Chapter Text
: 6 years prior :
Yuji Itadori watched the movie playing out on the small hospital tv before him with waning interest. His hand reached down into the bag to grab another chip while his eyes kept looking back towards the clock that hung just a little higher up.
"If you want to leave, then do it already," grumbled his grandfather, Wasuke Itadori, an increasingly annoyed expression once more plastering itself across his face. He seemed to be glaring daggers at his grandson, Yuji, while the younger relented with a sigh.
"It's not that, I just-"
"Leave!" Wasuke interrupted, crossing his arms with a huff as he sat upright in the hospital bed.
Yuji rolled his eyes, slumping further down in his seat and tossing another chip in his mouth. "You know, Gramps, you shouldn't be in such a hurry to get rid of me. Don't most grandparents want their grandkids to visit?"
"You're an eyesore," was Wasuke's firm rebuttal.
Yuji knew his grandfather meant no harm, able to pick up on the lack of heat in his guardian's words. "Don't you have a club or something to get to already?" Wasuke pressed, sounding almost nonchalant. Almost. "Hmph, kids like you shouldn't be staying cooped up in some hospital all day, every day."
"I'm not gramps, I'm visiting. There's a difference," Yuji reiterated for the umpteenth time, starting to wonder if it was even worth the waste of energy at this point. "'Sides, I told you before that my club ended for the day, so after this I'll be heading straight home."
"Hn."
A comfortable silence settled in the air between grandfather and grandson as the latter returned his attention to the movie still playing across the screen, oblivious to the sharp, worried glance the older man gave him.
Wasuke was no fool. He didn't have much time left, and once he was gone Yuji would be all alone.
His grandson was kind, a good person. Still, Yuji was far from perfect and sometimes far too gullible, not to mention his lack of tact. The thought of Yuji with no one to turn to after he was gone, no one to lean on when times got hard, filled him with dread. And times would get very hard, of that Wasuke was certain. Life was cruel to all.
The movie Yuji had turned on seemed to have family as one of its main themes, though how in the hell racing cars led to that, Wasuke neither cared nor understood. The mention of family however did, and it got him thinking.
"Pass me some chips."
Yuji paused mid crunch, turning towards his grandfather with an eyebrow raised and doubt in his eyes. "Aren't you not allowed something like chips? They're junk food, ya know?"
Wasuke scoffed, a noticeable tick to his jaw while he glared at Yuji. "Fool! You think they'd allow you in to visit me with food that was unsafe? Shut up and pass it here."
Yuji made a noise of embarrassment, trying and failing to hide the slight pink now covering his cheeks from the reprimand. Reluctantly he held up the bag of chips, only for his grandfather to snatch it whole. "Hey, gramps! No fair!"
Wasuke chortled, downing the bag with no shortage of amusement.
His grandson really was too naive.
"Give it back," Yuji said, sounding both exasperated and perhaps a little joyful. No doubt relieved to know his grandfather still had the energy to mess around. That comfortable silence returned, settling in the air.
Wasuke felt the stillness first, like a soft unseen ripple going through the air around them.
"Gramps?" Yuji muttered, confused when the old man became still as stone. To Yuji it seemed almost as if the older male sensed something, as if…-
The ground began to shake.
The buildings outside started to rattle and split apart with the same level of ferocity, the sudden cries and shrieks disrupting what would've been a peaceful day — blue skies with not a cloud to be seen, warm with a gentle breeze — and sending everything on a downward spiral, fast.
Outside, people ran with no idea where they were going. The chirping of birds drowned out by the sudden, sharp crunch of metal and brick as some of the nearby buildings began to tumble, crumbling under an unforeseen weight.
Inside the tiny hospital room, appliances and medical equipment beeped and fell with a loud clatter, wires snapped and came poking out of the wall. More pressing than that, Yuji saw the vinyl flooring gradually begin to crack, coming apart beneath his very feet.
"Stupid, get away from the windows!" his grandfather yelled urgently.
Yuji blinked, a feeling like fuzz lingering at the back of his mind, and slowly looked up. As he looked through the window his hand was pressed against, his eyes were drawn up to the endless blue sky.
"What–"
From the point of contact between his palm and the glass, cracks began to appear in the window.
"-is that?"
The whispered words went unanswered. Yuji blinked, glimpsing what looked to be a flicker of… something… high up above. Higher than any clouds, something had disrupted the tranquil blue like a beacon, pulsating with power.
"Yuji!"
His grandfather's voice pulled him from his momentary stupor just as the glass gave way, shards flying in towards him.
The lights flickered overhead, and Yuji had no time to think. He ducked, bracing himself as the sharp edges of glass impacted his hoodie, nicking it in some places. His arms were up by sheer instinct, deafening the rain of shards on him and covering his face as several of the sharper fragments cut across his skin. He heard the plink of glass hitting the floor around him.
A few seconds later, the stillness returned, shards settling in a blanket on the floor, and Yuji opened his eyes to look for his grandpa.
The lights that had flickered off for that moment gradually came back on.
