I hope you enjoy the additions I made to this chapter. I kind of provide some insight to Maki and Mai and even Kamo at some points but I didn't complete switch POVs for all of them.
"Do you need anything else, Yaga?" Shohei asked the principal, placing the final mangled and mutated body down on an autopsy table for Ieiri to examine.
"No, but thank you Shohei," the principal assured, throwing a sheet over the corpse and heading to the sink to wash his slightly bloody hands.
"You really should go to your dorms and rest rather than helping us. You and the other students have been through a lot."
Shohei had volunteered himself to help in any way possible after the dust had settled from the emergency. Students were all rushed away to Ieiri for immediate attention to their injuries and were still being treated in her clinic.
Off campus Sorcerers halted their missions and flooded Jujutsu High and the campus staff were buzzing like bees from all the tasks thrust upon them, that is, all the alive staff.
Like Shohei expected, several people were working with the special-grade Curse he fought. Besides the two curse users he sensed in the veil with him, one of whom was caught, someone else had broken into the store room where Sukuna's fingers were stolen and killed the staff guarding the room. Not only were all six of Sukuna's fingers that Jujutsu High possessed were stolen, but so were three Cursed womb: Death Paintings, which were special-grade cursed objects of extreme danger.
Shohei of course hadn't found out all this on his own or been told by adult sorcerers. He had been flat out told by Satoru despite Yaga throttling his neck as he spoke. Satoru insisted that Shohei was a key member in the Gojo clan and his right hand man and therefore should be permitted all known knowledge of the dire situation. This all was only semi-true as Shohei was one of Satoru's closer kinsmen and confidants, but by no means anything other than a shadow and attempted clone of Satoru as far as the Gojo clan cared.
"The staff has too," Shohei said, joining his principal by the sink. "I'm feeling a little proactive from my fight. I've got too much energy. And I'm not hurt at all so there's no real need for me to sit around like always when I can help."
"I think Satoru's attitude is starting to fade away from you," Yaga chuckled in his deep voice, drying his hands and patting Shohei on the shoulder.
The gesture was familiar to Shohei, as he and Yaga were rather close for student and Principal. When Shohei was enrolled in Jujutsu High with his clan's goals stamped on his forehead, Yaga dismissed that and encouraged Shohei to pursue his own goals. Shohei also had a particularly difficult time participating in the classroom and getting out of his dorms with the other students at first, so Yaga subtly encouraged Panda to invite Shohei to more outings and help him in class. Shohei trusted Yaga a great deal and if he weren't so personally connected to Satoru, would probably affiliate himself heavily with the large man.
"You've got that right," Yaga sighed, looking at the row of disfigured bodies. "We lost some good Sorcerers, and more importantly, good men and women. Eleven casualties all in one day. With the Jujutsu community being already so finite in Japan, that's a serious blow."
"Mm," Shohei hummed lamely, drying his hands and walking towards the exit. "A terrible way to go too. Do we know the assailant or the technique that changed their bodies like that?" Shohei asked, placing a hand on the stair rail and taking a final look at the bodies.
Yaga didn't immediately reply, but pondered a thought by himself first, seemingly wondering if he should inform the young Sorcerer.
"Principal Yaga," Shohei said, looking at the man and making eye contact with his glasses. "I know I'm not the most politically active, responsible, family oriented, or reliable Sorcerer ever, but I am a part of one of the Big Three clans. I would like to know if there is something more serious going on that I'm not being told about."
"Most of your red flags put up front all in one go I see," Yaga said, stepping out of the room and then the building through a nearby exit. Shohei followed and nodded bashfully.
"I could get the answers out of Satoru because we both know he'd give them to me, but I want you to trust me and tell me," Shohei said, trying to appeal to the man's existing trust in him.
"Shohei, I do trust you," Yaga exclaimed hardily. "I always defend your reputation from your property damage reports in meetings and as a grade-one Sorcerer myself I would trust you in battle, but you're too young."
"What does that have to do with it?" Shohei scoffed.
