Chapter Text
“Did you hear about the new transfer students? More first years,” Maki said as she pressed the ‘cold’ option on the vending machine.
“More of them?” Panda pinched his chin in thought. “There sure are a lot of them this year.”
“Shake,” Inumaki agreed. Accompanying Maki to the vending machines was a great excuse for them to skip out on training for a little bit.
“Well, there’s two of them; they have the same family name so they must be related or something,” Maki’s drink fizzed softly as she cracked the tab open.
“It’s the second years! Good morning!” Gojō Satoru’s playfully familiar voice echoed from the end of the hallway. A pair of less familiar students quickly followed after him.
“What does that blindfolded idiot want this time,” she muttered into her drink as he approached closer. Gojō’s been a pain in Maki’s side since he broke the first cursed weapon he borrowed from her—the other times just doubled her anger.
“I wanted to get the other first years to show these new transfers around,” he gestured to the kids behind him, “but they went off on their own mission. Could you guys take care of your underclassmen, please?” Gojō asked, flashing an innocent smile.
“Actually, Panda and I were planning on sparring… just right now…” Maki made up an excuse on the spot, elbowing Panda in the back and signaling him to go with it.
“Yeah… we were just about to go do that…” Panda nodded, wide-eyed, before the two walked away at a rushed pace.
Inumaki stared at their retreating figures with a look of disbelief. They left him behind. If she were to sacrifice someone, it should have been someone that could actually communicate, like Panda.
He now regretted taking the last piece of bread in the kitchen this morning and looking at Maki teasingly as he ate it.
“What’s with the talking panda?” the dark-haired twin whispered to the other silently in the background, who shrugged in answer.
“What about you, Toge?” Gojō turned his attention to him, his tall figure slinking into his personal space. “You’re not busy, right? Could ya take care of your underclassmen?”
He’s been cornered. There was no one left to toss the hot potato of responsibility to. “Shake…” he agreed unenthusiastically. Despite not being under his watch anymore, Gojō-sensei still managed to dump his responsibilities on him.
“Great!” He clapped his hands with a smile. “Toge, meet the Aiuchi twins, Kyō-kun and Akemi-kun!” Gojō took a long step aside to give the twins room. “Kids, this is Toge, a second-year upperclassman! His technique is cursed speech! He can control people, curses, and what-have-you with his words! He uses onigiri ingredients as safewords. The other two are Maki-san and Panda, but they ran off to who-knows-where.”
Inumaki was going through a quick mental list of the pros and cons of forced social interaction, when his thoughts were cut off by a sudden overwhelming presence.
“WOAH!” Akemi, the twin with a purple buzz cut and many piercings, lit up in excitement. “Your technique is cursed speech!? That is so cool! Mine is sonic speech!” They pointed at themself, golden eyes gleaming. “I can use my cursed energy to manipulate sound waves from my voice!” They paused in sheepish embarrassment. “Sorry... I’ve never seen someone with a vocal technique like mine before.”
Inumaki blushed in surprise.
His inherited technique was usually seen as a stain to jujutsu society. When people first meet him, they typically approach him at an arm’s length with heavy caution, afraid he’ll curse them. Such enthusiasm towards his inherited technique was rare, and so was the feeling it sent inside him.
“Sh-Shake,” he stuttered, verbally and physically. Sonic speech? He hadn’t heard about that one before. For the first time in a while, he was curious.
“Salmon? Ooo, salmon onigiri are my favorite kind!” That same excitement quickly returned to those expressive golden eyes.
His own widened too and he nodded his head in affirmation. Akemi has good taste.
“Not to interrupt…” the other twin, the one with a dark mullet, paused to gesture at the two briefly with his right hand, “... this, but hello, I’m Aiuchi Kyō, Akemi’s brother,” he gave a little smile. “It’s nice to meet you,” he said before bowing politely.
“Right, right,” Akemi rushed to line up next to their brother to do the same. “It’s nice to meet you, Inumaki-senpai.”
Inumaki bowed silently in return, looking around to find that Gojō-sensei had left them; further boosting his theory that Gojō was just dumping his responsibilities on the nearest person.
He sighed. He hates showing new people around. He hates meeting new people in general, but there’s only so much you could do about that. The one prevalent thing he liked about the jujutsu community was the exclusiveness.
