Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Suguru sipped his matcha tea in his new home for lunch, eating his meal in peace and reading a book. After confessing to Satoru on Christmas Eve, they’ve been together all these months. But Satoru being Satoru decided to gift him something insane - but so him - for Valentine’s Day. 

A house. 

That’s right, a house .

Suguru has long given up what Satoru called “his old life”, while Megumi called “his cult days”, where he killed non-sorcerers for simply existing. He now works directly with Satoru to help with some… less than legal sorcerer assignments. His old members are doing their own thing with Miguel training Okkotsu (who nearly killed him on sight the first time he saw him after Christmas), Manami taking in Negi to lead whatever life they wanted, and Larue, after realizing he was serious about giving up his curse user life, decided to just leave a sorcerer life entirely. And because Nanako and Mimiko hadn’t killed anyone, they had no reason not to be students under Satoru; they, now second-years, had a bit of a time adjusting but were enjoying the new year. They weren’t close with the other students, but they always found time to bother their new pseudo-brother, Megumi.

After officially meeting Tsumiki and Megumi, Suguru immediately sensed a curse mark on her soul. He told Satoru and Megumi of this, purely for selfish reasons to save her, and gave a curse that would protect her and eat at the malevolent cursed energy around her. He insisted on every curse in his inventory, but the universe still loved laughing at him and Satoru, because the only one that could get the job done and that Tsumiki felt comfortable with having around her was Toji’s Inventory Curse. 

She even named it Zaiko-kun, despite not being able to see him. 

But Zaiko-kun did his job and ate at any curse flare-up around Tsumiki to protect her from entering that damn coma until they could find the monster behind her curse. Tsumiki was so adored by Nanako and Mimiko, to the point that they tried to make Satoru enroll her in the school (“If Maki-san can be a sorcerer without cursed energy, so can Miki-chan if you give her cursed tools too!”). But Tsumiki much preferred her life as a normal student, and she always found time to visit home. 

Ah, that’s where he started with this, didn’t he?

Satoru, as a Valentine’s Day gift, bought him a house as a way for their makeshift family to live safely — he was still a criminal — but still be together as a family . That gift brought Suguru to tears, especially how, in a short time, their small family became bigger and closer. 

Tsumiki adored having sisters now. They got along great and she always kept the twins in check when they got, in her words, “that dangerous glint” in their eyes when someone dared speak ill of their family. Tsumiki’s sweet and gentle soul matched Nanako’s chaotic energy and Mimiko’s indifferent thinking of the world. The twins helped her stand up more herself. However, all three were dangerous together when they ganged up on Megumi to come out of his shell.

Speaking of his girls… 

Nanako was immediately spoiled by Satoru as an unstoppable force of Nanako’s spending habits met the immovable object that was Satoru’s wallet. She loves him and made it a personal mission to make a dent in his bank account as “compensation for not going after Suguru sooner”. Satoru even found her more outright energy “refreshing” in a house of “sensible” people. There were plenty of times when Suguru almost regretted letting them meet, but seeing their smiles made that thought disappear instantly. 

In contrast, Mimiko was more hesitant about moving in, but Satoru helped reassure her he would do anything to protect Suguru, with emphasis on anything as he went into heavy detail on if anyone tried to kill Suguru without his permission, they would meet an early grave. Mimiko worried about her cursed doll, as it was a terrible curse to be forced upon anyone, but Satoru reassured her every time and bought plenty of sewing supplies to keep her doll as “pretty as her”, understanding it was a comfort item to her. Mimiko enjoyed the house and even helped Suguru make Satoru rest when he came home. 

Then there was Megumi. Now, Megumi did not like Suguru because of his past. After meeting him, the second Satoru was out of the house, he point-blank stated he didn’t think Suguru was good enough for Satoru. Suguru happily accepted the reason; it was great someone would keep him in check, and the day he won over Megumi’s approval meant he was halfway on his path of repentance. Despite his comments about not liking Suguru, he always came to him when Satoru pushed too much or for more of an “objective” opinion on an issue. 

Now, it was July, and all his children (yes, his children) were busy. Tsumiki was on her summer vacation, so she was home more often, but she got an internship to work at a hospital under a Dr Mizuno. Nanako and Mimiko should be training for the Goodwill Exchange Event with the other second-years, along with Megumi, if Satoru could convince Yaga to let the first years join in to make up for the expelled third years. 

His moment of peace in his home was broken when the front door slammed open and promptly locked. Peeking around the corner, he saw Satoru pushing—

Itadori Yuuji.

Suguru nearly dropped his cup in shock. 

He knew the day would come when he met Itadori eventually, but to see him in person was something entirely different. He honestly thought he would meet him later when Satoru or Megumi could no longer hide their relationship and were forced to bring him (along with the other first-year) for dinner. Satoru spotted Suguru watching him and dared to laugh .

“Hey, Suguru, sweetie, honey, my love. Whatcha doing? I thought you were still cooking,” greeted Satoru, wrapping an arm around Itadori. The poor boy looked so confused. 

“I finished not too long ago,” answered Suguru, staring at Itadori, who at least had the manners to wave a greeting. “The better question is, whatcha got there, Satoru?”

Satoru feigned shock as he explained, “What? Him? Oh, glad you asked. This is Itadori Yuuji, he’s another first-year student of mine, and he’s going to stay here for a while.”

“How long is a while, Satoru?” asked Suguru, blocking the path to wherever he planned to hide Itadori. 

“Uh, like, until he learns his Cursed Energy. At the very earliest, probably… the Exchange Event,” said Satoru, pushing Itadori further into their home. For an untouchable man, he sure loves using children as a shield against Suguru once they started dating. “Please, I’ll keep him out of sight.”

“And why would you need to do that ? Surely, Megumi would be happy to see Itadori-kun,” commented Suguru, raising an eyebrow. “Unless… he doesn’t know. But why wouldn’t he? He’s been talking about Itadori-kun for a while now.”

“Fushiguro talks about me?” asked Itadori, a slight blush on his cheek.

A twitch found its way onto Suguru’s face. “Itadori-kun, I ask you not to call Megumi by his surname in this house. Please, if you must be formal, call him Megumi-san.”

“What’s wrong with Fushiguro?” asked Itadori, genuinely. 

“Until a certain someone explains a certain something to Megumi, I refuse to have that family name spoken in our home,” answered Suguru, glaring at Satoru. 

Yes, he made that a rule once Satoru confessed that he had never told Megumi he killed his father. The first time that name should be uttered in Suguru’s presence shall be when Satoru gets the courage to tell Megumi the truth. 

“Oh, okay,” replied Itadori, until Suguru’s words clicked in his head. “Wait, ‘our’ home? You two live together?”

Suguru shared a tired look with Satoru before sighing. “Itadori-kun, please join us in the dining room as we explain things. My Satoru hadn’t learned what is important information to share and what isn’t.”

So, this became their first meeting. 

Itadori explained that he was killed on a mission and miraculously (or maliciously, depending on the outcome) revived by Sukuna. Satoru thought Suguru would have a bigger reaction to this, but he already knew of Itadori’s fate. He can only hope to stop Sukuna from taking over Itadori like in that other timeline. 

Suguru watched with rapt attention as Itadori wolfed down his food. He thanked him for the meal, to which Suguru replied, “Of course. I’m glad you enjoyed it. I know how the taste of curses can really leave a horrible aftertaste.”

“You do?!” cried Itadori, excitement in his eyes. “How?”

“My technique is called Cursed Spirit Manipulation, but to have control over them, I need to eat the curse. Trust me, I needed to learn how to cook. Curses taste like a rag used to wipe up vomit,” said Suguru, enjoying the disgust on Satoru’s face. Serves him right for trying to sneak Itadori away in their own home.

Itadori nodded. “I get a bit of the vomit afterward cause I do want to throw up after eating Sukuna’s fingers. But his fingers tasted more like moldy, soapy wax that had been sitting in the sun for ages, like it turned acidic. But food always makes it better! It’s ‘cause anything tastes better than a curse or cursed object, right?”

“So true, Itadori-kun,” said Suguru with a smile. He turned to Satoru, exasperated. “And you wanted to hide Itadori-kun from me, why? I might never get to meet another tortured soul who feels my pain of eating curses, and you try to hide him away.”

“I knew you two would get along! Yuuji even comes from a non-sorcerer family,” commented Satoru, grabbing the dishes they finished. 

Suguru knew that too, but still turned to Itadori, fascinated. “Is that true as well?”

“Well, as far as I know,” answered Itadori with a shrug. “I didn’t know Curses existed until I saved Fushi- Megumi and ate the finger. I don’t know my parents, but I know my grandpa didn’t know about them… I think. He did want to tell me something before he died.”

Oh… he didn’t know that . 

“Did he give any wise words before he died?” asked Suguru, swirling his drink in thought. “When my grandmother died, she asked me to help people find meaning in their lives.”

