Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

They discover him on a regular mission. A simple group of grade twos that had been terrorizing an old forest. 

Easy enough mission for the first-years coming off the disaster that was the Kyoto Exchange event.

Ijichi pulls into the shadow of a truly monstrous RV in the designated parking lot. Probably foreigners then. There weren't many people who hiked or spent time in the forest, likely due to the curses, but there also wasn’t a lot of parking space to begin with. Just… flattened dead grass.

Satoru’s darling first years are already out and walking towards the trees so he follows leisurely. With his hands resting behind his head, it’s easy to watch the stars, even behind the swirls of cursed energy in the air.

“Can you guys hear that?” Yuuji asks suddenly, making them all stop to listen, “Sounds like… somebody yelling?”

“Eii?? You sure you’re not just hearing the usual voices in your head?” Nobara shoots back grumpily. She’s about to open her mouth again when she stops- they all stop, turning their heads in the direction Yuuji had first looked. Because yeah, they can hear something. Or somebody.

The cursed energy in the area spikes. Briefly and just for an instant. Then again.

Satoru leans forward and peers into the darkness. No sooner does he spot a bright green cloud of cursed energy before he also spots the white t-shirt of somebody weaving through the trees.

The yelling gets louder and- 

Aha, so it’s a teenager’s. A teenager who is running in a dead sprint towards them with two cursed spirits on their tail.

“Crap! Crap! Craaaappp!!!” The teen yells, finally close enough to make out. Dark hair, pale skin, frantic blue-green-blue eyes. The teen spots them, “Run!!!!”

Nobara sneers at the kid, “Not a chance!” She already has a nail in the air by the time she finishes shouting, sending it sailing towards the bear-shaped curse and another to its opposite.

The second one misses, but Yuuji runs forward to meet the curse head on, supported by Megumi and his hounds. 

Satisfied with his student’s teamwork, Satoru turns to the boy who’s just barely skidded to a stop in front of him. He grins, “Hey! Nice to meet ya!” He waves cheerfully.

The boy’s face twists, “Hi???” He glances back at the curses, “uh..What the hell was that?!” 

Satoru grins and gives a thumbs up, “That was cursed spirits!”

“That’s not…” The boy’s eyes dart back and forth from Satoru to the curses, “Who the hell are you?”

Satoru’s grin widens, “I’m Satoru Gojo, of course! And here to help!” 

“Right…I’m.. Danny..” he looks back to the curse Nobara is fighting before he suddenly jumps to his feet, “Oh crap!” 

The newly named ‘Danny’ is on his feet before Satoru can stop him, running towards the bear curse fighting Nobara. Satoru watches as a nail makes its home in the bear’s mouth, only to raise his brow as its maw opens back up and shoots the nail back at Nobara.

Danny is just in time to tackle her to the ground, the nail lodging itself in the tree above their heads. 

“Get off of me!” Nobara screams, pounding her fists on Danny despite him already moving to stand. “What the hell was that, you idiot! You got dirt all over my uniform!”

“It can shoot back out anything it eats! I think it’s from the animals eating trash!” Danny yells back, dodging the bear’s swipes, “It barfed a vending machine at me earlier! Did you want me to let you get impaled!?!!” 

Then Danny does something that completely flips Satoru’s perception of him on it’s head.

He jumps to the side, just out of range of the bear, and pulls something out from behind him. It’s a gun. A very odd, very B-movie Sci Fi gun, but a gun all the same. And then he aims and shoots at the curse with barely a seconds hesitation.

Weirder than that, the shot actually hits. A green blast of light that hits home on the curse’s side; the first makes it stumble back and the second shot pierces straight through.

Nobara is shocked, but not shocked enough to miss her own shot, sending a hairpin nail straight through its chest. 

Danny looks equally shocked at the action, even catching sight of Megumi and Yuuji finishing off their own curse.

“How’d you…?” Danny starts, but he’s interrupted by another spike in cursed energy and a green light shooting up into the sky. Danny gasps, “Mom and Dad!” And then he’s running again, back into the dense trees.

His students follow, of course, but Satoru takes a second to pause, staring up at the green flare as it dips in the sky. He can’t help the way his eyebrows pull together at the bright glowing image of a man’s smiling face now seared among the stars.

What in the..?

Satoru follows after his students towards those spikes of cursed energy. It’s relatively easy to catch up to Danny, with Yuuji’s unnatural speed putting him ahead of the boy rather quickly.

Rather, he focuses his energy on the clearing they come across, nestled in what might have once been a dried creekbed. It is now the site of two people crowding around a glowing green net pinning a curse to the ground while a third—much younger—person stands atop the net hitting it with… a baseball bat?

“Eat creepstick, trip-wrecker!” The girl yells, unrelenting in her hits as the two adults cheer her on.

“Show that spook who’s boss, Jazzy!” The man yells. Or rather, bellows, since his sheer size and volume make the words echo around the trees.

A few flyheads zip out from the foliage, fleeing upwards and away.

“Daaaad!” A voice whines beside him.

Gojo looks to the side, surprised to see Danny easily sliding down the rocky slope towards the group and- 

Oh, that actually kind of makes sense.

The man brightens at seeing Danny, immediately coming over to ruffle the boy’s hair and lift him onto his shoulders while questioning after ‘those other two spooks.’

Satoru catches Danny’s glance towards him and realizes he must mean the curses that had been chasing Danny. And just in time for the red-haired girl to land a final hit on the curse under the net, exorcising it with a loud bang as it explodes.

Curse blood splatters against infinity as he approaches with his students behind him.

“Hai! Thanks for doing our jobs for us!” He greets with a wave and a grin, “We were just coming here to take care of these spirits!”

The two adults blink at him, but the man’s grin doesn’t falter, “Jazzy! Could you come help us?” He hollers to the girl—Jazzy?—despite her being well within speaking distance. And despite the boy on his shoulder speaking fluent Japanese earlier.

The girl sighs as she approaches, “He said something about thank you for doing his job? I think? Uhh and they were here to deal with.. oh, I think they were here for the ghosts too.”

Something happens to the man’s face, his expression brightening with enough excitement that it flashes like a glare across Satoru’s Six-Eyes.

“You’re Hunters! Always great to meet fellow spook chasers!” The man says, in English, and really it’s only because he can process infinity that Satoru catches any of it at that volume.

Danny looks distinctly uncomfortable, sliding down from the man’s shoulder with ease. He doesn’t make it far before a hand pulls him close again.

“I’m Jack, this is my wonderfully amazing wife, Maddie, my daughter, Jazz, and my son, Danny!” Jack smiles, gathering each of them into a tight hug that lifts them each a foot off the ground. “We’re the Fentons! Of the Fentonightingale hunters!”

Satoru’s smile stiffens, just a bit. It was never… great when a sorcerer introduced themselves with a family name. And apparently these were foreign sorcerers, if the American accented English was anything to go by.

He chuckles and switches to the ever dreaded English he uses abroad, “I’m Satoru Gojo, these three are my students. Nice to meet you!”

He steps aside to let them introduce themselves, with Nobara stomping on Yuuji’s foot halfway through Jennifer Lawrence’s name.

Satoru takes the chance to inspect the Fenton clan members in front of him. Danny, evidently, has the most cursed energy by far, though it feels oddly stifled. Not controlled, just… stifled. Jazz has significantly less but still more than either parent, who have barely any. Rather… the family’s cursed energy seems to largely be centered in Jazz’s bat, and in the weapons Satoru can tell the parents have stuffed in their pockets and hanging on the belt.

He glances back to the net they’d used. It also had a decent amount of imbued cursed energy. 

Satoru jumps into the conversation, “So what are you all doing in Japan?”

The mother is the one to answer, “A ghost tour of course!” She exclaims, “We’ve spent the whole summer taking a family trip together!

“And taking out those nasty spooks wherever we find them!” Jack adds in.

“A family that kills ghosts together stays together!” Maddie says, hugging her kids close despite the curse blood on one of them and the uncomfortable grimace on the other.

“You know, I haven’t seen your weapons before, can I ask where-“

“Well of course you haven’t seen them before!” The woman cuts in, brandishing what appears to be a silver coated, glowing, grenade launcher, “These are Fenton patented Ecto-guns! We make all of our own ghost hunting equipment!”

Yuuji’s eyes light up at the fancy weaponry, and Satoru can even see the interest in Megumi’s eyes as he leans forward. But Satoru can’t help but feel his hackles rise with suspicion.

“Yep!” Jack jumps in again, “That’s three generations of Fentonightingale family know-how right there! Crafted into the perfect spook-destroying package!”

