Chapter Text
Birds chirp up above them, passing briefly overhead of both Satoru and Suguru on a nice, spring day... if not for the fact that Satoru is utterly bored out of his mind. He’s already read the latest release of Fullmetal Alchemist (17) and he’s been too lazy to read Hunter x Hunter (he isn’t up to date on it at all) or start NANA (despite that one being recommended by Shoko – a rarity!), which hasn’t been helping with the boredom either. Even the idea of collecting the announced ‘Battle Terminal’ Digimon cards doesn’t sound that interesting. From what he’s been able to scour off of forums, the system is frankly shit.
So, yeah, Satoru is horrifically bored. It doesn’t help that Suguru has been zoning out, reading some cell novel he found online, apparently having heard good things about it. He genuinely cannot tell if Suguru even likes what he’s reading from the utter lack of expression on his face. He sits up with his knees drawn up, right hand tapping down on his flip-phone, while his left arm hangs limply from his knee. At the very least, he seems somewhat invested given that he’s been reading quietly alongside Satoru reading the latest volume of Fullmetal Alchemist.
“Oiiiii,” Satoru calls out eventually, having lain splayed out on the grass for long enough. Suguru ignores him. “Oiiiiiiii!” he tries again. Pointedly, Suguru ignores him even harder, though he does seem to frown when Satoru gets louder. With his own frown, Satoru lets out a loud, beleaguered sigh, turns sideways and settles himself up on his elbow, his head resting on his palm.
He stares up at Suguru with a frown.
Suguru seems to be doing his best to ignore Satoru, which normally he doesn’t mind – after all, he can talk, talk and talk until the cows come home. However, the lack of missions lately – which isn’t limited to only him and Suguru, but to everyone else in Jujutsu High. Even Nanami, after much needling from Satoru, admits that he hasn’t been able to do much of anything besides start training. Yaga won’t tell him why, necessarily...
He wonders if maybe Suguru knows something instead?
It isn’t that necessarily Yaga will confide in Suguru more. At most, Satoru hears him lecture Suguru whenever the former runs off and does something stupid or decides to run off and buy himself copious amount of souvenirs with his clan wealth. Suguru tends to take it in stride, however, so thankfully he doesn’t seem all that bothered by it? Satoru assumes Suguru will know because he tends to be a snoop even if he denies ever being one. Satoru knows him well enough; Suguru is worse than old moms who chat each other up while throwing the trash away, he’s obsessed with gossip.
But then again, won’t Suguru at least tell Satoru why...?
Actually, now that he thinks about it... Suguru is the kind of bastard who would hide that shit from him.
“Are you done staring a hole into me?” Suguru’s voice makes him blink. When did his thoughts begin to wander off of him like that? Whoops! Satoru shakes his head, then groans exaggeratedly as he sits up. Suguru lays his legs out now, phone discarded on his lap while his hands brace on the grass behind him. “If you have something to say, just say it.”
He kinda wants to annoy Suguru a little bit...
"A'right, I got shit to say," Satoru begins cheerfully, a grin on his face that promises nothing but trouble. Suguru already looks very tired. "The Hell're ya reading?"
Suguru gives him a blank look. "Stop trying to sound like a delinquent." Suguru grumbles, Satoru pokes his tongue out at him in retalation. "It's... technically a romance novel? I think." Suguru's looking to the side sheepishly, as if ashamed of something, and Satoru stares.
"You telling me you haven't been paying attention...?" Satoru says, brows pinched together. Suguru rubs his index against the nape of his neck. "The hell? You've been reading it the entire time and now you're telling me you don't even know the hell you're reading?"
He huffs and glares at Satoru, a deep frown on his face. "What's your problem with that, huh? Just because I maybe have been kinda falling asleep reading it... It's just because Yaga's been training us to the bone thanks to you!"
"Don't blame me for this shit!"
"I'm being punished because of you! Asshole!"
Alright, pivot time.
"Yo, Suguru. What've you been saving your allowance up for? You haven't bought stuff in a while."
"Nintendo DS." Suguru answers plainly. Satoru raises an eyebrow and watches as Suguru reaches for his discarded bag, pulling out a red Nintendo DS and two games cartons. "I saved a girl some time ago who would not stop raving about a game series called Gyakuten Saiban, and I wanted to get myself the DS version of Puyo Pop fever."
"Oh yeah! I think Shoko likes Gyakuten Saiban too. I found her yaoi doujinshis of the protagonist and his rival in her room, once."
"... Hah? Did you even get permission to be in her room...?"
Satoru grins widely and Suguru instantly looks like a tired old man who hasn't slept in a while. After a while, Satoru rolls his shoulders back and looks up for a bit.
After a bit, Satoru tilts his head to the right, then left, repeating the motion for a bit and Suguru gives him a bland, ‘why are you being so annoying?’ look. Then, clapping his hands together, Satoru snaps his fingers then points them like a gun at Suguru.
“You!”
“Me.”
“You’re hiding it from me, aren’t you?”
