Chapter Text
-Three days ago-
At one point this was exactly what they’d wanted. They would have killed to go on another mission together after being sent away by themselves to exorcise curses for so long.
Satoru wasn’t sure if it was stupid fucking Toji or just them growing accustomed to solo missions but at some point they’d both decided they were more comfortable working alone.
Nothing had been the same since Riko’s murder, since Satoru had perfected both limitless and reverse cursed technique. They still hung out in their dorms when they had some free time-which was growing increasingly more uncommon- but it was always soured with an unspoken air of how different they were, how different everything was.
Still, neither boy opposed when Yaga called them both into his office and only handed them one case file on a curse. They were confused, sure, but they had to admit it was a little nostalgic.
Even though the assignment was for a special grade, either one of them could have handled it alone. Satoru thought so, at least.
It ended up being their easiest mission in a while. Satoru had to wonder if maybe Yaga was throwing them a bone or something. In the beginning they’d tried complaining, requesting fewer solo missions just for the sake of company, but were always met with an “it’s not up to me, my hands are tied” or a “take it up with the higher-ups in your next meeting”.
Part of him wondered if it was too late. They still had their banter but it felt hollow; like it was rehearsed and rehearsed until they completed it out of muscle memory or obligation, rather than a real want.
Satoru had felt it the moment he almost broke through. Sitting around in their hotel room after the mission, drinking some awful beer they’d found at a nearby convenience store, he’d tried to get through to his best friend. Right before he’d ruined it, that is.
“This almost feels like back in our first year.”
At that, Suguru had looked up from where he’d been picking at a hangnail.
“Huh? Oh yeah, I guess.”
“Except you’re suuper boring now.” Drawing out the word, he knew he could get a rise out of the other boy.
“What? No I’m not, maybe you’re just extra annoying now.”
With a fake gasp and a scandalized look, Satoru clutched his chest and gaped at Suguru.
“How could you say that? I’m just as charming as ever, Sugu.” Sugu? Maybe Satoru shouldn’t have drank two of those shitty beers. Suguru was almost done with his third and barely buzzed, but being the lightweight he was, Satoru was rightfully tipsy.
Lost in thought for a moment, Satoru had been caught off guard when Suguru leaned over to punch him in the arm. Near-drunk and confused at the feeling of a hit landing on him, he’d panicked. He’d forgotten that the mission was over, he and Suguru were alone and that Suguru was let into his infinity automatically. All he could think about for that split second was the thought of another cursed weapon with the ability to shred through his infinity and pierce his skin.
“What are y-“
He punched Suguru, hard. He hadn’t meant to, but it was a black flash. A heat of the moment thing, but the damage was done. The rest almost happened in slow motion; Suguru being sent flying backwards, definitely not having braced himself for the impact, smashing his head on the metal doorframe on the opposite side of the room with a loud crash.
“Oh, shit. Shit, fuck, Suguru??” Leaping off the bed and crossing the room in two long strides, Satoru bent down next to Suguru’s unmoving body. His eyes weren’t even closed, he just wasn’t reacting to anything. Satoru tried propping the other boy up against the door to check out the damage, but he wasn’t coordinated or thinking clearly and Suguru kept slumping forward. He was bleeding out of his nose and mouth, the trails connecting and running down his chin. With horror, Satoru realized there was also a deep indent in the doorframe and a large splatter of blood on it as well, where the back of Suguru’s skull had connected with it.
“Fuck, shit, fuck, Suguru? Suguru?? Hang on, I’m gonna- I’ll call Shoko! She’s still awake, yeah. Okay,”
With shaking hands, he fished around in his pocket without ever looking away from his friend’s unresponsive face. He somehow looked even paler than usual, was he losing that much blood?
He found his phone and selected Shoko’s contact. One ring, two; for fuck’s sake, had he picked the one night she went to bed before three??
“What’s up? You know you’re supposed to hide your number when you make prank calls, right?” It was obvious she was talking around a cigarette.
“…I think I just killed Suguru,” he rasped. His words were slurred and spoken too fast. He didn’t recognize his own voice.
“Huh? Aren’t you guys done with the mission already? Yaga said you’d be at the hotel by now. Wait, are you drunk?”
“Did you hear me? I think Suguru’s fucking dead, Shoko, I-“
“Calm down, I heard you. Can you teleport right now or does that not work when you’ve been drinking?” She sounded more serious now, he could hear the sound of her footsteps clicking as they reached linoleum.
“I dunno, either way I’ll be right there.”
“Wait, don’t do it if you’re not su-“
Closing the phone, Satoru tried to gather Suguru into his arms without jostling him too much. Deciding on bridal style, he shifted until his head was resting on his shoulder, absently noting how his shirt was instantly soaked with blood, and hoped for the best.
He wasn’t too off with the teleportation, landing them just outside of the medical wing. No longer caring about jostling his injured cargo, Satoru sprinted down the halls until he reached Shoko’s operating room.
Turning sideways to push the double doors open with his unoccupied shoulder, he saw the freshly prepped examination table and laid Suguru on top of it.
"I told you not to teleport, dumbass. What if you'd- oh, shit. What the hell happened?”
She quickened her pace at the sight of their unconscious friend, grabbing extra gauze and an IV for the most obvious transfusion she’d ever needed to do. There was already a small red puddle forming around his head on the table.
“I black flashed him right in the face, Shoko. I didn’t mean to, though. I just-“
“That’s all I need to know. This is gonna take a while, how about you go make me some coffee.”
He knew she had a coffee maker in her office yet she pointed towards the kitchen by the dorms. That wasn’t good, she was trying to keep him away for longer. How bad was it? Was Suguru going to die? Had they already unknowingly exchanged their last words?
