Chapter 33 Haven’t I given enough?
Chapter 33 of Sugar
A/N- I’m trying to use like 3 chapters of the manga per chapter, but bro these domain expansions make that hard! But moving forward I’ll have a chance to use less manga chapters so we don’t have to move on so fast!
Warning- Swearing, ANGST ;), fluff, violence and blood, SPOILERS!! long chapter!
Pairing- Choso x Gojo!fem-reader, Suguru Geto x Gojo!fem-reader
Episode and or chapters- chapters 226-230 (but only the beginning of 230) of the manga
(Let me know if you want to be tagged)
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*A COUPLE DAYS AGO*
“Can I say something like, whenever I think about a father I never think about you, but you were kind of like one and a lot better than my actual father?” You say with a teasing smile even if just under the surface emotional tears threaten to burst out. And your emotions are especially more heightened at the moment because you’re dancing a dance that’s supposed to be with your father, but instead, it’s your brother.
“No,” Satoru shoots you down quickly and looks at you with a pointed look. “No sappy shit at all for the rest of the night. Even if I appreciate it,” he finishes with a grin.
“So,” you add with the same teasing grin. “I can’t say that even if I would have loved a sister I’m glad I got stuck with you?”
Satoru shakes his head and counters. “No, but again it’s appreciated.”
You laugh softly and drop your head to smile at the ground before you look back at your brother and catch him looking around the dance floor with wonder for a moment before he looks at you with an all too snarky grin. “Considering how much you could do for this wedding in a couple of days, I wonder now how your other wedding was. Was it over the top?” He dares to ask. “I remember Suguru would spoil you even if he said he shouldn’t.”
You glare at him and then whisper sharply. “I won’t talk about my other wedding to another man with you right now. It’s bad luck.”
Satoru scoffs. “Where did you hear that from?” He asks teasingly.
“I'm just assuming, I mean we would be talking about my previous marriage on my wedding day, that’s gotta be some kind of bad luck,” you mumble, making him laugh.
“Women and their superstition,” he says under his breath, mostly just to taunt you because he knew you heard him.
“This is why you’re single,” you remark.
“No I’m single because death for me could be around the corner, and even if it won’t catch me, it could get them, so I’m sparing someone actually,” he goes on to say without sounding lighthearted at all. He let himself be vulnerable.
“Death is around everyone’s corner, no one is immortal, not even Sukuna,” you tell him softly now that you have the space to have a heart-to-heart. Even if people are watching you two dance, they can’t hear you, and Satori won’t run over and interrupt either of you—“don’t deny yourself of a happiness you deserve just because you think you’re doing something good. You don’t actually know anything.”
Satoru scoffs but he doesn’t counter. He knows you’re right, but he does bring up one argument. “You almost died after Suguru died, why would I want to put someone through that?”
You sigh and avert your gaze to share your answer that you take no time to actually think about. You just know grief and loss well, you’re great friends. “Because as selfish as it sounds, at least you were happy. It’s about the memories you made. Sure after death those memories hurt, but after a while, you can look fondly at them and thank the stars that they were in your life, that you got to share your life with them and live together. After a while you’ll realize that they weren’t meant to be in your life forever, they were a chapter in your life you’ll always cherish.”
Satoru lets out a deep sigh, and you meet his gaze and make him laugh softly—but honestly, it sounds pretty forced.
“How poetic of you,” he whispers.
You smile at him and laugh softly.
“Well,” he says softly. “I'm happy you got to meet someone else that you get to write a chapter with. I hope you can share many chapters with this one. And I’m glad Suguru was such a great part of your story.”
You grin and nod before your lips flicker down to a frown and your eyes dull. “Can I tell you something?” You ask in a very low whisper so none of what you’re saying can be heard.
“Go ahead,” he encourages you.
You sigh and hold his gaze to share a secret. “Sometimes I wish I could go back to when I was a naive teenager who dreamed for most of her day and knew hardly anything about the world. It’s only when I’m really down, but I still sometimes want to go back.”
Satoru swallows thickly and sounds completely genuine. “Sometimes I wish the same,” he admits.
You both share a small smile and you can’t help but lay your head on his shoulder and sigh deeply. You stay quiet for a moment after, but before you can finish your dance you break your silence to say one more thing in private. “I want you to write a new chapter in your story after all this is over, Satoru. Let the kids take over and start something new.”
“After I win,” Satoru says softly and confidently. You don’t look at his face, but you know he’s expressing his ever-so-bright and smug confidence. “I will.”
——
*NOW*
A slash to the jugular also doesn’t mean immediate death. You know that too.
So please don’t let this slash on Satoru’s throat be deadly.
“Gojo!” Yuji yells out mere seconds after you with just as much panic as you currently feel riddling your heart.
“Come on,” you mumble and step closer to the screen in some hopeless delusion that you could be closer to your brother.
Nevertheless, seconds later steam rises off Satoru’s slash as he uses RCT to mend his flesh back together.
“He’s healing himself!” You exclaim because you forgot that it was a possibility in your panicked state.
“But as long as he remains within Sukuna’s domain, the slashes won’t stop coming!” Higuruma reminds everyone and makes your excitement dim.
Which is good, you can’t get overly excited.
“Sukuna’s domain has no enclosed barrier,” Choso interjects. “Shouldn’t it be easy to escape his range?”
You let out a deep breath and glance over at him past your shoulder before you drift your gaze to Hakari responding. “Even if we assume Malevolent Shrine’s effective range encompasses the area of razed Shibuya, with Gojo’s speed, he should be able to break out of it in a flash.”
“No,” you cut in to explain. “His teleportation is just an application of limitless where the space between his location and his destination is compressed.”
