Chapter Text
When Fumi woke up she was in an unfamiliar, sterile, white room. She groaned, sitting up on the thin mattress she was laying on and glancing around to take in her surroundings, “Ah, you’re awake,” an unknown voice said, causing Fumi to startle as she glanced behind her.
There was a pretty woman with brown hair typing something on a rather old looking computer. She had paused her work when she noticed Fumi was awake, “I’ll let Nobara know,” the woman continued, pulling out her phone and beginning to type a message on it.
“Nobara is here?” Fumi finally found her voice to ask a question. Despite there being a million thoughts racing through her mind and so many things she was confused about, as always, the first place her mind went to was Nobara. When she heard her friend's name, nothing else mattered anymore other than knowing if she was truly here or that it had all been some strange dream.
“Of course, she was the one that brought you here after that curse attacked you,” The woman said, “which breaks multiple rules by the way, but with Satoru as her teacher I would expect nothing less,” she added with a small, fond smile on her face.
Fumi didn’t know who this ‘Satoru’ was, nor did she really understand what was going on at the moment, “you look confused,” the woman said, “I can fill in some of the blanks while we wait for Nobara to arrive, if you’d like. I don’t assume it will take her long now that she knows you’re awake. She wouldn’t leave your side once she brought you back here, her friends only managed to drag her out this morning because she had training.”
“Training?” Fumi mumbled, her brain trying to organize itself and put all the pieces together, “training… as in training to fight curses? Is Nobara one of those sorcerers?”
The woman smiled, “yes, she is. And I am as well, in fact everyone who attends this school is,” she told Fumi, “you can call me Shoko by the way, I’m the resident doctor at Tokyo Jujutsu High.”
She almost asked what kind of school needed an on-site doctor on their staff, but then she remembered that this wasn’t any normal high school. She wondered what a school that taught children how to fight curses was like? Did they have math and science classes like a normal school? Or did their entire curriculum consist of fighting and training to kill monsters?
She figured sorcerers wouldn't need to learn regular subjects like normal people. Their careers were set for them when they awakened their powers. There would be no competitive tests or fighting to get into good colleges with thousands of other kids, everyone of them vying for a small number of spots in the best careers. It was certainly what Fumi was going through at the moment, her parents were always asking for updates on how she was doing in school, she never had the heart to admit to them how poor her grades had become in the past year. She dreaded the call to her parents that the school would inevitably make one day.
So inheriting magical powers and suddenly having your entire life planned out for you certainly seemed nice. But then again, Fumi thought to herself with a pit in her stomach, even the thought of fighting monsters had her freezing up in terror. And when that curse had attacked her she had merely sat there and screamed, eventually passing out once she was rescued. She wasn’t built for this life, but Nobara certainly was.
Knowing what she knew now, Nobara being a sorcerer made a lot of sense. There was always something different about her compared to the other kids in their school, despite the fact her family had lived in that town for generations. There was still something that set them aside from regular people. And all the times Nobara was pulled out of class for a ‘hunting trip’ with her uncle and grandma made far more sense now. She had always found it odd that Nobara’s family would bring a child like her on a hunting trip, and even make her miss school in the process. Those trips surely were to hunt, but it wasn’t animals, She was sure of that now that she was aware of the darker things that lurked out there.
And then there was how talented Noabra was at fighting. She could take on any kid in their school in a fight, and she had on multiple occasions. Even the older boys who were much bigger and stronger than her never stood a chance. In the past, Fumi had just attributed that to Noabra being Nobara. She was invincible, nothing could get in her way, and if something did she would handle it. Now she realized that must be because Nobara had formal martial arts training since she was a young child. She had always been prepared for a life of fighting, even when she was a child.
The realizations about her friend only widened the perceived gap between them. She had felt like she could never catch up to Nobara when she was under the assumption that she was just a normal girl, a beautiful and radiant one, but still a girl like her. Now that she knew Nobara was part of some secret world, and possessed superpowers of all things. What felt before like a chasm between them now seemed more equivalent to a vast ocean. How stupid she had been to think that Nobara would ever want to be friends with a boring, nervous wreck like Fumi.
