Chapter Text
“Time to introduce the new student! Come, get excited! New student, new sorcerer, woop woop!”
“Yeah, nope. Sorry sensei, but I just can’t get fired up about a guy like that.” Maki, the green haired sorcerer said. The other three students sat in silent agreement. Outside the door to the classroom, Okkotsu was rocking on his heels, fidgeting with his fingers and being all around nervous as shit to enter the classroom.
“Ah well, I tried. Come on in, Yuuta!” Okkotsu heard Gojo-sensei call from inside. He took a deep breath and stepped into the classroom. He was so busy training his eyes on the ground and focusing on just not tripping don’t trip please for the love of god don’t trip, that he didn’t notice the tension that had risen tenfold since he entered the room, until he stood next to Gojo-sensei and began to introduce himself.
“I’m Okkotsu Yuuta. Pleased to meet you.” In an instant all of the students had stood up from their desks. Holding hands and weapons up, looking as if they were about to beat the crap out of him. As you can imagine, this helped to calm Yuutas nerves about as much as hearing a beginner violinist practicing scales in the next room would.
They couldn’t be near him, not like this. They were threatening him, and that was very very bad because if Rika decided to… oh god. This wasn’t good. He tried to inch away, but it was no use, what, with the arsenal of weapons pointed at him.
“You’re cursed.” It wasn’t a question. Okkotsu looked at the girl who said it. She had white hair, similar to Gojo-sensei’s, and little round frames that were slipping down her nose as she looked down on him. She had a hard, intimidating look on her face, still at her desk, although she had stood up and was holding a knife over her shoulder in a throwing position. A throwing position that happened to be aimed at his face. Nice.
“This isn’t a school for cursed spirits or victims. It’s a school for those who exorcise them. You don’t belong here.” The other girl had said that. This one had green hair and square glasses, as well as an entire katana with her. She stood in front of him, the tip pressed ever so lightly against his chest.
So far the boy hadn’t said anything, and he wasn’t holding any weapons. Okkotsu would’ve thought that maybe that meant he wasn’t threatened, if it wasn’t for the defensive stance he was in, slightly behind the first girl, with his hand at his collar (Okkotsu wasn’t quite sure why that was threatening but he definitely got the message from the boy’s facial expression). Not even 2 minutes and they are literally already getting ready to kill him. Awesome. Just, awesome.
There was also a Panda. Like, shit you not, a real, full sized panda there, with little knuckle rings (do pandas have knuckles?), but Okkotsu didn’t have time to dwell on that, as the first girl leaned down to whisper something to the boy next to her.
The boy looked back at her, zipped down his collar ever so slightly to reveal what looked like face tattoos alongside a mischievous smile, and whispered something back. As soon as his mouth closed, the girl turned back to face Okkotsu, and hurled her dagger. Remember, the one pointed at his face? Yeah, that one. It landed two inches from his right ear. The room was completely silent, save for the quiet fwubba fwubba of the knife wobbling in the wood next to him.
The girl slapped her hands across her mouth, her eyes wide as if she couldn’t quite believe that she had actually done that. Maybe she was just so good at throwing daggers that she was surprised she missed her mark of in-between-the-new-kids-eyes. The boy who had spoken to her had wide eyes too, but his body was silently shaking. After a few seconds, he let out a cry, and Okkotsu realized that he was laughing his fucking ass off.
Jesus christ. This school was messed up. A perfect fit, really, considering Okkotsu’s current mental state (which, to be clear, was in complete tatters).
The girl had sat down now, and had gotten over her shock, putting on a serious face, and angrily whispering to the boy, who was still very much losing his shit. Did Okkotsu get an apology for the actual murder attempt? No, before he could think about it long enough to get upset, Gojo-sensei started talking.
He began to inform Okkotsu of the extremely important information that he did not know before , because apparently, no one had thought to tell him. Like, oh, maybe how curses are things that exist, and they happen when bad people do stuff, or people feel bad things (it was a lot to take in, the specifics got lost on him), how the new highschool he was going to was the Metropolitan Magic Technical School and it was for exorcising curses, which was what Rika was and-
Oh god.
Rika.
Before he could think to react, Rika emerged from the wall behind.
“So, you get the idea, he was cursed by his beloved, yadda yadda. Okkotsu Yuuta everyone! Please make him feel welcomed! And stop attacking him, because Rika’s curse may or may not activate, as you just had a lovely first hand example of! This is the biggest class we’ve had in a good couple years, and I would like to keep it that way, so Iyumi, cool it with the daggers.”
