Scaling the apartment building without a cocktail of endorphins flooding his system was a bitch and a half. His half melted palms stuck to any surface he clung to, each touch peeling off a layer of dead skin.
The agony had him cringing the entire way down, eyes crinkling uncharacteristically as he blinked tears out of his eyes. A pipe gave out beneath his feet, causing him to cling harder against the brick surface he was against; the effort was absolute murder on his hands.
"O-ow!" Toji hissed, feeling rough, sharp brick painfully cut against exposed flesh. If it were any consolation, the wounds should heal on their own, as Toji's heavenly restriction included a superhuman healing factor as well; not at the same rate of Reverse Cursed Technique, of course, but still something.
It took maybe as much willpower as it did to shotput Jogo into lower orbit as it did for Toji to make it back down to street level without screaming like a petite schoolgirl. And well, if he did make a few questionable noises on his way down, it's not like anyone was there next to him to witness it.
As his shoes made contact with the ground, melted soles squishing against the asphalt, Toji uttered a prayer of thanks to whatever deity bestowed him the strength not to start bawling on the spot. Fuck, it hurt so much!
"Toji." A grizzled voice spoke, just a few metres away.
Fuck!
"O-old man," Toji cleared his throat, willing his eyes to stop watering as he turned his head, regarding the Zenin head with a cold glare. "You ain't croaked yet?"
There was a terse moment, as Toji stared down the elder Naobito, who was now very noticeably pale and pallid. His arm was bandaged, at the very least, but Toji was honestly astounded that the guy could even stand after all the blood he must have lost.
The elder Zenin was shadowed by Nanami, who was in a tense stance, though unarmed. Maki stood a few paces behind the two, shoulder to shoulder with Megumi, both teenagers posed awkwardly, as if they were wondering if it were even worth assuming combat stances against… Well, him.
Toji was about to break the ice with some stupid jab or joke, maybe insist that the group hurry to respond to the ongoing national tragedy , but Naobito cut him to it.
"Are you on our side, or not, Toji?" The old man bit out, the words coming out as if he were spitting vitriol. Yikes, must not have been easy to say.
Toji let an easy smile spread across his face, tilting his head back as he perfectly concealed the tightness in his chest from the close proximity to his son. "Sure. Can't bet on horse races if these fuck ass curses destroy all the best tracks."
"They… they don't really run those anymore, these days," Nanami muttered awkwardly, killing all of Toji's hopes and dreams with a single sentence.
"Fuck. You guys are on your own then." With that, he turned on his heel, examining the spot where he'd had Jogo dead to rights. Where the hell did those fingers go? Jogo was basically beneath his heel for most of the fight, so he certainly hadn't handed them off to anybody… He could recall Jogo was able to summon some strange shikigami against Gojo in the first season of the show, had the curse used a similar tactic some time during the chaos of their fight? How the hell did he let such a cheap move get past his senses?
"O-oi!" Maki barked, stomping a foot forward, "You're really just gonna leave!? Just like that!? You still have- that's my weapon, you know!"
Toji halted a second, bending down to pick up the Playful Cloud that he had left behind with his abrupt dash for the highest building in sight. He thought a second, remembering that three of the four disaster curses were now dead; the only one left being Mahito, whomst a cursed weapon would be useless against. He supposed Uraume was somewhere, and he wondered how effective the weapon would be against massive glaciers, but he could only assume the winning move in that kind of scenario would be to not get hit. There was also Kenjaku, Sukuna too, but there probably wasn't a cursed weapon in existence that could level the playing field against those two. One thing was for sure though, the Playful Cloud was fun as fuck to use, and wielding it bore a dizzying feeling of familiarity. Eh, he'd probably get to wield again some day, if everything went right.
Without further ado, he roughly tossed the nunchaku at Maki, who startled and barely managed to catch the oncoming projectile.
"That volcano curse," Toji grunted, blowing into his palm now that he'd aggravated his wounds again with that throw, "It had ten of that Sukuna's fingers on it. Somehow, after I finished beating the shit out of it, those fingers were gone."
