Capítulo XIII- ¿Que hacer?

      Nobara hummed to the music flowing softly out of her phone, flipping through Atsuki's sketchbooks. The red-headed girl had given her permission to flip through her most recent sketchbooks. She had first looked through the new one she had recently started after she joined her in her dorm room. That book was open on the table Atsuki glanced at it every now and then for her reference. A collection of pins was in between her lips as she pierced the cloth on her mannequin.

     Nobara had asked if it was okay to look at more of her designs. Atsuki gladly picked out four other sketchbooks for her. The older ones were stored away on the bottom bookshelf to avoid the humiliation of her previous designs. She already had to look at photos of herself on the media, and she didn't want to question for the millionth time why it was a good idea to add something out of place.

     Nobara ignored her messy and incorrect writing on the margins of the papers. She got a gist of what Atsuki scribbled on the thick paper. Not to mention, she did not want to confront her about her knowledge of her inability to read and write. It was easy to tell she was embarrassed by it so she will wait when Atsuki confronts her about it.

      "You have so many different designs on here. Why do I usually see the same ones?" she glanced up, asking.

     Atsuki hummed, turning her head up to Nobara lying flat on her stomach on her bed. She removed the collection of pins from her lips. "It's my favorite look. I just have many variations of it."

     "I can see that, but where are all the different outfits you made?"

     "Well, I had a lot back at the circus but they were in another trailer. I took what I had in that chest." She pointed to the chest at the bottom of her bed. It was red with gold paint lining the sides. The wood still remained even after six years. "I was basically feeding off scraps at the circus. Then when Gojou-sensei found me, he made sure I was well-fed. I'm pretty sure I was supposed to be taller but that stumped my growth. So my measurements are completely different now and nothing that I used to have fits."

     Atsuki grinned remembering the conversation with Shouko. A small pink tint returned to her face.

     Shouko lowered the bar on top of Atsuki's head. Her head drew back and her eyebrows furrowed. She glanced down at the paper holding her information from her last check-up. The woman's eyebrows suddenly rose as she mouthed, "Oh."

     Atsuki silently watched in worry as she walked to her computer and pulled up a new screen. She questioned, "What's that?"

     "It's a graph of your height." She twirled a piece of her soft hair around her pointer finger, "It looks like you grew five centimeters since your last visit."

     "What?" her eyes widened.

     "Yeah, I assume if you lived under the right conditions you could've been taller. Girls usually stop growing two years after they have their first period. When did you get yours?" Atsuki's face burnt up, the tips of her ears turning to a bright maroon. She opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out. She chuckled, "There's nothing to be embarrassed about. It's normal to talk about it."

     The fourteen-year-old girl stepped off the scale, avoiding her gaze as she took a seat. "Last year... before I came here."

     "Ah, that explains it." Shouko asked, "And how was that experience?"

     "Terrible. I thought I was dying until someone I worked with laughed and she gave me pads. Don't laugh!" she whined.

     "I'm sorry, it was a little funny." Her faint laugh faded into a genuine smile, "But if you have any questions about it, you can always ask me, okay?"

     Atsuki's pressed her cool hand against her face and she felt the heat calm down. "... Thanks, Ieiri-san."

     Nobara rose and sat criss-crossed on her bed, a frown on her face as Atsuki pinned the orange fabric to the sleeveless top. "I'm sorry, I asked. I knew that it was bad but it never accrued to me how bad it was."

     Atsuki shrugged, "It's whatever. I don't mind talking about it, I just don't talk about it because there's no reason to. It's all in the past. Besides I feel better here."

     "Yeah, I get what you mean." She flipped another page. It was an incomplete design with shiny beads glued to her top. "I don't talk much about home either.  It was a shitty place with equally shitty people. But there were two girls."

     "Soari-chan?" Nobara quirked an eyebrow. "You mentioned her the first day I met you. You two saw me at the circus."

     "Yeah, it was one time, years ago. It's a little foggy, but you weren't. I had my suspicions when I first saw you but later that day you confirmed it."

