Chapter Text
He knows he's in a losing position when the curse's hand touches his back and it lets out its cruel giggle. Kento is exhausted, his body shaking with the effort of fighting through pain of cursed flames and the curse seems as strong as before. Hell, maybe even stronger - he’s not sure he can trust his own opinion after this day and the crazy powers he saw.
“Nanami…” Sounds out a familiar voice but so trembling, so broken that Nanami almost doesn’t recognize him. He knows he can’t win like this, his vision blurry as he seems to see long-dead Haibara before him, an offer in his friendly smile, and the shame of this realisation blocks him from turning around.
Kento really doesn’t want to go - but he knows it’s hopeless.
You can’t be the one to curse him.
And there is only one way to let go of his regrets.
Nanami Kento always faces the ugly and the cruel and ends things on his own terms - so this time, it can’t be any different.
And so he turns to Itadori and smiles, You got this from here on his lips but…
His student’s face is so torn, just like all those years ago when it was Kento looking at the sadly smiling, sacrificial Haibara, just like all the other sorcerer's faces as they watched their friends die such horrible deaths, just like Getou when he looked at Haibara’s body…
Kento’s limbs move on their own as he takes a swing and feels the horror of having your being touched by something alien, something that doesn't belong and…
He doesn't want to go. He doesn't want Itadori to see him go like that.
“Domain Expansion.”
For the first time in forever, he dares to be selfish.
And for one, horrible moment, nothing happens. The stillness of the air, the mocking aura of curse behind him and the horrified stare of his young student make the air heavy, make his attempt feel like a disappointing humiliation. It has happened before, after all - him knowing that only domain will let him save Haibara and non-sorcerers and his focus so desperately latching onto this one technique, this pinnacle of Jujutsu he tried so hard to summon all those years…
But in the end Nanami Kento is not great - he is just ordinary .
Haibara’s ghost smiles at him sadly and nods in acceptance and he can almost hear “Nanami, let’s go for ramen together!”
And suddenly his heart sets ablaze in anger unlike any other.
He has diligently worked on his technique and flow of cursed energy ever since he learned he possessed such a thing. He’s been called hard worker and grade-1 material - but not once has anyone stuttered around the word great one . Even when he and Haibara started getting sent for more and more dangerous missions, even when he did reach the title of grade 1 sorcerer - even when he broke the record of Black Flash hits.
His life achievements always paled in comparison to small miracles Gojo Satorou could make on a daily basis.
He never stood a chance to feel selfishly self-important, not when that was one of his upperclassmen, not when he grew faster and stronger than Kento could ever, a pointless game of trying to catch up to him that he could never win. How could one ever dare to assume that he was good enough while someone like that lived?
He has accepted his place and focused on what he could do - diligent training, proven effective tactics and concentration so absolute that he could achieve Black Flashes.
He never dared to think of himself as anything but ordinary - that’s what got you killed.
But he is sick of losing.
Shibuya has been hell on earth, with all the meaningless death it brought upon helpless civilians and achieved sorcerers both. No one was truly safe, not until they were far away and even then, not if Gojo Satorou remained sealed. But progress to getting to him has cost so many lives - and even now, they weren't that much closer. Their blind belief that Gojo would fix everything, that he would be like a god that could make everything right - it feels more and more like a fragile fairytale that they weren’t ready to abandon just yet.
And Nanami Kento is sick of gods.
“Domain Expansion.” The words are rough on his parched throat but he doesn't care. For once he spares no thoughts to anyone that might need help around him, his eyes only on the curse before him, its smile and the desire to crush it.
And he feels it then - the beginnings of something intangible, blind conviction filling his chest with calm understanding of his own power. He has achieved that before a few times but never enough to succeed - but this time it will be different. Nanami Kento doesn't accept failure as an option because he is a hard worker and he is a grade-1 - and he is done with not being enough.
“Absolute Calculation.”
And then it explodes.
Curse’s smile wavers as it senses the sudden danger but it is too late. Even as it hurries and reaches for its own domain, he never relents. It is the first time he has ever felt that deep sense of conviction and calm of self-righteousness because he is done giving up and leaving something up to chance.
Nanami Kento can’t die. He refuses to.
The hum of waves is loud, almost overwhelming after the tense silence of the underground, but Kento feels how his muscles relax. Sand beneath his shoes is loose and improper for a fight - but it also brings back memories of his fleeting holiday days. Back when he abandoned his worry and training for a moment and just let himself waddle into the ocean, cooling off and forgetting about the cruelty of jujutsu sorcerer’s life.
He felt free and careless then - and now he also feels powerful.
