Archive of Our Own ^beta

After Suguru was murdered, Gojo took it as a confirmation that those boys, both of them, cursed as they are, needed to be whisked away. 

It was foolish of him to think he would be able to keep it a secret, that there was some sort of future where things would be okay, a future where Suguru would be safe, hidden, yes, but still safe. Besides, it was Suguru that wanted them, right? He knew that there would be no happy ending for them, no easy future that would come after he decided to defect, to murder hundreds of innocent humans and act like he had no choice. 

It was Suguru's decision to leave, and it was Suguru's decision to contact him after. 

Gojo had three choices. He either could ignore the letter, burning it to ashes, or he could present it as evidence to the higher-ups and use that chance to find Suguru and… 

But he could also just, do what Suguru asked him to do and come to the broken temple all by himself. 

And foolishly, with his childish, naive teenage heart. He did exactly that. He chose to believe the seemingly impossible scenario, but… 

6 Months and 25 days. That was how long time had passed without even a glimpse of Suguru, the only time Gojo could ‘see’ him was in his dreams. And so he stopped sleeping. He stayed awake before his body eventually shut down, then he'd dream of him. From the first day he saw Suguru for the first time, a child of non-sorcerers completely ignorant of the Jujutsu Society until then, who managed to figure out his cursed technique all by himself, who, at that time, was already carrying curses inside of him. 

Gojo saw them clear as day, the seething curses burgeoning within it the spherical cages inside of Suguru's body, they attached to his ribs, his stomach, leeching on his organs. They all look like parasites that are eating him from the inside out. And yet, Suguru showed no signs of feeling any of it, it made Gojo wonder if he could even feel them, or had he grown numb to it? 

Suguru continued to swallow curses each time they were sent to slay one. Usually those curses would be near death, but Suguru would always stop him seconds before he could deliver the finishing blow, then he would cage them, he'd eat them, and they'll live inside him for what seem like forever, or at least, until Suguru dies and bring all of his parasites with him. Gojo was fully convinced that Suguru was not aware of what was happening inside of his own body, that his chest and belly were fully rotten from the increasing amount of curses that Gojo couldn't even count. But then… 

‘Settle down in there, will you…?’ 

The night was deep and only the sound of cicadas filled the air. Gojo had fallen asleep on his futon, the inn was cheap and cold, maybe that was why he woke up, the night breeze forcing his mind to be aware of its unpleasant circumstances. But for Suguru, it seemed to be something else. 

He was awake but not because of the biting cold, he was sitting up, with his hand on his belly, sighing down at it. 

‘Settle down…’

He sounded so exasperated, as if he had dealt with this countless times before, which he probably had. 

‘Why are you doing this?’ 

Granted, of course the curse won't be happy. The Rainbow Dragon was a powerful curse that was born from the local people's superstition, those kinds of curses were the worst to exorcise as the intensity of horror surrounding it continued to grow. It was a superstition when he and Suguru exorcised it, if they had waited, the locals could've eventually hailed it as a deity, and who knows the level of power that curse could grow into. 

The Rainbow Dragon was a special grade, hailed as an almost omnipotent curse that was, in a lack of a better word, free. It had haunted the mountains for generations only to be slain and then devoured by this boy, a lone human. Jailed inside of a cocoon, it was trying with all its might to rot his captor from the inside out. Gojo didn’t know the curses could even do that and yet– 

‘Why are you so angry…’ Who wouldn't be? Suguru knew this, but he was just so, so tired… 

‘Is it really that bad inside of me?’ 

The Rainbow Dragon settled down eventually, it became obedient, since then, every time Suguru summoned it, it protected him like Suguru was the center of its being, like a master, like a parent. 

Gojo never thought of Suguru's curse manipulation as nothing but a technique, but after the Dragon was slain, he sensed grief in the days that followed. Suguru would try to summon it only to be reminded that it was gone and there would be a pause there, a look in his eyes that disappeared moments after. 

He never thought of Suguru's ability to bear curses as something more than a technique, a tool, an innate state of being. Something soulless, just like Gojo's own infinity, it's nothing but a part of him, like his limb or organ, there to keep him alive but nothing more. Yes, nothing more but a tool, nothing more. Nothing. Especially not this. 

He never thought that a technique that allows Suguru to carry curses, would give him the ability to create one. 

At least, that was, until Gojo received that letter six months after, and arrived at the temple to see Suguru, with his gojogesa, his ceremonial clothes, soaked in blood, him leaning on a broken pillar, his stomach bulging with something with a heartbeat. Some things with heartbeats. 

‘Ah… look, they finally settled down.’ 

Those were the first sentence he said when they met again, Suguru wasn't even looking at him, he was focused on his belly, rubbing the swollen thing with a gentleness one would give to a wounded, weak being. 

‘I didn’t know what to do, Satoru.’ 

Finally, he looks up at him, with a smile that still haunts Satoru's eyes. 

‘I tried everything, but they didn't want to stay put. I guess I wasn't enough.’ 

Maybe, maybe not. Gojo still didn't think his presence had anything to do with it, and yet. 

‘Seems like they just want to see the other parent. How cruel of them, no?’ 

And that was… 

The second time Gojo felt an emotion so convoluted he couldn't put a name on it. First was when Suguru left him. And second, was when Suguru called for him, knowing that Gojo would come to him, and he did. Only a day since he sent the letter to Satoru, and he was already there, still in his uniform, with his disheveled hair and eyes bulging out, when he saw Suguru with his grotesquely swollen belly, the way it was moving, distorting the surface of his skin from the inside like a beast trying to break free. Suguru sits there with a smile, an expression that only meant one, singular thing: helplessness. A person who had surrendered to his fate. 

Gojo was blessed and cursed by the same gift, those eyes that allowed him to see everything, even things that he would prefer not to see. So he saw it clear as day, the two unborn souls, completely squished in between the countless curses that had attached– burrowed and stuck themselves to the placentas, its fetuses crammed inside the cursed womb of its parent, squeezed in so tight like it was hard to breathe. They weren't kicking Suguru's ribs in out of pure aggression; they were trying to survive. 

Not a lot of things could do what that revelation did to him. How Satoru's whole body weakened, dropping to his knees, his mouth opening and closing in disbelief before he crawled to Suguru, his hands and feet slippery from the blood still actively dripping out of his beloved. 

He had loved Suguru, he was still in love with Suguru, Suguru knew about it, just because they never acknowledged it, doesn't mean it wasn't there. 

Gojo didn’t even ask how it was even possible; they slept with each other a few times, but Suguru was a human, a male, a… a normal person. 

…

Normal. 

Was he ever normal? 

Suguru had been carrying living beings inside of him all his life, so why should this be any different? 

‘They're human… I think.’ He sounded hesitant, but he was sure. Suguru placed Satoru's hand on his belly, Satoru wanted to throw up from the way Suguru's stomach rumbled like lava trying to erupt, like multiple creatures, rippling violently under the thin surface of his now stretched skin, with his veins protruding all blue and red, bruises from the thin ones bursting every time the babies kicked him. Suguru was suffering, every. single. second. 

‘Not yet.’ He had said. ‘Not yet, they will try to kill me eventually. When it happens, I want you to do it first.

Sick, he felt sick, confused, he felt almost… angry. He didn't hold back, he told Suguru that he would exorcise them. Kill them, basically. Which earned him a slap, something he allowed since his infinity is always dismissed when he was with Suguru only. 

Suguru's words were poisonous, dripping with hatred that came from exhaustion, ‘How could you say that about your own children!?’ 

…

World for him shifted that day. But it wasn't just his world, it seems.

Gojo hid Suguru away, monks prayed over him day and night trying to contain the monster he was nurturing inside, but it was of little use. Suguru said that his babies wasn't supposed to be born yet, but it was passed 9 months, the normal time a human fetus was usually born in. 

But then again. Those things weren't human, right? 

Gojo was completely convinced that they weren't. 

At least, until he did what Suguru begged him to do. 

Suguru's screams had pierced the heavens itself when Satoru slit his stomach open and ripped those so-called humans out of his stomach. 

Then somehow, in some way, Satoru had managed to save him. 

Those children, too, those babies, Gojo had expected them to look monstrous, a curse just like the rest that was oozing out of Suguru's body. 

But they look nothing like that. 

They were still surrounded in the water of the womb, the placenta still intact, keeping them safe and warm. Suguru had pierced it himself, covered in blood and amniotic fluid, the babies cried like any normal human child would, their lungs strong and bodies healthy, ten toes, ten fingers, and a pair of working eyes. 

Satoru made a fool of himself, thinking the grotesque scene could lead into a better future, that Suguru, now disfigured and weak, body shaking on top of tatami that is soaked in blood and amniotic fluid, would be able to live another life that didn't involve death, that didn't involve the prison that is the Jujutsu Society, that he would, somehow, in some part of the world, live. That he, and the cursed children he nurtured and gave birth to, Satoru's children, will be able to be safe and free. It didn't matter if Satoru were to be chained forever to duty to keep Suguru safe, for the first time in his life, he felt like he has something else to live for, after slowly being disillusioned and worn down, he felt himself invigorated by a new sense of purpose, one he never thought he'd felt this quickly, being only a teenager himself. 

He lived with that renewed vigor. Entrusting Suguru to be taken care of by the rural monks and shrine maidens, he visited them almost every weekend, checking in on the curses his now-lover gave birth to. They seemed like normal children at first, he grew to love them over time, he would stay whenever he could, he would dream of them, mark their birth on his calendar, he would buy gifts and necessities and send them almost daily by a trusted smuggler. 

He was a fool, nothing but a fool. 

Months in, and a report came across his school desk. 

Gojo almost killed Yaga that day. 

Yaga said that he did it for Gojo's sake. He didn't tell Gojo that the Ainu Jujutsu Society had tracked down Geto Suguru's location, they fully believed that he had brainwashed a rural temple, nestled deep in the forest, to become his slaves, to eventually serve his purpose to massacre more humans like he vowed to do. 

Yaga knew how hard it was for Gojo to face Geto when he defected; he knew that Gojo, just like last time, wouldn't be able to do what must be done. So he kept it a secret. 

Yaga never took heart to the things Gojo did to him when he was blinded by rage, even years later, he didn't mention that Gojo broke his bones and beat him so badly that Shoko was the only reason he survived. Gojo had left him, bloodied and ripped, to basically die as he ran towards the temple where Geto was apparently eradicated. Murdered and burned by enchanted fire to kill the curses left in his lifeless body. 

The ashes from the pyre were already ice cold that night, but he didn't even get to let out a single tear before a shrine maiden gripped his hand and wordlessly dragged him away. They walked and walked, not a word said by her but her silence was enough. Gojo found them nestled in a villager's house, an elderly couple who drugged his children with milky sap just enough to render them unconscious for hours so they could be hidden, stashed under rice and grains, hidden by the smell of preserved foods and alcohol. 

They looked pale, their hair matted and body cold but alive. 

When Suguru got murdered, Gojo took it as a confirmation that those boys, both of them, cursed as they are, needed to be whisked away. 

The first couple of days, he took the children to his clan house, he called his birth mother who didn't ask much questions. They weren't close, but she knew her son had fathered twins. She didn't say much, didn't ask much, but summoned nannies and wet nurses, women who Gojo bound by a binding vow that same night to keep his twins’ existence a secret. 

He and his mother didn't talk much. But she knew what needed to be done. 

Those children, more curse than human, were still humans. 

If Gojo wanted them to be treated as a human and not a curse, then humans they have to be.

Normal. Untouched. 

Normal. 

Normal. 

Normal. 

Normal. 

Normal.

The children cried every single night at every single hour. 

The moment they started calming down, about a month or two later. Gojo's mother did the things he couldn't do. 

She told him to leave, go as far as he could as she entrusted each one to different childless couples, she didn't tell him who or where, it's better if he didn't know. 

He went, he ignored everyone else and boarded a plane to the other side of the world. 

When he returned, the nursery was empty. 

He didn't even cry. 

Years passed and he mourned for his children who are still alive. 

During that time, he adopted another child, a Zen'in newborn boy who was about to be killed, he grew up under his care, a child that no one dared to ask more about. 

And before he knew it…

16 years had passed. 

It felt impossible, sometimes, when he closed his eyes, he felt like he could go back to his time of innocence. Sometimes, when he closed his– 

“Otosan.” 

Megumi's hand tugging on his sleeve snaps him out of his thoughts, turning around to see his son, now 15, still in his pajamas, handing him his phone. 

“It's been ringing non-stop.” He looks… disgruntled, hair sticking up in every direction with one eye still closed. It must've woken him up. Gojo left his phone in his bedroom, which is right next to Megumi's own. While he himself was… lost in thought. 

“Ah, yeah, sorry, Gumi.” He pats the boy's head, Megumi rolling his eyes and slapping them away, how cute. “I'll take– Oh.” 

Megumi hands the phone back to him again after it slipped out of his fingers. That woke the boy up, he has been noticing that… this whole day, something is off with his Father. Before he can say anything though, his Father ‘dismissed’ him. First, he tried to shoo Megumi away, when the boy won't budge, he kisses his forehead with a dramatic smooch that the teenager actually hissed and runs away. His ears pink, his lips pressed into a line. Gojo doesn't notice any of it. 

This is no excuse, but can you blame him for being so aloof? This is someone's death anniversary, just when he thought he had gotten over Suguru's death, grief struck him out of nowhere, rendering him almost completely useless for a whole day. 

He thought of the cold ashes, he remembered the pain of betrayal vividly, of Yaga's cracking bones under his fist and then… 

The smell of alcohol and rice as he fetched his sons, his mind; numbed and empty, had made him frantically shake the husk shreds and dust off of their heads. He felt them cold to touch, still alive, shivering and weeping in their drug-induced sleep. 

Then, he remembered the night it happened. When his mother had basically locked him out of the nursery after he wailed that he changed his mind despite knowing that he shouldn't. 

“Yuuta!” His fist banged on the wooden door, tears dripping down his face, screaming his sorrows away. “Yuuji! No! No– Mother I changed my mind– I changed– No! NO!!!” 

He could've broken the door, he could've snatched them away. But his mother was right, to escape the Jujutsu world, they needed to be humans. Away from his society, away from him.

Nights like these he wonders if they grew up well, if their normal human families raised them and loved them as they would their own blood, if they loved them as he loved his Gumi. 

…

Well, he doesn't even know where they are now. They're probably still in Japan, his mother couldn't have gotten them too far, and he had no way to find them now, not after his mother passed away two years ago. The only person who knew where they were sent to is now gone. 

He doesn't even know if they kept their names… 

Suguru named them himself, said that they need actual names other than Gojo's nicknames, other than moonie and pinky, based on their raven and pink hair, the thing that made the twins so easy to differentiate. Yuuta and Yuuji, born at the same second as their own father ripped them out of their mother's belly. 

But… A child's innate technique would usually manifest itself when they turn 7 or 8, the fact that he has not heard a single murmur of a child with curse manipulation technique or any technique that insinuates something alarming meant that they probably grew up into young boys with no powers, right? 

Maybe. Hopefully. Normal. And away, as far away as possible from the Jujutsu world. From the death sentence that was given to them the moment they were born. 

Ah… 

His phone rings again, he answers it before the noise could seep through the walls and annoy his son yet again. 

“What?” It's 2 A.M. And Gojo knows they only call him when they need something. 

