"Are you sure? Y/N can be quite dramatic you know." Gojo was on the phone to Ichiji. He was lounging in the staff room, his feet up on his desk and a can of soda in the other hand. He had been on the phone with Ichiji for almost 10 minutes, joking around and laughing when Ichiji was trying to get him to take things seriously.
"I'm serious! The curse here is too powerful for two grade-1 sorcerers." Ichiji pleaded. "Please come quickly, the energy here is... different."
"Yeah? That's a special grade curse for ya." Gojo took another sip of his soda.
"No, I think it could be that type of curse that Y/N is incompatible with." Ichiji added.
"What, tainted curse?" Gojo asked. "She'll be fine. She's defeated curses like that before, and still had the energy to stitch Nanami up, and do who knows what else at the end of it." Gojo let out a chuckle at his suggestive remark.
Ichiji let out an exasperated sigh. He'd had enough of Gojo's antics. "Please, she specifically called for you. She could get injured, or worse."
"Yeah? But she's almost on the level of a special grade now. I'd say someday soon she'll be at my level. She'll be fine." Gojo hung up the phone, setting it down on the table. His break would be over soon, and he needed to go teach the second years in a couple minutes.
As he lifted the can of soda to his lips, he felt cursed energy ripple through the air from several kilometers away. It was tainted energy, and special grade. He felt your signature cursed energy with it, but it was a lot of your cursed energy. Too much of your cursed energy.
The soda can seemed to fall out of thin air, hitting the floor of the empty staff room with a clunk. The sweet liquid poured over the white tiles, Gojo being long gone.
He teleported to the origin of the break, where the barrier had once stood. In the distance he spotted you, except you looked strange. Half of your body was dark, and you were hunched over with lopsided posture. He flew through the air towards you, stopping only meters away to take in the horror that you had become.
Satoru gasped as he saw your manic eyes, and heard your wheezing laugh. You appeared monstrous, as bad as a curse itself. He was bewildered as to how you were still standing. You looked up to meet his eyes, and turned your head to the side as if you were analyzing him.
"Y/N!" Gojo exclaimed, stepping closer to you. "Are you alright?"
"Who... are you?" You rasped, your voice unrecognizable. Gojo felt his heart sink into his stomach at those words. There was something very wrong at that moment.
"Y/N!" Gojo exclaimed. "It's me, Satoru!" His eyes grew wide with desperation. He took off his blindfold, leaving it hanging around his neck as he stared at you with his eyes. "See? It's me!"
You turned your head to the side, staring at him with wide eyes. The whites of your right eye were stained black and green from the tainted cursed energy. Your vision was unsteady, and you had no memory of the wavering image of the man in front of you.
Gojo watched in horror as you leaped forward aggressively, swinging your arm back to attack him. He swiftly activated his infinity as he held you up by your throat, hurting inside as he let you kick and flail in his grasp. You were getting weak, the tainted cursed energy taking a huge toll on your body and mind.
"Please, remember me!" Gojo pleaded, "Come back, Y/N! I'm begging you!" Tears pricked at the corners of his eyes as he watched your wrecked body struggle, feral growls escaping from your mouth.
Gojo continued to plead with you, to no avail. You continued to writhe in his grasp, unable to absorb cursed energy to fortify your waning strength.
"Y/N." A voice that wasn't Gojo's called out. Both of you looked to your side to see Nanami standing in the distance, clutching his side. He wasn't wearing his glasses, and Gojo could see the anguished expression in his eyes.
Nanami walked toward you, his hand staying on his side as he almost certainly had bruised ribs from being beaten by the curse. It took a while for his wits to come back to him after he had been tormented by the special grade curse, but the shockwave that you had created with a combination of tainted cursed energy as well as your own was finally enough to jolt him from his daze.
"Y/N." Nanami repeated. You began to struggle more violently against Gojo's grasp as he neared you, his figure becoming more clear in your broken vision. You raised a shaky arm up towards him, reaching out for him.
"Nanami, wait-" Gojo stopped as he watched Nanami take your hand. You stopped struggling as you activated your technique, and began to drain energy from Nanami instinctually.
