Chapter Text
Itadori Yuuji was a firm believer in the phrase when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Who wouldn’t want to make the most of each and every opportunity that faces them?
That was how he found himself lacing up his sneakers at the break-neck of dawn after seeing how nice the temperature was on the forecast the day before. And he had heard rumors of sunrises being beautiful around this time of year, so Yuuji had to see if they were true.
When he stepped outside and felt the morning sun warming his back, he knew getting five hours of sleep would be worth it. Yuuji jumped from one foot to the other a few times to chase away the sleep that was still nagging at him before beginning his run.
After living in his apartment for a year, Yuuji was finally becoming acquainted with his city, so the path he picked for his run would be perfect for getting him out of breath and ready for the day. Popping his air pods into his ears he started focusing on his breathing pattern to set the pace, inhale three steps, exhale three steps. He continued repeating this in his head, getting so lost in the greenery around him and the calming pattern of counting that he didn’t notice the hazard on the ground until he tripped over it and fell flat on his face. Shit. Yuuji’s nose had taken the brunt of the fall and he felt the unmistakable warmth of red blood running down his face and a spark of pain igniting in his face from the impact. Groaning, Yuuji pulled a hand out from underneath himself to feel around his nose, internally thanking every person watching over him that his nose didn’t break and was still intact.
A loud hiss sounded underneath Yuuji, drawing his attention away from his nose and making him aware of the lump he had trapped under his feet. He sat up quickly, afraid he hurt the poor animal, only to see a pink cat glaring at him with its fur raised.
Yuuji cooed at the animal, “aww you poor thing, I’m so sorry.” The cat was cute in its own special type of way, like it could kill you at any moment. It had markings crossing over his body in a calico-type way, but were so oddly specific with the shapes that it had Yuuji wondering if someone owned the cat and dyed its fur. Yuuji tried to reach out to the cat to see if it had a collar with an owner’s number on it, but was abruptly rejected by the cat with a swat of its claw. The vicious swipe of the claw scathed deep into Yuuji’s hand, adding to the bloody mess that he already was. It was Yuuji’s turn to hiss now from the pain the cat had elicited, surmounting on top of the throbbing pain of his nose. He leaned his head back to hopefully stanch the bleeding from his nose but was met with blood from his hand dripping down into his eye. A large sigh. Yuuji was on the precipice of internally imploding from his luck this morning.
He looked back down again only to see the cat had scampered away into some of the bushes nearby him, effectively pulling off a hit-and-run on Yuuji. He sighed, knowing his run was now officially over as he made his way back to his apartment to clean himself up. As much as Yuuji cursed the cat, he was still worried for its well-being, he didn’t like the thought of a potentially stray cat going hungry.
But he’d hunt for it later, because he currently had bigger fish to fry, like, for example, his nose that was still gushing blood all over his already bloody hand, and the pristine white carpet waiting for him back at home in his bedroom that he had to cross to get to his shower, and there was no way in hell he was about to ruin the carpet he had prided himself in. So, as Yuuji made his way to his apartment, he pondered ways to get across the carpet. And by the time he had arrived, facing his blue apartment door, he had come up with absolutely nothing. He was currently shirtless, so he couldn’t use a shirt to stanch the blood, and there was no way he was about to strip in his apartment hallway and use his shorts. So naturally, Yuuji came up with the second best option: Book it.
He stood outside his door with a determined look on his face and slammed the door open resulting in a loud bang. To hell with his neighbors, they don’t have a carpet to protect, they can deal with a couple less hours of sleep. He then executed his plan exactly, covering his nose and hand as best as he could with his noninjured hand. He blindly sprinted towards his bathroom and let out a cheer when he made it safely without a single drop of blood falling. However, for the second time today, Yuuji slipped and fell over a hazard he did not see in front of him, and for the second time today, his nose took the brunt of the fall.