Yaga gave the boy a stern eyebrow, reminding the boy who was the adult. Shohei corrected his tone and continued.
"You brought Panda up to combat Curses from almost as soon as his creation. I've been trained by the best since my cursed techniques were awakened and I'm one of the most capable Sorcerers my age. I'm only over shadowed by Yuta, whose one of four special-grade Sorcerers, and maybe my upperclassmen, Hakari."
"Being capable doesn't have anything to do with it," Yaga said. "You're not the only student I haven't informed of everything. You're all too young to be involved with this situation."
"We're too young to be told the truth but we can fight when and where you tell us?" Shohei questioned, challenging the flawed argument, remembering how the special-grade had called his reality twisted.
Yaga sighed deeply, disappointed the boy couldn't understand where he was coming from. Yaga rubbed his eyes under his tinted glasses and looked back at Shohei and said, "Can you promise me you won't blab like your cousin and keep this to yourself?"
Shohei nodded, a smile stretching his mouth and almost leaning into Yaga to hear.
Yaga looked around briefly and whispered, "Several special-grade Curses have formed a faction and from the appearance of curse users today, now have made several allies. You've undoubtedly heard of the attack on Satoru by two special-grades, one being the same one that attacked us today. They're making moves behind the scenes and Jujutsu society is either in denial Curses could do something so intelligent or not cooperating with each other to decisively act and stop them."
"I believe it," Shohei nodded, attempting to memorize all Yaga mentioned word by word. "I spoke to the Curse and it talked about ideals, goals, emotions, and complex thoughts. It can't be out of the equation that they could be so organized. The attack today is evidence of that."
"Indeed," Yaga sighed, stress weighing heavy on his voice.
"I've told you this purely because you are an important individual in your Clan, whether they see that or not, and you deserve my unbiased truth rather than Satoru's chaotic take on it. You will not relay any of this information to the other students!" Yaga gripped Shohei's shoulder, not in a familiar way, but a stern Principal demanding his student.
"Yes Principal," Shohei answered, shaping up and almost standing at attention to let Yaga know he was serious and understood he was too.
"Good man," Yaga said, releasing his tight grip and patting Shohei's arm.
"I've got a faculty meeting to discuss the matters today and then a follow up one tomorrow morning. Rest up Shohei, you did good."
"Thank you, Yaga," Shohei said.
He waved the man goodbye and returned to his dorm to heed his mentor's advice.
The next morning, Shohei had briefly stopped in to see how Fushiguro was recovering with Itadori and Kugisaki, who brought the boy a pizza.
Megumi had been treated and mostly healed by Ieiri and was simply resting in his bed. Shohei quickly left, only taking a single slice of pizza with him, and wishing Fushiguro a good recovery. The boy was in a hurry to pop in on all the second-year Tokyo students, as he was the only one out of his dorm in the morning for breakfast. Fushiguro took no offense to the boy hurrying off and bid him goodbye.
Shohei strolled from the first-year's dorm and to his own, running into Panda at the dorm entrance, bumping into the large cursed corpse and almost dropping his slice.
"Easy there Panda," Shohei chuckled. "With how you were zoned out you'd think we had ourselves a walking corpse here."
Panda gave a weak chortle and tried to hurry away from Shohei.
"Where are you going in such a hurry?" Shohei asked, curious about the boy's odd behavior. "I was just coming to check on you and the others."
"I'm just going to talk to Masamichi," Panda said. "It's nothing important. We just haven't talked much since the attack and I wanted to make sure he is okay. He only quickly stopped by the infirmary to check on me and hurried away."
"Oh, okay," Shohei murmured, relieved his friend wasn't in any trouble or panic. "Come find me after if you want to talk or just hang out."
"Will do," Panda said, giving a thumbs up. "I'll also try to ask about the second half of the Exchange Event."
Shohei returned a thumbs up and entered the dorms, aiming for Maki's room.
He rapped his knuckles on the door and a grunting snort replied, but soon all went back to silence. Shohei knocked again and the same grunt sound again. No reply.
