Chapter Text
There was something pounding against his head repeatedly. He couldn’t breathe. The ringing in his head only grew louder and louder as seconds passed by. Time was moving without Yuji whether he liked it or not. His cheek was bleeding, not that he noticed or anything. It was like he was in a trance. His brain wasn’t even trying at this point.
“Yuji.”
The ringing paused. The pounding broke its rhythm. He inhaled. Yuji shakily turned his head to where his grandfather was slumped against the wall. He stumbled towards his grandfather, speechless. He knelt down, shaking horribly.
“You're a strong kid, so try to help others... save the people you can... It's okay if you lose your way and don't worry about whether they'll thank you or not... Just save as many as you can, even if you can only save one... When you die, you should be surrounded by people. Don't end up like me." He smiled. Just smiled.
“Grandpa… Please don’t leave me. I-I’m sorry.. I’m so sorry!” Yuji sobbed. “It’s my fault, okay? Me! Please! You can’t leave me- I’m begging you.” He hiccuped.
The rise and fall of Wasuke Itadori’s chest stopped, he wasn’t breathing.
“Grandpa..? Grandpa? Oh god… Oh no… No, no, no, no, no, no. no! WAKE UP! You can’t leave me! Y-You- Please! PLEASE!” It was too late. He was dead.
“No… Oh god… No… why!? Oh GOD… oh god… no…” He wailed, leaning over his grandfather's dead body, hugging it tight.
After grieving for a couple of minutes, Yuji noticed something. He wasn’t sure what it was, but he was always able to sense danger seconds before anything happened. The danger sense basically warns him by making him shiver and his senses immediately increase. He knows what will happen before it does, kind of like seeing the future but he senses it’ll happen. But when Yuji got home, his danger sense didn’t work. Probably that Kenjaku’s fault. Nasty, horrible, disgraceful motherfucker. Yuji wasn’t human. He thought he was blessed with speed and strength. No, he’s just a stupid experiment with the cruelest fucking creator. He still needed to process everything. What was he going to do? That Jujutsu High? The hell even is that? They murder his family and then order him around? Oh, fuck you, stitchhead. All he knew was that he isn’t human, made to be some fuckass vessel, half curse, (the hell is a curse,) his mom is his mom but also not his mom, and a lot more he doesn’t want to think about.
Yuji sniffles and reaches over to gently close his eyes. His tears splash onto his grandfather's face, landing on the somewhat dried blood. He-
Yuji gets a shiver throughout his body. His danger sense. Someone’s going to try and come in, he can hear it and feel it. Kenjaku dropped their knife to the floor when they left. Yuji immediately grabs it and points it to the door, trembling. Just as he had predicted, the door flew open.
Yaga just finished his minor curse assignment. While wrapping up, he physically senses a sudden, suffocating wave of cursed energy exploding a few streets over.
“What the hell..?”
He felt a buzz in his pocket.
“Flare of cursed energy happens to be near me? Secure new awakened sorcerer?” He says after thoroughly reading the notification several times. “Should probably get there before any curses are attracted to the energy.”
He walked down the quiet suburban street. Even the crows were acting strange. He finally reached the house. The cursed energy was so powerful it gave him what felt like a migraine. A massive, uncontrollable flare of cursed energy seeped out of the house. He took a deep breath and tried for the door. It was unlocked. He let himself in and froze.
There was blood on the walls and floor. You could smell the copper and metallic liquid before walking in, sure, but this was something nobody was capable of expecting. Every piece of furniture was broken, especially the wooden dinner table. There was a man soaked in blood on it, definitely dead. The table was split into two even pieces. Half of the table was stained with the man’s deep red blood. Yaga turned his head away from the scene and spotted a boy.
The boy had fluffy pink hair and caramel eyes. He realized that he looked just like the dead body on the table but younger. He was sitting on the floor, one hand perched protectively over his grandfather and one holding a knife, pointing it at Yaga. The boy was practically vibrating in fear. He had tears streaming down his face and his bottom lip quivered. This boy was the source of the power.
