Chapter 25 Blood, dragons, curses, and black holes
Chapter 25 of Sugar
A/N- *EVIL LAUGH*
Warning- Swearing, ANGST!!, fluff, spoilers, violence, death, blood and gore, SLOW BURN, heavy pining, long chapter
Pairing- Choso x Gojo!fem-reader, Suguru Geto x Gojo!fem-reader
Takes place during- Chapter 203-208 of the manga
(Let me know if you want to be tagged)
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*2 DAYS AGO. ITALY*
It’s early in the morning and the knock on the door is persistent and echoing.
Who could it be Belinda wondered. Some early bird neighbor needing something from her mother, or a neighbor coming to inform her that the sheep escaped the pen again. Whatever it is she hopes it’s quick business, it’s too early to deal with anything.
“I’m coming, I’m coming,” she lets the early morning visitor know as she approaches the door.
Another loud knock proceeds to rap on the door, letting her know that whoever it is is annoying. “I said I’m going,” she hisses before she finally grabs the doorknob and throws the door open, welcoming the sight of…Suguru Geto.
Only this isn’t the Suguru Geto she knew, that man died last year. This is the man you warned her about, and the reason why she and Satori are so far from home, this is the imposter, Kenjaku.
“No,” she snaps and slams the door shut, making sure to lock it before she runs to give her time to counter with her technique. Which she knows won’t kill him, he’s a lot stronger than she is, but it will grant her time to go upstairs to take Satori and escape.
She just needs to hide. Which is annoying but she needs the element of surprise to be able to touch him and use her technique.
“Belinda,” Kenjaku calls out calmly as he easily breaks the lock and opens the door. “Let’s not make things hard. Let’s not scare the girl.”
Belinda leaves her palm open and bends her legs a bit as she hears Kenjaku approaching her hiding spot. She holds her breath as his footsteps sound closer, and nervously clenches her jaw.
However, just before she can be discovered, his footsteps begin to recede. She’s tempted to check, but she can’t be that foolish, she stays still instead.
“I don’t want to kill you, just let me take the girl,” Kenjaku interjects from the large hall at the entrance.
He’s walking away from the staircase that leads to the second floor where Satori is, so Belinda has a chance to run to the stairs.
“You have an illusion technique,” Kenjaku shares what he knows from the memories of Suguru Geto. “But you need to touch me for it to work. So come out you don’t have the element of surprise,” he speaks quietly, making sure not to be loud so as to not wake up Satori and stir up trouble.
She would prefer it the same way though, you and her haven't told Satori that some old sorcerer is using her father's body to avoid traumatizing her, but right now that doesn’t matter. Belinda needs to wake Satori up so she can find out. She'll be very confused but she’ll trust what she has to say about it and she’ll resist Kenjaku.
Thus without wasting another second she grabs the vase on the stand across from her and slams it against the mirror to make a loud enough noise that can reach the second floor and startle Satori awake.
It does alert Kenjaku of where she is, however, but it’s worth the risk.
Or she thought it was because just as Kenjaku retraces his footsteps back across the hall, he shoots out a curse ahead of him that floats through the wall behind Belinda.
Yet before the curse can catch the woman off guard, the hairs on the back of her neck rise, alerting her of something creeping up behind her; so she takes a big step forward and spins around to face the curse she just felt.
Albeit when she faces the wall the curse is gone. She can’t even feel its presence.
“Belinda?!” Satori’s voice echoes down the staircase, assuring her that her sudden plan is working.
“Satori!” Belinda calls back with panic so the girl can know to hurry. “Come down quick honey!”
There’s a moment of silence before she hears small hurried patters on the floor above. Belinda moves her leg to run to the stairs and reach Satori to warn her of the impersonator, but then, just as she was going to break into a sprint, claws dig into her ankles.
She opens her mouth to scream, but a hand then slams around her mouth and she’s yanked down into the jaw of the curse jumping out the shattered mirror, ending her life in an instant and without making a sound.
