Edited by Absolem (:
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Yūji Itadori became a regular guest at dinners. After school each day he would come over instead of going to his home. He and Yūta would hang out, either playing video games or studying or going outside to play. Yūji was utterly in love with the concept of magic and things outside the norm, so every time Yūta did something a normal human couldn't Yūji would literally fanboy.
Yūji loved—LOVED—flying more than anything. Whether that was Lilly casting levitate on him or being carried by Yūta, the pink-haired protagonist adored it.
He was so sincerely jubilant it was impossible not to get caught up in his joy. Yūta quickly grew fond of the younger boy. They exchanged numbers and messaged each other during lunch periods. There were even a couple of days Yūta snuck over to Yūji's school to eat lunch with him.
A fast and powerful bond was formed between the two. It was apparent the two were tied together in the original Story of that world. Lilly wondered if they were meant to be friends or rivals or maybe something more in canon.
She loved it.
How could she not? Her son was happy and it felt like she was getting to adopt a second son in the process.
A month into his daily visits—he even came over on the weekends—his grandfather, Wasuke Itadori, stopped by for a formal introduction. He was a gruff, quiet, old man with a blunt way of speaking.
Lilly could plainly see he loved Yūji with all his heart. His words could be prickly, and his tone sharp, yet his gaze was filled with fondness when he looked at his grandson. It warmed Lilly's heart.
He was a busy man. Although technically retired, he never stopped working.
While Yūta and Yūji played together in the living room—they were playing Dark Souls II—Lilly served Wasuke Itadori some matcha creme tea with a side of dangos. Wasuke murmured a quiet thank you as he sat at the kitchen table and watched the two boys play.
"GAH! It's chasing us, it's chasing us," Yūji cried out. "What do I do? What do I do?!"
"Don't go that way—!"
"Nooo," they cried together. Lilly heard the familiar sound of the death screen appearing.
Yūta spat out, "Chush' sobach'ya! Stupid boss, zhopu porvu margala vikoliu."
"Yūta," Lilly reprimanded immediately. "You apologize. We don't use that kind of language in front of guests."
"What kind of language is that?" Yūji whispered.
"Mama thinks standard insults are boring and I need to be creative," Yūta quietly explained back. "Sorry Mama."
"Choosch—Choosch—what was it?"
"Chush' sobach'ya," Yūta said. "It means bullshit."
Yūji repeated. "Choosch-suh-batch-yeh."
Yūta giggled. He reached over to affectionately rub the top of Yūji's head. "Heheh. Chush' sobach'ya."
Yūji repeated. "Choosch-suh-batch-yeh."
Yūta laughed. "Come on, let's get back to our body."
Yūji murmured, "Choosch-suh-batch-yeh."
"Chush' sobach'ya."
"Choosch-suh-batch-yeh."
"I'm sorry my son is corrupting your grandson," Lilly said, watching the two boys giggle over saying a "naughty" word in Russian.
Wasuke chuckled. "Pretty tame so far. Thank you, by the way, for putting up with my grandson. I know he's been coming over a lot."
"He's a delight to have," Lilly said reassuringly. "Yūta adores him. He's also an excellent eater—never have to worry about leftovers after dinner."
Wasuke grinned. "That's how it should be."
Lilly and Wasuke settled into a comfortable silence as they watched over the boys and ate the dangos.
"Ewwwww," Yūji whined. "What is that?"
"The Rotten."
"Nasty!"
"Right?" Yūta agreed.
Tōji came downstairs, groggy and tired. He took note of Wasuke, noticed Yūji and Yūta playing, and put the pieces together. Tōji curtly nodded to Wasuke.
Wasuke nodded back. "Ah, is this your husband?"
"Nope," said Lilly. "He's family."
"Uncle Tōjiiiiiii," Yūta called out, "we're stuck on the Rooootteennn."
"Sucks for you, huh?" Tōji blithely said.
Yūta nudged Yūji. "You try."
Yūji flopped backwards on the ground, looking up at Tōji with big, pleading eyes. "Uncle Tōjiiiiiiiiiiiiiii."
"Uncle Tōjiiiiiii—"
The boys chorused in their whines until Tōji sighed and moved to sit on the living room floor. With a grumble under his breath, he took the controller from Yūji. "Only one time today, got it?"
"Okay," the boys sang, high-fiving each other.
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Life was pleasant.
Yūji was a regular in their home, and his grandfather made it a point to visit at least once a week. Yūji visited so frequently Lilly ended up creating a room for him and he would stay over a few days in the week.
