"The hell is this place?!" Satoru Gojo muttered, his voice a low rumble of confusion that was lost in the cacophony of a bustling street.
He stood in the middle of… somewhere unknown. One moment, he was facing the finality of death, a sensation he hadn't truly felt in a long, long time.
The next, he was here, very much alive and utterly bewildered.
He took a slow turn, his senses, sharpened by the Six Eyes, taking in the bewildering panorama around him.
And what he saw was, to put it mildly, unbelievable.
People with animal parts.
A man with the furry ears and tail of a cat haggled with a merchant, a woman with delicate, feathered wings folded behind her back strolled past, and a group of what looked like lizardmen were hauling heavy crates.
These weren't cosplayers; the seamless integration of their animalistic features with their human forms was far too real for that.
Behind him, the gentle splash of a water fountain provided a strange counterpoint to the sight of carriages being pulled by what could only be described as… well, he wasn't sure what to call them.
They were large, reptilian creatures, somewhere between a dinosaur and a lizard, their sturdy legs clip-clopping on the cobblestone streets.
He started walking, a phantom in his own reality, absorbing the scenery. The place was beautiful, he had to admit, with its charming architecture and vibrant street life.
But it was a beauty devoid of modernity, steeped in a medieval aesthetic that felt both alien and fascinating.
"Did I get isekai'd after dying?!" The thought struck him with the force of a physical blow, a concept he'd only heard about through his student, Yuji Itadori, and his endless chatter about manga and light novels. He looked down at himself.
He was still in his dark blue jujutsu high uniform, the familiar fabric a stark contrast to the linens and leathers worn by the locals.
His signature blindfold was gone, leaving his celestial blue eyes on full display. People sent strange glances his way, their expressions a mixture of curiosity and caution.
He was an anomaly, a splash of modern ink on an ancient parchment.
Gojo couldn't deny it; he was the strange one here. He stood out like a sore thumb. He found himself on a sidewalk as more of the lizard-pulled carriages trundled by.
The lack of anything modern, no cars, no electricity, no smartphones, was becoming increasingly apparent.
Suddenly, a child's cry pierced through the market's din. Gojo's head snapped towards the sound.
In the middle of the road, a small boy sat crying, his knee visibly scraped. A carriage, its reptilian steed moving at a steady, unstoppable pace, was bearing down on him.
Onlookers gasped, their faces etched with horror. It seemed this would be the child's last day. But before a single scream could fully form, something impossible happened.
One moment, the child was there, a hair's breadth from being trampled. The next… he wasn't.
The boy, who had squeezed his eyes shut in terror, felt no impact, no pain. He slowly opened them to find himself suspended in the air, held by the collar of his shirt like a stray kitten.
He looked up into the face of a man with hair as white as snow and eyes the color of the sky, looking down at him with an unnerving closeness.
"You hurt or something somewhere, boy?" Gojo asked, his voice casual as if he hadn't just defied the laws of physics. He gently poked the boy's forehead. "Hey, you listening or what?! You hurt or something?"
The child, still dangling, finally found his voice. "Yeah, I'm okay… thank you."
"Then it's okay," Gojo said, finally setting him down on the sidewalk. "I thought I'd have to find your mommy or daddy now. Or like, you lost your memory or something, then I'd have to take care of you. You gave me quite a scare, kid."
The boy, now safely on his feet, stared up at his savior, his initial fear giving way to confusion. "What are you even saying… are you a weirdo or something?!"
Gojo's playful demeanor dropped, replaced by mock outrage. "Ahhhh, what did you say?! I just saved you, and after saying thank you, now you're calling me a weirdo? That's like making a hole in the plate that feeds you."
The kid didn't stick around to listen to the rest of the lecture. With a final, confused, and slightly scared glance at the strange man's antics, he turned and ran off into the crowd.
Gojo shook his head, tapping his foot on the ground with a sigh. "Man, kids these days. Just want to argue with an adult." He cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted after the disappearing child, "Don't surprisingly end up on the road again, you ungrateful brat! There won't be another me to save you! Did you listen to me, you brat?!"
….
A few minutes later, Gojo found himself wandering through a bustling market, where another piece of his bizarre new reality clicked into place.
He could understand everyone perfectly, the words flowing into his mind as if they were his native Japanese.
But the writing… the writing was a completely different story. Signs hanging above stalls were adorned with elegant, flowing script that was utterly alien to him. It was a language he could hear but not read.
Not that he had much time to dwell on it, with the constant stares he was getting. People openly pointed, their whispers of "weirdo" reaching his ears.
Gojo almost laughed out loud when one person, a man with the distinct features of a mouse, called him strange. The irony was not lost on him.
It was clear, however, that the source of their fascination wasn't his face, but his clothes. His dark, high-collared jujutsu uniform stood out dramatically against the medieval-style tunics and leather jerkins of the locals.
He was a splash of dark, modern simplicity in a world of earthy tones and fantasy designs. He did nothing, yet he was the center of attention.
"No, it's a demi-human building, only for them," he overheard a human say to his companion as they were about to enter a pub.
"So they're called demi-humans," Gojo mused. He had a framework for this, a mental file cabinet of useless information courtesy of Yuji Itadori's passionate ramblings about anime and manga.
Yuji would have been ecstatic, probably cataloging every race he saw. Gojo, on the other hand, had always found the isekai genre tedious.
The clichés, the predictable power fantasies—it all irritated him to no end.