“Belinda?” Satori calls out fearfully.
“Come,” a mocking voice lures Satori out as the curse transforms into a mirrored version of Belinda.
Without an ounce of hesitation or doubt Satori approaches the hall. But before she can round the corner the Tiger Cursed spirit bonded to her appears first and instantly picks up on the curse impersonating Belinda, and begins to growl.
Kenjaku could exorcize it since he can't take it back because of the bond with the girl. But then the girl would know something’s wrong, so instead he takes a risk and takes back the curse under his command. After all, the tiger-cursed spirit can’t see into the soul, it doesn’t see that it’s not actually Suguru Geto, so it immediately drops its guard now that it’s just Kenjaku.
But now in regards to the girl, it’s a gamble without Belinda. She could see right through him like you had, or not, it's a tricky situation, but it’s a risk he’s willing to take. So when Satori rounds the corner and sees the man she was told died last year, he sticks on his best Suguru Geto smile.
“Hello, Satori,” Kenjaku greets the little girl with a feigned warm smile on his face that was too small when it came to seeing Satori, and without using any pet names that Suguru would have used after being apart from his daughter for so long.
However, the little girl proves him right, she can't tell the difference like you would have, she just sees the man she loved and missed every day. She sees her family coming together again after being broken for so long.
“Daddy?!” She exclaims shakily as her emotions get the best of her.
“I’ve been gone I know,” he says and doesn’t crouch to welcome her in his embrace, he just unfolds his arms and waits for her shock to pass.
“I hope you’re not upset,” he adds and with that, Satori breaks away from her spot and runs to him to throw her arms around him.
“I missed you so much,” she sobs.
Kenjaku is playing a part for now so he finally crouches down and returns the embrace. “I know, I’m sorry,” he coos. “I missed you too.”
“Where have you been?” She asks as she clutches onto him. “Why did mommy say you were dead?”
So many questions, but he keeps his patience and avoids the question by giving her an assuring response. “It doesn’t matter now. All that matters is you, and your mother, whom we’re going to surprise. Do you like that idea? Do you think she’ll like it?”
Satori pulls back and flashes him a grin. “Of course she will, but she’s not here,” she says without a hint of suspicion. “She’s back home.”
Kenjaku smirks and nods. “I know. We’re going to her.”
——
*NOW*
“Are you ready?” Kenjaku doesn’t ask Choso across from him, he knew you were watching and listening, so the question was directed at you.
“Somethings entering the barrier,” Tengen announces.
You would follow with a what, but your anticipation traps your question in your throat, and instead, you get the answer to your unspoken question when Suguru’s four-winged pelican cursed spirit breaks through the barrier and enters the arena, meaning what?
Why did Kenjaku make it fly in after him?
You step closer to the screen overlooking the arena and nervously watch the Pelican open its mouth.
You almost want to close your eyes because you can’t handle the anticipation of waiting to see what Kenjaku came with, but you stay strong and watch closely with your heart running wild in the most terrible way before it suddenly stops and every sound and every sight around you disappears when you see that Kenjaku snuck in your daughter with him.
Who you’re seeing is Satori…
It’s your little girl.
But why? He doesn’t need her for anything. She has a technique but it’s not a rare one, he doesn’t need her. Unless…it’s to torment you. Is he using her to get to you?
Yes, he is doing that. He wouldn’t have taken time out of his scheming for nothing. And of course, she fell for his tricks, she doesn’t know any better, you didn’t tell her that some curse user is using her father's body for his technique. She’s too young, you didn’t want to dump trauma on her if you didn’t have to. You were just trying to spare her so she could have a good childhood, you were trying to keep her safe. It’s what Suguru wanted too. But now…Kenjaku’s brought her here without her Tiger-cursed spirit assigned to protect her, or Belinda—which must mean she’s dead. She wouldn’t have let him take Satori if she was alive.
