Chapter Text
The sun was shining brightly, warm spring air sweeping cherry petals along the school’s courtyard. Blood no longer stained the stone, though Suguru was convinced he could still see it in the little cracks of the pavement.
But the courtyard had been washed, swept, cleaned over and over until the only trace left of the boy that died in it was the shadowy specter curling around Suguru’s shoulders.
Almost ten years after Satoru had died, he was more of a legend than a tragedy. A ghost story passed from generation to generation. When they were kids, most of their world knew Satoru as a boy who had died. Now, suddenly, most of the world knew him simply as something that had always been dead.
Fingers pointed at them as they walked through the courtyard, hushed whispers and curious eyes grating on their nerves. Look over there: Japan’s strongest sorcerer and the curse that made him so.
Satoru clicked his teeth together in a mind-numbing rhythm, and Suguru wanted nothing more than to run away again.
It was spring, and a new generation of sorcerers was about to start their march into the maws of death. Suguru could only hope that the two of them had cleared that road enough for the recruits to fully blossom before they wilted.
Seeing Nanako and Mimiko clad in the black uniform of the school filled Suguru with emotions he wasn’t even sure he had the right to feel. Equal parts dread and pride and the strange sort of heartbreak that came from remembering the time when their hands were so small they would disappear when holding on to his.
The sorcery uniform was pitch black; proper attire for a funeral. Shoko had told him fewer kids have been dying since he and Satoru started tirelessly razing the country, but the world still didn’t feel safe enough to let the girls into it.
“You worry too much, we’ll be fine,” Mimiko had said as they sat on the school's steps, Suguru in the middle, flanked by both of them, Satoru spilling down his back.
“Yeah! I don’t know if you noticed, but we kind of know our way around by now. Those curses won’t know what hit them!” Nanako bumped against his shoulder, flexing her muscles in a show.
Suguru knew, he knew well. They had grown up in the heart of the school with Yaga as their father, with Panda as their brother. By now they probably knew as much about the jujutsu world as any of the clan kids. Complete opposite to himself. He had entered the school knowing nothing save for the fact that his nightmares weren’t something he could wake up from.
Even so, knowledge alone wouldn’t save them. Satoru was the proof of that. The six eyes and limitless bearer that was prepped for his role as the strongest since he was old enough to retain information. And yet, here he was, chin on top of Suguru’s head, bleeding black all over.
In the world of curses and sorcerers, nobody was ever truly safe. All he and Satoru could do was try even harder to eliminate every threat that could devour a life too young.
“Just promise me you’ll be careful. If something seems above your level, don’t be heroes. You have my number. Use it,” he said, ruffling their hair, which only earned him a slap from Nanako.
“I just got it right, don’t ruin it! You really, really need to chill, it’ll be fine. We aren’t stupid you know!”
“We know a lot about curses, we won’t be fooled,” Mimiko confirmed, leaning against his shoulder as she stared out into the courtyard. “Besides, we won’t be alone.”
“Yeah! Haibara said there will be two more joining us, though one of them seems to be on a delay…I heard the other one is a boy, I wonder will he be cute~”
Now that gave Suguru a whole different set of problems to worry about. Briefly, he considered if Yaga was equipped to handle cute boy talks, but the twins’ only other advisors would be Satoru and him, and at this point they couldn’t offer any sort of realistic advice.
Satoru tensed up above him.
It was a split second shift in posture that had him sharp and angular against Suguru’s spine. The blood pulled back from Suguru’s jacket, condensing back into Satoru’s form, dark and stormy. Suguru could feel the sharpness of his teeth in his own gums.
Zenin Maki just entered the courtyard, at her side a boy with eyes Suguru still saw in his nightmares.
They had been vaguely aware of Zenin Megumi’s existence. The same way anyone was aware of big news circulating through the three main clans. The news of the Zenin clan's new heir made waves through the community about a year after Satoru died and took his revenge beyond the grave.