"K-" You gargled from the sludge in your throat. Gojo slowly realized that you were becoming more lucid. "Ken... to" You spoke as you held onto his hand.
Gojo's eyes widened as he realized that you at least remembered Nanami. He set you back onto your feet but you continued to drain the blonde's energy, and Gojo became worried.
"Nanami, stop! You'll deplete your-" Gojo exclaimed, but was cut off as Nanami wrapped his arms around your torso to pull you in for a hug. A single tear rolled out of your human eye, and down your cheek. With most of his energy gone, Nanami collapsed to his knees. You were also weak, and collapsed with him. With barely an ounce of energy left in him, you stopped your technique. The veins across your body began to slowly fade, as you used Nanami's energy to purge yourself of the tainted cursed energy. With both of your energy stores nearly depleted, you two collapsed as you lost consciousness.
"Shit!" Gojo exclaimed, scooping both of you and slinging you two over each shoulder. He flew to the school, honing in on Ieiri's energy. She was in a classroom with the second years as Gojo broke through the glass window, holding onto both you and Nanami.
"Ieiri! Heal them!" Gojo exclaimed loudly.
"Can't you see I'm trying to handle the class that you were meant to teach?" Shoko rolled her eyes. All three of the second year students sat at their desks, frozen in a state of shock. Ieiri let out an exasperated sigh, and motioned for Gojo to set you and Nanami on the ground.
"This is bad." Ieiri spoke with one glance at your tainted body. "But the tainted energy seems to be receding slowly. Nanami, on the other hand." She looked over at the unconscious blonde, "he needs healing." She stepped quickly to the other side of the teacher's podium, taking a pair of scissors and making quick work of Nanami's dress shirt. She activated her reverse cursed technique, slowly mending the bruises on his body.
"What about Y/N?" Satoru spoke up in a worried tone.
"She looks like she just needs a long nap. She should be able to purge the tainted energy completely on her own this time, which is a damn miracle." Ieiri shook her head as she continued to heal Nanami.
"WHAT'S THE COMMOTION?!" A rowdy Yuji Itadori burst into the room, followed by Megumi and Nobara with Akari not far behind.
Nobara took one glance at your unconscious body on the floor and shouted out in fear.
"Yuji, look!" Nobara pointed at your body. "Y/N has turned into a zombie! She's a zombie!"
Yuji screeched, jumping backwards. "You're right! She's all green like one!"
Megumi slapped them both in the backs of their heads to shut them up.
"Gojo-sensei, what happened?" Megumi questioned.
"Another mission." Gojo responded bluntly, fixing his blindfold back onto his face. The second year students were still frozen at their desks, staring at the scene unfolding.
"Please take Nanami to the infirmary." Ieiri spoke, walking over to scoop you into her arms. "If you'll excuse me." She stepped past the first years as she carried you to the infirmary as well.
~~~
You opened your eyes to see that you were once again in the infirmary. You had a nasty headache, and the neon lights burned your eyes as you reached your hand up to your face to shield yourself.
"Ugh, I feel like crap!" You muttered, your voice hoarse and cracking in your throat.
"Wow, I'm surprised you woke up so fast!" You heard Ieiri's voice from the foot of your bed. You focused your vision to see her sitting in a chair at her desk. One of your eyes was very blurry, and you blinked hard.
"I told you, she's resilient." You heard Gojo's voice from the side, and turned to see him sitting in a chair beside your bed.
"Satoru?" You asked. You saw a typical cheeky grin grow across his face.
"Gojo, she's awake now. Please go teach your class, so Akari doesn't have to teach 2 year groups at once." Ieiri sighed. "I'm beginning to realize that Y/N is quite the monster." She added.
"Yup," Gojo responded. "Soon enough she'll be my equal."
"Hopefully that means someone can finally kick your ass in a fight." Ieiri retorted. You laughed from where you laid in bed.
"I feel like crap, you know." You cut in. "What happened on the mission?"
"I was hoping you'd tell me." Gojo spoke. "We know you exorcised the spirit on your own, but Nanami hasn't woken up yet so we don't know anything from him either."
"Nanami!" You exclaimed, looking around for him. There was a divider curtain between you and the other beds, so you couldn't see him sleeping soundly on the other side.
