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Satoru stared up at the sky, wondering just how much longer it would take for Yuuji to make another escape attempt.
He was far from a stupid man. He knew the boy would try to escape again, but he wasn't going to try and stop the kid. No, in fact, he was going to actively encourage this.
Maybe, this way, when Yuuji had been beaten down by the Strongest Sorcerer, he would finally see.
Yuuji would see that what Satoru was doing was a good thing. That by living his childhood, he could simply be that. A child.
And not have to deal with the society that sent children to wage wars on curses and die in the place of foolish elders.
Currently, Satoru was on the roof of his new complex, the new Gojo complex, and was simply existing. He liked doing this. Just simply existing in the world and realizing he didn't need to be anything.
The burden of being the Strongest has been pushed on him when he had first opened his eyes after his birth. It wasn't fair, it wasn't fair in the slightest. But the normal world wasn't fair, and the jujutsu world was doubly unfair. Satoru had no choice but to have that burden pressed upon him, because that was always going to be his fate.
Satoru had his eyes closed, just watching through the cursed energy that fed into his eyes even when his eyelids were closed. Yuuji’s cursed energy wasn't his, but there was enough of Ryomen Sukuna’s for Satoru to track.
Tracking everyone else's was rather rote by now.
Megumi was hanging around the living room with Tsumiki no doubt, either reading a book or watching things in the kitchen happen.
Hanako and Mimiko were in the kitchen, likely making dinner, as it was their turn. Yuuji was with them, surprisingly.
Maybe the boy just wanted to get away from Satoru, maybe he just wanted to exist with people who wanted nothing from him. How many people have insisted on taking something from Yuuji? Be it something as small as an eraser, or as big as his life? Those damn elders.
How much of his soul has he given away for people to take greedily?
Yuuji had a frustratingly people-pleasing soul, Satoru could see that much with Six-Eyes. But there has to be some sort of spine there, especially since he was Sukuna's vessel. There has to be a place that Yuuji will draw the line, otherwise Sukuna would run rampant in the boy's body.
But where would Satoru find the line? And how? He needed a basis for the knowledge, something to draw the line of normalcy at. But Yuuji was not normal. He was quite literally the opposite of normal. He had nearly reached the property line, nearly out of Satoru’s jurisdiction.
And then Satoru wouldn't have been able to pull his weight for the kid.
Where would that end up for everyone?
One dead Itadori Yuuji, most likely.
And no one is truly capable of reversing the dead. Satoru and Suguru had learned that the hard way when their kohai had died.
Maybe if Satoru had taken more time out of his schedule.
Maybe if Satoru wasn't being run into the ground by the higher ups.
Maybe if he and Suguru had coordinated to go with their kohai when they were sent on a job.
Maybes and what-ifs wouldn't bring back the dead.
Not even Shoko could do that.
Satoru sighed and sat up. The kids were starting to put everything together, gathering by the middle of the kitchen. It seemed they had finished making dinner then.
He warped down to his family, startling only Yuuji when he appeared out of nowhere. Nanako and Mimiko were delighted to see him as always, and Tsumiki laughed at him draping himself over her.
Megumi was sulking.
He had been knocked out after all. It was no wonder the poor boy was so exhausted, he probably had a crick in his neck or something. Yuuji had been fast and strong, there was no way he had been soft in knocking out Megumi.
Satoru would check on his first son after this dinner.
“What smells so amazing?” Satoru grinned down at them all, peering at them over his glasses to see their features.
“Meatballs! Yuuji-kun helped us make them.” Tsumiki said, supporting his weight to the best of her ability. She wasn't like her siblings, so she wasn't as strong, but she did her best. That's all that was needed anyways.
“Oh? Didn't poison anything, did he?” Satoru teased as servings were passed around and Yuuji flushed bright red.
“No! Why would I poison you guys!? And why would I waste food by poisoning you guys!?” The boy vehemently denied, and didn't the order just say everything?
For all that Sukuna was no doubt in the kid's mind, whispering poison into his mind that likely dripped like blood seeping from a wound, Itadori Yuuji was a good kid.
“It wouldn't work anyways.” Nanako shrugged, handing Satoru his portion, and he sat down, but waited for all the children to get their own portions before he ate his. “We were right beside him. And unless adding extra ginger to Megumi’s portion is poisoning the rest of the food. . .”
Yuuji huffed as he was directed to sit down, carefully sitting down and watching everyone. He looked completely surprised when Mimiko handed him a bowl.
Did he think he was going to be starved? Did he think that they would deny him food? Had he been denied food by the assholes on high, and Suguru had been the one to give it to him?
Satoru tightened his grip on his chopsticks, but said nothing, only keeping his smile up.
It wasn't so hard to do so anyways.
His family was around the table, getting ready to dig into a meal that their newest addition has helped make. That meant that Yuuji would come around eventually. Maybe. Suguru would try to take him back, just like how he managed to succeed with Okkotsu Yuuta. But Suguru wouldn't get Yuuji back.
Suguru could help Yuuta. He couldn't help Yuuji.
Satoru would keep this one safe, safe in the family that he had created on the new Gojo Estate, where no one was allowed to enter without permission. Very few people had that permission, Suguru being one of those people.
But Suguru knew the second he stepped foot on this ground, he would never leave.
Satoru had made that clear all those years ago.
So instead, he dug into the delicious meal that his girls and Yuuji had created, and watched as his family laughed and joked and dragged Yuuji into the fold.
Yes. He thought. This is how it should be. I'm almost there.
