Chapter Text
When Yuji opened his eyes, he was met with the bright, shining sun beating down on his body.
"Hmm…?" He says, squinting and directing his gaze elsewhere. Through his squinted eyes, Yuji could tell that he was no longer in the comfort of his house, he was in a shady alleyway that smelled like hot garbage.
How did he get here? All he remembers from the night before is getting blacked out drunk from one of his late-night drinking sessions. So, that gives him some answer to how he got here, perhaps a drunken stroll? Weird. He would have remembered if he did.
As he gets up a little too fast, a pounding headache hits him, along with extreme nausea. He rarely gets hangovers nowadays. So, when he suddenly starts to dry heave, it surprises him. Once his dry heaving subsides, he begins to stand, leaning against the brick wall of the alleyway for support.
While standing there, gathering his strength, the sun starts to feel too bright for it being 2086, the air too… clean, the sky too clear. Everything feels out of place, he feels like he doesn't belong there. His instincts telling him to go home like he always is, cooped up in that house of his. But even that feels just wrong.
He cant place his finger on it just quite yet. As the pain starts to ease away, he begins to make his way outside of the alleyway, as the streets become visible, he stops dead in his tracks. He knows Japan like the back of his hand, and this doesn't look like any street he's seen before. No, he has to be in Japan, the Japanese signs and people tell him as much.
Wait, the people, that fashion has been long since outdated. That realization sends his thoughts into a spiraling mess, the last time he's seen that fashion was in the late 2010s. Based off of that, he can make the assumption that he's in the year 2018. What the hell is he thinking? There's no way he's back in the year 2018. That's just simply impossible.
Hesitantly, he blends in with the crowd, trying to find any sign that he is still in his time period. Although, with his height, he sticks out in the crowd like a sore thumb. His efforts end in vain, everywhere he looks, at shops, restaurants, bookstores, all of the calender show the same date, September 29th, 2018. Around the same time he was 'dead.'
Calm down Yuji, he tells himself, although, he can't seem to calm down. There's just no way, all of this has to be some type of sick, sick joke. Again, that's just impossible.
"Excuse me, sir?" His voice is horse and weak due to the alcohol, but its there. "What's today's date?"
"September 29th of 2018…" The passerby answers, something akin to a question laced in his voice.
That confirms it, he seriously is in the year 2018. Okay, he can handle this. He's an adult. He'd needs to get somewhere close to Jujutsu high, maybe find someone who can help with his situation. But with what and how? He isn't carrying a phone, he doesn't have a map, or a GPS, but there's weight in his pocket. His wallet! He can thank himself for once, he picked up a habit of carrying his wallet everywhere due to the Polaroid picture in there of him, Gojo, Megumi, and Kugisaki.
He can get himself something to eat and he can get a phone as well as put service on it. Or maybe he doesn't have to go find a solution to go back quite yet. Maybe he can try to change everything. No, he shouldn't, but his selfish desires tell him otherwise. Who knows what messing with this timeline would do to the future. His future.
Getting a phone and something to eat should be his only goal right now, eat now decide later. And once his stomach growls, his body does listen. Immediately, after a good meal, he feels energized, its amazing what food and nutrients can do to your body, its like magic.
Finding a phone store wasn't easy nor hard. It took him a few minutes of walking around to find one. To his shock, it wasn't pretty pricey. He'd gotten used to the inflation in 2086 but he didn't know it was this bad.
The first thing he did was open Google maps, to locate what part of japan he's in. Zooming out, he's at least close to Tokyo, with him being in Yokohama — located in the Kanagawa prefecture. He'll try to stay on the down low for a bit and get a hotel room temporarily.
Once he lays down on the soft, plush fabric of the mattress, a sudden wave of tiredness and drowsiness overcomes him. He should take a shower first, he knows that. But he deserves this, his brain has been oh so very tired, and sleep sounds fucking delicious right now. Without pulling the covers over himself, he turns to the window and shuts his eyes.
How tired was he? Its been forever since he didn't have a nightmare driven sleep, maybe its the familiarity of it all. Going to sleep at 4 PM hadn't been a good idea, since now he's awake at 4 AM. Although, he did need the sleep, so, Yuji can be grateful for that. He doesn't feel like getting up, with the bed being all too comfortable.
It begins to remind him of his depressive days, which come flooding back to him as if they occurred yesterday. Every time he thinks of them, he feels this pit in his stomach. A guilty, selfish pit in his stomach. It was selfish of him to make others burden his feelings. It was selfish of him to make others worry. It was selfish of him to make others care for him.
Suddenly, he cuts off his train of thought by muttering to himself, "Maybe I should get up and shower." As he sits up, he gets a whiff of himself, and his nose, along with his face, wrinkles in disgust. And, suddenly, he remembers what Shoko told him a while back. "Make sure you take care of yourself, Yuji. If not for the people around you then for yourself."
How can he do that now when he's losing the people around him left and right? The people he cares about the most. He can't stand to see himself young and healthy while everyone around him is dying. Death sounds like such a faraway concept to him, even though its already affected him in more ways than not.
In one swift motion, he gets from his bed and to the ground. Mindlessly making his way to the shower. Yuji turns the knob so the water can be almost as hot as it can get. He's always preferred it that way — well, not really. As he starts to undress, the steam begins to drift towards the ceiling. Before he steps in the shower, he starts a load of Landry. Since these are his only pair of clothes, it'd make sense for him to wash them as he showers.
Entering the restroom, he heads straight to the shower. Not daring to look himself in the mirror. But ever he can see it, even when he doesn't want to. The crisscross patters on his arms are always a reminder of how weak he is — or once was. But the scars are not just on his arms, at one point they were strategically placed so no one would notice.
