messy his hair was and suppressed a sigh of exasperation.
Turning on the tap, he splashed some water on his face, washing it with a bit more vigor. After that, Yuuji rummaged through one of the drawers of a nearby white cabinet and took out a brush. He began to comb his disheveled hair as best he could, hissing occasionally as he encountered tangled strands.
The second-year student just tidied up his hair enough and then returned to his bedroom. He walked over to his desk and picked up his uniform. Yuuji had left it draped over the chair the night before. He quickly got dressed and after buttoning up his jacket, he left the bedroom with a small smile.
The sixteen year old teenager shuddered as he clearly felt Sukuna's presence inside him and swallowed hard, trying to keep the King of Curses at bay. He closed his eyes for a moment and wiped the sweat from his forehead. Controlling Sukuna when he had his power was no easy task at all.
"Don't start already, Sukuna," he warned, unable to hide the exhaustion in his voice. Yuuji had barely slept a wink that night. If anything, he had been able to sleep for three hours at most.
"I haven't done anything yet," said the King of Curses, sounding annoyed, but still not withdrawing completely. Yuuji let out a sigh and shook his head. He still hadn't gotten used to that, doubted he ever would.
The sorcerer descended the stairs and as he turned the corner of the building, he bumped into Hana. The girl was softly whistling a melody Yuuji didn't know as she calmly watered several beds of red tulips with a metal watering can.
Yuuji forced a smile and approached his classmate. "Good morning, Kurusu!"
The petite girl startled at the shout and turned around. She smiled widely upon seeing Yuuji and waved at him. "Good morning, Yuuji!" she exclaimed cheerfully, approaching. "How are you?"
"Fine," the boy replied, putting his hands in his pants pockets. He stopped in front of the girl and looked at her. "You've woken up quite early today," Yuuji commented.
Hana chuckled a bit. "Ángel woke me up," she admitted, embarrassed, scratching her blond hair with her left hand after placing the watering can on the ground.
Yuuji nodded. "Well, I'm going to have breakfast at the cafeteria, have you already had breakfast?" the boy asked.
"Well, no, actually," the girl admitted. She looked at the flowerbeds and squinted slightly for a moment, thoughtful. "I got caught up with the plants and forgot," the sorceress laughed. "I'm going to put the watering can away and I'll be right back, will you wait for me?"
Yuuji nodded and the girl quickly hurried off to the shed where they kept the gardening supplies. The smile faded from the boy's lips and he let out a sigh.
"Anyone who saw you would think you've forgotten about your dear friend Nobara," mocked the King of Curses.
Yuuji rolled his eyes and grunted. "I haven't," the boy retorted defensively. "But Hana isn't to blame for what happened to her." He felt Sukuna manifesting a mouth on his left cheek and opening one of his eyes.
"What the hell do you want?" Yuuji asked, tense, furrowing his brow.
"Can't I check on my twin brother?" Sukuna wanted to know, maintaining a mocking tone throughout.
"We're not brothers," Yuuji spat, disgusted.
"Not liking the truth won't change the fact that Kenjaku created you using a part of me, Yuuji," the King of Curses reminded him, amused. "Besides, for your information, you resemble me more than you'd like to admit."
"Yuuji doesn't resemble you at all," intervened Hana, who had just returned and had heard the last part. She glared at the eye of the King of Curses, obviously angry. Ángel had manifested a mouth on the girl's cheek, ready to intervene if necessary.
The boy covered his cheek, completely covering Sukuna, and gave Hana an apologetic look. "Don't mind him, Kurusu, he's just talking nonsense."
The young sorceress looked at him doubtfully and squinted slightly, as if she were hearing something only she could hear. "Are you sure, Yuuji?" she finally asked.
The pink-haired boy nodded. "The best thing we can do is ignore him, I assure you."
"If you say so…"
"Let's go have breakfast then," Yuuji continued, closing the subject, ignoring the concerned look his friend was giving him.
