Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Yuji was covered in blood. Some his own, some from curses, and some from his friends. He actually couldn't tell if he was in pain because he was bleeding out or just because he'd been fighting for half an hour now. Anyway, it didn't matter. Because the stupid little special grade he, Megumi, and Nobara were fighting had managed to activate a cursed technique before Gojo managed to enter to check on the three of them. And this cursed technique swallowed up the whole floor and took them with it.

And now there the three of them were, falling into a massive dark pit that seemed to have no end. Yuji flailed violently, trying to find Megumi and Nobara's hands. He eventually found Nobara's wrist and Megumi's ankle, latching onto both of them and using his body as a shield for them in case they were about to land on something horrendously painful.

The three of them didn't end up falling onto some death trap, but instead plummeted right into a river that immediately swept them around like ragdolls. Yuji was usually a strong swimmer. But swimming in rapids, holding onto two other people, while being extremely fatigued was another story. His head broke through the surface and he attempted to gasp for breath, but he ended up swallowing water as he was plunged under again.

He heard a shout to his left, muffled and bubbly, but a shout of something. Immediately after, he felt something sharp hook onto his hood and drag him out of the violent torrent, pulling him onto the grassy bank. He opened his eyes and was barely able to make out a massive orange bird turning into shadows through his hazy vision. Nue. Man, Megumi’s so smart. "Tha- Thanks Megumi." He coughed out, quickly realizing how cold he now was.

He got no response other than Nobara spitting out what looked like a gallon of river water and Megumi groaning loudly. He was also suddenly aware of how much blood the three of them were staining the grass with. Their clothes were torn and injuries -both shallow and deep alike- were scattered across their bodies. The world also wasn't really growing any more clear, so he was probably going to pass out soon.

He rolled over onto his back, staring up at the bright sunlight above him, and gently pulled Nobara and Megumi closer to him for warmth. He heard a distant shout, but didn't think much of it. 

Oh? I didn't think I'd ever get the chance to see this place again. Wonder if those green idiots are still alive. 

Sukuna's comment made no sense, but it still echoed around the back of his head. He didn't have the energy to decipher his stupid cryptic messages, much less respond to them.

The shouts in the distance were growing louder and he could vaguely hear what sounded like the clanging of metal. He didn't have the time to look for the source of these sounds, as his vision was now cutting in and out, growing darker and darker. He felt Megumi and Nobara cling to him, all three of them shivering violently. "You- you guys okay?" He said, delirious and not actually hearing himself. If they did respond, Yuji didn't hear it, because after saying that his body gave out, and he let himself lose consciousness on the bloody grass beneath him.

Yuji hadn't expected to wake up to a pair of wide green eyes staring at him. Not like regular green eyes though. These were radio-freaking-active. He yelped and jumped backwards, only to trip on the thick blanket wrapped around him and knock into Megumi and Nobara. They both sat up immediately, Megumi rubbing his eyes and Nobara shaking out her hair.

"Oh! My sincerest apologies! I did not mean to startle you!" Toxic-waste-eyes told them. She looked only about thirteen or fourteen, and her massively thick green hair matched her bright eyes. "My name is Flayn, and you are currently in the audience chamber of Garreg Mach Monastery." She explained with a polite bow. 

“Flayn! I told you not to talk to them if they woke up, they could be dangerous!” An older man with darker green hair rushed out from behind a door on the side wall of the chamber.

“I know, brother, I just thought that it would be beneficial if I tried to talk to them first since I’m closer to their age.” The girl said sheepishly, backing up from them.

“We were instructed to wait for Lady Rhea, she is to talk to them and decide what to do with them.” The man scolded, pulling her further away from Megumi, Yuji, and Nobara.

“Would someone tell me where the hell we are?” Nobara snarled, her irritation nearing rage as she failed to escape the massive blanket cloaking her.

“I apologize, children. The three of you must be very scared right now.” The calmest voice by far came from a woman with light green hair and a huge gold headdress, walking to the front of the room and smiling serenely at them.

“Not a fan of the vibe between these three. We’ve got a celery stick wearing a crown, dude with a chinstrap beard, and a girl with green glow sticks for hair.” Nobara whispered to the other two.

“Nobara, be quieter, people can hear you.” Megumi hissed back, glaring at her.

“They chose to look like beanstalks, they have to deal with the consequences!”

Yuji was a little transfixed by Rhea, not for anything physical, but because he had a sudden rush of violent anger looking at her. It dissipated immediately, but it was definitely there. The weirdest part was that he couldn’t tell if it was from himself or Sukuna. It came from a place deep in his gut, like it was instinctual, but he wasn’t sure if that meant it was his instincts or some weird thing with Sukuna.

After a short introduction and explanation of where the hell they were, the three of them came to the horrifying realization that they had gone back in time. To 1180. No wonder Yaga had advised against sending the three of them on that stupid mission with that stupid special grade. 

Surprisingly enough, Flayn and the two others -who they’d realized were called Seteth and Lady Rhea- seemed to believe their explanation about curses and cursed spirits. Despite no one in this place having cursed energy, they were strangely accepting of the idea. Weirder when you consider that the place they were stuck in, Fodlan, was definitely not Japan. 

Nobara and Megumi seemed suspicious about their willingness to believe them, but Yuji decided to roll with it before they messed anything up. Rhea had mentioned this place was an academy for knights and those wishing to become them, as well as a religious center for the Church of Seiros -whatever that was- so why not just try to enroll.

Seteth had been immediately opposed to the idea, but Flayn and Rhea seemed to think it was the best course of action. Apparently, Rhea’s vote was really the only one that mattered, so they were indeed enrolled. Until they could find a way home, they were going to be allowed as students at the Officer’s Academy.

Nobara was pleased enough with the idea, but Megumi was still skeptical. Yuji doubted that would change.

Rhea, Seteth, and Flayn gave them a quick but thorough rundown of the three different houses they could be a part of, The Blue Lions, The Black Eagles, and the Golden Deer. They talked about the history of the houses, what they focused on, and the students within them. Apparently, it was highly irregular for a student to choose where they were placed, but as this was a highly irregular case, they allowed it. 

Seteth handed them a map, told them that they’d do their best to get dormitories prepared for them, told them to make their choice about houses in the morning, and sent them off on their way to explore the monastery. 

Yuji’s strange, rageful feeling didn’t return through the conversation, luckily enough. 

The map for the monastery was stupidly complicated. Or maybe Yuji and Nobara were just dumb, Megumi was having no trouble with it. It didn't really matter though, they were gonna go around and check out the houses together anyway. "So, what do you guys think off the bat?" Yuji asked as they walked to the second floor dormitories. "Any house you're drawn to?"

Nobara shrugged. "I mean, Edelgard sounds pretty badass. But I like that the Golden Deer say they accept everyone. Y’know, nobles and commoners, so everyone's more equal. Status seems pretty important here, so just based off Rhea's description, they seem chill." She said, twirling a strand of hair around her finger. 

Megumi tilted his head, humming in thought. "Maybe the Black Eagles. From their description, I just think they'd be a good fit for me as a person, and they have a focus on magic which is probably the best way for me to train Ten Shadows here." He murmured, directing them over to the classrooms.

Yuji smiled, slightly amused that they were all interested in different houses. "Huh. I thought Blue Lions immediately. They're pretty into chivalry and knighthood and stuff, and that's pretty in line with my values." He said as they walked to the dorm hall they'd been assigned. He paused, thinking to himself about this. "Hey wait, does this mean we're gonna choose different houses?" He asked, worry gripping him tightly.

Nobara shrugged. "Probably. But that's okay. It's not like we won't be able to hang out and train together." She said, "Don't get too nervous about it, Yu. It's okay if we have different classes."

Megumi rolled his eyes. "I could do with some time away from you two anyway. They stuck our dorms next to each other so who cares." He said. "But I'm gonna go to sleep now because I need it. I'm gonna go with the Black Eagles, you guys can keep talking. Just don't be loud." With that, he walked into his new room and shut the door behind him.

Nobara rolled her eyes and glanced at Yuji. "I'm going with the Golden Deer." She paused, clearly noticing his anxious expression. "You should go with the Blue Lions though. I think you'd fit in great with them. And the three of us are obviously gonna be hanging out pretty much every day, we're trying to find a way home." She said, patting his shoulder lightly. "We're gonna be fine. We're best friends, that's not gonna change." 

"Thanks, Nobara. You're the best." He said, smiling at her softly. What did he do to deserve friends as good as them?

Nobara grinned. "I know I am. Now go sleep, idiot. We got stuff to do tomorrow." She said, walking into her room and leaving Yuji in the hallway.

He watched her go, smiling to himself and entering his own room. It was mostly bare, even the bookshelf on the side wall wasn't very full. It had no carpet, unlike the other dorms, -he assumed just because they had to get him one- and the bedsheets were a faded gray. A brown desk sat on the side opposite to his bed, not too small or too big. He shrugged, sitting down on the bed. It wasn't the most comfortable thing, but it wasn't bad. 

You may think this place isn’t all that bad now, but just you wait, brat. You have no idea what’s really going on here.

Yuji paused at the sound of Sukuna’s voice in his mind, laying in bed and staring at the ceiling. How would you know anything about it?

Sukuna responded only with a dark chuckle, giving Yuji no clarification on what he meant.

Yuji rolled his eyes, curling up in bed. Jerk. He thought. Sukuna often laughed at him for his uncreative insults, mocking him for his small vocabulary. Oddly enough though, he didn’t say anything this time. It left Yuji more unsettled than it should have.

Yuji hopped out of bed the next morning earlier than he had to. He hadn’t gotten much sleep that night. He wasn’t able to shake the feeling he was being watched, even after walking through the whole room and checking every nook and cranny and window. 

He sighed, looking down at the uniform they’d assigned him. They said they were going to get him one that was fitted to him, and that -like Jujutsu High uniforms- he could customize it mostly however he liked. He, Megumi, and Nobara had all been given the spare uniforms they had, and none of them were actually a good fit. Nobara’s was too big, Megumi's and Yuji’s were too small. Yuji missed the hood on his Jujutsu Tech uniform, but he wasn’t too upset about it. Bernadetta and Ashe had hoods on their uniforms anyway, he could request for one.

He pulled the black and gold clothing on, cringing slightly at the way it hugged his chest and didn’t reach his ankles. He stared down at the jacket -the sleeves came just short of his wrists- and held back a small snicker. The buttons weren’t flying off or anything, but it was a tight fit, and Yuji wasn’t exactly used to showing his muscles as clearly as this jacket did. Though, he supposed he should probably be used to it now seeing as Sukuna took every opportunity to get shirtless.

“HEY! Yuji! Hurry up!” Nobara’s voice was clear and sharp as always as she pounded on Yuji’s door. “Me and Megumi are waiting for you, dummy!” She shouted.

“Oh! Shoot, sorry guys!” Yuji called, messing with his hair a bit before running out into the hallway.

Megumi looked like he was feeling just as unpleasant as Yuji, his uniform fitting just as badly. Nobara looked absolutely livid. She’d obviously had to roll over the top of her skirt and still put a belt on to stop the thing from falling down, and she’d cuffed her sleeves about three times. She’d also had to tuck the jacket into the top of her skirt, and her hair was looking a bit worse for wear. Like hell Yuji or Megumi were going to comment on her appearance though, neither of them were seeking an early grave.

“Let’s get going. I wanna put in a request for a new uniform. Fast.” She growled, stomping off down the hallway. Megumi and Yuji followed next to her, the three of them staying quiet as they climbed up to the third floor of the monastery.

Megumi double checked the map and pulled Yuji away from the Library -which he confidently believed to be the audience chamber- and dragged him over to the large set of double doors.

“So, we’re all choosing different houses then?” Yuji asked, still feeling nervous about this development. Nobara nodded and walked into the room without a second thought, her head held high.

Megumi looked at Yuji for a moment and nodded slowly. “It’s gonna be fine. We’re not going to be here forever anyway. I was reading some of the books stocked up in my room last night, this place has tons of cross-house activities. Don’t worry.” He said.

Yuji knew Megumi didn’t really like to smile too often, but the soft look in his usually cold blue eyes meant just as much. Yuji smiled at him, giving him a quick hug before pulling him into the audience chamber. Nobara was -unsurprisingly- talking to someone about the modifications she wanted made to her uniform when it arrived. The poor staff member was shaking slightly as he wrote down her requests, terrified of her clear wrath at the ugliness of her current outfit. Once she finished berating the man, she stormed off towards the center of the audience chamber, over to where Rhea stood waiting.

"Uh- I just need something bigger. And if you could add a hood onto this jacket, that'd be great. Thanks!" Yuji said, quickly following his friend.

Megumi barely gave the man a glance as he walked past. "Mine needs to be larger, and I'd like a turtleneck on this if possible." He said, walking over next to Yuji and Nobara.

Rhea smiled warmly at the three of them, clasping her hands together gently. "Hello, children. I hope your first night here was pleasant. Have the three of you made your decisions?" 

"I'll be going with the Golden Deer." Nobara answered confidently, brushing a stray strand of hair back behind her ear.

"The Black Eagle House." Megumi said quietly. He didn't meet the archbishop's pale green eyes, staring at the floor beneath him instead.

Yuji paused for a moment, mulling his choice over for a long while. "I think I wanna join the Blue Lions." He made sure not to let his face change as Sukuna's ominous, amused chuckle rattled around his skull. Nobody here other than him, Megumi, and Nobara were going to know about the asshole living up there. 

Rhea smiled at the three of them, dipping her head in acknowledgement. "Wonderful. I hope that your time here is enjoyable, and I pray to the goddess we can get you home. Classes are close to beginning, I advise you all to join them and begin your learning here at the monetary." She said, gesturing to the door.

The three of them left swiftly, Megumi leading them down to the classrooms. Megumi turned to look at Yuji, his eyes narrowed slightly. "Hey, Yuji?" He asked, a bit of concern on his face.

Yuji looked up from the stone he had been kicking between his feet, tilting his head. "Yeah?"

"Has Sukuna been...weird since you got here? Anything out of the ordinary for him?" He asked as they walked down a large spiraling set of stairs and into the main hall.

Yuji shrugged. "No weirder than he is all the time. He's talked a bit about this place, but he hasn't told me anything helpful. And I don't think he's ever gonna anyway." He said. "Why do you ask?"

Megumi looked away, continuing out to the courtyard. "No reason. Don't worry about it." He said, heading over to the Black Eagles classroom. "Anyway, uh- bye. I don't wanna be late on the first day." He gave a quick nod before ducking into the classroom, the massive double doors shutting behind him.

Nobara raised an eyebrow. "What's his problem?" She muttered, turning to walk to the Golden Deer room. Yuji just shrugged at her. "See you later, Yu! Don't do anything stupid!" She called, giving him a wave and slipping into the room.

Yuji stood out in the courtyard for a moment, considering Megumi's question. Sukuna, do you know what that was about? He knew he wasn't going to get a good response, but it was worth a shot. 

What goes on in the minds of people is very little concern to me. I have my guesses, but I don't want to give you hints on anything I know. Your little brain might explode if you try to take in any new knowledge anyway.

Yuji rolled his eyes as he walked over to the Blue Lions room, not replying to him. He didn't really know what he was expecting, but it wasn't a surprise he just took it as an opportunity to call him stupid. 

So, he decided to ignore him and just go into the stupid classroom. He sighed, shoving open the double doors and plastering a bright smile onto his face. He really should have planned what he was going to say because he just stood there like an idiot, smiling blankly as all of them turned to look at him.

 Dimitri was the first person to say anything, a polite smile on his face. “Did you choose the Blue Lions, Yuji?”

Yuji cleared his throat, a bit awkwardly, and nodded. "Uh- yeah! I'm really excited to be part of your class." He said. He had no idea what to do with his hands or how to stand, but he was trying. He could tell that ponytail boy was judging him. Felix was his name, right? Whatever it was, his stare was colder than Megumi's.

"Hello, Yuji was it? I'm Byleth Eisner. I'm the professor for this class. Nice to meet you." Yuji hadn't even noticed the blue haired adult in the middle of the room, but they were now in front of him, outstretching their pale hand for a shake. Yuji smiled at them brightly, reaching out to take their hand.

Don't you dare, brat.

Yuji jerked his hand back immediately, Sukuna's cold voice ringing clearly in his head. Why not?

I'll tell you when we have time, just don't shake their hand. 

...Now I'm gonna do it just to spite you. Yuji received a furious growl at this, but ignored it and took Byleth's hand.

It was a strange sensation. Suddenly being outside of your body and sitting in a black void, staring at someone who wears your face and a little green haired girl. It was terrifying for Yuji. Because for a moment after he shook Byleth's hand, he did not exist. All he could do was watch from a distance. 

"You're smaller than I imagined." Sukuna noted, looking down at the girl in front of him, disdain twisting his features.

"You'd do well to treat me with respect, demon." The girl snapped, glaring up at him as she crossed her arms. "I'm the only reason you exist. I can take you out of this mortal realm, believe me."

Sukuna stared at her for a moment, his four red eyes narrowing to slits. "You may have created this world with your own hands, but I'll be the one to rip it apart with mine." He snarled, leaning down and getting closer to her level. "You know nothing. You've been out for a long time, false Goddess." 

The girl stayed silent, her green eyes widening as she looked at him. "You're no normal demon." She murmured quietly. "What are you? Speak truthfully, I will know if you try to deceive."

Sukuna straightened back up, that sickening grin Yuji was all too familiar with spreading across his face. "The only real god."

Yuji slammed back into reality as though a train had hit him. He stumbled, immediately letting go of Byleth's hand. He looked at them, his hand shaking. "S-Sorry." He said, unable to think of anything else to say. 

Byleth shook their head, groaning under their breath. They looked back over to Yuji, apprehension in their gaze, before their face fell to a monotone rest again. "Don't worry. I just...got a headache. Please, take your seat." They instructed, averting their gaze and moving back to the front of the room.

Yuji immediately did as they asked, taking the only open seat at the back of the class, alone at his own desk. He ignored the looks from his new classmates, all of them concerned for both him and their professor. Ingrid inched away from him, looking between him and Byleth. Ashe's freckled face twisted with confusion and worry as he watched Yuji take his seat. Annette and Mercedes whispered to each other, watching Yuji as though he might blow up any second. Dedue put a hand on Dimitri's shoulder, glaring at Yuji with a face full of nothing but suspicion. Dimitri narrowed his eyes, but quickly shook himself off, returning his attention to Byleth. Sylvain leaned over to Felix, muttering in his ear with a wide grin. Felix tore his sour gaze away from Yuji, looking at Sylvain with disgust on his face.

Yuji looked down at his hands, trying to work out what had just happened. Sukuna, what the hell was that?

I told you not to shake their hand.

Answer my question, asswad. 

You get nothing from me. Consider this a punishment for your disobedience, brat.

Why can’t you be helpful just this one time?!

Why can’t you ever listen?

It took genuine effort for Yuji not to stand up and throw his table at the wall. But he ignored his boiling frustrations regarding Sukuna, trying to tune into Byleth’s lesson. Byleth…it was all so strange. Maybe the Professor’s like me and Sukuna. Some kind of little curse girl living in her brain.

Your idiocy astounds me.

Trying to focus for the rest of that class was extremely difficult with Sukuna's brooding, and that was unfortunate because Byleth was lecturing about brawling and he wanted to improve his specialty as much as possible. He wasn't too upset when the church bells rang, marking the end of morning classes, and he made a beeline for the dining hall. He immediately got lost in the reception hall.

"Hey! Idiot!" Nobara's voice was a huge relief to hear, as he'd been wandering around the corridors aimlessly for a while. She pulled him over to where Megumi waited in the dining hall, holding a place for the three of them in line for food.

"So! How was your guys' first class?" Yuji asked, grinning brightly. He debated telling them about what happened with Byleth and Sukuna, but decided against it. It would just worry them both further, and he didn't need anyone overhearing him. Even if they talked in the dorms, he still felt like he was never alone at the monastery. Besides, they wouldn't be here for long. He didn't have to say anything.

Nobara shrugged as she looked over their food options. "Fine, I guess. Golden Deer people are chill, and Professor Manuela's pretty fun. And she's also just really hot." She added the last bit as an afterthought, piling what was labeled Vegetable Pasta Salad onto her plate.

Megumi nodded. "Class was good. It was a lecture on the basics of reason magic, so I learned a lot. Apparently anyone can do that magic here, just some people are naturally better or worse than others. Hanneman's a good professor, much more organized and sane than Gojo." He explained as he got himself a bowl of Daphnel Stew. "How about you, Yuji?"

"It was pretty good! Most people in the Blue Lions are nice, and Byleth talked about brawling, so I think I picked up some good tips." He answered, excitedly grabbing Pheasant Roast with Berry Sauce for himself, enticed by the smell and look of the dish. 

"Hey! You three! Come sit with us!"

The three sorcerers looked around the dining hall for the source of the call, and Nobara pointed to Claude, who was waving to them with a wide grin. Next to him sat Hilda and Lysithea, Hilda waving them over as well, and Lysithea with her nose buried in a book.

Nobara strode over, gesturing for Megumi and Yuji to follow her. "These three are cool." She told them quietly as they walked over. "And it's not like anyone else is offering us seats."

Yuji shrugged, following her contentedly. He sits down across from Claude, glancing around the hall. He might have liked to sit by some of the Blue Lions and get to know them better, but he supposed he'll do that during afternoon classes. Megumi sat beside him, giving a curt nod before digging into his food.

"So, where are you three from?" Claude asked them, resting his chin on his hand. "Outside Fodlan, I'd assume? Lady Rhea let you pick your houses, so I'd be surprised if you were from around here."

"Oh, we're from an island east of Dagda." Nobara answered quickly. Seteth had given them cover stories that they might need in case of questions, and the geography lesson he gave was massively helpful.

"Wow! That's far!" Hilda said with a smile. "I wouldn't wanna travel that much just for school, but I guess Petra's come a long way too."

Lysithea looked up from her book, tilting her head thoughtfully at the three of them. "Past Dagda? Most of our maps don't stretch that far. Surely you have some academies back home that are able to match Garreg Mach, right?" She asked.

"It's a small island, really not much military training available at all. Garreg Mach's extremely famous, and we really wanted the best possible education. Leaving our homeland was an added bonus, none of us were particularly attached." Megumi explains, his lie seamless and believable. 

Claude hums as he pops a piece of sauteed jerky into his mouth, eyeing the three of them closely. "I'm surprised you guys were admitted. Everyone's on pretty high alert around here since Flayn's kidnapping last month. Since Professor Jeritza was involved with it, everyone's convinced there are spies in Garreg Mach now. With you three being from somewhere so far away, and joining in the middle of the year, I'm just wondering why you were all allowed in."

Yuji, Megumi, and Nobara exchanged a quick glance, confused. None of them were informed that Flayn had been kidnapped, or that there had been a betrayal regarding one of the teachers. They also had no idea what to say to Claude's queries. 

"Already interrogating the new students, Claude?"

Edelgard couldn't have come at a better time, her presence immediately shifting Claude's attention away from the three of them.

Claude flashed her a lazy smile, shrugging. "Just wanted to get to know them better, princess. After all, if I know what they're like, it'll be easier for me to rope them into schemes." He said brightly. Yuji was relatively sure he was joking, but he really didn't know.

Edelgard rolled her eyes, ignoring Claude. "Professor Hanneman would like to see you three in his office. It's probably to check if you have crests and analyze them if you do. I can walk you there if you'd like?" She offered, stepping back to give them room to leave the table.

Megumi shook his head, slipping out of his seat after Nobara. "No thanks, we'll manage. Thank you for letting us know." He said, glancing at Hubert -who stood menacingly behind her as always- with narrowed eyes.

Yuji clambered over the back of the bench, shoveling the rest of his lunch into his mouth and following his friends. "Thanks for letting us sit with you guys!" He called over his shoulder at Claude, Hilda, and Lysithea.

"No problem!" Claude said. "See you next class, Nobara."

As Megumi steered them through the reception hall to the second floor staircase, Nobara leaned over to him and Yuji, glancing around to make sure no one was close enough to hear her. "Why did Rhea let us in then? If they think there's spies in Garreg Mach, why the hell did she listen to our story about time travel? Sure it's true, but it's insane." She whispered.

Yuji thought about her question, equally confused. Why did Rhea allow them to enroll? He doubted it was from the kindness of her heart, she didn't seem like that kind of person. He could easily be wrong about that though, maybe she really is just a good person who wanted to help them.

" I know why she let us in." 

It might be the fastest Yuji has ever covered Sukuna's mouth. He can't have anyone here see him, or hear him for that matter. Every time he shows his ugly mouth, there's a chance he gets all of them kicked out. Or killed, if this place functions like Jujutsu Society.

Megumi stared at the place where Yuji’s hand sat, smushed against his cheek to muffle Sukuna’s voice. He said nothing, but his brow furrowed and his eyes narrowed with suspicion. 

“How would he know anything?” Nobara asked as she followed Megumi up the staircase. “He’s probably just messing with us. Yuji, tell us if anything weirder than usual happens with him though.” She adds.

Yuji felt slight guilt bubbling in his stomach, nervousness rising. He could tell them, but something was just telling him it was a bad idea to do so. The risk of being overheard far outweighed the reward of them knowing, at least for him. He heard a small chuckle from Sukuna rattle through his head, but he dismissed it. It wasn’t anything new for the curse to randomly laugh at the three of them, and now seemed as normal a time as any for him to.

Megumi checked the map they’d been given, turning down two more corridors before knocking on the door to one of the offices on the second floor. “Professor Hanneman?” He called softly. “We’re here to be tested for crests.”

The door swung open immediately, Hanneman excitedly pulling the three of them inside. “Ah! Wonderful! Not many people outside Fodlan have crests, but there are some rare exceptions, so it’s best to check! Who knows, maybe one of you could be a case similar to Byleth! Now, it won’t be difficult or painful or anything. Just step over to the crest analyzer and stick your forearms out one at a time.”

Megumi and Nobara both did as they were told, but nothing popped up on the small purple crest display. Hanneman hummed, scribbling down a negative for both of them. “Alright, Yuji?” He asked hopefully, doing a poor job of hiding his disappointment that Megumi and Nobara didn’t bear crests.

Yuji stuck his arm out over the analyzer, watching it with little interest. It’s not like anything was going to pop up. 

It took a few seconds before the air in front of him lit up, purple light twisting to red before disappearing as the glass in the floor shattered. Yuji jumped back, throwing his hands over his head to avoid the flying shards. “I- I’m sorry?” He said uncertainly, looking at his arm. “I have no idea what that was, honest, I didn’t mean to-”

“ Incredible !” Hanneman practically squealed, rushing over to Yuji and closely examining his arm. “I’ve never seen anything like it! It’s not a crest, but there’s certainly something running through your blood. Please allow me to run some tests, I really need to know what’s going on with you! All for the pursuit of knowledge-”

“Hey! Yuji’s not a specimen to experiment with.” Nobara said, stepping away from the corner where she’d jumped back to after the device exploded. “What kind of tests would you run?” She asked, pulling Yuji back away from him.

Hanneman held his hands up as a sign of peace, quickly backtracking. “No, no! You misunderstand, I won’t be using him as a subject for experimentation, that would be inhumane. All I’d need would be something that carries his DNA. Hair, blood, spit, whatever he’d feel comfortable giving, I could work with.” He said, looking at Yuji with pleading eyes. 

Megumi gave Yuji a side eye, shaking his head slightly.

“Um…Can I think about it?” Yuji asked nervously, still holding his arm close to his chest.

Hanneman seemed to deflate in front of him, sighing and shaking his head. “Yes, of course. Please do get back to me soon though. And if any of you have questions on crests, you may always come to me for answers.” He said, his enthusiasm rapidly disappearing.

The three of them left immediately after he told them they were free to go, and instead of heading back to the courtyard, they slipped into the first empty room they saw, The Cardinal Room.

“What the hell was that?” Nobara hissed, staring at Yuji with wide eyes. “Did Sukuna do something or-”

Yuji shrugged, staring down at himself. “I have no idea! I definitely didn’t do anything!” He said, feeling the need to defend himself.