Okkotsu. 

The higher-ups were urgently notified of a boy with a curse attached to him, a special grade too strong for anyone to contain. A child with powers he can't control. A boy who sobbed as the curse, ‘Rika’, murdered people while he pleaded desperately for her to calm down to no avail. 

Okkotsu… 

A child of non-sorcerers, Gojo is assigned to contain and execute him. Just like–  

Okkotsu. Yuuta. 

=

“What are you doing?” 

How? How could he not notice Megumi's presence? He didn't hear any footsteps; he was sure that he had locked both Gojo-sensei's house door and his bedroom as well. 

Then, Yuuta remembers that Megumi's innate technique allows him to manipulate shadows in any way he pleases. He blends into the shadows that encased the inside of the house as it struck midnight, passing through locked doors and shut out blinds to arrive at his Father's bedroom. Just in time to see him, to stare for a second or two to make sure that he's actually doing what Megumi thinks he's doing. 

Yuuta sitting right next to his Father's sleeping body. Sleeping, as in rendered unconscious by the milky sap that's mixed into his night tea. 

Okkotsu Yuuta who was enrolled in Jujutsu High a year prior, someone whose first meeting was seared into Megumi's brain. 

Because the first time he saw Okkotsu Yuuta, was when he visited the Jujutsu High after his school had finished, he always does that on Fridays, his Father would usually wait for him and they will choose a place to eat dinner together. His Father is always, always so busy but he made it a rule to at least spend this one day with his son. Megumi doesn't say it, he would die before he says this out loud, but that small chunk of time is the highlight of his week. After a full tiring week, even the pebbled stairs to the school feels like it's stripping his stress bit by bit, replacing it with butterflies from the thought of meeting his Father yet again. It's pathetic really, a son shouldn't feel like this, he shouldn't feel his chest hammering in his chest and his hands turn clammy at the thought of walking through that office door, seeing his Father sitting down with papers strewn around his table, a plate of sweets as a paperweight, and a steaming cup of honeyed jasmine tea to wash it down with. His breathing quickened a bit at the thought of his Father's serious expression turning light and playful, his voice turning from exhaustion to a pitched, happy one as he bounced to give Megumi the tightest hug. 

“AH! My handsome medicine!!! My vitamin!!!” His Father would say, or something along that line, his battery, his lifeline, he always remembers to make sure Megumi knows that his presence is enough to recharge his depleted body. 

But that time around a year ago, he walked into his office, and felt something piercing his chest. It's not even a feeling he can describe. Anger? Shock? 

All he knows is that back then, it felt like someone dumped a whole bucket of ice water that froze him to the bone, keeping him in place like a statue from what would seem like a mundane scene to anyone but him. 

Okkotsu Yuuta, his hands worryingly tight around Gojo's waist in a bruising hug, his face smooshed to Gojo's chest, with the biggest smile visible from the side of his cheeks. And Gojo himself? His father? Is laughing so hard that his body shakes, patting Yuuta's back to remind him to let up already, that Gojo is not going anywhere. 

Okkotsu Yuuta, who just returned from Kyoto for the Goodwill event that Gojo himself unfortunately couldn't attend. 

The first time Megumi saw Yuuta, and it was when he was letting out a full week of aching loneliness of being separated from his favorite Sensei. 

Because that was all Gojo was to him, right? A doting Sensei who was his savior, a man who trained him and helped him embrace and control his now-docile curse Rika. Megumi heard it from the other upperclassmen, that Gojo's favoritism is painfully blatant and they also don't really know where that all was coming from but it was pretty obvious to see. 

For Yuuta, everything started in that prison. 

A room covered in talisman, not a single crack uncovered, it suppressed his– or… Rika's power, but not enough to completely subdue her. They cried in that room, she was crying from fear, watching as her lover tried to kill himself, while Yuuta was crying from despair, not wanting to see more death caused solely by him. 

Rika… No, not… her. He has killed so many people… 

Even before Rika was ever bound to him. He remembered his first man, if you can even call him that. Yuuta is sure he caused his death, even if his parents did not believe it at that time. 

That man, a monk in the temple that they visited during the new years, took one look at him, only 5 years old at that time and had stopped praying. He stopped chanting, took one look at Yuuta and ran away. Murmurs followed and the next thing Yuuta knew, he was being dragged by the arm. 

He couldn't remember much. 

It could be because he was still so young, or he might just erase it all from his mind. But he remembered being dragged out of his house, brought back into the temple, and was forced inside of it. The chanting still echoes in his head until now, the priest who had an almost merciless expression slowly morphed into worry as the exorcism they're performing on this child bears no fruit. The small child was trashing in his binds, blood dripping from his eyes, body contorted until one of the monks finally gave up and stopped, the others soon followed as the boy's body dropped to the wooden floor, covered in sweat and blood. 

“He is not cursed…” The monk whispered to the others. 

His small body couldn't handle the pain and fatigue, he passed out right there and then. 

The next morning, sirens woke up his parents and he, who was mysteriously placed back into his bedroom, if it's not from the ache in his bones, he would've thought that it was all a dream. Sirens woke the people around the block, curious heads peeking from the windows, still thick with sleep as firefighters rushed through the streets, up the steep hill where the temple is located. It, the forest surrounding it, and the monks inside it, had been burned to ashes. 

This existence of his, this life, wherever he went, calamity followed. 

A premonition of disaster hovers over his head whenever he goes, as he grows older, he could feel it sometimes. As if he can feel the blood in his veins rushing, as clear as dipping his fingers into a stream. As if he can see blood flowing from his chest, to his waist and legs and onto the floor, climbing up the pristine white walls of his elementary school, and disappearing in a blink of an eye. That… imagination, that image, of his blood seeing around the structure of the school itself, happened days before it burned down. 

 It followed him, this curse. It is inside of him. It is him, body and soul…

The monks said that he was a curse. 

He didn't know what it meant, not until he was enrolled into Jujutsu Tech. 

Curses are created when cursed energy which leaks from humans as a result of their negative emotions.

Wherever he goes, calamity follows. After a disaster happens, he would feel alive. It's as if a part of him grows whenever said calamity would happen in the area he was living in. 

The first time fear engulfed his small town was right after the monks were found burned alive inside of their temple, the doors were made of wood and would easily be broken but it's as if they were chained into something, they burned to death while sitting in a circle, the exact position they had tried to… exorcise him in… 

Fear grew, rumors and paranoia flowed into every conversation, and Yuuta felt better. As if the curses didn't build around the area like a sediment or moss, but it grew inside of him. 

He didn't tell anyone this, not even… Not even… 

The moment he opened his eyes, he saw a man standing over him, watching Yuuta whose hands and legs were bound into the chair. 

“Don't worry.” Gojo-sensei said to him, those are the first words he ever said to him… Before he quickly walked closer, fearless, Gojo-sensei undo the bindings all over his body. He untied the ropes, ripped the talismans sewn into his shirt, wiped away the incantation written on his skin, and then he… he… 

“You don't ever have to worry. Never. Not now. Not ever.”

Always devoid of any fear even to a monster like him, Gojo-sensei had pulled him into a hug. A hug so, so tight and so warm that not even a minute after, Yuuta couldn't see anything from the tears. 

It's as if he was waiting for this all his life, like he missed something but he just doesn't know what. 

He cried right there on the spot and Gojo-sensei assumed that it was from fear. It wasn't. It was from relief but Yuuta couldn't speak through the sobs. 

“Don't worry.” Sensei patted his back, trying to get him to stop wailing when he started choking on his own spit. Yuuta only cried harder when Sensei cups his face, when he pressed their foreheads together, as if he had known him all his life. 

It's as if Yuuta had been desperately trying to balance himself on a broken bridge and Gojo-sensei was the first solid ground he stepped onto. The immense feeling of pure, unadulterated relief. 

It wasn't normal. But Yuuta didn't care. He didn't, and doesn't want normal. He wanted Gojo-sensei. 

And it showed in every single step he took after. Gojo-sensei dotes on him from the very start, but he was also very strict. He trained Yuuta on the most important thing, which was to control his own curse. Gojo pushed he and Rika to the brink, downright cruel in the way he forced pain towards him every time Rika lashed out to teach her that when she acts out, when she threatens Gojo or someone else without Gojo and Yuuta's explicit permission, Gojo will torture Yuuta even more. Rika would fight him back, crying and screaming and then Yuuta would get his stomach kicked in, or his bones cracking, and only when she retreated, when she stopped attacking Gojo was Yuuta spared. 

“Good girl, Rika. See?” Gojo kneeled over Yuuta's heaving, bloodied body. “That wasn't so bad, was it? Now you need to know how to control her too.” 

Then, after every brutal training, Gojo would carry him to Shoko-sensei's clinic, where he would be healed, and then later on, deep into the night, Yuuta would have the best sleep of his life after being allowed inside of Gojo-sensei’s house, inside of his own bedroom so they can cuddle to sleep under his soft, fluffy, jasmine-smelling weighted blanket. Yuuta loved that moment most, he'll take any training Gojo-sensei put him through if that means he can cuddle with him later. 

And then sometimes, Gojo Sensei would ask him things that caught him off guard. 

“Yuuta, do you ever miss someone?” 

“I miss you, Sensei, whenever you're not around…” 

Gojo-sensei flicked his forehead then, it hurt, even if he kissed it better later. But Yuuta didn't lie, he never felt like he missed anyone. But… he does feel like he is missing a part of himself. And so, he told Sensei that one night, then, he whispered quietly as if telling him a secret that… 

“I have dreams…” He never told anyone this before, even his birth parents. “That I have… someone else with me.” And that someone wasn't there, he couldn't find them anywhere. Sometimes this off feeling would turn into sorrow, then he'd cry and cry until fatigue took him. He also didn't tell Gojo-sensei that sometimes, his brain would make out dreams that felt like a memory, he would dream of a voice, a different voice, lulling him to sleep, someone that smells nice and feels nice and warm but it wasn't his Mother, oh no, this person felt different, they felt right. 

Many things he didn't tell his Sensei, but that matters not. 

His past doesn't matter, his dream doesn't matter. Only Sensei matters. 

Every part of Sensei, Gojo-sensei from head to toe. 

Something just feels right with Sensei, something just… clicks. And if he ever lets go of him, he will disappear, and Yuuta will feel broken yet again. 

It feels like his Sensei is the missing part of him. 

…

He tries to ‘fix’ his brain even though he doesn’t know what’s wrong with it in the first place. Any sort of ‘illness’ he found only just feels… lacking, somehow. There must be a better name than whatever it was he found. Because something inside of him responded when he saw Sensei for the first time, and when he hold his hand or peck his forehead for the first time. Something inside of him surges in happiness when that happens, a sense of familiarity to someone he had never seen before in his life, as if down to his DNA, throughout his flesh and bone, something hummed when he saw him for the first time. 

“Sensei, I feel good when you're around…” And Sensei had laughed at that, letting Yuuta burrow onto his chest, Yuuta hugging him so tight his feet almost lifted from the floor. He's so strong, of course he would be, he is… His son, after all. He–

“Ah! Gumi!” 

…

That was the first time, the very first time in years, his Father didn't instantly go to hug and smooch him the moment he walked into his office. 

Megumi stopped at the door, hand on the handle, when he saw this… stranger, hugging his Father so tight and wouldn't let go, even when Satoru whispered for him to do just that. 

“Sorry,” His Father whispered t, he gave the boy's shoulder a few pats but still, he won't let go. “He missed me, Gumi, you understand. Oh! Right! You two haven't met, right?”

Gojo introduced them, only after Yuuta let go of the death grip of a hug he trapped him in. Like enchanted by a spell, this stranger's eyes are completely locked on Gojo's face, glimmering as if looking at a world wonder. It wasn't until his Father physically turned him around by the shoulder did the boy smile out of common courtesy. 

“Yuuta! Manners!” Gojo ‘forced’ him to bow, sending this Yuuta into a giggly fit, reaching up to hold Gojo's hand. And he did bow, he looks up, head tilted and he just– 

“You don't look like Sensei at all.” There it is, so blunt and inconsiderate that it even made Gojo blink. Flicking Yuuta's forehead, he reminds him not to be rude.

“He doesn't look like me since he's adopted, but he's still my son! Be nice to him!” 

Megumi doesn't like it, he hates how his Father sounds, as if his voice is tuned automatically to a doting one, to one that's made to cheer and amuse this stranger. One that he used on him when he was younger. One that Megumi begged him to stop using because it was utterly embarrassing. Megumi remembered blushing ear to ear on his first day of middle school when his Father had yelled his name and well-wishers in that exact same tone right before he entered the school ground, how embarrassed he was, how happy. Who is this person? Why is he getting the same treatment? Why is HIS father treating this stranger like he treats HIM?

Maybe his Father notices, maybe he doesn't, but the next second he finally does what he always does, pulling Megumi into a tight hug and pressing a big smooch on his cheek and forehead. “Ah… just like that, I'm not tired anymore!” 

Megumi still has his hands around his Father's waist, still keeping him in place as if the stranger will snatch him away if he lets go. His Father explains to this Yuuta that he'll be going now, that Yuuta should unpack and ‘play with his friends’ rather than wait for him because his Sensei is not coming back till Monday. 

Hearing that, those raven eyes bulge out, as if he just heard the most devastating news of his life. His hand reaches out to tug on Gojo's sleeve with an urgency, like it's crucial for him to stay. Megumi expects Gojo to brush him off playfully like he would to his other students, but… Megumi feels his hands pushed away, Gojo letting himself be absolutely yanked away and into Yuuta's arms, the boy hides his face on Gojo's shoulder, nuzzling him like he will cry any second now. 

And Megumi watch as his Father cups Yuuta's face, watch as he rubs his close eyes and whispers promises to him to calm the boy down, just… just like… 

“I'm scared…” Little Megumi mumbled, he was probably only 7 or 8 at that point. The thunder rumbled hard in the sky, the noise reverberating on the echoing walls amidst the storm. His Father sits on his bed, cups his face and rubs his eyelids, massaging his brow before leaning in and saying… “Don't worry. I'm here. I'm not–” 

“...going anywhere.” 

Megumi catches the last part only because he was straining his hearing to the limit. His Father seals his promise to Yuuta by kissing his forehead before turning around and walking to the door. 

Megumi prepares to leave, feeling chills running up his spine when– 

“You're adopted, right?” 

Those eyes, now devoid of any warmth he saw earlier, are staring right at his soul. Megumi's hand twitches, he feels something just… wrong, with this boy. Not just his hatred, but his cursed energy in general, something that flared up out of nowhere, like an animal salivating before a hunt. 

“Yes.” 

“So you're not really his, right? Because you're not his blood.” 

“So are you.” He bites back, words coming out before his brain could think. “You're not really his either. You're just his student, aren't you?” 

=

He would've fallen to his knees if he wasn't already clutching on the wooden beam. There he is, unconscious and restrained. The so-called special grade threat, a child, his… His. Child.

…

What is he supposed to say? 

What is he supposed to even… Even feel…? 

Years passed and he swore to himself to never think about it. Nights he wondered if he made the right choice, giving away his children like that… His mother assured him that the families she chose were good families, thankful to have a child when they themselves could not conceive one. Gojo would wonder how they look like now, kids who look nothing like both him and Suguru. 

