Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“WHAT???” Yuta exclaimed.

“Yup! It’s true!” Gojo said, his smile as wide as ever.

It was nearing dusk at Jujutsu Tech. Yuta has been returning from a training bout when he ran into Gojo, his mentor. What he expected to be a quick, friendly conversation had turned into a discussion that he was not particularly fond of.

“The council decided that you would benefit from studying away from Jujutsu Tech, so they’re sending you abroad!” Gojo said, still beaming.

Yuta was dumbfounded, “I…don’t…want to go abroad,” he said.

“Oh come on, don’t think like that!” Gojo said, patting him on the back, “just think of the experience! How many kids your age can say that they’ve been to Africa.”

“But I don’t want to go to Africa,” Yuta insisted, “I like it here.”

“Everyone needs to learn to step outside their comfort zone!” Gojo explained, “this will be good for you.”

Yuta stood silently, still partly recovering from the shock of what he had just been told. He had come - or rather, been forcibly enrolled - to Jujutsu Tech a little over a year ago. He had since spent his time honing his skills as a Jujutsu Sorcerer and forging bonds with others close to him. Save for a small scare around Christmas time of last year, he had been the happiest he had ever been in his life.

But now, that was in danger of changing. Gojo was the type to pull pranks, but something like this would be a lot even for him, and much too nuanced.

“How long will I be away?” Yuta asked, taking a sip of water.

“Depends on what the council decides! If you’re doing good work, they might let you finish school out there completely!”

Yuta started choking

After a few moments of coughing, and some motivated back taps from Gojo, he regained his composure.

“When do I leave?”

“It depends on how cooperative your new teacher is,” Gojo said, the slightest bit of venom present in his tone, “but probably in around three weeks!”

Yuta’s heart sank, that would mean he would be leaving at the beginning of March at the latest. He wouldn’t even be around for the spring. And worse yet, he would miss out on the activities later in the year that he and his friends had already planned.

His friends.

Gojo seemed to read his mind, as he immediately cut in at Yuta opened his mouth, “I haven’t told the others, only the assistants and I know.” His smiling face hardened for a second in a serious frown, “you should be the one to tell them.”

Yuta looked down and nodded, a frown already deeply entrenched along his face.

“So I really have no choice,” he stated, sounding utterly defeated.

Gojo’s face reverted back to his almost comical smile, “you’re always so gloomy! You’re not being punished Yuta, think of this as a once and a lifetime opportunity.”

Gojo turned away, waving as he did so, “I’ll let you know when we have the details! Bye-bye!”

Yuta half-heartedly waved back, not doing much to hide his despair. He began walking back to the dorms, lost in thought.

He really did not want to leave the school. In fact, it would probably be the last thing he wanted given the current circumstances. It had taken him almost a decade, but he had finally found a place where he felt like he belonged. And now it was being taken away from him. It was like a rug was being pulled out from underneath him, and he was hopeless to keep himself from falling. 

Gojo hadn’t told the others yet, and he probably wouldn’t. But what would he tell them? ‘Hey sorry, you guys are great but I’m going to Africa’? And didn’t students usually choose to study abroad in the first place?

He thought back to the conversation with Gojo. He could be a little overbearing, and painfully oblivious to social cues at times, but he certainly wasn’t stupid. He must have known that Yuta wouldn’t take the news well. Then why was he so excited to rip his heart out?

He figured that Gojo probably didn’t want to send him away, he had admitted on many occasions that he was one of his favorites (much to the dismay of the other first-years). He was probably being strong-armed by the Conservatives, and put on the overly happy act to signal that. 

Yuta sighed and rubbed his temple. He hadn’t been expecting this type of stress so early in the year, but there wasn’t much he could do about it. For now, he just had to worry about telling his friends, and hope their reactions wouldn’t be to mortally injure him. Though if that were the case, maybe he could stay home…

He shook his head, telling himself to snap out of it. He could worry about the consequences of a fatal injury later. For now, he needed to get cleaned up and ready for dinner. He put on his best neutral face, trying to hide away his complicated (sad) emotions, and headed into the dormitories.

Satoru Gojo was furious.

It was a type of anger that manifested itself as a pure burning desire to destroy something. To destroy his enemies. Though while hot flashes like that were hardly uncommon, they usually resided within a matter of seconds, maybe minutes.

But not this time.

He had been called into the Conservatives' den early in the morning. He wasn’t subtle about his distaste for them, and he certainly wasn’t subtle about not being a morning person. He strolled in still disheveled from a long sleep, yawning as he did so.

“What do you want, Gramps?’ He asked, stretching out his body as he did so.

“Gojo.” The old man said, smiling as he did so.

Gojo paused, something was off. The Conservatives weren’t usually this nonchalant with him. He usually came in, got scolded, told them off, got scolded again, and left. But this was something else. This was different. 

“We have some exciting news regarding your newest first year.”

Gojo stopped dead in his tracks. His brain put together the rest of the old man’s ramblings before he could say it.

“NO!” He yelled, much to the amusement of the Conservatives.

“We feel that he could benefit from an opportunity to study outside of the country,” the old man continued, “to give him a new…perspective.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Gojo said, still yelling at this point, “the growth he’s experienced at Jujutsu Tech is nothing less than extraordinary!”

“That may be so, but he is still a child in this world,” the old man gave a pitiful smile, “he could benefit from learning about how things work elsewhere.”

Gojo glared at the old man talking. Although his eyes were obscured by his usual sunglasses, his gaze was a piercing one that sent shivers down the old man’s spine.

“The kid tried to kill himself under your care, remember?” Gojo said, poison oozing from his lips, “he needs nurture and support right now. Not to be isolated from everything he’s gained.”

The old man waved his hand away, as if swatting a mosquito. A few of the other men chuckled quietly. They did not escape Gojo’s gaze either.

“I expect that soft way of thinking from Utahime, but you, Gojo?” The old man said, almost in a mocking tone, “what happened to the trial-by-fire mentality you used to have?”

“I never had that,” Gojo said icily, “I never sent my students on any missions that they couldn’t handle.”

He realized what he said as he said it, and the old man grinned, “I think a few of your students who are no longer with us would beg to differ.”

Gojo glared at him, “as I said, I never sent my students on anything they couldn’t handle. Anyone who knowingly did so is nothing more than a curse in human flesh.” He lowered his sunglasses slightly and stared daggers at him again, “and we both know what I do to curses.”

For the first time, the old man was taken aback slightly. He quickly tried to regain his composure.

“R-Regardless of your wishes, it was a unanimous decision among the council, please inform Yuta at your convenience.” 

Gojo was already walking away, “please think of a suitable location for Yuta to study in,” the old man continued.

Gojo stopped in the door frame for a moment. A scheming smile spread across his face, hidden from the council.

“Africa,” he said.

“I’m sorry?”

“You heard me,” Gojo said, walking out of the den, “don’t forget to take your medicine later, gramps!”

He didn’t sit around long enough to hear the scowling from the wastes of life on their high altars. He had to get to work. He had the inklings of an idea, but that didn’t make the anger reside. There was one less tree in the forest when he left versus when he came in.

It was later that night now, and he was on a train to Kyoto. He had already informed Yuta of his impending trip. The poor kid was devastated. Gojo had broken a lot of hard stuff to his students throughout the years, but seeing the boy’s defeated expression made his heart ache. He didn’t deserve to be put in the middle of this, not at his age. 

He was jolted out of space by hearing the announcement for his station. He gathered himself and left through the doors as they opened, pulling his jacket tight in an attempt to combat the frigid late winter air.

He couldn’t make things completely right for Yuta, but he could at least try to soften the blow a bit.

How was he holding up? It was tough to say. Unlike some of his other peers, namely Maki and Toge, Yuta was pretty good about being forthcoming with his emotions. It made sense, the kid had no one to lean on for almost a decade and had been close to giving up on a number of occasions. He made sure to take the opportunity to talk whenever he could.

But this felt different. Yuta was more willing to lean on others in a fight, too. It was probably the biggest difference between himself and the young man. But even still, he’d always try not to burden others too much. Yuta would obviously be hurting the most from this development, but how would the other first years fare? Would Yuta deal with this himself to avoid burdening them?

Gojo shook his head, trying to refocus. The kid was smart. The kids were smart, they’d figure something out. He couldn’t worry about that now. He had a meeting to attend.

He reached the cafe that was the arranged meeting point. Or bar. Or both, maybe. He walked inside into the warm embrace of electric heating and scanned the area for his company. The establishment wasn’t too busy, it was a Tuesday after all, and he was able to locate them quickly.

Sitting at a table in the corner were two people, one woman, and one man. The woman had dark hair that almost looked like a shade of purple in the right light. It was tied up with a white bow and obscured by a baseball cap. But perhaps the most distinguishing feature about her was the large scar that sliced through the center of her face.

Her companion was a tall, wide-shouldered man. He was wearing a large white hat and had a number of circular gold earrings. He looked towards Gojo as he approached and scoffed slightly. The woman also looked equally unpleased.

“You’re late,” she said, holding what appeared to be a mug of coffee (but in all likeliness was something a fair amount more alcoholic).

“I was about to leave.” The other man said coldly.

“I would have killed you if you did don’t worry,” Gojo replied. He sat down in the open chair and looked at his present company.

“Utahime. Miguel. Let’s talk.”

Chapter Text

Utahime was comfortably settled down for the night when her phone rang.

She had let her students out of class early, deducing that they (and herself) needed a small break. She retired to her quarters, intending to put on some nice, peaceful music, and do some reading. She had just settled down in her favorite chair, debating on opening up a bottle of wine, when her phone rang.

She almost threw it at the wall when she saw who it was.

“Utahimeeeeeeeee!” The voice sang from the other line.

“What do you want Gojo,” she sighed, knowing in her heart of hearts that she wasn’t going to get to open that bottle of wine.

“I need your help,” he said sweetly. She almost puked.

‘With what?”

“Go to the cafe we went to last time I was in Kyoto,” he said, “I’ll see you in an hour.”

“ WAIT ,” she yelled into the phone, “why? And do you know what time it is?”

“Oh don’t worry,” Gojo replied, “they turn into a bar at night, how cool is that!”

“ Gojo ,” she said forcefully, “what’s going on?”

“They’re trying to kill my student,” Gojo replied suddenly, his voice low and serious for the first time. The line fell silent for a moment, before his normal voice flared back up, “see you there! I’m taking a train in so don’t count on a designated driver, see ya!”

She wasn’t sure if he made out the barrage of profanities she directed at him, but it felt good to do nonetheless.

An hour later, she (begrudgingly) found herself seated at a cafe. She had ordered a small plate of food and a drink, specifically asking for it to be served in a coffee mug. She’d need alcohol to get her through the night with Gojo, but admitting that fact would only cause her more grief.

She was quite surprised when about ten minutes after arriving, one of the perpetrators of The Night Parade of a Hundred Demons entered. Her surprise quickly transformed into adrenaline as he started making his way towards her.

She instinctively shot up, taking a subtle defensive stance. The cafe was mostly empty, but those who were present briefly looked at her in confusion.

The man stopped walking and eyed her curiously, “I take it you’re the one I’m looking for?” His voice had a slight accent to it.

She remained silent and stared at him, her expression hard and calculating.

He wouldn’t try anything in such a crowded place, would he? Then again, he was part of the coalition looking to kill all non-sorcerers.

This was bad. She could hold her own in a fight usually, but this guy had given even Gojo some trouble. She wouldn’t be able to rely on her Cursed Technique either, she didn’t have time to warm up.

As her brain ran rampant thinking of potential strategies, the man in front of her put his hands up, signaling his intentions.

“I mean no harm,” he said, “your friend called me here. The one they call the Most Powerful.”

Utahime blinked a few times, processing what he had just said. The man took a seat at the table she had been sitting at, still holding his hands up slightly, as if trying to build trust.

She looked at him suspiciously and sat down, not taking her eyes off him as she took a sip of her drink.

God help me .

There was a tense silence between the two for a few moments until the man cleared his throat and spoke.

“I’m Miguel,” he said, extending his hand for a handshake. Utahime didn’t accept it.

Miguel sighed, retracted his hand, and waved it to signal a waiter. He ordered a cup of tea, and gave a slight bow, before turning back to the apprehensive woman.

“I take it you know who I am?” He asked.

“There isn’t a Jujutsu Sorcerer who doesn’t,” she replied, “not since the stunt you pulled a few months ago.”

“I see,” he responded, “I didn’t know I had become that famous.”

“There are orders to kill you on sight,” Utahime continued, “I could probably be tried for a crime for sitting here with you right now.”

Miguel offered a small smile, “shall we take this outside then?”

Utahime sighed, finally breaking her gaze on him to return to the comfort of her drink. “Gojo clearly has some sort of plan in mind if he invited you here willingly,” she looked at him again, “he hates you just as much as anyone.”

“I see,” Miguel said, thanking the waiter who had returned with his cup of tea.

