Hello. This chapter isn't to eventful, but we get Itadori back and all the Kyoto students get introduced! I've been using first names for people Shohei is friendly and casual with, but I think I'll only keep that for when he's speaking to or about them so I can be able to use last names more in the writing. Also, I don't think I'll ever call Shohei by his last name unless someone calls him Gojo because they aren't close, but I will have Satoru be called Gojo too since it feels like we hear him get called that more in the show and since he's the face and figure head of the Gojo clan.

The final weeks and days had passed before the Kyoto Event arrived and the Tokyo High students gathered together on a path in the recently risen sun that would be the location for themselves, some staff of Tokyo High, and the Kyoto visitors would meet.

Both Principal Yaga and Satoru Gojo were supposed to join the Tokyo students in welcoming the guests, but neither had arrived yet.

Kugisaki had arrived last to the meeting place with luggage on her shoulder and in hand, looking at the others as if they were all the odd one out.

"Why are you all empty-handed?!" asked Kugisaki, sounding like the connecting truth was breaking her heart. She dropped a magazine of famous and popular places to visit in Kyoto Japan.

"What are you doing with all that luggage?" Panda asked plainly, pointing at Kugisaki's bags.

The others looked at Kugisaki dully as she explained.

"What do you mean? We're going to Kyoto, right?" Kugisaki asked cautiously. "For the Exchange Event with our sister school in Kyoto?"

"It's an Exchange Event with our sister school in Kyoto, held in Tokyo," Panda explained, stressing that the school was in the location and that none of them would be attending it for the event.

"No way!" Kugisaki cried, looking sick to her stomach and furious as she ran her hands through her hair. "What did I make all those preparations for, then?!"

"No wonder our conversations have been a bit off lately," Maki noted.

"Without a doubt," Shohei scoffed. "Kugisaki hasn't been on the same page as us this entire time."

"I was totally ready to go sightseeing! This sucks! What a scam!" the girl kept swearing.

"Yeah," Megumi agreed, staring at the raging Kugisaki.

"Salmon," Toge also said.

Shohei felt a relatively small, but very strong group of cursed signatures walk into the edge of his range of cursed energy sensing. He retreated from the conversation quietly and turned to wait and stare down the path that the Kyoto visitors would soon be seen on.

"It's held at the school that won in the previous year," Panda tried telling Nobara over her own yelling.

Kugisaki lunged at Panda and gripped him by the fur and flesh of his neck as if it were just a shirt and shook him as she growled, "Then don't go winning, you idiots!"

"We weren't in it last year!" Panda muttered through the shaking. "Only Yuta participated to make the numbers match up!"

"That was prior to freeing Rika. Apparently, it was an overwhelming win. I didn't see it, though, since it was held in Kyoto. The third-years from both schools and Yuta were the only ones to compete last year," Maki explained. "Both schools had such a shortage of students that neither had third-years that year so they resorted to asking Yuta."

"I won't forgive you, Yuta Okkotsu!" Nobara yelled through her rolled up magazine from the ground. "Not that I've even met you!"

"That's misdirected anger," Panda muttered.

"Salmon," Toge agreed.

Maki finally saw Shohei looking down the path and saw the incoming group herself.

"Hey," Maki said, calm and cold, but snappish, as if to get the others quiet and in shape.

"Our guests are here," Shohei murmured, calmly, not taking his bang shielded eyes from the approaching group.

Mai was the first to come into view after scaling the final steps of stairs on the path, and also the first to speak.

"Oh, look," Mai called, in a high, superior voice. "It's everyone from Tokyo together."

The remaining Kyoto students finally scaled the stairs and gathered together, in a mirroring group of six, facing the Tokyo students.

"You went out of your way to greet us?" Mai continued. "Disgusting."

"Okkotsu's not here," Aoi Todo noted, rubbing the back of his head as if he couldn't believe it.

"It doesn't matter that Yuta isn't here, Aoi-kun," Shohei said, a lax smile shinning and mysterious stares behind his bangs piercing the muscular boy. "You actually made me kinda excited for this event when you last visited so I think I'll give you the smack down you want."

Aoi and Shohei shared friendly, but clashing looks as the tension between the two schools only rose.

