This chapter is a smidge longer than normal so if you like that I hope you enjoy. It has training tagged onto it before we meet the Kyoto students. I enjoyed writing Shohei's encounter and relationship with the Kyoto students and I hope you do too. I'll do my best to elaborate more on them in the following chapters. Enjoy.
Off on his own one early morning, in a recreational facility on the school grounds, was Shohei. He was dressed in black track shorts, shoes, a blue JAXA shirt and his gray jacket and was encircled by about eight baseball, softball, and tennis ball serving machines.
It was time for his private morning training, and the time today was dedicated to attempt to refine his innate technique. He had lowered his gravity field that typically surrounded him, and the only exertion of his cursed technique was the holding of his kanabo Shooting Star in the mesosphere.
Shohei's hair was roughly swept back and his eyes were visible. He wasn't using any facit of Gravity Conductor because he was training his innate technique, Stygian Void.
The use of both his techniques intandem was so draining of Shohei's cursed energy that he never used or even trained with both of these techniques at the same time.
With a click of several remotes to the pitching machines, the machines wired to life and readied to launch several rounds of balls, all at different times at Shohei.
Shohei unsheathed Iguana Talon, his new cursed tool that he hoped to somewhat designate fighting alongside his innate technique, or simply when Shohei had dropped his gravity field if he became proficient enough with using it.
The first softball machine fired, sending a neon green, grapefruit sized ball speeding towards Shohei's back. With his gravity field lowered and his reflexes explosive, he heard the machine fire and spun backwards, slashing the softball in half.
The next three baseball and tennis machines fired, almost intandem. They approached Shohei in almost a triangular formation, so he activated his technique, rather than countering all three with his blade.
As the balls neered Shohei, not even a centimeter off of Shohei's body, three black masses of darkness flashed into existence, vanished the three balls, and lingered for several moments before disappearing.
Shohei was fired at again by a baseball machine, and with a small lul, a softball machine right by it fired as well.
Shohei spun to counter. He knocked the first baseball aside with the blunt edge of his blade and caught the softball.
The final unfired machines all fired at Shohei at the same time and he made the effort to train his technique like he hoped to from the beginning.
Shohei's biggest issue with his innate technique was how much cursed energy it consumed for how little it did, but it was still nonetheless a powerful technique and rather destructive when used offensively. Stygian Void automatically produced small black holes to absorb incoming attacks at Shohei, but he could only block about a dozen attacks total before he had lost sufficient energy to power the technique. It would be great if it acted like Limitless did for Satoru, but Shohei had to have his gravity field take up that roll, as Stygian Void was too taxing.
The black holes were the size of baseballs, but they could absorb massive attacks. The black holes were only manifested for several seconds and hung around long enough to absorb whatever attack it was summoned to absorb. The larger or longer the attack, the longer it would make the black hole of Stygian Void stay around, therefore, using more of the boys's cursed energy.
Shohei was primarily training the technique to produce smaller black holes that yielded the same results as larger ones, but consumed less cursed energy and tightened up the window for how quick they appeared and disappeared to further lessen the cursed energy used. With the black holes already appearing and disappearing so fast, but burning through so much of his energy, it was the hardest weapon at Shohei's disposal to train and improve.
Shohei spent the rest of the time he had before the machines finished firing through their first barrage of ammo, but lost the the possible tease of gaining a rhythm in his training and made very little progress with lessening the cursed energy used by Stygian Void. Shohei felt as though he barely even sharpened his reflexes, as the firing machines were leagues too slow when compared to Sorcerers and curses to challenge his reactions.
Shohei was toweling off the sweat from his face and hair, disappointed he made so little progress while training Stygian Void for what felt like the millionth training session in a row. He depleted so much cursed energy that barely had enough to put his gravity field back up.
"When is this ever gonna get any better?" Shohei grunted, almost agitated at his shy of an hour training session before he met up with his classmates for even more training.
"Are you ready for today, Megumi?" Shohei asked the dark haired boy, who was stretching in the middle of the track's field of grass in a tracksuit.
"Yeah," Megumi nodded. "You got any clue what we're doing today?"
"No," Shohei muttered, scanning the field for any of the others and not seeing them. "I think Panda was the one planning something today."
"Is that good or bad?" Megumi asked, eyeing his friend's expressionless face.
"Depends," Shohei hummed, rubbing his chin. "If it was Maki planning, then it would probably be bonkers. Toge would plan something more reasonable. Panda seems pretty calm and level, but from how much he and I have pulled pranks, he could be planning something wild."
"Damn," Megumi grunted. "I was hoping it would be simple, but tough. I felt I was picking up some momentum with the weapons training with you and Maki."
"Ah, that's okay. When it's my time to plan practice it'll be simple. I'll be sure to have you training with weapons if that's what you want."
"Thanks," Megumi said simply.
Panda, Toge, and Maki came walking over the hill surrounding the track and down into the field, but Nobara was nowhere to be found.
"Where's Nobara?" Shohei yelled across the track to the other second-years.
"How should we know?" Maki yelled back as they walked down the stairs. "We didn't even know where you went this morning. We missed you at breakfast."
"Mustard leaf," Toge called, tossing Shohei a package of egg and ham sandwiches.
"Thanks, Toge. I didn't have breakfast yet," Shohei said, unwrapping and munching on the sandwich.
