Work Text:
After only a couple days of mentoring the boy, Kento realized a few things.
Firstly, the task was not nearly as bad as he anticipated. Maybe it was just because Itadori Yuji was an outlier, and mentoring anyone else would be a nightmare. Or perhaps he had a natural talent for it and was unaware of it. (Gojo insisted on the latter. He was much more confident in the former.)
Returning to Jujutsu High felt strangely familiar. He knew the area. He knew his colleagues. It was almost just like before he had left. Sure, he’d already missed the few good people he had met in his field of work, but the pay was good, the work was surprisingly varied, and he could help far more people than as a salaryman. He also didn’t have to be a cog. He’d still have to put on his uniform and be ready to fight at any time, but that was alright. While perilous, choosing this life of unpredictability served a purpose.
So, while he despised having to live not knowing if a day at work would be his last, it was something worth doing.
Second, that child was going to die. Not in the existential sense of everyone dying at some point. But in the way that gave him nightmares about skulls smashed under concrete slabs and blood splattered on walls—ones he could never rid from his mind.
The boy was so full of self-confidence and optimism, convinced that he and his colleagues would win every mission, live a happy life, and die a proper death.
He was naive. Had he been so naive a decade ago, when he was his age? Had he really been that stupid? That idealistic?
People had been killed by that way of thinking. He knew that first-hand.
That child became his responsibility the moment he accepted the role of a mentor. If he died, Kento would be held accountable, and he would never forgive himself.
It was only through his guidance that he would be able to avoid it. He’d have to teach him how to take care of himself and others, as well as make him fully aware of how vulnerable and mortal he was. He wished he’d had that luxury when he was in his situation, before the lesson was taught in such a painful way.
No jujutsu sorcerer dies without regret, he remembers hearing the saying for the first time so many years ago. He only hopes that Itadori Yuji does not follow that rule.