Chapter Text
The first thing Evelyn Bennet learned about Tokyo Jujutsu High School was that normalcy had either died tragically or never existed here to begin with. The second was that Satoru Gojo apparently enjoyed making entrances like a walking natural disaster. He was also terrible at directions, as it turned out.
So the self-proclaimed “strongest sorcerer alive” bounded into Evelyn’s life by bashing her dorm room door open with so much force it bounced off the wall and closed back in his face. His second attempt, though less forceful, was no less enthusiastic as he complained that the door was personally against him.
“Suguru! Your door hates me!”
Evelyn looked up from the floor at the white-haired man in her doorway.
“I don’t know who Suguru is, but I can assure you my door was only retaliating after you assaulted it.”
Gojo blinked down at Evelyn almost comically, his white lashes fluttering behind ridiculously dark sunglasses.
“You're not Suguru.”
“Obviously.”
“Why are you in his room?”
Evelyn closed the book she had been reading, “I’m not.”
Gojo, finally actually looking around the room, seemed to realize that he may have indeed made a mistake. Then, as if it didn’t really matter that he had pushed his way into some random girl’s room, he leaned against her door frame and smirked.
“Well,” he announced confidently, “this is awkward for everyone involved.”
Evelyn blinked up at him from her position surrounded by half unpacked boxes.
Evelyn glanced up. "You sound like you're settling in for tea."
“That depends.” Gojo tilted his head slightly, gaze flicking over the room with shameless curiosity. “Are you secretly dangerous?”
“What kind of question is that?”
“The important kind.”
Evelyn snorted softly despite herself and set her book aside.
"Meanwhile, you practice breaking and entering."
“I knocked!” He almost sounded offended.
“You attacked my door.”
“I know what I did.”
The man was absurd.
“Satoru!” called a voice from somewhere down the hall, “if you’ve gotten lost again, I’m leaving you to die alone.”
The aforementioned Suguru, Evelyn assumed, as Gojo yelled back down the hallway.
“But I’ve found something much more interesting!”
“I object to being reduced to an object,” Evelyn added from her position on the floor. She found no need to get up and properly greet her intruder. After all, he was the one who just barged in.
Gojo’s eyes shot back to her, and a smile slowly spread across his lips.
“If you’re bothering the new girl, I will curse you,” Suguru called back, his voice closer now.
Gojo looked around the room, eyeing the scattered boxes and half-decorated walls.
“Are you the new girl?”
“No,” Evelyn raised an eyebrow, “I just enjoy pretending I’m moving.”
“Ha!” the white-haired menace pointed at Evelyn dramatically, “I like this one.”
A man with dark hair pulled into a bun popped his head into her doorway and rolled his eyes.
“Sorry about him. I’ve directed him to my room at least five times, and somehow he still managed to get lost.”
Evelyn shrugged, “Not like I was busy unpacking or anything.”
Gojo turned to his friend and gestured to her dramatically, “I have decided we are keeping her.”
“Again with the objectification,” Evelyn shook her head as she stood and brushed a bit of dust from her skirt, “maybe Jujutsu society hasn't heard yet, but women aren’t property anymore.”
Suguru blinked at Evelyn and then smirked, “Yeah, we can keep her.”
He bowed slightly to her, “Geto Suguru.”
Evelyn smiled and returned the bow, “Bennet Evelyn.”
Gojo, apparently tired of being ignored for so long, placed himself entirely too close to be polite, “Gojo Satoru, the strongest sorcerer alive.”
Evelyn knew who he was; everyone who knew anything about the current Jujutsu world knew who Gojo Satoru was. And a 15-year-old calling himself the strongest sorcerer would be incredibly cocky if it were, in fact, not true.
“My door begs an apology for the way you abused it.”
Gojo blinked like he had suspected a different response and then promptly turned to the door and bowed deeply to it.
“My sincerest apologies, unfortunately, you looked very similar to a separate piece of wood I am currently in a dispute with.”
Evelyn snorted in an entirely unlady-like way. Her mother would have been appalled.
