Work Text:
CURSE GRADE: UNKNOWN (Presumed SPECIAL)
ACTIVE SINCE: August 19, 2018
LOCATION: Northeast U.S.A. Stationary in Seattle, U.S.A.
CODENAME: Noah’s Arc
NOTES: Dispatch EXACTLY two (2) special-grade curse users. Target doesn’t attack, has impenetrable defense, and imposes a condition such that any more or less than two living humans inside will be immediately evaporated. No exceptions so far.
An large number of curses have been seen entering. When exiting, they are notably empowered. Recon has been unable to determine exact numbers or increase in strength.
Eliminate A.S.A.P.
At the age of 3, Gojo learned to wield his technique, after the older members of the Gojo clan made him watch a cousin not much older than him be slain by a monster she could not see. They told him that her death was on his hands for not being able to save her in time. Ever since then, countless horrors followed. Headaches, specially-formulated eyedrops that stung more than they helped, blood on his hands, not all of it his. A dead high-schooler wrapped in cloth, cold and limp in his arms. The blood splatter and splinters of bone that was all that was left of his best friend.
All of it, he endured. All of it, he told himself, was par for the course. Consequences of being the strongest.
The thing that breaks him is this:
“I’m sorry, you’re suggesting I bring a partner?” Gojo asks. Shouts, even. He has no equal, they are well aware of this.
The elders sigh. “The special condition the Noah’s Arc imposes is not unlike a domain expansion. Your technique is not guaranteed to work, and without a second living human, you’re at great risk of being vaporized.” One snaps. “Instantaneously.”
“Who are you suggesting? Yuki’s doing something in Europe last I heard, and Yuta is no longer of any consideration.” Gojo crosses his arms. “On that note, I won’t go if it involves bringing Yuuji either.”
“Sukuna’s vessel is not to be trusted in that den of beasts,” A voice from the far right calls. And then, in a truly horrific and otherworldly sequence of events, takes out his touchscreen phone and slowly. slowly navigates to what Gojo presumes is an app. “I have heard good reviews about this mobile website created for talent-scouting, called Source-er. There should be Special Grades available from outside the country that can’t be ranked using our system. Make sure to vet them properly.”
Gojo is grateful for the many years he’s spent practicing his poker face. As the elder swipes through the candidates, each somehow more shirtless and muscular than the last, it occurs to him that for all he has done, for all he has braced himself through, he will not be the one to tell this respected elder that he’s proposing Gojo to go on the Sorcerer’s equivalent of Tinder.
“I’ll keep that in mind, thanks,” he stiffly mutters, and runs away without even receiving the mission file.
This decision to stay silent does come back to bite Gojo in the ass. Over the next week, he receives official communications through very professional channels that have had about as much information as a “HOT SINGLES IN YOUR AREA!” ad, accompanied by a very sincere “This one claims he wields extra long weapons. A spear master could be beneficial in your fight.” or “This lady wields a large shield as a cursed tool, and claims to have similarly sizeable assets hidden elsewhere. We do not recommend you partner up with a woman, but it would be beneficial to borrow one of her shields and learn how to use it.” Gojo feels like crying.
After three days of this endless barrage — he gets it, the elders would like to see this Noah’s Arc curse dispelled, but it is coming at the cost of Gojo’s sanity — he finally gets a lecture about how he needs to take this job and his responsibilities more seriously, that the entire world is counting on him and that he is being an insolent child for refusing to download a “mobile website”.
Gojo had never been scolded in his life. Only shamed and beaten or thrown into a forest alone at night. He imagines this is what it feels like.
Sending up a quick prayer to the gods that may none of his students ever find out, he installs it.
Setting up a profile is unexpectedly complicated. He gets the idea that whoever created this app did indeed originally intend for it to be for Gojo’s exact purpose: finding a sorcerer internationally that could help with a case that was well-suited to their abilities. He took a moment to grieve for them, because surely they look upon what this app child has grown into with a great deal of disappointment, before clicking the cheerful “New Profile” button.
It takes Gojo ten minutes to answer the variety of curses he’d defeated before (mostly because he’d forgotten what most of them did at all), and another ten to describe his cursed ability (the app did not allow for mathematical notation, and it took Gojo far too long to realize).
It occurs to him at the last step that he does not take a whole lot of pictures of himself on his phone. That is, he does not take a lot of pictures of himself that either does not contain one of his colleagues or students, or was not sent directly to a colleague or student and is therefore completely unserious. He’s heard horror stories about certain Eutopeans and their no-nonsense attitude, and would like them to not immediately rule him out because of his profile picture.
The only picture he finds of himself that does not include some sort of strange souvenir he found on travels, or a rude or otherwise obscene gesture, is a side profile of him in the rising sun. Getou was the photographer, during one of the more peaceful moments of their first year, and he had somehow managed to catch Gojo completely unaware. Gojo asked for it to be sent to him, and here it is, saved to his phone still. His finger quivers, more in the bone than in the muscle, as he selects it.
It’s a good photo, he reasons. He can’t bear to look at it.
He wakes up the next day to a barrage of message notifications, most of which had something to say about his eyes in completely broken Japanese. What exactly about “my ability makes me impossible to touch” do these people not understand? He thinks to himself. Still, he carefully sifts through their profiles, one by one, and none of them are strong enough. They could fight off the curses wandering schools, forests, abandoned buildings. But only one at a time. These people, how could he take them into the beast’s den that is the Noah’s Ark, where who knows how many curses they might have to encounter?
The organs of an invisible man are invisible as well. He stares at the case file. No recon team would ever be able to give him an exact number of exactly what’s inside.
Gojo sighs, and begins swiping. There are actually quite a high number of sorcerers across the world, and while Gojo’s standards are high, it does take him quite some time to feed all of the information through his phone’s translation software — the one built into the app… leaves a lot to be desired.
Whoever designed this app did make it incredibly addictive. The simple blocks of colour makes it easy on the eyes and it takes barely any movement at all to swipe from one profile to the next. He messes with the app all morning through breakfast, and even as he’s supervising his students’ training for the day, he finds his attention wandering back to his phone on the nearby bench.
Nobara scrunches her eyebrows as she whispers to Yuuji, side-eyeing Gojo all the while: “He’s been on that phone all morning. What do you think he’s up to?”
Yuuji laughs at her. “You sound like my grandpa” —he puts on an affected accent— “‘always on that pho—’ ow!”
“Hmph.”
“Ugh, you’re the worst.” Yuuji glances over to Gojo’s direction as well. “No, but seriously. I’m sure he just found some new fancy restaurant or something. Nothing interesting, probably.”
If Gojo could give away that he’s been eavesdropping, he’d give Yuuji a tight nod. In his mind, he has a new star student. Megumi is too busy doing his drills to defend Gojo’s honour.
By the end of the day he has exactly one candidate on his ‘matched’ list (he thinks once again about the creator of the app, and ponders what exactly compelled them to use the same terminology as dating apps did. Wasn’t that just asking for your app to be bastardized!?).
is a teacher from central China that tells him about the regimented training they do at her school, and volunteers to introduce him to her star pupils.
Gojo is not particularly fond of her, mainly because he keeps mentally translating the kanji in her text messages out of reflex, and then having to double back and correct it every time the actual translation pops up. And also because in China, they take anyone with any sort of affinity for cursed energy from a young age and polish them until they’re more or less able to take down a Grade 1 as a cohort. Their strength, unfortunately for Gojo, is in their numbers, and he can only take one into the Arc with him.
He doesn’t reject <LingDaoZhe> outright, but doesn’t get her hopes up either. She also has better things to do, so she says she’ll send him any student accomplishments as they come, but otherwise won’t be in touch. More specifically, she says something along the lines of “I’m here to look for hot girl, not hot guy,” followed by a non-standard laughing emoji that Gojo can’t figure out how she imported in.
The next morning, Yuuji loses his star pupil status. He loses it so hard his position goes crashing right down to the pits.
“I like that one, sensei. She looks tall.”
Gojo barely catches himself in time to keep from throwing his phone to the ground. He recently started wearing his sunglasses around the school, because the blindfold gets sweaty and clogs his pores, and on occasion doesn’t excuse the relief it provides from his six-eyes headaches. He forgot to think of the implications of having reflective lenses.
“It’s not what you think it is,” is what Gojo, brilliant prodigy he is, blurts out.
Yuuji, the damned kid, grins at him. Carefree as one of the animated cartoons on the ramune ads, he says, “Don’t worry sensei, everyone uses them. I guess it must be hard to find someone your level when you’re so strong.”
Gojo frowns at him, as disapprovingly as he can. “This is serious business, Yuuji.”
