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The mission brief was simple, a first grade curse with some kind of variable teleportation technique. The three of them had volunteered to hunt it down simply due to the fact that they were used to having a target warp around the battlefield. They were the New Sorcerers’ Grand Triad, the last to be personally trained by the Limitless Six Eyes, the Sealed Strongest.
Maki and Panda were in Hokkaido dealing with stragglers from the culling games, and Toge and Yuuta were chasing down a lead in Hawai’i, looking for a way to finally break the walls of the Prison Realm. Until then, the damned Cube that held their teacher, their brother , would remain in the possession of the Grand Triad. Not even the remnants of the Elder Council had been able to argue against the remaining majority of shamans that made up Japan’s New Sorcerers’ Association.
Regardless, Yuuji, Nobara, and Megumi had a job to do, and they would be taking the Cube with them.
The car sat in relative silence as Owata, the Triad’s ninth assigned manager, clicked the turn signal.
Nobara adjusted her eyepatch, medical patch being replaced by thick black leather, embroidered roses crawling over her face, being stayed by a metal buckle. Her clawhammer at her belt next to her nails, and cursed sledge hammer rested easily between her knees. Her pale blue nail polish was already chipping away. Chained to her belt was the Cube, blue eyes glancing around curiously as her teacher observed their surroundings.
Next to her, Megumi is sifting his hands through his shadow, taking stock of the various cursed weapons in his current arsenal, checking medical and emergency supplies, counting under his breath the amount of days they could stay out with their present stock. His hair was kept back in a low ponytail, Tsumiki’s braided hair bracelet a constant presence no matter what he was wearing.
Yuuji, on Nobara’s other side, is braiding his pink hair, grown long but keeping the undercut. He refused to cut it after Nanami’s death and only conceded to the undercut when Nobara came back. It was something they did together now, their thing. He’d forgone the patch on his left cheek, the one that usually kept his teeth from showing in “polite” company. His prosthetic finger glove rested almost innocently on his lap.
The elders might try to insist that three special grade sorcerers for one first grade curse was unnecessary, but new regulations pushed forward by Utahime, Shoko, and the rest of the survivors of Shibuya and Shinjuku meant that all shamans, regardless of grade, would always have one or more partners on scene. It was honestly a wonder that something like that wasn’t implemented after Geto Suguru defected, but it was well known that the elders were both extremely incompetent and completely negligent.
They pulled up to the lot, once an office building, that had since been demolished to make room for an apartment complex. The project was put on hold after several deceased remains were found and prompted an investigation.
With a nod to Owata, the three shamans tumbled out of the car, one after the other, and readied their weapons of choice.
Something was deeply wrong. Suguru had actually tried to make an effort today, desperately pushing back the stupid exhaustion that didn’t have a reason to even exist in the first place, to actually meet Haibara, Nanami, Shoko, and Satoru out at one of the training fields. Everything was going fine, until it wasn’t. Satoru was being his normal annoyingly charming self, even while actively being ‘hunted’ by their underclassmen, Nanami was repeatedly attempting to bash him over the head with Ratio, while Haibara kept trying to attach his Puppetry strings and jerk Satoru around into more strikeable positions. Shoko sat with him on the sidelines, sending him concerned glances with unnerving frequency.
Within a single second everything went wrong; one moment Satoru was standing, limitless active, teasing their kohai with his normal smug grin, and the next moment he was on the ground convulsing. His cursed energy was in disarray, fluctuating wildly, breaking off and rejoining in spasms.
Nanami dropped his blunt cleaver, Haibara screamed; Suguru tried to get up and run to him, only to black out for a few moments as he hauled himself up. Shoko rushed over to Satoru, trying to diagnose the problem only to come up with nothing.
Suguru and Haibara rushed him to the infirmary at Shoko’s direction.
As the seizures slowed, and eventually stopped, Shoko ran test after test, trying to identify the cause, but as the hours passed, there's nothing that could be the reason. Satoru sits in the medbay, asleep.
“The only thing that's changed is the amount of cursed energy he has.” Shoko said.
