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Maki breathes out, slow and even. “Megumi. Your request to go out after him has been denied.”
Megumi stares at her. “What?”
She stares back.
If he was any less pissed off right now, Megumi would appreciate her cool confidence. As it stands, all he wants to do is scream. He doesn’t have time for this. He -
Even before he walked into the room, Megumi was prepared to bite someone's head off. Itadori Yuuji went on a mission three days ago, and has not returned since. Itadori Yuuji is considered missing. He might be dead. And Megumi could be out there right now, finding Yuuji, helping him, making sure he isn’t dead - he’s not, he’s too powerful for that. He wouldn’t die.
(But Megumi has also seen the greatest sorcerers lose in the span of a second, from one small mistake. And that’s.)
He clenches his jaw. He has to be patient, he doesn’t have an option. Because Megumi doesn’t know the location. He doesn’t know the fucking location Yuuji… disappeared, so he has to sit here and wait. But he doesn’t have time for Maki’s cryptic bullshit answers of not letting him go, because who are they to tell him what to do when Yuuji is in active danger and the longer they spend standing around doing nothing the more likely it is he won’t come back at all?
“Maki -”
“It wasn’t my decision.” The reply is sharp, resigned and heavy at the same time. Megumi’s legs burn with the need to move. He doesn’t have time.
It’s dark, dust motes floating around. The room is empty except for a few scattered desks and a chalkboard. There’s a small window streaming in some light. An old classroom, Megumi thinks vaguely. The desk he sits at is full of pencil scratches and doodles, ones that make him pause.
Before he can register them, Maki taps the desk in front of her. She looks tired, like she hasn’t slept in a while.
Megumi’s been told they have similar expressions, sometimes.
She sighs. “Megumi,” she starts. She glances off to the side, as if expecting to see another face there, before pulling her gaze back.
That’s -
“Where’s Nobara?”
“She's - I told her to stay back.” Maki says, a bit too sharp, and then doesn't say anything else. There’s something complicated underlying her expression that feels too raw, too much. Megumi can imagine - Nobara isn’t one to sit there and wait for people to tell her what to do. But he doesn’t ask. He can’t ask, not right now. He knows Nobara can take care of herself.
Instead, he nods. “Fine. Where is Yuuji.” He doesn’t have time for this, and he knows he’s being rude and hasty but he could not give less of a damn. Yuuji is out there.
Maki just shakes her head. Something about the motion is so… vacant, so settled it makes Megumi’s pulse jump. He does not have time for this. How does she - how do they not understand he doesn’t have time -
Slamming his hands on the desk, he stands up. “I’m going after Yuuji, and that’s final. You can’t stop me.”
Maki stands up too, voice low. She’s always controlled, careful. “Megumi, don’t be even stupider than usual. You’re going to get killed if you go in without a plan.”
‘So what,’ he almost says, but swallows the words down instead. He hangs his head instead, letting his hair fall forward and cover his expression. The desk is old. There’s a drawing in the corner - a tiny bunny, with an arrow pointing to it and the label ‘strongest shadow’. There’s another drawing next to that one, a crudely drawn dog.
Oh.
(He knows whose table this is.)
He feels like screaming.
“I know it's stupid,” he says to Maki, voice equally low. The undercurrent of anger in his voice is sharp, like static. He's painfully, acutely aware of how ridiculous he's being right now. “But I’m not going to sit here and wait for a plan to fall into my lap. We have no leads, but if I just revisit the place he was last spotted then -”
“Are you listening to yourself right now?” Maki scoffs. “Revisit the certified trap he was last spotted at? Aren’t you supposed to be the collected one? You stupid, moronic -” She clenches her fist and then unclenches it, and for the first time Megumi wonders why they sent Maki out here to talk to him instead of one of the more coolheaded third years. “Megumi. You’re not going to save anyone if you die too.”
“Too?”
Immediately, Maki narrows her eyes. “You know that’s not what I meant.”
Megumi knows. He stares at her. “I’m going.”
“What you’re thinking of doing is a suicide mission, do you get that? You won’t -”
“I’ll be fine.”
Maki slams the desk, and it creaks under the force of her hit. They both look down at it. “Megumi -” she starts, then stops.
“I. I can’t leave him all alone. I can’t lose him.” The words burn his tongue, but he spits them out - Megumi knows his cousin will never let him leave if he doesn’t give her something. And he knows, he knows he’s being irrational and ridiculous and there’s no way this is going to work, but.
He can still remember the way Yuuji had grinned up at him after etching the bunny into the desk, blinding in his glee over something so small and simple.
There’s no time.
After a second of silence, Maki shakes her head. “I can’t let you go, Megumi.”
He knows that, and he wants to scream. He calls up Kon instead.
For a split second, Maki’s expression breaks, giving way to her exhaustion and anger. For just a second. “Megumi.” Then her cool mask is back up again. “Don’t do this.”
Megumi shakes his head. “There’s no time.”
Maki straightens. The motion is tired. She’s tired.
Yuuji must be exhausted. And that - that’s all Megumi can care about, right now.
He raises his hands. He doesn’t have time.