Archive of Our Own ^beta

Satoru and Suguru live not far from each other, they go to the same school, and have been best friend since the first year. Today, just like any other day, Satoru is knocking Suguru’s wooden door aggressively like Suguru has debt to pay. “Suguru!” Satoru shouts on six twenty in the morning. Probably waking Suguru’s neighbors up.

“Don’t yell, idiot!” Suguru retorts from inside the house.

“You’re yelling yourself!” Satoru shouts playfully, hoping his voice reaches through Suguru’s ears. That’s a lie, Satoru just do it to piss Suguru off. That works though, Suguru opens the door with annoyed stare, putting on his black shoes while Satoru giggles happily like a child.

“My neighbor complained yesterday, you know, she said that your voice woke her baby up every morning,” Suguru locks his house, walking through the beautiful bushes to the gate. Suguru’s loaded parents has gardener that always taking care of those flowers.

“Even better, I like to make babies cry,” Satoru follows Suguru from behind, leaning on the neighbor’s white wall while Suguru close the gate. “You’re evil,” Suguru shakes his head.

They walk side by side to the east, to the streets where local stores bunch up, you can find everything there. Food, newspaper, DIY things, and all. Satoru walk while thinking about his breakfast food, ice cream. Satoru and Suguru has always eat breakfast together, buying bread and sweets on Hana Store.

Suguru, of course, doesn’t eat ice cream, but he does eat coffee bread, always saying that it tastes hundred times better than sweets. Satoru doesn’t believe him.

The streets are lively in the morning. Shops are fully open, there are no trash on the pavement, streetlights are off, and the shop owners are serving customers with kind smile on their faces.

People from many ages has gathered in this place, busy with their own activities. Old people are sitting on their white chair, newspaper on their hands, reading with unwavering focus. Students are buying food for breakfast and lunch, while children giggling happily as their parents hold their hand.

Satoru and Suguru approaches Hana Store first, “Coffee bread and chocolate ice cream,” Suguru hands his money, receiving coin exchange from the smiling old lady. “Have a good day at school, boys,” Suguru thanks her.

Their next stop is the bookstore, “I have to buy the newest volume,” Satoru mumbles while licking his ice cream.

Satoru enters the store, the bell rings as Satoru pushes the transparent door, “Old man, where is the newest volume?” The old man Daiki knows that Satoru likes Jujutsu Kaisen so Satoru doesn’t have to mention it anymore, Daiki moves behind his desk, probably searching reaching for Satoru’s request—

“Satoru, where is your friend?” The old man asks.

Satoru looks at him, confused, “Suguru?” Daiki nods.

“He’s outside, why?” Satoru points where Suguru is standing, munching on his bread while staring at the lively street. People-watching. “You should read this,” Daiki throws the newspaper on his desk to Satoru, probably the newest one, today. For a moment, Satoru is confused, what’s in it?

“Illegal science experiment?” Satoru reads the headline of the front page, then he looks at the photo beside the title. A man, with small eyes similar like Suguru, thin lips like Suguru, sharp nose like Suguru, and black hair like Suguru. Satoru’s eyes widen in surprise, holy shit, it’s Suguru. The only difference between his Suguru and the Suguru on this picture is the stitches on the man’s forehead.

“Why Suguru—” Satoru is confused, “Suguru!” Satoru shouts, he pulls the transparent door and the bell once again rings, making the black-haired boy turns around. Satoru's ice cream falls to the ground, but he pays it no mind.

“Have you been conducting science experiment behind me?” Satoru asks, shoving the newspaper at the boy.

“What?” Suguru’s eyebrows knit in confusion, “I don’t even like science,” It’s true, Suguru has always like art and literature better, but the news said otherwise. Suguru reads the paper, immediately spotting the picture of his look alike. Suguru’s eyes widen in the same way Satoru’s did, he opens his mouth, “Okay, first of all, this isn’t me,”

“That man on the picture look exactly like you, just with longer hair and stitches on forehead. Are you wearing a wig?” Satoru tugs on Suguru’s hair, checking if he’s also wearing wig right now. Suguru’s hair isn’t as long as in the picture, wig have to be the answer.