“I’ll just get going then,” Fumi stuttered quietly to the doctor, “I don’t want to impose, I’m sorry you had to waste your time looking after me,” she stood up, her cheeks flushed in embarrassment as she refused to meet Shoko’s eyes, scared of the pity she would see in them.
“Leaving so quickly?” Shoko said incredulously, “Nobara will be here any moment, you should wait to see her at least.”
“Oh, then I really have to go now,” Fumi mumbled nervously, she couldn’t bear to face Nobara anymore, she couldn’t stand to see the rejection plainly written on her old friend’s face, “I’m sorry again.”
Shoko frowned, “You really should wait just a moment,” she insisted, standing up to walk over towards where Fumi was anxiously waiting by the door. She wanted nothing more than to sprint outside and get out of this place right at this moment, but she didn't want to be rude either. After Shoko had looked after her, she deserved at least some respect and politeness from Fumi, “Nobara would be heartbroken, she tried to hide it, but she was quite worried when she brought you to me. She sat by your bed all night and morning until she left to attend training.”
“She sat at my bed all night?” Fumi questioned in a small voice, shocked at the prospect of Nobara bothering to waste so much time on her when Fumi had merely fainted.
Shoko laughed, a soft and rich noise, “Yes. It was rather funny, especially coming from the girl who casually walked off a two month coma and still makes jokes about it to this day. She was so worried even after I assured her you simply needed rest.”
That didn’t make sense, why would Nobara waste so much time on her of all people. She certainly wasn’t worth it, and Nobara clearly had better things to do. She was frozen in place now with indecision, wondering whether she should leave while she still had a chance or wait and see Nobara. There was so much in that simple statement from Shoko she felt like she needed to unpack, especially the part where she mentioned a coma? Had Nobara been in a coma, and if so why hadn’t she mentioned it?
The choice was snatched from her hands as the infirmary door flew open to reveal a slightly disheveled looking Nobara, wearing sweaty workout clothes and looking around frantically. Fumi sucked in a deep breath at the sight of her, finally, after nearly a year. She was rooted into place by the pure shock at just how different she looked now, and how much had changed in such a short time frame. Her hair had grown slightly longer than the short style she had worn it in since Fumi could remember, and now she had it pulled back into a stubby ponytail. A few shorter pieces that couldn’t reach back to fit in the ponytail hung around her face and there were two of them dyed with streaks of red.
But most of all, “Your eyes,” Fumi stuttered out, staring at Nobara and the eyepatch now covering one of her eyes. Nobara raised a hand to touch the eyepatch at Fumi’s mention of it, but she merely smiled and said, “I think it looks pretty cool to be honest. The better question is what happened to you, Fumi? Why are you in Tokyo, what was with that curse that was following you around? Is everything ok back at home with you and your parents?” The questions came so quickly that Fumi couldn’t even process them all. Much less so, because with each word from her mouth Nobara walked closer to her until they were face to face. How was she supposed to comprehend and answer a question when all she could focus on was how pretty Nobara looked with her new style.
Shoko chuckled quietly to herself, “I’ll leave you two to talk in private for a bit.”
The doctor left the room, leaving her and Nobara truly alone, “I-” Fumi stuttered, unsure of what to say, or where to even start after the bombardment of questions from Nobara. In lieu of knowing what to say, her brain worked on autopilot, and she circled back to the thing bugging her the most about all this, “Your eye? And the doctor, Shoko, she said you were in a coma?”
“Oh, that?” Nobara blinked in surprise, with her single eye, as if that was just something normal to brush past, “Yeah, but don’t worry about that right now. I’m more worried about what happened to you.”
“What happened to me?” Fumi felt near hysterical, “You were in a coma! Shoko said it was for two months- wait, was that why it took so long for you to reply?” She came to the realization as she was speaking. Thinking about it, it had been a little less than two months after her initial text that she had received a reply from Nobara. All this time she had thought her friend had been ignoring her, when perhaps the whole time she had just been incapable of replying. Fumi suddenly felt sick to her stomach, all this time she had only been thinking about herself, ruminating in her own negative thoughts about Nobara not replying to her, when in reality her friend had been fighting for her life.
