Gojo was gazing down at the destruction caused by his Hollow Purple. A huge ravine was painted across the ground, stretching for nearly a kilometer through the wooded land of Jujutsu Tech campus. He grinned madly despite knowing full well that he had gone overkill when all he needed to do was eliminate the curse that was fighting with Yuji and Aoi.
He gazed behind himself and down at principal Gakuganji, who was completely unamused by Gojo's egregious display of power. The curse user at the Principal's feet was writing in agony with both his arms and legs crushed by Gojo himself.
"Hmmm," he thought to himself, scanning around the campus for any more threats. He could feel Utahime and some female students off in the distance, and other students being taken to get urgent medical care. Then, he felt your energy off in the distance, all on its own. It was dampened, as if you were behind a barrier technique. He decided to fly down to where you were, since he was disappointed that you didn't listen to him when he told you not to chase after random energies you thought you had sensed.
However, Satoru Gojo was also worried. Something felt ever so slightly off about your energy. When he quickly arrived at the building that you were inside of, he spotted two guards face down on the ground, dead. Their bodies were devoid of cursed energy. He didn't care about them whatsoever, and just continued on to search for you.
When he spotted you, face down in a puddle of your own blood, his eyes went wide with shock.
He rushed to your crumpled body, kneeling down and placing a hand on your back. He felt your shallow breathing and cursed energy flowing slowly through your body, and let out a sigh of relief. You were simply unconscious. He lifted you from the puddle of blood, and checked your lolling head to see how bad the injury was. It just appeared to be a cut from being hit in the temple by something blunt, so he ripped a strip off of the bottom of your pale purple blouse. He tied it around your forehead so it wouldn't drip blood everywhere, but then he simply slung you over his shoulder as he flew back over to the medical area.
~~~
You were in the mortuary with Ieiri. It was the late afternoon, and the Sister School Event had been cancelled. You felt bleak; both Yuji's attempted assassination and the ransacking of the school grounds. A familiar face rested on the metal autopsy table before you; it was a guard that you remembered always greeting you whenever you passed by. Now, he was only ever going to be a memory.
You stood there with a bandage on your forehead, your blouse frayed at the bottom from being torn. You felt like you had just been hit by a truck; not physically, but emotionally. Your injury had long since been healed and now only a mark remained.
As she worked on the autopsy, Shoko noticed the distraught expression on your face and attempted to lighten the atmosphere.
"Hey, remember that cursed energy conducting ring?" She asked as she was elbows deep in another casualties' chest cavity.
"Yeah? The one that helped me exorcise that curse?" You responded, not really in the mood for talking much.
"Turns out, it becomes malleable the more cursed energy you put into it." She spoke, her voice still unwavering as she picked up an unrecognizably deformed internal organ to weigh it, the tissue and blood squelching in her gloved hands. "I played around with it, turns out it could be useful in combat for someone with your ability." Shoko dropped the organ onto the scale with a wet plop.
"Oh, that's cool." You couldn't find many words because your mind was so preoccupied with death and cruelty. You were standing there with glassy eyes, and Shoko felt relieved when she saw Ijichi walk in through the door.
"Y/N, Nanami is here for you." he spoke. This snapped you out of your trance as you turned to face him.
"I'll be right up, thank you Ijichi." You spoke, pulling the plastic gown that protected your clothing from stains up and over your head.
"Hey, Y/N, it's in the bottom drawer of my desk. I'll do all the paperwork if you decide to take it." Ieiri called after you as you walked up the stairs to leave.
You gave a glance back and a weak smile as you replied, "Thank you Ieiri."
As you reached the top of the stairs, Nanami was standing by the infirmary speaking to Yuji.
"Hi, Y/N sensei!" Yuji shouted from inside the infirmary as you came into view. You gave him a happy, yet painful smile.
"Hi Yuji, are you feeling better?"
"Yeah, I'm almost good as new!" Yuji stretched his arm, rotating his shoulder.
"Come on, we should get home." Nanami spoke up, momentarily placing a hand on the small of your back as he looked at you, before walking towards the exit. You stepped up beside him, and he immediately addressed your mood. "You look upset. You can talk to me about it, if you'd like to."
"It's just been a rough day. I'm going to stop by the teachers' lounge." You spoke lowly, not wanting to make your mood apparent to the various staff buzzing about the campus. Nanami didn't respond, as it seemed like he noticed that you weren't in the mood to talk.
You stepped inside the lounge and quietly reached Ieiri's desk, sliding open the file drawer at the bottom to see a small bundle of cloth. When you picked it up, you could feel the ring inside, but it was the size of a bracelet now. You tucked the bundle into your pocket and went back to Nanami.
"What was that?" He asked, curious.
"We can talk about it later. Right now, it's just costume jewelry." You spoke briefly.
When the two of you reached Nanami's car, you grabbed onto the wrist of his sleeve with one hand. He stopped immediately, turning to look at you.
"Nanami..." You trailed off, choosing instead to step closer to him.
You held your arms up and wrapped him in a hug, burying your face in his chest.
"What's wrong?" Nanami asked, placing his hands on your back. You were much smaller than him, and his hands took up the entire width of your back.
"I think I just needed a hug." You spoke, your voice lightening as you already began to feel better. "From now on, I'm not going to stop myself from hugging you when I want to."
Nanami was confused, but gave you a simple hum in return. He certainly was not complaining about hugs from you.
You had an important realization that day, experiencing loss as a consequence of sorcery. You knew now that any day could be your last day with someone, so you shouldn't leave things for another time. If you wanted someone's company, you'd seek them out before you wouldn't be able to anymore.
"How about dinner?" Nanami asked as he rubbed your shoulders, not caring if anyone on the campus would see.
"That would be nice," You smiled into his chest.
~~~
After dinner, you and Nanami took a walk through a small park since the evening was so nice. The sky was clear and you could see a crescent moon hanging low in the sky. You remembered the cursed energy ring, and slowly brought it out of your pocket to unwrap it. The smooth stone appeared dull in the moonlight, but it caught Nanami's eye.
"Is that the same ring that we used back then?" He asked, his gaze fixated on the object.
"Mhm." You turned it in your hand, and it seemed to be a normal stone ring with nothing special about it. "Ieiri says you can bend it if cursed energy flows through it."
You tried putting your cursed energy into it as you grabbed onto the ring, twisting it. Nothing much happened at first, but it soon began to bend as you put more and more energy into the ring and twisted with more force.
"Doesn't seem like much..." You murmured, looking down at it in disappointment. It took a lot of effort to bend.
"Hmm," Nanami narrowed his eyes as he thought aloud. "What if you tried your innate skill on it?"
"I can try," You were doubtful, since the ring didn't have any cursed energy within it on its own. You closed both hands around the ring and tried to draw energy from the ring into your body. It immediately gained a dim glow. Your eyes widened with surprise as you could now stretch it and shrink it easily. When the ring stretched, its thickness remained the same, and its weight increased. When you shrunk it, the weight decreased. You were in shock. So was Nanami as he stared at you, bending and twisting the ring with ease.
You were using the ring to draw small amounts of cursed energy out of the air itself. This was something that Nanami never visibly saw, even when you were breathing cursed energy in constantly -- the energy you breathed in was so little, it was impossible for even high grade sorcerers to see. But this, this cursed ring, was drawing in magnitudes more cursed energy and any sorcerer would be able to see that. Your ability made the ring useful.
'And potentially powerful,' Nanami thought as he stared at you continuing to bend and stretch the ring as it glowed dimly like the moon in the sky.