Well, this was definitely off to a great start. They hated him, because he was cursed, and they killed curses or whatever, a girl had thrown a dagger next to his head and then Rika had come out and beat them up. Fucking excellent. First impressions are the most important after all, right? He hoped that passing out cold had similar connotations to giving a strong handshake, cause the way this was going he honestly didn’t think he was gonna be able to retain consciousness much longer.
“Well, go on munchkins, don’t you wanna introduce yourselves?”
Absolute silence from the teens, who were now dejectedly sitting at their desks, various bruises beginning to blossom on their faces and arms.
“Alright, well, these guys are still in a bit of a rebellious phase, so I’ll give the introductions. First up, cursed weapons user, Zenin Maki! She wields special armaments that can exorcise curses.”
“It’s just Maki. And the weapons I use work just as well on humans too. Something to keep in mind.” She said with a glare to Gojo-sensei, then to Okkotsu.
“Of course! Next, spell-caster, Inumaki Toge. His vocabulary is limited to onigiri ingredients, so good luck having conversations with him. Next to him is Panda! He’s a… He’s a panda!”
“Konbu.”
“I’m Panda! Pleased to meet you.”
“Last but cer-tain-ly not least,” Gojo said, stepping forward to the last girl and squishing her cheeks from side to side as he emphasised each syllable, “Gojo Iyumi! Her thing is daggers, as you’ve seen, and she's also my niece! Can you see the familial resemblance?” Gojo stopped squishing her cheeks and put his head next to hers, both of them facing Okkotsu, and his smile dropped into a glare that mimicked the one on the girl's face. Okkotsu didn’t realise death stares were a genetic trait, but going off the example in front of him, it definitely ran in the family. Apparently Okkotsu’s terror was clear on his face, because Gojo barked out a laugh and stood back up straight.
“Well, that’s about it! Anyways, for this afternoon’s sorcery training, you’ll pair up. Maki, you're with me. Then, Panda and Toge, you’re one pair, Iyumi and Yuuta, you’ll be the other.”
“I refuse.”
If Okkotsu wasn’t focusing so hard on not fainting and pissing himself simultaneously, he would have objected too. Turns out, when someone throws a dagger at your head you get kind of apprehensive of teamwork with them.
“Oi, you can’t refuse, I’m your teacher and uncle and I want you to pair up with Yuuta for this training.”
“No. How could he help me improve my technique? I wouldn’t get anything out of it, so there’s no point.”
She stared at their teacher, challenging him. He stared right back, and they held each other's gaze for a few seconds, before Gojo-sensei chuckled and conceded. Although, from the devilish look on his face, Okkotsu was sure there was something else, undecipherable to him, that had passed between them, and that whatever it was, Gojo-sensei had not ‘lost’ nor 'conceded' by any means.
“...Okay. Okay, sure, little miss arrogant, have it your way. Toge, Panda, you’re together. Maki with Yuuta. ‘Yumi, with me.”
Yuuta heard a literal ‘ugh’ come from the other girl, the one he was now paired with; Maki. The one that had dug her fucking sword into his chest and told him he shouldn’t be here, and yet, he felt only relief that his opponent had changed. As much as he had his, ah, suicidal tendencies, he thought a dagger to the face wouldn’t be it. Just not his style, not for him, you know?
Trying to make the best out of a fucking terrifying situation that he was regretting more and more with every passing second, he turned to Maki and said, with all the stammering confidence of an eleven year old forced by their parents to order their own food at a restaurant, “Let’s do our best!”
“...”
“...”
“...”
“You were bullied weren’t you.”
That’s it. Yuuta was done. He couldn’t take this anymore. He had had enough of this weird school and their weird people and their scary people because everyone knew everything, except for him, who knew quite literally nothing, and he was nervous and it was his first day and barely 7 minutes past when the bell had rung and he was done with this and he wanted to go home and he was sure no one else would have a problem with that, considering all the close-call attempted murders that had already passed.
Except, he couldn’t go home, because he didn’t have a home anymore. For a while now. How can you go back to the place that you tried to slit your own throat at, and call it a home? They say home is where the heart is, but the only thing his heart has done thus far in his 16 years has hurt people, so maybe he didn’t actually want to go home. He wanted to leave home, leave this place, leave his thoughts and his body and Rika and his heart and just go .
“-so don’t go thinking you can make it through the Magic Technical School without a goal in mind.”
