Chapter Text
“Are you sure this is a good idea, sensei?”
“Yuji, I’m appalled! Since when did you start lacking faith in me?”
With the end of his sleeves bundled in each hand, Yuji stretched out the fabric of his hoodie upon crossing his arms. The autumn air was cold. The lake water stretching and pulling away at the shore looked even colder. All he could do was gulp down his reservations as he made contact with Gojo’s smiling reflection in the water.
“It’s not about faith, it’s about… doing this properly. Like, ok, a proper experiment is supposed to start with the scientific method. Then you get some instruments to measure stuff. And it’s all done in a lab or a controlled environment. Sneaking off campus to ‘run some tests’ sounds sketchy as hell.”
“I think you’ve been spending too much time with Nanamin.” Gojo shook his head, steadfast in maintaining his energetic smile. “Nowhere in the scientific method does it require a lab and as for a controlled environment, I have everything perfectly under control. All we need is a testable hypothesis, which in this case is ‘By channeling his cursed energy a certain way, Yuji can defy gravity.’ We just have to figure out what the certain way is and the best method, is to put Yuji— That’s you— in a situation that forces you to channel your ability.”
“And lifting me a couple dozen meters above a freezing cold lake is what you went with?” Yuji grumbled, dipping the toe of his sneaking into the next wave that rolled into the shore. “We don’t even know if I actually have that ability in the first place! It could be a fluke.”
The day’s earlier mission had been full of variables no one could have predicted. Honestly, watching their hunt of cursed spirits spin on its head was par for the course, with the real surprise being how the events cascaded from one bad thing into another.
On the surface, the whole job should have been easy, with each student assigned their own section of the property to clear out from some wealthy businessman looking to build on abandoned land. Cursed spirits which had been observed and reported were small and of grade three or four. Sending all three first-years had been overkill, but in hindsight, having the second-years for backup would have been a godsend.
The cursed spirits they found had been of second and first-grade. The techniques they faced were all over the map, and only when the last cursed spirit had been eviscerated had they noticed that the objects and sorcerers in the room were still floating. It was then that Yuji acknowledged that the fight was over and let go of the adrenaline no longer being pumped into his veins.
One sigh of relief, and they all collectively smacked into the ground. His ass still hurt from the memory alone.
“But it might not be! And isn’t that worth the accidental dip in the lake?”
“I’d rather take a dip under a hot shower.”
“Come on, Yuji!” Gojo grabbed Yuji’s shoulders and lightly rocked him around in circles. “I swear I brought Yuji out here with me, but you sound so much like Megumi right now. Where did all your energy go? Your enthusiasm? The lust for adventure?”
“I lost it in my room after our mission wrung out every muscle in my body. I can go back and find it if you want—” Yuji ducked out of his sensei’s hands and spun around, choking on his collar in the process. The grip Gojo had on his hoodie was relentless.
“No, stop that. We’re going up!”
“Right now?”
“While the sun’s still in the sky.” Gojo released his grip on Yuji’s clothes, but he did not reach for the teenager’s hand as quickly. Instead, he paused, then displayed his open palm out in front of Yuji to offer seemingly at his pace. “If it doesn’t work, I’ll catch you. The water is just a precaution.”
Used to going along with his sensei’s whims, Yuji reached for Gojo’s hand without much thought. He stopped himself, however, from making contact, reeling back at the last second to stare the man in the face.
“You promise?”
“Yup.” His sensei then broke from his excitable attitude, clearing his throat before dropping into a more serious tone. “You have my word.”
The change had truly made all the difference in Yuji’s willingness to cooperate.
“Ok. I trust you.” Yuji grabbed his sensei’s hand, a bit tighter than he probably should have, but the man made no complaints. “Let’s do this.”
Yuji felt the world shift under his feet. Or rather, the infinite space between the ground and his feet expand, thrusting both himself and his teacher upwards into the sky. The propulsion was rigid, like a platform shoving them in one direction. Only when they were high enough did the sudden gust of wind settle into the light breeze that still ran a shiver down his spine.
