𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐓 (𝐉𝐔𝐉𝐔𝐓𝐒𝐔 𝐊𝐀𝐈𝐒𝐄𝐍 𝐗 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐄𝐑)

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝟖.

Itadori's POV

"You know... This is like harsh bullying from people who're supposed to work with me and be my allies..." I said, holding a frame and putting my face in it. The frame I was holding was meant for a picture that you put at a funeral.

"Shut up. You stay like that for a while," Nobara said. She made me do this anyway.

I heard y/n quietly laugh. She seemed a lot happier recently... I wonder why... Wait, was it because of me?!

"He already explained. Just forgive him already," the panda said.

"It talked!" I said in surprise.

"Salmon," the other dude said.

"What did you say?" I asked.

Fushiguro explained how he was a spell caster with his words. It was kinda complicated but I managed to understand.

Then everyone started talking about battle formation and what we were gonna do.

I smiled. This felt like home to me.

"Itadori." I turned to see y/n. "Are you OK?"

"Yeah. I got quite a big role but I think I'll be able to manage," I replied.

"Something happened, right?" She said. I froze and played it off.

"Ah? Oh no, nothing happened..." Y/n gave me a glare. She saw right through the lie, huh...

"Yeah, something did," I confessed. I remembered Junpei. "I'm truly fine though. And because of that... I don't really want to lose to anyone."

"Then it's fine," Fushiguro said. "I don't really wanna lose either."

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'DON'T REALLY?!'" Nobara snapped. "WE'RE GONNA WIN FOR MAKI-SAN!!"

"Stop with that already..." Maki said.

"Well then..." I said. "Let's win."

Y/N's POV

The next thing I knew, there was one minute until the event started, and Gojo-sensei was talking into the mic.

"1 minute left! Let's hear some supporting and uplifting words from Utahime-sensei!" Gojo-sensei said into the mic.

"What?! Um... uh... It can't really be helped if some of you get injured but... just um, help each other out and -"

"Oops! Time's up!" Gojo interrupted.

"Hah?! Hey, Gojo -"

"Ready... START!!"

All of us ran together, but we planned on soon splitting up into the Panda team and Fushiguro team. We just needed to wait for the signal.

Fushiguro's dog barked, alerting us that a curse was up ahead. Sure enough, there was a bug-like curse.

Maki was about to go and exorcise it until Toudou came out of nowhere and exorcised it instead.

"YEAH!! Looks like everyone's here! Why don't you all come at me?" He yelled, but was soon kicked in the face with Itadori's knee.

The rest of us dispersed, and left Itadori to deal with Toudou, since that was the plan after all.

After we got away, something didn't seem right. It seems like I wasn't the only one who noticed.

I was with Nobara, Panda, and Inumaki. Panda concluded that the students from Kyoto were trying to kill Itadori.

As much as I wished it wasn't true, it made sense. They were all clustered and went straight to Itadori. Great...

"Nobara and I will go back to check if Yuuji's OK and safe," Panda said. "Toge and y/n, you 2 can keep hunting the curses."

Of course, Inumaki and I were about to go against this but Panda reasoned with us.

"My theory is that Kyoto is trying to assassinate Yuuji in the confusion during this team match. If the match ends, then the assassination is written off as a failure."

"Salmon," Toge said. I nodded. Panda sure was good at reasoning.

"ANSWER AFTER ONE RING FUSHIGURO!!" Nobara was getting angry as she tried calling Fushiguro.

Toge and I went on, saying bye to the others for now.

AUTHOR'S NOTE 🌨

KONBANWA!! KUGISAKI NOBARA DESU!!