A month passes, and things are so busy. Then another.

Satoru is busy on all fronts; he has less time to spend with the first years, but he finds he can still have a rich relationship with them as their advisor if he makes sure the time he has with them counts, so instead of being in the classroom with them all the time, sometimes they have a meal together or he takes them out on their training missions.

Some of the students are struggling to get along, mainly Mai and Maki for obvious reasons, and Aoi Todo and Kinji Hakari, because Kinji knows how to provoke Todo and Todo will punch him out if he does it.

The first years are marvelous, and a really special class because none of them suffer from any sort of malignant insecurity or egotism that causes them to fight. Satoru believes that if Nobara was male, she'd probably fight everyone, but women were just far less likely to get into petty scraps than men were. Megumi and Yuji were forming a really close friendship, and that made Satoru happy because he knew they both needed it.

They were accidentally a nearly mechanically perfect team. Yuji was their brawler and tank, Megumi had nearly infinite utility with his curses, Nobara had range, and Arata could help them if they got hurt.

Yuji had a lot of extra training he had to do because he hilariously could use no cursed energy or an amount that could knock down a building and nothing in between. Satoru doesn't think that's his maximum output, it's just like he can be at zero or five, never one or ten.

Everything in the world seems to be going the way he wants it to go; all the students are flourishing outside of their little scraps here and there. The sorcery world is somewhat quiet, and the structure of the Jujutsu Society is taking on a new form.

Some of it is trial and error, even with good perception and faith in others, helping everyone into a meaningful niche is quite a task. Satoru believes he is helped by the fact that he doesn't want to be in charge of everything; he just wants it to work right.

Setting up a system that works and can't fall into the same cyclic corruption as the old one seems difficult. How can one safeguard against a future where people think and feel differently? Giving independent sorcerers enough power to stop the clans from grabbing all the power again seemed important, as well as limiting how far they could reach in the first place.

He doesn't really like being the guy, and had no intention of trying to retain power once his year was over. He liked going on missions, fighting, training, his family, and his students. He figures that in the same way that it doesn't suit him, it probably suits someone else.

Satoru is secretly planning a surprise wedding for Utahime in June, according to her Pinterest. He has her dress, he has the most romantic part of his clan's gardens being polished and prepared, he has the menu. A string quartet is reserved. The champagne has been delivered, flowers are ordered, her hair and makeup people are scheduled.

He's sure there's a lot more to it than that, but he hired a wedding planner and emailed her the pictures he ripped off Utahime's Pinterest and turned her loose.

Utahime has no idea.

None.

He had invitations hand delivered with a note that it's a secret from Utahime, and everyone who knows her knows exactly why. She's just not the kind of person that likes to ask for things or to have any drama about herself.

Her grandfather, Yoshinobu Gakuganji, is so excited about the surprise wedding because he knows she'd be uncomfortable thinking about having a wedding like that, but if it just happens, she'll just be able to enjoy it and not think about whether everyone is too busy to fuss over her for a whole day.

"You're sure her dress will fit?" he asks one afternoon over tea.

"My Six Eyes constantly measure everything that is within my field of vision with extreme accuracy."

"That sounds annoying."

"That is why I cover them up."

Gakuganji asked, "Will there be pitter patter of little feet?"

"Are you talking about the cat?"

"You know what I'm talking about."

He frowns. "It's been four months, and it hasn't happened yet. I'm annoyed. I just thought it would happen right away."

"You're not even married yet."

"I'm sorry, I thought we were adults."

Gakuganji said, "I didn't touch my wife until our wedding night."

"That's just how they did things eight hundred years ago, but that's very sad for you."

The old man sips his tea. "I had a baby ten months after that."

This feels like a little bit of an insult. "It's not a competition."

"If it was, you've already lost, no? But my granddaughter will be such a good mother."

"Right?"

They've had a rocky relationship, but Gakuganji loves his granddaughter more than anything else in the world. Their family was broken, irreparably, because her father, his son-in-law, did not love her the way that she deserved. She is the youngest of three, with an older brother who is his father's clone and an older sister who was always seen as being incredibly beautiful.