He was left to re-familiarize himself with the odd feeling of standing on what was to him an invisible floor while Gojo looked around to confirm they were alone. Last time they’d traveled to this lake, the Mt. Fuji-head cursed spirit had been trying to kill his sensei, with another cursed spirit to rush in and disrupt the fight once things didn’t go their way. The same plant cursed spirit that attacked their school during the exchange event… None of it felt coincidental, but his sensei never spoke of it, so all Yuji could do was speculate.
The chances of running into them were low, but not impossible. At least having Gojo with him meant there was no danger if they were to appear. Right now, the greatest risk to Yuji now was himself and his ability to work whatever magic he had done before.
“The coast is clear. Are you ready, Yuji?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be, but what exactly am I supposed to do?” Yuji scratched the back of his head, digging his nails a bit too deep into his skin from his nerves. “I don’t even remember how I made everything float to begin with.”
“How should I know? It’s your cursed technique.” Gojo shrugged with one arm. “Maybe, try to channel your cursed energy and try to embrace a feeling of weightlessness. Pretend you’re an astronaut floating in the International Space Station!”
“I can do that last one. I dressed up as an astronaut for Halloween when I was twelve.” Confidence was rising, albeit slowly, as the playful atmosphere that normally surrounded them returned.
“No way. Are there pictures somewhere? I need to see little Yuji with a fishbowl on his head. You know, I dressed up as an alien at the last Halloween party. More of a last-minute, low-effort thing, but the antennae were really cute. We should match this year!”
“Isn’t there a rule about using the same costume in a row?” Yuji let out a laugh, finding himself internally blushing at the thought of matching costumes. Was the offer serious?
“Since when do I go by the rules?” If there was no blindfold over his eyes, Yuji swore he would have witnessed the man wink.
Shameless.
With the tension shaking out of his system, it was time to give this plan a chance before calling it a night. The thought of possessing a cursed technique of his own was truly an exciting one. Yuji could still recall the utter disappointment he had felt when being told he had no technique of his own, something that his sensei was certain of until now. The only way Gojo could confirm it was to see it in action.
Closing his eyes, Yuji sought to channel his cursed energy throughout his body. Every piece of him from the tips of his fingers to the ends of his toes, he coaxed cursed energy through his veins in a continuous, almost self-perpetuating cycle as it slipped into being second nature.
Nothing felt different from when he’d meditated before. Nor was it different from being in the midst of a fight. He wasn’t about to float away and as the seconds turned to minutes, that fact did not change.
“I’m going to turn off my technique. Be ready.”
Yuji nodded, continuing to focus on his cursed energy to unlock whatever secret Gojo was convinced he had.
The invisible ground beneath Yuji’s feet gave way. Akin to feeling someone yank a carpet underneath his feet, his body jerked back. His eyes shut even tighter. An embarrassing yelp escaped between his teeth in preparation for the fall —
The fall that never came.
“Sensei!” Yuji shouted in disbelief. “I’m-I’m not falling, I’m floating!”
"You’re floating!” Gojo repeated, arms in the air and filled with amusement. “Yuji-kun is defying gravity!”
In contrast to his sensei’s technique, Yuji first thought himself to be hanging in the air by invisible strings. String that had no discernible anchor nor could be entangled within one another as he spun haphazardly in the air. Movement was slow. Ungraceful. Uncontrollable—
Oh no.
“Sensei! Help!”
Yuji’s prior excitement turned sour, now pleading for help. With no immediate influence on which way his body turned, he tried to regain any sense of control by mimicking the motions of swimmers. The butterfly stroke, in spite of the name, was not something to be used in the air as one would in the water. All he did was spin himself further in the air, stopping only when Gojo’s hand grabbed his foot to reel him in.
“I caught myself a Yuji.” Gojo hummed, maneuvering Yuji around so that he was now floating on his back instead of his front. Yuji’s head now sat against Gojo’s chest, the man looking down on him with both glee and curiosity, one hand holding his body steady as an anchor would a ship. “Interesting… you’re weakening gravity’s hold on you but you’re not floating out into space entirely which means there is a level of equilibrium afoot.”
“I’m levitating like Gojo-sensei!”
