Chapter Text
She’s pulled into the curse, headfirst then her braid, followed by the legs. And gone is the girl who laughed with him yesterday. Nothing was dropped, left behind. Her blood still fresh and bright, forming a large puddle on the rough granite is the only remnant of the highschool girl, Amanai Riko.
Slowly, the realization feels blizzardous. Too cold are his fingers and his ears, as it reverberated the shot, the thud, the deep, toneless voice of the Sorcerer Killer as he said nonchalantly, ‘I killed Gojo Satoru.’ He feels red come at the corner of his eyes, fingers digging into his palms,
‘Really?’ he tastes blood in his mouth. A curse forms behind him.
‘Die.’ and he moves.
⧫⧫
‘Do what you want with that.’
And then he falls.
A hole through his chest, removing the entirety of his right abdomen, he is but a human, and the non-shaman Toji Fushiguro succumbs to his injuries. The one who dealt the said injury stands motionless in front of The Sorcerer Killer. Toji is dead. Toji who touched the untouchable, the man who almost murdered the strongest Jujutsu Sorcerer of modern times, stands motionless in front of him.
He should rejoice, perhaps. Scream it into the world, release his tense shoulders and feel the new thrum of Limitless skitter across his skin. Instead, with a rather lackluster reaction, Gojo Satoru walks to the Inventory curse. Not even bothering with removing the curse from Toji’s corpse, he shoves his hand in its mouth and reaches blindly for a collar of a high-school girl.
He pulls her out, slowly, saliva pouring out in clear, sticky waterfalls from her bloody face, to the bloodied clothes and down the rest of her skirt. With movement as gentle as he can possibly muster, he cuts apart the curse, ignoring its howls and pulls the rest of Amanai’s legs out from the musky depth beneath. She follows the tugs and pulls of Gojo’s movements, lifelessly dragging along the dirt, eyes thankfully shut closed and not a single sign of breathing from her bloody uniform. He picks her up not in the rough way he did when he first rescued her from that group of thugs, but with hands beneath her shoulders, and the other hooking around her knees, he gently shuffles her into a princess carry.
It is his last way of showing reverence to Amanai Riko. To carry her the way she would have wished for her future partner to, maybe. Carrying her lifeless body in a way where she could always feel cherished, happy, even in the faraway end of the afterlife.
He walks with slow steps into the building of the Time Vessel Association and that’s when he hears it.
‘I need backup at the school! Requesting emergency backup right now!”
‘Fuck, there’s just so many of them! Where’s that Six Eyes? We need him here immediately!’
‘Isn’t he supposed to be strong? How did he die from a mere non-shaman?’
‘I can’t believe this, if he knew the consequences of his cursed technique then maybe he could’ve put some effort into taking care of it himself!’
‘HELP! PLEASE THERE'S TOO MAN-’
Cries and curses came from several phones, sounds of distressed sorcerers sprinted out of the building, crossing paths with Gojo and a body in his arms that none of them were calm enough to bat an eye.
Did something happen at the school? He can’t really find it in himself to care right now. Suguru could handle it. Speaking of Suguru, is he injured? He probably is, considering Toji came out unscathed. He should be fine with Shoko. Nothing to worry about.
‘That fucking curse manipulator!’ He tries to listen to the distant shouts and screams, but somehow that was the only sentence he could hear in the commotion.
Suddenly the body in his arms seemed much heavier, which is unrealistic since Amanai barely weighed anything, and yet it soured his arms and his palms started to sweat. His head repeated those words and he was left thoroughly confused. What does this have to do with Suguru? The amount of sorcerers running out the building increased, trampling and panicking. He turned his head left and right, trying to connect the dots. Something feels really off. He feels Amanai’s body slipping out of his grip. He snaps out of his minor panic, hoists her body tighter, Get yourself together, Satoru.
