Archive of Our Own

January 19, 2018

Four weeks after the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons

A loud snap of wood hitting wood bursts from the training fields at the Tokyo Prefectural Jujutsu High school. Maki twirls a wooden bo staff around herself and plants it firmly into the ground. Notably, she’s glasses-less.

Her curse-seeing glasses were broken in the fight against Geto four weeks prior. Even up until now, she hadn’t been able to find a replacement. This meant she had been unable to go on missions with the other first years. 

"Hey, even without my glasses I can still read your movements from a mile away. Stay sharp Yuta." 

A few feet away, Yuta sits defeated on the ground, wooden training katana lying next to him. 

"Yeah, yeah." Yuta laughs. "You're just too good, Maki." He picks himself up off the grass.

"Spiced Cod Roe." Inumaki raises a green flag symbolizing Maki's point. 

"Shut it with those excuses Mr. 'I defeated a special grade sorcerer a month ago.'" Maki pokes at Yuta with her staff. "Don’t just chalk it all up to me being too strong, you’re strong too, it's just that-"

"Hey!" The first years all look towards the origin of the noise. "Special delivery!" Their teacher, Gojo, waves a small box while slowly making his way down to the field. 

"Gojo-sensei!" Panda rolls over and picks himself up out of his sitting position and all the first years walk up to meet up with him. 

The sun had started to set by now, the sky was soaked with orange tinges and the clouds were painted purple. 

"Maki." Gojo held out the package towards her. "This is for you."

She grabbed the small box and inspected it, eyes squinting. "...What’s in it?" 

"It's just the top of the line curse-seeing glasses with the new frame you chose." Gojo explained with a smile. "These things are pretty hard to get a hold of so make sure you keep this pair from breaking." 

"Wow! You're finally able to go on missions with us!" Yuta smiles at her.

"Wait," Panda looks closer at the box in Maki's hands. "You got a different frame? Why?"

Maki pauses. What a weird question. "Just wanted to try something different, I guess." She shrugs. 

Gojo continues, "And you'll be able to test them out too! Maki. Yuta." He points to each of them, "I'm sending you guys out on a mission. Ijichi is on his way right now, you'll be driving out in about thirty minutes. So get changed." 

"Okay!" Both of them nod and start to the main campus.

"And now, Panda. Toge." Gojo pauses and his gaze shoots behind him to his left, then his right. Panda and Inumaki also start to look behind him, wholly confused. Gojo looks back towards the two, "We need to plan something for Maki's birthday. It's tomorrow." Gojo says in a hushed voice.

A surprised noise exits the two of them. 

"I totally forgot!" Panda nearly explodes.

"Salmon?!"

Gojo hurriedly shushes both of them, "Hey! Hey! Shh. Quiet down." Gojo puts a finger over his mouth and takes a quick second to look behind him and make sure Maki didn't hear anything. "I forgot too." Gojo whispers with his hand shielding the left side of his mouth. "But it's okay. I sent the two of them on a mission like, two hours away from here. So by the time they get back, it'll be past twelve, and we could surprise her as they get out of the car." 

It’s foolproof.

Panda is in awe. "Amazing plan Gojo-sensei." 

"Bonito flakes, bonito flakes." Inumaki nods with his eyes closed and hands clapping.

"I know right?! But, okay. When Ijichi leaves, we will strike. No store selling party supplies and birthday cards will be safe." 

A black sedan comes to a stop in front of the school and Ijichi welcomes Yuta and Maki into the car.

As they drive off, Yuta looks into the rearview mirror and sees Gojo, Panda, and Inumaki tip-toeing away from the school with mischievous grins on their faces like a pack of little goblins. 

‘How weird…’ He thinks to himself.

A tablet containing the mission debriefing suddenly lands into his lap and Maki leans over dangerously close to Yuta and starts pointing things out.  "Why the hell did this idiot assign us to a mission two hours away when the sun is already setting?" She taps the text indicating their mission's location.

Yuta laughs nervously. "I-I don't know?" Yuta has only had friends for what... maybe a year by now? He doesn't really know what to say all the time but he really enjoys their company and hopes to god they enjoy his. 

"Wait, and this thing is speculated to be a Semi-Grade one?" Maki continues.

Yuta gulps. Ever since releasing Rika, his cursed energy levels have been relatively low and he was reassigned as a Grade four sorcerer. He took down a Semi-Grade one back with Inumaki, but that was with Rika's cursed energy completely there.

Things are different now. 

Maki grins and lets out a mischievous snicker.

"Semi-Grade one, huh?"

Yuta notices her grin and it ignites a newfound confidence in him. 

Yeah. Yeah. Things are different now. He smiles back at Maki. They've grown stronger, together .

"We've made it through worse." He responds, finally finding the words to say.

"Oh, I almost forgot." Maki pulls away from Yuta and reaches into a small bag she brought with her. She pulls out the box with her new glasses in it. The box unfolds and reveals a pair of glasses far removed from her last pair in terms of appearance. 

Sharp, rectangular lenses with a thick, purple frame. 

She puts on the glasses and looks at Yuta. "So, how do I look?"

Yuta's eyes widen. Those glasses look very good on her. His brain stalls. First thing in his head: Pretty.

