Gojou was woken up abruptly by the ringtone of the phone he had left on the floor of his room. His drowsy eyes, free of the cloth he'd usually cover them with, darted around the place looking for the source of the unwelcomed noise. It took enough time for the sorcerer to recognize his surroundings, he made it home at least that, but falling asleep on the couch… again? Made him groan a bit. The teacher had stood late into the night with Ijichi and Nanami, initially waiting for some developments to come from Kyoto, then the phone calls came, dozens of them higher-ups, calling for retribution in the wake of the student's sudden departure. Their voices were enraged and loud in their accusations, of the actual impotence the school found itself while put in front of the rapidly succeeding tragedies of the last month. Hypocrites, since when did they care about anything other than themselves?

After localizing the ringing phone, his eyes quickly adjusted to the screen's brightness, the characters of the principal's name flashing over the display. Swiping his thumb left to right, Gojou brought the phone to his ear:

"Hello?" He answered, "World's strongest speaking."

"Satoru, we have an important matter at hand…"

"Oh, Principal Yaga! Please enlighten me, what matter is so important to call me at this fine hour?" He said sardonically, irritation clear in his words. His gaze landed on the clock on the wall, 04:48 AM. The world must be ending out there for it not to wait until morning.

"Rome has made itself heard." Masamichi communicated, as transparently as he could. "We have the utmost urgency for Esposito to come back to Tokyo." Gojou clicked his tongue in disapproval, it'd be impossible to drag the kid back to the school, not with the storm currently showering Kyoto. When the teacher voiced his doubts regarding the reason for such haste, his free hand went limp to his side as Yaga gave his explanation. "You're joking…" Gojou said out of disbelief, which didn't come out of fright, but rather annoyance coming from an already intricate situation.

"We have twelve hours to retrieve him, the sooner he gets here the better we can prepare for their arrival." The Principal dismissed himself, ending the call right after. Gojou sighed heavily, he begrudgingly got up from the couch, stretching his back as far as he could. Left awake by now, he decided to ponder over some coffee in the kitchen, hardly the sorcerer would gain back that somnolence he had hours prior.

His phone rang again, and Gojou felt his sanity decrease with each note played.

"Oh for fuck's…" he opened the call, "What is it now?!"

"Is this how you greet people on the phone?" The voice of a tired woman came out of the speakers. Ieiri was at the other end of the call, segregated inside her clinic well deep into her work. She took a drag from the lighted cigarette, something she wouldn't normally do if there were anything else but contorted, dismembered corpses over the surgical table. "You sound rough… Did you just wake up?" She exhaled the smoke mid-sentence. Putting it back on the ashtray, the doctor took the medical chart from the desk before her.

"Yeah, Principal Yaga just called but it has been an awful night overall."

"Why is that?" Ieiri asked thoughtlessly, not giving too much weight to the question. Her eyes were scanning the documents in her hand, the lack of sleep heavily affected the readability of her handwriting so she had the foresight to highlight the important stuff.

"A kid died, Shoko." Gojou said.

"A tragic occurrence as of lately. Was it one of ours?"

"No, one of Iori's group." Gojou clarified. "The higher-ups have been relentless as well. They forget they have a part in this as much as we have." Ieiri hummed in agreement. Helping herself with the side of her head, Shoko freed her hand from the phone to leaf through the papers. She couldn't quite put her finger on what was unsettling her former classmate, surely it wasn't the student's death that bothered him, he knew better than anyone how likely that to happen, what the risks were in undertaking such a task in the world they lived in. The animosity towards the elders high in the hierarchy wasn't anything new either, so that means it must be something else entirely. Now the question was: Does she want to pry on and find out what's in his mind?

"Anyway, I got the results you wanted." She informed him, changing the subject completely. Gojou perked up at the notion, not long ago he had asked Ieiri to run some analysis on his behalf regarding a certain exorcist.

"Oh really? C'mon, tell me, tell me!" There it was the old, annoying Gojou.

Shoko sat back on the chair by the desk, the chart gently put on top of the levigated wood as her hand reached for the cigarette.

"In order to see curses, a human being must have an abnormal predisposition to cursed energy that it's directly linked to their brain. This is valid for both factions, sorcerers and exorcists, despite how the Church's narrative depicts them as completely pure. Esposito has demonstrated multiple times to possess these qualities, or so we thought." She inhaled the smoke to quickly release it through her nostrils before continuing, "His condition shares many similarities with Maki-san, to the point we could almost label it as a heavenly restriction."

Gojou could not help himself but laugh, an exorcist with heavenly restriction was just the pinnacle of divine irony, 'Murphy-esque' as one could put it.

"My point is, he shouldn't be able to see curses, and yet he does without apparent aid." For Shoko this was a real dilemma, the person himself was very secretive the day he came into her clinic as he kept his guard up all the visit, responding only when he needed to and nothing more. This general distrust towards adults was concerning, especially seeing how laid-back he was with the students, people his age. In the meantime, the white-haired man had prepared himself a cup of steaming hot instant coffee, now he rested on the counter of his kitchen. After a first sip, he could immediately feel his taste buds reject the bitter flavor. He had Gabriele to blame for this, he spends more money on coffee than everything else, and now everything tastes like dirt in comparison.