Yaga knew he had to be gentle. He slowly raised both of his arms, palms high in the air.
“Hey kiddo, I’m not gonna hurt you. I’m here to help you out, okay?” He carefully inched his way to him. The boy was genuinely shaking so hard he dropped the knife. If he wanted to grab the knife, he would have to get closer to Yaga, and the boy refused to do so. He eventually backed up to the point where he had hit the wall and couldn't go any farther.
“I’m going to grab the knife, don’t worry, just so nobody gets hurt, alright? I’m not here to hurt you. I’m trying to help you out, buddy.” He gently walked over and grabbed the bloodied knife and set it aside, far away from the boy. When Yaga got back to him, he knelt down, not caring about the pool of blood on the floor.
“I’m not here to hurt you, okay? I want to help you. Can I do that? Can you trust me?”
The boy gave a small shaken nod
“Okay, thank you. Can I help you get out of here so you can be somewhere safe?”
After a long pause of hesitation, the boy just nodded again.
“Okay, Okay. Good. What’s your name? You don’t have to tell me right now.”
“Y-Yuji..”’
“That’s a wonderful name, Yuji. Let’s get out of here, m’kay? Need help getting up?”
Yuji looked down at the old man in his arms, then to the man identical to him.
“I know people who can come and take care of it, okay?”
The boy’s eyes were blank, clearly dealing with the psychological shock.
"Don't look at them anymore, kid. Look at me. Focus on my voice. You're stepping out of this house right now." He took off his uniform jacket and wrapped it around Yuji.
“I’m gonna pick you up, okay?” He gets no response, so he just lifts him.
Yaga scoops Yuji up effortlessly. Yuji just goes limp against him. He uses his wide frame to block Yuji’s sight of the scene. Thankfully, Yaga had already called a Jujutsu High auxiliary vehicle, and when they got to the car, he quickly opened the door, laying Yuji in the backseat. He immediately instructs the auxiliary manager to turn on the heater, lock the doors, and drive straight to the school's medical wing—completely bypassing standard police reporting to keep Yuji safe at the moment.
Yaga sits on the left backseat, while Yuji rests his head on his lap, taking up the two other seats. Yaga notices the small cut on Yuji’s cheek.
“Yuji. Please let me know if you need anything, alright? We’re almost there.”
Yuji’s eyes focus on Yaga’s. That’s it. Yaga’s curiosity was banging against its cage, but Yaga kept it there. He would not ask Yuji questions. Yaga could be patient. He had to.
Yaga grabbed his phone and dialed a number before holding the phone up to his ear.
“Shoko, I’m bringing in a survivor. A civilian kid. His family is gone. Have a bed ready, and don't log this into the system yet."
After listening to the phone for a few more seconds, He closes it, putting his attention fully back on Yuji. “It’s going to be okay.”
The car pulls up to the dark, quiet medical wing. Yaga carries Yuji out of the car. Yuji is completely unresponsive, staring blankly at nothing, wrapped in Yaga's oversized jacket. Shoko doesn't ask a million questions. She immediately helps Yaga guide Yuji into a private room in the back of the clinic—one that isn't connected to the higher-ups' automated monitoring systems. While Yaga goes to wash the blood off his hands, Shoko stays with Yuji. She grabs a damp cloth and gently wipes the soot and dried blood off his face and arms. When she checks his vitals, she notices his body is physically fine, but he is in severe psychological shock. She logs his chart under a fake generic name like "Patient X" to ensure the higher-ups can't track his admission.
As she’s cleaning him up, Yuji finally blinks, his voice trembling as he looks at her. He whispers a quiet, broken, "Thank you." Shoko, who is usually detached and blunt, is caught off guard by how remarkably polite and gentle this boy is, even after watching his whole world end. She pulls the blanket over his shoulders, pats his head, and says: "Don't worry about it, kid. You're safe here. Go to sleep. I'll make sure nobody bothers you."
