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Since he was born, his family knew that he was destined for greatness. They were not wrong. Once he awakened his ancestral family technique, his six eyes and limitlessness, everybody started to see him as more than the next patriarch of one of the three imperial families of jujutsu and more as a semi god, the strongest of an era—someone who broke the delicate balance of the world.
So why should someone like him believe in destiny? He should be able to make his own path. Why should he listen to those scheming elders– the old laws of the jujutsu world, his family or the little black flower that appeared on his left shoulder at the age of thirteen, the mark of his soulmate. He shouldn't have one. He was, after all, the one who should control his destiny. The honored one. He should roam the world alone. Direct a new path for himself and the world. Not to be tied to a prewritten script.
That's what he thought.
That's what he told Suguru at the age of sixteen while he held his hand, not caring about what the destiny had prepared for him. Even when Shoko laughed at him for not knowing if he was being romantic or arrogant, it didn't matter to him.
He will not be controlled. Not by a single black flower; not by an insignificant mark on his shoulder.
But destiny tried to teach him that he wasn't a god but a human with incredible power. A mere mortal that could be killed by someone skilled with no curse power. The most powerful sorcerer was beaten up by a nobody. He felt humiliated, but he would not be defeated again. He went after his killer, high on adrenaline with a new goal in mind, unlocking a part of his power that he didn’t even know existed; it was a wake-up call. After the battle was over, he expected the assassin to curse him but instead , he accepted his own death and gave him the most twisted request that he could have ever imagined.
Zenin Toji was human trash. There was no doubt about it but to sell his child and then give his future away to the stranger who took his life was something that he never saw coming.
Amanai Riko’s death has changed something in him–something fundamental about the society he was living in and the world outside. So he set out to better understand his power and was determined to grow stronger than he’d ever been before. If a non-sorcerer could defeat him in his territory, it was only a matter of time before someone else got a lucky shot.
Sadly, he was not the only one to change that day; he failed to see that Suguru was also looking for some answers, and they were slowly drifting apart. While he was getting stronger, Suguru seemed to be constantly distracted and not as competitive as he was before, his ideals twisted beyond recognition, his sanity slipping until he was slaughtering a whole villa.
How much had he failed to notice? That Suguru hadn’t trusted him enough to share the storm in his mind. Maybe Suguru thought he wouldn’t understand.
Maybe he was right.
But he would have tried. He would have stood by Suguru's side, carving some better path through their broken world.
Yet that wasn't what happened.
Suguru left not with fury, not with farewell, but with a hollow smile that never reached his eyes. A smile that made him question everything, even his own self.
Not only was he heartbroken but he was also afraid of having to fight his ex-lover and best friend. He hoped that maybe it wouldn't come to that. that someone else would step in and stop him before it was too late, or kill the elders they were the ones to blame.
His curiosity led him to the little family of the assassin and that's when he met his little soulmate, a mini version of the remainder of his mortality. How fucking perfect. He expected the child to fall on his knees crying once he told him that his soulmate was the man who let him orphan and be vulnerable, but instead he found amusement when mini Toji told him with a very uncute face that he didn't want to hear about the cruel destiny of his bastard father or who he was or what he wanted. Was this kid really six?.
He chose to keep quiet and raise the child himself, not as his soulmate but as a guardian, after all, who wanted a child as a soulmate when he had someone who was his age and almost as powerful as himself. Still the kid was full of surprises. He was the bearer of the ten shadows, the only technique that could compete with his six eyes, probably the only one that could maybe even surpass him. He was currently at his kitchen trying not to cry as his sister held a bloody tooth and took pictures of his puffy face. It made sense, he guessed, that destiny tried to balance his light with a shadow, someone who could be as powerful as himself.
