Archive of Our Own

Darting your eyes around, you’d never felt a place so eerie before—the gravel path leading you to your destination with thick bushes surrounding you so you can’t deviate. For a first mission, it was already starting out rough and you weren’t even where you had to be yet.

And why did you have to do this in the dark?!?!?

It made you more aware of your surroundings as your instincts told you to check around constantly. You had to tell yourself that it was no different if the sun was there instead but it was hard to believe it when all of your senses were being tested.

“The more nervous you are about this, the more likely you are to fail” 

Nanami’s voice made you jump as you briefly forgot he was there too. 

You were told he’d be coming along only to assist. The school wanted to gauge your ability on a real mission so they could train you appropriately. It made you feel a bit better that someone was here if anything went wrong but Nanami was only a first year just like you- you weren’t doubting his abilities or anything however you thought it would make better sense if someone with more experience would help you. 

You didn’t fight it though, You’d take anything they’d give you.

You let your wings slightly curl around you as you made your way forward. It was impractical if anything surprised you both, but it gave you some sort of comfort so you could focus more.

You stole a glance at how Nanami was currently handling himself and you only saw a bored face that screamed ‘I just want to go back to bed’.

It made you realize that Nanami probably had more experience than you initially thought but he was still human, he surely can’t be as emotionless as he seems.

“Hey, Nanami-san?” 

Your meek voice gave away your fear immediately and it made you embarrassed. But you didn’t dwell on it as Nanami only sighed, still not turning to look at you which you were grateful for as you were as red as Suguru’s bike.

“Just call me Nanami”

Your embarrassment flared again but you tried your best to ignore it.

“Ok…….I was just wondering how many missions you had done before this one”

Nanami rested his hand on the handle of his blunt sword as he took note of the sign for the aquarium up ahead. He was never one to be too careful.

“Only 9, and most of them were more difficult than what this one is going to be”

The mission description told you about a grade-3 curse living in an abandoned aquarium in the middle of Chiba. It was only an hour and a half drive from the school and with Nanami with you, you hoped the thing that took the most time would be the driving. 

However, when you got there, you saw the aquarium was just part of a big abandoned safari park- Meaning you would have to do a bit of trekking. You thought about flying to the building but that would suggest leaving Nanami behind and you definitely weren’t strong enough to carry him. And one thing you knew, is that you did not want to do this alone.

The silence came back as you and Nanami continued on, you knew Nanami wasn’t the most talkative person you’ve met (Even though you’ve only known him for not even 3 weeks yet) but your uneasiness was still present and burning through your body so you had no choice but to force conversation with the first thing that came to your mind.

“Nanami, What do you think of Gojo?”

Instantly turning red again when you realized what you asked. This was just a humiliate yourself night huh?

At this question, Nanami finally turned to look at you. Confusion and annoyance were present on his face- with a little bit of suspicion.

For another long moment, Nanami didn’t say anything and just kept staring at you.

Getting confused yourself by his lack of answer, you looked up to see what was going on only to lock eyes with his.

Suddenly feeling intimidated, you were malfunctioning as you didn’t know what to do.

‘ Why is he looking at me like that?’  ‘What does he want me to do??’ ‘Does he think-’

“What about you?”

“Huh?”

“What do you think of that idiot?”

You stopped walking as you didn’t think Nanami would throw the question back at you. 

Why was he the first thing that came to your mind anyway?

“I-” 

But you paused yourself as you really thought about it. You tried to think back to all of the interactions you’ve had with him since joining the school but you couldn’t comprehend any of them as his blue eyes took up all of your thoughts like a virus. 

You’d never seen eyes like that before, they were enchanting. You only got one glance at them when Satoru took his glasses off briefly to clean them one day when you were going to ask him something. But as soon as he looked into your eyes, you completely forgot why you were there and ran off like a weirdo. 

But in the few seconds you were able to see his unnatural irises it was like you could see everything. 

Everything, including his thoughts. His eyes were like two mirrors to his consciousness that gave you more questions as you ran away.

You thought you could see hope and determination- but you also thought you saw fatigue, detachment, and longing. 

You mulled over it for days after that encounter but you weren’t brave enough to ever ask Gojo himself about it. You’d known each other for about a week, so you didn’t think it was your place at the time. 

“I think he’s……cool”

You briskly walked past Nanami to prevent the conversation from carrying on. Cursing at yourself for trying to talk in the first place.

Nanami raised his eyebrow at your response. He was expecting a whole paragraph to spill from you as you seemed to think hard about how you were going to answer.

Truthfully, Nanami couldn't care less what you thought about your upperclassman. Always seeing him parade around the school grounds with that big ego of his and how he would flirt with just about any female out of the school grounds. Satoru Gojo had zero respect for himself and the people around him so Nanami avoided him as much as possible.

He expected you to fawn over Gojo like all of the others, but nothing more. 

So he didn’t know whether your one-word answer was better or worse than hearing a paragraph.

When you first joined the school, you were like a baby fawn tripping over its own legs. Now- he would say you’re still like a clumsy baby fawn but you knew the basics at least. 

He, Haibara, and Shoko have been the main ones to help you on your journey so far. And from where he’s gotten to know you, he hoped you’d never get involved with the Gojo heir. If he managed to get his claws in you, that would be it. He knows Gojo’s stance on love and he doesn’t want to see you get treated like some pawn in Gojo’s game but he also can’t control you.

He just has to put his trust in you to make the best decision.

Ok so maybe he did care about what you thought of Satoru Gojo, but only in the way a big brother worries for his little sister.

Quickly catching up to you, you guys had finally arrived at the aquarium. Not having to worry about the veil as the secretary that drove you put it up as soon as you got here. 

Taking a deep breath you were about to walk through the threshold of the aquarium entrance until Nanami put his hand on your shoulder to stop you.

