#whenicatchyougegechapters

At the moment he was looking fairly awkward and you attempted to relieve his anxiety, “No really it’s okay. We..were in the same elementary school together. I was…” you pause trying to pull some story out that could make sense. “...picked on a lot and you defended me. Which is why I remember you! I’m y/n, y/n l/n” You smiled happily, liking the narrative that you came up with. Haibara is a good guy and the last thing you want is for him to feel bad not remembering a person he never met.

Haibara stands back up to his full height, his mind clearly trying to find a place where you would possibly fit into his childhood. You figured, if Haibara’s personality was similar as a child to what it was now he definitely was popular on the playground and probably defended other kids all the time. There had to be a place some random girl could fit in. You smiled as sweetly as you could while thinking, Come on Yu, would this face lie to you? God he looks adorable when he’s confused.

After a moment there seems to be a flash of recognition in his eyes before he slaps a fist into his open palm. “I-I think i remember you. I’m sorry y/n. You look a lot different now…i think." The last part is under his breath as you try to keep your expression under control. 

You flush when you realize he immediately started calling you by your first name taking what you said as truth that you were childhood friends. You give a small laugh, “You look really different as well. I almost didn't recognise you. Thank you for helping me out there.” you gesture towards the main sidewalk behind you. “I’m not so great around…crowds.” you finish the sentence confidently despite the pause. That wasn’t completely untrue. You definitely weren’t a fan of being crushed in a wave of bodies.

“Ooooh,” He smiled at you gently, unconsciously stepping forward a little closer to you. “Are you feeling better? You sure you don’t want a candy?” He wiggled his hand with the candies in front of you as if to emphasize them. 

You felt yourself laugh. Speaking to him felt natural, “No, but i really appreciate the off-” You stopped short as a sudden influx of energy appeared behind you.

“Haibara!” a disgruntled voice barked in annoyance at your back. The speaker abruptly paused, realizing Haibara was not alone in front of him. Turning you saw a teen even taller than Haibara had come in from the crowd, his school uniform mussed up like he had been fighting for his life in the mob behind him. Your jaw dropped as Nanami Emo Hair Kento stood in front of you in all his awkward teenage glory. Nanami looked at you uncomfortably as you tried to get your expression of awe in check. He raised a brow at Haibara, clearly asking him what he was doing in a random side street with some girl. 

“Ahhh sorry Kento, I got distracted again and forgot the time.” He looked somewhat shamefaced as if this was definitely not the first time Haibara had not showed up to what you were assuming was a mission on time. Shoving the sweets back into his pocket Haibara’s face quickly broke into a cheerful grin when he walked over to you and wrapped an arm around your shoulder gesturing you forward towards Nanami. Your entire body felt like it was on fire when he laid his muscled arm across your shoulders. 

Haibara had taken to you like a duck to water, not even bothering to question anything. You couldn’t help but think uncharitably, No wonder this guy got himself killed.. Haibara’s cherry tone continued not registering your beat red face, “But Kento look! I ran into y/n, we’ve been friends since we were little back in Hokkaido. I can’t believe we ran into each other all the way down here in Tokyo, what a small world!”

You felt yourself choke when he mentioned Hokkaido. “Yes, very..small”. You nodded awkwardly, grateful he let you in on that little detail of “your childhood” as Nanami looked at you suspiciously. 

Nanami took in your red face and awkward expression before responding in a bland tone, “I see...Nanami, Kento” he introduced himself with little fanfare as Haibara grinned even bigger.

Haibara gave your shoulder a little squeeze before letting you go and exclaiming, “I am so pumped now! I never thought you’d get to meet any of my friends from back home. This is great we should go do some Karaoke-” 

“No!” Two identical “No” rang out at the suggestion of Karaoke. You panicking at the idea of being trapped in a small room with these two men and being forced to perform. Nanami balking over the very idea of Karaoke in conjunction with Haibara forgetting the mission they were supposed to be on now. Before Haibara could start up again Nanami ground out, “Haibara we have someplace to be.” 

Haibara looked like he deflated at Nanami’s comment before blinking back at you dejectedly, “I forgot. Y/n let’s trade numbers so we can all hang out sometime. How long are you in Tokyo?” 