"Don't worry, he's sleeping just fine." Ieiri spoke to calm you down. "Unlike you, it will take him some time to regenerate his cursed energy. You've only been out for two hours, and it's a miracle you're awake now after absorbing so much tainted cursed energy."
"Tainted..." you trailed off as your memories began to flood back into your mind. You sat forward, covering your eyes with both hands. "Ugh!" Your head throbbed painfully, and a drop of red fell onto the white infirmary bed sheets.
"Hey!" Gojo stood up from his chair and quickly put a hand on your shoulder, noticing that your nose had begun to bleed. "Are you alright?"
"I remember." You muttered, teardrops falling down your face and mixing with the blood.
"What happened?" Gojo questioned, staring through his blindfold at your hunched form.
"It was awful!" You sniffled, trying to stop the blood. "The curse could give you false memories."
"What...?" Gojo muttered, taken aback by the unusual but terrifying capability.
"I saw everyone get killed..." You shuddered, "Not just killed, but tortured... and it felt so real."
As you curled up tighter in the bed and brought your knees to your chest, Gojo began to rub your back to try to soothe you.
"How did you defeat the curse?" Ieiri asked from the other side of the room, seeming to be more curious about how you handled the mission than about how you were feeling.
"I tortured it the same way it tortured everyone in my memories..." Your voice trailed off. "Its cursed energy corrupted me, I guess. I went out of control." You buried your head deeper into your arms as you didn't want to face reality. "I became a monster."
"Hey." Ieiri spoke up from across the room once again. "If anyone's a monster, it's Gojo. Not you." She paused to let out a small chuckle. "You're loving and caring, and even though you tortured the curse, it was only after it tortured everyone in your memories." Ieiri spoke firmly, fully believing her words.
You sniffled, looking up to see her now standing and facing you.
"Y/N, you did the best you could, and still came out the other side." Ieiri added. "So don't become hopeless or tired like I have." She gave a faint smile, revealing a small darkness behind her eyes that you had only caught glimpses of before.
"Shoko..." You trailed off, smiling as you wiped tears and blood onto your sleeve. "Thank you."
Gojo continued to rub your shoulder to comfort you, since it was all he knew how to do. Thankfully, Ieiri had said enough to calm you down and cheer you back up.
"At least I vaporized that curse." You giggled ever so lightly, and it made Gojo smile to see you happier. Ieiri handed you a box of tissues to clean your face.
"Do you want to use my cursed energy to heal?" Gojo spoke up, seemingly random to you.
"Huh? I would use up too much energy. I don't want to do that to you." You responded quickly to deny his offer.
"I don't think you know this, but Gojo's six eyes prevents him from decreasing his cursed energy when he uses it." Ieiri explained. "It's like an infinite reservoir."
"Yeah, feel free to absorb away." Gojo responded, outstretching a hand for you. He deactivated his infinity and you slowly reached over to touch his hand.
You laid your palm flat on his, to increase the area over which the energy would flow. You didn't want to draw energy too quickly in case you would hurt him.
When you began to draw energy from him, Ieiri spoke up. "I have some things to do for now. Gojo, watch Y/N and Nanami for me." She stood up and walked out of the infirmary quickly. You continued to stare at Gojo's hand that seemed to dwarf yours as you heard the clacking of Ieiri's heels fade down the hallway and the infirmary door slam shut.
"Satoru... I have a question." you spoke up as you continued to draw energy from him.
"Yeah?" He asked, his blindfolded eyes turning towards you.
"When you first trained me. Why didn't you use your infinity?" You asked.
Gojo had always been a rough teacher, but it wasn't until after you became a teacher at Jujutsu Tech that he began to use his infinity to prevent you from absorbing cursed energy from him while sparring. Although he would let you steal energy from him, he wouldn't pull his punches. Sometimes, he even had to secretly take you to Ieiri because you'd obtain bruised ribs or bad scratches from your training. His rough teaching style never changed, although he stopped allowing you to take cursed energy.
"Hm." Gojo grunted, thinking through your question."I guess I didn't mind you touching me."
His answer startled you at how awkward it sounded, and you looked up at him.