Yūta and Yūji only grew closer. Sure they had their occasional fight—what children didn't?—but they could never stay mad at one another for long. Lilly would have liked to say it was because she raised her son to be a good man but really it was just because Yūji was that much of a cinnamon roll.
She loved her son but she had to admit that he could be a wee bit… obsessive.
Overprotective?
That protection extended to Yūji as much as Lilly, but golly gee if Yūta felt either were threatened…
Let it be said that Yūji got into a fight at school once.
Once.
After that, the parties involved insisted on wanting to change schools and Yūta thought it would be a good idea for Yūji to join in training sessions.
Yūji had some spiritual energy inside him—cursed energy, Jujutsu Sorcerers would call it—but it was… different.
Interesting.
It reminded Lilly of her own, really. Many, many lifetimes ago she had been a vessel for a demon because of her unique energy. She was aptly suited to soothe and subdue the demon. That part of her energy never changed. In any life where the concept of vessel existed, Lilly's energy made her an ideal candidate.
It had been lifetimes since she last served as one. Feeling Yūji's energy made her nostalgic and certainly intrigued her.
Could Yūji's purpose in the story be to serve as a vessel? He was a hero—the main one Lilly would bet—and so who would he be meant to hold?
Given the world and society…
Lilly hypothesized that Yūji was meant to become a Jujutsu Sorcerer and would be the vessel for some kind of Special Grade Cursed Spirit. Some ancient evil that the Jujutsu Society could not vanquish.
Yūji's unique energy would allow him to subdue the spirit at will.
Lilly hoped that would be his story. She had a soft spot for friendships forged between vessel and Big Bad Ancient Evil™.
Wouldn't it be so lovely if Yūji and whoever he was destined to share a body with would become so close they would be soul bound?
That was what had occurred between her and the beings she previously housed. As they were immortal, they could exist outside her loops and remain her friend. From the haughty nine-tailed fox to the splintered, maddened piece of death, Lilly loved her immortal companions so dearly.
She sincerely wished for Yūji to share that kind of love with whoever he was meant to house.
And so when her son proposed that Yūji learn to fight with him, Lilly agreed on one condition.
In their living room the family had gathered. Tōji lounged on the couch with Tora in his lap. Lilly stood in between the living room and kitchen with Ame clutching at her dress. Yūta and Yūji looked hopefully up at Lilly, Yūta's own Cursed Spirit hiding in his shadow.
"Yūji, you have to promise me that you will treat these creatures no different than you would a human," Lilly said. Ame hovered by Lilly's side. The wagasa enjoyed a short, androgynous form and a dark kimono with a floral design. They were reluctant to speak, only responding if directly asked, and they always made it a point to be near Lilly.
"I promise!" Yūji said.
Lilly beamed. "It is agreed then—" Yūta and Yūji high-fived. "—I'll need to increase your raw power first, but for now you may join Yūta in his physical training sessions with Tōji."
"I didn't agree to this," Tōji flatly said from the couch.
"You didn't disagree either," Lilly said brightly.
"This is me disagreeing."
"I am so glad you're agreeing with this."
Tōji sighed. "Whatever." He looked sharply over at Yūji. "You cry, you don't get to come back."
"If he makes you cry I'll kick his ass," Yūta encouraged Yūji.
"It's okay to cry," Lilly added. "Tōji, be nice please."
"This is me being nice."
Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ
2016
Yūta was having a nice day. A really nice day.
Tōji decided to go on an abrupt camping trip—which was code for gambling binge—and wouldn't be back for at least a month. Every time Tōji was gone that long, he always came back home with something neat.
See, a few years back Tōji brought home a literal mummy. How he got it, and who it was, Yūta had no idea. But it was pretty funny seeing Mama's face when she saw it. She actually screamed in surprise.
Ever since then Tōji has gone out of his way to try and bring home increasingly weirder things to try and elicit a reaction from Mama.
The best one was from a few months ago. Tōji actually brought something that made her faint. Faint!
Naturally, only Yūta and Tōji could tease her like that. If anyone else tried to scare her, Yūta would absolutely beat the crap out of them. He was a proud and shameless Mama's boy, and anyone who met his mama would understand why. Half of his school friends had a crush on her and only came over to his place for a chance to see her.
Yūta had a smile on his face as he casually walked the streets of Tokyo. Kurai was hidden in his shadows, the Cured Spirit picking up on Yūta's mood and relaying that he was happy too. Kurai always accompanied Yūta since Yūta finished taming it years ago. He had upgraded the spirit from Grade 4 to Special Grade and in the process earned Kurai's affection and loyalty.
