Serving lunch had never seemed so intimidating before to Yuji. He wasn't worried about the teenage version of his sensei, Gojo had taken to Yuji's offer of food the night before exactly how his sensei had the first time Yuji had offered to cook for them while living in his basement. To put it simply, he was thrilled.
Everyone knew Gojo-sensei couldn't cook in the future, in fact several warnings had been issued to the first years by their upperclassman, Nanami, and even Principal Yaga to keep Gojo from trying to cook. Warnings ranged in seriousness from the promise of food poisoning to mass destruction.
Either way, this meant Yuji didn't have to worry about serving Gojo lunch. No, the one Yuji was worried about was his best friend.
To say Megumi had seemed upset would have been an understatement. Yuji had never seen Megumi so emotional, and he's seen his friend in quite a few highly stressful and emotional situations. He'd always been so calm and collected that seeing him storm out of a room and slam a door was just as startling as the information that had caused him to do so. But, if anyone had a good reason to be a bit upset right now, Yuji figured Megumi did.
Finding out you traveled to the past was stressful and confusing enough. Add in the worry that Yuji knew Megumi must be feeling for their friends in the future, and it was enough to warrant a good breakdown. But time travel and worrying about their friends they were separated from wasn't the extent of their problems. Yuji might not be a psychiatrist, but he knew that both of them had been through several different highly traumatic events in the past few months, and the incident at Shibuya had happened barely over a week ago for them. Revealing that not only had Gojo-sensei killed his dad and neglected to mention it for a decade to Megumi, Toji's son and the kid he'd taken guardianship of, was already pushing Megumi's capacity for dealing with his emotions.
Throwing in the fact that his already dead father had somehow shown up at the events in Shibuya and not just participated somehow, but also appeared in front of Megumi and saved his son from a dangerous special grade curse, only to then immediately try to fight him, stopping when he realized halfway through the fight that he was facing his own son and deciding to kill himself instead. It was a lot.
The teenage version of his guardian informing Megumi that his father's last words had been about him had probably just been the final mail in the coffin.
So Yuji was now a little hesitant to knock on the door to the room his friend still hasn't emerged from. Frankly, Yuji figured this was so far out of his depth that he didn't have any idea how to approach it, or someone that was trying to deal with it.
He paused in front of the door, hand hovering and poised to knock.
"Come on, Yuji," he mumbled to himself, "It's just lunch. He needs food too."
With a long exhale, the pink haired boy finally knocked. There was a shuffling of footsteps from inside the room, growing closer until his friend pulled the door open, looking remarkably normal for someone who must be going through some sort of emotional breakdown.
"You don't have to knock," Megumi told him, voice only a little rough, "We're sharing this room."
Blushing, Yuji looked down and rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, "I wasn't sure how you were doing and I wanted to respect it if you needed some space."
Megumi stared at him, eyes unreadable.
"You're an idiot," he finally said before reaching forward and tugging Yuji close.
Yuji was rather startled to be grabbed, but then he realized what his friend wanted and hurried to wrap his arms around him, hugging him close.
Megumi wasn't exactly hugging him back, but his hands were clenched tightly in his hoodie, pulling Yuji's chest flush against his own, and his head dropped to rest against Yuji's shoulder, face turned slightly inward towards him, so Yuji could feel his shaky breath against the skin of his neck.
They stood together like that for a few moments. If asked. Yuji wouldn't be entirely sure how long they stood like that as he was rather overwhelmed by his own churning thoughts that Megumi's closeness had brought.
Their position gave Yuji the chance to realize that his friend smelled good, like black licorice and lightning storms, before Megumi finally pulled away.
"You made lunch?" he asked quietly, looking around Yuji and into the rooms behind him.
Stepping aside so Megumi could join him outside the room, Yuji decided to roll with the topic change, "Yeah, I made those meatballs you like."
The other paused, then turned a small, fond smile back at Yuji, "Thanks."
Megumi brushed past him and headed towards the table where their teenage sensei was waiting for them with a rather suspicious looking rectangular object in his hand and a shit eating grin on his face.