"You've got to remember, a good diet is key when training," Panda said, very sagely. "Anyway, since it was my day to plan training, I was hoping we could mix it up."
"What did I say," Shohei muttered to Megumi in between bites of his sandwich.
"Wait up! I'm here," Nobara yelled, jogging over the hill and down the stairs in a new tracksuit, joining the rest of the students. "I had slept in and forgot to lay out my outfit for today."
"You would be the type to plan out what to wear," Megumi muttered, earning an intense glare and throbbing temple from Nobara.
"It's okay. You're here now," Panda excused. "The game plan for today is to say we should play King of the Hill."
"Huh?" almost everyone questioned, not quite believing what they heard.
"Like the game people played as a kid?" Maki asked.
"Yea," Panda said, plainly. Panda didn't seem fazed that everyone wasn't on track with his plan.
"Salmon roe," Toge commented.
"How is this going to train us?" Nobara grilled Panda.
"It's literally fighting an uphill battle," Panda explained. "Megumi said something along the lines of him needing to think faster and better under pressure. What better way to do that than fight with a severe, but simple, disadvantage like fighting uphill? Heck, even fighting off several enemies by yourself with an advantage can still make your brain buzz."
"I'm down," Shohei said, eager to start the training rather than sitting around talking about it.
"Sure," Maki scoffed, sporting a small grin. "Are there teams or is everyone bum rushing one person?"
"That's all I had left to decide," Panda said. Panda pointed at Nobara and Megumi and asked, "Do you two want to partner up together and choose one other second-year to try and take the hill or take turns defending the hill from all the second-years?"
Nobara and Megumi looked at each other, seemingly trying to decide on an answer before actually giving a response.
They kept a strong eye contact for several moments before breaking and said two different answers.
"Partner up," Nobara answered.
"Individual," Megumi said.
They looked at each other, confused at their misunderstanding of answers.
"Wow," Panda chuckled to Shohei and Toge, also elbowing Maki. "I thought they were on the same wavelength for once."
"What," Nobara scoffed, sounding baffled Megumi would choose any other answer. "Why would we try and defend one little hill from all the second-years by ourselves. That's ridiculous."
"It's meant to be challenging," Megumi countered. "That's the point of this training. We've gotta face some tough challenges to get any better. We can't take the easy way out for training. That defeats the purpose."
"Fighting an uphill battle isn't taking the easy way out. It doesn't matter that we have an extra teammate when we're all at a disadvantage. Working together with that teammate and building a similar mindset when fighting together is important," Nobara explained.
"Adding more bodies to help yourself is taking the easy way out. You've gotta learn how to handle the heat of battle by yourself, so then you're not a burden on anyone you eventually do partner up with," Megumi stated, picking up his tone of voice.
"If working by yourself was the best option, then why aren't we training individually?!" Nobara shouted, getting into Megumi's face. "We're here to train with the second-years, who know better than us, to get better! We were so bad in our last mission we lost a friend! I got downed by a mob of cursed spirits and you had to come and save me. I got sent away, and you stayed by yourself, only to get beat down by that stupid King of Curses and loose Yuji!"
The argument had taken a turn that none of the second-years expected to see or hear. They were all mildly shocked in awkward silence, unable to speak on the sensitive subject matter that got brought up, except Shohei.
Shohei hung his head toward the ground as he approached the two bickering first-years who were just glaring at each other.
Shohei lifted his head, briskly slapped both Nobara and Megumi and grabbed them by the collars of their tracksuits.
"What are you two doing, bringing Itadori into a petty argument like this. What's the point in being so difficult to work with?" Shohei asked the two calmly, with no note of anger in his voice.
He looked between them and waited for a response, but got none.
"Exactly. You know you shouldn't be. I liked him too and now he's gone. We came to you two because you were mourning a friend, who died heroically in the field, and needed an outlet. Now you're using the outlet to bring up old news. Cut that shit out," Shohei scolded in a miffed tone.
Shohei lightly pushed Nobara and Megumi away from him and held his hands on his hips, like a disappointed parent.
"You're both going to partner up, with no additional second-year partner, and try to take the hill from each of us in turn," Shohei said, with a tone saying there was no room for debate.
"Sho," Panda called to the boy. "I was going to originally have the King of the hill be kinda easy, with everyone being able to use long range techniques and attacks. Do you want to cut that out for the first-years?" Panda suggested, sensing Shohei could use some extra force to knock some sense into the younger teens.
"That sounds great, Panda. Thank you for the suggestion. I think no weapons might just be a cherry on top," Shohei smiled, patting the Panda on the shoulder and looking back at Megumi and Nobara with a genuine grin.
Shohei looked over to Toge and said, "Toge, you haven't had any prolific moments in training yet. How would you like to be the first King on the Hill?"
"Salmon," Toge agreed.
"You know, Sho," Maki said, leaning her head towards Shohei, but not taking her eyes away from the disastrous scene. She was standing in the concrete stands built into the hill, directly across from the hill that King of the hill was taking place. "I think, not letting the two long-ranged based first-years not use long-ranged techniques and attacks against Toge, who is a semi-first-grade with a purely long ranged moveset, was an amusing, but brutal idea."