He scraped the bridge of his nose along the corner of his counter, and he felt even more blood seep across his skin. “Shit shit shit,” Yuuji rolled across the floor holding his nose, tears pricking his eyes from the pain that renewed at his most recent tumble. He tried to gain his bearings but his vision was swimming from the attacks his head had taken, causing him to just give up and lay on his back for a while until the dizziness stopped. Once it had, he peaked down at the ground to see what he tripped on.
A rug.
Yuuji had tripped on a fucking rug.
A string of every curse Yuuji knew flew out of his mouth. How the fuck had he tripped over a rug? How embarrassing could he possibly be?
Yuuji let the whole situation sink in as he got up with the help of leaning heavily on his counter so as to not lose balance, and looked into the mirror.
He had gotten into a fair amount of fights in middle and high school, but even still, he had never seen his face as bloody as it was before today. There was a nasty cut decorating the bridge of his nose near his eye that Yuuji was sure would scar. Granted, it would be a really cool scar, but it was incredibly embarrassing how he came about it, and Yuuji wasn’t excited at the prospect of having to explain to everyone close to him the story behind it. There was also blood matted into his pink hair and covering so much of his face one would’ve thought he took a tub of red face paint and dumped it on his head. All this over a damn cat. Yuuji sighed and turned on the faucet to his shower, ready to wash away his morning.
It was safe to say Yuuji did not believe in the phrase when life gives you lemons, make lemonade anymore.
Two hours ago, Yuuji had chosen to forego any medicines that would’ve helped him with the pain that was currently infesting its way across Yuuji’s face because he believed that medicine meant you were weak. Clearly, Yuuji should stop listening to anything he believes because it never ends in his benefit.
So now, he currently sits at his desk at work with his head down and eyes closed, trying to chase away the growing migraine that was rattling his brain. But, life has never been kind to Yuuji, because he hears the unmistakable loud clanging of his best friend’s cup on the desk neighboring his.
“What a nice and bright day, Yuuji!” Nobara exclaims, blissfully unaware of the state of Yuuji. He furrows deeper into his arms trying to avoid her voice that's causing his head to ring. “Yuuji, don’t you dare ignore your one and only friend if you don’t want to be left with none.”
“I have more friends than just you, you know,” he mumbles back into his arms. Nice and bright day, my ass. Yuuji would kill for his day to be all sunshine and rainbows right now.
Nobara shakes him and Yuuji is forced to escape the cave he made himself with his arms if only to get her to stop shaking him. When he fully sits up and the swirling of the room stops, he gets to see the delight of Nobara making a disgusted face at him.
“You look like hell.”
“Good day to you too, Nobara.”
“No seriously, what could you have possibly done between now and since we last hung out, which was a day ago, mind you, for you to end up like you just decided to take an iron and plaster it across your face?”
Yuuji was not dealing with this, her complaining about his face would be much better than her figuring out he got his face like this. Nobara crossed her arms expectantly, to which Yuuji chose to not take note of.
Nobara’s face twisted up even further, “If you don’t tell me within the next 30 seconds, I will drop kick your ass and give you a whole new pain to complain about.”
Yuuji was easily persuaded out of his decision of silence. He knew by now to never take Nobara’s threats lightly, because she will stay true to her word, and Yuuji would currently fall to his knees and worship anyone for a single pain-killer right about now. He did not need to add to the pain. “I met a devil incarnate and slipped on a rug.”
A burst of laughter rang through his head, “Are you fucking serious? You slipped on a rug? How goddamn stupid can you be?” More laughter came out, adding to his migraine. Yuuji noticed how she deliberately skipped over the fact of him meeting the devil incarnate and zeroed in on the embarrassing part of his story.
But frankly, Yuuji couldn’t care less about that right now, “Do you have a tylenol or something? Please, I’m desperate,” he begged.
Apparently remembering that she was Yuuji’s friend, Nobara finally had the decency to look sorry for him as she rummaged through her purse and handed over a pill to him. Yuuji almost weeped at the sight of the beautiful thing, and downed it back immediately. He knew he had mounds of work waiting for him on his computer, but until the pain killer kicked in, anything Yuuji would do would be futile, and he liked to stay true and honest to his work, not skipping out on anything. Which left him resting his head between his arms and waiting.