Megumi looked at Yuji, his gaze worried and thoughtful. “He said there’s something up with your blood, so it’s probably a reaction your body is having to housing Sukuna in it that just hasn’t been a problem before. I doubt you were really built to withstand the amount of cursed energy that you have because of Sukuna, so your body’s trying to adapt to him.” He theorized, tilting his head.

“My my, are you kids getting smarter?” Sukuna asked, sneering from Yuji’s cheek. “I’d almost say I’m impressed with you all, but unfortunately, you’re deciding to trust the people here.”

Nobara glared at Sukuna, clenching her fists. “What do you mean by that? Why shouldn’t we trust the people here?” She asked. “They’ve literally been nothing but hospitable for the whole time we’ve been here.”

Sukuna let out a loud, barking laugh. “Oh is that what you think? You naive little brats. Some of them are less human than me! The ones who’ve shown you the most care here are simply beasts waiting to rip you all to shreds once you step out of line. Ohh I can’t wait to see the looks on your faces when you find out the truth about that wretched woman.” He grins widely at the three of them, his scarlet eye glinting with malice.

“What the hell are you talking about, Sukuna?” Yuji asked, trying to poke him in his stupid eye.

Sukuna retaliated by trying to bite his finger, just barely missing it. “You’ll see sooner or later. If you were intelligent creatures, I’d have more faith in you. But, unfortunately, you’re all rather dull, so I think we’ll have to wait until someone spells it out in a way you can understand.” He stuck his tongue out at them before he retreated, leaving them to sit in the heavy silence he left behind.

“He’s probably just trying to screw with us, right?” Nobara said quietly, staring at the spot on Yuji’s cheek where his mouth had just disappeared. “I mean, how would he know anything?”

Megumi let out a long sigh, looking slightly shaken by Sukuna’s words. “I’m not so sure. He was alive back in the Heian Era, and we’re in 1180 right now. It’s not a stretch to say he may have been here before. We don’t know what he was doing during his time here, maybe he got bored in Japan and came to the monastery for fun.”

Nobara tilted her head. “How are we supposed to figure any of this out? Not like his unhelpful ass is gonna tell us anything.” She said, rolling her eyes. “And telling Rhea seems like a terrible idea.”

None of them had any kind of solution to offer, so the only thing they could do when the church bells rang was leave the room and head back to class. “Meet up tonight back at the dorms. We’ll keep talking about this later.” Megumi said as they headed down the stairs.

Yuji and Nobara nodded, and the three of them headed off in their separate class directions. Yuji didn’t say anything to Sukuna as he walked, knowing he’d get nothing out of him anyway. Why bother at this point?

“Yuji! We’re in the training grounds for today’s class!” The small figure of Annette came running over to him, pulling on his arm. “You’re going the wrong way, you know.” She chided, gesturing for him to follow her.

Yuji smiled, letting her pull him along. “Thanks. I’m really not familiar with this place yet.” He said, a bit surprised by how strong she was for such a small person. 

She shrugged as she led him to the training grounds. “It’s fine. You’ll get used to it eventually. And there’s always someone who can show you around if you get too lost.” She told him, pushing open the doors to the field. 

Most of the class was already there. Felix and Sylvain were the only ones not there yet, but Byleth didn’t look bothered by it.

Just as he realized the two of them were missing, the door swung open behind him. Felix was practically dragging Sylvain in by his hair, a sour expression on his face. “Idiot.” He muttered, letting go of his friends’ hair and letting him stand back up.

Yuji tilted his head as he watched them, chuckling to himself. I wonder if that’s how Megumi and I look. He thought, remembering the time Megumi had pulled him into class by the hood of his uniform after he’d gotten distracted outside trying to get squirrels off the bird feeder.

“We’re going to be doing a casual tournament today. If you win, you earn a pass on weekly chores for this month.” Byleth said, immediately pulling everyone’s attention to them. “It’s not going to focus on any specific weapon, whatever you feel most comfortable as your attack style works for today.” They instructed, gesturing to the large rack of wooden weapons beside them. “Everyone make sure to put some padding on too, I don’t want any cracked ribs again.” 

Yuji didn’t move to the weapons rack, instead just pulling on the light armor provided -he had to watch everyone else do it first to understand how- and moved off to the side to wait for further instruction.

“Yuji, don’t you want a weapon?” Sylvain called as he grabbed a wooden lance and spun it in his hand, narrowly missing Ingrid’s head with it. She knocked his shoulder with her own lance in retaliation.

Yuji shook his head, holding up his fists. “Nah, I’m good. I’m a brawler, I just punch people. Don’t need a weapon.” He said brightly.

Byleth looked at him quizzically, furrowing their brow. “You don’t want gauntlets? That’ll put you at a severe disadvantage if you just try and fight unarmed.”

Yuji paused, looking over the small wooden gauntlet. It was less of a gauntlet and more of a stick attached to a strip of iron. It definitely would increase the power of his punches, but that might be a bad thing for a training exercise. Maybe during an actual battle he’d use them, but he didn’t want to seriously injure any of his classmates. He shook his head, cracking his knuckles. “No thanks, I’m fine without them.”

Felix scoffed, rolling his eyes. “It’ll be your fault when you lose then.” He said flatly, swinging his sword through the air to test the balance of it.

The first match for the tournament was Ashe vs Annette. It wasn’t the most interesting matchup, as both of them seemed perfectly fine with losing, but Yuji was transfixed by Annette’s magic. She was holding a little book that had the word wind scrawled across it, and that seemed to be exactly what it was. Great gusts of hardened wind that shot at her opponent right from her hand. It was really cool to see, but Yuji couldn’t help but feel like it was familiar. He brushed it off as nothing though, deciding he was just being weird about the fact that he was looking at actual magic. Anyway, Annette ended up winning the battle.

Dedue vs Felix was an interesting enough battle, as Dedue was much stronger but Felix was much quicker. Yuji could also definitely pick up on some bitterness between the two of them, as both of them swung a lot more violently than was necessary. Felix’s speed ended up proving to be enough as he managed to unbalance Dedue and pin him down.

Ingrid vs Mercedes was close, but Ingrid managed a win over her after Mercedes missed one of her fireballs. Apparently since Dimitri won the last tournament, he was immediately entered into the second round. So Yuji was up against Sylvain.

He watched the taller young man slide into a fighting position, grinning at Yuji as he did. “So, bare hands, huh? Bold.” He commented, keeping his brown eyes zeroed-in on him.

Yuji nodded, clenching his fists and shifting into his usual stance. Wide and well-rooted to the floor. He waited for a moment, deciding whether he should strike first or not. He eventually landed on just going for it and hoping for the best. That tended to be his battle strategy for most things. So he lunged forward, aiming a punch for Sylvain’s padded stomach.

Sylvain attempted to jump out of the way, but he wasn’t quick enough and Yuji’s punch landed square in the middle of his stomach. He grunted in pain, slamming his lance into the ground to stop himself from falling. He stared at Yuji with wide eyes, coughing. “Damn, man!” He said, quickly recovering and swiping at his side. “You must get a lotta girls with that kinda strength, huh?”

Nimbly, Yuji leapt out of the way of Sylvain’s swing. He dropped to the floor, aiming a kick to Sylvain’s legs. “Uh- not really.” He replied, watching the other boy barely dodge him. He knew he must be unbalanced now, so he took his chance and grabbed his arm, spinning him around and kneeing him in the back. He pinned him to the ground as gently as he could, quickly hitting his lance away before he could try a counter-attack.

Sylvain grinned at him, panting. “Well, that’s a shock. You definitely could.” He said, relaxing under Yuji’s hold and raising his hands in surrender. Yuji climbed off him and stuck his hand out to help him up. Sylvain accepted, letting Yuji pull him up and clapped him on the back. “Nice job.” He commended as he went to sit beside Ashe. 

“Thanks!” Yuji said happily, going back to his original seat. “You too!” He wasn’t a difficult opponent, but he knew Sylvain wasn’t taking the fight seriously. He wasn’t upset about the loss either, so that was good.

Felix and Annette fought next, and it was rather one-sided. Annette’s attacks probably were better suited for someone bulkier, like Dedue, or someone less physical, like Ashe. He just thought it was a bad matchup, as Felix won rather quickly. She huffed in mock anger before giggling and running over to Mercedes, plopping down next to her.

Dimitri vs Ingrid was a fun battle to watch, but it was obvious Dimitri was withholding some of his strength. Ingrid was very obviously fighting a losing battle, but she fought valiantly nonetheless. When Dimitri disarmed her, she merely smiled at him and gave a deep nod of acknowledgement before taking a seat next to Sylvain.

Yuji was in to fight Felix next, and he genuinely thought the dude was gonna cut his head off with a wood sword. Felix’s bright orange eyes were narrowed to slits, boring into Yuji and staying trained on him. He said nothing, holding his sword in one hand level to his waist. He stood there for a moment before darting forward at Yuji, swinging down at his shoulder and jabbing at his stomach.

Yuji jumped back, just barely dodging. Felix was a lot quicker than he’d been expecting, even after watching him fight. He rushed forward, noticing Felix’s wide open torso and went for a punch right at his chest. Felix grit his teeth and tried to dive to the side, but Yuji’s fist still caught his shoulder and sent him stumbling back. Yuji took his chance with no hesitation, immediately kicking out at Felix’s stomach.

Felix was clearly unfamiliar with Yuji’s style of combat, his eyes widening with shock as he saw Yuji’s foot fly out and hit him hard in the ribs. He grunted, pushing himself up before Yuji had a chance to grab him and slashing at his side.

Yuji slid to the opposite direction, avoiding the slice, but gasped in pain as he felt something hard with his leg. He looked down just in time to see Felix drawing his leg back from where he’d hit Yuji’s. It was a good feint, and it had been close to knocking Yuji over, there just wasn’t enough power backing it. He grabbed Felix’s wrist as he tried to swing down at his head and kicked his stomach, winding him. He threw himself forward, tackling Felix to the ground and keeping him there.

When Byleth announced Yuji as the winner, Felix kicked him away furiously, standing up and looking away. His face was red, and he was clearly embarrassed.

“Uh- you fought really well! You were really fast, and you’re definitely smarter with your moves and stuff.” Yuji offered, smiling in an attempt to cheer him up.

Felix scoffed, storming away from him. “You beat me. You don’t have to pity me. I just need to be better.” He snarled, sitting down and crossing his arms. 

“Aw, Fe! Don’t throw a tantrum.” Sylvain teased, poking his cheek. Felix slapped his hand away and had to be restrained by Ingrid to stop him from trying to behead the redhead.

Dimitri smiled at Yuji, walking over to him and giving a bow in greeting. “I’m very excited to fight you, Yuji. You seem like a powerful opponent.”

Yuji pulled his attention away from Felix and smiled at Dimitri, bowing back to him. “Yeah, you too!” He said, cracking his neck as he shifted his stance, opening one hand and keeping the other clenched in a fist. 

Dimitri’s lance came swinging down at him, and Yuji barely managed to jump back in time. His eyes widened, surprised at the strength behind the attack. “Holy crap! You’re really good with that!” Yuji said as he blocked another swipe and aimed a punch for his side.

Dimitri smiled at him, dodging behind his fist. “Thank you! Your strength is truly marvelous!” He said lunging forward and stabbing the lance at his stomach.

They went back and forth, exchanging blows and compliments as they went. Yuji was genuinely in awe of Dimitri, shocked by his strength and speed. Those crest things enhance people here, and Rhea mentioned that heirs have to have them. But they’re not always active, right? He’s just a normal dude without his crest activated…but he’s able to keep up with me. What’s up with these people? His thoughts got him nowhere. In fact, they distracted him enough for Dimitri to land a solid hit on the side of his head, knocking him over.

Yuji immediately recovered before Dimitri could keep him to the ground, kicking his legs out as Dimitri jumped over him. The prince flew back, slamming into the wall as Yuji leaped to his feet.

Yuji took his chance, aiming a punch at his stomach to disorient him and keep him up against the wall. Dimitri grit his teeth, throwing his lance up in front of himself in an attempt to block his punch. 

Wood splintered beneath Yuji’s fist as it crashed through the lance, slamming into Dimitri’s stomach. Yuji realized there was way too much force behind his punch when blood spilled out over his arm, flying from Dimitri’s mouth.

Yuji immediately leapt back, apologies flying from his lips. “Oh my god! I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to-“ He was cut off by Dimitri throwing the broken lance into Yuji’s chest. He kicked him in the leg, throwing him to the ground. Yuji scrambled to get up, but Dimitri managed to slam his foot down on him, pinning him there with the back half of his lance against his neck.

A bit of blood was still dripping from Dimitri’s smiling mouth. He was panting and sweat dropped down his face, but he was clearly proud of himself. "That was an amazing match, Yuji! Thank you for letting me fight you!" He said, slowly stepping off of him and reaching out a hand to help him to his feet. 

Yuji grinned back at him, taking his hand and letting Dimitri pull him up. "Yeah! You're really good! Sorry about the punch, I didn't mean to hit you that hard." He said, really hoping he didn't give him internal bleeding.

"He'll be fine." Byleth said, walking over to the two of them. "Dimitri, go see Professor Manuela and get yourself healed. Well done everyone, and congrats on your third win in a row, Dimitri." They instructed. Dimitri smiled brightly at them and dropped his broken lance, walking off to go find Manuela. Byleth turned to look at him for a moment and gave him a nod of acknowledgement. "You did well. You would have won if you didn't let your guard down."

Yuji nodded, watching Dimitri leave the training grounds. "Yeah, I just thought I really hurt him. Guess I shouldn't underestimate you guys." He murmured, stretching his arms out.

Felix rolled his eyes as he headed out of the grounds. "Idiot. Don't stop because your opponent might be hurt. Fight to win. Can't believe I was beaten by a fool like you." He muttered, walking out of the training field bitterly. 

Someone here has a brain? I'm truly shocked. 

Shut up.

***

Yuji sighed as he walked down the dorm corridor, stopping at Megumi's door and knocking on it. "It's me. Can I come in?" He asked with a yawn, a bit sore from his tournament.

The door swung open, and Yuji was dragged in by Nobara. "Okay, we gotta figure this out. Like right now." She said, sitting down on Megumi's bed and rubbing her head. Megumi sighed and turned to look at Yuji, putting down the book he was reading. Yuji plopped down on the rug next to him, crossed his legs, patting his hands against his knees.

"I was reading up on the history of the church, but I don't think anything I found is gonna help us. I've only found stuff about how the Goddess created Fodlan, the saints, relics, nothing that's actually gonna be useful." Megumi sighed, running his fingers through his spiky hair. "I have no clue what to do about Hanneman. If he finds out about Sukuna, we're probably screwed. He wasn't any less of a nuisance back in this era."

"Cowards."

All three of them groaned at the sound of Sukuna's sneer, but Yuji decided to let him talk. Maybe he'd slip up a little bit and let out something semi-useful? Unlikely, but possible. Maybe.

"If you don't have anything helpful to add to this conversation, screw off." Nobara hissed, glaring at the mouth on the side of Yuji's cheek. "Just tell us what you know about this place and shut up, would you?"

Sukuna snickered, baring his teeth at her. "Stupid girl. Why would I tell you guys anything? It's far more entertaining to see you make horrible mistakes. It's going to be so much fun to watch everything come crashing down around you." 

Yuji flicked Sukuna's mouth with a sigh. "Man, can you not be the worst for once?" He asked, staring at the ceiling. "But I can just tell Hanneman that I don't want him to do tests, right?"

Nobara shrugged. "Well, yeah, but your blood just blew up something without touching it, and he did say all you'd have to do is give him a piece of your hair. It'd be kinda weird if you just said 'nah I don't wanna know what's going on with my weird body, leave it.' I wouldn't buy it." She said.

Megumi hummed, flicking through one of his books. "Crests are super important regarding status here too. It wouldn't make much sense for us to move to Fodlan, find out one of us has some crazy crest-like thing, and then decide to just stay commoners with nothing going for us." He sighed. 

Yuji sighed, laying on the carpet on his back. “So what do we do then?” He asked, looking at the ceiling. "Do you think I could just like...ignore him? Hanneman, I mean. Maybe he'll forget?"

"Doubt it." Megumi said. "I'll keep researching, but for now I think ignoring him might honestly be our best option." He sighed, rubbing his forehead. 

Nobara tapped her foot on the ground and glanced around. "...Hey, off-topic, but have you guys gotten the feeling that we're being watched? I swear, it's like everywhere I go in this place it feels like there's eyes on me." She said, folding her arms on top of one another.

Yuji looked up immediately, nodding at her. "Yeah. I've felt like that since we got here. It's almost like there's people looking at us through the walls or something. I don't feel like I'm alone."

You're never really alone, brat. You know that by now, don't you?

He didn't pay Sukuna any mind this time. He didn't need that whole spiel about how they were connected. Not again.

Megumi nodded silently, pulling his knees into his chest. "It's strange here. I don't like it. We've really got to find a way back home, I don't know how much longer we'll be able to hide out here." He looked out the window of his dorm and stood up. "We should probably get to bed. Everyone wakes up earlier than Gojo here."

Nobara stood up, looking around uncomfortably. "Yeah...You're right." She said, moving to leave the dorm room.

"Megumi, can I sleep in your dorm tonight? If not, that's fine. I really don't mind." Yuji asked, looking over at his friend hopefully. He felt like a child. He felt so stupid and pathetic for even asking. But he just didn't want to be alone that night.

Megumi looked at him for a moment before nodding his head. "Um- yeah, I don't care." He said. "Nobara, you wanna stay too?" He asked, turning to her.

Nobara looked at both of them, considering her options. "...Yes. But when we get back home, you can't tell anybody . Especially not Maki." She warned, shuffling back over to the two of them. Yuji smiled at her, yawning and stretching his arms out. 

The three of them took off their jackets, shoes, and socks in silence. Yuji went to lay down on the floor, but was given a quizzical look from Nobara. "Are you stupid?" She asked him, a hand on her hip. "An unplanned sleepover means you get to sleep in the bed. Right, Megumi?" She turned to the black haired boy who shrugged and nodded in response.

Yuji furrowed his brow and tilted his head. "I didn't realize friends could sleep in the same bed, honestly."

Nobara scoffed, rolling her eyes and grabbing his arm to yank him to his feet. “It’s only weird if you decide it is.” She said as she let go of him and slipped under the blankets of the bed. Yuji grinned, jumping next to her with a yawn and making sure there was enough room for Megumi to be comfortable as well.

It was nice to not be stuck with just his thoughts and Sukuna when he was trying to go to sleep. He felt safer next to the two of them, like whatever was trying to get to them wouldn't be able to. It felt nice. The world felt cold most of the time, but Megumi and Nobara gave him warmth.

***

Over the next week, the three of them continued on with relatively the same schedule. Sit through classes, eat lunch together or with some other classmates, and then meet up at the end of the day to discuss ways to get home. 

Yuji was starting to really like his classmates. He thought Annette and Mercedes were really nice, and Dimitri was awesome. The people outside his class were cool too, Hilda was so much fun, and they matched with hair!

His favorite person he knew at the academy, though, was probably Petra. He often saw her when he was in the library with Megumi and Nobara, and she was always extremely sweet. She'd help him find any books he was looking for, and if she was having trouble reading, he'd do his best to help her out. He wasn't great with his English, but she appreciated the help nonetheless.

However, as he sat next to her, flipping through a history book, he saw something that caught his eyes. "Hey, what's the Battle of Eagle and Lion? It says it's a tradition that happens at the end of this month. Think I've heard about it in passing, but I don't actually know what it is." 

Petra looked up from her book on English, surprise on her face. "Hm? Were they not telling you when you arrived? The Battle of Eagle and Lion is a big mock battle that the Monastery be having each year at the end of the Moon of the Wyvern." She explained, tilting her head. "The three houses will fight each other at Gronder Field, and after, they throw a great feast for all. It has much strangeness in its food, but it is nice to be around friends!" 

Yuji glanced over at Megumi and Nobara, both of whom were on the other side of the library searching for any helpful books. He assumed neither of them had known anything about this, but it seemed like it was a good battle for their first one here. More of a training exercise than an actual fight to the death. "Well! I wish you and the Black Eagles good luck then!" He told her brightly.

Petra smiled at him and nodded. "Yes, yes, I’m hoping the Blue Lions have much success in our coming battle!" She said, standing up and taking her book. "I must be going now, Yuji. Edelgard and I are having training soon, it was lovely to be seeing you." She said, walking away and waving to him.

"Bye, Petra! See you later!" Yuji called, waving to her as she left the room. He stood up, walking over to his friends and glancing back down at his book. “Did you guys know about this Battle of Eagle and Lion thing? It’s happening in a few days.” 

Megumi nodded absently, nose still buried in a book. “Oh yeah. People in the Black Eagles won’t shut up about it. Thought all the houses were constantly chattering about it.”

Nobara shrugged. “Yeah, heard about it like a day ago from Lysithea. She said the Golden Deer hadn’t won in a couple years, so she told me to step up my game.” She pulled a book off the shelf, rolled her eyes, and slipped it back into its line. “This damn library isn’t helping anything.” She snarled.

Megumi sighed, looking down at the book in his hands and setting it back onto a stack on one of the tables. “I know. We need some other source of information. Maybe I’ll find Seteth and ask him about anywhere else we might be able to look. He’s been helpful this whole time.” 

Yuji nodded, sitting on one of the tables with a yawn. “So, how’s your guys’ classes going?” He asked. “Because I’m getting a lot better with my hand to hand, and I’m getting pretty good with swords and axes too. Apparently Professor Byleth wants me to be a War Master. Dunno what that really means, but sounds cool!”

Megumi tilted his head, sifting through the piles of books the three of them had left on the table. “Here, read this. It’s about all the different kinds of knights a person can become, a War Master’s a pretty advanced one I think.” He said, handing Yuji a book titled Academy Basics, which Yuji gladly took. “But the classes are going well for me. I’m doing a lot of different things right now, but I’m staying pretty focused on reason magic since it’s so similar to cursed energy.”

“Same here.” Nobara said, looking at Megumi. “Reason and axes for me. Manuela said my hammer and nails aren’t going to pack enough punch on the battlefield. I’m still carrying them with me in case stuff gets out of hand though.” She added. “I am getting better with brawling though, Raphael’s crazy good with that.”

Yuji nodded, flipping through the book Megumi gave him with interest. He really hated studying, but he supposed this wasn’t really studying, but rather just something that was necessary in understanding the place they were stuck in. “Think this Battle of Eagle and Lion is anything like the Exchange Event back home?” He mused.

Nobara rolled her eyes. “I hope not. It sucked other than baseball.” 

Yuji shrugged. “I liked it. I mean, the special grade sucked to deal with, but also I kicked ass. And I met Todo, so-”

“Meeting Todo was a negative.” Megumi interjected.

As the days dragged by, none of them found anything more useful in the monastery library, even after reading nearly every book in the place. Most of it was just crazy religious junk, as Nobara called it. The excitement about the coming mock battle continued to buzz through the students at Garreg Mach though, and Yuji couldn’t help but feel a bit hyped for it all too. So, when the battle rolled around, he was just as excited as the rest of the students there.

He wasn’t able to meet up with Megumi and Nobara again after breakfast that day, as Professor Byleth dragged him away to the rest of the Blue Lions. He was told they were running last minute certification tests before the battle, and he watched as Dimitri practiced swordsmanship with Felix to prepare for his Lord test. 

“Yuji, you’re testing to be a brawler.” Byleth told him as they talked to Ingrid about her newly obtained Pegasus Knight certification. They gave him little instruction besides pointing to an empty classroom and handing him a test paper that they said they’d grade. They did say they had no doubt about him passing, and they turned out to be right because it was 100% the easiest test Yuji had ever taken in his life. He thought the outfit for a brawler was absolutely ridiculous though. And uncomfortable. But it worked for fighting. Kinda. 

Dimitri ended up passing his Lord certification -after a failed attempt last week- and was extremely happy about it. Felix seemed convinced it was a fluke as he said Dimitri’s sword skills were subpar, but was convinced to shut up by Sylvain. 

If that’s subpar, what the hell does exceptional look like? Yuji thought, watching Dimitri slip a sword into a sheath on his belt. He moved on to the lance rack, selecting a steel lance that he put on his back and a spear, spinning it between his fingers.

Yuji realized Byleth probably wouldn’t let him go into this fight unarmed, so he took a pair of iron gauntlets off one of the racks, testing out the grip and feel. Again, really just a bent strip of iron with some metal claws attached to it, but they’d definitely be useful. He eyed the steel gauntlets for a moment, but decided he didn’t want to accidentally murder anyone. 

“Okay, everyone. Unfortunately we have the spot behind the river at the bottom of Gronder Field, so we’re fighting at probably the most difficult location since this battle isn’t about defense.” Byleth  said loudly, snapping their fingers to get everyone’s attention. “Felix, Yuji, you two are going to get Ashe to the ballista at the center of the field on the hill. Seize the hill and get rid of anyone there.” They ordered, tossing Yuji two bottles of blue liquid. 

He examined the bottles closely, both of them labeled Vulnery. He remembered Petra was talking to him about how different Vulneries are from the healing and medicine they had back in Brigid. He shrugged, clipping them onto his belt, and turned to Felix. “So! You got anything planned? Because I’ll go along with anything, I don’t care.”

Felix merely scoffed at him and shook his head. “Don’t faint out there and you’re fine. You stick with Ashe the whole time, make sure he gets to the ballista. I’ll push ahead and take people out on the hill.” He said flatly, walking over towards Byleth.

“Grumpy.” Yuji muttered to himself.

“Felix isn’t that bad. You get used to it.” Ashe told him, walking to the front of the group and gesturing for Yuji to follow. “He’s really strong on the battlefield, just don’t try to help him out unless he’s really in trouble. He does a lot better when he’s fighting alone.” He explained.

“Sylvain, Annette, and Dedue, you three are going to go right and attack the Golden Deer. Be careful of arrow fire. Once you take out most of their soldiers, pull back and regroup. Hilda, Lysithea, and Claude are going to be hard to deal with, so just make sure you have a plan before trying to brute force anything.” Byleth instructed, and the three of them nodded, breaking off into their own section to discuss.

“As for the Black Eagles, Dimitri, Ingrid, and Mercedes are on them. Mercedes, stick by Ingrid so you’re able to heal her. Originally, I was going to be fighting with you all, but I decided not to. It’s not fair to the other students, but you’ll all be fine. Don’t worry.” This was met with anxious and disappointed looks, but nobody protested. “Also, if you get injured and Vulneries aren’t helping, don’t try to push through. This is a mock battle and I don’t want anyone getting seriously hurt.” They paused to take a look at everyone, eyes narrowing. “That said, I don’t want anyone leaving that field if they don’t have to. No pain, no game, suck it up.”

Yuji tilted his head, a little confused by the conflicting messages they’d just given. I guess people take this battle pretty seriously here. He thought to himself. Really is like the exchange event…Man, I hope no one tries to shoot me here. A stupid hope, really, considering how many archers were going out on the field.

“Get out there already! I’ll be watching from the hill, don’t do anything stupid.” Byleth ordered, pointing to where the other classes were heading out to the field, and immediately all of them ran off to join them. 

Yuji followed next to Ashe and a very sour-looking Felix. Ashe, once again, insisted that’s just how he always looks. He glanced around, a little surprised to see all the soldiers that had come out to participate in the battle with them. It felt less and less like a mock battle that he was going into every second.

It took longer than he expected to get to Gronder Field, but he assumed they just wanted to keep everything far enough away from the monastery so there wouldn’t be any damages sustained. He thought the field itself was perfect for a battle like this though. A stronghold in the center with a ballista and three obvious spots to set up an army. “Why do the Black Eagles get to start at the ballista? That’s not fair.” Yuji asked, running over to Dimitri.

Dimitri looked back at him with a slightly amused smile. “Well, neither is war. Edelgard got lucky and her house was allowed to begin at the hill this year. It’s simply supposed to prepare the houses for fighting in disadvantageous conditions. Or get them to use and keep their advantages, in Edelgard’s case.” He explained. 