Yuji still doesn’t look like he fully believes her, so makes a decision. “Pretty sure you’re as old as me. I don’t know what happened, but I know for a fact you’re handling it better than I could have. I genuinely think that’s incredible.” She sits right next to Yuji on the hospital bed. “Never done this before..” She mutters. “But you need to get some rest. I’ll be here the whole entire time for you. Not going anywhere, okay? You’re safe now.” She sits a tad bit higher than him on the bed against the pillows so he can rest his head on her shoulder. Thankfully, he shuts his eyes, falling asleep.
Yaga walks in, taking a seat on one of the chairs next to the bed. It looks as if he wants to say something, but the more Shoko waits, the more the silence waits with her.
“Hm?”
He sighs. Yaga speaks in a low, heavy whisper. He tells Shoko that he found the boy sitting in the absolute center of a decimated house, entirely surrounded by a massive, violent wall of raw cursed energy. He explains that a curse slaughtered the family, but the sheer trauma caused Yuji’s own latent sorcerer powers to violently awaken all at once. “If the conservative higher-ups find out a civilian boy suddenly manifested this much raw, unstable power out of nowhere, they’ll panic and order a preemptive execution. I’m going to the administrative building right now to falsify the mission logs, claiming the energy spike belonged entirely to the curse.” He looks up from the ground to glance at her. “Shoko, keep the boy hidden in the clinic under a dummy name until we can legally sponsor him as a student the next morning.”
Shoko parts her lips to speak, yet nothing comes out. The Higher-ups are cruel pieces of shits. Someone had to say it. A boy just watched his family get violently murdered, but oh fucking well, let’s just add him to the list? Shoko’s stomach hurt just thinking about it.
“I have to go now. Thank you, Shoko.”
She just nodded as he left.
Just as Shoko settles in next to Yuji, on her phone, the heavy door to the medical wing is violently pushed open. Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto burst into the hallway, breathless and tense. They were sent as the backup muscle to the crime scene, but by the time they arrived, the house was empty.
“Any fucking louder?” She whispers. She snaps at them to be quiet and repeats exactly what Yaga told her; the family is gone, the boy is a newly awakened, incredibly powerful sorcerer, and the higher-ups will kill him if they find out. “I swear, if he were awake, I would have kicked your asses to the moon.” Shoko turns off her phone and lays it beside her.
Before he can contain himself, Gojo blurts out, "Something is wrong with his energy. It feels weird... almost like a curse."
“Satoru!" Suguru snarls in a fierce whisper. "The kid just watched his entire family get butchered. His technique is active and he's drowning in pure negative emotions. Of course it feels warped and malicious right now."
“True… Sorry. Mixed signals.” And Shoko just groans at that.
About an hour later, Shoko gets a notification on her phone and goes to check it. It’s a message from Yaga. Shoko sighs in relief.
“Whatcha gasping for air for?” Gojo grins. Him and Geto were sitting on the chairs next to Yuji’s bed.
“Gojo, shut up. Anywho, that whole thing with the Higher-ups is all figured out.” Gojo does a little victory dance and Geto lets out a breathy laugh despite not wanting to. “Uhhh says, ‘personal student,’ ‘prevent execution,’ nada yada.”
“EEEEK!” He squealed. After getting hushed by Shoko and Geto, he whispered, “Okay, sorry. Holy shitting shitness. Anywho, get a glimpse of his personality?”
Geto flicked him on the forehead and Gojo whined quietly. “Actually, he’s more sweet and polite than you two will ever be. The guy was thanking me for a simple fucking blanket, yeah let’s just forget your family died in front of your eyes. Hell no! Yet he said thanks anyway. Fucking sweetheart.”
They went quiet after that for a while.
“He didn’t deserve this.”
“No, he didn’t.”
“I like him.”
“Gojo.”
“Gojo.”
“Yeah?”
“Not the time.”
“Ah. Sorry.”
“Are you?”
“Yes! Swear on my whole rack of toes! Except the pinky one. I like that one.”
