the fruits

IT WAS A TRUTH UNIVERSALLY ACKNOWLEDGED IN THE JUJUTSU WORLD; THE KAMOS WERE PREDICTABLE TRADITIONALISTS, THE GOJO WERE EVER CHANGING ACCORDING TO THEIR HEAD AT THE TIME, AND THE ZENINS WERE ALWAYS FULL OF SPITE REGARDLESS OF POLICIES. A Zenin could hide every emotion; happiness, love, melancholy, but they could never hide their spite. And that spite often included pettiness that they wore like an expensive cloak.

Naoki watched Six Eyes throughout the upcoming days, paying close attention to the very thing that made his clan so smug. The Six Eyes themselves. It was what allowed him to see Cursed Energy, to use his Cursed Technique with utmost efficiency and no wastage, it gave him perfect control.

But that perfect control came at a price.

Naoki had noticed that sometimes, he would rub his eyes just like any other human would and yet they had counted the frequency of him doing so and concluded that he did it more than usual. The blackout glasses were to decrease strain on his eyes, they knew, to decrease the stimulation reaching his brain because Six Eyes’ last two brain cells were processing shit no normal sorcerer should see (other than curses).

Naoki almost smiled as they watched him take a blink that lasted more than a second when Yaga-sensei was giving a lecture.

Sometimes when they ate lunch and Six Eyes’ glasses would droop down his nose a little bit, Naoki would notice the line of pinkish-red veins in his eyes, the slight redness of his waterline.

“Hey, do you use eye drops?” Ieiri asked Six Eyes, one wonderful spring day.

“Yeah, sometimes,” Six Eyes shrugged.

Naoki almost licked their lips as an idea began to form in their mind, but they pretended to be focused on their clan’s texts on the shikigami they wanted to tame next, the ox - Kangyu. It was an ox shikigami that could only attack in a straight line, the further it begins its charge, the stronger the power when it hits its target. Troublesome.

Based on Naoki’s experience, as soon as they summoned the shikigami to attempt to tame them in the ritual - it attacked as soon as it manifested. This was why reading ahead on the shikigami was imperative to them, it just made taming the shikigami quicker through strategizing. Naoki had often read the journals of previous wielders of the Ten Shadows Technique, in order to get a more personal account of the technique instead of the factual clan texts. The Zenin clan archives on their most prized technique stretched back to the height of the Heian era, and yet Naoki could not find anything regarding the first wielder of the Ten Shadows. The Zenin were descended from Taira no Masakado and yet there was nothing of how they descended from the Vengeful Spirit. It was frustrating, because Naoki was curious and yet there was no information. The previous wielder’s of the Ten Shadows Technique made no mention of it despite the vast majority of them being clan heads. The earliest Naoki could find was writings from Zenin Yoshikado.

And Zenin Yoshikado unfortunately spent the vast majority of his writings exalting his wife and speaking about how he wanted to fuck her raw, passionately, and ardently every day. Perhaps not in such brazen language considering Zenin Yoshikado lived in the Heian era, but the gist was very much there. If Naoki had to suffer through his steamy poetry or his graphic descriptions of the way his wife’s breasts bounced during sex again they'd rather gouge their eyes out.

‘Today was the day I tamed Kangyu and my wonderful wife awarded me by —’

Naoki couldn't finish that sentence, so they snapped the book shut and threw it at Six Eyes’ head. The book hit the back of his head with a resounding smack and dropped to the ground like a rock. Six Eyes whirled on Naoki.

“What was that for?!” he whined, incredulity coating his words.

“The contents of the book were annoying, just like your face.”

“Excuse you! My face is a work of art, it is a national treasure, the prize of the Jujutsu world —”

“You have a face only a mother could love,” Naoki grumbled, standing up from their seat and swiping the book off the floor.

“Zenin-san, you shouldn't throw books around, it might've gotten damaged.” Getou chided.