     "You were kinda scary at first."

     Her mouth dropped, "Huh? Scary? Why's that?"

     "I didn't know how you would react. I was excited to meet another girl and you seemed really disappointed at first. Now I have you and Maki!"

     "I wasn't judging you when I first saw you." She raised her finger, smiling, "Though, I definitely was judging Itadori and Fushiguro. But like I said, I was trying to figure out where I had seen you."

     Atsuki laughed, "You make a good point. Megumi looks like he would rather be someplace else all the time and Yuuji, I never really had much to think about. He was mourning his grandpa at the time."

     Nobara's mouth twisted as her eyebrows furrowed. "You notice anything different about him lately?"

     "He's not very good at hiding it. Megumi and I talked about it for a second and confronted him about it. He didn't exactly say what happened but he doesn't want to lose anyone."

     "You think someone he knew died?"

     "Maybe. I don't know what he's been doing for two months."

     "That could be it. He's a little more quiet. I didn't think it would bother me but it is. We should all go out, get his mind off of whatever happened."

     "That sounds like a great idea. But how? He's going to push it off and say that he's fine until we stop."

     "We have to be sneaky. We can't ask him directly we'll just have to trick him. He probably isn't smart enough to figure it out anyway. We'll pretend we're bored and ask him what we should do for fun today."

     "Ah, wait! That's a good plan! I don't think they're doing anything right now." Atsuki hummed, "Now that I think about it we barely go into town unless we're all together or with someone."

     "Yeah, it's kinda boring, but now we know they're here. Here, I'll help you clean so we can look for those two idiots."

     Atsuki waved her off, "Nah, it's okay. I want to leave everything where it is cause then I'll forget what I was doing. That's why my room is always trashed- well, it's not messy it just looks messy."

     Nobara glanced around her bedroom. Next to her bed, school books and journals were shelved on her desk, a small cup held the colorful gel pens she loved to write with, and Nobara bet her set of markers was tucked into one of the drawers. Her closet door was partially open, exposing the aligned skirts hanging from the wooden pole. Her shirts were folded on white-painted shelves underneath. She caught a peak of the black jujutsu uniform she had never seen Atsuki wear hanging in the corner of her closet.

     The mannequin fitting her measurements held the cloth pierced by pins and the excess cloth Atsuki wanted to use was laid separated in organized piles on the floor. In the far left corner beside the mannequin, was another table with her sewing machine prepped with thread. Her box of pins was closed shut, especially after she accidentally knocked over the box. One accidental step on the pin puncturing through a blood vessel was enough to traumatize her and never do it again.

     Atsuki's needles were stored in a box, embedded through a cushion from the thinnest to the thickest. Her extra sew materials were stored in drawers she bought and kept underneath the same desk. In the corner beside her door, was a yellow plastic storage drawer that kept all the types of fabric she used. They were organized by colors and separated depending if they had glitter or a special kind of embroidery.

     However, nothing but pieces of fabric were spread across her room. Her messy sewing table was out with the materials needed to complete whatever article of clothing she was creating. Sometimes small gems would be on the floor and Atsuki would warn them to never come into her room shoeless. Her room appeared to be messy because she was always creating or completing one of her works. In reality, she knew where everything was and everything was where it needed to belong.

     Nobara shrugged, "That's fine. You should see Itadori's room. He's been back for almost a week and it looks like a tornado trashed his room. He barely owns anything now."

     Atsuki laughed, "And how's your room, Nobara."

     "Hey, I just went on a shopping spree yesterday with you. You know better than to ask me how my room is doing now."

     "Haven't figured out where to put all those clothes yet?"

     "No, but I'll figure it out soon." Nobara shut Atsuki's sketchbook and hopped off her bed. She fixed her beige pants as she said, "Come on, let's go."

     Atsuki placed the pins back in its container and closed it shut. She jumped over the fabrics laid below her. Nobara handed her sketchbook and Atsuki tossed it on her desk. She can worry about it later, she'd rather not hop around her bedroom right now.