Megumi and Nobara, had been sent flying into each other for the fifth time and rolling down hill for the eighth time from Toge's cursed speech. The cursed speech was an Inherited technique of the Inumaki clan, a minor but strong and well known clan in Jujutsu Society, that compelled any living thing who heard its command to obey. That meant one could succumb to death from one phrase if the strength gap was great enough between the user and target.
Megumi and Nobara had to start their approach to Toge from the middle of the track. To win the round, the two had to both subdue Toge while on top of the hill or knock him off and remain on the hill for ten seconds. The two had not made it closer than three yards to Toge, and the hill was only about five or six yards tall.
"You might be right, Maki. Megumi could always try to be a more cooperative teammate, less stoic, and try asking for help once in a while though. Nobara also crossed the line when bringing up Itadori as an excuse to yell at Megumi. They just got carried away with each other and old emotions had a relapse. I can't have the only two first-years hating each other. You're right though, they really are getting in each other's way like never before now," Shohei said.
Toge had muttered, "Stumble."
Kugisaki, who was back upward and charging at Toge with hands clenched, forcibly tripped over her own feet and face-planted into the grass, tripping Megumi who was coming up behind her.
"Okay," Shohei groaned, standing up from his seat. "That's enough Toge. They've been humbled enough," Shohei yelled across the field.
Toge gave a thumbs up and shuffled down the hill to help Megumi and Nobara now that the game was over.
"How are you gonna get them back on the same page?" Panda asked Shohei, climbing down the stands with him and Maki.
"Well now that any ego they might've had is broken, I say we give them something a little more reasonable," Shohei said, looking to Panda for the first-years next task.
"I understand," Panda said, nodding. "Get me some tree branches."
"Now we have to take the hill from Panda?" Nobara groaned, gasping as she and Megumi caught their breath and drank some water on the stands.
"Yes," Shohei confirmed. "It should be easier. No offense Panda."
"None taken. I know what you meant," Panda assured, waving off the possible misunderstanding. "I don't have any long-range techniques, so Maki and Toge went to get me some stuff to throw as compensation."
"Sweet," Nobara cheered weakly. "Now we can actually have a chance at making it to the top."
"That doesn't change anything," Megumi muttered, looking frustrated from the last match.
"Of course it does," Nobara growled. "Now we don't have our own bodies disobeying us and making things ten times more difficult. All we have to do is block and dodge projectiles now."
"Yeah, we don't have to deal with Inumaki's cursed speech now, but we have a larger, stronger, and better physical combatant who also has ranged attacks to subdue or move from the top. Panda-senpai is going to be infinitely harder to physically move or subdue than Inumaki would be," Megumi explained.
"How about you're both right," Panda proposed. "One of you doesn't have to be wrong and the other has to be right. You both said viable and correct things."
The two first-year students ignored Panda's observation and scoffed at each other, irritated from both their argument and last match.
"You two better work this out before Sho and I take the hill, because if you can't get past Panda, you're not getting past us," Maki said, hearing the conversation while walking down the stands with freshly cut, thick branches in her arms.
"Tuna mayo," Toge advised, walking behind Maki with his arms also filled with branches.
"Let's just start," Megumi said, standing and walking to the center of the track to start.
Maki and Toge piled the wood by Panda on the top of the hill and then joined Shohei in the opposite stands, facing the hill.
Nobara and Megumi could be seen, standing together again and whispering, possibly strategizing.
"Start," Maki yelled, queuing the match to begin.
Nobara and Megumi sprinted from their starting position, closing several yards before Panda even picked up a branch to launch.
The first-year students made extremely good time in closing the distance between them and the bottom of the hill, but soon were split up by a branch, glowing with cursed energy, slung by both of their heads, spearing the ground heavily.
Megumi and Nobara took evasive action, as Panda started throwing out reinforced sticks like a machine gun, seemingly not giving his ammo supply a second thought, or how they'd have to explain to Shoko Ireri that one of the first-years got skewered by a tree branch.
Panda laughed a cheesy, fake, villainous laugh without stopping his firing of branches and said, "Oh, foolish baby chicks! How will you surmount this unmovable force in your pathway?"
"Way to play it up, Panda," Shohei muttered from his own stands, amused by Panda's schtick.
"It's funny and all, but he's about to run out of branches," Maki mentioned, pointing to the less than half a dozen branches by Panda's paw.
Panda's dastardly face disappeared and was replaced by a derpy expression of realization of him running out of projectiles and seeing the aggravated first-years, spriting up the hill with clenched fists.
Panda quickly hunched down into a low center of gravity position like a wrestler that would initially be harder to move.
After getting to the top of the hill for the first time that entire day, the two first-years looked, to Shohei, Maki, Toge, and Panda, like they knew what they were doing.
Megumi engaged Panda with extreme intensity, to distract him as Nobara flanked the big bear and began making large swinging kicks and punches to his legs.
Panda made a large 180 swing of his body, trying to booty bump Megumi off the hill as he turned his attention to Nobara, who was hurting him worse than Megumi who was just occupying his eyes and hands.
Megumi lept backwards, keeping his footing on the top of the hill, rather than rolling down and began throwing large, sweeping kicks into Panda's legs as Nobara now ducked and wheeved Panda's punches.
Panda tried to fend off the two first-years, but they played hard to get and kept to their strategy of one occupying Panda as the other attacked his legs as hard as they could.
