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“Do I get a hug goodbye?”
Megumi stared at Satoru as he knelt in front of him with his arms wide.
“Why? It’s just an excursion. I’ll be back later,” he questioned while Satoru continued to hold his arms open.
“But you’ll be gone alllllll day,” Satoru whined in response.
He let out a sigh as he admitted defeat and walked into Satoru’s arms, letting the other wrap him up in a tight hug.
It had been a few weeks since the whole letter thing and things were finally getting back to normal. Satoru was back to being himself, all loud and clingy.
He didn’t like when Satoru was upset.
He also didn’t like this Suguru Geto person who had upset Satoru.
About a week or so after giving Satoru the letter, he had found it scrunched up underneath the television. He hadn’t been sure what it was originally but after uncrunching it, he now understood why Satoru was so upset.
He had watched Satoru write for what felt likes days on his letter. Satoru had used page after page and this Suguru Geto had written three words on a single piece of paper.
Someone should punch Suguru Geto and Megumi hoped he could be the one.
“I’ll miss you,” Satoru mumbled and he groaned and tried to shove the other off him.
“Let go. I need to go. The teacher is calling,” he whined while trying to escape the other’s grasp. His teacher wasn’t actually calling but it wouldn’t be long now.
They were going on an excursion to the aquarium today and he was a little excited. Only a little bit.
“Okay, okay,” Satoru chuckled, finally letting him go and standing up, “You be good for your teacher and remember-“
“I know, I know. Be good. Don’t hurt anyone. Don’t summon any of my shikigami,” he recited the list of rules Satoru had been drilling into his head since he was caught with his divine dogs out at school.
“Remember to have fun,” Satoru huffed while ruffling his hair, ruining the spikes he had spent forever making this morning.
“Satoru,” he whined, pushing the other’s hand away from his head.
He ignored the way his heart fluttered at the other’s laugh.
It made him feel all nice and fuzzy on the inside, something that normally only happened around Tsumiki.
“See you later,” he mumbled while hurrying away before Satoru noticed anything.
Suguru rubbed at his forehead to try and ease his growing headache.
Grade one curse at the aquarium and there were six missing children that had been separated from their class when one of the larger tanks had ‘shattered’.
“And they haven’t contacted the parents?” he questioned, making sure he had heard correctly.
“Correct,” Ijichi nodded his head.
“Why? They are probably dead,” he said in annoyance.
“We don’t know that for sure,” Nanami said from beside him, ever the peacemaker.
“Six children? They don’t stand a chance against a grade one,” he pointed out while crossing his hands across his chest.
“It might not be after children,” Nanami pointed out. He frowned at the statement but he couldn’t retort that statement. It was a possibility but not unlikely. Most curses will go with whatever is nearby, not caring about age or gender.
“Please,” Ijichi spoke up, “Save the children if you can.” He let out a sigh before turning around and walking towards the entryway.
“We will try our best.” He heard Nanami answer behind him before the other hurried after him, he didn’t even pause as he pushed his way into the aquarium.
The taste of curses overwhelmed his mouth completely and made his stomach twist. There was defiantly a high-level curse here and he was already feeling queasy at the thought of digesting it.
They had worked together often enough over the last year that words didn’t have to be exchanged as they separated, going in different directions to cover as much ground as needed.
He walked slowly through the empty, dimly lit hallways, occasionally pausing to glance into the larger aquariums.
The fish seemed at peace, swimming around their beautiful, artificial habitats. Seeming none the wiser of the calm before the storm that was on the other side of the glass.
He thoughts wandered to Satoru as he made his way through the aquarium. The overall ecstatic of the aquarium would suit Satoru, with all the calm blues and greens. It would make his eyes stand out more than they already did.
He let out a small sigh, ever since he had gotten that letter his head and his heart had been at war.
His heart ached for Satoru.
His head kept reminding him that Satoru was dead and if he truly was alive, he had abandoned not only him but the jujutsu world, classifying him as a traitor.
The lights around him flickered for a second before turning off completely, leaving him in a room only lit by the emergency lights and the two beaming eyes in the reflection of the glass he was standing in front of.
“MOVE, STUPID!”
Suguru listened to the shout, throwing himself to the side, dodging the sharp claws that sliced through the air and cut through the glass. The attacked cause the aquarium to shatter instantly, spilling water into the hallway and sending fish flopping everywhere.
“Divine dogs.”
He turned his head towards the voice and paused at the sight that greeted him.
A boy, barely older than Mimiko and Nanako, stood in a ready position with hands grasped together and cursed energy flowing steadily through his little body. The boys shadow burst upwards before taking shape in the form of two dogs.
The dogs stayed in the boy’s shadow for only a moment before rushing forwards, passing him and diving for the curse.
“Come on.” The boy said while hurrying over to him and grabbing his hand before tugging him away from the curse. He stumbled a few steps before catching himself and allowing the boy to led him further down the hallway. They weaved their way through the aquariums hallways before finally coming to a stop in a lit side room which seemed to be looking out onto the whale tank.
“Are you-“ he started only to be cut off by the boy.
“If you can see it, why did you just stand there?” The boy basically growled between pants.
He stared down at the child in surprise, not expecting the scolding from a boy half his height.
“Are you okay?” he questioned instead of answering, earning a weak huff in response. “I’m Suguru Geto, I’m from-“
“I hate you.”
