Chapter Text
If Sukuna had any less self-control, he would have broken his cigar in an instant. Instead, he broke it a second later, above the pitiful idiot - Kagami - kneeling at his feet, so he could drop the burning end on his bald head and stomp on it.
“One job,” Sukuna said while working the ember of his cigar into the dry, ugly skin of his useless henchman, “You had one job. Make sure Inoki doesn’t get in trouble. And what did you do?”
“I- I’m sorry…! It was-“
“I asked you a question.”
Kagami yelled in pain as Sukuna increased the pressure on his head. “The kid! It was-“
Sukuna decided to stop wasting his time, already bored with his henchman’s poor attempts at making excuses. Instead, he kicked him in the temple before twisting his head to the side, breaking his neck.
Normally, he would have enjoyed torturing people like Kagami a bit more, but this wasn’t the time.
Inoki, his champion for the upcoming, unsanctioned martial arts fight was hospitalised. For the one match in which his opponent was sponsored by the new Zenin Boss. Fantastic. Sukuna didn’t think highly of this gold-haired, spoiled brat, which was even more reason why failing to show up would be humiliating. That wretched man-whore was insufferable on normal days, giving him ammunition was only going to make him much worse.
Kagami deserved worse than death for making Sukuna lose face. Unless, of course, he could find a new champion in the next 24 hours.
But first things first.
“Death Painting, whatever Inoki is hospitalised for, make sure he dies a horrific death from it.” Sukuna called to the end of the dark room where the eldest of his assassin-trio was waiting before addressing his Right-Hand man. “Uraume, make a list of suitable replacements for him.”
Uraume approached him instead of bowing down and leaving to their office, a thing Sukuna would only ever allow them to do without consequence. “Sukuna-Sama, I think you’d like to know just how Inoki was injured in the first place.”
“Oh, really?” Sukuna wasn’t sure about that, but Uraume rarely disappointed him. He gave the tablet they held up for him a glance. It was security camera footage, sped up, showing Inoki inside a café. Even without sound it was clear what he was doing – Verbally harassing a bunch of school girls. Sukuna knew of this behaviour, one reason why he hired Kagami to look out for him in the first place. But that little shithead did nothing but watch.
Sukuna paid closer attention when Inoki’s posture shifted. Instead of talking to the girls, he yelled at someone who was just off-screen. Kagami still didn’t do anything. Inoki then stomped towards the direction he was shouting at, fists drawn up, just to be knocked out with so much force that Sukuna could hear the crack of his skull inside his mind.
However, Inoki was not down yet – One last attempt at getting back at the other person ended with a knee at his jaw. Kagami was in shock.
As Inoki finally went limp on the ground, Sukuna could see the person who took him down, walking into the security camera’s line of sight. He wore a café worker uniform. No shaking nor exhaustion was visible as the man stood proudly with his arms folded in front of his chest, chin held high.
Sukuna grinned: “I see what you mean.” He hadn’t known that Inoki was defeated in battle and knew what Uraume was suggesting. “I bet you already have all information on this- wait.”
Sukuna tipped the play button, fast forwarding to the end to get a better look at the café worker. Neither tall nor small, wide shoulders, muscular build as much as his uniform let know. But his face…. “Is that a teenager?”
Grandpa’s dying thoughts were playing inside Yuuji’s mind on endless repeat – Do what is right. Use your strength for good. Don’t get beaten down by an unfair world.
That last part was very hard to honour right now. Yuuji did live in an unfair world.
Protecting frightened girls from that giant creep was the right thing to do, especially since Yuuji was attacked first. This was as good an excuse to not hold back and show his strength as any. But he still lost his job because of it.
“How dare you cause such a commotion?”
“We can’t keep a violent person employed.”
“Never should have employed you anyway.”
“We had to call an ambulance all because of you! This isn’t good for business!”
