Chapter Text
If Yuuji Itadori was creeped out by one thing in this entire world, it's spiders. He wasn’t afraid of them– really, he wasn’t– but it was the only thing that really even remotely freaked him out. He had always been naturally fearless (some might say stupid) since he was a kid, diving head first into everything.
I mean, his older (half) brother Choso had always had a weird fascination with slasher movies and other things in that genre, so as a kid he was desensitized to blood and other creepy stuff fairly quickly.
Now, standing at an arachnid exhibit in his third year of high school with his friends Sasaki and Iguchi, he was coming to the realization that he might be a little afraid of them. The two other members of occult club had spent their years of high school together trying to find something that Yuuji Itadori was afraid of. The two of them were afraid of almost everything and hid behind Yuuji whenever they did club activities to historical or abandoned places to do ghost hunts.
Spiders were the only thing that Sasaki didn’t find scary. In fact, she had shown Yuuji many photos of her pet tarantula that she affectionately named Itsy because of how big he was. Through the safety of a phone screen, he was almost cute, but Yuuji was not feeling that way about the spiders in front of him now.
“Well I think we found our answer, Iguchi,” Sasaki grinned, leaning back against the railing in front of one of the habitats. She crossed her arms over her chest as she pushed up her glasses and moved her short brown hair out of her face.
“Huh,” Yuuji asked, snapping back to reality and taking his eyes off of the gigantic furry spider in the glass terrarium.
“We finally found something that the fearless Itadori is creeped out by,” she clarified.
“I’m not creeped out,” Yuuji objected with a laugh. “I don’t get creeped out!”
Iguchi raised an eyebrow. “You’re eyeing the thing like it’s about to pull a knife on you.”
“I just don’t like the way it's looking at me, that doesn't mean I'm scared.”
“Sure,” they both teased as the trio moved on to the next habitat.
Yuuji hung back behind his two friends a little bit whenever it was time to look closely at the eight-legged creatures behind the glass. He decided that if the spider was small enough, he was indifferent, but the bigger they got the less okay he was with looking at them. When their beady eyes were big enough to stare back at his brown ones and blink at him, that was when he began to have problems.
So, when a small spider landed on the arm of his yellow zip-up, Yuuji left it alone and placed his hand on one of the tables. This one was clearly not a part of the exhibit, so there was no harm in letting it leave him of its own free will. It was just trying to stay warm and hide from the crisp early March air, body too small to maintain an internal temperature. He made it a point to not kill even ants on the sidewalks whenever he walked, so this spider was not about to be an exception.
That is, until he felt a sharp poke just above the palm of his hand. The little thing had sunk its chelicerae– a word that Yuuji had just learned while being at this thing– into his wrist.
“Ah,” he hissed, swiping at the little creature. His friends turned around at the sound of pain, seeing the now dead spider on the ground.
“Are you–”
“I didn't mean to kill it,” Yuuji admitted as if it were a crime to kill spiders. “It startled me, that's all! It bit me, so I-”
“Is it venomous,” Sasaki asked, now panicking and reaching for her phone so she could google the little dead thing on the ground.
Iguchi grabbed Yuuji’s arm and inspected the small bump that was already forming in the center of his wrist. It didn't even hurt that much and he had only meant to sweep it onto the floor, not kill it.
“Okay, it looks like that species isn't venomous, so you should be good.” Sasaki shoved her phone back into her pocket and gently knelt on the floor next to the dead spider. “Poor guy,” she sighed, gently sweeping it up into her cupped hand. “Itadori, does it hurt at all?”
“Not really.” He looked down at his wrist as he flexed it, pink dyed hair falling into his eyes. “Just stung a bit.” He turned his attention to the dead spider in Sasaki’s hand, taking a spot next to her and looking close enough to brush her arm with his. “I’m so sorry, little buddy.”
“We should have a funeral for him,” Iguchi suggested, taking the other side of Sasaki and leaning in the same way as Itadori.