Focusing on the drone of the office surrounding him, and not the pain buzzing in his head, Yuuji was actually able to gain some stability in his head after a couple of minutes of sitting still. He was even able to meditate through counting after a few more minutes and became solely focused on this task. Yuuji knew there was no point in even trying to get work done at this point so he completely disregarded it. The window nearest Yuuji was putting the wonderful day on full display, making Yuuji curse the sun because it reversed much of his progress with its bright rays boring into his eyes.
“Ahem.”
Yuuji whipped his head around, shit. He had been too busy moping about the sun that he hadn’t noticed his boss walk up right behind him. He sheepishly scratched his head. “Sorry Nanamin, zoned out a bit.” A flash of surprise and concern flipped across Nanami’s face, which was usually so stoic that it caused Yuuji to sit up straight in his chair. “Is something wrong?”
“Yuuji, you have a massive gash across your face.”
Oh. “I also have one on my hand,” Yuuji added unhelpfully, grimacing at his words as he said them, aware of the fact that they were just drawing more attention to his stupidity.
“Yuuji. I have taught you so many lessons on how to defend yourself, and you show up today like this. I didn’t realize I was insufficient at teaching you.” Nanami knew how to make himself look larger and more imposing, as needed for his job, so Yuuji was used to seeing him like this, but he had never seen him doing it towards him, which was much scarier than Yuuji would like to admit.
“Yes, I’m sorry Nanamin, I didn’t get hurt by other people,” Yuuji said, trying to ease his boss’ mind, “I’m just not the brightest sometimes, and today was one of those days.”
Yuuji heard a scoff come from behind Nanami, which no doubt came from Nobara, “You always have those days.” She turned in her swivel chair to invite herself into the conversation that was meant for just Yuuji and his boss, and then turned towards Nanami, explaining: “He’s an idiot who got severely injured because he tripped on a rug.”
“And I met the devil’s incarnate, don’t forget that,” Yuuji said, pointing an accusing finger towards Nobabra. She just up and left behind all loyalty she had garnered from years of friendship just for the chance to make fun of him. How disrespectful. “It was an evil pink cat on the street that started my miserable morning, so it wasn’t technically entirely my fault.”
Nobara met his finger with a glare. “Nobody cares about that part.”
“Ahem.”
Yuuji and Nobara muttered out apologies towards Nanami, and fell silent. They had both completely forgotten that he was standing right in front of them.
“I’m glad to hear that no one hurt you, Yuuji, and I hope the pain subsides soon. However, I need to see you in my office now, so if you would please follow me,” Nanami instructs, before quickly striding away towards the door that leads to his office.
Nobara watches him close the door before twirling to Yuuji. “What’s that about? Are you getting fired?”
Yuuji had no clue, and said so aloud. He couldn’t think of anything he had done wrong at work recently, excluding today, and Nanami never called him into his office unless it was important. Calls to Nanami’s office were infamous at the agency due to the fact that almost no one ever left his office still employed.
Yuuji gulped. “Wish me luck!”
He really did not want to lose his job. He truly enjoyed writing new articles about life in the city, or investigating issues because he knew it would be beneficial to at least one person, and if that was all his work affected, it was enough.
Yuuji pushed open the door to Nanami’s office and sat down in the chair, exhaling shakily before meeting Nanami’s eyes.
Yuuji would be able to accept it if he were fired, but that still didn’t mean that he would be okay with it. He moved his whole life to this random city he had never even heard of because Nanami, one of his high school teachers, had moved here and owned a reputable news agency. Nanami was like a father to Yuuji, which struck a chord in his heart because he only had his grandfather growing up. So, if he fired Yuuji, he couldn’t say it wouldn’t sting, and he would probably cry in his apartment for at least a week straight before he could be able to pick himself up again.
“Itadori.”