“But people don’t just get cursed energy like that!” Suguru yells. He’s pacing the hall outside Satoru’s room, pulling at his hair in a way he hasn’t since before he even knew what the monsters he ate were called.
“I know!” she hissed, “you think I don’t know that??”
Suguru didn’t even think, just followed his stupid curse effect like an untrained child, he rather immaturely bared his teeth at her and actually growled .
“Put your damn curse teeth away, Suguru, do you think you're the only one stressed about this?”
Suguru flinched back, face flushing bright red. He hadn’t slipped like that since first year.
He looks away. Shoko sighs, brushing her hair back. “You can stay, as long as you don’t mess with any treatments I try. Got it?”
“Yes, Ma’am…” he mutters. He skirts around her, trying not to look too desperate. He doesn't think he succeeds.
Just as he makes it to the bedside, Suguru freezes. “What the fuck,” he whispers softly, but with feeling.
Satoru’s face is just as beautiful as always, even now, as he’d grown more eyes.
Six Eyes.
When Yuuji wakes up, it's immediately apparent that something is wrong. All four of his eyes are wide open, but nothing is making any sense. Casting his senses out he can feel the blood around him, flowing diligently through veins and arteries, forming the shapes of small children all around him. They’re sleeping, with no adults in the room besides him. Except… his body is too small.
Some parts are familiar; his claws are diamond hard, teeth pointed for tearing through flesh, his four eyes active and open, the scar on his cheek opens up to show the world his fangs, and he’s missing two fingers… but other parts are wrong. His chest doesn’t ache with the phantasm of a missing-regrown heart, his muscles are weaker and less coordinated, his brow no longer stretches uncomfortably when he frowns, his hair no longer brushes against his shoulders when he moves.
Nobara. Megumi. Sato-sensei.
He has to go.
He springs up from his cot, and unceremoniously smashes through the daycare window.
He has to get to Jujutsu Tech.
Sprinting through the streets he doesn’t even stop to consider that the streets are miraculously clean and unbroken. He runs to the subway and sneaks past the toll booth onto a train bound for Tokyo.
He does not stop to think because that's not his strong suit, that job was for Megumi and their Box Bound Sato-sensei. Keeping quiet about the whole talking box situation was already hard enough.
When the train stops two hours later, Yuuji rushes out towards the college, his hood is snagged by the jaws of a large black wolf, one which Yuuji would recognize anywhere. “Kuro!”
“Yuuji!” someone hisses from behind the dog, and Yuuji can only gape at what appears to be a tiny version of one of his partners, “Megumi!!”
“Shut up!” he keeps hissing, much in the same fashion as his shikigami.
“Where’s Nobara?” Yuuji asks as he’s dragged into a small alley.
“She’ll be here in approximately four hours.” Right, she lived in Tohoku before moving to Tokyo.
“What’s happening?” was Yuuji’s next question.
“It’s 2008,” Megumi says with a grimace, “that curse’s technique wasn’t solely based in space.”
“Time travel…?” Yuuji whispered, stars in his eyes.
As much as megumi wanted to bonk him over the head for not taking this seriously, he couldn’t. Not when it had taken so much to let Yuuji be whimsical again. Besides, Megumi knew the switch to serious would happen when he actually felt threatened. He was far too much like Satoru in that way.
“So we wait for Nobara by the train, and then get into the college?”
It was interesting how breaking into Jujutsu Tech was a foregone conclusion to both, and most likely all three of them. Obviously they were going to break in, why wouldn’t they break in? No ifs ands or buts about it. The sky is blue, the grass is green, and time travel called for breaking and entering.
It was nearing two in the afternoon when Kuro raised its head, signaling that Nobara had arrived. With Megumi's memory and Yuuji’s spacial awareness the two had already conjured up a route of entry, they simply needed the chaos to begin, which was where Nobara came in.
“Wait, where’s Sato-Cube?” Yuuji asked the second Nobara came into view, dragged along by Kuro.
“Probably joined with the rest of his existence here.” Megumi said, leaving Nobara to let out a heavy sigh, “oh thank us, I was anxious about that the whole train ride here.”