Yuuji nods enthusiastically, as though Gojo was telling him a conspiratorial secret. “Yes sir, of course it is.”
“I—” Oh, but he isn’t going to tell Yuuji about this great calamity just waiting to blow in the United States. The naive boy will want to get involved. Gojo sighs. “You are not to tell anyone.”
“Yes sir! Of course, sir!” He salutes this time.
“I don’t want to pull this card… but I am the main reason they aren’t executing you now to get rid of Sukuna.” Gojo adjusts his sunglasses. Intimidatingly, he hopes. “It will do you well to remember that.”
“Don’t worry, don’t worry, sensei! I won’t tell anyone.”
Gojo sighs again, not believing him one bit. “Why are you here anyways? Shouldn’t you be out training with the second-years?”
“Oh, Nanamin-sensei asked me to pass a message along to you.”
“He did?” That guy usually tries to pretend like Gojo doesn’t exist. Unfortunately for Nanami, he makes for great entertainment.
“Yeah, he said he needed to meet with you before dinner. To talk about an… a-ku?” Yuuji sounds out the last words, clearly not Japanese.
Gojo holds himself still, body language frozen. If the elders are thinking of sending Nanami, the same Nanami who spends his free time browsing vacation spots and local cuisine but always clocks in on time, the same Nanami who’s always watching the sunsets whenever he has the chance, the same Nanami whom all these kids are expecting to come back to them…
He ruffles Yuuji’s hair, a little too roughly, forcing out a lighthearted, “Ah, probably wants to berate me for stealing his pastry… I’ll go make it up to him.”
Nanami is indeed waiting for him in his own office at 5:45, fifteen minutes before dinner is scheduled to start.
“They want you to come?”
Nanami raises an eyebrow. “Don’t sound so displeased. If I went, I’d be the one putting up with you.”
Gojo scrambles for an excuse. For all his fuming, he hadn’t thought of a way to convince Nanami against it — he thought he wouldn’t want to go.
“But relax. It’s not me,” Nanami finally says. Gojo doesn’t let his shoulders sag with relief, biting back his sigh. Instead he takes a seat by Nanami’s desk and slings his ankles onto the table, on top of some red-marked papers. “The bosses wanted the rest of us to stay in Japan in case something came up here. They wanted me to ask if you needed help getting in contact with any of the sorcerers that we reached out to for the Night Parade.”
“So impatient,” Gojo says. “We’re not going to be able to find someone who can match me in the timespan of a week. The guys we got weren’t bad, but they could barely handle even a fraction of Su—Getou’s power. Tell them I’m looking.”
Nanami mutters under his breath “Su-getou” a little mocking in his tone, but not loud enough that Gojo is meant to point it out. “I’ll send a letter.”
“You’re the best, Nanamin.” Gojo turns to leave.
“And hey—”
“Hm?”
“For what it’s worth, it looks like you’ve got time. Recon says the curses in that area are using it more as a safe house than a headquarters, for now, since the American sorcerers are too scared to enter.”
Gojo smiles. “Thanks, but I wasn’t worried about it.”
He almost misses the next profile he sees on Source-er and swipes away out of habit. It costs a few yen’s worth of tokens to go backwards, but he can only purchase the tokens as a bundle worth 1000¥ (the business model of which is eerily similar to other apps that were not like this app’s purpose!). He clicks ‘checkout’ before he could think twice, because he turned off just about all the payment security on his phone once it got inconvenient and now spending money was literally easier than drinking water.
Whatever, what’s done is done.
The profile’s username is <user4461>. Their profile picture is originally hard to see, but upon enlarging it Gojo can see that it’s a youthful hand with their pointer and middle fingers posed in a V. Behind the hand is a curse that Gojo has to check a few times to make sure he’s not mistaken.
He opens the message tab.
sixeyes Was that Jorogumo hard to defeat? Your hand doesn’t look bloody at all. What do you use to fight?
Realizing that he could probably see this information from the user’s profile, he goes back to it. It’s in English, and there are no pictures attached to the profile — only a brief description. Gojo didn’t even realize there was a way to skip parts of the questionnaire.
Summoner. Proficient in cursed tools. Late 20s. America. English & Japanese OK.
That was it. He clicks around the different tabs, certain that there had to be more. There were people on this damned app who were posting about their cafe visits or a scenic mountaintop, and nonstop pictures from every angle when they take down a monster. How can this person take down a Jorogumo and not post about it at all? Gojo shakes his head. For being in their late 20s, allegedly, this person did not know how to use social media.
To that end, did Jorogumo even manifest in the United States? Maybe it was puny thing there, born from a manga story that affected some high-schooler and was easy to take down. Nothing like the status it would afford a sorcerer here in Japan.
As he was about to click on the next tab, to see the user’s past collaborations with people from this app, the account disappears.
He frowns at his phone, wondering if it glitched. He closes the app and opens it again, even turning off his phone and turning it back on. The account is still missing.
“No way they blocked me.” Gojo is not an arrogant person. Oh, who was he kidding, he was very proud. But rightfully so! Who would take a look at his profile and ever swipe the other way? It’s how his unread messages jumped from 99+ to 999+ practically overnight. By next week, it’ll be 9999+! He scoffs. It’s getting late anyways, he may as well go to sleep.
Not on that note.
He logs in on his computer, fills out a questionnaire with bullshit information and a username that was no better than a keysmash. If there was any sort of moderation on this app, his account would be gone by tomorrow. But that’s ok, he just needs it up long enough to send one message.
Typing in <user4461> in the search bar, he waits nearly an eternity before the account — sure enough — pops up. Gojo’s mouse cursor is on the bubbly “Send a Greeting!” icon before he hesitates, and remembers that he has a tab to investigate still. He looks into the collaboration tab, and sees that this person has been tasked to fly to multiple continents for various jobs, and has received perfect star ratings on all of them. Everywhere except Japan.
(Admittedly, seeing this person using this app the way it was intended lights a jealous flame in Gojo, who has been fending off propositions of sexual and romantic and anywhere-in-between natures ever since he made his first account. It’s possible, as his kids might say, that Gojo simply has a “skill issue”).
fdjsaklfjdsl Why did you block me?
Oops. That sounded too harsh. He didn’t want to scare this person off…
fdjsaklfjdsl (˚ ˃̣̣̥⌓˂̣̣̥ )
Much better.
<user4461>’s profile picture pops up and down, from what Gojo assumes means they’re typing and re-typing a message.
His phone, on his regular account, dings.
user4461 Sorry, I pressed the wrong button by mistake. I meant to click the “Add Friend” button.
Gojo wants to berate them for lying, because it takes at least 3 clicks and 2 confirmation screens before someone can get blocked and only 1 click to add someone as a friend. His fingers betray him, and type instead:
sixeyes Hey, your Japanese is pretty good! It’s ok, this app’s pretty confusing to navigate.
<user4461>, once again, takes an eternity to type. Gojo wonders if this person is lying about their age. No posts on their social media, can’t type out a message in a reasonable amount of time…
user4461 I was born in Japan. Came here later. That’s where I killed the Jorogumo. sixeyes I see!! Is it the toughest curse you’ve fought? user4461 Hmm No
Gojo waits for him to elaborate.
sixeyes ... user4461 ... sixeyes So… are you always this cold? (＃￣0￣) user4461 I’m using this app for business purposes only. Please do not attempt to socialize with me.
Gojo types and re-types his message. He wouldn’t risk some stranger’s life just because they managed to kill a Jorogumo. It was only a Grade 1-2, after all. But this candidate was definitely stronger than others, and he gets the sense that they will leave if he doesn’t give a proper offer.
sixeyes I do have a job, actually. But it’s very secret, very dangerous. And I’ll need to vet you properly, make sure I’m not bringing someone inexperienced for it. user4461 I have been killing curses for 20 years. Plenty of experience.
The corners of Gojo’s lips curl into a smile. So this person’s got an ego! That, he knows how to handle.
sixeyes Nono, see… My superiors are very strict about this. Very very strict (ó﹏ò｡) You won’t mind me asking a few questions to make sure you’re up to the task, right? I’ll make it worth your while if you manage to get the job! user4461 The pay? sixeyes Very high. If you can help me dispel this curse, you’ll have a very high amount. user4461 Very well. I will answer your questions.
Gojo’s upturned lips turns into a full grin.
sixeyes First question: Are you really in your late 20s? user4461 Yes. I will not lie to you. sixeyes Then why do you type so slow? Didn’t have a phone growing up? user4461 … How rude.