“But in this short window immediately after his domain was destroyed, Gojo cannot use his cursed technique,” Kusakabe doesn’t fail to add what you left out.
“Which means…” Miwa trails off to let Kusakabe answer.
“He’s in one hell of a pinch.”
You clasp your hands together and return to your seat in between Choso and Yuji to try and watch how your brother will go on about destroying Sukuna’s domain while the monster keeps hitting him with slashes he can’t deflect, and has to keep using RCT for to heal all those shallow cuts—that surprisingly doesn’t cut any material of his shirt, or his pants.
What kind of material is his clothes made from?
Regardless! In the blink of an eye, Sukuna hops off the roof and tries to swing his fist, but your brother quickly blocks him.
“You’d think I’d let you run?!” Sukuna exclaims, and you start to wonder why your brother isn’t running or actually fully healing any of his cuts.
“What is he doing?” You whisper out loud.
Choso catches your comment and probes while you watch Sukuna and Satoru exchange swings. “What do you mean?”
You sigh and shift your body towards him, but keep your eyes on the screen to not miss a thing. “His cuts are still very shallow, he can use this time that Sukuna isn’t throwing more slashes at him to finish healing. He can multitask. But he isn’t…” you trail off and start to think of an answer.
Is he going to use RCT to heal his cursed technique?
“He’s up to something,” you mumble to your husband and can’t help but let a small smile creep onto your face.
“That shrine,” Yuji interjects while Sukuna and Satoru face each other after a heated exchange. “What would happen if he destroyed it?” He asks.
“Usually, objects materialized within an innate domain don’t hold any special meaning or importance,” Kusakabe explains, proving to be quite a patient teacher. “You can think of them as if they didn’t exist at all.”
“If that shrine is simply a symbol of the domain, so to speak,” Mei-Mei says, “then you would not be able to destroy it and there would be no purpose in doing so.”
“So he can’t do anything?!” Kirara shouts, “isn’t that like, super super bad?!”
You glance at them and see that they’re grabbing their face and looking completely stunned at the screens.
“New Shadow Style,” Satoru announces, “simple domain.”
A bright barrier suddenly grows around your brother and those deep cuts now start to completely disappear.
“Simple domain!” Kusakabe exclaims and Yuji follows by yelling out in surprise too.
“I thought he said he couldn’t do that?!”
You scoff and retort. “Satoru can do anything he puts his mind to, it’s an annoying trait, but it’s true. He probably just can’t teach it because he also tends to get everything right in his first try.”
“Why the hell is someone like that in charge of the first years then?!” Yuji follows by asking and you can’t actually answer that, so you shrug. He doesn’t really seek an answer so he drifts the subject back to the fight. “He used simple domain to counter the sure-hit effect while simultaneously using reverse cursed technique to heal his body. How is he even able to manipulate cursed energy while he’s still using RCT?”
“Even still against a real domain,” Choso comments while he picks your travel cup off the ground and hands it to you as you leave it forgotten on the ground—“the only thing a simple domain will do is buy you some time.”
He could use the falling blossom emotion technique, it would be the perfect time so why isn’t he?
This is all hurting your head, so you take a long sip from the tea and slide your hand on top of Choso’s, feeling him instantly secure your hold in his hand by squeezing it tight. All the while Sukuna breaks into Satoru’s simple domain and starts swinging.
However, he does miss your brother because he reacts fast, but Satoru’s domain fades away by the second until there’s nothing left to protect him, causing the slashes to hit him once again.
“Told you,” Choso follows up on his previous comment.
You swallow thickly and notice your brother doing another Simple Domain, albeit this time he doesn’t use RCT either…
“Why the hell—Gojo stopped using reverse cursed technique to heal himself!” Kusakabe points out loudly in frustration and confusion.
You albeit look at the screen proudly as your theories are starting to become a fact.
“I told you he’s up to something,” you remark to Choso quietly so only he can hear.
“What?” Choso asks.
You meet his gaze and smirk at him. “Watch,” you don’t give out the surprise you assume Satoru wants to give. “I should’ve bet you.”
“I never doubted you.” He deadpans.
You hum and shrug. “I still should’ve. I could’ve won something like a kiss, or a second to gloat.”
The corner of his lips perk up to a smile and he lifts your hands to kiss your knuckles whilst you look back at the screen whilst Ino argues against someone, but you don’t catch who.
“…Like I said, that's under the assumption he’s using cursed energy normally! Right after using domain expansion, he started using RCT at max output, which consumes twice as much cursed energy! And that’s not even taking into account the fact that Sukuna’s still pouring on attacks!”
Is he forgetting that Satoru Gojo is fighting?! He’s not like everyone else.
Nevertheless, as you continue to watch the fight you notice that Satoru’s second simple domain breaks, and more cuts slash his face. It honestly seems like he’s close to reaching his end, but then in the blink of an eye, he zooms to Sukuna and catches him completely off guard when he jumps on him to wrap his body around Sukuna’s.
“Cursed technique reversal,” Satoru announces and proves you right; he leans back and points two fingers at Sukuna.
“Yes,” you mumble happily and suddenly stand up.
“Can he do that?” You hear Okkotsu shout, which is surprising, you’ve never heard him be so emotional. He looks so reserved.
“That’s why he didn’t heal himself,” you point out proudly.
“He was using his RCT to heal his exhausted cursed technique?” Okkotsu asks rhetorically to the group.
“Red,” Satoru mutters and blasts out a bright and powerful technique that sends Sukuna crashing through his shrine, and finally gets him badly wounded.
Will that affect him completely? No, but he’s still wounded.
“Jeez. What a pain in the ass,” Satoru sass’s Sukuna, making you hold your cup against your chest as you smile brightly.