He begins. 

"P-pre-"

He stops. 

'That would be very bad if I said that,' he thinks to himself. 

Yuta blinks. He blinks again. 

"Pretty good! It fits you!" He says with a thumbs up and a smile.

Maki can't help but be happy at that. "Hmph, thanks." Her smile leaks into her words.

Yuta doesn’t really know what to say after that. Maki’s just looking out the window at this point. The car falls into silence, only the hum of the road filling the atmosphere.

So, Yuta removes the tablet from his lap and retreats into his phone. It’s about seven in the afternoon, they’ll probably arrive at the site at eight or nine-ish. Absentmindedly, he wanders into his calendar app.

Today, January 19: No Events

January 20: “maki b-day :)”

His eyes widen.

‘I totally forgot!’ Yuta’s voice in his head booms. ‘So much has been going on recently, I nearly missed it.’ Unconsciously, his gaze drifts to Maki. She's looking out the window at the Sun hanging onto the last threads of its daylight, the fading orange glow falling over her. ‘What am I gonna do for her birthday? Assuming the mission takes an hour, we’ll be returning to school and in the car ride it’ll turn to the twentieth. Is this the situation where I say happy birthday right when it hits twelve? But I don’t have anything to give her…’ He thinks, and over thinks, and keeps thinking. 

Maki feels a presence behind her, as if two holes were being burned on her by someone’s eyes. Her head pivots towards Yuta. “What.”

Yuta gets snapped out of his trance and back into reality.

It’s over. It totally looks like he was staring. Maki hates guys who stare. 

“...Nothing!” Yuta barely squeaks out before shoving his gaze back onto his phone to shield himself from further self-embarrassment, a complete overreaction.

“Right, right. Whatever you say, Yuta.” She adjusts her glasses and leans on the car door with her face going back to look out the window. 

Yuta’s brain slowly picks itself off the walls of his skull and coherent thoughts begin circulation once again.

‘...What the hell just happened?’

Yuta has been friends with Maki for nearly more than a year by now. But, nothing like that ever happened before. It was like his eyes moved to Maki on their own. Also, why was he so embarrassed? It’s not like he was doing anything bad, he was just thinking about her birthday. But. He rewinds a bit in his mind to see the way she looked out the window and the way the light from the setting sun flowed over her. ‘Wow. She’s so… so…’

The mental drain hole is plugged and Yuta forcefully stops his thoughts right there and retreats to his phone where he mindlessly scrolls through social media to cope. After a copious amount of cat videos and some cool clips of people wielding flaming swords that Inumaki sent him, Yuta’s consciousness returned to him as he forced himself to not keep on scrolling. He shuts his phone off and looks around the car.

It’s dark. 

His phone says it’s 8:45pm. They should be arriving soon. 

His strained eyes make him regret his time spent scrolling through Twitter. He scans the inside of the car. Ijichi is in the rearview mirror, earbud in one ear, probably listening to some self-help podcast. Yuta has caught him listening to those before so it wouldn’t be unlikely, especially on a long drive like this. Good for him. His gaze slowly falls towards the other side of the backseat. He can barely make out Maki’s figure, her back slowly rising and falling with an underlying slow-paced rhythm. Her body seems to be leaning on the car door, her head plopped on its side. She’s definitely asleep. 

Yuta looks out his window, hazy shadows fly by in a dark abyss. They’re definitely in the countryside now. Shouldn't be that long until they arrive.

Not too long after that thought, the car shifts from a fully paved road to a rough dirt road. The car’s suspension is put fully to work as the road’s uneven nature bounces the car up and down. Yuta looks towards Maki. She’s still asleep. By some force of god she’s still asleep. Once the car comes to a full stop, Ijichi turns on the interior lights and gets Yuta’s attention. 

“Okkotsu.” He points at Maki through the mirror by nudging his head. Then he opens his door and steps out of the car.

‘Oh. I need to wake her up.’ He thinks to himself. He carefully removes his seatbelt and slowly puts himself into the middle seat. ‘So. How does one go about this.’

Now that the lights are on Yuta can see Maki completely. A small line of drool escapes the corner of her mouth and her new pair of glasses are hooked on the collar of her uniform. Her face is peaceful, and also squished against the car door. God knows how much her neck will hurt after sustaining that angle for so long.

Yuta panics, he has no idea how to wake her up. His mind manufactures three ideas:

1. Use his voice (Not sure if it’ll work.)
2. Shake her awake (She will beat him to death.)
3. A combination of the two (The best bet.)

He gulps. It’s now or never.

He prepares the softest tone he can manage and now… Mission Start.

“Maki, hey.” He places his hand as softly as he can on her shoulder and moves it around. “Maki, we’re here, wake up.” His voice is like cotton candy. 

Maki stirs and releases a low groan.

‘It’s working! The plan is working!’ Not only was Yuta a prodigy in jujutsu, but he must have also been a prodigy in waking people up. 

“Hey, c’mon. Wake up, we have a mission to do, remember? Semi-Grade one?”

Maki grumbles as she slowly rises from her sleeping position.

Yuta is swift in removing his hand from her shoulder. 

Her eyes are thin, one eye still closed.

