Beyond the Event Horizon

The first bits of consciousness came to him one cold spring morning in the middle of a forest. At that moment he didn’t know much, even his name. He didn’t know where he was, what day it was, why did he even exist. He just… woke up. With no purpose. With no name. Without a single thought of what this piece of land was and why it feels familiar despite it all. Without any semblance of understanding what he was on the inside or outside. Why was he even sure it was spring in the first place? What spring even was? He knew the word from somewhere. For some reason he couldn’t remember its meaning. Just that it was actually spring. Probably. And it’s not like he really felt the cold either. He knew what was cold, vaguely, but either he was generally tolerant to different temperatures or… A cry. He startled at the sound, swiftly turning in its direction, but he still took a few seconds to get around turning his body downwards when he found the source of the noise. On the ground, partially hidden in the grass, laid a bundle of… something. Someone, he corrected himself immediately, for a while just watching as the bundle of dark green fabric just squirmed under him, making small noises and occasionally crying. It was probably called… a child? A baby. Children were slightly bigger, he supposed. Or was it one and the same? The cries didn’t stop. He was growing annoyed by it. Arms, arms… he should probably have arms, right? At least, something similar definitely crossed his line of sight a second ago. Was it a second?.. Right. The child. A child was still crying under him. He was probably cold here, on the ground, in just a… blanket? Yes. That must’ve been a blanket. Whoever left the baby here, they at least made sure he didn’t die from the cold in the first hours. It was still pretty early and it was a decently shaded part of the forest, so it won’t get warmer any soon here. He needed to at least find the warmer part of the forest. A single blanket can’t give enough warmth. With this in mind the curse has finally lifted the baby in his arms, carefully holding him in a protective gesture. Surprisingly enough, he quieted down quickly after this, falling back asleep, which was good because he didn’t know what animals were there. Though if there were animals, he could catch them to feed the baby, right? No, something’s off… babies so small couldn’t eat meat yet, he supposed. Why, though? He stopped, lifting the child in front of him to get a better look, pushing the edge of the blanket with his finger. Of course, he was small and couldn’t eat an entire hare or a squirrel, but… Oh. He didn’t have teeth. That complicated things. How was he supposed to feed a child who couldn’t eat what was given to him? But what if he found another human? Yes. Humans should know how to treat human babies… probably. At least they would be definitely better at this. This way he had better chances at keeping him alive. With this thought, he headed for the closest town. And so, on 20th of March of 2003, a special grade curse that named itself Gojo later, reached the outskirts of Sendai.

***

Twenty hours. Twenty. Goddamn. Hours. Of hell. And for what? All for Yuuji to be born dead. When the midwife left her in the room alone with her breathless baby, Kaori didn’t know what to think. How was she even supposed to break the news to her husband? Her Yuuji. Her son they’ve been waiting for for so long. How could this be?.. At which point did it go wrong? She watched the pregnancy carefully so that this very outcome wouldn’t happen. Neither of the planned checks showed any problems with him… absolutely nothing hinted at this happening until the very birth. Ah… but there was so much planned for this one. If only he survived his own birth, her Yuuji would’ve become a perfect vessel in the future. After all, with his lineage? He would’ve survived almost anything thrown at him. But oh well. Almost a year has gone to waste now. And even if it wasn’t much in the bigger picture, this pregnancy definitely wasn’t a pleasant one and she wasn’t eager to repeat the experience. Kaori rested a hand on her forehead with a heavy sigh, fingers grazing over the finally healed scar. What a surprise, it really did heal quicker than the majority before. She half closed her eyes, throwing her head back and staring at the ceiling blindly in utter physical and mental exhaustion. Oh well. This body was surprisingly resilient. Maybe the next attempt will be more successful. Wasting this material would’ve definitely been stupid.

