"Utahime, they're not listening to me!" Gojo came in whimpering about his students. "I was being a total Great Teacher Gojo with Itadori," he proceeded.

The Kyoto teacher wasn't ready for such a major headache in the early morning. Being that is a jerk who waltzed into her office like he owns the place. She settled her shoulder bag on her table with a thud. "Teaching a fast learner student doesn't exactly give you plus points." She sighed.

"So you've noticed." Grinning, he arched his brow. Utahime must have noticed the immense power his student hold during the Goodwill Event.

"News travels fast." She shrugged. "The supposed 'dead' Sukuna Vessel was killed easily because he was a newbie sorcerer. Something like that."

"Huh? The crusty higher ups really thought it like that?"

"Rumors as they say."

"Yeah, yeah, but anyway, what I was saying is…" Gojo took a deep breath, helding his index finger as if to make a crucial point. "I made them play laser tag in Tokyo. Ya know that place we went way before?"

A before where Getou was still around, of course, and surprisingly it's still around. She nodded.

"But with a few minor changes."

"Don't tell me you-"

"I shoved some curses in there too," quickly interjected Gojo. His hands are up and his faced contorted like Utahime was about to blow some hot steam at him.

"You fooled them, Gojo! That's hazard play."

"It's a part of life," he casually shrugged.

"How did they react?"

"Kugisaki was mad, especially. Gosh, you should have seen her! She's insane!"

"Gee, no wonder your students are buffed up with cursed energy 'cause of an infuriating teaching like you."

"So are you admitting I'm a Great Teacher Gojo afterall?"

Utahime didn't even dare to entertain his question as she only proceeded to look at him dead in the eye. "You could have handled it better," She pointed out. Despite his frantic jokes covered in his stories, her fellow head teacher seemed to be desperately wanting a team to happen. An idea creeped into her mind, but her pride hesitated.

"And? " Gojo asked openly, elongating the single syllable word, and all ears to her. Afterall, she is his confidant and his maybe, probably "soulmate" that still boggles his mind.

"How about," she paused, her eyes completely locked on Gojo's blindfolded ones. This is The Gojo Satoru asking for her help once again. "How about you work along with Kyoto?" Utahime recoiled for a bit, holding her breath, a part of her readied herself for his ridiculing laugh.

"So is that what you wanted?" He instantly followed up like it's no big deal, like it's a forgotten rule that when sorcerers help one another they're risking both of their lives.

She released a big sigh, and her eyes flew open. Gojo held his serious face, his eyebrows furrowed and lips slightly curved downward. It came rushing back to Utahime's system that, well, afterall, he, at some point, is her confidant. "You've seen my kids,"she said, "and I think we could help out with that teamwork area."

Gojo jumped up from his seat, a big grin on his lips as he stuffed his hands in his pocket. "We'll start by the end of the week then. It's official."

"Hang on, do we want any of the higher ups knowing this? They'll need approval for this to be…"official.""

"C'mon, Utahime!" he waved his hand dismissively, "I'll easily pull some strings up there. Plus, they don't know a smidge about Muta's case."

The two teachers continued to conclude the details and finished up almost half an hour.

"It's settled then," Utahime had a smug smile, a first in the times they met each other. "I'm sure my kids can do a good beating for a lesson or two for your kids."

It was a different smile, a smile that held a pride in them, and Gojo like that.

"There's one more thing I needed to mention," she said. "Don't you think there's gonna be conflict if they know about Muta's case?"

—

The Tokyo Tech ended up staying over at Tokyo-Kyoto border camp ground that Gojo, with a flick of his wrist, bought for the joint training. The first hours both students met together again, and there was still the lingering urge to claw eyes out. Nobara and Mai being the first one to resurface it.

"You're suposed to hit the target on here, genius! Not to me!" Shouted Nobara, catching everyone's attention.

"Oh, I'm sorry," said Mai, a hand on her hips."If you had known that, you could have easily stepped away!"

Like the black plague, it carried over to the next students, bringing out Muta being the mole, which mysteriously got the information leaked to Tokyo Tech.

"We have a long way to go," muttered Utahime.

Next to her, the Tokyo teacher chuckled at the sight of the students. "More like, a half way to go."