Nobara looked a little startled at her shrill exclamation, and hurried to try and reassure her, “Oh yeah! Sorry about the short reply. When I woke up, I only had twenty minutes to prepare before joining the fight against Sukuna, so I could only shoot you a quick text.”
There was so much to unpack in that statement, Fumi didn’t even know where to start. The name Sukuna was quite familiar to her, the entire country now regarded the name with an aura of fear despite his defeat. The entire fight against him had been live streamed to the world, and they had all gotten front row seats to seeing how powerful he was, and how many sorcerers it took working together to take him down, “You fought Sukuna,” Fumi gasped in disbelief, to think Nobara had been a part of all that? And even more shocking, “And you chose to take the time to text me first before joining the fight.”
“Of course,” Nobara scoffed as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, “I had a million notifications on my phone from you, I couldn’t let you worry longer than you had to. Those idiots could hold Sukuna off for an extra minute or two.”
Fumi didn’t know why, but she suddenly felt tears starting to form in her eyes. To think that Nobara thought of her first after waking up from a two month long coma. Nobara, who had a million other things to worry about, had still thought of her first, “Oh fuck, did I say something wrong,” she said, and Fumi wasn’t used to Nobara being worried about watching what she said. Her mouth was directly connected to her thoughts, she said what was on her mind even if it was brutally honest. But now her forehead was scrunched with worry and she was pinching her lips together as if withholding herself from saying something to further upset Fumi.
She laughed wetly at the image of Nobara’s scrunched up face, “No,” she said, “I’m just happy is all, truthfully, I had thought you didn’t care about me anymore. Once you made it to Tokyo you had found yourself much cooler friends than me,” she admitted shyly.
“That’s ridiculous,” Nobara huffed as she crossed her arms, “I can make a million friends, but there’s only ever going to be one you!”
Fumi felt her cheeks redden at the remark, to think Nobara considered her that special when Fumi had always viewed herself as painfully average. Nobara grabbed onto her shoulders, and Fumi’s blush only darkened further as she realized how obvious her embarrassment was.
“Now,” Nobara demanded, moving until until their faces were only a few inches apart, “Why was a curse following you around? Has someone at your new school been messing with you? I’ll handle it if they are, don’t worry!”
Fumi sucked in a deep breath and shook her head frantically, “No! No ones been bothering me,” she hurried to assure Nobara.
“Then what caused that curse to cling onto you like that?” Nobara insisted.
Fumi couldn’t meet her eyes, how was she supposed to know why a curse attached itself to her. But if it had something to do with her own negative emotions, then there really was only one reason it happened, and she didn’t want Nobara to feel guilty because of Fumi’s own problems, “I’m not sure,” she admitted, her clipped and nervous tone sounding fake even to her own ears.
Nobara worried her lower lip with a puzzled look on her face, “Well, what’s been bothering you. If your emotions alone were strong enough to spawn a curse of that strength, then it has to be something big.”
She struggled to find a lie in her head to satisfy Nobara’s curiosity, but she had never been good at lying, especially not so spontaneously. She was even worse at lying to Nobara, mostly because she had never really done it before. There was no reason for her to keep things from her closest friend when she was growing up. But Nobara had certainly watched her try to fumble herself through a lie to someone else before, and she caught onto Fumi the moment she opened her mouth to stutter out an excuse, “Well, um, school’s been pretty stressful recently. And-”
“Are you lying to me?” Nobara asked, and the barely visible hurt look in her eyes had Fumi feeling even worse. Here she was trying to spare Nobara’s feelings, and she had only succeeded in making her feel betrayed, “Are you mad at me? I can understand if you are, it was pretty shitty to leave you hanging all those months.”
Fumi felt her lower lip wobble, “You were in a coma, you shouldn’t feel guilty for not replying to me!” she choked out through her sniffles.
