OBLINE, SAIKI KUSUO.

✶. i alone am the honoured one.

content warning for descriptions of violence and blood.

✶ . . . YOU PICKED UP THE DOG toy from where Okami dropped it at your feet and booped him on the nose. Then you flung it across the yard, Megumi laughing as the humongous dog threw himself like a puppy after it.

You were now officially neighbours with the Fushiguro's. It was Okami's fault, he had forced you to retrieve a toy for him when it landed in your yard. One thing led to another, and now you went over to the Fushiguro's backyard practically every evening. Mrs. Fushiguro would always have a drink ready for you, Tsumiki would wave from the dining room where she was doing homework, and Toji would nod gruffly at you. It was sickening. You had never wanted to be friendly with your neighbours.

You sat down on the grass and watched Megumi try to wrestle the dog toy from Okami's jaws. Your thoughts were scattered. You hadn't been able to tell Kusuo what you had been meaning to the other day at Café Mami.

Not that you liked him or anything sappy like that, even though you did. But that you were planning on going back.

To Tokyo Jujutsu High.

You had struck out in the first place because you'd believed you could still be a jujutsu sorcerer and protect civilians on your own terms. Not all sorcerers were affiliated with a group. If they rankled you so much, why wouldn't you want to do things yourself? But it was difficult, especially given your abilities. It was always easier to have a team, people to fall back on if things went wrong.

Your talk with Toji had come unexpectedly one evening. You had just sat down for a quick break, Toji already there.

He noticed you eyeing the beer in his hands. He smirked and slid a new can toward you.

"I'm still in high school."

"Like that will stop you."

You drank. Toji asked you something. You answered. And then you had finished your beer and your head was buzzing and the moon had showed up too at some point.

You learned a few things that night. That Toji's beer was cheap as hell, but also that underneath the hobo exterior, he was surprisingly acute.

He listened to your thoughts on the jujutsu higher-ups and society in general, agreeing with a lot of your points. He understood how constricted you felt, how the higher-ups had a frustratingly vague and hypocritical agenda. He knew what it was like to be on the outside. To want to do things your way.

But also to miss the people you'd come to rely on.

You'd told him your somewhat half-baked plan of going back to Jujutsu High. Not because you agreed with the higher-ups, but because you wanted to graduate and become a fully certified sorcerer. And maybe come back as a teacher and try to fix things from the inside.

"You'd make a shit teacher," Toji said bluntly.

You almost flipped him off.

"But it's not a bad idea. Especially if it's someone with the Gojo name ... maybe."