#manga chapter 208 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

damn-stark · 8 months

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Chapter 24 By saying something stupid like…

Chapter 24 of Sugar

A/N- Birthday post! Also sorry for what’s going to happen in this chapter ;)

Warning- Swearing, ANGST!!, FLUFF, spoilers, talks of miscarriage, SLOW BURN, heavy pining, talks of alcohol, drinking and smoking, long chapter

Pairing- Choso x Gojo!fem-reader, Suguru Geto x Gojo!fem-reader

Takes place during- Chapter 202, and the beginning portion of 208 of the Manga

(Let me know if you want to be tagged)

————

You remember the day that the power that coursed through your veins changed from a running creek to raging rapids.

Like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly, it was so rejuvenating! To your soul, to the very being you were. It was almost like before you came into full realization of your cursed technique you weren’t breathing, and the moment you unlocked your full capability you took breath in your lungs for the first time!

You really don’t know how you lived crippled like that for so long. You probably would have lived your entire life restricted if you had not left Satoru, home, and everything you knew. And if you never took Yuki Tsukumo’s offer.

You truly owe what you became to her. She kind of birthed you in a sense.

She wasn’t there the exact moment you were reborn, you had been separated from her and Todo and driven off the edge of a tall cliff that hung over a vicious ocean by a clan of curse users. But it was her training that accompanied you deep in the depths of the dark waters.

Breathe. Breathe…

Wait…you can’t breathe or you’ll fucking drown! So what do you do?

The waves are violent and thrashing you around making it impossible to focus, and your technique only truly works if you’re focused. So what can you do?

Die? Let this water drag you down a dark void?

It doesn’t sound so bad, it’s not like you were wanted all that much anyway. By your parents at least and by your brother who left you last year.

Suguru loves you. Nanako and Mimiko are growing to love you day by day when you talk with them on the phone. Todo tolerates you, and Yuki cares deeply for you, she wouldn’t have offered to waste her time training you or stuck around for as long as she has if she didn’t.

But you still are unwanted. So how bad can not existing be? Your lungs will fill with water and you'll cry with the need to breathe, minutes will feel like hours as you drown to death, but how could you keep cursing this world and your family by existing as a weak link?

You’ll close your eyes, and the pain won’t change as death is stealing your life, but then the weak link won't exist.

Just…keep your eyes closed…

“You are strong.”

Master?

“What they think of you doesn’t define you. You are not a weak link. You are a force to be reckoned with, never forget that.”

You open your eyes and don’t see her, you just see a school of angelfish swimming past you while her words sound in your head.

“Be the monster they think you are and never shame away from what you were given.”

As her words hit your heart and start pushing away that willingness to let yourself die, there in the distance you catch a light flicker on. It’s small but bright and it swims towards you, slowly taking shape the closer it gets.

At first, you can’t identify what it is you see coming at you, but then when it finally reaches you, you see that it’s a ball of fire, and inside it are darker flames that are shaped into a menacing figure you can’t help but admire.

“Never lose your heart, y/n.”

Never…

The ball of fire disappears proving to be a figment of your imagination to push you to ask yourself why you're letting them win so easily.

You can’t let them. You’ve been taught better, you’re stronger than that. A hundred times stronger. So what are you doing?

You have to get out and fight back.

Besides what kind of elemental manipulator would you be if you died by drowning in water you can control?

You probably only have seconds of air left in your lungs before you start gasping for more, but those seconds mean nothing now as you filter your cursed energy through the water around you, and pass it through miles of heavy water, before you pull down the water down until your head pokes out and you can breathe in fresh air again.

The group of curse users that had been after you are hastily descending the hill to finish you off or make sure you’re dead, but they don’t see you in the water because of the cloudy night. They don’t even notice the waterline at shore pulling back as if a tsunami is about to strike down. They don’t pay attention to the wind quickly picking up speed as it rushes past them.

They do feel the earth below them start to rumble when your cursed energy seeps through the ocean ground and stretches out miles you never could reach before. When they finally step off the hill they notice a fireline come to life and give light to the fact that the water is missing from shore and drawing back further out, before the flames do the impossible by crawling over the water.

The ground begins to tremble more violently to the point the earth around them is cracking, and finally, they question what's escalating. “What’s happening?” You hear one of them panic.

The wind starts to howl, and the cracks begin to glow as you leak fire through them without having them notice just yet.

“It’s her,” one of their voices trembles as they figure it out, considering that Mother Nature isn’t capable of doing what’s happening at this very moment.

“Eyes in the water!” One of them finally thinks.

And when their gazes follow the fire trail out into the water they finally spot you miles out, creepily walking out of the water that draws past you.

Fire basks your arms completely, and flames cascade down your hands to fuel the cracks spreading out like wildfire, and beautifully but menacingly mix with the gusts of air that start to swirl around your feet and gain height.

“Kill her!” One of them bellows as they point at you slowly creeping forward.

The cursed energy running out of your stomach travels throughout every inch of your body and for the first time it strikes your heart, making it jolt, and making you fear that it somehow stopped—Then again you wouldn't be standing upright or be as coherent as you are now, but you do have that sudden fear until this never before sense of power strikes your body and awakens a part of you that you didn’t know existed.

It’s so bizarre, yet it's a satisfying rush that gives new life to the very technique you were born with. Intensifying its power to its maximum degree, and changing something within you that you don’t notice yet, but the group of curse users do.

It isn’t possible, but to them, it seems that way. To them it looks like red-orange fire leaks through your eyes and burns away the very eye color you were born with to take over and settle in your eyes and show everyone who looked at you how powerful you are and how menacing you can be.

Nevertheless, they don’t scare away, they stand their ground, so you decide to play with what you just got by right away picking up the wind's speed, and then fueling the fire's intensity. You widen the cracks in the ground while also creating more. And lastly, you stop walking toward them and begin to smirk before you throw your hands up as you raise the water behind you hundreds of feet into the sky, once and for all showing your change in power.

——

That was the day everything changed for the better.

“So dismantling his domain huh?” You greet Yuki without looking back at her, you recognized her loud footsteps from the moment they started to echo as she approached.

“It’s the only way to defeat Kenjaku,” she says as she sits back on the lounging chair.

You lean over the balcony and just mindlessly watch the passing clouds in the sky with an unlit cigarette in between your fingers as you debate whether to give into your vices and prove that you’re stress goes beyond just worry for this upcoming fight, or leave the cigarette unused to prove to yourself that the thought of his sacrifice doesn’t mean a thing.

“What, you're not going to try and stop me from being stupid?” Yuki interjects shamelessly. “Or is that fight only reserved for the men you love?”

Pft!

Tsk. No.

Her words are stupid, silly.

“No,” you laugh and light the cigarette. “You’re stupid I don’t love him. He’s…” why did you hesitate? “He’s my friend. He’s a good friend.”

“Mhmm,” Yuki hums sassily as she knows you too well.

“And no,” you interject abruptly. “I won’t fight you.”

You turn around to face her and lean back against the railing.

“Because I trust you,” you continue explaining with a genuine look painted on your face. “Every move you make that day I’ll trust with my whole heart.”

The corner of her lips spread to a smile before she puts sunglasses on and leans back to relax, as usually does. It’s why people call her lazy, and even if it is partially true, the other reason is that she does a lot that people don’t see. Her times off are well deserved.

“Besides it's not like you’re planning to sacrifice yourself now are you?” You ask and draw in a short drag of your cigarette.

“Well,” Yuki slowly rolls out. “Who knows really? As much as we can plan when the time comes things change. We have to adapt to what’s thrown at us. If that means making the ultimate move then I’ll make it, no hesitation.”

You keep the cigarette in between your lips and draw in a long and deep drag now.

“Would you?” She redirects.

You leave your gaze on her for a moment before you drop your eyes to the ground and pull the cigarette out to drop the ash on the floor whilst you stay quiet even if the question needs no time to ponder over.

“If the need arises yes,” you share quietly just out of shame for one thing. “I’d much rather give my daughter and my students a chance for an easier life even if it means I’m not in it.” You sigh and pull the cigarette towards your lips. “Satori will grow up resenting me for leaving her alone, but at least she won’t be tormented by one evil.”

You expected to cry as those heartbreaking words came out of your mouth. When you think about your daughter having to live without you any other time tears never fail to well in your eyes as your heart can’t handle the agony, but right now maybe it’s the fact that you’re comforted by Yuki’s presence, or just enveloped by the seriousness of the moment, but you don’t cry. You just smoke the death stick in between your lips. So maybe that’s it too.

“And if it happens,” you add just above a whisper. “If I’m the one that dies that day…free my brother, will you?” You ask not because he’s the strongest and the sorcerer world as you know it needs him, but because your world needs him.

“Of course, that’s the plan,” she fails to understand the true meaning behind your question.

“No,” you argue and raise your head to share a pressing look. “Satori will need him. I left him in charge of her if anything happens. So please if something happens to me, get him out as quickly as you can.”

Yuki lifts her head and pushes her glasses down her nose to make sure that you see her brown eyes on you as she assures you. “I will.”

You let out a deep breath of relief and finally break away from your spot to walk behind her.

“Can I braid your hair?” You ask.

“Not if you have that cigarette lit. What if you burn my hair?” She remarks, making you pout and walk over to kill the cigarette on the ashtray before you return behind her.

“Sit up,” you command as you sanitize your hands so they don’t feel so dirty after that cigarette.

Yuki groans in protest but she lazily pushes herself up to leave you access to her long blond hair.

“You know,” you share thoughtfully while you carefully gather her hair in your hands. “When I was young, my mother always told me that doing your hair, putting on makeup, and dressing nicely was a weapon. They think of you as an accessory, she said, and that’s what gives you an advantage.” You scoff softly and start to carefully knead her hair together from the top of her head.

“I used to think she was wise, but as I grew up her words don’t hold as much inspiration anymore. They’re quite sad,” you admit. “Given she’s still at home, living a miserable life beside a man who doesn’t love her anymore.”

“Well,” Yuki sighs as she drapes one leg over the other. “Given her situation, I guess those words mean something to her. She expected you to live the same way, and wanted to share her knowledge the only way she knew how to.”

You often thought of it like that. When you were younger of course, but now, maybe it’s because of all the resentment clouding your head, but those words are terrible advice, why would she want you to live like that too?

Why wouldn’t she fight for something better for you? Sure you use your femininity to your advantage, the world dominated by men demands it, but there’s a difference between her advice and the choices you make.

“I suppose,” you whisper in comprehension. “But why wouldn’t she say, like, get all pretty if you want to, don’t do it for anyone but yourself, you know? If that makes you happy then do it.”

Yuki shrugs and mumbles, “you were raised differently.”

“Yeah, I guess we were. But I still wish I could be like, I’m hot with all the pretty getup and I’m hot without it too. And thousands of people think so too.”

“And your face is worth thousands of bucks,” Yuki adds on to your case.

You grin. “Boom! Exactly!” You exclaim and laugh softly.

“Now,” Yuki blurts with a sudden burst of energy that slightly catches you off guard since she was just so calm. “Why not let yourself love again?”

You sigh deeply through your nose, making her snicker and sit up straighter, causing her hair to slip out of your fingers.

“Hold still,” you hiss and grab her hair to yank her head back.

“I mean the guy is your type, he’s obviously head over heels for you, and you’ve grieved long enough,” she continues to say, bringing irritation to your once peaceful mind. “Plus Geto told you to find someone else, so I don’t understand your hesitance. Just jump his bones already.” She snickers cheekily.

You let her hair go this time and walk to the side of her chair to look at her with a judgy look. “Jump his bones?” You question and she laughs.

“Want me to get dirty or what?” She teases.

You roll your eyes and return to your spot to finish braiding half of her hair.

“What? Are you going to be single forever?” She follows up with another question in your silence.

“Yuki,” you mumble seriously.

“Tsk.” She flicks her wrist. “If you’re going to say it’s too soon, yeah I’m aware of when he died, but,” she goes serious, losing the lightheartedness from her tone. “You can mourn him however long you want y/n, but the truth of the matter is that he’ll still be dead.”

Your breath hitches and your irritation quickly transforms into anger.

“So why should you deny yourself something good because of it? We as sorcerers don’t have a promise of a long life you know?”

You part your lips to contradict her, but there’s some truth behind her words you don’t want to admit out loud, so instead you let your anger dwindle and bring up another fact. “You know what I’ve done…I don’t deserve any kind of kindness that love brings.”

“So what? Is he innocent?” She rebuttals. “It doesn’t matter how bloody your hands are, y/n—”

“It does to me. I don’t deserve being loved like that. Especially not by someone as good-hearted as him.” you cut her off while you collect the end of her half-braid and the rest of her hair into a ponytail.

Yuki feels you finish before you let her know and peers back to pierce her scolding glare into you. “You can’t let your fear of losing someone control you,” she says without needing you to say it. She sees it in you. “You’ll end up alone and that’s what you fear the most isn’t it?”

You part your lips, but you’re left too stunned to talk.

Behind your own protests, the fear of feeling that emptiness again terrifies you. Suguru’s death made you feel empty for so long, and losing the child you were expecting only worsened the fact. You don’t want to feel it again. So even if it means yearning forever, you told yourself that you won’t put yourself through that again, and you won’t put anyone through that pain either.

You don’t get to tell Yuki that though because someone with light and bare footsteps approaches the balcony. And neither of you need to look back to know that it’s Tengen.

“Well if it isn’t you, Star killer,” you greet them spitefully.

Tengen hums and walks around Yuki and you, to be able to see your faces.

“You know,” they interject calmly. “Ever since you’ve gotten here all you’ve ever given me is judgment. That’s a lot coming from a woman who��s drowning in the blood of hundreds of people.”

You focus on one set of eyes and narrow your gaze as you press a hand on your hip.

They probably expected you to fold over in grief, but you instead chuckle. You genuinely laugh. Which doesn’t stun Tengen.

“Yes, I am,” you admit with a hint of smugness and no hesitation or an ounce of remorse. You’ve felt bad before, but that was long ago and has long been resolved when you chose your path in life and decided to not live in regret out of fear of hating yourself.

That’s why you’re smug and certain with every word. “I embraced evil. I’m a monster. I accept it and I don’t regret what I did. We’re sides of the same coin, so I don’t judge you for that, I don’t hate you for that. You failed to save my friend, and you wanted to kill my mentor. That’s why I hate you.” You smile sweetly.

“And yet you’re here,” they point out the damn obvious.

You nod stiffly. “You have the door to open my brother's prison. Helping you could mean saving the Jujutsu world as we know it, of course, I’m here. You’re not planning to kill me, are you? An act of justice?”

Tengen scoffs and drops their head. “No,” they say. “You’re my guard. And I, unlike you, don't judge.”

You huff and feign a smile before you lean towards one side to then walk over and sit beside Yuki to lay back and rest too.

“What do you want, Tengen?” Yuki questions their presence. “We’ve brainstormed all we needed to for today.”

Tengen softly claps their hands and a creepy smile spreads on their pale rectangular face. “I've come to invite you both to a nice bar date the night after tomorrow. I’ve already let the Death painting womb—.”

“Choso,” you correct them. “His name is Choso. He’s going to risk his life for you, you might as well say his name.”

Tengen clears their throat and reiterates themselves. “I let Choso know. I just needed to let you know, so wear something fancy. Black tie is the dress code.”

It’s kind of random, you never thought they’d be one to be considerate considering he’s a higher being, but you do like this idea.

“What’s the occasion?” Yuki probes in confusion. “Fattening us up before Kenjaku kills us or what?”

