Chapter Text
The question had Norikiyo frozen as he blinked up at Shoko. While on his way to Hachioji, in between all the agonizing he did over the situation he found himself in, he had tried to formulate how to explain who he was to his auntie. But as the moment finally arrived, his mind drew a complete blank.
“I’m uhh…”
Shoko stared at him, still waiting for a proper response. He could see her eyebrows furrowing deeper as she got a better look at his face. He could confidently bet on the fact that she could detect some familiarity in his face, although he doubted she had made the connection yet.
“Who are you?” she repeated.
Norikiyo quickly stood up and gave a bow. “My name is Norikiyo. I’m sorry for falling asleep at your doorstep.”
“Well, Norikiyo. Do I know you?”
“The answer to that is… complicated.” He nervously fidgeted with his hands before stuffing them in the pocket of his shorts. “I was hoping we could talk. It’s kind of really important.”
She seemed to think for a second before inserting her keys in her door. “Eh, sure. Come in.”
After freezing for a second in disbelief at how easy it was to have her hear him out, Norikiyo grabbed his bags and followed Shoko inside the apartment. It didn’t look much different from the version of the apartment Norikiyo knew — the biggest difference being the television model that sat in the living room. After taking his shoes off and leaving his bags by the entrance, he sat on the couch while Shoko headed to the kitchen.
“I only have water and beer. Pick your poison,” she said.
“Oh, uh. Water, please. I’m sixteen, can’t drink yet.” While that was true, he did try beer one time — not too long before he left for Tokyo — while his mom wasn’t home. She had left the house to assist on a mission, and curiosity got the best of him as he looked inside the contents of the fridge. He grabbed a can, hoping his mom wouldn’t notice one missing, and it only took one small sip for him to quickly realize his taste buds weren’t equipped with the ability to enjoy the drink. To eliminate the evidence, he poured the rest of the beer down the drain and stuffed the emptied can in the trash can, trying his best to hide it underneath the other trash. But despite all that, his mom did find out about it, and he got an earful from her, although it was mostly about wasting perfectly good beer rather than him trying it despite being underage.
“Didn’t stop me,” she replied before showing up with a glass of water for him and a beer for her. “So, what is this important thing you need to speak to me about at one in the morning?”
He racked his brains trying to figure out the best way to start. “So, uhh… What do you know about the extent of curses being able to control the flow of time?”
She didn’t seem fazed by his mention of curses. She could definitely feel his cursed energy and figured he knew who she was — after all, she was a valuable asset in the jujutsu world due to her expertise in using RCT and thus known. But if Norikiyo had to guess, she probably had just assumed he belonged to a clan and just didn’t enroll at the school.
“Well, it’s rare but not unheard of.”
“Would you believe me if I said I got attacked by a curse like that and got sent back in time?”
“Sure,” she replied nonchalantly. Although he knew his auntie well, he wasn’t sure if she actually believed him or if she needed to be fully convinced.
“I’m a first-year student at Tokyo Jujutsu High in 2035. I was on my way back to the school from summer break when I saw a curse in an alleyway, and the moment I got close to it, I passed out and woke up in 2018. So, to answer your question from earlier, you do know me. Just not yet. I haven’t even been conceived, so I can’t go to my parents because I’m scared I’ll somehow prevent my birth. You’re the only adult in the city whose address I know, and I had nowhere else to go, so that’s why I’m here.”
Shoko took a swig of her beer before looking at him again. “You look like your dad.”
Norikiyo blinked at her, caught off guard by the comment. He was expecting that he had to reveal his parentage, but of course, one of his father’s closest friends would know, given the information that he came from the future and the assumption that his parents were active in the jujutsu world. She had probably been wondering why he looked so familiar, and this piece of information had been the last piece needed to put the puzzle together.
“Yeah. I know.”
“Listen, kid. I’m tired, and considering you fell asleep at my door, I can assume you’re tired too. I’m gonna go finish this on the balcony, prepare the couch for you, and then go to bed. We can talk more in the morning, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Feel free to turn the TV on if you need noise to fall asleep. I assume you know your way around, so no need for me to tell you where the bathroom is.”
Norikiyo nodded, and with that, Shoko left for the balcony. He could see her pull a pack of cigarettes and a lighter out of her pocket. As she lit it up, Norikiyo frowned, remembering his mom’s efforts in getting her friend to stop smoking.
For a minute, he put his knees up to his chest and just stared at the floor. The situation he had found himself in had become more stable, but he was still severely upset. Tears began welling up in his eyes as he thought about his mom and how worried she must be that he’s missing. Surely Ijichi had notified her that he had become unreachable, and maybe sorcerers were already looking into it. There were probably still traces of his cursed energy left in the alleyway.
