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Seeing the world in such immense detail can be tiring for anyone, regardless of the efficiency of their technique, that fact is no different for Gojo Satoru. And when you’re observing the world in that sort of way, it helps him greatly to have things to focus on, small details he can hone in on and take pause in observing.
Over the course of his time at Jujutsu high, those small things have ranged broadly. Perhaps a bird in the sky would work sometimes, one of Shoko’s cigarettes as it’s twiddled between her fingers, in fact, even Suguru had got in on it, keeping around a particularly funny looking fly head to simply hover around them, letting him focus on the small buzz.
But for the longest time now, he’d found a new favourite thing to watch. Hair ties, two little brilliant specs of red that clung to the pigtails of his favourite source of teasing/ senpai, Utahime Iori.
Not that she’d ever know that of course, well, as long as he kept doing a good job at concealing it. That was another major benefit of the six eyes, on top of the sheer ability boost it granted him, it had some helpful little tricks to it too. Looking freely at the little red bands even while his eyes told a different story.
Some would call it weird, as a matter of fact, Suguru did. Apparently it was ‘bordering on creepy’ to watch them as a conversation went on. Then again he didn’t have a problem like superior perception to deal with did he? All he had to do was swallow a stupid ball every so often.
He wouldn’t admit it, but this small down time they’d very rarely get with everyone together was one of his favourite times in his Jujutsu Tech life. When everyone hit that sweet spot in their schedules where no curses or missions were being done, even if only for an hour or two. They’d all be relaxed together somewhere in the Jujutsu high campus, talking and joking as if they were normal people.
Today was one of those days, well… almost. Everyone was together, sat in a small circle on the well trimmed training field outside, the warm summer heat made it enjoyable, and one of Suguru’s curses sat nearby, blowing a small icy breeze in their general direction made the temperature lie in that sweet spot. The only issue was the absence of his point of focus, the illustrious Utahime.
It was showing a little too, as much as he tried to hide it, his finicky movements and unsure eyes made it obvious to the better informed. Thankfully, only Suguru knew about his guilty pleasure of the hair ties, Shoko knew of his issue, but not of it’s solution.
The idle chatter around him was pleasant at least, a reminder that there is some modicum of normalcy in this messed up world they lived in. Haibara was enthusiastically telling a story to Nanami, who looked pretty bored to the untrained eye, but the slightest bit of smile at the corner of his mouth proved otherwise, Suguru talking to Shoko as she kept her eyes locked on her phone, peacefulness, it was nice.
“Where is Utahime-Senpai? I assume a mission of some sort?” Nanami addressed Shoko, who actually looked up from her phone.
“Mission, yeah. Out with Mei Mei again, she’s been doin that a lot recently.” Suguru nodded thoughtfully.
“Don’t blame her, she’s probably overdue a promotion by now, I imagine that’s what she’s going for.”
Satoru chuckled, a sort of annoying and smug chuckle before he spoke.
“Gah! Promotion, shomotion! I don’t know why people don’t just start out at the top.” Suguru shook his head in disappointment, and Nanami sighed too. At least Haibara seemed to nod along like he was taking some good advice.
“I cannot fathom how you haven’t realised that you’re an anomaly yet.” Nanami added as he clicked his tongue in a sort of annoyed and condescending way.
Satoru just rolled his eyes in an exaggerated fashion, looking at Suguru and pointing toward Nanami as if to say, ‘get a load of this guy.’
“You laugh, Satoru, but he’s right. We are anomalies.”
The white haired boy pouted, like he was upset his best friend disagreed with him, but just went back to a sort of silence, rotating blades of grass between his fingers with his technique, his eyes darting around the entire area surrounding them, searching each blade of grass to see if there were any bugs to watch. Once he realised there wasn’t, however, he sort of grew a little uncomfortable, like he had too much energy.
He needed a focal point, more specifically, his favourite one.
“You said Utahime was comin’? When?” He directed the question at Shoko, but Nanami picked up on it, looking with a curious raised eyebrow. While Suguru shook his head with a disappointed smile.
