Heat was the first thing Itadori felt before his own consciousness had found its way back to him. He blinked away the ash that was on his eyelashes but even after clearing his eyes of it his vision was swimming. Eventually, it steadied then swam again before the world around him assembled itself into something his brain was willing to process.
The fire from Izuku and Sukuna's battled continued to raged with ash still raining down. Embers from the flames flickered and died in the gloom while the colossal mushroom cloud that towered over the destruction zone. Pieces of metal and concrete were scattered everywhere, peppering the massive crater that had been etched into the earth.
The sound of crackling flames and tumbling rubble painted a stark soundtrack to the apocalyptic tableau. Despite feeling the phantom pain from the events that had transpired tonight he was healed completely. Itadori set his body in motion to sit up and when he was done he was able to fully take in the district that looked like the end of the world.
His body may have been fine but his mind wasn't without damage. A cascade of images flashed behind his eyes in a horrifying display that was too much to bare. Every person Sukuna had killed while he watched from the inside of his own skull.
Trapped behind eyes that moved without his permission and hands that swung without his consent. Yuji's hands began to shake and tremble until it spread to his entire body. He lurched forward then convulsed, expelling anything and everything that was in his stomach until there was nothing left.
"I-It s-should've been me..." The memory of watching his own hands do things he would never have done was still there and no amount of bile was going to wash it away.
His hands flew up and gripped his face with his fingers digging into his temples as if trying to claw the images out of his skull. He thought tearing at his own flesh could somehow silence what was now etched into his mind.
"N-no...no..." The word escaped in a strangled gasp.
"No...no...NO...NO!!!!" Every face, every scream, every pair of eyes wide and terrified that had been caught in that final moment before Sukuna cut them down.
The mothers, the children, the desperate cries that were snuffed out like candles. His pupils shrank to pinpricks, shaking uncontrollably as the sheer volume of memory slammed into him all at once.
"S-stop! PLEASE STOP!!" He dropped to his knees before his hands slipped from his face to the ground.
"I...I wasn't...I couldn't..." Tears streaked down his dirt stained cheeks, mixing with soot, mixing with grief but never enough to wash it all away.
"J-just Why...why...why?.." He choked with a voice thick with tears as he tried to force reason into a scene where none could be found.
His fists unraveled as they moved forward then began raking through the ground until the flesh started peeling off from the friction.
"IT SHOULD'VE BEEN ME!!! KILL ME!!" Blood smeared across the ground as each shred of skin became a testament to guilt he couldn't escape.
In that moment Yuji Itadori knew no comfort, no hope, and only the relentless echo of a demon's atrocity and the unbearable weight of his own hands stained with innocent blood. He felt the weight of sins he didn't commit but he carried them without much of a choice.
Yuji then lifted his tear filled gaze to look around him and soon found Izuku on the ground in the distance. Yuji's eyes widened as the guilt struck him deeper. He stared at the boy who had come to this world with both courage and light but who now laid unconscious in a crater of ruin.
"I-Izuku!" His legs wouldn't cooperate with standing so he dragged himself over to his friend as fast as he could until he reached Izuku.
"I-I'm s-sorry..." Yuji whispered
"II didn't want this... I didn't mean for any of this..." His body shook with sobs.
"I'm sorry.. I'm sorry.. I'm sorry..." He repeated it like a broken prayer to someone who couldn't hear him yet the more he said it the more hollow it felt.
"You didn't deserve this..." he reached toward Izuku but his hand froze midway, too ashamed to touch him.
"You fought so hard and I let hi-" Yuji's voice failed him completely as he collapsed again, with forehead against the ground beside Izuku.
Tonight Yuji cried for forgiveness that might never come, for pain he couldn't erase, and for a weight he could never put down. He stared at the ground with his body utterly numb, he had no answers, no next step, and no back up. All that was left was the pain that was drowning him from the inside out.
Minutes passed, he couldn't say how many but time had become distant. Yuji didn't want to move or open his eyes, all he wanted to do was disappear although, all he could do was push himself to his feet while keeping his head bowed. He only lifted his head to look at Izuku before his lips parted like he wanted to say something, another apology or another plea but nothing came so instead he looked away.
With no destination in mind and no purpose guiding his steps Yuji began to walk. He didn't know where he was going and he didn't care he just knew he couldn't stay or bare what he allowed to happen. The first step away from the unconscious hero felt like it was the act of choosing to leave someone behind and every fiber of his being mixed with the words his grandfather told him screamed that this was wrong.
Despite that feeling however, Yuji still chose to put his foot forward since he felt that it would be better for Izuku or maybe everyone. So he walked alone out of the crater, disappearing with each step into the ruin ahead as if the world itself wanted to forget he was ever there and maybe Yuji hoped that it would.
Yuji wandered through the empty district where life once bustled with his figure being nothing more than a slumped shadow amidst the ruins. The brown of his irises were still there but whatever had been living behind them had vacated. What remained was the fixed forward stare of someone whose gaze had turned inward and found nothing worth returning for.
Eventually his feet led him underground but he didn't question the descent down the stairs that led him there. This same tunnel connected to a station but as Yuji walked through the tunnel it seemed to stretch on and on as if it would go on forever.
Any sound produced around him began to fade along with his vision narrowing then that's when broken fragments of images and voices reached his mind as he walked. The metaphorical "tape" was rewinding as the sequence was running backward through the night. It was jumping from moment to moment in a broken stutter that skipped, stopped, and repeated.