“Remember not to use your technique too much, the report warned that the building was in a state of decay and could collapse any moment” 

Looking up, you were so determined to get this over and done with that you didn’t notice the overhanging huge statue of a cartoon squid barely being held up. Only a few wires desperately clinging onto it so it didn’t come crashing down on you. Vines and dead weeds had crawled up the sides, You couldn’t even guess what colour the building should have been as it was covered in a thick coat of black mold. 

The strong smell of rotting fish, rust, and dampness wafts into your face as the building groans and creeks every other minute.

‘We might die in here before we even see the curse’

Taking a step back, your wings dropped fully as you realized the gravity of the situation.

“Nanami………. I’m scared ”

He barely caught what you said to him, taking one look at your fear-stricken face- tears threatening to fall- it took him back to the first day you arrived at Tokyo jujutsu high. Face almost an exact replica as you revert back to the shy, closed-off anomaly. What happened during the 24 hours before you walked through the gates of the school was only something you knew, but everyone else could see it made you traumatized.

He was never good at comfort, you surely knew this already too. But he’d try.

“Look, we can always turn back if you want. Some perfectly capable sorcerers could’ve done this mission but they send two first years instead,” he gauges your reaction as he can see you start to think about your options. “No one will blame you”

‘ No one will think you’re weak’ is what he wanted to say.

You weigh your options carefully, considering everything. 

And honestly, the pros of just leaving right now outweigh the pros of going through with it.

You felt defeated as the statistics were adding up. 

“Ok….I want to go back”

Nanami only slightly nodded his head in acknowledgment as he turned on his heel and started walking, expecting you to follow.

All you felt was disappointment as you trailed behind Nanami like a child who had just been told off.

Until a single thought went through your head that stopped you. 

Nanami not noticing as he kept walking.

‘ What would Gojo do?’

You’d watch him spar with his friend and Nanami sometimes and one thing you gathered from each one is that he never chooses the easiest way.

He’s the strongest. Definitely stronger than all of the other students at Tokyo put together. You’d learned how his techniques work after only a couple of days of being at the school and you’d seen so many openings where he could have won in one fell swoop. Not to mention his surprising ability at martial arts.

You walked up to him one day as he was getting something from the vending machine. And through all of your stuttering and twitching of your wings, you managed to blurt out the question that came whenever he finished a spar.

“Why I don’t just win?” His usually cocky smirk turned into a genuine one as he took one sip from his sweet drink and threw you one you didn’t realize he bought. “Well princess, if I just won in 5 seconds then the others wouldn’t even get to use their technique”

Quickly downing the rest of the bottle he expertly threw it so it landed in the trash can perfectly.

Taking one of your hands that wasn’t holding your own drink, he twirled you once which left you dizzy as he walked off towards the dorms.

“We can’t just have one strong sorcerer now can we?”

Those words struck you as you realised you were just taking the easy option by leaving and not doing anything.

You knew no one was going to be as strong as Gojo, one can only get so close.

And if he were here now, he would already be on the way back to the school from a successful mission. He probably wouldn’t think twice about going in and he’d probably let the curse live a little longer just to play with it.

But he’d probably encourage you to go in and show the curse just who’s stronger, and you want to be stronger. Not just for the people who need saving but for yourself. And if you didn’t go in you’d never know if you were strong enough.

So you did either a brave or stupid thing, no more second thoughts- and flew straight through the entrance

Feeling a whoosh, Nanami turned around to see what happened only not to see you anywhere. 

A single feather fell onto the floor right at the entrance of the aquarium and Nanami pieced together what happened quite quickly. 

‘Shit’

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You figured out that rushing in was a stupid idea.

No matter where you went you’d hit a dead end. You’re covering ground quickly without disturbing the building too much but at this rate, you’ll bump into the curse without Nanami.

It was a spur-of-the-moment thing that made you regret everything.

Gracefully landing in the middle of one of those rooms where the fish surround you, you take a look at the huge map of the aquarium. You spot quickly where you are and take out your phone. You flip open your phone and send a quick text to Nanami letting him know where you were. 

Clicking off his contact, Gojo’s caught your eye.

Running your fingers over the buttons, you bit your lip as you debated calling him. It’s late but he’s probably still awake. 

You really had no reason to call him but you were trying to think of a good excuse so you don’t intentionally disturb him.

Before you could decide, a single waterdrop fell on top of your screen.

You wiped it off quickly to not damage the phone the school graciously provided for you. 

Thinking this place was just as damaged as the rest of the building, you looked up to see how bad the glass was cracked only to stare into two huge dark eyes of the curse you were hunting.

Your breathing stopped, Wings freezing as you dared not to make a sound.

It strongly resembled a Japanese spider crab only it was about 5 times larger. Its shell was a dark blue and its legs were long and looked too sharp for your liking. But the thing that made your heart race was its gaping mouth. It was about the size of a beach ball, any movement made you believe it would simply jump down and just swallow you in one.

Water dripped from the void of its mouth as it hadn't moved since you locked eyes with it.

With trembling hands, you went into panic mode as you quickly tried to find a way out.

‘If I fly straight away to get some distance I could have a chance to land a hit with my Kusarigama. But I didn’t even see it come in so I don’t know how fast it is, maybe if I use my shield first-’

A text dinged from the phone in your hand and the chaos began. 

As you predicted, the crab-curse lunged at you from the ceiling of the glass room. Mouth open ready to end you in seconds.

‘Survive’ was all that was running through your head as you ducked and let your wings propel you as far back as possible.

The curse wasn’t as fast as you thought it was going to be but it was still quick enough to have you making split-second decisions. 

It let out a loud screech as it landed on the floor and went for you. 

All eight of its legs dug into the concrete as it sprinted for you, its pincers stretched to get you as fast as possible.

Flying out of the room, you grabbed the two mini scythes with matching hanging maces from your hips as you swung them around to get used to their weight.