“He said he wanted me to save people, ya know, help them when I can, since I’m a strong kid,” answered Itadori, a bit of a faraway look in his eyes. “He wants me to be surrounded by people who love me when I die.”

Suguru hummed in thought. That was a noble last word, but he felt bad. Usually, when people gave their last words, it was a secret curse. For him, he became obsessed with finding meaning in everything , but for Itadori, he might be cursed with the status to always be a martyr. But, it was wise words nonetheless. 

To break the somber air, Suguru asked, “Did Satoru ever tell you that I’m also a Special Grade Sorcerer? He has this idea that we’re the Strongest together—”

“‘Cause we are!”

“—but I think he’s still leagues ahead of me in terms of Cursed Energy. I can kick his ass anytime in hand-to-hand combat, though,” teased Suguru, winking at Satoru, who did pout at that fact. “So, if you ever want someone to train you on that front, better come to me than Satoru.”

Itadori laughed before scratching his cheek shyly. “I’ve been meaning to ask. Are you and Gojo-sensei…?”

“Together?” finished Suguru, glancing at Satoru, who looked like a puppy waiting for a treat, “Yes. We’ve known each other since our first-year along with Shoko. But we only started dating last Christmas Eve, purely my fault.”

“We could be husbands, but someone thinks we'd be rushing if we did,” interjected Satoru, pouting. 

“Satoru. It’s been seven months.”

“Plenty of time!”

Suguru gave him a deadpan look as he replied, “Satoru. No. I’m not even welcome to visit you, the girls, or Megumi on campus.”

“Girls?” asked Itadori, curiously, leaning closer to them. 

“Our girls, Nanako and Mimiko. They're in their second year. You would’ve met them already if you stayed on campus,” answered Suguru, when he remembered something. He glared at Satoru, who jumped at the sight. “Satoru, are you hiding Itadori from Megumi?!”

“Uhhh, a little,” admitted Satoru, rubbing the nape of his neck. “Look, the less people know Itadori is alive, the better. I just know that the Higher-Ups sent them on that mission to kill him! I can’t tell Megumi yet.”

“Satoru, a few things are wrong with that plan,” stated Suguru, rubbing his temple. “One: That’s awfully cruel of you to both Megumi and your third first-year to keep this secret. They’ll be grieving over him, and you’re just going to bring him back out of the blue in a few months? No, you better tell them about him being alive. It doesn’t have to be today, but soon . Two: The twins come home to chat with me almost every day, and Tsumiki lives here. Do you think none of them will snitch to Megumi about Itadori-kun? Three: Megumi comes home to chat with me when he’s frustrated with you . You think he won’t notice or sense him in his home ?”

Satoru bit his lip before laughing nervously, wrapping an arm around Suguru. “And that’s why I need you, Suguru—”

“I’m not hiding this from our kids, Satoru. I don’t care what you try to offer me.”

“—I was going to say ‘thank you’ Sugu- chan . You always know when I have a dumb idea,” amended Satoru, swooning against him dramatically. “Fine, I’ll tell Megumi the first chance I get, I promise on our love. But, do you mind if Yuuji stays with us? I’ll keep him in our basement.”

“That sounds so wrong, Satoru,” commented Suguru, fighting off a headache. “But sure, at least make the basement nice and hospitable . And, yes, I’ll train Itadori-kun while you’re teaching or busy.”

“Aww, you know me so well, you know what I’m thinking,” praised Satoru, giving a loud kiss on his cheek. “I even got a plan to drag Nanami into this as well. So, Yuuji, you’re actually lucky, you get two mentors. But thank you, Suguru!”

Suguru hummed at the praise before pushing Satoru off of him. “Don’t you have something to do now?”

Satoru tilted his head in confusion.

Fighting back the urge to summon one of his creepy (the ones Satoru found creepy, anyway) curses to chase Satoru. He ordered, “Go tell Megumi about Itadori-kun right now, or else I’ll make sure you sleep on the couch until you do!”

“Oohh, you know how to scare a guy, Suguru,” said Satoru, showing off a shudder, before promptly teleporting away. 

Suguru sighed, turning to Itadori. “First lesson: If Satoru ever annoys you, come to me. Megumi will tell you, he’s only scared of me.”

For over a month, Suguru has loved building his bond with Itadori. Satoru was right about them getting along; perhaps because Itadori reminded him so much of Satoru, and Haibara—Nanami agreed with that statement and preferred the latter comparison. Satoru kept his word and told Megumi about Itadori the same day he brought him, which led to Megumi chasing him with his Divine Dog, yelling about how stupid Satoru was for even trying to keep this a secret. Tsumiki adored having Itadori around as they both helped with cooking, and the twins liked Itadori well enough. Mimiko often compared him to a puppy while Nanako enjoyed teasing him like Kugisaki. 

Kugisaki Nobara. 

She was an interesting character that Suguru didn’t see during the Christmas Eve visit. She reminded him a lot of Shoko; if he was being honest, she would be the result if you fused the personality of Shoko and Utahime. When Satoru brought her over eventually to show Itadori was alive and well, she kicked the poor boy across the room, yelling about him being stupid and ‘how could you hide this from me for so long’ (it was a week). 

His girls certainly did not hide their favoritism in the first-years. Nanako, probably due to knowing him the longest, always checked on Megumi and constantly reminded him that she was his big sister and to come to her when he had trouble, since in her words, ‘our dear Miki-chan can’t watch over you, so I’ll take over’. Nanako found Itadori entertaining, especially because he got along so well with Mimiko, which was a win in both his and her book of approval. But then there was Kugisaki. He’s unsure if it's because Nanako had this sort of rivalry with Maki, who clearly liked Kugisaki the most in the first years, or if it's because Nanako and Kugisaki were far too alike, and it clashed. Nanako once, over dinner, bragged to Kugisaki that she had far better clothes thanks to Satoru — much like said person, she loved provoking people. 

Then there was Mimiko, who always stayed on the quiet side and simply adored Itadori and Kugisaki. For the latter, it was obvious that she reminded her of Nanako, who always made her smile, but she was not her favorite. Perhaps it was similar to how Megumi liked Itadori because he was a ‘genuine and lovable person that respected boundaries’, but he was Mimiko’s favorite of the first-years. She often complimented that Itadori never judged her for her doll and always tried to listen to her opinion. Mimiko commented that Itadori reminded her of a puppy. However, her favoritism with Itadori created a strain between her and Megumi. Granted, that strain was always there to a small degree. Megumi was protective over Satoru, and Mimiko was protective over Suguru; it was a silent war between the two on whether the other adults deserved each other and other silly nonsense. Mimiko once stated, after meeting Itadori, that Megumi should treat him nicer, especially since it was clear as day to her about his crush (she clearly didn’t say this in front of Itadori, thankfully). 

He pitied the versions of him that never got to meet the first-years. 

But other times, like today, he thought mentoring was far too much work. 

Suguru sighed, watching Itadori talk with a boy under investigation (Junpei was the child’s name) from the sidelines. He was a suspect but yet here Itadori was making friends with him. Before he could call over Itadori to return to his home — he didn’t like being out in the open for too long with the bounty on his head — an odd, cursed energy appeared behind him. 

Summoning a small curse to block whatever attack came, he held back a gasp. It was a woman. She had side-swept black hair and a very familiar shade of brown eyes. But none of that mattered as the most terrifying part was the row of faded stitches across her forehead. She glared at him as the curse he summoned got crushed by the weight of gravity from her attack. 

“You,” gasped Suguru, staring at the stitches.

“Me? I’m sorry, have we met before?” asked the woman, with a cold glare. 

Right… only Suguru knew what she did (or would’ve done) to him. 

Deflecting, he demanded, “Why are you here?”

She crossed her arms, scanning him with calculated eyes. “Originally, it was to watch Itadori Yuuji, but I didn’t think the Curse Manipulator Geto Suguru would be doing it already. Not that I’m complaining. ‘Two birds and one stone’ and all that. So make my job easier and die .”

She clapped her hands as a shot of blood nearly took his head if he didn’t dodge. The scent of blood blindsided him (didn’t she just use a gravity technique?) as he summoned one of his large snake curses. The would-be imposter, damn he couldn’t remember its name, rolled her eyes at the curses before she froze. 

“Geto-sensei!”

Suguru turned to see Itadori rushing to his side, staring down at the would-be battle in shock. Itadori stood in front of him with his fists raised, summoning his new cursed energy, as he asked, “What’s going on here?”

“Damn it,” muttered the woman. “It’s far too early for us to be meeting. I concede for now Geto Suguru, but be warned on October 31st, you or that damn Six Eyes will meet your end, one way or another.”

Her glare toward him turned fond as she stared at Itadori, taken aback by her face, as she commented, “Be good for me when the time comes, won’t you, Yuuji?”

