Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“I bought us a little over a month,” Gojo announced after they’d spent a considerable amount of time explaining everything that had happened since he’d been sealed in the prison realm.

“For your recovery?” Utahime asked. He looked healthy to her, and she assumed Shoko had cleared him if she’d allowed them into the infirmary to see him. A month seemed unnecessary. 

He shook his head. “For training.”

Everyone wore the same look of confusion.

“What is there for you to train?” Gakuganji asked. “This is the night before the concert. You know the notes now or you don’t. It’s too late for practice to help. Either you are the strongest or Sakuna is.”

Gojo smiled. “Or we could just make Sukuna the weakest.”

“Hah?” Shoko asked.

Then Gojo tilted his head directly towards Utahime.

“No,” Utahime said sternly. “I could help you for something like a long distance attack, but if you need to rely on me, this whole fight is pointless. You might as well admit you’re not the strongest.”

Gojo chuckled. “As weak as you are now, of course it’s a horrible idea. You’d be too close to the battlefield or we’d move too quickly for you to keep up. That’s why we need the time for training.”

“Gojo,” Utahime said with as much disdain as she could muster. “What do you think will change in one month that hasn’t changed in over a decade?”

He grinned. “I’m gonna be teaching you this time.”

She scowled. “You have your own students. If I have to train with you, I’d kill you before you ever make it to Sukuna.”

“Maybe if you trained with me, you could actually do it,” he said, sounding excited about the prospect.

“We have a month,” Shoko said with a shrug. “You might as well do it. If nothing else, it’ll keep him on task and get him in shape.”

“Yeah, it’ll keep me on task,” Gojo said, smirking at Utahime. “But I think I’m already in shape.”

“I didn’t sign up to be your babysitter!” she snapped at him.

“Well,” Gojo said, putting a finger on his chin. “Actually, I think this time, I’d be babysitting you since I’d be teaching. Feel free to call me sensei.”

“Not on your life!” she screeched, preparing to wring his neck.

“Great,” he said, clapping his hands together like she’d agreed. “Let’s get started right away.”

“Good luck,” Shoko told her, only offering her a smile in support.

“You may as well take advantage of the opportunity,” Gakuganji said before turning to leave the room.

“Come on,” Gojo said, beating Gakuganji to the door because he was an ass. “We’ll start with the gym.”

Utahime sighed and accepted her fate, following him out. He would annoy her into doing what he asked anyways, and this would spare her the trouble.

“Are you serious about this?” she asked. “If you really don’t believe you’re the strongest we need to come up with another plan for facing Sukuna than just throwing you at him.”

He raised his eyebrows at her, and how strange to see them again after the last few years of him wearing blindfolds or bandages to cover them up.  “Of course, I’m the strongest. If it were just about me versus him, I wouldn’t have to worry about it, but this isn’t some dick measuring contest.”

“Gojo!” she snapped, looking around to double check none of the students were near. Thankfully they were still alone.

“What?” he asked. “You want me to say pissing contest instead?”

“No,” she said sternly.

“Come on,” he teased as he opened the door for her. “Tell me it’s not what you think of any time I say I’m the strongest.”

She scowled as she passed him. She found his bragging about his strength as annoying as him calling her weak for precisely that reason. It was such a guy thing to miss the whole point.

She cleared her throat and finally dared to say the words that always popped into her head whenever she heard him say that. “It’s not what you have, it’s how you use it.”

Gojo gasped, delighted. “Why, Utahime, I never knew you thought that way about me.”

“It’s not about you!” she snapped.

“Of course it is,” he said with a grin. “Who else could it be about?”

She gave him a sharp look. “You don’t have a monopoly on it.”

“Well, now I feel under appreciated,” he said, before waving that off. “In any case, like I said, this isn’t about testing my strength in a one v one situation. We need to take out Sukuna no matter what which means we need to use every advantage we have and remove any one that he has. It’s not enough for me to win. I need to win and have enough left over to help take out Kenjaku and Uraume and any curses Kenjaku has in store. It’s not exactly a one and done where I can go all out and not worry about the consequences.”

Utahime sighed. “I already told you that I can’t help beyond an opening salvo. You didn’t see what Sukuna did in Shibuya. I can’t cover that sort of range.”

“As you are now,” he said, smiling as he opened the door to the gym. “But training’s all about moving beyond that.”

He walked into the center of the room, and she followed him, stopping a few feet away from him.

“Alright, use your technique on yourself with as much power as you can give it,” he said, training his Six Eyes on her.

She took an even breath in and let it out again. “I could do more with an instrument, but I’ll work with what I have now.”

As a student, she had experimented with the activation of her technique. She could either do it quickly, or she could do it powerfully. She chose the later this time, using traditional, intentional dance steps along with her hand signs as she sang the incantation at the lower end of her register. She fell silent as she completed her turn to face Gojo again. Cursed energy flooded through her, like a shot of caffeine injected straight into her bloodstream.

She tilted her head, fixing Gojo with a steady stare, waiting for his teasing or criticism.

Instead, Gojo grinned. He appeared before her, the space between them eaten up by his technique. He lightly tapped the tip of her nose. “Tag, you’re it!”

“Gojo!” she slapped at his hand, but he’d already darted back with a laugh.

“You know how tag works, don’t you?” he asked.

“Of course, I do,” she snapped.

He held up his hands, making a ‘come at me’ motion to her.

She swallowed down her anger and used the surging cursed energy to reinforce her body and increase her speed. She leaped at him, but he dodged at the last moment.

He laughed. “Alright, Utahime, let’s go!”

She chased him, back and forth and around the gym over and over again. He’d let her get close then dart away again, but he never used his technique to teleport. Sweat gathered at her hairline and dripped down her back. She certainly was never as fast as Gojo when it came to exorcising curses, but her fights had never gone on for this long. Still, while she didn’t tire with the coursing curse energy, she wasn’t used to moving so fast in such a contained area. Her boots slid on the smooth flooring more than once, and she had to be careful and adjust to it.

“How long are we going to do this for?” she asked as she slowed her pace to try and lull him into a false sense of security.

“As long as you possibly can,” he said. “It’s not really training if we don’t push your limits, is it?”

She huffed. “Fine.”

They were going to be there a while. She still had plenty of cursed energy left for running around.

She launched herself at him again. He swerved out of her path. She kicked out at him, trying to catch him unaware, but he dodged it as well.

“Hey, hey, you’re not supposed to kick in tag,” he said with a grin. “But I guess I can allow it for you, Utahime.”

“Shut up,” she snapped, turning on a dime to lunge at him again. Her foot nearly slid out from underneath her again, and she might as well have missed by a mile.

Around and around they went in nonsensical patterns, slowly draining her boosted reserve of cursed energy. Utahime mostly just chased him down, making sure to be careful on her turns, but she did test out a few kicks on him and other strikes if he stayed in range just to break up the monotony.

“Alright, alright, that’s low enough,” he said, stopping and holding out a hand towards her.

She nodded. At their current rate, she had around a minute or two worth of energy left to reinforce her body before she would have stopped reinforcing herself to be able to get off a last ditch attack on a curse. She walked over to Gojo and tapped his outstretched hand.

“You’re it,” she said.

“You just spent a couple hours chasing me around a gym which is actually a lot longer than I thought you’d be able to last,” he said, “You’re more efficient with your cursed energy usage especially while boosted than I expected.”

“It’s not as if we were doing anything dramatic,” she said, using the edge of her sleeve to dab at the sweat on her face.

“No, but you were using it constantly the whole time,” he said using his sleeve to wipe his face.

Apparently, she could run for long enough to make Gojo Satoru sweat. She exhaled and released her technique.

She nearly collapsed where she was standing as the effort of running for so long hit her all at once.

“Easy, easy,” Gojo said as he caught her by the upper arm, and she automatically latched onto him in return. “You should have told me if you weren’t in shape.”

“I am in shape,” she practically growled as he guided her down to the floor when it was clear she wasn’t going to be able to get her feet underneath herself. “I’ve never used my technique for this long before, and I haven’t overdone it like this in ages.”

He sat down beside her, sprawling out his legs and resting back on his hands. “Alright, I’ll take the blame then. I did have you push your limits.”

“I might have pushed yours, too,” she said, pulling her hair from her sweaty neck. “Don’t think I haven’t noticed the sweat and heavy breathing.”

He shook his head then put a finger to his lips. “Don’t go telling people about it. I’ve never taken more than a few minutes to finish off a curse.”

“Endurance is definitely one of the things you should work on since we have this month,” she said, using her hand to pull her foot closer to unzip her boot.

“Woah, one of?” he asked. “Did you forget who you’re talking to?”

“No, I didn’t, oh Strongest One,” she said sarcastically, rolling her eyes as she pulled off her boot. “Strength isn’t the only thing that matters in a fight.”

“Strategy, reflexes, adaptation,” he said. “I’ve got all that, and you already mentioned endurance. What else do you need?”

She sighed as she pulled her other foot in. “You seriously want to know? Can your ego even take it?”

“So mean, Utahime,” he complained. “I’m a big boy. You can tell me the truth.”

She couldn’t help a small smile as she removed her second boot. “You lack grace. Finesse. Precision. However you want to call it.”

“Precision?” he asked. “I seem to recall you nearly losing your footing a few times.”

“I wore boots into a gym, and it’s not what I’m talking about. You’re so over powered you throw your strength, your body around willy nilly. You use hammers even when a scalpel would work better,” she said. “I was there during the Goodwill Event, remember? You threw hollow purple at the special grade curse, destroying the grounds, nearly taking out your own student, and allowing the curse to escape in the light. So yes, you lack finesse and precision.”

He made a grossed out face. “That’s only one example.”

“It’s nearly every example of your work,” she said sharply. “You also lack control—,”

“Control?” he asked loudly. “Are you crazy? You know what my technique is? I have to control everything down to the atom.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Over your body.”

“Huh?” he said. “Pretty sure I can control my body exactly the way I want to.”

“Oh, is that why you’re still walking around like some Gumby man who never got used to his own growth spurt?” she asked derisively.

“That was totally uncalled for,” he said, leaning away from her. “And rude. You have no idea what having a growth spurt does to you since you’re only yay high.”

He leveled out his hand above the floor as if she were the height of a toddler.

She sighed. “It’s honestly wasted on you.”

“It is not,” he insisted, putting his hand down.

“No woman wants a guy that slouches and doesn’t even look that comfortable in his own skin,” she retorted to get him back for all the times he said a man wouldn’t want her.

“Tell that to my exes, and I don’t slouch.”

“One night stands don’t count,” she said and continued as he opened his mouth. “You’re also too reliant on your vision.”

“Too reliant?” he asked, offended.

“Yes, yes, you have Six Eyes, you need them for your technique blah, blah, blah,” she said, waving her hand. “But what do you think Sukuna will go for the moment he breaks through your Infinity if he has an ounce of sense?”

He frowned, a rare occurrence for her as usually things were the other way around. “My eyes, but I have reverse cursed technique.”

“It may not be instant,” she said. “And you can’t freeze up if it happens.”

“I’ve survived deadly attacks before,” he said, tapping his forehead, right over his old scar.

“Not to your eyes,” she said.

He pouted.

“I’m just saying, there are things even you have to work on,” she said. “Sukuna isn’t like anything else you’ve faced before. We have to assume he’s at least on your level which means for once, a millimeter may be the difference between success and failure. You need to make sure that space is yours.”

“There’s an infinity even in a millimeter,” he mused then looked over to her. “How do you suggest I fix it?”

“Well, a blindfold won’t work too well on you,” she paused as he shook his head.

“Not that,” he said. “For body control, for…finesse.”

He said it like he was testing out the word’s texture.

Utahime laughed. “Maybe there’s other ways to do it, but I learned it with dance.”

“You’re going to make me dance?” he asked, aghast. “I don’t dance.”

“Yeah, I noticed, Gumby-Man,” she said, carefully getting to her feet. Her legs held.

Gojo popped up next to her. “I’m supposed to be the one teasing you. This feels wrong.”

She shrugged. “Welcome to my life.”

“It sucks.”

“Well, if it’s any consolation, I feel pretty good about not getting sealed in the prison realm,” she said as she walked towards the exit. “I’m getting food. Come if you want to.”

“I’m coming,” he said, quickly catching up to her. “You don’t want me to teleport you with your shoes off?”

“I’ll survive,” she said, doing her best to ignore how much taller than her he was now without her heels on.

“We’ll have to work out a proper schedule for the next month, the fastest way for everyone to learn what they need to,” he said. “You haven’t learned reverse cursed technique either, have you?”

“I’ve tried,” she said, pausing when they reached the door to the exterior. She pulled off her socks, tucking them into her shoes before stepping out.

“Your feet aren’t cold?” he asked.

“They’re fine,” she said as the cold hardly touched her after running around in her boots.

She glanced over to him, and he was making some sort of weird face.

“Are you seriously that concerned about it?” she asked. “I’m not that wimpy.”

“Cold doesn’t care whether you’re strong or not,” he said.

“I’m telling you I’m fine,” she said, walking across the cold ground and watching where she stepped.

Gojo opened the door to the main building for her, and she gave her thanks automatically. She left her boots at the entrance, but put her socks back on as he took off his shoes. They walked side by side over to the cafeteria where everyone else had gathered. Shoko noticed them first.

“Hey, how did your first session go?” she asked.

“Great,” Gojo said with a giant smile before Utahime could answer. “We played tag.”

“Sounds fun,” she said as if that were a totally normal training activity.

“I wish we could play tag for my training,” Itadori said as he passed by with his food. It was half snacks and half microwavable meals. With most of the city shut down and evacuated including the school’s staff, they were left scrounging for packaged and non-perishable food. They’d been talking about driving out of the city to get fresh food, but there was a good chance that Gojo might be sent on a grocery run now that they had him back.

“Your speed and agility’s fine,” Gojo said. “You have other things to worry about.”

“I know,” Itadori said with a pout as he sat down beside his brother, which Utahime tried not contemplate too hard less she give herself a headache, and his fellow students as well as Kurusu, and Ui Ui. They’d put tables together to all fit.

It was honestly too many children to fight this coming battle. 

Utahime headed to the kitchen area to grab her own microwavable meal and some snacks, all the spiciest of what they had left so it would have some flavor. Gojo, of course, picked all the sweetest treats though he at least picked one of the meals with some protein in it even if it was mac n cheese. She left him to microwave it once hers had finished.

She took a seat beside Shoko. Ijichi sat on across from her while Gakuganji occupied the other end of the table with Higuruma, Kusakabe, and Mei Mei. That left the seat across from her as the only spot available for Gojo.

“Going to survive a whole month with Gojo?” Shoko asked.

“I’ve done a whole school year before,” Utahime said, stirring her food together.

“You all were students together?” Higuruma asked.

“Yes, Gojo and Shoko were in the same class a few years below me, and Ijichi the year after Gojo and Shoko,” Utahime explained to him.

“Ah, so you all know each other well,” he said.

“We’re not a very large community, honestly,” she said, trying not to grimace at how it had been cut down recently.

“Sup,” Gojo said as he set his plate and snacks down and took his seat.

Higuruma shot his meal a skeptical look.

“Don’t worry,” Gojo told him with a smile. “My diet hasn’t killed me yet.”

“It might be the only thing that can kill him,” Shoko joked, but it fell flat.

“If we send you for groceries, will you get real food?” Utahime asked before the silence could go on for too long.

“You actually trust me to go grocery shopping?” Gojo asked.

“No, that’s why I asked,” she said.

“I can always take someone with me,” he said.

Higuruma cleared his throat, and they turned to him. “You can transport another person with your teleportation ability?”

“Yep,” Gojo said cheerfully.

“It’s awful,” Utahime said, recalling the sick disorienting feeling of blinking and being somewhere else.

“It sucks,” Shoko agreed, and Ijichi nodded fervently.

“It does not,” Gojo said then turned around in his seat to look at the kid’s table. “Oi, Yuji, you didn’t mind getting teleported, did you?”

Itadori cut off from whatever he’d been talking about to turn to Gojo. He gave him a thumbs up. “It was fine once I figured out what happened.”

Gojo gave him a thumbs up back before turning back to the table. “See? You guys are just wimps.”

Utahime shared a look with Shoko.

“I’d be happy to go grocery shopping with you,” Higuruma said tentatively.

“Sure,” Gojo said with a grin.

“Make sure he uses his money,” Utahime told Higuruma.

“Sorry?” Higuruma asked.

“He’s loaded. He could afford getting us a week’s worth of proper groceries,” she said.

“I wouldn’t make him pay,” Gojo said with a pout. “You’re making me sound cheap.”

“Should I expect more of this if you guys keep training together?” Shoko asked before taking a drink of her soda. They were saving their bottled water for just in case.

“Shoko,” he said, sounding urgent. “Utahime thinks she needs to teach me how to dance to beat Sukuna.”

“That’s not what I said,” Utahime snapped as Shoko chortled.

“Do you even know how to follow a beat?” Shoko asked Gojo.

“In theory,” he said with a shrug before shoveling a large scoop of his mac n cheese into his mouth.

“You know how to dance?” Higuruma asked Utahime.

She nodded. “My cursed technique is…sensitive to music and dance. I learned to strengthen it.”

He frowned. “I didn’t know that. I don’t believe my technique is sensitive to anything.”

“Not all of them are,” she said. “Mine is. It’s also why I wear this outfit.”

“Really?” he asked.

Before she could answer, Gakuganji cleared his throat. “Finish eating. We need to discuss a proper training schedule. We don’t have much time.”

“Yeah, yeah, we got it Gramps,” Gojo said sourly, refusing to even look in his direction.

Utahime raised an eyebrow at him as that was even more hostile than normal.

Gojo caught her eyes then shook his head.

She sighed and went back to her food.

Chapter Text

Once everyone had finished eating, they ended up moving to the lecture hall. The students and players took seats, separating into smaller groups, but Utahime joined the other staff around the stage. Gakuganji took a position standing on stage, but he stood to the side. Instead, Kusakabe sat down at the edge of the stage right in the center. Gojo sat a couple feet from him, and Utahime stood beside Shoko near him.

“So, everyone’s clear on what’s happened the last month?” Kusakabe asked. He looked around the room before looking over to Gojo.

Gojo nodded, but so did a number of the people in the seats. Kusakabe turned back to the audience.

“We’ve got until December 24th so we need a game plan to make the most of our time when it comes to training,” he said. “We don’t need a repeat of Shibuya where Gojo goes in first and it all gets shot to hell. Sukuna is a heavy weight, but so is Kenjaku, and he can pull out special grade curses and potentially more cursed techniques. Those of you who were here for the parade last year already have a good idea of what we could be up against. There’s also this Uraume character to deal with, too. This is going to be an all out battle with multiple opponents so we need to decide who goes on the battlefield to face who.”

“All out means we all fight,” Kashimo scoffed. “I’m going first, though.”

“Where’s the sense in sending out someone to get killed if they can’t even buy us an opening?” Kusakabe asked then sighed. “With regards to the merger with Tengen, I have a feeling that we can use cursed energy to prevent ourselves from being included. Even if Sukuna and Kenjaku get their way, I don’t think it’s impossible to survive the merger when the resulting monster starts wreaking havoc on the world. I expect Kenjaku to hunt down remaining players, though. No matter how this plays out, we’ll at least have a few days, more if Kenjaku isn’t the one left standing.”

Utahime glanced over to Gojo. He twisted his mouth to one side then the other before stilling. She privately agreed before turning back to the audience.

Kamo stood, raising his hand. “I’m sorry, but I’ll have to abstain from participating in the fight. I don’t think I’ll be of any assistance. I’d like to watch over my family even if only for a little while. I intend to take them with me and flee overseas. I’m very—,”

“Okay, okay, got it. No worries,” Kusakabe said, holding up his hands and gently motioning for the boy to sit. “You don’t need to declare it. It’s not a public execution. What would actually be extraordinary is if you were able to help in the battle.”

Utahime winced as Kamo frowned, but she didn’t disagree. She tried to help him broaden his horizons beyond just his inherited technique as it would take reverse cursed technique to be able to heal himself to be able to do much with his blood beyond his arrows. She couldn’t use the technique herself so couldn’t help him learn it. He lacked experience with cursed tools, and even his physical strength and reinforcement had only been trained enough to support his technique.

She felt eyes on her. She turned, spotting Gojo looking at her. He raised an eyebrow at her, and she turned away. 

“People who have the reverse cursed technique, those who are willing to die or would like to die can fight, everyone else is out or just here for support,” Kusakabe said.

“I’m going after Kashimo,” Higuruma said, raising his hand like they were in court.

Gojo huffed.

“I can seize Sukuna’s cursed technique,” he explained.

“You’re provoking me by assuming I’m going to lose,” Kashimo said, irritated.

“That’s my line,” Gojo commented under his breath.

“There, there,” Shoko said unsympathetically.

Higuruma ignored Kashimo and continued, “If the Death Penalty is confirmed, I can fight Sukuna with the Executioner’s Sword.”

“Which is what?” Gojo stage whispered. “I don’t remember everyone’s technique.”

“It’s a one hit killing sword,” Kusakabe told him.

“I’d say we should start with that except he has no fighting experience,” Gojo complained.

“It’s not just that, aren’t Seizure and Death Penalty not guaranteed?” Kusakabe asked, turning back to Higuruma.

“It will depend on what offenses the judge raises for Sukuna’s crimes which you can’t choose,” Itadori answered for him.

“That’s right,” Higuruma confirmed.

“I exchanged places with Sukuna three times, in high school, in the juvenile detention center, and in Shibuya,” Itadori listed off. “A lot of people died in Shibuya and the juvenile detention center. He’s doing all the things he wants to after migrating into Fushiguro. Can’t we point out a crime that has a high probability to get a judgment with the death penalty?”