Meanwhile, the other half were quite getting along and only watched the dumpster fire ignite before them.

More complaints ensued later when they found that they'll be camping for more than a week in those grounds.

"But the mosquitoes!"

"My video games!"

"Watching movies!"

"Going shopping!"

"How about Food!"

They all had argued with their students, but by the time dinner and a campfire was made, Gojo and Utahime disclosed an important information

"Aside from Muta-kun being the mole, we had figured out there's a higher up involved."

The bigger reality trickled all into them like an hourglass sand.

"And that means, we work against the system like what I do." They might have not noticed but The Strongest's Six Eyes shifted its work all around, reading the brats energies, and all he could say is it was quite mixed bag of reactions, some flared with anxiety while others burned with pride.

Yet still, one thing could be agreed on that this this, the tricking sand could turn hot and burn their feet once they're in for the game.

"Seeing how you behaved today," suddenly brought up Utahime.

Gojo's eyes widening at her. They absolutely never talked about this, but it's made sense how Utahime ordered a joint mission between schools.

Like that one time both teachers did when they were students themselves, Utahime and Gojo thought. So yes, it did happen.

—

Everyone seemed to get along well until dinner had to happen right after their completed mission.

They were gathered around the campfire with a bowl of soup on their hands. Utahime had thought of complimenting their work for today (and unsurprisingly Gojo wasn't around to do it too).

"Great work today," said Utahime. The students' tired faces shifted from the bonfire to the Kyoto teacher who's peacefully sipping her tea.

"Y-yeah!" assured Miwa, a hint of nervousness stammered her voice. "We seem to work well together, right guys?" The blue haired girl turned her head. Maki seemed to agree as she hummed and nodded her head. Yuuji chimed in with a loud thumbs up as Todo gave him a high five. Megumi pretty much admitted Kamo is smart and "pretty helpful."

Meanwhile the rest went dead silent and only eyed the flickering flames of the bonfire.

"If it weren't for someone being a half-asser," Nobara suddenly spoke out, "then it would have been…great." Her tongue added a sting on the last word.

Clenching her fist, Mai stood up from the seat. "I'm so sick of you shit!" She exclaimed aaaaaannnddd unleashed another storm.

Utahime was literally caught between the fight this time, not merely an observant. "Alright, alright, calm down, calm down!" Her sing-song voice lulled them a bit. Their ragged breaths slowly reached into normal intervals. "Since there's so much…unresolved feelings going on here, how about we just address them to not risk blowing up next time?" She asked.

"Argh, I'm outta here," said Nobara.

"Kugisaki-san."

Yet instantly, Nobara froze on her steps. Utahime calling her name had probably hit differently compared to how others say it. Nobara craned her, and the gentle Kyoto teacher had this genuine smile on her with her brows furrowed, digging a concerning look on her face.

With not anymore words from her, Nobara decided to stay.

—-

"So it's pretty simple," started Utahime, small slips of papers in her hands, "here's some papers-"

"Ehhhhh??" His tardy presence waltzed into the scene, interrupting Utahime. "What's going on here?" He asked.

"Gojo," Utahime knitted her brows, almost crumpling the paper into fists.

"Oh, go on, sensei," he teased, a huge grin on his lips.

Senpai would have been more preferable for Utahime but that still calmed her nerves…maybe just a bit.

"You see, you write on these slips of paper what you're feeling right now," Utahime said. "It could be anything, your frustrations, anger…jealousy, something you're afraid of."

Gojo raised his hand, like an eager school boy.

Cute. Utahime mentally slapped herself. Such intrusive thoughts went out quickly as it went in of her brain.

"And the whole point of this is?" He asked.

"It's like journaling but with a twist," She motioned the bonfire, heating behind her. "After you finish, you either have these feelings burnt to the fire, like it never existed, or…" Utahime panned her eyes to all them, "simply share it out."

The students began to exchange looks. Others curiously looked at Utahime, leaning their elbows on their knees.

Gojo took big strides from his seat and abruptly grabbed one of the paper slips. "I'll start." He volunteered.

Utahime raised an eyebrow at him. There wasn't any movement within their group for a while, but Yuuji proudly stood up and followed his sensei.

