Chapter Text
Today during class Principal Yaga announced we were having ourselves a little class debate. Principal Yaga was very smart so when it came to classes like economics and history; he was the one teaching it. You were confident in your ability to successfully prove your point. That was until you saw Megumi Fushiguro walk into the class. You remembered how absolutely obnoxious he was during these debates. He always acted like he was better than the rest of you, even though you were both second grade sorcerers, soon to be promoted. He'd never smile, never say hi to you, and would always roll his eyes when you'd speak up in class. And of course, today he decided to sit directly across from you.
You sat in your desk which was moved along with the other desks to make a circle. You say hi to Itadori, he always hated class debates because he felt they were unnecessary and overall hated arguing with people. Nobara sits right next to you and says hi. She loved debates but didn't ever really prepare for them. She would just get mad easily whenever someone would shoot her argument down.
"you ready for another debate?" Nobara says.
"yeah, if you're ready to lose again" you laughed.
She huffed, "I did not lose!! There's no winner or loser during these." It was so easy making her mad and you just laughed.
You look across from you and there he is, Megumi with that bitch frown on his face. He can't ever enjoy anything . But you do admit, classes would be boring without him seeing as the two of you are the only ones that come prepared to debate.
He catches you staring, "what the fuck are you looking at?"
"that ugly frown on your face.. are you capable of any emotion other than disdain?" you quip back.
"Only when your annoying ass isn't around", he said while rolling his eyes at you. All you could do was throw a sarcastic smile back at him.
Principal Yaga coughs, "Alright, as you guys know, today's class will be dedicated to debating over whether or not the industrial revolution was enlightening or detrimental to society." these debates weren't formal but we were expected to come prepared for our arguments. No matter what, you could always count on Megumi to have the opposite opinion as you."Alright so who is for the industrial revolution?", Yaga says.
Nobara raises her hand eagerly. She smiles at you as she begins to stand up from her seat.
"The industrial revolution was extremely helpful to society thanks to the progress made in machines like the steam engine and the mechanical loom. Allowing products to be made at a faster rate and shared across the nation for all to use! Thus also creating the factory system, giving more people jobs!" Nobara says.
You were slightly impressed she made an actual point rather than saying something about how important malls are to society. Megumi however was not impressed, still having a disinterested look on his face.
"Uhm alright, anyone against the industrial revolution?"Just as you were about to stand, Megumi coughs, standing before you could.
You couldn't believe it. He and you were actually on the same side for once.
Yuuji noticed it too and laughed. "Oh my god Nobara we're gonna lose. Broooo how can we go against the two of them?!" he continued to laugh in his seat.
When Megumi heard his comment, he stiffened and looked at you. You didn't really know what to say so you nodded at him, telling him to continue.
He straightened up and began his opening statement, "The industrial revolution was detrimental to society in that it changed the relationship between commodities and workers, placing the value of labor into the hands of wealthy capitalists. The revolutionary machinery that Nobara mentioned, could only be bought out by big capitalists, forcing workers and craftsmen to sell their labor in order to survive. Creating a further divide between wealthy and the working class."
You were stunned. More than that you were mad. Mad because that's exactly what you would've said and cause seeing Megumi sound all intellectual was very attractive, even if you didn't want to admit it. But now he looks like the smart one and you just have sit back and observe.
Yuuji and Nobara looked overwhelmed. They didn't understand a lick of what just came out of Fushiguro's mouth. You were surprised at Yaga's reaction, he seemed to be the traditional rule follower type. You didn't think he'd approve of Megumi critiquing capitalism. Maybe he enjoyed the fact that Megumi had the ability to the research and form his own opinion. Principal Yaga smiled though, he didn't expect anything less from his best student. "Alright any counterarguments?"
Yuuji and Nobara shook their heads cause how could they even respond to his statement when they could barely comprehend it.
"I'd actually like to add on to tha-." you stood up and Nobara and Yuuji groaned. They both knew they weren't making it out of this debate without a headache.