“Why're you more worried about a stupid book than my head —”

Getou suddenly looked very tired as he turned his attention towards Six Eyes, who had stood up and was now pointing an accusing finger at Getou. “As long as shit keeps on coming out of your mouth, I don't have to worry.”

“Hah? You think shit comes out of my mouth?” Six Eyes drawled mockingly, “I’ll have you know, my words are as good as the words of a god.”

The tiredness faded away from Getou’s expression as if it were never there, instead deep, unbridled annoyance appeared on his face. His brows were knitted and a scowl was firmly in place as he stared at Six Eyes with such unbridled dislike, Naoki was almost impressed. Getou’s Cursed Energy was also rolling off of him in waves, fed by whatever negative emotions he was feeling about Gojo currently.

Getou’s purple eyes were dark. “Why don’t we settle this outside, shit-face?” he said, in a perfectly polite tone as if he was asking Six Eyes about the weather.

Six Eyes smirked. “Oh, you wanna go?”

“Yeah - yeah, I wanna have a go smashing your face in.”

Ieiri shot a glance at Naoki, as if wondering if they should stop this. But Naoki was too focused on stopping themself from grinning by biting on their lower lip. Naoki had never been able to smash Six Eyes’ face on the pavement because of the incident when they were both six, but they’d settle for watching it happen in real time.

“I’m gonna go grab something from the vending machine. Don’t kill yourselves, yeah?” Ieiri yawned, waving a half-hearted goodbye.

As Ieiri left the classroom, Naoki knew she wouldn’t be coming back.

“Zenin-san, I’d like you to be a referee.”

“Oh?” Naoki raised a brow, “I thought this was a fight to the death.”

“Would make your life easier if it was, eh Naoki?” Six Eyes snorted.

Naoki walked up to the table where Six Eyes was sitting, bending over as they inched closer. “Your death,” they whispered, lips brushing against Six Eyes’ ear, “would bring me so much joy, I will mix your ashes into the mortar of a floor, so I can step on you every single day even when you’re dead.”

“Obsessed with me, aren’t you?” Six Eyes cocked his head closer to Naoki, looking ahead at Getou. Naoki pulled away so they didn’t touch Six Eyes more than they needed to. “Don’t worry, Naoki. Didn’t I tell you? I’ll curse you to keep on living, even in death you won’t be able to run away or hide in your shadows because I will keep you tethered here in this life and the next.”

Naoki smirked bitterly. “Now who’s the one obsessed?”

They turned towards Getou, who was watching them with an expressionless face though his eyes remained glued on Six Eyes. “So, what do you want me to do?”

They removed themselves to one of the courtyards, a wide open space with a pavement. On one side of the courtyard was the area leading towards the forest, and on the other side were the school buildings and dormitories. Naoki thought that they’d be better off doing this on the track field, but it was quite the walk and Naoki saw the way Getou’s body was tense and coiled like a panther itching for the time to finally pounce. Six Eyes, on the other hand, was relaxed and yet his eyes were bright and alert.

Naoki positioned themself in between them, though a little ways away from them and shoved their hands into their pockets. Since Getou didn’t mention what rules he and Six Eyes wanted the duel to operate within, Naoki was just going to go with the general rules used in the Zenin clan.

“Alright, anything goes - fight with honour or without, with Jujutsu or not, it doesn’t matter,” the Zenins did not survive this long by being honourable and they did not cling to superficial values of honour and pride like the Kamo. “Since I’m not mopping up the blood, no killing is allowed but maiming is fine. You stop when your opponent is down and stays down, how you ensure that is up to you.”

Six Eyes whistled. “They were really harsh on you, weren’t they?”

Who ‘they’ was, it didn’t need to be spoken. Naoki had never not knocked their opponents out in a spar, because simply restraining them was a waste of Cursed Energy and bred vengeance due to the humiliation at being pinned down.

Naoki ignored Six Eyes, and took a step closer to the two Special Grades standing in front of them. They extended a hand in the air between the two, arm stiff and finger’s straight.

