He is silent, for a long while.

"Yeah?" says Gojo. "And what would your advice be if you told them to walk out into traffic? Don't fight the buses?"

He opens and shuts his mouth several times, but can't come up with a response to that.

"Sending first years to rescue five people who may already be dead should have been out of the question," he continues, in a dull sounding monotone. He lets out a soft laugh that sounds anything but humorous. "I knew they were mad, but this?

"Maybe I should just cut to the chase and go kill off all of those higher-ups."

"—what? You th-think it was on purpose?"

Gojo doesn't dignify that with an answer.

"Murdering all of the fools at the top would be an easy task," he continues, instead. "But not a fix. They'd just get replaced by another set of kowtowing nitwits, none of which would be willing to listen to a word I say. Because I'd be the bad guy." His fists clench. "They send promising and talented teenagers into a meatgrinder out of petty wounded pride, and I would be the bad guy for killing them for it."

He's trembling like a leaf, now, hand covering his mouth. "B-but n-no one knew i-it was going t-t-to b-become a special grade w-when the dispatch was c-c-called—"

“The kids reported the curse had eaten one of Sukuna’s fingers.” And then, softly: “And a detention center? … Coincidence, or did someone create a curse just to prove a point?”

"That... would be..."

    The door to the morgue opens, and a woman in a lab coat walks in. "You're not usually this emotional."

Ijichi nearly jumps out of his skin at the sound, but he immediately turns around, grateful for a distraction, and bows many times. "It's good to see you, Ieiri-san!"

“These are unusual circumstances.”

"Are they?" she asks, twirling a finger in her hair. "It seems to me like you've taken quite a liking to your new students."

“I am a kind and empathetic instructor, and I care about all of my students.”

She chuckles a bit and shakes her head. "Don't torment Ijichi too much. He's got it tough, stuck between us and the higher-ups."

    (If the still-bowing Ijichi is blushing a bit, that's no one's business.)

“My sympathy for his welfare runs as deep as the depths of his noble soul.”

    (...Ijichi takes a while to get that one.)

Ieiri chuckles again. "Is that so?" she asks lightly as she turns around to look at the body. She removes the tarp covering it and says, "So this is Sukuna's vessel?" She eyes the body with a detached, cold, clinical air. "I can take him apart as I please, right?"

“Just… make it count. Don’t waste him.”

"Of course." She looks over her shoulder at him. "Who do you think I am?"

He gives a sigh, and turns his head away.

Fushiguro Inori has a number of visitors during his stay at the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Hospital, but most of them aren't there for a social visit. While Gojo's visit may or may not have counted as social, considering their relationship, he was terrible company for its entirety. Just a short 'We'll talk about things later, it's too busy for a proper chat right now,' and a wish for him to get better quickly. And an apology, that he does not expand on, and probably doesn't need to.

Then, aside from the nurses showing up at every odd hour of the day and night, he is left alone.

...he.........

He hates this.

He usually likes being alone, but..........

............but now he'd like to not be.

And then he gets a visitor.

"Excuse me," asks a woman with a familiar color of hair. She looks to be somewhere in her early forties, maybe late thirties, and... is probably Hayashi's mom. "Is this the room of Fushiguro Inori?"

He looks up at her from where he'd been idly browsing on his phone. "Yes," is all he says.

"I'm Akiho's mother, Hayashi Honoka. It's nice to meet you. Would it be all right if I put in the request that you and my daughter should share a room?"

Fushiguro blinks twice, and lets out a long, relieved breath. He had been half-expecting her to come here tell him her daughter didn't survive her wounds.

He nods, once.

"All right." She smiles. "Akiho-san is doing well. Bored out of her mind already. I thought it might be prudent to solve one bored teenager with another."

That draws a small smile out of him. "Thank you, Hayashi-san."

"Of course. Is there anything you need?"

He shakes his head. "No, thank you, Hayashi-san."

"You're quite welcome. Rest well."

And then, several hours later, the desire to move rooms is confirmed, and he is gently bundled up and wheeled away to another room. This room contains pretty plants by the window, a couple packages of sweets, and most importantly...

One Hayashi Akiho.

"Fushiguro-san!" she says, brightening immediately upon seeing him. "Hi! How are you doing."

"Not any more hurt than last time you saw me."

"Wow, what a glowing review that does not at all fill me with concern."

He shrugs, and winces at the pain. "Take it or leave it."

"Well I'm taking it, obviously, you're my friend. Besides, I think my mom has decided to adopt you as her own."

"...what?"

"I don't know, she was very annoyed by the state of your hospital room. In a, a. My mom kind of way. She is out passive aggressively buying you a get well card or something."

"Passive aggressively," he repeats slowly.

"Yep. Just wait. You'll see. She's scary."

"You don't look scared."

"She is not pointed at me! Are you scared of Gojo-sensei when he's being scary?"

"...nah."

"Mhmm. She might get you balloons. Just think! Bright and happy with 'Get well soon' on them!"

He grimaces. "Can I opt out?"

Hayashi makes a malevolent little cackle.

"No."

"Isn't bringing this suffering to your fellows betraying your sorcerer principles?" he needles.

"Ooo! Low blow! But no, they're fine, maternal smothering doesn't fall under my sorcerer jurisdiction."

"Sounds like a cop-out."

"Well I'm a sorcerer, and so I'm the only one that gets to say what my arbitrary rules are," she says, sticking out her tongue.

He chuckles, and winces again when that jostles something it oughtn't.

She winces too, out of sympathy instead of actual pain, and her cheery demeanor cracks.

".... sorry," she murmurs.

