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damn-stark · 4 months

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Chapter 20 Intergalactic

Chapter 20 of Sugar

A/N- I know Uraume’s gender is not disclosed but they’re still mother, so, mother vs mother off this chapter

Warning- Swearing, ANGST!, fluff?, Violence, death, blood and gore, spoilers, SLOW BURN, heavy pining, Kenjaku being weird, long chapter, and we start switching to the manga now too!!

Pairing- Choso x Gojo!fem-reader, Suguru Geto x Gojo!fem-reader

Takes place during- 2x22-2x23, and chapter 138 from the manga

(Let me know if you want to be tagged)

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Breathe. Breathe…

Think with both the heart and mind, even if you’re pissed over Noritoshi Kamo possessing Suguru’s body, even if you’re in agony and mad at yourself for not being able to save Nanako and Mimiko. And even if you’re directing all that boiling anger to the man making a living hell you have to be rational just like you’ve been taught.

Yet when you step into the crater left behind by the chaos that transcended today, all you feel is raging anger at the sight of Noritoshi Kamo. Even if he’s in Suguru’s body and you love him, after what happened earlier, after he took Satoru, all you feel is hatred for this man.

It actually reminds you of a quote you like by Edgar Allen Poe, “years of love have been forgot, in the hatred of minute”, because all you want to do is kill him.

“You really are a relentless one, aren't you? It must run in the family,” Noritoshi announces your entrance and makes everyone's eyes that were trained on him fall on you, a ghost, the woman who is supposed to be dead.

“Smile,” he quips at you with a growing malicious smirk, “aren't you happy to see me?”

You stop striding and narrow your gaze to a burning glare. “No,” you grimace and curl your hand into a fist. “But when we cross paths in hell maybe then I will.”

Noritoshi snickers. “You’re going to have to wait a long time before I show up.”

You smirk and tap into your fire-cursed technique, causing the dragon mark on your arm to glow and making the veins under your skin glow as flames lick your flesh, craving to release.

“I don't mind waiting,” you counter.

“Y/N?!”

You drift your eyes to where your name is being called and see Itadori on his knee, covered in blood, and with half of his jacket torn. He looks baffled upon seeing you on your two feet and breathing—Which you’re surprised you are too, but regardless, past the blood and the determination painted over his face, you see relief and exhaustion. So you break the scowl on your face and offer him a small smirk.

Itadori offers you a small nod in return, and you proceed to look past him, catching Panda in his gorilla form, and another teenager you don't recognize. Past them, you see Kusakabe, Utahime, and two other students with them. All of whom look just as baffled to see you.

So it makes you wonder who all thinks you're dead; Nanami?

Where is he by the way you wonder since you don't see him here, and knowing him he'd be on the frontlines trying to protect who he can.

Unless he's hurt.

Is he hurt?

If he is, Shoko’s got him.

“Hey, Choso,” Noritoshi cuts you from your stupor, making you look to your side to see that Choso finally caught up.

When you made it past the veil and saw all the destruction, and the giant crater on the ground that looked almost apocalyptic, you went a bit overzealous and ran faster than you should have, leaving Choso behind.

“Looks like you’ve realized it,” Noritoshi adds nonchalantly, whereas Choso is panting and enraged.

So much so that you hear him grind his teeth from where you stand before he bellows, “so that's how it is! Noritoshi Kamo!”

Said man doesn't give any reaction, he doesn't flinch to start an attack, he's overly calm and collected.

“It's not above you to ally yourself with the stray, huh, Y/N?” Noritoshi directs at you as he drifts his eyes over to you.

You clench your jaw at the sound of your name coming out of his lips and snap back. “Don't talk to me like you know me, Kamo.”

Noritoshi huffs. “Noritoshi Kamo is merely one of the many names I’ve had,” he retorts. “Call me whatever you like.”

“How dare you,” Choso growls. “How dare you make me try to kill Itadori?! My little brother!

You watch him walk ahead without giving any thought to what he wants to do, which is dangerous regardless of how strong he might be, or how vengeful he might feel at the moment, so you try to interject, “Choso, wait.”

You go after him, but when you reach his side you both stop when a small figure with white hair, dressed in monk’s garments, menacingly slides in front of Noritoshi out of the blue.

They then quickly stand up straight and immediately imbue their hand with cursed energy.

“Stand down, third-rate,” they grimace. “Don’t keep me waiting any longer.”

You furrow your eyebrows in confusion to what they just said whilst you make your flames begin to lick the surface of your palm.

“Move it!” Choso exclaims angrily with a swing of his hand. “I’m his older brother!”

“Feeling scared there Noritoshi?” You tease the man in your husband's body. “You need a little nun to come fight for you?”

He scoffs and rolls his eyes. “Scared of what? You? I know all your moves, this body turned you into the sorcerer you are.”

You fist your hand and laugh. “Half true, sure, but you forget who really turned me into the sorcerer I am. She deserves the credit, she taught me a lot more than he could, but you can underestimate me if you want.” You sigh and rest your hand on your hip as you slide your eyes to the person with white hair and a red stain on their short bob.

“You,” you point your chin at them and shoot them a sweet smile. “Why don’t you come here and I’ll give you some sugar, honey,” you speak in a silky voice and raise your other hand to blow them a kiss.

“Huh? How dare you speak to me like half-wit,” they snarl.

You smirk and feel Choso’s eyes on you so you return his gaze, but then proceed to spare Itadori a glance, seeing him look baffled by who you're standing by and by what’s unfolding. Yet there’s no time to explain, just to demonstrate, so you look back at Choso and share a short determined look that makes him step forward and raise blood off the ground to spin it elegantly around him as he summons it all to his hands.

When the blood is in between his palms, you see steam rise out of the gaps between his hands before he suddenly shoots it in the blink of an eye, managing to impale it through the hands of the person beside Noritoshi.

All while the man himself jumps out of the way, making you walk past Choso’s back to face Noritoshi with flames slowly imbuing your hand.

Noritoshi sees you and prepares to counter, but you discreetly use your feet on the ground instead and kick over spikes that move underground. And when they’re behind him they pop out and shoot at him from behind, however, he dodges your attack just like you thought he would and slides away, right into the spot Choso carves out with his blood.

Which is fucking impressive. The magnitude and power of his blood are truly astonishing, and the fact that he uses it to shoot the earth beneath Noritoshi hundreds of feet into the air using just his blood is amazing. You can’t help but watch him with slight awe as he quickly chases after Noritoshi all the way to the top.

Albeit since he does leave, you’re left behind with the monk.

“It’s just you and me now,” you direct at them and slide one foot back to position yourself in a fighting stance.

“Let’s make this quick,” they quip and lift their head to blow out a mist into the sky.

You blink in confusion and lift your gaze. And just as you look up you smirk as you catch sharp icicles raining down.

Thus before they can hit you, you throw your hands up to shoot fire out and burn through the hard ice, making sparks fly out like fireworks at first contact before those icicles turn to water you pull down to form into an orb in between your palms.

“So it is true you are a pest,” they grimace and harden their scowl.

You hum in agreement and then break into a sprint towards them.

They don’t falter and mirror your actions.

