Chapter Text
Keita abruptly stopped before a traditional Torii gate, looking past it at a cluster of traditional-style buildings behind another gate with a flight of stairs. After a moment, she dropped her bags and folded in half, breathing heavily with her hands on her knees.
Why the hell would anyone build a school up here?, she thought to herself. She has been walking- no, climbing is more like it- for at least half an hour uphill with all of her possessions on this world on her back, after a long bus ride to a nearby village. Tired didn’t even begin to describe her state.
She couldn’t resist the temptation of the cold stone floor and sat down, leaning on one of her bags under the swaying shade of a tree. She hoped someone - especially a teacher- wouldn’t pass by and catch her like this, covered in sweat, lying on the ground, her clothes and hair a mess. It would have made an awful first impression.
As the afternoon breeze carried away some of her fatigue and heat, she looked at her new school uneasily. These last few months have been so unexpected- and challenging, she confessed. It was both tragic and comical: Here she had been thinking she more or less had a future laid out in front of her, only for it to come crashing down and fling her to a freaking sorcerer school on top of a mountain in Tokyo. She was supposed to be performing for the foreseeable future, see new places and meet new people, maybe even someone special on the road, build a family on the road, but always on the road, a wanderer with no homeland… Not once had she a permanent place to call home. Her home had been that massive, flashy tent with a stage illuminated by huge spotlights, surrounded by the thundering crowd that loved her. Her home had been her father and the freaks inside that tent she called family and entrusted her life to every day. Her home was no more, replaced by this foreign, eerily quiet place tucked away between trees. The contrast got on her nerves.
She got up with her bags to finally arrive at school, and to her new shower and bed, hopefully. She looked around once she made it to the main courtyard of the school. It was really calm, and no one was around, except the afternoon sun shining on her head, apparently sworn to kill her today. The campus was filled with trees with stone walkways and traditional buildings in between. I only need someone to show me my bed, she thought miserably. That was right when a girl turned the corner.
“Hello! Do you need help?”
She was about her age but shorter than her, with shiny orange hair to her shoulders. She was wearing casual grey sweatshorts to her knees and a yellow crop top that flaunted her shapely stomach and shoulders. She had an admirably athletic build, and carried herself as if she owned this whole place, with good posture and an unmistakable air of confidence.
“Hi, I’m supposed to be the new student. Gojo-sensei invited me here a few months ago.”
“You must be the new first-year! Another girl to keep me company!” She bowed slightly with a smile.
“Kugisaki Nobara.”
“Aoki Keita. Nice to meet you.” Keita returned the gesture. “Do you know where Gojo-sensei is? I have no idea what I am supposed to do except actually coming to the school.”
“He’s probably in Tokyo for an errand. I bet that idiot already forgot you were supposed to come today. Luckily I know your room though, it’s right next to mine!”
So they set out to the dorms, passing between buildings and trees on neat stone walkways. Nobara turned out to be a chatty person, or maybe she was excited to have a new girl classmate.
“I am a first-year too. Before coming to Tokyo, I used to live in the countryside with nothing to do. Thank God I managed to enroll here and can actually go out shopping and eating whenever I want. Where are you from?”
“I’m not from anywhere. I traveled with my father from town to town for as long as I can remember.”
“What?! That’s crazy! You must have seen all kinds of new places. I was stuck in the countryside my whole life.” She grunted. "I’m so jealous… Where is your father now?”
“Uh, he died a few months ago. Then Gojo-sensei found me, and I enrolled here.” She said with a pause and looked away for a moment.
Her smile suddenly disappeared. “Oh, I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine. I feel better now.” Keita smiled reassuringly.
They had entered a dorm hallway in a two-story building. It was the boys’ floor, Nobara explained as they went upstairs.
“This is my room, and this is yours.” She gestured to two rooms right next to each other on the second floor. Keita’s was unlocked, and they went in. It was a large room with wide, sliding windows and a French balcony, which allowed light into the room. There was a bed, a large closet, a desk, a bookcase, and even her own bathroom?! It was already luxurious for a high-schooler, even more so for someone who slept on makeshift beds with ten other people her whole life.
“Wow! This place is huge! I’ve never had this much space to myself!” Keita running-jumped on her new bed as Nobara chuckled.
“I can help you unpack if you want. Today’s Saturday, so we have no classes, and the guys are in their rooms busy being boring anyway. You seemed like you were about to pass out in the courtyard.” Nobara teased.
“I climbed all the way up the mountain, okay?! How do you guys even get out of this forest? There is hardly any civilization around!” Keita sat up on her bed, hands flying in all directions and brows furrowed with annoyance.
“Wait.” Nobara looked at her with wide eyes, gaping. “Don’t tell me-” She paused dramatically between words. “you came all the way here from Tokyo by yourself.”
“Huh? I have asked how to come here to like a thousand people in Tokyo and the village down the hill. What was I supposed to do?"
“Give a call to Ijichi, dumbass! He manages our transportation and missions. He would have picked you up.”
“We can do that?! Ugh! You’ve got to be kidding me!” Keita whined and let herself fall on the bed dramatically. “Gojo-sensei only gave me an address! Hey! It’s not funny!” She playfully snapped at Nobara, who was laughing with tears in her eyes.
“Sorry.” She wiped her eyes, still laughing at her ill-fortune. “I just can’t believe you came all the way here crawling. Either that idiot-sensei overlooked something reeeaally important as always, or the managers couldn’t reach you, a much slighter possibility. Anyways, our hero has been through hell and emerged victorious!” She went to her bedside and held her slumped hand high as if she was declaring the winner of a boxing match, despite Keita’s i-am-done-with-everything facial expression.
