I'm back! The semester is officially OVER and I have A's in all of my classes!!! 🥳

Okay so... my original idea was to have Gojo be a meanie weenie to Hime again and have him humiliate her or something... but I changed it! He's a lot nicer here. Gojo lovers, you're welcome 💖 Instead, I put some angst and conflicted feelings 🥰

"SHOULD WE REALLY BE DOING this?" Yuji whispered anxiously, head turning to scan the hallways of the dorms as Megumi picked at the lock of their upperclassman's room.

Yuji had been woken up at the asscrack of dawn by a visitor who came down to the basement. At first, he assumed the intruder was Gojo wanting to wake him up in preparation of the Goodwill Event (which was today), but it turned out to be Megumi with the most wildest request: he wanted someone to help him break into Okkotsu Yuta's dorm.

"Would you relax?" Megumi grumbled, still laser-focused on his task. "I noticed you've been on edge for the past couple days. What's up with you?" He asked, sparing him a glance.

Yuji tensed up, his mouth going dry. A sarcastic response was on the tip of his tongue: "Oh I willingly let Sukuna take control of me a few days ago and he took Mizuhime to this random city in Japan for a fun little date! By the way, he tossed her into a river and she accidentally let loose a series of devastating natural disasters that killed a bunch of people! Oops!"

Not that he could tell him that of course because...

You better keep quiet, brat, a malevolent voice echoed in his mind. You wouldn't want anything to happen to your precious senpai, do you? She'll be labeled as a jujutsu terrorist and be executed immediately. Surely you don't want that in your conscience?

Yuji could feel his nails digging into his palms. Of course he didn't want that in his conscience. Of course he didn't want her to be executed. It wasn't even her fault, really... Not completely at least. He was the idiot who let Sukuna take over his body without knowing the full details of what he was planning.

You said you wouldn't hurt anyone, he thought painfully to the lives that were taken that day.

And I didn't, Sukuna crooned sadistically. Mizuhime did all the hurting for me.

He felt like he was gonna be sick.

Suddenly Megumi stopped what he was doing and straightened up, eyes narrowed. "It's Sukuna isn't it?"

"Uh—"

"—I told you not to listen to him, dumbass," he chided with a sigh. "What's he saying to you, anyways?"

"Oh, just the usual," Yuji chuckled nervously, scratching the back of his head. "Death threats, taunts, piss-poor psychological abuse. You know, the works."

Sukuna's mouth appeared on his cheek. "I'll show you 'piss-poor psychological abuse' you—"

He slapped a hand over his cheek.

"Shit!" Megumi cursed under his breath, eyes scanning the halls. "Sukuna's big mouth!"

He whirled around and went back to work on picking the lock, worried that Sukuna's loud voice had woken anyone up. It definitely wouldn't look good if they were caught trying to break into someone's dorm. Worse yet, Yuji wasn't even supposed to be seen as alive yet.

Yuji swallowed thickly. "Fushiguro, maybe we should—"

"—Shh," was Megumi's curt response. "Just keep watch."

"But—" The pinkette began to protest.

Click.

Yuji sucked in a breath as a small 'click' sound rang in the air, followed by Megumi lightly pushing the door open. The spiky haired boy jerked his head in a 'come on' motion and Yuji had no choice but to nervously shuffle through the door with him.

They were in.

As Megumi quietly closed the door behind them, Yuji took the time to survey the room. Yuta's dorm was pretty normal. It reminded him of Megumi's room; freakishly tidy, but dustier since nobody had stepped foot in it in a while.

Despite it being empty for a while, the room had a creepy feeling emitting from it; remnants of malicious cursed energy was in the air. Yuji had been told that Yuta's cursed energy could be a bit... dark, but was it supposed to feel this bad? He felt like he and Megumi had stepped into a horror movie and the main villain was lurking in the shadows, watching them.

Biting the inside of his cheek, he turned to his accomplice. "Why are we breaking into this guy's room again?!" He whisper-yelled.

"Because he's a creep and doesn't deserve Mizuhime." Megumi replied flatly, with a surprising usage of their senpai's first name. "And I intend to show her exactly that. I just need more proof..."

"Proof? Proof of what?" Yuji hissed. Don't get him wrong, he was not fond of Mizuhime's seemingly toxic fiance, but breaking into his room at the asscrack of dawn... was a bit much in his opinion.

He sighed. "Remember that angler fish lamp we saw in senpai's room? The one you said had a red light?"

Yuji blinked. "Uh, yeah? What about it?"