Here it comes, Yuuji thought, his muscles tensing in anticipation of the words that were going to come out of his boss’ mouth, his head already hung in disappointment.
“I have an important article I need you to investigate and cover for me.”
The hell? Yuujii’s head shot up. “Excuse me?” He couldn’t believe his ears. “Aren’t you going to fire me?”
The look Nanami was giving him made Yuuji feel even more stupid than he’s felt the whole day.
“You expected me to fire you?” Clearly both he and Yuuji were in disbelief at how their conversation was turning out. “Why would I ever do that?”
Yuuji blushed. “I mean, I don’t really know.” He remembered his poor work ethic this morning and zeroed in on it, determined to make his premonition not seem childish. “I wasn’t working at all this morning, and I showed up a mess. Oh, and don’t forget I met the devil’s incarnate, so I’m probably cursed too, and-”
“Ahem.” Goddamnit. Yuuji hated Nanami’s pretentious ‘ahem’s’ because they were so effective at silencing him. Nanami continued, “I don’t remember asking for you to give me reasons as to why I should fire you. Plus, if I’m correct, you love this job.” He then shifted in his seat to face his computer, and began to type intensely, disregarding Yuuji.
After a few minutes of this, Yuuji began to shift uncomfortably in his seat, He still didn’t know the reason he was in Nanami’s office, and the prolonged silence was not aiding his anxiety. “Nanamin-”
“Here.” Yuuji was abruptly cut off from his nerves when Nanami shifted his computer screen for Yuuji to be able to see what he had been so focused on.
The screen displayed many reports and complaints from city-goers, all lined up neatly one after the other, which was certainly caused by Nanami's organization. But when Yuuji leaned into the screen to actually read the titles of the reports, he froze. It took all of Yuuji’s training to not jump to conclusions immediately and read through each headline of the reports to get a better grasp of what he was dealing with.
“From my understanding, there’s a serial killer in our city?” He ended the statement as a question, as if doubting his comprehension skills in the hopes that they led them astray.
Nanami nodded gravely. “You would be correct, this person is becoming a large issue in the city as well, not only due to the fact that they are murdering our citizens, but also due to their actions of leaving the dead bodies in relatively public areas where people are witnessing the corpses and becoming traumatized.”
“Shit.” Yuuji was well aware of the fact that Nanami condemned swearing, but desperate times call for desperate measures. “Shouldn’t the police be handling this? Why is it being handed over for you to solve?”
“This serial killer has been able to completely evade the police for quite some time now, and they have not been able to gain any leads towards their identity yet. The police believe we will have a better chance at being able to crack the case than they do because of our reporters' low profiles.”
That’s odd, Yuuji thought, cocking his head. “You’re quite well known here. I mean, you get recognized every time we go out to eat. It wouldn’t work.”
Nanami stared blankly at Yuuji. “That’s why I’m tasking you with this investigation.”
A burst of laughter sounded from Yuuji, “Wow, Nanamin. I think that’s the first time I’ve ever heard you say a joke. You scared me for a second.”
Another blank stare.
Yuuji was starting to freak out about the lack of even just one side of Nanami’s mouth curving upwards on his face. “Right?” Yuuji whispered, waiting for Nanami to crack and tell him it was a joke.
There was no crack.
Deep breath.
“Nanami, with all due respect, I can not take on this job. I’ve barely been working here for a year, that is nowhere near qualified enough for a task like this.”
Nanami blinked. “You just stated my reason yourself: You’ve only worked here a year. You have yet to gain recognition for your face, so you’d be able to work undercover quite easily.”
How the hell was Nanami so calm? “I can’t take this job,” Yuuji begged.
Nanami responded with a furrow in his brow. “I’m confused. Is this not the heart of why you wanted to work this job in the first place? To help those who need it?”
“Yes, but not when it’s something as drastic and important as this!” A slammed fist to the desk. “I’m not even good at protecting myself,” he pointed at his face for emphasis, “so how can I protect a whole damn city?”
