Chapter Text
Yuuji wasn’t sure when he had drifted off, but he jerked awake upon feeling the car stop, blearily blinking the sleep out of his eyes and grimacing when he went to rub them only to smudge mascara. Sukuna, what the hell?! He instead moved forward towards Ijichi-san, “are we there yet?”
Ijichi-san jumped, turning around to face Yuuji, “Itadori-kun. If you’re still tired, you should keep sleeping. Gojo-san just insisted on meeting someone first.”
Yuuji looked out the window to try and get an idea of where exactly they were, propping himself up and squinting past the dark streets.
There were a bunch of signs outside of a large building but it was too dimly lit for him to see what they said.
“Er… Ijichi-san? Where exactly are we?” Yuuji asked.
Ijichi-san fumbled with his glasses for a moment, “ah, since you’re new to Jujutsu-tech, you won’t recognise them,” he mumbled, “Gojo-san probably wouldn’t mind if you knew… he’s visiting the suspended third years.”
“Eh? Suspended?” Yuuji prodded. Sukuna seemed interested as well with the way his presence grew more noticeable nearer to the forefront of Yuuji’s mind.
“Well, how to say…” Ijichi hummed in thought, “those two and the higher ups always had friction, on official documents they were ‘suspended’ but in truth they were the ones to leave first after beating one of the elders up. They now run a fighting ring together and Gojo-san is hoping to find information on a certain individual that frequents the place through them.”
“What’re they li-“
“Kid,” Yuuji paused midway, hearing Sukuna so clear in his head almost had him jolt.
Ijichi-san furrowed his brows, puzzled, “Itadori-kun?”
Yuuji motioned him to wait, “sorry, Ijichi-san, headache,” he said as way of explanation.
“Use the wig to hide your face better and don’t look at the crows in your vicinity,” Sukuna said.
What.
Yuuji swallowed an incredulous noise and tried to respond back, wh- “what?”
“The crows have traces of cursed energy congregating in their eyes,” Sukuna elaborated, as if that clarified things.
“…so are they curses or…” Yuuji really wasn’t sure of the significance of this information.
“It just means we’re being watched, likely by a curse user or sorcerer, though I suppose for the less adept in cursed energy reading it would be rather hard to differentiate between them and curses,” Sukuna allowed.
Yuuji tried to lean his face to hide it better, unsure of how well he succeeded.
Ijichi-san was still glancing at him with concern every couple of seconds, and glancing at his phone every other minute, but otherwise remained quiet.
“Ijichi-san, what does it mean if a bunch of crows with cursed energy are staring at the car?” He asked, trying to be subtle. The resigned sigh he heard from his own head proved otherwise.
Ijichi-san turned to him and narrowed his eyes, “were you talking to Sukuna?” He responded accusingly.
Yuuji looked away, “…no?”
Sukuna snorted at them both.
——
In all honesty, Satoru had not actually meant to leave Sukuna unattended for that long. He had not planned to leave his students for that long either! His workload was just slowly becoming more and more ridiculous.
For one, he had his usual Jujutsu Sorcery work that had him travelling abroad far more often than he’d like for sad excuses of ‘special grades’ (honestly, what was he supposed to feel when facing a drowned video game character?) that could, quite frankly, be easily disposed of by Nanamin. NANAMIN. Hah, but it wasn’t actually about the curse’s Grade, no no, it was about the politics.
They send Satoru away as a way to build trust between far-off, smaller communities, make them feel all special because the strongest is there to help, send him away long enough to fuck shit up so that when he comes back he’ll be too busy cleaning up messes to deal with what he actually needs to do, and by the time he manages most of the backlog he already has about a hundred and twenty things that need to be done in the next two damn hours and it got to a point where he genuinely did not have the time to deal with Sukuna. Sukuna became the last of his problems when he was too busy trying to put out fires and create them simultaneously.
Clearly the person who ordered the mission be sent to them wasn’t a Zen’in as even they seemed rather miffed a student with a technique like the Ten-Shadows was put in this much danger while still in training. Satoru already had a couple of ideas on who it could be, but he hasn’t had the time to look into it. He wasn’t going to get the time either.