Megumi nodded, before reaching into his shadow, “My dad left some weapons behind, so I took a few for us.” As he spoke he pulled out a hatchet, a fillet knife, and a shakujo, handing the knife to Yuuji and the hatchet to Nobara, keeping the monk’s staff for himself.
The three looked at each other, and gave a slow nod.
“Let's do this.”
A loud BANG rang out over the peaceful courtyards of Tokyo’s Jujutsu Technical College, the explosion rattling wooden foundations and glass windows. As panicked screams rang out through the buildings three shadowed figures darted through the underbrush, led by a large black dog that hurried forwards with immense speed.
“What’s happening!?”
“Was that an explosion!!?”
“Is this some kind of test?”
“Studends, back to your dorms!”
Nanami tripped over a black haired child as he tried to jog back to his dorm, landing face first in the dirt as Haibara called out from behind him, “Hey! That’s a kid!”
“Hey get back here!” Utahime shouted as she chased after the unattended child.
Another explosion shook the school grounds, landing haibara on his ass right next to Nanami.
Utahime chased the kid into the medical building, only to be targeted and stabbed through the leg by a single chopstick covered in cursed energy, with several others landing in the floor boards around her.
With a cry of “HAIRPIN” in the voice of a young girl, the chopsticks around her exploded yet again.
Several doors were busted down regardless of whether they were locked or not at the hands, or fists, of a four eyed boy.
Suguru startles as six beautiful blue eyes slowly blink open, and Satoru sits up, thick white eyelashes reflecting the afternoon sun in a kaleidoscope of colour beyond anything he’s ever seen before, as ten million shades of blue amalgamate and isolate, constantly shifting form and balance, hues mixing and melding only to break and coagulate again and again. The sight is breathtaking, Suguru can barely breathe, barely move, as those crystalline stars rove around the room.
They land on Shoko.
His legs are over the edge of the cot before anyone can tell him to lay back down. He stands, wobbling only the slightest bit, still weakened from multiple seizures. Yet he walks regardless.
“Shoko.” he says, laying one hand on her shoulder.
The words that come out of Satoru’s mouth are not what anyone expects.
“Where are my kids Shoko.”
It’s not a question. It’s a demand.
A demand that Shoko can’t answer. What kids? That doesn’t make sense, he’s not making any sense.
“My kids, Shoko. Where. Are. They.”
The hand on her shoulder tightens its grip. All six of Satoru’s celestine-galactic eyes rest heavily on her shoulders, and Suguru only then realizes that Satoru’s energy is building, not the normal orderly spring-water way it should when he knows he’s winning a fight, which is always, but in bright salty ocean wave condensate that belies a feral kind of panic high that Suguru has only seen once before, when the sorcerer killer tried to kill Suguru and Suguru has to stop this before he actually manifests Blue and aims it at Shoko.
“Satoru-!” all too suddenly, all the attention is on him, his bright blinding eyes are on him now, his cursed energy takes a turn from its normal sour candy flavour to the overwhelming acrid taste of pure citric acid; there's a burning hatred Suguru has never witnessed before and-
A single glance up, at his forehead, and it softens. From sour to sweet. Eyes water. All of them.
Satoru chokes, breathing becomes heavy and- he sobs. It's Suguru’s name he struggles with, feet tripping over each other as Satoru stumbles over to him, collapsing into his arms. Suguru can barely breathe. Satoru’s hands come up to caress his face in a way that can only be described as loving adoration, there's sadness and desperation as one hand stays at his neck, cold fingers a constant at his pulse point, while the other drifts over his forehead like he’s looking for something.
“ Suguru ,” Satoru says his name like it's a lifeline, like he’ll be taken away if even a single eye were to focus elsewhere. His hands are everywhere, holding him, clutching onto his clothes like he’ll disappear if he lets go.
His eyes are incandescent even when he’s crying.
It's so much. What happened? “Satoru, what-”
The door is slammed open, revealing a kid with pink hair, cursed energy flickering over his fists and something sharp and dangerous in his four golden eyes. He rushes into the room and suddenly Satoru releases one hand from Suguru’s clothes. He lets his legs collapse beneath him, bringing him to eye level with the kid and dragging Suguru down with him into a puddle on the floor, loudly yelling “Yuuji-kun!!!”