The silence of the table returned, though the level of tension had fallen, perhaps being replaced by a sort of distrust. Neither of them had attempted to attack the other yet, which was about as courteous as it got in the Jujutsu world.

“For what it’s worth,” Miguel said eventually, “my own...alignments were not directly applicable to that of Mr. Geto’s.”

Utahime said nothing, silently motioning for him to continue.

“He was an individual who I thought might be sympathetic to my troubles,” he continued, “though looking back, I understand that wasn’t the case.”

“Curious that your troubles could be solved by the massacre of civilians,” Utahime said coldly.

“Like I said, I made an error in judgment.”

They were quiet once more, the tension gauge slowly increasing yet again.

“I take it you’re not involved in the group anymore?” Utahime asked, “Gojo’s an idiot, but he wouldn’t have brought you out like this if he expected you to double-cross us.”

“Good observation,” Miguel replied, “no, I have cut ties with the group. We all had to go into hiding after the failures of The Parade, and I opted to stay hidden from them as well.”

“If you don’t mind me asking,” Utahime said, placing her drink down, “what exactly were your motivations in the first place?”

Miguel flashed a small smile, “what makes you think I’d share that with you.”

“The speed-dial button on my phone.”

Miguel laughed heartily, attracting the amused attention of the other patrons of the cafe. He finished off his cup of tea while signaling to the waiter for another. He turned to look at Utahime.

“The world of Jujutsu is full of injustice,” he said, his expression hardening, “I take it you have experienced at least some of that.”

Utahime froze for a moment, the scar along her face tingling slightly. She ran her fingers over it, nodding as she did so.

“The elites focus their attention on maintaining power above all else,” Miguel said, “they work to keep the younger generations down to ensure their prolonged rule.”

“I’m aware of that,” Utahime replied.

“Their influence extends to many other places than just Japan,” Miguel continued, “only instead of simply trying to keep the younger generations down, they attempt to neuter Jujutsu sorcery in general. Tengen’s barrier? Give me a break.”

Utahime nodded. Officially, sorcerers in Japan were taught that the existence of Tengen’s barrier was the reason for an increased Sorcerer presence in Japan. It gave people “more potential.” But as she grew older and did some research of her own, that line of thinking didn’t quite add up. There was some other external reason as to why Japan was more adept at producing Sorcerers, and the Conservatives having their hands in it would not be a surprise in the slightest.

“I simply want to disrupt the hierarchy,” Miguel explained, “expose them for what they are. The Golden Age of Sorcery might be over, but there is as much unrest and fear in the world as ever. People outside this country, Sorcerers and non-Sorcerer's alike, suffer because of things they don’t understand. It isn’t right.”

Utahime was silent a moment, she was slowly piecing together why Gojo had called her to this meeting, at least partly. He likely had a hunch about Miguel’s true allegiance, and it was up to her to confirm or deny it.

“So you harbor no ill-will towards non-Sorcerers?” She asked.

Miguel thought for a moment. He glanced around the room at the few people who were present, observing them chatting and laughing to each other, unaware of the various threats that surrounded them.

“No…” he said slowly, “they cannot be blamed for what they do not understand, nor can they be blamed for creating the threat in the first place. After all,” he said, looking back to Utahime, “emotions are what make us human. To ask for them to have none is akin to murdering the human spirit.”

She nodded at him, putting together the connections between his ideology and her own. If this man had gone down a slightly different path, he probably would have found himself at the right-hand of Gojo, as opposed to on the end of his fury. The waiter returned with another cup of tea.

“I thought the work that Geto would do would sufficiently disrupt the Jujutsu world,” he said, “but as I said, I grossly misjudged his intentions. He desired not to help others, but to control them. He was no different than the elites at all.”

Utahime thought for a moment, before extending her hand to the man, she had made up her mind.

“Utahime,” she said, as Miguel reciprocated and shook her hand, “it’s nice to be working with you.”

“Well, that remains to be seen,” Miguel responded, “I still do not know what Gojo will ask of me.”

“I see,” Utahime said, glancing towards the now open cafe door, “it appears we are about to find out.”

Utahime eyed Miguel, waiting for his reaction. Gojo had just finished explaining his plan. Well, ‘plan’ was a bit too strong a term, it basically amounted to telling Miguel to watch over Yuta, while making vague allusions to untimely deaths if he failed to do so.

She ordered another drink when the waiter came by.

“Why do I have any reason to take in your brat for a year?” Miguel scoffed.

“Hey come on now,” Gogo said. He reached over to grab a chip off of Utahime’s plate. She smacked him away. He pouted, and then continued, “he’s a good kid, honest! Powerful too! Someone like you can give him just the type of experience he needs!”

Miguel glared at him, and then looked to Utahime expectedly. She said nothing and sipped her alcohol. She was here to mediate, not explain whatever Gojo’s grand scheme was.

Miguel sighed, “you miss my point,” he said, turning back to Gojo, “why should I help you in the first place?”

Gojo smiled, “because ever since the Parade incident, Jujutsu sorcerers have been issued orders to kill you!”

“Tone.” Utahime said flatly.

“Oh sorry,” Gojo looked at Miguel apologetically, “let me try again. Your involvement in The Night Parade of a Hundred Demons was not unnoticed by the upper echelons of Jujutsu society. There is an active target on your back, and sorcerers have been ordered to kill you on sight!”

“I’m quite aware of that,” Miguel said in a level tone.

“In exchange for watching over my precious pupil, I can guarantee your safety!” Gojo finished. He turned to Utahime, “Better?” She said nothing, her mind wandering off to the next chapter in the mystery novel she would rather be reading right now.

“But why would you help me in the first place?” Miguel questioned.

“Oh trust me, I don’t want to!” Gojo said. He suddenly took off his glasses and glared coldly at the former Curse User, “after all, I haven’t forgotten what you did that day.”

Miguel tensed up slightly, and the atmosphere of the table seemed to freeze instantaneously. The air was tense for a moment before Gojo put his glasses back on, and resumed his usual upbeat self.

‘However, desperate times call for desperate measures, and at the moment, anyone who isn't a Conservative is a friend in my book!”

Miguel was silent for a moment, eyeballing his now cold cup of tea. The atmosphere of the table gradually returned in temperature, and the various chatter seeped into earshot.

“The boy,” Miguel said, “he’s strong?”

Gojo nodded, “very! He just needs a little time. He’s also super low maintenance, a great kid!”

Miguel sighed, he looked at Utahime again, perhaps expecting him to refute his point.

“He is strong,” she said, “you should have seen him during the Exchange Event last year. He put even the upperclassmen to shame!”

“Probably due to their subpar teaching!” Gojo quipped, before being met with a face full of water.

“As I was saying,” Utahime continued, turning to Miguel, “he’s a good kid, Don’t worry about him getting in your way. If anything, he could be a big help.”

Miguel nodded, “fine. I’ll take your deal. I can take him off your hands this week.”

“ Whoa, slow down there!” Gojo said, wiping his face dry. He had deactivated infinity the moment the water was thrown at him. He probably deserved it. “I still need to make preparations. You keep laying low, I’ll send him your way soon.”

The former Curse User glared at him, before sighing and standing up. He fixed his hat upon his head, and turned to Utahime one last time, “When this is all said and done, let me know if his staff position is open. I’m sure I could do it infinitely better than him.”

“You’re first on the list,” Utahime responded.

He bowed towards her and turned to leave.

“One last thing,” Gojo said.

Miguel turned around, grunting expectedly. 

“If anything happens to him, the deal is off,” Gojo said slowly, “I’ll kill you myself.”

Miguel scowled at him, before snap turning away in a huff. The two inside watched him walk away from the cafe, towards the subway station.

“You really need to work on your people skills,” Utahime said exasperatedly, putting her head in her hands as she did so.

“And you need to work on holding your alcohol!”

“I’m NOT drunk,” Utahime scoffed. She glared at him, perpetually angry at only being able to see his shit-eating grin. “Anyways,” she continued, “why did you call me here?”

Gojo’s expression hardened, his eyes still turned towards the direction in which Miguel was leaving.

“He’s a good fit,” Utahime said, guessing what he was thinking, “I’m a little wary of how he’ll treat Yuta, but given your threats, I imagine he won’t try to do anything stupid. He doesn’t seem the type to resort to violence without reason.”

Gojo nodded, before scrunching up his face into a scowl. “The Conservatives,” he said, “they’re becoming more daring.”

“Well what did you expect,” she responded, “the emergence of Geto gave them a reason to. We knew this might happen.”

Gojo said nothing, seemingly deep in thought.

“They were never going to let you mentor a special grade,” Utahime said, “not with your branch of philosophy.”

“I suppose not,” Gojo said, “but even still, you would think they would still be a bit more compassionate to the kid.”

“Oh please, the kid they slated for execution?” Utahime scoffed, “don’t get it wrong, Gojo. They see him as a powerful tool for the future, not a human being.”

“ WHOA, Utahime,” Gojo said, feigning surprise, “that’s grim even by my standards.”

“Do. Not. Group me. With you.” She responded through gritted teeth.

“Well regardless,” Gojo said, ignoring her, “as long as Yuta isn’t studying with one of their puppets, this might be okay. It was clear from the beginning that Miguel’s philosophy is closer to ours than to theirs, and I trust your judgment of him.”

“I was going to ask, how did you convince him to meet with us in the first place?”

Gojo looked at Utahime for a moment, before flashing a devilish grin, “I threatened him AND his family.”

She rolled her eyes and sighed, “are you SURE you’re the good guy here?”

“Morals are relative.”

“They most certainly are not.”

Gojo laughed, dodging the statement altogether, “all's well that ends well. He’ll warm up to him. After all, if the kid can get Maki to like him then there’s no one he can’t charm.”

“Rude, uncalled for, and also partially sexist,” Utahime said, scowling at him. It was becoming her default gaze for talking to him nowadays. “Oh, I meant to ask,” her expression softened a bit, “why wait? Don’t you want him with Miguel as opposed to the Conservatives as soon as possible?”

Gojo’s face became serious again. He looked off into the distance, as if contemplating in deep thought, “I won’t take away their youthful experiences if I can help it, Utahime. You should know that better than anyone.”

She sighed, and picked up her drink, offering a ‘cheers’ to Gojo, “I sometimes forget that’s the one thing we can see eye-to-eye on.”

Gojo picked up his glass of water and clinked it to Utahime’s glass of very-much-not-water. The two sat in silence for a while, quietly taking in the bustle and chatter of a civilian life they could never live.

Chapter Text

Panda wasn’t technically a human. Anyone could see that.

However, he had been raised as one by principal Yaga. He had been given an educational upbringing akin to one, he had interacted with them for all his life, and he had been given a name. Granted it wasn’t the most creative name, but it was a name nonetheless, and humans usually had those.

So no, he wasn’t technically a human, but he still considered himself one in his heart of hearts. He could understand them, they could understand him. 

However, even if he were a real Panda, he was pretty sure he would have realized there was something wrong with Yuta.

The boy had been sulking for almost a week now. He was sluggish at training, quiet in class, and he wasn’t even eating with them anymore. Granted, they weren’t always together, but he and the rest of the second years had built up a pretty solid bond over the last year he was here. Something just seemed off.

“Hey? HEY? Panda idiot, are you listening?”

His introspection was broken up by the sharp sounds of a different second year’s voice.

“Huh? Sorry Maki, what were you saying?” He responded, still keeping an eye on the distant Yuta, who was collecting his dinner a little too slowly to be considered normal.

“If you carried my extra weapons, I’d be more adaptable in a fight,” Maki said.

Panda rolled his eyes, not this talk again.

“You’re already adaptable Maki, and if I'm carrying your weapons then how would I do anything”

“I said more adaptable, and you’re half stuffing, right? We could make something work.”

“Salmon,” Toge said.

“See? He agrees with me?”

“I won’t stand for this form of hazing,” Panda said, still not fully paying attention. Yuta had finally selected his desert of choices (a pack of crackers) and had left the cafeteria area.

Maki and Toge seemed to pick up on this, and also silently watched as Yuta left without saying a word.

“Spiced cod roe,” Toge said.

“I know, what’s been his problem lately,” Maki agreed, “he was almost as bad in training today as he was when he first got here.”

“Something’s wrong,” Panda declared, “especially cause he hasn’t been talking to us about it.”

“Maybe the special grade finally got too big for his britches,” Maki said sarcastically.

“Bonito flakes,” Toge said, glaring at Maki.

“He’s right,” Panda said.

They were silent for a moment, pondering the situation. Eventually, Maki rose from her seat with her dishes in hand, “if he’s not going to tell us anything, there’s not much we can do.” She gave a small nod at her two friends, “I’m going to bed, let me know if you find out anything. Goodnight.”

Panda and Toge waved her off and continued thinking for a bit. Once she had left the room, Panda turned to Toge.

“I know what you’re thinking.”

“Salmon.”

“It would probably be best if you did it.”

