What if all the monsters just went away?
When it happened, Satoru Gojo was just opening his eyes to the sound of Yuji screaming in his ear to get the hell up as he tried to jump start his teacher's body the same way that Sukuna had done to him when he died.
Gojo was incredibly disoriented when he opened his eyes, and before he could get up, there was a strange and oddly terrifying change in the atmosphere as Tengen's power started to emerge from what remained of Sukuna, building and building and building.
The sorcerers feared in those seconds that the merger had started, despite their best efforts.
But things didn't go the way that Kenjaku planned.
In an instant, all the cursed energy in the world simply disappeared.
All of it.
Everywhere.
All at once.
It was actually quite scary for the first hour, because they didn't know what was going on, and if it was an attack, they didn't have anyone with cursed energy who could fight back.
The sorcerers who fought Sukuna were absolutely worn down as far as humanly imaginable, so they were whisked away and taken back to the Tokyo campus in order to rest and recuperate.
No cursed energy meant no one could use reverse curse technique as well, so while no one had mortal injuries at the moment the lights went out, most of them had more minor injuries that required more thorough traditional medical treatment.
While the sorcerers rested, managers made frantic calls to sorcery groups in other parts of the world, and they all confirmed that it was the same everywhere.
No one had cursed energy or a cursed technique.
All the cursed spirits had somehow vanished.
Any cursed object has reverted to an uncursed form, like Sukuna's last finger, which crumbled to dust and a little dried bone, completely devoid of power. The armory and the secured repository are now full of ordinary swords, and a collection of weird and gross commonplace things that have no power about them at all.
The victims of the Culling Games whose bodies were used to host the players regained control of their bodies, since possession and incarnation are curses.
Panda, too, was a curse. The erasure of that curse caused him to revert back to simply being an animal, a panda with no apparent memories of being anything else.
Inumaki gained the ability to say anything that he wanted to say.
For the first few days, most sorcerers were still in recovery mode, but the Jujutsu Society ordered them to stay put for duty, just in case.
At the two week mark, everyone starts to consider the big question that looms on the path ahead:
WHAT NOW?
Satoru Gojo dresses in the morning two weeks after the erasure of cursed energy from the world, but instead of putting on his uniform, he reaches for dark wool pants and a cream-colored cable-knit sweater.
He was so used to having infinity and the resistant body of a sorcerer that having to deal with winter weather was just a huge pain in the ass. It's cold, the air is dry, and it hurts his poor sinuses, and he had an earache a few days ago because chilly wind blew in his ear.
As he enters the bathroom, he flips on the lights because while his eyes are still a very bright shade of blue, they no longer glow in the dark and as far as he knows, he has normal human vision. Sometimes it's incredibly disorienting, and he reaches to take off his blindfold when he wants to see more. His face feels weirdly naked without being partly covered, and he's not used to people being able to look into his eyes while he talks with them.
Now that everyone is becoming increasingly certain that they're all just going to be normal people for the rest of their lives, Satoru has spent a lot of time trying to figure out how he feels.
Of course, he is relieved:
Relieved that his students won't have to live the life he has, and die like the generations of sorcerers that came before them. There's not going to be some random ass Tuesday where they go out and one of them returns in a body bag. They're not going to keep acquiring injuries and mental traumas until their sanity slips away. They won't have to fight other humans with superhuman abilities. They won't have to see blood and gore every single day until it plays on a loop in their minds.
And it's not just the current students that have been saved.
There aren't even going to be any new students after this.
It's over.
It also means the ten thousand people per year who die in Japan because cursed spirits kill them will simply live on, unaware that they've even been saved.
What does it mean for him?
Not having godlike powers is unsurprisingly kind of a big change. Nobara bought him ear muffs so the mean winter wind wouldn't hurt his ears, but she also laughed at him for being a baby. Then, he slipped on ice and thought he might have broken his ass, and was then annoyed to learn bruises to the coccyx can take two weeks to heal.
He gained weight already, because he was previously eating seven thousand calories per day due to Six Eyes constantly draining his brain. Apparently, twenty-nine-year-olds can't just live on cupcakes and have to work out in order to stay in shape.
Shoko recommended salads, fuck that fake doctor and her cigarettes.