For some time, he felt bitter towards the little curse, waiting for the moment he tried to show off his power, unconsciously following his prescribed destiny, but Megumi was cold as always, trying to avoid him, not listening to him, and only obeying and caring for his elder sister. Not that he could blame him, Tsumiki was such a lovely girl, even Shoko thought so, she liked to make funny pranks and play with him, while Megumi only liked to sulk in a corner, glaring at him, not making any sound. What a boring kid!
He was content for some time, finding that taking the child under his wing hadn't changed much of his life; he still spent time with Shoko and bullied Nanami. He kept getting stronger and drawing his path. What he didn't expect was that while he could change his script, not everybody could, and at that moment, only one person crossed his mind, the child that he was raising who had the ability to control the shadows.
Sadly, Megumi's power was not something that could be kept as a secret for a long time, and as things turned out, the Zen'in were very interested in keeping their sacred technique for themselves and made Megumi their next patriarch. For Satoru, Megumi being the patriarch of the Zen'ins made even more sense than him being his soulmate. Zen'in Megumi of the clan Zen’in, even sounds better than Fushiguro Megumi, he was the natural enemy of the Gojo clan since forever. He was willing to let the kid and his sister go if that's what they wanted; he could even keep Tsumiki if that would make everything easier for them.
He went to speak to the child and explained to him who his family was, how important and powerful they were, about his technique and how powerful he was destined to be in the sorcerer's world, that if that was the life he wanted, he would not stop him.
He didn't even know how a mere child could keep surprising him the way Megumi did. Megumi didn't give a shit about the Zenins. He was, after all, a Fushiguro like his sister. He wanted to have a simple life, away from curses, clans, power, and his only wish was for his sister to be happy. That was probably the first time since Suguru deflected that he gave a sincere smile, such a pure wish with full of innocence, probably the first time he felt that he was speaking to a seven-year-old. "Leave it to me". He promised his little soulmate. He would never love him as a lover, but he at least would protect him.
It was a difficult battle against the Zen'ins, one that cost him over ten million, the promise that he would personally train him, and in case Megumi would choose to come back or something happened to him, Megumi would go to his rightful family. Also unknown to the Zenins as a whole, he pledged to the elders that he was the one that should keep the kid since they were destined, they were soulmates, and he got the proof on his skin, once Megumi turned sixteen they would make it official and when he turned twenty one they would marry and until then he promised that he would not defile his body. A promise full of lies since he didn't expect to marry the kid, but it would give them time until Megumi could protect himself and make his choices. Their bond, as much as it disgusted the elders -and himself- was the final key for them to agree. Fool, all of them.
Little by little Megumi and Tsumiki turned into his new home, a place where he could go when he felt bored but not homicidal, where he wanted home cooked food and was too lazy to cook for himself, where he was tired and just wanted to hide from his responsibilities. Now instead of bullying Nanami he could just bully Megumi and sometimes Tsumiki would join him to pester her little brother or nag at him like she was the responsible adult.
Once when he was drinking with Shoko, he complained that Megumi was mad at him. Apparently, he got into a fight with another kid at school, and since the school didn't find a responsible guardian, they called Tsumiki, and she had to miss her school trip. He wasn't angry because of his bruised purple face but because his sister missed the trip to the aquarium. Even though the little curse was the one that got into trouble. Shoko just laughed at him and told him that it happened because he was raising kids as a six-year-old would raise puppies. He only went to see them when he wanted to play, and then he forgot about them until it was the next time to play. Tsumiki is the only mature person there. After that, he did what any responsible adult would do, letting Ijichi deal with the boring parts of being a guardian.
As the years passed, Megumi turned more and more into a troubled child and often found himself in Shoko's explorative table. It was on one of these checkups, the first time that she saw the same flower - a lotus lili - that Satoru despised, in the child's shoulder, raising so many questions. It was only after she was alone with Satoru that she voiced said questions. What he wanted to do with Megumi, and if the child knew that he was his soulmate. He only answered with the truth, that people like them don't follow a scrib. Fuck destiny and the rules, Megumi was only a child and so different from…he did not dare to finish the sentence but Shoko understud his point, even so she knew that Satoru was being Satoru. Selfish and cruel.