—

The side that actually got along revealed positive thoughts with them like the oddest one for sure was Todo talking about meeting his long lost brother. There was Miwa and Yuuji hoping for people to get along. Meanwhile, the rest still had some…issues.

"Ok, I have to admit it's pretty damn hard having these joint thing with Kyoto," Nobara said, giving a quick side-eye at Mai, "but if that's what makes us stronger, I'll try to work it out."

"This is different from the goodwill event that we are all used too, and it's a pain in the ass," Mai said with no filter at all.

"I agree with Mai, and also like Nobara said, we're here to get stronger," Maki said.

—

When Gojo looked at Utahime, he might have been letting her words fly out from his brain this past hour.

Feelings.

Emotions.

Repressed ones especially.

Maybe not all of them and just segments of it that kickstarted his current predicament, eating him up. Having a hard time on what to write on his paper slip. If he could just swallow his pride just a bit, one of the things that bothered him included thoughts like….

How in the world would this whole soulmate thing work with him?!

In a normal, absolutely normal, situation, Gojo was fine about it, really, being with Utahime. But shit, at his rate right now, his whole existence would slap him back to reality to get his head out of his ass if he falls into some fantastical bullshit.

And this, all this, happened to him before and looked what it got him!

"I guess I find it interesting," shrugged Geto. This memory burned into the cracks of Gojo's brain. "Finding someone who can help you out in all this sorcerer stuff sounds…convenient," his voice trailed off but his eyes kept in tune to Gojo's, never daring to look away. It was the day before Yaga assigned them the The Star Plasma vessel/Riko mission. All those words being flipped off to him.

"Hey, Gojo!" Utahime's voice broke past his thought bubble. "It's your turn," she said.

"Can you skip me for now?" Asked Gojo.

"Aren't you paying attention?" She narrowed her eyes. "You're the last one."

"Don't you think this is bit hard for me? I'm the Strongest her a.k.a invincible."

"Well, actually, that leaves more repressed feeling in you, The Strongest, with all the pressure."

Sheeeeeeshhhh. This girl could strip his skin bare right in front of his students.

"Now, be a good example to your students and just get it over with." She crossed her arms.

"You're being the openly hostile here, Utahime. Not really such a good example to the kids, I'd say."

Utahime sighed. "Goodness-"

"Mom and dad are fighting again," a voice had muttered out, quite unrecognizable as it sounded muffled.

She quickly shot them a glance. "Who said that?"

Gojo had an amused smile as he stared at Utahime while the kids, stiffling a laugh, tried to avoid Utahime's impatient eyes.

"Fine, fine, I'll say it," Gojo said. "I'm sorry that people are so jealous of me. But I can't help it that I'm popular," he spoke in a specific tone, something that reminded of Utahime during her earlier years.

"You-" Utahime was almost speechless. She took a breath. "Stop quoting Mean Girls, and take this seriously!"

"Said the girl who was obsessed with them."

"That was highschool!"

"You went as the "she doesn't even go here" guy for halloween once. Still though, I thought you're so-"

"Shut up!"

This time it was the student's turn to break up their fighting teachers

—

Gojo kept on tossing and turning in his sleep. In his tent, he hadn't forgotten to bring out the seat he loved to sleep on. It never failed to be comfortable but tonight he's not feeling it.

A fresh air felt nice for him right now, and he immediately know a spot.

The cliff wasn't too far from their campsite. It showed the whole view of the city and its twinkling lights at night. Just walking for a few minutes, thag sight would greet him but instead it was a familair white ribbon that greeted him first.

He unhesistantly approached Utahime and she neber flinched at all. Totally weird.

"Can't sleep?" He asked as he sat next to her, at least a feet apart.

She hummed, clearly not taking too much attention to Gojo.

The Tokyo teacher just now noticed how she had her eyes closed, taking calming breaths as her chest rose.

"I'm having withdrawals," abruptly said Utahime. "I think," she added, not turning her head to him.

Gojo looked at her like she grew a talking mouth on her back. He blinked.

"Didn't have my alcohol intake tonight." She continued, shivering and wrapping her arms around herself.