The boy’s existence wasn't new information, but it was one thing hearing about Toji’s child existing, another entirely to see that child in front of them.
Those dark eyes locked on to them immediately and Suguru had to wonder; was Megumi aware of who had killed his father? Of who his father had killed? The boy looked tired, worn, but his eyes still shone with the same unrelenting edge Toji bore while he was alive. Suguru wondered if the Zenin family had produced another feral dog.
Satoru rattled like chains of the dead over his head, a slow moving hiss, more an emotion than a creature. Suguru was looking at Megumi, through his own eyes and through all of the six spotlights Satoru had turned onto the boy. He knew that from that moment on, they would always feel restless, hypervigilant in the school. Forever aware of the boy that bore their murderer's blood.
Suguru felt like a rattlesnake, his body slick and strong and fast. His teeth pricked at his lips, sharp and full of venom. In his mind, he could perfectly imagine launching at the boy and tearing his head off with his teeth.
Or wouldn’t that be Satoru?
He sunk his teeth into his lip, let the blood flow, and reminded himself he was a human being, not vengeance in flesh.
By the time he had himself fully centered, everyone was staring at him. Mimiko and Nanako had clutched onto one hand each, like Suguru had actually moved to attack the boy. One of Maki’s hands was grasping firmly on Megumi’s shoulder, the other resting on her weapon. Satoru was panting wetly above him. There was no change in Megumi’s expression.
“I think you should go.” Maki’s voice cut through the air.
“Yes,” Suguru said, eyes on Megumi, feeling hungry and horrible, “I think we should.”
“The boy isn’t our enemy.”
“I hate him, Suguru.”
“You don’t hate him; you hate his father. You’ve barely even met the kid.”
“I hate him!”
Suguru sighed, massaging the headache that was blossoming in his forehead. The lights were off, so the only thing shining in their bedroom were the stars on Satoru’s body. He was draped over Suguru, clutching onto his pajamas like letting go would mean losing him forever.
“He won’t hurt you,” Suguru soothed, running his hand through Satoru’s starlight hair, “and he won’t hurt me either. He’s just a kid, a student, no different than Maki. And we decided we didn’t hate Maki, right?”
Satoru pouted at him, before burying his face against his chest. “I guess.”
“Promise me you won’t bite him next time we see him.”
“Not even a little bit?”
“Not even a little bit.”
Satoru groaned loudly, overdramatically writhing on Suguru’s chest. Suguru let him get it out of his system for a few minutes, before cupping his cheeks and bringing those bright blue eyes back to him.
“We’re not a monster, Satoru.”
“We’re not a human, Suguru.”
“Listen to me. I understand, I get it. I wanted to…I wanted to hurt him too, you know?”
“I know.”
“We’re not like that, we won’t be like that. We can control ourselves. He’s just a Zenin kid, nothing that special about him.”
“Their blood smells the same. I want to, Suguru, I want to—”
“But you’re not going to. We’re not going to do anything. He’s none of our concern. We can just let him be. They are not the same person. He owes us no debt.”
Satoru let out a shrill, whining sound, twisting around until his head was tucked under Suguru’s chin, still shuddering with hunger. Suguru could do little else but hold him, whispering nonsense in his ear. Satoru was bleeding more than usual; their bed was soaked in inky darkness.
“I’m sorry,” he finally let out, choked and small.
“It’s okay.”
“I don’t want to want it but I do.”
“I know, I know. That’s okay. As long as we don’t do anything, it’s okay.”
“I made you want it.”
“I hated Toji too. Those feelings are my own, you didn’t put them in my head,” Suguru hushed, spinning a lock of Satoru’s hair around his finger. “All you do is make them feel more…”
Suguru trailed off, Satoru helpfully snapping his teeth in his ear.
“Yes, exactly that. But it’s alright. The boy is of no importance to us. We can just let him be.”
“If he hurts you, I’ll kill him.”