Kenjaku killed Belinda to trick Satori and bring her here. He’s using your little girl and dangling her right in front of you.
And it works, who would you be if you don’t try to step out to take her from his grasp? You can’t lose her.
“Y/N?” Yuki calls out cautiously as she watches you numbly staring at the screen.
You blink and break from your stupor to turn and stomp towards Tengen. “Let me out,” you command with authority and angry and fearful tears welling in your eyes. “Let me out right now.”
Tengen stands their ground and raises its ugly head higher. “I’m sorry, but I can’t do that. I can’t risk our plan just yet,” they dare to tell your fuming spirit enraging over Satori’s current position. It’s like they were intentionally taunting a protective bear guarding its children.
“What the hell do you mean?” You sneer, but not in a loud voice, it’s low and threatening. One you use against your enemies. “She’s just a little girl! She’s my little girl! So you will let me out to get to her or Kenjaku won’t be the one to find your pathetic body.”
“Y/N,” Yuki warns, earning her to get your glare pierced into her now.
Yet before she could try and calm you down, you hear Choso’s voice a bit softer than before. “Satori.”
You snap your eyes toward the screen and watch as Choso drops his previous threatening stance and softens his glare to get your daughters' trust.
“You have to come with me, okay? That is not your father.”
You feel a stinging pain at the fact that someone else has to be the one to break it to her instead of you. All because you just wanted to spare her.
“Uh,” Satori laughs nervously and does as you predicted; she grabs onto Kenjaku’s arm and shifts closer to him now that she’s actually seeing Choso in person and not behind the safety of a screen—“you’re silly,” she retorts. “This is my daddy.”
“Tengen,” you plead softer and more desperate now. “Please, I’m begging you, please let me get out there. Please. She needs me.”
“Y/N I know you’re scared, trust me I feel for you I care for that little girl too,” Yuki tries to comfort you. “But you have to trust Choso right now. We can’t risk you going out there and getting killed.”
As if she just betrayed you with those words, you snap your eyes at her and shoot her a menacing glare clouded with tears. However, you don’t get to tell her anything because the scene behind the screen continues to play.
“Let the girl go, Kenjaku,” Choso snarls, making you clasp your hands together and keep them close to your pounding heart. “Your fight is with me, not her. Let her go.”
A teasing smirk tugs on Kenjaku’s lips, enraging Choso and causing him to throw his arms out again to shoot piercing blood. Albeit, Kenjaku is quick and yanks Satori in front of him to let Choso know that Satori is expandable to him.
Choso quickly takes note of that and luckily doesn’t think the same way, even if he’s boiling over and grown more impatient now because of Kenjaku using your daughter, he drops his stance again and keeps his distance.
“Tell y/n to come out,” Kenjaku speaks loudly so you can hear clearly too. “I have a little something for her here.” He smirks.
“Tengen,” you become threatening again. “I. Said. To. Let. Me. Out.”
You take a step forward to look up at them with a scowl. “Let me out!” You exclaim and push them back. “Let me out!”
Tengen hears your desperation and the shakiness in your voice, but they don’t budge, not yet.
“Satori,” Choso calls out again and you look at the screen with more tears in your eyes. “I can take you to your mother.”
Satori faces Choso and begins to smile, but not for the reasons either of you wanted. She tugs Kenjaku’s sleeve, and to keep up his act for now, he leans down to listen to what she whispers in his ear that has her grinning and glancing at Choso.
“Ah is he now,” Kenjaku interjects in a fake soft voice as he too looks over at Choso. “Then,” he says louder and stands up to his given height. “He can bring your mother out here, considering you’re her friend.”
Choso huffs and holds Kenjaku’s playful gaze before he scoffs and takes a careful step forward to look back at Satori and continue reaching out for her. “Satori, I can take you to your mother and she will explain everything, but you have to let go of that man. He’s evil and he’s not your father.”
