Gabriele lived most of his life in Rome, the eternal city but seldomly he ever felt as small and constricted as he was right now here in Tokyo. He found himself more often than not staring at the skyscrapers as he and Nobara were approaching the site of the mall after Ijichi dropped them and Yuji off in town. Although she had lost the bet back at the baseball match, the exorcist must have felt extremely generous when he granted her the victory since she would have won in normal circumstances. He was happy about it too, the past five days were very tiresome as he went forward with the investigations regarding the mole. So far, the only piece of evidence they gathered was a statement the special-grade cursed spirit Mahito had given him:
"Send my regards to our mutual friend, Exorcist. Sure you two met to an extent, even though he hardly leaves his room."
He might have probably referred to Sukuna, being secluded in the "room" that is his vessel, Itadori Yuuji, but this connection made him turn up his nose, it simply made no sense. Gabriele voiced his concern with Gojou, they were back to the starting point at least here in Tokyo, nowhere near to even taking the first step towards the solution, and most important of all, he was in dire need of some time off. Luckily for him, the first-years had concluded their mission at the Yasohachi bridge, plus another top-secret one, and they too were looking forward to a break.
Nobara slurped down on her boba tea, thus interrupting the young man's train of thought. "Could you be any louder?" He complained, she kept on for a few seconds before letting out a satisfied sigh.
"It just tastes that much better when somebody else pays for it." Gabriele rolled his eyes and looked at his surroundings mesmerized, with its billions of lights and billboards of any kind, bet the view on top of that gigantic Ferris wheel in Odaiba he read about in his pamphlet must be truly eye-opening, something to lose yourself in. Speaking of losing yourself, the foreigner snapped his head left and right and left again, no dumbass with pink hair in sight.
"Where did Itadori go?"
"I don't know, he said he wanted to watch a movie together. Knowing Itadori, he went to buy some snacks to smuggle into the theater."
The exorcist nodded, that sounds like him alright. The two finally entered the mall, needless to say, this place was huge, bigger than any shopping center he had been to in his life. Nobara mentioned something about trying a new product from Givenchy first, a question grew spontaneously in his mind. "Why did you want me, of all people, to accompany you here?" He asked her. The girl looked at him as if he was crazy as they got up to the escalators.
"I don't need help with the Givenchy product, if that's what you're asking," Nobara responded, "but I also wanted to check some stores and perhaps get a couple of clothes, so I need a judge with a keen eye."
"You want me as a judge?"
"Maki's busy, and you're by far the boy with the best taste in clothing, I mean..." She gestured at him, specifically at what he was wearing. The exorcist sported a black and gray flannel jacket on top of an off-white turtleneck sweater, of which he was particularly fond since it concealed the bandages and thus turned all the stares he would otherwise get away. Khaki pants and some high-top shoes completed his look, nothing exceptional in terms of looks but compared to her cute yet plain school uniform she felt underdressed. Once they got off the escalator, they paced toward the map of the mall's second floor, a glance at it revealed the location of the store was just two corners away from where they were standing, not even two minutes and they were right in front of it.
"It won't take too long, just stay here." Nobara said before going inside the store, giving Gabriele the half-empty cup and leaving him to his own devices. The teenager begrudgingly leaned against the wall thinking of how to entertain himself in the meantime. Many people passed by him, he received some sympathetic looks from the older men, some middle schoolers giggled behind their hands, and a dog came to his leg demanding to be petted before the owner yanked him back to her side.
A sigh came out naturally of his mouth, picking up his phone, he scrolled through useless information and clickbait titles to kill some time until he noticed some movement to his right with the tail of his eye. As he lifted his gaze from the screen, Gabriele was met by a quite tall girl, just a few inches below him, with blonde straight hair reaching her shoulders. She looked fidgety in her grayish long-sleeved shirt now that they underwent an involuntary staring contest, the young man was praying with all his power that the stranger would not just start up a conversation with him. Please, please, please.
"Um, excuse me." Fuck.
"I'm done here, Gabriele. Now we can go..." Nobara walked out of the store with a small plastic bag, initially unaware of the presence of the girl until her brain acknowledged the pair of extra eyes locked on her in pure terror.