He let his words settle upon the group, watching the gears in their heads turn. His mind ran incredibly fast, and the high stress situation didn't exactly give his heart the chance to settle down- so the moment of realisation stretched on for a laughably long time to Toji's point of view. Nanami and Megumi came to first, bearing the most outward reactions.
"You don't mean-"
"-They're after Itadori!?"
Toji blinked, the corners of his mouth twitching slightly ever so slightly. "That's cute. You care about Sukuna's vessel that much?"
Megumi clammed up, a weird twist between a cringe and lasting concern still on his face, though Nanami wasted no time, addressing the rest of the group. "The curses; this is the point of the attack. They wish to bring out Sukuna, whilst Gojo is sealed in the Prison Realm! If they get those ten fingers to Itadori, then…"
A chilling silence settled over the group, the air losing all its warmth as the sorcerers imagined a Sukuna at three quarters of his full strength left free to roam the city. Itadori thus far was able to handle a handful of fingers, but could he handle fifteen? And without Gojo to keep Sukuna in check… It would be a calamity, making what happened at Shibuya station look like a tea party in comparison. Of course, Toji knew that Itadori could handle all twenty of Sukuna's fingers, though he could not ingest them all at once or Sukuna would temporarily assume control. Offhandedly, Toji thought of what kind of damage they expected from Sukuna's awakening.
Whatever it was, they were probably wrong. Shibuya gets turned into a fucking crater. Nobody could see that coming.
"Anyways, unless you want your guy to genocide the local population, it'd probably be wise for us to uh," He made a show of tapping his wrist, as if he were wearing a watch. "Fuckin' get a move on."
With that he turned around, trying to calm his racing heart. As much as he'd love to sit down and talk things through with the sorcerers, there was sort of a ticking time bomb in that boy Yuji Itadori, that could make his efforts mean squat. "And old man, go see someone. Your heart's gonna give out any second. Er, not like I give a shit, or anything."
He heard the patter of footsteps behind him, causing his back to stand ramrod straight.
"Maki!"
"Hey! Wait!"
He found himself rapidly flanked by both Maki, and Megumi. Surprisingly, it was Maki who wore the stoic expression; whilst thinly veiled concern distorted Megumi's otherwise nonchalant visage.
Further behind, Nanami reached out an arm, calling them both back but remaining in place to support the elder Naobito, who appeared to be at his limit.
"You're just like me," Maki breathed, her eyes wide behind those purple rimmed glasses of hers. Offhandedly Toji thought Maki would look badass with round rims, something like Gojo's. Shit, couldn't she wear some kind of cursed aviators? Now that would be badass. "No cursed energy- You have a heavenly restriction. Like me."
"Don't get ahead of yourself, squirt." The words rolled off his tongue, before his mind could catch up. "Lots more pushups before you can look like this." He flexed an arm for emphasis, sticking out his tongue like a petulant child.
"That's- That's not what I meant!"
"Maki!" Nanami called, his voice noticeably more stern. "We have no idea what that man's intentions are! Come back! We have to retreat with Naobito now , or he won't make it!"
Maki looked over her shoulder, her eyes cold. "Go back then. I couldn't care less about that bag of bones."
Toji's eyes widened, the back of his hand raised to cover his lips as if he were a middle aged mother reacting to gossip. 'Ohhh, yikes! Drama!'
Nanami recoiled out of shock, his mouth opening and closing as he stumbled over a response. Toji shrugged sympathetically at him, before turning around again, really hoping the ex-salaryman would take his own advice and seek out medical help. He was a practical man, surely he'd retreat- and with Mahito was somewhere in the metro below- as long as Nanami went and got treated, he would be fine. That said, he really did have to get a move on, before he lost the faint cursed energy signature that he was praying was Sukuna's fingers.
He blinked several times, seeing Maki look back towards him, and immediately re-erected his composure. Maki opened her mouth to say something else, only to be cut off by Megumi.
"You're going after Itadori, right?"
Toji's shoulders jumped involuntarily, awkwardly craning his neck to keep the shorter Fushiguro out of his line of sight. "I guess. Don't think I gotta spell out what'll happen if those ten fingers get to that guy- who is he, by the way? Your friend or something?"
