one.

There are only three students in Jujutsu High School's first-year class.

Yuji, Megumi and Nobara.

So when Yuji is finally sitting in what he supposes is their classroom at the beginning of the semester (nevermind the fact that it is mid-June and he was already well into his first year at Sugisawa), he assumes that the three of them will be fast friends.

It's an innocent assumption.

He'd already bonded with Megumi during the whole eating-a-mummified-finger-and-becoming-Sukuna thing. And even though the stoic boy wasn't the most forthcoming or, ahem, friendly Yuji couldn't think of anything else that could bond two people like almost dying could.

Nobara was a different story.

Sure, he'd saved her life and she had more-or-less saved him but she was still so…

Nobara .

But Yuji is Yuji.

He might be a little bit of an idiot sometimes - he wouldn't deny it, he did swallow a cursed object - but his grandfather always nagged at him to be nice, respectful, and decent. And he's naturally kind, strong, and the kind of person who you could see becoming best friends with his worst enemy. Really, the only thing off-putting about Yuji at all is the fact that he is sharing his body with a world-consuming demon and that he's a confirmed idiot.

So he does his best to try and bridge the gap between the two of them.

He says good morning to her every day and good night when they head off to their own rooms. They eat lunch together everyday - there are three students in the whole class - and he knows that she really likes the peach Kaju gummy sweets that they serve on Wednesdays so he always lets her have his. When she falls on her face during one of their exorcism training courses trying to catch one of Megumi's dog curses, Yuji only laughs at her after he knows for certain that she's okay.

Yes, he didn't need to bring it up again the next day but it was kinda hilarious and laughs are hard to come by these days.

But...Yuji is trying. Harder than he can ever remember trying with anyone else.

At his old school, Yuji wasn't the most popular guy in school but everyone liked him. In that "Yuji? Yeah, I know Yuji." or "Hey, Yuji. Some of us are going to go check out that new ramen spot that opened up on the corner. You wanna come?" kinda way. He always turned them down because he needed to be out in time to visit his grandfather but they never took it the wrong way, never stopped inviting him.

Yuji doesn't know much about what kind of person Nobara was at her old school. He doesn't really know anything really about Nobara at all - they've only been classmates for a few weeks - but that doesn't mean Yuji doesn't know that Nobara can be a bit of a psycho and a bit of a douchebag.

(Before he met Nobara, he would have tried to be nicer about how he expressed that but knowing Nobara how he knows her now she would be honored by the description.)

In fact, in those few short weeks, they have known each other, Yuji has seen Nobara go out of her way to be a bigger douchebag than she just is naturally because like almost everyone at Jujustu High who was under the tutelage of Satoru Gojo, himself included, she had a somewhat unhealthy competitive streak that touched every aspect of her life including douchebaggery.

Yuji once watched Nobara bounce the blunt end of a spirit nail off some poor girl's head because she bought the last serving of inarizushi from their usual sushi place.

Yuji thinks that people at Nobara's old school were probably either terrified of her, impressed by her, or hated her. Megumi thinks that most people probably managed all three.

But even still, Yuji wants to be friends with Nobara.

two .

For someone as loud and emotional as she is, Nobara has a tendency to just not react. Or, more accurately, Yuji supposed, barely reacting. Like that time she faced that cursed mannequin or the time Megumi's frog spirit just had her in his mouth. Or — and excuse Yuji for being petty — when he literally came back from the dead.

Yuji knows that Nobara isn't invincible, but it sure feels that way sometimes. It's in the way she looks at everything with just enough boredom to make you wonder if she's just a stuck-up asshole or if she's just somehow seen this all before.

Yuji thinks that there is definitely a story to be told there and maybe one day he'll ask her about it. Though, he's also there's a fifty-fifty split on whether she tells him or not.

He hopes she will though, one day because Yuji understands putting on a brave face better than most.

three.

"I literally could not hate you more than I do right now. Do you know that, Fushiguro?"

"Again." Megumi's arm was trapped under Yuji's right leg. "This wasn't my idea."

"I did not sign up for this. Yuji?" Yuji tried to turn towards Nobara but her shoulder was in his face. "Did you sign up for this?"

Before he could answer Megumi did.

"He swallowed a cursed object." He would never live that down, would he? "He doesn't really get a choice."

