"Wowwww! Have you ever been on a bullet train, Fushiguro?"

Yuji was leaning forward with his face pressed up against the window, craning around to see the edge of the station platform. Gojo had magnanimously given him and Megumi the window seats, because that's what a good teacher did. Also, he was tall enough that he could see over Yuji's head.

"Yes. It's more interesting when it's moving."

Megumi wasn't properly appreciating the window seat, which was disappointing, but not particularly surprising. Still, as the train started moving away from the station, he looked up, which Gojo counted as a win.

"Wow! It's moving!" Yuji squished his face up against the window even further.

"Hah. Say cheese, Yuji!" Gojo snapped a picture and showed Megumi.

"That's not a very good picture of Itadori, Mr. Gojo."

"Well, it's not supposed to be, Megumi. It's supposed to be funny! Because he looks silly in it. See, Yuji, don't you look silly?"

Yuji looked around, his eyes widening at the picture. "Hey, yeah, I look stupid! I didn't know I could squish my face that much. I wonder if I can do it just with my hands…."

Yuji was a pretty good sport. That was a good trait to have, and Gojo wondered if he could turn it into some sort of snappy teaching moment. He liked to bring those out every once in a while, to keep the students on their toes. Plus, he was pretty sure it was technically his job.

But nothing came to him immediately, and he let the idea slip away. It had been a pretty full day of teaching already, and he didn't want to overload the kids.

Gojo had taken Yuji and Megumi to the area surrounding Kyoto to exorcise a cluster of cursed spirits. Technically, he should have told the Kyoto school and let them handle it, but Gakuganji had tried to kill Yuji, and if he was slow at exorcising cursed spirits on top of that, that was really his problem. The exorcism had gone well, with both Yuji and Megumi performing admirably, and he'd booked them tickets on the Shinkansen back to Tokyo.

"Okay, precious students," Gojo said loudly, clapping his hands to draw the boys' attention away from Yuji's faces. "Let's talk about what went well today! Each of you is going to say something, and I pick who goes first because I'm the teacher. Yuuuuji!"

Yuji waved a hand frantically up in the air for a few seconds. "Ooh! I got something!"

"I know, Yuji! I already called on you. You can talk now!"

"Fushiguro gave me backup at the same time he exorcised his own cursed spirit," Yuji said immediately, his eyes going wide as he looked towards Megumi. "With the, um-"

"Demon Dog Totality," Megumi supplied, and Gojo was pretty sure he was smiling again. Megumi! Smiling! Wonders would never cease.

"Yeah! So that was super cool, and helpful." Yuji sounded completely sincere, which he usually did, but Gojo thought there was an extra edge of flattery there. And he should know, because he was the expert on flattery (along with almost everything else).

Megumi did not seem to pick up on the flattery, in any case. This was perhaps disappointing, although not particularly surprising - Megumi spent a lot of the time focused firmly inward. At the very least, he was willing to engage with Yuji, which was more than Gojo could say about a lot of people.

"Great one! Thanks Megumi! Alright, Megumi, now on to you!"

"I provided backup for Itadori while also exorcising my own cursed spirit with Demon Dog Totality."

Gojo cocked his head. "Well…yes. Technically. But why don't we try saying something that Yuji didn't just say? Lotta good stuff happened today, come on Megumi."

"Itadori was able to break the lock on the door without actually damaging the door. That will make it harder for any outsiders to tell that we were there, even if there's an investigation."

"Much better, Meg-"

"He's very strong," Megumi finished with a small nod.

Yuji's eyes shone. Gojo could understand why. Megumi wasn't particularly free with praise. Despite both taking him in and having a lot of praise-worthy qualities, Gojo was pretty sure he had received a grand total of zero compliments from the kid.

"Alright, very good," Gojo said. He bent over his knees and tented his long fingers. "Now, I'm not saying anything went wrong, but I think we can go around in a circle again and each say something we think could have gone-"

Gojo was interrupted by the sound of the cabin door sliding open. Gojo turned - he'd intentionally selected seats in this car because there wasn't supposed to be anyone else sitting in it, and he wasn't above helpfully informing someone that they were in the wrong place.

But it wasn't a lost passenger. Instead, when Gojo turned, he saw the glorious sight of the snack cart rolling towards him.

"Fushiguro, Fushiguro! Do you need anything? Did you bring money? I have money. Well, I think I have money. It's somewhere around here…."

"I'm happy to treat my wonderful students," Gojo said, pulling out his wallet. "Get whatever you want."

"Mr. Gojo-" Yuji somehow managed to look both stricken and relieved.

"Thank you for offering, Itadori," Megumi said solemnly.

Ah, young love. What a beautiful thing to get to witness. Of course, it was a little more beautiful when it was happening to you instead of to two of your students while you were completely, horribly, embarrassingly single. Gojo couldn't exactly understand how that had happened, considering his aforementioned praise-worthy qualities, but it had nonetheless. And continued to happen, while he watched his students flirt with each other.

