Chapter Text
“Finally!” Nobara drawled out. “Man, I’m fucking exhausted. I can’t believe a pretty person like me got to do this much dirty work in a day,” she complained while trying to smooth out the creases on her uniform.
Yuuji can hardly blame her for it. It has been a pretty exhausting day for all of them. The three first years were assigned to exorcise a bunch of curses in a town near their school. Of course, without a doubt, he knew that they would be able to accomplish their mission without failure. They have been improving their techniques over the past few months after all. What they were not informed of was the sheer quantity of curses invading the area. There were mostly Grade 4 curses with a few Grade 3’s, and while there were able to get rid of all of them, it still took them hours to take down the very last one, a troublesome and ugly-looking third grade curse with way too many mouths.
They left the school at 9 in the morning, arrived at the location twenty minutes later, and have been dealing with the mess ever since.
It’s almost 1:30 now. Yuuji thought as he glanced at a clock inside a nearby shop. Damn, so we have been fighting for four hours straight. It was only then when the adrenaline was wearing off that he registered the tingling ache in his arms and legs. Even for a person with inhumane physical strength as him felt the fatigue of fighting for hours. They haven’t even had any lunch yet, so maybe that’s one of the reason he’s tired.
He glanced to his side to look at Megumi, who looks just as disheveled as they were but not as vocal with his complaints—though the ever-present crease between his eyebrows shows his annoyance of today’s agenda—and sees him typing away at his phone. Probably notifying Gojo-sensei that we’re done here.
The three of them walked to a nearby alley with no people around so they could catch their breath. Nobara was still trying to fix her appearance (can’t let herself look disastrous for too long after all, her male companions can take that role instead). Megumi just stood against a wall with his arms crossed and head turned downwards, while Yuuji crouched down near his two friends while looking at the sky.
Man, I’m hungry. I hope Gojo-sensei would treat us to food after this.
Just as Yuuji was thinking about the possible restaurant they could go to, Gojo-sensei suddenly appeared in front of them wearing his usual blindfold and wide grin.
“Fuu~ As expected of my wonderful students. You all dealt with those curses without a single one left.” Gojo gave them a tiny applaud. He knew without a doubt that those three could handle a mission like that, if the barren land he took a quick glance at earlier before going to his students’ location was telling anything. Though he may or may have not miscalculated the amount of time that it would take them to finish.
“Sensei! I can’t believe you let us go on a tiresome mission like that, you could have handled that yourself without even breaking a sweat,” Nobara grumbled while giving Gojo the stink eye.
“Well well, I need my precious students to gain more experience if they want to make it far in the jujutsu world after all. I must say, Sensei is very proud of your improvement. Though I will admit that I would not have taken as long as you guys did,” he teases them.
Why can’t he just can’t praise us normally without bragging about his own power himself? Megumi complains internally but would rather not let Gojo the satisfaction of him answering to his teacher’s attempts to get on their nerves.
While the other two students were not as amused with their sensei’s ‘compliments,’ Yuuji felt elated that he noticed their improvement. He was always happy receiving words of praises from Gojo-sensei after all, whether or not the others share the same sentiments.
He stood up to greet Gojo. “Sensei! Are you gonna treat us to lunch after this? Though it is a bit late for it but we’re all starving you know?,” Yuuji says as he pouts at his teacher while rubbing his stomach in an attempt to get him to answer his wishes.
“Yuuji-kun! Look at you, all tired and sweaty. Yuuji-kun must have been working hard in defeating those curses huh?” Gojo says as he ruffles Yuuji’s that Yuuji happily accepts. He never turned away from any form of affections from his teacher, even from the start of the school year. “Well, since my favorite student asked me to, I’ll be taking all of you to eat out! Even though I actually already had that in mind, but because of Yuuji-kun’s insistence, I’ll take you three to a fancier restaurant this time. All on me!”
At those words, all of their eyes lit up, even Megumi. Nobara just grumbled ‘he better! We did an amazing job after all!”
While Nobara and Yuuji were already imagining the place that they were going to—sushi, ramen, maybe something foreign? They were excited at the thought—the four of them walked together to meet Ijichi who was waiting in the car.
“You better not be messing with us like you did last time,” Megumi questioned Gojo with a glare, the first words he muttered since after finishing their mission. He will never forget the time when Gojo ordered a whole cheesecake (one that even had Megumi interested in knowing its taste) that arrived at the dorm, only to announce that it was only for him and teleported away, taking the cake with him and leaving a murderous Nobara, a pissed-off Megumi, and a pouting Yuuji behind in the common room.
“Why Megumi! I can’t believe you would doubt your dear sensei like that! You wound me, when have I ever did such a thing?” Gojo declared dramatically while feigning hurt at Megumi’s words.
“Way too many times in the past, that’s when,” Megumi just grumbled under his breath but resigned himself to ignoring all three of his companion’s chattering for the rest of the walk. He’s been dealing with Gojo’s bullshit since he was a kid and he’s way too tired to keep up with the man’s mischief on top of his two friends’ chaotic energy.