"Yeah?" Nobara huffed, making her elbow dig harder into Yuji's side. "Well, last time I checked I didn't swallow a nasty old finger so why do I have to be stuck in this toad with you?"

All things considered, the toad wasn't the worst place to be but, yeah, it was weird that they were all just sitting inside of Megumi's spirit.

"Gojo."

"That's the excuse you used yesterday when we were hanging from the ceiling for thirty minutes above a bunch of grade 4 spirits."

"He's our teacher." Megumi sighed. "He makes up our curriculum."

"Is he all there?" Nobara scoffed. "Because this is ridiculous."

"Barely," Megumi admitted. "But he's more dangerous being let out and about so its safer to have him here teaching."

"Safer for who?"

Yuji remembered the time Gojo brought him to watch his fight with Jogo.

"For the world," Yuji answered. Megumi groaned when Yuji tried to shrug. "Probably."

four.

One day, Nobara randomly tells them about the time she asked Gojo to let her enroll at Jujutsu.

The story she told went like this:

"I am joining your school." Nobara had said. For some reason Yuji imagines her sitting in the classroom in her normal clothes, arms crossed, and leaning back in the chair that would one day be hers, like saying something like that to Gojo was no big deal, easy enough to do. Like she did most things. "When do classes start?"

In his mind, Gojo is wearing his eye coverings - because he always is - but he still squints at her, surprised.

"No."

"Yes," she corrects. "I will be enrolling here immediately unless you're going to find the time to gather and conceal every cursed object, cursed tool and sentient panda in this place by tomorrow."

"Why tomorrow?"

"Because I will be bringing the Japanese Education Board and the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills here to ask you about your inappropriate rejection of my application to your institution. "

"You didn't apply." Gojo tries.

She whips out a filled-in application she'd found on the internet. "I know most of your students are either members of some fancy family or orphans so I made sure to get my application signed with parental consent."

"The school year has already started."

"It has barely started and this is a school for hunting down and exorcising curses, right?" she says impatiently. "I doubt you care about making sure I'm caught up with my summer reading or know how to differentiate."

"I guess, you do have some impressive cursed energy levels. Room to grow, too." He'd mused on it. "And I'm assuming you can see curses?"

"Duh."

"You know this is dangerous right? Potentially deadly?"

"Only if I'm weak."

Satoru probably smiled at her then, running his hands through his hair as he stared back at someone just as crazy as he was.

"Come to Harajuku in a week's time," he says finally. "We'll see if you have what it takes then."

Yuji knows she was smiling during this part because she was when she spoke about it.

"Great." She stood and walked towards the door. "I'll be there."

"Yuji seems like a nice guy but Megumi isn't going to like this," Gojo said as she walked away. "Don't cry if they're mean to you."

Nobara scoffed.

"I have a hammer and some nails." She said. "I can handle a couple of teenage boys."

five.

It was not Yuji's birthday.

"You… got me a present?" He asked. His birthday was two months ago. He had worn a stupid hat and everything. Maki had made cake. Nobara had two slices. "This is for me right?"

"Yeah!" Nobara said, grinning.

They're standing just outside their classroom and she is holding the gift out to him. It's square-shaped and nondescript wrapped in plain paper that has tiny fireworks and 'super birthday!" scribbled across it in the pink gel pen Nobara uses in class.

"It isn't my birthday?" Yuji aks.

Nobara always kind of looks at him like she thinks that he might be an idiot but now she's looking at him like she's certain.

"Are you asking me if it's your birthday?"

"No. No." Yuji replies, utterly confused for not the first time when Nobara is involved. "It isn't my birthday. Or yours. Gojo's birthday is in December and so is Megumi. I'm not too sure about Maki bu-"

Nobara interrupts him. "You think I got you a present for Maki's birthday?"

The way she's looking at him tells him that the answer is no.

"I don't know why you got me a present at all."

Nobara rolls her eyes.

"Well, I guess technically it isn't for you." She shoves the package into his hands. It's small, about half the size of a book, and really light. "It's for Sukuna."

That surprised him.

"For Sukuna?" Yuji frowns, looking down at the package. "Why?"

Nobara shrugged.

"He spared Megumi during the Cursed Womb thing. And he brought you back to life."

"He also killed me."

"And lucky you - It didn't take."

"Don't think that tops the killing me part."

Nobara ignored him.