“Using RCT to heal his exhausted cursed technique?” Okkotsu still can’t seem to grasp what just happened.
“Okkotsu!” Kusakabe yells out, but the boy goes on.
“I’d like to say it’s impossible but the fact is Gojo is doing just that! A cursed technique that’s been burnt out by using domain expansion is an entirely different matter than physical damage,” he explains. “Just like when a machine overheats, even if it isn’t broken, you have to let it cool or it won’t work.”
“So what you’re saying is that RCT can repair damage but can’t cool an overheated technique?” Maki asks.
“That’s why I always thought, but it looks like my understanding was incomplete.”
You sigh and sit back down again, but out of the kindness of your heart, you explain why he’s having such a hard time understanding what Satoru just did. “That’s Satoru Gojo for you. Don’t overwork yourself, man, he’s strong, stronger than everyone, what he can do will never compare to what we can do.”
“Yes,” Okkotsu mutters, “I'm understanding that.”
“You can expand your effective range, can’tcha?” You catch Satoru ask Sukuna smugly.
But as if answering, Sukuna does a hand sign and does exactly what your brother just asked, causing your smile to fall.
“Are you crazy…” Kusakabe’s words trail off in your ears as Satoru expanding his own domain expansion and leaving you all in the dark once again catches you by surprise.
“Does he just want the same thing to happen again?!” Ino exclaims.
“He isn’t that naive,” Shoko defends your brother.
“I see,” Mei-Mei muses.
“He switched the internal and external conditions for the barrier,” Higuruma points out, and Hakari adds on to that piece of information.
“Which means this barrier…”
He trails off and Yuji excitedly picks up where he left off. “…can guard itself against attacks from the outside!”
You clench your jaw and lean forward to watch every screen carefully to look for any crack or difference in the barrier since that’s all you can look at as of now.
“Seems a bit unfair that he can just change the conditions of his domain on the fly,” Kusakabe mumbles.
You’re really starting to hate all these domain expansions! They leave you completely in the dark, you can’t see what Satoru is thinking and planning, and what Sukuna might be scheming. You can’t see if Satoru might miss something or if he needs some kind of aid, you have to wait, not long, but at this very moment time isn’t kind, it’s determined to torture you by moving slowly.
But you also know you shouldn’t let yourself feel so tortured, it hasn’t been long at all since the fight started, and there’s hopefully still so much more time to go.
Satoru has gotten wounded but he hasn’t hit the brink with no return. Sukuna hasn’t even tried yet either, which means there’s still a lot more stress to go through, and you can’t let this affect you as much as it is.
“Do you need to step out?” Choso worries over you.
You meet his gaze and shake your head. “No, no. I just need to remind myself that he’ll be okay.”
Choso nods. “He is. He’s done great so far.”
You sigh deeply and let those words repeat in your mind so you can hold onto that hope and not push yourself to a dangerous edge of deep anguish.
“There isn’t just one way out of a domain,” he adds to try and calm your nerves. “Not for strong sorcerers like them.”
You knew that but you still need to hear it from someone else.
“Either of them can break it without meeting a catastrophic end, or your brother can be a smartass and have something up his sleeve…not like he has any.”
You can’t help but snort and crack a smile at his silly comment, making the corner of Choso’s lips tug on a faint smile because of the fact he could make you smile.
“They are taking longer,” you point out and glance back at the screen still displaying the black barrier.
“I don’t think it’ll last much longer,” he says.
You take his hand again and he interlaces his fingers with yours before he tucks them in his sleeve as he hides his hands in his large sleeves, and slouches down to rest his elbows on his legs.
The pictures on the screens are at a standstill for a few more seconds before the barrier explodes, and Satoru finally shows up back to back with Sukuna.
“I should have bet you,” Choso remarks.
You glance at him and smirk before you lean over and press a peck on his cheek. Instead of pushing yourself back to your spot you stay pressed against him and watch the fight continue on screen.
“Take it from the top, eh?” Sukuna brings up something neither of you understand, and then hits Satoru with multiple slashes that harbor so much strength that your brother goes flying back.
Again, you can’t stress yourself over every wound your brother gets, and or every hit he receives, but you really can’t hold back from feeling anything but panic and stress. Just like when you watched Choso fight Kenjaku, only you weren’t expecting his babies then or married to the man.
You can’t even imagine being in your current state and having to watch a similar situation with Choso now. You’d probably die from a lack of air in your lungs, or die from a collapsed lung because of how heavy you feel it. Or your heart would explode. Either or.
“Why?!” Yuji bellows.
“Looks like Sukuna’s also changed the conditions of his domain somehow!” Kusakabe points out.
“Hey,” Kashimo cuts in with blunt honesty. “If he dies I'm going out there next.”
You clench your jaw and snap back. “Shut up.”
“You can’t try and stop me,” he thinks you’re trying to defend him, but that’s the furthest thing from the truth, even if you do consider him a friend.
“No,” you spat. “Stop talking like if this is the end. Satoru has proven he can take what’s thrown at him.”
“Hm, well he’s also gotten pretty close calls, I wouldn’t bet all my money on him, he’s proving to be a losing bet.”
You draw in a deep breath and get ready to argue, but Choso gives your hand a gentle squeeze and leans forward to shake his head.
You take that as a sign to let it go and only listen because your brother is still standing…And Choso is also right, Kashimo is not worth your time.
“I learned this one when I was a kid,” Satoru interjects and omits a technique you’ve used before, and one you wanted him to use; the Falling Blossom Emotion technique—“I haven’t used it much since I mastered my domain, but not bad right?”
You lean forward and manage to catch Kashimo’s gaze like you wanted and shoot him a smug smirk.