"It was a gift from Okkotsu-senpai. That night where we accidentally overslept in the basement with you, I carried her back to her dorms. Remember that?"

"Yeah..."

"Well, I remembered what you said about that red light and tried to get a better look at the lamp. Turns out there's a camera in it."

Yuji's jaw practically dropped to the floor. "What?! And did you tell her?!"

"No."

"Why not?!"

"Because I want to know what else he's doing," Megumi answered readily, walking past him to search around the room. He wanted to find as much dirt as he could on the older guy so that Mizuhime—or anyone—wouldn't be able to look at him in the same way anymore.

He didn't want to just expose Yuta, he wanted to ruin him.

"Wa-w-wait," Yuji stammered, trying to wrap his mind around everything he had just learned. "He really put a camera there? Are you sure? You actually checked and everything?"

Megumi didn't respond right away. He... hadn't really checked. He just saw the red light Yuji mentioned and remembered the suspicious text messages Yuta sent and made his own conclusions.

He bit the inside of his cheek. What if he was wrong? Sure Yuta was a horrible fiance, but he wasn't a total creep, right?

Just as his doubts began to eat away at him, he opened the closet door and finally found it.

Tucked away at the farthest side of the closet was a plastic storage bin. Pressed against its cloudy surface was a bunch of fabrics that caught his eye; blue polka-dots, florals, blue anything really. Curious, he pulled it towards him and pried open the lid.

It was like he hit the jackpot. Inside were piles of feminine clothes and undergarments. He could see blue shirts, blue bras, blue underwear... as he looked further, it began to click in his head that some of these shirts looked eerily familiar to him.

These are all senpais, he realized, barely able to suppress a victorious grin. He remembered last year when Mizuhime once went up and asked him if it was possible for the drying machines in the laundry room to accidentally suck up clothes since some of hers had gone missing. He had dismissed it at the time, telling her that she had probably misplaced them or something, but now he knew the truth. Yuta had been stealing them, and judging from the questionable stains, he probably jerked off to them too.

His mind was running wild with all the reactions the news would garner once everyone heard about this. He could imagine the horror in Mizuhime's face and how quickly she'd cancel the engagement. How disgusted his classmates would be. Yuta would get away with it of course—he was a Special Grade sorcerer after all—but he would be humiliated and his reputation would be in tatters. Most importantly: Mizuhime would want him nowhere near her.

"You didn't answer my question!" He was brought back to reality by Yuji's imploring voice. "Did you check if there was actually a camera there or not?!"

"Yuji," he said calmly.

"What?"

"Come take a look at this."

He could hear the other boy sigh before trudging over to stand beside him near the closet. Wordlessly, Megumi pointed at the opened bin and let Yuji come to his own conclusion. The boy was confused at first, but a few seconds later, there was a gasp.

His eyes popped out of their sockets. He stumbled away from the closet. "A-are all of those senpai's?!"

Megumi, who was suspiciously calm about their discovery, rolled his eyes. "Obviously. Who else would own this much blue clothes?"

"Oh my god," Yuji mumbled, taking another step back. He began pacing, eyes wide with panic. He was acting like he had just stumbled upon a crime scene (which wasn't too far off, honestly). "Oh my god. What the fuck. What the FUCK? And are those stains?! Is that—is that—? It is, isn't it?"

"Yup." Megumi confirmed.

"Ohhh my god," he moaned. "How long has he been doing this?!"

"A year, I believe. I remember senpai telling me about how some of her clothes have turned up missing."

"God, this is so bad! First the camera and now this?! This is worse than Doki Doki Literature Club!"

Megumi raised a brow. "You played that game?"

"That's not the point!" He snapped. "We should tell senpai about this!"

"And we will," Megumi agreed. "Later."

Yuji blinked. "Huh?"

"Well, we can't exactly tell her that we broke into his room, can we? That'll make us look bad. We need to play smart about this, keep in her good books." He explained.

Yuji looked at him pensively, and then his face fell as if something dawned on him. "Fushiguro... you... you're not doing this with good intentions, are you?"

"Of course I am," he frowned.

Yuji shook his head. "You're not doing this because you want to help senpai. You're doing this because you want to hurt her fiance. If you really cared about her, you would've told her about the camera the second you found out about it. Instead, you've been withholding it and trying to find more dirt on him. You want him out of the way. You're doing this because you want her all to yourself."

Megumi's eyes darkened. "And what if I am?" He challenged, stepping forward so their faces would closer. He could see the wariness in his doe eyes and the way his Adam's apple bobbed at their lack of distance. "You want her too, don't you?"