Yūta loved using Kurai in sparing sparring matches because of their unique combination. Since becoming so dependent on Yūta's energy, Kurai's own energy closely resembled Yūta's. This allowed a very close bond, the kind where Yūta did not need to verbalize what he wanted—Kurai could instinctively feel and act upon his wishes.
Most of the time—nearly all of the time—Kurai stayed in Yūta's shadow. While inside Yūta's shadow, Kurai could share his powers with Yūta.
Including his wings.
Yūta could only reliably use two wings—Kurai had six—but even so Yūta thought that was pretty neat. Flying through the air with black feathered wings felt completely awesome. He wished he could do it all the time, but he knew that'd draw needless attention to himself.
It really is a good day, thought Yūta. I should pick up some melon bread before going home.
While he could use any door to teleport back home, Yūta enjoyed taking casual walks through the city. He found a lot of neat places—shops, restaurants, nooks and crannies—on his little detours. It also gave him a chance to see if there were any Cursed Spirits he wanted.
So far none had caught his attention, so he usually just killed them and moved on. Sometimes he'd feed them to Tora or Kurai though.
Yūta headed to his favorite bakery. He'd get some bread for everyone that day.
As he left the bakery with his bread, he felt a hand on his shoulder. Yūta glanced over to find an unfamiliar man in front of him. He had wavy white hair and wore some bandages over his eyes.
"Yo," said the man.
"Hi?" asked Yūta.
"You feel really familiar," said the man, his grip on Yūta's shoulder tightening. "I don't suppose you know a lady with pink hair and red eyes? Maybe she's your sister?"
Yūta raised an eyebrow. "Who are you? What is she to you?"
"Ahh. So you do. Aha." The man was positively beaming. "You've just made my day."
And that was the last thing Yūta remembered before getting kidnapped.
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When Yūta awoke he was in a room with thousands of talismans hanging around. He was tied and bound to a chair, and the man from before sat in front of him.
Yūta could feel that his spiritual energy was being repressed—likely from the talismans—and Kurai was in hibernation mode. He summarized that the man must have done some type of sealing on Yūta's energy and by consequence suppressed Kurai because the Cursed Spirit was heavily tied into Yūta's energy.
Yūta warily glanced around the room. He did not see any obvious exit, nor could he feel anyone else's presence in the room.
It was just him and the kidnapper.
Speaking of the kidnapper, the white-haired man had Yūta's phone and was flipping through pictures on it. Yūta's knee-jerk reaction was to demand how he had access until he remembered his phone could be unlocked with his thumbprint.
Pointless security measure. Yūta would amend that going forward.
Upon closer examination of the man, Yūta noticed he looked vaguely familiar. Yūta couldn't recall where he had seen the man before, and it nettled him. He was strikingly handsome, and his eyes were an ethereal blue. Yūta was certain if he had met the man prior he wouldn't have forgotten him.
Maybe he was a visitor to his mama's café?
"This lady here," said the man, turning the phone around and tapping at a picture of Yūta and Mama. "What's her name?"
Yūta pursed his lips and glared.
"Come on kid, I don't want us to be enemies," he said. "I'm not her enemy, I promise. We're playing a game, see?"
Yūta continued to coldly glower.
What time is it? If I'm late for dinner, Mama'll worry. Can I get out?
Yūta experimentally tested the strength of the bindings. They weren't tied too tightly, Yūta could definitely dislocate his wrists and slither out, but what after? He couldn't use the full extent of his abilities as long as he was in that room, and he had a feeling the man would be a tough opponent.
The man grinned. "I'm Satoru Gojō by the way. And judging from these texts, you go by Yūta, right?"
"Harceleur," sneered Yūta.
"I am not a stalker!" Satoru protested. "Honest, we really are playing a game."
His words had a ring of sincerity to them, and it poked at a memory inside Yūta. He had a strong feeling that his mama had talked about the man before—maybe even showed a picture to Yūta?—but he could not remember the specifics.
Friend or foe?
He could not deny that it was definitely possible he was one of Mama's friends and they were… doing whatever the hell this was. His mama was eccentric.
However.
Yūta really didn't like being kidnapped.
Talk about rude. What happened to the bread he bought anyway? He had bought it when it was freshly baked—still warm! The owners had done a rare second batch in the day and Yūta was lucky enough to grab it so fresh.
Yūta had been excited to see the look on his cute little brother's face when he got his favorite buns of all time all warm and soft—
Now it was probably cold.
