Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

   Satoru dies staring up at the sky, slowly going cold as the blood leaves his body. He has the utmost faith in his students to finish what he never could, but he wishes that he didn’t have to leave them with such a burden. He feels bad about leaving Shoko behind, too, as the last of their friend group.

   Satoru just hopes he’ll get to see his old friends again, no matter where he ends up.

   .

   ..

   …

   Satoru wakes up staring at a boring grey ceiling, with the lingering dream of an airport, nostalgia, and familiar faces. He wishes he could hold onto it, but it’s already going fuzzy at the edges.

   Satoru is quite confused by his current situation, which he thinks is fair, as there’s quite a lot to be confused about. For example; Satoru’s in a place he doesn’t recognise; his midsection and arms are sore; and, of course, most perplexing of all, he’s alive. Which is bizarre because Satoru was a hundred percent sure that he was a hundred percent dead– but hey, even he’s wrong sometimes.

   Satoru sits up. Since he’s wearing a short sleeved top, he can clearly see why his arms feel sore. On both of them– just above the elbow– is a thick, consistent band of scar tissue all around, exactly where he was cut by Sukuna. Satoru lifts his shirt and finds a similar scar around his midsection. Poking the marks makes a twinge of discomfort travel through them and trying to heal them with Reverse Cursed Technique doesn’t get rid of them at all– even the throbbing pain Satoru feels from them remains.

   When Satoru tries to wiggle his toes to test his movement, they do exactly what they’re supposed to, despite the fact that Satoru’s spine was cleaved in half. It seems the only evidence of his supposed death are his scars, which are mostly superficial. Well, since Satoru’s legs seem to be working just fine, he puts them to use, and stands up, deciding it would be best to get more information from his surroundings.

   He’s in a small, drab apartment, much smaller than his own house, but just as lonely. The mattress he’s sleeping on is sitting in the corner of the room, another corner seems to be delegated to trash that has yet to be taken out, and there’s a lonely table covered in what looks like homework. Right by the genkan , at the front door to the apartment, are the expected shoes and a ratty-looking backpack.

   Just eyeballing the size of the shoes compared to his own feet, Satoru can tell that they’d fit him perfectly. Actually, now that he looks at himself in more detail, taking everything in with his Six Eyes, he notices that his physique has changed. He looks exactly as he did at age fifteen.

   Satoru picks up the backpack and sets it down on the table to rummage through. He’s pretty sure he knows what’s going on now, but he wants to make sure. Satoru sticks his hand into the bag and uses the tried and true method of ‘feeling around for a minute or two until you find what you need’. He pulls out a wallet.

   Sure enough, inside the wallet is a middle school ID with Satoru’s name on it. It says he goes to ‘Aldera Middle School’, which Satoru has never heard of before, and he’s sure he would remember which middle school he went to. (Which was none, in case you’re wondering. Before he attended Jujutsu Tech, he received his education from private tutors and had never properly interacted with anyone outside of his servants and attendants in the Gojo Clan. Suguru and Shoko were actually his first ever friends.)

   Now Satoru is almost a hundred percent sure he knows what happened to him.

   He’s been isekai’d.

Chapter Text

   Satoru has been ignoring the rather large, proverbial elephant in the room for a bit now: the Cursed energy– or, rather, the lack thereof.

   That is not to say that there isn’t any sort of intangible energy that permeates the air here– there is– but there is no Cursed energy.

   Cursed energy is quite like thick oil. It clings tight to objects and people and tends to stick to itself real good, too.

   (That’s how Cursed energy gathers in places. Non-sorcerers passively emit Cursed energy whenever they’re feeling any kind of negative emotion– the stronger the emotion, the more they leak out– that leaked energy sticks to the environment, surrounding it in a bad aura, which evokes more negative emotion from passing people; any unsettled Cursed energy or Cursed Spirits in the vicinity is also drawn to that place, adding even more Cursed energy to the place; and so on, and so forth.)

   But the energy in the air here is entirely unlike the Cursed energy that Satoru has been seeing all of his life. It’s vibrant in a way only an unseeable thing can be, and it moves with purpose. It’s all sorts of hues and textures, and no two parts of it share the exact same properties. Some little pockets of it glob together, but none of it ever lingers in the environment other than a few stray bits that get stuck and those get dislodge pretty quick anyway.