Yuji's mind was incoherent. It was a rambling mess of This is disgusting. You're disgusting. We're disgusting. I'm disgusting! What the fuck is going on?! Yuta's actions were deplorable and he didn't approve of Megumi's intentions either, but his face and neck felt too hot for him to focus and it was getting harder for him to maintain eye-contact.

"This is wrong," was all he could say.

"A lot of things are wrong," Megumi scoffed. "But people still do it anyway."

"It's selfish," Yuji said pleadingly. "You should be helping her. Not... not this."

"Well, I'm a selfish person," Megumi admitted. "Saving you was my selfish wish, remember?"

"This is different from that!" He protested. "You're trying to manipulate things from behind the scenes and you expect me to just go along with it!"

"I'm expecting you to trust me," he said firmly. "If you want to go and tell her, then fine, be my guest. But today's the Goodwill Event and senpai's been looking forward to it for so long, this news will just shake her up."

Yuji immediately clamped up. He was right. Today was her chance to get a promotion. She had been working so hard for it... if he told her the truth about her fiance, she'd get so shaken up that she'd lose focus. It could cost her her promotion...

"I'll tell her after the Goodwill Event is over," Megumi promised, seeing the conflicted look on his face.

"...Good," Yuji said, but his shoulders didn't relax. "I... I need to get back to the basement. Sensei's gonna come looking for me."

That was a lie since it was still so early in the morning, but if Megumi knew that then he didn't point it out. Yuji slipped out of the room and snuck back to his temporary hideout, feeling sickened.

Megumi was his closest friend—best friend even—and he liked him a lot. He was strong, dependable, and firm on his beliefs. And yeah he could be a bit of a jerk, but today was an eye-opener to him. Rather than helping Mizuhime realize how toxic her fiance was, he was willing to manipulate things behind the scenes to get his way and look like the good guy. To look like her hero.

Megumi wasn't a good person. (Nobody here was).

"You want her too, don't you?" He had asked him, and Yuji—despite how guilty it made him—felt hot. At how close Megumi's face was, at the possibility of being with him and Mizuhime.

Megumi wasn't a good person, but neither was he.

━━━━━━･❪ 💧 ❫ ･━━━━━━

"Remember to act surprised," Megumi mumbled to Mizuhime as they waited for the Kyoto kids to show up. Gojo would be arriving soon with Yuji in tow and the two of them needed to act as if they hadn't been hanging out with him these past few weeks.

But then he remembered her piss poor acting skills the last time she pretended to be surprised about seeing Yuji alive and decided against it.

"Actually, never mind," he grimaced.

Before she could question him, the sound of footsteps caused everyone to turn to the stairs.

"Oh look. It's everyone from Tokyo together," Mai's familiar snide voice said. She led the rest of the Kyoto students to the top, flashing them an oh-so-pleasant smile. "You went out of your way to greet us? Disgusting."

"You're late," Panda pointed.

Mai shrugged. "Not our fault. A lot of the roads were shut down due to the tsunami so we had to take a longer route."

"Huh, I heard of that. Apparently all of Nagoya's still flooded." Maki commented casually.

It was taking a lot of self-control for Mizuhime not to flinch at the word 'tsunami'. She didn't know how Sukuna expected her to brush something like this off.

Todo looked around in disappointment. "Okkotsu's not here."

Nobara scowled. "Shut up. Hurry up and hand over the cake box, and the yatsuhashi, kudzu noodles, and buckwheat cookies."

"Salmon," Toge muttered.

"Who is that first-year?" Momo whispered. "She's scary."

"Never mind Okkotsu being absent," Mechamaru said in his mechanical voice. "Isn't having two first-years a major handicap?"

Nobara was too shocked to even feel insulted. "Robot?! There's a robot?!"

"Age is irrelevant to jujutsu sorcerers," Noritoshi chided. "Especially with Fushiguro-kun. He's from the Zenin bloodline, but he's more talented than the head of the clan. And Uchiumi-kun has the exact same Cursed Technique as her Special Grade father."

Mai couldn't help but click her tongue at the mention of her family name (not that anyone could blame her since the Zenins sucked).

Noritoshi glanced at her, "Something to say?"

"Nope." She lied.

"Now, now..." Miwa hurried over. "Please calm down, you two."

Before any further arguments could break out, clapping could be heard as Utahime appeared up the steps. "Okay now, let's not fight amongst ourselves. My goodness, these children. So, where's that idiot?"