“Begin.”

Getou struck first and Naoki had to jump back to ensure they weren’t caught in the crossfire.

The dragon that Getou summoned was fast, surging towards Six Eyes like a tsunami. Six Eyes grinned, holding his hand out as the dragon seemed to slow.

And yet, before Infinity could completely stop it, Getou moved.

Naoki saw the moment of realization dawned on Six Eyes’ face as he missed Getou's brutal swing coming at him from behind by a hair's breadth. That loss of concentration cost him and he was forced to jump to the side to avoid the dragon curse, Infinity turned off by the distraction.

Naoki took note of that, he rather resembled a Spanish matador dealing with a wild bull.

However, Six Eyes recovered in the split of a second — pulling everything but Getou towards him to get some distance between the two. Getou, to his credit, did not try to fight Lapse Blue, allowing himself to be thrown backwards away from whatever range Six Eyes had set.

He summoned another curse to catch him. It was shaped almost like a pink pillow with hands on either side and googly eyes at the top — maneuvering mid air so it would be his feet that touched the curse first. Getou's feet hit the curse harmlessly, and the curse recoiled then jut out his belly as Getou lunged towards Six Eyes once more.

It seemed Six Eyes was interested to see what Getou had to offer, because he stood his ground and turned off Infinity.

What followed next was a brutal dance of martial arts. Six Eyes was quick and talented in hand-to-hand combat, but he was reliant on his technique destroying any opponent before it could reach him. Getou's technique, meanwhile, closely resembled that of a shikigami user like Naoki, but he was excellent in close quarter combat.

However, Naoki noticed that his curses had vanished which meant that he couldn't split his concentration between fighting hand-to-hand and maintaining his curses.

That needed to be fixed. Getou couldn't afford to lose his curses in the middle of battle like that.

And Six Eyes — Naoki almost cheered aloud when Getou's fist hit Six Eyes’ nose with a resounding crack, shattering the bridge of his glasses.

Six Eyes’ glasses fell to the ground and his eyes were on full display.

Six Eyes’ eyes brightened and the Cursed Energy shifted.

Getou pulled back, jumping as far as he could as Six Eyes expanded Infinity's range, reducing everything in its path to rubble.

Naoki summoned Gama and dove into its mouth as it hopped into the shadow cast by the buildings. Within Gama's mouth, Naoki scrunched their nose in annoyance. Did he really have to do that? Of course not, he was Six Eyes, and he just had to show off.

Gama peeked out of the shadows and opened its mouth as Naoki carefully climbed out to see Getou disappear and the courtyard around Six Eyes reduced to rubble.

“Oi, oi, did you run away?” Six Eyes mockingly called out just as a veil cast itself on him and enveloped him in liquid darkness.

Getou either used a Domain Expansion or one of the domain's of the curses in his collection. Naoki was betting it was the latter, because he couldn't maintain both his curses and fight in close quarters combat yet.

Naoki waited outside, dispelling Gama.

They waited.

And waited.

And after it hit the five minute mark, Naoki huffed an impatient sigh as they walked in front of the domain. They extended out their hands, making the hand sign for Kangyu and watched as the shadows drew on their Cursed Energy, liquefying and forming the shape of an ox.

The ox blinked and Naoki dove to the side.

Kangyu rammed into the barrier with all the force of an avalanche, shattering it as it popped like a bubble.

Naoki rolled upright as Kangyu skidded on its feet, turning back towards Naoki.

Naoki ignored the twin, dumbfounded look on both Six Eyes and Getou. Getou now sporting a bloodied and swollen lip and Six Eyes’ nose now swelling an impressive red, at complete odds with his pretty face.

“Hey —”

Whatever Six Eyes meant to say was swiftly cut off by Naoki rolling to the side to avoid Kangyu.

Kangyu crashed into the trees behind Naoki, clearing a train in the forest quite deep and far away.