“To be honest, it will be difficult,” Higuruma said, putting his hand to his chin. “Summarizing the information about Sukuna, the actions Sukuna took with the high school Itadori was in are: harming Itadori by taking over his body, and the attempted murder of Gojo Satoru.”

“Hardly attempted,” Gojo muttered.

“Shut up,” Utahime hissed at him.

“At the juvenile detention center: complete assassination against Itadori, although this could be seen as an attempt since Itadori has come back to life, attempted assassination of Fushiguro Megumi,” Higuruma continued. “In Shibuya: total assassination against two female students who were cursed technique users, attempted murder of a large number of civilians, complete murder of the side ponytail cursed technique user, burning of buildings under construction. Also, about taking over Fushiguro Megumi’s body, depending on the condition of his body, it is fair to claim damage, total murder, and crime for obtaining a corpse.”

Utahime glanced over to Gojo to see him frowning grimly.

“It was worse at the juvenile detention center,” Itadori insisted.

“Sukuna’s finger, it is difficult to prosecute Sukuna for a crime if it is a cursed object. Indirectly, it is Sukuna’s fault because he is not aiding and abetting. The same could be said of Yoshino Junpei’s mother.”

Utahime frowned. She wasn’t familiar with that name.

“For the assessment of guilt, if you kill a person, you will be punished with ten to fifteen years in prison. If you kill two if will be life imprisonment or death penalty. If you kill three or more people, it’s basically the death penalty,” Higuruma said. “It’s impossible to rehabilitate Sukuna because of the social impact and his brutal, selfish actions. Comparing it to the Nagayama Criteria, it should be a death sentence, if it’s an ordinary court.”

“If it’s a normal court, including all crimes, Sukuna should get the death penalty, but with Higuruma’s cursed technique…the judge raises each crime for prosecution. If those are the ‘only’ crimes he committed, we have about a thirty percent chance of achieving the death penalty,” Kusakabe said. “But the problem is the misdemeanors that will absorb the heinous crimes. For example, if you stab someone, you could be prosecuted for injury and attempted murder, but at the same time, the cloth will be torn which can be considered property damage. There is a possibility that the judge will prosecute Sukuna’s massacre for property damage or trespassing.”

“In that case, it is difficult to get the death penalty,” Higuruma agreed.

“The judge even raised my crime as playing pachinko,” Itadori said.

“Yes, and the other way around, Sukuna could be prosecuted for misdemeanors from the moment he reincarnated into Itadori,” Kusakabe said.

“Besides, there’s the additional issue of the crimes from 1000 years ago,” Higuruma said.

“Doesn’t the statue of limitations apply to them?” Kusakabe asked.

“Modern law was introduced in the Meiji era, and modern law has the concept of a statute of limitations,” Higuruma said.

“Then the statute of limitations apply,” Itadori said.

“In 2010, the code of criminal procedure was amended to remove the statute of limitations on murder,” he added.

“So the statute of limitations doesn’t apply?!” Itadori asked.

“No, there is a statute of limitations for murders that took place before 1985,” he said.

“Then it does apply!”

“However, the legal system of the Heian period has no statute of limitations.”

“So it doesn’t apply?” he asked. “Which is it?”

“I don’t know,” Higuruma admitted. “If the criminal is outside Japan then the statute of limitations will stop. Depending on how Sukuna’s case is handled before reincarnation, it might not apply even with modern laws.”

“Then maybe being dead will be assumed as being oversees,” Hakari suggested.

“Yes,” Higuruma said. “Judge Higur is a shikigami attached to my cursed technique. If I think it is possible, I guess that’s how the judge will decide.”

“In conclusion,” Kusakabe said, “Regarding the crimes of 1000 years ago and the judge’s discretion, Sukuna’s additional crimes are countless, and the probability of choosing a crime among all of them will be really low.”

“At least you can start from Guilty to Seize, that will be useful enough,” Hakari said.

“But I don’t know if the seizure will apply to both the Ten Shadows and The Shrine. If it were only one of them…” Higuruma trailed off.

Kusakabe sighed. “Well, even if that’s the case, it will help us quite a bit.”

Itadori then sat bolt upright. “Maybe there is a way to give Sukuna a death sentence.”

Higuruma blinked. “Yes, there is.”

“What?” Kusakabe asked.

“You can ask for a retrial,” Higuruma said as Itadori nodded along enthusiastically. “I already tried Itadori for Shibuya. If he calls for a retrial with Sukuna, we’ll have him on a crime he can certainly receive the death penalty for.”

Gojo sighed exaggeratedly. “That’s going to be so much more complicated to pull off ensuring both of you are close enough to Sukuna. For the best chances of success, you’ll have to wait until I can take care of Sukuna’s domain expansion.”

“What about me?” Kashimo snapped. “You’re forgetting about me again.”

“Sure, you can fight Sukuna once his domain is down, too,” Gojo said with a shrug.

It barely seemed to mollify the guy. Utahime bit down on her comments. 

“Okay, that’s a couple things sorted, but we still have everything else to deal with,” Kusakabe said. “There’s Uraume and Kenjaku with all the curses he has control over.”

“Screw game planning Kenjaku,” Hakari said at the same time as he raised his hand. “We don’t know what he’s got so we gotta be ready for anything. What’s important is everyone fighting has reverse cursed technique or anti-domain tactics.”

Utahime sighed. He made a fair point, but how do you teach so many people such a difficult technique?

“That’s a no go for me,” Maki said.

“I wasn’t talking about you,” he snapped.

“I believe Yuji and I can get by with reverse cursed technique,” Choso said.

“Huh? Me?” Itadori asked.

“Ieri, Hakari, Okkotsu, I’ve been meaning to ask, how do you compensate for your lost blood?” Choso asked instead of answering Itadori.

“Dunno, I go off autopilot,” Hakari said.

“I use my instinct, too,” Okkotsu answered.

“Just turn some of the cursed energy into blood,” Gojo said. “Since you didn’t ask.”

“Gojo,” Utahime hissed at him.

Choso gave Gojo a look that almost passed for apologetic.

“I do the same,” Shoko said.

“That’s what I thought. My body allows me to convert cursed energy into blood,” Choso said then gestured to Itadori. “If Yuji absorbs our brothers, he should gain a body capable of that alongside some cursed technique. Also, our bodies allow us to compensate for the technical aspects of the technique. That means the main limiting factor behind reverse cursed technique, its immense cursed energy expense doesn’t apply to us, or so I think.”

Stab her with a fork. It wasn’t right to be talking about a fifteen year old absorbing the fucked up experimental fetuses. Not after he had already consumed so many of Sukuna’s cursed fingers. Not when he saw them as his brothers.

She glanced over to Gojo again. He didn’t seem especially pleased, either.

“Which is to say, the hurdle for you two learning it is much lower than it is for everyone else,” Shoko said.

“But you still need to learn it along with everyone else who doesn’t know it already that intends to fight,” Kusakabe said.

“I may be able to help,” Ui Ui said, and everyone turned towards him. “My technique is the teleportation of targets. If I’m with you, I’m able to transport you to a place or person that I’ve previously marked. We’ve thought of the soul and the body as two separate entities. If the body is the box, then the soul is its contents. Think of that box as a person’s birthday present. We can’t swipe the box’s contents of our own accord. However, if we have the permission of the individual, the box’s contents can be taken which is to say, I’m able to swap the souls of two marked individuals.”

“Gwuh?” Itadori gasped.

Utahime hadn’t heard of Ui Ui’s technique being used in such a way, but it sounded creepy to her.

“What’s wrong?” Ui Ui asked.

“Won’t the shape of that person’s body and soul be stretched if they’re swapped?” Itadori asked, looking freaked out.

“There’s no need to worry,” Ui Ui said. “I can swap the contents without opening the boxes. No one can tell whether or not the contents of an unopened box have been tampered with, wouldn’t you say?”

“It makes sense for speeding up the process,” Kusakabe said. “Itadori’s quick progress so far is due to Sukuna. If you do certain movements over and over again whether it’s sports or something else, it’ll become muscle memory. Sukuna used his techniques in Itadori’s body which means his body remembers using extreme special grade jujutsu. Switching places like that, we could do the same thing, hammer the techniques and skills into the other person’s body.”

“There is a limit,” Ui Ui said. “In a single month, the limit for swapping souls is twice per one person. Please consider your pairings wisely.”

Utahime frowned, watching as the audience members looked between each other. She would have a hard time allowing another person into her body or inhabiting theirs.

“Great, love a logic puzzle,” Gojo said under his breath.

Would he be alright with someone else having his Six Eyes and incredible cursed energy and techniques? Could he allow it?

“Alright, quick show of hands, who is interested in actually joining the fight?” Kusakabe asked. “This is nothing to do with whether or not you’re allowed stay here. If you only want to help train, that’s fine, but for right now, if you’re willing to be in the fight, raise your hands?”

Utahime raised hers along with most of everyone in the room. Ui Ui, Mei Mei, Kamo, Panda, and a couple of the players, Amai and Bernard, were the few who didn’t raise their hands. Whether everyone would be useful by the time it came to the wire would be up to the ground they could cover in the next month.

“We’re going to have to talk the training and switching schedule over so I think that’s it for planning for tonight,” Kusakabe said. “I want everyone going to bed early. We start training tomorrow bright and early.”

Tension bled out of the room as people started standing and talking. Kusakabe jumped down from the stage. “You two with me,” Kusakabe said, pointing to Gojo then Utahime as he walked past.

Utahime straightened up and followed him.

“What about me?” Shoko asked.

“I don’t know, are you a teacher?” Kusakabe asked.

“Oh, this is about teaching?” she asked then waved Kusakabe off with a smile. “I’m good.”

“What about getting a good night’s sleep?” Gojo asked as he got down from the stage.

“Ah, you know that’s never about us,” Kusakabe said. 

“But what if it could be?” Gojo asked.

“Maybe some other time,” Kusakabe said, leading them into the staff room. He grabbed some paper and pencils and gestured for them to sit down with him. “We gotta start figuring out a schedule and who is gonna switch with who.”

Gojo grabbed a couple sheets and one of the pencils, and Utahime did the same. Gojo wrote three lists of names lightning quick. He moved the sheet into the middle for the three of them to read.

“That’s everyone with reverse cursed technique, and everyone with anti-domain, and everyone without either,” he said. “Downside is, I’m the only one on both lists unless you guys know something I don’t know.”

Utahime shook her head.

“Will you get pissed if I say we should avoid having you switch with anyone?” Kusakabe asked.

“No, why would I be pissed?” he asked. “We’d have to waste time on them adjusting to Six Eyes.”

“Can’t you turn them off?” Utahime asked.

“Can they keep them off?” he asked.

She frowned, but didn’t argue.

“If what Choso said works otu and Yuji’s going to go in with Higuruma against Sukuna, I’d like him to switch with you,” Gojo told Kusakabe.

“Can Higuruma be the second?” Utahime asked. “I know he’s reverse engineered barriers, but he doesn’t really know the basics or anti-domain techniques. I’d like for his second to be Maki if she’s willing. He has absolutely no fighting experience, and he needs a lot fast.”

“I don’t know that putting him in Maki is the best idea for combat,” Gojo said. “I don’t see issues for learning techniques, but Higuruma still needs to learn to think and react in a battle. He needs to learn to move his own body and spar as much as possible, and if he’s in Maki, he’s going to have to deal with a huge jump in physical difference with her Heavenly Pact. He won’t get as much experience reinforcing himself with cursed energy either.”

Utahime sighed. “Okay, what about having Maki train with Higuruma and Miwa then? Miwa can’t swing a katana anymore, but Maki has experience with all sorts of cursed tools that aren’t swords.”

“What about broom girl?” he asked.

“You know her name is Nishimiya,” Utahime snapped.

“She should learn a long range weapon,” he said.

“Her broom is a cursed tool—,”

“It’s not gonna do shit against Sukuna, and you know it,” he said. “We don’t need a scout. If she’s going to participate, she needs an actual weapon.”

Utahime let out a breath. She’d tried her damnedest to get the girl to consider it, but she’d insisted her broom was enough especially after Utahime had taught her how to use it for wind attacks. “She won’t give up her broom.”

“She shouldn’t, but she should definitely add to it since her technique is tool manipulation,” Gojo said. “Gun, bow and arrow, a sling, literally anything else.”

“A bow would be too much on a broom,” Utahime said.

“Fine, not a bow then,” he said but wrote out a list of Maki, Higuruma, Miwa, and Nishimiya on a new sheet of paper. “Anyone else need combat training?”

“Maybe Kurusu?” Utahime suggested.

“With one arm and the ability to fly?” Kusakabe asked. “Better she stay long distance and focus on reverse cursed technique.”

“She can switch with Shoko,” Gojo said.

“Alright, so far we have a combat class, and I’m switching with Itadori and Higuruma, and Shoko is switching with Kurusu,” Kusakabe said, writing that down.

“Yuji also has to learn blood manipulation and reverse cursed technique with Choso. And Kamo if he sticks around a little longer,” Gojo said. “And I’m doing dance lessons with Utahime.”

Kusakabe looked between the two of them. “Are you serious?”

“He might have taken it personally that I told him he didn’t have enough finesse,” Utahime said.

“And I’m going to prove her wrong,” Gojo said.

She scoffed. He wasn’t magically going to be able to dance in one day.

“Okay, just keep all that to your dancing time,” Kusakabe said, adding that to his page. “Let’s get through the rest of the list.”

They worked their way through the list to pair people up to try and ensure everyone would be able to learn, but there were still people left over who wouldn’t be able to learn reverse cursed technique by switching within their limited schedule.

“Guess I’ll have to teach you the old fashioned away,” Gojo said as Utahime was one of the people left out unless she switched with Gojo or else waited.

“Do you explain any better than Shoko does?” she asked.

“Can’t be worse than hers,” he said with a grin.

She looked away from him.

“Alright, I think that’s enough of a schedule for tonight,” Kusakabe said with a yawn as he straightened out his papers. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

“See you,” she said as she got up even though they’d all be heading towards the dorms together.

They walked silently together, and Utahime noticed only a few lights under the doors they passed. Kusakabe reached his room first, and she and Gojo continued on.

“Goodnight, Utahime,” Gojo sing songed as she opened the door to her room.

“Shut it,” she snapped at him and slammed the door in his face.

She could hear him chuckling through the thin door before he walked away.

Chapter Text

Utahime really did mean to go to sleep after that. She got all ready for bed, taking her time stretching since she’d overdone it in the gym. She wore cozy pajamas and a sweatshirt on top because it was always cold in the building after October, but she kept tossing and turning.

Eventually, she gave up and got up out of bed to find something to try and settle herself to sleep. She put on her slippers and padded her way over to the cafeteria and the possibility of a midnight snack. She paused as she caught the sound of a cabinet opening and closing. She sighed. She was going to have to send some kid to bed even though she was up literally doing the same thing.

She continued on into the kitchen and found Gojo going through the cabinets with only one light on. Good thing she was wearing a sweatshirt so he wouldn’t be directly looking at her without a bra on. He actually wasn’t dressed too differently than her with flannel pj pants and a crewneck sweatshirt.

“Can’t sleep?” she asked.

“There’s nothing to eat,” he said, shutting another pair of cabinet doors. “Can you believe I actually want real food? Maybe even a vegetable.”

She huffed, tucking a loose lock of her hair behind her ear. “Maybe you’ll actually go grocery shopping tomorrow.”

“I definitely am,” he said. “This is all crap. You want cup noodles?”

Well, it would be warm at least. “Fine.”

He pulled down two cup noodles and set them on the counter before filling up the kettle and turning it on. She leaned back against the counter across from the kettle, and he moved to copy her position then crossed his arms. They stood there silently as they watched the kettle heat up.

Utahime cleared her throat. She didn’t talk about this sort of thing with him, but it seemed unavoidable this time. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” he said breezily, but his arms were still crossed.

“I don’t mean just about the box,” she said then wrapped her arms around her stomach. “I meant about Fushiguro—,”

“Don’t,” he interrupted. Not unkindly. His voice suited the quiet of the late hour and the half light of the kitchen. “Do you want me asking about Mai?”

Utahime flinched. She gripped herself tighter, looking away from him and the kettle and towards the empty wall. “It wasn’t even a curse.”

The kettle flipped off. Gojo moved from beside her with a sigh. “You were never going to be able to protect her.”

“Because I’m weak?” she asked. It sickened her how she sounded on the verge of tears.

“No,” he said as he ripped back both lids. “I couldn’t do anything either.”

“You were in a damn box,” she snapped. She’d been right there, available, even if she’d been scrambling in the aftermath of Shibuya.

“Even if I hadn’t been in the box,” he said as he poured the hot water into each of the cups. “I wouldn’t have been able to do anything.”

“You could have saved her,” she said.

“I couldn’t have made her family love her or Maki,” he said, setting the kettle down and flattening the lids of the cups. Then he turned to face her then tilted his head. “You’re not actually about to cry, are you?”

“Gojo, I swear—,” she hissed pushing off the counter, but he shook his head.

He returned to his spot beside her, leaning back again and crossing his arms. “I wish I was sad about it. But what I am is pissed. I can’t even do anything about it because everything’s already busted.”

She readjusted her arms and cleared her throat. “I’m sure you could find some place in the middle of nowhere—,”

“I’d still be destroying something,” he said. “It’s not what anyone needs right now.”

“I wouldn’t think you’d be concerned about something like that,” she said. “Remember that hollow purple I mentioned earlier?”

“I was not nearly as pissed off then,” he said, raising a hand to rub at his jaw.

“So you’re having cup noodles instead,” she said.

“And I’ll go grocery shopping tomorrow.”

She sighed and leaned back against the counter, facing the cups again.

Sometime later, Gojo said, “They’re probably ready now.”

They each took one of the cups and chopsticks, but they returned to leaning against the counter rather than going to sit down in the cafeteria literally around the corner from them. Utahime blew on her noodles before eating them, but Gojo stuffed them into his mouth without pause. They ate without talking.

Utahime glanced over to Gojo out of the corner of her eye as he ate his noodles. She tentatively and lightly leaned against his arm.

He paused, and she nearly pulled away when he leaned back against her.

She stayed where she was and went back to eating her noodles.

“Better?” she asked when they finished.

“I dunno,” he said. “Maybe. Are you?”

“Maybe.”

She waited. For something.

Then she said, “I’m gonna go head back to bed.”

“Okay,” he said.

She pulled away to toss out her cup and put the chopsticks with the other dirty dishes. He stayed where he was.

“Goodnight, Utahime,” he said as she left, no hint of teasing this time.

“Goodnight,” she said, half the word getting swallowed up by a sudden yawn.

She returned to her room and was able to fall asleep at last. She got up and ready at her usual hour despite being sore from the day before, entering the cafeteria to only find the other adults there. Gojo and Higuruma were the only ones missing.

“Please tell me Gojo’s left to grocery shop,” Utahime said.

“Yup,” Shoko said before taking a large swig of her canned coffee.

“Good,” she said, looking to scrounge something up for breakfast. She found the least sweet bun available and called it good enough.

Gojo’s cursed energy burst to life behind her as she was trying to pour herself a cup of the coffee Kusakabe had taken to pouring into a pot to heat in the morning.

“You would not believe how many groceries we had to go to in order to find food,” Gojo said as he set down several overstuffed bags on the counters.

“We only went to three,” Higuruma added, gently setting his bags down beside Gojo’s.

Utahime set the pot down before whirling on Gojo. “Could you not teleport right behind me?”

“Hm,” Gojo said, tilting his head before smiling. “Maybe.”

“Sukuna’s not going to get a chance to stab out your little eyes,” Utahime hissed at him because throwing the coffee pot at him might mean Higuruma gets splashed.

“You know, I actually think they’re completely normal sized,” he said.

“Should we really be antagonizing allies like this?” Higuruma asked, looking slightly concerned.

“You’re fifteen years too late to try and fix this,” Shoko called from the cafeteria.

“It hasn’t been fifteen years yet,” Gojo called back to her. “I’m not even thirty.”

Utahime rolled her eyes, pouring herself coffee without breaking or scalding anything. She glared at Gojo as she passed him. He only smiled back at her.

Utahime took a seat beside Shoko with a huff.

“You know, if you relaxed a little, he might stop,” Shoko commented.

“Yeah, he’s really gonna stop after nearly fifteen years,” Utahime said sarcastically. She ripped opening the packaging then tore savagely into the bread with her teeth.

“Did the bread do something to you?” she asked.

“No,” she said after she’d finished chewing and swallowing her bite. “Who are we putting in charge of cooking now that we actually have food to cook? I’m not sure I would trust one of the students to do it.”

“You’re not volunteering?” Shoko asked.

“Not for this many people,” she said.

“This could be a problem,” she said. “I don’t really want to deal with it either.”

“I can do a rice cooker, and that’s it.”

“Yeah,” she said with a nod. “Someone’s going to end up with food poisoning, aren’t they?”

“And your reverse cursed technique can’t help there.”

“Nope.”

“Good morning,” Gojo said with a bright smile as he sat down across from them. He still had a pastry on him even though he’d just gone grocery shopping. He also had a mug of coffee, but it looked like it had more creamer than coffee in it.

“Ha,” Utahime said sarcastically. “That’s a good one.”

“I got you food like you wanted,” he pointed. “It’s even real.”

She huffed and turned herself away from him and more towards Shoko.

“What?” Gojo asked.

“You know you’re just digging your own grave when it comes to your dance lessons later, right?” Shoko asked him.

“Hardly. I’ll be fine,” he said.

Utahime ignored him all of the rest of the way through breakfast. They had to go find all the students and younger players after that as they still hadn’t shown up by then. Utahime and Shoko took the girls’ dorms while Gojo and Kusakabe handled the boys’. They had to wait until everyone had gotten food and finished eating before announcing the schedule for switches and other training.

