Hello. This chapter I'll be switching between Kugisaki and Shohei's point of view a little. All I've done to signify this is slash out a line, but also small skips in time are also noted with the slash so I'm sorry if that confuses anyone. I've just switched between their own third person limited POVs to provide some insight from Kugisaki, but do the bulk of the training as Shohei. Enjoy.
The next day, after the second-years and first-years planned out their training schedule, Shohei and Megumi were leaving the school dining hall after they had breakfast.
"Hey Shohei," Megumi said. The older boy looked over and Megumi said, "I've got an errand to run relating to my mission. I should be back in time for training around noon, but don't wait around for me."
"Oh, okay," Shohei noted. "See you later."
The two boys parted and Shohei had a passing thought of concern for Megumi. The last mission hit the boy hard mentally, emotionally, and physically and Shohei knew Megumi wasn't recovered completely in any way.
Shohei wished the boy good luck in his head and went on with his day.
Later that day around noon, all the second and first-years but Megumi had gathered together and begun training at the school's track and field.
Toge, Maki, and Shohei were all in casual workout attire. Shohei had gray track shorts, black sneakers, and a raggedy and rough worn black nasa shirt under a gray jacket. Maki had white track shorts over black leggings, sky blue hightops, a purple jacket, and a training staff. Toge had a white shirt on, military green pants, white running shoes, and a gaiter mask over his nose and face.
Kugisaki was in her school uniform and Panda only had his armband saying "I heart pandas" on. Kugisaki was running from Panda as hard as she could for warm ups.
"You're late, Megumi," Maki said, looking back to see Megumi entering the stands where the three were waiting.
"Kelp," Toge noted the boy's tardiness.
"What were you doing?" Maki pried.
"What does it matter?" Megumi retorted, zipping up his track suit jacket and standing by Shohei and the others.
"It really doesn't. Let's start," Shohei said, deflecting.
"Zenin-senpai," Megumi said, with his eyes on the ground. "What kinds of people do you want to save as a Jujutsu Sorcerer?"
"Huh," Maki muttered, thrown off. "It's not like I care if my actions save anyone," Maki answered.
"I shouldn't have asked," Megumi groaned, looking away, miffed.
"What?!" Maki barked at the boy's comment.
"Fushiguro!" Kugisaki yelled. She was getting spun by her ankles by Panda in the middle of the field. "Quit asking interview prep questions! Switch with me! I'm sick of these school uniforms! Let me go buy some cute tracksuits!"
"Here we go!" Panda cheered, spinning on the spot a few times before launching Kugisaki through the air.
"What are those two doing?" Megumi asked dryly.
"Falling practice," Panda called to them, giving a thumbs up as Kugisaki laid with her face in the grass.
"Mustard leaf," Toge called to the limp lying Kugisaki.
"You're both weak in close quarters, after all," Panda said.
"So first…" Maki started, walking onto the track and twirling her staff. She took a lax fighting stance and said, "Land a blow on us. We'll talk after that."
Maki goated Megumi on with a taunting wave of her fingers.
Megumi lunged at Maki, but she continuously side stepped and retreated from his punches and kicks. Maki began to parry and counterattack with her staff and Megumi was almost overwhelmed. Maki advanced and pushed Megumi back with swift and disorienting tricks in between her attacks. The staff was a blur and he was only getting beaten more and more the harder he tried to strike back.
Shohei almost took his attention away from the sparring to follow a leaf blowing across the other side of the field, but quickly turned back to the match and yelled out, "Okay Maki. He gets the point."
The two halted their mock fight and walked back to the stands, discussing what Megumi was doing wrong and how he approached an opponent with a weapon with longer reach than him.
Toge got up to help Panda with throwing Kugisaki some more. Shohei stayed with Megumi and Maki to also train in hand to hand and weapons.
The three had taken a small break to analyze themselves some more after they had a three way sparring session.
Megumi by far had the toughest time against both Maki and Shohei.
Maki herself had taken the fight very lightly as neither of her opponents were as good as her to any degree with close combat currently.
Shohei didn't try excessively hard against Megumi, but never let the pressure off of him while he also tried to better Maki.
