Welcome to my Tumblr! I post fanfic (Reader Insert), fanart, and more! I accept requests for art and fic. If you have any questions about a request, please reach out. Currently I only write "X Reader" fanfic, please respect that. Hope you enjoy what I have to offer!
FANFIC
MINORS DNI! 18+ ONLY!
ONE PIECE
UNDER MY SKIN (Word Count ~36.8K) (Monkey D. Luffy X Reader) Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7 (NSFW in Pt. 6)
THE PRINCESS AND HER FOOL (Word Count ~35.9K) (Buggy D. Clown X Reader) Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 (NSFW in Pt. 2 & 4)
JUJUTSU KAISEN
MR. GREATNESS (Word Count ~10K) (Satoru Gojo X Reader) One-Shot (NSFW)
PARTY ANIMALS (Word Count ~6K) (Choso Kamo X Reader) One Shot (A lil spicy but not much)
BUTTERCUP (Ongoing series) (Ryomen Sukuna X Reader) Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7,
OK SO-I have been sick asf for like a month. Like sleeping through full days, like full chicken soup, head over a steaming pot, ready to down a bottle of Flintstone’s vitamins to give my immune system a boost sick. Hence my minimal postage. I think I’m feeling a bit better so I can write some more soon. Hope so at least!
Second-I AM EXPERIENCING INTENSE FANDOM FREEZE. I am sooooooo in love with so many fandoms that are popping OFF rn or right about to and wanna make stuff for all of em but don’t know where to start so I get overwhelmed and start nothing. Is there something any of yall specially wanna see from me besides my existing series?
Said fandoms:
Jujutsu Kaisen-everyone knows about the new season, it’s got so much im just fuckin head over heels about writing about. Also-HIGURUMA. FUCK. I HAVE BEEN ON THIS MAN’S BS SINCE HIS FIRST FRAME DROPPED. AND NOW HE’S ANIMATED. 😫😫😫
One Piece-ALWAYS on my OP bs. But live action season 2!!!!!! Makes it all the more like mentally urgent cause I love ittttt.
DOROHEDORO-Season 2 is coming out on April 1, 2026 and I am literally vibrating with excitement. It’s one of my all time favorite anime’s/mangas. Love love love the whole series and I’ve been waiting for this since season 1 came out! I so so badly want to write some fics and draw some art! However…there’s the issue of like there being 2 of us actively in the fandom😂. WE DESERVE TO BE FED AND I PLAN TO CONTRIBUTE. It’s just a matter of priority cause I love making things for yall and idk how to balance that with my personal wants with everything yknow?
Iron Lung-Dear GOD I love this movie. I was blessed enough to see it in theaters back in January and it was AMAZING. I want so desperately to make some art or write or just ANYTHING for it but idk where to start! 🫠🫠🫠
Gachiakuta-I am baby baby into this fandom. I haven’t even gotten to watch it yet, but the art 🤌 the aesthetic 🤌ITS WRITTEN BY A WOMAN 🤌 I am soooooooo intrigued.
I am USELESS rn I swear! Do any of yall have this issue ever? Any tips? Idk, thanks for reading if you did!
Realized I hadn't posted any of my line-less drawings and I've been on a big nose tirade lately. BIG NOSES ARE HOT. IF YOU DISAGREE YOU'RE WRONG. So here's one of our big nose KINGS, Higuruma.
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7,
Word Count: 5.2K
MASTERLIST
Warnings/Notes: FIGHT RING AU, Blood, Descriptions of violence, Cursing, Some physical description w/ mention of differences to others-negative, Mentions of scars, Fighting, Mentions of trauma, Physical insecurity, Peril, Stupid decisions
.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.
You and Nobara stuck together as you were led into the main room of the Kyoto arena. It was in an unmarked underground level of a parking garage.
The main room with the arena looked similar to the one you had seen in Tokyo, but it was smaller, looked older, and had the betting area in the same room. There were faded posters and promos of what you could only assume were old fighters on the walls, most of the oldest were too faded to read or covered up with new ones. Only one looked familiar.
“Hey, Nobara,” you started, walking her over to the plastered wall, “Is that who I think it is?”
The both of you stopped in front of the familiar fighter’s poster, “Absolutely.” She replied.
The name next to the fighter was KING in massive script. The fighter stood tall and menacing with a scowl on his face, his tattooed arms crossed in front of him. Emphasis on the plurality of armS. There were four. “Why does he have four arms?” you asked, eyes unable to tear away from the image.
Nobara shrugged, “Freaked me out the first time I saw it too. He popped em out in the middle of a fight and ripped a curse in half. I about puked.” She said rather matter of factly.
You nodded, “So you guys just see what nonsense happens with him and don’t ask any questions.”
“How are we supposed to figure it out? Can’t exactly bring him to the hospital and ask a doctor, ‘Hey, why does this guy grow extra limbs at will and why can he beat up invisible demon ghost monsters that you can’t see without any help?’ now can you?” She explained with a mocking tone.
Sukuna looked menacing in his picture, his stance concrete and assured, his shoulders back, chin lifted, and a fixed eye contact with the camera that spoke only of danger. He was in a loose set of black and white fighter robes, tattooed chest bared, muscles effortlessly contoured and chiseled under the lights. Sukuna’s hair was shorter on the poster than it is now, and a bit more tamed in place. You noted that his newer look suited him a bit more.
There was a hand clapped onto your shoulder, startling you out of your analysis, “Stop ogling my brother and let’s go get our seats!” It was Yuji, coming to drag you two toward the crowded seating.
You spluttered in protest but let him guide you and Nobara through the bodies in front of you, “I wasn’t ogling, you brat!” Yuji looked at you with a dry expression, lips pursed and eyebrows raised. You smacked his hand off your wrist and exclaimed, “I swear to God, you little punk, drop it.” You punched his arm with a firm thunk and continued the path toward the arena, headed straight for ringside.
Yuji hissed, rubbing the pain out of his arm, “You’re the one-!” Nobara thwacked him across the back of the head with a groan and began to drag Yuji now toward your retreating figure.
“She said drop it.” She growled, plopping Yuji in his seat beside her when they caught up to you. Nobara sat between you two and sighed, “It’s just Aoi tonight, right?”
Yuji nodded, “Yeah, me and him are gonna hang out at his after his fight. It’ll be an early night.”
You leaned to see over Nobara and sked Yuji, “What’s his deal? He anything special?”
“He’s like us, just absolutely insane.” Nobara quipped.
Yuji pouted, “He’s a little weird but he’s harmless.” He sighed and turned back to you, “He’ll probably ask you some invasive questions when you first meet him, just be honest and he’ll love you.” He assured with a subtle gulp.
You rolled your eyes, “I mean, like what’s his weapon, how does he fight?”
The two looked at each other, seemingly mulling something over before nodding, “It’s better if you just watch.” They chimed.
“WELCOME LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!”
You three snapped your attention to the arena. This ring had a man being lowered on a platform to be hovering above the heads of most of the audience, microphone in hand. He looked young with a blond bob and an expensive looking navy suit.
“That’s Arata Nitta.” Nobara muttered to you. “He mostly helps with medical stuff, so he’ll announce too to get some extra cash.”
“FIRST UP TONIGHT, WE HAVE A REAL CROWD PLEASER!” He proclaimed with a smile, “OUR BELOVED BOOGIE MAN!” Raucous cheering broke out around you, including a thrilled Yuji who hopped up to his feet, hands cupped around his mouth to hoot and holler.
Motion caught your attention to your left, a large, built man in a purple shirt and loose black pants with his hair pulled back and a large scar over his left eye coming from his forehead was getting into position. He spread his arms wide to soak in the praise and applause. It was then you noticed he only had one hand.
“Take it off!” Your head snapped to the side where a few young women were gathered. “Take it off!” a chant began, much to the pleasure of the Boogie Man in the ring. You could see a distinct eye roll from Arata on his platform.
Aoi put up his hand to silence the women, nodding with a content smile and grasped the front of his shirt, “Only because the beautiful Takada is in attendance tonight!” He called out, pointing at a vaguely familiar looking woman with a cute pair of glasses on the opposite side of the ring from you.
“Is that the idol?” you muttered to yourself. She was undeniably beautiful, tall, with soft, girly curves, soft brown hair. She was so feminine and so…well, soft. She had this almost fuzzy air around her and a perfect command over her features and appearance. You couldn’t help but shift your muscular figure to be a bit smaller, sinking into your oversized t-shirt you’d had for years, and your ruddy jeans that were almost more hole and patch than jeans, your new, bright shoes stark against your gritty aura.
Nobara sighed, “Yes. She came to a fight where she got paid big bucks to sing after Aoi begged and begged his boss, and somehow, he convinced her to come back and watch him sometimes.”
“He’s completely head over heels for her,” Yuji affirmed, “She only watches his matches. She can’t even see Curses, so she has to wear those glasses. I think it’s a showmanship appreciation thing. Like game recognizes game.”
You gawked as you saw Aoi toss the shreds of his poor shirt to said idol who just giggled and waved off the attention, chittering to her friend next to her.
“You get all kinds of famous people at these.” Nobara explained.
“TONIGHT, THE FORMIDABLE BOOGIE MAN HAS QUITE THE SHOW FOR ALL OF US!” Arata called out over the chaos, “ARE YOU READY?” He called to the crowd. Cheers and applause responded. In your peripheral vision you noticed Aoi snapping something in place on his arm that was missing a hand. “IT IS TIME!”
You took a deep breath, eyeing the metal door across from Aoi.
“TO RELEASE-!”
All three of you leaned in, hands pressed against the concrete in front of you as you peered into the sunken ring.
“-THE BEASTS!”
Aoi bared his teeth and clapped his now two hands together in a deafening CRACK, shaking out his limbs as the creak of the old, damaged door drew itself up.
The monster screeched as it barreled out of containment, a tall, thin humanoid with long spindly limbs, whose knees bent the wrong way and hunched back was covered in boils and spines. It was a dead greenish gray, with ears and fang filled mouths dotting across its body, its face blank other than its pin prick eyes. It towered over Aoi, foaming drool dribbling across the sandy ground, steam billowing up where it landed.
Aoi didn’t waver, in fact his grin grew wider, brandishing an impressive prosthetic arm with different kanji and sigils carved into its metal and wooden surface, the fingers fully articulate. He raised his hands and waited.
His patience wasn’t tested though, as the beast sprinted toward Aoi with a leaping shamble, using its clawed hands to help propel itself forward. Aoi planted his feet and poised his hands across from each other. When the Curse got to him, like a matador, he spun out of the way, but not without cracking another echoed CLAP right next to a set of the creature’s ears. The monster screamed in pain and attempted to shield some of its ears from the noise, but in the process lost its balance and crashed into the concrete wall, back first. Some of the gnarled boils and pustules on its back popped with a sickening squish, and when it rolled away from the wall, there was a splatter of steaming corrosion in its place. Aoi circled it as it regained its bearings.
You felt your heart thrumming in your throat, the grit of the concrete under your fingernails, your eyes locked onto each minute movement and twitch the beast made. You didn’t even realize you were practically hanging off your seat, “This shit is crazy.” You cackled, clapping a hand on the wall in front of you.
It lunged wildly at Aoi, seemingly blinded in its discombobulation, its claws almost reaching his skin. Aoi ducked and weaved out of its way, only to kick its side directly on an ear. As it struggled, Aoi turned triumphantly to the crowd, giving a clear signal up to the watchful Arata.
The blond nodded, “HOW BOUT WE HELP HIM OUT, HUH?!” The crowd jostled in a feral display, making the creature grasp at different ears to block it out. “YOU KNOW HOW THIS ONE GOES!” Arata started, “IF YOU’RE HAPPY AND YOU KNOW IT-?!”
The onlookers screamed a throat shredding reply, “CLAP YOUR HANDS!” Seemingly as natural as breathing, the onlookers all around you, along with Aoi lifted their hands and-
CLAP CLAP!
In its stupor the monster didn’t see the left hook coming. It reared back, towering over the human fighter with a growl. Aoi signaled again to Arata.
“ONE MORE TIME!” He chanted, pumping a fist in the air with a fervor, “IF YOU’RE HAPPY AND YOU KNOW IT?!”
“CLAP! YOUR! HANDS!” You found yourself laughing again, a fiery glee settling into your bones as you lifted your hands as well.
CLAP CLAP!
Aoi expertly maneuvered the distraction, using raw leg strength to leap upwards and slam his prosthetic, left fist onto its head, directing it chin first into the gritty floor below. Its head caved with a wet crack.
“LET’S HEAR IT FOR THE BOOGIE MAN!”
Like last time, a shower of booze, betting stubs, and even a few flowers were thrown into the sunken arena. Aoi caught one with a theatrical flair and presented it toward Takada and bowed.
After the crowd broke temporarily to allow time to clear the arena and set new bets and cash out on old, your little group of three found Aoi saying goodbye to the lovely Takada, hearts in his eyes. She giggled slightly, a ruffled rose in her hand, before waving goodbye.
“Are you ever gonna ask her out?” Yuji jeered, tossing an arm over Aoi’s shoulders.
Aoi sighed mournfully, face downcast, “Idols can’t date, Brother.”
Yuji threw his head back with a groan, “Whatever.” He swiftly redirected Aoi’s attention toward you, “This is our new fighter. She used to fight MMA.” Yuji explained.
You grinned stiffly, lips pinched together, but offered a hand to shake, “Great fight, dude.”
Aoi eyed you carefully, raising an eyebrow at your hand. He leaned over to mutter in Yuji’s ear, “Men or women?”
Nobara grit her teeth, kicking Aoi in the hip, “Don’t start this shit again!”
Yuji coughed out a quiet, “Men.”
Aoi nodded, mostly unphased by Nobara, “What kind of guys do you like?” He demanded, eyes steely and dark.
You spluttered, waving your hands in front of you, “Why are you-!”
“Just answer.” Yuji and Nobara droned.
You swallowed your pride and sighed, “Probably a fighter like me.” Yuji motioned for you to continue, “Uh that cooks well cause I suck at it,” Yuji mouthed the word ‘physical’, making you wince, “With-with uh big arms.” You finally spat out.
Nobara snapped to eye you with an evil glint, “Oh really?”
“I respect such an answer.” Aoi said simply, snatching your hand in his to shake it briefly, “Aoi Todo.”
You returned with your own name, “About the guys you’re into!” Nobara practically purred, bumping up next to you, “You know who’s got four big strong arms and can cook?”
You physically flinched, “Stop it.” You hissed.
Yuji chimed in, “It does sound a lot like Sukuna.”
Aoi squinted at you, seemingly analyzing you, but Nobara beat him to it if he was going to speak, “I knew you thought he was hot! Maki told me-!” She cut herself off with a squeal as you wrapped her head in one arm and covered her mouth with the other.
“Want me to talk about how much you stare at Maki while she’s working out?” You held her in the headlock firmly, even as her thrashing picked up at your threat, “I won’t if you stop it.” Nobara went still with a sigh, so you relented and let her go.
Yuji chuckled at the exchange, “Well we’re gonna go hang out, you guys get back safe.”
Aoi nodded and waved politely to you two as he was led away, “I’m going to beat your ass in Smash.”
You and Nobara quickly found the exit through the milling bodies.
As you both stepped out into the cooled night air, you turned your Yankee cap backwards so you could see better and kept step with Nobara.
“You know how to get back from here?” You muttered, stretching your arms as you walked.
Nobara nodded, “I take this one shortcut from the Tokyo train station, and we get back pretty quick.”
Once you were on the bullet train, sat next to each other, you and Nobara fell into easy chatter, and she showed you new things you could do with your phone. The two hours flew by, Nobara even watched out so you could take a quick thirty-minute nap.
You stayed close, hand in hand as you left the station. “Why don’t you message the house chat to let them know we’ll be back soon.” You suggested, squeezing Nobara’s hand slightly before letting go.
She nodded and did just that, “Should be less than ten minutes until we’re back.”
The both of you wove through the busy streets and stayed close still, “Hey, Nobara?” She hummed in acknowledgement. “Do you think…oh this is stupid.” You whined, grinding the heels of your hands into your eyes, a shot of pain going through your right one.
“No, it’s not, just ask.” She assured, nudging you with her hip.
“Do you think the others like me at all? I can’t get a read on it.”
Nobara practically glared at you, “Yes.” You tried to stutter out further explanation, but she would not have it, “You are wonderful to have around. Our quietest guys are talking to you. You’re actually trying to learn how to talk to Toge. You’re settling in just fine.”
You sucked air through your teeth, “I just can’t help but feel a little-a little out of place.”
“If it has anything to do with Sukuna being all weird and rude, please don’t take that personally, I mean he seems like he’s actually trying.” She explained, reaching to take your hand in hers again. “Just be patient. We all want you here.”
You offered a small grin in peace offering, allowing Nobara to redirect the conversation to something more idle.
“Here’s the shortcut!” She chirped, leading you to weave between a few buildings, never letting go of your hand-
scriiiiiTCH
Your blood ran cold, and you yanked Nobara behind you without a second thought. You knew that sound.
“HeheHEHeee” The eerie cackle bounced off the cool stone around you and pierced right through your diaphragm.