“Soon, I dunno. Could be an hour, could be any second now.” She shrugged. “Why do ya wanna know? Ya better not be plannin to annoy her like ya normally do. She could do with a break from your bullshit.”
“I don’t annoy her! I simply… entertain! I’m a blast I’ll have you know! Everyone wants to hang with me.” Showing off a cocky grin, he turned back to his bug hunt, and Suguru must have kept tabs on that, as the small funny looking fly-head was suddenly hovering around his legs. Satoru grinned, going straight to softly poking it and watching its cursed energy flow around its body with a small fascination.
Obviously, the curse didn’t go unnoticed by the few sorcerers sat around him, and the pair of Nanami and Haibara looked on in a sort of surprised curiosity, while Shoko chuckled and lifted her phone to snap a photo of him poking nothing and looking like an idiot.
“Senpai! What’s with the fly head? You want me to kill it?” In his confusion Haibara defaulted to his regular compassionate boisterousness.
“No! Leave little Yoto alone!”
Suguru snorted some laughter, shaking his head, knowing it would be pointless to question his naming methods. Nanami didn’t hold the same opinion however.
“Okay then, I’ll ask… why do you have a fly head you’ve named? And why are you treating it like it’s the family dog?”
Gojo just shrugged with a smile and kept playing around with the small tame spirit, which prompted Shoko to join in.
“Because he has the cursed energy equivalent of ADHD.” She laughed, putting a new cigarette in her fingers, while the younger men of the group looked on in confusion.
“Satoru has trouble focusing on multiple things when his six eyes are active, he sees too much and needs something to focus on.” Suguru patiently explained.
“Hey! You two are making me sound like some charity case! It’s not an issue, just… I dunno, something I like to do! It happens when you’re this strong.”
Haibara nodded along enthusiastically, clearly happy with the explanation.
“Ah, I see! But wait… why don’t you just deactivate your technique?”
Gojo sighed, rubbing his forehead as if the answer was the most obvious thing ever. (It wasn’t.)
“Because I’m training! It’s like a muscle, you overwork it and it grows back stronger, the more I use it the better I’ll get with it.”
A small silence followed as he more or less played with the cursed spirit like it was a plush toy, until Shoko chuckled and spoke up.
“Yknow… you’re like, such an idiot most of the time, then as soon as someone asks ya something technique related, you’re a genius.”
Satoru laughed to himself, because that was kind of true, it wasn’t his fault he- Utahime? The sudden detection of her cursed energy interrupted his sentence, and he grinned like an idiot, quickly grabbing Yoto the cursed spirit and hiding it behind his back, waiting until the two women came over to join them,
And after a minute or two they both approached the group, exchanging pleasantries with Shoko mainly, and Nanami and Haibara… and Suguru. Okay, everyone but him. Well, guess I take it into my own hands then.
“U-ta-himeee~” he started in the same obnoxious way he always did. “Welcome, welcome! Have a good time eh? Did Mei Mei have to save the day for you?”
Her smile that previously took up her face was immediately stripped at the sight of him, becoming an agitated scowl, which he kind of felt disappointed by, something in him told him he preferred the smile.
“Buzz off Gojo! I did just fine!” She said with her arms crossed, raising an eyebrow as he stayed stood before her, leaned over like he had something planned, his big inviting irritating blue eyes piercing her. “What? You’re annoying me.”
“I got ya a present~” He said in a stupid sing song voice, but the idea intrigued her, so she just raised an eyebrow as an answer, waiting to see.
“Ta-da!” The white haired idiot brought his hands out from behind his back, holding a small and ugly fly head right towards her face, and she’d have to admit the thing was quite comical if it wasn’t quickly pushed inches from her eyes.
“Ew! Gojo!” She slapped her hand out and knocked the cursed spirit out of his hands, as it fell to the grass with a funny little sound, and Gojo dramatically dropped to his knees beside it, head in his hands.