Gojo turned decisively to the snack cart. He couldn't solve his relationship issues in this moment, but he could at least buy something sweet and forget that he had relationship issues. He waited while Yuji got chips, then while Megumi asked for water, and for a little bit longer while Yuji (repeatedly) tried to give Megumi a handful of his chips and Megumi thanked him politely for the offer (also repeatedly).

"And a melon soda for me," Gojo said over Yuji's head. He smiled at the snack cart girl, trying to project the aura of a responsible adult teacher rather than an undercover model. It was always embarrassing when people mistook him for-

"We don't have any," the girl said apologetically, and Gojo felt his smile freeze.

"Coca cola?"

She shook her head, and Gojo's smile turned up a notch. Just in case she did have some, and she hadn't wanted to share until now.

"Are you sure? I'll take, well, really any soda. Nothing diet, though."

"We have tea?" The snack girl shrugged, not looking nearly as sorry as Gojo would be if he only had tea. "I'm sorry, we were supposed to restock in Tokyo…."

Gojo sighed, slumped, then reapplied his smile. "Tea, then! But with lots of sugar." He handed over his card, then wrinkled his nose at the packets she placed in his hand.

"Lots of sugar," he repeated, shaking the few forlorn packets. "Please!"

"Um, is this-"

"Maybe you should just give me all the sugar you have! Thank you! There we go…."

Gojo emptied his sugar into the disappointing tea and stirred it. It didn't totally dissolve, and it kind of made a sludge in the bottom of the paper cup she'd poured it into, but that was better than it tasting like tea.

"That's kinda gross, Mr. Gojo."

Gojo made a face, partially at Yuji, and partially at the tea, which was gross. "That's not very nice, Yuji. I don't tell you whenever I think you're being gross."

"You're not supposed to put that much sugar into one cup of tea," Megumi informed him. "Itadori is right."

Gojo worked his fingers across his forehead, careful not to disturb his sunglasses, and sighed. "Well, it's better than it was at first! Tea is…not good."

"I like tea. Itadori, what about you?"

"Well, um, I guess it depends on the kind of tea-"

Gojo let his students fade into the background and sipped at his tea, trying very hard not to think about when he'd been their age. He'd never liked tea, but Suguru had, and Gojo didn't like thinking about Suguru very much. Unfortunately, that didn't seem to stop him from doing it. Constantly. Watching Yuji and Megumi's awkward flirting - if that's what it was - didn't exactly help matters. It reminded him so keenly of how he and Suguru had acted as first years. Too keenly, one might say.

Gojo finished off the end of his tea, including the sugary paste at the bottom, as he watched the world speed by outside the window. He realized he was starting to get a headache, which was irritating if not overly surprising. He'd been on another mission just before this one with the kids, and he'd had to use his Six Eyes a lot without really getting much of a chance to rest. If it got worse, he might have to switch from his sunglasses to the blindfold, which attracted an annoying amount of attention. But it was better than being stuck in bed with a migraine all evening.

Gojo was vaguely aware of Megumi pulling out a book, and Yuji pulling out his phone. Gojo usually also scrolled through his phone on train rides - if he couldn't get anyone to talk to him, that is - but the idea of looking at a glowing screen now made him feel a little sick. Migraines could make him feel nauseous, but a little headache wouldn't normally blossom into a full-blown migraine this fast. He must have really overdone it.

Gojo massaged his temples, trying to work out some of the tension behind his eyes. It would be super embarrassing if the kids noticed something was wrong, or worse, if they had to help with some of the logistics of getting them all back to Tokyo. But it would be fine, Gojo was sure it would be fine. It always was. He might just end up needing to close his eyes for a minute….

"-your head hurt?"

Gojo straightened. He hadn't realized Yuji was talking to him. Now, from the concerned way Yuji was looking at him, Gojo guessed that it wasn't the first time Yuji had tried to get his attention.

That was…disorienting.

"Sorry," Gojo said. His voice sounded a little thin, even to his own ears. He'd gotten much worse migraines when he'd been younger, and not yet able to control Six Eyes well - he hoped that today didn't indicate that they were returning. "I was…lost in thought. What did you say, Yuji?"

"Um, Mr. Gojo, does your head hurt?"

"I'm fine, Yuji, don't worry about-"

Gojo was interrupted by the sudden feeling of wetness on his face. He put his hand up, smearing his fingers across his lip, and turned them over.

"Mr. Gojo, I think your nose-"

Gojo stared in disbelief at the redness on his fingertips. He hadn't had a nosebleed since…since he was teaching himself how to maintain his barrier full time, he was pretty sure. He hadn't had to really draw on his well of cursed energy since fighting Megumi's father, and he'd almost forgotten the feeling.