Sartori’s eyebrows slowly furrow as she begins to glare at Choso. “Stop,” she snaps at him. “You’re being mean.”
She steps back and grabs onto Kenjaku with both hands now. “Daddy, I want to go see my mom.”
“I know what y/n can do,” Kenjaku adds and pulls Satori back to make her harder to get to. “And I know her ultimate weakness, which is ridiculous if you ask me.” He scoffs. “But I digress. I want her here or else she can watch what remains of her family…well…” he trails off so as to not alert Satori, and you gasp in fear, while Choso’s lip curls out of anger from his father's threat, but he doesn’t snap back at him.
“Satori,” Choso continues, and your stress continues to ache your heart—“your mother would have told you if your father was alive. You know that. And he would have gone back to you a lot sooner. But he didn’t. And I know I didn’t know your father, but your mother says he loved you, he would’ve returned home a lot sooner. This is not him.”
The anger in Satori’s eyes flickers and confusion slowly begins to spread over her facial features. “Well…” she trails out and takes one glance around as if trying to find you amongst the nothingness of the arena. “Daddy was sick. He said so…right Daddy? That’s why you have that on your head.”
You grab onto your chest as you feel it get heavy, making it hard to breathe.
“That’s right, Satori,” he continues not to say the pet names Suguru would so easily say, especially when it came to comforting her.
“Please,” you mewl to Tengen even if you keep your eyes glued to the screen.
“Satori, your father is dead,” Choso reminds your daughter as she slowly edges towards believing him. “This man is a monster pretending to be him to hurt your mother. You have to come to me.”
Satori let’s one of Kenjaku’s hands go, causing him to open his other hand to slowly summon a curse out of the ground beneath his palm.
“Daddy wouldn’t hurt my mom,” Satori whispers as if trying to remind herself of the fact.
“I know you don’t know me,” Choso continues to try and win over your daughter as kindly as he could. “But I know your mother. Y/N is…my best friend. Okay?”
Your heart leaps at the mention and you unconsciously step close to the screen as if you were trying to reach them.
“Come on baby,” you whisper under your breath even though you too begin to prepare to attack Tengen so they can let you out.
“Your mother would have told you,” Choso keeps insisting and takes a step forward to Satori. “And they would have picked you up together. This is not your father, this man is a monster.”
“Don’t believe him,” Kenjaku argues. “He’s trying to trick you and wants to take you from me.”
Choso groans and Satori begins to pout while her brown eyes start to glisten with tears. “I’m scared,” her voice quivers. “I want my mommy. Daddy, I want to go to my mom.”
“She need only come out,” Kenjaku makes no effort to give Satori what she wants, or tries to take away her fear by comforting her with an explanation she’d understand at her young age.
“Y/N,” Kenjaku taunts mockingly, making Satori look at him with growing suspicion.
“It’s okay, it’ll be okay,” Choso tries to comfort Satori from where he is in a way he thinks you would. “Just come and I’ll protect you until I can take you to your mother.”
Satori stares at Choso for a long moment as her mind spins, making your heart weep at the sight of her confusion and the thought that this will probably now be a core memory and taint in the image she has of her actual father. Yet you do also feel…reassured and hopeful that Choso is choosing to risk his life to help your daughter. He could have just let things be and waited for Kenjaku to get what he wanted, but Choso is choosing to help your daughter, and…that heightens the desire you already felt for him.
And you say a bit right now because of the stress of the situation, otherwise you would have been over the moon.
“Satori,” Choso presses kindly so as to not scare her more than she already is. “You can trust me. I wouldn't hurt you because that would hurt your mother. And I would never do that. Never.”
“Satori,” Kenjaku continues to confuse her.
However, Satori knows Choso is right about the fact that hurting her would hurt you, but she still wants to believe that the man she’s holding onto is the father who loved her since she was born, that he was the one who was always so sweet and promised to love her forever. She missed him dearly and she doesn’t want to let go of him, even if he doesn’t look the same as last year or act the same way.