Tengen lets out a deep sigh and for the second time, they sound annoyed at Yuki. “No, it’s simply a nice evening. So you can all enjoy yourselves while you’re here.”

You smile as you slide on some expensive shades over your eyes so they don’t see you closing them. “Well, I for one like the idea. It gives me an excuse to wear the gown I was supposed to wear for the Gala.”

“Ah, is that the excuse you’re saying?” Yuki taunts you, making your lip curl to a scowl.

“Shut up. I'll burn your hair.” You grimace your threat and make her laugh before you both can go on ignoring Tengen to enjoy your evening side by side.

——

*LATER*

“Guys! Guys!” You shout as you burst into the room with a happy grin on your lips. “Look what Ijichi just brought me from home!” You exclaim and show off a magazine that Yuki and Choso can’t see from where they’re sitting.

“Remind me,” Yuki interjects curiously. “Who’s Ijichi again?”

“He’s, uh, a head manager at the school,” you remind Yuki as you walk to the table she’s at. “He was my only underclassman when I was in my second year.”

“Ah right? The geeky guy.”

“Mhmm. Anyway.” You beam and reach the table to slam down the magazine in between Choso and Yuki. “My new manager sent me the December issue of the magazine I’m featured in before its release date!”

Both Choso and Yuki lean over the table to take a better look at what you’re showing off.

“It’s me in a shoot inspired by the Birth Venus!” You explain the cover you're on.

“Hot,” Yuki immediately compliments you with a faint smirk. “I thought you were retiring though?”

You plop yourself down and fold your arms over the tabletop to lean over with your chin resting on your arms. “Yeah, well the editor of this magazine is a friend of mine and he wanted me to be on the cover, so when he pitched the idea I couldn’t resist. Plus Kinji, Kira, and the twins pushed me to take the job, so I did it,” you muse as you admire the cover and avoid looking at Choso’s reaction as he keeps studying the cover as if he’s trying to really look at every single detail.

One because you can’t let your heart swoon and get all flustered by how soft his eyes are as he examines the cover, and two, you’re still upset at him for his choice at yesterday's meeting.

“You look great with that black wig,” Yuki points out to another version of you in the same photo but depicted as one of the other figures from the painting.

“Aw really?” You coo and touch your chest. “Should I dye my hair black?”

“No,” Choso blurts. “Your hair color is fine as it is.”

Yuki holds your gaze and tries to show a teasing smile, but you look away and clench your jaw to fight the giddy emotions trying to take over.

“Your eyes,” Choso continues to add. “They’re a different color. Why?”

You swallow thickly and only spare a glance his way. “It’s harder landing jobs with my eyes the color they are,” you explain to him with your eyes focused on the magazine. “And it’s just not all that common, so to avoid making things hard, I wear contacts of the eye color my eyes were before.”

“Oh, well, the color of your eyes now is more than fine, you shouldn’t change it,” he says bluntly without an ounce of timidness.

But you do grow timid and clear your throat while you bite back a smile. “Thanks,” you mutter.

“You look…” Choso clears his throat. “Very beautiful. Congratulations on your achievement.”

Your face immediately burns hot and your heart skips a beat before it starts to pound. “Uh, thank you, Choso,” you manage to say completely collected.

Yuki hides her teasing smile by picking up the magazine and flipping through the pages.

“Uh did you hear Yaga’s dead?” You try to fill the silence to avoid talking to Choso or letting him talk to you. “He was killed by the old bag of bones Gakuganji.”

“I heard,” Yuki mumbles with her attention wavered. “I didn’t expect anyone else to do it honestly. The higher-ups are all slimy pieces of shit.”

“You said it,” you agree.

Her phone then goes off and she jumps off her seat to take it out of her back pocket. “I’m going to take this,” she excuses herself as she drags herself away with a small smile. “Have fun,” she directs at you before she closes the door behind her, leaving Choso and you alone in a silence you fill with tension due to the emotions you can’t turn off.

You could actually sit in silence since you pick up the magazine and go through it, but you’ve barely said a word to Choso since yesterday, even now you can barely look at him, he can’t last another day with you obviously upset at him.

“Y/N, you’re upset,” he breaks the silence.

You lift the magazine higher up to cover your face completely and mutter to the pages with pouted lips. “It’s your life, you can throw your life away if you want to.”

“I’m…” he pauses and sighs before he leans over and pushes the magazine down with his finger so you can look at him and know that he’s being sincere. “I’m not throwing my life away. If it happens I’m sacrificing my life away for my—”

“For your brothers, I know,” you cut him off and shut the magazine with force before you throw it on the table and continue with a narrowed look and anger laced in your tone. “But do you really think Yuji will see it that way after finally understanding what you are to each other? Do you really think your brothers would want that? Don’t you think they want you to fight and live instead of fight and die?”

You don’t shy away from being honest, after all, you've been building up that argument.

It leaves Choso speechless both from disbelief to your emotions so boldly shared and expressed, and to what you’re saying. He has to take a minute before coming up with an argument. “I hope my brothers will understand.”

You scoff and drop your head, making him continue to try and make you see it his way.

“Yuji will understand. Besides, it’s not like he’s known me for long. It’s been 12 days since we met. If I die I’ll only be a fleeting memory to him. He doesn’t need me really. No one does.”

Your pout disappears, your eyebrows slowly ease from their pinched hold, and your shoulders fall as you let out the deep breath you were holding in with your anger as his words sink into your heart.

You don’t regret your harshness, you don’t regret your anger. You still are upset, his words don’t ease that. No matter how much you try to fight it, your anger just doesn’t disappear, but right now you feel pity and sadness that he thinks that because it’s not true.

“Listen to me Choso,” you speak softer. “Yuji will need his big brother. Now more than ever. Especially in times after this is over, in the down times. He’ll need you. And the rest will too.”

Choso draws out a shaky breath and his brown eyes gleam with tears.

“And I…” you pause and catch your heart before it can say what it wants.

Yet you need him to understand, you need him to see things your way, and you need to fight so your fear doesn’t come true. “…I’ll need my friend.”

His breath hitches and he sits up straighter.

“I’ve lost too many friends. I don’t want to lose another…so at least fight a bit more to just stay alive.”

He holds your gaze with his eyes slowly widening, his lips slightly parted, and his cheeks burning as a blush grazes on them.

You can’t know what’s happening inside him, but he does feel like his heart stops and his breath gets caught in his throat while it all goes quiet, and only you exist in this vast space before you disappear too and all he sees is a few seconds of darkness. When he blinks though, he's suddenly somewhere else; outside, surrounded by a sea of grass that looks gold by the sun's gentle light casting over the earth. There’s tall trees scattered around, and a gentle and warm breeze blows past him.

He hears laughter and when he follows it he sees his little brother Yuji with blankets under one arm and a girl with long dark hair sitting on his shoulder. He can’t see her face but in the back of his head, he knows it’s your daughter, Satori. Which is odd because the only time he’s seen her is the other day behind a screen when you introduced them.

Yet he doesn’t dare question any of it further. He accepts what’s happening because he feels happy, comforted, and he feels something overwhelmingly positive, something new but welcoming, something that fills him with a never-ending warmth, something like love. It's not a new feeling, he's always felt all these emotions because he knew he loved his brothers, but right now it’s heightened to an astounding amount.

“Choso,” he hears your voice, soft and oozing with honey.

“Hm?” He probes and drifts his eyes ahead to see your white hair gleaming brightly because of the sun's light bouncing off your hair. He sees the skirt of your soft pink dress flowing gently because of the breeze, and he notices you holding something as you walk down the hill.

“Look who’s awake,” you say excitedly before you turn around and show off a little baby that looked to be a few months old, with white hair like yours, and wearing a pink sundress that coordinated with yours.

“Why don’t you say hi to Daddy,” you tell the baby with a happy smile. “Hi, Daddy.”

The baby girl glances at you and smiles, causing his heart to swoon and for an awe-struck smile of his own to tug on his lips as he watches you and…his baby he shared with you.

There was nothing more he was assured of than the fact that the baby in your arms was his and yours. You shared a good and happy life and a little blessing.

“She said it!” You exclaim delusionally. “Say it again, hi Daddy.”

The baby's eyes stay on Choso and she coos, making him smile brightly.

“Good evening, my girl,” he greets the baby, and she squeals before she throws her arms out and reaches for him.

Without an ounce of hesitation, Choso picks up his pace and reaches out to take the baby. However, before he could wrap his hands around her he blinks and suddenly it's all gone and he’s back in the parlor room with you sitting across from him with a black kimono on and no baby in your arms.

It was all just a fake memory…

One he wanted to come true more than anything.

“Choso?” You call out in concern and a hint of annoyance as he looks like he suddenly spaced out.

“Hm?” He snaps his attention to you.

You narrow your gaze to study him for a second, but you don’t find anything concerning so you sit back and relax, failing to realize that he was just stuck in a fake memory triggered by a sudden realization he had of you.

“Did you hear me?” You query with worry.

“Yes. And I’ll try,” he assures you, making you let out a small breath that makes your anger slowly fizzle out and a faint smile grows on your lips.

“That’s all I ask,” you say softly . “Now,” you change the subject as the room finally loses the tension you had filled it with. “I should let you know that Kinji and Kirara called me, they’ve met with Itadori and Fushiguro.”

“Oh. That’s good,” he says and sits back to tuck his hands in his sleeves. “Did they agree to help?”

You smile wider and nod. “Yeah. After a bit of fun back and forth they said they agreed.”

Choso sighs and nods. “That’s good. I’m glad.”

You pick up the magazine to return to the page you were on before you got interrupted. “You should text Itadori,” you suggest. “It doesn't have to be a long conversation, just ask him how he’s doing. And then ask him what he has planned for the day. I don’t know, something simple.”

“Do you think…he’ll appreciate it?” Choso asks with concern.

You glance over at him and nod. “Yeah. I’m sure he would. I always liked it when my brother checked up on me.”

Choso lets out a deep breath and nods before he pulls his phone out of his pocket and stares at the screen.

“Could you help me?” He asks with his normal deep voice, but there was a way he said his question that makes you grin.

“Of course,” you don’t hesitate to give in and put the magazine down to quickly fall beside him and help.

——

*THE NEXT DAY*

Feeling nervous about the way you look and the thought of walking into that cantina date is something that hasn’t happened in a long time.

You tend to get nervous sometimes, more so when you were younger. It was a part of growing up, but as you grew up and grew to be more confident, feeling nauseous and self-conscious about the way you look went away.

Maybe it is because you went on dates with the same man for 11 years of your life, or because when you worked in your public job as a model you just didn’t care what non-sorcerers had to say or what they thought about you. But tonight, ever since you started getting ready for the cantina date Tengen hosted, your nerves are just eating you up. It’s annoying and persistent!

You almost want to avoid walking in the cantina when you stop outside the double doors, but what else are you going to do in this isolated place? Stay in your room and watch a movie or read a book?

You can do that any other night, so after a deep breath you slide the doors open and walk in to see a pretty small and casual cantina with a jukebox in one corner, a stage with a piano, and…in front of the long bar Choso steals all your attention, and you realize how much trouble you’re in as you notice how absolutely breathtaking he looks in a black and white suit that all gets tied together with a sloppy bowtie.

He looks so gentle, and his already rich brown eyes only gleam a much more intense rich brown in that formal suit tempting you to risk it all and crush the wall you’re putting up. He entices you without as much as trying.

But that’s it you almost give in, you remain collected no matter how majestic he looks.

However, him on the other hand, his rich brown eyes found you the moment the doors opened, and when your eyes landed on him it was like he was seeing you for the first time; he inhales deeply and straightens up while his eyes widen, a fluttering goes off in his stomach, and his heart begins to pound in his chest to the point he thought you could notice.

He always liked looking at you, he found peace in watching you, but right now as you gleamed like a divine star in your long black gown adorned with thousands of tiny rhinestones, he felt like he wasn’t worthy enough to be looking at you. It's like you were a goddess who just came from above.

And he didn’t know much about gods and goddesses, but he knew you were one now.

“Y/N Gojo, I’m glad you could make it,” Tengen’s greeting startles you, causing you to clutch onto your chest with your gloved hand and look at them in annoyance.

“You fucking scared me, prick,” you sneer, “you need to stop appearing like that.”

Tengen smiles with amusement. “Jumpy? It’s only the same people you’ve been with for the past 4 days.”

You glare at them and finally depart from the entrance, but not without muttering under your breath. “Why don’t you shove that greeting up your ass.”

“I heard that.”

“Good,” you quip and look back at Choso with a genuine smile. “Choso. Good evening.”

Said man swallows thickly and clears his throat. “Good evening, y/n.”

You stop before him and discreetly study him from up close, noticing how well the suit hugged his muscles, and how the neckline hugs his veiny and muscular neck before you force your focus on his sloppy bow tie. “Uh, can I fix your bow?” You ask first just in case he doesn’t want your help.

Choso glances down at his bow and brushes his fingers over it, noticing now that it’s messed up. “Oh,” he mouths. “Yeah, that’s fine.”

You flash him a happy smile before you take a step closer to the point you can feel each other's breaths unfurl over your flesh, and you can feel the warmth of his lips tempting you for just a taste as you begin to help him.

“Uh,” Choso breathes out. “Is that…the gown you were going to wear for the gala thing you mentioned.”

You stop fixing his bow tie to first glance at his lips before you lock eyes and smile. “Yeah, actually. I didn’t want to let it go to waste so I said why not wear it for an hour or two tonight.”

Choso holds your gaze and nods softly before his eyes flicker down to your lips, and then they take in the long gloves that match your black dress, before he lastly looks at the slits on the sides of your dress that show off your soft-looking skin, and make his mind run wild. That's why he quickly drops his gaze to the floor and speaks sweetly. “Well, you look very…beautiful in it…is that okay to say?”

Your breath hitches and your face and body grow incredibly hot, but you manage to play it off with a giggle. “Yeah,” you assure him. “That’s totally fine. Thank you Choso.”

You focus back on fixing his bow tie and avoid looking into his eyes as you bring up a compliment of your own. “And you can pull off a suit my friend.” You laugh nervously, and out of their own will, your eyes fly to his lips before you meet his gaze. “You look very handsome.”

And he did. He absolutely pulls off the suit with his buns and those dreamy brown eyes of his. He looked just breathtakingly sexy and you want nothing more but to grab him and kiss him. He made your heart swoon and sigh like a love-struck fool.

You could just stare at him all day, the sight of him dressed so formally is so addicting. And you know deep inside it’s not good to feel so strongly for him, you and your mind are trying to fight against every aroused feeling filling your heart and body, but having him right before you looking as beautiful as he does makes you feel yourself losing the fight.

“Oh,” he gasps and grows a deep red. “Thank you. Uh, Tengen loaned me the suit.”

“Hm, well they picked the right one,” you continue to fluster him before you gently pat on his fixed bow tie. “All better.”

Choso glances at your finished work and nods. “Thank you. Now,” he clears his throat and steals one more glance at your painted lips before he turns to his side. “Do you want to sit while we wait for Tsukumo?”

Before you can agree Choso pulls out your seat for you.

“Oh wow, look at you,” you praise him with a beaming grin while you slide on the seat. “Thank you, Cho. Now,” you shift your attention to Tengen walking behind the bar. “Tengen two tequilas, please. And do them half. I don't want to scare off my friend here.”

“You know,” Choso interjects as he takes a seat beside you. “I don’t even think I can get drunk.”