"Itadori is his classmate, and my underclassman." Maki answered for Megumi, bless her soul, as Toji could not keep a straight face talking with his own damn son. So fucking weird! "Naobito called you Toji. Is that your name?"
"Naw, my names' jackass." Toji snorted, not elaborating on whether that was a joke or not.
Maki glared at him, thoughtfully jogging a few paces ahead so he could see it instead of feeling it in the back of his head. "What business do you have here? How do you know the old bastard? Are you on our side?"
Toji could feel the metaphorical sweatdrop sliding down the side of his face. Which question was he supposed to respond to? "Uh, I literally catapulted a special grade nuclear bomb into lower earth orbit just now. You want me to swear fealty to the Jujutsu Society, or somethin'?"
"Itadori," Megumi cut in again, his voice uncharacteristically unsteady. "We- when we find him, you have to understand. He's the only person capable of suppressing Sukuna, he's... he's really important."
Toji summoned the strength to look his own son in the eyes, and did it! For a second, before being forced to look away. Baby steps. "...Okay? What's that to do with anything?"
Up ahead, Toji could spot another subway entrance. Curiously, there were the corpses of several transfigured humans, indicating that a sorcerer had already come this way.
Megumi pulled a face. "It means, it- we can't-"
"He's saying don't hurt his boyfriend," Maki cut in helpfully, matching Toji's hastened gait and keeping up to his long strides impressively.
That managed to wipe off the concern on Megumi's face, leaving it with the expression of a man who stepped on a slimy, mysterious substance in a public washroom. "Eugh, no, Maki-senpai. Just, no."
Toji huffed through his nose, a smile threatening to pull at his face. "Hah. Fine kid, if you insist, I won't exorcise the brat."
Megumi's tenseness seemed to lessen ever so slightly, and Maki turned her head to stare a hole into the side of his head. "Who are you?"
"Call me jackass."
"That- are you trying to be funny or something? If someone as strong as you was just sitting around, I'm sure we would have heard of you-but you've been playing dead, right?" Maki guessed, wrong, because he was actually dead, while walking backwards so that Toji was forced to look her in the eyes. Again, he couldn't help but think she'd look so much more intimidating with either some sunglasses or the round lenses she wore in the prequel movie. " Who are you exactly, and why are you helping us?"
He could feel Megumi at his side, just an arms length away- really, why was that kid so close? He didn't even know who Toji was - and the curiosity oozing off the kid in waves, as he awaited for Toji's response.
'I'm helping you because it's the right thing to do. Your teacher is sealed away, and a plethora of evil spirits are dead set on traumatising and maiming you kids, and there's no adult here strong enough to stop that from happening and none of you deserve what's gonna happen and I don't want any more kids to get hurt, or die-'
"Is it important?" Toji questioned tonelessly, his eyes half-lidded as they reached the subway entrance. Honing his senses, he could make out the vague traces of cursed energy, lingering in the air. He hastily descended the stairwell, forcing the two junior sorcerers to watch their step as they scrambled after him. "Neither of us want this city to fuckin' explode, that not enough to make us allies?"
"Explode?" Megumi questioned, his voice heavy with suspicion as his stance got all tense again. By this point, he could only assume this individual was some curse user; someone who'd been playing dead according to Naobito, and in hiding all this time like those other sorcerers he and Itadori had fought earlier. "Who could possibly do that? What do you know about those curses, this- this attack?"
Toji's mouth flattened into an unimpressed line. "That curse I fought just now probably coulda done it. Sukuna, if he woke up, easily would easily vaporise anything within, maybe like, half a kilometer-nah, more, way more." And he would, if he woke up. "And I dunno, I got to the party pretty late."
He tilted his head slightly, bringing a finger up to scratch his nose as he diverted the topic of the conversation. "So, that six-eyes brat is sealed, huh?"
Both sorcerers stiffened, and he could basically feel the nervousness oozing off from both of them. Abort! Abort!
"Relax, yeesh," Toji whistled, stepping out onto a long sublevel of Shibuya station, a long hallway fraught with structural damage and transfigured corpses, lights flickering overhead. Damn, this place was massive. "You really don't have to worry about me. Me and that guy, we're practically best friends."