“He won’t, I’ll be fine.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
He pulled Satoru tighter to his chest, rolling them both over to their side. Satoru was chilled today, causing goosebumps to rise on Suguru’s skin. Still he held him tight, still he ran his fingers down his back, over every protruding bit of his spine.
The wound was old, but it bled so easily. The slightest touch, the smallest sight of all too familiar eyes and Suguru once again felt like death was looming over him.
But Zenin Megumi wasn’t Zenin Toji. Even if Suguru’s jaw ached and itched at the sight of him, he couldn’t do the boy so much of a disservice to meld him into his father. Satoru’s feelings in his chest were simple, primal. Spot a threat and eliminate it. All Suguru could do was coax them under reassurances and promises. Logic over instinct. The boy wasn’t his father; he wouldn’t hurt them.
And even if he was, even if he tried, he wouldn’t be able to. Old wounds aside, the two of them were the strongest, nothing could hurt them anymore. They stood at the apex of the food chain, tame only by their own choice. They were no longer those two clueless boys that have yet to taste the blood of their world. Drunk on each other like this, there was nothing that could shake their world quite the same way Zenin Toji did that fateful day.
Zenin Megumi was not a threat.
Suguru pressed their teeth together, letting Satoru taste that truth.
“What is it?“
They were in the middle of Sendai, having just stopped to buy Satoru some Kikufuku Mochi, as he hadn’t stopped bringing it up ever since they got off the train. Now he stood frozen, at attention, the four eyes on his neck slowly moving from the mochi to the south, pupils blown wide. The cracks in his skin spread, revealing the bubbling, pulsating night within, and Suguru didn’t even really have to ask, didn’t even really have to wait till Satoru let out a full body growl, to know what was going on.
A special grade.
“And we were just about to head home too, what rotten luck.” He sighed, pulling the bag of mochi from Satoru’s arms. He didn’t seem to notice now, over focused on his target, but he would get in an ill mood later if he accidentally crushed them, Suguru just knew it.
Satoru didn’t respond, baring his teeth in the direction of the curse, his skin cracking like an egg shell and spilling out his more monstrous contents. He boiled from inside out, the stars and galaxies bubbling and fizzing like a volcano ready to erupt.
“Suguru?” He hissed out, low and deadly.
Suguru patted his shoulder, pulling one of his airborne curses out of his arsenal. “Go ahead, I’ll be right behind you.”
Satoru didn’t need another word, splitting open at the seams, the universe rushing out of the man’s skin. Before the manta ray Suguru summoned could even fully form, Satoru was already gone in a cloud of stars and hunger.
It wasn’t hard to track him down. Suguru could have felt the pulsating itch to fight that radiated through his cursed body over half the Japan.
And it led him to a school.
How Suguru hated schools. They were magnets for curses, and Suguru had seen one too many child corpses from all the schools he visited over the years. Being a Jujutsu Sorcerer meant getting used to seeing blood and gore, but it was still hard when the bleeding body was so tiny and frail.
Suguru expected for the whole thing to be halfway done by the time he landed on the roof of the curse infested school, motioning for his manta ray to wait. But instead of arriving just in time to see Satoru bloody his mouth with a special grade, he found him circling a teen boy, concentrated into his human form but eyes and teeth still sharp and present.
The kid could see him. This wasn’t one of the sorcery students, there were too few of them for Suguru to fail to recognize one. This was a non-sorcerer, he had to be. And yet his eyes were directed straight at Satoru’s sharp mouth, before they unsurely flew to the side.
Zenin Megumi.
Suguru hadn’t even noticed him, as occupied by Satoru’s confusion as he was. But there he sat, beaten and bloody, completely ignored by Satoru despite all of the fuss he raised just a few days ago. His eyes were iron on Suguru, tracing the path between him and Satoru.
“What’s going on?”
