Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

            WHERE THERE ARE SHADOWS, there is always light. For the absolute lack of it, is just darkness. Shadows after all, are born from the convergence of light and darkness. And in the same way, perhaps this was how Fushiguro Megumi, the Ten Shadow user, came to be.

He had always been comfortable basking in the shadows, because for all he knows, there is always a dazzling light in front of him— A light so bright that it guides his path.

He wouldn’t dare relinquish that. After all, shadows are born from light, and without it, it's just darkness.

And if his light were to be extinguished, what then?

            Fushiguro Megumi lives his life for other people. Ironic, given his usual frigid personality. The boy couldn’t care less about whether people live or die at the cost of his loved ones. But when you’re born in a world where your mother passed not long after your birth, and you’re thrown away by a father you can barely remember the face of— There’s not many people that you think of protecting.

But then, Fushiguro Tsumiki came along and he realized what family is.

He was just two, when Fushiguro Toji brought him to a run down house after being evicted from their apartment due to their mountains of debt.

It was the first and only time he met Tsumiki’s mother.

The woman greeted him with a friendly smile, and introduced him to her daughter, said they were all family now and that they should learn how to take care of each other.

Tsumiki smiles at him, ecstatic to earn a brother, and Megumi couldn’t care less, doesn’t even think much of his new so-called family.

But the very next day, their parents were nowhere to be found and he was left in the care of none other than Fushiguro Tsumiki, his sister who was only a year older than he was.

            The boy was more than used to his father’s antics. He barely remembers his mother’s face, and thus, barely remembers Fushiguro Toji acting like a decent father aside from the brief moments the alcoholic provided him a stack of cash and told him to buy something in the nearby convenience store. It’s his “first errand,” that lousy old man said.

He remembers, however, the way the man brought home various women months after his wife’s death. And how some of them attempted to care for him, feeling sorry for the child that was neglected by his father. But none of those relationships ever lasted more than a week, and Megumi knew better than to grow attached to any of them.

To hear that Toji was getting married to a woman he’s meeting for the first time, Megumi doesn’t even bother to protest. He couldn’t care less about his father’s vices, and knew better than to question them at this point. There wasn’t much lower the old man could fall in his eyes.

It’s for that reason that “family” has never made sense to him.

What even is it? A burden? People you’re forcibly stuck with, told to make amends with, determined to love unconditionally? Who the hell came up with that self-centered philosophy?

It’s bullshit that’s what.

They probably thought it would be easier to get rid of their kids and run off as newlyweds. Two kids —likely considered mistakes from the culmination of their parent’s bad decisions— that were better off gone so they could have their fun.

Fushiguro Megumi has had enough of lousy adults.

But whatever it was, his step-sister took her job as his guardian seriously.

            Fushiguro Tsumiki always wanted to be a big sister, wanted some company in her godforsaken home after hours on end of waiting for her mother, and cleaning after the woman who stumbled drunk into their house in the early hours of morning.

Tsumiki has always wanted to be a big sister so much so that she had fantasies about her mother’s next marriage and the family that will come along with it. Thinking that perhaps it would be the end of their problems.

Fushiguro Toji was far from her expectations. He seemed like a greater good for nothing; an alcoholic and a gambler, just the thought made her wary.

But she notices the boy who seems to be in the same position she was, hiding behind the figure of the burly man, and she takes it upon herself to be the proper guardian no one ever was for her.

So she takes care of Megumi the same way she learned to take care of herself during her mother’s frequent absence, and teaches him the same values she lived by.

Their neighbors helped out from time to time. There was a kind old lady who’d teach her how to make food and do the laundry, and there was a righteous highschool boy who’d help her carry stuff home when there’s too much to buy in the market.

At the age of four, she and Megumi had worked out a system, where she took care of most of the house work and the younger boy would help out. Together, they wait for their parents’ return— or rather, they wonder if they were able to make ends meet with the amount of money that was entrusted to her.

They’ve been left alone for far too many times, that their parents’ absence wasn't the least impactful.

But Tsumiki was insistent on playing this farce of a family, and as a three-year old abandoned by his father, his step-sister was all Megumi had.

So he lets her be.

            As it turns out, “family” was rather annoying; or so he learned. It was difficult to play along, difficult to adjust everything he always did to accommodate another person.

Fushiguro Megumi doesn’t know what it’s like to be cared for after all. And thus, he doesn’t know what to do when his big sister dotes on him, doesn’t know what to do when Tsumiki nags him out of concern for his well being, doesn’t know what to do, now that he has someone with him in their wretched home.

By the time she comes along and makes a mess of his life, Megumi still doesn’t know what makes a home— But the first thing that comes to mind is the place he found with Tsumiki and Kawaguchi Sachi.

⊹⊱ 2008 ⊰⊹

            KAWAGUCHI SACHI IS like a speck of light amidst the darkness. Insignificant in its size, just another passing face, a non-sorcerer among a million of others, a collateral of curses. But it’s precisely because of where she was, and who —what— was around her, that it always made a difference.

Perhaps that was why he noticed her in the first place back when they were just five.

She was just a little girl, the same age as he was, playing alone in the playground he passed by on his way home from school, the one time he managed to avoid going home with Tsumiki.

When you’re a boy who can see things that most people can’t —like the monsters that frequent dark alleys and the curses that camouflage themselves in the streets— it’s difficult to ignore the sheer amount of those grotesque creatures swarming around her.

They were like moths drawn to a flame, and she was a rabbit thrown to the lion’s den.

He tells himself he wants nothing to do with it. (Not that he can do something about it, he’s only a child after all.) But he still watches her from afar, silently evaluating the situation.

Minutes pass by, the boy remains seated at the swings, neither moving or acknowledging her even as the sun begins to set.

The young girl kept to herself, playing in the sandbox while people came and left. It was as if she learned how to be alone —like the circumstances the world inflicted upon him and Tsumiki— a solitary existence in a populated world. The only thing that seemed to approach her were those damn pests.

Megumi wants to ignore her much like those strangers, wants to continue his walk home and resume how peaceful his life was before he bumped into her. But a voice in the back of his mind that sounded too much like Tsumiki, chided him— reminded him what it’s like to be ignored when you need someone the most.

Watching those cursed spirits swarm like little maggots prompts him to speak up.

            Fushiguro Megumi stomps towards her and stops just in front of the sandbox. His eyebrows were furrowed, eyes narrowed as he brazenly asked, “What is wrong with you?”

Kawaguchi Sachi looks up to meet his gaze, tilting her head in confusion as she asks with her soft voice. “...Are you talking to me?”

The boy’s frown deepened. He wonders if she was just that slow to not be able to tell the obvious. “Who else would I be talking to?”

Ironically, despite his rudeness, the girl’s wide eyes lit up, happy with the mere fact that he was talking to her. “Hi!” She greeted him warmly.

Megumi looked at with a skeptical expression on his face, taken aback by her bright demeanor. He’s never been good at dealing with people like her, couldn’t understand how they could respond in such a way considering how hostile he sounded.

“Do you want to play with me?” She asked him with expectant eyes, stretching her hand out to give him the shovel.

“No…I—” Megumi grunted, taking a step back. Flustered by a mere girl. “You’re weird.”

Before he could watch the way the expression on her face faltered, he ran off to resume his walk home.

            FUSHIGURO MEGUMI SPOTS her again in the same place he found her the first time, still surrounded with her usual swarm of cursed spirits. This time, Tsumiki was walking home with him, which turned out to be a bad thing considering how meddlesome his sister could be.

And that was exactly the case when she followed his gaze and spotted the young girl, consequently coming up with some weird misunderstanding.

“Is she your friend, Megumi?” his nosy older sister asked, smiling at the way that her taciturn brother seemed to be getting along with someone, anyone really.

She had been going through painstaking efforts to get him to open up to her, befriending him in hopes that they could become the amiable siblings regardless of their parentage. But, he had shot her down at every turn. To think that that Megumi had a friend made her ecstatic. If not her, then she was at least glad he had someone in his life who cared for him.

Unsurprisingly, much to Megumi’s dismay, his older sister was thoroughly mistaken.

Before Megumi was able to protest, however, Tsumiki had already gone out of her way to approach the little girl.

He groaned, loudly at that, tempted to pull his hair.

            “Hello!” Tsumiki greeted the lone child with a gentle smile, crouching down in front of her and giving a friendly wave.

Sachi looked up from the sandcastle she was building, and recognized the boy behind her. Unused to the company of others, she beamed much shyly. “H-Hi.”

“I’m Fushiguro Tsumiki,” the older girl introduced herself. She had the kind of light in her eyes that was warm and welcoming, reminiscent of a home she never had. “Are you friends with Megumi?”

“O-oi,” the boy in question tried to stop his older sister, grabbing her by the wrist to steer her away from the curses who took notice of them.

“Megumi?” Sachi echoed, gazing at them with wide confused eyes— far too innocent to be aware of the spirits that surrounded her.

“What’s your name?” Tsumiki asked her, oblivious to what Megumi had been trying to protect her from. “Are you alone here? Where’s your Mom and Dad?”

“I’m Kawaguchi Sachi,” the girl answered softly, and much more nonchalantly, she claimed, “I don’t have any.”

Megumi winces at that, knowing that Tsumiki felt a pang of sympathy, having experienced the same plight.

“Do you have a guardian?” the older Fushiguro asked and watched as the other child shook her head. “Only sometimes. There’s a lady who cleans my house and makes food on the weekends.”

A housekeeper, Megumi realizes and thinks that surely this child lived in better circumstances than they did— but that didn’t deter Tsumiki from her acts of kindness.

Tsumiki looked for her address in her randoseru and asked, “Do you wanna have dinner at our place?”

Her hopeful expression was difficult to reject, and Megumi could only sigh. Again.

His sister was a busybody. It wouldn’t be a surprise if this girl would be a part of their lives from now on.

‘Tsumiki was infuriating like that,’ Megumi grumbled in his head. Leave it to his sister to invite curses into their home.

And because he knows the role this girl would end up playing in their home, he asked her out of the blue. “You don’t see them… do you?”

Sachi’s smile doesn’t falter but she does ask him with that curious tilt of her head, “See what?”

Tsumiki reprimanded Megumi, “Don’t say that. You might scare her.”

The boy held back his tongue, and could only watch as his sister dragged the girl back with them, returning home hand in hand.

“Sachi-chan,” Tsumiki declared with a smile. “If you’re lonely, you can visit us anytime, okay?”

            KAWAGUCHI SACHI WAS odd, in a sense that Megumi could never understand why someone like her was forced to live in such unfavorable circumstances— could never fathom the reason why someone as sweet and kind could be cursed.

She’s the type of person to turn her other cheek when someone slaps her. The type to give more when something’s stolen. The type to kill someone with kindness.

It’s a weird sense of kindness that was not rooted in values, but simply selflessness. Megumi found it difficult to fault her, and couldn’t bring himself to be unnecessarily cruel when she acted that way.

She’s like him, in the way that he doesn’t know what it’s like to be cared for— Because while Fushiguro Megumi drives them away, Kawaguchi Sachi drowns people in the love she never received.

But it’s only when he first visits her home that he actually realizes all that.

            In the span of time Megumi had known Sachi, the girl had spent more time in their home than her own, helping out Tsumiki with chores and housework. It was no surprise that she was bound to learn of their own family’s circumstances, considering the stack of papers that piled up by their door.

Utility bills and rent wasn’t something a child should even shoulder, but in the past three years that their parents have abandoned them, Tsumiki had managed to make ends meet with the limited amount of money that her mother had left her.

It was bad enough that they had no idea where their parents were, but the daunting reality of losing the home that they had was beginning to catch up to them. The electricity goes out, water turns scarce, and eviction notices have piled up on their door.

The six-year old managed to dissuade Sachi from coming over, in hopes of not showing her such a sight. But the other girl was five, not stupid (despite what Megumi thought.)

She offers them a home.

Much more than that, she offers them her home.

            Tsumiki protests, of course. She was not shameless enough to think that she could take advantage of their friend, doesn’t want Sachi to think that they only cared for her because of her money. But the younger girl’s persistence wins over.

Megumi and Tsumiki relent with a single visit to a cold, dark and empty apartment. Despite the amenities, despite the clear difference of their residences, Sachi’s place was devoid of the warmth they had in their rundown house. It was something that’s called home but doesn’t feel like one. A shelter, more like. And in a way, a cage for the little canary.

Tsumiki had only intended for it to be a visit, so that their little friend wouldn’t grow lonely, but a simple question shakes her to her core.

“Why don’t you want to live with me?” Sachi asks out of the blue, when they were on their way out. The young girl looks at them with eyes devoid of tears, and yet, her downcast gaze gives her away. “Is it because I’m not your family?”

The two siblings halted in their steps and immediately turned around to face her.

Megumi doesn’t respond, doesn’t know what to say in situations like these. Tsumiki brought this girl into their lives, this was her mess to clean up. But one glance at his older sister, who was close to tears, was enough for him to step in.

He heaves a sigh, and says vaguely, “That’s not true.”

That’s what Tsumiki probably thinks anyway.

In the span of time they had known her, Kawaguchi Sachi had entered their home and ate dinner with them more times than their parents ever had. The peculiar girl, regardless of her curse, regardless of her background, had managed to worm herself into their lives and made a place for herself in their home.

            “Then, why?” Sachi still asked persistently as if she was capable of solving a problem that wasn’t hers to deal with in the first place.

Tsumiki bit her lip, trying to find the right words, “Sachi…”

Megumi talked for her. “It’s more complicated than you think.”

“Then I’m going to marry Mii-chan when I’m older, that way Tsumiki-nee can be my sister,” the little girl declared so casually. “We’ll be family then, right?”

“You— Idiot,” Megumi bristled at that, embarrassment evident in the redness that surged to his ears.

Tsumiki chuckled, her voice choked up with emotion, as she cupped the girl’s cheeks. “We’re already family. What makes you think we’re not?”

Sachi’s face lit up with just that. And if anything, it only made it harder to leave.

“Really?”

“Really,” Tsumiki nodded. “I suppose it can’t hurt to sleepover for a night.”

Her brother looked at her incredulously, but knew better than to argue with her stubbornness. He could only heave a defeated sigh.

But then days turn into weeks. And with the lack of supervision in her home, they were free to come and go.

The occasional housekeeper turns a blind eye. Tsumiki insists on having someone watch Sachi. And Megumi agrees on staying at the foreboding threat of child services separating him from his sister.

