THE MONTH OF JUNE CAME by like a breeze.

Mizuhime's friends were all excited for some odd reason, and she would occasionally hear them talk to themselves about a 'summer break' that was coming soon, but she had no idea what that was and she never bothered to ask.

Her extra training sessions resumed, but there was something different about it now.

When it came to sparring against Megumi, he was somewhat more merciful to her and quicker to take her down much to her embarrassment. It was different from the sparring sessions they had in the earlier days where he would draw out the fight, letting her attack or defend against him as long as she could because he knew she needed the experience.

Now it was different.

He would still hit her of course, and knock her to the floor and pin her down, but he would never go any further than that. Never dare to go any rougher on her than absolutely necessary. Their training session would end with her sustaining little to no injuries, not even a scratch—aside from her wounded pride.

And that wasn't even the worst part.

The worst part of that was when he did this:

"You should quit already," he droned, his hands effortlessly pinning her arms to the floor. His body hovered hers all too easily, and she was too tired to even lift her head up to headbutt him.

Every time he won, he would always tell her to quit. And he wasn't just telling her to quit thrashing around, he meant to quit being a jujutsu sorcerer. She was so offended that at this point, the only thing keeping her going was pure spite.

"You're a terrible kohai!" She huffed, finally finding the energy to ram her forehead against his.

He got off of her with a grunt and she used this chance to summon enough water to pin him to the floor in retaliation.

Before she could do her finishing move, Gojo suddenly appeared in-between them with his phone in his hands.

"I have great news!" He announced.

"Sensei!" Mizuhime whined, dropping her arm. "I almost had him!"

"You couldn't have waited a little longer?" Megumi glared, breaking free from his watery binds and standing up.

Gojo ignored them both. "Hime-chan," he began. "How would you like to join me on your first mission?"

She let out an excited gasp. "Mission?"

"Mission?" Megumi echoed, eyes narrowed. "You know she's not ready for that."

"Don't listen to him! I'm ready!" She promised, hands clasped together. "Geez, Gumi-chan, what's gotten into you? You're not cute at all..."

"Sorcerers aren't supposed to be cute," he deadpanned. "Another reason why you should quit."

Mizuhime paused, and that was when he realized what he had implied.

"Wait—"

"—Are you saying..." A smile was growing on her face. "That you think I'm cute?" A girlish squeal escaped her lips as she gingerly placed her hands on the sides of her face. "Awww, Gumi-chan! Forget what I said about you being a bad kohai, you're the best one ever!"

Megumi covered his face. "You are so—"

Gojo coughed 'politely' to remind them of his existence. Not even three minutes had passed and he was already trying to bring himself to the center of attention. Then again, he was too much of an attention whore not to.

"As I was saying," he continued. "Hime-chan will be accompanying me on a little mission. Don't worry, Megumi, it's nothing dangerous. In fact, if things go well, we won't be fighting any curses at all!"

"Eh?" Mizuhime didn't know whether to feel relieved or disappointed. While it was true she wanted to prove herself, after the many losses she experienced against Megumi, she wasn't feeling too sure of her skills anymore. "Then what'll we be doing, sensei?"

"We'll be picking up a potential new student," he answered. "Okkotsu Yuta. A cursed human."

"Cursed human?" She racked her brain for any information about cursed humans, but didn't remember that ever being talked about in her lessons.

"You haven't learned of them yet—cursed humans are covered in chapter 24," Gojo explained as if he could read her mind (she wouldn't be surprised if he could). "But they're basically humans who are haunted by a cursed spirit. Okkotsu-kun's one of them, and this particular curse of his is quite strong and attached. A few days ago, it stuffed a group of students into a locker because it was bullying Okkotsu-kun*. I've seen his records, and it seems like this is a common occurrence. Anyone who bothers him is immediately attacked by this curse."

"What grade is it?" Megumi asked.

"Potentially a Special Grade."

Both Mizuhime and Megumi stiffened. Whatever eagerness the girl felt was long gone now.

"Spe—special grade?" She echoed nervously. She could barely handle a Third Grade.

"Gojo—" Megumi began to protest.

The older man lifted up a hand. "Like I said, if things go well, we won't need to fight him or the curse. And if things go south, then I'll take care of it!" He chirped. "Right now, we just need to do a little home visit and convince his parents to let him attend the school."

"Hold on," Megumi frowned. "He's a cursed human. Since when did we ever accept cursed humans into this school?"