Her mother, Gakuganji's daughter, died from a short illness when she was only a baby, leaving her with only her father and older siblings.

Utahime wasn't perceived as being as attractive as her sister, and in most sorcery, arranged marriage is still the fate of most of the women born into the clan. Being attractive and likeable by men is all that matter even when they are only girls.

Her lack of self-confidence and tendency to fade into the background were baked into her at a young age by a father who did not find her valuable.

Gakuganji doted on her and found her quite precious, sweet, smart, and kind.

When she got older, she asked to go to Kyoto to train, but she mostly just wanted to be with her grandfather.

Utahime did well and started building confidence in herself once she left home.

Maybe it was just due to proximity, but Naoya was one of her classmates, and she caught his eye.

In retrospect, it seems obvious to Gakuganji that he was drawn to the fact that she had self-esteem issues and thought as little of herself as he felt about her.

Suddenly, her father, who had not spoken to her in over one year, invited her home, treated her like she was a princess, and took an earnest interest in her. He encouraged her to accept Naoya's advances, which he'd heard about because when she told him she wasn't interested, Naoya reached out to him, because he knew a traditional father would jump through hoops to marry his daughter to the heir of the Zenin clan.

So Utahime, desperate for the approval of her father, walked that path, ignoring warning signs that there was a monster up ahead. Gakuganji tried to intervene, but Utahime was very young and thought tolerating a little disrespect to mend her broken relationship with her father and gain the approval she had desperately sought all her life.

He pressured her into sex, subjected her to intimate violence, and when she finally realized she couldn't stay in the relationship, Naoya split her face open and told everyone he'd fucked her, a big no-no in a world that valued marrying off virgins.

Her father called her a disappointment because in his words, she must have "done something to make him angry," and faulted her for the failure of the relationship.

Gakuganji was left without recourse; Naobito Zenin considered it a quarrel between teenage lovers. Despite being reasonably powerful, he wasn't powerful enough to hold the Zenin clan heir accountable.

But there were people who could.

Suguru Geto and Satoru beat him so badly he choked on his own bloody vomit, and when Gakuganji was forced to heal him to prevent death, the Tokyo boys came back later and dragged him off again. They were like angry big brothers, and even though Utahime would never thank someone openly for having such a nasty fight over her, Gakuganji knew that it meant something to know her pain mattered to her friends. Vengeance was a peculiar love language, but Utahime heard and understood the message loud and clear: she had two friends that had her back no matter what.

Utahime's relationship with her father was wrecked, because the Zenin clan felt like his daughter had caused violence from the Gojo clan, like no one was ever going to find out how her face ended up like that. Her sister was engaged to someone in the Zenin clan's territory, and they used their power to break it off and spread rumors about the family.

She was meanwhile left hurt and humiliated, and despite having suffered all this for her father, he had downgraded their relationship from apathy to antipathy. Utahime was functionally excommunicated from the Iori clan over these events.

At some point Satoru started flirting with her, and Satoru wasn't just a random guy. As far as the arranged marriage world was concerned, Satoru was the hottest commodity there was. He was handsome, rich, the most powerful sorcerer from the most powerful clan, and on the cusp of ascending as its leader. Every girl wanted to be chosen by Satoru.

Utahime's father exacerbated already deep wounds by offering him the 'pretty' sister, and Satoru very impolitely declined.

Gakuganji found Satoru annoying on a good day, but he was Prince Charming who had cared for his granddaughter since they were young. He wants to whisk her away to his castle where she can live happily ever after.

He never questions if he will treat her well.

He feels like a hypocrite sometimes, having sided with the conservatives against his future grandson-in-law dozens of times, because someone following the 'old ways' would not be marrying a twenty-seven-year old woman with facial mutilation who was known to have been used and humiliated by another man.

Gakuganji is sure someone has told Gojo not to do that, and to pick some nineteen-year-old virgin, and reminded him he could have anyone he wants.

Gakuganji reaches for a cookie, because if one is having a meeting with Satoru, there are always sweets. "Maybe you're impotent."

"That's rude."

"The omnipotent impotent?"

"Even ruder."

"Maybe you're doing it wrong."