“Do I have access to the cursed warehouse?” Maki asked after they’d announced the combat training group.

“Sure,” Gojo said with a smile.

Utahime grimaced. Hopefully, the girl would be reasonable in her choices. “Please bear in mind that Miwa can no longer use a katana.”

“Not a problem,” Maki said, waiving that away. “I’m guessing Nishimiya needs something long range?”

“Yes,” Utahime said even as Nishimiya pouted.

“That will be more difficult, but I’m sure we can find something,” Maki said.

“Higuruma, if you can find something similar to the sword created by your domain, you should practice with that,” Gojo said.

“I understand,” he said with a nod.

“Are we free to go now?” Maki asked.

“Sure,” Gojo said. “None of you are involved in switching.”

“Got it,” she said, getting up. “All three of you with me.”

Once they’d left, Kusakabe started explaining the switches and asking if everyone was alright with going through with them. Angel turned out to be the only one really reluctant about switching, but Kurusu ended up convincing her. Ui Ui performed all the switches except for Kusakabe and Yuji’s switch as he had to absorb his preserved brothers first. Everyone filtered out to get used to their new bodies and find better places to train than the cafeteria, and Kusakabe led the two brothers out to go find the remaining death paintings.

Utahime leaned closer to Gojo and asked quietly, “Are you seriously okay with this? Having Itadori…absorb them like that?”

Gojo shrugged. “I think this is a decision between the brothers, don’t you?”

“But what if something happens? One of the brothers takes over?” she asked. “Isn’t that how they’re supposed to work?”

“Yuji was designed to be a vessel, and he had no issue suppressing Sukuna. The death paintings don’t have real consciousness let alone an entire lifespan like him. He’ll be fine,” he said.

She pressed her lips together, and then Gojo placed his hand lightly on the back of her shoulder, barely a whisper of a touch.

“I don’t think whatever sort of animation the death paintings are currently in is very kind to them either,” he said. “Choso would know better than anyone.”

Utahime let out a breath. “That’s true.”

Then he pulled his hand away. “You alright with a classroom to learn reverse cursed technique?”

“A classroom is fine,” she said. “It doesn’t need to be anywhere special.”

“Alright, then we’ll go to mine,” he said with a grin as he led the way out of the cafeteria.

“You did that on purpose,” she accused.

“Don’t think I forgot what you said yesterday,” he teased.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said. 

“Of course you do,” he said. “Now I’ve gotta prove to you I know how to use it.”

“Gojo,” she snapped, once again checking if no one was around. If Mei Mei had caught that, Utahime might not hear the end of it.

“This way,” he said rather than acknowledging her scolding.

“I know where the classroom is,” she said because it was still the same one she’d sat in as a student all the way back in her first year.

“Where’s your sense of fun?” he asked.

“It died when you showed up,” she said.

“That’s so cruel, Utahime,” he complained as he opened the door to his classroom.

“Stop referring to me like that,” she said as she stepped into the room. “I’m your colleague.”

“You’re much more than that,” he said.

She half expected him to make her sit in one of his student’s seats while he sat behind the teacher’s desk, but instead, he pulled out two chairs and set them across from each other. They were nearly close enough their knees would be touching. She sat down primly, trying to angle her knees out of the way, but Gojo was so infuriatingly lanky and had no issue man spreading so she had to keep her knees between his if she didn’t want to knock into him.

“You’re sensitive to cursed energy because of your technique, right?” he asked.

“I’m not sure how it compares to Six Eyes, but yes,” she said.

It was one of her greatest assets for having a ‘support’ cursed technique. She had a knack for figuring out curses’ attacks, strengths, and weaknesses at far faster than her peers. Aside from Gojo.

“So you can sense this,” he said.

He didn’t physically move, but his cursed energy shifted a minute amount, concentrating in his right hand. It wasn’t enough for any sort of attack, or to reinforce that one hand. She looked down at it then back up to his face.

“Yes,” she told him.

“I didn’t get reverse cursed technique through any of the explanations. I could understand the theory of applying negative energy against itself to get positive energy, but I couldn’t do it until I nearly died,” he said. “I think you might be the same way.”

“Is this the part where you try to kill me?” she asked sardonically.

“No, but I think if I do it as slowly as possible, you might be able to work out how it feels to use the technique,” he said.

She arched an eyebrow. It wasn’t the dumbest thing she’d heard trying to figure out how to use reverse cursed technique. “Alright.”

“I’ll do it a few times.”

She paid close attention to his cursed energy in his hand as it switched from negative to positive. The switch still felt instantaneous. He went back and forth a few times, but it made no difference.

She shook her head. “It’s still too fast.”

“Hm,” he said, opening and closing his hand. “I’ll try to go slower.”

She closed her eyes this time, focusing solely on the cursed energy. He repeated the process, going barely any slower. She could sense the way his negative cursed energy seemed to collide against itself. Was it like nuclear fusion or something?

“Better?” Gojo asked.

“Almost,” she said then asked, “May I?”

She gestured towards his hand.

“Sure,” he said.

“You need to keep your Infinity down,” she warned him.

“It’s down,” he said.

She reached out for his hand, placing it between both of hers. “Do it here. Slowly.”

He repeated it again, right between her palms, and even more slowly.

She took a deep breath then copied him, not in her hand, but beneath her chest where she’s always found it easiest to manipulate her cursed energy. She threw it against itself, and it did collide, but it didn’t transform into something else.

“Almost,” Gojo said, his voice too loud with how hard she’d been concentrating. “You’re gonna need to use more energy, give it a little oomph.”

It took her three more tries, increasing the amount of energy each time before a collision resulted in something new being created

“Ah, I did it!” she said, carefully holding onto it right below her diaphragm.

She opened her eyes to find Gojo grinning back at her, and she really was grinning at her own success. She’d also shifted her hands from laying flat over his to gripping onto it tightly.

“You can let it go,” he said.

She released his hand, but found he was still holding onto one of hers.

“Let the energy go,” he clarified.

“Huh?” she asked. “But I’m not injured.”

“It’ll help with the soreness,” he said. “Besides, you didn’t create enough to really heal anything significant. Pay attention to how it feels.”

She closed her eyes again and let it go. It washed through her quickly. Cursed energy felt energizing, but this positive energy soothed her, almost warm as it flowed throughout her. Some of her soreness did disappear.

“I got it,” she said as the last of the energy was used up and she opened her eyes again. He let her hand go this time. “It’s not so hard once you know what you’re doing.”

He chuckled, reaching up to run his thumb over the faint scar on his forehead. “I know. I couldn’t believe I didn’t get it earlier. But like I said, the explanations don’t do much to help.”

Then he lowered his hand, tilting his head and looking her over.

“What?” she asked, preparing to snap at him if he said something rude.

“All the attempts and one success used up a lot of your cursed energy,” he said. “You’re going to need to get as efficient with it as you are with regular cursed energy.”

“With my technique—,”

He shook his head. “Start without your technique. The limitation will force you to become more efficient.”

“But,” she said, feeling out how little of her cursed energy remained. “I’ll have to wait before I can do it again.”

“That’s fine,” he said then smiled. “You can help me make lunch.”

“I am not making lunch for everyone,” she said, crossing her arms.

“Well, not everyone can cook at once even in a kitchen as large as this one so someone’s gonna have to step up,” he said, pushing himself to his feet.

She had to turn her knees out of the way so he wouldn’t walk into her.

“Besides, you need a snack,” he said, opening the door to the classroom.

“I do not need a snack,” she groused as she followed him. She wasn’t a child.

“Nothing wrong with a little reward for your successes,” he said.

He walked fast, but she didn’t bother keeping up with him. She made it to the kitchen all the same.

Something came flying at her face. She caught it automatically. “What is this?” she asked as she flipped the package over.

“Treat,” he said as he dug through the freezer. “It’s dark chocolate so it’s not that sweet.”

She sighed and leaned back against the counter. She unwrapped the package to reveal wafer stick cookies. She leaned back against the counter, taking a bite out of the cookie. It really wasn’t that sweet all things considered.

Gojo pulled out a family sized bag of frozen vegetables before running around looking for baking trays and parchment paper.

“Do you actually know how to cook?” Utahime asked.

She’d only ever seen him eat convenience store food or else straight from the school’s cafeteria.

“I know how to meal prep,” he said. “So I can at least stick everything in the oven without it catching fire. I think I need a second one of these.”

“You should probably do whatever protein you’re doing first,” Utahime told him. “We’re eating this now not in a week.”

“That is true,” he said then swapped out the veggies for fish fillets. “Salmon’s good, right?”

“Sure,” she said.

He did actually prep the fish to bake from frozen correctly, including washing his hands before he started touching any of the food.

“You sure you don’t want to help with the rice?” he asked as she finished her wafer.

“Sure,” she said. “Where’d you stick it?”

He pointed, and she found the bags he and Higuruma had brought back. She had to spend a minute figuring out the school’s rice cooker because it wasn’t the same as any residential cooker she’d ever used. She got it going and left it to do its job for now, but she suspected that they would need a second round.

“This place has like warming trays or whatever, right?” Gojo asked.

“Probably,” she said.

He checked under the ovens. “Oh, yeah, this’ll work.”

“Oh, good, someone else realized we have a cooking situation.”

Utahime stared at Itadori, but his cursed energy and words were all wrong. Even his expression looked too serious.

“Kusakabe,” Gojo said. “You switched already?”

“Yeah, I got one good round in with the kid before I figured it was time to take a break,” he said. “Choso also gave him one of Tsukumo’s notebooks about her research on souls. I figured it was okay to leave with him since he has the most experience after having Sukuna inside him.”

“Probably for the best,” Gojo said. “You wanna do soup? Or soft boil eggs?”

“I’ll do miso,” he said. “Where’d you put everything?”

“Here,” Gojo said before leading him around.

“How big a batch do you think I can make?” Kusakabe asked once they’d gathered all the ingredients.

“I don’t know. Wanna see this huge pot I found?” Gojo asked.

“Show me.”

Gojo pulled out a soup pot big enough to wash a little kid in with a giant grin.

“Perfect,” Kusakabe said. “Any leftovers can go in the fridge.”

Chapter Text

Utahime stayed out of Gojo and Kusakabe’s way, only manning the rice cooker and storing the cooked rice to keep warm until lunch. Gojo boiled the eggs while the fish finished cooking then got the vegetables into the oven to roast after putting the fish in the warming tray. Kusakabe made the miso soup with dashi packets, and made short work of the tofu and green onions.

“It smells so good!” Kusakabe’s voice came from the cafeteria, enthusiastic the way Itadori’s normally was. “When can we eat?”

“Now, I guess,” Gojo said.

Everyone eventually made their way to the cafeteria for lunch and went through the kitchen to assemble their meal. Even though there were still plenty of snacks and microwavable meals around, everyone picked the freshly cooked food though Kusakabe warned them they had to flavor it themselves.

“They got you to cook, huh?” Shoko asked from Kurusu’s body.

“I only did the rice,” Utahime told her.

“Then who cooked?” she asked.

“I did,” Gojo said as he sat down with his meal. He’d poured too much sauce over the fish, over-seasoned the rice, and still grabbed a pastry for dessert.

“Since when can you cook?” she asked. “How come you never made me dinner before?”

“I only meal prep, and when would I have had time to have anyone over for dinner?” he asked before shoving half a soft boiled egg into his mouth.

“That is a good point,” she mused. “Still, pretty good for meal prep and this many people.”

“Thank you,” he said, beaming at her though he’d thankfully finished the egg first.

Utahime had to admit the fish and vegetables weren’t bad even after being in a warming oven.

“Okay, so,” Gojo said, turning towards Utahime, “We finish eating, check on everyone’s progress, then we can go back to you working on your reverse cursed technique.”

“You got it?” Shoko asked, turning to her in surprise.

“Yeah, I did,” she said, smiling proudly.

“That’s so good,” she said. “I’m so happy for you.”

“And it’s all thanks to my teaching,” Gojo said with a grin.

Utahime scowled, but she couldn’t completely disagree.

“Oh, you’re letting him have that?” Shoko asked with a grin. “Is Gojo actually a good teacher then?”

“For reverse cursed technique,” Utahime reluctantly admitted. “I’m not so sure about the rest.”

“Hey, I’m a great teacher,” Gojo complained. “I held your hand through everything.”

Utahime’s entire face went hot. “Shut up, Gojo.”

Gojo turned wickedly amused. “Gojo…sensei.”

Shoko slapped a hand over her mouth to try muffle her shriek of laughter, and Gojo didn’t last more than a second before collapsing into giggles.

“Not on your life!” Utahime hissed at him then leaned in to throw out the only card she had left. “Satoru.”

Shoko’s laughter reached an even higher pitch, and she had to put her second hand over her mouth. Gojo gaped at her.

“That’s all it took to get you to use my name?” he asked, aghast.

She did her best to try and ignore him and eat her food even though it never worked.

“Hey, Utahime,” he said, leaning in towards her, nudging at her foot with his underneath the table. “Hey.”

“If you could all please cease your juvenile behavior,” Gakuganji said from the next table over. He’d apparently sought refuge from them with Kusakabe, Higuruma, and Ijichi. “You are instructors here.”

“Hey, butt out, Gramps,” Gojo told him, all sense of humor gone. “This isn’t any of your business.”’

Shoko quickly quieted her laughter.

“Gojo,” Utahime attempted to scold him.

Gakuganji, however, looked away and backed down first. Gojo frowned as he turned back to his food.

“Gojo?” Utahime asked quietly, accidentally bumping into his foot as she shifted in her chair.

“It’s fine,” he said, smoothing out his features and pulling his foot back from hers.

Utahime turned to Shoko, but she shook her head before looking back to her food.

Fine. She would just poke into that later.

After lunch, Utahime and Gojo visited Maki’s group to inquire into their progress. Miwa had found a naginata to suit her which Utahime was relieved by as Maki favored that style of weapon so she would have plenty of experience for teaching her.

“You know how to use a naginata, don’t you?” Gojo asked her.

Utahime nodded. It had been another of her experiments to strengthen herself, one of Mei Mei’s suggestions to her. “But I would hardly call myself an expert.”

It had turned out to be impractical for her. The weapon was designed to clear space on a battlefield, not go one on one against curses. Whatever Maki had learned had to be different from what she’d learned.

Nishimiya was still trying out the different weapons they’d found in the warehouse. She had tried a bow and arrow even though Utahime had recommended against it, and she was also trying a smaller crossbow.

“Were you not able to find any guns?” Utahime asked.

“There are a few antiques in there,” Maki said, frowning. “They’re not suitable for her size or being airborne. The reload would be completely impractical, and the recoil impossible to manage.”

“You may need to start developing one into a cursed tool,” Gojo said.

“I know,” Nishimiya said unenthusiastically with a sigh before shooting the crossbow a mulish look. 

Utahime wasn’t surprised by her reluctance. She had trained as a scout and a gun would give away her position even with a silencer.

They’d also been Mai’s weapon.

It still stung.

Higuruma had managed to find a western sword that was similar enough to his Executioner’s Sword. He looked awkward just holding it at rest.

“Don’t worry,” Maki said. “I’ll get him into fighting shape so he can start working on reverse cursed technique.”

“I am trying my best,” Higuruma assured them.

“That’s all we’re asking,” Utahime said though whether that would be enough was a different story.

They visited Kusakabe and Itadori next.

“Sensei!” Itadori greeted them brightly even within Kusakabe’s body.

“Feel like you guys don’t trust me,” Kusakabe said, a slight hint of amusement in his expression.

“Everything’s going well then?” Gojo asked.

“We’re making progress,” he said. “But there’s still work to do.”

“Alright, keep up the good work then, Yuji,” Gojo said, and Itadori beamed.

Choso and Ino, however, were a different story.

“I know you told me it was a risk because he has different physiology,” Ino said, closing and opening his fists. “But everything feels a little…off.”

“It has been difficult to activate the technique,” Choso admitted.

“Can you show me? Both of you one at a time,” Gojo said.

Ino went first inside Choso’s body, activating reverse curse technique after a little delay. Utahime closed her eyes for better focus, but she could sense nothing unusual about the process of creating the positive energy. There was, however, something slightly odd about how that energy then moved through his body.

“I think you’re just feeling his physiology as you’re doing the steps correctly,” Gojo said. “You should try limiting the amount of cursed energy you use to see if that helps seeing as he said that’s what makes the technique easier for him to use.”

“Got it,” Ino said.

Then Choso took his turn, and Utahime sensed the problem immediately.

“You’re undershooting it,” Gojo told him, and Utahime nodded. “He doesn’t have your physiology. You need to put more cursed energy into the technique for it to work.”

“I thought I had done enough,” Choso said then attempted it again with more success. “I see. Thank you.”

“Yeah, thanks,” Ino added.

“Keep practicing,” he said. “You need as many reps as possible.”

Inumaki was off and running inside Okkotsu’s body and his massive pool of cursed energy.

“You missed Okkotsu trying to figure out how to explain things to me with my technique before he gave up,” Inumaki said with a smile as he gestured to a notepad.

Instructions were scrawled out in an awkward hand.

“Having fun being the one to talk this time?” Gojo asked.

“A little bit,” Inumaki confessed.

“Doing alright, Yuta?” Gojo asked. “Not about to lose your hearing?”

Okkotsu nodded. He even offered Utahime a smile.

Hakari and Hoshi were more difficult to check in on, at least for Utahime. She was well aware of their thoroughly deserved suspension. Kashimo was also there with them which only worsened the situation. Gojo, however, waltzed in, interrupting their off topic conversation, and got them back on task before sweeping out again.

He chuckled.

“What?” she asked, eying him suspiciously.

“You just can’t stand bad students,” he said.

“They shouldn’t be back in the school building at all,” she said in a huff. “They broke the rules.”

“They didn’t hurt anyone—,”

“By sheer luck!” she snapped.

“You don’t need to like them, but you need to work with them. It’s much better to have them on our side than not at all,” he said. “I mean, you work with me.”

“You’re not the same,” she snapped before she could even consider her words.

“Utahime,” he teased, leaning in too close to her. “Are you saying you like me?”

She shoved her hand in his face, expecting his Infinity to stop her, but instead she actually made contact with his cheek. She instantly snatched her hand back as he laughed.

“Can I tell Shoko?” he asked.

“No,” she snapped, her whole face going hot even as she was grateful he hadn’t mentioned her actually touching his face.

“I think I’m gonna do it anyways,” he said.

“Do whatever,” she said. “Where is Shoko? Isn’t she working with Kurusu?”

“Where do you think?” he asked then put a hand on Utahime’s back to gently steer her in the direction of the infirmary.

“I know which way it is!”

“Then why’d you ask?”

His hand was still on her back. She put her head down and picked up her pace.

“What’s the rush?” he asked, sauntering behind her and still able to keep up with her with his ridiculous long legs.

“We have limited time,” she said.

“It’s still not happening tomorrow,” he said.

She didn’t respond and kept walking.

“You know, I really thought it would be a more tender and touching moment when you finally admitted that you like me,” he said casually.

“Shut up,” she said. “I don’t like you.”

She wrenched the door open to the infirmary and attempted to shut it on Gojo, but he slipped through like he always did. Limitless genuinely was so damn annoying.

“Hey, what’s up?” Shoko asked, looking between them.

Utahime took a breath to calm down.

“Utahime finally admitted she liked me,” Gojo cheerfully announced.

“That’s not what I said!” Utahime snapped at him.

“Oh, it only took fifteen years of annoying her for it to happen?” Shoko asked him before turning to Utahime. “I really thought you’d hold out longer.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked.

“It’s really hard to concentrate with you guys talking so loudly,” Kurusu said quietly.

“She has been struggling with controlling cursed energy without my assistance,” Angel said from Shoko’s cheek.

“It’s alright,” Shoko said. “It’ll just take some more practice is all. She’s getting there.”

“You need anything?” Gojo asked.

“Nah, I already stole snacks,” she said, gesturing to a little pile on the corner of her desk.

“You can’t steal what’s freely available,” Utahime said.

“Let me have my fun,” she said then shooed them off. “Go do your own stuff. We’re covered here.”

“Alright, see you at dinner then,” Gojo said, opening the door this time.

“See you,” Shoko said.

“Bye,” Utahime said before leaving the room and leading the way to Gojo’s classroom. She took her seat from before though she scooched it back before sitting down. Gojo sat across from her.

“Activate the reverse cursed technique as many times as you can while focusing on efficiency. Try to use as little cursed energy as you can each time,” Gojo said.

“Are you seriously just going to watch me the whole time?” Utahime asked. “I’m aware of my own cursed energy. I don’t need you to track it.”

“Just in case,” he said with a smile.

She huffed and resolved to ignore him. The technique came more easily after a successful first attempt, but it still used so much of her cursed energy. She reduced her usage by as large a margin as she dared each attempt, but she couldn’t do it that many times before running out.

“Better, but there’s still more you can do,” Gojo said. “It’ll always be costly, but you ran around reinforcing yourself for a couple hours after using Solo Forbidden Zone. You should be able to get to the point where you can use that positive energy continuously for half as long as you ran for in the same conditions.”

“Are you serious?” she asked, trying to run the vague mental math of how efficient she would have to be to achieve that feat. “Maybe you can do that, but there’s no way just anyone could.”

It didn’t matter how much the words stung. She had to tell him the truth about how inaccurate his assessment was. 

“I’m not asking just anyone,” he said blithely. “You know your technique gives you far better perception and precise control over cursed energy than just anyone.”

“I’ve had years of practice to get so efficient with cursed energy,” she said. “I don’t think I could get that proficient with the positive energy in just a month.”

“You can,” he said. “I could get Red off pretty quickly after figuring out reverse cursed technique, but I got a little more efficient than I’m asking you to be in a couple months.”

“I’m not you, Gojo,” she said, trying to rein in her temper because how dare he make her say this to him.

