Chapter Text
The first time Yuji Itadori ever laid eyes on Ryoumen Sukuna, it was an hour before his grandfather died. A harbinger for the events to come, but Yuji just didn’t know it at the time.
Yuji escaped from school and made it straight to the florist, picking the first bouquet that popped out to him. He paid the cashier and was on his way, flowers tucked into his elbow. The sun was close to setting behind him as he made the trek up to the hospital. He wasn’t thinking much of anything as he reached the road that passed the entrance steps to the hospital. He waited at the crosswalk which had no light since there was hardly any foot or car traffic. He happened to glance to his right. Then back again. There was something there.
Far, far down the sidewalk where no one else tread, there was a black figure. Even with Yuji’s keen sight, it didn’t make sense. It wasn’t a person. Just . . .darkness. A darkness that did not shift with the shade of the trees or the slanting shadows of the setting sun. A darkness that stared right back at him. It was only with the sudden absence of tires over asphalt that he realized that the cars on the road had disappeared. He had the uneasy sense that they had been gone a good while. He tore his attention away and raced across the street.
**
His grandfather was grouchy as always. Yuji responded with unenthusiastic remarks, the argument tired by now. He was more interested in setting up the flowers. He stood at the window, fixing the flowers in the vase so he had a perfect view of the front yard. His eyes widened.
There.
There it was again. The darkness. Except now, it didn’t have the distance or the shade of the trees to cover it. It stood out on the lawn in the failing sunlight. There were thin red slits that he could only now see and knew to be its eyes. And those eyes were still fixed on him.
His mind swung to the occult club where his senpai “thrilled” at the supernatural. He wondered how she would feel seeing what he was seeing. It was easier imagining her reaction than trying to capture his own. He didn’t have time to figure it out because his grandfather’s words took a different turn.
“You’re a strong kid, Yuji,” he said. His voice sounded fainter, a stark contrast to his fierce combat against Yuji a moment before. He had turned onto his side, his back to Yuji. “Save as many people as you can, even just one, and when you die, make sure you’re surrounded by people. Don’t end up like me.”
***
Those words rang in his mind as he picked up a piece of his grandfather’s bones from the sparse ashen remains with a chopstick. He had no one to pass them to, as tradition permitted, so he just stared at them. In a way, he was glad when that stranger interrupted his mourning.
Megumi Fushiguro. A jujutsu sorcerer.
Yuji didn’t think he believed half of what he said, but he answered him honestly. He found a creepy box and knowing his senpai would love it, he handed it to her.
“I still have the weird box though.” He handed it to Megumi who opened it to find it empty, his pale skin paling even further.
“They’re going to die,” he managed to spit out before he turned and ran.
There was no way he wasn’t going to save his senpai, regardless if this “jujutsu sorcerer” was telling the truth or not. He bit back the urge to surpass the stranger, instinctively knowing he would need him. When they finally arrived, he found the high school dark and unnervingly quiet. The edges of the world appeared shift and blur into shadows that didn’t dissipate no matter which way he turned his head. The very air was heavy as if bringing him back to the moment of his grandfather’s death but forcing him to experience it a thousand times over at once.
Death.
All after-school clubs had ended yet the front gate was open. He glanced up and saw the light from his school club on. It beckoned to him so even after Megumi told him to stay put, he just couldn’t. He raced into the school, his footsteps banging in the stairwell.
“Sasaki-senpai!” he yelled. “Iguchi-senpai!”
He broke out onto the fourth floor. Up ahead, Megumi was standing in the hall, two dogs, one black, one white, standing at his feet. He looked over at Yuji’s arrival. “Don’t,” he hissed. “Stay there.”
“Why?” he whispered. Megumi was well down the hall, but it was so silent he knew he could hear him.
“There’s nothing to see.”
“What do you mean?” Yuji stepped forward.
“Yuj--”
Yuji raced forward, right where Megumi stood before a classroom doorway which he only realized then had been broken apart. Megumi grabbed him. “Yuji,” he hissed. “Don’t look. I’m sorry, but your senpai are dead. Just--”
“How?” He was trembling, not out of fear, but something deeper that was trying to keep himself up.
“They--Just, let’s get out of here. I’ll call someone.” He took Yuji’s arm and guided him away. Yuji staggered, his body still leaning towards the door, wanting to see even as his mind told him not to. “Don’t,” Megumi whispered.
Yuji let him take him away.