“You’ve taken jobs similar to this before,” Nanami reasoned.
“Yeah,” Yuuji chuckled darkly, “for finding a fucking missing wallet! Not a whole person who is trying to stay hidden!”
Nanami was still level-headed, not raising his voice once. “I believe you can do it.”
Yuuji stalled. Stared. His chest was heaving.
“Is there no one else?” Yuuji croaked out.
Nanami sighed, “Everyone else here has an extremely well-known face in the city. Some even more so than mine, like Nobara,” he paused, “You would be a perfect undercover agent for us. Think of the people you would help.”
And Yuuji couldn’t help but do just that.
He let out a shaky sigh, “Would I be alone on this investigation?”
Nanami’s gaze softened. “Of course not. As long as you ask for help, everyone here is willing to provide it if needed.”
“Okay, okay,” Yuuji sounded like he was convincing himself, “I’ll do it.”
Nanami’s shoulders loosened a fraction. “Good, because there was only you for this investigation.”
“Wow, that’s reassuring,” Yuuji responded sarcastically. “When do I start?”
“Perferrably today, due to the pressing nature of the situation, but I want you to have a clear head, so you can begin at the start of next week.”
Yuuji sighed, and melted into his chair. He stared blankly at the wall in front of him, waiting for the situation to sink in, but after a period of time and it hadn’t, he stood up.
He said one statement: “Then I’ll see you next week,” and left the office.
Yuuji wasn’t sure if he was conscious the rest of the work day, but he was sure that he never tackled the work he had neglected to do that morning. Even Nobara chose not to bother Yuuji after seeing his sorry state.
He was still enveloped in this sorry state the next day.
Yuuji was aware of the importance of this job, and was grateful for the opportunity that Nanami had given him, but he felt the weight of everyone’s expectations pressing down on him. It wasn’t explicitly said, but Yuuji knew he was the last line of hope for catching this person.
What if he couldn’t figure it out? What if he screwed the case up so bad that everyone nearest him suffered for his actions?
Yuuji sat and stared out the window from his seat on the subway. He watched as rain droplets raced down the window, each fighting for a chance to win, just to be engulfed by another, its opportunity taken. Each rain drop he picked suffered this fate.
Yuuji’s weight shifted with the subway as it rolled to a stop, and the doors slid open, welcoming Yuuji to the outside. The clouds were angry today, thunder rumbling out of them sporadically, covering the sky in a swathe of gray. As Yuuji stepped off the subway, the wind bit into his skin, making him pull the hoodie he was wearing over his head to try and ward off the offender. Apparently, yesterday's weather was a fleeting bit of beauty, as when Yuuji had looked at the weather today, the entire forecast did a 180, and rain was in for the foreseeable future.
Yuuji turned the corner in the park when the carrier he was holding in his hand smacked a lamp post. He had forgotten he was carrying it.
On most days like these, Yuuji would never dare step outside, preferring to sit in his apartment and read manga, but once he saw that cat out yesterday, and the long-lasting bad weather, he knew he couldn’t leave the poor thing out by itself to deal with the elements. Some would say to leave it and let natural selection do its thing, but Yuuji would not stand and see a hopeless animal get hurt if he could do something about it.
So here he was. Trying to save the devil’s incarnate while freezing his ass off in the rain.
Yuuji, like most people of the world, had never gone and actively hunted for a cat, so he had no clue what he was doing. He did do some quick research online beforehand and discovered cats really liked fish, so that was how he found himself holding a dead fish in his hands.
Was he aware that a completely whole fish being stuffed in his pocket was not ideal, and that a can of tuna or something probably would be more efficient? Yes. But he didn’t have time to run to the store, so he just grabbed what would have been his dinner tonight from the freezer and rolled with it.
Yuuji held the fish out and started wiggling it, “Here, kitty, kitty, kitty,” he called out.
Nothing sounded except for the pattering of rain.
“I have a really nice, juicy fish here just for you!”