Gojo’s smile falls at that. It seems that he’s accidentally hit a nerve.
sixeyes (ó﹏ò｡)
Not even a typing bubble this time.
“Whatever, it’s not like there aren’t other sorcerers on this app,” Gojo tells himself.
He goes to sleep, and in the morning, he wakes up to a message notification in a different category from all the thirsty slop.
user4461 If you must know The phone screen won’t respond to my synthetic arm I can type normally on a computer
Gojo gets so excited to see the messages that he forgets to put on his blindfold, and has to nurse his headache with waves of reverse curse energy for the remainder of the hour.
sixeyes Technology’s come pretty far then, eh? I didn’t realize people could get their metal arms to respond so precisely. user4461 It’s very advanced. Might even be one of a kind.
A show-off too then? Gojo will have fished out all of the information he needs from this person in no time. Ah, that reminds him.
sixeyes What’s your name? user4461 Skip
“Skip??” Gojo exclaims out loud. Was the absurd amount of money he was promising not worth giving up a name? As though sensing his thoughts, the mysterious user continues.
user4461 Nothing suspicious. I don’t feel comfortable giving my name to strangers.
Gojo… well. He has no choice but to respect that, he supposes.
sixeyes Alright… You’ll have to tell me eventually though. For now… Male or female? user4461 I prefer men.
What.
sixeyes Not what I was asking… user4461 And I prefer working with men. sixeyes Also not what I was asking… user4461 Not that I mind women. But I have a habit of treating them as though they were a daughter or a sister even if we’re the same age. So I don’t find myself getting attracted to any. sixeyes hey user4461 Hm? sixeyes are you on your computer right now user4461 … sixeyes Because you’re finally typing faster than 3 characters a minute. user4461 … Σ(°ロ°) sixeyes Don’t Don’t use my trick against me Answer my original question! I know you’re online… get back here!!
“Hey…” It was Megumi this time, whispering and mumbling. “Don’t you think Gojo-sensei has been on his phone a lot lately?”
The other two kids immediately start hounding him.
“I thought it was ‘none of our business,’” Nobara snickers, putting on a very respectable imitation of Megumi’s voice despite not having his vocal range. “Interested in gossiping now?”
“Ah, Megumi, you really are clueless…” Yuuji shakes his head teasingly. “He’s been at it for days.”
Megumi flushes with embarrassment. “I—! You—!”
“Yes?” Nobara asks innocently. “Me—? Him—?”
Megumi groans as Yuuji bursts into laughter.
Gojo has had enough.
“Aren’t you guys supposed to be training?” He scolds, half-jokingly. “I know curse activity has slowed in the past week, but haven’t you guys have been getting a little too comfortable lately? Chattering about this and that, you think you come to school to have fun?” His phone buzzes, still in his hand. Four pairs of eyes fly to it.
Gojo clears his throat. “10 laps. Circulate reverse curse energy like I taught you. If your legs are sore afterwards, do another 10.”
“But sensei,” Yuuji groans. “You’ve only said that reverse curse energy was like ‘woosh’, and ‘vwoom’, and finding the destructive interference wave and I don’t really understand—”
His phone buzzes again. Yuuji trails off, gaze pleading.
“Go,” Gojo says. “Before I throw you to halfway through lap 1.”
user4461 I was just messing with you I’m a guy
Time zone aside, the mysterious stranger takes an awfully long time on average to answer. Gojo thought at first that he might’ve just been ignoring him, standoffish as he is, but soon realizes that the periods of zero responsiveness directly correlate with his star ratings popping up. A workaholic then.
sixeyes Isn’t it 3 in the morning for you? user4461 Finished work late. sixeyes Awe, did you get lost on the way there? Or was the big bad curse too strong? Haha user4461 Neither An emergency came up, had to take a detour sixeyes You’re no fun. And I’m gonna make a wild guess and say that you won’t tell me what said emergency was either? user4461 Is it any of your business sixeyes … Ahem Was it an interesting curse at least? or an annoying one user4461 Always the second. Bus is here Give me an hour.
Sure enough, after an hour has passed, <user4461>’s profile outlines in green again. Gojo finds it peculiar that the stranger doesn’t want to text on transit, but Shoko and his students have all reported that public transit is a special type of hell. Maybe his stranger has a policy of not attempting to type one-handed.
While waiting, Gojo tried it himself. But — although his hands are large and his fingers, bony — his thumb just can’t reach all the letters without quickly growing sore. He switches to the one-handed keyboard option, and even still, he’s making a lot more typos than the stranger has ever made with his speed.
user4461 Home now. What did you want to ask? sixeyes How do you hold your phone when you type? user4461 Oh. Relevance to my ability to fight curses? sixeyes Very relevant
Gojo can picture the man on other end rolling his eyes.
sixeyes I promise You’re a very intriguing guy, what can I say user4461 Uh I just prop it up on my synthetic arm And type as usual. I get used to it sixeyes so do you hold your weapons the same way? user4461 Depends. sixeyes On the weapon that you use?
The stranger is taking longer between each answer to respond. He wonders if the stranger has any particular rituals after a job. Shoko, the very few missions they sent her on, had always lit a cigarette as soon as it finished. Getou always bought a bottle of water and couldn’t get settled until he washed his hair. Yuuji likes to fall asleep.
user4461 I use whatever Anything I can get my hands on, really. Er, hand. sixeyes Didn’t answer my question~ (˵ •̀ ᴗ - ˵ ) ✧ user4461 No, really The states is drowning in cursed tools and their manufacturers As long as you can wield a cursed tool, you’re considered a sorcerer So weapon selection is pretty varied here Since I need to save money, I just take whatever’s cheapest, whenever I need it sixeyes Mm, interesting, interesting.
Gojo is a little disappointed, to be honest. He wouldn’t tell the stranger outright, but he doesn’t trust anyone reliant on tools to go into the ark with him. What if the tool breaks, or they find an intangible curse in there? He supposes being able to wield a variety could — emphasis on could — make up the difference.
sixeyes Which tool did you use to defeat the curse today? user4461 None of them I think you call them shikigami in Japan I used those sixeyes ヾ(｡✪ω✪｡)ｼ I’m listening… What kind of shikigami do you have? One of my students has a bunch of animals He’s always complaining because nobody else really wields them like him so there’s nobody to give him proper training Can you believe that? My own student. To my face. Said there’s nobody to give him proper training? user4461 Hahaha Maybe this is a sign your head’s getting too big for your shoulders Talk to you next time. I’m going to take a shower and sleep before my kids wake up. sixeyes KIDS??? User-san, you have kids??? Hello?????? You will answer me in the morning. Your morning, I mean Which I guess is in like 2 hours Sleep well stranger-san
At dinner, Nanami invites Gojo over to his quarters for drinks. At first, Gojo just stares, gobsmacked, as he looks for any sort of deception or mind control affecting his colleague.
“Why?” Gojo ends up blurting out.
“I’ve been thinking, and I can’t do it sober.”
“Fair enough.” But then why are you inviting me out! You know I can’t drink…
He’s suspected all sorts of things by the time he knocks on Nanami’s door. That this was some sort of ploy, that some curse was born with a mind-control ability so strong even Gojo’s six eyes couldn’t detect it, etc., etc.
The truth is so much worse.
Nanami, having tucked his glasses into his pocket, massages the bridge of his nose as he chugs a glass of golden whiskey.
“Isn’t that a sipping drink, Nanamin?” Gojo teases, but it falls flat. Nanami is staring at the table, his eye circles somehow darker than they were last time. His fingers trace senseless patterns into the table, as he says,
“It’s my fault Getou-san left.”
Gojo spits out his orange juice. “What?”
“I was thinking about the Ark. They’re too scared to send in anyone but you. They’re also too scared to send in someone who’ll get you killed.” Nanami rubs a tired hand over his face. “They can’t send anyone weaker, because then they’ll get killed and you’ll be subsequently vaporized. They can’t send anyone of the same strength or stronger, because they don’t exist. If only…”
If only there was someone who could grow stronger with every curse defeated. If only there was someone who had so many non-living-human numbers on his side that they could overwhelm however many curses resided in that Ark. If only he hadn’t died at Gojo’s command.
He’d been thinking about it as soon as he saw the case file. They probably all were. The strongest, the two of them. How perfect this would be for them.
Ah, but Getou is dead. He is dead and gone, Gojo thinks as he switches his phone to silent. Dead and gone, for good.
“It wasn’t your fault Getou left.” It really… really, wasn’t.
