𝐒𝐎𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐔𝐃𝐄 [JJK x OC]

22: Love, Like a Wilted Rose

______________

3rd person

A silver arrow of pure, condensed cursed energy was loosed from the hands of Ayako. It pulsed, rippling with power, reflecting the very moon, bathing everything around it in a pure, blinding white light. In the face of that majesty, all other colors in the world bleed away, fleeing from the majesty of The Forsaken's Tsukuyomi. While her right hand held ink smoldering with the fire of creation, her arrow, forged and fired from the left, was destruction itself. That most sacred of her cursed tools, the arrow forged with the promise that would wipe clean the canvas of the world, allowing her to paint over the ashes. In a flash of palest moonlight, all things would be reduced to primordial nothingness.

But amidst that bleak, empty canvas cast in the light of Tsukuyomi, a single color yet blared unfading and brilliant. A mass of Purple light that shouldn't exist, yet did, streaked across the blank sky. It's light alone fought against that oppressive nothingness, the sole thing that stood in its way until they collided. In that instant, light burst forth as the opposing masses of cursed energy clashed, illuminating the grins across the two sorcerers' faces, lost in the pleasure of their reunion.

Above the heavens quaked, the clouds parting in the return of the display of might. Below, the earth was shattered and seared, pulsing with cursed energy as debris and dust were caught up in winds from the blast that yelt cracked with the sheer output of power. In the single attack from each sorcerer, a greeting that lasted all but a few seconds, the training grounds at Jujutsu High, as well as a portion of the forest behind it, were erased. All that was left was a mere remembrance of that place, which was a jagged but circular crater 200 meters in diameter and multiple meters deep beneath a cold, hollow sky.

Satoru stood at the crater's center, untouched by the blast and usulied by the dirt and dust kicked up in its wake, shielded by infinity. He chortled with fond remembrance. "I'll never get how you consider this to be a casual greeting. The years haven't changed you." He muttered softly, yet was grateful. "You're as terribly selfish as ever."

"Casual?" Ayako hummed with a raised brow, "How? You're the only one I greet like this." She smiled, descending through the dust to stand opposite her friend, the two of them on the same level once more. "You're slumming it here, teaching school brats and following orders. Plus, it's not like any of the curses you play with are worthy foes. I have to make sure you haven't regressed."

"Have I passed your evaluation?" Satoru smirked as the woman walked closer to him.

Ayako turned her head around to fully grasp the destruction around her. For 200 meters, there wasn't a sign of life. It wouldn't have been absurd to say that, in that single moment, they'd created a small dessert; even then, Ayako sighed. "You failed horribly. To take the effort to chant alongside me and then bother to regulate the blast... you're the only person brazen enough to hold back in my presence. Has becoming a teacher shifted your priorities to protecting your students and this place rather than giving me a proper welcome? "

"Selfish, just like I said." Satoru scoffed, not that he was all that different from the woman before him. "Not everyone can be as thoughtless as you. I have students who look up to me now, so I have to look like a cool, responsible adult for them." He added in a joking tone despite his true feelings.

"As if," Ayako chuckled, "The only reason they look up to is because they're too damn short. There isn't a single admirable thing about you, old friend. The Strongest, trying to look cool for his students, and here I was hoping you matured past wanting to meet others' expectations of you."