Yuji huffed, moving back over to Ashe and Felix, rolling his eyes. “I still think they shoulda left the ballista unoccupied.” He muttered, adjusting his grip on his gauntlets. He ran over the combat arts Byleth had taught him in his mind, remembering the exact form they told him to use for them. Fading Blow, Rushing Blow, and Bombard. At least, he thinks that’s what they called him. He can’t remember the names, but he does know what they’re supposed to do.

As he gets into position in front of Ashe, he glances around, trying to spot Megumi or Nobara across the field. He remembered Nobara groaning a few days ago about how ugly her mage outfit was, but he couldn't find her among the crowd. And trying to spot Megumi was pretty much impossible, he and Hubert looked exactly the same from that far away.

“You all should know, I’m not about to go easy on you today.”

Dimitri’s shout pulled him away from his thoughts, and he quickly shifted around to prepare himself to take off running.

“As long as we can pull off the win, doesn’t matter how.”

“Our victory must be absolute. No matter what it may take.”

“It is time!”

Yuji thought Seteth’s shout was enough to start charging, but Felix’s arm stopped him from rushing forward like an idiot. The other boy glared at him, rolling his eyes and looking back at Dimitri.

The blonde boy narrowed his eyes and didn’t waste another second. “FOR HONOR!” Apparently, that was enough of a command, because everyone around him started running. He rushed forward, running to the hill without another thought in his head. He lunged at the armored knight at the bottom of the steps up, cracking the white and red chestplate as his gauntlets smashed into the person. He jumped again while they were stunned, following up with another hit to the stomach this time. He jumped back from a swing of their axe and hit them hard in the side of the head. The knight stumbled back, falling over onto the ground before staggering back up and off to the medic at the side of the field. 

Yuji grinned, gesturing for Ashe to come forward. “Got them! Felix should be done with the other guys around the sides by now.” He called, running up the stairs and skidding to a halt in front of the ballista, which Bernadetta had been aiming at Ingrid. The girl screamed when she saw him approach and nearly fell away from the launcher, barely managing to stay on. “Stay back!” She shouted, turning to aim the launcher at him. 

“Okay! Okay, you got it.” Yuji said quickly, taking a few steps back. “I wasn’t gonna attack you anyway.” 

Felix ran up behind the girl and clocked her, hard, in the side of the head with the hilt of his sword. She gasped in pain before she fell over, unconscious, on the wood floor. Ashe quickly moved around her sleeping form and loaded up the ballista again, turning to aim it at the approaching Black Eagles pegasus knights.

“I’ll take the left side of the hill, you keep anybody else off the stairs!” Felix barked at Yuji, rushing off to fight several Golden Deer attackers at the same time. Yuji chuckled a little, thinking they were a bit too similar in that regard. 

He turned to the north side of the hill, where he saw Petra approaching. “Hey, Petra!” He called happily as he ran towards her. He paused, realizing that she was trying to recapture the ballista for her own house. Duh, Yuji. He watched as she ran towards him, holding a steel sword in one hand. 

She tilted her head and gave him a slightly confused smile. “Hello, Yuji. If you do not move, I will have to be fighting you.” 

Yuji shrugged, putting up his fists. “I’m down to fight.” He told her, grinning brightly. She gave him another smile, this one more amused, and dashed towards him. He slid to the side of a strike aimed at his shoulder and ducked beneath one aimed to the side of his head. His counterattack proved completely ineffective, as the girl dodged him with relative ease. Wow, she's quick. I think she mentioned something about how her speed’s her main weapon in a fight. Crap. 

Her sword ended up catching his arm on her next swing, slicing his skin just enough for a thin line of blood to trickle out. “Nice one!” He complimented her, shifting back and crouching down. He hit his knuckles together, thinking of rushing blow? Was it? The name didn’t matter, because he was already lunging for her, slamming his gauntlets into her chest. He landed on the grass behind her, and turned back around in case she pulled through, but she hadn’t. She let out a gasp of pain and quickly dragged herself away to the mage on standby waiting to warp anyone off to the medic. “Sorry!” He called, wincing as he watched a bit of her blood stain the field. 

“Don’t apologize to her, you dimwit!” Felix shouted as he knocked someone off their horse. “Get back to Ashe, guard him!” Watching him dart around and take people out like it was nothing was honestly really cool, but he didn’t want to be on the receiving end of that sword by sitting around like a moron and not doing anything. 

I like that kid, at least he knows what’s important in life.

Oh of course you like him.

He ran back to Ashe and took a look around the hill, making sure nobody else was approaching the ballista. The ballista that was…turning purple and black? Oh. Oh that’s what that Banshee spell looks like! “Shit!” He dove forward, trying to grab Ashe and drag him away from the spell, but the archer was still hurt by its swirling tendrils. “You okay?” Yuji asked nervously, handing him a vulnery. Ashe nodded and looked around, pointing to a grinning Hubert a few feet away from the stairs.

He helped Ashe back to the ballista and started to make his way over to Hubert, eyes narrowed on the small wooden staff in his hands. His path was cut off by a large ball of magic sludge getting hurled at him from the side. He jumped away from it, turning to find the source of the attack. “Totally rude, Megs!” He said, scoffing and shaking his head at his spiky-haired friend.

“Sorry.” Megumi said with a shrug, looking a little bored with everything going on. “Also I told you to stop calling me that.”

Yuji let out an indignant huff and decided to attack Hubert first. He was the dude with the staff, and also was more likely to actually murder someone than Megumi. And that creepy little smirk on his face was freaking Yuji out, he wanted him off the field. 

Hubert, clearly not expecting such a bold attack, didn’t have much of a defense to put up against Yuji’s two punches. Yuji, admittedly, hit him harder than he’d intended to, so it made sense that he pulled back and was warped off immediately after. Megumi watched Hubert stagger away and turned back to Yuji with a sigh. “I see you’ve gotten a little cleaner with your attacks.” He complimented.

Both of their attentions were pulled away as Ashe let out a loud shriek, clutching his chest and falling over to the ground. “WOOO! I am loving this thing!” Nobara ran over to the collapsed boy, grabbing the short axe that she’d thrown at him. “Hey guys!” 

Yuji gaped at her, his eyes flicking between her and Ashe’s panting figure on the floor. “Shoot! Ashe, you good?” He asked, a little panicked as he tried to help the boy up. “Uh- take a vulnery, I guess? Gimme a sec, I’ll take care of them!” He assured the boy lying there, tossing him one of the vulneries on his belt and looking between Nobara and Megumi. 

“Nobaraaaa! Everything alright over here?” A cheerful voice called from behind the girl. Two bright pink pigtails were clearly visible, and so was a massive steel axe. 

Shoot. Professor said that girl’s crazy tough. Yuji thought, taking a small step back. Obviously, Megumi had the same thought as he jumped back and held up a tome.

Nobara turned to grin at her classmate, holding her short axe out in front of her threateningly in case Megumi or Yuji tried anything. “All good! You keep cleaning up over there!” She shouted back, and Hilda gave her a thumbs up in response before turning around and absolutely decimating a mounted knight in one strike. 

Another large glob of sludge came shooting at Yuji’s face from Megumi’s palm, and he barely ducked under it. Nobara had jumped out of the way of another projectile from him, and threw her axe in retaliation. Megumi grunted in pain as it slammed into his shoulder, pulling back out of her range. Yuji glanced between the two of them, deciding if he left either of them to attack the other, they’d injure Ashe enough to take him out of the fight. So, he stood in front of Ashe, his eyes flicking between his best friends as he waited for someone to make a move. 

Someone did make a move, but it wasn’t the three of them. A flash of bright blue from behind Megumi told Yuji enough, and he lunged for Nobara, punching her hard in the stomach. Nobara let out a grunt of pain and sliced her axe along his arms, blood spraying across the wood floor of the hill. Yuji grit his teeth and clutched at his arm, wiping the blood away, and kicked the inside of her leg, throwing her to the ground. Nobara glared at him, managing to give him another slash across his leg before he kicked the side of her head and knocked her out. 

“Thanks for the support, Dimitri!” He called as he watched Dimitri throw Megumi off the field. He winced a little as Megumi tumbled across the grass and crawled over to the medic. When he looked back at Nobara, she was already being warped off by a Gremory on standby.

Dimitri smiled at him and gave a bright thumbs up before running back towards the other Black Eagles soldiers. 

Yuji moved over to Ashe, pulling him back up and helping him get a hold of the ballista again. When Ashe assured him he was okay, he took a couple steps back and ran around the perimeter of the hill to make sure they didn’t get surprised again. He knew Ashe wouldn’t be able to take another hit, so he decided to run back to him and stay there.

“Yuji! Sylvain needs help with the Golden Deer soldiers, Annette’s down. I’m going, you’re the only one protecting the hill now. Don’t fuck this up.” Felix’s sharp shout dragged his focus away, and he wasn’t even able to give a sign of affirmation before the other boy had rushed off, tearing his way through the battlefield towards the large black horse Sylvain sat upon. 

Yuji took another look around Gronder Field, grinning widely as he realized nobody was even near the hill. Most of the trouble for their house was coming on the Golden Deer’s side, but now that Sylvain and Felix were both fighting, they were having little difficulty. On the other hand, Mercedes was keeping Dimitri and Ingrid healed, the prince locked in combat with Edelgard and Ingrid flying towards Lindhardt to stop him from helping her recover.

Not long after realizing their imminent victory, a shout echoed around the valley. “That is the end of this year’s Battle of The Eagle and Lion! And the winners are…The Blue Lion House!”

Yuji whirled around, wrapping his arms around Ashe and lifting him off the ground in a bear hug. “We won!” He shouted excitedly, both of them joining in on the cheers of delight echoing around the field. Dimitri was shouting something about their victory, but he didn’t hear it from his spot on the hill. He barely heard Sukuna’s loud sigh of boredom. He still did, unfortunately.

Professor Manuela’s healing was quick, and while it wasn’t quite as effective as Ieri’s reverse cursed technique, it was so much more comfortable. When he was healed by Ieri, he could feel his skin stitching itself back together, or his bones fusing once again to repair a fracture. It was a very unsettling feeling, but white magic was nice enough. He just felt a warm feeling where the injury was healing and then it was mostly good! Manuela had told him to take it easy with the arm Nobara had slashed him on, but other than that, he was good to go.

“Excuse me, Yuji?” Petra had been watching him get healed from the other side of the infirmary for a few minutes, and was now making her way over. He felt a small twinge of guilt as he saw the bandage wrapped around her chest, a bit of dried blood visible through it. “I just thought you should be knowing that your performance today in the battle was amazing. You’re extremely strong.” She complimented, giving a respectful dip of her head.

Yuji quickly returned her nod, smiling at her brightly. “Thanks! You’re so fast, it was crazy! Sorry about punching you in the chest, I didn’t mean to hurt you that bad, I just-” He started to say, standing up off the bed he’d been given when Petra held up her hand to signal his stop.

“No apologies from you. You did well and I am glad to have fought you. Would you like to be going to the feast with me? I believe the rest of your house is there already.” She cut him off and offered her hand, smiling politely,

Yuji grinned at her, taking her hand and walking out of the infirmary. “Cool!” He said brightly as they walked. “Hey, if you don’t mind me asking, what’s that mark under your eye about?” 

Petra smiled at him, looking pleased that he asked. “This is a mark from Brigid, a prayer to the forest spirits for protection. Hunters ask the spirits to give them safe and bountiful results.Forest spirits are one of the many kinds of spirits in Brigid. I have more marks on my arms and back, praying for protection and health to my family. Would you be wanting to see them some time?” 

Yuji couldn’t help but feel a bit awkward when she asked him if he’d like to see them. “Um- sure, yeah. I mean, if you’re comfortable with it.” He said nervously, wondering why his face felt hot all of a sudden.

Petra’s smile widened, her face brightening. “That brings me much happiness! But, it will have to be another time. I’ve got to be meeting with the other Black Eagles, go celebrate with your house. Goodbye.” She said, giving another dip of her head and running off to her house.

“See ya!” Yuji called after her, waving. He watched her leave for a few moments before turning and heading over to the Blue Lions. 

He was met with cheers and bright greetings when he reached the table that they were all gathered around, and was immediately bombarded with more food than he knew what to do with. While Ingrid stuffed her face with every bit of steak on the table, Annette gave him a tour of every dish available -putting extra emphasis on the ones that Mercedes had baked- and Sylvain attempted to coax Felix into complimenting him on his performance in the battle. 

“You did exceptionally well out there today, Yuji. For your first time working with us, it was really amazing. I see a bright future here with us in the Blue Lions.” Dimitri said to him, giving him a clap on the back that felt almost bone shattering. 

“Thanks! It was great getting to fight with you guys too.” He said, grinning. 

“You all performed well.” Byleth’s voice was clear and calm as always as they walked over to the table. They took their seat next to Dimitri, a small smile on their face. “I’m proud of you all.”

Yuji couldn’t focus on their words. All he noticed was how they refused to meet his eyes.

After the feast, Yuji immediately returned to his dorm, excited to talk to Megumi and Nobara about the day. When they arrived at his room, Nobara was looking brighter than he’d seen her in weeks. Odd, considering she didn’t usually take losing very well. But he was a little too concerned about Megumi’s grim expression to ask about it.

“Hanneman asked me about you six times today. We need another way to deal with this.” Megumi said, sitting at Yuji’s desk and crossing his arms.

“He asked me twice too, and I barely even see him. Has he asked you to give him an answer yet?” Nobara said, looking a little distracted for some reason. 

Yuji shook his head, thinking of a few times the professor had tried to come up to him. “I’m pretty good at avoiding him. Have you found out anything new about this place yet, Megs?” He asked.

Megumi glared at the nickname, but didn’t comment. “No. I’ve looked at most of the library by now, I think they’ve taken some off the shelves. This is both a church and a military training camp. It wouldn’t surprise me if they had censored or banned some books. I’ll ask Seteth if there’s any way I can read the ones they’ve gotten rid of, he doesn’t really have a reason to say no since we’re not gonna be staying here anyway.”

“Well what are we supposed to do about Hanne-”

Nobara’s question was cut off by a knock at their door and a sharp, deep voice following it. “Go back to your own dorms, get some rest. There’s a noise curfew after every mission so everyone can get sleep.” Byleth’s tone allowed no room for protests, so the three of them were forced to table the discussion. 

“See you guys tomorrow then, I guess.” Yuji said as Megumi and Nobara headed to the door. 

“Yeah. I’ll be getting an early start tomorrow to ask Seteth, you two don’t have to come with me though. It’s just gonna be a lot of boring reading about church history.” Megumi said with a nod, walking out to his own dorm.

“Pass. If it’s history, I’m out. G’night, Yu! And tell Sukuna I said to rip his skin off and die!” Nobara gave Yuji a light punch in the shoulder and strode out to her room, humming happily to herself.

Humming? What’s up with her?

Sukuna was still grumbling about her comment telling him to kill himself, so he probably wasn’t gonna be too much trouble that night. Yuji sighed contentedly, pulling on his nightshirt and climbing into bed, smiling as he looked at the ceiling. I think I’ll like it here. He thought to himself, closing his eyes and rolling over a bit.

Sukuna chuckled, watching his view of the outside world go black as the boy closed his eyes. “Think you’ll like it here, do you? Naive little brat. I, and everything in this time, will make your life true hell. I can promise you that.”

Chapter Text

Megumi looked down at the new uniform they’d left on his bed while he was at his morning class and let out a long sigh of relief. The tiny ass uniform they’d given him on his first day here was not working, and he knew Nobara was about to blow someone up for making her live in the huge one she’d gotten.

He took a moment to look it over, pleased that he’d gotten the turtleneck he’d requested, and quickly changed into it. It was nice to finally have something to wear that didn’t feel like it was going to suffocate him. 

While adjusting the sleeves, he glanced down the hall of dormitories around him and started heading off to the corridor leading to the audience chamber. He had most of the monastery’s layout memorized by now, and had given the map to Yuji to study. The boy was miserable with directions, so he didn’t expect much.

Anyway, he’d spent much of the previous night trying to figure out how to ask Seteth about possibly banned books and had gotten nowhere. So, as he entered the audience chamber and turned towards the advisor’s office, he decided to just go with whatever popped into his head and hope it works.

“Excuse me, Seteth? Can I ask you something?” Megumi asked, walking into the open room and looking at the green haired man sitting at his desk.

Seteth looked up, narrowing his eyes for a moment, and nodded curtly. “Yes. Of course, go ahead.”

Megumi walked over to the desk, glancing behind himself to make sure no one was going to overhear them. “I’ve been looking at all the books in the library to see if there’s anything that might help me, Yuji, and Nobara get back home and I can’t help but wonder if, maybe, some books were taken off the shelves? This is a church and a military training camp, I’d find it hard to believe if everything here’s out on surface level.” He paused as he watched Seteth’s gaze somehow harden further. “I thought since I’m hopefully not going to be here for very long, you might be okay letting me see those books?”

Seteth tapped his foot on the ground and dropped the large stack of papers he was holding back onto his desk. “What you ask is a rather tall order, Megumi. I’d have to check with Lady Rhea first, and I doubt she’ll want you looking at what the two of us put away.” 

“Do you want us here longer?” Megumi prompted, crossing his arms.

Seteth looked at him for a long moment, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “Fine. But you must be discreet. In the alley right next to Professor Byleth’s quarters, you’ll find a merchant. Talk to him and he’ll guide you to the city beneath the monastery. Abyss. Be careful down there. Find the library and look at whatever you want. But you must swear upon the goddess to keep what you find between yourself, Yuji, and Nobara.” 

Megumi nodded, a little surprised he got him to agree so fast. “Yeah. Deal. I swear. Thanks.” He said, and immediately left before the man changed his mind.

These people are weird. He thought to himself as he left the chamber, heading quickly down the stairs towards the first floor dormitories. 

“Yo! Megumi! How’d the chat with Seteth go?” Nobara was running over to him, waving goodbye to Hilda as she walked to class. 

Megumi glanced over at her, slowing down a little so she could catch up. “Good. I’ve gotta go check something out. I won’t be at lunch today, probably not classes either. I’ll find you and Yuji once I’m done.” He told her quickly as they arrived on the first floor. 

Nobara gave him a quick thumbs up and dashed off after Hilda. “See you later, Megs!” She called with a grin.

Damnit, Yuji. She’s saying it too now. He thought, huffing and walking over to the alley Seteth was talking about. 

Indeed, there stood a rather shifty-looking merchant in the shadows, looking at the floor carefully. The man paused, looking over at him and raising an eyebrow. “You need something, kid?” He asked, putting a hand on his hip.

Megumi nodded, stepping closer and crossing his arms. “Take me down to Abyss.” He said firmly, coming to a halt in front of him.

“Hm? Ten gold, and I’ll take you down.” The man told him, outstretching a hand calmly.

Megumi sighed, digging around in his pockets for a bit of the money the church had supplied him with. Without a word, he dropped ten gold coins into the man’s open palm, which he inspected for a moment before giving a nod and crouching onto the floor. He tapped around for a moment, looking from side to side, and pulled a trapdoor out of the floor from seemingly nowhere. “Follow me, boy. What you do down there’s none of my business, but I’d recommend not pissing the wolves off.” 

“The wolves?” Megumi asked, following him down a disgusting stairwell leading into a large hallway.

The merchant shrugged, turning around as they reached the end of the staircase. “You’ll see. Come up whenever you want. Not my problem if you never do though.” He said dismissively, walking back up the stairs and shutting the trapdoor as he exited the dark place.

Megumi took a look around, squinting as his eyes tried to adjust to the dark lighting.

“Hey, pal! Mind telling me what you’re doing down here?”

When Megumi turned around to see where the gruff voice was coming from, he was immediately sent into a fight or flight reaction because the tall ass man in front of him with his shirt open gave off Todo vibes that were way too strong to be considered safe. He took several instinctive steps back, already feeling irritation seep into him. “My name is Megumi Fushiguro. I’m from the Officers Academy, I have permission from Seteth to be here. I’m only trying to look at the Abyss library.” He told the man swiftly, wanting to get away from him as fast as possible. 

He wasn’t quite sure what about him reminded him so much of Todo, perhaps that they were both more bearish looking than Panda, but he wanted whatever quality it was to be eradicated immediately.

The man tilts his head and grins a little, his light brown eyes glinting with excitement. “Oh! You’re one of those new kids in Garreg Mach, yeah?” When Megumi nodded, the man’s grin widened. “Well, I’m not sure if you know how things work down here, but we don’t really like people from the church.”

“I’m not really a part of the church. I go to school here, but I’m not a big fan of the whole megachurch vibe.” Megumi says, taking a few steps back. In the back of his mind, he remembers running his fingers through his hair a few days ago and feeling the large bump of the back of his head from where Todo suplexed him into concrete.

“Ah, well, I don’t really care. Because people from the surface tend to not like us all that much, so I think I’m gonna lock you up. You can either come quietly, or brace yourself to find out why they call me the King of Grappling.” The man tells him, taking a couple steps closer. “Etiquette’s a big thing they teach you guys up there in that stuffy monastery, isn’t it? You should know that it’s nicer to do what people say if you’re their guest.”

“I don’t exactly feel like a guest right now.” Megumi felt his hands instinctively start to form the shape of Divine Dog, but he stopped himself and instead got ready to take the form for Misama. While he’d much prefer to fight this gargantuan asshole with his shikigami, he also didn’t want everyone to find out he wasn’t normal from this brutish, failed court jester looking ass. This Hugh Jackman-Elvis Presley love child looking dick will not be the one to ruin Megumi’s life and certainly will not beat him up. He won’t let it happen. The embarrassment of losing would probably kill him before this ab-covered monstrosity.

“Balthus. We talked about this. Byleth told us to stop trying to attack people who come down here. Step aside and I’ll talk to this young man.” 

The voice that interrupts Megumi’s bitter thoughts is calm and smooth, not too high or too deep. For some strange reason, he finds it a little mesmerizing just from the few words said.

When he turns to see where this hypnotic voice is coming from, he barely hears the first man talking, too transfixed by the new person on the scene.

He looks a little older than Megumi, maybe a year or two, and the straight, elegant purple hair falling down to his shoulders matches color perfectly with his eyes. He’s lanky and rather thin, and his pale face is very feminine, purple eyeshadow and dark eyeliner clearly used to accentuate that. He’s dressed in the same colors as the other man -Balthus, he called him- with an altered version of the Officer’s Academy uniform. A way better looking one, in Megumi’s opinion. His clothes are a slate gray and white rather than black and golden brown, and he has a long skirt overtop his pants that’s cut in the front middle. There’s a white cape attached to his right shoulder, the same design as Edelgard, Dimitri, and Claude’s. A large black chain runs from under the cape and around his chest, the same that Balthus has crossed across his own bare chest. 

Luckily for Megumi, this new guy has the decency to wear a shirt correctly -he might have passed out if he hadn’t, unlike Balthus, who’s now stomping away in disappointment.

“Have you looked your fill yet?” 

Megumi nearly jumps when he speaks, his melodic voice laced with amusement.

“Uh- Sorry.” He says dumbly, confused about what the hell kind of curse got to him because his brain is on fire and not working.

“No need to apologize. I’m Yuri. Now, why are you down here?” He asks with a small chuckle. 

His laugh is so pretty. So’s his name. Megumi finds himself thinking. What is wrong with me? What the hell is happening? “I’m Megumi. I got permission to go to the Abyss library.” He says, forcing his mouth to work and say words that make sense. It’s a difficult feat, in all honesty.

“Hm. Well, I suppose I can lead you there then. You’re not allowed to leave with any books, though. People from the church tend to steal and burn them because they’re offended by them. Is that alright with you, darling?” Yuri says with a hum, looking Megumi over closely.

The word darling makes Megumi’s panicking brain go into overdrive, and he’s a little surprised when his entire head doesn't explode right there. His face heating up is another new symptom, and he considers climbing back up the ladder and taking himself to the infirmary to deal with whatever illness he’s come down with, but he stays put. “Yeah. That’s fine.” He manages.

Yuri gives another little chuckle and turns away, gesturing for Megumi to follow him. “You and your friends are quite the talking point in Abyss, you know. They don’t take students in mid-school year ever, really.” He says casually, eyeing Megumi with a charming smile. “You three must really be extraordinary, huh?”

“We’re from um…um…” Megumi finds himself scrambling to remember what island they were supposed to be from. For some reason, his stone wall of indifference is crumbling as though Yuri’s come in and blown it up with a cannon. “An island east of Dagda. It took us a while to get here. We got here later than expected. That’s why they let us join late.” 

Yuri gives a little hum in response, and Megumi gets the feeling that his lie sucked. 

“Well, here we are. The Shadow Library. What are you looking for here that’s so important you were given permission to, anyway? The church doesn’t usually let people look around their banned books.” Yuri asks curiously as Megumi enters the library.

Megumi makes a point not to look at Yuri as he moves over to the shelves of books, knowing that his ability to lie will be absolutely destroyed for some reason if he does. “None of your business.” He answers shortly, forcing his face and voice to drop back to their normal emotionlessness.

Yuri snorts with amusement, smiling at Megumi. “I like you.” He says simply before he turns and leaves the room, his cape swishing around the corner.

Megumi stares after him, mouth slightly ajar. What the hell’s up with me? He thinks silently, trying to recover and move back to his books. He’ll have to discuss this with Yuji and Nobara later. Maybe one of them will have some idea of what kind of disease he has. He can ask Lindhardt or Manuela about it too, as they’re both knowledgeable on ailments.

He does manage to pull himself back together for long enough to actually start looking through this library. He finds a lot of completely useless information about meals, insects, plants, nothing that could be remotely helpful to him getting home or finding out anything about Rhea and the church’s secrets.

He pauses, a beaten up, barely held together notebook catching his eye. He pulls it from the shelf, unable to find a title. As he flips through it, it appears to be a memoir of sorts. It’s faded and difficult to read, but luckily, it’s legible enough.

“It has been several months since King Nemesis has been defeated, and the tides of war have turned from bad to worse. I have received news that my friend Daphnel has fallen as well. Those zealots are after our heads, and those of our leaders. All that is left for us is to disappear into the muddy waters Seiros has created. My long life may soon come to an end…”

“I somehow escaped with my life, but I fear the end is near. Most of my clan has already surrendered to the Empire. To my surprise, I am told their safety was guaranteed. I, however, am a different matter. My life, along with my sacred weapons, will unquestionably be forfeit. My dear son and daughter... I hope you can forgive me one day.”

“Why does Seiros despise us so? What did King Nemesis do to occur such unyieldable wrath? Perhaps it was a mistake to accept his offer. In my case, that is all in the distant past now…”

“_______ and before this body falls to ash, the evil…”

Megumi curses as the last scraps of the memoir become completely unreadable, and he puts the book back on its shelf. Who the hell’s Nemesis? And what did he do to the church that made them hate everyone affiliated with him? Muddy waters Seiros created… He gets the feeling that if the other books are like this one, he’ll leave with more questions than he had when he arrived.

The next book he comes across has one page and it’s only a table of contents. It appears all the others were torn out, and the date of removal is close to when the book was added. Words of Love. From the table of contents, it’s easy to gather why Seteth would have removed it. It’s all about seducing your lover and how to act with them. Not only was it probably inappropriate for a church and school library, Seteth also freaks out about Flayn’s love life often, so Megumi doubts he’d be okay with her getting her hands on such a book.

Megumi glances at a book called Encyclopedia of Fodlan’s Insects and for some reason, finds himself looking at it. He’s always been interested in animals, and he might learn about different kinds of insects that don’t exist at all in the present day.

Instead, he finds the contents of this book are completely different from its title, like it was trying to hide possibly offensive content. It’s a catalog of inventions that the archbishop deemed forbidden. It’s not surprising that a book explaining it all is banned, but the inventions that were banned are.

“• Distance Viewer (Based on Glasses)”

“By combining glasses lenses, one can view great distances with enhanced clarity. Crafting such a tool was forbidden to a degree by the Archbishop for the following reasons: 1. The ease of locating enemy camps would escalate wartime violences. 2. It would be too easy to snipe from afar. 3. It would lessen the mystery of the Goddess, who watches from above.”