   While Cursed energy feels definitively negative, this energy is almost completely neutral on the whole. The only thing Satoru truly dislikes about it is the building headache that just perceiving has been giving him.

   Satoru plops down into the chair by the table and leans his head back, massaging his forehead. He activates RCT and  feels the tension lessen as a shiver crawls down his spine. (Reverse Cursed Technique always feels like being briefly dipped in ice water to Satoru– the opposite of the too-warm discomfort of using regular Cursed energy.)

   The pressure behind his eyes was much worse than he would have expected for such short exposure to a new energy; getting some sort of eye protection is definitely going to have to be a priority if Satoru wants to be able to function properly.

A phone alarm goes off. Satoru quickly finds it and cancels the alarm, reading the time and date: Friday, 6:00 am. A school day. Though, 6 in the morning is damn early for a school day.

   Satoru doesn’t hate school, per se, but he’s never really enjoyed it either. Most subjects are just too easy for him, and the only thing he ever studied in-depth was Physics, which he was tutored in from a young age so he could better perfect his Cursed Techniques, so Satoru has no lost love for Physics. Either way, he isn’t really stoked to be going to middle school, even if it is for the first time.

   Satoru checks the time again: 6:14 am. It seems he got really lost in his thoughts of ambivalence about school.

   Well, he’s got some time to kill, so Satoru puts on his gakuran uniform, his shoes and backpack, and teleports straight to Tokyo Jujutsu High’s coordinates.

   Satoru knows that it probably won’t be there, since he’s in– what he’s sure is– an alternate version of his universe with no Cursed energy, but it wouldn’t hurt to try.

   When Satoru blinks back into existence, he is only surrounded by forest– no Jujutsu High in sight. Again, he’d been expecting it, but for him to see it with his own eyes feels incredibly surreal.

   He teleports to Kyoto Jujutsu High. Same thing. Not a single trace of it having ever existed in this universe, not even the tiniest vestiges of Cursed energy. Shibuya’s next; not a hint of any of the destruction that took place on Hallowe’en.

   Then Shinjuku. Satoru supposes it’s sort of his resting place now.

   This would be a good opportunity to lay his old life to rest, Satoru thinks, so he transports himself above his death site, high, high above the skyline. He settles down on the roof of one of the taller buildings by his death site. It gives him a beautiful view of the city.

   Instead of looking down, however, Satoru chooses to look up toward the sky, just as he did when he died. He sits down and leisurely watches the clouds go by, allowing his mind to wander.

   Other than the clouds, the azure of the sky is mostly unobstructed. In contrast to that, during the fight against Sukuna, the air was so heavy with dirt and grime that Satoru could only see the sky after he had gone down and the dust had started to settle. He only really got a glimpse of sunlight right before he passed on.

   It’s odd, to Satoru, that it’s only truly hitting him now, after seeing the sky from one of the tallest skyscrapers just above where he and Sukuna fought.

   He died.

   Satoru thinks of Yūji’s bright smile, Megumi’s porcupine hair and sharp tongue, Shoko’s tired jadedness that Satoru always secretly related to… He’s going to miss them, and he wonders: If he had the chance, would he do anything different?

   He thinks he wouldn’t.

   As much as Satoru wishes he could have more time, he knows that he doesn’t and he accepts it. There’s no point wasting time on ‘what-if’s that only serve to make him more miserable. As Yaga- sensei said to Yūji: “No Jujutsu sorcerer dies without regrets.”

   ...

   Satoru’s train of thought peters off after that, but he continues to watch the clouds go by in silence.

   He’s taken his time, but now Satoru is done cloud-watching, so he decides to come down.

   The scenic route seems nice, so Satoru approaches the edge of the building and hops down, slowing his descent with his techniques.

   He touches down on the ground, ignoring the stares of those around him. Lots of people here have unnatural hair colours or odd, mutated features– some more extreme than others. It’s fascinating to Satoru that a world so parallel to his own– with its own Japan, its own Shibuya, its own Shinjuku– can also be so, so different.

