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JUJUTSU KAISEN
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third eye | two part special

before yuji itadori's secret execution, there was yuta okkotsu's. what happened December 24, 2017 during the night parade of a hundred demons? let's find out!

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2007

"SO THAT'S IT, THEN?" Naomi yelled, her voice hoarse as she croaked out her words. "You're throwing everything away?"

A crack of lightning illuminated the woods that she tracked him to. Whether he knew she was following him or not didn't matter. What mattered was that they were alone, and she was furious, but more than that, her heart was shattered, and she wanted to know why he took a hammer to it.

"I don't expect you to understand what I'm trying to do, Naomi." Suguru's level response only infuriated her more, his inky black hair reflecting the moonlight. The shadows cast over his eyes made him look more like a skeleton than the boy she knew. "Especially when you hold on to the memories of those monkeys so tightly, but maybe one day you'll see that it's better this way."

The pouring rain was loud, but she could hear him clearly as he rubbed salt into her wounds. A gray haze was settling around them, making Naomi squint as she tried to search for any remorse in his expression, finding nothing but his solemn face.

"Monkeys?" Naomi screeched, "Did you just call my family monkeys? Remember that your parents aren't sorcerers either, Suguru! What gives you the right—"

"I stopped seeing them as my family a long time ago," Suguru interrupted. "They don't get an exception to my plan."

"Fuck you." Her voice trembled, her vision shaking as the handle of a knife slipped down into her palm. "FUCK YOU, SUGURU GETO!"

The shaky vision and the fact that she couldn't bring herself to see this man dead came together in a bad mixture that resulted in her blades being lodged into the trees surrounding the person in front of her. He took one look at the knives around him and turned around, walking away unscathed.

"This is goodbye for us, Naomi," he called out over his shoulder, stuffing his hands into his pockets. "I wish you well."

Naomi felt her trembling knees give out, her hands gripping the grass for stability as her blurring vision cleared with the free-fall of her tears. It all blended into a puddle below her, her clothes soaked through to her bones. Geto was long gone, she didn't even know where she was. She was alone.

"Go to hell," she heaved out, her body trembling with her sobs.

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2017

THE HUM OF the meeting room's A/C was dull in the back of Naomi's mind as her knee furiously bounced under the table. Her eyes were glued to the pictures tacked onto the board. Pictures of him, and his infuriating stoic face.

"Suguru Geto, a special-grade curse user who uses cursed spirit manipulation," Ijichi rattled off as he reviewed the report to everyone in the room, "able to draw in and manipulate naturally occurring unbound curses. That's his skill. It seems he's recently established a new religious group so that curses can be collected from its followers. This explains the recent decline in reported curses. He already possessed a significant number of curses and it's for certain he now has a lot more. He claims to possess two thousand of them, and that may not be a bluff."

"But statistically, most of them have got to be weaker grade-two curses or below," Yaga pointed out, looking up at Ijichi, who stood at the front of the room next to the board. "Also, estimating generously, he can't have much more than fifty curse users."

"That's actually the part that frightens me the most," Satoru said, his hand sliding over to Naomi's leg, making it still under his touch instantly. "I find it hard to believe that he'd want to start a war he couldn't win."

"GodDAMN!" Yaga yelled out, his fists clenching over his knees. Veins popped out of his temple and his neck, which was increasingly turning red. A grunt that seemed nearly feral made Naomi look over at him with concern. "Put out a call for aid to all alumni, alert the three major clans and the Ainu Jujutsu Society. It's all out war. And it's not just the curses we'll exorcise, it's Geto!"

• ★ •

IT FELT LIKE it was already the end of the world, seeing Shinjuku so quiet. Naomi felt a shudder down her spine when her footsteps actually echoed the second the heels of her boots hit the floor. She didn't bother with a uniform for this fight, not wanting to ruin her clothes with curse guts or blood from a curse user.

The night sky was pitch black, the stars hidden from the light pollution of the city. Jujutsu sorcerers were everywhere, posted on every city block, current students and former alumni alike. Yuta and Maki were both instructed to hang back. Naomi didn't feel comfortable with Maki being out here; she didn't want to run the chance of the curse users targeting her due to their fucked up beliefs.