In all honesty, if the Nitta kid hadn’t found the guy (girl?) when he did, Satoru would have ended up letting that stew for a lot longer. Wasn’t his older sister a manager of some kind? He’d have to send his regards if they met up. Nah, he’d probably forget, did he mention this to Ijichi? He would have Ijichi do it.
Well if there was at least one silver lining to all this it was that Sukuna brought Yuuji-kun back without too much needling. Whether that was a cause for concern or not… oh, who was he kidding the first thing Sukuna did upon being let out was not only save his students but call him to inform him what happened, something none of the elders had bothered to do, and the time he was left unattended, what did he do?! He read. Satoru even took a moment to look through the several tabs the guy had open, it was shit like the history of piping engineering.
It was downright unnerving how ordinary the so-called ‘King of Curses’ was. Definitely one of the better senile old men Satoru had the displeasure of meeting.
Really, aside from the whole advertisement mention and the ability to put a whole face of makeup while using the completely wrong products (it looked like they had used blush as lipstick and somehow managed to pull it off) which is where he motions back to the senile part, the guy really did just seem like an ordinary person you would meet at the grocery store.
The point was-
“G-Gojo-san?” He was interrupted. The urge to break something flared but he forced it down right afterwards. Ijichi deserved better than his rage; he already had the guy doing 75% of his own paperwork.
“Hmm?” He replied, focusing back to the streets outside the window.
“You’ve been squeezing your bottle hard enough it popped …that was two minutes ago,” he was informed.
He removed his blindfold just enough to confirm, looking at the bottle in his hand. It was indeed crumpled, the only reason his lap wasn’t drenched was because of limitless. He wondered how he didn’t hear it pop. He loosened his grip, “oh. Right, yeah, whoops.”
Neither said anything else for a couple of seconds, “Yuuji-kun slept through that?” He asked, worried he was so lost stuck in his own head he missed the kid waking up.
“He did,” Ijichi replied.
“Cool, cool,” he cleared his throat, “I, uh. Was lost in thought.” Sorry.
“It’s fine.”
Satoru relaxed every so slightly.
The rest of the car ride consisted of Satoru trying to scoop the spilled water back into the bottle with the help of limitless, and he managed to seem ridiculous enough while doing it, it earned him a stifled smile from Ijichi which he counted as a win.
When he finally left the car, he was feeling just a little less like he was going to crawl out of his own skin. He needed to be at his best when facing his ex-students after all.
He walked towards the building and past the guard, only for the guy to grab him by the shoulder. Was this guy new or something?
“Gojo Satoru? Door to the left, keep going past the corridor ‘til you reach the elevator near the end, go up to the final floor, the rest of the way’s the same,” the guard explained.
Satoru hummed, “switched things up, did they?” He said to no one in particular, patting the guy and following the directions. Definitely saved him the time of having to go through the crowd. Here’s to hoping this wouldn’t take long.
The hallways had been a lot less guard filled last time he was here, did they have an incident or just decide to up the security on a whim? He’d have to ask when he wasn’t running on fumes. A couple of flickering lights and new cracked windows seemed to be the only other difference since last time he visited the cement building. He wondered if they’d need any help with repairs before remembering the paperwork he was complaining about ten minutes prior. Well, he hoped this endeavour was paying well, he loved his ex-students but not enough to deal with all that paperwork.
Knocking before coming in, he threw himself onto the empty couch, “there’s my favourite ex-students! Kirara-chan, did you get new piercings? Looking cute as ever! And Kinji-kun, I love the hair, trying something new?” He greeted.
“Must be getting pretty chaotic if you’ve come to us for help,” Kirara noted with amusement, “Kin’s hair does look pretty nice like this,” they agreed.
“You got some new firsties, yeah? Any troublemakers?” Kinji asked, eyes on a gold ring he was fidgeting with.
“Going three years in a row now,” Satoru confirmed, “still not as bad as you two,” he responded with humour, “I’ll just cut to the chase shall I?”
“You just sat down, and you’re trying to go off already? Those executives are running you ragged, Sensei,” Kirara pursed their lips, looking displeased, “Kin, we’re hitting them harder next time.”
