Chapter Text
Itadori always hated taking the train. Today, his mother had requested that he go out with Nanako and Mimiko to get things for dinner while she was working, and much to his disappointment, he had to agree. So here he was, two hours later, holding onto the overhead straps of the train with one hand, a bag of groceries in the other, having let Nanako and Mimiko take the last two open seats on the train. He came to regret this decision, as the discomfort of holding himself up by the loop and the bags tugging down on his arm began to increase. He let out a sigh, looking around the crowded train to see if he could spot the sign that indicated the approaching stop, hoping that his was coming up so that he could get off of the unnecessarily unpleasant vehicle. Once he found the sign, he realized, much to his sadness, that they were still several stops away from the station for their home just outside of Tokyo.
As the train came to a stop at the next station, Yuuji kept a close eye on the people entering and exiting the train; his mother told him it was good habit to keep a close eye on the people around you. Despite this, the going abouts of regular people held very little interest to him. He watched as the cursed energy flowed gently from people's bodies, twisting and curling in small spirals as it dissipated into the space around them. he carefully watched for any oddities in peoples cursed energy, playing the game of "is there a sorcerer here?" Usually, the search to find sorcerers or curse users in any public space came up empty, but occasionally, he would spot one.
Yuuji continued to watch the people on the train with a significant amount of boredom before he spotted them enter. Loudly chatting, like they were trying to stand out, was a group of three entering the train. They were wearing navy blue uniforms with golden buttons and had an output of cursed energy that seemed just a bit too controlled for them to be normal people. There was no doubt in Yuuji's mind, these people were sorcerers, and Jujutsu high students at that. He looked away, annoyed, this is the worst possible development for his already unpleasant outing, and he wasn't even close to his stop.
Nanako glanced up at Yuuji, tapping his foot lightly with her own, Mimiko (attempting to) subtlety point to the now nearing group. Yuuji nodded in response, staying calm as the group approached, settling in the recently emptied space near Yuuji and his siblings. Yuuji tried to contain his annoyance at the racket, not wanting to bring attention to himself and have the group notice his carefully controlled cursed energy.
Yuuji stole a quick glance over as one of the three leaned against the glass barrier barley separating the area they were standing in from the row of seats Nanako and Mimiko were sitting in. To him, it seemed they were the only one in the group not ceaselessly nattering. While watching them, he decided that the boy leaning on the glass pane and the girl with the bob were students at Jujutsu tech, while the tall man was their teacher. He had yet to put together who he was, because he was incapable of looking up at the man's face without standing out due to how obnoxiously tall he was.
Yuuji was snapped out of his thoughts by a kick to the toe of his shoe. He looked down, glaring slightly at Nanako, the culprit of the sudden kicking, who was pointing up to the inky-haired boy who was carefully observing their interactions. Yuuji has always been bad at keeping a low profile, be that due to his bright pink hair, or due to the fact that he had rather hard to cover up scarring, was a mystery to him.
He looked up at the other boy who was still, rather rudely, staring right at him with a blank expression. Yuuji smiled at him, the scar at the corner of his mouth stretching uncomfortably. "Do I have something on my face?" He joked.
The other boy seemed a bit startled that he was being spoken to, but replied anyways, "Oh, no. Sorry if I was staring."
Yuuji let out a small chuckle, "Its alright!" he responded cheerily "I get it a lot."
He seemed to become a bit uncomfortable at this statement, seemingly feeling bad for bringing attention to something that Yuuji was most likely insecure about.
Yuuji, trying to distract him from his discomfort, tried to make small talk. "So, you out playing hooky?"
"What?" he asked, confused by Yuuji's question.
"You're out in your school uniform in the middle of the day, so clearly someone's skipping." He joked, a sly grin painting itself on his face.
The other boy quirked an eyebrow at that, smiling slightly, "That would mean you are as well."
Leaning closer to the other boy, Yuuji whispered, "You won't tell, will you?" before letting out a giggle.
"Oh, of course not." he responded, chuckling slightly.
Yuuji glanced up spotting the stop indicator, seeing that his stop was coming up, sighing slightly, a bit relieved that his stop was finally approaching.
"My stops next." Yuuji told the other boy, pulling the bag of groceries up as he fixed his posture in preparation to get off the train.
"Ah," the other boy sighed, "I don't think I caught your name." He said, becoming aware of his own slightly slouched posture as Yuuji fixed his.
"Yuuji Itadori," He said, smiling slightly, "You?"
