Chapter Text

Chapter 1: Intertwined Fates

November 12th, 12:00 PM.

Itadori and Fushiguro looked at the barrier with intensity. They both knew what they needed to do.

"Itadori. For now we collect information on Higuruma." Fushiguro said, turning to Itadori. He nodded, and the two walked in. However, instead of free falling in the Culling Games, something else happened. Perhaps it was destiny, or just a bullcrap cosmic fluke, but this time, things were going to be different.

...

May 5th, 5:00 PM

Itadori woke up on a grass field. Not at all what he was expecting. He actually sort of expected to be free falling into a fight, but that would be stupid. He got up, looking around. There was a giant barrier surrounding the area he was in. Maybe it was the Culling Games? "Hello? Fushiguro? You here?" Itadori called out, looking around confused. He didn't understand why this place was so barricaded. Perhaps it was a unique looking barrier from Kenjaku? He remembered Tengen mentioning that he was the second best at barriers after all.

“Halt, my good sir!” Itadori turned around to see three people behind him, wearing flashy outfits. One had blond hair, one with blue, and the third had black hair. “You're currently in a restricted area, do you need assistance leaving?”

“What’s with their weird get up? Oh well, no time to ponder about it.” Cursed Energy flowed through Yuji as he crouched slightly and tucked his fists to his side, charging CE in them. “I don’t know what your tactic is, but I won’t allow you to kill me!”

“Wait, what? Why would-” Before the blond boy could speak, Yuji was suddenly above him, preparing a mean elbow jab.

“Mirio!” The blue haired girl shot Yuji back with what appeared to be yellow beams. Yuji shoved his fist into the ground, and ripped out a chunk of the earth.

“Oh..” The timid boy walked in front of the two other students, extending his arm. “s-stop….” Yuji didn’t hear him as he tossed the boulder at him.

“POOOWWWERRRR!” Mirio punched it, protecting the timid boy and shattering the boulder. “Hado, Amajiki, it’s clear he’s hostile. We need to subdue him before we make any headway.”

‘Subdue’. Yuji didn’t like that word. He didn’t know what their play was, but he refused to lose. He dashed towards them, kicking Hado into a tree. “He’s fast!” Mirio thought.
Before Mirio could attack, Yuji did so first. While crouched, he turned his body towards Mirio, preparing an uppercut straight at his jaw. Mirio didn’t move, and Itadori went right through him, shocking him. However, he took advantage of being in the air, kicking Amajiki into the ground.

Mirio grabbed Itadori by his hood, and threw him to Hado, who shot a blast of energy at him. “Wave Motion!!”

Itadori planted his feet into the ground, stopping his momentum. He leaned back as far as he could, barely avoiding the attack. However, Mirio jumped above Itadori, and kicked him in the gut, making him cough. “We don’t want to-”

Itadori was in fight-or-flight, and he wasn’t one to run. He punched Mirio in the side of his face, taking everyone aback.
“He was able to hit Mirio/Me!?” all three students thought at once. Mirio landed on his feet, rubbing his cheek.

“Heh..Honestly, not many people can hit me! Kudos to you! But we need to end this. Amajiki!”
Itadori quickly turned around to see Amajiki, who’s hand was a giant clam. Amajiki hit Itadori’s side, hitting him in his ribs and knocking the air out of him, sending Itadori flying to a tree.

“I-I didn’t mean to..”
“That was great Amajiki!” Hado ran over to Amajiki, praising him.
“Yeah, that was super cool! I didn’t know you had that much…strength..” All three turned to a bleeding Itadori, who had hit his head against the tree and was walking towards them.

“Hey..Don't count me out yet..” Itadori suddenly disappeared from view, and they heard a pained cry from Amajiki. They looked at him, seeing Itadori’s elbow in his gut. Before Mirio could even react, Itadori disappeared from view again. Hado felt an impact from behind, then her left rib, then her right kidney, then finally an uppercut. She coughed up some blood, and Itadori was about to land the finishing blow, when he suddenly saw something.

Everything was on fire. Everything was burning. He looked around, seeing dead bodies everywhere. He heard Sukuna laughing, and when he turned around, he saw Jogo and Mahoraga about to attack. He put up his arms, when he was suddenly knocked back into reality by a kick by Mirio straight in his head. Itadori caught himself, his chest expanding and shrinking rapidly. What the hell was that?

“Man, this guy is tougher than nails. But something isn’t right..He looks scared.” Mirio, taking advantage of this, forced his body to appear less tense as he stood straight. “Hey, you know we’re the good guys, right?”

Itadori looked at him, confused. “Good guys..? What do you mean?”

“You know, heroes! Honestly, I’m surprised you attacked us like that. I assumed you were a civilian that got lost, to be honest. I was even more surprised when you thought we were gonna kill you. But you didn’t let us talk at all. You think we could talk now..?” Mirio slowly started to approach Itadori, his hands up as a sign of surrendering.

“Wait, then where’s..?”

“Itadori!”

Itadori knew this voice, as Mirio smiled and took a step back. "Fushiguro?!" Itadori turned his head, and saw Megumi in what appeared to be a student outfit not like the Tyoko's district. It was a white blazer, and had a red tie to boot. "What's going on?"

"I wish I knew. One thing I know for certainty however, is that this isn't the Culling Games." Megumi had a sulky look on his face, more so than usual, as his forehead furrowed. "I don't know if the others are here somewhere in Japan, or if they are left back at the second Tokyo Colony. So far, we seem to be the only one's here."

"Really..? That's great..Kinda puts a damper on our plans. Question, why aren't you wearing your uniform?" Itadori looked at Megumi with a puzzled look.

"It got heavily damaged when I arrived. It's currently being repaired for me, so I had to wear this in the meantime."

"So where are we now if we aren't in Japan?" Itadori looked around curiously, making note of the huge barriers and the H-shaped building.

"That's the part that confuses me the most. We are in Japan, and yet we sit in a city that doesn't exist. At least for us." Itadori had a shocked expression on his face, his pupils dilating.

"That doesn't make sense! We should be in the Tokyo Colony, not whatever this place is! We need to find a way back!"

"Calm down Itadori. There isn't much we can do at the moment. Believe me, I've tried. For now, we need to think of another plan. We don't know what's happening back in our Japan. For all we know, Hakari and Panda are fighting, or it could be frozen in time, waiting for our return. We simply don't know. That's why thinking of a plan to get back, no matter what, is our best route of action."

"......" Frustration filled Itadori's eyes, he knew that just flailing around angrily wouldn't get him anywhere. As much as he didn't want to just sit around waiting, he didn't see many other options. “So, who are these guys..?”

“Ah, they are known as The Big Three, this school's strongest students. Seems like you got in a scuffle with them.”

As Itadori started to calm down, he saw Nado, bleeding and holding herself on the ground, along with Amajiki holding his gut in pain. “I-I didn’t mean too..” Itadori took a step back.

“Itadori?” Fushiguro looked at him, slightly worried. “Itadori! I said calm down!” Fushiguro placed his hand on Itadori’s shoulder, and he started to get a grip on himself.

“S-Sorry, I’m just..It’s a lot to take in.” Itadori didn’t want to just up and say that he was having visions about Shibuya. He sighed, and looked around. “Fushiguro, what the hell is going on here..?”

“Ah, right. Basically..”
Fushiguro narrowed his eyes at Itadori, a serious look on his face.

“..We’re in a war.”