Gojo imbued them with his own energy as he said ‘ A princess needs the strongest weapons!’ you missed his wink as you were too fascinated by the way the scythes were changing because of his energy.

You’ve been training with them for the past week and the traces left from Gojo’s energy always left you with a tingling sensation in your hands. It feels familiar, letting you ground yourself as you plan your next attack.

The curse is still running at you with no intention of slowing down so you think you could use that to your advantage.

Circling the large cylindrical fish tank in the middle of the large room you charge at the curse head-on.

‘No more running’

Turning at the last second, you swung one of your Kusarigama- effectively slashing off one of the curse’s pincers. 

However, the curse also moved to follow you and at the last moment managed to dig its other pincer into your left wing. And at the speed you were going, the pincer was forced to drag back and leave a big jagged rip in the middle of your wing- pulling some feathers out.

The searing pain was almost instant as tears immediately sprung up and started to flow down your cheeks.

Your wing- now almost in two pieces, was quickly turning red from the steady blood loss.

Moving them causes you to yelp in pain, so you are forced to land on your feet roughly.

‘This is bad’

You struggle to get your bearings again as a burning sensation starts to spread through your wing. It felt like someone just took a hot iron rod and was digging it into your wing, slowly dragging it and not letting up.

Through your tears, you could see the curse coming at you quickly again. The missing pincer seemed not to faze it one bit.

‘What do I do?’ 

You took shaky steps back as you were running out of options fast.

You only had one more edge on the curse, after that, you’d be as defenseless as a non-sorcerer.

Holstering Your scythes, you let your technique flow through you.

Waiting for the perfect moment to activate it as you’d only be able to use it for 5 seconds max.

Holding your hands in front of you, you waited for it to get closer.

20 yards, then 10, then 5.

And as it felt like there was only a breath between you and the curse, you activated your technique.

Ducking so it practically flew over the top of you, you created a shield coming off of your arm in a sharp point so it almost resembled a sword.

It ripped straight through the shell of the curse- through its neck. 

You swung your sword-shield sideways, decapitating it as black sludge exploded from the body. 

The tar-like substance covered you as you scrambled to get out from underneath it when you saw the body beginning to fall.

Panting, you think carefully about what just happened in the past 5 minutes. Now covered in old tank water, blood, and the smelly black liquid from the curse.

A wide grin spread across your face as excitement started to build.

“I actually killed a curse!” You started to hop on your feet as you were still somehow full of energy until the movement jostled your wing too much and almost made you crumple to the floor from the pain.

After a minute of it happening, you guessed the adrenalin kept you from feeling the pain too much. But now it was starting to come down and the pain was unbelievable. 

But you were distracted again by the sound of rushing footsteps coming closer to you. 

You turned your head to confirm it was Nanami running towards you. His blunt sword was held tightly in his hands as you saw him assess the situation.

“Y/N!!!” 

His face was the epitome of rage but the pain was making you too delusional to notice.

“Nanami! Look! I killed the curse all by myself!” You picked up the head of the curse and started waving it in front of Nanami to show off.

“Put that down! I need to look at how bad your injuries are”

Sensing no danger, he sheathed his sword as he angrily stomped to where you were.

“It tried to get the jump on me but I was like WHOOSH and did some crazy moves- and then I slashed through its arm- it managed to get me but-Nanami it was sooo cool!” 

You animatedly threw your arms to accentuate your words and at this point, Nanami was sure you were going crazy. From the situation or the pain, he didn’t know.

He rubbed his forehead in frustration as he knew scolding you in this state would do nothing.

“Where did it get you?” Reaching for the mini first aid kit he brought with him.

Putting your arms into a waltzing position, you did a twirl which only made you giggle as you thought of Gojo dancing with you. 

You imagined a grand ballroom as you two danced like you were the only ones there. It put a big smile on your face as it felt like a far-away fantasy.

“Y/n focus. I need to-” He looked up from his first aid kit to see you mid-twirl.

Your one wing was drenched in so much blood, Nanami almost couldn’t see your injury in the dark and smelly room.

Your usually folded wings were hanging limply and almost dragging on the floor. Blood steadily dripped from your left wing and left a trail as you danced. At first glance, he thought you might’ve broken your wing as it had a weird shape to it. But as you twirled, he could see the messy rip through it when it would move differently from the rest of your wing.

Nanami had to hold his hand to his mouth to stop the bile from coming out.

The matted feathers and exposed bones looked excruciating. Nanami knew this was a problem bigger than his first aid kit.

“Change of plans,” Grabbing the small roll of gauze, he hoped it would slow the bleeding with the time they had. “I’m going to call the school so Shoko can come and help you”

Stopping mid side-step, you looked back at Nanami as he made his way towards you with the gauze.

“Shoko?? We don’t need Shoko, I’m finnneeee” 

As you tried to stumble away, Nanami maneuvered around you and started to wrap the gauze around your wing so it closed the wound.

You hissed when Nanami started touching your wing so you stayed still to not tug the gauze.

It grew quiet as Nanami had to keep bending to reach the bottom of your wing, The silence letting you recall what you did.

Nanami was hyper-focused on wrapping your wing most effectively until he heard a sniffle.

“I'm sorry Nanami” 

He continued wrapping your wing as he heard you silently cry, He could tell you were genuinely apologetic. Since the moment he met you, you have always done things with your whole heart. It was one of the things he admired about you.

“What you did was idiotic and dangerous,” He accidentally tightened the wrapping and you flinched. “You could have easily died”

Tying the knot to the bandage, he stepped back, and the dead body of the curse caught his eye. 

Fixing his hair by sweeping it to the side, he examined where the head was cut off and also noted the missing pincer.

“But you did manage to kill it without my help”

A small smile appeared on your face as you wiped the tears away and slowly made your way to stand next to Nanami.

“Thanks, Nanami”

He only grunted as he stepped away to walk toward the exit.

