In an alternate timeline, a pair of new generation jujutsu monsters grew up feral and fighting curses together in Sendai. I'm sure this will have no major ramifications for the world as a whole. AKA: What if we did Scooby-Doo hijinks with Rika because Itadori is too tough and charming to get murdered by her? (ao3) (okkoita)
When Yuji Itadori is twelve years old, he meets a ghost.
Well, okay, itâs probably not a ghost but it looks like a ghost. It coils malevolently and desperately like he imagines a ghost mightâclinging to something human until all its own humanity is gone. Heâs too young to have a great vocabulary for what else to call this entity. Usually, he would follow Grampsâ advice and ignore the spooky things he sometimes sees, but the ghost is sitting on a bus-stop bench next to a kid in a West Junior High uniform.
Yuji thinks, this time, itâs kinda on his turf.
Itâs the third day of the school year. Yuji struggled only moderately to remember the locations of his classes, and while he forgot where his locker was yesterday, a soft-faced girl named Ozawa helped him out and, with the certainty of a tween with mostly movies for reference, heâs decided she can be his middle-school crush. (You gotta have one of those.)
All and all, not so bad for the first week of middle school and he can safely tell Gramps that his success rate for Not Fighting Sons Of Bitches is at 100%.
But the ghost thing is weird for sure.
Itâs like black smoke, coagulated into a sticky clot beside the kid, almost leaning on his shoulder like a big cat on its favorite zookeeper. Itâs got physical weight. Yuji can see it where it rubs its face on him, his uniform ripples and deforms. The kid ignores it, but Yuji can see even from here there are bloody scratches along his inner forearms where his uniform is too short on him. Heâs been crying.
âHey,â Yuji says, stepping under the roof of the bus-stop bench. âYou go to West Junior, right?â
The kid on the bench, wide-eyed, looks up from his shoes. His uniform doesnât fit him very well. His sneakers look beat up, like his mom didnât take him clothes shopping this year and heâs still wearing what he had from last year. His hair sticks up the way iron-filings do under a magnet at the top, grown out shaggy at the front. Yuji thinks heâs maybe a year or two older, but small for his age.
The word âunderfedâ comes to mind.
Yuji points at him. âYeah. I saw you at passing period. Youâre a grade ahead of me, right?â
âI-I guess,â the kid stammers. âAre you, um, a first year?â
âYup.â He hooks a thumb and points it at himself. âIâm Yuji Itadori. You wanna ride to school together? I get lost easy.â
âOh. Okay. I think that would be⊠that would be fine.â He keeps glancing at the shadow on his shoulder, which ignores Yuji and continues to coil on him like a rotting calico. âIf youâre scared of getting lost, I can help. But just for a bit. Okay? We shouldnâtââ he swallowsâ âshouldnât be friends.â
âHuh? Why not?â
âIâm, uh, Iâm out of school a lot. Â Youâd be better off with another upperclassman toââ
âWhatâs your name?â
âO-oh. Sorry. Okkotsu. Yuta Okkotsu.â
âOkkotsu-senpai. Got it.â Yuji sits down next to Yuta on the bench, opposite the dead thing thatâs latched to him. âYou wanna snack?â He digs around in his backpack. âIâve got extra.â He produces a tuna-mayo onigiri. âGramps says I shouldnât leave them in my bag all day. Do you buy snacks from the corner store by the park? I live in an apartment building there. Do you live nearby?â
Okkotsu, shocked to find an onigiri in his hands before he can protest, stammers a little. Now that heâs close to Okkotsu, Yuji can kind of smell himâlike he hasnât bathed in a while and his clothes arenât washed. Up close, there are bags under Okkotsuâs eyes, his nails are ragged from chewing, and the scratches on his wrists seem fresh.
Stuff his Gramps would say are âbad signsâ.
âYou should come over after school,â Yuji declares, kicking his heels on the sidewalk. âMy gramps is always working so he leaves the fridge super stocked and puts lots of movies in the entertainment system for me. Itâs awesome.â
âW-What?â
âYou live close by.â Yuji beams. âWe should be friends.â
âIââ Okkotsu looks over his shoulder again.
