Chapter Text
Sweat dripped off his brow, wind whipping away any stray droplets daring to run past his eyes. Electric blue eyes stared into the curse, daring it to come closer, taunting it with every twitch. It screamed with rage, charging at the tall figure standing in the carnage. Musing to himself, he dismembered the creature with a careless glance. How long had he been here? It felt like hours, the walls of the abandoned school coated in remains, both human and curse. He sighed softly. Mustering himself, he pulled the dark blindfold over his sore eyes, retreating back towards the cracked entrance, the driver welcoming him with a subtle air of concern. Silence swelled in the car, only broken by the patter of rain as clouds merged overhead, cutting off what little light the setting Sun offered.
He only resumed his usual chatter after getting out of the car, retiring to his room after spinning a lie about beauty sleep. Utahime had only scoffed, sparing him no mind, even as his students shared a glance. Tomorrow he’d accompany them on their mission, just to make sure they wouldn’t run into the same complications he had today. Resigning himself to another night of vivid dreams, he slumped onto the stiff mattress.
Images roiled beneath his eyelids, colors merging to create worlds of detail. He could see Yuuji, Nobara and Megumi sharing a pizza in their dorm, Nanami staring down the broken vending machine down the corridor, a grotesque curse devouring deer in a distant forest somewhere in the world. It was all too much. Groaning, he turned onto his side, pressing a pillow into his face.
Maybe tomorrow would be better.
Boy was he wrong. His head pounded as he slumped towards the bathroom a mere four hours after laying down. Thankfully his blindfold hid the dark shadows beneath his eyes, accentuating their sheer brilliance of even more. Sighing, he got ready for the tough day ahead of him.
As soon as his foot stepped out the door he was tackled by a ball of pink fluff. “Sensei! I heard you’re joining us!” Yuuji shouted out, missing the way his teacher winced at the loud noise. Grabbing a tired Gojo’s hand, he dragged him to the other two, both lazily waving in his direction. Catching his façade before it fell and shattered, he forced a spring in his step and a grin on his face, albeit a too wide one.
The deep growl of a motor started up as they got into the car, two slumping in their seats, one stretching back exaggeratedly and one bouncing about, chattering all the way to their destination. Trees blurred past foggy windows, still wet from the storm the night before. Flickering streetlights lit the road, unwillingly showing the team to their destination. A chill rose in the car, making Yuuji and Nobara curl into Gojo’s side while Megumi tried, and failed to warm his hands by rubbing them together frantically. Giving up, he tried to discreetly inch closer to Nobara, stiffening when Yuuji reached over Gojo’s lap to pull him in.
Now a pile of black, white, brown and pink, the sorcerers huddled together as tires ground against the gravel road. Any sort of paving had been discarded some miles ago, slowly letting the road deteriorate until everything seemed to melt together into one massive pothole.
Shifting ever so slightly, Gojo closed his eyes, searching the area. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Some Grade 3 curses lurked around the old warehouse, blabbering on about receipts. Content, he let his guard down again, happy to let his students past Infinity. Everything would be fine.
Except it wasn’t.
Now entering the building, he could sense the cold leaking out of creaking concrete walls. His students trailing behind him, Gojo inspected the area, not knowing what he was feeling. It was like an incomplete puzzle. You could see what the picture was supposed to be, but it wasn’t whole.
“Sensei?” Nobara piped up, staring at him questioningly, “Is everything alright?”. He sighed, mentally noting that he’d been absent for a while now.
“Of course, let’s get this over with before Nanami can complain about us being late.”
“But Sensei, don’t you try to be late?” piped up Yuuji, scratching his head.
“The idiot wants to finish this so he can go to the new candy store that’s opening today. God forbid he’d be late for that,” grumbled Megumi, finishing his assessment of the crushed cash register. If anyone had seen him tuck away the remaining bills, they didn’t say anything.
Cackling, Gojo rubbed his hands together gleefully, noticing that they were warm again. That was odd. Weren’t they freezing cold mere minutes ago? He spun around, taking in every shadow, every crevice.
Something was off.
A shadow flitted across the sliver of light slipping through a crack.
There.
Calling his students over, he instructed them to inspect the area. Better for them to learn the art of paying attention to your surroundings with him than in a truly dangerous situation. Infinity flared to life, the cold numbness overtaking his body once more. Gravel crunched underfoot as something moved outside the warehouse.
“Sensei, here!”
Darting over to Yuuji, he saw what his students has called him over for. A pool of dried blood, blending in with the dusty black tiles, was starting to liquify again. Crimson emerged from black, tainting every inch of area it could get its greedy claws on. More dripped down the walls, splashing onto the floor audibly. Curses emerged from the fluid, each varying in grade and strength. His students grouped together, methodically slaughtering every Grade 1 in sight. Even the Grade 2 curses weren’t safe from the wrath of sleep deprived students. They panted, struggling valiantly against the sea of oncoming creatures.
