The clock strike at 9 o'clock before it rang, informing everyone that it's 9 o'clock now. Nanami was reading a magazine while Gojo was lazing around across of him. He was so bored until he asked Nanami to talk about something interesting. He also suggested on playing catch with discarded rice balls while discussing the separation of church and states.
"Enjoy that on your own," he answered calmly, eyes still lingered on the newspaper before him. Gojo clapped his hands two times and already moved on to the next game.
"Drinking game time! Name things you love about Gojo Satoru!" he happily exclaimed and clapped his hands again two times. "Everything!"
"Please keep that attitude going. Itadori-kun needs that kind of idiocy right now," he spoke again.
"That wasn't what I meant by 'harder', though," he mumbled to himself. "Nanami, does Yuuji know about that finger in Yoshino's-"
"I haven't told him. Knowing him, he'd just feel unnecessarily responsible," he cut off.
"I'm glad I left you in charge," the blindfolded mand smirked. "And the finger?"
"I submitted it to the higher-ups, of course. If I gave it to you, you'd just feed it to Itadori-kun, right?" Gojo clicked his tongue playfully. "But is it really okay to bring him back? If the fact that he's alive becomes known at the exchange event, won't the higher-ups just target him again?"
"Even if they do, Yuuji will be just fine now," Gojo said calmly as he put his hands behind his head. "You know that better than anyone, don't you?" Nanami then looked aside, seeing Itadori ran towards them.
"Sensei!" he called, stopping right before them. "Oh, Nanamin's here, too. Huh? Y/N's not here?"
"She has something to do," Gojo explained. These days, Itadori always noticed her. Whether she's on the crowd or alone. Even the seer of her voice could be recognized by him far away. However, she's been busy lately and he kept searching for her. He pouted a bit when Gojo explained it to him. Another day unable to see her. "What is it, Yuuji?"
"Come on. Let's hurry up and go see everyone!" his eyes gleamed in excitement while waiting for Gojo's instruction. It's clearly evident in his eyes that he's expecting that his friends would be very surprised on his revival.
"Yuuji, are you planning to just show up like normal after dragging it out this long?" Gojo asked nonchalantly.
"Huh? I can't?!"
"Even among sorcerers, you rarely see someone say they've actually been alive two whole onths after they died. We have to make it a surprise!" Gojo exclaimed, pointing his finger.
"A surprise?" Itadori trailed off.
"Just leave it to me," Gojo spoke. "The first-years will be laughing and crying from happiness and shock. The second years will cry with them. And someone among them will choke up and vomit, and in the end, it'll even solve global warming!" Itadori was innocently liking his absurd idea.
"What do I do?! Sensei, what should I do?!" he asked impatiently.
"You don't have to do anything! Just do exactly as I say and go with the flow!" Gojo replied.
"So what should I do?!" he still asked. It just been five whole minutes and the chaotic atmosphere has risen. Still, Nanami didn't seem to bother the two or he's been through worst.
--
She stood behind the sofa, try hard not to glare too much at him. The room was silent as currently the two principals were just drinking tea to kill time. Though Principal Gakuganji heard her name, he still hasn't seen her himself. Even when she went to Kyoto with Okkotsu last year. His attention was solely on the field.
The time ticking, passed by slowly for her. Just then, he stood up slowly, making Yaga stood up also.
"It's time," he said. The two schools probably have met by now, and if they didn't come now, probably a fight might broke lose. But thanks to Utahime followed her dear students, they only exchanged sarcastic conversation with each other.
From above, she could already feel his weird antics while trying to surprise the Tokyo students with Itadori's news. It won't work well, to be honest. However, the person who'll most likely to be surprised was Principal Gakuganji himself. She glanced at the old man while following Yaga on stepping down the stairs. Her eyes trailed back to Gojo when the box he brought revealed Itadori with his fullest excitement.
"It's your departed friend, Itadori Yuuji-kun!" he exclaimed. Two of his teammates looked at him horrified. Not surprised, but horrified. The second years also didn't react much as if they knew it will happen. And there goes his expectation. She sighed silently after watching the event unfold. People from Kyoto also didn't pay attention at him as Gojo gave a mysterious souvenir for them.
"Sukuna's vessel?!" finally the old man spoke. "What's the meaning of this?" Gojo turned around and saw him.
"Principal Gakuganji!" he greeted playfully. "Oh, thank goodness. I was worried you might just die from the shock." She raised her eyebrows, entertained by how sarcastic Gojo's words were.
"You damn brat!" he cursed. Gojo however didn't falter and smiled at him, maintaining the tension. She saw the two first-years approaching Itadori, before Kugisaki kicked his box.
"Hey!" she growled.
"Uh, yes?"
"You got something to say?" she asked.