"Jeeeeez," said Gojo, observing her deeper. "You and your beer obsession."

"Then there's you and your sugar content," she rasily quipped back. "Bet you're awake for a midnight snack?"

"Sadly, I don't have them either."

"Oh." She looked at him this time. "I guess that makes the two of us, having withdrawals..."

Gojo chuckled. "But I can always get my cravings done."

Utahime raised an eyebrow. "You mean like?"

He smirked. "There's a bunch of vending machines I saw before coming here. We can buy some goods there."

It took a couple of seconds for Utahime to process it. Her big brown eyes blinking at Gojo, her brows furrowing in realization. His smirk grew.

"Are you saying," she finally said something, "we're teleporting there?"

"Bingo! You are that bright afterall." Then he did his silly clap

"Are you really sure they got beer there?"

"Gosh, how do you people live with that nasty thing?"

"That's a yes."

"Well, technically it's a yes-"

"After what you made me did in front of the kids," she said, dead eyeing Gojo, "you better take me to it."

—

It relieved Gojo quite a bit when he saw Utahime stopped shivering once she had that awful beer soothing down her throat.

She polished off her can with satisfied sigh and a dumbfounded smile on her face while Gojo fumbled for his chocolate drink the whole time, still actually concerned.

Utahime was about to shot for another one when Gojo flicked off the coin from her fingers.

"What the hell?!" She yelped. "You had no right to piss me off away from my beer!"

"That's your third can already!"

"Why'd you care!"

"I don't want hauling your drunken butt off the road."

"Let me just sleep here in the streets then!" She ok grumbled and continued to push through in buying her can of beer.

It confused Gojo every second tick. There was no slight indication earlier this day that she was gonna lost it tonight. Is this really how bad withdrawals are?

Lost in his thoughts, the vending machine spat of another can with Gojo distracted.

"What's wrong with you, woman?!" exclaimed Gojo, his hands grabbing into Utahime's beer. She held like it was her long lost teddy beer.

"Get away from me!" screeched Utahime. "I deserve this beer!"

"You're supposed to be the resposible one here!"

"Well, shit, I get tired too!" Utahime hastily lifted the can to her lips, spilling some of its liquids to her chest. "You know, that was a lot to take in for me," she slurred. "All that goddamned feelings makes me all just," she took another sip, loudly setting it down on the concrete, "exhausted. B-but don't get me wrong," she continued while Gojo stared at her dumbfoundedly, this drunken side of Utahime more emotional to what he previously saw before.

"Don't get me wrong!" she repeated with much more emphasis, sensing Gojo's silence "I love all my kids. It's just that this job… can be t-taxing sometimes."

Gojo stood there, feeling like a total idot that Utahime has always told him to be. His mouth was shut, and at times like this, people would probably give advice, but he was a stone.

"But I know that, I know that when I went into this job.." she continued, "So how do you do it, you fuckin' idiot!"

That hit harder than what he expected to take when Utahime taunted him. Gojo's eyes went around the streets and the skies like it would give him some answers.

"You're drunk, let's get back or I'm living your sorry ass here." He tried to avoid it as he clutched onto Utahime's arm to make her stand.

"No! How do you do it?!"

Then his eyes landed back to Utahime, her eyes glistening at him. Gojo thought he might know the answer. So, in a single breath, he said,"have you ever heard of the Hedgehog's dilemma."

"Don't pull some philosophical shit on me right now, Gojo!" She heaved, pointing a harsh finger on him. "Answer the damn question!"

"Basically, its the closer you get to someone, the more it hurts," he ignore her and continued on. Gojo could see his future self laughing at him right now, being like this.

"I'm a damn teacher, I know-"

"You help me a lot." He clutched his neck then added a light chuckle as if to try to fill in the awkward silence. And yes, Utahime did help him a lot. When it comes to tricking feelings like when he lost Suguru, when he kinda adopted the Fushiguro siblings, and now when he wanted his brats to get stronger. As much as he proclaimed himself the strongest, he needed others too like Utahime and there's Nanamin as well.

"But," he said and yet still, there was always a catch to it. "Along the way," he sucked in his breath, saying the rest was a fingernail on the blackboard, absolutely unbearable.