He nudges on, pushing through the sorcerers and the members of the association, as they become too restless and cramped by the tense atmosphere to stay. Dozens of people cross him, heading the opposite direction, swarming past him like a wave, as if Gojo was the only person moving against the current. He tightens his grip on Amanai, the feeling of her dried blood on uniform the only thing stabilizing him as he enters the main room. Despite large numbers of the members heading towards the exit, many stayed to watch as Gojo carried the deceased body of a teenage girl. They applauded. Loud and clear.
Thousands of hands matched the rhythm of his footsteps,
clap, clack, clap, clack
It was sickening to a degree. Thousands of people crowded in a room, making way for Gojo and smiling at him as if he had done a great honor. The great honor of presenting the death of a high school girl to satisfy their mindless beliefs. Dread pools at the bottom of his stomach, the louder the claps echo in his ears, the happiness these people radiate from the death of an innocent, pure and joyful soul.
It’s sickening.
It’s revolting.
Amanai’s head lops to the side, her hands swinging to the movement of his footsteps. He feels a spark of fury rush through his legs and all the way up his spine.
He wants to kill them.
Oh, he wants to murder them all.
Another man smiles at him, whoops and Gojo almost snaps.
He is just three steps away from the door. He wants to hurtle him against it.
He hears the man open his mouth to say something until-
A loud thud, the door flings open and on the other side,
‘Ijichi?’
Ijichi is panting rather heavily, eyes wide and glaring into Gojo’s with an intense emotion Gojo has seen countless times, on boys being cornered by Grade 3 curses, on a man after seeing Gojo use Limitless to fly, on Amanai’s face when Toji stabbed him through the stomach,
— Fear.
His eyebrows downturn aggressively, breathing uneven, fingers curling into the fabric on his knees and Gojo stills for a moment. Unable to move from shock when Ijichi goes from looking scared and panicked to devastated. Gojo’s never seen that expression before. It churns his stomach in all the wrong ways.
‘G-gojo-san.’
His eyes drift to Amanai’s lifeless body, and as if struck by lightning, he straightens and swiftly takes her body into his hands.
Gojo Satoru, stiff to the roots, ‘Hey-’ bristles and tries to take her back until Ijichi steps back, visibly tries to regain whatever composure he can manage and speaks.
‘I will take care of her, Gojo-san please do not worry.’ His breaths too labored, tone too strained and words cracking at the end of each word.
Something is wrong.
‘I recommend Gojo-san go back to Jujutsu High immediately. Something has-’ a high pitched voice crack, ‘happened. We require your assistance urgently.’
Gojo can see the desperation in his tone, the tense shoulders locked so stiffly he wonders if he needs to manually crack them back in place.
‘Right. I can kind of tell.’ he gestures to the surroundings, doused in distress and panic. Ijichi nods frantically, his hands trembling and fingers turning white with the deathgrip on Amanai’s body, ‘Yes the situation is quite dire. Please head back right now, Gojo-san.’ And weirdly, his eyes seem suspiciously red.
Oh shit. What the fuck happened?
Gojo takes a few seconds to say, ‘Please be careful with her,’ before he is running down the hall, taking strides as large as he can manage. Okay, this was not how I was expecting this fucking day to go.
He thought after killing Toji, he would cremate Amanai, find Suguru, maybe murder a few of those worthless Stellarists, whatever. But now as he hears a scream from another sorcerer’s phone, loud and shrieking, his world feels tilted on an axis, a series of unfortunate disasters occuring after another and another. When the fuck can he take a goddamn break? Yea, he is the strongest sorcerer alive, but for god’s sake, he only just barely dodged death and now it seems he’s heading headfirst into yet another life and death situation.
The strong doesn’t complain though, so Gojo sucks it up and runs out the building. A sense of slight panic punches some adrenaline into him, he continues to sprint down the cobblestone paths, his mind whirring over Ijichi’s expressions, his own enlightenment, god, even thinking over Toji’s stupid son and blatantly tries not to think about the the potential nightmare ahead. Once he’s run down a few streets, he slows to a stop just close enough to the school for him to teleport without any hassle.
