Chapter Text
You try not to panic as your breaths come in short gasps. It still hasn’t stopped raining, droplets sliding down your face and blurring your vision until you blink it away. The sun is almost set, and you just know that this has to be over with before it happens unless you truly plan to die tonight.
“Shit, shit, shit!”
There is a loud screech to your immediate left, and you bend down on your knees to dodge the incoming curse. It’s slippery from all the mud and rain and decomposing leaves, so you can do nothing but let out a squeak as you lose your balance and meet the ground with a loud, wet sound.
The curse you’re facing is very ugly. It’s all crooked limbs and saggy skin that keeps flopping around as it jerkily moves from side to side. The number of eyes this thing has makes your skin crawl and break into goosebumps.
You can feel more than see that the thing is about to attack you again. Without a second thought, you roll over, completely ruining your uniform. The blast leaves a steaming indent in the ground right next to your head, and you have no time to gather yourself before the curse launches its next attack.
“Don’t move!”
You don’t waste any time regrouping and rolling away from under the curse’s direct range of attack while it’s frozen in place. You feel a pair of hands grab you and hoist you up, making the world spin just a little with blue-black spots dotting your vision.
“Senpai,” there is a pair of amethyst eyes boring straight into you emitting concern. Despite your breathing still being rugged, and your heart still trying to beat out of your chest, you crack a grin.
“I’m okay, you got here just in time.” Inumaki frowns but lets it go, just as the curse regains its movement. Your underclassman gently pulls you behind him, which elicits a scoff from you, but there’s not much you can do here with your cursed technique and you know it.
Inumaki’s presence means Panda and Maki aren’t far behind. And just as the thought crosses your mind, the two emerge from the depth of the forest.
There is little time for chitchat, with the curse done hovering passively above the ground and readying to launch into another series of attacks. As it releases another earsplitting screech, Maki rushes at it with the polearm spinning in her hands. The curse lets out several beams of pitch-black energy in her direction but she expertly dodges and connects her attack.
With a final wail, the curse produces a gurgling sound and then its flesh explodes into small meaty chunks. You shudder.
“Gross…” You huff out, straightening the coat of your uniform and patting it in a futile attempt to shake off the dirt and leaves stuck to you after the fight.
When you raise your head, the three are gathered around you. “What reliable underclassmen I have,” you joke, turning on your heels and starting to walk in the approximate direction where Gojo must be waiting. The curtain is already slowly dissolving into the air after Maki finished off the cursed spirit.
“Maki, Inumaki,” you gesture for the two to catch up to you, and as they do, you activate your reverse cursed technique. It glows faintly under your touch where your hands rest on both their shoulders until you can tell their injuries had healed. “All better?”
“It was just a scratch,” Maki’s shoulder produces a loud pop as she rolls it. “Thanks, senpai.” You hum and redirect your gaze to Inumaki. He smiles even though you can’t see his mouth hidden behind the tall collar of his jacket.
You spin around to face Panda while walking backwards, hands clasped behind your back. “How’s the other curse?” The four of you split earlier to chase after the two cursed spirits, one of which you had unfortunately failed to exorcise on our own.
Panda makes an okay gesture with his hand (paw?) and proceeds to update you on what happened. “We thought the other one was weaker but it was a mistake on our part. Their energy was identical so telling which one was the parent happened to be difficult.”
“I thought that could happen,” you nod your head. Your group almost reached the outside of the forest, you can see a dark car parked on the edge of the road with Gojo leaning on its hood. “Good thing you guys made it in time, I don’t think I could’ve handled that thing.”
“Our little exchange student should be more careful,” the annoying sing-song of a voice makes you roll your eyes. You scrunch your nose and give Gojo a stink eye. “Now, now, you are all soaked so why don’t we return to the dorms!”
The car is too small to fit all of your group but you manage to squeeze yourself between Inumaki and Panda, while Maki takes shotgun.
“There were two cursed spirits as we expected,” you begin to report. “Their cursed energy traces were identical so we failed to distinguish between the parent and the child.”
“And let me guess, you got the short end of the stick,” Gojo’s facing the road, but that doesn’t mean you don’t feel like he’s staring holes into you all the same. You let out a “Yepp,” and shuffle a bit, trying to get more comfortable on the seat.
Gojo heaves a sigh and shakes his head in mock disappointment. “You know Shoko will kill me if something happens to you.”
“Well, good riddance it would be,” you grin at the back of his head. “One less annoyingly strong jujutsu sorcerer for me to waste my technique on.
Gojo theatrically gasps. “I thought we were close!”
You let out a tsk, “As you already said, I’m not gonna stay here forever, even if you were the one to scout me.”