“Just don’t do that again, That’s something only Gojo can do and get away with”

“He really is amazing isn’t he?”

Nanami only rolled his eyes. 

Wincing from every step you take, you were about to finally exit the room but there was a noise ahead. 

“Wait Nanami, stop”

“I heard it too”

He moved in front of you, taking his blunt sword back out.

You two waited with bated breath for something to happen. 

The noise was different from the usual creaking sound from the building. 

The sound became frequent as it seemed it was getting closer.

Stomping becoming more clear.

Until it stopped.

Your hands hovered over the kusarigama attached to your waist. Praying it was anything but a curse.

But you weren’t so lucky as another grade 3 curse lunged out from the darkness straight at you two.

Gripping your scythes, you were going to ask Nanami what to do but he’d already taken care of it.

The curse now lying in a perfect 7:3 ratio on the floor. 

‘...what’

“Nanami”

He only looked as confused as you.

The mission report stated only one curse would be here. And the fact that two 3-grades had shown up definitely meant one of two things.

Number one- The scouts got it wrong and the second one was hiding

Or two- The mission report was wrong on purpose. 

You’d hoped it was the former because just thinking of the latter made a shiver run up your spine.

“If there was another curse we didn’t know about, we need to leave. There could be more”

Before you could agree, two more curses came at you from the dark.

You were forced to put up a temporary shield to stop the one curse as Nanami quickly handled the other. 

After those two were killed, they just kept coming. They were all either grade 3 or 4 so they were ok to deal with. 

But the repeated ratio technique and the curses slamming into walls because of your shields- were causing the building to crumble and break faster than you realised. 

The constant bombardment was causing you and Nanami to also move further away from each other.

“Nanami! What do we do?! It’s like they keep multiplying!”

“Keep using your shields, we’ll try and hold them off until we have a clear path through the exit!” Nanami yelled over the congealed screams of the curses.

You had no choice but to trust Nanami, he had been in more situations with curses than you, and even though you were starting to get light-headed for over-using your technique, you had faith that Nanami would get you both out of this.

After another minute of the curse stampede, Nanami finally saw an opening as the numbers started to dwindle.

“Y/n come on let’s go!”

He looked around to find and quickly grab you but he saw why the curse’s numbers were starting to slow down.

“NANAMI!!!!!!”

You were surrounded, about 20 to 30 different curses trying to get to you. 

He could see you constantly using your shields to keep them back but that’s all you could do.

Seeing no other way, Nanami prepared to do one big slash. He was already feeling pretty tired from using his technique over and over again, but this was the best way to kill most of them and grab you simultaneously.

You could see black spots starting to cover your vision as your reaction time started to slow. The slashes now hitting your body every now and then as you fail to block every attack.

You saw an attack aim straight for your face that you were too slow to stop, so closing your eyes you braced for the pain until you got rained on by the black sludge. 

Opening your eyes, you saw Nanami’s hand reach through the bodys now starting to fall to the ground and you didn't think twice about grabbing it

He dragged you through the carnage and continued to pull you towards the exit. 

You let him navigate you as you were too tired and beaten to do it yourself.

Running through the hall, more curses appeared at the end of it. And with about 15 curses still behind you both, Nanami was forced to take a sharp right into a different hall.

In the open space, Nanami spotted an emergency exit sign pointing to the left.

“Hang on Y/n, We’re almost out”

Following the directions, Nanami ignored the terrifying sounds of the curses behind you two- any hesitation could mean death.

As you stumbled and tripped trying to keep up with Nanami you saw a blue flash cut quickly across the room.

Your heart jumped as your eyes widened at what it was. 

At the school, one of the first things they teach you is how to identify the different grades of curses.

And what was standing there, watching you two, wasn’t a grade 3 or even a grade 2.

It was a grade 1.

Your voice got caught in your throat as it just watched you two try an escape.

Nanami was too focused on leaving to notice the extra presence. So you kept your eyes on it, waiting for it to move.

You were so close to the final hallway.

The wide smile mocked you as if it knew you both were going to die.

And as you watched it take one step, it was as if a newfound strength took over you.

You let go of Nanami’s hand and shoved him towards the exit, You’d need both of your hands if you wanted to create a shield large enough.

The grade 1 curse flashed in front of you so you activated your technique and slammed the curse into the wall opposite of you.

The effect was instant and the walls of the room started to fall.

You saw the grade 1 curse get crushed by the rubble and some of the other curses also suffer from the same fate.

But what you didn’t see was the two walls quickly crashing around you. They closed you off from Nanami and trapped you in a small space.

Gripping your hair you started to hyperventiliate.

‘Why is this happening??’

‘Is this my fault??’

It was pitch black now as you tried desperately to feel around for any gaps.

“NANAMI?!?!?!”

The sound and vibrations of the weak walls tumbling had gone quiet as you started wailing in anguish for any semblance of hope.

“NANAMI PLEASE!”

Your nails were starting to bleed from you trying to claw at the heavy stones around you. Moving around, you hoped a stone might’ve dislodged behind you but it was like the floor was suddenly heavy.

Moving your foot around to see what was wrong, you felt the familiar density of water.

Leaning down to touch it, you confirmed your suspicions and also noted the slowly raising level of the water.

“NANAMI THERE’S WATER!”

Outside of your concrete cage, Nanami was trying hopelessly to get to you but the stragglers from the large group of curses were slowly pushing him back into the hallway of the exit.

This situation just went from barely manageable to impossible and he knew there was only one way left to save you. Or rather there was only one person left that could save you.

Every second counted and Nanami wasted none as he quickly made a decision.

Turning on his heel, he ran out into the hallway where he saw the emergency exit door- Whipping out his phone at the same time.

‘We’ll save you’

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“Satoru, stop eating Nanami’s Mochi”

“Well maybe he shouldn’t leave them out in the open”

“They were in his part of the freezer and it was locked - it’s 11 pm anyway, why did you drag me down here”

Satoru closed the freezer door with a plate full of mochi of different flavors and made his way to where Suguru was sitting at the table.