“Tuna with Mayo?”

“Yes, he’s done it before, maybe now it will be the same.”

“Salmon.”

Panda got up from his seat and stretched, “oh, maybe see if our theory is right while you’re at it.”

Toge smiled, “kelp soy.”

“Right, good night.”

It was a warm autumn evening.

The city center was bustling like it always was. Workers hurried through the streets, eager to reach their homes after another day of mind-numbing practices.

They weren’t focused on their surroundings, they never were.

Personal space was non-existent, that’s why it happened in the first place.

A yelp of surprise. Gasps of shock. Worried murmurings. The smell of iron.

Red. So much red.

He couldn’t move. He was completely frozen in place. He couldn’t scream. He couldn’t cry. Not even when it gathered at his feet.

Not even when the grotesque words echoed in his mind.

“ALl…alONE”

Yuta shot awake. His pillow was drenched in sweat and he felt as if he had just run a marathon. It took him a few moments to realize his current state, and a few more to realize what the logical progression of that state would be. He quickly scrambled out of bed and fell to the ground in front of his trash can, before vomiting the contents of his dinner into it.

The nightmare was one he was intimately familiar with, it had been a constant unwelcome companion in the aftermath of Rika’s death. The sweltering heat, the cramped sidewalk, the sickening scent of blood, and the horrific imagery permanently burned into his brain made the scene too much to bear.

He leaned against the foot of his bed and put his arm over his head, wiping away the sweat that had formed. He hadn’t had the dream in a while, but it had begun popping up again in the last week. 

Perfectly correlating with certain unwelcome news.

His face started to sting, inklings of tears were beginning to form in the corners of his eyes. He was aware the dream was just a stress response, but that didn’t make it any less frightening.

Or the stressor any less real.

He took a deep breath and looked at the clock on his nightstand. It was two-thirty in the morning. He hadn’t slept for long. He would go to the bathroom and freshen up, and hopefully not be a mess in the morning.

He was about to lift himself off the floor before his eyes were drawn to the other object on his nightstand. It was a framed picture, a photograph. A picture of him and his friends at Jujutsu tech, taken a few days after the Night Parade incident. Gojo had requested it be taken during their first training session back.

It was the four of them, well five including Gojo, all together, smiling. He was in the middle, flanked by Toge and Maki. Panda was in the back, corralling everyone into a bear-hug. Gojo was flashing a peace sign in the back, wearing his mischievous grin like he always did.

They had all been in a state of relief when it was taken. There had been no serious injuries from the fight with Geto, and more importantly, they were all together. The genuine camaraderie they had formed was ever on display.

Yuta sighed and stood up, he took one last longing glance at the photo, before quietly turning it over. Pretty soon, those bonds would be non-existent, for him at least.

He opened his door and walked into the dormitory hallway, en route to the bathroom, deep in thought. He knew that his friends wouldn’t completely abandon him, that was naive. Yet, he couldn’t help but feel like there was going to be some sort of wedge driven in between them, some sort of barrier that he would never be able to fully remove. They had gotten close in a matter of months when he first came to the school over a year ago, what’s to say the opposite wouldn’t be true as well?

Or worse yet, what if he got replaced?

He shook his head as he entered the bathroom, and walked to the sink to splash some water on his face. He was too much in his own head. Half of his brain was telling him to calm the heck down, and the other half was telling him to expect the worst. Either way, he knew one thing for certain.

He never wanted to be alone again.

Years. Years. He had spent years alone, locked in the dungeon of his intrusive thoughts. Pushing everybody away despite longing for their companionship so much. It hadn’t been intentional at first, he was just shaken after Rika’s death. But as time passed, his isolation became the perfect trait to be picked on for, which just led to a cruel self-repeating cycle.

It was a cycle that he thought would continue when he joined Jujutsu High. In fact, it almost did happen, arguably, but he chalked up those first few awkward days to Maki just being cautiously defensive more than anything else.

Maki….

Yuta groaned and leaned against the mirror,  putting his hand over his face. He had to stop thinking so much, it was only going to make him more stressed. And sad.

But he still had to tell his friends he was leaving somehow, he couldn’t just disappear. Unless…

No, that would just be rude, and it wasn’t like he was dying or anything. He was simply just not going to be around for some long, indefinite amount of time whilst maintaining minimal (if any) verbal contact. 

So, basically dying.

He still had about two weeks before he left. He guessed his friends would want to send him off in some fashion, but he didn’t want that to be a big thing. They were busy with their training and studies, burdening them by forcing them to make plans would be rude. A few days' notice would be sufficient enough for them. He would tell them sometime during the week. Right, good plan.

He felt satisfied with that idea. He’d have enough time to see his friends off casually, and there wouldn’t be any weird atmosphere around them for too long. He looked in the mirror and nodded to himself.

He could do this.

He turned off the faucet, dried his hands, felt a hand on his shoulder, and proceeded to jump roughly 15 feet in the air in a panic.

Yuta turned around in a panic, about to yell. Before he could, he realized who had perpetrated his quiet space. Standing in the bathroom silently was Inumaki, looking at him curiously.

“Inumaki,” Yuta said, catching his breath, “why would you do that.”

“Fish flakes.”

“I know you didn’t mean to but why are you here in the first place? It’s like 3 AM!”

Inumaki didn’t answer, rather just silently watched his friend compose himself. Eventually, Yuta fully caught his breath, and his heart rate had decreased to a somewhat healthy rhythm.

“Well…have fun doing whatever you’re doing here,” Yuta said, starting to walk towards the door, “goodnight Inumaki.”

“Bonito flakes,” Inumaki said, crossing his arms into an 'X' and stepping in front of him.

“What?” Yuta asked, perplexed.

“Eel.” You’ve been avoiding us.

Yuta froze, taken aback. 

“Wh-what?” He stuttered, “no I haven’t.”

“Fish Flakes,” Inumaki said, narrowing his eyes. 

Yuta sighed, there was no point in denying it. 

“You’re right, I have been.”

It hadn’t been intentional at first. The initial shock of being told he was going abroad had just made him a bit less social. But as the days passed, he slowly became less and less inclined to convene with his friends. It was completely contradictory to his feelings, but he couldn’t help it, he was scared.

Inumaki’s gaze softened. He studied Yuta silently for a moment, looking him up and down. Inumaki was a perceptive person, he had noticed that there was something off with Yuta early on. But actually seeing him up close, seeing the darker bags under his eyes, and subtle tear stains on his shirt, it was more clear than ever. 

“Mustard leaf, kelp?” What’s wrong?

Yuta was quiet. It looked like his plan wouldn’t come to fruition after all. He sighed and looked Inumaki in the eye.

“I’m leaving soon.”

“Salmon?”

“I’m- Gojo…and the higher-ups…are sending me abroad in a few weeks.”

“Kelp?”

“I don’t know why, exactly,” Yuta said, defeated.

The two were quiet a moment. Inumaki’s brain was immediately firing on all cylinders, metally asking all sorts of questions like “where are you going?” or “when did you find out?” or “could we sneak Panda into a karaoke bar?” But he pushed those thoughts away from the front of his mind for a moment. 

Something didn’t feel right.

Usually, someone would be pretty excited about studying abroad. They’d be itching to tell people about it. Yuta wasn’t one to brag, or even talk himself up for that matter. But still, avoiding your friends after finding out the news wasn’t a normal response.

He looked at his friend again. His dark hair was disheveled, and his gaze didn’t quite meet his. Inumaki slowly reached up to his face and undid the zipper at the top of his sweater.

“Are you okay? ”

Yuta froze again. In the time he had spent at Jujutsu Tech, he had never heard Inumaki speak normally, outside of a combat setting. Once the initial shock wore off, he looked up and met his gaze with Inumaki. He had a concerned expression on his face, with an incredibly soft look in his eyes. Yuta went to say something to reassure him that he was alright, or at least something to calm his nerves, but no words came out of his mouth. He gradually became aware of the tears flowing down his face, and within seconds, he fell to the ground, crying.

Inumaki was quick to comfort him, almost immediately kneeling down and putting a hand on his shoulder. As he sat sobbing, Yuta bared all to his friend. His loneliness, his desire to not leave, his fear of isolation, the years of hurt, everything. He didn’t intend to tell his life story, but he was so overwhelmed and tired that it just seemed to keep flowing.

“I don’t want to lose you guys,” Yuta said in between sobs, “you’re important to me, probably more than I am to you.”

“Bonito Flakes.” Inumaki said firmly. He reached out to his friend and hugged him. “Fish with soy sauce.” You’re important to all of us.

Yuta has stopped crying, mostly, for the time being. He thought back to the first time he and Inumaki had been paired together for hands-on training. He had been scared of the quiet boy, but as he later found out, the entire time he was at the school he was doing what he could to help him. He felt like an idiot knowing that he needed to be reminded of that again.

“I didn’t want to keep you guys in the dark,” he said quietly, “I was just too nervous to tell you all. Too scared to make it real.”

“Salmon,” Inumaki said reassuringly.

Yuta pulled away and smiled at his friend, probably his first smile in the last week. Their minimalistic conversation had made him feel a bit better.

“Rice?” Inumaki said, pointing to his head quizzically.

“I’ll tell them tomorrow,” Yuta said, “it’s probably a good idea to get it out of the way now, anyways.”

Inumaki smiled, and nodded, feeling satisfied that he had done his job (and also just ever so slightly validated that he was the first to find out the big news). He helped his friend to his feet and patted him on the back, before waving and moving to leave the bathroom.

Oh, wait, that’s right. One more thing.

He turned back to Yuta, who had turned the faucet on for round two of cleaning himself up. He tapped him on the shoulder, taking care not to scare him this time.

“Hm? You need something else?”

Inumaki nodded. He formed his hands like glasses around his eyes and then pointed at Yuta, “Salmon, Roe?”

Yuta’s face immediately turned almost six different shades of red at once, “WHAT???”

Inumaki smiled, satisfied again. Hypothesis confirmed.

“Caviar roe!” he said, winking at Yuta, before waving and quickly running out of the bathroom, much to Yuta’s chagrin.

Yuta stood alone in the bathroom, mouth agape and stunned.  He looked back towards the mirror and became aware of the peculiar tint that his face currently wore. He sighed and buried his head in his hands.

Out of the frying pan, into the fire.

Chapter Text

Maki was sweating bullets.

Shards of glass fluttered through the air as the window next to her effectively exploded. She instinctively ducked as a metallic spike attached to a slimy arm came close to impaling her skull, turning her forward momentum into a slide. She caught herself before maneuvering back into a run.

She was going to kill that blindfolded idiot.

It was another hands-on training day, Gojo’s patented way of making sure his students fielded plenty of experience so that they would be ready once they graduated. This time, he had sent the whole class out together. There were supposedly a few 3rd-grade spirits running amok around an elementary school, and he figured that the four of them would be able to mop it up quickly.

Why was it always an elementary school?

But, surprise surprise, the moron was wrong again, and the spirits were much stronger than anticipated. The four of them had split up upon entering, but quickly realized they were overwhelmed.

Maki managed to pivot around a corner as another spike narrowly missed her again. She wrapped her long weapon, a bladed polearm, around her shoulder, and assumed a defensive stance.

She had encountered three of them initially. The first two had fallen relatively easily, as she anticipated, but this third one was a cut above the rest. Not only were its attacks significantly more dangerous than the others, but the spirit was also more perceptive with them too. It had been using this long-range method on her to keep her on the run while keeping its own stamina at a healthy level. To add to that fact, its body was much denser than the others she had fought, reducing the effectiveness of her attacks. It was at least Grade 2, maybe even bordering Semi-Grade 1. 

She was going to kill that bastard.

She quickly took stock of what the situation was. The four of them had stayed in touch via a group phone call once they figured out something was wrong, but she had dropped her phone in the madness. Panda and Inumaki had managed to meet up at some point, so they’d be fine. Both of them were capable of executing a 3rd Grade on their own. Together, they could easily handle a Grade 2, maybe even a Semi-Grade 1 if they were smart about it.

Yuta was M.I.A at the moment, to her knowledge at least. He would probably be smart enough to think to join with the other two, but actually doing so could be a challenge. Usually, he’d be completely fine on his own, but the weird effects that were going on with Rika made him a bit more vulnerable than usual. Still, she’d figure he’d manage.

That left her. She thought about stealing a look around the corner, but said corner exploded as she moved to do so. She instinctively rotated her polearm around her body and swung towards the impact, making contact and blocking another spike that was coming towards her.

Being on the defensive was no good, she would have to make a move eventually. The cursed spirit retracted its spike, and she immediately followed up with an attack, hoping to catch it off guard. Her momentum carried her around the corner into the hallway. Staring at her from about 25 ft away was the cursed spirit.

It was about her height, and that is where her comprehension of it stopped. It looked like a blubbering mess of mud, its shape continuously changing but staying just humanoid enough. It spoke, and its mouth seemed to appear in four different places at once.

