The Waning (GojoHime) - Part 2

A New Strong(est) Duo, Part IV

"You can drink if you want," Gojo said with a nod towards the bottles of sake gathering on their table, "I will make sure you are safe."

Utahime shook her head and took his hand into both of hers. It was very cold. "I don't feel like getting drunk," she explained, her voice soft, eyeing Shoko with a bit of concern. Her friend had already downed half a bottle by herself and was well on the way to finishing it entirely.

No, she didn't feel like drinking. It would numb her in ways she didn't want to be numbed. She wanted to remember everything about this day, forever. The good and the bad. And she didn't want Gojo to feel alone. It was the least she could do for him.

Gojo's absence had been brief; she guessed that Master Tengen had waited for him down in the Tombs to receive the urn and stow it safely in the cursed warehouse. In the cold rain that had started to fall, the three of them had made their way to Setagaya City to eat Zaru soba noodles.

They were seated at a secluded table by the window, the soft patter of rain outside blurring the view. The Zaru soba lay in front of them, beautifully presented on bamboo trays, accompanied by dipping sauce and garnishes. This, both Shoko and Gojo agreed, had been Geto's favorite food and this place, an understated restaurant that was situated in a residential area opposite the Shinganji Temple and Awashima Kindergarten, was where Gojo and Geto had gone after they had fought one of their first curses together.

"What an absolute shithead he was," Shoko choked out between drinking and eating, occasional tears wetting her cheeks. "What an idiot."

Utahime had to agree, but she couldn't blame Geto fully for what he had become. To her, Geto's downfall was an utter failure of their educational system. Surely, one of the adults should have intervened before it got too bad? It wasn't the upfront reason she had decided to become an educator herself, but part of her had always clung to the hope that she could make a difference.

Shoko scoffed, a wet noodle clinging to her chopstick. "He made his choices. Always a contrary little prick, even as a kid. Someone should have smacked him upside the head a few more times."

"You didn't know him as a kid," Gojo frowned.

"Bah!" Shoko waved her hand through the air. "We were all practically children when we first met. Naive and brimming with an arrogance that rivaled your current ego."

A single hiccup punctuated her scathing assessment before she resumed devouring the noodles. "Do you even realize how illegal this is?" she sputtered, jabbing her chopsticks in Gojo's direction. "Shoving sake down my throat and reminiscing about a terrorist? Can't you just hurry up with your revolution already?"

Gojo stirred his dipping sauce. "He was our friend," he murmured. "For a long time, he was our friend and he wasn't a bad person. They can't erase that, I won't let them."

Shoko dabbed at her mascara-stained cheeks, a flicker of pain in her eyes. "He believed in something, even if it was twisted and wrong. That conviction... it had power. Add that to his charisma and good looks, and it's no wonder he amassed followers."

"And that's why they want to erase him," Utahime said softly. "Because ideas are harder to kill than people."

Raising her sake cup, the amber liquid catching the dim light, Shoko's voice trembled. "To Suguru," she toasted, "to his stubbornness and his terrible ideas."

Gojo and Utahime raised their cups of tea in response, echoing her sentiment. "To Suguru."

"Remember that time Suguru and you got into that asinine competition over who could exorcise the most curses in a week?" Shoko cackled, a touch too loud, as she refilled her cup. "He was livid when you won. Couldn't believe it!"