A few days after Hidden Inventory's record-shattering theatrical run, Celestial Peak Entertainment formally submitted the film to the Academy of Motion Picture Excellence for consideration.
When the official nomination list for the 94th Meridian Awards was released, Leo's first move was to open the "Sorcerer Universe" group chat.
[Leo Vance: Good news, everyone. Hidden Inventory has been nominated for Best Picture.]
The replies came in within seconds.
[Andrew Stone: Director Leo is the GOAT!]
[Robert Sterling: Absolutely well-deserved. Let's go.]
[Ava: Director Leo is a legend!]
[Natalie G.: See you all on the red carpet!]
[Della Rose: Already picking out my dress. I've narrowed it down to four options.]
The chat became a rolling wave of "Director Leo is the GOAT" for the next several minutes. Leo read through them and, for a moment, a rare, brief moment, felt something close to embarrassed.
He wasn't anxious about the outcome. A man with the System didn't sweat nominations. This was simply the next milestone on a path he had already mapped.
Meridian Awards Night. 7:00 PM. The Meridian Theatre, Hollywood.
The surrounding blocks had been closed to traffic since noon. The crowd behind the barriers stretched for half a mile in each direction, fans with handmade signs, photographers with long lenses, and the specific kind of organized chaos that only descends on Hollywood a few times a year.
The Global Stream simulcast was breaking viewership records for a live awards broadcast. The trending lists on X and TikTok had been fully colonized by JJK-related hashtags since the nominations dropped.
[Where is Leo? Why is the pre-show still going? My heart is about to give out.]
[Their server is going to collapse. I watched it happen in real time during Hidden Inventory night.]
[Aside from JJK, Stars in the Abyss also had a strong year. Zane's performance was genuinely top-tier, he has to be in the Best Actor conversation.]
[Did anyone catch Node 0 Frontier? Justin Lawler was... fine. Jamie Lawson's performance in YOLO was in a different league entirely. I cried for three hours.]
[I'm only here for the Honored One. Everyone else is background.]
7:30 PM. Red carpet.
The host, Penelope Rose, crimson gown, the practiced ease of someone who has done this before but hasn't lost the genuine pleasure of it, guided the evening's early arrivals through their paces. Legacy crews, veteran nominees, ensemble casts from the year's other major contenders.
Then she straightened slightly as the next group approached.
"Please welcome - the Jujutsu Kaisen crew. This year's undisputed global phenomenon."
Leo came through the entrance first.
White silk suit, custom-tailored. Dark hair styled back. Designer sunglasses that he absolutely did not need indoors. He looked like a more grounded, less blindfolded version of the character he'd spent the better part of a year embodying - a "Black-Haired Gojo" was the phrase that appeared in approximately fourteen thousand live-chat comments in the first thirty seconds.
Penelope felt the shift in the crowd's energy the moment he stepped into frame. Leo had a specific quality that cameras loved and that audiences responded to at a frequency that bypassed critical thinking entirely, a looseness, an ease, as if he was slightly amused by everything being made into a big deal around him.
Leo glanced at her as he approached the signature board. Her face was familiar in the way that faces are when you've catalogued the industry's talent roster down to the third tier. Dramatic range, underutilized. Good instincts. Hasn't found the right vehicle yet.
He filed it away.
Behind him, Andrew Stone, Robert Sterling, Jade Lane, and Ava walked the carpet in coordinated formal wear that subtly echoed their characters' visual palettes. When Sterling and Leo stood side by side at the board, the weight of the Binary Stars chemistry, even in suits, even off-screen, was visible enough that the photographers crowded forward.
[The JJK crew is the most aesthetically cohesive carpet appearance in Meridian history. I said what I said.]
[Is this Gojo Satoru walking out of the screen? That STRIDE.]
[Robert and Leo standing next to each other and smiling like friends. I am not emotionally stable enough for this.]
[Andrew Stone being present at a formal event still gives me mild anxiety. I keep expecting him to reach for something.]
VIP lounge. 8:00 PM.
With the ceremony thirty minutes out, the lounge was running at full networking capacity. First-timers stayed close to people they knew. Veterans worked the room with the efficiency of people who understood that the real industry business happened in rooms like this one, not on the stage.
"Let's welcome the Vanguard 5 - performing tonight's opening number!"
A procession of performers filed past, polished, striking, clearly in good hands stylistically. No nominated works, no carpet stop, straight into the theater. The crowd noise followed them in through the doors.
Leo was mid-conversation when he caught a familiar face across the room.
"Zane."
Zane turned and nearly defaulted to a bow before catching himself. "Hello, Boss, I mean. Director Leo."
He was standing with two women Leo didn't immediately place. Zane made the introductions.
Nora Knight had short, chic hair and the composed authority of someone who has been in enough rooms like this to stop being impressed by them. She acknowledged Leo with a nod that was respectful without being deferential.
Janice Weston was in a purple strapless gown, her eyes quick and curious - the look of someone actively taking inventory of a situation. She had clearly been working up to saying something, and Nora's light nudge from the side settled it.
"Hello, Director Vance." She extended her hand. "Janice Weston. I'm a big fan - of everything, but especially Your Lie in April. I cried so much during the screening that my director had to reschedule my close-ups the next morning."
Leo shook her hand, smiling. "Glad you liked it."
"Absolutely not," Janice said. "It destroyed me completely and I've been recommending it to people I want to see suffer."
Leo laughed, a real one, not the polite industry version. He made a brief mental note.
They talked for a few minutes before Leo's attention shifted again. Across the lounge, he spotted Asher Reed.
Asher was there representing The Final Fight, a separate project from his Celestial Peak work, a straight dramatic feature he'd shot during the gap between Outcast seasons. He looked comfortable, which was a significant change from the quietly terrified actor Leo had first met. Success had settled into him well.
Standing beside Asher were two young actresses - early twenties at most, first or second Meridian appearance, the particular combination of excitement and careful composure that came with knowing you were being watched by the entire industry for the first time.
Zoey F. and Maisie Z. Leo took them in with the specific, evaluative attention he brought to every room.
Post-2000s. Natural screen presence. Both of them. The kind of quality that either got developed into something extraordinary or quietly went to waste in the wrong projects.
He kept the thought to himself. But he kept it.
The Celestial Universe had a long future ahead of it. And futures needed people.
Plz Drop Some Power Stones.
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