Nanami looks at him, not crying, not vulnerable. But almost. He tells him about that day in the infirmary, when Haibara died. What he said that day, the words having slipped out before he realized exactly who he was talking to. Why not let Gojo handle it all?. How Getou looked at him, at Haibara’s covered body, laying so, so still. He tells him about how Getou, for just a second, showed the most emotion he’d ever seen from him. And he tells him about how, for just that second, he was more scared of the person next to him than he was anything else.
“He must’ve known it too,” Nanami says, voice getting hoarse. “Any one of us could leave and join the ignorant masses. All except the Six Eyes. Was he relieved when I quit? Or did he hate me for it? Now I’ll never know.”
Gojo just stares at him, unsure of what to say. For one, he’s literally never had to comfort anyone in his life, and two, he’s pretty sure Nanami didn’t bring him here for reassurances.
He leans back in his chair, and lets the warmth of Nanami’s office lights flood against his blindfold. “He never mentioned anything about you.”
He also didn’t mention anything about anyone. Just quietly spiraled all by his lonesome until it was too late for even the great Gojo to bring him back.
“I don’t know if that makes me feel any better, honestly.” Nanami tilts his cup this way and that, watching the ice cubes clink against each other. “I’ve finished my drink. You can go.”
“Huh? Already kicking me out? ” Gojo stands up after him. Back to business as usual then. “We could at least play a game of Mario Kart, couldn’t we?”
“Absolutely not.”
“Come on, I know you have a copy since Panda stopped insisting you buy it.”
“I already apologized, so you can go now.”
“What— No you didn’t.”
Nanami holds the door open, eyes expressionless.
“Nanamin, I thought we were finally bonding… You’ll invite me to your favourite cafe next, won’t you?”
“I can’t handle you sober.”
“Ahh, so mean, Nanamin. You forget I’m your senior, you should treat me as such!”
“Gojo-kun.”
“Mm?””
Nanami clears his throat, wipes the fog from his glasses. “This night never happened.”
Gojo smiles at him, claps him on the shoulder. “What night?”
When Gojo gets home, he finally unsilences his phone and looks at the chain of notifications on his screen. Either his stranger had a lot of time, or he finally opened his computer.
user4461 I do have kids Forgive me if I don’t share their names or really, any information about them at all. They won’t be a liability, I have them secured to an admittedly unreasonable degree at all times. Plus I’ve trained them to take care of themselves. Any more questions? Who am I kidding You could forget sorcery altogether and become a door-to-door salesman
user4461 Huh. You’re usually always on your phone. It’ll be 8pm for you so… Busy night?
It’s followed by a laughing emoji that, once again, Gojo has no idea how it got imported in. He’s still youthful and trendy, damn it! He’s so youthful and trendy he’s on his phone even when fighting curses, liking pictures of particularly satisfying dessert displays while surrounded by all sorts of pesky beasts.
sixeyes Yeah, I was out for drinks user4461 Oh? sixeyes Why so surprised? I may be the most requested sorcerer in Japan, but I still make time for fun!
Lie. The only reason he hasn’t been requested lately is because the curses have all quieted down. Even when they send people to look for them, they can’t be found. It started on the day of Noah’s Ark appearing, and it’s been going on since. Either the ark is doing them all a huge favour, or the curses — internationally — have started congregating for some sort of great war.
user4461 Dunno, you just don’t seem like the type to drink. sixeyes What’s that supposed to mean? user4461 Means you look frail Like you weren’t fed enough as a kid.
Gojo was actually fed plenty as a child. For all the Gojo clan did to him, they would never starve him. He was actually quite the chubby baby, so he was told, before he started learning his techniques and his brain burned away all the calories he took in.
sixeyes Wrong! My turn Your profile picture looks like it was taken years ago. The hand looks like that of a young boy’s. Preteen? Maybe a little older. 13-14. Final answer. And the photograph is so grainy once you enlarge it it almost becomes less readable. It’s a wonder anyone ever knew what the photo was of at all. user4461 Hm Correct. All of it… And actually, nobody did know what the picture was of, before you Your six eyes really aren’t just for show, even digitally. sixeyes Oya? So you have heard of me user4461 Wait. sixeyes I feel so flattered! You can imagine I’m dabbing away the tears from my eyes… all six of them even! user4461 Stop. sixeyes To think my influence extends to the other side of the globe… user4461 I searched you up on the sorcery web, genius.
He sends a GIF, which, once again, Gojo had no idea this app even allowed, of a ballon shaped like a person with an overinflated head.
user4461 ^you But yeah someone posted an article talking about you So it really wasn’t hard at all to do my research sixeyes Ah… so strange. I have a stalker and I don’t even know his name… But still… … You researched me? ◕⩊◕
The stranger starts and stops typing multiple times. Gojo already knows he’s on his computer, so there’s no excuse there. He can imagine the person on the other end flushing with embarrassment. Maybe even fumbling the keystrokes.
user4461 Obviously I had to know who I was working with Potentially at least, if I pass your endless interview How many questions did you intend to send anyways? sixeyes Ah, who knows… It is getting rather late here in my beautiful country of Japan I best be going to sleep now user4461 It’s 9pm your time sixeyes (⸝⸝ᴗ_ᴗ⸝⸝) z z 𐰁 user4461 Ha. Alright. I’ll just keep answering your neverending barrage
Once again, the typing bubble disappears and reappears a few times.
user4461 Sleep well.
sixeyes Send me the pictures of the next few curses you defeat. Just wanna see something user4461 ? Sure Everything’s in my reviews tab though They’ve been more aggravated recently. Is that your concern? sixeyes Aggravated? It’s the opposite in Japan. Like they’re all holding their breath and waiting for something user4461 I’ll send a picture after my next job.
In the early afternoon, while Gojo is supervising the kids’ outing to visit some new mall that opened — or rather, standing by on a park bench in case the grade 1 curse still living inside ends up evolving into something worse — he receives his first photo from the mysterious stranger.
It’s very carefully angled that no personal details can be seen. Gojo can tell, because he can usually always spot something in the background or the shadows. Perhaps he was too quick to show his hand by pointing out the stranger’s profile picture.
sixeyes What is that? user4461 Some kind of boogeyman. A shadow creature, you can think of it as sixeyes Haha, I meant, what grade? user4461 I’d say… about a 9 this time Usually these creatures would be a 5 Ah, I forgot. Our metrics are different Hm In ranges 4-8, the creatures could be dealt with using an automatic firearm, if firearms affected them at all. This one was just above. sixeyes Ah, we’d rate it a Grade 1 here then. We have Grades 1-4, 4 being the lowest. Anything above 1 is considered special grade user4461 I see Makes more sense than the American system For some reason, their scale goes from -1 to 12 *our our scale. Speaking all this Japanese with you has made me unpatriotic, haha sixeyes As you should be
Gojo failed to stop his fingers from typing out a whole, Come back to Japan then., but caught himself before he pressed his ‘enter’ key. He deletes the whole string of characters, and re-types:
sixeyes How long have you been in America for? user4461 Who knows More than a day, probably sixeyes …
The stranger then sends another ridiculous GIF, this time of a cat feigning innocence.
sixeyes Ok this is getting aggravating now How do you send those? The option isn’t even available to me. user4461 Ah? Perhaps the app’s developer wanted to stop you from spamming everyone with some ridiculous decorated texts sixeyes ? I don’t decorate my texts
Lie. Lie lie lie. Anyone who’s ever received a text message from him knows otherwise. He keys a few messages in, but fails to send any of them. The stranger did say he killed a Jorogumo in Japan in his early teens. It’s not impossible that he had a phone by then. It’s also not impossible that he just had a lot of friends who decorate their messages with elaborate cartoons of their own face and some sort of ridiculous exclamation, and got annoyed by how it was impossible on the older phone models to scroll to the actual text part of the message. And assumed, out of habit, that Gojo was the same — no personal experience involved whatsoever.
Gojo pinches the bridge of his nose. Surely, it’s a very common occurrence.
user4461 Ah, my apologies. You seemed like the type
Gojo still doesn’t know how to respond. Push, like he always does? If he pushes any further, he can see both of them eventually falling down the side of a cliff. Pull? Or both, destroy? He can see why this user was so quick to block him during their first meeting. It would’ve been much easier that way.
user4461 Hmm I’m going to assume your silence is because you’re pulling some psychological trick to get me to tell you And not because you’re currently in combat with a curse sixeyes (ᴗ_ ᴗ。) user4461 Haha, did I get it right? Alright, fine You get star ratings on this app whenever you finish a job. I think you’ll see on my profile that I have a bunch You can exchange them in the shop for more features Like buying emoji packs and the like sixeyes ( ╹ -╹)? ( ˶°ㅁ°) !! user4461 I hope you know Half of those ridiculous kaomojis don’t even render properly on my end You may as well speak regular Japanese…
That’s enough, Gojo Satoru! He scolds himself. No more dwelling on it. He is perfection. He is unwavering. Even in the face of death he will present a cocky grin! This… stranger on the internet is not someone who can rend him floundering.
sixeyes Hehe, I guess I got about as much out of you as I could I was wondering why everyone had all these features… user4461 Welcome back, literate adult sixeyes How many stars did it cost for that ridiculous laughing emoji? I was lying before about how I don’t spam You’ll be seeing it often user4461 Uh 100, maybe? All the numbers blur together for me. Could be anything really
“100?” Gojo asks out loud, waiting for the stranger to correct his typo. Surely not that many, right? He recalled seeing the star ratings as being out of 5.