"Fushiguro." He replied as the train came to a stop, the doors beeping to indicate that they were opening.
"Well, maybe I'll see you again, Fushiguro." He replied as Nanako gently tugged on his sleeve, pulling him off the train.
Yuuji bushed Nanako off his sleeve as he got off the train, slightly relieved at not being in the cramped train car anymore, and a little bit less tired than train rides usually made him. He glanced around slightly, looking for Choso, who usually picked up Yuuji and the twins from the train. As he looked for his brother, Mimiko began speaking to him, "Yuuji, why were you talking to that sorcerer?" She asked, her tone slightly concerned.
"Because I was being polite." He said, starting to walk towards their usual meeting spot near the end of the platform.
"You know he was a sorcerer?" Nanako asked, following Yuuji, Mimiko trailing slightly behind her.
"Yes." He sighed, preparing for the oncoming onslaught of questions.
"Aren't those uniforms for Jujutsu tech?" Mimiko questioned.
"Yes." He replied, pulling out his phone with his free hand to text Choso.
"Dad told us to avoid attention from Jujutsu high students." Nanako informed Yuuji, as if he wasn't also subject to their parents constant nattering.
"You don't have to tell her about it, do you?" He said, flipping open his phone and texting Choso about his absence.
"Hm." Nanako hummed, leaving Mimiko to respond, "I guess we don't have to bring it up."
Having made it past the twins questioning, Yuuji continued to text Choso, a bit worried about his absence, as he was usually very punctual, especially when it came to Yuuji, he had a tendency to be a bit (quite) overbearing. As he texted Choso, Nanako and Mimiko sat down on the nearby bench, pulling out a loop of string to play cat's cradle, as they had a tendency to do when they didn't have much else to entertain themselves.
Yuuji sighed as he flicked his phone shut, tucking it away in his pocket as he leaned against the concrete pole next to the bench. "Choso said he'll be here to get us in a few." He told the other two.
"I still don't understand why he doesn't trust us to walk home on our own." Mimiko remarked, pulling the yarn loops off Nanako's fingers to be stretched into a different pattern on her own.
"I don't know," Yuuji replied, remembering all the times Choso has insisted upon accompanying Yuuji on outings, insisted upon helping him with chores, or insisted that he regularly check in while out with the twins, "He's always kinda been like this." glancing up to see Choso standing by the car, waving slightly at Yuuji to get his attention.
Before Yuuji, Nanako, and Mimiko had made their way over to the family's car, Choso had already began fussing over Yuuji, something he did almost constantly. He needed to make sure his little brother hadn't encountered anything dangerous at the grocery store or on the train ride back, obviously, never mind the fact that Yuuji was a reasonable strong curse user by this point and would be able to protect himself in a situation where there were bread curses at the grocery store. As they got closer to the inconveniently small Toyota that Choso had purchased to ferry his family around when able (Yuuji is still unsure if he has a license, considering he is not technically a citizen anywhere), the older man took the bags from Yuuji, tucking them away in the trunk of his little blue Prius as Nanako and Mimiko squeezed into the back seat with Eso, who had been brought along for some reason. Yuuji sighed at Choso's insistence upon caring for him and got into the front passenger's seat of the car, buckling his seat belt before Choso could get in and begin lecturing him about the importance of safety while in motor vehicles, again.
Once they had arrived home and Yuuji had gotten out of the cramped vehicle and retrieved the groceries from the back, he began to walk up the stairs through the garden that his mother insisted upon being maintained to give them "that normal family look." As he climbed the stairs, Yuuji peered in the windows, hoping that his mother was not home so that she wouldn't have the opportunity to pile even more tasks to complete before dinner onto him. Not seeing her, Yuuji walked up to the door, finding that it either hadn't been locked, or, more likely, Kechizu had unlocked it when they were on their way back. Yuuji pushed the door to the house open, slipping off his shoes before stepping up onto the wood flooring of the main areas of the home, his siblings not terribly far behind him, the twins arguing with Eso about something, Yuuji wasn't paying attention, as they walked up through the garden.
Making his way to the back of the home to put the groceries away in the kitchen, Yuuji kept a careful eye out for his mother, or any of the other people that his she had invited to live with them. Not seeing any of his other house guests, Yuuji put the groceries away and took the stairs back by the kitchen up to his room near the top of the stairs. Yuuji slid the door of his room shut, flopping down on his unmade bed, sighing as he did so, glad that he hadn't had to deal with any of his housemate's antics after his outing.