All the evidence pointing to Maki being asleep, Shohei chose to just enter his friend's room rather than knock pointlessly for a third time.
Shohei walked in, tip-toeing across the floor, aiming to not squeak any floor boards or trip over anything in the dark room. He creeped past the pile of covers on top of a bed and over to the blinds at the far end of the room and threw them open.
"Good morning Mr.Sunshine!" Shohei yelled.
Maki's reaction was not graceful. The girl swung around wildly under the covers. Shohei not able to discern what limb was what.
Maki finally won the wrestling match with her blankets and leapt to her feet by her bed, but slipped on a shirt and fell to the ground.
"Easy there champ," Shohei cautioned, leaning onto Maki's bed and looking over to see her splay legged on the ground. "I got rid of all the scary Curses yesterday. None are gonna jump out from under your bed."
"You're so funny Sho," Maki sarcastically giggled in her soccer shorts and t-shirt pajamas. Her false laugh was quickly replaced with a glare.
She scooped up the shirt she had slipped on and threw it at Shohei with such force it knocked him off the bed and left him splay legged in return.
"I know," Shohei said. He removed the shirt from his face and laid on the cool paneled floor.
Shohei gazed around the room, checking out any changes from previous times he was there.
Maki didn't usually play host, as her room was more cramped like Shohei's. There were no outstanding changes other than a fresh wave of mess.
Loose articles of clothing and snacks and their empty wrappers littered the floor and the one large dresser pressed against a wall. Across the dresser was Maki's bed, stacked with thick and heavy blankets to swallow any one lying in the bed.
Maki's closet hung open and shoes and shirts could be seen, simply kicked into the floor underneath all the cross cross hung pants, jackets, and uniforms.
In a corner of the room was an umbrella stand full of training polearms and dummy swords in their sheaths. Mounted on the wall were the real weapons and cursed tools, all resting on the shelf, pristine and well kept.
"Why are you in my room?" Maki grunted, standing up and rummaging through a drawer to find something to help manage the bird nest that was her hair.
"I can't come check up on my best friends after they encountered a doozy of a special-grade Curse?" Shohei asked, rolling over and pulling out a hair brush from under the bed.
"Thanks," said Maki, catching the brush Shohei tossed at her. "And sure you can, but haven't you checked up on Fushiguro yet?"
"I did," Shohei reassured. "I said what's up and stole this slice of pizza from him," said Shohei, holding up the half finished slice still in his hand.
"Give me a bite," Maki demanded, trying to snatch the slice from his hand, but missed. "You didn't bring me any."
"Because I wanted to buy you dinner later today," Shohei grunted, fighting off Maki as she still clawed at the pizza.
"What, and everyone else too?" Maki scoffed, simply punching the boy on the ground.
"If you want me to," Shohei said, eating the remaining pizza in one bite to not let Maki have it. "So you wouldn't feel special," he muttered through the mouthful.
"You know how to charm a girl don't you, nerd," Maki scoffed, punching the boy in the gut then chopping him in the throat, making him choke.
Maki backed off of the coughing boy rolling on the ground and went back to brushing her hair as she stood over him. Shohei kicked Maki's leg, making her fall to the ground too.
He frantically crawled over her and to her bathroom and tried to heave the dislodged pizza into her trash can, but only kept turning a deeper and deeper shade of blue.
"Oh, you big baby," Maki growled, jumping to her feet and slapping Shohei's back one big time, knocking the pizza from his throat and into the can and slowly returning Shohei back to his paler skin tone.
After wiping the tears from under his bangs and devouring the air around him, Shohei looked up to Maki and said, "So is that a no to dinner?"
"Nope," Maki said, looking down on the boy. "You can buy dinner for everyone. We'll get take out for the Kyoto students before they leave tonight too."
"Okay," Shohei said weakly, crawling to his feet and exiting the bathroom.
Shohei roughly flung Maki's covers straighter and flatter on the bed and heaved himself onto them.
