Chapter Text
Gojo touched down into an abandoned alleyway after a successful teleport all the way from Hokkaido back to Tokyo.
The ground around him was covered in a thin layer of snow, painting the full grey of the cement ground a pure white.
In his hands were bags upon bags of varying sweets and desserts and his grin widened a fraction at the thought that he was one step closer to being able to start his feast.
His good mood stopped short and he whirled around to study a hidden corner in the alley.
To a normal person it might look like an average corner but to Curse users and especially the bearer of the Six Eyes, all he could see was a swirling mass of cursed energy that could rival Gojo's own legendary reserves.
Gojo’s thoughts raced at a superhuman speed, taking in the information that his Six eyes were providing him and relaxed almost instantly.
At the same time a hoarse, startling young voice called out to him.
“Hey… that Mister over there, I can smell the sweets on you. How bout you share some with me? Gin-san over here is about to starve to death, you know?”
Raising an eyebrow, Gojo started to walk towards the corner with slow and deliberate steps.
The sound of shoes clicking echoed through the deafening silence of the area and Gojo grinned when his 360 range of vision informed him that the man around the corner stiffened with each approaching step.
Finally Gojo turned the corner to come face to face with the form of a man-no boy, crumpled on the ground weakly.
The smell of blood permeated the air around him and the boy stared up at him with disturbingly blank ruby red eyes.
The boy had a shock of white hair not unlike Gojo’s but the former’s was distinctly more unruly, curly and fluffing up in a manner that begged to be pet. His face was young, in fact Six Eyes informed him that by his skeletal structure, the boy was just a little over 16, yet he looked younger than that.
Lifting his blindfold to speed up the inflow of information, Gojo braced himself for the flood of data that needed to be processed.
Malnutrition explained his younger than his age appearance, signs of forced starvation for at least the past few months. His fingers were also turning blue so that means the boy was suffering from a deadly combination of starvation and hypothermia. The snow that was starting to gather on him only served to worsen his condition.
Turning his attention elsewhere, where on the surface, all others could see was the blood and tattered clothes on the boy Gojo could see what the fabric hid underneath.
Torture was the best way Gojo could describe the wounds on the boy, under the thin layer of clothes were lines upon lines of criss crossing wounds some old and some still fresh, there were whip marks, burns, bruises and lots of other creative forms of punishment present on the youth before him.
He grimaced, Gojo was generally very lacking in the empathy department, but he had always felt more closely for his fellow sorcerers. The fact that the one hurt was a child the same age as his students made his blood boil.
Beyond that, there were scars on him that looked to go back more than a decade and others that could only have come from years of combat training and fighting.
The boy was a fighter, in fact from what he could see, in a purely physical fight, Gojo would lose to the teenager before him and that realisation sent a shock of dread and adrenaline into the man.
War, Gojo deduced, he looked like a child soldier who had just come off the battlefield and had then been dragged off to be tortured as a prisoner of war or something.
There were other more logical solutions but somehow Gojo’s instincts pushed him to such a conclusion and years of being the strongest had taught Gojo to trust his instincts even before the information that his Six Eyes gave him.
And then there was the thing that caught his attention first about the boy.
The swirling mass of Curse energy that congregated around the boy. It clung to him like a second skin and while some of the energy was indeed coming from the boy himself, most of it came from the countless dead that had cursed the boy in their dying moments. Their hatred becoming a source of cursed energy for the boy, ironically only making him stronger.
Despite being more than a decade younger than him, the boy before him almost certainly had a body count many times that of Gojo’s.
Interesting, Gojo thought, his smile widened to an almost maniacal degree.
There were so many questions surrounding the boy. Japan was not currently involved in a war so how had a clearly Japanese boy fought in one? How had so many people died in the hands of one person without the whole world realizing? How had the Jujutsu world never discovered a boy with the potential to someday rival Gojo in strength?
But Gojo didn’t have to wonder about it for long, turning to study the space around them, his Six Eyes almost immediately provided him with the answer and it was as absurd a conclusion as he thought it would be.
Gojo finally pulled his blindfold back on before turning back to face the boy.
While it felt like Gojo had been lost in thought for a while, in reality only a couple of seconds had passed since Gojo had come to a stop before him.
Allowing his face to fall back on his familiar smile when facing a student or in this case a potential one, not that Gojo would give him much of a choice, after all Gojo almost always got what he wanted.
“Well, well,” Gojo paused for dramatic effect. “Can’t say that I expected to run into a traveller from another dimension in the middle of one of my regular desert runs.”