Yuta was a different story. He was still new to this world, and Naomi couldn't ask him to risk his life killing curse users and an army of curses like this, not when Rika was so volatile and destructive.

That left Toge and Panda on one side of her and Hakari and Kirara, two promising second years that Naomi couldn't wait to start teaching, a few blocks away. Her current third years, Ren and Takumi, were sent to Kyoto to back up the students there.

Naomi wished they were allowed to stay at the school, considering they just came back from their mission, but with the sheer amount of curses Geto was unleashing, it was all hands on deck.

Curse users that followed Geto started appearing on rooftops and in the streets. Naomi got her knives ready; she had packed extra on her person. She hid a few in her sleeves to keep an edge on the people around her, but she assumed that Geto would have already told them her secrets. Not that it mattered—she wasn't sensing anyone powerful enough to kill her.

Like an army marching into battle, battalions of curses trekked their way through the city. Some flew in, and more rode on the backs of the curses that flew. Geto hadn't been exaggerating about an army.

"Try to keep the destruction of buildings and the infrastructure to a minimum," Yaga instructed from behind her. "There's a chance some civilians still haven't evacuated. If you find any, get them out of here! Are you listening to me, Gojos?"

"There's one who may cause us some trouble," Satoru said from next to her, looking around at the curse users. "The one with the rope. I'll take him on before he hurts someone else."

Naomi gave a passive nod and waved Yaga off, distracted by the lack of a certain presence. There was something off about this. And Satoru seemed to notice it too.

"Gojos!" Ijichi called out as he rapidly approached them, out of breath. He must have been running for quite a bit. "I have a report... what's the matter?"

"The same guy who came flying down on Pelly like it was some grand entrance is nowhere to be seen," Naomi hummed out loud as she scanned the rooftops, looking for him. "If he was in Kyoto, someone would have reported that to us by now."

"Just lost in thought," Satoru answered Ijichi. "What's up?"

"I know this isn't really the best time, but I thought you two should know. It's about the investigation into Yuta that you requested earlier," Ijichi explained. "When looking through the holes in his lineage, it was found that he's a descendant of Michizane Sugawara. There was nothing but non-sorcerers in Rika Orimoto's family."

Naomi's eyes widened as she glanced at her husband. This changed everything she had assumed about Geto's plan. It was clear now: he had used this whole Night Parade as a bluff, a reason for the school to be cleared out and put in the streets.

He wanted Yuta alone, and they had fallen right into his trap.

"Panda! Toge!" Satoru called as he stormed off, making the same connection she did at the same time. They needed to get to the school, but the sorcerers here needed to be dealt with, along with some of the special grade curses.

Naomi started her stopwatch as she watched Satoru warp the two students to the school. Geto was a murderer, but he would never willingly kill young sorcerers. The students at the school should be able to wear him down enough to make him easier to kill by the time Naomi and Satoru could get there to take over the fight.

A fight that should've happened ten years ago. A fight that they were too cowardly to pursue, but that all had to change tonight.

"Let me introduce myself, Satoru Gojo," a foreign sorcerer called out from the rooftop. "I'm Miguel, your opponent!"

"Sorry, Miguel," Satoru replied, a hand raised to his face to pull part of his bandages away from his eyes, revealing only one as he turned to look up at the man, "but I'm in a hurry right now."

Naomi didn't waste any time. She gave her husband one last reassuring look, smiling when she got one in return, and they ran off in separate directions. Using her senses and focusing hard on the energy traces, she found the special grades curses nearby easily.

These curses didn't seem to have the strength they should, maybe due to how many curses Geto unleashed at once. Naomi was unsure, but she couldn't think too hard about it as she drove her knives down into the curses closest to her, barely waiting for the second explosion of cursed energy to drive down into the bodies of the curses.

Carving a path, she could tell that it was getting easier for the sorcerers near her to clear out the streets. And maybe she was doing too good of a job, because now curses and curse users alike were targeting her and her alone.

"It seems you haven't been outranked yet!" The shrill voice of a woman from a nearby rooftop grabbed her attention. "Allow me to rectify that for you!"

"Can you shut up and get down here already?" Naomi yelled out. "I have places to be!"

