Chapter Text
Nobara had seemed to think that Itadori was going to be using Geto as his vessel. She'd been confident, actually.
This was a problem. Not only because Geto had avoided anyone shoving themselves into his brain, but also because he didn't believe Gojo was possessed at all. Geto had gone as far as to say Gojo was "probably sick," and that Gojo's ego was "too big for him to accept that he could have a cold."
(Normally, Shoko could've laughed and agreed with him.)
"I know you're too smart to believe him," he'd said, the two whispering while Yaga argued with Gojo mid-class. "So why are you humoring this?"
The headache had mostly faded. It was noticeable, but only when Shoko was thinking about it or if Nobara pushed at her too much. Nobara moving to her neck, or taking over a body part, wasn't painful after the duration of the switch.
This was finally bearable.
There was no way for Shoko to Nobara inside her head, but at least Nobara could pick up on even the most quiet whispers. If she had to guess, Nobara was probably capable of listening to Shoko's thoughts, but not without her own seeping through, and not without Shoko revealing more than she wanted to. So instead, Nobara's presence sat along her neck, something Shoko was starting to see as her default state.
Because Nobara was cohabiting part of her nervous system, her emotions kept bleeding into Shoko's. All of her reactions, as well as whatever she happened to feel— Shoko could feel the emotions coming from her neck, which was a new sensation. She liked that Nobara and her were separate enough that she could tell the difference, but processing two sets of emotions would probably never not feel odd. At lest their thoughts stayed separate, and Nobara's voice sounded like it came through earbuds. Emotion was probably too subconscious to be controlled.
"I'm telling you," Geto insisted. He'd somehow gotten Gojo to walk ahead, leaving him and Shoko just out of Gojo's earshot. "He's just being lazy."
"Hm?"
"There's no curse," Geto rolled his eyes. "He keeps asking me to absorb the guy possessing him. It doesn't even work like that."
"Did you try?"
"There's nobody possessing him, so what am I supposed to do?" He gestured around him. "I mean, even it were true, if it's not a curse I can't control it." He sighed in frustration. "Satoru won't even call it a ghost, he's calling it 'Mega-bitch.'"
"Right," Shoko nodded. It was kind of hard to hear Geto over Nobara's cackling.
"Fushiguro doesn't even let me call him Megumi!" Nobara panted. How exactly did Nobara run out of air anyway, without actual lungs? "I bet he's so pissed right now."
"I swear, he's such a baby sometimes," Geto continued, oblivious. "And we were supposed to train together! Like, what the hell?"
"I could train with you," she offered. It wouldn't go serve the same purpose, obviously, because she and Geto were nowhere near the same level. It was just better than nothing. Probably.
His stride fumbled. "What?" A frown. "Ieiri, you don't even do missions. Don't you have your bio cl—"
"Sensei isn't here on Mondays, remember?" She poked his arm. "Come on, the second years are off on a mission, and two of the third years are busy. I'm better than nothing, right? Unless you wanna ask Tsukumo-senpai again?"
His head twitched to the side in that subtle way where his bang moved, but his face didn't. He was annoyed. "Alright," he agreed. "No curse techniques, deal?"
"Including my—"
"Not including your cursed energy, you can't turn that off." He paused. "Obviously, I'm allowed to use cursed energy too."
"Deal."
Geto would beat her. Like always. He didn't like sparring with her because he knew he was going easy on her, and she knew he was going easy on her, so the fights were never satisfying. Shoko wasn't totally sure why she'd offered. Maybe to prove to Gojo that she was still fine?
No, it wasn't that. If she was honest with herself, she needed to let off steam. The images of her future self haunted her, and she couldn't stop thinking: how did she end up like that? Why? According to Nobara, there was a lot that they had to fix, and Shoko wouldn't be able to afford staying on the sidelines. She couldn't fix things by just healing people and sending them back out. If Shoko wanted to be active, she needed to improve.
In a fight, at least, it was progress without the anxiety. She could stop thinking for a moment. After the past few days, Shoko really needed that.
"Why are you dreading this?" Nobara asked. "And why is he so sure—"
"You'll see." He stood across from her, his stance wide and defensive. Every time they sparred, Geto let Shoko have the first move. His clothes were baggy, barely on his frame, which Shoko might've been concerned about— were she good enough to read his movements. On the side sat Gojo, wearing Sunglasses, laying down dramatically with a wet towel on his forehead. He wasn't even watching them.
Shoko lifted her arms above her head and stretched to the side, feeling her muscles tighten around her ribs. A jolt of pain stabbed her in the temple as Nobara drifted away from her neck. What was she—
All of a sudden, Shoko was pretty sure she knew what it felt like to take steroids. Her muscles loosened, suddenly elastic. Was that Nobara? Her own cursed energy had never been an asset in a fight, and against curses, she was better off directing it at them than strengthening herself. This must be how Geto felt every single fight.