Your whole body shook as you forced yourself to look above you. On the rooftop to your left was a Curse, scraping a curved talon along a brick wall, taunting you. It lit sparks as it dragged, reflecting off its awful muzzle. You locked onto those massive, glassy black eyes and felt bile rise in your throat. It was a deep, sickly brown with scales and fur scattered across its skin, a gaping canine maw, ribbons of drool dripping right in front of you. You felt a jolt of familiar pain in your shoulder, your subconscious raising alarm bells in the form of phantom pains. Or maybe it was little pieces that it left in you before, longing to rip out of your skin and return to its home within the beast.
Nobara muttered your name, trying to shake out of your hold, “What are you doing? We don’t have weapons, let’s get out of here.” Her tone shook as she grasped at your hand. “C’mon, let’s go!” Nobara could feel the power radiating off of the Curse, all of the hair on her arms standing on end and her mouth running dry. But you wouldn’t move-no, couldn’t move. All of your muscles were tensed to an almost painful degree, the only movement in your body was the quiver of your chin.
Nobara called for you again, “Please!” But her efforts were in vain.
The Curse lunged down toward you, propelled forward by its strong arms, its spiked tail thrashing. You pushed Nobara away from you, and away from the Curse, sinking into a defensive position, your arms lifted to cover your face, eyes squeezed shut. You felt a blunt impact on your left, being swiped by its clawed hand to the side, launched into the brick wall next to you. Before you could even react or take in a breath, you were being grabbed, talons digging into your sides and arms. It lifted you up, dragging your back against the brick, the deafening, screeching drag of claw on brick making your head spin. When you opened your eyes, you saw those huge, pitch-black eyes right in front of you, you could smell its rancid breath and felt a sudden chill settle into your bones. It hissed like an alligator, guttural, and airy as you squirmed, trying to get some part of you free from its hold. You only succeeded in digging its claws deeper into the flesh of your arms.
“Little spitfire…” It spoke. You fought back a scream, kicking and thrashing to try and keep its massive teeth away from you.
You grit your teeth, tears spilling out onto your cheeks, “Let go of me!” It was then you saw Nobara try and kick into the armored side of the Curse, “No! Kugisaki, don’t!” The beast turned its head for a moment and swiped its spiked tail toward her.
The Curse wasn’t able to make contact however, letting out a yowl of pain as a blade was driven into its flesh.
“I’m gonna fucking kill you.” It was Sukuna, his extra arms on full display, his eyes glowing a bright scarlet. He twisted his sword in its tail before taking it out, “Stay back, kid.” He said to Nobara who was scrambling backward.
The Curse tried to swat at Sukuna with its free hand, but he dodged effortlessly, swiping the blade through its wrist. The curse clenched its fist around you, cutting deeper before letting you go, your feet barely stable on the ground. Its purple blood flowed out from its wounds, but it refused to back down, rearing back and baring its teeth. It was aiming to bite Sukuna, who had his back turned, guard dropped, to give Nobara brief instructions.
You acted before you could think, flinging yourself forward as fast as you could, reaching to come between the beast’s familiar jaws and the man who was there to save you. You leapt, grabbing onto Sukuna’s upper shoulders and clung to him, acting like a shield. You heard your name being screamed but it was like you were hearing underwater, all muffled and far away. All you could register was the crushing pain of the Curse’s teeth sunk into your shoulder blade, the only thing on your mind was how its bite would have hit Sukuna’s jugular.
Nobara cried out as the Curse withdrew its teeth, curling back onto itself to reset. You let yourself fall to the ground, the pain of your wound hitting concrete the last thing on your mind. Your mind felt fuzzy as you barely registered Sukuna cutting off the head of the Curse, feeling some of its warm blood hit your skin.
“Hey hey hey, can you hear me?” Nobara was on her knees, hovering above you, lightly smacking your cheek to get your attention. You tried to answer, but only a bubbly groan came out. “Sukuna! We need to get her back home!” She demanded, trying to help gather you up.
Said man came over and lifted you from her grasp, holding you against his chest, and began running, Nobara keeping step, “What the fuck were you two thinking?” He yelled, “No weapons, going through back alleys, at night? You’re so fucking lucky I was wrangling local tonight.”
Nobara panted slightly as she spoke, distress clear in her voice, “It’s my fault! I suggested the shortcut, and I should’ve brought something!”
Sukuna just growled, barreling forward, reduced to two arms as you all broke free from the shadowy alleys and into populated territory, the Complex right ahead. “Tell Gojo to get Shoko here, I’ll take her down and do what I can for now.” Nobara agreed and scanned you all in, ushering Sukuna down while she sprinted upstairs.
Sukuna was practically kicking doors in to get you to the medical room by the gym. When he got you there, he laid you on your stomach on one of the beds with rushed care.
He muttered to himself as he ran around the room, grabbing supplies as he went. Soon enough though, he returned to your side with dry, clean cloths. “That was so fucking stupid.” He hissed, quickly cutting your shirt up the middle with some scissors he’d found. Once he had a full view of the area, he swore under his breath before taking one of the cloths to apply pressure to your bite.
You whined at the pain, “Ah! Do you-?”
He cut you off, “Yes I have to press this hard; you’re bleeding everywhere.” He growled, “Which you wouldn’t fucking be if you weren’t so stupid!” You felt the pressure increase, piercing pain shooting down your arm. You winced and gripped the pillow under your head, knuckles gone white. Sukuna huffed and used his free hand to take your hat off your head and set it aside, brushing your hair in place, “Why the hell did you do that?”
“Nobara said she took that way all the time, I didn’t have any reason to think it wasn’t safe.”
“No, you dumbass!” He insisted, his voice growing quieter as he continued, “Why’d you get between me and the Curse like that?”
Your head swam with fatigue, but you tried to remain present, “It would-would’ve killed you.”
You felt Sukuna tense above you, and silence stretched for a little while, “Don’t do that again. I would’ve been fine. I heal fast.” Before you could retort he said, “Why the hell did you freeze up like that too? You haven’t fought too many curses but you’re not useless.”
You felt fresh tears well up, silently dropping onto the pillow, “It attacked me before. Years ago. I’ve got a-a scar on my shoulder from it. Seeing it again, I…” You trailed off, choked on a sob.
“You can’t let shit like that get to you! That’s how people end up dead. What would you have done if I didn’t show up?”
You grit your teeth, “It’s not my fault the one Curse that could get such a-a huge jump on me showed up! It won’t happen next time” You resisted the urge to squirm under the firm pressure of Sukuna’s hand.
Sukuna’s nostrils flared and the room felt infinitely hotter to him, the only thing on his mind was the way you looked being held against the wall, for once so small and fragile, arms scratched and eyes glassy with fear. “Next time I might not be there! Next time the Curse might be too strong or too fast or too scary! Next time shouldn’t even exist!” His voice dripped with venom in your ear.
You swung out a leg, “Get the fuck off me!” you exclaimed, kicking into Sukuna’s thigh as hard as you could. He stumbled back mostly from surprise. You swung yourself up to sit on the bed, forcing yourself to stand, ignoring the feeling of fresh, warm blood flowing down your back. You snatched off the remains of your shirt and threw it to the side, a chill prickling your skin, now only covered by your sports bra. You got in Sukuna’s face, pushing him back as you spoke, “You act all high and mighty-!”
Sukuna let you jab him backward, fearing resistance might further the damage to your bite, “Slow the fuck down-!”
Blood collected below you, “-but you’re just some ass who can’t deal with-!”
His breath picked up, and he tried to hold your wrists in place, snatching them up, “Stop moving! You’re making it worse!”
“Why are you acting like you care?!” You practically screamed, “I’m just some extra liability, right?” You stomped on Sukuna’s foot, but he didn’t budge, “Why’d you even save me?”
He felt your pulse race in your wrists, the way you shook like a cornered animal, your skin clammy and flushed. He tried to speak but nothing would come out. Without warning you twisted your wrists out of his hold and whirled to kick him in the ribs with all you had, making Sukuna stumble to the side.
“Get your ass on that bed, now!” The monotone drone of one Shoko Ieiri pierced through the tension, “Choso, get him out of here.” Nobara and Maki rushed in and surrounded you, taking your wavering weight off you and helping you to lay back on the medical bed. Shoko sent Gojo around to grab things for her while she set to work.
“Ryomen.” Choso barked over the chaos, marching right up to his brother, “Come with me.” He demanded, landing a harsh grip on the nape of Sukuna’s neck. Sukuna tried to protest but was shut down by a glare from his older brother.
Choso dragged Sukuna up to the third floor, wordlessly passing a few of the other boys, not stopping until he could practically fling his brother into his room.
Choso locked Sukuna’s door with a click, “What the fuck happened?” He demanded, standing tall with his arms crossed.
Sukuna dragged his hands across his face and sat on his bed with a grating groan, “Those two went out unprotected through some stupid back alleys in the dark and the only reason they aren’t dead is because I was Curse wrangling nearby.” He explained.
“How’d she get hurt if you were there?” Choso asked pointedly, “That bite looked gnarly.”
Sukuna clenched his jaw, “She did that.” He spat, “Little shit thought I was gonna take a fatal bite, so she threw herself on me like a backpack, so she’d get bit instead. Fucking stupid.”
Choso sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, “She doesn’t know everything about your bullshit. And who knows? If one hit you in the right place, a Curse could kill you.” He explained before deciding to sit down, dragging out Sukuna’s desk chair, “Why didn’t it stop when you came along? And why’d it try to bite you? They usually leave you alone.”
Sukuna shrugged, looking at the drying blood on his hands, “I think it wanted to kill her more than it wanted to listen to its instincts. It attacked her before, years ago.”
Choso hummed in thought, “It could be a personal Curse manifestation. If she has a strong enough source of negativity, a Curse could materialize and it could target her alone.”
“Well, it’s dead so she shouldn’t have to worry about it.”
“For now. You know as well as anyone that curses can reincarnate.”
A chill ran down Sukuna’s spine, ‘What if I’m not there?’
“Why were you both so riled up in the med room?” Choso asked, picking at his flaking nail polish.
“I pissed her off.”
“No shit, now elaborate.”
Sukuna ran his fingers through his messy pink hair with a wince, “I was trying to tell her to be careful, and that she didn’t need to help me like that but…” he trailed off. Choso cocked an eyebrow, “But I did that thing again.”
“You got too mad and were an asshole even if you didn’t want to be?” He suggested. Sukuna nodded, hiding his face from his older brother.
“She said that I was only pretending to care. That I see her as a liability.” The younger brother whispered.
Choso let the silence linger for a while, “Is she right?”
Sukuna surged upright, on his feet in a second and grabbed the front of Choso’s shirt with a tight fist, “No the fuck she isn’t and don’t you ever imply anything like that again.” Choso swore he could see a light glow coming from his brother’s eyes.
“Then why doesn’t she know it?” Sukuna set his jaw and let go of Choso’s shirt. “Try doing something nice for a change. Since you have trouble with the talking, try doing something. Actions speak louder than words and all that.”
---
Shoko was able to make quick work of your wounds, even helping with your bruising and such from your failed match. She had the ability to use sigils and such to manipulate the blood and flesh of your wounds. You were still sore and tender in spots, but you were cleared for training, just no spars or Curse fighting for a week.
Your room was a welcome calm, bathed in moonlight from your large windows. You had taken a brief shower to get the blood off and made quick work of changing into clean clothes.
“What the?” The moonlight glinted off the surface of a jar. There was a little bundle of things on your bed. You turned on your lamp and looked at it. There was a note on a crumpled sticky note; “Jar stuff helps with the soreness. Heating pad helps too. Made some cookies and had extra.” The handwriting was masculine and scratchy, written in dying red pen. There was a jar with what looked like a lotion or ointment inside, an electric heating pad, and a small bag of fresh-looking cookies.
Think about it Thursday shall be on a "as I think of shit" schedule from now on. Was great when I could keep it consistent, but I've been having trouble expanding on my more simple thoughts by writing, so-to take off some of that pressure-it's gonna be less consistent.
Just thought I'd clarify if anybody cared/would want to know!
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7,
Word Count: ~1.7K
MASTERLIST
Warnings/Notes: FIGHT RING AU, Blood, Descriptions of violence, Cursing, Some physical description w/ mention of differences to others-non negative, Mentions of scars, Fighting
.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.
‘God, I stink.’ You thought to yourself as you trudged to the communal bathroom, shower caddy in hand. When you opened the door, you saw a large, tiled room lined with stalls, on the left toilets, on the right showers, and sinks opposite the door. You saw that a few of the showers were in use and opted to take one on the end, farthest from anyone else. You locked the stall door and fired up the water, waiting for it to warm. In the meantime, you took off your sweaty clothes you had been working out in and hung your towel over the curtain rod. You stepped under the warm stream of water and let it soak your body.
You picked up your body wash and washcloth, lathering it and beginning to scrub away the day. As you ran the cloth over your skin, you began to hum a tune, trying to fill the silence.
“What do you want for dinner?” A rough, low voice made you jump out of your skin.
“Holy shit!” You hissed, trying to calm yourself down.
A now familiar snorted laugh echoed in the room, “You really are jumpy after fights, eh Buttercup?”
“Shut up Sukuna.” You groaned, “What do you want?”
You heard an exasperated sigh from outside the shower, “You get to pick what we eat tonight. Gojo’s going out, losers make dinner, remember?” Sukuna explained, “Try to keep up, please.”
You rolled your eyes, “Always a pleasure,” you sighed, “Do you have stuff for yakitori?” All you got was a grunt in response before you heard footsteps leaving the bathroom. “NICE TALKING TO YOU!” you called out.
After your shower, you quickly got dried off as best you could and dashed to your room to get dressed, your towel wrapped tight around you. Once you were safe and sound in your new room, you tossed on the closest set of clothes to you, a massive, ratty t-shirt from the gym you trained in and some sweatpants.
You looked yourself over in the mirror on your closet door again, your hair still dripping a bit of water and your bruises all the more technicolored. You looked a hot mess, but you couldn’t stop the little smile that pulled at your lips.
The building was actually relatively quiet as you padded down the hallway to the top of the steps-
BANG! CRASH!
“YUJI, I SWEAR TO GOD, I’LL SKEWER YOU IF YOU BUMP INTO ME ONE MORE TIME!” you heard the unmistakable rasp of one Ryomen Sukuna telling off his younger brother.
You stifled a laugh, “Sorry! I can’t figure out how to light the grill!”
Sukuna groaned, “Inumaki!”
“Salmon!”
“Keep skewering the chicken while I go get the grill going cause someone can’t do basic tasks!”
“Salmon!”
You bit down another laugh and resumed your descent to the second floor, reaching the bottom just as you heard the quiet shutting of a sliding door that you hadn’t noticed before. You saw Inumaki and Yuji carefully skewering chicken, adding to an ever-growing pile, Panda steering clear of the kitchen (probably for the best, they don’t make full body hairnets), and a content looking Megumi with his nose in a book and a fluffy dog in his lap.
“So, you don’t know how to light a grill, Yuji?” you asked with a grin.
Said man’s head whipped up from his work, his ears tinged red, “I cook inside!” Yuji insisted.
“He’s the reason we had to replace our last oven.” Megumi offered from the couch, causing Yuji to gawk.
“It wasn’t just me-!”
You laughed the topic off, waving at the silent Inumaki who was diligently at work, “Kelp!” you greeted him with a small smile. Inumaki gave a nod and returned the wave with his messy chicken hands.
“Want to meet Kon?” Megumi chimed in, peering over at you from over the edge of the couch. You perked up and walked over to said dog-still sitting in Megumi’s lap-as calmly as you could, fighting a massive smile. “He’s very friendly, he loves when you scratch his ears and chin the most.”
Kon noticed you as you approached and sat up, walking over to you on the couch. You scanned the fluffy black and white dog, avoiding staring in his eyes very long. “Hi, buddy. You’re a good boy, huh?” you whispered, offering your hand for him to sniff. He did so before plopping down and sitting, licking all over your hand. You giggled and got closer to Kon, giving him scritches all over his massive head.
“He likes you.” Megumi stated plainly, a very small smile playing on his face. You gushed over the adorable, massive dog, talking to him while his tail went wild. “Don’t be surprised if you end up with an almost 45-kilogram ball of fur at your heels anytime you’re in common spaces.”
Your joy was simply unmatched, unable to take your eyes off of the beautiful mutt in front of you, “That’s okay!” you gushed, “If somebody’s this cute then he can follow me around all day!” you said, landing a little kiss on Kon’s head.
CLACK!
You whipped your head up in sync with a little bark from Kon at the loud sound, seeing Sukuna at the sliding door with an apron on, tongs in hand, and a twitch in his eye, his gaze dead set on you. The room felt silent.
“Bro, drop the death grip on the tongs. You’re gonna break em.” Yuji hissed, snatching them out of his hands.
You kept a hand still in Kon’s fur as you screwed up your face in a grimace at Sukuna’s expression, “Got a problem, Kuna?” you mocked, still stroking Kon’s soft fur.
Sukuna’s eyes snapped wide, his jaw clenched. He almost robotically turned and went back out the sliding door to the balcony, shutting it loudly behind him. The boys all looked at each other, bewildered expressions on their faces, silently arguing. You rolled your eyes and returned to spoiling Kon.
