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Nanami snapped his head up when Yaga came shouting into the room demanding that all the first grade and above sorcerers gather in the front circle. “Geto Suguru is on the campus,” Yaga snapped, and Nanami jerked, shoved forwards, adrenaline rushing through him, buzzing in his teeth, and ran for the door the other sorcerers barely a step behind. “the kids-“ Nanami started, then he was through, and he could see him could see Geto standing in the middle of the path, arm around a student. Gojo standing a few feet away from him, one hand in his pocket, shoulders tense against his uniform.

“Satoru, long time no see,” Geto said, tilting his head around, and smiling in greeting. Nanami bit down hard on his cheek, chest freezing as he stopped breathing, sensation rushing under is skin, his eyes flicking from the arm around Yuta to Geto’s face, to that mother fucker who dared… who walked away, and still dared to…

“Step away from those kids right now Suguru,” Gojo said steadily, voice calm, and barely strained, exhaustion, resignation peeking in around the edges, and Nanami took a quick, silent breath, weight forward on the balls of his feet, hand behind his back, flexing around his cleaver as he watched them, eyes flicking between the curse user and Gojo, waiting for a sign, waiting for the bastard to do something.

“I heard this new first year is simply outstanding,” Geto started, his arm still around Yuta, tilting his head up, taunting, mocking, cruel as always. “Seems its true, you still have an eye for talent,” he said, smile never shifting as he continued explaining each student, like what they were was all that mattered, all that there was to them, like he had any idea who they were.

“An eye for talent?” Nanami thought, scoffing silently, hand shifting on his cleaver eyes flicking to Gojo, standing still, tension cording his back, no matter how relaxed he stood, weight on one leg, like he was completely unconcerned, despite the unusual calm solemnity in his voice. “like what mattered was their uniqueness, not that they needed to be taught,” he continued, grinding his teeth, attention flicking to the three students who were standing tense just off to the side, anger lining their faces. “You never had any idea who he is do you Geto?”  Nanami realized, going rigid, braced as Maki snarled, leveling her spear at Geto a second later, scattering the thoughts.

“You better watch that mouth of yours, because I don’t need any monkeys in the world that I’m creating,” Geto said, suddenly serious, threatening her.

Nanami felt ice sweep through him, and he leaned forward, breathing slowly through the flare of cursed energy, through the rage, how dare he-

Yuta slapped Geto’s arm away, making Nanami’s pause, eyes flicking to Gojo briefly, checking for a cue, as Geto pulled back, open shock on his face, like he couldn’t believe that anyone would reject his kind, blood soaked, heinous offer, like it shocked him that Yuta wasn’t going to help him kill his friend.

“I don’t really understand anything you are talking about,” Yuta started, and Nanami blinked caught just for a second by that, Geto’s plan was disgusting, his speech slightly roundabout but not particularly confusing. “But I can’t help anyone who insults my friends, so count me out,” Yuta snapped, head coming up sharply, his jaw set as he met the curse users eyes.

Nanami felt a flash of pride, before his attention snapped to Gojo when he moved, walking towards them slowly.

“My apologies,” Geto lied, looking so disappointed, “I didn’t come here to insult you, or your friends,” Geto continued, still lying, still-

“That’s good to know,” Gojo said steadily, face blank, as he stepped between them, putting himself and his infinity in front of Yuta, ready to defend him, facing his first friend for the first time in ten years. Nanami fought to keep his expression blank, to not react to the strain he could hear in his friends voice, carefully hidden under the sardonic edge. “Then why exactly did you come here?” Gojo asked, after a miniscule pause, just slightly out of breath.