The three of them left the exhibit and found a spot in a nearby park to bury the little spider under a tree. It was a beautiful service, all things considered. Itadori stood against the bark of the tree and Sasaki was the sole pallbearer for the little black arachnid. Iguchi wrote a eulogy and the three of them left the park to go back to each of their houses.
The train home was fine for Sasaki and Iguchi. The three of them all got off on different stops of the train, living just barely far enough apart to not have the same station to get off at. Iguchi got off first, bidding his friends goodbye as the doors to the train closed behind him. On the way to Sasaki’s stop, Yuuji felt his stomach start to do somersaults in his body.
The sudden wave of nausea that hit him was more like a tsunami. He felt his face go pale as his entire body was enveloped in a thin coat of cold sweat. He clasped his now freezing hands together to keep Sasaki noticing how clammy they were getting as she talked about the Human Earthworm movies. Yuuji loved those movies, but the conversation was hard to focus on. It wasn’t just the nausea making it hard to focus, but instead his eyes. His eyes would not focus, the world going fuzzy and sideways.
Was that spider venomous? Had Sasaki been wrong about that? No, she knew enough about spiders to be able to ID which ones were venomous even without her phone.
“Hey, your roots are getting really grown out,” Sasaki pointed out, still not realizing that something was seriously wrong. “You can almost see the blond under all the pink,” she teased, messing with his hair.
Her hand felt freezing against his scalp, almost like she had placed an ice pack on it. He tried to ignore the searing pain that exploded beneath his skull when his head shook slightly, gritting his teeth and clamping his eyes shut.
Was he coming down with something? No, it wouldn’t be this sudden. It had to be the spider bite, it had to. Unless it was something he had eaten. What had he eaten? Had he eaten anything all day? He had to have eaten something, right?
The thought of food was enough to make him lean his head back against the cool window of the train and force himself to take deep breaths.
“Itadori, you okay?”
“I think so,” he managed, opening his eyes and then immediately shutting them again. “I think I ate something bad, my stomach feels like it’s trying to escape through my mouth.”
Why did everything hurt his head? The light, the sound of the train, moving, not moving. Nothing was working, why was nothing working?
“Do you need help getting home,” his friend asked him. Shit, he was really worrying her head over nothing.
“Whose gonna walk you home then,” he asked her. “You hate walking home alone.”
“I’ll be fine, you're the one who looks like shit.” She pulled out her phone and started texting someone, probably her parents to let them know that she would be later than she thought. Yuuji did not want that.
He had always been taught to walk girls to their doors to make sure they got home safely, so the idea of her walking him home was strange but the fatigue and nausea and the sheer amount of pain and trouble that his eyes were causing him was almost enough for him to allow it. Maybe just this once, he’d let her walk him home. She had been to his house before, that wasn’t the problem. The problem was that he lived in a sort of tricky area and if something happened when she was walking back to the train station by herself, he would be having that nightmare for weeks.
“Itadori,” Sasaki scolded gently. “I will text you when I get on the train, when I get to my stop and when I get home.”
He considered this. That way he would know that she was okay without needing to be there and he would also know that something went wrong if he wasn’t getting a text from her every ten minutes and then he would be able to do something since she, Iguchi and Itadori all shared locations. If his dad had been home, he would have his dad walk her, but his parents were on the plane home from their anniversary trip and would not be home until very late that night.
Iguchi was usually the one who walked her home since their stops on the train were closer, but he had a prior engagement that he needed to get to. That was why Yuuji was the one who was walking her.
“You promise,” Itadori grumbled, placing a clammy hand over his eyes to block out the sunlight beating down on him through the window.
“I swear,” she told him, taking his hand and interlocking their pinkies together since he couldn't see well enough to do it himself.
“Alright,” he told her as the train came up on her stop. “Only if you’re sure.”
Yuuji Itadori did not remember the walk home or getting into his house or even showering and getting into bed. It had only been five o’clock when he was on the train with Sasaki, but it was now seven in the morning and his dad was shaking him awake. The sound of his alarm blaring was so loud in his ears, but at least his migraine had dissipated fully. Nothing hurt anymore and everything was almost… normal? So it really hadn’t been the spider bite.
