Your Life As A Tokyo Jujutsu High Background Student

Chapter 13 - Perhaps, Sukuna was right.

Destiny was a cruel, fickle thing.

Just this morning, before you left for your first-grade promotion briefing, Yuji was still playfully bickering with Nobara as they always did, their friendly back-and-forth as natural as breathing. Megumi held up an aloof front, pretending to be above their childish antics, but you knew he relished those moments of carefree normalcy as much as anyone. You had all made plans for your usual dinner and movie night later, the future seeming to stretch on endlessly.

But now, as you stood in Shoko's sterile lab, the harsh fluorescent lights casting deep, unforgiving shadows across Yuji's lifeless body laid out on the cold steel slab, the memories of only hours ago felt somehow distant. As if they belonged to some alternate reality - a happier existence.

You clenched your jaw until your teeth ached, your eyes burning yet not a single tear fell. You wondered numbly if you had any left to cry. The pain was evident in the tense line of your shoulders, the way your nails dug crescent moons into your palms hard enough to draw blood.

Your breath hitched as you recalled Yuji's bright smile from just this morning over breakfast, cracking dumb jokes despite the early hour. Laughter ringing through the halls, sunlight glinting in his perpetually tousled hair. You refused, on some primitive level, to believe that was the last time you'd ever get to see him so vibrant and full of life. This felt like a nightmare or some kind of mistake.

But the broken body resting on the slab before you was undeniable. The gaping, ragged hole in his chest almost seemed to mock you with its obscene presence, whispering "Look. See? His heart is gone."

You reached out a trembling hand, fingers seeking the reassuring warmth of Yuji's shoulder, half-expecting – desperately hoping – that upon your touch his eyes would flutter open. But his body remained horrifyingly motionless beneath your fingertips. His skin was like wax – stiff, clammy, devoid of the warmth and affection that had surrounded you this morning.

You felt like the sun had gone out and taken all the light in the world with it.

The twisted irony of it all was almost too much to bear. You had once again outlived another friend. First Shino, taken from you far too soon in a cruel mirror of this moment... and now Yuji as well, laid out on that very same steel slab that had cradled Shino's mangled body three years ago. It's happening all over again.

A traitorous voice whispered that everyone you had dared to love would ultimately leave you, one by one, until you were utterly alone. But you shook it off.

No, that's not right. Not fair. They didn't choose to leave you. They were taken from you. One after another after another.

Glancing over your shoulder, you saw Gojo and Ijichi slumped in their chairs, as if the weight of this loss was physically crushing them. A short distance away, Shoko leaned stiffly against the wall, her eyes vacant and haunted. Tension crackled like static electricity through the spacious lab.

You bit down hard on your lip, using the sharp spike of pain to ground yourself amidst the roiling emotions battering you from all sides. It lent you a fleeting anchor of focus to rasp out the question burning through you – the one you desperately needed answered, even as you dreaded the response.

"What the hell happened while I was away?"

Your voice cracked like splintering glass over the words, raw and fragile. You could taste the faintest metallic tang of blood from your lip.

Ijichi winced, a visible spasm flickering across his anxious features before he could smooth them over. He opened his mouth, seemed to think better of whatever platitude had been perched on his tongue, then tried again with obvious effort.