If Yuji wasn't so worried that his heart was about to beat out of his chest, he would have probably been worried about that.
Luckily, Megumi seemed to be suspicious enough for the both of them.
"What is that?" he demanded, dropping into a seat at the table next to the other teenager and reaching out to swipe the object out of Gojo's hands.
His hand hit Gojo's infinity before he could touch him. Yuji and Megumi both paused at that before remembering that this was a Gojo that didn't know them really yet, and certainly not one that trusted them enough to exclude them from his infinity.
To the other's credit, he seemed a bit apologetic for his blatant mistrust and immediately showed Megumi what it was he'd been holding, "It's just my phone."
"That's a phone?!" Yuji asked incredulously, coming over to drop down next to Megumi and leaning over his shoulder to get a better look at the mentioned phone, "Oh my god, that thing is ancient! Can you even take photos with that thing?"
Looking rather offended on his poor phone's behalf, Gojo clutched it close to his chest, "I'll have you know this is a Nokia N95! It just came out this month!"
Yuji's startled gasp went ignored, "A Nokia!!!"
Gojo pressed a few buttons on his phone before thrusting it out at the other two.
"And of course it takes photos, look!" he said smugly.
There was a grainy photo on the phone's screen, but even in 2007 the picture was clear enough for the two time travelers to make out what it showed.
The white haired devil had taken a photo of their hug.
Now, Yuji would have been offended on Megumi's half, that was a private moment, and at the very least he normally would have been embarrassed, but as it was he couldn't quite manage to repress his desire to retaliate.
As Megumi backed away with cheeks flaming, Yuji didn't hesitate to whip out his own, far superior, phone and immediately pull up his blackmail album of pictures kept specifically for moments like this.
"Is that supposed to be us?" he asked, pretending to be indifferent and turning up his nose at the photo still showing on Gojo's phone, "You can hardly tell with that level of quality."
"This," he said with a smirk, holding out his own iPhone XS Max that their version of Gojo had bought all the first and second years just the month before, "is the quality of the future."
On the screen was a photo of 28 year old Gojo Saturo dressed up in Kugisaki's uniform, posing mock provocatively against the door frame of their classroom and making pouty faces, makeup and all.
"That's me?!" Gojo exclaimed, not hesitating to swipe the phone out of Yuji's hand and squinting closely at the screen, "What's with the blindfold? And that hair?! Have I lost all sense?!"
Taking a glance at the photo Yuji had selected (Megumi had seen all of Yuji's blackmail file, with the exception of his own portion of it, photos Yuji kept in a hidden file that was password protected), he rolled his eyes, sighing internally at the fact that of course the teenage version of Gojo would focus on his hair of all things when he was essentially dressed up in drag.
"You wear your hair like you're impersonating a feather duster," Megumi graciously informed him.
Gojo immediately dropped the phone on the table, throwing his head into his hands, "Where did it all go so wrong? Tell me! When did my mind begin to go? This can only be the obvious evidence of early onset dementia."
Seemingly uncaring of their teenage sensei's struggles, Megumi deadpanned, "I'm not convinced your mind was ever there to begin with."
Beginning to fake sob, the white haired teen grabbed Yuji by the shoulders, "Tell me you know!"
Used to his sensei's dramatics and fully aware of how to calm them after living with him for two months, Yuji rolled his eyes and picked up his phone, selecting another photo before shoving the phone back into the teen's hands, "Here."
This time the screen showed their Gojo looking like a runway model with his back to an explosion he had obviously just caused, most likely while demonstrating something with his technique.
"Ah," the Gojo in front of them said, looking at the photo with wide eyes, "well obviously I didn't lose all sense. This is acceptable."
After much practice, Yuji and Megumi had perfected their synchronized eye roll at their sensei's antics, which they demonstrated now with added sighs before glancing at each other and picking up their chopsticks, deciding to ignore the other teen as he fawned over his future self and went through the rest of Yuji's (non-blackmail) photos.