Yujiâs starting to suspect the Thing On Okkotsuâs Shoulder is dangerous with how heâs acting. That or it messes with him so bad it makes him seem crazy. Yuji, only then, wonders how smart it is to invite something like that into his house or if Okkotsu is crazy from having something like that glued to him. Yuji wonders if, maybe, he should be more scared. Maybe he shouldâ
âOkay. Weâre neighbors. We can be friends.â Okkotsu balls his sleeve up over his hand and uses it to wipe his face. âYou should make friends in your own grade though.â A pause. âAnd donât tell people your grandpa is working all the time. If youâre home alone sometimes, like, you shouldnât tell people that.â
âWhy?â
âYou could get your grandpa in trouble? They could take you away from him?â
âOh. Heâs just out for the week. Itâs fine. I havenât punched anyone at school even once so no parent-teacher conferences!â Yuji flashes a thumbs up.
Okkotsu blinks owlishly. âHuh?
âI donât like bullies.â Yuji gestures with his food, rolling his eyes. âGramps says punching people is bad.â
âUh, yeahâ"
âBut some people need punching,â Yuji quotes. âGramps said that too.â
Okkotsu snorts, tries to hide the laugh with his hand. His laugh sounds funny, cracks in his throat and wheezes, like maybe heâs out of practice with it. âUm, arenât you young to talk that way?â
âGramps says youâre never too young to learn a hard lesson.â
Okkotsuâs face does something funny. âI⊠I donât think that. I think you can be too young forââ He pauses. âNever mind. Itâs nice to meet you, Itadori.â
âThis is awesome. I have a middle school crush picked out. And I have an upperclassman mentor. Iâm killing it.â
Man at my job just told me to âhold your little horsies just a little longer âșïžâ about the task Iâve been waiting for him to complete or at the very least update me on for six weeks. Brendan, I will fuck your adult son. Youâre gonna start seeing me at family Christmas. Horsies in tow.
"This fic is literally just porn, why do you care about the quality of the editing" unfortunately, both my brain and my dick have strong opinions about verb tenses.
i like when a piece of media says that an all-powerful character "sees humans as insects" because that really could mean a lot of things. maybe they view us as insignifigant and will squish us under their boot. maybe theyre actually studying and cataloguing us for their thesis paper. maybe theyre campaigning for human protection because we're an important part of their ecosystem. maybe they see a human and go "ew ew ewwwwww someone get the cup and get that FREAK out of my house." .
villain character who has a last minute change of heart and sacrifices their life to defeat an even bigger bad but it entirely does not land as a redemption with the heroes. the heroes are just like "oh hell yeah two birds with one stone. thank fucking god i really didnt wanna have to deal with that guy anymore. good riddance."
hikes are very good yes but a deluxe hike is when you are accompanied by a freak with niche nature knowledge. theyâre like omg stop thereâs a horned valerian varmint beetle here and then you both get to crouch down and look at a bug like :)
Yuji straightens his legs against the seat in front of him, rocking back a bit. He picks up the large-size soda and noisily drains the last of it before commenting, âOkay, now that the new school yearâs starting, I can admit it.â He stands dramatically, whirling to face Yutaâs baffled expression. He puffs out his chest. âIt was meeee who shoved Yoshiki and his goons in that supply closet! I donât regret it! They had it coming.â
Yuta sputters. âWhat? But you sworeâ"
âI had my fingers crossed. Sorry. Sorry. I told them Iâd mess them up if they bothered you again. I gave my word, Okkotsu! I couldnât let them get away with it.â He clenches his hands and stares soberly to the side, the kind of pose that would be excellent with a cross breeze and theatrical music. âI had to take vengeance. For honor.â
âYou did not! You just hated them for being jerks.â
Yuji drops his pose. âYeah. Alright. But, câmoooooon. They suuucked.â
Yuta bursts out laughing. He doubles over at the waist, hanging his head, his bangs falling forward over his forehead and shaking with the hitching of his ribs. Yuta laughing until he cries is such a novel accomplishment, Yuji fears he will ride this high the rest of the day. As Yuji basks In his victory, he has this less victorious thought:
Yuta reminds him of Ozawa sometimes. This is one of those times, listening to his laughâbreathy and a little high. He thinks and how the boys in his class would declare Yoko âfatâ with such contempt he felt a seed of violence in it. Yuji has had this thought a few timesâuncomfortable and privateâthat the reason the most vicious third years took to harassing Okkotsu was something similar.