Something about their cursed objects is off to Satoru, the cursed energy bright and erratic despite not matching either parent’s energy output. It doesn’t sit right.

Still, he smiles, about to ask another question when he feels his phone buzz in his pocket.

He pulls it out, not surprised to see a message from Ijichi inquiring about the lack of a veil. Satoru glances up to the Fentons eagerly showing his students their equipment; another oddity: they hadn’t put up their own veil.

Satoru plasters on a smile and claps loudly, drawing their attention, “So sorry to interrupt! But my students and I have to be going! I hadn’t realized how late it was,” He slings an arm over Megumi’s shoulder, undeterred when he shoves it off, “What kind of example would I be setting as their teacher letting them stay out at night?”

Megumi looks ready to rebuke that statement but doesn’t get the chance.

“Of course of course! We totally understand!” Maddie says. She hums, “Oh! Jack, we should be getting the kids to bed soon too! We still have to find a good place to set up the GAV’s Port-Lab!” 

“Right you are dear!” Jack shouts, running over to their tools and weapons scattered around the clearing. Jazz is already helping pick things up—including the net from earlier, though Maddie seems more interested in inspecting the curse blood on ground under it.

His students have started to talk amongst themselves at the lack of distraction so Satoru takes the time to look back at the only Fenton left in front of him. Danny. Who is staring at him like Satoru stole the last slice of cake at a cafe. 

Satoru smiles back and gives a jaunty salute, “Nice to meet you, Danny-kun! Nice fighting!”

The kid’s brows scrunch ever closer together, “..Right….you’re like, super weird, you know that right?”

Satoru laughs. 

Danny gives him another look before turning and jogging over to help his parents with their bundle of gear. 

Satoru lets his students lead their way out of the forest themselves. Instead, Satoru doesn’t take his eyes off that flare of suppressed cursed energy the whole way back.

At least not until he lays eyes on the looming RV beside Ijichi’s car. 

He has more than a few questions.

Chapter Text

Satoru stays carefully out of range of the Fenton’s hotel until he absolutely has to. He watches from afar, tracking Danny Fenton’s cursed energy like a beacon in the high-rise.

It was as curious as it was problematic. 

See, Satoru could tell the Fenton clan was a bit… off from their first meeting. Because despite what Megumi thinks, his radar for normal is not broken, he just doesn’t care about it often. This was a different problem. One that made Satoru regretfully actually have to ask the higher-ups.

Fentonightingale.

Apparently not as obscure a name as Satoru could have hoped. No, they were a sorcerer clan from Europe and then America, who had been around since at least the 1500’s to 1600’s. But the reason they were well known? 

They had no techniques.

None. Every single one of them couldn’t use cursed energy much more than an untrained toddler. They were practically non-sorcerers, the Zenin had sneered. 

But they had always, always, had immense talent for the creation of cursed objects. And they still had enough cursed energy to be stronger than most, more durable… all of them able to see curses. And able to hate them.

Apparently the hatred had become more prevalent in the American offshoot, during the Salem Witch Trials. Using cursed energy wasn’t just disregarded, it was outlawed. They cut ties with the overarching Jujutsu community, saying that anyone who used a cursed technique was no better than a curse themselves and would be hunted as such.

The higher-ups had plenty to say on the topic.

Calling them weak, for having no techniques. Calling them brutes, for their dependency on physical fighting and cursed weapons. … Calling them barbaric, for daring to mix cursed energy into modern day tech—disregarding thousands of years of tradition.

Now aside from the higher-ups and their prissy attitudes, why was this a problem, one might ask? 

Because Satoru knew, without a shadow of a doubt in his mind, that Danny Fenton had an innate technique.

It wasn’t a weak one either. Powerful enough to resist its constant suppression. Powerful enough to leak under that suppression. Everywhere Danny went, his residuals lingered like puddles in his foot prints. And worse than that, he didn’t know how to scale it; like at all!

Satoru had watched him freeze an entire alley for a grade three just by stomping his foot. Sure, the look on the grade three’s frozen face had been hilarious and yes, he had sent several pictures to Maki and Yuta but the point stands!

The point being: Danny Fenton was in danger. He needed to get his technique under control ASAP or risk serious backlash from his clan. 

Luckily, Satoru—in his unwavering grace—could help with that!

Satoru shuffles the papers once more before he stands. He zeroes in on that bright bulb of cursed energy and….. Perfectly outside the hotel room door. His hand is already raised to knock.

Surprisingly to anyone without Six-Eyes, Danny is the one to open the door, a suspicious glare preemptively plastered on his face. 

“Why are you here?”

Satoru’s jaw drops; he’s even ruder than last time!

“Danny! Who was at the door!?” A woman—Danny’s mother, Maddie Fenton—shouts into the hall.

“It’s the weirdo from-“ Danny starts, but quickly cuts the string of Japanese off with a scowl. 

Satoru smirks, theories popping into his head unbidden. Still, he tilts his head at the boy with raised brows and smug smirk, just to make it clear he noticed the cognitive slip.

Danny scoffs and glares harder, if that’s possible, “Yeah yeah, you get cursed to speak in another language and see how much you like it,” He grumbles under his breath, opening the door wider and stepping inside, “Stupid genie, stupid wish-“

The kid slumps onto the couch just as his mother comes around the corner. Somehow, she is still in the same blue outfit as before, though this time she has a pair of bug eyed red goggles pulled over her face.

“Sorry dear, I just forgot for a second,” Maddie says, approaching her sulking son with a ruffle of his hair and kiss on the cheek. “Oh!” She turns and finally seems to notice Satoru, “Hello! You’re back!”

Satoru barely has time to wave before the woman gasps excitedly. 

“You must be here to talk about ghosts! Oh Jackie-kins will be so excited!” Maddie whips around to shout farther into the hotel suite, “Jaackk! Dear, come out here! That funny looking ghost hunter is back again!”

What the- he was right here! What about him was funny looking!?

Satoru self-consciously readjusts his spiked up bangs when Danny’s father comes bounding around the corner. He already has a cursed gun in hand.

“Ghosts!?!” 

Satoru grimaces, his discomfort with the translation difference growing. Similarly, Danny groans loudly to the whole room, letting himself slide off the couch with a truly admirable impression of a boneless rubber chicken releasing air.

“Oh hush Danny, it’s not every day your father and I get to talk shop with fellow hunters!” Maddie says, waving a dismissive hand towards the couch.

“Oh yhhh, just evvrryy day in ammtee, not offen at all,” Danny mumbles into the flat hotel rug. The kid’s antics only serve to make Satoru’s grin bigger as he holds back a laugh.

He claps to draw the parent’s attention back to him, “I more wanted to discuss our hunting tactics more than the spirits themselves.”

“Oh?” Maddie asks, excitement shifting into curiosity.

“You see, in Japan we don’t typically rely on as much gear as you seem to, so I was merely curious-”

“Of course you were!” Jack exclaims, “Any ghost hunter worth their salt would want Fenton gear!” He says, punctuated by a forceful slap on Satoru’s back that he only barely manages to dodge by stepping forward. Because not a chance was he letting Infinity down around them. “FentonWorks is at the forefront of ecto-technology! We are revolutionizing the field, our gear allows us to hunt down every ectoplasmic spook around! From even the smallest of shades to that fiendish ghost boy, Phantom!”

“Do you get much use out of it?” Satoru questions, “From our records, America doesn’t have as much cursed energy as we do.”

Maddie waves him off with a scoff, “Hardly, the majority might be ignorant to the threat these scum pose but we’ve set up shop in the most haunted city in America! It’s given us more data on higher level entities than anything we’ve seen here-”

That tracks, from the secular Jujutsu community to the remark on higher level curses. America’s sorcerers had long turned into an even more clan controlled system than even Japan; and due to the decreased widespread cursed energy, the curses that did occur tended to be first grade and above. Satoru had been sent to take care of a number of special grades over the years in the most populated areas.

“You certainly have a unique skill, do the younger Fentons get involved in the family business much?” Satoru cut in, barely listening to what they were actually saying. 

“Oh Danny and Jazz?” Maddie clarifies, considering, “Well, we’ve done our best, really, but there’s really only so much you can do…” Her voice lowers, glancing over to the couch with softened eyes, “Despite our best efforts, both kids have been affected by the residuals from our research, Danny more than Jazz…” She gives a sad smile and turns back to Satoru, “He’s never really shaken that fear, he just gets so scared-”

Satoru raises a brow beneath his blindfold. ..Danny? The one he’d seen jump into the line of fire for Nobara?