Satoru Gojo. The honoured one. Also, the same guy who put Toji Fushiguro six feet under. That was gonna be one hell of a reunion. He brought a hand up to scratch at his chin, reading the cursed energy signatures in the hall as he followed them down another set of stairs. Ah, Gojo, just what was he to do about that guy?
In the manga they had required a very specific sorcerer with a very specific power in order to unseal him. He wondered if he could avoid that altogether, and punch the stupid cube enough times to spit Gojo out. Or, maybe, he could just just beat up Kenjaku until he started crying, force him to release the Prison Realm. Now that was an idea.
Megumi and Maki looked at him with flat, almost judgmental expressions. Affronted, Toji let out a drawn out " Huuuhh? What's that look for?"
The teenagers shared a glance with each other, their near identical grimaces making them look like actual twins. Toji couldn't help but wonder what kind of story they put together in their heads.
"So, you're here… to save him?"
"Uh, ehh? Maybe? I dunno?"
"W-what do you mean you don't know?" Maki piped up, pointing an accusatory finger towards him. "Why else would you come out of hiding, if not to save your... best friend, the moment you heard he's in trouble?"
Toji almost choked on his blood. He'll ignore the sort of connotations the two were insinuating, and question more on the first part. "Who- what? Who said anything about coming for him specifically? What're you two insinuating?"
Megumi squinted at Toji, with a condemnatory look in his eyes. Youch.
'Don't look at me like that, son.'
"You have zero cursed energy, yet exorcised two special grade curses alone." Megumi pointed out, and fuck, Toji couldn't even stand to look the boys in the eyes still! "Like Maki said, we would have heard of someone like you, if you were around, but we didn't. Because you apparently faked your death, and you just happen to be acquainted with our sensei."
"Ah, would you look at that?" Perfect, a diversion! Toji's gait graduated from a brisk walk into a bullish charge nearly instantly, as he spotted a swarm of strange, fiery shikigami sluggishly pulling a scroll through the air. His hand, quick like a viper, shot out and snatched the scroll from midair. He swung the tapestry, embroiled with immense cursed energy thanks to its contents, to swat the airborne shikigami; killing them like they were a swarm of mosquitos.
He opened up the scroll, the pungent aura excreted from the unfiltered presence of ten of Sukuna's fingers filling the room with a terrifying presence. This was not even Sukuna himself, simply fractionated portions of his power and soul. And yet, his presence was this intense; making their air itself feel as heavy as mud and as cold as ice.
Toji rolled up the aged paper, relieving the kids behind him of the immense pressure. Ah, what a relief. So, Jogo had his shikigami carrying the fingers away sometime during the fight? That could've gone really, really poorly, if he wasn't able to track their path the way he was. Having a bloodhound's nose was truly the best technique one could ask for in this universe.
"Yeesh, that guy smells bad," He waved the scroll in the air a few times, as if to clear out the horrifying aura left by the fingers. "Guess they didn't have showers in the Heian era, huh? King of Odours, am I right, haha."
"Ten fingers," Maki muttered, her bangs matted to her forehead with sweat. "You really weren't kidding. I don't think I've ever felt so sick in my life."
Megumi grunted in affirmation, his skin somehow a shade paler than it usually was.
"Don't sweat it, we got here in time." Toji waived their concerns, taking a few steps away from where he picked up the scroll. " Now, we need to figure out what to do with these. These fingers need to be locked up, somewhere far away from this place."
"Not so fast!" Maki yelled, putting herself in Toji's way, again. Man this was really getting old. "You- can't you just explain yourself already?"
"What do you want? " Toji groaned, exasperated. "We're in the middle of like, I dunno, the most devastating attack on Japanese soil since the Americans dropped the sun on us twice. You really wanna sit around and talk while this shit goes on?"
Absent-mindedly, he noticed that the cursed energy in the room as a result of the fingers in the scroll he held had begun to slowly die down. Must've been why the kids felt so talkative.
Maki's mouth was pressed into an uncertain line, a bead of sweat travelling down the side of her face. "I- I… How did you get so strong? "
Huh?