It warmed his heart how much his ex-student cared, “I’m not your teacher anymore, you can drop the sensei,” he repeated the same thing he had been saying since they graduated first year, “in any case, I’m here for information, more specifically, there’s a curse user that frequents this place that I need to talk to.”
Kinji turned to look at him, scrutinising his eyes behind the blindfold, ah, how the kid has grown. No one would believe him if he said Hakari wasn’t half as brazen during his first year. (It’s possible Satoru himself had some influence in how Kinji and Kirara turned out, but he couldn’t find it in himself to feel much guilt for it.)
“Information like that’ll cost ya,” Kinji grinned.
Satoru pouted, giving his best kicked-puppy expression, as he sat up, keeping one leg on the couch and the other dangling, “don’t I at least get a teacher discount?”
“You coming up here for free is the discount,” Kinji informed, the cheeky brat.
Satoru sighed and slumped deeper into the sofa, “I blink and suddenly my ever-so-well-behaved student’s become a conman, fine, fine, I’m a generous ex-teacher, name your price.”
“Tell me who you’re lookin’ for and I’ll decide then,” Kinji said.
Finally, they were getting somewhere, “long grey hair, reportedly green eyes but they’re always covered, weird scars across their body, often wears funeral attire, they come in every Saturday,” he described.
Kirara raised a brow, “weird she’s who caught your interest, got a body you need to bury?”
He waved them off, “oh, something like that. You kids know where I can find her?”
“Eh, she has a funeral parlour a few blocks out, she’s one of our bigger sponsors, often cackles like a lunatic during every fight, apparently has some sort of corpse related cursed technique, I have her address, she keeps tryin’ to invite the guards,” Kinji responded, rattling off everything he knew about her, opening the contacts on his phone and sending Satoru the address.
Satoru blinked. That was fast. Things were going disturbingly well for him today.
“Price?” There had to be some sort of catch, students or not, right?
Kinji snorted, “come fight when you have the time, yeah? That’s the price. You bring people to a frenzy. Especially if you plan to kill her.”
“When I have the time?” Satoru teased, “I’ll be old and wrinkled the day that happens but sure, it’s a deal,” he chuckled.
Kinji rolled his eyes and Kirara gave a huff.
“Get going already, before the murder of crows takes notice,” they said.
Murder of-
He jolted, “you’ve gotta be kidding me,” he grumbled, sprinting out the room and jumping out the nearest opening, using limitless to soften his fall, he warped to the nearest location to the car he could remember the coordinates of, scanning the place and trying to look casual while doing so.
He noticed Yuuji was up and he had never been more glad to see the kid still in a black wig and dress, Mei Mei probably wouldn’t suspect the kid to be Yuuji seeing as he was still in the car. Maybe he really should invest in those blackout windows Ijichi kept mentioning…
He sighed, ignoring them for now despite being very aware Mei Mei knew the gig was up with the way the crows scattered the moment he moved. The higher ups needed to relax, he was going to drag Yuuji’s dead body to them in all cases.
He entered the car, craning his neck so he could turn his face towards Yuuji, “there’s my favourite soon-to-be-legally-dead-student!” He cheered.
He may have a problem with how he greets his students.
——
The awkward silence that followed Yuuji and Ijichi-san’s sad excuse of a conversation was broken by Gojo-sensei’s sudden appearance. Yuuji jumped in surprise, he kept forgetting the man could literally teleport.
Gojo-sensei was quick to enter the car and show Ijichi where they were going next.
Yuuji relaxed, relieved he didn’t have to continue that conversation, “welcome back, Sensei! How were the third years?”
Gojo-sensei turned to Ijichi-san to glare at him before shaking his head, “shoulda guessed you’d be told, well not like it’ll be much of a secret you can share when people think you’re dead, but try to keep it hush-hush that we came here, ‘kay?”
Yuuji, realising his response probably dictated Ijichi-san’s fate, hurried to nod in agreement, “absolutely, sensei! You won’t hear a word from me, I swear!”