***

In the few weeks spent on Sendai’s outskirts, Gojo worked out a working plan for keeping the baby alive. It was simple and effective, just perfect for him on this stage when he was still getting used to the place and couldn’t always stay with the baby if they wanted to survive another week. And the plan was the following: he found an unexplored home where specifically non-sorcerers lived and their closest neighbors were just civilians as well. This was important if he wanted to go unnoticed by unwanted eyewitnesses. Ideally he found the houses with mothers and children and no cameras that could catch the movement that wasn’t supposed to be there. And no animals to minimize the risks. After the conditions were met, Gojo brought the bundle, now with some sort of basket for extra protection, to the door and rang, staying close to quickly take the child back in case. Usually, as soon as the residents saw an abandoned baby at their door, they grew worried and took him inside so as not to leave him out in the cold. If they were lucky, they didn’t have the thought to call the police about it for at least a couple of hours. In these cases he was at least fed and sometimes even washed if they were extra lucky. Gojo would let them relax around him, watching the baby’s reactions. Sometimes it just ended in a staring contest between the two when he seeked out a familiar face and calmed down as soon as he found it in a corner of the room. Something was telling Gojo that a non-human face, if he could even call it a face, shouldn’t bring as much comfort to a baby, however familiar it was. Not that he complained, that only made it easier for people to care for him when the curse wasn’t capable of it to a needed extent. After the child’s needs were successfully met and he maybe even got a couple of hours of sleep in the warm, they didn’t stay there for long. The longest they stayed with a family before they finally decided to do something about the unknown baby was three days. The majority didn’t even last a full day, and with the first signals of distress from the baby himself or their shelter, Gojo took him and ran the moment the residents averted their gazes. In most cases he also managed to grab some food for him in case they had to last without a shelter for longer. He avoided getting far into the city. Not only was it loud here and this child was afraid of noise, the amount of people around brought the risk of being noticed unnecessarily high. Of course, there was another reason Gojo never went to the heart of Sendai, with the child or not. He knew he was strong, very strong. He killed every other curse in the area he found the caretakers for the child without an issue, no matter how strong they were. There was something out there that worried even him. And Gojo didn’t want to endanger the baby where he could avoid it. And that’s why the day he felt the presence moving closer to their shelter, Gojo hastily left Sendai with the child in tow, hidden within the dense black fog. And so they headed for the south.

***

Yuuji. The child that’s been in his care for almost three months, had the name Yuuji. Gojo didn’t know for sure why exactly he gave him this specific name, but for some reason he felt that it was the right one. Good. Took him long enough to give him any name at all. He was glad this summer was relatively warm, by the way. Clearly, he wouldn’t expect a particular heat in the middle of June, especially considering how much time they spent in the woods now, hiding from people along the way, but Yuuji was a very active baby, and very curious among other things. Yuuji would smile, it seemed, to absolutely everything they’ve encountered on the way. He kept stretching his hands towards occasional animals or birds that didn’t run away when they noticed him. Sometimes Gojo made stops in these parts of the woods, allowing the child to explore all he could reach. Sometimes he tried to coax an imitation of talking out of him, as much as a baby was capable of it. He was lucky with this, Yuuji learned to make noises other than his cries after spending so much time with humans. In moments like these, Gojo minutely regretted that he couldn’t talk himself and the baby wasn’t sentient enough to even notice the link between them that grew stronger by a week. Yuuji still answered to rare noises that the curse made occasionally, imitating the presence of voice chords. Just so that he wouldn’t have as many problems with teaching him to talk… somehow. Protecting him without worrying about the cold as much was definitely a refreshing thing, which Gojo didn’t know he needed. The people in the area were beginning to suspect something when he brought the baby to them like he used to do in Sendai, which forced him to limit the amount of contact significantly. He was almost sure that the locals were starting to suspect a scheme with the abandoned child, noticing that the food tended to disappear after Yuuji’s stay. That forced them to deviate from the course significantly this month. Gojo was simply circling around the near prefectures now, covering as much distance as he could in short periods of time, making sure to keep to less populated areas with little exception. And that’s considering the fact that Gojo knew for sure that this destination was somewhere close to Tokyo. He still didn’t really understand what they needed there and why, and yet that was the direction they were heading in with various success. Although, they did cover more than half the way throughout this time, no matter how complicated their route was. If he’s lucky and Yuuji manages to sleep for long enough, he’ll be able to cover around half of the remaining distance in just one day. Whatever it was they needed in Tokyo, it better be worth it because the closer they got to their destination, the less Gojo liked the idea for various reasons.

