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The students knew that their teacher, Fushiguro Megumi, was a reserved, secretive man. But it was no secret to anyone the amount of small tattoos that were scattered around the man’s body. They varied from random doodles, of presumably a boy, doodles of suns, to random quotes that students could never get close enough to read. The closest they’ve seen the tattoos were the glimpses they got when sparring, or when his clothes would get torn from fighting a curse. But their teacher would always be quick to cover them, although one student would argue that he was actually caressing them rather than covering.
There weren't a ton of them, but there was enough for it to gain the curiosity of the students, especially when they would catch Fushiguro-sensei looking at one on his wrist as if it was the only thing that existed.
The students have asked about them before, about the origins or to just see them up close, but they were always rejected by the man, being told to focus in class each time. Though, that didn’t stop them from asking. They were genuinely curious of what significance the tattoos were to him. After all, the cold exterior, aloof natured teacher was quite the enigma to the students. Only knowing about him from the information they gathered from the history books of fighting curses, and how he was one of the students who had fought alongside with the final confrontation of the King of Curses, Ryoumen Sukuna. Although they regard him with high respect, as kids will be kids, they were still curious about the tattoos.
Were they names of classmates? Most likely. The event was as much a devastation as much as a victory, with many lives lost throughout the entirety. But that raised the question of whose head the doodles belonged to, why only one specific person? And why motifs of the sun? The students often joked about how “the boy must’ve reminded him of the sun”.
Still even after being his students after a year, they couldn’t coax anything from the 28-year-old man. They had tried asking their principal, who was as cheeky as the students and was literally once the teacher of their very own teacher, but to their surprise, the blindfold-wearing man did not reveal anything. Instead diverting them to the tattoo of the initials he had on his ring finger, ‘ GT.SGR’ it read. It did indeed catch their interest, forgetting about the questions they had about their teacher.
—
Eventually, they were nearing the halfway point of their second year. They had stopped asking as often as they did, only asking when they’d somehow get into the topic of tattoos. Too focused on improving their skills, they somewhat forgot that they were ever curious about the tattoos that designed their teacher, the ranks being in their centre of attention. They were getting ranked up, fighting stronger curses after all.
But then, it happens again. On a specific day, week, their teacher Fushiguro was out of class. When this first happened, they were surprised to see their principal manning their teacher’s desk, greeting them with his infamous shameless grin. He taught all the lessons that day, the students too confused to ask questions. On the third day, one student ran out of patience, asking a question all the students were thinking.
“Principal Gojo, where is Fushiguro-sensei really? There’s no way he’s really fighting a curse for this long, or else you would be there in his stead!” All of the students nodded in agreement with the statement their classmate had made of the excuse their principal had made..
Though, they didn’t get the response they wanted because Gojo only cheerfully grinned. “So, you think I’m that strong! Hah! I knew you students loved me so much!”
The students just groaned, not wanting to talk about it any longer.
This year wasn’t anything different, Principal Gojo had been teaching them all week. The students promised one another not to ask about their teacher considering how last year went when Gojo just turned it all about how strong he was, thanking the student for his kind words. It was truly an exhausting time for them.
The difference was when their teacher had come back. He was sitting on his desk wearing a t-shirt rather than the uniform that he usually wore. The students gaped at the change, they could see all the tattoos of the boy, the random quotes, the sun that was plastered all over his arms. They greeted their teacher in awe, getting to their seats slowly as if they would never see his tattoos again, which was most likely.
“Sensei? Why are you wearing a t-shirt today?” A student asked, wondering if the sun had risen from the west. The students talked amongst each other whilst looking at their teacher who was rather peculiar that day. It was autumn, the days getting chillier as the months went on. So why was their teacher wearing a t-shirt? This was the same teacher who wouldn’t stop wearing a hoodie during the summer on their school trip.
“Would you guys like to know about my tattoos?”
That sentence alone broke the whole classroom, they were all too stunned to even speak, mouths agape, but heads nodding. They didn’t even ask about it, who was this man and what did he do to their teacher?
Fushiguro gave them a small smile, clearing his throat, standing and moving a chair to sit near his students. He gave a small sigh before pointing to the first tattoo on his right wrist.
“These are the names of my two classmates, my friends, when I was in high school,” he said in a small voice, as if he was afraid of shattering something. He showed his students, showing the tattoo that read Kugisaki Nobara with a rose beside it and Itadori Yuuji with a heart beside it.
The students looked at each other, recognising the names as students who studied in the school during the era of Ryoumen Sukuna. But one student thinks they remember the name Kugisaki Nobara being in a list of lives that were lost during the Shibuya Incident in 2018.
Fushiguro continues, pointing to the tattoo of a boy smiling widely and their teacher beside each other. “This is Itadori and I. You see, Itadori was someone who drew a lot of random things during class and one time caught him drawing us. I thought I’d get it tattooed.”
“Are all the other drawings, Itadori-san’s?” One student asked.
Fushiguro smiled. “Only a few of them, I drew the rest. Like the sun.” He moved both his arms toward them, showing them all of the art pieces that were possibly drawn by him or Itadori.
“Why the sun, Sensei?” Another asked.
“He reminds me of the sun. Always smiling so brightly. Always thinking of ways to be positive.” Even if nothing was ever going to be positive in his life, Fushiguro thinks. One student giggles, having joked about that being the reason.
“He sounds an awful lot like Principal Gojo.” That caused everyone to laugh, even Fushiguro.
“Trust me, he’s nothing like Gojo.”
“And what about this one, Sensei?” The student pointed at a quote that read, “Live a long life, okay?” .
The students looked at Fushiguro as he gave an indecipherable expression before giving a smile. But the students could see that it did not reach his eyes.
“It’s something like his motto. Always telling everyone around him to live a long life, he’s a good man.”
And that was the end of their little tattoo tour, something in the students knew not to pry any further, seeing the teacher go back to his monotonous tone in teaching. They were grateful for their teacher to have shared such intimate tattoos with them. To have had their seemingly cold teacher share such vulnerability made them feel so trusted.
That day the students learned that Itadori Yuuji was the vessel of Ryoumen Sukuna when they had looked through the school’s history books again. He was the vessel that harboured Sukuna. The vessel who was executed in order to kill the said curse.
The students thought Itadori was such a compassionate soul. Risking his life for others.
Losing
his life for others. They could see why
their teacher’s arms were adorned with Itadori, his dear friend.
That day they find out the annual week their teacher has off is for the anniversaries of his friends’ deaths.
—
As he reached his home, Megumi reminisced through all the moments they had together. Looking at the photographs that decorated the walls. Moments that caught Megumi off guard because Yuuji had taken a selfie randomly. Moments that they shared with all of their friends and upperclassmen and teachers. The moments of the three together after they defeated a strong curse. And especially the moments that were only shared between the two.
The pictures of when they would sneak out of the dorm in the ass crack of dawn just because Yuuji wanted to see the sunrise. Pictures of Yuuji sleeping in retaliation for the pictures Yuuji took of Megumi. Pictures that Kugisaki took because she “was done with their sappiness bullshit”.
They truly meant the whole world to him. He wishes they were still here to make more memories, to meet the students, to see how the blindfold bastard was still the same even after reaching over 40 years of age.
His home was filled with laboured breathing that day.
“I’ll live a long life for all of us.”