"You did well, Gojo Satoru. I won't forget you for as long as I live." As the King of Curses, Ryomen Sukuna, commended the Strongest Sorcerer of Today, Gojo Satoru's upper half slowly slid backwards, a slow squelching sound, followed by a light thump. Gojo's other half stood on their own, while his torso lay on the ground, his face dripping with blood, his eyes losing their luster.
In the battle for the fate of Japan, the battle of Shinjuku, Gojo Satoru has lost.
Suddenly opening his eyes, Gojo Satoru immediately looked down at his abdomen, now healed, and in his old school uniform. Spinning his head around, he notices that he's on a sidewalk, and a... KFC? The people around him spared little to no glances at him, continuing on their day. The sharp smell of the ocean mixed with the city's urban smell was slightly unfamiliar to him.
His head was spinning. Where am I? Why am I alive? That was the only thing he could muster on his mind right now, as dizziness consumed him. He clearly remembered the feeling of the slash piercing through Infinity, and severing him into two pieces.
"Hey, watch where you're going!"
Taking a step back, Gojo accidentally bumps into a man in a suit, and that's when Gojo decides to retreat into a nearby alley, holding his head, and noticing the old sunglasses he always wore.
"I'm alive? How? Reverse Cursed Technique? No, no, no, that was a clean hit, I couldn't heal off of that. I'll admit I'm strong, but Sukuna at the time was clearly stronger. Then, a Cursed Technique that's similar in function to Ui Ui's? But no, I clearly remember that all the nearby cities have been evacuated. And why aren't they watching the fight? It's too peaceful."
Ending his muttering, Gojo looked outside the alley, only to freeze his body in motion.
A sign on a nearby Thai Restaurant, advertising free drinks at their store's anniversary, April 8, 2013.
2013. That's years before the battle with Sukuna!
Don't tell me... "I time-travelled?"
Feeling a sudden shudder in his mind, Gojo stared up at the sky, his gaze unfocused. "Couldn't even take me back to Riko's death, huh?"
Sporting a strained smile on his face, he couldn't hold it in anymore. "Ahahahaha!"
Laughing out loud, Gojo slowly covered his mouth and slightly bent over, now in a thinking state. If this means I can prepare for Sukuna better, I'll gladly take this as a win. For the one who gave me this opportunity, I thank you.
Looking at his waist again, he touched his stomach, where the cut should've been. And an old school uniform that should've stayed in the closet, gathering dust. "I wasn't a student in 2013 anymore?"
And more importantly, Six Eyes. He's been ignoring it earlier since he was a little confused, but now that his mind is working again, though slightly, he faced another problem. This "Cursed Energy", if he could call it that, was strange. It wasn't pure negative emotions and malice. Instead, it was more pure and more reactive. Though he couldn't see it, it was smaller in quantity than Cursed Energy, but significantly more powerful.
Stepping out of the shadow of the alley, he took in the sights around him again. Shops of various flavors of Chinese rolled around the street, a faint smell of garlic and an absurd amount of spices in the air. Locals went about their day, shopping for groceries, and selling street food in the extremes of looking edible, as they were more red than food.
And then he spotted a sign, a dental clinic, for getting braces fitted or removed.
"Yokohama... Chinatown... Don't tell me I got pulled into one of those Chinese Fanfiction Panda reads all the time?"
Thinking it over again, Gojo wiggled around on the spot, when suddenly he had a eureka moment.
"Eh, who cares?" Shrugging it off, Gojo went to one of the stands selling moon cakes, a sweet dessert he discovered after eating it at Mei Mei's recommendation. Standing over the owner like a titan, he stooped over to the stall owner, hooking his glasses off.
"Hey, mind telling me what the date is? And if possible... Can I pretty please get a free one? Come on!"
Facing this tall, white-haired, absurdly good-looking teenager, the owner of the stall, a significantly shorter man, gave in. "Ah, oh, yes! It's currently Friday! And if you mean date, it's..."
Looking at his watch, the owner didn't notice Gojo silently stuffing a moon cake into his mouth, and when he looked back up, not a single crumb was on Gojo's face. "Ah, it's the fifth of April."
"Hmmm. Anwhaysh, thanksh man." Confirming the timeframe, Gojo left without turning back, waving at the stall owner.
"Yeah, you're welco- Hey! Come back here, you didn't pay!"
As the stall owner shouted at Gojo, he suddenly sped up and weaved through the crowd, moving with a grace reminiscent of a swan. Reaching the Enpeimon Gate, he looked at the nearby signs to look for Ishikawacho Station, the one he uses when he's going from Tokyo to Yokohama when exorcising Curses in the area.
Walking past a hotel, he noticed something different in it, like an aggregate of emotion that took shape and was now in the hotel, embedded into it.