Good coffee is supposed to be sweet without adding sugar, he could hear the brat "talk".

"I'd like to run some more tests in the near future. If you don't mind asking him to come to the clinic, that'd be great." Ieiri said.

"I'll… see what I can do." With that, the doctor hung up. Gojou let go of a deep sigh he didn't know he had been holding, the phone was discarded to his side while his gaze was focused on the window, the first lights of the morning began to spread across the dark, star-devoid sky as the sun rose. Idilliac was the first word that came to mind, for just a few hours left before life would stir back to motion, and with it all the dramas and the responsibilities that dragged behind. His hand automatically went to brush his hair, he's conscious that this was taking a toll on him, and with every problem piling up over the other, he kept wondering what would come next once they would collect all of Sukuna's fingers and Itadori would be executed. Will matters get better? Will matters get worse? Or stay the same?

None will matter, he responded to his own question. From the time being, he'd cement his position as the strongest for the years to come, until one will eventually take his place, one of his students he hopes. "Tomorrow's problem to my tomorrow self." He declared, raising the cup in a mock toast before taking another sip. Again, his expression morphed into a frown of disgust.

"But first, let's change the brand of coffee."

The sunrays hit the skin on Gabriele's face as he looked around. He was outside in the cold morning of Late October wandering down an unknown street, it was rather peaceful, a nice change of pace for once from the overcrowded roads of Tokyo. The windy chill crept into the uniform, and instantly regret formed in his thoughts of not having at least brought something heavier to wear. He had ended up in what looked like a residential area, there were really no stores or anything, just a row of condominiums that stretched for as far as his eyes could go. He glanced behind him, there was a roundabout at the end of the road, an oak tree standing proud at his center. It was beautiful, and oddly… familiar.
A few seconds went by and an intrusive thought made its way into relevance in his consciousness, he didn't have any recollections of how he got here, or of anything that happened earlier today at all, to be honest. The exorcist remembered falling asleep in Mai's room but that was it, despite his efforts he couldn't remember anything else.

Gabriele felt his heartbeat quicken, he was lost in a large city without any real point of reference to orient himself with. Worse than that, he didn't have his phone with him.

Pointless were his attempts to summon the Entity, they too have gone quiet. In the empty road now he truly felt alone, pried even of his most intimate companion. His heart pounded heavily against the sternum, in a moment of panic his body turned swiftly the other way only to crash into a person. The exorcist stumbled back holding his nose, the sting was almost unbearable as if he walked into a sturdy wall. Gabriele immediately sought confrontation with this man, whatever anger he felt got stuck in his throat, replaced by fright and disgust instead.

The man's visage was distorted, ever-morphing his semblance constantly into something anew. One moment he had round, big brown eyes, a sizable nose and a small mouth, the other he had narrow green eyes, a thin snub nose, and very plump lips.

The exorcist stared at the stranger hard, his eyes glued to the monstrosity in front of him, but regardless, the thing kept going his way, unperturbed like nothing happened. Once he walked past him, Gabriele finally noticed the street was suddenly populated with these creatures, the buildings changing their shapes, insignias appearing with nonsensical writings of an abstract language. Cars sped on the asphalt beside him, strangely enough, they were the only clear things in this mess. Was he under a cursed spirit's machinations? He couldn't tell.

Shortly after, a red vehicle parked not too far ahead of the teen, the door opened, and a little kid jumped off with an old school bag too big for his frame hanging from his shoulder. Gabriele watched him as he waved goodbye to the departing auto, his curly raven hair was unruly, left to grow without form, his skin white as if he had never seen the light of day before in his life. The child swirled on his heels, hopping a few times to adjust the weight of the bag.

That was when they locked eyes in the distance.

Turquoise met turquoise, and in a blink of an eye, the young man froze in recognition. While the misshapen creatures walked past the exorcist, carelessly nudging shoulders like he wasn't there, the kid held his glance for what seemed hours, acknowledging his presence in this world. As with every good thing in his life, though, this didn't last for long.

The kid broke eye contact and directed himself toward the complex's glass entrance, disappearing from his vision. Gabriele snapped out of his trance, and after some tentative steps, he sprinted in a full run to chase the child. As he dashed through the crowd, more creatures appeared out of thin air, crashing into one of them and falling ravenously on the ground. The exorcist hissed in pain, but the rush of the situation made him stand up just as quickly as he fell. The entrance was about to close shut, grabbing the handle would take too much time so in a desperate effort Gabriele jammed his fingers in between. It hurt a lot, yes but the door was open, at least.

He pulled the door open and let himself in, the atrium of the complex morphed at a much slower rate than the street outside. It was an old building, judging by the elevator within a rusty iron cage, the red light and the ominous hum signifying the machinery was in use, the kid must have hopped in. Gabriele knew all too well on what floor the elevator would stop: the fourth floor, the apartment to the left, Mother's house, his childhood home. This complex, the street, the creatures, everything was based on the faint memories of a long-gone day of his past.