That is true. Gojo is the one who picked you out from the crowd. You don’t come from an established family of jujutsu sorcerers like Maki and Inumaki, and you’re not anything special like Panda. There is a bit fat question mark on your biological family’s history which is still being investigated by Gojo and Ieiri.
You were orphaned at a young age, and since then you’ve been to several foster families that always ended up rejecting you. At least now you know why. According to Gojo, you have an exceptional pool of cursed energy flowing within your body that inevitably draws in the spirits. Of course, normal people are unable to see them, but that doesn’t mean the adults around you couldn’t feel their presence.
You are in the wrong place at the wrong time when Gojo exorcises the cursed spirit barely saving you in time. You never see the creatures clearly until that day, and since then it’s been decided that you’d be taken under his watch for the time being.
However, due to his high rank, there isn’t much time to look after you in between going in and out of missions, and thus you end up under the care of Ieiri Shoko. Your case is a little special, as everyone likes to say. The cursed energy that pools in your body can only be released in a reversed manner, meaning that healing is as much as you can do with your ability.
This complex technique comes to you as easy as breathing, but in exchange, you are absolutely useless when it comes to exorcising curses. Positive energy won’t damage even the lowest spirit, making you rely on your partners for melee. As an added bonus your aura acts as a beacon light to the cursed spirits in the immediate area. They come to you like bees to honey, making you an incredibly delicious and weak target oozing the energy for them to absorb. You already came to terms with being a buffet for cursed spirits, so to say.
It’s honestly not so bad when you think about it. You can be the team healer, and fighting never interested you in the first place anyways.
You only joined the school recently, and this is your second mission with the team. There was a bit of time you had to spend training independently to get the reversed cursed technique under control, Ieiri guiding you as best as she could, being one of the few able to use the same ability.
Your thoughts come to an abrupt pause as the car stops in front of the school gates.
“Kids, don’t stay up too late,” Gojo obnoxiously drapes his arm over his headrest to turn around and face all of you. “There’s another mission for Toge and miss transfer student tomorrow. Maki and Panda are free to do whatever.”
“Roger that,” you unbuckle and let yourself out of the car right after Panda, relieved at the thought of not being squished inside a tiny vehicle with your still-sopping clothes. You turn to Inumaki. “How about we meet up to check out the mission details later tonight?
“Sounds good.” His voice is barely audible, and you still find Inumaki hard to read with how little he speaks, but so far he’s been nothing but considerate since the day you introduced yourself as a newbie student at Jujutsu High. Inumaki’s been addressing you more often lately, even though you know he’s being careful not to accidentally use his cursed speech on anyone around. “I’ll see you later, senpai.”
You break into a grin and nod.
***
“Ah, these?” You answer Inumaki’s silent question by unwrapping the little package in your hands and depositing its contents on the table. “I made some onigiri for us to snack on. You must’ve had no time for dinner yet, right?”
Inumaki’s face brightens up and he fervently nods at you, reaching out for one of the rice balls. You plop next to him and point out at the made snack, “There’s tuna mayo, salmon, fish flakes… hmm, I kinda ran out of kelp last time so they aren’t very pretty.”
“You’re really good,” Inumaki says in between the small bites. He isn’t wearing his jacket so nothing’s covering the lower half of his face, allowing you to admire the markings on his cheeks. “These are all tasty.” You watch him pick a grain of rice stuck to his fingers, and you catch a glimpse of the symbol on his tongue, dark blue, almost black, on pink.
You choke out a laugh, embarrassed at your staring. “Onigiri is the most I can cook without burning the kitchen down, so I’m happy you like it.”
Inumaki must be either telling the truth and you made killer onigiri, or he is really hungry, which would come as no surprise since you’ve been staking at the mission location for almost the entire day. You like to snack often, and as you said, the only thing that you’re capable of cooking are the rice balls, so whenever you get the chance you remember to share with him and occasionally Maki too. It quickly became your character trait, so to say, making onigiri with every ingredient possible. Your favourite experiment must be the one with a load of wasabi and spicy pepper disguised as a tuna mayo which you successfully fed to Gojo. He was pouty for the entirety of two days before you offered him that fancy pudding from the local convenience store as a piece offering.
Out of the three of your underclassmen, surprisingly you spend the most time with Inumaki. Maki and Panda usually spar together, while you and he sit on the bleachers and place bets on how many hits each of the other two would land. At first, you think Inumaki doesn’t speak more often because he’s shy, but after learning more about the nature of his cursed technique it all makes more sense to you. Still, you’re glad to hear his quiet voice whenever he decides to talk, which happens more often lately, especially if it’s just the two of you.
After the table is empty and your bellies are full, Inumaki takes out a piece of folded paper and straightens it out on the wooden surface. You shuffle a bit closer to see what’s written on it, almost pressing into Inumaki’s side. His eyes dart to the point of contact for a brief moment, but he says nothing about the closeness.