He remembers the first time he bathed the twins and wonders just how is Yuuji's hair this shade of strawberry blond that looks pink in certain angles, Yuuta has Suguru's black hair, so where did Yuuji's odd colour come from? 

A curse. 

The first thing that came to mind was that both Yuuji and Yuuta were affected by the curses in Suguru's body. The monks said so themselves, that his children were corrupted, that they themselves were curses, Gojo had paid them no mind, as long as they took care of Suguru, Gojo would let them off the hook even after insulting his children. He didn't know what kind of curses they carry, or the fact that they in and of itself are curses. To him, they are just part of him and Suguru, nothing more. 

He once thought that his Children had grown up living a normal life, and yet… Here he is. 

…

“You've grown up so much…” 

His feet dragged on the floor, kneeling in front of his baby. Just like he expected, they look nothing like him or Suguru, and yet… Yet, he feels so familiar. 

16 years have passed, and yet it feels like yesterday he swaddled his baby in cold linen, how Suguru looked that night, emerging after experiencing hell itself. 

16 years and Yuuta still… 

“Yuuta…” 

Okkotsu Yuuta, huh? 

Gojo ran a full background check on this normal, non-sorcerer family his child grew up in, even before Rika arrived. He saw his baby pictures, his first day at school, his first fieldtrip, Gojo saw snippets of his son's life who was raised by strangers. They do look like they love him wholly, and then, the pictures stopped. 

It started with a forest fire. The temple near his house burned down. 

Yuuta's parents decided to relocate. 

Then there was yes another fire, the elementary school he enrolled in just months prior was turned into rubble, apparently, fire has catch on after a gas leak and the building had been burned and collapsed under its own weight, that was the only building that burned. 

They relocated again. 

Gojo saw the amount of bill receipts and reports of their moving trucks and copies of contracts on their rental homes. 

It seems like wherever Yuuta goes, disaster follows. 

The reports then stopped. 

The last one was dated just weeks before he was captured and thrown in this tiny prison. 

A newspaper clipping shows the charred remains of a small house in a peaceful, quiet neighbourhood. According to the reports, it was the result of a stove left unattended, the fire spread rapidly, and the tragedy took 2 lives. 

Yuuta was on a sleepover at his friend's house when he got the news that both of his parents had burned to death. 

It was the catalyst of Rika's rampage, Yuuta's body and soul destroyed after losing his parents at such a young age. The only two people he could depend on, now completely gone. He was alone, all alone. 

Gojo had scooted closer, hands on his boy's cheeks, caressing the tear streaked skin as he kissed his forehead lovingly. The kiss lingered, as if Gojo was savoring a full 16 years of longing.

He wanted to tell Yuuta everything, but he knew he couldn't.

He couldn't just rip away this boy from the only life he knew. He couldn't turn his life upside down by telling him that his parents weren't really his, that the accidents and tragedies that happen all around him might be related to his very nature. Certain curses can do that, rather than feeding on negative energy, this type of creature has the ability to create it. Gojo had only seen a few, a deity-like curse that would harm their own believers to inflict more fear, to grow its powers and create more chaos. But his son isn't like that. 

He's not. He's… Perfect. 

Gojo tucked his bangs behind his ear and smiled, standing up and leaning against the beam again. Waiting for Yuuta to wake up on his own. 

When his son first opened his eyes, when their eyes met for the first time after 16 years, Gojo told him not to worry, that everything will be fine now. 

If his heart wasn't already aching before, it was completely shattered when Yuuta broke down crying. When his baby boy collapsed into his arms and wailed. He must've been frightened, tragedy followed his very being one step at a time. The places he spent any sizable time in were destroyed one by one, the girl who he promised to marry as an innocent promise got mangled beyond belief after a car crash, cursed to stay by his side in the most violent ways. Then finally, as if waiting for the right time, his innate curse destroyed his home and murdered his family. 

Gojo swore to help him control his powers, maybe suppress the curse of the placenta he grew up in, from a fetus all the way to a healthy baby that was whisked away by the kind shrine maidens while his own parent was burned to death by Jujutsu Sorcerers, the very thing he is now trained to be. 

Yuuta grew closer to him, closer and closer, he let the boy spend all day in his office, let him cuddle in his bed all night, let Yuuta use him as a pillow during long trips on the train and lean his head on his shoulders during car rides. Why shouldn't he? This is his baby. His own flesh and blood, why shouldn't he dote on him? Fate has returned one of his sons to him, who is he to question it? 

But he has a secret. 

Gojo has a secret that no one knows. It plagues him with guilt, and usually, before Yuuta arrive, he could ignore it just fine. But now… now, the guilt comes back to haunt him. 

The guilt that involves his son. Not the one that just returned, though, oh no, it involves the son that he raised from infancy. 

His secret is… One of the reason, hell, maybe even the only reason why he adopted a child when he was 18 years old, when he was still a child himself, was because he was lonely. He felt guilty, and lonely, and he wanted to… to… 

He wanted to replace Yuuta and Yuuji. 

He wanted to… To feel what it would've been like in a future where Suguru was alive and he had to raise the twins. A selfish, selfish reason. The only reason why he adopted Megumi was because he didn't want to be alone.

But he thinks he did a good job… Megumi was unwanted after all, a Zen'in bastard that was about to be executed one way or another, a stain on the family lineage, and yet a Gojo clan prodigy had whisked him away, basically threatening the Zen'in clan to hand the newborn over. The Zen'in didn't want anything to do with the six eyes user, so they gave the orphaned baby away, not knowing that he carries the clan’s curse technique with him. 

Gojo thinks he did a good job… He did what a proper father should, his mother teaching him of parenthood, the good and the bad, she didn't coddle Gojo, he wanted to be a Father so he had to act like one. Megumi cried just like the twins, he has Yuuta's hair too, he likes to think that, if Yuuta wasn't whisked away into a normal non-sorcerer family, he would've grown up looking like Megumi. 

But now… is he doing the right thing? Is he being fair? Is he even allowed to do these things? 

Megumi attends a weekly boarding school, so he will stay at the on-campus dorm for weekdays and then go home on weekends, despite the lack of family time, Gojo actually finds this suitable because of his busy schedule, at least Megumi always has his friends around him. 

But then… Then, Yuuta came along and he became another reason. Yuuta would come and visit during weekdays, sometimes he would stay over, despite being in Gojo's house multiple times, he didn't see Megumi once. 

And then… 

And then, sometimes, in the morning, Yuuta would make breakfast while dressed in Gojo's clothes and he started fantasizing about the things he swore not to years ago. The sight of his twins in the kitchen helping Suguru cook, the lazy mornings they'd spend as a family… Gojo is turning 34 years old this year, he wonders what his life would've been like if they were given another chance.

He tries to erase the thoughts out of his head, because that future is a future without Gumi in it. And he doesn't want a future without his Gumi in it… 

Megumi walked into his office that weekend and Gojo quickly introduced his birth son to his adopted son. Gumi doesn't need to know this, but he hopes they will get along. How wonderful it'd be to have two boys yet again, even if they're not the twins that he had lost. 

=

“What are you doing?” 

“…” Ah, damnit. 

Megumi basically ran towards him, his feet slamming against the floor with anger that seems to grow with every step, his fist raised in the air, almost colliding to Yuuta's face if the older boy didn't expertly dodged it. “I. Said.” Megumi grabs onto his collar, Yuuta slamming the back of his hand onto Megumi's wrist to dislodge it before jumping back. 

This is ridiculous, they're both experienced fighters, they could destroy this whole house if they start fighting seriously, but Megumi isn't letting up, Yuuta jumps away from his kick that went straight into the window, shattering it to pieces. 

“I SAID!” Megumi screams, he jumps forward and finally gets a hit in. “WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM!? TO MY FATHER!?” 

=

Something is… odd, with Gojo Sensei. 

Yuuta can't put his finger on it, but it's like feeling deja vu in a place he has never been in, like knowing a story to a book he has never read. 

That night… on the outskirt of Kobe city, Gojo-sensei fell asleep before him. Wearing the inn's yukata, skin flushed after a shower, his brain shutting off after the fatigue of a 3 day mission. 

Yuuta knew he was being a creep, knew that what he's doing is wrong, but dragged himself on his hands and knees from the futon across the room, right next to Sensei's sleeping body. At first he just wanted to lay there. He quietly lay on his side behind Sensei, just… just enough to smell the shampoo on his hair. If… If Yuuta just scoot closer a few more inches, he could nuzzle his nape, he could feel the naked skin that was always, always, covered by his clothes with how modestly Sensei dressed. 

He didn't know what he was thinking, he still doesn't. But there was always… a… a pull. He… He couldn't describe it. From the moment he hugged Gojo-sensei, something just clicked. His confusion only gets worse when his body heats up at the thought of touching him more, not… Well, he told himself it wasn't… that kind of desire, he was not supposed to feel any kind of that sort of desire. But it felt almost magnetic, like a physical pull. 

…He met Sensei for the first time only a few months ago, and yet it felt more like a reunion than a meeting. It feels like he had missed this man all his life and then he finally found him. It must be fate, he must be fated to meet him. 

Yuuta's fingers, trembling now, press on the barely exposed skin on his… oh… on his thigh and– 

“…Mmm…”

He pulls his hand back like it is on fire. Gojo-sensei slowly turned around, stretching like a cat before tilting his head and mumbling his question as to why he is this close, and Yuuta just… 

“Nightmare–” He blurted out. “I got– a nightmare, and I just–” 

Not a single person would believe that and he was already panicking. But Gojo only chuckled and did the worst thing he could do to Yuuta's heart. He pulled Yuuta into his arms, patting his back like a baby, humming under his breath, the subtle vibration on his chest doing something to his body, something that was intended to soothe and yet… 

“Mmm fine… Told you, told you… You never have to worry about anything when I'm here, Yuuta…” 

He did promise him that, didn't he? So this isn't weird, right? Sleeping in a single futon, Yuuta's hands clutched tight around Gojo-sensei's waist as they dozed off. Normal. This is all just… 

Normal. 

But that night told Yuuta a very important lesson, that Gojo-sensei is a really light sleeper. And somehow… somehow… he feels like he needs that information for later. 

=

It wasn't an easy decision for him!

Look– no one would believe him if he says this but it really wasn't– It really wasn't easy! 

But he had to do it. He had to. And since… Since Gojo-sensei will never let him, he has to… Has to… 

He wasn't going to do anything! But Gojo-sensei wakes up at the slightest movement and he wants to… just… Just a little, he just wants to feel it just a little… 

That was what he planned, he slipped the milky sap into Gojo-sensei's tea that night, he watches as the drug take effect, Gojo-sensei looked so… confused, Yuuta had told him that maybe he was just too exhausted and Gojo-sensei had actually agreed. He went to his bedroom all by himself, wishing Yuuta a good night and told him to leave the keys when he wants to return to the dorm before dozing off. 

Then… Then the guilt eats him alive. The heavy guilt ate at him, but not enough to stop him. He just has to understand what this really means, this pull that seems to come from his very bones, something deep inside of his body, like a genetic disorder. 

One… Two… He plucked the buttons of Gojo-sensei’s shirt one by one, feeling the skin he barely ever sees, his finger trace down his neck, he's shivering so hard from nervousness that he could barely clench his hand. He daringly placed his palm to Gojo-sensei's chest, going further and further down, feeling more and more skin as he went along.

He can't help it, something is wrong with him. 

Because rather than feeling fulfilled and finally satisfied, he only wanted more…

He's here anyway, right… He's been suffering alone all this time. Maybe… Maybe… if he just… touch him a bit more… 

Yuuta leaned down to nuzzle Gojo's neck, taking a deep, deep breath, trying to remember his scent. And then– 

“What are you doing?”

Yuuta had no answer to that, what is he supposed to say to Megumi? Gojo-sensei's (adopted) son, huh? He barely ever saw him! And now he just– 

Megumi had been attacking him non-stop and he's torn, he can take Megumi down just fine, at this point in his life, he's sure of it. What other choice does he have, really? 

Megumi kept growling like his divine dogs, same temper also with the way Megumi is trashing in his grip even after he got him immobilized on the floor. 

“What– Were– WHAT WERE YOU GOING TO DO TO HIM!” 

Oh no, Megumi must think that he was trying to– no, it's not… “It's not– It's not what it looks like!” 

“WHAT ELSE DOES IT LOOK LIKE THEN!?” How is this dangerous asshole going to defend himself now!? Everyone will have the same conclusion!!! Okkotsu Yuuta drugged his father and was touching him all over! He was– “LET GO OF ME!” Megumi's voice has turned into a vicious shrill, still trying to fight out of the death grip that is Yuuta's knee on his back and hands on his wrist. If he pulls his hands back back with a little more force, Yuuta can easily pop his joint out of place, but for now his main objective is to keep Megumi from escaping. And that infuriates him even more. “LET GO OF ME! YOU FUCKING RAPIST!” 

A slap resounded through the air, Yuuta had completely let Megumi go, but in return he slapped him so hard that Megumi bit the inside of his cheek, blood quickly dripping from the side of his lips. 

“I… I would never.” Yuuta hissed, his body shaking from head to toe at the accusation. “I'd never– NEVER! NEVER! HURT HIM!” 

“YOU DRUGGED HIM, YOU SICK FUCK! WHAT WERE YOU GONNA DO ASIDE FROM RAPING HIM!?” 

“I JUST– I NEED TO–”

But the question is loud and clear! What DID he want to do!? He got his precious Gojo-sensei sleeping like the dead, the fight and screaming of his (adopted) son and Yuuta didn't even make him flinch. And Yuuta did that, he did all that. He drugged him, touched him. And then Megumi stopped him, but if he didn't– 

“I– I have to fix something–” 

Megumi uses his confusion to catch Yuuta off guard and slams him against the floor. His raven eyes are locked onto Yuuta's with an aggression and hatred that one wouldn't know until it happened to them. “You… I knew from the second I met you that you wanted him… I dont know how my Father didn't see it but I know you, I can see right through you, you fucking freak. If you dare touch my Father again…” 

Megumi dragged him off the floor, Yuuta is still so shellshocked by what Megumi said that he couldn't even fight back. 

What Megumi called him back then. He's not– He would never. It's just… Something is wrong with him, and only Gojo-sensei can fix it. 

=

“Are you serious, right now…?” 

Megumi is shocked, he is so, so shocked but somehow, at the same time, he really isn’t.  

When his Father woke up the next day with a headache, he saw the broken window in his bedroom and was just about to yell Megumi's name, worried if someone has broken in or… something had happened to him, only to see his son walking in instead, leading him back so he could sit down on the bed. 

And Megumi… told him everything. 

“Otosan, he drugged you! He was on top of you, touching you, he was kissing your neck!” And the first thing Gojo did was deny it. 

Megumi thought it was just shock, that of course he felt betrayed, but no, apparently it's not. His Father just completely deny it, as if he just can’t fathom Yuuta would ever do that to him. And when Gojo kept denying the blatant truth, Megumi pulls him closer so his Father can see him eye to eye. Automatically, Gojo's eyes went to his bruised cheek, something he didn't notice before. 

“He gave me that…” Megumi hissed. “Even if you don't believe that he was touching you, at least believe that he hurt me.” 

Silence. Is that all you can do!? Megumi wants to scream in his face. 

“OTOSAN HE ALMOST RAPED YOU! HE'S SICK, HE'S SICK! WHY CAN'T YOU SEE THAT!?” 