You look away from Tengen preparing what you asked for to look at Choso smugly. “Oh, we can try. We can definitely try. Just,” you sigh and look ahead with a grin. “Don’t get me drunk. The last time I got drunk I cried and had to be helped to bed.”

“If you puke you’ll clean it up,” Tengen throws at you, making you laugh.

“Don’t worry as long as you don’t give me any of Miguel’s concoctions I’m good, one time,” you tell Choso. “Miguel made this very good but intoxicating drink, I was sick for days. I almost got alcohol poisoning…” you trail off and a frown flickers on your face as you recall flashes of those days with your family that’s mostly all gone now.

Choso notices but he doesn’t get to question it before Tengen puts the small cups out before you, causing your smile to reappear on your features.

“Now,” you change the atmosphere back to an amusing one. “You can drink it fast, or by sips. Whatever you prefer, but personally I drink it in one go.”

Choso looks at the clear drink with skepticism before he picks it up.

“Lime?” You offer as Tengen puts some out for you. “It helps for after you drink.”

“Do you take it?”

You snort. “Honey, I should not be saying this so proudly, but I have been drinking since I was a teenager, I’m a pro.” You laugh and pick up the drink to push the little cup towards him. “Cheers to…us. Our friendship.” You smile sweetly.

Choso doesn’t hesitate to clink his cup against yours to that, a bit too harshly may you add, but he only wasted a few drops, it wasn’t hard enough to break the cup or spill the entire drink. Luckily.

“Now go!” You exclaim and slam the bottom of the cup against the surface before you part your lips and swiftly swallow the strong tequila in one go.

Choso on the other hand manages to swallow it all quickly, but as it goes down his throat it burns and he immediately expresses that by scrunching his nose in disgust and coughing.

“How do you drink that shit?” He asks hoarsely, making you grab his arm and laugh—“I don’t find it funny.” He grumbles.

You laugh harder and mindlessly lean towards him.

“Another round,” you say between laughs. “This time,” you tell Choso. “Suck on the lime.”

Choso doesn’t argue against another drink, he just sighs deeply and takes the lime. “All right I’m trusting you.” He says.

You slide your hand off his arm and lean back to your space. “The taste won't go away, but it grows on you. If not then your tastes lie somewhere else.”

Tengen returns your cups with more alcohol, but before you can pick them up this time, the doors open and Yuki finally joins the party.

“You started without me,” she complains.

You peer back and huff. “Yeah, you’re late. Don’t worry though it won’t take you long to catch up.”

Choso gets out of his seat and pulls out Yuki’s seat for her just like he did for you.

“You look nice, Tsukumo,” Choso compliments her.

Yuki grins. “Thanks and you don’t look bad yourself.”

When she sits down she leans forward to take a look at you. “You look very elegant.”

You clasp your gloved hands together and flash her a sweet smile. “Thank you, master. You look quite breathtaking yourself.”

“Always.”

You forget how similar her personality is to Satoru’s. It can be annoying a lot of the time.

“Anyway,” you bring the attention back to the bar. “Catch up or get left behind.”

As soon as you say that Tengen doesn’t falter and leaves a small shot glass in front of Yuki.

“Okay, before we drink,” she says and turns to face Choso and you. “I just want to announce that Maki Zen’in annihilated the Zen’in clan.”

Your eyes widen with shock, and your lips express your glee.

“Naoya Zen’in included,” she adds. “We should toast to that.”

You laugh breathlessly and pick up your cup. “You know,” you share with growing pride for the girl without cursed energy. “Shoko called me this morning and said she needed to tell me something, we got distracted talking about other things so she never told me. I bet this was it.” You laugh again and nod slowly in comprehension. “The other clans must be fuming.”

“Why?” Choso asks innocently, unaware of the disdain for the disgrace that people born with no cursed energy are in sorcerer families—“I thought you said your family didn’t get along with the Zen’in clan?”

You put your cup down and sigh. “They don’t, but having a clan be killed by a woman with no cursed energy is…how can I put this…it’s a catastrophe.”

Choso scratches his head in confusion but doesn’t dare dive into that conversation.

“It doesn’t matter,” Yuki cuts in as she slaps her hands on the tabletop. “They’re gone. And so is y/n’s husband that never was.” She snickers. “Let’s cheers to that, and Maki for her achievement.”

You pick up your cup and the three of you come together to clink your cups together with smiles not formed by the toast, but instead the joy of the simple moment before it’s completely washed over by overwhelming humor as Yuki and you catch Choso’s bad reaction to the strong drink.

“Careful,” Yuki manages to muster after she calms down. “Give y/n any more drinks and she’ll hop on that piano and she’ll give you a show.”

You scoff and roll your eyes. “It happened one time…three times,” you mutter with embarrassment as you recall the memory of years ago.

“One time when we were visiting the States,” Yuki doesn’t get the hint. “We came across a bar mainly used by soldiers, we got drunk because we were having so much fun, and this one,” she points at you. “Had all the soldiers eating out of her hand with her skills on the piano.”

You drop your head on your hand and groan. “Ten years,” you grumble. “Ten years of lessons because my mother said it was good for a woman to have more elegant skills besides fighting. I had to show it off.” You lift your head and only show off a faint smile before you hide it by taking a long sip of the drink Tengen made for you.

“You both often share stories of your past. How long were you traveling together?” Choso asks as he sits back to try and get a good look at Yuki and you.

“A year,” you and Yuji answer simultaneously.

“She showed me part of the world,” you muse with admiration. “Some would say we were bumming it. But we just had fun along the way.”

“Yeah and then you had to go and get married,” Yuki almost says with a hint of annoyance.

You lean towards her to point out a fact. “We still traveled after that, Master.”

Yuki shrugs lazily. “We never had the same fun though,” she whines, a truth you had yet to hear.

You stick out your tongue and then roll your head away to look at your drink. Silence comes through, but you don’t let it last long.

“We’re going to play a game, okay? It’s not a drinking game,” you let Yuki know already before she gets her hopes up. “It’s just a question game. We ask questions and answer honestly.”

“Huh? What kind of game is that?” Yuki complains.

“Just…play it,” you press between gritted teeth before you drop your irritation with a deep breath and peer over at the people beside you. “What do you want out of life? It can be a year from now, months, a decade, or even five years from now. Just say what you want.”

Both Choso and Yuki let out a pensive breath, and in their silence, your answer already comes to you without struggle because it’s something you pondered over lately.

“Well,” Yuki is the first to break the silence. “I don’t know, maybe teach someone else. I think that’d be fun, I enjoy passing on my knowledge,” she shares thoughtfully. “Or complete my study on those born without cursed energy but have a heavenly restriction.”

“So Maki Zen’in?” You interject, earning the attention of her big brown eyes.

“Exactly. Now,” she trails off and leans towards you on the tabletop. “You.”

She’s aiming for a specific answer, you can see it through her wide charming smile, but you don’t give her the satisfaction, you don’t let your heart win just yet.

“Well,” you sigh and fiddle with the straw in your drink. “I want to go to Mexico. I hear the beaches there are beautiful. I think going there will be fun,” you share honestly, but it’s one truth to disguise your true desire.

Yuki is smart albeit, she learned to read you the first year you trained with her. She quickly tries to unmask you. “Spit it out. That’s bullcrap.”

Choso looks at you and Yuki slightly stunned simply over the fact that Yuki could read that off you without you needing to change the way your expression currently rests. He can read you, he’s starting to know what you feel with a simple look in your eyes because of how much time you spent in the silence of each other's company, but he has yet to learn this.

“Okay,” you hesitantly give in just because of the intimacy of the moment. “But if you laugh I will stop sharing.”

“Pft,” she blows you off as if she doesn’t have the tendency to do that shit.

“Well,” you start off timidly. “I…want to have more kids.” You begin to smile at the possibility of your future. “I had fun growing up with my brother. I want Satori to have that too. I don’t want her to grow up alone.”

You take a peek at the pair beside you and see Choso clutching onto his drink with his jaw clenched and his eyes spaced out in his drink. While Yuki tries to fight off something snarky to say.

And her stifled reactions does make you want to stop right there, but you decide not to be so petty and continue. “I also enjoyed carrying her, and I just love watching her grow up. I loved the baby stage too, so I want to go through that again.”

“And who will be the father of these babies?” Yuki can’t hold back. It was killing her. “Are you turkey basting? Or,” she rolls out teasingly and shifts her eyes to point them at the man beside her, but you snap Choso out of his stupor by slapping your cup on the table and then blurting.

“Actually I was thinking of asking your dad, Yuki,” you quip sassily, making her scowl—“don’t you want siblings?”

“Funny, I hate your jokes,” she grumbles and takes a drink from her alcoholic beverage.

You snicker and drop your gaze on Choso as you were on your way to refocus on your drink, and actually notice that his eyes are filled with what you read as slight nervousness.

What about though you wonder but don’t ask. You just take a drink yourself before you share one more desire. “I've also been thinking of establishing an orphanage in the community,” you whisper. “I want to help sorcerer children just like…the twins. Sorcerer children abandoned by their families or mistreated by non-humans.”

Tears threaten to fall, but you don’t let yourself cry, you smile with hope instead, gaining a first response from Choso.

“That’s nice, y/n.”

“Hm. Now,” you swiftly drive the focus to him considering he’s the only one who needs to answer. “You. What do you want? And yes I know you're unsure about your future, but amuse us for tonight.”

Choso holds your gaze for a moment before that faint smile slowly falls and he worries you with a growing depressed look he aims ahead of him.

“I have a question actually,” he interjects with sorrow laced in his nonchalant tone. “Is that okay?”

Yuki and you share a concerned look before she assures him. “Of course.”

Choso picks up his drink but he doesn’t take a sip, he just holds his cup and goes ahead with his question. “Am I…”human”?”

You blink repeatedly with surprise and share one more quick concerned look with Yuki before you can’t help but look at Choso with pity.

“When my little brothers incarnated I realized their abnormal bodies meant “humans” would never accept them. That’s why I decided we should live as “curses.” That’s why I killed people in Shibuya, I killed a lot of people. And it wasn’t just people I killed. The one who killed Eso and Kechizu was me.” He shares a guilt-filled thought that had been running through his head ever since Shibuya, and your heart aches for him at the sound of his anguish.

His guilt and concerns have been touched upon since you’ve helped him ease some of them, but it wasn’t enough to completely satisfy him. After all, you know more than most that guilt and insecurity grown from issues like that are far too deeply rooted, it takes time to really get rid of them. All you want now is for him to see what you do…

“If I’d chosen to live as a “human” back then. My brothers wouldn't have had to kill each other,” he continues with his voice beginning to grow shaky. “Why…why then…why did I—Why did I choose the easy way out?” He can’t help but cry.

“Choso,” you whisper with sorrow and pity.

“I didn’t want to see…I didn’t want to see them in pain from living as “humans”.” He adds tearfully. “Even though they weren’t weak. You can guess what happened next. And like some divine punishment, Yuji appeared. Yuji, who is in pain from living as a “human”. I’m sure our fate was for the four of us to fight together. But,” he sniffles. “Just because I wanted an easier life, Yuji was left alone.”

“If you die,” Yuki shares seriously. “He’ll be alone again.”

She put it in a kinder and quieter way, but it’s similar to what you told him too. And you know it won’t help right away, but you hope it eases some of that anguish he feels. After all, she has a way to assure people with her advice. At least you feel it that way.

“You’re kind, Tsukumo,” Choso mutters as he wipes the tears off his cheeks. “But I can’t,” he keeps insisting, tearing at your heart. “I killed a lot of people for no reason. I no longer have the right to live alongside Yuji…or my friend,” he finishes in a whisper and looks at you as he utters those last words.

Your breath gets caught in your throat and you can’t mask your disbelief.

“Choso,” you whisper and he looks away out of shame.

You could bring up your previous argument, and the fact that he said he’d try, but he’s still too tangled in his guilt and his grief, he still doesn’t think he has the right to live, so your argument won’t work this time. No matter how much you want to fight him. So you try a different approach filled with just as much desperation. “Can I give my opinion?”

“Please,” Choso sniffles and follows by wiping away more tears, making you hand him a napkin from the counter.

“Thanks.”

“I think that you chose the easy way out because that’s the only way you thought you could protect your brothers,” you begin to say and just occasionally glance away, but you don’t keep your gaze away for long so he knows you’re being serious.

“You decided to help Yuji and dedicated yourself to him after you barely found him, and after you discovered your father lied on top of that. You stayed here to fight your dad out of revenge. And Choso,” you say sweetly and lean closer to him to take his hand in yours, making his eyes snap to your gentle touch before he glances back at you as you continue just as sweetly and desperately.

“All that makes you human. I mean,” you laugh softly. “You’re here sharing with guilt hanging off each word and tears in your eyes. You’re showing emotion. That makes you human. You’re so beautifully human.”

More tears crawl down his already tear-stained cheeks and he’s left with nothing to say in return. He could give you his gratitude or say how sweet you’re being, but he’s already told you that and he doesn’t want to sound like some broken record and exhaust you, (even if you’d never grow tired of hearing it), so instead he refuses to let your hand go and squeezes back.

You offer him a gentle smile before you surprise him by resting your head on his shoulder and using your other hand to caress his arm.

You’ve never done that before, it catches him off guard, but he immediately feels comforted by it and you, so he sits incredibly still so as to not make you move. He does feel bad though that he killed the atmosphere, neither you nor Yuki talk after. He waits and hopes it’ll change, but the bar stays quiet, so he parts his lips to apologize but suddenly you leave his hand alone as you sit up.

“Come,” you direct at him. “Dance with me.”

You grab him by his wrist and tug him, but he resists. “I'm not good.”

You scoff and wave him off. “I’ll lead, come dance with me at least one song, please.” You bat your lashes and he doesn’t really protest any longer, he lets you pull him to the empty space in front of the stage before you break away and pick, “There is Something on Your Mind by Big Jay McNeely,” from the Jukebox.

“Now,” you add excitedly and grab his hands to put them on your hips, causing him to immediately stiffen. “It’s okay,” you let him know and rest your hands around his neck. “Now we dance.”

You sway to the music and to avoid stepping on you he watches the way you move your feet.

“You’re doing great,” you encourage him and tilt your head to meet his gaze. “Just relax.”

Choso hesitates before he lets himself focus on your face and the pretty smile you hold.

“Besides our previous conversation, have you enjoyed this atmosphere?” You ask him.

“Well,” he says with a sigh. “It’s just the four of us so I can say I do, but it’s different out there.”

You shrug. “Depends where you go. If you want to go somewhere with loud music and dim lights then a club is for you. I got to tell you though I am old now, I cannot party like that anymore.” You laugh and he shakes his head before he retorts.

“You’re not old. Try being 150.”

You chuckle, making his lips twitch to a smile.

“I don’t think I’ll make it that far,” you say. “But you know what? You’re that old so maybe like an old home is for you. You can play tabletop games and…I don’t know…what do old people do? Tell me.”

“We play tabletop games,” he points out nonchalantly.

You try to come up with a defense but he’s beyond right. Actually, you haven’t even finished a match you started at lunch.

“And I proved my point, I’m old,” you counter playfully.

Choso rolls his eyes and shakes his head, while you begin to grin.

“You’re a natural,” you point out and pass a playful pointed look. “You lied. Who taught you to dance? Tengen?”

Choso chuckles softly. “No,” he corrects you. “When Mahito gave me my body I knew things that I never learned or lived through. It’s weird but it helps being caught up and not being so clueless.”

“Ah, so he taught you to dance?” You joke, making him complain.

“Tsk.”