"For making me laugh? I don't think that's something people usually apologise for."

"It's just laughing when you have broken ribs is not the greatest, and, I don't know, I can save the jokes for after you're better, and." ... Sniffle. "... I'm glad you're here and don't want to hurt you."

"...well, don't be sorry. It's probably good for me, or something. To..." He blushes. "Be around you."

She sniffles again, and then wipes away her tears and busies herself sorting through her confection of sweets for something she wants to eat.

"Yeah. Probably. And for me too."

He can return to his phone, then, and do so in a slightly more cheerful mood than he was before.

Hayashi smiles, picks out something that she decides she'd like to eat, and then settles down in bed to attempt to nap. They can rest in companionable silence. That sounds nice.

Fushiguro doesn't really understand why this is nicer than being alone, with the silence.

But it is.

It is!

"I miss my phone," says Hayashi after a while, in a stage whisper.

Fushiguro chortles a thoroughly undignified snort, and covers his mouth while he giggles and whines in pain.

"Thank you for your sympathy, Fushiguro-san, I really appreciate it, Fushiguro-san, why yes I would love to play dumb games on your phone, that is very kind of you to offer..."

"I'm using it," he says, waving it and showing an indeed busy lit screen. "Get your own."

"Bah. You're no fun. And for the record, I am, it is just taking a while because no one will let me out of bed to go buy one myself."

"Then suffer," he says, turning back to his phone, a smile still dancing on his lips.

She gives a snort, and then a dramatic, extended whine that really highlights her suffering. Maybe a bit too much, actually, she's kind of overdoing it.

His laughter is a bit more dignified, this time.

"Bah!"

And then she nestles further under her blanket (with a bit of a wince, not that this stops her very much) and pouts. It is a very dramatic pout.

Fortunately for her, her mother shows up soon enough to save her from the horrors of being a teenager without a phone.

"Hello," says Hayashi Honoka pleasantly, carrying two bags, setting one at within easy reach of each teenager. To Akiho, she says, "Your SD card was completely intact, and I got the same type of phone you had. I'll leave you to pick out a new case for it."

"Ooo," says Akiho, immediately raiding the bag for her new phone. "You found my pieces of phone? Just to get the SD card? Thank you!"

"Oh, I didn't," stresses Honoka blithely, with a smile that has just... a little bit of a sharp edge to it. "And Fushiguro-san, I thought you might be rather bored even with Akiho-san as company, so I got you something too. I hope you like it."

Fushiguro frowns and reaches for the bag to see what's in it.

It is a modest reading tablet, complete with a subscription to a library application that has... lots of options for books.

"You didn't? ... Who did, exactly, mom?"

"Oh, that nice man that I met earlier, Ijichi-san, I believe it was?" The way she says 'nice' does not sound like a compliment. She smiles, and it's kind of obvious where Akiho got her terrifying stabbing smile from. "He was very helpful."

.... Akiho starts giggling.

Fushiguro's frown deepens. "You really didn't have to."

“I know,” she says, gracefully sitting in the chair next to her daughter. “Think nothing of it, really.”

He nods and puts it down then goes back to his phone. He'd rather not... think about it. Right now.

“You know I sort of implied I was going to stab him, right? Ijichi-san, I mean. Grabbed him by the collar and everything.”

“Oh, did you?” says her mother, like they’re talking about the weather. “Good job.”

Akiho snorts.

“Thanks, mom.” She fidgets with her new phone for a few seconds, then says, “Love you.”

“Love you, too.”

Fushiguro lets out a half-snort-half-sniff at that.

"Hmm. I think I feel like getting some tea. Do either of you want anything?"

"No, thank you."

Fushiguro shakes his head, not looking up from his phone.

Away she goes! What mysterious timing that is absolutely a coincidence.

"See," says Akiho, in her stage-whisper. "Very scary."

"I'm not very scared," he shrugs.

"No?" She (carefully) props up her head on her good arm. Well, the arm that isn't broken, anyway. "You know she'll probably make polite excuses to be elsewhere if you need space to have feelings. Or you can wait, she'll leave to go make sure my dad eats something soon enough."

"Hm."

"Or you can have time to figure it out, because feelings are complicated! My point is just that you're. Allowed to feel things. Okay?"

"...and that makes her scary?"

"No, I changed topics to why you should acknowledge your feelings instead of speaking only in hums. I nominally accepted your answer about how scary my mother is because if you don't know now you soon will."

"My feelings are fine where they are, thanks."

"Okay. Just as long as you know that I care about them, and also you."

Aaahhh she's doing it again no he'll just nope out of this for now yep this is a very engrossing phone he is not blushing you're blushing shut up

Hayashi giggles, and then goes to fiddling with her own phone, because yay! She has a phone again!

They don't stay in the hospital for that much longer. A better sorcerer healer than the one who tended to Fushiguro's wounds a few weeks prior is sent to fix them up this time, whether by Gojō's influence or a token show of care by the same higher ups who sent them to the meat grinder. They're not a hundred percent fixed, only time can do that (or, well, maybe they could figure out how to do reverse cursed healing and finish it up, but that's unlikely), but they're doing well enough to return to their normal lives.

Kind of.

"So I propose," says Hayashi, stopping at the threshold of the main dormitory that holds their rooms, "that we move our rooms to somewhere else. There are a lot of empty ones, right?"

"...there are."

Fushiguro looks—conflicted about this.

She gives a sigh and turns to sit down on the steps. "... I'll room next to you either way, just. I thought it might be smart to... Not have to look at his empty room every time I try to go to bed."

He nods but still looks kind of conflicted.