She let her head fall onto her knees, trying to wait out those words as if it would work.

"You have me too," Gojo added instead.

I might get too close.

The supposed words shoved back in his throat and hoped his stomach acids could just liquify them. He hated it, having to be like this, too prickly for each other like hedgehogs.

"And you sometimes don't act like it.." She muttered, lifting her head up and wiping her face with her sleeves.

"You crying?" Gojo asked. His iron walled world built up again, fast enough to confuse Utahime that it was just a blur.

A smile made its way to his face when Utahime, like always before, started knitting her brows and gritting her teeth.

She noticed how he tried to control his smile but failed when his lips spasmed. "You little-" Without missing any beat, she jumped up from her feet and was ready to throw a punch to his pretty face.

Gojo thought quick and used the tempered Utahime to grab her wrist and easily pull her to his self made portal.

—

Yuuji wanted to take a shit so badly during the day, but his body refused to with its inability to shit at some place other than his home. When night fell, his gut told time that it was mother's nature's calling, and it had to be done.

He had peacefully shat out what needed to be without any torture of his butthole. Once all was flushed and cleaned, he went out of the toilet hearing sounds of grunting and toppling on the grass. The worst part is, when he took a peek behind the bushes, he recognized that it was from his sensei and the kyoto teacher.

Yuuji gulped.

"Get off me!" Utahime said. Gojo had turned out to have landed on top of Utahime when they arrived.

"Can you quiet it down a bit?" whispered Gojo. "You'll wake the brats up."

"Oh, so now you're the responsible one?"

Yuuji giggled at Utahime's sass.

"Knowing them, they might think I got you drunk." Gojo's voice was growing inpatient.

There was a caress in the wind, rustling the trees, and then total silence. Yuuji shivered at the unknown tension.

"HELP Mhmrgh-?!" Utahime shouted, but Gojo was quick to stick his hand on her mouth.

"You crazy woman!" He exclaimed. "You're out of your damn mind!"

"And you're a living breathing headache, I can't get rid of!"

If this is the drunk Utahime-sensei, a part of Yuuji doesn't mind having his Gojo-sensei be teased like this. At the same time, a majority of him wanted to help out the teachers.

"Itadori-kun!" suddenly called out Gojo.

Yuuji froze like a deer in headlights except he didn't even give out his cover. Those all knowing Six Eyes had done its part. The student slowly stepped out from his bush. "Heyyyyyy," he said with a nervous laugh, twisting his toes on the ground. "Didn't see ya there."

Meanwhile, it was the right time for Utahime to puke her guts out. After much fightimg with Gojo and intense coughing, Utahime raised her head high at Yuuji and said, "let's just pretend you never saw this happened."

—

"Alright brats!" yelled out Gojo with a megaphone at hand, waking the whole campsite. "Utahime Iori-sensei is coming down with a headache so I'll be taking over for now!"

"But don't worry, she still here in spirit since she list some pointers about my…sometimes questionable teaching…"

Okay, first thing in Utahime's list was making them do a warm up. Already, Gojo was confused on the warming up part. Why don't we just get right into action? Get into the meat of it? The exciting part?

This early morning, Utahime was too shit faced too even explain this list.

"We usually start doing stretches if it's action related," said Maki.

"But if it's something to do with lectures, we start with a game of charades for vocab study," answered Kamo.

"Oh, that's…something." He stared daggers at the list, his fingers itching to just chuck it out of the window. But that poor drunken, shitfaced Utahime kept on appearing in his visions. She was totally on the verge of tearing up, worried about their kids.

Still…..this isn't his style…

Gah! fine, fine! He guessed he had to put up with some extra work for just a while.

Or that's what he thought.

He felt her cursed energy coming into him like a waterfall. It was weak but it flowed strongly. She stepped next to Gojo with a firm posture

"Excuse my tardiness," she said, her arms crossed, "it won't happen again."

Gojo glanced at his side. All the alcohol and hang-over she accumulated throughout her years must have hardened her on those morning headaches. They were some bags on her eyes, but still she looked well kept.

'You help me a lot' he had said to her last night, and it worked like a charm. The looming hedgehog pricks on him subsided just for a bit.