CAN I sIT WiTH yOU??

Nope.

In one motion she reached behind her back and grabbed one of her daggers that she usually carried with her. Her weapons were limited to what she could carry. Including the polearm, she had a few daggers and a smaller sword on her belt. She’d have to make do.

She flung the dagger towards the spirit. It connected in the center of its body, but clanked to the ground loudly, as if hitting a wall. She had figured that the spirit was using a flesh-hardening skill of sorts, but this was her first time seeing how it worked. It seemed to harden at the last possible second. But was it doing it manually or automatically?

Maki didn’t get a chance to ask. The spirit, seemingly upset, began shrieking a high-pitched sound and sent forth two more spikes towards her. She parried one with the blunt side of her polearm and managed to get out of the way of the other, though she felt the shoulder of her jacket tear. As the spikes retracted, she began running. She had a plan, but it would require some setup.

The spirit didn’t seem able to move after it sent out its spikes. And after it started retracting them, it couldn’t send out anymore. Rushing it down while it was pulling the spikes back seemed like a good idea, but the window for doing so was slim. If she messed it up she might just be met with another volley. She had to catch it off guard.

A set of lockers exploded next to her, momentarily catching her off guard. She lost her balance and forced her polearm into the ground to catch herself. She swung around it just in time to see another spike coming towards her. Her momentum carried her into the air and she swung over it. The spikes began retreating faster this time, the spirit was growing more impatient. That might be the opening she needed.

She threw the polearm at the spirit and began running again. She wasn’t planning on hitting it, she just wanted to buy herself a few more seconds. Holding onto the longer weapon would be nice, but it would slow her down too much for what she was planning. Another set of spikes crashed behind her just as she turned the corner.

Her heart was beating fast now, her head throbbing with the mounting pressure. This was one of the tensest fights she’d engaged in. She trained hard, but her body wasn’t used to being under this much stress for this long. She’d have to end this quickly.

Maki managed to get halfway down the hallway before the cursed spirit turned the corner. Should be enough. She turned to face it and took out the last dagger she kept on her back. 

One shot.

Her sweat was stinging her eyes at this point. 

Ready.

Time seemed to freeze for a split second as the two adversaries sized each other up. 

Set.

Maki was close to making the first move, but as she shifted her weight the spirit let out another scream and sent two spikes towards her.

Go.

The first spike came directly at her, she fell downwards so that her body was parallel to the ground and just managed to avoid it. The second one was off-center, on her right side. She managed to manipulate her body around that one as well. 

Step one was complete, now came the hard part.

The spirit quickly moved to retract its spikes. Instead of getting up and running, Maki caught it off guard. She grabbed the slimy body of the spike and began being pulled towards the spirit. It shrieked in annoyance. 

Using the velocity of the retracting spike to her advantage, she tossed the dagger towards the spirit with her free hand. She had to put enough force behind it so that it would arrive at the same time she would, but not too much force such that it got there before she did. Training and instinct seemed to pay off, and it sped towards the spirit at the right speed.

Step two, check. The hard part was done, now came the really hard part.

Her entire body was sideways, parallel to the floor at this point. She shoved one of her legs into the ground and felt something that probably shouldn’t crack, crack. No matter, not like she could feel it anyways.

Using the forward momentum of traveling, she launched herself forward and regained her sideways positioning. She reached to her belt and unsheathed her small sword, just as her body rotated around to face the spirit.

As expected, its body hardened the second it made contact with the thrown dagger. However, unbeknownst to the spirit, that wasn’t the only attack that was coming. 

Another scream rang out in the hallway, but this one was distinctly more human. And loud.

A split second after the dagger made contact, Maki reached the spirit and drove her small sword through the center of it. It let out an ear-piercing screech and black and brown liquid began squirting from its new wound. She was almost blinded by the sheer volume of it, but held fast, continuing to drive her weapon through the body of the beast.

Eventually, she felt a click of sorts, like when a hole punch snaps through a stack of papers. A last high-pitched sound rang out, before the cursed spirit exploded, throwing Maki to the ground. It left no evidence behind, save for the extensive property damage.

Maki groaned and sat herself up. She did a once-over to make sure there were no hijinks at work, before letting out a scream of victory.

She had only seen the spirit harden its body in one location, and it hadn't done it when she grabbed it’s tentacle thing. She figured that it could only harden its body in one location at a time, so two simultaneous attacks on it would likely be enough to defeat it. Based on the outcome of the fight, it looked like her hypothesis was correct.

She staggered to her feet, laughing almost uncontrollably to herself, a likely symptom of the adrenaline rush she was still under. That thing was strong , much more so than what she usually fought. That was the toughest cursed spirit she had taken on thus far on her own, and she had won. 

She was getting stronger.

Her celebration was short-lived, however, as at that moment the adrenaline largely wore off, and she became aware of how much pain she was in. She stumbled forward and caught herself on one of the lockers, and quickly surveyed the damage. It wasn’t good.

She had likely dislocated something in her leg, but she had planned for that, that wasn’t the issue. The issue was the rather large gash she had at her side. One of the spirit’s spikes must have grazed her at some point. She assumed just her clothing had taken the hit, like the one on her shoulder, but the steady trail of blood she was leaving didn’t suggest that at all.

She suddenly became aware of just how light-headed she felt, the pounding in her head and ears became stronger. The wound wasn’t life-threatening on it’s own, but she had been running at full capacity for the last ten minutes, she was missing a lot of blood.

Her body gave out and she fell to one knee, gritting her teeth. The color from her face was completely gone now, and the edges of her vision were becoming fuzzy.

She slumped herself against the wall of lockers. Was this it? Was this seriously how she was going out? No, the other first-years would find her. Her injuries weren’t too serious.

But where were they?

She tried to control her breathing, but it was no use. She was about to go under. As her vision began to fade, she faintly heard someone call in the distance. 

A faraway voice called out to her. The intoxicating allure of the dreamworld was almost enough to pull her away from it, but her typically sharp mind was still just aware enough to trigger a warning. As the fractaled edges of her vision began to reside, Maki became aware of the voice pulling her out of the void.

Kneeling in front of her was a familiar face, characterized by the dark bags around his eyes. She heard his voice again, though it seemed his mouth was out of sync with his words. 

This guy was annoying, she thought. She wanted to go back to sleep.

She was about to let the comforting pull of the dark retake her, but her brain sent out one last pulse. 

Get up.

As if her body had been submerged into a vat of icy water, she shot up, fully awake. Her brain quickly moved to survey her surroundings. Where was she? How long had she been asleep? What was her current condition?

“Oh thank goodness, I thought you were dead!”

The voice pulled her back into reality. She met the gaze of the smiling boy in front of her.

“Yuta,” she began saying, before groaning. The side effects and consequences of her fight with the spirit were beginning to take shape, specifically in the form of a piercing headache.

“Easy,” Yuta said, ushering her back to a sitting position, “I used my reversed technique on you, but it might take a few minutes to fully kick in.”

She leaned back against the wall and nodded silently, doing her best to divert her attention away from the splitting migraine that she would likely have later.

“When did you get here?” She eventually asked.

“Not too long ago,” Yuta replied, taking a seat next to her. She noted the wincing sound he made as he did so. “I heard a scream and came this way as soon as I could. Found you sitting against the wall in a pool of blood.” He looked at her and smiled grimly, “not exactly the best situation to walk in on.”

She scoffed and leaned forward to look at him. He was a bit banged up, his face was riddled with a fair amount of deep bruising, but other than that he looked okay.

“Have you talked to the other two?” He asked.

“Not in a while,” Maki replied, “last I heard they were together, I figured that you would try to meet up with them.”

He nodded, “that was my plan. Got ambushed on the way there by four spirits”

“Oh yeah?” She said, “easy picking for the Special Grade?”

Yuta frowned, “I’m not a Special Grade anymore, you know that.”

“I know,” Maki said, sensing she might have hit an exposed nerve, “but you’re still capable enough in a fight. You get out okay?”

“More or less,” Yuta replied, “pretty sure they were all low Second Grades, maybe one of them was on the high side.”

Maki started laughing and clenched her fist in triumph.

“What’s so funny?”

“I win,” she said, smiling at him, “Semi-Grade 1.”

Yuta scoffed, and smiled, “oh yea?”

“ Minimum .”

“Sure sure. But I had to take on four of them.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Maki said triumphantly, “one-and-a-half is higher than two.”

“I know you know how that sounds,” Yuta poked.

“Whatever, I still win.”

The two sat with their backs against the wall, enjoying the moment of levity. Tough fights like these would become a common occurrence for them soon, they both wanted to break up the time in between them as much as they could. 

Maki looked over at Yuta, studying him. He looked relatively normal at the moment (save for the new bruises). She was almost expecting him to give her the silent treatment, given how much he was avoiding her lately. But their conversation had been pretty normal, save for the small scare at the beginning. Even still, there was still something a bit off with him. Yuta was pretty open with his emotions, whether intentionally through words or accidentally through posture, but she couldn’t get a great read on him now. He looked tired, but also a bit restless, as if there was something eating away at him.

She was about to open her mouth to prod a bit, when all of a sudden the entire building shook. The two exchanged a quick glance, before it happened again, this time managing to dislodge some plaster from the ceiling.

“Roof?” They both said at the same time. They nodded in sync, and got to their feet. Maki was feeling a bit better now, but was still a little woozy. She was about to tell Yuta to go on ahead when she noticed that her pace was faster than his. He was walking with a limp, his face deep in concentration, brow wet with sweat.

“Yuta…”

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it,” he said, forcing a smile, “I lost my balance and took a hard fall. I’m pretty sure it’s not broken.”

“Why didn’t you just use your reverse technique on it?” She asked, perhaps a bit too forcefully.

“It takes a lot out of me,” he responded. Something seemed to click in him, and he blushed slightly and looked away, “I didn’t know what state you guys would be in, so I wanted to save using it just in case.”

She rolled her eyes and offered him her shoulder. He graciously accepted, and let her support some of his body weight.

“You’re gaining weight.” She grunted.

“It’s muscle!”

“Mhm.”

“I could make a pretty mean joke about the last time we were in an elementary school.”

“You wanna see what happens if you do?”

“No, thank you for all your help Maaakkkiiii! ” Yuta responded, offering a full smile at her. She scoffed and looked away from him. He had stopped her blood loss, and probably brought her back from the brink of death, and he was the one thanking her. She couldn’t stand him.

Nor could she stand her face constantly turning red in his presence.

The two made their way to the stairwell, just as another rumble shook the building. This time, they were close enough to hear a second sound, a familiar shout. 

“ WITHER AWAY! ”

“I guess that’s where they are,” Maki said. She looked back at Yuta, “Inumaki sounds alright, think you can spare some reversed curse for yourself?”

“Already on it,” Yuta said. A navy blue hue engulfed his hand. Maki watched as the energy slowly engulfed his hip. She heard a few cracks and pops, and soon enough Yuta shrugged her off, his gait returning to normal.

“Alright,” she said, “let’s g-”

She was cut off in surprise as Yuta put his hand on her forehead. She stood in the stairwell dumbfounded for a few seconds, only reorienting herself once Yuta put his hand down. Within a matter of seconds, her headache had completely subsided.

“We don’t know what we’re going against,” he said, unsheathing his katana, “your brain needs to be fresh.”

She could only nod, still surprised by the speed in which the reversed technique took effect, and also how nonchalantly Yuta had gone about using it in the first place.

“Hey, you ready?” Yuta asked, snapping her out of her trance.

“Yea,” she said, narrowing her eyes and gripping her small sword, “let’s go.”

Yuta nodded, and the two began running up the stairwell, their focus on the battle ahead.

Though she’d be lying if she said there wasn’t a part of her mind distracted by something else.

They got to the top of the stairwell quickly. Yuta kicked the door open, and the two of them quickly took stock of their surroundings. It was still mid-afternoon, but the sky was dark. The curtain was still up. The rooftop they stood on top of was wide, pretty much just being a flat map of the entire floor plan of the school. About thirty feet away from the, two familiar figures stood assuming defensive positions.

“Panda! Inumaki!” Yuta yelled, running towards them, Maki running alongside him.

Panda shot around, seemingly surprised, before his expression changed to one of panic.

“You two! DUCK , look out!”

Maki and Yuta gave a confused expression, before both becoming aware of the impending attack at the same time. They briefly looked at each other, and snapped to the ground, moving into a slide. Just as they did so, an invisible crash rang out from above them, almost like someone slamming a large textbook shut. They managed to reunite with their two fellow classmates.

“Are you two alright?” Panda asked, his focus still mainly on the invisible threat.

“More or less,” Maki said, drawing her sword to her cheek, “what’s the situation.”

“This one is tough,” Panda explained, “it seems to be able to refract light or something, like a prism. We’re having issues tracking it, and then we have to react to it’s attacks.”

“Salmon,” Inumaki said, coughing as he did so. Maki became aware of the fair amount of blood pooling at his feet.