"Cannon fodder"
"Maybe your society was right, you are worthless"
"You'll pay for what you did..."
"We'll become heroes in our own way..."
"Yuji Itadori, man Deku you sure know how to beat the breaks off someone..."
"Don't take another step!"
By the time the final words had rang out along with the accompanying memory Yuji had reached the staircase. Beyond the first couple of steps was an abyss, a void, something him nor the world had an answer for as to why it was there. With Yuji being vacant there was no one to argue or consult with so the body started its descent.
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[Act 11: That Which Remains]
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"Yuji..." The voice sounded like it far away.
"Yuji!.." It had grown closer now.
"Yuji Itadori if you fell asleep in that chair again I swear" Yuji opened his eyes and he was hit with fluorescent light.
He squinted against it for a moment before looking down to see that he was sitting slouched in a chair. His gaze then shifted to his hands but was surprised to see that they were clean with no trace of blood whatsoever. When he looked up he saw Wasuke Itadori, his grandpa sitting in the hospital bed in front of him and staring at him.
"Did you even hear me? You're drooling on my crossword and its getting all over fourteen across. I've been working on that one for twenty minutes"
"Grandpa?" The word left Yuji's mouth before his brain had finished processing what his eyes were showing him.
"D-Did I..." He swallowed.
"Did I fall asleep?" Yuji was overwhelmed by what he was experiencing.
"No, you were doing advanced calculus with your eyes closed. Of course you fell asleep!" His grandfather's pen tapped the crossword twice.
Yuji stared at him then to the heart monitor beside the bed that produced its steady electronic pulse. His eyes then moved to the door where somewhere outside the room a cart squeaked at the end of the hall.
"I-Is this real?..." He turned his attention to the muted TV that was mounted in the corner.
Said TV had a daytime program about cooking that neither of them had ever watched on purpose. The host was demonstrating something with a pan and a lot of hand gestures and the closed captions scrolled across the bottom of the screen.
"Brat..." Wasuke muttered.
Once his eyes returned to his grandpa he was out of the chair before he knew he was standing. The hug that followed was clumsy so his arms didn't account for the IV line or the angle of the bed or the crossword that was now crumpled between them. He pressed his face into the shoulder of the hospital gown and held on.
"Yuji just what in the world has gotten into you!" The words came out gruff which was the default setting for him.
"You're gonna pull out my damn IV!" He patted Yuji's back twice.
"Grandpa..." Yuji's voice was muffled against the gown.
"Yeah I heard you the first time. So would ya tell me what's gotten into you? You're shaking like a leaf for cryin out loud" One of his hands came to rest against the back of his grandson's head.
Yuji just continued to hold on, he didn't explain or maybe he couldn't because the explanation involved curses, sorcerers, and a thousand year old murderer who had worn his body then killed hundreds. So he held on instead and the holding was the explanation even if his grandfather couldn't read it.
"I just had a..." Yuji pulled back far enough to look at his grandfather's face.
"I had a weird dream is all. My bad grandpa..." Yuji had wished that it was anyway.
"Must've been a hell of a dream cause you look like you've seen a ghost" His grandpa said after a moment of studying his grandson.
"You want water or something? There's a cup on the table there. It's been sitting there for a while so it's probably room temperature by now which is exactly how water should be. Ignore anyone who tells you otherwise!" Yuji almost laughed but the sound that came out was closer to a hiccup which was enough.
"I'm fine grandpa" He wiped his face with the back of his hand and sat back down in the chair.
"You don't look fine. You look like you stuck your head in a washing machine" Wasuke returned his attention to the crossword.
"Darn thing is crumpled up..." His grandpa mumbled as he straightened up the crossword the best he could before he continued to solve it.
The pen he held hovered over fourteen across on the crossword puzzle as the room settled into a comfortable silence as he tried to look past what happened and not question it right away. He understood that sometimes the kindest thing you could do for someone was give them a few seconds to put their face back together without an audience. Meanwhile Yuji looked down at his hands once more only to see that they were still clean.
"Seven letters. "State of being free from disturbance" and it starts with a C. Been staring at this one since before you fell asleep" He tried to distract Yuji from the dream as he squinted at the crossword.
"Calm" The word was brought to the forefront of Yuji's mind without much thought.
"What?" His grandfather was baffled by the four letter answer and was starting to think his grandson hit his head in his dream.
"The answer. State of being free from disturbance? It's calm... no wait that's four" Yuji's brow furrowed and his grandpa sighed.
"Seven letters... so content? It's gotta be content" Yuji made sure to count each letter on his finger just in case.
"Well it fits. For a second there I thought that occult club might've turned your brain into mush" His grandpa put it in and held the crossword at arms length before looking at Yuji.
For a moment Yuji somewhat about the so called "dream" so he let his eyes move across the room once more. From the walls to the window that showed an late afternoon sky and to anything and everything he could find like he was playing a game of I spy. Something caught his eyes which was the side table with the water pitcher with a get well card sittng flat next to.
It had a cartoon bear on it holding a balloon. Someone had written "Feel better soon, Wasuke-san!" although it was most likely one of the nurses his grandpa tried to shoo away. Finally, beside the card was a small potted plant that was doing its best to stay alive under fluorescent light and mostly succeeding.
"It's all the same as before" Being inside of this room again felt like stepping into a coat he'd outgrown but that still fit around the shoulders.
"Was everything really a dr-" Yuji was going to question everything but his grandpa spoke.
"You gonna sit there staring at the walls or are you gonna talk to me?" His grandpa's voice pulled him back.