After Shoko hesitantly tried to grapple him, Geto landed the first hit. He'd taken her momentum and swung a punch right into her path. She felt Nobara's cursed energy moving to meet the hit, at the same time as her own. The bruise healed as quickly as it'd formed.
"The fuck?" Nobara whispered. Did she not know what Shoko's energy did?
In the moment that Shoko was blindsided, he managed to loop an arm around her shoulders, pushing her down to the ground. It was unfair for him to be this good at hand-to-hand combat. As she fell, she aimed a leg towards his stomach, and Geto leaned into the hit.
This was the other reason why Shoko usually lost. She would recover quickly from any wound, but Geto's cursed energy kept him from getting hurt in the first place. If her cursed energy were negative, maybe she could match him, but when he was enhancing his body she didn't compare. Nobara's cursed energy flooded her foot.
Normally, the kick might've made Geto wince. With Nobara's help? He fell backwards, landing a foot away from Shoko. He stared at her with wide eyes.
"What the fuck?" he mumbled. He winced as he tried to sit up.
"Shit, I— Sorry!"
Shoko pulled herself to her feet while Nobara moved back into her neck. Satisfaction radiated off of her. It was slowly becoming clear that Nobara was a bit of an asshole, although Shoko wasn't sure she disliked it. At least it was fun.
"Since when can you do that?"
"Rude," she grumbled without any bite to it. He lifted up his shirt. A bruise was starting to form on his stomach.
"Accurate," he corrected. "Your cursed energy can't hurt sorcerers. It's never been able to. And then today, you just—"
"I mean," she laughed nervously, "I've been hitting the gym, so—"
"That was cursed energy." He frowned. "We both know that. Seriously, next time you wanna try out something new, warn me. Can you—"
Shoko hovered her hands above his stomach, letting tendrils of cursed energy work their way down.
"I don't get it," he groaned. "How can you just…" He let his head fall backwards.
"I just took the square root."
"What?"
"When you take the square root, you get a positive and negative value." Shoko suspected this was something she could do, but she'd never actually succeeded. She hoped she didn't sound insane. There was no way for her to know if this explanation even sounded plausible. "My energy is naturally positive, right? So if you just find the square root, you can separate out a negative component."
"And you just." His jaw was still dropped. "You just… learned how to do this? Without telling anyone?"
She glanced at Gojo. He had started snickering quietly at some point. Bitch. "I've been working on it," she muttered. "Didn't want to say something if it didn't work."
"That's great!" He held his hand up for a high-five. "That's our witch doctor. Always doing the unexpected."
Her mouth felt dry. "Yeah." Her hand met his with a slap. Hopefully, her eyes didn't show how guilty she felt.
She hated lying. Especially to people she cared about.
This was another thing she'd have to get used to, wasn't it? Lying to Geto so he didn't think she was insane. Lying to Gojo so he didn't drive himself insane. Lying to herself, so she could act like the future was something she had any hope of changing.
Lying wasn't in Shoko's nature. It just over-complicated things and made a bigger mess.
The images Nobara showed her flickered through her mind. How literally did Nobara mean it, when she said that Geto would go evil and insane? Maybe lying to him was the right thing to do, to keep him off of her trail—
Geto was snapping his fingers in Shoko's face.
"What?"
"You're hiding something."
"No," she said. This was exactly what she'd expected. Now, she just had to keep digging the hole that she was stuck in. Had to keep digging and digging until it caved in. What the hell was she supposed to tell him? That the spirit from the future in her head said he would turn evil? He'd be hurt, that Shoko would trust someone she'd met so recently about someone she knew as well as him. Shoko couldn't bring herself to be honest. Not about that.
"You definitely, objectively, are." He frowned. "Spit it out."
She could feel Nobara's soul rising from her neck. Nobara poked Shoko's face, asking for control. Geto's stare on her was unwavering, and as Shoko squirmed under it, she decided to just let Nobara handle this. It was an odd sensation, turning to something incorporeal in her own body. She could feel her facial muscles being moved, the way her resting posture moved to something Shoko didn't recognize.
Geto's eyes had widened the moment Nobara was in charge. He'd leapt back, going into a fighting stance and summoning a cursed spirit. How dramatic.
"Hey," Nobara said. The voice didn't sound like Nobara, nor did it sound like Shoko. The mix of the two was eerie.
"Give her back." Geto's legs widened into a fighting stance. Shoko had only seen him this serious about fighting against cursed spirits, and even then, only first grade or higher. If Shoko regained control, would he even believe it was her?
"Nobara," she warned. "You better know what you're doing. I don't know what's going on, but he'll beat you without breaking a sweat, and I'm not sure if I can heal you when I'm like this."