“Inumaki’s at his limit,” Panda explained, “we have to end this quickly.”

‘Feel free to tag out, Inumaki,” Yuta said, “we should be able to take it if we’re all here.”

“ Fish flakes ,” Inumaki said, wiping the streaks of blood from his mouth.

“Well alright,” Yuta said, readying his katana, “what’s the plan then?”

“We were initially fighting it inside,’ Panda said, “it was partially visible in there, but we couldn’t exorcise it since it was much stronger than we thought. If we can lure it back in, the four of us could probably handle it.”

“Do you think it’s a Grade 1?” Maki asked, eyes darting back forth, trying to sense where it was hiding.

“Salmon,” Inumaki said hoarsely. 

“Alright then,” Maki said, gripping her sword a bit tighter, “first time for everything.”

“I’ll be the bait,” Yuta said. Before anyone could object, he continued, “I’m the least banged up out of all of us, and I just used reversed technique on myself, I’ll be fine.”

Panda and Inumaki looked at each other, before looking back to Yuta and nodding. Yuta looked at Maki, who reluctantly did so as well.

Yuta continued, “Maki, see if you can pierce it with your sword once we figure out where it is. I doubt we’ll be able to fully see it, even inside. If you can stab it, maybe it’ll stick in and we can have a general idea of where it is.”

She narrowed her eyes and nodded, “in that case, try to lure back to the hallway you found me in, my polearm is near there and I’ll need it to arm myself.”

A piercing voice suddenly rang out, “ FALL.”  

Maki immediately became aware of her body moving involuntarily, as it collapsed to the ground, just as another invisible attack struck above them with a loud snap. 

“Good save, Toge,” Panda said, getting up from the ground. Inumaki gave a thumbs up while coughing up more blood.

“No more time to lose,” Maki said, she looked at Yuta, “don’t get yourself killed.”

“Don’t worry,” Yuta said, flashing his friends a small grin, “I can’t die yet.”

They all nodded at each other, ready to put their plan into motion.

“Go on three, Yuta,” Panda said. “One…”

Yuta switched his sword into his right hand, and leaned forward slightly, getting ready to shift his body into motion towards the stairwell door.

‘Two.”

Maki held her breath and brought her arm back into a pitching motion. She’d have one chance to nail this thing, she’d have to make it count.

“ THREE !”

Yuta immediately took off running towards the door.

 He made it about five feet, before being thrown back with an immense force. He looked up in a bewildering surprise as he flew back into his friends, who were just as surprised as he was. Their centers of balance were all out of wonk, so they fell crashing to the ground.

At the same time, a piercing shriek echoed throughout the outside of the school, as something had just been completely eviscerated. The once invisible foe had revealed itself, being a massive beast at least the size of a car. However, they weren’t able to appreciate it for long, as at that moment, it seemingly exploded, pieces of it flying every which way before they dissolved into the aether.

The four sat on the ground, tangled into one another, completely dumbfounded. The air was still for a moment, as a figure slowly descended from above them.

“ WOWWWWW , you guys were going to fight that thing? That was super strong! I’m so proud!”

Maki sat up, and let her sword fly towards the figure. It struck the invisible barrier in front of him and harmlessly fell to the ground.

“Someone’s not in a good mood today!” Gojo said.

She breathed a small sigh of relief and leaned back to fully lie on the ground. She closed her eyes.

One day, she would kill that bastard.

Chapter Text

They explained their experiences to Gojo quickly while still under the effects of the adrenaline. It turns out the database or file or whatever had been mixed up with a different elementary school case. The professional sorcerers had been sent to the other one and were subsequently surprised when they met no resistance.

“An unfortunate accident,” Gojo explained.

“I wouldn’t call this a harmless accident,” Maki said scornfully, “we could have been killed.”

“Salmon,” Inumaki said, half present in the conversation. He was gradually nodding off, the cough syrup he used wasn’t the non-drowsy kind.

“ Could have been killed,” Gojo said, tapping his head, “you guys did great!”

They muttered half-hearted grunts of affirmation and tried to pay attention to the empowering speech their teacher was trying to give. Eventually, even Gojo realized he should stop, and he pranced off to call in a few cars to take them back to the school.

All things considered, they had gotten out of the situation relatively unscathed. Inumaki’s throat would be shot for a few days, and he’d probably be asleep for the next twenty hours, but he was faring okay. Panda’s fur was roughed up and matted in some areas, but didn’t have any significant injuries. The adrenaline that had kept Maki and Yuta going was wearing off by this point, but Yuta had healed their injuries early enough such that there wouldn’t be any substantial damage. A few days of rest and relaxation would put them all back to normal.

A much better price to pay than the alternative.

It took about half an hour for the first car to arrive. They didn’t say much, worn out from the day. Inumaki was fast asleep on Panda’s back, and Yuta wasn’t too far behind him. Regardless, a flick from Gojo put him on high alert very quickly.

“It’s gonna be a while for the next car,” he said, “decide amongst yourselves who’s going back first.”

“You two go on ahead,” Panda said, motioning to Yuta and Maki, “I don’t mind waiting, and I don’t want to wake Toge up.”

The two looked at each other before nodding at Panda. Yuta got up with a small wince and started walking to the car, waving at his friends as he did so.

“Yuta,” he heard Panda say. He turned around and widened his eyes, as he saw both Panda and Inumaki giving him a thumbs-up, much to Gojo’s amusement.

Jerks.

He glared at them before turning back around, turning his attention to the black vehicle in front of him. Regardless of whatever they had planned, Yuta did have to talk with Maki about leaving. His heart sank a bit, the adrenaline and stress of the mission had temporarily made him forget that.

“I hope it’s Ijichi,” Maki mused, snapping Yuta back into the present, “he’ll let us sleep.”

Yuta laughed awkwardly, “ha, yea.”

She shot him a suspicious glare, before focusing back on the car.

“Ah crap.” She muttered as the car window rolled down, revealing the always enthusiastic Nitta waving at them. 

The three of them exchanged basic pleasantries before getting into the car. Nitta was usually curious, and always had a prepared line of questions ready for them after one of their missions. But to her credit, she read the room well. They were both exhausted, and she figured that a quick-fire barrage of questioning wouldn’t do much to help them. Yet.

They had left at a bad time, specifically during the workday rush hour. The city roads were packed like sardines, they wouldn’t be getting back any time in soon.

The atmosphere in the car was still at first. The events of the day were catching up to them, making the idea of small talk hard to grasp. The faint drone of the car heater provided basic white noise, as did Nitta’s occasional tapping on the steering wheel. She usually had some radio station on, but had opted to keep it off today for the students’ sake.

Yuta watched the city of Tokyo out his window. The city was always alive, pulsating with people and experiences at every hour of the day. He caught glimpses of other frustrated commuters, just as tired and worn out as themselves, but for different reasons. A light rain began to patter on the car’s exterior, making its environment cozier than ever.

Maki eventually broke the silence, “it’s a good thing the idiot got there when he did,” she said, eyeing Yuta, “we could have beat it, but we’d probably be in much worse shape.”

Yuta said nothing, only giving a small nod of agreement. The low drone of the heat became the car’s only companion once again.

“I hope Inumkai and Panda aren’t caught in the rain for too long,” Maki continued, “wouldn’t want Inumaki to get a cold, though I guess he’s taken enough medicine for the next two weeks already anyways.”

He offered little more to his response than last time, only adding the small exhale through his nose, the bare minimum courtesy reaction to any joke. 

The air grew still again, a palatable awkwardness hung in the air, so much so that even Nitta seemed to pick up on it. Eventually, Maki let out an exasperated sigh and spoke again.

“Doing this again, are we?” She said, her annoyed tone displaying a hint of betrayal in it.

Yuta was startled and turned to face her. She was glaring at him, her expression hard and fed up.

“Don’t think you’ve been subtle,” she said, “I’m not stupid. I don’t know what your issue has been lately, but whatever it is you need to come out and say it.”

He felt his heart sink a bit. He knew that his strange actions had worried his friends, but Maki’s voice sounded pained, as if she thought that his actions were being done to deliberately hurt her. He stayed silent, still trying to formulate his words. Maki sighed again and turned to look out at the rainy landscape of the city.

“If you want to keep avoiding me, then let me know,” she said, “I’ll make it easier for you.”

Yuta felt like he had been stabbed. He had definitely hurt her, and all his friends for that matter, but while Inumaki (and presumably Panda) had learned the truth, Maki was still in the dark. He didn’t know why he was keeping the information from her, but he had to stop now.

He took a deep breath and spoke. “I’m leaving soon.”

She turned back towards him, raising an eyebrow inquisitively.

“Gojo is sending me abroad,” he continued, “I’ll be gone sometime in the next two weeks.”

Maki’s guarded expression fell, as she processed what he was saying.

“I don’t know how long I’ll be gone for, but it’ll likely be a while,” Yuta said, he met her gaze, “I wasn’t trying to avoid you, honestly.”

Maki said nothing, continuing to study the young man. Her head rested on her hand as if she were doing her best “Thinker” impression. Yuta metaphorically held his breath, ready to get chewed out for hiding his problems for so long. Eventually, she sighed and turned back towards the window.

“This is why I would have bullied you.” She said flatly.

“Wh-What?” Yuta stammered.

“You’re springing this on us now? When you’ve known for how long?” She scolded, “Do you know how hard it’s gonna be to rent out a karaoke bar now?”

“Huh!?”

“Well we’ll have to see you off somehow,” she said, turning to him, “we can’t exactly do it how normal people would, seeing as Panda is, you know, a panda and all.”

Yuta was speechless. He was expecting to get a good scolding, but certainly not like this. He muttered out the only thing he could think of.

“I don’t even like karaoke.” 

“Tough,” Maki said.

The atmosphere in the car returned to its steady-state again, though it was certainly much warmer than it had been before. Yuta stared at his lap, a wave of embarrassment washing over him.

“You’re not mad?’ He eventually asked.

“Not really,” she responded, “I’m just confused why it took you this long to tell me. I mean, we are friends right.”

“I know,” Yuta said quietly, “I just didn’t know how to bring it up.”

“It’s not exactly the most complicated thing to grasp,” she said, “did you think we’d get mad at you or something?”

He said nothing, his silence being the confirmation she needed. Maki sighed, and took off her glasses, rubbing the indents on her temple they had formed. She glanced at the boy sitting next to her. He looked embarrassed, almost ashamed of himself. Had she been too hard on him? No, this wasn’t her doing, this was something else.

She suddenly unbuckled her seatbelt, and laid her body out across the backseat of the car, placing her head in Yuta’s lap, much to his surprise (and Nitta’s protest).

“You’re not alone anymore Yuta,” she said, closing her eyes, “I don’t know how many times we have to tell you that.”

The guilt washed over him again as he processed her words. His eyes started to sting.

“I’m sorry,” he said quietly, “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“Mhm.”

“I’m sorry.” He said again.

“Don’t be,” Maki said, rubbing her head, “I’ll make you make it up to me somehow.”

Yuta smiled a bit, finally managing to let go of some of the intrusive thoughts that were plaguing him for the last week and a half. He still felt guilty for having worried his friends, but felt a bit more at ease.

“Does being used as your pillow count for anything?” He quipped.

“Shhhh,” Maki responded, rubbing her head, “and no. I would have done this regardless. I’m tired.”

“I probably did save your life earlier too.”

“Doesn’t count, I didn’t know I could hold this over you then. Also the headache is back so you can’t have done that great a job.”

Yuta chuckled, and placed a hand on her forehead, beckoning forth small wisps of navy energy forward in an attempt to remedy her pain once again. 

“ HEY ,” Nitta said sternly from the driver’s seat, meeting Yuta’s gaze in the rear-view mirror, “no cursed techniques in the car.”

“Sorry Nitta,” he said, yawning, “won’t…happen…again.”  

He had already been close to falling asleep, and the energy (both literally and metaphorically) that he expended using his reversed curse technique had been the nail in the coffin. Maki was already fast asleep, finding solace three feet in front of the heated air vent. Yuta took one more look at the window at the late winter rain beginning to blanket the city, before dozing off himself, his hand still gently placed on her forehead.

The following days passed in a blur. They had all taken a few days to recover from their injuries, and the resulting training sessions afterward were much more relaxed. Perhaps it was Gojo’s way of apologizing, for both the unexpectedly difficult mission and the looming event happening soon.

Their days might have been the same, but their nights were much different. Weekday nights that were usually reserved for cafeteria dinners and early bedtimes were replaced with a plethora of activities. Movies and shows that had been on the back burner for months were watched in rapid succession. Every new restaurant in the area received four new patrons. The planned springtime hikes were attempted three months earlier than planned, making for some interesting, albeit inconvenient, adventures. Even on quieter days, the four could be found talking amongst themselves well into the night. They were inseparable, almost literally. 

