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Yuji had a vague idea of his teacher’s schedule.
Well, more like he knew how to describe it - full. It was almost impossible to find him between lessons; he’d go to Yaga or Ijichi sometimes for help, and always get told some variation of the same thing:
‘He’s on a mission.’
‘He’s in a meeting with the higher-ups.’
‘He’s taking care of something overseas.’
In simple terms, he’s busy. Yuji had caught him napping in his office once, and Megumi had woken him, but other than that, Yuji didn’t think he’d ever seen Gojo actually relaxing. He knew Gojo had a room on-campus, which he stayed in the vast majority of the time. He’d sometimes walk past to get to the bathroom at night, and the door always remained open, the room clearly empty.
Of course, on the extremely rare occasion that he was available, he would drop everything to help Yuji with whatever he needed. Sparring, cursed energy control, using cursed tools, nothing was off the table. Yuji appreciated it, but once he realised just how non-stop his teacher’s life was, he couldn’t help but feel a little guilty for bothering him at all.
‘I swear, that white-haired idiot better show up soon.’ Nobara grumbled, kicking her feet up on her desk. Yuji glanced at the time anxiously - 9:30 AM. Half an hour late. Gojo being late wasn’t unusual, but it was normally only by seven or eight minutes.
‘I wonder if he’s okay…’ Yuji muttered to himself, not really meaning to say it aloud. To his left, Megumi scoffed, rolling his eyes.
‘He’s fine.’ Megumi replied in his usual blunt tone.
Another few minutes ticked by before the door of the classroom slammed open hastily, causing the students to whip their heads around in surprise. Making his way to the front of the classroom was a very out-of-breath, flustered Gojo Satoru. Yuji noted he looked a little tired, his shoulders were hunched and he seemed pale.
‘Sorry about the wait, my precious students! Got a little held up with a special-grade in Kyoto.’ Gojo explained loudly, running a hand through his hair. His usual grin was plastered to his face, wide and toothy, but didn’t quite reach his eyes. He sat down at his front chair with a little more force than necessary, basically collapsing into it.
‘You just got back now?’ Megumi asked, brow furrowed. Gojo nodded, letting out an affirmitive hum as he rifled through his desk drawer for papers.
‘Aren’t you tired, Gojo-Sensei?’ Yuji prodded, voice tinged with concern.
‘Aww, my adorable students are worried about me?’ Gojo pouted, making Megumi roll his eyes again.
‘As if. We just don’t want you to pass out or something in the middle of class. It’d be a real pain for us, you know.’ Nobara chimed in, as empathetic as ever. Despite her brash demeanor, Yuji could see the way her eyebrows pinched slightly.
‘How sweet, Nobara. I’m fine, anyway. I should be the one worrying about you guys!’ Gojo smiled, standing up to hand the papers he’d retrieved out. ‘Here’s your work for this morning, then we’ll do sparring in the afternoon.’
‘Uhh… Gojo-Sensei?’ Yuji raised his hand, frowning at the sheet he’d been given. ‘This is our work from last week. It’s even been marked.’
Gojo stopped in his tracks, spinning around to yank the paper out of Yuji’s hand, scanning its contents.
‘Oops! Guess I didn’t look at it properly.’ Gojo chuckled awkwardly, re-collecting Megumi and Nobara’s completed papers. The students exchanged glances with each other, unsure how to react.
‘Are you sure you’re alright, Sensei?’ Yuji asked, a tinge of worry poisoning each syllable as he spoke.
‘All good here, Yuji! Now let me find those stupid papers…’ Gojo trailed off, his enthusiasm fading as he tried desperately to find the sheets the students were meant to recieve. After some more rummaging, which grew increasingly frantic the longer he continued, he stopped abruptly, smacking a hand to his forehead with a weary sigh.
‘I was supposed to get them printed last week, wasn’t I?’ Gojo shook his head, sounding disappointed. ‘Sorry, guys. I guess we’ll just have to go straight to sparring, then.’
‘Fine by me.’ Nobara said, rising to her feet with more enthusiasm than her tone betrayed. Megumi made a vague noise of agreement as he stood, glancing over as Yuji rose with less certainty.
‘Go and get ready, I’ll join you soon. I need to message Ijichi, ask him to get the stuff printed for tomorrow’s lesson.’ Gojo explained, fishing for his phone with one hand and waving his students off with the other. Yuji, like his classmates, obliged, but not before casting a forlorn glance at his obviously exhausted teacher.
‘Fushiguro, you’ve known Sensei for ages, right?’ Yuji asked. The trio were sitting in the large sparring hall, scattered around the wooden floor waiting for Gojo.
‘Yeah, why?’
‘Is something wrong with him?’ Yuji’s volume dimmed as he spoke, glancing down at his crossed legs.
‘Probably not, he’s just tired.’ Megumi explained, messing with the cap on his water bottle.
‘I’d be tired if I were him, too.’ Nobara called out, since she was sitting a little further away from the boys. ‘Didn’t he say he’d just got back from a mission?’
‘He had one the night before as well.’ Megumi added, and Yuji frowned. He didn’t know that.
‘Isn’t that bad for his health? When does he get to sleep?’ Yuji wondered. Megumi finally managed to get his bottle open, taking a few sips before responding.
‘He uses Reverse Cursed Technique to heal himself. But I guess it would only work to a certain extent. If he hadn’t slept in, say, a week, he’d probably feel the effects anyway.’
‘Where is he, anyway? How long does it take to send a fucking email?’ Nobara sighed, resting back on her palms in annoyance.
‘We should go check on him.’ Yuji blurted out before he could stop himself. Next thing he knew, the three of them were speedwalking down the hallway, back to the classroom.
To their surprise, Gojo was not sending an email. In fact, he wasn’t exactly doing much of anything. His head rested awkwardly on one arm, cheek smushed against it. His other arm was limp across the desk, his hand hanging loosely over the edge. Leaning forward, Yuji could see his phone on the floor, displaying a half-finished email to Ijichi with a file attached. If it wasn’t obvious what was happening here, Gojo’s loud snoring would’ve given it away further. Yuji cringed at the drool rolling down the bottom-half of his cheek. It’s not exactly a situation Yuji would imagine Gojo would want to be caught in, considering the lengths he went to to appear infallible in front of his students at all times.
‘Well this is just sad.’ Nobara tutted, shaking her head dramatically. Megumi’s face softened, something akin to pity flashing across his features before he steeled himself again.
‘Shouldn’t we wake him up? His neck’s gonna hurt, sleeping like this.’
‘If we wake him, he’ll just try and get back to teaching as if nothing’s wrong. Leave him.’ Megumi replied, an air of finality in his last sentence. Nobara nodded sagely, clearly agreeing.
‘Wait a sec.’ Yuji said after a pause, sprinting down the hallway. Megumi and Nobara raised an eyebrow at each other before Yuji returned, almost inhumanly fast, with a pillow from his dorm. They watched silently as their pink-haired classmate lifted their teacher’s head up gently, somehow managing not to wake him, and slid the pillow under before resting his head back onto it.
Megumi, not knowing what else to do, picked up Gojo’s phone. He quickly tapped out the rest of the message to Ijichi and sent it, before turning the phone off and leaving it at the edge of the desk.
‘Let’s go.’ He said quietly, and the trio filed out of the room again as a unit. Nobara was the last to exit, shutting the light off before she left.
‘Get back in there, and give me control, brat! This is a perfect oppor-’
Yuji clapped a hand against the mouth that had manifested on his cheek, his brows furrowing.
‘Be quiet, Sukuna!’