Chapter Text
A binding vow is a core tenet of Jujutsu sorcery. Typically, it's made with oneself; it can range from something as severe as Todo's vibraslap, to something as simple as showing one's hand.
After fighting Mahito, Nobara's suspicions were confirmed: her technique was tied not only to the body, but to the soul. She wasn't like Yuji or Gojo or Maki; she coudln't actually percieve souls. What she could do is run resonance through doubles, or hair, and she'd bet it could work through a shikigami. She'd hoped to get to see for herself someday, but it wasn't looking very likely.
Only thirty minutes had passed since she'd woken up. Shoko had warned her that they weren't sure her condition would remain stable, and that it was risky for her to even be walking— but this was the battle against Sukuna. If there was any time to gamble, wasn't it now?
She didn't doubt that Yuji could defeat Sukuna, especially with everyone's help. Hell, she knew what part she was supposed to play: attack him from afar, but stay away from the battle while she's weak. What gave her pause wasn't the chance of losing the battle, but what else they could lose along the way.
Yuji would never forgive himself if Megumi died. Even if Sukuna was gone, he would blame himself for not being strong enough. Nobara understood: if she let Yuji lose Megumi— let herself lose Megumi— she would never be able to forgive herself. Not if there was anything more that she could've done.
The first resonance should have bought Yuji some time. She flexed her arms, her cursed energy reserves going strong. It felt good to help, to fight again. At least this time, it had to help turn the tide. She wouldn't be just a casualty. Not again.
"Separate Megumi and Sukuna." Her voice was raspy. Her vocal cords weren't used to being used, not yet. "Whatever happens to my soul, I don't care, just— just give Megumi and Yuji a chance to win, and to live on after this." She could feel her cursed energy humming under her skin as it shifted and spiked. The vow was spoken; the choice was made.
The hammer was an extension of Nobara's body. It fit perfectly into the grooves of her hand, and normally seemed weightless. Now, her muscles weren't what they were, and she could feel a certain weight to the tool. Maybe it was from her coma. Maybe it was just from the finality of this all.
Her thoughts flicked back to the last time she'd died. Deep breath in. She didn't particularly want to die again, not when she'd just gotten her life back. Still, Nobara was on borrowed time. Yuji was in the field, probably barely scraping by, and Megumi was trapped in there, she couldn't—
She couldn't risk that loss.
Life had been good. Nobara didn't have many regrets. She wished she'd found Saori, wished she could've said goodbye to Mai, wished she knew if Fumi ever made it out of their town. Nobody can die without wishing for a little more time, but ever since Shibuya, Nobara had just been on borrowed time. If that extension was cut short, she could make peace with it.
If only Megumi and Yuji wouldn't have to mourn her twice.
"Resonance!"
The nail hit the finger head-on. She felt her own cursed energy pouring in, like a floodgate had opened— but what she didn't expect, what she didn't even know ws possible, was the way energy flew from the nail through the hammer into Nobara's veins. This had never happened before. Resonance didn't connect her to the bodies, just them to each other—
The energy lit her on fire, she nearly choked, her muscles twitched in spasms—
"Kugisaki, what—" she could hear Utahime yelling, and then the thud of footsteps, before her voice just vanished. It was lost in the rush of energy and the fire consuming her. Her good eye couldn't see anything, and all she was aware of was herself, the hammer, and the nail.
Was this death?
Last time, it had been slow, and then a burst, and then months of blankness. It felt like being underwater, only occasional sounds reaching her. She'd dreamed of her life, reliving scenes over and over. Nobara hadn't quite been able to think; she'd been too tired.
Last time had been a simmer, and this was a rush. But last time didn't stick, and Nobara knew, deep down, that this one would. The corner of her mouth turned up in a smile. At least this wasn't too painful. She closed her eye and let herself fall.
She kept falling.
She should've hit the floor by now.
She was still falling.
And falling.
