Disclaimer: I do not own Jujutsu Kaisen. It is property of Gege Akutami. However, I do do own any original characters appearing in this story.
12th Curse
Training Together
一緒にトレーニングする
issho ni toreeningu suru
Shortly after meeting Megumi-kun, my brother and I met and talked with Tsumiki-san about Satoru-niisan semi-adopting the two of them as his wards. Of course, they questioned if a teenager like nii-san could even do that, he told them that he'd be a legal adult in under 2 years' time and until then, his sensei would take partial custody, if Megumi-kun and Tsumiki-san agreed. Both of their birth parents were no longer in the picture and they were currently living off savings left behind by the two. The cost of rent at their apartment, paired with groceries and tuition fees for school would soon drain that, so nii-san also offered them support if they wished to continue to live in that apartment, but there was also the option to move into dormitories at Jujutsu Tech, where he and I currently resided.
After giving it some thought, the two half-siblings decided they wanted to continue living in their family apartment, and nii-san accepted that, still extending monetary support and saying he'd still be checking in on them to make sure they were doing well or needed anything. But he still expected Megumi-kun to accept his training offer for his inherited technique, Ten Shadows.
And there was another condition for his support – they had to be my friends.
While I was internally excited to make friends with my favourite character and his older sister, at the same time, I didn't really like that he was essentially bribing people to be my friends.
I was more than capable of making friends myself! See Hotaru-chan and Hiroto-kun for example!
As I huffed and berated my older brother, Tsumiki-san had giggled and told us we looked like a loving pair of siblings, to her.
Which threw me off – why did she say this?
She then explained that the two of us seemed so relaxed with each other, despite the big age-gap between us, and that was why she said that.
And when she said that, I could kind of understand. Even though nearly two years ago, Gojo Satoru was a fictional character and felt so distant to me, and U never could have imagined getting to meet him let alone become close to him, I'd almost immediately felt relaxed enough around him to talk back to him, to act sassy and childish, or tease and berate him.
It was odd.
Maybe as the years went by, I'd feel even more relaxed with him, become attached, and even genuinely love him like I'd loved my brother from my previous life.
I oddly didn't mind if it did end up that way, even if it would end up hurting me a lot, if the events of the Shibuya arc were to ever come to pass.
It wasn't a given that Shoko-san, Yaga-san, Nanami-san or even Megumi-kun would end up surviving the plot of the world they were in, Jujutsu Kaisen.
To the point I'd read before I died and ended up in this world, none of them had died, but the story was in the middle of a very dangerous arc where nobody's lives were guaranteed.
It was honestly very scary, not knowing.
But I didn't want that to limit me or make me feel too scared to talk to people either. This was in a way a special opportunity, in more than one way. First, it was a second opportunity at life and I wanted to make the most of it, and be happy. Second, it was the opportunity to meet and get close to characters I'd been so invested in, something not just anybody would ever get the chance to do. Maybe I could even one day know more about some of them than even Akutami-sensei, the creator did.
It was a lot to think about, and Tsumiki-san and Megumi-kun must've thought I was still troubled that nii-san may be bribing them to be my friends.
Megumi-kun had then said something that surprised me.
"I'll accept the support, but I won't become her friend just cause you're helping pay our bills. I'll decide for myself whether or not we're friends." He said firmly, leaving us quiet.
Tsumiki-san then smiled and laughed behind her hand, "Otherwise, it wouldn't feel real. Right, Megumi? That's what you meant, isn't it." She pointed out.
The boy didn't say anything, but he suddenly found the wall to his right very interesting. He looked kinda cute, like a sulking child… well, he is a child right now.
Nii-san must've seen something I didn't because he suddenly got loud, pointing to Megumi-kun, making all three of us jump.
"Then, the training begins this Sunday! I'll be picking up at 8am sharp, and you'll join Yukine-chan to train together, so be ready! BUT!" he said, "Don't get cocky! The two of you will become JUST friends, you got that!?" he added and my face turned hot and red.
"HAH?!" Megumi also got red, eyes bulging as his head spun round to look at nii-san again.
"NII-SAN WHAT ARE YOU SAYING!? Stop it, you're embarrassing me! And Megumi-kun!" I cried, grabbing the side of his jacket and covering my cheeks, mortified.
"I'm protecting your honour, Yukine-chan!"
"I'm nearly 7, I DON'T NEED YOU TO!"
Well, needless to say, the rest of the talk that day was pretty chaotic and embarrassing, but the arrangements were successfully hashed out and Tsumiki-san said that I was welcome to visit whenever I wanted, provided they weren't at school or already busy.