"Okkotsu-kun's a special case," Gojo explained. "The higher-ups wanted to execute him, you see. They see him as too much of a threat—or at least, the curse he's afflicted with. I just barely managed to get them to suspend it. He's a powerful one, I'm sure of it. He's more use to us alive than dead."

Mizuhime was still stuck on the fact that a group of people were actually calling for the execution of a person. She had heard Gojo complain about the higher-ups multiple times before, but hadn't realized they were this bad.

Wasn't an execution a bit much? She knew a lot about executions throughout her studies; governments and leaders ordered for the execution of rebels, traitors, and disobedient citizens—those were all reasonable, but for an innocent boy who had a curse he couldn't control? Was that really necessary?**

"Because of the brutality of the incident, Okkotsu-kun's been expelled from his school," Gojo went on. "So he'll be stuck home. We'll be coming over tomorrow morning, so make sure to be ready, Hime-chan!"

"But... but what exactly do you want me to do?" She asked in confusion.

"Follow my lead and help me persuade his parents," he answered smoothly. "These guys are just regular humans so of course we can't just go around telling them about curses. I made up a cover story, so just go with it."

Megumi and Mizuhime exchanged uncertain looks.

"And what exactly is your cover story...?" She asked.

She was kind of afraid of the answer, and the smile on his face definitely was not helping.

"Jujutsu High is a school for troubled youths and you, my dear Mizuhime, are one of my delinquent students!" He exclaimed.

The teens' jaws dropped.

"WHAT?!"

━━━━━━･❪ 💧 ❫ ･━━━━━━

Mizuhime wasn't gonna lie. She had no idea why Gojo chose her to act as a 'delinquent student' and not someone like... well, Megumi. No offense to him, but he fit the 'delinquent' stereotype pretty well. He had the mean look and everything!

Nevertheless, when the next morning came, she got dressed in her school uniform (as requested by Gojo) and ate her breakfast. He was knocking on her door by the time she finished to pick her up. Fortunately, instead of teleporting, he chose to drive to their destination (and ever since her first car ride, she grew to be very fond of cars in general) which was all the way in Sendai City.

The Okkotsu residence was at a plain looking apartment complex that didn't look too impressive. Basic beige walls with tan colored doors. It was all very repetitive, though a few balconies had some nice plants placed around them.

They walked up to the second floor.

"Remember, Hime-chan," Gojo said with a grin. "You're a delinquent, so you have to act like it."

"Wouldn't it be better to act like myself and say that the school has helped me become a better person by getting rid of my delinquency?"

"Nah that's too boring," he snickered. "Act like a delinquent."

"B-but how?" She fretted.

"Just pretend to be Gumi-chan if it helps," he suggested.

She blinked slowly before nodding in response. She managed to put on the bitchiest expression she could just as they finally reached the door to their home. He knocked on the door and waited several moments before it opened.

A girl was there. She looked to be a preteen at around thirteen or maybe twelve years old. Obviously, she wasn't the cursed child they were looking for.

"Hi there!" Gojo greeted her, even bending his knees to reach her height. Mizuhime was pretty sure that wasn't the right way to greet children. "I'm Gojo Satoru and this is Mizuhime. Your parents were expecting us?"

"R-right," she stammered, glancing over her shoulder. "Um, mom?"

"Honey, I told you not to open the door to strangers!" A voice hissed. A woman came to view and offered them a strained smile.

"You must be the representatives coming over," she said, before glancing over at Mizuhime in confusion. "And... this is...?"

"This is Uchiumi Mizuhime," Gojo said happily. "She's my worst delinquent student!"

Mizuhime gave him an incredulous look before remembering that she was supposed to act like Megumi. She quickly put on her bitch face again.

It seemed to be working because Mrs. Okkotsu quickly grew apprehensive. "Oh... how... lovely... Isn't she supposed to be at school though...?"

"Yes, but Hime-chan beat up some students and landed herself in detention. As punishment, I had her accompany me." He explained brightly. "Now is Okkotsu-kun here?"

She gulped, her face falling. "Ah, no... you... you just missed him actually. He got very nervous when we told him that you would be coming over so he..."

"He ran away," the younger girl said bluntly.

Mrs. Okkotsu hissed her name and pinched her on the side, causing her to wince. She then gave Gojo and Mizuhime apologetic looks. "I'm so sorry, but yes, he ran away. I have no idea where he is, but he still has his phone so..."

