Y'all Need Therapy (I'm Not Qualified for this)

by DragonOfMoss

Crossposted from Ao3. SI-OC, except she's a 22 year old college student, turned 4 year old child. All she has is a psychology degree (almost), her cuteness, and a shaky, secondhand version what happened in the manga. At not quite 3 feet tall, she's got the upper body strength, but she can't NOT help these poor kids. Updated daily until caught up to Ao3. Gojo/Geto are the main ship.

20. A Little Crowded Nowadays

The restaurant didn't have fettuccine alfredo, sadly, but it did have spaghetti, even if she had to get the sauce on the side to ensure she had the optimal sauce to pasta ratio. The garlic bread had an odd taste, but it was acceptable. Gojo got the saddest looking lasagna she'd ever seen, and she'd seen some pretty sad ones in her time. It was so oily that the noodles were slipping off and the whole stack turned into a nasty puddle of noodles, oily cheese, and just plain oil.

Gojo, being a rich boy, set the plate aside and waited patiently for her to finish eating, which, of course, stressed her out as she tried to talk him into eating something, he needed to eat! He was so stubborn though, just playing idly on his phone, texting.

The way he started smiling at it told her who, exactly, he was texting.

"You're texting Su-gu-ru?" She asked teasingly, drawing out the word.

"No!" He yelped, meaning he really was.

"Who then?"

"None of your business!" He said, like she was being unreasonable. She was, but just because it was kinda fun.

"You're no fun." She pouted, and he sighed, giving into the puppy dog eyes she sent his way.

"It's a group chat between us students. I'm trying to see if they're going to be able to join us at the arcade. It was supposed to be a surprise." He said accusingly, but she was nearly wagging her non-existent tail. She dropped her head, hunching her shoulders like she was getting ready to pounce, and Gojo leaned away. She met his eyes sharply.

"They're coming?" She asked eagerly.

"We don't know for sure yet, they're working on it." As he said that, his phone dinged several times.

"Haibara's coming." He read. The phone dinged again.

"And Nanami."

Ding, ding, ding.

"And Riko with Kuroi, who's bringing Junpei along."

His phone rang.

He answered.

"Suguru's coming" he mouthed, and she jumped for joy quietly. He held his fingers close together, indicating something small. For a little bit at least.

Is it just her, or had the whole titles thing stopped working? Surely Gojo still used them, didn't he? Was her translation thingy not working quite right?

"Junpei-kun's coming too?" She asked, hoping to get him to say the name again.

He just nodded, focused on his phone call as Geto continued to speak.

"He's definitely coming."

"That's what they said." He agreed, starting to lose his patience.

"When will they get there? When will we get there?" She asked, draping herself over his shoulder like an affection-starved kitten. Sure, she was hardly acting with restaurant level dignity, but Gojo wasn't either, playing with his oily food.

"Midori-chan, I'm trying to listen." He whispered, exasperated, and she just grinned cheekily at him. She could see the realization on his face, that she was doing this on purpose purely to annoy him.

"Eat your food." He warned, shoving her head away, and her leg slipped off the other end chair, and she dropped down to the floor hard. Gojo just blinked at her slowly, confused, and she stared back.

"Sorry?" He said uncertainly.

She gave him the most sorrowful, betrayed look she could muster, forcing her eyes so wide it made tears start to well up.

"Shit- uh, sorry! I didn't mean to!" Gojo scrambled to appease her, and he leaned down to pick her up.

Her head hit the bottom of the table, making him freeze.

Real tears started to well up this time, and Gojo cursed again, louder. It was only a reaction to the pain on the top of her head, not real tears, but Gojo didn't quite understand the difference, judging by the way he was panicking.

"Ouchy." She mumbled, patting the top of her head that had made contact with the table. Lack of any further tears settled Gojo too, his phone forgotten on the table as Geto rambled on, a distant voice that hadn't yet subsided. Gojo grabbed her head and started examining it with worry, looking for any signs of injury

"Your boyfriend's gonna get lonely." She said, shoeing Gojo off. Across the room, a lady scoffed, and when their eyes met the look of disgust on the woman's face filled her with instant rage.

"Something to say?" She asked loudly, looking the woman in the eyes, and the room went quiet. Gojo poked her on the forehead, a warning not to get too wound up. He really was growing into such a responsible young man, she was truly so proud. But his smile had dropped, he looked a little less comfortable at the reminder of how many people would disapprove of his love of Suguru. He was one of the strongest, he answered to no one he didn't choose to, least of all a random homophobic lady in a bad restaurant. But the reminder likely still stung, nonetheless. His family was likely much the same, pushing him to have an heir who might inherit a fraction of his power, if not his technique.

He wasn't going to eat the food here anyway, and she didn't feel like eating too much after her onigiri at the doctor's office. Usually, she considered herself as conflict averse, unless it was one of the people she cared for.

The woman had averted her eyes, but she wasn't about to let a woman who was so bold as to voice her disapproval of a teenage boy talking with his boyfriend on the phone in a public place. It wasn't even like they were in the middle, they'd chosen a corner table to stay out of the way.

"You've got a problem with my Nii-san?"

The woman had been looking steadily away, but at her words she kicked her husband lightly, trying to get handle the situation for her.

He looked uncertain, and definitely uncomfortable, but started talking anyway.

"Maybe it's just better to keep stuff like that behind closed doors." He finally said lamely, and she gave him a disbelieving look.

"Maybe you should keep that behind closed doors, wouldn't want people to know what you did." She shot back, gesturing to their son, fully grown, whose head was in his hand. At her words, his other hand came up to cover his mouth, like he was trying to muffle his laughter. The woman looked poleaxed, and the husband looked pissed off, so clearly her point was made.

"Besides, they're both prettier than you could ever be." She snapped at the woman, who huffed, offended by the truth, before turning her back and stalking back to their table.

They were going to get kicked out anyway, so she nudged Gojo with her food, pointing towards the door. He nodded, heading to a nervous looking waitress to pay. Nishinoya was left on the chair where she'd sat him, so she snatched him up and hurried over to Gojo.

This was probably completely unexpected here in Japan, but there were definitely advantages to being born in America. A willingness to confront people in public was one of them. Strangers weren't going to be able to try and shame her family in public without consequences, even if she had to act like a pint-sized bitch to do it.

They left quickly, though not before she shot the lady one more disgusted look, letting her eyes flick to her son just for the hell of it. Gojo was out the door before she got to see the aftermath, but the way the woman's cheeks reddened was satisfying enough.

"They're gonna think I'm the one teaching you to say stuff like that you know." Gojo grumbled, but there was a grin tugging at his lips even as he tried to force it down and be stern.

"You're so responsible, I'm so proud." She said instead of acknowledging it.

"Flattery won't get you out of this!" He protested, but the grin was in full force. Geto said something in his ear, the phone tucked against his shoulder, his head tilted to keep it in place. Whatever he said brought a faint blush to Gojo's cheeks.

"Midori just picked a fight with a lady! And- said she's proud of me too for being responsible, but she's still in trouble, no matter what the flattery. She's too small to be picking fights with adults."

Geto said something, still inaudible to her, but Gojo made a strangled sound and hung up on the spot, his blush deepening, turning his whole face red. He groaned, distressed.

"Did he hit on you or something?" She asked with a grin. Maybe her matchmaking efforts were finally catching on.

"He's proud too." Gojo managed to say, his voice constricted.

That was sweet as fuck. No wonder he was blushing like a damn idiot.

"It's hard, being responsible, especially at your age." She said knowingly, and he shot her a dirty look that said 'you're the one talking right now?'

He wasn't prepared for this, simply put. He barely cared for himself, and he was thrust into a very parental role to her. Older brothers shouldn't have to make sure their younger siblings eat or stay safe. He was a kid too. The fact that he was stepping up, and doing so willingly while Yaga couldn't was wonderful, but the fact that it was necessary while so many adults were around truly sad. She was proud, because taking care of children, even very mentally mature ones, was hard. The fact that she was mildly traumatized and terrified of being kidnapped so much that she could barely leave the room without him only made it harder on him. It was a valid fear but still made things harder on him.

Would Kenjaku have made contact by now, if Gojo wasn't here? There was no way he'd want a fight with Gojo right now, not with Gojo already coming into his powers.

Sometimes she wonders why Kenjaku hadn't killed Gojo as a child, before his power had fully matured. Surely it could have worked. Take over a Gojo clan member's body, sneak in, poison, simple as that.

The answer had to be the way Gojo affected the growth of curses. Kenny wanted a world of curses, didn't he? Something like that. Or was it simply to strengthen both sides, forcing sorcerers to grow through extreme conditions? She couldn't begin to comprehend, and she didn't have a good enough memory to know for sure what he'd said in season 2, but he was willing to work with cursed spirits to get things done, meaning stronger curses meant more allies for him.

If Gojo's presence was encouraging curses, making special grades spring up like weed, curses like Mahito, who was part of Kenjaku's plans, it made sense that he would be waiting for Gojo's strength to increase. As long as Gojo didn't die, the balance might not settle, and the power of cursed spirits might continue to grow as if he was still active.