What if his mom thought he died?
He didn’t want to think about it, so he decided to do as suggested and watch some television. But before he reached for the remote, he went up to his backpack and took out the closest thing to pajamas that he had packed — a t-shirt and some basketball shorts. He walked into the bathroom to change, and upon looking at his reflection in the mirror, he noticed just how much of a mess he looked with his teary, red-rimmed eyes.
After changing clothes and washing his face, Norikiyo returned to the living room. Shoko was now placing a nice pillow and a blanket on the couch.
“Hope you’re okay with this blanket. It’s not cold, so I didn’t see the need to bring out a thicker one.”
“The blanket is perfect. Thank you, auntie Shoko.”
She stopped fluffing the pillow to look at him. “Auntie Shoko? That’s sweet.” She smiled at him.
“Thank you for letting me sleep on your couch. I’d probably be sleeping in the street if you thought I was lying.”
“You’re lucky you look like a carbon copy of Gojo when we were in high school. Otherwise, I would’ve had more trouble believing you’re from the future.”
“That’s okay, I could have proved it somehow. Probably.” He lightly bit the inside of his cheek before adding, “Hopefully.”
“Like I said, we’ll talk more about this whole… thing tomorrow over breakfast, okay? Now rest up, I have to wake up early.”
Upon receiving a nod from him, Shoko began heading towards her room.
“Can I…” he started, making her stop in her tracks and look back at him. “Can I please get a hug?”
“Of course.” She walked in his direction and enveloped him in a hug.
“Goodnight, auntie Shoko.”
“Goodnight, kid.”
And with that, she let go of him and left for her room.
Before his mind could start drifting towards the sad thoughts from earlier, Norikiyo reached his arm towards the coffee table and grabbed the remote. When the TV turned on, he immediately lowered the volume and began browsing channels, settling on a channel that was airing an anime he had never heard of before. He didn’t catch the beginning of the episode, but from what he could gather, it was a slice of life about college students, and in this episode, the main character — a young man, who, funnily enough, was named Iori. Although that wasn’t his family name like Norikiyo’s, but instead his given name, just like little Iori Okkotsu — and his friend try to tend to a bar.
He watched it for a few minutes, but the moment his head finally hit the pillow, it didn’t take too long for sleep to take over him.
When morning came, Shoko delivered on her promise of waking Norikiyo up early. The sun was already up, although still low in the sky, and its rays filtered onto the apartment.
“Morning, kid.”
“Good-” A yawn escaped from his mouth, interrupting him. “Morning.”
“Breakfast is some onigiri I had in the fridge. It’s on the dining table.”
Norikiyo got up from the couch and followed Shoko to the table before sitting down.
“Thank you,” he said.
“Do you like coffee? You can nap later, but if you want some, let me know. I’m making myself some.”
“Oh, sure. Thank you.”
Norikiyo waited for Shoko to return to the table with two mugs of coffee in hand before he could start eating.
“I don’t know if you take your coffee black or if you got Gojo’s sweet tooth, so I left it as is. I don’t think I have any sugar, but I have milk in the fridge to make it less bitter if that helps.”
“I prefer it sweet, but I really don’t mind having it black, it’s fine.”
Taking a sip from his mug, Norikiyo grimaced at the bitterness of the drink. It was just barely bearable to him, but he could handle it.
“Okay, so,” she started. “You’re from… What year did you say you came from?”
“2035.”
“Right, 2035. And you’re sixteen? That means you’ll be born next year.”
"Yeah. August 31st 2019. "
"Your birthday was yesterday? Damn, what a way to spend your birthday."
"Tell me about it."
"Sorry about it, kid. Happy birthday. I can take you to a dessert place I usually take your dad to later, if you want. I should have some free time late this afternoon after work if nothing gets sprung on me like yesterday. I know it's not the same as returning you to your time, but maybe it'll help you get distracted. How does that sound?"
Norikiyo smiled. He knew the place she was referring to, given that she took him there every time he visited Tokyo while growing up. She was right, it would indeed help him get distracted.
“Sounds great!”
“Is there anything you need to get while we’re out?”
“I didn’t really pack many clothes because I had clothes both at home and at my dorm, so I only have what I was wearing last night and what I’m wearing right now. Same with a toothbrush, one at home and one at the dorms, so I didn’t see the need to carry one with me. Oh, and I need a new SIM card as well. Mine doesn’t work in this time.”
“Noted. But for today, you’re just going to have to wear what you wore yesterday. I don’t have anything that would fit you besides maybe a hoodie that’s oversized on me, but it’s too hot for that. We’ll get you something to wear on Monday when I take you to the school.”