Megumi-kun stood by his resolve, that if he and I were to be friends it would be if we decided we liked each other enough to be so, and that would be decided when we met to train or when I visited Tsumiki-san and he at home.
Honestly, despite our slightly embarrassing first meeting, I was still really looking forward to training alongside him.
I wondered if Megumi already had some contracts? I couldn't wait to find out!
"Now Megumi," Satoru-nii said after finishing off his explanation of what he knew of the Zen'in clan's Ten Shadows technique, "Have you thus far had any successful summonings of your Gyokuken?" he asked the boy.
Megumi gave a silent nod.
"Can you show us?" he prompted the boy and after thinking for a moment, he gave a nod.
"Okay," was all that Megumi said, as he brought his hands together to form the famous canine shape. I had to bite my knuckles to stop myself from preemptively squealing, but the moment two fluffy white and black wolf puppies rose from within Megumi's shadow, try as I may a squeak of some sort erupted and I blushed, looking away as Megumi and my brother looked at me.
Satoru laughed a little, "Well they are certainly cute right now, but don't be fooled. The Gyokuken are quite the capable curse hunters once you've nurtured their strength, and can also be used for tracking and threat detection. From now on, Megumi-kun, you'll also be having these shikigami assist you while acquiring new contracts with other shikigami!" he explained, and then started explaining the gyokuken's utility further to Megumi.
I kind of drifted away my attention from what they were talking about, my eyes transfixed with the golden eyes of the two shikigami; they themselves, while getting absent-minded ear scratches from their master, were also gazing right back at me; it was almost hypnotizing.
"…Do you want to pet them?" Megumi's voice suddenly came, causing me to snap out of my staring contest with the white Gyokuken shikigami, and my purple eyes snapped to his green ones.
At my surprised expression, he shrugged, "You've been staring at them longingly for a while now," he glanced down to his summons, "And they're alright with it too. Go ahead." He added.
I gulped, "Is it really okay?" I asked, and he nodded his head.
With his permission, and presumably the shikigami's as well, I carefully closed in, hands raised to pet it, and gently, I placed my open palm on the white one's head, then once I felt a bit more confident, I raised my other palm and started petting the black one as well. They leaned into the touch, enjoying the touch.
It felt like my heart melted…
I thought Panda-kun had a soft fur coat…but I think this is even better! Not that I'll ever tell Panda-kun that, I wouldn't want to hurt his feelings.
"You must really have a thing for petting soft things, huh Yukine-chan?" Satoru commented, squatting down by the two of us to get on our level. He jokingly raised a hand to pet Megumi's hair but stopped short of actually touching it, "I doubt you'd enjoy petting this spikey hair though!" he said with a laugh.
Megumi merely glared at Satoru, looking like he wanted to swat his hand away, but wanting to be polite even if the older male wasn't.
I blushed, "I'd never! We're not anywhere near close enough for me to touch his head like that, and I wouldn't want to make it awkward for Megumi-kun!" I argued, drawing my hands back to cover my face.
Satoru only laughed, and I heard Megumi tiredly sigh.
"By the way," Megumi began, on another training session a few days later, "I've been meaning to ask about your curse technique. What is it?" he asked. We were currently taking a break from training our curse technique.
"My curse technique?" I repeated, looking to him.
"Yeah. I noticed you kept holding your hands out to this big block of wood and it was shaking a bit." Megumi added.
I blinked, and nodded, "Yeah I'm trying to gradually raise the weight of objects I can affect. The block's a lot bigger and heavier than the first one I started with at the start of the year, and once I can freely move that block, Satoru-nii said I'd be moving onto stone." I answered, and adjusted my sitting position to face him more; "My curse technique is called Polarity. It's one of the rarer inherited techniques of the Gojo clan that revolves around magnetic force. Using my curse energy, I can push things away from me or pull them closer, like this," I said and aimed my hand at his water bottle and used pull to cause it to fly into my palm, and grabbed it; Megumi's green eyes widened, "These are just the basic functions of the technique," I added, giving back his water bottle and demonstrating push on an empty packet of Calbee chips to make it fly away.
"Heeey, you better pick that up and put it in the bin, young lady!" Shoko-san, who was watching us for a little bit since Satoru got called by Yaga-san to talk about something.