Before either could do anything, she touched the wall of the abandoned bridge they were under as it collapsed under the new weight of gravity. Coughing from the dust, Itadori turned to him, confused and asked, “Do…do you know who that was, Geto-sensei?”

“Of sorts,” answered Suguru, coldly. “Do you?”

Itadori started to shake his head but stopped midway. “No… but… something about her feels familiar.”

Well… that’s concerning. 

Sighing, Suguru said, “Come, Itadori-kun, we should head home. Satoru needs to know about this.”

Itadori nodded, but his lip before asking, “Can I stay at Junpei’s house for a bit? Just for dinner. I was coming over to ask, but then… all that happened. I understand if you don’t want me to.”

Curse Itadori’s kind heart sometimes. 

Suguru nodded, adding that Itadori needed to text him, Nanami, and Ijichi when he was done because he had to remind Junpei was still a suspect. Itadori looked happy at his permission, but as soon as he accepted, he regretted it. Something was off about that Junpei child, and with Stitches watching, it didn’t alleviate any of his worry. Summoning one of his flying curses, he headed home with only a singular thought.

Please don’t let everything be meaningless after all he did to change it.

Tragedy still followed Sorcerers everywhere, sadly. 

Not too long after the meeting with Stitches, he and Nanami were sadly right about Junpei being a suspect. Itadori went into a barrier without a second thought to try and save Junpei, but he was too far gone. The poor boy had the idea that people in his school killed his mother. His apparent bullies and that coward of a staff member begged for their lives and for a brief dark moment Suguru was tempted to let them die or finish the job, but he couldn’t…not in front of Itadori. 

Suguru tried to find the source of the barrier with Nanami while Itadori fought Junpei. Nanami and he found a Cursed Spirit, Mahito, who seemed to relish in the fact that he was there. They fought it, but not without getting in between a talk between Itadori and Junpei, where the damn Curse used the boy as a hostage. Nanami explained to him about his technique — a horrible thing where he could transfigure things, his favorite target being humans. 

His example was Junpei. 

He transfigured the poor boy in front of Itadori.

“I want to stay with everyone a bit longer. I want to go more places and see more things with everyone… more!”

Suguru stared in horror as he’d never seen anything to remind him of Sukuna in Itadori, but the hate in his stare was just as terrifying as Sukuna’s eyes. He’d seen it in his reflection over a decade ago. Yuuji lunged at Mahito with the full intent to kill him. The whole fight was a blur as Itadori was relentless against Mahito, apparently, the curse couldn’t touch him. But three-on-one was too much for the Curse as he divided himself into two, one escaping while the other stayed to take the fall. Unsure if it worked, he did absorb the double and nearly vomited him out of his inventory. 

Its taste reminded him all too much of the time before he killed that village.

Out of Mahito’s sheer sadism or a miracle on Junpei’s end, he survived being transfigured twice over. Itadori, and honestly, he and Nanami too, believed that Junpei died the first time of transfiguration. Itadori begged him to change him back so that at least there was a proper corpse to mourn, and perhaps Mahito was sadistic enough to make him barely edge on living, but the second time around, Junpei was revived but not alive either. 

He entered a coma.

Satoru insisted that Shoko and everyone would do what they could, but it was odd that Junpei didn’t wake up - a theory was that it wasn’t all of Mahito he absorbed, but a portion of him. It was a miracle he was alive. 

This whole thing made Suguru realize something.

Suguru took Itadori’s cheerful attitude for granted. 

Even after Satoru insisted they do everything to keep Junpei alive, Itadori stayed in his makeshift room in the basement for a whole week, outside of meal times. Everyone, especially Megumi, tried to cheer him up, but Suguru could see the darkness in his eyes when he picked up his food during mealtimes. 

On a day when everyone but him was out of the house, he walked down to Itadori’s room and knocked. The teen let him and tried to be hospitable, but gave up after it was clear Suguru saw right through him. Itadori curled up on the couch watching a movie, petting one of Yaga’s cursed dolls (Satoru’s form of training to channel cursed energy), but the silence got to be too much for Suguru.

“Yuuji,” started Suguru, using his given name for the first time. “I don’t mean to pry, but… would you like to talk about what happened?”

“What’s there to talk about? Junpei is alive,” muttered Itadori, his petting growing harsher. “I should be happy about that.”

“You can still be angry,” stated Suguru. “I’m still angry.”

“You did what you could, Geto-sensei,” reassured Itadori, like the sweet boy he was. 

“I’m not just talking about Junpei,” said Suguru, his throat clenching at the memories. “You know… a sorcerer’s life isn’t easy—”

“Yeah, I know Fushi- Megumi told me all about it,” cut off Itadori, nearly dodging a punch for the doll for his rise of energy. 

Grabbing the doll to place on the side, Suguru continued, “It’s a miracle Junpei lived, but you still believed for a good moment he died. Trust me, we all lost someone dear to us, no matter how short we knew them.”

“You have?” 

Suguru nodded. “Nanami once lost his best friend, but that’s his story to tell. But personally, Satoru and I lost someone on a mission. I still miss her, and there are plenty of nights when I dream of her death.”

“I’m sorry, Geto-sensei,” replied Itadori, uncurling his body. “That must’ve been horrible… if you don’t mind me asking. How did she die?”

“A bullet right through the head,” answered Suguru, coldly. “The monkey , sorry, force of habit, the monster behind it was a horrible person. To this day, I still hate that man even though he’s long dead. That hate you feel toward Mahito, please promise me that it won’t consume your compassion, Yuuji. I understand taking revenge, I understand wanting to kill him, I’ll help you even. But you need to talk to people before that hate consumes you from the inside. I didn’t and… I nearly lost Satoru.”

“How?”

Suguru smiled mournfully. “Despite your impression of me, Yuuji, I’m not a good person. I’m the exact opposite. It’s why I need to stay home because I can’t be caught, especially with Satoru, or else he will get in trouble. Everyone in the world of jujutsu knows my name, and it's not for good reasons. I regret not talking to Satoru when my hate started to consume me; it blinded me, and I did some… horrendous things. I don’t fully regret what I did, but sometimes I think, ‘how could Satoru stand to be by my side knowing what I did, it would be best if I left’. Don’t go down that path. If you can’t talk to Satoru about this, or to me , talk to someone you trust.”

Itadori stared at him before nodding. “Okay, Geto-sensei. I’ll… talk to someone. But if I wanted to, could I talk to you?”

“Of course,” replied Suguru with a small smile. “Trust me on this, I have no room to judge anyone for what they did. I’m honestly surprised no one told you of my reputation.”

“You mean the fact that you killed people?”

Suguru froze, turning to Itadori in shock. The boy only looked at him sadly before confessing, “Fushi- Megumi kinda spilled the beans after I met you. He said not to get upset if anyone talked badly about you in the future, cause I can’t show that I know you, or else they might push my execution sooner. He warned about you, but I don’t know  how many you killed—”

“One hundred and twelve non-sorcerers initially,” cut off Suguru, his throat clenching at the confession as Itadori took back at the number. “Does that change things?”

Itadori took a deep breath before shaking his head. “No, 'cause Mimiko and Nanako always talk about how good of a dad you are. Tsumiki-san jokes that the fact you don’t hate her shows you changed, and that’s proof enough for her. And Gojo-sensei loves you, and he’s a good person.”

“He is a kind person.”

“And Megumi… despite everything, he’s still keeping your secret. He cares about you too, and I trust him,” added Itadori, with that fond smile he always got when he talked about Megumi. “And Kugisaki doesn’t even care 'cause if everyone is acting that it's normal, so should she. Nanamin too! He always said he understood why you did it! So, who cares about the past? The Geto-sensei I know is a good person who loves his kids and partner and just wants the best for sorcerers. I can’t hate you for that.”

Suguru laughed heartily and asked, “Has anyone told you that you’re far too much like Satoru?”

“I’ll take that as a compliment!”

“Good… it was.”

It’s been quiet. Far too quiet for Suguru’s liking after everything. 

The Goodwill Exchange Event went well, outside of the attack that Satoru told him about. No one was hurt from the ambush, but some were injured from the actual exchange event. Itadori got into a better headspace, still had some guilt, but what sorcerer didn’t, and officially returned to campus. 

He didn't realize how much he missed the pink-haired teen until he was gone.

Satoru praised Itadori for adjusting well to the school, even making friends with one of the Kyoto students. Nanako and Mimiko texted constantly about how Itadori feeds them on campus and promised to save him food, especially any soba that he made. Megumi, when he came to visit, always brought Itadori with him, which led to any catching up that Satoru never told him about, but even if he did, he happily enjoyed Itadori retelling them to him. 

There was a recent mission that shook Itadori a bit, where he thinks he killed two brothers. He felt guilty, but Kugisaki reassured him that sometimes those things happen. Megumi even informed him that he attempted a Domain Expansion (something Suguru had yet to do himself) to defeat a curse. He admitted that he thought it would help save Tsumiki from the weird curse that still surrounded her — Suguru didn’t have the heart to tell him that the curse he exorcized had nothing to do with Tsumiki. 