Lunch was quite calm after that.
After all the leftovers were put away and the dishes cleaned, Yuji approached Megumi, "Are you okay if we continue?"
"Yeah," the black haired teen replied with a sigh, leaning against the counter as he watched Yuji, "Let's just avoid talking about my dad for a while."
Nodding, Yuji agreed, "We can do that. Come on."
Together, the two boys wandered back into the sitting room they had occupied for most of the morning, finding the remaining teen already lounging in the same chair as before.
"Yo," he greeted, "We good to finish up?"
Megumi and Yuji settled back in their chairs across from Gojo, Yuji growing the slightest bit more tense now that the conversation was about to begin again. If Megumi noticed and shifted just a bit closer, no one mentioned it.
"During the fight with Toji," Megumi started, seeming to want to just rip the bandaid off, "I noticed an unexpected wave of cursed energy. At first, I thought it was Yuji's, but then I realized it was Sukuna's.
It kept coming and going, growing stronger each time, until finally it just stayed. I decided to look for Yuji to find out what was going on, but I was sidetracked by a curse user. I was already so badly wounded, I didn't even have a chance at winning that fight. I was going to die either way, so I decided to go out and take the curse user with me. I started an exorcism for Mahoraga."
"You inherited the ten shadows technique," Gojo observed with a hum, tipping his head in order to peer at Megumi over the top of his sunglasses.
"Yeah," Megumi agreed, "Not that it's done anything besides create trouble for me."
"I know the feeling," the white haired teen said with feeling.
"So summoning Mahoraga was a last ditch effort and I expected to die after that, but instead I just entered a state of suspended death. Because Sukuna has some weird fascination with me," Megumi glanced over at Yuji here, looking more curious than worried, "he stepped in as an outsider and defeated Mahoraga. He healed me enough using reverse cursed technique so I wouldn't die the moment Mahoraga was defeated and even dropped me off right outside the medical tent for them to find me."
"I see why you're so worried," Gojo whispered loudly at Yuji, who nodded with a grimace, "But how exactly was it that Sukuna got released in the first place?"
"After my fight with Choso, I was knocked unconscious and two teenage girls who were curse users fed me a finger and then planned to feed me even more, but then one of the special grade curses called Jogo, the one with the volcano head, scared them off and fed me another ten fingers himself. Eleven fingers at once was too much and Sukuna managed to take over," Yuji admitted, looking pained as he did so.
"But you regained control afterwards," Gojo commented, leaning forward to look more closely at Yuji, "To go from a non-shaman to the vessel of Ryomen Sukuna with 15 fingers ingested in less than six months and still retaining control of not just your body, but your sanity as well... I don't think most sorcerers would have survived that, Yuji."
A sound of agreement came from Megumi and he nodded, "It's true."
Unused to the praise, Yuji just ducked his head and continued talking, "I don't really like talking about this next part so try not to interrupt too much, okay?"
The other two nodded, Megumi showing clear signs of concern even though he wasn't exactly sure what happened after Sukuna saved him.
"Alright," a rather dejected looking Yuji mumbled, "So after Sukuna took over he killed one of the girls who had fed me that finger while I was unconscious, and then he killed the special grade cursed spirit. During his fight with the shikigami, Sukuna had expanded his domain to a 140 meter radius and used his cursed techniques on everyone within that radius. Everyone within that 140 meter radius died. And there were a lot of people within that radius.
He also met up with this one person, Uraume, who seemed to be loyal to him, but they didn't really say much to each other so I don't really know what happened there. He told them to complete 'the preparations' though.
After that though, he realized Megumi was about to die and intervened. I'm not quite sure why he's so interested in him, but I'm concerned about it. It's obvious he has some sort of plan involving Megumi."
Shaking his head to clear those thoughts away for now, Yuji continued with a pained look, "I took control back right after he dropped Megumi off by the medical tent and realized what he had done then. I went back to the station to try to help, and I immediately ran into Nanamin and Mahito. I was too late though. I couldn't do anything to save him, Mahito already had his hand on Nanamin by the time I got there. Nanamin just had time to look at me and say, 'You got it from here' before he died."