It was just a possibility, but not too far of a stretch either.

She needed to be prepared. Who knows when Kenjaku would decide that Gojo was at his peak, exercising the most influence on the world. As long as Geto was still alive, Kenny was lacking a key element on his chessboard and had an extra enemy to watch out for. She knew Geto would keep an eye out, but he was still more vulnerable than Gojo as a rule. Literally everyone else in the world was, except perhaps Tengen.

Gojo was petting her hair, she realized suddenly. Had she zoned out again? She'd just got lost in thought, but she was usually aware enough to notice that Gojo had picked her up and started walking.

"Back?" He asked when she started looking around. They were headed down some one-lane side-street, littered with small shops. On the way to the arcade, most likely.

"Yeah. Sorry. Just started thinking and…" She made a vague gesture.

"Something bad?" He asked after a long delay, like he just remembered he should ask.

"Potentially." She said honestly. She wouldn't explain herself, but she'd be honest where she could. "Also, I was thinking how hard it must be for you. Taking care of me and all."

"I did it because I wanted you, not because you forced me to." He assured her again, a bit sadly.

"I know. But you shouldn't have had to. It's sad, and a little disappointing that you had to. You shouldn't have to be fighting everyone else every step of the way like this. I wish they would just listen to us, kids or not." She said

"Most adults don't listen to kids unless they're forced to." He agreed with distaste.

"We need a medical advocate."

Why was he laughing?

"You know a lot of words, don't you?" Duh. "Even if you don't know how to use them half the time."

Excuse me?

"What do you mean?" She asked, confused. She talked perfectly fine.

"Your Japanese pronunciation and stuff are usually perfect, but your word choice is pretty bad. Sometimes you use the right titles and sometimes you don't, and sometimes you use them, and it just sounds like you suddenly have a thick accent. It's really strange to listen to."

Eh?

"Word choice?" She asked, picking a focus point because this was really unexpected, and she wasn't quite sure where to start with this. It wasn't like she knew how to turn her auto-translate off or anything, she'd never be able to fix this. This could really make things difficult later, when she was old enough that people expected her to know better. It could make things difficult now.

"You tend to use the same set of words no matter who you're talking to. It makes you sound overly familiar with people, it could get you in a bit of trouble when you're older."

"Hm. I'm just talking?"

"I figured. You don't seem to really understand Japanese, you just…" he waved his hand vaguely, "talk."

"That's probably true. Maybe I learned Japanese most of the way before this and just lost all the context."

"That… could explain a lot actually. Yaga-sensei's been trying to model for you and teach you what words to use, have you really not noticed? He asked us to be a bit more proper too, just to lead by example."

No, she didn't notice. Because it all was run though a fucking translator that she couldn't shut off. Ugh, she never thought she'd want to have to learn Japanese, but at least then she'd be in control.

"Not at all. It's all the same to me. I know what you guys are saying, and I know how to say what I want to say."

"Like it's being translated for you?" Gojo asked suddenly, focusing on her with a jolt.

Damn, she said too much.

"Um…" She stalled, alarmed.

"It's alright. You don't have to lie about it. If it's a side effect of the seal, it could be the first step towards actually deciphering it!" Gojo insisted, excited suddenly, and slowly she nodded.

"Not- um, not here please." She said finally, eyeing the busy street. Any one of them could be Kenjaku, or one of his people, listening in. Any of them could be the higher ups' people, looking for information on them.

Gojo nodded eagerly, and his pace was doubled, nearly a jog as he hunted for the arcade where they could find somewhere they were less likely to be spied on.

So, should she just tell him? At least the truth of that, that everything she hears and reads comes through as English? That was probably something she should really think through, while she had the time.

Pros:

He could help her handle this whole weird talking thing.

It could help him decipher the seal, a Rosetta stone.

Tengen wouldn't have to see or touch her seal.

She'd be able

One less lie to tell.

She could figure out how to turn it off?

Learn Japanese for real!

Say what she wants to say with the correct meanings!

Communicate better with others

Intentional puns!

Cons:

Another piece of the puzzle that she was trying to keep secret would now be out in the world.

More likely for someone to figure her whole reincarnation thing out

Why was that a bad thing again? She didn't remember, she just committed and now she was stuck like that.

Gojo would want to spend a decent chunk of time examining her seal for real.

She trusted him completely

She hated being touched for too long

She was terrified that her seal meant something bad

Boring

If they did figure out how to turn it off, she would suddenly have to learn a whole new language for real.

That'd take a long time.

Kanji.

Explaining why she suddenly didn't know much Japanese anymore

More attention from Officer, who would be concerned

What if it stopped her from being able to speak English instead, or damaged her memories from before?

God, her whole damn worksheet she was building in her head was reminding her of school. Was she worrying too much?

Probably.

But what if she wasn't worrying enough? There had to be something she'd missed, and it would bite her in the butt if she acted rashly.

Gojo just about ran into the arcade, quickly requesting to claim an individual room. He might have ordered a pizza or two too, because teenagers were nearly always hungry, but she was staring with alarm at the surrounding chaos, the children, the teens, the frazzled parents.

He might be insisting it was her birthday today, they were fighting politely over their policy of not organizing parties without a reservation, but Gojo's wallet was coming out which meant this argument was over. She was panicking, which was not conducive at all for thinking.

What else could go wrong? There was too much at stake to overlook this.

She was still stuck panicking by the time Gojo kicked open the door of the room, having forked over enough money to let her, him, and all the other students combine to play all day and not run out of tokens at all. Well, it looked like they used cards here, but the same still applied.

The door shut with a sound like a bell ringing, and it echoed in her ears still when Gojo set her down on a chair at the head of the table, the only one with birthday decorations, clearly thrown on at the last second.

She stared at him, because he was saying something, but that bell was still ringing loudly in her ears, so much it drowned out anything else.

"I can't hear you right now." She said inaudibly, undoubtedly too loud for Gojo.

"Sorry. I'm panicking." She continued when Gojo stopped, examining her.

He said something else, probably 'why would you do that' 'that's stupid' or something similar, but he also let Infinity wash over her, cutting out everything else. Physical sensation, sound, smells, everything went away in an instant, nothing but Infinity humming pleasantly on her skin. She was floating, not even gravity holding her in place, but also still as a statue.

"Could you send someone flying off into space if you don't do this right?" She asked rhetorically, not expecting an answer. He shrugged, deciding to go for nonverbal communication in absence of her ability to hear.

Slowly, her heart-rate calmed, as it always did. She'd worked herself up right into a panic attack, like she always did. At least it wasn't her usual fear of non-existence after death panic attack, those ones really sucked because there really wasn't anything she could do to fix it. If she actually believed in God, or anything else, at least they would help with that.

Why'd she even fear that anymore, she'd already died and came back? Stupid. She literally already died and still continued to exist. For how long she didn't know, but she did.

"Sorry." She whispered, feeling strangely ashamed of herself. She just couldn't hold herself together, could she?

"That seal really scares you, doesn't it?" Gojo asked instead of acknowledging her apology.

"Yeah." She admitted, a little watery.

"It sounds like English."

"What does?"

"Japanese. Everything I hear is still in English. Kanji and stuff are all in English too. I know some Japanese, and a bit about titles and stuff. I try to use it intentionally. Is that what sounds weird?"

"Try it." He urged.

"Uh… matte, mina-san. Daijobu. Umm… ganbatte." Ugh, she wasn't good when put on the spot.

"Accent!" Gojo declared with delight. "When you actually try to speak in Japanese, you have an accent!

"Really?"

"Yeah, you've got a Southern American accent, just like when you talk in English! It isn't noticeable at all when you just talk normally in Japanese but it's really noticeable when you talk in English."

"You mean like when I talk like this?" She said in English. He nodded rapidly, a faint grin on his face. He was leaning forward, clearly engaged.

"Exactly! I'm not sure why it would be part of your seal though. It doesn't fit at all with what I was assuming it did!" Gojo said, and he was grinning widely, a genius in front of a puzzle he couldn't solve on the spot. She was good enrichment for him, if nothing else.

"What did you think my seal was before?" She asked slowly.

"Super soldier or something."

What.

"Your cursed energy is sentient! There's no other reason for why it acts like it does! It moves before you do, reacts before you realize something is happening! You're barely controlling it at all, it just does what you w ant it too! I believe that your seal could be an experiment, that someone was trying to form a cursed spirit from a still living sorcerer!"

What the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck-

"Cursed spirit?" She nearly shrieked, her heart suddenly pounding in her ears.

"Either that or it's a revolutionary way to weaponize a sorcerer's cursed energy. Your reaction time is unbeatable, unless you're me. If you could make a large number of sorcerers like you, ones who can hide themselves and pose as nonsorcerers, you'd have a completely disguised super-powered army! Sure, they wouldn't have your cursed technique, but even just being able to strengthen yourself automatically would be incredible."

Two absolutely terrible options.

She didn't want to be a super weapon.

She wanted to be a walking cursed spirit spawner even less.