"It's fine," Gojo reassured. "I'll have Hime-chan go look for him. Meanwhile, I'll stay here and we can discuss the transfer."

Mizuhime was actually relieved to hear him say that. She didn't think she could keep her bitch face on for any longer. She had no idea how her kohai managed to do this 24/7.

"I'll get the tea ready, then..." Mrs. Okkotsu mumbled, hurrying away with her daughter in tow.

Now that the two were alone, Mizuhime allowed her bitch face to fall.

"Luckily, I drew a picture of him for you in case something like this happened," Gojo said, handing her a folded up piece of paper. "It's very detailed so it shouldn't be hard for you to find him. Just make sure to approach him cautiously. You don't want to anger the cursed spirit."

Mizuhime nodded, determined to find him.

When she walked out of the building, she finally unfurled the piece of paper and stared, slack-jawed at the 'very detailed drawing' he had given her.

It was a crayon drawing of what might be a boy. There was an uneven frown on his face and for some odd reason, purple lines under his dotted blue eyes. She had no idea if that was supposed to represent under-eyeshadow or eye bags. He had a row of supposedly gravity-defying spiky black hair too.

Are you kidding me? She despaired. How was she supposed to find him with only a terrible drawing to rely on?

Nevertheless, she walked around the neighborhood to look. Hopefully he didn't go too far; there was no way she would ever be able to find him throughout this huge city she was foreign to.

Fortunately for her, the search didn't take too long. She just passed by an old building when she felt the cursed energy leaking from somewhere. It was bigger than Gojo's... and a hundred times more disturbing. All she had to do was follow it to the source and that was where she found him, sitting at the back of a building with his knees pressed to his chest and his face buried in his arms.

"Excuse me!" She called out, making him whip his head up and look at her in terror. "Are you Okkotsu Yuta?"

"Wait," his voice was laced in fear. "Stay back! Don't come near me!" He shouted.

She stopped, but it was too late.

A massive cursed spirit appeared, it's high levels of cursed energy nearly forcing her down to her knees. It was a humongous curse with long arms and a shadowy looking tail. It's single eye glared venomously at her, the tendrils on it's head quivering in anger as it bared it's sharp teeth.

"GET AWAY FROM YUTA!" It screeched, swiping at her with a large sharp hand.

"RIKA-CHAN, NO!" Yuta screamed, his eyes widening in horror as her claws sliced through Mizuhime's stomach...

...Only for the girl to suddenly turn into a puddle of water on the concrete.

Yuta's screaming stopped. He stared down at the puddle in pure bewilderment.

And then the next most shocking thing happened: the water rose from the ground, shaping itself into her figure, and solidifying back into her original form.

"How rude!" Mizuhime fumed, pouting cutely. "You're so mean! I only wanted to confirm his identity!"

Yuta gawked at her, unable to utter a sound. Even Rika was speechless.

She didn't die, he thought, his mind going numb. She didn't even run away screaming! She's just standing there... pouting! She's not freaked out about this at all?!

She ignored the massive curse and turned to him with a pleading expression. "Please, please tell me you're Okkotsu Yuta! I've been looking everywhere for him! I think you might be the guy, you look a bit like the drawing..."

"D-drawing?" He managed to stutter out.

"Yes!" She presented him with Gojo's 'masterpiece'. "This is you, right?"

Yuta stared wordlessly at the horrible drawing. He had never felt so offended before. Were his eye bags really that prominent?

"I... I guess...?"

She beamed, and Yuta suppressed the urge to blush. Aside from when Rika was alive, this was the first time a pretty girl had looked at him that way before. Usually they stared at him in disgust or pity.

"Great! I'm Uchiumi Mizuhime. I come from Jujutsu High School! My sensei and I went to your house, but your mother told us that you left so I was sent to go find you! Come on, we should go now!"

He took a step back, and Rika bristled, thinking that he was afraid of the newcomer when in actuality, he just wanted to keep her safe.

"No," he said. "I-I'm sorry, but I really can't." There was no way he could go to a school full of troubled youths. The bullying there would only be ten times worse and Rika would cause a bloodbath.

(Though he had no idea why Mizuhime was a part of that school. Nothing about her really screamed 'problem child'.)

She tilted her head. "Is it because you're worried about Rika-san?" She guessed. "Ah, Jujutsu High isn't really a school for troubled kids, that was just a cover up my sensei made for your parents."