"Grampa, are you okay!?"
Yuji shot up like a rocket, concern clear on his youthful face while looking towards his elder.
"I-I'm fine!" his grandfather grumbled, moody but as far as Yuji could tell, uninjured.
"Thank goodness," Yuji breathed with no small amount of relief.
As the television flickered back on, their movie was instead replaced by a screen of static.
Suddenly, a nurse burst in, staring at a crack in the floor just shy of where Yuji was still standing before looking between him and his grandfather with frantic glances. "Are you both okay!?"
Yuji was so swept up in answering questions for the nurse he failed to notice that strange fuzzy feeling in the back of his head had gone away, far more focused on his grandfather's well-being following…whatever just happened. His family was far more important.
/~/
"Did you feel it? That overwhelming power emanating from the sky just now?" a man clad in black robes inquired of his companion, glancing their way when no immediate response was given.
The normally impassive face he always donned shifted into something a little more serious upon seeing the state she was in; the pinkish-brown hair that went tumbling down to her waist now in disarray, gasping for breath and barely conscious before his very eyes. There was a small dribble of drool running down her chin which she hastily wiped away, staggering, and nearly falling once more, back onto her feet.
"Y-yes…" she said, clearly embarrassed and caught off guard. "I-"
"It knocked you clean off your feet," he surmised, not a trace of amusement in his tone. He did not sound angry, but there was a flicker of disappointment in his eyes and a note of irritation in his voice. "Go check on the others. If even you couldn't stand it, I don't doubt there will be some difficulties for them as well." His gaze was fixed forward again, clearly seeing beyond the wall in front of him.
"A-and you?" she asked, curious.
"I will check on my 'pets'."
Despite her obvious weakness in both body and soul she nodded, bowing her head in respect. "As you wish, Master Geto."
Once the woman left the room, Geto immediately opened a portal into his domain of inky darkness, stepping through with ease.
On the other side was a multitude of collected curses, some ranging in age from over a decade ago and others more recent, each with varying degrees of human and not so human characteristics on them; Some possessing several jaws, others with numerous eyes along their bodies and some even had multiple limbs. What drew Geto's attention the most however was…-
"Most of them are gone," he said to the endless void stretched out before him, displeasure and a trickle of disbelief bleeding into his words. More than half of his collected stash had just…vanished? Were they somehow exorcized? Was it that power he felt mere moments ago?
He pondered this. As someone who had spent an abundance of time in the company of Gojo Satoru, he was certain he had glimpsed the furthest reaches of power in the Jujutsu world. He knew for a fact that not even Gojo could have eliminated such a large number of curses — kept within a domain no less.
"Quincy...Quincy...Quincy!"
He narrowed his eyes on a single curse that remained in its cage at the far left of the room. It appeared that other curses were imprisoned alongside it, barely visible dregs of exorcized curses dissipating around it.
"Quincy?" Geto repeated, unfamiliar with the term, and just like that, the curse stopped its low muttering. It lifted its gaze, glowing red eyes meeting Geto's in a way no other curse had before. "Tell me more about this 'Quincy'."
Geto took a moment to place the emotion in its voice after an ugly sound came through its lipless mouth, its unnaturally large white teeth chattering.
Fear.
"Shinigami...! Shinigami, purge me! Me no want to die!"
"Shinigami?" Geto echoed the word, sounding amused now. "Well, I suppose compared to the monkeys out there I-"
Only Geto was cut off, the smarmy remark dying on his tongue as he watched the spirit shriek out in terror, gripping and shaking the bars of its prison with increased desperation as it gradually began to swell like a balloon before his very eyes.
"Aaaaahhh! No! No! Me no want to die-!"
The spectacular splatter of blood and guts going against the invisible boundaries of his domain echoed like the tolling of bells.
/~/
Back outside, the crack of thunder rolled in the distance. The vibrant, clear-blue skies became dark, eclipsed by frail, angel-white clouds that rolled in on a light, ruffling breeze. They snapped and crackled, signaling the coming of a storm. The clouds began their assault as another bright light danced across them and rain descended in little gleam-drops of silver.
"That's strange." Gojo Satoru's eyes stayed looking up towards the heavens, gaze fixed on a specific spot, and he let out a curious hum of disappointment. "I thought I…saw something just now."
"Is this…rain?" he whispered, not recalling any forecast mentioning such an abrupt change during the day. "Or is it…?"
White strands framed sparkling, crystalline orbs of blue. In the midst of the sudden torrential downpour, Gojo glanced back up at the heavens. The cool drops gave him an almost ethereal air as he blinked, he didn’t mind the sudden drop in temperature. Gojo momentarily tugs his infinity tighter around his being, like a child hugging a blanket and tucking it under their chin for comfort and warmth. Only he wanted to feel something.
So he climbed from his transparent blanket a moment later, letting his glass cage shatter around him and feeling something cold and wet hit his cheek before lowering his gaze. Staring oddly down at where a few clear drops dripped aimlessly down the soft, ivory skin.
/~/
"Rain?"
