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Usually once someone finishes knight training, their first task is shadowing an experienced member of the guard on a patrol through town. Once Yuuji finishes knight training, the first task assigned to him is rescuing the crown prince.
“Rescuing the crown prince?” is all Yuuji can think to parrot when Yaga tells him his mission. “I… uh, isn’t that usually something for…” He glances around. “Someone who’s… not me?”
Yaga’s already stoic expression creases into a frown. “You’re right,” he concedes, which only adds to Yuuji’s growing sense of confusion. “This is a mission typically reserved for the higher guard.” His frown deepens. “Unfortunately, we don’t have time for them. We have reason to believe the prince is in grave danger. Time is of the utmost importance.” Yaga clears his throat, glancing at the clipboard in his hand. “It says here you graduated at the top of your class… at least in terms of physical strength. Your exam scores could use some work.”
“Thanks… I think.”
With a short sigh, Yaga puts his clipboard away. “You understand the mission, then?”
Yuuji nods. “Rescue the crown prince!”
Yaga claps a hand on Yuuji’s shoulder. “There’s a lot riding on this,” he says solemnly. Yuuji swallows. Yaga pats him on the shoulder once, before shoving a rolled piece of paper into Yuuji’s hands. “This is the map for the prince’s last known location.”
Yuuji straightens. “I’ll find him,” he promises, “and bring him back safely!”
“You better,” Yaga responds, and before Yuuji can ask what that means, Yaga turns on his heel and walks away. With a great big inhale, Yuuji unfurls the scroll in his hands.
“Wait,” he says to an empty room. “How do you read this again?”
It’s nearly nightfall when Yuuji stumbles into a castle in the middle of the woods—and that, too, completely by accident. Actually, it was about two hours into his trek that he lost his map entirely—had Yaga said something about there being a tracker on the map, or was Yuuji just misremembering? Either way, the map was disposable… probably. Yuuji’s quite proud of himself for running into the castle entirely on his own, although as he rubs his nose, he wishes he didn’t so literally have to run into it.
He takes a step back to look at the castle. It’s a small thing—a tower, really, and not even one that tall. Yuuji can’t believe he missed it the first time he’d passed through this thick of the woods, and it’s only when he glances to the side and the tower disappears from his peripheral vision that he realizes the building’s been charmed. Unless Yuuji has a hand on it, it’s completely invisible to him.
There’s an ajar door. With a hand on the hilt of his sword, he lightly pushes the door open further, and it swings easily under his touch. The inside is a dimly lit room—entirely different than its appearance on the outside. It almost looks like a living room, of sorts, and it’s all entirely on one level. The discrepancy between the outside appearance and the room Yuuji stands in now is starting to give him a headache, but he forges forward with a shake of his head. After another glance around the sparsely decorated room, he makes for a single door, and—
—oh, that’s a dragon, isn’t it?
For a second, Yuuji can do nothing but gape in silence. That is a dragon, a huge one curled sleeping around a chair—there’s someone on the chair, too, but Yuuji’s a bit preoccupied with the dragon to pay much attention. After his half a moment of gawping, he pulls out his sword and holds it in front of him with both hands.
“Hark, foul fiend!” is his war cry as he tightens his grip on the sword. “I won’t let you trap the prince any longer—”
“Hey.” A flat voice interrupts his impassioned demand. “Can you stop pointing that thing at my dragon?”
Yuuji’s eyes finally dart to the person on the chair. They’re holding a book in one hand, and their other hand, Yuuji’s stunned to notice, rests lightly on the dragon’s head. It’s only when Yuuji’s gaze travels to his face that he realizes—
“You’re—you’re the prince,” Yuuji breathes out. He blinks. “You’re even prettier than in the paintings!”
The prince looks taken aback at that, his eyes darting to the side as a light dusting of pink covers his cheeks.
“Er, thanks,” he mumbles with a cough. “What are you doing here?”
Yuuji stares at him, then stares at his sword, then stares at the dragon, then stares at the prince. “I’m, uh, saving you.”
The prince’s eyes narrow. “Do I look like I need saving?”
Yuuji’s eyes are drawn back to the dragon. “Uh… yes?”
The prince’s placid expression is marred with a frown. He bends down, murmuring something too quiet for Yuuji to hear into the dragon’s scales, and silently, the dragon melts into the shadows to disappear completely.
“Woah,” Yuuji murmurs with wide eyes. “Epic.”