Just as you’re going to meet halfway, you summon a gust of air to mix with the water and shape it into sharp needles before you blast it at their stomach, considering air and water don’t mix well and normally hurt when they’re both together and angry.

Yet they of course counter you perfectly and freeze the water before shaping it into a blade in their palm. And since you’re close to clashing against them you slide forward on your feet.

They quickly swing down when you’re close, but you meet their attack with your hands basked by flames, causing the ice to halt in your hands as it begins to melt instead of hurting you.

However, they are strong, and the ice they can make is a perfect counter to all four of your elements. Besides, it seems that they might be older than they look, so they’re wiser and stronger than meets the eye. Defeating them won’t be easy, even if you see their wounded hand falter and twitch.

“You know what, I like you,” you let them know. “You’re the first person I know with a technique similar to mine. It’s too bad we’re on opposing sides.”

They push you down harder, making your legs bend, but you continue trying to push their ice blade up.

“Do you usually talk so much?” They spat at you.

“Depends,” you say, and tilt your head while you pull back your fire-wrapped fist, making them ready to counter.

However, instead, you make a thin pillar of the ground blast out from beneath them and smash it over their torso, causing them to be thrown up a few feet in the sky.

Before they can counter you hastily gather the air around them, and then proceed to run a few paces ahead before you hop and flip in the air to whip the wind around their neck with a swing of your leg, and smash them on the ground.

When you swiftly land on your feet you move pieces of the earth around them to trap their body underground, and then use the air to boost yourself up the large pillar Choso impressively rose.

Once you make it above the surface you see Noritoshi has Choso’s arm twisted over his back, so without thinking you scowl at the sight, looking like a menacing shadow no one can see but you feel behind them. So before either man can see you when they look back, you blast towards Noritoshi and grab a fistful of his hair and the back of his neck.

He reacts with a groan and lets Choso go.

“My brother,” you sneer by his ear. “Give him back.”

Noritoshi snickers and twists one hand back. “I’ll have that curse back, thank you,” he interjects and suddenly you feel the weight around your shoulders lift off as the Worm-cursed spirit begins to float to Noritoshi’s hand.

However, he should’ve known better, Suguru said he did this too and just like then, the moment the Worm touches Noritoshi’s fingers, it ends up burning him and it bounces back to you.

“It doesn’t work like that,” you spat spitefully since he just tried to steal your Worm-cursed spirit.

“Tsk.”

You smirk smugly, and Choso sees that the Worm mimics your gesture as if you were one. You then snap your eyes towards Choso, and so does the Worm, but Choso only holds your fire-kissed eyes; which are filled with words not spoken, but speechless words he understood seconds before you shove your knee through Noritoshi’s back and slam him towards Choso.

And since he had read what you wanted to do, he throws Noritoshi a right hook and makes the man stumble.

You quickly try to overwhelm him, but Noritoshi snaps his head towards you and sends out multiple eel-like curses at you using a portal made in front of his feet, causing you to leave Choso alone to avoid the attack.

Which you only manage to avoid because you think fast and use slices of the earth to shuffle away.

The moment you’re at a safer distance, you pull down the moistness around you that's naked to the human eye and form the water into spears that you shoot through the open mouths of the curses.

When the water is inside you quickly begin to drown them from the inside before you make the water explode out of their flesh and exorcize them.

Yet now that you can focus on Noritoshi and Choso again, you see Choso throw punch after punch, but Noritoshi keeps dodging each swing with quite ease. He doesn’t let up one bit, and just as you try to help Choso, Noritoshi kicks his torso harshly, making you gasp as you hear the impact against his body.

“Don’t push yourself too hard,” Noritoshi tells Choso as he begins to fall down the pillar. “You’re exhausted, aren't you?”

“So what?” Choso spats, and you both jump after Noritoshi at the same time.

“Is that any reason not to risk my life for the younger brother right in front of me?” Choso adds loudly so his voice can be carried through the howling wind, making Noritoshi chuckle, while you smirk softly in admiration.

That is until Noritoshi snaps his attention to you. “I see you want to play Gojo.” He snickers. “I’ll play along. Remind me you like it rough don’t you?”

You scrunch your nose in disgust and spat back. “Don’t be a perv and poke around through his memories.”

“I say only what I see,” he counters and his response triggers you.

Who does he think is? Going through and seeing Suguru’s personal memories, talking to you like he knows you on a personal level as if he and Suguru are one now because he stole Suguru’s body.

Well he’s wrong, he’s not Suguru. He can never be him, and the way he talks to you is wrong.

He’s not him…

It’s why you tear three large pieces of the earth off the large pillar and hurl them at him out of rage.

Of course, Noritoshi misses the first two, but you manage to slam the third one at him and keep pushing him down. Before he can hit the ground, you tilt face down and boost yourself forward. When you reach the piece of debris you swing your fist and smash through the hard rock, breaking it into pieces and facing Noritoshi with your jaw clenched, your nose flared, and your lips curled to a furious scowl. He prepares to attack, but you beat him by a second and manage to grab his throat and slam him down on the ground, creating a small crater where he lands.

Right before he can counter you use water trapped underground and make it travel up. However, he hears the movement of the water rising, and just as the water violently blasts out of the ground he snaps his head to the side, missing being hit on the back of his head by mere seconds.

However, you’re relentless and rise up another blast of water, and he barely misses again.

“You’re starting to piss me off,” he grimaces and slaps his hand on your torso. “I didn’t want to kill you yet, but maybe then—“

Knowing what he can do with his technique from a close proximity like this, you don’t finish hearing what he has to say and quickly use the water you were just using to push away from him

When you’re close to Choso, you land on the ground and slide back.

Choso peers at you and you look at him, and from the corner of your eye, you see Noritoshi move, so you look back to where you left him, but he’s gone.

“What the,” you gasp and turn your head, and barely catch him above Choso with his fist raised.

“Choso!” You warn him and regardlessly blast him away using the air.

Noritoshi slams his fist on the ground but doesn’t get discouraged by his failure, instead, he follows by snapping his head towards you with a smirk.

You stand your ground and reach back to pull out a blade from the Worm’s mouth. Noritoshi gets close so you quickly bask your blade with fire and swing the moment Noritoshi swings, but he swerves you. Choso sneaks up behind him, and you see him try to reach over, but Noritoshi swerves and has Choso stumble towards you.

Before he can crash into you he balances back on his feet and you meet his intense gaze fueled with rage to share your thoughts with your gaze alone, hoping he understands even if you fear that he won’t.

Nevertheless, when you consume the flames on your blade to instead crack the ground with fire and aim it at Noritoshi with ease, Choso surprises you and lunges while Noritoshi is distracted, just like you wanted, and manages to hit his father with a sharp uppercut.

“Yes,” you whisper with pride and put the blade away to move your hand and counter with another attack using the elements.

However, before you can do a thing, suddenly hard and bitter ice grows around you and captures your entire body in place, leaving you only able to move your eyes, and see your failure to stop this sorcerer with the ice technique.

They captured everyone with their ice, Itadori, the students, Utahime, Kusakabe, and Choso.