“I’m not asking you to be, but I know you can do this. I can see your technique and how efficient you are,” he said, and then he distracted her from the argument by rubbing his knuckle into his brow ridge.

She scowled. “Why aren’t you wearing your blindfold?”

“You want me to fight Sukuna in a blindfold?”

“So your only option is to go straight to bare faced a month out?” she asked, crossing her arms.

“What’s wrong with having a long runway?”

“What’s wrong with easing yourself into it and not causing unnecessary harm?” she asked as she stood up to flick off the lights. “At least wear a pair of sunglasses so you don’t give yourself a migraine.”

“I don’t get migraines,” he blatantly lied. “And turning off the lights—,”

“Won’t stop you from seeing cursed energy, I know,” she said as she walked back to her seat using only the weak sunlight coming in through the windows on a cloudy day. “But you get light sensitive when you overdo it. Did you think I forgot how to look out for my juniors?”

Early in his first year of school, they had trained outside because of how beautiful and sunny the day was, and because they had been training, Gojo had had to activate his Six Eyes. As the school was tiny, and everyone paid too much attention to him, of course they all heard how he had missed the next day of class. He’d returned the day after with his sunglasses.

No one had said why he’d missed class, but Utahime could put two and two together.

“Sometimes, I kinda wish you would,” he said as she sat back down.

“Even if I did, Shoko wouldn’t.”

He sighed exaggeratedly loudly as he flopped back in his chair. “So annoying.”

“My apologies that our concern is so annoying to you,” she said sarcastically before switching topics. “Why are you so concerned about me getting so efficient with reverse cursed technique? I’m hardly going to be the focus of Sukuna’s attacks if he’s fighting you. He’s not going to attack me continuously for an hour.”

He would kill her long before she had to worry about her reserves of cursed energy.

“Utahime,” he said like she was missing the obvious.

“Oh,” she said. “You actually want me to make Sukuna the weakest and reverse my technique.”

“Bingo!” he shouted, leaning forward with a grin.

“How am I supposed to do that?” she snapped at him. “I told you my range is smaller than his domain, I can’t reach him! And am I supposed to not use my technique on myself to be able to weaken him?”

“No,” he said scoffing. “Of course, you’ll be using your technique on us at the same time as you weaken him. I can use Red at the same time as I keep up Infinity so there’s no issue in terms of using both cursed energy and reverse cursed technique at the same time. Besides, most of the cost of your technique is in the initial set up, not maintaining it.”

“I still have to get in range.”

“So it’s a good thing I’m taking out his domain expansion first then,” he said. “Speaking of domains, I can see you’ve achieved domain expansion, but for some reason, I can’t tell what it is which I’ll admit is a new one for me.”

Utahime grit her teeth before answering. “Probably because I don’t know what it does.”

“You don’t know what it does?” he asked.

“Not all of our techniques come with instruction manuals, Gojo,” she snapped. The Iori family had a few techniques that had passed down the generations, but Solo Forbidden Zone wasn’t one of them.

“But you created the domain expansion,” he insisted.

She forced herself to admit, “I haven’t been able to activate the technique within it.”

“Why not?” he asked, sounding absolutely baffled.

She let out a breath then answered. “It’s called Mikagura.”

“As in the imperial ceremonial dances to summon the gods?” he asked.

She nodded.

“Don’t those last several minutes?”

She nodded again. “And nothing happens if I complete the dance inside the expansion alone.”

He put his hand to his chin. “I see. I’m guessing you haven’t done it with any other sorcerers inside the domain either.”

“I’m not entirely certain what would happen in that case,” she said. “That’s why I wanted to test it on a curse first to get a handle on it, but the dance has always been interrupted. I killed them by hand, not by the technique.”

“Hm,” he said, looking her over again. “If that’s your domain maybe Solo Forbidden Zone is not simply about boosting cursed energy.”

“Yes,” she said. “It would explain a lot of the technique’s sensitivities.”

Then Gojo grimaced. “It does kind of imply the gods exist, and you can call upon their favor.”

“I try not to think about that,” she said.

After hearing Gojo spout off about being the honored one once he’d learned reverse cursed technique, it brought a sick feeling to her stomach.

“Well, we’ll focus on cursed technique reversal first, and then deal with your domain expansion,” he said, back to enthusiastic as he put his hands on his knees.

“We don’t even know if I’ll be able to use the reversed technique on someone of Sukuna’s abilities against his will,” she said.

“That’s why you’re going to test it on me,” he said with a grin.

“You’re seriously going to let me do that?” she asked, shrinking back.

“We have to test if it works, don’t we?” he asked, undeterred.

Utahime grimaced. Who was she to manufacture a weakness in the strongest sorcerer? “That seems like a lot of trust to place in me. What if I’m resentful after all your inappropriate behavior?”

She was daring him to say it, now that she had learned reverse cursed technique and could potentially learn cursed technique reversal and literally weaken anyone around her.

His grin widened. “Because you’re weak.”

“Gojo!”

“Besides, saving your life twice has to make up for it. You wouldn’t hurt someone who saved you.”

“Twice?!” Utahime asked. “The mansion with Mei Mei doesn’t count. We would have been fine without your help!”

“You were gone for days,” he said.

“Because of time manipulation! We were fine.”

“The time manipulation just made it more dangerous.”

“We had it under control,” she insisted.

“We still got ordered to go rescue you,” he said.

“But you didn’t put a barrier down.”

“What does that have to do with whether or not your life was in danger?” he asked.

“It wasn’t!” she snapped.

“It was, but do you want to head to the garden rather than waiting around here for your cursed energy to replenish?” he asked.

She scowled. It was an obvious distraction, but she still said, “Fine.”

At least outside, Gojo couldn’t place any chairs where his knees might stab her on accident.

“Do you think we need coats?” he asked as he got to his feet.

“Probably,” she answered because if they were going to wait outside for her cursed energy to replenish, what she had on would not be enough to keep her from shivering. Then she sighed. “I left my good coat in Kyoto.”

“Why would you do that?” he asked.

“I was trying to be quick so I didn’t grab everything, okay?”

She’d paid a couple months rent early and crammed everything she could into a little suitcase for the train not sure when she’d be back so no she hadn’t packed her coat appropriate for wearing over her kosode.

“You wanna borrow mine?” he asked as he led the way out of the classroom.

She pressed her lips together. Would she rather freeze and shiver and have Gojo laugh at her for that or for drowning in his coat? “If you’re about to offer me some floor length monstrosity you have sitting in the back of you closet…”

“Relax, I can give you the hanten,” he said.

“Oh,” she said. “Then I would appreciate it. Thank you.”

He peered down at her. “Why are you being so nice to me?”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Maybe because you actually did something nice for once.”

“I’ve been nice to you plenty of times,” he said.

He was going to ruin it.

“Like those times I saved your life.”

She glowered at him. “Maybe I’ll freeze instead.”

“It would be a waste of all my efforts,” he teased.

“Pretty sure I’ve saved my own life more times than you have,” she muttered, but still followed him towards his room.

She politely waited outside in a spot where she couldn’t see in when he opened the door. It only took him a couple moments to come back out with two coats and, thankfully for the potential migraine, he’d also put on the sunglasses he’d worn for the baseball game at the Goodwill Event.

That seemed like a different lifetime now.

“Here,” Gojo said, holding out the hanten for her to slip her arms into it and revealing the luxurious purple lining of the otherwise unremarkable blue-gray jacket.

“Do I want to know how much this cost?” she asked as she put her arms through the sleeves.

“I don’t want you to know because then you’ll complain about me not being careful enough letting you borrow it,” he said, settling it on her shoulders.

“I wouldn’t do that,” she said, not when she could already feel the warmth the jacket offered.

“For how much I paid for it, you would,” he said with a chuckle, pulling on a black western style jacket.

“Fine, don’t tell me then,” she said, doing her best to try and pull up the sleeves to uncover her hands. She got as far as getting her fingers past the cuff which was enough to pull her hair free of the collar.

She walked with Gojo out to the garden near the dorms. The cold wind hit her face right away, but the jacket kept her perfectly warm. She still tied it closed as they made their way over to one of the garden’s benches. She sat down, making sure the jacket didn’t bunch up underneath her, and let out a contented hum.

“What?” Gojo asked as he leaned back on the bench, laying his arms out across the top and taking up entirely too much space.

“Nothing,” she said, carefully adjusting the sleeves to cover enough of her hands to keep them warm.

“It’s definitely something,” he said.

“Maybe,” she said. “Would you press charges if I stole this?”

“I don’t know. Do I get to ever wear it again after?”

“I’m not sure it totally counts as stolen if you wear it again.”

“Then I guess I can’t press charges.”

Utahime found herself smiling almost against her will.

Chapter Text

They spent the rest of the afternoon out in the garden as Utahime practiced reverse cursed technique then let her cursed energy recover again. Gojo watched her carefully each time she attempted to improve her efficiency, but often got up to wander around as she waited for the next attempt. The garden was hardly in its best condition given the time of year and missing gardeners, but that didn’t seem to bother Gojo any. Utahime stayed on the bench, cozied up in the hanten and debating if it would be a waste of money to get a more affordable version for herself. She already had a good coat for this type of weather. She didn’t really need a second one.

They headed in to start cooking once the sun went down and the temperature dropped.

“You can keep the jacket ‘til you can go get your own,” Gojo told her as she took it off.

“You’re sure?” she asked. “You might not get it back.”

“I can survive the risk,” he said.

“No take backsies,” she said then hugged the jacket to her chest and hurried to her room to put it away before he could change his mind.

It was probably pretty unlikely he would from the way he chuckled.

They made dinner the same way they had lunch, baking everything and making rice. Kusakabe showed up a few minutes in to help with making soup, and Shoko arrived mostly to talk since she claimed she couldn’t help with only one arm.

Most of the group descended on the food ravenously after a full day of either exhausting their cursed energy or being run through combat training. Utahime herself took larger portions than she normally did.

“Gojo,” she told him as they finished their meals. “Change into something comfortable and gives you good range of motion. If you have sneakers, pick a comfortable, flexible pair and make sure the bottoms are clean. Then come meet me in the dance studio.”

“There’s a dance studio?” Gojo asked.

Shoko laughed.

“Yes, I’m not the only to have had a dance related cursed technique,” Utahime told him. “It’s at the end of the hall, past all the classrooms.”

“Hey, am I allowed to watch?” Shoko asked.

“It’s up to Gojo,” Utahime said.

“Yeah, sure, do whatever,” Gojo said.

“I will,” she said with a grin.

“Alright,” Utahime said. “I’m gonna go get ready. I’ll meet you in a little bit.”

She returned her dirty dishes then headed to her room. She had not packed for dance lessons. She didn’t have a second pair of shoes of any kind and couldn’t wear her boots which meant she’d have to go barefoot.

She sorted through her casual clothes. She should have gotten more when they made their run for the Kyoto students and anyone else who had needed clothes, but she had prioritized socks and underwear and so on. She picked out a white t-shirt and a pair of black joggers since they offered the most mobility though the joggers weren’t the best for being able to show her body alignment.

She stored her kosode and hakama properly and then changed into the new outfit. She took out her ribbon and used a hair tie to put all of her hair up into a bun. She also grabbed her phone for her playlists and her little bluetooth speaker then headed over to the studio.

“Did you guys do that on purpose?” Shoko asked as Utahime walked into the room. She was sitting on the ground with her back against the wall a few feet from the door.

“Do what?” Utahime asked as she closed the door behind herself.

Shoko pointed.

Utahime turned and saw Gojo standing in the middle of the room, trying not to laugh. With a black t-shirt and white joggers on.

“No,” Utahime said though she was pleased to see Gojo had followed her instructions and worn sneakers. They were leather, but they looked broken in. “Ready to get—,”

“Sensei!” Itadori interrupted, pulling the door back open. “Is it okay if I join?”

“Sorry,” Kusakabe said from behind him. “I tried to stop him.”

“You want to join the dance lessons?” Utahime asked.

“Yeah, it’s fun. I mean, if that’s okay, sensei,” Itadori said, poking his head in to look at Gojo.

“It’s fine,” Gojo said with a shrug.

Itadori beamed which looked plain weird on Kusakabe’s face.

“Alright, are you joining, too?” Utahime asked Kusakabe as Itadori dashed into the room. At least he’d also put on casual clothes that wouldn’t impede his mobility.

“Nah, figure I’ll let the kid do it and have my body reap the benefits,” he said, shutting the door and going to take a seat with Shoko.

“Okay, we’ll start with stretches and mobility,” Utahime said as she started setting up the speaker. “If you’d prefer to do that without shoes, you can take them off.”

Itadori rushed to take off his shoes, dashing to the door to set them by the entrance then running back into place.

Utahime put on a playlist of gentle music and kept the volume low before joining Gojo and Itadori. She led them through a basic stretch routine and some mobility exercises to see where they were.

It was not great. She had no expectation of either of them being able to do splits for example, but neither of them could touch their toes with their legs straight. Itadori kept making surprised and distressed noises each time Kusakabe’s body stopped him short.

“Hey, Kusakabe-sensei,” Itadori called to him. “I think maybe you should stretch more.”

Kusakabe shrugged. “Probably.”

Gojo, however, performed worse on nearly every stretch. She had him doing the easiest variation every time, and he didn’t look close to being able to progress to harder ones. The most concerning was that he failed the ankle mobility test. Even if he had a leaner build, he still had to be working out regularly to maintain his muscle mass as well as practicing martial arts to keep his skills sharp. All of that was getting impacted by this immobility at his foundation.

No wonder he walked weird.

“It’s okay, sensei,” Itadori told Gojo as they finished. “It’s harder to stretch when you’re old.”

“How old do you think I am?” Gojo asked him then pointed to Utahime. “She’s older than me.”

Itadori shrugged and looked away, smart enough not to answer that.

Gojo turned to Utahime.

“You do move like an old man,” she said.

“You’re supposed to be encouraging me as your student,” he said.

“My encouragement is you can only improve from here,” she said then paused. “Actually, you run reverse cursed technique constantly for your Infinity, don’t you?”

“Yeah, why?” he asked.

She’d experienced how it had alleviated her soreness, and that was only with the little amount she’d produced testing it out. Could Gojo even properly sense the tension or tightness in his body running a full strength reverse cursed technique all the time?

“I think you might need to turn it off for these lessons and any time you stretch,” she said. “I’m concerned it might mask any issues with your flexibility and mobility.”

“So what?” he asked. “I can heal it right away if I do hurt myself.”

“We need to avoid the hurt in the first place,” she said. “We’re talking about flexibility. It’ll be compromised by injury no matter how quickly you heal it. If you want to improve, you’ll need to turn it off and go slowly and properly.”

He looked at her, hands on his hips.

“What?” she asked.

“Okay,” he said, shrugging. “Done.”

She was tempted to poke him to check.

Itadori poked Gojo in the shoulder, successfully able to touch him. Gojo smacked his hand away, but didn’t actually seem upset about the intrusion.

“Sorry sensei,” Itadori said with a huge grin.

“Okay,” Utahime said, clapping her hands together. “Before we start learning some basic moves and steps for a few different styles of dance, I just want to see how you guys move to music. I’ll put something on, and you’ll just walk back and forth across the studio on beat. Sounds good?”

“Sure,” Itadori said then gestured to the wall behind him, “Should we start over here?”

“Yeah, that’s fine. Do you need me to demonstrate?” she asked.

“Yes, please,” Gojo said with a smile before Itadori could finish shaking his head.

“Alright, let me get set up then,” she said then headed over to her phone to pick a different song and raise the volume, and Itadori ran to put his shoes back on.

She then walked back across the studio towards them, matching the beat and the song’s attitude.

“Alright, your turn,” she said as she stopped.

“Ready,” Itadori said.

He took off a beat ahead of Gojo. They were both on time, but Itadori had more bounce in his step while Gojo hardly walked any differently than he did normally.

She had them go back and forth a few more times, adding other steps for them to perform like a snap or a turn. Again, Itadori was closer to actually dancing. Gojo could perform the moves correctly, but they weren’t connected.

“Okay,” Utahime said, turning off the music for the moment. “Time to learn some basics. We’re gonna start with ballet.”

“You didn’t tell me we were going to do that,” Gojo complained.

“I don’t know any ballet,” Itadori said.

“It’s just important to know the basic positioning. You might need to know it for choreography,” she said, moving towards the center of the room. “Everyone face the mirror. Make sure your back is straight and your chin is up and your core tight. For ballet you need to have your feet turned out.”

She demonstrated, putting her feet into a parallel line.

“You will not be able to go this far without practice. Only go as far as you are comfortable. Make sure you’re turning out from your hip,” she said.

Itadori had an easier time of it, not surprising given his better flexibility, but even he had more of a v shape to his feet than a line. Gojo looked completely awkward and slightly unbalanced.

She walked them from first position to the fifth position for both arms and legs, making sure to correct their posture when they wavered. She had them move over to the bar that went around three walls of the room to test them on demi-plié and plié, more to see if they could keep their upper body in line than to get them to go properly low enough, and it was a struggle for both of them.

“Alright, that’s the hard stuff out of the way,” she said, moving them back to the center of the room.

“Oh, good,” Itadori said, putting his hands on his knees like he’d run a mile. Then his head snapped back up. “No offense, sensei. You’re a good teacher, but ballet is hard.”

“Keep up, Yuji,” Gojo teased like he hadn’t struggled to keep his form.

“I am,” Itadori insisted, snapping upright.

“Okay, let’s keep going,” Utahime said then guided them through the box step which was the base for several types of ballroom dancing, then step ball change and kick ball change then grapevine and so on.

Itadori had clearly learned some before like the grapevine, but he struggled on things like the v step where his feet had to pivot differently at the same time. Gojo got the moves quicker, but everything he did was awkward and stiff.

“Okay, you guys want to do a little game?” Utahime asked.

“Yes,” Itadori said immediately.

“The game’s easy. You guys start grooving, just something easy and simple, when I turn on the music, and then I’ll give you instructions for what to add to it, okay?” she asked.

“Got it,” Itadori said, and Gojo nodded.

She hit shuffle on her dance playlist, and Itadori bopped along to the music. What Gojo did could generously be described as swaying.

“Wink on one,” she said, counting off for them.

“Ah!” Itadori said as he blinked both eyes. “Kusakabe can’t wink!”

“Nope, never could get it to work,” Kusakabe agreed from his spot on the side.

“Just blink then it’s okay, it’s okay,” Utahime assured Itadori.

Gojo fell out of rhythm for a moment laughing before coming back and winking on one. She kept adding and adding whatever goofy things she could think of like looking up at the ceiling or having to get low, silly things to keep them loose. Itadori would trip up every so often as she added a new step, and he would exclaim before going at it again. Gojo never missed a step, and he grinned every time Itadori messed up and encouraged him to go again. He loosened up ever so slightly with his focus on Itadori rather than himself.

“Okay, good,” Utahime said, pausing the music as the next song came on. “You guys did really good. Ready for the next one?”

“Yes!” Itadori said. “What are we doing?”

“Body rolls,” she announced.

“I can do those,” he assured her as Gojo shook his head. “Well, in my body, I can do them. I don’t know about Kusakabe.”

“I’ve never done a body roll in my life,” Kusakabe said.

“Alright, just try it, and we’ll see,” Utahime encouraged him.

Itadori attempted it, a little over exaggerated at the start then falling out at the end. He laughed, “Yeah, not like that, not like that.”

“It’s okay, it’s a good start,” she said. “You can go again.”

He did it a few more times and it gradually started to look more natural.

“I didn’t think I could do that,” Kusakabe said.

“Guess you’ll have to keep practicing when you get your body back,” Shoko said.

“Shh,” Utahime told them, putting a finger over her lips.

“Oops,” Shoko said.

“Your turn, Gojo,” Utahime said, turning towards him.

“Yeah, let’s see it sensei,” Itadori said.

Gojo shook his head. “I don’t think my body moves like that.”

“It doesn’t move like that yet,” she said. “Just try one, and we’ll go from there.”

He took a breath and tried it, but it wasn’t a very strong attempt. He barely rounded his body or moved far from his initial position. Shoko started giggling, and Utahime put a hand over her face and turned away, visions of smooth, clean body lines on Gojo’s unfairly tall frame shattering.

“What’s that for!?” Gojo asked. “Don’t turn away like that!”

“It was good for a first attempt,” Itadori said.

“So it wasn’t any good then,” he countered.

Utahime cleared her throat and turned back to face him. “No, Gojo it was fine. We’ll just practice a little more. We’re going to break it down and start slowly.”

She showed them movement by movement how to body roll from both the front and the side. Itadori was still stronger at the start with his upper body than the end with his legs. Gojo, however, needed more work.

“Is it alright if I touch you?” Utahime asked. “Just your back and shoulders, maybe your chest.”

“Yeah, it’s fine,” he said.

“Okay, stand upright,” she said, and he straightened himself.

“Then your chin up,” she said, and he raised his chin

“Now, keep your shoulders neutral and stick your chest out as you lower your chin,” she said, laying a hand lightly on the top of his shoulders.

He did, his shoulder creeping up against her hand. She pressed back lightly against his shoulder and put her fingertips on his spine.

“More, imagine pulling this point forward,” she said, tapping his back.

He exaggerated the pose, and she kept a check on his shoulders.

“And then lean your head and shoulders back and let your shoulder blades come together,” she said, shifting the hand on his shoulder to help guide him pack towards the hand on his back.

“Let your chest relax as you lean back farther, pushing your stomach and pelvis out,” she said, helping to keep his shoulders down as he leaned, but not far enough. “Come on, more, I know you have abs, Gojo, you can keep yourself upright and lean.”

Gojo laughed, falling out of position and away from her hands. “No, Utahime, I can’t laugh and body roll at the same time.”