The three circled together and Megumi suddenly twitched and looked around, uneasy.
"What's the matter?" Maki asked.
"I just got really irritated," Megumi said under his breath.
"Huh?" Shohei and Maki muttered.
"No, not at you," Megumi assured.
"Alright," Shohei said, and waved his hand in front of Megumi's face. "We're wasting precious training time."
"Salmon roe," Toge cursed as Panda flung Kugisaki at him.
"Sho has no room to talk with how much he zones out, but he's right. There's only a month and a half until the exchange event, so no dawdling," Maki said. She passed Megumi her staff and said, "Here, you can try the long one next."
Megumi caught it and held it in his hands for a few moments before saying, "This actually feels pretty good."
"Do you want to use Shooting Star, Maki?" Shohei asked, seeing as they were passing around weapons.
"Sure. Let me give that thing a whirl," Maki nodded.
Shohei held out an open hand above him and the large club came speeding into his hand after a few prolonged seconds. The club was rippling with power as large comets flew over the club's dark crystalline surface.
"Man, I wish I could've made this thing pack this big of a punch when I used it for a little," Maki groaned enviously.
Shohei passed her the weapon and she juggled and spun the club in her hand, then took a wide stance and swung the weapon. A shockwave of cursed energy and wind power exploded from the swing and slammed into the hill surrounding the track, leaving a gaping whole in the grass and dirt.
"Okay, now we can begin," Maki said to the unfazed Megumi.
"What the hell was that!?" Kugisaki screamed, seeing the hole in the hill and Maki with the weapon.
"Sorry, that was my cursed tool. It won't happen to that large of a scale again," Shohei apologized, a bit bashful from the scene.
"Where did you pull Shooting Star from this time?" Maki asked.
"From somewhere in the lower thermosphere is all," Shohei answered.
Maki nodded, eyeing the kanabo up and down like she was reminiscing of different times. Something connected in Maki's eyes and the girl slapped her own forehead.
"Oh, that's what I forgot," Maki said, slapping herself upside the head. "I pulled a new weapon I'd like to see you try from the armory." Maki reached into her waistline behind her back and pulled out a sheathed karambit.
"What is this?" Shohei asked, taking the knife from Maki's outstretched hand.
"It's just an alternative for when you drop your gravity field and need a weapon that isn't so fragile. I know you're scared of damaging Shooting Star when you take off the weight." Maki took a step back and waited for her classmate to unsheath it.
Toge, Panda, and Kugisaki took their first break of the day and joined the others to see what the buzz was about.
"No, no, no. Did I just hear that you pulled that big ass club from the thermosphere?" Kugisaki growled. "How the hell did you do that?"
"My cursed technique just has an extremely large area of effect since I put a self imposed vow on it. I can place my cursed tool up there and keep it positioned up there as multitasking training. It's always staying afloat in the back of my mind, so it's really second nature to hold it there now," Shohei explained.
"Yea, but I saw it come flying into your hands fast as heck, so how was it not hot to the touch or just a pile of molten junk? And you said you were worried about damaging it when you took off your weights. I don't even see any weights on you. And what's this about a gravity field?" Kugisaki rambled.
"It's a part of how it was made. It was made super durable in specific ways like long swings which just corresponds to reentering the atmosphere," Shohei said. "Being able to re-enter the atmosphere doesn't mean it can't get damaged though. I have a barrier of gravity around me that is a little heavier heavier than the gravitational pull of Jupiter and it's opposing every movement I make. I use it as a shield from attacks, but also as resistance training 24/7. I have things like superhuman strength like Maki and superb reflexes or extreme speed due to my training for years while under the field. So everytime I drop it I can purely use my physical strength without having to reinforce myself with cursed energy to get stronger. That's why I use cursed tools, as to nut have to use reinforcement and capitalize on my cursed techniques. Using that strength intandem with Shooting Star's own cursed technique puts a lot of strain on it though, so I'm anxious it might break sometimes."
"Oh," Kugisaki muttered duly. "Is that all?"
"Oh, stop talking and let's see how you handle your new knife," Maki groaned.
"Okay okay," Shohei said.