Sure you can easily melt this way, but you still should’ve stopped them before. Damn.

Damn. Damn!

You exhale deeply and hear Choso complain near you too. “Tsk.”

“Don’t kill them,” Noritoshi tells his ally. “I need messengers.”

You slightly squint out of curiosity while you begin to use your fire through your arms to melt the ice into water.

“Is that any reason to leave them all alive?” The monk argues and lifts their wounded hand to show how they heal it.

“This ice isn’t enough!” Choso cuts in and puts his hand over the icy surface. “Flowing Red scale!”

Once again he surprises you by using his blood to melt the ice. Which, you never knew blood manipulators could do anything at the scale he does things. It’s so fascinating!

But regardless, as the ice around you now turns to a puddle because of your fire's intensity, the monk approaches you and points one ice-covered finger at you, and then another at Choso.

“Then how much is?” They threaten him and then look at you. “Let’s test it out on the both of you. Tell me when.”

The ice over their finger extends, but you grow flames out of the ground around Choso and you, to help him out of the ice and block their attempts.

Nevertheless, just as you get ready to blast them with fire, simultaneously, Itadori then runs through the fire at a speed you see almost as a flash, and kicks Choso out of the ice, leaving you baffled.

“Whose body do you think that is?!” The monk spats back, letting you fall back to where Itadori and Choso are to face the monk at a distance as you think of a clever way to immobilize them. Or kill them.

“You’re our ally, right?” Itadori asks Choso.

“No!” Choso shouts, making you twist your neck to side-eye him.

“Huh?” Itadori exclaims.

“I'm your older brother,” Choso reveals.

Itadori’s eyes narrow and his eyebrows furrow as he snaps back. “Could you please take this seriously?!”

You sigh in annoyance.

“Why don’t you try saying it once, for starters,” Choso rebuttals. “Call me, big brother.”

“Why don’t you both take this seriously,” you scold them as you keep your eyes on Noritoshi.

“I was just telling him the truth,” Choso argues.

“Are you working with him, Geto?” Itadori asks you now.

You nod. “He is your ally. I trust him,” you vouch for Choso without hesitation. “Talk later. Oh, and by the way do you know where Nanami is? It’s unlike him to miss this,” you change the subject and glance over at Itadori.

The shirtless boy meets your gaze and the annoyed scowl falls to a frown.

“What?” You press. “He doesn’t answer his phone.”

Itadori mutters your first name quietly, but that’s all he gets to do because you hear someone flying overhead. And when you look up you see some blond girl on a wooden broom, as if she’s some cartoon witch.

“Tool manipulation,” you hear her chant as she lands on the ground. “Wind Scythe!”

She blasts wind toward Noritoshi and the monk, but they quickly dismiss it. Which is predictable. They’re too strong, which means you need to fight with a lot more fiery.

You need to bring them out…

“Itadori!” The girl yells and catches your attention. “We’re the only ones who can move right now! We need to buy time for Utahime to finish her preparations!”

Preparations? What does that intake?

Whatever, you’ll help regardless.

“Supreme art,” you mutter under your breath and loosen your fists. “Hell—”

You cut yourself off as you see the monk bend down to press their palm on the ground, meaning only one thing; they’re going to use their ice. So you drop what you’re going to say and quickly bend down to mimic their actions, but instead, summon flames out of your palms whereas they bring out ice.

“Yuji Itadori, is the only messenger you need, right?!” They yell as a dangerous layer of ice begins to form out like a sheet at first before big icicles grow out and rapidly rush towards you.

You quickly counter by sending a hot wave of fire out to clash against their ice, causing the fire and the ice to sizzle and blast out thick steam.

Yet that doesn’t seem to be hot enough, the ice continues approaching at a slower pace now, but it comes, so you need to think bigger, and attack the source before they turn you into cute popsicles.

“Hm,” you hum and smirk down at the ground as your fire is suddenly being seeped by the ground, leaving Itadori confused.

“Y/n?!” He calls out as the ice intensifies.

You swing The Worm off your shoulders and place him on the ground to sway your hips as you slowly walk forward, and creep on a menacing smirk on your face as you look at the white-haired monk.

“I’m a special grade Yuji Itadori,” you respond and peer over your shoulder, letting him, the small blond student, and Choso see your red-orange colored eyes give off a spark as if the fire was alive in your eyes.

Itadori looks at you confused, just like the other student does, but Choso’s lips pull to a smirk and his eyes widen with awe you miss when you look ahead again.

“I’m fighting fire with fire,” you mumble and slowly put your hands out as you continue striding forward at a slow pace.

When your arms are spread out, a deafening silence settles for a second before suddenly the ground erupts as fire blasts out of the ground like an enormous geyser, burning away all the ice that spread on the ground, and the ice that was falling from the sky.

The fire captures you in the progress, but it only burns away the tight black uniform on your body, leaving light white linen wrapped around your breasts that travels over your shoulders to connect with the linen around your hips, and elegantly flows down over your lower body, leaving long slits over the front of both legs.

Which is practically inconvenient in any battle scenario, but you find this option helpful, you discovered that in your time with Yuki. This way you can move a lot more swiftly like water, and without restriction. The fire can move through your body with a lot more vigor, and lastly, you can feel the wind over your skin.

Like now.

You raise your arms that are spread out as you begin to gather up a large amount of wind behind you that howls like if caught in a loud raging storm, that collects dirt and thickens the gusts. When you have enough, you smirk at the enemy across from you, making Noritoshi slowly frown, and infuriating the monk even more. And without warning, you snap your arms forward and blast the wind out towards them to enrage the flames you rose and mix it together to shoot it over at them too.

You continue to stride forward, and slowly close your arms together as you keep collecting more wind that Itadori, the student, and Choso have to shield against and fight to stay grounded as it flies past them to unfurl over your skin as it flies past you and hits Noritoshi and the monk.

The only reason why neither of them get thrown back by the force of the wind is because of the monk's ice shield, but your fire begins to penetrate through, so you tap into your fire and blast it out of your hands before you once again seep it through the ground, and have it erupt out of the ground around Noritoshi and the monk.

However, when they feel a blast building up beneath their feet, Noritoshi uses a curse to get out of the way, leaving the monk to shield themselves with ice all alone and leaving them open to you.

Which is why you drop the air and the fire and run forward to close the gap left between the monk and you by smashing through the ice and grabbing them by the throat. You then proceed to slam them against the ground and skid them forward until they manage to grow curved icicles around their fingertips and swing them at you, making you push yourself off them and slide back on the ground.

When you face them again you collect wind over your palm and summon fire out. You get ready to swing it at them, but then out of nowhere, you’re suddenly falling through a large gap in the ground that just appears out of the blue, leaving you enclosed by the darkness that only grows darker the further you get, and making you scream out of fear.

However, you then blink and suddenly you're hundreds of feet above around.

“What the hell?” You hiss in confusion and look at your surroundings as you’re falling back to the surface that isn’t broken anymore. It’s all intact.

So was that some effect of a curse?

It has to be. To catch you off guard…

“Ice formation: Ice fall!” You suddenly hear before you see ice grow over the surface again, and form into tall and thick shards.