“Falling Blossom Emotion!” Kusakabe yells out and slightly startles you.
“What is that?” One of the students asks.
“Dunno.”
“Not sure.”
“No idea.”
“It’s weird how in the know you are Acchan.”
Yes, how does he know a secret art form?
“It’s a secret art of the big three sorcerer families,” Panda explains to the clueless ones before you had a chance to—“an anti-domain technique. Not so secret if you knew about it Kusakabe.”
You hum and continue to explain how it works while you still look at Kusakabe suspiciously. “It’s an application of cursed energy that automatically repels anything you touch. It won’t work against Satoru’s infinite void, but if you’re up against a simple technique like Sukuna’s slashes then it’s pretty damn useful. It saved my life against Kenjaku because it doesn’t tear apart like a simple domain either.”
“But you won’t come out unscathed,” Choso adds. “Remember, you only managed to get spared from getting hurt because Tengen broke Noritoshi—Kenjaku’s domain.”
You sigh and nod. “Right. Still, It’s useful.”
“Exactly,” Shoko agrees from across the room where she can smoke without letting any of the fumes hit you—“it’s enough and Gojo can heal his burnt-out cursed technique with RCT. At the very least he’ll buy enough time to heal.”
Or…not considering he proceeds to open yet another domain expansion.
“Damn,” you groan and feel a grip on your throat tighten.
Plus this time the domain grows a lot larger, as if he’s trying to capture Sukuna's entire domain range within it. But then he switches up his domain and it grows incredibly tiny, consuming all of Sukuna’s domain, and making that weight on your chest only get heavier.
And again you can’t push yourself to a brink, you’ll only freak out and that won’t be good, so instead of waiting again you get up and pass Choso a quick comment, “I'm going to get some air, I’ll be back.”
He stands up immediately, but you grab his bicep and assure him. “I’ll be okay, I just need to calm myself down.”
Choso seems hesitant and like he’ll ignore you and follow you, but he actually listens and lets you go outside by yourself.
And as much as you despise solitude you actually find a moment of peace where you don’t feel like your head will explode.
Maybe it’s the silence or the fact that you’re not overwhelmed with thousands of screens, or surrounded by multiple people. Which, you never mind being around so many people, but today with your stress everything’s a bit overwhelming.
However, when you look out at the city past the balcony, you can’t help but feel a bit…not scared, it’s not fear you feel upon looking at the secluded city, it’s disbelief.
The city used to be filled with people but now it’s all been evacuated due to the fight. It honestly makes it feel like it’s the end of the world. Which is chilling and brings forth a hint of loneliness, but also curiosity.
Is this how your world would be without non-sorcerers?
It’s kind of lovely…
Nevertheless, you turn to face the door and just look up at the white sky and get startled by your phone ringing. When you check who it is your breath hitches when you see Larue’s name on your screen.
“Hello?” You answer nervously as you think the worst. “Larue?”
“She’s fine,” he says right away since he hears the fear in your voice. “They all are.”
You let out a deep breath and now feel a bit puzzled as to why he’s calling. “Are you okay?” You ask. “Did the flight get delayed?”
“No, no, I’m just calling to let you know…” he pauses and exhales deeply before he continues. “I’m returning to Japan with Miguel. And before you ask, Manami, and Toshihisa stayed with Satori, and they will all be protected by the guards.”
You blink repeatedly in disbelief and can’t even answer right away because of how thrown back you are.
“They’ll all be fine, but now you have to fight harder to go back to Satori,” he says nonchalantly.
“You left Satori?” You ask because when you meant that you trusted your family to take care of your daughter you only meant Miguel and Larue, not Manami or Toshihisa.
Sure you know that they’ll probably be safe in Africa nonetheless, but Manami has little patience for kids, and Toshihisa doesn’t feel that much responsibility for taking care of kids, he acts like her brother, and they fight together!
“I know I’m sorry I told you something else, but I knew you’d protest otherwise, and you’d want to keep Satori here,” he explains. “Besides, Miguel wouldn't agree to fight without me. He says it’s better to fight with more friends.”
You rub the bridge of your nose and let out a worried sigh. “Of course, he’d say that,” you finally muster something else. “Just…I wish you would have told me before I sent my daughter away, but,” you groan and clench your fists. “There’s nothing I can do about it now,” you mutter to yourself.
“Why can’t either of you just talk to me?” You ask with annoyance. “First…” you trail off and let out a deep breath.
“I���m sorry, I know this doesn’t work in our favor, but think about this, who better to take care of your daughter in a time like this than family? She’ll be fine.” Larue speaks softly and kindly to try and comfort you. He tends to do that all the time.
“I told you she’d be mad,” you hear Miguel tell Larue. “You should have told her before.”
“Quiet.”
“Well,” you mutter and turn your fist to look at your nails. “It seems we'll fight together now.”
There’s nothing you can do now.
There’s nothing you can do now.
There’s nothing you can do now…
“If!” Miguel cuts in from the other side. “There's a chance Sukuna will be dealt with before it’s our turn to join, so, if we join, you’ll fight with us.”
You let out a deep sigh and nod. “Yes. If. Still…if I’m not there be careful, if I am—”
“We'll fight with all we have like we always have, for Suguru and for our family,” Larue inputs, making you lift your eyes and look at the white sky with a softened look.
“Yes for our family, Suguru, and Nanako, and Mimiko,” you repeat quietly. “They’ll be avenged today.”
“They will,” he says confidently at the same time the door opens behind you; and thinking it’s Choso coming to check on you, you peer back.
However, to your surprise it’s Kirara.
“Larue, I have to go,” you cut off your conversation and look back ahead. “I’ll see you.”