Gojo-sensei twisted to send his hand back and ruffle Yuuji’s hair, or, well, wig, “that’s the spirit, Yuuji-kun! If only the rest of my students were this agreeable…” he lamented.
Ijichi-san whispered something to Gojo-sensei that Yuuji didn’t quite manage to catch but he guessed it was likely in relation to the crows. Gojo-sensei just dismissed the other so Yuuji tried not to think of it, besides, Sukuna hadn’t said anything else so far so it was probably fine.
He still tucked himself closer into his seat and fiddled with the hem of his shirt anxiously, but that was neither here nor there.
They didn’t drive for much longer, perhaps eight minutes total, before Gojo-sensei was getting out the car once more.
He stalled for a few seconds, expectantly, and it took him walking over to Yuuji’s door for Yuuji to realise he was supposed to be coming down too. He hurriedly opened the car door, almost hitting his teacher in his rush, and got down.
“Where are we going, sensei?” Yuuji asked curiously, following his teacher.
The man was whistling along unhurriedly, but his strides were fast and it had Yuuji needing to jog just to keep up with his speedwalking, “a curse user that’s been surprisingly elusive, they’ve helped cover the tracks of a lot of crime scenes, especially by other curse users.”
He turned to Yuuji abruptly, “right, have we talked about curse users? Eh, I’ll just say it again, they’re people with cursed energy but not registered or affiliated with sorcerer society, a lot of them are criminals but not all of them, they’re outcasts more or less,” he explained in a rush as they neared the door, “this specific fellow, while not having any crimes to her name specifically, is an accomplice to many.”
Yuuji tried not to look too distressed at the thought of meeting someone so shady, “by criminal you mean… like, murderer?”
Gojo-sensei tilted his head towards him, seeming to dissect for several long seconds, only for Yuuji to feel a sudden weight around his neck and the man used his ridiculously long limbs to drag Yuuji in for a side hug, smiling wide at him, “I wouldn’t bring you here if I wasn’t completely sure you were safe, Yuuji-kun, and how could you not be? I’m here aren’t I?” He assured.
Where were you when I died-
That wasn’t even the issue, but instead of making him feel better, the words bubbled something brittle and bitter in him. He swallowed it down, feeling it settle like dread at the bottom of his stomach, the arm around him feeling too heavy, suffocating. Gojo-sensei didn’t deserve that. Yuuji knew his teacher always tried to put his all into helping them out, it was the main reason he was here in the first place. Still the thought traitorously remained like a thorn in his mind.
He smiled, hoping his sensei wouldn’t notice the fact it didn’t reach his eyes with the blindfold on, “yosh! Let’s head in,” he said with false bravado.
Gojo-sensei opened the door, walking in first as if waiting for a trap. Yuuji peeked in afterwards, looking around and blinking in surprise. He was so lost in his own head he forgot to read the signs outside the building. They were in some sort of funeral home? Oh, oh no, was Gojo-sensei planning on stealing a body?!
Yuuji hurried after him, noticing the man stopping in front of a plain ceramic vase. He took a moment to inspect his surroundings, the place was dark, a single dim lamp lit the entrance, though if he were to be honest, if it weren’t for the coffins, Yuuji thought this place would’ve looked more like a storage area.
Stained cement walls and shelves upon shelves of weird vials and glass ornaments littered the place, wracks of coffins supported by pipes and a heavy layer of dust caking every visible surface made this place feel almost untouched, abandoned even.
Yuuji swallowed, feeling creeped out. Maybe they were in the wrong building or something and this place was just closed…? Except the door wasn’t locked…
He subconsciously moved closer to his teacher, half expecting a curse to pop out of nowhere and catch them by surprise.
“I thought we were meeting someone here?” Yuuji whispered.
Suddenly the vase Gojo-sensei had previously been inspecting tipped over and crashed onto the floor, causing Yuuji to jump, arms already in defence positions, on high alert.
The cracked ceramic that the vase once used to be shuffled and Yuuji narrowed his eyes, only for them to widen once more as a figure emerged from the rubble.
“Interesting hiding spot,” his teacher mused.