“Yuta…” She tries to make out her surroundings, dazed by the harsh light of the car’s interior. That was a pretty heavy-duty nap, the kind where you forget who you are and why you’re in this world.

“Yeah, I’m here. We’re at the mission site.”

“Bleh.” She wipes the drool off her chin with her sleeve. Her mouth is dry. She begins to slightly sway back and forth, unconsciousness calling her name and dragging her back into the darkness, her one squinted eye morphing into a closed one.

Yuta’s hands land on her shoulders, making sure she doesn’t fall back. “Woah there, come on Maki. Get up.”

Maki pushes Yuta’s arms off of herself.

“I can… up…” Mumble mumble mumble. 

She tries to stretch but halfway through the motion a sharp pain immobilizes her. “Ack!” Her hands shoot up to the side of her neck.

“Maki!” The loud noise startles Yuta. 

“Ugh, god, my neck is killing me.” Not fully conscious, Maki leans on the car door and somehow opens it. Being held back by her seatbelt, she only falls out halfway. “Oof.”

“Maki! What!” Yuta is panicking. His plan is crumbling to dust in front of his eyes. “No!”

Maki must have become lucid as the cool night’s breeze entered the car and she realized she was hanging out of the car door by the seatbelt with a horrified Ijichi looking at her. “Uh-” she immediately sits straight in the car and slams the door closed. She turns to Yuta, who is also horrified by the way. 

A deafening silence dawns on the two of them as they both blankly stare at each other.

Maki breaks the silence, “You saw nothing.” 

“I-I saw nothing.” 

“Good Yuta. Now,” she pulls her glasses off her collar and puts them on. “Let’s do this.”

They both exit the car and Ijichi is buried in his phone and is still recovering from what happened. Yuta would like to imagine he’s frantically searching for more self-help podcasts because god knows he needs it. 

Maki looks normal, considering what happened before, as she goes around the back of the car and opens the trunk to retrieve her weapon. She grabs her spear bag and slings it on her shoulder and tosses Yuta’s katana to him. They both reconvene in front of Ijichi, waiting for the veil to be put up. The moonlight shines down on them, the cold pricks at their skin, the noises of wildlife and the humming of the car’s engine fill the air. 

They wait.

…

It’s clear that Ijichi doesn’t notice them. 

Maki swiftly clears her throat and Ijichi looks up instantly like a deer in the headlights.

“Oh, uh. Yes. Your mission is to eliminate the Semi-Grade one cursed spirit and all of its offspring. This farm is going back on the market to be sold in a few weeks. The owner wants minimal property damage. The veil I will set up will not block signals so please contact me when you are sure you are finished.” 

Maki begins, “Got it, got it. One last thing. Ijichi, do you have a water bottle? I’m thirsty.” Her mouth was dry as a desert following her monumental nap. 

“Oh, um, yes!” Ijichi lunges into the car through the driver’s side to open up the glove compartment which he takes a water bottle out from. 

Maki receives the bottle, “Thanks.” 

Yuta cuts in, “Ijichi, would you happen to have another one? I’m thirsty too.” The long drive took a toll on everyone it seems. 

“No, sorry Okkotsu. That was the last one in there. I apologize.” 

“It’s fine, we can share.” Maki cracks the cap off of the bottle and looks at Yuta as she begins to drink.

“No, no it’s okay!” Yuta pleads, Maki has already downed half of it by now. 

The bottle leaves her lips and she gestures the bottle towards Yuta, “C’mon just drink it, don’t be weird about it.” 

He panics in his own head a little. ‘What? Be weird about what? I’m not being weird. I’m not.’ 

“O-okay then, thanks.” He takes the bottle and finishes it. 

Maki turns face towards the farm. “Alright bean sprout, let’s get going.” She walks off without a word to Ijichi.

“Uh.” Yuta begins to follow her but first he thanks Ijichi for the drive and the water.

As they approach the main farmhouse, they hear from behind, “Emerge from darkness, blacker than darkness. Purify that which is impure.”

The veil manifests overhead, covering a pretty big area. The stars are slowly consumed by the growing void, and the whole area grows a green-ish hue. 

They’re still a ways away from the main farmhouse complex. The veil’s night is kinda peaceful. They walk through the tall grass, the rhythm of their footsteps become hypnotizing. 

Maki’s mind wanders back to when she was woken up by Yuta. 

His voice. It was so… Soft. So warm. It was really comforting and kind of… Cute? 

She shakes her head, breaking the trance. ‘Now’s not the time for that.’ She scolds herself mentally. Her gaze gravitates towards him. Right now he’s fiddling with his katana’s strap, looking around the farm. ‘Now’s… not the time for thoughts like those…’

“Wow, this place is kinda big.” Yuta laughs nervously. 

Maki clears her throat. “Yeah, yeah. And didn’t Ijichi say something about the curse’s offspring?” 

“I caught that too. I wonder what that means.”

“Means the curse made smaller curses. Probably a group of Grade three or four curses. Shouldn’t be a problem though, remember what I said to you on our first mission together?”

“Of- of course! The weaker the curses are, the more they group up!”

Maki ‘Hmpfs’ in satisfaction with a smile creeping onto her face, she really didn’t expect him to remember that.