Principal Yaga cut you off, "No, Yuuji and Nobara have to say their statements first." You huffed. Sitting back down, irritated because you were cut off and Megumi was shaking his head at you with a smirk on his face.
After taking some time to collect themselves Nobara stands up again.
"Because of the Industrial Revolution.. we've been able to make the technological advances we have today. The events of the revolution have allowed companies to maximize profits. Especially with the help of social media.. p-people can order food online so you don't have to pick it up. Or-or you can buy all the clothes you want off of Shein or Amazon for such cheap prices!" Nobara said a little too confidently.
Her argument was weak and didn't make any sense. That's when you turned to look at Megumi, who had already been looking at you. He nodded at you, letting you have this one. He knew you could tear apart her argument. You nodded back and stood up.
"Nobara, why do you think those Shein prices are so incredibly cheap?" you asked looking down at her. She didn't respond.
"If you take into account, the materials, the machinery, the labor the workers put into making those clothes, not to mention you want to make a profit... it should all add up to a hefty price no?" She still, again, stared at you. She had no idea what you were going on about.
"The reasoning for Shein's insanely low prices is that they resource outside of their own countries with strict labor laws, for countries located in the global south, with little to no government protection for working class citizens..." She still look insanely lost.
"They don't pay their workers, Nobara"
Yuuji made an 'ohhh shit' face and Nobara became flustered.
"The Industrial Revolution was the catechism that brought us exactly to the economic state we are in. Capitalism was created to hold a certain group of people back. Wouldn't that be a cause for lack of innovation? Think about the amount of people that could be engineers or doctors... but the one thing holding them back is their lack of financial freedom." you start getting riled up, not noticing your classmate taking in every word you said. It was Megumi's turn to be stunned now.
"Capitalism has become stronger and more corrupt than ever and countries like the U.S. abuse their military power to destabilize countries for oil and other resources while killing innocent li-" You notice yourself starting to get upset while you talked.
"Okay okay now.." Principal Yaga noticing the rise in your voice. "Any other remarks?", he looks to your other classmates. You sit with your head hanging low. You had talked really fast and veered off of the topic a bit at the end there. But you couldn't really help that these issues get you emotional.
"Yeah actually, adding onto what y/n said-", Megumi finally spoke. You shot your head up to look at him. Hearing those words come out of his mouth surprised you. You and this man never saw eye to eye on anything. Even on missions, the two of you would just spit insults back and forth, dig after dig on the other's intellect or physical strength.
"The climate crisis is also a product of capitalism and American imperialism..", Yuuji and Nobara were more confused than ever.
"Human over-consumption has gotten us to a point where we are completely above nature. Our oceans are polluting, millions of species are expected to die, water levels rising, coral reefs dying..." You looked directly at him when said that. You noticed him becoming visibly upset too.
"Oil companies and fast fashion companies both contribute to this. And like y/n had said.." There it is. He said your name again. You don't know why you liked it so much.
"These industries take advantage of third world countries and their lack of government protection, to abuse their already abusive system. Capitalism is all about competition.. what's most profitable, and for them it's taking advantage of those in underprivileged countries. Forcing them to work in harsh conditions with little to no pay so they can turn a profit. And the wealth inequality that we see today, not just in our own country but globally, not completely but is due to the trigger that was the Industrial Revolution." Megumi finished.
Suddenly there was a knock at the door. You all turned to look and see Maki.
"Sorry to interrupt." She bowed at Principal Yaga. "Gojo Sensei would like his students to head back to meet him in front of their dorms." She said.
Principal Yaga frowned. He couldn't protest and make the kids stay here cause class was technically over five minutes ago.
"Alright, go." He groaned. Yuuji and Nobara practically jumped out of their seats to leave. Megumi packed up his stuff and quickly followed them. You were the last one to leave before Yaga called out, "Nice work today, y/n."
"Thank you Principal Yaga", You smiled as you left.
You notice Megumi put his headphones on and walk ahead of you. You walked a little faster to meet up with him. You tapped on his shoulder as turned his head to look at you.