Megumi stares at the paragraph for a while, almost in shock. Rhea banned telescopes from being made? And these reasons are bullshit. Lessen the mystery of the Goddess?

All of the banned inventions are strange, but Megumi doubletakes on the last one several times.

“• Human Autopsies (Especially Involving Head or Chest Incisions)”

“Though it is widely believed to be medically relevant, such actions upon a corpse are considered desecration of the dead. Since white magic can be used to a similar end, autopsies were deemed taboo. A notable cardinal asserted that if medical science were to excel over faith-based white magic, it would destabilize the foundation of the church."

“No way she- autopsies?” Megumi whispers to himself, staring at the page. How many undiscovered diseases are there that could have been cured by now if Rhea hadn’t banned autopsies? Sure, Megumi’s new to magic. He’s not great with faith, but he’s pretty damn sure faith magic can’t detect what kind of illness someone died from. 

“If medical science were to excel over faith-based white magic, it would destabilize the foundation of the church.”

Megumi reads this sentence over a few times, an unsettled feeling crawling through him. How much is she willing to do to make sure the church stays perfectly in power? Sukuna might not be all talk about this.

“What’s got you so freaked out?”

Megumi turns to look at the woman in the doorway, carefully putting the book away. “Nothing. Just a little surprised about some of the things in there.” He tells her.

The woman’s wearing the same colors as Balthus and Yuri, mostly white and gray, a modified version of the officer’s academy uniform. A purple crop top and a cropped white jacket cover her top half, and a small white skirt sits on her legs. Her black boots are tall, and one of them has a purple stocking poking out of the top. The same heavy chains that Balthus and Yuri wear sit around her neck, bunched up at the collar of her shirt. She’s tanned and her red hair is messy and wild. “Hm. Yeah, I guess it might catch you off guard your first time reading it.” She nods in understanding, fixing her large, tired red eyes on Megumi. “But it’s not like the church doesn’t have a pattern of doing crazy stuff. They’re not great. I’m Hapi, by the way.”

Megumi nods at her in greeting, curious about her words. “I’m Megumi. What do you mean they’re not great?” He asks, hoping to learn more from her than he has from these books.

Hapi shrugs, stretching her arms above her head. “Eh. It’s nothing. You’re a church student anyway, it’s not like I’ll say anything you’ll listen to.” She pauses, looking at him curiously for a bit. “You should probably get back up there, by the way. We don’t want a bunch of people coming down here looking for a student who’s gone missing.”

Megumi wants to keep talking to her. Desperately he does. She’s 100% got some kind of answers for him, but he decides she’s right. He really should get back to the surface before his classmates start getting worried. Hubert probably already thinks he’s dead. “...Right. Okay.” He agrees slowly, walking out of the library and back towards the staircase to the monastery.

“Leaving already?” Yuri’s voice makes Megumi jump, and he doesn’t look back to see the other boy. He gives a small nod, quickly starting to run up the stairs. Maybe he can outrun the curse Yuri keeps putting on him? “Ah well. See you around then, sunshine.” Yuri calls after him as he opens the trapdoor.

Megumi did not, in fact, outrun it.

***

Yuji leans his head on his palm as he watches Byleth talk about faith and reason magic, completely zoned out. He really should be listening because he’s miserable with white magic, but he just can’t bring himself to listen. Honestly, it’s more interesting to listen to Sukuna’s ramblings.

So when Byleth finally dismisses the class, he jumps up from his seat and practically races out of the classroom. 

At the same moment, Nobara comes out of the Golden Deer room, chatting with Hilda about going shopping at the market later. He tilts his head, watching them. They’ve really hit it off, huh? He thinks with a smile.

“Yuji. Nobara. I need to talk to you two.” Megumi’s sharp voice cuts through Nobara and HIlda’s conversation. “I got some new stuff.”

“Catch you later, Hil.” Nobara says to the pink haired girl, grinning at her.

“Yeah! Go easy on me in training later!” Hilda responds, giving Nobara a high five before she runs off to catch up with Marianne and Claude.

“So, what’d you find?” Yuji asks as Megumi leads them into a, now empty, classroom.

“Not anything that’ll help us get home. But if you guys can find anything out about who King Nemesis was, that might be good to know. Because apparently, whoever he was, the church hated his guts. And anyone who affiliated with him.” Megumi tells them, glancing around to make sure they’re not overheard.

“What kinda freak names their kid Nemesis?” Nobara mutters, sitting on a desk and crossing her arms. “But I mean, we can all try to figure something out. If the church hated him so much, we probably shouldn’t ask around about him.”

Yuji nods, tilting his head. “Maybe we could ask some of the students though, right? Maybe steer clear of people who are always thinking about the goddess, like Mercie or Marianne, and don’t ask any of the lords, but all the other students are pretty chill here. I’m sure I could talk to Sylvain, or Annette. Maybe Petra next time I see her.” He hums in thought.

“I could ask Lysithea. She’s super smart, and not obsessed with the church. She’s gotta know something about this dude.” Nobara says with a nod.

“Before any of us ask anything, this could be kind of common knowledge.” Megumi adds, lowering his voice a little. “Sure, he was mentioned in a banned book, but he might be a super famous historical figure. If it ends up being that way, lean in hard about how lackluster our education of Fodlan was back on our island, okay?”

As Yuji and Nobara nod and begin to turn away, Megumi stops them again. “Also, I think I got cursed.”

“WHAT!?” Both of them shriek and run to Megumi’s side, and Yuji has to fight the instinct to scoop him up and rush him to Ieiri. “What happened!?” He asks in a panic, testing the dark haired boy’s temperature, like it would help if he’d been cursed. Nobara was being equally unhelpful though, muttering about how only people as dumb as them could get cursed in a place without curses.

“While I was down in that abandoned library, I found out there’s this whole catacombs system under the monastery. We should really look into it more later, but anyway, I met this dude down there and his name was Yuri and his voice made me all…I dunno, weird? It was like I was being hypnotized just from listening to him.” Megumi explains with a long sigh.

Yuji and Nobara pause, exchanging suspicious looks with each other. “Doesn’t sound like a technique I know of.” Nobara murmurs.

“Well, it wasn’t just his voice. I couldn’t think straight when I looked at him. Like my whole body kind of short circuited? He had these really kind of ethereally beautiful purple eyes and-”

Yuji stopped fully listening to Megumi’s ramblings, as he was now just describing this Yuri guy, and turned to Nobara, gaping. She looked back at him, equally aghast.

No fucking way.

“And then he called me sunshine while I was leaving and I almost fell down the stairs. It was like he got in my head and took apart my brain cells. All I could think about was how pretty he was.” Megumi finishes, looking at them for help. “I know it’s a long shot, but do you guys know what kind of curse he put on me?”

The combined squeal that Yuji and Nobara let out probably broke every window in the monastery and shook the earth with its sheer force.

“OH MY GOD!”

“MEGUMI HAS A CRUSH?”

“I DIDN’T THINK HE COULD FEEL ANYTHING OTHER THAN ANNOYANCE AND SADNESS!”

“WE HAVE TO GO FIND HIM!”

“GETTING HOME CAN WAIT, MEGUMI’S GONNA GET A LOVER!”

Megumi was staring at them both, dumbstruck. His eyes wide, mouth ajar, and hands limp at his sides. “...I have a crush?”

“You just described how pretty this guy and his voice are for five minutes and explained to us how you acted like an idiot in a yaoi manga and this guy called you sunshine? SUNSHINE? AND YOU DIDN’T TELL US THIS IMMEDIATELY?” Nobara shouts, halfway between cackling and glaring angrily.

“OhmygoshohmygoshohmyGOSH! I’ve dreamed of this day! Megumi’s gonna get a boyfriend!” Yuji squeals excitedly, bouncing where he stands.

“What- I’m not getting a boyfriend!” Megumi hisses, his face burning red. “I’m- Maybe he was pretty but-”

“Is someone dying in here?” 

When Felix walked around the corner and into the classroom, glaring at the three of them, Megumi jumped about a foot in the air and quickly hid his face in his hands. “My dignity.” He muttered.

“Your v-card’s dying, that’s what.” Nobara said, grinning and nudging his side. Megumi attempted to punch her, and she retaliated immediately by grabbing his hair and pulling.

“We’re all good, don’t worry.” Yuji assured him, stepping in front of his now brawling friends. “Is there anything you need, Felix?”

“Yeah. The boar’s finally gonna tell us what our mission is this month. The professor was apparently feeling ill, so they’re in the infirmary with Professor Manuela. Now come on.” The other boy answered him sharply, amber eyes narrowed to slits.

“Oh- right. Sorry.” Yuji said with a nod, turning to separate Megumi and Nobara before they ripped each other’s throats out. “Nobara, find out everything you can about this new mystery guy.” He told her, and the two exchanged a giggle before he turned back to Felix and walked off.

Felix rolled his eyes at him, walking off without checking if Yuji was following him. 

“So, how’s-” Yuji starts to ask, trying to get some kind of conversation going with his icy classmate, but he gets nowhere.

“I don’t want to engage in meaningless chatter.” Felix says flatly. “Find anyone else in this damned academy if you do, they’d all be more than happy to.”

Why’s he so salty? Yuji thinks to himself as he follows him.

Eh. You’re annoying, it makes sense that he hates you on instinct. Sukuna tells him helpfully.

Wow. Thanks. Exactly what I need to hear right now.

I’m wonderful, aren’t I?

“What’s wrong with you?” Felix asks out of nowhere, and Sukuna gives a snort of amusement at the question.

“Uh- what?” Yuji asks. Scratch salty, that’s an absolutely diabolical thing to say to someone after telling them you don’t want to talk.

“Every time there’s a drop in a conversation of any kind, you zone out. But it’s not like you’re losing focus, it’s like you’re listening to something.” Felix says, looking ahead of them as they walk. “It’s weird. There’s something wrong with you.”

“Um…thanks for paying such close attention to me?” Yuji says with an awkward shrug, but this earns him another cold glare. “I just like listening to…um…bird calls. I don’t always hear them, but when I do it’s just so exciting, y’know?”

Dear god, what IS wrong with me?

I can make you a list.

What a stupid way to fail a lie. Just come up with the dumbest thing you can think of, well done, Yuji.

Felix looks at him skeptically for a long while and then returns his gaze to ahead of them. “You’re an idiot.” He says simply, apparently deeming Yuji too stupid to be lying about something important.

Yuji lets out a small breath of relief, and the two of them continue walking in silence. When they eventually arrive at the room, they find the other Blue Lions are already there. Felix walks away from him immediately, standing beside Ingrid and Sylvain. Yuji rolls his eyes, a little annoyed at how cold the other boy is, and stands next to Annette and Mercedes, who’ve been very nice to him since he arrived at the monastery.

“The professor felt a little dizzy today, so they decided to go sit in the infirmary for a bit. They’re fine, they told me to brief you all in their stead. They specifically said that if any of you try to use the excuse of ‘I was worried about them’ to slack on work, they’ll give you stable-cleaning duty for the whole month.” Dimitri said, and Yuji found it a little difficult to take him completely seriously while he delivered Byleth’s threat because wow he just looked and sounded so dorky. Sure, he was gonna be a king one day, but wow he didn’t carry the same authority as Byleth’s terrifying cold stare.

“Just get on with the mission briefing, boar.” Felix snapped, and this earned him a hit on the shoulder from Ingrid.

Dimitri looked at him with a sigh and nodded. “This month, we’re going to investigate Remire Village with Captain Jeralt. Apparently, there’s some kind of sickness going around there that’s causing fits of violence, inability to wake up, restless movements, and some other unusual symptoms. Professor Manuela suspects dark magic rather than an actual disease.” He explained grimly, his bright blue eyes darkening a little.

“With all due respect, what are we going to do about this? We’re training to be knights, not doctors.” Ingrid pointed out, tilting her head.

“I…I’m unsure myself, Ingrid. But I do know that the Church has entrusted us with this task, and we must do all in our power to accomplish it.” Dimitri answers. 

Yuji furrows his brow, a sense of foreboding overtaking him. If it’s not a sickness, what the hell is it? And yeah, what ARE we supposed to do about it?

I’m pretty sure of what it is.

And you’re gonna help me out for the first time ever and tell me what?

I think you get stupider each day.

Yuji watches as Dimitri explains in more detail about this disease in Remire Village, all of his instincts telling him something’s very, very wrong with this mission. It’s all unnatural. And sending in knights seems like the church is preparing for a fight. Everything about it just rubs Yuji the wrong way for some reason.

“I know none of us are really equipped to deal with this situation, but I thank you all for giving me your time.” Dimitri said, putting a hand over his heart and giving his classmates a respectful bow.

The other Blue Lions repeated the gesture -minus Felix, who merely scoffed and gave a curt nod- as a sign of their agreement to join him on the mission. Yuji quickly followed suit, still a little unsure about the customs of Fodlan and Faerghus.

“Thank you.” Dimitri said with a smile. “Dismissed. Yuji, could you stay? I need to talk to you.” 

Yuji felt his stomach drop out of his body, and he froze. He hasn’t figured out I’m a total liar right? He couldn’t have…did Byleth tell him what happened? It was unusual for Yuji’s mind to be spinning like this, so he didn’t really know what to do about it.

“Uh- what’s up?” He asked as he turned around, smiling brightly at Dimitri and Dedue, who stood menacingly behind him and glared at Yuji.

“How are you adjusting to Garreg Mach? All of us Blue Lions are extremely happy to have you, you’re a wonderful addition. I just wanted to know if there was anything I could do to help you and your friends have an enjoyable experience here.” Dimitri said kindly. “After all, you three traveled such a long way, I want you guys to be sure it’s worth it.”

All of Yuji’s anxiety was immediately replaced with a swell of gratitude, and he gave Dimitri a sheepish smile. “Ah, thanks, man. That’s really nice of you. We’re adjusting okay, though. There’s a lot of new traditions and stuff to learn about, and I don’t know a ton about the church and all that religion stuff, but I think it’s going good. And the Blue Lions are really awesome, and so are a lotta the people in the other houses. Really, you don’t have to worry about if we’re doing well here, we are.” He assures.

The prince returns his awkward smile and dips his head. “Very well. You may go now, Yuji. Have a good day.” 

Yuji returned the dip of the head and quickly left the room, jogging down the hall back to the courtyard where he’d left Nobara and Megumi. I should tell them about this new mission. I guess I should wait till Megumi tells us more about that place under the monastery. OH! MEGUMI’S MYSTERY GUY! After remembering what he’d been dragged away from, he began to sprint, giggling excitedly as he did.

***

Nobara let out a small sigh as she walked with Lysithea and Claude into the Golden Deer classroom. The Golden Deer mission for the month was in a couple days, and so was the Black Eagle’s, but the Blue Lions had an emergency with their Remire Village mission, so they’d left this morning. Leaving Nobara with studious little Megumi, who refused to do anything fun ever. And with this miserable class she was entering, she was really expecting the worst.

Sure, Manuela was nice. And she was so, so much better than the unbearable blindfolded freak she’d been taught by back at Jujutsu Tech. But their lesson today was going to be on lances.

Of everything she’d learned at Garreg Mach so far, lances were by far the worst. 

They were clunky and too long for her to control and their weight balance sucked. She knew Maki would be disappointed in her lack of enthusiasm for spears, but god they just sucked!

As she cursed lances in her head, she felt someone tap her shoulder. When she turned, she was met with wide pink eyes and a bright, excited grin. “Hey! Nobara! I gotta talk to you. We’ll meet you inside, Ly Ly!”

Lysithea grumbled about the nickname, but gave Nobara a quick goodbye and walked into class.

“What’s up?” Nobara asked, turning to Hilda with a grin. She hadn’t been at Garreg Mach for very long, but even in her short time there, she’d come to discover just how absolutely amazing Hilda was. 

How does someone even begin to describe someone as cool as Hilda? Obviously, she was gorgeous. Objectively so too, with her deceptively delicate frame and feminine style. Nobara didn’t want to be crude when thinking about her new friend, but she had some seriously big boobs. Objectively. Her enormous pink pigtails that matched her eyes perfectly were impossibly perfect, and added a solid inch or two to her small stature. Her skin was perfectly clear somehow  and she was truly masterful with her makeup and fashion, and pairing that with the adorable accessories she made herself, she was just really cute. Again, objectively so.

But the beauty didn’t stop physically. Sure, Hilda was a little lazy and many students outside the Golden Deer called her self-centered or a spoiled brat, but she was so sweet and supportive and charming. Nobara found herself dazzled every time the girl opened her mouth, floored by her charisma. Hilda was always there to cheer someone up, and despite her denial of it, she was both very loyal and intelligent. The girl never failed to put a smile on Nobara’s face, no matter how much Yuji or Megumi annoyed her, or how badly she wanted to snap Lorenz’s neck.

And, of course, her absolutely astounding strength. Nobara had never seen such raw physical power outside of Maki or Yuji. Hilda cut dummies in half in training with a single swing of her axe, and decimated any enemy on the battlefield without breaking a sweat. And now that she was starting to train with a wyvern along with her axe, Nobara was honestly feeling mildly bad for the people who approached her in battle, thinking she’d be an easy kill. But also, watching her in the heat of battle was too incredible for her to actually feel bad.

“Okay. I know you don’t like lances. And I don’t like class. So let’s just skip today! C’mon, it’ll be fun! And we’ll be back before lunch and we can just say we were in the training grounds the whole time. I can totally get some of the knights to lie for us, easy.” Hilda said to her excitedly, grinning and taking Nobara’s hand. “C’mon! Let’s go! Have some fun!”

“Hell yeah! I was gonna skip with Yuji today, but their dumb mission got moved to today. Like, that’s so rude!” Nobara says, walking away from the class next to Hilda. 

“I know, right? I mean, come on! Missions aren’t as important as best friends!” She agreed, nodding along as they walked. She paused, glancing at Nobara and tilting her head. “You guys are best friends, right? You and Yuji and Megumi? Nothing more goin’ on there?”

“Ew! Gross! No! Never!” Nobara said loudly, gagging dramatically. “Have you seen them? Yuji’s gross and stupid and Megumi’s a sad little freak. I have standards! Besides, those guys are like my brothers. I’d rather date Hubert.” She shuddered at the thought. She was going to say Lorenz, but honestly she couldn’t bring herself to say such a horrific thing.

Hilda giggled loudly, taking a turn out the door of the monastery and heading towards the woods out next to it. “Don’t let Ferdinand hear you say that! He’s been trying to get with that lizard man for months.”

Nobara snorted, covering her mouth as she did. She paused, looking around. “Hey, where are we going anyway?” She asked as they started to wander through the trees. 

“Hm? Oh, I dunno. I went to this nice little clearing a couple days ago, and it had a bunch of flowers in it. I don’t quite remember where it is though.” Hilda hummed, almost dragging Nobara along through the forest. “It’s fine, though! We can just go for a walk while we look for it.”

And walk they did. For a while, the two of them simply wandered around and gossiped. Hilda was convinced they’d come across the field of flowers soon, but Nobara was pretty sure they were fully lost. She didn’t really care though. Hilda was cool. Spending time with her was cool.

“I mean, come one, how oblivious can Felix be? Sylvain practically tells him he’s in love with him every day and he-” 

Nobara stops Hilda in the middle of her rant about Sylvain and Felix’s frustrating relationship, holding her arm out in front of her to stop the other girl from taking another step.

Had she felt that? Was it actually there? It was so minor…she could have imagined it. No. No, the levels were different from where they were just a few seconds ago. A small spike in cursed energy, barely noticeable, but there. It was just big enough to make her relatively sure it wasn’t from the environment, but small enough to let her know it wasn’t some kind of curse or curse user. It felt more like the tiny rise in energy she felt whenever she was around a dark magic tome. 

A dark magic tome. Shit.

“We’re not alone.” Nobara whispers, trying to pinpoint where the energy shift is coming from.

“What?” Hilda asks, her eyes widening. She quickly moves her hand to the thin sword on her uniform’s belt. “How do you know?”

Nobara scrambled for a moment, trying to think of an excuse that made sense, but Hilda was yanking her by her arm away from a blast of fire coming from the dark trees. Nobara barely had the time to process what had just happened when she realized someone was shouting orders.

“CONVERGE!”

Well, Nobara knew what that one meant. Both her and Hilda ducked down, pressing themselves down onto the ground within a large bush as fireballs, sludge, bats, wind blasts, lightning, fucking everything imaginable started raining down around them. 

The two of them were pinned down by the onslaught of spells, unable to move away from their minimal cover. Nobara glanced around, picking a couple nails from her pouch and slipping her hammer off her belt along with it. She glanced over at Hilda, who was covering her head with her hands while simultaneously attempting to peek around and see what the hell was happening. Nobara decided that if she was careful, Hilda wouldn’t see her use her technique. And if she did, it was better than ending up dead in a bush.

She decided a projectile nail would immediately draw Hilda’s attention, so instead, she snaked her arm around to the back of a nearby tree, stuck a nail in the bark, and quickly retreated back into their small bit of protection. Straw Doll Technique: Hairpin. She thinks to herself, snapping her fingers as quietly as she can. 

She feels the familiar explosion of her own cursed energy, and the slight tremor in the ground that follows. Good sign. She might have managed to set off a blast just strong enough to uproot the tree like she wanted.

The loud shrieks followed by a massive thump that shook the earth made it relatively easy to deduce that, yes, she had gotten the tree to fully fall down.

“Nobara! They must’ve knocked down one of the trees on accident! C’mon, get up!” Hilda yells, pulling her to her feet. The girl’s sword is in her free hand, and Nobara can’t help but wonder if it might be more effective for the Goneril to beat them to death with her hands than use that thin little academy sword from her belt.

Nobara quickly closes her nail pouch, deciding it’s a better bet to bludgeon people with her hammer than use her technique.

By the time she’d turned to face an opponent, though, Hilda had already broken her sword over someone’s face. Shattered it. Over one of their attacker’s heads. 

“Whoops!” The pink haired girl says, chuckling as the shards of steel fall to the ground, pulverized and covered in blood. 

Jesus Christ that girl’s strong.

Nobara shakes herself back into focus, whirling around to someone holding up a lance, and smashes her hammer into the side of their skull, blood spurting out from their broken skin.

She pauses, watching the person collapse and slowly bleed out onto the grass. Shit. That fucker was dying. She forgot how much more fragile people are than curses.

I won’t let my heart be swayed by someone who’s not sitting in a seat in my life.

She repeats her way of thinking to herself, wrenching her eyes away from the rapidly stilling person on the ground, and slams her hammer into someone else. She misses their head this time, but hits their shoulder. The crunch and scream that follow tell her she’s broken a bone there.

She kicks them away from her, quickly moving back over to Hilda. Just as the other girl punches a man in the head and sends him literally flying into a tree. “Duck!” Hilda shouts, picking up a massive stone from the ground.

Nobara hits the deck fast.

Hilda hurls the rock at an approaching mage, bashing their skull in. “Come on, we’re unarmed and there’s a ton of them. We need to get back to the monastery, they won’t follow us once we’re out of the forest unless they’re really really stupid, too many soldiers there.”

Nobara jumps to her feet, casts Swarm behind her, and grabs Hilda’s hand. The pink haired girl charges off in a second, dragging Nobara behind her like a ragdoll. Its probably a good thing too, Nobara isn’t all that fast. Especially not compared to some of the crazy people at the academy.

They keep running, and they don’t look back. Any shouts and voices grow faint and distant, and the thick cover of trees gives way to sunlight. 

But they keep running till they’re inside the academy gates. 

“Greetings! Oh man- are you guys okay?” The Gatekeeper asks as he opens the gate from the marketplace to the academy.

“Could you call Manuela? Or Seteth? Or uh- just- call somebody.” Hilda wheezes, panting and wiping a bit of blood off her knuckles.

Nobara thinks she might really be the coolest girl in the world.

***

Yuji doesn’t know if he’s ever seen Byleth and Jeralt look so concerned. The two of them had rushed to the Blue Lion students in the middle of the day and practically dragged them off to the hastily prepared carriages to take them to Remire. The situation had worsened. The villagers had apparently grown violent. 

Yuji realized just what that meant when he heard the screaming.

“Kill! KILL! AAAAAH!”

The sound of manic laughter becomes retching.

“Help! Somebody please! HELP!” 

Yuji wrenches the door open and tumbles out from the still moving carriage as he hears the voice of a child, begging for someone to save them. Save them from someone they probably knew.

It might be that little boy’s parent trying to kill him.

Dimitri had done the same, jumping from the carriage before the horses pulling it had come to a full stop. The prince groans, a hand moving to clutch at his hair as he stares in horror at the scene before them.

“Are you two okay?” Byleth asks as they hop off Jeralt’s horse and stop next to Dimitri.

“I…Don’t worry about me. I’m fine.” Dimitri insists, clenching his armored fists so tightly that he rips the cloth on his palms. Blood drips through his fingers. 

He’s a liar.

“Yeah. I’m good.” Yuji says, swallowing down the bile that threatens to spill from his lips as he watches a bleeding villager carry away a screaming child, clinging to a corpse.

Yuji’s a liar too.

“Don’t waste your time checking on us. Saving the village is far more important. We haven’t a moment to lose.” Dimitri says, shaking his hands off and spraying drops of blood at his feet.

“What can we do amidst such confusion?” Dedue asks. The unshakable vassal looks sick.

“We’ll have to take up arms against the villagers who are rampaging. If we strike carefully, we can spare their lives.” Felix sounds grim, almost uncomfortable. It’s upsetting.

“Oh dear…isn’t there a more peaceful way to deal with this?” Mercedes clasps her hands together and shakes her head, horrified at the scene before her.

“No matter how long it takes, we’ll need to check and rescue them all.” Ingrid says firmly. There’s a tremor in her monotone voice.

“Those who have gone mad may be victims themselves. Is it possible to save them?” Ashe asks. He covers his mouth with his hand as another scream rattles the air.

“Well, saving the poor people who aren't crazy is definitely our top priority! Let's get on with it!” Annette looks around frantically, trying to spot every person who’s still well and thinking.

“Slow down, Annette. It won’t do anyone any good if we panic and get ourselves injured.” Sylvain says. His tone is quieter than Yuji’s heard from him before.

“Slow down? These people are killing their own families! We can’t sit around and think about this!” Yuji says. He’s not thinking straight. Sylvain’s right. But all he wants to do is panic.

They have no control over themselves. They don’t get to choose what their own bodies are doing.

Like him.

Like Junpei.

“Isn't that... Your Highness. Suspicious figures spotted in the village. They seem to be...watching the chaos.” Dedue reports, ignoring the rest of the class’ panic and pointing to a group of figures on a large patch of grass above the village, looking down on its manic citizens.

“Are they the ones responsible for this madness? If so...it's clear what must be done. Kill them all. Don't let a single one of them escape. Sever their limbs and crush their wicked skulls!” Dimitri shouts. He lunges forward, flipping the steel lance he holds once before jumping into action. 

The rest of the class follows.

Immediately, Yuji’s lunging for magic-users. He’s been taught that brawling is specifically effective against mages, but really, he just doesn’t want to fight regular people. He doesn’t know if he can. If he can look at the clouded, pupiless eyes they all have. If he can risk killing people they might be able to save.

The mages go down quick, only a punch or two. Steel gauntlets really pack a punch.

Which is why he really wants to take them off when he turns and sees only rampaging villagers around him.

He feels like he might be sick as he tries to make his way over to an older man, holding tightly to a young girl, as a hysterical woman lunges at them, a sword clutched in her hand. They’re in a half destroyed house, burning and a moment away from falling entirely

He rushes at her, punching the woman twice in each leg. Strike carefully. Make sure she’ll recover. God, please recover, He thinks, watching her fall to the ground. The woman convulses as she lands on her stomach, hacking and coughing before she falls limp.

Yuji reaches down to check her pulse, hands shaking, but he stops when his instincts startle him into action. One of the few, few benefits of being Sukuna’s vessel are his instincts. It’s almost like he’s got spider senses, able to sense danger a couple seconds before it happens. 