She has figured out by now that her friend sometimes needs time to put his thoughts into words. It's fine. She waits, fidgeting and pretending that she is fine, too.

"Hey, Inori! There you are! Bright as ever, I see. Lighten up, you always look like you've just come from a funeral. You've even dragged the new girl into it!" calls a tall woman with dark green hair, glasses, and a naginata on her shoulder.

Fushiguro looks up at her from where he's sitting at the garden with Hayashi and furrows his brows. "Zen'in-senpai," he says neutrally.

A short boy with white hair and the neck of his Jujutsu Tech uniform raised high enough to cover his mouth is half-hiding behind a statue accompanied by a literal honest-to-god panda.

"Egg yolk," he says.

"How many times have I told you to stop calling me by my family name, Inori, we've known each other for y—"

"Maki-san!" hisses the honest-to-god panda hiding behind the statue. "Maki-san what is wrong with you!"

"What."

"Have you not checked your phone? One of their classmates just died."

"Salmon," says the boy.

"W-what? Why didn't you say so! Now I look like some kind of heartless witch!"

"Yeah that's kind of how you came off," agrees the panda bear.

Hayashi cycles through a number of unexpected emotions. First is a flash of jealousy at someone just casually calling Fushiguro-san Inori, because she doesn't even do that, and they almost died together! Really, if anything should mean she's allowed to call him by his personal name, standing next to each other in the face of the King of fucking Curses is definitely it! Then she notes that... actually she could just start calling him Inori at. Literally any time. She's not really sure why she hasn't switched yet. She makes a note to fix that and ask his permission to call him by his first name the... minute they are alone together. It is far too embarrassing to get that personal with her the adorable cinnamon roll in front of other students. That she just met.

Then, naturally, comes the word 'funeral' and she gets a stab of fresh agony and the thought that, actually, she's not sure Itadori had a funeral. Or if he did, she hasn't been told and apparently isn't invited. Either one seems pretty goddamn awful, she can't decide which is worse. Furthermore: oh right, Itadori is dead. Ow. She does not want to linger in this awful horrible land of grief, she was avoiding it for a reason. It is still very fresh, it doesn't quite feel real, except all of the little reminders that feel far too real, showing up at unexpected times to stab her in the heart. It's not real, except it is, and she just has to move on with her life anyway.

Fortunately for her, a distraction comes from the horribly agony of one of her peers dying right in front of her, in the form of.... whatever. This is. That is happening in front of her, instead.

After a couple seconds of bewildered observation, she decides that, actually? This is hilarious.

Accordingly, she bursts out laughing.

"Hi," she wheezes, between giggles. "Actually, actually, no, no, scratch that." She takes a deep breath and stands up, getting some kind of handle on her giggles. "Let's just all back up and introduce ourselves properly and pretend that didn't happen."

"Hello!" She says, giving a polite bow to her upper-classmen. "It's a pleasure to meet you, my name is Hayashi Akiho."

"These are our second years," explains Fushiguro to Hayashi rather than deal with... any of that. "Zen'in Maki-senpai, I've told you about her; Inumaki Toge-senpai, his technique is cursed speech, he can force anyone who hears him to do what he tells them or even cause effects like explosions, so he only communicates by saying the names of food items; and Panda-senpai."

Okay that was too many words he'd like to stop now.

"Kelp," says Inumaki.

“Welcome to the Tokyo Metropolitan Curse Technical College,” says Panda, stepping out from behind the statue and returning the bow. “Please forgive our... bad timing. Some of us need to learn how to be kind to our underclassmen."

"Look, I didn't know, okay? And new girl seems tough, they're fine. They're in the wrong profession if they flinch at bad manners."

"There's another second year, Okkotsu Makoto-senpai, but he's overseas right now," he says, pointedly ignoring Maki.

"Huh. All right. Well, I suppose I'll meet him later. And it's fine, if I can trade quips with the King of Curses I can handle a little social faux pas. Are the third and fourth years also hiding somewhere, ready to pop out and say hi, or?"

"No, we actually wanted to come talk to you two. They're off doing, I dunno, upperclassmen stuff, or whatever."

Panda gives a small sigh, then explains, "We were hoping to invite you to participate the Kyoto sister school exchange event."

"Isn't that meant to be second- and third-years only?"

"It's third-year and under only, we just tend to not to bring in first years because most of the time they'll hurt themselves. But our third years got themselves banned, and Makoto is having himself a globe-trotting adventure or whatever."

"And without your third years you're hopelessly outnumbered," surmises Akiho.

"Yeah, exactly! We're desperate! Don't worry, though, we'll give you some upperclassmen tutoring sessions to makes sure you don't embarrass us. You probably won't die."

"Somehow I do not feel reassured."

"We will also not drag you in if you don't want to be there, or if we think you couldn't handle it. But we think Inori-san would definitely be ready with a little help, and Gojo-sensei mentioned you," he says this to Akiho, "were here on scholarship. So we figured we'd extend the offer to you, too."

"I am only really practiced at fighting curses, and my non-lethal weaponry is, uh." She winces. "Not the greatest. I might embarrass myself."

Fushiguro raises a hand to his mouth to cover his smile. "You're fine," he says, after a second. "And you can be a little bit lethal. They will."

"Salmon."

"Yeah, sorcerers are tough. As long as you don't chop off any limbs or go for the head with big, sharp objects, you're good. My sister uses a literal gun. 'Too lethal' is an easy problem. At least for fighting sorcerers, I dunno about fighting squishy normies."

"Huh. Okay. Then yeah, sure, this is actually something I need to work on, anyway. And I will not turn down a chance to be a first-year that helps destroy Kyoto, that sounds amazing, and they have given me a surprising number of reasons to hate them in a short period of time."