“I-I’m gonna check on him.” Yuji muttered, quietly following him out to the balcony, tongs in hand.
Sukuna stood out on the balcony, watching the ground intently, a white-knuckle grip on the railing. “I’m fucking stupid.” He mumbled, smacking his face with one of his hands, keeping it there. Despite his mental insistence on moving on as quickly as possible, his brain was relentless with its alarm bells going off. “Stupid girl and her stupid nicknames being cute with the stupid mutt.”
“Bro-You okay?” Yuji asked, closing the door behind him, stepping onto the balcony. “That was some weird staring.” He said, coming up to lean on the railing beside his older brother.
Sukuna shrugged, looking away, “Nothing.”
“Okay, so-since when is it ‘nothing’ to enter a room, glare at the new girl with the fire of a thousand suns, and almost break a kitchen utensil before leaving without a word and slamming the door?” Yuji asked sarcastically, gesturing with the victimized tongs.
“Oh, shut up, Brat.” Sukuna hissed, “It wasn’t that weird.”
“Yes, it was.”
Sukuna sighed, “I don’t fucking know. It just…happened.” He tried to explain, picking at the flaking black nail polish on his thumb.
Yuji hummed in thought, “Not used to being around pretty girls that are your age and don’t think you’re scary?” he deadpanned, much to his brother’s displeasure. Sukuna whipped his head to the side to give a sharp reply, but Yuji held up the tongs threateningly “Stop being a dick to her.”
“I’m not!” Sukuna exclaimed, arms out in exasperation, “I’m just-just, that’s what happens when I get around her!”
Yuji groaned, “When was the last time you had a serious girlfriend, dude?” Sukuna’s mouth snapped shut, his face heating up. “Exactly. You are awful when you get around girls you might actually like.” He said, pointedly tapping Sukuna’s tattooed arm with the tongs. “She’s not going anywhere. Just try to be normal for once.”
“Shut up and help me grill this fucking yakitori.” Sukuna said with a finite tone, yanking Yuji by the back of his collar toward the grill.
Once dinner was ready, nobody wanted to sit at the table, so the living room filled to the brim with your fellow fighters. You were once again sat between Maki and Nobara.
Panda piped up through a mouthful of food, “Oh! There’s a movie me and Toge wanna watch that’s streaming now, think we could?”
“Is it stupid?” Maki asked with a distinct drone to her voice.
“Fish flakes!” Toge insisted, a hand on his chest in offense.
“Yes.” Panda stated.
Choso rolled his eyes, “It’s fine. Let me find it.” He sighed as the dedicated remote operator and settled into his corner seat.
You were enamored with the plate of food in your lap, it looked perfect. The chicken was glistening and looked well-seasoned with the perfect amount of char beneath the reddish sauce. “This looks so good.” You muttered.
Nobara chuckled, “Stop looking and start eating.”
You rolled your eyes but dove in, bringing a skewer to your lips. “Oh my god, that’s delicious!” You exclaimed, a wide smile on your face.
Sukuna’s neck heated up, taking a dry swallow before biting off a piece from his own skewer.
“It’s my brother’s recipe!” Yuji chimed, “Sukuna’s a great cook.” Sukuna’s head snapped over to his younger brother, kicking his shin with his heel. “Ow!” Yuji went to retaliate, reaching over Choso to get to Sukuna.
Choso glared at his brothers on either side of him, “Stop.”
The other two froze and settled into their seats again.
“You better keep losing your spars then, Kuna.” You chuckled. Yuji popped up an eyebrow at the nickname, “Cause this is some of the best food I’ve had in years.”
Sukuna glowered, “Don’t get used to it.”
Everyone finished their food, half watching the nonsensical movie on the TV before you popped up, grabbing everyone’s dishes and trash, balancing a large pile of plates.
“I’ll do dishes!” you chimed, walking to the sink, “Thank you for cooking!”
Maki hopped up and joined you in the kitchen, “I’ll help you!”
“I’ll watch!” Nobara exclaimed, coming to lean on the counter near you two. “So,” Nobara started while you rinsed the first dish off, “Think you’ll wanna go clubbing on Saturday?”
You froze, “Uhh…”
Maki laid a hand your arm, “I really think you’ll have a lot of fun.”
“Ask me again after the fight on Friday.” You replied, resuming your scrubbing. The girls both nodded in agreement.
“Also, we have a dishwasher.” Nobara snorted a laugh.
Note: This is a little conglomeration of small/goofy ones! All for funsies, may or may not make a larger post about any of these at a later point!
ALL ABOUT THE CROSS GUILD
Croc's criminal business classes, Money laundering 101, How to make the marines not look at your murders 202, Advanced Persuasive argumentation 102, and Withstanding Advanced Persuasive argumentation 103. So far only Mihawk, Nami, Robin, Law, and weirdly enough Sanji have passed. Sanji only passed because he always had to help Zeff with his books cause Zeff would be ASS with numbers.
Twin Size Mattress by The Front Bottoms. Buggy. Losing Shanks. And Roger. Begging and crying baby Buggy. Last verse is Shanks.
Mihawk only being a goof with his SO. Like imagine earning him being goofy. Like one day you make a little quip and he actually like snort laughs. He will not address it at first. Then one time you're bathing together and he gives you both silly bubble beards. He starts muttering sly little comments to you while on official business, keeping a perfect straight face on the outside, but he's joking about Doflamingo's pink fairy princess dress that must be at the back of his closet that he must only bring out for tea parties. If you break and laugh at all you look insane to outsiders.
Also with Mihawk, I could see him sitting next to Croc just drinkin his wine and chilling :
Croc: I need to update my numbers by the fifth next week for the new quarter.
Mihawk: *chokes* Next week?!
Croc: Yes....?
Mihawk: *Panicking* ehhh joder!!!! My anniversary!!! It's on the third! I need to send something NOW!
Croc: *disapointment* You forgot?
Mihawk: Give me the key to the treasury.
Croc: No.
Mihawk: *snatches Croc's keys* *Sprints away to grab copious amounts of jewelry and gems*
*Later*
Partner: Oh! A delivery! *Opens front door* ...Oh my...*basically a fucking caravan of gifts getting carried into the castle*
Partner: ...Okay so I WON'T kill him for being late.
*Cross Guild*
Croc: You owe me more money than you can comprehend, swordsman.
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7,
Word Count: ~5.2K
MASTERLIST
Warnings/Notes: FIGHT RING AU, Blood, Descriptions of violence, Cursing, Some physical description w/ mention of differences to others-non negative, Mentions of scars, Fighting
.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.
You started packing the second you got home on Friday, barely having much to put in boxes, but you had to spend the next two days scrubbing the whole apartment of any proof that you’d ever been there in the slight hope that Mr. Matsumoto would give you some of your security deposit back. Although the lack of three months’ rent and the torso sized hole in the wall told you that’s unlikely. By the end of your cleaning spree, it looked arguably nicer than when you moved in other than that damned hole.
When Monday morning finally rolled around, you only realized when you heard a honk outside. You were woken up off your bare mattress that had to stay behind with a start. You whipped some drool from your chin and sprinted to the window that overlooked the street and saw Gojo, Yuji, and Megumi on the curb dressed in sweats, ready to help lug your belongings into a truck that they had brought. You opened the window and waved with a holler, “Give me two minutes, I’ll let you up!” the men gave you thumbs up.
You made a mad dash to the dusty duffle bag you left on top of all the other belongings you were bringing with you and tore it open, snatching fresh clothes, your deodorant and hairbrush from it. You decided to skip brushing your teeth for time and instead popped a stick of gum in your mouth.
You frantically ripped off your night shirt and changed your underwear, applying deodorant and putting on your bra and ruddy jeans. You ran the brush through your hair a few times before pulling it back out of your face. You threw everything back into your bag and zipped it up, running for the front door. “Shit, shirt.” You groaned, going back to where a fresh one had been laid. You put it on and slapped your Yankee cap onto your head as you rushed out the door into the hazy summer heat, bare feet burning on the concrete.
You hollered a greeting as you hopped down the old metal stairs of your apartment complex, shoving on socks and your beat-up running shoes. The three men looked at you in concern as you hissed in pain at the heat. And they all briefly wondered if you knew what tetanus was. For the record, you did-you just didn’t care. You’d been through worse.
“Damn, got places to be?” Gojo joked, clearly amused at your rush. He had on his sunglasses and a t shirt with gym shorts. His hair was held back off his forehead with a headband.
You huffed out a dry laugh. “I don’t have a lot of boxes, so it should only take us like two trips max.” You said, taking the cold water bottle Megumi offered up with a smile. The icy liquid ran down your throat, and you drank down half of it greedily. “You woke me up with the horn.” You explained. The men let out little noises of recognition as you led them up the rickety stairs to your small apartment.
They let out various noises of displeasure at seeing your drab studio apartment. They took note of the cracked tiles on the floor and your twin mattress on the ground in the corner of the room. There wasn’t even a closet. Only a door to a very small bathroom. Gojo had seriously thought you were exaggerating how broke you were like some do, but he realized with a start that you were entirely honest.
“It was the cheapest place I could find in Tokyo that was taking tenants.” You explained, cheeks hot with the shame of your measly situation. The younger men, you didn’t know for sure, but you knew Gojo came from money. You could practically smell it on him, so you found yourself silently praying that he wasn’t judging you too harshly. It wasn’t your fault that you’d gotten scammed. You did what you had to. You were lucky you weren’t homeless. You would have been right then if Gojo hadn’t appeared like an angel in that locker room to offer you everything you needed.
“Let’s get started,” exclaimed the older man. You let out a small sigh of relief at the lack of topic being addressed and pointed to the small stack of boxes and the few rolled posters.
“Only two of them are very heavy,” you said. “They’re the ones on the bottom. They have some books and my manga.” They nodded before quickly divvying up all the boxes among themselves, two each.
When you tried to take any from them, Yuji stopped you, “You take down your posters. With how your ankle was last week, we don’t want to mess it up more.” He explained. Your head recoiled and your fists clenched. You knew they meant well, but you’ll be damned if you ever let anyone stop you from doing something. Especially because of that stupid ankle.
So, you let them get out of the door, locking it behind all of you. Then when they had just begun walking towards the metal staircase, you grabbed Megumi’s boxes, pinning your posters between your arm and your torso. He gave them up with little physical protest. The boxes didn’t have handles, so you had to grab them from around or below, so he had an iffy grip to begin with. He audibly told you to stop, but it was too late, you were already at the bottom of the stairs with the boxes, heading towards the truck’s open tailgate. You set the boxes down with a satisfied huff.
The boys quickly caught up to you, and you met them with a menacing glare, “Never decide for me what I can or can’t do.” You asserted, grabbing the boxes from Yuji and Gojo, putting them on the truck bed.
“We just-!” you cut Gojo off with a swift grab at his collar, lifting him off the ground slightly. Gojo’s eyes widened when he realized his toes could only just barely reach the hot asphalt.
“I decide what I can do. Not you, moneybags. Get that straight or this won’t work.” You hissed, maintaining eye contact with him through his dark glasses. “I’ve lived on the streets before. I’ll do it again. You’re not in charge of me.”
Gojo held his hands up in surrender, “Understood.” He said clearly. You lowered him onto his feet again. He turned to the younger boys who had wide, saucer-like eyes, “You guys really just stood there while I almost got my shit rocked? Didn’t help me at all?”
The two shrugged, “I don’t mess with angry women. Especially not her,” Yuji urged, “I watched her fights, remember?”
“It’s fine. Just don’t do it again,” you insisted, hopping into the truck bed, sitting on one of the fuller boxes. “Let’s get going. I’m starving.” Yuji hopped up with you. The truck was only a two-seater; the center being taken up by a console he didn’t particularly want to dig into his crotch for the whole ride back.
As the pickup began speeding along the bumpy streets around your apartment complex, Yuji eyed you from across the truck bed. “How is your ankle feeling?” he called over the wind.
You pinched your eyes closed with a sigh, “Fine, Yuji. It only hurt for like two days.”
He nodded slowly, “How sure are you that you’re up to start fighting again?”
You glowered at the younger man, setting your jaw, “Very. I don’t care if my leg gets cut off tomorrow. I’m fighting.” You explained, turning away.
“You sound like my brothers.” Yuji chuckled. “They both have been fighting longer than I’ve been alive.” You rolled your eyes.
“How old are they anyways?” you asked. “They both look 21 and 30 at the same time.” You slid off your box seat and onto the dirty floor of the bed.
Yuji cracked a smirk, “Ryo’s 25, Choso’s 26-gonna be 27 in like two weeks.” A spark of mischief popped into the pink haired boy’s eyes. “Why, you tryna date one of em?” He teased, nudging your foot with his.
“What is it with everyone’s interest in my dating life?” you exclaimed, kicking the man’s leg, “No. I just couldn’t get a good read on their ages. Didn’t know if I was the oldest one in this little crew.”
‘Didn’t know if I was gonna be surrounded by babies.’ You added in your mind.
Yuji shrugged, “Choso’s the oldest fighter, then there’s Gojo-sensei and his friends. They’re all like 28-27?” he surmised. He smirked, “You think Gojo-sensei’s more your speed?”
“No! God, what is with you people!” you exclaimed, “and I’m not calling him that.” You huffed.
“Gojo-sensei?”
You nodded, “Already had one fighting sensei. He’s just a trainer.” Yuji’s brows drew together in confusion, “Kept me off the streets after I dropped out of high school. No one else can have that title in my mind.” Yuji nodded, “And it’s fucking weird to call someone that when he’s only a little older than me. Feels like he gets off on it or something.” You continued, scrunching your nose.
Yuji’s face fell in horror, “That’s nasty!” He crawled up to the back window of the truck and smacked the part that opens, “Gojo! You’re a fucking perv!” he exclaimed, prying it open.
“Eh?!” Gojo asked.
“Do you get off to pretty girls calling you sensei?!” Yuji yelled over the wind. You chuckled a bit, biting your cheek to keep quiet.
“Not during work.” Gojo called back, a sly smirk on his face.
Yuji reached his arm through the back window and tried to whack Gojo, but the angle made it hard, “Gross! Gross! Gross!” He exclaimed with each hit he managed to land.
The truck lurched as the brakes were slammed. Yuji hit his head on the body of the truck then fell backwards onto the truck bed with a bang. He hissed and rubbed his head. You were at the complex.
…………
You frowned as you stared at the ceiling of your new bedroom. The mattress was far too comfy, the desk in the corner brand new, the tall windows too bright with too nice of a view of a blooming tree, the plush carpet under your feet was too soft, the closet too big, and the bookshelf too spacious. There was even a laptop on the desk, a television mounted on the wall, and a new cell phone on the bedside table. You stared up at nothing and wondered-what’s wrong here? What’s not going to be right? Where’s the downside? It’s been three days already. Where’s that damned other boot and when will it drop?
You sat up and looked at yourself in the mirror on your closet door. Your bruises were starting to fade and the blood in your sclera was turning yellow. You ran your hand over your arm, pushing up the sleeve of your shirt over your shoulder. You looked deeply at the scars there, they speckled your skin like freckles on a ginger. On your left shoulder though was one that always stuck out. It was a large bite mark. It took well over a year to heal, but when it did it left jagged marks in the clear shape of a mouth in its wake. A curse had come after you inside your high school and had given you your money’s worth before you ran away. It was the only scar you had that you had mixed feelings over. The rest of your scars you had earned with pride. They were badges of honor of your need to survive, your fight to live and succeed. They were won. This bite mark was a loss. It reminded you of how the curses were more powerful than you on a base level. That they’d always be there and always be ready to kill you. You pinched the skin around the bite with a glare.
KNOCK KNOCK
“Come in.” you muttered, still analyzing the skin under your grasp. You saw Maki was the one pushing open your door. Her eyes fell onto your shoulder with a furrowed brow,
“Woah.” She whispered. “Curse bite?”
You nodded. “I was 15. Freaked people out for a while when they saw it. I said a dog got me.”
She cleared her throat, “Gojo-sensei wanted to know if you wanted to join us for training. He said you could just watch today if you’d like.”
Your head whipped to face her fully with a wicked grin. “Absolutely.”
Maki led you down to the bottom floor to a metal push door. You opened the heavy door and took in the training space. It was massive, a waxed floor gym with a few benches around the edge of the room and a large, blue fighting mat in the center. Your grin widened as you jogged up to the large group stretching on the mat. Maki joined in on the stretches.
Gojo waved as he continued to stretch on the ground. “You decided to join us! So, you wanna watch or get in on some sparring?” he jeered.
You rolled your eyes, smile never wavering, “The fuck do you think?”
He smirked up at you through his sunglasses, “Who you wanna match up with?” You shrugged, insisting you don’t care. Gojo nodded, a smug look on his face. “Who wants her?” he asked the group.
They began to glance between themselves, trying to assess who’d be a good matchup for you.
“Fuck it, I’ll fight Yuji.” You chimed, impatiently pointing at the boy.
He whipped around to face you, pointing at himself as sweat dripped down his forehead. “You wanna fight me?” he squeaked.