"Huh?" he was confused, but after seeing Kugisaki almost cried, he finally knew what to say. "I'm sorry for keeping quiet about being alive." She smiled at them and approached them. Kugisaki was the first who noticed her.
"Oh! Akiba!" she called, making her raised her hand for a greeting. "Rare seeing you in the school ground." Y/N chuckled while putting her hands in her skirt pocket.
"Don't say that. I'm a busy individual so please bear with me," she chuckled.
"You don't seem too surprised with him," Fushiguro pointed out. She looked away, already feeling guilty.
"Well, I helped to train him with Gojo-sensei," she giggled awkwardly, before finally trying on changing the subject. "Good luck on the event."
"Huh? You don't participate in the event, Y/N?" Fushiguro's eyes twitched at how Itadori addressed her. Didn't know if it was intentional, but he felt like Itadori wanted to brag on their close relationship. The news of her spending most of the time with him while training him was the most surprising rather than Itadori's fake death. And now he has to hear them calling each other with first name basis?
Somehow he was disappointed. She felt close with someone who she just met. It's a childish reason actually, but he really disliked it. He pouted before turning around already leaving them.
"Let's go," he muttered, mostly talking to Kugisaki and Itadori. She blinked a few times at his sudden cold attitude but didn't think too long about it. Fushiguro sometimes could be a moody child. Or so she thought.
--
The two school went to their own designated room to talk about their strategy. For the first day of Goodwill Event, the school decided on having a team exorcism race. The rule was simple as the first team to exorcise the second grade cursed spirit released in the designated area wins. Well, the match was simple enough if fight is not included, but this is Jujutsu Tech, and they absolutely allowed any kind of violence except death. Also, this match probably will go way different than the original plan as now Principal Gakuganji knew Itadori was alive.
She stood up from the seat provided for her. Gojo glanced at her before sipping back his tea with a smirk.
"Not going to wait here?" he asked.
"The match hasn't even started," she huffed while making her way to the door. "Rather, Principal Gakuganji himself is not present now, meaning I'm also not mandatory to stay in this room until the match started." Gojo chuckled to himself after hearing the door closed. "Cheeky as always."
The school ground was big, she should have expected this. The monitor room she was at before located way further from the designated rooms for Tokyo and Kyoto students. Even though it looked like far, actually it took only five minutes' walk for her to arrive at Tokyo side meeting room. The sliding door was slightly opened, making her able to peek inside.
"Gojo-sensei.. has it..," Itadori's voice made her ears perked up. He was kneeling on the ground while Maki demanded something from him. It seemed they haven't talked about their strategy yet.
"Tsk, that blindfolded dumbass," Maki clicked her tongue. Y/N knocked exactly three times to sliding door while leaning on the doorway, making all the students looked at her. "Huh? Y/N, what are you doing here?"
"Just checking out how you guys doing," she replied and looked around. Well, it's good that the first years were not terrified, especially after seeing how brutal Todou could be. Her eyes looked back to Itadori who was still kneeling for some reason and holding a certain black frame on his hands. Now she kind of got what's happening. "Kugisaki, don't you think that's a bit too much?" she giggled and pointed to the frame on his hands.
"That's his fault for not telling us anything," she explained.
"Anyway, Yuuji," she called, suddenly serious. "Be careful. I don't know what's going to happen later, but I think the Kyoto students were plotting something." Principal Gakuganji to be exact. She glanced outside, towards the building for Kyoto side meeting.
"Plotting as in making strategy, right?" Kugisaki asked, still hasn't grasped the situation. "As long as we strategize better than them, we can win." She looked back at them, especially to Itadori and sighed.
"Well, I've warned you. Good luck," she straightened her posture before turning to go back. Whether they believed in her words or not, it's up to them. Though the other teacher probably would only see it as another type of strategy for winning the race. She stopped in her tracked and looked towards the sky.
Now, what should she do now? Activating her technique and covered the whole school ground with her cursed energy was tiring to hold out long enough until the race ended. She couldn't participate in the event due to certain reasons. Was the only thing she could do was watching from the sidelines? She sighed and looked back to the front, before continuing her journey to the monitor room. The door slid opened, and it seemed Yaga has returned with Mei Mei. She went to take a seat beside him and watched how Gojo was interacting with Mei Mei and Utahime.
"Did something happen that you need to go out?" Yaga's stern voice startled her.
"Nothing in particular," she replied. Yaga was silent after her reply and sipped the green tea from his glass.
"If you're worried about what Principal Gakuganji is scheming, don't worry. We're on high alert," he reminded. She glanced at him before looking at the blindfolded man in the front seat. Of course they were, especially Gojo. Even though he didn't look like care about everything, but the truth was he's trying to figure out Principal Gakuganji was thinking. If that'll help Itadori, then it's all fine.
"Understood."