***

The first time Gojo had to protect Yuuji from the curses directly happened to be by the edge of Tokyo, which they reached only by the beginning of July. That definitely wasn’t his proudest moment in life because by all accounts, this day he made a very stupid, very dangerous and nearly lethal mistake. And, to add the sault to the wound, it nearly became lethal not only for Yuuji, but also for a human in no way connected to their world. Or so he thought initially. But let’s start from the beginning. Gojo had noticed the weird detail about the area he managed to keep ignoring for weeks while they were still getting through the woods and the cities outskirts for the last few days: the curses here were far more active than at the north, which was understandable, considering that they were relatively close to Tokyo Jujutsu High, one of the more noticeable centers of the sorcerers’ activity. The cursed energy here circulated far better than the places sorcerers usually tended to avoid, unless sent there on a mission. Unfortunately, that also meant that he needed to be twice as careful with Yuuji so as not to be seen by the locals and not attract sorcerers’ attention. Which was a hard task by itself, considering that the closer they got, the more clearly Gojo saw that for some reason their target was not just somewhere in Tokyo, but the Jujutsu High itself. In other words, the place where a curse wouldn’t go unnoticed… unless they were met with extremely lucky circumstances under which both the students and the teachers wouldn’t be inside. Which meant that now all they could do was wait until the opportunity presented itself to them. And for now… well, about the same thing they’ve been doing for months. He needed to find food for Yuuji. Of course he could’ve gone the obvious way and hid in the outskirts just like he always did, but with Tokyo’s population density Gojo found the opposite option of hiding in the mass more logical. Moreover, the local sorcerers usually tended to avoid the block he chose for himself as it was nearly entirely devoid of cursed spirits. He could work with that. Unusual, but fine. That was his first mistake that day. To think that the curses really wouldn’t bother them here. The apartment building he chose this time was different from the neighboring ones because here Gojo didn’t feel any cursed energy disturbances, that should’ve ruled out the possibility of a sorcerer living here. At the very least, at the moment. Clearly this conclusion was also proven wrong. By the time he found a suiting apartment where he could leave Yuuji to sleep, he felt the first spike of the cursed energy. Whether those were curses accidentally stumbling across the area or a new one didn’t really matter to Gojo when he realized that they were considerably stronger than the ones they usually met along the way. The type that was significantly harder to exorcize with a child in your hands. And that was why Gojo headed out alone, leaving Yuuji alone and reasoning that he’d be back in just a few minutes. Maybe he overestimated his abilities after not meeting strong curses for so long, not counting the shadow of that one in Sendai. Maybe he was distracted from the job because he thought of Yuuji at the wrong time again when he realized someone else was there now. Maybe he wasn’t cautious enough and left the traces on the way himself, leading the curse inside. In any case, that made him make a quick job of the remaining curses and hurry back, not paying attention to the mess his haste created. Even if he left claw marks on the wall of the building, he definitely didn’t pay it much mind as he scaled it to the needed floor. There it is. Right in the middle of the room Gojo identified as the living room crawled the curse he missed. Not higher than s semi-first grade, sure, but he was far from certain that Yuuji’s natural defense would’ve dealt with it before he had an awakening. And that’s why he didn’t stop for a second, jumping from the windowsill he climbed a moment ago and piercing the curse’s neck with his claws. Of course, it would’ve been much quicker to destroy it with his technique, but Gojo tried to avoid the more destructive methods when there could be people nearby. Only when the curse’s head, cleanly cut off with one hand, fell away did Gojo notice the noise under him. From below his victim fell a kitchen knife, falling to the floor with a clatter. Confused, he turned the corpse in his hands around to notice a wound in his chest that still had traces of cursed energy. Not his cursed energy. A sharp intake of air from behind him attracted Gojo’s attention, making him turn towards the sound. For a few long moments time in the apartment seemed to have slowed a hundred times as the curse slowly came to the realization. Before him stood… a child. He couldn’t call the boy any other name, with his messy blonde hair and crooked windbreaker, half hiding a carefully held Yuuji, Gojo didn’t think he could give him more than eleven. The boy had Yuuji. And he was a sorcerer, if an inexperienced one. And then, as Gojo started to slowly approach him to take the child, the boy fell to his knees with a scream and covered Yuuji with his body. Oh. Looks like he made a mistake.