As they reach the farmhouse they notice a large barn behind the house.

“Let’s split up.” Maki suggests.

Yuta’s heart drops a little bit. An instinctive, “H-Huh!?” Is let out.

“What, you scared?” Maki enjoys making fun of Yuta, just a little.

Yuta gulps. He was still unsure about the capabilities of his cursed energy. He squeaks out, “A little…”

She didn’t expect an answer that genuine. She’s okay with teasing Yuta but doesn’t like when it seems he’s actually hurt. Even if it’s just a little bit. “Hey, hey. C’mon you’ll be fine. It’s a safe bet that one of these buildings contains the Semi-Grade one. So if you find it just yell and I’ll be there, alright?”

Yuta nods. “Okay, I won’t let you down.” He turns towards the barn, “I’ll go to the barn.”

“If you run into it just yell, we could take care of the weaker ones later.”

“Alright! You do the same.” Yuta starts walking towards the barn, his hand lands on his katana.

The barn doors are huge, Yuta has a hard time opening them on his own so he taps into his cursed energy reserve to strengthen himself to push open the doors. The doors are slowly pushed apart and Yuta can start to barely make out what’s inside. 

It’s dark.

Some outside light seeps into the black void through a window on the upper floor. 

‘There should still be electricity here, right? So I just need to find the lightswitch.’

He begins to creep along one of the walls, feeling it out for a switch. After a few moments of searching he finds it. 

‘Aha!’ He flicks it. 

An overhead lamp switches on, dimly lighting the interior. 

The barn is pretty huge. It’s a big box with an elevated section with a ladder leading up to it. A shadowy doorway sits beneath the elevated section. Small piles of hay line the edges of the room and some farming tools are left hanging on the wall.

‘Okay. So where’s that Semi-Grade one.’ He should be able to sense it by now. Right? Well, maybe? Semi-Grade ones have some innate strength right? However, a skilled one should be able to hide its presence pretty effectively. 

He wanders near the doorway. It's right next to the ladder and it seems to be residing under the floor of the elevated section. His senses go off, picking up on a faint trace of unknown cursed energy.

“Harvest…?” A voice rasps. 

‘Welp. Here it is.’ Yuta backs off and draws his katana, slowly imbuing it with his cursed energy.

A hand grabs the doorway, and then another, and then another, and then a… another? 

Slowly but surely the curse reveals its form. It steps into the dim light coming from overhead. 

“Har… vest…” A grotesque mass of bloody eyes and arms crawls across the ground towards Yuta. 

‘Okay. Is it time to yell? Uh…’

Yuta cups his off-hand around his mouth and yells towards the barn’s entrance. “Maki! It’s here! It’s-”

“I-I’m working!” The curse erupts into a rage. Its arms begin to tear off other arms and throw them at Yuta.

Yuta easily swats the arms away and dodges through them. Maki’s training taught him how to read these types of attacks from a mile away.

Maki bursts onto the scene. She bolts through the doors, catching the curse off guard. Her spear stabs into one of the curse’s many eyes. 

It shrieks.

Yuta almost has to cover his ears and the pain can be seen on Maki’s face.

Maki, with her spear still jammed inside one of the curse’s eyes, sees a group of arms reel back, readying to strike. “Yuta!” 

“Maki!”

She pulls out her spear and flips backward, narrowly avoiding the curse’s slam. “Follow my lead!” 

Yuta’s legs act on their own. Next thing he knows, he’s engaged in a deadly dance with Maki, circling around the Harvest Curse at breakneck speeds, sneaking in stabs and slices where he can. The curse may be fast, but it still can’t keep up with the two of them blitzing it.

Yuta attempts to follow Maki’s graceful footsteps as best he can, but he can feel himself slowly losing steam. 

“Yuta! Get yourself together.” She must have noticed the falter in his step and the lull in the flow of his energies.

The curse continues wildly thrashing around, sending spare body parts, dirt, and hay into the air.

Yuta feels cursed energy pool up in the curse. “Uh oh.”

Maki must feel it too. “Steel yourself, bean sprout! It’s coming!” 

“Get… away!” The curse emits a thick aura of cursed energy. It amps up its rhythm, swinging wildly, wielding its own severed limbs, reinforced with cursed energy.

Yuta and Maki skid to the side as the shockwave emitted from the eruption of cursed energy rips the inside of the barn around.

“Try and keep up, Yuta. This thing just went into second gear from the looks of things.” She’s yelling now, but her voice is still being drowned in the whirlwind of energy.

“I’ll try.” Yuta steadies himself, and attempts to conjure up as much cursed energy as he can but… He just can’t. 

His dance with Maki drew out a lot of his reserves. He knew he wasn’t where he used to be in terms of strength, but… seriously? 

The curse doesn’t wait for him. It bursts out of the whirlwind of dust, slamming down two of its own limbs on where Yuta would’ve been if Maki hadn’t sensed the attack and pushed him out of the way, onto the ground.

The curse identifies Maki as its greatest threat and begins to swing wildly at her. She tries her hardest to dodge all of its attacks but she is forced to block some of them with her spear. The attacks, though blocked, still send bone-rending reverberations through her. 

“Yuta! Get up!” 