A 'humph' could be heard as the woman used a nearby curse to get down to the street. She didn't introduce herself like Miguel did to Satoru, which Naomi was grateful for; she just wanted to get this over with.

Charging headfirst was probably Naomi's first mistake. The second being that she didn't listen to her reflexes fast enough. Now she had a searing brand on her right shoulder, making her scream out in pain as she tumbled and scrambled away, putting some distance between them before inspecting what the hell just happened.

Patting away the flames on her clothes and peering through the tatters of her shirt, she could see her skin sizzling and melting. Teeth clenched, Naomi glared up at the woman, her eyebrows raising at the sight of the sword coated in flames.

Cursed Pyrotechnique? Naomi hadn't seen an arsonist in a while.

A low groan escaped her throat as she narrowed her eyes on her opponent. This would take more effort than she accounted for.

"Want to withdraw? I can be merciful and kill you quickly if you prefer," the curse user taunted.

"Fuck you," Naomi grumbled before letting the handles of two more knives slip down into her palms.

Energy instantly began to crackle around the blades, swirling and coating the edges. A power surge ran down her arms and into her palms when she thrust the knives out, sending them flying at the speed of a jet into the curse user.

A screech of agony erupted from her throat as she crashed back onto the ground, writhing and jerking in pain after the blades lodged firmly into her gut and her chest. Unfortunately, Naomi was seeing double from the excruciating pain, and she didn't land the knife in the curse user's heart like she wanted.

She took a step forward to finish her job, but a blow to her back sent her scattering forward and crashing on her hands and knees, shredding the front of her pants and scraping her palms raw.

"Fuck!" Naomi yelled out as she looked over her shoulder. A big and nasty curse was standing proudly over her, five more standing behind it, lined up as if they were taking turns.

Naomi's head spun, her lungs filling with blood that she continued to cough out. The burning in her back finally registered and she realized that the curse user that she just impaled had ripped out the knife in her chest and punctured Naomi's lung while she was down.

Maybe Geto didn't know everything about her. Maybe after ten years, he had forgotten a few details. That could be the only explanation for this.

As she continued to get pummeled down by curses and burning cursed energy alike, she could feel herself getting closer and closer to her death. Her vision was cloudy; her whole body burned.

She had to time this perfectly, conceal her secret until the very last moment or else it wouldn't work. When the knife was yanked from her back, Naomi couldn't help the giggle that escaped her. The giggle that evolved into a low chuckle. The curse user was starting to get unnerved. The curses paused as they listened to her low chuckles erupt into full-blown, cackling laughter.

A rush of positive and negative energy exploded from Naomi's gut, expanding out to her limbs like a bomb.

Her left fist, coated in her positive energy, slammed into the open palm of her right hand, surging with negative energy, volatile and writhing. With her right hand closing over her fist, she looked up at the curse user, stuck in a shaken position as she was forced to sit and watch.

A second surge of energy slammed its way down Naomi's arms to her fists, allowing her to lift her left palm up to the sky, her right palm facing down to the ground.

"Domain Expansion: Deus Irae."

One moment, Naomi, the curse user, and the backup curses were on the streets of Shinjuku; the next, a grand cathedral was all that they could see, stained glass windows illuminating the building with its depictions of death and war.

A faint song was echoing off the walls and stone floor, but as Naomi's laughter finally began to die down, the choir began its slow crescendo.

"Normally I go easy on my opponents and decide to not reveal my technique," Naomi said, a smirk lifting her lips as she regarded the trembling user, "but you've pissed me off. The choir you're hearing? It paralyzes your limbs, makes your body refuse to move no matter how much your mind screams for you to. You are now being brought to Divine Justice."

A pillar of stone shot up, sending Naomi high enough up in the cathedral to see all of her victims at once.

Blinding light shattered through the cracks of the cathedral's walls and ceiling, and when it dimmed, swords the size of the pillar she stood on hovered over each of the curses and the curse user. Shimmering, swirling, golden light mixed and fused with the angry, crackling negative energy, red and volatile.

The curse user couldn't even scream as the swords all slammed down in unison, not stopping until the hilt reached the ground.