"Huh? Oh right..." Yuji turned his attention back to his hands as he clenched and unclenched them as he thought for a moment.
He thought of everything leading up to Shibuya after his grandpa died, all of the choices he made that got him to where he is. He questioned if any of it was right or if any of it was wrong and if he could do any of it over would he be strong enough to go through it all again if he had to make the same choices.
"Grandpa, what if..." Yuji started then stopped as the "dream" he had stopped thinking about had returned.
"What if I'm not strong enough for what's coming?" That gave his grandpa pause.
"Not strong enough for what's coming huh?" He repeated the words while trying to understand the underlying meaning to it.
"I-I don't know. I just... sometimes I get this feeling like the road ahead of me is gonna ask for more than I've got. Like it's gonna put things on my shoulders that I wasn't built to carry and I'm gonna buckle underneath it..." He rubbed the back of his neck with guilt clawing at him.
"Like what if something happens and I'd never choose to do but I'm still part of it. Something I can't take back and I just have to live with it afterwards. Have to wake up every day and look at these hands knowing what they did even if I wasn't the one doing it" The room went still which made the silence no longer comfortable but palpable.
"This isn't just about a dream is it?" His grandpa questioned.
"No..." Yuji's eyes twitched as his brow furrowed.
"Come here a second" Wasuke set the crossword on the bedside table and motioned to the bed.
"I'm fi-" Yuji tried going against it.
"I didn't ask if you were fine. Just take a moment and humor me Yuji" His grandpa grunted in slight annoyance.
"Ok..." Yuji gave in.
He finally leaned forward in the chair until his elbows were on the edge of the bed and his grandfather's hand found the top of his head. His grandpa was unsure as to way he's dropping his usual gruff but tough old guy act but maybe it was because it reminded him of the early days of raising him.
"Gran-" Yuji was cut off.
"Just listen to me" Wasuke's voice had shifted.
"You are the best thing I ever had. Not my career, not my house, and not anything I built or earned or fought for" His hand stayed on Yuji's head.
"And I know better than anyone about what's inside you. Not the stuff you're afraid of or whatever future you're staring at that's got you talking like this. What I mean is the reason you run toward the screaming instead of away from it" His hand shifted to the side of Yuji's face.
"You're a strong kid. Stronger than you know and stronger than I ever was at your age and I was plenty strong if I do say so myself" A ghost of a smirk crossed his face. It didn't last.
"But strength isn't what gets you through the bad nights. The nights that come for you, the ones where the walls feel like they're moving inward and you can't remember why you're supposed to keep going. Strength doesn't fix those, strength just keeps you alive long enough for the real thing that's beyond them" He took a breath.
"However, being strong doesn't mean being alone either you hear me? You need to surround yourself with people" For a moment the present cut through the tender moment as it came back distorted as if forcing its way back.
Yuji's foot found the next step and the step after that as he continued to descend the stairwell. His body as well as his legs were carrying him on whatever autopilot the body defaulted to when his mind left the building. His eyes were open and his hands were at his sides yet his expression was the same blank absence it had been since the crater.
The stairwell soon opened into a corridor and that corridor opened into a concourse. The concourse then opened into the wide expanse of the station. The Hanzomon Line entrance was getting closer but it had a few unexpected guests that were waiting for something to happen upon them but then Yuji's vision cut back to the hospital room.
"Don't end up alone like your old man..." Wasuke's voice pulled Yuji back again.
Wasuke looked at the window to his right but not at the view beyond it rather it was at the glass itself. He was looking at the reflection of the room that lived on its surface. The reflection of him laying in bed with the only person who didn't abandon him or leave him behind despite telling him he should be living his life than visiting an old fool like him.
"I made that mistake a long time ago... spent too many years thinking I could handle everything by myself. Thought asking for help was the same as admitting you couldn't manage" He turned back to Yuji.
"But It's not. Took me till now to figure that out so I'm giving it to you for free. So don't waste it by being as stubborn as I was" Yuji opened his mouth to respond just as the present bled into the moment
Yuji stood in the center of the concourse with curses gathering around him, watching him with whatever they used for eyes. Six then ten then twenty, all of them surrounded him in a matter of seconds before the hospital came back into focus.
"But how do you keep going when you know it's only going to get harder?" His grandpa stayed silent for a moment before answering.
"You don't" He said bluntly and
"What do you mean?" Yuji head came up.
"You don't keep going, at least not the way you're thinking about it. You're imagining some version of yourself who wakes up every morning deciding to be brave and push through just because he's strong" Wasuke shook his head.
"That's not how it always works. Sometimes you keep going because the people around you need you to keep going. So what I'm saying is when you can't do it for yourself you do it for them and when you can't do it for them..." The corner of his mouth pulled upward.
"Then do it because some stubborn old bastard told you to and you don't want to disappoint him" He gave a faint chuckle.
The Hanzomon Line stretched in front of Yuji now as the curses grew closer now. Dozens of the moved through the station in a slow converging pattern that was tightening around a single point on the platform. They shuffled and dragged and clicked their misshapen joints against the tile in a rhythm that resembled a clock counting down.
"I know you're scared kiddo" Wasuke's words bled into the present.
"I know what's out there and I know it's worse than anything I could've prepared you for..." When the hospital returned Yuji was now standing but the walls of the room were translucent now.
The paint had gone pale, the window was losing its glass, and the monitor's beeping had thinned to something that sounded like it was coming from the end of a long hallway. Meanwhile his grandpa was standing up in front of him with his hands behind his back.