"Nori and mayo?"

"Uh," Akiho is pretty thrown for a loop by being asked some sort of question, but conveyed entirely through saying food, but she can try to... guess what the question was? "So I'm pretty sure the... detention center," why is even talking about it so hard, "was a setup by at least Kyoto's principal to get Ita—" nope his name hurts too, stop and switch gears before she cries or something, "—our classmate killed. By throwing all three of us to a special grade."

"Yep, sounds like him. The crusty old bastard."

"... Yeah, but you know that's not the fault of the students of Kyoto, right?"

"Oh, yes, absolutely not," she agrees. "I do not blame them and don't actually want to hurt any of them. But I still feel like if his students get beaten by first and second years it will nonetheless reflect badly on the school's principal. And I am petty and full of spite. So."

"Rice balls."

Fushiguro is having... some emotions... about Hayashi right this second.

He is not sure what to do about them so he will in fact not do anything about them.

Akiho has no idea Inori is having some emotions, or what they might be.

"... Did I get your question right? I was absolutely just guessing."

"Salmon."

"That was a yes."

"Thank you," she says to Inori. "Should I learn sign language? It seems like it'd be, uh. Easier?"

"You can if you want, but he does it because it's funny. Makoto dragged him through a basic course and he still kept doing this."

"Oh. Huh. Fair enough."

She feels like she should ask why one of the second-years is a literal panda bear, but she has no idea how to do that. It seems like her chance has passed and she's just now in a world where she has to accept it.

"Natto."

Akiho has no earthly idea what that's supposed to translate to, but she smiles and nods anyway. Yes, you, uh. You said it, rice ball kid. Whatever it was.

"So!" She turns to Inori. "You actually haven't answered yet, do you want to help inflict petty vengeance on Kyoto?"

"So long as it's actual useful training, yes."

"It will be! You still need to work on your close combat skills, right?"

Maki has a smile that says that probably she will get to punch him, and is looking forward to it.

"...less than last time we sparred." Thanks to Itadori.

And there's the pain again. 

Akiho totally knows exactly what Inori is going through, and will save him from the horrible feelings.

"I actually do, too, if you wouldn't mind helping, senpai. My technique is, uh, stick them with the pointy end. I feel like there's a lot of room for growth there for finesse or technique.

"Oh yeah? What's your weapon?"

"For cursed technique reasons," she retrieves her fan (that someone was thoughtful enough to grab when they were scraping her and Inori off of the forest floor) and shows it to Maki. "This."

It's a little worse for the wear, but. Mostly functional. Mostly. ... She probably needs to make another. Damn.

".... Huh." Maki takes it, unsheathes it, and turns it over in her hands. "No offense, but this is garbage!"

Akiho sporfles, then brings a hand to her lips to try and regain some composure.

"I'm very sorry, senpai. Please help me be better. And maybe also give tips for how I can improve the next iteration, because I need to make a new one anyway."

Fushiguro snorts, covering his mouth to hide the smile again.

"So the balance is wrong, there are a lot of unnecessary bits that are getting in the way, and I'm not really seeing what types of cuts you want to use it for? The blade's saying one thing, the handle and placement is saying another. The fan's fine, I don't care about the fan, you have it pretty tucked away and it's light and everything. It's just all of this part," she motions to all of the bladed bits, "is the most confused slashing weapon I have ever seen in my life. But hey, it takes some stones to stab people with a fan, so. Hell yeah, let's make this work, live your dream."

"Do you have any suggestions for my weapons, Senpai?" says Fushiguro, extending his fists towards her.

"Experiment more! You're just going with your fists because they're easy and you're stuck on wanting to have your hands free, not because the style really speaks to you, or you're any good at it. But, if you really want to punch things get some brass knuckles or something, they shouldn't even get in the way of your finger puppets, just save your knuckles from breaking open in someone's face."

He blinks and stares at his hands with a thoughtful expression on his face.

"Salmon."

"So what's your technique like?"

"Oh, uh. If I could have that back?" She gets her fan back from Maki, and then demonstrates by throwing needles and curving them to hit the back of a tree. Akiho smiles with clear satisfaction at the loud series of thunks her needles elicit. "That. The fan lets me better control many of them at once, and have them do different sorts of things."

Maki whistles.

"Damn. Yeah, you'll be fine."

"Not just needles," Fushiguro pipes in, still looking at his hands. "She does general sympathy stuff. I suggested she get a gun."

"Hmm. ...I dunno. Try one, sure, and keep it if she likes it, definitely. I bet there are a couple test guns floating around for her to mess with, and it'd be good as a backup or a surprise? But I don't think it'd be as flexible as what she's got now. Bullets are kinda too fast to mess with the trajectory much. And I'd want to play to what she's already got instead of weighing her down with more stuff. Yeah the gun itself would be easy, but you've also got to think about ammunition, and how she'd - it's mirroring motion from one thing to another, yeah?" Akiho nods confirmation. "How she'd actually use the bullets. Does she hold them in her hand? Make them float with cursed energy? Keep them in a little bullet pouch that gets filled with holes every time she uses it? Drop them and use them from the ground? I'd rather have a hand crossbow or something built for tiny needles. Easier that way."

"And... where would I get one of those."

"We can requisition things from some of the crafters associated with the school. Sorcerers often require a lot of personalization, so it just makes sense to cater to it."

Fushiguro sighs and shrugs. "When's the sister school event anyway?"

"A month and a half. Or so. I have the exact date on my phone somewhere..."