"Shut up," Kugisaki spat fiercely. "Hurry up and hand over the cake box, and the yatsuhashi, kudzu noodles, and buckwheat cookies," she finished expectantly, waving a finger to receive the supposed Kyoto delites.

"Salmon," Inumaki greeted the group kindly, but coldly with an expressionless gaze.

Panda was sweating from Nobara's blunt request, but stayed silent from his recent thrashing by her.

"You guys hungry?" Todo asked, put off by the requests.

"Who is that first-year? She's scary," said Momo Nishimiya, a small, blonde third-year student.

She looked very young for her age, which made her ear piercings and bell adorned choker seem very out of place, not to mention the broom taller than her in hand. Her bright, blonde hair was pulled in two very large pigtails above her head. Her pale blue eyes matched her ballerina shoes and uniform of the typical material in a black dress that fell to her calves.

"Never mind Okkotsu being absent," Mechamaru said with an automated voice.

He was a cursed puppet controlled by a Sorcerer that Shohei had never seen or met. The cursed puppet however had the build of a tall, bald human with blank green screens for eyes, and seemingly made out of a metal that resembled wood. It was decorated with swirly black markings on the metal and was wearing a scarf around his neck.

"Isn't having two first-years a major handicap?" the robot asked.

"A robot?! It's a robot!" Nobara muttered in disbelief.

"Age is irrelevant to Jujutsu Sorcerers," Noritoshi Kamo corrected. "Especially with Fushiguro-kun. He's from the Zenin bloodline, but he's more talented than the head of the clan."

"Tsk," Mai scoffed at the remark of her clan elder.

"Something to say?" Kamo asked Mai with no expression or emotion. She stayed silent and he continued. "Greetings Shohei Gojo," Noritoshi greeted the tall boy with a deep bow.

Shohei bowed deeply back and said, "Greetings Noritoshi Kamo. I trust your clan and family are doing well."

Nobara looked absolutely shocked at Shohei's respectful and formal greeting.

"Indeed. I wish all the same," Kamo replied.

Kamo was a tall boy with thin eyes who kept his black hair wrapped in cloth by the sides of his face. His uniform was styled like a shozoku and was accompanied by zori sandals.

Kasumi Miwa walked over to Kamo and Mai to keep their simmering tempers under control and murmured nervously, "Stay calm you two."

She had light blue hair that fell past her shoulders, with diagonally cut bangs over her forehead, and navy blue eyes. Her uniform was an entire suit and tie, but was extremely contrasted by a katana by her side.

There was a sharp clap from behind the group of Kyoto students and a woman strolled into view from atop the stairs.

"Okay now," she said. "Let's not fight amongst ourselves. My goodness, these children."

The woman was the Kyoto student's supervisor, Utahime Iori, a semi-first-grade Sorcerer. She was a slim woman with long blackish-purple hair, brown eyes, and a wide scar running over her nose and across her cheeks. She didn't wear a traditional Jujutsu uniform, but a classic red and white miko outfit with brown boots.

"So, where's that idiot?" Iori asked, looking at the only present residents of Tokyo High.

"Satoru's late," Panda said.

"As if that idiot would ever show up on time," Maki spat, looking impatient.

"No one said "idiot" referred to Gojo-sensei," Megumi defended.

"Well here he comes," Shohei said sensing the man before a rumbling of something on wheels reached the other's ears.

Satoru was running towards the group from a side path, pushing a large, black crate on wheels.

Shohei felt something odd about Gojo's surrounding cursed energy, like it was mixed with or overshadowing something.

"Sorry for the wait!" the tall man called excitedly.

"Satoru Gojo!" Miwa gasped with a twinkle in her eyes. She must've been a fan of the strongest Sorcerer.

"Tsk," Iori scoffed beside her with a prude expression. "Satoru Gojo."

Satoru drifted the crate to a sudden stop as he reached the group and said, "Hey, I see everyone's together. I was on a business trip overseas. So I will now hand out souvenirs!"

"This is sudden," Panda muttered.

"It's Satoru," Shohei shrugged. "His sporadicness is almost to be expected."

"Sure it's not jet lag?" Nobara questioned, looking at the posing, tall man with severe judgment.

