"Asleep. So it wakes up if I... stop? Do it too much?"

To answer his question, the boxing bear punches him. In the face. The boxing gloves help, but it is still definitely punching him in the face.

"Once you start putting cursed energy into it, it wakes up if you stop. And punches you. It also punches you if you put too much into it. The longer you do it, the more it ramps up, and it starts requiring more cursed energy to stay asleep, and with less margin for error. Part of your assignment is sensing what that requirement is, it's sufficiently obvious to a skilled sorcerer."

"Ow," he says, glaring at the toy now yawning on the floor. "Nice jab, there, Sensei," he adds, rubbing his face and walking over to the cursed corpse to get it to fall asleep again.

"I call it like I see it, kid."

"Usually like my punches to have more sexual tension behind them," he mutters to himself, walking over to the box of DVDs again while still holding the toy.

"Hey, I won't tell you how to feel about the bear. Now, I'm gonna go grocery and clothes shopping, any last minute additions to what you want? Preferences for brands of toothpaste, maybe?"

"—oh, right! Uh, presumably my actual phone is either destroyed or it would be a bad idea to use it? So, could you get me a new one, Sensei?"

"Yeah, sure. Have fun!"

Gojo gives a little wave and turns to go. The bear chooses this moment to punch its victim again. This time, it's in the gut.

"Urf you motherfucker—" he says, grabbing the bear by the head and throwing it at a wall.

"That doesn't help!" calls Gojo as he leaves.

Indeed, it doesn't. The bear hops up and launches itself at Itadori for another punch.

Itadori's expecting it and blocks, then grabs the bear and resumes the cursed energy output.

This is going to be a long, long while. He picks a film at random (choosing seems against the spirit of the exercise) and puts it on.

Gojo is kind enough to bring him soda and popcorn for his movie night, when he brings in all of the essentials. And the phone. It has Gojo's and Ijichi's numbers already on it. The fashion choices Gojo makes for him are a bit more upscale than Itadori might be used to, but they suit him well enough.

Hours later, Gojo has cajoled Ijichi into driving him to his meeting with Yaga. Mostly because he is so sick of warping space to teleport around, he has been doing it all day, it is the worst. Great for secrecy, but the worst. He is back to pointedly ignoring Ijichi, which is probably preferable to threatening his life. Until he sits up, and says:

".... Stop the car."

"Huh? Right here?"

He stops anyway.

"Yep. Right here." And Gojo gets out, standing in the middle of the road. "You go on ahead."

"Huh? ...a-are you testing me? You're not going to hit me if I actually go on ahead, are you?"

"No. Why would I test you. I already know your worth." He makes a shooing motion with his hand.

"O-oh. Okay."

He drives off, leaving Gojō alone in the middle of the highway.

He waits in the middle of the road.

"Well, are you just going to hide in the bushes?" he wonders, when the car is probably far enough away that it'll be out of the line of fire.

The curse lands from above with a loud "Yyyyahh!", a short stout creature with only one eye wearing a yellow poncho. The top of his head is shaped like a miniature volcano, and his "ears" are stoppered by corks.

Gojo barely even bothers to dodge, and keeps his hands in his pockets.

"Huh. And just who are you?"

The creature's grin widens and he gestures with his arm, causing a slightly less miniature volcano to emerge from the cliffside behind Gojō. It immediately spouts an enormous jet of fire, thick enough to entirely cover Gojō head to toe, strong enough to reach several dozen meters into the forested distance, hot enough to melt the pavement Gojō's standing on.

"Well," he says, chuckling, "that was easier than I'd expected."

A ball of molten lava sits where Gojo was standing. That... is not how that is supposed to work. And then it clears, and Gojo stands in a circle of unmelted pavement, looking completely fine. Hands still in his pockets.

He tilts his head. "You are an unregistered special grade. Did you miss the memo about how your kind are supposed to be rare? It ruins the whole point of the classification system if we have you just popping up everywhere."

Ah... he survived.

Well, more fun this way. "Did I wound your pride?" asks the curse, assuming a more serious battle stance.

Gojo lets out a snort. He makes no motion to assume any kind of battle stance at all.

"Hardly. ... Did you attack me here so that no other sorcerer could come to my aid? You can't have cared about civilian casualties."