The night air was thinner than the day's.
While the sweltering heat that had simmered all afternoon still clung to the walls and the pavement, a different kind of silence always settled over everything once the sun finished its descent.
The chirping of insects, the occasional hum of a car passing in the distance, the rustle of leaves at the forest's edge.
Nights in sparsely populated places were usually like this. Quiet, which only served to make every minor presence feel more distinct.
Itadori Yuji sat perched on the edge of a perimeter wall.
He was on the outskirts of the campus.
To be precise, he wasn't outside the barrier, but rather at the point closest to the boundary between the inside and the outside.
It was a spot where few people walked and surveillance appeared lax, but in reality, a single refined sense could read exactly who passed through.
He held a can of coffee in one hand while his other remained buried in his pocket as he stared at the night sky.
Ten minutes had passed since he'd gotten out of bed and walked back out here.
Then, he caught an unfamiliar presence.
More accurately, it wasn't unfamiliar; his memory had recognized it first.
There were almost no footsteps.
His Cursed Energy was practically non-existent.
And yet, the sensation of him treading through the space was excessively vivid. It wasn't the presence of a man so much as the presence of a walking blade.
Yuji slowly lowered his gaze.
A man was stepping out from the edge of the forest shadows.
A black t-shirt.
A tight-fitting top.
Despite his casual attire, his entire body lacked openings. Every step he took exerted a kind of pressure that made one's breath hitch.
It was Toji Fushiguro.
As he drew closer, he stopped walking the moment his eyes met Yuji's.
A brief silence followed.
Only the sound of the night insects grew louder.
Yuji spoke while remaining perched on the wall.
"I figured you'd show up."
Toji pulled the corner of his mouth up just slightly.
"Seemed that way."
"You're just good at sneaking in. It doesn't mean I'm dull."
"Doesn't look like either is the case to me."
It was a short exchange.
But within it lay a strange tension.
Both men already knew what kind of person the other was. They had learned enough about each other at the Tombs of the Star Corridor. Having survived a battle where they could have killed or been killed, they had no need for pretenses.
Toji glanced toward the campus for a moment through the darkness.
"Your security is a mess."
Yuji shook his head.
"You're the anomaly."
"That's the first time I've heard that."
"I doubt that's your first lie, either."
Only then did Toji let out a small chuckle.
It was a short, low laugh.
He stepped closer and stopped just below the wall.
Yuji took a sip from his can. His gaze remained fixed on Toji.
"And?"
"And what?"
"You must have a reason for seeking me out first."
Toji didn't answer immediately.
If he looked up, he saw Yuji sitting atop the wall; if he looked down, he saw the dirt beneath his feet. He stared at a point somewhere between the two for a moment before speaking with utter flat indifference.
"Megumi Fushiguro."
Yuji said nothing.
That one name was enough.
There was no other reason for Toji to bother coming all the way here in the first place.
Toji fumbled in his pocket as if to pull out a cigarette, but then stopped. Even if his hands were idle, his mind wasn't.
"The thing you said back then."
"Which part."
"About my son."
He swiped the tip of his tongue against the inside of his cheek.
"You called my son by his name without any explanation."
Yuji looked down from the wall.
Toji's face didn't seem to have changed much. He was still dry, still indifferent, and still wore that annoyed expression.
But beneath that surface lay a very thin layer of wariness.
It was only natural.
A brat he had never met knew his son's name as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Furthermore, the context in which that name had been brought up was bizarre. The reason he wasn't killed? Because of Megumi.
There was no way Toji could simply overlook that.
Yuji glanced at the night sky for a second before lowering his gaze again.
"Were you curious?"
Toji responded curtly.
"A little."
"Liar."
Toji smirked.
"A lot. Happy now?"
"I thought so."
Toji wiped the smile from his face.
"You owe me an answer."
This time, the air changed.
The words that had been tossed back and forth lightheartedly began to carry weight, bit by bit. Toji wasn't joking now.
Yuji knew that too.
Silence drifted between them for a moment.
Yuji stared down at his coffee can before finally speaking.
"Let me ask you first."
Toji narrowed his eyes.
"Ask what."
"What do you plan to do with Megumi?"
A brief stillness.
The night deepened just a fraction more.
Toji didn't answer immediately.
It wasn't because the answer was difficult, but because he felt that saying it too easily would make it sound pathetic. He knew better than anyone how foreign it felt to speak about his own son.
He was never a good father or a responsible head of a household to begin with. He was a man who killed for money, lived as the wind blew, and couldn't even put a proper price on his own life in the end.
