Chapter Text
School had started over a month ago now and I was finally getting my bearings. Even with no official friends, I somehow managed to become acquainted with some classmates and make a name for myself as a reliable source of information and help!
Having a panic attack while listening to our Government teacher yell at a random kid for thirty minutes instead of teaching? Here's a mint. Lost your charger? Here's mine. Struggling on a problem? I just found out how to do that one! Here's a trick to solve it.
Life finally had color after being bleached by heat wave after heat wave.
The world may be burning, but mine certainly wasn't!
Until I inevitably made the mistake of being too comfortable.
Anxiety is just the overactivity of whatever is keeping me alive. I guess I overcompensated in suppressing it.
Drunk drivers are fucking useless. I mean seriously, who gets drunk at 6 in the morning? Who does that AND runs over a teenager AND keeps driving? The worst thing is that I can't remember if I was the one who messed up. Did I look both ways? Maybe I should have walked faster..
My last thoughts are as mundane as my first. Death is a warm blanket turning the burn of my broken bones into a warm buzz (of a car's engine fading into the distance). The street light in front of me gets painfully brighter but I can't help thinking that the light at the end of the tunnel is something kinder than hellfire.
Sendai in July is a place that sticks to you. Literally.
The humidity will stay on your skin even after the sun sets and the constant song of insects will vibrate in your ears even when there are none. Not that Gojo Satoru has to worry about the former. Being the strongest has perks.
Kikusuian mochi calls him back to this city frequently. Whenever the higher ups get off his ass and whenever Megumi and his other students are fine on their own, Gojo can relax. Or he should be able to. Tonight something feels off, as it always does when he's not fighting. This time feels different though. Even with sugar in his system and fresh midnight air in his lungs, he can't shake anxious energy. He really is overworked.
A large crash and groaning in an alley to his left confirms his paranoia, Yay confirmation bias here we come. Without hesitating, he walks into the shadows, calling out to a ghost. "Hello?"
Gojo is greeted by weak gasps, attempts at sobs, and a disturbing lack of cursed energy. Not like Toji's, actually it feels like his is being sucked toward a black hole. A black hole that's currently a mix of blood, bone, hair, flesh, and absolute agony. Interesting.
Alright, I'll admit it, I was wrong. The light at the end of the tunnel WAS hellfire and I'm now being punished for stealing razor blades. Karma's fake and God is dead. I must have blacked out five times since getting hit, long enough for the sun to come up and glare directly down at me. I suck in some shaky breaths and stare directly into the sun, as if to spite Apollo himself. Is society so apathetic that a half-dead body in the middle of the road is ignorable? Like come on.
Murmurs bleed through my mind's static and I crane my head to the right. Making the noise everyone who has been punched in the solar plexus or experienced a pole to the nuts knows, now seeing that the sun is an overhead light and that the road is a hospital bed.
"My technique won't work on him. It's like it's… gone."
Gojo, familiar with Shoko's inability to explain her technique, responds.
"Like a black hole, right?" Shoko nods, but immediately snaps her head toward the not-so-dead young man on the table. The unnamed teenager attempts to sit up but cant' seem to overcome the whole "having almost every important bone broken" thing.
"Hey, what's your name?" Gojo asks, forgetting Shoko is supposed to do that.
He seems to think for a minute before giving them a name. Not a Japanese accent. That explains it.
The- damn she looks tired- woman speaks next. "He found you in an alleyway. How did you get injured? I've helped you as much as I can through traditional medicine, but my reverse cursed technique isn't working on you." Am I supposed to know what that- wait a minute. Reverse cursed technique… My lack of fluency in Japanese threw me off. Oh my god. I seriously got isekai'd.
I close my eyes, now knowing that I'm probably going to die a second time in front of one of my favorite characters. For some reason the pain begins to dissipate, replaced by the uncomfortable feeling of dried blood and a catheter in my arm.
"What the fuck?" I sit up and look down, everything's intact. Sweet Buddha, I've experienced plot convenience for the first time. I snap my head back to the surprised strangers I now know as Gojo Satoru and Ieri Shoko. I almost blurt out something stupid but decide to play dumb. "What kind of witchcraft did you do? Am I high?" My tone isn't aggressive so much as it's amazed and curious. Wait, why was she talking about her technique again?