Eventually, the second-years in the opposing stands noticed a nod from Megumi to Nobara, signaling for them both to retreat from immediate combat with Panda and join together at the back of the hill.
Panda turned to face the two, his back to the other stands and second-years. His wide body hid the two others from view, but the spectating second-year's noticed Panda was backing up, step by step toward the hill.
Nobara could briefly be seen, as she was launched up into the air, probably by Megumi the spectator's guessed, and delivered a massive flying kick to Panda's blocking arms. Panda was one step away from tumbling off the hill, and the first-years got him to take that step from both throwing large push kicks into Panda's stomach and causing his legs to stutter, sending him down the hill.
"Start counting, Maki," Shohei chuckled, tapping Maki's leg to begin the time required for Megumi and Nobara to remain on top of the hill to win.
Maki began counting, loud enough for Panda, Nobara, and Megumi to hear across the field.
Panda had finished tumbling down the hill by the count of six and had only got to his feet by eight, so despite his attempt at running back up the hill with wobbly legs, the first-years had won.
Shohei hustled down the stands to join them and saw the two sharing words on the top of the hill. Their expressions looked not quite somber, but just overall mature, unlike their scoffing and glaring before. The two bumped fists and shuffled down the hill with triumphant expressions.
"Nice job you two," Panda praised, patting the two younger Sorcerers on the back.
"Way to swarm Panda. That was a great way to keep the pressure on a superior combatant with multiple people," Maki complemented. "I'll make sure Sho doesn't send you in with no weapon next time. You need the training and a weapon wouldn't hurt to be used."
"Tuna mayo," Toge complemented.
"I think you've earned yourself a break," Shohei said, clapping his hands together. "You're not off the hook yet though, so why don't you two go ahead and start buying some drinks for the rest of us too. We'll catch up."
Nobara groaned and turned to leave for the drinks, and before turning to join her, Megumi agreeingly said, "Sure thing."
The younger teen's exited the stands and Panda turned to ask Shohei, "What do we need to talk about?"
"Nothing," Shohei admitted. "I just wanted to give them extra time alone if there were any more words they wanted to share in private."
"Well, while we wait, do you want to have that one on one we talked about?" Maki asked Shohei, twirling her polearm in hand and giving him a taunting look.
"Sure. I'm still recovering my cursed energy from the training session I had this morning," Shohei agreed, dramatically rolling his head and waddling over to the middle of the grassy area.
"I can drop my gravity field and we can get to it. There aren't any underclassmen to see you get embarrassed. Only us closely bonded second-years who wouldn't ever speak a word about how the Maki lost a sparring match with cursed tools against the airhead Shohei," Shohei goated and teased.
"Stop talking and come get whooped," Maki scoffed, unimpressed, but amused as she joined Shohei, about two yards away in the middle of the field. "We'll score and break. Score an opening that would be used to kill or seriously harm, then break apart to restart. First to score three openings wins," Maki explained, taking her own fighting stance with her training spear with a blunt, bandaged blade.
"Sounds good," Shohei agreed, unsheathing Iguana Talon from its sheath in his waistline and taking his simpler stance like a fighter, waiting for a chance to counter. He removed his gravity field and his hair began to passively rise, revealing his odd eyes.
"Happy to see you aren't scared to get rocked without having your gravity cushion on," Maki jabbed.
"Come ref this match, please, Toge," Shohei said, not taking his eyes off Maki.
Toge jogged to the grass, and raised his hand, and dropped it, signaling to start.
Maki exploded, spinning her spear in hand and halting a thrust, centimeters away from Shohei's throat.
Shohei hadn't moved from his original position a smidge, but grinned and said, "I let you have that one."
"Sure you did," Maki scoffed, taking her original position again. Shohei, in reality, was surprised by Maki's burst of speed.
Toge held up and dropped his hand.
Shohei lunged from his starting position, swinging Iguana Talon with a long armed right hook, forcing Maki's backstep. Shohei pursued Maki's retreat and kicked her forward leg out from under her, forcing her to one knee and holding Iguana Talon to her throat in the blink of an eye.
Maki leered and slapped away Shohei's hand. She mimicked Shohei mockingly and said, "I let you have that one."
"Sore loser," Shohei chortled with a swing of Iguana Talon on its ring.
He took his starting position again, but with a Muay thai mma style, brining in his left hand close to his temple, holding out his right hand in front of his head with Iguana Talon out, leaning on his back left leg, and holding his right heel off the ground several centimeters. Shohei hoped to throw Maki off with his stance, as he knew she knew it was good for explosive and responsive kicks, but Shohei himself never did kick a lot when training hand to hand.
For a few days when the second-years were out on their mission with Kusakabe-sensei and Shohei was waiting for his grade mission, he and Satoru experimented with some new styles for Shohei to try out and mix it up with. Most of the styles were simple mixed martial arts Satoru had come to learn and hoped to show Shohei. The muay thai stance was one of them.
Toge raised and dropped his hand, and rather than exploding into action like each time before, both Shohei and Maki held their positions.
"Since when did you start throwing kicks?" Maki asked, noting the boy's stance.
"Since you were gone on the second-year's mission. I had some time to fiddle around with them," Shohei honestly said, not expecting the information to change the match's outcome.
"Didn't I tell you when training that newbies shouldn't throw kicks?" Maki taunted. "It's sloppy."