He pulled the knife from it's thick leathery sheath. It was a vibrant bright green blade with a wicked curve. The blade had a metallic luster, but had the texture of a scaly lizard toward the base of the blade and even had spines on the thin, blunt side of the blade like an iguana. The handle was wood wrapped in leather and the butt of the knife had a ring like any other karambit for retention and security in holding it.
"Ew," Kugisaki said, affronted. "Why is it scaly?"
"I don't know, but the kicker is it's cursed technique," Maki said excitedly. "You don't have to worry about it breaking, Sho. The blade and even the handle repairs itself if ever broken or damaged. It pairs perfectly with your strength without the gravity field."
"Maki…" Shohei muttered, not finding the words to thank the girl. Shohei appreciated the hard thought gift specifically for him. "Thank you so much! Iguanas are one of my favorite animals too! It's perfect!" Sho almost yelled with a dazzling grin from ear to ear. He thanked her with the most enthusiasm anyone there had ever seen him express.
"Uh," Megumi muttered, almost disoriented at his friend's burst of gratitude and unfamiliar glee.
Toge, Panda, and Megumi all shared the same dazed and perplexed looks. Maki had a tint of red in her face and was muttering for the boy to calm down.
Kugisaki was just as surprised as the other boys, but recognized something. Shohei must've had a crush on Maki.
Kugisaki had known Shohei for only a couple weeks and never seen the boy break his passive and ditsy facade except with Maki.
The first time when the boy was getting strangled by her and apologized frantically, which Kugisaki initially thought Sho would just brush off. The second time was right when he let out a twinkling smile and shouted from her giving him a gift.
Kugisaki was almost excited for some more simple human interactions between her and her upperclassmen.
"Alright," Shohei cheered, taking a fighting stance facing Maki and Megumi with Iguana Talon in hand. "Everyone's armed, so let's practice already."
Maki wiped away the pink flush in her cheeks and grinned. She backed away as she took her own fighting stance with Shooting Star. Megumi backed away into the grass of the field, spacing out the three and took a comfortable stance with the new staff. Toge, Panda, and Kugisaki all backed up further into the stands to stay out of the way.
Shohei released Gravity Conductor's protective field around him and felt the tension and resistance of his muscles vanished. He felt his reflexes ready to spring into action, muscles ready to explode, and legs ready to send him flying.
The three stood as still as statues, gripping onto their own weapons tightly and eyeing each other, waiting for a sign of moment to act on.
Eager to practice with his new weapon and without his restraints on, Shohei was the first to act, exploding into a dash towards Megumi.
Shohei had covered the distance between the two faster than Megumi could follow along with, so when Shohei threw a push kick towards Megumi's stomach, Megumi only managed to block the kick with the staff by a whim of instinct.
Blitzed by Shohei's initial pounce, Maki ran to join the fray with Shooting Star dragging in the air behind her, picking up power.
Shohei continued his advance on Megumi with a horizontal slash towards Megumi's chest with Iguana Talon and then a wild haymaker with his off hand to follow up.
Megumi was overwhelmed with Maki's speed and power when they first sparred, and was again with Shohei who was almost as strong and maybe even faster. Shohei was much easier to read than Maki to a trained eye like Megumi, but Shohei was also more explosive and jarring to fight.
Megumi back stepped the slash, but caught the wild haymaker to an arm he raised to block. His arm went numb from the sudden pain, but Shohei had to stop his advance when Maki came swinging the large club at his head.
He lept several yards sideways, away from Maki's attacks. Maki followed through with the swing and let the force of it carry her into a spinning kick to Megumi's side while he was still off balance from Shohei's attacks. Maki chased after Shohei with the club reered for a swing behind her, gathering force, and Shohei ran towards her to attack back.
Shohei felt very confident in his physical capabilities without his gravity field surrounding him, but anxious at taking a critical hit with no cushioning from it protecting him. Shohei put all his trust into his explosive reflexes to simply dodge attacks. His reflexes were one of his best traits when the gravity field was down, as they often spared him from many attacks that would indeed harm him, but were ultimately just too slow for his body that was constantly trained under such restricting conditions. It helped that his hair was coming out of his eyes too.