So damn rude.
If looks could kill, Yūta would have murdered Satoru Gojō then and there.
His phone rang, the contact on the screen lit up to read: Mama.
"Probably wouldn't be good to answer that," said Gojō, clicking the decline button. "How does this even get a signal in here?"
Bad move, thought Yūta. Yūta never rejected his mama's calls unless by accident. He was out of class, so the only reason to reject her call would be if he was in a bad situation, or he didn't mean to.
Mama rarely needed to call him anyway. Yūta was excellent about keeping her informed of where he was going, or if he was going to be home late.
If she called him, that meant that it must have been dinner time. When she realized he hadn't told her he was going to be late, she called to check on him.
Now his kidnapper rejected the call.
Which could only mean—
There was a surge of butterflies around Yūta.
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Lilly
"Welcome home baby boy," said Lilly when she saw Yūji come in. Yūji beamed, hoisting his backpack off his shoulder and dumping it on the couch.
"Hi Auntie," said Yūji. He started to dig through his backpack to pull out his homework.
Lilly's cheeks puffed out at being called auntie. She adored Yūji like another son. If he didn't have such a doting tsundere-grandfather she would have already legally adopted him. But he did, indeed, have a cute grandfather who loved him—and who Yūji loved—so Lilly had to refrain from her impulse.
He had no reason to call her Mom, or Mama, or Mother, but she'd be lying if she said she didn't want him to.
It was his grandfather that encouraged Yūji to casually address Lilly after his third time sleeping over—as Yūji had used Miss prior—and Yūji chose Auntie.
Lilly was torn between wanting to respect his boundaries, and wanting to obnoxiously demand he called her mom.
He had a mom. Somewhere.
Woman better be dead for missing out on his childhood, otherwise Lilly was liable to kill the woman herself.
Lilly slapped her cheeks lightly to pop the air she had childishly sucked in. The sound startled Yūji, who looked over in curiosity. Lilly smiled. "Did you have a good day at school?"
"It was fine," said Yūji. "Gramps started nagging me to join a school club."
"School clubs can be fun," said Lilly.
Yūji grimaced. "Yeah… but I'd rather not."
Lilly hummed in response. Yūta had joined a couple of school clubs, although he was never invested in any of them. She understood where Wasuke was coming from—Yūji only really had one friend outside of school and that was Yūta—and did not want to discourage it. It was important to make companions outside of family, otherwise Yūji would be in for a lonely adulthood.
Then again, given his Protagonist™ status, Lilly highly doubted Yūji would be lonely.
"Since it's Friday, want anything special for dinner?" Lilly asked.
"Mmmm… can we make coconut fried shrimp?" Yūji asked.
"Bien sûr mon enfant," Lilly said with a smile.
The pink-haired pubescent blinked, his brow furrowed as he thought about what she had said. Yūji had sparingly learned bits and pieces of a variety of languages from being exposed to them. He did not feel comfortable speaking any himself, but he thought he had a decent grasp of some nouns. Yūji hesitantly smiled. "Bien… um… then yes?"
"Yes, mi hijo."
Yūji put on an apron—Lilly had bought him his own apron years ago when he expressed an interest in wanting to learn to cook with her and Yūta—and joined her in the kitchen. The two got to work prepping dinner, comfortably chatting as they worked.
When it was time to start frying the shrimp, Lilly realized her oldest hadn't returned home.
Lilly glanced at the clock. Hmm… he should be back by now.
She double-checked her phone. No messages from Yūta, either.
"Did Yūta tell you he was going to be late?" Lilly asked Yūji with a frown.
"Nope. Haven't heard from him since lunch," said Yūji. He looked over at the clock. "Huh, kind of late."
"Yes… Hmm…" Lilly decided to give her son a call.
It rang once, then went straight to voicemail.
Rejected? Oh dear.
"My dear, I'll be right back," said Lilly.
"'Kay," said Yūji.
Lilly teleported to Yūta, using the blessing she had placed on him as a homing beacon. She simultaneously summoned a portion of her kaleidoscope, cautious to what would cause her son to be late.
Oh.
She was genuinely surprised—delightfully so—to find her son with Satoru Gojō.
Less delighted about her son being bound to a chair—kidnapped, she figured—but gosh if he had to be kidnapped by anyone at least it was with Satoru.
Awww. His first kidnapping. I wish I had brought my camera.
Lilly smiled. "Hello."
"My little butterfly," said Satoru, his face lighting up. "What a pleasant twist. I didn't realize I had such nice bait."