These two seem different, though. Just like his classmates and underclassmen.
Their “tour” consisted of the three of them walking around the campus, the siblings asking yes or no questions whenever they were confused, and Inumaki nodding or shaking his head yes or no while using his affirmation and negation safe words.
Midway through the tour, Akemi got distracted by a field of flowers. Kyō went to get them, but Akemi ended up distracting him too, and the two got separated from him briefly. Inumaki was exhausted.
He closed the door to his dorm room and immediately retreated to bed, kicking his shoes off. Letting out a long sigh, he landed face-first into his pillow. Whether it was the afternoon or evening was unknown to him. What wasn’t, was the smell of fresh linen and the thick texture of his weighted blanket—the perfect way to recharge after an exhausting amount of social interaction.
Not like it was all that bad. He shifted so he was lying on his back, and stared at the ceiling. He spun the purple hydrangea Aiuchi Akemi picked for him with his fingertips.
“Purple hydrangeas mean ‘wanting a deep understanding,’” Akemi had said as they placed the purple hydrangea in his open palm. “Plus, they match your eyes,” they added softly. They tried hiding their quiet comment behind another sheepish smile. “Hydrangeas have different meanings depending on the color: blue meaning gratitude, white — vanity, and pink — heartfelt emotion. Our mom taught us all about flowers when we were little,” Akemi looked up to make sure he was paying attention and smiled when they saw that his violet eyes were attentively watching them. “We may have just met, Inumaki-senpai, but I think you’re someone I want to understand deeply.”
Inumaki covered his eyes with his forearm and sighed again. He hadn’t met someone so… so instantly true and genuine towards him before. People like them are rare in the jujutsu community.
He decided it was best not to dwell on it-
and he fell fast asleep.
———
Meanwhile, in Aiuchi Kyō’s dorm room…
“Wow… that was so embarrassing,” the previously reserved Kyō found himself more relaxed around his sibling, fiddling with a water bottle from where he was sitting at the table. “You were all over him—and what was with that infodump on hydrangeas...”
“Ugh, I know!” Akemi dragged the end of their sentence in a whine and cringed, burying their face into a throw pillow from Kyō’s couch. “His eyes were so pretty, too… I’m not sure what happened—I just started talking… and it was like I couldn’t stop!”
“Yeah, it was gross,” Kyō made a disgusted face before ducking his head to dodge the incoming pillow his sibling sent flying across the room.
“If it was so bad, why didn’t you stop me!?”
“And miss you freaking out about it?” Kyō laughed teasingly. “No way!”
Akemi grabbed another pillow from the couch and Kyō raised his hands to protect his face.
“Hey-Ey!” Kyō said in a warning tone when his twin prepared to throw another pillow at him. “Inumaki-senpai didn’t seem to hate it!”
Akemi lowered the pillow and plopped themself back on the couch with a pout. “Really? Did it seem that way?”
“Yes, it did,” Kyō slowly lowered his defensive position.
“Wait—are you sure or are you just saying that to get me to leave?”
“Yes.”
“To which!?”
Kyō walked over and pulled at their arm, motioning for them to get up. “Stop worrying yourself to death and get out of my room! Go to bed!”
“Fine,” Akemi mumbled as they dragged their feet out his door. “Not like I could if I tried.”
———
“Wow, you look terrible,” Maki laughed, lounging on a couch with a cursed book in the common room and kitchen area when Aiuchi Akemi entered in their pajamas.
“Mmmm,” Akemi hummed in agreement as they shuffled to the kitchen to make some morning tea. They let out another grumble that resembled ‘good morning.’
The two had gotten acquainted with each other the night before, outside the dorms. Akemi was moving stuff into their dorm room.
“Do you always look like that when you get out of bed?” Maki asked as she returned to the page she was just reading.
Akemi let out another hum in agreement. “Insomnia. I rarely get any sleep,” they managed to mumble as they moved a kettle full of water onto the stove. “‘Sort of impossible for me to look so good in the morning like you, Maki-senpai. Forgive me.”
