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Nobara slides her phone back into her handbag after checking one more time that her directions are correct. It’s hard to believe how much Tokyo was already adjusting itself after the disastrous events of the last year. She’s grateful for that, that the world of jujutsu didn’t take this away from her.
She tugs at her eyepatch; it has a rose embroidered on it. it’s a little eccentric, but Nobara doesn’t care; it’s just another thing she can accessorize now. She tossed on a white sweater today, paired with a light beige jacket since it was starting to get colder. Despite that she chose to wear a black mini-skirt and paired that with some black stockings, she finished the look with a pair of tall white boots that matched her handbag.
She looks ready for a date… Which, she’s not sure if she should call this one.
She hasn’t seen Yuko in over a year, not since their first meeting. That was before everything went wrong, before she lost her eye, before she was rendered unconscious for months while her friends dealt with hell on earth, before Maki started—
She stops herself; that one thing is nowhere near as bad as the others. She needs to get over it. Today is supposed to be fun—she likes texting Yuko, so hanging out with her should be no different.
The two girls text pretty frequently, they follow each other on social media, like each other's posts, and play phone games together.
She continues walking, picking up her pace. She’s nearing her destination. The two decided beforehand they should go to the aquarium together. After all, Nobara never had the chance before Shibuya happened, and Yuko told her she never went with how busy she was with the move from Sendai.
“Nobara!”
Yuko’s waiting for her, just outside the entrance of Tokyo Sea Life Park. Nobara speeds up just a bit when she catches sight of her. The taller girl waves at her.
“Yuko, hi!”
The two girls embrace, and Nobara is quickly reminded how much taller Yuko is than her. She’s taller than Maki, maybe 5’9”? Nobara’s not even that short by Japanese standards, but it feels like nearly everyone she knows is taller than her.
She pulls away and looks up at Yuko. “It’s been way too long,” she smiles.
“It has… I like your eyepatch. The rose is really pretty.”
Nobara grins at the compliment, “Yeah? I figured if I have to wear this, I might as well make it stylish, right?”
Yuko nods, and Nobara takes the time to soak in the other girl's outfit. She’s wearing a dark green maxi skirt, paired with an oversized fuzzy white sweater. It’s a bit similar to what she wore the first time they met; this must be Yuko’s preferred style. It’s cute.
“You look cute too,” Nobara adds. She watches as a blush forms on Yuko’s face. Cute!
“T-thanks.”
“Now come on! I’ve never been to an aquarium before,” Nobara joins their arms together.
“Really?” Yuko asks her before continuing. “That makes sense. You said you grew up in the middle of nowhere.”
Nobara sighs and nods. “Yeah… We didn’t have much for entertainment there.”
Yuko lets out a little hum; she lets Nobara take the lead, guiding them through the entrance. “I’ve only been to the one in Sendai,” she glances over at Nobara’s eyepatch. “After all the craziness that happened last year… I was kind of scared to go into the city.”
“I don’t blame you,” Nobara nudges her. “But all that stuff died down.”
Yuko, like most non-sorcerers, is under the impression that what happened in Shibuya and what followed throughout the country was the result of terrorism. It wasn’t an entirely wrong idea; it was absolutely terrorism. But no one thought it was because of cursed spirits and curse users; the general population would lose their minds if something like that was revealed.
“Yeah…”
“Well, come on then!” Nobara grins. She’d rather not think about the hell she’s gone through in the last year. It’s inevitable Yuko is going to ask about it, especially her missing eye. “I’ve been dying to see their penguin exhibits.”
Nobara beams as she holds out her phone, recording the exhibit in front of her. It was just their luck they managed to get to the penguins just as feeding time started.
“There’s so many of them,” Yuko murmurs. One of the staff members tossed a bucket of fish into the water. It resulted in a swarm of swimming penguins, each trying to catch a bite.
“Whenever I think of penguins, I think about the arctic, you know, the emperor penguins, or the ones with the eyebrows.”
“The rockhoppers?”
“Yeah! Those guys,” Nobara points at them. Rockhopper penguins happened to be one of the few penguin species the aquarium had exhibits for. She glances over at the smaller penguins, their feathers are a shade of blue. “But I’ve never seen those really tiny ones before.”
“Me either, I think…” Yuko looks over at the habitat stand, displaying pictures and information. “Oh, they’re from New Zealand. Aw, they’re called fairy penguins! That’s so cute!”
“Wait, really?” Nobara leans against her, reading the sign. “Oh my god,” she squealed with delight.
The penguins were the highlight of the outing. They had already gone through most of the aquarium on their way to the exhibit.
“Did you want to see the jellyfish?” Yuko asks, pointing in the general direction of the critters.
“I’m cool seeing anything.”
“Oh, good,” Yuko lets out a small sigh of relief. “Some people get all freaked out with them.”
