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It had been a successful mission.
Satoru was charged with exorcising a semi-special grade cursed spirit out in Hokkaido. It was an easy mission for the holder of The Six Eyes, The Infinity Technique, and heir to the Gojo clan. Because of that, it was one that he had been assigned to take alone.
He was aware of his ever-expanding power, and he had been working as hard as possible to get stronger. Satoru figured that if he got strong enough to handle absolutely anything, then he would always be able to protect the people he loved.
It was a shitty consolation prize, though, because with every ounce of power he gained, he felt the strain on his body and his relationships.
“So I guess you really don’t need me now, huh?” Suguru said with a chuckle, just a little too far left of joyful.
Satoru’s hazy eyes snap to his best friend, the moon in his sky, the only person who had ever understood him, “What the hell are you saying? I’ll always need you. In every lifetime, every universe, I’ll always look for you.” His cheeks are dusted with red, but it’s hard to tell if it was the admission of his adoration or the beer on his empty stomach.
“That’s our cue to leave,” Ieiri announced tactfully as she stood and wobbled in place for a moment. Yu and Kento shared a look, and then both shrugged. As the three sorcerers exited the room, Ieiri paused at the door, as if to say something, but thought better of it and left.
Everyone had been drinking, of course. They always drank after Satoru came back from a successful mission. He liked to say that it was so he could relax with his friends, but it was really to block out the constant buzz of power in the back of his head. Sometimes it was fine, but usually after a mission, his power crackled like static electricity for days after, and made his brain feel fuzzy.
So they drank together with the unspoken agreement that they were supposed to be cheerful and happy to be alive and all that.
The two strongest sorcerers rarely became melancholy, but when they did, everyone else cleared out pretty fast. Nobody could hold a candle to the emotional problems of the two people at the top of the food chain, or the inadequacy issues that they faced. Ieiri and Kento knew their own limits and didn’t try to achieve greatness, and Yu couldn’t be bothered to try, since he was content with doing what he could for others at a much lower level.
“You’re just saying that.” Suguru swished his can of beer around, “You don’t need me. Not really. You’re strong enough to do this all, and more, by yourself. I just… slow you down.” His eyes were downcast and blank, but if Satoru looked closely, he could see the shadows in them, shadows that were shaped like failure.
“Stop spouting all that bullshit.” Satoru grunted, leaning closer to knock his shoulder against Suguru’s, “It’s like I said,” his voice got lower as he leaned in, and he lifted a hand to brush a lock of Suguru’s hair away.
”I will always want you, and I’ll always need you. You’re the only one for me.”
And of course, he had meant in a platonic way, because there was absolutely no way Satoru Gojo of the Gojo clan, holder of The Six Eyes and the Infinity Technique, could be allowed to love a man.
But when Suguru looked up at him with those lovely purple eyes, and blinked owlishly at him, maybe, just maybe-
Maybe the alcohol was inhibiting his usually structured belief system.
Suguru leaned up and kissed him with soft lips that tasted like shitty beer, and for the first time in his life, Satoru couldn’t think. He had no recourse except to sit there, frozen, as his best friend stepped over the carefully laid line of friendship that should never be crossed. The dissent in his head sounded suspiciously like his mother’s voice, and it took effort to blink it away.
And just as he was about to return the kiss, Suguru broke it off.
“I’m sorry. That was inappropriate. Forget that happened.” And he stood jerkily from the bed as Satoru tried helplessly to restart his brain.
The holder of the Six Eyes blinked owlishly for a few minutes more, swimming through memories of lessons at his family estate, fighting through strict guidelines that had been ingrained in him since birth. When his mind swam back around to the surface, he realized that Suguru had vacated his room in a rush and left the door ajar.
And then he was up and running.
The strongest sorcerer ran to Suguru’s room, across the hall, and down a few doors, and pounded on it with a fist.
“Suguru, open the door!”
When he heard no response, he thumped his forehead into the wood and said, “Come on, Suguru. Let’s talk about this.” All he could think was that he desperately wanted to kiss Suguru again, and it would complete something in his chest that had been missing since he was born.
He heard shuffling from the other side of the wall, and a grin spread across his face.
Then, a door opened behind him, and Nanami poked his head out, “Don’t you know we have a test tomorrow? Go to bed, Satoru.”
“But I-“
“Now, Satoru.” Kento groused and then slammed his door.
With a dejected sigh, Satoru trudged back to his bedroom, although he made a point to slam the door extra hard, just to annoy Kento.
He looked around his dirty, beer-can-littered room and resolved to clean it another time. Then Satoru flopped onto his bed and lost himself in the memory of Suguru’s lips moving against his own.
One hand came up to gently touch his tingling lips, and he smiled hazily to himself, feeling elated.
.
.
.
He promised never to drink again.
Alcohol dulled the six eyes, and his head pounded in a way that made him feel like there were curses nearby.
Everything hurt, and Satoru groaned as he rolled out of bed and shuffled to the bathroom.
The shower water rained down on him as he thought about the evening before, and he touched his lips again, remembering the feel of Suguru’s pressed to his own.
The pink dusted across his cheeks couldn’t be blamed on alcohol this time.
He realized that he didn’t care what everyone else had to say about it. All he cared about was Suguru. And he wanted to kiss his best friend again.