Nanami peered out at the torrential downpour happening just outside the bedroom window.
' And only moments after that strange surge of energy ,' Nanami pondered, momentarily flicking his gaze up towards the now darkened, cloud-covered sky.
The outside conditions changed instantly. A dark and weeping cover of clouds replaced the once open and welcoming blue skies. The new clouds were cruel and pitch-black. The sudden torrential downpour drenched everyone walking under it.
The warm, comforting rays of the sun were blotted out completely, leaving a noticeable chill. It drove people into their houses — any shelter really — as quickly as they could move and made the streets glisten and shine with an almost ethereal beauty. Only Nanami felt a strange sense of sadness from it all, eyes drawn back up towards the clouds. The open book on the table was completely forgotten.
Something wasn't right.
"It wasn't Gojo," he murmured, deep in thought. He had been in his fellow Sorcerer's presence a number of times, and had seen him fight in quite a few of them. Powerful though the other may be, Gojo was by no means a god and this power far beyond him.
"It didn't feel inherently evil though," he adds a moment later. "Unfamiliar, perhaps, but not evil."
He was disrupted from thinking about it anymore by the sudden ringing of the phone. He heaved a sigh, already having an idea as to who was on the other end before picking it up. "Yes, Nanami Kento speaking-"
"Na-na-mi~!"
Try as he might, Nanami was unsuccessful in his attempt to halt the sudden twitching of his left brow with the already mounting frustration that voice caused.
"Gojo-san," his teeth ground together feeling an oncoming migraine. "How did you get my number?"
He winced, pulling the phone away from his ear when the boisterous laughter of the other man came spilling through.
Outside, the rain gradually came to a stop.
/~/
"In conclusion, following the numerous unexpected tremors and abundance of sudden exorcized Cursed Spirits it is theorized the cause of effect was not malevolent in intent. Rather, the most prominent issue appears to be actually varying the cause of said effects throughout the entirety of Tokyo and beyond." Mei Mei finished, standing before the desk of Yoshinobu Gakuganji, Kyoto Jujutsu High's principal and one of the Jujutsu Society's higher-ups.
"So then, it was not a Cursed Spirit, nor was it Gojo Satoru?" he inquired, eyes appearing more sunken with his brow creased in worry of this development. Mei Mei shook her head, her facial expression unchanging.
"No. Even with the Six Eyes and the most aggressive estimates, Gojo Satoru is not capable of this kind of output. Whatever set off that massive pulse of spiritual energy it also seemingly exorcized quite a large sum of Cursed Spirits that were either roaming about, in the midst of being captured or even already on the verge of being exorcized by Jujutsu Sorcerers. In addition, a good portion were ones classified as grade 1 or above."
Yoshinobu's face became more grave. Even more troubling was that he had yet to receive word from Yamamoto. Gakuganji had finally broken down and messaged the Shinigami leader when he noticed an influx of what he believed to be hollow activity on the outskirts of the city, but there had been no answer until now.
It had not been long since a second, even more powerful surge of Spiritual Pressure had descended on the world. Even Semi-Grade 1 Sorcerers had not been able to suffer the strain of that power without passing out.
Yoshinobu himself had barely been left standing. His old joints ached at the memory and he gripped his cane more tightly.
'Is it an omen perhaps ?' Yoshinobu pondered, fingers quivering at the implications racing through his mind. ' Could it be … Yhwach !?'
The thought did not bode well, and he was immediately inquiring as to the current whereabouts of Gojo Satoru.
/~/
: Present Time :
"I'm tired of diets! Enough with going to the gym! Good thing there's something even I can handle!" The energetic words made Ichigo startle from her thoughts and she gave the commercial a curious glance.
"Slim down this summer with the refreshing taste of Qualtrics Magic." A different voice had replaced the peppy female voice. It was an advertisement for a beverage…one that Ichigo had no intent on ever trying out. It was going to take much more than a bikini-clad girl to convince her to try out Qualtrics Magic. Although, on closer inspection…
"Hey, doesn't she kind of look like Soi-fon?" the orange-haired individual asked of her two companions, her voice taking on a bored drawl while peering out the window.
"Eh!? S-Soi-fon!?" Renji choked out; cheeks tinged with red. A few of the other passengers were staring, one of the elderly females pulling the child accompanying them closer upon seeing the man's tattoos.
"I suppose, perhaps around the eyes and given the hairstyle…" Rangiku said, seeming to actually take the off-handed comment seriously, causing Ichigo to heave a sigh of exasperation.
"D-don't even joke like that!" Renji shouted with a huff, a sudden shiver creeping down his spine. "Just the thought of it is gonna give me nightmares…"
"Oh? Is someone thinking dirty thoughts about a certain captain?" Rangiku teased in a sing-song voice.
"Of course not!"
"Ara, ara, you've been turning redder and redder since Ichigo pointed her out."
The two fell into familiar bickering, leaving Ichigo to return to her earlier train of thought. Her chocolate-brown eyes still peered out the window, watching the buildings go by with disinterest.
"Sendai City, huh…"