You nodded, “Why not? I’ve seen you fight, and I think you’ll be a cool challenge.” You stated firmly, dropping to the mat and beginning to join in the stretching, a slight struggle in your jeans that were probably older than you. “Why, you scared?”
“Kinda!” Yuji exclaimed, receiving scattered laughter, “You guys don’t get it, she fights like a beast! Back me up here Ryomen!” he insisted, grabbing his older brother’s tattooed arm.
Sukuna rolled his eyes with a grin, “She won’t kill you, Yuji.”
“Probably.” You chimed.
Yuji whined, “No one’s gonna volunteer for me? You two-!” he said pointing to his older brothers, “-are not allowed to watch The Hunger Games with me anymore. You’ve clearly learned nothing from Jennifer Lawrence.” He huffed, stretching again, bringing his fingers to his toes, and trying to flatten himself.
Sukuna snickered and Choso let out a smirk, “Just win.” Sukuna chided.
Megumi raised his hand from another end of the group, “Who am I gonna fight then?”
Gojo thought for only a moment, waving off his concern. “You’ll fight the loser.”
Megumi sighed with a roll of his eyes but said no more.
“Let’s give Yuji a little longer to live.” Gojo insisted, rising to his feet. “Usual order, Yuji’s match last.” He said, ushering the lot of you off the mat. You all took seats lining the border of it.
First up were Choso and Sukuna. They took opposing positions on the mat with matching smirks. Sukuna had his shirt off, displaying all his abdominal tattoos fully and loose gym shorts. Choso’s hair was back in his usual style, and he had on a loose tank top and shorts that reached the tops of his calves. Both were bare foot on the mat. The group of you off the mat sat and cheered for them as they squared each other up from their opposing ends. Maki offered you a sip of her water from beside you which you took happily.
Gojo stood in the middle of the mat, a whistle around his neck, “No outside weapons, no lethal moves, punches and kicks allowed, first to pin the other for 10 full seconds or get the other off the mat wins.” He explained quickly before blowing the whistle and jogging to an empty part of the floor next to the mat.
They both took their fighting stances, but you could tell by how solidly he stood that Choso was waiting for his younger brother to make the first move. And sure enough, he did, Sukuna advanced on Choso quickly, sending a right-handed jab straight for his face. Choso lifted his left forearm to block, swiping his right foot at Sukuna’s feet, tripping him. Sukuna recovered quickly, kicking upwards, aiming for Choso’s chin. Choso moved his head to the side, grabbing Sukuna’s calf tightly. Sukuna used the grip as leverage to throw himself upwards, forcing Choso to bend backwards, his head almost brushing the mat next to Sukuna’s foot, but Choso’s feet never left the mat, so he hovered, stable for a moment before using his grip on Sukuna’s leg to push him backwards as he rose back upright, Sukuna hopping on one foot.
Sukuna smirked, twisting his leg in Choso’s hold and going for a swinging kick at Choso’s head. Choso pushed Sukuna away midair, almost throwing him down towards the mat. Sukuna landed on his feet in a crouch with a grin. Choso took his fighting stance again, not taking his eyes off his opponent.
Sukuna rushed Choso, staying low, and grabbed Choso around the middle, forcing him backwards towards the edge of the mat. Choso planted his feet and grabbed Sukuna, trying to stay in one place, but his brother’s strength and momentum kept him sliding, mere inches from the edge of the mat. Choso grit his teeth and lifted Sukuna by his abdomen over his head. Sukuna’s eyes widened as he was flung. Choso didn’t let go as he lifted his brother, arcing his back and forcing Sukuna down quickly. Sukuna’s feet landed on the waxed gym floor with a small bounce.
“Choso wins!” Gojo called out, blowing his whistle. Choso flopped onto his back with a huff and a smile.
Sukuna rolled his eyes but offered his hand to his older brother. Choso took it and used the leverage to hop up to his feet. “Good match.” Sukuna mumbled, clapping his brother on the back.
“Hey, I haven’t beat you in a month, don’t be a sore loser.” Choso chided.
“Uh huh. You just wanted to impress the new chick.” Sukuna scoffed.
Choso rolled his purple rimmed eyes and shook his head. “You just can’t lose gracefully, can you?” he asked. Sukuna glared, kicking his brother’s shin with his heel as they approached the group to take their seats. Yuji handed them both their water bottles as they settled next to him with quiet “thank you”-s.
“Come on up, Toge, Nobara.” Gojo commanded, blowing his whistle once again. The two opponents approached the mats readily.
The fight went swiftly, Nobara quickly pinning Toge to the mat. He hadn’t seen her going for a right hook and had gone down like a bag of bricks.
“Nobara wins!” Gojo announced with a tweet. Nobara helped Toge up and off to the sidelines, both all smiles. “Maki! Panda!” the two were already up and approaching the blue mat.
This fight stretched on for longer than the other two but ultimately ended with Maki pushing Panda off the mat. He had focused too much on where Maki was on the mat and not enough on his own surroundings.
“Okay! Now for the match we’ve been waiting for!” Gojo exclaimed, calling out your and Yuji’s name. You both got onto the mat, you with enthusiasm and Yuji with reluctance.
“Why are you so sure you’re going to lose?” you glowered. “I don’t know all your little tricks, but you know plenty of mine! You’ve seen me fight tons more than I’ve seen you.” You insisted. “If you go into this thinking you’re gonna lose, we may as well not even spar.” Yuji nodded, still unsure but he got into a fighting position. You noticed it was a defensive position with a shake of your head.
Gojo let out the whistle for you two to start and you dropped into position but stayed still. You looked at the boy across from you carefully. Yuji was wearing a hoodie and shorts, he clearly was agile and skilled in direct combat, but you anticipated that he’d probably know what to do better with a more street style attack, so you gathered up your breath and nerves, and with a swallow, you prepared to kick his ass semi-systematically.
Yuji swallowed under your intense gaze, he desperately didn’t want to make the first move, not knowing the approach you’d come at him with. He’d seen you fight every opponent differently on TV, taking in their strengths and weaknesses as you pummeled them. But as he leveled his eyes with yours, your stony gaze told him you weren’t moving. You were going to wait him out and let him run at you.
With a hiss and a prayer, Yuji sprinted at you at an arc, going for your left. You smirked and mirrored his actions, arcing towards him at full speed. His eyes widened and he swung blindly towards your head. You ducked and slid under his arm, the mat burning your knees through the holes in your jeans. You quickly popped up and kicked him over with a square blow to the center of his back. He ate mat with a gasp, you walked backward, never taking your eyes off him as he scrambled up. Sure, you could have gone for a pin, but that’s no fun so early on. You stayed on the balls of your feet, your hands in loose fists as you stretched your neck.
Yuji gritted his teeth and rushed you again, aiming to grapple your torso. You hopped up as he got to you, using his shoulders to vault yourself over him, kicking his knee in as you landed. He stumbled but didn’t fall. You heard a few gasps at your jump but stayed focused on the fight.
Yuji turned back around and with a huff he came at you, fists at the ready. You stayed put and took him on directly this time, blocking his barrage of blows. He threw a left hook with all his weight behind it heading toward your bruised cheek. You raised your own hand and caught his wrist, twisting his arm behind him and pinning it upwards against his back. Yuji let out a groan of pain. You swiped your foot under his and he fell forwards. You sat on his lower back, still holding his arm. You reached around, grabbing his other arm and holding it against the mat and held his legs in place with your own. He still squirmed as Gojo began to count so you reached down with your head and took his hood in your teeth, jerking it backwards with a snarl. Yuji gagged at the pull against his throat but couldn’t move under your strong hold.
“-10! That’s a win for the newbie and a loss for our little Yuji!” Gojo exclaimed. You let the boy go and hopped up with a grin. Yuji huffed to catch his breath and laid his head against the mat.
“Good fight, Yuji.” You said, reaching a hand down. Yuji nodded, grabbing it. You hoisted him up to his feet.
“Told you I’d lose,” Yuji muttered.
You rolled your eyes, “You could have won, but you were so focused on me you forgot about yourself.” With a chuckle you joined the group again, sitting next to Maki.
She turned to you with a sparkle in her eye, “That was a cool fight,” she started, “we have to train together.”
“You gotta tell me how you jumped over his head!” Nobara chimed in, grabbing your arm with a wide smile.
You shrugged, “Don’t skip leg day.” You joked.
“You kicked Yuji’s ass.” Sukuna cackled, clapping you on the shoulder. “He’s never gonna live that down.”
You smirked, “Are you being sexist, Ryomen? You trying to say he should be embarrassed cause I’m a girl?” his eyes widened, and he stammered, trying to explain what he meant. You bit your lip with a smile.
When Sukuna noticed your grin he glowered, “Don’t do that! I’m trying here!” he whined. You chuckled and waved off the man with a push to the shoulder.
“Yuji and Megumi!” Gojo called out. Yuji whined but got back on the mat as Megumi joined him.
You rose to go refill Maki’s now empty water bottle at one of the fillers you’d noticed on the edge of the room. You yawned and stretched as you waited for the bottle to fill.
“Good job, Buttercup.” You heard over your shoulder. You startled, whipping around to see Sukuna with an empty water bottle behind you. He held his hands up in defense, “Didn’t mean to scare you.”
“Sorry, adrenaline makes me jumpy,” you muttered, taking a swig from the now full bottle. He came up to your side and put his under the spout with a nod. “Hope I lived up to the hype.” You chuckled.
He snorted a laugh, “Sure did.”
“When’s the next fight night?” you asked.
Sukuna took his full bottle and screwed the top on, “Fights are on weekends. Start Thursdays and end Saturdays.” He explained.
You nodded, “When do you think I’ll get into the ring?”
He rolled his eyes at your eagerness, “Calm down. You gotta learn with weapons for at least two weeks still. And you’ll be starting in a tournament. That’s how you’re introduced to the betters.”
You frowned, “When’s that?”
“First of next month.”
“Of course.” You sighed. “We just started this month, so that’s like four weeks.” You muttered, crinkling the disposable bottle in your hand.
Sukuna nodded. “Gives you time to watch everyone and get really prepared, knock off any of that rust you’ve got,” he jeered. You shook your head and shrugged.
“I just want in the ring dammit.” You said. “It’s been too long.”
“How long now?”
“Year and a half, going on two.” You muttered. He shook his head with a frown.
“Gojo-sensei!” Yuji gave out a muffled yell, you both looked over to see a pinned Yuji laid flat on his face. You and Sukuna jogged over, bottles in hand.
“Get up, Yuji.” Gojo chastised as you got to the edge of the mat. Megumi smirked a bit as he let Yuji go. Yuji let out a gasp as he flipped himself around, huffing to catch his breath.
“Now we’re going to free work out until 6:00 then the losers of the matches today make dinner.” Gojo announced, gesturing to where a few of the others had already filtered through a door to a room with weights and workout machines. You grinned and bounded towards the room, making a beeline towards a hack squat machine.
“Haven’t been able to work out with equipment in forever!” You exclaimed, immediately setting the weight. “Been using rice bags and water buckets.”
Maki came up beside you, “You can’t just keep saying stuff like that. It’s getting sad.” She joked. You felt heat rising over your neck as you got into position on the machine. “So…”
“So?” you responded, starting your first rep.
“You wanna try and hit up the club this weekend?” She asked quietly, an eager grin across her face.
You stopped for a moment, holding up the weight. “I don’t know, Maki. I wanna try and go to all the fights till I can get started.”
“Well, that’s the thing! Nobara and I are fighting on Saturday! We can go after our matches!” She whisper yelled, clearly wanting to make it a girl only trip. You pondered for a moment, resuming your weighted squats before you gave her a hesitant nod. Maki lit up, “We can go to my favorite spot! It’s got the best music, and there’s always pretty people there.”
“I’m not going home with anyone, Maki.” You muttered.
Maki pouted, “We can at least have fun! What do I look like here! I’m not trying to sex you out!” You rolled your eyes, continuing your reps. “If I wanted to do that, I’d gas you up to Sukuna or something.” She mumbled.
“What the fuck?” you hissed, shoving the weight up. “Why the hell would you say that?”
Maki stepped back a bit, “I’m just saying. You’re the same age and he’s actually trying to talk to you…” she trailed off suggestively.
You rolled your eyes, “Seems like I annoy him, honestly.”
“Everyone annoys him.” She clarified, taking a seat on the weight machine next to you. “He only seems like he’s having an unabashed good time when he’s fighting. He’d love to fight Gojo-sensei some time.”
You continued your reps as you spoke, “I didn’t think Gojo fought. I thought he was just the boss?”
Maki shook her head, “Gojo’s not our boss, he’s our trainer and helps take care of us. Our boss is Masamichi Yaga. You’ll meet him when you start fighting. Gojo-sensei is technically a fighter just like us. He can’t compete in matches anymore though. Kinda like Sukuna.”
“Why?” you said, settling for a rest between reps.
“He wins too fast. No use betting. Curses don’t even get a chance to get out of the gate before he could have them pulverized. He’d rush them so fast and knock them to pieces that you wouldn’t know what happened till you saw the blood.” Maki explained. “Yaga kept getting flack for the boring matches and had to bench him. They tried things to make the fights last longer, but it didn’t work. They weighted him down, blindfolded him, even put him against multiple curses at once. Didn’t stop him at all. He only comes in the ring if there’s a curse so powerful that it’s killing fighters.”
“What’s his weapon?”
“It changes sometimes but he always comes back to these knuckle dusters.” Your ears pricked up a bit at that. As Maki was about to continue talking, Gojo came through the door and crossed over to you two.
“Maki! Why are you just sitting there?” Gojo teased, urging her to get up, “Hop on the treadmill, I gotta talk to the newbie.” Maki nodded and said her goodbyes, jogging up to the treadmill next to the one Toge was using.
You frowned, and started another rep, “I have a name, Gojo.”
He gave you a wide smile, pearly whites in full view. “You don’t like my nicknames?”
“Don’t like being called newbie all the time.”
“Alright then, Hyena.” He teased, sitting where Maki had been just moments ago. You rolled your eyes and kept your squats consistent and paced. “So, I gotta know, what’s your weapon experience?”
You thought back through your life, “Minimal. If anything, it was mostly just stuff that was around where I was fighting. Nothing on purpose.”
“So if I send you in with a trash can lid, you’ll be set.” He joked.
“Thin ice, Gojo. Thin Ice.” You warned, an unserious glare thrown his way.
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7,
Word Count: ~2.8K
MASTERLIST
Warnings/Notes: FIGHT RING AU, Blood, Descriptions of violence, Cursing, Some physical description w/ mention of differences to others-non negative, Mentions of scars, Lingerie, Trying on clothes
.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.
The shopping trip was wonderful. You and the two girls were getting along wonderfully. They said you almost felt like exactly what they were missing in their dynamic. At times, you felt odd being older than the both of them, but it wasn’t extreme enough to make you uncomfortable. Nobara was 20 like Yuji and Maki was 23, and with you being 25, it wasn’t much but just enough that at times you could feel the difference in maturity. Especially with Nobara, but you enjoyed her young, spunky nature.
She had goals and knew what she wanted in life. She wanted enough money to live comfortably with an aptitude for violence and a hatred for curses, so this is where she ended up. She was a bright young woman with an even brighter future. Then Maki was there, kicking ass and taking names as a reject from a rich family that she planned to come back to with enough money to make the rich geezers in charge kneel, so she could reform the family and prove them wrong.
You admired their reasons for fighting and frankly felt silly in comparison. You were all three sat with your shopping bags in the food court for a lunch break, digging into some cheap mall food when they had asked you why you wanted to join in and fight in the Underground. You had almost choked on your drink when they asked, not wanting to reveal your inadequate reasons. But they had urged you, telling you that it was okay to share.
“It’s dumb, really.” You had started, only to receive disappointed glowering stress from the other two, “It really is!” but they remained unconvinced, so you opened up with a sigh, “Honestly, I’ve just been fighting forever. Fighting bullies, fighting my dad and my grandparents, fighting to get anything. It’s like…breathing for me. I got into a few scraps with the law, and it messed up my schooling real bad. So, when I dropped out of high school, I was aimless until I joined a gym. They taught me technique, gave me a job, and gave me an in to join rookie matches. I had another brush with the law when I fought a guy that I saw smack his girlfriend, and I only stayed out of jail because of the gym owner.”
The two girls nodded with serious expressions on their faces as they listened intently. “Then an MMA scout saw me win a women’s tournament and liked what she saw. She thought my fighting alias was funny too, so she got me in, set me up with a trainer and a manager, and the rest was history from there. I didn’t make a lot of smart money decisions, and my first manager-that dick-took all my earnings. I couldn’t afford the legal fees to take him to court, so he got away with it.” The two girls across from you made audible reactions of disgust, “Then when my second manager came around, well that was only a couple weeks before I got my ankle snapped. I didn’t even have a fight during that, so I was completely broke. Insurance helped the fees, but I couldn’t get another job and when I tried applying to places, they wouldn’t take me. No diploma, no college, and being a woman with a “violent” track record, a lot of people wouldn’t hire me. And then when I did get hired, I’d either get in trouble for messing stuff up all the time or I’d hurt my ankle again while I was training back up to get back into MMA. A whole year and half of that,” You continued, word vomiting at this point.
