Mai, on the other hand, was the total opposite. She preferred to sink into the mattress and let him do absolutely all of the work.
With her, he had to take it slower, enjoying a much more deliberate, teasing pace that drove her crazy.
But where Maki held back her voice, Mai had zero filter. She didn't try to hide a damn thing, completely surrendering and letting out these incredibly loud, top-tier moans that echoed off the walls.
It was music to his ears, and it had the added bonus of completely shattering Maki's competitive composure every single time.
It was a chaotic, exhausting dynamic, but as Ren walked through the dark, a faint smirk touched his lips. He really couldn't complain about the perks
His thoughts faded as the heavy silence of the maintenance tunnels eventually gave way to the surface. After a brisk trek through the ash-choked perimeter, Ren slipped seamlessly through the layered, restrictive barriers of Tokyo Jujutsu High.
The campus was a complete ghost town, locked down tight by Yaga, Panda, and the others to keep the higher-ups at bay.
He didn't bother checking in with the vanguard at the main gates. He headed straight down into the sterile, underground corridors of the medical ward. The heavy metal doors of the morgue were propped open, the harsh fluorescent lights buzzing steadily above.
When Ren stepped inside, he found Shoko Ieiri sitting on the edge of a stainless steel autopsy table.
She looked absolutely wrecked.
The dark circles under her eyes were bruised and heavy, her usually neat brown hair was tied back in a messy, frayed knot, and her lab coat was wrinkled and stained with dried blood that wasn't hers.
An overflowing ashtray sat on a metal tray cart next to her, a half-burned cigarette dangling loosely between her fingers.
She stared blankly at the far wall, her chest rising and falling in shallow, exhausted increments. She looked like she hadn't slept a single hour since the veil first dropped over Shibuya eight days ago.
Ren stopped in the doorway, his usual smirk fading into a look of genuine, quiet sympathy. Man, he thought, watching her stare into nothing, she really is overworked to the bone.
Everyone relies on her to put the pieces back together, but nobody stops to think about who patches her up. She really deserves a break.
His boots made soft scuffing sounds against the linoleum as he walked across the room. Shoko didn't even flinch; she just slowly dragged her tired eyes up to meet his as he hopped up onto the metal table, sitting casually right beside her.
For a moment, neither of them said anything. The dull buzzing of the overhead lights filled the silence.
Then, Ren reached out. Very gently, his fingers brushed against hers as he plucked the burning cigarette from her hand. He leaned over and crushed it out in the ashtray.
"Hey," Shoko murmured, her voice raspy and thin. "I was smoking that."
"Well, now you're not," Ren replied smoothly, not looking the least bit apologetic as he nudged the overflowing ashtray just an inch further out of her reach.
He shifted his weight on the metal table, crossing his arms and fixing her with a mock-serious look. "You know, excessive smoking severely constricts the blood vessels. It ruins your lung capacity, wrecks your stamina, and prematurely ages the skin. Not to mention the whole tar buildup and terminal lung cancer thing. As the only licensed medical professional left in this school, you really should set a better example for the youth."
Shoko just stared at him.
She didn't blink. Her bruised, heavy eyes remained fixed on his face, entirely devoid of amusement. The silence stretched for a long, heavy second, broken only by the dull, irritating hum of the fluorescent lights overhead.
She let out a slow, deeply exhausted exhale, rubbing the bridge of her nose.
"I can instantly regenerate cellular damage with positive energy, you dumb fuck," Shoko said, her voice completely flat and deadpan. "I have Reverse Cursed Technique. The cancer doesn't stand a chance."
Ren let a flat, thoroughly unimpressed smile spread across his face. He held her deadpan stare for a second before letting out a dramatic, long-suffering sigh.
"You know," Ren said, placing a hand flat over his heart like he'd just been deeply wounded. "If anyone else in this miserable school called me a 'dumb fuck', I would have immediately punched them through at least two concrete walls. Just on principle."
He leaned back against the edge of the metal table, shaking his head with a theatrical brand of sorrow. "But you... you've always been my second favorite person at Jujutsu High. And since Maki technically resigned her student status, congratulations, doc. You just got officially promoted to first."
Ren spread his hands in a gesture of magnanimous mercy. "Because of that profound, historic honor, I just couldn't bring myself to lay a finger on you. My conscience simply wouldn't allow it. I have to protect my favorite doctor at all costs."
Shoko stared at him. For a long, quiet moment, the dull buzzing of the overhead fluorescent lights was the only sound in the room.
For the past eight days, her entire world had been reduced to a meat grinder. She had seen nothing but torn flesh, shattered bones, and the lifeless eyes of sorcerers she had been drinking with just a week ago. Every single interaction she had was heavy, suffocating, and dripping with death.
And then there was this arrogant first-year, sitting on a cold autopsy table, dramatically clutching his chest over a petty insult and acting like he was doing her a massive favor by not throwing her through a wall.
It was incredibly stupid.
But for the first time since the sky over Shibuya turned red, the crushing, suffocating weight in Shoko's chest felt a fraction lighter. The sheer, absurd normalcy of his banter was the exact distraction she didn't realize she desperately needed. The sterile smell of the morgue didn't seem quite as choking with him taking up space in it.
The corners of her mouth twitched. She tried to suppress it, but a short, breathy huff of actual amusement escaped her lips, breaking her stoic facade.
"Wow. I'm deeply honored," Shoko said, her lazy drawl returning, heavily laced with dry sarcasm. "First place out of a student body that currently consists of a panda, a cursed speech user, and a kid with an execution order on his head. Truly, the absolute pinnacle of my medical career. I should frame this moment."