Chapter 14

_September_

Suguru Geto

..............

The only way is to kill non shamans

Kill

Kill

Kill.

Slay them all.

No longer will Cursed Energy be emitted.

No longer will Curses be made.

"Suguru?"

The world will be better without them. Without them all...

Kill.

Kill them all.

The fucking monkeys...

"Suguru!"

He blinks.

Amati stands before him, raising an eyebrow. "What's wrong?"

He pinches his forehead, shutting his eyes. "Nothing."

Amati gives him a look, but she changes the subject. "Yaga Sensei told me to show you this." She hands him a report.

"A mission?"

"Yes."

There seems to be a Cursed Spirit causing mysterious disappearances and strange deaths in XXVillage.

One thing comes to Suguru's mind.

His chance.

His first chance.

Kill.

Slay.

"If you don't want to go, I can go instead." Amati says.

He shakes his head. "No. I'll go." He brings her close.

"Sugu—"

He kisses her, hard, apologetic. But she doesn't know he's apologizing.

He parts, looks into her eyes and dives in for another kiss, but she stops him.

"Suguru." She puts her fingers over his mouth. "What's up with you? For the past few days you kept us up till 6 a.m. every time you see me, you dive into kisses like it's your last chance. Is there something you want to tell me?"

This is his last chance.

"No. There's nothing wrong."

She frowns, and he kisses her again. "I might be gone for a little while, you know how missions sometimes take days."

"Yes. I do. But hopefully it'll only take a day or two."

Or forever.

"Maybe." He says. "Goodbye Amati."

She gives a confused look at the word 'goodbye'. But only says, "Bye..." as he walks away.

And he walks away for good.

..............

_Five days later_

-The corpses of 112 of the inhabitants of XXVillage were found.

-All were thought to be victims of the Cursed Spirit. However, the analysis of the remains determined they were killed by Geto Suguru's Cursed Manipulation.

-Geto Suguru is on the run. Under Article 9 of the Regulation of Jujutsu, he is know to be executed on sight as a Curse User.

..............

Satoru Gojo:

"Huh?"

Satoru's body turns to lead.

The world shrinks in on him as he hears the words he never once thought he'd hear.

Unbelievable words.

Unexpected ones.

They should be lies.

"Don't make me repeat myself." Yaga Sensei sighs. "Suguru massacred the village he went to, and now he's on the run."

Again. Those words...

This can't be.

"I heard you..." Satoru says, his eyes wide. "That's way I said 'huh?'."

"There's nothing left in Suguru's home anymore. But going by the blood stains and remains..." he takes a deep breath. "He likely attacked his parents as well."

"THERE'S NO FUCKING WAY HE DID!"

"Satoru... I... I don't get why this is happening either." Yaga Sensei puts his hand on face, clenching his jaw.

"But... but his life here, his friends... Amati—"

"Don't tell her." Yaga Sensei interrupts. "At least... not yet. I know her relation with Geto, and it will get messy if she knew about what he did now."

"Does Shoko know?"

"Yes. She was the one who received the report."

"Shit." Gojo swears, sweat of panic sliding down the side of his face. "Fuck..."

..............

Shoko Ieiri

Little did Shoko expect he'd show up in the city streets. She was merely smoking, when—

"You need a fire?"

Her eyes widen and she looks up.

"Hey!" He waves.

Shoko smiles. "Yo, it's the criminal. You need something from me?"

He lights up her cigarette. "I guess I'm just testing my luck."

"I'm gonna ask just to be sure, but are those false charges?" She asks as she blows in on her cigarette.

"Nah. Unfortunately not." He smiles.

"Again, just to be sure. Why?"

A pause. "I'll create a world where only shamans exist." He says proudly.

"Haha! That's hilarious..." she panics in her mind, taking out her phone and dialing Gojo's number.

"I'm not a child." Geto says darkly. "It's not like I need everyone to understand me." And he walks away.

"Just assuming nobody will understand you... already sounds pretty childish to me!" She says, putting the phone to her ear. "Ah, Gojo? I met Geto. In Shinjuku... huh?! No way! I don't want to die..."

..............

Satoru Gojo:

He finds him in the crowd of people.

And, it's time to confront.

I really didn't want to do this.

"Explain yourself." He looks him in the eyes wildly. "Suguru."

Suguru frowns. "Didn't you hear from Shoko? There's not much else to it."

"So you'll just kill everyone who's not a shaman? Even your own parents?!"

"I can't go making exceptions for my parents, right? And those people aren't my only family." He smiles sadly.

"That's not what I'm asking." Satoru says through his teeth. "I thought you were against killing if there was no meaning to it!"

"Ah but there is a meaning. A significance, too. There's even a purpose to it."

"No there isn't! You wanna make a world of Shamans by killing every non-shaman?! NO FUCKING WAY THAT'S GONNA WORK!" He takes a breath. "Trying dumb stuff that you know doesn't work is as meaningless as it gets!"

"That's pretty arrogant." Suguru says.

"What?" Gojo grinds his teeth.

"It's possible for you right? Satoru, if it's possible for you, can you really go around telling people that 'its impossible'? Are you the strongest because you're Gojo Satoru? Or are you Gojo Satoru because you're the strongest?"

"THE HELL ARE YOU SAYING!"

"If I could become you... then even this foolish ideal would be perfectly plausible, don't you think?" He turns around. "I've decided how I want to live. So now I'll just do what I can for the sake of it."

He takes his first step.

"What about Amati."

He stops. "What about her?"

"Don't play dumb."

Suguru sighs and looks over his shoulder. "Make her forget about me. Do whatever you can."

Gojo clenches his fists. "What the fuck do you mean by that?! ARE YOU GOING TO THROW HER AWAY LIKE TRASH? THROW A YEAR OLD RELATIONSHIP LIKE IT WAS NOTHING?!" Gojo yells, not believing his best friend is this heartless.

"I said, make her forget. I decided my future. And it's not with her."

You heartless bastard...

"Kill me if you want. There's a meaning to that." Suguru says over his shoulder and disappears into the crowd, leaving Gojo stunned.

Broken.

He closes his fingers.

And puts them to his side.

..............

"Why did you not chase him?" Yaga Sensei asks later that day, walking down the stairs to were Gojo sits.

Gojo sighs. "Are you really asking me that."

"Never mind... sorry I asked."

"Sensei... I'm strong right?"

"Yes. And you're full of yourself, too."

"But... apparently it's not enough for me alone to be strong. I can only save those who are already prepared to be saved by others."

A pause.

"Suguru left because he decided on it. He doesn't want to be saved. And I was too... I just... I couldn't do anything about it..." he puts his head in his hand and closes his eyes.

"What?"

Satoru's eyes widen and both him and Yaga Sensei look over their shoulders at Amati who's behind them on the steps, her arms slack at her side.

Oh fuck no...

"Amati—" Yaga Sensei starts But Amati cuts him off.

"No. Tell me. Now."

And he does, not finding a way to get out of it.

"Amati, don't." Satoru warns.

But he already knows her plan.

She blinks. "No." She growls. "NO I WONT LET HIM!" She yells.

And she disappears, using her Time Bending Technique.

"Should I..." Satoru looks at his Sensei.

"Yes."

And so Satoru stands up and follows her, before its too late.

..............