It had been so long since you’d been able to talk about the things you’d been through, it was therapeutic to just let it all pile out of your mouth. “And then yesterday I had a private fight scheduled where my manager, my trainer, and a few of the league officials would decide if I was ready to come back, and I fucked it up.” You sighed and pushed your food around in front of you mindlessly, “I stepped wrong and rolled my ankle. Felt like I had broken it all over again. I almost passed out, it hurt so bad. I was beating myself up in the locker room when Gojo came in and asked if I still wanted to fight. So, I came with him to Yuji’s match, and you know the rest. I couldn’t not. That’d be like asking a diabetic if they wanted their insulin back, or a drowning person for a fresh gulp of air. I had to say yes. I have to get back in the ring and fight. It’s all I know how to do. It’s basically my whole life.” You said, suddenly embarrassed at your rambling.
Maki and Nobara reached across the table, and each squeezed one of your hands. Maki spoke up first. “I understand completely. And that’s not stupid! I just hope you know that you’re so much more than your fighting abilities.” She rubbed your hand with her thumb as she spoke. You noticed that while calloused, her and Nobara’s hands were still soft unlike yours. You shrugged and nodded.
“If it helps, I think you’re really cool.” Nobara chimed, “You were dealt a shitty hand, and this is where it’s led you. I get it!” They both gave your hands a small squeeze before letting go.
Maki cleared her throat with a cheeky smile, “Now what’s this about dating?” She asked, mischief in her eye. You blanched a bit, noticing Nobara’s delight at the topic being brought up.
“What? Do you have a boyfriend?” she asked, chastising you. You shook your head, and were about to explain when Maki cut in.
“She says she ‘doesn’t date’.” The green haired woman eagerly filled in the youngest of the group who responded with a furrowed brow and a frown.
“Why the hell not?”
“It’s not that deep, really!” You insisted, heat creeping up your neck. You could feel your cheeks practically on fire. “I just don’t really date!” you exclaimed, trying to shut down the conversation entirely.
The two girls frowned, “Why though?” Maki asked.
You began to pick at your nails as you spoke softly. “It’s just never happened. Guys never liked me cause I was fighting or stronger than them. More didn’t like my muscles or the scars, or-it was always something. And I’m not going to change anything about that stuff, so they just always stayed away.” You explained, wringing your hands, “And I only ever even liked two guys my whole life and that was in middle school.” You scoffed, “They both made fun of me when they found out. Separately. It’s just never worked out.” You finished with a shrug, shoveling a bit of food into your mouth.
“Wait.” Nobara stopped your blabbing, placing her fingertip onto the table to help her organize her thoughts. “So, you’re telling me…You’ve never dated anyone.”
Maki gasped quietly and ducked her head to whisper your name, “Are you a virgin?” You groaned and sank in your chair, pulling your Yankee cap over your face to try and hide the embarrassment across your face, but your full body reaction-of course-gave you away to the shocked girls. “But you’re so pretty!”
“And cool!”
“And nice!”
“And-!” you cut them off with an outstretched hand, before you started to throw small pieces of your meal at them from across the table. They shrieked and tried to avoid the ammo, ultimately failing.
“It just never happened!” you hissed.
“Have you at least been kissed?” Nobara asked, digging out a stray piece of food that had fallen down her shirt. You looked off to the side, almost feeling guilty for your failure of a love life. You’ve always punched your emotions. If not that, kicked them. You aren’t used to embarrassment like this and almost felt like steam was coming out of your ears as you prayed for the floor to swallow you. “No?!” You shook your head, confirming the two girls’ horror.
“Oh, we are getting you laid.” Maki said, jumping up from her seat. “Let’s go get you some clothes for hot girl shit. Stat!” she ushered the two of you to get up, grabbing your trash for you and quickly throwing it in a nearby garbage bin.
Nobara nodded confidently, grabbing you up by the arm, snatching all your bags as the two led you deeper into the mall.
………..
“Uh, I don’t think this looks right.” You called through the changing room door. The two eager women had brought you to a high-end lingerie store you couldn’t be bothered to remember the name of and grabbed you an armful of different things to try on. Currently you had on a green lacy number that sat low on your hips and covered far too little for your liking. It didn’t hug the right parts of your body, instead pinching your hips and making them look weird. It wasn’t flattering by any means, and the color just wasn’t your style.
“Do you want us to look?” Maki gently hollered back. You shrugged and opened the door wide to let the girl’s look. It was a one person changing room with a private seating area right inside a lockable door, so it was just you three.
Nobara whistled as they laid eyes on you. “You didn’t tell me you were that hot!” she chastised, pointing at your figure and whispering to Maki at her side, “Did you know she had all that under those baggy clothes?” Maki shook her head with raised eyebrows and pushed her glasses down her nose to get a better look.
“Listen, if this doesn’t work out, I’m right here.” Maki offered, wiggling her eyebrows with a smirk.
You laughed but pulled at the skimpy fabric. “Thanks, but-I don’t know. This one doesn’t look good to me.” You surmised, a bashful look on your face. The girls nodded thoughtfully.
“Try on the black one.” Nobara requested. “And don’t bother with the neon one. I think it’ll have a similar effect.” Back to the drawing board. You sifted through the pieces, finding the neon one first and setting it to the side. Then you pulled out the black piece and began to swap out what you were wearing. It was a bit more coverage around the front, but it was a thong. You didn’t totally mind the thought of one, but this fabric was itchy. And the top was nice, but it didn’t cup your breasts right.
“Another bust!” you call out.
The two girls let out a few “hmm”s and “what if”s before Maki called out “Red! The dark one!” You hollered your agreement and tried it on. It looked good. The top was a lace push up with straps across the chest, and it hung around your neck, no shoulder straps, and it closed in the front. The bottoms laid high on your hips and were a more comfortable fabric than before. They had lace embellishments and came with a garter that wrapped around your thighs and high on your waist. You looked good. You held your hair back to get a good look at yourself from all angles. It didn’t hide anything that you liked but didn’t make anything look odd or accentuate anything poorly.
“I like it so far!” the girl’s cheered and encouraged you to open the door. When you did, they were ecstatic with small claps and cheers.
“It looks perfect!” they assured.
“Oh! The pink one! It’s similar!” Nobara exclaimed, urging you back into the changing room. As you closed the door, you heard a mutter about how they’d bring you out clubbing sometime, let someone get a preview. The thought of anyone seeing you in such a thing brought heat to your face. You were only playing along with this little plan of theirs because you wanted some more feminine clothing but didn’t know where to start. You had owned a few nice bras before, and they always made you feel good about yourself when you wore them, so this seemed like a pretty good place to get going.
You slipped off the red lingerie set and set it to the side to buy and put on the light pink one. The structure of the top was like the red with a bow in the middle of the cups, but it had sheer fabric that flowed over it in a baby doll style as you heard Maki call it. The bottom of the sheer fabric had a bit of soft, fluffy lining all in a bright, pastel pink. Then the bottoms were a high waisted thong with lace and bows on the sides. You looked great. You made yourself blush as you looked in the mirror. You hadn’t ever seen yourself look pretty like you had today. It brought a rosy smile to your lips.
When you opened the door to show the girls, they were almost speechless at how nice it looked on you. “You’re buying that.” Maki insisted.
“And you’re like two steps away from being legally required to sit on my face.” Nobara joked, a serious look on her face as you and Maki laughed. “It’s the law.” She spoke.
You shook your head and smiled, “I really like it. I think I want this one and the red.” The two girls nodded in approval. “I’m gonna get changed then we can check out.” The girls had already assured you they didn’t need any new sets and had bought some new ones at the start of the year.
When you left the lingerie store, you couldn’t help the smile on your face. “Let’s get you a cute dress and a pair of heels. Then we can bring you to your apartment so you can start packing.” Maki said, dragging you towards a designer store full of youthful designs and vibrant clubbing outfits.
You three split up, sifting through the dresses. You were quickly going through a rack when you saw it. It was a deep maroon, floor-length dress with only one thin strap that let fabric pool around the neckline in ripples. It was clearly skintight and had a high slit over where the left leg would be. You wordlessly grabbed one in what looked like your size and rushed to the fitting room, grabbing the two girls on your way. When you came out and showed them what you looked like in it there was no question about it. You’d struck gold. It looked fabulous on you. It wasn’t conservative by any means, but covered enough to be classy, and the top has enough support to make you feel comfortable. The smooth fabric almost shimmered in the light as it moved. You looked amazing.
Before you left, Nobara produced another dress, a mid-thigh length scarlet number with a plunging neckline. It was a backless halter with gold accents. It fit like a glove.
With a successful shopping trip behind you, the three of you laughed in the back of the car Gojo had sent you along with. You really liked these girls and were glad to have them with you. When you were still in the MMA, sure you had the other girls in the league, but you were more focused on kicking their shins in than getting drinks and having fun at the time. And the guys at your gyms were usually rude or if they were nice, so aloof that you’d just keep to yourself anyway. It was easier. Lonely, but easier.
You were sad to get out of the car, but you knew you’d see them again in only a few days’ time. “Wait!” Nobara yelled, grabbing your wrist as you got out of the car, bags in hand. “What’s your phone number?” you once again found yourself shrinking into yourself at the question.
“I don’t have one. I couldn’t afford it anymore, so I sold it and used the money to buy food.” You explained, sick of sharing sob stories. You wanted to be able to talk about the fun parts of your life like your training days, your wins in the ring, or how much you loved to draw and watch anime. But this kept happening, little slights throughout your newfound joys, just cutting deep enough to keep you down and remember that things don’t work out for you. To wait for the other shoe to drop.
Nobara waved off your embarrassment, “All good. We’ll tell Gojo to buy you one. You’ll need it anyway to coordinate on fight days and spars.” She explained. “Have a good night, and if you need anything, send a carrier pigeon or something.” She chuckled, closing the car door with a wave.
You laughed and waved as the car pulled off into the evening light. Just two more days in your sad little apartment. Then you’d get a whole new start.
Note: It's not Thursday! Oops! Hectic travel week cause classes are about to start back up for me! Hope yall like this one!
THE STRAWHATS SELF CARE (INCLUDES HOBBIES)
Luffy- Let’s be honest. Partly due to his Devil Fruit and partly because he’s Luffy, boy doesn’t bathe or do a lot personal maintenance wise. However! He takes meticulous care of his things. He is careful with his hat and has learned how to repair it. He learned the basics of how to sew and take care of his clothes. He maintains the trinkets and treasures he’s picked up over his adventures, keeps them clean and dust free, does repairs on them as needed. His main means of “self-care” though is he dedicates specific time in the day to be alone in the quiet outside on the deck, just watching the sky and the water, and feeling the sun and breeze. Just gives him some time to think-yes Luffy thinks-and be grounded with himself and the world around him. I think, if Luffy had a hobby it’d be drawing. Now listen. He is no artist by conventional standards. But for him, the point is the joy it brings him, and the calm he feels as he scratches pen against paper. He doodles things he sees, random little things he notices, the other Strawhats, his family. Luffy had blank journals that he just draws in when he has time. He doesn’t show them off unless he’s really proud of them. The crew each has a few of his drawings of them-good or not-by their bunk.
Zoro-Zoro is our beloved stink man. We know he’s not the best at hygiene or maintenance, I mean he keeps his hair that short so he doesn’t need to do anything to it. Bro wears the same clothes till he’s forced to wash them. Other than the occasional curiosity and theft of Sanji’s stuff Zoro’s self-care is manifested in his workouts and training. It centers his mind, brings him pride, and makes him happy. One could argue that his naps are a form of self-care, but I’m gonna be honest, as someone who’s been diagnosed with multiple sleep disorders, I don’t think that’s a conscious choice. Zoro struggles with hobbies. Bro gets bored easy and doesn’t like to do things he thinks might be lame. However, he has joined Sanji’s knitting circle. Sanji challenged him saying he couldn’t make anything nice, and now he’s stuck.
Sanji-Sanji takes good care of himself, he always has, but post time skip it’s upgraded. He has a skincare routine, he moisturizes, he uses very nice shampoo and conditioner, he has a fuzzy bathrobe, he has a collection of face masks, he always smells good. He-on rare occasion-will break out a little makeup if he’s feeling up to it! He maintains his facial hair meticulously. To relax, he needs some things to do outside of cooking. He loves cooking, but it’s his job, and one needs hobbies. Sanji has the hobby habits of an elderly woman, and Zoro especially loves to point that out. He collects and completes jigsaw puzzles, he completes sudoku books on the regular, he started a knitting circle on the ship. He has leant a few puzzles to Zoro for him to do in the crow’s nest. Sanji showed him how they work and some strategies and he’s been slowly working his way through a few.
Nami-Nami is an everything shower girlie. She especially takes meticulous care of her hair. She has hair oils, masks, deep conditioners, fancy satin pillowcases, if there’s a product that’ll be good for her hair she has it. She insists on lending Robin products, and they have spa nights where they gab and talk about the books they’ve been reading. One of Nami’s favorite things to do to relax is read. She loves romance, adventure, fantasy, and biographies of famous pirates-mostly women. Other than that, she loves to maintain her orange trees. She waters them, weeds, prunes them, and just loves working with them every day. She’s propagating a few smaller plants in her window. She’s also in the knitting circle. She’s in the middle of making a sweater.
Usopp-Usopp is a very clean man. His mom wouldn’t have raised him any other way. He works with his hands all day but always makes time to take care of himself. I mean, look how long his hair is post time skip! You think he has all that length and doesn’t maintain it? Also, if he let his beautiful hair go to waste, I feel like Nami would throttle him. Usopp consistently is one of the best smelling Strawhats, second only to Franky when it comes to the men. Usopp is the most open to Sanji’s slow introduction of products to the boys. It’s something they’ve bonded over. Usopp was actually the one to encourage Sanji to make the knitting circle. Usopp had learned from his mom and Sanji picked it up over the time skip, so it started with them and slowly expanded. Otherwise, he loves to draw and paint, mostly people and landscapes. He’ll also use leftover bits and bobs from around the shop to build little toys and give them to kids he runs into on islands. Luffy also has a small collection. It brings him joy and calm, making something that’s just for happiness and fun every once in a while.
Robin-Robin makes her own perfume. Where does this come from? My heart. My soul. I just know this. She is very well maintained. She takes wonderful care of herself, a skincare queen. She uses a hair oil and loves her spa days with Nami. I feel like she smells like Jasmine. She drinks tea to calm her in the evening. She joins the knitting circle, but she cross stitches instead. She uses her summoned hands to hold up her book while she does. Robin loves to read. Loves it. She especially loves mysteries! One of her favorite things to do is to try to solve them before the characters do. She also loves reading books about the things her fellow crewmates love so she can give them tips and facts about them.
Chopper- Chopper is a teenage boy. He tries his best. Robin helps as best she can. He’s always eating sweets when he can and loves to read. While the others are knitting, he and the ones that don’t knit play boardgames!
Brook-No need for care! Afterall, I’m already dead! Yohohoho! Jk. Brook is in the knitting circle, he’s really really good at it. If he wants to relax, he’ll specifically write lullabies. It may sound odd, but it’s always helped him. He also loves shopping!
Franky-FRANKY SMELLS GREAT. NO I WILL NOT TAKE CRITICISM OR QUESTIONS. He takes such good care of himself. He is always maintaining everything as best he can. He has minimal products, but that’s because he knows exactly what works for him, and he keeps on schedule with it. There’s a reason he’s so comfortable in his outfits, it’s because he knows he looks good, and knows he has nothing to be insecure about. He keeps amazing care going on his robotic parts as well. Keeps them shined and clean, waxed and buffed. Hobbies wise, Franky is relatively minimal, but he loves to sing and listen to music. He sings while he works and just in the shop when he feels like it.
Jinbe-Jinbe is a well taken care of man. He is grown and responsible. He is well manicured and takes pride in his appearance. He is also in the knitting circle, yes it’s difficult, yes he’s very good at it. He also loves to read, mostly nonfiction.
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7,
Word Count: ~4.8K
MASTERLIST
Warnings/Notes: FIGHT RING AU, Blood, Descriptions of violence, Cursing, Some physical description w/ mention of differences to others-non negative, Mentions of scars, Sukuna's here!
.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.
“We’re home!” Yuji called up the staircase, kicking his shoes off. It was just left of the door when you came in. You and Gojo followed suit, lining them against the wall next to many other pairs. “Everyone meet the newbie! It’s a girl!” Two noticeably female voices resounded with excitement from the floor above you, with an influx of footsteps bounding towards the stairs.
They came into view at the top of the staircase with aprons on, one was taller with long green hair and purple glasses who had a whisk in her hand, covered in chocolate batter, the other had dyed ginger hair and bright amber eyes, wielding a wooden spoon. The latter chimed in angrily pointing at the trainer who was standing slightly behind you, “You didn’t tell us she was going to be a girl, Gojo-sensei! We thought you were bringing in another smelly boy!” She yelled, rushing down the stairs, the taller girl in tow. “Why didn’t you tell us?!”
Gojo grabbed you, shoving you in front of him by the shoulders like a human shield “I didn’t have confirmation of if she’d even join yet!” he whined. “She could have said no!” The woman was having none of it though, and rushed around you, smacking the man on the side repeatedly with the wooden spoon.