“I came to declare war,” Geto started, grandstanding, and fucking pointless, then he turned to face the rest of the sorcerers and Nanami braced himself, staring into that face that should have been familiar, should have made him… be he couldn’t see anything he recognized there. “Everyone gathered here today, I want you all to open your ears and listen closely,” he condescended, “on December 24^th, when the sun sets, we shall begin the night parade of a hundred demons.” Nanami took a quick breath, dread pooling in his stomach. “At the crucible of curses,” Geto continued, spreading his arms, palms up, like he had something to present, “Shinjuku, Tokyo, as well as the holy land of Jujutsu, Kyoto, a thousand curses will be unleashed onto each place,” he said, and Nanami fought to keep his face blank, not reacting to that, to the sheer magnitude of that, a thousand curses released onto the streets in one night, a thousand, in two cities. “All with the command, massacre,” Geto continued, and Nanami… he couldn’t… the dread solidified, twisting, a thousand curses in one city, all of them killed, slaughtering anyone around them.

“Millions will die,” Nanami thought blankly, blinking his cursed technique activating immediately, it didn’t… he stared hard at… at… at the monster standing in front of him, at the three curse users arrayed at his back. Two thousand curses in one night, there was no way they could kill them all without anyone dying, no chance. “I could kill him now, that would fix it all,” Nanami thought, taking a breath, sliding his cleaver out of his sheathe slowly, he had to be fast, had to be…

“If you wish to avoid a scene straight from hell,” Geto continued, gleeful, smug, uncaring. Did he not realize? Streets flooded with blood, bodies strewn across every surface, torn apart, some still alive, screaming, an entire city dead, millions murdered in one night, and more than that, sorcerers no longer a secret, thrown into sight with the wanton slaughter of millions. “Come do your best to stop it,” he leaned forward, a sick smile twisting his face, “let us freely curse each other to death,” the curse user that Geto had chosen to become said gleefully, nothing left of the hurting, failed kid, no, all that he was then was a blood soaked murderer, gleeful at killing entire cities. There was the only mocking cruelty for the man who had decided to kill an entire world, leave it rotting and dead.

Nanami swallowed, tasting disgust on his tongue as he stared at Geto, he wanted him dead, wanted him erased, someone like that shouldn’t exist, shouldn’t still live, how could he even… how could anyone… He stepped forward, cleaver at his side, breathing controlled.

Then one of the curse users behind the monster shrieked suddenly. “Mr. Geto, the café is going to close,” she shrieked, staring down at her phone, more concerned with a café closing then the slaughter ‘Mr. Geto’ was planning.

“Oh is it that late already?” The curse user asked, turning his head, casual, like he hadn’t… wasn’t planning to…

Nanami ground his teeth, stepping forward again. A café? They were going to a café in the city they had just threatened to kill.

“You know how it is, don’t you?” Geto asked Gojo, like he had any idea, had any right, then he turned and started toward his fucking bird, dismissing them, and Nanami stepped forward again, glancing at Gojo, watching him take a quick, deep breath before he spoke.

“You didn’t think we’d just let you leave?” Gojo asked flatly, and Nanami grinned, sharp, even as his heart twisted for his friend, because he hated Geto, could kill him without a second thought, beyond satisfaction of a job well done, be he knew Gojo, knew that he still… knew that this had to be tearing him to pieces.

“Careful, Satoru,” Geto said, stopping and not turning around, using Gojo’s name again, threatening him. Nanami bared his teeth just as a huge curse came screaming out of the ground, exuding cursed energy.
Nanami stared at the curse for a half a second, gave up on Geto and turned and ran for the students, barely making it a step before thirteen curses appeared around them, he spared another half second to curse the bastard and then he was in the midst of the curses, cutting through them.

They made quick work of the curses surrounding the students and as they were finished a flare of controlled cursed energy lit up the area as Gojo blasted the huge curse with cursed energy, disintegrating it. Nanami watched him stand still for a long moment, staring at what remained of the curse he had just destroyed, before he spun to face the students, a wide fake smile spreading across his face, painfully brittle, the other sorcerers glancing around and walking away.

