Chapter Text
Gojo awoke the next morning to the bright light striking his eyes, the morning sun peering through the translucent window shades of his dorm room. He turned away in annoyance from the bright source, ignorant of anything else but that drowsy feeling that slowly pulled him back into a dream state. He would’ve gladly continued to be in that state if it weren’t for the muffling sounds coming from below his chest. Gojo readjusted his position, but the muffling sounds and now ticklish movements on his chest were relentlessly getting more pronounced. He slowly placed his left arm up on his mattress and propped his head on his hand, yawning loudly. His right hand wiping away at his watery eyes before focusing on the small plush, which was causing all the commotion this early in the morning.
“You almost killed me, I was being squished to death!” Yuuji sighed in aggravation, trying to catch his breath. Although from what Gojo could tell, Yuuji doesn’t have any breath coming from his plushy state.
Without missing a beat, Gojo greeted Yuuji as he yawned once more, “Good morning to you, too.”
“Hah…well, I’m sorry and good morning, it’s just that I’ve never been rudely awoken to a gigantic man squishing me between his chest and the mattress to the point of suffocation!” Yuuji quickly retorted but gave a pause before adding, “A-anyways, since we are both up, shouldn’t you be getting ready for school?”
“Mm… I’ll think about it,” Gojo said, closing his eyes once more as he landed back on top of Yuuji.
“No, stop-…!” Yuuji’s muffled voice continued for another couple of minutes as Gojo ignored him, sleeping yet again.
-
A bit of time passed by when Yuuji finally escaped from underneath Gojo’s chest, letting out a huge sigh of relief before going close to the bedside table, looking at the time on Gojo’s phone.
“Hey, seriously, it’s already half past 8!” Yuuji urged.
“I’m not ‘Hey’, call me by my actual name and I’ll start…” Gojo mumbled, eyes still closed.
“Gojo-senpai, please wake up already!"
Gojo gave a slight pause from teasing and instead did what Yuuji begged him to do.
“...I’m awake, let’s go~” Gojo shot up from his bed as he went straight to his closet and grabbed his uniform. He tossed his pajamas on top of Yuuji without a second thought. Quickly put on his uniform before styling his hair with his fingers.
After some shuffling, Yuuji escaped from the pile of clothes and groaned, thinking about all the times he had taken for granted as a human. Gojo lastly slipped on his shades and was walking away before backtracking his steps, turning back to Yuuji.
“Oops, definitely did not forget...” Gojo chuckled, looking down at Yuuji’s deadpan expression before plucking him up and placing him in the small crevice opening of his jacket between his collar and pin.
“Alright…” Gojo snapped his fingers, and before Yuuji could question, they were transported to a fairly old-looking school building made mostly of wood.
Gojo walked down the hall as Yuuji’s head raced with questions. Suddenly, Gojo slammed open one of the sliding doors. Inside was a typical classroom filled with a good number of empty desks and a simple front desk. From what Yuuji can tell, only one male student and one female student showed up to class. Suddenly, the two students began to whisper, and Yuuji could make out some words. Namely, “I knew it...” and “...otaku". Yuuji held back his laughter, seeing as Gojo’s teacher was not amused the slightest.
The teacher shook his head, “Late again, Satoru. Sit down before I-”
“Wait, Sensei, I have a quick question.” Gojo interrupted.
The man sighed, “... go on then, what is it?”
“I got this plush yesterday, and suddenly it started talking. It claims to be a high school boy called Yuuji. I find it strange that I can't even sense any curse energy.”
Yuuji interjected, “I really am a high school student, though! Feel free to contact the Sugisawa High School; they might be questioning why I haven’t shown up for class…”
Suddenly, the room was still before the three individuals exploded with bewilderment, giving Yuuji a close inspection, causing him to squirm. Gojo thankfully stepped in, but Yuuji’s thankfulness was short-lived and, like clockwork, set him down on what presumably was his desk on a stack of textbooks. The two other students repositioned themselves to sit backwards while Gojo leaned on the desk behind him. Their sensei walked to the side of Yuuji as they all looked at him with different levels of intrigue. They all seemed too used to situations like this.
“Okayyy, everyone, introductions are to be made now that you all know he can speak. His name is Yuuji, by the way.” Gojo nonchalantly told the others as he leaned on the desk behind Yuuji.
“I’m Suguru Geto. First question, when did you first enter the plush’s body?”
“I think it was when you all started walking with Gojo senpai to eat. I couldn’t move at the time, but I could definitely hear you all, like I was in a dream state.” Yuuji answered.
“Did you wish the plushie would become your friend?” Geto asked without batting an eye at Gojo, who was close to flipping him off again.
“No, I didn’t,” Gojo gritted.
“I’m Ieriri Shoko. Can you pose for a picture?” Shoko playfully asked, smiling brightly, before going back to chewing her gum. Yuuji was going to refuse, but the kind look in her eyes made him reconsider.
“Okay…” Yuuji said reluctantly before posing simply and switched his face to the default doll expression. Shoko quickly took a photo with her phone, updating the other students on Gojo’s plush doll, which he had previously picked up, and could now talk.
“Cute…” they all said in unison, looking at Yuuji.