“He’s still a Fenton through and through though! He certainly knows how to handle himself with our gear, don’t worry! Once he takes down his first real spook and gets a taste for it, I have no doubt he’ll grow into a proper hunter soon enough!”

A brief flare of cursed energy echoes from behind the couch. 

Satoru laughs and claps his hands together regardless, “That’s great to hear! You know… I believe I mentioned I was a teacher, right?”

The Fenton parents tilt their heads, trying to remember, but Satoru barely pauses, pushing forward.

“Well the school I work at is actually aimed at raising the next generation of.. hunters, and we’d be happy to help!” Satoru finishes with a winning smile and a pair of finger guns in their direction.

“Help?” Maddie questions, confusion on her face.

Satoru chuckles, “Why, with Danny of course! I mentioned our encounter to my higher-ups and we think it’d be a great opportunity for Danny himself to spend time at our school and learn the ins and outs of.. hunting.”

Danny practically springs upright from Satoru’s peripheral vision, eyes wide and face twisted with something between confusion and shock. “WHAT?!”

“See, look how excited he is!” Satoru adds, even as the boy’s glare hardens on the side of his face.

“A school for ghost hunting? Jack, that could be just what he needs… I mean, with all the chaos surrounding the ghost boy Danny’s already been struggling in school-”

“No I’m not! I swear!” Danny shouts, practically vaulting over the couch to get between the conversation faster, “It’s a new year, I don’t need to go to a ghost hunting school!”

Jack looks the most excited by the concept, “A school for hunting ghosts sounds fantastic! We never had any such thing back in my day but I can only imagine how much fun it’d be!” the man smiles so bright it takes up his whole face, “Why, Danno attending a school just for taking down spooks! Who would’ve thought!?”

Danny’s eyes go wider in panic, “Not me! Because I’m not going! Right?” He shouts despite the foreign words falling on the deaf ears of both parents. “How would you even explain this to Lancer?! What if I fall behind?! They’re not even the same curriculum or schedule or-”

Satoru cuts in with a smooth step forward, bringing the prepared papers out from his back pocket, “And of course, this would work just like a standard school exchange. No need to worry about credits or keeping up with his year–we’d take care of everything,” He smiles, delighting in the way Danny’s eye twitches irritably. Satoru could do this all day, shooting down protest after protest. 

Danny’s mother takes the papers giddily, “Oh what an opportunity! I mean, we only have a few days left in Japan, but to be offered something so prestigious!”

Jack slaps a hand on Danny’s back, face shining with pride even as he nearly tips the boy over, “That’s my Danno! Always attracting big attention!” Jack scoops Danny into his arms with a bone crushing hug, swinging him side to side.

Danny’s flat glare towards Satoru doesn’t flicker for even a second.

——

Two days later finds Danny directing that same glare at Satoru again. Satoru only smirks back from where he leans leisurely on the black car parked at the airport curb. The Fentonightingale family was officially outside of Jujutsu jurisdiction-- with one notable exception of course.

“All packed and ready to go?” Satoru asks, gesturing to the two massive dufflebags thrown over the kid’s shoulder. He moves to open the trunk.

“This is a kidnapping.”

“With your parents permissionnnn!” Satoru sing songs, easily tossing the bags in with a loud clank of the second one. He swings open the car door, crossing his arms over top as Danny glares back.

“This is a kidnapping,” Danny repeats, face flat, “I am being taken to a secondary location under false pretenses.”

“Oh don’t be so bitter, Danny-kun!" Satoru laughs back.

“I don’t know what your ulterior motive is for this, but I will make your life hell, you understand that right?” Danny says, perfectly serious.

Satoru laughs, “I’d love to see it!”

Chapter Text

Now, never let it be said that Satoru isn’t merciful. Here he is, in his unending patience, not killing a kid for manipulating the radio. Satoru’s smile twitches.

“Now, Danny, don’t you feel bad for making our dear Ijichi here have to listen to this?” Satoru says through gritted teeth, barely loud enough to be heard over the audio. 

Danny gives a bitter smile, glances to Ijichi and then back to Satoru, answering in the slight fade between ‘songs’ that means he barely has to raise his voice, “Guilty by association.” He says without a hint of shame. 

The haunting screeching layered over pop-punk rock with dubstep cuts starts back up. What had Danny called it when Satoru had made the mistake of letting him plug in his monstrosity of a phone? Some remix by his friends…Haunty Dumpty? Either way, Danny seemed content to stare Satoru down without so much as a twitch at the audio. And no amount of manual adjustment seem to override Danny’s connection.

Satoru snaps a miniature blue at the stereo and basks in the blessed silence that follows.

Cursed energy flares and flickers around him, prompting Satoru to glance back at Danny. He’s surprised to find the boy staring at him in the rearview mirror with wide eyes that occasionally flicker between Satoru’s hand and back to his face.

Oh. Right. Had never seen Jujutsu techniques. And Satoru certainly hadn’t been showing his off around the parents.

“How’d you..?” Danny starts, hesitant and slow. His fists clench, that cursed energy pushing up to the surface of its suppression, “Who-.. What are you?”

Dang, the kid’s clan really had done a number on him. Satoru turns his head and lifts the corner of his blindfold, just to give the kid a peek of the power behind his Six-Eyes. People had told him that his eyes were disconcerting to look at, the amount of power behind them obvious.

Danny scowls at him, “Am I supposed to be scared ‘cuz you’ve got glowy eyes? What, like you’re special?” Danny snaps, glaring Satoru down as a viscous toxic green leaches into his own irises, flooding over his pupils.

The amount of cursed energy snapping against Danny’s restraints is impressive, even as it bleeds through his pores and saturates the atmosphere of the car. The air is noticeably cooler. Satoru momentarily glances out the window. 

He smirks and claps his hand together with a smile, “We’re here!” He cheers, stepping onto the cobblestone entryway within seconds of the car stopping. He doesn’t bother to listen to the angry indignant sputtering coming from the backseat, instead strolling over to where Ijichi has helpfully popped open the trunk.

The back door practically shoots open, with Danny standing at his side not a moment later, gazing at their surroundings with suspicion. Satoru shrugs, lifting the kid’s duffel bags onto his shoulder. 

He lifts them with infinity, testing the resistance and weight, “Geez, kid, what did you put in here!” He laughs, already shutting the trunk so Ijichi could make his escape. He hauls the things around to the base of the stairs to Jujutsu’s red gate.

Danny rolls his eyes, “My parents packed that one, so I can only assume it’s filled with weapons.” Danny sneers, “What? Too heavy for the weak little ghost hunter?” 

“Nah,” Satoru snips, making a show of how easy it is to carry them–nevermind if his Infinity was activated or not. Satoru sobers a bit as he comes to stand beside Danny in front of the stairs. He huffs, slouching with irritation, “Alright kid, before we go in, I gotta go over a few things. Never let it be said I don’t teach my students!” He exclaims to the universe.

“Dude, what the hell are you on?” asks Danny, his face twisted in confusion as he stares up at Satoru, “Why are ghost hunters so freaking weird?”

“Right, okay, first things: you gotta start calling us sorcerers–not ghost hunters. Nobody uses that term around here.”

“Uh huh..”

“And we don’t call ‘em ghosts. They’re cursed spirits; or for short: Curses. That’s what most sorcerers call them.”

“Yeah, cuz there’s a super big difference there. Cursed spirit, ghost, why not, what the hell do I care?” Danny mutters, still only half invested in what Satoru is saying.

“And lastly,” Satoru lifts a hand in the air and summons a tiny Red to sit at the tip of his finger, watching the way Danny’s attention zeroes in on it like his life depends on it. He doesn’t miss the kid’s hand straying to his pocket–no doubt for one of his parent’s weapons. Satoru continues, “You have to stop getting so worked up over other people’s techniques.”

Satoru drops the Red, unsurprised to see Danny jump back and pull a silver-and-green cursed gun at him with unerringly perfect aim.

“What was that?! How did you-!?” The gun raises higher, “You’re a ghost, aren’t you!?”

“We went over this, kid. Curr-sss-euh, not. A. Gho-os-T.” Satoru says, mockingly slowing the correction until Danny scowls at him.

“Fine sure whatever, you’re a curse then! Why’d you-”

“Nope! Not a curse!” Satoru chirps, leaning back, “Just a sorcerer with access to cursed energy. Means I’ve got all sorts of cool powers! Just like you!”

“Cursed ener-” Danny’s body goes rigid, energy flaring with rising panic visible in his eyes, “What do you mean… just like me? What are you talking about? I can’t do… that, you’re crazy.” Danny huffs a laugh, one hand pressing against his forehead like he’s got a headache, “Of course you’re crazy, you get along with my parents! What was I thinking…?”

