Yuji woke up to his body feeling like he'd been hit by a semi truck going 150 kph. That wasn't very surprising to him though. In fact, recently it'd been rather a familiar sensation. What was surprising was the fact that he woke up. He could have sworn he'd just been run through by a sword.
Jerking awake, Yuji immediately turned towards the mass of cursed energy he could feel to his right. For a moment, he and Okkotsu simply stared at each other. Yuji wondered if this was like the time Sukuna resurrected him after tearing his heart out and Okkotsu had simply been waiting to see if he was going to have to kill him again.
"Hm? I'm-" Yuji started, staring nervously at Okkotsu, "W-"
Okkotsu burst out laughing, a few tears seeming to escape out of the corner of his eyes. Yuji started wondering if this was going to be a recurring cycle until Okkotsu managed to find a way to permanently kill him.
"What a relief!" Okkotsu finally managed to get out once his laughter died down a bit.
Seeing the confusion on Yuji's face, he continued, "I think it was around September, Gojo-sensei came to see me. He asked me to watch over you, so I had to put on this act."
"Act?" Yuji repeated, trying to catch up with what was going on.
Okkotsu nodded, smiling kindly, "Instead of allowing a different executioner, or having all the information about you being hidden, I decided this work around was best. But they aren't dumb, so in order to get jujutsu headquarters to approve me as executioner, I entered a binding vow to 'kill' you."
There was a brief pause, then Okkotsu smiled again, apologicially this time, "So I killed you. Sorry about that."
Yuji had to ask, "So why am I still alive?"
"Because of reverse cursed technique," Okkotsu answered helpfully, "At the same time your heart stopped, I instantaneously healed you with reverse cursed technique. I thought it might work based on what I've heard about you."
"Yeah..." Okkotsu sighed, poking the fire between them with a stick, "This is the second time your death has been staged. Given the circumstances, they may find out soon, but for a time they'll officially consider your death sentence complete."
There was a silence as Yuji considered everything Okkotsu told him.
"Why," he asked, "are you doing all this?"
"Because you're important to people who are important to me," came Okkotsu's answer, "I too once bore a power I couldn't handle. I thought it had been forced on me, but I had invited it upon myself. But not you. The power you bear isn't your own."
Looking up from the fire, Okkotsu met Yuji's eyes, "You aren't to blame."
Yuji looked down at his hands, legs still trapped in a sleeping bag that certainly wasn't his own, "You don't understand. It isn't about whether it's my fault. But- I-"
"Itadori," a very familiar voice interrupted Yuji's fumbling, and despite himself, Yuji looked up hopefully, a warmth growing in his chest at the sound of that voice.
"Fushiguro..." Yuji breathed out, shocked to see his friend.
Fushiguro took advantage of his shock to say, "What're you doing? Let's head back to Jujutsu High."
Continuing on as though he wasn't shaking the carefully concealed emotions Yuji fought to press down, Fushiguro said, "The barrier around the school is loosening. As long as no one directly sees your face, it should be no problem for you to go back. We'll rejoin the older students and-"
"Stop!" Yuji cried out, suddenly unable to hear another word, "Don't act like everything is normal! Don't act like nothing happened!"
Okkotsu and Fushiguro rocked back, shocked by Yuji's outburst, but remained silent, seemingly ready to listen, "I killed people! Because of me, lots of people died!"
"It's our fault," Fushiguro said calmly, maintaining eye contact with Yuji, "Don't be selfish and give up all alone."
Making a frustrated face, Yuji leaned forward, acting as if he was going to interrupt Fushiguro, but Fushiguro seemed to realize this and hurried to continue with a disgruntled sigh and rubbing the back of his neck.
"We aren't heroes fighting for justice. We're jujutsu sorcerers. No one can ever truly judge us, so we must continue to prove the worth of our existence. And we don't have the luxury of thinking about ourselves. We've just got to save people," Fushiguro continued, making pointed eye contact with Yuji, "I believe that was the original principle behind your actions."
A tense pause, then Fushiguro demanded, "So start by saving me, Itadori."
Yuji stared at his friend, feeling full of wonder and hope, but mostly relieved to hear those words from him. Save Fushiguro. He could do that. He wanted to do that. He would do that.
Neither teenager noticed, but Okkotsu looked hastily away from the conversation, cheeks flaming and face screaming with emotions.
After a moment of evaluating Yuji's face for signs of further objection, Fushiguro continued, "Kamo Noritoshi has made plans for those involved in jujutsu to face off in a culling game and Tsumiki is ensnared in that. So, I'm begging you, Itadori. I need your strength."