"What's going on with his hair now?" Kugisaki asked Panda and Toge in the stands. The three had just sat back and watched the match take place, but all three had noticed Shohei's hair progressively standing up as the fight continued.
"Salmon caviar," Toge explained.
"Yea," Panda agreed. "Sho's hair stands on end naturally. When he takes down his force field it stops his hair from getting pressed down anymore and his hair finally comes out of his eyes and fluffs up a bit."
Shohei's hair did indeed puff up a bit and no longer looked as if it was combed out as straight as a ruler and was weighed down in front of his eyes, but looked more brushed out and lifted.
His bangs lifted up and blended in with the rest of the hair along his hairline, and his eyes became visible. Shohei's left eye had a literal faint glow, with a vibrant orange iris and yellow-white pupil, resembling a sun. His right eye was dark and had no identifiable beginning and end to his iris and pupil, but was rather all one black, spiraling circle that seemed to go deep into his skull.
"What's up with those eyes?!" Kugisaki exclaimed, leaning on the edge of her seat to see Shohei's eyes as he took several slashes at both the retreating Maki and Megumi.
"Bonito flakes," Toge said.
"We all don't know. He just has really weird eyes. They have nothing to do with his cursed techniques. They're just really flamboyant," Panda said, shrugging at Kugisaki.
"Why is everyone at this school so weird?" Kugisaki muttered under her breath.
After delivering too large of a body shot to Megumi and sending him rolling across the grass and then receiving a massively wound up swing from Maki, straight to his back when distracted, Shohei decided to call for a time out.
"It feels good knowing I can still flatten you with your own kanabo," Maki said, walking over to Shohei after she helped Megumi up to his feet.
"I'm happy I didn't have to better you at your own game of using cursed tools in front of the first-years," Shohei groaned as Maki pulled him to his feet. "I think you and me should go one on one with our weapons of choice when Megumi isn't thrown in the mix to distract me from kicking your ass."
"Don't forget who taught you everything you know," Maki warned playfully. "But we can have a rematch later if you want to get beat so badly."
Shohei chuckled and took a seat in the stands flapping his shirt collar to cool down. He hung his head back and asked Toge, Panda, and Kugisaki, "So, any comments on our fight?"
"Salmon," Toge complimented, giving a large thumbs up.
"Fushiguro really struggled when you got in close and didn't let him use the reach of the staff," Panda said, scratching his chin to think. "Also, with Sho pressuring Megumi for the bulk of it and moving around the field a lot, Maki was left playing catch up, but had plenty of space and time to wind up the kanabo."
"Way to give me a nice big opening Sho," Maki teased, jabbing the boy in the ribs with her elbow as she took a seat by him.
Shohei grinned and rubbed his ribs before he said, "Yeah, I should've focused on you more to not let you charge up Shooting Star. I could've let Megumi make the most of this sparring match instead of pressuring him."
"No," Megumi interjected. "You fighting aggressively really made me start using my head. I need to start being able to find some openings to get myself out of a jam."
"Perfect," Maki announced. "Everyone took away something and we got a nice workout in. How about a lunch break?"
"Perfect," Kugisaki groaned, standing up from the stands. "I'll use mine to go buy some tracksuits instead of training in this stuffy uniform any more."
"I'll walk with you for a while," Shohei said. "I can get food and drinks from the vending machines nearby."
Shohei took everyone's request and pocket money for the machines and took off walking with Kugisaki.
They had made to head to the dorms first to pick up Kugisaki's wallet in relative silence, but Kugisaki spoke up and said, "So Gojo-senpai, what're your relationships with the second-years like? You seem really comfortable with them all."
"Oh… well," Shohei muttered, sounding off guard by the question out of the blue. "Well first off you can call me Sho. We've known each other long enough and I like being called that more than Gojo. Getting called Gojo makes me feel like people only see me as Satoru junior sometimes."
"Oh," Kugisaki remarked. She did not expect the boy to have an intellectual thought or opinion behind his thick bangs, that had falled back over his eyes with the return of his gravity field. "Sure thing. You can call me Nobara."
