Chapter Text
This was supposed to be a simple mission.
Yuji didn’t even know why he listened to Gojo when he said that anymore. It seemed like every other week, Gojo burst into his room and sent him off to god-knows-where, and he ended up exorcizing a special grade.
It wasn’t like he could complain. This is what he had signed up for when he enrolled, and he knew full well what he was getting into. He told himself that as his sneakers skidded on asphalt and he struggled to ignore the weakness in his knees, but today was different. The constant missions were beginning to weigh on him. His muscles ached horribly. As much as he tried to deny it, he was still human, and today he was slipping. He felt the familiar warmth of blood spreading across his side as he took in the cursed spirit before him.
It was tall, thin, ugly. About ninety percent of its body was composed of a toothy vertical mouth, stretching up the thing like a zipper, with two bloodshot eyes on either side. It never moved from that spot, rooted in the middle of this parking lot like a tree. The problem was its hundreds of arms, extending from the body like tentacles, each equipped with a piercing spike at the end. Yuji punched the arm that currently stuck in his side, his cursed energy causing it to explode. But the curse regenerated a new one just as quickly.
” Itadori! ” He heard a raspy voice call. “ This is no ordinary special grade! ”
Yuji leapt back to stand beside his ally. Black hair matted with blood, eyes narrowed and serious, he met Megumi’s gaze. Despite the stakes, his heart lurched when he did. It had been happening more and more lately, this odd feeling he got in his chest when he made eye contact with him. Or touched him. Or thought about him.
He remembered asking Nobara about it, but she only laughed. “You’ve got a big storm coming.” She had said, and he tried to pretend he didn't know what she meant.
“Itadori, are you even listening?!”
Yuji realized he had been zoning out. Shit. He was really off his game today.
”Sorry. Tell me one more time.” He said, a bit sheepish as the two of them leapt in tandem from one of the curse’s arms.
“This curse—“ Megumi grunted as another arm stabbed his leg. “—can tear through space and time!”
”What the hell?!” Itadori punched at the arm attacking his classmate, it swelled and burst into disgusting purple sludge.
“No one really knows where it takes you. But if it draws you into that mouth, you won’t be seen in this dimension again for at least a month. People usually just reappear after that, but the only people they’ve recovered refuse to speak about it.” Megumi shouted urgently, wiping blood from his forehead and going in for another attack.
”Damn!” Itadori shouted as he followed suit, intending to overwhelm it with blows from both sides. But he zoned out for a moment more as he watched Megumi on the attack, his mind numbed with the fuzz of exhaustion and admiration.
He felt a sharp pain in his shoulder. Then another in his thigh, and his gut. He gasped and attempted to burst out of its grip, but it kept sticking in spike after spike. Finally, it opened that disgusting mouth and began to pull him in at breakneck speeds, revealing a swirling mess of colors within. He cried out as he kicked, his mind racing with shame and panic, but it was futile. He glanced over his shoulder one last time to see Megumi hurdling towards him, expression stricken with worry. “ Itadori! ” He cried out as he reached out a hand.
Yuji tried to reach out in turn, but his arm was being stabbed with more spikes by the second. The last thing he felt was a pang of guilt as he watched the teeth slide shut.
~
Yuji was never like the other boys.
He knew it ever since he was little, and for just as long he tried to push it away. To convince himself it would go away when he got older, first when he hit puberty, then when he went to high school, then when he turned eighteen…
But he was seventeen now, and those words felt less true by the day.
He felt all the weight leave his body. Suddenly he was in elementary school again, eating lunch in the courtyard. The little brown-haired boy sitting next to him shoveled rice in his mouth, scooping up more with his chopsticks. “Yuhji!” He spoke with his mouth full. “Haf a bite!”
Yuji leaned over and bit the rice off of his chopsticks, grinning back at him as his cheeks got a bit warm. He couldn’t remember the boy’s name now, but he remembered wishing he could stay with him forever.
Next he was in middle school. He sat chatting with his group of friends, eating ice cream to cool off from the brutal Japanese summer. Two boys, much older than them, but boys all the same, were sharing a sundae at the next table over.
A freckled boy leaned in close to the group and sneered, pointing their direction. “ You don’t think the two of them are gay, do you?” He joked, getting chuckles from the other boys.
Yuji glanced over, feeling his heart drop as one leaned over to kiss the other’s cheek. He wanted to scream at them, you can’t do that. Not now, not here.
But he was helpless to stop it as the rest of his group erupted into laughter. The couple both lit up like tomatoes, glancing their way nervously, before gathering their things and hurrying away.
His attention returned to the cackling faces of the boys who were supposed to be his friends. He couldn’t stop it as his mouth twisted into a frown.
” Yuji, what’s your deal?”
Yuji was never like the other boys.
Maybe he never would be.
~
”Hey, kid, wake up.” He felt something hard and thin jab his shoulder. His eyes fluttered open and sunlight flooded his vision. Looming over him was a thin man with snow white hair, dressed up in a sweater vest, white blouse, and tie.
He sat up with a start, feeling his wounds screech in pain. “Gojo?!”
The man before him raised his eyebrows in surprise. A closer look by Yuji revealed that this was Gojo, there was no doubt about that, but he was different. His eyes were still piercing blue, but they trembled as he looked at him, thick glasses sitting on his nose. His skin seemed thinner, blue veins visible in his arms and hands. He clutched a white cane, the thing he had poked Yuji with in the first place.