In December when he turned 28 was probably the worst time in his life, first he lost Tsumiki, his sweet little girl, to a curse that he didn't know how to break, even with all his strength he was useless. It had been years since he got such a cruel reminder that he was not omnipotent, he broke his promise to her to protect her and to Megumi who only wanted to see her happy. Now they could only see her bedridden in a deep coma hoping that someday they would see her smile again, he wondered if Megumi hated him now.
Then he lost Suguru by his hand, so many lives were lost, and he felt utterly empty, there was no sadness, tears of rage, he was just numb. He wondered what kind of monster he was turning into. He didn't know what he did that night, only that he woke up in Megumi's bed, covered in Suguru's blood, while the child was petting his wild hair as if he was a dog trying to give him comfort even when he had failed him. Megumi was the first to speak, staring directly into his blue eyes with such determination and strength in his voice that it was difficult to believe that it came from a fourteen-year-old. “I want to be a Sorcerer.”
He began training him for real this time, no more games to fool the elders, Megumi's control of his curse power was exceptional, how fast he learned to dominate his shikigamis even subconsciously, he even started to treat them as they were his pets, naming them, taking them to walks, petting them, using them as a pillow while he read. His methodical mind was his strongest feature, while his weakest point was his physical strength. While Megumi’s the carbon copy of his father's face, he guessed everything else was his mother's, since he looked so delicate, no matter how much he made him eat proteins or fatty food, the kid could not gain weight. So instead of training him himself, he left that work to his adorable first-year students. Yuuta and Maki were the ones who were more compromised by the difficult task. After a while, Megumi only kept growing taller and still looked like a stick, but at least when Maki hit him, he didn't k.o on the first round.
He was indeed proud of Megumi and his potential, so much that even Shoko started to bother him that she wasn't expecting for him to be such a mother hen kind of guy, even if she cared as much for the kid.
He could see the eyes of everyone around the stoic boy, the Zen’in always tagging his progress and almost drooling over the idea of owning him, Maki wanting him to get stronger to keep him safe and as far away from their family obsession. Panda and Toge mess with him because it is always fun to bully Megumi until he summons his demon dogs for the first graders to play with them.
As the new school year started Megumi moved out to the school's dorms. He hoped that it would be a favorable change for his life since there would be more people around him instead of the cold room he rented when he moved to Tokyo. This was going to be funny and weird at the same time because as much as he loved his students Megumi was already part of his life, it was incredible how he won over people's hearts without even trying. It was so easy to love Megumi.
While for everybody the appearance of the king of curses was something to be afraid of, for him it was the perfect distraction, one that he could take advantage of to make everybody see how corrupt and antiquate their actual system was. One that in their greed to maintain their power and money, was making the new sorcerers to drop or turning them into curse users. Like Suguru that lost all his fate in human lifes or Toji that was born just to be a pain in everybody's ass. It was the perfect time to see who was on their side and who must be eradicated from the map.
Yuuji was a pleasant surprise, someone with a good heart and competitive streak, simple in mind, idealist and the most important with lots of potential. Having him and Nobara was refreshing since they acted their age and didn’t care about the clan's politics and formalities. It was funny to see Megumi get involved in their antics in a very short time. He thought that everything could go smoothly until the detention center accident occurred and he noticed that he made an important miscalculation. He didn't even consider the fear that the elders have of Sukuna could be so great that they were willing to sacrifice Megumi, the porter of the Ze’nins most priced ancestral technique and the only person in the jujutsu world that could compete with his six eyes.
Fortunately, Megumi was alive, so he asked for a few days off school and brought Megumi to his apartment in Tokyo. He didn’t want to leave the raven alone to dwell on what had happened—or maybe he was the one who didn’t want to be alone. Perhaps it was his own selfish desire to keep Megumi close: to feel the dark curl of his cursed energy, to touch him, to trace the rise and fall of his chest with every breath.