She didn't even need to clarify. Everyone knew exactly who she meant.

"Satoru's late," Panda replied.

Maki scoffed. "As if that idiot would ever show up on time."

"No one said 'idiot' referred to Gojo-sensei," Megumi said.

Just then, said idiot finally appeared. There was no Yuji to be seen, but the older man was wheeling a suspicious container around that looked big enough to hide a body. Mizuhime and Megumi looked at each other and sighed in unison.

Hopefully he could still breathe in there... She wondered.

"Sorry for the wait!" He exclaimed in that cheery voice that made Mizuhime want to wretch. Only Miwa seemed happy to see him. "Hey, I see everyone's together! I was on a business trip overseas. So I will now hand out souvenirs!"

Mizuhime looked at the gifts he bought. It was just a pile of pink dolls. Gojo eagerly began handing them out to the Kyoto kids. "Okay, everyone from Kyoto gets this protective charm from a particular tribe. None for you, Utahime."

"I don't need one!" The older woman barked.

"As for my Tokyo kids...!" His blindfolded gaze went straight to Mizuhime who stiffened. Gojo most definitely noticed it, but played along. "Hime-chan~! I got you this!"

With a wide grin, he approached the girl with a deep red case with the French brand 'Cartier' written on it in fancy print. Before handing it over, he opened it for everyone to see. It was a three-layered pearl necklace with a diamond clasp.

Megumi's eye twitched in annoyance. Nobara's jaw dropped. And Utahime nearly choked on her spit.

"Wha—that's not an appropriate gift for a student!" Utahime gawked as her kids looked at each other stunned.

"Hehe, jealous?" He laughed.

Mizuhime cleared her throat and took the case from him. "Thank you, sensei," she said with a forced smile. This reminded her of all the times he would lavish her with fine gifts a thousand years ago; somehow the act always seemed empty yet too much at the same time.

Her breath hitched when she felt their fingers brush, but she played it off and continued smiling, pretending to be the same ditzy and ignorant Mizuhime he knew and loved. Because if he suspected—even the slightest bit—that she remembered their past life, it could possibly be the end for her.

But Gojo was all bright grins and everything. He turned to face the rest of the students. "And for everyone else from Tokyo, we have this!" With a dramatic flourish, he whirled the container around and it opened.

"Hey! OPP!" Yuji exclaimed, popping out like a Jack in the Box clown.

"It's your departed friend, Itadori Yuji-kun!" Gojo cheered.

Their reactions probably weren't what they were hoping for: Mizuhime was too thoroughly mentally drained from her five second interaction with Gojo to act surprised. Megumi was still irked by his teacher's gift to her. Nobara didn't look happy and the second years had no idea who this guy even was.

Yuji froze, their lackluster reactions making his previous joy disappear.

"Okay, everyone from Kyoto! This is Sukuna's vessel, Itadori Yuji-kun!" With a lack of atmospheric understanding, Gojo then wheeled him over to introduce him to the Kyoto students.

They were too focused on their souvenirs.

"Sukuna's vessel?!" Gakuganji demanded, his one good eye widening in shock. "What is the meaning of this?!"

"Principal Gakuganji!" Gojo had the most innocent smile on his face. He then had the audacity to lean over to get on the elderly man's height. "Oh thank goodness. I was worried you might just die from the shock."

"You damn brat!" He growled. He looked seconds away from whacking him with a cane.

Meanwhile, Nobara stomped over (and if anyone looked closely, they would see tears pooling at the corner of her eyes). "Hey!" She kicked the container Yuji was still standing in. "Got something to say?"

"...I'm sorry for keeping quiet about being alive." He apologized sheepishly.

Toge turned to Mizuhime with a questioning look. "Tuna. Tuna mayo." Translation: did you know about this?

"Yeah, you didn't seem that surprised," Panda pointed out.

"Oh, no," she lied. "Sorry, I've just been distracted by other stuff lately."

Thankfully, they seemed to buy it. All except for Maki who furrowed her brows in concern.

"Are you okay? You've been like this for a few days, honestly." And then, she leaned closer to whisper, "Is it Yuta again?"

She shook her head. "No, I've been ignoring him. Don't worry, Maki, I've just been anxious about the Goodwill Event."

It didn't feel good to lie, but she couldn't tell anyone the truth. No one could know. About the tsunami. About Sukuna. About Gojo. About anything.

Maki relaxed. "Oh, I feel ya. But don't worry, we got this in the bag."

"Everyone!" Yaga called out, motioning for everyone. "Gather around and listen up!"