He'd sampled a few, just to pass the time, but never paid enough attention to remember the intricate details. Now, it seemed, he was living one.
"Hey, watch out… kid."
A blur of motion shot past him. A small girl, moving with impressive speed, weaved through the dense crowd and vanished.
Wow, she was fast, Gojo thought, easily tracking her location with his Six Eyes, but still impressed by her natural agility.
It was then that the most critical detail finally settled in his mind, something so fundamental he'd almost overlooked it in the initial shock.
There was no Cursed Energy here. None. Not in the humans, not in the demi-humans, not a single trace lingering in the air.
In his world, the absence of Cursed Energy was a monumental anomaly, a trait possessed by only one person he had ever known to have a Heavenly Restriction.
"Tch, bad memories," Gojo muttered, shaking the image of Toji Fushiguro from his thoughts as he continued his walk. He stopped at a stall piled high with vibrant red fruits that looked suspiciously like apples.
Seeing a potential customer, the burly shop owner stepped forward. "Not from around here, huh? Interested in buying this?"
"Nah, I'm not hungry," Gojo replied with a dismissive wave. "And yes, I'm not from around here… you can think of me as a foreigner. Can you tell me something?"
The man's friendly demeanor vanished. "No buying, no questions."
Gojo chuckled, a playful glint in his eyes. "If this is about buying, I can do that at a later time. Just answer me a few questions. It's not like you're busy."
The burly man stared at him, letting out a long, put-upon sigh. "What is it?"
"What is this place? And what is it called? Just that," Gojo asked, keeping it simple.
"So you came here not even knowing where you were getting into?" the man grumbled. "Well, to answer your question, this is the royal capital of the Kingdom of Lugnica."
"Anything else?" Gojo pressed. The name meant nothing to him, confirming he was truly in another world.
"Nothing else. You asked for one question, and I answered it. I'll tell you more when you buy something. I don't have time to chat with some broke-ass man," the vendor snapped.
"Man, you are some stingy vendor," Gojo shot back, already turning to leave. "If I had something to buy, I definitely wouldn't get it from you. You look like you took over this shop rather than someone who actually runs it." He walked away, not bothering to listen to the string of curses the man shouted after him.
An hour later, Gojo was still wandering the capital. His luck turned when a pair of thugs tried to rob him in a secluded alley.
It was a laughably easy encounter that left him with a small pouch of local currency and the thugs tied up for the city guard.
With his newfound wealth, he went back to a different stall and bought some of the red fruits, learning they were called "appas." The taste was crisp and sweet.
As evening began to cast long shadows over the city, his aimless wandering led him to the slums. The transition was jarring.
The vibrant colors and cheerful chatter of the main city gave way to muted greys, dilapidated buildings, and the quiet despair of the impoverished.
It was the same as his own world, he thought with a familiar cynicism. Social status, royalty, nobles, and a knightly class acting as the police force.
The stench of corruption would undoubtedly be the same here as it was in the jujutsu world.
He had already eaten a couple of the appas, but as he walked deeper into the slums, he came across a group of children huddled against a crumbling wall.
Their clothes were tattered, their bodies thin, and the hunger in their eyes was unmistakable. Without a second thought, he walked over and handed out the rest of his appas, one for each child.
So this world won't be so different after all, he mused.
Except for being medieval, and having magic.
He'd overheard conversations about "mana" and then how people could use it to perform magic. It was some kid parents who were telling their kid that.
It was this world's version of Cursed Energy, a different system entirely.
He ruffled the hair of one of the smaller children before continuing his journey into the slum's depths.
The conditions worsened with every step, the poverty more acute, the people's gazes more hollow. Just as he was about to turn down another alley, a frantic voice cut through the grim quiet.
"Help… help please… someone, anyone, please help… please… they're gonna die… please, anyone, help!" The plea was desperate and continuous.
It was a child's voice, laced with terror. Gojo didn't hesitate. He dashed towards the sound, his long legs covering the distance in moments.
He found her sprawled on the ground, having tripped over a loose stone. It was the same girl who had sped past him in the market.
Gojo knelt beside her. Her eyes were wide with tears, her face smudged with dirt. "What happened?" he asked, his voice calm and steady.
"Please!" she cried, grabbing onto his sleeve. "Please help my friends! They're in trouble! Someone is trying to kill them, please!"
Without another word, Gojo scooped her into his arms. She let out a small gasp of surprise as he lifted her effortlessly. "Where?" he asked.
"Huh?"
"Where are your friends who are in trouble?" Gojo repeated, already starting to run. "Tell me fast. You said someone was trying to kill them."
"There! In that direction!" she pointed with a trembling finger. Gojo glanced up, his Six Eyes pinpointing a commotion in a dilapidated building a short distance away. "There, in that inn!" she confirmed.
In the next instant, the world blurred around the girl. Gojo warped, reappearing with her directly in front of the rundown inn. He didn't bother with the handle. With a powerful kick, he burst the door off its hinges, making his entrance known to everyone inside. He stood silhouetted in the doorway, the small girl held securely in his arms.
"Help is here!" he announced, his voice echoing through the tense silence of the room.
….
A/N: A new fic… Gojo x Rezero. So, hello guys long time no see here. I just had this thought in my mind… and i just let it all out.
Of course my precious fics are still ongoing if you are wondering about that. I already wrote some chapters on my discord. So, I just decided to share it here. Hope you enjoy.