The silence seemed to last forever between the two while they continued to stare at each other, emotions passing rapidly over Yuji's face while Fushiguro's remained one of steely resolve. Okkotsu did his best to blend into the background during this time.
"Okkotsu-senpai," Yuji said, causing Okkotsu to jump.
He quickly turned towards Yuji, trying hard to fight down his blush and keep his face blank.
Luckily for Okkotsu, Yuji continued without breaking eye contact with Fushiguro.
"Sukuna is plotting something involving Fushiguro," he announced, "He probably took over my body in Shibuya because I ate eleven fingers all at once. I've ingested 15 fingers so far. Even if I ate all remaining five in one go, I doubt he'd be able to take control. But..."
Finally breaking eye contact with Fushiguro, Yuji met Okkotsu's eyes, "If I ever switch with Sukuna again, don't hesitate to kill me. I think you could do that."
"Understood," Okkotsu said calmly, "I'll do what I can."
"Fushiguro," Yuji continued, "What should I do?"
He looked like a soldier preparing for war. The look in his eyes was resolved, the steely glint of determination back. Yuji felt like he suddenly had purpose again for the first time since the incident in Shibuya. The two other teenagers looked on in approval.
"First, we'll go back to Jujutsu High and contact Master Tengen," Fushiguro announced, "We need to find out how to remove the seal on the prison realm. Also, we need to figure out what Kamo Noritoshi's concrete objects and future moves are. The culling game is jujutsu terrorism like never before. To fix this mess, we need to find the answers to these questions, and I think only Master Tengen might know them."
Humming in thought, Yuji asked, "Maybe Tsukumo knows?"
"I already asked her," Fushiguro admitted, finally coming closer and standing next to Yuji by the fire, "This was her idea. She's hiding in Jujutsu High too. She wants to avoid the higher ups."
Nodding, because honestly who didn't want to avoid the higher ups, Yuji waited for Fushiguro to continue.
"The only problem is Master Tengen's concealing barrier," he confessed, "Over 1,000 doors are continuously shuffling, but only one leads to the Tomb of the Star Corridor where Master Tengen resides."
"And we can't contact Master Tengen if we don't pick the right one?" Yuji sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose; after a moment he collected himself and continued, "Sorry, Fushiguro. I have to ask... What happened to Kugisaki?"
For the first time, Fushiguro looked away from Yuji's eyes purposefully, casting them away at the ground. He looked regretful.
"Oh," Yuji said, seemingly losing some small bit of hope he had remaining, "I get it. I get it!"
Choso decided to break the tension by materializing between Yuji and Fushiguro. Looking towards Fushiguro, he said, "About that barrier..."
Jumping, Fushiguro turned towards Choso and took a step back to assess him. Choso took his non-hostile movements as a sign to continue.
"There may be a way past it," he announced.
Okkotsu laughed briefly, "Oh, you were listening?"
Yuji, completely used to his brother popping up silently and having felt his familiar cursed energy approach, asked, "What do you mean, Choso?"
"Mahito once stole Sukuna's fingers and the Death Womb paintings, right? We can do the same," he announced.
The plan, once Choso explained how he could locate his younger brothers through their connection, was rather simple. They would go back to Jujutsu High, meet up with the remaining upperclassmen and Tsukumo, and then Choso would lead them to the warehouse where the Death Womb Paintings were kept, which should be close enough to Master Tengen for them to figure out the rest of the way themselves. Admittedly, this plan left a lot of room for guesswork and error, but all in all, Yuji felt pretty good about it. Actually, Yuji felt pretty good about just having a real, tangible goal again. Wandering around aimlessly for the past week exorcising curses with his half curse brother had been... good bonding time, he guessed, but the whole time he couldn't stop thinking about what he... no, Sukuna, had done to all those people in Shibuya. He'd felt so guilty, but without another way to fix it, he'd taken to trying to kill all the curses in the area as penance for the sins he'd allowed Sukuna to commit with his body. But this, this plan would actually be doing something to truly try and fix his mistakes.
And Fushiguro had asked for his help specifically. He'd claimed he'd needed Yuji, his strength, and Yuji would gladly lend it to whatever Fushiguro needed. He'd gladly save his friend.
*-*-*
The plan actually went better than Yuju had any right to expect.
After meeting up with Maki and Tsukumo at Jujutsu High, all five of them headed to see Master Tengen with Choso leading the way through the doors in order to find him.