A few moments after that, golden light slipped out from the cracked remains of the curse user, floating and spiraling up to Naomi, embedding instead into her wounds, physically healing her. A lot of her cursed energy stores were still drained by the exertion of performing her Domain Expansion when she released the domain, but she still had just enough for the real fight. With the cathedral gone, she was now able to see the ground-up body of the curse user and the goopy matter that used to be the curses that were in her line of fire.

"Omi!" Satoru's voice was the first thing her ears registered as she took in the rest of her surroundings. She winced when she looked around at the street she was on. Buildings were cut in half, the destroyed parts reduced to rubble. Naomi was going to be in trouble with Yaga when this was over.

"Toru!" Naomi's head spun when she turned to find her husband. His eyes were fully visible now, hair falling over his face. The earth rumbled; the curses had disappeared shortly before that too.

What the fuck did Geto do?

She pulled out her stopwatch and quickly hit the button. One hour and twenty minutes. She fought for an hour and twenty minutes? It didn't feel that long.

Satoru seemed to understand the urgency as he pulled her arm over his shoulder, warping them instantly to the charred remains of part of the school's courtyard. Smoke billowed everywhere. Whatever Yuta and Geto had done, Yaga would definitely be more concerned about it. Satoru paused for a moment, his breath catching as he looked around, sensing the traces of Geto's energy.

They warped around the school a couple more times before Satoru stopped, his eyes widening slightly. Naomi turned her head to find a shadowy figure approaching from the alley of the school's storage system.

"Next time, I'll get my hands on her for sure." Geto's mutterings made Naomi frown. She hoped he would be more coherent now that it was just the three of them again.

Her heart broke when she finally got a good look at him. He was a shell of himself, his arm and his shoulder gone, a crater in its place. Yuta had really done a number on him. And it looked like he never did figure out Reversed Cursed Technique. Or maybe he was too tired to.

"You're late again, as usual, Satoru," Geto chuckled as he crumpled down to the ground, twisting to lean against the wall, "and I guess you still don't understand, even now, do you, Naomi?"

Naomi swallowed the lump in her throat as her lip wavered. She hated this.

"To think you two would be here at my end. Are you going to make sure my family is safe?" he asked, glancing up at them with a smile, one so familiar to the one she knew, almost like maybe now, in his death, she was finally getting him back.

"Every last one of them managed to escape to safety," Satoru confirmed. Naomi couldn't remember much of Shinjuku; her head was starting to hurt. "Except for the one with the fire technique."

"Ah, well, they were just hired help," Geto sighed.

"The ones in Kyoto, they were under your command?" Satoru asked, redirecting the conversation.

"Yes, they all were. I'm a kind person, unlike you, Satoru," Geto answered. "You sent those two assuming that I'd defeat them, didn't you? To set Okkotsu off."

"I trusted that you'd be yourself," Satoru replied simply. "Trusted that a man as principled as you wouldn't kill off young sorcerers without a reason."

"You wanna talk about trust?" Geto chuckled wryly. "I didn't think I had any of that left in me, after everything I've been through. Return this for me, will you?"

A card was tossed, but Satoru caught it with ease. Flipping it, it showed that it was Yuta's student ID. He had lost it after his first assignment with Maki. Naomi felt bad for getting onto Yuta about it so much now.

"Was the elementary school your doing too?" Satoru asked.

"It was."

"Suguru." Naomi looked away from the ID and down on him, her heart clenching as a mix of emotions ran through her. She hated him. She loved him even more. She was so angry with him. She missed him.

"I can't believe you," Satoru sighed. "Tell me, do you have any last words?"

"No matter what anyone tells you, I hate those monkeys." Suguru leaned his head back against the wall again, clenching the area where his shoulder should be. "But I never held any hatred for those in Jujutsu High School. I just couldn't wear a heartfelt smile while living in this world."

"Suguru." Satoru stepped forward, letting Naomi stand on her own two shaking legs as he crouched to be eye level with Suguru. "You'll always be my best friend. I love you."

Tears welled up in Naomi's eyes as she saw the shock on Suguru's face. He clearly didn't realize how much they still cared. He looked up at her, a soft expression creeping onto his face.

"Anything for me before I go?" he asked. "You've been so quiet."