“Yuu, kiddo, you gotta get up,” his dad groaned as he shook his son awake. “You’re gonna be late for school, Yuuji!”
And just like that, Yuuji was no longer tired; he was now very awake, sitting up with a start and a yelp as he dove for his phone to make sure that Sasaki had texted him.
Sasaki:
I made it to the train station!!
5:10pm
I made train made it to my stop heading home
now!!!
5:18pm
I made it home safe and sound i hope you’re
feeling better!!!!
5:32pm
He let out a breath of relief and looked up at his dad’s shocked face. Since when was everything so… clear? He’d never had bad vision, but the world seemed so much sharper now, like he had put on glasses. He was more… aware than he had been before.
“You alright, son?”
“Huh? Yeah! It's just… I think I ate something bad yesterday, I was feeling so sick.”
Jin placed the back of one of his hands on Yuuji’s forehead, ever the gentle and fatherly man. When he was a child, Jin used to sit with him in his bed and play with his hair while reading to him to get him to fall asleep. Yuuji had since outgrown the need for it, but his father was still as affectionate as ever.
“You do feel a little warm,” Jin confirmed. “Oh, last night your friend Sasaki called the house to make sure you knew she got home okay.”
“Yeah, I told her to text me, but I fell asleep. I would’ve walked her, I was just so sick that I couldn’t–”
Yuuji was cut off by a soft laugh and a ruffle of his hair. “You really are a mini me.” Jin stood up with a smile as he planted a kiss on his son’s forehead. “You’re not so warm that you can’t go to school, but call me or mom if anything happens, one of us will pick you up.” he placed his hands on his hips and pushed his glasses up. “You can go in late, but try not to be too late, I’ll call the school and let them know.”
And just like that, Yuuji was out of bed and changing into his school uniform. His steps seemed heavier than usual as he made his way across his small room to his closet. His school uniform consisted of a black blazer and dress pants with a white collared shirt, the buttons on his blazer adorned with the telltale swirl of someone that went to Jujutsu Tech.
As he slid his shirt over his head, he made a very important and insane discovery. His hands would not unstick from the hem of his shirt. No matter how hard he tried to pry his thumbs and index fingers away from the soft, fancy fabric of his school uniform, they would not budge.
“What the…”
He held his arms out in front of him and shook as hard as he could, desperately trying to remove the fabric from his fingers. Reflexively, he stepped backwards, tripping over his desk trash bin as he stared down at his hands with growing panic. It took him an extra ten steps back to realize that he shouldn't have had enough floor space to walk that far. Confused and afraid, he looked down at his feet and then at the rest of his room, finding himself on the wall across from his bed.
“What the hell is happening,” he asked himself as he checked all over his body for anything else that was different. He needed a clue as to what had caused this sudden… phenomenon if he was going to figure out how to stop sticking to everything.
When he found himself on the wall of his room, panic overtook him as he tried to lift his feet from their spot. Maybe he could just walk back down the wall and back onto the floor? Wishful thinking. His feet would not budge either, and though he tried not to doubt the structural integrity of his childhood home, he couldn't help but notice that the wall seemed to be cracking under his 80 kilos of weight.
He was too shocked to even scream, heart jumping into his throat as he fell down the wall like one of those sticky men his brother used to have. This whole affair actually didn't make much noise, which caused Yuuji great effort. Maybe he should just tell his dad that he’s still sick and go back to bed? No, Jin was too uptight about school stuff. Kaori– Yuuji’s mother– had always been the more laid back of the two of them.
How would he go to school if he was stuck to his wall? How was he stuck to his wall?! Would he ever be able to unstick himself?
As these thoughts rushed through him, he kept trying to lift his feet without damaging his bedroom wall. Paint could rip off, but he could not damage the drywall. He had no clue how to fix drywall, but he imagined that it was expensive and that was the last thing he wanted.