Megumi stared silently ahead. His appearance was completely unkempt; there were deep bags under his eyes, and his hair was disheveled and somewhat greasy. He had just barely gotten out of bed and was looking at himself in the bathroom mirror.
He swallowed hard and felt a knot in his stomach. Clenching his fists, Megumi didn't think twice before smashing his left fist against the surface of the mirror. It shattered immediately, and when he withdrew his hand, he saw that there were blood stains left behind.
Somewhat bewildered, he looked at his fist and observed the wounds he had just caused. He felt some pain, but he couldn't break out of that state of indifference. With effort, the teenager returned to his bedroom and moved blindly in the darkness as the blinds were completely closed, and not even the slightest ray of sunlight entered.
He got into bed and leaned his back against the wall. Megumi pulled his legs against his chest and wrapped his arms around them. The sorcerer stayed like that, completely still, as memories of the time when his body was used by Sukuna passed through his mind as if he were nothing more than an empty shell.
He tensed up when he heard footsteps approaching, and someone gently tapped on the bedroom door. "Megumi?" Yuuji's voice resonated from the other side, filled with concern. "Are you awake? Kurusu and I are going to have breakfast, in case you want to come with us."
Megumi felt his hair stand on end upon hearing Yuuji's voice. He felt the presence of the King of Curses on the other side of the door with astonishing clarity, almost as if he were right there instead of his friend. The black-haired boy curled up even more and didn't respond. Yuuji called several more times until, receiving no response, he finally gave up and left. Megumi held his breath, listening to the footsteps receding. He only relaxed when he stopped hearing them completely.
Some tears rolled down his eyes, but the boy made no move to wipe them away, letting them run down his cheeks and fall onto his black pants.
"I don't deserve their company," Megumi thought uncontrollably. The idea of spending time with Yuuji and Hana pretending that everything was fine wasn't something he felt entitled to.
He began to gag as he remembered the moment when Sukuna had attacked Yuuji as soon as he possessed his body and when he had ended up ripping one of Hana's arms off for intervening in the battle. At that moment, Megumi couldn't contain himself and ran to the bathroom. He barely had time to lift the toilet lid and vomit.
He gasped for breath when he finished releasing everything and brought a trembling hand to the flush, pulled it, and watched as everything went away. Megumi got up reluctantly and wiped his mouth on the sink, avoiding looking at himself in the mirror at all times.
Like a zombie, he returned to bed and lay down in any way. He closed his eyes tightly as he curled up and hugged his legs. The nausea hadn't completely disappeared, although the urge to vomit seemed to have subsided.
Hana glanced sideways at Megumi's empty seat. The boy hadn't attended a single day of class all week. The girl frowned, concerned. She quickly turned her head when the girl heard the classroom door open and couldn't help but grimace in disappointment when she saw that it was their tutor, Atsuya Kusakabe.
The sorcerer also noticed the empty desk and grumbled, "So he's not here either, huh?" he muttered. The teacher looked at the two students, and they shook their heads.
"We haven't seen him anywhere, sensei," Yuuji replied. "If you want, I can go look for him."
"It doesn't matter," Kusakabe replied impatiently. "Maybe it's better if you take care of the mission, Itadori."
The two students exchanged a brief glance, and the pink-haired boy nodded somewhat uncertainly. "What is it about?"
"A curse that has been attacking a rural town in the Kyoto area. According to reports, it's a grade two curse. Can you handle it?"
Yuuji nodded. "No problem," he replied.
"Good, then get to work," the teacher instructed, pointing to the door with his left thumb. "There's an assistant waiting outside the Institute, don't make him wait."
Yuuji nodded and after saying goodbye and exchanging a quick glance with Hana, he left the classroom and ran down the hallway.
"Is there no mission for me?" Hana asked, raising her only arm.
"No, I'm afraid not," Kusakabe said, twirling the lollipop he was eating. The girl nodded and rested her head on the desk.