All talk quieted down.

"The Tokyo-Kyoto Sister School Exchange Event will be held over two days. The first day is a group battle, "The Wacky Cursed Spirit Exorcism Race"—"

"—I thought of the name!" Gojo announced, hand raised proudly.

"Yeah we can tell," Utahime scowled.

"As I was saying," Yaga glared at Gojo for the interruption. "The rules are simple. The first team to exorcise the second grade cursed spirit released in the designated area wins. Several third grade and lower cursed spirits will be released into the designated area as well. If a winner is not decided by sundown, the team that exorcises the most wins. There are absolutely no other rules."

Mizuhime wasn't liking the sound of this. No other rules? Judging by the animosity both teams held, she wouldn't be surprised if they ended up trying to kill each other. It didn't seem to be against the rules after all.

"Of course, you're welcome to sabotage the others," Yaga added. "But remember, you're all on the same side in the fight against the curses. This exchange event will allow you to learn about yourselves and your comrades through competition. Be certain not to kill other competitors or injure them beyond recovery. That's it. You're all dismissed until the event commences at noon!"

The students began to disperse.

"Let's go to the common room to discuss our game plan," Maki grinned in excitement. They all agreed to that and started heading to the dorms, but Gojo suddenly called out.

"Hime-chan! Can you come here for a sec? I wanna talk to you about something."

Mizuhime froze. Instinctively, she turned to Yuji for help, but remembered that Sukuna was deep in his mind, unable to really give her any support. Swallowing thickly, she gave the others a reassuring smile and practically had to force herself to turn around and walk back. To her dismay, Utahime and the other adults were already walking away, leaving her with just Gojo.

"Something wrong, sensei?" She asked, keeping a tight grip on the Cartier case as if it was the only thing anchoring her.

"Something like that!" He chirped. "I wanted to talk to you about your participation. A little birdy told me that you talked to the higher-ups so you could attend the Goodwill Event."

Her heart was pounding in her chest.

"Ah, yeah... about that—"

"—I want you to quit." He said abruptly. There was no longer any humor in his voice. Even worse, he had removed his blindfold so now his eerie blue eyes were piercing through hers.

Breathe. Breathe!

"Sensei... please," she started to beg. "Please, I've been working so hard a-and—"

"—Oh I know you have," he crooned, reaching out to cup the side of her face. His thumb brushed over the skin on the corner of her lips, tempting to inch closer. "You've been working so hard, but it's still not enough. You're still not ready."

"I am," she protested, stepping away from him. "You're not even giving me the chance! Just let me try, sensei."

"No you're not giving me the chance," he suddenly snapped, hand dropping to his side. "I'm trying to change here, to be better, to—"

He stopped himself.

—To not be like what I was a thousand years ago.

A thousand years ago, he was cruel. He was unstable and horrible to everyone around him. Everyone feared and resented him and now, as Satoru, he couldn't blame them for their negative feelings. Junichiro was a monster even to the people who loved him and his older self disgusted him.

But he was different now. He was reborn, given a chance to start anew even if he didn't realize it right away. While Junichiro felt like the world owed him, Satoru was the one protecting the world. While Junichiro terrorized those closest to him, Satoru treasured the little loved ones he had left. While Junichiro couldn't care less about the corruption of jujutsu society, Satoru wished to change it to make it a better place for the next generation.

(But the one thing he still had in common with his previous self? His love was horrifying.)

If only she knew how different he was to his old self, would she be willing to give him another chance? But he couldn't risk her knowing, because she would hate him and he didn't think he could handle the heartbreak of watching her trying to run away from him a second time.

Give me another chance, he wanted to beg her. Back then, he didn't love her properly. It wasn't even love, just lust and a desperation to be loved. But he was different now, he could love her properly if she would just let him!

Junichiro didn't care about those around him, but Satoru did and he held his loved ones close to his heart. Close to him. It was the only way to keep them safe.

So why did she keep trying to push him away?

"I just need you to be safe..." He whispered, gripping her shoulders with trembling hands filled with emotion. "Please. I can't lose you again..."

Mizuhime tensed up under his touch. Again? Why was he talking about that? Did he... did he know that she remembered?

Suddenly his eyes widened and he pulled away. "I... I mean that I can't lose another person again."

She relaxed. As scary as the thought was, he clearly remembered, but he still thought she was clueless. Good. After recovering from that short scare, she forced herself to laugh.

"There's nothing to worry about, sensei, it's just the Goodwill Event," she reassured. "Nothing will go wrong!"