" Besides, I know he has this weird obsession with Megumi and you're his vessel … I'm the only one that he wouldn't think twice about killing."

Well, Yuji supposed she wasn't wrong.

"I've gotta do something to get in his good books, yah know. I'm planning to enjoy a long, luxurious life in Tokyo." She glared at him then and he wasn't sure if it was meant for him or for Sukuna. "I don't plan on dying anytime soon so if I have to pander to the psycho living inside you… I'll do it."

"Um…" Nobara was probably the strangest person he would ever meet. "Thanks?"

"Don't thank me. It's either this or I exorcise you right now and Gojo gets super pissed with me." She turned and walked into the classroom. "Lesser of two evils."

six

"Nob-" Yuji freezes at the door frame.

Usually, when he sees Nobara, she is wearing her school uniform. He has never seen her in her room because Gojo has never asked him too before today.

So it is a big shock when he opens her door to see the bare curve of her back and the way her spine curves as she reaches for the bra on her bed. She doesn't tense at the sound of her door open, doesn't really react at all, just reaches for the bra and puts it on.

Fastened around her waist. Right arm, left arm.

She turns to look at him after she's done, eyebrows drawn down as she frowns. She's not topless anymore - not really - and he has a feeling that she wouldn't have cared much even if she was but Yuji keeps his eyes trained on the ceiling regardless.

He's seen what she can do with that hammer.

He jumps a little when she clears her throat. His eyes move down before he can stop them and then he's stuck staring at her breasts kind of helplessly.

"Um…" He was supposed to eat the rest of Sukuna's fingers, he couldn't die here. "You have moles."

He was going to die here. He'd only eaten a handful of the cursed fingers and he hadn't even graduated high school and he was going to die here.

"A lot of people do," Nobara said, putting her hands on her hips. Her hammer and nails were sitting threateningly on her bed. "Can I help you?"

He stares at her, mind blank.

"Um," he tries," no?"

Nobara's fingers twitch and he really doesn't want to die here.

"Why are you here, Yuji?"

Maybe Sukuna would save him?

"Gojo?"

Nobara stares at him for a moment, grabs what looks like a rubber hammer from her bed, rolls her eyes and crosses the room quickly. Before he knows what's happening - not that he ever really knows what's happening - she bonks him hard on the head and shoves him out of her doorway. He falters and falls flat on his back, lying on the floor in the hallway, staring up at her.

"I'll be down in ten minutes." Nobara says, and slams the door. He lays there for a moment thanking whatever deity is listening before he hears her yelling through the thick wood. "Knock next time, asshole."

Megumi is watching from his own doorway, laughing.

Yuji can't help but laugh as well.

seven

"Just for the record," Nobara starts. They'd been walking back to the Saitama Urami bridge in silence for the most part. It probably should have been a contemplative silence, seeing as they just killed two humanoid curses - Yuji's death toll was wracking up and he wasn't sure how he was meant to deal with that - but really they were just sore, tired, and hungry. And worried. "This whole thing does not make me the damsel in distress of our class."

Yuji makes a face.

"What?"

"I've been cornered three times." Nobara turns to him. "Harajuku. West Tokyo City. And now Saitama Urami. Three times. "

Yuji blinked. "Okay…"

Nobara groaned.

"Look, I'm not trying to make a habit of needing to be saved by my male classmates." She sped up as she spoke, clearly emboldened. Yuji was too tired to match her so he fell back. "I'm strong. I'm bad assed."

"Yeah," he called out, "sure!"

Nobara stopped hands on her hips.

" I am. " She said. "I am not a damsel in distress. I can take care of myself."

They really didn't have time to be wasting when Fushiguro was probably fighting for his life so Yuji answered as he walked past her, "Yes, you can."

That was clearly the push she needed cause she fell back into step with him.

"Yes, I can," Nobara said. "I appreciate your help but I totally could have handled that curse in Harajuku."

"Yeah." He meant it. He hadn't known it at the time but after seeing Nobara in action and how hard she trained for the Kyoto Goodwill Event - there was no doubt in his mind that she could have. "You could have."

"And West Tokyo City. I was in the mouth of a toad." She shuddered at the memory. He didn't know why. He'd been in that toad plenty during sparring matches with Megumi - it was nice and warm in there. "I did not need to be in that toad. I could have kept fighting."

