"Just wait out here a sec okay?" I say to Yuta as I reach for the classroom door, "We'll call you in in a second."
He nods and looks awkwardly around the corridor, he's fiddling with the swirl button on his new school jacket nervously. Unlike the other first years', Yuta's jacket is white rather than black.
I slip into the classroom and smile at the first years. Panda gives me a wave, Toge's mouth is covered but I think he smiles slightly and Maki just glares at me. No different than usual.
I wander over to Gojo's side, he's stood at the front of the classroom and seems to be attempting to build up the students' enthusiasm towards Yuta joining the school, "Come on guys! I promise you'll like him!"
I raise my eyebrows but I just nod, "Can you guys at least give Yuta a chance?"
Maki glowers at me, "Didn't he like attempt to murder a bunch of other kids at his old school? I'm not being nice to him."
"It's not like that's a change anyway Maki, you're not nice to anyone."
She rolls her eyes at me and rests her chin on her hand as she leans against the desk and crosses her legs. It's no surprise really, I knew we wouldn't be able to convince Maki to agree with us.
Panda joins in, "Who is this guys exactly anyway?"
Gojo gives Panda a grin, "You're about to meet him! He's right outside! You guys are gonna love him!"
Toge shakes his head in an annoyed way and mutters some nonsense underneath his breath and Maki just rolls her eyes again and huffs, "Whatever."
I give Gojo a wary look. This first meeting probably isn't going to go well and I really don't want Yuta's spirit to immediately be crushed again, he's only just got some of his hope back. Gojo just gives me a reassuring nod, as if he knows exactly what I'm thinking.
"Just please be nice to him," I mutter to the first years, they just groan and shrug.
"Yutaaa!" Gojo calls out, "Come inside!2"
After a moment, Yuta slowly creaks the door open and anxiously walks over to me and Gojo at the front of the classroom, the cursed energy in the room immediately shifts. I can tell based on their expressions that the students have sensed this too.
"Um, I'm Yuta Okkotsu," Yuta quietly introduces himself, he's sweating a lot and I can tell it's taken a lot of preparation just for him to say those three words. My heart goes out to this kid. "Nice to meet you."
Within a second, Maki has unzipped her cursed spear from it's bag and has stabbed it through the board, right next to Yuta's head. The other two first years have also leapt out of their seats, knocking over their desks in the process, and have their defences up. Toge has pulled his scarf away from his mouth and Panda has his hands balled up into fists.
I let out a sigh, however Gojo looks somewhat entertained.
Yuta lets out a startled noise and nervously look at the blade that's only inches away from his head before looking at Maki who continues to glare at him.
Maki then directs her sharp look towards me and Gojo, "This is some sort of joke right?"
Before we can reply, she turns back to Yuta, "What are you doing here? You know you're cursed right?"
I can tell that Yuta's breathing unsteadily and he doesn't quite seem able to form any words to reply with right now.
I step forwards with a concerned look, "Guys come o-"
Maki interrupts me, acting as if I hadn't even spoken, "This is a place to learn about curses. Not a place for people who are cursed!" The other two nod in agreement, still looking prepared for a fight and Yuta's anxiety just seems to grow as well as his confusion.
Gojo speaks up, "Oh yeah, this is Tokyo Prefectural Jujutsu High School. You're here to learn how to fight curses and exorcise them, you know?" Yuta's eyes widen and it seems like he's only finding out all of the information about the school right now
I shoot Gojo an annoyed look, "Did you not explain any of this to the poor kid?"
Gojo shrugs, "I forgot. Besides, you didn't tell him either."
"Because I thought you had!"
Maki, Toge and Panda are also staring at Gojo with the usual disapproving looks that they give him.
Gojo clears his throat, crossing his arms as he leans against the wall and gestures back towards Yuta, "And, guys, I'd step away if I were you."
Two spindly hands reach out from the board, wrenching Maki's blade out of teh board as they do so, "Yuuuutaaaaa."
The students' eyes widen as they see this and they immediately step backwards. The panic on Yuta's face is obvious, he's worried about someone getting hurt, "Rika! Stop!"
His voice is pleading and he hold out his hands, trying to stop the curse from doing anything but, as she continues to emerge from the board, reaching out towards the three first years, she continues to glare menacingly at the three students and continues to call out in a screech, "Don't hurt Yuta."
"Rika! Please, it's fine!" Yuta is breathing erratically now. I feel bad, we promised that Rika wouldn't hurt anybody else. I should probably step in. Gojo, however, is making no move to do anything.
As I step forwards to help with the situation, Gojo grabs me arm to stop me from moving and whispers to me, "Leave it for now. The first years won't have any respect for Yuta if they don't at least see Rika in action. We'll step in if it gets out of hands."