They had gotten word of doomsday the night after they returned from their mission. While they tried not to pay it much thought, it still loomed in the corners of their mind. No matter how powerful they got, no matter how inseparable they prided themselves on being, they could never defeat the passage of time. Sure enough, they found themselves on the cusp of heartbreak.

Contrary to what Maki thought, managing to rent out a karaoke bar for a few hours didn’t prove too difficult, much to the disappointment of Yuta. She had slyly mentioned the idea to Gojo, who had been transfixed by it immediately. He spared no expense, and heeded no answer but ‘yes’, and had managed to buy out a bar for a few hours the night before Yuta was set to leave. There was one condition: Gojo wanted to come too (he tried to bring Utahime and Nanami too, but they both refused him before he could finish relaying the invite).

Yuta’s hatred for karaoke was not unfounded. In fact, the others quickly found that his protesting was not completely to save himself from embarrassment, but to also save his friends from harm. Saying he was bad was an understatement, though they didn’t pester him too much about it, they weren’t much better by comparison. Inumaki’s rendition of late 90s J-Pop done with only rice-ball ingredients was almost impressive, however.

What they lacked in singing skills they more than made up in spirit. The night was full of laughter, chatter, various exotic teas, and sodas that were ‘on the house’ (siphoned to Mei Mei’s bank account, Gojo told them to play dumb), and the last fleeting moments of joy between the close-knit group before the inevitable happened. 

They called it a night around 10:30, their voices were hoarse and their blood sugars through the roof. Upon returning to the campus, Gojo insisted on another group photo, something all of them happily obliged to. With the photo taken, Gojo seemed satisfied and left to retire for the night, offering his regards to Maki, Panda, and Toge, and a warning to be up on time for Yuta. As he disappeared into his room for the night, the four found themselves walking towards their rooms together, the quietest they’d been all night.

Inumaki’s room was first. He stopped in front of it, and gave a sad look at Yuta. The usually composed boy was as distraught as they’d seen him. Yuta wasn’t much better.

“Mustard leaf, caviar row,” he said sadly.

“I will, don’t worry,” Yuta replied, “you take care of yourself too.”

Inumaki met eyes with him, and lowered the zipper over his mouth that was almost a part of him, he spoke quietly.

“ Be…safe . ”

If Yuta had been “holding it together” until this point, he certainly wasn’t now. His eyes began watering, and he threw himself at the boy, embracing him in a tight hug. Inumaki’s eyes quickly followed suit as he returned the favor. 

“You’d better be Grade 1 by the time I’m back,” Yuta said once they had pulled away.

Inumaki narrowed his eyes and nodded at him, “Salmon.” He held his hand in front of him, mimicking the gesture that had cemented their friendship earlier last year. Yuta instinctively knew what to do, executing a perfect high-five to reaffirm everything. Inumaki waved one last time, before closing his door and retiring for the night.

One down, two to go, and Yuta was already a blubbering mess.

Panda’s room was next. He and Maki had been watching silently during the first goodbye, and Maki stepped away to do the same this time.

“I’m gonna miss you Panda,” Yuta said, skipping the pleasantries this time and immediately hugging the large, fluffy bear-not-bear.

“I’ve always wanted to see Africa,” Panda replied, patting the shorter boys back, “I’ve had a score to settle with some of the wildlife there.”

“What are you, jealous?” Yuta quipped.

“They’ve had it too good for too long,” Panda growled, “I mean, do they really need the whole Savannah.”

Both of them laughed as they pulled away from each other, Yuta looked at him one last time.

“Thank you for watching out for me,” he said quietly, “I wouldn’t be here without you.”

“Oh come on, Yuta,” Panda chuckled, “that’s not true.”

“It is,” Yuta said firmly, before returning to his quiet tone, “you were the first person to show me any sort of kindness in years. I won’t forget that.”

Panda’s ‘heart’ swelled upon hearing the word ‘person’. He was quiet for a moment, slightly reeling before he responded.

“Thank you, Yuta. I won’t forget you either.”

They smiled at each other one last time before it was Panda’s turn to close the door, retreating into the darkness of his room for the night.

Almost there, one left. This might be the hardest one.

Maki and Yuta were quiet as they walked further down the hall. Their pace was comparable to that of a snail’s, and if it were physically possible to move slower then they likely would have.

“I knew you were emotional,” Maki eventually said. She looked at the sorcerer and smiled at him faintly, “I didn’t expect that from them, though.”

“They’re a couple of softies,” Yuta said laughing, “they have to be to compensate for you.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“You made that kid cry the other day!”

“I didn’t do it on purpose!”

“That’s the point!”

They both started laughing, trying to leverage any moment of levity they could get. Eventually, the dreaded door came into view. The entrance to Yuta’s room.

He turned to her as they arrived, his eyes more sad than bittersweet, as they had been with the others. He searched for appropriate words to say to her, but his mind was coming up short.

She wasn’t faring much better. Her usual bluntness was eluding her at the moment, and she couldn’t muster up anything more than an awkward smile.

“I guess this is it,” Yuta said, laughing uncomfortably.

“Original,” Maki said sarcastically, but her body language gave her away, she was completely at a loss.

“Uhh,” Yuta said, grabbing the back of his head, as if trying to push any coherent thought forward, “thanks for everything? Especially the training.”

“Don’t mention it,” she responded, doing her best to avoid direct eye contact, “it was nice to have a partner…to train with…to train weapons with.”

Yuta coughed.

“So, um,” she stuttered, “be safe. Don’t die. Stay in touch.”

“Mhm, yup will do,” Yuta said, smiling.

What is going on, he thought.

He awkwardly offered her a one-handed hug, which she accepted just as awkwardly. Their brains still couldn’t come up with any sort of meaningful words as they pulled away.

“Right, have a good night!” Maki said. She smiled as she turned around, waving, “get some sleep.”

“You too!”

Yuta watched as she walked away, or at least started to walk away. She got about ten steps from the entrance before stopping. She turned around and opened her mouth, just as Yuta was doing the same. Their simultaneous messages cut each other off, leading them to silence themselves. No one spoke, until Maki wordlessly motioned to him to speak.

“Do you want to uh…” he stammered, struggling, “hang out for a bit? It’s not too late.”

“Sure,” she said quickly, shifting back towards his door, “only if you don’t mind.”

“No, not at all,” Yuta said, he managed a smile, “I’ll take all the company I can get right now.” He ushered for her to enter.

She returned the smile and obliged, entering the boy's room. As she entered, her mind mustered a single coherent thought.

What the HELL is going on?

Chapter Text

Yuta Okkotsu was panicking.

It wasn’t a life-threatening panic, mind you. He had gone through that before. Nor was he necessarily scared. He couldn’t quite place what emotion he was feeling, but he could tell that his nerves were going haywire, and he wasn’t quite sure how to fix that.

He was currently sitting on his bed, hugging his knees to his chest. Maki was sitting about a foot away from him, albeit in a slightly more comfortable position. The small TV that was situated on the bureau across from the bed was currently playing a dated horror movie that was just scary enough to be deemed appropriate for showing during late-night hours. Yuta couldn’t summarize the film thus far if his life depended on it.

He wasn’t exactly sure of the chain of events that led to them watching an old movie on TV, it was likely just one of the few available options given the time of night and location. They hadn’t talked too much beforehand, only making the typical small talk that was expected of them. Even still, Yuta couldn’t help but feel that he was very much missing something.

He glanced over at Maki, whose eyes were currently focused on whether or not the vengeful spirit would rack up another tally for the body count. He couldn’t tell what she was thinking, but given enough time he’d probably come up with some terrifying answer.

She would just leave if she wanted to, right? He thought to himself, it’s not like she doesn’t have an excuse to.

He stole a glance at the clock. It was approaching midnight, certainly late enough to justify leaving. He didn’t think she was being considerate to him either, she was always one to voice any concerns she had.

Then why is she still here?

He took a deep breath and tried to calm himself. 

Get a grip .

This wasn’t the first time they had hung out alone together. In fact, they usually ended up doing so after training while they waited for Panda and Inumaki to be around. He had no reason to be uncomfortable. He was leaving soon, she probably just wanted to spend some extra time with him before he was gone for however long, they were good friends, after all.  She’d finish watching the movie, they’d chat for a bit, say their goodbyes, and then she’d leave.

He was pretty satisfied with this explanation, that was until he suddenly felt a weight on his shoulder. He slowly turned in fear towards Maki, mimicking the current character on screen who was about to meet an unfortunate end. She had leaned her head against his shoulder. 

He hadn’t intended to, but his body instinctively tensed up due to the surprise. He also unintentionally let out a small breath of surprise, which he tried to play off at being a shocked fright to whatever was happening in the movie. Maki didn’t seem to believe him, however, and quickly sat back upright without saying a word.

Whatever his heart rate was before, it had doubled by now.

Oh no, he thought to himself, no no no no no no .

Was that what he thought it was? Did she just do that? He cautiously stole a glance at her again. She seemed unphased by the ordeal and was seemingly still transfixed by the film.

What was he supposed to do now? Did he follow up? Was that a hint? If it was a hint, what was she thinking now?

He stealthily took a deep breath and thought for a moment, taking a second to consider his current feelings. More specifically, did he have any applicable ones here? He obviously must, considering he had asked to spend some more time with her tonight. But were those feelings platonic, romantic, or (most importantly) mutual?

He had always liked Maki. Of course he did. She was one of his first friends at Jujutsu Tech, and they had spent a lot of time together doing weapon training, something that his peers (most notably Panda) had observed as well. He enjoyed being around her, whether they were discussing new tactics in bouts or giving each other a good-natured ribbing over dinner. He had to admit, he found himself missing her at times, and always felt a tinge of happiness whenever a circumstance arose that required them to be together. He knew he had some sort of feelings for her.

But what were they?

He glanced over at Maki, hoping to gauge what she was feeling. He found in horror that she was currently checking her phone.

She’s BORED!

He had to figure something out, fast . He was going to be leaving tomorrow morning. They likely wouldn’t see each other for some time, for however long his ‘abroad’ session would last. If he did nothing, he figured she’d probably have good memories of him. If he tried to do anything now, there was the risk that he would ruin that.

On the flipside, this would probably be the last chance he had to test the waters. They’d probably stay in contact, of course, but he wasn’t naive. Best case scenario, he’d come back in however many months and there would be a comfortable barrier between them. They would still be friends, but they would have been out of each other’s lives for too long to truly have a close connection. If he tried to affirm something tonight, however…

Whatever he decided to do, he had to do it soon. He couldn’t worry about any reservations he had in relation to his feelings.

To risk it, or not?

He took a deep breath, a bit less stealthily this time. In a move befitting of one of his upperclassmen, he rolled the dice, and slowly put his arm around her.

Shit, Maki thought, Shitshitshitshitshit

She had scared him off. She thought she could be cute, but instead had likely just weirded him out. He had tensed up almost immediately. She could almost die from embarrassment.

Did she misread things? He had invited her to hang out for a bit, and while they had hung out together before, the circumstances here were clearly different, weren’t they?

She did her best to appear unphased, trying to feign interest in the crappy horror movie that was playing on the television. This awkwardness would pass, she convinced herself. She could play it off as just being tired, or passing out, or having really bad spatial awareness. Yuta wasn’t one to judge people in general, she could hardly imagine that he would ever mention this again.

Even still, her heart sank a bit.

She had always been one to go about her life alone. She learned at a very young age that most people could not be reliably depended upon, herself included. Her philosophy in life was to always depend primarily on oneself. Even if you failed, the end result would likely still hurt less than being let down by someone you confided in.

Because of this, she had always done her best to not open herself to others. If she wasn’t going to trust them, not burdening them with her feelings was the very least she could do. She put on her independent, confident persona, and generally did her best to stay out of people’s way (people who hadn’t wronged her, that is). She didn’t like opening up about her emotions and certainly didn’t like showing them if she could help it.

But therein lies the fact why she was so devastated at the moment.

Yuta was… different , to say the least. Despite having the power level of a Special Grade sorcerer, he very vocally made it a point to rely on and support his friends. He was open about his emotional state, whether that be when he was suffering or when he was happy. He was altruistic to a fault, perhaps too much for his own good. For God’s sake, he had almost allowed himself to be executed because he thought it would help people. In many ways, Yuta was the total opposite of her.

But not in every way. There were many times when the two had found striking similarities between themselves. Some were small things, such as their fighting styles (though to be fair, she had taught him everything he knew). But others were more nuanced than that. Their traumatic childhoods, their curses they had to live with, even their work ethics and philosophies in general. She still maintained a sort of barrier between her inner emotions and him, but she was gradually becoming more compelled to take it down.

Which is why it hurt so much when he was so noticeably uncomfortable.

She mentally kicked herself for trying. She almost connected the rejection to her central tenet of not being able to trust people, but quickly buried the thought. If he wasn’t attracted to her, that wasn’t any fault of his own.