"No..." Yuji knew what this meant. He saw how the room was folding itself up around them like a tent being taken down while they were still inside it.
"Not yet please! I'm not... I can't go back out there yet. I need more time. Just a little more-" Tears started to pool behind his eyes as he clenched his fist. Yuji was doing everything in his power to hold everything back.
"It'll be ok Yuji" His grandfathers voice cut out all the noise and made him open his eyes.
Wasuke was standing in front of Yuji, looking at him the way you look at someone you're going to miss for the rest of eternity. But he also looked less like a memory speaking and more like a person who was actually aware of what was happening beyond the walls.
"Whatever you've seen tonight. Whatever you've done and whatever was done through you while you couldn't stop it..." Wasuke's voice carried through both realities without choosing one.
"It does not get to define you, got it? It does not get the final word. You are Yuji Itadori, you are my grandson, and I did not raise a boy who lies down when the going gets tough. You know better than that" Wasuke put a hand on Yuji's shoulder as the room had finally faded away around them.
"I don't want to let go..." Yuji whispered.
"But you're not letting go. The reason being is that I'm not leaving, you stubborn kid. That's why I'm here" His grandfather then pulled him into a hug and patted his back.
"I am always here with you whether you like it or not. Right in here" Wasuke pulled away from the hug and jabbed a finger at Yuji's chest once for emphasis.
"I. am. with. you. Damnit..." Wasuke's voice shook for a second before he got it under control.
"And when all this is over I better not catch you sulking about me being gone you hear me? You know damn well I don't want that" Wasuke's voice rose as the last wall of the hospital dissolved.
"So when you start getting lost in all this and you think the noise gets too loud to handle or you think you can't take another step" Wasuke's hand rose.
WACK!
"I'll still smack you upside the head as a reminder that you need to get your head straight and persevere. It's ok if you lose your way sometimes but you make sure you bring yourself back or I will" His palm connected with the back of Yuji's skull.
The contact was firm and real and carried the exact amount of force that exists between affection and correction. A curse's fist connected with the back of Yuji's head at the exact moment his grandfather's palm had found the same spot. Yuji stumbled forward before he caught himself. He wasn't fully conscious again but he was slowly but surely making his way back.
The now empty white void came back one last time to show Yuji standing in front of a door but this very door looked exactly like the front door to his home. He already had his fingers curled around the handle but he turned back around see his grandpa a few feet behind him but this time he was in regular clothes.
"When you walk through that door you're going back to something I can't follow you into but you already know that" Wasuke's voice was solemn.
"I'm not gonna stand here and pretend I'm okay with that because the truth is...I'm not. I'm not okay with what this world is doing to you or with what it's taking from you. For crying out loud the hardest thing you should be worrying about at your age is a damn math test..." Yuji's hand tightened on the handle.
"But in the end I'm the one that raised you and I raised you right. That same kid I raised knows how to pick up what other people dropped and how to be the kind of person that the world doesn't deserve and keeps getting anyway" Wasuke paused for a moment to gather himself.
"So you go through that door to do what you have to do but when it gets bad and trust me it will get bad. Remember that you've got an old man in here who's..."He paused to clear his throat.
"Who's proud of you" Yuji turned around.
"I promise to do my best grandpa. I also won't sulk just like you asked but...I'll miss you" Yuji's lip quivered.
"I know I know... Go on now, you got people out there counting on you so don't keep them waiting. But keep in mind Yuji that you are not what was done through you. You are what you do next" Wasuke nodded firmly.
Yuji nodded in return but held his gaze for one more second before he turned back to the door and turned the handle. The door opened and the light from the other side poured through the gap then washed over his body. Wasuke watched him go but as the light from the doorway consumed his grandson's silhouette something happened that the old man had not been prepared for.
His eyes widened as the broad shoulders that had been carrying the weight of tonight had narrowed. The height reduced next then his current clothes shifted into a school uniform and finally a backpack that was big for the body wearing it appeared on his back. He was six with bright wide eyes that contained nothing except the uncomplicated joy of being a kid going to school and having a home to come back to.
That boy turned around in the doorway then smiled in a world that hadn't given him any reasons to stop grinning. The smile of a boy whose biggest concern was whether his grandfather would remember to pack the juice box he liked or substitute it with the one he didn't.
"See ya later grandpa!" A small hand lifted in the doorway with it's fingers spread wide as he waved to his grandpa off.
"Look at you, kid... Heading off to school with that stupid grin on your face like the whole world was built just for you. Like nothing could touch you. Like the worst thing that could happen on any given day was that I'd forget the damn juice box..." Wasuke raised his hand in return and waved.
"I used to watch you walk down that sidewalk every morning and think to myself that if I did nothing else right in this life at least I got this one thing. At least I got you..."
"And now you're walking through a different door into something I can't see or follow. Something I can't protect you from and all I've got left to give you is a smack on the head and some words that I hope to god are enough..." The hand lowered slowly and the door had finally closed with the light going out with it.
"Be safe, be brave, and for the love of god don't forget to eat something. Don't make me worried...brat..." The last thing visible before darkness consumed the void was the old man's smile and a single tear that fell from his cheek.
WACK!!
The present shifted back into Yuji's view from the impact of the earlier smack. It snapped his chin forward and the world that had been splitting between two realities collapsed into one.
"You are not what was done through you. You are what you do next" The last words his grandfather had spoken settled into his chest like a coal that refused to go out.