“No!” You bellow and tilt your body as you’re falling down to try and blast fire down to melt the ice.

Yet the monk notices you and throws something out at you that you don’t see move through the air until suddenly you feel something sharp and burning cold rip through your arm.

You cry out in pain and reach over to hold your wound, but you see that your arm is ripped off.

“Y/N!” You hear Choso cry out.

“Fuck,” you groan and begin to pant as it burns. “Fuck.”

But the pain nor the bleeding stump matter. It hurts like hell but it doesn’t matter, you’re still falling. You’re still fucking falling and getting close to the damn ground.

You prepare for impact and protect yourself from getting more injured.

However, before you can hit the ground, strong arms catch you, and the moment their feet touch the ground they slide back on their feet with you to move closer to the glistening ice you see from the corner of your eyes.

Before you can look up to see your savior they carefully set you down on your knees in front of them.

Is it Choso?

It doesn’t smell like him…

They actually smell like—it can’t be.

You snap your eyes up and immediately smile when you see Yuki.

“Master,” you mumble with relief.

Her brown eyes fall on you and she shoots you a wink before looking ahead again to address the person a few feet away from where you are.

“Long time no see, Geto,” she interjects. “Could I get your answer to my question from back then?” She asks and puts her leg back as she leans forward with a smug smile.

“What kind of woman is your type?” She asks and blows Noritoshi a kiss with her finger.

“It’s not him,” you whisper.

“Gathered,” she says back in a whisper. “Now heal your arm.”

You hum and roll your shoulder back to start regrowing your arm with RCT.

Which, you should thank your jealousy for. Without you trying to impress your parents and get a sliver of their attention, you wouldn't have learned to use it and you’d be dead right now. So thank your jealousy! Thank you!

If only it didn’t take so much out of you though. You won’t be able to fight properly for some time now thanks to you needing to heal.

You have weapons, but your energy isn't any good either, you’re running on fumes right now—but even still you need to try and help.

There’s people trapped in the ice, students, and Choso. You need to help them…

“Do you remember,” Yuki interjects. “The ways to rid cursed spirits from our world?”

As she talks to Noritoshi and your arm heals you begin to drag yourself back towards the ice wall.

“Regardless of which method is pursued,” she continues. “It means advancing humanity to the next stage. Humanity’s next stage is freeing itself from cursed energy.”

Why can’t you have Satoru’s healing speed? He heals so fast whilst you take longer to heal, it’s so annoying! Especially in times like now! Damn…

But you’re almost done, and then you can help the others out of the ice.

“No,” Noritoshi argues. “It’s optimizing cursed energy.”

You stop moving and look over at Noritoshi with slight confusion. Yuki looks back, but since she’s peering over at Itadori you don’t see her reaction, you do however see her shrug, so you know she’s not necessarily completely serious.

So that means she’s got a plan.

“Uh,” you hear Itadori comment. “I don’t get it, either.”

“I thought you already gave on your plan twelve years ago when Toji Zen’in died,” Noritoshi adds, whilst you close that gap between the ice and you and finally finish healing your damn arm, which…yay, you have your arm, but…BUT!!

Your cute manicure didn’t fucking regrow! That’s money down the drain—well, not your money, Satoru paid for you to get your nails done, but still! Now you look lopsided with one hand well done and the other just simple looking. Tsk.

“I was talking to Geto, you know,” Yuki finally reveals to him that she knows he’s not Suguru. “Well, whatever. I went back to my original idea. Besides, there’s a big hole in your optimization plan. Extremely few sorcerers and cursed spirits emerge in other countries compared to Japan. So Tengen’s barriers should be indispensable to your optimization plan.”

You glance over at Noritoshi and see him slightly narrow his eyes on Yuki as he hears her out.

“Using Tengen to optimize cursed energy would mean only the humans of this nation would become sorcerers. Japan would practically have a monopoly on cursed energy. Other nations, especially that superpower, wouldn’t stand by and allow that. Flesh-and-blood humans would become an energy source. It’s easy enough to imagine what misfortune that would bring.”

Destruction, chaos, blood, and death…right?

Getting rid of non-sorcerers would be…well…

What would it mean to you?

Great…it’d be great…

Yet at the cost of what he wants? No.

“That’s a world far removed from the ideals I pursue,” Yuki finishes making herself clear, while you place your hand on the ice and use a little bit of cursed energy to summon flames to your palm and spread the fire out, like flames following a fuel line, and carefully melt the ice around the blond student with the long and stiff ponytails.

“So what?” Noritoshi rebuttals. “For one thing, our objectives are different. I don’t desire a world without cursed spirits or any sort of idyllic peace. Non-sorcerers, sorcerers, cursed spirits…those are all possibilities for the shape of cursed energy that is mankind.”

Hm…

You glance at Noritoshi and slowly narrow your gaze as he catches your attention.

“Though,” you hear him add a bit quieter. “That shouldn’t be anywhere near the full extent. I tried to give rise to other possibilities for mankind on my own…but that didn’t work out,” he shares and you get what he means…Choso.

So that’s why he left him and his brothers? Because they were his failures?

He made them just to leave them, all because he didn’t like how they turned out. All their suffering, all their loneliness means nothing to him. He’s no parent, he’s a selfish monster.

“Everything that I created myself,” he continues as cursed energy begins to rise out of his palm and flow up at an incredible amount, “was limited by the bounds of my own potential. The answer was always glimmering darkly within chaos. Do you understand?”

Hardly…but he won’t stop talking will he?

Whatever, it gives you time.

Now that you freed the student you make sure she’s fine.

She catches your gaze and offers you a thankful nod, causing you to offer her a sweet smile before you gently push yourself up, ignoring the ache on your arm, and walking over to Choso since he’s the only one you can reach. The others will have to wait.

“What I should have created was chaos that went beyond my own control,” Noritoshi says. “I’ve already finished extracting the technique.”

You come to stop by Choso and look at Noritoshi with surprise.

“There was a cursed spirit called Mahito, right?!” Yuki asks over her shoulder. “The one with the technique that let it interfere with souls?!”

“That guy absorbed it earlier,” Itadori informs her.

“Seriously?!” She exclaims and then snaps her eyes to you. “And where were you?”

You point at your chest with slight shock and quickly respond. “Me? I was getting my throat stabbed and my neck snapped,” you snap back annoyed. “Oh, and I was getting tortured by curses from my past. If you had answered your phone you would have known! Did you even see it?”

Yuki shrugs as if it’s not a big deal. “I got your message and I’m here now aren’t I?”

You slap your hand on the ice trapping Choso, and scowl at Yuki as you melt the ice. “Great,” you answer sarcastically.

“I’ll say. You know what this all reminds me of?”

“Egypt,” you both answer at the same time and share a smile.

Yuki winks at you and nods in agreement before turning away, letting you face Choso, and see that he’s studying you in your light and exposing gown. Which makes your face burn, and makes you feel a soft fluttering in your stomach.

“Your arm,” he immediately points out but glances at the scar across your torso before he finally looks at your arm. He wasn’t looking at your arm before. “It’s healed.”