Satoru doesn’t bother moving as he watches Danny have his own little freak out, pacing a bit back and forth while gesturing with the curse gun. Satoru just stands there in the sun, hands in his pockets facing the stairs while the kid rearranges his world view.

When the deranged muttering finally starts to peter out, Satoru glances over with a raised brow, “You good now? Ready to talk it out in a less trigger happy way?”

Danny shoots him a glare but–and Satoru considers this a win–doesn’t actually shoot him. He doesn’t even raise the gun back up, the absolute charmer.

“If you’re not a gh- a curse, then…How do you know about me?” Danny asks, then pauses and reevaluates, “..What do you know about me?”

“I know you’ve got a pretty strong technique-” another full body flinch, “-and that you are barely managing to suppress it,” A look of mild offense, “But that you’ve had to suppress it because if your parents found out, they would totally treat you as a full body curse, probably try to exorcise you, and definitely cause a world of problems for you.”

“And how do you know this?”

“You mean aside from the fact that I showed even the beginnings of my technique and you immediately aimed a cursed weapon at me?” Satoru says, tilting his head as if to say ‘Really?’, “And the fact you still haven’t put the gun away?”

Danny’s shoulders hike up to his ears in embarrassment, “Right, sorry. Just… force of habit, I guess,” He hurriedly tucks the gun into his pocket, “Not used to not being immediately attacked when someone tells me they know my secret.”

Satoru smirks, “It’s fine, you couldn’t harm me if you tried, but the determination was cute. Anyways-” He ignores the affronted glare, “I know you’ve got a technique because I saw you use it to turn that grade three into a not-so-tasty alleyway popsicle.”

He can see the exasperation dawning on the kid as he tips his head back and sighs, “Of course there was somebody watching. Stupid, Fenton, stupid.” He knocks his knuckles against his forehead before glancing up at Satoru with a dead-eyed look, “So, what do you want from me? Now that you know, what’s your, like ‘angle’ on all of this?”

Satoru laughs and starts making his way up the stairs–it’s been a long time since he’s actually walked up them like a normie, usually he just teleports straight to where he wants to be. 

“Want from you? I’m a teacher, Danny, I want you to get control of your technique so you stop leaking cursed energy like a rusty faucet to every sorcerer in a two city radius with residuals so deep I could swim in them.”

“Teach..er…?” Danny draws out, stopping a couple steps back, “Wait, all that stuff about the ghost hunting school was for real?!” He exclaims and rushes to catch up to Satoru nearly at the top of the stairs.

“You thought I was kidding? Then why would you..?”

“I thought you were just trying to separate me from my parents,” explains Danny, “Y’know, like a fruitloop.”

Satoru’s jaw drops as the rest of his face screws up with incredulity. “You thought I was isolating you for nefarious purposes and you still got in my car??”

Danny shrugs, “I dunno, I’d just thought I’d figure it out and deal with it like I always do.”

“Deal with it how?”

“Y’know…” Danny quietly raises his fist, miming a punch in his other hand and providing a low “pow” for the impact. Then he shrugs again.

Satoru tilts his head, “And that… typically works for you?”

“Hasn’t failed me yet,” he says and looks around, “Hey where are we by the way? And why is there a massive gho- curse shield over this whole area?”

Satoru considers the response, “I think I have someone you should meet,” he smirks, “and welcome to Jujutsu High, Danny,”

They cross over Tengen’s barrier with more than a little hesitance from Danny, enough that it makes the boy start hiccuping but Satoru ignores the protests. Eventually they make it to the training yard with a quick stop to drop off the bags at the dorms without letting Danny pause.

Satoru is far too excited and he is certain it shows in the way he practically drags Danny through the halls. He didn’t want to miss the training session after all. 

To Satoru’s great delight, he doesn’t miss it! In fact, both his first and second years are out on the field, sparring and running laps.

Danny stops at the higher level looking down at the field and turns to Satoru with blatant skepticism, “This is what you dragged me here for? PE class?” Danny rubs the back of his neck and scowls, “Listen man, I could have told you back at the car; I’m not exactly a star athlete-“

Satoru cuts him off with a swift toss towards the bottom of the arena, jumping down to land beside him with a smile and a wave to his students. Danny groans from the ground.

He flops onto his back and glares at Satoru through the dirt, “I hate you. I hope you know that.”

Satoru grins down at him, “Is that any way to treat your new sensei, Danny-kun? In front of your new classmates?!” Satoru puts a hand to his forehead in mock drama, only stopping when Maki’s eye roll is the only response.

Danny takes Toge’s offered hand up with a quiet thank you, only briefly stuttering with confusion at the responding “Umeboshi!” 

Danny finishes brushing the dirt off himself. He looks up and comes face to face with six of seven students of the first and second years. Including glares from his two most Zen’in adjacent students—famous for their glares. Danny shirks back with enough force that Satoru feels comfortable likening him to a turtle trying to hide in its shell.

“Sensei. Who’s this?” Maki demands with a jut of her chin.

Satoru grins at them all with one of his award winning smiles, “This is our brand new First-Year exchange student!”

Megumi stares at him, “What.”

“Yep! He’s on loan from his clan to learn his technique before he goes back, so play nice kids!” Satoru says with a commanding finger point.

“Oh great, another Clan brat,” Maki says with a groan. “You as bad as the Zen’in?”

Danny’s face contorts, “The who? And hey! Watch it! I like being a Fenton… when I’m not being almost killed for it, that is.”

“Yeah? What’s your clan got to be proud of anyway? You gonna look down on me because of my cursed energy?”

Danny cocks his head, “You don’t have any more than the rest of my family, so… no?”

“Huh?!” Maki exclaims, even as Panda leans closer and lights up.

“You’re who my Ota-san told me about!” Panda jumps to add, “From the Clan of non-sorcerers in America!”

“Uh.. sure?” Danny scans Panda up and down with a confused frown that makes Satoru laugh, “Who are you?”

Panda leans back, shooting him a thumbs up and a wink, “I’m Panda!”

“Right. Ok..ayy.”

“I’m Yuuji Itadori! I’m from Sendai! Nice to meet you, I like girls like Jennifer Lawr-Ack!” Itadori cuts off as Nobara’s hammer smacks him over the head. The girl in question glares.

“I’m Nobara Kugisaki, and I don’t owe you jack shit! So don’t go thinking I do or anything!” She shouts, gesturing at Danny with her hammer.

Danny’s expression only grows more tired, nodding and looking to Satoru’s last darling first year. “And you?”

“Fushiguro.”

Satoru pouts, “Aww, come on ‘Gumi! Don’t be like that! He’s all brand new, you gotta show him the Jujutsu High Welcome!”

Maki smirks and cuts in, “Oh I can show him a good Jujutsu welcome,” she looks at Danny, “New kid, fight me.”

Danny sputters, “I’m not- my name is Danny, Danny Fenton!”

“Right, whatever,” Maki waves it off, hands lazily hanging over her polearm across her shoulders, “I’m Maki Zen’in; call me Maki or I’ll kill you.” She glares. Danny puts his hands up in surrender with a wince.

“I didn’t even do anything..” he whines.

“Exactly, now fight me!” She repeats, already turning and stomping off to the middle of the training grounds.

Danny turns to Satoru, evidently looking for some kind of saving grace or mercy. Satoru just smiles wider and urges him on with a little encouraging pushing hand wave. Danny’s face drops into resignation.

Just before Danny goes to take his first step, Satoru cuts in, “Oh and Danny!” 

The kid turns with one eyebrow raising in expectant dread.

Satoru grins, “No using your parents' inventions! Kay?” He throws out a cheery thumbs up despite the way Danny’s face falls.

“But she’s got.. like that stabby spear thing!” Danny says fervently. And to be fair, this usually would have been a pretty decent argument—regardless of Maki’s indignant shout across the field—but to be even more fair, Satoru could see Danny’s cursed energy eating him up from the inside and didn’t particularly care to see the fallout from that.

“Use your cursed technique, Danny,” Satoru reiterates, “Now, go go, don’t lose too quickly. Maki is getting impatient,” he says with a mocking smile, waving him forward again.

Sure enough, Maki stands in the field, completely irate at having to wait. 

“Stop distracting him you idiot!” She yells, and Satoru mockingly demonstrates his sudden complete lack of hearing with a smile and a peace sign thrown her way. 

Danny on the other hand, is already stomping his way across the turf, muttering the whole way. When he gets close enough, Maki lunges for him without warning. Danny is just barely fast enough to throw himself sideways to dodge it with an unmanly screech.

“What the-!”