“The same result, but not quite the same method. I’m sure you already figured that out.” The pressure of his sensei’s grip temporarily increased, pressing against Yuji to see how his body, and cursed technique would react. Buoyant was the word that came to mind as Yuji bobbed underneath the man’s prodding. One hand became two, and it soon became clear that Gojo was having more fun poking at Yuji than assessing his technique.
Swatting his sensei’s hands away remedied this, but the moment he started floating away from the force of his own movements, Yuji undid his work by clasping Gojo’s arm as tight as he could.
“Can you use your cursed energy to change directions?”
“I don’t think so.” Still willing to try, Yuji tugged his cursed energy in different directions, unsure how this would translate to moving when his body could not. Maybe it was the lack of understanding that kept it from working in the first place.
“Unlike the flying comic book heroes, you still seem to be subjected to Newton’s Rules and require an external force to move. By removing gravity, you’re removing an important force needed to control where you go… maybe we’re going about this the wrong way. Why not try focusing your energy to strengthen the current effect? In theory, that should make you go higher.”
His sensei’s grin, against all odds, had become more mischievous than before. Yuji felt that he was missing something.
“Why are we going up higher?”
“So, we don’t miss the sunset.”
It was said so matter-of-factly, that Yuji had initially accepted the logic behind it without question. After a second passed, Yuji cocked his head around in an effort to understand the importance of seeing it at all. Truthfully, he hadn’t been paying attention to the sun dipping under the horizon, but once Gojo pointed it out, he was more than willing to chase after the orange and purple hues in the sky.
The rise of his cursed energy, pooling first within his stomach then washing across the rest of his body to propel him higher. Gojo followed with far more grace, settling on his back with arms crossed behind his head in an invisible hammock. The attempt was made to mimic his sensei’s position, but Yuji still needed to keep one hand pinching the fabric of Gojo’s jacket to avoid spinning out of place.
A quick glance at the ground left Yuji thankful that his fear of heights was relatively minor. The two must have been high enough in the air to rival the tallest building on their campus. He’d have to be closer to be sure.
Yuji turned to his sensei with his free hand shielding his eyes from direct contact with the burning orb in the sky. His eyes wandered more to the growing sea of stars being unveiled with the sun’s departure, but no matter how much he looked around, he kept returning to the man beside him.
“Can you see the sunset through that blindfold?”
“I can feel the light, which tells me the sun is still in the sky.” With his thumb, Gojo lifted the edge of his blindfold up to reveal the ethereal blue eyes Yuji rarely had the opportunity to see. “Does Yuji want me to look at it properly?”
“Well, yeah, that’s the point of watching a sunset— Hey!” Yuji yanked himself forward to slap his palm over his sensei’s face as the man had immediately turned to stare at what remained of the sun above the tree line. “You shouldn’t look directly at it, or you’ll go blind!”
“Yuji. Yuji. Yuji.” Gojo repeated whilst shaking his head. “I have the reversed cursed technique. I’ll be fine.”
Yuji squinted, unconvinced. This only caused his sensei to double down on his argument.
“Time for a fun fact. Do you know what I did when I first mastered the technique?” Not enough time was given for Yuji to answer. “I indulged in a bit of recklessness to test my expanded toolbox. It was pretty fun. Gave Shoko and Su— Gave my friends a good scare now and then. But as you can see, it all worked out in the end.”
The peace sign his sensei opened and closed beside him did nothing to alleviate the concern that came from hearing all that.
“Knowing you, it all must have been hilarious.”
“Right? See, this one time—”
“But if I were them, I would be scared too.” Yuji cut his sensei off. “What if it doesn’t work? Or something interferes—”
“I’m Gojo Satoru.” It was his sensei’s turn to interrupt, patting a hand on Yuji’s head. “It will always work. You have to have faith in me, Yuji-kun.”
Out of the Corner of his eye, Yuji witnessed the last bit of sunlight disappear behind the horizon. All that remained are the streaks of orange breaking up the purple and navy overhead. The world now relied on the full moon and its reflection to illuminate the night, their combined shine bouncing off his sensei’s hair while competing with the faint glow his own eyes emanated.
“I do! I just… want to make sure. What’s wrong with that?”