Megumi’s teeth were gritted tightly together, shame dotting his cheeks as he answered. “I was sent to check on Sukuna’s finger. It wasn’t where it was supposed to be.”
Something wasn’t right here. Something was in fact very, very wrong. Satoru hissed and spit as he got closer to the other boy, six eyes so laser focused it was making Suguru’s head spin.
“Hey, man, can you back off, you’re really freaking me out,” the boy said, and Satoru whined, in response, a shrill, disappointed sound.
“Su-gu-ruuu.”
“Let him breathe, Satoru, it’s fine.” He tried to beckon Satoru back to his side, but he stayed put, confused and unmoving and so very hungry.
Suguru’s eyes returned to Megumi. There was no use playing games anymore, every fiber of their combined being was on edge. “What happened to the finger?”
It was the other boy that answered. “Uhh, about that. I kind of ate it.”
Suguru stared at the kid. The kid stared back at him. Satoru turned his head around his neck to give Suguru the most perplexed look Suguru had seen him pull in a good while.
“You ate it?”
“Yeah…my bad?”
Suguru looked over at Megumi who decidedly looked in the other direction. Satoru cackled suddenly, the sound ripping through the air and Suguru’s lungs. His teeth had started working themselves into a smile.
With a sigh, Suguru pressed his fingers against his forehead. “This is a mess. Satoru, come back here, you’re freaking him out.”
“But it’s Sukuna.” Satoru hissed petulantly, standing his ground. It was the most resistance he’d given to Suguru’s direction in a long time, and it came at exactly the wrong moment.
“It’s not really, though, he seems to be keeping him in rather well.” Suguru turned back towards the boy who was still nervously glancing at Satoru. “How do you feel, anything odd with your body or your mind?”
The boy shrugged, stretching out his arms as if testing his control. “I don’t think so, I mean, I can sort of hear him in my head. It’s pretty annoying.”
Pretty annoying. This kid swallowed a piece of one of the most terrifying curses of all time and all he had to show for it was pretty annoying.
“The geezers are going to fucking love this.” Satoru cackled again, snapping his teeth playfully at the boy.
If this kid had some sort of control over Sukuna…that changed a lot. And it put the kid into serious danger. Right now he seemed fine, if confused by everything going on, but even just consuming one finger put a target on his back. If Sukuna could manifest in him, if he lost control…he was just one kid.
How did they always end up like this?
“Geto-san?”
Megumi had gotten up from the ground, fists clenched and jaw tense. It was almost startling, to hear Megumi address him like that, but he was still his senpai’s mentor, even if he was also something viciously tied to Megumi’s own past. Suguru raised his eyebrow, but Megumi didn’t say anything more, though his gaze was determined and easy to read. He didn’t want to scare the other boy with the question he needed to ask.
The rules were clear on this. The boy had consumed a cursed object, a part of Sukuna nonetheless. He was to be executed on the spot. To do so would let them get rid of at least a small part of Sukuna, would make sure the King of Curses could never truly rise to full power again. Even considering another option was a dangerous gamble. This kid wasn’t a trained sorcerer; he couldn’t handle the power he accidentally stumbled upon. It would be almost merciful to kill him now before Sukuna could corrupt him and use his body to his own ends.
Suguru’s eyes trailed back to Satoru, rocking on the balls of his feet. One pair of eyes on the boy, one on Megumi and one on Suguru. In the end, he would do what Suguru told him too, but there was something in those two eyes that were trained on him. Satoru didn’t have a conscience anymore, not like Suguru had. He could kill a child and sleep peacefully through the night.
There was still something in those eyes.
An electric, eager challenge.
Suguru himself wasn’t fond of killing children.
“You have some control over it, right?” He turned his gaze back towards the boy, who flexed his fingers.
“Yeah, I think so.”
“So if you switched with him, you could switch back?”
“I mean, yeah, I think, but wouldn’t that be dangerous? I mean for you; I shouldn’t let him out, right?”