But was she attracted to him? It would certainly seem so given what she had just done, but it was more complicated than that. It was less of an attraction thing, and more so that he was just one of the few people she felt utterly at ease with. Sure, Inumaki, Panda, even Mai for a time, were people who she enjoyed being around. But there was something distinctly different about Yuta. She remembered that before he came to Jujutsu Tech, she had felt relatively alone. Again, Inumaki and Panda were great friends, but there was a piece of her that just persistently felt empty. It was as if she was surrounded by a buffet of food, but was still hungry no matter how much she ate. When Yuta had transferred, things had been rocky for a bit at first, sure, but she slowly started becoming full.

But he was leaving tomorrow. And worse yet, she might have just ruined everything.

She casually glanced in his direction. His gaze was soft and fixated on the commercials that were currently playing in between the movie.

He’s bored . She thought sadly.

She looked at her phone to check the time. It was almost midnight. She should get out of his hair soon. Maybe she’d say her goodbyes in the morning and reach out in the future to see how he was doing. She didn’t doubt that he still saw her as a friend, but she’d understand if he wanted a bit of space.

She quietly sighed to herself and began to silently gather her things. The movie had come back on, and she wasn’t particularly keen on watching it, especially given the current scenario. She started to turn to tell Yuta that she was going to bed. However, she quickly noticed that something was off.

Yuta had changed his sitting position. Instead of hugging his knees, his legs were now laid out on the bed. This wasn’t too odd in itself, but it was the other factor that really threw her off guard, that being that Yuta’s arm was currently around her.

WHAAAAAT?!???

Yuta held his breath as he awaited the moment of truth. He wasn’t even sure if Maki had noticed that his arm was around her at first, as she had not reacted to it in the slightest. Even still he waited breathlessly.

She has to do something, Yuta thought, at the very least get MAD at me or something.

What now??? Maki thought to herself. Yuta’s arm had been around her for a few seconds, but it had felt like ages. This had to be a move, right? Or a hint of sorts. This wasn’t something that friends casually do with one another, certainly not in this specific situation.

She looked at him out of the corner of her eye. He wasn’t doing too much, just looking straight ahead at the TV. How was he being so casual about this?

Was her initial conclusion wrong? Maybe he hadn’t been uncomfortable about her leaning on him in the first place. Maybe it was something else. Did he hurt his shoulder or something at the mission a few weeks ago, and she had just accidentally hurt him? Or maybe it wasn’t socially acceptable for her to make the first move, and he had been initially put off (though she somewhat doubted that one). Or maybe he just didn’t like people on his shoulder.

Regardless, she had to respond to this in some way. But how? The leaning-into-his-shoulder maneuver did not currently have a good track record, so that was out of the question. Did she just put her arm around him too? But that would be awkward and uncomfortable, both figuratively and literally. But what was she supposed to do then?

Suddenly, she had an epiphany. His posture! It had changed when he put her arm around her. He wasn’t closed off anymore, his body was open. 

She scrunched her face up slightly. Seriously? Was that what he was inviting her to do? She didn’t even intend to do it suggestively the first time, she was literally just tired. This boy had no sense of romance.

Still, she can’t say she would hate it, and it was getting to the point where enough time had passed in that she had to do something. 

Alright. She’d hype herself up, and then go for it.

SHE’S NOT DOING ANYTHING, Yuta thought, the voice in his head absolutely screaming.

She hadn’t pulled away when he put her arm around her, but she hadn’t exactly reacted to it in a positive way either. Was she frozen? Distracted? Asleep ? 

He thought about the very limited romantic information he had learned throughout his life. He didn’t think he had broken any rules, what he just did was normal, right? Or had he made a critical error because of something that wasn’t coming to him.

Either way, he was panicking again.

He reached over to the nightstand next to him and picked up the bottle of water he kept alongside his bed in the event of emergencies. This was certainly an emergency, and he needed a drink. He made up his mind to keep his arm around her for another few seconds. If she didn’t react to it, then he’d just pretend to scratch himself and not do it again. It wasn’t a very elegant solution, but it was effective and they wouldn’t have to discuss it again if they didn’t want to.

Yes, good plan.

He was satisfied with himself, and began to drink some water to celebrate his quick thinking.

And then promptly started choking on it when Maki immediately slammed herself into his lap.

Very briefly, they made eye contact.

Then, as if someone had dropped a box of rodents onto the bed, all hell broke loose.

Yuta became acutely aware of the fact that the human body is not built to breathe water, and involuntarily spit the majority of it in his mouth into the air in front of him, after which he began coughing violently. This naturally took Maki by surprise, seeing as it was the first non-crappy movie sound that had originated from the room in the last twenty minutes, and she promptly jumped and shot up in surprise.

Directly into Yuta’s stomach.

His coughing resided slightly, only due to the fact that he was now out of breath.

“ YUTA! ” Maki exclaimed, “I’m so sorry let me-” but she was cut off before she could finish, as she hit her head on the bed frame and began seeing stars.

Yuta had recovered by the point - slightly - and seeing his friend’s head rocket into the bed frame at a velocity seemingly comparable to the speed of light naturally made him a little concerned.

“ MAKI! ” He yelled as he reached over to make sure she was alright, “are you okay??”

Maki didn’t answer at first. Not because she was hurt or anything, but because somewhere in this process she had managed to lose her glasses, and was frantically feeling around for them. Of course, Yuta didn’t actually notice this, and assumed that she had knocked herself out cold. In a panic, he jumped out of bed to go get Gojo or Shoko, or literally anybody that wasn’t him, to help. But in a frenzy, he managed to trip over the side of the bed and fall to the ground with a thud.

He groaned for a moment as he felt the wind get knocked out of him again, but got back to his feet quickly. As he did so, Maki managed to find her glasses and put them on again. 

For the second time, time seemed to pause ever so slightly as they made eye contact with each other.

Maki was the first to break, her now flushed face gave her away.

“I’m sorry,” she said quickly. She snapped her gaze away from his and hastily began tidying herself up. “I’ll go now.”

She stood up and began walking out of the room, much to Yuta’s horror.

“Maki WAIT!” He called out as he began chasing after her.

“I should let you get some sleep,” she said as she began opening the door, “I’ll say goodbye in the morning.”

“ NO! ” Yuta exclaimed, almost yelling it.

Not again, he thought to himself, I’m not letting it happen again .

Maki had opened the door and was about to sprint back to her room, ready to spend the next 30 hours locked inside it cringing at herself. Just as she was about to make a run for it, however, she froze. She felt something touching her hand. Or rather, grasping her hand.

She turned around and saw a very sheepish-looking Yuta. He was looking towards the ground avoiding eye contact, his usually pale cheeks flushed. He didn’t say anything, but rather just stood still squeezing her hand. She very quickly became aware of her own face becoming red hot.

She suddenly heard a thud from down the hall and looked up in horror to see the scariest thing she’d seen all night. Stood in the door at the end of the hallway was a very tall man with snow-white hair wearing a particularly juvenile set of pajamas.

Or rather, a very tall idiot with stupid-looking hair wearing stupid pajamas.

“Heyyyy!” Gojo yelled from down the hall, “what’s all the commotion, you’re being REALLY LOUD . ”

“Are you sure WE’RE the issue here!” Maki snapped back.

“ We’re? ” Gojo said inquisitively. It was dark, but Maki could have sworn that she saw the bastard’s face curl into a sly grin.

Maki gasped and quickly pushed Yuta back into his room, following close behind. She slammed the door behind them and promptly locked it, before looking back at Yuta who was still recovering from a number of things. She was about to say something, but almost gasped in surprise again as she realized that throughout the entire ordeal, they had never let go of each other’s hands. If anything their grips had only gotten tighter.

“Hey,” Yuta said quietly. He finally looked directly at her and gave the faintest note of a smile, “can we try this again?”

She felt her face becoming hot again, or maybe it hadn’t become cool in the first place. She shyly returned the smile and nodded, before following Yuta back to the bed.

Chapter Text

They made sure to properly posture themselves this time. They deduced that a combination of their ‘moves' would be sufficient enough to make them comfortable. Along with the use of a blanket. Yuta was cold.

Yuta sat on the back of the bed with his arm around Maki, who had found a headrest in the crux of his shoulder. A thick blanket encased both of them, creating a pocket of warmth on the cold winter night. The movie that had accompanied them and humored their antics throughout the evening was slowly winding down to its resolution. The once chaotic nature of the room had finally settled into a quiet murmur. 

They still didn’t say much to each other, mostly just the bare minimum phrases to ensure the chaos from before didn’t occur again while they settled into their current position. “Watch your head” and “are you comfortable” and the like. There wasn’t much that needed to be said, for that at least.

But as the room began its descent into silence, they both knew that they had to exchange at least some words. The specifics of those words were unknown at this point, but they had to be said.

Maki spoke first, burying her head deeper into Yuta’s arm while simultaneously squeezing him a bit tighter, “Yuta…”

“Mhm?” Yuta replied. He wasn’t ready yet.

“This movie is awful,” Maki declared.

“I couldn’t tell you what happened if I tried,” Yuta admitted. 

The movie couldn’t quite make it to its credits before Yuta found the remote and ended its life. The silence had fully set inside the room now, the only audible sounds being the steady, warm breathing between the two.

It was past midnight at this point, officially onto Yuta’s last day, but that wasn’t acknowledged. Out of sight, out of mind.

Despite the given situation, neither of them had fully realized the extent of their feelings yet. They were certainly there, but tangibly defining them was much harder than it seemed. They could just stay like this all night, but neither of them could deny that there would be something missing. 

Yuta pulled the blanket a bit tighter around them, partly for warmth and partly as a form of support, the catalyst for his anxiety had shifted from one thing to another. Maki leaned back a bit, implying that there was no reason to sit up anymore, and Yuta followed suit. The two found themselves lying down on the bed, staring at each other with soft expressions.

Maki began to stroke Yuta’s hair, studying the complexion of his face. “Are you ready?” She eventually asked.

“No,” Yuta said with a sigh, “I really don’t want to go.”

Maki was silent, but her expression communicated all that needed to be said. She pulled closer to him and cuddled his face into the crook of her neck, stroking the back of his head.

“I’m…afraid,” Yuta finally admitted.

“Of what?”

“Of being alone again.”

She hugged him a little tighter and continued stroking him, “we won’t let that happen.”

“I know,” Yuta said, “but it won’t be the same.”

She couldn’t argue there. 

A pattering sound began seeping its way inside, a light rain had descended upon the campus, perhaps to signify the oh-so-obvious.

Yuta moved his head up from his cave of warmth and looked at Maki. He carefully removed her glasses and cradled her face in his hand, gently stroking her cheek. His hands were cold.

“What will you do?” He eventually asked.

“Continue my training and my studies,” she said, “I’ll keep busy.”

Yuta smiled, his heart fluttering in hearing her conviction.

“Give me a heads up when you take it to the Zenin,” Yuta yawned, “I wanna be there to see it.”

Their eyelids were growing heavy now. The downfall of the cold late-winter rain was increasing, and their pocket of warmth was more inviting than ever.  Part of them wanted to fall into the warm slumber, entangled into each other. The other part wanted to stay awake for as long as possible, getting as much conscious time together as they could.

Yuta had calmed down now, he felt utterly at peace. The problems facing society and the Jujutsu world seemed far away, and his personal anxieties that he fostered so much over the years seemed like a dream. But he couldn’t rest yet. Not until he confirmed it.

He shifted towards Maki and pulled her closer, this time directing her head into his neck. He squeezed her as tenderly as possible, seemingly trying to fuse the two together. Eventually, his lips formed the words he had been trying to say all night:

“Wait for me?”

Maki snuggled into the warmth of his body and the blanket, trying to completely isolate herself from anything else. She was quiet for a moment, before responding.

“Okay.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

Nothing else needed to be said. The two stayed entwined in each other’s grasp and accepted the embrace of a warm, blissful sleep.

It was still dark when they awoke the next morning. The inklings of light had yet to appear in the sky, making the dark room they resided in a bit more ominous than usual, perhaps even melancholic.

They hadn’t moved much in their slumber. Their arms were still tangled around each other, their bodies fit together like a puzzle. If anything, the grips had gotten tighter.

Yuta thought he was up before Maki, given that he had been the one to set the alarm and was preparing to wake up this early. His consciousness slowly returned to him as the vibration of his phone lightly jostled him awake. The rain outside had let up slightly but not entirely, solidifying the comfort of the warm bed. He studied Maki’s sleeping body next to his. Her face was painted with a peaceful expression, a rarity for her. Yuta couldn’t help but smile as he listened to the steady sound of her breathing next to him. He gently pressed his forehead to hers for a few seconds, before getting up to prepare for the trip.

Maki had other plans. He felt himself being dragged back to bed seconds after pulling himself out. She hadn’t been asleep after all.

“Not yet,” she muttered, her eyes still closed.

“I have to pack.”

“I’ll help you,” she said, pulling him back with a bit more force this time, “a bit longer.”