He can't bring himself to say it so in front of his own son, he just shook his head like a defiant child, refusing to accept that there's even a possibility that Yuuta would… Would… 

“OTOSAN!” Megumi grabs his arms, shaking him like a broken toy to pull a reaction out of him, any reaction, anything, just, anything. Yet Gojo keeps shaking his head, he keeps refusing to accept the truth, that his son is– that his own son is– “HE TRIED TO RAPE YOU–” 

“NO!” 

Years. It's been years since his Father ever snapped at him, the sound of his raised voice actually scared Megumi for a second before he started grabbing him again, trying to make his father LISTEN for once, that this man is dangerous! If he managed to drug him, what else is he capable of!?

“Otosan! He's dangerous! He tried to–”

“No! No he wouldn't! Yuuta isnt–” 

“What!? Isn't what!? If I didn't come home yesterday, what do you think he would've done!?” 

“He isn't like that!”

“How!? I saw it with my own eyes! Okkotsu–”

“HE ISN'T LIKE THAT!” 

“OTOSAN, HE IS–”

“HE ISN'T LIKE THAT! HE ISN'T LIKE THAT! MY SON ISN'T–” 

Stuck in the heat of it all, Megumi jerked back, and the silence, in turn, sobered Gojo back up. He blinked, and then a second later looked up, Megumi staring back at him… 

…

“Otosan…” 

“Gumi, I didn’t mean–”

“Okkotsu Yuuta…” 

“No, no, it was just a slip of the tongue, I didn’t mean any of it, Gumi– GUMI!”

But Megumi couldn't stay there, he ran out of the room, out of the house, leaving his own Father, still weakened from the aftermath of the drug, to scream his name in sorrow. 

=

“Something is wrong with me…” He's desperate, he doesn't know who else to turn to. “Ieiri-sensei, please… I'm sick, I don't know what to do…” 

Ieiri looks down at the test result that Okkotsu insisted that she do, and yet as expected, nothing is wrong with him, oh look, he's even more physically fit than other boys his age, what a surprise. But she knows this is all just a formality, Ieiri knows that the boy wanted something else. 

Okkotsu had no choice, he was dragged out by duty earlier, Maki and Toge pulling him on each arm and she was left with only vague descriptions of his so-called illness and till now, he still hasn’t come back. 

That morning, when she walked inside the clinic, the boy was already there. Okkotsu was on his knees, forehead almost touching the floor, begging her to cure him, to fix whatever it is that's growing inside of him. It's not a disease, it's not a parasite, what is this mysterious thing that he wants her to fix? 

And maybe miracles do exist, because the answer to her question walks in minutes later. 

Gojo Megumi dressed in his middle school uniform as if the senior, about to graduate top of his class this month, had all of the sudden decided to be a delinquent and skip school to stomp around Jujutsu Tech and slam the door to her clinic. 

“Is Okkotsu Yuuta here?” He tried to sound calm, he failed. 

“You just missed him, actually.” She stands up from her chair, leaning against the wall and tilting her head. This morning has been interesting, she would be amused by this teenage drama if not for the foreboding feeling in her bones. Because usually, everything that involves Yuuta can only mean bad news. “Stop right there.” She said when Megumi bowed lightly and was about to leave. “He was acting weird earlier, does it have anything to do with you?” 

“Weird how?” 

“Answer the question, kiddo.” 

A long pause means only bad things, and when she heard the answer, she wishes she never asked. 

… 

“And then!” Megumi is still going on, Shoko feels like she can’t take anymore of this but the boy, who is usually a very quiet person, looks like he’s going to destroy something if he doesn’t get it all out. “The drug was so potent that it made Otosan all delirious this morning! He… spouting nonsense and all that. He won’t accept that Okkotsu did that to him! And then he said… Something.” Megumi sighed, as if he doesn’t want to even talk about it. “He called Okkotsu his son or something…” 

“You know that’s just him rambling right? They are close but nothing more.” Look, she knows that recognizing the closeness and blatant favoritism Gojo has towards Okkotsu will just annoy Megumi even more, but thinking in the end, he IS just his student. Megumi has always been like this, perhaps all adopted children feel like this as some point in their lives, even when their parents are as loving and doting as Gojo is. 

Megumi doesn’t look comforted at all, still looking incredibly upset. “I’m going to kill that bastard…” 

“Good luck with that. Where is your dad anyway?” 

“Asleep… I told him to take the day off.” 

“You really dote on him, don’t you?” 

“I– I don’t!” 

Shoko waves him off after that. This seems like a cut-and-dry case. Megumi is right, Okkotsu tried to rape his Father, and Gojo still hasn’t come around to it. He will eventually, and he is a 34-year-old man who will probably try to fix this all by himself. She can already picture it in her head, Gojo making dozens of excuses for Yuuta’s actions, talking about how he’s probably confused or that he’s a teenage boy, all excuses that he would beat someone to a pulp over if anyone else tried to use that to justify sexually assaulting someone, but something is different with how Gojo treats Yuuta. 

Yuuta did say that he is sick, and Gojo did blurt that out. Hm… 

Well, what’s the harm?

=

As if an oracle, what Shoko said happened exactly as it happened. 

When Yuuta returned, Megumi immediately picked a fight with him, right at the center of the school. Granted, he had the self-restraint not to announce to the whole world what he did, more for Gojo’s sake than anything. But then Gojo himself came to break up the fight, dragging both of the boys to her clinic, much to her displeasure since Gojo somehow know that Megumi would’ve went to Shoko first, her being his closest Aunt and all that. 

Yuuta, that usually easy-going boy, who will walk to her clinic covered in blood from head to toe and still smile and bow politely to her, is now sobbing up a storm. A loud, body shaking sob apologizing while Megumi is screaming his head out, shouting accusation after accusation, it was all true at first, but then he start throwing out speculations here and there about what he would’ve done if Megumi didn’t stop him. And Gojo, who tried calming them down, had sat down on the bed, exasperated, as if waiting for the storm to pass which it obviously won’t. 

“Enough both of you.” Of course she has to step in, of course. Who else can Gojo count on if not her? “This is going nowhere.” 

“SO WHAT!?” Megumi screams, still pointing at Yuuta who is still sobbing, clutching the bottom of his shirt like an absolute child, simply bizarre. “ARE YOU JUST GOING TO LET THIS GO!?” 

“The truth is this, the school won’t do anything about it because you won’t tell them, Gojo obviously going to let this slide– Don’t.” She hissed the last part at Gojo, who looks like he has something to say, which obviously is going to rile up Megumi even more. “What Okkotsu did is wrong, and you know it. He’s dangerous, and you know it. But you won’t do anything about it, so just shut up.”

…

“Gumi…” After all this, Megumi still cares for his Father, he is the only reason why Megumi is still fired up, but he… He didn’t move when Gojo pulls him into a hug. “I know you’re worried, but Yuuta won’t do it again, right, Yuuta?” 

And just like everything in the Jujutsu world, to Gojo and his circle in particular, this will just be another haunting they have to live with, in injustice, a sort of ever-present fear and disgust. 

=

Something is wrong with me.

Life has returned to Normal, it’s nothing but a charade of course, but it’s a working one at least. 

It’s been around a week since that incident and Megumi is still fuming. He refused to go back to his dorm, instead making the long 2-hour trip every day from his school to Jujutsu Tech to make sure that his Father doesn’t spend unnecessary time along with Okkotsu, something that he decided to do after he asked around to the other upperclassmen, who revealed to him how close they are. His Father even brought Okkotsu home sometimes apparently, and they’d always spend a room together if they have to stay over for a mission. All of that is making Megumi’s blood boil. 

It’s amazing how Gojo can still keep up his cheery exterior, no one would know the storm brewing inside in his tiny circle, how he has to constantly turns Yuuta away only to please Megumi because SOMEHOW, he doesn’t feel repulsed about what Yuuta had done to him. 

It all comes down to a predictable point when Megumi asks Shoko one time, when she comes over to cook dinner for him like she sometimes do, a question that had grown in the back of Megumi’s mind, of… 

“Do you think Tosan wanted it?” 

The silence stretches out for far too long, Shoko didn’t say anything as she continue to wash the plates and the kitchen utensils. And so, Megumi asks again. 

“Is that why he won’t punish him? Do you think he wanted that damn bastard to rape–” 

“Do you want an answer to that?” 

“So… it’s a yes?” 

“No. To answer your question, no. I don’t think he wants Okkotsu to rape him, that’s not rape anymore at that point, right?” 

“But?” 

She sighs, drying her hands and turning around to face Megumi. “But I think even if he did, Gojo wouldn’t punish him for it. Okkotsu came to me that morning, asking for my help, said that something is wrong with him and he doesn’t know what.” 

“Oh, so he’s making excuses now? Great. A rapist AND a manipulator.” 

“Yeah.” Well, what else is there to say? There’s no other explanation for it, she believes everything that Megumi is saying. But as the boy continue to rant, forgetting to eat his dinner, she is once again reminded of it. 

What if there is some merit to it? Okkotsu claim that something is wrong with him. And what if it’s true, physically?  

=

Something is wrong with his blood, and that’s not a secret. 

Everyone assumes that it’s because of Rika. She is not a normal Shikigami, unlike Megumi’s technique, Rika, while still needing to be summoned, has a level of independence and intelligence solely because she is somehow merged into her summoner, which is her beloved Yuuta. Everyone thought that the curse residuals in his blood were because of this unholy merging. See, you can feel it. Every time Shoko has to wipe his body clean, every time she has to sew him back together before healing him, she feels that thrum of negative energy that everyone is so familiar with. And sometimes, in someway, she’d mistaken his residuals to those of a curse, a parasitic kind that will attach itself to a human being. The cursed spirit itself, and not the aftermath of his technique. For all she knows, she is still the only one who can sense it. 

Maybe that is the cause then? That has no correlation of Yuuta drugging Gojo for sexual reasons of course, but if he claims to her that something is wrong with him, well, he’s not really lying. 

What piqued her interest was something that Megumi said. 

His son. Gojo had called, slipped it out in a fit of panic, that Yuuta is his son. What an odd thing to say, right? You can say that some people think of others not-related to them as their own son, it happens all the time, Megumi of all people should know that, but Shoko knows that if she doesn’t quell this curiosity of hers, it’ll just get bigger in the future, becoming something she can’t forget. 

And so she contacted a colleague of hers and sent them samples. A week later, they sent her the results. At her age and in this field of work, not a lot of things can surprise her anymore. This is one of the rare times when she thinks her reaction is justifiable.

=

“He caused the death of 73 people.” 

What baseless accusations, accidents happen everywhere at any time. “Let’s say I believe you, which I don’t.” Because Gojo doesn’t trust any of these elders, they’re extremely hasty, giving his birth son the death penalty without taking Yuuta’s whole being into consideration, and now doing the same thing to another child. “What made you believe that these strings of death is somehow related to the boy?” 

“The child has been relocated 15 times in his life.” 

The poor thing, imagine having to move and adjust to a new family every single year? Since he is only 16, seeing that Megumi is at the same age, he can’t stop himself from thinking what Megumi would go through if he is to be treated like this, a nightmare. “You know how bad this country’s foster systems are, why are you putting it on a single boy’s head?” 

“Have you even read the reports, Gojo Satoru? This isn’t normal!” 

Gojo sighs. They’re right. He did not, in fact, read the files first. He arrived immediately after Ijichi frantically called him, telling Gojo that another death sentence has been given to a young child, something that they kept a secret from him with how he treated Okkotsu Yuuta’s case. “In that case, tell me again how you think this even had the slightest chance of being related to him?” 

“This boy has been relocated 15 times during the 16 years of his life because every single foster parent that has been assigned to him had died!” 

“People die out of natural causes all the time.” Sure, that is kind of odd, but that doesn’t mean anything without proof. These people, the higher-ups who never even seen the boy’s face, said that the child has a cursed residuals in his body on-par to a special grade curse despite being fully human. Which is simply ridiculous. 

“Not this time, all of them were found murdered in their homes, all of them ripped to shreds, all cases still unsolved till now since there have been no leads, it’s as if they were killed by an invisible force.” 

Which only mean one thing, 9 times out of 10, mysterious brutal deaths are caused by curses. Okay, sure, this does sound suspicious. But this can all end up being some accident somehow. “This number, 73, where did you get the number from?”

“His foster parents are not the only ones that this boy killed. He also murdered every single child in the same house as he was. And every time he was the only survivor who claimed not to have any recollection of what happened.”

…

“How many kids?” 

“Different foster house have different amount of children, this boy would be brought in, and only after a few days of sleeping there, that whole entire household would be slaughtered. HE is the only common denominator. HE IS A CURSE USER! He killed 73 people in 16 years!” 

=

“You…” 

He should be afraid, isn’t he? 

Yuuta had volunteered; he heard of the special grade case, a boy accused of murdering 73 people, was now locked up in the same place where Yuuta was once locked in almost exactly a year prior. 

But that was just an excuse, he knew that the sorcerers placed outside of the locked house wants to do anything but to be there, having to protect the rest of the school for a potential walking calamity. Yuuta is a special grade sorcerer, surely he would be more suitable for this right? 

He walked in, expecting to see a sort of monster. Only to find a scene so painfully familiar it felt like Deja Vu. 

The boy, with his eyes completely blank and empty, stares at the floor while his hands are bound behind him by rope that has been soaked in pigs blood and enchanted into something unbreakable by any curse, talisman sewed into his clothing, and prayers written onto his skin by blank ink. But even then, Yuuta can feel the cursed energy seeping out of him, like rain water dripping from the tiniest crack on the roof. 

“You…” 

“You should get out of here.” The boy’s voice sounds small and croaked, eyes still staring into nothing, not even bothering to look at Yuuta. “You’ll die if you stay with me.” 

“Something is wrong with you…” 

“I know.” 

Something is wrong with him. Yuuta can’t put a finger into it, he doesn’t know what exactly is wrong with this boy with strawberry blond hair and scars on his face. “Something is wrong with me too.” That got a small blink from the boy, but nothing more. “I think your something is similar to mine.” 

“…Somehow I doubt that.” 

“Hey, you.” Rather than moving away, Yuuta steps closer, going to his knees so he can look up and see the stranger’s face, which only made the boy turn his head, not wanting to face Yuuta at all. “What did you do?” 

“I killed people, alright?” He said through clenched teeth. “Everywhere I go, everyone I ever… It just… they all die, every single one of them…” 

“Really…?” 

“Yeah. That’s why you better get out of here, this… thing, this curse, it follows me around.” 

“Things always happen to me too, to every place I go to.” That sentence manage to get the boy to look at Yuuta, more from curiosity than anything else. “See, for me– For me, it’s fire.” He even sounds… excited, like a child trying desperately to convince someone of something they know they wouldn’t believe. “Every place I went to, it always gets destroyed, one way or the other they would all burn down. And… before I come here… Whatever that was… it followed me, destroyed my home, killed my family. So–” 

The boy hissed, loudly, when Yuuta holds his knees as if to comfort him. “So now that you’re here, you don’t have to worry!” Just like what Gojo-sensei said to him the moment he woke up. Yuuta parrot the sentence back to the stranger. “There’s someone here that can save you, so don’t worry! Everything will be fine, you won’t have to worry about it anymore. See, see, I’ve been staying in this place for a long time and yet I haven’t seen any visions!” 