“Maybe you just need to try harder,” she said.

“You just gotta get loose, sensei,” Itadori said, twisting back and forth and letting his arms swing with the motion.

“Yeah or do that,” she said.

“I got it. Let me start over,” Gojo said, standing upright again.

She guided him through each motion, one hand on his shoulder and back to get him out of his comfort zone without tensing all the way back up.

“Yes, that’s better,” she said, taking a step away from him. “Now try to do it in one smooth motion. Go slowly.”

“I got it, I got it,” he said.

He hit the same marks before like he only needed to feel it once to get it right, but it still wasn’t quite smooth.

“We’ll do a few more body rolls then we’ll do something fun, okay?” Utahime asked.

“Yes,” Itadori said enthusiastically.

Utahime performed the body rolls with them this time though she was careful to watch them in the mirror and point out any issues.

“Now what?” Itadori asked as they came to a finish.

“Now we dance,” Utahime said with a smile.

“We dance?” he asked.

“Yeah, I’ll put on music and you can dance however you want,” she said.

“Freestyle,” he said, doing a spinning jump and almost making it the full 360.

“Exactly,” she said with a laugh. “Shoko, Kusakabe, do you want to join?”

“Sure, whatever,” Shoko said, pushing herself up onto her feet. “Come on, you too.”

“Fine,” Kusakabe said, getting to his feet with a sigh.

Utahime picked up her phone and hit shuffle on her dance playlist. Itadori obviously enjoyed dancing, unselfconsciously employing bigger and more explosive movements on beat and attempting some trendier moves that fit the music. Shoko mostly swayed back and forth, bobbing her head along to the beat, arm half raised. Kusakabe did a more classic side to side shuffle that didn’t really suit Itadori’s body.

“Gojo,” she said, dancing her way around the group. “You’re not allowed to hide in the corner.”

“I’m not hiding,” he said even though he’d melded towards the back of the group away from the mirror. He was barely even bobbing along to the music. “I already danced for like an hour.”

“And this is the last of it,” she said. “Come on, this is the fun, easy part.”

When he didn’t move, she reached out for him and made grabby hands. “Get dancing.”

He sighed and took hold of her hands. She tugged on him gently to get him moving with her. She kept the moves simple and maybe a little something more like you’d expect from kids dancing together than professionals, no pressure to really try to make it look good. She sang along under her breath because this wasn’t the time to give corrections. This was to keep things chill and comfortable and enjoyable enough to come back and do it again.

She let the music play for a couple songs before releasing Gojo’s hands and going over to hit pause. “Alright, good job everyone.”

“Yeah, we really did something,” Kusakabe said in a bland tone.

“Stop it,” Shoko said before turning to Utahime. “This was great. Do we get to come to the next one?”

“If you want, I guess,” she said, slipping her phone into her pocket and turning off the speaker. “Gojo, we need to discuss your homework.”

“Homework?” he asked, shocked.

“You want to get better, don’t you?” she asked. “You need a stretch routine for morning and night. Honestly, Kusakabe, you should do the same once you’re back in your own body.”

Kusakabe sighed. “Just one more thing to do.”

Utahime listed out all the stretches they should do and added extra ankle mobility exercises to Gojo’s.

“Got it,” Gojo said. “I can do the stretches.”

“Morning and night,” she repeated.

“Yeah, I got it,” he said.

“I’ll know if you slack,” she warned him.

“Trust me, I know,” he said. “I got beat by Kusakabe’s body. That’s unacceptable.”

“I think it’s an accomplishment,” Kusakabe said.

“When do we get to see you show off?” Shoko asked Utahime.

“I think she showed off a lot,” Itadori said. “She was really good.”

Utahime turned to Gojo with a smile. “I’m stealing him. He’s too good for you.”

“No,” Gojo said, sliding between her and Itadori. “You can take the jacket, but you’re not allowed to poach my students.”

“What jacket?” Shoko asked.

“Nothing,” Utahime said at the same time Gojo said, “She’s borrowing mine until she can grab hers.”

“Wait, you brought a bluetooth speaker, but not a jacket?” she asked.

“The speaker was smaller,” Utahime said primly.

“I’m not judging, but you may need to work on your priorities,” Kusakabe said.

Chapter Text

Utahime returned to her room for the night, leaning back against the door after she shut it. The ease and joy of getting to dance drained out of her.

What was she doing teaching Gojo to dance a month before facing Sukuna?

He did need to improve his flexibility and range of motion, especially in his ankles, but did he need to dance? Gakuganji hadn’t been wrong that it was essentially the night before the concert. Gojo had full mastery of his techniques, and couldn’t realistically expect to achieve any gains in pure physical strength having been training his whole life and now moving past his physical prime. Creativity and adaptability would have to come from his battlefield experience dealing with the strongest and weirdest curses he’s fought even if they aren’t comparable to him or Sukuna.

But Gojo had agreed to it. If he had a better use for his time, he would most certainly be doing that instead of humoring her.

She sighed and pushed off the door. She got ready for bed, skipping any stretch routine since they’d stretched plenty during the lesson. She was able to fall asleep without the help of midnight ramen, but she slept poorly, half waking more than once with the sense that something had gone wrong before the quiet lulled her to sleep again. She woke at her usual hour anyways and readied for the day in her miko clothing.

Rather than going straight for breakfast, she prepared to head to the school’s laundry facility with essentially all the clothes she had. It had taken them way too long to figure out how to use the school’s commercial grade equipment, and it was a waste of water and power to wash her clothes alone so she popped by Shoko and the girls’ dorms to gather more. Ideally, she would have more clothes to not have to do laundry so often, but she didn’t have that option here. Miwa helped bring all the clothes down to the laundry and start a load. Utahime thanked her as they made their way to breakfast.

“Did you stretch this morning?” Utahime asked when she took her seat with Gojo, Shoko, and Kusakabe.

“Utahime, you didn’t tell me it would take so long,” Gojo complained.

“We went through them all yesterday,” she said. “It shouldn’t be a surprise.”

“I did them, and it’s crazy how stretchy this kid is,” Kusakabe said. “I don’t think I was this flexible when I was his age.”

“I don’t know,” Shoko said. “I feel like me and Kurusu are the same.”

“You stretched for barley five minutes,” Angel said.

“That’s nothing,” Gojo said. “I went for nearly an hour. I thought I was going to be late for breakfast.”

“It’s not like we have a real set time,” Utahime said then gestured around them. “The kids still aren’t here.”

“We can let them rest a little,” Gojo said, waving his hand.

“Can we?” she asked.

Gojo nodded. “Yes, for now we can.”

Utahime relented. “Anyways, did the stretching help, Gojo?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know, but I definitely felt it.”

“You didn’t overextend yourself, did you?”

“I know the importance of proper form. I’m not actually a child,” he said, giving her an unimpressed look.

“I don’t think you’re a child,” she said. “But you look like you’ve never stretched a day in your life, and I know you’re not a master of taking things slow.”

Gojo seemed to show a flash of irritation as Shoko chuckled. Even Kusakabe looked amused.

Then Gojo tilted his head, smile turning sly. “Trust me, Utahime. I can take things slow, if the situation calls for it.”

She rolled her eyes. “You know that’s not what I meant. Why can you never behave appropriately?”

Gojo shrugged, smile unmoved. “We’re all adults here.”

“I’m teaching you dance and flexibility and while we may all be adults,” she said and made sure to keep her tone perfectly proper and polite, “that still doesn’t make it appropriate for me to suggest, say, the Kama Sutra for your practice.”

“You’re becoming a bad influence on her,” Shoko said as Kusakabe loudly cleared his throat.

“I think I’m a great influence,” Gojo said to her before turning back to Utahime with a grin. “You can totally suggest Kama Sutra positions to me, Utahime. I don’t mind.”

“I can’t,” Utahime said. “They’re too advanced for you.”

Shoko and Kusakabe both broke into laughter.

“I walked right into that one,” Gojo said, taking the jibe far more easily than she would have had their positions been reversed. “If I can touch my toes with my legs straight, do I get the positions?”

“No,” she said, and as he opened his mouth again, she added, “You have to at least be able to do the splits, both directions.”

Gojo gaped at her. “How am I supposed to be able to do that?”

Utahime shrugged, but she had to pick something impossible for him. She had no idea what positions were in the Kama Sutra, and she wasn’t about to look!

She returned to her food, carefully not looking at Gojo in case her face betrayed her by flushing. The only other people in the room were the adults that had avoided them, Gakuganji, Ijichi, and Higuruma, no sign of Mei Mei or Bernard yet. Higuruma still wore a suit despite the physical training he would be returning to that day. Utahime narrowed her eyes. The suit looked quite worn and very similar to the one he’d worn the day before.

She gasped quietly.

“What is it?” Shoko asked.

Utahime turned to her, horrified. “I forgot that the culling players would need clothes. You’re even wearing you own clothes, but what does Kurusu have to wear?”

“Right,” Shoko said. “I didn’t think that all the way through.”

“Relax,” Gojo said. “There are still stores open farther out. We’ll take everyone who needs anything. Problem solved.”

“But the money,” Utahime murmured. The older families helped fund the schools, but it wasn’t as if they donated infinite amounts. They had dipped into emergency funds for their last round of shopping, but those were far from unlimited.

“I can cover it,” Gojo said with an easy shrug.

“We can’t ask you to do that,” Utahime said.

“It’s a good thing you’re not asking then,” he said.

“But—,”

“Just let him,” Shoko said. “It’s much easier to mooch off him.”

“But it’s…” Utahime trailed off. “Alright.”

She would just pay for anything she bought herself.

“I think it’s high time we get the kids up,” Kusakabe said, his meal finished.

Maki walked into the cafeteria as as they left to wake the other students and players. Once everyone had gathered, Kusakabe made the announcement about the trip to get clothes for anyone who needed them after breakfast. Utahime checked on the load of laundry before making a list of things she needed now that she was giving dance lessons and the temperature continued to slowly descend.

She returned to a list of people needing clothes and what clothes they needed. Ijichi had offered to drive the school van as he had experience with it, and Gojo of course had to come as he had the wallet. Miwa and Nishimiya needed colder weather clothes, Higuruma, Kashimo, Amai, and Bernard needed clothes in general, and since Kurusu also needed her own clothes, that meant Shoko had to come to check that they would fit her once they switched back.

“The trip will likely take some time given how far we will have to travel,” Ijichi warned them. “I suggest we take snacks and perhaps eat lunch there.”

“You’re going to mess up my whole schedule,” Maki said, crossing her arms.

“We’ll be as quick as we can,” Gojo said cheerily which only made the girl scowl more.

“I can handle lunch here,” Kusakabe said.

“Alright, everyone, grab what you need and we’ll meet at the entrance for Ijichi to pick us up,” Utahime said.

“Yes, sensei,” Miwa said, and she and Nishimiya hopped to it, though Higuruma and Kurusu were also quick to follow her directions.

Kashimo shrugged and said, “I’m ready.”

He sauntered off out of the cafeteria.

Utahime sighed. “I’ll be back in a moment.”

She returned to her room to grab the jacket she borrowed from Gojo. She slipped it on over her kosode and ensured she had her wallet and anything else she might need. Then she shut the door behind her and headed for the school’s entrance.

Most of the group was already there with only Shoko and Kurusu missing and Ijichi getting the van. Nishimiya narrowed her eyes and inspected Utahime, specifically the jacket. She resisted the urge to wrap it more tightly around herself since that wouldn’t do much to hide the jacket.

“Sensei, where’d you get that jacket?” Nishimiya asked.

“Uh,” she stalled as she preferred not to lie to her students. “I’m borrowing it from Gojo-sensei.”

“Oh, you’re borrowing it, now?” Gojo asked. “Hey, Higuruma, what’s the penalty for stealing something worth over fifty thousand yen?”

“Fifty?” Utahime nearly choked. “Gojo!”

“The cut off is ten thousand yen to turn it into a major offense,” Higuruma said. “It could result in imprisonment up to three years or a fine up to a million yen.”

“Huh,” Gojo said then turned to Utahime with a grin. “I guess it’s good you’re only borrowing it then, Utahime.”

“I’m not borrowing it,” she said, moving to take it off. “Gojo, you need to take better care of your things!”

He waved her off, “You borrowing it means it’s at least getting some use which is better than leaving it to rot in the closet.”

“I’ll borrow one of Shoko’s reasonably priced coats,” she argued.

“Since when has Shoko ever worn traditional clothes?” he asked.

“I can change into something else!”

“Didn’t you say that the government announced curses only appear in Tokyo?”

Utahime stalled for a moment, taken aback. “Like you would even leave any for anyone else.”

“But I can’t be in two places at once,” he said.

Utahime sighed, giving up and dropping her arms with the jacket slumping off her shoulders.

“Are we late?” Kurusu called, jogging up to them while Shoko walked behind her.

“No, you’re all good,” Gojo said. “We’re still waiting on Ijichi.”

Shoko looked over Utahime. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen that jacket before.”

“That’s why Utahime’s borrowing it,” Gojo said.

Utahime huffed, pulling the hanten back up over her shoulders and ignoring Gojo’s little grin.

Thankfully, Ijichi arrived soon after that. Higuruma politely requested to sit in the front passenger seat, and Gojo told him, “Sure, go ahead.”

Kashimo headed straight for the back row while Gojo took the seat behind Ijichi. Amai and Bernard followed Kashima into the back.

“Hana, come sit with us,” Miwa said as she climbed into the middle row.

“Okay,” Kurusu said, climbing in after her.

Nishimiya leaned in towards Utahime, and spoke quietly. “Sensei, you shouldn’t react so much to his teasing. Just wear the stuff he gives you, it’s cuter that way.”

“Nishimiya,” Utahime scolded her, but she climbed into the back to sit beside Kurusu instead of taking a scolding.

“You gonna get in?” Shoko asked from behind Utahime.

“I’m going,” she said, awkwardly stepping up into the van and nearly missing her footing. At least she didn’t trip or fall or anything.

But then she had to take the seat next to Gojo as she was not going to crawl all the way into the back or sit beside Kashimo, and Shoko would need a spot as well. She held in a groan as she took the middle seat. It was always the least comfortable spot, and while Gojo might be lean, his shoulders were broad enough and there was no chance his too long legs wouldn’t sprawl into her space.

“You should take the front seat next time,” she said under her breath as she struggled to get the seat belt free and buckle it.

“But then I wouldn’t get to sit next to you,” he said, though he kept his voice just as low.

She tried to nudge his legs away as Shoko took her seat beside her. He moved them, but once Shoko was buckled, his knee was back over hers.

“Gojo,” she said warningly once Ijichi had started up the van and drove away from the building.

“What?” he asked as if everything were fine and dandy.

“You’re in my space,” she said.

“But you’re short, can’t you spare the extra?” he asked.

“If you wanted more foot room, you should have sat in the middle,” she told him.

“But I got in before you,” he said then leaned in towards her and lowered his voice. “Or did you just want to crawl over me?”

She squeezed her eyes shut. This was her fault for mentioning the Kama Sutra. “Can you, please, just give me a little breathing room?” she asked.

“Alright, since you asked so nicely,” he said, sitting upright, but his knee stayed over hers.

“Everything good?” Shoko asked from Utahime’s other side.

“It’s fine,” she said, clearing her throat and sitting up properly in her seat.

They all quieted as Ijichi drove beyond the school’s limits and they passed outside of the barriers protecting them. Nothing looked wrong as the worst damage hadn’t been near the school, but everyone could sense the change. Even Gojo sat up straighter, putting his head on a swivel.

Utahime took a deep breath in and slowly let it out. Her ability to sense cursed energy extended far beyond her range for Solo Forbidden Zone, but normally she pulled it in just for her own sanity. Now, however, she allowed it to spread out as an early warning signal. Having Gojo with them was no reason to dull her own senses.

The streets continued to remain empty of other cars or pedestrians or bicyclists as they drove. The school was safely inside the evacuation zone, and everyone else in the area had had the good sense to leave. Ijichi drove far faster than the speed limit with no other vehicles or any police officers on the roads.

Slowly, the girls in the middle row started chatting, Miwa and Nishimiya both doing their best to draw out Kurusu. Shoko turned in her seat to join in the conversation and also allow Angel the chance to speak. Ijichi and Higuruma also struck up a conversation with Ijichi asking Higuruma about his work as a lawyer before all this. Kashimo seemed to have picked a fight with Bernard going by the tones of their voices.

“I’ll be right back,” Gojo said quietly.

“What?” Utahime asked, but then he was gone. She kept her breathing even, expanding her senses outward while he was gone. Wherever he had disappeared to was beyond her limits.

“You good?” Shoko asked.

Utahime nodded. “I’m fine.”

“Is Satoru?” she asked.

“He’s out of range,” she said.

“He’ll be back,” Ijichi said.

Utahime didn’t relax. The only curses that came in range were low level and unable to chase after a vehicle moving at high speed, but she stayed ready regardless.

The girl’s conversation had switched to asking Angel about what different things were like when she was alive when Gojo’s cursed energy bloomed brightly against Utahime’s open senses, his knee landing over hers again. Miwa made something of a squeak at his reappearance, and Shoko gave him a little wave before they returned to their conversation. 

He was silent as he re-buckled his seatbelt, but his irritation showed in his neutral expression and quick movements. She drew in her senses, no longer needing to keep track of so far out.

“There’s curses crawling around everywhere. If we don’t do anything, they’ll start moving towards people,” Gojo said quietly, still scanning the horizon like he had been before he’d disappeared. 

“We told you what the government had announced,” she said, keeping her voice low as she faced forward. “We were doing our best to try and deal with the situation while your students entered the culling games, but we had limited personnel between the games and what happened to the Zenin, and Todo is still recovering from the amputation.”

Gojo made a noise of displeasure. “Can he even use his technique without a second hand?”

“He seems confident he can,” she said. “He’s promised to help with training after he’s finished his recovery, maybe another week from the last time he updated me.”

He had confessed to a couple set backs in his messages, and her heart had ached for him despite his upbeat tone.

“Maybe in a week or two we could send out Higuruma to face some of the curses to get him some experience,” Gojo said, “but definitely not all of them.”

“We probably shouldn’t send out anyone who has been switched,” Utahime said.

“We can’t. We’ll need to handle most of them,” he said.

“We?” she asked, turning towards him. He didn’t look like he was teasing her. “Me and You?”

“Who else?” he asked. “You’ll need to practice with me before we face Sukuna.”

She opened her mouth then closed it again. He wasn’t wrong. Utahime had never been assigned a mission alongside Gojo. The only times they’d ever worked together if you could even call it that, he’d been sent in to resolve an existing situation like the time she’d been investigated a curse with Mei Mei. She’d never even been assigned to standby outside a barrier he’d been sent into solo like they’d done at Shibuya.

“Alright,” she agreed.

“Good,” he said then knocked his leg against hers.

She swatted his knee, but he didn’t move.

“Hey, I got long legs,” he said. “I don’t fit anywhere.”

“You would have fit in the middle,” she said, crossing her legs away from him.

“Maybe,” he said, stretching one leg out now that she’d given him more clearance.

She huffed and determinedly refused to look at him. Besides, she had curses to watch out for.

It took a long time to finally reach populated areas, and normally, Utahime would be worn from staying alert for so long, but the danger wasn’t exactly gone. Ijichi took them to a department store as they had a few different needs they had to address.

“Get me outta here,” Kashimo snapped as soon as Ijichi parked.

He crawled over Amai and Bernard to get out of there.

“I’ll find you after I’ve got what I need,” Kashimo said before walking off ahead of them.

Utahime was tempted to leave him there and let him find his own way back.

“Are we splitting up?” Shoko asked as she got out of the van at a normal pace. “Higuruma, Amai, and Bernard need the men’s section, Hana needs the women’s section for about everything, Miwa and Nishimiya need outerwear.”

“Utahime needs shoes,” Gojo said.

“I don’t need shoes,” Utahime said, following Shoko out of the van.

“You were dancing barefoot yesterday,” he said, getting out after her.

“You’re actually dancing for training? With Iori-sensei?” Nishimiya asked then pouted. “That’s not fair.”

“I don’t need to find a weapon that suits me,” Gojo said, stretching his arms up as far as they reached which was far too high.

Nishimiya continued to pout as she stomped her way out of the van.

“Don’t worry,” Utahime told her. “You have better ankle mobility.”

“Hey,” Gojo complained, dropping his arms out of the stretch.

“That’s not an accomplishment,” Nishimiya said sourly.

“It would be for Gojo-sensei,” she said.

“Don’t tell her that,” he said.

Miwa got out of the van last after Amai and Bernard, closing the door behind her.

“I’m alright with splitting up and meeting back on the ground floor,” Higuruma said.

“Yeah, let’s just do that,” Shoko said. “Me and Hana will see you guys later.”

“Let’s go find something cute,” Nishimiya said, hooking her arm around Miwa’s and leading her off.

“I’ll go to the men’s section as well,” Ijichi said as he locked the van. “In case anyone needs me.”

“Let’s get going then,” Amai said. “Maybe we can avoid Kashimo.”

“We can try,” Bernard said, still tetchy.

“Did we just get abandoned?” Utahime asked Gojo as the group of men walked on ahead of them.

“No, nobody else needs shoes,” Gojo said. “We’re doing our own thing.”

“I actually need more clothes for dancing,” she said. “I didn’t plan on getting shoes.”

“So we’ll do the clothes first,” he said, walking towards the store. "Then shoes."

“Don’t walk so fast,” she said, hurrying to catch up to his long legs.

“I’m not walking fast at all,” he said, but he slowed down enough for her to catch up.

Chapter Text

Utahime angled for the more athletic and leisure clothes section of the women’s department. Shoko waved as they passed by her and Kurusu among the jeans, and Utahime returned it.