Suguru sighs. He doesn’t even have to ask. “I want to say no,”
“but you’d be lying if you did?” Satoru says with a wide grin. Score, he knows Suguru too well for that shit to fly. If it is Shoko, however... he’s sure he’ll be gambling with 60-40 odds, with the chips being in Shoko’s favour. Or however that statement goes? Satoru doesn’t gamble.
A small smile sits on Suguru’s lips for a second before they fall into a flat line. Too late for him, Satoru already sees it. “I overheard only snippets of it, so don’t take my words too seriously,” Suguru is quick to disclaim, “but from what I understand, all Curse activity has just stopped.”
“Stopped?” he hums. “But-
“- it isn’t normal here.” Suguru says dryly. Satoru pouts when Suguru doesn’t even give him a chance to be even the slightest bit smarmy. Even though he wants to bite back again, he decides to let Suguru keep talking. “From what I get, for some reason there aren’t any curses just... showing up. They were actually going to send Nanami and Haibara on a mission when the curse just literally stopped.”
“Like a movie on pause?” Satoru asks, leaning forward a little with interest now that he sits cross-legged on the ground, elbows on his knees. “Huh. Never heard of that before... have you?”
Suguru crosses his arms and bends forward a little, eyes closing for a second. “No,” Suguru says after a bit of silence that is almost enough to make Satoru antsy and want to start rambling, “I genuinely can’t think of anything like that.”
Thoughtfully, Satoru rocks himself back and forth a little bit, mouth opening to say something until his right hand falls back onto the grass... only to land on a piece of paper. Huh, that definitely isn’t there before. Suguru stares at him as Satoru looks down at his hand then lifts it up, holding up a small piece of lined paper in his fingers. Him and Suguru share a look, both curious and intrigued. He looks around, trying to see if he can find anyone’s silhouette or another lower grade student retreating – though, how will they have sneaked up on the two strongest, anyway? Satoru at least should be able to sense them passively. It can also be a normal human who is part of a sorcerer family who wants to work as a civilian job here, eventually, maybe? But then, how does -
Ahhh, whatever! Speculating about it won’t do him any good. He flips the lined paper over and immediately furrows his brow, eyes suddenly wide open as he sits up ramrod straight. “Suguru, use your-” he stops when he catches sight of the sky above them rapidly darkening, a fact that even Suguru obviously can’t miss. Both of them are quick to scramble up to a stand, staring up at whatever is swirling up in the sky with a shared look of bewilderment.
There is a gathering of Cursed Energy, an amount that not even Satoru expects - he looks around, Six Eyes working hard to try and find the source of the energy, only for him to falter when his senses tell him that the person casting it...
Is everywhere?
Wait. That doesn't make sense. His Six Eyes is painfully accurate, which means... what does this mean? If he can't detect the user because their energy is blanketing the entire area, then that either means the technique is literally overtaking the whole place or the user is everywhere all at once... because of a technique, too, probably?
If he can't break through this blanketing of energy, the only thing anyone can do is to manually scour through the entire area until they can find the person casting this. But, the main problem is if they even have the time given the convergence of energy right above him.
"Satoru-"
"I know!" Satoru interrupts immediately, his hands coming up to pat and ruffle his hair and he bites his lower lip in frustration. People begin to filter out of Jujutsu High, lower grades and teachers, even Nanamin and Yucchan, all coming out to stare up at the sudden gathering of energy in the sky.
He glares down at the paper on the floor.
this is not an attack. it may be hard to trust me, but you need to. this is an experience.
What the hell kind of experience is this supposed to be? "I can't find the curse user casting this!" Satoru finally says when the sky is almost entirely swirling with darkness, as if an incomplete domain, and Suguru looks towards where Yaga is and gets ready to run. The moment he tries to move away, he finds himself tripping forward as if something is dragging him up from behind, and Satoru's jaw falls open.
"Suguru!" Satoru calls out, trying to reach out and grab onto Suguru with Limitless to try and drag him down, ground him, only for he himself to yelp out as he finds himself also floating up into the sky. Indignantly, Satoru claws around at the air, trying to fight back against whatever it is taking him away, yet even his own techniques seem to be helpless in the face of this enemy -
That is when he hears it - and judging from the way Suguru's own head jerks up in confusion, he seems to hearing it, too.
"Despite whatever it may seem,
"This is not malicious. I am simply someone who enjoys stories.
"I merely wish to see how the two Strongest in your time,
"shall behave when sent to a time where much is decidedly different.
"Be safe."
And just like that - the darkness in the sky devours Satoru and Suguru both, before abruptly dissipating like nothing happens. Yaga stares up in disbelief while Shoko's mouth falls open, her cigarette actually falling onto the ground as her two boys are swallowed up by an ambush. The lower grades immediately begin murmuring among themselves. Ijichi fidgets next to Yu, who has an exaggerated look of bewilderment on his face. Just like always, Nanami is hard to read, but if one looks close enough then they can see the pinch in his eyebrows.
"Fuck." Shoko says, standing right next to Yaga. She gets a swat on the back of the head from her teacher, before Yaga too clasps his hand against his eyes and lets out a low, "fuck." as well.
Where have Satoru and Suguru gone...?