FUTILE ENERGY

GOJO’S POV

Satoru watched as Sukuna slowly overtook Yuji’s body. He felt the dread pool at the pits of his stomach. Suguru was at his side, clenching fists, ready for a fight.

And what Hell of a fight this was going to be.

Megumi, Nobara and the second-year students were standing a few meters behind, waiting for a signal to aid them, for anything to go wrong, so they would become a part of this war.

Satoru wasn’t going to allow them to be part of it. The King of curses, Sukuna, was a formidable opponent. He alone wasn’t sure whether he could exorcise him.

A hand snaked into his own for a moment. Suguru intertwined their fingers, squeezing to help ground himself. The look they sent each other said the words they didn’t. And that was enough. It was enough for Suguru to stand by his side.

They’ve been mending their relationship in the past year since Dazai and Chuuya. Satoru couldn’t help but be grateful at the time they got because of those thugs. He had recounted all the events since Suguru’s “death” to the man and watched as he fell apart from the regret and hatred. Satoru was there for him. This time he wasn’t blind.

Then they pleaded Suguru’s case in front of the Higher-ups before taking most of them down. They made a change, put some trustworthy people in those positions and continued teaching their kids. They officially adopted Nanako and Mimiko. Tsumiki’s curse was lifted, and she got to meet Megumi again. Satoru would never forget the tears his boy was letting fall. He didn’t think he ever had the chance of seeing Megumi this vulnerable.

They all moved together to a house in the rich part of Tokyo where Satoru and Suguru worked to put various barriers around their property. Tsumiki and Megumi slowly got used to Suguru and soon enough they were able to pass time together like a real family. While Mimiko and Nanako found comfort in nightly walks and pranks with Satoru.

But all this time felt borrowed as they stood in front of Sukuna in Yuji’s body. Satoru let Infinity expand, coating Suguru in it like second skin. He wasn’t going to take his chances. He couldn’t lose him again. He wouldn’t allow it.

“Let me take care of this.” Satoru slowly pulled his hand away from their grip.

“No.”

“Please. I can’t risk you again.”

“Satoru,” Suguru’s voice was soft with all the unsaid affection between them, but his eyes were hard with determination. “We’re the Strongest and we, together, are going to exorcise all the curses.”

Sukuna didn’t wait for them to continue, attacking with a beam of cursed energy that turned the ground and burned the trees. The fire didn’t stop, strong and fast, until it reached the school where Yaga and the others were working to stop it.

Jujutsu High was burning.

Satoru used Infinity to get close to Sukuna, evading the four hands flying for his head. The speed they were moving at was hard to follow with the naked eye. He saw with his peripheral vision how Suguru summoned some of his strongest curses, sending them against the King of curses.

Satoru didn’t relent in his attacks, continuously landing punches on Sukuna, everywhere his arms could reach.

Laughter spilled from the curse; Yuji’s face contorted into something ugly. Satoru felt his blindfold being yanked from his head as Sukuna sent him flying towards the ground. A wave of cursed energy hit him right in the stomach, sending him to his knees, denting the ground. He had let Infinity disperse, concentrating more cursed energy on his attacks.

Sukuna attacked Suguru, slashing through his curses with long black claws. Suguru backed away, evading a critical hit for his heart. Satoru didn’t wait to see the result of that fight, landing a solid punch to Sukuna’s jaw, sending the curse stumbling back. Suguru was there, next to him, landing a hit of his own.

They entered a dance, one where they didn’t need to think as they moved as one. Satoru and Suguru took turns landing attacks on Sukuna. The cursed energy spiked in the air like electrical current, killing everything in its path.

Sukuna was unrelenting as he answered their attacks in kind, sending Satoru to his knees again with a hole through his stomach and Suguru crashing into a wall. He could feel Reverse cursed working to stitch the open wound as he prepared his cursed techniques for one critical attack.

“Cursed Technique Reversal:Red.”

He could only hope Suguru could keep Sukuna in one place until he was ready to send the cursed energy towards him.

“Cursed Technique Amplification:Blue.”

He heard his students shouting in warning, ducking behind whatever they could find. As if he would ever hurt them. Satoru let a smile climb on his lips.

“Hollow...” He pointed both fingers towards Sukuna, Suguru’s curses holding their King in a death grip, waiting for him. “Purple!”

Next thing they could all see was purple light, bright and blinding. Then Sukuna’s screams, Suguru’s hand reaching for him to take him onto a stingray and away from the damage his technique was causing.

His senses were ringing, the Six eyes were working to keep track of everybody and everything.

But then he felt something. A push, strong and unrelenting against his cursed energy.

Satoru heard a shout, tensing his whole body and looking up at Suguru’s shocked expression. The flying stingray took a sharp turn, then another and another. It was running from something; from something Satoru couldn’t see with the Six eyes. That same push was overtaking all of him.

He couldn’t see what was happening, bright light made him close his eyes in pain. The only thing he could feel were Suguru’s arms encompassing him in a tight hug. Then he felt a hit from an unknown source of energy that sent all of his senses haywire again.

Wind was whipping at them, they were falling through the air, spinning without an exact direction. Satoru’s hold of Suguru tightened as he tried to collect whatever he could find from his cursed energy. The Six eyes were still in pain from the sudden light and his ears were ringing. But he was going to protect them. Sukuna was still not exorcised.

They landed hard on something soft.

Suguru’s voice slowly came to him, urgent and anxious.

Satoru forced his eyes open, at once feeling a blindfold settle on them. He finally felt the comfortable darkness settle on his vulnerable eye sockets and managed to collect himself enough to see what was going on around them with the Six eyes.