***

Kento Nanami knew that he was different from his family and peers from his childhood. He knew that because nobody else he knew could see the demons that hid in every corner, waiting to attack the ever unsuspecting humans. Kento knew with his gut that these demons, even the smallest of them, were dangerous to him too, which was why he wisely avoided any contact with them, often changing the direction of his walks as soon as he noticed the familiar shadows in the alleys. He reasoned he wasn’t the only one to see them as far from every monster stayed in the Tokyo streets for long, usually disappearing after just a few days. He really hoped that it meant there were others who were bothered by them, and that these people were strong enough to kill them and keep the civilians’ peace. Sometimes Kento saw how some of them grew bolder and caught onto passerby to bother them and add extra weight the reason for which they never found out about. Sometimes he managed to snatch the smaller ones down and stomp them out. Sometimes he thought that when they disappeared, something faintly glowed blue under his sneakers. The catch was that in the thirteen years of his life he only saw the relatively small demons, definitely no bigger than a dog. And never by his building. And so the picture he saw in his apartment when he returned home from getting groceries was a completely unexpected one for several reasons. In his living room stood one of those monsters,a much bigger one than anything he’s gotten to face before. It didn’t take notice of him yet, standing with its back to Kento despite the opened door noise, but that just meant that there was something interesting enough in front of it… but what? He knew for sure that they didn’t have pets that could’ve attracted a big predator which this demon probably was. Time slowed for Kento when as he was silently making his way to the kitchen to leave the groceries on the table and maybe call someone to come and help if not destroy it, then at least scare it with numbers, he heard a cry. A child’s cry. There was a child in his apartment and it was in danger at the moment. Kento Nanami never was a hero type. He couldn't even always protect himself at school when other boys wanted to start fights without a reason, and now he had to deal with a demon at least twice his size. He didn’t even have time to think at all before he took the closest knife from the stand and ran out to the living room before throwing it in the monster’s body. It went straight through its shoulder, making the demon cry out in pain and fall to the floor, spilling its disgusting purple blood on everything around. From what he’s seen before, it won’t stop it for long, so Kento didn’t waste time and ran to the baby, hastily picking him up and running to the more open part of the living room. For a moment he allowed himself to entertain the thought of luring the demon to the window and pushing it out of it, but he quickly dismissed the thought, realizing that he was likely not strong enough to pull it. Now… what? Play cat and mouse with it? Run for his life? Take the rest of the knives from the kitchen and try to beat it with them? No… nothing sounded good. Whatever way Kento thought of, he couldn’t think how to survive this scenario without getting trapped in the corner and eaten along with the baby. At least he stopped crying now, calmed in his hands. Perhaps he was just scared as he was right now. How did the baby even get here, to the fifth floor? It didn’t really matter in the face of the probably inevitable death as the demon kept getting closer to him, ignoring the already almost healed wound despite the knife still sticking out of it, driving Kento further into the corner he didn’t even notice getting into. That was it. This is where he dies and nobody will know what killed him because nobody else in his family could see these monsters. Everything they’ll see will be their son’s mutilated body with an unknown baby in his hands. If there’s gonna be something left of them. Who knew, maybe it eats people? Time slowed down for Kento for the second time when he felt something from behind him that was far scarier than whatever it was before him. Its presence was suffocating, paralyzing in terror. He didn’t dare lift his eyes to the new intruder, assuming they were on one side. Whatever Kento expected, it wasn’t for the new guest to attack the demon he wounded, taking it down in mere seconds, judging by the sound. He honestly tried to ignore the wet noises of flesh being torn and thrown around and dropped on the floor and the stench of sulfur and copper immediately filling the living room. He just stood there still, holding the baby and hoping that the monster wouldn’t notice him, satisfied with its catch, even as he felt the puddle of blood reaching his feet. For several painfully long seconds, silence filled the apartment with Kento fearing to even breathe in so as not to get attention, and this silence was ruined with the knife he already forgot was there falling to the floor. When the previously silent demon made a confused noise, dropping the rest of the body, he couldn’t contain a sharp intake of air, stepping back on instinct and forgetting that there was only the corner behind him. It turned in his direction. Only now did Kento take a proper look at what was standing in front of him. Over 6 feet tall, and that’s considering that it didn’t have a lover part but just black fog flowing on the floor, the creature seemed to consist of a weird mix of it and something like muscles. As if it couldn’t decide whether it should keep a physical form. For some reason he noticed its absence of mouth before he met all six of its eyes. Before, it seemed, only two of them sat in its face while the rest four traveled around the body, opening wherever they were needed at the moment. Now all six opened on its face, watching Kento carefully. He had a moment to think that he saw their blue before in the sky on cloudless days when he noticed what the demon was looking at. The child in his arms. And he, not realizing the danger he was in, only scrunched his face in a semblance of a smile and outstretched his arms towards the monster. The panic that’s been accumulating in his body in all these painfully long minutes was finally starting to get out. His legs gave out in the moment of sudden weakness and Kento fell to his knees with a scream, bending in a way to at least hide the child from its view. But the lethal hit didn’t come right away, nor in ten seconds, not even after a minute. The demon stopped making any noises again, moving or not, and so he couldn’t even understand whether it was close or not. Just that it stayed in the living room as the suffocating sense of fear didn’t go away. And then he felt it. Right over his head. With the new sound that Kento could only identify as confusion, it put one hand on his shoulder while not touching his back with its claws and the other was outstretched downwards, in the child’s direction. What?