They got to unpacking Keita’s stuff, which shouldn’t have taken too long since she only had two bags due to her old lifestyle. However, it took them hours because they got sidetracked repeatedly and chatted non-stop. Nobara was impressed by her new friend’s fashion sense and the number of outfit options she fit in her tiny wardrobe.
“It’s called a capsule wardrobe. You buy a few quality, staple pieces that go with the other pieces, so you have many outfits with a small wardrobe! I kind of formed mine over time as I traveled and bought clothes from different places because I had to fit everything in my bags.”
Nobara’s eyes widened, impressed. “Smart-shopping, huh? I just get what I like, so I end up buying a lot of things. Maybe I should try that too. Anyway, you can be more carefree with your shopping now that you have all this space.” She paused for a moment to fold one of Keita’s shirts and turned to her excitedly. “We should definitely go shopping in Tokyo sometime! I will show you my favorite boutiques! You can literally find anything you like in a big city. I love Tokyo so much.” She clasped her hands on the side of her face, looking dreamily.
“Yes! It would be awesome to shop together! We can help each other decide and pick. I think our styles are similar anyway, because I really like your top.” She smiled and tugged on her yellow crop top that had a small angel print in the middle.
Nobara gestured with her shoulders and looked to the side, showing off her top. “Aw, thanks. Finally, someone with fashion sense to ask opinions to while shopping… Sometimes I drag Yuuji into a store for a second opinion, but he says ‘It’s good’ about whatever I wear.” She said with annoyance in her voice, imitating the ‘It’s good’ part with a rough voice. “I can try on a trash bag, and he still won’t have anything to say.”
The said ‘Yuuji’ barged into the room about an hour later, as the girls were lying on the floor on their stomachs showing each other their favorite online boutiques on Nobara’s laptop. The room was already a mess, clothes and bags scattered on the floor around the girls, and the unpacking process left half-finished. Keita had showered, and Nobara had brought some food, whose leftovers were dumped somewhere in the mess, forgotten.
“KUGISAKIIII! Give me back my band t-shirt! I didn’t mean to gift it to you! I only lent it to you because you were cold, and it’s my favorite! I will show you where I bought it from if you want one!” Loud thumps echoed in the room as someone seemingly attempted to break down Nobara’s door. Nobara rolled her eyes and ran to the hallway to save it. “I’m here, idiot! Leave my door alone before you Hulk-smash it!”
“Oh, you were in there?” The assailant walked into Keita’s room, following Nobara. He had pink undercut hair and an extremely muscular build, which showed through despite his baggy sweatpants. He had two weird-looking creases under his eyes, which look like a second set of eyes? , Keita thought curiously. They didn’t take away from his good looks, though. He had a spring to his step as if he could hit the ground running at any moment- his movements teeming with excess energy ready to explode. “Oh, hello! I haven’t seen you here before.” He scratched his head, looking at Nobara for an explanation.
“She is the new first-year, Aoki Keita.” Nobara spoke without Keita needing to introduce herself.
“Hello! I’m Itadori Yuuji!” The boy said with a huge, genuine smile that lighted up his whole face and eyes. “Man, this room is a mess. Do you need help with anything?”
“It’s nothing compared to your garbage dump that happens to have a bed, idiot.” Nobara teased.
“Huh?! It’s not untidy as long as I know where everything is! It just has its own order.” Itadori objected and crossed his arms stubbornly.
Nobara raised her eyebrows suspiciously with a knowing smirk on her face. “You came to class without your shoes once because they were buried somewhere.”
“DO YOU NEED HELP OR NOT?!”
“Fine, fine, come fold these clothes on the floor.”
So he did, as Nobara took her place next to Keita and proceeded to ask another crucial question as she had been for half an hour. “So, what do you think about this top?”
Itadori stayed still for a moment. “Wait, you guys aren’t even tidying up the room!”
Keita decided to join the conversation with a sudden courage. If this place was her new home, these people were going to be her new family, right? She smiled at him over the laptop and gestured at her room excitedly. “Now that I have all this space, I have to buy more things to fill it! I’m going to buy all kinds of funky stuff I couldn’t buy before. Minimalism no more!”
“Maaaaaan, not another shopping freak!” Yuuji whined, gaping at the girls miserably. “I can hardly handle Nobara here. She literally buries me in shopping bags every time we go to Tokyo!”
Nobara put her hand on her forehand as if fainting, sighing dramatically. “But who will carry a girl’s bags if not a muscular, strong gentleman like you? They are soooo heavy and slow down my shopping.”
Yuuji objected with a raised voice. “You picked me up and pitched me like a ball once! You can carry your own bags just fine!”
Nobara pointed her finger at him, apparently remembering some bad memories. “You had coated your whole body with my expensive face sunscreen, idiot! I still haven’t financially recovered from that!”
Yuuji sighed wearily. “Alright, at least make Fushiguro help from now on, eh? He always cops out, and I end up carrying everything.”
“You just can’t say no when someone asks nicely.” Nobara sniggered. Keita had a feeling Nobara took advantage of her friend’s good nature from time to time.
Yuuji turned to Keita, shaking his head exasperatedly. “She could at least thank me instead of roasting my ass for dropping just one bag.”
“Hey!”
“Who is Fushiguro?” Keita asked, sitting up and reaching for a top on the ground to fold it.
“The other first-year, Fushiguro Megumi. He gets moody sometimes, but he’s nice. We train and go to missions together.” Nobara explained as she clicked “Add to Basket” for the red top from an online boutique Keita showed her.
Yuuji nodded with his ever-present smile on his face. “You’ll like him, and our upperclassmen too. We are not crowded, but we are all close to each other, so you will not feel alone!” He gave a cheerful thumbs up with his eyes squinted with glee.
Keita smiled back, her uneasiness dissipated by Yuuji’s contagious smile even if just a bit. Perhaps her new home wasn’t going to be that difficult to settle in.