"I miss you." It was all she could say. Her voice was hoarse, her eyes clear now that her tears were freely falling down her cheeks.

"I miss you too." He looked down with his smile. "The least you guys could do is hit me with some curses."

The handle of the last knife she had on her slipped so easily into her palm, the weight so familiar. She choked out a sob as she looked down to find the familiar engraving on the blade, the hilt still swirling black and white. Fitting that this would be the last knife. The cursed energy flowed down into it so easily, coming down to a sharp edge at the tip of the blade.

Handing it over to Satoru, she looked away, unable to watch what came next. The slicing of Geto's throat was thundering in Naomi's ears.

Satoru's arms were instantly around her to allow her to falter. She crumbled, her face falling into her husband's chest. Her cries crashed through her trembling body. There was a hole in her heart, and no matter what she stuffed in there to replace it, it would never quite fit.

Trickles of wet dropped onto her head, and when she looked up, she saw that Satoru was crying as well. Reaching up, she gently wiped the tears and the faint spray of her friend's blood off his face. She didn't want to mar the pretty face she always saw in her memories.

"We—" she sniffled, allowing Satoru to wipe the tears off her face as well. "We should probably check on the kids."

Satoru nodded, sliding her now-clean knife into her pocket for her.

They followed where Geto had come from, using trails of his cursed energy to find the epicenter of the explosion. Yuta's cursed energy was everywhere; Naomi could feel its aftershocks.

When they found Yuta, Panda, Toge, and Maki were with him. They seemed to be extremely upset. They had been extremely injured as well, Maki no longer had her glasses, rendering her unable to even see curses, her hair down from her usual ponytail and blood soaked her clothes. Toge and Yuta seemed to be the least injured. Naomi's heart lurched at the sight of Panda's arm being missing, a stump of stuffing in its place. At least it didn't appear painful for him.

A few feet away, Rika in her true form was patiently sitting on the ground. Naomi realized she didn't have legs, just a very odd tail sitting on the ground. She was much smaller now than how the reports described her, maybe exhausted from the battle with Suguru.

"What were you thinking, you idiot?" Maki screeched, glaring Yuta down. 

"Well, I was caught up in the moment, I guess!" Yuta defended himself, but behind him, Rika's form was melting away, revealing the little girl she used to be.

Brown hair, brown eyes, and the dress she wore the night she died, with the little red tie. She was adorable, and when she saw Yuta, she smiled.

"Rika?" Yuta asked.

Satoru clapped from next to Naomi, pulled everyone's attention to him as they walked through the rubble and approached the kids.

"Congratulations!" Satoru said. "You managed to break the curse."

"Mrs. Gojo, who is this?" everyone asked, making Naomi chuckle when she glanced up at him.

"I'm your good-looking teacher, Satoru Gojo," Satoru answered for her, making them look to her again. Their faces only grew more confused when Naomi nodded in confirmation. "I thought the theory Yuta came up with sounded interesting, so I requested an investigation into their families. The information about Rika's family came to me a long time ago, but Yuta's history was full of holes at best."

"That's when it finally came to light: you're the descendant of Sugawara Michizane." Satoru perked up with this information, a bright smile on his face, a mask for the kids. "Which makes us super distant relatives!"

"Suga?" Maki and Panda asked as the trio regarded him with wide eyes. Satoru was still dancing in celebration at his reveal behind them.

"Who's Suga?" Yuta asked.

"One of Japan's three great apparitions!" Maki was staring at him like he had grown three heads.

"He was a super big shot sorcerer!"

"Tuna!"

"You were right the whole time, Yuta." Satoru finally calmed down, focusing on Yuta. "Rika didn't place a curse on you, you placed a curse on Rika."

Yuta looked down at Rika, his eyes widening. She was so small next to him now. His eyes glazed over, seeming to remember something, probably from that night.

"That's right. At the time, I refused to accept Rika's death," Yuta frowned. Naomi could see his mind going into overdrive, and she could see the guilt taking over.

"Now that the one who placed the curse has cancelled the bond," Satoru pointed out, "as long as the person who was cursed doesn't seek retribution against you, the curse is fully broken. Of course, that much was obvious after seeing her in that form."