“Gojo…”
“Yea?”
“Not the time.”
“Got it.”
“Do you?”
“Boys.” Shoko groaned.
“Sorry.”
“Sorry.”
They smirked at each other.
“Out.” Shoko pointed towards the door.
“What!?” Gojo put a hand to his chest.
“Satoru, Suguru, go bicker out there.”
“FFFFFineeeeeeee…”
The door closed shut when they left the room.
Where was he? A grey ceiling… plain design… white lights? Why was there a ringing sound in his head? Why couldn’t he see right?
Memories flashed through his mind.
Shoko was on her phone looking at stupid shit, one arm around Yuji, who was leaning on her.
She saw Yuji’s eyelashes flutter, then they shot open, shaking. The cursed energy in the room spiked erratically. He was shaking, not just his eyes, hyperventilating.
“Hey- Hey, look at me. Yuji. Look at me.” She adjusted her hold on Yuji to make him face her. “Look at me.” He managed to share eye contact with her, though he had watery eyes drowned with grief while she had dry eyes yet they were drowned with concern and understanding.
The door flew open, Gojo and Geto sensing the change of cursed energy in the room.
She places a steady, grounding hand on his shoulder and uses a tiny bit of her Reverse Cursed Technique just to cool his racing pulse. His breathing steadies, he stops shaking, and the only thing left was the beads of tears forming in his eyes, and the feeling something, more specifically someone was missing, and they weren’t coming back.
“Hey, I know. It’s okay. I know.” As she comforted him, the cursed energy levels significantly dropped.
Yuji quickly wipes them away. “Sorry.”
“No, you don’t get to be sorry. You went through something that would leave absolutely nobody with dry eyes. You can cry as much as you’d like. Really.”
“Thank you… But… It’s okay.” He says, and she rolls her eyes, but not rudely.
Geto and Gojo inch towards Yuji’s bed, sitting on the edge.
“Hey, there. You alright?” Yuji nods. “Cool. My name is Gojo, this is Geto.” He points to the boy beside him. “What’s your name?”
Yuji smiles. “Yuji.”
“Nice name.” Geto gave Yuji a warm smile.
“Hey, Yuji. You emitted a shit ton of cursed energy right now… and earlier. Any cursed technique?”
Yuji froze. “U-Um… what’s a cursed technique.” The room fell silent.
“No way in hell you don’t know what that is! Shit. I’m not an explainer. Geto. Talk.”
“I am NOT a dog.”
“You’re a cute itty witty bitty puppy!”
“Satoru.”
“OKAY OKAY! Well I mean, please tell him?”
“Oh my god, I’ll fucking say it.” Shoko groaned. “A cursed technique is like a superpower. It’s a special, magical ability you use in a fight. It's a special technique, like your very own special attack. While everyone has cursed energy, a cursed technique is what lets you do something cool with that energy. Those who don’t have a technique rely on manipulating basic cursed energy or using cursed tools. An innate technique is genetically inherited or permanently engraved in the brain. Uhhh…. oh! Cursed Energy is the fundamental power source fueled by negative emotions. All sorcerers possess this, but only select humans can control and channel it. Those who can are called sorcerers. Me, Gojo, and Geto are sorcerers. Sorcerers discover cursed innate techniques extremely early in life. Think about it, and it’s gonna sound stupid, but do you have any strange superpower or weird thing that normal people don’t?”
“BRAVO!” Gojo loudly applauded.
Oh fuck. Oh fuck. Oh fuck.
“Um… Let me think!”
“Go ahead, take your time.” Geto stretched, patiently waiting.
FUCK! FUCKING DAMN IT!
Yuji, calm down. Breathe. Good. Now think. We know I’m a star plasma vessel, whatever the hell for this Tengen dude? That girl, Amanai. She’s a child. She shouldn’t die. I won’t let her. I might not be human, but I will use my life wisely, even my soul. I’m not even sure if my soul is actually my soul, or it’s just programmed too. Okay. Here's what we do. Use my technique for good, protect Shoko, Gojo, Geto, and people in need, save Amanai, turn into Tengen’s vessel body or um whatever the hell merge with them or uh yeah, and die. Easy as that.
