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Day after Christmas, she confronts him about it. “Gojo,” Maki calls down the hallway once she’s tracked him down.
He whirls around a bit too quick, even for him. “Yes, Maki?”
“That curse user. He was your old buddy, right?”
Gojo’s smile betrays nothing; reveals nothing. “We went to Jujutsu High together, yes.”
“So you knew Yuuta was the only person who could beat him.”
“Well, I admit I didn’t know, but I did have a hunch that if Yuuta and Rika worked together —”
“Tch.” Maki tears her eyes away. He’s basically confessed already, and the truth of it turns her stomach. Still, she needs to hear it — if only to prove she’s not going soft. “So sending Panda and Toge to —”
“Maki? There you are!”
The sound of Yuuta’s voice stops her heart — and her words. Even Gojo seems surprised when Yuuta rounds the corner, babbling.
The energy is not lost on Yuuta, though. He’s perceptive, which means that the residual nervous energy he hasn’t yet shed flares up when he senses the tension. (His cursed energy residuals tremble in the same way — which is something Maki knows without having to see them.) “Oh, um, hey there Gojo. Am I interrupting something?”
“Nope!” Gojo beams, though it doesn’t do anything to calm Yuuta. “I was just marvelling at how intelligent my students are!”
And, well, there’s Maki’s answer. She’s right. Damn it.
“Oh. Okay.” Yuuta shifts his weight, still unsure, but Gojo’s answer seems to satisfy him for now. “Well, we were all thinking of heading into town to pick up some take out, since… well, since the kitchen is a little bit destroyed. Would you like to come, Maki?” Then, a bit delayed, he adds, “You’re welcome too, Gojo.”
But Gojo dismisses him. “Go on without me. Have fun, you four!” And with a wave — and maybe a wink, though Maki can’t know for certain — he vanishes around the corner.
Yuuta blinks, and turns to Maki. His eyes ask the question he doesn’t. Well?
“I’m in.” Maki starts off in the direction Yuuta came from, and brushes past him a bit less forcefully than she usually would. “Someone needs to keep you three in line.”
Ugh. She is going soft.
⚏
They’re having a damn picnic, which would be worse if they could eat in any public location without Panda garnering a whole lot more attention than any of them want. It’s a little chilly, but the weather’s held out, and the spot they’ve chosen is still on campus, yet far enough away from the actual school to avoid curious ears.
It’s… nice, Maki admits only to herself. She’ll allow this kind of indulgence only once — soon, there will be a new group of first-years, and there’s no way she’ll let them think frivolity is common amongst those who survive.
“Hey. Maki.” Before she realizes it, Panda’s waving a paw in front of her face. “You okay in there? You seem a little tense.”
“Tuna mayo.”
“Oh, yeah. More than usual.”
Maki swats Panda away, and glances around the group. Three sets of eyes, all curious, stare back.
They deserve to know.
“Toge. Panda. Do you know why Gojo sent you both back here, during the night parade of hell or whatever?”
“To fight, of course,” Panda answers, as if anything in their lives is so simple.
“No.” Maki tilts her head, lets the sunlight catch in her eyes. Anything so she doesn’t have to look at them all when she says, “He sent you here to lose.”
For a moment, the entire world stills. A stray fly buzzes around their food before realizing that it’s in the middle of a crater left by the bomb Maki just set off.
Of course, in the aftermath, Yuuta is the first to pick himself up. He pulls everyone else with him, too, when he asks, “What… do you mean by that?”
Panda and Toge lean in a little. It’s a dumb move — the closer they get, the less plausible deniability they have. The harder it’ll become to escape the truth.
Maki swallows. She hasn’t eaten anything yet, but her mouth tastes saline. “I mean that Gojo wanted you and Rika to win. And he knew the only way to push you that far was for you to see Panda and Toge defeated.”
There’s a sharp inhale from Panda and Yuuta, but Toge’s faster. “Mustard leaf,” he accuses.
Maki shoots him a glare. “Don’t turn this on me. If that was true, he wouldn’t have sent you and Panda.”
“No,” Panda chides, “Toge’s right. If what you’re saying is true, then Gojo wanted to make sure all of us first-years were here, including you.”
Panda — no. He’s gotta be wrong. “Why is this about me all of a sudden?” she demands. “This is about you two and Yuuta!”
And… Yuuta.
It’s like Maki saying it reminds the rest of them that Yuuta’s still with them — and he’s the only one who’s kept quiet. In sync with Panda and Toge, Maki turns her own attention towards him.
Yuuta’s playing with his hands. This time, though, he doesn’t seem nervous. Just… guilty. “Well,” Yuuta starts. He laughs then, a bit uncomfortable, but keeps his eyes on his food. “He was right, I guess. It worked. But I hate to think that the only reason you three got hurt was because of me.”
All at once, they shut him down. “Nope!” Panda exclaims, sticking up one finger for emphasis.
“Bonito flakes!”
“It was literally Gojo’s fault, dumbass. Don’t go blaming yourself when that blindfolded idiot’s the one pulling the strings.” Finally, Maki leans back onto her hands. “It just sucks that we were all so easily manipulated.”
Yuuta takes his time to think on that. Slowly, his face slides into a frown; his eyebrows crinkle beyond the tips of his bangs. There’s no anger to be found in it — it’s all determination — though, after seeing what Yuuta’s capable of, that’s no less unsettling. “Well, since I won’t be using Rika’s power anymore, I doubt it’ll happen again. And if it does, I’ll just have to fight harder. That way, it won’t get to that point. Right?”
It’s all Maki can do to not facepalm violently at the idea. “No!”
“It sounds like a good idea to me,” offers Panda. Then he laughs in a shit-stirring kind of way. “What if we made it a competition? Next time we’re all in a fight together, the last person standing loses — unless it’s all of us still standing.”
“What!?” Maki exclaims, even as Toge and Yuuta nod in agreement. “Are you crazy?”
“If you’re not up to the challenge…” Panda teases with a knowing shrug.
Damn it. That’s the issue. Panda — and Toge, and even Yuuta — know Maki too well. Just like how Gojo knows Yuuta too well… and probably the rest of them too.
“Fine,” Maki spits, to widening smiles from her friends. “But I’m not losing.”
“Me neither,” Yuuta agrees. “Panda, Toge, Maki — that won’t happen again.”
“Salmon,” Toge agrees.
Panda cheers. “It’s settled, then! Next time, we’ll beat Gojo at his own game!”
Yuuta laughs, and Toge lets out a small huff of his own. Maki, meanwhile, starts shoveling food into her mouth, for no reason other than it’ll be cold soon. Definitely not to mask her own expression. She’s just the only one smart enough to start eating before her food becomes inedible.
It’s not a binding vow of jujutsu — Maki’s probably not even able to participate in those — but it’s not any lesser for it. And… it means something to her friends.
Her friends.
Maybe Maki isn’t as smart as she thinks she is. Because it’s dumb to think of Jujutsu High as anything other than a school; a means to an end.
But this competition — and the others’ insistence that she join in — it means something to her, too.