***

Gojo genuinely didn’t understand what he was doing wrong right now. He got rid of the curse that was threatening this boy. He didn’t hurt him or his home. He just wanted to return Yuuji and walk away in peace, so why was it so hard? He even made sure not to touch him with claws, dealing with which was still quite a problem to deal with. Literally everything he did was to outstretch his hand to his hand to his ward, indicating his intent. Nonetheless, the boy hesitated to give Yuuji back to him, no matter how friendly Gojo tried to look instead of threatening him. Ah. It seemed he still thought that he was in danger? That could be fixed. With this thought the curse got away and went back to the knife that was still on the floor near the half decayed body and lifted it in his hands, contemplating. No, this one was too small… sure, it could’ve suited a more experienced sorcerer for sneaky attacks, but not a child. Maybe there was something bigger? He moved further into the apartment, this time looking for a kitchen. Right. There should be knives in the kitchen. Maybe he should give him a choice of what to make a cursed tool from? No, that’s not it either, without a proper explanation the child won’t understand what he wants from him. Maybe he wouldn’t want any weapon after this experience at all… No, wait, if he has a single bit of common sense, he’d understand that he would need a way to deal with curses until he masters his technique, if he even has one. On the other hand, he’s still thinking about a scared child. He doesn’t have any reason to say that he’d actually act logically. Oh well. Winging it it is. After a quick search in the kitchen Gojo finally found a knife that seemed to be a fitting size in his eyes. Sure, even this cleaver won’t deal with every curse… but that should do for now. If the kid is lucky enough, another sorcerer will find him and get him into Tokyo High. Though this won’t be his problem anymore. Gojo didn’t really think how much of his cursed energy was flowing through the knife, not knowing for sure what his limits were until the blade cracked by the edge in his hands. Oh right… something about putting only a little at the time. Hm. Where has he heard that before?.. One way or another, soon he managed to get enough energy in the blade for the kid to last against the curses. Yeah, that should last him long enough before he gets a more suiting weapon. Satisfied with his work, Gojo went back to the living room and calmly placed the cleaver before the boy, waiting for his reaction. He, flinching from a sudden noise, didn’t immediately lift his head, probably waiting for the danger. Impatient for him to straighten his back, the curse lightly pulled at his arms, wanting him to finally release Yuuji. He might be calm now, warm in his hands and far from the noise, but as soon as he’s hungry… Gojo wanted to get away before he starts crying because of it, especially considering that he didn’t solve the food problem in the chaos. But the boy didn’t budge. Gojo made an annoyed clicking noise at this and pulled at his arm again, more persistently. This time the boy at least lifted his head, carefully meeting all of his six eyes, two of which already lowered at Yuuji while the rest still watched him and the weapon on the floor. He was barely breathing in this position, probably trying to make as little noise as possible in front of an objective danger on instinct and yet keeping enough self control to protect the child without bothering him. Though it would’ve been utterly useless had Gojo wanted to take his ward by force, but still, he deserved some extra points at least for the effort. Now, when he finally had his attention on Gojo, the curse dropped the boy’s arm and pointed at Yuuji with his finger, grabbing the air and pointing at himself with the other for further convincing. Perhaps, the fact that all this time he kept relatively patiently trying to get his point across instead of lashing out when things didn’t go his way finally started working because the boy finally remembered that he, unlike Gojo, was capable of talking. “You… want to take him?” He asked carefully, his eyes slowly drifting from the curse to the child in question and back. He frowned when Gojo nodded in response. “Why?” Ugh. These humans and their constant complicated questions. With another click from somewhere within its body, the curse turned its head towards the middle of the living room where only the knife lay reminding of the short fight, pointing at it with his finger first, then at the boy and