Whatever had vacated from behind his eyes back in the crater had returned exactly the way it had left. Yuji's fists tightened as the cursed energy stirred in his knuckles when he planted his feet. The same curse that had hit him lunged towards him again but this time Yuji's fist connected with the first curse before the rest of him had fully committed to the decision to fight. The creature's misshapen head caved inward around his knuckles.
The skull or whatever served as its skull compressed and fractured and the body attached to it folded backward. It hit the platform and skidded six feet before its blood that had scattered across the floor sank into the grout between the tiles. The second curse was already coming in from the left, swinging its arm in a lateral arc aimed at Yuji's temple. He ducked beneath the swing leaving only the displaced air to ruffle his hair.
His right hand planted flat against the tile and he pivoted on the palm with his legs sweeping low to take the curses ankles out from under it. It hit the ground on its back so Yuji capitalized on it and was on top of it before it could register the change in orientation. His knee drove into its sternum and both fists came down on either side of its head in a hammering motion that shattered the tiles beneath it.
But what followed was the double impact of divergent fist that made it burst apart at the seams while causing a ripple effect on the rest of tiles above its head. Three more closed the gap while the blood from the previous was still starting to leak. One from behind, one from the right, and one dropping from the ceiling where it had been clinging to the light fixtures.
Yuji rolled sideways off the corpse just in time for so the curse from behind missed its strike. Yuji came up in a crouch and drove his elbow backward into the midsection of the one approaching from the right. The impact doubled it over his arm and he used the momentum to hurl it into the one dropping from the ceiling. They collided mid-air in a tangle and hit a pillar hard enough to crack the tile that covered it in a spiderweb pattern.
The one behind him recovered then went in for another strike yet again. Yuji caught both wrists with easy then gripped them so hard the bones cracked in his hands. Yuji pulled himself upwards off the floor to bicycle kick the curse multiple times in the face while pulling on its arms. It got the point to where those arms were pulled to far until they were ripped free from the body.
With the curse stunned Yuji landed back on solid ground to perform the adopted shoot style Izuku taught him while on the rooftop. He managed to land to separate kicks on the curses dome before pouring cursed energy into his right leg as he perform a backflip kick otherwise known as a flash kick in martial arts terms. The curses head and spine tore free from the shoulders and became airborne which lead to it becoming a temporary weapon.
A fifth curse tried to sneak up on Yuji but he wasn't having any of it. He grabbed the base of the mid air spine and imbued it with cursed energy then gripped it like a baseball bat. In a flash of motion Yuji swung the grotesque weapon with inhuman force. Said force allowed the severed skull he was using as well as the living curse that was lunging at him compress and explode as they hit each other like a hydraulic press crushing an object.
CCCRRRRRAAAAAACCCKK!!!
The memory of Nanako getting her head severed in front of Izuku hit him between the skulls impact and the body dropping to the floor. The phantom weight of Sukuna's hand using dismantle like he was swatting a fly.
"Did those bodies happen to look like that? Sorry my memory is a bit hazy at the moment"
"That one's for her..." He said it under his breath.
The words were barely audible beneath the sound of the next curse lunging. He met the lunge with a knee strike that caught it in the midsection and folded it in half over his thigh. His hands were clasped together above its bent spine and came down without much remorse as it was driven it into the floor. The tile shattered beneath the impact and the curse's body cratered into the concrete substrate beneath.
Six down were dead but the ring was still closing in on him and they were starting to come in waves. Three at a time soon turned to four then five. The station was filled with blood, death, and all things unholy. Each pulse of his heart ended with Yuji in a different position with his fists in a different configuration and a different curse dead at his feet.
His body remembered how to do this from the training that Gojo had out him through. Beneath the trauma and the grief and the hollow emptiness that had been occupying his chest since the crater. A curse managed to jump onto him from the front then maneuvered its way around to his back with its claws.
Whatever length was left of the spine he used to reach around to the back of the curses skull and hauled it over him. Yuji slammed it into the floor then inverted the blood covered spine to use its ridges to cut the curses head off but the spine finally had enough before it snapped.
"Maybe your society was right... you are worthless"
"Izuku isn't worthless, none of them were... Every single one of them deserved better than what they were given!" Yuji spun on his heel.
He threw a jab that snapped a curse's jaw sideways and followed it with a cross that separated the jaw from the skull entirely. The body dropped. He spun on his leading foot and caught the next one with a shoot style round house kick that connected at the neck and sent the head spinning off the body in a rotation that trailed blood like a comet's tail.
He grabbed the next curse by the face with a vice grip using a single hand. His fingers sank into the malleable flesh and he lifted it off the ground. Its legs kicked at open air, utter useless against him as Its misshapen arms flailed. He soon drove it downward into the tile headfirst and the skull collapsed on contact.
"Cannon fodder"
"They were people just trying to live happy lives!!" His left hook caught another leaping curse mid-air and redirected its trajectory into the far wall.
A curse managed to rake its claws across his back, opening three lines of fire from his left shoulder blade to his lower right. Yuji staggered forward a step and the pain was sharp and belonged to a body that was no longer numb. He turned into the attack rather than away from it allowing his hands to catch the offending limb at the wrist and he snapped it sideways with a torque that separated the joint.
Yuji silenced it with an uppercut that lifted it off the ground and into the ceiling where it splattered. Blood ran down his back from the claw marks until it reached his lower back. Yuji ignored it as he swiped the blood from his hands in an arc like a samurai does with a sword. His breathing was heavy and his back was on fire but his eyes were clear.