The person, (woman?) had long silver hair that covered up the entirety of her face, a robe that was long enough it dragged across the floor and sleeves that reached far past her arms, but the most noticeable thing she wore appeared to be a ridiculously oversized hat that covered her face even further.
The person’s shoulders began shaking in what Yuuji identified as laughter, sounding like it was coming from behind her teeth, she suddenly sprang up, making Yuuji take a step back.
“Lookie, lookie, who do we have here?” She said.
Yuuji cringed. Really? Were they really going to do this?
“In need of coffins are we? Well, aren’t you at just the right place,” the person continued like they hadn’t just been hiding in a vase, brushing themself off.
“Welcome, welcome, Aikawa Sueno at your service! I see we have the good strongest sorcerer, how’s that moniker going for ya, eh? Quite the chains the title comes with, baffling you encourage it,” Aikawa rambled, Yuuji noted Sukuna watching.
“Which body are you planning to bury, today? An enemy’s? A student’s like the one behind you? We have premium coffins for your every need, I’d be happy to bury you as well, if you’d so wish!” She sounded far too eager.
His teacher seemed to think for a moment, quite theatrically too, humming and tilting his head, “hm, what other services do you offer?”
Aikawa giggled the same weird laugh again, moving instead towards Yuuji. She was blocked by Gojo-sensei, “ah, ah, the kid doesn’t need to be included in the grownup talk,” Yuuji couldn’t tell whether to feel relieved or patronised.
“Sukuna’s vessel, quite lamb-like for being able to contain such a beast, how long will that last, I wonder,” she said. Yuuji felt Sukuna’s eyeroll more than saw it, and he had the urge to do the same.
“Ah, who am I to pry? I’m only here for the dead after all,” she then added with a shrug, “though I think I may yet guess why you have come to my humble abode for if not for the coffins, though my experiments’ll cost ya.”
Yuuji felt like he was missing context, or more like Gojo-sensei skipped a chapter or twenty in this conversation. Coffins? Experiments? How did they seem to be on the same page?
Gojo-sensei smirked, all teeth and no cheer, “I think I have enough money to ensure we’re both satisfied by the end of this.”
The response he got was a scoff, “things so frivolous are kept for coffin-filling but this deserves a much purer form of payment,” Aikawa replied.
“What, you gonna have me pay you in gold?” came his sensei’s joking response.
“My payment comes only in laughter,” Aikawa explained gleefully.
“Eh? Then with how much you’ve laughed already, haven't I paid you enough?” Goji-sensei pointed out.
Aikawa shook her head in response, “that was before we settled on payment~” she sang, “oh, give me the wonderful bliss of joyous laughter my cravings have been reduced to,” she cried, and okay, that was weird, that was really, weird.
“Sukuna, please tell me you thought that was weird too,” Yuuji begged internally. He got what was the equivalent of a thumbs up GIF embedded into the very forefront of his mind. Which. Sure, that worked.
“Hop to it! You each get one try so don’t take too long,” she added.
“Alright, how about this, how do you handle irrational bar customers?" Gojo-sensei started.
“How?” Aikawa indulged.
“Give them all a round,” he said.
The only audience he had in response were crickets. Yuuji cringed, “was that a math joke?”
“Awweeee, Yuuji-kun, you didn’t like that one? C’mon, really? Not even a little bit?” he said, amusement colouring his voice.
“I still have yet to receive my payment, well, it appears the child will have to contribute if you still want what I have to offer,” Aikawa continued, unphased, or maybe just unimpressed.
Gojo-sensei turned expectantly at Yuuji. Yuuji blanked.
“Uh. Uhh. Knock knock…?” Yuuji began, only to be interrupted by a mouth opening at his cheek.
“I have a ‘joke’ I believe one such as yourself would enjoy,” Sukuna told Aikawa.
Yuuji looked towards his teacher with trepidation, but as the guy seemed more intrigued than alarmed, Yuuji figured he’d just try and think of a joke while Sukuna talked. Maybe he could look one up? Perhaps the curse-user would enjoy more dark-humour like jokes?
“Ohoho, the scholar and jester themself, here to entertain me? Had you grown tired of playing executioner all those years before? Ah, but you’re awake now, go ahead, who am I to decline nobility?” Aikawa replied, voice sharp. Almost personal.