“No– that’s not–” 

“It is!” Yuuta insists. “What we have, I think… I think it’s the same, you and I, and there’s this special person that can fix you, just like he fixed me. I know you don’t believe it now, but you don’t have to worry.” 

…

The stranger doesn’t believe it, he turns to the side, as if trying to ignore the crazy person who’s trying to tell him that his poisonous existence that has killed more than 70 people is somehow curable by this ‘special’ person. Yuuta doesn’t blame him, it sounds crazy to anyone else but ever since Gojo-sensei took care of him, his curse that has manifested since he was a child is now gone, or at least under control by some sort of miracle. Besides, it won’t be too far-fetched, Yuuta believes with all his heart that Gojo-sensei is a miracle in and of himself.

“Okay, at least tell me your name.” Yuuta whispers, insiting as he scoots closer and squeezes the stranger’s knees, “My name is Yuuta, what’s yours?” 

…

“I…” 

Yuuta nods a few times to encourage him. 

“My name is–” 

“YUUJI!?” 

The door slams open, the usually calm voice of Gojo-sensei now turns frantic, not out of fatigue but from something else, horror, if you read his eyes. 

Yuuta’s face lit up, he hasn’t seen Gojo-sensei in two days, far too long than what he’s used to, he was about to stand up when Gojo-sensei ran towards them instead, then, rather than talking to Yuuta, he swoops in and just– pulls the stranger into a hug. 

“Yuuji, you’re Yuuji, right?” Gojo’s hands are cold, cupping the face of the boy who looks confused and flustered. Gojo doesn’t even care about the answer because he knows this is Yuuji. Yuuji who is just… Just… 

Gojo stands up, catching both of them off guard when he starts untying Yuuji without any hesitation, he unties the ropes, patting Yuuji’s burned wrist to berid of the blood as best he could before ripping the talisman off of his shirt and wiping the ink impatiently with his thumb. 

“Come here,” Gojo opens his arms, Yuuta instantly obeying, jumping up and dumping his body in Gojo-sensei’s arm while Gojo literally yanked Yuuji, still shckoed and confused, into his other arm. “It’s fate.” Gojo wipers as he hugs both of them tight. “It’s fate. Both of you… Both of you, I can’t believe this.” 

It’s silent, the only sound being Gojo’s voice that is meant to calm both Yuuta and Yuuji and the rustling of the broken talismans that are rapidly burning to ashes all around them as Yuuji’s curse subconsciously leaks out into thin air, scorching all precaution meant to bind a curse. 

Both of his sons, born out of cursed wombs. Gojo knows it’s wrong, that his children are calamity personified but he doesn’t care. They’re his. They’re both his. 

It doesn’t matter if he, deep down, knows the truth. That Yuuta is the harbinger of disaster, and Yuuji is the harbinger of death, it’s the curse that created them in the first place, the amalgamation of Suguru’s technique and his lineage, and he seems to be the only one completely unaffected by it, the only one that can supress it. 

Gojo knows that the only way to stop their curses is to kill them, the truth is all around him, Yuuji’s curse is more potent than Yuuta’s but what will happen now that they’re reunited? He doesn’t know. And truthfully, he simply does not care. He let them go once and he won’t do that again. They’re his children, no matter how wrong they are, they are HIS. And he’s nothing but a Father, you can’t blame him for acting like one. 

=

“What? Of course, it’s real, what are you talking about?”

“There is absolutely no chance of you accidentally mixing up samples, right?” 

“…Ieiri, what’s going on?” 

“Nothing, thank you.” She ends the call without waiting for the reply, she’s looking down on the printed result of the DNA test, as if, if she reads it enough time, the result would suddenly change. It’s just that, despite living in a world where curses and cursed technique exists, she still always try to look at logical explenation before jumping into wild speculations. But the results are correct and true, Gojo Satoru and Okkotsu Yuuta are both genetic match for parent and offspring. 

That doesn’t seem logical though. Gojo never had any biological kid, none, and even if, and this is a big if even if the result says otherwise, Yuuta looks NOTHING like him. It make sense that Megumi doesn’t look like him, it’s obvious that he’s adopted, but Yuuta is supposedly biologically his. It just… 

‘Called him his son.’ 

Megumi said that to her the day after Yuuta got caught, he was so… enraged by it, at the thought of his own Father calling this random boy he only known for a few months his ‘son’. But does this mean that Gojo… knew about it? That this whole time, Gojo knows that Yuuta is his son? 

This just adds another layer of bizarre, disgusting sense to his actions that day, not only was he NOT hiding his affection at all, he was also 100% ready to let his supposed biological son get away scot free for potentially raping him just because he doesn’t want to punish him? 

… 

This is making her sick. This is just… sick. 

But now another question emerges. Should she tell his son now? Should she tell Megumi that the only Father he ever knew has a biological one that he also love and adore? 

=

“Megumi!” 

He could see it from the cracked open window, the white and black silhouette of Okkotsu Yuuta on his Father’s office. The boy had barged into the room, ready to physically fight this Okkotsu again if he even DARE to put a finger on his father when Megumi is stopped on his tracks. 

There, standing right next to his father’s chair, is another stranger. 

A boy with strawberry blond hair and scarred face, one that looks so painfully awkward but doesn’t move even when Gojo is holding both of his hands. “Megumi!” His father sounds so… excited. Beckoning Megumi closer and he has no choice really other than comply. 

“He’s going to be a new student here.” His Father whispers, as if Megumi even want that information in the first place. “He’ll enroll here next month! Just like you, he’s a year older but… isn’t that nice, you guys can be friends!” 

Gojo actually tells this new kid to uh… shake Megumi’s hand? But blondie doesn’t seem to want to, or rather… he looks scared that he has to. 

Gojo waited, and waited, but now all of them are just standing awkwardly, Gojo sighings and patting the blond’s shoulder instead. “He’s a bit scared, Megumi. He has a peculiar innate cursed technique that he can’t control yet, but I’ll teach him!” 

“What is it?” Megumi asks without thinking. “His cursed technique. What is it?” 

“Well,” Gojo smiles, patting blondie’s hand as if to comfort him. “His curse kills people he cares about.” 

…What? Oh great, just another fucking freak sticking himself to his Father. Megumi is going to lose his damn mind. 

=

Megumi hates this, he hates all of this. The situation he’s in, his Father’s attitude towards it, and how everyone else is playing along rather than addressing the situation… It’s as if everyone had convinced themselves, and now they’re trying to convince HIM, that everything is alright. He refused to do it. But what is he supposed to do? Back then, at least his Father ‘respect’ his wishes and try his best to avoid Okkotsu, but now…? 

Just because a few weeks have passed, doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. Just because his Father decided to move pass it, doesn’t mean Megumi will do the same. 

And now, rather than ever addressing whatever it is he has going on with Okkotsu, his father went ahead and did the same thing to Itadori Yuuji, his new favorite it seems, the same boy who eventually sees his father with the same starstruck eyes as Okkotsu does. Megumi knows it’s only time until that guy also pulled something criminal, something that Megumi has no way of stopping. 

=

She slides the paper across the table, telling Gojo to read all of it from start to finish. 

Shoko sits across from him in his office, she assumes that it would be the only place the kids won't barge into seeing that they're currently all in class and Megumi is finally back at his school. Megumi has no choice, this is his last days as a senior and just a few weeks until he is officially enrolled in Jujutsu Tech, he has so many things to finish up, a dorm room he needs to tidy up to move back to Gojo's house, at least it's something to take his mind off of things. 

Gojo takes a few minutes to read it and hands the papers back to her, putting it on the table when she refuses to take it. 

“Are you threatening me with this?” 

“Always assuming things.” 

“You're showing me this, are you going to show this to Megumi?” 

“He deserves the truth.” 

“He…” Gojo sighs, actually taking his glasses off, hand massaging his temple from a rare show of exhaustion. “It's not like I planned this… I never expected to see them again, okay?” 

“Them?”

…

Ah, damn it. 

“You can't tell Megumi that Yuuta is my son, okay?” 

“Gojo.” No, she's not going to let this go. “Who is the other one?” 

“…Shoko, just drop this.” 

But Gojo has been friends with her long enough to know that she won't. But he doesn't want to say it outloud. And so he doesn't. He stayed silent, so did she, and somehow, in that long, stretched out 10 minutes, she put two and two together. 

“You can't be serious.” 

“It's fate.” Gojo quickly says. “Don't you see? It's fate. They were taken away from me and now they're back! It's fate! And, and even if Gumi knows, he'll still be my son.” 

“Is that why?” 

“Why what?” 

“Why you, out of the blue, at the age of 18, adopted a child?” That's the only reason, isn't it? She always assumed it was a rash decision out of pure loneliness. Geto was killed, Haibara was killed, and Nanami had disappeared, he only had her left and she wasn't enough. “You tried to find their replaceme–” 

“THAT'S NOT IT!” He slams his hands on the table, and she, hardened as she was, still flinched the slightest bit. He never yelled like that to her. But now his eyes are boring holes into her skin, as if she had accused him of the most horrific of crimes. Which, in his mind, probably is. Accusing him of picking Megumi like a stray cat just because he lost his biological children. “I STILL LOVE GUMI!”

“I never said you didn't, but he deserves to know the truth, Gojo. Can't you see? He's confused.” She knows Gojo noticed too, Megumi hates Yuuta, not just because of what he did, but because now Yuuta is taking the small bits of time Megumi has with his Father, and now there's Yuuji, the new boy who is deemed too dangerous to be apart from Gojo for too long since they don't know how potent his still mysterious cursed technique is. Megumi, in the span of a few months, had his own Father taken away from him little by little by these strangers he didn't know. It's cruel to do that to him, he should know that he has brothers too. 

“He'll… Megumi just misses me, when we get to spend more time together, he'll be fine again.” 

“You think being forced into the same school as Okkotsu and Itadori, two boys that he currently hates most, will make him ‘fine’?” 

“He will.” He has to be, he doesn't have any other choice. 

See? Gojo might absolutely refuse to acknowledge it, but he's already partial to his biological sons. Besides, what would they think about… 

Wait. “Have you told them?”

“Tell who?” He asks, playing dumb in this whole conversation as if he can get out of it if he acts ignorant enough. 

“Okkotsu and Itadori, have you told them that they're biologically yours?” 

“They don't have to know that.” 

Oh god, she's going to be sick. “Who is their Mother anyway?” 

“You don't need to know that.” 

“Gojo,”

“What?” 

“Tell me something.” 

“You already know enough.” 

It's not a surprise that he basically threw her out, physically, he had his hand on her arm and everything, yanking her off the chair and locked the door behind her. How childish. Gojo is refusing to acknowledge this problem as long as he can so he can fool himself into thinking that everything is fine. It isn't. It will never be. And he will be reminded of that eventually, probably in very painful ways. 

=

Something is wrong with him. 

Yuuji has known all his life that something is wrong with him. But this is a new kind of wrong he is not familiar with. 

“This might do the trick, at least for now.” 

Gojo-sensei talked about him at length about this, how Sensei took the the threads taken from the Black Rope that was sealed away in Jujutsu Tech's hidden armory and weave them back into a sort of bracelets, two of them, for both of his wrists in hopes that it might nullify Yuuji's curse technique to a degree. “Your curse won't work on me.” Gojo-sensei had said, Yuuji has no idea how he knows, how Sensei is so sure of it, but the feeling of relief of hearing that someone won't die because of him… It trumps all the worry he has for now.

It would be bad if it does work on Sensei, because the curse only kills the people he starts to care about and he… oh, he starts to care about him alright.

He knows he shouldn't, and he knows even if he could, it shouldn't be this quick. 

It started right after Gojo-sensei introduced him to his son, he had brought Yuuji back to the dorm he's supposed to stay in, telling him not to meet anyone else ‘just in case’. He had excitedly told him that his son is going to enroll next month and he's sure they'd be ‘best friends in no time’. Yuuji somehow doubted that, he was still so… afraid of it all. In a few months, people will die around him, just like his foster families. The last man was this… very, very kind grandpa. He was so grumpy, he'd hit Yuuji if he did something wrong and yell at him if he broke the rules, but he took care of each and every one of his foster kids like they were his own. Yuuji cared for that man, and his other 4 foster siblings. He was scared, he tried to stop himself for caring too much, but they were just so kind… 

Yuuji woke up that day, and there was so much blood that it soaked his socks up to his ankle. 

All the bodies piled into a heap of mess in the living room, whatever creature had slaughtered each and every one of them. Heads ripped apart over there, unrecognizable limbs splattered next to his feet, frozen eyes staring at nothing. 

He didn't even scream. It was too much for him, he remembered feeling all the power drained from his body, falling straight into the pool of blood as he passed out. 

And… When he woke up, he saw this… this boy. This weird boy who seemed almost… Excited? To meet him? 

The moment Yuuta's hands touched his knees, Yuuji almost jerked out of his chair, something just felt… He felt something, something he can't explain, it's like hearing a click on a machine part of an intricate structure that he couldn't see, but he knew it belonged there. 

Something is wrong with him, something is wrong with them. 

Maybe that's why Yuuta wasn't surprised. Yuuji almost jumped out of his skin when Yuuta walked into the inn, right after he finished bathing to see Yuuji there, just… staring. 

He was staring at Sensei, because Sensei is just… He just… GAH! He couldn't explain it– He STILL CAN'T! Just… something about him. Something about how he looks, he sounds, he smells. Something about it is just so familiar, it's almost nostalgic which is weird, he had never seen Sensei once in his life before. But something just feels right and he knows it's wrong. 

But Yuuta didn't seem surprised when he saw Yuuji sitting there, eyes focused on Sensei's sleeping form, watching his chest slowly rising up and with every breath, the tiny patch of skin visible from his infuriatingly modest clothes even in his sleep… Yuuta knows exactly what he's feeling. The whole reason why he didn't put his hands on Gojo-sensei's skin is because he knew Gojo-sensei is an extremely light sleeper, that's why he made sure Gojo-sensei would stay asleep throughout even if his plans got thwarted by Megumi. 

See, that… That was the only thing he wanted to do! He wanted to touch, that was it! That was it but Megumi won't believe him. 

No one else can understand, they always assume the worst, no one… But now… 

One look at Yuuji's wide eyes and trembling fingers, like a child getting caught with their hand in the cookie jar, Yuuta just knew. There he was, the only person that could understand him. 

They didn't touch Sensei that night, they couldn't, he'd wake up right away. But they did sleep next to him on the hard tatami just to be able to be right by his side, their bodies ached like no other the next morning, but they were woken up by Sensei's amused laughter, asking them why they're squishing him like sardines. Sensei had pulled them into a hug, and that was enough. 

=

Something is wrong with him, something is wrong with them. Both of them, something is off, wrong, and disgusting. 

Yuuji started it. 

Yuuta helped him move the new dresser they bought to fill Yuuji's empty dorm room a few days ago and they just… decided to spend time together. 

“Have you ever tried this before?” Yuuta said like he's telling a secret, showing Yuuji a bottle of sake, something that actually made Yuuji laugh because of course he had! He's 16 years old with a messy life throughout, HOW could he have avoided alcohol? That's actually something Yuuta apparently never experienced. Yuuji happily answered all of his questions: has he ever tried alcohol? Smoke? Even something more scandalous like joyriding? And Yuuji answered yes to all of them. 