“Ahh, yeah about that…i’m not really sure..and my phone broke.” This dream was really getting into the weeds. Did you even have a cellphone? Probably not. You literally just met the cinnamon roll, emo haired, dream team and they were going to run off and leave you standing here until you woke up. You had to have like…some ability or something right. I mean it's your dream after all. What’s the worst that could happen? A curse pulverizes you and you wake up and go to work. You glance around awkwardly before deciding you're not ready for this night to end yet, “I mean… I could probably help kill a curse or two…typical tuesday night right?” You had no idea what day of the week it was but it probably didn’t matter. You expected dream Nanami and dream Haibara to take this in stride and welcome you into their curse hunt. Instead they both stared at you in horrified shock. 

Nanami immediately began to sputter in an attempt to respond, nothing coherent managing to come out. He whipped his head to Haibara with an accusatory look as if to say, what did you tell her? 

Haibara meanwhile froze looking at you before laughing a little too loud to be convincing, “Ah ha ha! I forgot to tell you Kento, she's a jujutsu sorcerer like us?!” Despite addressing Nanami, Haibara's eyes were glued on you in wonder, “That explains the strong energy I felt before I ran into you in the road.”

Guess that means I’m able to do something, you thought with surprise at Haibara’s last comment. Going to play it off you smiled at Nanami before raising your hands up and waving your fingers, “Surprise!”

Haibara jumped on to your comment and did a somewhat identical pose on the opposite side yelling, “Surprise!” You were seriously going to have to keep an eye on this Haibara kid. There was trusting and then there was this. Even if this was a dream he needed to be a little more suspicious. 

Nanami adjusted his weight onto his other foot ignoring Haibara for the time being, “You’re a jujutsu sorcerer?” At your nonchalant nod he continued, “What grade?” 

“I was homeschooled. Aren’t you running late? I don’t have to come if it’s a problem, just wanted to offer help to Yu.” Remembering Nanami’s disdain for overtime and extra work you added, “Figured we could get done faster… go read or ..listen to sad music faster?” 

Haibara laughed as Nanami seemed to actually think it over. “Fine since you’re Haibara’s friend and it will get us out of here faster.” He turned to lead the way out into the open city air, “But if you get in the way we are leaving you behind” he muttered more to himself than anyone else.

~~

Thankfully, it didn’t take very long for the major city congestion to clear; your small group finding its way into lesser populated side streets. Nanami led the way about half a block in front of you and Haibara; only stopping briefly to consult a paper map before trekking off quickly ahead again. You watched Nanami work from behind with a sense of awe that this somewhat gangly looking emo kid was going to fill out into the beefcake that is Nanami Kento in Shibuya. Not that present Nanami wasn’t adorable. I mean sure he could use a hair cut but he was over six feet tall and had legs for days. Plus, as much as you liked thick boys like older Nanami you had had your fair share of crushes on sickly thin emo boys with bags under their eyes. He wasn’t as broad as Haibara yet but his form was lithe and had this casual but confident finesse about him. God you were no better than a man. You averted your eyes before you burned a hole in Nanami’s back.

You felt Haibara’s eyes on you from your right side. He had positioned himself nonchalantly earlier so that he was on the side of the walkway closest to the road. You could more than handle yourself but the gesture was kind and it made you feel a little warm and fuzzy on the inside despite the chilly autumn weather. He was too good for this world and way too trusting, “Yu, you really need to be more careful about trusting just anyone who walks up to you on the street.” 

The boy tossed you a lazy grin while scoffing, “Are you saying I shouldn’t have trusted you?”

You pouted, sticking out your lower lip a little, “Well no… but what if I was a curse user? You need to be a little more critical in approaching others.” You lightly scolded. 

“Finally someone with common sense.” Nanami tosses the words backwards despite neither of you realizing he was listening in. “If you won’t listen to me, listen to your friend.”

Haibara smiles a little wider at Nanami’s complaint, “Kento you say that like we’re not friends.” At Nanami’s grunt in response Haibara raises a finger up to his chin and taps it like he is thinking, “I dunno…I’m a pretty good judge of character.” 

You remember him saying something similar to Geto before he fell off the deep end. “Right…just be careful. Please.” You didn’t want to sound like a nag when you just met the guy but the image of him on a gurney in the morgue keeps popping up in your mind. 