It’s only ‘till they’re old enough, they said, as weeks escalate into months, and into years.

Kawaguchi Sachi offers a roof over their head, and in return, the Fushiguro siblings gave her a home; in every sense of the word.

            A PART OF Megumi thinks that his sister can only be kind to Sachi because she can’t see what he does; the threat of cursed spirits looming over them with mangled bodies and grotesque features. They’re creatures that looked like they came straight out of a horror movie, and every single day, it’s getting harder and harder to pick them off of her.

The budding sorcerer nonchalantly swats at the Fly Head over his shoulder., throwing it against the wall. Like a second skin, his cursed energy surges and becomes a force that swallows the creature, tightening like a vice until it explodes into nothing.

If only he knew how this worked, he thinks to himself.

Fushiguro Megumi had always felt powerless after all. It was Tsumiki who took care of their household. It was Sachi who provided the solution to their problems and offered them a place to reside in.

All the while, he was just there.

Not for the first time in his life, the boy had felt powerless. And this useless talent, the one thing he had that they didn’t, wasn't even something he wanted.

            “Is it there again?” Sachi asks him with her innocent face and that usual dreamlike lilt to her voice. To his surprise, she was a lot braver than she looked. She had remained calm upon hearing his claims about those monsters who often swarmed around her.

Or… He thinks snidely, perhaps she was just that dense, too naive to recognize the danger they could possibly pose.

Tsumiki had once argued, with one of those solem expressions on her face, that Sachi simply doesn’t have any regard for herself. All the more reason why they should care for her. Megumi had claimed that notion was stupid, and yet, even without his sister’s insistence, he wards off the pests around her each and every time.

            “Do you actually believe me?” Megumi had asked her, a little skeptical with her unwavering faith in him. He doesn’t think he had done anything to warrant such a thing. Tsumiki herself had given him a worried expression upon hearing that he was seeing things, and chided him to stop making those jokes. “What if I’m just making fun of you, all this time?”

“I don’t need to see something to trust in Mii-chan,” Sachi says, and he knows with one look into her eyes that she wholeheartedly means it.

Megumi heaves a sigh, tries to ignore the pang of affection in his chest as he huffs, “I told you to stop calling me that.”

The girl tilted her head as they walked side by side on the way back home, “Does it make Mii-chan mad?”

“No,” he tells her, but only because he doesn’t want her to cry (or frown). “It just sounds weird.”

“I see…” Sachi hummed, taking his words too seriously. She lagged a few steps behind as she contemplated what name she could call him.

            Upon noticing how she stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, no longer walking behind him, Megumi turned back and waited for her. He ran a hand through his hair and heaved an exasperated sigh.

“Chi,” he calls her. The name slips out by accident. He had only ever called her that in his head. It’s shorter and easier to remember, he tells himself. “Hurry up, you’re falling behind.”

To his surprise, Sachi looks up at him with a bright smile, her whole face lighting up that it almost seemed like there were sparkles in her eyes.

“W-What?” Megumi narrowed his eyes warily, wondering if she’d gone possessed and yet, unable to ignore how the sight of her so happy has been engraved in his head.

“It’s the first time Mii-chan called my name!” the girl beamed.

He doesn’t even bother correcting her a second time, too flustered by the way she was this excited over something as simple —as stupid— as that. Instead, he just stuffs his hands in his pockets and mutters irritably under his breath. “Shut up.”

⊹⊱ 2009 ⊰⊹

            FUSHIGURO MEGUMI MANIFESTS his innate technique the day before he turns six. Now, two months later, with two divine dogs, Kawaguchi Sachi asks him yet another one of her difficult questions while she was doodling on the dining table, crayons scattered about.

“Mii-chan, Mii-chan,” the girl called him, kicking her feet as she sat on the chair that was too tall for them.

“What?” Megumi looked up from the seat across from her, shutting the book he was reading.

She wondered, “What do curses look like?”

Knowing better than to answer that, he volleys the question back, “Why are you asking that?”

“I want to see the world from Mii-chan’s eyes,” the girl says simply. “Are they scary?”

“That’s…” Megumi heaves a deep breath. He doesn’t have it in him to look her straight in the eye and show her the ugliness of the world. The girl has been through enough. How could he diminish the small light she held in the palm of her hands?

“You can’t show me?” Sachi asked him, noticing his reluctance.

“I can’t but…” Megumi nods. And because it’s always been difficult to deny her, he offers instead, “But I can try to show you something else.”

            The girl watches him intently as he summons two figures from the shadows, appearing as dogs invisible to the naked eye. “Is something there?”

“Yeah… I’ll just try something,” he glances at her and then his shikigami. The boy closes his eyes and heaves a deep breath, trying to convey his intentions to his Divine Dogs.

Sachi blinked again, and in front of her were two wolf-like creatures, one black and one white.

“It’s a dog!”

“They’re not—” Megumi cut himself off. Why does he even bother to correct her?

“I’ll call this one Shiro— And this one is going to be Kuro!” She turned to him after hovering over the two creatures, “Are they guard dogs? Will they protect our home?”

He knows better than that. That the supernatural can’t protect them from external threats, but… They’ll protect her, at the very least.

Megumi rubbed the back of his neck and grunted, “Yeah.”

Her lips curved to form a smile, and she hurriedly scribbled on the sheet of paper she had been working on.

Proudly, Sachi showed him three stick figures. Which, judging by that sea-urchin hair, could only be a drawing of him, her, Tsumiki and two hastily drawn dogs that only looked terrifying.

            If someone had asked him how he knew how to summon them and make them answer to his will, Fushiguro Megumi probably wouldn’t have an answer. The boy had always been accustomed to the shadows, so much so that it had come to him innately. Like a baby learning how to breathe and a human learning how to stand on two feet, a tamed shikigami only answers to its master’s wishes.

If someone asked Fushiguro Megumi why he had made them visible to her, however, then the answer was simple.

What he’d give just to continue to see her smile.

            GOJO SATORU FINALLY finds Fushiguro Megumi when the first-grader was walking home from school. Tsumiki was at the market with the housekeeper, and thus, he was walking with only Sachi in tow and the hungry glances of the curses watching them from a distance.

Her hand was in his, a habit he had developed in his attempts to ward off those pesky spirits. There was no doubt that they were intimidated by the cursed energy he naturally exuded and perhaps it was the only reason why the weaker ones had scattered about, waiting until their prey was unguarded. The bigger ones, he has yet to figure out how to exorcise without ensuring she wouldn’t get caught by the claws of his Divine Dogs.

Sachi, oblivious to it all, was only happy to walk hand in hand with him, gleefully swinging their arms together much to his aggravation—

But then, he suddenly comes to a halt upon seeing the tall figure of a white-haired man standing in front of their door.

The girl behind him stumbles and bumps into his back.

Wondering what the fuss was all about, Sachi peeked over his shoulder to see what made him stop in his tracks, and met the stranger’s eyes. Cerulean blue orbs, reminiscent of clear skies and vast oceans, gaze back at her as if peering through her soul.

She stills, only snapping out of her thoughts when the boy beside her tightened his hold on her hand.

            “Chi, do you know him?” Megumi whispers under his breath, wondering if this was perhaps one of her enigmatic family members that they had never met, but Sachi only shook her head.

The tall man in front of them could only be described as suspicious.

The boy heard of it before. Warnings from school, telling them not to follow strange people, kidnappings as said in the news and the like.

All this time, he had been trying to protect Sachi from supernatural threats, but if he was facing something else, would he still be able to protect her then?

Megumi takes a step back, pulling Sachi with him, prepared to flee if needed be.

But the older boy opened his mouth and asked, “You’re Fushiguro Megumi-kun, right?”

            “Who are you?” Megumi demanded. His eye twitches in irritation upon the look on the stranger’s face. “And what’s with that weird face?”

“You look just like him, is all,” Gojo Satoru pushed his sunglasses, suppressing a groan upon the memory of Fushiguro Toji.

The two first-graders share a look, wondering who he was referring to.

“Just talking to myself,” Satoru waved them off flippantly before bringing matters into hand. “So listen. About your dad… He’s from this big shot Jujutsu sorcerer family called the Zen’in— but they’re such scumbags, they make even me sick. And that’s why your dad left the family and had you.”

Upon hearing about his father, Megumi watched the man drawl on, evaluating the words he said carefully.

“Now, you’re one of the ones who can see things, so you’re privileged there, right?” Satoru continued to trail on despite the lack of response from the child.

Sachi turned to her best friend in confusion, stumped by the big word, “Privileged?”

“You’ve noticed the power within yourself, too, yeah?” Gojo only continued to speak, waving his arm around flippantly to try and express his point. “The Zen’in clan just loves strong powers. Most become aware of their cursed techniques around four to six years old. So it’s the perfect timing to sell a kid off.”

‘Ah,’ Megumi thinks. That explains the mystery of how they had the funds to disappear.

‘Sold off, huh?’

He almost laughed mirthlessly. It wasn’t like his father could stoop any lower.

“So, Megumi-kun, you were the ultimate card that your dad kept on hand against the Zen’in clan. Pisses you off, doesn’t it?”

Of course it pisses him off. Especially considering this man’s lack of tact about the subject.

Gojo crouched down in front of him, and if anything it only ticked him off even more. “So, about that dad of yours. I ki—”

            “I don’t care,” Megumi cut him off abruptly, having heard about enough. There was no point in listening to him continue to yap about such nonsense.

He got the gist; his lousy father was still a pain in the ass even years after he left.

“I have no interest in where he is or what he’s doing. I haven’t even seen him in years, so I don’t remember what he looks like,” the boy said bluntly. “Though I get the general idea from what you just said… Tsumiki’s mother hasn’t come home for a while now, either. That means they’re finished with us, and they’re off enjoying themselves elsewhere, right?”

Satoru looked at him skeptically, “Are you really a first grader?”

“Mii-chan is a genius!” Sachi chimed in proudly, and Megumi didn't have it in him to point out how she was stretching the truth. She wouldn’t have believed him anyway.

“A genius, huh?” the man looked at him like he was appraising his skill.

Megumi doesn’t even bother to look at him, his gaze focused on Sachi.

“Well, whatever. If you ever want to know about your father, you can ask me,” Satoru stood back up. “I think it’ll be pretty interesting to hear.”

            “Now, on to the main point. What do you want to do?” the sorcerer then asked. “Do you want to go to the Zen’in clan?”

For a moment, the thought enters his mind. It might be better for all of them. They can’t keep mooching off of Sachi after all.

This way their financial problem would be taken care of and his best friend wouldn’t keep thinking that they were only with her because they needed something from her.

Thus, he asks, “What will happen to Tsumiki? If I go there, will Tsumiki be able to find happiness? It all depends on that.”

To his surprise, the man gives him the straightest answer he’s heard all day. “No. A hundred percent no. I can say that with certainty.”

Megumi held on to the strap of his randoseru and took a defensive stance, wary of the man’s implications.

Sachi could only look at him in shock, appalled by the thought, “...Mii-chan and Tsumiki-nee are leaving?”

The way her voice broke doesn’t get past him, which is why he tells her resolutely, squeezing her hand back, “Not a chance in hell.”

For the nth time that day, Megumi glared at the older boy as if accusing him for her crestfallen expression.

“Calm down, calm down,” Satoru tried to pacify the girl, not wanting to deal with the awkwardness that came with a crying child, “I’m not taking him away.”

“Really?” Sachi asked him with pleading eyes.

“Yes, really,” He let out a breath and proceeded to ruffle Megumi’s hair, much to the latter’s aggravation. “Leave the rest to me then.”

            Megumi couldn’t help but ask, still wary of how trustworthy this stranger could actually be, “What are you planning to do?”

“We’ll call off their deal, and I’ll have you enroll as a Jujutsu sorcerer. That way you’ll receive financial aid from Jujutsu High,” Satoru explained, his flippant attitude doing nothing to relieve Megumi’s worries. “How about it? Thoughts?”

“How can I trust you?” the child mutters under his breath.

He’s had enough of lousy adults and Gojo Satoru couldn’t possibly be any different.

It was difficult to tell where this man laid in the spectrum of good and evil. Was he just someone trying to save face? Someone gratifying himself through the act of caring for the less fortunate? Someone who wants to use him for his own gain?

Who was to say he wasn’t just using him for not-so-noble intentions? Who was to say that Gojo Satoru wouldn’t abandon them like every other adult, he’s known? Who was to say he wouldn’t retract his hand just as he pulls them out of the waters?

But then, the white-haired man says, “I’m like you. You see them, don’t you?”

He reaches out for the other first-grader who was glancing at them back and forth, unable to follow their conversation. “Your friend is interesting. She’s attracting a lot of curses. I’m surprised you aren’t put off.”

And every nerve of his body immediately protests. After all, back then, the only other person Megumi cared about aside from his sister was Kawaguchi Sachi.

            He immediately pulls the girl aside, standing in front of her to shield her from this creep. The boy narrows his eyes into murderous slits, like a rabid dog baring its fangs.

“Chi, stay behind me,” Megumi instructed sternly.

Sachi furrowed her eyebrows in concern, “Mii-chan?”

Satoru counted the curses that surrounded them. About four were wrapped around her alone, and another ten were following them around. And that was considering the fact that Megumi, to some degree, had been able to ward the others away.

“Grade four and grade three curses, huh?” the sorcerer mused. “It might only get worse, you know.”

Megumi takes offense at that, evident in the way he bristled, jaw clenching and muscles tensing. This man spoke as if he was absolutely certain that Sachi would be cursed, as if he was sure that the boy wouldn’t be able to continue protecting her as he was now. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Satoru exorcised the low-grade cursed spirits with a snap of his fingers, his smile turning smug. “So, how’s that?”

            Sachi’s demeanor visibly changed. She looked a little dazed more than usual, but happy nonetheless. It was like a weight on her shoulders had been lifted, her smile not as forced and as doll-like as it usually was.

Seeing her like this made him wonder if she had only been forcing herself to smile after all this time. But a small part of him insists that she only looks like that because it was the first time Megumi was able to see her for herself, with no monster attached to her small frail figure.

“Ah, my body feels lighter!” She beamed in awe. Despite Megumi’s warriness, the mere act had already made her grow attached to this man. “Mister, are you a doctor?”

Satoru laughed at that, unable to imagine himself being anything other than a Jujutsu sorcerer. That had been his burden to carry since birth after all. “Do I look like a doctor?”

“A wizard?” Sachi chirped.