Satoru pulled from the top of the cart several weaved, pink figures, roughly shaped like humans and began dishing them out to the Kyoto students.

"Okay," he muttered in glee, passing the dolls. "Everyone from Kyoto gets this protective charm from a particular tribe." He finished handing the dolls to everyone and held up his empty hands and said to the only other adult present, "None for you Utahime."

"I don't need one!" Iori roared back at the grinning man.

Gojo turned from them and returned to the large cart to twirl it and said with an extreme amount of flamboyant energy, even for him, "And for everyone from Tokyo, we have this!"

Gojo posed with the cart, as if it were supposed to explode open with a great gift.

"Overly excited adults are creepy," Kugisaki muttered to the rest of the Tokyo students as Gojo continued to pause over the crate for a little too long.

Out of the blue, the crate lid suddenly swung open and Yuji Itadori bursted out alive and breathing.

"Hey!" Itadori cheered, throwing up a hang loose hand sign and squinting from such a massive smile. "OPP!"

"It's your departed friend, Yuji Itadori-kun!" Satoru cheered, throwing a hand out to Itadori as if he was presenting the students with a brand new car.

Shohei, Megumi, and Kugisaki were pale with shock at the unexplained appearance of their previously mourned friend.

Shohei didn't believe it. Gojo had hidden Itadori's cursed energy in his own, but it really was his underclassmen that he watched die in front of him. Shohei recognized Itadori's cursed energy signature, but it had grown from a frail, newborn looking one to a strong and robust signature.

Itadori's face of glee went to a deep gasp of shock as he yelled, "Huh?!" with his hang loose sign still up. "Huh? Huh?!" he repeated, looking between his classmates for a different sign or reaction. "They don't seem happy at all!" He shouted at Gojo, seeing his friends' stunned faces. "N-no way."

"Okay," Satoru continued just as energetically, turning Itadori, still in the cart, towards the other group of students. "Everyone from Kyoto! This is Sukuna's vessel, Yuji Itadori-kun!"

"What about the Kyoto students," Itadori muttered, still striking the same pose he first struck. "They're too absorbed in their souvenirs!" Itadori cried, seeing all the other students examining their dolls with a range of different expressions.

At that moment, Shohei noticed the two school principals had joined the scene from a flight of stairs that led further into the campus.

"Sukuna's vessel?! What's the meaning of this?" Principal Gakuganji gasped, seeing Yuju standing stunned in the crate.

The Principal of Kyoto had a long, bald head. His gray eyebrows were each like a mature beard, shaggy, and hanging down to his chin almost and casting a shadow over his eyes. Like Nishimiya, the several piercings in his nose, lips, and ears seemed out of place for his age. He wore a light nagajuban and had a thick, wooden cane in hand for walking.

Principle Yaga stood behind the Kyoto principal, staring at the scene. He wore the standard Jujutsu uniform, unzipped. His stone cold face and sunglasses over his eyes hid any apparent reaction to the scene.

Principal Yaga Masamichi was a tall, wide, muscular man with tan skin, with a haircut with shaved sides and long on top. He had a face cut from stone, figuratively speaking even though it wouldn't be too out of place for Jujutsu Society.

"Principal Gakuganji!" Gojo cheered, turning to see the principal, sounding like he had laid his eyes on an old relative that was hard of hearing. "Oh, thank goodness," he said, walking over to the old man and leaning down, almost bent in half as the elder was very short and hunched back. "I was worried you might just die from the shock."

"You damn brat!" Gakuganji grumbled, his eyes going so wide that they could be seen leering from behind his massive eyebrows.

Shohei shuffled over to his older cousin and yanked him by the collar, away from the Principal, who was also a member of the higher ups that wanted Itadori dead and that Satoru so often resisted.

Shohei and Principal Yaga began choking out and beating Satoru, despite his shield of Infinity around him, partially due to the fact that he knew the scolding was necessary.

"You can't shut your trap for three seconds, can you?!" Shohei said, punching the older man's head repeatedly.

Nobara and Fushiguro walked over to the crate that Itadori was frozen, posing in and kicked it.

"Hey," Kugisaki spat.

"Uh, yes?" Itadori asked bashfully, hesitant of their response.