   The energy from being surrounded by even just a few people so early in the morning feels overwhelming, and Satoru has to constantly refresh his brain with RCT. He definitely needs to buy some sunglasses. While he strolls slowly through the familiar-unfamiliar streets of Shinjuku, he takes out his wallet, checking how much he has in there.

   There’s a debit card inside, so Satoru opens his phone to check his balance and…

   Oops.

   The clock on his phone says it’s 8:16am, which is– if Satoru can rummage through the backpack and find his new school schedule– 14 minutes before homeroom starts.

   Satoru doesn’t know where Aldera Middle School is. All he knows is that its name sounds like a Star Wars planet. (Which, admittedly, is pretty cool, but that doesn’t tell him much about its location, does it?)

   Thank goodness for Satoru, then, that he has access to modern technological advancements like GPS, and Google Maps. All Satoru has to do is search “Aldera M…” and it pops right up– coordinates included.

   Of course, because Satoru would rather avoid clipping a wall, or the roof, or whatever, he tends to leave a generous room for error and teleport pretty far above where he would estimate the top of the building would be.

   So when he appears, he’s floating a couple metres in the air, and it seems he’s forgotten to account for one thing: the energy.

   Walking through the streets with people somewhat spread out was fine, but popping right above a place filled with adolescents who seem to have a lot of this energy to leak into the air? Awful idea.

   Satoru starts to feel dizzy, and loses focus. He falls down and hits the roof with a loud ‘thump’, accidentally startling someone who was already up there.

   The person shrieked quietly when he fell, and now they are slowly working up the courage to approach Satoru.

   “U-um! Are y-you okay?” They ask hesitantly.

   Satoru resets his brain and cracks his eye open to see what they look like. They appear to be a boy, so Satoru’s going to assume they are unless stated otherwise. The kid has bushy, green hair that sticks out in all directions and four prominent freckles in a diamond pattern on both cheeks. Other than that, he looks rather plain.

   Satoru closes his eyes and hums, though it sounds more like a groan because his head hurts like hell. “I’m good.”

   “Oh, good.” The kid gives Satoru a shaky smile, which almost immediately disappears. “S-sorry for bothering you, then.” He ducks his head and starts to gather his things.

   “Nah, it’s fine,” Satoru dismisses, waving his hand vaguely. “I was the one that startled you, right?” Midori– that’s what Satoru started calling him in his head, because of the hair– nods hesitantly in response, eyes wide, and Satoru continues. “So, really, it’s my bad,” he says, grinning. “What are you doing up here anyway, kid?”

   There’s a confused mumble of, “I don’t think he’s that much older than me..." Then, the kid straightens himself out and responds. “Uh, well, it’s a lot quieter up here, and I thought–” Midori cuts himself off. “B-But if you’ll be using it, I can find somewhere else. I-I mean, there’s lots of other places I could go. The supply closet on the second floor isn’t really used that much...”

   “I won’t be using it again after this,” Satoru assures. “I really need to get going, now. You probably should, too... uh. What’s your name, kid?”
  “M-Midoriya Izuku!” Midori nervously almost-shouts. “S-Sorry for not introducing myself. I-It’s nice to meet you!” He bows with fervor.

    “Midoriya, huh?” Satoru mutters, surprised by how close he got to the kid’s real name with ‘Midori’. He grins. “Well, it’s nice to meet you, too, Izuku-kun! I’m Satoru.”

Chapter Text

   Satoru is not looking forward to sitting through the school day.

   Really, he harbours no ill will towards school, but he’s surrounded by that odd energy and doesn’t have anything socially acceptable to cover his eyes with– like sunglasses which he didn’t manage to acquire. Honestly, at this point, he’s wondering if it’s even worth it to continue with a facade of ‘normalcy’ or if he should just get a damn blindfold already.

   Satoru decides against it; it’s best to act like the Other Satoru, for now, to gather more information on him and better take over his life. (Which is weird to think about. Did he kill the Other him to be here? Was Other Satoru’s soul displaced? If so, where is he now? Did Other Satoru even exist before, or was reality forcefully rewritten to include him just so Satoru could live in this world? Are there parallel versions for everyone from Satoru’s old world in this one? Too many questions…) So, for now, Satoru will just have to bear with the head-splitting pain for now, and ignore the existential implications of his presence in this world.