"Sure, go ahead and lay on my bed," Maki welcomed, throwing her arms up in exasperation. "Whatever, you can stay there if you want while I get ready."
"Smart, Panda was going to ask Yaga about the second half of the Exchange Event," Shohei called to Maki who he couldn't see because she had begun busying herself in the bathroom around the corner.
"Is Panda okay? He didn't seem too hurt last I saw him," Maki semi-yelled over the running water of the sink. "And have you checked on Toge yet?"
"Panda just seemed upset and eager to talk to Yaga," Shohei said. "And I didn't think I'd still be recovering from choking in your room, so no, I haven't talked to Toge yet."
"So you didn't plan to stick around in here?" Maki asked, but Shohei was interrupted before he could register what she said.
There was a knock at the door and Maki asked, "Can you get that Shohei? My hair is being difficult!"
Shohei simply turned the door knob with Gravity Conductor from the bed and lifted his head up to see Inumaki in the doorway.
"Speak of the devil," Shohei said, waving at his friend.
"Salmon," Inumaki greeted, waving at Shohei on the bed and Maki in her bathroom with the door open.
"What's up Toge," Maki called, sticking her head out of the bathroom, a brush in hand and a comb stuck in her hair.
Inumaki joined Shohei, sitting on the edge of Maki's bed, and gave Shohei a fist bump.
"We were just talking about how I was gonna come check in on you and how Panda went to find out about the second half of the Exchange Event," Shohei caught the boy up.
"How is your throat?" Maki asked from the bathroom.
"Salmon," Toge reassured, giving Shohei a thumbs up.
"That's good," Maki said. "I hear you were MVP for a while when fighting that Curse with Kamo and Fushiguro."
"Kelp," Toge bashfully denied.
"Don't be coy, Toge," Shohei said, lightly punching the boy's arm. "You're the reason why Kamo and Fushiguro aren't minced meat probably."
"Either way," Maki began. "That Curse was tough shit. I'm impressed Todo, Itadori, and you were able to keep it busy before Satoru came."
"We almost beat it too," Shohei muttered, thinking back on the Curse about to perform a Domain Expansion and how he probably would've been at its mercy in it, even with him and Todo knowing simple domains.
"But we didn't," he grimly muttered to himself.
"Mustard leaf," Toge muttered, grabbing Shohei's attention. "Kelp. Salmon."
"You're right, Toge. Satoru did get the job done in the end," Shohei sighed, giving a smile to the boy to let him know he did a job at reassuring him.
"I'm all done," Maki said, stepping out of her bathroom and looking expectantly at the boys. They returned expectant looks at each other and Maki until she sighed and said, "Get out. I need to change."
"Oh," Shohei said bashfully.
Toge and Shohei stepped outside the girl's room and immediately, their phones buzzed. Panda had texted a group chat with all the Tokyo students in it saying that all the students were to gather together in a staff room to discuss the second half of the Event.
"No sleeping, Maki," Shohei yelled to the door. An aggravated sigh replied.
"No!" Maki groaned. "Can we push dinner to tomorrow, Shohei?"
"No problem," Shohei said, happy the girl was still willing. "I'll let the others know."
All the Tokyo and Kyoto students gathered in a staff room, taking up the walls, chairs, or stairs to a upper deck. Many were bandaged like Kamo, who had been brutally bashed in the face by the special-grade, but some were mostly unscathed like Nishimiya.
"How are you doing Kamo-kun," Shohei asked the heavily bandaged boy on the stairs. "Did Ieiri fix you up well enough?"
"Yes, she did her best," Kamo said, not seemingly being in pain from moving his jaw or mouth. "Thank you for asking Gojo-kun."
"Anytime," Shohei said, patting the boy swiftly on the shoulder and returning to the second-year's side at a table.
"It's so weird seeing you be formal to other Clan members," Maki pointed out.
"Not all of us can be revolutionary problem children of our Clans," Shohei teased. He got punched in the back of the head.