He stared at her in shock.

"Wait, what?" This day was getting more and more confusing by the second.

"It's a... special sort of school," she said vaguely. "We came here because we wanted to help you and Rika-san." Well, mostly you, she mentally added.

"Help... Yuta...?" Rika croaked. "Not hurt...?"

"No, of course not!" She looked aghast at the very idea. "Well... the higher-ups kind of want to kill you—"

He heaved out a sigh at that. He wasn't even shocked at this point.

"—But us decent people don't!" She finished with a dazzling smile.

"It's okay," he said miserably. "They can kill me."

"Uh," she certainly hadn't been expecting that. "That's... not... um, very good."

"Yuta, no...!" Rika cried out.

Mizuhime cleared her throat, struggling to find the right words to say. "Um, Okkotsu-san? Give this a chance, please. I know... you might feel hopeless right now, but... but this can be good for the both of you. You feel alone because nobody else can see Rika-san or understand what's happening to you, right? This school... we know what's been going on. We can help you. We want to help you!"

"But I don't want to hurt anyone..." He whispered, looking down and shrinking in on himself.

Technically, you're not the one doing the hurting, she thought, but refrained from saying it.

She took another step closer, tilting her head a little so they could make eye contact. She gave him a reassuring smile. "This school is full of tough people. Trust me, they won't get hurt easily."

"What about you?" He asked.

She sweatdropped, thinking about all the times Megumi had taken her down with little to no effort. "Um, well, no," she said honestly. "But if anything happens, I can always turn into water again!"

He didn't seem too assured.

"Don't worry about it, okay? My sensei knows what he's doing." She promised. "Now will you please come back with me? I don't want your family or my sensei to worry about us."

"Okay..." He finally agreed. "Rika, it's okay. She's not here to hurt me."

Rika turned back to Mizuhime, who tried not to shrink at the terrifying curse and instead plastered on her most winning smile. It seemed to have worked because Rika soon disappeared.

"She seems to be okay with you now," Yuta commented as they started walking down the streets.

"That's good to hear," her shoulders relaxed. "She gave me quite the scare when she appeared like that."

"Same here," he said, chuckling weakly. "I wasn't expecting you to turn into water though. Um, do you always do that?"

HOW ARE YOU ABLE TO DO THAT? Was what he really wanted to ask.

"Usually when I get too excited, scared, or when I'm about to get attacked," she shrugged.

He gave her a look that screamed 'how often do you get attacked?!' but she didn't notice it.

"I can't wait until you join the school, Okkotsu-san," she gushed. "You're going to love it! The dorms are nice, my classmate's a talking panda, and Gojo-sensei's really cool too!"

Yuta had been nodding along with her words until the second part clicked in. "Wait, a talking what—?"

"You're sixteen right? Are you a second year or a first year—no wait, Gojo-sensei said you were a first year, that means we'll be in the same class together! Oh, I'm so happy! I can show you to the common room where all the good food's at, and we can exchange numbers and do that 'texting' thing a lot and send 'memes'! I can also introduce you to Gumi-chan! He's a middle-schooler but he lives on campus—which I just found out recently even though I've known him for a few months. He's kind of grumpy looking, but he's the cutest kohai ever!"

Yuta was struggling to catch up on everything he said, but honestly, he was too stunned at the fact that someone was willingly talking to him in such a happy way. Even though they had only known each other for a few minutes, she seemed to genuinely like being in his company—and even more shocking, she was actually excited to have him as a classmate.

Him, the boy who hasn't had a friend in years.

Him, the scrawny, loser kid that attracted bullies like flies.

Him, the guy with a deadly creature constantly out to kill whoever she deemed a 'threat'.

"Uchiumi-san..." He muttered, his steps slowing to a stop.

She paused and turned around. "Yes? Is something wrong?"

"Why... aren't you scared of me?" He had to ask. "You got close to me, and Rika-chan nearly killed you if you hadn't—hadn't turned yourself into water. Aren't you worried that it might happen again?"

His hands were trembling. Nothing about this was normal. He half-wondered if this whole thing was just a cruel dream that his mind had conjured up, and that soon he would wake up in his dark bedroom, alone all over again with nothing but Rika and the thoughts of all her victims to keep him awake.

Mizuhime couldn't be real. This school that could supposedly 'help him' couldn't be real. This hope he could feel blossoming in his chest couldn't be real.