"I mean- the idea that you could take my cursed energy and use it against me..." Gojo explained slowly. "It fascinated me. That's why I wanted to train you so badly."
You continued to slowly draw cursed energy from him as you listened.
"...That's not weird, is it?" Gojo questioned suddenly. You paused your technique.
"It's a little weird."
Gojo let out a sigh.
"But," You spoke up once again. "If you can endlessly expel cursed energy, then I could use that to get stronger. A lot stronger."
"Huh?" Gojo asked. "How is that going to help?"
"When I was kidnapped by the strange man and the cursed spirit, they forced me to absorb 50 cursed spirits and it increased my cursed energy storage tenfold." You explained. "Although I nearly died in the process, I think practicing absorbing cursed energy can be a useful form of training."
"Hmm." Gojo paused, an expression of contemplation growing across his face. "Why don't we try it, then?" He asked.
"Not now." You spoke, bringing your hand back to your side. "I want to see Nanami."
Your face looked tired from using your technique to try to expel the last traces of tainted cursed energy from your body. You slid across the bed, towards the edge in order to stand up and go to Nanami's bed. Your limbs still felt sluggish and Gojo quickly grabbed onto your arm to help you stand. With Gojo supporting your weight, you stepped slowly around the curtain and to Nanami's bedside, your bare feet trying to make as little contact with the tile floor as possible. There was a chair next to the bed, and Gojo helped you sit down in it.
"Thank you," You murmured, looking up at the platinum-haired sorcerer.
"Are you okay if I leave you?" Gojo asked.
You laughed as you responded, "You have a class to teach. You'd better hurry before Akari comes in here to get you herself."
"You'll be fine?" He pressed further, and it seemed like he didn't want to leave.
"Yes! I'll call you if anything happens." You reassured him, waving your hands to make him leave.
"Okay. I'll see you later." Gojo spoke, turning around and stepping out of the infirmary. It was now just you and Nanami, who was fast asleep. You watched his chest steadily rise and fall, and felt guilty for taking so much of his cursed energy. You knew you wouldn't have come back to your senses if you hadn't absorbed his energy, but it didn't stop you from feeling bad about it.
You reached for his hand, and simply held onto it as you watched him sleep. You tried to replace the image of Nanami from your false memory with the peaceful image of him sleeping, but it wasn't working. You couldn't wipe the view of Nanami's pained face from your memory. You couldn't block out the sounds you heard of him gurgling up blood as he tried to speak, or the taste of metal in the air. All of the memories that the curse implanted in you were still there, and as vivid as ever.
You weren't sure how long you sat there trying to occupy your mind with anything other than the false memories, but you were brought out of your trance by the sound of Nanami stirring in his bed. You immediately shot out of your chair, squeezing his hand as you bent over him.
"Kento!" You exclaimed, staring down at him as he slowly opened his eyes.
"Nggh," He groaned, lifting his free hand up to your face. "I'm so glad you're okay." He murmured, his voice raspy and deep.
"The curse..." You responded softly, "It gave you false memories too, didn't it?"
Nanami's eyes widened as he realized you were affected in the same profound way that he was. He nodded silently, and your face contorted into sadness that broke his heart to see.
He called out your name, squeezing onto your hand. "I'm here. I'm alright."
Nanami's voice reassured you as you tried to wipe those disturbing memories from your mind. Over and over, you repeated in your mind that everyone and everything was okay. However, only the soft hum of Nanami's natural cursed energy could truly ground you as you held tightly onto his hand.
You buried your face into his chest, wrapping your arms around his torso. You accidentally squeezed spots that were still sore for Nanami, but he didn't care because he wanted the hug so badly. He wrapped his arms around your small waist, and the two of you stayed there for a while, not speaking.
Ieiri was finishing up some things around the school in the late afternoon. She knew that you and Nanami would recover just fine with some rest, so she decided to leave you be for a couple hours. However, when she came back into the Infirmary to check up on you, she found both of you in the same bed, fast asleep in each others' arms. You were clutching onto Nanami's side as his arm was wrapped around your back, his face buried in your silky hair. Ieiri smiled to herself at this sight, and discreetly pulled the curtain shut to allow you some privacy.