Things appear differently to him now that he doesn't have Six Eyes, and he keeps running into glass doors like a bird because he no longer receives mathematical information about obstructions in front of him and if he can see straight ahead, it seems like he should be able to walk too.
Since he can't warp wherever he wants, taking the train is no longer a quaint choice, and while he is on the train, strange people he doesn't know freely bump into him.
Gojo is not surprised that losing his power has dramatically altered most of his relationships, but the really telling thing is how they've changed.
There are his students, who keep looking up to him even though he can no longer protect them from monsters.
He has a few people that he knows must really be his friends because they're interested in him now that he finally turned into a real human being.
Then there's everyone else, who maybe kept on good terms with him for political reasons or because it was just easier, or maybe they were never on good terms. Since he splashed the higher-ups before his battle with Sukuna, Gakuganji and some ranking sorcerers from various clans have taken their place and none of them are fond of him, but it doesn't really matter.
The writing is already on the wall for the Jujutsu Society.
Even now, just two weeks after, there are men in suits coming and going from the room he left covered in bloodstains.
The modern government already had a very uncomfortable relationship with sorcery clans and the Jujutsu Society, but the thing about being a 'necessary evil' is that the instant the 'necessary' part changes, only the evil is left. And unlike before, there isn't anyone that is out of their reach.
Even Satoru Gojo could be confined in jail like an ordinary shoplifter.
Knowing that the clans and the Jujutsu Society were both probably on the verge of being permanently dismantled and stripped of anything of value, he signs a letter naming his greedy uncle the head of the Gojo clan and washes his hands of those people forever.
They never treated him like a human being for one single day of his life, and he had no intention of ever seeing or speaking to any of them ever again.
If he had been gifted freedom by fate, he was going to live free.
He has no idea what it even means to be free; he's never considered living any other kind of life. There's not another place in the world where he fits, or another career he has ever considered pursuing.
Where will he live?
What will he do with the rest of his life?
Suddenly, he could go anywhere, do anything, be anyone. And the vastness of possibility is oddly frightening.
He's not alone; every sorcerer will have to face that question and find out who they are in a world without sorcery.
Over the past couple of days, he's been talking to the students, to find out what's next for them.
Kinji Hikari and Kirara Hoshi split on the day of the fight and had surely gone on to whatever is next for them, probably some questionably legal business venture, but he was confident they'd probably be fine.
Toge Inumaki already went home to his parents, because he wanted to sit and talk with his mom. No other reason; he just had so many things that he wanted to tell her. His family was quite close, and he planned on starting at a new school and deciding what to do from there. He said he really liked plants and thought maybe studying botany at university would suit him.
Satoru almost envies how easily Inumaki simply sees a different future for himself, but he's happy for him as well.
Yuta has plans to return to his family; they are civilians, but they did all they could to support him. Once he came to the Jujutsu Society, they kept in close contact. They own a huge marketplace in Osaka where local artisans, many in his family, sell handmade goods and art.
He invited Maki to join him, just because they're such good friends. Only friends, Maki will insist as her face burns from a blush that will spread to her ears if Gojo asks too many questions about how friendly they are.
Since Maki doesn't have anywhere to go, or anyone waiting for her, going with Yuta seems like a good choice for the time being. If they stay together, or they grow older and grow apart, or she finds some other life she wants to live, all of that is fine. What matters is that Yuta is willing to share his place in the world for her for now, so she isn't thrown out into the world on her own.
Besides, everyone knows they're in love and Gojo finds their relationship kind of adorable. Maybe it's not ideal for teenagers to run off together, but Maki and Yuta deserve to be happy.
That just leaves the first years.
Megumi has no close relationships outside of the Jujutsu Society, no living family, and no place where he might go.
Yuji also has no living family, and while he does know people in the outside world, his friends from junior high aren't exactly a safety net he can fall into after being chewed up and spit out by the sorcery world.
Nobara technically has her stepdad back home, but Gojo knows if she went home with all the courage and grit she has now, she'd beat him to death with a claw hammer on the front porch.
These are the youngest students, and they've been through some of the worst trauma. In the span of six months' time, they suffered a lifetime of fear, shock, and sorrow.