Naoki stood up, coating their hands in Cursed Energy as Kangyu ran for them again. This time from a further distance, Naoki could hear its hooves before they saw it huffing and puffing. They could see the Cursed Energy buildup at its hooves and hard head.

Just as the ox was about to touch Naoki, they lunged — gripping onto its horns. Naoki flipped themself onto the ox's back, gripping on its fur for dear life as it began to play cowboy rodeo with them.

Naoki was tossed up and down as if they were a toddler jumping on the bed, except while the lower portion of their body flailed — their hands remained gripping onto the fur.

Naoki released the grip they had on Kangyu's fur and flew into the air.

Wow, Kangyu could really fling them high. They almost couldn't see the twin expressions of horror on Six Eyes and Getou's faces. But that couldn't be horror on Six Eyes’ face, could it? No, that must be sheer incredulity at the possibility that his dream of Naoki's death was going to come true. And he didn't even need to organize an accident.

Sadly, for Six Eyes that was not going to come true.

As Naoki fell, they allowed gravity to do part of the work as they pulled up their knee and reinforced their foot with Cursed Energy. Kangyu was looking up, nostrils flaring and hooves scratching the ground.

As soon as they fell close enough, they slammed their foot into Kangyu as hard as they could. Warm, purplish blood sprayed on Naoki's face and uniform and Kangyu let out an agonized moo.

Naoki flipped in the air as they jumped from Kangyu's head, which dropped to the ground alongside their hooves bending over.

Naoki landed before Kangyu and before the ox could pull itself up on quaking hooves, Naoki summoned Nue and the bird electrocuted the ox in a burst of lightning that had Naoki looking away because it was a flash of white and blue which burned their eyes to look at. Once the brightness had receded, Naoki saw a battered ox and a Nue that seemed almost proud with the way it flew in circles above Kangyu.

Naoki grinned, approaching Kangyu and extending a hand to touch the ox. Their fingers rubbed the symbol etched onto its forehead, taking a trembling breath as they felt the bond between shikigami and master settle into their bones. They could hear it sometimes, the way the shikigami writhed in the shadows, both tamed and untamed - the howl of the Divine Dogs, the ribbit of the frogs, the cawing of Nue, the creak of a spinning wheel. But if they reached deeper, sometimes they would hear voices - human voices, echoes of wielders long past. Some were filled with rage, some were filled with melancholy, and some were filled with regret so profound that Naoki wanted to weep for whoever that had been.

“Yo, Naoki -” Naoki felt their shoulder being grabbed as they dispelled Kangyu, glancing up at eyes which held the skies in their depths. “Disrespectfully, what the actual fuck?”

Naoki slapped away Six Eyes’ hand from their shoulder, swallowing down the urge to laugh at Six Eyes’ nasally voice. “You were taking too long.”

Getou wiped away the blood on his lips with the back of his hand. “Zenin-san, I didn’t think you were going to intervene.”

“I wasn’t,” they said, taking out their handkerchief with a huff and holding it out to Getou, “while you were beating each other up in the domain, I thought it’d be a good time to exorcise one of my shikigami.”

Getou blinked in surprise at the handkerchief being offered, but just as he reached out to take it - Six Eyes swiped it out of Naoki’s hand and pressed it against his bleeding nose.

“Ew,” Naoki clicked their tongue, “my handkerchief has now been soiled.”

“Aw, don’t worry, I’ll be sure to wash it before handing it back.” Six Eyes cooed.

Naoki glared. “Don’t bother.” they said, turning on their heels and walking away.

“Yay, I’ll be keeping it then.” Six Eyes sing-songed.

Naoki rolled their eyes, Six Eyes could keep the handkerchief. It still won’t change what Naoki was going to do to him tomorrow.

Naoki grabbed Getou’s wrist before his fingers could touch their shoulder. Getou still had blood smeared all over his lower lip, likely from a rough undercut from Six Eyes or Six Eyes punched him straight in the mouth.

