Chapter Text
“I bought us a little over a month,” Gojo announced after they’d spent a considerable amount of time explaining everything that had happened since he’d been sealed in the prison realm.
“For your recovery?” Utahime asked. He looked healthy to her, and she assumed Shoko had cleared him if she’d allowed them into the infirmary to see him. A month seemed unnecessary.
He shook his head. “For training.”
Everyone wore the same look of confusion.
“What is there for you to train?” Gakuganji asked. “This is the night before the concert. You know the notes now or you don’t. It’s too late for practice to help. Either you are the strongest or Sakuna is.”
Gojo smiled. “Or we could just make Sukuna the weakest.”
“Hah?” Shoko asked.
Then Gojo tilted his head directly towards Utahime.
“No,” Utahime said sternly. “I could help you for something like a long distance attack, but if you need to rely on me, this whole fight is pointless. You might as well admit you’re not the strongest.”
Gojo chuckled. “As weak as you are now, of course it’s a horrible idea. You’d be too close to the battlefield or we’d move too quickly for you to keep up. That’s why we need the time for training.”
“Gojo,” Utahime said with as much disdain as she could muster. “What do you think will change in one month that hasn’t changed in over a decade?”
He grinned. “I’m gonna be teaching you this time.”
She scowled. “You have your own students. If I have to train with you, I’d kill you before you ever make it to Sukuna.”
“Maybe if you trained with me, you could actually do it,” he said, sounding excited about the prospect.
“We have a month,” Shoko said with a shrug. “You might as well do it. If nothing else, it’ll keep him on task and get him in shape.”
“Yeah, it’ll keep me on task,” Gojo said, smirking at Utahime. “But I think I’m already in shape.”
“I didn’t sign up to be your babysitter!” she snapped at him.
“Well,” Gojo said, putting a finger on his chin. “Actually, I think this time, I’d be babysitting you since I’d be teaching. Feel free to call me sensei.”
“Not on your life!” she screeched, preparing to wring his neck.
“Great,” he said, clapping his hands together like she’d agreed. “Let’s get started right away.”
“Good luck,” Shoko told her, only offering her a smile in support.
“You may as well take advantage of the opportunity,” Gakuganji said before turning to leave the room.
“Come on,” Gojo said, beating Gakuganji to the door because he was an ass. “We’ll start with the gym.”
Utahime sighed and accepted her fate, following him out. He would annoy her into doing what he asked anyways, and this would spare her the trouble.
“Are you serious about this?” she asked. “If you really don’t believe you’re the strongest we need to come up with another plan for facing Sukuna than just throwing you at him.”
He raised his eyebrows at her, and how strange to see them again after the last few years of him wearing blindfolds or bandages to cover them up. “Of course, I’m the strongest. If it were just about me versus him, I wouldn’t have to worry about it, but this isn’t some dick measuring contest.”
“Gojo!” she snapped, looking around to double check none of the students were near. Thankfully they were still alone.
“What?” he asked. “You want me to say pissing contest instead?”
“No,” she said sternly.
“Come on,” he teased as he opened the door for her. “Tell me it’s not what you think of any time I say I’m the strongest.”
She scowled as she passed him. She found his bragging about his strength as annoying as him calling her weak for precisely that reason. It was such a guy thing to miss the whole point.
She cleared her throat and finally dared to say the words that always popped into her head whenever she heard him say that. “It’s not what you have, it’s how you use it.”
Gojo gasped, delighted. “Why, Utahime, I never knew you thought that way about me.”
“It’s not about you!” she snapped.
“Of course it is,” he said with a grin. “Who else could it be about?”
She gave him a sharp look. “You don’t have a monopoly on it.”
“Well, now I feel under appreciated,” he said, before waving that off. “In any case, like I said, this isn’t about testing my strength in a one v one situation. We need to take out Sukuna no matter what which means we need to use every advantage we have and remove any one that he has. It’s not enough for me to win. I need to win and have enough left over to help take out Kenjaku and Uraume and any curses Kenjaku has in store. It’s not exactly a one and done where I can go all out and not worry about the consequences.”
Utahime sighed. “I already told you that I can’t help beyond an opening salvo. You didn’t see what Sukuna did in Shibuya. I can’t cover that sort of range.”
“As you are now,” he said, smiling as he opened the door to the gym. “But training’s all about moving beyond that.”
He walked into the center of the room, and she followed him, stopping a few feet away from him.
“Alright, use your technique on yourself with as much power as you can give it,” he said, training his Six Eyes on her.
She took an even breath in and let it out again. “I could do more with an instrument, but I’ll work with what I have now.”