But as October 31st drew closer, the more uneasy he felt. 

He connected the dots that the horrible future vision of Satoru being sealed and his girls dying happened that night, but he had no idea how to stop all of it. He didn’t know what Stitches was planning without his body. Was she still planning on sealing Satoru even without his body as a distraction? His girls had no reason to summon Sukuna to save him, but there was still a chance of Sukuna taking over if whatever caused Itadori to be unconscious happened. 

He couldn’t be everywhere at once that night. 

For a brief while, he prayed that Stitches couldn’t do anything on Halloween since what could they do without his body? But sadly, on Halloween, when 7:00 PM hit, Satoru, the twins, and Megumi’s phone went off during dinner about a mysterious curtain surrounding all of Shibuya, and all available sorcerers needed to come. Overcome with worry, he forced Satoru to take him to the mission because he could not sit around waiting for the worst to happen if he could help it. 

Satoru kept him informed of everyone’s starting positions, but he was still the main target with hundreds, maybe thousands, of non-sorcerers saying they were looking for him. That alone had Suguru join Satoru in whatever fight he had to be prepared for. And what a fight they had to deal with.

Three Special-Grade Curses (one of them being Mahito and one being the damn volcano curse he remembered was the reason that killed the twins) fought them and it was honestly the few times Suguru had seen Satoru truly go full power on, it reminded him all too much of when he carried Amanai’s body and seemed to lose a bit of his humanity, more of the god-like being Satoru sometimes saw himself as. After the fight, Suguru heard those dreaded words.

“ Prison Realm. Open .”

Running on pure instinct, Suguru pushed Satoru out of the way, landing them on the train tracks. 

“Suguru, what are you doing?” demanded Satoru, his eyes flashing out of that glazed look from exorcising one of the three curses. 

“Derailing my plans, it seems.”

Suguru glared at the woman who commanded the Prison Realm to close. The prison shrank back into its cube form as she demanded her other curses to leave and find Itadori and hurt anyone who got in their way. 

Stitches scoffed at the two of them, stepping on the track, creating a crater from the sheer force of gravity. “I don’t know how you knew of my plans, Geto Suguru, but I’m growing tired of this. Here’s the deal—”

Touching both him and Satoru, gravity pulled them to the ground, forcing him to lie on his stomach, stuck in a crater. Satoru’s Infinity was activated, but the force of that and gravity was a fight on its own. Forcing Satoru to kneel for some leverage, he couldn’t risk moving from his spot. 

“—Gojo Satoru, either you seal yourself in the Prison Realm and I let your boyfriend go, or—” started Stitches mockingly, dropping the Prison Realm at his feet. “—I kill your boyfriend and take his body, but you get leave to protect your precious students. Jogo has ten of Sukuna’s fingers ready to shove them down Yuuji's throat if need be. Choso, my first failure, has a personal vendetta against both Yuuji and that Kugisaki girl. And Mahito has the go-ahead to transfigure any of your students. And you don’t even know how many Curse Users I have ready to kill anyone. So what will it be, Six Eyes?”

No…damn it…he refused to be still used as Satoru’s weakness. 

Stitches mockingly began counting down from ten as Satoru stared at Suguru in fear. He mouthed an apology to him before he said, “I’ll be sealed. Just let him go.”

“No! Satoru! Don’t!” yelled Suguru, strained from the weight of gravity on him. 

“Good choice, Six Eyes,” praised Stitches. 

“Let him go first,” ordered Satoru. Stitches raised an eyebrow, which made Satoru roll his eyes. “Do you think I’m that stupid that I’m going to let you seal me first without knowing my one and only is safe? Please, try again.”

“Fine, but no funny business from him,” said Stitches, releasing her gravity technique on Suguru. He coughed in relief at the loss of pressure but glared at her. He raised his hand to summon a curse, but she glared at him, making the gravity stronger on Satoru. “Try it, Curse Manipulator, and I’ll send word to kill your girls on sight.”

Suguru took a step back, vaguely remembering something from the past vision and the first meeting. He crawled out of the tracks but asked, “What’s your interest in Itadori Yuuji?”

“Hm? Why are you asking?” asked Stitches. 

“Just seems odd. Last time we met… it almost seemed like you were… fond of him,” pointed out Suguru, hiding his hands behind his back. 

Stitches licked her lips before answering, “Shouldn’t a mother be fond of her son?”

“What? Son ?” repeated Satoru, shocked.

Suguru, at the same time, asked, “ Your Yuuji’s mother?” 

“Mhm, can’t you see the resemblance?” asked Stitches, blinking her eyes — that’s why it looked familiar the first time. 

“You took over the body of Yuuji’s mother?” asked Suguru, looking around the train station. 

Stitches’ eye twitched, foolishly releasing her gravity technique for a minute, as she demanded, “Now, how do you know about my technique? You seem to know a lot more than you should, Geto Suguru. How is that possible?”

“I’m very observant,” said Suguru, with a smirk. “You should learn to do that more often when facing your opponents, Maximum: Uzumaki. ”

Curses began to form behind in a swirling motion to resemble an uzumaki. The curses shot forward to Stitches, slamming her into the wall of the station. The cursed energy charged the air with tension as Suguru rushed forward to Satoru, who looked a bit dazed; was he still recovering from the high of exorcizing the Special Grade and the Prison Realm? Suguru carried him out, not caring about pushing the dazed civilians recovering from Satoru’s Domain Expansion out of the station, breathing heavily. 

“Are you alright, Satoru?” asked Suguru, once he placed them in an alley away from any spying eyes — who knew who was watching them? “I can’t believe you almost sealed yourself like that. I get that you trust me, but that was dangerous. She could've kept you sealed for a thousand years, yet you go and just throw away your life like that? It’s a good thing I realized she loves to talk and brag, but I can’t believe you—”

“Marry me.”

Suguru paused his tirade, staring at Satoru in shock, ignoring the building blush on his cheeks. “What?”

“Marry me,” repeated Satoru, cupping Suguru’s hands — he was trembling. “Please, after tonight, marry me. In that moment when she was crushing you…I… started thinking about a future with you. Imagine just a normal life, or as normal as we can get, after we save Yuuji, our kids can handle things without us when they’re adults. I’ll kill those Higher-Ups if need be to keep you safe. But please, I can’t lose you again. I can’t imagine a world without you in it.”

A flash of a cleaved body appeared in Suguru’s mind. 

“You were magnificent, Gojo Satoru. I shall never forget you for as long as I live.”

“Ask me again later,” said Suguru, keeping his voice steady. “It’s not a no, definitely not a no. But maybe ask… ask on Christmas Eve.”

“Christmas Eve? That’s two months from now? Why then?” asked Satoru, a pout forming on his face. 

Suguru smiled fondly, wiping off some blood on Satoru’s face, as he answered (half-lying), “Wouldn’t it be more romantic to propose a year after we got together on one of the most romantic dates of the year?”

Satoru pouted. “I guess, it would be easier to remember one anniversary than two.”

He knew he would say that. 

“Come on, we have to make sure our kids are safe,” said Suguru, standing up and holding out a hand to Satoru. 

Satoru took his hand with a bright smile before pulling him into a deep kiss. When he pulled away, he grinned — probably laughing internally at his red face. “Let’s show them who the Strongest Duo is.”

Well.

Shibuya was still… an incident. 

Good news: the majority of everyone survived. Suguru would say may Mei Mei’s soul rest in peace since she died from a stray attack from Sukuna’s Domain Expansion, but she always gave him weird vibes when it came to her brother. 

Bad news: There were a lot of debilitating injuries from Curses and Curse Users. Megumi was out for a while after he stupidly summoned Mahoraga (Nanako and Mimiko smacked him when he woke up for doing that) and nearly died . But at least, Satoru finally told him about Toji since he confessed he fought, like, the ghost of him or something — call Suguru whatever you wanted, but he hoped his ghost finally left this plane of existence even if that meant Hell, he did not like the idea of him haunting anyone in his house. Kugisaki was having eye trouble, Shoko wasn’t sure if it was just a blind spot in the eye or if they would need to extract it because of the damage from Mahito’s technique; but even all the healing from the soul damage would leave her out of commission for maybe even months. Nanami lost an arm and had severe burns. Maki’s entire body was covered in burns, and Inumaki lost an arm as well. It's a miracle that Nanako and Mimiko came out unscathed, outside of a few minor battle scars and depleted cursed energy — he’s thankful that they survived. 

Worse news: Sukuna still took over Yuuji, and the volcano Cursed Spirit still force-fed Yuuji ten fingers. This caused so much damage and the deaths of hundreds , maybe even thousands, of non-sorcerers. Satoru tried to get in between the fights of Sukuna (first between the volcano spirit and then Mahoraga), but Suguru insisted they needed to evacuate everyone . That decision saved all the Sorcerers deployed, which was much better than the last timeline. 

