𝐁𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐃𝐒𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐃 | satoru gojo

06 | Calamitous Fifth Cousin Twice Removed

"Itadori-kun? Where's Gojō-sensei?"

True to his word, as soon as Gojō and Yūji had returned to the common room, Yūji had immediately shouldered all responsibility for the child in order to let his sleep-deprived teacher recover from what he called "the mother of all hangovers." As dusk began to fall, the other students who had been out and about enjoying their first day of freedom slowly began to trickle back into the dormitory, starting with Maki.

"Oh, Maki-senpai," greeted Yūji, looking up from his phone and waving at his first schoolmate to appear. After Keigo had woken up, Yūji had followed the instructions in the notebook and provided him with another bottle, burped him, and then allowed him to roll around on the floor on one of the numerous blankets that had been stuffed into his duffel bag. Yūji had had little issue with him, and was glad that he was proving easy to look after. "How was your day?"

Maki sweatdropped as Yūji patted Keigo on the stomach, genuinely surprised to see that no harm had befallen Keigo during his time in Yūji's care.

"Have you really... been looking after him this whole time?" asked Maki cautiously, earning a grin from the pink haired male.

"Haha! You're just as surprised as I am, right?" he joked, turning his attention back to Keigo. The infant was now lying on his back, with a pacifier in his mouth as he flung his arms and legs around. "I read through the notebook while Keigo was asleep, and learned a lot of new things about him. Here, look at the back."

Yūji reached for the notebook that lay on the couch, and handed it towards Maki. Maki promptly took a seat beside him and began flicking through the pages of the notebook, where she found a short biography and Keigo's daily schedule neatly written at the end. The biography was accompanied with a photo of Keigo as a newborn, which had the note "Around an hour after Keigo's birth" scrawled beneath it. Even when he was fresh out of the womb, Keigo had sported a generous head of hair, much like he did in present times.

"His full name is Keigo Sugawara, and he was born on March the fifteenth," elaborated Yūji, placing his free hand on Keigo's leg to prevent him from rolling away. "So... he's about four months old."

"Has Gojō-sensei had a look at this? Surely this could be a lead on finding his parents?"

"I wish." Yūji groaned and hung his head. "After we saw Principal Yaga, we went to Ieiri-sensei to see if she could do a DNA test on him, but she said we have to go back on Monday. I felt bad for Gojō-sensei because he kept bitching about his hangover, so I volunteered to look after Keigo while he got some rest. I'll take Keigo to him when I go to bed so he can look after him overnight."

Maki shook her head in disappointment, but wasn't surprised by the news that Gojō had skived off of looking after Keigo. 

"I'm beginning to think that whoever left Keigo here really doesn't know Gojō-sensei that well. I mean... really? Giving him a child? A baby?Just because he's supposedly the strongest sorcerer, it doesn't mean that Keigo is any more safer with him than anyone else."

"He said something like that as well. Well, not exactly, but... he said that a lower-class sorcerer or some sort must have been banking on his reputation as the world's strongest sorcerer, and thought that he'd be the best person to dump their kid on."

"This child would be safer in anyone else's hands. And I mean... anyone."

"Right?" A lightbulb switched in Yūji's head as he remembered something important, and he sat upright with a loud gasp. "I almost forgot! Maki-senpai, do you remember that paper bag we found at the bottom of the bag?!"

"... oh, yeah. What was in it?"

"A lot of money."

Yūji excitedly reached for Keigo's bag and withdrew the paper bag, opening it and pulling out a note that had been inside. It had been overlooked in his and Gojō's disastrous first attempt at changing Keigo's first dirty diaper, and had only come back to Yūji's attention when he was alone with the baby.