“Hmmm. Well, honestly I think it’s sensing danger. I told my…” He swallowed. “I told my grandfather that I could sense weird things and he just had this creepy dark expression on his face and went to go talk to.. My mom. I’ll explain it! Basically I get the shivers and my senses just spike. I just somehow know when something's going to happen or when danger is near a few seconds before it happens. But, the more dangerous it is, the more it tires me.”
“Dude…” Gojo’s eyes are blown wide open. “THAT’S SICK!” He shouts. Everyone flinches except Yuji, totally engaged in the conversation.
“Do you guys have o-”
“ME! ME FIRST!” Gojo excitedly squeals. “IT’S CRAZY! My techniques are called Infinity, Six eyes, and Blue! The Six Eyes, think of it as having special x-ray glasses built into my head! Like super-seeing! I can see all the magical energy in the air, down to the tiny atoms. I even have a power-saving mode! Because I’m just so smart at seeing the energy, I can use my magic tricks without ever getting tired or running out of energy! Next, Infinity! It’s like my forcefield! Instead of a regular shield, I make the space between me and an enemy go on forever so they can’t touch me! Lastly, Blue! Think of this as an invisible magic vacuum cleaner! I can snap my fingers and make a tiny, invisible black hole. This black hole would pull everything nearby—like bad guys or big buildings—right into it with super-strong gravity! All done!”
“Um… just say you’re like fucking Jesus Christ of Jujutsu. My technique is sick? Are you not self aware?”
“Do NOT. Boost his ego.”
“THANK YOU YUJI!!! I LOVE YOU! SOMEONE UNDERSTANDS MY WORTH!”
“I love you too, almighty man.”
“EEEEK! GETO’S TURN!”
Geto wiped his face with his hands. “A ‘curse’ is the negative energy itself, or a rule/hex placed on someone or something. Think of it like a dark cloud of bad energy that hangs around or a rule that makes something bad happen. A ‘cursed spirit’ is a spooky monster that is made out of that dark energy. When too many bad feelings, like the fear of spiders or the ocean, bundle up in one place, they form a Cursed Spirit. I can manipulate those cursed spirits, but in order to do that, I need to beat it in a fight, turn it into a ball using my technique, and swallow it. Once eaten, the monster can obey any command of mine. I can collect thousands and summon them in battle. There.”
Yuji was speechless. “Oh. Okay. Sorry for breathing the same air. I’ll find a polluted area.”
Gojo snorted. “Okay okay, Shoko’s turn! She-”
“Let me say it, ding-dong. Converting standard negative cursed energy into positive energy is a rare trick called Reverse Cursed Technique. I happen to be naturally terrifyingly good at it. While other sorcerers scratch their heads trying to figure out how to heal a papercut on themselves, I can knit someone else's internal organs back together. It’s a handy talent—keeps Gojo and Geto from dying every time they pick a fight."
“Woah. So it’s like galaxy, cursed spirit summon guy, and healer? Holy shit, that’s incredible.”
“Do NOT degrade me like that! Galaxy!? Seriously!?” Gojo gasped, jokingly offended while Shoko and Geto try not to laugh. “Well I mean, you’re like tell the future man or whatever the hell! Danger sense guy? Ummm I dunno. BUT! You’re with strong people and nobody will hurt you again! Yay!”
Yuji smiled. It flickered but nobody caught it. He’d die a liar. He’d die Kenjaku’s son. He wasn’t real. He wasn’t human. He was a mere experiment with a lie and expiration date.
I have to protect your kindness, even if it means dying.
“You're a strong kid, so try to help others... save the people you can... It's okay if you lose your way and don't worry about whether they'll thank you or not... Just save as many as you can, even if you can only save one... When you die, you should be surrounded by people. Don't end up like me."