A small part inside Yuuji was trying to be happy about not having to work this shitty job with shitty employers inside a sketchy part of town. The most part of him was dreading, however. Dreading hard. Dreading everything.
Without his job, he won’t have money. Without money, he won’t be able to pay his boarding school fees. If he can’t pay his school he’ll be suspended. And if he gets suspended, he’ll be forced back into the orphanage.
With his parents dying when he was a toddler and his grandpa dying from illness a few years ago, Yuuji had no family, and was thus sent to an orphanage with nothing to his name. His grandpa didn’t own the house they lived in and he got scammed out of his inheritance money. He was sent to the orphanage a healthy boy, and was since then diagnosed with ADHD, behavioural issues, emotional issues and learning disabilities. None of which were a thing before he had to live in that hell disguising as a caring, child-loving institution - they just made them up as an excuse as to why he wasn’t fit to be adopted. The orphanage won’t get money if the kids get adopted, after all.
The Tokyo Technical College was Yuuji’s sole hope for getting out of this hell hole – A boarding school allowing him to live outside of the orphanage. His last three years before turning 18 and becoming a legal adult would have been spent far away from that horrible place.
It was almost a miracle that he was accepted – His grades weren’t the best. Sadly, this meant that he wasn’t eligible for a scholarship and needed a job to pay for the high school fees. The Tokyo Technical College was a place for the rich, actually, and Yuuji was very much out of place. That was probably why no one else was bothered by the school forbidding its students to have jobs, forcing Yuuji to find one in sketchy areas where no one would see him.
It was shitty.
Yuuji had barely any free time, most of his money went to the school and he barely had any left to feed himself, he couldn’t study and while he considered a few people friends, he couldn’t hang out with them.
But it worked. He was able to attend the school. He was fine.
Now, all of it was flowing down the drain.
All because his workplace was being unfair. Because of creeps harassing innocent girls. The thought that he shouldn’t have intervened tried to worm its way into his conscious mind, and he desperately tried to convince himself that he did the right thing. It was the right thing. His life just sucked.
Not to mention – The police might get involved. Fantastic. They would ask his former workplace what happened, find out who he was, tell his school that he had a job and then it won’t even be the unpaid school fees that will land him back into the orphanage. Even if he managed to dodge the financial bullet by getting a new job, the threat of police involvement was making the likelihood of him staying at the school practically zero.
Yuuji wasn’t even sure why he was walking back to the school. Because he had a bed inside, he guessed. For how long, who knew. Maybe it would be his last night.
He was stuck inside his mind, barely acknowledging his surroundings, barely aware of showing his school ID to the security guard, barely lucid enough to realise that someone was calling out to him. But just barely.
It took a moment, but Yuuji turned around to his name being called by his friend and room-neighbour Akutami Megumi. Despite everything, Yuuji managed a smile.
“Hey.”
“Hey, Yuuji.” Megumi came closer, hiding his worry. “You’re here earlier than usual. Did you have anything to eat?”
Yuuji never shared his history with anyone. His former job something he couldn’t share with anyone. And yet he was 100% sure that Megumi knew. Well, Yuuji thought that it wasn’t hard to figure out, if anyone wanted to figure out that he was always short on money. But Megumi never commented on it. Never asked any questions. All he did was showing genuine concern and helping him as best as he could. Usually, he helped by sharing his food.
Honestly, if it hadn’t been for Megumi sharing food with him, he’d have lost half his weight in the two years he’s already been at this school. He couldn’t always grab leftovers from his workplace without being seen.
When Megumi had begun offering Yuuji food, either by sharing or paying, Yuuji had declined. It had made him anxious that someone apparently saw through him and might suspect him breaking school rules. But Megumi had never pushed him, had never done anything to make Yuuji believe he wanted to do him any harm. When he had accepted his help for the first time, he could see how happy it had made his friend, although he had been trying not to show it. Since then it became normal for Megumi to make sure Yuuji was eating enough.