“You’re funny,” Maki paused to laugh. “I like that.” She looked up to see the first year groggily lean their weight against the counter. “That does sound like it sucks, though. You should get that checked out by our healer…” she continued as her eyes followed the lines on the page. “She uses reversed cursed energy to heal, so I’m not sure exactly how she could help.” She paused a moment to think. “I guess you could ask Toge instead…”
“I-Inumaki-senpai?” Akemi’s eyes widened at the sudden mention of his name. “How could he help…” they trailed off trying to think of ways he could.
Maki let out a small chuckle before answering. “He can use his cursed technique to make you go to sleep.”
“That would be perfect!” Akemi pushed themself off the counter in excitement, right as the kettle started whistling. “Thank you for the suggestion, Maki-san. Just gotta find the time to ask him,” they hummed as they poured hot water into their teacup.
“No worries, anything for an underclassman I can tolerate,” she returned to her book once again. “Oh, since there’s no class today, the second years are going to train on the field. You should come, and tell the other first years to join us.”
“Will do!”
———
“I won’t go easy on ya,” Kugisaki stood ready with nails in hand and hammer in the other, taunting her training partner.
“I wouldn’t want you to,” Akemi smirked as cursed energy seemed to leak from their hands, forming into two hook-ended whips and cracking them in the air.
Kugisaki took a surprised step back. There certainly was an advantage to not revealing a cursed technique until their first fight—but unfortunately for Nobara, she had just demonstrated her technique and the accuracy of her nails to everyone before they split into pairs.
Akemi used their whips to push off of the floor and launch themself into the air, creating distance between them and Kugisaki.
“Hey! When did this become land vs. air!? Get back here!” Nobara yelled after them, sending three nails their way.
Akemi stuck their tongue out in reply and caught the incoming nails with their right whip’s cursed energy before dropping them back to the floor.
“You have— to come down— sometime!” Nobara launched more nails between her words when Akemi started falling.
They used their momentum to spin midair, dodging the projectiles and making sure to cushion their fall with the whips before landing semi-gracefully on their feet.
They’re fast! Like Itadori. Nobara groaned to herself. They’re able to use height as an advantage like Nishimiya-chan, although this time there’s no broom bristle to use resonance with… and not to mention those damned whips— Akemi launched themself into the air once again, their whips cracking off the floor.
Kugisaki sent more nails flying before reaching into her bag and only finding two more. Gotta start bringing extra, Nobara scolded herself internally. She wasn’t gonna let Akemi know about that, though. “Do you ever stop moving!?” Kugisaki put more power into these last two before sending them their way.
“I can,” Akemi seemingly paused midair before screaming loudly, their vocals sending a pulsating wave of power that stopped and rattled the incoming nails in place, dropping them before surging through Kugisaki’s body.
Nobara was vibrating in place, the unfamiliar feeling of intense sound waves rattling her core sent her into a state of shock before she fell over.
“Yeesh, you never gave her a chance!” Maki shielded her eyes from the beating sun with her hand, pausing her spar with Fushiguro to look on.
Inumaki stood frozen with Panda at the top of the steps leading down to the field, a tray of water bottles in hand. He watched as Akemi landed gracefully once more, offering their hand to their classmate and laughing the whole thing off. So that’s what Akemi meant by ‘sonic speech,’ he thought to himself.
“Toge, these first years are no joke,” Panda commented as they walked down the steps and placed their trays at the bottom.
“Shake,” Inumaki agreed, thinking about Okkotsu. He figured Yūta would get along with the first years pretty well. He sees a lot of Yūta in them, especially in that Aiuchi Akemi…
“Man, it’s hot!” Kugisaki complained to Fushiguro and Akemi before grabbing a water bottle from one of the trays Inumaki and Panda prepared. “Who knew training would be so exhausting.”
“Who didn’t know…” Fushiguro trailed off as he grabbed his own bottle of water.
Akemi attempted to agree, but the only thing that came out of their mouth was a choked noise.
“Takana?” Inumaki asked them in a concerned tone.
Fushiguro took a pause mid-sip of water, waiting to see if Akemi could understand what their upperclassman was saying.
Akemi figured he was asking if they were ok. “M’fine. My technique messes with my throat,” their words came out hoarse and they coughed as they gestured towards their neck with their hand.
Fushiguro found himself pleasantly surprised.
“Tsuna tsuna,” Inumaki’s concerned tone remained, and he reached into his pocket to pull out a bottle of cough syrup.