Yuji pulled his head back at his sensei’s incoming hand, but not fast enough to avoid receiving a gentle tap on the nose.
“Nothing at all.”
The two hung around in the air for a bit longer, not as literally as it would appear if someone were to come across them in the sky. A moment of silence. A small, but welcome pause from the barrage of excitement that had never ceased once Yuji learned of the existence of curses and those who wielded them. If the wind wasn’t threatening to pick up, he may have been content with staying in this spot as long as his sensei would allow it.
The tips of his fingers grew numb in protest of the idea.
“So, uh, sensei?”
“Yes, my dear Yuji?”
“How do we— I —get down?”
“What do you mean? Just turn off your technique, and sensei will catch you.” While he implied the use of his infinity, Gojo had his arms spread wide in preparation of having to use them.
Unsure if turning it off was the best idea, Yuji took in a breath and worked to temper his cursed energy. Only, halting the technique came much harder than it did to activate it, almost working against him.
“It’s not turning off.”
“Is it running automatically?” Gojo looked him over, grabbing onto different limbs and eventually moving Yuji’s head left and right to assess something his student couldn’t perceive. “Or is there a set time limit… Well, eventually you’ll run out of cursed energy and just fall out of the sky anyway.”
“And how long will that take— I don’t want to fall out of the sky! Sensei, get me down!”
“Should I tie some rope around your waist and pull you down? My own Yuji balloon?” His sensei wasn’t taking this seriously. Not at all. It did not help that Yuji puffed up his cheeks, pouting at the suggestion while failing to kick the man for phrasing what was probably a decent idea in such a terrible way.
“This isn’t funny!”
“Try thinking heavy thoughts?” Gojo suggested between his stifled chuckling. He failed to hide his smile behind the hand over his mouth, looking away too little too late. “Imagine that you’re a rock—”
“Brat.”
Yuji's breath remained trapped in his throat, silently choking him as his body froze. The voice in his head rang through his ears, commanding his actions before he could even think, acknowledge what to do next. Instinct told him to halt his cursed energy entirely. Break the circuit to undo all his hard work.
He did not pause in the air for a couple seconds as a character would in the old cartoons.
Gravity took hold immediately and dragged him downward, his heart sinking under its grip and his lungs gasping for oxygen. Yuji clasped at the air in an attempt to wave his arms, but before he could spread them across in mocking fashion of a bird, nausea-induced butterflies came together in a violent swirl in the pit of his stomach—the kickback from the sudden halt to his descent.
Once again, Yuji remained floating in the air, caught midway between their original position and the moonlit water below him. His reflection was filled with dread. Wide eyes stared in silence. His face grew pale, completely spooked as if a ghost had whispered in his ear.
“Yuji!” Gojo sensei called out to him from above, dropping to his level with one swift motion. “You’re cursed energy completely reversed! Anti-gravity to just, well, gravity! At your skill level, it should be impossible but, you’re always so full of surprises I should have learned that by now— Are you ok?”
“Uh-huh.”
More of a grunt than a proper response, Yuji steadied himself against his sensei as he allowed himself time to catch his breath. The lie did not sit well inside him, but he could not explain what had happened. The sudden shift in his energy had loosened something, allowing for the steady tightening of his output until he became completely reliant on his sensei keeping him in the air with the Limitless technique.
Yuji’s hands were still shaking. He wanted to blame the shot of adrenaline. That would be easier to explain than whatever that reaction was. Never before had Sukuna’s voice affected him so violently—perhaps it had all been in his head. The curse’s presence was nowhere to be found, Yuji could have hallucinated it after being thrust to a higher elevation so quickly. Wasn’t there less oxygen the higher you go in the sky?
“Don’t go passing out on me, ok?” Gojo held Yuji tighter as they finished their descent, gently floating the both of them back to the shoreline. He didn’t push Yuji to speak on the matter any further, and for that, Yuji was grateful. “Feet are on the ground. You can let go now.”
Yuji did just that. Fingers that had threatened to tear through his sensei’s clothes unlatched, and Yuji fell backward onto the bed of grass they were standing over. Standing felt weird now. His legs had only a second to make themselves useful, and they chose to wobble instead. The closest comparison was the time he’d gone on a boat during a class trip when he was ten and after being on the water so long, the solid, unmovable nature of the land had become difficult to walk on.