There was no way he'd exerted himself that much, was there? Gojo felt something approaching panic, but…that wasn't right. It had been a more or less normal day, less taxing than some, even. It must just be the…air, or the season, or something like that. He'd never managed to fine tune his barrier enough to filter out dust particles, or pollen, which could irritate even the greatest jujutsu sorcerer of the modern era.

Gojo's heartbeat slowed, and he shrugged as he wiped at his nose again. His fingers came back bloodier this time, and he reached over and wiped them on Yuji's napkin.

"Weird," he said, trying on a smile for Yuji. Even Megumi was watching now, having set his book down his knee.

Without even really thinking about it, Gojo reached for his cursed energy. Using Reversed Curse Technique necessitated a millisecond's length of time in which he had to drop his barrier, which was something he'd never really been able to circumvent. It didn't bother him all that much, since nothing harmful could get through the barrier in the first place. Now, ten years removed from his own high school days, both RCT and Infinity were almost instinctual.

Just as his own cursed energy flowed through him and his barrier dropped, Gojo's skin crawled. He was drawn toward the corner of the train car, just in time for his Six Eyes to register a massive flare in cursed energy, a lethal technique arcing straight towards him.

And then Yuji was falling to the ground with a yelp, and blood sprayed upwards from the floor of the train. Faster than thought, Gojo abandoned his attempt at RCT and reached for Infinity. With a push, he expanded it, wrapping it around himself and his students, heartbeat thundering in his ears.

"Stay close," he warned. "I got you."

Fushiguro sat rigid in his seat, staring at Itadori on the floor. He was bleeding, heavily, from something lodged in his shoulder. Gojo, across from him, was pale, blood still smeared across his face. He looked more serious than usual.

Fushiguro hadn't expected that to seem so weird.

"Itadori, don't move," Fushiguro said. He tried his best to sound calm. Since he was the only person in the train car who wasn't currently bleeding, he figured he should be the one to take control of this situation. He started to rise, hand already reaching out towards the barb in Itadori's shoulder. "I'll get the bleeding stopped."

"Don't touch it," Gojo hissed, and Fushiguro froze.

There was an expression on Gojo's face that Fushiguro couldn't read. "What's going on?" he asked carefully.

Gojo scooted to the edge of his seat so he could peer down at Yuji. His voice was fast and low. "That thing in his shoulder…it's someone's cursed technique, activated remotely. I don't see the curse user anywhere nearby. I lowered my infinity for a fraction of a second just before the technique was activated, so it was probably linked to that. But the technique itself must have a set trajectory, rather than a specific target, because when Yuji moved, it got him instead of me."

Fushiguro didn't see how any of that was important right now. Itadori was lying on the floor of the train, and he was bleeding. "We need to help Itadori, and we can figure out the rest later," Fushiguro explained. He reached for the barb again.

"I said don't touch that," Gojo said sharply. "It's poison."

"What?"

"I'm okay," Itadori said weakly from the floor.

Itadori tended to exaggerate, and Fushiguro thought that he generally wasn't very good at knowing whether he was okay or not. And in any case, right now he almost certainly wasn't "okay." He had a poisoned spike sticking out of his shoulder, and Gojo didn't seem to want to do anything about it.

"I can pull out…I don't think my shikigami can be hurt by poison. Give me a second. I bet Toad will be able to remove it-"

"No, really, Fushiguro, I'm okay." Itadori's face was pale and shiny with sweat, but he really didn't look very scared for someone who had just been shot. "Sukuna…um, Sukuna says that I resist poisons. So I think that part will be fine. I'm just bleeding."

Fushiguro looked up at Gojo for confirmation, but Gojo's face was blank, blood still trickling slowly out of his nose. When Fushiguro looked back at Itadori, he saw that the quill in Itadori's shoulder was slowly dissolving, leaving behind a bloody hole with raw, inflamed-looking edges.

Itadori was staring at the wound in his arm. "This was like my favorite shirt," he said faintly.

"You have five others that are the same," Fushiguro said. He hoped Itadori found this comforting.

"No…." Itadori shook his head, still looking at the hole. "It's all this one. I just wear it a lot."

Fushiguro looked towards Gojo again, even though he wasn't entirely sure what he expected the teacher to do. Maybe…buy Itadori a new shirt? Fushiguro knew that Gojo's reverse cursed technique could only be used on his own injuries, so that wouldn't be helpful. But Gojo was hardly ever quiet, and even though Fushiguro had wished for silence hundreds of times in Gojo's company, now it was starting to unsettle him.

Gojo blinked, his eyes behind the sunglasses flicking towards Fushiguro's. One hand went to his nose, and he slowly bent at the waist, craning himself over until he could see Itadori.