"Who is she?" The tall girl screeched, backing a few steps away from Gabriele before bowing repeatedly. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to do anything I swear!" she apologized profusely, almost making the two teenagers feel uncomfortable and attracting a lot of onlookers. "My name is Ozawa Yuko, I saw you talking to Itadori earlier while I was walking home but he disappeared into the crowd before I could reach him, so I followed you to ask about him but I also didn't wanna bother you in the middle of your da-"
"Oi please breathe, Ozawa-san." Nobara's face was washed over with concern, trying to calm the hyperventilating girl.
"So she was the one following us." Gabriele told Kugisaki, he'd had this odd feeling of being watched from the moment they stepped inside the mall, he chose to disregard them at first, attributing the cause to a work-related paranoia, though giving a glance from time to time. He should trust his guts more.
"I'm Kugisaki Nobara, and he's Gabriele, ehm..." she paused a second, she couldn't come up with anything even remotely plausible to cover her demon-slaying, curse-lifting exorcist to save her life. Seeing this, the foreigner had to intervene.
"A transfer student from Italy, nice to meet you." He used sign language while he communicated to Nobara with thought manipulation, he turned half-expecting her to get what he was trying to accomplish. Never he thought he would ever see a human experience network connectivity problems as she stared back at him with the blankest of gazes, he could swear he caught a glimpse of tv white noises inside the pupils of her eyes. He excused himself with Yuko, who was incredibly confused by the whole situation, to talk with the sorcerer in private.
"The hell happened?!"
"You never do that ever!" she whispered.
"I can't talk with civilians the same way I do with you! Do you want to freak her out?!" he looked over his shoulder, Ozawa was still there watching her feet in embarrassment. "She said she saw us with Itadori earlier, perhaps an acquaintance?"
"Let's find out." The two gave each other a nod of agreement and went back to Yuko.
"Follow my lead and repeat after me." he spoke in her mind right before he started doing signs again. Once he was done, it was Nobara's turn to "translate" to Ozawa what he was saying: "He said he's sorry for making you wait."
"Oh that's alright." the blonde girl replied. The next few minutes went by following this same pattern: Gabriele signed, Nobara translated and Yuko replied, and so on. At one point Kugisaki asked her about Itadori and how did she know him, the girl averted her gaze from them in response as a pink coloration dusted her cheeks.
"About that, could we get someplace quieter first?"
The three decided to go to an American-like family diner next to the mall, sitting at a booth near the window while little by little they sipped their beverages of choice, two iced tea for the girls, and a macchiato for him. It turned out Yuko was a former classmate of Itadori back in junior high as she passed the phone for them to see a photo of Yuji and her standing side to side on the day of their graduation. "What? For real? Isn't this just half a year ago? What in the world happened?!" Kugisaki exclaimed, the Yuko in the photo was a bit overweight, much shorter than her friend, and with black hair in a bob cut. A completely different person from the one sitting in front of her.
"Well, I just happened to grow fifteen centimeters. And with moving to Tokyo and the stress of the new environment I just..."
"Wow..." Nobara felt a double tap on her shoulder, she turned to face Gabriele who then started "speaking", she had to admit it was kinda hard to follow his words without getting distracted by the intricate hand movements, so much for maintaining appearances. "He asks if you two were friends back then." Yuko looked away, her finger fidgeting with her chin showing all her anxiousness on the matter.
"Not really, we barely talked to each other despite being classmates." Ozawa said, "On graduation day, I mustered up the courage to ask him for a photo. I actually wanted to ask him for his number and stuff too, but I was going to move to Tokyo anyway..." she continued with a noticeable hint of sadness.
"When I saw him earlier and watched you two at the mall, I thought maybe the me of today could, you know..."
"Gah!" Nobara let out a shocked gasp, "Yuko, does that mean... that it's like that?"
"Yes! It's like that!"
"Like that what?" Gabriele asked genuinely perplexed, Kugisaki glanced at him sideways, for real occasionally he's either the smartest or the dumbest person in the room with no way in between. The girl scooted over close enough to whisper in his ear, Yuko observed as his face rapidly changed expression from confusion to sudden realization and eventually jaw-dropping shock. The two then locked eyes as if they were mentally discussing what to do before Nobara pulled her phone out to make a call.