"Listen up," Satoru announced to the room as he entered and stood in front of them all. All chatter ceased and he continued. "A lot happened and some people died, but how about it? Want to continue the Exchange Event?"
"I don't know what to say about it…" Itadori muttered, arms crossed as he failed to find the words.
Shohei didn't particularly care. He had gotten some in field experience from it and his underclassmen had been battle hardened from the attack, but Shohei was kind of drained. He didn't want to have to fight one of the Kyoto students or anyone really in Individual battles. He wanted to go to his dinner and enjoy the company of friends, and even talk to Maki about something.
"Obviously," Todo spoke up. "We're continuing it, of course." He spoke with a firm tone, snapping Itadori out of his indecisiveness and drawing everyone's attention to him in a corner by himself.
"Your reasons?" Gojo asked.
Itadori was stepping closer to his mentor to be able to provide himself a wall if Todo began to act strange, which he had been.
Ever since the battle with the special-grade was drawn close, Todo was still acting very kindly to Itadori. He was like one big puppy dog following around his "Brother" from building to building and trying to reminisce about a shared childhood they never had. Everyone had written it off as some new facet of Todo's odd personality.
"First," Todo said, holding up one finger. "Only those with a connection to the dead have a right to mourn them. It's not our place to butt in there. And second," Todo held up a second finger, still holding everyone in the room's attention. "If people have died, that's all the more reason we need to become stronger. Acquired strength comes from the accumulation of results. Tasting defeat and savoring victory is what leads us to grow. The most important part is for those results to exist."
"Todo-senpai is surprisingly reliable," Shohei heard Miwa whisper to Mai at their table.
"Reliably crazy," Mai countered.
This made Shohei snort. Mai heard him and risked a glance at Shohei, to which she saw the first genuine smile from him to her in years.
"That was actually funny," Shohei silently mounted across the room to Mai.
They did not draw the attention of anyone in the room except for Miwa who was next to Mai and Maki who was sitting behind Shohei.
Mai did not expect the small kindness from Shohei and averted her eyes quickly and looked back to Todo with a small tint of pink in her face. Miwa saw her friend's complexion and grinned to herself as she looked back at Todo. Maki, however, was not amused by her sister distracting her friend.
"Third," Todo said, holding up a third finger. "When a student feels like they weren't able to bring out their best, it hangs over them until they die."
"How old are you?" Satoru bluntly interrupted the boy's sage words, but was overlooked.
"I'm fine with that," Fushiguro spoke up first.
"We'll win anyway," Kugisaki said matter of factly.
"It sounds stupid, but he has a point," Kamo said from the stairs where he and Nishimiya sat.
"Why don't you rest, Kamo-kun?" Nishimiya prompted the bandaged boy.
"No objections here," Panda said.
"Salmon," Inumaki agreed.
"Will we draw lots for the individual battle pair-ups?" Maki asked.
"Huh? Gojo muttered like everyone had not heard the news he was there to give. "There are no individual battles this year."
You could almost feel the questions running through everyones' mind at once.
Typically, the Exchange Event has the principles of the Tokyo and Kyoto schools, each purpose a form of competition to be held for an entire day over the course of two days. But that's how it was supposed to be, and when was anything in the Jujutsu world plain and simple.
Every year, the first day is team battles, and the second day is individual battles to some extent.
"I hate routines, you know," Satoru said with a nefarious grin on his lips. "Every year, we put the competition methods in this box and open it the day of," he said, holding up a little wooden box he pulled out and tossed to Itadori.
Itadori reached his hand into the box's opening and pulled out a folded slip of paper. He flicked open the piece of paper and read it with both Principal Gakuganji and Principal Yaga appearing over his shoulder.
"Huh?!" Itadori cried out, looking to his left and seeing a withered old man hovering over him.
"Baseball?!" Principal Yaga bellowed.
"You're here, too?!" Itadori asked, seeing Yaga to his right.
Satoru briskly left the building with both Principals present as Gakuganji asked, "What's going on here, Yaga?"