   The day mostly goes by, and nobody approaches him. Satoru wonders if Other him was just a loner, or if he’s currently radiating ‘fuck off’ vibes so strongly that people just leave him alone. Either way, it works just fine for him.

   It’s only at lunch that anyone dares to approach him, and it looks like it’s the typical large bully who uses their stature to intimidate. “Oi! Gojo-kun, where were you? You were supposed to get us our lunch.” The kid shouts and stares at him with poorly concealed annoyance. It’s supposed to be a glower of sorts, Satoru guesses, but it really isn’t doing a good job at intimidating him.

    “Hm.” Satoru acknowledges them and lazily cracks an eye open. His gaze seems to unnerve the bully. “Didn’t feel like it,” Satoru answers flippantly, but with a finality that indicates that this is the end of this interaction. Satoru shuts his eye again and activates Reverse Cursed Technique. Satoru would mess with the kid more, but his head is killing him, and the healing seems to be having diminishing returns.

   Satoru doesn’t even notice that there’s another kid there until they speak; that really shows just how much the energy all gathering here seems to muddy his extra-sensory perception.

   “Finally grown a pair, Gojo?” Says a snivelling voice that sounds like it would come from the sort of suck-up, brown-noser that always trails behind the biggest bullies in the schoolyard. “Never knew a Quirkless loser like you had it in you.”

   Satoru really does not have enough energy to deal with these idiots, but– wait, ‘Quirkless’? The way that word was spat out implies that it’s generally negative, so, does most of the population have a ‘Quirk’? Are they called ‘Quirky’, then?

   The bullies seem to take Satoru’s pensive– and somewhat annoyed– silence as surrender, and carry on.

   “Right, then,” the big one says, probably crossing their arms. “I’m having mango today, try not to get lost on the way to the vending machine.”

   These kids are really testing Satoru’s already thin patience now, aren’t they? “Why don’t you go get it yourself?” Satoru shoots back; he is so done with this. “God, kids these days are so lazy,” he mutters– mostly to himself, but also to snark the bullies– shaking his head disapprovingly, and promptly leaves, walking at a pace that’s fast enough to lose them after one or two turns in the halls, but not fast enough to look desperate.

   “Hey!” The big kid shouts after him. “This isn’t over yet!”

   Thankfully, once lunch ends and classes resume, he is left alone for the rest of the school day, aside from some staring from the suck-up kid, who shares some classes with him.

   After the bell rings, Satoru notices a broom hurtling towards him as he packs his backpack. He catches it, of course; it would be concerning if he couldn’t do something as simple as that.

   “You caught it,” the snivelling kid narrows their eyes and scrutinises Satoru.

   “And? What’s this about anyways?”

   “Do I really have to remind you?” the kid sneers. “You’re doing our chores for us.”

   Satoru stares at them, unimpressed. He picks up his bag and walks to the door, refusing to acknowledge them any further.

   He finds the door blocked by the large bully from lunch.

   “It looks like you’re forgetting your place,” the bully says, looking pissed. He grabs Satoru’s collar and pulls him so close that he can smell the bully’s awful breath. “Come on, why don’t we have a little talk by the fountain?”

   Then the bully leaves. The suck-up leaves not long after, having quickly nabbed Satoru’s backpack, probably to take it hostage.

   Well, Satoru definitely needs to let off some steam.

   He watches their energy signatures go to the courtyard and teleports right over.

—

   Izuku really doesn’t know what to make of Satoru– he just appeared out of nowhere, kept calling Izuku ‘kid’ despite looking the same age and attending the same middle school, and immediately jumped to first names right after their introductions, so forgive Izuku for finding Satoru a little odd.

   Izuku likes to think that he’s good at reading people and knowing all the patterns and rules of social interaction, but Satoru is really messing with that. Sure, he looks pretty normal on the surface, but it’s the little things about him that come off as odd, like his demeanour, his seemingly deliberate disregard for social conventions, and… his gaze especially. It feels like he’s Perceiving you.

