idk why but... i suddenly had a silly little plot bunny come up while i was working revolving all around nanami faking his death
would say "walk with me" but buddy i am walking right with u, i have no idea what my brain has decided to cook up this time KJDFSGKJD
okay so... instead of returning to sorcery after chatting with bakery girl, nanami decides to quit his job, turn everything he owns into liquid assets, and vanish off the face of japan. i know that japan has those night mover companies that disappear you for a certain fee, and i imagine that nanami uses their services, but to an extreme. usually mover companies (from what i remember at least) disappear and reappear you at a different part of the country with a new name, identity and assets, but for nanami—he uses them to quietly move out of the country, and back to denmark
ofc, sorcerer society would notice his disappearance immediately, so he stages his death to be as convincing as possible. when sorcerers die, they release a lot of built up CE which then inevitably turns into cursed spirits unless the sorcerer dies via CE. so what nanami does is that, when he finally gets it into his head that hes fully done being a sorcerer and is going to pursue something thatll actually fulfill him away from sorcery, aka away from japan... he makes it look like he striked out on his own and became a curse user vigilante (please note that its literally canon that the only difference between sorcerers and curse users is whether or not theyre affiliated with jujutech and the stuff surrounding that, being a curse user doesnt immediately make u evil)
he goes curse hunting whenever he isnt preparing to leave. its good practice for keeping his ce low and at non-sorcerer levels, because he has to sneak around undetected by sorcerers and blend into the non-sorcerers hes surrounded himself with, and is good for the future when hes finally out. he starts small—grade 4 quickly turning into g3s, until theyre g2s, until theyre g1s. until finally, the last of his paperwork has been prepared and all he has to do is grab a plane ticket back to denmark
his small trail of curse spirit hunting will really sell the story when they discover his disappearance— "disillusioned salaryman nanami, tired of the normie life but too prideful to come crawling back to jujutech gets himself killed trying to be a hero by facing off against a curse above his grade". if he were any younger, he'd be pissed at all the bad rumors and talk that all the clan sorcerers would say about him, but nowadays hes just tired and about to be home free so why the fuck should he care? hes never gonna see them in denmark anyways—and so, he begins to set up his death.
curses form when cursed energy collects in certain areas like silt or sediment sinking in water, piling up until it takes shape. this applies to all curses, from flyheads to special grades. whenever he isnt preparing his "escape" or curse hunting, he was taking his time and drinking in the scenery of all the places hed never step foot in again. and as he does so, he maps out an area of all the cursed energy hotspots where potential high grade curses could form. the place where he'd "die".
after his final preparations were finished, he goes to his chosen resting spot—a cabin in the woods near the countryside that had already been cleaned and cleared away by the cops after reports of missing peoples incidents and a murderer. the cabin turned out to be the murder house of said criminal, but even after he was caught, there was a lot of fear and rumors in the nearby towns about walking into the woods alone or at night, and distrust of ones own community and neighbor. of course, being that all this negative emotions were about the murderer and his shack in the woods, the cursed energy gathered in said shack in the woods and if left unattended, the energy could easily build up into g1 or semi special grade status.
he makes it there to the town, accidentally but conveniently fuelling more fear and distrust among them because what the fuck would you think if a foreign looking, unfamiliar man starts poking around your community? he gathers what info he can (rumors about going into the woods alone at night, and how the young men of this town started to be distrusted within the community), and wanders into the woods.
he finds the shack concerningly easily—looks like he got in time before this absolutely massive amount of CE turned into a curse, even though the beacon made its location glaringly obvious in the distance. he dispatches all the lower grade curses surrounding the area, being sure to fight sloppily and intentionally damage himself and the property—smearing his blood on the trees and the house, letting his clothes be torn so that bloody scraps are scattered about, and so on to really sell the story of a gruesome fight. finally, he reaches the heart of the ce. he can already see it festering, just a few more days and it wouldve spawned an absolutely terrible curse. good thing hes here though, exorcising the beginnings of a high grade curse via burning away all this cursed energy with his own, and making sure to really burn through all his reserves—blue fire spreading out into something close to an explosion as nanami lets all of it out at once.
with the scene of his "death" now thoroughly set—his cleaver on the floor with its wrappings torn and soaked in curse blood, blood and gore and cloth all throughout the space, and house thoroughly demolished—he leaves the same way he came, leaving no trace other than the one he wants to leave behind. he leaves the towns people wondering what happened to the strange blonde man, wrapping his wounds in the dead of night as the mover company picks him up a ways away from the town to maintain absolute secrecy... and hes gone.