You show off a cheeky smile, and he hides his growing smile by tilting his head down, bringing forth a comfortable silence as he steals time to breathe in the hypnotizing scent of your perfume and appreciate the comfort that he can have you close to keep you protected. While you take your time to press yourself closer to him to embrace him as you continue to dance and take advantage of the fact that you can be close without needing to fight yourself.

It makes you wish for an infinite amount of moments like this one with him, but you knew the reasons why you couldn’t, they flashed in your head like a red alarm light. So you have nothing else left to do but just really memorize this moment and save it for times when you can’t handle what life has to offer you.

“I have a joke for you,” Choso slowly brings up timidly.

You pull back and smile. “Okay, I want to hear it. I do love jokes, you know that.”

Choso swallows thickly and manages to meet your gaze to share the joke he made Itadori tell him so he could tell you.

“Uh, what did the triangle say to the circle?”

You knew this joke, it was kind of a basic one, but you let him believe otherwise so he can tell it.

“Uh,” he grows quieter and hesitant, even more so when he sees the way you look at him with a soft waitful gaze. “You’re pointless.”

A wobbly smile tugs on your lips before you burst out laughing and lean your forehead on his shoulder.

He didn’t think you’d find it amusing, he thought you’d find it a bit lame so he’s been hesitant to share it, and even now he was nervous as he waited for your reaction, but he’s relieved to hear you laugh. He can't help but laugh softly with you. But he mostly just watches you with a proud smile.

“That,” you say between laughs. “Was good. That was very good.” You face him with a smirk. “Where’d you hear it from?”

He releases his stress with a small breath and responds, “I asked Yuji, he struggled but he looked it up on his mobile—phone.”

Your smile grows timid and the fact that he searched for a joke to tell you makes your face grow hot.

“Did you like it?” He makes sure to ask.

“I loved it,” you quickly assure him and realize that the song comes to an end, bringing you both to a stop. “Now should we have another round?”

He puts his hand up and shakes his head eagerly. “No, no, thank you.”

“Let’s do it! I'm dying over here!” Yuki exclaims, making you run over to be at her side now and do what you suggested without Choso this time. But it’s not like it really matters because he does join in your conversations and tries to participate in the games Yuki and you know.

Now there aren't a lot of you, but you do have fun and enjoy each other's company. For that moment you all forget what you’re there to do, you’re just a couple of friends having fun. That fact wraps you up until you’re alone outside trying to get ahold of your daughter before you go to bed since it should be morning over there.

Nevertheless, it goes straight to voicemail every single time, and that’s weird because she never misses a call. And if for some reason she can’t answer, Belinda does, this time neither of them answer.

You try to wait a few minutes because maybe they got caught up doing something, but when the moment passes no call comes through. You just get a single text from Belinda.

Belinda: Sorry the phone isn’t working, I can only text from the tablet. Satori is okay.

You reread the message and wonder why she didn’t let you know before since she called you just fine before they went to bed.

Then again maybe it just happened, so you calm yourself down and respond.

You: Oh, okay. Well, maybe she can send voice messages or videos?

Only a few seconds pass before you get a quick and short response.

Belinda: Yeah I'll tell her, let’s see if she wants to.

Sometimes Satori does march at the beat of her own drum, but you doubt she’d deny trying to talk to you.

Unless she's mad that you’ve been apart for so long? Maybe that’s why she doesn’t want to talk to you…but Belinda would’ve spilled that information if that’s what was going on, all she’s sent is quite dismissive texts.

You: Is she upset? Is that what’s wrong?

You have to ask her out of worry.

But Belinda quickly contradicts you.

Belinda: No, she’s in a good mood. Don’t worry. I’ll tell her to send something later.

You sigh deeply and have no choice but to be okay with it. You can’t do anything from thousands of miles away.

You: All right. Tell her I love her. I’ll call in the morning. I love you guys xoxo

You wait on your phone for a response but all you see is the little ‘seen’ sign. Which…shouldn’t worry you. This dismissive behavior shouldn’t worry you. It’s nothing, you’re just obviously growing anxious. That’s all.

“Y/N?” You hear your name coming from Choso’s mouth, so you peer back and smile as you watch him approach your side.

“Choso,” you greet him as if you didn’t just see each other.

“Did you get a hold of her already?” He asks.

You look back ahead and sigh out of distress. “She couldn't talk. The phone isn’t working, so no.”

You wait for him to sit at your side before you have to voice your concern. “Do you think I’m overthinking this? The phone doesn’t work and all I got was dismissive texts and the excuse that she’ll try and have her send something later. Should I be worried?”

Choso sighs deeply and follows your line of gaze to the beautiful full moon to share his genuine answer. “I’m not a parent, I—”

“But you are a brother,” you cut him off to press him to give you some comfort or feed into your worry. “If Itadori was the way I just explained, would you worry?”

Choso blinks and meets your red-orange eyes filled with worry and tries his best to answer. “Yes. But you trust the woman taking care of your daughter, right?”

You nod with no hesitation.

“Then I think you shouldn't worry,” he says. “Your daughter is probably okay.”

Probably isn’t what you seeked for, but he’s right. You trust Belinda more than anyone in this world, she’d never hide crucial information regarding your daughter. Her phone just doesn't work, that's all…

“I think I’m just stressed,” you laugh nervously and want to rub your face, but you remember you have makeup on

so you just throw yourself back and admire the dancing stars overhead. “Why are you out here?” You finally ask Choso what you were curious about. “I thought you went to bed?”

“I…was, but I wanted to check on you,” he shares hesitantly as if almost afraid that you were going to be upset that he couldn’t seem to leave you alone, but instead you smile and contradict his worry.

“Good I'm glad you did. I really hate being alone,” you reveal as if it isn’t a big deal when it is to you.

Choso can’t depict between touching on it or not as you just mention it so nonchalantly though. You don’t look upset, but you would comfort him, you’d know what’s upsetting him, and he wants to be that way too. He wants to comfort you too, not knowing that his presence is enough to satisfy you.

Albeit before he can attempt to touch on the matter, you sit up and interject. “You never answered my question at the bar, Cho. What do you want out of life? I mean.” You roll your eyes. “Hypothetically if you make it out of the fight. What do you want?”

He avoided answering this question before because there were other people in the room and his response was something meant just for your ears, but he’s here with you now, and the moon. He could tell you his deepest desire and share the realization that he had the other day when you fought for him to live.

You looking at him with your pretty eyes glimmering with the moonlight's reflection makes it hard for him to form words in his mind, but what he needed to tell you was already engraved deep inside his heart and just waiting to be shouted out.

“Do you want,” you break the silence to try and help him. “A farm with sheep? They're quiet. Or a rice farm? A cabin in the woods? Do you want to leave the country with your brothers? Or have a playboy lifestyle?” You wiggle your eyebrows and laugh softly.

A smile tugs on his lips in response, but it slowly falls as he parts his lips and looks at you with a soft and tender look of admiration and…love.

“You,” he blurts, making you slowly fill with confusion. “I want to live a life with my brothers,” he continues and dares himself to scoot closer to you. “I want to see them be happy and live a peaceful life, but every time I dream of that future I see you there too…”

Oh no…

“…you’re precious to me y/n,” he continues, and you can’t hold your smile or reflect that glimmer in your eyes anymore. He doesn’t notice that yet though as he goes on saying such sweet words. “You’ve been special to me since the first time I saw you last year. You’re all I could think about in that darkness. And I still may be clueless about a lot of stuff, but I do know that I want to keep what's precious to me close to my heart. And that’s my brothers and you. And your daughter of course.”

No, no, no…damn it.

He included her too. He doesn’t leave her out. He thinks about the most important person to you too.

But why does he have to say it all?! His confession and his desire?

Why did he have to say this? Why?!

Damn…

“That’s what I desire,” he fails to notice your distress. “You.”

Tears fill your eyes and a pitiful smile appears on your contorting face. “Oh, Choso,” you coo. “You’re so sweet…”

He smiles as he doesn’t see that you’re about to break his heart and add a tension to the comfortable relationship you had.

“But…I’m not the person you think I am,” you try to go easy on him and actually explain your reasoning. “I’m not a good person. I’ve done bad things. Horrible things that are far from redeemable, and you,” your voice quivers. “You’re precious. Your heart is pure and beautiful, even after the things you’ve done.”

Choso didn’t understand you at first, but he’s starting to know now so the soft light in his eyes flickers and the tenderness grows hard as he’s slowly falling in disbelief.

“And I don’t deserve that,” your voice breaks. “And you don’t deserve to share your life with such a monster. You deserve someone pure…good. Like you.”

Choso’s eyebrows pinch together and he wants to counter by sharing his disbelief grown by the way you’re talking about yourself. Partially because you’re rejecting him, but it’s mostly because he doesn’t see you the way you see yourself.

However, you grab his hands and cup them in between yours to continue adding arguments. “Even if I did let my heart have what it wants, what would I do when you sacrifice yourself? Because that’s your plan,” you remind him of something that’s still tearing at your heart. “And I can’t go through that again. I lost the man I loved and it left me empty. I barely recovered, and if I go through it again with you, I don’t think I could pick myself up again. So it’s better this way. Me and you as we are.” You nod even if deep inside you don’t agree with a thing you said.

“But,” Choso mutters as he's grown upset now. Not sad—well he does feel sad that this didn’t go like he wanted, but he’s mostly upset that you’re selfish enough to disregard what he feels about this argument.

“What—”

“No,” you cut him off with a watery but pointed look. “Please don’t. I know what I am,” you say as if you had looked in his mind. “I know what I’ve done. I’m sorry. I really am. I hope we can remain friends because you’re precious to me too, Choso. I don’t want to spend whatever time we have left upset with each other.”

You offer him a wobbly smile and he leans in and says your name loudly and with frustration that catches you off guard. He’s never spoken to you this way before.

Albeit you do muster the strength to interrupt him

once again so this doesn’t escalate and your heart doesn’t end up winning and accepting his proposal. “Choso, don’t. I don’t regret what I did, I’m a bad person, and I don’t want to go through that agony again. it’s gonna be hard enough already, so please, please stop. Please, I beg of you.”

Choso inhales sharply and wants to just ignore you and give an argument to all you just said, but you’re asking so desperately and yet so sweetly. Plus you’re right. If he dies he doesn’t want you to suffer. He loves you. He doesn't want you to be in pain when he’s gone, so even if it pains him he doesn’t argue. He simply nods which makes you feel terrible, but you can’t stay here any longer after his confession, so you offer him a thankful smile before you lean in and press a gentle kiss on his cheek.

You don’t move away right away, you stay with your cheek pressed against as you give your heart this one satisfaction of feeling the warmth of his cheek and memorizing the taste of his flesh on your wet lips. You draw in the scent of his musk infused with a soft cologne to have it dance in your nose to continue bringing you comfort until it’s gone and instead under lock and key in your mind.

“I’m sorry,” you whisper and tilt your head back slightly to keep close to him as your lips ache to taste his lips that shift closer to you as he moves his head to face you. “I really am.”

Choso watched your lips move, and couldn’t help but part his lips as he couldn't focus on anything else.

You try to pull away but you keep your mouth where it is since you can’t tear your eyes away from his lips. You just want to lean in so badly, they’re screaming to be kissed. And what makes matters worse is that you actually let him give into his instinct to lean closer, leaving just a hairsbreadth of space between his lips and yours.

But…

But! You can’t kiss him no matter how much you both desire it, because if you do you'll lose your fight and your argument will be null. Plus, you can’t risk hurting if he dies, so you pull back and just throw him a brief goodnight before you storm to your room and fall on your bed to think about what just happened.

You shouldn’t though, you know that. You need to focus on what’s to come and forget what just occurred to make it easier on you.

Albeit your mind actually fights you now and sides with your heart. But you push, and push Choso away and win back your mind's support and shove away what just happened and the emotions he stirs up back in a vault. Instead, you force all your focus back on Kenjaku and the threat that he is.

You can’t think about Choso anymore. You need to forget what you feel. You can’t give in to your heart's desire. You can’t and you won’t…

——

Kenjaku came unexpectedly a couple of days later as it was expected right at 12 am. It means that the inevitable you’ve been training a week for is about to happen and you’re tempted to say something stupid to Choso as he goes on his way to meet his father. After all, you could lose him forever.

It's true that he's only been in your life for 16 days—it’s felt like it’s been years really, but it’s only been a couple of weeks and a few days, and you could lose him forever after tonight. So you want to just be stupid and confess what you’ve kept guarded in hopes that that will encourage him to fight to live.

But you can’t. Not even now. So all you muster is another excuse in hopes that will encourage him. “Yuji is out there, he needs his brother. So just try.”

Choso comes to a brief stop before you and meets your gaze with soft reassurance. He’s not petty or mad over your rejection—actually, he never showed any sign of being upset at you after that night, you made it awkward most of the time, but he was never rude.

He was kind and nonchalant, like now.

“I will try.”

You nervously hold your hands together and don’t avoid holding his gaze right now. Not like you’ve been doing for the past couple of days, you look deep into his rich brown eyes that look as if they were always touched by the sun, and can't hide the worry from your eyes. Yet you can’t express it.

You part your lips and he stands there. Not to wait, he stands there to let his mind engrave every inch of you to keep an image of you close to his heart just in case he does meet his fate. When he’s sure every aspect of you is recorded he moves on past you.

Now you should go ahead and meet up with Tengen and Yuki while you wait your turn, but you stay frozen to your spot watching the empty space Choso left behind as you try to avoid looking back. Because if you do you’ll only hurt more, it’ll be like giving in to what you feel. And it’s true that you’ll watch him as he confronts his father, Tengen can display that for Yuki and you so you can know what Kenjaku is countering with and plan around that, but it’s not the same. He won’t be in the same room, his presence won’t be in the same room, and you’ll just be stressing out. So you give in and look back.

And without knowing Choso peers back and you meet each other's gaze.

“Be careful,” you interject without overthinking your response.

Choso nods. “I’ll try. And if I don’t make it out of here can you take my brothers with you?” He entrusts in you.

You turn around completely and assure him without a moment of hesitation. “Of course I will.”

Choso lets his eyes linger on you for a moment longer before he turns away and finally disappears to face his father, leaving you stranded there alone riddled with nauseating worry. You only move away from that spot because you need to know what’s going on to not be eaten alive by your nerves, otherwise, you probably would have stayed there waiting for you to go next.

However, perhaps it was a mistake joining the other two because you walk into Yuki changing into her battle clothes that…look the exact same as the normal clothes she was just wearing.

“Is there a difference?” You remark while she quickly slides on her shirt.

“Yes!” She exclaims. “This one has the Jujutsu High medallion here.”

You fold your arms over your chest and quirk a brow as you pass her a judgmental look. “Why would you wear that?”

She finally gets her hands through her sleeves and pierces her big brown eyes in you. “Don’t you?” She queries.

“Pft,” you blow out and laugh. “No, I threw that away the day I defected. And you’ll never catch me wearing it again.”

“Hmph well there is a difference, this is the difference.”

You sigh and turn away from her to look at a blank wall. “Show it,” you demand from Tengen. “Please.”

“Very well,” he gives in. “But nothing is happening as of yet.”

Regardless, a screen appears on the wall and you can’t help but smile softly when Choso comes on looking completely irritated with his father, who actually startles you. Not because he’s menacing but because he is in your husband's body, and for a second in time you forget and think it’s him. Just for a second because you then realize and feel nothing but hatred and disgust.

“Where’s Tengen?” You hear Kenjaku ask while he glances around the arena.

Choso’s lips slowly tug to a smirk before he scoffs and quips. “That talking thumb doesn’t want to see you.”