   Izuku only saw Satoru’s for a split second, when Satoru opened them to glance at Izuku, but they were unlike anything Izuku had seen before. They seemed to refract the light like a gem with a billion different facets, and they were perfectly cerulean– they were what you think of when you hear ‘clear, blue skies’, so much so that Izuku had to wonder whether there were little clouds floating around in them, too. Izuku wouldn’t be all that surprised if it turns out that Satoru has an Optical Quirk– if he does, Izuku would really love to bombard him with questions about it.

   Putting the weird interaction, and Satoru’s general inexplicability, out of his mind for now, Izuku heads to class.

   Izuku manages to keep his head down for most of the school day, which he’s pretty proud of! He sits still, doesn’t stick out too much, doesn't raise his hand, but still answers when called on– overall, he did pretty great.

   The end of the day, however, is not so great.

   The teacher loudly brings up Izuku’s dreams to go to UA in front of everyone, including Kacchan. Izuku has a feeling it’s on purpose, and he would be a bit pissed if he wasn’t so anxious.

   Kacchan, of course, takes it as an attack on himself– someone is trying to step on his toes, and it’s Quirkless Deku of all people– or, at least, that’s what Izuku is sure he’s thinking.

   So Izuku stutters and stammers his way through his reasoning, hoping to somehow escape the situation. He wonders why it’s such a horrible thing for someone like him to even try– no, to even hope to make it all the way to UA.

   Everyone else slowly files out of the classroom, dismissed by the bell, as Izuku is backed into a corner– literally and figuratively– by Kacchan. Even the teacher leaves Izuku alone with Kacchan and his lackeys. Izuku must not be worth his time.

   Izuku barely listens as Kacchan goes through his speech of ‘being the greatest’ and ‘not wanting useless Deku getting in his way’, and only tunes back into reality when Kacchan picks up his notebook, scorches it, and tosses it out the window, ignoring Izuku’s frantic protests. Kacchan then gives him a truly awful piece of advice.

   “If you’re really that desperate,” he says with a triumphant smirk. “Then why don’t you pray for a quirk in the next life and take a swan dive off the roof!”

   Then, Kacchan leaves, without any retaliation from Izuku, and Izuku wonders if he can really be a hero if he’s so much of a coward that he backs down from something as small as this out of fear.

   Now Izuku finds himself by the fountain, fishing his book out of the water. “That isn’t food, stupid,” he halfheartedly scolds the koi that nibble on it idly and shakes the water out of his notebook. It’s ruined. “Why would you even say something like that… Idiot.” Just thinking about Kacchan’s ‘advice’ agitates him to no end. “What if I really did do that, huh? If it got out that you suicide baited someone, you’d never make it to UA!”

   Izuku imagines what would happen if, just for once, he stood up to Kacchan and told him what he felt. Sure, it would end in absolute disaster for Izuku, but it sure would be cathartic– as the muttered, imaginary scolding he’s giving an imaginary Kacchan is proving– though, it would definitely involve much more nervous stammering and general stumbling-over of words.

   Izuku growls in frustration, but tries to centre himself, breathing deeply. He reminds himself why he wanted to be a hero in the first place, trying his best to find some motivation, and makes to walk home.

   Except the world really just wants to make his day worse, and some bullies walk into the courtyard, presumably to wait by the fountain. Izuku’s seen them picking on other kids before, and has stopped them a few times, so he knows that they’ll recognise him.

   Thinking quickly, Izuku runs a bit away from them, and ducks behind the closest wall. They’d probably see and chase him if he tried to run away, and Izuku wants to make sure that anyone they meet will be okay before he leaves.

   Izuku hears rustling from the bushes and sees Satoru crouching there. Satoru seems just as surprised to see him there as Izuku is to see him.

   Satoru puts a finger to his lips and slowly creeps out of the bushes.

   “So, what do you guys want to talk about?” Satoru asks, grinning, stretching his lanky arms over his head.

Chapter Text

   Izuku frets silently from behind the wall, chewing on his thumbnail to keep himself from muttering all his thoughts aloud. He grips his now-ruined notebook hard and holds it tight to his chest, stressed.

   He’s only just met Satoru, but Izuku’s worried about him. He doesn’t want to see anyone get beaten up. That’s just basic human decency!