Then, like normal teenagers do, Yuuta asked him something… something sinful, in Yuuta's words. Wrong. He probably meant to say, and before Yuuta could tell him exactly what he meant from his shy mouth, Yuuji already cuts him off by saying, “Yes.” Whatever it is that Yuuta wanted to say, Yuuji had an idea. 

Yuuji just found out something peculiar that night. That they were both from Sendai, that they born on the same year, that their names even sounds similar… Gojo-sensei's words kept echoing in his mind. Fate, it was fate, he said. And maybe… Maybe he was right? 

Yuuji had always known something was wrong with him, but that was the first time he felt… Like… someone is just as wrong as he was? 

He was no fool, when Yuuta said he was also like Yuuji, that he was also cursed, Yuuji asked around and managed to find news of Yuuta's past. The house fires, the fires in general. He wasn't lying. Every single place he had been too, gone, burnt to a crisp. Including his family… It reminded Yuuji of his past. He didn't know much, but he knew that his parents were killed as a baby, that he was quickly whisked away by child services and placed in a foster home that accepted infants. The earliest concrete memory he had was the dead bodies of his fourth foster family. They should've let him die right there and then. If they did, they would've saved so many lives. But just like Yuuta, Yuuji, despite wanting to die, simply couldn't. He tried to poison himself and he simply woke up in a hospital hours later, he tried to hurt himself yet he woke up completely healed. He wasn't allowed to die. His curse wants him to live. 

So, maybe they are similar, maybe this whole ‘fate’ thing means something. 

Yuuta asked him if he had done sinful things before. And after Yuuji said that he did, Yuuta said one word, whispered, shy, hesitant; “Show me…?” 

And he did. 

… 

It felt wrong. Even if it felt good, it felt like he wasn't supposed to do it. But why, though? They're nothing but strangers? They're both boys, sure, but boys do this to each other all the time, right? Something in the back of his mind said that this is immoral, why? He doesn't know. But then despite that, a part of him yearns. 

It felt good, the way Yuuta's skin tasted, like he lost something before and finally found it, a weird connection they both shared. It felt good but it felt like sin, just like Yuuta said, somehow, they're not supposed to do this, but Yuuji had kissed people before, and not once did it feel like that. 

Yuuji had touched other people before, usually his foster siblings, boys the same age as him that had nothing else to do in a house filled with nothing but necessities and bunk beds cramped into one room, Yuuji remembered both of them coming home from school, when they were both 14 or so, he couldn't remember the details anymore. But he remembered how their clothes were a mess, books thrown away in the corner and their warm, sticky hands slipping all over each other. 

It felt good then, and it didn't feel wrong, they knew they weren't doing anything bad, naughty maybe, weird and disgusting to some, but not wrong. That thing with Yuuta though? That felt wrong, that he wasn't supposed to lust over him like that, but it felt like a pull, something he still can’t describe till now. 

It's like… this attraction that came out of nowhere. Yuuji felt immediately attracted to him the moment their eyes met, it was drowned by fear and panic back then, but eventually, when he had time to think things through, he realized what he felt. This weird, sudden attraction to Yuuta's very being in general. Yuuta has a pretty smile, a toned body, and a friendly personality, but that can't be it, right? The pull felt relentless, like something built in, genetic, something that got triggered when they finally met. Was that love at first sight? Yuuji knew it wasn't. 

But he did it anyway. 

They did that sinful thing together and Yuuji thought that was it, they did it a few times later, in the middle of the night when Yuuji or Yuuta sneak into each other's bedroom, their pants soiled from grinding on each other, that, some groping, some kissing, and Yuuji got Yuuta to take off his shirt that one time and that was all it took. 

That… That, Yuuji could still digest. It was still normal. It was mutual, even though it felt weird. 

But then, like an animal that just couldn't get enough, he found his eyes wondering again. It felt weird even thinking of it. He SHOULDN'T be thinking of it. He tried to explain it, dig up every word his psychologists asked him every first week of his stay in a new foster family and trying to pull words that he remembered. What was it again? Affection? Influence? Ah. Transference. Something about Yuuji, young little Yuuji, understands the different types of attractions. He remembered sitting there with a psychologist as she explained what he can and cannot do with his peers, what should and shouldn't feel towards his ever-kind foster parents. He heard them so many times with small deviations here and there that he mostly tunes it out. 

But it must be that, right? There must be some sort of explanation as to why he felt that. Why he woke up in the middle of the night, crawling from his futon to Gojo-sensei's and sitting there watching him sleep. He sees a sliver of skin visible on Sensei's waist as his long-sleeved, night shirt rode up just the tiniest bit.

What does it feel like? 

He remembered just… thinking about it. His eyes unable to focus when Sensei talked if he ever wear a shirt that doesn't cover his neck up to his jaw, his fists would tremble if Sensei wore jeans that shows his ankles and not pants that ends at the top of his shoes. He knew it's weird, he knew that it's wrong. But it was only on nights like those, on the days where Gojo-sensei brought him around missions to get him acclimated to this life as Jujutsu sorcerers that he gets to sneak a peek here and there. Seeing Gojo-sensei sleep without his blindfold, his pants sometimes rode up high enough that Yuuji got a full frontal view of his calf. 

That night was even worse, that night when Yuuta ‘caught’ him staring at Sensei, eyes locked on Sensei's bare waist, how he was biting his lip trying to stop himself from touching him just to feel that skin for the first time and– 

And the weird thing is, Yuuta didn't judge him. 

Yuuta smiled, it was soft, understanding. He didn't say anything, but he knew it was wrong, and he knew exactly what Yuuji felt. 

It's something in their blood, this pull that cannot be satisfied. 

Finally, for the first time in his life, Yuuji found someone who was just as wrong as him. 

=

She would have been angry at him. Would've yelled, maybe even slap him a few times, or try to if he has infinity activated. She would have… 

If he didn't look so violated, if he didn't stay quiet.

If Megumi didn't frantically call her almost a dozen times until she woke up and made her way to their house, rambling about how his Father had returned 7 hours later than what he told Megumi he would come home at and then quickly locking himself up in his bedroom. 

And then… 

The look on Megumi's face when she told him point black. “Megumi, maybe it's best if you return to your dorm for the night.” And the thing is, his dorm room was already empty at that point, he still had the keys, but he was already out, in every sense of the word, he had graduated and bid farewell to his old school, expecting to spend all his weekdays and weekends with his Father. 

Naturally, he defied her. He didn't snap or throw a tantrum, he simply asked her point blank why. Why did she want him out of the house? What could be so wrong with his Father that he cannot know? 

And the thing is, at that point, Shoko also didn't know, but there's this… very unsavory idea in her head that, if proven true, she just needs Gojo's son out of the house. She can't risk him finding out. 

“Gojo,” She didn't bang the door in worry nor anger, she knocked once, and then continued. “Megumi is out, he's not going to hear anything.” And he can't hide in the shadows either, Gojo made sure of it after the previous… accident. The door unlocked, she walked in, and the moment she saw the state he was in, she was ready to yell at him because she knew exactly what happened. 

And again, she would've, if Gojo didn't look like that. 

He's not wearing the usual clothes he wears to bed, the usual a loose, worn down blue sweater and comfortable sweatpants, is now replaced by a shower robe wrapped tightly around his body, but one look at his exposed skin, she knew exactly what happened. And she would've asked the expected questions. Was it consensual? But she knew that Gojo wouldn't have an answer to that. 

The fact that he cannot heal the wounds on his body was proof enough that someone, with something that could disrupt his curse energy put that on him, and there are only two people she knew could do that. The nullifying effect worked both ways. 

And so now, here they are, Shoko sitting on the floor while Gojo sits on the bed, her gloved hand carefully holding his calf to check on the damage left by hungry teeth and needy claws. They left so many marks on him, and she knows this isn't the worst of it, the fact that Gojo is sitting on folded towel is proof of it, the fact that it's been hours and yet he's still leaking semen and bleeding blood is proof of how much damage his sons left on his body. 

“Good news is, it seems like my RCT still works on you.” Her technique is meant to reverse damages inflicted by cursed spirits, but she finds that it works with general wounds as well, and the fact that her technique still works while Gojo's doesn't, just shows that it their theory is correct, that Gojo, as their biological father, can nullify their techniques and keep Yuuta and Yuuji's devastating curses at bay and vice versa. All they had to do was immobilize Gojo's physical body because his technique will have no effect on them. 

There are ways she can think of as to how they managed to do that. First, they, or at least Yuuta, knows that Gojo is not immune to drugs, she still doesn't know how Yuuta manage to acquire it, but if he got the pure sap of opium once, just enough to knock out Gojo, he can do it again. Or maybe, it's simpler than that, maybe Gojo let it happen in a way that he refused to fight his kids. Which is ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous. He brutalized Yuuta multiple times during their training sessions in the past, but now he won't fight them off? Or… Or maybe, they know Gojo well enough till now that they use his affection against himself? They could've threatened to harm themselves if Gojo didn't comply. But the absolute worst scenario is that… Gojo had let them. Point blank. He let his own sons defile him, inside and out and maybe he changed his mind halfway through but at that point, it was probably too late. 

None of that scenario is better than the other, the fact of the matter is, Gojo is hurt, hurt in ways she never saw before. The last time she saw Gojo being hurt badly enough to need her attention was… Almost two decades ago, ever since he managed to regulate his RCT, no matter how badly he was hurt, he could patch himself up just fine. And when he become stronger? With his infinity almost always active, cursed spirits, even special grade ones, rarely ever touch his skin. 

And now here he is, with more wounds than she ever remembered him having. Physically, nothing permanently damaging happened to his body, not for someone of his caliber, but it's where it happened that concerns her. 

She takes in notes as she checks. The joints on his wrist were cracked, as if someone was gripping him and squeezing his hands so tight to keep him in place that the actual bone within gave in, while adrenaline kept him trashing about and made the damage worse. The second largest bruise is on his waist, exactly like the first one, it was created by pressure. Just this immense, relentless pressure of hands grabbing his waists, thumbs pressed all over him, one of them pushed down hard enough to force him to stay still that it cracked his costal cartilage, creating the largest bruise in-between the hand marks. 

His cuts are surface level but there are just so many of them, made mostly out of untrimmed nails, probably made when they're trying to lift him up or push him down. Claw marks up and down his thighs, as if trying to grab and grope as much skin as possible. But the worst is… Well, it's understandable. The further up his thighs you go, the more red and inflamed it is. Bite marks are everywhere, not just love bites, this is one made from hunger, dug in so deep that it bruised the area around it, even then it felt like it still has some restraint in it, because if the boys completely let go, Gojo would have a chunk of his flesh missing. It's like an open book to her, history of violence etched onto his skin with the damage from their mouth and fingers; marks from pushing his thighs apart and keeping it there, bruises from skin hitting skin and… 

“Gojo, you need to let me see.” 

“No, it's fine, really, you did enough, I'm fine now, thanks.” 

“Look, I'm a doctor, whatever damage you got, I promise I've seen worse.” 

“Shoko, I mean it, it's fine, I'm fine.” 

“Gojo, it's been hours and you're still leaking blood, I need to see the wounds. I need to heal it right now or they'll get worse. You never had any wounds that lingered and I promise you, it will get worse.” 

…

She knows it will get worse. But it's already pretty bad at the moment. And ‘bad’ is really underplaying it. 

Gojo eventually agreed to her request but only if she turns off the lights. A ridiculous request, it will just make her job harder, but what the patient needs to be comfortable, she supposed. Thankfully, the moonlight from the open curtain seems to be enough. 

It's not like the damage is hidden, whatever the boys did to him was bad enough that she could see it plainly. 

She expected leakage, she knows that all that fluid can't be from semen alone. But the anal fissure inside him is absolutely worse than what she expected, probably worst that she’d ever seen, she should count herself lucky, until now at least. See, with this amount of bleeding, from the fact that the tip of her white gloves turned red the moment she tried to gently pat dry the area with a towel, they probably forced their way in at first, probably with spit, but found that spit pretty much dried instantly but still, they didn't stop. The initial penetration must've torn him open and the blood that leaked from the fissure made it easier for them to move. And judging from the damage, they didn't stop. 

There's just… so much blood, it doesn't end, Gojo must've had an open wound inside of him made from rigorous friction, they must've worked him for hours…

Look, she knows that she said she's a doctor, that at this age in this line of work, she had seen it all. But this is the first time she saw the damage from a violent rape up close. 

And the worst thing is, she knows Gojo will absolutely refuse to call it rape, he'd somehow find a way to justify what his sons did to him, he will tell her that it was all purely consensual, that he got the bruises because he just squirmed a little too much. And she's not in the mood to hear any of that. 

“Alright.” 

“Are we… done?” 

“I'm done with the examination, I'll have to move you a bit and penetrate you so I can heal the wounds inside of you though, do you think you can handle that?” 

He cannot BELIEVE that she's asking him that! 

In any other situation, he would've made a whole scene with Shoko thinking that he's too weak to handle some pain while the good ol’ doctor is patching him up. But now… In this situation, with Gojo laying on his stomach, sprawled out and open and feeling like a prey animal that's left to die. He… 

“No, I don't… think I can take anymore.” 

“Then I'll go back to the clinic and get my supplies. Hold on for a few minutes, okay?” 

A few minutes means a few hours, Gojo ignored Megumi's worried calls, who, like the good son that he is, followed what Shoko asked him to do and doesn't barge into the house no matter how much he wants to. 

And Shoko drove back to the school as fast as she could, she packed up her supplies, most importantly, the ampoule of pain killers and local anesthetic, enough to keep Gojo numb so she can do what she needs to do. The amount of cigarette she smokes during traffic would be concerning but she needs this, she needs the distraction. 

When she arrives, Gojo is still laying there exactly as she left him, the only difference is the amount of blood that leaked out, it still hasn't stopped, the slightest movement, even if he just clenched down, will make him flinch and a few dollops of blood will come trickling out.

She thought seen it all before, she's so desensitized by blood that she could eat her lunch next to a dirty pile of oxidizing bloodied gauze and clumps of meat just fine but this? She feels sick. 

But she keeps it together as she injects the local anesthetic, cleaning the rest of him with a wet towel while they wait for the medicine to numb him down. She asked him how he feels, asking if he needs more pillows, if it's too hot or too cold, she's being gentle with him, way too gentle since years ago when they met. It's her own way to cope. By treating Gojo like a patient, she can forget that she is treating her friend. By talking to him like he's an injured student trying to survive, she can try to act like this isn't the strongest sorcerer who was raped by his own flesh and blood violently enough that she needs to clean him up and out from head to toe before she starts healing him. 

It took her 2 hours to patch his body back up. Gojo had fallen asleep an hour in, probably from fatigue after holding that much pain for so long and finally feeling the relief of the same pain slowly thinning out until he felt healthy again, or at least, just whole, like his body was never bruised and broken. 

She changed the sheets, wrapped the blanket around him, and left the house. 

=

“Sensei said he left this morning because of something urgent, but… he didn't tell us what? And we couldn't contact him all morning… Is he okay?”

She knows that psychosomatic  symptoms are real, that you can feel physical pain from mental stress, is this what she's feeling right now? 

The boys have approached her first thing in the morning before class starts, asking that stupid question. Yuuta looks worried, shy even, his cheeks pink and eyes looking everywhere but at her. He apparently isn't sure if his beloved Sensei is fine or not, and he looks sincere. 