“I want to go to my mom now,” she asks for you again since you are her only form of reliable comfort, but she still looks to Kenjaku out of hope that Choso is wrong. Yet when she looks over she sees a curse coming out of a dark portal even though to her, there’s no need for violence. She told Kenjaku that Choso was your friend. Plus she was here to surprise you, why would her father choose to fight? He wouldn’t…
You see the trouble running behind her glistening eyes and feel the tempting urge to burn this place down just to be able to reach her. You don’t care about plans anymore, or care to be patient. You bask your fists with fire and twist your head towards Tengen with a glare that could kill.
“Daddy?” You hear Satori call for reassurance, but all she sees is an intimidating look on his face now, a scary look that Suguru never showed in front of her. So that finally makes her let go to try and go to Choso.
However, just as she slips her hand away, Kenjaku grips onto Satori harshly, making her whimper and shed the tears that had been dancing in her eyes.
“You’re hurting me!” She cries out, triggering you to enrage your flames.
Alas, Yuki lunges over and takes you by the arms to turn you away from Tengen. “Just wait,” she snaps at you.
“How the hell do you want me to wait?!” You exclaim.
“Kenjaku let her go!” Choso snarls, forcing you to pay attention back to the screen and see him curl his fists to get ready to attack now.
“I'm done waiting. And I’m done playing with you,” Kenjaku directs at Satori sharply. “Bring y/n out or—”
Before he can finish his threat a long sword made from Satori’s cursed technique pierces through his jaw, shutting him up, and making his grip loosen enough that Satori slips away and runs to Choso, the only person she can trust at the moment.
Choso notices her right away and takes no time to break into a sprint toward her to catch her before Kenjaku can counter.
All while your flames are out, and your nails are digging in Yuki’s arms as you watch what’s unfolding with your heart in your throat, and your breaths getting heavy as you start to heave as it gets harder to breathe with how utterly useless you feel just watching your daughter from afar. You want to be the one running to help her. You want to be down there comforting her, but instead, you’re here, watching her as she picks up her pace and puts her arms out to reach for a man she barely knows, but chose to trust.
You have to watch as Choso chooses to slide down on his feet as he gets closer to Satori to reach her faster. And you have to hold your breath when Choso wraps his arms around Satori, and Kenjaku throws his curse at the pair at the same time.
“Tengen!” You cry out desperately and let Yuki go.
Choso then shields the back of Satori’s head as she clings onto him, and twists around to hastily pull Satori off and put her down.
“It’s going to be okay,” he assures and puts his hands together to get ready to attack the curse getting closer. “You’re going to your mother now.”
Satori holds her hands and before she can question Choso, suddenly the floor beneath her falls piece by piece, bringing her down towards a darkness that swallows her whole in a blink of an eye, and then spits her out in a large white room where the first thing she sees is you.
“Satori,” you greet her first, making her cry out of relief before you both run to each other and meet halfway with an embrace.
“Mommy!” She cries on your shoulder and holds onto you tightly. “I was so scared.”
You finally draw in a deep and relieved breath and begin to caress the back of her head. “I know baby girl, but I’m here now. You’re safe. You’re okay.”
Satori nuzzles her face against the crook of your neck, and you hug her tighter before you look at Tengen with a soft smile. “Thank you,” you mouth.
Tengen offers you a nod and turns away to face the screen, while you let Satori keep hugging you and feel no regret for the way you acted. Any second longer and you would have pushed through Yuki and torched the place until Tengen dropped you into that arena. You don’t apologize for your anger because to you it’s justified, especially when it comes to your children. They actually should feel lucky that you trusted Choso enough to wait or else you wouldn’t have been so nice as to be patient.
“Mommy,” Satori says shakily while she refuses to let go.
“Yes?” You probe and glance at the screen as Satori takes her time to gather her thoughts, and nervously swallow thickly when you see Kenjaku throw a slab of cement at Choso.