Unable to figure out how he had exorcised those curses so quickly, Megumi immediately demanded, “What did you do?”

A pang of envy runs through his veins. He could immediately tell this man was strong enough to back up his claims.

He couldn’t help himself, Satoru smirked smugly, goading the first-grader on. Like he had suspected, he was able to gain the boy’s trust simply from the little girl he seemed to be attached to.

“What, you can’t figure it out even if you can see them?”

“How?” Megumi insisted, biting his cheek in frustration. If this man was going to be their benefactor then he couldn’t act as rudely as he usually does, can he?

“I’m a Jujutsu sorcerer,” Satoru declared, placing his hands on his hips. “It’s what we do.”

“Is Mii-chan a Jujutsu sorcerer too?” Sachi chimed in excitedly.

Satoru smiles at the girl and sneaks a glance at her friend, “…That depends on him.”

He wasn’t subtle in the least, and Megumi wasn’t a fan of beating around the bush.

“Teach me. I want to know how to get rid of them.” the boy said with gritted teeth, because what was the use of a power he can’t wield?

It wasn’t as if he sought to be the strongest after all. It was just that, beyond anything else, after everything they had been through, he knew first hand what it was like to be powerless.

Fushiguro Megumi didn’t want —didn’t need— to be the best. He simply needed the strength to protect the few precious things he had in his life, in hopes of preserving their ordinary days they spent side by side, in hopes of keeping the home he finally found for himself.

Satisfied, Gojo prepared to get on his way, he turned around, warning the aspiring sorcerer just as he walked away. “I might need you to push yourself a bit, though. So do your best. Get stronger. Strong enough to keep up with me.”

⊹⊱ 2018 ⊰⊹

            THEY PARTED WAYS come their first year of highschool— Albeit, it wasn’t necessarily forever per se. It was just that Fushiguro Megumi had to enroll in the Tokyo Prefectural Jujutsu High School and Kawaguchi Sachi had to stay back all the way in Saitama.

It was the first time in years, where they didn’t share the same school, and what more, live under the same roof. Being a non-sorcerer, she was already aware of the circumstances, but having to recall what it was like to live a life without him was the most daunting task she had to face. Especially considering the way Tsumiki had been cursed just a year ago.

She’s alone.

Again.

She tries to act like it doesn’t get to her, tries to assure Megumi she can do without him, tries to navigate her life without him. That way, he wouldn’t have to force a way to make time for her in his already busy schedule.

But how do you sever a bond, when you’ve grown too attached to a person that you could no longer tell where it was that he ended and you began?

He certainly didn’t feel any different, as evident in the way he insisted on meeting her every now and then.

            “Mii-chan,” Sachi spoke up as they walked back into their —her, she had to correct herself; she had been living alone since he moved into the dorms— apartment. The old nickname was a habit neither of them bothered to correct anymore.

“What?” Megumi spared her a glance. He had just gotten off a train after a visit to the hospital on his one day off. Nothing’s changed regarding Tsumiki’s comatosed state.

It’s a routine for him to meet Sachi just right after. Never during. He had insisted, much to the girl’s disappointment, not to ever let her visit Tsumiki at the hospital, at the risk of getting cursed herself.

“You don’t have to walk me home,” Sachi tells him. And he knows he doesn’t. It’s just that he wants —he needs— to.

He argues that it’s for his own peace of mind, really. Which is why Megumi doesn’t fail to remind her, “You know those things lurk around you all the time. This way I can make sure you’re doing fine.”

“Is this a routine check up, then?” She chuckled.

The boy grunted, playing along, “Of some sort.”

“What are you, a doctor?” Sachi let out an exasperated sigh. “You don’t have to keep doing this, you know. You’ll get back to the dorms late. Saitama is an hour away from Tokyo.”

“Am I not allowed to come home?” he shot back, equally vexed if not for the way the girl was looking at him.

Home, she echoes in her head. He still thinks of their place as home even if he lives miles away now. The thought brings a small smile to her face.

“What?” Megumi asked her, wondering what all that was about.

Sachi shook her head and redirected the subject, “I don’t want to burden you, is all.”

“This isn’t a chore,” he tells her. “I’ve been doing this before I made a living out of it.”

“I’m lucky to be your first client then,” she jests, the corners of her eyes don’t crinkle like they did when she was happy. He’s watched her long enough to tell.

Megumi wasn’t daft. He knows she wasn’t joking, knows she wouldn’t believe him even if he claimed otherwise, so instead he just mutters under his breath, “Stupid.”

            Their hands no longer touched as they walked side by side. A mere five centimeter gap that neither of them knew how to cross. Trivial to an onlooker, but it was a significant distance that reminds her of how glaringly different they truly were.

They lived in opposite worlds, that much she knew when they were just children.

Fushiguro Megumi saw the world differently from them after all, things she only grew aware of from hearsay and his words— Something he refused to let her know, told her to keep living in ignorance in a futile attempt to maintain her peace.

As they grew older, Megumi insisted on keeping it that way in hopes of shielding her from the horrors he faced on a normal basis. But the more missions he was sent on, the more he became in tune with the life of a Jujutsu sorcerer, the more desperate he became in trying to protect his normal.

Normal was a privilege for Jujutsu sorcerers after all. Just a little something to remind them of what —who— they were doing this for; the fragile mundane happiness he sought to preserve.

            Fushiguro Megumi had long drawn a line between them. Kawaguchi Sachi knew him well enough to tell.

She had noticed from the way he had never brought up his school life, had refused to tell her about what he did in training, had spent less and less time around her the more missions he had been sent on.

The maiden knows that the ordinary days they spent in each other’s company had long grown scarce, and she could only wonder how long she had left before he decides to cut her out of his life completely.

There’s an ache in her chest as she notices their shadows stretched on the pavement. It almost seemed like their hands were intertwined just like how it was when they were just children, and how she wished she had the power to turn back time.

But Megumi snaps her out of her thoughts, and Sachi averts her gaze from their shadows to look him in the eye.

            “What are you thinking about?” He asks her, pulling the strap of her bag to prevent her from tripping over a step.

“Nothing important,” she laughed sheepishly, and evaded his question, too used to stifling her feelings just to maintain their status quo.

“Don’t get distracted. It’s dangerous,” he chided her while they made it up to the stairs of her apartment. Though, there was never any heat in his words even when he flicked her forehead.

Sachi smiles to herself and warns herself not to get any greedier than this.

Megumi was walking by her side, just barely out of reach, and though their relationship was always only that of friends, it was more than enough for her.

If all Fushiguro Megumi wanted was to preserve their ordinary days, then Kawaguchi Sachi only wanted to remain by his side.

Above anything else, when she unlocks the door of her apartment, and he crosses the threshold, like clockwork he speaks, it’s almost a second nature by now. “I’m home.”

For a moment, all her worries disappear and she gives him the warmest smile she can muster.

“Welcome home.”

For a moment, she tries to fool herself, this is fine the way it is.

Chapter Text

⊹⊱ 2018 ⊰⊹

            THE ONLY THING GRANTED equally to all is an unfair reality— Fushiguro Megumi knew that best. In the first place, it was why he chooses who he wants to save, why he picks only those who deserve it. In this unjust world, it was his own twisted way of trying to preserve justice, his own attempt of balancing the scales; but more importantly, the only way he believed he could make the world a better place.

For them, at least.

Growing up as a child surrounded with lousy adults, you are forced to open your eyes to the ugliness of the world, made to learn to protect your own.

Itadori Yuji sought to save everyone for the sake of saving, like it was a second instinct. He would always save others without any discrimination, without even knowing who they were precisely because he saw the best in everyone.

Fushiguro Megumi couldn’t bring himself to do so even if he tried.

After all, what if the person he saves will only kill another person? What use is it in saving a demon who could kill a saint? Why bother saving a villain who would only create more casualties; wouldn’t it be the same as sending other people to their deaths?

People live and die, it was the circle of life. Whether or not he interfered with their death, the fact remains that he was not a god. If you can’t save everyone, then might as well save only those who matter.

He picks the good and chooses to discard the evil.

After all, the thought that the casualties of those people was someone’s sister, someone’s friend— that they could easily be his own, leaves a sour feeling in his gut.

The world was better off without any of those people. And the only thing Fushiguro Megumi wanted was for a world where Tsumiki and Sachi could live the life they deserved.

            “Then, why did you save me?” Itadori’s words echoed as he faced Sukuna in the pouring rain. The King of Curses had completely taken a hold of his body during a mishap in their investigation of the juvenile detention center. The cursed womb had been annihilated and yet, in the wake of it, he was facing the shell of Itadori possessed by the evil incarnation.

“If I have the time to curse someone, I’d rather spend it thinking about those precious to me.” He recalls Tsumiki’s words back when she was still awake.

There was no room to doubt what a good person they were. They deserved happiness more than anyone else. But Tsumiki was cursed, Sachi was hated by the universe, Itadori joined a fight he wasn’t even supposed to.

Meanwhile, the father who named him with no regard for his gender was just living as he pleased somewhere.

Bad things happen to good people. Karma isn’t inevitable. Evil people can only be judged by the law. Jujutsu sorcerers are just another cog in that machine of retribution.

Fushiguro Megumi wants more good people to enjoy the fairness the world lacks, even if only a few and that’s why he picks and chooses.

He picks who to save and chooses to save people unequally.

Itadori Yuji was a good person. And the world could use more people like him.

That’s why he asked Gojo Satoru to do anything in his power to save the boy. After all, Itadori only swallowed that stupid finger to save him, didn’t he?

            At that moment, Megumi channeled all his cursed energy to envelop his body, trying to give his all into something for once in his life. He vaguely aware that he’s incapable of fighting the King of Curses. Forcing him to fix Itadori’s heart was even a greater hurdle. But (and that’s what truly matters, doesn’t it?) he wasn’t alone in this. Although he can’t cure his wounds, he just has to buy time for someone else who can.

“Nice. That’s it,” Sukuna gave him a manic grin. “So this is when you start burning through your life!”

“Now, I see. Well, in that case… Show me, Fushiguro Megumi!” the King of Curses taunted him, stepping closer.

“With this treasure, I summon—”

Before he trades his life to fulfill the Ten Shadows summoning ritual, he recalls Sachi’s voice as she once told him, “Mii-chan is a hero. You can’t tell me otherwise.”

He’s not a hero. He’s never seen himself as one, no matter what she’d insist.

Heroes are people like Itadori Yuji who chooses to save everybody but themselves.

And it dawns on him that he never truly did answer the boy’s question.

            Megumi cut himself off and put his fists down instead of using his trump card. He knows Itadori is still there somewhere. All the more reason why he admitted, “Just so you know, I… don’t have any logical reason for saving you back then. Even if it was dangerous, I couldn’t bear to see a good person like you die. I did have my reservations, but ultimately it was for selfish, emotional reasons.”

“That’s fine, though,” he says, and he knows it’s working with the way Sukuna doesn’t take a step closer. “I’m not a hero.”

No matter how much his childhood friend said otherwise, he was certain of at least that. But even so—

“I’m a Jujutsu sorcerer,” Megumi proclaimed. “So I’ve never once regretted saving you.”

            Sukuna’s tattoos totally faded away, and standing in front of him was simply Itadori Yuji, smiling like he often did before, even in the throes of death.

The boy’s heart rests in the palm of their classmate, Gojo Aika who was standing nearby, watching carefully and waiting for the moment she could intervene.

“I see,” Itadori gave him a bright smile, rubbing the back of his head. “You’re real smart, Fushiguro. You’ve put more thought into this than I have. I think your conviction is a proper one, but I don’t think mine is wrong either.”

Blood splashed out of Itadori’s empty chest and gushed against Aika’s hand. The girl was already standing in front of him, desperately trying to undo the damage done.

“Ah sorry about that,” He smiled apologetically as if he was more concerned about the mess on her clothes. “I don’t think I’m going to make it any longer —but at least none of you would have to worry anymore. Do live a long life…”

Gojo Aika caught him, though she was pulled with the weight of Itadori’s body, only assisted by Fushiguro who quickly moved to cradle the boy’s head.

He was not a stranger to death but—

            “Can you actually do it?” Megumi asked, the slight tremor in his voice, betraying the lack of emotion on his face.

It was not the first time he failed to save a life. It was not the first time, he’s ever been this helpless.

But standing in front of him was a girl who could use RCT. And though he was never an optimist, he held out a bit of hope.

“An arm is a lot different from a heart,” Aika pointed out incredulously, her tone cool and even as if she had long accepted the boy’s death if not for the insistence of his friend. The task was daunting when considering her lack of experience. She was a shielder, not a healer.

But Megumi only repeated himself, “Can you do it?”

The girl knitted her brows together. Aika reached into Yuji and tried to fill the void in his body that shouldn’t be there. Blood stained her clothes as she tried to put together his heart, encasing it in a shell of cursed energy.

“Can you do it?!”

“I… I can keep him from dying.”

Megumi let out a breath he was holding.

“I can’t do it forever,” she told him. “Find someone —we need Shouko-sensei.”

⊹⊱ 2010 ⊰⊹

            THE WORLD WASN’T a pretty place. He was four when he was made aware of that. Seven when he became sure of it. Whether or not one was a sorcerer or a non-shaman, the world was full of shitty people regardless.

All the more reason why Fushiguro Megumi didn’t intend to become a sorcerer in the first place. If the school wasn’t providing them financial benefits he wouldn’t even try— was what he claimed. Yet, Gojo Satoru knew how to push his buttons, so he ended up trying harder, pushed by his mentor’s standard.

But pragmatic people like him always found it difficult to do things without reason.

And what was it? What was he doing this for?

Who was he trying to save?

Gojo Satoru once chuckled at the face of that question, claiming only the weak try to find excuses to justify their actions. Megumi noticed the look in his eyes as he said so, a sort of bitterness that reminded him of the man’s evasiveness whenever Geto Suguru’s whereabouts were brought up.

But the irritation on Satoru’s face fades just as quickly when he thinks about what they were striving for.

Gojo Satoru was a sorcerer because he didn't know what else he could be other than The Strongest, so he wanted to reset their rotten sorcery world. To transform the place he was raised in into something almost impossible that only the strongest person alive can dream of accomplishing.

Geto Suguru was a sorcerer who didn’t go on any missions because he abhorred the same fucked-up society. He turned his back around it, and decided to carve his own path, deviating from the norm the shamans saw fit.