"No," Yaga muttered. "I know I put the individual battles in… Get back here, Satoru!"
On the facility baseball field, the Tokyo students took their positions in the dirt field as the Kyoto students took their positions to bat.
All were dressed in blue and white baseball uniforms, jersey, cap, pants, and gloves and all. Kyoto students had blue shirts, shorts, and caps and black or white undershirts. The Tokyo students had white shirts, caps, and shorts with blue or black undershirts and spandex.
Nishimiya had bunted the ball when she was up to bat and was on first base as Kasumi came up to bat.
Itadori was catcher and Maki was pitching. Shohei and Fushiguro were in the outfield, Panda was first base, Inumaki was second base, Kugisaki was third base.
Maki wound up and pitched the ball, looking like a professional baseball player.
Semi-caught off guard by the speed, Kasumi swung and the ball bounced off her bat as a pop fly.
"Fly ball," Iori cried from the dugout in her own baseball uniform.
Nishimiya took off running from first base and Iori yelled, "Nishimiya, don't run yet!" as the little girl cleared second base and was approaching third.
Inumaki caught the fly ball, getting Miwa out, and quickly passed it to Panda, who caught it with a foot on first base, getting Momo out.
"Out!" Satoru yelled, who was the umpire. He was in a semi unbuttoned light blue shirt, black slacks, and a pair of his casual glasses.
"Huh?" Nishimiya uttered basically at home base. "Why?"
"If you don't know the rules, then say so!" Iori cried, desperately not wanting to lose to Satoru's students.
"I know them!" Momo yelled back in her high pitched voice. "When the ball's hit, I run!"
Kamo lazily stepped up to bat with no helmet on, as he couldn't fit one over his heavily wrapped bandages.
"A sacrifice fly?!" Nishimiya yelled from the dugout as Iori explained the rules to her. "What's that, some new form of touture?!"
"You're just plain stupid!" the teacher snapped.
Shohei was picking a dandelion's pedals in the outfield as the Kyoto guests argued, his glove off and attention on how he could see the flowers "veins" in the bright sunlight and not paying attention to the game at all.
"I heard you fended off the special-grade," Noritoshi said to Itadori.
"Oh, yeah…" the boy muttered, punching the palm of his catcher's mitt. "Thanks to Todo, Sho, and Gojo-sensei. Don't you need a helmet?"
Kamo ignored the boy's comment about a helmet. He thought over the words he wanted to ask the boy since Todo had saved him from Kamo and the others killing him.
"Itadori, why are you a Jujutsu Sorcerer?" he asked, wanting to find out why his classmate defended the boy and to decide how he personally felt about him before he went and blindly followed his principals orders to ever kill him again.
"At first, it just kind of happened," Itadori began, not hesitating to inform the older boy. Itadoir stared off at his teammates as Maki shouted orders from the pitcher's mound. "But I'm a lonely guy. I want to save lots of people and have lots of them watching over me when I die."
These words struck Kamo on a very intimate level as Itadori put his catcher's mask on and was ready to resume play.
Kamo mauled over a moment in his life where he was claiming that he would never become a Jujutsu Sorcerer if his mother wasn't by his side the day she left the Clan. She promised he had much potential and said he could save lots of people. She said the more people he saved the more he would be recognized and how all kinds of people would help him. He didn't want to be recognized and wanted his mother to be with him, but she said he'd be alone only then, and once he became a great Sorcerer, she hoped he would come and get her.
"I see," Kamo said quietly, striking once without even swinging. Maki pitched again and Kamo didn't swing as he said, "That's a good reason." And then a third pitch was thrown and Kamo was struck out.
"Strike," Gojo yelled, pumping his fist. "Batter out! Change up!" He said, signaling for schools to switch positions as Noritoshi still stood at home plate, fully at peace with his question and sure to never raise a hand to Itadori again.
Shohei heard that the teams were switching and hustled into the dugout, seeing Kamo getting chewed out by Iori.
"Kamo! You won't get a hit if you don't swing!" the woman yelled.
