Chapter Text
In her defense, Yuka swears she had him!
One moment, she's about to get the finishing blow on the damn curse user, and the next, boom. Four legs, a tail, and no way to properly use her curse technique.
Yuka Okkotsu was now a cat.
She couldn't go after him like this. She could barely even walk, in fact. Right now, she's currently struggling, trying to get her bearings in this new furry body of hers.
From what she was going off of, this curse user was operating in a group. Since the ritual to remove cursed spirits, more and more curse users had started working together to make it harder for jujutsu sorcerers to catch them. Tsurugi and Maru were out after the curse user's allies, further south.
That left her alone, with basically nothing to do. Nothing a human could do, at least.
As Yuka slowly started understanding how her new body functions, she wondered about all the things she could now do as a cat that she wouldn't be able to do otherwise.
Her situation was quite an interesting one. It's not every day that you get to just live as a cat for an indefinite amount of time.
She knew that cats were really good climbers, and a city like Tokyo was one that she could use to her advantage.
After enough attempts that could make up at least a 30 minute compilation of cute cat fails all on their own, she reached the top of one of the taller buildings in the area. That one might not have been the best choice. Her paws still hurt from jumping between all of its broken windows.
From there, she had a crystal clear view of just how ruined Tokyo had become from all its battles. Between the Shinjuku Showdown 69 years ago and her not-so-recent fight with Dabura, the city had sustained an unbelievable amount of damage. For her, picturing people living there would've had the same result as asking Southern Italians from 170 CE to picture people living in Pompeii.
She hoped the planned reforms could change that. She knew people that had lived there, after all.
It was quiet up there, where she was. The whole city was quiet in general. That meant that when she saw a hooded man walking below, she could hear his footsteps right from the top of the building.
"Goodness… I can't believe it." She could hear his words too. "It's been…" Finger clicking. What sounded like muttering.
Yuka leapt down from the building, somehow not breaking any bones, and bounded over.
"84 years. 64 since I found out about…"
She's almost reached the man by now. He seemed tired. No, tired was an understatement. Bone-deep exhausted was more accurate.
"84… Sensei… that's 3 times his age…" His voice cracked while saying that.
If there was one thing Yuka knew from being a shikigami user, it's that animals are an amazing source of comfort. She bumped into the man's left leg. He turned in surprise, then looked down.
"Hello!" He told her, bending down to stroke her. "You heard all that, didn't you?" he said, with the air of a joke that didn't quite stick the landing. He was smiling now, slightly.
"You cats seem to just have a sense for when someone's feeling down. I like that a lot."
So did Yuka. She loved it, in fact. Seeing him cheered up like this, in a way that she simply couldn't have done as a human. So, she sat there, letting herself be petted and stroked, enjoying the feeling.
Eventually, the man stopped. "I know you can't understand me, but thank you. I needed that."
She nodded, and left.
Unbeknownst to Yuka, she'd left one Yuji Itadori thinking, "Did the cat just nod at me? Cats don't just nod at people, do they? Was I just imagining that?"
Cross really didn't want to be here.
He, and the rest of the Rumelian political representatives, had been completely swamped with work ever since he'd recovered from his coma. The debates and rulings stemming from Maru's ritual were practically endless. On top of processing those, he'd also taken on the role of drafting the laws and taking meeting notes, though Jabaloma had offered to do the latter.
In fact, Jabaloma was the only reason he was even here. Cross had been trying his hardest to hurry up with today's work and be done with it, until Jabaloma had interrupted him and, after several valiant attempts, successfully convinced him to take a break.
So here he was, in the ruins of Tokyo near the former imperial palace, trying to relax.
Looking at the city from here, he couldn't help but wonder what the city looked like in its heyday, before all of the destruction it sustained.
Well, he thought, at least we've gotten in contact with someone who knows the answer firsthand. That meeting was in 2 days from now, and he still hadn't managed to finish planning out what he wanted to go over with the consultants and the council. Fuck, he was really bad at this relaxing thing.