Maki doesn’t hesitate, swinging her polearm off her shoulders and sending the blade slicing towards the boy’s legs. Danny lurches up into an almost handstand, landing by chance on the staff and kicking off it to go running in the other direction. Maki in hot pursuit.

“Fight back Fenton-san!” Yuuji and Panda cheer off to the side.

“Salmon salmon!” Toge adds, just as loud. Unfortunately causing Danny enough confusion to get caught in the stomach by Maki’s staff. Satoru watches his students wince, knowing first hand how hard Maki hits.

Danny goes flying, thankfully landing on his feet a few meters away, scowling hard, “What the hell are you made of!? Why do you hit so hard?!”

Maki races towards him, “What? Thought I’d be weak because I don’t have any cursed energy?”

Danny stands his ground, blocking the polearm coming down at him with both of his forearms crossed in front of him, “I already said I have no idea what you’re talking about!” Danny grits his teeth; Satoru can feel his cursed energy swell and twist, “But fine! You want a fight? Let’s fight!”

Danny breaks away, jumping backwards. Before Maki can even bend her knees to follow, Danny brings up his fists and Satoru watches the cursed energy in his body race for an outlet. He prepares to have to deal with that backlash-

Except….there isn’t any backlash. A bolt of cursed energy shoots out from Danny’s hands, one after the other, towards Maki. She dodges one but lets her shoulder get grazed by the second- 

“Don’t go too easy on him, Maki!” Satoru shouts, just to annoy her because he knows she’s never gone easy on anybody. She responds with a brief middle finger, still locked into the fight.

And Danny is still firing, jumping backwards as Maki dodges each bolt and continues to advance. Some of the bolts are blocked by her blade, skidding off to the side as she twirls it. They look disconcertingly like the shots Satoru had seen from Danny’s cursed gun.

Nobara scoffs next to him, “Tch. Does he really think he’s gonna beat Maki-senpai without even using his technique? Or is that weak ass blast all he’s got?”

Satoru doesn’t look away from the fight and shrugs his hands in his pockets, ignoring the way Megumi is watching him with suspicion.

“There’s no way Gojo-sensei would bring him here if that’s all he could do,” Megumi looks away from Satoru to the fight, “Fenton just needs enough time to actually activate his technique.”

“Oh!” Yuuji says, turning to them, “Like your handsigns! He can’t do them in the middle of battle yet!”

Panda rubs his chin with one paw, “Mmm, that’s not very good. We don’t always get time to pause like that in real battles,” he frowns.

Toge nods grimly, “Salmon.”

“Nope!” Satoru pipes in with one finger to the sky. His students all turn to him in varying stages of disbelief.

“HUh!!??” Nobara drags, “Then what’s he doing, playing around like that!?”

“Wait- I can see something, Fenton is doing something to the grass!”

Satoru smiles, still watching the fight. He can see the cursed energy leaking faster now. Slowly covering the field in the frost that’s trailing along Danny’s arms and feet. To anyone else, it might look strategic–planned even–but Satoru can tell it’s Danny’s control slowly slipping. Each bolt of cursed energy is like a hole being poked in a dam–releasing some, but also making it harder to hold the rest in.

Satoru smiles, this should be interesting to watch.

Danny is breathing heavily as they disengage for a second, breath coming out in cold puffs of air visible across the field. Maki watches him with narrowed eyes, reevaluating and preparing. She lunges forward.

In the second it takes for her to cross the field, Danny catches Satoru’s eye–even beneath the blindfold–and seeing Satoru’s goading smirk, decides something.

The dam breaks.

Ice shoots across the field, a glacier in its own right, cold flooding the arena and icy wind blasting into their faces. Satoru smiles as he watches Danny shake off the frost from his fingertips, eyes still a luminescent blue, almost white. 

“Good job Danny-kun!” Satoru cheers across the sudden silence of his students next to him. Danny shoots him a truly despicable glare.

Just in time for Maki to break through the ice, fury lining her body as her spear smashes through the frozen structure like butter. The sound is enough to draw Danny’s attention; just not fast enough for him to dodge when the blunt end of that spear comes racing towards his face.

Another wince echoes through the student onlookers.

Danny is thrown sideways, but stands back up anyways, throwing bolts of cursed energy and ice in equal measure. Satoru is surprised to see that despite Danny’s cursed energy steadily, rapidly, depleting, its volatility does not seem to abate. Less water behind a dam and more…. waves being pushed over a waterfall. Consequences of keeping it repressed for so long is Satoru’s guess.

It doesn’t take long for Danny’s energy to flag at just the wrong moment, ending with him pressed under Maki’s boot being yelled at about weak stamina and poor form. Danny seems to be giving it back as good as he’s getting it though, bitterly refuting her claims from his spot pressed into the dirt.

Maki drags him over soon enough. Dropping him in front of their group to complain to her classmates. 

Satoru is just glad to see that he’s successfully split the heat of Danny’s spiteful glares with someone else.

“Fenton-san! You did super good!” Yuuji jumps to add as Danny stands and slowly starts wiping frozen mud off his clothes.

Danny levels him with a flat look, “I literally lost. Horribly.”

“Obviously. It’s Maki-senpai,” Nobara scoffs, looking him up and down. Danny flicks mud towards her. Thankfully it misses and Satoru doesn’t have to confiscate Nobara’s hammer again.

“Maki-senpai is really strong! Don’t beat yourself up about it!” Yuuji says with a smile, “But I’d say your technique is pretty cool to see!” He gives a bright thumbs up.

Expectedly, Megumi groans at the pun; but Danny does something entirely unexpected. 

“Yeah, I guess you could say it’s a pretty chill way to fight, right?” Danny adds with a grin splitting his face ear to ear and a pair of finger guns snapping towards Yuuji. It only makes Yuuji’s smile brighten even further as the others around them groan. 

“Great. There’s two of them now,” Megumi says, hand already messaging his forehead. 

“Hey.. Itadori?” Danny interrupts, voice hesitant, “Have you eaten anything like… super radioactive recently?”

Yuuji raises a brow at the oddity of the question but pauses to think anyways, “No, I don’t think so. Why?”

“Right…” Danny says, still preternaturally still and staring at Yuuji, “Okay, I don’t mean to alarm you, but is it… normal for you to grow a second face on your cheek?

Yuuji’s hand slaps onto the side of his face with unerring precision. He chuckles tightly, “Heh, sorry about that its-“

“Don’t bother explaining me brat, I’m only here to see what new plaything I’ll have when I-“

“Ahh it speaks!!” Danny shouts, pointing and pulling something from his pocket in the same second. Briefly, Satoru wonders if he’s about to see Danny shoot his cursed weapon at Yuuji’s head. Fortunately, what comes out is much more normal: a large white spray bottle that Danny immediately spritzes onto Sukuna’s fanged mouth with the speed of a man possessed.

Satoru freezes just as fast as he’d prepared to jump between them. He watches as Sukuna’s cursed energy at the surface sputters and withers. He can certainly hear the way Sukuna shouts in anger as what seems to be acid dissolves his construct on Yuuji’s hand and the eye beneath it.

Thankfully, Yuuji does not seem actually harmed by this, only jumping back because of the suddenness of the movement and Sukuna’s reaction. 

“What the-!” Yuuji shouts over Sukuna’s yells, “What’d you just do?!”

“I will kill you for that brat!” The curse shouts, popping up on Yuuji’s other cheek.

“What the frick what the frick what the frick-“ Danny repeats, fingers pumping at his spray bottle while Yuuji haphazardly blocks and swats at the droplets coming his way. Black ink ghosts across his skin as Sukuna gets more agitated.

Satoru plucks the spray bottle from the boy’s hand, holding it up out of reach, “That’s enough of that!~”

“Hey!” Danny shouts, “That’s the intellectual property of my parents!”

“Concerning.”

“Oi! Give it back! That is Fentonworks property and I fully plan on using it to get rid of that creepo on Itadori’s cheek!”

“I will paint the Earth with your entrails!” Sukuna yells as Yuuji stumbles backwards, folding in on himself. It only takes a moment for the black tattoos to completely fade, but it’s enough that Danny stands completely still. Watching.

The longer the silence presses down, the farther Yuuji’s shoulders curl in on themselves. “Sorry about-“

Danny laughs; leaving Satoru and his students blinking.

“Dude that’s a new one! Usually they’re threatening to skin me and hang my pelt on their wall!” He says with another laugh, then does something no one expected. Danny sticks his tongue out, “Guess you’ll have to get in line, loser!”

Satoru puts a heavy hand on Danny’s shoulder, “Danny-kun, are you aware of who that was?”

