TO LOVE A MONSTER ❪ jujutsu kaisen ❫

ix: training sessions and the starting of friendships.

TOKYO JUJUTSU HIGH, NOVEMBER 2016.

"Oi," Maki leans against her door frame, dressed in her training gear. Her weapon lies on her shoulders, propped up casually as if it doesn't require a ton of energy to hold it properly. "Let's train," the First Years had been doing that more often these days. They had come to the realization that while Kaori refused all of their invitations, batting at her door and inviting themselves in wouldn't be rudely refuted because Kaori was, as Panda put it, 'way too nice'. More like 'Kaori doesn't know how to tell them no without offending him'.

"Now?" Kaori questions, looking away from the book she had been reading.

"Now. You fight physically more than the others and I'm tired of beating Yuuta again and again," her voice is smug and Kaori hears Yuuta protest behind her. They must all have come, she thinks and sighs, closing her book and nodding. Maki's smirk turns into a more genuine smile and Kaori is confused by it. The girl is like a tightly closed book, something that was expected from her tough upbringing, but there are moments like now when she softens. They walk to the training field, Kaori dropping down to her feet and stretching her limbs out. She prefers to train on her own, being uncomfortable with the thought of people getting a read on her attacking pattern, but fighting against someone like Maki would come useful one day, she rationalizes. "No cursed energy reinforced attacks. Just katana vs katana," she throws a wooden katana at Kaori who catches it.

"Alright, start!" Panda swishes his hand downwards and the two girls fly at each other. While Maki is all brute strength and clever maneuvers, Kaori is graceful and uses her light form to her advantage to jump over Maki's attacks. She needs to build up her strength, she notes as her katana slips under the power of Maki's strike and she kicks at the girl's leg, something Maki dodges effortlessly. They're equally matched, dragging the fight into longer than it should be as they duck and avoid each other's hits. It ends with Maki pinning Kaori down, both of them panting but smiling at each other from a battle well fought.

"Congratulations," Kaori says sincerely as Maki gets off of her. The girl offers her a hand, laughing when she overestimates Kaori's weight and almost sends them crashing into each other.

"You're good," she admits freely. "Way better than Yuuta over there," she teases and the boy calls out an offended 'hey!'. Kaori's lips twitch in amusement and she huffs out a small laugh.

"I'm sure that's not too hard," she adds, making the boy wallow while the other First Years perk up at her attempt at a joke. Kaori walks over to the stairs, collapsing on them and gratefully accepting the water bottle Inumaki hands her. She sips at the water, picking up the bottle and letting the rest of the water cascade over her flushed cheeks. Yuuta stares as droplets of water cling to her cheeks and fall down her neck, fanning himself as he looks away quickly. Panda snickers and elbows him and Yuuta accidentally smacks Inumaki when he tries to elbow him back, prompting furious whispering among the three boys as they bicker. The light bathes Maki in warmth, bringing out the flecks in her amber eyes and the barely there smile lines around her eyes. It makes her seem more formidable but painfully human at the same time.

"Where did you learn to fight like that?" Maki asks curiously. "You have a Cursed Technique, don't you?" Kaori tenses at the mention of her technique, taking a swig of her water before answering truthfully.

"I don't like using it. It's too unstable," she adds and doesn't go any further even as their curious eyes bore into her. "Otou-san wanted me to be able to fight more hand on hand anyways," 'wanted to make you his perfect little assassin,' a voice that sounds suspiciously like her own Curse whispers maliciously and Kaori's grip on her bottle tightens.

"Fujiwara Tooru, huh," Maki leans back against the stairs. The morning sun casts golden flecks into her amber eyes as she lounges like a goddess of war, her sculpted arms tensing and untensing as she plays with her tool. "I've never met him, only heard of him briefly. He doesn't like people without cursed energy, does he?"

"He can be quite rude to them," Kaori tries to keep her words polite. 'Quite rude' is an understatement when it comes to describing Tooru's behavior. While he presents a placid, charming personality to others, his disdain towards non-sorcerers and people who lack cursed energy is vapid. He only uses them as he wishes to and makes sure that they're aware of their precarious mortality.

"You're 'quite' polite, Kaori," she startles at the affectionate note in the girl's voice but accepts it. Maki has always seemed like the person who wants others to prove their strengths before she accepts them as her friends, and Kaori has supposedly passed her test. Something unsettles itself in her stomach at the thought of the four of them seeing her as their 'friend' and she knows now that she has to kill Yuuta far away from their eyes if she ever wants to keep them.

"It's the eloquence lessons. You learn to be polite after a few sessions gone wrong," Maki nods as if she's used to it. She most likely is. They're both part of important clans, both at the bottom of the hierarchy and bastards in their own ways. Maybe that's why they were both so wary of each other. A bastard knows how to survive, has to learn how to survive with quick and sly ways, and they both are survivors in their own ways. 

"The life of belonging to a clan is severely underestimated by others," she comments and Inumaki chimes in with 'Salmon'. There's bitterness in all three of them as they think about their respective clans ❪ one who was made into their perfect figurehead but was kept hidden away, one that was scorned and swept aside, one who is only allowed to live based on his usefulness ❫ and Panda and Yuuta exchange glances before swiftly changing the topic.