Neither of them was wrong in their ways, which was why Fushiguro Megumi was torn between them both.

He understood the philosophy of his mentor’s friend. To save those who were deserving of salvation —Jujutsu sorcerers in his eyes— but having spent enough visits to the Zen’in estate, Megumi knew better.

Not all sorcerers were worth saving.

So how the hell was he supposed to find an answer to that question?

            “I’m home,” the boy called out as soon as he shut the door of their apartment. To his surprise, there was no one there to greet him.

Oftentimes, Tsumiki responds as soon as she hears the door close, or he’d find Sachi waiting for him, sitting down at the entrance to greet him. He will never admit it, but despite all his snide remarks or complaints, it doesn’t feel like home unless he sees her smile.

So, he made his way to the living room in search of one of the two.

Instead, he finds them both in the kitchen, oblivious to his presence while they prepared their dinner with utmost concentration, speaking in hushed tones. Finding it difficult to intrude, he decided to step back and listen in for a moment or two, and it was then that he realized what they were up to.

“Don’t you hate ginger?” Tsumiki, who was only eight by then, asked the younger girl. She had only recalled it once they were cooking, and had only noticed after observing her eat long enough. Sachi had never been vocal about her dislikes after all.

“Mii-chan likes food that pairs well with ginger,” the girl said simply, a thoughtful smile on her face that made his chest hurt. “And… He seems like he’s been having a rough day lately.”

Megumi was surprised she noticed. But he figured she was always oddly perceptive in ways he didn’t expect her to be.

Tsumiki pondered, “Megumi is?”

The scowl on his face was almost constant. Her little brother had always been grumpy after all. To be able to tell the difference of his usual expression and what constitutes a ‘rough day’ was surprising to say the least.

“Did he tell you something?” she couldn’t help but ask.

But Sachi only shook her head in response. “Mii-chan never talks about himself.”

‘Yeah, because you’ll worry,’ the boy thinks to himself. He never wanted to tarnish the innocence Sachi held. He never wanted to burden Tsumiki even more than he has.

No matter how crass he was, Fushiguro Megumi was also a taciturn person after all. He’s used to doing things by himself, used to suffering in silence.

Who was there to hear him out after all? His shitty father?

He could almost scoff. But he looks at Tsumiki and Sachi in front of him, and he decides to step out of the shadows to join them.

            “Megumi, you’re home!” Tsumiki smiled at him, setting down the knife she used to cut up the meat.

“I’ll help out,” the boy spoke gruffly, as he took his spot between them, cleaning the rest of the vegetables.

“Welcome home,” Sachi greeted him, the way she always does with that sort of light in her eyes that he found difficult to respond to.

He nodded curtly, and proceeded to help them prepare their dinner.

“I’m home.”

            During the past few weeks, he had been in and out of the Zen’in estate, visiting with Gojo Satoru, who had promised to find a way to cut ties with the clan.

Although his decision had been resolute —in the way that he refused to join them at the cost of Tsumiki’s wellbeing— a part of him still can’t help but wonder.

How would his life have turned out had he turned out as Zen’in Megumi instead?

He had a good take on what people there were like. If his shitty father was something to go by.

The Zen’in clan was full of egotistical ruthless people; conceited in a way that was unlike his mentor. A sort of arrogance that was meant to drag you down. They were good-for-nothings, who treated women like servants and non-sorcerers like scum.

He hasn’t stayed long enough to tell, but through his short visits, by witnessing his relatives, Zen’in Maki and Mai hiding in the corner of the room, he knew better.

And yet, they treated him like an heir, intrigued by the cursed technique he inherited. He was talked about more highly than the children that were born within the walls of the manor, the same ones who were birthed to carry on their name.

How can such a gifted boy come from the poison seed of his father, they said, fake smiles masking their envy and greed.

He had wondered, not for the first time, what was the point of all of this.

In the end, the people who he was surrounded with right then may have been bound to him by blood, but his real family was waiting for him at home.

Who was he supposed to save?

Megumi recalls the question he’s been asking himself for weeks. He looks at Sachi and Tsumiki and thinks he might be closer to finding that answer after all.

Sometimes, happiness felt like a trivial thing, often left forgotten in the wake of the bad. Was it wrong to become a sorcerer to preserve this mundane happiness, he wonders. Was it wrong to just want to protect his home?

⊹⊱ 2018 ⊰⊹

            JUJUTSU SORCERERS flirted with death like it was a mistress. With the scarcity of people and an abundance of missions, it was not unusual for shamans to take on missions that were beyond what was expected of them. It was also not unusual to be a victim of the mismanagement of the higher-ups. He’s witnessed enough to recognize them for what it’s worth. Gojo Satoru can only do so much after all. Even if he could slay cursed spirits at a snap of a finger, there was something to be said about the bureaucracy of it all. Strength does not always equate to power.

Likewise, in the wake of their most recent mission, Fushiguro Megumi is faced with the cold hard truth.

He was still weak.

Just like the time Sukuna had been awakened by Itadori Yuji, he was helpless in the end of it all, barely able to even fight, if not for the King of Curse’s fickle nature.

Sukuna had toyed with them to the end, and he would have been a goner had Itadori not reclaimed his body. But even so, his friend laid bleeding on the ground, and there was not much he could do even as Gojo Aika tried to resuscitate their classmate.

It reminds him of the time Tsumiki was cursed. How helpless he had been. How he had vowed to get stronger, to find a way to lift his sister’s curse. And yet, even with how much time has passed, he was still as incompetent as ever.

Damn it.

What good is it being a Jujutsu sorcerer when you can’t even protect the people you care about?

“Mii-chan?”

            Sachi’s voice snapped him out of his thoughts and brought him back to reality. Her mere presence was a momentary reprieve, like a flickering light in the dark.

His thoughts had been elsewhere as he wandered the streets, the recollection of his battle just the other day haunted his mind throughout the hour-long train ride to Saitama. He had already arrived at her apartment before he realized it.

“I thought you weren’t coming today,” she mused with that dreamlike tone that always soothed the turbulence within him.

“Yeah…” the boy answered absentmindedly.

Sachi tilted her head curiously, watching his azure eyes dim in color, “Did you visit Tsumiki-nee?”

“Yeah…”

Noticing the forlorn look on his face and his repetitive answer, she stepped aside to make way for him. “Come in.”

            The thing about Sachi was that, although she was oddly attuned with things related to him, she pretended like nothing was amiss, as if waiting for him to come to her. She watches over him patiently, always there when he needs someone to turn to, but never prying insistently.

If he had a say, she was the real hero between the two of them.

For a moment, he’s tempted to seek comfort in her embrace but decides against it.

The distance between them was safe. Neither too much nor too little. He doesn’t dare to bridge the gap and cross the line of their friendship; doesn’t want to destroy it in the wake of his greed.

Everyone precious to him has always been taken by the universe. He refuses to allow Sachi to be one of them too.

After all, if Fushiguro Tsumiki was bright like the sun, Kawaguchi Sachi had a light akin to the moon. She shined most whenever it was dark, guiding his path without even meaning to.

She’s meant to be adored from a distance.

            Even if he wants to reach out for her hand, she’s already walking ahead of him towards the kitchen anyway.

“You’re making dinner?” Megumi says. It was more of an observation than a question. There were bags of groceries lying around on the counter.

“Mhm,” the girl nods at him. And Sachi being herself, turns to him like it were natural to ask him first, “What do you want for dinner?”

“What are you planning on making?” he attempted to turn it around on her, wishing she wouldn’t drop anything just to accommodate him.

“Whatever Mii-chan wants,” she tells him instead.

Megumi gives her a scowl in return, and Sachi just offers him an innocent smile.

He relents with a huff, “I’m fine with anything.”

“That’s not really an answer,” the girl pouts at his stubborn response.

“I’m serious. I don’t see why you have to ask me in the first place. You know I’m not picky,” Megumi rebuked her. He knows very well that she only ever prepares what he or Tsumiki wanted for dinner, and never what she wants for herself.

“What about something with red bell peppers?” Sachi points out knowingly, reminding him of how she used to be the one who picked them off his plate just so that Tsumiki wouldn’t nag him.

The blue-eyed boy grunted, trying not to show his reluctance.

With a cheeky smile, she singsongs, “See.”

“You’re insufferable.”

“And you’re a liar,” Sachi teased. Fully immune to his stubbornness however, she suggests instead of continuing their verbal tug-of-war, “Since you’re here, and it’s been awhile… Is Nabe, alright with you?”

Although his expression remained stoic, his mouth waters at the thought. He only realized then that he may have forgotten to eat lunch today.

Megumi meets her wide eyes that shined with mirth as if she could read what's on his mind.

“Alright. I’ll help,” the boy heaved an exasperated sigh, knowing she won against him. Like he could ever say no to her.

“Sit down, Mii-chan,” she brushed him off as she moved to arrange the ingredients of the pot. “You’re a guest.”

He makes a face at that. “I live here.”

“Not anymore,” Sachi shoots back, setting the induction stove down on the table. The vegetables and meat in the clay pot were clearly chosen with attention to his preferences.

Regardless, he can’t help but narrow his eyes at her. “Since when were you this sassy, hm?”

“I thought it would make you laugh,” Sachi says simply, meeting his eyes for a second.

He didn’t think his humor was that dry, so he asks, “Why did you want to make me laugh?”

Sachi sits across him from the dining table, and she doesn’t even have to look at him to prove her point.

“Because you’re down today. Aren’t you?”

Not for the first time, was he taken aback by how sensitive she truly was to his needs.

            At a loss for words, he stands up instead, deciding to ignore that statement. He grumbled, reaching around the kitchen to gather ingredients and spices before returning to the table to combine them in a bowl.

Sachi watches him knead them together, and questions him out of curiosity, “What are you making?”

“Meatballs,” Megumi tells her, passing it on to her. “Round them up while I wash my hands.”

Sachi nodded, and proceeded to do just that before adding it to their arrangement into the pot.

            While waiting for the broth to boil, she asked him yet again, hoarding his secrets like they were a treasure. “Where did you learn how to make those?”

“A friend taught me,” he says quietly, and remembers vividly the images burned in his head. Blood pooling on the ground, a boy’s empty chest, a heart beating in the palm of his classmate’s hand.

Sachi’s eyes softened at the sight of him.

Only when he looks up, does he notice. He huffed accusingly, “What are you smiling at?”

“Nothing,” the girl smiles warmly at him, “It’s just… It’s the first time you ever talked about making friends. I’m glad you’re getting along with people for a change, considering how much trouble you made in middle school.”

“Who are you, Tsumiki?” he scoffed.

Immune to his snark, Sachi inquired instead. “What are they like? Your friend?”

Megumi took a deep breath filled with exasperation as he thought back to his classmates. “He’s loud, stupid, and reckless—”

Although he would never admit it, she recognizes that hint of fondness. And at that, Sachi giggles.

He would never say it out loud, but her laughter is like music to his ears.

“Stop that,” he complained, though his voice lacked the usual edge to it.

“You say that now, but if he’s friends with Mii-chan, of all people, I bet he's a good person,” Sachi declared as if her reasoning was flawless. And in a way, perhaps she had a point.

It took a beat before he murmured, admitting, “He doesn’t hesitate to throw his life for others… He almost died, just yesterday.”

And from his words, she couldn’t help the fear that crept up on her. A glimpse of the world he lives in. How she can easily lose him like he does with his friends.

But she knows where she stands. Knows Megumi wouldn’t want her to pry. Knows he’d shut her down if she even tries to ask about the dangerous things he does in the guise of a sorcerer.

            “I’ll make a hundred paper cranes and pray that he gets better,” Sachi tells him instead, hoping that she could at least lift his spirits. It’s the least she could do. The only thing he’ll let her do.

And yet, Megumi lets out a soft snort, remembering the thousands of origami cranes she had made him hang in Tsumiki’s hospital room. “You don’t have to do that.”

Sachi shook her head, and reminds him. “It’s thanks to him that you’re home right now, aren’t you?”

The thought of home, makes his chest tighten, because she was right, wasn’t she?

There could come a day when he wouldn’t make it home, and despite his faith in his suicidal trump card, he could never bring himself to be the reason why she would be alone.

The happiness Fushiguro Megumi sought was simple at best.

Kawaguchi Sachi was the light that kept him tethered to his humanity; the only reprieve he had left outside the world of Jujutsu.

Even now, only when she smiles does he feel like he’s home.

Chapter Text

⊹⊱ 2015 ⊰⊹

            HIS DILEMMA STARTED when they were in their first year of middle school; when he realized that their relationship wasn’t a conventional friendship. The fact that they’re in puberty didn’t help, especially when certain aspects of her that he usually didn’t pay attention to began to haunt his thoughts, like the way her hair draped down on her shoulders, or the way her eyes crinkled when she smiled with sincerity.

He overhears the conversations between his classmates, how girls gushed about love confessions, and boys discussed their type of woman. He recognizes the way his gaze lingers on her a little longer, how her smile makes his chest ache, how he always thought of the little things he could do to make her happy. But it’s only when a classmate of his approaches him that he actually becomes conscious of it.

“Fushiguro, you’re dating Kawaguchi-san, aren’t you?”

The question almost feels like an attack, even though they probably didn’t mean to. His body tenses and he bristles at those words, shooting daggers at the guy who brought it up.

‘Obviously not,’ Megumi wants to scoff. They’re best friends. Childhood friends, in fact. It wasn’t like he was close to anyone else to begin with, for her to be considered the best.

But he can’t find it in him to deny their assumption, can’t bear to see other pests —both cursed spirits and unworthy people— swarm around her. So he keeps his mouth shut instead.

They’re just friends. And yet, friends their age don’t live together, don’t hold hands on their way home, don’t revolve their world around each other.

But they’re family in all the ways that matter, and he won’t let his feelings get in the middle of that; especially since Kawaguchi Sachi didn’t have anyone else aside from him and Tsumiki.

            His classmate raised his hand in surrender, motioning towards the group of guys who gathered near his table, a gravure magazine splayed on the table as they discussed thoroughly about the type of girl they were attracted to, which led to a debate about whom the most datable girl in class was.

Somehow, much to his displeasure, his childhood friend happened to be thrown into the mix.

“She’s cute, in the airhead type of sense,” someone had said, and he was tempted to punch them in the face. Fushiguro Megumi wasn’t stupid nor was he blind. He knew better than anyone that Sachi was charming even before anyone in their class realized it.