And thus that led to the worst news: Yuuji was missing. In some last-ditch attempt to try to seal Satoru, Yuuji met up with Stitches (Kenjaku, he learned was its name) who revealed she was his mother, then spoutedbullshit about how he wasn’t human because “if I’m your mother and I’m a curse, you’re certainly not human”. But he also wasn’t a curse or even a Death Painting because his father was human and he had, in her words, “the misfortune of being born unlike the rest of your failure of siblings”. She kept repeating and repeating how Yuuji was only born to be a Vessel of Sukuna. And now his execution was moved up — it took all his strength to convince Satoru (and himself) not to kill the Higher Ups where they stood; but as Shoko and Nanami helpfully reminded, killing them now in the middle of all this chaos would create more trouble. But that confrontation with Kenjaku left Yuuji running off to gods know where; he might not even know about his pushed-up execution day. 

Suguru didn’t like the idea of Yuuji being missing. According to Nanami and Kugisaki, they admitted he watched them both nearly die, so that’s a check mark on potential survivor’s guilt. Add in the fact that Sukuna took over for as long as he did, Yuuji probably felt even worse from that as well. Then in the fight where Yuuji killed Mahito, it was far too brutal to simply say ‘exorcize’, he caught his expression, and it was like looking in a mirror of himself a decade ago. 

None of this was good. 

Survivor’s guilt plus self-sacrificing tendencies plus a bad mental place usually equaled disaster. 

So, that’s why they were here. 

Suguru, Megumi, and Okkotsu (who came back a few days after Halloween) were looking for Yuuji — Satoru would’ve joined, but Shoko practically forced him to stay on campus due to his overuse of his technique from the fight. It's been almost a week since the Shibuya Incident, and everything has been relatively calm since whatever Kenjaku planned failed. Since one, she didn’t have his body to do whatever sick plan she had, and two, Mahito was killed, and who knew how long it would take for him to come back. The entire Incident to non-sorcerers was labeled as a “set of unfortunate circumstances” of a stray earthquake and gas leak. 

No non-sorcerer was privy to the true events that happened. 

Suguru sat in a motel bed, the window open, and he scouted for Yuuji with his smaller flying curses. Okkotsu slept on a futon with Rika watching over him. Megumi, on the other hand, was wide awake and pacing between the door and the balcony, his hands fidgeting halfway between various shikigami signs. 

“Megumi, you need to rest,” scolded Suguru, wincing at how another curse got exorcized. But it was a clue that it could be where Itadori was…or a warning that someone was after him. “You can’t help Yuuji if you’re dead on your feet.”

“I can’t! It's been too long. What if that crazy Sorcerer you and Gojo mentioned took him? What if one of those Special Grades is after him? The longer we wait, the longer he’s in danger!” yelled Megumi, pushing his hair back in frustration before slumping on the bed in defeat. “I can’t lose him…”

Suguru sighed, failing to fight back a fond smile. Despite no blood shared, Satoru and Megumi were far too alike for either to admit. Suguru offered kindly, “Yuuji is a strong kid. He’ll be fine. But he will worry more about you than him, so let’s try to help and alleviate some of that, okay?”

Megumi groaned when his phone rang. He looked at the caller in confusion before picking up. He mouthed that it was Maki on the other line and walked to the bathroom for privacy, whispering a conversation. Suguru raised an eyebrow when his phone vibrated, he looked to see a text from Satoru. The message was short, but it sent chills down his body.

Naoya was assigned to kill Yuuji.

Zenin Naoya.

Suguru remembered him well enough from his high school days. He was the original plan for the head of the Zenin Clan before Megumi inherited the Ten Shadows Technique. He hated the guy even back then because of how much he hated Satoru for not “upholding his Clan’s name”. He was everything a Sorcerer shouldn’t be. Egotistical. Narcissistic. Selfish. And on his worst days, a downright sociopath — and this came from Suguru. 

Suguru met him a handful of times, but one distinctive memory was how he stormed into the school not even a week after the Star Plasma Vessel Mission, demeaning Satoru for killing his idol , Toji. That was the final nail in the coffin of Suguru’s hatred for him. No man who respected, let alone adored, Toji deserved any sympathy from him. 

But if Naoya was the assigned executioner, that meant trouble for them. 

Before Suguru could continue his thought, a loud shatter echoed in the room. Bolting from the bed, he rushed into the bathroom to find Megumi’s fist against a now-smashed bathroom mirror, breathing heavily with genuine hatred in his eyes. 

“I’m going to kill him,” swore Megumi, looking up at his distorted reflection. “No way in hell is some Zenin asshole going to try to kill Itadori. Not on my watch.”

“Megumi—”

“Don’t,” Megumi cut off with a sharp glare, looking all too much like those who share his blood. “Don’t even try to lecture me.”

“I wasn’t going to,” half-lied Suguru, holding his hands up placatingly. “But Megumi, think first. As someone who made a snap decision like this, it never ends well.”

Megumi scoffed. “ Your decision led to a massacre of hundreds of non-sorcerers. I’m only planning on killing one sorcerer. One who, last I checked, you don’t even like.”

“Yes, you’re right. Naoya deserves all the karma and curses coming to him. But you can’t be the one to deliver it,” pointed out Suguru, wincing as Megumi forced his way out of the bathroom. “ Megumi , you can justify it all you want. But this would still be murder . I can’t allow you to put that on your soul.”

Megumi rolled his eyes. “Spoken like a true hypocrite. Don’t act like you and Gojo are all innocent. You killed who knows how many people, and I know Gojo isn’t innocent of this either. He killed Toji, who was just another guy he had to—”

“Stop the train of thought right now, Megumi,” cut Suguru, cold enough to make Megumi freeze in his words. “Satoru, as much as he acts, is affected by those he killed. He had bounties on him the second he drew his first breath and opened his eyes. He had to do it to survive, even when he fought Toji. And you’re right. I’m not innocent. Most of my actions I don’t regret, but I do have some—”

“Welcome back! Suguru, have you come home to vis—?”

“—that are so heavy that sometimes I can’t breathe,” continued Suguru, with a shaky breath. “Megumi. You can justify going after Naoya. For protection, for survival, out of hate, out of love, or any reason to help make it better. But if you kill him out of anger or convenience ? You’re no better than Toji…and that would break Satoru’s heart more than anything I ever did to him.”

The tension eased out of Megumi as he looked away. “But…I want to save Itadori. He saved me…I want to save him, too.”

Suguru grabbed Megumi by the arm to force him to sit with him. “I know…there's no feeling that hurts more than helplessness when you know the ones you love are in danger. But Megumi, you know why you can’t kill Naoya now, right?”

“Because…I would’ve been labeled a Curse User and have my execution planned,” muttered Megumi bitterly. 

Suguru hummed in agreement sadly, “I know it sucks Megumi. You’re just angry right now. Trust me, so are Satoru and I. But I promise, Naoya will get what’s coming to him.”

Megumi frowned before a very Satoru-like glint entered his eyes. He met his eyes before asking, “Are you sure you can’t just…I don’t know, turn around, so there aren’t any witnesses?”

Suguru laughed heartily, ruffling his hair. “Oh, trust me, if there was a way you could do it without immediately getting caught and reported, I'd help you hide the body.”

A shadow of a smile graced Megumi’s face before he asked quietly, “Have you…have you ever killed someone for Gojo?”

“I wanted a world where Satoru didn’t carry the weight of it on his shoulders,” answered Suguru fondly. “That’s how I justified everything. One less non-sorcerer was one less weight for Satoru.”

“Does he…?”

“He knows.”

And he forgave him for it.

They didn’t find Yuuji; more like he announced himself. Walking in the ruins of Shibuya, a huge dust cloud followed by a building collapsing on itself was practically a bright red sign of ‘HERE IS ITADORI YUUJI’. Megumi apologized as he entered his shadows to go faster while Suguru took Okkotsu on his flying curse to the makeshift battlefield. 

In the center of the fight was Yuuji, Naoya (fuck), and…one of the curses after Yuuji. Panic seized Suguru as he landed closer, ready to make this fight in Yuuji’s favor only to see the curse attack Naoya and protect Yuuji. Suguru paused when Naoya turned to him with a psychotic grin.

“Geto Suguru! Finally crawled out of your hole?” taunted Naoya, tilting his head with a manic laugh when he saw Okkotsu behind him. “And you brought Gojo Satoru’s little project too. Why, today is my lucky day! They can’t deny my birthright if I execute Sukuna’s Vessel, the Worst Curse User in the Modern Era, and the Cursed Special Grade.”

Rika manifested behind Okkotsu hissing at Naoya. Okkotsu held up his sword as Suguru pointed out, “You can’t touch Okkotsu. He’s no longer on execution order.”