"But we promised him that he would never accidentally hurt anyone else," I frown as I look at Yuta, he's still desperately begging Rika to leave the others alone.
Rika takes a swipe at the three of them, Maki blocks the attack with her cursed spear but she seems to struggle. Then, Rika launches a series of attacks at the three of them, hitting them all. Yuta lets out another yell, trying to convince Rika to stop it.
For a few minutes, the first years fight Rika, but as I see Toge about to yell a command at Rika with his cursed technique, I quickly step him. I'm not letting the students get any serious injuries and when Toge uses his cursed speech on a more powerful curse, it really messes up his vocal chords and his throat.
I summon five cursed daggers and immediately steer Rika away from the students, Toge cuts himself off so that he doesn't use his cursed technique and Panda and Maki seem to relax slightly. Rika seems to be less angry now that nobody's threatening Yuta anymore so she disappears soon after my daggers start attacking her.
Yuta is obviously relived when this happens and immediately blurts out an apology, his voice nervous still, "I am so sorry! I-"
"You need to stop apologising kid," Gojo says to him with a grin, "It was those three who initiated the fight."
In return for his comment, Gojo just receives three harsh glares.
I sigh and head over to my desk in the front corner of the room, I pull open a drawer and toss Maki, Panda and Toge some bandages and plasters for the scrapes and bumps they received in the fight.
"Thanks," Panda says, sounding slightly slightly cheerier than the other two.
"Salmon," Toge mutters, causing Yuta to look even more confused and Maki just grunts.
While they stick plasters over the scrapes on their faces and arms, Gojo begins to explain the story of how Yuta ended up with Rika as a curse. It's actually a sad story, I read it while I was reading all of those reports.
Still, the other first years show no sign of warming up to Yuta yet.
"So yeah, attacking Yuta activates that curse, so just be careful," Gojo warns, cheerful as ever.
"Anyway, let's actually introduce everyone," I give Yuta a smile and gesture towards Maki, "This is Maki Zen'in, a cursed tool user."
Maki glares at Yuta when he tries to smile at her and he nervously looks down at his hands.
"This is Toge Inukami, a cursed speech user. He only speaks in rice ball ingredients."
"So have fun trying to talk with him," Gojo adds on with a smirk.
Toge raises his hand in a sort of waving motion but he doesn't smile so there's no warmth in his eyes right now, "Kelp."
"And finally this is Panda."
"Nice to meet you Yuta," Panda grins at Yuta. Finally, someone's making him feel welcome, I knew I could count on Panda for that.
"Um, nice to meet you," Yuta replies, seemingly confused but now asking any questions about Panda.
"Now we have four whole first years! Awesome right!" Gojo cheers, causing me and Maki to both roll our eyes.
"We were supposed to be doing a practical lesson this afternoon but we're actually going to be doing that tomorrow instead," I explain, "But you'll be doing it in pairs. Toge and Panda, you two go together and Maki and Yuta."
Maki wrinkles her nose up in annoyance and gives Yuta a dirty look. Despite his obvious anxiety, Yuta gives Maki a smile and speaks quietly, "I'm looking forwards to working with you."
Sweet kid. Shame Maki's so rude.
"You were bullied weren't you?" she asks in a harsh tone, still giving Yuta a dirty look. I facepalm. She seriously can't just be nice can she?
Yuta seems a bit shocked by the question and because of his lack or a reply Maki just nods, "I guessed so, I'd probably pick on you too."
This causes him to sort of shrink in on himself, all of the little confidence he had is already being crushed in just one conversation with Maki.
"Maki, I told you to be nice to Yuta," I sound frustrated.
Maki just shrugs and carries on speaking to Yuta, snarling slightly, "I don't know if it's because of that curse or not, but you act like a good person, it just feels fake. I weirds me out. You're being protected to why play the victim?"
Yuta's face falls and he stares down at the floor, I'm about to step in when Panda places his hand on Yuta's shoulder in a comforting manner, "That's enough Maki."
Toge nods in agreement with Panda and I smile a bit, I'm glad that at least those two are trying to make Yuta feel welcome here.
Gojo begins to lead to the first years outside so that we can go through some training with them but I stop Maki on the way out.
"What do you want?" she glares at me slightly but not in a mean way, just her usual Maki glare.
"Could you try and be a little bit nicer to Yuta?" she frowns so I carry on speaking, "It took ages to encourage him to actually join the school."
"And? Why did you bother convincing him then?" she looks irritated.
"He's a good person, he's just ended up in a bad situation."
"So? Why should I be nicer to him then?"
I sigh but I smile slightly at Maki, "I know that you're not actually a mean person Maki. You surely have to feel some sympathy towards Yuta. You have to be somewhat willing to give him a chance, surely?"