"It isn't finished, clearly. The inner circle is still empty, meaning that there's a chunk missing from it. If it's the cursed spirit option, that would be the information needed to manifest the curse. If it's the super-soldier option, then I'm less sure. Control, maybe? Whoever did this would want their soldiers to be controllable."

"You're really not curing my fear right now. You're validating it, if anything."

Gojo blinked, some of his fervor fading. "Right. Eh… it'll be alright? Whoever did this also added the translation mechanism, and weapons don't need to understand what's going on to be effective, just commands. Vessels don't need to either."

"So, if it was just a weird side effect?" She offered, because, really, it hadn't even kicked in fully in the first few minutes until she started talking.

"Then whoever did this won't get the chance to finish it." He said with complete certainty.

Now that was reassuring as hell. Nicely done, though not enough to make up for scaring the living daylights out of her.

God she needed a hug from Yu-nii.

"When's everyone else gonna be here?"

"Maybe an hour? They need travel time."

"If you have a good idea of what the seal does, does that make deciphering it easier? And are we still going to hunt down a sealing expert?"

"Yes for the first one, most likely no on the second. I'm not kidding when I say it could revolutionize Jujutsu society. Your cursed energy could turn into a killing machine at the slightest inclination, if you're in extreme danger it could very well seize control- not that I think it's likely, but your cursed energy is clearly protective of you! It's invested in keeping you and itself alive. No sealing expert would honestly be able to see that and not make an attempt to replicate it."

"I'd appreciate not being a test subject, if possible. Or be responsible for the equivalent of guns being introduced to warfare for the first time. No revolutions please. Unless it's to destroy the higher ups, then please, sign me the fuck up."

"Noted. I wouldn't worry about being forced into being a test subject either, because we'd get you out within the hour."

She hadn't been worried about being forcibly taken and experimented on, but now she sure was!

"Besides, this could have been an attempt to force your cursed energy into becoming a cursed spirit, and clearly that's failed, because your cursed energy loves you and curses can't love! The other part would probably be just a side effect!"

Comforting.

"I don't think you're handling this explanation as well as you're trying to, but I appreciate the effort." She said finally, only slightly panicked, and Gojo whimpered like a sad dog.

"No?" He asked with disappointment.

"They were two equally terrifying options, it's a very scary thing to hear. Also, completely unexpected, but I guess I could've thought of the super soldier option on my own if I thought about it for long enough. The cursed spirit thing blindsided me though."

Gojo had to concede that, at least. There was a short pause. Gojo looked like he was about to say something though, and she wasn't sure how many more bombs she could take right now.

"Is this a bad time to bring up-"

"Most likely."

"Right. Later then." Gojo said awkwardly.

There was a long pause.

"Want to play some games?" He offered slowly, and she shook her head after a moment's thought.

"I'll wait for everyone to get here." She'd probably drop like a rock the first time someone bumped her and just scream into the disgusting carpet.

"Right."

He seemed worried now, like he was trying to figure out where he could have gone wrong.

"It was just sudden, and we went from talking about language differences to me potentially being an experimental super soldier or failed cursed spirit spawner. It was really unexpected and scary. Maybe next time you could do it a little slower?"

"Slower." Gojo echoed before nodding. God help her, he was probably going to add a solid second between each damn word.

"I mean slow the conversation down, not your speech. Don't space out your words, steer the conversation in the right direction, add in a warning if you feel like it. It'd help."

Gojo still seemed a tad lost, but hopefully he got the message. Poor under socialized kid. He was great in some places, but in others he was less good. She'd teach him what she could, it was the least she could do.

They sat there for a while longer until Gojo started fidgeting, eventually pulling out his phone where he started texting. She'd summoned her beloved Doomslug, and was watching her wander around curiously, like a cat investigating a new room. The ceiling, the floor, the door and the walls were covered in slime within the hour.

Eventually, still staring at his phone, Gojo stood, so she let Doomslug vanish and stood up, hurrying over as Gojo held the door for her. She had to side-step out of the way awkwardly, circling around him, to let Gojo in the lead, given he knew where they were going. His eyes never left his phone, but he wove expertly through the crowd and she had to cling to his pant leg awkwardly to avoid being punted away by people as they bolted through the crowd. There were a lot of adults, it must have quite the variety of games.

They reached the front eventually, but already the crowd was sawing on her last nerve with fervor.

"I'm gonna scream if I have to walk through that crowd again, nii-san." She told him firmly and he blinked down at her in surprise before scooping her up to safety. She eyed the teenage boy who'd been passing by her distrustfully, and he glared back. As Gojo kept walking, she stuck her tongue out at the boy, who gave her a ruthless thumbs down. That was rude, right?

Gojo flipped the teenager off without even turning around, the showoff.

Finally, they reached the street and Gojo paused, looking around in search of something.

Someone?

"Are they here?" She asked eagerly, trying to climb higher up Gojo's arms to see. He swung her around so instead she was perched on his shoulders, and she stood the moment she was stable enough to. Gojo's one hand on her ankle and Infinity kept her steady as a rock, letting her survey the area.

Was that… Nanami she could see over there?

"Nanami-san!" She called, and the blond-haired person's head snapped up. Someone with brown hair jumped suddenly, throwing their hand in the air enthusiastically. Yu-nii!

She almost toppled when she tried to scramble down, Infinity trying to hold her in place, and for a few seconds she dangled in Gojo's hold by her ankle, upside down, until he flipped her upright with a supernatural ease that had one kid who happened to be looking shy away, eyes wide.

She was shaking like an overexcited puppy, only Gojo's hold on her shirt keeping her from running out into the crowd. She knew it would be a bad idea, she knew the moment she lost sight of Gojo she'd panic and cry, and probably get kidnapped too, who knows.

But they were right there!

They were moving fast through the crowded streets, and by the time Gojo finally released her they weren't even ten feet away, and she launched herself at Yu-nii, who immediately threw the bag he was holding aside in favor of catching her. Nanami might have caught the bag, exasperated, but she was too busy trying to crawl into Yu-nii's skin to pay too much attention. She wanted to scream for some reason, out of anger at being separated, sadness, or just pain, because leaving them behind had hurt. Hurt so badly she just gave up and didn't feel a damn thing for the day. She started to tuck it away, it wasn't really needed right now, not in the presence of three of her favorite sorcerers.

She was trying not to cry, she really was, and she was winning too, holding onto her outrage to fend off the sorrow.

"Missed you!" she managed to gasp before her throat closed up and all she could manage was a soft whine.

"I missed you too, Midori-chan." Yu-nii responded softly, but he held her tightly with both arms like he was afraid someone was going to try and snatch her away suddenly. Her hands were still trembling, but it didn't matter because she was hugging him tightly in return, clinging to the fabric of his uniform.

They stayed that way for quite a long time.

"Missed you, Nanami-san!" She said when the tight feeling in her throat had faded enough to allow her to talk. She was freezing, her cursed energy reacting to her outburst of emotion, but she was warmer than she'd felt all day somehow.

Neither of them wanted to let go of the other, so they headed back to the party room together. Gojo stayed at Yu-nii's heels, much to Nanami's visible annoyance, looming over his underclassman and her by association. She appreciated how thoughtful he was being by doing so, making sure she felt safe.

Kenjaku could beat Yu-nii and Nanami, as they were now, even together. If not in cursed techniques, then in cleverness, and experience. Gojo still needed to stick close to them, for safety at least.

They plunged through the crowd, Yu-nii at the forefront, Gojo at his back and Nanami flanking him. It was a decent formation, and got them all through to the safety of the party room in good time.

"Where's everyone else?" She asked when the door shut, quieting the noise outside.

"On their way. Geto-senpai sent us on a mission nearby, so we went this way as soon as we finished." Yu-nii said reassuringly. Her head was on his shoulder comfortably. She wasn't moving for a good while if she could help it.

"Geto-san?"

"He's been… acting vice-principal for the past few days." Yu-nii explained carefully.

"Is Yaga-san alright?" She asked, alarmed, and Yu-nii was nodding already.

"He's fighting to get your paperwork and everything to go through. Last I knew, he was fighting to get put in the proper classes."

"Classes?"

"Apparently to be a foster parent you have to take several classes. Yaga-sensei has already taken several, so he's been fighting to take a test for it instead of having to go through the class. He's passed the CPR and first aid tests."

"Yaga-san's becoming a student once again." She said sagely, and Yu-nii giggled.

"We're going to be interviewed too. And we need a fire extinguisher."

"Sounds annoying."

"Exceedingly. It feels as though they're trying to drag the process out intentionally." Nanami said with annoyance.

"Probably because we're uncooperative as fuck." She offered, and Yu-nii gasped at the language. Gojo laughed though, and she couldn't win them all.

"They wanted to give me a physical alone, Yu-nii! With a scary doctor, and Mr. Officer too!" She complained, and he made an appropriately sympathetic noise.

"But Satoru-nii's too cool and scary, he just made them listen! And he and Mr. Officer fought, but I hid in a cabinet so I missed it, and then Satoru-nii could stay! And, Ieiri-san did the examination, which was much better than that other doctor, and I didn't have to get any shots yet, or at least they didn't tell me I did. I weigh twenty two pounds! Which is bad. I need to eat more." She was rambling, but Yu-nii was listening intently anyway.