Panda pulls a phone out of... somewhere... and begins fiddling with it to see.

"Do you have pockets?" asks Akiho, bewildered.

"No, that would be ridiculous, I'm a panda. Okay, I've texted it to you."

That doesn't clear anything up!

Fushiguro doesn't seem inclined to explain, either. He just fetches his own phone from a pocket and nods. "Not a lot of time."

"Nah. But we'll make it work! You, come with me, we'll chat about what you need in your fan and go requisition a new one right now, so it'll definitely be ready in time. I am not letting you face Kyoto with garbage."

She hooks an arm around Akiho's shoulders and begins leading her off.

Okay, this is apparently happening now. Sure, she's fine with this? It will be nice to have someone walk her through how requisitioning things works?

"Uh, see you later," she says to Inori and the others, accepting her fate.

"Practice starts tomorrow at 8!" calls Maki. "If you're late, don't blame me if we end up using you as bait for Kyoto!"

"Whatever."

"Omelet."

Panda and Inumaki turn out to be very helpful with helping Inori work on his cursed techniques. Panda has an impressive knowledge of the nature of cursed energy and how to channel it, and is more than happy to share ways for Inori to help make his shikigami faster. Inumaki, via some illustrative food metaphors and demonstrative hand motions, gives Inori the idea of combining parts of his shikigami. Summoning them in halves to make chimera, with whatever traits he wants of either. The most obvious way to use this is to lend Nue's wings to others, to increase their mobility, but there are probably more creative applications that he can figure out in the future.

Soon enough, though, his upperclassmates run out of low hanging fruit, and accordingly give him some space. They'll have a proper training session tomorrow that's more than just theorizing.

And several hours later, there's a knock at Inori's door.

"Come in," he calls.

"Hey," says Gojo, and in he comes. He is.... very subdued. He finds a wall to lean on and is quiet for a little while.

Inori looks up from the bed, where he's reading something off the reader Akiho's mother got him.

And well... that's unusual. Not that he's complaining, quiet is good but. Uh.

"... It was my fault," he says, softly, after a long silence. "I didn't think they would - go that far, sink that low. I was wrong. I should have just taken all three of you with me on whatever bullshit assignment they gave me to distract me, and not..." He trails off, and stops. "It is my fault this happened. Okay? I am the one in charge of keeping you safe, and I didn't."

He blinks and... puts his book reader away to better look at his Sensei. He's not... sure... what to say to that.

(The tightness in his chest when he gets reminded of it goes away a bit faster, this time. Or maybe he's just hoping it does.)

"I say this not to dump my emotional baggage on you, understand, I'm saying this because if you're blaming yourself, or think you weren't strong enough, or clever enough, or something. Then don't. You did great. Akiho did great. You actually both did so well that even Kyoto's impressed, I'm pretty sure they're scheming new and exciting ways to steal you from Tokyo. I know you—" He stops, and has to try again. "I know you're hurting right now. I'm not telling you to stop, or how to feel, just. I am so incredibly proud of you both. Please... try to be proud of yourself, too."

He looks away. Out the window or... something.

Gojo returns to silence. This conversation seems to be incredibly hard for him, too. It's probably why he put it off.

"I—" No, his voice is wavery, shit. He clears his throat and tries again. "I know it's not my—our fault. It's, it's not yours. It's... theirs." He balls his hands into fists. "I..."

But he lapses back into silence. He doesn't really know how to continue after that.

"Yeah. Ultimately, it is their fault. And believe me when I say I have every intention of making them pay for it. I had to stop myself from going on a killing spree, actually. It's still very tempting. But. I want change, not just their heads. ... Change and their heads. Just. Be smart about it, okay? Play the long game."

He shrugs. "What's the long game?"

"Heh. Do you know why I took up teaching? It's not like I'm, uh. All that suited for it."

Fushiguro scratches his face, yes it's definitely scratching and not anything else shut up, and turns to look at his Sensei again. "Not really."

"The top of the jujutsu world is a den of vice. The younger generation grovels before their elders, who grovel before their elders, who scheme against each other and have long, elaborate shadow wars to get power. Through access to a promising bloodline technique, or getting the younger generation under their thumb, or killing off anyone too uppity, or killing off a rival... you get the idea. For example, I am the result of a systematic breeding project by the Gojo clan. Sort of like what the Kamo clan wants to rope Akiho into. This has been happening for hundreds of years. Everybody is used to it being like this. People that don't play along mysteriously have accidents, or don't have support when they need it. And I hate it, more than words could possibly describe." His words come out as almost a snarl, the most angry Inori's ever heard him, but he takes a deep breath and collects himself. "What I want more than anything is to tear it down, and let people be free to build something new."

"...and killing them all would just make you a villain and not fix anything."

"Yes. The game would just keep going, but with less players. Furthermore, the sorcerer shortage would be even worse than it already is, and I'd have to try to make up the difference by myself. And while I am the strongest sorcerer in the world, I cannot be everywhere. I need to sleep, I need to eat, I need to talk to other human beings or I start thinking that actually ending humanity sounds preferable. I need allies. Not necessarily people who like me, I can be a bit of an unlikeable bastard, but just. People that will not stab me in the back the moment there's an opening. So. Teacher. To help make them."

...that's an interesting framing. Being groomed to become Gojō-sensei's ally...

Inori's not altogether against the idea. He nods.

"But you know, murder is allowed! You just have to make sure nobody else cares, or make sure that they think they can leverage it to their advantage. So. Be smart!"

"That's kind of awful," he says, leaning back on the wall behind his bed and closing his eyes.