Now they were carrying something that the hollow stare from the crater hadn't contained, that being purpose. He set his feet, widened his stance and raised his fists once again. The cursed energy in his body cycled through his body like a reignited flame that intended to keep burning until the fuel ran out or the job was done.
"Who's next?!"
[10 minutes later]
The next ten minutes was all the time Yuji Itadori needed for what he had done. The Hanzomon Line served as the floor of an abattoir that nobody had asked for and nobody would clean up. The station was quiet now with Yuji standing alone amidst his own carnage with curse blood coating most of his body. If this was a murder case, the forensic team assigned to it would've hit an unfathomable but dangerous jackpot.
His face had even caught some of it too with a streak across his left cheek and a spray beneath his right eye that had dried into a crimson tear. Bodies or what was left of them were strewn everywhere and anywhere. Some were intact enough to still resemble what they'd been shaped from and others were just limbs.
The knuckles of his still clenched fists had split somewhere around the sixth minute mark. The skin over said knuckles on both hands had torn open and bled again more than once until that blood replaced the skin itself. Each inhale burned but it didn't matter since Yuji only stared at the floor.
The tile beneath his feet was cracked in a dozen places from impacts to stomps to the force of bodies hitting it at speeds that tile was never rated for. The adrenaline was leaving his system in a slow tide that took the heat, the speed, and the clarity with it then replaced them with the raw ache of a body that had been running on something other than fuel and was now being presented with the bill.
When he looked up he closed his eyes as he dragged in another breath then exhaled with the lowering of it, letting his fists finally loosen with a slight creak. When they opened again he was mildly surprised to see one lonely curse at the far end of his carnage next to a separate staircase. Yuji's fists immediately tightened again causing the split knuckles to protest and the dried blood cracking.
He started walking toward it with cursed energy already cycling toward his fists in the automatic preparation. Even as Yuji neared the curse it refused to turn around or move, it simply stayed still and ever silent. But upon getting close enough Yuji's step began to falter due to recognition. The figure before him became eerily similar to someone only Yuji would know, that someone being.
"Junpei? No..." His fingers uncurled one by one as he directed the words to himself.
Maybe it was at the part of his brain that was doing this to him or at whatever mechanism in his mind that was taking the shape of this figure hunched and overlaying it with the memory of someone he had failed to save. His guard dropped entirely because of this and his hands fully fell to his sides. The cursed energy that had been cycling toward his fists completely dissipated.
He reached for the figure's shoulder with trembling bloody fingers until they closed around the fabric and turned him. The face came into view in stages, which only caused the memories hit him like a punch. First was Junpei and him sitting on the steps by the river when they first met, eventually leading them into talking about human earthworm.
Then after his mother showed up he joined them for dinner back at their home and stayed up watching movies late into the night. Then the last image settled of Junpei at Jujutsu High. Sitting with him in a uniform he never got to wear, with the smile of someone who has finally found the place they were supposed to be and can't believe it's real.
It was the last version of him that still looked like the person Yuji had met. The version that still had a future in which they sat together at Jujutsu High eating lunch, complained about stupid stuff, and did all the ordinary things that ordinary friends do when the world isn't actively trying to disassemble them.
The figure was fully turned now and the face looking up at Yuji was without a doubt Junpei's. It had the same dark hair with the same eyes and a heartbeat that lasted longer than any heartbeat has a right to last, Yuji was looking at his friend and his friend smiled. But the smile didnt last for very long, before Yuji knew it the face of his friend began to change in an instant.
The skin along the jawline rippled the way water ripples when something moves beneath the surface. The flesh around the eyes bubbled outward in small blisters that multiplied faster than they formed. The mouth that had been smiling stretched wider than a mouth should stretch and the teeth behind it rearranged themselves into something that had abandoned the pretense of humanity.
The body contorted, swelled, and it all started at the shoulders. The chest expanded in asymmetric lumps next followed by the arms and hands. The noise that accompanied was a wet tearing noise that was the audio equivalent of watching something turn itself inside out until it exploded.
BOOM! SPLAT!
Yuji didn't move or flinch or maybe he just couldn't after what he had experienced. Blood splattered his face while his arm was still fully extended in the direction of his pseudo friend with the only thing left in its grasp was a small bit of cloth. The arm dropped a moment later and his other one came up and wiped across his face.
The motion was painfully slow, dragging the residue from his forehead, across his eyes, and down his cheek until his hand came away coated. He stared at his vague reflection with in it intently before his eyes shifted downward towards the remains. It may have exploded which didn't leave much behind but somehow its mouth was still intact and before it died it said.
"I'm s-sorry..." The face rearranged into something that served no function except suffering.
The apology wasn't directed at Yuji but at no one, at everyone, or at the version of itself that had existed before it had been reshaped. The curse went still, finally dying to be at peace leaving Yuji to stared at it's unfortunate resting place. His eyes eventualy moved across the station behind to take in the carnage with a clarity that hadn't been present during the fight.
"Wait...they were" He trailed off as the realization hit him.
"Transfigured humans?..." The words fell out of him.
"That mea-" The sentence didn't finish due to an unexpected guest who had been waiting for this exact moment.
WHAM!!
A sudden impact that was too quick for him to catch while being distracted came from the left side and connected with his gut. The force of it lifted him off his feet and sent him backwards across the floor. The blood on the tiles made the surface slick and when he hit the ground he slid twelve feet before he managed to dig his knee into the tile and arrest the momentum.
