Chapter Text
Suguru Getou feels a pit in his stomach at the agonizing sight in front of him.
Two innocent little girls, caged like dangerous animals. And for what, seeing curses? For being different? Suguru can feel his blood boiling and his head buzzing. “Shut up you monsters! We should have killed you when you were babies!”, the old woman barks after one of the girls tries to say something. Never in his life has he ever felt this intense urge for killing non-sorcerers.
The part of you that looks down on non-sorcerers…the part of you that tries to resist that feeling…Whatever your true feeling is, you have to be the one to decide.
Yuki Tsukumo’s advice is lingering in his mind. Is this the moment where he has to decide? Suguru looks at the girls again and his heart is breaking. They are wearing old and dirty clothes soaked in blood, the fabric too rough and too big to be comfortable. These girls have been abused and mistreated for all of their short lives. They can’t stay here. Suguru can’t let them stay here. He has to decide now.
But first, he has to let the girls know that he will not hurt them like those villagers, so he summons a small curse to communicate with them. “It’ll…It’ll be fine.”, the small curse croaks. The girls stare at it with surprised faces.
He gives them a friendly smile and then turns back to the elderly woman and the younger man who brought him here. “Hey, you guys. Come outside with me for a second.”
If he killed these villagers right now, would their death have any meaning? Would their death be useless? After all, they are weak non-sorcerers. He could easily just kill them. Kill the entire village. Kill them all.
Suguru can’t think straight. Everything is so incredibly overwhelming right now.
“So, now since you’ve seen these little devils, when will you get rid of them?”, the young man asks. Suguru takes a deep breath.
“I highly doubt those children are the cause,” he tries to argue.
“They have caused a lot of pain to our village, they are evil monsters,” the old woman adds with an aggressive tone. He can see the hatred in their eyes, which in turn fills him with hatred. He needs to put a stop to this cycle of hate, one way or another.
“You don’t need to worry about them, I’ll handle it,” Suguru says in the nicest tone he could make in this moment with his typical charismatic, though now fake, smile. “I advise you to leave now, so I can do my job.” They aren’t very happy about it, but the old woman and the man leave after he asks them to.
They don’t realize how close they were from losing their lives.
Suguru can finally breathe again. And now, he needs to find a way to save these girls. When he goes back inside, they are looking at him curiously. He smiles at them again to look as friendly as possible.
“Hello girls," he says as he walks up to the cage and kneels down. “I am Getou Suguru, what are your names?”
“I’m Nanako. She’s Mimiko,” says the blonde girl with a small voice.
“Okay Nanako and Mimiko, I’ll get you out of here, okay?”
“Both of us?”
“Yes, both of you.”
“…Okay.”
Suguru stands up and summons a curse just strong enough to break the wooden barrier between him and the girls. “You should stay back so I can get you out, okay?” The girls silently move back and they watch the curse breaking the wooden cage. They slowly move back to the front once the curse disappears.
“It’s okay, you can step out now,” Suguru encourages them as they cautiously walk towards him.
“Where do we go?” Nanako asks. “We don’t have a home.”
“Or a family.” Mimiko adds.
Suguru sighs. He can’t just let these two small children out in this condition. They need to be taken care of and protected from this cruel world.
“Why don’t you come with me? I can get you far away from this village and somewhere safe,” Suguru offers, despite having no idea how to raise two little girls with severe trauma.
Nanako and Mimiko look at each other. Mimiko gives her sister a small nod and Nanako looks back at Suguru. “Okay,” she says eventually.
Now he just needs to find a way to leave with the girls safely and go back to Jujutsu Tech as fast as possible. Maybe let Shoko take a look at their wounds and bruises.
“Alright then, I’m going to call a friend of mine and he’ll help us. I’ll be right back,” he says in a calming tone and leaves the small room. He stays right outside the door as he pulls out his phone to call Satoru. After the fourth beep Suguru starts to get more agitated. Pick up, asshole.
“Are you missing me, Suguru?” Satoru finally picks up the phone.
“Satoru, I need your help.” His muscles feel a tiny bit less tense after hearing Satoru’s amused voice, but Suguru still doesn’t have it in him to reply in the same light-hearted manner.