gojo... admittedly doesnt find out until some time later. he cant keep an eye on nanami as much as he'd like, being a teacher, a sorcerer, and a clan head all weighing on him. he has seen him a bit though, vigilante-ing in the night and getting stingier and stingier with his money. he can't blame him, the guy resigned from his job to kill curses unaffiliated—if nanami wasnt as financially minded as he was, he'd imagine he wouldve gone flat broke by the 2nd month. he keeps his distance however—even if nanamis doing a sorcerers work, he still hasnt officially come back to sorcery and he really respects that. so the best he can do is keep track of nanamis active phone number and hopes he finally calls
and then he hears about it.
a window reports that a town theyre keeping an eye on has suddenly lost the massive curse energy buildup/signature overnight and a massive flare of a different curse energy mightve caused it. none of their sorcerers had their hands in any of it and none of the curse users they know and are hunting for had a hand in it either, though gojo admits to himself that he probably knows which curse user did it, but he hasnt blabbed to the higher ups about nanamis new status and expose him to their ire
though as he goes to the location and sees the aftermath of the carnage... maybe he shouldve blabbed.
the scene... wasnt pretty to look at. the house, if you could even call it that anymore, was just a collection of rotting wood and debris at this point, exposed foundation and beams indicating different rooms and walls. trees with massive gouges cut into them, both from some kind of blunt bladed weapon and other more monstrous appendages. thick cloth, as if from a suit blazer, torn and impaled on different bits of wood and rubble. the debris itself speckled with a dark deep maroon, and even a bit of wood with a bloody handprint. and in the middle of it all—a cleaver, rusted from blood and the elements, protective wrappings in shreds.
he could only stare down at it as it lies innocently on the floor, ruined from the elements. he could feel nanamis cursed energy saturated into the air itself, potent and dangerous to curses that even flyheads wouldnt get near a 100 feet of the area. to him however, it felt warm and measured as always, surrounding and settling down on his senses like a blanket. 'god...' he thinks to himself. 'he really did die here, didnt he.'
maybe if he empty pit in his chest didn't threaten to swallow him whole, he wouldve questioned why there wasnt a body to bury or at least parts of the man they could examine or cremate like bones or a hand. maybe if he wasnt so busy cradling the cleaver to his chest and wondering whether to clean away the blood, the only bits of nanami left away under the tap and the whetstone, he wouldve wondered why there was so little gore compared to what it wouldve looked like during a failed KIA mission. maybe if he wasnt so busy wondering whether or not nanami would want him to prepare his funeral, he wouldve wondered why he made all those finanical moves. if only.
a locket and some years later, and gojo was traipsing in europe, chasing after special grades. its already been dealt and done with, so hes mostly just exploring the place and looking for snacks to eat and souvenirs to bring home to his kids. hes been hearing some buzz about a bakery nearby—something about it popping up one day a few years ago and settling itself as a pillar of the local community with its fresh take on bread and pastries, and the hospitality of the owner. gojo, never one to look at "fresh new takes on sweets and pastries" and say no, waltzes into the shop with his best english and yen already converted into danish krone, ready to buy out their store when he suddenly stops in his tracks at the door. he senses something—cursed energy.
usually, this is of no cause for concern. anyone and everyone has cursed energy, even that baby stuffing its mouth with whipped cream. non-sorcerers have low cursed energy, constantly leaking out of them like a sieve trying to hold water. sorcerers however, have control over their cursed energy and, knowing how curses are formed, make sure to never let it leak out. if it wasnt for the six eyes, he'd've glossed over it immediately but—even if the energy was low, it didnt leak out and spread all over the place like non-sorcerers would. and the occasional ripple in the energy implies that whoever this curse user is, they have impeccable control over their energy to the point where theyve managed to conceal its true amount. and finally, most stunning of all... he knows this curse energy signature. it surrounded him in a faux embrace in that destroyed shack all those years ago.
these revealations all happened in the span of a millisecond, but now? time truly pauses as he looks at a tall, muscular man with hazel eyes and dirty blonde hair attending to a table. "otto, we need a refill on the fruit tarts!" and the man turns to the voice, rushing away to the kitchen. if it werent for the six eyes, he wouldve never caught the way his eyes widened and breath hitched... before kento ran away from him again.
"You could get up early and do it before work" I could also wait for a magic beanstalk to start growing in my living room LMAO. Let's focus on things that happen in the real world
"Unbidden, an image of Jayce smiling in bed earlier this morning comes to mind. Viktor's hand on his cheek. His slightly chapped lips. His bedhead. Stubble. His smile lines. The shape of his jaw."
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one of my favorite little scenes from coming home (but not to you) by @lesbianherald :) haven't done comics in so so long but really wanted to give it a shot lol
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