One of the most endearing things about this group is that Megumi is clearly struggling with his grief, and Nobara and Yuji just don't fuck with him demanding to be left alone so he can quietly brood by himself. They're noisy, they follow him everywhere, they make him stay up watching movies with them and fall asleep in his room, they bug him until he plays Mario Kart with them, they make him eat with them and go everywhere with him.
It makes Gojo happy to see how well they care for each other. They're good kids, but they're not ready to go out into the world alone.
Gojo doesn't know exactly what his life is going to be like going forward, but he knows that he's not done looking after his precious students.
So, two weeks and two days after cursed energy disappeared from the world, he invites the first years to his apartment, offers them pizza, and after they finish eating, they have a long chat about everything that's going on.
"A government commission is already forming to pack this place up and shut it down, so obviously, classes aren't going to resume or anything like that," he explains.
Yuji asks, "We're on our own?"
Gojo answers, "They're still going to pay out your pensions normally, like someone retired due to injury, and you're all getting rank up so you'll be paid like you were special grade at retirement. So, you'll be making more money than most people working prestigious full-time jobs for the rest of your lives, but yes, we are all going to leave this place very soon."
Yuji says, "What are you going to do?"
The teacher laughs and shrugs. "I don't know actually! I've never thought about doing anything else. While I don't know what I'm going to do with myself, what I do know is that I have no intention of sitting around and waiting for the final curtain to drop on the Jujutsu Society. I'm ready to get out of here."
"You're leaving?" Megumi asks, uncharacteristically surprised and maybe sad about this idea.
Gojo says, "Actually, what I would like to propose is that we all leave together and then stick together for a while. I've honestly never traveled anywhere except for work, so my idea is this: this place sucks, so let's bounce and go on an adventure. We can figure it out as we go. My idea is Australia. It's warm and sunny there, and there's so much we can do.
"While we're there, maybe we'll decide on a place to live and come back so you can start your second year at a new school. But in the meantime, instead of moping around here, we can stay at fancy hotels and learn how to surf and scuba dive and explore and rock climb and do all kinds of fun stuff. There's nothing for us here."
The first years had already talked about maybe getting an apartment together or something, because they were acutely aware of how alone they really were.
Gojo saying he wanted to stick with them was deeply meaningful and made each of them feel like they weren't really as alone as it seemed. Even though he wasn't the strongest sorcerer anymore, he was still their teacher, and the person who had done the most to try and care for them.
Megumi says, "Your plan is just to go on vacation?"
He nods. "Yes! None of us have jobs. It'll be fine for you to skip the rest of the school year. I'm sure I can convince the commission to give you full credit. I don't think that what all of you need right now is math class."
He opens his laptop and starts showing them all the things they could be doing if they just packed a bag and escaped from this place where they all came at age fifteen to accumulate mental and physical injury because it was their fate to fight monsters.
It somehow seems revelatory to the kids that they don't have to decide their new ultimate path before taking their first steps away from where they are. Knowing their teacher also didn't know what to do with himself made it seem kind of okay that they didn't either.
Satoru says, "What do you guys think? If you'd rather go somewhere else, that's fine too. I think it's more important that we start our journey than it is for us to know our destination."
Yuji, taken in by lovely pictures of warm beaches and glittering blue waters, says, "I'm down. Let's go."
"Same," Nobara adds.
Megumi is quiet, but they all know what it means. They fill out their visa applications online on Satoru's computer, starting with Yuji.
"Just put that I'm your legal guardian. I'll get the paperwork fixed."
"What's your birthday?" Yuji asks.
"December 7, 1989."
Nobara cackles, "OLD!"
"Getting old is decidedly better than the alternative," he answers.
She adds, "You were literally born in the last millennium. Like literally. 1989. It sounds so old-timey, like people had to crank their cars to start them and send each other telegrams."
"What year were you little shits born?"
"2002 for me and Nobara. 2003 for Yuji," Megumi answers.
Gojo, standing behind the sofa, grabs him by the cheeks and pulls, "Awwww…you can tell he's the baby. So precious. And Nobara the elder, or, if you will, the Old Lady."
Nobara says, "I'm not taking criticism about my age from someone who knows how to use a fax machine."
