Chapter Text
Being stuck sharing someone else's body is horrible.
Nobara was still wrapping her head around losing everyone she'd ever cared about— except Fushiguro, who was either hiding or being suppressed. Not to mention Gojo, who… She remembered hearing Okkotsu's plan, she remembered when Shoko had kept her in the infirmary, she'd seen the body but been rushed out as surgery was supposed to start. How was she supposed to look at this kid, who was the same age as her, and not see the mutilated corpse she knew he'd become? Everyone who'd died that she had back didn't know her, most didn't even know she was here. In a way, in her attempt to save what mattered, she'd lost everything else.
That was bad enough. What made it infinitely worse was that she couldn't distract herself from it. She didn't have work to throw herself into, couldn't scroll or shop or train. All she could do was sit with herself and try to process the unthinkable. When she wasn't wracked with guilt or misery, she was just bored out of her mind. Shoko did barely anything interesting.
At any given moment, Nobara had three options. The first was to invest energy into Shoko's life. She could see the world the way Shoko did— in a very literal sense, Shoko controlled her own eye muscles— to keep up with what was happening, and she could even offer suggestions. Shoko had given Nobara a little wiggle room earlier that day, which was nice. Nobara really missed having a body.
Her second option was to sit around within the boundaries she'd created, and do… nothing, honestly. Time passed at the same rate as it did outside. Inside the barriers, she wasn't aware of anything Shoko was up to, and without a domain, it was just sort of a blank expanse of energy. She could train, with the weapons she'd had when she died. She could focus cursed energy. She could zone out. That was it.
The third option left her in a dreamlike state. She was vaguely aware of what Shoko was doing, but it was muted, like seeing and hearing through foggy glass. Time moved faster, which was nice, because Nobara couldn't actually sleep.
Nobara had never spent as much time 'asleep' until now. Weirdly, she also had never felt more like she was floating, restless… Like she needed to stretch but didn't have room. At the same time, Nobara could guess what was causing this: none of her cursed energy went towards maintaining the body, and she was consciously compressing it. She wasn't loosing as much passively, so it was starting to accumulate. If she waited long enough, and was a lot more evil, she could easily save up enough energy to take control entirely.
After Gojo left, Shoko had just… lay down. She'd stayed that way for at least two hours, maybe more. On some level, Nobara had known that her presence was giving Shoko headaches while she adjusted. That didn't change how awful it felt to see Shoko affected like this.
Her hands massaged her head, and her eyes were closed. An iPod was softly playing some old music— technically, just popular music, since it was 2006. Weird. Nobara would have to wait years to hear any of the stuff she actually liked.
She would have to wait ten years to watch the end of Bloom Into You. Reading the manga was a possibility, but she didn't know when that would come out.
When Shoko pulled herself up, vision blurry her attention shifted towards Nobara. It was hard to describe the feeling— kind of like eye contact, but like Shoko was looking directly into her soul. For the first time, Shoko managed to direct her words towards Nobara, breaking through the haze.
"You there?"
She weakened her barriers. Her cursed energy trickled up Shoko's spine, sitting at the base of her neck. Shoko was driving, but Nobara had climbed out of the back and into the passenger's seat. Their senses were shared, but besides making weak suggestions, Nobara couldn't control what Shoko actually did.
"So," Shoko whispered. Nobara didn't know why; it wasn't like there was anyone near them. "The future sucks, huh?"
"Yup." Nobara didn't even need to think about her answer, really. "It's kind of as bad as it can really get."
Shoko opened up her dorm window and reached for another cigarette. Nobara wasn't a smoker— she'd vaped back home, every now and then, but not after she moved to Tokyo. Neither Itadori nor Fushiguro did it. Rebellion mattered wy more back when she was in her small town.