His gut feels like it’s bubbling, and he’s springing towards the two villagers. He grabs the man by his middle, tucking him under one arm, and scoops up the little girl in his free arm. He dives out of a smoldering window and digs his heels into the dirt to bring himself to a full stop.

The house collapses in a pile of flames right after he hits the ground.

Gingerly, he sets the man on his feet on the ground. He’s shaken, and there’s a large cut on his arm, but otherwise he seems okay. Yuji looks down at the girl he’s holding. She’s crying into his brawling clothes, staining the pink strips of fabric wet with tears. She’s clinging tightly to him, holding onto the thick black leather around the fabric.

“Th- Thank you.” The man sputters, quickly pulling the little girl from him.

Yuji nods, turning him towards the entrance of the village where a group of knights and healers are. “Go there, get yourselves checked over. You’ll be safe with them.” He instructs. He turns around, running off to go help someone else. The man continues to shout his gratitude, even as Yuji rushes away.

Such high praise. You’re not used to that, are you?

Not the time, Sukuna.

I wonder if he’d still thank you if he knew what you are.

Not now.

Do you think that little girl would have still held onto you if she knew about us? I’m sure she’d have been crying twice as hard.

Shut up.

I’m just saying, how much more danger are they in being in your vicinity? Honestly, it’s probably safer for them if you were to leave them with those rampaging freaks. At least then, there’d be no chance of me getting to them, don’t you think?

Yuji wishes he could say Sukuna’s words don’t get to him. But they do. And Yuji hates himself for being so weak. So naive and stupid that even someone like him can get under his skin without even trying. 

No. You’re wrong. Now shut up.

But Sukuna doesn’t shut up. Every single time Yuji saves someone, he talks.

You might have just killed that one.

Well, he’s probably got a life-altering injury.

Oh, look over there! A little kid just died. Weren’t there to get that one out, were you?

Man, how I’d love to rip that one right there apart. Oh it’d be so funny.

Yuji hates him. Oh, he hates him so much.

And he knows Sukuna revels in that. 

“Tomas! What are you doing here?”

From somewhere near him, Yuji can hear Dimitri’s shout.

“I'm not Tomas. My name is Solon, the savior of all!”

He looks up towards the raised patch of grass just in time to see the old librarian being engulfed in dark tendrils, wrapping around and covering his body. They dissipate just as quickly as they appeared, but he’s different. He doesn’t look human. His skin is paper white and veiny. His head has at least doubled in size and the Church Staff robes he was wearing had turned black and red, branded with several strange symbols and writing Yuji couldn’t read. His eyes are black with white irises, one too large to be real.

“What's the matter? So shocked you can't even speak? You were so easily fooled by my disguise.” The freakish forehead man’s sneering at them now like they’re stupid animals. “I was hiding away in Garret Mach to get the blood of that little girl called Flayn. With her blood, we'll be one step closer to realizing our goal.”

Yuji whirls around as she hears a warp spell on the other side of the village. He squints, hopping over a burning wall to get back to the center of the destroyed town. 

A man in full black, spiked armor with glowing red eyes sits atop an all black horse. A sickle is held in one of his hands. Yuji feels a slight shiver run down his spine as the man speaks, voice gravely and inhumanly distorted.

“I'll have a bit of fun here too.”

Jeralt quickly orders half his forces over to the knight, shouting at them to attack him.“That's the Death Knight! He must be an ally of Tomas...or Solon, or whoever he is.”

Byleth is a few feet away from Yuji, helping an old woman over to the healers. “Dimitri, Yuji, Get to Solon! I’ll come back you two up in a second! Dedue, clear a path for the others to the Death Knight!” They yell, kicking away a manic villager and almost dragging the woman they’re helping away.

Yuji rushes for the mossy stairs leading to the grass platform without a second of hesitation, Dimitri right beside him. 

Dimitri looks rabid. Blood is splattered along his pale face. His eyes are wide and wild. His hair falls all over his face. His clothes are slashed and covered in dirt. The hand he’s holding the lance in is trembling with rage. 

He lunges at Solon, smashing his lance down at his head.

“You are but a savage, insolent beast, yet you think you can kill me?” Solon jeers. He swipes his hands in front of himself, a barrier of black and purple smoke appearing in front of him. The smoke solidifies itself, making a force field around the man.

Dimitri’s lance shatters it.

The sound of cracking bone and fracturing steel echoes past Yuji’s ears, but he doesn’t realize what they mean until his brain is able to process what the hell just happened.

Dimitri had hit that shield of dark magic so hard that it had instantly dissipated. The force of his hit had snapped his wrist back completely and smashed the steel tip of the spear. It had also sent the prince flying through the air uncontrollably.

Yuji snaps back to reality when dark magic streaks past his vision, and he leaps into action again. “CATCH DIMITRI!” He shouts behind him as he tears towards Solon.

He catches sight of Ingrid’s Pegasus out of the corner of his eye, so he assumes she swooped in and caught him, but he doesn’t think about that.

Solon stops his laughing when Yuji gets near him, and he freezes where he stands, throwing his hands up in defense. “No…you were- they sealed you away!”

Yuji stops, his fist a few inches from Solon’s freakishly big eye. “What?” Yuji’s very accustomed to complete confusion. Doesn’t mean he likes it.

“Why hide yourself within this worthless beast? Binding yourself to mortal flesh?” Solon snarls, staggering back. 

“What- did you know Sukuna?” Yuji asks, fists still raised for an attack.

“Silence, beast! Do not speak his name!” Solon roars. He begins muttering something, hands glowing, when something orange flashes across his chest. Blood sprays out and douses Yuji.

Byleth jumps in front of Yuji, the Sword of the Creator snapping back from its whip formation into the normal sword form. 

“The Fell Star…I cannot deal with you now.” Solon says quietly, unnatural eyes still fixed on Yuji. “Things have changed.”

Yuji realizes he’s about to warp away seconds before he does, and he acts purely off of instinct. His hands plunge into both of Solon’s shoulders, crimson blood staining his arms almost up to his elbows.

The warp spell works anyway.

Yuji falls forward, bloody hands catching him on grass where the inhuman man was just standing.

The blood doesn’t smell like blood. It smells like rot. It feels ice cold against his skin. The more he looks at it, the more he realizes  It’s closer to purple than it is to red. It burns into his flesh, poisonous and wrong.

“Dammit! He got away.” Jeralt mutters, the clop of his horse’s hooves coming to a stop before getting to the grass Yuji’s knelt on.

“I…will survey the village. There may still be some survivors.” Dimitri says, his voice shaky and soft.

Yuji sits in silence, staring at the bloody grass underneath him. Why was he afraid of you? That guy- he was doing this to innocent civilians and he was still scared of you. What- Sukuna, tell me what you did here. Someone- someone’s gonna find out about you soon. I need to know, what if they decide to kill us both for what you did?

Stupid little brat, I despise you. Your continuous yapping is simply embarrassing yourself. Get up, or put yourself down so your little classmates don’t get more concerned.

Yuji doesn’t respond. He picks himself up off the ground, looking back at Byleth. They’re staring at him, a mild bit of worry in their flat blue eyes. “What happened?”

Why didn’t you punch him, is what they’re asking.

“I’m fine.” It’s not an answer. He knows it isn’t, but he doesn’t know what to tell them. 

“What did he say to you?” Byleth asks. 

What does he know, is the new question. They aren’t going to back down. 

Yuji doesn’t answer at all this time. He quickly moves around them and walks over to his classmates. I hate you.

Good.

The carriage ride back to the monastery was in pure silence. No sly comments or jokes from Sylvain, no humming songs from Mercedes or Annette, no insults from Felix, just silence.

Yuji really hates it. Sukuna never shuts up when it’s quiet.

There are less people waiting to greet them and look for injuries than Yuji expected. He finds out that’s because Nobara and Hilda were attacked on a walk in the woods. Maybe that’s why Megumi grabbed him and Nobara and dragged them away the second they were free of medics checking them over.

“Someone has to know we’re not from here.” Megumi hisses once he’s closed the door to his dorm. 

Yuji notices that it’s much less neat than the last time he was in there. Papers, covered with notes, are scattered loosely across his desk in the few spaces where there aren’t stacks of books. Looking at it, a bit of guilt runs through him. Megumi’s been working his ass off to get them home, and he’s barely done shit to help.

“Definitely. I just got attacked in the woods out of nowhere, and they definitely weren’t bandits. Hilda said they weren’t like any group she’d ever seen before. And Yuji keeps saying he feels like people are watching him. Also, Yuu, what happened on your mission? You came back looking like you did after challenging Panda to a sushi-eating contest.” Nobara says, pointing an accusatory finger at him.

Megumi and Yuji both shudder a little remembering the day Yuji had unsuccessfully tried to beat the literal living bear. The result was loudly vomiting all night. Unsurprising.

“This guy infected a bunch of people with some kind of dark magic or disease. Innocent people. They were going insane, killing each other like animals.” Yuji starts, sitting on the floor with a long sigh. “And when I got to him at the edge of the battlefield he looked so afraid. I assumed he was just a coward or something, but he was saying stuff like ‘I thought they sealed you away.’ And ‘Why are you hiding in this mortal?’ So…probably pretty solid evidence that he could tell about Sukuna.”

Megumi and Nobara look at him for a while, exchanging worried looks. The two of them sit on either side of him, unsure of how to respond.

“How could he tell?” Megumi finally asks.

“I dunno. But he wasn’t human. Actually, he’s the librarian! That little old guy Thomas! That was a disguise or something, because he’s fucking ugly looking.” Yuji says. Megumi mutters something about disinfecting the books he took from the library. “I don’t think anybody here can just sense Sukuna, there’s something really freaky about that guy, but Sukuna also didn’t tell me anything about what he did to this place to get such a horrible person to fear him like that.”

Yet again, Yuji’s reminded of Mahito.

“Did you hear the guy’s name?” Megumi asks, narrowing his eyes.

“Solon. One of his eyes looked fake, and it was all black. And his forehead’s huge, like taller than the sky.” Yuji describes.

“Bigger than Megumi’s?” Nobara asks with a grin.

“Barely.” Yuji says with a nod.

Megumi hits them both on the back of the head and grabs several papers from his desk. “I’ll see if I can find any mention of Solon in my notes.”

“Want me to get a lemon and see if we can stuff it in Sukuna’s mouth again?” Nobara suggests, and Yuji enthusiastically agrees.

When she gets up to go to the kitchens, she opens the door and finds Petra there. “Oh! Greetings, Nobara and Megumi. I thought Yuji might be in here, he was gone from his dorm.” She says politely.

“Oh, hey Petra. I’m right here.” He calls, standing up and walking over to where she stands in the doorway. 

“Ah. Well, I just wanted to check if you were alright. I heard today that your time on the mission to Remire was giving you difficulty of mind. I made you a bit of food to help return your calmness. It is one of my most favorite meals, I hope you like it.” Petra says, holding out a plate of some kind of roasted bird.

Yuji smiles at her and takes the plate, giving her a grateful nod. “Aw, thanks. That’s really sweet of you. You don’t have to worry about me though, I’ll be fine. I’m just a little shaken.” He explains.

“You are…shaking? Are you sick?” Petra asks, tilting her head with confusion.

“Shaking in my brain, if that makes any sense. Just…I’ll get over it, don’t worry.” He says quickly, and stuffs his mouth with a bit of the food she made for him. “WOW this is good!” He says, grinning at her.

Petra smiles brightly upon hearing that he enjoys the dinner she made him, and nods. “I believe I understand. Hopefully it steadies your mind.” She says. “Have a nice night.” She glances at Megumi and Nobara and gives them both a polite wave, and dips her head to Yuji before leaving the room.

“Huh. I honestly thought she was out of your league, but maybe you’ve got a chance there, brat.”

Yuji chokes on the piece of bird he’s eating, looking down at the mouth on his hand that’s currently stealing bits of his dinner. “What did you just say to me?” 

Chapter Text

“YUJI! MEGUMI! GET UP RIGHT NOW! GET OFF YOUR ASSES, WAKE UP!” 

Nobara practically kicks down the doors to Megumi and Yuji’s dorms. Megumi throws a book at her and Yuji falls off his bed.

“Who’s dying? What’s going on?” Yuji asks groggily, trying to see who Nobara’s attacking. 

“Nobody, idiot. It’s the ball this month, so get up, we need to start planning shit.” Nobara says, tapping her foot impatiently. 

“Die.” Megumi mutters, trying to burrow back into his bed. Nobara rips the sheets off the mattress and he comes tumbling to the floor.

“There’s a ball this month?” Yuji asks, detangling himself from the blankets he had himself wrapped in all night.

“Yes, dumbass. Hilda’s been talking about it nonstop, don’t you listen?” Nobara snaps, rolling her eyes.

“We don’t know Hilda that well, stupid. She’s not in our houses.” Megumi says, standing up and glaring at her.

Nobara scoffs and clicks her tongue, irritation written across her face. “Whatever. Just get up and get dressed and meet up in my dorm, I’ve made a chart.” She leaves back to her dorm before either of them can inquire about what the hell she could possibly need a chart for.

Yuji rubs his forehead, shutting the door to his dorm and quickly pulling on his uniform. If Nobara’s kept waiting for longer, he might get his face hammered in. He pulls the dark blue hood they added for him over his head, trying to get as comfortable as possible at this early hour, and drags his feet as he heads to her room.

Megumi meets up there a few moments after Yuji arrives, and they both stop to stare at the wall of Nobara’s room. 

She’s torn up scraps of paper and made a makeshift bulletin board, connecting people’s names and places and seemingly unrelated words together with thread like you’d see in a murder mystery show. 

“What- Nobara what the fuck is this?” Megumi asks, too tired to deal with her bullshit.

“Plans for the ball.” Nobara says, clearly proud of her work. “It’s just basic for right now, but I had to bring you guys in because neither of you have any idea how to do anything socially.”

Megumi rolls his eyes, and Yuji furrows his brow, confused. “I’m fine around people.” He protests.

“Not in a formal setting. Gojo took us out to a fancy restaurant for his birthday and you tried to order four different kinds of chicken nuggets.” Nobara jabs an accusatory finger into Yuji’s chest, glaring at him. “And you’re both gonna be almost hopeless getting dates, so I’ve gotta help you out.”

Megumi grumbles something about waking up too early and falls back on her bed, but Yuji sits down to listen. She’s right, if he’s being honest. He’s hopeless with dates.

“Okay. So, obviously, Megumi’s gonna ask out Mystery Guy that he refuses to tell us anything about-“ Nobara starts.

“I’m not asking him out.” Megumi snaps. “He’s- I don’t even know if he’s allowed to go.”

“Oh, come on. What are they gonna do if you show up with your boyfriend? Kick you out?” Nobara asks.

“Maybe.” Megumi replies. He pauses for a second, turning pink. “And don’t call him my boyfriend.”

“Sure.” Nobara says skeptically, waving a dismissive hand in his face. “Anyways, Yuji’s gonna ask Petra, or she asks him, whichever comes first-“

“What? Wait, you think Petra likes me?” Yuji asks, tilting his head. He got butterflies when he saw her, but he didn’t think it was mutual. Why would it be?

“Dude, she brought you breakfast in bed for a week after your mission and she shot a snake with an arrow when it got within a foot of you. I’m like 95% sure it’s mutual.” Nobara says, glaring at her absolutely clueless companions.

Yuji stares at her for a while, considering this. Petra was a lot more talkative with him than she was with others. And she was very sweet, but he kind of just thought that was how she behaved around friends. Holy shit did a girl actually like him?

“But the main event, obviously, is me asking out Hilda. How the hell do I ask her out? Because if I do it wrong she can crush my skull in one hand.” Nobara says, pointing at the scrap of paper with Hilda’s name on it, connected to Nobara’s name.

“This is psychotic.” Megumi says. “And stupid, I’m gonna go down to Abyss and-“

“And ask out mystery man?” Yuji asks brightly. Megumi throws a pillow at his head and storms out of the room, burying his face in his turtleneck. 

“Anyway, Nobara, I think she likes you too. And if she doesn’t, then just go as friends, right?” Yuji tells her.

“Yeah, I guess. But I’ll have to practice how I do it. Gotta decide how I’ll save it if she says no.” Nobara says, turning back to her board. “I’ll also try to find out if anyone else wants to ask out Petra.” 

Yuji grins, jumping to his feet. “Thanks, man!” He gives her a quick hug and runs out of the room.

As he tears down the hallway, he fails to notice Byleth rounding the corner towards him. They do, however, and upon seeing him, they make a wild evasive maneuver, absolutely ramming some other poor student, who falls over and hurries away before anything else can be done.

“Oh- shit, sorry professor.” Yuji says, reaching over to steady them. They take notice of his hand reaching for theirs, and they leap back again. The action is reminiscent of a cat being sprayed with water.

Don’t touch them again, you fucking idiot! Sukuna barks at him, snarling as his fingertips almost tap their shoulder, god forbid.

Oh yeah, are you gonna tell me what that’s about?

Yeah, didn’t think so.

“Sorry, Yuji.” Byleth says, completely brushing over the fact that they’re taking great care to put distance between them. “I didn’t see you.”

Yuji nods awkwardly. “Right. Um- Professor, are you- what happened the day we met, that was-“ He doesn’t know where he’s going with this, but they have to mention it eventually. “…I actually don’t know what that was.”

“I don’t either.” Byleth says simply, looking at him carefully with those stoic blue eyes.

Yuji shuffles his feet nervously, tilting his head. “Um…are you okay?” He asks. Fuck fuck fuck why am I still talking. Oh my god this is horrible. 

“I’m fine, Yuji. Please don’t worry about me. As your professor, it’s my job to keep you safe. Not the other way around.” Byleth says seriously. “I’ve been looking into what happened the day of our first meeting on my own, and if I need your help, I’ll ask for it. Alright?”

Yuji nods quickly, relieved that they carried the interaction to a stop and walked away. God, I really need to work out what the hell’s going on with them.

Well, you’ve got a whole lot of help with that, seeing as you neglected to tell either of your friends.

I don’t need to worry them. Just be quiet, will you?

Yuji walks off down the hall, hands crammed in his pockets. He winces when cold air hits his face, quickly pulling his hood up. He wonders how some of the girls, walking around in skirts with no pants underneath, are going to manage getting through the winter months. Speaking of one such girl, 

“Hey! Yuji, hey!” He turns around when he hears Hilda, rushing up to him and excitedly tapping his shoulder. “You know Nobara well, don’t you?” She asks, rocking back and forth on her heels.

“Oh, yeah. We’re best friends, why?” Yuji responds, tilting his head curiously. 

“Nobody’s asked her to the dance yet, right?” Hilda asks, tilting her head to one side. Her pigtails are swinging around violently in the wind, so aggressively that they’re like pink baseball bats and Yuji has to take a few steps back. 

“Oh, no. Not yet, at least. She’s pretty serious about the whole thing though. Already planning out what she’s gonna wear and all.” Yuji says, smiling at her brightly. Oh my god Nobara’s gonna get a girlfriend oh my god oh my god oh my god.

Playing this cool might be the biggest challenge of Yuji’s life.

“Cool. Where is she right now?” Hilda’s pink eyes brighten, and her smile doubles in size.

“Her dorm. Maybe give her a bit to clean up, it’s a little messy in there.” Yuji advises. “Just uh…knock on the door before you go in.”

Hilda giggles and nods. “Okay! Thanks! Oh, by the way, you should ask Petra out before somebody else does.” She pats him on the back so hard that he’s almost sent through the floor and then skips away like nothing happened.

“How does she just know these things?” Yuji mutters to himself as he walks away to the dining hall.

***

Nobara freezes when she hears Hilda’s voice outside her door asking to come in. Shit.

Immediately, she yanks the blanket off her bed, tossing it over her makeshift bulletin board and covering up all the incoherent nonsense surrounding the paper with Hilda’s name on it. “Uh- one second! Just getting dressed!” She calls. She turns to her mirror, quickly fixing up her hair and running the lipgloss from her makeup bag that she’d had in her pocket when they were so rudely dunked in the river outside the monastery by that dickwad special grade.

She continues to curse under her breath, panicking slightly as she fixes her uniform, and turns to the door. “Come in!” She calls, trying to look relaxed despite her heart almost jumping out of her fucking chest.

Hilda walks into her room with a bright smile on her face, but Nobara doesn’t think much of it. She’s always grinning like that.

“New lip gloss?” Hilda asks her, walking over and looking at her mouth curiously.

Holy shit she looks at my lips.

“Uh- haven’t worn it around you before, yeah.” Nobara confirms, leaning back against her desk.

Hilda hums, looking around Nobara’s room and clasping her hands behind her back. “I like it.” She says, turning her pink gaze back to Nobara, who’s relatively sure she’s going to explode soon.

“Are you going with anyone to the ball?” Nobara blurts out. Fuck. There goes her night of careful planning this moment. There goes her chance of getting the real-life-goddess -none of that Seiros bullshit- in front of her to the dance with her. 

Hilda stares at her for a moment before she giggles, covering her mouth with one hand.

Oh god does she think I’m joking? Fuck. Wait. What if I’ve horribly misread her and she’s actually wildly homophobic…we’re in 1100, it's not a stretch. Nobara finds her mind racing with thoughts of Hilda being a raging homophobe.

“I was about to ask you!” Hilda stops all of those thoughts in their tracks with six simple words.

“Actually?” Nobara asks. 

Hilda nods. “Just checking, you don’t mean as friends, right? Because I was looking for a date, so-“

Nobara straightens up quickly, grinning. “Yes! A date! That’s what I meant! We should date!” She says enthusiastically. Shit. That also was not supposed to slip out.

Hilda pauses once again, giggling that same little giggle. “Oh, you’re so cute.” She says, smiling.

Jesus Christ, I’m so gay. Nobara thinks to herself. “Thanks.” Is all she can bring herself to spit out.

“I think we’ll date. I just want our first one to be the ball.” Hilda says, twirling a bit of her pale pink hair around her finger.

Nobara’s dead. She has to be. She’s in heaven. Only way to explain the current situation. How the fuck is this going in her favor?

“So! How should we dress for it?” Hilda asks, looking at Nobara expectantly.

And that’s Nobara’s element. She snaps out of the trance Hilda’s gorgeous pink eyes get her in, and she dives into her plans for fashion. 

***

For Megumi, the month was mostly uneventful. Well, not entirely true. Some girl he’s never even seen before came up to him and asked him out to the ball so that was an uncomfortable conversation. He’s never rejected someone before. Seeing her crestfallen face was upsetting. Also, Nobara and Yuji hadn’t shut up about it in a week, and he’s beginning to think they’re going to hold it over him till he dies.

The ball’s only about a week away now, and Megumi’s noticed that Yuri has been increasingly talkative as it draws nearer. Odd. He can’t say he’s irritated by it, of course. Yuri’s company is welcome. Only in that he doesn’t seem to be quite as stupid as most of his other friends. 

The fact that his voice sounds like honey and his face is absolutely gorgeous and everything he says sounds like it was ripped from a fairytale have absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Megumi enjoys being around him.

Megumi’s pouring over the same damaged book he’s been reading for the past hour, trying to decipher what he’s looking at. It’s not going great. Most of the pages are charred or covered in some substance that he doesn’t want to touch. And a lot of what he can read isn’t in a language he recognizes. It’s like people here used to write in hieroglyphics. …Thinking about it, they very well might have.

“Any luck?” Yuri asks as he walks over and sits on the desk Megumi’s using. 

“Nothing.” Megumi answers. He’s found that as long as he doesn’t look at the other boy’s face, he’ll be able to carry out a somewhat normal conversation.

“Hm. Well, don’t spend too much time scowling, sunshine. You’ll get frown lines.” Yuri advises.

“Shut up.” Megumi mutters, rolling his eyes. He reevaluates his previous opinion. He is wildly irritated by Yuri Leclerc.

“Y’know, speaking of frowning, I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen you smile.” Yuri says, leaning down to look at him.

“I don’t smile much.” Megumi replies simply, staring down at Useless Book Number 7 rather than up at Yuri’s pale purple eyes.

Yuri hums, tilting his head. “What a shame. I’m sure you’d look just darling.” He chuckles a little when Megumi stands up and stomps off to the other side of the library to get another book.

“That whole shelf is all old nasty porn, by the way.” Yuri warns as Megumi reaches for a book on the bottom shelf.

Megumi recoils immediately and returns to a book that he’d looked at earlier and decided to take a break from.

Yuri watches him for a while as he sits back down and rereads the lines he’s read a hundred times by now. “You’re going to the ball this month, no?” He asks suddenly.

“Uh- I mean, I guess. Yuji and Nobara are super excited for it, so I guess I’ll have to go. I’m not a big party person, though.” Megumi answers with a shrug.

“I can only go if I’m with an enrolled academy student. I’ve tried to go before, didn’t quite work out. The knights don’t love me all that much.” Yuri says. “You wouldn’t happen to have any ideas on an enrolled student I could go with, would you?”

Megumi looks up for the first time and fuck that’s a mistake. 

Yuri’s thin, painted lips are twisted into a small smirk, and he has an almost challenging look in his eyes. Like he’s daring Megumi to ask.

The reply to shut him down is just about to escape Megumi’s lips when he stops himself. The thought of going to the ball with Yuri makes his stomach flip around. He’s not used to this nervous feeling, this feeling of wanting to giggle. He’s Megumi fucking Fushiguro, he doesn’t giggle! What the fuck is going on?

He feels like he’s losing himself in Yuri’s eyes every time he comes back to his senses, spiraling into a new depth of uncertainty.

And fuck, he loves the feeling.

A feeling that he can’t hide under layers of apathy isn’t common for Megumi. He’s never met anyone who can knock down his walls so fully, with so little effort. Even when faced with his own death at the hands of curses, Megumi has remained emotionless.

But Yuri fucking Leclerc winks at him once and he can’t breathe. He can’t think. He can’t be stoic.

And he wants to chase this feeling forever, because when he’s around Yuri, the world feels real.

“You alright there, darling?” Yuri asks, laughing softly.

Apparently, Megumi’s been staring at him for much too long.

“Uh- yeah. I just…“ Megumi can’t remember what he’s even supposed to say anymore.

“I’m asking you out, Megumi.” Yuri tells him with a smile. “If the answer’s no, that’s fine. I’d just like an answer.” 

Megumi takes a few more seconds to try and figure out the English language again before he answers. “Yeah. I- I’d love to take you. I like you a lot.” He pauses. “Sorry. That sounded mushy, probably. I’ve never done this before.”

Yuri smiles at him and it’s wonderful. It’s not sly or mischievous or smug or anything like that. It’s soft and sweet. The purple haired boy quickly turns away, shaking his head. “No. It was nice. I didn’t think it was mushy at all.” He says quietly.

He doesn’t look back at Megumi for a while.

Megumi decides he’s not the only one who tends to have a mask hiding his emotions.

“Hey! Yuri! Good job, pal!” Balthus says as he walks in. Megumi leans away from him, still not recovered from their first meeting and the overwhelming Todo vibe. He claps Yuri roughly on the back, receiving an eye roll. “Finally went for it!” He turns to Megumi and grins. “Yuri’s a good catch, I promise.” He informs, as though this is new information for Megumi and not something he’s been thinking for several weeks.

“Why are you here?” Yuri asks, glaring at the muscled up freak in front of them. How someone is able to look like Balthus does in a time where steroids don’t exist is beyond Megumi. 

“One of those debt collectors has apparently been searching for Abyss to find me. Hapi already said she won’t go with me to knock him on his ass, and I’m not sure if we’ll find him in the shade and I don’t really wanna deal with Sunny Constance today. I could do it alone, but it’s so much less fun when I have to go by myself, y’know? All business crap.” Balthus explains.

Yuri sighs, getting to his feet and fixing the cuffs of his sleeves. “Fine. I’ll go with you. I’m not buying you ale this time, though. It’s in and out today.” He says, ignoring Balthus’ grumbles of protest. He turns to Megumi, closing one of the books he’s looking at. “You should really get back to the monastery anyway. The bells are probably going to ring soon. Besides, it won’t be exciting down here without me.”