Swearing quietly under his breath, Megumi turned in his chair towards his friend, "Yuji..."
Yuji just quickly shook his head and looked away from the two others, trying to just get through this part as quickly as possible, "I almost lost it after that, but everyone had taught me how to control my emotions and focus. I knew using all that anger I felt would have cost me the fight, so instead I decided to just focus everything I had into the fight. It didn't matter though, Mahito had split himself into two and his double ran into Kugisaki. She was doing really well against him and had managed to hurt him pretty well, but apparently she was doing too well against him because he decided to lead her back to where the original version of him was and he switched versions of himself and touched her. She was pretty close to dead after that, but Todo showed up with a first year from the Kyoto school and the first year managed to stop her injuries from getting any worse, but he made it clear she was probably still dead"
"She was," Megumi added quietly, knowing Yuji didn't have the details, "Shoko-san tried everything she could, but Kugisaki was already gone."
The mood had turned so somber that Gojo hesitated before asking, "Who was she?"
"The other first year in our class at the Tokyo school," Megumi replied blankly, "She was really good. She was up for a promotion to grade 1 with us, and her technique was still in the early stages. She had so much potential."
"She said, 'Tell everyone it wasn't so bad,' right before she died," Yuji added mechanically.
The already bleak atmosphere plummeted. Even the sun shining in through the windows didn't seem so bright anymore, especially to the two first years.
Slumping with a deep exhale, Yuji looked at the ground between his feet, choosing to focus on that rather than Megumi's sad and worried looks or Gojo's obvious hesitation. He knew they needed to continue, he just wanted to get this over with.
"The first year, came over and used his technique on me as well, stopping my current injuries from getting any worse. Todo did his best to motivate me to get me back into fighting condition, but it was hard. I didn't do anything until the first year told me there wasn't a zero percent chance that Kugisaki would live, though he was very clear that it wasn't likely," Yuji admitted, trying to be honest more for Megumi's sake than informing the teenage version of Gojo of the events that had happened.
Megumi deserved to know everything there was to say about Kugisaki's last moments and the fight that killed her. He deserved to know exactly how badly Yuji had failed his fellow sorcerers that day.
"Todo had been fighting Mahito alone while I sorted myself out, but I re-entered the fight and managed to use Black Flash again. Apparently, that inspired Todo and he managed to use it as well.
Mahito was good though, and he learned quickly. He decided to use the same trick as Gojo-sensei and expanded his domain for 0.2 seconds and then immediately managed to cut off Todo's hand to stop him from using his technique. He almost killed Todo too by using a Black Flash right after that, but Todo managed to survive and then hit his hand against Mahito's in order to activate his technique and switch out with me. I used another Black Flash against Mahito.
I'm pretty sure I almost had him then, but he... evolved or something then. I don't really know what happened, but he got tougher and looked different. We fought for a while more after that and I finally had him, but then Ken- sorry, that curse user who masterminded everything showed up. He took control of Mahito himself, so I guess he kind of killed him in a way. I'm not entirely sure to be honest," Yuji trailed off darkly, muttering by the end of his explanation.
Gojo's interest was caught on two details though. The first was obvious, Yuji had almost revealed the name of the curse user who was apparently so complicated they decided to wait to explain him separately. The second detail, Yuji stated that the curse user who showed up took control of that special grade cursed spirit he'd been fighting, Mahito. That sounded a lot like Geto's technique to Gojo, but the name Yuji had almost said sounded completely different.
There was no way Geto had anything to do with the situation, but Gojo's mind was already whirling with traitorous thoughts. He realized then that neither of the boy's in front of him had mentioned his best friend, Geto Suguru, so much as once, though Gojo himself had, and neither boy disagreed when he said that he assumed they knew who Geto was.
They had said there was a lot to discuss regarding the curse user though, and the glances they had shared right before that had said a lot as well.
