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Nanami Kento wakes up in a cold sweat. It takes a whole minute for his breathing to even out; the taste of smoke still lingers in the back of his throat. He has been having the same nightmare for about a week now. It always starts with the attack on Shibuya’s station and ends with his death. Usually, those two events are the only ones Nanami manages to remember upon waking up. Today is different. He recalls everything. From the idle conversation Ino engaged Fushiguro while they waited to the dread that filled him when Itadori shouted about Gojo’s sealing. And more importantly, he has a date: October 31st.
His thoughts are interrupted by the blaring sound of the alarm. Nanami gets up from his bed and, one tap later, the phone is silenced. Even after the screen has gone balck, Nanami continues staring at it. Today is October 31st. An involuntary shiver runs across his body.
He takes a deep breath and tries to think rationally. So far, there’s no reason to believe his nightmare is something more than that. How can he warn everybody about something he isn’t sure is going to happen yet? No one will take him seriously. Nanami must wait until he has some kind of proof. Only then, he will believe that his nightmare was somewhat prophetic.
Nanami goes over his usual routine. He prepares coffee and eats sliced fruit as breakfast. Then he checks the missions assigned to him. No matter how much he tries to focus on his work, Nanami can’t shake off the uneasiness from that morning. As the night approaches, he starts to relax. The day is almost over and with it the danger. But then, the principal calls for an urgent meeting.
Nanami is the third person to arrive, Ieiri-san and Mei Mei are already there. As usual, Gojo is late.
“It seems, you will be working overtime, Nanami-kun.” Ieiri says as a greeting.
“Is that so?”
“Yes, apparently, someone trapped a bunch of civilians at Shibuya station. . .”
The rest of her words are lost to Nanami. This is it. The signal that Nanami was waiting for. It means the nightmare is real, it means he will be dead by the end of the day. How can he avoid that particular fate? It’s exactly at that moment when Gojo walks in, giving him the answer. Everything goes downhill, after Gojo is sealed. If Nanami were to change that, their enemies will never get the upper hand. Could it be that simple?
Gojo's attempt to start a conversation with Nanami is cut short by the arrival of the principal. Yaga doesn’t waste time and starts by explaining the situation in Shibuya. Every single detail aligns to what Nanami remembers.
“We believe the same group that attacked us during the goodwill event is behind this,” Yaga concludes.
“Could this be a bait again?” Mei Mei asks. “Last time the curtain didn’t let Gojo in, and now. . .”
“Bring Gojo Satoru,” Ieiri echoes what the civilians were ordered to say. The phrase is the nail in the coffin. From the corner of his eyes, Nanami sees Gojo stand up from his seat.
“I’ll go and let them enjoy my presence, then.” He accompanies the words with a dangerous grin. “You can take care of cleaning the perimeter, I’m sure there will be more curse users. There’s also the rescuing of civilians.” Nobody objects to Gojo’s plan of action. Why would they? No one has considered the possibility of failure. But if Nanami lets Gojo leave, everything will be lost. He needs to do something, surprisingly it’s Gojo who gives him the opening he needs. “Nanami, take Megumi with you.”
“I can’t.”
Gojo nods as if understanding Nanami’s motives. “I get it, you want to supervise Yuuji-kun, right? Yeah, they can’t be together, we need to assign our first years with grade 1 sorcerers. Well, in that case, I guess Megumi could be with—”
“That’s not it,” Nanami interrupts Gojo, “I can’t take care of Megumi because I’m going with you.”
“Really? Pray tell?”
“It’s clearly a trap.”
Immediately after saying the words, Nanami feels a wave of embarrassment wash over him. Fuck. He knows how his words could be interpreted and taking the sudden silence in the room everyone has reached the wrong conclusion. Though, is it really the wrong conclusion? After all, Nanami is worried, just not about what they believe. It’s going to be chaos once Gojo gets sealed.
Nanami isn’t sure at what point of the conversation he stood up, but now he is facing Gojo directly. Even though Gojo’s eyes are covered by his blindfold, Nanami can swear the blue irises are twinkling behind it, and they match perfectly the delighted grin on Gojo’s lips.
“Are you worried about me, Nanamin?” Gojo's smile grows wider. “Does this mean you’re finally going to accept my dinner invitation? I’m afraid it will have to wait until tomorrow, I’m a bit busy tonight.”
Nanami sighs, of course Gojo is taking this lightly. “Gojo-san, stop joking.”
“I’m not,” Gojo replies, and there’s a shift in his voice. “I will go in and fix this.” Nanami wants nothing more than to believe him. Gojo’s confidence is so intoxicating that it almost lull Nanami into a false security. As if sensing his acceptance, Gojo continues his previous joke, “I’ll make my best effort to return before midnight, perhaps we can find a place open.”