Yuta fell to his knees, the information too overwhelming. The sun was finally rising again, everyone was exhausted; Naomi could see it through her bleary eyes. The morning rays casted everyone in pink and purple hues.

"It was all my fault, wasn't it?" he asked. Naomi could hear his cries, and she wanted to hug him. "I turned you into that form, I hurt all those people and I nearly caused everyone to die when Geto came after me. It's all— it's all my fault!"

Rika finally stepped forward, wrapping her arms around the shaking boy's body, her smile still soft and warm.

"Yuta, thank you for giving me more time and letting me stay by your side." Rika's voice was calm, soothing even as a ten-year-old. "During the six years I was cursed, I've been happier than I ever was before."

They stayed like that for a few more moments. Rika squeezed lightly, pulling away after. Yuta looked up through his tears as a pink light began to glow behind Rika.

"Bye, Yuta, take care." Rika grinned as golden, shimmering light took over her form. "And don't cross to my side anytime soon, okay? See you later!"

When Rika left, she left sparkling bubbles floating around. The faint sounds of childish laughter and the air of summer breezed past Naomi as she admired the display. Satoru snaked an arm around her waist as the two fo them looked up together, watching the bubbles float away, traces of Rika leaving this plane and moving on to wherever people went in the afterlife.

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"I GOT YOU something." Satoru's voice pulled Naomi out of her thoughts as she looked out the window of their house. Snow was falling outside; she wondered if they would go out later to make a snowman.

Megumi had just gone to his room to put away the things they made him unwrap by the tree that Satoru insisted on putting up himself a month ago. The box was placed in her hands; it was wrapped neatly, making Naomi wonder if he paid their son to do it instead.

The sound of the paper tearing filled her ears as she unwrapped the present, her eyes widening when they registered what he gave her.

"I had bought it for you months ago, but if you want, I can give it to you later." Satoru scooted closer to her on the couch. "I understand if it's too soon for you now, but I couldn't think of anything else to get you so late—"

"It's okay, Toru," Naomi said softly, taking his hand in hers. "It's beautiful, I love it."

The knife really was beautiful, definitely something that he had gone out of his way to custom order. She'd never seen such a beautiful finish on a blade. The handle seemed to have been made to fit her grip, which she didn't know how he managed to do, considering what it took to get that information.

It wasn't practical for camouflage, of course—the handle was a bright blue, the color of his eyes when using his technique—but she loved it even more because of that.

"I got you something else, too." Naomi set the knife on the coffee table in front of her, digging into her pocket. "I'm sorry I didn't wrap it first. Can you close your eyes for me, baby?"

Satoru nodded and went still. She could see his eyes shifting under his bandages. She gently reached up and started to unwrap his head, a smile creeping on her face when she caught him peeking.

"Satoru," she warned softly. Seeing the way the hairs on his neck rose made her chuckle. "Close your eyes."

He closed them fully, allowing her to finish pulling the bandages. She pushed his hair up, the black fabric in her other hand stretching over his head. His nose scrunched, making her giggle as she leaned forward and pressed a light kiss to the tip of his nose.

"Okay," she smiled, "open."

When Satoru opened his eyes, she watched his expression fall into shock.

"Oh, Omi," he said softly, wrapping his arms around her, burying his face into her neck, "this is perfect, thank you, my face has been getting so itchy."

"I know, that's why I bought a whole pack," Naomi chuckled, wrapping her arms around his head, holding him close to her chest. "I was tired of you complaining about it."

"Hey, could we— ew," Megumi's voice pulled them from their bubble on the couch. Naomi looked over her shoulder to see his disgusted expression. "I wanted to see if we could watch the videos again, but if you guys are busy—"

"No, that sounds perfect," Naomi cut in, pulling away from Satoru to walk over to her VCR. It was used for only one thing now. "I've been wanting to watch them again."

"Oh, okay," Megumi agreed. He held up the box in his hand, VCR tapes neatly stacked inside. All labeled in Naomi's attempt at neat handwriting.

After setting up the VCR for him, she took her seat next to Satoru, pulling a blanket over them as Megumi walked over and sat next to her. He was silent as he leaned into her side, clearly not wanting her to acknowledge the small gesture of affection. Naomi, of course, ignored that to wrap her arm around him and pull him even closer into her side.