The manually changed scoreboard was updated, giving Kyoto zero points.
The Kyoto students took their positions in the field with Nishimiya in the outfield on her broom since techniques were allowed for outfielders due to the lack of players, Todo catching, Kamo on third base, Kasumi on second base, and Mai supposedly on first and Mechamru pitching, but neither to be seen.
Kugisaki stepped up to the plate and boasted, "They call me the Mah-kun of Tohoku."
"No," Megumi interjected from the bench. "Mah-kun is the Mah-kun of Tohoku."
"Mah-kun's a pitcher, you know!" Itadori called loudly, informing his friend.
"Bonito flakes," Inumaki insulted the girl's baseball knowledge.
Kugisaki kept quiet as she was extremely embarrassed by her own team.
Shohei heard a rumbling of something on wheels and looked to the field to see Mai rolling out one of the pitching machines he used for his Stygian Void training onto the pitcher's mound. It had a label like Mechamaru's face slapped on it and the word "Mechamaru" roughly painted on it with the paint still running.
"What the hell?" Shohei grunted indignantly, shooting up from his bench and marching over to the pitcher's mound.
"Hold on!" Kugisaki yelled, ripping off her batting helmet and spiking it on the ground, walking towards Mai and the machine.
"Kugisaki snapped!" Itadori warned the boys as the rest of them leapt from the bench. "It's a free-for-all!" Itadori cried as all the players swarmed the mound.
"That's obviously a pitching machine!" Kugisaki growled, stomping infront of Mai before Panda could hook his arms around her shoulders to stop her.
"That's one of my pitching Machines!" Shohei added.
"What are you talking about?" Mai asked in an innocent, high tone as she rubbed her chin. "It's a spare. A spare mechamru. We don't have a choice, since your Panda broke him the other day."
Shohei took a deeper look at the machine and saw that it was actually exuding a cursed signature. The real Sorcerer that ran Mechamaru must've used the same technique on the pitching machine as they did the cused corpse.
"Fine," Shohei muttered. "I see that he actually possessed the pitching machine. So I guess it's your player."
"It's just one thing after another with you!" Noabara growled at Mai, a vein throbbing in her forehead. "And yet somehow you're still a Jujutsu High student!"
Everyone returned to their positions or benches and Kugisaki stepped up to the plate. "Mechamaru" started up and pitched a ball.
In an argument fueled rage, Kugisaki cracked the ball with a ding and shouted, "Find, I'll do this!" and made it on base right before Mai, on first base, got the ball.
"Oh, she got a base," Itadori muttered in surprise.
"She's desperate," Fushiguro said.
Fushiguro grabbed a helmet and bat and headed to the plate.
Mechamaru powered up and Kugisaki began to edge off first base, not worried since Mechamrau couldn't get her out from stealing a base since he couldn't turn around.
A ball was pitched, and Megumi raised a hand up the bat and simply bunted the ball, allowing Todo to scoop it up in a flash and pitch it to first, getting Megumi out but letting Nobara to get to second. Both Shohei and Satoru noticed Megumi's choice and made eye contact as Shohei stepped up to bat, noting to discuss it at a later date.
Shohei temporarily removed his helmet and let his hair rise to its natural length and position, revealing his eyes and sparking a revolt from the Kyoto students.
"That's not fair!" Nishimiya called from all the way in the outfield.
"No using cursed techniques unless in the outfield," Mai yelled.
"Do you teach such blatant cheaters, Gojo?" Iori called from the bench.
"I'll have you know, Iori, that Shohei just stopped himself from 'cheating' as you call it," Satoru said to the woman. "He just disapbled his cursed technique to fairly use his natural strength."
"You hear that, Mai?" Shohei called to the first baseman, putting on his helmet. "But don't worry, I won't be spending much time at first anway."
"Shut up and bat!" Mai yelled back.
"Be ready, Nishimiya!" Todo called from behind home base.
Shohei took up batting position and grinned a massive smile for all the Kyoto students to see like he was letting them know he was gonna get the first home run.