He clicks over to the stranger’s profile, and sees that indeed, the list of ratings goes on for practically ever. So this guy really has just been that busy…
But no, he catches something. Only half of the ratings had any sort of image attached. The ones that did were all gruesome and bloody, as proof that the curse was successfully eradicated (Gojo, master of self control that he is, is careful not to look too closely at the pictures. No pushing, no dwelling. Certainly no investigations). The other half…
Very handsome, very polite. The perfect gentleman. Would take out again, but I wasn’t looking for someone who already has kids.
Took him out to dinner at Jungsik in NYC. Barely touched his food but was very polite about it. Great conversationalist, but I felt like he never really opened up.
Excellent physique. Please call me back.
He screenshots it and sends it to <user4461>.
user4461 This is not the app’s microtransaction shop sixeyes I thought you were business only on here? It’s people like you making this app into some house of debauchery user4461 Well Ok You will not keep record of the following text messages in any shape or form. You will certainly not report the information I am about to share to any sort of administration or moderation. Is that understood sixeyes Wow, so serious all of a sudden user4461 Is that. Understood. Because otherwise you can mark my words. I will hunt you down and I will take you apart limb by limb, infinity or no infinity sixeyes … This isn’t anything illegal is it I think it’s best if I don’t hear about anything illegal user4461 Honestly No. But definitely against app policy. sixeyes Oh well that’s fine then What, are you just going for the free food user4461 … That’s your first conclusion…?
Shit.
sixeyes Well I didn’t want to just ask outright if you were cheating on your partner. The uh Mother? of your kids Dunno if they have a mother or a father But like “preferring men” isn’t the same as user4461 Yes don’t worry it’s fine sixeyes like Not liking women. You know user4461 Haha no seriously it’s fine sixeyes Like not to assume anything about your sexuality But we don’t really do that here in Japan so it’s user4461 …are you done sixeyes difficult. to understand. bad phrasing you know what I mean
Gojo wants to break his phone. These messages are not the actions of illustrious and smooth heartbreaker Gojo Satoru. These are the messages of someone who did not get socialized properly as a child. He seriously contemplates deactivating his account.
user4461 It’s just me raising them sixeyes Oh I’m sorry for your loss. user4461 No need. There was never anyone. They’re adopted. Uh, sort of.
What, did you kidnap them? While they begged you to take them in? Did you raise them while you still had baby fat on your cheeks and teenage angst in your heart? “Adopted,” come on. It was— “No.” Gojo interrupts his thoughts out loud. “It’s all coincidental.”
He is someone who reminds you of someone else. That is all. Someday he will overcome his shyness and send a picture, and it will be a man with short hair and no piercings and clothes that are far too revealing. It will be an American who wields firearms and long ranged weapons and has puny, puny shikigami, smaller and less varied than Megumi’s.
Gojo takes a deep breath. In, out. He is the great and illustrious Gojo Satoru, and he would never lie. Especially not to himself. Like this, he can almost believe it.
sixeyes So then you’re looking for a second parent for them? user4461 Not really. I guess if it comes up, sure Maybe on one of these dinner dates the rich, old-money guy will have a personality too Until then I’m happy bringing them home the leftovers sixeyes Leftovers. So crafty… luring people into fancy dinner dates so you can bring the food home You’re lucky you’re attractive Or. I’m assuming so at least user4461 If it makes you feel better, it’s not for me My eldest has a taste for certain foods that are very much outside our current spending means She’d never ask for it but I can tell it makes her happy Plus it’s good for me to leave the apartment every now and again. So yeah. I assume using this app for free uppity meals is against some policy here But not illegal Probably sixeyes Hmmmmmmmmm Ok I’ve determined you’re spared from divine judgement this time I won’t report you to the authorities user4461 Thanks. sixeyes But only because it’s about 3 in the morning for you And since it’s a weekday I’m assuming you have to drop your kids off at school tomorrow user4461 Haha, sure, let’s say that. Goodnight.
Someone yawns next to him. It’s Nobara, holding three shopping bags on each arm and sitting on the trim park grass.
“Sensei…” She drawls. “Can we please go back soon… Megumi’s still deciding between which of two belts he should get and Yuuji’s stuck in the LEGO store.”
Gojo ruffles her hair. “The curse is dealt with?”
Nobara gives him a victory sign. “It definitely wasn’t grade 1, probably a 3 or 2 if we’re generous. Oh, also we borrowed your credit card.”
“It’s not borrowing if you swiped it…”
“We didn’t swipe! Only tap.” Nobara smiles sheepishly. “We, uh, didn’t know your passcode.”
Gojo frowns at her. “Don’t make a habit of it. It’s only ok because it’s me, ok?”
“Obviously, sensei.” She rolls her eyes. “Also, you literally said it was fine to take it.”
“Did I?”
“Before we left?”
Gojo has a vague memory of agreeing to something, and then handing something over on autopilot. He was also texting (very slowly) with his other hand, so maybe he wasn’t as involved as he should’ve been in the conversation with his slippery teens.
He sighs. “Come on, let’s get you guys home.”
The situation in America is deteriorating.
If the elders weren’t so concerned about making sure Gojo doesn’t bring someone in there who will get him killed, he’s certain they would’ve pushed for him to get someone faster. As far as they’re concerned, he’s still just researching. And so, they can brush their lands and lean back in their comfortable chairs and claim that Japan is doing their part.
But with the forces in the west becoming more and more thinly spread, trying to deal with the surges of activity that have followed the Ark’s sudden appearance, none can properly hold down the perimeter of ground zero. A pair from Spain, a man and a woman, have gotten impatient and went in to clear as many as they could, but the Ark only swelled after their entry, as if fed. They never came back out.
Realistically, what was Gojo waiting for? He could bring in anyone with a strong enough defensive ability that kept themself protected while Gojo cleaned up the mess. He could go over there and Purple the whole thing — but no. The woman from Spain had offensive abilities stronger than his, and her domain expansion still failed to penetrate its defenses from the outside. The man from Spain had defensive abilities stronger than most he knows, and even his shields couldn’t even let them step back out.
Reports say that the Ark does not trap beings inside. They simply went in, and five minutes later, twin screams, sobbing and pleading, were all that was left of them.
Gojo, truthfully, is scared. He is not afraid of what will happen to him, ever. He has never once wavered. But the thought of bringing someone in to what is likely certain slaughter, and then getting evaporated himself afterwards — the world would become overrun. Without him alive, there would be no balancing force to counter the curses that run so rampant. And then what?
On one scale: the desire to deal with the Ark. To save the world, again, from its own demons.
On the other: days and nights of lying to elders about his best friend’s curse technique. That if they focused their efforts on killing him, then an explosion of curses would be set upon the area — thousands, he predicts. Knowing that this person needs to die. Knowing that Gojo Satoru of the Six Eyes and of the Limitless is the only one who can kill him now that Yuta lost his Rika. And still, resisting, resisting. He never ended up going through with it the first time, forcing a kid to kill Getou in his steed. Wondering what would happen if the worst miracle could come true and if the dead could really come back to life. If his best friend returned to him, and he would have to live with the torment of killing him with his own hands this time around.
One scale, unfortunately for the world, weighs much heavier than the other.