“Yoto?! How could you Utahime?! Oh my poor little cursed spirit.” Gojo spoke in the most irritating voice ever, but looking at him hunched over the little thing like it was a terrible quality movie death scene was worming it’s way into her brain as a funny thing.
And the bite of her lip to conceal it with the small smile breaking out was noticed by Shoko. Which made Utahime curse under her breath, so she quickly shook her head and frowned, sitting back down between Shoko and Mei Mei.
“Don’t be so dramatic, get rid of that thing. And why are you indulging this child Geto?” She frowned at both of them, and Suguru shook his head with a smile, already used to being dragged into problems thanks to Gojo.
“It doesn’t hurt anyone, I see no problem.”
She rolled her eyes at that answer, but couldn’t find a way to disagree. Instead just turning back to the girls either side of her to talk some more, trying not to look in the direction of the white haired idiot.
“So… what is that about anyway? I can’t imagine it’s solely to annoy poor Utahime here.” Mei Mei gestured in the direction of Gojo, looking expectantly at Shoko.
“You’re right. He has issues with focus sometimes when his six eyes and limitless are active. Geto gives him that little fly head so he can talk and act normally with everyone else, while he just kinda… keeps an eye on it.”
Utahime raised a very surprised eyebrow, she hadn’t actually expected a reasonable explanation, usually Gojo’s behaviour didn’t come with a actual logical thought process behind it.
“Huh… so, that’s like a weakness almost?”
“Well… I wouldn’t call it that. More like a small drawback from using his power to the max.” Shoko shrugged. “He’ll be able to solve it with some training, he always does.”
That seems to be true, if there was one thing in the world Utahime couldn’t fault Gojo on, it was his talent. He just has a sort of knack for being able to figure difficult things out.
It was sort of funny though, regardless of how Shoko framed it, this… concentration issue was sort of a weakness, as much of a weakness as Gojo Satoru could have anyway. Watching him talk to the others with his boisterous voice and his obnoxious smile as he just kept the curse nearby was funny.
It was actually kind of cute, it was like he had a stuffed animal he needed to carry around with him. One of those intentionally ugly ones that are so ugly they’re cute, as he just kept contact with it or flipped it around with his cursed technique. She couldn’t help but smile as she watched him.
Which, in hindsight, was a mistake. A big one in fact, she’d forgotten in a matter of seconds that his technique was actively being used right now. His enhanced perception thanks to the six eyes probably gave him a sort of clear view of his entire surroundings.
Which included her, and her damn smile.
“Ehh? Utahime? Ya like what you see huh? Am I really that captivating?”
She didn’t think he’d just call her out like that! Well… it’s Gojo, what did she expect?
“S-shut up idiot! I wasn’t smiling at you!” It’s the curse! It’s… distracting.” The idiot in question raised an eyebrow, and didn’t look convinced. Shit.
“Hmm? Is that so? Okay then.” What? “I’ll put away little Yoto if it pleases your highness.” He finished in a sickly sweet tone, pushing the curse back towards Geto who took it away.
Eh? He isn’t normally so… agreeable, he’s up to something, that’s for sure.
“Just like that? That’s not like the Gojo I know. And what about your whole technique concentration thing anyway?” Shoko decided to ask exactly what Utahime was thinking.
“How cute of you to worry about me! But it’s all good! When you’re this strong you find ways.” He added with a shit eating grin, as the fly head vanished, and he continued grinning like an idiot.
Everyone accepted, or just ignored, what he’d said and went back to conversations, all but Utahime, who looked on curiously as he spoke to Geto, his technique was clearly still active, that much she could tell, did that mean he didn’t really need a focal point? Or was he looking at something else…?
“Earth to Utahime? Hello? Like what you see?” Mei Mei quietly spoke to her, nudging her shoulder and smirking with a teasing glint in her eye.
“Like what I…? No! No no, I was just… uh, curious about why-“
“No need to try and explain, I know what you’re thinking. Strange isn’t it, one has to wonder if perhaps he has a different favourite thing to watch. Something a little more… appealing to the eyes.”