He shook himself, then refocused on the explanation the two were giving him. He'd find out one way or another later.
"Pretty much everyone showed up then. The students from the Kyoto school we'd fought in the exchange event, our senpai, the teachers, some of the sorcerers who had been on standby, Choso, and that Uruame person.
Choso announced that I was his younger brother then and started trying to protect me, fighting Uruame. We used that as a distraction and everyone moved in on the curse user at once, our priority being to secure the prison realm. Uruame froze everyone except me and one of the third years from Kyoto, Nishimiya. Choso managed to break free as well, but for a while we were the only three that could move. We were going to attack anyway, but then Tsukumo Yuki showed up," the explanation slowed again here, Yuji looking a bit unsure.
"It got really complicated after that, but I'm going to sum it up as best I can," Yuji said, taking a deep breath, "Okay, so the curse user used Mahito's technique to transfigure two different types of people. Apparently, the curse user had a bunch of people ingest cursed objects like I did and then gave them strength as vessels. The other group of people affected were people who had cursed techniques, but were supposed to be non-shamans. He apparently adjusted their brains so that they could use jujutsu and gave them the capacity to use their cursed techniques."
"How the fuck did he do that?!" Gojo asked in part horror, part amazement.
"He used Master Tengen's barrier," Megumi explained, "and then remotely activated a cursed technique. I don't know all the specifics about that either though. Master Tengen mentioned something about him trying to merge everyone with him and his barrier, but I didn't really understand that either."
Gojo still had questions. Holy fuck did he have questions, but they would get sidetracked and the specifics could wait, so he bit his tongue, "Okay, did he do anything else?"
"Yeah," Yuji nodded, because of course this bastard had done more, "he said he broke the seal on all the cursed objects right after that and said he was going to have them fight each other as some sort of training program. And the cursed objects were apparently the remains of sorcerers that were already dead and he'd made vows to a while ago. Then he mentioned he hadn't just made contracts with sorcerers and that those vows had become null a while ago. After that he ran off and left behind a bunch of cursed spirits to distract us."
"It was over after that," Megumi interrupted, "Everyone scattered. Yuji stayed behind in Shibuya with Choso and fought cursed spirits. I went back to the school because I needed medical treatment. The higher ups panicked and ordered Yuji's immediate execution and that's when one of our senpai stepped in and entered a binding vow agreeing to kill Yuji in order to trick them into thinking he was on their side."
"But if he entered a binding vow, he would have really of had to kill him," Gojo immediately protested.
"And he did," Yuji said far too calmly for a man talking about his own murder, "But it was only for a second. He could use reverse cursed technique so he immediately healed me the second after and it was fine. Still alive, see?"
"So you've died twice because the superiors ordered it the moment I wasn't looking," the older teen muttered angrily to himself.
Shrugging, Yuji said, "It's not like you could have done anything about it really. You actually sent Okkotsu, the senpai who killed me the second time, to watch out for me, which is why he entered that binding vow. He was trying to protect me because you asked him to."
"Why would I ask him to do that?" he asked.
"Okkotsu is another special grade sorcerer," Megumi explained, "And you two were relatively close after you stopped his execution the year before."
"Are the higher ups just ordering executions for everyone in your time?" Gojo asked snarkily.
"You've got an execution order now too. And releasing you from the prison realm is also considered a capital offense," Megumi added.
"Okay, so that explains what happened, and I have a lot of questions," Gojo said, apparently deciding to ignore the information about his own execution orders (he probably wasn't the least bit surprised by them), "But that seems to cover up until pretty recently for you both. You mentioned working on something with some others, which I assume had to be plans to deal with the fallout of the utter fuck up that happened in Shibuya."
"It was," Megumi confirmed, "After Okkotsu killed and healed Yuji, I met up with them and Choso and then we headed back to Jujutsu High to meet up with some others and talk with Master Tengen. He explained a lot of the current situation to us and gave us the back entrance to the prison realm and told us how to open it. Yuji and I got separated from our senpai we were leaving the Star Corridor with and we ended up choosing the wrong door and falling through time in that wormhole and now we're here."
