Chapter Text
The first time Yuji Itadori knocked on Megumi Fushiguro's door, he was eight years old and carrying a dead frog.
Megumi remembers because it had been raining.
The frog had not survived the experience.
And because Yuji had somehow decided that this was the perfect way to introduce himself.
The door opened.
Megumi stared.
Yuji stared back.
The frog stared at neither of them.
"I found him," Yuji announced proudly.
Megumi looked at the frog.
Then at Yuji.
Then back at the frog.
"...okay."
"I think he's dead."
"I think so too."
For a moment neither of them said anything.
Then Yuji grinned.
A ridiculous, bright grin.
The kind that made it seem like he hadn't just shown up on a stranger's doorstep carrying roadkill.
"Wanna bury him?"
Megumi blinked.
"No."
Five minutes later they were digging a grave in the park.
Years later, Tsumiki would say that was the exact moment she'd known they were doomed.
Not in a bad way.
Just in the way some people seem destined to become part of each other's lives.
Like they'd always been heading in the same direction.
After that, Yuji was everywhere.m
At the park.
At school.
At Megumi's front door every Saturday morning.
Sometimes every Sunday too.
He'd knock exactly three times before shouting through the door.
"Megumiiii!"
The first few times, Megumi pretended not to hear him.
It never worked.
Yuji simply got louder.
"Megumiiii!"
"Go away."
"No."
"Why?"
"Because we're best friends."
Megumi opened the door.
"Says who?"
Yuji looked genuinely confused.
"Me."
As if that settled everything.
As if friendship was something a person could simply decide.
Maybe it was.
Because somehow, after that, they were best friends.
Everyone knew it.
Teachers knew it.
Classmates knew it.
Tsumiki definitely knew it.
Even when Megumi insisted otherwise.
"We're not attached at the hip," Megumi muttered one afternoon.
Yuji was currently asleep on his bedroom floor.
Tsumiki glanced into the room.
Then back at him.
"Megumi."
"What?"
"He literally has his own toothbrush here."
Megumi looked away.
That wasn't important.
The toothbrush had appeared months ago.
Neither of them had questioned it.
Just like nobody questioned why Yuji knew where everything was in the house.
Or why Tsumiki automatically made enough food for three.
Or why Yuji had his own blanket for movie nights.
Things just happened.
Then they stayed.
The older they got, the more permanent those things became.
At twelve, they spent entire summers together.
At thirteen, they rode their bikes around the city until the streetlights came on.
At fourteen, they started high school.
Everything changed.
Except them.
Yuji still showed up at Megumi's house constantly.
Megumi still complained about it.
Yuji still ignored the complaints.
Life continued.
Simple.
Easy.
Certain.
Until one afternoon during their first year of high school.
Megumi was sitting beneath the giant tree near the sports field, pretending to read.
In reality he was avoiding people.
A favorite hobby.
The book disappeared suddenly.
Megumi looked up.
Yuji stood over him.
Holding it.
"Give that back."
"No."
Yuji dropped down beside him.
"You're hiding."
"I'm reading."
"You're hiding while reading."
Megumi grabbed for the book.
Yuji moved it away.
"People keep asking if we're dating."
Megumi froze.
The words landed between them.
Casual.
Careless.
Dangerous.
"What?"
Yuji laughed.
"A bunch of people asked."
Megumi looked away.
"Oh."
"Do we look like we're dating?"
The answer should have been easy.
No.
Obviously no.
They were best friends.
Had been for years.
But suddenly Megumi couldn't look at him.
Couldn't look at the sunlight caught in Yuji's hair.
Couldn't look at the grin on his face.
Couldn't look at anything.
"I don't know."
Yuji stared.
Then laughed again.
The moment passed.
Just like that.
But something had shifted.
Only slightly.
Like a crack forming beneath ice.
Small enough to ignore.
For now.
At fifteen, Yuji made the soccer team.
Megumi attended every game.
Not because he wanted to.
According to him.
Tsumiki stopped believing that excuse years ago.
At sixteen, Megumi got sick before an important exam.
Yuji skipped school and spent the entire day at his house.
When Megumi woke up, half-asleep and miserable, Yuji was sitting beside the bed.
Playing games on his phone.
"You look awful."
"Thanks."
"No problem."
Neither thought it was strange.
Neither questioned it.
The truth was simple.
They had become woven into each other's lives so completely that separation felt impossible.
Like trying to imagine one without the other.
Neither of them knew how.
Maybe that was why nobody noticed the problem.
Not at first.
Because when something feels permanent, you stop checking if it still is.
You stop imagining the possibility that one day it might not be there.
That one day there might be silence where there used to be laughter.
Distance where there used to be certainty.
An empty space where someone used to fit perfectly.
At sixteen, sitting on the roof of Megumi's house on a warm summer night, that possibility felt impossible.
The city stretched out beneath them.
Lights glittering in the darkness.
Yuji lay flat on his back.
Megumi sat beside him.
Neither speaking.
Comfortable in the quiet.
Eventually Yuji broke it.
"You know we'll always be friends, right?"
Megumi glanced over.
Yuji wasn't looking at him.
Just staring at the stars.
The question felt strange.
Unnecessary.
Of course they would.
They always had been.
They always would be.
"Obviously."
Yuji smiled.
A small one this time.
Not his usual bright grin.
Something softer.
More fragile.
"Good."
Megumi looked back at the sky.
The stars above them seemed endless.
Permanent.
The kind of thing that would always be there.
Years later, Megumi would remember that night with painful clarity.
The warmth.
The city lights.
The certainty in Yuji's voice.
And he would think that maybe the cruelest thing about growing up wasn't losing people.
It was believing, for a little while, that you never could.