Tomorrow’s mission isn’t anything special. There seems to be a swarm of low-rank cursed spirits roaming in the downtown shopping area. A perfect target for Inumaki’s cursed technique, and you as his support. Even though it’s more finicky in practice, you and your technique make the best matchup for Inumaki to team up with. With the reversed healing he has more turns to use his cursed speech without going out of commission, and with your large pool of energy, it would take a while to tire you out.
By the time you go over all the details, it’s already pretty late. You let out a yawn. Inumaki folds up the paper and the movement makes you realize that you two are practically glued together by the arms, the shirt sleeves exposing skin touching and making you shiver.
“Senpai?” Your head snaps up and you find yourself nose to nose with Inumaki, his face close enough for you to feel a puff of his breath on your mouth. Without permission, your eyes dive down towards it, focusing on his markings, and then his parted lips, and then you feel your heartbeat picking up at an alarming pace once you glimpse at the tip of his pink tongue. You really want to see how the Snake and Fangs seal looks.
But then you abruptly break out of the trance, your cheeks feeling warm, and the palms of your hands damp. You let out a string of ineligible sputtering and jerk away from the warm body sitting next to you.
You try to swallow your heat back to where it belongs as it feels lodged in the middle of your throat. “Um! I-I’ll see you tomorrow!” The sudden cold you feel makes your skin break out in goosebumps. Inumaki hasn’t said anything, and you can’t find yourself making any more eye contact, embarrassed at yourself for the inappropriate staring.
Although as you turn around and make your way toward the door, Inumaki speaks up, and his soft voice rings through your ears in a deafening resonance.
“Wait.”
The feeling is hard to describe, but it’s as if every nerve in your system wants to listen to what Inumaki tells it to do instead of following the command of your brain. A mind-numbing shiver runs from the nape of your neck all the way down your spine to the tailbone. You still, and cannot move an inch. But it doesn’t feel bad, rather it’s as if you’re stuck covered in viscous honey unable and not wanting to move. It doesn’t feel like a struggle, it feels like an embrace.
“Ah, sorry,” you hear more than see Inumaki scramble up from the floor and reach you from the back in a couple of frantic steps. “I didn’t mean to use it just now.”
Then the feeling of control over your body comes back to you and you turn around to face him. “It’s okay! It didn’t hurt or anything.” Rather, it felt kind of nice, almost like a hug.
But you banish the thought straight out of your head. “You know, your cursed technique is really something else,” you babble on instead. “But don’t hurt yourself overusing it tomorrow, ‘kay?”
Inumaki nods and then a silence settles between you two. Despite being a year younger, he has a couple of inches over you making you tilt your head slightly to face him properly. Again, he’s standing a bit close but you find that you don’t mind at all.
You’re both freshly showered, and Inumaki smells faintly of something light and refreshing. His hair is still damp, probably the same as yours, as the short strands stick a little to his forehead. The picture of it makes you want to reach your hand and ruffle it up, but you don’t even spare a second for the thought before it’s discarded.
When Inumaki practically whispers a “Good night, senpai,” you hold your breath for a second before responding in kind.
And it’s only when you’re under blankets in your dorm room, warm and ready to retire for the night, that you realize Inumaki never said what he wanted to say. And the thought keeps you awake for a while longer before sleep finally claims you.
***
You mess up again.
“Senpai!” Inumaki hoists you up and runs with you in his hands down the hallway. The shopping district building you’re investigating is old and dusty and looks like it was abandoned for a long time now.
You feel a warm trickle of blood slowly dushing out of the wound at the back of your head. The little cursed spirits that are supposed to be low-grade turn out to be a stronger curse once they all merge into one giant blob. They have enough force to send you from one side of the room to another, where you bash your head on the corner of one of those enforced metal tables. You’ve been continuously using your healing to assist Inumaki while he warded off the tiny cursed spirits that persistently tried to get a piece of you and your energy, which means unfortunately you have very little energy to patch yourself up.
And so you find yourself in Inumaki’s arms, probably bleeding all over his uniform, and with a splitting headache. Every step he makes jostles you in his arms and elicits short, involuntary whimpers that come out as gasps from your mouth.
When you’re down to what’s probably the second floor, your vision impossibly blurs, and you have to fight the urge to just close your eyes and pass out. Your head bobs once to the side, and you realize that you don’t feel the throbbing pain anymore. Inumaki throws you a glance, eyes full of worry, and holds onto you just a tad tighter. You feel stupid then, because despite the perilous situation, despite bleeding from your head and being on the verge of losing consciousness, you feel your heart flutter.