"Doing what wrong, exactly? You put the coin in the machine, and you get a gumball. I have inserted a lot of coins, and no gumball."

Satoru finds family subjects quite awkward. When he was still in high school and his older cousin told him she and her husband were trying for a baby, he felt a little horrified that she was basically announcing she was letting her husband bareback her while sitting at a table with their grandmother. The only thing that made it more gross is the fact that his grandmother was pleased by this information.

Gakuganji is excited about adding a baby to the family but finds it similarly awkward to acknowledge what that involves. He wants to meet a little gumball without acknowledging this irritating boy and his coins.

"The Northern Territory is still notably absent from work."

"I have them doing something special. They'll come around when it's done."

Satoru is not in the mood to explain to this man that he sold the entire Tokyo campus to commercial real estate developers so they can build an amusement park called Hello Kitty World and that he's using the money for his big project. It's just not something anyone would find okay, since he already basically closed down headquarters and Kyoto. He is trying to do something and doesn't want a bunch of interim drama before people can appreciate it.

Most of Satoru's changes are actually going really well.

Assistants have logged a hundred years' worth of handwritten records, so he can sign onto a new app and analyze data about all the cursed spirits logged by the Jujutsu Society. The locations, dates, qualities, strength rating, going all the way back to around 1904—there are older records they haven't gotten to yet.

There is a database with curse users with pictures that sorcerers can review to become familiar with their faces and what they can do.

There is a portal with the schedule, and their scheduled events are sent automatically to their work calendars, which everyone now knows how to use.

There's a user forum that all the active trainees have access to, even the younger ones. There was a rather heartwarming post from one kid who was trying to learn swordsmanship, but no one in his clan used a blade, and another kid said he was going through the same thing, so they decided to meet.

And then promptly stabbed each other.

They are now good friends who might occasionally stab each other, in their own words.

Utahime told him that only boys would do that and that women don't even have thoughts like that ever in their lives.

Since Gojo has a new policy that sorcerers only get paid if they work, the clan sorcerers are doing a lot of the heavy lifting. Combined with the fact that the sorcery world is uncharacteristically quiet at the moment, he's able to only send the students on jobs to enrich them and not just because there's work to be done and too few hands to help.

He thinks often about Tengen's concern that things might get weird or difficult. Assuming that Kenjaku's timeline worked the way he thought it would, the biggest events that wreck the most lives don't start happening until September, so Satoru feels like he probably needs to make most of his moves and have everything functioning well by then.

The only real major task that was completed before September in Kenjaku's plan was awakening Sukuna.

Since they have Yuji, most of the fingers are destroyed, and Yuji knows not to touch or eat any fingers, that seems incredibly unlikely.

In September, the lives of the students are supposed to diverge significantly because the campus is attacked by special grades. It is not unreasonable to predict a number of them probably would have perished. It's the day many of their fates were probably scheduled to end or at least be altered.

Then, October 31 is really the day when things would get really weird.

Tengen believed something bad was probably going to happen, and he takes her warning serious because Tengen bothered to say something while she normally wouldn't tell them she saw smoke if half Japan was actively burning.

He gets a reminder on his phone and says, "Sorry, have to cut this short. I have a meeting with Ogi Zenin."

"What does that old bastard want?"

"Probably to bitch about the fact I want to promote his children. Maki, Mai, and Yuta have been doing a lot of practice together since Yuta got back. He provides good target practice for Mai, and she's improving his reflexes. Hilarious to take him to the infirmary so Shoko can pull a bullet out of his butt."

Gakuganji leaves because he doesn't want to deal with the plume of unpleasantry that is Ogi Zenin, Naobito Zenin's brother.

According to basically everyone, the only reason Naobito became head of the Zenin clan despite being a lazy drunk with a bad personality is because his two brothers produced children affected by the clan's curse. It is generally assumed that Ogi probably would be head of the clan if Mai and Maki weren't born with poor and nonexistent cursed energy aptitude.

Ogi is bitter, and rages against his daughters—another father who can look at a precious daughter and see something worthless. He does everything he can to keep the twins down, especially Maki. Mai is more limited, but Maki is incredibly successful and talented.