He paused at the boy’s words, surprised by them. He had barely known the boy five minutes and he was already hated.
Of course, he had recognised the technique the boy had used despite having only read about it. The Zenin’s legendary Ten Shadow Technique, something compared to Satoru’s Limitless and Six Eyes in rarity.
“Geez, I know Naobito Zanin isn’t my biggest fan…” he mumbled while running a hand through his hair that wasn’t pulled back in a bun.
“I don’t know who that is,” the boy said with the most serious face that he knew he wasn’t lying.
Who was this child if he didn’t know the head of the Zanin clan? How did he have so much control over his technique if he wasn’t a part of the clan? And mainly, why did the child hate him?
The boy’s shoulder tensed up suddenly and he didn’t need to ask to know the curse was heading their way again.
He reached down and lifted the boy up onto his hip.
“Put me down!” The boy protested, immediately starting to squirm in his grasp.
“Stop,” he told the boy seriously, “I know you hate me, I get it, but right now we have a curse to deal with. Got it?”
The boy glared at him before punching him in the shoulder. He would say it hurt but it honestly didn’t.
“Happy?” he questioned, earning a huff in response but the boy stopped squirming in his grasp.
He turned his attention back to the situation.
He would deal with the curse and then the boy.
“Geto-senpai!”
Suguru didn’t even respond as he handed the boy over to Nanami before walking off a little bit with the curse, now in a disgusting black orb form, held tightly in his grasp.
It had taken less than ten minutes, even with the boy in his arms, to finish the curse off. It had helped that the boy’s dogs seemed to have injured the curse and it hadn’t healed itself – because it didn’t know how or chose not too, was anyone’s guess.
He had summoned one of his own curses which injured the curse enough for him to force it into the orb form it was currently in.
He hated this part. Truly hated the taste, the sensation, the whole thing, but to grow stronger he needed to do this.
He took a deep breath and exhaled before lifting the orb to his lips, opening his mouth to digest-
“Fushiguro?” Nanami’s words caused him to freeze.
“You’re here too?” The boy huffed.
He turned his head to stare at the boy with wide eyes. Surely, he had heard incorrectly.
Fushiguro? As in Toji Fushiguro? The man that had nearly killed not just himself but Satoru.
He forced himself to quickly swallow the curse in his grasp, for once not noticing the taste.
With the curse dealt with, he hurried back over to the boy who Nanami had set on the ground.
“Fushiguro?” he questioned, immediately causing the boy to turn to him with a glare.
“What?” the boy snapped.
“As in Toji Fushiguro?” The glared at him for a long moment before shrugging.
“If you’re going to ask where he is, I don’t know,” the boy answered.
“What about Satoru Gojo?”
“You don’t get to ask about him,” the boy spat, “Not after your stupid letter. You can’t even call it a letter. Three words! Three! Satoru spend days writing his letter to you and you couldn’t even give him a proper response.”
“Fushiguro,” Nanami called out, placing his hand on the boy’s shoulder.
“No,” the boy huffed, shrugging Nanami’s hand off, “He made Satoru upset. It took us forever to make him better and it took three words from him for him to almost ruin everything.”
“I didn’t know what to say,” he snapped back, causing the boy to pause only momentarily before snapping back at him with even more anger.
“So instead of taking some time to think about it, you write three words down?”
“What three words?” Nanami questioned while rubbing the brim of his nose.
He couldn’t help the flush that came to his face at the thought of what he wrote.
The boy reached into his pocket and pulled out something, it took a moment for him to release the boy had his letter.
The letter was a mess to say the least. Damp, crinkled and folded beyond belief.
But his writing was clear in the middle of the page.
I miss you.
Nanami stared at the letter for a long moment before finally turning his gaze towards him.
“That’s all you wrote? Really?”
“I didn’t know what to say,” he repeated while covering his face.
“Anything would have been better than this,” the boy huffed while shoving the letter into his face.
“I have to agree with Fushiguro,” Nanami said with a nod.
“I didn’t know what to say,” he repeated, yet again.
“So why did you bother replying?” the boy asked while staring at him with such a serious expression on his face.
Why did he reply? Because he missed Satoru. Because he wasn’t sure if this was a prank or not. Because a small part of himself wanted Satoru to suffer the same way he had been.
“I think that’s enough, Fushiguro,” Nanami cut in, “I think it’s time to return you to your class so you can go home.” The other teen started nudging the boy towards the exit.
“I’ll write him a proper letter,” he called out while watching the boy walk away.
The boy paused and turned to glare at him yet again.
“Don’t.” He stared at the boy in surprise, not expecting that response.
“Why-“
“I’m not letting you take Satoru.”
“Geto-senpai isn’t trying-“
“Satoru is the only one that hasn’t left. I’m not letting you take him away, especially after you hurt him.”
Suguru felt his heart twist in his chest. The boys father was dead, his mother was clearly no longer in the picture and Satoru had carved a way into his angry child’s life.
It was so like Satoru to find something most would ignore and love it unconditionally.
Like himself.
“I will never take Satoru from you, I promise, but I also don’t want Satoru to be upset because of me.”
The boy stared at him with his piercing gaze for a long minute before slowly nodding his head.
“One letter and if you upset Satoru again I’m going to do more than punch you.”