As a student, she had experimented with the activation of her technique. She could either do it quickly, or she could do it powerfully. She chose the later this time, using traditional, intentional dance steps along with her hand signs as she sang the incantation at the lower end of her register. She fell silent as she completed her turn to face Gojo again. Cursed energy flooded through her, like a shot of caffeine injected straight into her bloodstream.
She tilted her head, fixing Gojo with a steady stare, waiting for his teasing or criticism.
Instead, Gojo grinned. He appeared before her, the space between them eaten up by his technique. He lightly tapped the tip of her nose. “Tag, you’re it!”
“Gojo!” she slapped at his hand, but he’d already darted back with a laugh.
“You know how tag works, don’t you?” he asked.
“Of course, I do,” she snapped.
He held up his hands, making a ‘come at me’ motion to her.
She swallowed down her anger and used the surging cursed energy to reinforce her body and increase her speed. She leaped at him, but he dodged at the last moment.
He laughed. “Alright, Utahime, let’s go!”
She chased him, back and forth and around the gym over and over again. He’d let her get close then dart away again, but he never used his technique to teleport. Sweat gathered at her hairline and dripped down her back. She certainly was never as fast as Gojo when it came to exorcising curses, but her fights had never gone on for this long. Still, while she didn’t tire with the coursing curse energy, she wasn’t used to moving so fast in such a contained area. Her boots slid on the smooth flooring more than once, and she had to be careful and adjust to it.
“How long are we going to do this for?” she asked as she slowed her pace to try and lull him into a false sense of security.
“As long as you possibly can,” he said. “It’s not really training if we don’t push your limits, is it?”
She huffed. “Fine.”
They were going to be there a while. She still had plenty of cursed energy left for running around.
She launched herself at him again. He swerved out of her path. She kicked out at him, trying to catch him unaware, but he dodged it as well.
“Hey, hey, you’re not supposed to kick in tag,” he said with a grin. “But I guess I can allow it for you, Utahime.”
“Shut up,” she snapped, turning on a dime to lunge at him again. Her foot nearly slid out from underneath her again, and she might as well have missed by a mile.
Around and around they went in nonsensical patterns, slowly draining her boosted reserve of cursed energy. Utahime mostly just chased him down, making sure to be careful on her turns, but she did test out a few kicks on him and other strikes if he stayed in range just to break up the monotony.
“Alright, alright, that’s low enough,” he said, stopping and holding out a hand towards her.
She nodded. At their current rate, she had around a minute or two worth of energy left to reinforce her body before she would have stopped reinforcing herself to be able to get off a last ditch attack on a curse. She walked over to Gojo and tapped his outstretched hand.
“You’re it,” she said.
“You just spent a couple hours chasing me around a gym which is actually a lot longer than I thought you’d be able to last,” he said, “You’re more efficient with your cursed energy usage especially while boosted than I expected.”
“It’s not as if we were doing anything dramatic,” she said, using the edge of her sleeve to dab at the sweat on her face.
“No, but you were using it constantly the whole time,” he said using his sleeve to wipe his face.
Apparently, she could run for long enough to make Gojo Satoru sweat. She exhaled and released her technique.
She nearly collapsed where she was standing as the effort of running for so long hit her all at once.
“Easy, easy,” Gojo said as he caught her by the upper arm, and she automatically latched onto him in return. “You should have told me if you weren’t in shape.”
“I am in shape,” she practically growled as he guided her down to the floor when it was clear she wasn’t going to be able to get her feet underneath herself. “I’ve never used my technique for this long before, and I haven’t overdone it like this in ages.”
He sat down beside her, sprawling out his legs and resting back on his hands. “Alright, I’ll take the blame then. I did have you push your limits.”
“I might have pushed yours, too,” she said, pulling her hair from her sweaty neck. “Don’t think I haven’t noticed the sweat and heavy breathing.”
He shook his head then put a finger to his lips. “Don’t go telling people about it. I’ve never taken more than a few minutes to finish off a curse.”
“Endurance is definitely one of the things you should work on since we have this month,” she said, using her hand to pull her foot closer to unzip her boot.
“Woah, one of?” he asked. “Did you forget who you’re talking to?”
“No, I didn’t, oh Strongest One,” she said sarcastically, rolling her eyes as she pulled off her boot. “Strength isn’t the only thing that matters in a fight.”
“Strategy, reflexes, adaptation,” he said. “I’ve got all that, and you already mentioned endurance. What else do you need?”
She sighed as she pulled her other foot in. “You seriously want to know? Can your ego even take it?”