He wants to promote Maki to a Grade 2, and feels that in terms of pure skill, she wouldn't bet against Maki against any of the Semi-Grade 1s. He both wants her to get experience and also spend more time working with others before he moved her on to the next level. Mental state and maturity and emotional health were things that needed to be considered, something he was acutely aware of as someone who became Special Grade at age seventeen and was immediately expected to be able to deal with everything.

It's pointless to appeal to him as a father; Satoru wonders what on earth is so wrong with this family. Every branch of the family tree is diseased, and the only ones who don't have incredible character flaws are the ones who don't have active connections to the clan.

Ogi Zenin is appalled by the idea that Maki might someday become the same rank as him, as if she is equal to him, and Satoru confirms that Maki won't be his equal but rather surpass him and leave him behind.

Satoru feels this was a meeting that could have been an email, or angry ramblings scribbled on a napkin at a McDonalds somewhere.

He makes a bit of a mistake and when he gets a text from Megumi asking to train, he agrees to meet him. So when the meeting is over the two men walk out together, Megumi is waiting outside in the courtyard.

And in an instant, Ogi walking up on Megumi causes Mai and Maki to appear like they materialized out of thin air. They were clearly somewhere nearby and did not like one bit the way their father seemed to take an immediate interest in Megumi.

"What do you want?" Maki sharply asks.

Ogi answers, "Not the two of you, clearly."

He pushes Mai out of the way, and Satoru realizes he's going to do what he's going to do. Short of beating his ass in front of the students, there's no stopping him.

So he steps up. "Megumi, this is your great uncle, Ogi Zenin. He's Mai and Maki's father. Zenin, this is Megumi Fushiguro. I know you know all about him."

Ogi spits. "I curse you for siding with the man who murdered your father, a Gojo. Don't insult the blood running through your veins. We might spill it someday."

Megumi is not a particularly expressive young man, so he just sort of stares as he wipes his cheek. "Gojo killed my dad?"

"These treacherous girls know. Ripped him apart. It was gruesome, entrails everywhere, parts of him missing. His death was painful. Humiliating. And then he had the nerve to take a son of the Zenin house once he'd done that."

They're all standing around, this information just hanging in the air, waiting to see how Megumi reacts.

It's so awkward, because it's a good day. There are some birds singing, the sun is warm, and there's a nice breeze. It seems like out of nowhere, this old man has come, spitting and saying intense things to Megumi, who is a bit bewildered at first.

Megumi looks up at Satoru, trying to read his expression, something that is impossible because much of his face is covered by the blindfold. "Is it true?"

"It's true," Satoru answers.

Megumi turns back to Ogi and asks, "You called it a murder. Was he innocent? I don't remember anything about my dad, but I know a lot about Gojo. I know if he kills someone, it's because they're asking for it. So tell me the circumstances, and if you can convince me Gojo was wrong, I'll go with you people and do whatever you want."

Satoru is honestly a bit shocked both at how Megumi received the news and in his unwavering faith in him, a force so strong that even when told about his father's death, Megumi does not doubt him even for one minute.

Ogi says, "The circumstances don't matter."

"Maybe they don't to you, but you're trying to convince me. So, convince me," Megumi presses, a bit more aggressively, "Well? I'm listening."

Invited to make a moral case for why it was wrong for Gojo to kill Toji Fushiguro, Ogi Zenin simply feels insulted.

He recognizes this block of power as a cohesive unit for the first time: Mai, Maki, and Megumi. They are outside the influence of the clan and tucked neatly under Satoru Gojo's wings.

Megumi simply walks away from the interaction, and heads to the practice field, since that's where he and Gojo had been going.

Gojo is very proud of Megumi for not falling for Ogi's trifling bullshit.

Following his student along the path, he sees Megumi is a bit tense.

"Do you want to know the whole story?"

Megumi sighs. "It probably doesn't matter, but if I don't find out, I'm just going to wonder."

"It's a very long and bad story. But I guess we'll talk about it today."

They sit together on the steps by the practice field, and he removes his blindfold as this is a conversation deserving of eye contact. Megumi had known Satoru long enough that he really didn't mind, but he wasn't going to say anything either.