“Couldn’t sleep”

Suguru watched as Satoru stuffed his face with the mochi. It’s not the first time he’s seen this exact scene but it is the first time he’s been quiet.

Granted, he is Satoru Gojo so he can never be fully silent but Suguru could easily see the change.

“You have something on your mind?”

Satoru stopped mid-chew to look up at Suguru over his sunglasses. (Suguru had to squint as Satoru’s eyes were so god-damn bright in the dark room) He swallowed what was in his mouth as he played with the half-eaten mochi.

“.....No, not really”

Suguru raised an eyebrow at his obvious lying. 

“Your face doesn’t agree with what you just said”

Said teen had eyebrows so furrowed they were almost touching, and his eyes looked so dull with a far-away look.

Quickly trying to fix his expression, he gave Suguru a wide smile with his signature wink.

“I’m fine see!”

“Now you just look like a baboon sat on your face”

Satoru deflated as he didn’t feel like eating more mochi.

“You’re so mean Suguru” Satoru whined as he dramatically put his head in his hands.

“And you won’t tell me the truth”

Suguru had a feeling why Satoru was acting the way he was but he wanted to admit it himself.

Satoru gave him a sheepish look as his true feelings started to show. He could never hide from Suguru and he didn’t know why he bothered trying.

Satoru gave a soft sigh as he fixed his glasses back over his eyes.

“ 'm just confused I guess”

Suguru stayed quiet to let Satoru continue.

He brushed his hair back with his fingers as he desperately tried to find something to do with his hands.

“I know they’re both capable but this mission just feels off, right?”

Suguru opened his mouth to reply but Satoru beat him to it.

“I mean, they send two first years to take care of a grade 3! And with no extra help! That seems a bit suspicious right???”

“Satoru-”

“ And (Y/n) barely knows how to throw a punch! And they say she’s ready for a full mission? Yeah- no”

Suguru just watches now and waits for Satoru to finish as he knows he won’t be able to stop him.

“And they make them do the mission at night ! What’s up with that?”

Suguru almost falls asleep in his chair until Satoru stops talking and throws a mochi at his head.

“Ow! What was that for?”

“Were you even listening to me???”

Suguru rubs his head where the mochi hit him as he gives Satoru a specific look.

“Not really- but! I can guess what you were trying to say” 

Satoru chuckled sarcastically as he leaned back in his chair with his hands behind his head.

“Ok wise guy, what was I saying?”

“You are worried about them, and you wish they told you to go too”

Satoru only blinked at Suguru’s guess and stared hard at his face.

“Specifically, you wanted to be with (Y/n)-”

“Now hang on a minute-”

They started to bicker back and forth, both teens fighting over the fact that Gojo may or may not have a crush.

“C’mon Satoru, even Haibara can see it!”

“That’s because he only ever sees rainbows and butterflies!”

“Just accept it-”

“I’m not accepting anything!”

Mochi was flying back and forth now as neither of them was willing to take it seriously. 

“Ok- ok, Truce !” Suguru held up his hands but quickly ducked from a stray mochi. “I said truce!”

Satoru was glaring at Suguru, holding another mochi as if daring him to bring it up again.

Suguru’s arms sagged as he shook his head. He should’ve known Satoru was going to be stubborn about it, It’s just something he should handle himself in his own time.

Satoru’s own expression warped into one of guilt as he observed just how tired and frustrated Suguru was. He woke him up and dragged him to the communal kitchen just because he didn’t want to deal with his feelings by himself. He wanted a distraction and it just blew up in his face.

Honestly, these emotions were confusing to him. And scary but he was Satoru Gojo, he’s never scared of anything and refuses to believe he could be scared of his own feelings.

He’s only known you briefly, but whenever you’re around he knows he feels something. But that was just it, and that something could easily be nothing. He guesses he wanted Suguru to help him figure it out as he was begrudgingly more emotionally mature than he was (But not by much). However, his pride was still stopping him from confessing anything.

Getting irritated at his own arrogance, he wonders if this was karma from not taking literally anything else in his life seriously. 

He felt the mochi in his hand pop and stared shocked since he didn’t even know he was gripping the frozen treat that tightly. The sticky, gooey substance had exploded all over his hand and some got on his expensive sleeping shirt.

“I guess I deserved this huh?” Satoru sighs.

 Suguru notes how disheveled his best friend looks and decides to throw him a bone.

“C’mon idiot, I just got the new Zelda game on my Wii” Suguru stands and notices Satoru’s eyes light up at the prospect of gaming.

He quickly strides to the sink to wash the mochi off his hand.

“How do you have it already? It only came out the other day” He didn’t really care how Suguru got it, he was just excited to play it.

Before Suguru could say how, both Yaga Sensei and Shoko came rushing into the room with unfamiliar frantic faces.

Both boys felt the air shift and put all of their attention on the two people who looked like a pair of deer in headlights.

“You fucking idiot!” Shoko was the first to speak up as she menacingly stalked to where Satoru was at the sink.

His confusion only grew as she struck him across the face- too befuddled to activate infinity to stop her.

“What the hell was that for???”

“Too full of yourself to check your phone?? Why weren’t you picking up??” Shoko looked positively livid.

Shoving his hand into his pocket where his phone was, he grabbed it and gave Shoko an incredulous look.

“What do you mean? I haven’t been getting any calls-”

Turning on his phone, his breath hitched as he saw all of the notifications of Nanami trying to call him.

Over fifteen times he failed to pick up, exactly 9 minutes since the first phone call. 

In the past 4 minutes, he’s had text notifications, but there were still around twenty of them.

He quickly skimmed through all of them and two phrases absolutely terrified him.

‘(Y/n) trapped’

And.

‘ Grade one’

Suguru grits his teeth as he can only imagine what’s happening by how Satoru’s face contorts.