As Satoru stepped out of the shower, he heard frantic knocking on his door and cocked an eyebrow before he strode over to open it, cursing the sun streaming in his window for his throbbing headache.
“Back for more so soon?” He gloated as he swung the door open to reveal… Shoko.
Her cheeks were red like Satoru’s, but so were her eyes… and she was sobbing.
“There’s been an accident-“
Satoru was running before she could even finish her sentence.
It wasn’t the hangover that made his head ache.
It was the massive amount of curses nearby.
He skidded to a stop in front of Suguru’s room, which was teeming with cursed energy, and his throat bobbed for a moment as he fought his indecision.
He could wait for Principal Yaga to show up, or some more experienced Jujutsu Sorcerers.
Yu and Kento were there too, looking hollow. It seemed like they had been standing there a bit longer, and his brow furrowed in confusion. Why hadn’t they gone for help? Or tried to get Suguru out? If a curse was attacking him, or if he had lost control, then he likely needed medical help.
Satoru blanched at the thought, “Suguru!” He shouted, his fist pounding on the door in a more panicked replication of the previous night. “Suguru, are you alright?!”
His breath came faster as Suguru’s room snarled at him, and Satoru clenched his jaw.
He made a split-second decision, then reached for the handle.
Kento gripped his shoulder, “Don’t! Whatever is in there is sealed by the wards on his room. If you open the door, you’re dooming all of us!”
“I don’t care! Suguru is in there, and he’s facing that thing alone!” Satoru snarled, and he shook Nanami’s hand off.
As he turned the doorknob, he activated Infinity and used it to fill the doorframe. However frantic he may be, he wasn’t stupid. Kento was right, the sheer amount of cursed energy would level the dorms, if not the school.
The door swung open slowly, and it revealed a completely darkened room. Clearly, the curses had spread over the window and caused the blackout. Satoru focused all of his energy on maintaining his infinity blockade at the door. If he failed, people would get hurt.
He was so focused on retaining the seal on the wards that it took a moment to see Suguru’s legs.
.
.
It took him even longer to understand why they were hovering two feet off the floor.
.
.
And it took a split second for his infinity to falter as he sucked in a gasp.
That split second was enough, and suddenly his classmates were screaming behind him, and there were sounds of battle as they tried to fight off the entire might of Suguru’s curse collection. A collection that had been collecting for years. A collection that Suguru knew would be released if he ever died.
And Satoru could only stand there, cuts appearing along his face, clothing in tatters from the split second that Infinity had turned off.
All he could see was Suguru’s hair, stringy and unkempt. That... wasn’t right. Suguru always took really good care of his hair. It would never be dirty and tangled.
As Satoru dropped to his knees, and a desperate keen clawed its way up his throat, his world imploded.
The Jujutsu Tech dorms shone briefly with a bright purple light, and then they exploded.
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Weeks later, a funeral was held at Jujutsu Tech. They held the ceremony in the newly rebuilt gardens, and most of the Jujutsu Society showed their faces.
Gojo Satoru, Nanami Kento, and Shoko Ieiri stood vigil as people came to pay their respects to people they had never known and would never get the chance to speak with. They spoke with people, shook hands, and accepted meaningless pleasantries.
For many of the people who had crawled out of the woodwork, there was an agenda on the table.
Make the heir of the Gojo clan forget that he had lost two people. Become his friend, his confidant. Comfort him and get an easy ticket up the ranks of Jujutsu Society.
.
.
They didn’t count on the fact that Satoru had killed those people.
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.
It was unclear whether Haibara had been killed by a curse or by Satoru’s spontaneous evolution in power. All the same, when Satoru had returned from his misery, it was in a hospital bed, flanked by Kento and Ieiri on either side.
It was Ieiri’s own power that had saved them. That, and lucky positioning. There were cursed spirits in the way that Satoru’s power had evaporated first, which slowed it down only enough that they didn’t die.
Haibara Yu hadn’t been so lucky. He was closer to Satoru. Had fought his way forward to extend a hand to his friend, and he had died for it.
Satoru had taken days to name the power, too lost in his own misery, but eventually settled on just calling it Purple. Like the color of Suguru’s eyes.
It was a blatant reminder of what getting stronger had really cost him.
Everyone regarded the incident as an accident. But Satoru was no fool.
He had seen.
He knew that Suguru would never lose control of his power like that.
It was lucky for Suguru, actually. Satoru’s power had incinerated most of the room, including the rope around his neck, which meant that his dead body was spared the scorn of Jujutsu Society. Everyone knew that suicide was a coward’s way out.
At least now he was regarded as a hero who died in battle. It was assumed that a high-level curse had entered Suguru’s room in the night and slaughtered him in his bed.
The remaining members of his class knew the truth. Ieiri and Kento had agreed among themselves to keep Suguru’s actions silent, since it would alter the story too much.
If Suguru was already dead, then Satoru had lost control of his power and murdered Haibara, which looked much worse than a spontaneous evolution after two of his friends had died.
But Satoru knew the truth, and he couldn’t bring himself to lie to anyone. It was lucky that nobody had asked him, or he would be in hot water.
Satoru knew it was his fault.
If he had just been quicker to recover from the kiss.
If he had just flipped Nanami off and kicked in Suguru’s door that night.
If he had just made the first move.
If he was fast enough.
If he was strong enough.
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fin.