The Waning (GojoHime) - Part 2

A New Strong(est) Duo, Part VI

"They can see the past and they can see the future. Do you want to know how?"

Everything around Gojo became unnaturally still as he focused his full attention on the not-child with the shimmering white hair that held in such a tightly controlled mass of cursed energy. As if his eyes had already been upgraded, he suddenly saw it for what it truly was—a paradox that carried within itself the past, the present, and the future. It was a gate to time.

Imagine...

He felt his heartbeat slow to a crawl.

The power I'd have...

After the day he'd cheated death, when the veil between the worlds had parted for a fleeting moment and he had reawakened as the master of infinity, it had taken months for his mind to adjust to the dance of atoms and cursed energy around him again. To look at the world through the unrestricted Six Eyes was like staring into a cosmic engine, each atom a cog in an infinite machine. The initial onslaught of information had been a maelstrom, threatening to drown his sanity. It had taken even more months until the relentless unveiling had no longer made his eyes feel raw and bleeding or his head pound like it was caught in a gigantic piston.

Gojo Satoru had emerged from these trials as the Strongest sorcerer of this era. And yet... in the many years since, the bitter insight was that all this power was not enough. People he cared for still suffered and died. Curses still spawned all over Japan, nastier and stronger than ever. Their society was still ruled by conservative misogynists with a feudal mindset.

Transcending the boundaries of time itself would finally give him the means to change it all.

The world would be laid bare before him, a chessboard where he was the only king. With this new vision, he would anticipate every move, every counter, every twist of fate. He would anticipate the emergence of strong curses and proactively seal or eliminate them before they became major threats. By understanding the origins of cursed objects, he could prevent their creation or secure them before they fell into the wrong hands. He could save countless lives. And then there were the mysteries of the past: To witness the birth of cursed energy in the Nara era, to understand the origins of the Six Eyes, to unravel the secrets of what those sorcerers had been capable of...

"Don't do it."

It was not a suggestion, it was a command. Gojo felt a jarring sensation like he had taken a fall from a great height. His surroundings snapped into focus: the guest room, Utahime's concerned gaze.

"Don't do it," she repeated even more forcefully, using her powers of song in a futile attempt to sway him, "nobody should see the past and the future."

He mulled over that statement briefly because at the very least, he owed her that. Did the Cursed Object look amused or was he just imagining it? Truth was, Michizane had him dangling from a hook. First he had revealed an outrageous plot by the "Four Friends" to beat mortality, then he offered to teach him how to use the Six Eyes to their full potential? It smelled like a set-up. And yet, he had to take the offer.

"You're wrong," he countered Utahime's plea. Her lips formed a thin line, nostrils flaring, but he interrupted her next eruption. "If I had this power before, Geto would still live," Gojo declared to prove a point.

Perhaps it was the wrong example though. Was he confident enough he could have prevented his friend's descent into hell with foresight? Would he have been able to spend more time with him? Would they have continued going on missions together? Would he have been able to argue with him until he saw reason...? Anyway, if Geto hadn't gone rogue, there would not have been a Night Parade of a Hundred Demons. Yuta would not have gone to Africa. And... and?