“Are you telling me to use this?” Akemi asked, looking down at the bottle in his hand.
“Shake,” Inumaki nodded his head yes and gestured it towards them in offering.
Akemi made a concerned thinking noise before beginning again. “Are you sure? This is yours, I’d want you to save it for yourself.”
“Shake,” he insisted, averting his gaze anywhere but his Kōhai’s eyes.
“This is the same brand I use! ‘Just forgot to bring my own,” they gave a small smile that mirrored their brother’s from yesterday before grabbing the bottle from his hand and pouring a smidge down their throat.
“Tsuna,” Inumaki motioned his hand, signaling that they should drink more.
“Are you sure? I wouldn’t want to drink most of this…” Akemi asked.
“Shake,” Inumaki smiled with his eyes.
Fushiguro and Panda looked on with narrowed eyes. It was strange to see Inumaki warm up to someone so easily.
“Oh! I’ve been meaning to ask, Inumaki-senpai,” Akemi chimed after handing the bottle back to him. “Could you help me out with my sleeping problems? Maki-san said your technique could help.”
Inumaki lingered his stare on the bottle in his hand as he ran another pros and cons list through his head. On the one hand, going to Akemi’s room, someone he just met, and seeing them in their pajamas every night seemed like an invasion of privacy. Not to mention he’d have to awkwardly let himself out after they’d fall asleep… On the other hand, Inumaki wasn’t one to deny help to someone when he could easily offer it—especially if they’d asked him directly.
“Do your powers work over the phone? We could call,” Akemi suggested after they noticed he zoned out.
Ah, that could work. “Shake!” he answered enthusiastically.
———
Inumaki paced around his room, phone in hand. It was 10:17 PM and they had scheduled their call for 10:30 PM; yet here he was, checking his phone every other second like a loser.
He threw his phone on the bed and he himself came soon after. Toge looked over his shoulder to the nightstand, where the purple hydrangea Akemi gave him the other day was resting in a mug filled with water.
“They look delicate, but they’re easy to take care of. They don’t need much, just sun, water, and lots of love,” he recalls Akemi’s in-depth explanation on the flower. “Our mom compared us to them because they bloom in the spring, like we did.”
That must’ve been when they were born. He sighed and moved closer to the edge of his bed. ‘Wanting a deep understanding,’ huh? He fiddled with the little purple petals gently and wondered if that went both ways.
He wants it to.
The ring of his phone made him jump in surprise. Their call came seven minutes earlier than they had planned. He quickly reached for his phone to see “Aiuchi Akemi” in bold text, and the candid photo he took of them earlier—for the contact picture—took up the whole screen.
Inumaki quickly sat upright against his headboard, not even realizing it was a video call until after he answered.
“Oh!” Akemi’s golden eyes widened in surprise when the call started, not because they weren’t expecting him to pick up, but because he wasn’t wearing anything to cover his face at the moment.
Akemi turned away nervously.
“Konbu?” Inumaki greeted them with uncertainty, and Akemi peeked back slowly with one eye.
“Erm, sorry—“ Akemi took a pause to turn their head back completely. ”I’ve never seen the bottom-half of your face before, with your tattoos… I didn’t know if I was supposed to be looking or not.” The sheepish smile Inumaki was now familiar with returned to their lips.
“Shake,” he tried reassuring them, understanding. Inumaki’s never been ashamed of his given tattoos, really. He understood that normal people are usually shocked to see a kid with face tattoos—some would even go as far as saying negative things about them. He also understood that jujutsu sorcerers aren’t normal people.
“Ah, well, I think they look good on you, Inumaki-san,” Akemi replied with a smile through the screen. “They compliment your face.”
Inumaki gave his own little smile in return, which he’s now realizing is a sight not many people get to see often.
Akemi repositioned themself and the camera on their sides, and snuggled into their pillow. “Okay. M’ready,” they mumbled, closing their eyes
“Sleep,” Inumaki whispered into the microphone.
Akemi’s body sunk into the bed as they fell fast asleep, mouth slightly open and already taking deep breaths.
It’d be nice to fall asleep next to them, he thought to himself before beating himself up internally. No, that’s creepy to think about someone you just met, he concluded as he hung up the call and sank his head back into the pillow.
Great.
Now Inumaki can't fall asleep.