The story starts with him and Geto meeting Master Tengen and being given a very special mission, one that immediately makes them uncomfortable, but they were kids at the time. It's hard for him to imagine Satoru as a student, and he's never really heard him talk about Geto before either.

Megumi's knowledge of Geto was that he was a genocidal monster who used to be a close associate of his guardian, but despite everything that has happened, Gojo still talks about Geto in a rather soft tone, like he was someone very important to him.

Even Megumi knows the rumors about them, something he's been thinking about a lot lately for other reasons.

It is a long story, a crazy adventure with assassins and beach trips and Gojo and Geto questioning themselves and their mission. There's no mention of his father throughout any of it, even when they get to the point where they get Riko back to the campus.

And then he tells Megumi about when Toji Fushiguro finally stepped onto the stage.

Megumi is horrified to hear his father abandoned him in order to kill teenagers that were roughly the same age he is. The idea that he murdered a girl who was only in junior high is sickening and stressful.

Now and then over the years, he's seen Gojo's body. Most recently, at a ryokan during a school break the year before.

He asks, "Those horrible scars you have…"

"They came from Toji."

"And the girl he shot…"

"Dead before she hit the floor."

It's upsetting to Megumi, knowing his father left him to live this life.

Gojo says, "I had my reverse curse technique epiphany, because I frankly didn't have a choice. I went looking for him. I felt like I was in a daze, or floating, or something. Weirdest mood I've ever been in. We had a brief battle, and I mortally wounded him. When I asked him if he had any last words, he said he sold his son. It was his way of asking if I'd save you, or at least that's how I feel."

Megumi finds all of this absolutely wild because after his dead ran the gauntlet against a bunch of unknowing teenagers, killing one and maiming two, causing destruction that affected many lives, and setting all kinds of horrible things in motion, he had the nerve to ask the high schooler he cut up for a favor of that magnitude?

And Gojo actually came for him?

It was the first time he'd ever really thought about it, but Gojo was only a year older than him when he became his guardian and benefactor. Megumi couldn't even imagine taking on the responsibility of looking out for two kids, one of them being the son of his attempted murderer.

Satoru watches his reactions, but finds that Megumi has a kind soul and a powerful sense of righteousness. Maybe it's because of his relationship with the shadows, but he paints the world black and white and he can see that Megumi is painting over his vague memories of a tall man with black ink, because he murdered a little girl for money.

Megumi remembers something and mentions, "When you told me you took in those two girls that lived with Suguru Geto and I said it was weird that you killed someone and then took their children, and you said it wasn't your first time, I thought you were joking. One time is weird, but twice, there's probably something wrong with you."

Satoru answers, "Anyway, I don't think you should have an opinion of Toji that's too harsh. He was raised in the Zenin clan, and they're a violent group. Killing and dying and violence are their way of life. Since he died worried about your future, I do think he cared about you, but it's possible he didn't have the right emotional abilities to care for you properly. Besides, there's no value in hating someone who is dead."

"Do you hate him?"

With a shrug, he explains, "When you kill another human being, it's complicated. It's sad. You'll probably kill some curse user someday. It could be five years from now or tomorrow. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and think about how I killed someone who spent his last moments sad and worried about his baby son. Sometimes I hate him, sometimes I hate myself a little, sometimes I hate the fact that the inescapable truth is that while Toji played his role, he wasn't the director of the play. I don't know that taking his life served any purpose at all, but through the eyes I had at that time, it seemed like something that had to happen.

"I was very young when it happened and there were so many things I didn't understand. But after everything, I didn't feel young anymore."

Even though this conversation was always going to happen, it's gone better than Satoru ever thought it would. Part of Megumi's rather chill personality is that he doesn't easily lose his composure or think irrationally. Ogi Zenin thought he could light Megumi's fuse by telling him how his dad died, but Megumi thought about the situation rationally based on the facts that he knew.

He's grown up enough that Satoru feels like he can be honest about everything that happened and his feelings about it, and Megumi soaks up the information with an open mind.

Megumi leans back on his elbows and said, "If I had to kill someone at this point in my life and they asked me to take care of their kid, you know what I'd do?"

"What?"

"Tell you so you could do it."