"Right," he said with a strained chuckle.

"So..." She swallowed nervously. "So... I can participate?"

NO. He wanted to answer. Images flashed in his mind; Shisui's skull cracked open against the rocks, Riko getting shot through the head, Geto having to die by his hand, Yuji's corpse laying on Shoko's table... No, no, no, not again.

But then he remembered Shisui's expression of terror as he chased her down the mountain. Her hatred, her fear. Wasn't he supposed to be better than that?

Just because he let her participate in the Goodwill Event didn't mean she would do good, right? He had been stunting her progress for a year now and sure there were times during training where she would surprise him, but there was no way she would impress the other sorcerers, right?

Right. She would fail. And she would be devastated beyond belief, but he would be right there to comfort her. To wipe away her tears, to hold her, and kiss her and just bask in her being alive and safe—

"Okay," he finally breathed out.

It took a while for his acceptance to register in her head, and when it did, Mizuhime's mouth opened to a little 'o'. He would've cooed about how adorable she looked if he didn't feel so scared about his decision.

"R... really?" She was genuinely stunned. Almost speechless even.

"Yup," he smiled, but it wasn't as bright as his usual ones. It seemed... duller, marred by anxiety and fear. "I, uh... I'm sorry for being so hard on you about this. So go, Hime-chan. Go find the rest of the students and win this for me, okay?"

"O-okay...!" She couldn't help but smile in disbelief.

Gojo finally waved her off and watched quietly as she walked to the common rooms. His heart felt heavy, but her smile was enough to make his whole day. It reminded him of the day they first met, when he managed to convince Susanoo to leave the confines of her home and step into the outside world.

He had made her happy. Genuinely happy. All because he had given her a little freedom...

But don't mistake this as him being selfless. No, no. He was still very much selfish. Sukuna had been selfless once, he had let the love of his life go, and look where it got him. Gojo wasn't about to make that same mistake either.

━━━━━━･❪ 💧 ❫ ･━━━━━━

Mizuhime felt like she had entered an alternate reality.

She was happy, yes, but still very much in disbelief at what had happened. Gojo... had allowed her to participate in the Goodwill Event. Even after he told her no. Even after she had gone behind his back and had his orders rescinded.

For some odd reason, he was kinder. Less suffocating. But as much as she appreciated it, she wasn't going to let her guard down.

The dazed look was still on her face by the time she got to the common room where everyone was discussing strategies. For some odd reason, Yuji was kneeling on the floor holding a funeral frame to his face. She was too drained to feel amused, choosing to collapse on the couch beside him.

"Senpai? What did Gojo-sensei need to talk to you about?" Yuji asked her.

She glanced over to him, and it was as if she could feel Sukuna's stare on her too.

"Ah, well... nothing much. Just needed to talk to me about the Goodwill Event. Told me to do well and all that." She lied.

Yuji furrowed his brows, but before he could question her further, Maki clapped her hands for attention.

"So, what's the plan? The group battle format is what we expected, but we have another member now. Do we change strategies? There's not much time."

"Well, that depends on Yuji." Panda chimed. "What can you do?"

"Punch, kick..."

He frowned. "We have enough of that."

"Huh?!"

"I don't know what he's been doing since he's been dead," Megumi began (lying through his teeth). "But if everyone from Tokyo and Kyoto fought him at once without cursed energy, Itadori would win."

"He's right," Mizuhime agreed. "Yuji's abnormally strong and fast, even without using cursed energy."

"Well that's good to hear," Maki nodded. "Because I'm pretty damn sure Aoi's gonna come after you first."

Yuji blinked. "Who's that?"

"Pineapple head," Panda supplied.

"Ohhh, that guy. Okay! I can handle him!"

"Good," Maki approved. "That guy's the strongest of the Kyoto kids, so I need you to hold him off for us."

He gave her a thumbs up. "Can do!"

"Alright, now here's the rest of the plan..." Maki leaned closer and began to tell them. 

— author's note —

Turns out I severely underestimated the scope of damage Hime caused in the last chapter. I was asked to estimate her possible kill count and when I was trying to do the math I realized...

Turns out at least 5 million people were impacted by her tsunami. Sucks for them.

Also, what's your opinion: do you think Gojo truly changed for the better? Or is he still the same as he was a thousand years ago?

And another thing: for those who are caught up with the latest manga chapter, who do you think is gonna die: Gojo or Sukuna? Honestly, my bet's on Sukuna. Too many death flags for Gojo rn 🥲