Yuta feels just as helpless as he did all those years ago with Rika. Did he really think he was going to be strong enough coming into this place? 

How pathetic.

But, he still stands up. What else can he do? 

He musters up everything he can bring out and goes in with a new strategy. Focus all reinforcement on his body and support Maki.

Yeah, yeah that could work. 

He dashes back into the battle, trying to restart the rhythm he and Maki had at the onset of the fight. The curse notices him, and attempts to tear through him. Yuta barely ducks the swing and retaliates back with his katana.

It bounces right off, no cursed energy in it.

Right. Yuta remembers what he has to do. Follow Maki’s moves to outmaneuver the enemy and open it up so Maki can damage it. 

“Maki!”

“I know what you’re thinking. Let’s do it!” She readies herself.

His movements must’ve been faulty. 

The curse had caught onto him before he could reach his full speed. He makes it three steps into the plan before being clocked in the side of the abdomen with a stray limb, launching him into the wall of the barn, folding him against the ground after smashing into the wooden wall.

“Yuta!” Maki doesn’t have time to worry about him, she continues to do her best in keeping herself alive.

…

‘Ugh. What was that? What just happened?’

Yuta is on the ground, wind knocked out of him.

If he hadn’t reinforced his body with the little energy he had, he would’ve died.

His hand rests on his side where he was struck. 

It’s numb, coated with a dull pain. He grits his teeth.

Maki hops over an attack from one of the curse's many arms. The curse sends a mass of its limbs towards Maki. She crashes against it, her spear serving as her only shield. It begins to push against her spear, trying to break her guard. She gets locked in a defensive position. She grits her teeth, solidifies her footing, and puts all her strength into her arms.

She's out there fighting, giving it her all. What is he doing? His cursed energy now isn't like it was before. Gojo put it best. He said that his cursed energy pools just underwent a 'surgery' and was still in recovery. His reserves were so low that he probably couldn't summon Rika's gift to him or use any of his copied cursed techniques. He's helpless in this situation. Useless. 

His hand reaches into his pocket to try and phone Ijichi for help. But by then Maki might be...

Might be...

No.

No.

He can't let that happen. He can't let her down like that. He has to be someone trustworthy. Someone she can rely on in hard times. He needs to be strong.

Strong ...

Strong like her.

The curse pauses its assault as a dark presence emerges from behind it. Its eyes shift to look behind itself to see what the presence is. 

Yuta, surrounded by a thick miasma of glowing pink cursed energy, jets towards the curse. 

His katana plants itself straight into the center of the mass of arms and eyes. 

Maki takes this opportunity to release her spear from the curse's hands and swipe the blade through all the arms near her.

The curse shrieks. The high pitch cuts through the air. 

Yuta jams the blade deeper into its flesh before attempting to tear the blade out through its side. In the heat of the moment, he injects more cursed energy into the blade and tears it out- 

The blade wasn't tempered to Yuta's spike in cursed energy. It shatters into dangerous shards of imbued metal inside the curse, leaving Yuta with a lonely hilt. 

The curse rears back more of its arms, preparing to crush Yuta.

Maki slams her spear against its arms, interrupting the attack. 

"Not letting that happen." She passes a glance to Yuta. "Do it."

He experiences it in slow motion.

The hilt of his broken katana dropping to the ground.

The rearing back of his right arm.

The clenching of his fist.

The tightening of his jaw.

His left arm slowly rising to act as a guide for his incoming strike.

He's... felt this before. This feeling. Somewhere. Somehow. Memories of his fight with Geto flash in his mind. Yeah. He remembers feeling this.

The core of cursed energy.

His fist impacts the cursed spirit and a violent explosion of black and red lightning tears through space and overtakes all his earthly senses. 

The curse, well, what's left of it, is launched through the barn. Sparks of the explosion still linger in the air. He killed it.

Maki has heard stories of Black Flash but never expected it to be like this. 

The sparks. They dance through the air like petals. 

It's... beautiful, in a way.

Her eyes are naturally drawn to Yuta as the petals fall down over the two, his smoking fist still in the same place as where he struck the curse. 

He looks as if he were a sculpture.

His eyes are overtaken by the moment. Once warm, now stone cold and sharpened. His jaw is tightened and his lips poised. She could get used to seeing him like this. 

His eyes twitch and transform back to normal. "M-Maki?" 

She blinks. She blinks again. 

She was staring. Oh god.

Quick! Think of something Maki!

“He said to minimize property damage.” She tries to make herself sound as deadpan as possible to try and prevent her inner feelings from leaking outward. 

Yuta buys it. “Oh, oh shoot. I guess I should have-”

“No, no. You’re good. You did good, Yuta.”

He appreciates the praise from her, “Really?”

“Yeah, really.” She can’t help but be happy at his progress. She doesn’t know what switch was flipped inside of him but she’s thankful that her friend is starting to do better. “What caused that spike at the end, do you know?”

“Oh. Well. I saw you fighting and giving it your all and… I-I didn’t want to get left behind or hold you back. I wanted to be strong too. And I guess, something just clicked.”

Maki needs to pause. 

She gets a flashback to a month ago on the day of Geto’s attack.

Their conversation in the empty classroom.