Satoru burst out in laughter, jaws unhinging, six rows of sharp teeth on full display. His eagerness bubbled in Suguru’s blood, luring a smile to his face.
“I wouldn’t worry about that, me and Satoru are the strongest. Give us ten seconds to test this out.”
“Let Sukuna out to play, I’ll send him back crying.” Satoru sang in a hissing voice of dying stars, body coiling and warping in a stretch, ready for a fight.
The kid still looked unsure, looking over at Megumi for confirmation. Megumi nodded, biting his lip but still standing at his resolution.
“You can trust them.”
“Alright, then. Here goes nothing.”
Satoru grinned wildly, his skin once again unleashing the infinity trapped within. Suguru gave Megumi a signal to stay back as black tattoos spread over the kid’s body.
Blood buzzed and boiled in his veins, teeth sharp and ready. Sukuna’s eyes cracked open on the kid's face, red as blood Suguru could taste on his tongue. He and Satoru split a growl between them, Satoru providing the sound and Suguru providing the teeth.
“What do we have here?” Sukuna cracked his fists, a hungry smile curling on his lips. “A sorcerer and his little pet? Sure, why not, I could use a stretch after all these years.”
Instantly he lashed across the roof, fist aimed at Suguru’s face. Suguru ducked under, grabbing Sukuna by the torso and flipping him over his hip. Pavement cracked and burst under the weight of the King of Curses, but it barely seemed to faze him. He was up the very next second, spitting blood on the floor.
“Is that all you got, you insect?”
He whirled around, slashing through the mass of darkness that tried to sneak up behind him. One of Suguru’s eyes went fuzzy for a moment as a claw caught Satoru’s fourth eye.
Satoru only laughed louder, though. His teeth sunk into Sukuna’s arm, every star turning into a fang as he pulled himself up by them alone.
“Satoru, don’t eat anything. Shoko can’t heal that.” Suguru called out, a smile carving itself into his lips as Sukuna growled and flung Satoru in his direction.
Coldness wrapped around him as Satoru caught himself, teeth sinking into Suguru’s clothes, stars fizzling against his cheeks. Two eyes, six eyes, eight eyes. Sukuna launched at them again. They flowed out of the way easily, teeth bared as they avoided the barrage of punches. Sharp eyes peeled for openings.
Their fist caught Sukuna in the throat, Satoru’s teeth leaving behind bleeding gashes. Blood buzzed and thrummed and they just wanted to laugh. Sukuna’s claws slashed through their body again. Satoru flipped and burst. Black needless erupted from them, catching on Sukuna and sending him flying.
“I swear, you jujutsu sorcerers. Every era, a new trick.” Sukuna laughed as he got up again, grinning from ear to ear with the same hunger that beat in their own hearts. “Too bad it will never be enough.”
The school roof exploded, debris flying forward. They swung to the side, in front of Megumi, as Satoru bubbled over the sky. Darkness engulfed them in its safety, Satoru’s body a firm dome around them. Stones hit, splitting the mass in some places, but never coming close enough to hurt Suguru or Megumi.
“7, 8, 9. That should be it, I think.” The words burst past his smile, sharp and needily, as Satoru dripped down to his feet.
Sukuna growled, took one step forwards and then froze in place, shock etched into his face. The tattoos faded back into his skin and suddenly the King of Curses no longer stood before them. All that remained was a regular high school boy.
“Well, I’ll be. It actually worked. Isn’t that something.”
“Did everything go okay?” the kid asked, and Suguru almost laughed again.
This kid just forced one of the strongest curses in history onto a leash and he talked about it like it was a school project he was unsure about. Satoru reformed himself by Suguru’s hip, nudging his hand until his hair was stroked, snapping his teeth irritably. It was a fun fight, but far too short.
“It went perfect, really,” Suguru said as he approached the boy. “Though, I doubt your future will be very happy after this.”
Before the boy could answer, Suguru knocked him out with a quick jab to his pressure point. He collapsed in Suguru’s arms. Just like that, the whole thing was over.