”How’d ya know?” He replied, tilting his head. “Well— I can’t say I’m too surprised. Who wouldn’t remember meeting a guy like me?” He grew a shit-eating grin, giggling stupidly at his own joke.
Yeah, this was definitely Gojo.
”What do you mean— what happened to your eyes?!” He scooched back on the grass, unable to think clearly. Between the blood loss and the panic, something was clouding his brain.
”Well that’s rude.” He scrunched up his nose and crouched down to Yuji’s level. “What’s your name, kid? And what are you doing all bloodied in the courtyard?”
It was then that it dawned on Yuji. He wasn’t in his world anymore. This was some other Gojo, some much less intimidating version of him. He was missing the familiar feeling of cursed energy swirling within him, and as he touched his face, Sukuna’s eyes no longer rested dormant beneath his.
He forced his thoughts to go quiet as he took a shaky breath in. “Yuji Itadori. I’m… I…” He tried to think of an explanation that wouldn’t land him in the nearest psych ward, but it just came out as stammers.
Gojo’s face softened a bit. It was weird how familiar it was, but completely foreign at the same time. “Hey, who cares. I’ll have my student teacher drive you to the hospital real quick.” He offered a ghostly pale arm in support.
Student teacher? Yuji wondered, taking the arm without much second thought. The two of them rose to their feet and began to walk off somewhere.
Gojo used one arm to support Yuji, while the other held that same cane. He swept it back and forth across the ground as they walked, and something dawned on Yuji for the second time.
This Gojo was blind.
Despite himself, guilt began to sweep over him like a wave. He had been so taken aback by the change in appearance that he hadn’t even considered the option. He was sure he looked like a total asshole. But it was difficult to muster the strength to speak, so he resolved that he would apologize later.
Gojo brought him to a parking lot, outside of what looked like the usual high schools in his hometown. A man he recognized as Ijichi stood outside, idly scrolling his phone. He looked up and sighed like he was used to this sort of thing. “What did you do this time, Gojo?”
”I didn’t do anything, I swear! Just found this kid half-dead outside. Could you take him to the hospital?”
”Naturally.” He nodded, tucking his phone away in his pocket. “Just inform Yaga of my absence.”
The rest was a blur as Ijichi drove off with Yuji in the back of his car. He felt a bit bad about getting blood on his seats, but it was only a passing concern as his mind swirled with confusion. He had to guess Gojo was a teacher, with Ijichi being his assistant. There was no cursed energy, did that mean there were no cursed spirits? The thought sounded appealing, but then, where would Yuji fit in?
The same few thoughts swam circles around his mind as Ijichi brought him to the hospital, and his wounds were patched up without much fanfare. He laid alone in the bed with a blood bag stuck in his arm, feeling pathetic, confused, and most of all, exhausted.
He stared at the wall for what might’ve been a few hours, before he perked up at the sound of footsteps approaching his room. The door opened, and he anticipated a nurse, but instead, he was excited to see Gojo waltz in.
“Hey, kid! I brought ya something..” He made himself comfortable, plopping down in a chair and pulling it up to his bedside. In one hand was his cane, in the other, an extra large blue slushee from 7-11.
“Gojo!” He smiled, a little wearily, taking the slushee and gulping at least a third of it down. They had given him IV fluids during treatment, but his mouth and throat were still so damn dry. “You didn’t have to come here…”
”Hey, that’ll be Mr. Gojo to you.” He leaned towards him, his face splitting in a grin. “Becauseeeee… I enrolled you in the school I work at!”
”What?!” Yuji furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. “Aren’t there fees, and… how do you know I’m not enrolled at some other school?”
”I looked you up! There’s no records on a Yuji Itadori, like… anywhere. At least not one that looks like you.”
Creepy.. Yuji thought to himself.
”Also, I took care of the fees. It’s no skin off my nose, really. I dunno your story, but I do know that you definitely need a place to stay.”
”You’re perceptive..” Yuji managed a chuckle, more from shock than anything else.
“There’s a dorm waiting for you on campus, whenever you’re ready to get out of this place. We’ll work out the details in the coming weeks.” Gojo smiled, leaning back in his chair and crossing his legs.
Yuji took another sip on his slushee. It was indescribably strange, to hear all these words and mannerisms that were distinctly Gojo, come from someone who he knew wasn’t him. At least, not the Gojo that he knew. This Gojo lived a much less stressful life, blissfully roaming a high school campus. He wondered absently what he taught.
”Well, it's been nice chatting with you. Rest up, alright? I think your classmates are gonna love you.”
“Thank you, Go— ah, Mr. Gojo.” Yuji slurped down the last of his slushee and laid his head back on the pillow. And with that, his new teacher swiftly left.
Alone with his thoughts once again, he felt a pang in his chest. If Gojo was here, surely his friends would be here too. Wouldn’t they? It was a comforting thought at first, until he once again remembered Megumi.
He was barely able to distract himself from his feelings when he was stretched to the brim with sorcerer work. What would he do in a world without cursed spirits? A world where he got to be a normal kid? It was always something he had fantasized about, but he hadn’t imagined Megumi being in it. Where they could eat lunch together, or get ice cream, like normal high schoolers.
He remembered watching those boys at the ice cream shop. He clenched his fists.
He knew he was in trouble.