"Adults don't like to let kids make their own medical decisions, we need a medical advocate. Do you know one?" She asked, and why was Gojo rolling his eyes at her, he looked exasperated? It was a genuine question! Yu-nii's brows furrowed, confused, but he shook his head.

"Sorry, no. How'd you learn what that is?"

"I need someone to advocate for me. Satoru-nii's excellent, but he's too young to be taken entirely seriously, even if he acts super scary. I need an adult who will listen to me and get other adults to listen to me, and Yaga-san isn't here, and all the other people I know and trust are teenagers. Koroi-san, but I don't see her often enough to ask, and I don't know if they would listen to her over my current guardians."

"Hm. That does sound difficult," Yu-nii empathized, "It must be pretty scary to have those decisions made for you like that."

"Satoru-nii has done really good! I never got too scared because I knew if they pushed too hard, we could just leave! And we did, but they were pushing nii-san too hard. They wanted to examine his eyes, and they wouldn't accept no for an answer, so I opened a window, and nii-san grabbed me, and we jumped from the window!"

"Did you? Was it scary?" He asked.

"No! This was my third time jumping from a window, and the least scary!"

"Third time?" Yu-nii asked sharply, suddenly laser focused.

"The first time was when I met Geto-san for the first time, and had to escape his fight with that bad old man. Then, to escape the other bad old man and Neko-kun, and creepy Zenin guy, from Yaga-san's office building. It was the second floor, but I just went down the sloped roof, so it wasn't that far at all! This time, to escape the doctors and Mr. Officer. It was the only one I wasn't jumping from alone either, and not even high off the ground like the others! Ten out of ten, would jump from that window again."

"Please don't do that anymore." Yu-nii asked worriedly, and she shook her head.

"It's clearly a great way to escape adults! I'll be careful, I promise."

He didn't look particularly assured, but he accepted it. For now, at least.

"Riko, Kuroi, and Junpei are en route, maybe ten minutes or so. Kento, could you please order some pizza now?" Yu-nii asked after checking his phone, and Kento nodded and stood quickly.

She didn't feel like doing much more than staying within three inches of Yu-nii at all times. She was content to fall silent and lean into him, and he put his arm around her shoulders. She was comfortable.

Nanami came back a few minutes later and slumped down tiredly in the chair, leaning into Yu-nii aloofly, like a cat would. Gojo was watching, and she didn't miss the almost jealous look in his eyes.

She held her arm out and waved him over. He was taken aback, clearly, but he did drag his chair over to sit closer till he was seated right next to them, somehow close but distant. Self-destructive idiot. She had some work to do on him.

Firstly, get him into this impromptu cuddle pile.

She reached for him, making childish grabby hands at him until he obligingly offered her his arm, and she yanked him forward as hard as she could, making him nearly fall into Yu-nii. He saved himself, because he was Satoru Gojo, but she had an arm around his neck, the stability of Yu-nii's arm around her, and Gojo, and he was forced to pivot awkwardly on the spot so he could drop into the chair and sit more comfortably. He ended up laying uncomfortably over her and Yu-nii's lap, tense as a bowstring.

She got the feeling they didn't interact too much. Too bad. She took his hand in hers, just to hold it, and slowly tipped over so that she was also lying in Yu-nii's lap, wedged between him and Gojo, her head on Gojo's chest.

Cuddle pile complete.

The two relaxed slowly, some of their discomfort fading. Probably some discomfort due to their differing ages and grades, Japan seemed to have a lot of respect for grade levels. This was likely crossing some sort of boundary. She didn't care about it, Gojo needed oodles of physical affection, and she knew Yu-nii would be an excellent option. They'd get over it.

And get over it they did, quite quickly too. Though, Nanami was glaring at Gojo, the overprotective emo. Gojo's already got a man, and it wasn't Haibara.

Yu-nii, being kind to the extreme, used his arm to cushion Gojo's neck, letting him lie there without his neck being at an awkward angle. Considering Gojo was semi-horizontal and moderately comfortable, he went limp near instantly, already fighting to keep his eyes open. Yu-nii's look of empathy was likely only missed because Gojo was practically asleep already, or he might have righted himself and acted all tough, trying to preserve his image. As it was, he relaxed, bit by bit.

Riko and Kuroi slipped inside, talking softly, and Junpei sprinted inside, excited, but at the sight of Gojo, they stopped. She held a finger over her lips, requesting quiet, and Junpei copied to move to himself.

"Pizza will be here in about fifteen minutes or so." Nanami whispered, because as much as he pretended not to, he cared.

The girls nodded, taking seats at the opposite ends of the table, but Junpei scrambled into the chair, waving his hands to get her attention.

She smiled at him, her hands not free enough to give him a wave.

"I missed you." She mouthed, and the sadness on Junpei's face was alarming.

He was about to cry.

Yu-nii nudged Nanami urgently, and he stood, hurrying over to Junpei to comfort the boy before he woke Gojo, and they had a grumpy special grade on their hands.

Junpei liked Nanami, she knew, and thankfully he settled with only a few sniffles. He still looked like he desperately wanted a hug, and she honestly did too.

The pizza arrived, much to everyone's interest, and the smell made Gojo perk up, his eyes opening slowly and then all at once as he bolted upright.

She leapt down and made a beeline for Junpei, who also launched himself at her, tackling her to the floor. It hurt a little, but being able to cling to Junpei as much as he did her was worth the pain.

"I missed you so much!" She whispered unsteadily into his ear, and he nodded jerkily in agreement

"You're alright?" He checked, not letting go yet.

"Yeah. Satoru-nii's kept me safe."

"Good." Junpei muttered firmly.

They stayed there for several long minutes until Junpei was willing to let her go, staying within arm's reach. Yu-nii handed them both a plate the moment he noticed they were up, smiling warmly.

"We started on the robot!" Junpei said suddenly guiltily, making her jump a little. She tilted her head, confused, and he elaborated. "It was rusting… Yaga-san took me to get some sandpaper and took the robot apart so I could start working on it. I'm sorry!"

"It's okay! I don't mind at all, I was worried it would start deteriorating really fast, but we've never really had the time and motivation to get started on it yet. I'm relieved that you've got it started!" She was quick to reassure him, but he shook his head.

"We were supposed to do it together!" Junpei said, distraught.

"But I won't be back for a while! If you can sand it and someone could spray it with primer, it would be guaranteed not to deteriorate too badly before I get back."

"... right." Junpei said, suddenly sad.

"Don't be too sad, Junpei-kun! I'll make sure you guys get to visit each-other whenever I can!" Gojo spoke up, confident in the way he always was.

"I thought that since we were living together now, we would be able to see each-other every day." Junpei said glumly, and she could only agree. She'd been looking forward to spending time with him once Events stopped happening and things settled down. It didn't seem likely to be anytime soon though.

"Yeah." Is all she could think to say.

Gojo huffed.

"Eat your pizza kids, we're having fun today!" He said loudly, and put his hands on his hips, stern. "Stop looking like you're going to a funeral!"

They both looked at him, twin pairs of woeful, sad eyes, and Gojo pounced on them, ruffling hair, squishing cheeks, until Junpei started giggling, trying to fend him off with his greasy hands. Gojo shrieked when Junpei managed to get his hand in his hair, withdrawing immediately to scrub at it with disgust, and Junpei grabbed her hand, pulling her from her seat to run around the table.

"Split up?" She asked, and Junpei shook his head quickly. They go down together, apparently.

Gojo wasn't putting even a tenth of the amount of effort he could, just pursuing them around the table. She was giggling a bit nervously, like she always did when she was being chased, even safely, and Junpei was too, though his was more genuine. Being chased just freaked her out, no matter who was doing it, especially when she knew that she couldn't get away, at least not from him. Gojo slowed down dramatically, changing into little feints left or right, and they responded, keeping the table in between them and him. He probably noticed she was getting freaked out by the chase, the observant little dope.

"Settle down. Gojo-san, let them eat please." Kuroi ordered, and Gojo listened reluctantly, also wanting to eat his pizza. She noticed Junpei deliberately being a little messier with his hands as he ate, like he was reloading in preparation for Gojo's next attack. Ruthless kid.

The pizza was- arcade pizza, neither particularly good nor particularly bad. Just pizza. Honestly, the plainness made it better to her, achingly familiar. She was probably giving the damn pizza the most sorrowful eyes, but it was just making her feel so homesick. It wasn't like they would go to an arcade often, but they'd do it a few times a year, make a fun day of it. The one near them had laser-tag and go-karts, along with various rides. Okay, maybe it wasn't an arcade so much as a theme park type place, but they usually only went to the arcade unless they felt like shelling out the money for a day-long wristband. That was rarer. They hadn't gone at all the past year before this happened, and it'd been longer since they did the laser-tag.

This whole type of thinking was just leaving her feeling morose, she needed to focus on something else. Namely, the arcade she was at now, not the one she'd never see again.