Albeit, he gave up on that eventually, obviously. Sometimes, more often than not, he would cover them in bandages. Perhaps that's where his obsession with long sleeved clothing stems from.
The hot water cascades down his back, making his skin red in the process. Going through the motions, Yuji begins to wash his hair with the hotel soap that's been provided. The water starts off murky, but then clears up eventually. The soap is a nice scent, lavender, which always reminds him of the times his grandfather used to bathe him.
After his baths, his grandpa always made sure to wrap him in a fluffy, warm towel. It was nice, but reminiscing on the past wont change things, you can only go forward. He knows this better than anyone else, or he should know it, but he still does it. It leaves him with a warm feeling somehow instead of a sad one.
Sometimes he'll scrub his body too hard, like he's trying to scrub away his sins. He's like a broken record, he will try to stop a habit, but it just comes back worse, like it comes back to bite him in the ass. Like they always say, "Old habits die hard." Yuji hopes that's true, that someday he can let go of these bad habits that plague him.
Ouch, like now, how he rubbed his skin raw without even realizing. The area quickly becomes inflamed with a soft red color following suit. "Just… finish showering." Yuji mutters quietly to himself.
He always craved the feeling of being clean, especially when he felt like there was blood on his hands he couldn't scrub off. So, it feels nice to finally be in something fresh — to feel fresh. It reminds him of the time that Nobara and Megumi shoved him in the shower. Telling him in unison that he'd 'feel better' after a shower. However, they were right, he did feel better after that forced shower.
Although, his clothes still needed to dry, he put them on regardless of if they were dry or not. He can't deny that the shower he took just now was amazing. But now, he has nothing more to do. He can sulk around in this hotel room all day or go out, he'll choose the latter.
It isn't as hot as it was yesterday, with it being September, the weather should start to cool little by little. Its fairly cloudy today and the wind is blowing, which is picking up his hood. Its faintly hitting him that he's back in the year 2018, so he decides to take it all in. The nostalgia, the familiarity, everything. He can't take in enough all at once.
He ends up going just walking around the streets of Yokohama. Taking in the peacefulness of it all. How no one, except a few people, seem stressed or anxious — witch is a common thing to see in 2086. Its nice and relaxing all at once. Yuji stops being so paranoid and finally loosens up.
He ends up grabbing a coffee, out of habit, he always grabs a coffee, even when he doesn't feel like getting one. Although, coffee doesn't affect him as much as it used to. He stops by a few stores, getting snacks that have long since been discontinued or snacks he loved when he was younger. He's quite literally a kid in a candy store.
Back in the hotel room, he didn't realize how much he brought until he was on his bed, looking at his spread of snacks. He reaches for a box of strawberry Pocky, he hasn't had these in a long minute, with them becoming increasingly hard to find and being resold for hundreds online, he'd thought he'd never have these again.
Its a nostalgic taste, like how everything here is. He's missed it so much that it brings tears to his eyes. Yuji laughs a little, on how stupid this whole ordeal is. Crying? Over Pocky sticks? That sounds so unlike him, yet here he is, letting tears fall from his face over some Pocky sticks.
Maybe, he's crying for much more than Pocky sticks. Perhaps he's mourning everything he has known. They run down his face, leaving wet tear-stained streaks in their wake. Eventually, the tears subside and his stomach becomes full. Maybe he's taking it all for granted, maybe he needs to take advantage of his situation. But, he's happy and right now that's all that matters to him.
So, why'd he decide to do this in the first place? Instinct? Adrenaline? Just because? He can't seem to recall why, but it doesn't matter now — to him at least. Deciding to go to one of the most curse energy dense forests was a somewhat dumb idea. To be frank, Yuji is just chasing after that rush of adrenaline he'll get when Jujutsu High becomes aware of his existence, when he sees someone he knows, or senses — whatever comes first.
Man, has it been a while since he's felt an adrenaline rush. Once he catches sight of a curse, he releases piercing blood and, within seconds, the fight was over before it even began. Yuji let out a sigh, he yearns for a challenge, an actual challenge. He ends up killing a few more curses, but what annoys him is the purple, sticky blood that they always release.
Every time, without fail, he manages to get some on himself. Well, some is an understatement, it's more like he gets drenched in it. He's lucky that normal people can't see or know about curses in this day and age. He can already imagine the weird looks he'd get from civilians.
He'd ended up going to bed in nothing but boxers, too tired and lazy too put on his clothes. Beforehand, he took a hot, steamy shower and for once it was relaxing. After everything had worn off, the tiredness came over him like a tidal wave, and forced him into sleep.
"Gojo!" One higher-up yells from nowhere in particular.
"Why'd you wake me up so early?" Gojos voice trails as he yawns and stretches his arms up. Getting a call at 6AM was not how he intended to spend his morning
"There's been a sudden flair up of cursed energy in the Kanagawa prefecture, more specifically Yokohama. We were hoping you, and perhaps your first-year students, would take care of it and investigate it." The other higher-up speaking lingers on the phrase 'first-year students,' knowing that they purposely 'killed' Yuji Itadori.
"Seriously?!" Gojo exclaims loudly.
"The cursed energy seems pretty weak-" Another higher-up starts, but is quickly cut off.
"No, this is seriously what you called me so early in the morning for?" He groans, annoyance written all over his face.
Gojo knows they're doing this just to rub salt in the wound, but it would be a nice trip for Nobara and Megumi. It would get their mind off of things. So, with all things considered, he ended up giving them a yes.
Unbeknownst to Gojo, this would be much, much more than a simple investigation.