“Who’s a thumb?” Tengen mutters under their breath very human-like.

“Guess you’re not well-liked,” Choso adds, making your lips flicker on an amused smile before your worry reigns over again.

“Then I suppose you’re disposable fodder,” Kenjaku counters. “Please do try your best.”

There’s a bit of amusement behind those words and it does nothing to assure your worry over Choso’s fate. Kenjaku just plans to play with him.

“He’ll live. He’s half a curse, he’s resilient,” Yuki tries to ease your worries.

You reach back to scratch the chin of the worm-cursed spirit draped around your shoulders and mutter out, “I hope you’re right.”

“The culling game has already served its purpose, the preparations for the merger of all non-sorcerers in Japan have ended.”

No way…you just talked to Hakari and Kirara the other day, they were doing well. Hakari had fought some old sorcerer brought back to life and kind of won. They were both too excited to tell you to explain anything clearly. You do know that Hakari learned to use RCT though! It was because he got gravely injured, but he learned and you couldn’t be prouder!

So they have to be okay. They all have to be okay. You need to believe that right now.

“Either way, if I seize Tengen here, then it’s your loss, the country will meet its end. The whole world will.” Kenjaku shares, for what reason? To throw you all off a bit? Perhaps. Or just to hear his own voice.

“Let me show you one possible conclusion to this affair.”

Oh gosh, now why does he need to waste time doing that? If it’s happening or not, why does it matter at this instant? Does he really love the sound of his voice that much? Why can’t he just fight to get this all over with?

“You’ve known Kenjaku for a long time, right Tengen? Has he always been so self-obsessed?” You break the intense silence while Kenjaku changes the arena he and Choso are in into a theater room.

“Yes,” they take no time to think it back. “Always. It’s why he’s here so many years later.”

You roll your eyes and pull a chair to rest on while you can as you continue to watch over them.

“In Shibuya, Yuki Tsukumo explained that merging with Tengen, which I’d prefer to call optimizing cursed energy, means becoming a sorcerer….”

“Yawn!” Yuki exclaims.

You snicker. “You said it.”

Please! He just keeps yapping about things he’s already mentioned before, just in a more exhausting way. You don’t know how Choso can sit there listening to him just blabber on and on.

However, as you watch him though, you see him look rightfully annoyed and bothered, but you don’t know how he can just listen. You don’t, you just tune Kenjaku out until you finally pick up on something interesting.

“…The way she thinks is close to my own.”

You snicker and Yuki groans in disgust.

“Anyways I’ve gotten off topic,” Kenjaku finally realizes, letting you finally sit up once again to keep listening. “From the beginning, I even considered the potential of cursed spirits as an option alongside sorcerers. Perhaps a new form of cursed energy could be born from advancing cursed spirits to a higher level. Because of that, I had high hopes for half-breeds between cursed spirits and humans like you. What a disappointment, you were all too ordinary,” he says without shame and it ticks you off.

How could he say that as a parent? In front of his own son too?

You know hateful parents like him exist everywhere but it always surprises you to see it firsthand. Especially because Choso is your friend, and you know how feels about how his father treated him and his brothers.

“If you talk about my little brothers again. I’ll kill you without waiting for the sideshow to end,” Choso spats in defense of his brothers, making you smirk proudly.

“Fine, fine,” Kenjaku sighs and sits up to finally get to the point. “After evolving, Tengen will be more like a cursed spirit than human. So if all the non-sorcerers in Japan merge with Tengen, I think it’ll become a cursed spirit bearing the cursed energy of a hundred million people. Maybe it’ll be like Uzumaki and capable of extracting something too,” he says thoughtfully and with a hint of fascination of what can be a possibility.

A possibility that plays out on the screen of the theater room like a terrifying apocalypse film—flashing scenes of people all around Japan getting their bodies mangled shows and terrifying never never-before-seen curses pop up like a jumpscare.

“I wonder what it will look like…” Kenjaku muses and you furrow your eyebrows and look at the screen in slight fear of what can be a possibility, and irritation mostly. You still don’t care about non-sorcerers, your hatred has dwindled, but you still don’t care for them. Yet what he wants will end the world as you know it. You can’t stand behind that, and the fact that he says it all so casually pisses you off.

“Right now, I feel like a kid…holding a crayon in front of a blank piece of paper,” he finishes and the screen goes black as the lights all go off in the theater before the walls and everything around them transform back to the arena with the single tree in it.

“What exactly do you want?” Choso sneers with heightened anger now, but Kenjaku doesn’t see that, or care for it, he looks back at him annoyed.

“Did you not just understand anything I just said?” He spats.

“No,” Choso argues between gritted teeth. “I’m asking you. What do you get from this?! What is it that motivates you?!” He raises his voice.

Kenjaku’s annoyance falls and he looks at Choso almost with a smile on his face.

“I’m fascinated,” he reveals, raising your own irritation to full-blown anger.

“I just think it’ll be fascinating,” Kenjaku continues. “But I won’t know for sure until it happens.”

So this is all a gamble for him?

He’s so sick.

“On top of that, if the accumulated cursed energy of a hundred million people is just a laughable clown face, then what would you do?” He says nonchalantly as if what he’s saying isn’t all messed up. “I know I’d laugh.”

He actually laughs. That bastard laughs like it's all a joke, but that’s what finally triggers Choso to start the fight by clapping his hands together out in front of him with his face completely contorted to raging anger.

“Wait, wait,” Kenjaku interjects and puts his finger out. “Before you do that.” He laughs again. “I have something I want to show you all. I know the others are here too. Somewhere. So I want to show you something.”

Choso doesn’t drop his guard, he keeps his hands out and stays ready to shoot his piercing blood.

“This is mainly a little something for y/n,” Kenjaku says making you stand up from your seat to narrow your glare on the screen.

“Are you ready?” He asks, and Suguru’s four-winged pelican cursed spirit breaks through the barrier and enters the arena, meaning what?

Tagged- @deniseabad1928 @secondary-character-25 @starlightanyaaa @notsaelty @d4rno @moonnime @kodzukein @yozora7154 @heijihattorisgf @elegantweirdorchest

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damn-stark · 8 months

Text

Chapter 25 Blood, dragons, curses, and black holes

Chapter 25 of Sugar

A/N- *EVIL LAUGH*

Warning- Swearing, ANGST!!, fluff, spoilers, violence, death, blood and gore, SLOW BURN, heavy pining, long chapter

Pairing- Choso x Gojo!fem-reader, Suguru Geto x Gojo!fem-reader

Takes place during- Chapter 203-208 of the manga

(Let me know if you want to be tagged)

————

*2 DAYS AGO. ITALY*

It’s early in the morning and the knock on the door is persistent and echoing.

Who could it be Belinda wondered. Some early bird neighbor needing something from her mother, or a neighbor coming to inform her that the sheep escaped the pen again. Whatever it is she hopes it’s quick business, it’s too early to deal with anything.

“I’m coming, I’m coming,” she lets the early morning visitor know as she approaches the door.

Another loud knock proceeds to rap on the door, letting her know that whoever it is is annoying. “I said I’m going,” she hisses before she finally grabs the doorknob and throws the door open, welcoming the sight of…Suguru Geto.

Only this isn’t the Suguru Geto she knew, that man died last year. This is the man you warned her about, and the reason why she and Satori are so far from home, this is the imposter, Kenjaku.

“No,” she snaps and slams the door shut, making sure to lock it before she runs to give her time to counter with her technique. Which she knows won’t kill him, he’s a lot stronger than she is, but it will grant her time to go upstairs to take Satori and escape.

She just needs to hide. Which is annoying but she needs the element of surprise to be able to touch him and use her technique.

“Belinda,” Kenjaku calls out calmly as he easily breaks the lock and opens the door. “Let’s not make things hard. Let’s not scare the girl.”

Belinda leaves her palm open and bends her legs a bit as she hears Kenjaku approaching her hiding spot. She holds her breath as his footsteps sound closer, and nervously clenches her jaw.

However, just before she can be discovered, his footsteps begin to recede. She’s tempted to check, but she can’t be that foolish, she stays still instead.

“I don’t want to kill you, just let me take the girl,” Kenjaku interjects from the large hall at the entrance.

He’s walking away from the staircase that leads to the second floor where Satori is, so Belinda has a chance to run to the stairs.

“You have an illusion technique,” Kenjaku shares what he knows from the memories of Suguru Geto. “But you need to touch me for it to work. So come out you don’t have the element of surprise,” he speaks quietly, making sure not to be loud so as to not wake up Satori and stir up trouble.

She would prefer it the same way though, you and her haven't told Satori that some old sorcerer is using her father's body to avoid traumatizing her, but right now that doesn’t matter. Belinda needs to wake Satori up so she can find out. She'll be very confused but she’ll trust what she has to say about it and she’ll resist Kenjaku.

Thus without wasting another second she grabs the vase on the stand across from her and slams it against the mirror to make a loud enough noise that can reach the second floor and startle Satori awake.

It does alert Kenjaku of where she is, however, but it’s worth the risk.

Or she thought it was because just as Kenjaku retraces his footsteps back across the hall, he shoots out a curse ahead of him that floats through the wall behind Belinda.

Yet before the curse can catch the woman off guard, the hairs on the back of her neck rise, alerting her of something creeping up behind her; so she takes a big step forward and spins around to face the curse she just felt.

Albeit when she faces the wall the curse is gone. She can’t even feel its presence.

“Belinda?!” Satori’s voice echoes down the staircase, assuring her that her sudden plan is working.

“Satori!” Belinda calls back with panic so the girl can know to hurry. “Come down quick honey!”

There’s a moment of silence before she hears small hurried patters on the floor above. Belinda moves her leg to run to the stairs and reach Satori to warn her of the impersonator, but then, just as she was going to break into a sprint, claws dig into her ankles.

She opens her mouth to scream, but a hand then slams around her mouth and she’s yanked down into the jaw of the curse jumping out the shattered mirror, ending her life in an instant and without making a sound.

“Belinda?” Satori calls out fearfully.

“Come,” a mocking voice lures Satori out as the curse transforms into a mirrored version of Belinda.

Without an ounce of hesitation or doubt Satori approaches the hall. But before she can round the corner the Tiger Cursed spirit bonded to her appears first and instantly picks up on the curse impersonating Belinda, and begins to growl.

Kenjaku could exorcize it since he can't take it back because of the bond with the girl. But then the girl would know something’s wrong, so instead he takes a risk and takes back the curse under his command. After all, the tiger-cursed spirit can’t see into the soul, it doesn’t see that it’s not actually Suguru Geto, so it immediately drops its guard now that it’s just Kenjaku.

But now in regards to the girl, it’s a gamble without Belinda. She could see right through him like you had, or not, it's a tricky situation, but it’s a risk he’s willing to take. So when Satori rounds the corner and sees the man she was told died last year, he sticks on his best Suguru Geto smile.

“Hello, Satori,” Kenjaku greets the little girl with a feigned warm smile on his face that was too small when it came to seeing Satori, and without using any pet names that Suguru would have used after being apart from his daughter for so long.

However, the little girl proves him right, she can't tell the difference like you would have, she just sees the man she loved and missed every day. She sees her family coming together again after being broken for so long.

“Daddy?!” She exclaims shakily as her emotions get the best of her.

“I’ve been gone I know,” he says and doesn’t crouch to welcome her in his embrace, he just unfolds his arms and waits for her shock to pass.

“I hope you’re not upset,” he adds and with that, Satori breaks away from her spot and runs to him to throw her arms around him.

“I missed you so much,” she sobs.

Kenjaku is playing a part for now so he finally crouches down and returns the embrace. “I know, I’m sorry,” he coos. “I missed you too.”

“Where have you been?” She asks as she clutches onto him. “Why did mommy say you were dead?”

So many questions, but he keeps his patience and avoids the question by giving her an assuring response. “It doesn’t matter now. All that matters is you, and your mother, whom we’re going to surprise. Do you like that idea? Do you think she’ll like it?”

Satori pulls back and flashes him a grin. “Of course she will, but she’s not here,” she says without a hint of suspicion. “She’s back home.”

Kenjaku smirks and nods. “I know. We’re going to her.”

——

*NOW*

“Are you ready?” Kenjaku doesn’t ask Choso across from him, he knew you were watching and listening, so the question was directed at you.

“Somethings entering the barrier,” Tengen announces.

You would follow with a what, but your anticipation traps your question in your throat, and instead, you get the answer to your unspoken question when Suguru’s four-winged pelican cursed spirit breaks through the barrier and enters the arena, meaning what?

Why did Kenjaku make it fly in after him?

You step closer to the screen overlooking the arena and nervously watch the Pelican open its mouth.

You almost want to close your eyes because you can’t handle the anticipation of waiting to see what Kenjaku came with, but you stay strong and watch closely with your heart running wild in the most terrible way before it suddenly stops and every sound and every sight around you disappears when you see that Kenjaku snuck in your daughter with him.

Who you’re seeing is Satori…

It’s your little girl.

But why? He doesn’t need her for anything. She has a technique but it’s not a rare one, he doesn’t need her. Unless…it’s to torment you. Is he using her to get to you?

Yes, he is doing that. He wouldn’t have taken time out of his scheming for nothing. And of course, she fell for his tricks, she doesn’t know any better, you didn’t tell her that some curse user is using her father's body for his technique. She’s too young, you didn’t want to dump trauma on her if you didn’t have to. You were just trying to spare her so she could have a good childhood, you were trying to keep her safe. It’s what Suguru wanted too. But now…Kenjaku’s brought her here without her Tiger-cursed spirit assigned to protect her, or Belinda—which must mean she’s dead. She wouldn’t have let him take Satori if she was alive.

Kenjaku killed Belinda to trick Satori and bring her here. He’s using your little girl and dangling her right in front of you.

And it works, who would you be if you don’t try to step out to take her from his grasp? You can’t lose her.

“Y/N?” Yuki calls out cautiously as she watches you numbly staring at the screen.

You blink and break from your stupor to turn and stomp towards Tengen. “Let me out,” you command with authority and angry and fearful tears welling in your eyes. “Let me out right now.”

Tengen stands their ground and raises its ugly head higher. “I’m sorry, but I can’t do that. I can’t risk our plan just yet,” they dare to tell your fuming spirit enraging over Satori’s current position. It’s like they were intentionally taunting a protective bear guarding its children.

“What the hell do you mean?” You sneer, but not in a loud voice, it’s low and threatening. One you use against your enemies. “She’s just a little girl! She’s my little girl! So you will let me out to get to her or Kenjaku won’t be the one to find your pathetic body.”

“Y/N,” Yuki warns, earning her to get your glare pierced into her now.

Yet before she could try and calm you down, you hear Choso’s voice a bit softer than before. “Satori.”

You snap your eyes toward the screen and watch as Choso drops his previous threatening stance and softens his glare to get your daughters' trust.

“You have to come with me, okay? That is not your father.”

You feel a stinging pain at the fact that someone else has to be the one to break it to her instead of you. All because you just wanted to spare her.

“Uh,” Satori laughs nervously and does as you predicted; she grabs onto Kenjaku’s arm and shifts closer to him now that she’s actually seeing Choso in person and not behind the safety of a screen—“you’re silly,” she retorts. “This is my daddy.”

“Tengen,” you plead softer and more desperate now. “Please, I’m begging you, please let me get out there. Please. She needs me.”

“Y/N I know you’re scared, trust me I feel for you I care for that little girl too,” Yuki tries to comfort you. “But you have to trust Choso right now. We can’t risk you going out there and getting killed.”