Yuji asks, "Are we up to date on our vaccinations?"
"Probably not, but say yes, and we'll clear it up tomorrow with Shoko. We'll make sure you get all your shots in case you bite somebody," he answers.
They pass the laptop to Megumi, and despite having not agreed to anything, he starts filling out his visa application while Nobara and Yuji browse on their phones for things they can do in Australia.
When he finally speaks, he says, "I know why you want to go to Australia."
"Do you now?"
Megumi answers, "It's summer there, so there's no ice to break your ass on again."
"I used to be a god, you know. I didn't even have to walk on the ice. I could just float. I could teleport, and even delete matter from existence if it suited me."
Yuji rolls his eyes and feigns some condescension as he puts Gojo on the shoulder and says, "Sure, you did. Maybe it's time for you to get to bed."
Even Megumi lets a little laugh out at Gojo's expense, although it's already starting to feel a bit surreal. The world publicly learned about curses for a fairly brief time before they disappeared, so most were ready to forget about it like it never happened.
But in five years, ten years, would the spectacular power the former sorcerers had only feel like a dream?
It was hard to make any guesses about anything, and the next day, while Gojo is working to get all the paperwork sorted out, he wonders, long-term, what was going to happen?
What he does know is that he wants to make a clean break with his students and only keep in touch with a few true allies as the sorcery world prepares to forever scatter.
Since the commission doesn't want to have loose ends, so they're happy to give him guardianship of the first years, and he ensures their pay is correct, going to the right accounts, that their new non-sorcery passports and IDs are issued, that he has their medical records and that they're up to date on everything—taking care of kids is actually kind of a pain in the ass, but he is the adult in the group.
A week later, they meet out in front of the dorm at six in the morning, each with a single rolling suitcase and a backpack, and Gojo hands out first class tickets to Cairns, Australia.
"You guys ready to leave this horrible place behind forever?"
"Hell yeah! I'm going to leave a zero-star review on the maps app. 'Went to stay here, almost killed many times, management board met and decided to execute me,'" Yuji answers.
Megumi says, "We didn't even stay here a whole year. But I saw enough. Zero stars, do not recommend. Food sucks. Bad atmosphere. Horrible staff. Weirdo in blindfold wandering around causing mischief."
Nobara adds, "Postponed earned promotion while in coma for work-related incident. Zero stars."
Gojo goes one to another, patting each on the head. "I'd let you guys burn the dorms to the ground since all the students are gone, but they might put us in jail for arson."
When they get to the big stairs, Yuji asks, "The steps might be icy. Do you need us to help you?"
"I'll be fine, thanks. You're all so considerate of me. Warms my heart. I can still take any of you in a fight."
Megumi says, "Yuji would beat your already broken ass until it falls off."
Yuji asks, "You guys want to see something cool?"
He jumps, lands on the icy metal rail, and slides standing on his feet all the way down, holding his suitcase, and then does a flip at the bottom and lands on the sidewalk.
Gojo feels like this is a personal challenge, even though it very literally is not.
Nobara says, "Don't even think about it. If we have to stop at the hospital, we'll miss our flight."
Gojo, not one to let his good name be slandered, does two flips, lands backward on the icy rail, slides down doing more flips, and lands gracefully at the bottom.
He shouts up, "Sorry haters, I figured out how my body works now. Your turn, Megumi!"
Megumi says, "Okay, here I come! Are you ready?"
And then he proceeds to walk slowly down the steps, one step at a time, with Nobara, while they discuss the fact that the rowdy idiots waiting for them at the car were definitely going to be annoying on the flight.
At the bottom, Yuji says, "You're such a party pooper. Nobara I can understand, but you have no excuse."
Nobara complains, "That's sexist. I could have slid on the rail if I wanted."
Yuji answers, "You have very bad depth perception."
"Oh sorry, I didn't realize no one can be in your stupid little club unless they have two eyeballs," she answers.
Kiyotaka Ijichi loads the suitcases into the car while the first years argue about absolute silly nonsense on the sidewalk and Gojo watches in amusement. He'd been worried about the students, since it became clear that the world of sorcery had come to an end.
After making all these kids forsake every other path and walk the darkest road where they met the darkest demons, suddenly they all had to go back to the normal world again, and it seemed a little unfair.