Once she was done eating and Kuroi took both of them to the bathroom to wash their hands, supervised by Gojo of course, just in case, she went over to Riko, crawling into her lap to give the teenager a crushing hug.

"Missed you, Riko-chan!" She said, and Riko's return smile was missing something somehow.

"I missed you too, Midori-chan!" Riko returned happily. It wasn't as convincing as it should've been.

"Something's wrong?" She asked uncertainly.

"I heard that you met… Tengen. You made some sort of deal with him?" Riko asked, her tone still light, but the unhappiness showed on her face.

"Ten-Jiji's a bit weird, but they agreed not to eat you even if someone tries to make you go down there! And, they were willing to let me hide down there when Mr. Officer came to take me away, but Satoru-nii thought it was better to go than to hide, because Yaga-san would get in trouble, and there was no food."

The other sorcerers around them, besides Gojo, froze at her name for Tengen, an assortment of horrified faces.

"Ten- Ten- Jiji?" Riko echoed, horrified. Kuroi dropped something,

"Tengen. Ten. Jiji. Ten-Jiji. That's what I've been calling them. They're a little passive, they aren't used to having to make decisions or take action I think. They just kinda sit down there. Yu-nii and I want to get them a TV."

"A tv. You want to get the Star of Jujutsu society a tv. The one who I was ordered to-" Riko cut herself off, and put a hand to her forehead, like she had a sudden headache.

"They're alone down there. They have been forever, like, dinosaur times. You remember those, right Kuroi-san?" A snicker, quickly muffled, "It's so sad! A TV would be good for them!"

"Right." Riko repeated, shell-shocked. "You want to give them a TV, so they aren't so lonely. Right."

"I didn't give up anything bad, Geto-san can confirm it. I just can't tell too many people about it."

Riko didn't seem to agree, but she didn't argue further, thankfully, just hugged her closer.

"I didn't get to say goodbye to you." She whispered, and Riko made a pained noise.

"Sorry. I haven't been around as much, have I?" Riko said regretfully.

"No. I miss playing with you."

"We can do that again, when you get back home, alright? I promise. Whenever you want to. I'll be there." Riko said, looking sad, so she leaned her head into Riko's shoulder.

"Yeah. That sounds fun."

"Oi! No sadness allowed on this fun outing, pull yourselves together!" Gojo yelled from across the room, pointing rudely at them. As one, they stuck their tongues out at Gojo, who stuck his tongue out in return, wiggling his fingers next to his face tauntingly.

Of course, that's when Geto walked in.

"What're you doing?" Geto asked Gojo, exasperated already.

"They started it!" Gojo accused, but she focused on Riko, ignoring him.

"I thought you'd matured recently. I see I was wrong." Geto replied, rolling his eyes, and Gojo made a disappointed noise, slumping over.

"Satoru-nii's been really cool! He punched the Officer guy!"

Geto's disbelieving gaze shifted to Gojo, judging.

"You didn't see anything! You don't know that!" Gojo protested, and she side-eyed him doubtfully. There was no doubt they'd exchanged blows, though Gojo had definitely pulled his punches. The Officer was still alive for one. Not even broken bones.

"We could ask Ieiri-san. She saw everything, didn't she?" She offered, and Gojo's eyes widened, alarmed.

"Well- maybe we don't need to know what happened, can't we just let it go?" Gojo asked innocently, suddenly nervous.

"Let Satoru-nii be goofy today, Geto-san. He's been stressed out, making sure I don't get kidnapped or subjected to medical malpractice. He deserves to be immature for a little while, while it's safe." She argued gently, and Geto's eyes did soften, his hand coming up to ruffle Gojo's hair. The gentle caress that followed, that had Gojo's eyes shutting, leaning his head into Geto's hand, seemed to be relatively involuntary on both of their parts. Nanami rolled his eyes, while Yu-nii and the others looked away politely. She just stared at the ceiling, letting them have their little moment, and eventually Geto pulled away a little too sharply. How she wishes she could physically fight Geto's intrusive thoughts, give him a little break.

"Everyone. I got us two hours away from school, then the first-years and I have to return to Jujutsu Highschool. We'd better get started." Geto announced, once they'd both recovered somewhat from their blatant flirting. She wouldn't even call that flirting, they were practically kissing each-other already. She wished they'd just kiss already, not steal tiny moments like this. Sure, the PDA would be unbearable, they'd be sappy as fuck, but they'd be so much happier.

"Arcade!" Gojo cheered, "Midori-chan comes with me, so anyone who wants to come with her has to join us!"

"You should let someone else take her for a while, Satoru." Geto chastised softly.

God, the way he said his name was gonna give her cavities.

"I'd prefer to stick by Satoru-nii. It's too easy to get lost in the crowd, no one would realize I was gone for at least long enough for someone to drag me away."

"Has someone tried to take you?" Geto asked sharply, going to business mode in a snap.

"Not yet. I doubt they would today, but doubting isn't worth the risk. No way will they want to mess with Satoru-nii, especially with everyone else around too."

Of everyone, Geto knew best about what she was most concerned about. Kenjaku. He knew what to look for too.

"Alright, Midori-chan stays with Satoru." God, was this flirting? It sounded like flirting, the way he said that, "I'm assuming Junpei-kun will want to stick by his sister, so we should do our best to keep an eye on them even as we play. If you aren't in sight of them, try and keep an eye on an exit, and if you can't see either, keep an eye out for suspicious people, or residuals." Geto ordered, taking the lead naturally. He was letting Gojo do as he wished, which of course, was playing arcade games with two kids.

The crowd was thick, it seemed like there was some street-event going on outside. She clung to Gojo's leg, and Junpei mirrored her after a moment's delay. Gojo grabbed them both by the back of their shirts like a pair of kittens and lifted them just as easily. She had to wrap her hands around her stomach as it rode up, trying to prevent anyone from seeing the seal. They'd get CPS called on them in an instant.

"Nii-san, the seal!" She hissed lowly, and Gojo adjusted quickly, adjusting his grip so that she was hanging from his arm like a sack of potatoes. It wasn't comfortable, but Gojo reached a less crowded section where there was space for them to walk more easily.

"I'm not sure how much fun I'm gonna have here." She said worriedly, because even now the only thing keeping them from getting run over was Gojo in front of them. The vast majority of kids had vanished, evacuated by their parents as the crowd density increased.

"Do you want to find somewhere else to go?" Gojo asked, bending down to be heard.

"We can try here for a few minutes. Maybe we can check out what's going on outside later? I want to come back here sometime though, when it's less crowded."

Gojo nodded, and the others finally pushed their way through the crowd. Of every, Geto seemed the most frazzled by the amount of people. A hand brushed his leg, and he leapt away as if burned, bumping into someone else. Gojo nudged them towards the first years, and hurried over to his boyfriend, leading him the rest of the way through the crowd to the relative safety of the circle that formed around her and Junpei.

"This definitely isn't going to work. Midori-chan wants to see what's going on outside, so we'll take her for a little bit, the rest of you head here." Gojo held out his phone, showing them an address, "We'll regroup, find somewhere else to go."

"I can go!" Junpei protested, but Gojo shook his head.

"It's a huge crowd, it's best if we stay clear. The two of us will be fine, but we can't protect too many people."

"We don't have to go, we can just leave." She protested, suddenly worried, and Gojo patted her reassuringly on the head.

"It'll be fine! There are some cursed spirits in the crowd too, I want to shut them down before they incite something dangerous."

Despite the lightheartedness, the nonchalance of Gojo's tone and his tight smile, his eyes were serious.

Something big was going on outside.

Gojo didn't want to leave her in the care of the first-years. He wanted Geto with him, and her to be safely by his side.

Special grade?

A trap?

She nodded.

He handed her to Geto for now, keeping his hands free, and she scrambled down to cling to Geto's hand, giving him more range of movement. They headed out quickly, joining the stream of people that headed outside the arcade. Yu-nii, all of them really, were watching, though only Junpei looked more confused than concerned. All the older people got the meaning behind what Gojo was saying.

They were swallowed up by the crowd soon enough.

Gojo led the way, pushing through the crowd, and Geto stuck close, often bumping into his back. She was tense, watching carefully through the rushing crowd. People were heading in various directions, forming streams of movement, and soon Geto could barely move. A man slipped between them and the closeness between them was lost, and Gojo pulled away in the few seconds it took for Geto to recover.

Geto watched, shocked, something fragile and desperate on his face as Gojo slipped through the crowd with ease, even as he was struggling, getting pushed away. He wasn't as forceful as Gojo was, too nervous about hurting someone. The crowd was so dense, it was making her nervous. Did Gojo see the cursed spirit?

Gojo was getting further away.

Suguru couldn't get to him.

"Suguru. Ask him to come back for us." She urged. No way would she be loud enough to be heard, he'd have to yell.

"He won't hear me." Defeat. Not in just his voice, in his body language, his eyes.

This was about more than just being left behind in a crowd.

"That doesn't matter." She insisted, and the words left her mouth solemnly for some reason.

All Suguru ever had to do was ask. Even if he'd never believed it.

Not even she heard him speak next. She didn't even think he did, he just mouthed the words.