The sensei shook his head and looked at Yuuji once more, “I am Masamichi Yaga, but you can call me Yaga-sensei. I specialize in Puppet Manipulation, but you are no puppet. As Gojo said, you have no curse energy radiating from you.”
The room was quiet once more, everyone thinking of a possible solution, but ultimately, no one spoke up until Yaga-sensei initiated questioning once more.
“Yuuji, what do you remember?” Yaga-sensei asked.
“I was with some friends, we were in the occult club, using an object…”
“A cursed object?” Yaga-sensei and the other students waited with bated breath.
Yuuji turned his head up, left to right, thinking hard about what it was before letting out a sound.
“Oh! No, I think it was this old book my friend found in a secondhand shop.” Everyone besides Yuuji sighed in relief.
“...Okay, what about this book?”
“It listed some spells with instructions and such, but it practically looked harmless; heck, there were cute drawings in the book. I ended up leading the spellcast because everyone else was afraid. But honestly, it was harmless up until I blacked out and yada, yada, yada, I became a plushie who has no clue what happened.”
“I thought you said you don’t remember what happened, Yuuji?” Gojo turned his head to scrutinize the plush, annoyed.
“I really have no clue what happened, though; it shouldn’t have made me into a plushie.” Yuuji retorted.
“...So, is it a curse from that book, Sensei?” Gojo looked at Yaga-sensei, who was in deep thought.
“Well, I’ve heard of some sorcerer books like that, where if an unaware reader copies the spell cast incorrectly, it could backfire into another curse, but Yuuji would still need to give off curse energy if that were the case,” Yaga-sensei replied.
“What if it’s a technique?” Shoko chimed in with mild curiosity.
“What?” Yuuji questioned.
“What you found, I believe it’s a sorcerer’s book that you picked up. Usually, those books don’t backfire against a regular human since there is no cursed energy being outputted to trigger the spell. But, say you aren’t just a regular human, seeing as you don’t seem particularly shocked at being a plushie." Shoko pointed at Gojo and Yuuji at once, using her free hand. "You also don’t seem that put off by Gojo, and knowing him, he would’ve tried to kill you or otherwise asked you a similar question. Without realizing it, you might’ve just been able to recite the technique perfectly. Thus, turning you into a plushie. On the same note, the curse energy might only be seen on Yuuji’s real body, which is why we, especially you, Gojo, can’t see it right now.”
Everyone contemplated Shoko's prediction, which seemed highly plausible.
“I think you may be on to something, though I have no clue how I did it, but it does possibly explain why I have been able to see those things and been able to have them to disappear in the past…,” Yuuji rationalized, “but, honestly, I really am just a regular human, I have no knowledge of curses and such.”
“How is that possible, sensei?” Shoko turned to Yaga-sensei.
“Could just be born with innate talent to be a sorcerer, it happens, seeing as Yuuji doesn’t seem to have any sorcerer family background. If Yuuji is a sorcerer, it's honestly amazing that he was able to correctly recite the technique with the correct amount of curse energy, despite his current state. In today’s day and age, we don’t use books like that anymore. Those books were typically used during the Heian era to preserve techniques. If anything, we now mainly focus more on our own abilities handed down by family or other sorcerers' teachings. That book could’ve likely been from a long-lost sorcerer’s family line.” Yaga-sensei replied looking at Yuuji with a glint of fascination.
“So, then all we have to do is get that book, find the reversal technique, and then Yuuji will be able to go back to his real body,” Gojo deduced.
“We?” Geto raised his eyebrow.
“You’re not included, idiot. I meant just Yuuji and me. Heck, everyone else besides you.”
Suddenly, Geto got up and threw a punch at Gojo who perfectly dodged it as the two began to fight, pushing towards the back of the classroom. Yuuji was lifted away by Shoko, who snapped a few photos at the scene. The two were punching and kicking at each other, destroying the other students' desks and making a mess in the process.
Before Yuuji could say anything, Yaga-sensei screamed, “THAT’S... E-NOUGH!” and saw him quickly rush towards the chaos after seeing Geto and Gojo close to releasing their own powers.
If it wasn’t prominent enough when Yuuji first saw him, Yaga-sensei was incredibly bulky compared to the two students who weren't small sized either, and the two who were fighting halted as they looked at Yaga-sensei, who slammed two fists down on their heads, knocking both of them to the ground as they muttered garbled words in pain.
“You two are tasked to clean this classroom for the next two weeks, no exceptions. IF I see you two fight again, anywhere that causes harm to people or property, there will be more punishments to come.” Yaga-sensei threatened the two who complained but ultimately accepted their punishment once Yaga-sensei took off his glasses, presumably glaring at them murderously.
Yuuji looked in awe at how easily Yaga-sensei got those two to stop fighting, even though it looked as if they were about to destroy the whole building.
“Those two are always fighting; some days can be more brutal than others," Shoko spoke softly to Yuuji, typing on her phone before placing it in her pocket. "…Yuuji, right? I’ll show you some videos the next time you come in.” Shoko chuckled as she petted Yuuji’s head softly with her finger.
For once since Yuuji became a plushie, he felt relieved and happy to be with such a lively group of people who are willing to help him without much question. This was so different and beyond his imagination. Embarrassingly enough, he also thought for once that head pats felt really nice.