"I will!" I answered her, and quickly scrambled up to grab the empty chip bag and bring it back. Sitting down again, I took a swig of water from my bottle; "Yeah, so that's the basic entry level applications of the technique, but the way my big brother explained it, my technique's quite flexible depending on my creativity, so if I can imagine it and it's relating to the action of pushing and pulling, then it's possible, given enough work. So I'm making my own… 'special moves', I guess. And increasing the weight I can handle means that I can do even more things! Like, I want to be able to lift people, even if they're huge like Yaga-san, so I can help pull them out of harm's way or transport them away from danger if they're injured." I explained, and grew quiet. I glanced at Megumi to check his reaction.
He was looking down at his hands, looking thoughtful.
"Megumi-kun?" I asked him and he looked up, putting his hand down.
He shook his head, "Nothing.. It's just that when you said 'special moves' I was thinking you were going to talk about stuff to beat up curses, but you're actually thinking about stuff that can help others instead of stealing all the glory, like Gojo-san- er, your brother probably would," he said, and the corners of his mouth slightly perked upwards, but it was gone in a split second.
I blushed hotly, "Don't get me wrong, I'm working on moves that can kill curses too…! Like my move 'Crush'," I brushed off the praise, feeling embarrassed, and took the empty chip packet and grabbed one end and the other separately, applying pull to both ends and causing the packet to pull it's self inwards, crushing itself under the magnetic force.
"I stand by what I said," Megumi shrugged, returning to his sandwich.
With rosy cheeks, I just decided to accept the praise I didn't feel like I'd earned. After all, even though I was making plans to make techniques to help save people – a certain tragic character who fell victim to bullying and manipulation in particular – I hadn't actually gotten to a point where it was useable yet or anything…
I lifted my second tuna mayo riceball from my pack of three and began munching on it.
"Hey, do you think you could move me? I'm still smaller, and I'm not that heavy." Megumi asked, startling me a lot.
"Huh?!" I cried, after nearly choking on my food and looking at the boy incredulously, "B-Buh… But I'm…" I gulped, "I don't know if I'm confident enough to actually try lifting an actual person yet. What if I accidentally hurt you?" I cried, hesitant.
"You don't seem like a bad person who'd hurt me on purpose, though. Could you make me float or something, like off the ground? I was kinda curious." Megumi said, pointing to the ground.
Flustered, I lost control of my hands, waving them around without reason. I wasn't sure how to react to the pressure suddenly dropped on me. I don't want to accidentally hurt my favourite character!
"Don't worry about it," Shoko-san's voice interrupted, accompanied by the clack of her footsteps drawing closer to us, "I'll observe to make sure nothing goes wrong, and if Megumi-kun does get hurt I'll heal him up in a jiffy with my own technique," she explained.
"But Shoko-san…!" I protested, still worried.
"Thanks," Megumi bobbed his head.
Shoko-san smiled, "Yukine-chan, I understand that you're worried about hurting Megumi-kun, but you're never going to progress beyond pushing around blocks of wood or stone if you don't get over your fear of hurting someone. And you'll never get the hang of moving people like you want to if you don't take the first step. Megumi-kun's kindly offered to be your first guinea pi—I mean training partner," Shoko-san joked, to which Megumi gave her a flat look, "So why don't you take him up on his offer?" she said, and tilted her head expectantly.
I pouted a little, and turned to Megumi, "Are you sure you're okay with it?" I asked.
"Uhuh. Make me float," Megumi reiterated, and I nervously nodded.
"Alright. Looks like break time's over, then. Let's start by trying to lift Megumi-kun a centimetre or two of the ground. Don't overdo it," Shoko-san instructed.
"R-Right…!" I nodded.
Here went nothing…
Ten to fifteen minutes later, I was successfully making Megumi 'float' a couple centimetres from the ground, and as I tried to maintain the correct level of curse energy flowing into the technique, I found myself still so shocked that only a few weeks after starting our training together, Megumi even trusted me enough to do this.
I was happy, but kept wondering how I managed to deserve this level of trust.
Onigiriri: So so sorry for yet another long wait for a new chapter! I had writer's block for the longest time, and to be honest it's still not 100% gone. But I wanted to get at least one more chapter out this year. I will attempt to get something done in December, hopefully for Megumi's birthday on the 22nd, but I've taken on a lot of Christmas overtime shifts at work.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I've decided to stop worrying about hitting my 3000 word goal and just focus on getting everything I wanted to include in a chapter written, whether it reaches 3000 words or not. I think this will help me immensely in being more productive. I really will try my best to get one more chapter written this year and hopefully 2024 will be a less Writer's block-ridden year! xxxxx