Satoru's head turned, his eyes flicking in Suguru's direction. He looked back, then forward, focused on something in the crowd, then back again.

"Wait for me…" She heard Geto say, and he sounded wretched, unbelieving. He didn't move a muscle and neither did Satoru. A woman was shoved into Suguru by a surge in the crowd, making him stumble backwards. He was backing into her and before she could get clear he'd already sidestepped to avoid stepping on her.

A mistake, leaving too much space between them. A group of teens, all holding hands to avoid being separated, stepped through the gap between them.

In an instant, Suguru was swallowed up by the crowd, and she was trapped in a jumble of tall legs and swinging hands. Occasionally, someone would glance her way with concern, but the pressure of the crowd never allowed them to stop.

"Suguru!" She called, raising her voice in a futile attempt to be heard among the buzz of people.

"Satoru-nii!"

"Yu-nii!"

Nobody could hear her. She needed high ground. She needed to turn around and go back-

What way was the arcade again? She couldn't see anything, not in the sea of legs and tall bodies that surrounded her.

A businessman, well dressed in a suit, hadn't looked down, and his suitcase hit her squarely in the back, knocking the breath from her lungs and knocking her down. He stopped instantly, and said something, probably an apology, but a woman tripped over her leg, and went down, tugging her husband with her.

She tried to scramble to her feet, to get away before the whole mess went from scary and annoying to dangerous, but another person was stumbling and then falling over her, pushing her hard to the ground. He scrambled off of her the moment he realized he had her pinned, and his friend tugged him up. He was already getting dragged away in spite of his protests, looking back at her.

The woman and her husband had recovered, and the woman bent down to lift her to her feet, her husband holding onto his wife to keep her from getting knocked away.

"Are you okay?" The wife asked, leaning close to be heard, and she shook her head quickly.

"I can't find my older brothers!"

The woman nodded, taking her hand and the husband took her other one, both holding tightly.

"Satoru-nii! Suguru-nii!"

The woman took up the call, followed by her husband, trying to head out of the main crowd, where there were less people. It was hard going, and the wife lost her hand a few times, always stopping on a dime and finding her again. The husband remained at her back, steadying her whenever someone ran into her, sometimes blocking people with his body.

They reached a cafe, closed, but there were tables outside, and she abandoned propriety to climb atop it, craning her head to look for one of the students.

There! A head of white hair, bright and standing tall among the crowd, searching around. She'd put her cursed energy away, and more or less forgotten about it, hadn't she, not even paying attention to the lack of cold. She ripped it free roughly and it bristled like a guard dog, making her entire body go cold in a flash.

His eyes flicked to her, meeting her gaze and then Satoru was there, his hand on her back. Infinity's comforting absence of sensation was draped over her skin. The couple was startled, both of them having been searching the crowd, calling for her brothers, but she jumped into Satoru's arms, and they smiled, looking relieved, waving as they hurried away.

"Found it?" She asked in his ear, and he nodded sharply, then they were gone, and the crowd was too, and they were standing on the roof of some building, too high up for her comfort.

"It's there." Gojo pointed out, towards the middle of the crowd. Suguru had a gap between him and the crowd now, a ring of Cursed spirits that people shied away from, heading inward towards it.

It looked like-

It had eaten one of Sukuna's fingers. That same porcelain skin, the four eyes and general lack of clothing.

"It's manipulating the crowd somehow. I can't see any reason for why so many people have gathered and are still wandering aimlessly."

"It's strong?"

"Evil as fuck too." Gojo agreed before realizing he was talking to a four year old.

Oh damn, did he know what the fingers felt like? Surely he did. Surely.

"It feels like those ones in that scary storage room." She whispered, thinking fast.

"Which ones?"

"The worst ones. Not the jars, the creepy fingers."

"Sukuna." He breathed, and he shouldn't look so enthralled, not with so many people around to get hurt. He loved the hunt didn't he? The risk.

It made her heart pound too, she could barely tear her eyes away to look at Gojo once again, always trying to slide back to the cursed spirit.

Good god, it was beautiful. Like a white tiger was beautiful, dangerous and deadly.

She barely realized she'd taken a step forward until Gojo was dragging her back harshly.

"Don't look at it!" He snapped, and she flinched automatically, ripping her eyes away to stare at the ground again. She still felt the pull, the call to look, to walk towards the spirit, so she shut her eyes entirely and sat with a thump on the ground.

"Stay here. Don't move from this spot. I'd put up a veil if I wasn't worried about drawing curse users to you while I was gone. Hide your cursed energy, hide yourself, Suguru or I will find you when we're done."

"Couldn't you-" He was gone.

Take her to Nanami and Yu-nii, if nothing else?

Ah.

There was a cursed spirit behind her.

Suguru's cursed spirit, the woman who asked if she was pretty. She asked no such question to her, so she assumed she was here under Suguru's orders.

She should… probably go hide? Apparently? Surely dropping her off with Yu-nii and Nanami would've been safer, and then just sending the lady along with them?

The rooftop was more or less empty though. There was a door, a small assortment of pipes sticking up, and a decent amount of trash in the corners, where the lip kept the wind from blowing it away. No one went up here regularly.

"Do you have an idea about where I should hide?" She asked the cursed spirit, who of course remained silent, just standing there ominously.

For a lack of a better option, she just dropped to the ground face-down, covering her neck with her hands like she would for a tornado drill.

This wasn't how she was expecting this day to go, sheltering in place on an abandoned rooftop with a hopefully tamed special grade cursed spirit as her only companion.

It took about ten minutes to fall asleep like that. She was only four, naps were life. She only startled awake when a hand shook her shoulder firmly.

Suguru, a bit worse for wear, but otherwise unharmed. He looked shaken. His curse still watched, looking bored.

"Hi."

"You scared me, just laying there like that." He chastised, but scooped her up easily, heading to the edge of the rooftop.

The crowd had damn near vanished, but small holes pocketed the street. Police were scattered about, mostly standing around, staring down the holes.

"Everyone okay?"

"Of course. Not even Sukuna's finger could beat the two of us together."

"Did you eat the curse?"

"Yes. It dropped the finger when I condensed it. Satoru was disappointed, he wanted to see if I could eat it safely."

"What type of curse was it?"

"Not everything has a direct cause, or analogy. It was one of the ones that tended to pop up around large crowds, it had a sort of pull to it, drawing people in. It feeds off the negative emotions of the people it traps, the anger, distress. All it would've taken was for a trigger to set off the middle of the crowd and it would've turned into a crowd-crush. Even without that, people were getting stepped on and slammed into things. Sukuna's finger only worsened that effect, though thankfully it didn't get much else. It was only a second grade when it ate the finger."

"So, no cleave, no dismantle, no fire arrow, no malevolent shrine or world-cutting slice or whatever?" She asked, and Geto nodded firmly.

"You know a lot about Sukuna, do you?" Satoru asked from behind her, making both of them jump and Suguru's cursed spirit whirled around for an instant before becoming passive again.

"How do you know about Sukuna's techniques?"

Suguru's horrified and apologetic look was really not helping her feel good about her chances right now.

"Any chance you'll drop this until we get home, and I can explain just about everything?"

"It's very unlikely."

"I know a lot. About a lot of stuff. I'm not secretly evil, I swear. Geto-san can vouch for me, he knows the most out of the two who do know."

That diverted his attention, by throwing Suguru in front of him.

"You already know, so you can tell me!" Satoru cheered, grabbing Suguru by the upper arm and bouncing up and down like an excited puppy.

"I can't. I promised to Midori-chan that I wouldn't tell unless she told me I could."

"No." She said immediately when Satoru turned his puppy dog eyes on her.

"The mystery is killing me" Satoru whined, staggering backwards as if mortally wounded.

"I'd appreciate it if you could wait, Satoru-nii. It's a really big deal to me to tell you. Please, could you wait until the time I set?" She asked, begged really, turning her own pleading eyes on him, and he visibly wilted, resigned. The title really did him in.

"You're torturing your poor Nii-san! But, because you asked and I love you, I'll pretend I never heard you talking about the king of curses' technique and domain, which you have no right to know."

"Thank you, Satoru-nii!" She said, completely and utterly relieved. Suguru relaxed too, probably equally relieved.

"The others are waiting. Now that the crowd's gone, do you want to try the arcade again?" Gojo offered, and she nodded firmly.

It took about ten minutes or so for everyone to reconvene outside the arcade, and approximately seven minutes into the wait, she realized that she forgot Nishinoya in the room and panicked, almost dragging Gojo inside to make sure their room was still there and untouched.

He was, of course, though rightfully miffed over being left behind. She was ready to cry out of pure shame, but Nishinoya still patted her leg reassuringly. He forgave her, assuming she tried her best not to do it again.

"I'm so sorry…" She apologized miserably for the fifth time as people filed back in, and Nishinoya was looking exasperated with her. She was sorry , she forgot him and he couldn't even go out to search for her. Seeing the students again wasn't a good enough excuse for leaving her dear friend behind.