"Well… You kidnapped my son," she said.
"You are extremely difficult to get a hold—" he said. "Wait son?"
"I adopted him when his mother passed away," she explained.
"Oooh," said Satoru. "Okay. So no… hidden father?"
"You are the only one I am entangled with," Lilly assured him with a giggle.
"Ugh," groaned Yūta. "Now I remember… The pretty boy on the nightstand."
Lilly wanted to giggle. She had taken a picture with Satoru on Valentine's Day years ago and kept it on her nightstand.
"So," said Satoru, "have I gone far enough into our game to claim victory?"
"Hmm… I dunno. Yūta, baby, did you tell him my name?"
"No," said Yūta.
Lilly coyly smiled at Satoru. "Then why should I give you victory?"
"I mean I did kidnap your son just to get your attention," he said with a shrug. "If that's not a grand gesture of romance I don't know what is."
"Oh my God, please stop," Yūta moaned.
"Consider me romanced then," she said, unminding off the look of disbelieving disgust her son was giving her. "My name is Lilly. This is my eldest son, Yūta. I took the surname Suzuran when I adopted Yūta."
Satoru jumped up from his chair, grabbing Lilly by the waist and picking her up to spin her around. "HA! Finally nice to meet you, Lilly."
Lilly leaned down to nuzzle his nose. "Always a pleasure, my darling."
"Eurgh," Yūta bemoaned. "I want to go home."
"I'll visit you tomorrow, okay?" Lilly gently cupped Satoru's face, peppering him with kisses.
"Why not stay?" asked Satoru.
"I've another boy waiting for us," she said. "And dinner. Would you like to meet—"
"NO," Yūta yelled. "Keep this rude man away from Yūji! Where did you put my bread anyway?"
"Bread—? Oh, you dropped it when you fell unconscious so I left it."
"You are a terrible human being. You owe me that bread!"
Satoru grinned. "Fair. I'll buy you some tomorrow, how's that sound?"
"If it's not absolutely delicious, fresh, and still warm, then I won't accept it," said Yūta.
"Deal." Satoru held out his hand.
Yūta gave Satoru a look of disdain, as he was still bound to the chair.
"Oops," Satoru laughed. "Let me unseal you—"
Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ
Bonus with Yūta after dinner:
Yūta sat on his bed, intent on making a very important phone call.
A dry voice picked up on the other end, "What's up kiddo?"
"Uncle, you need to come back home," said Yūta. "It's an emergency."
"What kind of emergency?"
"There's a crazy bastard trying to seduce Mama!"
"Uh. Lil's a grown woman—"
"He kidnapped me! To get to her!"
"Okay, that is a little extreme—"
"Little?!"
"Were you hurt?" Tōji asked.
"No," admitted Yūta. "But it's the thought that counts. You need to come home and talk to Mama."
"I don't think she'd listen to me," disagreed Tōji. "Your mom is strong. She'll be fine. Ehh… who was the crazy bastard anyway? Did you catch his name?"
"Satoru Gojō," said Yūta.
"... Huh. So she was the hot lady."
"What?"
"Feel bad it took him this long to find her," remarked Tōji. "Poor fucker."
"You feel bad?! Traitor!"
Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ
Translations:
"Don't go that way—!"
"Nooo," they cried together. Lilly heard the familiar sound of the death screen appearing.
Yūta spat out, "Bullshit! Stupid boss, I'll rip your ass and poke out your eyes."
"Yūta," Lilly reprimanded immediately. "You apologize. We don't use that kind of language in front of guests."
.
The man grinned. "I'm Satoru Gojō by the way. And judging from these texts, you go by Yūta, right?"
"Stalker," sneered Yūta
.
"Of course, my child," Lilly said with a smile.
The pink-haired pubescent blinked, his brow furrowed as he thought about what she had said. Yūji had sparingly learned bits and pieces of a variety of languages from being exposed to them. He did not feel comfortable speaking any himself, but he thought he had a decent grasp of some nouns. Yūji hesitantly smiled. "Good… um… then yes?"
"Yes, my son."
Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ
Omake Meme:
Lilly: I'm adding another child to the family.
Yūji: That's grea—
Lilly, slamming adoption papers down: It's you, sign here.
Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ
M'tired. Hope everyone is safe and healthy.
Answer: Adopting increasingly more dangerous children / animals and mothering them.
Question: You are a budding Jujutsu Sorcerer who has become the "vessel" for your favorite character outside JJK. Who is your prisoner, and how screwed are you? :)
Reviews are love!