It made Yuuji sad that he could never repay Megumi’s kindness in any way, never having the time to do anything with or for him. He always hoped that once they both finished high school, they could stay in touch, spend more time together, and maybe one day Yuuji would have a life that could allow him to live.
“Ah,” Yuuji didn’t have anything to eat all day. Usually he’d tell Megumi so and Megumi would invite him to the cafeteria. They would eat together, talk about this and that, have some fun, and leave to do their own thing. Today, however, Yuuji felt no appetite and he couldn’t stomach the thought of being near someone either. His mood was just too low, his mind too despaired. “Don’t worry about me. I’m a little tired, so, see ya!”
“Are you sure? You look a bit pale.”
“Yes, yes! I just need some rest! I bet I’ll be fine by tomorrow!”
Yuuji never answered Megumi’s question and both knew it. And yet, Megumi didn’t push, as always. For Megumi, this might just be a bad day. For Yuuji, it might be the last day that he’d ever get to see his friend. The thought of being near him and breaking down from his internal turmoil was too frightening.
“Alright then. Get well soon, Yuuji.”
“Thanks.”
Yuuji walked into his room, shut the door and sank down in front of it. It was only 17 o’clock. Yuuji could do anything but all he wished for was to disappear, for the ground to swallow him whole. He didn’t even have it in himself to move to his bed, lying on the ground instead, knees drawn up and eyes closed.
He just wanted to sleep to make all the despair fade away.
“Itadori Yuuji, huh?”
Sukuna read the file Uraume handed him on the café worker who beat his former champion.
17 years old, officially residing in an orphanage with the Tokyo Technical College as his secondary residence. Diagnosed with a bunch of issues, the file even had a report written about him, saying things like:
“Low frustration tolerance.”
“Quick to lashing out.”
“Shows disrespectful behaviour towards authority figures.”
“Hyperactive with a tendency to run away.”
If all of these statements were true, Sukuna found himself with an adorable pup to break. He was always up for a new challenge and who could say no to fresh meat?
“The fight is tomorrow. Have the Death Paintings watch that school and bring Itadori to me once he leaves.”
“What if he doesn’t leave? Doesn’t have much of a reason to do so without his job, after all.”
“No worries – Just send this fake letter from his orphanage to the school. It’ll force him to go outside.”
Toji didn’t have enough control over Tokyo’s hospitals if the knowledge of Two-Face Sukuna’s henchman being treated in one reached him a day too late.
That god-forsaken psychopath had all of his grunts tattooed with the same symbol, and a man named Inoki with that very tattoo was hospitalised yesterday around 16 o’ clock.
It was 7 o’clock when Toji was informed of that.
“Cut them some slack, Fushiguro-san. Working at a hospital is nothing but stressful.” Why Toji ever allowed the white-haired menace to work with him was beyond him.
“If they cared about their patients, they would have reported this immediately.”
Maybe they really didn’t care, but that would imply that any of them knew just what that tattoo truly meant. What is bound to happen to anyone wearing it and not living up to expectations. And being hospitalised was anything but rewardable.
Toji - with Gojo in the backseat because he was not having that guy be close to him - drove to the hospital in question as fast as he could, with the headlights on. One look at his name tag was enough for no one to ask questions or try to stop him getting to the right room.
But, as expected, he was too late. Just as he arrived, the doctors and nurses did their best to resuscitate Inoki and failed.
“See?” Toji spoke to Gojo, voice seething with rage. “You think Two-Face has evaded me for so long by being stupid?”
“Hm. I see your point.” Gojo wasn’t exactly phased by seeing a man dying. “What now, detective?”
What now, indeed?
Whenever he got a chance to track Two-Face Sukuna down, the traces glided from his fingers as fast as he caught them. He could do more research on the now-dead Inoki but doubted it would get him far. An autopsy report was just as useless - The Death Painting’s poison could never be detected, never left a trace. In the eyes of medicine, Inoki just died of a sudden heart attack.