“What’s going on?” Suguru stares at Yaga, expecting answers.

Yaga's face hardens as he gives a curt answer.

“(Y/n) and Nanami encountered a grade one,” His eyes found Satoru’s wide ones until they disappeared in a blink- probably gone to change into his uniform quickly.

“And (Y/n) is trapped inside with it”

➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵

Warping to the site of the mission, Satoru let go of Suguru and Shoko as he used his six eyes to quickly locate Nanami.

Which wasn’t too hard because of the absurd amount of curses all grouped up in one spot near the left side of the Aquarium.

“What the hell…” Suguru stared at the hoard like it was an illusion.

“We don’t have time to figure this out- Let’s just go. Shoko stay here on standby” Satoru made his way quickly to the ring of curses and started exorcising them one by one.

Suguru frowned at Satoru’s recklessness but readied the dark portals of his technique anyway.

“He’s being an idiot but I can’t blame him, The injuries Nanami described sound almost fatal. We'll bring (Y/n) back as fast as we can and then you can do your thing.” Suguru follows quickly behind Satoru with his curses.

Shoko rubbed her forehead as she felt a headache coming on. She didn’t know if it was from staying up later than usual, the situation, or the combination of both. She lit a cigarette and leaned against the closest sign to try and settle her irritation.

It was far too early to lose a student- scrap that, they should never even have to worry about losing a student. But the world of jujutsu was cruel and these things were to be expected.

Shoko lets the smoke puff out of her nose as she fiddles with the cigarette. 

‘ I hate this’

Satoru and Suguru made quick work of the grade three’s and four’s, it was almost as easy as blinking.

As the last curse flopped onto the ground in a heap of pitch-black goop, They were able to have a good look at Nanami’s condition.

He had minor injuries which was a relief but he looked ready to collapse from the excessive use of his technique. He swayed on his feet and drenched in sweat. 

Panting hard he let himself get caught by Satoru and Suguru as his legs refused to work. The muscles in his hands and arms started twitching as a burning sensation was beginning to develop.

‘ How bothersome’

He was just about ready to have a nap.

“Are you okay?”

“Where is she?”

Suguru gave Satoru a look as if saying ‘Calm down’.

They brought Nanami’s arms around their shoulders and began pulling him to where Shoko was.

“It’s her energy” Nanami coughed out.

“What do you mean?” Satoru hasn’t stopped peering at him since he first saw him and Nanami actually felt some sort of fear.

Although he didn’t appreciate Satoru’s pushiness, he could understand where it was coming from.

“Her energy has been drawing the curses here. I– cough – I don’t know how but it’s my best guess” Nanami slumps more between the other two boys as they easily drag his body weight.

Suguru gapes at Satoru over Nanami’s head and they share a worried look. 

“We need to get her out now” Suguru spoke.

“ Cough - Just leave me here,” Nanami gasped out. “The building could fall at any time”

Both boys stopped moving as they looked at Nanami’s slouched form. He managed to lift his head enough to look Satoru in the eyes—fierce brown ones managing to outmatch the usual profound blue ones.

“ Save her”

Satoru let out a shaky breath and gave Nanami a firm nod.

They let Nanami down carefully against a low wall and sprinted through the front entrance of the building. 

Nanami kept his eyes on the pair until he couldn’t, he let the fatigue take over and shut his eyelids. For the first time that night, he felt like he could finally relax.

Keeping their feet light, they followed your trail of energy residue- slashing any curse that was in the way.

The desperation is now fully evident as they both kept quiet the whole way to where they could feel your energy strongest.

Suguru observed the already exorcised corpses through the hallways of the building and tried his best to avoid them. The same couldn't be said for Satoru as he could not care less about the mess it was making on his pants.

Hearing loud bashing coming from the next room, They charged through the small entrance.

They noticed the piles of rubble taking up over half of the room and it made it difficult to move around. Straight ahead, they could see a blue figure scratching and pounding at a rock structure.

“There’s the grade one-”

“I’ll handle this” Satoru interrupted Suguru and started to charge a lapse blue.

Suguru saw what Satoru was about to do and quickly slapped his hands down.

“Are you stupid? Do that and the ceiling will crush us”

“What else am I supposed to do?!” 

“Nothing!”

Satoru looked at Suguru as if he had stabbed him in the back.

“ What?”

Suguru rubbed the back of his neck, he was done with Satoru’s actions in rushing head-first and now was not the time for him to be ignorant.

“If you use any of your techniques in this room, we’ll die. You can’t control the amount of damage you cause and it’ll only lower our chances of getting (Y/n) and ourselves out of here”

Satoru was ready to retort but Suguru cut him off like Satoru did all night.

“I’ll exorcise this curse and then we will get her out of that rubble,” Suguru was not budging on this as he strode in front of Satoru. “All you need to do is grab her and warp us out, okay?”

Satoru couldn’t believe a word he was hearing.

Well, he could but he was too stubborn to think that was the right thing to do.

“You can’t be serious-”

“ Satoru ”

He shut his mouth at that.

Suguru only eyed him, challenging him to say one more thing.

And Satoru wanted to fight him on this so bad . Whenever he’s been tested before, he fights with everything in his body- he is the honored one.

So he couldn’t help it when he matched Suguru’s stare, but quickly grit his teeth and shoved past Suguru towards the Grade one. Ultimately deciding that getting you out was more important in that moment.

“Whatever, just be quick” Satoru spat.

Suguru’s surprise only lasted a few seconds before he activated his technique.

“About time you listen to me”

Satoru said nothing as he kept striding forward to where you were- Suguru making light work of the Grade one and only taking about 30 seconds more than what it would take the strongest.

Satoru stepped up to the huge cement block, avoiding the large pieces of wall and the flying body of the curse.

Splash

Confused, he looks down and notices the ripples expanding from around his shoe.