"You got something to say?" Kugisaki said, waiting for a proper response after the boy's death.

Shohei left Yaga choking Satoru to join the other two in talking to Itadori.

"Throwing up some hand signs isn't enough of an explanation or apology after dying," Shohei said seriously, but flashing the boy a small smile.

Itadori paused at Nobara's scouring face and Megumi's constant passive rbf, but caught his breath at Shohei's smirk.

"I'm sorry for keeping quiet about being alive," Itadori muttered.

Everyone simmered down and gathered together again now that the principal of Tokyo High was there to explain how the events would play out that day.

Yaga motioned for them all to follow, and proceeded to walk further into the school grounds and came across a welcome banner for the Kyoto visitors.

A small display of day time fireworks fired off into the sky and everyone quieted down again to listen to Principal Yaga as he cleared his throat and snatched up Gojo again to put him in a clinch that threatened to dislocate his shoulder.

"The Tokyo-Kyoto Sister School Exchange Event will be held over two days. The first day is group battle," Principal Yaga announced to the small crowd. "The Wacky Cursed Spirit Exorcism Race! The rules are simple. The first team to exorcize the second-grade cursed spirit released in the designated area wins. Several third-grade and lower cursed spirits will be released into the designated area, as well. If a winner is not decided by sundown the team that excorcises the most wins. There are absolutely no other rules. Of course, you're welcome to sabotage the others, but remember, you're all on the same side in the fight against the curses. This exchange event will allow you to learn about yourselves and your comrades through competition."

Satoru, who had been struggling to escape through the entire speech, began to struggle with some extra vigor, and soon began tapping on Yaga's back to submit. Iori, who to everyone's knowledge disliked Satoru, giggled at his struggling. Yaga ignored his surrender and continued.

"Be certain not to kill other competitors or injure them beyond recovery. That's it. You're all dismissed until the event commences at noon!"

The group of staff and students had scattered and were holding side meetings to discuss whatever matters they wanted.

The Tokyo students were gathered together in a rest area in the building where they normally would have classes on Jujutsu subjects to interview Itadori and strategize with a new person on their team.

Itadori had indeed told the real reasoning of his sudden revival. Shohei sat down, listening to the story and was impressed. Itadori had grown leaps and bounds stronger, and Shohei could barely sense Sukuna's own cursed energy under all of Itadori's. Shohei wasn't even fazed that Gojo didn't tell him of his plan to fake Itadori's death and was almost grateful Sukuna brought Itadori back to life after ripping out his heart.

"Excuse me," Itadori muttered, bashfully. He was holding a funeral frame around his own face as he knelt on the ground from Nobara's and Megumi's demands, as repentance for his inappropriate return. "Depending on how you look at it, this could be considered very extreme bullying."

Nobara had her back to Itadori and Megumi just looked down at him with his typical blank face.

"Shut up and stay like that way for a while," Kugisaki said, coldly.

"Now, now," Panda said patiently. "You heard his explanation. Cut him some slack."

"The panda talked?" said Itadori, looking back in surprise.

"Yeah," Shohei chirped from the ground, laying down with his feet in the air. "I'm just glad to have you back Yuji-kun."

"Salmon, salmon," Toge agreed, letting the others know it was good to have another student to compete in the event.

"What?" Itadori asked, confused.

"Inumaki-senpai is a cursed speech user," Fushiguro explained, speaking for the first time in a while. "Cursed speech is a technique that amplifies the power of compulsion of words. He limits his vocabulary to keep others safe."

Itadori's mouth made a perfect o. He followed up Megumi with, "So if he told someone to go die, they'd actually die? That's really powerful."

"I wish it was that easy," Shohei chuckled.

"It's nothing that convenient," Panda said. "It's all case by case, depending on their difference in strength. If he uses powerful words, he's hit with massive feedback."

"Like if Toge told me to 'break'. It's a very extreme word and I'm a very powerful person, so the backlash would definitely hurt him," Shohei explained.

"Limiting his vocabulary is a way for Toge to protect himself, as well," said Panda.

"So how are you able to speak, Senpai?" Itadori asked, looking back from his frame again. "Are you a new breed of panda?"