Mechmaru powered up and pitched the ball, and rather than a metallic ding ringing the air, a soft thud and a burst of cursing was heard as the baseball hit Shohei's shoulder.
Mai and Nishimiya broke down in tears from laughter as Shohei clenched his shoulder in the dirt of the field, Satoru and Todo hovering over him.
"How the hell did that pitching machine throw a curveball?!" Shohei yelled, looking up at it with watering eyes from the pain and kicked up dirt.
"Thanks Mechamaru," Nishimiya and Mai called to the machine that gave no reply.
Shohei took his complimentary first base from being hit. Mai and Shohei leered at each other and Shohei flipped the bird to the back of the pitching machine, making note to scrap it when the Kyoto students left.
Panda was up. He hit a ground ball and Kasumi missed intercepting it, leaving Kugisaki able to make it to third, Shohei to make it to second, and Panda to first.
Maki was next up to bat and the field was tense, as all knew Maki was really the most capable of getting a home run and the bases were loaded.
Mechamaru revved with electricity and cursed energy, firing an especially fast pitch, but only for it to be sent speeding through the air at the perfect angle to be called a home run.
Itadori rose up from his seat as he, Inumaki, and Megumi watched the ball soar and soar.
"Okay," Maki said, flinging the bat out of her hand and lazily begging to stroll to first base. "That's four," she declared to Gojo as he and everyone else watched the ball.
The ball reached its peak of height and fell another foot into Nishimiya's glove, getting Maki out and preventing the batters on base from coming home.
"That's cheating!" Itadori declared in a whiteout rage, furious at losing four possible points at once.
"Bonito flakes!" Toge shouted, indignant.
"Kugisaki, go back," Megumi called, and so all three players returned to their positions to play ball after begging to saunter away from them like Maki.
The game resumed as a stalemate and no points were made for either team. Tokyo and Kyoto switched positions.
Todo stepped up to bat as Itadori received a few practice pitches from Maki and said, "Catcher, huh? Catching, throwin, leading, fielding, etc. One could call it a fitting position for my brother. But what I desire is a face-off with a Pitcher Itadori."
"Todo…" Itadori said. "You could have been their pitcher," he continued, breaking the seriousness of the boy's desire.
"He can't," Iori called from the dugout. "Mecharau can't do anything but pitch right now."
"Promise me, bother," Todo began. "If I hit a home run at bat this time, next time you'll pi-"
A fast ball collided with Todo's cheek while he didn't pay attention to Itadori dropping his mask, ready to play. Maki had a small spark of pride in her intentional pitch as she stood highly on the mound.
"T-Todo!" Itadori cired, cradling the limp Todo in his arms at home base. "Hang in there!"
"Nice pitch!" Mai called to Maki from the bench.
"Nice pitch!" Nishimiya and Kamo called lamely from the bench.
"Nice pitch!" Fushiguro called from the outfield with his Divine Dog ready to help him receive any balls as one outfielder was permitted to use techniques due to lack of players, also explaining why Nishimiya caught Maki's home run on her broom.
"Maki-san, nice pitch!" both Nobara and Shohei shouted.
"Nice pitch!" Panda said.
"Salmon!" Inumaki complimented.
"Todo," Itadori muttered, looking down at Todo and his bleeding nose. "Everyone really hates you!"
The game resumed and no points were scored for either team. Toge stepped up to bat and made it to first base despite hitting it directly to Kamo who passed it straight to Mai.
"Oh," Itadori said, surprised. "He made it!"
"Inumaki-senpai's a fast runner," Fushiguro commented.
"Mai, Miwa," Iori yelled from the bench as Itadori stepped up. "Watch for base stealing!"
Itadori was up to bat. Mechamaru pitched, and the loudest ding of the day rang the air. Almost everyone had dots for mouths as the ball flew as a homerun, just flying out of Nishimiya's reach.
"Yeah!" Itadori cheered, sending him and Toge home, scoring the winning points for Tokyo.