satsuki felt like all her senses were blocked up by tissues as she slammed her forehead into the wall. the only thing she could feel was her burning hot face. he was a corpse, sure, but he was still naked.
she wasn't sure how much time had passed as gojo blabbered on about teaching and the higher-ups and killing people. the only thing that snapped her back to reality was itadori's own voice.
"woah. were are my clothes?"
satsuki's head whipped around, her neck making a cracking sound. her cheeks were still on fire but luckily shoko's body covered an... area she didn't want to see, though his well muscled torso and legs were still on display.
"g-g-g-gojo!" ijichi stuttered, pointing, while gojo just chuckled. satsuki sat there, twisted round, eyes wide and jaw hanging open, choking on her own saliva. "he's alive! are you seeing this?"
"i'm a little bummed," shoko said to itadori, eyebrows drawn together.
"yeah well, it's embarrassing but — who are you?" he said, all too casually.
satsuki let out a particularly loud choke and his eyes were drawn to her. "hey satsuki," he said, raised his hand in a friendly wave.
"hey yuuji," gojo called for his focus, as shoko went to fetch him some clothes — satsuki slamming her face into the wall again as she moved.
"welcome back."
"yo! well thanks," itadori grinned, raising his hand once more so the two could high five.
↯
"we're going to say you're on an extended mission. this means they won't question that you're gone, but they also won't question when you come back occasionally," gojo explained as he and satsuki descended the stairs to one of the many basements of jujutsu tech.
"we could say it's to do with daki," satsuki mused. "i've told megumi some stuff about her, so that could make it more believable."
gojo nodded as he swung the rusty door open. "i'll see to it."
on the couch in the dark basement sat a fully-clothed yuuji itadori. "now, lets get the lessons started!"
"you're already a head above the rest when it comes to close combat, yuuji," he started, and satsuki rounded the sofa to take a seat, while itadori stood up. "so what you need to learn to do next is control cursed energy. and, we need to add to your basic knowledge of jujutsu."
satsuki slumped on the sofa. if this was just going to be elementary lessons, she was bored already.
as gojo went over the basics and itadori glowed over his new training, satsuki crouched down and started rifling through the overnight bag itadori had packed. she shoved stuff aside, almost crying when she saw suavekids bubblegum shampoo.
she giggled as itadori tried and failed to punch gojo's hand, and gojo explained how cursed energy stems from negative emotions.
"ah! so you have to be constantly flipping out in order to use your cursed energy? hmm, well now that you mention it, fushiguro's always ticked off."
"not quite," gojo dismissed the idea. "think of it, satsuki's always cool as a cucumber!"
satsuki grunted, flopping down on the sofa belly first, and gojo continued to teach itadori.
"there are several training methods for this. the one i'm going to use on you is especially exhausting!"
"okay... what's that?"
"whatchin' movies!" gojo held up a few dvds in his abnormally large hands, and gestured to the others on the coffee table. "suki, stop hogging the couch!"
gojo ranted on about the different movies he would be watching non-stop, itadori remaining confused. "of course, you can't watch them all alone, and suki isn't particularly riveting company," he teased. "so, you'll be watching them with these guys!"
gojo produced two sleeping cursed corpses, a brown bear with blue boxing gloves, and a red rabbit with little sharp teeth poking out from it's snoring mouth.
he handed them over, and talked with itadori about them until he got punched in the face. satsuki didn't react, sitting there blankly with the rabbit in her lap.
"that cursed corpse will wake up and attack you just like that, if you don't keep cursed energy flowing into it."
oh, this exercise.
↯
every so often, when they came to a boring part of a movie, satsuki would absentmindedly start scrolling through her phone. and still, she was not hit once.
"you aren't having any trouble at all!"
"well, like i said, i started doing this when i was little. but really, i'm good at it because i'm just always producing cursed energy."
itadori's eyes widened. "always?"
"constantly," satsuki confirmed with a nod. "not huge amounts, but every minute of the day, i'll be producing it, unconsciously. you might learn how to over time, but probably not. most sorcerers don't do it — they think it's draining. but for me, producing cursed energy actually revitalises me, gives me normal energy... sort of like adrenaline? not sure why, but it's true."
"that's so cool!"
"it might be part of my technique," she considered, when itadori was done being punched and got control of his bear again. "to corrupt an object, i basically have to infuse cursed energy into it in order to manipulate the particles. maybe i'm just doing that to myself, and giving myself more energy."
itadori tilted his head. "if i'm honest, i don't really get it, but if it makes sense to you then great!"
he gave her a big cheesy grin and her heart almost
skipped a beat, a subtle warmth building in her cheeks.
shit.
whatever, focus on the movie.
"hey guys."
satsuki barely registered gojo's voice, whipping around with her eyes narrowed. itadori jumped then turned around too. "oh hey, so what's up gojo?"
gojo smiled. "we're heading out, let's go."
"huh?" said itadori and satsuki groaned.
"it's a field trip lesson," replied gojo. "i'm going to teach you about the very pinnacle of jujutsu battles—" he said dramatically. "—domain expansion."
now that piqued satsuki's interest.
↯
"sorry about that."
the light faded and she blinked down at her reflection. she was floating above the smooth surface of a lake. she stretched her foot down and tapped the water with the toe of her boot, sending gentle ripples outwards.
her gaze followed the ripples forward till they drew her eyes up to see... surprise, surprise, a plug ugly curse. it was strange though. all the other curses she'd fought before in the past looked like monsters from children's tales, and though the curse's head definitely resembled a volcano and he only had one eye (no judgment from satsuki), he definitely looked vaguely humanoid.
held up by his hood in gojo's other hand, itadori was squirming. "hey, what's going on here? where in the hell are we? how did i get here?"