You glance down at your arm regardless and move your fingers. “Yeah,” you let him know the obvious. “I’m all good. I can’t say I’m in any state to fight anymore though, so, if anything happens will you have my back?”

Choso slowly drags his eyes up, and you mirror his gesture and finally lock eyes when he lands on your face.

“Of course,” he doesn’t hesitate to immediately assure you, making you smile at him and feel relief.

“You,” he interjects and digs in his pocket to pull something out. “Will be needing him back either way.”

Choso opens his palm and when you look down you see The Worm unfurling himself now that he senses you.

“Oh!” You exclaim gleefully. “You kept him safe! I was wondering where he had crawled off to. Thank you!”

“Mommy!” The worm yells out in a broken voice.

You grin at it and take it from Choso to wrap it around you, making it snuggle tightly around you.

And now that you have that resolved, and helped Choso out, you shift your feet to turn.

Yet before you can look over, a large glowing purple symbol rises in the sky and castes over your heads, stealing your attention and completely casting away the fluttering in your stomach to drop an eerie feeling in the pit of your stomach.

“You have my thanks, Yuji Itadori,” Noritoshi interjects. “A cursed spirit’s mastery of their technique ceases to progress from the moment they’re absorbed by the Cursed Spirit Manipulation. Mahito truly matured through his fight with you. To be honest, I wanted to have Jogo, as well, but no matter.”

“What did you do?” You snap at Noritoshi and drop your gaze to glare at him.

“I remote activated Idle Transfiguration on two types of non-sorcerers that I marked ahead of time,” he answers without any hesitation, which should worry you.

Who goes around spilling their master plan?

“One type was people whom I had absorb cursed objects like Yuji Itadori did,” he continues to say. “And the other was people like Junpei Yashino who have cursed techniques, but whose brains were structured like non-sorcerers. Now I’ve adjusted their brains to match those of sorcerers. For the former, I gave them the strength to be vessels, and the latter have obtained the ability to activate their techniques.”

Why? What for?

“And now…” he trails off and pulls on a seal. “…I’ve released the seal on those cursed objects. Some of them have been in deep sleep after being exposed to my cursed energy when I marked them, but they’ll soon awaken. So, starting now, I’ll have them kill each other in order to deepen their understanding of cursed energy.”

What the hell! What’s wrong with him?

“I’ve carefully hand-picked these people and cursed objects,” he keeps on going, which you’re grateful for. Otherwise, you’d be left confused. “Think of it as unleashing a thousand malevolent Yuji Itadori’s.”

“A thousand?” You ask in disbelief.

“That’s conservative,” Yuki continues. “You’re also underestimating human rationality. Do you think people will start killing each other just because they were granted power?”

“There’s an order to everything,” he says, “I certainly didn’t cut corners like that when making my preparations. Your questions are starting to become shallow.”

You scoff, and Yuki looks back and points at Noritoshi.

“He’s pissing me off, so let’s all beat him up together!”

You have little energy, but you can pull off something big; maybe your domain expansion, or your supreme art.

“I can’t move right now, though,” Itadori says and as soon as he does the ice suddenly turns to water and begins to fall like rain.

However, you manipulate the water and collect it over your head to swiftly and elegantly move it around Choso and you keep it on standby, whilst you watch the person who had created this fall to their knees.

“What’s the matter, Uraume?” You manage to hear Noritoshi ask.

“Poison?!” They struggle to say.

“My blood got mixed with yours through Piercing Blood,” Choso’s voice startles you. “Of course it is,” he spats.

You steal a glance at him and the corner of your lips lifts to a smirk before you look back at the person Noritoshi called Uraume, with a prideful smirk.

“Wait,” the blond student cuts in. “We’re not getting cover from Mai. They might still have more allies over there.”

“My ally is protecting Aoi, the girl with the gun, and that suit. They don’t belong here.” Yuki lets the student know.

“Wait,” you probe with concern at what you heard just now. “Aoi? What happened to Aoi?” You step forward. “Is he okay?”

Itadori looks back at you and answers for Yuki. “He will be. He got hurt, but he’ll live.”

You blink in confusion.

Ever since you’ve known Todo, he’s hardly someone who’s ever needed much help, he accepts it, and he can be a good team player with people he likes, but he’s not one who's ever needed help. He’s strong. He’s smart too, and for him to need help means he’s badly hurt.

You should have gotten here before, damn it!

“We were in the middle of our talk,” Noritoshi interrupts and actually sounds annoyed that he can’t keep yapping his evil monologue. “The cursed objects that I distributed are what’s left of the sorcerers I’ve been secretly making pacts with for a thousand years. Of course, I forged my pacts with more than just sorcerers, though my pacts with those were annulled when I obtained this body.”

“You don’t mean—”

“This is the world of the future,” Noritoshi cuts Yuki off and begins to look pleased, but in such a menacing way.

And only seconds later you know why. He opens a large portal and has dozens of curses come out of it, making Choso step forward and put his arms out to block Itadori and you.

The dark portal spreads and you reach back to take out a blade, while you also drag the same water you had kept floating around, and hover it over your palm.

Choso gets closer regardless of what you’re doing, to do more than what you asked of him earlier, and continues to secure you, and Itadori behind him.

“See you later, Yuji Itadori,” Noritoshi interjects smugly as he shows off the box Satoru is trapped in.

“Gojo!” Itadori yells and breaks away from Choso to lunge forward and desperately reach for something that can’t be retrieved anymore.

“I have high expectations for you,” Noritoshi adds as he begins to disappear through the shadows of his portals—of Suguru’s cursed technique.

That’s Suguru’s technique he’s using. That’s his body, his face. That’s his face and body that you see leaving in ways he’d never leave you.

“Suguru Geto!” You cry out desperately in hopes you can reach a fragment of his soul so he can fight back, so he can at least help enough to clear a path, and so he can come back.

Noritoshi freezes and slowly begins to peer back. You don’t move and stay behind Choso to grab onto his arm still guarding you from danger, and just start hoping, even if you make no attempt to go forward you start hoping.

“Suguru Geto is dead,” Noritoshi announces what you knew, but hoped was somehow not true. “It’s just me now.”

Tears fill your eyes, but instead of feeling sad over what you heard, you feel a burning rage that makes you want to use what energy you have and fight against him.

Yet before you can even attempt to act on that fury directed at the wicked man using Suguru’s body, Noritoshi disappears within the shadows, leaving the curses to spread out to the darkened city like wildfire.

——

*LATER*

“Kento please answer your phone, Shoko says that the last time Fushiguro saw you, you were okay, but if you’re in trouble call me, text me, or yell, I don’t know, just let me know you’re fine or I will go out and search for you myself,” you leave what feels like the hundredth voicemail because just like every other time he doesn’t answer his damn phone.

Maybe his phone is dead?

“Sorry,” you direct at Choso as you finally put your phone away. “I hope my incessant phone calling hasn’t annoyed you. I’m done now.”

Choso shakes his head stiffly. “It’s fine. It doesn’t bother me.”

You hum in comprehension and slide your eyes over to him with a worried look. “Are you doing okay? I haven’t asked.”

Choso’s eyes dart to you but when he meets your gaze he looks away as he shakes his head. “Don’t worry about me.”