Unfortunately, Gojo did not quite get the reaction that he had wanted, with the teenager only taking a long moment to blink at him before replying in a slightly annoyed voice like someone complaining about the weather.
“Well Gin-san didn’t really expect to fall through a black hole like thing while visiting a grave... More importantly, I'm really about to die from starvation.” he turned empty red orbs towards the adult before coming to the point in the most deadpan voice possible. “Aren’t you going to take pity on a poor starving child and give me some of your sweets.”
Not missing a beat, Gojo allowed his smile to form into a very fake worried frown, “What a tough choice, I really need these sweets to help maintain the high processing speeds of my brain, but as a kind, responsible adult I can’t just let a young man starve to death before me.”
Gojo said as he moved to squat before the slumped form of the boy, making no move to hand his desserts to him.
Before the teen could react, Gojo had whipped out his phone and had his camera pointed at the former in an instant. “I know! How bout you let me take some pictures of your pathetic state to share with some friends later in exchange for a box of manju.”
However, in a turn of events that the strongest did not foresee, the boy took the time that Gojo had grabbed his phone to grab a bag of his manju and started shovelling them down his throat like a starved beast.
Gojo froze for a long second at the shock of his infinity being penetrated for the first time in years, and jerkingly removed his blindfold again to get a better look.
‘I see, so that’s his cursed technique’ he thought. He had wondered for a second whether curses were present in the world that the boy had come from but looking at the way that the boy had been completely unaware of the fact that he had used the technique himself, it seemed like the answer was a resounding no.
The boy had taken the time that Gojo had frozen to finish all the Manju in the bag.
Finally, the boy looked up at Gojo and for the first time, Gojo saw a spark of something in those dead eyes and the image that he painted made Gojo glad that he had yet to tug his blindfold back on.
The boy before him had silvery white hair, moon pale skin and delicate features that erred on the side of beautiful but his bone structure hinted that he would grow up handsome after the boy had had time to mature. That said, before that point, the boy’s hollow red dead fish eyes dragged the overall appearance of the boy from a 10 to a 6.
Generally when a person had eyes that slant downwards, it made them look gentle, coupled with eyes a gorgeous shade of ruby red, anyone else with the boy’s appearance would be a complete lady killer. However, his eyes were so completely devoid of life and emotion that it made him look like a corpse.
The boy’s eyes met his and unlike others, he was not frightened by the overbearing presence that the Six eyes brought to anyone who gazed upon them. A little ember entered his eyes that set the orbs ablaze.
Gojo’s own eyes had been compared to the vast endless sky but the boy before him, had eyes like the blazing red of a sunset-no, it was more akin to a sunrise, the light after an endless night of darkness.
“I’ll never forget this debt.” the boy said, his voice low and solem like an oath as he slowly but surely rose to his feet. “You seem like you're probably going to kick the bucket soon with all the white hair, so I’ll stick around while you’re alive and help protect you I guess.”
Gojo felt a vein throb at the jab at his hair so he reached forward and pressed his hand into the boy's fluffy mess of curls, nodding inwardly to himself, it was much softer than Megumi’s spikes, it was like petting a cat.
“Oh?” he let some killing intent seep into his voice, “well it looks like you're not long for this world either, after all we. Have. The. Same. Hair. Colour.”
The boy was quick to beg for forgiveness when Gojo purposefully pressed a finger into a spot he knew the boy had a head wound in.
“Ok! Ok! You’re not old, you’re obviously a man in the prime of his life destined for greatness. You wouldn’t want to be charged with murder of a poor innocent little boy before you have a chance to help illuminate this cursed world with your shinning brilliance right?” The boy continued to grasp weakly at Gojo’s arms but he was no match in his weakened state.
Gojo allowed his grip to relax into a gentle pat, continuing to enjoy the soft feeling under his hands while he spoke, “Besides, who do you think you are? I’m the strongest, I have no use for a brat’s protection.”
The child blinked up at him slowly before reaching up to pick at his nose with his pinky and Gojo immediately recoiled his hand in mild disgust and pretended to ignore the fact that the boy's hand was shivering the whole way up.
“Well I don’t know about how strong you are, but samurai always fight to protect the soul,” he looked Gojo in the eye once more and for the first time in his life, Gojo felt seen through. “And people can never quite protect their souls alone. Fighting together, protecting each other, that's what it means to be human.”
Gojo huffed in exasperation, something in him he hadn’t felt since his best friend left shifted.
“What an arrogant brat.” he said.
“Huh?” the brat raised an eyebrow before flicking a booger in his direction, this time it was successfully stopped by infinity and the boy only took a moment to take the fact in before going on.