In her younger years, Utahime would have spent forever waffling on whether she really needed to get this piece or that one and if it was worth the price. Now, however, she had a firm grasp of her preferences and no patience for puzzling out if something was worth it. She needed long sleeves for the chilly school building, preferably with natural fibers, and some extra joggers or sweatpants. She had enough leggings at her apartment, and she definitely couldn’t get away with shorts. She swept up and down the racks, finding the shirts by touch and double checking the labels.

“I’ve never seen anyone shop this fast,” Gojo commented as he followed behind her. “You dying to get out of here or something?”

“I know what I’m looking for is all,” she said, moving over to the pants section. “Why? Did you want to spend longer?”

“Absolutely not,” he said. “Shopping for clothes is horrible.”

“Guess that explains the uniform,” she said, pulling out a pair of pants and double checking they didn’t have anything untoward written on the backside. She added it to her collection when it didn’t.

“One reason,” he agreed, flipping idly through some of the sweatpants. “Remember when these things used to have Juicy on the ass?”

“Unfortunately,” she said, and he chuckled.

She grabbed one last pair then headed for the changing room. Gojo followed after her.

“You don’t need to come with me for this,” she said.

“Don’t you need someone to help check if it looks good?” he asked, his smile teasing.

“I don’t think I need your opinion for that,” she said. “I’ve seen what you wear.”

“Bold words for someone literally wearing my jacket,” he said.

“You don’t actually wear it, though, do you?” she asked in a huff before stepping up to the attendant at the fitting rooms.

Utahime got a card for the number of items from the attendant then found a stall to quickly try everything on. She checked they all fit and that nothing pulled or restricted her when she moved. She put her own clothes back on and piled the new ones over the hanten on her arm to purchase later.

She came out to Gojo leaning against the wall with his phone out and the fitting room attendant eying him warily.

Then Gojo looked up. “Shoes now?”

“Yes,” she said, handing the card for the number of items back to the attendant.

They had to go down to the bottom level of the store below ground for the shoes. Utahime started circling the place and all its shoe stands, looking for appropriate sneakers. She picked up every one that interested her to check the treads.

She took two shoes with her then came the hard part, finding the right size as she always seemed to land between two sizes. Gojo sat next to her with his legs sprawled all the way across the aisle way as the guy manning the shoe department helped her out. She would have scolded Gojo, but no one else was there so it was hardly worth the effort. After all, she was taking up an extra chair with the clothes she intended to purchase.

“I don’t know why it’s so hard for you to find shoes,” Gojo said as the guy came back for the third time with a different size. “Your feet are tiny. They have to have plenty of shoes in your size.”

“My feet are average,” she said primly as she shoved her foot into the new shoe. It actually seemed to fit this time. “You’re the one walking around with flippers.”

Gojo chuckled. “I need them to be able to stay upright.”

“You’re doing a great job of that,” she said sarcastically, nodding towards his legs before putting on the second shoe.

She got up and rather than going around like the other times, knocked into Gojo’s legs until he drew them in and let her pass. She walked for while and executed a few turns. She nodded to herself.

She moved to return to her seat, except Gojo had stuck his legs out again. She nudged at him with her shin, but he didn’t move. She huffed and stepped over him.

“Sorry about that,” she told the guy who was looking at them both weird. “These fit. I’ll take them. Do you know where I can pay?”

“Yes, are you going to wear them out?” he asked.

She shook her head. “No, I’ll wear my own shoes.”

She put her boots back on as the guy packed away her shoes for her, giving them instructions on where to check out.

“Don’t we need to wait for the others to check out?” Gojo asked as Utahime marched straight to the register with all of her items.

“No,” she said, setting everything on the counter. “I’m paying for these myself.”

She made polite conversation with the clerk as she scanned her items. As she dug for her wallet to pay after the clerk had finished, she heard the distinctive beep of a card payment being approved. Gojo stood at the card reader, pulling his card away to tuck back into his wallet.

“Gojo,” she hissed at him.

“Do you need a bag?” the clerk asked.

“Yes, please and thank you,” Gojo said, overly polite to her before he turned to Utahime with a smug little smile as the clerk turned to grab a bag and start packing the purchases away in.

“I told you I was going to pay for it,” Utahime said quietly, angling herself away from the clerk.

“And I said I was going to cover it first,” he said.

“This isn’t some game,” she scolded.

“Who said it was a game?” he asked.

“Here you are,” the clerk said, pushing the filled bag towards them.

“Thanks,” Gojo said with a bright smile before taking the bag.

“Gojo,” she said as he started walking away with her clothes and shoes.

“Let’s go meet with the others,” he said, heading for the escalators.

“Gojo,” she snapped, reaching out for the bag.

“I don’t know why you’re mad. We agreed I would pay,” he said.

But he held out the bag towards her. She snatched it back from him. 

“You can pay for the others, but I have my own money,” she said, moving past him to step onto the escalator. “I’m not broke.”

She might not be grade one, but semi-grade one counted for something, and she had her teacher’s pay on top of it. She might not be rich, but she spent and saved her money wisely. She could afford to buy herself whatever clothes she wanted. Well, maybe not a version of his hanten, but other than that, she could.

Gojo stepped onto the stair below her on the escalator rather than a lower one at a more reasonable distance. The bastard was still taller than her. “I wasn’t saying you were broke. I was saying you said I could pay for the clothes.”

“For the others,” she stressed.

“Not for the others, for everyone,” he said. “You never said anything about excluding yourself.”

She huffed because she hadn’t, not out loud anyways. “I still meant to pay for my own things.”

“Does it really bother you that much that I paid for it?” he asked.

She stepped off the escalator. “I can pay for myself.”

“You mentioned that already,” he said.

“I told you I was going to, and then you went and did it anyways,” she said in a huff.

“What are you arguing about this time?” Shoko asked.

Kurusu stood at her side, a pile of clothes in her arms. Nishimiya and Miwa must have joined them earlier as they were also there with new coats over their arms.

“She’s mad I paid for the clothes I said I would pay for,” Gojo said with an exaggerated shrug.

“This whole trip was to mooch off him,” Shoko said to Utahime. “You’re doing it wrong if you pay.”

Utahime sighed seeing as even Shoko was against her. “I was just going to pay for my things myself anyways.”

Shoko gave her a look as if she were crazy. Nishimiya also treated her to a judgy look.

“Well, I’m not gonna get rid of them. They’re all things I don’t have already so I should pay for them,” Utahime said.

Shoko raised an eyebrow. “I don’t think anyone was planning on throwing the clothes out after this is over with.”

“I’m not,” Kurusu said. “And I appreciate the help.”

“See?” Gojo asked. “That’s how normal people act.”

“Shut it,” Utahime snapped at him.

She just did not need entire dance outfits paid for by Gojo Satoru in her closet.

Kashimo showed up next, holding a bundle of clothes rather than draping them over his arm. “I’m ready,” he announced.

“We’re just missing Higuruma and Ijichi,” Utahime said.

“They’re coming,” Gojo said. “Ijichi just texted.”

As a group, they walked around the escalators to where they’d be coming down. As they did so, Nishimiya squeezed her way through to walk beside Utahime. She eyed the girl warily after the last round of advice she’d given her.     

“Sensei, you shouldn’t argue about him paying for you, it’s not cute!” Nishimiya whispered to her.

“I don’t know what you think is going on—,” Utahime said back, keeping her voice down as she checked if anyone was listening to them.

“You’re already wearing his coat, and he’s loaded,” she countered. “Just let him pay.”

“Enough,” Utahime said more firmly.

Nishimiya pouted and returned to Miwa’s side.

Utahime made sure to stand on the far side of the group from Gojo.

“Good news,” Higuruma said as he and Ijichi approached the bottom of the escalator, Amai and Bernard behind them, “My card still works so I was able to buy my own clothes.”

So she wasn’t the only one not relying on Gojo to get clothes.

“I said I’d cover them,” Gojo said as Higuruma and Ijichi stepped off.

“Well, I wasn’t sure if they’d work still so I figured I’d test it just in case, and it did,” Higuruma asked. “Is everyone else ready?”

“Yes, let’s get going,” Utahime said. Bernard was already scowling in Kashimo’s direction so it was best if they went quickly.

They made their way over to a staffed register, and everyone except for Utahime and Higuruma piled their items onto the counter. The woman didn’t seem deterred at all, just mechanically scanning and bagging all the clothing. She gave the total, and Gojo paid without hesitation.

“Lunch?” Gojo asked as he turned back to them.

“There’s a place this way,” Nishimiya said, pointing towards one of the store’s exits. “I looked it up while we were waiting for Hana to finish up.”

“Lead the way,” Utahime said since she didn’t have the energy for looking things up and arguing with everyone about a place they could all agree on.

This turned out to be a mistake as Nishimiya had picked a frilly pink café to eat at. Just looking at it made Utahime feel over sugared and almost sick to her stomach. She was revoking Nishimiya’s restaurant picking privileges from now on.

“Your students are great,” Gojo said as they ended up in the back of the line together.

Utahime put a hand to her forehead. “I’m pretty sure that’s the first time you’ve ever said that to me, and it’s because we’re in a pink café.”

“I’m pretty sure I’ve said something nice about Todo before,” he said as he looked up at the café’s menu.

Utahime tilted her head. Of course he complimented the student she hadn’t had much to teach in terms of physical skills or cursed energy manipulation. Tsukumo had already done that work.

“Doesn’t he still hate you because you said your type was short?” she asked.

“I don’t get the hate,” he said. “It is my type.”

“Everyone is shorter than you. That’s not a type.”

“That is not true. There are definitely basketball players taller than me.”

“Wow, one sport down,” she said. “What about the whole rest of the world?”

“What did he say about your taste?” he asked.

“He never asked me. I’m still not sure if I’m offended or not that he didn’t,” she said.

“You can’t decide?” he asked, looking down at her.

“It’s a personal question which is rude to ask especially of your teacher, but I don’t know, feels like there’s an implication that it’s only men’s taste that says something about them or matters if he’s only asking them,” she said with a shrug, scanning over the menu. “Women get to be judged, but not do the judging.”

They better have real food at this silly, little café or she will get cranky.

“Then what’s your taste in men?” Gojo asked.

“I’m not telling you that,” she said.

“Why not?” he asked. “I’m trying to imply your taste in men says something about you and matters. You’re also very good at being judgy.”

She shot him a sharp looking before stepping forward as the line moved. “I’m not interested in hearing your opinion on it.”

“You just gave me your opinion on mine,” he countered as he moved closer.

“It’s barely even a type,” she said.

“That’s still an opinion,” he said. “What do you consider a type then?”

“It has to actually exclude people for one thing,” Utahime said as she tapped her chin. She’d found the sandwiches so now she just had to pick one. “Todo focuses on physical traits, but it can also be personality and behaviors and values, that kind of thing.”

“Short…clever…caring, and fun,” Gojo listed. “Is that a type?”

Utahime sighed. “Sure.”

“You don’t seem to think so,” he said. “I’m not picky enough for you?”

She shrugged. “It’s not for me. You’re the one who has to deal with your own dating habits.”

He made a contemplative sound. “Maybe I should just guess your type then.”

She scoffed, taking another step closer to the counter.

“Average height, plain faced, reads newspapers, goes to bed at eight.”

She scowled. “That’s what you think I want?”

He smiled. “Well, you could just tell me, or I can keep guessing.”

She shook her head. She was next up to the counter and ordered herself a sandwich. This, she didn’t mind putting on Gojo’s tab. He ordered a pastry on top of a sandwich and a sugary drink before paying for all the food.

Then came the second issue with Nishimiya’s choice, tiny tables and banquette seating along one wall. The tables were meant for two people, and as they were round, shoving them all together didn’t really make more space for setting down food and drinks. As Utahime’s and Gojo’s food came out last, the only space left for them was at the end of the line of tables that had all been shoved together where there was practically no space on the banquette.

“Well,” Gojo said, looking at the seat then over to Utahime. “I’m not fitting there.”

Utahime shot him a glare, but went to sit on the end regardless as it was hardly fair to subject Kurusu to Gojo’s shoulder knocking into her.

“Excuse me,” Utahime said as she set her plate and bag down, and Kurusu squeezed in as much as she could, but Utahime still hung slightly off the banquette.

And then Gojo sat down across from her, immediately knocking his legs into hers.

“Seriously?” she asked, trying to find a better spot for her legs when she was barely on the banquette and had her bag of clothes and shoes at her feet.

“I’m just trying to sit down,” he said, shifted his legs. “I take back what I said about your student. These tables are tiny.”

“Careful,” she scolded him as his shoe hit her ankle and she jerked back. “Give me a second.”

“Okay,” he said, stilling.

She adjusted her hakama and shifted her weight to cross her outer leg over the inner to lean more onto the banquette seat. He then tucked his leg mostly under the table as his knee still stuck out.

“Is everyone having to play footsie to fit?” she asked, glancing down the table. The girls next to them were all chatting and sitting comfortably and paying them no attention.

“Probably just me and Higuruma,” Gojo said.

Utahime sighed. At least Higuruma was on the other end of all the tables so she didn’t have to deal with him on top of Gojo. “Just keep your feet to yourself.”

“I’ll try my best,” he said.

Utahime focused on her sandwich, doing her best to ignore the man across from her and his leg inches from her own and listen in on the girls’ conversation. They’d started debating the best weapon for Nishimiya on her broom despite the benefits of imbuing cursed energy into a modern gun, but it was obvious they weren’t serious about it. Miwa kept suggesting impractical weapons and abilities that weren’t possible or useful. Shoko had gotten in on it as well, and Utahime couldn’t hold back a couple giggles at some of her more ridiculous suggestions.

Utahime finished her sandwich then uncrossed her legs, accidentally brushing against Gojo’s. “Sorry,” she said automatically.

He chuckled, and she narrowed her eyes at him. “It’s all good,” he told her. “Doesn’t bother me any.”

“Good,” she said lamely then struggled to get out of her seat gracefully.

Gojo had to move his leg aside to let her out and grab her bag.

“Are we going?” Miwa asked.

“Yes, we should head back if everyone’s finished eating. We still have training,” Utahime said.

Gojo knocked back the last of his drink then said, “I’m all set.”

“Finally,” Kashimo said, popping out of his seat with his bags and heading straight for the exit.

Higuruma and Ijichi were right behind him. Amai caught up to them, but Bernard grumbled as he grabbed his bag. girls took a little longer to finish up and make their way to the exit. Utahime checked over the area to make sure no one had forgotten anything as Gojo got to his feet.

“Got everything?” he asked.

“Yes, we’re good,” she said, moving away from the table.

She slowed down as they approached the van. She let everyone else retake their seats, and waited for Shoko to go in before her so she could deal with sitting next to Gojo.

“Nice try,” Shoko said. “I’m not sitting next to him.”

“I sat next to him on the way here,” she argued.

“Get in the damn van!” Kashimo snapped from the back.

Shoko took a step back.

Utahime pressed her lips together. She could hardly get into a childish argument about where to sit in front of her students. Nishimiya was already pressing the boundaries as it was.

She climbed into the van and took her seat in the middle next to Gojo, settling her bag in front of her feet.

“You guys were starting to make me worry that I smelled,” he said as she buckled her seat belt and Shoko got in after her.

“You don’t smell,” she said.

She rarely spent as much time in Gojo’s personal space as she had that day, but as far as she could tell, Gojo wore no scent despite trying to claim to her he had no migraines.

“That’s good to know,” he said with a smile.

“The real problem is your knees,” she said as his knee had already fallen over top of hers.

“Sorry, I don’t have a technique that makes my legs shorter,” he said.

Shoko finished buckling, and Ijichi turned on the engine and backed out of the parking spot.

Since smacking his knee hadn’t worked earlier, Utahime picked up her bag from the floor. Then she placed it right on Gojo’s lap.

“Since you need so much space, surely you have the room to look after this,” she said, as politely as she could make her tone. “It would be a shame if anything happened to all those nice things you bought for me.”

Gojo looked down at the bag for a long moment. He chuckled. “Alright, I’ll hold your bag.”

She shook her head as she faced forward. The gesture was useless if it didn’t actually bother him.  

Chapter Text

The drive back was worse than the drive out. Utahime had already started to wear thin from being on alert for so long. The girls chatting behind her honestly didn’t bother her that much, it was all the grumbling from the men in the back that was the issue.

“You want me to tell them to shut up?” Gojo asked her.

Utahime pressed her lips together, debating whether that would even work.

“Please, tell them to shut up, Gojo-sensei,” Nishimiya said. “It’s really obnoxious.”

Gojo sat up straighter then twisted around to face the back of the van, of course, putting his knees more into Utahime’s space. “Hey, back row,” he called. “Cut it out with the arguing. You’re bothering everyone else.”

“So?” Kashimo snapped while Bernard rolled his eyes. Amai started leaning away from the other two.

“So I’m telling you to stop,” Gojo said.

“Make me,” Kashimo said, crossing his arms.

Gojo grinned in that unsettling way he sometimes had. “I’m more than happy to drop you off where nobody can hear you.”

Kashimo narrowed his eyes, and the van got even more quiet.

Then he scoffed. “Whatever.”

Gojo turned his head towards Bernard. “Same goes for you, and you’re not exactly as durable as him.”

Bernard hunkered down in his seat. “Got it.”

“Thanks, sensei,” Nishimiya said.

“No problem,” Gojo told her, all back to a friendly, nice smile for her. He faced forward again then leaned over towards Utahime. “Happy?”

As reluctant as she was to admit that Gojo had improved things, she answered, “It’s better.”

He chuckled as he pulled away from her.

He didn’t disappear like he had on their way out which was probably good news for Utahime’s clothes. She listened in on the girl’s conversation as she kept track of their surroundings. She could finally relax as Ijichi drove back over the border to the school.

Kashimo was first out of the van once again, dragging his bag behind him.

“Good riddance,” Nishimiya muttered, and Utahime did her best not to nod in agreement.

Utahime let the others go out ahead of her, plucking her bag from Gojo’s lap before she got out. She sighed as she stepped down onto the ground. Everyone else had already headed for the school so she didn’t need to keep her comments to herself. “I need a nap.”

“Can’t nap,” Gojo said as he stepped down beside her. “We already lost this morning for training.”

He shut the van door then waved at Ijichi who drove off.

“Do you overwork all your students or just me?” she asked.

“I don’t overwork anybody,” he said. “If you’re telling me you’re tired after barely even using any of your cursed energy we have bigger issues to work out than I thought.”

She scowled at him. “You can get tired from things other than using cursed energy.”

“Riding in a car? Speed shopping? Surviving tiny café tables?” he asked. “You weren’t even the one driving.”

“Shut up,” she snapped at him because she wasn’t about to admit how staying so alert wore on her. “Respect your elders.”

“I certainly don’t respect their need to nap,” he said, sauntering towards the school.

She stalked off ahead of him to prove she wasn’t tired. “Let me put these away, and I’ll meet you in the garden.”

She dropped the bag off in her room, taking a moment to breathe before walking towards the garden. She found Gojo standing by the bench they’d used the day before.

“Try to use the reverse cursed technique continuously this time,” he said. “Just go for as long as you’re able, and then we’ll try again.”

“Alright,” she said, taking her spot on the bench.

Gojo didn’t sit down with her. He stayed standing, watching as she gathered herself then performed the technique. Generating the positive energy continuously while trying to improve her efficiency was like trying to slowly turn off a faucet without interrupting the flow of water. She cut off the flow far too many times and then ran out of cursed energy too quickly.

She huffed, leaning back against the bench. She looked up expectantly at Gojo.

“Just need a little more practice,” he said. “You’ll get there.”

She rolled her eyes.

“Don’t roll your eyes,” he said, practically pouting at her. “I’m being serious. We’d both be wasting our time if I thought you couldn’t do it.”

Her mouth twitched, but she managed to keep it shut.

“What?” he asked. “Not like you to hold back in your criticism.”

She looked away, twisting her lips before turning back to him. “You’ve never acted like I was capable of anything before Sukuna.”

“That’s not true at all, and you know it,” he said. “Besides, you never said anything about my flexibility before now.”

“You never asked.”

“So much for looking out for your juniors,” he said.

“It wasn’t causing you any pain, and while it limits your mobility it doesn’t limit your technique,” she said. “It wasn’t my place if you didn’t ask, and why would you? The only reason you care is because of Sukuna, like I said.”

He slung himself down on the bench beside her. He then tapped his knee gently against hers. “I didn’t know to care about it until you said something.”

She shot him a skeptical look. “None of your teachers ever told you the importance of stretching after exercise?”

“They did,” he said. “None of them were dancers. The mobility and flexibility always came second to the power.”

Unsurprising. Yaga may have been able to reverse some of it given Gojo had actually respected him if he’d taught him from a younger age. Given her experience with Kamo, she wouldn’t let any tutor one of the big three clans picked within a mile of her students if she had the choice.

“I can just tell you’re thinking something horrible and nasty about my tutors,” Gojo said, though he seemed amused rather than defensive on their behalf.

“Hardly,” she said, smoothing out her already smooth hakama.

“That’s okay,” he said. “I wouldn’t hire them either.”

She couldn’t hold back a small noise.

“What?” he asked.

“Nothing.”

“Okay, so can you take me through the flow chart of what you can and can’t tell me?” he asked. “Because I don’t get it. You’ll yell at me to respect my elders, call me an idiot, double check if I can trust you to find a mole, but you won’t tell me my ankles are busted or talk to me about my tutors?”

“Ankles can be very personal,” she said.

“And childhood tutors that I didn’t even hire are personal?” he asked.

“Most people are quite fond of their early teachers,” she said, tucking her hair behind her ear even though it was already tied back. “I just thought that you might have appreciated the leg up they would have given you over regular schooling.”