"I'm not a newbie anymore, Maki. Good luck getting past this stance," Shohei said, not cracking under the pressure of the girl's jabs. "And I'm the real deal with my grade ranking mission. I'm bound to pass it and we will officially not be on the same level anymore, even though you're still ranked a grade-four Sorcerer."
"Just because you've got cursed energy manipulation and Gravity Conductor mastered doesn't make you a perfect Sorcerer," Maki said, turning up her nose and dropping her previous taunting tone. "And I make my own luck."
"Don't forget curtains, signature reading, and simple domains," Shohei cheekily informed. "It does bring me one step forward, and with the progress I'm making with my weapons and combat training, I'm storming ahead in the world."
"Yea, but what about Stygian void," Maki jabbed, noticing the one thing Shohei failed to bring up.
"You said you were still recovering your cursed energy. Stygian void is one of the only things that drains your energy like that. Still not making any progress? I wouldn't know since you never let any of us help you train it, like it's some big secret we've never seen before. And I know you're not doing Domain Expansion training yet. You don't have the patience for that."
Internally, Shohei was irked that Maki pieced together his struggle with Stygian void, but physically gave no tell that it was true.
"Okay," Maki innocently chirped. "Don't say anything. Your silence tells me everything I need to know."
"If you know everything, let's change subjects," Shohei said, dropping his own taunting tone like Maki did.
"The Kyoto students and Principal are visiting today to discuss the exchange event. Aoi texted me to say was here and said Mai was with him," Shohei informed, with almost a greasy tone, trying to simply get Maki to make the first move and play into his stance and trap. "Is she still left in the dust by her only sister?"
"Okay you two," Panda said, warily. "I think this goating is getting out of hand."
"You know I left her behind to eventually better the clan that put us both down. Why take that route to bait me?" Maki said, lowering her tone and slightly furling her brow.
"Because just as well as you know me, I know you. You could say leaving her didn't hurt, or your clan's rejection didn't piss you off, or that…" Shohei started with a whiny tone, but was cut off by what felt like his body's own reaction of throwing a rear body kick to Maki's flank as she attempted to attack him mid sentence.
Maki was sent, tumbling across the grass, tearing up some and kicking up dust.
She came sprinting out of a small dirt cloud, scuffed, but determined looking with a stone straight face.
She slammed her training spear overhead, and clashed with Shohei's rising slash with his karambit, knocking some residue dirt on Maki from the force.
"So it did get to you," Shohei noted, almost excited. Shohei quickly changed his tone and expression to as sincere as he typically was with Maki's clan situation and said, "You know all that talk was only to bait you, right? I fully support your plan of changing the Zenin clan for the better. We always get carried away with one on one."
"Yea you do," Panda yelled, aggravated at the escalated sparring match. "Now cut it out before you make me break you two up."
"Trying to talk yourself out of this ass whooping?" Maki grunted, not commenting on anything Shohei mentioned or responding to Panda. Maki quickly attempted to jar Shohei with a fast bash from her spear butt when she pulled from the clash, but missed as Shohei weaved to the side.
"No. I'm prepared to fight it," Shohei said. "But I need you to know I meant so little of it."
"So little doesn't mean none," Maki said, throwing a flurry of swings, kicks, and other strikes toward Shohei.
Maki's expression of passive concentration didn't crack once, but her fighting emphasized and manifested her frustration with Shohei.
Maki made wild combo's to strike Shohei rather than score a point for the match or launched powerful attacks and strikes that she surely couldn't have halted before they made contact with Shohei.
Shohei himself urely blocked and retreated, avoiding the more dangerous strikes, but taking several smaller ones as punishment for his own slip up in words and combat.
"What was all that talk about not being at another teammate's throat to Fushiguro and Kugisaki!" Panda yelled over the fighting sorcerers. "Hypocrite!"
"Bonito flakes!" Toge scolded, raising a fist in protest of the clashing friends.
"Fine, Panda!" Maki yelled, suddenly halting her entire assault.
She was in the middle of a swing on Shohei when she decided to stomp and yell at him.
"You yell at us for getting out of hand after the jabbing has already ramped up to eleven rather than stopping it in the beginning when you claim we always get out of hand."
Maki began to storm towards Panda and Toge, raising and shaking her fist and bearing a vexed expression.
"I'll stop this petty little sparring match gone sideways so you don't stress yourself out about having to break up the two friends fighting who always fight anyway," Maki finished as she got into Panda's face, pointing a finger accusingly. "Let's go find those damn first-years," Maki said, turning from Panda, giving Toge the stink eye, and scaling the steps out of the track.
"Good idea," Shohei agreed, feeling parched from defending against a raging, curse killing, revolutionary, beautiful, four eyed, beast of a woman.
"You're not off the hook yet either you dirty bastard of an instigator," Maki yelled over her shoulder.
Toge, Panda, and Shohei followed after Maki, keeping several paces away in case her anger had a relapse and she attacked out of the blue.
The four were making their way to the closest by vending machines when Shohei got a call.
He answered and said into the phone, "Shohei Gojo here."
It was Mei Mei on the phone. She said, "Hello there Shohei. This is Mei Mei."
"Hello Mei-sensei," Shohei greeted.
"Trading treat for treat since you've donated a fraction of your paychecks to me, you may call me Mei-san now. I've called to inform you that you are officially a grade-one Sorcerer."