“Will do!” He flashes two thumbs up and gives you a wink. You feel yourself flush at the silly gesture before returning one thumbs up back. “So y/n are you planning on enrolling at Jujutsu High? That would be so cool. You know me and Kento are a two man team-“

Nanami stops in front of a dilapidated building that looks like it used to be some sort of apartment complex. Before Nanami speaks you feel this foreboding feeling emanating off of the building in front of you. A chill runs down your arms and the hair on the back of your neck stands on its end. “We’re here. Ijichi should be here to set up our veil.” Nanami comments looking down the street for a sign of the other young man.

“Ijichi is in our grade but he’s training to be a window.” Haibara explains but you already remember the shy man from the show. 

Nodding, you look up at the complex ahead. If you focus hard enough you can see the purple tendrils of an aura leaking from the area. The feeling is overwhelming and very obvious now that you’ve seen it once. It’s like a searchlight cutting through the night sky. “It’s kinda amazing that normal people can’t see this when it’s so jarringly visible to us..” you whisper. Part of you is relieved you can see cursed energy and hope that means you will be able to fight halfway decent.

Haibara looks like he is about to respond but is cut off when Nanami announces, “There he is.” A black car pulls up to the curb and turns its emergency lights on before the driver hops out in a hurry, running to where your small group is gathered in front of the complex. “You’re 15 minutes late.” Nanami states matter of factly to the newest member of your group. 

The newest arrival is sweating and nervously squeezing his hands “Nanami, I’m sorry I had trouble getting ahold of one of the schools rental cars and then I ran into Gojo-“

“Just put up the veil so we can go home.” Nanami interrupted.

Ijichi stood ramrod straight before acknowledging, “Right, very sorry.” He raised his arms forming a specific hand gesture before clearing his throat, “Emerge from the darkness, blacker than darkness. Purify that which is impure.” As soon as the words were released you felt Ijichi’s aura flare followed by a dark shade of purple oozing over the apartment complex. Despite the seemingly liquid consistency it formed a half circle barrier surrounding the entire complex and its immediate surroundings. 

Before Ijichi even released his seal Nanami was stepping forward, “Let’s get this over with. ” he muttered stepping through the veil and out of your vision. 

Haibara grinned, glancing at you and raising a brow, “Ready to go?” 

You returned his eye contact with a half smile before turning serious, “Let’s do this!” As you stepped forward after Haibara you noticed Ijichi staring at you in confusion clearly trying to place where you were from. You flashed him a quick grin and a little wave before stepping under and into the newly created veil. You couldn’t help but laugh as you saw a blush race up his neck to his pale cheeks. Ijichi really didn’t look any different than his older self. He still had the salaryman haircut and nervous expression. The only real difference was instead of his signature black and white suit in the anime he now wore the same school uniform as Nanami did.

You sped up your step a bit until you were beside Nanami before addressing him, “Is there anything I need to know before we get started?” 

He glanced over at you, giving you some consideration before he responded. “Shouldn’t be anything overly difficult. Two curses, at least one family went missing before the place was evacuated. The higher ups don’t expect us to find anyone alive.” You nodded your mouth becoming a grim line as he continued, “If you have any doubts about proceeding you need to leave now.” 

You rolled your shoulders before flexing your fingers a few times. Since the moment you woke up here there was this underlying current you could feel. At first it was like a soft moving static but upon Nanami’s appearance the flow began to define itself more. It wasn’t like you felt it, saw it or even heard it. This newly awakened sixth sense was an automatic involuntary function; like hearing or smelling. It just existed now and you were now left to interpret the signals. You focused on this new sense and tried flexing the current inside you. In response cursed energy raced down your arm to arc between your finger tips briefly. “I’m good.” You responded with a confidence you weren’t sure was warranted. “From the outside it looked like this place was three floors. Do we each want to take one?” 

Nanami watched you as you spoke, assessing the look in your eyes and maybe even your cursed energy output. You could only guess what others could sense given your lack of experience in actually wielding cursed energy. Nanami usually took the lead in these missions but given there was a new factor that had a connection to Haibara he glanced at his friend for the response. 