Because Gojo is rarely selfish — it was never taught to him to be selfish — but still, in some corner of his heart, is a part of human nature that can’t be beaten or otherwise trained out of him. He is reminded of when he was three years old, watching the other toddlers in his family pout and scream and cry “I dun wanna!” all day and all night. He is reminded of how he thought that could never be him.
sixeyes have you ever thought about quitting? user4461 To be honest… I’ve tried… But I can’t stop picking up a pack of cigarettes anytime I’m at a store (つ╥﹏╥)つ sixeyes haha I’m serious This job is going to get you so much money you can move our with your kids to the countryside. Buy a house. Do whatever you want. Sleep all day, who cares user4461 You asking for yourself? Because I didn’t take you for the type to run away sixeyes Ha Correct user4461 I’m the same Can I be honest with you sixeyes I thought you said you’ll never lie user4461 You and I both know that’s different from being honest sixeyes …say whatever you need to user4461 With this payout, I’d take my kids and move somewhere else. sixeyes America getting too boring for you? user4461 I guess you could say that
Then move back to Japan, Gojo wants to plead, finding himself almost sending the message for the second time now. Maybe in a fantasy world where everything went his way. If he is to know what he shouldn’t know, then he’d guess that his stranger’s movements are starting to get tracked in America. That the reason this stranger is so strapped for cash is because he can’t get a regular position or do any of his old money-making schemes without attracting attention, which is why he’s resorted to booking jobs through what’s essentially a dating app.
But since he doesn’t know what he should not know (Gojo is becoming excellent at this denial business. All the practice from Jujutsu society is paying off well), Gojo responds simply:
sixeyes Careful, you’re sounding an awful lot like a criminal again. I thought you were being honest with me now user4461 Ah, unfortunately that offer already expired. It’s back to not-lying for me Your turn to be honest now Am I getting this job or not? sixeyes ( ╹ -╹)? user4461 I know this has to do with Noah’s Ark You wouldn’t have been so hesitant otherwise sixeyes Who knows… I’m hesitant about which flavour of ice cream to buy too. And that has nothing to do with any Ark It’s a relief you’re aware of it though Means we can be on the same page user4461 Hahaha… Are you kidding? I live in the States. Of course I’ve heard of it sixeyes Ah, but from what I’ve seen you do all your dealings over Tinder *Source-er Sooo I didn’t think you’d be in with all the hot gossip of Jujutsu society user4461 Let’s just say I have my sources The ones who are too cheap to buy me dinner sixeyes Ah… you’re one of those guys… Explains all the comments on your profile about your “excellent physique” user4461 Hm Sounds like someone’s jealous sixeyes Of your body? Who’d be jealous of someone who won’t even post a selfie on their dating profile user4461 Are you trying to become my informant? :) sixeyes no that’s not not what I meant user4461 Not not what you meant? :) sixeyes you kkw what I men *know *mean user4461 Hahaha You’re fun to tease sixeyes No. Rid yourself of the notion Right now. user4461 You have time until the Ark is set to open its doors Agents here have been reporting that it’s waiting for a signal of sorts. Last night it sent out a dove to do a lap around the world. Based on its speed and number of rests, it should take no shorter than 10 days. sixeyes Oh Fast bird user4461 I guess the curses inside have been getting agitated. They want to see some bloodshed. But get back to me after a week about the job. Who knows what I’ll do after that.
That night, Gojo dreams of an abolished world. No more regular people who can’t control their cursed energy. And thus, no more curses. He wakes up in a clammy sweat, dizzy from the speed at which he sat up. In the dream, he was happy, because his fingers were intertwined with a certain very dead, very gone someone’s hand. In that dream, he had irredeemably failed.
sixeyes I was reading the Bible user4461 ??? sixeyes That’s where the Noah’s Ark is from right? user4461 Oh phew. I’d worried you converted But I mean, yeah. I flipped through Noah’s story too, not sure it’ll help you defeat it sixeyes The dove in the Bible story took 14 days. Noah sent out the bird for 7 days and it came back with an olive branch Then he sent it out and waited another 7 days, but it didn’t come back That was his sign that it was safe to leave the Ark. I’m worried about this “olive branch” of his. user4461 It’ll be fine I already took care of it sixeyes What was it? user4461 Hm? Don’t worry about it sixeyes … user4461 Always so serious, Gojo-san. I bet you look nothing like your profile picture now. You looked really peaceful in there. sixeyes … user4461 Alright your psychology tricks worked… I’ll talk But only because I was going to tell you anyways One of the higher level curses in the Ark made contact with a cursed user. But the cursed user declined its offer Is what the rumour mill is saying sixeyes Oh
The ‘olive branch’ was a master of curses. Of course they would’ve reached out to him to bolster their forces.
sixeyes Do you know why the curse user refused? user4461 Well Who knows what was going on in the curse user’s mind Like really… who knows Foolish things no doubt But maybe they just didn’t want to see certain people deal with the consequences of a world-sized flood. That’s my guess sixeyes Oh Hm What do you think of the trolley problem? user4461 Sorry, what? Haha, don’t tell me you never got past that phase in high school Or at least find something more interesting to ask. I’m begging you, I’ve heard this too many times …Forget it. I see you’re still typing sixeyes 5 strangers on one track. Your best friend on the other user4461 Stupid question Is he even your best friend if he’s only worth the lives of 5 people? I’d choose to save him no matter how many people are on the other track sixeyes Let’s say… 100 million. You’d still let them die? user4461 There’s this Plato quote, about how best friends are one soul in two bodies. Keep increasing the number all you want, but a stranger’s a stranger. My best friend is my other half sixeyes Aristotle user4461 ? sixeyes That quote’s from Aristotle, not Plato So you’d do it? Kill all 100 million? I’m willing to bet you don’t even have the patience to count that high. You’d take all those lives without a second thought? user4461 Wouldn’t you, for your best friend? sixeyes Nah I’d stop the train
“Kelp!”
Gojo looks up from his breakfast. “Ah, Inumaki. Have you all returned from your reconnaissance?”
“Fish flakes. Tuna mayo.”
“It’s fine, those two can handle themselves. So, what’s the verdict?”
“Mustard leaf…” Inumaki’s eyes turn downcast.
“Ah, just like we thought… Lowered activity everywhere except the States?”
“Spicy cod roe, salmon.”
Gojo shakes his head. “They’re going to get the same results that you got.”
Inumaki nods, bows, and then turns to leave.
“Ah— Tuna…”
“What is it?”
Inumaki’s eyebrows scrunch up, as though contemplating whether or not he really wanted to start this now.
“Tuna, tuna mayo.” He points to Gojo’s pocket, where his phone sits.
“…You?”
“Salmon. Kelp, mustard leaf.”
Gojo sighs, not having the energy to stop it from coming out exasperated. “It’s not polite to snoop on people’s private conversations.”
“Caviar, fish flakes!”
“And it’s best if you keep it that way. There’s a good deal of confidential information in those chat logs. If you see it, you’re going to get me into a lot of trouble.” And get yourself involved in something much bigger than you and your delicate throat can handle. “And if we get me in trouble, then that means no more onigiri deliveries from Kyoto because I’ll be too busy licking elder boot. Got it?”
Inumaki bows his head. “Salmon.”
“Good. And remind me to give you a proper lecturing the next time I’m free about how to make sure your app doesn’t devolve into a dating site, ok?”
Inumaki flushes. “Caviar… Tuna, mustard leaf.”
Gojo laughs. “Yuta? He’s not built for meeting strangers online, trust me. As long as you guys stick with him, he’ll be alright. Now scram, I have work to do.”
“Salmon.” And then before Inumaki exits Gojo’s office, offers up a shy but firm, “Spicy cod roe.”
user4461 I was reading the bible a bit too sixeyes Oh? user4461 Needed to pass some time on the bus. “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them.” -God They believe this God is all good and forgiving. But even he condemns their filth. Just thought it was interesting. sixeyes “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood.” -God ^after the flood that wiped out the earth I guess he forgave them anyways Despite condemning them user4461 Yeah well. I guess that’s what makes him stronger than us us as in humans, by the way. sixeyes No, I know what you meant
A day passes. Two. Gojo keeps messaging his stranger, day after day just like this. He holes himself up in his room under the guise of needing to focus, when really he just has to lay with his head in his hands and gaze in the direction of the setting sun. It’s because he hasn’t had the chance to go out in a while, he reasons. He’s getting antsy. His stomach twists into knots upon knots. He needs to decide.
The world or himself.
Every single stranger on this planet, or every single one of his own selfish desires.
All the teachings he’d been given, or the lessons he learned himself.