You roll your eyes. “You’re my friend,” you counter. “I’ll worry if I want to. So answer me, and don’t give me that nonchalant crap. No one is here, it’s just us you can tell me.”

Choso slowly slides his eyes back to you and lets the silence linger as he holds your gaze for a moment before he answers. “I’m fine. I’ve been healing, but they’re all minor injuries I got from fighting Itadori and you. Which, you lied, by the way, you held back, your fight with Uraume proved it.”

You scoff softly and let a smirk tug on your lips. “Yeah well, I told you I didn’t want to kill you. My fight wasn’t with you, but you were in Satoru’s way, so I had to help him,” you tell him as you mindlessly start fiddling with your fingernails. “And by the way, I still didn’t even show off my full potential with the monk. There were too many people in the way to do that.”

“Well,” he says. “Perhaps I’ll see what you promised soon enough.”

Your face burns and you can’t help but share a faint and bashful smile. “Well now that we’re not on opposite sides, I’ll be happy to show off.”

Choso hums in comprehension and keeps his eyes on you as you look at your path ahead to look out for Itadori whom you lost in the chaos Noritoshi left to escape.

“Are you okay? Are your wounds healing? You should've gone to your doctor friend,” he interjects almost in a scolding voice, as if your stubbornness to see Shoko annoyed him.

“I'm fine,” you assure him with a faint laugh. “I used RCT, I’m healing, all I need now is a good meal and a good night's rest.”

Choso hums and doesn’t seem convinced, but he leaves it, letting you turn to grab his arm, and causing his eyes to snap down to your touch before he meets your gaze.

“Thank you for earlier,” you tell him softly and slowly come to a stop together. “You put your own life at risk to look out for me when you could’ve gone after your brother. You stayed behind for me. Thank you Choso.”

Said man draws in a deep breath and steals a quick glance down at your hand still around his arm before responding softly. “I’m in your debt, this was a simple repayment of that.”

You furrow your eyebrows in confusion and part your lips to press on that. “What do you mean? I haven’t done anything. You’ve saved me more than once, for example when I woke up, with that curse outside the station, and against all those curses just a few minutes ago. I owe you.”

“No you don’t,” he argues without any defense to back him up.

“Oh shut up,” you cut him off and let his arm go. “Please take my gratitude,” you scold him, making his face twist with confusion. “It’s the polite thing to do. Acknowledge what I’m saying. Thank you, Choso.”

Choso exhales and hesitates before he retorts. “You’re welcome.”

You offer him a tired but genuine smile before you flash him a grin. “You know,” you add. “For someone who says they’re not human, you surely do have a heart ten times bigger than a lot of others I know.”

Choso’s cheeks immediately grow a tint of red, and you hear his breath just slightly hitch, making you insanely proud and yet also deeply flustered that your words could make this nonchalant man express so much.

Is that why you also linger there before him, just looking into his sun-kissed eyes? Because you’re flustered by how you make him feel? Or is it because it’s easy to get lost in his eyes?

Both?

Even so, you can’t stay here forever even if it feels like the right thing to do. You still need to find Itadori.

“Come on,” you break the silence and blink to tear your eyes away. “We’re reaching an exit here just around this corridor. Maybe Itadori is outside.”

Choso hums and you both continue walking—“he’s near,” he cuts in. “I feel it.”

You groan out of exhaustion. “Great! My feet are starting to kill me.”

Plus you just want to lay down and…cry. Now that it’s quiet all you can think about is what you lost and the fact that when you go home you’ll be going without the twins.

“Just around here,” Choso announces and picks up his pace to do a little jog to round the corner that leads to a staircase.

You don’t rush albeit since you don’t hear any danger, or sense any curses.

Plus, you’re immediately assured about Choso’s finding when he speaks up. “Yuji, how are your injuries?”

You hold your breath and regardless of your comfort, you still worry because he might sound like he’s in pain.

“I’m good somehow,” you hear Itadori’s voice travel around the corner, and it sounds fine. But emotionally, you can sense his agony—“despite being hit by a black flash.”

You finally reach the stairs and you see Itadori sitting down in the middle of the last flight of stairs with his back hunched, and his head down. Oh, and it seems he found new clothes to replace his torn ones and exposed upper half.

“I think it’s because of Sukuna,” Itadori adds. “I can tell that his strength is growing.”

“Yuji,” Choso adds as he comes to a stop a few steps above Itadori. “Don’t worry about me. You can return to Jujutsu High. I have to collect the remains of Shoso and the others anyway.”

Instead of stopping behind Itadori, you continue to walk down.

“I’m not worried about you,” Itadori rebuttals honestly. “The problem isn’t whether I want to return or not. Sukuna is plotting something involving Fushiguro.”

You slow down and listen more intently now.

“Besides,” he continues. “I killed too many people. I can no longer stay with everyone.”

You reach the floor and turn to watch the boy with pity.

“Are you fine with it?” Choso asks.

“I also killed your little brothers,” Itadori brings up, but without hesitation Choso tries to assure Itadori.

“It’s fine. That was a misunderstanding. If Eso and Kechizu were in my place they would say the same thing.”

You look at Choso with a soft look because of his kind words.

“It isn’t about forgiving or not forgiving,” he says. “Brothers are just like that.”

Your face falls and you drop your head to look at the ground and think back to your brother and the night you told him you’d try to forgive him.

You’ve tried so hard to just forgive him, but it’s never that simple. And now he’s gone…

“Let’s go...”

…and even then you find it hard to just forgive him because you think back to what happened when he left and it hurts all over again.

“Y/N?”

You snap your head up and notice Itadori is off the stairs now too, and behind you. “Yes?” You probe.

“I said we should go and take care of the curses—”

“No,” you deadpan. “We won’t do that—”

“But—”

“Regardless of how fast you’ve healed,” you cut him off again and narrow your gaze to a pointed look to make yourself clearer to him. “Regardless of how much willpower you have, we are in no state to go curse hunting at this moment. I have a place nearby that should be backup generated, we’ll be staying there. Patch face and the disaster curses my brother told me to protect you from may be dead, but now your death sentence is up once again because of Satoru being sealed away. They’re going to send someone after you, someone strong. And just to be sure, they will send bounty hunters.”

Itadori nods. “I know that, but I can fight. Or let them kill me.”

You shake your head and argue. “No, you will not,” you sneer. “I made my brother a promise, I will keep it. Which means I’m still looking out for you. And I say we can save the curse hunting for later. No matter how many people they send, they’ll still be plenty enough for tomorrow, and the next day. We’re going to rest, understand?”

It’s not actually a question, but he still answers anyway. “Yeah.”

“Aren't you going home?” Choso interjects.

You look over at him and watch him descend the stairs. “No,” you let him know. “Now that Satoru is gone, my family will come after me to try and kill me. And the higher-ups will send someone to complete the death sentence my brother never executed. I won’t put my people at risk by being there. I'll stay hidden with you two.” You sigh deeply and continue softer. “And in regards to your brothers…with everything that happened the school will be filled with more people than usual. We have to wait to go there. I’m sorry.”