“Be careful, and I’m sorry again.”
Larue hangs up first letting you put your phone away to turn and face Kirara, noticing they have water bottles in their hand.
“Is everything okay? Are you feeling fine?” They immediately worry.
You smile brightly and nod. “I'm fine, I just needed to catch my breath.”
Kirara lets out a relieved breath and grabs at their chest. “Good,” they say breathlessly. “I saw you come outside and I got worried.”
You smile with appreciation and approach them to grab their shoulder and press your reassurances. “I'm fine Kira. There’s still so much that’s going to happen so I thought a break would somewhat calm me down.”
They hum and hand you water. As you take it they grin brightly.
“About what’s going on, I would have come sooner but I wanted to wait to give you some good news,” they add with growing excitement. “Satoru managed to break Sukuna’s shrine, and he wounded him! Which might be nothing in the grand scheme of things, but it’s process, don’t you think?”
Finally, Satoru managed to probably scrape Sukuna, and get rid of that ugly open domain!
“It’s something,” you agree with Kirara. “Thank you for that. I needed to hear it. Now how are you feeling? I need to ask before I don’t have the chance to.”
“Me?” They point at their chest. “Well, to be honest, worried for Kin, you, and the rest of my friends, but mainly Kin. And you. This is much bigger than Egypt or anything we’ve faced, Kin can die…I’m scared he’ll die.”
You sigh and watch the agonizing grief already take root behind their eyes. Nothing has happened to Hakari, but Kirara still fears for the life of the man they love. You can relate to that kind of fear.
“Yeah, I know what you’re feeling. I’ve had the bad luck of living through that fear more than once. I can’t say it’s easy. And it won’t go away until you see them breathing after the fight…and if something does happen…” you start to be honest so they know what they might face. So they can somewhat prepare for that blow to their soul.
“…You will die a little, it’ll be agonizing going on without them, you won’t know how to live, but…it won’t be the end,” you admit softly, seeing their face twist with horror because even if they like to hear you say the truth, hearing this truth is hard.
“You’ll relearn how to live,” you continue. “The color will return to every corner of the world, and your grief will be a scar. You’ll find that time will heal what was broken, and…” you pause and smile softly at them. “Those you least expect will help you realize that it isn’t the end.”
Kirara swallows thickly and looks down with a sad frown, but then they seem to realize who you’re referring to and smile. Yet you don’t see it so you quickly interject. “I’m not trying to be negative, I just…”
“I know,” they cut you off and finally show off that smile to you. “You just want to prepare us. I understand. I admire it.”
You smile softly and continue with the other matter to bring up something more positive. “Kinji is strong, he’s got luck on his side. He’ll be fine.”
They tighten their hold on their water bottle and let out a deep sigh. “Yeah, that’s what I keep telling myself.”
“I believe in the abilities you and Kinji possess, and your unbreakable spirits,” you add sweetly and cup their shoulder again. “You will preserve. He will too.”
Kirara pats your hand and offers you a soft smile. The door proceeds to open and this time Choso is the one that shows up and calls out your name with panic before he throws out his concerned filled question. “Are you okay?”
You meet his gaze and nod. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just needed some air.”
Choso still studies you to make sure, making Kirara grab your hand to put it down before they step back and excuse themself. “I’ll get back inside. If you take longer I’ll come back to update you master.”
“Great thanks!” You nod and watch them leave before you put all your attention on Choso. “You know when you fought Kenjaku, when I was watching you on that screen Tengen put up, I could barely breathe. I felt the exact same way I’m feeling now. Only ten times worse. That’s how I knew I loved you, how I knew I couldn’t live on without you being by my side.”
Choso’s face grows a deep red and his hardened expression falls, letting a happy gleam twinkle in his eyes.
“When I was watching you while I waited,” he shares his side of the story now. “I was going crazy. Besides being angry at Kenjaku and wanting to go kill him, seeing you there was driving me crazy.”
You smirk and approach him to close the gap left between you and cup the sides of his neck. “I hate watching this fight. Just like I hated watching you fight,” you say.
Choso grabs your cheeks and nods softly. “I know sweetheart. But hey, I’m with you. I was the one fighting the last time, but I’m here now.”
You let out a shaky breath and nod in comprehension before you slide your arms around his neck and muzzle your face in the crook of his neck to feel comforted by his warmth, and feel secure by his tight embrace before you have to go back and continue watching your brother fight.
“Can I tell you something?” Choso interjects seriously as he rubs your back.
“Hm.”
He sighs deeply and continues without breaking that serious demeanor. “My brother who has a stutter is in prison.”
Oh? Is he using your trick on you?
“It’s just heartbreaking knowing he’ll never finish his sentence,” he finishes and you hear the pride in his voice.
You pull back and see a faint proud smirk on his lips, which only makes what he said that much funnier, and makes your heart skip a beat before it flutters after hearing his pun that he most likely learned just to cheer you up.
And it worked, you smile widely before you drop your head on his shoulder and laugh.
“That’s just so messed up,” you murmur.
“It really is,” he agrees before he grabs your shoulders to step back and face you. When he sees your amused grin he can’t help but smile in awe.
“That one was the quickest one I actually understood. The other ones took longer,” he admits before he brushes his thumb over your lips that are pulled to a smile, and leans in to press a gentle kiss on them. “Do you feel like going back inside now? Or do you still need time?” He then asks.
“If I stay longer I'll be tempted to listen to another joke and just go on and tell you the ones I know, so let’s just go,” you say and take one of his hands to return inside.
Yet before you can walk past that door, you lean over and press a peck on his cheek. “Thank you,” you whisper in his ear. “That really made me feel better.”