There are questions fleeting through his head, wondering, if his entire knowledge about Suguru’s silky hair turns out to be lies, it’s all a wig.

Suguru shook off his hand, “No, you dumbass.”

Suguru points at the grey picture, “This is my brother. See the stitches on his forehead right here? That’s what makes us different,”

Satoru frowns, he does remember what Suguru had said about his family. Rich parents that barely home and an older brother, eight years older than him. Suguru did mention one or two interesting facts about him, looking gloomy as he spoke, “I thought your brother was in prison,” Satoru recalls.

“He was,” Suguru confirms.

“He escaped five months ago though, he left me a message,”

Satoru didn’t know about the fact, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Suguru huffs, “What should I say? My brother who convicted twenty years in prison escaped and left me a message?” Satoru shrugs, “Yeah, you could say that,” The more straightforward the better, communication is the key after all.

Suguru looks around the street, uncomfortable look on his face. “No wonder people were staring at me, they think I’m criminal in loose,”

Satoru stares at the picture again, Suguru and his brother basically look the same, he just has to get rid of the stitches on the forehead. “Where he got these stitches anyway?” Satoru squints his eyes at the newspaper, the line is exactly on the center of his forehead, from one side to another side.

Suguru answers without thinking, “He cut his own forehead, trying to see if he will stay alive if he pokes his own brain,”

Satoru blinks, “Your brother sounds like a nutcase,”

“He is,”

Elderly and mothers are whispering from across the street, staring at the two of them with wary look. Starting to realize the resemblance between the man on the newspaper and the black-haired boy in front of them. “Let’s get out of here,” Suguru reaches for Satoru’s arm, already running before Satoru could respond. Satoru moves in the same rhythm as Suguru, following.

As soon they start running, two men from the benches get up, starting to run at the same path as them. One is a middle-aged man with black glasses and another one is a bald old man with wifebeater top. Despite the bald man worn-out physical body, he run like cheetah in jungle, chasing them at full speed.

Satoru recognizes it first, “Suguru, look, what the hell,” He taps on Suguru’s shoulder, trying to make Suguru to look back.

“Cops in disguise?” Suguru guesses.

“Nah,” Satoru dismisses.

“Do you want to know my guess?” Satoru grins as they run, his long legs working at maximum capacity. They don’t know who those people are, but the far they get from them, the better.

“What?”

“I think your brother has upset many people with his experiments and someone sent assassin to kill him. They mistook you for your brother,” Satoru is pretty proud with this conclusion.

“You read too much manga,” Suguru comments, his bangs flying everywhere. He looks funny, but this isn’t time to laugh.

“Shit like that happens in real life too!” Satoru insists.

“Okay, we should stop and explain then,” Suguru suggests with intention of implementing ‘communication is the key’ motto. “Yeah, let’s stop,” Satoru agrees as they keep running with the same speed, showing no intention of stopping.

Ten seconds later, they still run like the death himself chasing them.

“Why don’t you stop?” Satoru asks in ragged breath, tiredness starting to catch up to him. “You first, then I will,” Suguru answers in the same ragged breath. This boy has trust issues.

“You’re the one who’s in trouble here,” Satoru points out.

“Nope, you do it first,”

“Are you planning to leave me—”

“No,”

“—Why don’t you stop first then?!”

As Suguru opens his mouth to answer, the bald old man enters Satoru’s vision unexpectedly, flying at Suguru’s back, pinning him down to the concrete. “Geto Kenjaku, you’re under arrest for illegal experiments,” Suguru groans in pain as his face smushed onto the pavement, his eyes shut tightly.

These men aren’t assassins turn out, no assassin will say something like ‘under arrest’, they will just straight up kill you.

Satoru receives the same treatment, his hands locked on his back by the middle-aged man. “I’m not Kenjaku!” Suguru yells through gritted teeth.