Megumi rolls his eyes, trying to look irritated. “You’re not the only reason I come down here.” He mutters.

“I’m your favorite of them, though.” Yuri says, huffing a laugh at Megumi’s annoyed expression. “I’ll see you later, sunshine.” 

Megumi leaves the room as fast as he can, refusing to look back and give Yuri the satisfaction of seeing his blushing face. He’s seen it several times before, probably ten times just today, but Megumi tries.

***

Yuji’s not really the type to have to gear up before asking someone out. It’s not that he’s confident enough to think he won’t get rejected, he just doesn’t see much of a point in awkwardly pining for a while instead of just asking. He’s never really had an interest in anyone before. Well, maybe Jennifer Lawrence or a few guys on TV. 

But Petra’s so different from that. It’s strange, how he feels about her. Like every time she looks at him, she’s seeing everything he tries to hide. He feels like he knows her, yet they only met a little over two months ago.

She’s always so thoughtful and kind, even back when they’d just met. She’s incredibly smart and always happy to help him with class work or research. And, of course, he knows how skilled she is on the battlefield. Her agility is nearly unmatched by anyone in the academy, and he’s heard from Megumi how she often provides life-saving hits from a few arrows or a sneakily utilized dagger.

So that’s really what he’s thinking about in the library as he sits next to her. He’s stopped focusing on his book -it’s something else about Seiros anyway, who cares- and has taken to stealing glances at her every so often.

He really likes her hair. The tight, thin magenta braids, pulled back into that looser one.

He really likes her eyes. The pale brown, lined with black and a touch of pink. And the small mark beneath her left one, a prayer to the forest spirits for good hunting.

He really likes her.

“Yuji? Are you in need of something? You’re staring at me.” Petra says, snapping him out of his daydreaming.

“Yeah. I’m all good.” Yuji confirms for her quickly. “I was just thinking about the ball. Do you have a date there yet?” He asks.

Petra tilts her head and smiles at him. “No. Not yet. Dorothea and I have made a deal that if neither of us have a partner, we will go together. But she’s already been asked by many people.”

Yuji twiddles his thumbs in his lap as he looks at her. Maybe he’s starting to understand the fear that comes with asking someone. “Can I take you then?” He asks. “If you wanna just go as friends, that’s fine. Or even if you’d rather go with Dorothea, I won’t be all that upset I promise. I’d like to take you if you want. Uh- not as a friend.” 

Petra’s smile breaks out into a grin, something Yuji hasn’t seen from her before. “I would be honored! Dancing with you will give me much joyfulness.” She tells him, taking one of his hands in her own.

Yuji matches her grin, maybe a little sheepishly, and closes the book on his desk. “Cool. Sounds cool. I’m- wow. Cool.”

Petra laughs a little, apparently finding his dumbfoundedness endearing. She sits with him until it’ time for her to go train with Edelgard. 

Yuji runs to Nobara’s dorm with his heart pounding out of his chest. 

Megumi and her both already got dates by this point, and he’d promised them he’d ask Petra soon but holy fuck he didn’t think she’d say yes.

“She said yes! We’re going to the ball!” Yuji shouts, throwing her door open and barely paying attention to her and Megumi’s shrieks.

Nobara’s currently holding an eyeshadow palette up to Megumi’s face, her eyes narrowed. She jumps, cursing loudly and almost dropping the palette. “Why can’t you knock, you freak?!” She yells at him.

“Good job.” Megumi says to him, a hint of a smile on his face. “I like Petra. Maybe she’ll make you less obnoxious.”

Yuji shuts the door behind him and jumps onto Nobara’s bed, bouncing up and down. 

“Just chill out, will you?” Nobara scolds, shaking her head. “We’re happy for you, man. Good job.” She adds under her breath. “Anyway, what are you gonna wear? I’m trying to figure out what makeup to give Megumi. I think we should match it to Mystery Man’s, but he’s not sure if he even wants any. Tell him he’s being stupid.”

“Oh! Yeah! He’s all about purple you said, right? Do some cool purpley stuff! It’ll be cute!” Yuji encourages him, hopping off Nobara’s bed to examine the eyeshadow palette in her hand.

“Yuji? Are you in there? The Blue Lions are meeting up before the ball tomorrow, we want you there too!” Annette’s voice is loud and heard clearly through Nobara’s door.

“Oh! Uh- coming!” Yuji shouts back, saying quick goodbyes to Megumi and Nobara, who are now wrestling each other as Nobara tries to get makeup on his face, and walks out into the hall with Anette.

When they arrive at the classroom the other students and Byleth are gathered in, everyone’s already talking about the ball. Yuji assumes there aren’t many social events like this at Garreg Mach.

“This is the only ball of the year, and I see why. Everyone is absurdly excited…” Dimitri says, almost uncomfortable about how chattery everyone is.

“Your Highness, you sound so detached. We are all encouraged to enjoy the ball tomorrow.” Yuji thinks Dedue couldn’t sound less enthusiastic.

“Right you are, What a burden…” 

“Huh. I never thought we'd see eye to eye, but I agree. I'd rather be swinging my blade than wasting my time with some girl at a ball.” Yuji almost snorts, but he stops himself. He’s picked up a bit of a vibe from Felix that, possibly, he’s not straight. This makes that theory more solid in his mind.

“Felix! Your Highness! You must be joking, right? This is our chance to dance with all of the ladies of the academy to our heart's content. You wish to throw away the best day of the whole year for sword practice? Insanity, I tell you!” Yuji does outwardly snicker at Sylvain, though.

“I'm pretty excited about the ball, myself. It's not like we get to do things like this very often.” Ashe says sheepishly.

“Too true, Ashe. In fact, I'm gonna do you a favor and give you a crash course in chatting up girls. By tomorrow, you'll be an expert!” Sylvain says, placing an arm around the shorter boy’s shoulder.

“Actually I'd much prefer if someone could just teach us how to dance…” Ashe murmurs

“Don't worry about the dancing part. I can teach you that, easy!” Annette tells him excitedly.

“It's time for the ball! That warrants at least a tiny bit of makeup, don't you think, Ingrid? Just a smidge?” Mercedes asks hopefully.

“I...hmm. Maybe. I'll think about it.” Ingrid sounds a little afraid of the concept of having makeup on.

“It's settled! Tomorrow morning we'll meet up in Ingrid's room. Ooh, I can't wait!” Yuji smiles, amused at Annette’s enthusiasm.

Dimitri chuckles, a thoughtful look crossing his face. “You know... There's no telling where life will take us after we leave here. If only we could find a way to come together again, just like this…”

“A fine notion, Your Highness. Perhaps five years from now?” Dedue suggests.

“Five years from now? Ah! That's when Garreg Mach Monastery will be holding the Millennium Festival.” Dimitri says, smiling. Yuji decides not to ask what the Millenium Festival is.

“By then we'll be addressing Your Highness as Your Majesty instead!” Ingrid says. 

“That's right. I suppose we all know it's coming, but by then you'll be far removed from us.” Sylvain muses.

“Come now. You know me better than that. My title may change, but I won't. And it won't just be me, you know. Five years from now, you'll all have your own stuffy positions to contend with. But as I understand it, the festivities at the millennium festival will be of a scale far beyond anything we've yet seen... In other words, the perfect excuse for us all to return here.” Dimitri says, almost defending himself.

“Ooh, a reunion? That sounds fun! I wouldn't miss it for the world! How about you, Yuji?” Annette asks, turning to look at him.

Yuji freezes. He’s not a good liar. In five years time, he should be back in his correct year. If he’s not…well, he doesn’t want to think about that. But he can’t tell them he won’t be there. “If I’m still in Fodlan, totally. I mean- yeah, I’d love to do that.” He says awkwardly.

“I’m sure you’ll be able to make it back here for just one day. Besides, you wouldn’t want to miss the Millenium Festival.” Mercedes says. “I’m sure you’ll be able to come.”

Yuji just smiles and nods.

“I’d love for you to be there as well, professor. After all, you are the heart of the Blue Lion House.” Dimitri says, looking at Byleth.

“I’ll be there.” Byleth says firmly, nodding at him.

“Good. Then it's settled. Of course...if something happens and I'm not able to attend, I'm leaving all of the logistics of organizing this reunion to you, Professor.” Dimitri adds.

“You have to attend.” Byleth tells him, narrowing their eyes.

“It's true! I'm sure being a king will keep you busy, but it's a bit early to be backing out of your own plans, don't you think?” Mercedes reasons.

“Yes... I suppose you're right. I'm sorry. You have my word. I will return as well. Count on it!” Dimitri announces.

***

Yuji fiddles anxiously with the collar of his evening uniform, staring at the large crowd of students around them. He’s waiting beside Megumi and Nobara, the three of them all awaiting their dates at the courtyard.

“You don’t think they’re ditching us, do you?” Yuji asks. He’s not usually this nervous, he’s not really sure why he is, if he’s being honest.

“Don’t say that, stupid! Of course they didn’t ditch us!” Nobara says with a loud scoff.

“Bara!” Hilda’s voice cuts through the night, and Yuji and Megumi are both nearly knocked over by her enormous expanse of hair, tied into a high ponytail that swings around with murderous intent.

Nobara grins, taking Hilda’s now outstretched hand and turns to look at Yuji. “See? No one’s ditching anyone. We’re gonna go inside, we’ll meet you there.” She says as Hilda drags her along with no effort whatsoever. The two of them giggle relentlessly as they rush into the ballroom.

Megumi grimaces. “If I ever giggle like that, I want you to kill me.” He says to Yuji seriously.

Yuji snorts. Hearing Megumi even entertain the possibility of giggling is fucking hilarious.

Megumi’s then tapped on the shoulder by someone with pale purple hair and eyes that match the makeup Nobara put on his face almost exactly.

Yuji can't stop himself from letting out a whispered “mystery man!” Which earns him a smack from Megumi.

“Did you match your makeup to me? I'm flattered.” The guy says, a thin smile on his face.

“Shut up.” Megumi mutters, turning to Yuji. “I can wait with you, if you want.”

“Oh, no, I'm good waiting here by myself, I don't mind. Go in!” Yuji says immediately, grinning at Megumi. 

Mystery Man smiles at him and takes Megumi’s hand, starting to pull him inside. “Perfect!” He says, leading Megumi along with him.

Yuji goes back to messing with his clothes, this time the cuffs of his sleeves end up the victims. Most people have gone inside by now, and he's slightly worried Petra ditched him. But she's definitely not the kind of person to do something like that. Or, at least, he doesn't think she is.

He stops worrying once he catches sight of a magenta ponytail with small, thin braids woven within it. 

“My apologies for my lateness. My hair took much time.” Petra says as she runs over to him, adjusting the skirt of her evening uniform a bit. “I'm filled with great excitement for tonight!”

Yuji smiles at her, holding out his hand for her to take. “Me too! It's gonna be so much fun.” As the two of them walk inside, Yuji realizes that it's not quite as formal as he'd expected. Of course, it's fancy, but there are students standing around chatting casually with each other and completely ignoring the couples slow dancing. Thank god, he was worried he'd have to be super proper tonight.

Petra ends up not wanting to do too much dancing either. She tells him that she prefers the more lively music of Brigid when she's dancing anyway, and he wholeheartedly agrees despite never having heard Brigid music, so waltzes aren't really interesting to either of them.

The white heron cup is rather interesting, though. He knew the Blue Lions were running Ashe for their dancer, but he didn't know about the other two houses. The Black Eagles had Dorothea as their competitor and the Golden Deer were using Marianne.

If he's being honest, all of the dancers looked the same to him, but he found it entertaining to watch nonetheless.

“Can you believe Shamir’s a judge for this? She seems so serious!” Yuji says to Petra as they watch the contestants. 

Petra nods, smiling. “I enjoy Shamir’s company. She is also not from here. I have much admiration for her.” She pauses, looking at the knight for a moment before chuckling. “I do have agreement with you though, I never would have imagined her to be a dancer.”

When the contest concludes,​​ Manuela has her vote decided almost immediately. “Oh my, let’s see…I suppose I have no choice but to vote for the Black Eagle House. Your performance was artistic. Beautiful, even.”

Yuji’s not surprised. Manuela and Dorthea are close, even outside of the academy.

“I vote for the Blue Lion House. Decisive movements. Nothing wasted.” Shamir says simply, nodding at a slightly embarrassed Ashe​​.

“Great feedback, both of you! Well then, let's see... Factoring my own humble opinion, yes! We have a winner! And I will announce who it is right now! Without any delay! The winner of this year's White Heron Cup is...the Blue Lion House!” Alois finishes off the voting, taking Ashe’s hand and shaking it vigorously.

“Oh! Are you sure this is okay?” Ashe asks, looking completely taken aback. His face is bright red, but he seems proud of himself. 

The rest of the night, Yuji spends talking to Petra. She’s really incredible. He tries to find Nobara and Hilda, but is quickly informed by Megumi that they’ve left -probably to go to one of their dorms- and he shouldn’t try to go looking for them.

Talking to Mystery Man -who Yuji finds out is named Yuri- is interesting though. The guy’s a smooth talker, and the exact kind of person Yuji thought Megumi would hate. But apparently not! Everything Yuri says, from cheesy pet names to the most masterful flirting Yuji’s ever heard, makes Megumi falter and fail to answer anyone in a full sentence. It might be the most emotion Yuji’s seen him express. Ever. 

At the end of the night, Yuji walks Petra back to her dorm, holding her hand as he does. He finds himself weirdly aware of how strong his grip is, for some reason trying to find a way to have a strong grip but also a soft one. It’s weird what his brain does around Petra.

“I had a most wonderful time tonight, Yuji. I hope we can continue to go out. I have a great like of you.” Petra tells him, turning to take his other hand. 

“Oh! Yeah, me too! I really love hanging out with you, I- I like you a lot too.” Yuji says. He feels awkward. And again, very aware of everything he’s doing.

Petra smiles at him and looks at him for a few moments before she leans up and plants a gentle kiss on his cheek. “Thank you for taking me to the ball, Yuji. I enjoyed myself greatly.” She says. And she walks into her dorm and shuts the door.

Yuji doesn’t move for a few seconds, making sure everything that just happened wasn’t a hallucination, and once he’s positive that it was all real, he makes a beeline for where Megumi and Yuri headed off to.

He rounds a corner and sees Megumi looking at the stone floor of an alleyway and assumes Yuri just went back down to Abyss through the trapdoor Megumi told him about before. “MEGUMI! MEGUMI MEGUMI MEGUMI!” Yuji shouts, rushing over to him. He grabs his friend’s shoulders and shakes him aggressively.

“Jesus-! Yuji, calm down! Let me go!” Megumi says, shrieking as he’s thrown around.

“Sorry! Sorry sorry!” Yuji apologizes, letting go of him. “It’s just- it- Petra kissed me! On the cheek, but still, she kissed me!” He explains quickly, flailing his arms as he tries to get some of the adrenaline he’s feeling under control.

“Good for you. I think Yuri probably wanted to kiss me, but he kissed my hand earlier and I almost passed out so, I think he decided it was smarter not to.” Megumi says, glancing back at the hidden trapdoor. “Successful night, then?”

“Very!” Yuji answers.

***

Yuji’s still not a big fan of that brawler uniform he’s wearing, but he supposes it's easy to move in. It's also not at all what he needs to be focused on right now, they're approaching the mission area and Byleth’s still briefing them.

“Demonic beasts are attacking students near the monastery. Our top priority is the student’s safety, so be careful and quick.” Byleth instructs, glancing out of the carriage window at Jeralt riding on his horse next to them.

“There really are demonic beasts here...They’re emerging from the chapel!” Jeralt yells, his horse speeding up as the students file out of the carriage. “I'll head that way. The rest of you, protect the students who can't get away!” He calls, immediately racing off towards the chapel’s entrance.

“Help me! These beasts…they're…”

“Somebody help me!”

“You stupid beasts! Don't you dare come near me!”

There's terror in their voices, and Yuji can't stop himself from immediately leaping into action. These demonic beasts are a lot more like curses than the villagers they fought last month, and he's extremely grateful for that. He's much more used to fighting monsters than people.

Byleth directs them to split off into two groups, a smaller one that’ll go off to the side consisting of Ashe, Anette, Dedue, and themself while everyone else charges forward.

Sylvain and Ingrid get to the beast first, unsurprising considering they're on a Pegasus and a horse respectively while everyone else is on foot. Ingrid flies above it and attacks from behind, Lulin cutting its thick scales like butter. She ducks under the thing’s viscous claws and quickly puts a safe distance between it and herself.

Sylvain stabs the Lance of Ruin through the beasts' forehead, cracking the strange stone on its face. The beast staggers back, roaring. It sways where it stands, looking confused as it blunders around, trying to find something to attack.

Yuji sees his chance, speeding ahead past the others and lunging for the beast. He squeezes the newly made steel gauntlets Byleth gave him before they set out and leaps above the monster. He crashes down onto its back, stabbing the gauntlets through its neck. He leaps off of it, kicking it hard in the head. He drops to the floor and uppercuts it, dark, blackened blood spraying onto him.

The beast collapses in front of him, its body twitching as it dies.

There's a large cloud of black and red smoke emanating from its body now, and Yuji immediately jumps back, covering his nose in case it's toxic. 

Dimitri stops running next to him, kicking up a bit of dust as he skids to a halt. He lets out a loud gasp, bringing a hand to his mouth as he stares down in horror at the dead creature.

Yuji looks back at the dead beast, confused by the intensity of his reaction. 

His heart drops from his body and his stomach twists itself into a knot.

The corpse of an academy student lies on the ground, blood no longer black, but still staining Yuji’s gauntlets.

“The demonic beasts are actually students!? How can this be?” Jeralt says as his horse slows its trot behind them. He sounds shaken, but not horrified to the degree of Yuji or Dimitri. Or Ingrid or Sylvain, Yuji notices. The three of them just killed a fellow academy member.

“We must keep moving. We can't stop. Some of the students can still be saved, we must focus on them.” Dimitri tells everyone. Though he's yelling, his voice is shaky and a little weak.

Yuji realizes that everyone has mostly moved past him by now, and he rushes to catch up. When he does, he sees Dimitri stabbing through the nearest beast’s neck while Felix slides beneath it and slices open its stomach. It collapses immediately. With another cloud of smoke, its body becomes that of a student’s.

Felix moves on without looking at the student. Dimitri stares for a few seconds, his hands shaking, before he turns around to deal with the next beast.

From across the field they're in, Yuji hears a loud grunt. He turns around in time to watch Byleth extend their sword, wrapping it around the neck of a beast and twisting it until its torn from its body.

Holy fuck.

Not surprised. Honestly, a little underwhelming.

What are you talking about?

Yuji gets no answer, which really isn't surprising. He quickly turns back to the last demonic beast still standing, watching Mercedes narrowly manage to dodge its huge claws. It rears back, about to strike at her again as she begins to pull herself back up to her feet.

He dives, jumping in between the beast and her. He tosses his gauntlets away and grabs the beast’s hand, holding it back. He digs his feet into the dirt, gritting his teeth as he tries to push back against the enormous creature’s claws, which are scratching apart his arms ruthlessly.

He's in a deadlock now. If he lets go or tries to move away, the monster crushes him like a bug. Pushing back against this thing is working for now but fuck he's gonna run out of energy soon.

He thinks that way until Jeralt throws his iron lance into the stone on the beast’s forehead. It shatters instantly. The monster rears back and Yuji takes its moment of weakness to yank it towards him by its arm. He drags it across the ground and spins, shouting with the effort he's exerting, and slams it into a stone wall nearby, cracking it. The beast slumps over and Sylvain finishes it off with a strike of his lance.

Yuji staggers back, feeling a little nauseous as the corpse once again turns into a student. Mercedes places a hand on his shoulder, quietly casting Heal on him. A comfortable, warm sensation fills him, and the bloody scratches aren't dripping any longer.

He looks around, watching the students they'd saved scatter instantly like mice.

He watches Jeralt run over to the chapel and talk to some small girl with red hair, Byleth standing a few feet away from them with their eyes narrowed.

“Is everyone okay?” Dimitri asks as the Blue Lions gather around him.

Everyone gives unconvincing, quiet murmurs of assurance that they are, but Yuji can't bring himself to say anything.

“There was nothing we could have done to save them.” Ingrid says, shaking her head. “But, still, I feel deeply remorseful for the lives we ended today.”

“It was the merciful thing to do, I guess.” Sylvain says quietly, looking down at the ground.

“We had to do it. There's no point in feeling bad about it now. We can't change the past. All we can do is hunt down whoever caused this.” Felix says firmly, shoving his sword roughly into the holster on his belt.

Yuji nods, picking up the gauntlets that he'd had to discard in the dirt. “I agree with you that we need to find whoever did this to them, but we can mourn for their lives, can't we? They didn't die proper deaths. None of them did. This is…twisted. Like back in Remire.” Like Junpei. His brain helpfully supplies.

Dimitri nods his agreement, looking back at the black and red blood staining the grass. “You're right, Yuji. These people deserve justice in their death. But we should still respect them, they were innocent people. They didn't deserve this.”

No one says anything for a moment, a slightly eerie silence settling down over the chapel fields.

The silence is ended immediately at the sound of Byleth’s sword extending and crashing against something else.

“Huh? What are you doing here?” The voice asking sounds a little familiar. That girl with the red hair, Yuji’s seen her around the monastery. He thinks her name’s Monica, or something similar.

Yuji doesn't waste a second, quickly running around the wall to see what's happening. 

Jeralt’s on his knees, blood seeping through the padded armor in his back. Monica’s standing behind some man that wasn't there before, and she's holding a blood-covered knife. Byleth is standing a few feet away from them, looking horrified.

“You must survive. Merely because there is a role I require you to fulfill.” The man sneers at Monica, turning to look at her as he grabs her arm. Monica looks only slightly irritated.

Immediately, Yuji is reminded of Solon. He doesn't like it.

The man pauses, looking at Yuji for a few seconds before his pure white eyes widen in shock. “You…that's not possible.” He whispers. He looks afraid for a few seconds. Yuji’s breath hitches in his throat Sukuna makes a mad grab for control of his body, anger surging through him.

You. Sukuna sounds disgusted and enraged at the sight of this strange man. Yuji hates this.

The man’s horrified face twists into a grin. His pale gaze bores into Yuji, and he suddenly feels like the man’s looking straight through him. Like he's looking at Sukuna, rather than him. “Oh, joyous day. How wonderfully things change.” He says softly. He disappears in a flash of red light, taking Monica with him.

Byleth seems not to have noticed the small interaction between Yuji and Thales. Not many of the Blue Lions did, he thinks. Almost everyone is staring at Byleth, cradling a bleeding Jeralt in their lap as tears slip from their blue eyes and splash onto his face.

Jeralt lets out a strained, breathless chuckle. “To think, the first time I saw you cry…your tears would be for me…it's sad, and yet-” He pauses, coughing and wheezing as he tries to find the breath to speak. “I'm happy for it. Thank you, kid.”

Jeralt’s body goes limp as he lets out one last rattling breath, his brown eyes, forever unseeing now, fixed on the gray sky above.

Byleth hugs their father tightly to their chest, weeping in silence. Rain begins to fall from the dark clouds covering the sky, washing some of the blood off of Yuji’s steel gauntlets.

It drips onto his feet, trickling through the grass in a small river that seems to wrap around him.

No matter how much water mixes with it, it stays red.

Chapter Text

Things are wrong after Jeralt dies. Byleth scarcely leaves their room anymore, and everyone is downcast, but it's more than that. The feeling of being watched has become drastically worse. He can't walk down the hallway without the hairs on the back of his neck standing up.

At night when he tries to fall asleep and Sukuna berates him, he swears he can hear whispers coming from all over his room. He hears footsteps behind him when no one’s there. 

Megumi and Nobara have an uneasy feeling too, but apparently they're not kept up at night by it. They've got their guards up, but it's not as bad for them.

Yuji, though? Yuji knows with 100% certainty that he and Sukuna haven't been alone since they got here.

He asks Petra about it one day. She's smart and in tune with her surroundings and she also really likes him, so she's a good person to ask.

“Feelings of eyes upon you?” Petra checks, tilting her head and looking around. “I don't have this sense. However, in Brigid, we are all hunters. And a hunter never ignores their instincts. If you are feeling you are in danger, you must be telling Seteth or Rhea.” She advises seriously.

Yuji shakes his head, tucking his hands into his pockets. “Not in danger, no. Just…I dunno, I might be being a little paranoid. Fodlan’s new to me, you know?” He says with a shrug.

Petra nods, but looks unconvinced. “I am not so sure. Perhaps these watchers you feel could just be the spirits trying to guard you. But they could also be something else. It is always best to be listening to your thoughts and instincts.” She tells him, taking one of his hands in her own and cupping it. “If you ever are feeling unsafe, please, do not take hesitation in coming to talk to me. I will always be doing what I can to protect and keep you safe, Yuji.” 

Yuji feels his face heat up, and he takes a second to think of how to respond. He ends up kissing her hand, rather awkwardly, and smiling at her. “Thanks, Petra. You're the best, you know that?”

Petra shakes her head, chuckling. “You make such exaggerations, Yuji.” She says.

“No, I mean it.” He tells her, squeezing her hand.

She squeezes back, kissing his knuckles just like he did hers.

Yuji looks at her for a few seconds, beaming like an idiot. How did he score someone so awesome?

He turns around when he feels Dimitri tap on his shoulder, the lord’s bright blue eyes displaying an emotion Yuji can't quite place. “Is everything okay, Dimitri?” He asks, tilting his head.

Petra doesn't let go of his hand, standing beside him and letting their arms fall to their sides.

“I'm fine. I just wanted to alert you that Professor Byleth is making their usual rounds this week. It's the first time since Jeralt’s death that they've done it, so please, offer condolences and support. Especially your strength in these trying times. I know you don't know them quite as well as some of the rest of us, but you must understand that-” Dimitri starts. Yuji can place the emotion now. Worry.

“Hey, don't worry.” Yuji says, nodding at him. “Of course I'll give them condolences. I know how hard it is to lose a parent.” He doesn't remember his mom or dad, they died when he was only a toddler, but his grandfather, he does remember. He’ll never forget the man who raised him. Byleth won't ever forget Jeralt.

Dimitri’s nervous face softens, and he pats Yuji’s shoulder. “As do I. We must let them know they are supported and cared for. And if they need us to help them hunt down the bastards who did this, we will.”

Yuji thinks about his grandfather, remembering how his face was always so stern and tense. How he only smiled when Yuji made friends. How adamant he was that Yuji not linger on him once he passed on. How much he wanted Yuji to be a good person who helped others. 

Dimitri runs off, and Petra squeezes his hand once again. “Are you okay?” She asks, noticing his zoned out expression.

“Huh? Oh. Yeah. Just thinking about my grandpa. He basically raised me.” Yuji says, looking back at her. “He died a few months ago. It's fine, really, it is. I just miss him sometimes. Professor Byleth’s got it worse right now, though, I shouldn't be mentioning it.” He adds sheepishly, feeling a little guilty for talking about himself.

“I was not asking about the Professor. I was asking about you.” Petra tells him firmly, tilting her head. “You can't be brushing off feelings of grief. In Brigid, we are encouraging each other to let our feelings out. We are screaming with anger and crying with sadness. You should be trying this, too. If you would ever like to, I will join you.”

Yuji blinks at her, processing what she's just said. “How do you know I need to let my feelings out? What makes you say that?” He asks.

Petra shakes her head. “Not a one of us can be happy always. We must be weeping and yelling when we want to.” She tells him simply. “Please, come to me if you ever want to let everything out. Or even just have a talking about things.” 

“Yuji. Petra. Nice to see you.”

Yuji jumps a little, turning to look at Byleth, who seems to have just appeared behind them. Byleth always looks blank, and their face is always an unreadable wall. But it's been saddened. Weighed down by grief and hardened with bitterness. 

“Professor, how are you feeling?” He asks them cautiously. They don't give much of a response, really just a hum.