Choso smiles bashfully and turns his head at the same time you do, letting your lips meet for a short kiss before you return inside.
——
*A COUPLE MONTHS AGO. EGYPT*
“I wonder what this says.”
Without looking at what the students are referring to, you share the story behind all the hieroglyphics carved on the walls. “To summarize, it's about a man loving his wife so much that he couldn’t fathom going on a second without her after her death, so he killed himself so they could be wrapped away in the same sarcophagus...” you trail off quietly and peer over at the sarcophagus of the man and woman.
How loyal and in love was that man with his wife that he chose death over continuing to live on because she would no longer roam the earth.
How stupid too, but how envious do you feel as well…they never spent a day apart after they married, and they never spent a day apart after death. Their love is endless now that it’s forever marked in this pyramid…
Your love for Suguru will always be marked within Satori, but that isn’t enough.
Are you a terrible person to admit that? To say that a child born out of love isn’t actually enough to commemorate your love for Suguru, because no matter what, he will always be gone now, and every time you look into her eyes you will remember who you couldn’t save.
“You know how to read hieroglyphs, master?!” Kirara snaps you from your stupor.
“No,” you deadpan and twist around to point your flashlight at their face. “I read up on the history of this pyramid after we were told we had to come here.”
Kirara flashes their light on you with their lips formed to an ‘o’ and whispers. “That makes a lot more sense.”
You can’t help but muster a gentle smile before you move down to admire more of the work carved on the walls. “Their children built this after their death,” you muse and hear stone scraping against the ground; and as if a sixth sense you interject right away as you sense trouble. “Put it down Hakari, we’re here on a mission not to be tactless grave robbers.”
“How does she even know?” You hear him whisper as he puts down what he has in his hand.
You smirk and choose to leave the question unanswered for a dramatic flare.
“Besides we have enough to deal with, we don’t want to get cursed now do we?” You tease and spare them both a glance before you walk along the wall to continue admiring the art.
“I’ll welcome whatever cheesy love-crazed curse they cling onto me,” Hakari remarks smugly and cracks his knuckles.
You look down at the worm cursed spirit wrapped around your neck and share a judgy look like if you're your best friend.
“Well,” you scoff and smirk. “We’ll be your smirking revenge then,” you murmur.
Hakari chuckles loudly after you didn’t think he’d catch it, and your cheeks grow slightly hot. But you’re filled with more pride than bashfulness because he laughed at something you said without having to be forced to do it.
He and Kirara usually tend to joke with you and appreciate more of your brash humor than your puns. Nanako and Mimiko have reached that stage in their lives where you aren’t that funny to them. Where they once used to find you hilarious now they can’t stand any of your jokes, it’ll pass, but hearing your students find you funny is…refreshing.
“We should keep going, the sooner we find the curses the sooner we get out…”
“And explore,” Kirara blurts exactly what you were thinking.
“Exactly,” you praise them and look over your shoulder to flash them a grin.
“You know, considering that you and Tsukumo are special grade, I never thought you’d be so laid back,” Kirara says, making Hakari scoff and retort.
“We know Satoru can be lazy when he’s not working, why does this surprise you, Kira?”
“Well Satoru is Satoru, and Tsukumo and our master are different. I just thought they’d be more serious on missions.”
You make no effort to walk out and instead walk over to where the sarcophagus is to admire the details still visible on the stone, whilst Hakari slowly makes his way to the entrance of the next passageway you’ll take.
“It’s because we’re special grade that we’re so laid back in missions,” you share honestly. “We’re risking our lives more than others, especially those who hire us, why can’t we enjoy ourselves while we’re out?”
“Hm…well that sounds smart,” Kirara says.
You turn and face them with a smile, realizing at that moment that Hakari was already out of the room so finally decide to do what you said and walk out, followed by Kirara.
And up until now you never knew how fast of a walker Hakari is when he wants to be because you can barely catch up, you have to basically jog to catch up to him.
“Hey, what’s—”
Kirara cuts themself off when Hakari puts his hand up to shush you both.
“What?” Kirara whispers out.
Hakari looks over his shoulder and you notice the seriousness in his gaze now so you lose all your awe and amusement and fall serious too. After you quickly focus on trying to catch if it’s cursed spirits he caught, you see just that, a terrifying amount of cursed energy up ahead just in the dark room past Hakari.
“I’ll follow your lead, you two,” you remind your students since you brought them along to train. “We could call Yuki and the twins, or plan something ourselves.”
Hakari and Kirara meet each other's gaze and brainstorm in silence for a moment, making you turn your flashlight off and just focus on the cursed energy the curse radiates.
But wait, there’s not one curse there’s multiple…Which shouldn’t be all that surprising, why wouldn’t a pyramid made for passionate lovers be cursed? They probably cursed it themselves without knowing.
And if there's multiple just past the passageway, how many are multiple exactly? And why are they ahead and why weren’t they where you just came from, hm?
“The way we came from must be the way out,” Kirara interjects exactly what was on your mind. “So the curses ahead will probably not be aware of us until they see or hear us, so we could surprise attack and gain the upper hand…”
“…but if we attack, does that mean somehow there’ll be more? We haven’t quote on quote triggered any alarms, they could be unaware and only be active when we trigger their defense system, so what if there’s more hidden in the shadows, and attacking these fuckers only triggers more to come out?”
You sigh and nod softly. “That could happen, and…” you swallow thickly and feel a grip around your heart. “We would expose Yuki and the twins…”
It’s not that you don’t trust Yuki, you trust her more than anything, but this place doesn’t have a fortified foundation anymore and it’s hundreds of feet tall and made of stone. This can all easily crumble down and bury you and everyone else with it. That’s what worries you.