“Satoru, come, we’re going back to the school,” he called, beckoning back his flying curse. Satoru slid across the roof and onto his shoulders, eyes scrutinizing the boy in his arms.
Out of the corner of Suguru’s vision, Megumi stood up.
“Wait, before you go, what’s going to happen to him?”
Suguru turned. “Why, have any requests?”
Megumi squeezed his fists tight, giving Suguru a determined glare. He was littered with blood and bruises and Suguru didn’t know if they were from Sukuna or the curses Sukuna’s presence undoubtedly attracted. Still, he looked sure of his next words.
“I want him to live, please make that happen.”
Such a simple request. Suguru could already tell where this was going. He knew the elders well enough; he knew this society well enough. There was no way that this kid that swallowed Sukuna whole would be allowed to live.
Satoru rustled next to his ear, passing an idea back and forth.
Well, not for long at least.
“We’ll do what we can, but we can’t make any promises. The higher ups don’t like us any more than they’ll like him.” Suguru chuckled, rubbing under Satoru’s cheek.
Satoru’s eyes had once again refocused on Megumi, that old hate bubbling under the surface. Suguru quelled it as much as he could, taking a deep breath and steadying them both. They had bigger things to worry about now.
“We’ll be going back to the school; the higher ups will want to discuss this. Do you need a ride or are you fine on your own?
“One more thing.”
Suguru had turned back to leave but now he stopped in his tracks, Satoru glued tightly to his back. If Suguru closed his eyes, he could see Megumi behind him through Satoru’s six twitching, restless ones melting down his back. But that made his teeth ache so he kept his own eyes open, kept them directed forward.
“What is it now?”
“Why do you hate me?”
“We don’t—”
“I’m not my father. I don’t even remember him.”
Well, that resolved the question if the Zenin family told Megumi anything about the incident. Satoru rumbled, sloshing up Suguru’s back as he turned. He solidified somewhat, enough to drape himself over Suguru’s shoulders, claws digging into the material of Suguru’s jacket.
“How much do you know?”
Megumi hesitated, frown woven permanently into his face, body language tense and aggressive. “Not much. Enough to get the picture.”
“Don’t concern yourself with that past. It isn’t yours,” Suguru said, and then clamped Satoru’s mouth shut when he opened it to growl. “You’re not responsible for your father’s deeds, and I’m not your teacher; you don’t need my approval.”
That didn’t chase the stormy look from Megumi’s face, but Suguru didn’t have much else to say. The boy twisted them up from the inside out, and only logic helped Suguru remember that it wasn’t the kid’s fault, that no matter what it would never be the kid’s fault. Satoru was a raw nerve, but Suguru could parse through the tumultuous emotions and make way for the truth. Megumi was just a child, just a newbie sorcerer training for his guillotine. He may have looked a lot like Toji, may have had the same focused glint in his eyes, but he was just a child, just a student.
Suguru ran his fingers through Satoru’s hair, letting him bury his face in his neck with a huff. His hunger was strong and rooted, but it was nothing Megumi deserved. Satoru had torn Zenin Toji to shreds, leaving no one behind on whom he could take out the ensuing pain. Even so, it wasn’t right to force that debt onto Megumi’s young shoulders. They were trying to be different from the higher ups, after all. Blood was the last currency Suguru was willing to deal in.
He wasn’t sure what Megumi’s clan had told him, or what they had prepared him for. If it was Satoru in Suguru’s place, if it was Satoru who survived, maybe there would have been more of a reason for that tension. Both of them would have the strongest techniques of their respective families, they would have been pitted against each other solely for being on the opposite sides of a power struggle.