“I get what you mean,” another one chimed in. “But… How do you put this… She’s a little weird. No offense, Fushiguro.”

Megumi didn’t even bother to spare them a glance, but they seemed to take it as an invitation to go on.

“Weird? But it’s part of her charm, isn’t it? I hear she often feeds the stray cats on campus. She’s probably a doting girlfriend.”

“If you put it that way… I can see the appeal.”

“Say, Fushiguro, have you two already—”

“Shut up,” Megumi warned sharply, stuffing his hands in his pockets, if only to refrain from breaking their noses. He doesn’t bother sparing them a glance, nor does he even attempt to act friendly. He was trying to nap in peace, and clearly that wasn’t happening here, so he walks out of the classroom to wait for the end of her club activities elsewhere.

            Megumi bumps into her just outside their classroom, and he can’t help but wonder if she overheard their conversation. Either way, Sachi only gives him a bright smile, her usual dazed expression calms his nerves down.

For a moment, he’s tempted to reach out, to cross the line he had drawn himself.

He tugs lightly on the ends of her braids, staring at her silver locks as he exorcized the low-level cursed spirits that had attached itself to her during the short time they were apart. His hand lingers a little longer than usual, inadvertently brushing against her cheek.

His touch burns, or so she thinks. Sachi watches him intently, heart rising against her throat, beating a mile a minute. She doesn’t dare move, in fear that such a moment will fade like a waking dream and reality would dawn faster than she knew it.

And just like she thought, upon hearing a sudden noise from outside, Megumi pulled away just as quickly, oblivious to the way her smile faltered for a second.

            “Again?” The girl realized the reason for his proximity, too accustomed to her best friend’s routine exorcisms. The only other time he ever touched her was when he was trying to ward off the curses that attached itself like magnets. She was a walking paranormal hotspot, it seemed.

He huffed, “Why do you think I can’t leave you unattended?”

“You say that like I draw them to me on purpose,” Sachi murmured, to which he counters easily.

“No, but you have the tendency to get yourself in trouble.” Megumi pointed out, and for good measure, he added snidely, “Like joining the occult club for one.”

‘It was like she’s asking to get cursed,’ he was tempted to scoff but he held his tongue. The fact that she never argued back always made him sound crueler than he intended.

“I just want to understand Mii-chan a little better,” Sachi admitted, always so earnest that he had a hard time facing her head on.

He hates the fact that she was doing it for him, but what pisses him off even more was the way he couldn’t give his all to stop her, unable to deny her anything at the cost of her happiness.

Watching the way she looked at him with those big doe eyes, he couldn’t help but put a hand on top of her head. It was a futile attempt of averting her gaze away from him, trying to prevent the way she peered into his soul, trying to hide the fact that she had long made room for herself in the hollow of his chest.

They’re friends, he tells himself, ignoring the way his skin tingled when they touched. So this much should be fine, right?

⊹⊱ 2018 ⊰⊹

            “WHAT KIND OF WOMAN IS YOUR TYPE?” his senior had demanded of him. The question Todo Aoi asked was so insanely stupid that Fushiguro Megumi was certain that he would never get along with this guy even if he tried.

He could feel a headache coming along, and even Kugisaki Nobara seemed to share his plight, looking at the man incredulously.

“Is this some kind of comedy routine?” he couldn’t help but ask, glancing at his classmate, and then back to the two Kyoto students.

Todo had ripped his shirt off, raising his hands like he was ready to fight; a warrior’s stance.

He only had a few questions to think of a plan.

Kugisaki is unarmed. They have to avoid confrontation. The only way to do so was to play along with the man’s whims.

He weighs the question on his mind.

For a moment, the image of a girl burns in the forefront of his mind. A memory resurfaces.

            “I don’t get it,” he spat at his sister, unable to justify Sachi’s family circumstances and why his sister of all people allowed her to go off on her own. “Why did you let her meet him? He couldn’t care less about the daughter he abandoned. He never once met her while she was—”

“Megumi, you care about Sachi a lot,” Tsumiki cut him off and smiled at him instead, pointing out the obvious. She had never said it out loud, but she is proud of the brother she raised. “Not forgiving people isn’t a bad thing. That’s just part of your kindness, isn’t it?”

Forgiveness has never been his strong suit. How can it, when the world was never kind to people like them?

“I care about her too… But sometimes, you have to watch over her from afar,” the older girl however adds (unhelpfully, in his opinion). She looks at him as if she knew better, and he could only his teeth at his helplessness.

It was not the first time he couldn’t change the circumstances they were stuck in, nor would it be the last.

“She’ll forgive him. She’ll act like nothing happened, and she’ll forgive him—” he gritted his teeth at the thought of her sitting there waiting hopefully for a man who wouldn’t bother showing.

“Megumi,” his sister reminded him. “Sachi is capable of making her own decisions.”

He thinks about how naive Kawaguchi Sachi was. How easy it was to take advantage of her. The way she gave them her home, made sure they had a roof over their heads and food in their stomachs. How she easily let off the people who wronged her. How she never hesitated to reach out to someone in need.

            Fushiguro Megumi hated bad people. They act so damn superior when their empathy and imagination are as empty as a vacant lot.

He can’t deal with good people either. They forgive those bad people who view the act of forgiveness as a noble thing.

And yet, Sachi never cared about stupid things like that, simply because there was nothing else going on in that head of hers.

She only sees the good in people. She watches the world with the eyes as pure as a child’s. Sees it full of hope and light, while he can only ever see the dark, crooked intentions of everyone else around them.

Tsumiki had once claimed they balanced each other out that way.

“She’s too kind,” he croaked out, as if it were a bad thing— as it was his job to protect her.

“You just don’t want her to get hurt,” Tsumiki nodded emphatically. She understood where he was coming from, but knows it would be just as important for the girl to make amends with the ghosts of her pasts.

“Don’t patronize me,” he muttered under his breath.

“I’m not,” his sister tutted, and much more solemnly, she said, “Sachi is stronger than you think.”

But that’s the thing.

It wasn’t that she needed his protection, after all; it was just that he couldn’t imagine doing otherwise.

            “I don’t have a particular preference,” Fushiguro Megumi answered Todo Aoi with sincerity. “As long as that person that isn’t easily swayed, I can’t ask for anything else.”

He doesn’t have a type per se.

But if he had to be specific, then it all boils down to one person.

It was the first time he ever acknowledged his feelings. The first time he allowed himself to even think about her that way.

It would have been fine as long as she lived the life she deserved.

He knows Sachi won’t find that with him. Knows she deserves the best, deserves someone who can provide her the same love she gives without a second thought. She deserves some like Itadori, the epitome of a hero. Someone good and kind, someone who would never make her cry a day in her life.

He doesn’t have a type. It just so happens that the usual smile she always gives him is engraved in his mind.

⊹⊱ 2016 ⊰⊹

            THEY WERE INSEPARABLE to a point in which, even if they were in different classes come their second year of middle school, they always had lunch together at the rooftop like it was a routine.

At first, it had been a practical decision. They used to be classmates during their 7th grade. Sachi often helped Tsumiki with their meals, and so, they had the exact same bento. It would have been difficult to explain to a common person how they have been cohabiting ever since their childhood to make up for their respective parent’s neglect. He didn’t want anyone meddling in his business, nor did he want to turn Sachi away when she had been the one to ask him.

Now, it had become a habit both of them were reluctant to break.

            “Mii-chan,” Sachi excitedly brought up that afternoon with her usual smile that brimmed with innocence. “Did you know you made the school paper?”

Megumi doesn’t bother to look up from his meal and only made a noise of recognition.

“‘Physically fit juvenile delinquents hung from a billboard,’ it says,” She read it out loud and giggled. “I remember Tsumiki-nee almost had an aneurysm that day.”

Tsumiki had a habit of acting more like a mother rather than a big sister. He doesn’t understand what the hell was her problem. Those guys raised their hands first, didn’t they? What was wrong about defending his peace?

Then again, he supposes her worries were justified. His older sister had always been meddlesome. He pacifies her with empty words just to spare himself from her nagging, but he winds up getting strawberry milk spilled all over the back of his head instead.

Sachi, however, seemed more happy about it. She was always amused by the way that Tsumiki often scolded him, as if it proved just how well the two siblings were getting along with each other; as if the simple act was a testament to their bond. She has never known what it was like to have a family after all. The Fushiguros were the closest thing she had to a home.

“They hit Mii-chan first, anyway,” she had once told Tsumiki on his behalf. Goes to say how much faith she had in him, Megumi thought.

Though, there was something that did concern him.

            “…No one’s bothering you, right?” Megumi looks up from his lunchbox and stares at Sachi for a moment too long.

She tilted her head curiously, wondering why he would ask that. “Because I’m always with you?”

“Mmm…” Megumi grunted.

“Nope,” Sachi assured him, shaking her head and munching on her food quietly.

He raised an eyebrow, unconvinced, “Then, why are you always alone?”

Their eyes looked at each other. Navy blue meeting rose pink, like a garden of flowers beneath the night sky.

The girl opened her mouth to ask, “Do I bother—”

But Megumi cut her off before she could even finish those words. “Of course not.”

“Then, what’s the problem?” Sachi spoke flippantly.

He was a little irked by her carefree demeanor. It made it seem like he cared more about her than she did. The boy let out an exasperated sigh, “Don’t you have other friends?”

“Mii-chan doesn’t have other friends either,” she volleyed back, her tone too gentle to be considered offensive.

“Yeah, on purpose,” Megumi scowled.

Their eyes met once again as the silence engulfed them. It was akin to a staring contest of sorts. Both of them too stubborn to back down.

Sachi, however, had been the first to break the silence, desperate to fill it with some kind of noise, having never been too fond of the quiet.

Silence, she believes, was akin to being alone, reminiscent of the life she led before him. More than anything else, more than the curses she couldn’t see, or the danger she could find herself in, there was nothing more that she feared compared to the thought of being left behind.

“It’s hard to make friends in my class, they already formed groups before I knew it… And besides…” she tells him and averts her gaze.

He can tell there’s something she’s keeping from him. Oddly enough, for someone as innocent and sweet as she was, the girl had always been too good at keeping secrets. Perhaps it was not that she meant to. Perhaps it was just something she did unconsciously, desperate to be loved, desperate not to burden anyone else around her.

But Megumi was smart enough to read between the lines and it pissed him off to no end.

Majority of the people were under the impression that they were dating. They’re staying away from her because they’re intimidated by him. Sachi has always been the first target if they wanted to pick a fight with him after all. She was always the first casualty.

The boy clenches his fists at the thought.

            Her whole life, Kawaguchi Sachi only had a few friends after all. He could count them all in one hand, even with him and Tsumiki. He could only watch as five turned to four, turned to two.

Sachi had met three of them amidst their childhood, whenever she and Tsumiki waited for him to finish his training at the Gojo estate.

But Gojo Aika had cut people out of her life since the death of her brother. And Hasaba Mimiko and Nanako had left alongside Geto Suguru.

Always the optimist, his best friend had smiled through it all, and said that she’d continue to cherish them in her memories.

But he knew her better than that; knew the difference of the curve of his lips when she truly was happy.

Kawaguchi Sachi is scared of being alone, of being left behind, and yet she welcomes people in her heart without a second thought.

If not for her knack of attracting curses, he wonders if she would live a normal life, wonders if people would adore her the same way they did, and thinks that it was only right.

            “ If that’s the case…” Megumi trailed on. For a moment, he wants to tell her that he can distance himself for her sake. He’d gladly play the lone wolf if it meant she can join the herd. It’s a small price to pay to see her smile, to see her light up the room like he knows she does.

“Having you is more than enough,” Sachi tells him instead, with the sheepish smile on her face, as if trying to protect him from the truth. As if he was going to be affected by people’s perception of him, even if he chose to be alone.

“Idiot.” He mutters under his breath. The worst part is he knows she means every single word.

⊹⊱ 2018 ⊰⊹

            “SACHI,” the girl heard his voice from the other line and finally let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding. Although she had assured him multiple times that he didn’t have to go out of his way to return to their hometown considering his busy schedule, a whole week of radio silence had left her blind-sided.

There were no calls, no messages. She couldn’t tell if he was dead or alive. The thought alone was crippling.

And so, upon hearing his voice from an unknown number, she had to school her features into something neutral, something that wouldn’t give away the lump in her throat or the trembling of her lips.

Being forgotten was one thing.

Kawaguchi Sachi had always believed she was never worthy of Megumi’s mercy. She would have never expected that the boy she met on the playground would even befriend her, much less go out of his way to protect her as they grew up together. Existing alongside him alone was so much more than she could ask for. She had meant that more than he ever believed was possible. And she had always known that that was only a matter of time until this short-lived happiness would be stripped away from her like every other good thing in her life.

Losing him to the throes of death, however, was a whole other story.

Because little did Fushiguro Megumi know that the reprieve he found in Kawaguchi Sachi was the same she sought in him.

He was, quite literally, the only hope left she had in her life.

Everyone else had slipped past her fingers. The friends she made in the Gojo estate. The girl she loved like her own sister.

Losing him meant throwing her world out of orbit.

The only reason she got up every morning was on the slight chance she could meet Fushiguro Megumi later that day. She would sacrifice anything for the sake of his happiness, and that meant cutting her out of his life too.

But what was there to give up if there was no one left to offer it to?

            “Sachi?” His voice snapped her out of her thoughts, concern seeping through. “Are you there?”

She finally spoke up, voice as soft as a whisper, as if she was afraid he would vanish into thin air, “Mii-chan?”

“Yeah?” The tension leaves his body when he finally hears her speak. Even from over the phone, she could tell he was relieved.

And yet… “Are you okay?” was the first thing that entered her mind.

“I am,” Megumi assured her. After a beat, he added, “Sorry. My phone broke the other day. I only got a replacement today.”

“Oh.”

Sachi tried her best to sound casual, but in truth her legs gave out a little bit.

She sat on the floor, in a futile attempt to calm her nerves. Her shadow was taunting her from the corner of her eye, laughing snidely.

“Sorry,” Megumi says again. “I’ll be home soon. I promise.”

“It’s fine, Mii-chan! I’m happy you called,” Sachi tells him, her voice too bright and cheery, trying to mask the turmoil stirring within her. “Tell me about your week instead. Were you busy?”

“We had an event with a sister school,” Megumi explained. He leaves the fact out that he was injured —mostly bedridden— the past few days. “We played baseball.”