He suddenly heard meowing. There was a cat in front of him, a few steps away. It turned and looked at him, eyes wide with… recognition? No, that couldn't be right.
He took a step closer. The meowing seemed to be directed at him. The cat's eyes were dark blue, with bicoloured fur. Its ears were white on the inside, rimmed with black, so they must've been black on the back as well. Its body was mostly black, but its paws were white, and there seemed to be a point between its eyes where everything below its face was also white.
However, the strangest thing about this cat was the fact it had cursed energy. Not rolloluca, cursed energy. Like a human.
A cat-person with blue eyes in black and white, that recognised him? Who… no, wait.
A human, most likely transformed into a cat, with blue eyes, black hair, and a tendency to wear white. That recognised him.
He had to try something. He closed his eyes, and focused his technique.
"Hey, Cross! I'm talking to you!"
"Yuka?" The cat blinked at him, stunned that he actually understood." "What the heck?"
"Hello."
"Hello to you too. Why are you a cat?"
"Isn't the weather nice?"
"What exactly happened, Yuka?"
"What, with the relatively cloudy sky and decent chance of rain?"
"Yuka, please."
"Fine. It was the cursed technique of the guy I was going after. I had him, though!"
Cross tried not to give her a pointed look.
"I did!"
"If you say so, then I believe you."
"Okay, then."
"Are you alright physically? Do Tsurugi and Maru know about this?"
"Yes, and no, and please don't tell them."
"Why not?"
"If Tsurugi finds out about this, there's no way he's letting me out of his sight for the next week."
"Fair enough. Have you eaten?"
"Have you?" How the hell did she know?
"There is no way you would be out here on your own volition. Someone made you take a break."
He was not about to admit that. Nope. Not in a million years.
"Aw, come on! Who was it?" Yuka asked, smiling smugly.
"Jabaloma." Cross confessed.
"Ha ha! He's smart though, that was a good idea."
"I'll agree with you on the first part of that sentence."
Yuka responded with all the feigned shock a cat could muster. "Is my presence anything short of a blessing to you, Cross?"
Cross pinched the bridge of his nose. "I'm too tired to come up with a proper comeback to that."
"Then you're kinda proving us right."
"I don't care."
Yuka trotted closer to him. "Well, maybe I can help with your tiredness!"
"You want me to… pet you?"
"Mhm!"
"I'm really bad at this…"
"I don't bite!"
"Fine, then." Cross bent down, and slowly moved his arm closer to her fur.
Huh. It really was soft. He stroked her, slightly. Yuka's joy at this was radiating from her. He started stroking her up and down. Maybe this wasn't so bad…
"Told you so!"
"Please don't tell me I said that out loud…"
"Yeah, you did."
"Dammit."
Cross checked the time. Crap! He'd said he'd be out for 10 minutes, but it had already been 30.
"I need to leave. I still have work to finish up." He turned to leave.
"Wait!" He turned his head back to Yuka.
"Can you do me a favour?" Yuka asked, a lot of nervousness in her tone.
"What do you need?"
"Can you take me with you?"
"No," Cross responded, almost reflexively.
"Please?"
"Things are fragile right now, Yuka. We've spent a long time trying to sort out our situation. Your presence on the Naunax could destabilise a lot of that." Cross elaborated.
"I know, and fuck, I hate that I'm even asking you for this… but I can't remember the last time I ate something."
"Wait, what?"
"I was planning to go out to eat with Tsurugi and Maru after the mission, but you can guess how that went. And I got so curious about being a cat that I practically forgot about it until you asked me earlier. I'm sorry."
Okay, that did it. "You're coming with me."
Now it was Yuka's turn to be confused. "Wait, what? You were just against this!"
"Do you want me to carry you or can you walk?" Cross responded, doubling down.
"I told you, I can walk, I'm fine. Just, why did you change your mind so suddenly?"