Yuuji turned back to his teacher to find that, for once, the man was just as puzzled as he. From the back of his own mind he felt the weird mix of phantom emotions that he could only decipher as discomfort and… resignation? This whole thing was far too complicated, especially considering he had barely been coherent and definitely dead (can he get that thought out of his head?!) a day before this.
“Since you insist on speaking of nobility, what did one outcasted ex-noble say to the other?” Sukuna asked.
Aikawa raised a brow, “go on.”
“Nothing, they were too busy ripping through the muscles and tendons of the first,” that got a twitch of amusement from Aikawa, so Sukuna then proceeded to explain in excruciating detail the feeling of warm blood on half-frozen lips, and things Yuuji found equally disturbing and disgusting to the mounting laughter of Aikawa until she erupted into a laughter that felt like it would shook the whole shack if it got any louder.
By the end of it Yuuji was utterly done with this entire outing, though Gojo-sensei seemed unphased as ever, or had he just been tense since the moment he got here? Yuuji couldn’t tell.
“You curses always have the best stories,” Aikawa lamented once she got her breathing under control, unfortunately Sukuna had already lost interest, instead going back to listen from the back of Yuuji’s head. Yuuji himself wasn’t sure if he could stomach thinking of Sukuna right now, let alone hear his voice again, despite him having taken the time to heal Yuuji-
Yuuji shouldn’t… he shouldn’t feel bad for Sukuna. Sukuna was the reason he had died in the first place. But at least he was there for him- (was he?)
“Payment received, eh?” Gojo-sensei crowed, “you’ve had your laugh, now, business?”
Aikawa waved him off, “yes, yes, don’t ruin my mood so soon, eh? Now, all that’s left,” she began, going across a counter and grabbing a sotoba, “is to spill a little blood,” she finished, looking straight in Yuuji’s direction.
——
With every passing day that they didn’t know the whereabouts of Itadori, Megumi grew more concerned. He didn’t blame Gojo-sensei, as it was clear with each passing day the man was drowned in more and more work, but he really wished the man would hurry it up and find him already.
It wasn’t like a curse that strong could escape his six-eyes, that was something Megumi was sure of, but that itch grew sharper with each day. He struggled to focus and training with his senpai’s was only showing his lack of attention, with how often he was being thrown around.
Even Kugisaki had noticed, having shifted from fiddling anxiously with her phone every while to instead staring at him when she thought he wasn’t looking with a pensive look.
It was getting rather overbearing, but he wouldn’t be the one to point it out. He didn’t blame her for worrying in any case. They were both in the same common room, once more, lounging about when he got a notification around the same time she did, sent from Inumaki-senpai.
He ignored it, figuring it was another meme to cheer them up, but Kugisuki suddenly sprang up, moving towards the door. She took a step outside only to whirl back around.
“Well? You coming?” She demanded, already irritated.
He frowned, “what do you mean?”
She huffed, “Tch. Inumaki-senpai told us to head to the main entrance, something’s going on,” she explained, already speed walking outside.
Megumi hurried after her, hardening himself for whatever they may have to face. It was coming from Inumaki-senpai so there was a high chance it could just be a prank but this late at night it was significantly less likely. Besides, he wasn’t the type to do it at the front gate, where anyone else could end up collateral.
Kugisaki arrived at the hallway first, only to pause right outside the entrance, subconsciously letting out a sound that bordered on wounded.
Megumi caught up only to stumble, his heart stuttering and climbing to his throat.
“Gojo…sensei?” He muttered under his breath.
Gojo-sensei was standing in front of principal Yaga, in his arms a crumpled corpse with pink hair, still dripping a trail of blood behind it. It looked mutilated, a chunk of its torso missing and its arm ripped off. Its face looked… pained.
Megumi glanced away before he could look at its eyes, only to meet his teacher’s instead. What he saw in those sickeningly bright irises was guilt and suddenly he was feeling dizzy.
Gojo was the first to look away, turning to the principal instead, “Yuuji Itadori is dead.”
The words resounded across the hall like a judge’s verdict and echoed like betrayal.