Danny shakes him off, twisting and batting his hand away when that doesn’t immediately work, “Does it matter?”

“Itadori is the vessel for Ryomen Sukuna, Danny,” Megumi says, voice grim and saturated with guilt, “The King of Curses.” 

Danny stops pulling away, facing Yuuji and Megumi in turn, “And that’s… bad? Being a vessel that is?”

Yuuji huffs, full of self-deprecation, “Well, I’m gonna be executed for it so…”

“You idiot- they already tried to kill you once!”

“You’ll be..” Danny murmurs, “…executed?”

Chapter Text

After they’d finally cleared up Danny’s skepticism over Yuuji’s pending execution–it would never happen, not if Satoru had anything to say about it–they can finally get to talking about Danny’s technique. 

“Maki, you fought him, any comments?” Satoru calls, interrupting the second years’ conversations.

Maki scoffs but turns to them all the same, “Teaching is your job, you idiot,” She casts a scathing glare down at Danny, “You’ve got piss poor cursed energy management and terrible footwork.”

“Awww,” Satoru coos, “Was that an offer to help coach him, Maki-chan? Taken a liking to the new kid?~~”

Maki yells in outrage, denials sharp on her tongue. “I’m not doing your job for you! What do they even pay you for!?”

Satoru smirks, “For my dashing good looks, of course!”

“Are you broke?”

Satoru freezes. Turning the full weight of his Six-eyes onto the child standing at his side. “w..what?” he strangles out.

“If you’re getting paid for good looks, I can only assume teaching is your punishment for putting the school in debt,” Danny snaps back, one eyebrow raised. Testing boundaries… he was just… testing boundaries Satoru…heheh

His students–the horrible traitors they are–are trying to stifle their laughs as Satoru stares dismayed. Satoru lets himself fall onto Danny, Limitless flat against his skin as he throws his weight over the boy, “Oh Danny-kun, how could you treat me with such hatred! How will I go on!?”

“Unfort-ngh-ately-You’ll-ugh- live..” Danny successfully pushes his weight off, encouraging Satoru to stand back up and ruffle his hair instead.

“Maybe. Anyways, that’s quite a technique you’ve got there. Told ya you were strong,” Satoru says. 

Danny rolls his eyes and crosses his arms, “I know it’s strong, it’s my technique. The problem is that it tries to freeze me from the inside out if I don’t use it right. Makes blankets freaking useless.”

“Really? That kinda sucks, man,” Yuuji adds with a wince.

“Salmon, mustard leaf,” Toge nods in agreement. Danny stares. He blinks. Opens and closes his mouth.

“Right… listen, I know I just learned the language but aren’t those just… random words?”

Toge nods, “Kelp.”

Panda smiles, “Inumaki is a cursed speech user. To make sure it doesn’t affect others, he speaks only using onigiri ingredients!”

“Cursed speech?” Danny hums, “Oh, like you can sing and hypnotize people to listen to you? I fought somebody like that once.”

“Fish Flakes.”

Nobara groans, “Are you clueless? The Inumaki clan is famous for their technique. Inumaki-senpai can force a command on anyone that hears it.”

“Oh,” Danny grimaces, shoulders pressing down and back, chest puffing as if subconsciously making himself bigger. His cursed energy twitches, “That… also sounds like someone that I’ve fought.”

“Huh??! You’re already going on missions!?” Nobara asks, sneering with poorly hidden envy. 

As far as Satoru knows, there are no branches of the Inumaki family in America so it’s rather problematic if there’s a curse user running around with a similar technique. It’s also rather fascinating if Danny actually fought them and is around to tell the tale. Admittedly, he’s curious too; he doesn’t exactly know how missions are assigned in America except for ‘Hey we’re too weak to deal with our own problems, can you call Satoru Gojo and inconvenience him for us?’ 

“What grade are you?” Megumi asks, ignoring Nobara’s bitter fuming beside him. 

“Uh… 10th? I was supposed to start my sophomore year next week,” Danny says with a helpless shrug, “If that helps?”

Panda is the one to jump in, “He means your combat level, you should have gotten it from my Ota-san when you enrolled!” He says cheerily. Danny's confusion stays.

“Your who?” 

Panda turns a sharp glare to Satoru, “You have gone to see our Principal, correct Sensei?”

Satoru pouts, “Yaga can wait! I wanted to introduce Danny to my lovely students first!”

Panda shouts in dismay, heading bowing in solemn grief. He shakes his head, “This is why Sensei is always late. Setting a bad example for my precious kohai,” Panda sets a stern paw on Danny’s shoulder, “You must go see my Ota-san, he is the principal. Do not let our idiot Sensei lead you astray.”

Danny leans back from the sudden serious tone, glancing around to the other’s solemn nods, “Uhmm… okay? I will?”

Satoru rolls his eyes and pulls Danny away, “Fine! Fine! I’ll let him meet Yaga! It’s probably about time anyways!”

“Knowing you, you’re already late, Gojo-sensei,” Megumi says, tone mercilessly flat. Satoru shushes him with one finger.

“Bye Fenton! It was nice to meet you!” Yuuji adds as Satoru continues to lead Danny away despite the kid’s protests. Danny gets a ‘Bye!’ out in return before Satoru really starts pulling him the stairs towards Yaga’s office.

His hands on the kid’s shoulders only last for so long before being shaken off for Danny to walk beside him.

“So you’re just weird all the time, huh?” He says, casting a dubious look up and down Satoru’s form. Satoru smiles back in return and savors the deadpan look it receives. “So…” Danny starts, eyes scanning over the campus, “Is this principal also a talking panda? Like, do I need to be prepared for that?” 

Satoru laughs, “Nope! His technique lets him create puppets with cursed energy, Panda-kun is just a bit of a special case.”

A breath of relief whooshes out of Danny, “Oh thank goodness.”

Satoru eyes him from the side, looking down through his blindfold without turning his head. Danny was an interesting case, already his cursed energy was replenishing, swirling tight. And yet… he was still just a kid, caught in an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar people. 

“Don’t worry!” Satoru says, “I’m sure you’ll do great!”

Danny eyes him suspiciously, “..Do great at what?”

Satoru just smiles again and swings open Yaga’s door. The man is already sitting at his chair, arms crossed with a plethora of cursed corpses surrounding his feet. Satoru ignores the glare and ushers his student to go sit in front of him.

“You’re. Late, Gojo.” Yaga grits out. Satoru grins and waves him off despite the hole Yaga is trying to burn into the side of his face by glaring. He and Danny should get along great! 

The furious silence lingers until Danny awkwardly coughs and Yaga’s eyes snap to him. He stares the kid down from his chair, back straight, “Why do you want to be a Jujutsu sorcerer?”

Danny stills, eyes flicking to Satoru before sliding back onto Yaga, “Uh… I don’t?”

Yaga blinks. His eye twitches and Satoru dutifully ignores the eye contact his old sensei is trying to make. “You.. don’t?”

“Dude, hell no!” Danny exclaims, inexplicably energetic, “Wait if you don’t let me in, does that mean I get to go home?!” His eyes sparkle, “Because in that case, I am being kept here under duress and most definitely don’t want to be a sorcerer! I don’t even want to be a ghost hunter!”

Satoru freezes, suddenly feeling like static has invaded his veins. 

Yaga raises an eyebrow at Danny, silently telling him to explain.

“Dude, my parents are the ghost- err the ‘curse’ hunters, they’re the ones who want me to be good at all this. And the stupid things attack me in school like all the time! So it’s not like I can avoid them, despite my very best efforts, believe me,” Danny urges, and Satoru has a pit in his stomach that does believe him. The same pit that realizes he’d been about to help steal this kid’s childhood, whether he’d known it or not.

“I wanted to be an astronaut, man, not any of this sorcery stuff, but..” Danny deflates in front of Satoru’s very eyes, “It’s not like I can do that anymore. Not since...”

And Satoru can finish that sentence all on his own. It’d been the same for Satoru. Same for Megumi. Same for Yuta, Yuuji… for Suguru.

None of them had been allowed their childhood. Not when they could fight to become sorcerers instead. And most of them chose it anyways, nevermind that they were rarely given a choice. Not since…

‘Not since he’d developed a technique.’

Yaga hums, contemplating. He looks at Danny closer, because even without Satoru’s Six-Eyes, his cursed energy is pretty readable.

“If you do not want to be a sorcerer,” Yaga continues, “Then why are you here?”

Danny shoots a glare at Satoru, “Other than this weirdo kidnapping me?”

Yaga sighs, “Yes. Other than…that.”