He finally gave up on trying to get her to stop apologizing and leaned into her lap cutely. It worked, embarrassingly enough, and she cuddled him instead until she realized his plan. Then she just crossed her arms and looked away.

The staff were quite distressed by the whole event, flash mob and all, and one woman hurried over, the apology written all over her face.

"Don't worry about it, it wasn't your fault." Gojo interrupted before she could even speak, and he was brushing past her before she could even recover.

It literally wasn't their fault, it was a cursed spirit's influence. Gojo didn't care enough about money to try and squeeze something out of the shop for the inconvenience.

Gojo pulled out a stack of cards that looked similar to a credit card and started handling them out. She got a pink one, to her delight, and Junpei got blue. The stereotypes were glaring, but she did like pink, so she let it go without comment.

With that, Gojo set them all loose on the arcade.

It was more or less empty of people, meaning the restrictions on all of them to watch her were relaxed dramatically. Gojo's passive perception was high enough to keep an eye out without worrying about the number of bodies obscuring his view. Just in case, she kept her cursed energy levels much higher than normal, nearly forty percent compared to her usual twenty. It left her numb, but hopefully as time wore on she'd unthaw as she settled.

The fact that her every step was fun now, smooth beyond what was reasonable for a human, sending her further, was just a bonus. She might be a bit more jittery, but it didn't inhibit her fun. Nishinoya was tucked under her arm, safe and sound. She needed a carrying backpack, like for babies. Except escapable.

The first game they went for was air hockey, and Yu-nii was lovely and amazing, and kind enough to bring them both stepping stools so they could actually reach it.

Junpei won two games to zero.

She had puny arms, no matter how much force she put behind it. Using cursed energy was unfair too. Maybe Junpei's joyful smile also had something to do with it.

Still, they moved on to the probably unwise choice of the basketball hoops, which ended maybe less than a minute in when a ball bounced off the hoop, right into her face. They used real basketballs too, not the cheap fake ones. Nanami had come within inches of saving her from the hit, and the guilt on his face made her wince.

"I'm okay!" She assured him and Junpei, and really she was, the impact hadn't even hurt, she was so cold. "Didn't even feel it."

Nanami laid a hand on her forehead and flinched at the chill.

"I'm not scared, just making myself more visible for Satoru-nii. I'll unthaw with time."

Why did he look so doubtful?

Nanami sighed, and to her surprise, he actually picked her up, cradling her to his chest with noticeable discomfort.

"You don't have to-" She tried to protest. She knew he wasn't the most comfortable around her, and being cold was hardly uncommon.

"You shouldn't need to ask." He said, a bit too softly to be stern.

Hm.

Alright?

Maybe he had a thing about people being too cold, like he did that one time. She relished the warmth, once the feeling started to return to her skin, and Nanami played with Junpei in the meantime, giving her the chance to observe everyone else.

Geto- Suguru, whatever name she should use, but she liked calling him by his first name, it felt better. He wasn't really playing so much as surveilling, watching over everyone else, but he had a drink in his hand, sipping it idly, and a plate of fries smothered in ketchup in front of him that he was picking at. He was relaxing, in his own way. She'd bet that later on he would be messing around with Gojo, and playing games, but for now he needed to destress in his way. Should she be thinking of Gojo as Satoru? It didn't feel quite right, but she was used to his last name more than she was to Suguru's.

Gojo was causing a ruckus with Riko by his side, doing some sort of dance game. Riko… was losing, maybe? They had a small crowd of ten people gathering, cheering them on, and Satoru was clearly relishing the attention, but Riko was winning their hearts with her own charm too. The game score didn't seem to matter to them so much as who had the most people on their side. Gojo took off his sunglasses- yeah, he was winning now, and Riko was shouting about the unfairness of it all, and both of them were grinning like little kids, smiles that reached their eyes.

Kuroi had been talked into playing a racing game by Yu-nii. He was leaning over her, one hand pointing out obstacles and one hand on the wheel that she was holding limply, steering for her as she watched with visible confusion. Clearly, she'd never played one before. It was one of the games where you were supposed to crash into things too, and Kuroi kept panicking and steering aside, much to Yu-nii's consternation. Then they were giggling like a pair of schoolgirls when a very cartoonish chicken crossed the road, feathers scattering about the screen. Feather bonus, apparently, and the whole car suddenly had wings and rose up, making Kuroi gasp and start steering again, letting Yu-nii watch with a grin on his face.

Ieiri was here now, she noticed with surprise. She'd just arrived, and looked a little frazzled, taking a seat next to Suguru and promptly taking his fries. He just smirked a little, his eyes closing in that foxlike way, and went to order another one.

Junpei wanted to play a two-player shooting game, so Nanami begged off, waving Gojo over instead, who tore his way through the crowd to climb in the little booth with Junpei, taking the right side.

Gojo was a terrible shot.

They lasted maybe thirty seconds before getting overrun.

"Suguru! Come beat this game for Junpei-kun!" Gojo shouted, and Suguru sighed, setting his fries down undefended, and of course, Gojo walked over the moment his boyfriend's attention was away, taking it for himself.

"Can we get Geto-san more fries?" She asked Nanami with mild exasperation, and he nodded. Kuroi was up there, getting some sweet frozen strawberry drink for Riko, who was waiting excitedly.

"Want one?" Kuroi asked, hesitating before she paid. Using the card Gojo had handed them of course, because he probably loaded like two hundred dollars on each, knowing him.

"Do they have anything besides strawberry?" She asked, eyeing the menu.

"They have mostly fruit flavors."

"Blue raspberry?" She asked hopefully.

"One blue raspberry too." Kuroi added, and she grinned.

"Undoing all my hard work I see." Nanami commented dryly, and she froze, anxiety slapping her in the face. She was being inconsiderate!

"Sorry! I can give it to Sat-"

"That'd be worse I think. I don't want to see Gojo-san on a sugar high."

"Those… aren't real."

"Really?" Nanami asked, surprised.

"Yeah. I mean, maybe for a minute or two, but most of it's the power of suggestion and feeling happy. Having a lot of sugar at once tends to drop your energy levels rather than raise them."

"I was teasing you, though apparently unsuccessfully." Nanami said after a few moments.

"Oh. I'm not always super good at that unless you make it very obvious."

"I see that." Sarcasm? He was the straight type, not as dramatic about it as Gojo was, it made it harder for her to tell.

A policeman was inside, talking with the staff, and did a double-take at the sight of her. She shrunk down, making Nanami's attention snap over to her, away from his classmate, who was now giving shooting tips to Junpei. Apparently even Suguru's skills weren't quite enough, now most of the students were clumped around the shooting game. Even Ieiri had wandered over, though she was currently hunched over her fries protectively as Gojo tried to snatch some. He already finished Suguru's second order, now he was trying to get at hers too.

"We kinda ran away from the doctor's office and the police might be looking for us?" She said uncertainly, and sure enough, the officer was wandering over, trying to get a closer look.

Damn her distinctively foreign look, she stood out too much in Japan.

"Midori-chan?" The officer called, sounding relieved.

They were caught.

"We're just hanging out with my Nii-san's friends. We didn't run away. We were going to go back tonight."

The officer pulled out her radio, probably calling it in, and Kuroi handed her the blue raspberry drink, along with the fries Nanami had ordered for Suguru. The others had started to take note of the officer, the game apparently won, judging by the delight on Junpei's face and the satisfaction on Suguru's.

"Gojo-kun, Officer Nin was quite worried when you jumped out of a window with your little sister." The condemnation in the new officer's tone was clear.

"Ah, I had my own appointment to consider! I didn't sign up to get poked and prodded all day, we had plans!"

"Be that as it may, you left without permission."

She was about to order them back.

"Officer-san, could we stay for a while longer? I missed my Aniki!" She begged with her eyes so pleading she could feel the beginnings of tears gathering. Junpei knew his cue and bounded over, throwing his arms around her to join her in her pleading.

She was wavering.

"If you are supervising, nothing bad can happen. And you know where we are, and Mr. Officer does too, and he can get here and handle everything and you won't be responsible for two kids who are known for running off!" She pressed, and Gojo dropped down next to them to add his pleading eyes to the attack. Finishing blow.

"Alright, but I can't promise it will be all that long until Officer Nin gets here. Be prepared to leave, he was pretty mad."

Junpei cheered, and Gojo's smile was bright, and there was relief on everyone's faces, that they didn't have to part so soon.

"Riko-chan, how about we go over there! We can win tickets!" She said, pointing to the coin-pushing machine. It was empty for now and seemed to be cowboy themed. There were gemstones as well as tokens, obviously fake, with numbers printed on them, likely the number of tickets that they could be redeemed for.

Riko was happy to join, and a quick study too, playing with absolute focus. Kuroi joined in too, looking enthralled. Her mother liked those type of games too, must be an adult thing, Gojo, once it became clear that the officer was gonna sit down and watch them all, wandered over too. The other two sections weren't worth playing at, one broken and the other nearly empty of gems worth anything more than ten tickets.

"Wanna check out the claw machines?" Gojo offered, and she jumped at the chance, waving to Riko and Kuroi, who were apparently ticket winning machines, their baskets already starting to fill up on gemstones and escaped tokens.