After another bout of absolutely nothing, Yuuji figured he was probably the issue in his plan. The cat hadn’t seemed too fond of him in their first encounter, so Yuuji placed the fish down in the carrier and sat on a bench that was nearby and waited.
Once Yuuji saw his hands were starting to prune from the rain, he began to uncurl from his position, his body aching and his back popping from being in the unnatural position. But a movement flashed in the bushes, a very pink movement.
Yuuji froze.
Sure enough, the pink cat he had seen the day prior stalked its way towards the carrier, its head swiveling in every direction. Slowly but surely, the cat's entire body entered the carrier and it began to sniff out the fish. Yuuji crept closer, nearing the gate, trying to execute his plan of trapping the cat. He was sitting with anticipation coursing through every muscle in his body, like a spring ready to explode, waiting for the perfect moment.
He then saw the cat's face jolt back, as if in disgust, and then it sprinted away, scampering back into the growth of the park. Shit. He was so close to catching the cat, but at least he didn’t leave with battle scars this time. Yuuji sighed and leaned his head towards the sky, feeling the rain on his face like little needles.
He’ll try again another time.
Yuuji reached into the crate to grab the fish, so he could put it back in the bag he brought it in, when it started squirming. “Holy shit, oh my god,” Yuuji panicked. “How the hell are you alive?” He was yelling at a fish. A couple walking by him sped up, not so subtly trying to get away from him. “You’ve been in the freezer for two days? Is that even possible?” Now he was having a conversation with the fish, even better.
Yuuji brought the fish up to his face to try and see if he could determine its superhuman abilities from the surface, when it suddenly smacked him hard across the cheek, as if his face wasn’t already messed up. The collision caused Yuuji to drop the fish in surprise, and Yuuji watched as it flipped and flopped away to a shallow stream near him and swam away with the current. He couldn’t believe it.
His dinner just swam away.
Now, Yuuji was left with an empty crate, a new blemish to his face, and no dinner. Over the same goddamn cat. Why was he even trying? Yuuji groaned at the sky, the weather reflecting his mood.
Trying to make the most of his situation, Yuuji stood up and headed to the streets neighboring the park he was in. There were good restaurants in the area, so Yuuji reasoned with himself that he could just get dinner here, instead of having to stop by the store to buy a new fish.
His original plan was to find something he was craving, but being fully aware of his body now, the aching in his head renewing and the cold that was cemented its way into his bones, he chose the nearest building to him, which ended up being a coffee shop. Aware of his clothes being drenched, he tried to wring out as much water as possible, in an attempt to not get the establishment a new caution sign when he walked in. When he pulled the door open, the warmth that sneaked its way into Yuuji’s soul made him sigh of relief. The issue of his clothes still freezing him would have to be dealt with later.
Yuuji walked up to the counter, and got stuck behind someone with shock-white hair. Of course, with Yuuji’s luck, the guy decided to strike up a conversation with the barista, who was happy to oblige, and Yuuji overheard the mention of the name Suguru coming from the white haired man, making Yuuji figure they were close. This also meant, however, Yuuji had to wait even longer for a hot shower.
When the guy finally decided he should probably get out the way so other people could order, Yuuji approached the register and ordered a caramel frappuccino with a croissant as his makeshift dinner and picked a seat by the window to sit at while he waited. He needed to figure out a better way to be able to catch this cat, and it was clearly not through his own ideas. He needed to find someone who was a professional at this. Yuuji couldn’t think of anyone he knew that was qualified for that. Maybe someone who-
“For Yuuji,” a barista called out.
Yuuji thanked the world that the cafe was near empty and that his order came out fast. He grabbed his order, which was the only one ready besides a red drink sitting on the counter, and left the cafe, booking it straight towards the subway to get home.
The universe had apparently decided that Yuuji had had enough for today, because his ride home was without incident. He didn’t trip on anything either when he got to his bathroom, and his shower was uneventful. Yuuji had enough crazy situations this week that even a few hours of peace was putting him on edge.
Not that he wouldn’t appreciate them, but it was unnerving.