“Now, will you please put the sword down?”
“Huh? Oh. Oh! Yeah,” Yuuji stammers out, shoving his sword back into its scabbard. “Sorry, I… was told you were in grave danger?”
“The nobles sent you, right?” the prince responds in lieu of an answer. He shakes his head as he puts his book to the side and finally stands up. “There’s no need. Sorry they sent you on such a waste of a mission,” he continues, walking past Yuuji to give a single pat on his shoulder before moving back towards the room Yuuji entered. Yuuji quickly follows.
“I don’t understand,” he says when the prince moves to a seat by a window. “If you’ve not been kidnapped, then what are you doing out here?”
The prince’s eyes shift towards Yuuji before moving back to the window. “You wouldn’t believe me.”
“Try me.”
The other boy taps his fingers on his knee and watches Yuuji as he takes a seat across from the prince. “You know Satoru Gojo.” It’s not a question, and Yuuji nods.
“The traitor who defected from the crown.”
The prince’s gaze, once again, drifts away. “Not quite,” he murmurs, and Yuuji’s brows furrow.
“Not quite… you mean he wasn’t…?”
“It wasn’t that simple,” the prince continues when Yuuji trails off. “That he defected is true; traitor, though, is something the nobles fabricated for their own sake.” He links his fingers together. “He went missing a month ago.” He looks up. “They told you about that, right?” Yuuji nods. “They didn’t tell you about the note he left behind, though, right?”
“...they didn’t.”
The prince huffs out a light laugh. “I thought so.” He shakes his head. “Anyway, I’m trying to find him. That’s why I’m out here. I’m probably the only one who can.”
“Because of your magic,” Yuuji guesses, and his hunch is confirmed when Megumi nods. Yuuji’s silent for a few moments after, trying to recategorize his thoughts with all the new information. “Then… why didn’t you tell anyone?”
The prince gives him a flat look. “They’re calling him a traitor. What do you think they’d call me?”
Yuuji has no response to that. He falls silent again. The silence stretches thin, and surprisingly, it’s the prince that breaks it.
“I trust you won’t divulge my secrets,” he murmurs. “I’ll see you off back to town—”
“Wait,” Yuuji interrupts. “What if I accompany you?”
The prince stares at him like he’s grown a second head. “What?”
“I mean—uh, that is—” Yuuji’s tongue stumbles over itself as he tries to explain. “You haven’t found him yet, right?” The prince slowly shakes his head. “So—I can help?”
The prince’s gaze doesn’t grow any less bewildered. “Why?” he asks after a pause.
“Why not?” Yuuji asks back. He shrugs. “I don’t really have anything better to do, anyway.”
“So—” The prince’s brows furrow. “You’re just going to—drop everything on a whim just like that?”
“Sure,” Yuuji agrees easily. “I want to help,” he adds earnestly, and the prince doesn’t look like he knows what to do with that information. All of a sudden, Yuuji is stricken by his own forwardness. “Er, no, I mean, that’s—that’s only if you would like, of course, your, uh, princeliness—”
“If you’re sure,” he interrupts Yuuji’s blathering. “If you’re absolutely sure, then…” He trails off.
“I’m sure.”
The prince tilts his head to the side. “Then… welcome, knight. Your… name?”
“Yuuji Itadori! Please call me Yuuji,” Yuuji blurts out with a slight bow, before tacking on, “er, your highness—”
“Megumi,” the other interrupts. “Just Megumi is fine.”
Yuuji blinks. “...seriously?” Being able to call such an esteemed member of the royal court by their first name seemed awfully forward, but Megumi’s slight smile and nod dispel any reservations Yuuji has, and he grins brightly. “Alright, then, Megumi!” He pauses, scratching his cheek with a finger. “By the way… can you bring your dragon back?”
Megumi raises his eyebrows. “Seriously?”
“Please?”
With a sigh, Megumi brings his hands together. A few moments later, a dragon manifests in the room from the shadows stretching out across—unlike before, though, this dragon is tiny, not much bigger than the size of Yuuji’s hand, and he can’t help but coo as it jumps onto his hand and settles with a quiet huff. He looks up to find Megumi watching the both of them fondly, but as soon as he spots Yuuji noticing, his eyes flicker away.
“This is going to be really fun,” Yuuji promises, and Megumi scoffs, but there’s a slight smile on his face.
“We’ll see about that.”