“Strong and resilient, I want to be like that.” 

This boy is gonna be the death of her. 

She turns around to hide the pink in her cheeks.

“...Hey. We still have the kids to take care of.”

Yuta thinks, ‘What a weird way to put it, but I guess she’s right.’ Yuta doesn’t necessarily enjoy the idea of killing kids, but they’re just the curse’s offspring so maybe he’s okay with it. 

“Yeah. But…”

“What.”

“Do you have a spare weapon?” He laughs nervously as he picks the bladeless katana from the dusty ground.

“I do, but you really have to get out of the habit of breaking your sword in every fight.” Maki shakes her head. “First with Geto, now here too? Tsk tsk tsk.” 

“Wh-what!? I promise you it’s not on purpose. It’s just-”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m just teasing you Yuta. I know it’s hard to control it.” She reaches into her spearbag, discarded at the entrance of the barn, and pulls out the Cursed Tool: Slaughter Demon. It’s her go-to back up or spare weapon. She hands it to Yuta, “It’s a bit small but it’ll work.” 

“Thanks Maki, did you spot the group in the house?”

“Yeah. Let’s go.”

Considering that Yuta was still off the high of landing a Black Flash, and Maki could easily handle the damage she had taken, they made quick work of the curses in the house.

Outside the veil, Ijichi is sitting in the car, contemplating his life. A buzz emanates from the phone holder, adhered to the windshield. 

“Gojo?” Ijichi is startled out of his seat. “What does he want?” He slips the phone out of the holder and accepts the call.

“Ijichiiiii!” Gojo’s voice booms out of the speakers, startling poor Ijichi even more.

“G-gojo.” He gulps.

“How’s the mission going over there.” The sound of a busy street can be heard behind him, cars driving by, and people talking indiscriminately.

“I suppose it’s going well, I haven’t gotten any messages from them saying otherwise. They should be finishing up by now.”

A surprised noise escapes the speakers. “Already? Well I expect nothing less from my wonderful students. What Grade was the curse again? It was just a large group of Grade threes, right?”

‘H-he doesn’t know?!’ Ijichi is screaming internally. He just sent his “wonderful students” off to a mission that they could potentially die on if he incorrectly assessed the grading level. “Uh. It was a large group of Grade threes… Along with a Semi-Grade one.”

Silence on the other end…

“G-gojo?”

A nervous laugh breaks through the ambient urban noise. Gojo realizes that with Yuta’s lowered energy, paired with the large group of enemies, they’re most likely in trouble. Maybe he can rush into a restroom and teleport over there and save them. Yeah. That’s what he’s gonna do. “Ijichi, where was the mission again?”

“Oh, I just got a text from Yuta saying they’re ready to drop the veil.” 

What?

Well, aren’t his students really full of surprises? 

“Wow! Uh. Nevermind about the location then.” He clears his throat and halts his advance to the nearest restroom. “Well, what time is it…” Gojo checks his watch, 9:45pm.

Well. According to his calculations, it would take around two hours for them to arrive back home. So… 

“Ijichi.”

“Yes, Gojo.” 

“Change of plans. Tell them to do one last walk around the entire estate.”

“Uh. Okay!” Ijichi begins to type out his message to Yuta.

“And! Make sure to drive a little slower on the way back alright? We’re planning something back here, don't tell them.”

“Of-of course.” The message was sent. 

“Great! Now I’ll see you later.” The three beeps ring through the lonely car.

Ijichi leans back into his seat, letting out a sigh.

Back in the veil, Yuta recieves his message.

“Uhh… Ijichi says that we need to do one last walk around to check for stray… kids.” Yuta adopts Maki’s moniker for the offspring. “Gojo’s orders, apparently.”

Her sharp eyes tell Yuta what she thinks. He’s a little scared now. “That idiot.” She starts walking away from Yuta. “Well? C’mon let’s get this over with.”

“Y-yes!” He rushes over to catch up with her.

The farm was quite beautiful when it wasn’t a battlefield. As of now they were inside a small forest, well, it was a patch of trees. They had already searched through all of the fields and buildings. They were resting, sitting next to the small stream that ran through the place. 

Most of their walking was done in silence. Yuta thought Maki was mad at him for some unknown reason and he was too scared to talk, but he enjoyed her presence and was captured by the beauty of the natural landscape. 

Maki, on the other hand was fighting off her intrusive thoughts regarding Yuta. His compliment on her glasses, his softness when waking her up, and most detrimental to her psyche, his admiration for her strength inspiring him to the point of landing a Black Flash in the encounter against the Semi-Grade one. These thoughts made her feel uncomfortable in her own skin. They forced her to keep her head facing forward, looking down at the flowing water of the stream as he sat beside her.

A yawn escaped his mouth. “Maki, I’m kinda sleepy. This was the last place we had to check right?”

She’s snapped back to reality. “Yeah. This was it.” 

“Should we text Ijichi?”

“We could. But. It’s kind of nice here don’t you think?” Her eyes are still pinned to the mesmerizing flow of the stream. 