Yuji wasn't entirely sure what he had expected Master Tengen to look like, but it certainly wasn't him looking more, and according to Master Tengen himself, being more, cursed spirit than human. Their talk with Master Tengen was confusing, but Yuji thought he got the main points quite well.
Kamo Noritoshi was actually some sorcerer at least as old as Sukuna and called Kenjaku. Kenjaku was trying to kill off humanity by forcing them to evolve by merging them with Master Tengen, something that was only possible due to the current state of Master Tengen's being, which was achieved eleven years ago when his last vessel was killed before they could merge. Master Tengen was forced to evolve into a metaphysical state, meaning he was both here and not here, his body more a physical manifestation of his being than his actual being. This also meant he was now more cursed spirit than human, something which Kenjaku, possessing Geto Suguru's body, could take advantage of in order to gain control over Master Tengen, which was in turn why Master Tengen required two of them to stay behind and guard him, a job in which Tsukomo and Choso volunteered for in order to leave Okkotsu free to continue on with their plans to stop Kenjaku with Maki, Fushiguro and Yuji.
Admittedly, Yuji had been a bit surprised that Choso was willing to stay behind with Master Tengen when it was clear that Yuji would be off somewhere else endangering his own life again, but Choso had told Yuji that he understood that Yuji would need Okkotsu more than him at the time, so he would stay behind to help guard Master Tengen.
Personally, Yuji suspected his brother had ended up with the easier job, even if it did mean facing Kenjaku and whatever minions he brought along with him.
Yuji, along with Fushiguro, Okkotsu, and Maki, were going to enter a colony and join the culling game, a game which was designed to force human beings to kill one another for points. Worse, they were going to have to search for a player who went by the name "Angel '' and somehow convince them to help them release Gojo Satoru from the back entrance of the prison realm, which Master Tengen had helpfully provided them. The back entrance to the prison realm containing Gojo now resided in Yuji's hoodie pocket, something he was trying not to think too hard about. As well as locating Angel, they were going to have to somehow, probably by killing people, gather up enough points to add a new rule to the game, which took 100 points to achieve. As sorcerers were typically only worth 5 points per kill, this was possibly quite a few people that would need to die before they could set their plan in motion.
Fushiguro had leaned over to Yuji when he had started getting uncomfortable about the idea of killing even more people and had promised him that he had an idea and that Yuji wouldn't have to kill anyone he didn't want to.
Eyeing him suspiciously, Yuji had decided to keep his doubts to himself. He rather suspected that several people were still going to have to die, but it sounded like Fushiguro simply wasn't expecting Yuji to personally kill them.
Regardless, they had a plan to enter the culling game, something that only Okkotsu would be immediately doing. First, Maki was planning to reunite with Panda and take back the cursed weapons from the Zen'in clan. Something she could also apparently only do thanks to Fushiguro being the new head of the Zen'in clan.
If his head hadn't already felt like it was about to explode with all the new information he was getting, Yuji was sure that the fact that Fushiguro was somehow the new head of the Zen'in clan would have done it. After all the other revelations the trip to Master Tengen had brought, his emotional capacity for surprise was burnt out however, so he settled for simply looking at his friend and raising an eyebrow at him. Fushiguro had promised to explain everything later. Yuji would be holding him to that promise.
After Maki raided the Zen'in weapons storage, she would then enter another colony to become a player. While she did that, Yuji and Fushiguro would be tracking down the suspended third year Jujutsu High students to request additional help. After that, they would enter another colony to start the game.
After all this was decided, Yuji and Okkotsu wearily exchanged glances, eyeing Fushiguro as they did.
Fushiguro, clearly not impressed with either of them, rolled his eyes at them, "Don't even think about it! I'll be fine"
He thumped the back of his hand against Yuji's chest, "If that happens and I die, just have him kill you."
Rather concerned by this line of thought, Yuji made to object, but Fushiguro ignored him and turned towards Maki, "Senpai?"
"Yeah," Maki said, clearly already aware of what Fushiguro wanted, "You guys go to Kinji as planned."
"Kinji?" Yuji asked in confusion.
"Hakari Kinji," Okkotsu clarified, "a suspended third year."
"Anyway, we're shorthanded," Maki said dismissively, "so we gotta rope in whoever we can."
"Is that guy tough?" Yuji asked, trying to clarify the value in tracking him down.
"Well he's moody," Okkotsu chuckled, "But when he gets worked up, he's stronger than I am."
"That's not true," Maki objected.