"Ouch," he said mildly, his voice made thicker by the bloody nose. "Let's get that patched up."

Itadori blinked up at them, his uninjured hand clamped across the wound in his shoulder. He still didn't look scared, exactly, but he never really seemed to. He did look pale, and his eyes were wide.

"I can do it," Fushiguro said quickly, shouldering past Gojo to kneel beside Itadori.

"Megumi," Gojo protested, interrupting himself with a small, strained noise.

Fushiguro looked over his shoulder to find his teacher wiping at his face with his shirtsleeve, smearing blood across his mouth and chin. Even as he finished, more trickled out of his nose, running down across his lips.

"On second thought, maybe you should handle Yuji," Gojo said, and tipped his head backwards. His fingers clamped onto the bridge of his nose, and Fushiguro heard him swallow a few times. "I'll just…get this sorted out."

"Is Mr. Gojo okay?" Itadori asked, peering up with worried eyes.

"I'm just fine, Yuji," Gojo said, behind his hand. "Megumi's going to help you out, alright?"

"You should worry about yourself, for once." Gently, Fushiguro pulled at Itadori's shirt, trying to get a good look at the wound. Itadori squirmed around until he had a better angle, which Fushiguro was pretty sure you weren't supposed to do if you were injured.

"Stop moving," Fushiguro told him. "You'll hurt yourself worse."

Itadori stilled immediately. "Sorry, Fushiguro. Let me know if I can help any, though-"

"You can help by staying still. And actually, I'm supposed to be helping you right now." Fushiguro paused, looking at the angry edges of the wound and the blood spilling onto Itadori's arm. "I'm going to have to make bandages out of my jacket."

"I'll buy you a new one," Gojo said thickly from the seat, head still tipped backwards. "Don't - urkk - don't worry about that."

Fushiguro nodded, and went back to Itadori. The wound was painful-looking, certainly, but it wasn't that bad. Fushiguro had survived way worse, and he was sure Itadori had too. The spike seemed to have gone most of the way through Itadori's shoulder, but his bones seemed to be intact, judging by the way Itadori tried to pull away whenever Fushiguro tried to put pressure on it. The bleeding was already slowing.

"I'm going to tie this on," Fushiguro said, once he was satisfied Itadori was in no danger of bleeding out. "But you still shouldn't try to move too much."

"Thanks. Do you need-"

"Just stay still," Fuhsiguro repeated.

A minute later, Itadori's wound was wrapped as tight as Fushigiro could get it, and he was wearing a sort of makeshift sling made out of Fushiguro's jacket. Everything looked much more manageable this way, Fushiguro thought. Itadori was still pale, and there was a little puddle of blood on the floor of the train, but…much better. Almost normal.

"That feels a lot better," Itadori said, eyes shining. Fushiguro nodded, satisfied, and reached out a hand to help Itadori back into his seat. "Um…what's the plan?"

Fushiguro thought he'd done a good job with fixing up Itadori's arm, but plan-making still seemed a little bit beyond him. He still wasn't entirely clear on what was actually going on. He turned to Gojo, who seemed to have mostly gotten the nosebleed under control but was still pinching the bridge of his nose. At Itadori's words, he lowered his hand.

"Well, my dear students," Gojo began, "as I've said, there seems to be some sort of curse user on the train. And for some reason, they seem to have it out for us. Or more specifically, for me."

"Do you know where-?"

"Alas, I don't know where they're located, Yuji. I have Six Eyes, not X-ray vision. But the three of us are going to find him!"

"Cool!" Itadori said. He seemed pretty cheerful for a guy who'd been stabbed through the shoulder. "And then we're going to take him out!"

"Exactly! Sort of. I'm going to take him out, and the two of you are going to stand behind me. But the two of you guys need to stay within about five feet of me, okay?"

"Because that's as far as you can extend infinity?"
"You got it, Yuji. If you get more than an arm's length from me, you won't be protected anymore, and then who knows what might happen?"

"He would probably be stabbed again," Fushiguro volunteered. "Because that's what happened the last time."

Gojo stared at him for a few seconds. "Well, yes. Probably that. It was more of a figure of speech, but…just stay close, okay students?"

Fushiguro nodded, and he saw Itadori doing the same beside him. Gojo clapped his hands, then grinned. "Yaaay! Let's go get a curse user!"

Gojo sprang to his feet, and Fushiguro moved towards the door, intending to follow him deeper into the train. His teacher took one wobbly step, his face draining completely of color, ashy pale against the blood smeared across his chin. Gojo's long legs buckled, and he sank to the floor before even Itadori could reach for him. His back heaved, one hand shooting up to the seat as he grabbed the plastic bag he'd boarded with. Retching, he vomited convulsively into the shopping bag, shoulders curving inwards.

"Oops," Gojo whispered, and Fushiguro suddenly realized that he was scared.