Yuta is, for lack of a better description, pretty the way girls are pretty except heâs a gangly somewhat rumpled-looking teenaged boy. If Okkotsu was a girl, Yuji thinks, they would have harassed him differently. Because heâs a boy, they wanted to fucking kill him.
âAnyway,â Yuji says, dropping back into his seat, âI think you wonât have a bully problem this year.â
âYou canât beat up everyone whoâs mean to me,â Yuta says dryly. âThis is Rika behavior.â
A bloom of goosebumps breaks out across Yujiâs neck at the mention of Yutaâs dead partner, traveling down along his forearms so the hair stands up under his sleeves. Itâs probably bad that the mere mention of her makes Yuji nervous, but he plays it off by ripping open a fresh bag of Skittles and reaching for his soda. Â
He chews the end of the straw. âHow is she?â
Yuta, sighs. âRestless.â
Yuji looks around the empty theatre, straw between his teeth. âLikeâ?â
âWe had another talk last night.â
Yuji sits normally in his seat and studies Yutaâs wrists, but Okkotsuâs already pulled his sleeves down over his knuckles before folding his arms over his middle and feigning nonchalance in a way that whets a vague urge in Yuji to shove and whack him until he knocks it off.
âWhat did you talk about?â
Yuta sighs. âPeople skills. I guess. Rika doesnât likeââ
âAnyone,â Yuji supplies. âAll living things that arenât you.â
ââmost people,â Yuta says with a note of admonishment. âAdults are threats. Older boys are bullies. Girls are, umââ
âAll three-hundred meters away from you cuz you have no game?â
Wrong: Ada Lovelace invented computer science and immediately tried to use it to cheat at gambling because she was Lord Byron's daughter.
Right: Ada Lovelace invented computer science and immediately tried to use it to cheat at gambling because that was the closest you could get in 1850 to being a Super Mario 64 speedrunner.
Well, yeah. That's why she received the unusual education which laid the foundation for her later discoveries in the first place. Her mother, Lady Byron, firmly believed three things:
It was her responsibility as a mother to ensure that Ada didn't turn out like her father;
Fundamentally, the thing that was wrong with Lord Byron is that he was a poet; and
The opposite of poetry is math.
Ada Lovelace's biography handily illustrates how well this theory worked out in practice.
Extremely specific JJK headcanon: Shoko is the only person allowed to do any kind of medical examinations or keep medical records about Satoru Gojo. The fact he only sleeps 3 hours cuz of his constant RCT+Limitless combo is something she keeps tabs on to make sure itâs not having long-term negative health impacts.
Part of this is at least once a year on a random day, heâll crash with her in a room at JJ Tech, drink like 3 glasses of wine, drop Limitless, and sleep for 10 hours without brain regen while she monitors his vitals with her technique. She takes medical notes. Itâs whatever.
But itâs also a kind of beloved ritual for her because A: Itâs an actual act of complete trust from an old friend who literally never drops his guard. B: Satoru is NEVER drunk but Shoko alone knows heâs a chatty/snuggly drunk cuz of this ritual and thatâs gold. C: Pretty much the most extended time they spend alone together so they get real sometimes.
All this to say: Shokoâs complicated relationship with her friend who is her patient, who is the biggest monster of the age, who is a drunk dude on her couch, who is the strongest, who is alone even in a room with her, who is her friend but not her best friend. Talking around the fact there always gonna be distance between them, despite the fact he trusts her the most and thatâs AWFUL.
Anyway, Shoko gets to pet his hair while heâs drunk and no one else. Thats the real story here.
it's so funny to read "and there was just one bed :O" fanfiction set in time periods where sharing a bed was entirely normal. Guys, just be glad it's only the two of you.
sometimes i wonder if we have forgotten that sharing creative work is, fundamentally, a bid for human connection. like I'm not posting art or fic for 'engagement' i'm posting it looking for other sickos to play with! i'd be making it anyway for my own gratification because there's something wrong with me, i'm sharing it hoping we can have something wrong with us together <3