He grumbled, but he also didn't move away. In fact, Naomi was sure she could feel him actually snuggling into her right then. A small smile crept up on her face as the video started. Eight year old Tsumiki's smiling face took up the entire TV. It was their first Christmas together, and she was confused by the camera's presence.

"Naomi loves to document things!" Satoru's voice was in the background, and when Tsumiki stepped back from the camera, there he was with a little Megumi hiding by his leg as he stared at the mountain of presents by the tree.

"Are these all for us?" Tsumiki asked, now getting sheepish as she looked at the pile as well.

"Well, there's a couple things that we got each other in there, but yeah, most of it is for you," Naomi explained. "Do you want to go first, Miki?"

"Yeah!"

Naomi chuckled as she watched the camera shake from Tsumiki running to the pile. She remembered this Christmas so vividly. Megumi, always so stoic and quiet, even as a young boy, seemed to understand that day that he was safe. That was probably the first time he was vulnerable with Naomi and Satoru. Naomi remembered that it was the first time he actually hugged them.

And it was all on camera.

"He used to be so little!" Satoru teased, reaching across Naomi to ruffle Megumi's hair as the TV played in the background. "Can you go back to being little Megumi?"

"Alright, that's enough of this tape," Megumi groaned as he stood up. He reached into the box without looking and grabbed the first tape his fingers grazed. Walking over, he switched out the tape with ease.

Everyone in the house sucked in a breath when the VCR started playing. This wasn't a Christmas video. This was from high school. It was 2006, and a young girl was standing in the mirror with her camera, her bangs freshly cut and her eyeliner dangerously thick.

Satoru would have normally laughed in this situation, but it was like watching a train wreck. The second she left the bathroom in the video, he was there—his hair wasn't as long, but it was all pulled back into a bun.

Naomi couldn't control the tears welling in her eyes as she watched the video. Unable to tear her gaze away, the wounds from yesterday's battle began to ache.

"Sugu, they're horrible, I can't go out like this!" Naomi's voice cracked in the video, unmatured and warbling due to the fact that she was crying in the video as well. "Why did you let me do this? I look like a fucking idiot!"

"Calm down, it's not that bad, I've seen Satoru sport worse looks."

"Well it's fucking Gojo, he always looks bad."

Suguru chuckled in the video, his face lifting up into that easygoing smile. The smile that Naomi used to always picture when she thought of him.

"Give me the scissors, I'll fix this," he said calmly, holding out his hand.

When the scissors were handed over, Naomi could be heard gasping behind the camera as she recorded Geto reaching up to his own hair to snip a few strands, pieces of hair falling down and dangling at his chin.

"There, now he can't say anything—"

Megumi turned off the TV. Through teary eyes, Naomi looked over at her husband to see wet streaks on his own face.

"I think it was a little too soon for that video," Satoru simply said, reaching up to wipe at his face under his new blindfold. "Why don't we go outside, take advantage of the snow out there?"

Naomi was quick to get up and head to her room, wiping at her own face as she pulled on her coat, grabbing Satoru's while she was in their closet. Something clanked by her feet and she noticed his box of high school things sitting out in the floor of the closet, his circular glasses sitting on top.

She sniffled, clearing out of the room entirely as she reentered her living room. Megumi and Satoru stood there like deer in headlights, only knocked out of their shocked stupor when Naomi tossed Satoru's jacket at him.

"Megumi, put on your coat, let's go outside," she said softly. "We're going to have a snowball fight."

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6.1k words

OMG OMG GUYS WERE HERE WE MADE IT!!!

that's the end of the MOVIEEE!!!

What I didn't show you is that a few months after the fight, Yuta started training under Miguel who??? Isn't that bad actually???? Don't worry, they'll eventually come back, but Yuta's in a different country right now so don't expect the world from him right now lol.

Now everyone, get ready for time travel! mentally I've been in 2006 and 2007 and I'm just so ready to WRITE it. I think— no, I KNOW this act will be longer than act one, so get ready for that!!

thank you all for reading and I hope to see you for act two!!

— greta!