“Yeah.” He had fun walking around with her. It was really nice. “Y’know. I really enjoyed being here with you Maki-”

She stopped listening to him right after those words came out of his mouth. His heart is too big for her to handle. She just sees his mouth moving, she can’t even hear him. Does he even know what he’s saying? He had just planted an armed bomb in front of Maki. She has to defuse it. She has to. Before she explodes. 

“-and I won’t let you, or anybody else down after this. I-I promise you, Maki.'' He had just torn his heart out and placed it bare in front of her. He was visibly flustered, still looking down at the stream. “A-and I-”

Jeez. This guy just wouldn’t stop. Maki is nearing her limit. She might just die right here. She needs to stop this.

“Yuta.” She cuts him off. He looks up at her, kind of startled. She doesn’t even need to fake this, she lets out a genuine smile. “Don’t sweat it.”

“Oh. Uh, of course. I guess I was rambling.” He laughs nervously. “Sorry…” 

“Y-You’re fine.” She’s sweating. That was close… Her heart could only take so much. Bomb defused, mission is a success. “We should probably text Ijichi, you said you were sleepy right?” 

“Yeah,” he stifles another yawn, “That sounds good.” He opens his phone and texts Ijichi, telling him that they’ve finished. 

Maki checks her phone as well as she picks up her spear and uses it to get up. It’s 11:46 pm. They must have spent a lot of time just walking around, the farm is pretty big.

Yuta gets up after pressing send. 

They make their way to where Ijichi is, and as they walk the luminous night sky returns as the blackness of the veil crumbles into nothingness. 

The two of them crash into the backseat of the car. This mission was pretty physically taxing for the both of them, and it was getting late.

The car starts up, and the long ride back home begins. 

“I’m going to sleep.” Yuta just wanted to warn Maki, just in case he snores or anything else like that. He placed his head against the car door and prepared to doze off.

“Hey.” A hand planted itself on his shoulder.

He sits up. 

“Your neck is gonna hurt like hell if you sleep like that.” She’s experienced it first hand, after all.

“Then where do I sleep?” His eyes are heavy by now. 

Deep within Maki’s soul, a distant timeline manifests itself. One where she says “On me.” Yuta sleeps peacefully on her shoulder and she is comforted by his warmth and- No. No, she’s not doing that. He wouldn’t be comfortable with it, he couldn’t be. No way. She shouldn’t do that. She shouldn’t.

…Then why is she reaching over to his seatbelt?

“M-Maki?” His once drowsy eyes turned wide at the sudden advance.

Ijichi sees this through the rearview and starts silently panicking, he has no clue what she’s doing to him as the veil of darkness obscures his view. He just sees Maki leaning over to Yuta, her shadow overlapping his. What will he do if they… if they… I-In his car?! 

With a click, she removes his seatbelt and throws it to the side. 

She shouldn’t be doing this. Why is her body betraying her will like this? 

Maybe it was how he looked in the heat of battle. Or perhaps how he sounded as he softly shook her awake. Maybe it’s just her tired brain making bad decisions. However, something about him just speaks to her in a way she’s never felt before. 

She remembers the Black Flash, its petals, and the way he opened himself up to her at the creek…

He’s grown so much. 

‘Yuta…’ 

She puts an arm around his waist and drags him to the middle seat, eliciting a yelp from him. 

‘Yuta, you…’

She swiftly clicks his new seatbelt into place, solidifying his position beside her.

He’s too scared to even let out anything more than a squeak. His body is stiff.

She softly, well, as softly as Maki can try, plops his head on her shoulder and wraps her arm around him. 

“You did good today, bean sprout. I’m really proud of you.” She shifts her head to lean against the top of his, her cheek to his scalp. “We make a good team.”

Yuta’s stress is immediately dismantled, he melts under her touch. 

“Maki…” The weights in his eyes seem to grow heavier. It feels like he’s forgetting something. He keeps his left eye open with all his strength. The glowing green numbers on the car’s dashboard read: 12:00 AM. He loses control and his left eye falls. “Maki… Thank you so much…” His drowsiness seeps into his words. "I’m sorry I don’t have anything to give you.”

Her heart skips a beat. What the hell is this guy on about? 

“H-happy Birthday Maki.” He mumbles into her shoulder. 

Her eyes go wide and she hopes he can’t feel the warmth of her cheeks against his head through his hair. 

She sees it too, 12:00 AM. January 20th.

“Y-you don’t need to give me anything, you’ve already done a lot. Thank you, Yuta.” Her grip around him tightens and she nuzzles her cheek into his hair, almost instinctively. “Get some rest now, will you?” 

“No. We still need to… cele-brate…” He drifts off into sleep, in her arms. 

Wow.

She expects herself to come down from the high she’s on. She expects to become self aware after some time and launch Yuta through the car door onto the dark country road. But that moment never comes. His warmth on her is so comfortable, it feels so natural.

She yawns. It was a rough fight against that Semi-Grade one. She had some nicks and bruises here and there and knows that Yuta will have a big purple bruise on his right side for the foreseeable future. 

Her eyelids start to gain weight. They begin to fall. But, she doesn’t even try to fight it at this point.

January 20, 2:14 AM

As per Gojo’s request, Ijichi has driven deeper into Jujutsu High to drop off the two of them. Gojo was informed that they both had fallen asleep. It threw a wrench into his elaborate plan but he can make due. 