He smiled, he didn’t need to be told twice. He settled into his prior position, inviting the woman to use his shoulder as her cushion again. She happily obliged, squeezing him the tightest she had thus far.

“Someone’s cuddle-ly today,” Yuta whispered, wincing as she pulled his hair in response.

Time seemed to blend together once again, like broad strokes of paint on a canvas. The two were in and out of consciousness, falling asleep for a few seconds only to subconsciously pull themselves awake. They seemed aware of the preciousness of time, taking turns to snugly hug each other to remind them that they were still there.

The sound of the backup alarm, no, fifth backup alarm, that Yuta had set eventually forced them to face reality. Yuta silenced it, and fell back into position, ready to make peace with their final moments.

“I can’t believe it took you this long to do it,” Maki mumbled, pressing her face into his chest.

“You can’t blame this on me,” he laughed, “you said you would have bullied me the other day, my confidence wasn’t at an all-time high.”

“It’s called negging Yuta, ever heard of it?”

“No, and I somehow doubt you have either.” He pulled her close one last time, turning his gaze down towards her head. Her eyes were open now, resting against his chest and listening to the sound of his heart. Without thinking, almost involuntarily, he kissed her on the forehead, letting his lips linger for a few seconds. Maki tensed up slightly, before pulling away and looking at him. 

Yuta’s heart sank, as he lay there frozen. Had he done something wrong? Messed something up at the 11th hour?

She stared at him for a second, letting him stew in his anxieties, before the corners of her mouth curved into a mischievous grin. 

“Coward.”

“Wh-”

She didn’t let him respond, as she almost threw herself at him, planting her lips on his. 

Yuta proceeded to feel probably close to twelve different emotions at once, but somehow, he managed to compose himself. He closed his eyes and hugged her again, finding a solace he wasn’t aware he needed. He probably could have cried again, but managed to hold it back, not wanting to ruin the moment.

Some time passed before they pulled away. They looked at each other, both slightly blushing, as well as slightly smiling.

“I didn’t know you had that in you,” Yuta said, his smile transposing into more of a smirk.

“Shush,” Maki said, the shades of red in her cheeks darkening, “you need to pack, Gojo will kill you.”

“You said you’d help!”

She playfully rolled her eyes at him, picking up her glasses as she did so. She looked expectantly at him, awaiting orders. 

The two packed in silence for a few minutes, making sure that Yuta had everything he needed. Doubling back home from Africa wasn’t exactly an option.

Maki was gathering up some of his bedside objects, sleeping pills, cough drops, and the like. When she came across a face-down photo on his nightstand. Yuta noticed this too and quickly moved to grab it before she could see what was on it. She was quicker though, and her face curled into a grin as she held it in front of her face, beaming.

“This is adorable.”

“Yeah yeah.”

“I never took you for an overly sappy person,” she said, looking at the photo again, not being able to contain her smile, “but I guess it makes sense.”

“That was taken like, two days after you guys almost died,” Yuta said, “you can’t exactly blame me for keeping it.”

“I’m not,” Maki insisted, placing the framed photo into one of Yuta’s bags, “I just didn’t know you were an avid photo collector, that’s all.”

The room fell quiet for a few moments. Maki felt a bit bad, after all that had transpired in the 12 hours, it didn’t feel right that that was what he was most embarrassed about. As they finished packing, she suddenly had an idea.

“Hey, give me your phone,” she said.

“What? Why?”

“Phone.”

Yuta obliged, handing her his smartphone, mildly confused. She immediately threw her arm around him, and pressed her cheek against his. Yuta started stammering, confused at first before it finally clicked as Maki brought the phone in front of them. He managed to put on his best photogenic smile as Maki snapped a picture of the two of them.

“There you go,” she said, looking satisfied with the quality of the photo, “another one for the wall.” 

Yuta audibly groaned and buried his face in his hands.

They finished packing a few minutes later. The sun had begun to rise by this point, leaving brilliant streaks of red across the sky. 

The pair sat watching it for a few minutes, Yuta’s head resting on Maki’s shoulder. There wasn’t much more to be said to each other, they had managed to get everything out. Both of them felt content. A tinge of sadness resided from their impending separation, but oddly enough, they felt satisfied.

“You know I’ve never flown on a plane before,” Yuta said.

“That doesn’t surprise me,” she responded, stroking his hair, “how long is the flight gonna be.”

“Like 20 hours,” he groaned, “there’s no way I can sleep that long.”

“Look on the bright side,” she said, smiling at him, “that’s probably the longest period of freedom you’ll have.”

They laughed together one last time, before the dreaded call arrived. Yuta answered his phone, hearing the familiar voice of his teacher on the other line. Gojo was out front with the car, it was time to go.

Maki helped him carry his bags to the front door of the building before he gathered them up himself.

“Now this is it,” Yuta said, smiling sadly.

Maki went in for a hug one more time, awkwardly moving her body to avoid the bags he was struggling to carry.

“Be safe,” she said softly into his ear, “don’t do anything stupid.”

“So don’t do anything you’d do, got it.”

“I’m serious, if I find out you died I’m going to whoop your ass in the afterlife.”

“I’ll be alright,” Yuta said, “I’m more nervous about keeping up. Not being able to train with you for a while is gonna make me rusty.”

She flashed a smile at him, “now's my chance to catch up then.”

“What do you mean ‘catch up’,” Yuta said, hoisting up his bags, “like you said, one-and-a-half is higher than two.”

“I hope you get stuck in the middle seat,” she called to him, waving as he walked towards the black car near the campus entrance.

He offered no response, but simply looked back and laughed, managing a wave of sorts with his hands full. Maki’s heart fluttered as she watched him get to the car. He exchanged a few words with Gojo and the two other adults accompanying him before he ultimately left. She watched the car drive off, the tinge of sadness in her heart as ever-present as she thought it would be.

She sighed and started walking towards her room, getting ready to start her day. She mentally reset herself to her normal state, preparing to face the world as she normally did. Yuta might be gone, but she would live her life the same, nothing massive would change in that regard.

Except now, she had a promise to keep.

Yuta hadn’t expected the car ride to the airport to be so crowded.

Nitta had elected to drive, on the condition that Yuta did not use cursed energy in her car again. A request that both confused and amused Gojo. Gojo was sat in the backseat alongside Yuta, “looking” out the window at the various commuters who had begun trickling onto the road. In the front seat was a pretty woman that Yuta vaguely remembered as being one of the teachers at Kyoto. She had a red bow in her hair and wore a stylish pair of sunglasses. Gojo has noticed Yuta staring at her in the, trying to figure out why she was here.

“She’s hungover,” he explained, as if the sunglasses were the most pressing concern. A pen flew back from the front seat and stuck itself in the seat cushion between the two, much to the disappointment of Nitta, who sighed sadly.

“I’m so sorry, sweetie,” the woman in front (Utahime, that’s her name!) said, consoling the distraught blonde driver. She awkwardly turned around and looked at Yuta, whose mouth was still agape at how deep the pen had penetrated into the fabric.

“Did you and your friends have a nice last few days together?” She asked, shaking Yuta back into the conversation. Her eyes were kind, expressing a sort of pity, no, empathy to the black-haired student.

“Yes,” Yuta said smiling, “I hate to leave them, but we all said our proper goodbyes.”

Utahime smiled warmly, “that’s good. You guys must be close given all you’ve gone through.”

“Yeah, we were,” Yuta said sadly, his gaze falling downwards.

“Don’t worry, sweetie,” Utahime said, meeting the boy’s gaze as he looked up again, “I’m sure you’ll see them again.”

Yuta smiled again and was about to respond with thanks when Gojo suddenly spoke up, quietly.

“I’m really sorry for this, Yuta.” 

Yuta was taken aback, as was Utahime. Gojo didn’t apologize often, so this was a surprise to be sure. Yuta smiled at the distraught teacher.

“It’s okay Sensei,” he said, “I know this wasn’t your fault.”

“I wish I could have done more to stop it,” Gojo continued, trailing off at the end. This was the first time Yuta had seen him this down.

“I understand,” Yuta said a bit sadly, taking his phone out of his pocket, “I take it that little mix up the other day was the doing of the Conservatives.”

Yuta could have sworn he saw a vein in Gojo’s forehead burst as he responded. “Bingo. It was a warning. If we kept you here any longer they likely would have tried the same thing again, only this time they probably would have tried a bit harder to get someone killed.”

“Tsk,” Utahime scoffed in the front seat, drumming her finger on the window of the car, “those cowards wouldn’t even be able to exorcise a Grade 2, and they have the nerve to send students on Special Grade missions. Disgusting.”

Gojo leaned over with his hand over his mouth, “scary…” he whispered. 

Utahime whipped around, her kind expression now transformed into one of pure fury. Before she could say anything, Nitta cleared her throat from the front seat.

“We’re running ahead of schedule,” she said quickly. She looked at Yuta in the rear-view mirror, “is there any place you’d like to stop before you leave.”

“Actually, yeah,” Yuta said, looking through his phone. He eventually stopped scrolling and smiled to himself, “do you think I can get something printed before I leave?”

Chapter Text

Three Months Later

Maki walked briskly through the halls of Jujutsu tech dormitory. She was sweating profusely and was in dire need of a shower. Panda had been egging her on during training today, and she may have pushed herself a bit harder than usual. She winced as she felt the residual effect of one of his punches that had landed beneath her rib cage. That jerk, they had a mission tomorrow and she had to be in top shape. Maybe Shoko would be in later.

Her brisk walk slowed as she reached her room. There was a figure standing outside, standing at attention at her door. It was a blonde woman, who was doing her best to appear alert. Though it didn’t take someone with the perception of Maki to release she was on the cusp of dozing off.

“Hey,” Maki called as she approached her, causing the woman to jump slightly, “what are you doing here Nitta.”

‘MAKI,” Nitta said, offering her a small bow, which Maki returned, “a package was delivered for you, I figured I would deliver it.” 

She took out a medium-sized manila envelope from behind her back and handed it to the now confused Maki.

“Who is it from?” Maki asked, feeling the weight of the package in her hand. She could make out something inside, with some sort of paper accompanying it.

Nitta simply bowed, “I need to go, have a good day Maki.” She briskly walked away, hopefully, Maki thought, to a nice comfortable bed.

Maki shrugged and entered her room. Her window was open, allowing the sweet warm air of early June to fill the room. A small standing fan was audibly moaning in the corner, offering her some comfort from the humidity. A small bag was packed on top of her bed. She and the other second years would be leaving on a trip for a few days to deal with a cursed spirit problem in Hokkaido.

She sighed and tossed her bag and weapon onto her desk. She would have to move quickly, they’d be leaving soon, and she didn’t feel like sitting in a train car already covered in sweat. But first, she turned her attention to the mysterious package in her hand.

She hastily opened in and took out the first thing she touched. It was a small index card with some writing on it, addressed to her. 

Dear Maki,

I’ve been meaning to send this over for a while now, just wanted to make sure it looked good enough for your standards first :)

Yuta

She raised an eyebrow at the note. She was surprised to see it addressed from Yuta. Despite being over 8000 miles away, and in vastly different time zones, they still talked relatively often. They had a group chat with the other second years to discuss very important things such as speculating why one of the third years got suspended and how hard they should haze the incoming new first years. The two of them also made sure to keep each other updated with their training, both controlled and in the field. 

She hadn’t mentioned their last night together since it happened. Not because she was ashamed of it, or regretted it for that matter, but simply because she didn’t want to dwell on it for too long. She might miss it a bit too much.

Even still, she smiled a bit at receiving the note. For lack of a better term, it was cute . Though she didn’t quite understand why he thought her standards were so high.

She shook away that thought, as well as the low hanging fruit of a joke, and put the note aside. She reached into the envelope and extracted the object within. She let out an audible gasp as she looked at it, and immediately felt her face flush.

It was the picture they had taken together on the day that he left, residing in a beautifully crafted picture frame. She was staring at the smiling face of the person who she had missed daily for the last three months. 

In an instant, she found herself next to him, laughing as he unintentionally said something funny. Her arm was wrapped around his, her head leaning against his shoulder. He was laughing too, embarrassed by his cluelessness. But he was happy. They were happy. The scene faded from Maki’s mind almost as quickly as it came, leaving her alone in the room, with only the faint songs of the birds outside keeping her company. 

She looked at the photo again, matching the smile of herself in the picture. She walked over to her empty nightstand, placing the picture on top of it,  Pondering its placement for a moment, before nodding, satisfied with her new piece of room decor. She sighed to herself and gathered her things to wash up.

Maki couldn’t always allot time to think about the old days, she was a busy woman. But every now and then, she found the time to indulge in the happy memories of her past. They would be apart for a while longer, but that didn’t matter. Three words were etched into her memory, and Yuta no doubt remembered them as well.

She took one last look at the picture before she left her room. Her heart fluttered, and one last time, she smiled.

Wait for me.