“I’ve seen worse,” Nobara remarks. Dealing with curses every day meant seeing some really grotesque shit. A jellyfish or sea cucumber is nothing to her. Hell, a sea cucumber is probably a lot more pleasing to look at than what sits underneath her eyepatch.
Now that her physical health is back to normal, she might poke Shoko about finally getting that eye implant installed. It sucks about the scars underneath; she's not sure how long those will take to heal, if they ever will. Still an implant will beat seeing wrinkled scar tissue anytime she takes her eyepatch off. Maybe she should talk to Utahime about hers, hell maybe even Momo.
“Are you okay, Nobara?” Yuko leans in, observing her.
“Yeah, sorry. I got lost in thought. Let’s go see some jellies.”
“Can I ask you something?”
Nobara looks up from her phone. They had cleared through the aquarium and were taking a break away from the other guests. Luckily they managed to find a bench. She stretches and looks at Yuko.
“What’s up?”
“I was… wondering about Itadori.”
Oh. That makes sense. Yuko always had a huge crush on Yuuji. Itadori was technically how the two girls met. Nobara tried to set them up when they first met; nothing seemed to happen though. It wasn’t long after Nobara ended up comatose for nearly two months. When she awoke, her phone was full of messages, most from her best friend back home, Fumi. She was no doubt hysterical that Nobara went dark—she even had a handful of messages from Yuko.
Once they got back in touch, Nobara tried once more to push Yuuji and her to at least hang out; not much seemed to come of it. It made sense; after all, only a few weeks later, Megumi and Yuuji officially got together. She can’t say she’s too surprised; she was well aware Megumi had a crush on Yuuji, she just wasn’t sure he’d ever act on it.
“Yeah? Uh, what about him?”
“We follow each other on Instagram, but… He’s seeing someone, isn’t he?”
Nobara grimaces. She hates to be the one to break the news to Yuko. Yuuji isn’t the most active on social media, he only downloaded the app at Nobara’s insistence. Even Megumi had an Instagram. Granted, the other boy rarely posted on it.
“Yeah… You probably saw from my posts.”
After all, neither boy posted that much, but they did get tagged in all the posts Nobara makes.
“The guy with the black hair that met us at the restaurant that one time… Fushi…uh…”
“Fushiguro.”
“Yeah… I really liked Itadori; I guess I always just imagined he’d be available."
Nobara’s heart aches. She knows the feeling all too well.
“I know how you feel—I feel—uh, felt that way about my senpai.”
Yuko offers her a small smile. “This sounds recent.”
It still is. If she didn’t lose two months of her life, maybe she would have had a chance. Maybe she could have made a move, maybe—
“Ugh, yeah. It sucks. Her boyfriend is really nice, but—”
“Trust me, I get it. Fushiguro seems… Well, he didn’t say too much when we met.”
Nobara snorts. “Yeah, he can have a stick up his ass sometimes. He’s a good person, though.”
“Ah… Sorry for the downer conversation. I guess we’re both getting over someone.”
“Beats doing it alone, right?” Nobara nudges her side. “And I got to see you; that’s always a plus.”
“It does!” The taller girl’s smile widens. She’s not looking as depressed as before. Good.
“The last time I saw Itadori was in Sendai. I was helping clean out my grandma’s house.”
“Oh yeah, Itadori told us he bumped into you.”
That was several months ago. Once things started to calm down around Tokyo, Yuuji took the trip to Sendai to finally clear out his grandfather’s home. He’s technically a homeowner because of it, but Nobara can’t see him returning to his hometown.
“He mentioned that you and Fushiguro were helping too.”
Nobara let out a small laugh. “Hardly, mostly just moral support if anything. My…” her smile falters. “I got caught up in what happened in Shibuya,” she gestured to her eyepatch. “I’m sure you already know from Itadori. I got some head trauma, soooo…” she bites her lip before putting on a false smile. “I know I didn’t really text about it, but I was unconscious for some time. And not moving your body for that long messes it up.”
“Oh, Nobara… I’m sorry that’s so awful.”
“I’m fine now!” She waves her off.
“I did want to ask… But I didn’t want to be rude.” Yuko mumbles. “Only because I was worried about you!” She squeaks out quickly.
“Relax,” Nobara lilts and leans against her. “I’m glad you reached out, even when I couldn’t reply. It was nice seeing how many people missed me.”
“I bet you had a lot of messages and calls.”
Nobara is resting her head on Yuko’s shoulder. She lets out a laugh and nods. “Tell me about it, took almost all day trying to get my bearings.”
The two girls relaxed in silence for a few minutes.
“This is nice,” Nobara mumbles against her. She peers up at Yuko. The taller woman is full-on blushing, which only serves to amuse Nobara. She won’t make a comment on it; she’s not the type of girl to embarrass someone as cute and kind as Yuko.
“It is.”
“You wanna do something like this again?”
Yuko looks down at her and smiles. “I’d love that.”