“Yuji and myself are deeply sorry for the loss of Jeralt. If there is anything we can be doing, please be letting us know.” Petra says, bowing deeply as a gesture of condolence.

Yuji nods, doing the same bow. “If you need anything, just ask. It's horrible to lose a parent, I know. If you want to go hunting for the person who did this, I'll go with you.”

Byleth looks at him for a moment, their solemn gaze thoughtful. “I may have to take you up on that, Yuji. I’d hate to ask such a thing of you, but those who did this have to pay.” They tell him, their voice quieter than he’s ever heard it. 

“Don’t hesitate to ask.” Yuji says firmly. 

The rest of the day is mostly normal. Yuji trains with Sylvain, Felix, and Ingrid for a few hours, and then he meets up with Megumi and Nobara in the library to talk about if they've come up with anything new.

Nothing.

He's walking back to his dorm, resolutely ignoring Sukuna’s taunts about Petra being too good for him, when he hears it. It's quiet, barely audible, but it's there. A whisper of something, followed by the sound of running footsteps. He turns around, looking down the dark hallway of the second floor dorms.

Nothing.

And then he hears it again. Another whisper, more running. 

He turns, walking the opposite way to his dorm as he tries to pinpoint where it's coming from. Sure, it might be Sylvain and some girl. But there’s no giggling. Maybe it’s Claude running around hiding new poisons around people’s rooms. But the footsteps are too heavy to be him.

The steps quicken, and Yuji breaks into a run, shooting off down the hall. He runs out of the dorms, racing down a flight of stairs and out one of the doors to the courtyard. He pauses there, taking a second to listen to his surroundings. The hairs on the back of his neck are standing, and he knows that’s not from the cold night air. 

The night is still, the wind barely making a sound. Sukuna’s eerily silent too. It’s all wrong

Yuji decides he’ll take a lap around the monastery and make sure everything’s as it should be. Maybe there’s guards out to do that, but you can never be too careful.

He walks around, heading past the long line of dormitories on the first floor and starting to climb the stone steps leading to the path up to the training grounds.

A cloaked figure stands near the training ground doors. The person looks at him, and Yuji sees a pale face, orange eyes, and a devilish grin. He doesn’t recognize them. They start running off away from him, through to the courtyard area near the classrooms.

Yuji should shout.

He should alert the whole monastery.

Professor Byleth’s door is right fucking there, he should bang on it and wake them up.

But of course, Yuji Itadori is a fucking idiot.

He chases them without hesitation, charging after them. He can easily catch up with them, they’re not especially fast, and Yuji can run quicker than a car.

He’s right behind them, reaching for the black cloak they’re hiding beneath, when they whirl around and send a blast of Misama right into his stomach.

Yuji should be able to get up and immediately keep running. He should barely be affected by this.

But he’d had no time to brace himself, and whoever cast it was fucking strong.  

He’s blasted back instantly, the wind knocked out of him. He expects to land on cold, hard stone, but he instead flies into someone’s arms. He has a brief, fleeting moment of excitement. It must be a knight out on a patrol, or maybe Felix was doing another one of his late night training sessions and was coming to help him.

But when he tries to regain his footing, he’s dragged backwards. He glances behind him, realizing that whoever’s holding him looks just like the people who were backing up Solon and the Death Knight at Remire Village.

Stupid kid. Look what you’ve done now.

Yuji doesn’t have time to tell Sukuna to fuck off like he wants to because the mage holding him taps his forehead and his vision blurs. Lights swirl in front of him, or maybe they’re in his mind, he can’t tell. Whatever it is, he feels himself go limp, exhaustion gripping at every part of his body.

“Great! Thales is gonna be real happy with this one! I don’t know why he wanted a crestless dog, but I’m on thin ice already. I guess it’s best we caught him.” 

Yuji knows that giggly, airy voice. That’s the fucker who killed Jeralt. He can’t lift his head to look at her, his whole body feeling like it’s made of lead. Fuck. 

There’s a flash of pink, and Yuji recognizes the sound of a warp spell. Double fuck.

He’s out cold before the warp spell even ends.

***

It’s been five days since Yuji went missing, and Megumi has been a fucking wreck for those five days. He and Nobara spend every night searching the monastery, every place someone could hide. They’ve asked around Abyss, nothing. They’ve asked the knights where he may have gone, nothing.

Asking Rhea and Seteth to do more to try and find him is a fucking infuriating, fruitless endeavor. 

“We are doing all that we can. I promise you, we’ll find Yuji eventually.” Seteth always insists.

“I send a prayer to the goddess each morning and each night, asking her to grant him protection and facilitate his safe return to us. I suggest you children do the same.” Rhea always tells them.

Megumi’s going to lose it soon. They don’t care.

It took literal fucking hours of debating with Seteth until he finally caved and decided that it would be a good idea to switch the Golden Deer’s end of the month mission to searching for Yuji instead of going out and helping build a barricade for a trade route.

He’s noticed that Nobara has been much more violently angry than usual, and she snaps at the slightest comments now. 

They’re both starting to crack without him.

Megumi’s spent most of his time in Abyss this week, sometimes passing out over textbooks that he can't decipher and forgetting to go up to his room. Yuri’s stopped waking him up to go back up to the surface, and instead wraps him in a few blankets so he's comfortable when he wakes up.

He wakes up on the sixth morning of Yuji’s absence with Yuri sitting beside him, gently rubbing his back. “You should get back to the surface. Hannamen’s probably freaking out over all the classes you've skipped.”

Megumi shakes his head. “I can't. He's still missing. I need to find him. Some clue, a map to somewhere, a spell to locate him. Something .” He can't just give up on Yuji. He knows Nobara’s doing the same thing up on the surface.

“Megumi, go back to the monastery.” Yuri says firmly. “I’ll keep looking through these for you. I've heard from you how strong he is anyway. Wherever he is, I'm sure he's fine.”

Megumi shakes his head, refusing to go up and just go to class while Yuji could be in danger. “I can't until I find something to lead me to him.”

Yuri reaches over and shuts the book in front of him. “You're not going to find it in some old dusty book down here. Go up and go to class and I'll see you later, okay? You need a break.” His tone leaves no room for argument, pulling Megumi up by his arm.

Megumi can't stop himself from feeling flattered, and he knows Yuri’s right. “Fine. But I'll be back once the school day’s over.” He says, like it's a threat.

Yuri rolls his eyes, taking Megumi’s hand and leading him to the stairs back up to the surface. “I know. Now go take it easy.” He says, holding up Megumi’s hand to his lips and gently kissing his knuckles.

Megumi pops up through the trap door in the alleyway, pulling himself up and dusting off his uniform. He sighs, tucking his nose down into his turtleneck as he walks off to the Black Eagles classroom. 

He’s late, but Hanneman doesn't say anything. He sits at his side of the desk next to Edelgard, who looks at him with a small, near imperceptible, bit of concern in her lavender eyes.

Megumi doesn't pay attention to the lesson on faith magic, but it doesn't really matter to him. He's shit at it anyway, and he doesn't have any incentive to get better.

When the church bells ring, signaling lunch, Megumi doesn't move out of his seat. He stares at the empty pages of his notebook he should have been writing in. Images of Yuji’s heart, removed from his body by the demon controlling it, flash in his mind. The last time he lost Yuji, he swore to himself it would never happen again. Yet here he is, away from him, helpless and unable to do anything about it.

“Megumi?” Edelgard’s voice snaps him out of his mild spiral, and he looks over at her. She stares at him, brow furrowed and lips pressed into a thin line. “Are you okay?” She asks.

Megumi sighs, standing up and grabbing his notebook. “No, no, I'm fine. Don't worry about me. I'm just thinking about Yuji, that's all.” He says, waving her off. He should go to the library and meet up with Nobara.

Edelgard shakes her head, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Come on. Come to the dining hall. You've been overworking yourself as of late, it's not healthy. It won't help Yuji if you're too tired to think straight. Petra’s worried too, we all are, you're not alone in this.”

Megumi thinks back on Yuri’s words to him earlier, and he knows they're both right. He nods at her, and she keeps her hand on his shoulder as she leads him out of the classroom.

She doesn't say anything to him as they walk, which Megumi appreciates. It's nice to have some quiet company.

It’s interrupted quick, though. Byleth stops them in the courtyard, blank, blue gaze zeroed in on Megumi. 

“Oh. Hello, Professor. Do you need something?” Edelgard asks.

“Megumi, we’re missing Yuji at the moment.” Byleth starts. They sound monotone, like they're discussing something normal, but Megumi thinks he can sense some kind of genuine sadness or anxiety within them. “We've come to rely on him quite a lot in our missions, would you be available at the end of the month to assist us? I've heard raving reviews about your skill in battle, and we could use the help to fill his absence.”

Megumi looks over at Edelgard, checking with her if it's okay for him to help out. She nods, though it's slightly reluctant. “Of course I will. It's…difficult to do anything without Yuji once you've gotten used to him.”

There's a small twitch in Byleth’s face, a frown crossing it. “I know. I'm sorry. The Golden Deer’s mission has been changed to be a search party for him. I know they'll find him.” They tell him quietly.

Megumi hopes they're right with all his heart.

***

Yuji has no idea where he is. He's been alone in this pitch black ass room for what feels like weeks now.

Maybe it's been hours, maybe it's been days. He really can't tell. There’s no sun to rise and set, no clock to tick away the hours, no shadows to measure against the light. He gave up counting in his head after three minutes.

He can't count off the seconds on his fingers, as something metal has his wrists shut to the floor. He's tried to rip them apart several times now, and each time he's been met with a dull aching pain spreading through his body, leaving weakness when it dissipates. He assumes they're enchanted with something, but he doesn't know enough about magic to tell what it is.

He's been pulling at them for a while and he's too tired to keep going, so instead he’s just trying to converse in a normal manner with Sukuna to keep himself from going insane. It might be smarter to sit in silence.

“You know where we are, right?” He asks, staring at the unending void in front of them.

“I actually don't. I know who caught you, and I know you’ll probably die here. But I don't know where we are.” Sukuna answers, sounding bored.

“Might be the first drama answer you've given me since we've gotten here.”

“That should give you an idea of how dull this is for me.”

Yuji doesn't really have anything to say to that, so he just sits on the stone floor where he's kneeling, clicking his tongue and humming a song he heard in Gojo’s car once, though he doesn't remember what it's called.

He stops humming when he hears something. A scratch, a squeak. A rat, he realizes. 

He sighs, looking down to rest his head for a bit. Well, he thinks it's down. It's hard to tell.

For the first time, light appears in the corner of Yuji’s eye.

The rat squeals, and he hears burning when he looks over.

Its small carcass is burning to ash when he looks over at it. His eyes dart up the trail of flames, landing on pale fingertips, the blaze shooting off of that hand and across his vision.

A torch on a wall he didn't know was there lights up, and three others do too immediately after.

Yuji’s eyes burn and start to water from the sudden light, and he grimaces as he looks around. “Fuck-”

“Silence, beast.”

The voice sneering at him is the same from Remire. Yuji feels his blood boil, and immediately tries to stand up and launch himself at the big foreheaded bitch in front of him, but his restraints drain him of what little strength he has at the moment.

“What the fuck do you want? Where am I?” Yuji snarls, collapsing back to the ground. He hates this. He can't get up, can't move, can't fight .

“ You are unimportant. It's what you house that you're here for. You're nothing but a yammering dog.” Solon says coldly, turning away from him.

Of course I'm here because of you.

Whose fault is it that they got caught off guard, huh? If I'd been in control they never would have-

Fuck off.

Sukuna seems to take it upon himself to lead the conversation with the shithead in front of them, much to Yuji’s distress.

“Well then you and the brat have something in common, don't you? Where's your master, huh?” Sukuna sneers from his cheek, laughing as he says it.

Solon crouches down and grabs Yuji’s face, forcing it to one side so he can stare directly at the bright scarlet eye beneath Yuji’s own. “He has better things to concern himself with than whatever scrap of your soul remains here.” 

“No he doesn't. He's a scared pussy bitch. That's why he sent a worthless fool like yourself.” Sukuna snaps back. “Because you're expendable. It won't matter when I remove your flesh from your bones.”

Electricity shoots through Yuji’s body, and he grits his teeth, forcing himself not to shriek as he watches lightning shoot from Solon’s fingertips. He lets out a strangled cry through his clenched teeth, and gasps once he relents.

“Be smart, devil. Don't think we won't immediately kill your new body if this doesn't work out.” Solon threatens as he lets go of Yuji’s head and straightens up.

Yuji coughs, glaring at him. 

Well, joke’s on him. I don't give a shit if you die.

Yeah, I know you don't. “What the hell do you mean if this doesn't work out?” Yuji manages, wheezing a little as he talks.

“I don't have to tell you anything, but I suppose I can humor you.” Solon says, irritation subsiding and giving way to smugness. “A crest gives a person power beyond the limitations of a human body. And the entity within you possesses power beyond anything since the King of Liberation and Seiros themselves. A combination of the two on our side would be of devastating power.”

Yuji snorts, amused by the absolute bullshit this guy's spouting. “Really? You think he's gonna listen to you? He doesn't even listen to me and we share a brain.” He sneers.

Solon rolls his one normal eye, the strange orb that bulges in his other socket not moving at all, remaining fixed upon Yuji. “He doesn't need to listen to anything. All he needs to do is kill, and that's what he does best. If we get caught in the crossfire, that's no worry. Everyone is replaceable.”

Yuji shakes his head, watching Solon turn away from him and pick something off a table. “I thought a person had to be born with a crest. And I wasn't. You can't just give me one.” From everything he's been told about this world, you either have a crest or you don't. There's no way around it, and it dictates your whole life from there.

Silver flashes across Yuji’s vision, the glinting metal of a blade catching in the dim torch light. 

Yuji doesn't shout when it digs into his flesh. He bites his tongue and glares as dark red blood dribbles down his forearm, set on not making a single noise. He won't give them victory that easily.

“That's what the church believes.” Solon says, removing the knife from where he'd dragged it over the crook of Yuji’s elbow. “They're all fools, aren't they?” He hums.

Yuji closes his eyes and forces himself not to think about the splitting pain in his arm as fingers spread the fresh wound apart.

He doesn't think about the burning pain of something foreign slowly dripping into his cut, like hot lava searing him from the inside.

He doesn't think about anything. Nothing other than how good it's going to feel when he breaks himself out of here and beats Solon to a bloody pulp on the ground.

In the back of his mind, Sukuna chuckles.

***

When Megumi finds the Blue Lions at their briefing, he sees no one in high spirits. Not even Annette, who he thinks he's never seen without a smile before. Dimitri’s holding his lance so hard Megumi thinks he might break it. Upon closer inspection, he realizes he's already splintered it a little. Dedue and Felix have somehow managed to look even more somber than they usually do, and it's not hard to see rage in Felix’s amber eyes. Ashe has seemed on the verge of tears all month, especially after Yuji went missing, but he seems to have pulled himself together a bit. Mercedes and Annette are holding onto each other tightly, hanging on Byleth's every word. Sylvain’s not wearing his signature grin. Ingrid looks about ready for murder.

He realizes why once Byleth looks at him, their deadpan  voice softening immediately when they explain to him that a witness from the night Yuji went missing had come forward and explained that they saw Monica, the student responsible for Jeralt’s death, warp away with him.

Megumi doesn't have to ask before Byleth confirms their mission is hunting her down. In their words, it's for both a rescue, and revenge.

The briefing is aptly named apparently, as it's over within a few minutes. It might be the single time Megumi’s seen real emotion on Byleth’s face. Cold fury.

They set off for the Sealed Forest without delay, and the carriage ride there holds only heavy silence. He's seated with Ashe, Felix, and Annette, who continue glancing over at him like he's a bomb about to explode.

Megumi supposes he's been quite erratic in the weeks Yuji’s been gone. Maybe they expect him to launch himself out of the carriage and start wildly attacking everything in sight. He almost laughs at the thought, remembering the time Yuri exasperatedly regaled him with the story of how Balthus had jumped into a hoarder of debt collectors and nearly gotten his arms ripped off.

Megumi’s not one of those people, luckily.

“You guys don't have to worry about me, you know. I won't do anything stupid and endanger us by looking for Yuji.” Megumi declares out of nowhere, deciding he doesn't want to have to deal with their side eyes all ride.

“Of course we don't think you’ll do anything rash, Megumi.” Ashe stresses immediately, trying to backtrack on what Megumi clearly took as them thinking he's a liability. “We know you're more than competent on the battlefield, we’re just…”

“Worried about you.” Annette jumps in. “You haven’t exactly been the most stable guy lately. You just seem…I dunno, kinda like a nervous wreck.” She pauses, biting her lip. “No- no I don't mean…shoot, sorry.”

Megumi sighs. He's not surprised. “Trust me. I'm fine. I'm just worried about my friend, that's all. And if we don't find him here, that's okay, the Golden Deer are searching for him too today.” He says, reciting exactly what Nobara’s been telling him  -and herself- for the past several days.

“That's all fine, but you haven't been training for basically the whole month. You're rusty.” Felix continues Annette’s point, and he grunts when she kicks his shin as a warning for him to stop

Megumi feels his eye twitch slightly. How Yuji deals with Felix is beyond him. Yuji actually seems to like the guy. Whatever. “I'm not rusty. I can promise you that I won’t be a liability, and I won't get myself hurt.”

It's true that Megumi hasn't been sparring or going to classes, and neither has Nobara. They've spent most of their time in the libraries, either in the church or in Abyss, and what little time they weren't searching for clues about Yuji, they'd spent in their dorms discussing theories on where he could be. Megumi had started summoning his divine dogs again, even though it's a bit of a risk since anyone could come into their dorms, just for some extra company now. Twice, he and Nobara had fallen asleep on top of those dogs after talking about plans to find Yuji for most of the night. 

Nobody says anything after that, but Felix releases a skeptical scoff.

When their carriage rolls to a stop, their drivers ride off with their horses immediately, obviously wanting to be as far from this mission as possible.

“The Sealed Forest is up ahead. Stay alert.” Dedue states.

“This is for Yuji and Captain Jeralt. I will not falter.” Ingrid says as she surveys the trees from atop her Pegasus.

“Leave it to us, professor. I'll give it my all.” Ashe reassures Byleth, a comforting hand on their shoulder.

Sylvain sighs, pulling his horse’s trot to a stop beside Megumi. “Fighting Tomas…it might be difficult.”

“I don't love the idea of fighting people we know.” Mercedes’ voice comes out as nothing but a whisper, and Megumi finds himself slightly irritated at her guilt, even though he knows he shouldn't feel that way. These people probably took Yuji. Fuck whatever relationships they have, they're going to pay.

“We don't have a choice. An enemy’s an enemy, we've just got to get this over with.” Annette protests, and Megumi finds he gains a bit more respect for her.

“Just kill them from behind. As long as you don't see their faces, you won't know you know them.” Felix advises.

“Won't see their faces. Yes, I suppose that's true. Professor, Megumi, you both have the full support of all the Blue Lions. And we will cut down anyone with ties to Jeralt’s death or Yuji’s disappearance without hesitation. I promise you this.” Dimitri says.

“That's reassuring.” Byleth says, nodding and pulling the Sword of the Creator from their belt.

“Yes...right. We'll fulfill our duty together. We've come this far. We can't stop now. I hope you know that you can rely on us. No matter who the enemy is, we are prepared to cut them down.” Dimitri clenches his armored fists, squeezing the silver lance in his right.

They make their way through the trees carefully, but there's a clearing just up ahead, and it's obvious the enemy is stationed there.

“Demonic beasts. It was always their intention to lure us here.” Dimitri says as they approach.

Barely, Megumi's able to spot Monica at the top of the hill they're at the bottom of. He remembers when she joined their class. He hadn't talked to her much, but she’d seemed nice. Thank god he has trust issues.

“Hello! You're here! Welcome to the forest of death! My name is Kronya. This weakling girl was just a borrowed look for me.” Monica calls out. She shifts a bit where she's standing.

And her skin starts to shed off her body. Red hair gives way to orange, ivory skin is torn away to reveal pure white. Three scorpion-like tails appear from her back, curled over her head. She holds two daggers in her hand, and there's a flash of a wide grin on her face.

Megumi really fucking hates this place.

“This is what I really look like! Now, you vermin, I'll take down every last one of you!” She shouts.

Byleth charges forward without a moment’s hesitation, wrapping their sword around the mage closest to them and throwing them into the demonic beast blocking their path. 

“Split off, we can make a pincer attack on Kronya!” Dimitri shouts, following after Byleth.

Annette, Mercedes, and Dedue all rush after them. 

Megumi, Felix, Sylvain, and Ingrid go the opposite direction.

Ingrid reaches the beast in front of them first and wastes no time, ripping her blessed lance across the side of its neck and weaving out of the way of its claws. She draws back, flying above it in circles to disorient it.

Sylvain and Felix get there before Megumi, which is good since Megumi’s found that magic tends to not do much against these beasts until their armor has been cracked away. 

Megumi waits until he sees the beast stagger back before he fires off Luna Λ at it, watching the enormous moon fade into the air behind it, shattering the remaining fragments of the stones around its head fall away.

Ingrid comes down hard on the top of its skull from above, stabbing her lance completely through it.

Megumi realizes why Yuji so often praises these three in particular in combat. While Megumi’s certainly useful, he's killing everyone they don't, they're really doing much of the heavy lifting here.

Ingrid is fast and knows how to keep herself from getting hit. While she doesn't have the power that the other two do, she's able to hit just about anyone and avoid a hit from practically anything. She rides her Pegasus masterfully, and her lance strikes are calculated and precise.

Sylvain is able to take more hits than the other two, and he's strong enough to take people out in just one swing of a steel lance. His horse doesn't scare easily, and he's great at creating openings for Megumi or Ingrid to use to get a kill.

Felix is probably the most deadly of the three of them, though. He darts around the battlefield, striking swiftly and with staggering strength. He cuts down enemies like butter with only two strikes of his sword, and he doesn't give a second of pause when he does.

Megumi waits until they've cleared enough of a path for him to get a clear shot on Kronya. Most of the soldiers backing her are occupied dealing with the other Blue Lions, and she's dodging blows from Byleth and Dimitri at the moment.

He waits for a few seconds more, watching Dimitri land a solid hit with the pile of his lance directly into her stomach, throwing her onto her back.

Megumi, going unnoticed behind her, casts Banshee Θ, watching tendrils of smoke and screeching souls wrap around her, squeezing and ripping at her white flesh.

Kronya whirls around to glare at him, struggling against the hoard of spirits attacking her. She grins upon seeing his face, laughing slightly. “Your friend has such funny little screams.” She says, eyes wide and manic.

Megumi’s concentration on the spell falters for a split second, and he knows that's what she wanted. She throws a dagger at him that grazes his cheek, splitting a bit of skin there, and frees herself from the swirling he'll he had her trapped in.

She's laughing.

Yuji’s probably crying right now.

Megumi loses it.

He lunges at her, pulling the killing edge Edelgard had bought for him. She jumps back, but Megumi’s faster. He reinforces his stomach with cursed energy, her dagger strike there barely leaving a scratch, and slices his sword from her neck down to her stomach. He watches as black blood pours from the gash he struck her with, staining the grass.

She chokes and coughs, gasping as more blood escapes from her pallid lips. She rushes away from Megumi, narrowly avoiding a stab to her back, and quickly casts a faith spell on herself. It's just barely enough to keep her alive as she runs.

Byleth charges after her, and the two of them disappear into the trees almost immediately.

“Come on, we have to catch up with them!” Dimitri commands, slicing his lance through one of Kronya’s soldiers.

Megumi looks at him, staring stupidly. He feels stupid. Yuji’s suffering. She knows where he is. 

She knows where he is.

Fuck.

Byleth’s going to kill her.

Fuck.

He runs into the trees, trying desperately to speed up enough to catch up with them. Fuck fuck fuck.

Someone grabs him by the back of the collar of his robe, and Megumi’s about to stab them, but he sees a flash of red hair and realizes that it's Sylvain, throwing him into the back of his horse to get him to Byleth faster. “They won't kill her. Not now that they know she has information about Yuji.” He says, snapping his reins.

Megumi notices the uncertainty in his voice. And he notices how he makes his horse speed up.

Megumi jumps off the horse when they reach a clearing.

He supposes it's only a clearing for a for a few moments, as some dark purple smoke has fully engulfed it, and Byleth has disappeared behind those walls of darkness.

When the smoke dissipates, Kronya lays dead on the ground, heart gouged from her body. And Byleth is nowhere to be found.

Solon stands over Kronya’s bloodied corpse, a small smile on his distorted face.

“What was that sorcery? What happened to our professor?” Dimitri demands, raising his lance as Solon turns to look at him.

“They were swallowed by the mystical darkness of the forbidden spell. An eternity wandering in a void of darkness, never to return to this world. To think we almost had the Sword of the Creator …” Solon says, sounding equal parts bored and smug.

“That's a lie! There's no way our professor really is dead!” Annette shouts, running up to meet with the rest of the Blue Lions, all of whom have caught up now.

Dedue nods, raising his iron shield in case Solon decides to attack. “I do not believe they have really fallen.” He agrees.

Solon huffs, now appearing irritated. “It is possible that death has yet to find your friend. But there are worse things than death. Drifting through the darkness with no chance to escape...Overwhelmed with hopelessness... It must be torturous.” He sneers.

Megumi narrows his eyes, considering this. There's something strange about Byleth. He noticed it first when he realized how Yuji would stare at them every time he wasn't actively focused on something else. They display less emotion that himself, which is a feat he didn't think was possible. Their sword is referred to as a lost legend of sorts, from what he's gathered from books in the library. Not to mention, their strength is comparable to that of an actual sorcerer back home. 

Megumi is not a hopeful person. He's a realist, a pragmatist. He doesn't put blind faith in anything.

But there's a nagging feeling in his gut that tells him with full certainty, “They're not dead. They'll find a way back.”

Dimitri looks over at him, maybe a little surprised by his words. “You're right.” He says with a nod. He turns to Solon, and Megumi sees the fiery rage that fills his eyes when he lays them upon the man. “But first, let's destroy this fiend! I'll slice you into a thousand pieces as we watch with horror... You will know true pain before I finally allow you to die!” He roars and lunges at Solon without another second of though.

Solon ducks away from the vicious lance swing directed at his head, baring his teeth in a snarl at Dimitri. “How trite. But if you wish for pain, I shall oblige. If you prefer it so, you shall also be added to the ranks of the dead.”

Felix is the first to rush forward, slicing down at Solon’s head. He only manages to graze his face before he's warped to the top of the hill they're fighting on, leaving them alone in the clearing.

Well, alone for only a few seconds as Demonic Beasts and other soldiers have already started to be warped in, and are converging on their location, hidden within a few bushes that offer a bit of cover.

“Your highness, what do you want us to do?” Dedue asks, blocking an incoming arrow aimed for Ingrid, holding his shield in front of her as she slowly brings her winged horse down to the ground.

Dimitri looks around for a moment, deflecting a fireball with his lance with a grunt. “We should split off into two groups again and attack him from both sides. It's going to be difficult without-”

He's cut off mid sentence by a loud yell and an explosion of light from in front of them. It's like a rip in the air itself, a slash in the sky, glowing bright white as something tears apart the world from the inside.

There's a flash of orange, and something leaps out of the rift, The Sword of the Creator glowing in their hand.

The rift closes up and Byleth rises to their full height, spinning their sword in their hand.

Their hair is pale green, the same as their eyes now are. Like Rhea’s or Flayn’s.

“So the Fell Star consumes even the darkness itself.” Solon whispers, horrified.

Dimitri gets up slowly from where he's crouched, lips parted and eyes wide. “Professor…it is you, isn't it? I am glad you're safe. I knew you'd return. Please tell me all that happened later. First, we must kill that demon!” He calls out to them.

Byleth turns and nods at him before rushing up to the great knight in front of them and slicing their sword across his chest, the radiant blade cutting through his armor like butter.

Solon says something under his breath, but Megumi doesn't hear. He takes off running, this time splitting off with only Felix and Dimitri.