Oh. She was talking this entire time, and all her words were lost on Yuuta, as his mind raced a mile a minute. He felt a large, furry hand slap down his shoulder, making him stumble and helping him bring his mind back to reality, as the Panda addressed the girl, “Maki, that’s enough!”
“Katsuobushi!” agreed Inumaki. Spell-caster. Right, cause spells were also a thing now.
“Alright, alright, I get it, sorry.” Maki replied.
“Sorry about that, dude, she likes to think she can read people really well.” The panda- wait, no, just Panda told him.
“It’s fine.” After all, she thinks correctly.
So that went almost entirely to shit. It was the late afternoon of Okkotsus first fucking glorious day at Jujutsu Tech, and he was exhausted. Well, he was always exhausted since he had insomnia, but this was a different tiredness.
He was mentally drained from all that he had learned, all that he had figured out about himself and the world around him, the decisions and promises he had made, to become a Jujutsu sorcerer, to try and control his curse, to help people. To help himself.
He was walking through the halls to get to his dorm that Gojo had shown him to in the morning. The other first years were in the common room, after they had finished their mission and were patched up by Shoko Ieri, the resident doctor, who used a technique that went way beyond Okkotsu’s understanding and intellect.
While they had been in the clinic, Okkotsu saw their other teacher, Katsumi Toriyama (they/them nonbinary), who he had been introduced to before he came to Jujutsu Tech, but so far hadn’t seen. They had been sitting with Shoko in the clinic, sipping coffee when Okkotsu and Maki stumbled in with the help of Gojo-sensei, after their mission. Although he had a newfound will to live and get stronger to help himself, he could literally not hold himself up anymore, and had ended up fully just collapsing on the floor, next to the bed, which he leaned his back against.
Gojo explained what had happened, while Toriyama-sensei helped him up onto the bed, and Shoko-san attended to Maki, who was significantly more injured than Okkotsu.
“Okkotsu-san, I’m glad your first mission was… eventful.” Toriyama-sensei started to help clean him up, wiping blood off him and applying some salves to the scrapes and blossoming bruises around his body.
“It’s, um, nice to see you again, Toriyama-sensei.”
“Yes, well, you’ll be seeing a lot more of me now that you're officially enrolled. When Gojo-san is… preoccupied or unavailable for your class, with missions or other classes and the like, I take his place.”
“Yeahhh, missions and other classes.” Gojo called out from where he was sitting at Shoko’s desk. He winked at Okkotsu, and began to prop his feet on the desk, before Toriyama-sensei promptly threw a nearby pen at his face. It bounced harmlessly off his infinity, but he raised his hands and took his feet off the desk nonetheless.
“Ai ai ai, sheesh, okay.”
Toriyama-sensei looked back at Okkotsu, still waiting for his reply.
“Oh, yeah, okay, that's cool.” He said lamely.
Toriyama-sensei had been a blessed relief from the obnoxious presence of Gojo-sensei, while he was contained in that godforsaken room awaiting execution. They spoke softly and with a comforting presence that made Okkotsu feel like he was safe because there was nothing to worry about. Different from Gojo-sensei, who made Okkotsu feel safe because although there was lots to worry about, Gojo-sensei could take care of it if need be. He supposed that neither were better than the other, but they were just very different feelings.
He felt the same as they patched him up, Shoko-san eventually coming over after helping Maki, to check over Okkotsu. Once they were satisfied that he was all healed, they sent him on his way, Toriyama-sensei patting his cheek.
“I look forward to our first class, Okkotsu-san.”
“Oh, thank you, uh- thanks, Toriyama-sensei. I do too, I’m- uh, I’m also looking forward to our first class.”
Maki had taken a look at her phone and then headed straight for the common room, and at first Okkotsu followed along. When he got there, though, he saw that Panda, Iyumi and Inumaki were all occupying the couches and chairs there already. Iyumi was in the armchair nearest to the door, and when she heard Maki come in, she turned around to greet her with a smile. At the sight of Okkotsu trailing behind, she started to glower, and that was enough to make Okkotsu pause and hover at the door. As Maki thoughtlessly just walked in a sat down, he found himself starting to feel overwhelmed and anxious, and promptly spun on his heels and walked out as inconspicuous as he could (which was not very sneaky at all).
Eventually he found the boys corridor again, and shut himself in behind the wooden door of his dorm. This day was turning out. Not turning out to be that good or okay, albeit more on the horrifying side. But it was definitely turning out.