“Apparently he thinks you guys could help me control my ice,” Danny says. When Yaga raises an eyebrow, he taps a finger to the floorboard and watches a path of frost shoot forwards.

“I see.” 

There’s a moment of silence as Yaga weighs the facts in front of him. He turns to Satoru, “How long do you expect it will take to get control of this technique?”

Satoru shrugs, “Couple months? He’s signed over for the rest of the term,” he smiles, “Even the higher-ups jumped at the chance to get him trained up!” They had more nefarious and decidedly power-hungry reasons for it, but all the same.

“I’m aware,” Yaga sighs again–a surefire sign of Satoru’s amazingness–and waves at the both of them dismissively, “Fine, he can stay. Put him with the other first-year dorms. I’ll get his ID and grade three ranking put in.”

Satoru cheers, “Great!” He pulls Danny up, “I knew you could do it, Danny!”

Yaga just growls, “Get out of here! And stop acting like you weren’t responsible for this!” He shouts with indignant fury, one fist shaking in the air. Satoru smiles and wisely slips out the door, newest first year in hand.

“Wait, grade three? What does that mean?” Danny says the moment the door closes behind them and Satoru releases him. “I barely passed classes back home, I’m definitely should not be in any sort of advanced class-”

Satoru waves him off, “Don’t worry about it. It’s your combat level, remember?” He says, waving a finger.

“Oh, you mean what the others were talking about? I’m a three?”

“You’re a Grade three. Means you can be sent on missions for curses ranked third grade or above!” Satoru corrects, “You can thank me for the promotion,” He says with a hand to his chest, “I mentioned your fantastic performance I saw when I was watching you!”

“You mean when you were stalking me and my family?” Danny deadpans.

“Pff, details. It was for a good cause,” Satoru says, dismissive.

Danny just rolls his eyes and scowls harder. He drags a hand down his face, “Alright, so what does grade three even mean? Is it some type of specific gho-curse or what?”

Satoru hums, tapping his chin thoughtfully, “Well, it’s all based on how we rank cursed spirits. Fourth grades are weak, you could probably exorcise it with that baseball bat your sister had-”

“The Fenton Anti-Creepstick.” 

Satoru stops, glancing down at Danny for the interruption, “What?”

Danny nods, “The Fenton Anti-Creepstick. That’s what it’s called. My parents made it.” He repeats, fully serious. 

A disbelieving chuckle escapes from Satoru’s mouth, “Right. That….” He continues, “Anyways..third grades–like the one you took out–you’ll probably need a pistol to kill it. Then second grades, you should have at least the firepower of a shotgun. First grades.. you’ll need serious gear, at least a tank–you probably should just run. And special grades, you should definitely run. They’re unique and the scale doesn’t quite apply, so comparatively you need to like… carpet bomb it to hopefully do anything.” Satoru smirks and strikes a pose, “Unless you’re me.”

“...Right,” Danny blinks slowly, doubt in his eyes. He pauses, then taps his own chin, looking thoughtful. “So.. creepstick for grade four, wrist ray for grade three, uh…. GAV attack for first grade, and ….” Danny pauses, looking down to count it off on his fingers, brows scrunching together, “Hang on, why is there such a jump from second to first grade? And how the hell do you even deal with Special whatsits then?”

“You don’t,” Satoru says. He turns to Danny, serious, “If you encounter a special grade curse, do not fight it. Just call me. I’ll be there.”

Danny’s face twists, “What kind of plan is that? Call you? What are you gonna do?”

Satoru smirks, he huffs, “I’m the Strongest Sorcerer in the world,” The smile drops, “I’ll deal with it.” 

Danny squints, looking Satoru up and down with doubt, “Yeah.. and how do I even recognize a special grade. Y’know, so I know when to call so you can swoop in and get beaten up instead of me?”

Satoru leans back, humming, “Well…hmm, if they can talk, that’s definitely a sign. Like actually talk, not just repeat random words and phrases,” he clarifies, looking into the middle distance, “And if they have a more defined body, specific techniques… special grades are kind of a wild card. But you shouldn’t encounter any–not if I have any say in it–so don’t worry!” He says cheerfully, looking down at Danny again. 

The kid’s face is frozen in a very odd expression–halfway between shock, disbelief, and regret–only getting worse as he chuckles airily. “Heh..right.. Never gonna-..heh,” Danny swallows and exhales deeply, “Not gonna meet any of those. Heh.. Nope! Never!” He laughs again, the sound high pitched and strained.

Satoru raises a brow at the sudden tension in the boy’s shoulders. Weird.

“Besides!” He exclaims loudly, shifting the mood with a hand ruffling Danny’s hair, “You’re here to learn your technique! Not just fight curses! You don’t have to worry about any of that here, I’ll protect you!”

Danny rolls his eyes and leans away from the hand, “Yeah right,” He scoffs, “Believe me, trouble finds me no matter what. I’ve got a hard luck case of the Fenton Luck. It’s permanent.”

Satoru strains to keep his smile straight, “Don’t worry about it! Just focus on getting better, yeah?” He says, trying to maintain his light tone. Despite the kid’s pessimistic words–he’s too young to be that resigned.

Danny huffs again, “Sure. Whatever, we’ll see.”

Satoru forces a grin and reaches a hand towards his scuffed up hair again, “That’s the spirit, Danny-kun!”

Danny dodges, scowling. And Satoru chases, the two of them locked into an unending cycle of stubborn determination. 

And Satoru swears. He swears that he will do everything he can so Danny doesn’t have to worry about any of this. If he has his way, he won’t encounter a single curse the whole time he’s here, no matter what those higher-ups want. Danny needs to get control of his technique–but he shouldn’t have to give up his youth to use it. 

And he won’t. Not if Satoru has anything to do with it,

Chapter Text

Danny groans as he flops out of bed, mumbling into the wooden floor he’s become unpleasantly familiar with over the course of the last month.

He’s cold—because of course he is, why would the universe bother to give him a break now—so he blindly reaches for his sweatshirt. Unfortunately—again, zero breaks—his sweatshirt is hung over his desk chair across the room. Danny groans again, deciding to forfeit the sweatshirt entirely and go straight for the insulated uniform he’s been FORCED to wear since coming here.

And he hopes that blindfolded loser can feel his annoyance through the ether. 

Sooner than Danny would like, he’s standing in the front hallway of the dorms, walking towards the kitchen. Should he maybe not complain about the utter bliss that is not having to wake up in the middle of the night to fight ghosts? Maybe. Is he also being forced to go to a school he couldn’t care less about just to practice getting frostbite everyday? YES. So Danny rests his case.

Still, the rest must be doing him some good because he’s apparently awake early enough to walk in on the other students getting ready to cook breakfast. Usually he stumbles in long after they’re done.

“Good morning Danny!” Itadori says, cheery as always as he grabs a pot from below the sink.

“Good morning.” 

Fushiguro gives a nod of acknowledgement and turns back to his phone. Kugisaki doesn’t even bother with that much even when Danny slumps into the stool between them at the counter.

“Do you want to help, Danny?” Itadori asks, despite already having oil sizzling in the pan, “I know you usually don’t eat breakfast with us but-”

Danny waves him off, “I just usually don’t sleep this much and don’t wake up this early. I can help, just let me go grab my ectogun from my room.” Danny stands to head back to his room.

“Ugh, you’re slow!” Kugisaki says with a groan, turning a squinted look on him, “You can just get your cursed weapons after breakfast before classes! I need to eat Itadori’s cooking now!”

Danny rolls his eyes, already well used to Kugisaki’s bitterness towards him for saving her the first time they met. He turns to Itadori with a shrug, “If you want to use your own cursed gun, that’s fine too. I just only have my wrist-ray on me right now,” He raises it from his pocket in example, easily clipping into onto his hand.

“...heh…what?” Itadori stutters, “Why would…we need that?” He says, wide eyes locked in on Danny’s deactivated ray. Danny looks at it then back at Itadori, eyebrows scrunching in confusion.

“Um… for cooking?” Danny says, walking around to get further into the kitchen, “Unless you have another way to put down undead spirit meat??”

And now all three of his classmates are looking at him like he’s crazy. Danny shirks back slightly, suddenly reminded of his first time eating at Tucker’s house. “Or is that… not something you need to do?” 

All three shake their heads. 

“Huh.” Danny drops his shoulders, “Uh, don’t go in the freezer then.”

“What’s different about the freezer?” Fushiguro asks, his phone now fully abandoned on the counter. 