Yuji cleared his throat, pushing you away from Gojo’s grasp “Say hi to her, damn.”
The taller girl gently held your upper arms, a wide grin on her face, “My name is Maki Zenin! What’s yours?” You chuckled at everyone’s enthusiasm and told her your name, “Great! Why don’t you come on up and meet everyone in the living room! It’ll be better than standing here. It’s already crowded with just the five of us.” She jested, motioning for you to follow her upstairs. You do, sparing a glance back at Gojo getting chewed out by the young woman and saw Yuji roll his eyes with a smile as he followed you two upstairs.
“That’s Nobara.” Yuji explained as you all reached the second floor. “She gets kinda feisty. You’ll probably like her if you give her a chance. Buy her some sushi and she’ll kill for you, no hesitation.”
Maki laughed at his assertion, “He’s right.”
She had led you to a wide, open room with another staircase at the far end of it. Most of it was taken up by a large living room with big windows. It had a large sectional, a few recliners and some beanbag chairs. There was a large TV and a few gaming consoles on a stand under it. The coffee table in the middle of it was spattered with open cans of soda and some snacks, recently abandoned. It had a plush, comfy carpet and a few lamps that you assumed changed color, as right now they were shining green. The kitchen was connected to the living room, only obstructed by a tall island with bar seats and the change to tile on the floor. There was a large dining table to your right with plenty of chairs, a laptop and papers at one of the seats. It was nice, with a high ceiling and good lighting.
Your jaw dropped slightly at the nice space. “This is where you guys live?”
Maki nodded, “It’s pretty cool, huh? The bedrooms are upstairs, and downstairs is the gym and training area. Through there-!” she said, pointing towards a door between the kitchen and the other staircase, “Is a small bathroom, but we have a big shared one upstairs too.” You hummed in understanding. “Why don’t you take a seat at the bar while everyone shuffles in? Me and Nobara were just making a batch of brownies when you came in.” You agreed and found your way over there, grabbing an apple from a bowl next to you on the counter.
“Where is everyone?” Yuji asked, sliding in the seat next to you, grabbing himself a banana. “They were just watching something; I could hear it when we came in.”
Maki raised an eyebrow in a knowing look towards Yuji. “They were awful comfy, so they went to smarten up before meeting the new girl.” She chuckled. “Half of em didn’t have shirts on. Hell, Sukuna was just in his boxers. When you said the newbie was a girl, half of em turned into meerkats, and the stumbled over each other to get upstairs.”
Yuji sighed, letting out a quiet laugh, “What the hell.” He muttered.
You couldn’t help but giggle a bit at the thought. You were flattered that they’d want to look nice to meet you, but “I wouldn’t have cared if they were messy. I’m gonna be living with you guys after all. I mean Yuji was sweaty and covered in blood when I first met him and Gojo introduced himself to me while I was in the shower.” You snickered.
Maki looked at you in disbelief, “Gojo-sensei did what?” You nodded, still chuckling to yourself. “That’s so rude! I ought to smack him like Nobara did! But harder! Leave a bruise!” you waved her off as you finally took a bite of the juicy red apple.
“I’ve been in sports my whole life, he didn’t even open the curtain, nothing I’m not used to,” you assured through a mouth full of apple. “I did almost punch him when he tried to convince me to let him watch me change though.”
Yuji was the one in shock now, choking on the small piece of banana he had in his mouth. “He did what?!”
You nodded, shifting your baseball hat on your head, “Yeah! I asked him to turn around, and he goes “Oh don’t worry on my account”.” You recounted with a bad imitation of Gojo’s voice.
“I do not sound like that!” Speak of the devil, “I sound much more manly!”
A now content Nobara rushed up from behind him to introduce herself properly, pushing him out of the way. She extended a hand out to you with a smile, “Nobara Kugisaki! Nice to meet you!” you smiled back and shook her hand with the one free of your apple and told her your name. “You should come shopping with me and Maki tomorrow! It’ll be great to have another girl around!” Maki chimed in her agreement, urging you to agree.
Your smile dropped, and you began to fiddle with your apple shyly, “That sounds fun, but I’m kinda broke right now. Last I checked I had like 15 yen on my card and a few paper notes in my wallet.”
Maki patted your hand over the counter. “Don’t worry, we were going to steal Gojo-sensei’s card anyway. Man’s loaded.” She said with a sly glint in her eye. You turned to the man with hope in your eyes. You hadn’t had a chance to just be a girl and have fun in years. It really sounded like heaven to you.
He sighed and nodded, gesturing with a wave of his hand that it was fine, plopping into a recliner in the living room. “I just need it back after so I can send Ijichi on a grocery run and so I can order stuff for her new room.” You brightened up immediately, and Nobara gave out a squeal of excitement, throwing her arms around your shoulders, on instinct you froze up stiff, but softened when you properly registered that she meant no harm, wrapping your arms around her in return.
As Nobara pulled away she began chattering to Maki about tomorrow and the brownies they were making, “Well lookie here! Here come the boys! Finally!” She jeered, bumping Maki with her hip.
The large caravan of boys shuffled down the stairs, some still adjusting their clothes as they approached. The leader of the line was a tall man in a bear suit. Or so you thought. Then he spoke.
“Hi, I’m Panda! Yes! I am a Panda!” Honestly, you’ve seen weirder, so you accepted it quickly with a shake of your head and extended out your hand offering your name. The bear seemed to smile and shook your hand in his strangely human one. He moved to the side so the rest of the boys could come up and greet you.
The next one was a shorter man with an ashy blonde bowl cut and what looks like some tattoos around his mouth. “Kelp.” Your nose crinkled in confusion at the strange introduction.
“Shit, forgot to explain Toge.” Yuji dropped his head for a moment in disappointment. He turned to you to explain, “His name is Toge Inumaki. He has this thing called cursed speech. Makes it so if he says everyday words, it can have some pretty nasty effects, so he speaks using Onigiri ingredients to help. He just said hi. You’ll catch on. I can make you a cheat sheet if you want.” He offered. You let out an ‘ohhh’ of understanding and turned back to the man in question.
“Kelp to you too, dude.” You said, letting him know your name with a smile. He snorted a laugh and shook his head, clearly amused before joining Panda on the sidelines. “I’ll learn quick, I promise.” Toge gave you an appreciative thumbs up.
Next up was a younger man, probably Yuji’s age with spiked black hair and navy-blue eyes. “Name’s Megumi Fushiguro.” He said, a stoic, but not upset expression on his face. “I’m the one with the animals, only one you’ll see much of is my dog.” He explained. You perked up and looked around, not having spotted the creature. “He’s in his crate right now. Didn’t know if you liked dogs or not. Didn’t wanna spook you.”
“Oh, I love dogs, love all animals really. You’ll have to let him out soon, don’t want him cooped up for too long. What’s his name?” you ask, reaching a hand out to shake his.
He lets a small grin appear, “Good to hear. I’ll have to do that. His name is Kon. He’s a big fluffy mutt, so expect fur and slobber.” Megumi explained with a smirk, shaking your hand.
You told him your name as you shook. Then you took another bite of your apple, “You’ll have to let me see the rest of your critters too. Used to take care of all the strays as a kid. Dogs, cats, birds, you name it.” He nodded, impressed, and agreed, stepping to the side with the other two.
“Ryomen Sukuna.” Before you even turned back to the last two men, he was standing in front of you, arm extended. “Yuji’s big brother.” He explained. He had multiple earrings and was covered in tattoos. They sprinkled his face and arms, all the way up under his t-shirt and you were sure there were more that you just couldn’t see right then. He sported sharp features and a tall, muscled build. He had Yuji’s pink hair, just a bit longer and more thoughtfully styled, and piercing red eyes. You assumed they were a result of his gift. You were taken aback by his brash attitude for a moment, but shook his hand anyway, stating your name kindly. He smirked, “You look familiar, you MMA?” he asked, crossing his arms.
You winced and sighed, “Ex MMA. Hyena.” You said curtly. Behind you, Yuji and Gojo were frantically motioning for Sukuna to shut the fuck up, to stop, don’t push it.
But Sukuna is not good at listening or reading people to be frank. He thinks he is, but the man can be emotionally obtuse. “Yeah, you were a hell of a fighter. I was watching your match when you got stomped. Shame. I loved watching you. You’re a scrappy thing.” He chuckled lightly, not noticing the way you darkly stared at your hands.
“Yeah. A real shame…” you trailed off, and only then did Sukuna notice the exasperation and despair of the pair behind you as they mimed banging their heads into the counter and their hands respectively.
His eyes widened and he tried to backtrack, do some damage control, waving his hands around and stepping closer to you, “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize it was a-!” he’s cut off by a large hand swatting him on the back of the head, and grabbing him by the nape of his neck.
The last man to introduce himself, Choso you assumed, held Sukuna by the scruff, “Shut up before you dig yourself deeper. This is why we say you shouldn’t talk to strangers. For their sake, not yours, Ryo.” Choso chastised, pushing Sukuna to join the group of disappointed men, receiving a few swats and kicks to the shin for poking an open wound.
Choso was a tall, broad man, with similar bone structure to the other two brothers, but with brown hair pulled back into two spiked pigtails and bangs, with dark eyes with bags under them and purple eyeshadow. You didn’t see many guys wearing makeup in your circles, but it looked nice. He also had a few tattoos, one being a large, black bar over the bridge of his nose. He was dressed in loose clothing. You could tell he’d be a formidable opponent in the ring. The thought excited you, but it didn’t crack through your solemn mood, or your expression.
“It’s okay, he didn’t know.” You assured; it was true after all. Sukuna had no way to know that you were still sensitive about your injury. It wasn’t like you walked around with a sign that said, DON’T TALK ABOUT MY MMA CAREER OR I’LL CRY. Maybe you should if you kept getting upset like this anytime someone asked about such a large portion of your life. You looked over to Sukuna with as sincere of an expression as you could make, “Really, don’t feel bad. You didn’t know.” He set his jaw and nodded, looking off to the side.
Choso sighed, but extended his hand to you, “Choso Itadori. I’m the oldest of us three.” You gave him a small smile and shook his hand, introducing yourself for the umpteenth time. “I swear he’s not always like that. He just…struggles with tact.” Sukuna made a sound of offence but was shut up by Toge kicking his ankle.
“We were settling in for a movie night before you came, if you’d like to join.” Megumi offered from the small mob. The rest of the people in the room nodded in encouragement, obviously happy to have a new face around.
You thought about declining. The thought of being around all these people for so long at once was overwhelming at the least, panic inducing at the worst. But then you heard Nobara. “You can sleep over! Then it’ll be easier to head out tomorrow!”
Maki nodded in excitement at the notion, “You can sleep in my room, or you could crash the couch if that’s not your style.” She encouraged.
You bit your lip in thought, “How much longer on those brownies?” You asked. The girls’ faces broke out with ear splitting grins.
“15 minutes!” Maki answered, pointing to the stove timer.
“Ice cream?”
“We’re not monsters,” Gojo called from his recliner, tutting out your name. “Of course we have ice cream for our brownies.” He shook his head as he rose from his seat, approaching the kitchen for a fresh can of soda.
You nodded slowly, a small grin on your face and some heat rushing into your ears. The room erupted in scattered whoops and cheers as the boys rushed to find their abandoned seats.
Choso glared at his brother as Yuji began to rush to the corner seat of the sectional sofa. “That’s my spot.” He huffed, stalking over to where he tried to settle in.
A soft, but gruff voice gave you a start, “I really am sorry about that a second ago.” Sukuna had come up from behind you and muttered right next to you. Sukuna gave a tense grin, avoiding your eyes “You’ll do great here.” He said, offering a hand to you. You grabbed your now half eaten apple and took his hand with a touch of hesitation. When your skin brushed his, you felt your neck heat up and felt a bit antsy. His hands were rough and calloused, just like yours and you wondered for a minute if he found that odd. You quickly pushed the thought down.
He helped you off the bar stool, and your ankle chose just then to waver on you. You stumbled with a curse, almost rolling it when he reflexively grabbed your shoulder to steady you. You made eye contact, the scarlet almost startling, and he was clearly worried. You tried to wave it off, but he frowned. “I’ll be okay, it’s just sore from rolling it earlier.”
“Are you sure?” He asked with an arched eyebrow, eyeing your wobbly stance. You nodded, “Ok, but I’m helping you to your seat. You don’t have a choice.” and Sukuna lead you to a love seat next to Nobara and Maki who was in a beanbag next to a seat clearly reserved for you. You limped over in record time with Sukuna supporting part of your weight.
“Yes!” Maki and Nobara cheered as you were settled in the seat between them.
“Any requests?” Yuji asked, scrolling through the options on the TV.
“Something funny!” Panda and Maki exclaimed to scattered agreement. Sukuna rolled his eyes, muttering something about wanting to watch something scary, but resigned himself to the goofy comedy he was going to be subjected to as he sat on the sectional, sprawled between his brothers.
The night flew by with brownie sundaes and laughter at cheap jokes. You found yourself really enjoying yourself, settling into the group dynamic nicely. You were still quiet by your standards, but it was early on. You felt comfortable, but you were ready to be alone and sleep off the social interactions of the day. So, when the movie was over and the chatter had turned to yawns and the rough housing into stretches your new companions began to filter upstairs to bed, leaving you, Nobara, Maki, Sukuna, and Gojo.
“Ready for bed?” Maki asked, jostling your shoulder which made you bump into a dozing Nobara who groaned in protest and sleepily swatted at you. You nodded, stretching your arms with a yawn. “Gojo-sensei!” she called. He merely hummed in response. “Go get her some extra blankets and pillows.” He groaned in frustration but got up to do so anyway. You tried to assure them that you’d be fine and could just sleep as is, but neither would have it.
“He’s just dramatic.” Maki assured. “Now, I’ll go grab you some pajamas.” She said, rushing up the stairs to grab some clothes from her room.
You sighed, but stayed put, picking at your nails. Nobara stirred next to you with a yawn. “I’m gonna head upstairs. Someone will wake you up in the morning so we can go.” She muttered, dragging her body up and towards the stairs. You chuckled at the zombie she’d been reduced to and waited for someone to tell you where to go or what to do.
“I’m heading up too,” Sukuna sighed, rising off the couch and ruffling his hair with his hand. “Have fun on your little girl day thing.” He said as he trudged up the stairs.
“Got you a blanket and some pillows!” Gojo came up from behind the loveseat you were sat on and plopped them onto the plush sectional. “You can bunk up however you want to. I’m heading to sleep.” He said, giving you a two fingered salute as he shuffled upstairs. ‘I guess he lives upstairs too. I thought he’d live somewhere nicer. Have his own floor or something.’
You weren’t left to your thoughts for too long, as Maki came rushing down the stairs with a pajama set in her hands. “Here!” she hummed, handing them to you over the sofa back. You took it with a smile, heading towards the bathroom she had pointed out. “I’ll be right out here if you need anything!”
You nodded and closed the door to the spacious bathroom. It was a full bathroom with a tub shower, a toilet and a double sink. You could simply not get over the niceness of this place. When you laid eyes on yourself in the mirror you saw that the blood had drained out of your eye a bit and was already looking less gnarly, but the same couldn’t be said about your cheek. It was nasty, bright red, and dark purple around the center. You hissed as you poked it. It was tender. She had gotten you good.
You shook your head and sighed, beginning to disrobe so you could put on the clothes that were offered. You set your hat on the counter and folded your clothes as you took them off, putting them in a pile. As you took off your sports bra, you got a good look at your scars in the bright light of the bathroom and ran your fingers over a few on your side. You smiled at them in pride. Most hate their scars, but you always looked at yours as badges of honor as they sprinkled your muscled body.
When you went to grab the clothes Maki had leant you, you made a horrible realization. Maki was smaller than you. By a bit. You had more blatant muscle tone than she did. She was more slim and toned, you held your muscle a bit more blatantly than she did and despite your best efforts, you could barely pull the shirt over your head and could not fit your arms through the holes without the seams popping. So, to preserve your new friend’s clothes you put it off to the side and grabbed the pants. They did not like your thighs. Or your hips. The stretchy waist was not very forgiving, and suddenly you’re reminded why you had shopped in the men’s section for your whole adult life. Not only were they cheaper and simple, but they were more willing to give around your body structure. You sighed in frustration before folding her clothes back up and cracking open the door to the bathroom, whispering Maki’s name so she could come over from her position at the kitchen island.
She lifted her head from her phone and saw your distressed expression through the crack in the door and rushed over, asking what was wrong. “You, my dear, are quite small. I am not as small…” you explained lightly, trying not to embarrass either of you with your words.
Realization dawns on her face and she smacks herself on the forehead, “I’m so sorry! I wasn’t thinking.” She said, distress showing on her face. “Oh gosh, and Nobara’s smaller than me! Hold on, I’m going to text the group chat and see who’s still awake and make one of the boys lend you something.” She assured, shooing you back into the bathroom. You tried to protest, saying you were fine to sleep in the clothes you were wearing, but she had none of it, already texting away.