The first years were really the biggest question, but he realizes that his worry was wasted. There was never any chance that Gojo was going to abandon the kids after everything they'd gone through.
The decommissioning project is just getting started, and it's going to be a long process, but Gojo made sure all the students bailed right away instead of hanging around in a dying bureaucracy that suddenly outlived its usefulness.
Gojo too had declined to play any role in the efforts; he just wanted to leave and let that be the end of it. He'd heard Gojo had broken all contact with his clan, a stinging indictment about how the former sorcerer really felt about his own relatives.
In the car, he has breakfast and hot coffees for them to eat on the way, and they thank him.
"What are you going to do after this?" Gojo asks as he sits in the front seat.
Ijichi says, "I'm transferring with our open cases to the NPA."
"Congratulations."
"Thank you."
And then, Gojo takes the aux cable hanging out of the dash stereo, and plugs it into his phone. "Can we play a song to celebrate?"
Ijichi's grip tightens, because he knows. He knows. He doesn't know what, but he knows.
"That's fine."
And then, Gojo says, "Hey Siri, play 'Fuck the Police.'"
As they pull up to a traffic jam, Satoru sits in his front seat, rapping a loud song heavy with racial epithets in English with his mouth full of breakfast pastry.
Ijichi wonders how long someone this naturally irritating will actually survive in a world where anyone in the world can simply stab him.
Megumi considers getting out of the car and walking to the train station, Yuji is too busy eating, but Nobara is singing along, reading the lyrics off her phone. A lot of people do not realize that there are many facets of Nobara's insane personality that sync up with Gojo's, but Megumi has witnessed this numerous times.
Ijichi looks at Megumi in the rearview mirror, a look of compassion or perhaps understanding that he will be the sane one left with the crazies.
Megumi nearly gets hit in the face as Nobara moves her hands like she's flashing gang signs.
When the song is over, Gojo leans back to high-five Nobara.
Megumi said, "You aren't supposed to say that word. Nobara, where did you even hear that song?"
"I don't even know, probably from my American friend on Roblox. Besides saying that word is only against the rules for white people, right? We're Japanese, we've never oppressed anyone," Nobara answers.
Ijichi wonders if perhaps he should drop them off at a school instead, or maybe an etiquette school, or worst case scenario, a dog trainer.
Yuji leans forward, mouth full, and says, "What's all this traffic about at this hour anyway?"
Ijichi says, "The big interchange near Shinjuku was destroyed. There's always traffic."
Gojo answers, "Why did you look at me when you said that?"
"Because you blew it up," Ijichi answers.
"Are you sure?"
"There's video evidence. We watched you do it live," Yuji adds.
Satoru says, "Yuji, how are you going to rat me out to the police? Did you not hear the song?"
"I was eating."
"Do you ears not work when there's something in your mouth?" Megumi asks.
Yuji says, "I can't translate to English and eat. I think we've all established that I'm this group's idiot."
Nobara answers, "According to our grades, we're all equally stupid. The difference between you and Megumi is that he keeps his mouth shut so people think he's smart."
"Keeping your mouth shut is smart," Megumi argues.
There's an endless stream of hilarious, lively banter all the way to the airport, and when they finally arrive, as the luggage is unloaded and they're about to walk away, Gojo hands out a wrapped gift for Ijichi through the window.
"A little parting gift. Maybe sometime, we could get a drink or something," Gojo says, indicating that Ijichi is in the incredibly small circle of people that he plans on seeing again someday.
It makes his day, maybe his whole week, to have Gojo acknowledge him as a friend, and as they disappear into the airport, Ijichi opens the wrapped gift and finds a framed photograph from back when he was trying to be a sorcerer. It's at a birthday party, was it his sixteenth?
Yeah.
Everyone is in the picture, doing something silly, unaware they're being photographed, both faces he's seen throughout his adult life, and a couple he hasn't seen in a long while.
Of the people that were in school together, the only survivors were him, because he quit the sorcery career track, Shoko, a non-combatant, and Gojo.
Everyone else in the photo, a ghost, and so young.
As he pulls off, he feels grateful to still be there to witness the next generation be set free from their dark fate.