“Baseball?” Sachi echoed. He could hear the smile in her voice. Little did he know, she was curled up on the floor, listening to him intently, like his voice was the only thing grounding her to reality. “Did you have fun?”

“Hmm…”

She feels a pang of envy as she wonders what it could have been like if they went to the same high school.

Instead, she is faced with memories of flowers on her desk and mud in her indoor shoes. There’s a vice wrapped around her neck, making it difficult to breathe, reminding her that someone like her was not allowed to be happy.

“It was alright,” the boy tells her, casually. It was better compared to the ambush of cursed spirits they had to face in the wake of the Kyoto Goodwill Event. “We won.”

“Do you have pictures?” Sachi chuckled. She could at least live vicariously through him.

He snorted on the other line, “‘Course not.”

“Too bad,” she murmured softly, a small smile on her lips, though without the usual light in her eyes.

Megumi asks her instead, “How have you been?”

“I’m okay…” the girl tells him gently.

Her white lie doesn’t go unnoticed.

“Don’t lie to me,” he chided, always so attuned to matters concerning her.

After a moment of contemplation, Sachi bit her lip and admitted. “I miss you.”

Those three words meant a lot to him more that she would ever know.

And though he doesn’t say it back, incapable of being honest even to himself, he promises her instead. He had always been one to keep his word.

“I’ll come home tonight.”

“You don’t have to,” she tells him the way she usually does.

“I want to,” he says instead, as if it were that simple.

So long as it’s for her, it always has been.

Chapter Text

⊹⊱ 2016 ⊰⊹

            KAWAGUCHI SACHI has the patience of a saint. She would graciously accept tedious tasks without a word of complaint. She would smile through what normal people considered as painful. She would wait for him forever, to the point that it could put the tale of Hachiko to shame.

In truth, it was not because she was selfless or kind (although Megumi wouldn’t deny that fact), but simply because it was the only way she knew how to be.

Kawaguchi Sachi only had a handful of things she cared for, and even lesser, a handful of people. And so, she cares for each one to the utmost capacity, carving them into her heart and holding them against her chest like precious treasures.

Or rather, she would give them everything she has to offer and leave nothing for herself.

            “You didn’t go home yet?” he had asked once, surprised to see her still standing by the exit of their middle school building. The boy had been stuck in community service thanks to his little stunt earlier that year, and though it was a habit for them to walk home together, this once, he told her to go ahead.

The silver-haired girl had been looking at the gray skies, counting the pitter-patter of raindrops, before he had arrived. Like always, Sachi offered him a warm smile in response, the residuals of curses a great contrast to her bright expression.

Before she had noticed, Megumi had quickly exorcized them without sparing a beat. He doesn’t even bat an eye as he ripped the last one off her shoulder.

“Mii-chan didn’t bring an umbrella,” she told him as an answer to his question, as if it were a reasonable excuse to keep waiting for two hours.

“I could’ve gotten one at the convenience store,” the boy retorted in a scolding manner. “And besides, the rain’s letting up. You’re the one who’s going to wind up with a cold.”

It was at times like this that she was reminded that Megumi was Tsumiki’s brother. His concern was evident behind his crass tone, like the kindness that laid beneath his jagged edges.

“But what if you get hungry?” Sachi tilted her head, opening the plastic bag in her hand to show him her spoils. “I bought food from the cafeteria before they closed. It’s their last yakisoba bread—”

With an exasperated sigh, Megumi told her gruffly, finding it difficult to respond to her caring nature, “You’re worse than Tsumiki.”

“That’s because Mii-chan never says anything. You always bear it in and suffer in silence. Tsumiki-nee said that might be why you’re always grumpy,” She put her fingers over her eyebrows, slanting them downwards to mimic the usual surly expression. “Your face will get permanently stuck like this, you know.”

“I am not grumpy,” the boy huffed, taking the umbrella from her and tilting it closer to Sachi once he had it opened. Somehow, he refuses to allow even the slightest drop of rain to touch her.

The girl, however, simply pushed the handle back and murmured, “Be more selfish.”

For a moment, Megumi thinks, ‘What a fucking hypocrite.’ But then he looks at her with those wide, innocent eyes, full of genuine concern for him, and heaves a sigh; defeated.

‘Be more selfish,’ she says. And yet, he knows he can’t afford that. Knows there’s nothing else left to spare for others if he takes it for himself.

Even if he could, he doesn’t know how to be greedy. His life never had a set path.

What were you supposed to do when you’re birthed by a dead woman and discarded by your father? What were you to do if you’re thrusted in a profession you couldn’t care less for, simply because they claimed you had a gift? Who was he protecting? What was the point in living?

His life has never had any direction. No matter how many plans and contingencies he can easily come up with in the height of a battle, Fushiguro Megumi had only ever existed in the present. He thinks of what to do today, and not what will happen tomorrow.

The only things he’d been waking up for was to make sure no curses were haunting Sachi; to make sure that Tsumiki wasn’t lonely; to make sure that his family was safe and sound.

He’s not suicidal, he’d defend. A suicidal person seeks death like it was salvation.

Fushiguro Megumi never cared whether he lived or die. He lives because it’s human nature, because it’s only natural to survive. He claims that it’s only when he’s faced with the threat of a cursed spirit that he’d choose death as a means to an end.

But it’s for them, he’d argue. If it’s for them, the world can burn for all he cares.

His life was just another contingency.

            “You’re one to talk,” Megumi muttered under his breath, and pulled her closer so that the rain wouldn't fall on her shoulders. He’s oblivious to the slight flush of her cheeks, or the way she leaned a little closer, if only to seek a little more of his warmth.

“Mii-chan, did you know?” Sachi spoke in her soft melodic voice, her eyes locked ahead of them, a genuine smile on her face. “I’m happy when you’re happy. That’s why… It’s okay to be greedy, alright?”

Even until now, he doesn’t know how to respond to her sweet words.

“You don’t have to tell me twice,” he muttered, wrapping an arm around her shoulder to steer her closer to the sidewalk as they huddled under the umbrella.

The most selfish thing he can do is to close the distance between them, but he couldn’t even do that. Can’t afford to be the shadow that dims her light.

For now, he settles with this.

⊹⊱ 2018 ⊰⊹

            SETTING FOOT IN HIS OLD JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL hit him with a pang of nostalgia— not that he’d ever admit it. Megumi was quiet for the most part, lost in thought as they ventured the grounds. He remembers her in everything; in the stray cats she used to feed on campus, the rooftop they spent their breaks in, the places where she always waited for him.

He had been reluctant at first, aware of his infamous reputation in Saitama Urami Easy Junior High, the amount of delinquents he put in their place.

He also didn’t want to mix his past with his present; didn’t want the pity that came with people learning of his sister’s curse, didn’t want his childhood friend to be acquainted with the horrors that came with being a Jujutsu Sorcerer.

It was just another boundary he built himself.

Non-sorcerers were not allowed to be acquainted with the world of supernaturals, after all. Living in oblivion was the peace he could grant them. That way, Sachi and Tsumiki could go about living their ordinary lives and being happy in his stead.

And yet, time and time again, he was only proven wrong.

            Just a week after their sister school event, the first years had been assigned to a case involving the murder of three (now, four) men in front of their apartments. Their deaths had been scattered along different months, the modus operandi involving the auto-lock doors of their apartments. Aside from that, the only thing the victims had in common, however, happened to be their old middle school— which, much to Megumi’s displeasure, happened to be his old middle school.

They wound up in Saitama, looking for clues that may help solve the case, spent the rest of the day asking around in his junior high school, only to come out with no leads.

“I’ve been to Yasohachi bridge too,” Megumi had mentioned as they gathered near the car, preparing for their next move.

“To bungee jump?” Yuji interrupted him, and he smacked him upright in the head for suggesting such a stupid thing.

“It’s easy for curses to take root in haunted locations, just like in schools, so people from Jujutsu High regularly patrol it,” Megumi explained, mostly for Yoshino Junpei, the newest addition to their group. The boy had only recently become a sorcerer after Itadori Yuji’s mission with Nanami Kento, and he’d bet ten thousand yen that Gojo Satoru hadn’t bothered to educate him on the basics.

He then informed Nitta, their manager for the case, “There wasn’t anything unusual at that time though. It might be a bit infamous, but it’s still used as a normal bridge”

“We still have to check it out, though,” Nobara mused.

“That’s right,” Gojo Aika nodded quietly, clearly indifferent to the whole ordeal.

            Just as they were about to leave, Takeda, the old staff from his junior high school, had called out to him.

“Fushiguro-kun?” the old man had spoken, stopping them before they left. “Sorry, I was curious about something. Tsumiki-kun was always concerned about you when you were in school. And as I recall, Sachi-kun had always stuck around you. Are they doing well?”

He thinks of them both —of Sachi who comes home to an empty house and Tsumiki who’s still lying in that hospital bed— and lies through his teeth.

“Yes.”

Megumi makes a mental note to call Sachi after this mission. He hadn’t informed her that he was near the area after all. He didn’t want her to worry.

But two of his classmates were just as meddlesome as they were loud.

            “Tsumiki?” Nobara chimed in, followed by Yuji who added, “Sachi?”

Junpei turns to Aika as if she had the answers, considering she had been the only one who didn’t seem surprised by the mention of those two names, “Who?”

She averts her gaze away from them, allowing Megumi to explain.

It was only a matter of time before they found out. And so, with an exasperated sigh, the boy answered, “Tsumiki is my older sister.”

“Hah?”

“And this Sachi?”

He holds back another sigh. He didn’t want to mention her, anticipating that Yuji and Nobara would only make assumptions (no matter how right they were) about his unconventional relationship with his childhood friend.

In an attempt to avoid their questions, Megumi accidentally meets Aika’s scrutinizing gaze.

She’s reminded of their childhood spent in the Gojo estate, the two girls she often played with— one of which, she even considered as her best friend; because even if Satoru had brought home Megumi, a fellow sorcerer, it was Sachi’s attention, they both competed for.

Gone were those days, so she replied solemnly in his stead, “His childhood friend.”

“Haaah?!” Nobara exclaimed, much louder this time, and nagged, “You tell us too little about yourself.”

“Yeah, that’s right!” Yuji agreed enthusiastically.

Looking at these two, and knowing the chaos that came along with them, he also makes a mental note never to introduce them to Sachi for the sake of his own sanity.

            HE KNEW HE HAD a bad feeling the moment he recognized his classmate, Sachi’s old clubmate, Fujinuma. Because if the girl had been cursed, there was an even greater chance that his childhood friend would have been too.

Kawaguchi Sachi attracted curses like they were a moth to a flame. Megumi has yet to figure out why; couldn’t find any possible reason as to why an ordinary girl —a non-sorcerer no less— was bound to live in such circumstances.

Gojo Satoru himself couldn’t seem to identify the exact cause. But then again, he knows his teacher well enough to be able to tell the man was withholding something from him.

“Give me a call when something happens,” his mentor warned him. “Better yet, if you can’t reach me, ask Suguru. This one’s a little tricky.”

As if he could.

It wasn’t like he could get either of them to come here at once. But what other choice did he have?

Kawguchi Sachi’s penchant for attracting curses couldn’t easily be changed.

            “I went on a test of courage with three other people from my club. Two seniors, Kawaguchi-chan— Oh, that’s right. Fushiguro-kun. Tsumiki-san was with us then, too,” Fujinuma had informed him while she was sharing her experience. Her words made his usual stoic expression waver.

Sachi was one thing, but Tsumiki who’s still asleep…

He knows for a fact that his sister must have gotten involved out of concern for the girl. He himself had made sure not to let Sachi meet Tsumiki while she was in a coma, at the risk of the same curse befalling her.

And yet… here he was now, dealing with another one that could put them both at risk.

Who the hell was he going to save?, he thought to himself. How can he possibly be in two places at once—

            “I understand the situation. A guard for Tsumiki-san, right?” Ijichi, one of the Jujutsu High managers, had spoken on the other end of the line. Megumi had opted to call headquarters the moment he stepped away from his classmates. Unfortunately, the man informed him, “But the only ones we have available right now are second-grade sorcerers.”

“Second grade…” the boy muttered.

Ijichi continued to explain, “Since the number of victims far exceeds our estimates, we’ll have to re-evaluate the curse’s grade, as well.”

Megumi could only listen as the man instructed, “You were assigned to this mission to assess your capabilities as first year students, with consideration to Itadori-kun’s growth so far. If it’s even more dangerous than that, it might be too much for a second-grade sorcerer. Considering Yoshino-kun’s inexperience, it’s just as dangerous for all of you, as well. Personally, I recommend you withdraw.”

He can’t have that, now that he knows the other possible casualties of this curse.

‘What should I do? Do I go back by myself right now?’ Megumi thought to himself with gritted teeth, trying to come up with a solution no matter how bleak it was.

But who would he even go for first? He can’t meet Sachi and Tsumiki at the same time. He’ll only endanger more than he could save.

To make matters worse, the mission was already dangerous for all five of them. He can’t leave it to his classmates.

Not for the first time was he faced with an impossible choice. His jaw tenses as he weighs his options.

Who the hell can he count on?

Gojo Satoru will return next week. Geto Suguru’s whereabouts and arrival were even harder to predict.

He could ask them but— No. The time limit is the big problem.

This isn’t the type of cursed spirit that attacks someone. It’s the type that activates a cursed technique from within a marked person. There’s no point staying nearby and protecting them.

He has to do it by himself, can’t involve his classmates in his own problem at the cost of their lives.

‘I have to exorcise it right away,’ Megumi clenched his hands into fists, nails digging into his palm. The twinge of pain allowed him to get his head straight enough for him to dial her number.

‘Just in case,’ he tells himself.

            “Mii-chan? You called?” Sachi answered after the first ring, her voice light and airy as if she was simply happy that he was reaching out.

“Are you home right now?” the boy asked gruffly, hoping that she couldn’t see through his facade or the tension in his voice.

“No, I’m at the public library. But I’ll go home as soon as I finish studying.”

He takes a deep breath, assuring himself that she’s fine. She’s alive. She’s alive.

She, however, can tell something’s wrong from the silence on his end. “Did something happen?”

Her gentle tone made it harder to keep his feigned nonchalance, “Has anything strange happened recently?”

“Supernatural stuff?” Sachi mused. “I haven’t noticed… Not that I can. But you already got rid of them last week, didn’t you?”