As if she just betrayed you with those words, you snap your eyes at her and shoot her a menacing glare clouded with tears. However, you don’t get to tell her anything because the scene behind the screen continues to play.

“Let the girl go, Kenjaku,” Choso snarls, making you clasp your hands together and keep them close to your pounding heart. “Your fight is with me, not her. Let her go.”

A teasing smirk tugs on Kenjaku’s lips, enraging Choso and causing him to throw his arms out again to shoot piercing blood. Albeit, Kenjaku is quick and yanks Satori in front of him to let Choso know that Satori is expandable to him.

Choso quickly takes note of that and luckily doesn’t think the same way, even if he’s boiling over and grown more impatient now because of Kenjaku using your daughter, he drops his stance again and keeps his distance.

“Tell y/n to come out,” Kenjaku speaks loudly so you can hear clearly too. “I have a little something for her here.” He smirks.

“Tengen,” you become threatening again. “I. Said. To. Let. Me. Out.”

You take a step forward to look up at them with a scowl. “Let me out!” You exclaim and push them back. “Let me out!”

Tengen hears your desperation and the shakiness in your voice, but they don’t budge, not yet.

“Satori,” Choso calls out again and you look at the screen with more tears in your eyes. “I can take you to your mother.”

Satori faces Choso and begins to smile, but not for the reasons either of you wanted. She tugs Kenjaku’s sleeve, and to keep up his act for now, he leans down to listen to what she whispers in his ear that has her grinning and glancing at Choso.

“Ah is he now,” Kenjaku interjects in a fake soft voice as he too looks over at Choso. “Then,” he says louder and stands up to his given height. “He can bring your mother out here, considering you’re her friend.”

Choso huffs and holds Kenjaku’s playful gaze before he scoffs and takes a careful step forward to look back at Satori and continue reaching out for her. “Satori, I can take you to your mother and she will explain everything, but you have to let go of that man. He’s evil and he’s not your father.”

Sartori’s eyebrows slowly furrow as she begins to glare at Choso. “Stop,” she snaps at him. “You’re being mean.”

She steps back and grabs onto Kenjaku with both hands now. “Daddy, I want to go see my mom.”

“I know what y/n can do,” Kenjaku adds and pulls Satori back to make her harder to get to. “And I know her ultimate weakness, which is ridiculous if you ask me.” He scoffs. “But I digress. I want her here or else she can watch what remains of her family…well…” he trails off so as to not alert Satori, and you gasp in fear, while Choso’s lip curls out of anger from his father's threat, but he doesn’t snap back at him.

“Satori,” Choso continues, and your stress continues to ache your heart—“your mother would have told you if your father was alive. You know that. And he would have gone back to you a lot sooner. But he didn’t. And I know I didn’t know your father, but your mother says he loved you, he would’ve returned home a lot sooner. This is not him.”

The anger in Satori’s eyes flickers and confusion slowly begins to spread over her facial features. “Well…” she trails out and takes one glance around as if trying to find you amongst the nothingness of the arena. “Daddy was sick. He said so…right Daddy? That’s why you have that on your head.”

You grab onto your chest as you feel it get heavy, making it hard to breathe.

“That’s right, Satori,” he continues not to say the pet names Suguru would so easily say, especially when it came to comforting her.

“Please,” you mewl to Tengen even if you keep your eyes glued to the screen.

“Satori, your father is dead,” Choso reminds your daughter as she slowly edges towards believing him. “This man is a monster pretending to be him to hurt your mother. You have to come to me.”

Satori let’s one of Kenjaku’s hands go, causing him to open his other hand to slowly summon a curse out of the ground beneath his palm.

“Daddy wouldn’t hurt my mom,” Satori whispers as if trying to remind herself of the fact.

“I know you don’t know me,” Choso continues to try and win over your daughter as kindly as he could. “But I know your mother. Y/N is…my best friend. Okay?”

Your heart leaps at the mention and you unconsciously step close to the screen as if you were trying to reach them.

“Come on baby,” you whisper under your breath even though you too begin to prepare to attack Tengen so they can let you out.

“Your mother would have told you,” Choso keeps insisting and takes a step forward to Satori. “And they would have picked you up together. This is not your father, this man is a monster.”

“Don’t believe him,” Kenjaku argues. “He’s trying to trick you and wants to take you from me.”

Choso groans and Satori begins to pout while her brown eyes start to glisten with tears. “I’m scared,” her voice quivers. “I want my mommy. Daddy, I want to go to my mom.”

“She need only come out,” Kenjaku makes no effort to give Satori what she wants, or tries to take away her fear by comforting her with an explanation she’d understand at her young age.

“Y/N,” Kenjaku taunts mockingly, making Satori look at him with growing suspicion.

“It’s okay, it’ll be okay,” Choso tries to comfort Satori from where he is in a way he thinks you would. “Just come and I’ll protect you until I can take you to your mother.”

Satori stares at Choso for a long moment as her mind spins, making your heart weep at the sight of her confusion and the thought that this will probably now be a core memory and taint in the image she has of her actual father. Yet you do also feel…reassured and hopeful that Choso is choosing to risk his life to help your daughter. He could have just let things be and waited for Kenjaku to get what he wanted, but Choso is choosing to help your daughter, and…that heightens the desire you already felt for him.

And you say a bit right now because of the stress of the situation, otherwise you would have been over the moon.

“Satori,” Choso presses kindly so as to not scare her more than she already is. “You can trust me. I wouldn't hurt you because that would hurt your mother. And I would never do that. Never.”

“Satori,” Kenjaku continues to confuse her.

However, Satori knows Choso is right about the fact that hurting her would hurt you, but she still wants to believe that the man she’s holding onto is the father who loved her since she was born, that he was the one who was always so sweet and promised to love her forever. She missed him dearly and she doesn’t want to let go of him, even if he doesn’t look the same as last year or act the same way.

“I want to go to my mom now,” she asks for you again since you are her only form of reliable comfort, but she still looks to Kenjaku out of hope that Choso is wrong. Yet when she looks over she sees a curse coming out of a dark portal even though to her, there’s no need for violence. She told Kenjaku that Choso was your friend. Plus she was here to surprise you, why would her father choose to fight? He wouldn’t…

You see the trouble running behind her glistening eyes and feel the tempting urge to burn this place down just to be able to reach her. You don’t care about plans anymore, or care to be patient. You bask your fists with fire and twist your head towards Tengen with a glare that could kill.

“Daddy?” You hear Satori call for reassurance, but all she sees is an intimidating look on his face now, a scary look that Suguru never showed in front of her. So that finally makes her let go to try and go to Choso.

However, just as she slips her hand away, Kenjaku grips onto Satori harshly, making her whimper and shed the tears that had been dancing in her eyes.

“You’re hurting me!” She cries out, triggering you to enrage your flames.

Alas, Yuki lunges over and takes you by the arms to turn you away from Tengen. “Just wait,” she snaps at you.

“How the hell do you want me to wait?!” You exclaim.

“Kenjaku let her go!” Choso snarls, forcing you to pay attention back to the screen and see him curl his fists to get ready to attack now.

“I'm done waiting. And I’m done playing with you,” Kenjaku directs at Satori sharply. “Bring y/n out or—”

Before he can finish his threat a long sword made from Satori’s cursed technique pierces through his jaw, shutting him up, and making his grip loosen enough that Satori slips away and runs to Choso, the only person she can trust at the moment.

Choso notices her right away and takes no time to break into a sprint toward her to catch her before Kenjaku can counter.

All while your flames are out, and your nails are digging in Yuki’s arms as you watch what’s unfolding with your heart in your throat, and your breaths getting heavy as you start to heave as it gets harder to breathe with how utterly useless you feel just watching your daughter from afar. You want to be the one running to help her. You want to be down there comforting her, but instead, you’re here, watching her as she picks up her pace and puts her arms out to reach for a man she barely knows, but chose to trust.

You have to watch as Choso chooses to slide down on his feet as he gets closer to Satori to reach her faster. And you have to hold your breath when Choso wraps his arms around Satori, and Kenjaku throws his curse at the pair at the same time.

“Tengen!” You cry out desperately and let Yuki go.

Choso then shields the back of Satori’s head as she clings onto him, and twists around to hastily pull Satori off and put her down.

“It’s going to be okay,” he assures and puts his hands together to get ready to attack the curse getting closer. “You’re going to your mother now.”

Satori holds her hands and before she can question Choso, suddenly the floor beneath her falls piece by piece, bringing her down towards a darkness that swallows her whole in a blink of an eye, and then spits her out in a large white room where the first thing she sees is you.

“Satori,” you greet her first, making her cry out of relief before you both run to each other and meet halfway with an embrace.

“Mommy!” She cries on your shoulder and holds onto you tightly. “I was so scared.”

You finally draw in a deep and relieved breath and begin to caress the back of her head. “I know baby girl, but I’m here now. You’re safe. You’re okay.”

Satori nuzzles her face against the crook of your neck, and you hug her tighter before you look at Tengen with a soft smile. “Thank you,” you mouth.

Tengen offers you a nod and turns away to face the screen, while you let Satori keep hugging you and feel no regret for the way you acted. Any second longer and you would have pushed through Yuki and torched the place until Tengen dropped you into that arena. You don’t apologize for your anger because to you it’s justified, especially when it comes to your children. They actually should feel lucky that you trusted Choso enough to wait or else you wouldn’t have been so nice as to be patient.

“Mommy,” Satori says shakily while she refuses to let go.

“Yes?” You probe and glance at the screen as Satori takes her time to gather her thoughts, and nervously swallow thickly when you see Kenjaku throw a slab of cement at Choso.

“Why was daddy—who…” she trails off in confusion, and even though you want to keep watching the fight, for now, you give all your attention to your daughter.

“That wasn’t your dad, Satori,” you tell her without waiting for her to finish whilst you pull back to face her tear-streaked face. “Choso was right, that man was only pretending. He stole your dad's body, it’s not him. I’m sorry. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before either.”

Satori slides her arms off your neck and begins to fiddle with her fingers as she processes once again what she’s hearing, but actually takes to heart this time since it’s coming from you.

“Your dad loved you, your dad was never mean to you, and he never ever would be, do you understand? That isn’t your dad, even if he looks like him, that man with stitches isn’t your dad.”

More tears roll off her cheeks and you’re quick to wipe them off and grab her arms to press what she needs to know for her own sake. “I know it’s hard to hear, but I need you to understand that they’re not the same person. It’s like if Daddy had an evil clone, okay? They look the same, but they’re not.”

“But can daddy come back now?” Satori asks hopefully. “Can he return if we get that evil sorcerer out of Daddy’s body?”

Your heart breaks at the sight of her hopeful little face and the fact that you have to make her even more sad. “No, baby he can’t.”

Satori’s lip trembles, but she fights so hard not to cry this time, she instead wipes the other tears off her face before she looks at the screen. When you follow her line of gaze you see Choso’s blood raining over him and his father.

“Tell me,” you catch him saying as he wipes his mouth. “What do you want from Yuji? You have something else in mind, unlike us, whom you’ve neglected for 150 years. What are you plotting?” He asks, piquing your interest to the point you begin to stand to your given height to watch the screen better as if that helped listening whatsoever.

“Actually,” Kenjaku answers, which doesn’t surprise you one bit. “He doesn’t have a specific role. You could say being a vessel is his role and that’s already in place. Yuji Itadori…” he sighs almost proudly. “Is like a fire signaling the start. As long as he and Sukuna are alive the chain of curses will never end. He’s the eye of the storm of the new age.”

Chills crawl down your spine. Chills born out of…fear of what was just said. You always knew Sukuna being reincarnated was never a good thing, it was the start of bad things, but for Kenjaku to explain Itadori this way has a way of raising the hairs on your arms.

Is this why he’s so strong, so different? Because of what he’s meant to be?

“So your friend Choso has to fight dad—this man,” Satori interjects and turns away from the screen, while you keep your eyes glued on Choso as he shoots another piercing blood at Kenjaku.

“Well,” you explain with your attention on Kenjaku as he of course dodges the blood to make it hit the tree behind him—“I do too. That’s why Yuki, Tengen, and I are here. We’re going to fight him to kill him and rid this world of his evil spirit.”

“Hm,” Satori hums in comprehension but takes time to think everything through and try to wrap her mind around, well, everything.

“As long as Yuji’s alive?” Choso retorts spitefully before he spats, “no. As long as you’re alive, Noritoshi Kamo!” He bellows with fury. “You’re the root of all happiness!! In no way is it Yuji!!”

A faint awe-struck smile tugs on your lips as you see his rage for Kenjaku and the loyalty to his brother.

“So,” Satori speaks up quietly. “You’re going to get rid of him to give Daddy’s body peace?”

You snap your eyes off the screen and miss the curses that surprise Choso from under him and wrap around his legs.

“Yes,” you praise Satori with a proud smile. “I will get rid of Kenjaku to give Daddy’s body peace.”

A faint smile tugs on your daughter's face, making your heart feel at ease that she’s understanding better than you thought she would.

You really underestimated her.

“Do you have any questions?” You ask now that you’re focused on her. “About Kenjaku, the man in your dad's body? Or about what’s going on?”

Satori takes no time to glance back at Tengen before she gets closer to you to whisper, “why does that thing look like that?”

You snicker and whisper back. “First, that's not polite, and second, that’s Tengen. You remember when Dad and I talked about Tengen?”

Satori steps back and takes a second before her face perks up and she nods. “Yes! Oh, now I get it. They’re like, super old.”

“Hm.” You hum softly, and as you watch her eyes study the plain room and bounce on the screen, your face falls as you grow serious.

“Satori listen,” you interject in a soft but serious tone she immediately understood was not to tease. “Soon Yuki and I will go out there to fight Kenjaku.” You sigh and pull out your phone to put it in her hands. “Tengen will keep you safe here, but the fight will conclude one way or another. And when it does, Tengen will release the barriers and they will leave you on school grounds. Do you understand?”

Satori grows nervous as she puts the phone away and nods hesitantly.

But you can’t reassure her, she understood what you said, and understood the seriousness of what it means to be a sorcerer. You never wanted that for her at such an early age, but you didn’t want her to be naive in this cruel world either.

“And when they do,” you continue and grab her arms so she can focus on what you’re adding. “I may or may not be with you. If I'm not then I need you to climb a tree, you’re a good climber.” You assure her of that. “You wait for me there. If you see me you can climb down unless me or Yuki find you first, but if neither of those things happens in 5 minutes, then you go inside the school. Inside uncle Satoru’s classroom or anywhere you know, and you call Uncle Larue to pick you up. Do you understand?”

Satori nods right away, so you press her just so she understands. “Repeat it.”

Satori groans but does as you say. “Climb a tree if you’re not with me when this all goes down. Wait for 5 minutes and if I don’t see you, or if you or Auntie Yuki don’t find me then—what if your friend Choso finds me? Or if I see him?”

You sigh and smile softly. “Then you can go with him. But still, call Larue.”

Satori nods in comprehension before she continues. “Anyway, if that doesn’t happen I will hide inside and call Uncle Larue to pick me up.” She finishes and raises a questioning brow. “It's right, yes?”

You squeeze her cheeks and nod. “Yes, good job.”

She groans and swats your hand away. However, you don’t move away, you stay close and crouch to be at her level. “I love you to the moon and never back.” You remind her just in case the worst happens.

She realizes what it means, she detected the sorrow, she saw the heartache in your eyes, and she knew from past experience. Only this time she doesn’t fight you to stay like she did last year, she throws her arms around you and holds onto you tightly.