He had one knee down with a hand braced against the floor. The blood beneath his palm made his fingers slip so he had to press harder to hold the position. He put his other hand on his stomach in an attempt to swell the pain in his gut where the strike had landed. He looked up to see a figure standing where he'd been standing three seconds ago.
It was tall and lean with a frame that had stitched skin that ran in patchwork lines across the face, neck, and the exposed portions of the arms. But the mouth that was smiling had to be the worst part because Yuji knew who it belonged to.
"Mahito..." Yuji muttered with building anger.
"Yuji Itadori!" Mahito spread his hands in a gesture of welcome that belonged in a coffee shop rather than a blood-soaked subway platform.
"Man it's been a minute hasn't it?! I was starting to think you forgot about me" He tilted his head while stepping forward.
"You know I was just thinking about you the other day. We left on such bad terms so I'm glad we can finally chat again" His chuckled.
"Oh hey, you remember Junpei right? Oh Junpei... Now that was a moment wasn't it? The look on your face when I changed him was priceless!" Mahito's eyes drifted upward as if watching the memory play on the ceiling of the station.
"But that's the thing about you Yuji. You feel everything! Whether that be every death or loss or... well you get the idea. You carry all of it like a...what's the word" He tapped his chin a dew times before he snapped his fingers.
"A sponge! You absorb every drop of suffering the world wrings out and you just hold it! You never let any of it go. It's kind of beautiful in a way if you think about it. Tragic and maybe a little naive but beautiful" When Mahito looked back at Yuji however, he was surprised that there was no response.
All Yuji did was stand up slowly with his hand grabbing onto a a chunk of broken tile and not once giving off the idea that he wanted to utter a retort or any kind of response. When Yuji's eyes found Mahito's, Mahito could only see the pure hatred emanating out of them.
"Oh? Well that's certainly new. Usually by now you're yelling or-" Yuji suddenly threw the chunk of tile like a frisbee.
SLICE!
The piece of tile had also been infused with cursed energy which scored a gash on Mahito's cheek which caught him off guard. By the time he shifted his focus back to Yuji however, he was already comin gin hot with a kick. Yuji's leg came in low but climbed upward to connect with Mahito's temple. Mahito went to block it but the leg stopped short before changing direction allowing the shin connected with Mahito's kneecap.
Mahito's leg folded at an angle that would have been career ending for anyone else but himself. Mahito used the buckled knee to his advantage in order to perform a counter attack by hiding his right arm just out of view then using idle transfiguration to extend it past its original length. His hand had also formed a spear head to impale Yuji in the neck but Yuji dodged by spinning around it and clocking Mahito with another kick.
The kick caught Mahito on the side of his jaw, snapping his head sideways and as a result making his feet leave the ground. Seconds later he hit the floor and slid back on the blood that cover the floor. Mahito's body skidded six feet before he dug his fingers into the grout and arrested the slide. Unfortunately for him Yuji was already moving in for his next attack.
He had converted the treacherous footing into a movement system that let him close distance at angles that straight running couldn't produce. He slid left then planted and launched right. He rode a long smear of residue diagonally as Mahito conjured scythe in both hands before swinging both of them in on each other as Yuji drew near. But Yuji had other ideas, upon seeing the attack he dropped his center of gravity and slide beneath the scissor like attack.
After clearing it he shot up to counter but Mahito was prepared this time. He extended multiple sharp appendages from his back forcing Yuji to flip backwards onto his hands. Yuji followed up by springing himself upwards with his feet imbued with cursed energy, breaking the appendages. He performed a barrel roll with the air time he had while using the momentum to another devastating kick but Mahito had blocked it successfully this time.
"Gotcha~" Mahito smiled but it was cut short by the lag of his cursed energy.
"Divergent Kick!" Yuji roared internally as Mahito stumbled backwards.
"How annoying..." Mahito thought as he caught his footing.
Upon landing back onto the floor Yuji shifted his footing then moved in with his fists raised this time. He stepped forward and threw a right hook that Mahito blocked, the block held but Yuji was already transitioning. His right hand retracted and his left came underneath in a shovel hook to catch Mahito beneath the ribs.
Mahito saw this and was not having any of it so he transfigured his midsection into a net like form so the fist could pass through. His midsection then reformed around Yuji's arm with the tissue solidifying in an instant, clamping down like a vice.
"Peek-a-boo!!" Mahito's left hand came around in a hook aimed at Yuji's temple.
That wasn't all however, the fist had also reshaped mid-swing, the knuckles flattening into a broad surface designed to maximize concussive force over a wider area. The attack landed cleanly causing Yuji's head to snap sideways with his vision going white at the edges. Mahito then reeled Yuji back in for a devastating headbutt to his nose before spartan kicking him away.
Yuji was able to catch his footing quickly but the blood on the floor made him stumble onto one knee. Mahito pressed forward with his left hand was already changing into something new. The fingers elongated and flattened and fused together at the tips into a broad paddle-shaped appendage that he whipped laterally at Yuji's head. Yuji ducked the paddle strike and the flat edge passed over him.
He planted his back foot then delivered a counter but Mahito tilted his head and the fist grazed his cheek instead. Mahito caught Yuji's extended arm at the wrist with his normal hand and yanked him forward off balance. The paddle like appendage came back around until it smacked Yuji across the back of the head, driving him downward.
His knees hit the tile and the paddle shifted into a scythe aimed at the back of his head. Yuji rolled sideways and the scythe cracked the tile where his skull had been. He came out of the roll on his feet and threw a cursed energy infused jab at the first thing in range. It connected with Mahito's shoulder and the impact pushed the curse back a step.