   But… Satoru did gesture for him to stay quiet… and Satoru seems to have some sort of teleportation quirk, so if he really needed to, he could just get away…

   Izuku nods to himself and resolves to let things play out for now, but step in if things get bad.

   One of the bullies– a bulky boy with a mediocre emitter quirk; Izuku is pretty sure that his name is Watanabe– walks up to Satoru and gets right up in his face. “You’ve been acting real cocky today, Gojo,” Watanabe sneers.

    ‘At least I know his last name now…’ Izuku thinks; he’s uncomfortable with the idea of calling someone he isn’t even friends with by their first name. It just doesn’t feel right– too casual. The only person he’s ever called by their first name is Kacchan, even then it’s a stupid childhood nickname, and… things are kind of complicated between him and Izuku.

   Shaking the thoughts away, Izuku turns his focus back to the conversation happening just a bit away from him.

   “I oughta put you in your place,” Watanabe says, and lunges at Gojo, trying to grab him by the collar.

   Izuku thinks he should probably step in now– Gojo is incredibly scrawny compared to the bully. Even Izuku thinks that he himself is more built than Gojo, and he’s built like a twig. He almost steps out from behind the wall, but– before Izuku can intervene– Gojo dodges the attack with effortless grace and speed; not moving a millimetre more than he has to.

   Gojo seems to watch Watanabe stumble past him with a look of disinterest– and maybe… disappointment?– on his face. He looks completely bored as he stares at Watanabe through his strikingly white eyelashes and sighs.

   Watanabe tries to strike again, but Gojo grabs him by the arm and uses his own momentum to throw him to the ground. The other bully– Takahashi; minor transformation quirk– shouts “Watanabe-kun!” in surprise.

   Gojo looks at Takahashi as if challenging him to do something.

   When Takahashi doesn’t make a move, Gojo crouches down and takes something from Watanabe’s pockets.

   Gojo then turns to Izuku and waves with a reassuring grin on his face, slipping the aforementioned ‘something’ into his own pocket. He doesn’t seem to notice Takahashi coming up behind him, having transformed his fingertips into spikes, ready to attack.

   “Gojo-kun, watch out!” Izuku warns him as Takahashi charges forward.

   Without even looking back, Gojo steps to the side just in time, avoiding the attack and grabs Takahashi’s wrist. Using the same move he used on Watanabe, Gojo throws him to the ground effortlessly, despite his own lack of muscle.

   Gojo doesn’t spare them even a glance before he makes his way over to Izuku.

   “Thanks for the warning, Izuku,” he says, ruffling Izuku’s hair. Somehow, it sounds sincere and vaguely patronising at the same time. Gojo starts walking away from the bullies in long, efficient strides. Izuku, who is quite short compared to Gojo, has to jog a bit to catch up, but once he does, he matches pace.

—

   The encounter with the bullies was disappointing. It’s not like Satoru expected them to give him a good fight, but he wanted some drama. They barely even bantered! And their whole bully schtick was incredibly generic. Satoru thinks as he walks alongside Izuku, letting the little, green-haired boy choose where to go. At least Satoru managed to nab one of their wallets in case he didn’t have enough money on his debit card, and he got to see what he thinks people call a ‘Quirk’ in action, if that’s what the snivelling kid’s transformation was.

   Finger-spikes– as he has now dubbed the sniveller– and the big bully had completely different when Satoru Looked. Do they have different powers? Then there’s nervous Izuku, who has no energy. He’s an empty vessel– just like Toji or Maki, after she became whole– but Izuku doesn’t seem to have the sort of monstrous might someone with a Heavenly Restriction would have. Is Izuku quirkless, like Satoru apparently is? Are quirkless people just without power, and nothing in return?

   “U-um, Gojo-kun. Do you have anywhere you need to be?” Izuku asks timidly, obviously wondering why Satoru was walking with him. Izuku is gripping a damp and scorched notebook tightly to his chest and is fidgeting with the pages.

   “Not really, and anyways; when did I get demoted to ‘Gojo-kun’? Aren’t we friends?” Satoru questions playfully, with a faux pout plastered on his face.