"what the hell?" the curse's single eye widened. satsuki looked on with a blank stare, far too used to being uprooted by gojo out of nowhere.
"to observe, i've brought yuuji itadori and satsuki," gojo announced pleasantly.
"mount fuji! his head's mount fuji!" now he was pushing his foot down to the water, confused by the resistance. "the hell's this? how come i'm not sinking? gojo, i — i was at the school just ten seconds ago, right? what's going on?"
"oh. i warped us." itadori gritted his teeth as he realised gojo wasn't going to explain further.
"what did you bring the kids for, a shield?" the curse spoke, in a gravelly voice. it had a strange reverberating quality, like he was speaking through a cheese grater.
"a shield?" repeated gojo teasingly. "no, no, i already explained this. they're just here to watch. you see, i'm in the midst of teaching yuuji a lot of things, and satsuki would kill me if i let her miss out on this. so, forget about them, and let's just fight."
"having them tag along with you isn't gonna slow you down?" asked the curse incredulously. "it makes you look like an idiot!"
gojo just laughed. "oh, no, it'll all be fine! i mean really. you're kinda weak."
the curse's head exploded.
"how dare you insult me like that you insolent ass! i'm going to enjoy tearing up that smug face of yours!"
the lake was forced in waves towards them, but none of them hit, none pushed them back, simply flowing around them.
on the other side of gojo, satsuki could see itadori's eyes widen, and his throat bob as he swallowed. she shuffled around the back of the tall man and stood next to itadori, squeezing his arm with a small smile on her face. it was meant to look reassuring but probably came off a little insane.
gojo pat his head. "you'll be fine. just stay here close to me and suki."
the curse made a sound like he needed to take a massive shit, then clasped his hands together. "domain expansion:"
overhead, a black cavern rolled. the lake was replaced with dark, dry rock, and lava burst from the cracks.
"what— what is this? damn!" itadori's voice shook, and he gripped onto satsuki's arm and shoulder.
"coffin of the iron mountain."
for a curse so obviously powerful, his domain was laughable. it was tiny and boring and plain, and satsuki was desperate to show him what a real innate domain should look like, only holding back because it seemed like gojo had his own plan.
"this is domain expansion," gojo started.
"shitty domain, if you ask me," satsuki just had to butt in. not her fault her domain was her pride and joy!
"the innate domain is made of cursed energy," gojo explained, choosing to ignore both satsuki and itadori as he held his hand a little too close to a spurt of lava, though the bare bones of a smirk were found on his face as he observed their close position.
"then, you imbue it with a cursed technique. what you four encountered at that juvenile detention centre was an incomplete domain that hadn't been imbued with any cursed techniques. if that had been a proper domain, all of you first years would have died."
thanks for the vote of confidence, satsuki thought, only vocalising a small hiss.
"i think megumi understood that," gojo continued. "spreading out an innate domain that way always consumes a ton of energy. but the advantages make it worth it. one of them is the boost to stats, due to environmental factors."
"woaahh!" itadori exclaimed. "you mean like buffs in a video game!"
"sorta," satsuki mumbled. "i like to think of it as those weird health smoothies they sell on instagram that say like, 'drink every day for a week and you'll gain ten pounds of muscle!'. it's an unnatural boost, and that's what makes it so worth it."
"another one is," gojo continued, raising his arm to destroy a spike of rock inching towards them. "the techniques imbued in the domain are always sure to hit within that domain. that is guaranteed."
"guaranteed?!"
"thaaat's correct!"
"but don't worry. there are several ways to deal with it. you can take the hit using a cursed technique, like just now, or, and i don't really recommend this one, you can try to go outside the domain. that's usually impossible. now, you can also—"
"if i neutralise that infinity of yours with a dense domain, then my techniques will reach you," the curse exclaimed.
"yeah, they'll hit," gojo said happily.
"infinity?" itadori folded his arms and tilted his head.
"the most effective way to deal with a domain," gojo said, reaching up to his blindfold. "is to lay out your own domain. when two domains are laid out at the same time, the more refined one will dominate that space."
he slowly started to lower the black cloth, still speaking. "though compatibility and the amount of energy can factor in."
"there won't even be ashes left of you satoru gojo!" the curse jumped forward, screaming.
"domain expansion: infinite void."
↯
satsuki had never seen gojo's domain before. it was overwhelming to say the least. she was floating through nothing, through everything, and the only real stable thing she could recognise was itadori. she was clinging on to his wrist as he was unceremoniously slung under gojo's arm.
"this is the inner world of limitless," gojo's hand landed firmly on the back of the curse's head. "perception. contact. every act in life is repeated infinitely, over and over."
the curse made a choking noise, his eye widening.
"ironic, isn't it? when granted every possible thing, you can't use it. all you can do is die peacefully. but i have some things i still want to ask you. so for now, i'm going to let you off the hook with just this."
then he was pulling. and curse's head was stretching. itadori's jaw was slack.
satsuki could feel it. a small snake slithering up her spine, full the the brim with nerves. it settled uncomfortably in her lungs, restricting her breathing and the air flow to her brain.
the domain shattered as the curse's head was ripped from his shoulders.
they were on the grass by the lake, satsuki on her hands and knees sucking in oxygen. she opened her eye, face to face with the curse's head, wearing similar shellshocked expressions. she scrambled backwards and into a kneeling position next to itadori, just as gojo's foot came down on the curse's head.
ave's notes!🍡
vv plot heavy im sorry 🙏🙏
more focus in satsuki next chapter and some
suki/yuuji crumbs mayhaps
meme time!
gojo leading suki down into the crusty musty basement:
suki falling in love w yuuji in like two fuckn seconds:
-🍡