Utahime raised an eyebrow, unknowing as to what the older woman was hinting at, but at the same time feeling as if there was a correctness to her words.
In the end she simply gave up thinking about it, or him. Going back to her conversation with Shoko right up until the group had to separate. Briefly getting the slight feeling like someone was watching her, but noticing no gaze in her direction from any of her friends.
“So everyone has something to do now?” Geto looked to the group as the began to stand up, finished with their food and ready to leave after the fortunate break they’d gotten together.
“Yeah. Oh, everyone except Utahime actually.” Mei Mei nudged her shoulder, and the younger woman pouted.
“Hey! Stop putting my business out there.” She scowled, then immediately felt a shudder, already knowing exactly why. “No! No, Gojo, don’t even try anything, you have a mission right?”
The white haired sorcerer chuckled deviously, weirdly happy that he was caught out.
“I do! But it’s me Utahime, I’ll be done in no time! Then we can hang out, just the two of us~” He grinned, wiggling his fingers in a terrifying way.
“Ew, never do that again. And I do not want that. Ever.”
He stuck his tongue out at her, but persevered anyway, following after her in the opposite direction to everyone else, who headed for the exit.
“Aww, you’re so mean Hime!”
That managed to briefly raise her heart rate, as far as nicknames go… she seemed to like that one, it was very affectio- no!
“That isn’t my name! And why are you still following me?” Utahime scoffed, facing away from him with fear his six eyes might see something in her she doesn’t even realise she’s giving off.
“I can teleport duh! And I wanna hear a goodbye from my favourite senpai before I leave! I could die on this mission yknow!” He put the back of his hand on his forehead in super dramatic fashion, looking like an asshole.
“Cool, maybe then I’ll get some peace and quiet!” She groaned out in an annoyed voice, only shortly after going stiff, with the awkward realisation of what she just said. “Uh, I didn’t mean that. I was just doing that back and forth thing we do, r-right? Yeah.” She turned to him, hoping for that regular comic relief from him to alleviate the awkwardness.
“Right, yeah, totally… I’ll head out then.” No! Why are you genuinely upset?!
“Uh, Gojo… w-we can hang out once you’re done, I guess…” That seemed to perk him up a little, a small smile on his face.
“You don’t have to force yourself because you feel bad or anything yknow. I was kiddin around.”
“No! No, uh, I’d be fine either way, so…”
His happy face grew more genuine, and he got a skip in his step as he placed his hands together.
“In that case, I’ll see ya soon!” And with that he vanished from in front of her, and she pinched the bridge of her nose, sighing deeply.
I can’t tell if he’s a master manipulator or just emotionally stupid.
…
The first thing on Utahime’s plan for the rest of the day was shower. Hours of running around in this uniform was a serious pain, and now that she’s relaxing at the school for the rest of the day she can figuratively and literally let her hair down. She had no reason to have it done up at this point.
Well, Gojo… no! I have no reason to impress him or anything.
Anyway… she was eventually feeling clean once again, relaxing in casual clothes this time around, strolling along the garden area’s of the schools grounds. It made her wonder whether with the absurd building designs to throw off intruders, that maybe Tengen set up these gardens, perhaps he has experience in floristry…
Her phone pinging shook her from her reverie, looking down to see Shoko messaging her. The medics mission, as ever, was not a difficult one. In fact Utahime felt for her friend greatly, as she’d been requested by the higher ups to visit the Zenin family estate after a recent incident, and they needed her care. Tragic.
Shoko: Naoya is the human embodiment of hell.
Sounds about right.
She sent back a few laughing emojis and a supportive message, it’s the least she could do really. As much as Utahime disagreed with senseless violence, she wouldn’t be against that whole clan being culled.
The sorceress put her phone away and found a nice spot in the shade near the outskirts of one of the gardens, sitting down with her head rested against a tree. Going to gently close her eyes, letting the soothing sounds of nature do it’s thing-
“U-ta-hi-meeee~”
She shot up almost immediately with a strangled yelp, dropping her phone in the process.
