Chapter Text
“I’m just saying,” said Satoru, “I don’t get why I’m limited to, like, three colors.”
The courtyard was empty, save for the three second-years. It was an extremely rare day off for them, and they were not going to let it go to waste. So, they had decided to spend lunch outside, just talking. It was Satoru’s idea, but the other two didn't need much convincing. They never had breaks, so why not take advantage of this one? After a couple hours, small bits of conversation and occasional laughter could still be heard coming from the front steps of the school.
Shoko rolled her eyes. “I literally have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“I don’t know, Shoko,” Suguru responded for him, a poorly-hidden smirk on his face, “he might be onto something.” The curse manipulator had few things in common with Satoru: one of which being the mutual enjoyment of getting a rise out of a certain classmate of theirs.
“You cannot be serious right now,” Shoko said incredulously after spinning around to face him.
Suguru knew he had her. “I can see it now. Cursed technique: yellow!”
By then, it was obvious that Shoko realized her classmate was messing with her. She opted to not feed into his game any longer, dismissing Suguru’s comment with another roll of her eyes and an annoyed huff.
Satoru, on the other hand, seemed too blinded by his excitement of Suguru agreeing with him for once to notice the obvious sarcasm. “Exactly!” he exclaimed, as if he had tried to explain this idea to others before and was rejected. “And then with yellow, I would have all the primary colors, so I could honestly make any color really. Oh my god, what if each color has, like, a different power, and I could use a certain color for a certain situation, and then I would be known across the Jujutsu globe as like, ‘The Rainbow Sorcerer’ or something instead of boring old Gojo Satoru. That’s so unfair, why is it just my name, that’s actually so boring like why-”
“Oh my god, would you please shut up for five minutes,” Shoko’s voice broke through his ramblings, but it was quickly drowned out by Suguru’s cackles. She glared at him. “I don’t know why the hell I put up with you two,” she groaned, flopping down to lay her back on the stairs.
“We are quite literally your only friends,” said Suguru, having finally gained control of his laughter. He slung an arm around Satoru’s shoulders.
The white-haired sorcerer grinned before gasping and turning toward his best friend. “Suguru, how could you? We can’t forget about her dear old friend Utahi-” He was once again cut off by a now very agitated Shoko, this time with a tackle instead of a voice.
Laughter erupted once more, first from the two boys. After Shoko spat her fair share of curses at her classmates, statements among them being don’t bring Utahime into this you six-eyed bastard and Suguru, you little shit, you’re just encouraging him, she reluctantly began to laugh as well. Snide remarks were made about the two girls and their possible relationship, but even Satoru and Suguru knew when to stop teasing her. They had no desire to test the boundaries between irritation and anger with Shoko. Soon, it became quiet once more. This time, no one tried to break the comfortable silence that had developed. They simply lay there and enjoyed each other's company, a rare occurrence. Unfortunately, as they say, all good things must come to an end. Either that, or the person that had been watching them for the past five minutes realized that he couldn’t stall any longer.
The light-hearted atmosphere was eventually cut short as the trio heard a sharp, “Gojo!” from inside the school. “The elders want to meet with you!”
The three second-years begrudgingly recognized the voice as their school headmaster. Shoko quickly rolled off of her tackle victim, cursing the principal.
Having sobered from the previous laughing session, Satoru sat up with a groan. “Looks like Yaga always has things for me to do, even on our supposed day off.” He sighed with discontent.
Shoko and Suguru shared a quick glance. They both had a bad feeling about the “coincidence” of Satoru getting called in on their day off. The two knew how the higher-ups treated Satoru: like he was some object that needed to be constantly trained and improved, rather than a human being. With that in mind, Shoko and Suguru had no intention of letting Satoru meet them alone. There was no telling what the higher-ups might do without any witnesses. They hurriedly sat up, each with the same plan of following Satoru inside.
“Woah, woah, woah,” said Satoru, “I know you guys must be jealous, but I’m pretty sure I only heard my name called by our dear principal.”
To the average person, one might have thought Satoru was genuinely excited to be called to the meeting, or that he was stopping the other two from going because he wanted to keep all the glory for himself. But the average person hadn't spent almost every day of the past two years with the boy. The average person wasn't Shoko or Suguru. They knew that this was Satoru’s way of trying to protect them, even though he would never admit it. Anything could happen behind the closed doors of that room, and Satoru would be damned if he didn’t do his best to keep his two best friends outside of it.
Suguru was the first to protest. “Hell no,” he said, “you’re even crazier than I thought you were if you think we’re letting you go in there by yourself.”
“Yeah, no way that’s happening.” Shoko was right behind him. “We’re not gonna let you steal all the spotlight.” Words of we're not letting them hurt you were heard loud and clear by both other parties.
Satoru plastered on a reassuring smile as he stood up, trying to ease his classmates distress, no doubt. “While I appreciate the concern, I assure you that I’ll be fine,” he said genuinely. It wasn’t often that the laid-back sorcerer dropped his sarcastic and aloof personality. He did it occasionally, though, especially with his friends. “Besides, why would you even worry about me?” He smirked. “We’re the strongest, aren’t we?” And just like that, the act was back.
Suguru looked like he was about to argue with words of yeah, we are, together, not you alone, not yet, but Satoru was already waltzing away. He gave them a charming wave goodbye as he entered the school. The loud whistling coming from his silhouette slowly faded away the further he went inside. Suguru couldn’t help but feel like he would regret not going with him.
“They can’t do anything too bad,” Shoko thought aloud, feigning disinterest. “I mean, they could never bear to lose their star sorcerer, don't worry too much about it.”
Suguru was inclined to agree, but he couldn't help feeling like there was something different about this specific meeting, something dangerous. He thought about asking Shoko if she felt the same, but he didn’t want her to worry more than she already was. I’m overreacting, Suguru thought, he’ll be fine. “Yeah… yeah, you’re right,” he said instead. "It'll be fine."
"Besides, nothing ever keeps that bastard down for long."