Toji left the room without a word, back to his car, while Gojo was invading his personal space: “Come on, Kuro-San-“
“Don’t call me that.”
“- maybe the security feed will give you a hint!”
Toji had skimmed the security camera feed, not finding anything of worth. The person who was with Inoki was dead by now too. Toji said so, but Gojo pushed his phone screen in his face regardless. “Look, look! Use your incredible detective skills!”
He would have used his other set of skills to break Gojo’s wrist, but he did see something on the feed that he hadn’t picked up before – The person who knocked Inoki down looked a little familiar. Pink and black hair, hm, where did he see that combination before…?
Ah. Itadori Yuuji. One of Megumi’s friends. He never talked to the kid or cared one bit about what people his son spent time with, but he could give credit where credit was due – The kid got this gangster good. Had the hospital not messed up, he would have given that Itadori boy a medal for delivering Inoki in his hands. As it was, he could at least congratulate him on his righteous use of violence.
It had been a while since he saw his son, anyway.
It was Saturday and Yuuji guessed it would be nicer to be thrown out of the school from the privacy of his dorm room rather than in the middle of class. But waiting for that to happen was no fun either.
Once more he just wished to sleep and never wake up, not having to face the consequences of his actions. He felt helpless enough to not even try.
However, he managed to push through it, even if just to get out of bed. It wasn’t the first time he felt this helpless in his life, and he figured out a way through those moments as well, didn’t he? Wallowing in self-pity and dark thoughts wasn’t going to change anything.
One step out of his room and he wished he could have just stayed inside – Standing in the hallway, just to his right, was the Fushiguro Toji. The unofficial leader of the town. Boss of the police force, politicians in his pocket, he only differed from the yakuza in that his goals weren’t horrific. His methods, though? The rumours were plenty and graphic.
And he stood just outside, next to Yuuji’s doorstep. Yuuji had had that little voice inside him saying that he was over-reacting and catastrophising, but that voice choked on his most frightening theory coming true.
The police really did get involved and he’d be arrested for manslaughter-
“Everything is alright.” Megumi’s voice caught Yuuji by surprise and allowed him a moment out of his distress bubble. Oh. He saw it now. Fushiguro wasn’t walking towards him, no, he was talking to Megumi, who leaned against his doorframe. Why they would talk to each other was a mystery though. Certainly Megumi hasn’t done anything wrong! Unless feeding criminal scum like Yuuji counted as a crime-
“Oh, Itadori, right?” Aaaaaaaaah!- Yuuji might have yelled out-loud for a second. If he did, Fushiguro showed no sign of it. “I heard of what you did yesterday.”
That was it. His life was over. His life at the Tokyo Technical University was over, and his life inside of prison was about to begin-
“Good job.”
“Fushiguro-Sama, I’m so sorry- what?” Yuuji was just about to get on his knees and beg for mercy, but the words good job made him almost fall over. Good job? He did a good job? “O-on, you mean with the, the guy at-“
“At the café, yes.” Fushiguro came closer and Yuuji felt intimidated by him despite his confusing yet apparent good will. That man was massive. Should all the rumours about him be nothing but nonsense, Yuuji still understood why they existed in the first place. Yuuji gave a quick, helpless glance at Megumi, who looked confused and gave him a sympathetic shrug. “Not many would have taken him on, and fewer would have won. A shame really that the café owner refused to pay you respect. But you have mine, and that is enough.”
Despite his words, Yuuji still felt fear. Fushiguro even smiled at him, which might have been supposed to be warm and encouraging, but it just looked predatory. As if he was about to hunt him for sport. Still- He was kind to Yuuji. His words were kind, even if his entire being was anything but. He even spoke ill of his former workplace, and Yuuji liked that part- Hold on-
“T-the café…!” Yuuji remembered that Fushiguro worked with the school…! “A-about that, I-I was just-“
“Calm down, I don’t care about this school’s nonsense rules.” Oh. That was good to hear. “Try to find a job in less sketchy areas next time.”