He picks up his foot and moves it from the puddle- seeing the water gradually spreading.

They were in an aquarium so seeing it wasn’t surprising, however, looking more closely he could see this water was isolated. 

He took off his sunglasses and placed them on his head and that’s when he saw it.

The many cracks in the cement were slowly trickling water.

Cracks at his eye level that were trickling water.

Meaning there was water inside.

Meaning you were trapped with rising water.

Meaning time was running out faster.

Satoru grits his teeth. “ Shit ”

Suguru ran up to Satoru as he tried to dig out some of the smaller rocks that he hoped wouldn’t make everything tumble.

Suguru put one of his hands on his shoulder and tried to yank him back. “Satoru, stop”

Satoru only shrugged him off as he started to play a very dangerous game of Jenga.

“She’s drowning! ”

Satoru started to get frantic as Suguru finally noticed the surrounding water.

He tried to quickly think of a solution but his thoughts were interrupted by Satoru banging his fists onto the concrete.

“ Shit, shit, SHIT!” It was times like these when he wished he was stronger.

“Satoru I might have a curse that could help us, just give me a second” 

Suguru closed his eyes as he concentrated and tried to remember if he had eaten any curse that would be helpful.

Satoru kept his eyes wide open as he leaned his forehead against the concrete, focusing his six eyes on your energy and looking out for any changes.

Every other second it would flicker and his heart would skip at the same time.

When it started flickering rapidly, his heart rate spiked.

“Suguru!”

Suguru sighed through his nose as he looked at Satoru.

“I have one, But, There’s a fifty-fifty chance this concrete wall will collapse,” He pointed to a specific wall that was keeping you trapped and trailed his finger along to where the wall met the ceiling. “And if this wall falls, so does everything else”

“So do it, I’ll just do what you told me,” Satoru stepped back from the concrete wall and met Suguru’s worried eyes with his determined ones.”I’ll grab her and get us the fuck out of here”

Suguru gave him a nod and opened a black portal.

A twin-headed eel curse slithered out of it and swam through the air, toward one of the larger cracks in the wall.

Both of them watched as it squeezed into it and disappeared.

It was quiet as the two were left in suspense, eyeing the crack the eel went in.

Satoru’s fingers twitched as he was ready to launch himself in an instant.

The crack suddenly started to move up and went all the way to the ceiling. 

Then the whole structure started to form multiple cracks until it looked like just a bunch of small stones stacked on top of each other unsecurely. 

The water pressure inside was greater than the force of the wall and it exploded.

Everything seemed to be in slow motion as Satoru moved as fast as light when he caught a glimpse of your wings.

Though the water and rubble were blasting him and threatening to get in his eyes, he wished he’d practiced his infinity more.

But none of that mattered as he gripped Suguru’s collar and reached for you as the ceiling fell.

➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵➵

You felt the soft sheets underneath your hands before any of your other senses fired up. But immediately after, you felt the tightness of your lungs and the stiffness of your limbs. 

Trying to sit up, you struggled and gave up when your arms grew too painful.

Looking around the room, you could tell you were back in the school infirmary as you would visit Shoko here whenever she had training.

Hearing the beeping of your heart rate monitor you weakly turned your head to the left and spotted a mop of white hair on the couch across from you.

Your eyelids were still droopy from the drugs in your system and you hissed through your teeth when you shifted a bit too much.

‘What happened to me?’

Watching Satoru’s calm face as his chest raised up and down rhythmically while he slept was making you feel tired again. 

Your eyes were starting to flutter closed when it all rushed back to you.

You lurched forward and fell back from your lack of strength when a sharp pain ran right through your left wing and your lungs felt like they were surrounded by molten lava.

Your throat felt like it was closing tight so you couldn’t even scream for help.

Images of the curse you killed were running wild in your brain as well as the first-grade curse that appeared. The fear returned as you felt the start of the first few tears start to roll down your face silently.

And oh god the water.

You’d never had a fear of the ocean or any type of fear to do with water.

But the foreboding of watching the water rise without being able to do anything about it just felt like waiting for your death to happen.

You’d never felt so petrified of something that has always been so docile to you.

Feeling like you were still there, you tried hard to flail your arms and escape.

Satoru stirred at the noise being made in the room. This is one of the latest nights he’s stayed up in a while and he could already feel the headache from waking up too soon. 

He turned around to try to fall back asleep when he remembered where he was.

Snapping his head quickly to where you were on your bed, he saw that your rapid heart monitor was what woke him up.

But seeing the state you were in snapped him out of his surprise.

You were trying to get off the bed and rip the nasal cannula off.

He scrambled off of the couch clumsily and reached your bed in no time.

Grabbing your arm and your waist, he tried to gently place you back to where you were but you kept squirming away from him.

“Princess” he spoke to you firmly, hoping his voice was going to ground you. 

You didn’t seem to calm down at all so Satoru had to think on his feet to try and help you.

So he threw his glasses off of his face and placed both of his hands on your shoulders- having you face him.

“ (Y/n), ” Being this close to you he could see the tear tracks and the the fresh ones constantly falling down your face. He could tell you were having trouble breathing and he didn’t know if that was from the damage from the water or the panic.

 “Look at me”

Trembles racked through your body as you looked into his familiar enchanting eyes.

“It’s ok… You’re ok ”

Satoru kept saying short comforting things and eventually your heart rate slowed down and you stopped struggling, being able to finally breathe.

Once he saw you were stable, he let out a sigh of relief and let go of you- grabbing a chair and pushing it up close to you.

You were quiet and Satoru could tell you were processing everything that happened. So he also kept his mouth shut and waited for you to say something first- if you wanted to say something.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

“Why are you here?”

He was not expecting that to be the first thing you say.

He crosses his legs and arms and avoids eye contact.

