A/N: SPOILERS for Shibuya incident and Post-Shibuya Incident.
Enjoy
Found and Lost
Yuuji's life as far as he could remember had been lonely. Sure he was surrounded by people. But he always felt like something was missing.
There were his neighbors who occasionally brings them cooked dinner from time to time and would occasionally inquire about him but he felt it was mostly out of pity for the young middle schooler (at that time) having to take care of his grandfather whose health has gradually becoming worse as the years progress. There were also his classmates, his teachers and coaches but they were only interested in his athletic skills. They wanted him to join their clubs and win competitions for them even though despite being gifted with a natural talent for sports, he doesn't have an interest in it.
He thought he found friends with the members of the occult research club but he almost had them killed. If it weren't for him they wouldn't have almost died and sustained grave injuries. They could have lived a life not knowing about the curses that roam the earth. But because he wanted to make real friends so badly he just had to give them that damned finger.
He could say he had his grandfather and he did but there were times where he felt that he was too much for the old man to handle, that there were times he knew that Wasuke didn't know what to do with him and just a tiny bit of resentment and disappointment in having to take care of him when he was abandoned by parents he couldn't remember. And maybe he resents him a bit too, don't get him wrong, he loved his grandpa more than anything but the years have worn the old man down and made him bitter with his old age. He was stubborn and constantly distanced himself from his grandson when his body started failing him. Yuuji took over cooking and some of the chores half-way through middle school when Wasuke was left bedridden half of the time. He fully took over everything when his grandfather collapsed in his last year of middle school. If his grandfather hadn't insisted on him continuing his schooling he would have dropped out of high-school to look for a job too pay for the hospital bills when Wasuke finally got admitted. Fortunately, they had enough money to cover it as well as provide for his schooling until he graduates so there wasn't much of a need for him to do so. Going to school, attending the club activities from the occult club, running errands and having to take care of his grandfather has become his routine in the entirety of his first year as a high-schooler until he met Fushiguro, until his grandfather passed away, until he consumed that cursed object and became the vessel for the king of curses.
He thought, when Gojo told him he'll be executed, that he was okay with it. He just lost his grandpa and his senpais were in the hospital because of him and he now has the king of curses, Sukuna Ryumen, incarnated in him. He would be better off dead. There wasn't anyone relying on him anymore as much as his grandfather denied it, he hurt his seniors and he's housing a terrible being so yeah, he's better off dead. However he found himself enrolled in Jujutsu Tech instead of being executed. Which looking back wasn't too bad.
He met up again with Fushiguro and Gojo, got to meet Kugisaki. He got to know them. Got to spend precious times with them and grew to care and love them. He also got to meet the rest of his seniors and somewhat gain a brother much to his confusion.
He knows how Fushiguro isn't much of a morning person and is the only person he knows who is capable of setting fire to a pot of boiling water. His cooking skill was atrocious before Yuuji came in to his life and taught him how to cook. He still sucks at it but one of their best moments was when Yuuji successfully taught Megumi how to make meatballs. He also knows that despite how grumpy the dark haired teen was, he cares a lot about his friends including their sensei which he complains about a lot of the time just like Kugisaki who constantly says mean things to them but will ask them out to go shopping or karaoke or hangout in a newly opened cafe in their day offs. Granted she makes them carry all her stuff and wrecks them in karaoke but Yuuji would admit that it was all fun. They might disagree a lot when picking a place to eat or to sight see but they can go along well like the time they bullied Megumi in to shopping for when they learned that all he has are dark colored clothes, 90 percent being black. Or when they successfully got their sensei to treat them.
And speaking of their sensei, despite how much confidence he embodies there were moments when they were in the basement where he was sitting by himself that he would look... sad, Yuuji doesn't say anything and it would seem their sensei hasn't notice him observing. He doesn't know why but he knows that it's wrong seeing their cheerfully exuberant sensei like that. So whenever he knows Gojo sensei was less cheery and less loud he'll take a break from his training and offer to bake, excusing it as way for him to distress and Gojo would immediately perk up at the prospects of sweets especially one made by Yuuji since he knows how good his student is at cooking and baking after stealing some of the ones he has made when he was teaching Megumi. And later on, after he had met Nanamin, they would get together in his spare time to have tea and eat sweets he has prepared since he knows how much of a foodie his mentor can be and their little get together would occasionally be crashed by his other sensei much to the blonds irritation. He thinks of the 2nd years, Maki-senpais cool and calm voice when she would teach him to use some of her cursed tools. Panda's booming one when he cheers and gives inputs from the sideline and his soft furry belly when he would try to wrestle him. Inumaki-senpais expression whenever he tries to understand what he's saying and the head pats he gets whenever he guess right. Todou loudly yelling 'brother' before dragging him to the handshake event of his favorite idol whenever he visits Tokyo.
Yuuji thinks all of the fond memories he has of the people he considers more than just friends and mentors, they were his family. As he sits on the stairs of a dilapidated crumbling building, a mirthless smile made itself on his face for how naive it was for him to think it would last. He thought he was going to die via execution but he was prepared for it, he already made friends so he thought he wasn't going to die alone but the incident at Shibuya was worse than the prospect of him dying. Gojo-sensei sealed, Nanami dead, Nobara dying, Fushiguro beaten up and Todo crippled. All because he was powerless to do anything. Now here he was on the run with Choso who claims him to be his brother, running away from the people that got hurt because of him, running from the guilt of the people that got killed because be couldn't control Sukuna, running away because that's all he could do to escape facing the people left behind. All he could do now is try and kill as much curses as he can, find the man who unleached this hell on earth, free his sensei and die. Whichever comes first. Because after the event that took place on that hollowed eve, he knows there's no place for him to truly come back to. No more cooking sessions with Fushiguro, no more shopping trips with Kugisaki, no more movie marathons with Gojo-sensei, no more teas with Nanami and no more sparing with the seniors. He truly has nothing more. Maybe this was what was meant for him.
To be truly alone.
A dead man walking.
Lost.
END NOTE:
Can we all agree that Yuuji needs a hug? Readers as well? I'm pretty sure we aren't alright after the shit that went down in shibuya and it's aftermath.
Originally posted on ao3 under my username Vividly_Violet.
You can also find me on twitter @Vividly_Violet_ and on tumblr @violetlou2020