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Everything was over.
They had lost many but it was over.
Currently, everyone was healing, physically at least. The mental healing would take a lot longer than the physical wounds.
After everything, Yuji wanted to do nothing but relax for a year. Yuji had to be honest as exhausted as he was, he was excited to have a somewhat normal life again. As normal as it can get.
That normality would start with Yuji visiting his home town. Despite everything he wanted to visit his grandpa's grave, and maybe seeing his old classmates was a nice bonus, as much as he loved his friends here, he missed his friends back home too.
But if he thought he would be going alone, Yuji was wrong. Of course, Choso wanted to join him and who was Yuji to tell him off? Choso may have started out as his enemy, but the more time they spent together, the more they learned about each other, making it more and more clear that they were brothers. Yuji never had anything against being an only child, but he wouldn’t trade Choso for the world. His only regret was never getting to know Eso and Kechizu, but he loved the stories Choso told him.
Once they arrived in his home town, the brothers opted to walk towards Yuji’s old home. Even though he moved to Tokyo because of school, Jujutsu High made sure he would be able to keep the house. Yuji hadn’t thought he would actually return here, but he was grateful Gojo made sure he had a place to return to, to remember his grandpa.
Choso looked around the town, it was much smaller than Tokyo, not surprising, Tokyo was big. Choso found himself liking this place a lot more than Tokyo already. The small house Yuji led them to had something about it that Choso immediately took to, like this was a real home, no matter how dusty it had been.
Instead of relaxing after their trip, they decided to clean up the place a little, no one had been here in a while. As Choso cleaned the house, Yuji went to the backyard, moaning the lawn and taking care of the plants. Choso kept hearing voices outside, apparently, the neighbours had been worried about Yuji after his grandfather died and he kind of disappeared. Choso was glad the people around had been worried about Yuji.
After Yuji was done he came back inside to find Choso brewing them some tea.
“Thanks.”, Yuji said as he took a cup.
“I heard you were talking to the neighbours.”, said Choso.
“Yeah. They were worried about me, I guess.”
“I think it’s sweet.”
“Of course, you would. You’re like an old man.”
Choso playfully hit Yuji in the shoulder.
“I’m not that old.”
“You’re like 150.”
Choso just looked at his little brother, he was right, but that didn’t mean Choso had to like it. Before they had come here, Choso and Yuji had agreed to say he was 26 years old, just in case someone asked. It wasn’t too odd that Yuji had a ten-year older brother from his mother’s previous relationship, right?
Well, they hoped at least. That was the story they agreed on, not like it was wrong, they just left out a few details.
“Oh!”, said Yuji, “Nakamura-san invited us over for dinner. Something about making sure we eat properly.”
“Us?”, Choso asked.
“Yeah, I told her my brother was with me and she said you could come too.”
“Oh.”, Choso looked away from Yuji, his eyes were watery, Yuji called him his brother. Yuji noticed.
“Are you serious?”, Yuji sounded annoyed, “You still react like that because I call you my brother? I’ve been doing that for ages!”
It’s not Choso’s fault something that simple still warms his heart.
Dinner with Nakamura-san and her husband was nice. They said it was nice to have two nice young men over for dinner, apparently, their children and grandchildren live rather far away and can’t visit all that often.
The elderly woman had made some of the best food Choso had ever eaten. Yuji laughed at his reaction; Nakamura-san took it as a compliment. After they finished their meal, Yuji and Choso offered to clean the dishes. After the couple had declined them, the boys were guests, they finally gave in. Choso didn’t expect to sit much longer with them and just talk. This was Choso’s first real interaction with humans, that were not involved with the world of curses and he had to admit he liked it. He liked it a lot. He could get used to living as a human.
Nakamura-san told them to come over soon again and Yuji offered that they could help them out if they needed.
The next day Yuji said he wanted to collect something and reassured Choso he would be fine on his own. Not that Choso didn’t know that. After Yuji left the house, Choso chose to go for a walk. He wanted to get familiar with the surroundings. Even though he and Yuji would eventually return to Tokyo, Choso knew they would return here a lot.
As he walked through the town he caught the glances of quite a few people. From what Yuji had told him, he may be the most human-looking, after Yuji, of the siblings but there was still something odd about him. Not that Choso cared all that much.
Eventually, he passed a group of people only to stop in his tracks once he caught a familiar voice.
“Choso!”, Yuji yelled, he emerged from the group, “You went for a walk? Cool.” Yuji turned back to the people he was talking to.
“Who is that, Itadori-kun?”, asked one of the girls.
“This is Choso, my big brother.”
Choso tried not to cry.
“Choso, these are my old classmates.”
“Hello.”, said Choso.
“Hi, Itadori-san.”, said another teen.
Itadori-san? They probably assumed they shared a last name.
“We gotta go now, Yuji. We should catch up later this week!”, said the third teen.
“Yeah! Let’s do that! I’ll text you later.”
With that the three teens left, leaving the brothers alone.
Yuji smiled at Choso and said: “You have perfect timing, come on.” Yuji walked off and Choso followed him, curious about the younger’s plans.
Soon they reached the graveyard. They walked through the rows and eventually stopped at a grave. The grave read – Itadori Wasuke – Yuji’s late grandfather. Choso was surprised Yuji took him here.
Yuji kneeled in front of the grave and Choso followed his lead, sitting down next to him.
Choso watched curiously as Yuji looked through the back and grabbed something.
“Close your eyes.”, he said.
Choso closed his eyes and waited for Yuji to tell him to open his eyes again. He heard something like Yuji was placing something down. Choso wondered what.
“You can open them again.”
Choso opened his eyes. His eyes caught sight of the object Yuji had placed down. It was a stone as well as a few flowers. What caught more of Choso’s attention was what was written on the stone.
In memory of Itadori Kechizu and Itadori Eso.
Beloved brothers
Choso stared. He looked at Yuji, who was smiling, Choso didn’t know how to react.
“I thought it would be nice to have a place to remember them. And what better place than with family.”
“Yuji…”, Choso wrapped the teen in a hug, “Thank you.”
Yuji just enjoyed his big brother’s hug.
Before they returned to go back again, Yuji handed Choso an envelope.
“I wanted to give you this at home, but I think doing this here is better.”
Choso opened the envelope and inside were documents. Documents that solidified him as a human. But what stood out to him the most was the name.
Itadori Choso
Choso knew he needed a last name but he never thought Yuji would offer his own to share with Choso. Choso noticed tears were running down his cheeks, he put the documents away again to not get them wet.
“I hope you don’t mind I decided that without you.”
“I don’t.”, Choso pulled Yuji closer again, “It’s perfect, thank you.”
“You’re welcome, Aniki.”
The brothers then made their way home.
This marked the end for Choso, the death painting and marked the start for Itadori Choso, the human.