A kindled friendship

•Chapter 1 - A change of heart•

Yuuji had many friends - Nobara, Megumi, Gojo-sensei, but sometimes he felt alone, an empty feeling in his stomach. This was something that happened more frequently nowadays, with Gojo going on missions with Fushiguro, (maybe to improve on his shadow technique?) and Kugisaki hanging out with Maki constantly.

He knew it was strange to feel this way, given he wasn't actually alone, but it seemed like it since the Junpei incident. He was practically traumatised from it. I mean, who wouldn't be? His friend being transformed into a pile of flesh, and his cries for help being stuck deep within Yuuji. This caused nightmares to become more frequent, waking up with Sukuna and Mahito's mocking laughter ringing in his ears all over again.
When this happened, no one came to help him and his distress. All he could do was cry, as he cradled himself to sleep, while also having to fake a smile at his supposed "friends" when they asked him how he slept the next day.

At least the good thing was that during these haunting nights, Sukuna seemed deathly quiet, no mocking words, no laughing, not even his presence hung around near Yuuji at that time leaving him in blissful peace. He couldn't help wonder why, normally Sukuna would love to taunt him at his lowest moments, but it seemed like he wasn't interested in doing so. This confused the teen, but at the same time, he was glad he could have some quiet. He'd also stopped criticising everything Yuuji did, no matter how stupid what he did was. He took that time to practice using his black flash more efficiently, so he could use it without it causing widespread damage to the place around him.

Ever since he joined Jujutsu High, he met many, many people, Panda, Zenin Maki, and Inunaki Toge, being his senpai's. He was also told he was going to meet Yuta Okkotsu, who was another senpai, but he was overseas, training in Africa with Rika (his curse). Yuuji did hope he got to meet him sometime soon, since he was told that they had a lot in common and would get along quite well.
He couldn't hang out with the senpais a lot, because they seemed to be busy, and Yuuji being also busy, given missions from his sensei to exorcise curses. More often than not, he found himself doing so alone, trekking through deep undergrowth to get to some temple that Satoru pointed out would make his skills sharper to try find it using his sense in direction. Of course Gojo wouldn't give him the exact location, he'd give him puzzles and riddles to get him there to hone his senses. Being the vessel for the king of curses also came with disadvantages, attracting annoying low grade curses that seemed to think that they'd be able to strip his power away from him. It was only at this time that Itadori would dare to try to initiate a conversation with Sukuna, after all, who would take kindly to him being so friendly towards the special grade curse? No one that's who.

He would start off with a question for advice on how to deal with some higher grade curses. He knew the answer of course, but wanted Sukuna's attention and opinion. He didn't know if it would work but he had to try. He had hoped that the king of curses wouldn't just leave him out to dry, or tell him to buzz off and deal with it himself. And that did happen for the first few times, with Sukuna not understanding why his vessel was talking to him, and chalking it up to him being bored. But after those times, he decided that it would be best to answer, just so that his vessel would stop being so irritating.

"Sukuna?" Yuuji had asked after fighting a grade 3 curse, who was blocking his way to get into an abandoned building that was on the outskirts of Tokyo. He was alone, since Gojo wanted to test his physical strength without the help of his friends. "What the hell do you want, stupid vessel." Was the reply he got. Yuuji rolled his eyes at the blatant disrespect, but decided to shrug it off, knowing thats just how the curse was. "What is this? I'm guessing you know, since you lived in like the ancient times-" He asked, holding up an ancient scroll he found while he was walking into the building. "It has some weird Japanese symbols..." He added. Sukuna, in his domain, wondered wether to just remain silent and not answer, but decided against it, knowing that the brat was just going to keep irritating him otherwise. An eye appeared instead of the markings on the teen's cheek as he examined what the boy was holding. He stared for a few moments before a mouth joined the eye. "It's a scroll depicting some sort of spell, and those aren't Japanese symbols, stupid brat, they're Kojiki." Sukuna answered slowly, double checking the scroll. "Oh. Why would this be here?" Yuuji wondered, looking at the ancient writing on it. "It must be important." "What are you going to do with it, brat?" Sukuna inquired, eyebrow raised.
Yuuji thought for a moment, wondering exactly what he should do. "Maybe sensei will know what to do with it?"
"That six eyed freak is the most irresponsible person that I've ever encountered. You're really going to trust him with an ancient artefact as old as this? It will rip in his grasp!" He snarled, teeth glistening in the moonlight. "I don't know.." The teen pondered, churning over all the possibilities in his head. "The glasses bastard looks more responsible than your precious teacher. Hand it to him."
Yuuji didn't know who he was talking about for a second, before his eyes widened in understanding. "OH! Nanamin! I'll try see if I can find him later! Thanks, Sukuna!"