The humming sound came to a stop, two clicks after, and the exorcist felt his muscles tense. Time was running out, he had to run upstairs, now.

Gabriele rushed his way to the staircase, jumping the first three steps of the flight and then proceeding two at once. By the time he got to the first floor, he heard the sound of a lock coming undone echoing in the stairwell, followed by a quiet slam. From there he didn't care anymore and picked up the pace. On the second floor, as he went up, the morphing became less and less evident as the base of the memory was more consolidated to the point it was unnoticeable. On the third floor, he tripped lightly on the second to last flight of stairs but kept going nonetheless. On the fourth floor, his perception of time slowed, his gaze focused on the door at his left, every thought in his head gone except one:

Open up

His fist knocked insistently on the frail door.
No response.

Open up

He knocked again, faster and stronger, the loud thuds propagated in the empty complex. No response.

Open up damnit

He wanted to scream the world awake, but knocking proved to be ineffective, the only thing left was to bash it off its hinges. Gabriele stepped back a few paces, then with all the strength he could gather, he slammed his body against the door, one, two, three times. The door didn't budge one bit. Nor will it open anytime soon, in the clearest moment of this memory he knew it won't happen. Not until…

He felt an invisible edge slide across his neck, ear to ear tearing his flesh deep. Gabriele held his throat, the pain burning his thoughts to ashes, the blood trickled through the gauze and smeared all over his hands and clothes. The exorcist gasped for air, only to choke as only blood was welcomed in his lungs through the open trachea. He coughed red, shortly after his legs gave up under his own weight and down it came crashing backward on the cold floor. His eyes welled with tears, Gabriele passed the last glimpses of consciousness looking at the ceiling, beneath him warm liquid began to pool over the plain tiles as his mind wandered in delirious intent if he'd die first from hemorrhage or lack of oxygen. Two shadows passed over his blurry vision, he knew them too, these were his neighbors coming to the rescue the moment they heard Mother screaming. He lay as life flickered out of his turquoise irises and everything faded to black…

Eyes sprung open, his body was immobile, prone on the mattress of the dimly lit room with immense pressure on his chest. No matter how much he tried to move, he felt helpless as only his fingers were responding to his commands, even breathing was excruciatingly tough. His terrified gaze darted all around, in every dark corner until it laid upon two obscure silhouettes. One of small stature, raven hair, large teary turquoise eyes staring right at him, with a kitchen knife held tight in his left fist. Behind him an indefinite, shadowy figure towering over the other, back curved due to the limited space. Its lengthy and crooked fingers wrapped around the kid's wrist, gently but forcefully guiding the blade to his neck.

Gabriele was left to watch the gruesome spectacle, pupils shrunken in anguish as his breaths became shorter and hastened, his throat aching like alcohol poured on an open cut.

A hand delicately caught his chin and turned him away before the gorey act could conclude. Mai watched Gabriele, the passage of time felt lengthened to the extreme for him as he observed her, eyeing him with her brows furrowed in a clear sign of concern. He could tell she didn't know what to do by the way she was looking at him, frantic scanning, trying to understand what was going on. Fortunately enough, the girl unknowingly gave him something to focus on, taking back control of his breathing. Little by little, the pressure in his chest vanished, his muscles recovered their functions as he mimicked Mai's gesture. His heart rate, however, was still going crazy.

"Are you okay?" Mai whispered.

Gabriele gulped, still controlling the flow of his inhale-exhale cycle, "I am now, yes." he lied, he was far from okay. "Did I wake you up?"

"You were… hyperventilating. I woke up with you shaking uncontrollably. Did you have a nightmare?" As Mai talked to him, Gabriele rose in a sitting position at the edge of the bed, his digits running across the bends adorning his neck reassured they hadn't lost their grip in his sleep. This dream, it has been years since the last time he had this, why now of all times?! He nervously chewed on the nail of his index while checking the corner the two shadows were standing, even though there was nothing his anxiety didn't free him from its grasp.

On the other hand, Mai silently gazed at him. Even without responding, she knew he clearly was still upset by it so part of her was advising her to let him be, if he wanted to talk about it he'd have the one to start, she won't pry him further.

But as she sat up beside him, the Zen'in noticed him fidgeting with his bandages, the curiosity prevailed over her initial idea as her hand mindlessly reached for his neck. Out of instinct, Gabriele clasped her arm mere centimeters off him, his hand contracting her wrist down hard in a death grip while staring at her like a feral animal on the defensive, the only thing missing was a hiss on his part. It wasn't until she externalized her pain with a yelp that he realized what he was doing. He let go of her immediately, looking away in shame in the process. He fucked up, he fucked up big time. He shouldn't have stayed here for the night.

"Gabriele, I…" Mai tried to apologize.

"I'll see myself out. Forgive me…" the young man stood up, never once sparing her a glance he stormed out of the room as quietly as he could. The gunslinger kept her head low, even well after he was gone behind the door while outside, in the dark clouded Kyoto, the thunders resonated presumptuously in this early morning of late October.