The cigarette smoke in Shoko's lungs was an odd sensation. It burned going down, not enough to hurt but enough to feel a tingle as Shoko's reverse cursed technique automatically activated. The smell was horrible, absolutely nothing like Nobara's blue raspberry vape. She could feel a fuzz along… not her brain, but her consciousness, maybe? Her head felt floaty, but she wasn't totally sure how that was possible, considering that she didn't actually have a head. Just the concept of one, in the same way that she only had a body within her barriers.
"Damn."
That was all there was to say, wasn't there? Everything goes to hell. They're all fucked. Shoko prodded for more of an explanation. She needed Nobara to keep going, to give her something, but what was she supposed to add? After her coma, she'd overhead people dying and bodies being processed, and got about thirty minutes of information on what happened.
She didn't know enough to fix anything. That should be obvious.
"Well." Shoko cracked her knuckles, having finally given up on giving Nobara the first word. "Why are you here?"
Why was she here? What was she even thinking? "Binding vow," Nobara answered miserably. "I was trying to save Itadori and Fushiguro. The vow was all-in, so when I—" She forced herself to pause. Telling the story meant putting her mind back then, in the place she had kind-of escaped from. "I used resonance on the finger. Its cursed energy combined with mine and it..." Her voice trailed off. "It sent Fushiguro and me back here, I know that," she finished lamely.
"The finger?"
Nobara sent Shoko a replay of her last memory. It replayed for Nobara too: the squish-thunk of the nail hitting flesh, energy surging and surging and surging, lightning dancing under her skin—
"Is that Utahime-senpai?"
What?
"I guess? I'm not sure how that really…" Since when did Shoko and Utahime know each other? Sure, Utahime and Gakuganji were in the room, but she hadn't even told Shoko about what would happen to Gojo and Nanami. She shouldn't be trying to figure out who's still alive at the young age of thirty.
She could feel Shoko trying to hold in a smile. "Are you two friends or something?"
"Not really. She goes to the Kyoto school, but we've met, and she's really sweet. Someday, definitely, I can tell."
Shoko was blushing.
"Oh my god, you're into her, aren't you?" Nobara giggled. "I mean, you found her instantly. You're blushing. Holy shit."
"I'm not," Shoko muttered, her face only getting redder. "We're both girls. She's just one of my peers."
"Right, right," Nobara agreed. "For now~"
"Shut up," Shoko groaned. "I'm not into girls, I don't know why you think this, but—" Whatever she kept saying, Nobara started tuning out. So, Shoko didn't know she was gay or that she was into Utahime? That was fine. If Nobara had to be stuck back here, she could have a little fun helping out Shoko's love life. Really, Nobara owed her: not only had her timeline's Shoko kept Nobara alive, this one was letting her share her body. Maybe this could help Nobara repay that debt.
"So like, there's no way," Shoko finished.
"Alright, sure."
"Wait, so— All that energy, what did it do to Utahime-senpai?"
"I…" Her voice caught in her throat. "I'm not sure. I hope nothing, but I don't think there's any way to know."
"What's resonance?" Shoko took another drag of the cigarette. "You mentioned it earlier. That's your technique, right? Why would it send you to me? I wasn't even there."
"Resonance is an extension of my technique, which is straw doll technique. It uses a nail and a straw doll. I can manipulate cursed energy through those nails, including delayed blasts and using the doll to link myself to someone else, through a piece of them, which allows me to transfer energy." She rattled that part off automatically. "I… didn't think it could do this, but I guess if the object itself has energy, some can transfer back."
"My residuals," Shoko realized. "It's because I was healing you, isn't it? You showed me that I was using my technique on you. Was that close to when you got sent back?"
"Maybe, but resonance works through souls," Nobara sighed. "I guess— I guess, since it's designed to expand and connect more people, it wouldn't care if it was just energy."
"Can you do it again? If you want?"
"I don't think so." She shook her head. "That was the full power of a special-grade cursed object, plus a binding vow. I think doing anything like time travel again would take more energy than I'll have in a year." She sent Shoko another memory: The vow itself.