Inumaki calls your name but it sounds very far. You squint in an attempt to get rid of the blurriness in your vision although it’s fruitless.
“Stay awake!”
The numbness shatters into ripples of shivers that go through your body in waves. A sensation you’re familiar with from the evening before, when Inumaki accidentally used his cursed speech on you. Again, it feels bafflingly like honey, but this time, instead of keeping you in place, it makes you feel a sudden surge of rush akin to an electric shock rippling through your skin that keeps your consciousness from slipping.
Inumaki coughs. This isn’t good. You’ve already reached your limit, meaning you are no longer able to heal his throat. You can’t see the curse but you hear the havoc it’s causing around the corner. And it’s getting closer and closer at an alarmingly fast pace.
“To–” Inumaki rounds another corner and the stairs to the ground floor are straight ahead. “–ge.” You manage to grit out his name. “There is… more of them.”
You unmistakenly feel the presence of more of those cursed spirits from the floor below, and if you descend the stairs there is a chance that they’ll merge into an even bigger problem you won’t be able to handle anymore.
Your comment makes Inumaki halt abruptly, and instead of running down the hall, he dashes into the room on your left. After kicking the door closed, he carefully puts you down, propping you by the wall. A moment of tense silence passes, but the curse doesn’t come barrelling the door down.
Inumaki crouches down on one knee and lifts your face by the chin to check the state of your pupils. All you can see is the brilliant amethyst of his eyes in front of you, and then your gaze falls lower again, down to his lips. That are moving. Inumaki’s saying something.
“Huh?” you blink at him, and it makes his eyebrows furrow.
“There are too many,” he rasps out, throat not recovered enough after he used the cursed speech to keep you awake. “I need to take them out all at once.”
You try shaking your head but Inumaki’s hand is still holding you in place. “No,” you protest weakly. There’s no way he can use his ability more than once more, and the group of curses is split in two, closing in on you with every passing moment.
That’s when you think of something.
“Wait, actually, I think we can try.” You sit up, and the movement makes Inumaki take his hand off your chin and shift to help. “You have to help me over there,” you nod to the window on the opposite end of the room. “And then open up the door. I’ll release my cursed energy.” At least what little is left of it.
Realization hits Inumaki and he shakes his head violently. “No. Too dangerous.”
“Listen,” you hiss at the attempt to stand up straight, the throbbing pain slowly returning to your head. “There’s no other way if we want to get out of here and reach the curtain. I’ll be fine, and Ijichi-san should be on his way if not already waiting for us.”
Maybe becoming the bait isn’t the brightest idea you’ve ever come up with, but there are very few options for you to explore at the moment. You have to lean on Inumaki as you stand. And when you look into his eyes there is a flicker of uncertainty but he nods after another moment, looping an arm around your waist for support and helping you to the spot under the window.
Before letting him go, you tug on his sleeve, “Will you be alright though?” Your free hand gestures to his throat. Inumaki pauses. He puts a hand over your fingers that are still tightly clutching at his uniform and squeezes your hand gently. With a faint smile directed your way he nods, and that prompts you to let go.
Inumaki positions himself right next to the door, ready to open it and let the cursed spirits into the room. You draw a long breath, in and out. And once you’re ready for whatever last resort move you and Inumaki agreed on, you give him a sharp nod.
It happens so fast that your head spins with renewed force. There was no way of telling individual cursed spirits apart from one another at this point, as they blurred into one massive substance that fills up the entire room in seconds. They gather above you, hungry for the potent cursed energy you struggle to release. There is little to no distance at all between your face and the looming mass of sputtering bubbling spirit. And as it closes in even more, and when it seems like no more spirits are trickling from the hallway you give Inumaki the command.
“Die.”
In the next instance, the mass explodes and crumbles into the air. You instantly feel the pressure dissipate and sigh with relief.
Inumaki stumbles towards you, coughing into his sleeve. You cringe at the blood staining the fabric. “I’m sorry.”
“Not your fault,” Inumaki’s voice sounds hoarse and strained, and hearing it makes you feel even worse for pushing him to use the cursed speech on such a large enemy. He collapses to his knees and you have to lean forward to catch him while still sitting on the floor. Inumaki isn’t light by any means, you have to receive his weight with an “oof” as your back meets the wall once more.
You end up with your face buried into the crown of his head, strands of hair tickling your nose. His breathing is stable, but with notes of raspiness to it. Your eyes dart up to look out the window to see that the curtain is dissipating. You won’t be able to move with your injuries and exhausted stamina, plus Inumaki is currently a dead weight on top of you. With your arms looped under Inumaki’s middle, you pop him up slightly for a more comfortable position, but otherwise do not attempt to move.
Ijichi-san will be here any minute now. So you let yourself relax and finally, finally close your eyes.