"You don't really seem that harmful," Mizuhime told him honestly. "And yeah, I'll admit that I'm afraid of Rika-san, but to be fair, I'm afraid of a lot of things so Rika-san isn't really anything new. N-no offense to her, of course." She hastily added.

"But—but why do you treat me so... so normally?" He asked, a miserable look on his face.

She furrowed her brows. "How did you expect me to treat you?"

"Like you hate me! Like you're afraid, or disgusted of me!" He blew up, eyes springing with unshed tears and his lips quivering. "Everyone stays away from me, and those who don't just want to hurt me. B-but you're so nice to me, even to Rika-chan, so why...?"

"Why would I hate you when you've done nothing wrong?" She tilted her head.

He broke down crying. Face buried under his hands as he hunched over, his shoulders shaking as sobs racked his body.

"People are cruel," her father had told her once upon a time when she asked why she couldn't go outside. "You can be the nicest person in the world, and people would still try to hurt you for no reason other than to entertain themselves. These are the kind of people that await you outside, the sort of people I am trying to protect you from."

Many of the books she read had confirmed that—that the cruelty of humans knew no bounds. But this was the first time she had received physical proof that her father's words had some traction.

She didn't know Yuta personally and she wouldn't pretend to, but so far, he wasn't exhibiting any signs of rudeness. He didn't seem like a bad person that would garner any hate. He seemed lonely and downtrodden, undeserving of any cruelty that he had experienced in the hands of his peers.

This sort of reaction made it painfully obvious that he wasn't used to being treated with any level of kindness after years of being bullied and tormented by his curse (and it certainly didn't help that nobody understood what was going on and assumed he was the problem).

"Okkotsu-san," she said slowly. "I'm sorry that you went through a lot of horrible things that made you believe that you deserve any cruelty. But listen, you really don't. You can consider me your friend now, okay? And when you start attending the school, I believe that things will start to look up for you. Aside from... you know... the suspended execution, of course." She awkwardly mumbled that last part to herself.

"A friend...?" He echoed shakily. "You... really...?"

She nodded in confirmation, offering him a tiny smile. "Mmhmm. And you'll get many more too!"

"You really think you guys can help me...?" He asked hesitantly.

Another nod.

He swallowed thickly, sucking in a shaky breath. "You might regret this..."

"I won't," she said firmly.

He looked around, as if he was waiting for someone to jump out and yell, 'SIKE!'. When nothing happened, he took a timid step forward and nodded his head, his lips curling up into a small, but genuine, teary-eyed smile.

"Then I guess I'm coming with you."

— author's note —

* I found out after making this chapter that the whole 'stuffing kids in a locker' incident happened a year before this one, but oh well. 😅

** "Wasn't an execution a bit much? She knew a lot about executions throughout her studies; governments and leaders ordered for the execution of rebels, traitors, and disobedient citizens—those were all reasonable, but for an innocent boy who had a curse he couldn't control? Was that really necessary?" If you remember, Mizuhime's education was very much altered by her father. He wanted to make sure to instill the idea that rebellion is bad and to NEVER do it in order to keep her within his control. She's pretty much been brainwashed to believe all this, that's why she saw nothing wrong with government leaders (dictators basically) punishing rebels because the idea of rebellion=BAD has been ingrained in her head since day one. If they had made it seem like rebelling was a good thing, Mizuhime might feel more influenced to disobey her father.

HAVE YOU GUYS SEEN RIKA'S PROFILE ON THE JJK OFFICIAL FANBOOK??? THAT KID'S FUCKING CRAZY 😂😂😂. Here's a pic of it and I'll put the link to the reddit thread where I got it from over at the comments -->

Also, for those being like "wait, it's June now? Doesn't that mean the school year's ending???"

Nope! Japan's school year is different from ours! Rather than explaining it, lemme use this image I found instead:

So yes, the school year usually starts in April and ends sometime in March. Summer break happens in the middle of the school year rather than the end.

Now... YUTAAAAA 🥺

I love Yuta and omg his fucking GLOW UP??? Like damn. The fanart of second year Yuta??? Is so??? Fucking amazing??? I can't get enough of them 😍

Anyways, Yuta's gonna get a lot of love real quick, mainly because he'll be at a disadvantage compared to the other yanderes since he leaves for like a whole year and doesn't come back until the Sibuya Arc 🥲 To be fair, I feel like with his sort of personality and background, he'll be the quickest to fall for someone and even go yandere for them 😍🔪