Satoru laughs and reaches out to ruffle his hair. "You know I'd do my best. Whatever that is worth. Anyway, I don't know if I'm allowed to say this because of who I am and what I did, but I think your dad would be happy to see how well you've grown up. For my own reasons, I've been thinking a lot about what it would mean to be a parent, and I think it's a natural feeling for someone to hope their kid becomes a better person than they are."

It's awkward for Megumi to try and come up with an answer to this, and he feels like he's heard what he needs to hear. He stands up and starts stretching, saying, "Enough of this heavy stuff. Yuji just came around and he's so good at everything. It's kind of ridiculous and unfair. I can't let him pass me up."

They spar for a while, until the sun is going down, and Satoru can tell as they're winding down that something else is on his mind.

When they finish, he asks, "What is it? I can tell you're thinking about something. About your dad?"

"No."

"What then? It's fine. We can talk about anything."

Megumi hesitates, and then says, "It's nothing."

"Is it your hair? I think your hair is great. You're like a sea urchin."

He scowls, and Satoru moves in closer, feeling like he's losing Megumi. He has indicated there is a matter and he wishes to temporarily exit his shell to discuss it, something that is probably only possible because they've already talked about a lot of sensitive subjects.

Satoru says, "I'll help you if I can."

Megumi frowns so hard it looks like his mouth might just slide off his face. "So, I don't know if it'll make you mad if I ask. About a rumor about you."

"There's basically just one rumor about me. It's honestly kind of amazing that despite everything that has happened in my life, people are still whispering about whether I kissed a boy in high school."

"Is it okay if I ask if you did?"

"Is there a reason you want to know?"

Megumi says, "I like girls. But sometimes…you know."

Satoru answers, "This is about Yuji? You two are similar to me and Suguru Geto, two potential special grades coming up and going through the same stuff, on the same path, and yet very different. You two aren't really that competitive in the sense that you view your success as being stronger than him; you just don't want him to leave you behind. We were very close."

"But did that make you kind of gay? Is there like a line, and on one side of the line, you are friends, and on the other side of the line…?"

"There are no lines; everything is blurry and even if you can tell where the line is, you won't know whether you should cross it. There were times Suguru made me feel like the gayest gay that ever gayed, but then other times we'd look at magazines with naked girls and talk about how hot they were while I sat on his lap. It was such a weird and confusing time in our lives. Nothing like bonding with your boyfriend over how much you like girls."

The teenager answers, "That makes you sound like a degenerate."

He laughs and says, "I think it would have been more if we'd been older. Being a teenager is such an odd experience, we weren't really that mature, and especially, coming from families where that wouldn't have been welcome, we hesitated. I haven't felt that way about other men since then."

Megumi can't really believe he's having this conversation with Satoru, but they'd already talked about a lot of really deep stuff, so he felt like it would be okay. Listening to Satoru explain anything about himself was always a reminder that he was somewhat chaotic at his core and the rest of him just sort of went with it.

In no way does Megumi want anyone else to know about these feelings, especially not Yuji. He's not ready for anything to happen. He doesn't want anything to happen. He's just…curious.

Satoru's advice almost always went along the lines of telling Megumi he should just lean in on whatever he felt like doing and not worrying about anything else, and it seems that's the message here too.

He always has a way of making Megumi feel like everything was okay, even if it didn't feel okay. It was something Megumi has always counted on, and the reason he is the only person he could ever talk to about this.

To him, the Zenin clan trying to break the loyalty that existed between them was honestly kind of silly and showed how little they understood how much of himself Gojo continued to invest in him. Even here, he is talking about a subject he protects from basically everyone else.

Megumi sighs. "So let's say…let's say in the distant future, maybe something happened. It's different when two guys are together, right? One of them kind of has to, you know…? How do you know if it's you?"

Satoru answers, "Yuji is a muscled barbarian with callused hands, and you're a pretty boy with soft skin and long eyelashes. I thought we were having a serious conversation."

"I'm done with this conversation."

"You want to get some dinner?"

"Yeah, okay."

Satoru takes out his phone and says, "Let's invite Yuji."

"On second thought, I'll just eat at the cafeteria. I think I've had enough of you for the day."