  “No! I-I just– I mean, I’ve just never– I–” Izuku splutters, waving his arms around in frantic denial. “Wait, friends?” He says, looking to Satoru for clarification, when he processes the second of Satoru’s questions.

   Izuku is staring at him, doe-eyed– pleading– with barely restrained tears making his eyes glisten, waiting for an answer. Honestly, Satoru thinks it should be illegal for something to be that cute.

   Well, Satoru’s never one to disappoint. “Sure!” He says flippantly, grinning.

   To that, Izuku starts crying.

   Satoru doesn’t know how to respond to that; he’s never been one for emotional vulnerability, preferring to cry silently, hidden away from the world. There’s no room for weakness as the Honoured One– The Strongest doesn’t get sad.

   Even being a teacher and having sort of raised Megumi (not really, but it’s the thought that counts, right?) Satoru had never had anybody cry so openly in front of him, except for maybe Shoko that one time. He didn’t know how to deal with it then, and he still doesn’t now.

   What shakes him out of his frozen stupor is the smile he sees on Izuku’s face, even under all the tears and snot. Izuku is absolutely beaming as he wipes away his tears, even though they just keep coming.

   Something about that unrestrained smile reminds Satoru of Yuji, and he feels a twinge of something in his heart before he quickly shoves it down.

   Feeling supremely awkward, Satoru just pats Izuku on the back until the tears slow to a stop.

   “S-sorry, I’m just– I’m just not– I haven’t had friends in a while,” Izuku admits, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly and starting to walk again.

   Satoru puts his hands in his pockets and follows. “I haven’t either, so don’t worry about it,” he says with fake cheer, glad the kid isn’t facing him right now. Satoru’s sure he’s got a complicated expression on his face at the moment, and he doesn’t have anything to obscure his eyes like he usually does.

   That reminds Satoru, he needs to get glasses. “Hey, Izuku. Do you have time for a detour? I need to buy something.”

   “Sure, Goj– S-Satoru-kun.”

   “Great!” Satoru speeds up his walking just a bit until he’s in front to lead the way. He closes his eyes and then extends his range of Sight, looking for a place that sells glasses. Satoru keeps walking forward in the general direction of Downtown Musutafu, even as he searches for a shop. He sways a little on his feet, taking in much more information than before– even if it’s in less detail than it would be if he were looking at it with his main pair of Eyes, it’s in a much larger range.

   Finally, he finds it, and he narrows his vision once more to the area just around him.

   When he opens his eyes, he and Izuku are in an underpass.

   “G– Satoru-kun,” Izuku starts timidly, fidgeting with a battered notebook.

   “Yeah?”
  “Um, y-you closed your eyes for a while, b-but were still able to walk around without hitting anything; d-does that have something to do with your quirk?” He asks, rushing the last bit out anxiously, still fiddling with his notebook, like he’s barely holding himself back from opening it.

   Gojo pauses for a moment to process the too-fast words. Izuku seems to take this the wrong way.

   “O-only if you feel comfortable sharing! A-and I don’t have to write it down either!” Izuku sputters and shoves his notebook into his bag harshly.

   Satoru opens his mouth to reply, when suddenly, he senses something approaching rapidly. He puts himself between Izuku and the conspicuous manhole just a couple metres away from them. Only a moment later, horrible smelling sludge oozes through the holes in the manhole cover.

   Something– no– someone has emerged from the sewers, entirely made of sludge, but still registering as human to Satoru’s Cursed eyesight. The odd energy of this new world– Satoru has decided to call it ‘Quirk Energy’– permeates their entire body, warping it beyond recognition into something that Satoru would have mistaken for a curse if not for his Six Eyes.

   “Two human hiding places… What luck!” The Sludge Person says as they fling themself at Satoru and Izuku.

   Izuku freezes for a moment before trying to grab Satoru to put behind himself, but Satoru doesn’t budge. Extending his arm with his palm facing towards the oncoming sludge, Satoru focuses all his attention on expanding his Infinity to protect both himself and Izuku– it’s much harder to use his Cursed Techniques with his current body, but Satoru does it anyways.