By the time they reached the car, Ijichi is nowhere to be found. Odd, since he’s usually outside waiting for them by the time they finished their missions.
“Hey sensei, where’s Ijichi-san? He didn’t tell us he’d be going somewhere while we were busy,” Yuuji asked since he’s the one most concerned about the assistant director’s disappearance.
“Oh I just dismissed and sent him home early. Today, your great and amazing Gojo Satoru-sensei will be the one accompanying you for the rest of the day! Aren’t you three looking forward to that?” He announces as he enters the driver’s seat. After hearing this, Yuuji immediately booked it and called shotgun. He doesn’t usually get to ride the seat since it’s kind of awkward to be that near to Ijichi (no offense to the man, but as nice as Yuuji is to any decent human being, he isn’t as close to him as he is to Gojo-sensei). Also, out of the three of them, he’s the only one who’s happy about sitting next to sensei, so no harm no foul.
“Did you at least called him a cab or did you just bully him to leave?” Megumi asked only mildly concerned for the man while ignoring the last part of what Gojo said. Poor Ijichi is too often a victim of Gojo’s bullying. He and Nobara got into the car with less enthusiasm as Yuuji, but really, only Yuuji is the one who doesn’t mind the very presence of their sensei. How and why? Megumi doesn’t really bother to think about it deeper.
“Hmmm…not telling!~” Gojo says (Ah, it’s the latter one then, Megumi concludes, but really not that surprising) as he starts up the engine and drives away after making sure everyone has their seatbelts on. He may not be the epitome of a model adult slash teacher, but he still has some semblance of being responsible, somewhat.
They made their way throughout the streets of Tokyo. While waiting to arrive at whatever their destination is, Yuuji proposed that they play a quick game of shiritori. Gojo, ever the indulgent one when it comes to Yuuji, agreed to play immediately, while Nobara said that it was a childish game but didn’t really refuse. Megumi didn’t agree nor refuse but Yuuji decided he’ll include him anyway, he didn’t want Megumi to be left out afterall.
(“Kitsune,” “Neko,” “Konbu,” “Buta,” “Takoyaki,” “Kimono,” “…Nobara,” “Hey! That’s not fair, you can’t use your own name!,” “Ha? Who says I can’t?”)
Before Yuuji and Nobara can get into a heated argument—even with his seatbelt on, he can and will argue with Nobara that, no, using their names should not be considered—Gojo announced that they have arrived at their destination, much to Megumi’s relief. He did not want a front row seat to those two being unnecessarily noisy right after an exhausting mission. He already does not have enough energy to deal with them on a day-to-day basis, he did not want to add a migraine on top of that today thank you very much.
Gojo-sensei, as it turns out, was not messing with nor lying to them about treating them to a nice restaurant. Said destination was a place that served sukiyaki and shabu-shabu and apparently, according to Nobara’s knowledge on trending things, was pretty popular for their quality and service. Their eyes lit up and they could practically feel their mouths drooling at the thought of having the rare opportunity to get to eat at a place like this. The first years (read: Nobara and Yuuji) excitedly gave their thanks to Gojo-sensei and were the first ones to enter the restaurant, Gojo and Megumi following not far behind.
All four them sat at a table, with Yuuji and Gojo-sensei sitting next to each other at one side, and Nobara and Megumi at the other. They were just waiting for the food to be served, they also found out that Gojo made a reservation for them beforehand and the students’ moods just brightened up even more. Yuuji cheerfully thanked their teacher once again and Gojo just basked in Yuuji’s words. He always liked it when Yuuji told him he was great, and though he does care for all of his students, Nobara and Megumi’s recognitions (if there were any) were just a bonus to him, not that he would outright say that.
They kept talking to each other as they always did when they’re together, even as the food arrived and they started eating. The students can’t deny that they were all starving and did not held back on stuffing their plates and mouths, though Yuuji did not have the same poise as Nobara and Megumi, but wasn’t really concerned. He’s a growing boy after all.
They finished all their food about an hour later, since they weren’t rushing anyways. They were only assigned for the mission earlier, they would have the rest of the day to themselves after they were done.
It was past 3pm that they decide to head back to the dorms. Gojo-sensei stayed back for a bit to pay for the food (using his black card, of course) while the first-years walked out and waited for him outside the restaurant.
It didn’t even take Gojo more than five minutes before he was meeting his students outside.
As they were walking to the car, Yuuji thought about what else he could do when they get back. He could watch that one movie Gojo-sensei recommended, or read that new manga he bought the other day, or maybe try out a new recipe, or-
Just as he was getting lost in his thoughts, a familiar voice called out to him. “Yuu-chan?,” the voice said and he looked towards it to see a very familiar face as well, one that he hadn’t seen much ever since he got into Jujutsu High, but one that he was always happy to see.
“Aya-chan?!”