Choso swallows thickly and drops his eyes, but he doesn’t argue, he answers stiffly. “All right.”

You hum with pity and keep your eyes on him for a second before you point your head at the exit. “Come on. I’ll lead the way.” You turn, and just as you take a step forward, Itadori interjects.

“Y/N?”

You come to stop and peer back. “Hm?” You probe curiously and see him watching his hands before he fists them and lets out a shaky breath.

“I’m sorry about your daughters. It was my fault…”

Your curiosity falls and sorrow and confusion slowly take over.

“They’re dead because of me,” Itadori shares in a shaky voice.

“Yuji,” Choso tries to stop him, but Itadori continues.

“I lost control of Sukuna, and I killed them because of it. I’m sorry, I don’t deserve you to look out for me, I don’t deserve your kindness, just leave me behind and don’t worry about me.”

You knew he would never be capable of killing Nanako and Mimiko, but when he started to confess you feared the worst and doubted him because of the agony you’re under. But now that you manage to understand what he said, you know that nothing you say will ever let him change the way he thinks.

The guilt he holds should not burden him, he shouldn’t have to bring himself down because of something he didn’t do nor had no control over.

You wish you could make him understand that, but you know that there’s nothing you can say that will make him understand. All you can offer is your kindness and reassurance in hopes it eases his grieving heart.

“Yuji Itadori,” you whisper and get closer to him to grab his arm.

Itadori lifts his eyes the moment he feels your touch, and looks at you confused.

“My girl's deaths are not your guilt to carry. Just like the destruction that happened, and all those deaths you mentioned are not your fault either.” You say so he can at least hear. If he doesn’t want to accept it, he can at least hear the truth. “I know it doesn’t feel like that because it was your body Sukuna was using, but it was not you, not your soul, nor your will. I don’t blame you and I never will. And I know that,” your voice trembles. “Nanako…” you swallow thickly as you struggle to say their names. “And Mimiko would feel the same way. So don’t apologize.”

Itadori drops his head and lets out a deep breath without adding anything to the matter. So you give his shoulder a soft and comforting squeeze. You’d hug him because it looks like he needs a good hug, but you don’t want him to feel uncomfortable, so you just squeeze his shoulder and part away.

“Now,” you sigh and lift your eyes, catching Choso’s gaze that had been watching you interact with his brother the entire time—“Let’s go. We could all use a good warm meal, a nice shower, and a good rest.”

“Wait,” Itadori cuts in again.

“Itadori it’s okay,” you assume it’s about the same thing.

“You asked about Nanami before,” he blurts, making your hopes rise.

However, as Itadori lifts his head, he looks at you with his eyes glossy with tears, and with his lips trembling and dropped to a sorrowful frown, making your heart sink, and the realization of what he was saying in his silence slowly hit you.

It explains why he wouldn’t answer, why he didn’t just send at least a short message to assure your worry or stop your incessant calling.

Yet you can’t accept what he’s not saying and what your heart is grasping.

“No,” you deny him as if it was a choice you could take.

Tears roll down his cheeks, and you feel your inkling of hope shatter.

“I’m sorry,” he continues. “When I found him it was too late, Mahito had had a hold of him and…killed him. I’m sorry.”

You slowly lift your hand to clench onto your burning chest as it feels tight and heavy as if the news had stolen your ability to breathe.

“Y/N?” Choso calls out with his voice filled with concern. Yet through all the noise in your head, you don’t actually take in his voice.

All that runs through your mind is how; how could he—how could Nanami have died? He was strong, he was smart and skillful. If anything you always thought he’d outlive you. How could he have died?

It can’t be true. You can’t accept your best friend's death. You can’t accept that another one of your best friends died and that you lost someone else on this fucking horrible day! You can’t accept it.

“Where?” You ask Itadori in a quivering voice.

“What?” He probes.

You draw in a sharp breath and your chest hurts. “W-where?” You breathe out. “Where was he last? Kento? Itadori, where?”

Itadori tells you and you quickly and sharply turn on your heels to storm in the direction he gave you.

Itadori and Choso followed after you, but neither of them try to stop you. They just try to keep up with you, basically running over to where Itadori told you Nanami was.

And yet no matter how hard they try, they still get left behind as you manage to get ahead. The only time you slow down is when you reach the floor Itadori pointed you to because you begin to hopelessly hope that he’s somehow wrong. You desperately hope that it’s some stupid joke.

Alas, when you enter the hall Itadori mentioned, you come to an immediate halt and feel your body stiffen, and those already short breaths feel as if they completely stops the moment your eyes land on…him; the lower half of his body recognizable by the tan dress pants he wore as his uniform.

In truth it could be anyone, you desperately want to believe it’s someone else, but this is where Itadori said he’d be. The hall is all battered by a battle as well. And the floor around the body is stained with thick blood, proving to you with each fact that what you see isn’t some trick or a stranger, it’s him.

Plus, no one else carries a cleave wrapped with a printed cloth around the blade, only he does.

And that hand, that single hand still wrapped around the handle; that pale and big hand further proves Itadori right.

This body you see is Kento Nanami, this is your best friend, and he’s…dead.

“Kento?” You still call out quietly and desperately regardless of what your heart and mind are forced to accept. “Nanamin?”

There’s no answer, you didn’t expect an answer, but you still wanted one even if you just saw the lower half of his body.

“Ken,” you whisper hoarsely and slowly walk to what remains of him. “Not you too. Please not you too,” you mumble. “Nanamin?”

When you reach his body you stare blankly at his legs and it begins to feel as if you’re being dragged down into a darker abyss by a stronger grip of grief.

First the twins, now Nanami too. Your daughters and your best friend. And what’s worse is that you couldn’t save either of them, you only found what was left of them; corpses.

You’re strong, yet you keep losing and failing those you love. They keep dying and you’re never there, you can never try to help. or at least say goodbye.

They’re gone and all you’re left with are pieces of them, memories, and agonizing pain that leaves you unable to breathe. You can process the truth before you but you have to clutch onto your chest as it burns with the inability to breathe.

You try to draw in breaths, but it feels like all the pain you feel heightens within you, squeezing your throat close, leaving you weak, and causing you to fall on your knees by what’s left of Nanami.

You don’t know how you’re still conscious but you still are, you can still see him, and you can still feel your agony sinking you further down into darkness and away from that light you had found after Suguru’s death. You had barely held on when you found the twins, you didn’t want to lose yourself, and there was a pull, a source that didn’t let that light flicker off, but now it’s all gone.

Now with Nanami gone, it all crumbles because he was your best friend, he was someone who gave you a second chance when you thought you had none. He was someone who was always there when you needed it, he never judged you on anything you did, and he never hated you for leaving everything and everyone with just a simple text. He loved you unconditionally and never asked for anything in return.

He was your best friend, someone you fought alongside with, someone you grieved the loss of Haibara with, someone who you went to when you felt hopeless or scared, and now he’s gone. Your best friend…your loyal and greatest friend is gone. Forever…

They're all gone…

Haibara, Suguru, Nanako, Mimiko, and Nanami are all gone…

And it’s just now as you keep repeating that in your head over and over again that your entire being is slammed with a wave of crueler pain of realization, and it feels like you can breathe again.