"Do you mean it?!" Shohei asked, stunned but pleased by the words. Panda and Toge leaned in and looked at Shohei to try and see or hear what his minor excitement was about.
"I do," Mei Mei confirmed. "The higher ups finished their review of my report from your mission and approved of your rising in status. Congratulations."
"Thank you for calling to tell me that," Shohei said. "And thank you for monitoring my mission. You were a very good proctor and I hope you enjoy the money gained from my checks."
"Oh, I will," Mei Mei assured the boy. "Have a nice day Shohei."
"You too Mei-san," Shohei bid and hung up. "Guess what boys," Shohei said to the two listening to his call. "I'm officially a grade-one Sorcerer!"
"Kelp!" Toge responded, smiling with his eyes at the boy's win in his career and life.
"That's amazing, Shohei," Panda cheered, clapping Shohei on the back, causing a stutter in his walking pattern. "The first one of us second-years to make it to first-grade without completely skipping it like Yuta. Woah."
"Thanks, you two," Shohei said, flashing a cheesy but genuine smile at his two friends.
Shohei jogged up alongside Maki and asked, "Did you hear that, Maki? I'm a grade-one Sorcerer now."
"How could I not hear," Maki muttered. "You basically yelled it."
Knowing his jabs at Maki's personal life and relationships wouldn't blow by quickly, Shohei made another genuine attempt to apologize to Maki.
"I realize 'So little of it' was an inadequate statement," Shohei said, low and calmly, like trying to talk down a lion from pouncing. "I really should've said none because that's how much I meant. None of what I said was right enough to stand by if it meant making you upset," Shohei said, meeting and staring at Maki's golden eyes with his own mismatched ones as she glared up at him. "You're too good of a friend for me to have made keep your distance. I should learn how to play aggressively instead of upsetting you into making the first move, especially if it means us not talking after. Will you forgive me?"
Maki walked in silence by Shohei for a long stretch of time on the path through a forest. She seemed to either be pondering words to share or purely letting the boy's speech hang in the air, useless.
Maki opened her mouth to speak, but shut it as she saw Shohei tear away from looking at her and snap to attention, like a wild animal sensing an incoming natural disaster.
"What is it?" Maki asked. Panda and Toge joined the two on the path and looked at Shohei's focusing expression.
"Megumi is fighting," Shohei muttered. He had sensed flaring cursed energy entering his range of sensing as he walked down the path, and recognised one familiar signature loosely as Megumi's. "I don't recognize three other's. It's too far away, but it's safe to guess Nobara is one of them."
"Then let's hurry," Panda called, already sprinting down the path.
The second-years arrived at a small cluster of buildings, seeing one was damaged slightly and the other housing a familiar green-haired girl holding Nobara on the ground at gunpoint.
"We'll check out the building," Panda said, already hurling towards the structure with Megumi's cursed energy signature on top, along with a heart shaped signature that Shohei recognized as Aoi Todo's.
"Oh jeez," Shohei moaned, hearing commotion and seeing Megumi's and Aoi's signature on the same building.
Maki was already approaching the green-haired girl with very little cursed energy, very casually and calmly, like the girl didn't have Nobara at gunpoint.
Maki knocked the girl's gun upward and away from Nobara with her spear. Shohei walked over calmly, as to not spark a need for Maki's sister, Mai, to start firing at him or Maki.
Mai and Maki were identical twins, but appeared very different. Mai had a mid-length green tinted hair down to her neck, but Maki's was long and always up in a ponytail. Mai carried herself in a passive, but dangerous way like a snake. Maki held her chin up and chest out when entering a room, exuding confidence without seeming cocky. Mai dressed to accentuate her figure like her hips and waist, and ultimately more feminine. Shohei only saw Maki in an ocasional skirt like her uniform, but it came along with a sports jacket or real life street ware. Mai even had basic, but seductive and persuasive brown eyes while Maki had stunning and powerful gold ones.
Shohei sensed the tension in the air before a word was spoken between the two sisters, but Maki spoke first and said, "What are you doing to our errand runner, Mai?"
"Oh, my," Mai said, sounding amused and falsely shocked. "You're such a loser, I didn't even notice you, Maki."
"Way to say you can't sense someone's presence when they're breathing down your neck," Shohei sniggered, now directly behind the twin of Maki, looking directly down at her and ready to disarm her if she started firing.
Mai looked directly up at the towering boy's glowing eyes in the shaded overhead for the vending machine, unfazed by his attempt at being intimidating and looking more amused to see another Tokyo student.
"Oh," Mai cooed. "High there you lanky glass of water. I'm so glad to see you and your beautiful eyes again. Do you still want to turn me down for this hard headed weakling?" Mai asked in her passively flirtatious tone, loosely shaking her gun in Maki's direction who was standing there patiently.
Shohei had met Mai and Maki when he visited the Zenin estate several years ago with Satoru and Megumi to discuss Megumi's upbringing.
Shohei wasn't aloud into the meeting with Satoru, Megumi, and the clan leaders so he played with Maki and Mai.
As the three grew up and occasionally saw each other in clan meetings or other Jujutsu Political events, Shohei and Mai enjoyed each other's company and Maki simply tagged along.
There was a long stretch of time where before any of them were enrolled in any Jujutsu schools that they never saw each other. They all grew into their own people instead of little kids who played together cause no one else would.