Beside you there was no more sign of the goofy looking golden retriever boy. Haibara’s face was serious, “Okay, Y/n If you need anything give a yell. We rely on each other to complete these missions. We may separate but we are not alone in this. Me, you and Nanami are a team now.” He maintained eye contact while he spoke before giving you a thumbs up. Even Nanami nodded in agreement, his face serious. 

You couldn’t help but smile at Haibara’s words and Nanami’s concurrence. Even if this was a dream the idea of being accepted so totally by these two gave you this sense of belonging you hadn’t felt before. “Alright let’s kick some cursed ass.”

75 Comments

“Dude I fkn hate Mahito he better get left right goodnight next ep”

“lol get ready to be disappointed”

“I mean why mahito kinda…👀”

“get help….” “girlie I’m all for ignoring red flags but that’s a whole red flag factory” "okay but transforming body parts 😩"

You laughed at the comments per usual thumbing up your favorites before going to type your own. This fandom was so unhinged but you loved it. These comments were tame compared to what you would see on the average JJK thirst trap video.

“Gege is the worst curse 😭” 

You hit enter with a small smile before immediately scrolling through a few more TikToks. Your timeline was currently Jujutsu Hell. Just about every TikTok was JJK related and while you adored the show (maybe a little too much) you were feeling a little bummed out by it lately. 

Season one had become your ultimate comfort anime. It was endearing, funny, heartwarming and all the characters meshed so well. It made you feel like a part of their family -albeit a very hot family where you thirsted over about 90% of the cast-. 

Sure the Junpei arc in season 1 broke your heart but it was a manageable amount of sadness. The movie was much the same; a little sad but overwhelming the good guys win and the family is together at the end. Then came Shibuya and all hell broke loose. Gege made you fall in love with Suguru Geto despite knowing that wasn’t going to end well. Your sweet baby Yuji was tortured relentlessly physically and mentally. Then he put your man Gojo in an eyeball box before he killed off a bunch of beloved characters. You were honestly starting to feel depressed. It sounds dramatic but you really loved these characters and it felt like Gege was torturing them for the hell of it. Character deaths were fine with a literary purpose but it was beginning to feel cruel.

Your mood dipped with your thoughts as you decided to close the app down. Before you could flick it shut a notification popped up at the top of your screen showing someone had responded to your comment. You clicked it to see the bigger thread.

“Yuji had to watch these ppl die to grow as a character”

You screwed up your face into an affronted expression. You had a tendency of wearing your thoughts on your face before managing to school them. Something that had gotten you in trouble more than once. Thankfully, in your own home that wasn’t an issue. 

“Not really relevant to my comment..” you mumbled while typing a response. “But I’ll bite”

“Killing off characters just to make another one grow is the easy way out. Yuji is a kid. Torturing him senselessly isn’t making him grow, it's making him traumatized.”

Before you could even click away another comment popped up below yours 

“U think u could do any better?”

You rolled your eyes at the comment. You loved Gege’s work, the universe and characters he created were amazing; but that didn’t mean you had to agree with every decision he made as an author. This is why you didn’t bother to leave comments. You hated having to justify yourself to random people on the internet. You contemplated deleting your original comment before you typed 

“I mean I could get to the same places plot wise and emotionally without murdering everyone the audience cares about..” Before the guy could respond again you hit the phones off button to put it to sleep and threw it across your bed. You hated that your emotions tended to get involved in things as tiny as internet comments or tv shows.

You huffed into your sheets before mumbling, “If I was there I’d end up being an annoying Shonen protagonist…”  you smiled thinking of the way Naruto relentlessly chased down Sasuke or Luffy refused to leave his Nakama behind. Rolling over you lay on your back staring at the ceiling grinning, “Suguru Geto you aren’t escaping the power of friendship buddy! I would drag your monkey hating ass back kicking and screaming. Hell, I’m saving Yu Haibara first, sending Geto to therapy, and taking Nanami to a freaking hair salon. Emo looking…” you laugh out loud before your reverie is interrupted by the screeching of your phone's alarm. 

Your mood is forced to instantly sober, “I’m pathetic..” you muttered. Knowing in the back of your head you had to get ready for another day at your mediocre job with your shitty coworkers. And for what? To come home and be sad that the gorgeous pixelated men on the other side of the screen were getting knocked off by their God Gege (who you just decided to dub God-Ge).