In her lifetime, Geto had died before Nobara could have the misfortune of fighting him. She'd never properly appreciated that fact. Right now, she couldn't say she was excited to do what she'd never done before: go up against a special-grade sorcerer, one-on-one.
Geto was good. That much was obvious from his spar with Shoko. It was clear in the way he could read her movements, the agility he moved with, the power behind his attacks. That was him holding back. Right now, his eyes burned with newfound intensity.
It hit her, like a brick to the face, that Geto might think Shoko's life was on the line. He had no way to know how long Nobara had been there, or why they switched, or if they could switch back. Was he… Was Geto's plan to beat Nobara out of Shoko? She didn't even know if she could leave, much less if she could die without Shoko going with her.
She couldn't abandon Fushiguro. Couldn't let so many people die, not again, not like they had the first time.
Geto was a special grade. Nobara was a semi-grade-one in her own body; she was probably a grade two at most in this one. Her curse technique was off the table: Shoko's pockets had no nails, no hammers, and no straw dolls. Maybe she could use Shoko's curse technique, like how Sukuna could use Fushiguro's, but it wasn't clear what Shoko's technique was.
After dying twice, Nobara wasn't scared of it anymore. She still wouldn't be letting it happen again.
The one advantage that Nobara had was her cursed energy. There was way more than usual. More than enough to strengthen Shoko's body. It hummed under her skin, waiting for something to do. In a way it reminded her of the rot technique of the cursed wombs— only instead of decay, it brought her to life. Let her duck as Geto attacked, charging towards her. She was met with a cursed spirit slamming her to the side, flat onto her back.
Geto fought like Fushiguro: His curses were tools, and he was willing to play dirty.
"Give her back? What are you talking about?" Nobara grunted.
"Ieiri," Geto hissed. He'd redirected his momentum, his fist just barely missing Shoko's face. "I don't know how you're doing this, and I don't know why Ieiri thinks she has to lie to me. I wish I knew why you just destroyed her face. But I can tell you're up to something. Give her back."
"I'm up to something," Nobara repeated, her laugh turning into a choked wheeze when Geto's knee connected with her stomach.
She should have kept her mouth shut. Anyone could've told her that, and they'd all be right— but that doing the smart thing wasn't her style. Being rash was how she'd ended up here in the first place. It hadn't been smart to chase Saori to Tokyo. It hadn't been smart to fight Mahito, even if it'd help Itadori. It hadn't been smart to finally reawaken, and bargain her life before an hour could pass. Even as a kid, she'd picked fights with Fumi's bullies. All of that should have taught her to think a little more, but the option wouldn't even cross her mind until hours after.
That was why she'd laughed in Geto's face. That was why, when he paused out of confusion, she'd just laughed even harder. "You're one to talk. Have you created your cult yet, or did you only do that after you left?"
"My— my cult?" he sputtered. That gave Nobara the perfect moment to gain some momentum, finally having a chance to swing back. The sound of skin against skin had never been so sweet before— her cursed energy had somewhere to go, and Geto's face was the perfect target.
"Your little family or whatever. Maki-senpai told me all about it, you know." She grinned. It made the cuts on her face sting, but the pain felt good after going so long with so little sensation. "She also told me it just took a suicidal teenager and a six-year-old girl to bring you down." Nobara was exaggerating, but who cared? She was right-ish, and it let her shove at Geto's chest.
He wanted to play dirty, she'd meet him at his level. Hell, she'd sink below it if she had to.
"What?" Shoko's voice surrounded her. It felt like an external voice coming from every direction at once in a way that gave her vertigo. No wonder it took Shoko so long to adjust. "You need to shut up. I don't know what you're talking about, but Geto doesn't even know you're from the future, and he hasn't done any of that. Not yet, at least."
Nobara hated that Shoko had a point. "He's trying to kill me," she grunted. Geto had taken her pause as a chance to grab at her shirt and knock her down to the floor. Her head hit the floor with a dull thump, and he went for the left side of her face, punching over and over and over.
He'd said Nobara had destroyed Shoko's face. His hand hit the same spot Mahito had, but this time, at least she couldn't see from that eye to begin with. What did she look like, when she was in control? Was it like Sukuna's tattoos, overlaid on top of the skin? Maybe it was a copy of her own damage: the skull visible, skin blue-green-purple, the socket sunken in far-too-deep.
Pooling cursed energy into her neck, Nobara shoved her head into Geto's chest as hard as she could. It was enough to get him off of her, for a moment, and she scrambled to her feet. She staggered backwards, world spinning around her. She couldn't fall, not again, but she wasn't sure how long she could stand. Geto had summoned two more curses, who circled around her. A clear threat: he was done fighting her head-on, and his curses could easily outnumber her.
"So, your reverse cursed technique isn't automatic, huh?" His voice wasn't angry. Wasn't even tired. It was just cold— no, it was logical. "Interesting. Ieiri's is. That means that if I hurt you enough, you'll have to give her back, right?"