Either way, he would live.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“I’m not the one who’s bleeding.” Naoki released their grip on Getou’s wrist.

“The bull really shocked us, you know?”

“I would’ve given you a warning, but you were a little busy beating each other up.”

“We were worried when it threw you up in the air like that.”

Naoki clicked their tongue. “I told you not to waste your worry on me already,” they stated blandly, not in the habit of being petty over the same issue, “you should focus on your progress as a sorcerer. You fight like a shikigami user, but you can’t maintain your curses while getting up close and personal. That could get you killed, you were lucky Six Eyes is rough at hand-to-hand.”

Getou did not bite back, he didn’t shower criticism on Naoki as they expected. “Thank you,” he said sincerely enough, which caused a flicker of annoyance in Naoki. Their annoyance must’ve shown, because Getou clarified, “For your insight and for refereeing.”

“Let’s be honest, I didn’t do shit and I took advantage of you guys. I wanted to see how powerful Kangyu’s hit could be and it destroyed that Special Grade curse’s domain in one go, so it gave me a fair estimate.”

Getou cracked a smile then. “Yeah, you didn’t do anything,” he admitted, “but eh, I didn’t really mind the bull thing.”

Naoki stared at the boy, they truly couldn’t understand him. Getou Suguru was strange, from his Cursed Energy, to his awful sense of fashion, and his weirdly welcoming yet condescending personality. But then again, it wasn’t Naoki’s job or business to dissect or make sense of the boy.

“Go to the infirmary.” because they wanted to get back and read up on Kangyu.

Not Zenin Yoshikado’s account, oh no - but his elder brother’s Zenin Masakado’s. From the moment his comprehensive text on the Ten Shadows Technique began with - ‘Yoshikado is the worst teacher because he himself cannot explain how he manages to use the Ten Shadows Technique, so this one will attempt to explain it for future descendants of my clan’ - Naoki was hooked.

Zenin Masakado’s narration was dry and straight to the point, a clear and concise account which was helpful but being someone who didn’t have the Ten Shadows it lacked the nuance that could be found in later accounts of Ten Shadows wielders. But still, Naoki found themself rereading his work several times because there were times when it seemed as if his words were cut off mid-sentence. All of it was centered around this strange figure which Masakado mentioned several times as a relative, but never by name or relation.

‘Yoshikado had to ask our -’

‘The previous wielder, our - remarked that Madoka was a docile shikigami.’

Who? Naoki always asked, who was the previous wielder and why were they eliminated from records?

It ate Naoki alive, but aside from reading they had spiteful business to get into.

Naoki stared at the bottle of eyedrops they had purchased from a quick run to the pharmacy. It was regular, over the counter eye drops for dry eyes. But of course, Six Eyes didn’t use the same eye drops as the common plebeian did - he used the most expensive of the bunch. It was 1500 yen which was a day’s worth of transportation to work and lunch to the average person. Aside from that, this particular eye drops was important from the US.

It was a shame it was going down the drain then.

Naoki pulled on some nitrile gloves and popped the eye drop open, disposing the liquid within into the wash basin of their bathroom. In a bowl they looted from the kitchen, Naoki mixed some water with a splash of white distilled vinegar used for cleaning - looted from the cleaning staff’s supply closet. They swirled the bowl around, making sure there was only the slightest whiff of vinegar’s typical acidic smell that remained. Atop their bathroom sink, Naoki poured the contents of the bowl into the tiny eye drops bottle, making sure the amount was the same as the bottle of eyedrops Naoki had stolen for Six Eyes’ unlocked room by carefully comparing it at eye-level.

Locked doors or not, Naoki was going to do this either way. They had learned how to pick a lock from their cousin while he was off stealing Cursed Weapons on his way out of the clan and if Naoki could pick the lock of a Zenin clan storage, Naoki could certainly pry open the door of a stupid highschool student.

Satisfied with the amount, Naoki wiped the bottle of their vinegar eye drops with a clean towel to rid it of all the droplets of liquid.