Yuuji in his arms again, patiently waiting for the dots to connect in the scared kid’s head. Seriously, though. He should’ve already guessed what he wanted if out of the three creatures here only the other curse was killed. “You’re… protecting him?” He tried, receiving a satisfied nod. He was finally thinking. Gojo was slowly losing hope that it’d happen. The boy threw another long glance at the baby in his hands at this, contemplating what he should do. But obviously he realized the best course of action in this situation soon enough and carefully took him out of his windbreaker to place him in the curse’s outstretched hands. As soon as Yuuji was secure in his void, Gojo pushed the cleaver towards the kid and turned back to the kitchen, deciding to deal with the food problem at last. Sure, he didn’t see signs of small children living here, but what if he was lucky? “Hey… what are you doing?” The boy called from behind him as Gojo was rummaging through bags and cabinets in the kitchen, receiving only clicks in response. Honestly, what could he be possibly doing with the groceries while holding a human baby? “I, uh… I don’t think he should eat anything here.” Oh. Gojo stopped his search, turning to him with his whole body and noticing with satisfaction that by this moment the handle of the cleaver stuck out of his belt. Good. He was starting to understand that the weapon was meant for him. “He’s still so small,” he continued, nodding his head towards Yuuji. “Less than a year, right? They don’t eat that yet. Ahem… I have a friend outside of school, he knows more about it… I can call him to make sure what to feed him.” Gojo narrowed his eyes at him to this, scanning his face for any sign of lie or ill intent, but he could only see fear and interest slowly peeking from under it. This, he could work with. If only he had voice cords, he would’ve laughed when this boy quickly escaped the kitchen as soon as he waved his hand at him. But, allowing himself to tune out the sounds of the phone call, Gojo really thought about it as he looked at Yuuji in his arms. That was the first time a human was openly and relatively voluntarily helping him, knowing of his existence. And in all four months of traveling with him this was the first time when he received at least some explanation on what to do and how, even if through third parties. Nonetheless, that was definitely better than simply watching and trying to copy them hoping that he’s repeating the steps correctly. Maybe he really needed help from someone who really knew at least something about raising children.

***

Kento realized that he hadn't been breathing properly all this time only when he was finally left alone in the apartment, grabbing at his heart as his knees gave out for the second time in the hour. Only now that the adrenaline ran out in his blood did he start to realize what a bullet he dodged and how easy it would be to enrage the monster had he shown any aggression towards that child. A child. God, it had a child. And he was still alive. Moreover, the demon took care of him, protected him. Throughout his life Kento had never seen anything like this. And something was telling him that he probably won’t see anything like this again. After all, what are his chances of meeting two monsters who weren’t willing to hurt people? At least a selected few of them. To a certain, if tiny in comparison to the horror he experienced, degree, he was even grateful to it. Deep inside he was starting to realize that what he did to the smaller demons in the alleys wouldn’t do much in the long run. Even if there were others who could see and take them down, there clearly weren’t enough of them to keep every civilian safe. He was really far from a hero, but if he was quite literally given a weapon that was presumably supposed to help him against other demons, who was he to decline it? Lying to his parents about what happened to the cleaver when they finally noticed its absence several days later was surprisingly easy. Kento didn’t like lying, but this was much easier than relying to explain what really happened to them. They couldn’t even see those monsters, how would they be able to protect themselves? And if in the next weeks Kento Nanami felt an already familiar gaze of those blue eyes on his back as he killed another weaker demon on a free evening, he didn’t show how his body still tensed up with fear every time. At least he was almost certain that it helped clear his area from stronger monsters. If not for sport, then at least for this child’s protection.