“Ah. Understood. Sir.”
Yuuji bowed down, but Fushiguro had already turned around to leave. Yuuji saw him give a half-hearted wave to Megumi without looking at him, one that Megumi answered in kind before walking towards him.
“Morning, Yuuji. Hope he didn’t creep you out too much.”
“Eh… guess it could have been worse.”
“Worse? This was the nicest I’ve ever seen him. But whatever – Wanna grab breakfast?”
After that heart-attack of a morning, they did go to have breakfast, Megumi paying for both of them. Despite the fright still lingering in Yuuji’s veins, he felt relieved. At least one part of his catastrophising fantasies didn’t become reality. The police didn’t care about what he did. At least one guy within the authority had the sense to see that he did the right thing.
Try to find a job in less sketchy areas, he said. Yuuji could do that. He had two weeks before his next school fee was due. He could apply for jobs. He could find one that wasn’t as horrible as his previous one. Maybe things weren’t as helpless as he believed them to be.
“So, did you lose your job?”
“Ah?” Yuuji forgot that Megumi had heard everything- but he calmed down in an instant. Megumi probably knew about him having had a job anyway. He wouldn’t snitch on him. “Well, yeah, unfortunately.”
“Hm.” Megumi looked thoughtful. “If you need money, I-“
“No, no!” Yuuji could guess what he was about to offer. “I’ll find a new one. Don’t worry about me. You are doing enough for me as it is.” Saying it out-loud caused Yuuji to feel warmth rising in his chest, and he couldn’t look his friend in the eyes.
“…I understand. But if you need help, my door is always open.”
“I know. Thank you, Megumi.”
They continued with their breakfast in silence, hardly any other students around them at this early hour. Not many liked to get up at 7:30 o’ clock on a Saturday. If Yuuji still had his job, he’d be out by now. Breakfast time on the weekend was different from school days. Another new experience apart from meeting Fushiguro Toji. Why was he even here? Just to congratulate Yuuji?
“Hey, Megumi?”
“You want to know about Fushiguro Toji, right?”
Well, Megumi had always been a smart one. “Yes. If you don’t mind.”
Yuuji looked up when he heard Megumi sigh, letting his chopsticks sink. Yuuji would have offered him that he doesn’t have to tell him anything, but Megumi was faster: “I guess I owe you an explanation, since I know so much about you. Fushiguro Toji is my father.”
“…” Hm. “But you have a different last name?”
“For protection. Akutami is my step-mother’s last name. He doesn’t want anyone to know that I am associated with him.” Megumi didn’t look happy. Deeply annoyed, even.
Yuuji took a moment to think about this. He did think that Fushiguro Toji and Megumi looked familiar, now that he knew about it. He might have realised it before if his mind wasn’t clouded by the fear of his impending doom. But yes – They had the same hair and eye colour. And eye-shape. Yuuji didn’t see it often, but he knew that Megumi was capable of being terrifying. He was told about how he used to beat up bullies in middle school. So yes – He could see it.
“Protection, huh? Well, with him being so high up… That position must have led to many enemies, not?”
“Guess so.” Megumi was still annoyed and Yuuji felt a little guilty for bringing this whole topic up.
They went back to finishing breakfast in silence.
Yuuji could imagine too much protection to be bothersome. But what did he know? He never had that kind of thing. A protective parent. He remembered times when his grandpa took care of everything, but for many years until his death, it was Yuuji who took care of him instead. Maybe Fushiguro Toji wasn’t the best example of a caring parent - given how he interacted with Megumi and Megumi’s annoyance – but the thought of having a caring parent… it made Yuuji feel melancholic. Homesick for a home he never had.