Inumaki is holding an elaborate cake with the words “Happy Birthday Maki!” Written on it with colorful frosting. 

Panda is holding balloons and a bag containing all their gifts. 

Gojo is holding his phone, fully prepared to snap any photos if needed.

The car pulls in, the suspense builds…

Ijichi’s window drops, he begins talking to Gojo.

Inumaki and Panda still wait in their positions, unable to make out where the birthday girl is sitting or what Ijichi is saying.

They see Gojo walk up to the backseat window as Ijichi lowers it slowly.

Gojo’s jaw drops.

He immediately starts snapping pictures at lightspeed. Panda drops the bag to the ground and absentmindedly lets go of the balloons as well. He runs over there and attempts to push Gojo to the side to see what’s happening, he can’t, Gojo must be using his dumb technique. Inumaki sees the balloons floating away and cries out, “Bonito flakes!” His hand reaching towards the skies, he chases after the balloons and trips on the uneven ground, the world slows down. Inumaki takes one for the team. He lays flat, back facing down as he falls to the Earth, holding the cake securely on his chest. “Salmon!” He yelps as he impacts the ground. 

Gojo pauses his picture taking and sees the balloons flying away. He quickly assesses the situation with the integrity and speed wholly and completely befitting of the world’s strongest sorcerer. He warps to the balloons and grabs them. This leaves Panda open to see what is in the car. A grave error on Gojo’s part. Oh no! 

Panda is trying his best to keep it together…

Through a massive grin, he says, “Wakey wakey sleepy heads.” He puts his weight on the car, shaking it in its entirety, much to the concern of Ijichi. 

Yuta’s the first to awaken. It takes him less than a second to realize the situation he’s in. He hurriedly frees himself from Maki’s arm, accidentally waking her up, and hides the red in his face the best he can.

Maki wakes up, sees Yuta’s face first, panics because she sees he’s scared, sees Panda, and immediately understands the situation. In an instant, she leaps through the open car window, blasting Panda back with a double-legged dropkick. She lands on her feet, in a combat-ready position. She is promptly disarmed by seeing Inumaki on the ground, hoisting a disheveled Cake up to the skies. 

“Cod roe.” (Happy Birthday, Maki.) 

Gojo appears next to her, holding her balloons, he hands them to her. “Happy Birthday, Maki.”

Panda, laying on the ground lets out a weak, “Happy Birthday, Maki.” 

Yuta opens the car door, still red in the face, and meekly joins them, “Happy Birthday, Maki.” 

Ijichi sits in the driver’s seat... Is it too late for him to say it? Should he say it? Yeah. Yeah he should, it’s common courtesy. “Ha-”

Maki responds to all of them, cutting Ijichi off. “Wow. Thank you,” she relaxes herself out of her fighting stance and Ijichi cries silently. “All of you. This is… Thanks.” 

Panda sits up, “We got you presents!” He grabs the bag he dropped and runs it over to Maki. He reaches into the bag and pulls out a small slab of stone. “This one’s from me!”

Maki recognizes it as a whetstone. It’s a stone she uses to sharpen her tools. He must’ve listened in on her complaining about the wear and tear her old one of similar grit has endured. “Wow, how’d you know I needed one of these?” 

“Salmon.” (Do mine next.) Inumaki suggested as he still lay on the ground defending the cake from the floor.

Panda reaches into the bag and Maki hears one of her favorite sounds in the world. The crinkle of a chip bag. His paw pulls out the “Family Sized” chip bag of Tangy Barbeque flavored Lays potato chips, Maki’s favorite. She recognizes this as the overpriced as hell bag from the American imports store that she was so tempted to get, but ultimately decided to save her funds for something else. 

“Inumaki… You knew I wanted this?”

“Salmon, spiced cod roe.” (Of course, I saw the way you looked at it in the store.)

Maki grabs the bag from Panda and looks at Inumaki. “I guess you were there when that happened, Thanks.”

“Maki, this next one’s from me.” Gojo says in the most serious tone he’s had today. 

Panda pulls out a cheap-looking picture frame and hands it to Maki. 

It's a printed photo of all the first years surrounding Yuta before the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons. Wow… They all looked so happy…

“Gojo… This is…” She was almost touched by the gift’s nature.

“I know, right?” His signature smile worked its way back into his voice. “Isn’t it great? Don’t you like it?”

Her expression shifted into a scowl, “What a way to ruin it.” 

Gojo lets out a surprised noise.

“U-Uh.” Yuta makes a noise as he escapes the car, drawing all attention to himself. “Sorry Maki, sorry I couldn’t get you anything in advance.”

Maki is about to console him but before she can, Panda jumps in. “Well, it looks like you gave Maki a good pillow on the way back!” 

A strained “Uh-” escapes the two of them as both of their faces gain a tinge of red.

Panda’s grin is inhumanly wide. Truly, something evil.

Maki’s head creaks as it turns towards Yuta. “H-hey! Stop blushing! You’re giving him power by doing that!” She punches him on the shoulder, also blushing. 

“Y-yes! I’m sorry Maki!” Yuta slaps his hands into his red face and he looks down in defeat.

Panda starts laughing, victorious.