Chapter Text
Kenny rubbed the back of their hand deep into their eyes, finding the pressure easing a headache threatening to come.
This is their second day in this world, Jujutsu Kaisen, and overall probably around the 6,500th day in their entire life. Probably. They just remember going to school, so it does fit here and there, but they could've sworn they knew how to drive a car, too.
Nevermind that train of thought.
Mahito has a spring in his step as he walks besides them, around early in the morning ten minutes before Junpei's school starts—allegedly, as told to them by Mahito—they're both heading to pick up the unassuming boy. Junpei having agreed so easily to skip school for a stranger he met a day ago, a curse at that, makes Kenny realize that this world still has the characters they once liked as...well, unreal. Akin to following personality traits on a paper, if you will. They all fit a role perfectly in this life even if it's currently real, and Kenny doesn't know how to feel about it.
Given their interactions with Mahito, it does seem there's more to every character, obviously, but Kenny is finding it hard to see all of them as real people. They weren't real to Kenny until more than a day ago, after all.
Hopefully that doesn't fuck up with their morality, they're already too cowardly to play the role of a hero which they know many would like to do, even if only to get to passionately make out with their favorite character or become an unofficial parental figure. If their morals fall back then it opens them up as a villain to others, in different words; they'll be killed on sight. Yikes.
Again, they're getting off track.
Mahito tugged on their robes to drag their attention to a house just down the block. Pretty and cozy, significantly better than the unruly apartment they're pretending is in service at all.
“This one for sure!” Mahito tugged harsher, paying no mind to how Kenny almost tripped on air.
“How'd you know?” Kenny mumbles, unconvinced.
Mahito looked at them in a poor attempt at shock, actual expression unreadable aside from a star or two swimming in his eyes. “Junpei gave me his location, duh, and I remembered it, pretty cool!”
Curses have internal Google maps?
“I guess you could say that~” Mahito shrugged, finally letting go of Kenny as he broke into a sprint, having grown tired of dragging along the beast—ex-beast.
“Oh come on, I didn't say that out loud,” they whine to no one, soon hurrying their own feet when they caught a glimpse of Mahito already by the door.
Smoothly sliding besides Mahito, they take the pleasure of knocking on the smooth surface. Mahito backs up to give them space, and they offer three rhythmic taps, loud but not annoyingly overbearing as repeated knocking tends to be.
“Mom, I'll get the door!” a voice, muffled by concrete and wood.
There was a reply from his mother, then a few seconds of silence.
The door was opened by Junpei, looking flushed and his shirt seemingly thrown on as an afterthought. His eyes wide with adrenaline, a hand snaking back to close the door shut. Kenny barely swallows down the urge to ruffle his hair and maybe spoil him rotten. Sadly, they're broke, and petty theft was already on their list of crimes. There's no need for more of it. Junpei's shirt was a dark grey one, white lines drawing a realistic image of a...
Kenny snorted.
“W-what?” the boy startled at it, defensively crossing his arms.
Mahito was waving enthusiastically at Junpei in the background, to that he nodded at in a distracted greeting.
Kenny held up their palms, lips curling into an amused smile. They couldn't have predicted the shirt of choice, let alone it be Junpei wearing it. The boy does seem like an alternative type, not that they know too much about that, but the little they've heard is that it's “out there” clothes and such. A very subjective definition; Kenny decided a grey shirt with a white outline of a wolf and weird, glitch like patterns in color around it, seemed good enough for the term, it is pretty out there given how everyone here seemingly blends into the crowd faster than Nobara and her older counterpart Shoko did.
Ahh, they long to meet Shoko, she looks like she has all the gossip there is, and they want to find out if that's the case.
“The shirt is funny, Junpei.” the more casual name slipped by accident. They had to go with it despite an increased anxiety threatening a stutter of their own. “Nothing personal.” their voice easily curved into something predatory and condescending, staying in character to some extent, they guess; whatever's keeping them from saying “I'm literally anyone but Kenjaku” is behind that curl.
Junpei's face twisted slightly before his shoulders fell in defeat. “I guess...”
It was Mahito's turn to brush aside Kenny, hands twisting into the fabric on his chest, a wolfish grin spreading. Mahito had pretty neat canines, sometimes twisting them quietly into something more sheep-ish instead whenever particular about biting his tongue to play games.
It's interesting in how little time Kenny learns these things. Feels like some weird pacing issue...
Nah, definitely not.
“Junpei! We have to try something out, you have potential after all. Wanna come with?" Mahito wasn't going to transfigure Junpei yet, Kenny hopes. Given it's already too early for each other too meet, but also because Kenny's behavior might've intrigued him. Whatever it is, he's not teaching Junpei about his powers yet, just speaking in code of “potential,” a language Megumi knows to recite its words by heart but can't write in it for shit.
Junpei clearly agreed when Kenny wasn't paying attention, hurriedly ushering them off his porch before his mom sees and starts asking him about a strange woman in robes trying to recruit him into a cult, probably.
They do look like a cult leader, even without a backstory given on a silver platter.
Mahito brought them to an antique store a bit further out, near the outskirts of the city. He'd said it's for safety measures and Kenny didn't question it.
Now that they're watching Mahito explain to Junpei various ways one could politely take an item without alerting the workers...they should've.