     Jujutsu tech held a lounge area in between the girls' and boys' dorms. Atsuki often hung out with the second-years or first-years during their free time. It held a communal kitchen with plates, utensils, and kitchenware stored in the cabinets for them to use. It wasn't very often they used the kitchen and if they did, Yuuji was the one who cooked the most.

     The lounge area was set to the side, often with everyone there you could hear the clatter of dishes being unstacked and food sizzling in the pans. The scent of whatever was being cooked lingered making Atsuki much hungrier at times, especially after heavy training.

     Megumi was the first they spotted as they rounded the corner, both boys were out of their jujutsu uniform. He scrolled through his phone, back slumped on the couch, arm across his stomach, and legs sprawled out. A loose dark grey sweater clung to his body giving him enough space to breathe and his pants looked equally as soft and baggy. He looked comfortable and warm.

     Yuuji was on the corner end, body against it facing toward the middle reading a weekly manga magazine. He wore his red hoodie he wore underneath his jujutsu uniform with a different pair of pants. He held the same bored expression as Megumi.

     The two girls stood behind the couch and rested their elbows on the backrest, hovering over their shoulders. Nobara acknowledged, "Itadori, I'm bored."

     Megumi turned his head to the left seeing Atsuki close to him. Her face was bare yet still held the sharp features she enhanced with the makeup she loved to wear. Her earrings dangled onto the white turtle neck tucked into a high-waisted flowing pastel pink skirt. It must've been one of the outfits Nobara helped her buy. She folded her hand into her sleeve and rested her chin on her palm.

     "Huh? What does that have to do with me?" he asked glancing up from his manga.

      Nobara scoffed. "You've been gone for two months. There's something you should know about. What is there to do in Tokyo?"

     Atsuki reached to Megumi's right side of his head feeling his stare. She stuck her finger out and wiggled it toward his ear. He flinched once her nail touched his earlobe, tilting his head on his shoulder as she pulled her hand away. Her eyes shifted to him as a playful smirk grew on her lips.

     He fiddled with his ear before turning back to the conversation. "Gojou-sensei actually kept me here at Jujutsu High." His three friends frowned. Before Kugisaki could retort something, he added, "I spent most of my time watching movies and training with him. Besides that a mission I went on with Nanamin."

     "Nanamin?" Atsuki questioned. "Funky tie, Nanami?"

     "Oh, yeah, him. You know him."

     "Barely. He doesn't talk a lot but he seems nice I guess."

     Kugisaki groaned. "Fushiguro! You got anything for us?"

     "You got the wrong person," he replied, returning to his phone. As he entered his passcode,
Atsuki tapped his ear again and he flicked her hand away. She softly laughed. Megumi sent her a soft glare before focusing on Nobara and Yuuji.

     "You boys suck! Isn't there anywhere else to hang around? I've already seen everything in the shops around here."

     Atsuki reached to poke Megumi's ear again. However, he caught her finger in his right hand. She tried to pull away but he wouldn't let go. He pulled her down and her arm slung around his shoulders. "No fair."

     "You wouldn't stop," he said, keeping his hold.

     Yuuji set the magazine on his lap, disregarding his friends' obliviousness. "Today would sound like a good day to go out and do something. Karaoke sounds fun, but it will probably keep us out late and we shouldn't stay out at night."

     Atsuki raised her head, "Karaoke? I've never been Karaoking before!"

     "What!" Yuuji and Nobara exclaimed.

     "Atsuki, we need to do a duet," Nobara stuck a finger out, "But after I do my warm-up and sing Yosui."

     Yuuji raised an eyebrow, "So your first choice is to start singing Inoue Yosui's?"

    "Of course. Besides, I even have to choose songs at your level. I'm ready to sing the well-known song Riverside Hotel."

     Yuuji's face fell, "How considerate of you." He flipped the page and his eyebrows shot up, "ARE YOU SERIOUS?"