"Because I'm taking into account things I didn't consider before."
"Huh?"
"Knowing Maru and Tsurugi, there is a low likelihood that they're still in the same place they were for the mission. They're more than likely looking for you right now, so if you were to go where they were before, you wouldn't be able to find them. As well as that, we're in the ruins of Tokyo. Where the heck would you be able to find food? Maybe you'd be able to find shelter, but it wouldn't be nearly as safe as the Naunax. Besides, as long as you don't reveal the fact that you're actually a human jujutsu sorcerer, I'd say more people would be happy about your presence aboard than otherwise. Some people have been begging us to get a pet from Earth since we got here. So in other words, I'm sorry, and I'm an idiot."
By the time Cross was finished with his monologue, they'd managed to reach the Naunax.
"That is a huge contradiction."
"What do you mean?"
"You just gave me a detailed list of reasons backing up your opinion, and you're calling yourself an idiot? Don't do that! We all make mistakes sometimes!"
He couldn't help but smile at that. "Is this a roundabout way of saying 'You're forgiven?'"
Yuka stopped to think for a moment. "Yeah. I guess it is."
"Cross?"
"Did you need something, Jabaloma?" Cross responded from his chair, answering the knock on his door.
"I wanted to ask you about the notes on our prior meeting concerning the resettlement of Tokyo. I was hoping to take the time to look at them tomorrow, before our follow-up meeting with the council."
"Alright. Give me a second, and I'll get them for you." He replied, turning his head away from his desk for the first time in 30 minutes.
And what he saw… was none other than Yuka Okkotsu, pacing back and forth between the tops of his files.
How the heck did she even get up there?
"What are you doing?"
"Hold on, I think I've got it!"
"Are you trying to find the f*cking file?"
"Yeah, I want to be helpful! And why are you self-censoring?"
"Yuka, the notes are in Rumelian. And I'm self-censoring because Jabaloma is right outside my door and I really don't want him to hear me swearing. This room is not as soundproof as you'd think." Cross explained, as discreetly as he could.
"I know the notes are in Rumelian, but I have an idea!"
This could not be anything good. "What's your idea?"
"Maru taught me and Tsurugi the Rumelian numerals! And I overheard that the meeting was 6 days ago, so the file should be in… here!" Yuka answered, knocking down one of the binders.
Cross took the binder and flipped through it. Huh. She almost got it. As much as that stunt gave him a headache, he couldn't lie, it was kind of helpful. He also respected the fact that she had gone out of her way to recall their numerals just for this file. However…
"Can you knock down the binder to the left of the one you just gave me?"
"Wait, did I get it wrong?"
"You did. We sort these files by topic, not by date discussed. The binder you knocked down was concerning our food supply, and we'd had a meeting about potentially diversifying exports on the same day as we'd had the meeting about Tokyo."
"No, damn it! I'm glad to have helped, though."
"Thanks, by the way."
"No problem!"
"Cross, are you having trouble finding the file?" Jabaloma asked from the other side of the door.
"No, no, I've found it! Sorry to keep you waiting!" Cross replied, getting up to go to the door.
"It's quite alright. Also, forgive me for asking, but I saw you going to get food earlier, even though we'd eaten communally as soon as you got back. Is there anything bothering you?"
"I'm fine, thank you for asking." Cross responded, opening the door to give Jabaloma the papers—
"Ah, I see," Jabaloma commented,
—and wouldn't you know it, Yuka was right next to him.
"I didn't take you for an animal person, Cross." Practically everyone on the Naunax knew how true that was.
"She was hungry," he replied, thankfully not lying.
"She sure looks sweet." Yuka walked up to him, and Jabaloma petted her. "This is amazing!"
Cross tried his hardest not to react to that.
"So, I'll leave you to your cat sitting duties, then?"
At that, Cross chuckled slightly. "You could say that. Goodbye, Jabaloma."
