// SURVIVOR'S GUILT // : MAKI ZEN'IN

3.

Laying in bed with her sleepwear on and her hair down after a late-night shower, Maki kept her eyes on her phone, rolling over onto her side to get more comfortable.

She hadn't seen Suoh since he inexplicably ran off, holding his phone in his hand and making a break in the opposite direction they had just come from. Her brain had fizzled out completely by that point, so she never managed to figure out what he left to do; she wasn't about to go running around looking for him, either, that would've been difficult to explain in a way that would suffice for Panda or Toge, who would absolutely revel in the chance to tease her again.

Scrolling through socials had grown boring, yet again.

Maki tossed her phone across to the other side of her bed with a huff, rolling onto her back to stare at the ceiling for the nth time that night.

She couldn't rid herself of the day gone by, no thanks to him.

His everlasting grin, nigh-incessant laughter, contrasting the strength of his cursed energy signature she felt when they first met. What a rollercoaster of emotions he put her through, ending a god-awful twisting in her gut over how poorly she thought of him when they first encountered him in the abandoned apartments way back when.

She furrowed her eyebrows just thinking about it again.

Ugh....I know he doesn't care anymore, but....

It was bad enough she acted that way to one person she's incredibly close with now, but doing it a second time, with a guy she had the wrong idea about entirely put a filthy taste in her mouth.

Maki let out a groan into her hands, wincing under her covers.

"Aw, man....I really have to quit being an ass....."

Her phone buzzed from the other side of her bed, dragging her out of her wallowing.

"Mh?" Maki rolled back over and picked it up, answering the call.

"Ah. What is it, Panda?" She said.

"Eh, not much, Suoh had only just finished his meeting with Yaga-sensei over his acceptance to Jujutsu High around an hour ago, and Toge and I figured we'd talk everything over with you."

Maki's eyes widened in her realization.

Ah...! So that's why he took off.

"Oh, right. So?" She replied.

"Well, for starters," Panda said with a sigh, "Bad news is that Suoh doesn't seem to be eligible for a role as a student."

Maki took a critical blow to the heart just then,

"But, good news is he's being hired as a full-time sorcerer under the facility's payroll."

Which was followed by a wave of relief washing over her.

....wait.

Maki thought about the Yuuya boy's situation for a moment once the smirk on her lips wore off.

"Why the hell is Yuuya being hired as a sorcerer instead of being enrolled as a student?" Maki asked Panda, "He's our age, there shouldn't be any reason for him to be unable to be a student instead."

Panda answered bluntly.

".......Yaga-sensei doesn't want Gojo involved in Suoh's development whatsoever."

"....ah."

The image of Gojo indoctrinating Suoh into a life of doing whatever he pleases for shits and giggles, angering the higher-ups, and meddling with everyone to frustrate them beyond belief popped into Maki's mind, and she immediately came to a similar conclusion as Principal Yaga.