"Yeah, but effective! I am the last of my clan and everybody is just fine with that."

He frowns. "I don't think I want to know."

"Nah, probably not. Back to less cheerful topics."

"So, because of this shitshow, I won't be around as much. I'm sorry about that, I really am. I will be by to help train you and Akiho, and I will absolutely be here the instant you need me. But I am not well liked, by anyone, and if you and Akiho are too associated with me I think you might get pulled into another... this. Right now, you both are actually in a really good position. You look extremely competent and valuable. Nobody wants you dead because they think they can maybe use you. Before they sort of didn't want you dead, but clearly were willing to risk it, because you weren't within their grasp. I was being the all-powerful-Gojo and going 'Mine mine mine mine mine' as obnoxiously as possible to get them to maybe think that touching you was dumb. But. Clearly I cannot be everywhere, and I don't want to upset the fragile balance you have now. Especially when you're this vulnerable. This won't be forever, okay?"

...he nods.

"I will become stronger. I won't... need you to protect me forever."

"Of course not. You're a powerful and talented young sorcerer, who's being trained by the best." He lifts his blindfold, just to wink.

Inori rolls his eyes before closing them again.

"Anyway. I think that's everything. I need to go find Akiho-chan and have a shorter version of this same talk. You okay if I head out?"

"Sure."

"Okay." He gets up and ruffles Inori's hair. "Stay alive. Oh, and! You will not be seeing Ijichi very much, nobody was very impressed by him blithely doing what Kyoto told him to, and we actually found a replacement." He sounds so happy. "I won't spoil the surprise, but it's great."

"Huh. Okay."

He thought replacements were extremely hard to find in this line of business but he has to admit he will not miss Ijichi-san.

Gojo heads out. After a couple more hours of peace, the sun has set in the sky, and it becomes clear what Gojo meant.

"My mom is becoming an assistant at this school!" wails Akiho from outside of his room, like she's dying.

"You can come in," calls Inori, sounding amused.

In she comes, to flop dramatically onto his bed near his feet, perpendicular to him.

"She was apparently so incredibly unimpressed with Ijichi-san that she went to the principal and asked, 'How can I make sure that man is never responsible for my daughter again' and Yaga-sensei offered her a job and she decided that that would work, and it will, she sees curses and can do barriers and everything, but it's terrible."

"Why is it terrible, pray tell?"

"Do you know what this means? My mom will be giving us missions. My mother! She will be one of the first ones to know if I ever do anything stupid, and she will let me know how much she disapproves. She's kind of disapproving of how I want to be a sorcerer anyway, and now she will be involved in the specifics! I can't just go, 'I'm fine, mom,' and leave it at that! Terrible!"

"It seems like 'working at your sorcerer school' isn't that disproving, but you know her best."

He still hasn't looked up from his book reader but he's grinning.

"It's sort of 'I support your decisions because I love you, but I do not agree with or understand them at all,' which isn't really disapproving but it's still not great and. Ugh. It's just. It's terrible, okay? It's all terrible. Pity me, damn it."

"There there. I would pat you but you are too far."

"You're not even looking up. You're just reading while I'm here suffering."

"Correct."

"Bah!"

She turns so that she's not facing him, clearly deciding that now is the time to pout.

Still not looking. Maybe not exactly reading, either, but not looking.

Akiho gets bored of pouting soon enough, and gives a (dramatic) sigh and faces back towards the ceiling. For a little while, she's quiet, and then:

"... Um, hey. I've been meaning to ask. Is it okay if I, um. Call you by your personal name?"

Well, now he's blushing.

"Yes. Akiho-chan."

"Thank you, Inori-kun," she says. "And where are your manners? I mean, yes, absolutely, call me Akiho, just. Come on, I was all formal and polite and asked first! And you just go and do it! That's not fair!"

He's still blushing. "World's not fair. Deal."

"Bah," she repeats, but sounding very fond.

He grins again and actually looks at her.

...wait maybe this was a bad idea she's really pretty and his mind is going places he does not want it to okay he's hiding behind the book again.

Akiho is smiling too, and lets things lapse back to silence. She gets out her phone.

"So should I tell mom you like her gift, or do you want to be all mysterious?"

"You can tell her."

“Okay, I will.”

She should probably leave and go to her own room? But she’s comfy here, and she likes sharing comfortable silence with him. This is nice.

After the blushing subsides, yeah, it's nice.

.......and maybe the blushing part was nice, too, but he won't be caught dead admitting it.

“I like Maki-senpai,” she says, after a while. Not to fill the silence, just as a thought to share with him. “She was… a lot… but extremely competent and helpful.”

"Maki-senpai is very good at what she does," he agrees.

“Yeah! And I like her honesty.” Pause. “Okay actually, while we’re talking about upperclassmen. Why is Panda-senpai a panda. Why did no one think that was strange. Where… where did his phone come from. Everyone else I understand but I am just so bewildered by him.”

Inori nearly chokes on his spit and spends the next several seconds laugh-coughing.

“You didn’t explain him at all! You just left me with a ’this is Panda,’ and I was just. I didn’t know how to ask, okay, how do you ask someone why they are a literal, walking talking panda bear!?”

When he finishes laughing he says, "Have you run into principal Yaga's cursed corpses?"

“Yeah, they’re very impressive. And occasionally cute.”

"Panda's one. No one knows how he did it, but he created Panda as a person and then raised him from childhood."

“Wh. I. That. Did Panda-senpai literally grow, or. Was he having a childhood as a large panda bear?? And he’s definitely his own person, yeah, he didn’t feel or act like he was a puppet of someone else.”