She waited a moment, tapping the side of her phone before lighting up at a reply, “Sukuna’s still awake! He can lend you something. Thank you, insomnia!” She chirped. You sighed, pressing your forehead against the door frame.
You heard a bit of rustling upstairs before you saw the tall man making his way down the steps. “Will these be ok?” he asked, holding up a folded t-shirt and gym shorts. Maki nodded, pointing him your way. You still used the door as a shield to cover your naked top half but extended an arm to take the man’s clothes. “Thank you, Sukuna. You really didn’t have to.” You mumbled as he handed the clothes over.
“No problem,” he shrugged, “I wasn’t gonna sleep for a while, just give em back. I like those.” He droned, crossing his arms, the motion making the structure of them pop. He had changed into a tank top and sweats, highlighting the build of his strong arms, and showing off his geometric tattoos that stretched up and around his whole torso. His pink hair hung messily around his head now. “Besides, just means you owe me a favor some time.” He said with a wry smirk.
You rolled your eyes and said your thanks once more before returning to the bathroom, closing the door. You put on the t-shirt quickly, noticing the clean scent of bergamot and sandalwood, one of your favorite scents. You sighed as you pulled on the shorts, pulling the draw string as you needed. The clothes fit but clearly didn’t fit you well. The shorts were a little tight in the hips and butt, and the shirt was a little off in its proportions, but it worked and was quite comfortable.
You looked in the mirror again and noticed the design on the shirt; it was a large print of a bull’s skull with some flowers. Buttercups. Your eyebrows furrowed in a confused smile. Buttercups were your favorite flower. As a kid, they used to grow down the street, and you used to pick them and make small bouquets for your teachers. One of the only “girly” things you got to do as a kid was mess around with those flowers. They were beautiful and made you feel feminine even if your clothes and hair didn’t. It felt weird seeing them on the shirt. Their bright yellow color shining out against the faded black fabric and the white skull graphic. You smiled a bit wider. Maybe it was a sign. A sign that you were in the right place with the right people. You decided it was. Just a little sign for you.
When you opened the door again, clothes in hand, you saw Maki and Sukuna talking quietly about the movie, and how Yuji had knocked out halfway through even though he had insisted to his older brothers that he wasn’t tired. Maki looked at you first, “Great! I’m glad those worked out.” She said, turning to Sukuna again. “Do you think she could borrow the shirt and some pants for tomorrow?” You tried to get her to stop her questioning, insisting you would once again be fine with your clothes from today, but they both waved you off.
“Yeah. I have some old pants I don’t wear anymore.” He said. “Won’t care if she fucks em up.”
Maki gawked, “Don’t be a dick, dude!” She hissed, punching him on the shoulder. Sukuna grimaced and muttered an apology with rolling eyes.
You let out a long, exacerbated sigh. “It’s ok, Maki. Thank you, I really appreciate it, but I really will be fine.” They both waved you off again. “Okay, whatever. Thank you.” You said, giving in with a slump. Maki cheered, grabbing your hand and guiding you back to the couch with a smile.
Sukuna snorted a laugh and turned toward the staircase, headed back up to his room. “Night, Buttercup.” He waved.
You whipped your head around to eye him down. “What did you call me?” He tilted his head in confusion and looking you up and down, motioning to the shirt you wore with a smirk. Your ears warmed in embarrassment, “Sorry, not used to nicknames.” He nodded slyly and resumed his ascent to the top floor.
Maki nudged you with a grimace on her face, “You think he’s hot, don’t you.” She said mournfully.
You shrugged, your face beginning to burn, “Even if I did, he’s kinda rude, and I don’t date.” She tried to ask what you meant, but you cut her off, “We can talk more tomorrow, but it’s late. You should probably sleep.” You mumbled, your face burning. You tried to gently push her towards the stairs, not wanting the conversation to continue. You were never great with feelings.
She began walking towards the stairs, but turned and said with a pointed finger, “We are talking about it tomorrow though.” And with the authority in her voice, you knew it wasn’t a question or request but a demand.
“Goodnight, Maki.”
“Goodnight.” She responded, padding up the carpeted stairs, not before turning off the lights at a switch by the steps.
Finally alone, you laid out your makeshift bed for the night on the sectional. When you were situated beneath the blanket, you stared at the dark ceiling, taking in the silence. You were sure then that you had set your whole life on a new track, and with a smile, you realized that you were fine with that.
Buggy has borderline nonsensical paternal instincts.
Buggy has an innate need, a deep seated core part of himself that needs to nurture and take care of things.
He finds things. A potted plant that’s on death’s door in a storefront immediately adopted and lives in his captain’s quarters now. He named it Quinn (Harlequin). He painted its pot with all kinds of circus colors and patterns. It’s thriving now, with many brothers and sisters.
Buggy comes across a parrot with a broken wing and molted feathers kept in a cage on a pier. The bird was promptly stolen and given a new home in the Big Top. The bird tells knock knock jokes, her name is Susan. She can’t fly but she has the most beautiful, colorful feathers Buggy has ever seen-flashy he says.
All the animals in any of the Big Top acts are rescues from their various adventures. From poachers and animal fight rings and other circuses that don’t care for their animals the way the Buggy pirates do. Brought in with ribs poking out, eyes missing, scars on their backs. They’re given love, patience, food, a warm place to sleep, and a purpose.
The crew members of the Big Top were brought together in much the same way. Baby Buggy ran into Cabaji and Mohji with a little Richie cub a month after Roger’s death. The boys were back behind a circus tent fighting over a half empty bucket of popcorn, dirty, hungry, and alone. Buggy introduced himself and bought them dinner from a food stand, tossing Richie a small bit of steak. They talked till the sun came up and became fast friends. They stole a small fishing boat that night.
Buggy has a toy chest. Yes, he’s a grown man. No, he doesn’t play with them…often. But hee has a chest full of toys. He finds torn up, ripped, broken toys on the ground or in the corner of a secondhand store and he fixes them up. Makes them good as new, if not better. He keeps a couple on him at all times just in case he runs into a sad kid in need of a pick me up. He’ll take a good amount of them to an orphanage he knows-the one he was in till Roger found him-and drop them off, giving the kids a show before he leaves.
He finds kids sometimes too. Part of him wants to take care of them, watch over them, and be a dad. But a larger part of him know he can’t yet. Maybe one day. But not today. So, he helps keep them safe until he can bring them somewhere he knows they’ll be taken good care of.
Buggy was found and taken care of against all odds. Someone took a look at a weird looking little boy who cried all the time and didn’t know what to do with himself and gave him a chance. Thought he deserved love and helped “fix him up”. So now, he can’t help but do the same, even if it’s something small like a drying fern, a teddy bear with an eye missing, or a smile on one kid’s face. Sure he’s a “big bad pirate” but he’s still Buggy. Buggy D. Clown. And what good is a clown that doesn’t bring in some joy.
I HAVE THOUGHTS SOMEONE ELSE MUST DO SOMETHING WITH (18+)
OK, SO
IT'S NEW YEARS, RIGHT????
WELL
I grew up with a tradition my dad introduced my family to. Basically, it's good luck to eat "long food" for new year's eve as a "you'll live a long life" sort of thing. Kinda like the tradition where you don't clean at all on new years cause you don't want to clean out the luck and good fortune.
Usually that means we eat some form of noodle or something similar for dinner. Unfortunately I think too much all the time. About like everything all the time. Sooooo....
FIC IDEA!
PERSON A INTRODUCES PERSON B TO EATING SOMETHING LONG TRADITION. (you know exactly where I'm going with this) AND PERSON B EITHER MISUNDERSTANDS, USES IT TO FLIRT, ETC AND...SOMETHING LONG=DICK. JUST SAYIN I THINK IT WOULD BE A FUN LIL FIC.
i however am too busy writing other things currently, so i implore someone else to please make a fic like this and tag me lol
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7,
Word Count: ~4.9K
MASTERLIST
Warnings/Notes: FIGHT RING AU, Blood, Descriptions of violence, Cursing, Mentions of bullying/not great family life, Still no Sukuna yet (Next Chapter I Swear)
.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.
You sat on the edge of your mattress, your leg bouncing in impatience at you stared down the clock across from you in the dark, ‘9:28’. It was almost time for Gojo to pick you up and you were chomping at the bit to see if this was going to work for you, if this would let you fight again.
‘9:29’
You rolled your neck and sighed. ‘I hope that snowball is punctual.’ You thought. ‘Or if not, he’s at least on time tonight.’ If not, you were going to start pacing and wear a hole in your shitty apartment floor.
You wore a dark hoodie and gray sweats, already set up with your running shoes, and your hair held back with a backwards Yankees cap. You didn’t care about baseball, but your dad did and the one good memory you have with him is watching a Yankees game when they had travelled to Japan. Your dad bought it for you after the game. So, you had the hat.
‘9:35’
‘Hurry up’ you thought, biting the tough skin on the side of your thumb.
HONK
You shot up and sprinted towards the door, ripping it open, almost forgetting to lock it, and dashed down the rickety metal stairs towards the street. You saw a sleek black car with tinted windows on the curb in front of you, a white mop of hair in the back seat, Gojo was leaning out of the window, waving at you.
You rolled your eyes but got in, shooing him to the other end of the back seat.
Gojo greeted you, “Since it’s not official yet, you have to wear this.” He said, holding out a black blindfold. You couldn’t help but wonder why the man had that just on hand but took it with only a little grumbling and tied it on yourself, covering your eyes completely. “Wonderful! It should only take us around 15 minutes to get to the match location, but I will have to guide you through some walking when we get there, so be patient and don’t trip!” He giggled out that last bit.
You moved to “look” at him, hoping he could sense the glare. You felt the car begin to move, pulling out of the surprisingly quiet street. “You have too much fun, dude.” You glowered, settling into the seat.
He made a gasp of offence, you could just picture it, a hand grasping his chest like he needed a pearl necklace. “I am a very serious man!” he defended himself very poorly. You let your lack of response speak for itself, receiving a grumble from Gojo.
The ride lasted for a good while in silence until Gojo couldn’t take it anymore and broke the calm air in the car, “What’s your name?” He asked, “When I looked you up, everyone just uses your fighter nickname, Hyena.”
You shrugged, “I never wanted it broadcasted. My family kinda sucks and I didn’t want my success linked to them. So, I just put down my schoolyard nickname and nothing else. That’s where Hyena came from.” You explained. Gojo made a noise of understanding. “After the first few reporters got a pen or book thrown at their head during my interviews, everyone stopped asking. My own manager didn’t know my name.”
Gojo sighed at that. “So, do you not want me to know your name?”
You mulled it over, “I mean, do you guys use real names in the ring?”
“No. I just want to know for training and private purposes.” He explained.
“Okay,” you muttered, telling him your name. You could just feel his stupid grin, “Doesn’t mean you’re special, dude.”
“You know my name! Use it!” he whined.
“Okay, Mojo Gojo.” You joked, nudging his knee with your own.
He nudged your knee back, “Haven’t had a nickname since high school.”
You laughed, leaning back into the comfortable seat. “We almost there?”
“We’re pulling up now, actually.”
“Hell yeah.” You sat up, ready to open the door when you were parked and safe. Gojo laughed at your enthusiasm.
When the car finally stilled and the engine was turned off Gojo spoke to the driver, “Stay here with the car. Take a nap or something.” He said, patting the man on the shoulder. Gojo opened his door and got out, ran around to your side and helped you out of the car.
“This is so weird.” You muttered as he led you through what sounded like a parking garage by the echo.
“Oh, you haven’t seen anything yet.” Gojo laughed, leading you onto a sidewalk on a public street. You could only imagine how this looked, a tall man with bright white hair leading a woman dressed like a teenage boy with a blindfold on down the street. You snickered at the thought.
When you were finally still, Gojo had to whisper to another man, taller than you-you could tell by where the voice was coming from. Gojo covered your ears as he continued to speak, making sure secrets weren’t spilled. When his hands were removed you could hear the screeching of a metal door being opened and you were slowly guided down some creaky stairs. You reached the bottom and finally Gojo removed the blindfold from your eyes, and they screamed to adjust. He smirked at your clear struggle and patted your arm in mocking comfort.
“Come on, I got us the best seats in the house.” Of course he was exaggerating. There were only a few actual chairs. Everyone else stood on the sloping steps around a sunken ring-easily 20 feet wide, a thick layer of dust covering its circular bottom and a bamboo border lining it. Gojo pushed through the crowd with little protest from the others, holding onto you by the wrist and settled the both of you directly against the bamboo barrier, a front row, with a completely unobstructed view of the ring.
You looked around in awe, the bright lights were still there, no cameras but even more packed with people, betting notes in hand, feral for the fight to begin. “This is amazing,” you whispered.
Gojo grinned, putting a hand on your shoulder, “See that door?” He pointed towards a metal door across from you. It was lined with concrete and clearly led to somewhere deeper in the building. “That’s where the curse gets released from.” You nodded, wary of the thing. “And those papers?” he asked, motioning to the bamboo border.
You looked closer and noticed every foot or so there was a small piece of paper with specific Kanji plastered on them in sequence. “Yeah, what about them?”
“Those make it so the curse can’t leave the ring.” You nodded again.
A question suddenly nagged at your skull, “What happens if the curse wins?” you asked, eyes fixed on the door across from you. The door was large, dark, metal and you could see rust and old blood on its surface, dried red and purple. Curse blood and human, you presumed.
Gojo took a moment to think about how he’d phrase his next words. “They don’t very often, but if they do, sometimes the human fighter will…die.” He hesitated around the word die, clearly not wanting to scare you off. You hissed a breath out and bit your lip in thought. “But, if you’re any good, you’ll either know when you’ve been beat and jump out of the ring, or you pass out and one of us-usually your trainer will jump in and stop the curse, or one of the watchers-also usually your trainer-will grab you and pull you out. I haven’t had anyone die on me, and I’ve only heard of a handful of deaths in these fights. If for no other reason than fighters are few and far between and are an asset.”
“Why are they so rare?” You asked, facing him with this question.
“You have to be: one, a good fighter, two able to see curses, and three-crazy enough to fight one in a one-on-one fight.” He explained, eyeing you over his sunglasses. “Not your average Joe.”
You nodded, “When does the match start?”
There was that grin again, you mused. “Any minute now. And I should tell you, one of my fighters is competing in this one.” He said, pride dripping from his words. “His name is Yuji Itadori, and he’s young but an absolute monster in the ring.”
You eyed Gojo suspiciously, “How young?”
“Just turned 20.” He said.
“He’s six years younger than me?” you exclaimed. “He’s a baby!” you hissed, smacking Gojo on the arm a few times before grabbing him by the collar and yanking him to your eye level. “Why the hell have you been having a kid fight in these?”
Gojo put up his hands in mock surrender, “He’s not the only one! A good chunk of fighters in these are around his age or even younger.” He explained, trying to pry your hand off his shirt, “I swear they’re all very capable, and very willing!” You grit your teeth and yanked Gojo’s collar down further before letting go. “That hurt!” he groaned.
“Was supposed to.”
“WELCOME LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!” a deep voice boomed over a loudspeaker hung on the ceiling. “TONIGHT IS FULL OF GRADE A FIGHTERS AND GRUESOME CURSES FOR YOUR ENJOYMENT! HOPE YOU GOT ALL OF YOUR BETS IN BECAUSE IT’S TIME- “
You turned back to the ring.
“-TO RELEASE- “
Your lip was caught between your teeth, and you gnawed in anticipation.
“-THE BEEEEEEAAASTS!”
With that, a loud alarm blared through the room, and the metal door began to open, slowly rising. As the creak of metal began, a man jumped into the ring and rolled out a few last-minute stretches, jumping side to side. He had pink hair and an undercut. He had no shirt and tight fighting shorts, his muscles taught and at attention, ready for action. He cracked his neck and grinned at the crowd. His eyes landed on you and Gojo and he grinned even wider, winking at the man at your side who waved and hollered in response.
“GO TIGER GO!” Gojo yelled. You looked at the man in confusion. “Like his name? Ita? Tiger? It’s his ring name.” he explained.
“Guess that makes sense.”
“HERE COMES THE FEARSOME CURSE!” the announcer called out, and that’s when you saw the door was over halfway up, and you could get a look at the curse. It was large and purple, humanoid in general shape, but grotesquely twisted and bulbous.
It screeched and launched itself at Yuji. The curse produced large, sharp spikes on its limbs as it dove towards him. Yuji dodged, taking hold of its “arm” that it had used to try and skewer him and leveraged its bodyweight to slam it into the ground, arcing it over his head. The curse wailed at the impact, but extended a tail and swiped, tripping Yuji. He quickly recovered, using the position to ram his foot into the curse’s jaw, and push himself away from the thing, popping up quickly and watching it struggle to get up.
You looked closer at Yuji and noticed he had a long, spiked bat strapped to his back ‘That must be a weapon he can use to kill the thing. Why isn’t he using it yet?’
Yuji bounced on the balls of his feet, circling the curse with a grin, shaking out his hands, ready for another barrage of blows. When the thing finally recovered from his disorienting blow it rushed Yuji, claws extended and Yuji took a running start at the thing, only to at the last possible minute slide under its body like a baseball player heading home. The curse couldn’t stop itself with its momentum, and slammed into the bamboo barrier, a chorus of laughter and cheers from the crowd were its response.
