They walked in a quiet, pleasant rhythm down a rain-dampened street. The restaurant they stopped at was tucked between two laundromats, fogged-up windows glowing faintly under the streetlights.
They sat by the window. Gojo ordered too much—bowls of noodles and side dishes that could feed an entire family.
"You're gonna finish all that?" Aimi asked.
"Curse manipulations burn lots of calories," he said casually, pouring her a drink without asking.
She stared at the cup, then finally spoke.
"So… what happens if I say yes?"
Gojo looked up, surprised she brought it up first.
"If you say yes?" He leaned forward. "I'll start training you. In a month, a new batch of students will join. I'll introduce you to them, and your days at Jujutsu High begin."
"That's convenient."
The food arrived. They began eating.
"So we live on campus?" She continued.
"Yeah, it's sorta like a military camp~"
"What about my freedom? I'm still supervising the kids here… and I've got uni."
"Ehhh," he chewed. "I don't think you can keep attending uni. Joining Jujutsu High is basically dropping other paths. You train full-time, and after you graduate, you work as a sorcerer." He slurped noodles. "As for freedom... you'll get weekends off. Unless you take on missions, the pay aint bad."
Aimi didn't say anything for a moment.
"And if I say no?"
He leaned back with a shrug.
"Then I'll still show up at your dojo. Or uni. Piss you off now and then." He spoke nonchalantly. "Because I like seeing you. That won't change."
She poked at her noodles, eyes lowered.
"…You just like me for this weird curse-energy cancellation thing, don't you?"
"Yeah. But that ability's a part of you, so technically…" He gave her a dumb grin. "I still just like you."
"…You say stuff like that so easily."
"Because it's true. Why complicate it?"
She sighed and looked out the foggy window beside them. Rain was still drizzling faintly, just enough to blur the streetlights into soft halos.
"Speaking like things are always so simple."
"Things are usually simple. Humans just get scared of choosing."
Aimi rested her chin on her palm, her gaze distant, lost in the blurred city lights beyond the window.
Suddenly, a shift in the air tugged a sly grin onto Gojo's face. "Good timing."
"What good timing?"
"Let's show you what curses are like," he stood up and stretched. "You done eating?"
"Yeah...?"
Before she could react, he had already paid, grabbed her hand, and pulled her outside into the drizzling night.
"?"
He didn't explain. Hand in hand, he led her down a deserted street. She just followed quietly, her steps syncing to his. After a while, the paved road gave way to an open valley, empty, eerie, with broken streetlights flickering against the mist.
"Looks like we made it just in time," Gojo said casually.
Ahead of them, pressed against the graffiti-stained wall, was a trembling woman, her back pinned to the cold concrete. At first, all Aimi could see was the fear frozen on her face. But something felt wrong. There seemed to be an invisible terror looming near her, unseen but thick enough to choke on.
"Is she okay?" Aimi asked, confused.
"Oh, right. You can't see," He remembered with a chuckle and dug into his pockets to pull out a battered pair of glasses. "Don't touch the lens, alright~ I am pretty sure you can nullify imbued curse energy," he warned as he fit them onto her. "Maybe I should get you a customised pair, huh?"
The world sharpened the moment the glasses slid into place.
Before her, the empty air twisted into form — a grotesque creature materialised, hunched and twitching.
Its limbs were too long, sagging with loose skin, its mouth a gaping maw of teeth stitched messily together, drooling thick black tar onto the ground. Hollow, gleaming eyes rolled toward them, the sockets wet and searching.
Aimi stiffened, a small gasp escaping her lips. She wasn't the type to watch horror movies. Gore, monsters, nightmares, she wasn't used to any of it through the screen, let alone one unfolded before her, raw and real.
"This," Gojo said, his voice carefree and joyous, "is a curse."
The woman against the wall whimpered, curling into herself, shielding her face with shaking arms. "Help me," she cried out in a broken whisper.
Aimi turned sharply to Gojo, frowning, "How-why are you so calm?" she nudged him. "Do something?"
Gojo just smiled, unbothered. "Don't worry. She won't die~"
Aimi blinked, confused, then looked back at the creature and noticed how the curse wasn't moving. No, it was...trembling?
Frozen in place, its body curled inward in a desperate, cowardly stance. Terrified.
Aimi's gaze darted between Gojo and the curse, the truth began to click into place. It wasn't that the creature didn't want to attack — it couldn't.
Gojo's presence alone paralysed it. An overwhelming, almost physical aura blanketed the valley, like a silent storm crashing against the world itself. Even without feeling cursed energy, Aimi could see it — a rippling distortion around him, sheathing him like a living threat.
It was heavy. Oppressive and enough to freeze monsters in fear.
She shivered slightly. Not from fear, but from the sheer realisation of who Gojo Satoru potentially could be.