"Yup." Yuji agreed. "Totally."

"And just now. I could have handled both of them - easy ."

"Could you?" Yuji teased.

He could do that now. Tease Nobara.

"Blindfolded. With only three nails and my bare hands." Nobara laughed. "I am not a damsel in distress."

"Duh," Yuji said, eloquently. "You'd look terrible in a dress."

Nobara pushed him into a streetlight.

eight.

There is a satin blue dress in Nobara's closet that she never wears.

He doesn't ask her about it because, frankly, he doesn't think he can. They've gotten closer - he'd even consider them friends now, even if she hasn't said the word yet - and they've been through enough shared trauma to bond them for eternity but even still the blue dress hanging in her closet seems like something that he shouldn't touch.

He probably shouldn't have even seen it but they are studying with Megumi in her room and she said her spare blankets were in the closet and get it yourself, finger lover, I am not your mother .

And that was fine. He could definitely get the blanket himself.

But now he's standing in front of Nobara's closet door and there is a very fancy blue dress there that still has its tags on and there is a picture of three girls. One of which has to Nobara - the one with the big, toothy grin - and the other two he doesn't recognize but she has a picture of them.

"You get lost in there, Yuji?" Megumi calls out from where he and Nobara are going through different runes on the floor. "While you're in there torch that dumb sweater she loves so much. It smells like a farmhouse."

Yuji isn't lost. He isn't sure why he's so hung up on the stupid dress and the picture but he's definitely here. Here in Nobara's room where she has a nice dress hanging in her closet that he's never seen her wear.

She isn't the type to turn down the opportunity to strut whenever she has nice things.

"Touch it and you die," Nobara says. It's clearly a threat that she would be willing to follow through with but so are all her threats. "Both of you."

But she is the type to put on a brave face.

So he grabs the blanket and shuts the closet doors.

He sits down in his spot between the two of them.

"Smells more like something died. Like … like a slaughterhouse!" He teases. "They have slaughterhouses in the sticks, right? Maybe she grew up in a slaughterhouse?"

Nobara smacked him on the head.

She'd tell them. When she was ready.

nine.

Nobara decided that she would be friends with him like he was learning Nobara decided most things.

On a whim and with very little foresight.

Hmm…

Kind of like him.

"I have no idea why I'm doing this." She said as Gojo ran to the teachers' lounge to grab his afternoon coffee in the middle of their first Cursed Item seminar. "Yuji. Megumi. We are going to be friends from now on."

"What?"

"Don't make me repeat myself," Nobara said, twirling her pen in her hand as she leaned onto Megumi's desk. "Lesson one."

"Get off." Megumi glared at her. "You're smudging my notes."

Nobara scoffed.

"Aren't you a prodigy?" She moved off his desk. There was a mark on her forearm that looked suspiciously like Megumi's handwriting. "Why do you need notes?"

"Aren't you a prodigy?" Megumi retorted. "Why don't you have notes."

"It's all up here, Fushiguro." Megumi looked at her like he had no doubt that she would also be the type to swallow a finger on a whim. "I don't need notes."

Yuji was just confused.

"Wait?" He asked. He could barely read his own notes. "I have no idea what's going on?"

"Stop phrasing things as questions. It makes you seem dumb." Nobara looked at him, eyeing the closed slits of his second pair of eyes closely. "Dumber."

"There are only three of us here." Nobara continued because Yuji doesn't say anything at all and Megumi just doesn't care. "We're going to be going out on the field together and getting into all kinds of dangerous shit. And I don't know about you Megumi - everyone knows about you, Yuji - but I don't plan on dying anytime soon so we have to learn how to be a good team. So I will be turning you, two boys, into acceptable associates."

Yuji stares at her with his mouth open a little bit.

Megumi has already gone back to writing.

Finally, Yuji says, "Can't you just say, friend?"

Nobara smiles at him then and Yuji thinks that it just might be one of the scariest things he's seen so far.

"Maybe one day, Yuji." Something in her smile changes then for a flicker, just long enough for Yuji to notice. Something sad. "Maybe one day we'll be friends."

ten.

Mahito is in front of Yuji.

And then he isn't.

Nobara is standing next to Yuji.

And then she isn't.

eleven.

Nobara is a liar.

And she is going to make a liar out of Yuji.

"Tell everyone it wasn't so bad."

Because it was.