Shoving the bottle into their pocket, Naoki made their merry way back to Six Eyes’ room, looking left and right, extending out their reach of sensing for Cursed Energy before waltzing into Six Eyes’ empty room.

They placed the eye drops bottle on the messy table, filled with stacks of manga and magazines. Naoki saw Naruto, One Piece, Bleach - the holy trinity of shounen manga, but there was also Doraemon, Detective Conan, and stacks of Sailor Moon DVDs.

His walls had a few posters; one of Waka Inoue on a beach in a yellow bikini with her arms held aloft as she smiled, another of Satomi Ishihara as Shizuka Gozen from the TV show Yoshitsune. Naoki blinked at the sheer contrast of the two posters, one was of a woman wearing almost nothing, and the other was a woman who might as well have been a nun for how she was dressed in shirabyoushi attire.

The attire brought back to mind the very vivid descriptions of Zenin Yoshikada’s wife, who was apparently a court dancer herself. Naoki shuddered and shook their head to rid themself of the mental image they were left with from his borderline pornographic accounts.

Six Eyes’ bed was unmade, its sheets a bright, vivid blue that was so predictable to the point Naoki didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at the sheer predictability.

Regardless, they left Six Eyes’ bedroom.

The sight of Six Eyes rubbing at his red-rimmed eyes almost caused Naoki to achieve enlightenment right then and there, ascending into Buddhist nirvana. Yaga-sensei scolding him to pay more attention to his lectures was only the icing to the cake which Naoki was currently consuming with all their heart.

Six Eyes pulled off his glasses, revealing bright pinkish-red, irritated eyes. The manchild squeezed his eyes shut for a few moments and Naoki couldn’t help themself.

“Are you alright, Six Eyes?” they made sure to inject false sincerity into their tone, looking up at him with a worried frown, “do you need to go to the infirmary for your eyes?”

Six Eyes squinted his eyes open, a sliver of bright blue appearing. Naoki had to stop themself from grinning by schooling their expression and biting their lips.

“Didn’t think you’d be so concerned about me,” he said, his tone mocking, “Didn’t see that concern yesterday.”

Naoki allowed themself to give him a tepid smile. “Yesterday was your own fault,” they said, “why should I be concerned about something you willingly agreed to?”

“The better question is; why’re you two gossiping while I’m trying to drill some knowledge into your empty heads?” Yaga-sensei’s voice grumbled from behind them.

Naoki winced more from the sound of the smack of a book upside their head than any actual pain.

“Gojo, haul yourself to the infirmary,” Yaga-sensei snapped, completely ignoring the boy rubbing at the back of his head, “And both of you, if I see you two gossiping in class once more - I’ll have you scrubbing the bedpans of the infirmary patients.”

“You wouldn’t,” Gojo smirked.

Yaga-sensei blinked at them. “Try me.”

Which was how Naoki and Six Eyes found themselves bent over the sink, rubber gloves covering their hands and an apron over their uniforms with medical masks covering their faces.

“‘You wouldn’t’,” Naoki sneered, imitating Six Eyes’ arrogant tone.

They scrubbed at the bed pan with a vengeance, certain the smell of shit was stuck in their nose. Since this was a Jujutsu infirmary, some of the shit was not normal shit, coated with blood from internal injuries or just so foul-smelling from the aftereffects of a venomous curse.

Six Eyes, with the irritated pink already receding, rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, whatever.”

But of course, Six Eyes couldn’t seem to stand the silence so after a few minutes he completely destroyed any semblance of peace Naoki had with their destiny.

“Hey, so I’ve been thinking -”

Naoki scrunched their nose, and this time it wasn’t from the smell. “You can think?”

Six Eyes, however, completely ignored that. “Let’s go to the Hakata Dontaku Festival in Fukuoka during Golden Week.”

Naoki stared at Six Eyes as if he had grown two heads, their hands which had been furiously scrubbing, halted completely to simply stare at him. Six Eyes, for his part, was patiently waiting for an answer.