"So Master Tengen has a time wormhole behind one of those doors," Gojo mused, "I guess that's not that surprising. So tell me about the fallout."
Megumi and Yuji exchanged glances, then Megumi continued talking, "So that training Yuji mentioned that the curse user talked about. He created different 'colonies' in Japan and these colonies are essentially death matches for sorcerers. They're all linked and part of what is called the culling game. The game is part of a ritual which merges humanity with Master Tengen using his barrier."
"How is that possible?" came the expected question from the white haired teen.
"When Master Tengen didn't merge with a new vessel, he evolved in a way. He's now more cursed spirit than human, and the curse user behind all of that can control cursed spirits so Master Tengen thought he might be vulnerable to being used by that guy," the black haired time traveler explained.
He explained far more quickly than Yuji was convinced he would have been able to and was suddenly rather put out that Megumi had left him to do most of the explaining before this. It was decided that if anyone had to explain anything from now on, Megumi would be doing the talking.
"We left behind two powerful guards for Master Tengen," Megumi continued on, unaware he was just farther convincing Yuji that he should never be allowed to explain anything when Megumi was available, "and we planned to split up to tackle several things at once. We had a plan to get all the unwilling participants out of the game and as part of that plan, Okkotsu went ahead to join a colony before the rest of us. Our senpai, Maki, was going to raid the Zen'in weapons storage and find another of our senpai before joining another colony herself. Yuji and I were going to recruit some of the third years who had been suspended and try to convince them to help before we joined a colony together."
"Oh!" Yuji interrupted, suddenly brightening at the reminder, "And Megumi is the head of the Zen'in clan somehow!"
Megumi scowled, glowering at Yuji, "Would you stop bringing that up?"
"But how?!" Yuji groaned, "And when?! You were the head of a clan in Shibuya, and you weren't even associated with the Zen'in clan before that!"
"It's because of that idiot over there," Megumi finally sighed, pointing at Gojo who was suddenly doing his best to look as innocent as possible, "He made a deal with the last head of the clan that basically said that if he died while Gojo was out of action for whatever reason that I would become head of the family."
Megumi ran his hands through his spiked black hair in frustration, "I tried to give it to Maki-senpai, but she refused and insisted I take up the role."
"Why would sensei want you to be the head of the Zen'in clan?" Yuji asked in complete confusion.
Turning to the younger version of the man, both boys looked at Gojo for answers.
The teen sighed, "I don't know for sure. All I can guess is that I wanted someone I trusted in a position of power if I wasn't around."
They all stared at each other, clearly exhausted by everything they'd gone over and each of them dealing with some form of a headache or another.
"Let's take a break for dinner and then finish everything up before bed," Yuji suggested, "We need to get this over with, but all we have left is explaining that curse user to you and then answering whatever questions you have."
It was clear that Yuji was asking Gojo's permission for a break. If he said no, Gojo was pretty sure the two boys would give in and explain everything straight away, but they'd told him a lot and he could use some time to process and figure out what questions he wanted to ask.
"Are you cooking again?" he asked instead of directly agreeing.
The two boys looked so relieved that Gojo thought they might fall out of their chairs right then. So a break had been a good idea then.
Yuji stood up, Megumi following only a second later, "Yeah, I'll cook. Any requests?"
"Something sweet!" Gojo called after the pink haired boy, ignoring the other rolling his eyes at Gojo's answer.
"Yuji's a people pleaser," the dark haired teen informed him, "If you ask him to do something, he will. Don't ask for too much."
It was a warning. Gojo wasn't surprised by the information, but he hadn't expected Megumi to deliver it with a hint of a threat in his voice.
Then again, those teenagers might not be quite as powerful as he himself was, but based on everything they said, they might have even more experience against higher level opponents than him. They wouldn't be scared off by someone more powerful.
Gojo thought that might be a nice change.