"What song are you listening to?", you asked.
"You probably never heard of them.", He said coldly.
God he was annoying. "Try me", you say.
"Mascara, Deftones.", he said.
"God you're so pretentious you know that? Quite literally every teenager with a superiority complex listens to Deftones.", you rolled your eyes.
"Oh is that why you listen to them?" he laughed.
"Hey at least I admitted it. You're the one that came in with the 'you probably never heard of them' line", you mocked him.
"Seems like I'm always underestimating you, not going to lie I didn't think you were really into politics." He turned again to look at you.
"Yeah it kind of just happened. You think liberalism is about as far left as you can go until you realize it hasn't taken us anywhere. We're still stuck with these same issues that are being ignored. I'm tired of ignoring it. I'm the type of person when I see a problem, I want to fix it and I want to help others." you turn up to look at him only to see he's staring directly at you.
"Is that why you became a sorcerer?", he asked. "To help others"
"Yeah I guess. I mean I would've became a sorcerer anyways because of my family." He nodded at your response, assuming he understood the same pressure you felt. While you weren't apart of any of the major clans, similar to the Inumaki family, your family was still highly regarded in the sorcerer world.
By the time you were finished with your thoughts you looked up to realize you were almost at the dorms. You could see from across the way was Gojo, Nobara, Yuuji, and a tall blonde man. You didn't know who he was but could only assume it was Nanami Kento.
You had never seen Nanami before, only heard about him from Yuuji and the others. He seemed like a really nice man and a strong sorcerer too. As the two of you begin to walk closer to them, you realize how attractive Nanami was. Tall, blonde, quite type, looked like he didn't want to be here.
"Could you stop drooling" Megumi mumbled so that only you could hear him.
"Uhm hello have you seen him?? Can you blame me?"
You both stopped talking when you got close enough to the teachers.
"Alright you take Yuuji and I'll stay with the others." Gojo said to Nanami.
Itadori still had some one on one sessions with Nanami and now after seeing what he looked like you were a bit envious.
"In about three days, you guys are going on another mission, so we're having Nanami train Yuuji during that time while you'll all be here training with me." Gojo turned to us.
Nanami only nodded and began to walk away until Gojo yelled, "WAIT a minute!! Have you met y/n?" Nanami groaned and turned around to walk back towards the group.
Your heart never dropped so fast. Anxiety written all over your face. Megumi chuckled at your reaction.
Nanami reached over to shake your hand which you had grabbed a little too eagerly.
"Nanami Kento"
"L/n Y/n"
"Nice to meet you, L/n Y/n", he bowed.
"Nice to meet you as well.", you said.
You stood back up straight to look at Megumi, who had a smug look on his face cause he knew how flustered you had gotten from your interaction with Nanami.
"Alright well I'm going to go now. Itadori, we meet back here tomorrow, got it?" Nanami said.
"Yes sir!" Yuuji straightened up while talking to him.
"Alright kids no more classes for the rest of day, get some work done, and go to sleep. We've got a busy couple of days ahead of us."
"Yes sir", you all collectively said.
You're all walking back to your rooms till you hear Megumi call out for you.
"Hey! I didn't get to ask you what your ideology was", he said.
"Oh yeah I guess I'd consider myself a socialist, I'm still learning about marxism-leninism so I don't think I can confidently say that's my ideology. What about you?" you asked.
"Eco-socialism." he stated.
"Oh my goodness!" you say, suddenly excited. "I just read Facing the Anthropocene by Ian Angus! It was a really good read", you say.
"Glad you liked it." He smiled. "I can always lend you some of my books on marxism-leninism, if you'd like?" His hand reached over to the back of his neck.
"Yeah for sure! And you could borrow some of the books in my library as well if you'd like?"
"I would." He smiled.
"I'll see you later y/n" He said.
"See ya Megumi." You turned to walk towards the girl dorms.
You get yourself ready to go sleep after catching up on homework and showering. You lie down on your bed and try to get some sleep. Cause like Gojo said, the next couples of days were going to be busy.