Dimitri charges ahead and throws his steel lance at the demonic beast they're approaching. The weapon immediately gets lodged in the monster’s skull. Dimitri jumps, grabbing the spear’s shaft, and rips it up, cutting through its head ruthlessly.

Felix darts in immediately after Dimitri jumps back. He jumps on top of the monstrosity’s arm when it swings its claws at him and runs up its arm, clinging to the crest stones surrounding its face as he stops on the back of its neck. He slams his sword down, stabbing it directly through its neck and drags the steel blade back, rough scales flying off in every direction.

Megumi waits until Felix has jumped off the monster’s back before he moves in and casts Mire B. A mountain of toxic purple sludge crashes down onto it. The beast roars loudly and collapses on the ground, corpse disintegrating before Megumi’s eyes.

He doesn't waste a second and takes off towards the next few enemy soldiers in front of them, Felix already starting to cut them down. Dimitri mows through the mages before them, and all it takes to get rid of the heavily armored knights is a few Misama spells.

When Megumi reaches the top of the hill, Byleth and Solon are already locked in combat.

Fuck. He can't die yet. I need to find out where Yuji is.

He runs in, not caring that Felix is shouting at him not to. He doesn't give a fuck if he gets caught in the crossfire. A strike from Byleth or Solon isn't going to be enough to kill him. Probably.

He ducks under a whip strike from Byleth’s sword and kicks Solon in the back, reinforcing the strike with a slight bit of cursed energy. He hears a crack. Good sign.

Solon tumbles across the grass and lands on his back. He tries to pull himself to his feet.

But Sylvain’s already behind him.

And a spear is now lodged in his stomach.

“NO! STOP!” Megumi shouts, tearing across the ground. He skids across the grass, kicking up dirt behind him as he comes to a stop. He grabs onto the collar of Solon’s robes, yanking him up. He doesn't have much time before this fucker dies. “Yuji. Where is he.” He snarls.

Solon coughs out a laugh, purple blood spilling onto Megumi’s hands and chest. “Foolish beast. By the time you find him, he won’t be in control. Go look for him if you wish. Perhaps the blood trail will be enough to lead you through the Abyss tunnels.” He sneers.

Megumi drops Solon onto the ground. His hands are shaking as he watches the man bleed out. He rips the spear out of his chest, reveling a little in the way he chokes and sputters, drowning in his own blood.

Megumi’s satisfaction disappears immediately once he stops moving though, and the weight of his words come rushing into his mind.

Fuck.

They're going to put Sukuna in control of his body.

He's in the Abyss tunnels…Sukuna’s in the Abyss tunnels.

Megumi can't wait for the carriages. They take too much time. They move slowly. There's always a debriefing. A warp spell won't take him far enough. 

The Golden Deer are searching Abyss right now, Nobara’s capable.

Yuri’s face flashes in Megumi’s mind.

And every little bit of logic escapes him. 

Because as cunning and quick as Yuri is, he’s nowhere near a match for Sukuna.

“Get back to Garreg Mach as fast as you can. Get healers down to the tunnels.” Megumi directs, looking behind him at the Blue Lions gathered there.

“What? What are you talking about?” Dimitri asks, looking away from his conversation with Byleth.

“Be careful. You guys are injured, don't go down there. Just send healers. And get back there fast.” Megumi’s trembling a bit as he interlocks his thumbs, spreading the rest of his fingers outwards. He races off into the trees, ignoring the shouts of the rest of the students behind him. He keeps running until he's in the dark, enough that they won't see him. “Nue.” He whispers. The enormous orange bird appears from the shadows instantly, hooking its claws into the robes on Megumi’s shoulders.

He has Nue barely fly above the trees, hoping -most likely in vain- that they won't see him.

The bird flying him across the skies, wind whipping at his face, is so familiar. And gods, how he's missed it.

He hopes next time it happens, he’ll be able to enjoy it.

***

Yuji has long since given up on remaining stoic in the face of the excruciating pain they're putting him through. Whatever they're doing with his blood is fucking horrific. 

Yuji feels as though he's rotting from the inside out, his very veins screaming in protest every time they inject something new into them.

The chains continue to drain him off all his remaining energy. He has no strength left to give. The only thing he can feel is pain. And, of course, his own blood slowly trickling from the many gashes now littering his body

A scream is torn from his throat as another foreign substance enters one of his wounds. He thinks it's blood. But why does it burn if that's the case? Fuck, he's too tired to think.

You’ll die if this keeps up, brat. You have to switch.

No I don't…I'll never give you control again.

You’ll die. And I won't bring you back this time, boy.

Then I'll die.

Sukuna goes silent after that. And another wave of pain wracks Yuji’s body as more unknown blood is forced into his system.

Sukuna…I don't want to die. Not here. Not alone like this. He thinks, remembering his grandfather’s words, telling him to be surrounded by his loved ones when he dies. He can't die here. Not like this…

Then don't.

Yuji shakes his head weakly. How long has he been here for? How long will they keep this up? How much more of this can he take?  He can already feel himself slipping into unconsciousness.

Into unconsciousness? No. No, that's happened before while he's here. This isn't fainting. This isn't slumber.

This is …loss.

Loss of his control.

His hold on his body is slipping.

He can feel it.

He can feel Sukuna slowly pushing him out of the driver’s seat. 

He can feel himself sliding into the back seat, laying there on the floor like a corpse.

“No…no no no no…” he whispers, desperately scrambling to hang onto any shred of control he can find.

“Go to sleep, kid. It's out of your hands now.” Sukuna tells him. Through Yuji’s lips. 

And Yuji can do nothing but slip away into the deepest confines of wherever his mind goes when Sukuna’s takes its place within his skull.

***

Nobara doesn’t like these Abyss tunnels. They’re dark and they’re so tall and wide that the walls are difficult to see in all the darkness. They're labyrinthine and full of traps. Yuri obviously knows his way around the best, but Hapi, Constance, and Balthus are all familiar enough with the place too. Nobara’s gotten to know the four of them a little better over the past few weeks since she’s been down here with Megumi so much, researching everything. Searching for Yuji.

Yuri apparently did a quick search of some of the tunnels that weren’t as deep and found nothing. But Nobara knows that if Yuji’s down here, he’s deep in. 

Lysithea and Claude are walking beside her, just behind Hilda and Balthus, who are chatting and catching up on lost time. Apparently, they knew each other when they were little. Nobara feels a bit guilty, she hasn’t been listening to Hilda as tentatively as she usually does.

“Nobara? Are you okay?” Lysithea asks, looking up from her spellbook to glance at the other girl.

Nobara nods at her curtly. “Yeah. I’m fine. Why wouldn’t I be?” Her voice comes off a bit snappish, and that makes Lysithea scowl. It’s a little funny, honestly, how similar Lysithea and her are in some ways. That’s probably why they get along so well.

“Well, you haven’t been sleeping and you haven’t been gawking at Hilda for the past hour, so-” Claude starts, and Nobara gives him a friendly punch to the arm. He grins at her. “But, seriously, it’s all gonna be alright. I’m sure wherever he is, he’s fine. I’ve seen him train before, he’s a fucking monster. Stronger than Dimitri, even.”

The word monster being used in relation to Yuji almost makes Nobara wince. Claude doesn’t mean it in that way, of course not. But, still, it's not good to hear.

“You three should keep it down. If Yuji really is down here and he’s held hostage, you’re not going to want to alert whoever’s keeping him here.” Shamir says from in front of them, her bow somehow not glinting in the dim light, as she’s mastered the art of keeping herself hidden.

Nobara, Hilda, Claude, and Lysithea had a bit of a celebration when they realized Shamir was the knight assigned to them to help with this month’s mission. Hilda and Nobara both thought she was hot as all fuck, Claude was in awe of her archery, and Lysithea proclaimed that Shamir was exactly the kind of person she aspired to be. Nobara has to agree. The woman is terrifying. And absolutely fucking awesome.

The three of them fall silent, as do Hilda and Balthus, the latter looking a bit sheepish.

Yuri turns a sharp corner into another tunnel, this one leading down a steep slope. How far under are we? She asks herself as they trudge deeper and deeper into the catacombs.

“Wait. Stop. I hear something. Up ahead.” Hapi says, pulling her horse’s reins back and guiding it to a stop. Constance’s dark-feathered Pegasus stops mid air too.

Nobara freezes.

Her blood runs cold.

The energy of their surroundings has changed.

Fear. It’s gripping every part of her. A fear so deep it can’t be natural.

It’s cursed energy. An overwhelming amount.

An amount she’s only ever felt one other time. A pressure that can only be linked to one person.

One creature.

There’s several screams from up ahead. Then silence.

And then a laugh echoes around the tunnels.

A cold, maniacal, terrifying laugh.

“All of you need to get the fuck out of here.” Nobara says. Fuck their cover, fuck this secrecy. All of these people are about to die. She ignores the questions and pushes past Yuri to get to the front. “Evacuate everyone out of Abyss. Get them all somewhere safe. I’ll give you guys as much time as I can.” 

If she’s lucky, Sukuna will be a good enough mood that he’ll want to fuck around a bit before going on a spree of carnage. If she’s extra lucky, Yuji will manage to take control back before he kills her.

“Nobara? What are you talking about?” Hilda asks, reaching out to touch her hand.

Nobara pulls away and takes the hammer out from the little pocket she’s kept it in inside her jacket, along with several nails. She doesn’t have that many. She’ll have to make them count. Thank god she’s got her straw doll with her, though. That might buy some time. “Go. get out, quick. I’m being serious, fucking run.” She says. She knows they won’t listen to her, but she doesn’t have time to explain. Sukuna’s about to get to them, she can tell. 

She can tell the others have started sensing something’s off too.

Fuck. How did this happen? Yuji, what happened? She wonders, her knuckles turning white around her hammer.

“We’re ont gonna leave you down here.” Leonie says with a scoff.

“And if the people of Abyss are in danger, I need to know what from. We can’t just evacuate without-” Yuri begins.

“GO! NOW! I’LL EXPLAIN LATER JUST GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM HERE!” Nobara shouts desperately. God, why can’t they just fucking leave? Why do they have to be good people who are concerned for her? 

She feels a hand enclose around her shoulder. It’s casual in nature. But sharp black nails are puncturing holes in her uniform, and the hand itself is too strong to be normal. “I didn’t take you as the heroic type, Nobara. Don’t tell me you and Fushiguro have gotten soft since you’ve been here?”

Nobara whirls around, swinging her hammer at the side of Sukuna’s head with reckless abandon.

She ignores Marianne’s horrified gasp and Leonie asking what the hell she's doing.

“Relax, relax. You don't want to hurt him, do you?” Sukuna asks her, grinning as he stands a few feet away, unharmed.

Hilda narrows her eyes. “What's up with him? Why does Yuji sound like that…and why’s he got those tattoos?” She asks.

“That's not Yuji.” Lysithea says. “Something’s wrong. It all feels wrong…”

Sukuna rolls his eyes. “Well, at least one of you’s smart enough to notice.” He says.

“Who are you?” Claude demands, loading his bow carefully.

Sukuna fixes his gaze into the young noble. He examines him carefully for a few seconds before he gives a small chuckle of amusement. “You're that Reigan kid, right? Good luck. That place is a mess from what I remember.” He snorts. “Although, I guess it's been a while since I visited Leicester.” 

All of the Golden Deer stiffen, clearly not willing to accept any slander of their nation. 

“It's hard to explain, but this isn't Yuji. You guys need to get out of here-” Nobara starts.

“Oh, yeah, perfect! Lead me right off to that little town under the monastery. Full of civilians, yeah? That'll be fun to slaughter.” Sukuna comments.

Yuri draws a sword, Hapi’s hands start to grow gold, Constance flies slightly higher, up to the ceiling as she looks down at him, and Balthus raises his fists, squeezing his hero’s relic gauntlets.

It's now that Nobara notices Sukuna’s hands are already dripping with blood.

Sukuna grins. “Good. I was hoping this wouldn't be boring.”

“Nobara,” Shamir says, loading an arrow into her silver bow. “If this isn't Yuji, we’re fighting to kill. Do you want us to try and leave him alive?”

Fuck. Nobara weighs her options in her head. Realistically, they won't get anywhere near killing Sukuna. It's better if she tells them to, they'll go all out and maybe have a shot at survival. But at the same time, a well placed arrow, or a crest activating at the wrong time, and they might manage it. They've got a pretty large group. Or Yuji might come back in control and they'll kill him then, thinking it's Sukuna.

Sukuna cocks his head and raises an eyebrow. “Well? Come on, Kugisaki, make a choice.” He sneers, like it's a challenge.

Nobara glares at him, slotting three nails between her fingers. She shifts one foot back behind the other. She holds her arms defensively in front of her chest. Fuck it. Fuck him. “Kill him.”

She sees his grin double in size, his eyes flash with excitement. She sees his nails in front of her face, crashing down towards her as she tries to move back.

“Nobara!” Raphael shouts as he grabs the back of her uniform’s jacket collar. He yanks her back as Sukuna’s claws slam downwards, cracking the stone floor when they hit it.

Shamir and Claude immediately start shooting, wasting no time. Balthus has already started throwing punches, and Leonie’s lunging for his head with her lance. 

Sukuna kicks Leonie away like a ragdoll, and she slams into the wall behind them.

Nobara sees a bit of blood as she sinks to the ground. She tries to stand up, but falls back down. Marianne rushes over to her and casts a heal spell in a slight panic. 

Raphael picks Leonie up once Marianne’s done, dropping his steel gauntlets. “Get her up to the surface! Now!” Claude shouts, looking a slight bit pale. Raphael races off immediately, disappearing through the tunnels.

Nobara tosses a few nails into the air and shoots them into the ground beneath Sukuna’s feet. “Hairpin!” She snaps her fingers and watches the ground explode. Sukuna jumps back, propelled through the air, and swipes his hands through the air.

Shit. That's dismantle. Nobara dives to the side to avoid the cutting slash shooting towards her.

Ignatz gets hit instead, the slice tearing through his armor and ripping his skin. Lorenz picks him up and puts him gently on the back of his horse. “I'll get him out. I'll come back!” He assures, and gallops out of the tunnel immediately, Ignatz’s blood making a red trail behind him.

When Nobara looks back at Sukuna, it's in time to see him ducking under a blast of Death Γ from Hapi. He holds himself up and on his hands and kicks her horse in the neck, throwing it onto its back. Hapi yelps as the large brown animal falls to the floor, barely managing to dismount so it won't fall on top of her.

Constance swoops down, firing her third shot of ice magic at Sukuna. It freezes against his legs as he stands up, and he looks slightly amused, apparently finding the idea that ice could hold him hilarious.

Claude and Shamir both shoot arrows at his head while he's stuck there, and he leans out of the way with relative ease.

Constance’s Pegasus is struck by them. The winged black horse whinnies and falls from the air, Constance shrieking as it does. Hilda dives for her, catching her as she falls.

“Ah- a minor setback. My thanks to you.” Constance says as she jumps out of Hilda’s arms.

Sukuna breaks out of the ice with little effort, but while he does, Lysithea’s already begun casting Luna Λ. The spell sucks him inwards, the small moon exploding behind him.

Sukuna grunts, pausing for a moment as he shakes off the spell. “Not bad.” He says, giving Lysithea an approving nod. A blast of Misama flies from her hand towards his head, but he jumps out of the way of it.

Hilda lunges at him, shouting as she brings her steel axe down as hard as she can towards his head. He leaps back, but the blade still manages to graze his face. Blood seeps from the cut for a few seconds before skin knits itself back together and he looks at Hilda curiously. He punches her hard in the side of the head, and she tumbles back, but manages to catch herself on her hands and knees. She gets back to her feet as Balthus and Yuri both rush in to attack him. Sukuna dodges them with ease for the most part, a couple small strikes hitting him. 

“You're a Goneril, right?” He asks as he grabs Balthus and slams him into Yuri.

Hilda readies her axe and ducks her head down a bit to clear a path for more arrow fire and a few clear magic shots from the others. “How'd you know?”

“You're the family that guards Fodlan’s Locket. Pink hair and eyes, freakishly strong.” Sukuna replies. “Killed a few of your ancestors. They were good, I'll admit. It was a hell of a lot of fun.”

Nobara slams her hammer into another several nails, shooting them at Sukuna. He covers his face with his arm, blocking the blast they create.

Hilda runs at him the second the explosion of cursed energy has started to dissipate, and she slices her axe violently at his raised arm.

She cuts it clean off, just below his elbow.

Sukuna grunts as one of Shamir’s arrows hit him in the side, and one of Claude’s hits him in the foot. “This is getting annoying.” He hisses. He rips the arrow from his side and throws it behind him. It goes straight through Hapi’s shoulder, going out the other side. She collapses, trying to stop the bleeding. Marianne casts psychic on her from across the tunnel, and the bleeding slows.

“What the fuck?” Yuri whispers, staggering back as Sukuna’s arm begins to regrow, flesh twirling together around new bone and muscle. “What are you?”

Sukuna rolls his eyes, plucking the arrow out of his foot, “Nobara could certainly explain.” He says. He flicks his wrist sharply, and another dismantle is sent from his hand, this time shooting at Marianne. Balthus leaps in front of her, and grits his teeth when it crashes into his back. Blood sprays outwards immediately. Marianne lets out a shaky cry of horror as he falls into her, immediately casting another heal spell. 

“Get him out of here! NOW!” Yuri shouts at her. Marianne nods, trembling as she runs over to Hapi’s horse, which has just now started to stand back up. Hapi climbs onto its back, and Marianne slumps Balthus over the back of it. She jumps onto it, gently stroking its neck once before she grabs the reins and steers them out of the tunnel.

Sukuna starts to run at them, but Hilda kicks him in the side hard enough to make him waver slightly where he's standing. It's barely enough time for Marianne to take a sharp turn and disappear through the catacombs. 

Thank god she's excellent with horses.

Nobara looks around, searching for the arm Hilda had cut off while Yuri slashes furiously at him.

She sees it on the ground a few feet away, laying in a pool of blood. She dashes towards it, pulling her straw doll from her jacket.

She's reaching for it when a hand closes around her ankle and drags her back. Sukuna pulls her away and slams her on her back on the ground. “You irritating little bitch .” He snarls, raising his foot to slam it down on her head.

Claude dives, grabbing his ankle and pulling him back as best he can. His skinny arms are shaking as he struggles, and Nobara’s probably only got a few seconds before Sukuna recovers from the surprise and crushes her skull. She pushes herself back on her hands and scrambled to her feet, just as Claude lets go. Sukuna grabs him by the collar and throws him at the stone wall of the tunnel, glaring daggers. “Annoying little insects.” He sneers as Claude sinks to the floor and tries to push himself back to his feet.

Hilda throws a short axe at Sukuna’s head from behind him. She barely misses, steel chopping a few hairs from the side of his head. The axe hits the wall and sticks into the stone there.

Lysithea sends three globs of Misama at him, one after the other. He jumps at her, apparently growing tired of her spells, and kicks her hard in the ribs. She goes flying into Constance, they both sink to the floor, and they stay there. Nobara panics for a moment, but she calms once she sees the girls’ chests rise and fall a few times. Steady enough breath.

Yuri casts a quick heal spell on them each before he turns and casts Nosferatu at Sukuna, who doesn't even bother moving out of the way, it barely does anything.

Sukuna sighs, blocking three of Shamir’s arrows fired in rapid succession. He glances around, tilting his head. He walks over to the arm Hilda severed from him and picks it up, tossing it a few times. He looks down at the lengths of tunnels, stretching all around Abyss. He turns and looks at Nobara, a grin on his face. “How long do you think it'll take me to find those little rats crawling around in that town down here? Wanna place some bets?” He asks.

Nobara doesn't get the chance to respond before he's darting down the tunnels, racing away faster than the eye can see.

“No!” Yuri shouts, his face growing paler than it already was.

“Yuri, lead us to Abyss. Quick. All we need to do is hold that thing off until someone gets to the surface and alerts the knights. For all we know, Lorenz could already have done it.” Shamir says, picking a few arrows up off the ground. 

Yuri’s lavender eyes are raging with a fire Nobara doesn't think she's ever seen on anyone's face before. He looks at her, glaring daggers for a moment, before he turns back to Shamir and nods. “Come on, I know the fastest way back. We’ll come back for Lysithea and Constance later.” He says curtly, and takes off running.

Shamir and Hilda follow him immediately after, right on his heels. Nobara looks back at Claude, who's picked himself up by now, and gestures for him to follow. “Come on. We have to get going.” She tells him. 

Claude stares at her as he starts to head after them. “...if we make it out of this, you have a lot to fucking explain.” He says as he starts to run.

Nobara runs beside him, clutching her hammer tight in her hand. “I know. I’ll explain it all. I swear.”

Claude doesn't say anything in response as they race after the other three.

“If we get out of this”

Nobara’s stomach twists at his words. But, if she's being honest, she's less afraid of Sukuna killing them than she is of how Yuji’s going to be when he takes control again.

It's not going to be pretty.

The sound of screaming reaches her ears, high pitched and terrified.

“That's a child!” Hilda cries out.

Yuri cuts a corner and books it. 

When they reach the town of Abyss, there's blood on the floor. Everywhere. And there's still screams still in the air.

“MOM! HELP! MOM! MOM HELP ! MO-”

The wails of a little boy are cut short, a sickening squelch reaching Nobara’s ears.

She watches Sukuna straighten up and flick his arm, letting the blood that's soaking it dribble onto the ground. Flesh clings to his long black nails, and small bodies litter the floor.

Children.

It's hard to tell how many with how their bodies have been mangled.

Dressed in rags, entrails on the floor. Eyes lifeless. Faces frozen in their last moments of terror.

Yuri screams, a sound of pure wrath as he charges Sukuna, swinging a silver sword with reckless abandon.

Hilda and Claude look a little green as they raise their weapons, and Shamir’s eyes are filled with grief. Nobara realizes there's tears streaking down Yuri’s face.

Sukuna’s laughing wildly, dodging and blocking each hit Yuri tries to land. He raises his arm to attack back.

Nobara braces herself to watch his claws dig into Yuri’s fair face. She braces herself for the sound of skin ripping.

But it doesn't happen. 

There's a slight flash of green light illuminating Yuri’s body, just for a split second, and Sukuna freezes where he stands for a moment. Yuri darts back and Sukuna lowers his arm with a growl. “Little shit.” He sneers at Yuri while he shakes himself off.

Must be his crest. Nobara decides as she looks at Yuri.

Hilda lunges for him next, slashing furiously at him. Her strikes are devastatingly powerful and completely unpredictable. But Sukuna’s smart. And he's fast. And he's durable. She barely lands a single hit, and the only swing she does manage to connect is one onto his calf, and it's healed immediately.

Nobara can't even get a clear shot in with her nails, they're moving too quick for her not to risk hurting Hilda. But there's also a large fucking chance this could be a fatal battle for the girl if it continues like this. Sukuna’s toying with them, Nobara knows that. But if he thinks Yuji’s starting to take control again, he’ll kill them without hesitation.

Sukuna raises two fingers and flicks them almost lazily.

Nobara dives for Hilda, pushing her out of the way just barely in time to avoid her getting a dismantle down the middle.

Sukuna grunts, irritated. “You're all very annoying, you know that? Not quite strong enough to be very fun, not weak enough to lay down and die.” An arrow embeds itself into his back, followed by four more.

Shamir and Claude don't stop their onslaught, firing arrows so fast it's hard to tell where they're even going. 

He glares at them, ripping the arrows from his back and making his way over.

Nobara panics a little as she watches him start throwing dismantles at them. They're getting out of the way, but they'll get exhausted fast.

She pauses, looking at the bloody, ripped part of Sukuna’s sleeve. His chopped arm. He picked it up earlier to stop her from getting to it, but he must have dropped it.

She sees it only a few feet away. She scrambles to her feet and runs for it, immediately throwing her straw doll on top of it and crouching down beside it.

An arm is a large piece of the body. If she hits him with resonance, she runs the risk of seriously harming Yuji. Resonance hits the soul, that's true, but Yuji and Sukuna’s souls are closely intertwined, it's not a stretch to think she’ll hit him as well.

“SHAMIR!” Hilda’s scream echoed around Abyss, and several more screams from civilians, running away, follow.

Nobara looks up.

Shamir’s on the ground, choking as blood spews from a gash that runs across her entire torso. She's writhing, soaked with crimson liquid as it pours from her torn open chest. Arrows slip out of the sheath on her belt and her bow clatters into the stone floor as it falls from her hand. That was a cleave. She gasps for air, or tries to, but she's drowning in her own blood.

Nobara slams her hammer down onto her straw doll, barely even realizing she made the decision to until it's already done.

Sukuna staggers back as spikes of black explode from his arm. He turns to Nobara, eyes wide with rage. She slams her hammer onto the doll again, and he coughs up blood this time. “Piece of shit. You woke him up.” He mutters as the spikes sticking from his body slowly start to dissipate. Along with the black tattoos.

Nobara lets out a shaky breath, picking up her straw doll and pulling herself up to her feet. “...fuck you.” She whispers as she watches Sukuna slowly be forced back into wherever he resides in Yuji’s body.

It's now when Megumi comes crashing down to passageway into Abyss, Divine Dog: Totality right next to him. He's followed by a legion of Knights. “Nobara! Where's-” He freezes where he stands.

Immediately, Knights surround Shamir, casting heal spell after heal spell. Nobara barely even sees them pick her up and carry her away.

She's staring at Yuji, now back in his body.

Yuji looks around, confused for a moment, before his eyes widen in horror as the memories of what Sukuna did come rushing back to him. He looks down at his hands, covered in blood and flesh and little pieces of the insides of the children the curse slaughtered.

Yuji falls to his knees and vomits.

“What- what's going on?” Hilda asks.

“Doesn't matter.” Yuri snarls. He storms over to Yuji, raising his sword high above his head.

“Yuri stop!” Nobara shouts. “I can explain, I swear, just-”

Yuri doesn't stop.

Megumi tackles him down to the ground and wrestles the sword from his hand.

Yuji sits on his knees on the floor and sobs, having nothing left in his stomach to empty. 

Nobara starts to stagger over to him, but someone puts a hand on her shoulder.

“Everyone is to be taken to the infirmary on the surface. Get anyone remaining in the tunnels.” Rhea’s voice doesn't match her calm face. She sounds violently angry, and she's looking at Yuji with a face twisted with wrath. “Get them all healed.”

A few knights pull Megumi off of Yuri, who immediately tries to attack Yuji again. Nobara tries to jump to his defense, but Rhea keeps a firm hold on her shoulder, strong enough that she can't move away. Several knights grab Yuri and they drag him, spitting and struggling, up to the surface.

“Archbishop, I swear I can explain. That wasn't-” Nobara starts.

“I'm perfectly aware of who that was, dear girl. My grief for the boy that demon houses himself in is endless. You mustn't worry. You and Megumi may rest now.” Rhea tells her, a saccharine sweetness in her voice.

Nobara shakes her head, looking back at Yuji, who's being hauled off through the passage up. He's gone limp, still crying, with his chin on his chest. “But-”

“Go. We will deal with this when you three have recovered.” Rhea's voice is firmer, and her eyes have narrowed.

Nobara stumbles away from her and over to Megumi as the knights let go of him. She takes his arm, and he squeezes into hers. “Yuji…” He whispers.

Nobara doesn't know what to say to him. She looks around, her eyes falling on Hilda and Claude, both of whom are looking at her like they have no idea who she is. “...come on. The sooner we get healed, the sooner we can explain everything.”

Megumi’s Divine Dog disappears into shadows, and the two of them walk on wobbling legs up to the surface. 

“They can't kill him. They can't.” Nobara mumbles. She doesn't know if she's convincing Megumi or herself.

Megumi shakes his head as they start off towards the infirmary. “No. They can't. We’ll kill them if they try. All of them.” He agrees.

Nobara doesn't say anything, because Rhea’s coming up from the tunnel now too. There's blood on her fingertips. And she's holding the arm Hilda severed from Sukuna’s body.

Nobara can still see the dents of her hammer in its flesh.