Spider-Yūji

Jobs

“So… do you know yet?” Kugisaki asks and Maki tapped her shoulder. She smiles and her date sat beside her. Officially, they weren’t on a date, so Yūji is not third wheeling. At least, that’s what he tells himself.

“No,” Yūji whines. He had the interview a week ago and the results are coming out today. Kugisaki groans in her hands and Maki slurps on her juice box. “Good luck. Heard they’re picky,” Maki informs and Yūji leans against the table in defeat.

“Thank you, Maki-san,” he says into his hands. His phone starts to buzz and saw a call from an unknown number. He answers, hesitant.

“Hello, this is Itadori Yūji?” He answers and Maki gives him a thumbs up. “Hello, Itadori-san. This is Hanami,” he says and Yūji gives wide eyes to Maki and Kugisaki. “Ah, Hanami-sama! How are you?”

Be friendly, be friendly!

Hanami chuckles at Yūji’s small talk. It’s polite but Hanami sees it as… entertaining? “I’m well, Itadori. Yourself?” He asks and Yūji lets out a shaky breath. “Good, thank you!” He beams and realises he is on the phone.

“Great. I wanted to inform you on our decision,” Hanami starts and Yūji nods carefully. “We have reviewed your resume and decided you’d be great for our receptionist role,” Hanami says and Yūji gives a thumbs up to Maki and Nobara.

“Thank you, Sir. I look forward to seeing you on Monday,” Yūji says calmly and Hanami hangs up. Nobara cheers and Maki laughs. “Thank God!” He sighs in relief and relaxes in his seat.

Nobara and Yūji walk home, as they always do and talk to each other about the spiders. “Kenjaku Labs…” Nobara mutters.

“Created the poison in the Spiders. Must’ve done the chips as well,” Yūji states and Nobara nods. “I’m going to work there,” Yūji realises and Nobara nods again. There is a lump in both their throats and Yūji frowns. “Do some investigating, will you?” Nobara asks and Yūji nods. “Of course.”

“It’s a surprisingly quiet day,” Choso, the other receptionist, complains and Yūji frowns. “Is it normally busier?” He asks and Choso nods. He hums in amusement, in addition. “Usually some teenagers come here looking for a science job,” he shrugs and continues on. The other receptionist sighs. “Ooh! I should show you around!” Choso smiles and the receptionist on the far right sighs. “If anything happens, I’ll call you, Choso.” He says and Choso nods.

“Thank you, Kechizu!”

Choso grabs Yūji’s arm and starts pulling him towards the actual labs. The scientists nod at Choso and he smiles  at them. Choso is a lot friendlier than what Yūji suspected when he first saw him.

When Yūji walked in, Choso looked like he was ready to get up and beat his ass. He got up, causally, and Yūji froze. He bowed, deeply, and introduced himself. Choso had started to laugh and Yūji did too. Maybe he was friendly because Yūji had shown him respect. It doesn’t matter. He likes the kid.

“So, experiments!” He repeats over and over, singing the words, and Yūji laughs. “What are these spiders?” Yūji asks and Choso looks at them. “Probably some spider psychology,” he says, shrugging. Yūji nods. “Keen eye you’ve got there, Yūji-kun,” he says and they continue walking.

So they’re keeping it a secret? Yūji asks himself. It won’t be long until the public knows anyway…

Yūji runs alongside Choso’s long stride. Yūji may be tall for his age but Choso is still significantly taller. Choso explains about some microchips to go into “drones” later on. Yūji nods and falls into thought again.

“What are you thinking about, Yūji-kun?” Choso asks, and Yūji jumps. “Oh… uh- my bio exam is coming up,” he half-lies. He isn’t thinking about it but there is one. He needs to be studying soon. Choso hums. “What are you thinking of doing?” He asks, curious. “As a full-time job, I mean.”

Yūji falls into deep thought and answers with a smile. “A biologist would be nice. I would work either here or at Gojo’s facilities-” Yūji starts and Choso looks around urgently and glares at the youth with blonde hair.

“It’s best not to mention him around here,” Choso says, quietly, becoming the guy Yūji thought he was gonna be. Yūji nods, frozen, and Choso smiles again. “Sorry for scaring you, kiddo,” he says and returns to the desk where Kechizu has his head bowed in sleep.

“So you’re saying…” Nobara asks, “that not even the employees know what the spiders are for?” Yūji shakes his head, with a small scowl on his face. “One of the other employees says they were for psychology,” Yūji nods and Nobara scoffs.

She asks what their next class is. “It’s biolo-” he crashes into someone and they fall. Yūji, miracly, keeps his balance. “I’m so sorry,” he apologises and helps collect books. “It’s fine,” he says and Yūji looks up.

The kid has green eyes and black spiky hair. His skin is pale, with a slim face shape. His cheeks are flushed slightly pink. Yūji smiles. “Again, I’m sorry,” he hands the books over once the boy stands. The boy observes him and Yūji looks at the books.

The bell rings for a second time and they all realise they’re late. They bid goodbye and Yūji runs off to Bio with Nobara. He knows their Bio teacher wouldn’t mind that they’re late. Thank God.

Choso hands the key back over to Yūji. It is a game of “rock paper scissors” who should be night guard and Yūji lost against Choso and his brothers. He yawns, thanking the world that tomorrow is Saturday, and leans back in his office chair. The other night guard approaches him and asks him to guard the warehouse downstairs. Yūji nods. He walks down the stairs, with a small flashlight. He is told not to put the lights on unless he thinks someone is stealing.

He walks around once, getting used to the feel of the place. It’s quite big. He feels unlucky that he’s the only one guarding it. Yūji walks around in the big space a few times before hearing shuffling.

He points the flashlight at his feet and it’s just rats. He smiles at the little rodents as they scurry around the place.

A flash of light starts in the dark space and he continues to hear footsteps. The light must be from a camera and the footsteps… they’re human. Yūji turns off his flashlight and walks towards where a person is taking photos. He makes sure his steps are silent, which is difficult in the silence of this heavy darkness.

He catches up with the person as they investigate the spiders. He flicks his flashlight on, pointing them at the spiders and the photographer looks up at Yūji.

It’s the pretty boy from before Bio. His uniform is the one of… Gojo’s! It’s a jacket, which has buttons at the high collar and chest. It’s blue and he wears comfortable black dress pants.

“What are they doing here?” Yūji whispers and the other shrugs. “Dunno. You’re the one who works here,” he spits at Yūji and he rolls his eyes. “They haven’t said anything to us,” Yūji informs and the kid nods.

“I work under Gojo Satoru,” he says, “and he’s told me a bit.” Yūji frowns. He sounds like he’s bragging. “The theory is that they have a pocket of venom which can secrete into a person’s bloodstream. It should kill them but Gojo reckons otherwise.” He explains and Yūji nods along. Nice to know people don’t know too much about spiders.

“What’s your name?” Yūji asks and the kid frowns. “I’m not going to report you or anything. This is interesting,” he says and smiles softly at the boy. His cheeks flush pink. “Fu-Fushiguro… I use they/them pronouns,” they say and Yūji nods. He smiles.

“I’m Itadori, he/him pronouns!” Yūji says and they hear footsteps again. Fushiguro hides in a box and Yūji tucks it away. The other guard turns on the lights and Yūji blinks to adjust. The other bodyguard asks what he was doing, as he could hear something.

“I was talking to the spiders,” Yūji says, naively, and the other guard laughs and turns off the lights. He pulls the box back out and helps Fushiguro out. They thank him and bid him a good night.