When Maki left the Zenin clan for good and joined Tokyo High, she and Shohei became closer friends than they ever were.
When Mai met them again, grown into a colder personality, she shared words with Maki that compelled Shohei to not be friends with her anymore. Mai still held onto her and Shohei's childhood friendship as a way to instigate confrontation and played up a childish crush Shohei had on her when little to the extreme.
"We both know Maki's stronger and flat out better in any way you want to list, except being a tad more deranged than a Sorcerer needs to be. Is Aoi's temperament rubbing off on you, Mai?" Shohei said, widening his eyes to spark some reaction out of the girl to get her facade of confidence to break.
"No, she's right Sho," Maki admitted. "We're both equally losers, you know. Me and her," Maki stared down Mai more passively, but somehow more intimidatingly than Shohei ever could. "All you can do is imbue objects with cursed energy, and you've got shit for cursed techniques," Maki said, taking a dig at her sister.
Mai retorted with no hesitation, "Better than having no cursed energy at all. My neck gets sore looking up at others all the time, like this hunk." Mai tried to raise her free hand above her head to rub Shohei's cheek, but he caught her wrist and laid her hand back down to her side. "I need to look down on someone like you every so often to fix that."
"Ah, forget it," Maki scoffed. "We're both at rock bottom, and it's pathetic." Maki rolled her head to Nobara on the ground and asked, "Nobara, can you stand?"
Mai swiftly interrupted. "No way," the girl insulted. "She won't be getting up for a while. I hurt her pretty good…"
Maki interrupted her in return by thrusting her staff close to her face, making the girl jump slightly, but in stoic silence.
"What?" Mai asked, frowning for the first time in the encounter. "You want to fight?"
Shohei quietly stepped away from Mai's back and watched Nobara rise from the ground with a manic look on her face and pounce onto Mai and drag her to the ground. Nobara had pulled this off so effortlessly because her "bullet wounds" were actually caused by rubber rounds that were sure to hurt and even more sure to bruise.
"Nice support, Maki-san!" Nobara growled, choking Mei on the ground. "You put a bunch of holes in my brand new tracksuit. Leave that uniform of yours behind. I'll make it my own summer uniform!"
"I'll put holes in your body next time," Mai grunted. She put on a cocky grin through her chokehold and said, "Also, you wouldn't be able to wear this with those long legs of yours-" but was cut off by Nobara tightening the hold.
"Don't insult your captors, Mai," Shohei advised. "It makes the torture so much worse. Whatsapp Aoi-kun?"
"Leave it," Nobara grunted another time, not hearing Shohei's last part.
"We're leaving, Mai," Aoi Todo declared, standing in the overhead's entrance, shirtless and scratching his head.
"Where's Fushiguro," Nobara asked, sweating a little as she got up and stood by Maki.
"Don't worry. The others are with him," Maki said, calmly.
"Looks like you're having fun," Aoi mused, watching Mai stand up with her revolver ready.
"Quit joking!" Mai spat. "I'm just getting started!"
"No, you're not," Aoi said firmly. "Unlike you, I still have important business here in Tokyo."
Aoi scanned the area, looking for something and noticed Shohei who had greeted him. Aoi walked up to the boy, who was almost his height and gave him a warm first bump and smile and greeted the boy like seeing a good friend after a long time apart.
"What is up, Sho-kun? How've you been? I was exhilarated to hear you were in this year's exchange event. I hope you won't let me down now."
Aoi Todo was a beast of a eighteen year old. He was 190 centimeters tall and the definition of swole with all his muscles hanging off of him like stacks of bricks. He had a wide scar running down his left eye from hairline to cheek, but it didn't affect his beady black eye. Aoi had black, braided, shoulder-length hair in a top ponytail that made his large head resemble a pineapple.
"I've been great, Aoi-kun ," Shohei grinned and returned the first bump, feeling pleased to see his good friend. "Would you believe me if I told you I've officially been promoted to grade-one like my favorite pineapple head."
"You make me feel like the real tropical fruit when you call me that," Aoi cackled in his bellowing, deep voice. "But are you serious?!" he quickly questioned, sounding like a kid was informed they would be receiving christmas and birthday gifts early.
"Yeah man," Shohei confirmed. "I just got the call a few minutes ago before I sensed you beating up my underclassmen," Shohei finished, a little more intense as he gripped Aoi's shoulder when bringing up Megumi.
"Okay," Aoi said cautiously, holding up his hands and halting like he was attempting to stop a horde of people he offended all at once. "I asked about Fushiguro's taste in women, like I always do when meeting new people, and he gave such a boring answer Sho. You know I hate boring men."
"Yea, I know Aoi," Shohei grunted, moderately exasperated at his two friends' encounter. "That's a good friend of mine that you probably just dented. You kill me sometimes man. I need him in one piece for the Exchange Event and so he can take me out to lunch sometimes."
"It's more than a dent," Aoi chuckled under his breath, avoiding Shohei's eyes. "Look, look, look," Aoi paused again. "He'll be recovered in time for the Exchange Event and there won't be any harm done. I may have even inspired him to reevaluate his taste in women and fighting capabilities."
"If I go check on him and it's more than a dent, you have to let me get a kidney shot in the Exchange Event for damage reparations," Shohei warned, waving a finger at the boy.
