Mirror Eyes & Bright Blue Skies | Jujutsu Kaisen

ⅩⅩ. Brief Beach Vacation

Ikuko almost didn't go to training the next morning. She'd laid in bed, staring into her pillow, heart beating rapidly, her thoughts racing through the events of the previous night and wondering what she was supposed to do. How was she supposed to act now that she knew she liked Gojo?

I like Gojo Satoru...

It almost felt like a dream. How had she, Nishimura Ikuko, a woman who'd spent most of her life avoiding attachment in order to prevent others from getting hurt, managed to allow herself to form a serious crush on someone? And on Gojo Satoru of all people? Strongest sorcerer, extremely handsome, and funny. He was out of her league.

There's no way he's ever gonna like me back... she'd thought to herself, It'll be best if I just try to act normal.

And so, in order to act normal, Ikuko did in fact go to training that morning, although she arrived several minutes late.

Perhaps Gojo-san is late as well? He's late often enough... she thought as she pushed her way into the room.

But to her dismay, as Ikuko entered the room, she saw that Gojo was leaning against the wall, fingers tapping restlessly against his crossed forearm.

He noticed her entrance and pushed off the wall to walk toward her, "You're late, Iku-chan," he said and booped her nose, "You didn't take my advice and go straight to bed, did you?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah," she laughed nervously, rubbing the back of her neck, gaze wandering everywhere but on the white-haired man right in front of her, "You got me. It took me a while to fall asleep, so I ended up so exhausted I overslept."

Ikuko heard him chuckle, "Chin up now. I'm just teasing you. No need to look like a dog with its tail between its legs."

The feeling of Gojo's fingers tapping her under her chin startled Ikuko so badly that she gasped, jerked her head back, and stumbled a step backward. She quickly looked up to see Gojo's brow raise in confusion.

So much for acting normal. Get it together, Ikuko.

"Sorry, sorry," she said with a chuckle, hoping to laugh off the incident, "You startled me, is all. Anyway, what's on the agenda for today?"

Gojo hummed then smiled, "In light of yesterday's incident, I've decided we'll work on grappling!"

"Grappling?" Ikuko's heart sank.

"Yes! So that you can kick butt next time something or someone grabs you."

They'd worked on grappling before, though only a small amount as most jujutsu sorcerers rarely found themselves in purely human vs human, purely physical altercations, so Ikuko knew that her heart was in for a bad time. She needed to emotionally distance herself quickly.

So as Ikuko worked through the warmups—the shrimp, triangle sit-ups, etc—she focused her mind entirely on the present, the physical, on breathing and contracting muscles, feeling the flow of cursed energy through her body. Technicality would save her from the awkwardness.

"Alright! Now let's learn some techniques to break grips."

Wrist grip break, clothing hold breaks, forearm grip break—through it all she focused her mind entirely on learning the move and replicating it.

"Grab my hand and my thumb, then pull back on the thumb while pushing my hand until I let go."

She nodded.

"Nicely done! Now I've got your wrist. Use your other hand to push down your arm and against my grip. As you do that, move to try to get behind me so that you're simultaneously twisting my arm behind my back. The pain and awkward position will loosen my grip."