The kid, presumably Yuuji, responds back with “Satosese!!” while running directly into Satoru’s open arm. The kid grabs on with surprising force, bowling them both further onto the ground. The kid turns his head, keeping one eye on him and Satoru, yelling out the broken door.
“Guys I found him!”
With a thundering of more tiny footsteps, two more children appear at the door, the one with short straight hair drops the axe(???) she was carrying onto the floor, and the one with spikey black hair drops the shakujo straight into his shadow , not even pausing before rushing through the frame straight into Satoru, just like the first kid, followed by a big black dog.
“Sensei!” The axe girl’s shout is timed perfectly with the spikey boy’s “Aniki!” and the dog “waarf!” as they all scramble over to them, piling on top of the pink haired boy.
“Megumi, Nobara!” Satoru sobs, and Suguru is suddenly aware that he’s still crying.
“Who did this? I’ll kill them.” The axe girl says very seriously, and Suguru is abruptly very aware that the kid isn’t joking.
“Noba, no it's, I’m fine I promise,” Satoru says, still sniffling.
The black haired kid, who by process of elimination must be Megumi, turns to glare at him.
“Did you do this?” he actually growls, teeth bared like a dog, with the actual shikigami dog following suit.
“It’s Stitches!” Yuuji says, pointing his clawed hand at Suguru.
Satoru takes his hand, wincing when he notes the lack of pinky and ring finger, and quickly corrects him, “No, Yuuji, no. This isn’t Stitches.” With his other hand, Satoru clears Suguru’s bangs from his face like he’s something special, “See, no stitches. None. Just Suguru. No Stitches.”
The exchange must mean something to them, as Nobara’s eyes go wide and Megumi’s only narrow. Yuuji’s eyes water, tears follow soon after, and he’s…
“I’m sorry, sensei, I’m sorry,” the kid wails, like he’s begging.
Megumi shifts to hold Yuuji’s disfigured hand, “Yuuji, no, don’t apologize over that thing!”
“Its not your fault that that thing’s your mom.” Nobara says, hands gliding over his hair like he’s a dog.
It occurs to Suguru that they must be talking about some kind of curse by the name of Stitches. A curse, or perhaps a curse-user. Satoru’s hatred, looking at his forehead, the sudden release of that malice and the constant thumbing over unblemished skin. Satoru had shown the kids his forehead and told them that he is not Stitches . Something or someone that imitates people and is only given away by the stitches on its forehead.
Something that imitated him.
Something that used him against Satoru.
With the perceived danger gone, Shoko forces Satoru back onto the hospital cot, though she’s unable to separate the kids from him, nor him from Suguru. The three kids eventually fall asleep against him, and he doesn’t even try to move them. Two of them have ten red eyes between them, irritated from crying, but all three kids are exhausted from what Suguru later learned was a wild chase led through most of Jujutsu Technical College, three shaman kids evading at least ten trained and seasoned sorcerers after breaking through Tengen’s barrier, all to search for Gojo Satoru. It was obvious that he was important to them for reasons beyond anyone’s comprehension.
When Yaga finally arrived for questioning, it had long since become obvious that the kids were just as important to Satoru.
Their teacher stood stoically, ignoring the broken door and bent hinges, staring at the pile of sorcerers, now including Shoko and Suguru, who had since given up all sense of decorum. He heaved a sigh, clearly not actually wanting to ask.
“...Gojo, who are these kids?” Yaga asked calmly.
“…” a cold wet towel is pressed over all six of his eyes, but all his attention is on his teacher. He points to the orange haired one, and says “Nobara.” Then to the one with black hair, “Megumi,” and finally the pink haired kid, “Yuuji.”
Yaga’s brow furrows. “What are they to you…?”
Satoru shifts, careful not to disturb the others resting on the bed with him, sprawling gracelessly over his legs and abdomen. The pause is poignant.
“Everything.”