“Why was daddy—who…” she trails off in confusion, and even though you want to keep watching the fight, for now, you give all your attention to your daughter.
“That wasn’t your dad, Satori,” you tell her without waiting for her to finish whilst you pull back to face her tear-streaked face. “Choso was right, that man was only pretending. He stole your dad's body, it’s not him. I’m sorry. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before either.”
Satori slides her arms off your neck and begins to fiddle with her fingers as she processes once again what she’s hearing, but actually takes to heart this time since it’s coming from you.
“Your dad loved you, your dad was never mean to you, and he never ever would be, do you understand? That isn’t your dad, even if he looks like him, that man with stitches isn’t your dad.”
More tears roll off her cheeks and you’re quick to wipe them off and grab her arms to press what she needs to know for her own sake. “I know it’s hard to hear, but I need you to understand that they’re not the same person. It’s like if Daddy had an evil clone, okay? They look the same, but they’re not.”
“But can daddy come back now?” Satori asks hopefully. “Can he return if we get that evil sorcerer out of Daddy’s body?”
Your heart breaks at the sight of her hopeful little face and the fact that you have to make her even more sad. “No, baby he can’t.”
Satori’s lip trembles, but she fights so hard not to cry this time, she instead wipes the other tears off her face before she looks at the screen. When you follow her line of gaze you see Choso’s blood raining over him and his father.
“Tell me,” you catch him saying as he wipes his mouth. “What do you want from Yuji? You have something else in mind, unlike us, whom you’ve neglected for 150 years. What are you plotting?” He asks, piquing your interest to the point you begin to stand to your given height to watch the screen better as if that helped listening whatsoever.
“Actually,” Kenjaku answers, which doesn’t surprise you one bit. “He doesn’t have a specific role. You could say being a vessel is his role and that’s already in place. Yuji Itadori…” he sighs almost proudly. “Is like a fire signaling the start. As long as he and Sukuna are alive the chain of curses will never end. He’s the eye of the storm of the new age.”
Chills crawl down your spine. Chills born out of…fear of what was just said. You always knew Sukuna being reincarnated was never a good thing, it was the start of bad things, but for Kenjaku to explain Itadori this way has a way of raising the hairs on your arms.
Is this why he’s so strong, so different? Because of what he’s meant to be?
“So your friend Choso has to fight dad—this man,” Satori interjects and turns away from the screen, while you keep your eyes glued on Choso as he shoots another piercing blood at Kenjaku.
“Well,” you explain with your attention on Kenjaku as he of course dodges the blood to make it hit the tree behind him—“I do too. That’s why Yuki, Tengen, and I are here. We’re going to fight him to kill him and rid this world of his evil spirit.”
“Hm,” Satori hums in comprehension but takes time to think everything through and try to wrap her mind around, well, everything.
“As long as Yuji’s alive?” Choso retorts spitefully before he spats, “no. As long as you’re alive, Noritoshi Kamo!” He bellows with fury. “You’re the root of all happiness!! In no way is it Yuji!!”
A faint awe-struck smile tugs on your lips as you see his rage for Kenjaku and the loyalty to his brother.
“So,” Satori speaks up quietly. “You’re going to get rid of him to give Daddy’s body peace?”
You snap your eyes off the screen and miss the curses that surprise Choso from under him and wrap around his legs.
“Yes,” you praise Satori with a proud smile. “I will get rid of Kenjaku to give Daddy’s body peace.”
A faint smile tugs on your daughter's face, making your heart feel at ease that she’s understanding better than you thought she would.
You really underestimated her.
“Do you have any questions?” You ask now that you’re focused on her. “About Kenjaku, the man in your dad's body? Or about what’s going on?”
Satori takes no time to glance back at Tengen before she gets closer to you to whisper, “why does that thing look like that?”