“You sure you’re not just going senile old man? Maybe it’s time to cut down on those sweets, they must be terrible for your heart.”
Throwing any form of decorum out the window and thoughts of potential student or not, Gojo said in his sweetest most sing-song voice. “Brat, I’ll Kill You ∼”
But before he could do anything, the boy swerved his head to the side and proceeded to throw up all the manju he had just eaten.
The sound of weak coughing filled the air as the boy fought to stay upright through the nausea.
Gojo grimaced as he reached forward to support the swaying form while gently patting him on the back. He should have known with the boy’s half starved state there was no way he could stomach solid foods.
Gojo took a minute to wrap his coat around the shivering form and it was almost cute how comically oversized his clothes were on the little thing, if only the brat didn't have a mouth on him.
The brat seemed to barely register his actions, but still found it in him to spit out insults, “..’s an old man smell.”
Gojo took a moment to consider leaving the brat here to rot but rationality won out, he only smiled brighter and answered with a “poor child, you’re so far gone you’ve started hallucinating about your grandfather on the other side, there there Gojo-sensei will be sure eat lots of sweets in front of your grave for you.” grin widening as he felt a shiver run down the brat’s back.
Finally, he reached over to grab the little thing by the scruff and tossed him over his shoulder, making sure to jostle as many of his injuries as possible.
The brat only managed to let a soft groan out, he had probably been holding on through will alone and if Gojo was feeling generous he might even be impressed.
However, right now he only had murder on his mind so instead of giving a warning, he proceeded to step through space towards the Tokyo’s Jujutsu High, taking a moment longer than necessary to teleport just so the brat could further appreciate the disoriantating experience that was travelling through a cut in space.
Touching down in the medical room, Shoko didn’t even look up to acknowledge him. “What is it now-” she began.
But was soon cut off when Gojo quickly threw the brat onto the ground with little care for his injuries, and the latter proceeded to throw up again as he expected.
This time the only thing that came out was stomach acid but the smell and noise was enough to make Shoko look up and frown.
Gojo directed a bright smile towards her when she shot him a questioning look. “Look Shoko, I found a new student for us, though I’m not quite sure if he’ll live long enough to be accepted into the school.”
Shoko stood up from her seat at the desk and made her way towards them, only letting out a low sigh at his antics.
“There’s no way he’ll survive if you’re the one helping him.”
Gojo put on a hurt face, “how could you say that about me?” he said, pressing a hand to his chest. “I was the kind soul that took this poor starving br- I mean child off the streets.”
Shoko leeled him with her usual deadpan look as she gently helped the wrenching child towards an infirmary bed. “You were about to call him a brat weren’t you?”
Gojo grinned cheerily, “You heard wrong∼!”
But remained silent as Shoko started to examine the brat lying on the bed.
The trip over must have really been too much for the boy because he passed out before he had even reached the bed, leaving Shoko to carry him the rest of the way, not a hard task with how thin he was.
Shoko frowned as she made quick work of cutting the brat’s clothes away to look at the wounds underneath, revealing the wounds and scars that Gojo knew would be present.
Even the seasoned medic paused at the magnitude of damage done to the young body but she was quick to recover and started the process of using her reverse technique on him.
“There’s no way I can undo all of this damage without draining myself of cursed energy.” Shoko said, her voice falling into the clipped emotionless tone of a doctor in concentration.
“Not to mention the hypothermia and malnutrition,” she shot a glance at him without pausing her hands. “You should know that those can’t be cured by something like the reverse technique. The most that I can do for him is hook him up to a drip, clean what I couldn’t heal and hope he survives the inevitable fever that will come soon after his body manages to heat up, which is highly unlikely given the current state he’s in.”
Shoko finished up healing the worst of the brat’s wound, taking a moment to pull a couple of thick blankets over him before turning to the medical cabinet, presumably to gather supplies.
“In other words, brace yourself for the worst and don’t get too attached.” she said as she rummaged through the place.
Gojo for his part, only silently pulled a chair over to the brat’s bedside and plopped himself down, reaching towards his bags of dessert and taking a random bag out.
He had been exorcising curses all day and night for the last couple of days and today should have been his long awaited break but he just continued to work the reverse technique on his brain, eliminating the need for sleep as he opened a pack of Daifuku to snack on.
“Well guess you need to survive brat,” he said, reaching his free hand over to poke at a soft cheek, devoid of the usual baby fat on a teen that age. “I still have no idea what your name is so it’ll be hard to make you a proper grave, and it’ll make me seem like a weirdo eating sweets in front of a random rock.”