But they are paying you to get rid of the curses that haunt this pyramid, so how can you do this without making a mess?
“Kin…master?” Kirara whispers out for your attention.
“Hm?” You probe and look over. And the moment your eyes land on them you see that two huge beetles have made their way on their arm and shoulder.
“Stand…” you gag at the sight of their creepy legs and bug-like bodies. “Stand still.”
You flick your fingers to flick off the one on their shoulder by manipulating a small whirlwind. Next, you aim your fingers to flick the one off her arm, but it starts to crawl up so your aiming is off and instead of swiping it off swiftly, the beetle bounces up and hits their mouth, causing them to squeal out.
Hakari quickly leans over and puts his hand over their mouth and pushes them against a wall, whilst you freeze and drag your eyes out to the danger, hoping they didn’t hear, but they did; snaps echo in the room and then instead of some kind of messed up figures you see glowing white cloudy eyes all staring at the three of you.
“Shit,” you hiss and slowly lift your hand to prepare to shoot fire.
However, suddenly they all start to sprint towards you, and since you’re in a narrow passageway they can easily overwhelm you. And even if there’s a lack of air and water inside, you still have a lot of stone and sand, so to buy you time, you stomp your foot on the ground and thrust a fist up to lift stone off the floor and make a wall to block them from reaching you so fast.
“We need to find enough empty space to face them, this will buy us time to run before they break out and come and find us. Come on,” you urge them and lead the way back to where you came from, finding yourself back in the tomb room, but since that space isn’t as spacious you plan to move on.
However, just before you can make it out, the people carved on the walls pop out from the walls and grow tall, and have the same cloudy white eyes, followed by rotting appearances that make them look like unwrapped mummies.
One of them catches you off guard and lunges at you, causing you to yelp and stumble back, and bump into the sarcophagus.
This makes the corpses suddenly stop what they’re doing and take a second before they all suddenly screech loudly, making Kirara and you cover your ears.
“What did they do?” Hakari asks with concern.
You don’t try and answer because you don’t know, instead, you push the students behind you and throw your hand out to engulf every single corpse in flames that is born from your cursed technique.
Yet even if your cursed technique exorcizes them all, that doesn’t stop the ground from starting to violently shake, which in turn causes the walls and ceilings to start crumbling and dropping dirt and small rocks.
“It’s coming down,” you murmur in disbelief as you snap your head in the opposite direction because you hear multiple distant footsteps approaching rapidly—“and the others are coming. We have to run and take care of them outside. Go!” You bellow and push them ahead of you first.
Hakari leads the way, and you don’t proceed to run into any obstacles in the way, but that’s because you're running through passages that aren’t marked with stories, or paintings of people. You’re running down an empty hall with a falling ceiling that you barely catch with the help of you manipulating the air within the room to keep the ceiling from collapsing on all of you.
“Go!” You shout sharply so they would understand. “There’s only so much air in this room, and soon there will be nothing. Go! I’ll catch up.”
Kirara shakes their head and they quickly argue back. “No! We can make it out together!”
The other curses are approaching fast, you can hear their footsteps get louder, and this ceiling is only getting heavier to keep up as more stone falls on it.
“If I drop this the entire room falls before either of you can make it out, but I can hold it up and walk out alone. I can’t move air through all your lungs, just mine, you’ll die. Go!”
Kirara steps back and this time Hakari hesitates to listen to you, after all, he hasn’t told you but you have changed his life. He felt believed in because of you, how could he let a mentor like you go?
“Kinji Hakari,” you scold. “I’ll catch up soon and we’ll fight together.”
He draws in a sharp breath and lets his eyes linger on you for a moment.
“Kinji,” you shout.
Said man turns sharply and runs away with Kirara, letting you use more air to hold up the falling stone.
However, you can’t say you won’t welcome death. Because you will.
Oh sweet death, how tempting is your offer because there in your realm is him, Suguru Geto.
He will welcome you with open arms and you can be with each other for the rest of eternity because it’s true, you can’t live on without him by your side.
“I’m sorry,” you mumble to the image of Satori, Nanako, and Mimiko as you get ready to drop the stone weighing you down to also drop it on the curses only feet away now.
However, like shining white lights of hope, Hakari and Kirara return to the hall with their breaths held since all the air in this room is either flowing through you or being used to hold up the stone.
“No, what are you two doing?!” You panic.
And since they can’t answer they simply ignore you, and they work together to use their cursed energy and punch through the floor, making it all suddenly crumble down and pulling you with it.
Since you lose your concentration when you’re falling, the stone you were holding up falls too, but unlike you, it stops when it hits the floor you were on. Some pieces fall with you, but thankfully not enough to crush you.
And thankfully you don’t fall to your deaths, you hit some solid ground not far below the previous floor. Your body does instantly hurt at impact, but you’re all alive. You’re alive, Hakari and Kirara went back for you. They didn’t have to, but they did.
They went back for you…
Why—no, you know why, you’re their mentor, but you didn’t think they cared so much as to risk their lives for you. You wanted to die, but they risked their lives and saved you…
“Master!” You hear Kirara yell before they get on their hands and knees and crawl over to you. “Are you okay? Did you get hurt?”
You drift your eyes over to meet theirs and with lingering disbelief, you nod slowly.
“Why?” You can’t help but ask. “Why did you go back?”
“I know, I know it was stupid,” they defend themselves and Hakari. “But how could we let you take all the risk? You’re our mentor! We care about you! You’re special to us.”
You blink repeatedly and hold back tears even if your throat starts to sting.
“Yeah it’d be pretty stupid to let you die,” Hakari interjects. “Where could we find another mentor like you?”