He… They, really don't know, do they? 

They don't know the extent of the damage that they did, she has no idea what actually happened that night, so she doesn't know if they're really this ignorant and oblivious to the damage. Did Gojo act like he liked it? Is that why Yuuta looks shy rather than worried? Did he say that he liked it? Is that why… 

Yuuji is also here, he looks even shyer than Yuuta, more awkward even, as if agreeing with Yuuta so that he doesn't have to talk. And they're holding hands, they're being so close. Huh, did they feel closer after that night? After they raped their own Father together? One after the other? Was that a bonding experience for them? 

“He's recovering.” She said, she couldn't bring herself to say anything else. 

“Recovering?” Yuuji sounds like he just heard the most ridiculous thing. Because Gojo-sensei is the strongest! What kind of mission could make him sick!? “That's crazy… What kind of curse made Sensei sick–” 

“Who's sick?” 

Shoko almost cracked her coffee mug in two when she sees Gojo walking up the hall in his usual uniform, walking all brisk and casual like nothing happened. And to be fair, her technique did make it seem like nothing happened, but he should be laying down for the day, maybe for a few days, maybe a whole week. You just don't walk around like nothing happened the next day. 

But there he was, acting like everything's normal. 

“Sensei!” Yuuji sounds so giddy, taking off running to dump his body in Gojo's outstretched arms, his brother following suit, Gojo acting like he got the wind knocked out of him. The boys literally squeal, saying that they were so worried because he won't answer his calls. Gojo laughs it off, hands rubbing their backs, his smile disappearing when he looks up at Shoko, pleading silently, with his eyes, to keep everything a secret. 

She was still so shocked that she couldn't move. It takes her a few more seconds to snap out of it, shaking her head in sheer disbelief, almost by Gojo's decision to protect the boys’ ignorance. She slams the door behind her, something so loud and filled with anger that the hinges might as well break but, like in a trance, the boys didn't pay it no mind. They have their beloved Gojo-sensei in their arms, the world outside can melt away. 

Like a sort of panthom pain, Gojo has to stop himself from flinching when Yuuta nuzzles his neck, letting go after Gojo ‘scolds' them for being innapropriate. 

“Right!” Yuuta whispered to Yuuji. “We can't do this in public.” 

His sons smile at him. They're blind to everything else, Gojo shielding them from the truth. From the truth in their blood, the fact that he couldn't heal himself because of said shared blood, their parentage, the fact that they had thoroughly violated their own father… His stomach turns at the implication of Yuuta's words. Not in public. Which means he wants to do more in private. 

He needs to do something or else he will get destroyed, mentally and physically. But for now… 

For now… 

He wants to pretend to be ignorant, to be happy in his predicament, for at least a little while… 

=

“I'm not talking to you about this.” 

“Shoko, c'mon… I need help and you're the only one I trust.” 

“Oh, so when you need help for something like this you go to me?” 

His laughter dies down for a while, and just for a second, a fleeting second, she sees that expression on his face. Helplessness. She had seen expressions like this from him before, not recently, never recently, in his adulthood, Gojo is the kind of person who will always have leverage or power in some type of way, but not when it comes to this. 

Maybe it was deliberate, maybe not. But the fact is, she won't be able to sleep if she turns him away. 

…

She has been having trouble sleeping since that night. 

“Fine,” She answers curtly. “I doubt it's anything I can fix though.” 

“Aha, yeah… Well!” He claps his hand, acting like he's all satisfied after successfully getting his friend to do what he wants, but like everything Gojo has been showing lately, it feels fake, calculated. Gojo doesn't feel any ease from this, deep down, he must be scared of the answer, if there is any answer to his sons’... illness. Is there even an illness? Is there a concrete reason why they are so attracted to their own Father? 

Whether there is or isn't any answer to this madness, he knows he won't like any of the answer. 

=

They're brothers too. How would they feel about it if they know…?

“Ah–” 

“Sensei!” Gojo feels Yuuji instantly stop, he could feel his hands tremble from having to restrain himself so thoroughly. “Are you… okay?” 

…

“Yuuji, maybe–” Gojo blinks the tears away, trying to focus even with this absolutely muddled state of mind. “Sensei needs… needs a little break…” 

“Oh…” Gojo could hear the disappointment in Yuuji’s voice, and his heart stings, he doesn't want his kids to ever sound like that; so dejected and somber. But he reminds himself that this, this isn't anything heartbreaking, Yuuji will probably forget about it later, the next time they do this. Because there is always a next time, because Gojo never says no… Because… 

“Yuuji, why don't you… Why don't you play around with Yuuta instead, okay…?” 

“But are you going to be okay, Sensei…?” Yuuta sounds genuinely worried, holding his cheeks to wipe his tears away that Gojo always claims to always happen when someone bottoms, there's always some type of pain involved so no, no, no, he's NOT sad at all! It's just a little pain, it's normal. And he reminds Yuuta of this again, smiling and kissing the boy's sweaty forehead. 

“Sensei is okay, just need a little break is all, go play with your… your…” Ah, he almost slipped, he almost told Yuuta to go play with his Brother. Which would've been catastrophic. He just smiles softly at Yuuta and encourages him to roll away. Which he did, because Yuuji already grabbed him, rolling him over to his back, pinning him down for a kiss which Yuuta reciprocated instantly. 

…

He can't even get hard anymore. It took a lot for him to get aroused in the first place, his sons saw it as a challenge, that they should do better, because Gojo-sensei is not easily pleased, just like when Sensei was training them, all brutal with high expectation, surely this is no different. 

Initially, because of how eager the boys were, Gojo could sometimes just… shut his brain off, if he closed his eyes, he could pretend that these two weren’t his children, the physical pleasure of being licked and sucked and touched in all the right places also helps, because arousal numb your brain and he could open his eyes, he could see Yuuji and Yuuta's face and hands all over his body and still stay hard. 

But it gets harder and harder to fake that excitement the longer they go. It must be because they're teens, that because their stamina is ridiculous. Gojo might be a beast on the field, but it's another thing all together when he has Yuuta between his legs, keeping him down while he trash about when the boy wont stop sucking his cock even after he already orgasmed, while Yuuji is licking and biting his nipple at the same time, it gets… too much. 

And he uses that excuse a lot. The second time they did this, he quickly tells them that he has trouble healing himself from ‘injuries that wasn't made by cursed spirits’, a full on bullshit excuse that the boys accepted easily. They tried to be gentle with him, tried, it was still rough but at least they used lube, Gojo made sure they learned that foreplay is a real thing and not just a concept, that porn isn't real life and he needs to loosen up before Yuuji can split him open with his cock that has no business being that thick. He had to stay stern when Yuuta gave him one of those lethal puppy eyes when Gojo said he needed a break, they can still touch him and do things to him, just– no penetration until his hole stops burning. He need probably half an hour or so, but he's lucky enough if he gets a ten minute break. 

He used everything as an excuse; his age, about how being 34 makes sex somehow ‘harder’, sometimes he just straight up said that he's not in the mood, which thankfully the boy respects, and sometimes he just asked Megumi to go on a trip with him for a full weekend which is a win-win because Megumi gets all happy afterwards even though he doesn't show it, and the twins won't get to touch him because… well, Megumi. Gojo had drilled it into their brain that Megumi can NOT know of this arrangement, that Gojo will completely stop them from having sex with him full stop if any of them even insinuates it. That spooked them off enough to keep them away from him. 

But he knows those are just crutches, bandaids to the real problem.  

Like this problem right now… 

Yuuta and Yuuji know something is wrong with them, they just don't know to what extent. 

Whenever Gojo needs a break, they find a way to occupy their time. Yuuji is, surprisingly, the more aggressive one in bed. He's impatient, sloppy, and Yuuta balances him out, at least he can control himself to an extent. Yuuta will take the lead, he has to or else Yuuji will just turn him into a chew toy. Yuuta grabs onto Yuuji's neck and cheek, keeping him in place as Yuuta tilt his head and force a proper kiss on the boy, he almost chokes when Yuuji forces his tongue inside, pressing up and licking on the roof of Yuuta's mouth before pulling back and biting his lower lip. He gasps when he feels Yuuta's warm hand on his cock, pumping his erection to relieve the tension of Sensei telling him to pull out. 

That feels so good, so good, so good– 

And Yuuji made sure Yuuta knew it, Yuuji made sure to return the favor, Yuuji made sure to kiss Yuuta back just as hard when Yuuta grabbed his waist and pulled him down and grind his hips up. Yuuji follows, he's obedient, he can be good sometimes. 

And they're having fun. 

Just like what Gojo-sensei told them to do. 

How would they feel about this if they knew?

They look so… different. Both of them look so different, as expected from fraternal twins, no? But Gojo can still remember the first time he saw them clear as day, the soft tuft of black and strawberry blond hair. He remembered how they slept in his arms, one on each side. Small… They were so small. So small, so sweet and innocent, just a ball of squirming babies that grew bit by bit until they were ripped away from him. 

Now look at them… 

Filthy. Broken. Sinful. 

They don't even know that they share the same blood, they have no idea that they're defiling their own brother with every kiss and every tug and every orgasm they give each other. 

Gojo tries to bite it down, but when he hears Yuuji screaming out in pleasure on Yuuta's lips as he orgasms in his hands, when he sees how Yuuta swallows it all down with a passionate kiss, Gojo finally breaks down. 

It took the twins a few seconds to process the sound they're hearing, only to see their beloved Sensei had turned his back towards them, tried his best to hide his face and even walked out of the hotel bed only to be wrestled back by two boys who look absolutely devastated.

They kept chanting his name in between worried questions, asking him if he's okay, if he needs anything, if they hurt him, if they did something wrong. 

And pathetically, that broke him even more. 

Because yes. YES, they did something wrong, all of this is wrong and he is the root cause of it. 

The second time he sobbed this hard and it's all thanks to them, Yuuta and Yuuji looks so worried it's pathetic, like they're two helpless, clueless deers trying to survive, horrified by the tragedy that is their Sensei crying and them not being able to fix it. 

They want to fix it, they want to make Gojo-sensei stop crying. But… 

The tears didn't stop, he cried himself until his head hurts, until his eyes and nose aches. His sons, both of them already red in the face from crying, also saddened by his sadness, hugging him until Gojo calms down. 

He feels helpless, he feels sinful. He feels wrong… 

=

“So, let me get this straight.” 

Shoko crosses her legs, leaning back against her chair as she watches her colleague on the screen looks more and more exasperated by the second. 

“You want me to analyze and diagnose a boy that I've never, and apparently, according to you, won't ever meet? Who do you think I am? An irresponsible psychologist posting on social media?”

“Two boys actually, brothers, but I don't have any other details about them.” 

“I haven't even agreed–”

“I also have no detail on their Mother, but I know their Father and their history,”

“Look–”

“I'm not looking for a diagnosis here.” Shoko cuts her off, showing emotions for once. “I just need to have an idea of what might be going on. My friend needs help, he's hanging by a thread.” 

There's a long pause on the line before her friend sighs, waving her hand, gesturing her to continue after mumbling out that she better realize this is not any real medical advice, and Shoko assured her she knows, she's a doctor too, even if unlicensed.

She knows she needs to keep it vague, but she's not looking for any detailed answer either. She tells her of the Father without naming him, how he refused to tell her who the Mother is, and how he apparently lost his sons when they were still infants and how that shattered him enough mentally that he adopted another newborn baby right after. And how the boys are separated, one of them going from foster home to foster home after accidents happened on each one, and the other brother just recently lost his family in a house fire that he truly believed was his fault. 

She didn't mention anything about curses, she didn't tell her that the brothers themselves have an unexplainable mutation in their blood that even sorcerers have never seen before. But at the end of her story, her colleague looks… she doesn't look like anything, poker face and all that, psychologists need to master that to survive in their line of work. 

“I see. And somehow they developed sexual attraction to one another?” 

“Only the brothers did, the Father didn't.” 

“So, despite being raped, the Father refused to acknowledge the nature of it and has been letting his sons rape him multiple times in the past?”

“Correct.” 

“And this has been going on for…” 

“Around a month give or take.” 

She sees her clench her jaw a little, even as a psychologist, some things still surprises her, huh? 

“Well, in a way it helped for the Father to care for another child right after, it probably helped build a normal familial bond. He and his adopted son have no sexual attraction at all?”

“Absolutely none, the adopted son is quite open to me so I know this for sure.” 

“The problem lies on the twins then. They still don't know they're related, right? Is there a solid reason why he refuses to tell them?”

“He lost his kids before, he's probably desperate to keep them around and is scared of what will happen if he ‘disturb the peace’.” 

…

“Look, Ieiri, all of this is horrifying but I can't tell you anything more than what you already know. I can tell you that this is a trauma response, seeing what those two went through, I wouldn't be surprised. One brother never had time to develop any real psychological bond with any familial figure, and the other one recently had his own parents die and blame himself for it. But bonding through shared childhood trauma doesn't mean sexual attraction is a given, and the curious thing is they also developed feelings for their Father at the same time… Are you sure I can't at least talk to the Father?”

“You can't, he won't even talk to me.” 

“Ah… Like I said, I have no diagnosis for this, I can't even speculate anything this complicated. Be careful not to get convinced by pseudoscience though. There is one that people believe might have merit when it comes to cases like these, but there's simply no real data or research to back it up.”

“What is it? You know I also don't believe in pseudoscience.” 

“You'd be surprised at how many people do. It's called Genetic Sexual Attraction, GSA for short, it's a term that is tossed around to explain the intense emotional or sexual attraction that can happen when close relatives, in your cases, siblings toward each other and one parent, reunited as adults after being apart for a long period of time.”

Shoko would never guess at this day and age that she would even consider anything that is not evidence-based and backed on research. She needs those most because she is a Jujutsu Sorcerer, someone who practices illogical medicine. 

She sighs, asking her if she has more information about it and if there is a treatment for it, in which her friend asked her if she really is asking her such a silly question. Right. She's a fool to think that something as horrifying, as convoluted as that mental disorder will have any simple solution, or any solution at all. 

There's no cure for his plight, and Gojo will have to live with that. What he does next is his own decision. 

=

His laughter fills her clinic with nothing but despair and badly veiled helplessness. 

She mentioned how he doesn't have any hickies that day, and Gojo, with a cheery voice so fake it sounds painful, said that his kids were being so kind, so obedient, that they listened when he said he didn’t want any marks, and that they needed to be gentle. 

And they did! Exactly as they were told! They were being so good, they listened to him, just like a good son would. 

And then the inevitable happens. He just sits there, he turns quiet, and Shoko doesn’t force him to say anything else. Usually she'd let him have his peace, let him spend some time in a place where he doesn't have to pretend to be anything else but an exhausted Father, he doesn't have to pretend to have it together, to act like he's just fine when he isn't. 

But she can't do that this time. 

“I don't have any diagnosis for you, but there is a condition that my colleagues said had been thrown about.” Gojo is lying in one of the beds, covered by a curtain, his shoes are tucked under the bed and she doesn't even know if he's still awake. But she continues anyway. “Genetic Sexual Attraction,” 

Gojo snorts out loud in fake amusement, still not saying a thing. 