...
Yuuji awoke in what appeared to be his childhood bedroom. It was a small room, the light blue paint peeling off the walls in the corners in some spots, worsened by the picking that Yuuji would regularly subject it to. Hearing a rather loud conversation downstairs, he pushed himself off of the mattress, making his way across the cluttered room to the door. It was painted a solid white, some markings from crayons on it at the level where Yuuji could reach. Looking up at the door filled him with a deep sense of dread, like something in his subconscious was whispering "Don't open that door." Against his better judgement, he reached up with his now child-sized hand as grasped the cold metal doorknob. Turning it, his sense of unease grew, his chest starting to feel tight with anxiety. Yuuji tugged the door open, looking out into the dark hallway of his childhood home.
As Yuuji stepped out into the hall, his unease grew into a sense of panic in his chest, making his limbs stiff and his breathing a bit labored as he started to drag himself down the hall towards the top of the staircase. The floorboards of the old house creaked under his socked feet as he slowly walked down the hallway.
Reaching the end of the hall, Yuuji peeked over the handrail, seeing if he could spot either of his parents' downstairs. Not seeing either of them at the bottom of the stairs in the living room, Yuuji began to make his way down the stairs slowly, wanting to investigate the now louder noise coming from what was presumably the kitchen.
Yuuji slowly lowered himself down the wooden staircase, holding onto the rungs of the handrail, partially to ensure he wouldn't slip in his socked feet, and partially to soothe his growing anxiety about approaching the source of what now sounded like arguing. After what felt like hours of Yuuji descending the stairs, he reached the bottom, turning towards the dining room, which the kitchen was on the other side of.
Gripping his loose pajamas for some sense of comfort, Yuuji began walking towards the kitchen from the staircase. As he walked through the dining room, the argument in the kitchen began to get more heated, bringing him even more fear as he approached through the dark home. Finally reaching the kitchen, Yuuji began to push open the squeaky old door. The loud creaking of the door rang in his ears, his panic growing as it opened further. Yuuji looked away from the door and into the small kitchen-
Yuuji jolted awake. Drenched in sweat, sitting up in the bed of his current home. He looked up, taking a few deep breaths, looking at the solid, warm yellow that his room was painted and the lack of clutter on the floor. He wasn't quite sure how long he'd been asleep, but he was glad he'd woken up now.
Yuuji hauled himself out of bed and began making his way down to the kitchen for a glass of water, contemplating his dream. Yuuji had been having this reoccurring nightmare for years now, it was one of the few dreams he had when he actually had them. Sometimes it was so realistic he could barely differentiate it from reality, and sometimes it was so unrealistic he immediately realized it was a dream, but it always brought that sense of panic with it that seemed to stick itself to Yuuji for the next few days.
Yuuji watched his glass fill with cool water before taking a sip of it, the cold liquid calming down his nervous system. He moved over to the table in the center of the kitchen, pulling out a chair and sitting down, taking a few more deep breaths, trying to ground himself.
After finishing his glass of water, Yuuji continued to sit in the kitchen for a while. Despite the fact that he'd been having this nightmare for years, he couldn't seem to figure out why, or what was in the kitchen that brought him such an intense panic. As he sat there in his thoughts, he'd failed to notice Choso entering the space.
"Yuuji," he spoke, startling Yuuji out of his thoughts, "Are you alright?"
Yuuji looked up at his brother, who was standing on the other side of the table from him, leaning against the counter.
"Oh, yeah, I'm alright, just had a nightmare." He spoke, running a finger along the rim of his now empty glass.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Choso asked, his usual worried tone having not left his voice.
"No." He sighed, looking up at his older brother. Yuuji didn't so much mind Choso's worried nature as he just wasn't used to it, it being a stark contrast to his mother's hands off approach to parenting. After realizing that she really didn't want to parent Yuuji when he was about six, his mother had assigned the task of his care to Choso, who despite his best efforts, was very busy for much of Yuuji's childhood, leaving him to fend for himself. Now that Choso was less busy, it was a bit of a jarring change for Yuuji, as he went from doing everything on his own, to Choso checking in and helping him constantly.
Choso nodded slightly, walking over to Yuuji and fetching the glass from him, ruffling his short, pink hair as he did so, "Alright, I'm always here if you need me." He told the younger boy with a smile, setting the cup down in the sink.
"I know." He replied, smiling slightly as his brother.