“Please stop sticking,” he begged as he looked down at his feet.
With his shirt still stuck to his hands, he tried to pry his socked feet up from the wall. His left foot peeled away from the wall with a similar sound to that of ripping cardboard as the paint came up with it, making him grit his teeth and cringe. Yeah, he would have to cover that later. Maybe with one of his many wall posters or–
He came crashing down to the floor as his other foot soundlessly and easily pulled itself from the wall. As his body hit the hard wood floor, the air was punched out of his lungs.
“You okay, Yuuji,” Jin called from the other side of his bedroom door.
“Yeah,” the boy struggled between coughs as he righted himself on his feet. “I just tripped over my foot!”
The day was sort of normal after that. He managed to unstick his hands from his shirt and put it on his body. He got the rest of his uniform on with only minimal problems; only his fingertips seemed to stick to things and they came unstuck with much less effort than his feet from the wall. It left tiny rips in the hem of his shirt that were hidden by his blazer. One of his swirling buttons had been ripped off and stuck to his hand, but he flicked it away before anyone on the train could notice.
He ran with heavier steps than normal, feet sticking to the ground slightly as they beat the pavement. He was already an hour and a half late, so running was his only option if he wanted to make it in time to get to his second class before it ended. He dodged crowds of people, weaving between them as he ran to the door of his school. When he turned the door handle, it came off in his hand and stayed stuck to his palm.
“Shit,” he whispered, stuffing his still full hand into his pocket to hide the metal handle stuck to it. “Shit, shit sh–”
“Itadori!”
Iguchi and Sasaki jogged up to him at the door with smiles on their faces.
“Hey, guys,” Yuuji smiled at them, using his empty hand to wave at them. The two of them engulfed him in a hug and he pulled the handle out of his pocket, slipping it between his back and backpack. “What are you– wha– what’s up?”
“Dude, why are you being weird,” Sasaki asked, trying to see what was in Yuuji’s hand.
The door handle fell from behind him back and clattered to the floor and the two of their eyes fell to it, widening at the sight broken doorhandle.
“Wha–”
“It broke off in my hand,” Yuuji explained with a dismissive wave, leaving it discarded on the ground and kicking it back over toward the door where it came from. “Anyway, what did we do in Lit?”
The rest of the school day was boring for everyone except for Yuuji Itadori. Every pencil he held either got stuck to his fingertips or broke in half the moment he touched it, he went to his locker and when he tried to open it, the handle and door both dented. Someone threw a pencil at him, but instead of it hitting his head, he felt this weird pins and needles feeling behind his eyes and his reflexes turned around and caught it for him… then the pencil broke in half when he held it.
The train home was more interesting than the train there. He was more awake and every movement registered clearly through his eyes. He could see everything so clearly and the bodies packed close together made him feel like he was sitting in a furnace.
He stared at the spider bite on his wrist as he thought about everything happening. He wasn’t dead or still sick, so the spider wasn’t venomous, but this definitely had something to do with that little creature they held a funeral for. The little mark made on his wrist above the pulse point seemed to become a small hole.
“Itadori,” Sasaki asked as he walked her home. “Are you really feeling okay? You’ve been kind of weird today.”
“Huh? Oh, yeah!” He nudged her with his shoulder and she pushed him back with a laugh. “Sorry about yesterday, I ate something bad I think.”
I think the spider gave me superpowers, he thought to himself.
The idea made his eyes roll. Who would believe that? It sounded like something straight out of one of Choso’s old western comic books. Those comics were Yuuji’s first introduction to reading, but he hadn't thought about them much recently. Not until he started sticking to his walls and ripping off door handles.
“Iguchi and I were really worried when I texted you about getting home and you didn't answer.” She smacked him upside the head. “You can’t worry us like that!”
“Yeah, sorry,” he chuckled, rubbing the back of his head.
“Well, anyway, what are your plans for graduation?”
˚₊𓆩༺🕷༻𓆪₊˚