You sit up and snap your eyes to him and offer him a faint smile.
And for the first time in a while, you feel a bit of your broken heart heal. Whereas before it was like you were left with scabs over your broken heart, now it’s actually mending as you realize that it doesn’t have to be the end.
——
*NOW*
“What’s going on?” You ask the group of attentive sorcerers as you return to your seats.
“Gojo’s nose is bleeding,” Yuji lets you know.
You look at the screen and in fact, do see a dribble of crimson blood running down his nose. Which means he’s probably exhausting his technique and his head.
And Sukuna hasn’t even used any of the ten shadows yet…damn.
“Domain expansion,” Satoru and Sukuna say simultaneously.
“Again,” you mutter.
And just as you came back too!
“They activated it at the same time!” Yuji points out.
“Which means Sukuna can restore his burn-out technique with RCT after all!” Angel interjects, making Kurusu speak after her.
“But has he been able to do that all along, or did he just figure it out?”
“How many times have we said the word cursed technique today?” Yuji muses, making you look over at him and laugh softly.
Yuji catches your reaction and can’t keep down his smile.
“Within the three minutes, it takes for Sukuna to destroy Gojo’s domain from the outside…Gojo needs to damage Sukuna to the point where he can no longer maintain his domain,” Kusakabe mentions really melancholy.
“Let’s not talk as if Gojo’s on the ropes,” Shoko argues. “If Sukuna is drawn into unlimited void for even a few seconds, he’ll be incapacitated.”
Your attention piques and you can’t help but chime in hopefully. “Exactly and if he’s able to destroy Malevolent shrine within three minutes Satoru will win.”
It’s really some high hopes, but you trust Satoru more than anything.
“You really think so?” Yuji asks with doubt laced with fear.
You draw out a deep breath and turn your head to meet his gaze and nod with a confident look to comfort his nerves. “I know it. It may not happen right now, but I know it’s possible. Not only because Satoru is strong, but Sukuna is overconfident. In a situation like this, overconfidence can lead to your demise with a simple mistake you make.”
Yuji’s eyes return to the screen to watch the black barrier floating in the sky. “Hm, I have noticed overconfidence leads to mistakes.”
“Not that it’s bad, it can be a good thing to be overconfident, you just can’t leave out any details, do you get what I’m saying?” You explain yourself and lean towards him. “Like you can’t doubt the weakest player, always think like they have something up their sleeve even if they don’t. Be aware.” You say and then lift your head to speak loud. “That’s why I beat Kusakabe in a card game, he doubted my skills!”
Yuji looks over and Choso’s eyes snap at the man you dragged in the conversation.
“You cheated!” Kusakabe shouts back, making you look at Yuji and shake your head.
“I milked him dry, he's just a sore loser. Get over it man it’s been two months!”
“You’re already rich, why did you need more money?” Kusakabe grumbles.
You shake your head and cross your arms over your chest. “It’s not about the money, it’s about the gloating I got to do afterward. And it’s about winning too.”
“I told you that you shouldn't have played against her,” Hakari interjects with a smirk.
You smirk now too and catch Kusakabe grumbling. This time you can’t counter because the domain breaks and both men are sliding back on their feet when they land. Only one has his face wounded and that’s Sukuna.
Way to go Satoru!
“Again simultaneously!!” Kusakabe shouts.
“Keeping us on the edge of our seats,” Mei-Mei says.
“I mean, this is just…” Choso trails off.
“Any more of these domains and one of them will give out,” you say and drop your hands to lean forward and slouch.
“Satoru needs to—” Choso cuts himself off as those two damn words are announced again.
“Domain expansion!”
You let out a frustrated huff and lean back to grab Choso’s hand since you’ll be left in the dark again.
“Just now!!” Okkotsu exclaims as the domain turns small again.
“Ah,” Higuruma utters.
“What's up?” Hakari questions Okkotsu’s outburst.
“Maybe, just maybe Gojo expanded his domain an instant earlier?” Okkotsu says.
Hopefully. Just hopefully.
You sit up as you can’t handle your nerves and use your other hand to pick up the cup and try to drink your tea. However, you’re too worried so you just put it against your lips and watch, while Choso tightens his hold against yours to provide as much comfort as he can at the moment.
Nevertheless, only a couple of seconds later the domain breaks and your heart sinks a little when you see the Zenin’s pride and joy, Mahoraga looking down at your brother.
“No,” you gasp quietly.
“Cursed technique reversal,” you hear your brother try to counter, but Mahoraga seems to easily deflect that technique and swings down his mighty blade and breaks the ground Satoru jumped away from in time.
“What?!” Satoru exclaims.
“That’s Mahoraga!” Someone exclaims.
“So that’s the crown jewel of the Zen’in clan,” Mei-Mei muses with what you detect is awe.
Awe for a beast that can—
You don’t even want to think about it.
“It’s a shikigami with the ability to adapt to any attack,” Choso says.
“You’re saying it was even able to adapt to unlimited void?!” Yuji blurts his question.
“Of course, it can,” Mei-Mei responds, making you draw in a deep frustrated breath before you clench your jaw and your hands.
“He’ll get rid of it,” Choso tries to assure you. “I’m sure of it.”
You shake your head stiffly and contradict the hope you just shared mere minutes ago. “No, you don’t know that,” you snap back. “You don’t know anything.”
You slip your hand off Choso’s and stand up to continue watching the fight in your fuming irritation.
.
.
.
.
A/N- It feels like these past few weeks have flown by!!
Tagged- @deniseabad1928 @secondary-character-25 @starlightanyaaa @notsaelty @d4rno @moonnime @kodzukein @yozora7154 @heijihattorisgf @elegantweirdorchest @natakina
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