He hears a loud sound on the other side of the phone. It sounds like panicked shuffling until Satoru answers him. “What’s going on?” Suguru can hear the rising concern in his best friend’s voice.
“Listen, I’m on a mission to exorcise these curses that have been attacking this village. And after I exorcised them these two villagers brought me to this tiny room where they keep two little girls in a cage because according to them these girls are the cause of the attacks,” he rambles. The more he explains the situation, the angrier he becomes. His hatred for non-sorcerers bubbles back to the surface in full force.
“So, they can see curses?” Satoru asks, shocked.
“Yes, they definitely can because they saw mine.” Suguru answers. “These assholes want me to kill those poor girls because they believe that they are the ones responsible for the attacks.”
“What? We need to get them the hell out of there,” Satoru sighs, “Tell me where you are right now, I’m not letting you do this by yourself.” Suguru can feel his heart get lighter before telling Satoru his location.
“And Satoru?”
“Yes?”
“Please, don’t take long. I need you,” Suguru hangs up and goes back inside to update the girls.
The girls are sitting on the ground, still practically glued to each other. He kneels down again at their eye level. “Sorry I kept you waiting. I called a friend and he’s going to help us out of here, we just need to wait a little bit,” Suguru assures the girls. The only reply he gets is a small nod from Nanako.
“Can you see monsters like us?” Mimiko asks after several moments of silence.
“Not only that,” Suguru starts, “I can also control them so that I can protect people. We call those monsters ‘curses’.”
“Wow, can we control curses too? Can we become good people like you?” Mimiko continues with a look of wonder. Nanako does not say anything, but her facial expression is identical. Suguru finds their intrigue adorable and is glad that they still seem to have hope, despite everything.
“Well, I don’t know if you will be able to control curses like I do, but I’m sure that you’re already good people. Don’t listen to those villagers here, they don’t understand,” Suguru explains. “They don’t see curses like you do, you are special.” The twins don’t say anything. They just stare at him for a while, and Suguru lets them. Considering everything these girls have gone through, he understands their hesitation.
“You’re special too, right?” Mimiko asks eventually.
“I guess I am, yes,” Suguru replies with a smile. Yes, technically he is special . He is a special grade sorcerer, but Mimiko couldn’t know that. For Mimiko and Nanako, being special means having hope for the future. For Suguru though, special means loneliness. Special means risking your life and dying for something that hates you. Non-sorcerers don’t know and don’t care about the sacrifice sorcerers make in order to keep them safe. They live with blissful ignorance while sorcerers drop dead like flies. Suguru can feel his heart beating out of his chest and his blood rushing through his veins. Not wanting to scare the girls, he closes his eyes and tries to breathe evenly, but to no avail.
If he killed these villagers right now, would their death have any meaning?
He would get rid of evil abusers who don’t care about anyone but themselves. They are weak non-sorcerers anyway. If they didn’t exist, then curses wouldn’t exist. That’s the meaning. This is it.
Suguru opens his eyes, his hands shaking. From adrenaline or contempt, Suguru doesn’t know, nor does he care. “I’m just gonna go outside for a little, okay?” Suguru says in a calm tone, but he is everything except calm. He has made a decision.
Kill the entire village. Kill the—
“Suguru, you in there?” His thoughts are interrupted. Suguru looks back at the girls who seem to be scared after hearing a strange man’s voice. Satoru’s voice.
“It’s okay. It’s my friend, remember?” He assures them as he stands up to answer. He opens the door and sees Satoru smiling softly at him, but concern is written all over his face. Suguru, still slightly shaking, can’t help but smile back at him. It has been a while since the last time he was able to look at Satoru. After the Riko incident, the school started to separate them by sending them on solo missions. And Suguru admits that life feels a little bleak without his best friend but he would never say that out loud, probably. But by looking at Satoru, he feels like fresh air is finally entering his lungs. He can breathe again after what feels like an eternity.
“Talk to me, Suguru,” Satoru stares at him intensely, even for his standards. It always feels like he is staring, but Satoru doesn’t do it on purpose. It’s just the piercing blue six eyes that give that illusion. But now, it is on a completely different level. He can feel Satoru staring at his very soul.