Fed up with Gojo’s blase attitude, Nanami thinks it’s time to put all the cards on the table. He needs to make him understand how dire the situation is.
“If you go inside that curtain, you lose.”
It feels blasphemous to say those words. The sky is blue, the Earth is round and Gojo Satoru always wins. If Nanami hadn’t already seen everything in that nightmare, he wouldn’t believe himself either.
Gojo straightens to his full stature and raises the blindfold on his right eye. Any trace of playfulness from their previous interaction is gone. In front of Nanami is the strongest sorcerer, who happens to be very aware of his power.
“You realize who you’re talking to, right?”
Before Nanami can answer, Itadori bursts into the room.
“Gojo-sensei, don’t go, it’s a trap!”
The new warning makes Gojo tense further, this is the second person in a row who tries to prevent him from going to Shibuya. Nanami can’t imagine what’s going inside his mind. This must be new for him.
“Itadori-kun,” the principal intervenes, “explain yourself.”
“Mechamaru has told me about the plan.” He taps his ear where a silver piece is attached. “They have the, uh, how did you say it was called?”
“Prison realm,” Mechamaru supplies.
“Yeah, that and they want to use it to seal Gojo-sensei,” Itadori finishes looking at his professor.
“Well, that’s a nice artifact, but it won’t work,” Gojo points out. Nanami has to agree with him. While the prison realm is one of the few artifacts that could contain a sorcerer from Gojo’s caliber, it needs time to activate. For it to work, Gojo has to give them an opening, and he doesn’t allow those to his enemies. Is this really how he got trapped?
“Their leader is Geto Suguru,” Mechamaru intervenes again. “I have seen him.”
The last piece of the puzzle has been handed to Nanami; now he can see the complete picture. This plan never relied on overpowering Gojo, mostly because they wouldn’t be able to. Instead, they targeted his mind, making him doubt for a moment. Nanami, who has never stopped observing Gojo, can see that small hesitation that, in another time, would have doomed them all.
Silence fills the room once more. Ironically, the only person who hasn’t understood the magnitude of this information is Itadori. It makes sense, Nanami thinks, since the kid doesn’t have any clue who Geto is.
“What do we do now?”
“We stick to my plan,” Gojo answers, and his confidence doesn’t falter even when he is met with Ieiri’s reproachful gaze. “I’m still the only one who can enter. Besides, now that I know who I'm going to meet there, their advantage is forfeit.”
What follows is a heated discussion between Yaga and Gojo. The principal offers a new plan of action. Yaga assigns Gojo the task of breaking the curtain, only then, and with a backup, he can go to confront Geto. For a moment, Nanami is sure that Gojo is going to storm off the room and do whatever he thinks is best.
“Fine,” he says, “but I go first. We need a more detailed reading of the enemies formation. I can do that without entering the veil.”
Without waiting for a reply, Gojo is gone. Perhaps Nanami’s first guess wasn’t so off the mark. However, Gojo is back before any doubt can befall on his actions.
“In the center there are four special grade curses.” Gojo spreads out a map of Shibuya station (where he got it, Nanami doesn’t want to know) and starts marking everything down. “In the outer sections, four grade one. Six curse users inside the curtain and three outside on Shibuya Tower. I didn’t sense his presence, but I suppose that’s the point. Once the curtain is down, I will put in place a new one to prevent the curses from escaping. Leave the special grade to me.”
“We’ll have three groups ready to deal with the rest.”
“I’m off again.” Gojo crosses the room, and his hand closes around Nanami’s arm. “I’m taking Nanami with me. You did say I must take a backup, and Nanami offered.”
Yaga opens his mouth, the rebuttal in the tip of his tongue. He probably wanted Nanami to lead one of the groups, but he also needs someone keeping an eye on Gojo. The choice is obvious. Yaga turns to the table where preparations are already beginning and leaves Nanami to fend off for himself, not without giving him a pointed glance. Nanami doesn’t complain. Gojo wasn’t entirely wrong.
“Where to?”
“I think we both know where the casters are.”
The noise is the first thing that indicates their change of scenery. It takes a few seconds for Nanami to shake off the disorientation. Gojo doesn’t have that problem, accustomed as he is to this type of travel. There are three curse users in front of them: two men and an old lady, Nanami doesn’t recognize any of them, but they do. Their expressions change from surprise to fear.
“He said you will be locked away!” One of the men yells.
“And you believed him?”
With one attack, Gojo blasts him off the roof and destroys the first cursed object that is powering the curtain. The other two stay frozen for a bit, and Nanami has the impression they’re going to run off, but when they move is to attack. The old lady activates her cursed technique, which appears to be a type of summoning.
“Great!” Gojo exclaims after seeing the transformation of the man. “Can we stop bringing more ghosts?”