"She literally gave me control," Nobara spat. Blood had trickled from her nosebleed to her mouth— or maybe it was from her face? There was enough of it, warm and sticky on her skin, that she wasn't sure of the source. She just knew that red droplets, and she could see it fall on the floor in front of her. "She was panicking, you know. Probably didn't know how to explain without seeming crazy." For some reason, even though she stood still, her breaths only got faster and faster. She spared a glance towards Gojo, who was staring at her like he'd seen a ghost.
Knowing Gojo, he was probably creeped out by all of it. Unless somehow, Fushiguro was holding him back? It was odd that he hadn't interfered. Her first guess would be that he wanted them to sort it out on their own— but this wasn't her teacher, and he saw his friend, not a student. It was more likely that he was avoiding any situation that could lead to a power struggle.
Gojo— the strongest, the six-eyes, the head of the Gojo clan— was scared. Nobara scared him, because Fushiguro scared him, because he didn't know he would win. It almost made her feel bad for him. It has to be weird, for the Strongest to suddenly have weakness. For Gojo Satoru to be close to human.
"Fushiguro!" she called. Maybe Gojo was having an internal crisis, but this might be Nobara's only chance for days to talk to Fushiguro. It pissed her off, that she missed him. That she was lonely, and stuck with someone else, and he was right there but she couldn't talk to him. "You better show your face soon!"
The two curses started closing in. Nobara's fist was starting to bruise— Shoko didn't fight with her hands as often as Nobara did, and Nobara herself was a ranged fighter— and she wasn't sure how long she could keep this up. She flooded energy into her elbow to hit one, and used the momentum to swing it into the other. "I didn't want a fight, you know," she grunted in Geto's direction.
"I didn't want some ugly, evil ghost to possess my friend," Geto rolled his eyes. His hands curled up, back into fists. "I'll give you one chance, understand? What are you doing here." The curses disappeared. That could've been a comfort, if Nobara didn't know that they could reappear any moment.
"I don't know."
"I'm sorry?" His eyebrows coming together, nose wrinkling. "How do you—"
"It was an accident, okay?" She went to cross her arms. The sudden movement made everything spin faster. Shit.
"An accident." He didn't believe her.
"Yes!" Nobara groaned. "I'm not really sure how it happened. I made a binding vow. At the time, Ieiri-sensei was healing me, and her residuals were in my cursed energy. When I used my curse technique, I accidentally released the full power of one of Sukuna's fingers. I woke up here. That's all I know."
"Can you go back?"
"Don't you think I would've?" She started to count on her fingers for emphasis. "One, I don't know how. Two, I have no idea if I can do it again. Three, if I do, it might kill Itadori and Fushiguro." She didn't have to look to know that Gojo's six-eyes were locked on her.
"So your plan is to just…" He looked around. After all that, it only took a bit of conversation to leave him speechless. "Stay here? In Ieiri's body?"
"As opposed to your plan?"
"If you break the binding vow, wouldn't—"
"Not that kind of vow," she frowned. "I've already fulfilled my part. I don't think it's possible for me to go back, or find a new body, so can you just give up on trying to force me out?"
"If you're stuck, at least give me answers." He crossed the room, gaze steely. "What the hell were you talking about earlier? Why did you have access to one of Sukuna's fingers to begin with? How did you have Ieiri's residuals, if this is the first that any of us have met you? What the hell is your curse technique?"
"I'm from the future, but in an alternate timeline." The adrenaline was starting to fade, and the full-body aches left her unable to think clearly. The entire left side of her face was probably one massive bruise. "My curse technique uses nails to connect me to other people's souls through pieces of them. It—" She panted, trying not to fall. "It usually transfers energy to them. Between the vow, and the extra energy, I don't— I don't know why it glitched like this."
"You're from an alternate timeline," he echoed.
"Yup," she agreed. "One where I, obviously, wasn't sent back. And I guess where you're more evil."
"Do you know if there were ripple effects? If it's not just you, but apparently Satoru as well, who else could be here?"
"I'm sure there were! I have no idea," Nobara sighed. "Shoko, can you come back already? You know as much as I do." It wasn't true, there was a lot she wasn't telling Shoko, but the longer Geto questioned her, the less patience she had. She tried to move her consciousness out of the brain, but without Shoko trying to gain control, it wouldn't happen. Her best guess was that maybe, the body always had to have someone 'driving.'
Seconds passed, each more painful than the last, until finally she felt Shoko taking control. The body's sensations faded from reality to a distant awareness. As much as she'd missed having a body, she didn't miss getting the shit kicked out of her. The dreamlike haze was something of a familiar comfort. One that should not be familiar, nor comforting, but was nevertheless. As Geto and Shoko talked, their words muffled, the pain became a distant afterthought.