Chapter 38

It could have gone better…

Itadori found himself at the mercy of the principals. "What did you do out there!" Principal Yoshinobu.

"We want an explanation," Principal Yaga stated. "So, explain yourself!" he demanded.

"Now, now, he played by the rules of the game… unlike your students who were going to try and kill him for real like that last time… it didn't turn out so well for you either." Gojo stated. "There was no harm, no fowl, so either way. I don't think we need to be concerned with this…"

"They were going to kill me again… I would at least say thank you for not seriously harming my students…" Yuuji said bitterly.

"What was that boy!" Yoshinobu demanded.

"I think you heard him clearly," Gojo said defiantly. "I don't blame him for being upset either. You are going to endanger us all if you continue to try and attack him for no reason. Did you forget what was spoken at the meeting? Kitsune won't be happy with you. Quite frankly, I am shocked you haven't been punished yet."

"A fox is a trickster first and foremost! They do not care for what is just or what is right. They play tricks on people like they have on all of you. Making you believe this demon vessel is anything special…"

Yuuji shied away, his head lowered but then he said. "I may not be the perfect person, let alone a proper human in a sense. But at least I still do what I can to help people and try and save them, what demon would do that?" he asked.

Gojo's arms crossed as he nodded in agreement. "Yuuji… go and get yourself something to eat, there is no threat here to you anymore… I'll make sure of that."

He graciously bowed to him. "Thank you Sensei… excuse me." And left the room.

"You are pushing your luck." Warned Yaga.

Gojo was about to speak until he found Yaga turned to Yoshinobu and directed his glare at him!

"You educate a demon vessel, who is playing you all for fools."

"If he has, we would all have been dead long ago." Yaga said in a warning tone. "Itadori has shown to me that he can be trusted, despite the marks on his body, he has never lashed out against the school or students, he has been controlling his power as best as possible and is training hard each and every day for this battle yet to come. You think for a moment that Yua Tooru threw her life away for this boy for nothing?"

Yoshinobu scuffled the comment. "The Tooru clan were never all there," he protested. "Potential wasted on the likes of them,"

Gojo sighed. "Old people are really starting to piss me off…" he muttered. "I'm leaving before I do something I may regret later… and quite frankly, I can't afford not to be here right now, I have to train Yuuji still…"

He walked out despite Yoshinobu shouting for him to return. Yet as he walked down the hall, he saw her just as he turned the corner. Kitsune stood there with her arms crossed. "Did I hear everything correctly?" she demanded.

Gojo nodded. "Yes, but no one harmed him, and Aoi was actually training with him on his ability…"

She nodded but her glare didn't vanish. "We need to pick up the education with young master. I want you to train him on his curse energy, he needs to hold more of it."

He nodded in agreement. "I'll get started on that, what are you training him on?" he asked curiously.

She shook her head. "I can't speak it, or you will try and help him figure it out," she said. "But I will say this. He is going to have the face the darkest part of himself, and come through it."

Gojo wanted more information, but of course Kitsune was gone…

#

"AH!"

She sat up in the hospital like bed. Mai looked about and wondered how she got there, but, she wasn't alone either.

"Hello… sister," Mika said in a venomous tone. "I take it you learned the hard way?"

Her sister sneered at her. "You're helping him, aren't you?" she demanded.

"No, I haven't even lifted a finger to assist the demon vessel in his training, after all Gojo sensei told us not to until he deemed it okay. Question is, you tried this the last time, why are you doing it again?"

Mia glared at her. "Orders are orders." She said.

"So you can't think for yourself… typical."

"Who the fuck asked you!" she snapped back. "Also how did I even get here?"

Mika snickered and explained that Yuuji knocked out her whole class with the exception of Aoi, within the first ten minutes of the contest starting. No one could explain it though. "One moment we sensed your curse energy, the next, barely." She said offhandedly. "Don't know how he did that…"

"It was like it was drained out of me…" Mia explained as she held her stomach. Curiosity got the better of her as she rolled up her shirt just enough. She froze and saw the demonic hand print on her stomach.

Mika was surprised, but said nothing about it. "Rest up sister, we are probably going to have to do a stupid team building exercise too…" she muttered.

When Mika left, she got herself out of bed and checked her classmates. They too were up, however were silent to the whole thing as mange were holding their stomachs oddly. "He got you too huh?" she asked everyone.

