Chapter Text
Your apartment is quiet and dark as you walk in. It was, frankly, another shitty day and the silence only seems to dampen your mood a little bit more. Not that you hate being alone, but you do miss the coddling of your parents in making sure you’re fed and taken care of before you shut yourself into your room to do whatever has your attention at that point of time. Now the chore is on you to turn on the lights and begin the winding down process.
It’s a cheap meal. Something easy to warm up in the microwave as you aren’t feeling the cooking urge. Besides the sound of the machine heating up your food and the slight muted noise from outside, you’re leaned against the counter playing on your phone. Maybe sitting outside would better your mood? Something about vitamin D?
Yeah right.
Could be the cynical part of you peeking through now that your frustrations have had time to settle in. In all honesty all you want to do is eat, shower, and get comfy so you can escape reality.
Even if you are an adult, you’ve always had a soft spot for imagining scenarios in your head. Just to escape before you fall deep into sleep. It changes setting depending on what you’re more interested in at the time. You don’t ever talk to anyone about it though. Just jokingly calling it your “enrichment time”.
WIth the new release of the Jujutsu Kaisen Shibuya Arc and things heating up in the manga, you find yourself falling back to the old obsession you had when it first premiered in 2020. So of course that has been your new day dream subject for the past few weeks.
Once the microwave meal is done, you clean your dishes and head to the bathroom to finish off the night. Feeling a little better in terms of your mentality after a good scrub down, you dress in an oversized shirt and sweatpants. The clock on your phone reads that it’s only 7 PM. It’s not anything new for you to be ready for bed around this time. You’re a long sleeper, fuck if it ruins your health, you enjoy your shut eye and the time you get to decompress.
You take your time reading through your friends’ posts and looking through pictures. You watch a little bit of a youtube podcast and decide that you’re relaxed enough to start your little escapade. Lights are off, air conditioning is going in the background, phone plugged in – OH you are so ready.
Thinking it over a little, you decide to close your eyes and imagine yourself on the grounds of the Jujutsu Tech School…
Things seem to look a little more detailed than you remember. Sure the school is an easy setting to remember, but there’s something that feels more life-like to everything. Usually things have a slight black fade to them as your brain sets stuff up. Maybe you’ve thought it over so much that you finally have a solid thought process. No big deal.
Usually you will put forth a character to start your interactions off. There’s no one. No matter how hard you try to force an image of Gojo or even Yuuji, none of them appear. By this point you’re a little frustrated at yourself and start walking off. Maybe your own brain is wanting you to look for the characters before an interaction starts? Brains can be complex and not easily understood afterall.
Something urges you to enter a building to your right. An invisible pull. So maybe your brain was right? This must be your subconscious working to put you in a new environment. You hear murmurings of what must be a distant conversation. Picking up your pace, you get closer to make out two voices. They…are speaking Japanese though? No matter how hard you try you can’t force your mind to translate the words. You don’t know a lick of Japanese aside from the common words you hear at conventions and on the internet.
Concerned with where this is heading, you try to rouse yourself…
This is the part where you would open your eyes and look around your room to restart the imagery. You would lay back down and try again.
You would be doing all of this…if it allowed you too.
Maybe you’re asleep now? You’re lucid dreaming at least, because you’re aware that you’re not conscious.
It seems like the dream doesn’t stop for you to collect yourself, because when you finally come back to the present, you realize the voices have stopped talking and instead the door separating you and them has opened. Your mouth opens into a small “Oh” when you’re face to face with a giant realistic panda. You always have seen videos of them, but wow, seeing one standing up on hind legs and staring at you with humanlike intelligence in it’s eyes…It is a little unnerving.
“Who are you?” Panda, you’ve connected the dots in your observation, says something in Japanese. A question, you realize, upon dissecting what little you know.
You look over his shoulder and spot a dark green haired girl – Maki. She’s got an eyebrow raised, eyeing you a little more scrutinizingly than the animal in front of you. She mutters something else, pushing her glasses up her nose.