“I love you too mama,” she coos.

Tears fill your eyes again, but this time it’s out of fear of leaving her alone. No matter how much you understand that death can happen and that if it came down to it you’d sacrifice yourself, it will never be easy saying goodbye or thinking of her future without you.

“But you’ll make it,” she tries to assure you. “I know you can. You’re strong.”

You can’t help but cry softly before you press a kiss on the side of her head and pull back to admire her little face that reminds you of Suguru every day.

“Satori Geto,” Tengen calls in their casual voice, but Satori doesn’t know the difference so her shoulders jump and she looks at you frightened.

“Y-yes,” she doesn’t hesitate to respond while she slowly turns to face them as she grabs onto your arm. “Master Tengen?”

Tengen reaches in their portal and pulls out the back gate needed to get Satoru out of his prison.

“You’ll be needing this,” Tengen tells Satori and gets close to her to hand her the box she looks at with curiosity.

“What is it?” She probes and shakes the box.

“It’s the back gate for Satoru’s prison,” you let her know.

Satori’s lips tug to a happy smile and she pulls the box closer to her face as if trying to look inside it. “He’s in this little thing?” She asks.

You shake your head. “No, but we need that to get him out, so,” you add seriously once again. “If your Uncle Larue ends up picking you up today, you call Shoko and tell her what you have, okay? Just her. She’ll go pick it up. Do you understand?”

Satori hugs the back gate against her and nods.

You caress the back of her head and watch her for a lingering minute before you whisper, “okay, good. Now,” you trail off and stand to your given height.

As you face the screen again you immediately go stiff and feel your nerves knotting your stomach as you see the horror of Kenjaku’s foot pressing Choso’s face down on the ground with so much force that the ground is cracking.

“What do you know about my little brothers?” Choso growls as he side-eyes his father standing so proudly above him.

“Aw,” Kenjaku mocks Choso. “Did I offend you? I had high expectations, so I’m greatly disappointed. Be happy you got me to say that much.”

Choso grinds his teeth out of rage and manages to twist over and grab Kenjaku’s ankle, catching him by surprise.

Unfortunately, it’s not enough because Kenjaku quickly counters by kicking his foot out of Choso’s grasp, and slams a long terrifying curse at him from a portal beneath his foot that Choso can’t swerve, or hit, he’s stuck, and because of that it consumes him.

You can’t see him, all there is is the long black tentacles of the curse. You try to squint your eyes as you quickly scan the area for Choso, hoping he somehow escaped, but you just end up gasping, and feeling your eyes widen as your heart pumps so hard that you can hear it pulsing in your ears because you can’t see him.

It makes you want to act now, go out there and help him, but you also knew it wasn’t time yet, even if both your mind and heart work together to start yelling at your muscles to move.

“Do you know what the rank special grade signifies?” Kenjaku exclaims nonchalantly as the curse continues moving through the air until it finally shows you Choso when it slams on the ground with no robe or vest. His hair is down, and his torso and face are scraped, and red from fresh forming bruises. He's missing a hand and bleeding from the mouth, but what’s worse, what’s more horrifying is that he isn’t moving.

“The ability to single-handedly overthrow nations,” Kenjaku continues calmly while he returns the curse back to his portal. “That’s obviously true for the Gojo siblings. Which, heh, any sorcerer parent should be proud of. Not only one, but two special grade offspring’s.” He grins maniacally. “My life would be different if you and your siblings had turned out that way, but nevertheless, Suguru Geto can also…”

His words trail off in your ears as all you can focus on now is Choso and the fact that he’s still not moving.

“Come on,” you plead shakily and can’t keep your throat and eyes from burning as you’re overwhelmed with the need to cry. “Please…”

He…he can’t be dead. Kenjaku wouldn’t be running his mouth if he was, right?

Right?

But what if he doesn’t care if he is, you wouldn't put it past him to talk to the corpse of his eldest son to get his point across. He’s psycho like that. So what if Choso is dead?

He can’t be dead though. He can’t. Anything but that….

Please, he needs to wake up. Please…

“Let me go help him,” you say shakily without thinking.

“No, not yet,” Yuki doesn’t take the time or hold back from denying you of the need to go feel his heartbeat to assure yourself that he isn’t dead, and stop yourself from feeling…that emptiness again...

A minor reason you turned Choso down was because you didn’t want to feel the cold and isolating emptiness again, but as you see him lying on the ground unmoving, that cold emptiness is crawling back to plague your heart and soul. You can feel the numbing agony contaminating you like a life-threatening illness and turning your once hopeful future, bleak, as a future without him in your life flashes in your eyes.

Which is actually a revelation of heart-rushing, and extraordinary mind-altering feelings that aren’t new. They're no stranger, you’ve felt it before, so you can immediately identify what you feel, and grow even more terrified.

“Come on,” you whisper and then hold your breath in as you wait, and try to bring him back to life mentally. Which is useless, but you can’t go over there. You can’t be there to help him, so you push from where you are.

Until suddenly blood explodes out an outstanding amount from where Choso had been.

“Younger brothers of the death painting wombs!! Fire! You hear his voice enraged and full of motivation, and you finally breathe.

You hadn’t even noticed you holding your breath in, that’s how intense your fear overwhelmed you. But he’s standing now, he’s hurt, but he’s okay and you can breathe normally and ease your body from its tense hold. Yet you still are left with that new realization that shifts something inside you.

“Yeah!” Choso bellows as he watches the sky with his lips trembling, and blood gathering over his palm. “I got this!” He exclaims and suddenly bends his feet before he claps his hands to shoot out piercing blood.

“Piercing blood’s initial velocity is its top speed,” Kenjaku interjects before he dodges the strike. “So if you dodge it once even if the trajectory is altered, it’s not so scary.”

He keeps dodging, making the ground he left behind explode as it gets hit with piercing blood instead.

Choso doesn’t get discouraged though, instead, he fills with more confidence, or so it seems, and tries something different it seems. It’s nothing you’ve seen him do before. This technique is different, graceful in a way, whereas his other techniques are rougher.

With this new technique, a blood circle forms behind him, and multiple wings form around it. When Choso strikes with blood, it grows out from the circle like ribbons and strikes Kenjaku in the shape of a giant crimson wing that he of course swerves. But Choso…he sprints at him in a magnificent form.

Or does it only seem that way because of how mouth-watering he looks at the moment with his hair down, and his torso and muscular arms exposed?

In your time spent living together he’s never been shirtless, he’s shown his arms, but he’s never been without a shirt, and now that he is. Now that you see how his toned chest and muscles glisten with sweat, you grow hot and excited.

Your fear for his life still does linger, it mixes with your pleasure, and quickens the pace of your already racing heart, especially because Kenjaku blocks his vision with a curse to rush to the tree and wait there as Choso gets attacked by long curses with blades on their heads he can’t escape from

Choso gets hit and his arm gets stabbed, causing you to nervously clench your fists and step forward.

Thankfully though, he excorizes the curses with his technique and proves to his father that he’s a lot stronger than he’s giving him credit for by using something different once again. It leaves you even more awe-struck.

“Like Eso, I must fight with grace! Like Kechizu I must fight freely!” He shouts, growing chills down your spine, especially as he rips her forearm out from his arm and uses his blood to shoot it out and finally grab Kenjaku by the collar.

“Yes!” You celebrate out loud and clap your hands together, earning the attention of Yuki, and when you peer back you see Satori look up from the movie she was watching on your phone.

You don’t apologize though, you smirk as you watch Choso yank his father toward him and then slam him on the ground.

“And like Yuji, I must fight with power!!!” Choso cries out, and you realize that perhaps you celebrated too early because after Choso connects his arms back together and swings his fist, Kenjaku blocks him using a curse.

“Are you finished?” Kenjaku retorts, seeming completely unfazed.

“What do you think?!” Choso exclaims, but Kenjaku escapes from under him and responds as he’s running back.

“As I said, it lacks the requisite speed and force.”

If that was you fighting him now and he kept averting you, you’d be beyond pissed. You can already imagine how Choso must feel.

“How disappointing,” Kenjaku spats, going unaware of the blood trail surrounding him and parts of it rising until it reaches his eye level.

“Supernova!” Choso triggers his technique, making all the blood explode around Kenjaku. Only none of the blood hits him, the blood explodes and destroys almost all the slab of cement he was on except for a small piece he’s on. That piece of cement has puncture holes, but he’s unharmed…how?

There’s no explanation to Kenjaku’s trick except for…a different cursed technique. He didn’t use curses, and there’s no technique you know that can do what he just did. So the bastard is using a different technique!

“You just used something besides cursed manipulation!” Choso realizes what you just did.

“It’s time to go y/n,” Yuki finally announces the next step of the plan.

You don’t argue, you peer over your shoulder and throw Satori a quick comment over your shoulder. “I’m going now. Tengen will keep you safe. And remember what you have to do, okay, Chipmunk?”

Satori's eyes water now but she tries to be brave and nods in comprehension. “I love you, Mommy,” she warms your heart.

“I love you too,” you leave her with that sweet reminder before you follow Yuki out into the arena.

“I may be an only child, but good work big brother!” Yuki announces her entrance. And you just shoot Kenjaku a menacing smirk.

“Tsukumo,” Choso mutters. “Y/N.”

You snap your eyes over to him and feel your face soften even if you hear him panting and see how exhausted he looks. “Good job, you put up a good fight, Choso,” you praise him and steal a glance at his exposed torso, causing yourself to swallow thickly.

“Now leave the rest to us,” Yuki adds for you and throws him a thumbs up and a wink.

Choso hums and glances at you one more time to offer you a soft nod before he can’t help but shut his eyes and lose balance. Instead of hitting the ground though, Tengen pulls him out of the arena and you watch him until the moment the ground transforms back to what it was, and every trace of the portal Choso fell through is gone.

“I like the rough type,” Yuki announces because it's some kickstart to her motivation. Or so you assume, she tends to announce that sometimes before she fights—“you on the other hand I’ll have to beat into shape!” She exclaims and clenches her fists to the point the veins on her arms pop out.

“You,” you sneer and point your chin at Kenjaku. “How dare you use my daughter. Who do you think you are?”

A smirk tugs on his lips, making you curl your lips to a scowl and narrow your gaze to a cold deadly glare. “I’ll enjoy killing you,” you growl and fist your hands, making the dragon mark on your arm glow brightly as the flames lick your flesh and veins before fire leaks out from both arms and basks them completely, adding to your intimidating anger.

“I think I’ll keep you both at a distance,” Kenjaku shares and raises his hand as a portal rips open behind him, letting out a large special-grade curse, and telling you what to attack with first.

“I bet that cursed spirit isn’t from around here,” Yuki unveils information from Kenjaku, while you slowly stalk around him to get into the perfect position.

“It’s an Asian divine curse for removing obstacles,” Yuki adds, and Kenjaku nods.

“Yes, it’s a special grade cursed spirit that uses concepts against cursed technique targets,” he of course doesn’t hesitate to share. “Let’s see what you got.”

It has four large arms and towers several feet above Kenjaku. It’s fucking huge, which only surprises you because Kenjaku really wasted no time collecting such threatening curses, and Suguru spent all his life trying to collect them.

“You know,” you interject as you come to a stop at his left side. “It’s a shame you never loved your children Kenjaku.”

Said man rolls his eyes and scoffs as if you just said something completely stupid.

“If you did, you would know how great they really are.” Your voice grows colder and more threatening as a burning fever rushes through your veins. “You would know that you can learn a thing or two from your children.”

“Please,” he tries to brush you off, but in the blink of an eye, an immense amount of cursed energy explodes out of you and basks you completely as if you were caught on fire. Which is the same way you saw Hakari do it a few times.

“Supreme Art,” you announce and slowly show off a menacing smile. “Hellspawn.”

Kenjaku’s face twists with surprise before he shifts his body right away to prepare for an attack.

Yet all that happens is the breeze turns to speeding winds that start to cut his flesh. The ground begins to tremble, making cracks form on the ground. And water begins to leak out from the cracks.

“Is that it?” Kenjaku scoffs.

His question gets answered right away with the sound of a rageful roar erupting in the sky, causing Kenjaku to stiffen and fix his glare on the clouds behind you.

Since Suguru never knew of your Supreme Art Technique, Kenjaku is caught off guard by the giant frightening dragon that descends from the clouds and quickly darkens everything around you with its shadow as it flies towards Kenjaku’s cursed spirit.

He quickly tries to counter using his curse, but without getting close, the dragon rains fire down, passing over you without fear and consuming everything in its path with flames, leaving nothing but smoke from the cursed spirit.

Unfortunately, Kenjaku was quick to use other cursed spirits to protect himself from flames that could have killed him or left him severely crippled.

Yet no curses save him from the multiple-headed sea beast that forms from water on the ground, and water born out of nothing. It doesn’t even get to finish forming before its thick slimy tail wraps around him and throws him up to blast him with heavy piercing water that shoots him up into the sky, leaving him dazed due to the water that finds its way inside his lungs and drowns him from the inside.

Much to your misfortune though, he doesn't drown to death, he quickly recovers before it all goes dark. But he’s then welcomed by the sight of the dragon flying at him with its jaw open to show off the fire filling its mouth, so Kenjaku quickly summons a flying curse that gets him out of your dragon's aim and returns him to the ground.

Albeit when his feet hit the ground he’s met by another beast. This one stands tall and growls like an aggressive dog. He tries to look back to see what is breathing down his neck, but he only gets a peek at six piercing green eyes before a large tail made from rocks and dirt slams into him and slings him across the arena right to Yuki.

“Scared to get near an unknown technique?” Yuki spats as she reels her fist back. “Then I’ll fill you in. Its mass,” she reveals and meets Kenjaku's face with a heavy hit that sends him flying back through a barrier.

“Yep!! That’s my technique!” Yuki adds proudly. “I give myself virtual mass and call it Star Rage! And my technique turned the Shikigami Garuda into a cursed tool! It’s Star Rage’s only target besides me!”

You creep towards the gap in the barrier, and the dragon and three-headed hound born from your Supreme Art technique follow close behind like guardians.

“I see!” Kenjaku’s voice echoes out before he emerges out of the dark-covered gap completely healed and with his clothes ripped thanks to you.

“Mythical Beasts born from each element is your supreme art, hmph,” he chuckles and quickly studies each of your beasts; The Hydra with beautiful glimmering deep blue scales, and nine heads with long slithering necks. The majestic dragon with a long red body and a jaw with hundreds of sharp teeth. And lastly, he looks at the only beast actually made out of its element, the three-headed hellhound. There’s only one missing though.

“One beast is missing.” He points out.

You smirk and retort, “I’m right here.” Before you throw out wind shaped in a sharp line that cuts through the ground, but only scrapes his side as he swerves your move and pisses you off.

Why can’t he fight back? He keeps dodging!

“Fucker,” you grimace and send every beast in tune with your rage to run at Kenjaku as you keep you throwing razor-sharp wind at him.

However, he doesn’t move or try to clash your beasts with his curses, he dodges your moves as he stays where he is and looks between you and your master standing nearby in silence. Which means nothing good. Nothing good at all. He's too quiet, too still.

He can’t be thinking of opening his domain, could he? It’s too soon. Way too soon...

So you have no other option, you break into a sprint and follow your beasts towards him with a howling wind gathering to your hands. You don’t get close but you get ready to shoot.

Nevertheless, when his eyes snap to you and you lock eyes, he interlaces his fingers together and proves you right.

“We find each other's cursed techniques to be tricky,” he breaks his silence. “But neither of you have opened your domain. Perhaps you lack confidence in a clash of domains.”