Allowing his legs to mechanically carry him to the kitchen off the dorms, he ran through best to worst-case scenarios. Maybe Suguru would be okay and just really pissed at him for awhile. But maybe Suguru was already dead and she just hadn’t wanted to tell him yet.
By the time he got back to the OR with a pot of coffee, Shoko had Suguru hooked up to all kinds of shit. Some Satoru recognized, some he didn’t.
She was pulling and twisting his cursed energy all over the place, trying to get a feel for how to best go about the task at hand.
“You can set the coffee down on my desk. Also, you’ll have to wait outside. This might take a while. Go tell Yaga what happened if you feel like waking him up. Or don’t, but I’m not gonna be the one to tell him about this, Satoru.”
It took eighteen hours for Shoko to get Suguru stable. She had to pick a few shards of bone out of his brain and stop several different hemorrhages, but apparently the fact that the initial injury was caused with cursed energy made it easier for her to reverse most of the damage caused with her technique.
When she emerged from the double doors, she found both Satoru and Yaga sitting just outside. Satoru was staring at his lap and Yaga was staring at Satoru with an unreadable expression on his face.
Hearing the doors open, both of them immediately snapped their heads up to stare at her instead.
Shoko honestly felt a little bad for them when she realized she still had her scrubs on. It was pretty bad, but all the blood on her made it look a lot worse than it currently was. She held her hands up to stop them from both talking at her at once, and took a deep breath.
“I fixed his skull and did what I could with his brain, and right now he’s stable but I put him on an IV drip so he’ll be asleep for at least another day. If I let him wake up now he’d fuck up his stitches. If you want to see him, you can stay in there until I grab some clothes from my room. Don’t touch him and don’t make too much noise.”
With that, she shuffled off to her room to pack a bag to stay in the medical wing with. it was going to be a long few days.
-present-
Classes have been cancelled for the next two weeks, which confused Nanami and Haibara until they saw the state both their upperclassmen and teacher were in. They hadn’t had to ask what was wrong, Satoru has been bugging Shoko about ‘when he’ll wake up’ whenever they were both awake, and the absence of Suguru is something they know they shouldn’t ask about. Yaga even took most of their missions, probably to keep himself busy and away from Satoru, who is honestly very hard to be around currently.
Not that it isn’t understandable, his best friend has been in a coma for half a week now and Shoko is refusing to give him any sort of timeframe in case something unexpected happens. Eventually he wears her down enough for her to snap at him, while Haibara and Nanami are unfortunately within earshot.
“What the hell did you expect, Satoru? You gave him literal brain damage, he had three fucking strokes at once and he was legally dead for a full minute at one point. This kind of shit is completely unpredictable so I’m not going to promise you anything I’m not sure I’ll be able to deliver on. He might not even be-“
“Hello?”
Her tirade is thankfully interrupted by someone inside the infirmary. But nobody’s in there at the moment, except-
The two freeze, Shoko’s finger still pointed directly at Satoru’s chest. Light rustling can be heard from inside and as quickly as they can without startling him, they swing the doors open.
Suguru is sitting up in the bed, looking around the room.
“Oh, hi."
"Suguru!" Satoru leaps towards him with startling speed and Suguru recoils a bit.
“You mad at me?”
“Mad at you? Why am I here, is this a hospital?”
“…what? Suguru, you’re in the infirmary, I brought you in and Shoko fixed your head and you-“
“Satoru, I was trying to tell you he might have some issues with memory,” Shoko explains, pulling him back.
“Wait, are you Shoko? You’re a doctor? That’s impressive, you look very young!” Suguru beams at Shoko and she starts jotting down notes. Pulling a stool up beside the bed, she gives Satoru a pointed look and he does the same.
“Can you tell me your name and age, please?” She asks politely. Suguru squints and looks at the ceiling, seemingly deep in thought.
“Is it Suguru? That’s what he was calling me, right?” Another pointed look at Satoru from Shoko. “Okay, and your age?”
Another beat of silence while he stares at the ceiling.
“Mmmm, I wanna say like twenty-four? Twenty-five?” Satoru gapes at him.
“What? Am I thirty? I don’t feel that old, am I in really good shape for my age?” Shoko continues to scribble down notes. Suguru looks at her expectantly, like he’s waiting to hear what grade he got on an important test.
“Well, your name is Suguru. Geto Suguru, actually, and you’re seventeen. You’ll be eighteen in a few months. Do you remember either of us?” More silence while he furrows his brows and looks back and forth between the two of them.
“..nope. Can I go back to sleep? My head hurts.” Shoko sighs lightly and smiles at him. “Yeah, good job for now, Suguru. When you wake up I’m going to go through some more questions with you, okay? Rest up for now.” The two make to leave the room so he can get some sleep.
“..can I ask you a question first?”
Shoko and Satoru turn around from where they stand and look back at him.
“Yeah, what’s up?” Shoko takes a few steps towards him with her notebook back in hand.
“Are you guys my friends?” Satoru makes a choked noise from behind her.
“Also, can I take a shower soon? Feel grimy..” he was starting to drift off to sleep already, not bothering with lying down fully. Shoko sighs again, moving to help him get more comfortable before he’s completely out again.
“Yeah, we’re your friends. And we’re glad you’re okay. We’ll talk more when you’re awake again, alright?”
Suguru smiles wanly, pulling the blanket up under his chin and rolling over, mumbling an ‘m-hmm’ as he does so.
They leave as quietly as they can, walking to Satoru’s room in silence.
Once they get there, Satoru speaks first:
“What the fuck was all that? Does he really not remember anything? How the fuck are so calm about this, Shoko??” She sits on his bed while he paces back and forth, waiting for him to get a grip. She knew this was coming, and is honestly just thankful Satoru had held back until they got out of the infirmary.