Nobara’s eye widened at her sudden tears, “Oh god, I’ve only upset you more, I suck at this,” and then even quieter she grumbled to herself, “How did that idiot do this with Megumi and succeed, this is way harder than it looks like.”
“It’s not you!” Fumi frantically explained, “It’s all my fault. I was so worried you would hate me now that you’ve moved on, why would you want to bother with your boring childhood friend from the countryside. And here I was following you all the way to Tokyo like some leech you can’t get rid of,” once the words started, Fumi barely took a breath until they were all out.
Nobara’s hands loosened slightly on her shoulders, before suddenly tightening as Nobara dragged her into a hug that crushed the air from her lungs. It was as if Nobara was trying to pull her impossibly closer into her arms. She hadn’t grown much so they were still around the same height, but it seemed Nobara had gained an inch on her since they had last seen each other. Due to that, Fumi’s head was at the perfect height to lean down and tuck itself against Nobara’s neck.
Being so close to Nobara, feeling the warmth of her skin against her own, was an intoxicating experience. It wasn’t as if they had never hugged before, Nobara had always been rather physically affectionate with her and Saori when they were kids. Always giving them hugs and grabbing their arms to pull them places. But those had always been brief and nothing like the hug her and Nobara were sharing right now. This felt different, almost intimate, and Fumi found herself losing track of time as she relaxed into Noabra’s hold.
When Nobara eventually pulled back from the hug, she was looking into Fumi’s eyes with her own, and god was it still weird to get used to only seeing one of Nobara’s eyes. Though she hadn’t lied when she claimed the eyepatch fit her, it looked good on her, “I’m sorry that I ever made you feel like you didn’t matter to me,” Nobara said, staring deeply in her eyes as if to will Fumi to believe her words.
“You never did, it was my own stupid thoughts that convinced me otherwise,” Fumi tried to reassure her.
Nobara continued anyway, not seeming to be convinced by Fumi’s reassurances, “No, that’s not good enough. The fact that you ever considered I didn’t care about you, that I didn’t love you,” Fumi sucked in a sharp breath at that, “Is proof enough that I have been doing a poor job of making sure you know just how important you are to me.”
“Love?” Fumi asked in a soft voice, not daring to believe what she had heard was actually true. Of course, love didn’t have to be romantic, but her heart beat faster at the possibility. She had never considered much about what her feelings for Nobara might extend to. Nobara had always been, well, everything for Fumi. Of course her love for her extended to all facets, both romantic and platonic. It was so easy to love Nobara that Fumi had never considered her romantic feelings for the other girl that deeply, of course it made sense she would love Nobara that way as well. And certainly she had never chosen to linger on them because she had never expected them to be returned. Not because she didn’t expect Nobara to like girls like that, that part had never been in question. Only a few months after they’d met, Nobara had been proudly telling her how she would never date a boy. But once again, Fumi had never thought someone as bland as herself would ever be Nobara’s type. She had been content to just be her friend and enjoy the fact she got to be in Nobara’s life at all, even if it meant they’d never be together like Fumi truly wished for in the deepest parts of her heart. But perhaps, she didn’t dare to hope too hard, she had been wrong in that assumption.
“Yes, love, I thought that was obvious,” Nobara replied, “I’ve always loved you Fumi, how couldn’t I? You’re, well, Fumi,” she said as if that was explanation enough, “We’ve been together since we were kids, you’re kind, smart, beautiful, you’re everything,” she listed off, “I’m lucky someone as sweet as you would ever bother with me.”
Fumi felt her heart beating so quickly she feared it would explode in her chest. That certainly sounded like a love confession, but she still didn’t want to dare to get her hopes up too much. If she did and she was wrong, she feared she’d never be able to recover from it, “Are you saying what I think you’re saying,” Fumi mumbled.
“Well what do you think I’m saying?” Nobara replied with a raised eyebrow, and a slight grin on her face.
Fumi’s face flushed again, “Please don’t tease me right now, I can’t take it,” she sniffled away the last of the tears still lingering in her eyes as a watery smile found its way to her face, “Do you mean you care for me, in like, more than a friend way.”