“It doesn’t work like that. You’re always infested with cursed spirits,” he huffed, and much more seriously, attempted to pry. “Think carefully. Nothing odd when you head home to the apartment? Did the automatic doors—”

“Ah, now that you mentioned it,” the girl piped up. “The auto-lock doors have been left open the past few days whenever I walk home. It’s probably just a coincidence so I didn’t report it but—”

‘He was killed in front of the entrance. Previously, upon returning home alone, he reported, the door was unlocked, but it wouldn’t open.’

“—Mii-chan? Are you still there?”

“For how long?” Megumi gritted his teeth.

Sachi hummed, “Um—”

“Sachi, how long?” the boy demanded.

“I-I’m not sure…” she stammered, surprised by his tone. “A week or so? But… It was fine when you walked me home so I figured it’s just a little old…”

A week. A week and he had no clue. She could’ve been the next victim and it was just right under his nose—

“Mii-chan, are you okay?” Sachi broke his train of thought, concern evident in the way her voice shook. “You sound… agitated.”

‘The curse of Yasohachi bridge only appears before its victims,’ he reminds himself.

Megumi took a sharp breath to clear his head— to get his shit together, really.

“I need you to listen to me, okay?”

“Mmm…” the girl hummed.

“I’m on a mission in Saitama right now.”

“Really?”

“Yes.” He instructed, trying not to let her bright tone get to him. He had never admitted it but he has always been scared of disappointing her. “I need you to wait for me before you go home. Find a cafe or a family restaurant, just… Stay somewhere where there’s people and wait for me, okay?”

“M’kaaay,” Sachi chirped.

“Good,” he let out a sigh of relief. “I have to go—”

“Ah, wait!”

“What?”

He can tell there was a smile on her face as she told him, “Mii-chan, I’ll be waiting patiently. So be safe, okay?”

Megumi chuckled mirthlessly, “I should be telling you that.”

“Promise me?”

“Sachi—”

“Promise me, please?”

“I… I will,” he relented, knowing he can never deny her anything.

And yet, he can’t tell whether it would wind up as a lie.

            “Is that Sachi-san or your big sister?” Yuji interjected. The four of them were crouched behind him, eavesdropping on his conversation. He had no choice but to school his features to make sure he’d give nothing away. There was no use in making the tensions worse.

“It’s Sachi,” he answered simply.

“Is she okay?” Junpei asked, at the same time as Nobara’s musing, “You’re surprisingly soft on her, huh? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you make that expression.”

They were bombarding him with questions, and just as he was trying to find the words that wouldn’t disclose anything about them, all the while satisfying their curiosity, Aika asked him as well.

“How are Tsumiki onee-san and Sachi-san?”

He was surprised she cared, after refusing to come in contact with them for so long. He couldn’t tell how much she knew, but he supposes that his mentor must have informed her in passing about Tsumiki’s condition.

“They’re okay,” he grunted, hoping it was enough to convince them and yet, fully aware it was lacking. Nonetheless, he doesn’t bother telling them anything else, aside from, “They’re going to send someone to look after Tsumiki.”

Megumi then pushed their backs, dragging them back to the car Nitta had started, “More importantly, this mission’s danger level just shot up. Other sorcerers will be taking over this case— You can go home now.”

“What about you?” Yuji refused to get inside.

“I’ll go back after I say farewell to Takeda-san. And I’ll be meeting Sachi after this. Now go.”

The only thing left for him to do right now is to exorcize that curse.

            “Dying to win and risking death to win are completely different, Megumi,” Gojo Satoru’s words echoed in his mind as he opened his eyes. “Give it your best. Be greedy.”

Aika and Junpei were guarding Sachi. Nobara was abducted by yet another cursed spirit. Yuji ran outside to chase after her.

He doesn’t know how much time has passed inside the domain. He can taste blood in his mouth, can feel the same warm liquid running down his head.

The level of the cursed spirit had become clear the moment he noticed how it looked like the same one they fought in that juvenile detention center.

He forces his eyes open, sees the curse at a distance, and notices his Divine Dog was missing. His shadow technique has been released. His consciousness has been fading, and his strength has passed.

He doesn’t have a choice.

‘This is the end,’ he thinks.

‘This is it for me.’

Instinctively, the cursed spirit steps back, wary of the surge of energy.

“With this treasure, I summon—” he uttered.

But then he hears a voice in his head, reminiscent of her and the way she had told him, “Mii-chan, I’ll be waiting patiently. So be safe, okay?”

He interrupts his chant, faltering for a moment as he grows haunted by thoughts of her. Because while he was too willing to die for his family and friends, Kawaguchi Sachi had always been his reason to live.

Knowing her, she’d wait for him forever.

He has to go home.

Home, he’d say, and yet he thinks home to her.

“Screw it!” he exclaimed and raised his hands in surrender, a manic grin on his face. It’s the look of someone who has nothing left to lose.

The boy gets up, forcing himself to stand on his feet.

“Spit out the entire depths of my shadow,” he spoke to himself. Hearing his own voice kept him grounded, assured him he wasn’t losing his mind just yet. “Worry about the structure later and just release it while coagulating your cursed energy. Imagine a future version of myself who freely surpassed my limits.”

“I’ll do it.”

The shadows surge from his feet, swallowing the ground in darkness.

He chanted, intertwining his fingers together, as he braced himself to fight until the end.

“Domain Expansion: Chimera Shadow Garden.”

It’s incomplete. It’s ugly work at best. But for now, that’s fine.

If it means getting basked in light after all this, he doesn’t care if the darkness devours him.

            Kawaguchi Sachi had been waiting for hours. The coffee shop she took shelter in was going to be closing soon, but Fushiguro Megumi has yet to arrive. The clock ticks. Seconds turn to minutes, turn to hours, but she sits quietly, fiddling with her fingers and occasionally taking a sip from the cappuccino she ordered.

She used to hate coffee. She used to drink it as a way to copy Megumi who discovered a certain fondness for it. Tsumiki had been the one who introduced her to cream and sugar, masking the bitterness with a hint of sweetness.

The girl smiles at the memory, but then looks at the other cup on the table.

The black coffee she ordered for him has gone cold. It sits right across her, untouched.

            When he finally arrives, she catches his figure from afar, and the tension in her shoulders evidently leaves her body. It was only then that she came to notice the other two sorcerers, who had been waiting all this time at a booth in the corner. A dark haired boy, who’s fringe was covering half of his face, and a white-haired girl with blue eyes that met hers just before they walked out the door.

She recognizes one of them as Gojo Aika, and feels a pang in her chest when she realized that her old friend didn’t bother to sit with her, much less greet her.

Did Megumi send them?

It’s fine, she thinks. She’s used to it. It was only a matter of time, after all. And it was only a matter of time until, just like Aika, Megumi would hate her too.

Her chest aches at the thought, and she whips her head back to her childhood friend only to catch the sight of blood trickling from his head.

The sight leaves her at a loss for words.

What should she do?

“M-Mii-chan? I- I have a— first aid— Are you—” she stuttered, barely able to string words together from worry. Her mind was in a whirl, unable to think of what she has to do first. She swallowed the lump in her throat and tried to reach out for him, but was too wary of hurting his injuries to actually touch him.

What should she do? What should she do?

Her self-deprecating thoughts were immediately overwritten by her concern for him.

She had never seen him beaten and bloody. No matter what fight, Megumi always prevailed. And yet, the sight of his blood made her sick to her stomach.

What should she—

Her rampant thoughts were immediately silenced when she felt his breath against her ear. Megumi had wrapped his arms around her, ignoring his open wounds if only to bask in her warmth.

“Just this once,” he murmured gruffly.

Sachi hugs him back just as desperately, willing tears not to escape her eyes.

This once, Fushiguro Megumi allows himself to be selfish.

This once, he tells himself it’s alright.

Chapter Text

⊹⊱ 2017 ⊰⊹

            TO BE LOVED MEANS TO BE NEEDED— was what Kawaguchi Sachi had grown up to believe. See, when one is discarded by their parents and only gains a family by offering their home to two children that’s close their age, some come to believe that acts of service are all they’re worth.

Kawaguchi Sachi doesn’t have anything left to offer and she already thinks she’s more trouble than she’s worth, so she goes above and beyond to make up for it, trying to conjure anything she can do for their sake.

But against anything she could do, Fushiguro Tsumiki was cursed not long after they got into their third year of middle school, and Fushiguro Megumi is all she has left.

Not long, he too will leave.

            Sachi had been taking up most of the housework ever since Tsumiki fell into a coma. Between school and Jujutsu training, Megumi barely has time to help out at home after all. And so, every single time on their way home from school, she asks him the same old question, “What do you want for dinner?”

And he tells her the same old answer with a disinterested yawn, “Anything is fine.”

All it takes is one look to notice the bags under his eyes, or the weariness that’s all over his face. Although she can only dream to understand the trials he was undertaking, she wishes there was something she could do to carry his burden with him.

Instead, all she could do was ask, “Tired?”

Megumi averts his gaze and runs a frustrated hand along his messy black locks. He grunts. “Mmm.”

She knows he never tells her things regarding the Jujutsu world, and oftentimes she never had the guts to question. But with the dwindling days they have until he moves to the Jujutsu High School, she couldn’t help herself.

“Mii-chan, if you don’t want to continue being a Jujutsu sorcerer, you don’t have to, you know,” the girl offered a small smile. “I’ll find a way to help you pay them back.”

“No… It’s fine. The school already gave us financial support,” Megumi heaved an exasperated sigh. “It’s too late to back out.”

“Do you want to do it?” Sachi asked him, innocent and sweet despite her blunt words.

“It’s not about whether I want to.”

“But do you?” she repeated.

And though Fushiguro Megumi was a taciturn boy, he always had trouble lying to her.

“I’ve been having second thoughts,” he admits after a beat, gazing at a distance and refusing to look her in the eye. “If it weren’t for the monetary support and Tsumiki’s condition, I wouldn’t have to pursue this.”

‘And if it weren’t for me, he wouldn’t have a problem leaving for Tokyo,’ the girl thinks to herself.

She’s not oblivious to his painstaking efforts to keep her safe. If his routine exorcisms were one thing to go by, she knows how taxing it probably was to keep protecting her just because he could.

Whether he leaves or he stays, she wants to tell him to do it only for himself.

That was what Tsumiki would have wanted too.

Neither of the girls want him to become a sorcerer at the cost of his own happiness— but then again, she’s not entirely oblivious to the way Megumi had a tendency to live for others.

Gojo Satoru had told her himself; to allow herself to be saved, because the boy needed it just as much as she did. He claimed that Megumi wouldn’t bother with something, if it wouldn’t help them in any way. That desperation was the only way the boy knew how to give his all. That he didn’t know how to bring out the best in himself otherwise.

If living meant giving Fushiguro Megumi a purpose for to go on, then Kawaguchi Sachi will keep waking everyday for his sake.

If dying did the same, then she would gladly serve her heart on a silver platter.

            Fushiguro Megumi glanced at the girl beside him, who looked lost in thought. How can he even think of leaving her, when she looks like she’s about to trip even with him around?’

How can he even think of leaving her, if it means letting her fend for herself?

So he weighs the pros and cons.

He thinks about Tsumiki in that hospital bed. He thinks about Sachi going home to an empty apartment with a swarm of curses in tow. He thinks about being a city away from them, not being able to be there in a case something terrible befalls them.

He can barely list any pros, but one outweighs everything else: for both his sake and Sachi’s, he knows he has to find a way to lift Tsumiki’s curse— has to find a way to return their home the way it used to be.

            “Do you want me to stay?” Megumi asks, however, and pulls her back by the strap of her bag, catching her right on time.

The answer to that is simple:

Yes. A hundred times.

But she doesn’t admit to any of that, refuses to be the shackle that will only hold him back.

“Mii-chan,” Sachi tells him instead. “Do it for yourself.”

For good measure, she takes a step back and makes sure she’s standing firm, “If it’s me you’re worried about, I’m okay... I can take care of myself.”

Megumi’s face remains impassive, but amidst his silence, he gives her a look that even she can’t decipher.

“What?” she asks warily.

He huffed and turned his face, rubbing the back of his head. “Is it really alright?”

Sachi wants to make him promise that he won't leave her, but she doesn't want him to stay under her own conditions. Doesn’t want him to do it just because she asked.

So she lets go, in hopes that someday, he’d still return home back to her.

⊹⊱ 2018 ⊰⊹

            FOUR SIMPLE WORDS from Itadori Yuji was all it took for them to descend into chaos, “Fushiguro’s getting hit on!”

And all of a sudden, despite their earlier complaints about the sweltering weather, Gojo Satoru and Kugisaki Nobara shot up from their slumped positions under the shade of the tree, in order to witness such a rare sight.

Satoru, the troublemaker that he used to be, instructed his students as they ran towards the boy.

“Formation B!”

“Roger!” the two shouted in unison, following their teacher’s lead.

They were right on time to witness a Fushiguro Megumi standing in front of a high school girl wearing an unfamiliar uniform. And so, they scattered like ants, two of them with a single destination in mind.

            “Fushiguro-kyun!~” Nobara and Yuji shrieked as they latched onto him like forsaken lovers, tugging on his clothes and wrapping their arms around him. They truly were Gojo Satoru’s pupils, taking after the man in his love for dramatics.

“Who is that woman?!”

“Did you forget the night we drank together?

“Was it a lie when you said your time with me was the most enjoyable of all?”

“That night! That night!”

Their chorus of accusations left him dumbfounded as he stood there, trying to make sense of the nonsense they were spouting, “What? Seriously, what?”

The girl in front of him flinched in surprise, unable to figure out how to react to the ruckus in front of her, having never had an amicable relationship with her peers. She instinctively stepped closer to Megumi, as if to quell the sudden rise of panic that struck her.

Eyes of onlookers turned at the chaotic sight.

To make matters worse, Gojo Satoru approached them after recently changing his attire to something that made him appear more radiant and charged, hugging his muscles and showing skin in just the right places. He was dripping with charisma with eyes that could draw you in. He looked like a model cut out from a magazine. “Could you not touch him so casually please, you homewreckers?! Megumi-chan had violin practice with me now.”

If he weren’t so used to his teacher’s melodramatic gimmicks, perhaps he would’ve reacted violently. But instead, he merely stood there with narrowed eyes while the older man pushed his glasses down and spoke in a sultry whisper, “Let’s go home, Megumi-chan. Today I’ll have you master Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.”

Megumi could feel goosebumps run through his entire being.