And—
There was no thud of Nobara hitting the ground. She couldn't be a cursed spirit, but she was pretty sure the afterlife wasn't… this. She was in a body, she could see and feel everything, but she couldn't move. She didn't recognize the room she was in, or the hands that holding a cigarette to her lips.
This wasn't in a coma. That much was obvious: she'd always been in her own body in her dreams, and she could only see out of one eye in them. Mahito made sure that her soul knew what it was allowed to look like. Depth perception was nice, especially with a ranged technique. Or at least, it could've been, if she wasn't just a passenger.
This entire situation was fucking insane. She hated this.
"Hey!" she yelled, loud as she could. She didn't feel vocal cords vibrating in her neck, nor could she actually hear what she was saying. The closest she could get to describing it would be to call it a loud thought, whatever that meant. "What the fuck did you do? Where am I?"
The body turned its head around sharply, its eyes moving in all directions. That really didn't help Nobara feel any more oriented. "Ugh," a feminine voice commented. She could sense a thought flicker through the brain: "Am I hearing things?"
So, the body's 'true' soul could hear Nobara, and she could hear this person's thoughts. Great. At least she had someone to talk to, while she's stuck.
This body's voice wasn't Nobara. It smelled of cigarettes, faint and ever-present. There were freckles where she knew she shouldn't have them; her nose was the different shape in the corners of her eyes. This wasn't Nobara's body. Resonance should have linked her to herself, but it clearly didn't, because she was extremely aware of a wrongness about it.
She wasn't in her old body, nor was someone else in hers. She'd possessed someone else.
Shit.
"What year is it?" she 'yelled.' "Who are you? Why am I stuck?"
"Ow, oh my god," the body whispered. Its hands reached up to rub its temples. "Don't do… that. I— it's 2006, I'm Shoko Ieiri, why are you in my head."
For some reason, Nobara had assumed she would've gone to the future, or at least stayed in the present. She didn't know Resonance could do that. She didn't know it could do any of this, not even after a binding vow, not even with that surge of energy. It didn't make sense, this shouldn't be possible.
"You're from the future?" Shoko whispered. Because, oh right, she was in the past, in—
In Shoko's body. Shoko, who'd been pouring reverse cursed energy into Nobara not even an hour before. Shoko, who probably left some residual energy in Nobara, to keep her from falling back into that coma. Shoko, who would've been around Nobara's age in 2006.
Fuck. If she had a stomach right now, she'd feel sick to it.
"Wait, what do you mean I—"
"Don't read my thoughts!" Nobara hissed.
"You're broadcasting them, I'm not doing it on purpose!" Shoko took a drag of the cigarette. The smoke in the body's lungs was a new sensation to Nobara, and not one that she was sure she liked. "Why does your mental image of me look like shit? Are we stuck together?"
"That's your question?"
"In your mind, I haven't slept in years," Shoko huffed. "It's a valid question."
"I— I don't know! You just look like that!"
"Not right now I don't! What the hell happens?"
Suddenly, Nobara really, really wished she'd paid more attention the the personal lives of her teachers. "I have no idea."
"What year are you even from?"
"2018."
"I'm— I look like that at twenty-eight?"
"Maybe?" Nobara guessed. "I don't know, okay? I don't know how to separate us, either, or if I can go back— I mean, I made a binding vow, so going back might kill Yuji and Megumi, so even if I could, I don't know—"
"Okay, okay, I get it," Shoko sighed. "Whatever. At least you don't seem evil or anything, and I'm pretty sure you're not a curse. We'll figure this out." She frowned. "Can you try to make a domain, or something, though? I don't want you seeing everything, and I really don't need to see your mental image of me again—"
"I'll try," Nobara muttered. Her panic was subsiding, leaving just the dim realization that she was trapped and alone.
Maybe it would've been better if she'd just gotten to die. Nobara was ready to move onto her next life, and here she was, stuck in someone else's past.