     Megumi flinched beside Atsuki, his hair grazing the side of her cheek. Atsuki questioned, "What? What's wrong?"

     "The manga series I was following ended. Both of them!"

    "Well, you were dead for a while," Nobara dryly said, peering over his shoulder. She read the words on the page.

     "Seriously! Did it feel this way for Urashima Tarou from the fairy tale!"

     "Stop overexaggerating. You were dead for nearly two months."

     "But I just told you I didn't go out. But I guess two months is enough time for a weekly manga series to end. Did you follow any manga, Fushiguro?"

     "No," he simply responded. He tuned into the conversation every now and then as he scrolled through his phone he held on one hand. Meanwhile, the other hand still held a grip on Atsuki's finger. She stopped fighting against him and left her arm limp over him.

     He scoffed, "One serialization ended right in the middle of a story arc I was obsessed sed with!"

     "Just wait for the graphic novel to come out," Nobara said.

     "Yeah, sure..." Itadori adjusted himself on the couch. "Speaking of which, all my manga, video games, and posters disappeared from my room. I guess because I was supposed to be dead."

     "Fushiguro cleaned out your room. I walked in on him cleaning everything out," Atsuki informed.

     "Thanks, Fushiguro!"

     "If I had known you were alive, I would've kept them."

     "That's okay!"

     "Honestly you're lucky he did it too. We've all been in your room. Who knows what kind of stuff we'd find," Atsuki said.

     "What?" Nobara asked Megumi, "Was there something we weren't supposed to see? Cause we've all seen your posters."

     "No." Yuuji's ears tinted to a soft red. "But... well."

     Nobara and Atsuki eyed the two teenage boys who exchanged looks. Nobara debated if she wanted to push further to get an answer but based on his and Megumi's expression and their hesitation, she already had an idea. She dismissed it, saying, "We can't stand here waiting forever."

     "Isn't there any place you want to go Kugisaki?" he inquired back.

     "No. What about you."

     "How about a movie."

     "Is there anything interesting showing?"

    "Shark vs. Megazombies at the local theater."

     "A dead guy talking about a zombie movie. Talk about morbid irony."

     "Well, that was harsh," Yuuji muttered. "What about you, Atsuki?"

     She gave another shrug, "I don't know. The idea of karaoke still sounds fun. But other than that I don't know."

     Nobara interjected, gesturing to her, "You're asking someone whose favorite pastime was to practice calisthenics. Besides we're the ones asking you idiots here. If there was something to do we'd be on our way there. I was just saying that cause your taste in movies is worsening."

     "Really? Over the last two months, Gojou-sensei showed me tons of movies. Some were fun, and others were exhausting. I must have watched about 100 DVDs."

     Atsuki's head quirked up and her hand slid off Megumi's shoulder. The boy watched with a frown as she disconnected herself from him. "Did he make you watch them with a stuffed animal that punches you?"

     Yuuji's face brightened, "Yeah, it was a cute blue bear with boxing gloves as hands?"

     "Yeah, that thing gave me double the bruises! I am never watching another movie with Gojou ever again."

     "It wasn't that bad after you got used to it."

     "Maybe to you. Being hit by Maki was enough."

     "But it paid it off. I can control my cursed energy now."

    Megumi twisted his upper torso and rested his arm on the back of the couch. "Wait, he used Yaga-sensei's cursed doll to train you two?"

     They answered, "Yeah."

     Nobara grimaced, "That's creepy."

     "And annoying," Atsuki added. "So what are we doing?"

     Yuuji continued to flip through the pages of the manga magazine. He hoped something would click as his finger grazed the pages, eyes skimming through each character. He stopped at a page and turned to his friends to share his idea. They gave him skeptical looks but nonetheless, they stood from the couch.

     Yuuji proposed it was a good idea to get a head start in sports for the next sister exchange event. The indoor sports center held a batting cage, table tennis, billiards, foosball, a roller skating rink, and hoverboard rentals. It was an odd suggestion given they had a year to prepare and battles were selected at random. Even more so if Gojou was involved. Atsuki wouldn't be surprised if she was dragged into the nonsense he did.