Gojo Satoru can’t decide. The Six Eyes can calculate an easy answer. His heart cannot agree with it.
user4461 You never ended up asking for my name. sixeyes No, you were right not to give it. I don’t need to know.
sixeyes But I still have questions user4461 Go for it. sixeyes If the flood were to happen, what’s next? user4461 Hm. Probably more and more destruction until the sorcerers find a way to fix it. But I’d assume curse users won’t make it easy for them They might keep killing the humans creating all these curses Until the sorcerers have nothing left to clean up except themselves sixeyes But then what’s next? user4461 Something nice and peaceful, probably sixeyes Until the next generation user4461 Yup. When more humans are born and from them comes more curses. The more curses, the more sorcerers come out of the woodworks to dispel them. The more sorcerers, the more sorcerer societies. sixeyes It doesn’t bother you? That all the death from the flood will result in no permanent change? user4461 It is unfortunate how this heavy world keeps on spinning I don’t know how Atlas holds it up sixeyes Atlas? What are you talking about user4461 Let’s go back to your trolley problem, and let’s shift it around a bit. There’s only one track, and 100 million people No 8 billion people lie on it. Now picture Atlas pushing with all his might, the only thing stopping this train from running all 8 billion people over Sure, he’s stopping the train, but look at how tired he’s getting Meanwhile, all 8 billion people are complaining about being strapped to the rails. Maybe someone might be able to go and unstrap them all, but the only person superhuman enough to break the heavy chains is holding the train Atlas would never step away and let these people die. But if a flood came and drowned them all? Then Atlas would feel no guilt about leaving the track. sixeyes … You’ve made this trolley problem a lot more convoluted than it needs to be. Not much of a problem at all anymore user4461 I agree. If you were best friends with Atlas here, you wouldn’t even think twice about opening the floodgates. Unless, of course, Atlas was also tasked with stopping the flood along with the train. In which case I suppose a good friend would help him stop one or the other. sixeyes I suppose a good friend would. user4461 Does this mean you’re asking? It hasn’t even been a week yet. ll that floundering only to decide within 3 days hahaha sixeyes I still want to know what you’ll do afterwards. And also during, I guess. user4461 How do you mean? sixeyes Don’t play dumb You know I’m meant to be killing you
Getou’s icon pops up and down, typing.
user4461 Are we dropping the act then, Satoru?
The next message notification comes from his phone, from an unknown number that looks suspiciously like it belongs to a burner phone. It has an American country code at the front.
Unknown Number Yo Me Hey You really are alive then.
Successfully changed <unknown number> to <Suguru>!
Suguru
I’ll be honest with you
I actually didn’t think about how it was going to look internationally
“Limitless & Six Eyes user enters Noah’s Ark with mysterious hooded figure, both make it out alive” just doesn’t quite seem right
Me
But you were going to do it anyways?
Suguru
I think of it as two scales, right. On one scale is opening the floodgates. On the other is not wanting to make you deal with the flood.
Unfortunately. It was like deciding between a rock and another rock
It would be so much easier if you let me get rid of all these people on the train track for you.
Me
Please don’t do that
Suguru
(•̀ᴗ•́ )و
Me
I’m serious.
Suguru
Wow, I wasn’t wrong. You really have gotten quite jaded.
Sigh. I guess this is what happens when you stay out of contact for too long. Your best friend tries to kill you and then acts so coldly.
Me
Um.
For the record, I sent one of my students to kill you. I didn’t have the balls to do it myself
Also, you were the one who blocked me first
Suguru
Ah, but I really was reaching for the Add Friend button…
Or rather, I was going to do it regardless if you kept pushing like you always do.
Me
You’ve always been a shithead. So many half-truths
And you’ve gotten better at hiding it
I’m still angry that you have a spotless academic record until the criminal charge
It’s surreal, just as it has been surreal for so long that somehow Rika hadn’t managed to finish him off. Their text conversation from over 10 years ago sits just below this one on Gojo’s pinned chats, from back when they were in high school and everything was only starting to fall apart and hasn’t already gone to well-eroded pieces.
Suguru How long have you known? I thought I was pretty convincing Me Probably from the moment I saw your profile picture. I went through your phone once in high school and you only had like, 100 photos in your camera roll Thought it looked familiar Suguru Did you actually So the trust I placed in you to keep my password safe was all for nothing then? I’m heartbroken Me You and I both know that a string of zeroes does not a password make You’re such a geezer Can’t believe you figured out how to add GIFs and emojis in that stupid dating app before I did It’ll be a shame of mine forever Suguru Hahaha
There’s a pause, some bated breath in the air.
Suguru What I said before still holds, by the way. I wouldn’t mind dying if it’s to your hands. Me Don’t say that I always hated that you said that Suguru Ok I’ll text it instead then You can kill me if you want Me Stop Suguru But I think there’s a reason you haven’t yet Me I’m serious, stop it Suguru And I don’t think it has anything to do with a curse manifestation of some Bible story You could’ve gone in there long ago with a sorcerer of sufficient defensive ability And let the weakling cower in a corner while you cleaned the place up Me Didn’t you hear about the couple from Spain? They were strong but still died I didn’t want to send anyone in there to near-certain death Suguru That’s bullshit and we both know it You’ve asked me so many questions I have one for you too Were you waiting because you thought the Ark was mine?
Gojo fails to answer, his fingers hovering over the glass screen.
Suguru Bingo? Hahaha, I knew you couldn’t have changed that much You were thinking the same thing I was, weren’t you If I could just absorb the Ark, attract all the curses to it as a source of great cursed energy Reabsorb it. The organs of a man swallowed whole are devoured too. It would make life easier, wouldn’t it? Me … Suguru Unfortunately, it’s not mine And it’s also too small Curses around the world only quieted down this time because they thought they were on the brink of apocalypse — in their favour, of course It won’t happen twice. And I was monitoring the rate at which curses entered Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot But these damn people make them faster than they can get collected
Gojo’s heart sinks. He did, of course, have some sort of hope of that not being the case.
Me Ahh… it was my fault for expecting any miracles like that Suguru Yup, the world already gave our generation one miracle, it won’t give us a second Atlas is all we got Me Right. If you’re insinuating that your hand is still on the floodgate lever, please take it off. I don’t need you massacring the world for my sake Suguru And yet you still can’t bring yourself to stop me.
He attaches a link to a map website that depicts a small but clean neighbourhood.
Suguru I’m apartment 113. Unit 8 I’ll send the girls to a safe house before noon Send me a text when you get here No actually, scratch that. My place is a mess. Tell me when you get to the States instead
Gojo realizes soon after the Getou had thoroughly tricked him, because it is now 5am in America — which means that he’s actually asleep — and Gojo still has to let the elders know whom he chose to be his partner for the Ark. He has been abandoned.
Getou was never like this before… They would push their paperwork to Shoko together, not to each other…
“So the mobile website worked?” One of them asks, stroking his wispy beard. “That is good… We will make note of this for future emergencies. Though, you could’ve been faster with it.”
Behind his blindfold, Gojo rolls his eyes. “Of course. My vetting process was very extensive, after all. I needed to make sure there wasn’t anyone who was lying about their power for glory or money.”
“So? Who is it?”
“One of the Canadian sorcerers, from the far North. He has a cursed tool that can freeze even the intangible type curses.”
They ponder this. A series of “Hmm”s and “Haa”s echo around the hall, before they conclude.
“Sufficient,” They declare. “And what is his name?”
But by the time they asked that, Gojo had already booked it out of there to make his way to the airport — normally, he’d fly or teleport, but he was feeling like riding in a bit more luxury on his way to such a large fight. Besides, he had time.
“Sensei?” Someone calls on his way out. It’s Megumi, with Yuuji and Nobara close behind. “Is it true you’re going to America for a week?”
“Where’d you hear that from?”
“Nanami-sensei,” Nobara answers in his steed. “He said he’ll be taking over your classes. Why a week, when you can come back at anytime with your teleportation?”
“Ah… Some official business. It won’t take long.”
Yuuji, who’s keeping his mouth shut and shuffling his feet, clumsily asks, “Is it… you know… for that?”
Megumi frowns. “What are you talking about, Yuuji?”
“Yeah,” Gojo chimes in, mouth pursed as though confused, but eyes desperately trying to convey some level of warning to the naive boy through his blindfold. “I have no clue either.”
“Your— Your thing!” Yuuji exclaims. Nobara slaps him on the back of his head.
“Don’t waste Gojo-sensei’s time when he’s clearly in a rush!” She scolds, then turns to him with a crinkle between her eyebrows. “So when are you coming back?”
“Argh!” Yuuji exclaims. “You guys just don’t get it! If he says he’s there a week then he’s there a week! Come on, come on.”
“Wait.” Megumi grabs him by the collar. “What do you know.”
Yuuji gulps.
“Um…” Yuuji brushes the back of his head. “Gojo-sensei… mighthaveadate.”
“What was that?”
“Gojo-sensei…”
“I’m going to America to meet someone,” he says. Yuuji heaves a sigh of relief. “From Source-er.”
Megumi stares into the middle distance, dead-eyed. Nobara’s jaw slackens. “Gojo-sensei, are you really?” She asks. “Good luck and all, but um, please don’t spam us about it.”