“So mean, Utahime,” he complained. “I’m a big boy. You can tell me the truth.”
She couldn’t help a small smile as she removed her second boot. “You lack grace. Finesse. Precision. However you want to call it.”
“Precision?” he asked. “I seem to recall you nearly losing your footing a few times.”
“I wore boots into a gym, and it’s not what I’m talking about. You’re so over powered you throw your strength, your body around willy nilly. You use hammers even when a scalpel would work better,” she said. “I was there during the Goodwill Event, remember? You threw hollow purple at the special grade curse, destroying the grounds, nearly taking out your own student, and allowing the curse to escape in the light. So yes, you lack finesse and precision.”
He made a grossed out face. “That’s only one example.”
“It’s nearly every example of your work,” she said sharply. “You also lack control—,”
“Control?” he asked loudly. “Are you crazy? You know what my technique is? I have to control everything down to the atom.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Over your body.”
“Huh?” he said. “Pretty sure I can control my body exactly the way I want to.”
“Oh, is that why you’re still walking around like some Gumby man who never got used to his own growth spurt?” she asked derisively.
“That was totally uncalled for,” he said, leaning away from her. “And rude. You have no idea what having a growth spurt does to you since you’re only yay high.”
He leveled out his hand above the floor as if she were the height of a toddler.
She sighed. “It’s honestly wasted on you.”
“It is not,” he insisted, putting his hand down.
“No woman wants a guy that slouches and doesn’t even look that comfortable in his own skin,” she retorted to get him back for all the times he said a man wouldn’t want her.
“Tell that to my exes, and I don’t slouch.”
“One night stands don’t count,” she said and continued as he opened his mouth. “You’re also too reliant on your vision.”
“Too reliant?” he asked, offended.
“Yes, yes, you have Six Eyes, you need them for your technique blah, blah, blah,” she said, waving her hand. “But what do you think Sukuna will go for the moment he breaks through your Infinity if he has an ounce of sense?”
He frowned, a rare occurrence for her as usually things were the other way around. “My eyes, but I have reverse cursed technique.”
“It may not be instant,” she said. “And you can’t freeze up if it happens.”
“I’ve survived deadly attacks before,” he said, tapping his forehead, right over his old scar.
“Not to your eyes,” she said.
He pouted.
“I’m just saying, there are things even you have to work on,” she said. “Sukuna isn’t like anything else you’ve faced before. We have to assume he’s at least on your level which means for once, a millimeter may be the difference between success and failure. You need to make sure that space is yours.”
“There’s an infinity even in a millimeter,” he mused then looked over to her. “How do you suggest I fix it?”
“Well, a blindfold won’t work too well on you,” she paused as he shook his head.
“Not that,” he said. “For body control, for…finesse.”
He said it like he was testing out the word’s texture.
Utahime laughed. “Maybe there’s other ways to do it, but I learned it with dance.”
“You’re going to make me dance?” he asked, aghast. “I don’t dance.”
“Yeah, I noticed, Gumby-Man,” she said, carefully getting to her feet. Her legs held.
Gojo popped up next to her. “I’m supposed to be the one teasing you. This feels wrong.”
She shrugged. “Welcome to my life.”
“It sucks.”
“Well, if it’s any consolation, I feel pretty good about not getting sealed in the prison realm,” she said as she walked towards the exit. “I’m getting food. Come if you want to.”
“I’m coming,” he said, quickly catching up to her. “You don’t want me to teleport you with your shoes off?”
“I’ll survive,” she said, doing her best to ignore how much taller than her he was now without her heels on.
“We’ll have to work out a proper schedule for the next month, the fastest way for everyone to learn what they need to,” he said. “You haven’t learned reverse cursed technique either, have you?”
“I’ve tried,” she said, pausing when they reached the door to the exterior. She pulled off her socks, tucking them into her shoes before stepping out.
“Your feet aren’t cold?” he asked.
“They’re fine,” she said as the cold hardly touched her after running around in her boots.
She glanced over to him, and he was making some sort of weird face.
“Are you seriously that concerned about it?” she asked. “I’m not that wimpy.”
“Cold doesn’t care whether you’re strong or not,” he said.
“I’m telling you I’m fine,” she said, walking across the cold ground and watching where she stepped.
Gojo opened the door to the main building for her, and she gave her thanks automatically. She left her boots at the entrance, but put her socks back on as he took off his shoes. They walked side by side over to the cafeteria where everyone else had gathered. Shoko noticed them first.
“Hey, how did your first session go?” she asked.