"Will do, Nobara-kun," Shohei grinned.
"Don't call me that!" Nobara barked. "It makes me sound like a tomboy."
"Yes ma'am, Nobara-san," Shohei chuckled, replacing the honorific with something more mutual. "What was your question? I forgot."
"What's the relationship between you and the other second-years?" Kugisaki repeated, digging for another sign that Sho had feelings for Maki, indirectly.
"Oh, me and Okkotsu found out we are distant relatives one day and we play into that a lot. He and I are the strongest second-years, but he is a special-grade sorcerer so he doesn't usually go on missions with the rest of us anymore, so I like when there's time to hang out with him when he's around."
"Panda is really down to earth, unlike me, and can provide a really good reality check if I'm ever scatterbrained or acting a fool. Toge has trouble communicating with his cursed speech, so one day we sat down and drew a graph on what the ingredients generally meant so we could understand him better. I think that really made us closer. Maki can always hang. Panda and I and sometimes Toge kind of start stuff like jokes and pranks, but so does she and we all get a real big kick out of it."
"You're the strongest second-year besides one of the few special-grade Sorcerers?" Nobara questioned in disbelief. She saw Sho as an air headed push around that just happened to have some good genetics from the Gojo clan to make him strong. She thought that maybe she was too quick in forming her opinion. "But you say Maki could whoop your ass though, right?"
"Yea," Shohei admitted. "When I don't use cursed techniques. I'm a semi-first grade, with my new ranking pending, and in possession of one of the strongest inherited techniques in Jujutsu Society. Maki is a grade-four that should be ranked a grade-two and one of the best hand to hand combatants and cursed tool users, but she couldn't scratch me if we fought for real."
Nobara gave Shohei a sideways glance and he caught how he sounded.
"I don't mean to sound like an arrogant jerk, especially when comparing myself to Maki!" Shohej corrected quickly, waving his arms in denial. "I think she has some of the best potential around and could kill me if I wasn't born so lucky to inherit Limitless. Heck, Toge could put a dent in me if I'm careless. And Panda always beats me when we wrestle. Okkotsu is the strongest around and he's really kind to me. I trust all the second-years with my life, because they've saved it before."
"You know, I think we passed some vending machines already," Nobara noted, looking back at some familiar buildings.
"That's okay," Shohei answered. "I like what's stocked in the ones further down. Besides, I haven't talked with you personally since you joined Jujutsu Tech. You wanted to know about me and the second-years and I can answer that. The others can wait on their snacks for a few extra minutes."
"You know," Kugisaki started. "That sounded very sincere and I never expected that from you. I first expected you to be a dunce without a touch of smarts in your entire head. When I knew you longer than a day I thought you were literally mentally handicaped by how much you spaced out. Then I thought you were just a punk when Maki handled you like a ragdoll and you didn't fight back."
"Wow, that is a lot of negative opinions about me," Shohei said, a little abashed.
"Well I'm not done. Just listen," Nobara ordered. "But hearing you talk about something that actually matters instead of a map of the school or something, you seem like more than a decent person."
"Thank you Nobara," Shohei chuckled. "That was very drawn out for me to get called a decent person."
"I said more than decent," Nobara corrected.
"You're right. I look forward to training and fighting curses with you," Shohei said, meeting Nobara's eyes with his bangs. "Good luck shopping for a track suit."
"What?" Nobara said, wondering why Shohei was ending the conversation so soon.
"We're by the gates," Shohei said, pointing to the large gates that exited the school. "All that's left is for you to call a ride into town."
"Oh, you're right," Nobara said. She had lost track of time and where they were walking.
"I enjoyed our conversation," Shohei said. "I should go get the drinks and snacks."
"Yea," Nobara said, pulling out her phone to call a school escort.
"See you later," Shohei bided. "I'll save a drink for you when you get back."
"Thanks," Nobara said, waving him goodbye while waiting for her call to connect.
Shohei had been long gone and Nobara had called for a ride when she realized she didn't get what she was looking for. She didn't get a definitive sign if Shohei had a crush on Maki. All she got was that he and the second-years had a better relationship than she had in a while.
"Dammit," Nobara cursed.