There were five claw machines and one of the scissor ones that they put more worthwhile prizes in. This one had-

A Nintendo DS.

"A mintemo PS." Gojo said with a mischievous grin, and she groaned full-heartedly.

He was doing this on purpose.

"Could you win it for Junpei?" She asked, and Gojo nodded, his grin a tad cruel. These things were clearly rigged, but he could beat it. He was gonna cost the arcade so much money at these games.

She wandered around the other ones, and this time Yu-nii and Junpei joined her. Suguru joined too, eating his fries furtively, watching with a wary eye for anyone coming to take them. Actually, that might be his fourth order of fries, Riko and Kuroi had the order that Nanami had ordered sitting between them, slowly being eaten. Suguru just couldn't keep ahold of his fries, could he? She took a sip of her blue-raspberry drink, doubtlessly staining her mouth blue.

Yu-nii had to pick her up to show her the inside of the claw machines, and they peered inside. A machine of lackluster figures, one with candy, another with plush and one with ticket-vouchers.

"I want that one!" Junpei said, pointing to a very cute pink mouse plush. She approved, it was absolutely adorable. With Nishinoya under one arm and her drink in the other hand, she couldn't really play, but she was happy to watch. There was an empty chair, and Yu-nii set her down on it before approaching the ticket-voucher claw machine, stretching as he did.

He went nine times before he gave up, going over to help Junpei instead, who was moving awkwardly to try and swipe his card and get back up before the time began.

Gojo was on his third measured attempt. As she watched, the string was cut, prompting an unpleasantly loud victory noise, and a staff member hurried over to unlock the machine and hand Gojo the prize to be redeemed upon their exit.

"Yay, Satoru-nii, you're amazing!" She praised, and he puffed his chest out like a preening peacock, pleased.

"Of course I am!" He boasted, before handing Junpei the box mind attempt.

"Go right just a tad more, you're doing great." Gojo praised absently, weaving his head back and forth to examine Junpei's positioning. He nodded, and Junpei pressed the lever. The four of them, five with Suguru, who risked wandering over within range of Gojo, held their breath as it went down, closing neatly over the plush, and started to rise, bringing the plush with it.

It dropped down the chute, and she clapped along with everyone else's cheers making Junpei flush at the sudden attention. He took the plush slowly and held it out to her.

To her?

"For me?" She asked, suddenly wavering.

"You like pink, right?" He asked anxiously, suddenly doubtful, and she nodded quickly.

"I- I can't hold it." She said reluctantly, and he blinked, surprised. Her drink was in one hand, and Nishinoya was in the other, and she didn't think she'd be able to shift them both to one place without dropping one or getting blue all over Nishinoya.

"Right!" Junpei said, embarrassed.

"But it's amazing! Thank you! You're the best Aniki!" She praised enthusiastically, and Junpei groaned, covering his red face. Poor boy, he didn't get praised nearly enough, did he?

"If you're gonna call me your older brother, can't you use something else?"

"Aniki!"

He sighed.

"We should gather up our tickets. Officer jerk-face is almost here." Gojo said suddenly, looking irritated. The sadness on Junpei's face broke her heart.

Gojo pushed them in the direction of the prize-booth, where Riko and Kuroi were headed, weighted down with fake jewels. Kuroi could make it in Vegas, it seemed. She'd probably get run out of town, actually. How'd she even get that many?

"Here, I'm splitting mine between you two." Kuroi said briskly, one wary eye on the entrance of the arcade. Gojo had spread the word, apparently.

How many gems did she get?

They put their piles on the table, and she started organizing as the staff started to count Junpei's tickets to load onto his card. Red with red, yellow with yellow, blue with blue.

They ended up with about twenty thousand tickets a piece, until Gojo came running up, pile of ticket vouchers in hand.

Then, they ended up with a solid thirty thousand points a piece.

Of the prizes there were currently, she didn't see any worth getting, so she decided to save hers, but there was a board game that caught Junpei's interest, worth twenty thousand tickets.

"We'll play together when you get back, right?" He asked, tentatively hopeful.

"We will." She agreed firmly.

Riko got an adorable tiger-shark plush, Suguru got an assortment of candy that his sugar-loving boyfriend was already working his way through. Yu-nii got a slinky and was messing around with it, and Nanami hadn't really played any games, so he didn't get anything.

There were some prepackaged sweet-bread rolls on the side of the prize booth, as part of the snacks, and she handed her card to the lady, pointing. Two thousand tickets later, and she handed it to Nanami with all the smugness of a cat handing its owner a dead mouse. He regarded it much the same.

"Thank you." Nanami said, confused.

"Thank you for looking out for me!" She said gratefully, and Nanami's expression went from confused to sad, a tad regretful.

"I'm not good with children. But, if you need help, I'll do what I can." He promised firmly.

"Hai! I'll do what I can too!"

"You are a child, you don't need to worry about me. I will have failed, if I need your help." He said, not unkindly.

"I'd help anyway. It would be wrong to not do everything I can."

He shook his head, but didn't argue. This wasn't something he could dissuade her of, and he knew it too.

They were all packed up by the time Officer Nin (as he was apparently named) arrived, ready to go.

He seemed taken aback by the sight of them, waiting patiently as if they'd been waiting there for hours and not just thirty seconds. The other officer patted him on the back as she left, as if wishing him good luck.

"I thought you had an internship?" He asked Ieiri.

"Wasn't for me." She said, smug.

"Uh uh." He turned to look at them.

"You refuse to get your eyes examined?"

Gojo's expression said 'no shit'

"Why?" He asked, and really he looked so frustrated with Gojo, poor man.

"Religious reasons."

"Religious reasons." The officer echoed.

"What, did I forget to say? Albinism is pretty highly regarded in my family. Trying to touch or take my eyes is worth killing over. My eyes are sacred."

She'd bet money on Gojo working this out with Suguru or Kuroi. She'd never seen Officer Nin so exasperated, nearly disgusted. He suddenly got a terrible look into what Gojo's family life might have been like before this. Sure, it was inaccurate, but it wasn't entirely untrue either.

"Considering I'm only going to be in foster care for a little while longer, surely you can just let it go?"

"We don't make exceptions for religious reasons. Getting proper medical treatment is your right for as long as you are with us."

"Well, I'll just run off until you do. Midori-chan, do you like beaches or mountains better?"

"Um…" She stalled, clearly thinking on it. "Beaches, at least for a little bit. I love to swim."

"Running away won't solve anything, it just avoids it!" The officer growled, finally taking that stupid hat off to run his fingers through his hair. He sat down with a thump on the bench, and after a moment, Gojo did too.

"I won't." Gojo said simply. Oh god, they were communicating, she needed to bake them a cake.

"I am required by law to make you."

"Make the appointments. I won't show up. You do what you need to, and I'll do what I need to."

"I know you won't go."

"But you're trying, nonetheless. It's the best you can do."

Officer Nin sighed.

"Sorry, we're probably really difficult, aren't we?"

"It would be easier if we had more time." He admitted.

"Yaga-san wants what's best for all of us. If you can prove yourself helpful, he wouldn't mind you being around. Especially if you prove trustworthy too."

The way Officer Nin paused said he understood what she was saying. The way he heard it, she was saying 'if you prove trustworthy, the cult will let you in'.

Of course, she was saying, 'if you prove trustworthy, we'll tell you about the magical beings who you can't see and maybe even let you see them'.

Schematics.

"Right." Officer Nin said, trying not to look too eager. God, the chance to infiltrate a 'cult' was once in a lifetime. He was probably thinking about how many kids were getting sent through Jujutsu High each year, and whether his superiors would allow him to sacrifice their medical care in favor of trying to save everyone. His face dropped in an instant. He realized it at the same time as she did.

They would.

Could he?

"I'll do what I can." Officer Nin agreed, but that look on his face was like he was condemning them to a fate worse than death. They'd let them be. He wouldn't have a choice in the matter. She couldn't help but sympathize, at least a little.

He was like Spider-man, focusing on the little people. He wanted to help them. The superiors could handle the wide-view, the whole population, he wanted to help the individuals.

"Sorry." She couldn't help but say.

Officer Nin didn't respond.

There wasn't anything he could do now. So long as he served the law, he couldn't do anything to stop it, a cog in the unstoppable machine, turning whether he wanted to or not.

There were no more words to say.

"Come on. It's time for you two to go back home. I doubt it will take much longer for Yaga-san to be officially licensed, not now." Officer Nin said finally. Did that mean Yaga wasn't going to be impeded anymore? That was a good thing, great even, but she couldn't bring herself to be excited yet. Not until she was back home.

Her drink was melted, she'd forgotten about it. She looked at it, saddened. It was just water and syrup now.

Wait.

She had ice powers.

Her little giggle was a bit out of place with the somber mood, but her drink was ice cold again, and Gojo was smirking a little as he watched, and the others were waving goodbye. Junpei clutched his new DS box to his chest, and Yu-nii was talking about visiting a game store, and it was sad but-

Soon.

Yaga-san would be bringing them both home soon. That was something to smile about.