After rubbing a hand over the bridge of your nose you tried to muster the energy to get up and get shit done. Raising up one hand towards the ceiling and making a fist you yelled, “Alright God-Ge you dick just you wait till I get Isekaied! Not one of my boys is dying and I all my babies are gonna grow up loved as fuck!!”

~~

That was the last thing you remembered and what brought you to the here and now. Where ever here and now was… you were disoriented to say the least. You went from laying in bed to your body standing. White and red lights were flashing by with a blustery wind shaking you and rattling your clothes. Despite the confusion you registered that you were moving but not with any sense of purpose or even of your own volition. You were submerged in a crowd; bodies flowing around you pushing your stumbling form along.  You were in sensory overload; the sound of racing vehicles, people talking, advertisements ringing. The lights flickering around you were blurred and the voices surrounding you were unintelligible. 

You felt as if you broke through to the air from a lake in the middle of winter. Your mind was having trouble forming full thoughts. The information it was receiving was partial and you felt goosebumps break out down your arms as you felt a shiver go down your body. You noticed a ringing in your head as it gradually grew louder in volume. The tinnitus like sound became unbearable as you hunched over putting your hands over your ears. Your posture was protective as you just hoped the overwhelming feelings would-

The ringing stopped. The sounds around you clarified and your vision seemed to return to normal. It felt as if someone had thrown you a life preserver in frigid waters and you gasped at the sudden shift in physical sensations.

Something was grounding you. This warmth spread throughout your body and a wave of reassurance engulfed you. Still bent over with your hands on your knees you registered a hand on your upper back near your shoulder. The touch, warm and light, rubs a gentle circle only partially putting its weight on you. You aren’t the type of person to want to be touched by strangers but the person barely holding you relays comfort and reassurance. Their form was removed enough to show concern while not intruding on your space or coming off as disrespectful. 

“Hey are you okay? You don’t look so good..” the voice was masculine but had this buoyancy and brightness to it. The energy behind it non-threatening and almost inviting. You squeezed your eyes shut trying to regain some baseline of where you are. You registered the sidewalk under your feet and your familiar pair of shoes. It had to be nighttime based on the level of light surrounding you. It wasn’t dark but the only thing illuminating your feet was colorful artificial rays. 

The hand on your back left taking its warmth with it. Your eyes flicked up to meet a pair of brown orbs with flecks of gold. The person's face peering down at you was so close to your own your noses almost brushed when you looked up. Your voice caught in your throat as you choked in surprise at the handsome features directly in front of you. His brown eyes were framed with long dark lashes. The first thought that left your mind was he’s beautiful before a heat raced down your stomach. 

At your noses almost touching, he stood up quickly from stooping to get a better look at you. He must have seen something in your eyes that clearly concerned him as both of his arms reached out to steady you on either side of your shoulders. His fingers flexed lightly on your upper arms as he maintained a firm but gentle hold, “Hey I’ve got ya, let’s move over out of the walkway.” The voice sounded like how someone would coax an animal out of a hiding place. It generated a sense of security despite the confusion all around you. 

You leaned up to your full height, the hands on your arms providing support in the event you needed it. You fought past a wave of dizziness as your gaze followed his legs on their way to meet his eyes. He was tall, almost two heads taller than you. His face now turned away from yours as it scanned above the crowd for a destination. His hair was the same honey brown color as his eyes. The style boyish, straight and short; stopping above the ears before ending in an undercut. The bangs were untamed like he had run his hands through them one time too many.  

“Hmmmm, umm…there’s gotta be a seat somewhere..” he mumbled to himself aloud. You tried to focus on his words but felt your form stiffen as you were bumped by the throng brushing by you, intent on where they were heading. When he spoke his voice tickled the back of your brain, a sense of familiarity rolling over you. You couldn’t help but focus on the sensation of his hands on your shoulders. 

He visibly perked up as he seemed to have found what he was looking for before he glanced back over to you. He smiled brightly, making eye contact that made you feel a blush on your face in response. He released your arms briefly before a large warm hand reached out and clasped your smaller one before navigating you towards a less dense part of the horde. “So I don’t lose you.” he explained lightheartedly over his shoulder. His grip was soft despite the roughness of his own hands. You felt yourself rub against him reflexively tracing one of his calloused fingers with your own. 