But Suguru didn’t belong to any clan. He was the strongest living sorcerer with no responsibilities to any family, no one able to tie him to their side and claim him as their own. Tsukumo was the same, and she used her freedom to travel the world and dodge responsibilities in favor of her own experiments. Suguru had chosen to stay in Japan, to protect the kids with whose blood the higher ups were so eager to oil the gears of their society with. If Suguru was to guess, the Zenins probably told Megumi to keep an eye out for Suguru for more than just their shared history.
Unfortunately for them, Megumi was every bit his fathers son. His eyes spoke of following his own path, no matter what his family told him. Suguru didn’t think he would ever grow to like the boy, but he could respect the stubbornness radiating from him. The determination to live only according to his own judgment.
“No matter who your father was, you’re still one of the students we are trying to protect. Just like this kid here. No harm will come to you from us. You have my word.”
“I’m not scared of you,” Megumi said, and Suguru believed him. Those weren’t the eyes of someone who was scared. Those were the eyes of someone who wanted to know where he was standing. It was only natural, after all, Suguru was the most powerful sorcerer in Japan, if not the world. Getting on his bad side because of something his father did would be a big problem for the boy.
Suguru couldn’t be that petty, even if Satoru liked to be.
“That’s good, I don’t really care for children fearing us.” He couldn’t suppress a smile when Megumi gritted his teeth at being called a child. “Now, do you need that ride or not?”
When Suguru finally got out of the meeting with the higher ups, he was met with an icy home. Satoru had opened one of the windows to the cool night air, perched himself on it, and steadily devoured his mochi while letting the apartment turn into a tundra. Suguru shut the window, eliciting only the smallest of bratty whines.
“Are you going to share those?” he asked, leaning against the sill to watch the glittering in Satoru’s skin. He wasn’t even surprised when Satoru stuck his tongue out in response.
“Get your own.”
“Those are mine, I paid for them.”
“Half of that money is mine and you know it.”
Suguru couldn’t help but smile. “Yeah, I know. Can you share anyway?”
Satoru sighed dramatically but still handed over a mochi. “Only because I like you so much.”
They ate in silence for a while, staring out of the window. Satoru’s eyes were twitching, focusing out into the world, tracing cursed energy Suguru could only discern if he squinted. A claw buried itself in Suguru’s jacket and he obediently sat down at their window seat, letting Satoru spill out into his lap. They had only been apart for an hour or so, but it still felt like setting his heart back into place again.
Neither of them liked to be apart, but the room the higher ups held their meetings in was filled with seals from top to bottom and entering it would only hurt Satoru. Despite the fact that he was still human, Suguru’s skin itched the entire time he was there, red and raw.
“So, they gonna let the kid live or what?” Satoru muttered, swallowing down his last treat in one gulp before nuzzling closer against Suguru’s chest, white lashes kissing pale skin.
“Sort of, they accepted your idea to wait until he eats all of them. But after that, he’s done for.” He brushed his fingers through Satoru’s hair and Satoru opened up his throat so Suguru could watch him purr.
“Did you tell them it was my idea?”
Suguru shook his head, looking out into the night. “They would have dismissed it out of hand if I did.”
“…Yeah, I know,” Satoru muttered, turning around to hide his face in Suguru’s chest, claws curled in the fabric of his shirt.
Even after all this time, after all they had done, the higher ups still saw Satoru as nothing more than a mindless curse. Suguru supposed that was just how he appeared to the untrained eye, when he was set to unleash his mayhem on stray curses. The higher ups didn’t know him, didn’t see him, could never trace the intelligence underneath the feral snap of his teeth. Satoru was hungry and monstrous and still so painfully human, even after all these years. Suguru knew him best, Suguru knew every inch of him, every pulsating nerve of Satoru’s being. Even in his worst moments Suguru could still trace the outline of that boy he fell in love with all those years ago.
“Suguru don’t worry, I don’t really mind,” Satoru chirped, shuffling so his head was on Suguru’s shoulder, looking up at him with those void filled eyes. “'s not like they saw me as a person even when I was human. God or monster, what’s the difference anyway, right?”