Malaysia is his private memory, the treasured imagination of how his retirement would one day look - of where he could rest after his work-filled life. It is a fantasy, of course, because you didn't just quit being a sorcerer to rest. But he still dreamt, sometimes, of having a restful night and calming days.
It was his fantasy - and now it is his domain.
He sees the way the curse starts to prepare its own counterattack, how it charges up its answer to Kento’s absolution - but he doesn't plan to let it finish.
It feels so natural to move as he jumps forward and hits. He hardly has to focus on the technique as the curse stumbles back, bleeding from the sudden cut on its wrist. Kento knows, of course, that he will recover - so he uses his new lightness to swing again and again, the low effort of his attack always connecting almost making it too easy as the curse falls to its knees, one leg gone, one arm butchered, no time to regenerate…
But then Mahito opens his mouth and Kento knows this move, knows it from when he was the one in someone else’s absolute fantasy, the helplessness that came from being on one’s mercy and knowing it will not come. I’m grateful to you and the bitter resignation but this time…
“I don't need your thanks.” He mutters under his breath but his lips stretch into a smile because he can feel it and he doesn't need any proud King of Curses or Itadori’s self-sacrificial tendencies to know.
He is the God of his Domain.
His blade hits the curse's neck and its head falls on the sand but he knows it's not done yet. No, true God wouldn't even need a weapon - the world is his weapon. It’s with this realisation that he reaches out and feels the connection, a wonderful surge of control and power.
Droplets of sea water fall onto the curse's legs and the effect is instantaneous as it finds the weakness and severs tissue from tissue. Coarse sand starts cutting meticulously every bit of the rest of its body, blood pooling all around it but it doesn't stop. The head of the curse lets out a gasp but Kento has a different plan for this part - it’s the pressure of the wind, pushing down on it, ground and the air severing little bits of ear and nose and the top of his head, going lower and lower and…
Kento doesn't know how to kill a soul, not really. But if he makes certain to destroy every bit of its mortal, fragile body, if he cuts through every bit of the protective energy around it, if there is nothing the soul can try to regenerate - then wouldn't that be equal to winning?
Maybe he imagines the fear that enters cursed eyes as it realises it can't keep up- but he relishes it all the same as his arm moves, and his blade slices along the world.
Curse screeches at last but its domain never completes, never pushes back against Kento’s rule - and then he is all alone.
He feels this deep need to lie down and get one of his abandoned books, finally finish the chapter he’s been putting off for months now. The air is so pleasantly warm, the sea water on his skin so refreshing and he just can't help but stretch lazily, so incredibly free.
But there is something pulling at his heart, some reminder that he wasn't really done, that there is something he’s forgetting - somewhere away from this relaxation. Anxiety prickles in the back of his brain and he opens his eyes - and he remembers.
His instinct is to rush out but he stops himself, his body slowly feeling more and more sore, as it should be, outside of his powerful fantasy. Nonetheless, he takes in the view silently, breathes deeply in the humid air and makes a promise.
I will come back here.
Nanami Kento refuses to give this up.
Once he comes back to reality, to hard concrete on his feet and smell of blood in the air, it is on his own rules. Even if his body stumbles over the injuries, even as he feels the return of the paralysing burn on his left side, his cursed energy all but spent, his eyes tracing worried Itadori rushing to his side…
Even if he lives in Gojo Satoru's world, even if not many will acknowledge his domain, even if it didn't fix this crippled, stumbling body of his - Nanami Kento achieved this. Nanami Kento finally managed to reach the heights of jujutsu’s art.
And he isn't satisfied with just this. Domain can always be perfected - strength always multiplied, speed increased - and he doesn't want to give up on it just yet.
“Nanamin!” Itadori sounds on the verge of tears and oh, his uniform is so torn, even if his body seems whole and those are ill omens and he shakes so much. “Gods, Nanami, don't die! Please, not… not you, I…”
He lays his hand on Itadori's trembling arm and squeezes, trying to reassure him that he still has some strength left even when his knees tremble.
“I will be just fine.” He can't get rid of a smile, childish excitement brewing in his chest at the new possibility, at the newly opened world. At the reaches he might still surpass, at people he might still support in their own journey. “I am great.”
And Itadori’s worry doesn't subside as he grabs his arm and looks in horror at his wounds - but Kento feels faint and he understands he can't fight his exhaustion anymore.
“I will collapse any second now.” He states calmly, his voice steady and face unmoving from his quiet joy. Itadori panics even more, his eyes widening, but Kento only lies his hand in the boy's hair, trying to reassure him and words fall from his lips on his own: “Whatever happened - you got this from here.”
Nanami Kento won't end just yet.
And then he loses consciousness.