Naoya tutted him as he countered, “But if Higher-Ups find out he’s working with you ? Ha, not even Gojo could fight against those accusations.”

A curse behind Suguru growled at him snapping at Naoya. Naoya, distracted by the newcomers, didn’t see Yuuji turn tail, pulling the curse with him— shit. He turned to Okkotsu muttering, “Go after Yuuji. I’ll take care of Naoya.”

Okkotsu nodded, running to follow. Naoya’s Cursed Energy surged as Suguru sent a serpent curse at him. The serpent constricted around Naoya before he placed it on a projection. Despite Megumi being his son, Naoya shared the same glint in his eyes as Toji did. 

And that pissed him off.

Curses surrounded Suguru, just like it did all those years ago. As Suguru added, “I want you to know…I genuinely hate you.”

Naoya scoffed, shattering the projection with the curse. “Funny, I never even spared you a thought.”

Just like the coward he was related to, Naoya ran off like the worm he was when Suguru gained the upper hand. He couldn’t even be mad that Naoya left…the more the fight went on, the more the urge just to kill him grew. Suguru couldn’t kill Naoya after he stopped Megumi from doing it. Maki or even Satoru were the only people he believed deserved to kill that worm. 

Suguru mourned the loss of some of his fallen curses before he took flight to where he could hopefully find the rest of his students. Suguru froze, seeing Yuuji asleep on the ground with Okkotsu watching over him. There was a clear bloodstain on Yuuji’s shirt that he didn’t remember from before. He raised an eyebrow toward Okkotsu, who rubbed his neck sheepishly.

“I think in that fight with Naoya, he got stabbed. He lost consciousness, so I had to heal him before Fushiguro freaked out,” answered Okkotsu, looking around the area curiously. “He should be here soon.”

Before Suguru could thank Okkotsu for healing Yuuji, said boy sat up with a gasp. He looked around in shock and slight fear at his audience. He shuffled into a nearby turned-over trash can before demanding, “Why…why are you guys here?”

“Because you’re important,” stated Suguru, heartbroken that Yuuji questioned it. “You’re important to so many people, Yuuji. We’ve been looking for you.”

“Whose ‘we’?” asked Yuuji, shyly. 

Suguru answered, “Me, of course, Okkotsu Yuuta who—”

“Who's heard a lot about you, Itadori,” cut in Okkotsu with a tentative smile. “Gojo-sensei couldn’t be here, so he asked me to take his place in the search. But trust me, I heard all about you. I was more than glad to.”

“What…what happened to Gojo-sensei?” asked Yuuji, fear filling his voice. 

“Don’t panic. He’s fine. Just used too much Cursed Energy on Halloween,” reassured Suguru, quickly. “Shoko practically had to tie him to bed to make him rest. Everyone is fine.”

Yuuji scoffed . “Don’t lie to me, Geto-sensei. You can’t expect me to believe everyone is fine .”

Suguru swallowed his words before taking a deep breath. “ Everyone is alive . Satoru, Mimiko, Nanako, Kugisaki , even Nanami.”

“Nanamin is alive?” whispered Yuuji, tears glistening in his eyes before he turned away. “Still…a lot of people probably died.”

“You aren’t to blame for that,” pointed out Okkotsu.

“ You don’t understand. It isn’t whether it’s my fault,” started Yuuji, keeping his gaze on the ground. “But…I…”

“Itadori.”

Suguru turned in surprise to see Megumi, appearing seemingly out of nowhere - probably from a shadow. He was about to greet or even tease about his timing, but Megumi pushed past him to stare down Yuuji with a slightly determined glint in his eyes. He said, “Come on, let’s head back to Jujutsu Tech. If you’re worried about your execution, we’ll hide you from the Higher-Ups. Everyone is waiting for you, it’s not the same without—”

“Stop it!” yelled Yuuji, standing face to face with Megumi. “Don’t…don’t act like everything is normal! Don’t act like nothing happened! I killed people! Because of me , people died!”

“It’s our fault,” cut off Megumi, his hands clenched into tight fists, his knuckles turning white. “You were force- fed ten of Sukuna’s fingers while unconscious, but I summoned Mahoraga, whom he fought. We can share the burden of those deaths so…don’t be selfish…and give up alone.”

Megumi sighed tiredly as he added, “I told you. We aren’t heroes fighting for justice. We’re jujutsu sorcerers.”

“Megumi is right, Yuuji,” agreed Suguru, as the boy finally looked at him. “As Sorcerers, we don’t have the luxury to think about just ourselves, but you should know: we need to stick together. We can only save so many people.”

“I believe that was your original principle behind your actions,” stated Megumi, before taking a deep breath, grabbing Yuuji’s shoulders, and pulling him in a hug. “So start by saving me, Yuuji . Come home, please . I need you to be safe.”

Yuuji drew in a sharp breath at the hug. “...okay…I’ll come back…Megumi.”

Suguru smiled at the sight of the two boys.

Maybe history does repeat itself, but sometimes…sometimes we can learn from it.

Coming back to Jujutsu Tech brought back a flood of guilt. It’s been almost a full year since he stepped on campus, and he declared war on Satoru the last time he did. He knew he wouldn’t be greeted with open arms by most of the staff and, if he was lucky, only half of the students (two of which were his daughters). With a sigh, they snuck to one of the many basements on campus. The second he stepped across the threshold, he was tackled. 

“Suguru!” greeted Satoru, happily kissing him on the cheek dramatically. “I missed you soooo much!”

Suguru chuckled, returning the kiss, chastely; his students were behind him. “I missed you too Satoru.”

“Whoa, when did that happen?”

Suguru peeked behind Satoru to see Tsukumo Yuki staring at them amused while Maki and the twins looked disgusted — one being genuine, two being fond. 

Satoru wrapped an arm around Suguru. “Since forever, Tsukumo, this is what happens when you only show up once, in what, a year?”

Tsukumo ignored him as she pointed out, “Last I saw you Geto, you looked… awful . And you never did answer my question on what kind of woman was your type.”

“Kind, silly, determined to save people, a bit reckless, playful, confident, and a great laugh,” answered Suguru, reveling in the growing blush on Satoru’s face. “That’s my type.”

“Hm, not pretty eyes?” asked Tsukumo, with a teasing grin. “Or super powerful?”

“Nope,” answered Suguru, bluntly. “His eyes are just kinda a bonus. But I guess you could add that I like someone who sees me as an equal.”

He expected a comment, maybe even a dramatic swoon, but…nothing. Suguru turned to Satoru who stared at him in awe. Raising an eyebrow he asked, “What?”

“I just…love you,” replied Satoru, softly before straightening up to smile brightly. “We should get married!”

“Whoa whoa whoa!” cried Nanako, storming to Satoru and poking him harshly in the chest. “You can’t marry Geto-sama! You have to get our blessing first! Right, Mimiko?”

Mimiko nodded. “Right. We still don’t approve. You didn’t even get him a ring. How shameful.”

“Well, Geto didn’t get my approval either,” commented Megumi, ignoring Satoru’s cry of ‘Megumi! You care!’. “I still don’t approve of them dating , let alone getting married .”

“I still can’t believe you fell for the genocidal maniac,” muttered Maki, shaking her head. “He tried to kill us, you know.”

Satoru pouted. “Well… he wasn’t a genocidal maniac when I fell for him. If anything, that was Megumi’s dad.”

Yuuji’s head shot up confused, turning to Megumi. “Huh? Your dad?”

Megumi hummed with a nod. “Yeah, Gojo killed him.”

“Huh?!” cried Yuuji, looking between the two. “Wha…what…and…you’re okay?”

“Yeah?” replied Megumi, raising an eyebrow. “It’s not like I knew him.”

“That’s a fair reaction,” muttered Choso, the newly revived Death Painting.

Suguru still wasn’t sure how he felt about Choso yet. Yuuji vouched he was a good guy now, but still, it took some getting used to one of the nine Death Paintings just walking amongst them. He especially felt weirder when he caught Tsukumo eyeing him up the second he walked in. 

Suguru watched his girls argue with Megumi about the supposed marriage between him and Satoru. Yuuji slid next to him; fidgeting with his hands, as he asked, “So what’s the plan?”

Suguru eyed out the slits under his eyes as he answered, “We are going to kill Kenjaku, get Sukuna out of you, and exorcize him for good .”

And maybe without Megumi being the new Vessel. 

It’s the Eve of Christmas Eve.

The two months between finding Yuuji and now led to new allies and challenges. They found Satoru’s suspended students, Hakari and Hoshi, in some fight clubs which led to the prior challenging Satoru's current students. If they beat his fight club tournament, he’ll join the fight against Sukuna. Suguru hated the idea especially since Inumaki, Panda, and Kugisaki were still out of commission; if anyone decided to go all out, they would be down more Sorcerers. 