When she was suggested to enroll in Jujutsu High, the girl had accepted gladly, believing that it would give her more opportunities to spend time with Megumi. But he, upon waking up from the coma he had been in for months, had withdrawn into himself and she had barely seen him.
The only positive thing about being part of the institution was that she had become friends with Yuuji, and they had even participated in missions together. She pouted in annoyance and looked at the teacher. "Can't I go with Yuuji? Just in case he needs support."
"It's a grade two curse," Kusakabe said. "Itadori can handle it perfectly well on his own."
Hana sighed and didn't lift her head, bored. "I just wanted to skip class too," the girl thought with annoyance.
"Hana, attending classes is very important," Angel scolded her immediately, with some irritation. "Wanting to skip them is being irresponsible."
Hana rolled her eyes and didn't say anything. She knew very well how strict Angel was with the rules and that she wouldn't get anywhere by arguing with the millennia-old sorceress.
Yuuji observed the landscape from the car window. As soon as they had left Tokyo, it had started raining heavily, and it didn't seem like it was going to stop anytime soon. The boy let out a long sigh and glanced at the driver.
Ijichi kept his gaze fixed on the road and drove cautiously, activating the windshield wipers every now and then.
"Have you read the mission briefing?" Ijichi finally asked, glancing at him sideways.
"Yeah, of course," Yuuji replied, looking at the tablet and stifling a yawn. "It doesn't seem too powerful."
Ijichi nodded. "How's everything at Jujutsu High?" the assistant asked, turning his gaze back to the road.
The boy bit his lower lip. "Fine, I guess," he replied, turning his attention back to the landscape and crossing his arms.
Ijichi nodded and glanced at Yuuji several times before continuing the conversation. "And Fushiguro? How's he doing?"
"...I haven't been able to see him much, to be honest," the boy admitted, trying to push away memories of the moment when his friend woke up from the coma he had been in for months. "But he was discharged recently."
Megumi had suffered a panic attack as soon as he opened his eyes and saw Yuuji. They had to hold him between Maki and himself to make sure he didn't harm himself. And Ieiri had no choice but to sedate him immediately. And that had been three weeks ago. Megumi spent the following two weeks under observation, and Ieiri had finally discharged him the previous week.
"I see," Ijichi murmured, sounding somewhat nervous judging by the tremor in his voice. "Fushiguro is strong, I'm sure he'll be okay."
Yuuji didn't respond; he just looked at him silently, and the assistant gripped the steering wheel with some force as he swallowed hard.
"I hope so," the pink-haired sorcerer finally replied, grabbing the tablet and reviewing the mission data again.
Silence once again filled the vehicle, and neither of the two occupants made an effort to break it.
Yuuji frowned, extremely annoyed. It wasn't a particularly strong curse, but it was quite elusive, evading the boy's attacks with a level of ease that was almost insulting.
The sorcerer gritted his teeth and looked around, trying to focus. He could hear the scaly body of the curse slithering through the ground, near where he was.
The teenager tensed up and prepared to deliver the finishing blow to the curse as he felt it approaching. However, before he could do so, he felt something invisible collide with him, causing him to stagger back a few meters.
Yuuji gritted his teeth and stood up as straight as he could. "Open. Divine Flames," he murmured, determined, fixing his gaze on the curse, who for some reason had decided to stop hiding and was looking at him expectantly. Bluish flames appeared in Yuuji's right hand, and the boy joined both hands, quickly molding that fire into a blue arrow that dimly illuminated the sorcerer's face.
The boy launched the attack, causing it to hit the curse head-on, and it burst into flames. Yuuji gave a small smile of satisfaction, and for some reason, at that moment, he was overwhelmed by an excessive exhaustion, and the sorcerer fell to the ground semi-unconscious.
His vision began to blur, and he thought he saw the figure of a child nearby, however, he couldn't distinguish the child's features well, and perhaps due to his state, Yuuji believed that the child had a couple of extra arms. Before he could understand what was happening, Yuuji lost consciousness right there.