"He started small and actually grew. ...I think he grew, maybe principal Yaga just transferred his cores to new bigger bodies, I don't think I'd be able to tell the difference. And yes."

“Wow. Okay. He just. Made a person. I mean I guess humans make new people all of the time, just. You know what I mean.”

"Yeah. I think... he made Panda the regular way? I, I mean, not, uh," and here's the blush again, "I mean he didn't choose what Panda would turn out to be like, um, it was mostly, um, random and, and upbringing and all."

Akiho stifles a giggle. Help! He’s so cute! Adorable cinnamon roll who shuts down the minute he thinks about one topic in particular!

She will save him, but it’s still very cute.

“Right. It’d be creepy if he directly chose what sort of person Panda would be.”

Nodnodnod he's hiding behind the book reader again.

Cute. She spends a few seconds looking at this very cute spectacle before her, then decides that actually that’s kind of weird, so. She’ll go back to her phone now.

Is it weird if he enjoys it nope nope he was NOT spying and he did NOT notice her looking from the periphery of his vision and he did NOT get ANY fluttering feelings in his stomach about it he has no idea WHAT you're talking about.

Akiho has gone back to her phone, so she is completely unaware of all the feelings that are NOT happening over there. She’s still smiling, though.

No feelings whatsoever no sir.

Eventually, she gives a little yawn.

“Oh, hell. I should probably go get ready for bed. An eight AM meeting. For training. Are you sure Maki-senpai isn’t a sadist?”

"I never said that once in my life and today is not the day I'll say it."

Akiho gives an amused little snort.

“Fair enough, I suppose. I guess I was just hoping.” She sits up, stretching a little. “Good night, Inori-san. See you in the morning.”

"Sleep well, Akiho-chan."

Gosh, personal names.

"You too!"

And then away she goes.

And then the next morning, at 8 AM: it is time for training!

Panda and Inumaki are kind and patient teachers. Maki is... enthusiastic, and very competent at all things martial, and wants both of them to get better. Akiho gets a baton that is apparently close in shape, size, and weight to what her new fan will be like when it's done, and Inori has lots of weaponry options to experiment against, or with, if he decides that he wants to branch out from just punching things. There are a set of brass knuckles if he would like to resume punching things, though. Maki doesn't judge. Well, she does, but she doesn't judge by weapon choices, just skill and passion.

"Where do you store your weapons anyway?" he asks Maki.

"Oh, if I'm bringing more than a couple, I make Panda carry them. And these are the schools' weapons, all of mine are cursed and accordingly not good for training."

"I don't have a contract with a cursed spirit like he does," he sighs, frowning.

"Then there's not much either of us can do besides pick weapons that are easy to carry. Some people have a cursed technique that'll let them store weapons places, but it's the luck of the draw for that one."

"Salmon."

"Hmm." Fushiguro looks down at his shadow with a thoughtful expression on his face.

"You think you might be able to pull something off?"

"Maybe," he says, crouching down close to the ground and staring at it.

It should be doable. It should, right? The shadows are just an interface, a window his shikigami use to come through. They're not made of shadows, and they're not in the shadows. They're—elsewhere. And Fushiguro calls them here from that elsewhere but that's not really what his bloodline's cursed technique is, exactly, is it? Not all of it. It's the shadow interface. And he's not sure why he never thought of it before, but... he didn't. And it's not obvious that he can do it, not every iteration of people from his bloodline with his cursed technique can do it, but he could try...

He presses his palm against the ground.

And it slips through.

"...yes, I think I can."

"Lettuce," says Inumaki to Panda and Hayashi, pointing at Fushiguro.

Akiho looks up from where she's practicing with fishing line and needles with Panda.

"Hm?" she says, and then lets out an undignified yelp as the fishing line bursts from erratically channeled cursed energy.

"You need to stay focused, even when your attention's elsewhere," says Panda, gently.

"Yeah I uh. I got that." She lets out a sigh, then looks back over. "Yes?"

"Lettuce," Inumaki repeats, still pointing.

Pointing at Fushiguro, who seems to have managed to insert his entire hand... into the ground? Except no, there's no hole nor anything, it's... in his shadow.

"Ooooo." Akiho heads over to look more closely, looking delighted. "Did you figure out a new thing, Inori-san?"

He hisses and quickly pulls his hand out, shaking it like it's been burnt or something, as soon as she calls him 'Inori-san'.

"Yes," he says, playing it off. "I can... store things. In my shadows."

(Maki raises an eyebrow.)

"Oh, sorry. Didn't mean to throw you off. But! You know what this means, don't you?"

"...I can use weapons in combat without worrying about my hands being free?"

"Yes, yes, that, but also!" She leans closer, with a vulpine smile. "It means you get to carry my things, too!"

He rolls his eyes. "Maybe if you ask nicely."

"But Inori-san! What would happen if I ran out of needles on a mission! Isn't it wise to have a case of spares for me in case I run out?"

"That doesn't sound like asking nicely to me."

"Fish flakes."

"Hmmmm. Maybe later!" And then she cheerfully bounces back over to Panda. "Right now I'm working on how to slice limbs off!"

"Terrifying," he says, shaking his head.

(But hot.)

"Salmon."

"It'll also expand her nonlethal options, since with a slightly different technique it could be used for binding, as well."

"But mostly slicing limbs off," says Akiho, in a stage whisper.

"Yeah yeah, you're very scary. Now stop talking about it and start doing it. So! Which weapon do you want to try out first?"

"...the bo staff."

She tosses him the staff, grinning. And then she gets to walking him through how to use it properly.

It hurts a bit to remember Itadori's lessons but they do in fact help him get what she's saying quicker than he otherwise would.