“For a person who used to lead a cult, your lie is surely bad,” The middle-aged man above him says.

“Oi, that’s Kenjaku’s younger brother! Not him!” Satoru yells, trying to clear the misunderstanding. The man presses his back further to the ground, Satoru thinks he hears something crack from his spine, “Bring him,” The bald man points his chin at Satoru, “This boy could be an accomplice,” The black glasses man cuffs Suguru and Satoru, hands on their shoulder, ready to kick their ass if they try to break free.

Suguru frowns at the cops, “I’m serious. I’m Suguru, his younger brother,”

“Look at my forehead, it has no stitches,” Suguru tells, giving logical reason for the old men to think about. “Maybe you covered it up, I heard make up are getting good these days,” The man with black glasses answers, pushing Satoru and Suguru to the opposite side they’re running to. Back to the local street.

Satoru groans in frustration, “Touch my forehead, there’s nothing!”

The old men about to say something when a voice comes into their earpiece, Satoru can’t make out what the voice was saying, “Younger brother?” The old men look at each other, then at Suguru. Suguru frowns harder, making sure they see how displeased he is. Satoru holds his laughter, he wishes he can take pictures of him right now.

When the quiet voice from earpiece finished talking, the old men uncuffs their hands, “Well, Kenjaku turns out to be in the different street. Goodbye,” The old men leave just like that, not even sorry from their mouth.

They leave Satoru and Suguru alone on the lonely street. Cheeks full of scratch with uniforms dusty from getting smushed onto the pavement. They sit, both leaning on the grey wall behind them. Their heads tilt upwards, staring at morning sky. What just happened doesn’t feel real, like something that will only happen in absurd dreams.

They stay like that for minutes, trying to grasp what just happened.

“They said your brother is on different street, not far from here, you don’t want to see him?” Satoru breaks the silence. He is an only child, he doesn’t know what it feels like to have a brother or sister, but he imagines sibling bond to be something special.

Irreplaceable.

Suguru shrugs, “Nah, I don’t really know him anyway,” He gaze faraway, as if remembering something in the past. Something that happened when he was children.

Satoru’s eyebrows raise in curiosity, “Why?”

“I just don’t. His mind has always work in mysterious way and I hate the way he talks, demeaning,” Satoru hums, if Kenjaku isn’t maniac and kind, he and Satoru can become friends. They both like science in extreme degree. Satoru likes physics and implementation of the theory, he likes how to see the world works in physics lenses, would like to discover new law that’s happening in the world.

There’s still one mystery on Satoru’s head though, “If you guys aren’t close, why he left you a message?”

Suguru shrugs again, “I don’t know, it was unimportant anyway,” That just made Satoru even more curious.

“What did it say?”

“’Something like, ‘I escaped prison, we will meet soon,’” Suguru quotes nonchalantly, like he didn’t just get a haunting text from a criminal with stitches on his forehead. “You should’ve told me, what if he ambushed you when you were walking home?” Satoru questions again, there are so many what-if on his head.

“I can do martial arts, remember?”

“Don’t underestimate the power of science. He can bring taser or some kind of machine to take you down,” This is the same man who led a cult and held unethical human experimentation to force human evolution, he can do anything. The newspaper mentioned it all.

“The power of science?” Suguru chuckles, arms resting on his knees. “You sound like a nerd,” He adds, looking at Satoru with mirth. Satoru huffs in return, pouting. He refuses to be called nerd, he’s smart and a man who likes to think far ahead, okay?

Whatever you say, that’s probably how Suguru will reply.

“Let’s play Digimon at my house,” Satoru stands up, extending his arm for Suguru to take. School is too much for Suguru now, he would get questions and accusation from all sides. It’s better to show up when things have calmed down. Suguru catches his hand and Satoru pulls him up from the ground. Suguru pats his uniform to clean dirt, smoothing his hair out of his face.

“Can we get my manga first though? I’m dying to read the next chapter,”