“Everything I learned from them I could have picked up just as quickly from someone else. They’re not the ones who got me where I am, and my biggest breakthrough came while I was here,” he said, flinging his hand out towards the school. “Maybe if I was taught by someone else I could have spared my ankles.”

She tilted her head. “Maybe. You could just have bone spurs.”

“I could have what?” he asked, head whipping around towards her.

“Bone spurs,” she said. “If your mobility doesn’t improve with stretching and exercises then it’s likely that and can’t be fixed without surgery.”

He dropped his head back before looking at her again. “Are you saying I’d have to go get surgery to go fight Sukuna?”

“I’m not a doctor. You’d need to ask Shoko,” she said. “You could at least recover from the surgery quickly.”

He shook his head. “I don’t want to have any surgery.”

“Even if you do have spurs which we don’t know, you don’t have to have a surgery,” she said. “You can make your own decisions about it.”

“Do you have like an ankle thing?” he asked. “Is that why you won’t tell me about your type?”

“What?” she asked, spluttering. “No, I don’t. I was just pointing out a possibility, and besides, it’s men that have foot fetishes not women.”

He crossed his leg, setting one ankle over his other knee, as he shifted position to turn more towards her. “It’s interesting that you bring that up.”

“You brought it up first,” she retorted.

“If you just told me what you did like I wouldn’t have to resort to guesses,” he said, bringing a hand to his chin. “You have to be into something weird if you won’t talk about it.”

“It’s not weird!” she snapped then looked away to try and calm herself down. “It’s just complicated.”

“Your type is complicated?” he asked. “You’re into complicated guys?”

“No,” she stressed. “It’s complicated to explain because it depends.”

“Depends on what?”

“If they’re a dancer or not.”

“So they don’t have to dance to be your type?” he asked.

She nodded. Why was she explaining any of this? “If he’s a dancer, he needs to be tall, but if he’s not it doesn’t matter.”

“What dance does he need to be tall for?” he asked. “I didn’t think height mattered for dancing.”

“For most things it doesn’t,” she said.

“Except for what you want to do with him,” he said, leaning in towards her. “So what is it you want to do with him?”

She cleared her throat. “Swing dancing.”

That answer would be safe enough to give Gojo. There was no way he would be able to figure out that the benefit of a tall, trustworthy partner would be that she could then slide between his legs without any catastrophic incidents.

“Is that the one where you toss people around?” he asked.

“Toss people?” she asked, offended. “There are stunts where a partner is lifted, but no one’s being tossed. It’s dance, not gymnastics.”

“Same difference,” he said, waving a hand.

“It’s not!”

“What do you even need a guy to toss you around for?” he asked. “I’ve seen you do a backflip on your own.”

“It’s not about backflips!” she snapped, trying not to short out from determining when he would have seen her do a back flip. She hasn’t done one in probably a decade.

“You know, I don’t know that your type being dancer and tall is any more exclusive than mine,” he mused.

“It is!” she said, clenching her fists. “Dancer and tall is one more criteria than you had and that’s only step one!”

“Your type has steps?” he asked.

“Yes!” she said then scowled. “No! There’s just more than one criteria. If he dances, he has to be tall. If he’s not, it doesn’t matter. If he’s from one of the big three clans it’s an immediate no—,”

“All of them? No exceptions?” he asked.

“Why would there be an exception?” she asked. “Every single one of them has their whole clan bullshit behind them, and it’s made all of them weird. They’re utterly undateable.”

“Seems kinda harsh. Haven’t you taught a few kids from the clans?”

“Are you suggesting that I’d ever date a student?” she said. She would smack him for real if he was saying that. She would find some way through his Infinity to do it.

“No, that’s not what I was saying at all,” he said, waving it off breezily. “Shouldn’t you know by now that their clans aren’t all they are?”

“Of course they aren’t, but even if none of them had any issues from growing up inside those clans, which I’ve yet to see a single one of them not have problems like that,” she said, clearing her throat. “They’d still be trapped within the politics of them. Even you with Limitless and Six Eyes and how much you try to pretend you don’t have a family can’t completely break free of it.”

Fushiguro Megumi, being raised outside of the Zenin clan without the name and shielded by Gojo, was likely the closest to not having all those issues tied to him except that he had been made clan head even if only he and Maki were left. Everything that had happened since with Sukuna would bring up all new issues for the boy.

She could feel Gojo eyes boring into her despite his sunglasses covering them.

Then he turned away. “I have to use it to keep people alive. Just look at what happened within nineteen days.”

The bitterness in his words came as no surprise, but the disgust was unexpected. It sounded the same as whenever he spoke to Gakuganji.

“Everything that happened,” she said, sighing heavily. “It wasn’t your fault. Those people all made those choices. You didn’t make them do anything or give them permission or anything like that.”

“Gakuganji was the one to execute Yaga,” he said.

She kept still. If HQ had given Gakuganji the orders, he would have seen them completed.

“And you’re not surprised,” he said, derision still clear in his tone. “You’re not going to say anything to defend him?"

“I don’t approve of it if that’s what you’re asking,” she said sharply.

She could hardly act as if she always kept perfectly in line with the higher ups. Finding the mole was hardly the first time she’d worked with Gojo without informing or reporting to higher ups. She half suspected that was why, despite her never being assigned a solo mission, and Gojo being the most frequently assigned sorcerer, they had never been paired together. If it were truly a numbers game and not by design, they should have worked together frequently.

“You still work for him.”

She huffed. “Hardly. I’m technically wanted by the higher ups right now for freeing you, and so is he. Neither of us really have our jobs any longer. You’re the one letting him stay here.”

Gakuganji was unlikely to report to the higher ups right now, but that didn’t mean that Gojo had to tolerate him or couldn’t accuse him of being a potential mole scheming a return to HQ’s good graces.

He pulled his glasses down his nose to look at her directly. “He’s only alive right now because you need someone to play an instrument for you to get the most out of your technique. You and him are the only ones that can play anything competently, and we don’t have time for anyone to learn an instrument on top of everything else.”

She blinked, trying not to stare too hard at his eyes. She has rarely been in the position of protecting another sorcerer’s life, and every previous time it had always been one of her students and while facing off with a curse.

“You’re learning to dance,” she said because she apparently can’t stop herself from prodding at him.

“I don’t need to learn any new techniques,” he countered. “I would have thought you’d be against me killing him.”

“I am against you killing him,” she said. “We hardly need any more people dying, and I think there are better ways to handle the situation. You’re not a meat head. You’re fully capable of acting like it.”

“Even when you say something nice to me it sounds insulting,” he complained, pushing his sunglasses back up.

“You actually insult me so forgive me if I don’t feel very sympathetic,” she said, crossing her arms.

“Giving you an honest assessment isn’t insulting you.”

“Oh?” she asked. “How do you feel about me talking about your immobile ankles?”

“I’m not happy they’re as immobile as they are especially if it is bone spurs, and I don’t like that you didn’t say something earlier, but I’m not insulted about it,” he said. “I have to do mobility exercises about it. You have to get good.”

“And here I thought you considered weakness a permanent state,” she said.

“It is for some people. Aside from whatever the hell Kenjaku did, people don’t just become sorcerers, but you know Mei Mei. You know your technique doesn’t necessarily determine your strength,” he said.

“I can’t make suicide pacts with crows.”

“I’m literally in the process of teaching you how use your technique to make people weak so don’t give me that shit.”

“I seriously hope you don’t talk to your students that way,” she said sourly.

“Absolutely not,” he said, mouth quirking into a smile. “I save all that for you.”

She hummed. “Well, now I feel kind of insulted.”

He stood up, stretching his arms up before turning towards her. “Just keep doing your exercises.”

“I haven’t replenished my cursed energy yet,” she said.

“You’ll get there soon enough,” he said, waving a hand dismissively.

Utahime repeated the exercise continuously creating positive energy under Gojo’s watchful eyes before it was time to make dinner. She manned the rice cooker again as Gojo and Kusakabe handled the rest.

“Lunch was a mess,” Kusakabe said. “It was fewer people to feed, but I kinda burned everything, and I think Maki might be out to kill me.”

“It’s okay,” Gojo said. “I’ll tell her not to.”

“Will that work?” Utahime asked.

Maki had decimated her whole clan aside from Megumi.

“He’s not Zenin so yeah it should,” he said with an easy shrug.

Utahime sighed and focused on the rice.

They ate at their usual table with what was becoming their usual group. Gojo stopped by the kids’ table on his way over and leaned down towards Maki. “Don’t kill Kusakabe for the burnt lunch.”

Maki looked at him like he was insane. “Are you an idiot? It was better than my cooking.”

“Good,” Gojo said, popping upright with a bright smile.

Gojo joined them at their table, setting his tray down before giving Kusakabe a thumbs up. “You’re in the clear.”

“Thanks, that really helped,” he said dryly. He glanced over to Maki, but she’d already gone back to talking to Okkotsu.

“You’re welcome,” Gojo said, undeterred.

 Gojo and Kusakabe chatted for a bit about Itadori’s progress before everyone started telling him about the trip to the department store.

After dinner, Utahime headed to her room to change into appropriate clothes for the dance lesson. She wore the clothes she’d washed that morning rather than the new clothes since they hadn’t been cleaned yet. She did grab the new shoes, though. She checked her phone and speaker then headed to the studio.

The room was empty when she arrived, and she turned on the lights. She set up the speaker then started going through her songs to find something that would work for their purposes. She’d picked out a couple songs by the time the Gojo and Itadori arrived together with Kusakabe and Shoko close behind.

“Are you going to join us today?” Utahime asked the latter two.

“I’m good,” Kusakabe said, holding up his hand.

“I’m just here to watch,” Shoko said, smiling as she went to go take her seat along the wall.

“Alright, let’s get started on stretching then,” Utahime said, putting on one of her relaxing playlists at a low volume.

She guided Gojo and Itadori through the stretches again. She watched carefully. There was unlikely to be any improvements in a day, but she needed to check for poor form, Gojo especially.

“You aren’t running reverse cursed technique, right?” she asked.

“No, I said I wouldn’t,” he said.

“It’s just a reminder,” she assured him.

They finished out the stretching with minimal corrections.

“Ready for going through some moves again?” she asked as she grabbed her phone.

“You just want to make me suffer through body rolls,” Gojo complained.

“It’s what you need to work on,” she said. Then, seeing as she had the opportunity, “And don’t whine. Women don’t like it when men whine.”

Shoko burst into giggles as Itadori asked with an air of innocent confusion, “Does anyone like it when people whine?”

“Don’t worry,” Kusakabe said. “It’s just Iori’s bad attempt at trying to get back at Gojo for all his teasing.”

“It’s not bad!” Utahime said as Itadori ignored her and said, “Ohhh.”

“It’s okay, Utahime,” Gojo said, motioning for her to calm down. “I thought it was a very cute attempt.”

“It wasn’t cute either!” she seethed. “I’m your senior and your teacher, I’m literally teaching you right now! It’s Iori-sensei!”

“Seems kind of formal for friends,” Itadori said, frowning slightly as he looked between them.

Shoko muffled her laughter in the background.

“We’re not friends,” Utahime corrected him quickly. “He’s just a colleague.”

“Didn’t you work together to find the mole though?” Itadori asked, still looking bewildered. “Wouldn’t that make you close?”

“Yeah, Utahime, doesn’t that make us close?” Gojo asked.

“No,” she said, especially as he’d picked her because she was weak, then firmly pressed play on one of the songs she’d picked out earlier. “And I’m going to make you do extra body rolls.”

Chapter Text

The song Utahime had chosen didn’t have too fast of a tempo, and she guided Gojo and Itadori through some of the moves she’d taught the day before. They were both good with the basics, but Gojo was still a little stiff on body rolls, and Itadori kept messing up on the v step and other shuffles.

Utahime paused the music after the second song. “Okay, how are you guys feeling?”

“Good,” Itadori said exuberantly.

“He’s never this excited when he works with me,” Kusakabe complained.

“You keep slamming me on the ground,” Itadori squawked defensively.

“Gojo?” Utahime asked.

“I’m good,” he said, giving her a nod.

“Alright, what if we started trying to learn some choreography then?” she asked.

“Yes,” Itadori said, hands raised like he was ready to fight.

“Sure,” Gojo said, less enthusiastic, but definitely smiling.

“Okay, I’m not a choreographer so we’ll be using the first part of a fairly easy routine I learned a while ago,” she said. “It shouldn’t be too complicated, and we’ll start slow.”

“Got it,” Itadori said, putting his fist into his other hand. “Let’s go.”

“You’re not getting into a fight with Utahime,” Gojo told him.

“I know, but I’m excited,” he said.

“I don’t mind if he’s enthusiastic,” Utahime said.

Gojo pouted. “You get mad when I’m enthusiastic.”

She scowled at him. “You’re not fifteen.”

“You didn’t like it when I was fifteen either.”

“Maybe it’s because Itadori is nicer than you,” Shoko commented from the side.

“What?” he asked. “I’m plenty nice.”

“You did skip giving her a souvenir, sensei,” Itadori said.

“She doesn’t like them,” he said, pointing to Utahime. “She dropped the last one I gave her straight in the trash!”

“You gave me a ribbon,” Utahime said.

“You wear your hair up with a ribbon,” Gojo said, pointing to her head even though she had switched to a hair tie for the lesson.

“It wasn’t a hair ribbon!” she snapped at him.

“Does that matter?”

“It would have never stayed in my hair.”

That hadn’t been the real reason she’d trashed it, though. She’d felt the texture, the softness of expensive material, and seen the rich red color, just a shade too dark to match her hakama with a white lace edge. She’d looked up at him, trying to find what the hell he meant by giving her a ribbon like that, but he hadn’t offered her anything more than his usual smile. She’d felt his eyes on her even through his dark shades.

Then she’d turned from him and tossed the whole thing in the trash, snapping at him that she didn’t want a stupid, wasteful souvenir while he had complained about the effort it had taken to find it.

“Then you should have said that,” he said now. “I’d have gotten you one made of something different.”

“Stop buying me clothes,” she snapped.

“It’s not clothes,” he said. “It’s an accessory.”

“Are we going to learn any choreography?” Itadori asked.

“Of course,” Utahime said, pulling back as her cheeks heated. “We’ll get started now. We’ll all face the mirror, and you’ll copy me. You get bonus points if you figure out the song before I start playing it.”

“I’ll figure it out first,” Gojo told Itadori before turning to face the mirror.

“Do you even listen to music?” Itadori asked, copying him.

“Of course, I do.”

She cleared her throat then demonstrated the first move at a slow speed, describing the kick steps as she did them before repeating them while counting for herself.

“Ready to try?” she asked, looking at them through the mirror. “I’ll count you in.”

Itadori nodded, and they both came in on time, copying her perfectly.

She moved onto the next section. They ended with their weight on their left foot so she stepped to out to the side with her right, putting her arms out straight at shoulder level at the opposite direction. She then stepped together with a snap on her right hand. She then repeated the motion to left before doing it twice more, once on each side, and ending with pointing skyward with her right hand. She counted herself in again and repeated the motions before having them do it with her.

They again copied her without any trouble.

She moved slightly faster and described less, just demonstrating for the next sequence. She leaned forward, bending her right knee to put her foot up on the toe as she moved her left arm forward, also bent at ninety degrees. She switched arms and legs, ending on the fourth count. She stood up straight for count five as she bent her knee again as she waved her hand skyward and repeated it on counts six and seven, but blew a kiss on eight.

“You got that?” she asked.

“Got it,” Gojo said, and Itadori nodded.

She counted them in, and they copied her.

“Okay, let’s keep the same tempo and put it all together,” she said.

She counted them in, and they followed her through the kick steps, stepping to the side, pointing up, the bent knees, the waves, and ending on the blown kiss. She then had them repeat it until they could do the full sequence without errors.

“I think I might know what it is,” Itadori said.

“You know?” Gojo asked.

“Maybe, maybe, let’s do the next part,” he said, turning back to Utahime.

“Alright, let’s keep going,” she said.

She moved onto the next segment, teaching them at the newer, faster pace.

“It’s Uptown Funk,” Itadori burst out with as they finished the sequence.

“It is?” Gojo asked. “I’ve heard the song, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen the music video.”

“That might explain why you didn’t recognize it,” Utahime said.

“Really?” he asked, mock surprised.

“Can we do the rest of it?” Itadori asked, practically bouncing on his toes.

“Sure,” she said. “Let’s keep going.”

It took nearly the entire class to learn the routine for the opening of the song. Gojo never missed a single move though Itadori sometimes got tripped up as they put all the sections of choreography together. They both stayed on beat, but it still took time to teach it move by move and get it up to speed. The last part of class she worked on polishing it with them. Itadori put a little bit of his own spin on it, obviously aiming the careless, almost lackadaisical style of the dancing from the music video.

Gojo, however, might be a lost cause. He lacked the true precision to dance robotically, but he got close. He executed moves, he didn’t perform them.

“Looser, you need to be looser,” she told him. “You’re supposed to be casual and chill.”

“It’s a choreographed routine,” he argued. “I just need to hit the moves to the music.”

“No, you look stiff and awkward,” she said, “Look, watch me. This is how you’re doing it.”

She copied his disconnected dancing without any effort or style put into it for a segment of the dance.

“This is how it’s supposed to look,” she said, demonstrating again and mimicking the style of the music video. “Do you see the difference?”

He let out a breath. “Yes, I see it. Does it matter?”

“Yes, it matters,” she insisted. “You’re just moving your limbs, not dancing. Control of your body means all of your body, including your torso. This is why we did the body rolls.”

“Yeah because I’m so great at those, too,” he retorted.

She blinked at him. It was rare Gojo ever showed anything other than impenetrable obnoxiousness or teasing, especially towards her. He got serious when things went wrong like at the Goodwill Event or when he needed to do some inimidation like with Kashimo, but not frustrated. What did he even have to be frustrated over? He mastered reverse cursed technique a decade ago.

Then she sighed, putting her hands on her hips. “Okay, don’t worry about it. Let’s just dance with the music, okay?”

“Yeah, let’s do it,” Itadori said, enthusiasm slightly tempered as he glanced over the Gojo. “Ready, sensei? It’ll be fun.”

Gojo gave Utahime a look that said he suspected she was up to something before giving Itadori a bright smile. “Of course, I’m ready.”

“Alright,” Utahime said, moving over to her phone to turn the song on. “We start on ‘this hit’.”

She moved back into position, and Itadori bounced slightly to the beat. She counted them in to start with the lyrics. She kept her movements clean rather than mimicking the style of the video. Itadori definitely tried to copy it, and even though Gojo never once had to glance over to Utahime to check the choreography, he still moved stiffly. They moved on time together, but still looked disjointed.

“We did it,” Itadori crowed as they reached the end of the routine and the song continued. “Let’s go, sensei!”

He held up his hands for a high five from both of them. Utahime turned around to give it to him. Gojo did it at the same time, the resulting smack much louder. Itadori laughed, shaking out that hand, but not in serious pain.

“Good job,” Shoko said, giving a thumbs up from her spot on the floor.

“Should I get into dancing?” Kusakabe asked. “That didn’t look half bad.”

“No,” Shoko said unsympathetically. “Itadori was doing all the work there.”

“Nah, I’m sure he’d be good,” Itadori said. “It’s his body after all.”

“You and me are gonna have a great time next year,” Kusakabe said.

“Why is everybody stealing my students?” Gojo asked.

“It’s not stealing when they get a year older,” Kusakabe argued.

“I’ll still come visit, promise,” Itadori assured him.

“If you don’t, he’ll come annoy you on his own,” Utahime said, going to turn off the music.

“Nah, I save that for you,” Gojo teased with a smile.

She shot him a look as she picked up her phone and hit pause. “I know for a fact you’ve done it to—Mei, too.”

She’d intended to say Nanami, but had flinched from saying it since they’d managed to achieve a light mood.

Gojo held up his hands. “You caught me.”

“Are we done for today?” Itadori asked.

“Yeah, but maybe you guys will be able to learn a routine faster next time,” she said.

“Sweet,” he said, grinning. “See you next time, sensei.”

“Can I pick?” Shoko asked as she stood up from her seat. “I’ve got some I wanna see Gojo do.”

“That’s not ominous at all,” Gojo said.

“Maybe,” Utahime said. “I don’t know every routine to every song.”

“Okay, I’ll give you a list, and you can tell me if you do or not,” Shoko said.

“Do I get to see the list?” Kusakabe asked.

“Sure, once I make it,” she said.

Everyone moved for the door.

“Gojo,” Utahime called, still standing by the little speaker she’d left on the floor.

He swung back around towards her. “Can’t get enough of me, Utahime?”

She shot him a look for that, but everyone else continued out of the room, leaving the door open as they talked about different songs to dance to.

Gojo stepped closer when she didn’t say anything.

“Do you want to keep doing this?” she asked.

“Yeah,” he said lightly, no trace of earlier frustration. “You said this would help with the areas I’m weak in.”

“It will,” she confirmed with a nod. “Are you still okay with an audience? I can ask them to leave.”

“Yeah, it’s fine,” he said after what was maybe the barest seconds of hesitation.

“Okay, then I’m gonna ask you to do a little more homework.”

“More homework?” he asked, a teasing smile returning.

“Yeah, I’d like you to dance alone in your room,” she said.

“This isn’t enough dancing a day?” he asked, gesturing to the room.

“Maybe, but it isn’t about the amount you’re dancing,” she said.

“Then what is it about?”

“It’s about getting comfortable, with dancing, with your body, and not getting self conscious because you’re being watched. You can make a move that looks stupid, and it doesn’t matter because nobody can see it,” she said.

Most newbies had issues with this, but if she were going to guess, Gojo would probably have it worse. He was born to one of the oldest clans, born with a rare technique and a prodigy, always watched, always scrutinized, always searched for weaknesses. Then on top of that, he’d run reverse cursed technique for a decade straight creating a disconnect with his own body. He had ground to make up.