     Ijichi had driven them to Tokyo outside of the arena. Stepping foot in, Atsuki pointed at the hoverboards walking into the center declaring, "I need to use one of those." She continued her journey as she avoided bumping into strangers marching to their next activity.

     Nobara raised an eyebrow and placed her hands on her waist, questioning, "Why? They're slow with all these people around."

    "I don't know. I saw them and I want to."

     "You guys can but I'm not getting on those. Not when I can walk faster to my destination," Megumi pointed out.

     "If you two don't want to, then Atsuki and I will just rent two," Yuuji said, making his way to the line. Atsuki ran after him to join, but with smiles on their faces, they heard 2 pairs of footsteps following behind them. Nobara and Megumi stood in line to retrieve their own hoverboards.

     The first-years were lucky at this time, the line was shorter and it went by faster. The four teenagers got their hands on the hoverboards after a fifteen-minute wait. Yuuji was the first to steer off to a direction. He wasn't too far from where the others couldn't catch up to them. He lingered close until each one of them exited the center with their own boards.

     Yuuji steered the hoverboard in one direction as his phone was in his free hand. He hit record and exclaimed, "Atsuki!"

     She hummed and turned around. She smiled at the camera and briefly waved hello. However, she lurched forward when her hoverboard bumped into a bench. It screeched against the floor as Atsuki fell forward. She caught herself on the bench, hands pressed against the cold metal as a small yelp escaped her lips.

     Yuuji laughed, "I got that on video!"

     She turned her body around, sitting her bottom on the bench as her finger jabbed at him, "Don't share that with anybody!" A hot feeling crept up her face as she briefly made eye contact with Fushiguro.

     "It's already sending to our group chat."

     Atsuki scoffed and pushed herself up. "Give me your phone."

     Yuuji held the phone close to his chest and controlled his hoverboard to reverse, "I'm sorry!"

     "You three can't go anywhere in public," Megumi said beside Atsuki. He shifted the bench back in place with his foot.

     "Huh? Three!" Nobara repeated.

     "It was on accident! If I wanted to purposely bump into something I'd make sure it was at full speed," she remarked. He tucked his hands in his pockets and rolled his eyes. "Actually, Yuuji, it was your fault."

     "Huh? What did I do?"

     "Distracted me." Atsuki hopped off the hoverboard and said, "Back me up, Nobara!"

     "Itadori, you shouldn't be using your phone and driving. That's how you cause crashes, dumbass."

     "Eh? Kugisaki?" She turned around. "That's not fair two girls against me!"

     "What?" She set her hand on her hip, arching an eyebrow, "Am I supposed to side with you two prepubescent boys?"

     He raised a finger, "Are you siding with her because she's a girl?"

     "Not the only reason. She's my friend too!"

     Baffled Yuuji turned to Atsuki offended and she stuck his tongue at him. He furrowed his eyebrows and crossed his arms. Megumi let out a sigh and stepped on his hoverboard to steer away. "How old are you guys?"

     Yuuji's eyebrows rose, "Hey, Fushiguro? Are you just going to let them go against me? It's supposed to be us against them?"

     "I don't want to be included in unnecessary brawls. How long are we going to ride these things?"

     Yuuji steered away from the two girls to catch up to him. He replied, "We have to get off soon. There's a time limit. What do you wanna ride next?"

     He asked, "Is riding something our only choice?"

     "How about the trampoline?"

     "You're just choosing things that I'll look funny doing?"

     Yuuji laughed. "How'd you know?"

     The two girls behind them joined his laughter. Atsuki couldn't get the image of Megumi's resting bored face as he bounced on the trampoline surrounded by his three energetic friends. Atsuki grabbed Nobara's hand leading them up to the two boys. She gained some control slowly, but her body repelled forward as Atsuki brushed past her.