Nanami winced and stepped back, cursed energy bubbling under his skin like the rage he could feel burning in his lungs. “Geto Suguru,” he thought bitterly, grinding his teeth as he watched the four fifteen-year-olds the bastard had just threatened almost vibrating out of their skin as they talked to their teacher.

Two cities, two thousand curses in one night. He couldn’t even… he closed his eyes, swallowing against the taste of iron on the back of his tongue. He wanted that bastard dead, wished he had been able to kill him, wished he could have stopped… “Thousands of curses unleashed on defenseless non sorcerers who can’t even see them until they are about to die,” he thought in disgust, taking another step back, breathing carefully. “Where are your all hallowed principles now Geto,” he sneered, hands clenching into fists, he’d never really believed in evil, curses were dangerous, monstrous, but they were… were human emotions given form, they were what they were made, but Geto…

“To kill people, everyone just because they don’t have enough cursed energy, just because you blame them for the curses…” he had been a sorcerer for twice as long, for almost a decade, and he didn’t…

“How dare he-“ Nanami cut himself off, turning away from the first years despite the itch that started between his shoulder blades once Gojo was out of sight, his breathing too fast, not filling his lungs.

Geto, sauntering onto school grounds, pretending friendship, pretending to be on good terms, and then… “Two thousand curses,” he thought again, baring his teeth, caught on the number, on just how long it must have taken Geto to collect them all, and now he was going to release them all, tell them to kill everyone, and then release them. What kind of monster could… There were children in those cities, people just going about their days, and they were going to die, he was going to kill them. “The glee in that monsters voice,” Nanami thought, aversion crackling through him, as he remembered the threat, Geto’s prediction if they didn’t do anything, didn’t try and combat thousands of curses with the sorcerers who were nearby. To celebrate something like that…

He clenched his hands into fists, taking a deep breath as he heard the four students walk by, his control over his anger stuttering as he remembered Geto arm around Yuta, insulting Maki- “Enough, that’s enough, more than was at all useful,” Nanami thought, cutting himself off sharply, trying not to see the blood covered streets that Geto had threatened, or the remembered file of the town Geto had slaughtered.

He turned to face Gojo, hoping he had enough control of his temper to be able to have a conversation with someone who still loved who that monster had been. “That is not going to help,” he thought at himself irritably, as he looked over at his friend. He caught a glimpse of Gojo’s blank, empty face for just a second and then he was gone, teleporting away with a flash of cursed energy.

“And another thing you godforsaken… You tore Gojo’s heart out of his damned chest, while you were deciding that slaughtering billions of people, killing an entire planet was a viable solution, that any of us would pick that over death,” Nanami thought, staring at the place Gojo had been, his heart twisting, aching for him, despite the steady drumbeat of murder he could feel in his chest.

He sighed, pressing fingers into his eyes, before starting for the building. That was the opposite of productive, they had to plan for thousands of curses, needed to gather everyone and plan for it. “But I need to find Satoru before that meeting,” he thought, swallowing against a grief that briefly swamped the anger as he remembered that blank expressionlessness that meant his lover was pulling away, was hurting.

It took him until the sun was just about to set before he managed to find Gojo, sitting, feet propped up in a classroom that had been abandoned, his head turned towards the fading sun, seemingly relaxed.

Nanami hesitated in the doorway, taking a breath, and putting away the anger and urgency, then he stepped into the room, and set what was no doubt cold tea on the desk in front of Gojo, before he rested a hand on Satoru’s shoulder, pressing down gently.

They stayed there in silence for a long moment, then Gojo slowly reached out and grabbed his tea, and Nanami took a step forward at the same time Gojo slumped sideways, leaning against Nanami, and taking a drink in silence.

Nanami studied him for a moment, then rested an arm around his shoulders and dragged his eyes up, focusing on the fading sunlight, ignoring the estimated countdown until they had to be in a that meeting. Right then, the only thing that mattered was Gojo breathing slowly against him, they’d handle the rest, no matter how much it hurt.