That’s when Yuji reached behind him and unsheathed the bat. It was spiked with nails, and its wood was stained purple from past curses’ fates. “Hey batta, batta” Yuji taunted, a giddy grin on his face, trying to get the curse to rush him again. He began to crouch a bit, tapping the bat on the ground like you would in a game, waiting for the pitch.
When the curse got its wits about it, it galloped towards the pink haired man, completely ignoring the spiked bat coming straight for its head.
“SWING!” the announcer chimed with Yuji as he swung the bat, taking the curse’s head clean off, purple spattering the ring.
Cheers erupted from the crowd around you, roaring in approval, and cash, betting stubs, and alcohol sprinkled the ring in the ruckus.
Yuji took it in with a beaming smile, taking a mock bow before swinging his bat over his shoulder and walking to the end of the ring with you and Gojo, “Fresh meat?” He asked over the noise as he leapt up to hoist himself over the edge of the bamboo barrier and onto the ground in front of you.
Gojo nodded, “Ex MMA, itching for the ring again.” He explained, handing Yuji a rag out of his pocket to wipe off the purple blood and his own sweat from his face. “That’ll be a good 20k night for you, eh Tiger?” Gojo snickered.
Yuji grinned wolfishly, “Bet so, there were a lot of happy faces in that crowd tonight.” Gojo agreed, motioning for both you and Yuji to follow him. He led you two to the edge of the room, towards a door that was tucked off to the side. It was locked, and Gojo had to unlock it with a key. Once you were inside, he closed the door again, locking it with the bolt. You looked around and saw it was a basic locker room. One wall had dark blue lockers, the other had shower stalls, and a few toilet stalls. There were a few sinks across from the door as well.
Yuji yawned, taking off his bat harness and tossed it onto a bench nearby, heading towards one of the shower stalls. “You guys can talk, but I’m nasty right now.” The man joked, sending you two a grin as he pulled back the shower curtain. After a moment of being inside, he threw his shorts over the curtain rod and turned on the water. The shorts hit the opposite wall, landing on the floor in a heap.
You huffed a bit of a laugh at the younger man’s brash attitude, “He’s…something.” You commented to Gojo at your side.
Gojo chuckled and turned to you, “So…What’d you think? Wanna get back in the ring?” he asked, putting his sunglasses onto his head, revealing his bright eyes, and giving you a thousand-watt smile.
You looked at your feet and thought it over again. You had been seeing those monstrous things and had feared them your whole life, finding relief in the ring. You felt at home battered and blue, knuckles busted, kicking the shit out of another person. Being able to see those monsters on the receiving end sounded cathartic like nothing else could. “I think so. I can’t think of much of a downside. I mean, I could have died in any of my MMA fights really. Honestly isn’t too hard. I’d love to get back in the ring, and…I think I could kick some curse ass.” You said, still eyeing your beat-up sneakers.
Gojo clapped in delight, “She’s in, Yuji!” he called, sliding his glasses back on. Yuji let out a garbled whoop in the shower, clearly having had been gargling some of the water when he was expected to respond. Gojo turned back to you, “Would you like to meet everyone else and see where you’ll be living tonight or tomorrow?”
“Bring her tonight!” Yuji called, turning off the water. “Everyone’s here tonight, but the girls have plans all day tomorrow!” Yuji held a hand over the curtain rod with a grasping motion. Gojo sighed dramatically, walking towards the younger man’s stuff and grabbing a rumpled body towel, chucking it at Yuji’s hand. The younger of the two muttered his thanks.
Gojo shook his head with a smirk on his face, “Are you okay with that?” You confirmed your comfort with a thumbs up and a small smile. “Fantastic! Should everything go to plan, we could have you moved in by Monday if that works on your end.” He explained, offering you the floor to voice any roadblocks.
You thought for a moment about anything in the way of that. It was Thursday, so that was short notice, but frankly, you didn’t have a job, you had no real friends anymore now that you didn’t get the organic time to spend with your sparring buddies, and you were a week from the end of an eviction notice anyway. “Honestly, I just need to pack my stuff and tell my landlord I’m leaving.” You mumbled to your feet, feeling pathetic for having so little in your life, “Frankly, I think he’ll be happy to hear it. I uh…got an eviction notice and he gave me till next week Friday.” When you looked up at the white-haired trainer in front of you, you expected a look of discomfort or pity, but you were met with a pleased grin.
“That works perfectly! I’ll use the weekend to set you up with a room and you can move into the complex on Monday morning!” he exclaimed. A fully clothed Yuji gave a small cheer, shoving his belongings into his small duffle.
“Where’s the “complex”?” you asked, putting quotes around the word complex, as it sounded too official and weird.
“You know where the new Takoyaki place a few streets over from Yanaka Ginza?” Yuji chimed in, coming up to you two with his now full bag and a water bottle in hand. You nodded. You had been wanting to stop in and try some of their food, but no job means no nice food. It had been plain spam fried rice and cup ramen for months. “It’s like two blocks from there.”
“Let’s stop yammering and go!” Gojo insisted, shoving the two of you back through the door into the crowded room of hyper betters. He stopped only to lock the door before leading you two to the exit, a different door than you had come in through. When you were on the street again, you were surprised to see that you were in one of the nicer parts of Tokyo, not one of the poor, more run-down sections you lived in. Gojo waved down a now familiar black car and gestured for you and Yuji to take the back seat, leaving him the passenger.
When you were all settled in your seats, you couldn’t help but look out of the window at the streetlights and happy people milling about around various restaurants and shops, the cool summer night leading people to stay out later.
Yuji fiddled in his seat for a while, but like his trainer, he couldn’t sit still well and hated silent car rides. “So, what’s with the nickname?” he asked, turning to face you better.
You were taken aback for a moment before snapping, “What do you know about that?”
Yuji shrunk a bit in his seat at the aggressive reaction, “I used to watch your fights, and you never really told anyone why you went by Hyena. Most people at least also use their legal names, but you didn’t.” he explained, the words falling from his tongue faster than he could think.
You set your jaw and squeezed your eyes shut, “I’m sorry for snapping. I’m just still…touchy about getting kicked out.” You took a deep breath and opened your eyes, turning more fully towards Yuji. “I didn’t know you knew who I was.”
He gave you a small grin, waving off your apology, “I wasn’t too sure at first, I had a hunch. But when Gojo-sensei said you were ex MMA I knew it was you.”
You nodded, “I don’t like my family. Not great people. So, when I knew I had a chance to make something of myself with fighting, I didn’t want them to be able to swoop in and take any credit for who I turned out as.” You started, talking about it like it was the weather. It kind of was to you. Just another stamp on the ripped-up postcard of your life. Yuji started to look at you with that stupid pity face, so you thwapped him on the arm, “It’s fine. I lived, and they don’t fuck with me anymore. Stop looking at me like that. Hate that shit.”
“Ow! Sorry. I just didn’t know about that.” He explained, rubbing out the pain of where you had smacked him.
“Why are you surprised, Yuji?” Gojo laughed, “We all have shitty families in our little crew. It’s what made us all fighters.”
“As far as Hyena,” You started again, moving right past that can of worms, “I know it’s a little weird, kinda cringey but I was 18 and it was a nickname I had for years so it’s what I wrote down.”
Yuji’s nose crinkled in confusion, “But why did people call you that? Seems kind of random.”
You huffed, “You didn’t know me when I was young. It fit back then. Started in elementary.” You pinched your nose in embarrassment at it, “I was a biter when things got scrappy, I had a weird laugh, and the boys kept trying to say I was trying to be a boy because I didn’t wear dresses or anything girly, and my hair was always buzzed cause my parents didn’t want me getting lice. I was just poor and could only get clothes out of the lost and found. It just happened that boys lost their shit a lot more than the girls. So, when one of the boys found out female hyenas have something called a pseudopenis…it all clicked, and the name stuck. Lost its sting after the first few years. Kinda took it like a badge of honor, and as I got more…assertive...” you struggled to find a better word as you were simply trying not to say “violent” “It more so became a nickname that protected me, scared people off. So, when I was told to write down a fighting name, one thing led to another. It felt natural.” Gojo chuckled in the passenger seat at your story.
Yuji nodded, thinking intently about what you had said, “I see why you wouldn’t have talked about that on TV.” A snort of a laugh forced itself out of you, Yuji looked at you fully again, a genuine, serious look on his face, “Don’t let yourself be embarrassed about it, I think it’s cool. Besides, those dudes were probably just insecure that you had more balls than them.” He ended with a smile cracking through his face. You bust out laughing at the younger man, pushing his shoulder in your glee. He assured you of his honesty and you only laughed harder.
Gojo peered back at you two above his sunglasses, mischief in his eyes. “I’m hearing the laugh thing a bit.” You kept on cackling, kicking Gojo’s seat gently to both men’s amusement.
“I never said they were wrong about that part!” That led the men in the car to join your now dying laughter. When you three had calmed down, you had a question, “So, who all fights for you, eh Mojo Gojo?”
Said man pursed his lips, scratching his cheek in thought. He counted for a bit in his head before he just started to prattle off names, “Yuji, his brothers Sukuna and Choso, Nobara, Megumi, Panda, Maki, Toge, and my friends help train and fight sometimes too, Kento and Shoko, then there’s the offshoot squad in Kyoto; Mai, Aoi, Mechamaru, Momo, Kasumi, and Noritoshi with their trainer, Utahime.” When he was finally done naming off people you blinked at him a few times, trying to process his words. “So, if you wanna include all of them…I guess 16, 17?” Your mind felt a little fried at just how many people were under this man’s care and in this illegal business.
Yuji sensed your slight panic and patted you on the shoulder, “Don’t worry you’ll only be living with like nine of us other than me and Gojo-sensei.” He assured.
“I’m just not super,” you stuttered, trying to find your words, “used to people, I guess?”
Gojo let out a soft ‘oh’ and tried to stave off your concern a bit, “Everyone lives their own lives, and everyone has their own rooms and everything, so you’ll still have plenty of time and space to yourself. You can ignore everyone else and just live in your own little bubble if you really want to!” you let out a bit of a sigh in relief at the notion. At least you’d have your own space. “You only share bathrooms, and common areas like the kitchen, living room, and workout spaces. Nothing too extreme.” Yuji nodded, confirming Gojo’s assurance with a bouncing smile.
“I think you’ll really like it! My brothers and my friend Megumi are all pretty antisocial and they do fine!” he assured.
“Speaking of!” Gojo cut in, “We should explain a few things about a few people.” The younger man beside you confirmed Gojo’s thoughts.
“My brothers are kinda weird.” He explained, trying to find a way to explain in a way that won’t make you freak. “You know about curses, right?” you nodded, “So my brother Choso is half curse. It’s weird. Our dad was…wild. But he’s so nice, and not a threat at all. He’s just kinda quiet. And Sukuna,” Yuji sighed, honestly, he always struggled to explain his brothers. It truly was a weird situation. “He’s not a curse but he’s not super…human? Like you know how I needed a bat to kill that curse? I could hurt it but to finish the job I had to use my bat?” Yuji encouraged you to answer. You furrowed your brow but nodded again. “Good, so Sukuna doesn’t need that. He’s special. Powerful like that. Curses honestly get scared of him at first glance. Like they can sense it.”
Your mouth dropped open slightly. That’s a little shocking to say the least. “How?”
Yuji shrugged. “We don’t know. He’s the only one we’ve ever been able to find who can. Sukuna’s just…special?” Yuji tried his best to explain the cosmic complexity that is looming over all your lives, but truthfully all the members of the car thought simultaneously that this isn’t something that has a high likelihood of being answered any time soon. “Because he’s so powerful he doesn’t fight often. Too boring for bets, he mostly fights in the semiannual human tournaments.”
“Human fights?” You were rolling with the punches about all this paranormal stuff, greedily taking in any information you could about the things that had plagued your youth with nightmares and trouble. But the thought of fighting another person again made your ears perk up and the hair on the back of your neck and arms stand on end. Your eyes were wide and your grin fighting to break your face open at the idea.
Gojo analyzed you behind his glasses, if you were anyone else, anywhere else, in any other industry this would be concerning behavior to say the least. But your hunger for the ring, your drive to fight and scrap your way to the top was promising to him. You could go far if he can get you to really refine your fighting to take down curses. “For big prize money the investors of the fights sponsor their teams and put them through a tournament to see who the most powerful is. Your rank in the tournament can lead to bigger fight payouts in the long run as betters will favor you and put more money into your pot.” He explained, using his hands to help illustrate his points. “No weapons, nothing special like that and on a random one on one best of three round fight assignment on a single elimination system till there’s one left.” You nodded along with a wicked smile. The thought of fighting the curses was great, but it was clear most didn’t have the strategic mind of a human. Nor could they go round after round in bouts of sportsman’s competition. They were exterminated after every fight. A human tournament sounded like heaven to your sore body, the urge to fight, to win flooding your veins.
“Someone’s excited,” Gojo chuckled. You shrank a bit at the comment, remembering how easily read you were when you were excited. “Don’t feel bad! It’s nice. Always good to see new people ready to get started.”
“We’re here, Mister Gojo,” the driver suddenly chimed, “You all can get out and I’ll park the car.”
Gojo’s face broke out into a wide smile, clapping the driver on the back, “My man, Ijichi! You head on home after, Won’t need you till Monday at 10:00 am. I'll send someone else to drive the girls tomorrow.” Ijichi nodded, parking outside a large building. It looked like a three-story apartment building. “Let’s go!” Gojo ushered you and Yuji out of the back seat, and rushed you towards the front door, letting you all in with a scan of an ID card next to the doorbell.
(Platonic) Monkey D. Luffy is a very physical person. If this man likes you at all you will be full koala-d at any given time.
During very serious meetings/discussions about plans and what to do about the marines, Luffy is just on Zoro. He’s practically perched on his shoulder like a parrot. When everyone’s sat for dinner, he’s rotating between leaning on his neighbors and keeping his focus on the delicious food in front of him.
I can see him relaxing on the lawn deck with Robin and he just naps with his head in her lap, and she messes with his hair as he sleeps or he’s yapping relentlessly from the same position. He has a rough night, so he just crawls into one of the crew’s beds, usually Zoro or Sanji-this is a normal occurrence, so they don’t even question it, just shifting to make room. Luffy gets sleepy and just grabs Chopper and sits with him in his lap, cuddled up like a teddy bear. He’ll just stroke Chopper’s fur without thinking.
Zoro is absolutely the one who gets subjected to extreme contact the most. Luffy will just climb him, physically hanging from his arms and clinging to his back for a ride. Luffy will just without even thinking just grab part of Zoro’s hand while he’s thinking. Zoro will be sitting around and drinking, and Luffy will sit side to side or back-to-back with him, yapping relentlessly. If Zoro naps on the deck, he will wake up to Luffy using him as a pillow. Zoro was annoyed by all the contact at first, but after he was taken out of commission briefly by Mihawk, he became more and more okay with it, now finding it comforting himself. Now, if Zoro thinks Luffy is upset, he’ll just extend an arm as an invitation to climb.
Robin is another person who offers help when she can. If she can’t offer help or contact, she’ll summon a hand for Luffy to hold.
Sanji gets poked a lot. A lot. Sanji usually is subjected to Luffy’s affection while he’s cooking. As such, he needs his hands, and Luffy can’t exactly grab his legs, or he can’t move and make yummy food. Instead, he hovers. He follows closely like a cat under Sanji’s feet, poking him to get his attention and ask questions. Poke. Can I try some, Sanji? No. Poke. Why didn’t you add the meat yet? It comes later, Luffy. Poke. When will it- Luffy I SWEAR TO GOD.
Jinbe is a perch, 100%. Luffy will sit on his shoulder and fish or sit and chill out. He’s a perfect place for a nap too.
Franky is another great perch. Nice and high up. Luffy will be sitting on his shoulders while he works. Otherwise, he’s pressing Franky’s buttons. No like…Literally. He’s pressing the buttons on Franky’s Cyborg parts. He almost set the ship on fire.
Nami and Usopp are pretty similar. They get frequent hugs and a sleeping Luffy on their shoulder. They’ll be working and Luffy will come up and just hug them from behind/hand on them, almost inevitably messing them up a bit and receiving a swift smack from Nami or a shriek from Usopp.
Brook will get a Luffy sitting on his piano as he plays or sitting on the bench with him.
When Luffy was a kid, it was very much the same, constant piggyback rides from Garp, then shenanigans and hugs with Dadan. He was constantly holding onto his brothers, riding Ace’s shoulders, or laying on Sabo’s shoulder as he reads Luffy a story.
When Sabo “died” Luffy refused to be alone. He held onto Ace all day until he’d be physically handed to Dadan. He slept in Ace’s bed with him for weeks. Once, Ace had to get some water in the night and got up. Unfortunately, Luffy woke up and panicked-Ace is gone, he’s not coming back, where’d he go-and broke down into tears, sobbing loudly and hyperventilating. Ace heard and sprinted back to his room, dropping his glass in the process, and practically launched himself back into his bed, holding Luffy close-I’m still here, Luffy, you’re not alone, I’m here.