***

The opportunity to sneak into Tokyo Jujutsu High finally presented itself to Gojo only by the middle of September, as much as the long wait annoyed him. He found it almost funny to admit that despite the barrier surrounding the place, hiding just beside the mountain was just too easy. He didn’t know why the students suddenly left school with probably the principal and a couple of other sorcerers, but not that it was too important and he definitely wasn’t going to complain now when he could finally go there and see what he even needed there. He was extremely lucky that this was one of the days when Yuuji kept quiet for long enough, which happened pretty rarely these days with his new habit of trying to get out and make noise with his babbling. Unfortunately or not, but he didn’t allow himself to leave the baby alone anymore, having gotten to the other side of Tokyo as soon as he made sure that boy could take care of himself now if he won’t pick unnecessary fights. Gojo wasn’t exactly sure about it yet, but something was telling him that the longer they stayed there, the more something… changed in Yuuji aside from his normal development. Something that he couldn’t point a finger at yet. Well, if he’s lucky today, he might prove that theory right as well. To be honest, he was probably supposed to be worried about Tengen’s barrier that wouldn’t let him get too far in. At least he assumed that he was supposed to worry about that, judging by resurfacing knowledge in the fog of his mind. He still didn’t know where different facts came from to his head, but this question was quickly pushed aside again as Gojo went through the labyrinth of the barrier. Which, if his knowledge wasn’t failing him, shouldn’t have been as easy as well, seeing as he was an intruder here. But nonetheless, Yuuji kept grabbing at something in the distance, showing him the way to the storage. Oh well. He took his words back. He was very grateful for his habit of trying to get out of his arms. At least, in this situation. Finally, after many passed doors, they stepped into open space where the trees reached for the ceiling, concealing a small building inside and the passage to… Gojo shook his head, getting rid of the thought before it fully formed in his mind. Not his target. The passage didn’t lead to his target. Good job, Yuuji, he smiled, placing his hand on the storage door. There it was. Whatever has been bothering him for the past six months should be behind this door. To be honest, by this time he was even curious why he’s been protecting this child all this time. That was the reason he got Yuuji, right? Only one way to find out. He was almost surprised to not meet any resistance as he opened the door and silently went inside, taking a look around. This time the directions of Gojo’s and Yuuji’s glances separated and the curse had to stop in its tracks when his Six eyes finally identified the reason he kept looking back at the child. The cursed energy. He didn’t notice it before, too used to the presence of his ward, but now that he had two of his eyes on the several fingers on the wall and the rest on the child, Gojo felt it. Their energy was almost identical as if someone these fingers belonged to was a part of Yuuji already. Or Yuuji was a part of the owner… actually, both options didn’t make much sense to the curse right now. Sukuna. His name was Sukuna, probably. Was the name of the cursed object really that important to him? Right now Gojo wasn’t sure, but decided to remember it for later as he took the fingers to hide them inside him and finally turned to what Yuuji kept grabbing at, growing more upset with each failed attempt at reaching it. Curious, he got closer, glancing at the array of cans, containing… hm. Fetuses? Interesting. What’s more interesting… it seemed that the child was reaching towards a specific one that was the farthest away. Gojo moved to the side, allowing him to grab the container and pull it closer, growing quiet as soon as the glass was securely held in his hands. Well, one cursed object more, one cursed object less, the Tokyo High would panic the moment they realize something was stolen from them in the light of the day anyway. He could afford playing along with Yuuji this time. Who knew, maybe he’d make use of this one?