"I'm sure of it now! You have a heavenly restriction, trading all of your cursed energy in exchange for strength, right? I… I have something similar, but I'm not as strong as you!" Maki seemed to trip over her own words, her voice uncharacteristically timid as she continued. "There has to be a way, right? I could- I can become as strong as you, right? "
Toji remembered then, Maki must have lived through the same conditions he'd experienced. A childhood fraught with abuse, degradation, neglect and humiliation. Toji, as he'd grown throughout the years, eventually overcame his oppressors; reaching a height of strength that set him head and shoulders above anyone else in the clan. Despite all what those elitist sorcerers would say about him, and his curseless, worthless self; Toji had reached a point where he was untouchable. Where he was able to turn his back on the clan, and instead of retaliation the elders had sighed with relief that he hadn't sought a pound of flesh for vengeance.
Right. Toji may have had nobody, but in the end, he had his strength. Maki didn't, forced to bear the unforgiving and relentless harassment her clan must have inflicted unto her and her sister. She must have spent her entire life pouring more sweat, blood and tears into her training, only for some stuck up brat, that Naoya, to exceed her in all regards. He wondered how unfair it must have felt for her. That even after she had left the clan behind, they still had the audacity to meddle in her life, to drag her down and stomp on her merits despite all her efforts. If she had his strength, nearly all her problems would be washed away. She'd asked him if it was possible for her to reach Toji's level of power, and the thing was…
'You can,' Toji thought sardonically in his head. 'All you'd have to do is kill your own twin sister first.'
Maki's eyes seemed to glimmer with hope, as if she was able to sense that he did have an answer. Ever so slightly, she seemed to lean in, her face so… so expectant that it sent a lurch of pain through Toji's heart.
"...Nah," He replied, his voice flat. No, Toji would not let things progress the way they were meant to. This wasn't just some story any more, strength wasn't everything. "Your condition isn't the same as mine. You still got some cursed energy in you, I got zero. That's the difference. It isn't something you can change so easily."
And he broke it off there, unwilling to continue, and unwilling to look at the utter disappointment that must have crossed Maki's face.
"Not easily, huh?" Then Megumi appeared in front of him, directly in front of him, as in, he could not avoid the full force of the boy's gaze. "So there is a way. You're just not telling her, right?"
His eyes danced around Megumi, mouth twitching as he drew in a heavy sigh. Observant kid. "Bullseye."
"Why won't you tell her, then!? Is this really the time to be withholding information, with our lives on the line? And- why do you keep looking away?"
His head whipped back towards Megumi, the blood leaving his face in an instant as Megumi's teenage visage was replaced with that of a woman; with deep blue eyes, soft and inviting, as opposed to her untamed, spiked raven hair.
"Toji, why won't you look at me?"
Toji took an involuntary step back, his heart feeling as though it were being crushed within the arctic grasp of some cursed spirit, his diaphragm refusing to respond to his orders to breathe, breathe, take a deep breath, get it together!
Megumi recoiled, put off by Toji's unsanctioned reaction; the taller man had turned pale, gun-metal eyes glaring down upon him with immense weight. It was the sort of look, an intensity that he would never want directed at himself, not from a man as strong as him .
"I… I…" Toji stammered, trying to wipe away the image of his dead wife from his sight. Fuck, wow, he really wasn't expecting this. "Aw, sorry, I just remembered my favourite gambling stall is probably gonna be out of business now." He pressed a thumb to the corner of his eye, cursing internally at the wetness building there, as he forced the tension to bleed out from his shoulders. "That shit hurts the heart, y'know?"
Megumi and Maki shared another look, clearly discomfited as they each took a few steps away from the seemingly unstable man. Yikes, he was doing a real bad job at keeping it all together. And here he was, thinking he was doing so well.
Was now really the time to talk this through? Surely there were more pressing matters to attend to. Honestly, how was he even supposed to put it? 'Hey, Megumi. I'm your father, who died back in 2006, after trying to murder your teacher and current father figure. I'm back now though, don't really understand how, but I really wanna make it up to you and every other kid in this fucked up cursed society, and that's pretty uncharacteristic of me right? I guess I feel that you all don't deserve what's coming, you deserve to be kids, not weapons. I want you to let your old man make himself useful, and make right on some wrongs; you can rest. Just leave it all to your dad, let me take it from here. I love you.'