"There's a guy who knows Itadori better than us. Hopefully, he shouldn't be home yet, so let's hear what he has to say first." Nobara was dialing 's number when Yuko began waving her hands frantically. "No! You don't have to do this for me! I took enough time from your date." she burled out hastily, catching both Kugisaki and Gabriele off guard as their heads simultaneously cocked to the side.
"What are you talking about?"
"Aren't you a couple?" Gabriele shook his head.
"She's like that little sibling who bursts into your room when bored just to annoy you. I don't have the energy to put up with that." He swiftly signed, only to receive a sucker punch in his arm offered by an angry Nobara gritting her teeth, giving Ozawa a brief moment of fright as the mute teenager felt his nerve pulse in pain. "He wishes! Unfortunately for him, though, I'm not one to be swayed by exotic traits." she smiled at her as if nothing happened.
Seven minutes and a phone call later, a very peeved Megumi finally arrived at the family diner. "Hey! What the heck is this about?" He glared at the two idiots sitting on the right side of the table waving at him. He was damn tired from the mission he wanted to get home and just collapse in his bed but no, Ijichi had to bring him here because someone had requested his presence.
"Yo, Fushiguro!" the culprit shouted, "Quick question, does itadori have a girlfriend?"
"Huh? Couldn't you just ask him on the phone?"
"You see..." "This girl was Itadori's classmate back in junior high. She likes him." the exorcist put it bluntly, Fushiguro was bewildered for a moment, Gabriele was using SL? Like an actual mute person would normally do instead of messing with his thoughts for once? Wait no, he did that anyway, didn't he? What was he talking about? This girl likes Ita... Oh...
"So, you're saying... It's like that?"
"Yup, it's like that." "Yes, it's like that."
Fushiguro sat next to Gabriele and Nobara despite the lack of room on the upholstered bench. Ignoring the protests of the two, he pondered over the question at hand while the waitress brought him the cup of coffee he had ordered in advance. "I doubt he has a girlfriend," he said, taking a sip from the cup, "He didn't seem too bothered by the fact he was moving to Tokyo all of a sudden. Plus, he's got some posters hanging in his room, not the kind someone with a girlfriend would have."
"Uhm, do you happen to know what types of girls he likes?" Ozawa asked, although a bit nervous.
"Oh right... He said something about liking tall girls." Upon hearing the lackluster reveal, the two girls looked at each other with a knowing stare and clinked their glasses in celebration, losing no time, Nobara texted the address of the diner to Yuji telling him to come. Gabriele, on the other hand, found the teenager's taste in women quite humorous since it was the same as Toudou, no wonder he thinks they're best friends.
Quite to everyone's astonishment, Itadori came through the restaurant's door with a paper bag at hand in less than three minutes since the text was sent. Must have been nearby, Gabriele thought, he had no signs of weariness in his face nor was his breath elaborate. Though he could be completely mistaken, stories he heard about this guy running 50 meters in three seconds would put him in the superhuman category and rightly so, Usain Bolt couldn't go above 45 kph in his prime while he ran just below 60 kph.
Sounds fitting for someone housing the biggest threat that humanity has ever encountered.
"Hey! What're you doin' all here?"
"Nothing much, just having a drink, that's all. What do you have in that paper bag?" Gabriele raised the question, the look of puzzlement that Itadori gave him didn't bode too well, it looked like even the hamster in his brain ceased to run in its wheel to glare in utter bafflement. "Why are you doing that? Couldn't just us- Gah! What was that for?!" Itadori cried out in pain as Fushiguro kicked him in the shin. Point taken, he'll have to prepare this better next time they'll go out together.
"He's mute, dumbass. How is he supposed to talk?!" Megumi scolded him. While the two kept arguing, Nobara felt the world fall apart at a moment's notice as the realization hit her all at once. She hasn't told Itadori about Yuko yet!
The girl shook the exorcist's shoulder frivolously, with such a big change there was no way he could recognize her, and that gotta be the worst thing it could happen, especially with the person you have a crush on. Kugisaki leaned onto Gabriele to whisper the shocking revelation, she hoped that he could use his telepathy to convey the message to Yuji with absolute secretiveness and save Ozawa from potential heartbreak. Realizing the impending disaster ahead of them, the foreigner abruptly turned toward Itadori with a great sense of urgency.