Danny rubs the back of his neck, “Um… there may or may not be a block of sushi contained in my ice in there that I was planning to just deal with later.” He’d thought that they’d all be used to ectoplasm bringing things back to life with how much they use it around here! Sure they call it cursed energy but he didn’t think that’d make a difference in reanimating his California Roll! Danny winces, if his ice is the only source of ecto-cursed-plasm-energy in the freezer then he’s probably gonna have to melt that as soon as possible.

He slumps, heading towards the freezer, sparing barely a glance to Itadori’s spatula defense. “Here, I’ll just deal with it now.” 

Danny swings the freezer open, swinging his arm up to aim the ray inwards just in case- 

Thankfully, nothing jumps out at him. So Danny relaxes, reaching in to grab his black of ice surrounding the sushi container from yesterday’s excursion to town. Screw him, he wanted to save the convenience store sushi without risking bacteria.

“Woah! That’s your sushi!?” Itadori says, peering closer as Danny closes the freezer and sets the block down on the counter. Both Kugisaki and Fushiguro lean closer as well.

Danny shrugs, “Might as well use my ice for something, right? Long-term storage is easiest.”

Fushiguro nods, “It’s clear your control of your technique is getting better.”

Danny doesn’t bother thanking him, whether or not he meant it as a compliment or just an observation. Instead, he focuses on trying to melt the block of ice. 

It’s surprisingly easy, the block falling apart with a wet sploosh despite the lack of any kind of liquid residue. Danny stares at his sushi. 

The sushi stares back. 

It blinks first.

Danny’s breath whooshes out of him in relief, thank goodness they hadn’t developed motor skills yet. He pops open the top and foregos chopsticks to grab one and throw it in his mouth. 

Kugisaki and Fushiguro are both looking at him in horror, enough that he slowly stops chewing. He swallows awkwardly.

“Nothing like cold sushi for breakfast amiright?” Danny shrugs, “Do you.. want to try one? I swear they’re not that bad, and since you guys already have cursed energy you’ll probably be fine.” 

“Ew! Gross!!” Kugisaki shouts, rearing back, “Who does that!? I’m not eating old sushi from the convenience store for breakfast!”

Fushiguro sits back in his chair, face flat, “No.”

Danny turns to Itadori, holding a piece of his California Roll out. At least he looks to be considering it. One of the other rolls starts wriggling across the tray and Danny puts his hand on top to catch it.

Itadori shrugs, “Sure, why not?” He grabs the offered piece and throws it in his mouth just as Fushiguro yells at him.

Itadori jerks towards him, teeth already clamped shut and cheek full as he tries to talk, “Wats wong, ‘ushgooroh?” 

He swallows. “What’s wrong, Fushiguro?”

Fushiguro’s head drops to the counter, a groan of dismay following, “Itadori you have to stop eating cursed objects. We’ve been over this.”

Danny looks at him, face twisted with indignation, “Hey! That’s my sushi you’re talking about!”

Fushiguro lifts his head to stare at him, “You’re just as bad. You turned your sushi into a cursed womb and then left it in our freezer,”

Danny rubs the back of neck, sheepish, “Well, it wasn’t cursed when I put it in there. And it’s not on purpose. My food just… does that sometimes.” He brightens, “At least it didn’t have teeth this time! I ate the eel yesterday just in case!”

Fushiguro sighs, shaking his head and standing from his chair, “I’ll eat later, Itadori. See you in training.”

“Aww, Fushiguro!” Itadori whines. Danny shrugs and throws another sushi roll in his mouth. Kugisaki looks particularly grossed out.

“Fushiguro! Don’t you dare leave me with these two freaks!” She yells, lurching to chase after him out of the room. 

Danny turns to look at Itadori with an apologetic glance, “Sorry for chasing off your friends Itadori,” 

Itadori smiles back, “It’s alright! You’re my friend too! Let’s eat before Gojo-sensei has us running drills all morning!”

Danny groans at the mere mention of the man. Somehow, despite being leagues less nefarious –he thinks–than Vlad, Gojo has managed to cause him infinitely more problems. The main one being getting him stuck in Japan!

Itadori laughs, “I still don’t know why you dislike him so much,” He’s somehow already almost finished cooking. Danny tosses his last roll in his mouth and slides the convenience store container in the trash.

“I don’t dislike him. I dislike his presence in my life. He’s annoying and meddling and almost as bad as my godfather, which isn’t saying a lot but hey,” Danny exclaims, “At least he hasn’t tried to kill my dad or date my mom!”

Itadori’s chopsticks pause on the way to his mouth. Slowly, he finishes his bite and then grimaces, “I guess Gojo-sensei can be alot to someone that’s not used to him yet-”

“I keep telling you guys. He kidnapped me. He literally, actually kidnapped me. I am being kept here against my will.”

Itadori laughs, getting up to set his plate in the sink. Danny takes this as they can longer put off the morning training and easily follows him out to the field.

Gojo is already waiting there for them. So is Fushiguro. Kugisaki comes running in a couple minutes late complaining about her eyeliner pencil breaking. Danny is all too familiar with the concept, especially since Sam’s favorite purple eye-liner was always incredibly hard to find.

Danny finishes jogging their laps–he’s the last, as always–and leans over his knees with heaving breaths. Could he just stop breathing instead of dealing with his chronically weak lungs? Sure, but then he’d have to deal with the questions. So for now he just has to accept his natural lack of athleticism.

He spares a glare up at the man responsible for it. Better than Ms.Tetslaf, better than Ms.Tetslaf. He repeats in his mind. The smirk on the man’s face makes it ever so much harder to remember and he drops his head again with a grueling sigh. 

When he’s finally caught his breath, he throws another glare at Gojo and then starts heading over to where he’s been practicing his ice.

“Oh! Danny, wait a minute, I’m going to have you do something different today!” Gojo says, pulling him back. Danny looks at him. 

“Different how? Didn’t you bring me here to figure out my ice?”

Gojo waves him off, “Yeah sure, but mindlessly creating glaciers on the field is clearly not doing much for your cursed energy,” He smiles, “I’ve got a better idea!”

Already Danny feels dread start swirling in his gut. But he can’t argue he’s sick of testing the limits of getting his fingers frozen to the ground. Nevermind that his ‘glaciers’ have gotten even bigger since getting here and he’s finally figured out how to make cool ice swords from them like the Yeti’s back in the Far Frozen did.

Still, when Gojo pushes him down by his shoulders to sit on the grass he doesn’t hesitate to maintain his glare at the man. 

“What do you want me to do now?” He groans, flopping backwards.

“Well, since you need to fix your cursed energy flow, I figure you should start by understanding the energy,” Gojo wiggled his arms, “So you can understand the fLOw. And then start controlling it so you can decide when and how it flows”

Danny blinked. He glanced to where Fushiguro and Itadori were happily sparring and then back to his spot on the ground. “So we’re gonna... what? Meditate?”

“We!?” Gojo cackled, “Not a chance! Meditating is boring! I’m not doing that, you are.”

“Right.” He deadpans.

“Glad we’re on the same page!” Gojo says with a thumbs up and a grin. Danny doesn’t bother responding to that with more than a roll of his eyes.

Thankfully Gojo takes this as a good enough answer to go bother Kugisaki instead. He gets a nail towards his head in response but targets are targets.

Danny snickers.

His smile fades. He does actually want to get better, wants to be able to control this energy inside him that Gojo says he has. Wants to be able to really control his ice, not just in emergencies like Undergrowth.

He takes a deep breath and begrudgingly gets into a criss cross applesauce position. Hands in his lap.

Okay.

Energy. He could do that. Yeah. He had plenty of energy. Now he just had to control it. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Danny tries to focus on the well of energy that he pulled on for his ice. He thinks about the tiny diamond in his chest that Frostbite had shown him. The way the ectoplasm around it was cold, cold radiating outwards.

He feels something twitch and shift, it felt familiar, comfortable. He tries to hold it, to match its flow, to control it-

Danny feels his transformation activate, eyes flicking open in panic. White rings encircle his waist when he looks down-

“Shi- fuc- crap!!” Danny shouts, physically recoiling from them like it would stop them- he could see Gojo and the others- they could see him- they were going to see-

Danny panics, cold surging, ice rising around him-

He lurches upward with a gasp, light flickering around his torso once more.

Darkness. 

Danny breathes, each breath heavy and rattled. His mouth tastes of ash.

That day in the training field sits at the cusp of his thoughts despite being weeks ago.

Danny moves, shifting to a crouch as rubble tumbles off of him.

Right.

There’d been an attack. Danny looks up, the sky red with fire and ash.

No, not just any attack.

Sukuna. Sukuna had attacked. 

Sukuna had been released in Shibuya.

And Danny had been caught in the crossfire.