Chapter Text
"Megumi! Hurry up, man! You're going to miss this!"
Yuuji was yelling like an idiot, waving his hand over to Fushiguro as he simply took his time, casually walking down the stone path along the flowers that grew there. Yuuji was at the crest of the path, the apex of the light incline that Megumi was strolling up as of now.
"Whatever you are yelling about," Megumi responded, "isn't that important if you are so worried about me missing something."
"But it is! This is a moment in history!"
"Right, and the last time you told me this was when a new ramen flavor dropped at the local cart stand."
"But Tonkotsu Beef ramen is unheard of. And it was good too."
"Uh-huh, and you would eat a green tea KitKat off of dogshit."
Itadori reeled in disgust, surprised at the rather precise and specific example that Fushiguro had given.
"Do you have something to say, Fushiguro?" Yuji said after imagining the display of putridness.
"You are a massive retard if you think for a second that I was speaking off of personal experience."
"Hey! Cool it with the language! You know, some people actually suffer from that, right?"
"You don't say. Anyway, what's so important that has you worked up like a dog, begging for my attention?"
"Look!"
Yuji pointed down, down where the training fields were. Fushiguro strained his eyes lightly once he got up to where Itadori stood, looking down at the green grass and the small track that ran around it. A small figure was jogging lightly on it, his white hair bouncing lightly as he took simple strides. Yuuji grinned as, for once, Megumi was in shock.
"...Is that Gojo running on the track down there?"
Yuuji nodded furiously, shaking hard enough to make him go bald if his hair wasn't rooted in.
"Yep! That's Gojo-sensei, alright."
"...I apologize for my misunderstanding. For as long as I've known this idiot, not in a day have I seen him actually exercise."
"Well, he is the strongest after all. He needs to keep in good shape. You, on the other hand, need to bulk up. Your ankles are skinny."
"So you're just violating my privacy now?"
"Hey, just a bro looking out for another bro."
"Oh, for real? Look out for this."
Itadori turned, expecting nonetheless what Fushiguro said. To his surprise, a fist was flying at Itadori. Before he could react, however, it collided with his face.
POW!
Itadori stumbled back and tried to get a bearing again, putting his hands up again in case of a second hit.
"Hey, what was...geez...what the?"
Itadori started to wobble a little bit, his vision swirling and blurring as he felt his body jerk backwards. Megumi, who had an irritated face on, became confused and concerned as he watched his teammate lean back and forth like a bop clown.
"Hey, you good, Itadori?"
Huh...Since when could Fushiguro hit that hard...Am I about to...
"Yuuji!"
Itadori fell onto his back, his eyes glazing over, and sounds muffling rather quickly as everything went dark in an instant.
Darkness surrounded Yuuji like a bad omen. He stood in the middle of it, staring into the horizon that would never be.
For a second, he thought he had ended up back in Sukuna's internal domain inside his mind, a giant room with a ribcage as the walls and ceiling, as Sukuna sat on a 40-meter pile of cow skulls like a giant and very uncomfortable throne. He shuddered at the thought of being back there.
But that wasn't...this.
This felt different. This felt neither bad nor good.
It just felt empty, void of anything.
...
Did he die?
Did his comrade just actually kill him by accident?
"No way! No way I died to Fushiguro's punch!"
His words echoed and didn't come back to him.
Great, even his own voice hates him for being pathetic.
"...no way I died just like that..."
"You aren't dead."
Yuuji perked up, looking at where the voice came from.
It sounded really familiar.
Did he know them?
"Who's there? Where am I if I'm not dead?"
"Not sure where we are, but this isn't death."
"I know, but I'm tryna see who the heck I'm talking to..."
Yuuji's head perked to the side as he finally found who was talking to him, but he froze as well. There, a few meters away, stood a bloodied and battered man, roughly the same size as Yuuji. From what Yuuji could tell, there was blood all over near his right eye, fresh scars etched into his face as if a wild knife had come and cut him up. His hair was the same color as Yuuji's, only a little bit darker, pushed back, and dirtier from what seemed to be a long fight. Hell, even his uniform was nearly identical, sporting the red hoodie underneath his gakuran and slacks. Even the shoes were the same...