Shohei looked to Maki from the ground and smiled at her after seeing her roll her eyes at Itadori and his question.

"Blabbing on about people's techniques," Kugisaki murmured in disapproval.

"It's fine," Maki waved off. "Toge's isn't that kind of technique anyway."

"Plenty of people know about Cursed speech, so the Kyoto students are bound to know too," Shohei said, laying his head back and staring at the paneled ceiling.

"More importantly, Yuji," Maki said, changing subjects and briskly walking up to Yuji. "Give me back Slaughter Demon." Maki held out her hand and looked down at Itadori expectantly. "You borrowed it from Satoru, right?"

Shohei saw Itadori's face go blank as he tried to remember the cursed tool Maki was talking about, but as sudden as a fly zips past your ear, his face went pale at some harsh realization.

"Gojo-sensei… has it," Itadori muttered, avoiding eye contact with Maki and throwing a thumb behind his shoulder.

Maki scoffed, crossing her arms and growled, "That blindfolded dumbass!"

Shohei got up and walked over to Itadori and whispered in his ear so Maki wouldn't hear him, "It'll be okay. We won't let her hurt you if she hears you broke or lost it or whatever."

Maki quickly overlooked her missing weapon and said, "So, what's the plan?" with crossed arms and an expectant look. "The group battle format is what we expected, but we have another member now. Do we change strategies? There's not much time."

"Bonito flakes," Toge cursed in his monotone voice, puzzled about what to do.

"Well, that depends on Yuji," Panda contributed to the issue. He and Itadori looked at each other and Panda asked, "What can you do?"

Itadori grabbed his bicep and listed, "Punch, kick…"

"We have enough of that," Panda said plainly. Itadori looked downtrodden after all his skills were called unnecessary.

Megumi spoke up again from his long stretch of silence. "I don't know what he's been doing since he's been dead, but if everyone from Tokyo and Kyoto fought him at once without cursed energy, Itadori would win," he said, very duly, but dead serious.

"Oh?" Panda muttered, impressed by the large claim from the boy who typically didn't joke.

Toge, Maki, and Shohei were all looking impressed at Megumi's claim of Itadori's supposed skill.

Shohei was not only surprised Megumi would admit that after fighting Todo, but convinced from Itadori's apparent growth in only cursed energy alone in the month and some change that he spent supposedly dead. Shohei wondered how much more skilled Itadori became in other areas if his cursed energy more than doubled.

The Tokyo students gathered together at a gated entrance to the forest where the cursed spirit hunt would be held after they had fully made up their new plan.

Shohei was standing together with Kugisaki and Maki, discussing who was the biggest threat, besides Todo, on the Kyoto team.

"I wouldn't say I know Kamo past the formalities of clan politics, but I think he's the strongest behind Todo," Shohei remarked, thinking of the boy's very impressive Inherited technique and skill as a Sorcerer.

"Yea, but Mechamaru looks like he had some stuff up his sleeve," Nobara said, suspectly.

"You're just on edge because he looks like a robot," Maki dismissed the girl's predictions.

Megumi and Yuji joined the group by the gate and prepared to take off. Nobara joined Megumi and Yuji's conversation.

The second-year's looked back at the talking first-years. Shohei couldn't help but feel warm inside seeing the three reunited.

Nobara turned to the gate and cheered, "Overwhelm them! Let's thoroughly trounce them! For Maki'-san's sake, too!"

"Don't say stuff like that," Maki said, ignoring the girl's excited state.

"Pollack roe," Toge cheered sarcastically.

"Yea! For Maki-san's sake, too!" Panda joined in.

"For Maki-san!" Shohei murmured in between a quiet snicker.

"Don't say stuff like that," Maki repeated, more seriously.

They all lined up, ready to dive into the forest brimming with dangerous curses and even more lethal Sorcerers.

Itadori bounded forward, crouching, ready to take the lead. He said, "Well, in that case, let's win!"

Everyone's lethal and competitive air was dispersed as Maki kicked over the ovelyexcited Yuji and said, "What are you doing taking the lead?"

I felt like the spacing of paragraphs in this chapter was weird so feel free to comment if you noticed it too. Next chapter will have a little tease of action and the revealing of the plan with Shohei thrown in the mix.