“Did Getou hit you too hard or something?” Naoki stated plainly, “we have the hanami in Daigo-Ji coming up during that time. And Fukuoka is in Kyushu.”

Six Eyes clicked his tongue in a ‘tch’ sound. “Booooring!”

“Your clan is hosting it this year,” Naoki pointed out.

“Yeah, and they’re doing it and they expect me to show my face.”

Naoki’s brows furrowed. “You’re the heir, aren’t you supposed to be involved with organizing stuff?”

“Nah, leave that to my mom - she’s anal about these kinds of things.”

Naoki went back to scrubbing the bedpans. They saw no lie in Six Eyes’ words, Gojo Fumia was as demanding a taskmaster as Zenin Yukina. Naoki had heard their mother mutter insults towards the woman under her breath and they had seen Lady Gojo glare at their mother on multiple occasions. But the one thing that Naoki recalled of Lady Gojo, was the fact that she was the only one of the Gojo clan who wasn’t eating out of Six Eyes’ palm. Whereas the other members of the Gojo clan applauded Six Eyes for simply drawing breath and let him do whatever he wanted as a boy, Gojo Fumia frowned and told Six Eyes to stop slouching.

Naoki supposed they respected Gojo Fumia more than they respected Gojo Satoshi, Six Eyes’ father. In so far as a Zenin could respect a Gojo.

“Soooo, what about Fukuoka? We can go after the hanami party if it bothers you so much.”

“Did Getou and Ieiri say yes to your ridiculous proposal?”

Six Eyes blinked, his eyes curling into half-moons beneath his mask which made Naoki suspect he was smiling. “Nope! But that’s cause I didn’t ask. Anyways, isn’t it gonna be hard for them to come? We’re both going from Kyoto after all and they’d have to depart on their own from Tokyo.”

“They can just meet us in Kyoto.”

“The shinkansen is expensive though.”

Naoki let out an annoyed huff. “It’s not like they’re broke.”

Short life expectancy aside, being a sorcerer paid extremely well. As students, they got a very generous allowance aside from mission pays, but that came with the little knot of not being allowed to reject missions. But it was an unspoken rule anyways that you didn’t reject missions, not with how shorthanded sorcerers always were. Not unless you were the head of the Three Great Clans or a Higher-Up. But then you wouldn’t be doing missions then, you’d be assigning them.

The higher the grade, the higher the pay. As a Special Grade, Getou was already making as much as a CEO did with his missions and school allowance, with a single mission being worth the average salaryman’s pay for a month. Ieiri, on the other hand, was always in demand for her Reverse Cursed Technique and working on anyone not of Jujutsu High’s teaching faculty paid her as much as a surgeon was getting paid per case.

Naoki didn’t understand why Six Eyes thought their classmates were suffering from dire financial straits, but his worry was unwarranted. Yes, compared to him and Naoki who came from old and wealthy families they were indeed not as well-off. But honestly, compared to the average person they were doing fantastic.

“It might dent their savings.”

“Now you just sound like you don’t want them to come.”

Silence.

“Hah, really?”

Six Eyes shrugged. “If they come they come.”

Naoki paused in their bed pan cleaning efforts, staring at Six Eyes. Kyushu was quite far and Naoki was sure that the further from Kyoto, the more the influence of the Three Great Clans waned simply because of distance. The festival in Fukuoka would be crowded, packed with people. Who was going to notice if Naoki was missing? Hell, it didn’t even have to be in Fukuoka, it could be on the train rides there - there would be a crowd because it was Golden Week and everyone was on holiday. Who’s to say Six Eyes won't just Lapse Blue them in a dingy alleyway by the train station.

It was all starting to come together now, not alerting them to the domain on their joint mission, blowing up the domain that way, and now -

There could only be one reason why Six Eyes wanted to go on a trip with Naoki alone.

Gojo Satoru was trying to kill them.