They didn't hold back a long sigh, hands finding their temples to rub out the burning melting mush their brain is becoming.
“You see, I can go in without a problem, but they'll see you.” Mahito began, pacing back and forth like a detective explaining his newest discovery to a worthy sidekick.
“So what do I do?” Junpei tilts his head, a need for comfort deeply engraved into his haunted eyes, lighting up at the notion of finally hang out with people that aren't talking about how useless he is.
Kenny is an observer at this point, though Junpei is definitely their kid now. Sadly not one they'll intervene Mahito's business for, a small silver of fear about Mahito retaliating right there, but they'll at least help with the boy's self worth if an opportunity presents itself.
Mahito spun around and pointed at Junpei, “you bring in an adult!”
Junpei squinted. “As in...?” he trailed off, unsure which adult would...condone that.
Luckily for him, what definitely resembles an adult, and might be one, is sitting right to their side, on a rotting bench and contemplating their life choices.
Mahito whistles Kenny over, who's already been paying attention while contemplating said life choices, and got up. Dusting off their robes, they cross their arms and don't oppose the idea.
Junpei, on the other hand, hesitantly shares a glance between them and Mahito. He looks unsure, and Kenny can't blame him for it.
Mahito pats the boy's head, ruffling his hair and making him shyly dunk away from the persistent pressure of his hand. He took a second to settle it back into neatness, but the hesitant furrow in his eyebrows didn't loosen.
‘How bad of a first impression did I make....’
“Kenken here will go in, talk business, you will go in and snatch something then come back and wait for Kenken to finish the conversation on a nevermind, he'll be real polite about it and nothing bad will happen!” Mahito assured him. “Right?” a pointed look was thrown in their direction.
“...right.” it did sound intriguing, less nerves than the theft they committed prior. Agreeing felt too easy.
They had to add something.
“But steal only one thing, we don't wish to be chased so early on. Maybe a piece of jewelry?” not that jewelry was particularly lightwork, but given what they know from their gut feeling it can't be much if a hassle.
Wrong wrong wrong wrong, everything was so wrong.
Sharp light and numbers flicker everywhere in his peripheral, worsened by the lack of a blindfold keeping his eyes grounded and shieled, barely, from this world.
Blindfold held by his hand, crumpling under the pressure of the grip that's painting his knuckles white, Satoru stepped into the morgue.
A woman in a lab coat, long hair framing her face, one with eye bags and pale skin, blending with the very corpses she cuts into eagerly. She was bent over a dead man, not too far from a week ago.
“Shoko,” he greets. Plain to anyone else. She, however, could sense the fear in his even breathing, measured to replicate every human being he's known, the casual shift of his position that screamed unease to her.
She set her scalpel down, glancing over at him in a slow, calculated manner. “Good afternoon to you too,” she drew out, cocking an eyebrow. She caught a glimpse of his eyes and glanced away, no one could quite fully take on the burning gaze of the six eyes. “You need something? I have to get back to my work, you know.”
Satoru took a step forward, visibly hesitant unlike his other movements, then his practiced composure fell apart at the seams. “I...I think...”
It started with his breathing, picking up pace and shuddering involuntarily with a choked noise.
“My six eyes don't lie, they never do, but...” he ran a hand through his hair, beginning to shift back and forth, free hand grasping a chunk of it.
Shoko remained still, her own hand already brushing out a cigarette from her pockets. She watched him as she lit it up.
The second problem became his everything, sensory input worsening by ever second faster his breath and heart speed up, whatever panic grasping him can't be from anything surface level. Shoko knew that much.
Then, when he said these next words, she began wishing there was enough beer to drown in:
“I think my six eyes saw him, but I know it isn't him.”
Kenny walked into the store with little script in mind, finding words hard to come by when they don't even know a thing about antique stores aside from...well, they probably have weird stuff lying around, given the name. That's about it. Items might tie into history, but they hold little hope for that to go anywhere.
The only man working there was older and scruffy, dressed like he's going to golf and just overall his demeanor was grumpy—he only slightly lit up at a customer coming by, already greeting Kenny by the time they stepped foot in the shop. Junpei followed them, keeping close like Mahito said. Kids usually do that when walking, so Kenny didn't object.
The old man paid little attention to Junpei, asking Kenny if they were looking for anything specific.
Shamefully, Kenny's first thought was what they saw while entering—jewelry, once more. They did have neat piercings in their ears, so the topic of choice wasn't all that surprising to the old man.
Junpei peeled off from Kenny, going to the back of the store unnoticed while they discussed different jewelry that might fit them, fighting for their dignity because they never explored the topic in their original life. They don't know what the hell Chatoyancy is!
By the time Junpei came back, Kenny was sweating bullets.
All of a sudden they had to go because Junpei felt dramatically sick and the old man, though disappointed, didn't suspect a thing.
“Did you get anything?” Kenny brought out the question when they were out of earshot, circling back to the alley Mahito was waiting for them in.
Junpei gave a nod, abruptly shoving a necklace out of his shirt. It sparkled under the sunlight like glitter, mostly made from what resembles gold, though the chain itself holding the pretty thing was silver.
They know they shouldn't encourage this but, aw....Junpei looks so proud....
“Good catch!” they approve of it, catching him by surprise.
He says a thanks, quiet due to the unexpectedness of the compliment.