HAVEN || SATORU GOJO

XXXVIII

"YOU CAN ADMIRE A BLOOMING FLOWER .. BUT YOU CAN'T ASK IT TO UNDERSTAND YOU." It surprised the ebony haired male. It was the first thing he'd ever heard his friend say something so philosophical. Yet at the same time, Satoru Gojo had been surprising him quite a bit lately.

There they sat underneath the moon and a slightly starry sky, dozens of lights surrounding them in the distance. The two sorcerers sat side by side in the sand, listening to the sounds of laughter from the two girls who ran, feet padding in the wet sand, collecting sea shells and hermit crabs.

"If Rie were to be a flower .. she'd be a lotus. I just get that feeling."

"And if she were a lotus flower .. I don't think I'd have to ask her to understand me either. It's kinda weird."

The alabaster haired boy began to doodle in the sand. "What brought this up, Satoru?" Suguru was curious as to the way the brain of his worked. It was interesting—intriguing by hearing a different side of things that he hadn't heard of. A perspective from an anomaly.

"My marriage plans with Rie."

"She'd hit you if she heard that."

After all, their upperclassman was always scolding him about living in the moment and not thinking that far ahead in the future. It was silly because they weren't engaged yet and nonetheless the female kept shooting down his proposals more than just a couple of times.

"When we first met each other, I didn't think we'd get along. I was just a lonely kid with unrivaled strength at the time before I met you. So, I was over the moon and used to use that as a shield."

"I thought that I didn't need friends or connections so long as I was strong enough to fend for myself." He paused his story to wave back at the star who seemed to shine at him.

"I fought to live and to prove to people that I wasn't gonna go down without a fight, and because of that, I had the impression that everyone was always against me—including her."

"And then I watched how hard she fought to live too .. and I realized that I didn't have to be by myself all the time. I had Rie. I never had to explain myself to her, she seemed to just get it—like you. Her eyes that always stared into my soul, she knew the truth about me and would never tell anyone."

And his six eyes that saw the composition of people but nothing beyond that .. The only person he was able to see beyond, was Rieka.

Her soul that was constantly projected through the growth of her cursed energy, it opened the boy's eyes to a different perspective. To see the serenity of her technique and the very essence of her being that stuck out from everyone else, it was only natural that she caught his eye.

Be it by fate or by choice.

The singular lotus flower in a pond under the night sky in his soul was to stay, as she was engrained into the very core of his being. The radiant flower that carried the brilliance of the stars. Her petals that felt like silken velvet against his bare skin, and stem that wrapped around him .. leaves that hid them from the world.

They who were known as the strongest.

"The higher ups better not ask for anything ever again for a long time." The woman let out a shaky sigh, collapsing into the arms of the man whose lungs felt like exploding as he laid against a piece of debris, wrapping his arms around her. "About that .. they're dead. I had Yuta and Inumaki deal with them."