   The moment the oncoming sludge hits Satoru’s barrier, it slows to a stop instantaneously, freezing in place as more sludge piles onto it. Izuku– who had squeezed his eyes shut in anticipation of the oncoming attack– opens them and looks in shock and awe at Satoru, arm still extended, and the floating sludge.

   “W-what the?! What did you do to me?!” The Sludge person demands as they try and fail to pull away the sludge that hit Infinity.

   Satoru blasts away the sludge and focuses on his surroundings once more. He senses another energy signature approaching from the sewers. This time, it feels overwhelming in its sheer amount and density of energy that swirls with so many colours that it’s dizzying.

   Whoever it is arrives; the manhole cover comes flying off, hitting the roof of the underpass and reverberates with a loud ‘clang!’.

   “It’s all right now!” They bellow. “Why? For I am here!”

Chapter Text

Dear readers,

I wanna say, I am so sorry for going on hiatus so early in the story, but I realised that this posting style just isn't for me. What I do is post the chap just after I finish it, no betaing or rereading after a break, which is dumb and stupid and makes me wanna tear my hair out every time I see a mistake or something I want to tweak in a chapter (slight hyperbole here, but still).

Recently, I've been writing a somewhat cringy SI-OC insert story just for myself that I will NEVER post, and I realised how much better it was to be able to go back and edit even the first chapter to retroactively add setup and change things to fit the direction of the story. I really struggle to write outlines, so I do vibes-based writing and do whatever feels right as long as it loosely follow the direction in my head. I also feel a lot of pressure to post withing a reasonable time frame, and I just can't do that. I write slow as fuck, so oops.

Another thing is: I've fallen out of both the BnHA and JJK fandoms. Usually, what happens with fandoms, especially ones that are still quite active, is that I will leave them for while and come back later with a fresh point of view, so my writing might be even better. I also promise that I will still work on this (even while not posting) even if I am not actively part of the fandom anymore whenever I can. I really do love this idea, and I have a story to tell, I just struggle to find the enthusiasm to write it that I had when I started.

Also, this is my first longfic, and I was not prepared for what that entails. Writing a oneshot and posting it w/out thinking much about setting things up,* etc, is so much different than actually having to make a coherent, long-running story, and I curse my impulsivity every waking hour, especially since I'm also the kind of person who likes to plan things out. (I have no idea how both of those can happen at the same time)
*(the reason I don't have any on my acc is bc I impulsively orphaned them out of shame for their bad writing)

School's also starting again, and it takes up so much energy. You're tellling me I have to be around people? ALL DAY? Ew. All jokes aside, school really does take up a lot of my energy, and I just have less overall energy to spare for writing this story, so the updates would come suuuuuper slow. (I wasn't even in school when I started writing this, and even then the writing process was super slow)

I am also unhappy with how I characterised the characters (sounds kinda redundant, lol) and need to rewatch the shows to get a better grasp on them, but watching them while not being actively invested in the fandom feels more like a chore than anything else, so oops again! I find it super hard to get into a chara's mindset, so I really need to pay active attention to notice things abt them. I'll be reworking them, and might edit the old chaps or post a new fic.

I wanna thank y'all so much for your comments, kudos, etc;. I really love seeing them, and I honesly couldn't be more greatful for your support of my writing endeavours, but I want write for myself first and foremost and be happy with it, so for all these reasons, I will not be posting for... a while. I don't have a specific timeframe, but I promise that as long as I don't die for some reason, this will get updated eventually (knock on wood that I didn't jinx myself). Prob in another fic in a series w/ this one or something. I've been thinking abt going on hiatus for while, but couldn't gather the courage to announce it bc I didn't wanna let y'all down, but, again, I need to write for myself, or else it won't be as good.

I will continue to write this while reworking it, just while not posting, and it may take a while. I might post other things in the meantime, but they will probably not be in the JJK or BnHA fandoms. Currently, the only anime I'm really interested in is KnY, and the only thing I'm writing for it is the aforementioned SI-OC fic which will never be witnessed by anyone but me bc I don't have the courage to post it, so there is a HEAVY emphasis on the "might" in "might post other things in the meantime."

Thank you,
Fishy.

P.S. The irony is not lost on me that the inspo story also had an older version and a newer, reworked one. Sorry again.