Ripping down his blindfold, Gojo made quick work of the stampede throwing themselves at him, darting towards his students. They may be strong, but this many curses would exhaust even the average Grade 1 sorcerer. Grabbing the nearest curse, he sent it fly into a whole group, shredding their bodies until nothing but morbid stumps remained. Now sheltered into a freezing corner, his team stared in shock. They had known their teacher could be violent, but this was never, even for them.
Sending another kick at his opponents, Gojo snarled under his breath. He couldn’t use anything too powerful unless he wanted the building to crush his students and they sure as hell couldn’t escape the ever increasing amount of curses. They only seemed to get even more aggressive as three appeared for every one he demolished.
Staring the closest one in the eyes, he channeled a small amount of cursed energy through them. The curse wailed in agony, crashing into those behind it. Following up with a kick, he managed to take out five in one go.
A screech filled the chilled air. His heart froze.
Whipping around, he saw that Megumi had been injured, blood smearing across the wall as he slumped down. Curses threatened to drown him and the two trying to shield him, paying no mind to the pained panting exciting the normally stoic student’s mouth.
Something snapped deep within him at the sight.
Energy gathered around his body, bringing the already freezing temperature to below freezing, making the sweat on Nobara’s brow freeze in its path downwards. It twisted around him in a cursed dance, laughing at what was about to happen. Its sheer presence stopped the weakest curses in their tracks as they were crushed.
Stalking forward, Gojo growled.
Growled.
Yuuji and Nobara’s heads snapped up at the sound, eyes widening almost comically. They had never seem him this angry. Scratch that, they had never seen him angry period, and now they were glad they weren’t on the receiving end of his unleashed fury.
Eyes glowing manically in the dim room, he sent energy forwards, extending his hand towards the frozen figures. If curses weren’t able to feel fear before, they could now.
The sound of half their kind being obliterated in front of them forced them back into motion. They attacked, lunging in the direction of the hunched figure glimmering impossibly. Even with half their masses gone, their numbers rivalled that of the inhabitants of both sister schools combined.
Now smiling, sharp canines glistening threateningly, Gojo simply stood, both tall and hunched over, like a predator reading for its meal. As the first of the small army attempted to grab onto his arm, he warped behind the group, a red ball condensing at the end of one slender finger.
Red.
Megumi looked up, smiling faintly. At least he’d made a point to turn his back to them as he unleashed his technique.
The building rumbled in protest as everything in the path of his rage was demolished, the sheer power radiating off the blast heating the air around it. Giving one last final shake, the building crumbled down, embracing its last residence akin to a lover’s embrace, burying them in the dust and ashes not even the torrent of blood had been able to wash away.
Huddling together one last time, the trio prayed for a shred of luck. There was no way they could make it out in time, especially with an injured Megumi. But as the building descended, they found that not one piece of debris managed to hit them.
Calming their racing hearts, they craned their heads to find the source of their safety.
There, standing amongst the wreckage, stood their teacher, head bowed down and arms extended to the side. Occasionally, stray bits of ceiling would hit him, streaking crimson across his usually impeccably clean face. His eyes were unfocused, staring at the ground in concentration as the chaos died down above him.
As the debris stopped threatening to crush them, the students started to realize what had occurred.
Gojo had transferred his Infinity to them, in doing so risking his own safety.
Yanking herself up Nobara slung one arm around Megumi, beckoning Yuuji to do the same. Painfully slowly, they made their way to a silent Gojo. They observed the way he was simply standing there, eyes glazed over and face streaked with blood and ashes. It was unnerving.
Nobara patted her pocket, fishing out her phone, thankful that she hadn’t forgotten it. Calling Shoko, she explained the situation, hanging up as she was reassured that help was on its way.
Yuuji guided Megumi back down, helping him to lean against a halfway intact pillar. Gojo sat down next to him shakily as he started to take in his surroundings again.
“You ok Sensei?” he asked worriedly, but his teacher didn’t respond. Sighing audibly, he prayed Shoko would arrive soon. The air was still frigid, the warm currents having been overtaken again by frost. Blood was drying again next to the remains of what used to be walls. Hopefully they’d stay dried this time.
Nobara stood next to where the entrance had been, the neon sign still flickering occasionally, casting her face in a cool blue light. The breeze picked up, whipping around her, almost as if sensing her mood. For now, she could only hope that the telltale sign of distant headlights would appear soon to bring an end to her worry.