You snicker and whisper back. “First, that's not polite, and second, that’s Tengen. You remember when Dad and I talked about Tengen?”
Satori steps back and takes a second before her face perks up and she nods. “Yes! Oh, now I get it. They’re like, super old.”
“Hm.” You hum softly, and as you watch her eyes study the plain room and bounce on the screen, your face falls as you grow serious.
“Satori listen,” you interject in a soft but serious tone she immediately understood was not to tease. “Soon Yuki and I will go out there to fight Kenjaku.” You sigh and pull out your phone to put it in her hands. “Tengen will keep you safe here, but the fight will conclude one way or another. And when it does, Tengen will release the barriers and they will leave you on school grounds. Do you understand?”
Satori grows nervous as she puts the phone away and nods hesitantly.
But you can’t reassure her, she understood what you said, and understood the seriousness of what it means to be a sorcerer. You never wanted that for her at such an early age, but you didn’t want her to be naive in this cruel world either.
“And when they do,” you continue and grab her arms so she can focus on what you’re adding. “I may or may not be with you. If I'm not then I need you to climb a tree, you’re a good climber.” You assure her of that. “You wait for me there. If you see me you can climb down unless me or Yuki find you first, but if neither of those things happens in 5 minutes, then you go inside the school. Inside uncle Satoru’s classroom or anywhere you know, and you call Uncle Larue to pick you up. Do you understand?”
Satori nods right away, so you press her just so she understands. “Repeat it.”
Satori groans but does as you say. “Climb a tree if you’re not with me when this all goes down. Wait for 5 minutes and if I don’t see you, or if you or Auntie Yuki don’t find me then—what if your friend Choso finds me? Or if I see him?”
You sigh and smile softly. “Then you can go with him. But still, call Larue.”
Satori nods in comprehension before she continues. “Anyway, if that doesn’t happen I will hide inside and call Uncle Larue to pick me up.” She finishes and raises a questioning brow. “It's right, yes?”
You squeeze her cheeks and nod. “Yes, good job.”
She groans and swats your hand away. However, you don’t move away, you stay close and crouch to be at her level. “I love you to the moon and never back.” You remind her just in case the worst happens.
She realizes what it means, she detected the sorrow, she saw the heartache in your eyes, and she knew from past experience. Only this time she doesn’t fight you to stay like she did last year, she throws her arms around you and holds onto you tightly.
“I love you too mama,” she coos.
Tears fill your eyes again, but this time it’s out of fear of leaving her alone. No matter how much you understand that death can happen and that if it came down to it you’d sacrifice yourself, it will never be easy saying goodbye or thinking of her future without you.
“But you’ll make it,” she tries to assure you. “I know you can. You’re strong.”
You can’t help but cry softly before you press a kiss on the side of her head and pull back to admire her little face that reminds you of Suguru every day.
“Satori Geto,” Tengen calls in their casual voice, but Satori doesn’t know the difference so her shoulders jump and she looks at you frightened.
“Y-yes,” she doesn’t hesitate to respond while she slowly turns to face them as she grabs onto your arm. “Master Tengen?”
Tengen reaches in their portal and pulls out the back gate needed to get Satoru out of his prison.
“You’ll be needing this,” Tengen tells Satori and gets close to her to hand her the box she looks at with curiosity.
“What is it?” She probes and shakes the box.
“It’s the back gate for Satoru’s prison,” you let her know.
Satori’s lips tug to a happy smile and she pulls the box closer to her face as if trying to look inside it. “He’s in this little thing?” She asks.
You shake your head. “No, but we need that to get him out, so,” you add seriously once again. “If your Uncle Larue ends up picking you up today, you call Shoko and tell her what you have, okay? Just her. She’ll go pick it up. Do you understand?”
Satori hugs the back gate against her and nods.
You caress the back of her head and watch her for a lingering minute before you whisper, “okay, good. Now,” you trail off and stand to your given height.