“This past week without your constant stream of cake photos to the official school channels has been quite the blessing…” Megumi mutters. “But cake photos are infinitely better than date photos. Absolutely do not send those.”
Gojo laughs. “No promises,” he says, before giving them all a ruffle on the head and snapping a silly photo of the four of them — three of which with messed up hair and the fourth with perfect, silky white locks — and flying away.
Whatever he does, he’ll do it for them.
Suguru On the plane yet? Me About to board Are you sure you have enough curses to take on the ark? Suguru Little too late to be asking that now isn’t it But it’ll be fine I’ll be consuming as we go Got my 2L water bottle Me Suguru Suguru ?
I don’t know if I can keep protecting you after the ark. He deletes the message. What are you going to do after? Getou deflected the answer last time. He wants to know. But at the same time, knowing means he’ll have to kill him. Out of everyone in the whole world, Gojo knows him best — there’s no way that, bolstered by so many newly-consumed curses, would he just settle down somewhere quietly.
But not knowing is irresponsible, and the Honoured One must take responsibility.
Me I had one more question for you Suguru How about You board your plane now And ask when you see me in person Okay?
Gojo curses. Out of everyone in the whole world, Getou knows him best as well. It’s like he has a curse relaying every signal firing in his mind.
Me I’ll text you when I land.
The last time Gojo saw Getou among a crowd of strangers, he was walking away from him, all of jujutsu society as a whole. This time, he’s smiling a cautious, weary smile as he waves him over from the arrivals gate. He’s grown out his hair even more, but kept it tidy like it was when they were in high school. He’s gotten a steel barbell on his eyebrow, and a hoop sits flush against his soft bottom lip. The right sleeve of his jacket hangs loose, clipped to his side so it wouldn’t flutter.
He reeks of his cursed technique, as though it’s soaked into his skin. Bloody, like every shikigami user with an active contract, but underneath it all he smells of country air so sharp it stings. Of an Okinawa beach.
“Been a while, Satoru.” Getou greets. His voice is quiet as always, but every word bounces in Gojo’s head as though it was playing through a speaker system.
Very intelligently, very prodigally, Gojo dumbly asks, “What happened to your arm?”
“You can thank your student Yuta for that.” Getou clicks his tongue. “Such a waste. Who knows when another curse as strong as his queen will appear again?”
He tosses something to Gojo, a card.
“Here, his student ID. Not that he needs it, I’d bet, but could you return it for me anyways? So he doesn’t see me as impolite.”
Gojo raises an unimpressed eyebrow. “I don’t think his impression of you can be fixed after you literally tried to kill him.”
“Was never my intention, by the way. You wouldn’t have left me alone with him if it was.”
They exit the airport, and Getou hails a cab that’ll take them somewhere obscure, he says. The driver looks at them suspiciously when they ask to be dropped off early at a rural road with nothing but cracked cement and forest for miles, but they paid the full fare so he has no reason to complain. Once they were left alone, no witnesses to point out the strangeness of two grown men flying through the air and recording it for the internet to see, Getou unbuckles his coat sleeve.
A small, worm-like curse crawls onto Getou’s right shoulder and sits itself into a weak semblance of a synthetic arm. Its tendrils don’t quite help the silhouette, but there’s definitely more than enough of them to substitute for fingers.
No wonder he doesn’t like texting on the bus.
“I’ll point you in the right direction if you fly for us,” Getou says. “I—ah—haven’t found a replacement for my rainbow dragon yet.”
“Wait.” Gojo puts his hand on Getou’s shoulder, squeezes a firm grip. “We’re in person now. My question.”
Getou smiles sheepishly at him. “There’s really no convincing you to quit altogether? You and me, we could save a lot of heartache if you’d only leave them to rot.”
“Never.”
Gojo asked himself once, while picking up the bone shards of what he now knows was of Getou’s right arm and not his skull, why he did this at all. He never found an answer, but he knows he’s right. He’ll keep holding up the world until his body gives out.
“Worth a shot.”
“We could save a lot of heartache too if you’d just give up on your crusade. There’s a reason you’re not letting this Ark complete its mission.”
“Are you trying to appeal to some kindness in my heart?” Getou laughs. “Believe me, I thought I had some left too. It’s rotten all the way down, Satoru. The world too, no matter how many times you try to wash it. There’s just too many people, I could be at it my whole life and still not kill them faster than they spawn.”
“Then don’t. Give up on it.” Let’s just go back to the way things used to be.
“I will if you will.”
Gojo’s lips twist.
“Guess we’ll both face a little more heartache from now on, won’t we?” Getou takes out his phone, props it up on the little worm curse, and types in an address of a Catholic summer camp in Seattle.
He’s felt this before. His best friend slipping away, retreating further into his mirrored shell that only reflects back hate and curses. Last time, he could do nothing but watch and beg. The only time, the only person he stopped pushing for things to go right with.
“So what are you doing it for then? Are you just being stubborn, pouting that your childish plan won’t work so you’ll at least die trying?”
Getou, dragging the virtual map back and forth as a way to look occupied, doesn’t answer.
“Or is it just to spite yourself? You got lost once in high school — before you were old enough to drink, by the way — and you’re still lashing out over it?”
“You’re unbearable, Satoru. It’s a wonder you have any friends.”
“Don’t change the subject. You’re always changing the subject.”
“…”
“Then— let’s do half each.” Gojo proposes. Getou’s head snaps around so fast Gojo’s worried he got whiplash.
“What?”
“I leave jujutsu society, operate on my own terms. And you… you just stop killing civilians. The strong are meant to protect the weak, not slaughter them by the dozen.”
“You don’t believe that.”
“I have to.”
Getou sighs, brushing a hand though his hair. “If you leave jujutsu society, eliminate only the special grade curses… Take weekends off. Don’t save everyone, let them die to their own curses. And… I’m not holding back against anyone who stands in my way. People like Nanako, Mimiko, Amanai… they don’t deserve the lot they got.”
“You get an exception for those kids, but when it comes to mine… You know what’ll happen to their average life expectancy once they start taking on my workload, won’t you?”
Getou waves his hand casually, as though it was of no concern to him. “We can figure out the details later. The problem with you lot is that you’re all too righteous. You don’t stress over a storm killing a few worms, do you? They do it to themselves.”
Gojo frowns.
“Well, or I could drop an Ark in the area once I absorb it and let all the curses accumulate in there. It seems to have some sort of luring property.”
“I like that answer much better.” Gojo checks his watch. “What time did you say we should be there for?”
“Around 30 minutes ago?” Getou laughs. “It’s ok, the patrol should still be… er, incapacitated.”
“What. Did you do.”
“Just a little sleep curse, they’ll be fine. I, ah, just didn’t want anyone asking questions. As far as they’re all concerned, you’re going in with some no-name who’s going to cower in a corner while you save the world as usual. Now, fly me over?”
When Getou first joined the school, Gojo was stricken with the idea that this boy could eventually surpass him, given he consumed enough curses. The Gojo clan selectively bred for so many generations to get a boy—specifically, a boy—that wielded both Limitless and the Six Eyes along with superior intellect and natural physical prowess, and he could be surpassed by some country hick born to parents who have never seen a curse in their lives? The first day that Getou introduced himself, Gojo flew him over a cliff just to watch him squirm, holding him by the underarms. The next day, when they were on their first mission together, he made Getou take the bullet train from Tokyo to Aomori while he flew through some perfectly crisp Fall weather. And then when Getou eventually captured the rainbow dragon and outpaced Gojo in an aerial race, he conceded that he was more impressed than anything else, and would prefer to have that country hick become his friend. Getou, at the time, tried slapping him in the face.
Today, Gojo holds out his hand. “So you don’t get left behind while we’re flying,” as explanation.
“And you promise you’ll come with me after this is all over?”
“Yeah, sure. But just know I’m going with you specifically to hold you back.”
“You’ll turn a blind eye when I come home covered in blood?”
“Don’t push your luck.”
Getou laces his fingers through Gojo’s hand, holding on tight.
“But you’re so good at pushing. And you’ve always been my role model.”
“Then you should’ve picked up some humanity.”
“Ugh, don’t you dare suggest you have any either.”
Gojo, for the first time in a long time (not that long, it’s only been a month since he lost that poker hand to Nobara and let her draw on his face), he turns off his infinity and pulls Getou close.
“I missed you, Suguru.”
“I missed you too, Satoru.”
And that was all that mattered, wasn’t it? They can figure out the details later, once they both took a break from playing God.
But right now, they had a mission to complete.
The first one they’ve done together in a long time. And hopefully, if all finally goes well, the first of many more to come.