Maki is a competent teacher, if not as much of one as his fallen friend. She is definitely a fan of ‘tough love.’ Learning from her involves a lot of bruising.

Regardless, the next few days are a whirlwind of training progress. Both first years improve in cursed technique finesse. Akiho manages to reliably channel enough cursed energy through fishing line to bind, if not yet thinly and precisely enough to slice like she dreams. Inori gets a better feel for how his shadow storage works and what its limits are, and gets faster at adding or removing objects to it. And of course, they both get a crash course in close combat, which is very instructive, if also often painful. The second years do make them run errands as a sort of payment for their tutoring services, but going to fetch drinks and snacks from the school vending machines is a small price to pay for the quick progress.

“You’d think with how few people are on campus they’d have a poll about what we actually want in our vending machines,” sighs Akiho to Inori, on one of these errand runs. “Who’d even want some of these?”

She’s looking at you, butterscotch soda. Why do you exist, and why are you taking up important real estate in the vending machine.

It is an important part of the senpai-kōhai system that the kōhai run errands for the senpai. It's only fair, Inori thinks.

"Very few people are allowed in to work on these so we only get a handful of choices."

Then he blinks and looks to the left, where two people seem to have arrived, quietly enough to be almost completely silent. "What are you doing here, Zen'in-senpai?"

One of the two does indeed look like Maki... But she's definitely not Maki.

"Don't call me that, Inori-kun... You make me sound the same as Maki." She winks. "Just call me Mai."

"So these are the first years filling in for Okkotsu and the third years," says the giant of a man standing next to her. He looks to be almost 200 centimeters tall, and is absolutely brimming with muscles, to an absurd degree.

... Akiho doesn't quite know what to do with the irrational jealousy she feels towards Zen'in Mai here, but she definitely does feel it. Is it because she's hot? It might be because she's hot. Some combination of the slinky dress Mai is wearing, with long legs bare and quite exposed, the pretty way she purrs her words, and the confident and playful wink at Inori. She has the urge to puff up like an angry cat and hiss. Which is dumb, clearly Inori doesn't even like her.

Still, she knows what manners are, and on principle she doesn't have anything against the students from Kyoto.

"Yes, we are. Hello. Welcome to our school."

"We came here with the principal because we were worried about you." She does, indeed, seem to be purring as she speaks. "Your classmate died, right? Was that rough?"

"Or did you think nothing of it?"

"...what are you trying to say."

Oh. Oh, she sees. Well, if it's a bitch contest then bring it.

(Going on the offensive is much nicer than lingering in the land of ow, where Itadori is still dead and everything sucks.)

"Does Kyoto not foster close relations between its students?" she wonders, almost innocently. "Or is your inability to empathize with others more of a you problem?"

She narrows her eyes at Akiho but lets out a chuckle. "So defensive... It's okay if you feel that way, you know, you don't need to take it out on others... After all..."

"Vessel makes it sound nice, but it just means he was a half-curse monster, doesn't it? Having such a tainted, inhuman being beside you, brazenly calling himself a sorc—"

Inori isn't as fast as Itadori was, or as Sensei, but that doesn't mean he's not fast at all. He has been training.

Which is to say that it's just a blink of an eye before he's crossed the distance between them with a well-aimed punch to Mai's pretty face.

"A fine punch!" observes the large student next to her, who nonetheless catches it in one of his large hands before it can hit his classmate. "Mai-san, why do you always have to stir things up?"

He does not try to escape from Tōdō's grip, and merely keeps glaring daggers at Mai. "Do not," he says, glacially, "open that sewer hole you call a mouth to spew shit you know nothing about like that. Ever. Again."

"—excuse me?"

In another blink of an eye, Akiho is at Inori's side and smiling almost pleasantly. She does not draw her needles, but they are definitely within easy reach of her hand.

"Which part of that was too complicated for you to understand? I can use small words if it would help. Maybe define 'sewer hole' for you."

The giant hunk of muscle lets out a laugh, and drops Inori's hand.

"Maybe these two are fit to take Okkotsu's place. They've at least got the fire in them. And that's the only thing I, Todo Aoi, care about." He tosses his jacket aside, and fixes Inori with a look. "Fushiguro, was it? I have just one question for you..."

With utmost serious and gravitas, like he is asking the most important question in the world, he asks:

"What kind of woman's your type?"

...........................................................................................what.

Fushiguro drops his arm lamely and looks at Tōdō while his brain processes the question.

And then his brain does process the question but it's also not fast enough to prevent him from immediately looking at Akiho, blushing intensely, then looking away.

He finally looks up at Tōdō again and says, "Why do you presume I like women?"

(Mai, meanwhile, seems utterly disarmed. Metaphorically speaking, at least; in reality she has somehow managed to grab the gun she was holding in her thigh holster and it's dangling from her hand while she glares at both of the first years.)

Akiho would like to second that 'what,' actually, because. What. Why is that. Why is that even a question.

(Wait, did Inori just look at her and then blush immediately? Yes! Wait, no, focus! They have bigger problems, like the bitch and this apparent crazy person.)

"It's fine if you like men," he assures. "A person's taste reveals everything I need to know about them. People with boring taste are boring people themselves."

"And there is nothing," he continues, and then his fists clench his shirt and rip it apart to expose his extremely, absurdly muscular chest, "that I hate more than someone I find boring!"

"Well it is not any of your fucking business what kind of, of women or men I like or whether I'm boring," he says, flexing his fingers. "And why are you asking me that and not her, you sexist pig?"

Okaaaaay someone's a bit mad.