Nanami coincides with Gojo, but for a very different reason. This is the same guy who attacked Nanami and the others when they were inside Dagon’s domain. The fact that Gojo also seems to know him doesn’t bode well for them.
“Time to settle the score, Toji.”
Zen’in Toji, the man who almost killed Gojo. An unpleasant memory is brought to Nanami’s mind, Gojo lying on the front doors of the school covered in blood. Yet, it was on the brink of death where he unlocked his potential. After that no one has managed to truly threaten his life.
Toji sprints towards Gojo without a second thought. Nanami leaves him to deal with that, while he goes after the two cursed objects the old lady is guarding. She dodges the first hits, and calls for his companion to cover her, but she is ignored by Toji, who is currently being crashed towards the wall. Like Nanami expected, Gojo has no trouble. The woman realizes she has lost control of the situation, and, in her hurry to leave, she drops the cursed objects.
Three things happen in quick succession. Nanami crushes both devices, breaking the curtain in the process. To his right, Gojo finishes Toji off with hollow purple. The first step of their plan is complete, but they don’t have time to regroup. There’s a clink on the floor and the prison realm opens in front of Gojo. Of course, that’s the moment when Geto Suguru makes his entrance.
From where Nanami is standing, he can only see Gojo’s back; fear coils in his gut, and the possibility of failure comes back. The worry vanishes when Gojo lifts his left hand and a blue sphere is shot. Both, the prison realm and Geto, are pulled out toward the east corner of the building. They follow a parallel trajectory, without Gojo in the middle, the one being scanned by the cursed artifact is Geto.
And just like that the tables have turned. Geto’s expression is complete bewilderment, it’s the look of someone who can’t comprehend how he lost. Gojo takes off his blindfold and walks towards him.
“What are you?”
“Don’t you recognize your friend?” He mocks, there’s an edge to his words. “But then again, friends don’t kill each other and leave their bodies to rot. Your mistake, my win. Or that’s how it was supposed to be.” He tries to stand up, but the binding from the prison realm doesn't let him. However, the movement causes the top of his head to slide off revealing something else inside it.
Before he can launch an attack, Gojo says, “Gate closed.” The prison realm returns to its original size and the sealing is finished.
It’s over , Nanami thinks.
And then, the noises from below catch up to his ears. They have prevented one thing, but Shibuya is still under attack. Nanami glances at his side to see that Gojo hasn’t moved from his spot. Nanami has the sudden urge to reach out, but words fail him.
“Time to split up, Nanami,” he says. It’s the logical course of action, Gojo doesn’t need a back up anymore. Nanami nods in acknowledgement. However, this is not the answer Gojo was expecting because he starts complaining. “That’s it? No more anxious words from Nanami? Weren’t you so worried you didn’t want me to go alone?”
Nanami sighs, but doesn’t deny the words. Instead, he retorts, “And weren’t you who said he will be back before midnight?”
The riposte makes Gojou laugh. It’s a good sound, carefree and honest. It helps Nanami to relax.
“Then I shall endeavor to fulfill my promise.”
It’s not over by midnight. Well, to be more precise, Gojo does finish dealing with the special grade curses on time. However, between fighting curses, evacuating civilians and the debriefing, Nanami isn’t released from duty until the next day. He doesn’t expect to find Gojo waiting for him outside the school terrains.
“I thought we agreed to meet at midnight,” Gojo says as he catches up with Nanami.
“What for?”
“Our date, of course.”
“It’s already morning.”
“So, breakfast?”
Nanami stops walking. It's been a long night, his muscles ache and he is sure there’s blood in his suit. He just wants to go home and sleep. They have been through hell, but Gojo barely looks rugged up, like he didn’t fight and turned to dust 4 special grade curses. Gojo’s abilities are really something, but even with all that power, he almost loses. Nanami knows better than anyone how close it was, and he guesses Gojo felt it too.
The tension that Nanami perceived from before is still there. Back then, Nanami wasn’t sure how to proceed, but he has a hunch now.
“Breakfast sounds good,” he finally answers.
The effect is instantaneous. Gojo perks up, a sunflower rising towards the sun.
“Perfect! I know a place. You’re going to love it.”
Gojo continues talking about all the different dishes they can choose from. Nanami hums here and then, unconsciously relaxing with the sound of his companion's voice.
The meal is better than Nanami expected, it is sweet but not excessively so (or maybe he is taking a liking to it). The company is also nice. Gojo doesn’t bring up anything from the last day. Yet, Nanami isn't fooled into believing Gojo has forgotten about his odd behavior. They will talk about it, just not today.
Nanami can’t help but to think back to yesterday’s morning, waking up alone with death lingering in the back of his mind. To be fair, death is still very present, but Nanami is not alone this time. In front of him, Gojo talks animatedly while Nanami sips his coffee slowly.
It’s a good way to spend his morning.