A Grade 1 Curse? No, it's more condensed. It's not a curse. Looking at the hotel doors, the light was shining through and refracting off them, hiding the insides.
"What's the worst that could happen. Besides, it's merely Grade 1 in strength." Brazenly walking into the hotel, he uses his foot to open the glass door, a faint chime hanging in the air as his hands stay in his pockets. Gojo didn't bother to look at the staff and instead went directly to the source of the weird Cursed Energy he's been sensing. Stopping at an emergency exit door surrounded by "caution" tape, he stood at the front of it, trying to analyze the doorway, but something seemed to be blocking his Six Eyes.
Glancing at the empty hallways, he firmly decided to head into this stairwell! Stepping over the caution tape, he noticed a camera in the corner of the hallway with a constant red blink. So someone's watching huh? The Jujutsu higher-ups or the hotel management? Possibly both. Well, just stay there and enjoy the show. I'll exorcise it for you. Waving at the camera as he held the door, he opened it and went inside.
On the other side of the camera was a frail young man, hunched over his desk and chewing his fingernails. Looking at the footage on screen, he let out a sigh before covering both of his eyes with the palms of his hands. "Ah, someone went into the stairwell again." Another figure popped in, looking over his shoulder. "Do we send someone? Section 8?" Slightly opening the palms, revealing his eyes etched with light blue lines, he spoke in a measured tone. "No need, seems like just another curious teenager. Just let Hikaru and Myung go over. Hell, call them in right now. I don't want to deal with the higher-ups right now."
Hearing that, the one he was speaking to responded. "Even Dan?"
"Not Dan, he's the kindest." Glancing at the other screens, he focused on the inside of the stairwell again.
"Report to the two of them that When Will It End has been breached by a stupid teen. They've already handled similar cases, so they'll know what to do."
With that, he resumed watching the cameras again, leaving the man behind him on his own. "Got it, Xien-pai!"
As Gojo walked into the stairwell, he noticed something shift in the air, like certain rules had made themselves clear. Looking behind him, he noticed the door automatically shut itself. Gojo looked down the stairs and over the railings, seeing the looping stairwell.
"Isn't this trope of an infinite stairwell overdone now? Still, it seems like I can still get out, but there's no telltale sign of what the conditions are."
Hopping over the railing, he fell through the air for a solid minute before grabbing another railing and pulling himself back up to the stairs. "I got no clue what's wrong here! My Six Eyes can't read it!"
Lamenting over his despair, Gojo frustratedly scratched his head of snow-white hair, crouching over.
"If I can't figure it out in a minute, I'm destroying the whole place!"
Plopping down and sitting on the stairs, Gojo had his arms crossed over his chest, his eyes open behind his dark sunglasses. "Okay, I've still got a rough assumption of the situation. First, I can't get out, but there seems to be an exit or method of exit somewhere. Second, the stairs loop themselves, no extra numbers, nor are there any changes for each set of stairs I passed. Third, when I stepped into the place, a change happened to the stairwell. Before I went into the stairwell seemed normal, but only with an abundance of that weird energy. But when I went in, I seemed to have triggered a condition for the stairwell to become this looping mess."
As Gojo was thinking, he suddenly had a deja vu moment. "Kind of like that Cursed Spirit's Technique. That Cursed Spirit I exorcised when Geto and I went to rescue Utahime."
Having this realization, he couldn't hold back a grin. "If that's the case, blowing this up will do me wonders."
Standing up and brushing off the dust on his pants, he started stretching and looking around the stairwell, hoping to find a spot where the 'rules' seemed weak.
"But first, let's do a little test."
Holding one of his palms outward, a sudden pulling force manifested from his hands, taking the form of a tiny azure sphere.
Aiming at the top stairwell, he chanted under his breath. "Blue"
Releasing Blue, he watched as it went straight through the stairs, pulling, destroying, and sucking in any debris it left behind. Looking down over the railing, he noted that the stairwell didn't loop; it was more of an infinite generation of rooms going upwards and downwards.
"Heh, interesting." Gojo grinned. Something interesting this early on into my time travel!? As Gojo was about to prepare another attack, a duo appeared outside the hotel, carrying silver briefcases and cold weapons on their waist. Reaching for one of their pockets, the older of the two spoke into a radio. "We've made it to the hotel. Where's the floor that thingy was on again? Over"
Waiting for a response, the radio crackled to life. "On the third floor, near the balcony area and left of the bathroom. Over."
Tightening the grip on his briefcase, he spoke back. "Copy that. Over."
Storing it in his pocket, he signaled to his partner to start heading inside the building.
As the younger one opened the door, the older and more silver-haired man looked at the light blue sky, dotted with flying fish, and muttered to himself. "Hope the kid isn't too traumatized. Fuck, I'll request another batch of cupcakes next time I go to HR."