"Megumi," Toji breathed, letting the tingling feeling in his palms ground him, as he forced his eyes to look at his son. His son, who he would not leave behind- not again, not like the idiot bastard who did so before.
The son in question jumped at the usage of his name, surely wondering when Toji must have heard it. Why it rolled off his tongue so smoothly, as though he'd said it before.
"I'm…" Toji coughed into a fist, wondering why on Earth it was so hard to spit out the words, as if he were hacking up a ball made of lead.
Then suddenly, Megumi jolted, dashing past Toji. "Itadori! That's- That's his signature!"
Just like that, the trance seemed to be broken, and Toji felt as though he could finally breathe again. He placed a hand against his chest, feeling the spot above his heart to see if it had begun to beat again. The blood in his ears was so loud, he couldn't make out whether it had stopped altogether or was beating so quickly he couldn't tell one beat from the other.
He glanced up to see Maki was staring at him weirdly. Yeah, whatever aura he'd built up from thrashing two special grades in a row; he'd definitely lost it all just then
'Ah… All my aura, gone.'
"The old man recognised you. You're a Zenin, aren't you?" The moss haired girl spoke, and man, what an astute observation. I mean, it wasn't as if all three of them looked the exact same.
"What makes you think that?" He croaked, his voice raspy for some reason. Ah, come to think of it, he could really use a drink. That fight with Jogo must have evaporated, like, at least half of his body's water content. "Heavenly restriction doesn't run in the family, if that's what you're thinking."
She seemed to flush at the insinuation, a tick appearing on her head as she shook her head. "That's not what I- you! I already know who my father is! You keep dodging my questions!"
Toji took in a deep breath, pondering a second before thinking 'fuck it.'
"I used to be. Then I met a girl, took her last name, had a kid and never ever looked back at that shitty place. He's grown up since last I've seen him."
Maki's eyes blinked rapidly, seemingly not expecting the answer she received. Toji stayed silent awhile, tilted his ever so slightly back as he gave the shorter sorcerer the most shit-eating of grins while Maki began really, reallyexamining his face; the familiarity of it. He could basically see as the gears of Maki's mind turned. And turned. And turned…
"No…" The Zenin girl paled, her eyes practically bulging out of their sockets. "No way! No, you- You aren't, there's- there's just no way!"
Her reaction was so comical that if didn't feel as though there were a fucking boulder in his stomach, Toji may have burst out laughing. Seems she put two and two together before Megumi did.
"You… You're Fushiguro's DAD!?" She all but screamed, pointing a finger towards him.
Toji jumped, his head snapping over his shoulder towards the staircase Megumi had gone down, before throwing his index finger to his lips. " SHHHH! H-hey! Not so loud!"
"Where the fuck have you been!?" Maki yelled, aggression seeping into her tone as a vein bulged on her temple. "You know- you know Megumi's spent his entire life without parents? Him and his sister, they were abandoned when they were kids! You-you faked your death to leave two kids to fend for themselves!?"
Yeah. Yeah, he did do that actually. The second part at least.
Regardless, he raised his hands in surrender, the grin completely wiped off his face as he attempted to amend the situation as best as he could. "O-oi, hey hold on… Wait, you're really jumping to conclusions here, I-"
Maki grabbed onto the front of his sweater, her iron grip tearing the fabric at his seams as she gestured violently, as if she were ready to slug him across the jaw. "The fuck are you here for, huh, you fucking deadbeat? Decided to finally be worth a shit for once?"
Taking a step forward, Toji decided to assert himself. "Yes! I have!"
Maki certainly didn't expect the outburst, momentarily stepping back as Toji loomed over her menacingly. She put her fists up, assuming a combat stance, until Toji seemed to slump over; his face losing its hard lines and becoming… weary.
"Yeah. I'm… trying. Something." Weakly, he stared down to his feet. No matter what way to look at it, Toji's sins were his. That was just a matter of fact. He had inherited this body, this life , and all the power- and consequences that come from it. He was Toji. And Toji's sins were his sins. "Do some good, maybe, for once."
The girl in front of him regarded him with a merciless glare. "You don't deserve anything from Megumi."