...Was he looking at himself?
Itadori turned fully and walked up to this lookalike, hoping that his eyes were deceiving him.
As he got closer, he could observe his lookalike's features a bit better
His right eye was crushed, most likely from the slashes that cut him up so badly.
Two distinctive scars, aside from the rest, were more highlighted and defined. One went diagonally across his face, starting just below the bottom right eye and ending just before it could cut into his left eyebrow. The other was more patch-like, a darker area just next to his lips on his left cheek.
More scars formed on his face on his cheeks and his forehead, shaping into a rather familiar pattern.
Sukuna's tattoos.
But this wasn't Sukuna. In fact, he couldn't even sense Sukuna in either of them.
But that was besides the point. The thing that really stuck out to Itadori, the one that made his heart drop, was the eyes.
They looked depressed and distant, almost dead. Not to mention, his eyes were not a regular color. They shone yellow with small, darker rings that circled like a planet's ring. Dark eye bags sat under his eyes as he stared at Yuuji like he was apologetic for something. Itadori's instincts screamed. Not in danger, but in identity. In realization.
"Hey…who...are you?"
"Hey…who...are you?"
Itadori stared at his past self, who was looking at him like he had seen a ghost, like a broken mirror full of jagged shards that highlighted every single flawed and shattered part of his soul. His words lingered on, ringing through his ear like a tolling bell that would never end.
Who are you?
...I don't even know who I am...I was constructed to house that monster and become his foundation for a full transformation...I was born a death painting and a constructed vessel...but you don't know any of that yet...you're still you...you're still human.
I wish I could just tell you everything here and now, warn you of the inevitable future that lies upon you. I want to tell you about Nanami, Kugisaki, and that bastard Kenjaku. I want to prepare you for Mahito to stop him before he can cause you pain. I want to stop that whole Culling Games, and I just want to hug you and protect you from anything...You don't deserve this future.
But I know I can't do anything.
Considering this whole situation, you'll wake up without remembering anything.
Without remembering the warnings.
And I'm sorry for that.
He looked down at his feet, at his shoes that were battered in blood and dust from debris. The blood probably wasn't even his. Or was it? He couldn't even tell anymore.
Everything was just there in existence. There was no true meaning to what surrounded him. It was a sickening mindset.
But he has already lost nearly everything at this point.
He lost his family. He lost his friends. He lost his sensei. He lost every comrade he knew.
And he lost himself through that pain. He couldn't look at anything the same as he did before.
The only thing he had to hold on to was this chance, his past self.
His innocent self.
So, for the betterment of both of them, he answered what he had said to that curse all a while ago. The curse that started the cycle of pain, the cycle of curses in his heart
"...I am you."
"...you're me?"
"Yes, I am...I know I probably strike a little...intimidating to you."
"Intimidating? Dude, you practically look like you went through a meat slicer."
"Honestly, that would be an accurate way to put it."
"Seriously? What happened to you? Your eye is all crushed, and those scars...they look like his tattoos."
"Sukuna's you mean?"
"Yeah, exactly like that."
"...huh...I guess they do..."
"...you look tired...hey, what year is it there? Assuming you're from the future, which is totally rad by the way, how many years did it take for me to get super duper awesome and powerful?"
"..."
"...hey, you alright?"
"...It's July for you, right?"
"Yeah, July 26th, 2018. I just got enrolled in Jujutsu High."
"With Satoru, Megumi, and Kugisaki?"
"Yup! Best teammates ever. Gojo-sensei is a great teacher, too. Couldn't ask for anyone better."
"I see...hey, promise me one thing before you get back."
"Hm? Oh, sure. What's up?"
"...promise me you'll savor every single second with them...time doesn't last forever, y'know."
"...dude, that is heavy...but yeah, I will...what happened that's causing you to tell me this? Does one of them get hurt?"
"...yeah...they do...but it doesn't matter how damn hard you try, it's inevitable..."
"You don't know that. I-I could prepare, start training for it, and get stronger-"
"It doesn't matter. It won't be enough."