     "You three need to slow down. I'm barely getting the hang of this. Like seriously, this shouldn't be so complicated," she complained.

     Atsuki assured, "Look you almost got it."

     "It's cause you finally slowed down a little so I can keep up." She straightened herself and jabbed her thumb toward the ball games, "I wanna fight! Fight and win!"

     "Why?" Yuuji jested, "Are you from a warrior tribe?"

     "Well, you're the one who said we should train for the Goodwill Event. So we gotta do something that involves sheer physical strength and skill!"

     "Yeah, okay."

     "Besides, aren't you some kind of super athlete? What club were you in at school?"

      "The occult research club."

     "The what now?"

     "A society for the study of paranormal phenomena. It was a comfortable group."

     "Oh, sounds nice."

     "Yeah, it's kind of how we found him too," Atsuki added. "But that's another entire story. Hey, so what sport are we gonna do, there's a lot of them that involve being physically strong and skills."

     "If we're going to do a competitive sport, we need something that'll make the losers sweat," Nobara said. She looked at each of her friends to see if anything popped into their heads. She kept her stare on Yuuji, causing Atsuki and Megumi to turn their heads to him as well. He stared at his feet, eyes unfocused. "Why're you spacing out? Have you been getting enough sleep?"

      His head snapped up. "No, uh... It's nothing." Yuuji shook his head and the smile returned to his face. "No betting money."

     Atsuki put a thumbs down, "Lame!"

     "Atsuki, we need to start saving so I can take you shopping," Nobara reminded.

     "I was kidding. I like having money and we can't go too far. So what's the punishment?"

     "How about some kind of punishment where the person with the lowest score has to make an impression at the top of their voice.? It wouldn't feel right among friends to make one of us treat everyone to a meal."

     Yuuji agreed, "Good idea!"

     After a second of hesitation, Atsuki agreed, "Okay." Megumi's eyebrows furrowed as suspicion grew in him. She smiled, placing her elbow on his shoulder, "Three out of four, you can't get out of it. But we'll let you choose which sport."

    "That's a big responsibility for you, Fushiguro," Yuuji stated.

     He questioned, "Why are you pushing this on me?"

     Atsuki explained, "Cause you don't like games that have the punishment unless Gojou is involved and he gets a taste of his own medicine."

     "I guess that's true." He looked over at the guide on the wall. It displayed the games available to them in different categories. His eyes skimmed over the smooth material and suggested, "Batting."

     "I knew you'd pick that!" Yuuji exclaimed. "After all, we just played baseball!"

     Nobara pointed out, "This will help us combat the Kyoto school's pitcher."

     "You make a pitching machine sound like an actual pitcher," Megumi countered.

     Atsuki snickered, "They had a pitching machine and still lost." Nobara joined Atsuki, giggling as they drove the hoverboard at the same pace.

     The two boys were behind them before Nobara yelled at them to slow down. Atsuki had her head turned to look at Nobara as she spoke. The side of her face was visible as she tucked her loose hair behind her ear. Megumi watched as her smile grew into a laugh from Nobara's joke. He wasn't aware he took the advantage of strolling behind her to look at her.

     Yuuji merely followed his gaze and an incredulous smile formed on his lips. Megumi was incredibly oblivious or stupid for how openly looked at her as someone who knew how to keep to himself.

-

This is from the jjk light novel I forgot which one but It's from one of them. The whole chapter was supposed to be published but it was surpassing 7,000 words and taking too long to write and edit so I figured I post it in half.

Also I want to write my megumi pov chapter so bad but I can't just yet. I need to hurry up and write lmaooooo

And I'm sorry for my long absence I quit my joke at the end of August and got a new one. It took a long time to adjust especially since I start at a normal time instead of waking up at 4 or 5 am for my old job. And since I work with kids I needed to do a lot of online training and the last thing i wanted to do when I got home was look at a computer screen a type

But I'm trying to get chapters out so don't worry I'm not gonna leave this story. I was distracted by Spider-Man two for a little bit.

Until next time

-Aithusa