"Yup."
"In fact, I'll beat the shit out of you if you try talking to him, now!"
"Sure."
"He has a teacher who raised him properly, he has friends that care about him!"
"I'm glad."
"You think you can just- Megumi doesn't need you!"
Toji took in a deep breath, that statement like a blow to the gut. Maki was justified in her ruthlessness, in the sense that he wasn't entitled to any part of Megumi's life after what he'd done. He didn't deserve to insert himself into his son's life after being absent for twelve, or more, years of it. He didn't deserve anything , not after what Toji- not after what He had done.
But Toji… Toji was selfish. He was always an evil man, doing whatever fulfilled himself , uncaring to whether it was fair to others- uncaring of what he deserved, uncaring of the karma that would inevitably build from every life he ruined in favour of his whims. He would seize his own ambitions, his wants and his needs against the wishes of others, even if that included his own son.
Because… Toji wanted to help Megumi. Wanted to do good on his part as a father, even if it were a whole twelve years too late. It didn't matter if he himself didn't deserve that redemption, because there was no kidding, he didn't, but Megumi deserved a father. It didn't have to be a father he loved, shit, it didn't have to be a father he could even bear to look at- the way he couldn't look his own son in the eyes.
Megumi, he deserved to be protected. To be nurtured, mentored, taught; he and his friends deserved the freedom and the security to learn, live and grow without the weight of the world resting solely on their shoulders. Gojo without a doubt had picked up the slack where Toji failed to deliver on his responsibilities as a guardian, but a man at the top of the world probably couldn't quite see the bigger picture in ensuring that these kids reserved the right to be… kids.
Toji was probably the worst fucking father there ever was. But he was still a father, regardless. And, brought back from the depths of hell, would he even be considered human if he didn't turn back; fall to his knees in front of his child, beg for forgiveness, for a chance , a chance to do right, and protect his boy from the worst this world had to offer, of what was to come? To, for once, be a good father?
Maki didn't know what was coming for Megumi, for them all. Megumi deserved a father. Megumi needed his father.
"No," Toji rasped, his voice leaving him alongside the last sliver of doubt he had in his heart. "He needs his dad."
A hand collided with his cheek, with the same effect as a sponge thrown against a wall. Maki's expression was absolutely livid.
"Fucking bastard. You stay away from Megumi. What makes you think you deserve to even look at him again?"
"I'm going to be a good father." Toji said, feeling a little bit of strength return to his voice. The words spilled out from his mouth like an unstoppable flood, a fire lighting itself in his chest; melting away the ice at the edges of his ribcage. "Don't care if I don't deserve it. I'm here to stay, to protect my boy, non-negotiable."
Maki seemed ready to fight him there and then, strength difference be damned, but then Megumi announced his presence; rapid footsteps filling the stairwell as he appeared before them, with an unconscious and bloodied Yuji Itadori in his arms.
"Itadori is in critical condition!" Megumi cried, his face pallid with effort and worry. "We have to get him to Shoko, now!"
Toji and Maki stood as still as statues, as the subject of their confrontation stood just a few feet away. Awkwardly, Toji cleared his throat. "U-uh, yeah, that's uhm, that's an idea."
Maki looked up at him, her eyes wide and yet still so full of fury. "You, you're still- you really gonna-"
"What do you want me to do!? " Toji cried, his arms outstretched as he turned back to face Maki.
"I want you to fuck off!"
Megumi's face contorted with confusion. "What the- What's going on here?'
Toji opened his mouth to say something, anything, but Maki spoke quicker; "Megumi, come on! We're leaving! "
"Oi, wait!" Toji called out, as Maki put a hand on Megumi's back and began to usher him through the hall. "It's, it's dangerous out there you know! Hold on!"
He took a few steps forward, and Maki fixed him with a glare so full of hatred it might as well have been a bullet through the heart. Yeesh. That poor boy Yuta, Toji could only empathise with the boy.
"Maki, what's going on?" The subject of the argument piped up, utterly confused as he pulled away from Maki and faced Toji instead, the unconscious Itadori still in his arms. "What's with you two?"
"It's-"
"Megumi, I'm-"
"Enchain."