At the mention of being taken to the school, Norikiyo started to panic. He knew he couldn’t just stay with Shoko forever, but he still wasn’t ready. Going to the school meant meeting his father, which was incredibly risky for him, and he simply wasn’t prepared just yet.
"I know you don't want to meet your dad because you're scared of erasing your existence, but you can't stay here forever. Of course, you could go to Kyoto instead, but you don't want to meet your mom either, right?”
Norikiyo nearly did a spit take as Shoko threw a correct guess about who his mom was.
"My mom?"
"You're wearing a Seibu Lions shirt." She pointed at his shirt, and he looked down. The shirt he had packed and was currently wearing as his sleeping shirt was indeed merch of mom's favorite baseball team — and thus his favorite team due to her influence. "Not hard to put two and two together. Plus, I've always known there was something bound to happen between those two. Nanami owes me a pack of beer and 5000 yen to Mei Mei.”
Norikiyo let out a quick snort at the fact that his parents’ friends had a bet going on about whether they would end up together or not. His mom did say that they were extremely private about their relationship, and no one knew until she got pregnant and revealed it to Shoko. Still, with the way she mentioned them acting like an old married couple in public, it didn’t surprise him that people who knew them had such expectations.
"You can't cash the bet prize out without proof," he pointed out.
"Well, you're living proof."
Norikiyo panicked. "Please don't tell him my secret just because of a bet."
"Relax," she said, chuckling. "I'm just kidding. I don't care about the prize that badly. I’m not Mei Mei. She would be bothering Nanami about it immediately if she knew. I won't tell anyone, don't worry. I'll just have to wait until you- well, baby you shows up. Then it won’t be a problem.”
The thought of him being born in just under a year unsettled him when he thought about the likelihood of him being stuck in the past. In theory, that baby was him. Not a brother, a perfect genetic copy of him born on the same day as him, who would one day grow up to have his personality and like the things he likes, if things remained the way they’re supposed to.
That was a whole can of worms Norikiyo did not want to open.
“It’ll be weird knowing I’m out there as a baby,” he decided to say.
“Oh, I have no doubt about that. Anyways,” Shoko, much to Norikiyo’s relief, decided to steer the conversation around. “I’ll talk to Yaga about you today and bring you to the school on Monday. Does that sound good to you?”
Norikiyo nodded. “Yeah.”
“We need to come up with a story about where you came from. How about…” She tapped a pink manicured nail to her chin in thought. “You just moved to the building, I sensed your cursed energy upon meeting you in the elevator, and asked if you could do anything special?”
“That sounds good. But I can’t really do anything special besides seeing curses. Not without the Six Eyes, which obviously I didn’t get. I’ve been learning how to create a simple domain, though.”
“Oh, so you got Limitless?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, that doesn’t matter. Just don’t let anyone know that, obviously. Just say you don’t have a technique.”
Norikiyo bit his tongue so he wouldn’t tell her that he was already used to telling that lie about his technique. Shoko was still under the impression that his dad was alive in the future and that he wasn’t a secret, so she thought everyone in the future knew about him having Limitless.
“Got it. I also won’t tell about the simple domain, it wouldn’t make sense for me to know that yet.”
“Exactly. And as for your name, Norikiyo is fine. But obviously, you can’t show up at school with Gojo as your family name. Your mom’s family name might work.” Once again, she didn’t know that his family name was indeed Iori. “There are plenty of people out there with the family name Iori, and I wouldn’t have figured out that she’s your mom if it wasn’t for the fact that Gojo’s your dad and the Lions shirt combined. But that might also help him figure it out, so it’s up to you.”
He pondered her words.
While it was true that his father could figure it out the same way his auntie had, he was lacking a big piece of information she wasn’t. Satoru Gojo would have no idea that Norikiyo came from the future, so it was likely that he would just chalk it up to coincidences.
Besides, it helped that he was used to the name. It would be awkward for a classmate to call him by a surname that wasn’t really his and have him not reply to it.
“Iori is fine. Dad won’t know I’m from the future, so it should be fine.”
“I wouldn’t underestimate Gojo like that. But if you think that he won’t suspect anything and prefer to use your mom’s family name, then it’s settled.” Shoko got up and took her now-empty coffee mug to the kitchen. “I gotta leave now. I don’t know for sure what time I’ll be back, and since your phone doesn’t have any service, I won’t have a way to contact you in case I get held up at work. You’ll just have to wait.”
“That’s fine.”
“There’s not much to cook with, but there should be some Gojo-approved snacks and also some healthier ones around if you get hungry. You’ll be fine on your own, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Alright,” she said, grabbing her purse near the door. “I’ll see you later, kid.”
“Bye, auntie Shoko.” And with that, Norikiyo was left alone in the apartment.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
He was, at least, around 48 hours away from finally meeting his dad.