Okkotsu ignored her and when Fushiguro didn't comment either way, Yuji decided to let it drop, figuring he'd find out sooner or later since he was going with Fushiguro to find the guy anyway.
The group readied themselves to leave, the other three starting towards the door while Yuji hung back.
"Choso!" he called.
Fushiguro paused a few steps in front of the door the two second years had already left through, clearly intent on waiting for Yuji to join them.
Choso looked over at his brother, clearly wondering what he wanted before he left.
"Thanks," Yuji told him, "I appreciate it."
Smiling as warmly as he could manage, Choso replied, "Don't die, okay?"
Smiling back briefly, Yuji turned, waving briefly at his brother before jogging to catch up with Fushiguro.
"Are you crying?" he heard Tsukumo ask Choso right as he slipped through the door.
Shaking his head briefly with a fond smile on his face, Yuji walked alongside Fushiguro.
"Everything good?" Fushiguro asked after a moment.
"Yeah," Yuji confirmed, "Just seems odd, you know? A lot has happened over the past week and Choso's been with me through it all since everything happened. I'm still not quite sure about this whole brother thing, and I know he's technically half a curse, but I think I'll miss him."
"Yeah," Fushiguro sighed next to him, "You're gonna have to explain the whole brother thing to me again. I thought you were an only child?"
Yuji snorted, "I thought so too. Long story though, I'll fill you in later. Do you know which door we take?"
The two first years had entered another room, several options for doors found alongside one wall and there was no sign of their other classmates. They both paused, looking carefully at the doors.
"...No," Fushiguro admitted after a minute.
Yuji looked all the doors over again before deciding, "Come on, I think it's this one."
"Are you sure?" Fushiguro asked, following warily, "If we chose the wrong one we could end up in Siberia."
"Seriously?" Yuji asked, pausing before opening the handle of the door.
"Seriously," Fushiguro confirmed, "Apparently one of the kids in the fourth year class did it a few years ago. We still haven't found him."
"Huh," Yuji said, his hand hovering over the handle to the door.
He glanced at the other doors again, clearly rethinking his choice, but after a moment, he seemed reassured and pushed down on the handle, "Yeah, I'm sure. You coming?"
Yuji stepped through the door first, Fushiguro following barely a step behind. They entered a pitch black room.
"I don't think-" Fushiguro started to object, but he was cut off by the sound of the door closing shut behind them.
The moment the door closed, the two boys were suddenly blinded by a bright light, the floor dropping out from beneath their feet and they were falling. Yuji wasn't sure if he managed to reach out and grab Fushiguro or if Fushiguro had managed to reach out and grab him, but either way they ended up clinging to each other, desperate not to lose the other as they fell through open space, their eyes shut tight against the blinding lights.
There was no way to tell how long they'd been falling, but eventually, maybe a few seconds, maybe even days later, the lights died and the feeling of falling changed. Suddenly, Yuji could feel the air around them and he heard noises he hadn't before.
Opening his eyes revealed a familiar sight. It was the school, but he and Fushiguro were still falling through the open air above it, the moonlight hinting at the passage of time they had spent falling.
"Fushiguro!" Yuji choked out.
The ground was approaching quickly, and while they'd both survived worse landings before, neither teenager was eager to repeat the experience.
"Nue!" Fushiguro chanted, quickly summoning his shikigami.
Nue emerged in the night air above them, swooping down and grabbing both of their bodies in her talons. A moment later, they were on the ground, in the open field they had often practiced sparring with the second years.
Fushiguro dismissed Nue and he and Yuji both took a moment to look at each other before they simultaneously collapsed on the ground together, struggling to breathe.
"That," Fushiguro managed to gasp out a minute later, "was not the right door."
Yuji didn't have a good reply for that, so instead he focused on getting his breathing back under control and his head to stop spinning.
Luckily for him, someone else decided to distract Fushiguro for him before he could demand a reply.
"Well," came a voice both teenagers stiffened at, "that was interesting. Anyone care to explain what just happened?"
Both boys bolted upright, bringing an older teenager with stark white hair and sunglasses into view.
Fushiguro seemed at a loss for words, but Yuji managed to blurt out, "Gojo-sensei?!"
The older teenager paused, clearly not expecting that response, before asking, "sensei?"
It was at that moment that Fushiguro and Yuji really managed to register the differences between the Gojo before them and the Gojo in their heads. The hair, the sunglasses, the clothes, the AGE.
Before them was a teenage version of Gojo Satoru, looking at them with a perplexed expression.