Sometimes at night, he couldn’t help himself. He’d slip into Megumi’s room just to watch him sleep, reassuring himself that he was okay, that he wouldn’t disappear. Unconsciously, his fingers would brush over the soulmate mark on Megumi’s back, the contact a fleeting comfort.
He’d made himself a promise: if anything ever happened to Megumi, he would destroy the elders—not mercifully, but in a way that would make death seem like a reward rather than punishment.
When he discovered Yuji was alive, relief flooded through him. It meant he hadn’t failed Megumi—he’d been given another chance. He trained Yuji rigorously, honing his control over Sukuna to protect Megumi when he couldn’t be there himself.
But fate kept toying with him. After the Goodwill Event, he found himself sitting beside an unconscious Megumi, his body knotted with pain after Shoko removed the cursed roots that had burrowed into his navel—roots born from the curse that escaped Gojo’s Purple. Rage seethed so violently within him that Shoko had to snap at him to control his cursed energy before it disturbed Megumi’s rest. Some soulmates are more sensitive than their counterparts. Why did the whole universe want to take Megumi from him? Could the world see that Megumi was his?
The next few months were exhausting. They knew there was a spy—that someone had been trying to steal Sukuna’s fingers—but despite the tension, there was also joy. He couldn’t help but feel rewarded watching Megumi flourish as a sorcerer. Despite Tsumiki’s coma, Megumi had found moments to enjoy his youth, to laugh with his new friends.
And then there was this: Megumi had asked him directly for training, pulling them closer than before. Now, they spent more time together—just the two of them. Some weekends, Megumi stayed at his apartment or the old Gojo estate. He adored his students, but he loved his alone time with Megumi.
He loved seeing him groggy and grumpy in the mornings, scowling until his coffee was ready. He loved how Megumi cuddled his dogs during movies, or how his face flushed red whenever he teased him for pouting. -Adorable, he’d say. He couldn’t imagine his life without his little blessing and maybe this is what the soulmark means, that no matter what, they were destined to share moments like this, good or bad they belonged together or maybe it was just the routine that made them so perfect for eachother- this was the first time that he let himself enjoy his soulmark tingling full of affection.
Then Shibuya, he felt like an idiot for falling into the box, but it helped him to be in a quiet place, without the overstimulation of his six eyes. He was soon thinking about his students, Nanami, Shoko even Ijishi, and how long he would be trapped but out of anyone he mostly thought about his soulmate, the one that he didn’t want to admit that he had fallen in love with in the slowest burn way that he didn’t even notice how Megumi has been filling every aspect of his life but he was not denying it anymore.
He didn’t know if Megumi knew about the mark but he supposed that he did, even if he never said anything. His boy was not dumb, but he also wasn’t very confrontational. So he guesses that once he is outside of the box he will have to compensate for the lost time.
Once he was out of the box he wished to put everything in the right place he was ready to put the past where it belonged, starting by killing the bastard that stole Suguru’s body, that's when he saw him. His boy, or more exactly Sukuna wearing Megumi’s body. They knew and they were mocking him, two impostors playing with his mind.
So instead of letting himself be controlled by his anger he chooses to prepare himself and those around him, to make a plan, he was not going to risk Megumi’s life. He was not going to lose him too. Fighting against Megumi’s body was a nightmare, he was thrilled to see Megumi’s true potential, his strength, he could see why the ten shadows and six eyes were linked in different timelines, the six eyes and ten shadows were meant to complement each other. For a moment he managed to dissociate enough to enjoy the fight against the King of curses until he learned that he was not only hurting Megumi’s body but instead, he was hurting Megumi’s soul. At that moment he knew that may lose the battle. And he did.
He didn’t know how much time had passed since the battle of Shinjuku, he only knew that he woke up in a hospital bed, Shoko and Yuta beside him. Welcoming him into the hell hole that was the world of the living. Later the rest of his students enter the little room.