"Itadori! This is-"
"Huh? Hey, Ozawa. What a small world, what's up?"
Time seemed to stop inside the booth. Upon seeing the girl's eyes light up at the sound of her surname, both Nobara and Gabriele collapsed on the back of their seat, letting out a sigh of relief as if a huge boulder was lifted off their backs. He remembered her, that's an automatic ten out of ten right there, now it should be all smooth sailing from now on.
They ushered her to the metro station, from one look at her face you could tell she was on the verge of shedding tears, sadness mixed with guilt hovering over her eyes like a ghost. The ship hadn't sailed, for some reason, Yuko didn't confess her feelings to Yuji. As they bid each other goodbye, Gabriele noticed Ozawa's brave mask starting to crack halfway down the flight of stairs. A pity really, but maybe it was for the better, you could count Yuji's days on Earth on some 1000-year-old fingers scattered throughout Japan. Itadori himself wouldn't want her to suffer after he'd eventually passed away.
"Are you sure it's okay?" Megumi asked.
"I exchanged contact info with her so we should be fine." Nobara said, "Anyway Fushiguro, I realized how I truly feel."
"Which is?"
"The idea of Itadori getting a girlfriend before I get a boyfriend really annoys me! My heart skipped a beat, he's supposed to be after me!"
"Is that so?" "Not with that attitude..."
Gabriele earned himself a gut punch that made him fold forward like a chair, Fushiguro raised his hands in defeat to avoid Kugisaki's rage sealing his fate too. Once the situation was settled, the group went their way to the cinema as Itadori began to explain extensively the plot of the movie they were about to see.
three and a half hours later - Tokyo Jujutsu high
"What did you call me for?" The exorcist complained at the doorstep of Gojou's classroom. In the past month, the teacher had learned that if he needed the Italian kid to do something for him, he had to simply call him and not reply to his messages afterward, let him simmer in a sense of remorse, and there it was at his door, punctual as a swiss watch. It might not work anymore for trivial tasks, but whenever anything big comes up such as today when he asked to come alone to his classroom, it has never failed.
"It's about the mole. Please, close the door behind you and take a seat." Understanding immediately the gravity of the matter, Gabriele obliged and closed the door before sitting on top of the desk.
"What is this all about?"
"The circle is getting thinner." Satoru said, "Thanks to your investigations, we have come to the conclusion that none of those who were present at the moment of the attack are responsible for the leakage of information."
"That means all students are innocent."
"Not quite." Gojou wagged his finger, then he took a piece of chalk laying on the desk and drew a baseball diamond on the blackboard. "Now tell me, do you remember how the Kyoto team was laid on the field?" he glanced back at him, juggling the chalk in his hand. Questions formed inside of Gabriele's mind, what does the baseball match have to do with this? Out of curiosity, the exorcist listed the formation one by one: "Aoi Toudou was the catcher, Zen'in Mai in first base..." with each correct answer, Gojou would go and write the name of the respective player in their position.
"...Nishimiya Momo was the outfielder and Mech-" Gabriele stopped, eyes wide open as memories came flashing by in his brain:
"What are you talking about? It's a spare. A spare Mechamaru." Mai played dumb, pointing at the clearly painted robot's face, "We don't have a choice since your panda broke him the other day." she chuckled a bit.
"Mechamaru wasn't present at the match..." the exorcist figured it out.
" Not Mechamaru, but who controls him..." Gojou then wrote his real name on the pitcher's mound. "Muta Kokichi is a second-year student at Kyoto Jujutsu high, affected by a malign form of heavenly restriction. Due to the sickly and fragile body he was born with, he's forced to use Mechamaru as a proxy to attend school."
Now everything was clear. He saw firsthand what Mahito could do to a body, it was very plausible that he could also do the reverse, cure a decrepit body back to health. Information in exchange for a healthy body, and the desire for freedom does make one take desperate decisions. "I see you catch up quickly..." his phone buzzed in the pocket of his jacket. Lighting it up to life, the exorcist saw that the adult sent him an address to a place in Kyoto.
"In about an hour, you'll get on board the Shinkansen to Kyoto, Utahime will be waiting for you at that address," Gojou told him.
"Tonight, you'll go and take Muta under arrest."