Your Life As A Tokyo Jujutsu High Background Student

Chapter 37 - Through smoke and ruin

You know that feeling when you're at a party that's teetering on the brink of disaster? The kind where the punch bowl's empty, the music's turned a little too loud and frantic, and you just know someone's about to throw a punch or drunkenly confess their undying love for the potted plant in the corner?

Yeah, being a jujutsu sorcerer felt a lot like that – except instead of cheap fun and questionable party games, you had gross curses, existential dread, and a distinct lack of decent snacks. And tonight? Tonight, the party had officially gone to shit.

You perched on the ledge of the tollgate building's rooftop, eyes glued to the direction of Shibuya below. Every muscle was coiled tight, all senses cranked up to 11, ready to throw down at the first whiff of trouble. But honestly, your heart raced more for where Gojo and the others were wading into that fresh hell – whatever the fuck was even going on down there.

Yaga saw no need to fill you in on the details, as if you weren't trustworthy enough for the grown-up talk about the catastrophic event brewing under your nose. As if being left in the dark was really helping your focus right now. Unease clawed at your gut.

The static crackle of Yaga's cursed energy signaled his arrival long before he came to stand beside you.

"Your job here is important too," Yaga rumbled.

You gave him a nod. "Understood, Yaga-sama. I know my role."

Yaga angled a scrutinizing look your way through the corner of his eye before dropping a loaded question. "Do you know why I requested you specifically to be here with Shoko?"

You ventured the most obvious guess. "Because I've been accompanying Ieiri-san for a while now, and I'm..." you grimaced, "...not exactly front-line material?"

Yaga's snort held a world of judgment. The gesture made you think you'd just flunked the simplest classroom quiz.

"Because you're brilliant," he said your given name softly then. "No matter how insane things get, you find a way. That is a rare and valuable strength."

Well, wasn't this a fucking plot twist. You blinked, wrongfooted. You'd assumed your flair for unhinged schemes and general chaos just drove Yaga up the wall on the regular. You voiced that very thought. "I didn't know you approved of my... behavior."

And by that, you meant all the times he'd glared at you like he was debating whether to just cut his losses and toss your smart ass out of his school before you burned the entire place down to ash. The gravelly grunt escaping Yaga's throat suggested you weren't too far off the mark.

"I don't approve of it. You're smart, no getting around that. But you're also batshit crazy and reckless to a foolish degree."

Ah, now there he was. The principal you knew and occasionally feared. You sighed, bracing for the inevitable lecture.

"Whenever some outrageous bullshit goes down, I know for damn sure ninety-nine percent of the time you're gonna be involved, stirring up mayhem," Yaga groused, fixing you with a withering look.

You couldn't help but wince at that. "I'm... sorry?"

Another huff, this one dripping with exasperation. "You've become far too much like Satoru. Too much time spent with that delinquent. He's a corrupting influence."

You didn't even bother trying to argue that one. Yaga had you dead to rights. Ever since Gojo had quite essentially plucked your unhinged ass out of a literal psych ward, you'd been glued to his side for more than was advisable. And Gojo did seem to have an inexplicable knack for egging on and enabling all sorts of your... let's go with "creative" tendencies. Not that you thought it was that big a deal. Yaga, however, appeared to wholeheartedly disagree on that front.