Chapter Text
1)7 December, 2004
Satoru was woken up by the sunlight hitting his eyes, when a servant drew up the blinds of his room. He tried to hide his face in the covers, to catch some more sleep, but soon, the chief maid, Mrs satou- and the only person who was a somewhat decent person in the gojo household- gently shook him awake once again. For some reason, she seemed to be smiling today, more than usual.
"Satoru-san, Happy birthday!"
He was still somewhat groggy from sleep, but after hearing the elderly woman's greeting, his eyes snapped open and he turned his gaze to the calendar hanging on the wall. Indeed, it was the 7th of December, his birthday, but also the day of his- oh God. His heart dropped to his stomach, but he forced a smile on his face and turned to Mrs satou.
"Ah, thank you satou-san, did you get me a gift, then?" He cringed at the fake cheer permeating his voice. But thankfully, even though he was sure she had picked up on it, she did not comment on it.
"Yes, yes, how could I forget a gift?" She took out a small package, carefully wrapped in a blue wrapping paper, from her skirts. It was the a rectangular box. When he held it, it wasn't heavy at all.
This time, when he smiled at her, it wasn't forced at all, "Thank you, satou-san."
When he tried to open it, his fingers almost touching the ribbon holding everything together, Mrs satou stopped him. When he looked up at her confused, she had a little smile on her face, "Open it later at night, satoru-san, don't let your father take it away from you." He was still confused, but agreed. Soon, Mrs satou left his room, getting back to her duties.
As he began getting dressed for the day, his eyes fell towards the calender again, on which today's day was marked with a red circle, with 'test' written on it, in his father's handwriting. Oh god, his father. The thought was enough to make his good mood from getting a gift from Mrs satou sour in a heartbeat. That bastard, he must be on his way now, to wish his 'precious heir' a happy birthday. Nevermind the fact that he only visited his room on two days a year,one, his birthday, and two,the day when the big three clans met, to discuss how to keep up their monopoly on jujustu society.
And today, was one of those days. He stared longingly at the windows, maybe he could just jump out of it, nevermind it was the 3rd floor, he either made it, and happily ran away to his freedom, or he hit his head on a rock and died, which was a preferable option than facing his father and the 'test' today.
The test, a tradition followed by all the worthy heirs of any clan who isn't considered a joke in jujustu society, was a coming of age examination, when the elders assessed the heirs based on their cursed techniques and energy, and determined whether or not they were worthy of inheriting the clan. It was a 'time honoured tradition', like his father had put it, and a 'ritual as crusty as those senile elders', like he puts it.
Anyway, there wasn't anything he could do to get out of it, he already checked. If he injured himself, they would only postpone it, not end it outright. He sighed and stared at the window again. The beautiful birds chirping happily outside looked more and more enticing as time passed.
As he was sitting there and contemplating his escape attempt, he heard heavy footfalls, which could only belong to one person, his father. He scrambled to quickly finish dressing up and sit on his bed in a relaxed position, his legs one on top of the other, a position he knew his father hated, and said was too rude and improper. Well, he was rude and improper, so.
As he had just finished perfecting his position to one which would irritate his father the most, the door slammed open. He stifled a grimace. Honestly, the graceless thudding of his father's footsteps over the wooden floor is enough to warn of his arrival, does he have to be so rough with the doors too?
His father was standing there, the usual frown on his face. Satoru inwardly rolled his eyes, his father acted as if letting loose for a moment would lower his cursed energy or something. Despite being so serious all the time, his father was still the head with the lowest cursed energy output the gojo clan had seen in a long time. Serves him right, honestly, satoru's favourite passtime was remembering the look on his father's face when people always said satoru would be 'a stronger head than you, gojo-sama'.
He was snapped out of his musings when his father's booming voice rang through the room.
'Satoru, how many times have I told you, to not sit like this? It's not befitting of the gojo heir.'
'Well, father, your receding hairline is proper of a gojo head, then?' Satoru smiled outright at the vein popping out on his father's forehead, making the bastard mad was honestly, so rewarding.