But maybe that’s because you begin to weep over Nanami’s body.

Everything around you disappears, and the sight of Itadori and Choso finally catching up drowns out, leaving only Nanami and you in this hall.

“I’m sorry,” you mewl as you try to reach for some part of him, but end up empty-handed as there’s nothing for him to grab. “I’m sorry.”

You hug yourself tightly and begin to rock back and forth as you continue to sob over your friend's corpse.

“Please,” you plead but don’t ask out loud for forgiveness or for him to not leave you alone; he’s gone you know, but you still plead for that in your head again and again for who knows how long.

Neither Choso nor Itadori try to get you up. There’s a looming threat everywhere now that curses are reigning over the city, but they don’t try to cut your grieving short, they let your sobs fill the room, and leave the chill of solitude continue to embrace you.

Neither of them knew you craved to be held, or comforted, neither of them knew how much you wanted someone to take you away from there, or simply hold your hand as you grieved for Nanami and the daughters you lost on what’s supposed to be a good day; your birthday. Itadori—no, Choso mostly just watched you, while Itadori began to quietly get lost in his own sorrow himself.

There does come a moment, a sudden feeling in Choso that makes him want to approach you. His hand twitches your way, and he moves his leg to walk over, but then he stops when he hears multiple approaching footsteps. One even sounds like they don’t have shoes on, so he grows cautious and gets ready in case it’s a threat.

Nevertheless, what enters the hall is no threat.

Not like you register any of it either way, your eyes stay glued to the corpse in front of you until you feel a hand grab your shoulder.

You look back immediately and gasp with relief when you see Larue.

“Larue?” You whisper and push yourself up to your feet.

Said man looks at you with pity and you don’t wait a single moment to throw your arms around him.

“I’m here now y/n,” he says as he presses you against him.

You hold onto him and cry harder into his bare shoulder.

“Tsukumo is here too,” he shares, making you open your eyes to see the woman he mentioned.

“I couldn’t leave without making sure you were okay,” she says softly, which is a tone she rarely uses.

You part your lips but you don’t actually respond, you can’t find the energy at the moment so you just nod in comprehension before you hide your face again on Larue’s shoulder.

“Who is that?” You hear Itadori ask.

“Larue, her family,” Yuki answers his curiosity.

“A Gojo?”

“No,” she quickly corrects him. “Family she's made along the way.”

“Oh.”

“Why don’t we go home, y/n?” Larue suggests as he rubs your back. “You need rest.”

You pull away from his embrace and face him with even deeper sorrow. “Nanako…and Mimiko,” you break the news before you can protest. “They’re…they’re gone too. Larue…Sukuna…he…he,” you gasp for air and drop your head as you can’t muster to finish the sentence.

“Oh,” Larue gasps. “Oh.”

You lift your watery gaze and see his face show his heartache instead of the pity he feels for you.

“I’m sorry,” you murmur and hold your hands together. “I'm sorry.”

Tears fill Larue's eyes but he still shakes his head and corrects you. “It’s not your fault and they wouldn't want you to blame yourself either. You know that. It’s not your fault,” he repeats harsherly so you’d understand.

“How can I go home and tell Satori?” You ask desperately. “It’s…It’s my fault they’re not going home. I should've turned them away when I ran into them.”

Larue grabs your jaw and leans in closer. “They would’ve stayed either way. It’s not your fault. I’m sure they tried to fight, you taught them too. Don’t blame yourself y/n, don’t do that to yourself.”

You swallow thickly and you still don’t feel convinced but you don’t argue.

“And Suguru,” you mention and fiddle with your fingernails. “I should’ve taken his body home to cremate him, now…some bastard is using his body. Did Yuki tell you that?” You ask and look at him. “Did she say it was not him that did all this? It was someone else.”

Larue drops his hand from your face and exhales deeply as he nods. “Yes, I know.”

You lick your lips and bring up something that comes to mind. “Manami and Toshihisa must not know though, that’s why they work for him. That’s why they betray us. We have to help them.”

Larue clenches his jaw and his eyes fall to hide his emotions, letting you figure out by that simple action that you’re wrong.

“They…knew?” You ask with disbelief.

Larue nods stiffly and you begin to realize something…how does he know that they knew that truth if Noritoshi barely dropped his farce? If he barely showed himself to the Jujutsu society?

He just revealed who he really was in that fight moments ago, so Larue knows about Manami and Toshihisa because…

“You…knew?” You ask and hope you’re wrong.

Larue drops his head and clenches his jaw harder, letting you know with his silence that you’re unfortunately right.

“You,” you gasp and step back in disbelief. “You knew?”

Larue slowly lifts his eyes and swallows back thickly. “We didn’t want you to suffer more than you already were. And the twins...they wanted to get Suguru back first before they told you.”

You’re slammed with a pang of pain that hurts your heart even more.

Yet no matter how hurt you are there’s nothing you can do about the twins knowing and hiding that from you. They’re gone, but Larue isn’t. And Miguel…

“Did Miguel know?” You ask with a mix of anger and betrayal.

“He did,” Larue confesses.

There’s a deeper and sharper pang in your heart now.

“You had just lost Suguru, we didn’t want to tell you yet,” Larue adds as if that made anything better, but it only works to add to the betrayal because if you had known you could’ve told Satoru, and he wouldn’t be sealed away. You could’ve stopped Noritoshi together before he caused such chaos in Shibuya. The deaths of Nanako, Mimiko, and Nanami could've been avoided if you had known.

Everything could’ve changed if you had known, but no, they chose to hide it, now your brother is gone, and Noritoshi is out there preparing to cause more disaster.

Nevertheless, you don’t tell him all that, you simply look at Larue with your eyes glossy, and express the betrayal, the fury, and the hurt you feel with your eyes alone. You can’t muster a word and he hates it because your silence hurts a lot more.

“Y/n,” Larue tries to make himself clear, but you push past him and walk to Yuki to speak to her.

“Satori and Belinda are leaving the country tomorrow morning, can you discreetly follow them and just make sure their plane departs without any trouble?” You ask her. “I don’t want to risk having the wrong people see me with them. And I can’t have Satori here with Noritoshi in her father's body. So if it’s not much trouble could you please do that?”

“Y/N,” Larue interjects. “I can go with them. And Miguel can catch up with us.”

You ignore him and narrow your gaze on Yuki. “Yuki?” you probe.

Said woman glances behind you but quickly looks back at you and nods. “Of course, just let me know the rest of the information later.”

You nod. “I’ll text you, and you call me if somethings wrong, please.”

Yuki assures you with a nod, letting you offer her a gentle smile before you look at Itadori and Choso. “Are you two ready to go?”

Choso and Itadori nod, so you move away.

However, Yuki interjects before you can get any further. “Where are you going? What are you going to do?”

You look over your shoulder and part your lips to answer with a sly smirk.

A/N- Mc: *does nothing.* Choso: “😳😍”

Tagged- @deniseabad1928 @secondary-character-25 @starlightanyaaa @notsaelty @d4rno @moonnime @kodzukein @yozora7154 @heijihattorisgf @elegantweirdorchest

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