Navigating // s. gojo

Satoru: Formidable

✿ ✿ ✿

Gojo Satoru never saw himself sitting in the audience of a dance competition. He didn't want kids. Even so, none of the women he knew had an ounce of creative talent. There was never a real reason for him to be here.

But despite sitting in a sea of emotional parents, he didn't feel out of place. He was Gojo Satoru. There's nowhere he doesn't belong.

He sits in one of the middle rows with his 3 students: Itadori Yuji, Fushiguro Megumi, and Kugisaki Nobara. Itadori sits on his right, while a single mother sits to his left. The woman sobs into a tissue throughout her daughter's entire performance. Her incessant hiccuping and sniffling is quite annoying, but he manages to sit through it without giving her too many dirty looks beneath his blindfold. What's so tear-jerking about a toddler jumping around on stage to some cheesy piano tune for a minute and a half anyway?

When Lori Nurre's email asking him to watch over her daughter reached him, he was vexed, to say the least. And it wasn't just because Google Translate made the damn thing almost impossible to understand. Didn't Lori know he had enough on his plate?

He didn't respond at first, mostly because his time was consumed by his own endeavors. But honestly, he just didn't want to do it. He was already teaching students at Jujutsu Tech and taking on solo missions. To also carry the burden of babysitting some prissy little ballerina seemed absolutely absurd.

It was Lori's follow-up email that intrigued Gojo. She'd reached out a second time 3 days later, practically begging him to consider her request.

'...Calantha is extremely volatile. Her cursed technique is unlike anything I've ever seen. However, she only seems to utilize it when she's agitated, leaving pure destruction in her wake. I fear that she may unintentionally bring harm to herself or others if she continues down this path.

'My daughter is very intelligent. I am confident that she will seek guidance if she feels that her abilities are putting anyone at risk. I don't think I will be alive when that day comes, which is why I urge you to hear my plea.

'Even if I were here, I'm not sure that I could handle the intensity of her strength. But you can...'

Lori didn't need to elaborate any further on her daughter's cursed technique to pique Gojo's interest. He responded minutes later accepting her request.

So, here he sits, sharing a box of Pocky sticks with Itadori as a group of tween girls does their best interpretation of Swan Lake. If he didn't know any better, he'd have thought he was watching 7 soloists share the stage.

"Are they even doing the same dance?" He hears Itadori ask Kugisaki.

She punches him in the arm. "They're little girls, Yuji!"

"Ow! I was just asking, jeez!"

Their performance is followed by an actual solo entitled 'Formidable.' According to the program that Gojo had briefly skimmed over before folding it into a paper plane and throwing it at Fushiguro's head, this was his new student's routine.

Nurre Calantha (or Calantha Nurre, as they would call her in America) takes the stage wearing a powder blue leotard. It's cut high around her legs to elongate them. Her icy blonde hair is pulled back into a neat bun so that every feature on her face is visible.

The combination of the brutal stage lights and the color of her leotard was nothing short of a godsend to Gojo. He could see the contour of every muscle in her body. The way certain parts flexed and then relaxed, the soft curves of her breasts, the way her hip bones protruded ever so slightly, the grace and fluidity of her every movement...it did something to Gojo Satoru.

There was something more to how she made him feel. She wasn't just attractive like the hundreds of other women he'd checked out in his lifetime. She was fascinating. Like some sort of mythical creature he'd read about in storybooks as a child.

Still, he had to cross his legs and fold his hands in his lap...

The air shifted when Calantha took the stage. The light, joyful atmosphere that once hung amongst the audience is forcibly pushed out by her bold presence. One needn't be a sorcerer to sense this.

People sit on the edge of their seats as they watch her perform, their snacks and unfinished conversations with those around them now long forgotten. Even the crying woman next to Gojo had abandoned her tissue on the floor, letting her snot and tears run freely as her eyes glue themselves to the stage.

Maybe he should have put more effort into his homework. The 7 minutes he spent researching his newest student taught him that she was a competitive ballet dancer who travelled often. So, he made a mental note to keep tabs on her whereabouts and never looked into it again. But there must be more to her, given that this room of 250+ people is completely immersed in her performance.

Gojo clapped the loudest out of anyone in that theater, even throwing in a few whistles that could wake the dead. His 3 students look over at him, startled but not surprised by his behavior.

Every dance after hers felt to be 30 minutes long each.

"Your technique and performance quality is notoriously exceptional. However, your physique is a limiting factor. I am sure you are aware of this, yes?" Some batty old Russian woman asks Calantha during the award ceremony.

She nods, her nostrils slightly flared. Her calm but prideful demeanor starts dwindling.

And then she won second place solely because her performance was perfect but her body was not. Not to them, at least. The first place winner performed one of the most boring routines here today, but maybe Gojo was biased. She was much taller than Calantha, though much of her height seemed to come from her disturbingly long neck. He was pretty sure he'd be able to draw a straight line from her shoulder to her foot. She had no curves whatsoever.

The winner stands next to Calantha with a bright, beaming smile on her face, like she'd just won eternal wealth and not a mostly plastic gold trophy. Calantha tries to force a smile, which ends up looking like more of an attempt to not throw up all over the stage. And seconds later, the tears are falling.

A lot of tears.

And judging by her darkened eyes and flared nostrils, these aren't a product of sadness or disappointment. She's pissed.

It irritates Gojo to see this. He tells himself that it's his new role as her guardian angel, so to speak, that's making him feel this way. But even a man as arrogant as him knows when he's lying to himself.

He's the first one to stand up when the award ceremony ends, looking down at his 3 pupils. "Alright! Let's go meet our new friend!"

He intentionally bumps the judges' table with his foot as they walk past it and their drinks spill right into their laps. "Oops! Clumsy me!"