Aimi lowered the glasses slightly, her heart still thudding against her ribs, and she wasn't feeling so good. The world without them blurred again, and the grotesque sight vanished like a bad dream. She felt a rush of nausea spike up her spine.
"...Tch," she clicked her tongue and put the glasses back on.
"What?" Gojo watched her with a lazy grin. "Too much for your first curse?"
She gave a slow shake of her head. "It's... disgusting."
He chuckled, "You get used to it~" and then his attention turned back to the curse. With a lazy flick of his wrist, a pulse of invisible force rippled out. The curse didn't even scream. It simply crumpled into nothingness, like paper set alight by a flame that never touched it.
The woman collapsed, sobbing softly into her arms. Gojo didn't rush over or even seem to show that he cared. He just stood there, watching with a neutral expression.
Aimi frowned again. She wasn't sure how this was supposed to work, but it felt surprisingly detached. Perhaps she was expecting sorcerers to be hero-like figures? She was very wrong.
He shoved his hands into his pockets. "Someone's already on the way. Barrier team's gonna clean her memory. If we let civilians remember curses, we'd have mass panic on our hands."
Aimi said nothing, watching as the woman slowly rocked herself, unseen rescue squads already beginning to materialise from the mist further down the valley.
"Oya, they are quick today~" Gojo hummed.
Footsteps approached them through the mist, quick, half-panicked.
Aimi glanced up to see a slender man in a soaked suit rushing toward them, umbrella clutched but unopened, rain dripping down his glasses.
"Gojo-san!" the man called out, breathless. "Please, for once, answer your phone!"
Gojo turned lazily toward him, hands still tucked into his pockets."Kiyotaka Ijichi," he drawled, the name slipping from his mouth like a sigh. "You're looking a little more wrinkly since I last saw you."
"It's only been 2 weeks!" Ijichi snapped, adjusting his glasses furiously. "And you're the reason I look like this!"
Gojo just grinned, entirely unfazed.
"The principal's been trying to reach you all week! The higher-ups are furious—again! We can't keep covering for your negligence, Gojo-san!"
"Negligence~?" Gojo tilted his head innocently. "C'mon. The kids are fine. My first-years are second-year now. They can wipe their own noses. Mostly."
Aimi blinked. He doesn't sound particularly responsible, probably even back when his students were first-years.
"You're still their instructor!" Ijichi pressed.
"Technically," Gojo stretched his arms lazily over his head. "Anyway, not my fault the next batch of first-years isn't arriving for another month. I'm just enjoying my paid vacation."
"You call this 'vacation'?"
"You call this 'work'?"
Ijichi's eye twitched dangerously, but he soldiered on."The real issue is the Sukuna finger, Gojo-san. The higher-ups are still finalising the retrieval plan, but if you keep acting like this, they might assign someone else."
Gojo raised an eyebrow. "Huh. They're still dragging their feet about that?"
"You're not exactly helping by being unreachable!" Ijichi groaned. "They can't rely on you if you won't even pick up your damn phone- ahem, excuse me."
Gojo chuckled, "Calm down~ They don't have a choice," Gojo said simply, stretching his arms above his head. "It's not just another cursed object. It's Sukuna's finger. If they hand it off to someone incompetent, we're gonna have a special-grade curse party before sunset."
Ijichi grimaced. "Still… It's just a finger. Technically, any Grade 1 sorcerer should be able to handle it."
"You can tell yourself that if it helps you sleep, Ijichi," Gojo shrugged. "A single finger's enough to level half a city block; they'll be cleaning up bodies with one wrong move. Those old bastards can't afford that."
Ijichi visibly deflated, his mouth opening... then shutting again.
"You know," Gojo continued, tone casual again, "I'm the best option. They know it too. They just don't like admitting it out loud, right Aimi-chan?" he suddenly turned towards her with a grin.
"What?" She failed to understand how this was her problem.
Ijichi noticed her then, blinking awkwardly. "And... who is this?"
"None of your business," Gojo grinned, slinging an arm casually around her shoulder. "Yet."
Aimi tensed, resisting the urge to push him off.
"Anyway," Gojo said brightly, breaking the mood with a clap of his hands, "you tell Principal Gandalf that if he wants me to behave, he can bake me a cake."
Ijichi looked like he had aged another ten years on the spot."...I'll tell him something," he muttered bitterly.
With one last tired bow, he disappeared into the mist, retreating toward the clean-up team that had arrived in quiet, practised waves.
Gojo watched him leave, hands casually slipping back into his pockets.
"Poor guy's gonna pop a blood vessel one day," he mused aloud, turning to Aimi with a lazy smile.
"You seem like a nightmare to work with." She walked off with her chin deeper into her scarf.
"Don't look so overwhelmed, Aimi-chan~" he teased and followed her. "You're gonna have to get used to hearing crazier stuff sticking around."
"I'm not sticking around."
"Sure you're not~"