The Kid I Used to Know

How To Surprise Gojo Satoru

Now, Yuji had been through a lot these past few days. There was the incident in Shibuya, finding out that he had nine brothers who were all Death Womb Paintings, two of which he had already personally helped to kill, the culling game, finding out that his classmate and friend Fushiguro was somehow now the head of the Zen'in clan, his other classmate Okkotsu killing him (though he was nice enough to at least heal him right after so he'd only really been dead for a second), but staring at a teenage version of Gojo Satoru, even ignoring the fact that Yuji was sure he could still feel the back entrance to the prison realm in his hoodie pocket, was when he finally had enough.

Figuring he was either experiencing some really weird mental break due to all the stress he'd been under, that Sukuna was somehow inducing some very detailed hallucinations, or that he'd finally just lost it, Yuji started laughing.

Fushiguro turned away from the teenage Gojo to stare at him, but Yuji couldn't seem to bring himself to care.

After a few minutes of this and with Yuji showing no signs of stopping, Gojo approached Fushiguro.

"Is he...okay?" the teenage Gojo asked him.

Seemingly snapping back into awareness, Fushiguro sighed, turning to look wearily at the teenage version of his only parental figure, "He's been under a lot of stress."

"Does that have anything to do with the very weird and rather strong cursed energy I see clinging to him?" teenage Gojo asked.

Fushiguro shrugged, "It probably doesn't help."

"Right," Gojo said hesitantly, "...any chance of getting you to explain any of this to me?"

"I honestly have no idea what's going on," Fushiguro replied with an absolutely exhausted expression.

Teenage Gojo seemed to take this into consideration. He looked over the two younger, clearly battleworn, teenagers before him, "Right then."

He approached Yuji, looking the other teenager over before gently resting a hand on top of his shoulder. He looked like he was about to say something, but Yuji abruptly stopped laughing. The other two teenagers collectively held their breath, waiting for Yuji's response.

Yuji was rapidly coming to the realization that all of this was real and actually happening. He slowly turned his head, looking down at the hand on his shoulder before following the arm up with his eyes to see the person attached to it. He met the other teenager's eyes, Gojo's widening slightly behind his sunglasses, before he dropped his hand, taking a step back.

"Are you okay?" the teenage Gojo Satoru asked Yuji.

With a nod, Yuji managed to reply, "...Yeah, I think so."

"Good," Gojo responded, giving Yuji a small smile, "Let's start with the basics then. Can you tell me your names?"

"Itadori Yuji," he said, glad to be able to answer.

"Fushiguro Megumi," his friend muttered next to him.

Gojo blanched at Fushiguro's name, "You're supposed to be like five."

Blinking, Fushiguro asked, "Am I? That would explain a few things."

Gojo and Yuji both blinked at him.

"Itadori," Fushiguro continued after a moment, noticeably growing angry, "you chose the wrong door."

Swallowing nervously, Yuji nodded in acknowledgement then tried, "I thought it was-"

Fushiguro cut him off, "I'm supposed to be five, Itadori. Do you know what that means?"

"Um," Yuji hesitated, "No?"