"Sure thing. I didn't damage him beyond a ding you couldn't bang out with some training," Aoi assured. "Listen man, we've got to go. I have some personal business here in Tokyo," Aoi said, flamboyantly pulling out tickets to a handshake event and flashing them to Shohei. "My personal handshake with Takada-chan!"
"Uh-huh," the girls present muttered, disturbered by Aoi's excitement for the event of meeting Japanese Idols.
Aoi spotted his jacket on the floor and went to pick it up and throw it over his shoulder.
"Who knows what I might do if I miss my transfer and can't make it to the event hall?" Aoi said, subtly threatening Mai to come along, but when he turned his back, he winked at Shohei. "Come with me, Mai."
"Ugh!" Mai groaned. "You're so selfish!" The girl jogged up to the boy as they began to leave.
"You can't blame the man for not wanting to waste his tickets, Mai," Shohei called after the girl.
She looked back and blew a kiss at the boy and made a rude hand gesture, to which Shohei returned one back.
"Don't go thinking you'll get off this easy at the exchange event," Mai said to Nobara and Maki.
"Quit acting like you won!" Nobara yelled, a vein throbbing in her check. "Leave your uniform behind, damn it!"
Maki tapped Nobara on the head with her spear and scolded her. "Cut it out, idiot. Winning or losing here hardly matters. We'll beat them up at the exchange event."
Maki looked back and saw Shohei, staring at the building where he last read Megumi's cursed signature.
"Go ahead," Maki said. "Go check on Fushiguro. I know you were kind of joking with Todo, but I know you're worried for him. He's like a little brother to you," Maki noted. She gave Shohei a warmer look than normal. Coupled with that, Shohei didn't respond and understood Maki forgave him, so he left the overhead and flew up to the building.
It was a pretty destructive battle scene. Aoi Todo, to all appearances, threw and dragged Megumi around on the ground below, through the buildings, and to the roof of it.
Megumi had a hand on Panda's large shoulder, holding himself up. He was bleeding from the head, blood covering the entire top half of his face, and his tracksuit was scuffed and dirtier than it was from training.
"How bad did that ol' gorilla hurt you?" Shohei asked, walking up to his friend and gently parting his hair to see where he was bleeding.
"Would you believe me if I almost pulled out Mahoraga?" Megumi whispered to Shohei, so Panda and Toge wouldn't hear it as they discussed why the Kyoto students always loved harassing them.
"By now, I'd be surprised if you didn't," Shohei scolded, but quickly removed any harsh expression from his face. "That's also why we're training. It's to get you so strong that you can resolve your problems without possibly killing yourself. I know you don't like him sometimes, but Satoru is right when he says he sees so much potential in you. We can't go wasting that on quirky Kyoto students."
"He's more than quirky. He's an animal," Megumi groaned.
Shohei hooked an arm under Megumi's armpits and threw Megumi's arm over his shoulder. He and Megumi hopped off the building and drifted to the ground slowly, like a feather falling in the wind.
"I asked him if the rumors of him beating five grade-ones and a special-grade curse with his cursed technique were true. He corrected me that he only used his technique on the special-grade."
"Yeah man," Shohei admitted. "Aoi's a beast. He's the only official grade-one student at Kyoto and for just reason."
"You're on a first name basis with him?" Megumi asked, looking moderately shocked.
"Yeah. He and I got assigned on a mission somewhere between Nakatsugawa and Iida. It was a sort of collaboration between Tokyo and Kyoto schools since it was almost directly in between them. Me and Aoi-kun were only second-year and first-years at the time," Shohei explained.
"And you're friends now? He's so flamboyant and extra and you're so laid back. You two are almost polar opposites," Megumi noted. "Did you pass his weird test about your taste in women?"
"That's exactly how we became friends, beside fighting together pretty well on the mission, and him deeming me strong enough to amuse him in a fight," Shohei said. "When we met at the randevou before the mission, my taste was the first thing he asked me after we introduced ourselves."
"What did you say?" Megumi asked, looking at Shohei like he was almost a different person.
"Well, I don't really want a girl who wants me to never have any alone or down time, so overly proactive girls that couldn't just hang out were off the table. I sat on it for a while, but finally said a girl who could be my best friend. And if I had to choose a body type, it would be a girl with nice hips and a good, strong lower half. Butt, thighs, and all. Something that wouldn't be impossible to cuddle like skin and bones you know."
"Was he legitimately looking for a body type as an answer?" Megumi questioned.
"If he asked you with the same intensity as me and gave his speech on a man's fetiches, you should've known. When I saw him, he said you gave him a boring answer. That was the worst thing you could've done," Shohei chuckled at Megumi's incident.
"Whatever. Hurry up and take me to Ieiri. He slammed me on my head and then dragged it through a building. It's killing me," Megumi grumbled, gingerly feeling his bleeding scalp.
"Okay, but you don't get to skip training for more than two days. I won't make you fight King of the hill anymore either. We can go back to weapon's training for you," Shohei said.
"Thanks Shohei," Megumi groaned.
I might be failing, but I've been trying to write Shohei's training well enough for you guys to understand it's pacing so comment if you have any suggestions to better it. Next chapter will be more training, relationship building, and stuff off the top of my head since we can't follow along with Itadori and Nanami. Thank you for reading.