And yet, strangely, whenever Megumi was mentioned, he felt a slight discomfort in his gut.
Toji spoke in a low voice.
"I don't want to send him there."
Yuji listened quietly.
"Where."
"To the Zen'in Clan."
His tone was dry. But that dryness made it feel more sincere.
Toji rubbed the back of his neck.
"At first, I thought I'd just grab some cash and hand him over."
"You only thought about it?"
"I've always been flexible when it comes to that sort of thing."
Yuji let out an incredibly faint snort.
Toji didn't take offense to the reaction.
Because it was an undeniable truth.
He continued.
"But things got weird once you brought up that name."
"What did?"
"It sounded as if I'd already lost something I hadn't even thrown away yet."
Yuji fell silent for a long while after hearing that.
It was a statement unlike the Toji he'd seen at the Tombs of the Star Corridor. To be more precise, it carried more weight precisely because it was coming from Toji.
Yuji slowly hopped down from the wall. Toji's eyes followed the movement the whole way down.
Yuji getting closer didn't make the dangerous aura around him grow any stronger. That was always the strange part. If he truly intended to cut someone, his presence became even thinner. Toji had already learned that lesson back at the Tombs.
Yuji stopped only a few paces away from Toji.
"Don't you have any intention of raising him yourself?"
Toji answered.
"None."
The answer was so fast it sounded almost cruel for a second.
But he immediately added,
"It's not that I don't want to. I can't."
This time, Yuji looked at him steadily. Toji didn't avoid his eyes.
"You know what I do for a living."
"I know."
"Even right now, I don't have the money or a job to just go settle down somewhere. It's not like that just appears because I want it to. What am I supposed to do with a kid in tow?"
He wasn't airing out his misery. He was just stating facts.
"If I send him to the Zen'in Clan, at least he won't starve to death. But as you know, that house is rotten."
He let out an incredibly brief laugh. It was more like the sound of an exhaled breath.
"Even a guy like me hates that place."
There was truth in those words. Yuji asked quietly,
"So?"
This time, Toji raised his head immediately.
He looked directly into Yuji's eyes.
"You take him."
A single short sentence. Yet the weight behind it was greater than expected.
The night air chilled slightly.
Yuji didn't speak for a moment. Toji endured the silence.
This was a request.
No, perhaps it was a pathetic plea from someone who had discarded almost all of his pride.
But he had no intention of sugarcoating it at this stage.
He continued.
"You're strong."
"I know."
"Your personality is shit, too."
"Better than yours."
"Maybe so."
Toji gave a small nod.
"But I figured having you around would at least be better than the Zen'in Clan."
Upon hearing that, Yuji let out a long, slow breath.
"Your standards for leaving a child with someone are incredibly low."
Toji shrugged.
"My points of comparison are myself and the Zen'in Clan."
"I'll give you that much."
For a fleeting second, both men let out a simultaneous noise that resembled a laugh. But the atmosphere quickly sank again.
Yuji asked,
"Don't you have any intention of telling him yourself?"
Toji furrowed his brow.
"To Megumi?"
"Yeah."
"You mean right now?"
"Now would be fine, but eventually."
Toji looked away, glancing at the dirt floor. For a split second, his eyes wavered.
"…I don't know."
This time, his voice was truly honest.
"Do I look like the kind of person who's good at that sort of thing?"
"No."
"Then there's your answer."
Yuji didn't push him further after that response.
Instead, after a brief pause, he said,
"I don't mind taking him."
Toji slowly raised his head.
Yuji's tone was plain.
"But I have a condition."
"Say it."
"Don't run away."
A short silence.
The look in Toji's eyes shifted slightly.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Exactly what I said."
Yuji spoke with a tone that was neither cold nor soft.
"Don't think about dumping Megumi on me and vanishing. As long as you're alive, you're his father."
Toji made no reply. Those words seemed to take an unusually long time to process.
It wasn't a condemnation or a gesture of forgiveness; it just settled into him like an undeniable fact.
Yuji continued.
"I can tear him away from the Zen'in Clan, protect him if I have to, and show him the way. But I won't live your portion of his life for you."
Toji pressed the tip of his tongue against his inner lip once more.
The words were uncomfortable. And because they were so accurate, they were even more uncomfortable.
"You're a real piece of work, aren't you?"
He muttered lowly.
"And your personality is damn prickly, too."
Yuji replied with his gaze fixed.
"If you're going to save someone, you should do it right."
Toji let out a very short laugh at those words. It was small, rough, and slightly defeated.
"…It's hard to argue back when a guy like you says something like that."
Yuji remained silent. Toji looked up at the sky for a moment.