Shit, shit, shit!

You come to a skidding stop, and make your beasts disappear to focus on one thing. A countermeasure.

“Tengen!” Yuki bellows.

The timing is off, but you have to adapt.

“Domain expansion, womb profusion,” Kenjaku chants, and right away multiple cursed spirit heads grow out behind him like a messed up tree.

“Secret art, Falling blossom emotion!” You counter his domain and get basked by a blue hue and protected by a secret art that only the three big families are taught. You’ve barely had to use it throughout your years. Mostly you’ve kept it in the back of your head to be forgotten, but you’re glad you never actually forgot it, or else right now who knows what would be the repercussions of being hit by Kenjaku’s domain.

Yuki though, you see that she isn’t as lucky. She uses a simple domain, but that’s too weak and not as fortified as your technique. Kenjaku notices that.

“Do you think that technique can withstand my domain?” He remarks.

“Hurry the hell up Tengen!” You shout as you see how much more of Yuki's domain is eaten away.

You’ll attack him…

Albeit that will barely do a thing in his domain, and it won’t spare Yuki from getting hurt, plus you’ll risk losing your protection—But Tengen is taking too long. Damn!

You don’t have a choice, you continue to run at him and prepare your fists with fire and air, while you start breaking a piece of the ground.

“Ah, I see,” Kenjaku comments nonchalantly as his domain begins to slowly break apart. “An old maneuver from a shut-in.”

“Tengen I'm not like you. I have lived,” Kenjaku roars and starts to cackle. “A thousand years! Of conflicts! And alliances! A cursed world!”

You get closer to him so you hop off your feet to jump towards him. But it’s too late, Yuki's hit and you’re thrown back by the ground erupting because of his domain seconds before Tengen finally dispels the domain and the empty barrier.

However, thanks to your last-minute technique you’re protected. You can’t say the same for Yuki when you see her splayed on the ground with blood staining her body, and an arm twisted and crushed. She almost looks dead and that stops you from acting or moving for a second out of fear until you notice Garuda still active above her.

“But it’s too late!” Kenjaku’s voice booms, making you look over and see him heading to Yuki without batting an eye your way. Which is logical, she’s the heavy hitter, but you came out unscathed, you’re his threat while she recovers.

“A fight with your domain may have not led to such a poor conclusion,” he goes on whilst you get up on your feet and trudge towards him without him hearing. “You shouldn’t have relied on him. Tengen has hidden something from you. The culling games—“

He cuts himself off as he finally notices Garuda in all his yapping, and figures out that Yuki isn’t unconscious like he thought she was as he just casually passed her. So he turns to look at her, but instead, he finds you now behind him completely unharmed by his domain.

“I told you that you’d pay,” you grimace, and claw your hand on his face to slam him on the ground and scrape him along the cement as you manipulate the air to let you hover a few inches off the ground and fly forward at a quick speed.

He does quickly squirm, and tries to kick and hit you, but you push him further down into the ground and move faster along the ground. It’s not until he throws a curse at your face that you let go because you didn’t expect it. However, you envelop your fist with fire and punch right through it as Kenjaku is pushing himself to his feet.

Thus before he can collect himself and counter, you strip off a piece of the ground and hurl him back with it. You then proceed to catch him by surprise as you crush through the slab of the ground to grab him from the back of his head and by his face to once again run him against the ground.

He tries to distract you by pulling out a curse from a portal under his palm, but you do something you don’t really like doing because it stings, you blow fire out of your mouth and exorcize the curse instantly, leaving Kenjaku a bit surprised, but not enough to keep his mouth shut. It’s hanging off a thread because of the cement tearing at his flesh but he still attempts to talk.

“You know—”

“Shut up,” you hiss and pull the fire to your hand to burn his face and hopefully weaken him or kill him. Not for the sake of protecting Tengen, or their plan, but because Kenjaku used your daughter, he tricked her. You have a thirst for revenge because he locked your brother away in a prison realm, and because he’s using Suguru’s body. You need to kill him—no, want to kill him because he’s the reason why Mimiko and Nanako are dead. He’s the reason Nanami died.

He’s taken so much from you, he’s given you so much pain and changed your life completely. You can’t let him take more, you can’t let him live, and you won’t know true peace until he’s dead.

He needs to die. He has to die.

“Just die already!” You cry out with your voice quivering in anger and despair and stop scraping him along the ground to start punching him in the face over and over again with your fists imbued with flames.

Yet perhaps your blinding rage was a mistake. You acted out the needs of your heart instead of also listening to logic, so he finds a small opening and presses his hand on your stomach. And you’re so lost in your anger that you don’t feel his touch, you only catch his actions when you feel sharp teeth shredding at your skin.

When you let go and stumble back just like he wanted you to do, you look down and see a curse trying to eat its way through you to demolish your source of cursed energy.

“I got to say,” Kenjaku sounds muffled whilst he heals the wounds you made him. “You surprised me there.”

You wrap your hand around the curse and easily burn it to smoke before it can start tearing through your flesh.

But that was his plan, wasn’t it? Distract you to get away?

But that’s where he’s wrong, he might’ve escaped you, but he walks back right into Yuki struggling to stay on her feet.

Which is pretty stupid, she should heal herself at least a bit so he doesn’t have the chance to finish her off. But she stays as wounded as she is and greets Kenjaku with a knee to his face as her Garuda wraps around his waist and holds him in place with its strength.

You expect her to quickly follow with another hit, but she falls on one knee and pukes out blood.

“Yuki,” you mutter between pants.

“You must’ve thought you surprised me, Tsukumo,” Kenjaku interjects as he finishes healing his face and his side that you completely obliterated on the ground. “But isn’t there a better way of doing this?”

As if to answer his question, Choso finally emerges and catches Kenjaku off guard, making you and Yuki grin mischievously before she adds to Garuda’s mass and pulls Kenjaku down.

The ground beneath his feet crumbles due to the heavy mass so you manipulate the pieces and wrap them around his legs to trap him in place, while Choso lands in front of him already in position to strike.

“Are you watching, my little brothers? It’s parent-killing time!” Choso exclaims and manages to shoot his piercing blood right in the center of Kenjaku’s head.

Albeit, it’s not enough…it’s not fucking enough! His stitches just rip apart and his skull cap spins over his head.

“Damn it!” You sneer and step back as he snaps his eyes up and taunts all three of you.

“Don’t sweat it!”

You clench your jaw and he flashes a malice smile as he stitches his skullcap back on.

“Things are getting interesting, fallen warrior!” Yuki shouts before she swings her leg and slams her foot across his face, causing him to stumble back toward you, so you quickly follow by throwing him a right hook with a sharp blast of wind.

Yuki then tries to kick him again, but he blocks her attack. In doing so, letting Choso slam his elbow right on his hands. You proceed to not waste any time or let him think, you swing your leg and slash him with fire, making him groan and stumble back towards Yuki’s swing.

Albeit he blocks that, but leaves himself open to you throwing him an uppercut with a piece of cement you ripped off the ground.

“Tsukumo, heal up!” Choso suggests—no he demands her while Kenjaku is dazed due to the chain of hits you all gave him.

But—wait!

“Yuki!” You try to warn her, but you caught on too late, she heals and Kenjaku finds the right moment to escape out of Garuda’s hold while Yuki is using RCT, and backflips away from the cage the three of you made with your bodies.

“You won’t win!” You snap at him and throw your hand down to form a water whip in your hand.

Kenjaku flashes you a smirk, and you respond by smacking him across the face so hard teeth fly out of his mouth and a gash forms on his cheek. You proceed to be relentless and form another water whip on your other hand to wrap it around his throat and give yourself stability to jump and use your feet to shove a whirlwind at his torso.

“Garuda!” Yuki proclaims and follows your move by swinging Garuda's heavy body on the ground so hard it crumbles beneath the four of you, and throws Kenjaku in the air.

Choso notices and shoots another blood arrow, however, Kenjaku serves by using his gravity technique, or so you predict that’s what it is because there’s no other explanation for him suddenly landing on the ground so fast and so hard.

“Get around him!” Choso tells you.

You spare him a glance and manage to meet his eyes burning with rage, and can’t help yourself from smirking. It’s such terrible timing, but seeing him be so enraged, and seeing every perfectly carved muscle gleaming with sweat, you just can’t help yourself, your desire burns for him. Even more so now after your realization.

But you also know your place at the current moment, so all your emotions are conveyed in a smirk that he catches and returns.

“You’ve done spectacular,” he finds the need to tell you in the rush of the moment.

“You too,” you quickly redirect and let your gazes linger on each other a second longer before you rush around Kenjaku, and Choso lunges at him; while Yuki pulls Garuda back again, and swings down with all her might, and with great mass behind her swing…

Nevertheless, Kenjaku uses his gravity technique and manages to yank Garuda out of Yuki's grasp to pin it down, whilst he also slams Choso to the ground beside his feet. Leaving both indisposable.

You on the other hand, you seem to have been away from his radius, you missed being brought down, so you’re left with an opening to pull off something that will wear down your technique for quite some time, but you have to do it. You can’t let him win, he plans to spread too much evil, he’s taken too much…

Suguru’s body, Nanako and Mimiko, Nanami, and Satoru. He’s hurt you too much.

“Choso is right…” you mutter between pants as you start to manipulate the wind to spin around your legs and pick yourself off the ground little by little as the wind spins rapidly, forming a tornado. “…you are the root of all unhappiness. You’ve taken so much from me.”

Kenjaku watches you float up as the tornado gains height and width. He sees fire gleam under your skin as it pours out of your palms and fingertips and then spins around you. He watches the water from the ground slither up like a snake lost in a trance before it too begins to spin around you. Lastly, pieces of the ground shoot up and add another spinning ring around you, letting him know right away what you want to do thanks to Suguru’s memories.

“You’ll die,” he points out smugly.

“You first,” your voice booms.

Kenjaku can’t escape this wrath, so he prepares himself instead by reaching into his belt before your tornado consumes him.

“This…won’t…be my…end,” Kenjaku strains to say as the high winds of the tornado make it hard for him to breathe. “You…gah,” he grunts as sharp pieces of rock cut him. “Will…not…be…my…end!”

You smirk. “We’ll see about that,” you sneer before you furl in a deep breath and bring the spinning wind, water, fire, and earth toward your palms to blast it all out at him with a cry fueled with rage and agony.

He tries to use the simple domain technique, but all your elements quickly demolish that, making him try to protect himself with curses. He wishes he didn’t have to waste them on you, but his skin is burning even if he uses multiple curses to take the impact, his bones are breaking and crumbling, and his eyes are shredding leaving him blind.

He has a small window of time to counterattack, at least with something that will make you drop this technique.

He could also wait for the blood to run down your nose as you grow weak, but you add more pressure and your fire burns hotter so you’re not dying out anytime soon. Thus, while you’re blinded by your motivation and rage, he pulls out a higher-grade curse he didn’t want to waste just yet, but it takes the impact of your elements just enough to sneak around you and surprise you by piercing something sharp through your back.

“What,” you murmur and lose control of your elements right away, bringing forth a stillness that fills with a deafening silence before Yuki's voice rips through the arena.

“Y/N!”

With nothing holding you up, with no strength to manipulate any element to soften your blow, you hit the ground fast and hard while Kenjaku uses a curse to land softly on the ground.

“Y/N?!” You hear Choso cry out.

You can’t die yet. Not yet…

But you can’t reach back to pull out the blade pierced through your back either, so you can’t heal. No matter how hard you try you can’t feel that technique rushing through your veins.

All you do feel is warm and thick blood oozing out of your wound.

“Heartsbane,” Kenjaku reveals what was lodged through your back. “It was given to you by your father so you could kill Suguru Geto 11 years ago—“

“What did you do?!” Choso demands to know as he watches you paralyzed on the ground. “Y/N?”

“I’m getting there,” Kenjaku sasses Choso while you hear him walk toward you. “Anyway, you didn’t kill him, obviously. And then you tried to use it on me, but you failed. I took it that day when I saw what it was and now,” he chuckles. “How funny is it to see it stabbed through you? The very weapon you were supposed to kill Geto with is killing you.”

You slap your hand on the ground and crane your head up, seeing him start to heal himself from the wounds you inflicted on him.

He won’t heal completely, but it’s enough to still fight.

“It’s poetry really.”

You grimace, and he counters with a sly smirk before he stops before you.

“No! Y/N move!” Choso yells at you desperately.

But you can’t. You want to, you’re straining yourself, but you can’t.

“Noritoshi Kamo!” Choso growls.

“Pathetic, you really are human,” Kenjaku remarks to Choso nonchalantly, but he still means it as an insult.

You then muster all the strength you can and look back at Yuki to ask her for one thing using only one shaky word. “Please.”

She didn’t need elaboration, she knew you pleaded for her to protect Satori until she could get Satoru out.

“I will,” she mouths to assure you.

You let out a shaky sigh and manage to tug on a faint smile.

“Y/N?!”

You drag your head up and meet Choso’s angry but pleading eyes, and give him a warm smile before Kenjaku uses his foot to push the knife deeper into you to the point the tip punctures your heart, bringing forth darkness.

This one is a lot more different than the one that took you when Kenjaku snapped your neck in Shibuya. This one was quick and didn’t leave you lingering hope that you could live. This darkness brought forth a quick sharp pain before death was finally given what it was owed, your life.

It’s not something that Choso accepted though, he saw your chest fall when death robbed you of your life-giving breath and refused to accept the cold truth because your eyes are still open.

“Y/N?!” He calls out desperately and fails to give a crap about his father right now. He waits for you to move. “Y/N?”

He watches your fire-kissed eyes to see them flicker, but you seem to be ignoring him.

“Y/N?” He calls out again and this time he doesn’t wait where he was left, he doesn’t have a lot of strength, and his body aches, but he uses all the strength he can gather and desperately crawls over to you while Yuki and Kenjaku fight.

When he reaches you he doesn’t think before he pulls the knife out of your back to be able to flip you around ever so gently and cradle you in his arms.

“Hey, y/n, I’m here. I’m right here, you’re okay. Just heal all right?” He talks to you not wanting to accept you’re merely a corpse now. “Just heal. Please,” he pleads shakily as tears fill his eyes and his heart is hit with something he’s never felt before, something agonizingly painful; despair. He’s tormented by it.

“We have to fight,” he whispers as he wipes the dirt off your face before he cradles your cheek to look into your eyes that had given him the beautiful gift of hope when his world was dark and empty. “You have to get out, your daughter will be waiting for you. Please. There’s something I have yet to tell you. Just please,” his voice quivers.

“Y/N,” he calls out and wants to reach over and feel your heart with hopes he’ll feel it beat, but his attention is then stolen by the fight across from him.

——

“Y/N.”

It’s dark, but you don’t need to see to recognize that voice. It’s soft, soothing, and not strained.

Can it be?

You peel your eyes open and immediately gasp when you see him…

A/N- Rest in peace love, rest in peace baby cakes, it’s a real shame you never got to see Henry Cavil’s Geralt of Rivia, it’s a real shame, you would have loved him. ALSO, DO YOU REALLY THINK WE'RE DONE WITH DESPERATE, GRIEVING, CHOSO?? *tucks hair behind ear* NO *IN DEMON VOICE* you have a week to prepare yourselves, that’s a warning!

Tagged- @deniseabad1928 @secondary-character-25 @starlightanyaaa @notsaelty @d4rno @moonnime @kodzukein @yozora7154 @heijihattorisgf @elegantweirdorchest

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