After many grueling matches, some more one sided than others, the last two standing were Maki and Yuuji who were supposed to fight Hakari and Hoshi. But Naoya crashed the tournament to attempt another try to end Yuuji's life, leaving him benched from pure exhaustion. Maki bragged she could take them by herself but as he should’ve expected from a student of Satoru… Kugisaki came back into the fray, dangerous and angry as ever, with a hammer and nails in hand, with a “badass eyepatch” (Mimiko’s words). Those two dominated the fight, which led to the start of collecting new allies. 

Nanami, brandishing a new prosthetic arm, made a rival in one of them, Higuruma Hiromi. He was a Sorcerer who refused to touch jujutsu until he saw Shibuya, making him feel forced to at least hone some of his abilities just in case. The two men started their rivalry over Yuuji funnily enough. Higuruma was a lawyer and thought that Yuuji was too nice to be a Sorcerer, which was true, but Nanami felt this man was impending on his territory by trying to take care of Yuuji — Satoru teased him endlessly for “finally accepting that Yuuji was his kid”.

Later, they rescued another Vessel named Kurusu Hana, who held the Heian Sorcerer Angel. Hana seemed to be besotted by Megumi which freaked out Kugisaki and the twins oddly. They constantly told her all the ‘flaws’ Megumi had that made him a horrible future boyfriend. The twins confessed that it was their job as sisters to make sure they liked whoever “the baby” of the family decided to date. Kugisaki commented her reasoning was “I did not watch those two idiots pine for months for some extra to ruin that”. 

In between all of that, they trained in every possible way. Yuuji only ever trained with Choso (turns out the kid can learn Blood Manipulation) which Suguru insisted he do — he couldn't risk Sukuna learning all their tricks. But the closer the date of Christmas Eve got the more anxious he became. Visions of Sukuna with Megumi’s face killing Gojo haunted him every night; sometimes he blinked and did not see Megumi and Satoru, but Sukuna and Satoru's dying face. But overall it went smoothly…until it didn’t.

Kenjaku showed her face with a bargaining chip: Yuuji’s birth father. The sick bastard kept the man frozen as a “contingency plan” in case Yuuji refused to join her side, or died before she could get her claws in him. Yuuji didn't even get the chance to be conflicted, as once Sukuna uttered ‘ Enchain ’, the decision was out of his hands.  

Remember how Suguru believed Sukuna revived Yuuji for malicious reasons? Turns out he never should’ve doubted that feeling. Sukuna tore off a finger of Yuuji and force-fed it to Yuuji’s father, even complimenting that the new body was an even better fit and felt right . 

He did not want to know what that meant. 

So the fight was all of them… versus a now almost fully powered Sukuna (he was missing one finger) and Kenjaku in all their evil glory. Kenjaku, one for dramatics, requested it be Christmas Eve because it was “a time for family, friends, and lovers”.

Suguru leaned against the window, watching it chill over from the cold. He was pulled by his thoughts when arms circled him. Looking up, he saw Satoru with a smile before sharing a quick peck on the lips. Satoru slid behind him, perching his head on the shoulder with tired eyes. 

 “This feels oddly reminiscent,” joked Suguru. “A crazy killer with grand ideals of a new world declaring war on you.”

Satoru scoffed. “Stop calling yourself crazy. You were upset. Plus you changed. Highly doubt those two will change overnight.”

Right…he did change overnight…but…

“I almost didn’t,” confessed Suguru, quietly watching Satoru’s students have a fun snow day. 

“But you did,” said Satoru, forcing Suguru to turn around and face him. “And…I love you for that.”

Suguru swallowed his guilt as he asked, “Did you ever wonder…why I changed?”

Satoru shrugged. “Not…not particularly. Didn’t want to…”

Ruin things. Jinx things. There were so many ways he could end that sentence, and Suguru didn’t want to hear any of them.

“It’s ‘cause…I saw a vision,” confessed Suguru, grabbing Satoru’s attention — confused as it was. “Last year, this very night, I was visited by three Cursed Spirits. I know it sounds crazy, but it’s true. On that night, I saw you… dead .”

“Dead?” repeated Satoru with a scoff. “Suguru, I’m the Strongest, what could kill me?”

“Sukuna,” whispered Suguru, shaking. “He…I don’t know how. But I saw your cleaved body. He wore Megumi’s face. I…couldn’t stand the idea I wasn’t there to protect you.”

“Well, where was the future you then, in this vision?” asked Satoru, a mix of disbelief and curiosity. 

“Dead,” answered Suguru, bluntly ignoring Satoru’s face growing pale. “You… would’ve killed me last year if I didn’t change.”

A brief light of annoyance entered Satoru’s eyes. “So that's why you changed? ‘Cause you died?”

“No,” admitted Suguru, basking in the fading voice of Nanako and Mimiko talking about Christmas. “I knew there was a good chance I wasn’t going to make it. I mean, I declared war on you and fought your students. I practically signed my death right there. I…I changed because…I couldn’t stand to be your weakness or not have the ability to protect you.”

Satoru tilted his head as Suguru continued, “When… if I died that night, Kenjaku would've stolen my body. They would've used it to seal you on Halloween. I couldn’t allow that, and to make matters worse he hurt my girls …he got them killed . But…seeing you dead with no one around to be there… that broke me, Satoru.”

“Suguru…”

He placed his head in the crook of Satoru’s neck, thanking the universe for the steady pulse that beat against his head. “I still don’t understand why you accepted my apology last year. You say you fell for me long before I killed that village. But… Satoru, I’m not that man. I haven’t been him in a long time. How could you fall for me again? How could you wait for me to come back?”

“What do you mean?” asked Satoru, oh so genuinely.

Suguru pulled back shocked. “Satoru, I killed innocent people. Maybe the people that hurt Nanako and Mimiko deserved it, but I killed children in that village. I killed mothers and fathers, I killed my mother and father. They were innocent. They’ve always been innocent. I hurt your students, I hurt you so many times. How can you look at me and still love me after all this time?”

“How could I love you ? How could you love me ?” asked Satoru, angry. “I was an overconfident asshole when we met, I’m still an overconfident asshole. I’m not normal, I don’t even know what that means at this point. One bad day for me and I’m killing more than one small village. I know I’m only Gojo Satoru because I’m the Strongest…what else do I have to offer you ?”

Suguru, rage festering in his chest, yelled, “How dare you say that! That was some bullshit I spouted to make you hate me! Give you the purpose to kill me then! How could I love you ? It’s because you’re Satoru ! You’ve only ever been Satoru to me! I never loved you because you were the Strongest…I love you because you’re you .”

“Now you know my answer,” replied Satoru, smugly. “I love you because of you .”

Stunned, Suguru breathed out, “Satoru…”

“I would fall in love with you every time . There’s no question of the how, where, or when. No matter what happens to us , I’ll always love you and fall in love with you again and again because you’re Suguru . If I had to wait a century, a millennium, a new lifetime to be with you, I’d do it without question because I can’t imagine a life without you in it,” confessed Satoru, placing his head against Suguru’s with a smile. 

Suguru leaned forward to kiss Satoru before pulling away with a matching smile. “Let’s get married tomorrow. I think we both waited long enough.”

The battle was messy. 

Sukuna cleaved, while Kenjaku crushed buildings with her gravity technique. Despite their mini army, it was still impossible to keep up with two ancient sorcerers, especially since they had an army of curses following their king — including newly regenerated Disaster Curses of Jogo, Hanami, Dagon, and Mahito. 

Suguru used his own curses to watch and protect the students, but even some of them heeded the call to follow Sukuna, forcing him to exorcize them.  

Suguru gritted his teeth, holding back his vomit. He figured he could absorb some curses to lessen the numbers, while watching Satoru exorcize Jogo. Satoru kicked the head of Jogo into some ditch, groaning at the new wave of curses. His eyebrows furrowed in thought before yelling, “Suguru!”

When he didn’t reply fast enough, Satoru teleported beside him and asked, “Suguru, will you marry me?”

Suguru’s jaw dropped at the same time a good chunk of their kids yelled ‘What?!’. Exorcizing a shark-like curse, he replied, “Didn’t I say yes last night?”

“I mean right now! Duh!” argued Satoru, sending a small Blue attack to a horde of incoming curses. 

“Now?!” repeated Suguru, as his new dragon curse (he still missed Rainbow Dragon) swallowed a good chunk of the horde. “Really?!”

“Hey, the sooner the better!” pointed out Satoru, putting Infinity up to give them a reprieve of curses as they uselessly hit against it. “Plus you said ‘Let’s get married tomorrow’ yesterday . That means we get married today . So, come on! Let’s get married!”

Suguru blinked before looking around them, with an amused grin. “Can anyone even legally officiate?” 

Satoru smiled brightly before yelling, “Nanami, can you do it?!”

Nanami sliced through a curse as he yelled, annoyed, “Apologies, not me, never got the chance to get a license for that!”

Hiromi started, “I could—”

“No way!” yelled Nanami, purposefully kicking a curse’s corpse at him. “You don’t even know them!”