The moon was absent, and the stars were dim. There was only the darkness peculiar to the outskirts of a city.
He spoke with his hands thrust deep into his pockets.
"Fine. I'll try it."
Yuji studied his face for a moment.
It wasn't a lie. At least not in this moment. That was enough.
Yuji gave a short nod.
"Understood."
The moment he heard that answer, Toji felt a strange release of tension. It was almost ridiculous. Was entrusting someone with his son's problems supposed to feel this liberating?
But it couldn't be helped. He was certain that this was the most proper choice out of all those currently in his grasp.
After a short while, Toji asked with feigned indifference.
"One more thing."
"What."
"What do you think Megumi..."
Yuji listened intently.
"...will be like as a Jujutsu Sorcerer?"
The question was very low and brief. But within it was far more than one would expect from someone like Toji.
Yuji lowered his gaze slightly before raising it again.
"He will be more brilliant than anyone, and overwhelmingly strong."
Toji's eyes flickered ever so slightly.
"Being strong is no good."
"He takes after you, after all."
"That's unpleasant to hear."
"I hope he doesn't take after your personality as much, though."
"You really are a piece of work until the very end."
Yuji let out an extremely faint smile.
"But you're a decent guy."
Toji couldn't say anything for a long time after hearing that.
He's strong.
He's a decent guy.
It felt like those two sentences settled things to an uncanny degree.
He turned his head away to look at the forest for no reason. Emotion always tended to show itself in unnecessary ways.
"Forget it. If someone as absurdly strong as you... thinks that highly of Megumi, I guess I don't need to worry about his future."
After uttering those words of relief, he turned around.
Yuji asked,
"Just leaving?"
"You must know that staying here would just be awkward."
"It was already awkward."
"That's not something you should be the one to say."
Toji walked a few paces and then stopped. Without looking back, he spoke in a very low voice.
"Thanks."
Yuji didn't answer.
Toji thought that the lack of a response was actually quite like Yuji.
A silence that suggested nothing more needed to be exchanged.
He raised a hand and gave a light wave before walking off into the darkness.
His presence vanished quickly.
As expected, he was skilled at disappearing.
Yuji stood there, staring at the spot for a long while.
Megumi.
The name lingered quietly in his mind.
Now, one thing had changed.
And perhaps quite a few things would change as a result. Just then, a familiar voice drifted from behind him.
"...Wow."
It was Gojo.
Yuji slowly turned his head.
Gojo Satoru was leaning against a shadow on the other side of the wall, looking over with his arms crossed.
Yuji narrowed his eyes slightly.
"Since when."
"Since the middle?"
"So you were eavesdropping."
Gojo smiled shamelessly.
"I didn't intend to. I was just coming by and the mood was so weird I stopped."
"That's what people call eavesdropping."
"You already knew I was here, didn't you? But more than that, you're full of surprises."
Gojo pushed himself off the wall and walked over slowly.
"You're a much more decent person than I thought."
Yuji let out something like a sigh.
"Is that a compliment?"
"In its own way?"
"It doesn't exactly make me feel great."
Gojo stood alongside Yuji and looked toward the direction where Toji had disappeared.
"It's still amazing though. To hear that famous guy, the one they call the Gifted Tyrant, talk like that."
"He's a father, after all."
Gojo was quiet for a second. Then, he let out a very small laugh.
"Right."
A brief stillness.
Gojo immediately narrowed his eyes and asked,
"But why didn't you tell me?"
"Tell you what."
"About the kid, Megumi."
Yuji looked at him.
Gojo's face was half-playful, half-serious.
"It would've been good for me to know too. You should share your info ahead of time."
Yuji thought for a moment before speaking.
"Everything shows on your face when you know something."
Gojo laughed as if that was preposterous.
"Wow, that's harsh."
"It's not exactly a lie though, is it?"
Gojo tried to argue back, but then he just smirked.
It wasn't a lie.
The night air was still thin and cool.
Just a short while ago, this place had been the site of talk about death and fatherhood, but with Gojo joining him, the atmosphere became a bit less heavy.
Gojo clasped his hands behind his head and spoke.
"Hey, Yuji."
"What."
"You're really kind in the strangest ways."
Yuji replied without even turning his head.
"Shut up."
Gojo laughed.
"Not denying it?"
"Too lazy to."
"That response is the most suspicious of all."
Yuji didn't bother responding after that.
He just looked up at the night sky for a fleeting moment.
The sound of cicadas echoed in the distance again. The season hadn't completely burned out just yet.
And somewhere, fate, which had begun to shift, was quietly moving forward.
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