"If you can use it in my body, do you think you can go to someone else?" Shit. Shit, was Shoko trying to get rid of her? "Like," Shoko continued, "Do you think you could possess other people?"
"Probably not?"
"So it's just us, fixing this shit." Another drag of the cigarette. "A chance to win, and to live on after this." Nobara's words sounded odd leaving Shoko's mouth. Is this what she'd sound like? When Shoko finally let her talk? "Maybe it thought Fushiguro and Itadori could only win by fixing something that happens soon. And maybe, your soul needed to make the journey for it to work."
"You think Itadori's here, too?"
"I don't know," Shoko said with a shrug. "It makes sense, doesn't it?"
"Shit." It did. Nobara hated that it did, but it did.
"I don't know how these fingers work, but I'm surprised it's just you three."
"What do you mean?"
"The amount of energy you released? The fact that you made a binding vow without knowing what you were giving yourself up for?" She snickered. "I'd be shocked if it didn't completely disrupt the timeline. It's gotta be up there with Gojo's birth in terms of world-altering events: first known time-travel, and with two or three sorcerers, no less."
"What do you think it did?" It didn't occur to Nobara to even worry about that.
"Fuck if I know. But it's probably gonna suck."
"Yep." That was the cost of sorcery, after all. You can save the world! And if you do, it'll certainly ruin your life.
"Yeah." Her voice was quiet. "At least we can fix what went wrong in your timeline, right? Where do we start?"
"I…" Nobara hated this part, despite knowing that it was coming. "I don't know. I was four in 2006; Gojo-sensei never talked about what happened. I know that you three are friends with two more people, because Nanami and some other guy are in all your pictures. I know we need to make sure Tengen assimilates, and keep Geto from turning evil and insane—"
The cigarette nearly fell out of Shoko's hands. "Wait, I'm sorry, what?" Shoko whisper-yelled. "Geto? You can't be serious, his whole thing is 'protecting the weak.' He's constantly talking about how he wants to save people."
"I don't know what happens to make him become that way!" Nobara protested. "But I know that it does. Maybe we can find the problem."
"If you say so." She shook her head. "Who's this Tengen, exactly?"
"I don't… I don't really know? I just know that the failed assimilation was mentioned while you were processing a body. It's involved in someone's evil plans, in some way."
"Okay, sure." She bit back her frustration. "Do you know anything else? Besides vague warnings about Geto and 'Tengen?'"
Nobara didn't realize you could flinch as a being of energy, but she felt her 'core' dash away from the spine, before settling back to where it'd been. "I also know a lot of deaths," she added quietly. "What happened ten years ago wasn't a priority in the future, and I was in a coma for a lot. I don't think most of what I know is in motion yet." She tried to hold back her memory of Mahito's hand on her eye, of Sukuna destroying Shibuya. Not again. Never again. Neither would get the chance to hurt her. "I want to prevent it from reaching the point where it's a possibility. I just don't know how."
"So all I can do, for now, is keep an eye on Geto?"
"We can always look into Sukuna," Nobara suggested. "If we start dealing with him now, maybe he won't be so strong in ten years. Maybe we can find an easier way to kill him."
"Okay," Shoko agreed.
"I won't let the future be that bad for you," Nobara promised. "I don't know how, but I—"
"We'll do it together," Shoko interrupted. "And with Gojo's help. Relax. We have twelve years, right?"
"Yeah," Nobara agreed.
"So, those three things are our main priorities." Shoko tilted her head a little. "Doesn't sound that bad to me." She tapped the cigarette against her window frame, watching the smoke dance with the wind. "I need to sleep." Nobara let herself fall back to Shoko's stomach, entering that dreamlike haze.
Shoko made it sound so easy. Still, even though they had time. Even though Nobara was pretty sure there was at least a year before Geto switched sides, even though there was probably months until they had to think about Tengen… She couldn't figure out how to actually believe they could fix anything. All she knew was that they had to try.