this chapter contains a spoiler for ch 134 of the manga after the last page break, beginning with the lines "You weren't supposed to..." this is a spoiler for the name of a major villain in jujutsu kaisen, however no other context is given/the plot diverges from canon past there. if u would like to surprise urself, i recommend taking a break to binge up to ch 134 before reading this part (or skipping the last page break—you'll pick up the rest of the plot in the upcoming chapters). up 2 u :)
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Someone's screaming, you think, before you can realize that you're awake and no longer dreaming. You clench your fingers around your bedspread, sitting up to tuck your knees against your chest. You're awake, and now well aware that the screaming was not some nightmare. Someone is shrieking.
(You fist the bedspread harder.)
Maybe you're hallucinating. You're taking the break up hard. (Is it a breakup? Could you call it that? Wasn't it really an exorcism?) You haven't been eating right, or drinking, or sleeping, or anything. You either do too much or too little; the only good to come out of this was your sudden obsession with the farmer's market, which Kichou beyond appreciated.
Maybe you needed an exorcism.
It's quiet, other than the pained wailing. That's what's confusing you. Kichou, who's a decently heavy sleeper, and Grandma, who isn't, are both fast asleep. You can't imagine how. The goosebumps tickling your bare arms keep you wide awake, as if the screaming wasn't enough to jolt you out of any possible sleep. You couldn't be imagining this.
And, of course, your mind wanders to the worst-case scenarios.
People like you couldn't see curses, or touch or hear them. If this was a curse, which it wasn't, you'd still be sound asleep. (That's almost creepier.) (Kind of like how a curse had puppeted your ex, using you as the unknowing bait to keep him in its grasp. But you digress.) (If anything, the circular train of thought is distracting you.) But...
...but you had wondered, in the dull moments between wallowing in your misery, what the consequences were for breaking Gojo's curse. It's silly, because that's not how curses work. It's like worrying about if the E. coli that gave you food poisoning would take its revenge if you went on antibiotics. (Right?)
But that didn't stop you from worrying that maybe, just maybe the curse would rebound and haunt you. And, not that you'd know what to look for, it seems like those fears have manifested. In your home. As curses haunting you.
The flash from your phone stings when you pick it up. The same wall of notifications floods your lock screen. It's all missed calls and texts from Utahime, who you haven't spoken to since you'd picked up her cake. You're furious with her, second only to Gojo. You'd thought she was your friend; now looking back, knowing Gojo had been acting weird because he'd stopped loving you and she'd lied again to help hide that...how couldn't you be hurt?
(It's irrational. You were a friend of a friend, who had latched onto a friendly face that had popped into your otherwise empty life. She doesn't owe you loyalty.) (But you'd hoped she would. And hoping hurts worse than anything else.)