If he weren’t Gojo, she’d tell him needs to feel himself while dancing.

“How do you dance when you’re alone?” he asked.

She shrugged. “Normally, I’m learning or practicing routines or working on perfecting activating my technique.”

He shook his head. “I don’t mean like that. I mean, how do you dance for fun when you’re alone? No choreography.”

“I don’t know, side stepping, bouncing, kinda depends on what I’m listening to,” she said.

“Show me?”

“It’s not really dancing alone if you’re watching,” she said, crossing her arms.

“Come on, I just want to see what you do when you’re,” he paused, shrugging. “Casual.”

She rolled her eyes, “Alright, whatever.”

She hit shuffle on her dance playlist. TT by Twice came up which she thankfully hadn’t learned the routine for otherwise she might just start doing that. She hadn’t heard the song in a while, and it took her a second to get used to it. She started just with gentle bouncing to the beat before incorporating a side step like she said she would, leading with her shoulders. She used a few of the moves popular in kpop that she’d picked up from the routines she’d learned leading into the chorus. In the music video, the idols had used their thumb and index finger to make a T on the side of their cheeks, and Utahime copied it, bringing her hands up one at a time and popping her hip to one side then the other.

Gojo laughed when he saw it.

“Shut up,” she told him, smacking at him, but he dodged her.

“But Utahime, I’ll be T T,” he said, copying the hand motion.

It was a silly move, but it was annoying how he didn’t look stupid when he did it.

“Stop,” she said. “I’m trying to help you out.”

“You are helping,” he said, lowering his hands. “You really cheered me up.”

She huffed and snatched up her phone, turning off her music.

“You really don’t do anything fancy?” he asked.

“No,” she said. “I practice more complicated stuff, but if I’m just at home, I’ll bounce along to whatever is on.”

He still seemed a little skeptical.

“It’s really just about feeling good as you dance,” she said. “Find some joy in something other than teasing me.”

He grinned, leaning in towards her. “But it’s so much fun.”

She tilted her chin up to match him. “Wouldn’t it be fun if you could keep up with me?”

“Keep up with you?” he asked, tilting his head. “Did you forget who you’re talking to?”

“No, I remember you’re a really shitty dancer,” she said.

“I thought your only criteria was tall.”

“Hold still,” she warned him.

“For—,”

He was already bent over for her. She crossed her arm in front of her before curling it around to hook her hand on the back of his neck. She slid smoothly down into the splits, her back to him, and he obligingly bent far enough for her to reach the ground.

“Just imagine if you could do something with that,” she said, looking up at him.

He stood up, putting his arm around her waist and pulling her up with him. “What could I do with that? Seems like you were the one doing all the work.”

“Well, that’s what you learning to dance is for,” she said, removing her hand from his neck and turning towards him.

His hand stayed on her waist.

“Is that a swing dance move?” he asked.

She shrugged as she nudged his hand away, “I guess it can be.”

“Then I might be interested in learning,” he said, dropping his hand.

“Why would you want to learn swing dancing?” she asked. “And don’t say tossing people around.”

“I can toss people without the dancing,” he said, waving that off. “The choreography is nice, but we’ll need to be able to fight side by side. Don’t you think dancing together would help that more than learning a bunch of routines?”

“I suppose so,” she said. “I’ll be honest, I haven’t gotten the chance to do as much swing dancing as I would have liked these past few years.”

“Guess that explains wanting a tall boyfriend,” he said.

“Well, it would make things easier,” she said, moving to pick up her speaker and turn it off. “I’ll think about the swing dancing. Either way, you still need to practice dancing alone.”

“Can I borrow the little speaker then?” he asked, pointing to it.

“Absolutely not,” she said, tucking it to her chest. “You’re going to keep everyone up all night if I let you have it. Your phone has speakers, use those.”

“That’s no fun,” he said, tucking his hands into his pockets.

“Too bad,” she said, heading for the exit.

He followed her out, using his foot to shut the door rather than pull his hands free.

They walked silently together back to the dorms.

“Goodnight, Utahime,” he said as they had to part for their own rooms.

She nodded. “Goodnight.”

She entered her room and put her speaker away. She got ready for bed, cozying up to entice herself to sleep. It worked, but she woke in the middle of the night drenched in sweat with the vague sense something bad had happened in a nightmare. She sat up, the cold from only having the covers half off her helping clear her mind. She rubbed her face, taking a deep breath in and letting it out.

She glanced over to the door. She could brave the cold and leave her warm bed and tangled sheets. Tea was a horrible idea, but she could find something else warm to hopefully put her back to a better sleep.

And what? Hope she ran across Gojo getting a late night snack again?

No, she didn’t need to do that. She straightened out her blankets, and tugging on her pajamas as if that would remove the feeling of her sweat sticking to her skin. She curled back up in bed, facing away from the door.

They all were spending every day training, even when they’d taken an excursion to the mall, they had still trained. They would be prepared when the clock ran out to face Sukuna and Kenjaku. She needed to sleep and be properly rested for another full day of training, not get a snack.

She managed only a few more hours of fitful sleep.

Chapter Text

For the next week, training continued. Of the four pairs who had swapped to learn reverse cursed technique, Ino had the most success thanks to Choso’s physiology.

“I think you should switch back,” Gojo told them. “You’re likely to experience a set back once you return to your own body. You should face it as soon as possible.”

“You won’t get any complaints from me,” Ino said. “I think I’m ready to be back in my own body.”

Choso nodded in agreement.

“Good, go ahead and talk to Ui Ui,” Gojo said.

Kurusu hadn’t quite mastered the technique even with all of Shoko’s experience, but she had other issues.

“This body can withstand two souls, but Ieri did not agree to be a vessel in the same way Hana did,” Angel said from her mouth of the side of Shoko’s face. “It is better we switch back now.”

Shoko nodded. She’d been looking paler over the past couple days, eaten less, and even stopped showing up to the dance studio after dinner. “It would be nice to give Hana more time to practice, but this isn’t turning out too great for me.”

“It’s alright,” Kurusu said. “I can keep practicing in my own body. Angel can help as well.”

“Of course,” Angel said.

“Choso and Ino are also switching back,” Utahime said. “I’m sure Ui Ui will be happy to help you two as well.”

“We’ll ask,” Shoko said.

Utahime had Gojo talk to Hakari and Hoshi, slowing down as they approached and when Gojo turned back to her she motioned with her hand to send him on his way. He sighed, but turned back to the students and Kashimo. Hoshi had no issue demonstrating for Gojo, and Utahime could sense the problem, a lot of cursed energy produced very little positive energy.

“I think you’re going to need to work on that some more before you can switch back,” Gojo said, relatively gently before he turned to Kashimo. “Maybe you need a little more focus.”

“You got something to say?” Kashimo snapped.

Gojo smiled and not very nicely. “I’m happy to find something to occupy you with.”

Kashimo scoffed, but didn’t argue.

“We’ll check in on you soon,” Gojo told them before returning to Utahime. “Surprised you didn’t want to give them a stern talking to. You’re always happy to give them to me.”

Utahime pressed her lips together and turned away. They had Okkotsu and Inumaki to see next.

“Utahime,” Gojo said, poking at her shoulder as he followed after her.

“Don’t poke at me,” she snapped, smacking his hand away.

“Come on,” he cajoled. “I’m curious.”

“I don’t like dealing with them, and snapping at them isn’t going to make them listen to me or focus on their work,” she admitted, sourly. “You can at least get them to do something, especially Kashimo. It’s just too bad I don’t have another you to use on you.”

“This is all because of their suspension?”

“Of course, it’s about their suspension,” she said. “I’d rather not see them back at all, but we can’t really turn away allies, can we?”

“Gakuganji is definitely worse,” he pointed out, tone perfectly casual. “You’re not pissed at him.”

“As you pointed out, he already knows how to do what we need him to,” she said. “We don’t have to manage him.”

“We,” he mused. “Were you in charge the whole time I was in that little box?”

“Ha,” she said. “Hilarious joke, Gojo. Nobody controls your kids.”

“It is a downside to teaching them independence,” he said with an exaggerated sigh. “Did your kids stick with you?”

She shook her head.

“Really?” he asked. “I thought they all liked you.”

“They did,” she said. “That’s why they listened to me when I told them to go home. To check on their families. That I could handle what was going on here in Tokyo.”

She kept walking, stiff backed.

“Utahime,” Gojo said, far, far too gently.

She stopped walking.

“It’s not your fault,” he said, drawing alongside her.

“I should have known better,” she said. “I shouldn’t have sent Mai or Noritoshi back. Noritoshi only survived through sheer luck.”

He laid a hand lightly on her back. “You should have been right. They should have been safe at home with their families.”

Look at how pathetic she was, relying on a junior for comfort.

“But I wasn’t right. Should have isn’t good enough,” she said, stepping away from him and marching down the corridor. “We need to talk to Okkotsu and Inumaki.”

“I’m sure they’re both fine,” he said, easily keeping up with her.

“We should still check,” she said, knocking on the door to the classroom the two boys had taken to using.

“Come in,” Inumaki called.

Utahime opened the door. The boys sat next to each other on chairs they had pulled away from the desks, and they looked up as she and Gojo entered.

“How’s progress?” Gojo asked.

“Good,” Inumaki said brightly. “Look at this.”

He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath in then letting it out as he used the reverse cursed technique. He wasn’t efficient with his energy, but he was far more effective than Hoshi.

“Alright, you need to switch back,” Gojo said to Inumaki, gesturing with his thumb towards the door. “Being in Yuta’s body is giving you bad habits. You won’t have access to that much cursed energy in your own body.”

Then he turned to Okkotsu. “And I’ve told you to work on your efficiency before. You’ve had a taste in Toge’s body so you should get the importance now.”

“Salmon,” Okkotsu said with a nod.

“Off you go, the others are looking for Ui Ui, too,” he said.

The boys both got up, heading out ahead of them.

“See you, sensei,” Inumaki said and Okkotsu gave them a nod farewell.

“Yuji next?” Gojo asked, turning to Utahime.

“We don’t need to check on him,” she said. “He’s working directly with Kusakabe.”

“Nothing wrong with checking in,” he said. “What if he feels left out?”

“Alright,” she said, giving in far too easily.

They headed to the dojo where Kusakabe and Itadori trained. Utahime opened the door quietly so as not to interrupt, but both were standing off to the side of the room. Itadori chugged water.

“Checking in on us again?” Kusakabe asked.

“Yep,” Gojo replied cheerfully.

“How are things going?” Utahime asked.

Itadori finished drinking with a loud breath before wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “Good!”

“He’s got the basics down,” Kusakabe said. “But I want it to be able to withstand stronger attacks than it can currently.”

“Some of the other pairs are switching back today. Do you think he could use a little longer as is?” she asked.

“Yeah, a day or two more. Do we have that kind of time?” Kusakabe asked.

Itadori pouted. “I’d like my own body back, though.”

“It would be good if you could start teaching Higuruma as soon as possible, but I think a day or two more won’t be a problem,” Utahime said.

She glanced over to Gojo. He gave her a nod.

“Alright,” Kusakabe said, clapping his hands together. “Best we make the most of it then. We’ll see where we’re at by the end of tomorrow and check in again.”

“Excellent,” she said then offered them both a smile. “You’ve both done good work.”

Kusakabe and Itadori smiled back.

“How come you’re never this nice, sensei?” Itadori asked Gojo.

“What are you talking about?” Gojo asked. “I’ve been nice this whole time.”

“You spoil movies, and don’t tell me about Goodwill Events ahead of time,” Itadori said.

Utahime gave Gojo a look. “Seriously, what do you do with your kids? When do you have time to be spoiling movies for them?”

“When they’re not dead, but we have to hide it,” he said.

She sighed. “Things that only happen to you.”

“It didn’t happen to me that time,” he said. “It happened to Yuji.”

Utahime turned to Itadori. “I’m really sorry you’ve been saddled with such a useless instructor. If you’d like to transfer schools, I’d be more than happy to take you on.”

“Hey,” Gojo said, putting his hands on her shoulders and turning her around. “I told you not to steal my students. Now, we gotta go check on Maki.”

“Get off,” she said, trying to brush off his hands. She twisted in his hold to make eye contact with Itadori. “Just let me know if you need to escape.”

“Utahime,” Gojo complained, pushing her towards the door, and she went this time.

“Bye, sensei,” Itadori called before Gojo shut the door.

Gojo, however, still had one hand on her shoulder as he started walking towards the training grounds.

She pushed at his hand again. “I’m not seriously stealing your student, and I do know where I’m going.”

“Fine, fine,” he said, pulling his hand away. “You don’t want to grab your coat before we head out?”

“I’m getting it,” she said. The temperature had continued to drop as they drew closer to December, and even a quick trip to the training grounds were too cold without another layer.

She put on the hanten she’d borrowed from him and met him in his own jacket and sunglasses outside. They walked to the training grounds together, pausing at the entrance to observe. Maki had Higuruma and Miwa sparring even though Miwa had the experience and reach advantage. Nishimiya stood on her own, doing target practice with a handgun.

“How are things going?” Utahime asked when they finally approached.

Maki had a displeased set to her face. “We’ve made some progress. Higuruma is hesitant, and Miwa’s still a little awkward with the naginata. Nishimiya’s aim is improving.”

Nishimiya glanced over and spotted them. She lowered her weapon, putting on the safety before jogging in their direction.

“Kusakabe and Itadori will be switching back in the next couple days,” Gojo said. “How do you feel about swapping with Kusakabe to learn anti-domain techniques, Higuruma?”

“I’m ready. I need every advantage if our plan is going to work,” he said, grim. “Kusakabe uses a sword as well, doesn’t he? Maybe that will help me, too.”

“A katana is a different kind of weapon. I wouldn’t rely on that,” Utahime said then turned to Nishimiya. “I hope you’re still working with your cursed tool.”

“Of course,” she said, holding up her hand. Her broom shot from the edge of the training grounds into her hand. “I’ll start doing target practice from the broom soon.”

“While that’s good news, I meant with your wind scythe,” she said.

Nishimiya’s cheeks pinked. “I understand, sensei.”

“You should at least be able to score the ground before we face Sukuna,” she said. It was a goal she’d given the girl before, but the new deadline might give her the extra incentive needed.

“Of course, sensei,” she said with a nod.

Maki raised an eyebrow. “You can score the ground with the wind?”

Utahime faced her. “I wouldn’t ask her to do the impossible.”

“I’ve never seen you carry a cursed tool,” she said.

“I don’t always carry one,” she said.

“Gunsen, right?” Gojo asked. “Did you bring them?”

“Of course, I brought them,” she said. She’d had to get back to campus with her things and clear out some of the curses appearing in Tokyo. “I don’t need to have them on my person while we’re here, though.”

“Do you want to give a demonstration?” he asked.

“I don’t know. Do you want to play catch?” she asked.

“You can borrow my broom for it,” Nishimiya offered.

“Then let’s play catch,” Gojo said with a grin.

Utahime sighed, holding her hand out for the broom. “Don’t stand in front of any buildings. You’ve done enough damage to the grounds already.”

“How is it my fault if you’re the one doing the demonstration?” he asked before teleporting away.

He didn’t go very far, just the other end of the training field where none of the buildings were. He started stretching, and Nishimiya put the broom in Utahime’s hand. Miwa and Nishimiya backed up. Higuruma glanced over to them then took a couple steps back himself.

Utahime tapped a foot on the ground as she faced Gojo. She could boost herself with her technique for the full effect, but she and Nishimiya had similar reserves of cursed energy. Her student’s broom wouldn’t respond to her as well as her own fans, but she’d performed the demonstration successfully before.

She leaped into the air since she couldn’t levitate the broom the way Nishimiya did, twisting herself and the broom around, imbuing it with cursed energy to generate force. She completed more rotation than she normally recommended for Nishimiya to do in order to angle some of the strike into the ground before it reached Gojo.

The wind rushed past followed by a crunch. Gojo held up a hand, splitting the attack apart. All the trees behind him lost their leaves in a loud rustle, and a gouge in the ground led directly to Gojo, stopping inches before his feet.

“See?” Utahime asked. “The ground can be scored.”

Maki turned back to her, hair completely mussed from standing too close. “She needs way more practice if she’s going to do something like that.”

“I have been practicing,” Nishimiya complained, snatching her broom back when Utahime offered it to her.

“That was fun,” Gojo said, reappearing at Utahime’s side. “You didn’t tell me you had long range attacks like that up your sleeves.”

“You never asked,” she said, trying not to snap at him.

“War fans are close range weapons, why would I ask?”

“Usually they are,” Utahime said then turned back to Maki. “We’ll leave you to your training.”

“Sure,” she said, giving her a nod.

Utahime got the sense that the girl respected her a little more now which was kind of annoying because she should have respected her before now. She might have gotten stuck at semi-grade one as well as with Gojo as her counterpart for the Goodwill Event, but that didn’t mean she was useless.

“You should bring your fans when we go fight those curses,” Gojo said, gesturing vaguely in the direction of the rest of Tokyo as they walked back towards the main building. “It would be good to have long range attacks against Sukuna, especially since you’re worried about your range.”

“For my technique, not my attacks,” she said. “I understand they’re not Hollow Purple, but I can still do some damage.”

“Yes, but I need to see how much,” he said.

“That wasn’t enough of a demonstration?” she asked.

“Utahime,” he said, taking a step closer into her space. “Don’t act like that was anything more than a tease. I want to see the main show.”

She huffed. “Do you not hear yourself when you speak?”

“I do actually,” he said brightly. “That’s why I pick my words so carefully.”

“Gojo!”

He huffed. “My name really isn’t that hard to say, you know. Sa-to-ru.”

“I know how it’s pronounced,” she said.

“Then why don’t you use it?” he asked.

“We’re not that close,” she said, using her well worn argument.

He sighed exaggeratedly. “Not that again.”

She picked up her speed. “Are we going to keep training or are you going to stay here and complain?”

“I’m coming,” he said, following behind her back to their usual spot in the garden. “Let’s see if you can make it an hour this time.”

“I’m ready,” she said as she took her usual seat. She’d been getting close to that mark on her last tries.

“Go ahead,” he said, nodding to her as he pulled out his phone.

Hitting her highest efficiency required her to steady her breathing and use her full focus. It would be fatal in battle if she used it as is, but hopefully with extended practice like this and the use of her technique they could avoid that. She ran the reverse cursed technique for as long as she possibly could.

The last wisps of her cursed energy drained out, and she looked up, seeking out Gojo.

“Good, a little over an hour,” Gojo said with a smug smile as if it were his accomplishment as he put his phone away. “Next time, you can give yourself a boost before you start running the technique.

“Sure,” she said, almost breathless even though she’d been seated the whole time. She swore the reverse cursed technique healed her sleep deprivation due to the vague nightmares she couldn’t remember, but emptying her reserve of cursed energy still left her feeling exhausted.

“Then comes the fun part, fighting curses together,” he said, his grin widening as he clapped his hands once. “It’ll be a first for us.”

“Mhhm,” she murmured. Gojo ran his reverse cursed technique constantly, but that was due to his massive cursed energy reserves and running Infinity. Surely, she didn’t need to start the battle already converting her cursed energy into positive energy.

He frowned at her, leaning down. “You’re being awful quiet.”

After over a week of working with him, Utahime held no reservations about flipping him off while they were away from the students.

He chuckled. “We have to be quick. I don’t want to switch with Yuta before we get a chance to fight.”

“Alright,” she said, then sat upright. “What are you switching with Okkotsu for? He already can use reverse cursed technique. For an anti-domain technique?”

Gojo shook his head. “No, he wants the chance to start learning to use Limitless.”

She frowned. “I know his technique is to copy other techniques, but don’t you need Six Eyes to use it to its full effect? They’re a physical trait not an innate technique.”

He hesitated. “That’s why we’re using Ui Ui.”

“But you’ll have to switch back,” she said. “What’s the point of him learning Limitless if he’s not going to have your—.”

She stared at him. Then she narrowed her eyes as he avoided looking at her and scratched at the back of his head.

“Gojo,” she said icily. “Does Okkotsu plan on copying Kenjaku’s technique? Don’t you need to be dead for Kenjaku’s technique to work? Did you give your student permission to take your body when you die?”

“Ah,” Gojo said, “Well, seeing as I’m going to win against Sukuna and Kenjaku and therefore won’t be dead, I didn’t think it could do much harm.”

Utahime got to her feet, storming over to Gojo and grabbing him by the arm. “Sometimes I cannot believe what an idiot you are. We’re talking to Okkotsu, now, and sorting this out.”

She walked towards the school building.

“Ow, ow, ow, ow,” he complained though he followed behind her and didn’t use Infinity to remove her hand. “I thought it would be interesting to see how far he could get with Limitless and that it might be able to help him with his efficiency.”

She nearly shrieked in pure rage. She glared at him instead. “You think that’s what I’m worried about?”

“Isn’t it?” he asked.

“Of course not!” she snapped at him. “You didn’t think anything through about Kenjaku’s technique, did you?”

“He’s not going to use it if I’m not dead or we can’t get to Kenjaku first for him to copy the technique,” Gojo said.

“So no, you clearly didn’t think it through,” she said.

She marched through the halls then shoved open the door to the cafeteria.

Choso, Ino, Okkotsu, Inumaki, and Amai all sat together with snacks at one of the tables.

“Have you switched back yet?” Utahime asked, pointing to Okkotsu and Inumaki. “Which of you is Okkotsu?”

If she hadn’t complete drained her own cursed energy, she’d have an easier time telling them apart.

“We switched. We’re in our own bodies,” Okkotsu said, standing up and nervously glancing over to Gojo. “Is something wrong, sensei?”

“We need to talk,” Utahime said.

Okkotsu looked over to Gojo again.

“We can use my classroom,” Gojo offered.