The Kid I Used to Know

They Should Probably Label These Doors

Yuji woke up to his body feeling like he'd been hit by a semi truck going 150 kph. That wasn't very surprising to him though. In fact, recently it'd been rather a familiar sensation. What was surprising was the fact that he woke up. He could have sworn he'd just been run through by a sword.

Jerking awake, Yuji immediately turned towards the mass of cursed energy he could feel to his right. For a moment, he and Okkotsu simply stared at each other. Yuji wondered if this was like the time Sukuna resurrected him after tearing his heart out and Okkotsu had simply been waiting to see if he was going to have to kill him again.

"Hm? I'm-" Yuji started, staring nervously at Okkotsu, "W-"

Okkotsu burst out laughing, a few tears seeming to escape out of the corner of his eyes. Yuji started wondering if this was going to be a recurring cycle until Okkotsu managed to find a way to permanently kill him.

"What a relief!" Okkotsu finally managed to get out once his laughter died down a bit.

Seeing the confusion on Yuji's face, he continued, "I think it was around September, Gojo-sensei came to see me. He asked me to watch over you, so I had to put on this act."

"Act?" Yuji repeated, trying to catch up with what was going on.

Okkotsu nodded, smiling kindly, "Instead of allowing a different executioner, or having all the information about you being hidden, I decided this work around was best. But they aren't dumb, so in order to get jujutsu headquarters to approve me as executioner, I entered a binding vow to 'kill' you."

There was a brief pause, then Okkotsu smiled again, apologicially this time, "So I killed you. Sorry about that."

Yuji had to ask, "So why am I still alive?"

"Because of reverse cursed technique," Okkotsu answered helpfully, "At the same time your heart stopped, I instantaneously healed you with reverse cursed technique. I thought it might work based on what I've heard about you."

"Yeah..." Okkotsu sighed, poking the fire between them with a stick, "This is the second time your death has been staged. Given the circumstances, they may find out soon, but for a time they'll officially consider your death sentence complete."

There was a silence as Yuji considered everything Okkotsu told him.

"Why," he asked, "are you doing all this?"

"Because you're important to people who are important to me," came Okkotsu's answer, "I too once bore a power I couldn't handle. I thought it had been forced on me, but I had invited it upon myself. But not you. The power you bear isn't your own."

Looking up from the fire, Okkotsu met Yuji's eyes, "You aren't to blame."

Yuji looked down at his hands, legs still trapped in a sleeping bag that certainly wasn't his own, "You don't understand. It isn't about whether it's my fault. But- I-"

"Itadori," a very familiar voice interrupted Yuji's fumbling, and despite himself, Yuji looked up hopefully, a warmth growing in his chest at the sound of that voice.

"Fushiguro..." Yuji breathed out, shocked to see his friend.

Fushiguro took advantage of his shock to say, "What're you doing? Let's head back to Jujutsu High."

Continuing on as though he wasn't shaking the carefully concealed emotions Yuji fought to press down, Fushiguro said, "The barrier around the school is loosening. As long as no one directly sees your face, it should be no problem for you to go back. We'll rejoin the older students and-"

"Stop!" Yuji cried out, suddenly unable to hear another word, "Don't act like everything is normal! Don't act like nothing happened!"

Okkotsu and Fushiguro rocked back, shocked by Yuji's outburst, but remained silent, seemingly ready to listen, "I killed people! Because of me, lots of people died!"