“Well I would hope that would be obvious,” Nobara confirmed, “I’ve loved you since we were kids, it’s always only ever been you.”
Fumi felt the words in the depths of her soul, and everything suddenly felt lighter around her. Like a shadow that had always been hovering over had finally dissipated. Once the words processed in her mind, and reality set in, Fumi surged forward and threw her arms around Nobara’s neck. For once in her life she dared to take the first step as she leaned forward in order to press her lips to Nobara’s. It was something that Fumi had only ever dreamed about, alone in her head at night. She had imagined how Nobara’s lips might feel against her own, and now she finally had her answer.
Nobara’s lips were smooth and tasted like watermelon lip-balm in comparison to Fumi’s own lips that were rather chapped. But Nobara didn’t seem to care about that at all as she eagerly returned the gesture. She was much better at it than Fumi was, and she wondered if Nobara had kissed someone before, because Fumi certainly hadn’t.
When they pulled back, Fumi kept her arms around Nobara’s neck, reluctant to let go even for a moment now that they were truly reunited and together. Nobara’s hold around her middle was similarly tight and Fumi felt an uncontrollable smile on her face as she stared at Nobara.
“Does this mean we’re together now, like together together ,” Fumi giggled, “Like, you’re my girlfriend.”
“Yes, definitely yes,” Nobara grinned back, sounding a little breathless as well.
The sweet moment was shattered as the infirmary door opened. This whole time Fumi had been so caught up in Nobara she had forgotten this was technically a public place. At the door, two boys were standing. The one in front had pushed the door open, while the one behind him was hanging back as if he didn’t want to be there.
“I knew we shouldn’t have come down here,” the boy in the back complained quietly.
“Really you two?” Nobara yelled, still not releasing her hold on Fumi, “What do you want, couldn’t you have picked any other time to bug me!”
“Hey! I just wanted to meet your friend, how was I supposed to know you guys were having some kind of moment!” the pink-haired boy whined.
Fumi startled slightly as she realized why both the boys looked so familiar, especially the dark-haired one, “You’re that guy!” she squeaked, remembering the livestream everyone in the country had been unable to tear their eyes away from, and the monster who had taken countless sorcerers to defeat.
The boy seemed to understand what she was talking about right away and he flinched back slightly. The pink-haired one glanced between her and the other boy for a moment before seeming to catch on as well. He quickly reached out to grab the boy’s hand, rubbing soft circles into the back of his hand with his thumb as he did.
Fumi felt bad after seeing the look on the dark-haired boy’s face after her words. Clearly he wasn’t the same person from that battle, he didn’t have the markings all over him, he had just looked so similar that it had thrown her off.
Nobara sighed as she took in the scene, pulling Fumi against her side, “See this is why you two shouldn’t come barging in here like this. This is all new for Fumi, she’s probably very confused,” Nobara shot the dark-haired boy a slightly apologetic look despite her words, before returning her attention to Fumi.
“Fumi, these are my friends, that’s Yuji, and the one behind him is Megumi,” She explained, pointing at each boy as she introduced them, “You did recognize them correctly, but it’s a little bit of a sensitive topic. Megumi was possessed by Sukuna, that guy that was terrorizing Tokyo, he couldn’t control his actions during the battle in Shinjuku,” she explained in a quiet voice, clearly in an attempt to prevent Megumi from hearing what she was saying.
Fumi looked at the boy in question, and by the way his lips pressed together and Yuji’s hand around his tightened, Nobara had not been successful in her attempt, “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything,” Fumi hurried to apologize
“No, it’s fine,” Megumis said with his eyes diverted, “It’s understandable.”
Even so, she still felt bad about it. Obviously, she had never been possessed before, but she didn’t imagine that it was a very pleasant experience. Especially when the guy controlling your body used it to kill people. She had probably stirred up some bad memories. The pink-haired boy, Yuji, jumped into the awkward silence, “Nobara already introduced us, but I’m Yuji, it’s nice to meet you Fumi!” he said with a bright grin as he pulled Megumi into the infirmary with him, “Nobara told us all about you!”