Standing in an alleyway, Gojo takes a deep breath and braces for what he’s about to face. Whatever it is, he’s ready to face it. Like c’mon, not to flex or anything but he’s already reached enlightenment, so what’s the worst that could happen?
Raising his arms, he clasps them together and teleports.
Little does he know, it was impossible to be ready for what’s to come.
⧫⧫
First thing Gojo realized is, there are too many curses. Way too many.
The worst thing is, they are all in the school barrier. Coming from the school. Cursed energy is overflowing from the school, stenching and crawling the roofs, engulfing the usual bright greenery of the surroundings. A typhoon of all kinds of curses, third-grades, second-grades, even first-grades rise and rumble the paths. It’s terrifying.
Jujutsu High is a safe place for all jujutsu sorcerers. The barrier is solid and invincible enough to block all kinds of curses, no type of curse could enter the school unless given special permission to. The other exception is…..unless the curse itself is summoned inside the school. Summoned from the very school grounds.
Fuck. He rushes into the school immediately, pushing past the sorcerers running out, the amount of curses too large for them to exorcise, giving them the only option to retreat.
The second thing is, he recognizes the curses. Oh, he is familiar with them. Oh what the fuck.
He swipes his eyes to the left, he sees a big shape of a multi-handed curse hitting and swatting sorcerers. He’s defeated that exact same curse before. He used Limitless to knock it to the ground while Suguru did the finishing act. Then Suguru swallowed the very same curse. A chill runs down his spine.
A coincidence. He convinces himself. He exorcises it with Red.
His eyes swipe to the right, the big toad-tadpole looking curse who’s sticking its tongue out and trying to catch some female assistant sorcerer as if playing with its food. He saw that one before too. Suguru immobilized it before the tongue could touch any one of them though, with his quick reflexes he swallowed it without Gojo even witnessing it’s end. His chest feels tight. He ends it quickly with a swipe of Limitless.
He runs, sees another curse Suguru swallowed, exorcises, and keeps running. Gradually, the curses blend into one another, from a small flesh-fly to a superstitious curse, he kills one after another, and he remembers the story behind each of them. He recognizes the cursed energy of each of them. He registers their presence as if spotting kites in the sky. Some curses he doesn’t recognize, but when he thinks harder, he remembers them from Suguru’s missions. The dots connect.
I gotta go to the arcade for a mission.
His words ring in his ears as he kills a curse that suspiciously has arcade wires dripping from its body in place of limbs.
There’s a weird second-grade curse in a park, what the hell?
He smashes the goose-humanoid curse into a nearby wall. He could almost hear Suguru’s voice labeling each spot of cursed energy.
A birthday party gone wrong, HAH!
Who gets this mad at a golf court?
Satoru, you’re gonna be so jealous of this one. A chocolate factory.
Each curse seems to align so well with Suguru’s missions. He recognizes almost all of them. There are a million curses in this world. Why is it only these specific few? Why is it only the ones Suguru swallowed? This can’t be a coincidence. This can’t be. This can’t be. No.
This has to be.
This has to be.
If they are all curses Suguru swallowed, why are they released? Why are they attacking the sorcerers? Fuck, what the hell is going on?!
His heart beats a little faster with each curse exorcised. There is an incessant burn at the back of his eyes. In the middle of his agitated exorcising, he stumbles upon the corpses of some sorcerers.
Some still alive, injured, bleeding from bite marks of curses, some still being eaten by the curses, resisting weakly, desperately pushing the curses away with the last ounce of their strength. Gojo exorcises a number of them with Blue.
The guy being eaten drops limply after the curse is exorcised. He clutches tightly onto his cellphone. With the pain now receding, his eyes fog over and his breathing turns ragged.
Gojo swallows heavily and shakes him, ‘Hey.’
