IF (JJK SatoSugu AU)

~4~

Their walk felt like it was dragging on for infinity.

Passing the lantern dressed paths, the towering trees, small stone statues, stiff silence lingered between them, to both their glumness.

While walking side by side, they had never felt farther apart than now. Different and conflicting intentions. Sadness remaining, still there. Regrets and griefs prickled in their nerves. Awkward side glances at each other, stiffening up from locking eyes, keeping their eyes anywhere but each other, the sounds of their padded footsteps only building upon the anticipation of who'd break that silence first.

"What's on your mind?"

Gojo's even tone evoked something within Geto, even as he kept forward.

"That the regular majority are stronger. Us, the different minority, are expected to suffer in silence only to get us killed in the end. And the second we stand up to that and go against the grain, we get stigmatized against and be branded curse users." Geto's monotoned response made the older of the two furrow his brows.

"The unofficial truth yeah ... but how do you feel? Like right now?" Gojo's bright blue eyes peered over the shades, making Geto's heart palpitate, grabbing where his uniform button is, clawing at it.

"It's an audacity ... it makes me so sick I could vomit." The venom in his tone had Gojo's brows knitted at the unsettling sight of Geto pinching the bridge of his nose as a headache came on.

"It festers inside me ... like this aching gnawing terror. Like I'm teetering on the very edge ... about to plunge into someplace ... I can never come back from." His even voice bubbled from weariness. "Even here, surrounded by all of you, I keep feeling vastly, eternally alone." The anger faded, the sadness returned. "Satoru, you have confidence and steadfastness. An ego and a sense of self more dominant than mine. You've had exponential growth ever since that day. You're the strongest one here now." Geto's forced smile twisted Gojo up inside.

"But you have compassion and empathy, Suguru. A morality that compliments your belief in what's right and wrong. Besides," Geto got startled as Gojo rested his elbow on his shoulder, displaying their old physical dynamic. "Being the sole strongest sorcerer of the modern age ... doesn't sit right with me now. I mean how can I be the strongest one there is ... when it was too late for me to save them? Failing those that mattered to me? Kuroi ... Amanai ... you ... I failed you all." Gojo's eyes wavered as his broad smile trembled when turning to Geto.

The sudden glossiness in Gojo's eyes was a sight Geto was not prepared to see. "No."

"The top of the jujutsu world is a den of vice. Full of conservative, traditional, arrogant plain fools. I want to reset this garbage jujutsu world. Killing them all is easy, but they'll just get replaced straight away. And who'd follow someone like that, huh?" Gojo's truth of the matter layered by detachment on the choice of murder sent chills up Geto's spine.

"If they're just as mad." Geto gloomily replied.

Gojo couldn't ignore the spark racing through him at how pressed he was against his friend's side ... nor downtrodden at the lack of lean muscle. "Suguru, don't you know? The wave of power they have been trying to hold back with their pointless status and traditions will grow bigger over time than they can handle and will descend upon us all ... a revolution. If they think I'm the only one who'll be fighting back, they're dead wrong."

Even with Gojo's confidence that made him want to grab onto it, the good and bad memories of those three August days resurfaced, becoming distorted to convey his change in perception.

"Satoru," The sunny sky became gray and clouded as Geto reluctantly pulled away from Gojo's too familiar weight to show something. "Do you really want me? When my latest cursed catch is this?" The sight of Toji Zen'in's cursed worm spirit slithering out from Geto's shadow made Gojo feel a heavy blow to his guts.