THE SHIFTING SCALES

Gojo Satoru. The strongest sorcerer in modern times…was being given the silent treatment by his girlfriend. Gojo didn't know what he said or did to warrant this behavior, but it wasn't unheard of. She had done this in the past when she was upset with him, but now he was stumped because he didn't know what he even did.

They both were on their way to see Principal Gakuganji from Kyoto, and Juri had been silent the whole trip there. She had kept a good pace ahead of him and had been ignoring every question he asked.

Gojo groaned and rocked his head back. "Come on, Juri. If I did something wrong…wouldn't you want me to apologize? I don't even know what I did to upset you. It ain't fair, you know."

For the last few hours, Juri remained silent and pretended that he didn't exist. Already realizing he wouldn't get an answer out of her, Gojo decided to take matters into his own hands. So, without warning, he quickly walked up behind her, locked his arms around her waist, and lifted her from the ground.

Juri let out a small squeak when she went airborne. She pulled at Gojo's hands to get them off, but he wasn't budging at all. "Gojo-san, what are you doing? Let me down!"

"Oh, she speaks!" Gojo exclaimed and turned towards a classroom door. He nuzzled his foot between the crack and kicked it wide open, walking into the empty room with Juri still locked in his arms. "Now, I don't really care of we're late to meet the old man, but we're not leaving this room until you at least tell me what I did or didn't do."

Juri started to kick her legs back and forth in protest, but her face was bright red, recalling what Todo had told her before he and Mai left. The fact that Gojo had said such a thing to describe her made her red with embarrassment, and the thought of even telling him what he did felt impossible.

Juri eventually fell silent and didn't fight back as she remained locked in her air jail. Gojo cocked his head to the side to get a look at her face, seeing if he could tell what she was thinking.

"Are we really going back to the silent treatment?" Gojo asked, groaning and finally setting Juri back onto the ground. He kept his arms firmly around her waist and leaned his chin on the top of her head. "Whatever it is…don't be so hard on me. It isn't fun when my most favorite person doesn't talk to me."

Juri felt herself swaying a bit at his kind-sounding words. They were still highly self-centered, but she knew this was him being sincere. It was his own rare brand of kindness that was so enduring to her.

Frost suddenly chilled the air, and Yurei's voice soon penetrated the empty classroom. "She's not mad at you…Juri's just highly embarrassed," she said, manifesting beside them a moment later. "She learned what you said to Todo a year ago. About what your type of girl is."

"Yurei!" Juri cried out with sheer embarrassment. Her dark gray eyes went wide, and her face heated up with red embarrassment.

Gojo looked perplexed for a moment and had to take a moment to recall his conversation with Todo. "Oh, that..." he said after remembering. "Well, what else would you had wanted me to say? If I had said anything else, it would've been pretty bad," he spoke earnestly.

A whimper escaped Juri's lips as she held her face in her hands. "Ohh…I'll stop ignoring you if we could drop this topic altogether." She begged, her voice cracking under the knowledge that he now knew.

A wide, mischievous grin stretched far across Gojo's face. He was obviously enjoying this side of Juri very much. "Ah, but I like when you get embarrassed, Juri. You look so cute when you do." He embraced her tightly as she squirmed to try and get loose, but that only made him want to hug her more. "Don't worry, Juri. I'll make sure that will be my default answer from now on."

"I'm begging you! Please don't say something like that ever again!"

Principal Gakuganji was an old fossil of a man. He sat on the couch in the meeting room and began to mumble disapprovingly.

"Yaga's still not here? Time comes at a high price…for an old man who doesn't have much time left." As the words left his mouth, a cheerful yet mocking voice filled the room as the door opened.

"Principal Yaga won't be here for a while. We forced Ijichi into giving him a fake schedule." Gojo walked into the room with Juri following behind him. She closed the door gently, and the two sat on the couch across from the old principal. "So let's talk about it…the three of us."

The old principal looked curious, innocently playing dumb. "It? What are you talking about?"

Juri spoke up calmly, but her voice had a firmness to it. "I wouldn't play coy if I were you. We all know were talking about Itadori Yuji. It's obvious to even a blind man that you were involved with what happened."

Gakuganji huffed, not liking Juri's confrontational tone at all. He thought Gojo was bad, but this woman could be worse if she wanted to be, especially when both were in the same room. There was a time he recalled her being more timid, but it was clear that Gojo had become a bad influence on her. "Well, I'll be. The youth these days…don't even know how to speak with respect."

"I'll speak with respect when you learn what it means." Juri responded sharply. She didn't even need to look at Gojo to see the smirk growing on his face. "I'm not playing right now, Principal Gakuganji. I am, in fact, very angry with how things turned out," she finished.

"Hey!"

Everyone looked up to see a young Kyoto student. She stood in the back of the room, watching over the conversation.

"I'll be sure to tell the people in charge about that," she warned Juri.

Juri blinked before her serious expression warmed into an enduring smile. "So sorry for saying that in front of you, Miwa. How have you been? It's been a while," she said kindly, her polite energy drowning out the tension that was in the room.

Miwa blushed a little and stared at the ground, fidgeting a little with her hands. "I'm fine…thank you for asking," she said, shrinking down immediately under Juri's gentle nature. That was the first time she had ever raised her voice to Juri, and immediately regretted it.

"Go ahead and tell them," Gojo said, waving off Miwa's half-threat. "We won't be long anyway." He then turned his attention back to Gakuganji. "Last night, Juri was attacked by two unknown special grade curses."

"I'm sorry to hear that." The old man responded.

"Save it. Because of a certain someone…Juri already been through the same song and dance," Gojo cut in. "Those curses were able to communicate. I bet there are more out there on their level. And it's not just enemies. Hakari, Okkotsu and Todo from your school. The students these days have gotten much stronger. Then there's the Geto Suguru and Kioku Nanika incident from last year. As well as a vessel of Sukuna appearing, and the symbiotic relationship between Juri and the Yurei."

Gakuganjo gave him a hard stare. "What are you trying to say?"

Gojo snickered. "Don't you get it? The wave of power that you guys have been ignoring to maintain your status in the name of stupid traditions…had gotten huge and is approaching. The new generation won't be limited to special-grade." A wide grin quickly stretched to his lips that felt almost maddening. "If you think Juri and I are gonna be the only ones questioning your authority…you're gonna be in a world of hurt, old man."

A steadiness of darkness filtered through Gakuganji's voice as his eyes narrowed at the two. "You got quite the mouth."

"Yikes! But anyway…Juri and I had said our piece, so we're gonna be heading out now." Gojo said and quickly began to make his escape. He pulled Juri with him and waved back at Gakuganji and Miwa as they left. "Oh right, Principal Yaga should be here in two hours or so…see ya!" he warned them before quickly disappearing out the door with Juri.