“Yes! You’re almost there!”
“And he says something like, ‘Now, there is a hero before my eyes.’” continued Itadori.
“I totally know what you mean! Totally tons of heart! That super touched me, so I’ll give you a free side!” the server said.
“Oh, that’s how this works?”
“Fried potatoes usually cost 400 yen, but you can have some Heart Fries for free!”
“Wah ha! Gimme a break! This meal has too many carbohydrates!” Itadori said.
“Now say h-e-a-r-t-f-u-l with me!” cheered the server.
“H-e-a-r-t-f-u-l!”
The maid dumped fries on his plate.
They were clearly cooked from frozen, not worth anything close to 400 yen. The maid café’s usual clientele might not have minded the price, but it bugged Fushiguro. A lot of things were bugging Fushiguro.
And now the maid had set her sights on him.
“Hey you. Join the fun!” she said.
“C’mon, Fushiguro,” Itadori said. “You’ll get a free side too.”
“Say h-e-a-r-t-f-u-l!” the server instructed.
Itadori did as he was told, but Fushiguro was unresponsive. Yet the fun continued.
“There, I added your extra side. Let’s snap a group pic with your meal! Scooch in, scooch in!” the server said.
“Huh? You do photos too?” Itadori asked.
“It’s part of the Sacred Set you ordered!”
“Uh … I don’t really get it, but okay!”
“Feels like heaven, doesn’t it?” she said.
“Dunno. Does it?” Itadori asked. “Yeah, maybe it does!”
“Mind if I plop down beside you?”
Itadori tried to make room, but there was nowhere to go. “Huh? Aren’t you a little too close? This is a bit embarrassing.”
“This kind of embarrassment is part of growing up!” the server chided.
“It is?”
“Yup! Say cheese! ☆”
“Um, cheese!”
“Thanks so much!”
Itadori was beside himself. “Oh man … I’m blushing! Gah!
My face feels hot! I feel like I just lost something important! Is this okay? I’m underage!”
“Kyah! Your innocence is adorable! Your friend should join us for another pic!”
“This requires a different sense of personal space than a school dance,” Itadori said. “So be careful, Fushiguro. It’s really embarrassing! You’ll blush like crazy!”
“Prepare for the pic!” the server said.
“No, I …” Fushiguro sounded like a dying duck as he put up a feeble resistance. “That isn’t … necessary, so …”
Fushiguro couldn’t take it anymore.
“Whoa … I ate more than I expected. It wasn’t that tasty though,” observed Idatori.
“The fries made my mouth dry,” Fushiguro replied sullenly.
Thirty minutes had passed since they’d made it out of Heaven, where, on top of their overpriced food, they’d also had to pay a service charge of 500 yen.
“Fushiguro, I got the photo. Want it?”
“The next time you joke around about that, I’m going to jam red bell peppers up your nose,” Fushiguro said.
“You really hated those! Okay, I got it. Now I know the worst way to irritate you.”
“There’s a shrine around Kanda. We can burn the photo there.”
“Why go all the way to a shrine?!” Itadori said.
“Because you have to offer cursed photos to a bonfire.”
“Sorry! The maid café was excruciating for you! I get it!”
Fushiguro always seemed crabby, but today he was full-on angry. That made it difficult for Itadori to get into his usual groove. Uncomfortable, he scratched his cheek as he considered how to change the subject.
“H-hey, uh … we lost sight of Gojo Sensei,” he said.
“Who cares?”
“N-no, seriously.” said Itadori. “Where did he go?”
“What’s this about me?”
“Uwaaah!!” Fushiguro and Itadori yelped in surprise.
At some point, Gojo had come up behind them, and he wasn’t alone: Kugisaki stood beside Gojo with a disgruntled, even threatening look in her eyes.
“G-Gojo Sensei! When did you creep up behind us?! And … huh? Kugisaki’s here too? Why?” asked Itadori.
“Do you really have to ask, birdbrain?!” Kugisaki snapped.