“She has?” Fumi replied curiously, being drawn in by the almost infectious positivity in Yuji’s attitude.
“Yeah, all the time,” Megumi added.
“Hey, if I have to put up with you two constantly looking at each other with heart eyes, then you can deal with me talking about how amazing Fumi is,” Nobara huffed in reply to the slight sarcasm in Megumi’s voice.”
“Oh, you two are dating?” Fumi asked, wondering why she hadn’t picked up that right away with how close they were to each other, and the gentle way that Yuji caressed Megumi’s hand when he had been upset by her careless comment.
“Yep!” Yuji said with a broad grin, “For a few weeks now! Best weeks of my life!”
Megumi’s face flushed slightly as Yuji brought their joined hands up to kiss Megumi’s knuckle. It was rather adorable, like something you might see in a romance novel. Megumi cleared his throat, “And what about you two? You seem rather close together.”
Fumi was much more aware of Nobara’s arm around her waist and the way she had been unconsciously leaning into Nobara’s side, “Fumi’s now officially my girlfriend,” Nobara declared with a proud smile on her face.
“Well that was fast,” Megumi commented with a raised eyebrow.
“Not all of us are idiots who pine after their crush from a distance for months instead of just confessing,” she gave the two boys a very pointed look.
Fumi didn’t really think before she added, “Well, to be fair Nobara, we’ve known each other for years and only just now confessed.”
“Huh! who's side are you on?” Noabra whined as Yuji broke out into laughter in the background. Fumi found herself giggling at the flabbergasted look on Nobara’s face.
“Hey! You know what this means, right?” Yuji suddenly added excitedly, “We can go on double dates!”
“You two are not coming anywhere near my future dates with Fumi,” Nobara declared.
“Yeah, I don’t really think that would be a good idea,” Megumi added at the same time.
But Fumi didn’t think it was all too horrible of a concept. She felt like there was so much she had to catch up with about Nobara’s life, her real life, the one she hadn’t been able to show Fumi when they were kids. Plus, there were so many new friends Nobara had made that Fumi needed to learn more about, and it seemed these two boys were at the top of the list, “I think it’s a nice idea,” she admitted out loud, “I’d love to get to know Nobara’s friends more, especially now that we’ll be seeing more of each other,” she smiled at Nobara as she said the last part. The silent implication that they would be together far more often now that they were a couple making her giddy with excitement for the future.
Nobara took one look at her hopeful face before turning back to Yuji and Megumi, “Ok, if Fumi wants a double date, then we’re going on a double date. And it’s going to be the best double date ever, you two better not embarrass me and ruin it for Fumi,” she told them with a huff.
“We’re not gonna embarrass you guys!” Yuji protested, “It’s gonna be fun! We could go to the movies or-”
“We are not going to see one of your lame movies. Just because Megumi is whipped and actually puts up with watching your weird worm man movies doesn’t mean I’m going to!”
“Hey, the movies are great!”
Nobara and Yuji devolved into a heated debate about some movie that Yuji had made them watch. Nobara was complaining that it was ‘two hours of her life she’d never get back’ and Yuji was protesting that she clearly couldn’t see the artistic vision of the director, “Um, do they argue like this all the time?”
“Oh, yeah,” Megumi replied, “give it five minutes, they’ll be on a completely different topic and be in total agreement as they talk about some restaurant they both love,” he sighed.
Fumi giggled slightly at that, “I’m glad Nobara made such good friends in Tokyo,” she said.
“Well, you haven’t met the rest of our classmates yet. Just wait till you meet Hakari and Kirara, they’re a handful,” Megumi snorted.
Even so, Fumi thought she was sure to think they’re all amazing. Anyone who Nobara was friends with was clearly a good person. And as much as there had been a pit of worry and jealousy in her gut beforehand that Nobara had replaced her with her new friends in Tokyo. Now that she knew there was a place in Nobara’s heart that was always reserved for her and only her, she was content and happier than she can remember being in a long time.