“I could.”

Satoru and Suguru turned to see Shoko, out of her lab coat with a cursed tool in hand with Utahime behind her amplifying everyone’s cursed energy, including Shoko’s Reverse Cursed Technique. Shoko tossed the cigarette out of her mouth onto a decaying curse as she explained, “When you work in the morgue with dying sorcerers on the daily, you get used to the final request being marrying someone before they kick the bucket. So, am I good enough for you two idiots?”

Satoru and Suguru nodded, as Satoru released Infinity pushing out all the curses into buildings, exorcizing them as he yelled excitedly, “Marry us now Shoko!”

Shoko sighed as she sliced through a curse while reciting, “Sorcerers, Curses, Vessels, we are gathered today, on this Christmas Eve, to unite two souls into a union long time coming between Gojo Satoru and Geto Suguru. They’ve been through hell who knows how many times, figure they choose now to be married. Now start the vows before we all die!”

Satoru pouted, shooting off a Red attack behind him. “Suguru, I fell for the moment you called me Satoru all those years ago. You make me laugh, you annoy me, you’re the only damn thing in the universe that scares me, and I love it. People may call you my weakness, but in reality, you’re my strength. I would forgive you a million times over as long as in the end you come back to me.”

Before Suguru could reply, Satoru yelled, “Megumi! Give me the rings!”

Megumi groaned as his Divine Dog shredded a curse as he dug around in his shadow. He passed the box to Yuuji who punched through a curse (his strength really did have nothing to do with Sukuna) and asked, “Can you throw this to that idiot?”

Yuuji nodded before launching with an almost impeccable aim as Suguru sent a bird-like curse to catch the box to give to Satoru. His soon-to-be husband grinned, whipping off his blindfold completely off his body, opening the box to reveal a pair of silver rings — one with a light blue diamond that reminded him of Satoru’s eyes and one with black diamond with intricate carvings on the band. 

“I vow to stay by your side until the end and even beyond death itself, Suguru,” recited Satoru, placing the ring with the blue diamond on his finger. “So with this ring, I promise nothing will get in between us again.”

Suguru smirked at the ring, glad to know Satoru knew he would want the blue ring. He sent a flock of bird-like curses to peck at the curses behind Satoru, plucking the other ring from the box. “Satoru, I know I’ll never make up for what I did, and I’ll forever be grateful that you chose to love me. I know it was sudden every time I came in and out of your life, but I promise I’m staying this time. Every day from now, I will work to be the man you deserve and hopefully for you to fall more in love with. I thank you for choosing me to protect your heart.”

Suguru slipped the ring on Satoru’s finger as he vowed, “So, I vow to take that job seriously and protect you and your heart until my dying breath, and even if I do die I’ll protect you even in death, Satoru. So with this ring, I promise nothing will harm you or the family we made together.”

Utahime cooed at the vows before Shoko fondly rolled her eyes as she asked, “Do you, Gojo Satoru, take Geto Suguru to be your husband?”

“I do!” answered Satoru, charging up a Hollow Purple and aiming it right where Kenjaku stood. 

Shoko sighed as she continued, “And do you Geto Suguru—”

“Yes!” cut off Suguru, pulling Satoru close by the neck, his dragon curse returned by his side before he surrounded Kenjaku, leaving no room for escape. 

“You may now kiss—” started Shoko, before ducking from a stray crashing debris from the Sukuna versus Yuuji, Megumi, and Kugisaki fight. “Just kiss!”

Satoru shot off his Hollow Purple the second he kissed him. Suguru smiled pulling Satoru closer into the kiss, as his now husband dipped him. When they pulled away, they heard the death shriek of Hanami, her flowers showered over them with the twins cheering for doing the final blow on the Special Grade . 

And the best part besides marrying Satoru? They didn’t spare a glance to Kenjaku in their dying moments. 

The war was at long last over. Japan would never know what had happened in Shinjuku on Christmas Eve. But they should expect something romantic had happened that put whatever they planned for Valentine’s Day and White to shame: Suguru’s battlefield wedding with Satoru. It was truly the most romantic day thanks to Satoru’s snap decision and his impatience. He knows Satoru loves him, and will forever understand the gravity of how much Suguru changed to protect their love. The weight on his shoulders could finally be lightened with Suguru by his side, and the children they helped grow into powerful sorcerers. His blue eyes shined with the light of life instead of the darkness of power. He would say his new appreciation of life was all on Suguru, but he knew the truth, it was the first blessing in his life: Fushiguro Megumi, followed by all the children and students that entered in his life after; ending with an Itadori Yuuji.

Suguru, sighed in content as they dragged themselves onto the campus of Jujutsu Tech. He may be injured to hell and back, but everyone survived, and wasn’t that amazing? Some staff that were too cowardly to join the fight gasped at the sight of them, specifically him and Yuuji — they could go to hell if they still thought they deserved execution.

At the front of the gate, Tsumiki and a newly awakened Junpei greeted them brightly. Tsumiki gasped in offense at the sight of their rings, crying about how she missed it with the added demand they have a proper wedding with more friends so she could officially be a part of it. To which Satoru winked at him before nodding at Tsumiki’s request. 

Watching his students, he smiled fondly at Yuuji chatting happily with Megumi; the light in his eyes reignited after everything. He still had the scars of his short Sorcerer career from the slits under his eyes from Sukuna to the scar across the bridge of his nose, and his missing finger Sukuna ripped off. And yet, he never looked more innocent. Megumi smiled, even showing some teeth, as he held Yuuji’s hand with a gentleness Suguru had never seen before.

A bit away, Maki bridal carried a tired Okkotsu. He showed off his Special Grade status in this fight, even going toe to toe with Sukuna’s right-hand person, Uraume, and Dagon. But Maki was right there with them being a better version of Toji in every way. She fought with all her damndest, even protecting Okkotsu in between his attacks. Rika seemed to be finally fond of her now as she cuddled against her head, nodding in thanks for carrying Okkotsu. 

Nanako yawned tiredly, pushing Kugisaki off to Mimiko, who surprisingly blushed at the contact. Kugisaki praised the twins for their win against a Special Grade, and Mimiko loudly pointed out that Kugisaki helped defeat Sukuna, the King of Curses, along with learning the Reverse Cursed Technique amid the battle to heal Nanako (who denied it ever happened). Kugisaki blushed, for once speechless at the praise. 

“Gojo-sama,” called an older man in traditional robes surrounded by more men in the same attire. Shit, it was the Higher-Ups. “Would you care to explain why Sukuna’s Vessel and the most wanted Curse User in the modern era are walking free on our campus?”

Satoru scoffed at the man, pulling Suguru closer by the waist. “Whatever do you mean?”

“You know what we mean, Gojo Satoru,” scolded another Higher-Up. “These two are in line for execution. They shouldn’t be simply walking free.”

“Why not?” asked Satoru, in a genuinely confused tone. What was he playing at?

The first Higher-Up groaned, “Why are you acting surprised Gojo? Sukuna’s Vessel is dangerous, especially now that we know he shares the same blood as the Death Paintings. And I feel like we don’t need to explain what Geto Suguru did.”  

Humming loudly, Satoru laughed as he lightly smacked his forehead. “Oh, you guys must be so old that you’re forgetting details. Yeah, no, Itadori Yuuji is not the Vessel of Sukuna, he’s the one that actually exorcized Sukuna. So he’s not Sukuna’s Vessel, he’s Sukuna’s Demise . Killer. Downfall. Sukuna’s Ex. E. Cu. Tion. Er. Got it?”

Satoru smirked a glint of pettiness in his eyes, holding out his and Suguru’s hand with the ring on them. “And Geto Suguru died today. This lovely man is my now husband , Geto -Gojo Suguru. Therefore, officially a part of the Gojo Clan and who is the head of the Gojo Clan? Oh, right. Me . So I suggest you back off if you don’t want to go to war with me , and we all know you can’t win a fight with me when I want to win.”

He was married to a genius. 

Suguru’s jaw dropped, watching the Higher-Ups huff in annoyance before muttering a half-ass thank to them for defeating Sukuna and Kenjaku, before sulking to whatever hole they came from. He turned to Satoru in awe before pulling him in for a kiss. He could not believe all he needed to get rid of his execution was to marry Satoru. 

Perhaps he was an idiot this past decade.

“You… how did you know that’d work?” asked Suguru, genuinely, playing with some of Satoru’s hair, which he never cut once since they got together, making it start to resemble his old high school style. “Did you always know me marrying you would get rid of the execution order?”

Satoru laughed sheepishly. “Truthfully no. I was kinda bluffing, if they called me out on it, I would’ve just killed them and teleported all of us outta here to…I don’t know Hokkaido or Sendai, something.”

“You’re so lucky I love you,” teased Suguru, placing a gentle kiss on Satoru’s lips. “Come on, husband , let’s head home and take care of our family.”