𝑹𝑬𝑨𝑳𝑴 𝑶𝑭 𝑺𝑯𝑨𝑫𝑶𝑾𝑺 ⇢ Gojo Satoru

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐗𝐗𝐈 - 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃 𝐌𝐘 𝐖𝐀𝐘 𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊 𝐇𝐎𝐌𝐄

THE WORDS STUNG LIKE A SLAP, but Mikazuki bore them all. Suguru smiled placidly, knowing he'd struck a chord when the sorceress' face fell. These were the same things she'd accused Satoru of – she called him weak and naïve for ever trusting The Magistrate, and yet Mikazuki had easily fallen into the same trap. Was she really taking The Magistrate's words as the truth, after everything they had done? She should know better by now, which was clearly what the man currently pretending to be Geto Suguru was trying to get to.

But none of it made sense. Mikazuki had seen his grave, she stood over it with a bouquet of flowers, spewing hatred at the Jujutsu Society all while never truly questioning it. Maybe Gojo was right and the sorceress was indeed a hypocrite, maybe she should have asked more questions, maybe she should have doubted what was being sold to her as the truth. Suguru sighed, arms falling limply at his side as he looked down at the Kinzoku, something akin to pity in his gaze.

"Either way, it doesn't matter. I'm here, and I'm alive"

Mikazuki shook her head vehemently, her expression unwavering even as doubt slowly seeped into her mind. What if the man in front of her truly was Suguru? What if he was alive, after all? What if. What if. What if... so many possibilities stood in front of her, all wrapped in nice pretty bow that tried to conceal Kenjaku's deceitful nature. For a moment, he wished he didn't have to lie to her, a sliver of sentiment slipping into his decadent heart even after he'd already made up his mind.

"I don't believe you" Mikazuki accused, her tone harsh.

Suguru laughed.

"I never expected you to" he said casually, like he knew her well enough to read her mind "I thought I was dead for the longest of times. Everything I fought for – The Magistrate, my family, my friends... everyone turned their backs on me the moment I decided to challenge them"

Kenjaku kept his voice low, the words strung from her lips filled with a mournful tone. Mikazuki surveyed the man, doubt returning to her senses as she watched him, feeling unsure. Even with the tendrils of her Eternity spread wide across the rooftop and with her sharp senses, she couldn't tell whether he was lying or telling the truth. Suguru had always been at hiding his thoughts, a skill he seemed to have honed in her absence.

Except, this man wasn't Suguru... was he? She couldn't tell. Not for sure. Kenjaku knew this, which is why he chose his words carefully, planting the seed of bout in her mind – not that it hadn't already been there before.

"For a while, I couldn't believe it, but then I remembered you and what they did ten years ago and it all became clear. It's always been this way with the Jujutsu Society, you either bend the knee or are casted out" he continued, a hint of desperation behind his words.

Mikazuki hesitated, the grip on her katana loosening as she tried to straighten her thoughts. Suguru watched her, he could see the confusion in her gaze, that beginning of acceptance etching at the edge of her consciousness, like she was ready to believe him.

"I do not blame him, you know?" Kenjaku admitted, finding the words to be true in the deepest part of the real Suguru's heart "Satoru didn't have a choice. He tried to fight it until the end, right up to the moment he carved my heart out of my chest" he pulled down the hem of the kimono, exposing the ugly scar that ran over his heart, not dissimilar to the thin line on his forehead "I will carry this scar to my grave, just like you will carry yours" Geto pointed towards the scar on her own chest, the one that was clearly visible through the sheer material of Yashiro's dress shirt.

Mikazuki stared at him, the conflict still waging in her heart as well as her mind. Everything he was saying made sense, it made so much fucking sense it hurt, like she was being pulled apart at the seams. The sorceress pulled the hair out her face, lowering the nodachi and pacing the length of the rooftop before she turned back towards him.