Tilting your head you feel your frustration from earlier resurface, creasing your brow. “I’m sorry, I don’t…I don’t understand what you’re saying.” You just wanted to enjoy your night, why are you struggling to do even that?
Maki rolls her eyes and turns to someone outside of your view, seeming to talk to them now. Panda is still in the doorway, sniffing the air around you. It doesn’t take you long to come to the realization that your hair is still damp from your shower. Well…maybe a bit longer than it should’ve. You shrink back a little and look down at yourself. It seems like you’re also in your pajamas of choice too. Weird…usually you’re in whatever fashion you want, not…not this? And definitely not with wet hair.
Panda seems to notice your conflict and relents his assessment via smell. Turning his head, he keeps his eyes on you while making a comment to the others. Others? You realize you can feel more than just the two presences you confirmed with your own eyes. There’s one more person who wasn’t accounted for. Assuming that this might be the second year’s classroom, you begin to deduce that it must be Inumaki who they are talking to.
Your suspicions are correct when a boy pops his head out from behind the door seemingly to get a look at who everyone else was talking to.
Panda decides to reiterate the same question, a little more stern. Shaking your head, you hold your hands up in front of you. He follows your movements with a sharp eye, as if waiting for you to do something nefarious.
“I don’t understand what you’re asking–”
“ Who’s this?”
You jump, turning to where you had entered to find a tall shadow breaching through the sunlight that shown in from the door. Chest welling up, you feel yourself get a little nauseous at not even being able to hear or feel him show up. Which really…must make sense given that you are looking at Gojo Satoru himself.
He carries himself so quietly, even though he’s stalking closer to you. You straighten up, ready for a confrontation when he totally ignores you to address the students in the doorway. He doesn’t so much as glance over his shoulder at you, or motion in your direction, but you can tell that he’s talking to the second years about your presence. Something Maki says in the distance causes him to throw his head back and laugh. That is seemingly all he needs to hear before he turns around and gets in your face.
“So…you speak English?” He doesn’t seem to really be asking you a question, he already knows that you do. You end up nodding anyway and he huffs through his nose. “Why’s a tourist in our hallways, hm?”
Another question you weren’t meant to answer. You weren’t supposed to be here. They were diverting from the script you had wanted to set up before you got to this point. That furrow in your brow appears again, a little fed up with how things were going for you today. Even your own brain isn’t giving you a break and letting you live out your fake fantasy. And to top it all off you aren’t even able to wake up to adjust the scenario! You’ve been trying this whole time and nothing is taking. You’re getting a little overwhelmed in your own dream world.
Gojo waits for you to answer, tilting his head as if he’s actually assessing you himself. Panda says something and Gojo nods, standing up straight and clapping his hands together joyfully. You look between the two and flinch back when Gojo leans forward in your space once more. Out of habit you put your hand up to push him away a little only to come in contact with his infinity. Briefly you’re amazed at how it feels like a weight is slowing your hand down to stop. It’s just there in midair, not moving but you can feel yourself pushing against it.
Gojo hums. “Don’t know what you’re able to do or what you’re here for. Hope you aren’t offended.” Gaze snaps up to his blindfolded ones. He must be staring at you still. His head hasn’t moved from its close proximity. “You haven’t answered me, which is fine, but we’ll have to take you someplace less…welcoming if you don’t do it soon so…tick tock!”
The sick feeling in your stomach seems to only get worse, you’re in pain now. Wincing, you pull your hand back. “I’m…dreaming.” Your jaw is starting to go a little slack, your words becoming a little slurred as your vision starts fading on the edges. “Why does it…hurt?”
“...You’re serious?” a voice asks. Gojo? You’re pretty sure it’s him, you can’t be too sure now that everything seems so far away. You feel your knees buckle and heat rushes down your face.
You’ve passed out.