An hour later, and he’d gone back to normal with no awareness of the change.
This should be the same, right?
“So,” His sensei began as he clapped his hands together and squatted next to Yuji’s side. “I, the great Gojo Satoru, have come to a few conclusions. Wanna hear them?”
Yuji lifted his arms in the air, weakly waving them around as an indicator to continue.
“I suspect that this technique of yours which I’m dubbing ‘Anti-Gravity System’ — Cool name. You’re welcome —lacked stability and therefore, couldn’t fully manifest. My theory is that all this exposure to and subsequent work in harnessing cursed energy had allowed your technique to solidify and define its shape which in turn, allows the Six Eyes to make sense of it. Another interesting tidbit in all this is that this might explain why you haven’t gained the use of Sukuna’s techniques, since humans are limited to a set amount. Brain capacity and all that. Kind of a design flaw if you ask me.”
“Shouldn’t I get to pick the name?” Yuji muttered, replaying his sensei’s explanation as the man lay down next to him. “It’s my technique.”
“If you can think of something cooler, be that way.” The offense Gojo displayed was another joke, because no one truly hurt would grip their chest so tight in mimic of those television dramas. “And while it’s your technique, it’s not exactly a new one.”
“What does that mean?”
“Gravity manipulation was recorded centuries ago, dating back to the Heian era if my history is correct. The technique was thought to be lost a few generations before us, but you're proof that it’s not the case. Whether you possess the same one or this is convergent evolution at play… Hard to say without a comparison for the Six Eyes for absolute confirmation which means an eventual deep dive into the school’s archives for anything worthwhile.”
“We’re not going to do that tonight, are we?”
“Nah. Books are old and full of dust. I’ll make Ijichi do it when it’s safe to do so.”
Yuji truly felt bad for the assistant— Safe? Come again?
“Um, I’m sorry, safe?” Yuji pulled himself up and crossed his legs, now sitting attentively in front of Gojo. “Sensei, why wouldn’t it be…?
“There’s good news and bad news.” Gojo tucked his eyes back under his blindfold, then stuck out his tongue. “Which do you want first?”
“Bad news.” Best to get it over with.
“Bad news then. There’s going to be a lot of paperwork and more testing to see how your technique can be manipulated, but we can make testing fun, and like I already said we can shove the boring stuff onto someone else—”
“But there’s more?”
“But there’s more,” Gojo confirmed as he crossed one leg over the other. “Your technique, if it’s truly the one that was lost, is considered powerful. Full of potential and variability. You’re already Sukuna’s vessel and considered dangerous regardless of your stance on being a Jujutsu Sorcerer and the promise you made to destroy the curse, this technique once known will only put you further into the spotlight. I can’t say with any certainty how the elders will react, but we both know from experience it’s never in our favor.”
“Can we keep it hidden?” The suggestion didn’t appear that hard to accomplish. As of right now, only three people knew about his new cursed technique. “I’m sure Fushiguro and Kugisaki can keep a secret—Only until I know how to use it! Like how we pretended I was dead for a few months?”
“I was thinking the same thing. It’s all we can do until we’re forced to face the music. Hope you know how to tango.”
“Sorry, I’m all left feet.” The two shared a grin, allowing Yuji to relax his shoulders more than he’d thought. “You said there was good news?”
“Yes! Good news. Here we go. The few sorcerers who possessed gravity manipulation in its original iteration were considered special grade. If yours is the same one, then that would make you the fifth sorcerer given the rank of special grade in recent memory. Congrats!”
Congrats.
Special Grade wasn’t a rank to be earned, yet when Gojo said it, Yuji couldn’t help but feel accomplished. At the same time, the original sense of dread he’d felt during his fall had continued to fester, leaving him with muddled feelings regarding the revelation being brought to him.
His sensei was looking at him, beaming with excitement, like he was special.
But Yuji didn’t feel special.
Cursed, maybe, but not special.
Yuji turned his gaze up at the stars one last time and faintly echoed his sensei’s words.
“Congrats."