“Great,” Gojo said with a giant smile before Utahime could answer. “We played tag.”
“Sounds fun,” she said as if that were a totally normal training activity.
“I wish we could play tag for my training,” Itadori said as he passed by with his food. It was half snacks and half microwavable meals. With most of the city shut down and evacuated including the school’s staff, they were left scrounging for packaged and non-perishable food. They’d been talking about driving out of the city to get fresh food, but there was a good chance that Gojo might be sent on a grocery run now that they had him back.
“Your speed and agility’s fine,” Gojo said. “You have other things to worry about.”
“I know,” Itadori said with a pout as he sat down beside his brother, which Utahime tried not contemplate too hard less she give herself a headache, and his fellow students as well as Kurusu, and Ui Ui. They’d put tables together to all fit.
It was honestly too many children to fight this coming battle.
Utahime headed to the kitchen area to grab her own microwavable meal and some snacks, all the spiciest of what they had left so it would have some flavor. Gojo, of course, picked all the sweetest treats though he at least picked one of the meals with some protein in it even if it was mac n cheese. She left him to microwave it once hers had finished.
She took a seat beside Shoko. Ijichi sat on across from her while Gakuganji occupied the other end of the table with Higuruma, Kusakabe, and Mei Mei. That left the seat across from her as the only spot available for Gojo.
“Going to survive a whole month with Gojo?” Shoko asked.
“I’ve done a whole school year before,” Utahime said, stirring her food together.
“You all were students together?” Higuruma asked.
“Yes, Gojo and Shoko were in the same class a few years below me, and Ijichi the year after Gojo and Shoko,” Utahime explained to him.
“Ah, so you all know each other well,” he said.
“We’re not a very large community, honestly,” she said, trying not to grimace at how it had been cut down recently.
“Sup,” Gojo said as he set his plate and snacks down and took his seat.
Higuruma shot his meal a skeptical look.
“Don’t worry,” Gojo told him with a smile. “My diet hasn’t killed me yet.”
“It might be the only thing that can kill him,” Shoko joked, but it fell flat.
“If we send you for groceries, will you get real food?” Utahime asked before the silence could go on for too long.
“You actually trust me to go grocery shopping?” Gojo asked.
“No, that’s why I asked,” she said.
“I can always take someone with me,” he said.
Higuruma cleared his throat, and they turned to him. “You can transport another person with your teleportation ability?”
“Yep,” Gojo said cheerfully.
“It’s awful,” Utahime said, recalling the sick disorienting feeling of blinking and being somewhere else.
“It sucks,” Shoko agreed, and Ijichi nodded fervently.
“It does not,” Gojo said then turned around in his seat to look at the kid’s table. “Oi, Yuji, you didn’t mind getting teleported, did you?”
Itadori cut off from whatever he’d been talking about to turn to Gojo. He gave him a thumbs up. “It was fine once I figured out what happened.”
Gojo gave him a thumbs up back before turning back to the table. “See? You guys are just wimps.”
Utahime shared a look with Shoko.
“I’d be happy to go grocery shopping with you,” Higuruma said tentatively.
“Sure,” Gojo said with a grin.
“Make sure he uses his money,” Utahime told Higuruma.
“Sorry?” Higuruma asked.
“He’s loaded. He could afford getting us a week’s worth of proper groceries,” she said.
“I wouldn’t make him pay,” Gojo said with a pout. “You’re making me sound cheap.”
“Should I expect more of this if you guys keep training together?” Shoko asked before taking a drink of her soda. They were saving their bottled water for just in case.
“Shoko,” he said, sounding urgent. “Utahime thinks she needs to teach me how to dance to beat Sukuna.”
“That’s not what I said,” Utahime snapped as Shoko chortled.
“Do you even know how to follow a beat?” Shoko asked Gojo.
“In theory,” he said with a shrug before shoveling a large scoop of his mac n cheese into his mouth.
“You know how to dance?” Higuruma asked Utahime.
She nodded. “My cursed technique is…sensitive to music and dance. I learned to strengthen it.”
He frowned. “I didn’t know that. I don’t believe my technique is sensitive to anything.”
“Not all of them are,” she said. “Mine is. It’s also why I wear this outfit.”
“Really?” he asked.
Before she could answer, Gakuganji cleared his throat. “Finish eating. We need to discuss a proper training schedule. We don’t have much time.”
“Yeah, yeah, we got it Gramps,” Gojo said sourly, refusing to even look in his direction.
Utahime raised an eyebrow at him as that was even more hostile than normal.
Gojo caught her eyes then shook his head.
She sighed and went back to her food.