"Why are you talking like this? I thought we were the same person. I know me, and I'm not one to act like Kugisaki-"
"Yuuji, Kugisaki dies! Gojo dies! They all die! And me? I'm left alone. I'm sitting unconscious on a battlefield against Sukuna, who took over Megumi for his powers. My brothers died, sacrificing their lives to save mine. My comrades fought side by side and threw their bodies in the way to keep me alive, the key to bringing the King of Curses down once and for all. And I soiled those chances and caused them to die, Yuuji! I'm a curse! A tool used to bring Sukuna back, and even I, somehow, screwed that up! It doesn't matter how strong you get; you can't stop what will happen! I'm just a massive failure....I can't even protect those next to me..."
Tears began to prick at the edge of Future Yuuji's eye
"..."
"...I'm sorry...I couldn't...I couldn't stop myself..."
"...don't apologize...do they really die?"
"...yeah...they do...and I was forced to sit by as I saw their hearts stop beating..."
"...how long-"
"October. That's when this will all begin."
"S-seriously? That's only three months...holy shit..."
"You're figuring it out. This form will be yours in the same year...I'm only a few months older than you, Yuuji."
"...I'll be like this in a few months...will...I see myself again then? Like how this all happened?"
"
To be honest...I'm not even sure myself."
A silence stretches on lightly for a moment before past Yuuji begins to walk towards his future self, who was tearing up with his remaining eye. He then wraps him in a hug, squeezing him tightly.
"...You didn't deserve this to happen to you...one should never suffer like this..."
Future Yuuji just freezes, feeling the warmth of the hug flood his senses. Small sobs began to come from him as he returned the hug with the gauntlets on his hand, pressing into his past self with a light prick.
"...I thought you would be mad...I thought you would hate that all of that would happen later."
"
I would never hate myself...and I get it. What is set in stone can't be changed, but it's better you got that off instead of keeping it bottled up, y'know."
"Right...hey, Yuuji."
"Yeah?"
"...make sure Megumi's alright, okay?"
"...I will... good luck in your fight."
"HEY! YUUJI! WAKE UP, YOU IDIOT!"
"Huh?"
Light blinded Yuuji's eyes, the sun shining down on him as a figure stood over him with her brown hair.
"About time you woke up! You had Megumi panicked and thinking he killed you!"
"...huh?"
"...Oh no. Gojo-sensei, Yuuji has brain damage!"
"Huh!? No, I don't, you dummy! You're not letting me get acquainted with my surroundings yet!
"Scratch that, he's just his stupid self!"
Yuuji rolls his eyes as he gets up slowly, blinking a few times to get used to the exposure to light. Fushiguro stood to the side, sighing in relief that Yuuji was not dead. Gojo, who was leaning against a tree nearby, looks at Yuuji with concern.
"Yuuji, are you good to walk normally again? That hit looked like it gave you a nasty concussion."
"Hm? No, my head feels fine. Fushiguro did pack a nasty punch through."
"Yeah, it seems like he did. Maybe you should start training to protect yourself in hand-to-hand."
"Gojo-sensei, I'm not that helpless. He just caught me off guard, that's all."
Gojo snickers as he pushes himself off the tree, walking to the three of them.
"Alright, you family. I just got word of a local curse problem that needs exorcism, pronto. Being the kind and considerable person I am, I took it up for you three to handle. Isn't that great?"
The other two were silent as Yuuji, being who he was, whooped in a goofy celebration.
"Loved the spirit, guys. ANYways...let's go. This could help Yuuji with his defense."
"Oh ha ha, Gojo-sensei."
They began to walk down the path, their paces a little bit faster due to now having a purpose, but Yuuji trailed behind in thought, which he rarely ever did. He looked back one more time, where he was out cold for that time.
...I swear I was talking to someone when I was asleep...I guess whatever it was slipped my mind.
Yuuji took one more moment, looking at the indent of his figure in the ground before turning to catch up with the rest, the area now left back to nature as the breeze carried through, carrying the words of a conversation that happened in another dimension that neither he nor whoever he was talking to would remember.