"Whatever, I'll be nicer," I might be wrong, but I think I even see a bit of guilt in her eyes, as if she's realised that she might have been being too harsh.
"Thanks Maki," I smile at her and she slightly smiles back.
__________
It's late, it must be at least 1AM by now. I've been struggling to sleep so I eventually just give up on trying and clamber out of my bed, blindly stumbling over to my bedroom door. I slowly open it and silently walk over to the kitchen in the apartment.
I don't turn the lights on, I don't want to wake Gojo or Megumi up. The kitchen is cold so I just quickly snatch a can of coke from the fridge before heading back towards my room quickly.
As I pass Megumi's room, I notice that there's light coming through the cracks in his door and I can sense more cursed energy than usual. Megumi must still be awake.
I quietly knock once on the door, "Gumi? You awake?"
The reply is grumbled, "What do you want?"
I crack the door open and peer inside, he's sat on the edge of his bed. Multiple of his shikigami are summoned and it seems like he's been practising his technique.
"Have you been training at," I look down at my watch, "2 o'clock in the morning?!"
He shrugs, "So what? I need to practise. I won't be able to bring Tsumiki back if I don't."
I feel a pang of sadness. It's been over two months and we've still had no luck with helping Tsumiki. Currently, she's being kept at the school so that she's safe and Shoko can keep an eye on her, but she's shown no signs of waking up any time soon.
"You shouldn't be the one trying to do that Megumi. Leave that to me, Satoru and Ieiri-"
"She's my sister. I want to help her. I need to help her," the look in his eyes is so harsh and determined that I don't even argue back. I can understand why he's so desperate to do something.
"Okay....but don't exhaust yourself okay? And get some sleep."
Megumi rolls his eyes at me but he nods, "Whatever, I'll go to sleep. But remind Gojo that he promised he'd train me more on Saturday."
"I'll remind him. And don't forget that Satoru bought us all cinema tickets for Sunday," I add with an entertained grin.
Megumi just grumbles, "I don't even know why he bough the tickets, none of us want to see that film."
I shrug, "You know that he likes to make sure we do something together every Sunday. Besides he said the film sounded like something that you'd like."
"Yeah right," he allows his shikigami to disappear back into the shadows.
"Go to sleep," I say to Megumi with a smile as I leave his room, flicking the light off as I do so, "Goodnight."
"Night.
I quickly head back over to my room, still clutching the can of coke in my hand as I close my door behind me and flick the lamp on my desk on. I have a whole stack of reports that I still need to read and I know that if I won't be able to get back to sleep right now so I may as well read them now, even if it is the middle of the night.
As I search through my drawers and pull out a stack of folders, a rectangular piece of photo-paper floats onto my desk.
The photo on the desk in front of me is an old one, it's still in more or less perfect condition though. It's a group photo from 2005. Gojo and I are crouched down at the front, posing with peace signs, Geto stands behind Gojo with his middle finger up and Shoko stands behind me with a cigarette in her hand. Haibara is stood next to Geto and grinning at the camera and Nanami is stood beside him, he isn't frowning but he isn't quite smiling either.
My heart clenches. I snatch up the photo and I'm about to slide it into that drawer again so that I don't have to see it for a moment longer but I find myself unable to do it. Holding the photo in my hand, I stare down at it, frozen. My eyes are watering slightly. God. It's been 10 years since everything happened but even now, the pain still feels fresh.
I can't throw this picture away. No matter how hard we try, Gojo and I can't throw away anything from the past. Some of Geto's old stuff is around the apartment. An old jumper, old notebooks, anything that Geto left behind in his dorm room. The teachers had told us they were clearing out Geto's room and, unless we cleared it out first, they would just through everything away.
Gojo and I don't bring up the things left around though. I don't mention how many times I've seen Gojo reading through Geto's notebooks, as if he's desperate for some way to stay connected to Geto. Gojo doesn't mention the keyring on my bag that belongs to Geto. It's just better that way.
I don't even realise that there are tears streaming down my face until a teardrop lands on the corner of the photo. Is a single photo really enough to cause me to break this quickly?
I wipe the tears from my eyes but instead of shoving the picture away so that I never see it again, I actually reach for the pot of pins on my desk and I stick it to my wall. Is that better or worse than throwing it away?
I don't know how long I sit there staring at the picture, all I know is that when I wake up in the morning, my head is against my desk and the reports on the desk are stained with teardrops.
Author's Note
I love Yuta so much
And Maki
Just assume I love everyone :)
Still mentally preparing myself for the Night Parade and the aftermath of it :(
Thank you so much to everyone who has read this!!!
I'm so grateful for you guys and I really hope you're liking this fanfic :)
If anyone has any requests or ideas please comment them :)