“Yes, Pseudoscience, but it covered some points to their disorder.” Shoko gave him the simplified version of her lengthy conversation with her friend the day prior, despite both of them acknowledging that this is all mere speculation, it's still better than nothing. She told Gojo of the possible psychological bond that was quickly triggered by the twins being in a stable environment for the first time in their lives, how eager they were to bond with one another, and how because of Rika, Yuuta never had any real friends, and because of Yuuji's curse, everyone he started caring about were murdered. They both probably lack the understanding of the typical children develop in childhood, blurring the lines between platonic and romantic, and even worse, of sexual attraction. Gojo never had to suffer through that; he had a family growing up even if they weren’t close, he had friends, and he had his son, raised from infancy. He bonded with all of them in different ways, romantically and sexually? He was in love with Geto, despite no one else daring to acknowledge it. Platonically? In a familial way? He had his son, and even if he didn’t, it won’t matter at all. All in all, despite how turbulent his life was, and is, it's still very… normal. 

She doesn't claim to know for sure that that is the reason why Yuuji and Yuuta are so messed up, but that could be one of them, and also… 

“Since you haven't told me anything about their mother yet, I doubt you ever will. But you do understand that they're not normal, right?” Well, mentally, she knows they're wrong in the head, but something is also wrong there, physically. “Both Okkotsu and Itadori have unprecedented amount of cursed energy in their blood, it's fused to them, tools that works on cursed spirits that usually won't hurt sorcerers still hurts them. You know that means that they're–”

“They're not.” Gojo hisses out, louder than he usually is. “They're… normal boys, they're not curses, what are you talking about…” 

“I'm not here to convince you of the truth. But since they can't even hold cursed tools meant to eradicate curses, then, what are they?” Her shoes clicked on the tiled floor, loud inside of the completely silent room. She pushed the curtain open to see Gojo on his side, back against her, staring into the wall. “You want to know why your kids raped you, repeatedly? Why they carry calamity and death wherever they go? And why you, as their Father, is the only one unaffected and can nullify their powers? You have your answers now. What you do with it is your choice.”

=

‘You have to tell them.’ She said that it is his choice but she quickly follows up with the fact that he has a responsibility. ‘They will find out eventually. They're only 17 this year, Gojo. They will only get stronger.’ And what does she expect him to do? Nip it in the bud? As if it's a small problem he can fix if he get to it fast enough? 

…

“Ah…” 

Gojo shifts his body in his office chair, despite how soft and comfortable they are, his body is still sore after his sons used him. 

They didn't leave hickeys, and they used lube, they followed what he wanted like good kids. They listened to him, obeyed everything he said, listened to his words like it’s the law, and followed every single thing… except for one. 

“Stop…”

He knows he said it outloud, when Yuuta pushed himself inside of him, when he leaned down and kissed him as gently as falling snow, as if Gojo is the most precious thing he's too afraid to touch, a contrast to how he didn't stop and instead pushed deeper inside of him, even if Gojo told him to slow down, that he's sore all over, he feels full and wet after Yuuta fucked him open an hour before, after Yuuji took his turn and filled him with the some filth, semen dripping out of him, mixing with the lube Yuuta used right after to slide back into him, already too excited after taking a break. 

Gojo asked him to slow down, and he did, it took him minutes just to push himself to the hilt, he's going so slow, oh so slow… 

Gojo asked him to stop, and he didn't.  

“Stop…”

Listen. Please listen… 

“Stop… Yuuta, Sensei can't… I'm going to throw up…”

He didn't listen. He pulls back, just enough for Gojo to truly feel it before push his erection back inside, as he picks up Gojo's hand just so he can pepper his palm with kisses that conveys love that words simply can't. 

“You can throw up, Sensei, it's okay…” Yuuta said, from the corner of his eyes, Gojo can see Yuuji scooting closer, nuzzling his cheek as if trying to reassure him. “Yuuta's right, Sensei, if it's you, it's alright, we won't be disgusted…” 

They won't get disgusted, even when Gojo looks pale as a ghost, Yuuji and Yuuta just won’t stop, as if they're incapable of it, once they get their claws on their Sensei, when they got him on his back and spread apart, all wet and loose from abuse, they simply cannot stop. 

…

And Gojo knows this, he knows that his sons won't stop, when it comes to this. They stops when he cries, when he actually sounds sorrowful, but apparently not if he throws up, if he heaves or cough or piss on them, they ‘reassure’ him that it's okay, that they still love him nonetheless.  Gojo tries to breath through an impending panic, it all comes to a halt when Gojo feels Yuuji kissing up up and down his cheek and jaw, holding Gojo's wrist and pressing it to his erection, wanting Gojo to pleasure him with his hand when his hole is occupied, as if that's what expected of him. Yuuta leaned down to kiss him, Yuuta's hand on his waist and he starts going harder, deeper, Yuuji forcing his palm to stroke his erection and– 

“STOP! AH! STOP STOP STOP STOP–” 

Gojo started screaming, like an animal finally snapping after being backed to a corner, he pushed Yuuta away, and shoves Yuuji as strong as he can before quickly curling in on himself, as if physically shielding his body from his… his… 

“Sensei!” 

They don't get it– They simply don't get it, do they? 

Gojo wants them to stop, wants them to leave him alone, but Yuuta is pulling on his forearm, trying to get his hand off his face, Yuuji is holding his shoulder, with his ungodly strength, shoving Gojo to his back and keeping him there. 

Like he's in battle, survival instinct kicks in and he activates his infinity back on only to realize– Only to remember… That his technique doesn't work on them. Their powers nullify each other, the parent and the child, the sole reason why Yuuta’s curse hasn't burned their school to the ground and those Yuuji befriended haven't died a mysterious, gruesome death. 

“Sensei, are you okay!?”

His hearing is dampened, he can't hear them clearly, he can't see them clearly. His eyes are filled with tears, they just don't stop. But he's not okay, he's not okay because– 

“DON'T TOUCH ME!” He screams yet again when Yuuta tries to pin his wrist down to get him to stop squirming. “You're not supposed to do this! Both of you! We're– I'm–” He's panicking, he can't breathe! He can't– 

“You're my sons–” He managed to push out in between breaths. “I'm your father– You're brothers, you both– twins! Twins! I cut– I cut you out of your mother's womb and– And that's why you're cursed, you ARE a curse, you… Both of you… Are…” 

=

‘You're my sons!’ 

He remembers screaming, he screamed it loud enough that is no way his sons didn't hear him, right…? 

“Oh! You're waking up!” He just sounds so… Cheerful. He sounds like Yuuta, exactly like Yuuta when he isn't scared or bleeding, Yuuta now sounds cheery, happy, unaffected. 

Gojo blinks as he looks down, they're still on the bed, but he's covered in a blanket, all tucked in and warm. Yuuta is lying next to him, caressing his cheek with the back of his hand, Yuuji climbing next to him, leaning down to kiss his cheek, lingering there like he dreads parting even an inch. 

“We were so worried…” Yuuji mumbles, “You just passed out, Tosan… I thought we hurt you…” 

He tries to move, but his body just feels weak, they didn't restrain him or anything, he doesn't even feel physically sick, but his head is spiralling. 

Yuuta hums in agreement, nuzzling Gojo's neck and slowly hugging his waist, as if he's hesitant if he's allowed to touch him or not, yet decides by himself that it's okay. “Are you okay? We can help you clean up if you want, anything you want…” 

His eyes water yet again, shaking his head because that's the only thing he can do for now. 

34 years of being alive, of being the strongest, and now he feels weaker and more vulnerable than an ant under the rain. 

Otosan, they call him.

…He's not as clueless as Megumi thinks, of course he saw it, the way Yuuta would pout whenever Megumi drags him away for the weekend, the way he looked jealous, so jealous, when Megumi can casually call him ‘Otosan’, call him his Father, when Yuuta was only allowed to be his student. 

But then Yuuta drugged him. And after Yuuta met his twin, when both he and Yuuji feed off of each others curse, they pinned him down, broke him from the inside out. His boys wanted him to be their Father, someone they respect and can lean on, but then they pinned him down and raped him like he's nothing. 

He remembered yelling, screaming at them to stop, but they didn't. That was the first night. 

But now they know the truth, so why…? 

“Who was born first, Tosan? Me or Yuuta?” Yuuji asks him so easily, his fingers tracing random patterns on his chest, always wanting his attention. “It must be me.” Yuuta whispers, fondly, giggling at Yuuji who pouts and says that he must be the older one. A playful banter, one brothers would have 

“Why…?” Gojo croaks out. “Why are you so…” 

“We always know something is wrong with us…” Yuuta whispered, lying on his side so he can cuddle Gojo fully, slipping his hand under the blanket so he can hug his arm. “I was always so confused, Tosan… But because of you! Now we know! We're family, you and I… Tosan, it just… It makes so much sense.” 

“Yeah, it was so confusing,” Yuuji says from his other side, lips kissing Gojo's cheek and lingering there, whispering against his skin. “I always knew something was wrong with me… Thank you for telling us what it is. I mean, we can finally put a name on it. It's wrong to sleep with my Brother, it's wrong to sleep with my Father. I finally get it now…” 

No… 

Gojo feels Yuuji's hand slipping under the blanket, caressing Gojo's stomach slowly with his thumb. His hand goes lower… and lower… 

Gojo shoves his hand away, he feels so lightheaded but he forced himself to sit up, only to be shoved back down. Before Gojo can protest, Yuuji lifts up his own wrists, hooking his finger on the bracelets and snapping them one after the other. 

This time Gojo actually wants to throw up, feeling Yuuji's cursed energy seeping everywhere. “You have to stay with us now,” he whispers. “At least until we can make a new one, you're the only one who can keep my powers in check… so you can't… leave…”  

“Is that what you want…? You want to keep me locked up in here…?”

“No… Of course not, you’ll hate me…  and you’re too strong for that.” Yuuta sounds genuinely confused. “I just… Want you here for the night… You kept asking us to stop, we thought you hated us, we just want you to stay…”

“That's not… I… I don't… hate you…” Gojo can feel Yuuji smiling against his cheek and Yuuta hugging him tighter, they're so relieved. “But this isn't normal…” 

“Of course it's normal!” Yuuta insists, he almost sounds insulted. “It's normal, isn't it? No dad would ever hurt his sons! You never hurt us before, it's only logical that you love us!” 

…

He will actually be sick this time, and the twins noticed this. For a second, Gojo feels the world moving, realizing that Yuuji helped him to his feet so he can wobble to his bathroom, his sons always a step behind, ready to catch him if he falls. 

Gojo feels a hand rubbing his back as he throws up everything in his stomach which isn't a lot, but the hand on his back doesn't stop, always trying to comfort him. His head is spinning, his chest aching at the memory of tiny Megumi, probably still 9 or 10 at that time, trying to be the big boy and take care of Gojo when he got a fever, even though he himself was panicking after seeing his Father sick for the first time, he tried to rub his back, to hug him to sleep, even hiding the fact that he was crying in fear earlier. 

…

Gumi… He missed his Megumi. His son, his precious son… His… He wants him back, he wants his normal life back… 

Gojo cups some water and washes out the clear bile and rinses his mouth. He just… he can’t fight them off anymore, he doesn't have the energy to try and get Yuuji to put him down before being laid back down, gently, on the bed. 

…

But then again… He got them back, he just got them back, his precious babies… The boys he thought he lost forever are now back in his arms, and they both love him, they both love him so much that they lost their minds… 

“You were born from a curse…” Gojo blurts out, his eyes lidded, barely able to string up thoughts. “Your mother… His curse technique forced him to bear curses in his body… He created you out of accident… I think… You grew up surrounded by them, by these… vile spirits born out of human emotions. The things I kill, you were born out of them…” He feels a hand on his cheek, a gentle thumb wiping the water off from his chin, a soft lips kissing the corner of his eyes, stopping the tears from falling. “You almost killed your mother… Tried to rip him apart… You would've killed him if I didn't cut you out myself… I… I raised you… I raised you but then I gave you away and it was– wrong, it was wrong, wrong, WRONG! I gave you away, what I did– I did– I got rid of you. What I did was wrong, and your existence, my babies, you're wrong, both of you– you're wrong and twisted…” Lips, two pair of lips kissing down his neck, one of them lingering on his chest, his arm, his fingers, the other one lingering on his waist, peppering sweet kisses down his thigh…

“You were so kind to us…” That voice, so soft, must be Yuuta's. “You cut us out yourself? You must really wanted to meet us.” 

“Tosan, please don't blame yourself…” Yuuji said, nuzzle Gojo's calf as he does so, tracing his ankle, rubbing soothing circles on the back of his foot. “You never wanted to hurt us, I know you didn't, I know you didn't want to send us away. It's okay, because we're together now, aren't we? Remember what you said… this is fate.” 

Fate… he did… he did say that, didn't he? But that was when he thought Fate finally decided to be kind to him, to reunite him with his missing family, that they could all get along, him, Gumi, Yuuji and Yuuta… Just a normal, happy family… 

“We're curses, aren’t we? But is that all we are to you?”

Gojo can only shake his head. No, Yuuji, of course you're not just a curse to him, they…

“See? You're so kind to us,” Yuuta whispers, “You knew that we are wrong, all this time, you know that we are the same as the things that you kill. But you stopped us from killing, didn't you? You care for us so much, you kept us safe, kept others safe. You're so kind… so perfect, so beautiful.” 

The bed shifts again, Gojo can't even open his eyes when he feels Yuuta climbing up the space on the bed above his head, when he feels Yuuji slowly spreading his legs again, slotting himself in between them like it's his right to do so. 

“Tosan… Thank you for creating us, without you, us curses wouldn't be able to stay alive.” 

Gojo's lips part, like he wants to say something but the words ultimately get stuck on his throat when he feels the now familiar feeling of Yuuji's erection pressing on his rim. He cannot even push him off, Yuuta is pinning his wrist securely on the bed, not an inch for him to wiggle out of. 

“Yuuji's right, Tosan… You gave us everything, everything, now it's time for us to give back.” 

Gojo cried out, the only noise he can make when Yuuji holds onto his waist, one hand holding his erection, lining the tip to Gojo's rim and pushing down hard, forcing the crown and then the rest up to the base to slip inside, Yuuji throwing his head back from pure, unadulterated pleasure. Finally, he's finally back inside of him… 

…

“I love you.” 

Yuuta leaned down, pressing a kiss to his lips. He sounds so sincere when he says it. “I love you, I love you, I love you…” 

Gojo couldn't move, his sons took everything from him, and he let them, again and again. And for once… it actually feels pleasurable. 

Yuuji and Yuuta keeps drilling it into his head, with every touch, every kiss, every orgasm they give him. How he's so beautiful, so perfect,  and all theirs, both body and soul, both flesh and spirit. Yuuta and Yuuji claiming the very person who created them, the man who gave them their human side so the curse can physically stay alive. They whisper their love to him, thanking him for helping their mother create them out of the amalgamation of despair, desire and pure negative energy born out of hatred and pain that were forced to live and grow and rot inside of their Mother's stomach. So from now on, they will give all of them to him, they will stay with him forever, love him forever and ever. 

Their Father, their creator, their Bride, their Every. Single. Thing. 

“We love you, Otosan…” 

“I… Yuuta… Yuuji, I… Stop… stop this, stop… let me go, this is wrong, just let me go…” 

“No. We won’t. We love you, Otosan. So, love us back.”