“Aw, man! Even Kugisaki is in a bad mood!” Itadori felt like he had picked up another grumpy classmate.
“Of course I am! This is your fault for lurking around Gojo!”
Itadori sensed that Kugisaki’s dissatisfaction might manifest in a more physical way than Fushiguro’s, so he thought it best to change the subject. “Um … do you have today off, Gojo Sensei?”
“Don’t ignore me! Hmf!” Kugisaki said.
“No, I’m working as usual,” Gojo said.
“Huh? But you were strolling around snacking on a crepe!”
“I’m so busy that if I don’t make strolling around town a part of my work, I never get to experience anything new! However it may have looked, I was actually working on something!”
“Like what?” Itadori asked.
“Looking for a dungeon,” Gojo said.
“A dungeon?”
“I was scoping out a cursed spot where some first-years could gain some solid experience.”
“Um … what?”
Itadori recalled a day not long after he’d enrolled at Jujutsu High when he’d gone out on what he’d thought was a tour of Tokyo, but what turned out to be a mandatory exercise in the form of eradicating cursed spirits from an abandoned building.
Gojo continued. “The building next to that maid café is mostly empty, but it’s been the subject of rumors on horror websites and is known for being a haunted spot. An esteemed record shop was located there for many years, which unfortunately lent some credibility to the stories about curses.”
“Oh, so that’s why you were looking out that window at some building.”
“I planned on doing this at a later date, but as luck would have it, I currently have three first-years at my disposal,” Gojo said. “So this will be a good challenge for today!”
“Huh? What?!”
“Don’t worry. I’ve already stationed the vacuum tube amps in the building. According to the rumors, playing records agitates the cursed spirits, so I’ve got that going. So you’ll be able to confront cursed spirits that have some kick.”
“Huh?!”
Itadori glanced at Kugisaki. Now he knew why she looked so displeased. Fushiguro, on the other hand, was the exact opposite: he was stoked.
“Why do you look so eager?!” Itadori asked.
“This sounds a lot more enjoyable than game centers and maid cafés,” Fushiguro said.
“Huh? You went to a maid café?” Kugisaki gaped. “Itadori is one thing, but you too, Fushiguro? You play innocent, but you’re just a lecherous creep!”
“It was unavoidable,” Fushiguro said.
“What do you mean I’m ‘one thing’?!” Itadori said.
“Anyway, let’s roll out,” said Fushiguro.
“Why’re you in full battle mode, Fushiguro?!” Kugisaki asked.
“Megumi didn’t get a good opportunity to show off his skills in that abandoned building a while ago, so he’s been frustrated,” explained Itadori.
“I’m not frustrated.”
“The look on your face says you are.”
“You’re totally the type to nurse a grudge,” Kugisaki piled on.
Ignoring the trio’s bickering, Gojo remarked, “Well, take care, everyone. I’m gonna go eat deep-fried manju.”
“You have room for more, Sensei?!” Itadori and Fushiguro were shocked.
However, Fushiguro felt cheered now that a maddening day off was turning into sorcerer work. “Let’s hop to it, guys!”
“No, let’s not! Argh! Goodbye to my day off!” cried Itadori.
“And to Ame-Yoko!” added Kugisaki.
Itadori found his interesting day off cut short, and Kugisaki was going to miss out on sampling from the famous Hyakkaen fruit shop at Ame-Yoko. With his usual faint smile, Gojo watched as the three chattered away en route to eradicating cursed spirits.
“Hm?”
Something fell out of Itadori’s pocket and fluttered to the ground. Gojo knelt and picked it up. He tilted his head, trying to figure out just what he was looking at. The moment he did, he burst out laughing.
“Heh heh heh heh … For all their moaning and groaning, those kids appear to be enjoying their youth after all!”
He was 80 percent amused by how funny they looked and 20 percent amused about how heartwarming it was.
Gojo stood there for a moment, smiling and holding the photograph of Itadori and Fushiguro in halos and angel wings in the company of a maid.