Nobody was expecting to see him alive, they were happy and celebrating, yelling at him for scare them, he could see the scars, the determination, and how the have grow in so little time, they were children when they enter the battle but now even if he wanted to call them kids it felt wrong, he wished that Nanami was still alive he would know what to say. They share every detail of the fight. He was proud—and yet, it ached. Proud of how far they’d come, but gutted that he hadn’t been there to fight for them.
The only one who remained silent was Megumi. He sat beside him, quiet as a shadow. Relief flickered in his eyes, but it was smothered by something deeper—a sorrow so heavy it seemed to bend the air between them.
At one moment Shoko asked everybody to leave to let him rest, everybody but Megumi.
“Megumi, why did you give up? “ Satoru asked him once they were alone, dropping his cheerful façade .
He wanted to be there for Megumi to make up for all those times that he couldn’t protect him or the people that he cared about, for leaving him alone with the weight of the word on his shoulders and letting Sukuna’s disgusting soul taint his body. He wanted to apologize to his soulmate for his cowardice and incompetence, for denying his feelings, he wanted to show him that he really loved him and he would never leave him alone again.
Megumi was silent for a few seconds not being able to look him in the eyes.Satoru was patient but was worried. Something was different in Megumi’s curse flow; it was messy and thrashed violently, tainted by the lingering rot of Sukuna's presence.
He understood. Whatever Megumi had done, it must have been drastic to suppress Sukuna's power enough for Yuji's strike to land. After everything they'd endured, none of them would emerge unchanged.
"Did you make a binding vow?"
The quiet question snapped Megumi's attention upward—only for him to shrink further into himself. That reaction alone confirmed Satoru's fears. He needed to know what price Megumi had paid.
He wanted to say so many things but his words died at his throat as his eyes stared at Megumi’s left shoulder where the little flower that connected Megumi’s and his soul and every other six eyes and ten shadow users had used to be, now laid bare
”What did you trade to help us defeat him?” He somehow deep down knew the answer but refused to acknowledge it, truth sat like a stone in his throat, heavy and suffocating. If he didn't say it aloud, if he didn't give it words, then maybe it wouldn't be real.
Maybe he could still pretend.
"It wasn’t something important," Megumi murmured, fingers brushing the scars on his face—where Sukuna’s cursed energy was the strongest.
"He asked me to let myself get lost in him." His voice turned distant, as if he were slipping back into that hollow world Sukuna had carved for him. "I’d already given up. Felt like I had nothing left out here. But with him… I could pretend. He made a place where I could just exist . See Tsumiki again. Watch flowers bloom. Walk through my memories.
A brittle pause. "But Itadori would’ve been sad. And I couldn’t— wouldn’t —make him feel the way I did. So I chose to live. For Yuji. For Nobara. For Maki and the others. To honor you and Tsumiki.
The silence between them grew heavy. When Megumi spoke again, his words were quieter, slower.
"Sukuna didn’t want to let me go. But he didn’t have to… not completely. I tied my soul to his. A piece of me will always be his now. If he returns to this world… so will I." His lips curved, a smile as thin as a blade’s edge. "A soul always finds its other half, after all”
“If he’s back I will know that he must be halted, you show me that not all soulmates were meant to fall in love with each other, probably that’s why our ancestors were connected, to prevent us from falling into madness. I don’t think we will anymore”. He said as he dropped to his knees to do a reverence, his forehead touching the floor.
”Thank you for taking care of me and Tsumiki. Now there's nothing to keep you attached to me. Sorry for being a burden and not living up to your expectations. You don’t need to worry about me ,anymore, not in this life or the next one. I won’t be a curse to you anymore“ his voice breaking, tears dropping on the cool floor, waiting to be forgiven for every little inconvenience that he has caused to the elder.
Gojo felt his world crashing down.
Megumi was no longer his soulmate.