Yuji followed with a front kick aimed at center mass that Mahito absorbed by softening his torso on contact. The foot sank into at the same time as Mahito brought the scythe shaped hand up then down towards Yuji's face but Yuji caught it just a few inches from his left eye. Yuji struggled due to being in an awkward position but thought quickly to break out of his predicament.
He yanked the appendage to the left, steadied his free foot then used it to jump up just enough to tock Mahito's skull with a kick. Mahito was sent spinning from the strike while Yuji fell to the floor but quickly recovered. Mahito had also recovered moved with the spin then bolted towards Yuji with an extended limb, forcing Yuji to flip backwards onto his palms in order to dodge.
But once Yuji was back on his feet he jumped up again and tucked in his knees then slammed them forward to dropkick infused with cursed energy to send Mahito away. Yuji went one direction while Mahito went the other direction simultaneously. After he came to a rest Yuji eventually got himself up while facing away from Mahito as he took a deep breath.
Mahito rolled to a stop and shot up to his feet with a skid across the blood slick tile. He popped his left shoulder back into its socket with a wet click but he didn't choose to immediately attack again.
"Well well well... You've picked up a few new tricks since I've been gone Itadori. Last time we fought you were all fists and no brains but now you got fancy footwork and smarter decision making. Color me surprised" Mahito looked over his shoulder.
"It's almost like someone sat you down and taught you how to fight with your head instead of just your heart..." Mahito gave a slight chuckle as he turned to face Yuji who still hadn't turned around.
"Let's just say I got some pointers from someone that makes me want to be better" Yuji stated simply.
"Someone who makes you want to be better?" He repeated the words in a mocking tone.
"Well isn't that sweet Yuji. It truly is. It's the kind of thing that would make a great eulogy someday wouldn't you say?" Mahito's arms shifted behind his back as if he was stretching.
"But I'll tell you what" Mahito grinned as his hands returned to his sides.
"If you're going to pull out all the stops and show me everything your little mentor taught you then I think it's only fair that I return the favor. Wouldn't want you to think I wasn't taking this seriously..." Mahito rolled his right hand.
"But before that I feel like reminiscing for a bit. I've been thinking about Junpei and how quickly it all happened back then. One second he was standing there looking at you like you were the first good thing that ever happened to him and the next second he wasn't Junpei anymore" Mahito watched as Yuji looked over his shoulder with a death glare.
"Do you ever wonder if he felt it? The exact moment he stopped being the person you cared about and started being something I made? I wanted to reexperience it by making that fake from earlier but he was just as boring and meaningless as before" Mahito was baiting Yuji and he had him hook line and sinker.
"You keep his name out of your mouth!!" Yuji clenched his fists and immediately went on the a offensive with his anger leading his march.
Mahito's left hand came forward before Yuji could make it halfway to him. The fingers opened with a flick and the shape he'd been concealing in his palm was revealed. A small transfigured soul that had been the trap card he hid up a sleeve for this exact moment.
"Body Repel"
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To be continued...
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Amidst the aftermath, Nobara Kugisaki refused to stay behind as Nanami had ordered. Her eyes scoured every shadow, every fallen fragment of what once was while searching for any sign of Yuji or Megumi. Her mission was to find both of them and get the hell out while they could.
As she navigated the streets, the echoes of distant screams and the whispered lament of dying buildings followed her every step. The devastation was nearly absolute yet her resolve burned like a stubborn flame amid the darkness. Then in the midst of the debris strewn alleyway, a sliver of motion against the backdrop of blackened walls caught her attention for just a moment.
"Dammit you two where the hell are you?..." she muttered under her breath.
"Grade one is the minimum level required for the trials ahead so you'd only...get in the way. So please just wait here" Nanami's voice echoed in the back of her mind
"Like hell I'd do that. There's too much action going on with these two still out here" She chuckled lightly.
She continued running then eventually traveled down a side street upon hearing a sound somewhere within it. It didn't take long for her to find what caused it though because something began to move into the light. It had stitched skin running in patchwork lines in multiple areas with that same mocking grin she had heard about from Yuji and Nanami.
"Well well well~" Mahito tilted his head
"I wasn't expecting a stray thread to still be lingering around and such a pretty one at that" He said softly as if greeting an old acquaintance
"You're Mahito..." Nobara subconsciously grabbed a nail from her pouch.
"Oh good! I guess word gets around pretty well among sorcerers. I'm so famous now~" Mahito's grin widened.
"Yeah. Famous for running away like a little bitch" Nobara had the biggest self satisfying grin on her face.
"You're a feisty one! Killing you will definitely be worthwhile..." Mahito was bit annoyed by her statement but he didn't let it show.
"By the way, are you searching for Yuji by any chance? Because I am too! Maybe we can look together while frolicking in the destruction!" His arms spread wide.
"Hell no!" Nobara replied sharply
"Oh come on! We could retrace his steps, bond over shared interests... I hear that's what friends of friends are supposed to do" He chuckled to himself.
"I'm not here to play any of your games you Frankenstein rip off!" she snapped
"You're the one that messed with our idiot" Nobara's fists tightened.
"And I'm here to collect on that..."
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Authors note:
A solo Yuji chapter? who would've thought! I wanted to give him the spot light for this as well as the next chapter. I also had to think of a unique way of tying this together considering Nanami isn't in this station like he was in the anime/manga. I did my best to have Yuji kinda mirror want was happening to Nanami with the whole beach scene as a nice little homage to it but with it's unique take.