The guy locks eyes with him.
‘Can-’ he coughs. ‘Can you give me…a painless death?’
His wounds bleed continuously. Gojo stares helplessly.
‘..It hurts.’
‘...’
‘Please.’
The guy looks to his side, seemingly searching for something.
His eyes rest in a bundle of bushes, where a cursed spirit is currently disintegrating.
Gojo Satoru turns to where he’s looking, and spots the tiniest peek of a bloodied uniform and a limb. An amputated arm. It’s holding a phone. The arm is jagged with teeth marks all along except the palm, the only non-bloodied part.
‘..Takashi..’the guy speaks into his own cellphone.
And hauntingly so, his voice echoes from the bushes.
Gojo ends him in the quickest and painless way he knows.
Before he could even catch his breath and set the corpse in a more restful position, a building crumbles.
He turns and his breath hitches.
In the middle of the school grounds, right above where the Tombs of Stars should be, is a gigantic black portal that cuts the atmosphere like a nasty wound. Curses are clawing its way out of it like a magnetic force, the portal dragging and pulling them out in neverending waves.
It would seem evil to anyone. A curse user breaking into Jujutsu High and using their god awful cursed technique on the sorcerers of Jutjutsu High to take revenge for their lost bounty. It would seem completely sinful, a symbolism of horrible turpitude for everyone including Gojo.
If only Gojo didn’t know that portal. If only Gojo hadn’t spent day after day next to its presence until he could probably duplicate its cursed energy. He could tell what type of curse was coming out based on its shape, a second-grade curse, a huge first-grade worm, a curse he has watched time and time again as Suguru swallowed them with a grimace, making a subtle nauseating expression afterwards thinking no one would notice. And then Satoru would wordlessly hand over one of his favourite sweets, and claiming Suguru would have to buy him more later.
The cursed technique he was so achingly familiar with, the very cursed energy of someone who taught him laughter, friendship, happiness, now the same cursed technique is on display, with the load of a special-grade sorcerer exempting all his resources, pumping out curses after curses, not to exorcise curses, but to kill.
Gojo Satoru has never felt dread quite like this.
It’s no longer a heavy thing in his stomach, no longer a cacophony in his mind debating whether to accept the facts for what they are or come to his own conclusions, no longer a coldness in his limbs that won’t even thaw if came in touch with flame.
As he watches curse after curse pour out, without the control of its owner but the free will of a cursed spirit, targeting sorcerers, killing, screams echoing, blood being spilt……...by Suguru’s own cursed technique.
The guy’s friend who only had an arm left to mourn.
Eaten. By Suguru’s curses.
The injured sorcerers, attacked by Suguru’s curses.
The corpses, still stenched with the scent of Suguru’s cursed energy.
For the first time, Gojo Satoru felt bile rise to his mouth.
His stomach knotted in a way he felt like he would never eat again.
His heart was a burning thing in his chest, too painful to carry, too hurt to let go.
It was getting harder to breathe, the oxygen thinning out around him, choking in desperation.
A curse lunged at him with sharp, jagged teeth. It was a second-grade curse he and Suguru took down together, one of the very first missions in his first year. Satoru was cornered by the curse when he still hadn’t gotten the hang of Limitless yet and before it could bite his arm off, Suguru had got up from his injuries and absorbed it with sheer willpower. When Suguru used it in the next mission, Satoru laughed at its lack of freewill, ‘Not so formidable now that Suguru’s holding the leash, huh?’
The curse lunged at him now. It managed to bite his forearm before Gojo came to his senses and he swiped at it agitatedly with Limitless.
It crumbled and left Suguru’s scent.
Suguru’s signature cursed energy flowed through the air, and with it, the distinct smell of copper.
He tried not to think too hard about it. He tried.
Gojo Satoru aimed at the familiar black portal and unleashed hollow purple.
Stumbling into the bushes, he promptly threw up.