Suguru’s rainbow dragon saved them, now soaring as its long tail trailed behind it. Satoru’s whole body tensed as he stood up to look below them. And sure enough, this wasn’t Tokyo.

“What was that?” Suguru’s voice came from beside him, hard with disdain and rough from their fight.

“Something teleported us,” Satoru frowned, rolling his shoulders until he heard them pop from the tension in them. “We have to find out where we are.”

They landed in one of the dark alleyways of the city they were in. Satoru discarded his ruined uniform in a trash can, leaving himself with the pants and a dark shirt. He pulled his phone out, checking the thing and finding with annoyance he didn’t have any coverage and the skin was cracked. And judging by Suguru’s irritated grunt from behind him, he guessed he wasn’t any better.

“We should ask around.” Suguru stood beside him, facing the exit of the alley and the busy street on its end.

“There’s something wrong with this place,” Satoru frowned, fixing the cloth over his eyes, a habit rather than anything else. “I can’t see the cursed energy anywhere around us.”

Suguru’s expression mirrored his own uncertainty and high alert.

They started towards the street, walking through the crowds and collecting the eyes of all the people. Satoru was used to the attention; he was always the one people watched and talked about, wherever he went. This wasn’t any different.

He glanced back at Suguru who was walking a step behind him and looking around, trying to decipher where they were. His purple eyes were glinting in the light with anger and annoyance, but he hid them well behind a fake smile when he stopped a woman to ask her where they were.

Satoru stared for a moment at the smile Suguru was holding on his lips despite his real emotions. Too many memories were drawing him at the sight. A familiar smile he had failed to see through years ago. How could he not see just how fake it was?

When Suguru turned to him again, his face fell. Satoru dreaded the words he was going to get.

“Yokohama,” Suguru spread his arms, waving around as if to prove a point. “And they all have flip phones. Satoru, we’ve traveled back in time.”

Satoru frowned. This may have been the case, but the feeling he was getting wasn’t right. There was something wrong with this place, with its emptiness. There was no cursed energy, no curses and yet his techniques were still working. So was Suguru, which meant he wasn’t a special case.

“We need some quiet place to think.” Suguru held his hand, leading them both through the streets and towards wherever there weren’t many people.

At some point they reached the bank of a river. Suguru fell on his ass, spreading his legs in front of himself. Satoru followed suit, laying on the green grass. The soft sloshing of the river was helping his thoughts stay at bay as he tried to think.

Too many things happened in too little time. He needed some time to rest.

“What is that?” Suguru squinted his eyes towards the waters of the river.

Satoru propped himself up, raising the end of his blindfold to stare at the white-haired kid that was pulling a man from the water. Now what the fuck was he looking at? This was just ridiculous.

He watched as the kid, probably Megumi’s age with tattered clothes and unevenly cut hair, struggled to pull a man, dressed in a long sand-colored trench coat from the river.

Suguru stood from his place, throwing his uniform jacket on Satoru before sprinting to the kid to help him. He didn’t move, letting Suguru handle this shit on his own. Instead, he plopped down again, staring at the sky and trying to ignore the commotion.

“Thank you for helping me.” Satoru heard the kid mutter.

“Are you okay?” Suguru, ever so caring, more than he would ever probably be.

"Damn,” A voice he knew. “Are you the ones who interrupted my drowning?”

Satoru sprung up as if the grass managed to burn him. His blue eyes at once scanned Suguru, the kid and then the tall lanky man in a sandy trench coat. There was no mistaking it, bandages around his arms, the movements of his body, the loud overly dramatic pitch of his voice.

“I was trying to commit suicide.”

Satoru almost laughed at Suguru’s dumbfounded expression and the kid’s shocked one. Suddenly everything made perfect sense. He knew where they were and finally let a smile grow on his lips.

Osamu Dazai frowned, and Satoru watched as he continued explaining to Suguru and the kid what kind of suicide he wanted to commit. He got up, dusting his pants and tying Suguru’s jacket around his waist. Then he brushed his hair with one hand and skipped towards the little merry group on the bank of the river. Unbelievable.

“Suicide?” Suguru’s brow twitched.

Then two rumbling stomachs could be heard as Dazai and the kid stared at each other.

“Long time no see.” Satoru placed a hand on Dazai’s shoulder, watching as the man’s face morphed into one of surprise.

Satoru knew it was fake. He had learned his lesson the last time. Everything that Dazai said and did has the potential to be a lie.

The strange thing about the man was the attire and the missing bandages over his eye. There was an air of controlled calmness around him which was probably the thing that was making him look so docile and approachable. Like a drugged animal. There was a change. But he couldn’t put his finger on it.

“What is going on?”

Satoru looked at Suguru’s bewildered expression and almost laughed out loud. He held back though, deciding to save the kid from seeing a murder scene.

He was saved from answering when a man’s voice shouted at them. They all turned towards an angry blond on the other side of the river who was shouting and threatening Dazai. A part of Satoru was shocked at the startling resemblance of the man to Nanami and judging by Suguru’s face, he was thinking the same.

“He’s going to treat us!” Dazai announced, winning himself more shouting and cursing from his colleague.

Despite their predicament, Satoru found himself grinning. If Dazai was here, they would be a step closer to figuring out what was going on. Maybe they weren’t in good hands, but they were with a much greater chance of going back where they came from.

So, he hooked one arm over Suguru’s shoulders, pushing him forward and after the skipping brunet who was leading the kid with hands on his shoulders.