“Gojo?! What the- Don’t sneak up on me like that! Wait, what are you even doing here?!”
The idiot just chuckled, suiting beside her at the base of the tree, to which she replied by shuffling slightly further away.
“I told ya I’d be quick didn’t I?”
“W-well yeah… but I literally only had time for a shower and a short walk, what the hell was your mission?”
He scoffed, waving his hand dismissively. He’s about to be a smug asshole isn’t he?
“Pfft, it was only one grade one curse, is there even a way for that to take any longer?” I was right.
“Ugh, forget I asked.”
Utahime closed her eyes again, going back to resting her head against the tree. She did say she’d hang out with him… and she did mean it. But, well, if you don’t want to go insane you have to deal with Gojo in small doses.
And she was content to do just that, but felt his eyes on her the whole time she sat there. Eventually forcing her to open her eyes to peek out at him.
“What? What is it?”
“Your hair.”
She raised an eyebrow, moving her hand to fiddle with her hair.
“What about it?”
“Your hair ties are gone.”
“They’re not gone, Gojo, I took them out.”
“Why?”
What? What is this line of conversation? Although, Utahime knew not to question how Gojo’s brain worked.
“I wanna just relax with the day off, it’s more comfortable for times like this.”
“Oh… will you put them back on?”
“What? What the hell are there questions Gojo?”
He raised his hands as if he was pleading his innocence, a seemingly innocent but clearly scheming smile on his face.
“I dunno! What’s the problem with the hair ties? Surely they don’t bother ya that much.”
“Gojo… what is your obsession with the hair ties, I took them off because I wanted to, isn’t that enough.”
“Yeah, sure, whatever.”
…
…
“Gojo.”
“What?”
“Just say what you want to say!”
Her sharper tone must’ve gotten to him, as he faced back ahead of him, not looking at her properly, with his hand toying with the edge of his sunglasses.
“I dunno, I just like the colour, is that criminal?”
“T-the colour…? You like the colour?” Utahime chose to face forward now too, because what the hell is going on with this man? The bashfulness, the reluctance to speak out when it’s normally all he ever does. It seemed so, genuine, as genuine as it could be for a man who lives a life filled with falsehoods.
“Yeah, the red kinda stands out with my, yknow…” he gestured vaguely at his eyes, which she assumed to mean the six eyes he possessed.
“Oh, uhm, I-I can go… get them?”
“No! No, uh, ya don’t need to go out your way or any thing, I was just saying for the sake of saying.”
Who is this man?
That’s all Utahime could ponder as she now sat in a fairly awkward silence between the two of them. And the more she thought about the implication, the more she felt a rising heat to her cheeks. It was just frustratingly… innocent. Too raw and revealing for him to be, it was kind of cute, which annoyed her the most.
“Oh, okay.” She paused again, sitting in the thick silence. “I can… wear them more often I guess. When you’re around.” She shrugged, avoiding eye contact with him.
Gojo couldn’t fight the small smile that broke out, a sort of satisfied and genuine smile, as he nodded slowly.
“Cool, yeah. No biggie or anythin.”
Utahime twiddled her thumbs in the next of the series of silences, before being a little more brave.
“Your eyes… are kinda the same. For me, like, the colour that is, and stuff… they’re vivid I guess.” She managed to mumble out, resting her cheek on her hand to cover up the much more pronounced blush now.
“Yeah?”
“Mhm.”
“I can wear the glasses less, around you, if you want.”
She bit her lip as a small smile showed on her face too, real emotions poking through.
“Yeah, cool.”
…
The pair sat in the tranquil shade of the tree for a while before Gojo was called away for another urgent task. Parting with an almost thankful goodbye, making her feel just as warm and fuzzy as she had been for the majority of recent events.
She decided to head back to her room for now, and if she had the hair ties in by the time he got back, well, that was pure coincidence.