"What the hell was that attack?" Momo demanded. "One moment, I'm fine, next… I can't move!"

"Same here." Kamo muttered. "I never saw him coming…"

"We need to figure out what he did to us, also, what happened after." Mia stated.

#

He finished lunch.

Yuuji swallowed the last bit of his meal and savored it. "That was good…" he said and took a sigh of relief. Placing his dish away, he was about to leave the room when Sensei appeared once more.

"Let's do some training with everyone today," he said offhandedly. "I am going to have everyone attacking you, BUT, you are not going to fight back."

"Huh?" Yuuji asked with confusion. "You want them to beat me up?"

Gojo snickered. "Who said they could do that? I merely told you not to fight back, I never said let them hit you!"

Yuuji smirked to the comment, but then paused to process it. "Wait, you think I can go up against everyone!? Sensei, I just got these arms to work!"

"Ah, but you also haven't seen how fast you've become either. You took everyone down in ten minutes, you do realize that… you probably could have done it a lot sooner if you wanted to but were pacing yourself…"

He scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Well, I didn't want anyone to get hurt," he explained.

"Okay, let's get everyone together and have some fun!" he decreed.

"How is this going to be fun when everyone is going to be fighting me…"

#

They gathered the students, both from Kyoto and Tokyo. Gojo stood before them all and announced the exercise they would be doing together. "Today, is going to be something different, you are going to try and land a single hit on Yuuji here!" he said and patted Yuuji's shoulders.

Everyone paused. "All of us against him?" demanded Mia.

"Yep, I know, I know, I wish I had more people here too to help you, but the matter is…"

"Wait, are you saying we can't win!" demanded Nobara.

Gojo snickered. "It's going to be fun to watch you try!"

"Sensei, don't egg them on!" Itadori pleaded. "I have to be the one to face them!"

"Remember what I said," and patted Yuuji's shoulders once more. "Okay everyone pick your places!" Gojo stepped off to the side as the students stood and began to gather around Yuuji.

He took a deep, calm breath before looking very determined. He gave a nod that he was ready as Gojo announced for the contest to begin!

They all ran at him, yet as quickly as they did, Yuuji was already standing beside Gojo sensei. "Why did they all come at me at once?" he asked.

He shrugged as the students froze, he was gone instantly and already doubled the distance between himself and his classmates.

"You're kidding me!" protested Momo.

"I suggest you start moving about, make them think they have a chance okay?" Gojo whispered.

He nodded and then suddenly appeared in the middle again. "Anyone going to try?" he asked.

"Great serpent!"

Fushiguro went for it, yet as fast as the snake was, Yuuji merely side stepped it. "Wow, that thing is huge!" Yuuji said with amazement. "Oh did you replace the one Sukuna defeated? It looks bigger…"

Then, they all came at him to attack!

It was just like before when he saw Sukuna battle those weaker than him, he walked about avoiding every strike nonchalantly. No matter how fast, or how many, no hit would land, not even when they began working together! The weapons were out in full, each slice aimed for his throat, all piercing objects aimed at his heart and his head. But none could get close. It reminded Gojo a lot of himself when he trained with others. Yuuji must be seeing everyone fighting in slow motion in his eyes.

He was toying with them.

Gojo couldn't contain his grin as Yuuji went on for three hours. Everyone was out of breath by the end of it all, but he was still standing.

There wasn't a scratch on him. Not even his sweater was ripped.

"Everyone's tried?" he asked offhandedly. "We haven't been training that long…"

"Three hours and six minutes!" Gojo called.

"Huh? Really?"

"How… is he… not tired!" demanded Nobara.

"Well, I didn't do a lot… just moved around and stuff… why was I moving oddly?" he asked curiously.

Everyone stared at him as if he had a hole in his head. "Huh?"

Gojo on the other hand was laughing his ass off. "Oh, I am go glad I got to see the looks on everyone's faces… Okay Yuuji, we call it a day. Besides you got to get ready for your night lessons!"

He shuttered at the mention of those. "Don't remind me…" he whispered meekly. As he left, the other students stared at Gojo.

"Nothing… affected him," protested Mia.

"Not to mention, I saw him flying at one point!"

"He was moving too fast to be seen, I couldn't sense his curse energy," said Kamo.

"Well then, learn your lesson." Gojo announced. "Don't judge a book by its cover, and expect the unexpected!"