Suguru steps fully out of the room and closes the door behind him, his eyes not leaving Satoru’s.
“You have to help me get those girls back to the school,” Suguru finally croaks.
“Yes, of course I will. But you look… neurotic,” Satoru says in a soft tone. “You okay?”
“No, I’m not okay. I feel like I’m about to burst,” Suguru admits. “They are monsters, Satoru. How could they do this?”
“I know, I know. Let’s just get them out of here,” Satoru tries to assure while grabbing his arms. And Suguru lets him.
“Yeah, okay,” Suguru manages to say, his throat feeling too tight to talk.
That’s also not something he would show or say out loud, but a lot of times Suguru finds himself craving his best friend’s touch. Sometimes he is rough while kicking and poking Suguru, challenging his patience. But sometimes he is careful, soft. Whether it’s him leaning his head on Suguru’s shoulder after a long mission, him hooking their arms together while shopping for candy or sharing his umbrella with him while walking together around Tokyo, Suguru enjoys it all. He likes to think that their physical touch is as comforting for Satoru as it is for him, though he doesn’t know if he’s just being delusional.
While Satoru’s presence does ground him a bit, he is still agitated. He can’t live like this anymore, he can’t just stand there and let it all happen, not anymore.
“On my way here I came up with a pla—”
“Satoru, should we kill them all?” Suguru bursts out, interrupting Satoru’s imminent speech.
“What?”
“Should we kill those non-sorcerers?” Suguru repeats. “I don’t care anymore.”
Satoru stays silent for a moment, reading Suguru's expression.
“Listen Suguru,” Satoru starts eventually, “it’s not worth it. Killing these assholes is only going to cause bigger problems.”
“Bigger problems than we in Jujutsu society already have because of them?” Suguru wishes his best friend would understand, he doesn’t want to feel alone again.
“The people at fault in Jujutsu society are the higher-ups, Suguru. Not some weak non-sorcerers who don’t know shit!” Satoru tries to reason, his face still holding an exasperated expression.
If there is one thing Suguru Getou has always been proud of, it’s his morals. He has always followed the rules of being a Jujutsu sorcerer. He swore to protect the weak, the non-sorcerers who don’t know how to protect themselves. Can’t protect themselves. Non-sorcerers can be cruel, abusive and just plain evil. But would it be fair to just apply all those negative qualities to everyone? Should everyone receive punishment for things that are out of their control, that are out of their spectrum of knowledge? After all, Suguru’s responsibility as a sorcerer is to fight curses, not humans.
But then again, non-sorcerers are the main source of curses. So, how does he go on from here?
Suguru releases himself from Satoru’s vice grip and slowly slides down the wall to sit down on the cold, damp ground. He can’t help the deep sigh he lets out. From his peripheral vision he can see Satoru kneeling right next to him, eventually sitting down as well. He doesn’t say anything, just leaning on Suguru’s arm.
“The only thing killing these villagers would achieve is getting a death sentence,” Satoru whispers close to his ear. “What we should do is dismantle Jujutsu society from within, play the long game.”
“And how would we do that?”
“We graduate, we become teachers, we teach the next generation of sorcerers and change Jujutsu society for the better,” he explains.
“Sounds too good to be true.”
“Well, I’ve actually put a lot of thought into it. Killing people is not the solution, not for now at least. It needs a calculated strategy, not just an emotional drive, you know?”
Suguru would be lying if he said he wasn’t surprised. He wouldn’t have thought that Satoru of all people would actively think about reforming Jujutsu society. Especially not in a way that seems… logical? Rational?
“After Riko and Haibara died, I started to think. It doesn’t matter how you go on about changing the Jujutsu world, people will die no matter what. I just think we should make sure their deaths weren’t in vain,” Satoru admits, though he doesn’t look at Suguru, he looks down at his feet.
They never talk about Riko. They never talk about Haibara. Both subjects feel too raw, too painful to talk about. But maybe they should talk about them.
“Satoru, I—"
“Anyway, let’s get those kids out of here,” Satoru interrupts loudly as he stands up. Maybe one day they will both be ready to talk about them. But not today.
Suguru stands up as well, choosing to ignore his moral dilemmas for now. He decides to follow Satoru, like he always does.