As soon as the door was shut, Cross exclaimed, "Yuka, oh my goodness—!"
Unbeknownst to Cross, his room was not as soundproof as he thought. The hypothetical made sense to Jabaloma. Judging from the last time that he'd seen her, that cat did bear a striking resemblance to the girl. Cross must've been trying his hardest to keep that a secret. Eh, Jabaloma wasn't about to tell anyone.
Regardless, he liked seeing that softer side of Cross. Lord knows he'd tried to suppress it, particularly in that darn second year of their journey. All in all, the girl seemed to be quite a good influence on him. How sweet!
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" came the muffled screaming.
"You done now?" Maru asked from the other bed, after a few minutes.
"Yeah. I think I am," Tsurugi responded, getting his head out of his pillow. "I just… fuck, I can't. I can't even."
They were in a motel room on the outskirts of Tokyo, the best thing they could find at such short notice. Their initial plan had been to go back to Kyoto after dealing with that damn group, but they couldn't do that with Yuka still missing in the inhuman makyo. Going after the guy she'd been after was a piece of cake, as she'd done most of the work, but there was no trace of her after they'd got him.
Fucking damn it.
As Maru walked over to sit next to him, Tsurugi continued, "I'm such an idiot, honestly. Do you think I'm an idiot?"
"No," Maru responded, "I think you're just overwhelmed."
"I mean, that's a given. Since when are Jujutsu sorcerers not overwhelmed?"
"Yeah, but this is different."
"I know." Tsurugi put his head in his hands. "Damn."
"Do you want a hug?"
"What do you want me to do, cry about it?"
"I wouldn't mind if you did."
"I'm not about to cry over it."
"Okay, then." Maru paused for a second. "You can have the hug without crying over it."
Tsurugi seemed to consider the option. "You know what, sure, why not."
And so they stayed like that, for a while.
"I know this is stupid, but… part of me can't help but think of the worst case scenario."
Maru hugged him tighter at that. "She'll be fine. We both know damn well how strong she's gotten, especially over the past month."
"You're right, I know you are. I just wish I could prove it somehow."
"I get what you mean. If I were you and it was Cross, I would've gone nuts." Maru confessed.
Hold on a second…
"Yeah… I hope he's alright too. I mean, we wouldn't want both of us stuck like this, right?"
Cross… maybe he knew something. Maru went ahead and consulted their technique.
"Maru? What just happened?" Tsurugi asked, confused at how Maru just suddenly let go.
"Cross has been using our technique."
"Okay?" Tsurugi was still confused.
"No, listen. I think I just found you your proof."
Tsurugi was fully paying attention now. "I'm listening."
"From what I can tell, he hasn't been straining himself much. The kind of strain I'm getting is the kind of strain he'd normally get when he's spent hours translating."
"How do you know for sure that it's Yuka he's talking to?"
"I know his schedule. He doesn't have any meetings with non-Rumelian speakers planned today."
"So that means that he didn't plan on encountering the person he's been translating for for hours!" Tsurugi realised.
"Exactly! And he follows his schedule to a T, so breaking it for hours like this means he'd have to be with someone he's close to!" Maru concluded.
"Well then, what are you waiting for? Call him!"
"Hold on, I'm doing it!" Maru responded, opening up the call app on his watch, and getting to Cross' contact.
Call #1. Missed call.
"Okay, he might be busy."
Call #2. Missed call.
"Maybe it would be better to try again later?"
"One more try. If not, sure."
Call #3. Call declined.
"What was that?"
Call #4. Missed call.
"That last one was declined on purpose, right?"
"I'm trying again."
Call #5. Call declined.
"What the hell is going on?"
Call #6. Call declined.
"Someone's declining the calls on purpose."
"Hey, Yuka, was my watch ringing? I could've sworn I heard it."
"It was. Nothing urgent though."
"Okay, then." If they weren't urgent, he'd check the calls later.