Nothing about that made Suguru feel better, but still he smiled, leaning down to press his lips against Satoru’s cheek. “At least I know you came up with it. It was a smart idea.”
Satoru squirmed, pleased and eager for praise. “Did they say what they’ll do with him now? Just chuck him on Haibara?”
“That does seem to be the idea. Though they were really pushy about us moving back to campus, just to keep an eye on the situation as it develops. It is Sukuna, after all. They want their best on the scene in case Itadori loses control.”
Satoru groaned loudly, sticking out his tongue. “We always get saddled with babysitting!”
“I know, I know.”
“It’s not like we can train him like we did Yuuta. There’s no way he can leash up Sukuna, no way in hell. We’ll just be sitting there and waiting, ugh!”
“We’ll see the girls more, Shoko too.”
“Ugh!”
“Don’t be a brat,” Suguru laughed, pressing their foreheads together. “It’s just for a little bit anyway, just until all those fingers are located and consumed.”
“And then we’re executing him?”
“We’re the only ones who would stand a chance.”
That was followed by another satisfied wriggle and Satoru draped himself over Suguru, head on his shoulder and rasping into his ear. He was cool and slick in Suguru’s arms, but that was a familiar sensation by now, one that might as well have been called home.
“So you agreed? To go back to school?”
“We have to oblige by our responsibilities, Satoru.”
“Liaaaaaaaarrr,” Satoru cackled, nipping at his neck, “Liar, liar, I know, I get it. I know Suguru.”
“Oh? Do you now?”
Satoru’s eyes twinkled happily, all six looking up at Suguru with such a fond look. “Suguru doesn’t want to kill the kid, we’re not going there to do that are we? Not at all.”
Suguru grinned, putting a finger to his lips. “Between the two of us, okay?”
He knew their duty to the society, their duty to other sorcerers, but Suguru had been working so hard for so long to reduce the spillage of child blood. He wasn’t about to draw some on his own.
It was probably impossible. The boy had consumed Sukuna, he was now a viable vessel, and there simply wasn’t a known method on pulling Sukuna out without killing his host.
Still, he had to try.
Let the higher ups believe he would be returning to quickly end Itadori’s life if things got out of hand. Use that time to watch over the boy instead.
There was a good chance he would still have to kill him. There were no ready solutions and in the end, if Sukuna took over, Suguru couldn’t justify sacrificing everyone else for him. In this world of theirs, second chances were frail and slim, too unsure to even be called possibilities.
Itadori Yuji was supposed to die.
But almost ten years ago, so was Gojo Satoru, and he was still a breathing being on Suguru’s chest.
Things would be lost and sacrificed, that much was guaranteed, but Suguru wouldn’t stop until he exhausted every last option. Satoru and he, they were children lost, swallowed whole. A new generation was just starting its wake, a dark cloud gathering slowly on the horizon.
Back then, there had been no one to take care of the two of them, to ease the burden on their shoulders, to pull the knife from their throats.
Today, they were there, sharp fanged and bright eyed barrier to all the world's evils.
All Suguru could hope for was that one day no child would have to feel the weight of their best friend’s body in their hands.
Satoru’s arms wrapped around him tight, liquid and soft on his chest. He grinned up at Suguru, all teeth. The pale stars above them could hold no candle to the deep, complex galaxy that flowed across Satoru’s skin, like sea across sand. A monster and a miracle.
Suguru cupped his cheek, rested their foreheads against each other, listened to the low, steady purr that vibrated through Satoru’s whole body. Even when the entire future was covered in thorns, all it took was one look into those galactic eyes for Suguru to be sure they could make it through.
“Hard way ahead, Suguru.”
“Nothing we can’t handle, Satoru.”
They were two and they were one. They were human and they were a curse. They were the savior and the monster, the future and the past, the teeth and the growl. They were together, heartstrings intertwined, roots intergrown. Breathing through each other, living for each other, stronger for having been broken.