~~~~~~~~~~
Suguru rubbed at his eyes.
He was exhausted.
And he wanted his student back dammit!
Unfortunately, walking onto the new Gojo Estate was a suicide mission for him. For his caseload anyways. All of it would likely fall onto Yuuta-kun, and that would be the absolute last thing that Suguru ever wanted to do, to burden a student.
And Suguru couldn't rest either. Not while Satoru still had Yuuji-kun on the estate grounds. Satoru wouldn't hurt the boy, Suguru was quite sure of that. But Suguru also knew that Yuuji-kun would try to escape again, and Satoru wasn't known for being light-handed in punishments.
“Senpai, you shouldn't rub at your eyes, you'll make your dark circles worse.” Haibara Yuu-kun poked at his shoulder.
“I do what I want.” Suguru huffed, but dropped his hand. He stared at the plans that were strewn across the table that he, Shoko, and Yuu-kun had claimed in order to brainstorm a plan to rescue Yuuji-kun.
They hadn't come up with much besides “dangle Suguru in front Satoru with a stick to distract him while Yuu-kun grabs Yuuji-kun.”
That plan was put forward by Shoko. Yuu-kun was for it. Suguru had shot it down.
Shoko had rolled her eyes good-naturedly, but they also went back to the drawing board. And had gotten nowhere.
They were without a plan and without a student and no one had a plan. How could they get Yuuji-kun back when no one could come up with a plan for it? Suguru didn't have any plan, he couldn't come up with a plan. His mind kept whirling and disappearing each time he thought about taking Yuuji-kun back.
Suguru wanted his student back.
Suguru wanted a lot of things.
A knock on the door silenced his thoughts, and he turned to the door. They all did.
“Come in, Yuuta-kun.” Suguru said, forcing a smile onto his face.
The door opened, and Yuuta-kun looked at all of them, one at a time, before he closed the door behind him. He looked at the papers strewn across the desk, and his lips thinned.
“Sensei? Where's Yuuji-kun? I was supposed to meet him today.”
That was true. Yuuta-kun and Yuuji-kun were so alike, Suguru had thought that perhaps them getting to know each other would do them some good.
“Gojo Satoru kidnapped him.” Suguru sighed, never one to hide the truth from his students. They deserved to know what they were getting into. Be it missions or getting to know each other, they deserved truth and transparency, especially with the world that they lived in.
Yuuta-kun immediately looked devastated. He had been looking forward to meeting someone like him. Someone who was new to the jujutsu world and someone that he could mentor and train. The devastation quickly morphed into determination, and Suguru nearly shivered at the look in the young boy's eyes.
“What can we do?”
“Nothing.” Suguru sighed, leaning his head against the back of the seat he was reclined in. “We've been trying to come up with a plan for hours, hopefully before the elders notice that Yuuji-kun is missing. But nothing has come to mind. Because of how insanely powerful Satoru is.”
Yuuta-kun gripped his scabbard tightly, eyes dark as he remembered the time that Satoru tried to take him too.
“Maybe I could be bait?” He offered.
“Absolutely not.” Suguru snapped, sitting upright to glare at the younger boy with his teacher's glare. “Satoru would take full advantage and then have you both.”
“You don't trust me to handle myself!?”
“Not against Satoru.” Suguru deflated. “No one wins against him.”
Not since then. Not since he started taking things seriously. There was no way of winning against the Strongest Jujutsu sorcerer the world had ever seen. The entire world has turned on its head thanks to his birth, how would the gnats in his life have any impact on him?
Suguru would know.
He had lost any impact on Satoru years ago.
“Well, we could just try my plan.” Yuu-kun offered, putting the paper down on the table where everyone could see.
“When did you have time to create that?” Shoko asked, the smoke curling from her cigarette lazily, and Suguru waved Yuuta-kun behind him.
“Just now while everyone was distracted with Yuuta-kun!” Yuu-kun was always so bright. Like a sunbeam. Really a blessing to the jujutsu world. Suguru was so glad he was here, but he always got so sad when he looked at him as well.
Suguru picked up the paper, and started to look it over.
His brow furrowed as he thought over the logistics.
“Are you sure you can get him to comply?”
“Definitely! He always says yes to me, remember?” Yuu-kun grinned, brown eyes glittering.
That's true. He always said yes to Yuu-kun.
Suguru turned it over in his head.
He passed the plan on to Shoko, who has put out her cigarette by now.
“So Yuuta-kun right? How have your classes been? I hope Senpai hasn't been working you too hard. You're a second year this year, aren't you? That's very impressive!”
And just like that, Yuu-kun was grabbing onto Yuuta-kun and running with questions and commentary.
Impressive. Yuu-kun was always good at this, he had learned it from Satoru.
“It looks solid. We just have to ask him.” Shoko put the paper down. “Which is all on Haibara.”
Yuu-kun immediately gave a thumbs-up to them both, his beaming, bright grin shining like the sun.
“Leave it to me! He may be a little different now, but he's still the same as he's always been!”
~~~~~~~~~~
He sighed, staring at the barrier.
It was clear as day what it was and why it was there. Keeping people in and keeping others out. Gojo’s cursed energy fed it too, so if one didn't know the man, all they would get is rolling nausea that threatened to overtake them.
Why am I doing this again? He asked himself, reaching up and picking at the scar that spanned across his forehead absentmindedly.
“Ah yes, Yuu asked me for help.” He sighed.
He stepped forward and went through the barrier.
Nanami Kento emerged out the other side, preparing himself for the storm that was Gojo Satoru that was about to slam into him.