“We’ve been taking turns watching over you, Shoko said the damage to your body was critical so someone had to be here when you woke up” Even though it was only a half-truth, lying to you didn’t feel right. He was never a good liar anyway- his body language screamed ‘Phony’.

The truth was- the moment he gave you to Shoko when he saved you was a moment he never wanted to see again.

Your unconscious body with lacerations everywhere felt like he was living a nightmare- the sight making him puke the mochis he had eaten less than 20 minutes ago.

He could only stare as Shoko worked to get out all the water filling your lungs. And when she said they needed to get you back to the school to restart your heart, he swore he almost passed out.

So he stayed on the couch and gawked as Shoko tried her best to heal you with what she already knew.

It was messy and took a while but her skill with reversed curse technique stabilized you efficiently.

He made sure to ask her for future lessons on it as soon as she finished.

“I was so scared,” You fiddled with your oxygen tube as you eyed the ceiling. “I wanted to be strong”

“You don’t need to be strong”

“But if I could be, then I could help you for once”

Satoru sat speechless, he didn’t know how to reply to that.

You carefully rolled onto your side to relieve the pressure on your wings and to see Satoru more easily. “Since I’ve come to this school all I've done is try and catch up to everyone. And I knew it couldn’t be helped so I never wanted to complain about it but…after last night I’m not sure I'll ever be able to catch up”

You took a deep breath as your lungs were still feeling really sore and talking was not helping but you had to get this off of your chest.

“After we spoke at the vending machine that day, I believed I could get as strong as you, and the mission was my one shot to prove to myself that I could do it”

Satoru kept that same indifferent look so you took that as a sign to continue.

“But you had to come and save me because I was too weak-”

“ Actually we had to come and save you because you were too strong ”

It was your turn to be speechless as Satoru shifted.

“We came to two conclusions about what had happened” He brushed his fingers through his hair and started tapping his one foot.

“Either, Your energy is so strong it was basically a beacon for all curses within a 5-mile radius or,” He clenched his fists and grit his teeth. “It was an assassination attempt”

Your breath hitched and you coughed, The information taking you by surprise.

“But why would anyone want to kill me?!?!”

“The higher-ups. They control what missions go to which sorcerers. The missions are brought to them by scouts who go all over the country looking for high curse activity”

He swings an arm behind the chair and tails his eyes over each of your mostly healed injuries. “Simply put- you’re different. And different means a threat to the higher-ups. They don’t understand you and so throwing you into a mission with a grade one curse, another student in the same year as you, and far enough away from the school to not easily get there and back was the quickest option” 

He made sure you understood him so he summarised.

“They were scared because they didn’t know how strong you were so killing you was faster than figuring out you - or it could still be that and the energy thing together”

You took a minute to let it sink in, comprehending the situation. Coming to this school, you are expected to be in dangerous settings. But expecting it and living it are two very different things.

“Gojo, will it always be like this?” 

“That depends, do you want to leave?”

“Leave?”

Satoru made a bold move and reached across to hold your hand. “The jujutsu world does not let you be happy, If you want I could help you leave. I’ll give you money, find an apartment, and sort out the higher ups- You almost died and I-” Satoru stopped before saying too much. 

“But if I leave then I’ll be alone. I think I’d rather fight for my life every day to be with you guys than sit alone in an apartment waiting for someone to pick me up off my feet”

You brushed your fingers over Satoru's knuckles. Too focused tracing over the scars to see how red his face had become.

“We need strong sorcerers right?” 

Satoru felt your grip on his hand tighten and met your eyes.

You felt your eyes flutter as the sleepiness was starting to come back.

You gave Satoru a small smile. “I’m gonna train every day so I can be as strong as you, Gojo”

He watched as you got comfortable to go back to sleep, the happiness on your face genuine.

“Call me Satoru- for saving your life and all” He couldn’t believe how brave he was being, giving himself a mental pat on the back.

You giggled. “Hmm, I think I prefer ‘Toru”

The smile didn’t leave your face as you drifted off to sleep, Still holding Satoru’s hand.

Bonus-

“I’m gonna snap your knees Yuji!!! Get back here!” Nobara chased Yuji in the shallow water of the beach.

Yuji ducked as Nobara started shooting him with her massive water gun that Satoru bought.

“Get away from me you psycho!-GAH” Yuji was shot right in the nose. “Megumi help me!”

Megumi didn’t bat an eye, already annoyed that he was dragged away from his book.

“Leave me out of it” He threw the volleyball back at Satoru.

Yuji ducked behind His freakishly tall sensei, hoping he was enough to shield him from his crazy friend.

“Sensei you have to save me!” Yuji peeked around him to gauge where Nobara was.

Satoru only laughed and ruffled his hair. “Why don’t you go hide by (Y/n)?”

He pointed to where you were on the private beach, much further away from where they were. Sitting on the sand under an umbrella and playing your son.

Yuji had to squint to see what you were doing.

“Why is she so far away”

Satoru laughed again but it was more curt this time.

“You ever tried drying wings with a 7-meter wingspan?” 

“That makes sense” Too distracted from the situation he didn’t see Nobara sneaking up on him, rapid firing on his face.

“You villain!” he sputtered and tried running away.

But Nobara accidentally aimed a little too much to the left and hit Megumi.

They both stayed still, waiting to see what Megumi would do.

And as soon as they saw the demon dogs appear they ran away screaming.

Satoru only chuckled at their antics and warped to where you were.

He plopped down next to you, throwing an arm around your shoulder as you both watched your son play with his tiny sand molds.

“You ok princess?”

You had a cheeky smile on your face as you picked up your son and held him in your arms.

“I’m good ‘Toru”

You leaned up to kiss Satoru and he bent down to meet you halfway.

But before your lips could touch, you shoved him away and ran with your son towards the students.

He could hear your laughter and your son's giggles as you got further away. But his own determined smile grew as he decided he’d play your game. 

He never thought this would be achievable when he was a teenager, and he had to thank you for making the impossible- possible.