**
Megumi did call someone, but only once he had ensured Yuji was sitting on a bench several minutes down from the school, almost as if he was ensuring he wasn’t about to run away. Yuji’s head hung down, his elbow on his knees, trying to understand as fat tears fall onto his shoes. When he couldn’t, he just shoved it deep inside with the reality of his grandfather’s death.
Yuji raised his head. Lightly, he asked, “Who did you call?”
Megumi eyed him as if he didn’t quite believe Yuji. “My sensei. He was overseeing this so . . .”
Yuji blinked and suddenly there stood a tall man with white hair and a . . . blindfold? The corner of his mouth was curled up in a smile as he leaned over Yuji. “Here you go,” he said in a cheery voice. Yuji took what was held out like an obedient child without comprehending what it was. “It’s a local specialty. I got it just before I came. Try it.”
“Thanks,” Yuji murmured.
“Gojo-sensei,” Megumi said with sharp annoyance.
“Mm?”
“How can you stop to--” Megumi stopped, slapping a hand to his face, rubbing it, his irritation deepening. “What do you see?”
Yuji cocked his head, leaning back as Gojo leaned down. “What?”
“Hmmm. You’re still stained. By the same thing from the school.” He straightened and clapped his hands once. “That’s settled. We’ll be taking you to Jujutsu High!”
“Gojo-sensei!” Megumi said again, but Gojo just laughed, hoisted Yuji to his feet and said, “Don’t worry.”
**
Yuji wasn’t one to worry. He went along with the flow and took whatever was thrown at him like a cement wall, ignoring the cracks that formed. So he accepted it all. His grandfather’s death, his friends’ death, and now his arrival at this sorcerer school hidden away as a religious academy.
He stood before a man that was supposedly the principal. Gojo and Megumi stood at his back. He was sure the plushies surrounding the man were watching him. “So, you are telling me that his cursed energy is that of the curse that was the cause of two high schoolers’ deaths? Yet he is not cursed?”
“Evidence would suggest that he should be,” Megumi said. “But he isn’t marked.”
“It shows that he is the cause of those deaths.”
Yuji’s arms clenched around the sweets he still held. “I didn’t kill them,” he said, the words coming out stiffly.
“I believe him,” Megumi said resolutely.
“He saw your dogs?”
“Yes,” Yuji said, a little annoyed that everyone was just talking around him.
“Can you note anything else odd?” Gojo asked.
Yuji parted his lips to say “No”, but then his mind slipped back to earlier today. “There’s this . . . thing that’s been following me.”
“Since when?”
“Today, I think. I picked up that object this morning.” The truth of it sent him reeling. Not just that him picking up the object may have triggered it, but the fact that it was only one day. “So, is it all because I picked up a box?” His patchwork acceptance was beginning to unravel.
“We’re unsure,” Gojo said, lightly. “But in the meantime, Megumi-chan! Bring Yuji-kun to his new quarters.”
“Huh?! I’m staying here?” Yuji exclaimed as Megumi irritably said, “Okay.”
***
“You have to tell us if you see it again,” Megumi said as he led Yuji across the courtyard. Yuji hurried to fall into step beside him. Megumi glanced at him. “Don’t worry. We’ll fix it.”
Yuji hoped they would.
Later that night, Yuji lay in bed, watching the leaves play against the windowpane, arm laid over his brow. He didn’t know when he fell asleep because the leaves were still playing against the windowpane, but the world began to take on a red tinge. He blinked then sprang upright. His room--for now--was darkness. The only thing he could make out was the window and the door, not his blanket or his hands. It was worse than being blind. He felt like a dismembered head, searching for its other half.
He stumbled onto what must have been the floor. There was wood that he could not see, but over it was a warm liquid that made Yuji cringe back. He staggered to his feet and towards the door. He threw it open to a candle-lit hallway with red columns and beams and rice paper walls. He glanced down the hall to the left then the right and froze.
There, at the end of the hall was his shadow, the one that had been following him since this morning. Finally, it spoke.
“You’ve escaped behind the barriers,” it said, its voice crawling down the halls. Yuji tensed as the words washed over him and seemed to soak into his skin. There was a low scoff. “Learn then. When we meet properly once again, show me your worth.”
The shadow began to grow, upwards and outwards like arms reaching for him. Yuji had yet to move an inch. When it finally overtook him, it was just like before at the school, the weight unbearable. Yet . . .he didn’t feel scared.
“I’ll show you,” he murmured before the dream collapsed.
When he woke, he didn’t understand why he had said what he had. It was as if something else had taken hold of him. A part of him that he didn’t know and didn’t want to know.