Your own emotions and feelings in your present situation baffled you. You were not some maiden needing saving nor some naive girl who would tag up with a random man. You watched way too much true crime to ever take a strange man’s hand and follow them into a side street no matter how attractive they were. However, rather than your intuition screaming for you to pull your hand away and run, it remained quiet. You had never believed in aura, chakra, energy or whatever but it was like you could sense his and it gave you only positive vibes. 

Nothing made sense. A moment ago you were laying in bed on TikTok and now you were in the middle of a massive metropolitan area (you lived hours away from one) in the middle of a crowd with a guy you vaguely felt like you knew pulling you to God knows where?

Swallowing hard, you stumbled behind the larger male his broad back and strong shoulders taking up the majority of your view. You shadowed him closely so that you wouldn’t become separated. This was working fine until he abruptly stopped; someone cutting in front of you both with a bicycle. You tripped forward into his back, your fingers gripping tightly into his black crop top style jacket for support. A soft cry of surprise escaping your lips. He froze letting you regain your balance as you leaned against him fully. His back clearly muscled against your forearms and hands. “I’m sorry” you stammered out letting go once you reoriented yourself. The guy leading turned slightly towards you before readjusting your hand in his making sure not to let go. “N-no worries, one minute and we're there...” he announced in a soothing tone despite an outbreak of red flushing the top of his ears and the little bit of cheek you could see. 

True to his word less than a minute passed before there was a gap in the crowds and you both emerged into a smaller offshoot of the main walkway. You must be between stores where the garbage and back employee stairs were situated because the area was pretty empty opposed to the sidewalk not five feet away. The familiar individual in front of you released your hand and began digging in his jacket pockets now. Below the jacket was a simple white t-shirt followed by formal black pants. The t-shirt was snug not leaving much to the imagination as you felt yourself swallow hard. Part of his tongue popped out in the corner of his mouth as he kept searching for something. Your mind immediately goes, cute, at the small pink muscle wedged in the corner of his lips. “Miss, do you prefer sweet or salty food?” He formally inquired looking up with a smile. He managed to fish out some candies from his pockets alongside what looked like a few candy wrappers and some pocket lint. 

You blinked at the unappetizing handful  in his outstretched hand before studying his face again. It was driving you crazy how familiar he looked. Though another part of you couldn’t help but assert you wouldn’t forget a face this attractive and boyish.  A lazy smile graced his face as he looked you in the eyes holding forward his hand of proffered treasures. The way he expectantly looked at you reminded you instantly of a golden retriever. He was convinced that his outstretched handful would solve whatever issue made you double over in the street. “I bet it’s low blood sugar! My grandma has to deal with that so I got in the habit of carrying around a couple of candies in case she needs a little boost!” He gave a short laugh before reaching back to scratch his head with his free hand “but to be totally honest I usually end up eating it all and it’s really more of an excuse to keep candies on hand all the time…” he paused clearly still waiting for you to take one of the brightly wrapped sweets. His expression clearly reflecting that he could never imagine you not wanting one of the slightly melted goodies.

“Oh…okay, thank you?” Your response came out as more of a question then you intended as you glanced down and bridged your hand half way between you two before pausing. The wrappings were unfamiliar and you had no idea what exactly you were taking. A sarcastic voice in your head couldn’t help but quip, Good idea let's take candy from the stranger now that you’ve followed him into an alley.

He watched you, his smile never fading as you glanced up to make eye contact again a small furrow of confusion on your brow. He looked down at his own hand before exclaiming, “Oh! Right so this one is a little sour it’s got like a tangy…” the older teen continued to ramble on. His voice faded into the background as your brain went 100 miles per hour trying to catch up to everything happening. You definitely knew this guy. Was he a coworker's friend? That didn’t explain how the hell you ended up in a city. His candy spiel apparently ended as he looked up at you tilting his head to the side slightly. 

A light bulb suddenly went off in your head as you exclaimed out loudly pointing as if you had the answer to a game of Pictionary. “Yu! Haibara Yu!”