            Sachi, who was oblivious to it all and a little confused by the situation, found herself relaxing as she took note of that new tidbit of information. No matter how long they’ve known each other, she looked excited to learn something new about him, gathering facts about the boy like they were her little treasures, “You play the violin now?”

“No,” the boy told her, and for good measure, stressed that fact, “No.”

“Huh?” Sachi looked even more perplexed then, brimming with innocence as if she couldn’t fathom a reason why their pseudo-guardian and these unfamiliar people would make up such lies about Megumi.

He stepped in front of his childhood friend and whipped his head towards the other three to shoot them a glare, trying to avoid the gaze of civilians passing by, “Okay, seriously, what is this? Could you not humiliate me in public?”

Only then did Gojo Satoru meet the eyes of the girl hiding behind his student, and realized what the fuss was all about.

            “Oh. Oh,” the older man’s smile grew wider in recognition. He leaned in closer to look over Megumi’s shoulder, greeting her in a singsong manner as if coaxing a rabbit out of its burrow. “Yoohoo, Sachi-chan~”

Sachi lit up in response and offered him a polite nod, finally stepping away from behind Megumi. “It’s been awhile, Gojo-san. How have you been?”

“Eh?”

“Huh?”

Nobara and Yuji exchanged confused looks, surprised that their eccentric teacher was acting like they hadn’t been making a scene just earlier.

Instead of answering their unspoken questions, however, he gives the girl one of his own. “What brings you to Tokyo?”

“Mii-chan promised me we could buy fluffy pancakes from that really famous shop in Harajuku,” she said happily with sparkles in her eyes that reminded him of the same innocent child who often hung around grumpy little Megumi.

“Oh?” Satoru turned to the taciturn boy if only to tease him further, “I didn’t know you could be so thoughtful. You always insist on heading back instead of shopping whenever we’re in the city.”

Megumi simply averted his gaze from his teacher as if he was deaf to his words. “I made a promise, is all.”

“But if he has violin class we can reschedule,” Sachi didn’t spare a beat. Even now, she never stopped being considerate. Even now, with the disappointment she must surely hold from the thought of their time together being stolen, the girl only gives a sweet smile.

“I don’t play violin,” Megumi repeated and narrowed his eyes at Satoru as if he were to blame for how gullible his best friend was.

But that was the thing about Kawaguchi Sachi; her blind faith in people despite their rough childhood was something he both admired and hated about her.

“Is it code for training?” she tilted her head innocently, still believing the little act the older man put on.

“No.”

“So you don’t have any appointment?”

“Nope,” Satoru finally interjected, putting his hands on Megumi’s shoulders to steer him back towards her.

“He’s all yours today, Sachi-chan~” the man spoke with his usual carefree tone, though Megumi could tell from the smirk on his face that the man was actually thinking, ‘This is going to be more amusing.’

What he didn’t know though, was how for a moment, Satoru's eyes, full of nostalgia, softened behind his blindfold.

            The last time Gojo Satoru met her was during Megumi and Sachi’s middle school graduation. Despite often insisting that she and Tsumiki should visit the Gojo estate whenever Megumi had training, the old days when they used to gather and eat snacks together were long gone.

Satoru had only received updates about Tsumiki’s condition from Megumi. And with the boy moving to the dormitories, it was no wonder he’d seen the other girl less and less.

Sensing the dwindling aura of cursed energy that was warped around Sachi, often a tell-tale sign of festering curses, he makes a mental note to check on her more often. He could tell that if it weren’t for Megumi’s visits home, she’d likely share the same gaunt as Okkotsu Yuta— a mere glimpse of the fate of those who had a penchant for attracting cursed spirits.

And yet, he couldn’t help but wonder if the way her bright demeanor never faltered was simply a sign that she was used to suffering in silence.

She was not unlike Satoru in that regard.

            Oblivious to their exchange however, the other two, Itadori Yuji and Kugisaki Nobara, couldn’t help but take note of a particular detail.

The pink-haired boy turned to his fellow sorcerer, his jaw slack as he mouthed, “Mii-chan?”

“I can’t believe Mr. Deadpan beat me into having a relationship,” Nobara muttered under her breath with a scowl, discreetly watching the maiden in an attempt to satiate her growing curiosity.

Their eyes met for a moment, but she only seemed to shrink in on herself, hiding behind the boy yet again.

“Shut up,” Megumi narrowed his eyes to warn them. “It’s not what you’re thinking.”

“We’re childhood friends.” The girl introduced herself shyly, “I’m Kawaguchi Sachi.”

The contrast between them was clear as day. Nobara couldn’t believe that such a soft spoken person could be that close with an apathetic guy like Megumi.

Those traits however, only went over Yuji’s head as he expressed his realization. “Ohh. You’re that Sachi.”

The girl in question tilted her head in confusion as she echoed his words, “That Sachi?”

‘What was that supposed to mean?’ she thought to herself and glanced at Megumi and wondered if he had ever mentioned her. Considering how much of a private person he was, the thought warmed her heart.

Megumi, oblivious to Sachi’s gaze, hit the back of Yuji’s head as soon as the words escaped his lips. “That’s ‘Kawaguchi-san’ to you.”

Nobara smirked. Something tells her that Megumi was nagging Yuji for something other than being disrespectful or overly familiar.

“S-Sachi is fine,” the girl chimed in, trying to pacify her best friend. “I don’t mind.”

“So she says,” Yuji grumbled, rubbing the back of his head. Megumi simply ignored him, his attention averted towards the mischievous look on Satoru’s face.

“Kawaguchi,” Megumi repeated stubbornly, prompting Yuji to repeat after him.

“Kawaguchi.”

“Kugisaki Nobara,” the other girl cut in, without paying the boys any mind, and gave her a wide grin. “You can call me Nobara. And this idiot is Itadori Yuji.”

“Nice to—”

Just as Yuji was about to greet her, Gojo Satoru interjected. “Well would you look at that. Ijichi is asking me to return to school,” he says unsubtly and hands them a ten thousand yen note, pretending he was on the phone. “Why don’t you two join Sachi and Megumi and eat something delicious.”

“Woah, really?”

“Can I keep the change?”

“Now, wait a minute. You’re leaving them with me?”

“You kids should treat yourself after your promotion to semi-grade one,” Satoru grinned. “Enjoy your youth for once.”

Before Megumi could protest and point out that the other two senpais entitled to that promotion weren’t there, he was met with the after-image of his teacher running off, and the matching cheshire grins of his classmates.

Yasohachi Bridge may have shifted something in their relationship, and allowed him to recognize the other people he could count on, his teammates or begrudgingly, friends. But even so, miracles can only go so far.

Here he was, intending to keep his home life and his sorcerer life apart. But thanks to their teacher’s antics, he could only hold back a sigh as he faced two of their most troublesome duo.

            Kawaguchi Sachi was not used to spending time with her peers. Sitting in a cafe with two people she had never met before, who knew Megumi in ways she didn't, was nerve wracking to say the least. So she locks her gaze on the food they ordered, sneaking glances at them from time to time.

Megumi ordered his usual black coffee. Yuji and Nobara went all out on both dessert and drinks, making the most of the money Satoru gave them. Meanwhile, Sachi stuck with the fluffy pancakes they came here for.

Her mouth watered at the sight, but she held back. She doesn’t know the social protocol of gatherings like these, doesn’t know if she can eat, since no one was touching their food. They’re too preoccupied with grilling Megumi or talking about things that happened in their school that she couldn’t catch up with.

It’s only when the boy discreetly nudged her knee that she snapped out of her thoughts and met his eyes, wordlessly asking if she was alright. When she smiled sheepishly, he motions for her to go ahead and eat as if he could hear her thoughts.

Sachi’s smile grew brighter as she happily dug in, swaying in bliss as she took her first bite. The soft texture and subtle bursts of sweetness that filled her mouth calmed her nerves, if only for a bit.

The other two looked at their exchange in a mix of curiosity and intrigue. Who could blame them? Unlike Gojo Aika and Yoshino Junpei, they weren’t given the pleasure of meeting her (or rather, watching her from afar).

They never would have thought the Fushiguro Megumi they knew could be so tender with someone, and never would have guessed that the Sachi they’ve heard of in passing, could be so adorable and pure.

Her cheeks puff up as she continues to munch on her food. The mundane happiness she extruded represented the simplicity of a life they could never have as sorcerers.

When she looks back up and catches them staring however, she freezes yet again like a deer caught in the headlights.

            “Stop that. It’s rude,” Megumi averts his gaze back to his coffee as he chides them for preventing her from eating in peace, like he hasn’t been watching her either.

“We can’t help it,” Yuji defended as he began to eat his own food. “A grouch like you isn’t one to make friends after all.”

“I’m just surprised you have other friends,” Nobara snorted and averted her gaze back to Sachi then Megumi. “She’s cute like a bunny too… You on the other hand—”

Sachi looks at them in confusion, unused to such compliments. She wonders how she can stomach her food if they keep watching her like this.

“You’re troubling her,” Megumi heaved an exasperated sigh, but Nobara paid him no heed and simply began to bombard her with questions.

“So, where do you live, Sachi?”

Just as she opens her mouth to speak, Megumi beats her to it, “Saitama.”

His fellow sorcerer narrowed her eyes at him and sneered, “Is your name Sachi?”

Yuji, too used to how Nobara could be, gives the girl a friendly grin instead. “You’re not a sorcerer, right? So you go to a normal high school?”

“Mhm,” Sachi made a soft noise of agreement as she nodded.

“How nice,” Yuji let out a wistful sigh, unknowingly touching a nerve.

She grows solemn and wonders how her school could possibly be better than Megumi’s. The boy had only ever told her good things about the school. But beyond that, he was there after all. He was there and she wouldn’t have been alone; she wouldn’t have been—

The girl swiftly bottled up her dark thoughts as Itadori Yuji continued to ramble on.

“Jujutsu High is fun and all, but I kinda miss going to a normal high school with the usual cultural festivals and sports festivals— N-not that our high school is anything unusual!”

Nobara looked so done with him. “Nice save, dumbass,” she drawled sarcastically.

He quickly turned to her, whispering loudly, “Shit, does she even know what a sorcerer is? Non-sorcerers aren’t supposed to, right?”

“Relax, you idiot,” Megumi assured him. “Sachi knows. We grew up together after all.”

“But how much does she know?” Nobara raised an eyebrow. “Have you told her about what happened during the Goodwill event?”

“M-Mii-chan said you guys played baseball,” Sachi chimed in reluctantly.

The three of them turned to each other as if there was an unspoken understanding between them— as if there was a wall between them she couldn’t intrude on.

“Right… Baseball,” Nobara nodded in a way that told her something bigger had happened.

“That was on Gojo-sensei’s whim,” Megumi explained.

“Gojo-sensei always gets what he wants but he always takes us students into consideration. Look, we have pancakes to celebrate our promotion,” Yuji spoke up with a mouthful of food.

The news prompted Sachi to wonder, “Promotion?”

“Yeah, we were nominated to take the Grade 1 exam. I guess that means we’re semi-grade ones, right?”

“What does that mean? Like a work promotion? Will you work less and earn more?” she beamed. Less work means they could ease up on Megumi afterall. And maybe, just maybe, more time together, she thinks hopefully.

“Hnggg,” Nobara made a face and groaned. “It’s definitely more pay but more work.”

Yuji nodded understandingly, “We’ll also be handling a lot more dangerous missions like that one with Yasohachi—”

Megumi cleared his throat and cut him off, narrowing his eyes at them in a way that even Nobara shut her mouth.

Noticing the uncomfortable silence, Sachi’s gaze darted at all three of them before turning to Megumi and prodding gently, “Are you not allowed to tell me?”

The boy huffed, “It’s part of the non-disclosure agreement we have at school.”

“Non— What?” Yuji makes a face.

And Megumi shoots him an even harder glare enough to cause him to shrink in his seat. If he didn’t know Megumi, and he liked to think he did, he would have probably been buried six feet under the ground.

The raven-haired boy turned to Sachi and spoke in a gentler tone, “Remember the things I can’t tell non-sorcerers? This is one of them.”

“Oh... Okay.”

            Kawaguchi Sachi grew up with him long enough to read every distinction in his emotions. She knows him better than she knows herself. And looking at him now, sharing looks with his peers, makes her aware that he was keeping secrets from her.

Secrets he trusted with everyone else but her.

‘Oh,’ she thinks, met with the dawning realization that perhaps she can no longer take pride in being the one who knew him best. That perhaps their relationship has also faded with time, like photographs collecting dust in an attic.

She’s easily replaceable. Other people could take her place in the same way she easily made a space in his life.

Serendipity. Luck. Circumstances that are out of her control.

Sachi feels like each memory she held dear was slowly slipping past her fingers like the sand of an hourglass. What she used to think was special blends with the mundane, makes her think she’s no different from a stranger— that if Megumi had met some other kid back in that playground, he would treat her the same way.

But she knows better to cross the line he drew. Knows better than to do something that could drive him away, further away from her.

So instead, the girl nods pliantly and smiles like a doll. She’s getting better at it too. Or perhaps, Megumi has been gone far too often that he can no longer tell.

            Seeing them together, in their matching black gakurans, makes it apparent that even here, with him, she’s still the odd one out. And she was met with the daunting reality that perhaps Megumi no longer needs her by his side like he used to.

His expression has grown softer as well, she noted. Is it thanks to them too?

Sachi feels the jealousy slithering up her chest, wants to beg them not to take him away from her. She tries to stifle it. She has to stifle it. He was never hers to have anyway.

To be loved means to be needed… But looking at them now, makes her realize that Fushiguro Megumi doesn’t need her anymore, that perhaps he never did, and she is crushed by the fear that it’s only a matter of time until he abandons her like everyone else.

What then?

Who else does she have to live for?

Kawaguchi Sachi was no different to the boy in that regard— rooting her purpose in another person’s.

Who can blame them? There was something so unbearably human in the fact that man inherently cannot live without another. Else, they grow mad.

If Fushiguro Tsumiki never wakes from her curse, and Fushiguro Megumi decides to relinquish the mundane world of a non-sorcerer, then the “family” she grew to love would soon too, pass.

It’s no different from waking from a pleasant dream, only to end up in the reality of a nightmare.

            “Are they good?” Megumi turns to her again, if only to include her in the conversation.

Sachi appreciates his efforts, so yet again, she smiles at him and nods.

The pancakes no longer tasted sweet like she thought. She is left with the bitter aftertaste, akin to the meals she ate alone in their —her— empty home.