Yuuji didn’t say it out-loud in fear of vexing Megumi further, but he hoped that he and his father would get along. Hoped that whatever stood between them would fade away. Megumi deserved a happy life.
After breakfast, both Yuuji and Megumi checked their mail. Yuuji never liked to check the mail because any mail he got was bad news in one way or another. And today he received a letter, thank you no one.
And it was from the orphanage! Argh-
“Please kill me before I lay eyes on this.” He didn’t even want to open his eyes as he ripped the envelope apart.
“It’s not an admonition letter, is it?”
“No, no…” Yuuji finally had the cursed letter in his hand, quickly looking through it. “I am summoned to a meeting.” These meetings happened every now and then. The orphanage was still his official residence, after all. They had to check on him from time to time. “Ah, and it’s today!”
Yuuji couldn’t stop himself from crumbling up the letter and throwing it in the trash. He got two hours to get to the orphanage, thanks for sending your letters at the last second!
“Good aim.” Megumi commented on the fact that the trashcan Yuuji threw the letter in was around ten meters away from them.
“Thanks, but that won’t make this meeting go over smoothly.”
“I can give you a knife if you want.”
“Nah, thank you. One conversation with Fushiguro-Sama is enough for a life time.”
“You don’t have to call him sama…”
“Anyway, see ya! I have to go if I want to make it in time!”
The only good thing was that this letter couldn’t possibly be about his stunt from yesterday. Must be a regular meeting to ask how he was doing overall. Just official business, Yuuji bet that his registered legal guardian wanted to have these talks as much as he did.
He had to take a few trains and navigate different stations to get to the orphanage, the last ten minutes walking on foot. The streets weren’t crowded but neither were they empty. Yuuji looked around, seeing all the familiar shops and buildings he has become accustomed to, never having visited any of them. The closer he came to his destination, the more he tried to be in the present time. Feel the cool morning air of summer, the sunshine, the smell of nearby street food stalls. Thinking about something good, not where he was going.
“Yuuji!” Yuuji was startled when someone approached him from behind, trying to turn around. The person prevented him from moving, however, by throwing his arm around his shoulder. The arm was heavy and Yuuji could tell that this person was buff and tall. Who…? He didn’t know anyone that buff or tall…? “Long time no see! How’ya been?”
Yuuji was unnerved – He would have thought that this guy got the wrong person if it weren’t for the fact that he used his name. His unnerved feeling was soon replaced by something much worse.
Yuuji felt something sharp poke his side, causing him to jump. He managed a quick glance down and saw a tanned hand hiding a knife. “Hey, how about we catch up on old times, hm?”
Yuuji’s heart slammed down. He was poked again, on his chest. The hand dangling from his shoulder also held a knife, hidden from the sight of anyone but Yuuji.
The person sounded friendly, no malice in his voice or tone, all while Yuuji froze inside and outside.
“Come along! I have a ride ready. Let’s go have some fun, hm?” That ‘hm’ was accompanied by the poking becoming stronger, almost cutting.
Yuuji felt out of his body while being trapped inside it, ice cold, hot, all at the same time. The poking grew in intensity, hurting, and he forced himself to answer. “Y… yes.”
“Excellent!”
The knives stayed in place during their short walk in which the stranger - his kidnapper – kept on talking about nothing, giving the illusion that they were indeed friends who hadn’t seen each other for some time. Yuuji’s legs felt like lead that he had to force forward, the danger ever present like beacons in a dark night. Burning. Chilling.
Soon enough, he was pushed inside the backseat of a long, black car with tinted windows. Once inside, another pair of hands grabbed him, yet another knife pressed against his skin, on his neck this time. He heard and felt the door shut close and was pushed to his side, head lying on something soft – a lap – while his hands were pushed to his back and chained tight. It was cold metal, painfully scratching his skin and squishing his bones together. The knife on his neck never left him.
“Got him – Step on it, Nii-san!”
The car began to move and what would Yuuji give to be at the orphanage instead…!