Sadly, though, his father chose not to comment on it and move ahead. A shame, he was looking forward to picking a fight today. His father began speaking again.
'I hope you have more respect for the elders when they assess you today, did you practice the drills and exorcisms I told you to, yesterday?"
He rolled his eyes, outwardly this time, "I don't need them, you know it as well as I do." Honestly, his father needed the practice more than he did.
"No respect for your father, even, remember, experience is invaluable, especially from a clan hea-" Satoru cut him off abruptly, "Old man, I stopped needing your experience the moment I got the six eyes, so could you please, spare us both the awkward conversation and skip to the reason you came here for?"
"Fine, so eager, are you? Let's go, but don't you dare complain when they run you ragged."
As he followed behind his father, he couldn't help but scoff, he could take whatever the elders had to dish out, he was the strongest sorcerer of this generation, after all.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Later that night, he lay in his bed, exhausted. He had excused himself from the feast thrown in his honour, stating a headache as his reason and snuck into his room, locking the door shut. For once in his life, the old man wasn't lying, those elders really did run him ragged. He was out all day, in the claustrophobic chambers, with their creepy, weird gazes on him, making his skin crawl. Being examined like a bug under a microscope wasn't how he wanted his birthday to go, but oh well, it's not like his previous ones had been any better.
With the exception of the test this year, all of them were the same as always, his father wished him an awkward good morning and happy birthday, a feast in his honour in the evening, a pretentious gift his father gave to him-it was an imported watch from America, this time- and done. As he remembered just how stitled the wish his father wished him was, he was exceedingly grateful the bastard only deemed him important enough to visit him twice a year, he wasn't exactly bending over backwards to spend any time with the man.
He missed his mother. Satoru hadn't seen her since that fateful day when he was six years old, when his father locked him in his room, and the only sounds satoru heard fron outside were the voices of his parents arguing. It wasn't a common noise in the gojo household, usually, no one dared to oppose gojo-sama. Satoru fell asleep, sitting by the door, having cried his eyes out. When he woke up the next morning, he was informed that his mother had left, and he was never to speak or mention her ever again.
Another reason to hate his bastard of a father. He didn't have to be a child prodigy- which he was, but that's beside the point- to figure out that his father had kicked his mother out for daring to disobey him. Try as he might, satoru wasn't able to remember just what had sparked up the argument between his parents, what would have prompted his mother to talk back to his father, for the first time?
He wondered what she would be like, if she was here today, would she be just as neglectful as his father, or would she celebrate his birthday with something he had seen reflected in the eyes of the parents of other children his age in the schools on their birthdays, with affection and adoration? The household never spoke of her, and the one time he had dared to speak of her in the presence of his father, he got struck so hard he fell to the floor, his temple bleeding. He couldn't help it though, he was still curious about her. Well, he sighs, no reason to dwell on that, is there?
Satoru groaned, his whole body was sore and aching, exhausted from the test. He got up and rummaged in his dresser's drawer to look for the hot water pad he had seen there, when he spotted the gift Mrs satou had given him. He had totally forgotten about it in the midst of everything that had been happening in the day.
He sat on his bed, with the gift in his hands and slowly began to open it. Inside, was a cardboard box, which contained a scarf, navy blue, with six white eyes patterned over it. He immediately smiled and brought the scarf closer to his face, the material was soft and the eyes were a bit wonky, showing that Mrs satou had infact, hand woven it to give it to him. His throat closed up, maybe it was the allergies, nevermind it was December and there was no sign of pollen anywhere. He wound the scarf around his neck and fell back in bed, stroking the eyes patterned over it with his fingers, and the cold December night didn't quite seem so bad anymore.
As he turned off the bedside lamp and pulled the covers over himself, still clutching the scarf around his neck, satoru smiled as he fell asleep, after all, it's his last birthday in this godforsaken house. Next year, his birthday will be spent not under the cold and detached company of his father, but in Tokyo, in jujustu tech.