Gojo, however, did not seem offended, but rather like he’d just consumed three energy drinks.
“You’re late. Why?”
Geto pinched his nose, “Could you be any more direct?”
Evelyn kicked a couple of boxes out of the way so she could make her way to the door.
“My parents were cooking last night, and I didn’t want to miss my last chance to eat real food.”
“The cafeteria isn’t horrible,” Geto supplied
Evelyn just waved him away, “Yeah, but you all put rice on everything. Not a spec of real bread in sight.”
“Carbs are carbs,” Gojo shrugged unbothered as he leaned against the door frame.
Evelyn thought he might be incapable of simply standing somewhere.
“They most certainly are not!” Evelyn picked up her bag and marched past them out of the room, “One is weirdly sticky, and one is perfect and fluffy.”
“I fail to see the distinction.” Gojo almost skipped up beside her as they continued down the hallway.
Geto, following from behind, said, “We were on our way to orientation if you want to join us.”
“Sure,” Evelyn pulled her bag higher onto her shoulder and allowed the bundle of caffeine to lead the way out of the dorm building.
The campus itself was smaller than Evelyn had expected. The photos in the brochure, the odd man with the weird puppets had given her, certainly made it seem that way at least. Really, it was amazing what someone could do with fancy camera angles. From all the secrecy around Jujutsu society, Evelyn had expected some kind of sprawling compound tucked away in the mountains. Though with only four students in an apparently pretty average-sized class, there really wasn’t any need for even the few buildings that there were. Under the morning light, Jujutsu High was entirely ordinary.
Well.
Ordinarily, if you ignored the fact that the curse apparently existed, the white-haired teenager beside kept walking backward while he talked. Amazing, really, how he hadn’t hit a tree yet.
“You’re from America, right?” Gojo asked suddenly, as the thought had just popped into his head.
Evelyn eyed him carefully, “The accent gave me away, huh?”
“Nope!” Gojo nearly tripped over a stone, “the bread obsession!”
Geto sighed, as if this kind of conversation were normal. “You’ll have to forgive Satoru, he gets attached to the strangest things.”
“I’m literally right here.”
“Yes,” Geto replied evenly, "Unfortunately."
Gojo gasped, and a hand flew to his heart, “You wound me.”
Evelyn released a breathy laugh through her nose, and Gojo beamed like he’d won some kind of contest.
Through either divine intervention or perhaps way too much practice in the art of walking blind, Gojo did not back into anything the entire way to the main building. It, like all the buildings, boasted traditional Japanese architecture. Several students milled about outside it, either half asleep on their feet or completely asleep on the ground. One girl with short brown hair sat on the stairs, a cigarette between her fingers. Evelyn wasn’t entirely sure if she was even awake.
Gojo seemed to hold no such worries towards her consciousness, however, and promptly bounded up the stairs towards her. Her dark eyes shifted to him.
“Satoru,” she deadpanned, “you are entirely too awake, as always.”
“And you are as boring as ever, Shoko.” Gojo plopped himself down beside her.
“Meet the American!”
Shoko, to her credit, ignored Gojo’s introduction and offered Evelyn her hand.
“Ieiri Shoko.”
“Bennet Evelyn.”
Smoke curled from the end of Shoko’s cigarette.
“I see you had the misfortune of meeting these idiots.”
“My door will never be the same.”
Shoko eyed the boys for a long moment before flicking ash over the side of the stairs.
“My condolences.”
Gojo, now sprawled across the stairs like they were his throne, scoffed.
“You’re just jealous that she likes me best.”
“I met you fifteen minutes ago,” Evelyn did her best to subdue her smile.
“And yet.”
A ridiculous man, really.
Shoko took another drag from her cigarette before glancing at Evelyn again, gaze noticeably sharper than before. Unlike Gojo’s loud curiosity or Geto’s calmer observation, Shoko seemed to assess people quietly. Clinically almost.
Evelyn got the strange feeling that very little escaped her notice.
“Well, Bennett, welcome to Jujutsu High.”