As you face the screen again you immediately go stiff and feel your nerves knotting your stomach as you see the horror of Kenjaku’s foot pressing Choso’s face down on the ground with so much force that the ground is cracking.
“What do you know about my little brothers?” Choso growls as he side-eyes his father standing so proudly above him.
“Aw,” Kenjaku mocks Choso. “Did I offend you? I had high expectations, so I’m greatly disappointed. Be happy you got me to say that much.”
Choso grinds his teeth out of rage and manages to twist over and grab Kenjaku’s ankle, catching him by surprise.
Unfortunately, it’s not enough because Kenjaku quickly counters by kicking his foot out of Choso’s grasp, and slams a long terrifying curse at him from a portal beneath his foot that Choso can’t swerve, or hit, he’s stuck, and because of that it consumes him.
You can’t see him, all there is is the long black tentacles of the curse. You try to squint your eyes as you quickly scan the area for Choso, hoping he somehow escaped, but you just end up gasping, and feeling your eyes widen as your heart pumps so hard that you can hear it pulsing in your ears because you can’t see him.
It makes you want to act now, go out there and help him, but you also knew it wasn’t time yet, even if both your mind and heart work together to start yelling at your muscles to move.
“Do you know what the rank special grade signifies?” Kenjaku exclaims nonchalantly as the curse continues moving through the air until it finally shows you Choso when it slams on the ground with no robe or vest. His hair is down, and his torso and face are scraped, and red from fresh forming bruises. He's missing a hand and bleeding from the mouth, but what’s worse, what’s more horrifying is that he isn’t moving.
“The ability to single-handedly overthrow nations,” Kenjaku continues calmly while he returns the curse back to his portal. “That’s obviously true for the Gojo siblings. Which, heh, any sorcerer parent should be proud of. Not only one, but two special grade offspring’s.” He grins maniacally. “My life would be different if you and your siblings had turned out that way, but nevertheless, Suguru Geto can also…”
His words trail off in your ears as all you can focus on now is Choso and the fact that he’s still not moving.
“Come on,” you plead shakily and can’t keep your throat and eyes from burning as you’re overwhelmed with the need to cry. “Please…”
He…he can’t be dead. Kenjaku wouldn’t be running his mouth if he was, right?
Right?
But what if he doesn’t care if he is, you wouldn't put it past him to talk to the corpse of his eldest son to get his point across. He’s psycho like that. So what if Choso is dead?
He can’t be dead though. He can’t. Anything but that….
Please, he needs to wake up. Please…
“Let me go help him,” you say shakily without thinking.
“No, not yet,” Yuki doesn’t take the time or hold back from denying you of the need to go feel his heartbeat to assure yourself that he isn’t dead, and stop yourself from feeling…that emptiness again...
A minor reason you turned Choso down was because you didn’t want to feel the cold and isolating emptiness again, but as you see him lying on the ground unmoving, that cold emptiness is crawling back to plague your heart and soul. You can feel the numbing agony contaminating you like a life-threatening illness and turning your once hopeful future, bleak, as a future without him in your life flashes in your eyes.
Which is actually a revelation of heart-rushing, and extraordinary mind-altering feelings that aren’t new. They're no stranger, you’ve felt it before, so you can immediately identify what you feel, and grow even more terrified.
“Come on,” you whisper and then hold your breath in as you wait, and try to bring him back to life mentally. Which is useless, but you can’t go over there. You can’t be there to help him, so you push from where you are.
Until suddenly blood explodes out an outstanding amount from where Choso had been.
“Younger brothers of the death painting wombs!! Fire! You hear his voice enraged and full of motivation, and you finally breathe.
You hadn’t even noticed you holding your breath in, that’s how intense your fear overwhelmed you. But he’s standing now, he’s hurt, but he’s okay and you can breathe normally and ease your body from its tense hold. Yet you still are left with that new realization that shifts something inside you.
“Yeah!” Choso bellows as he watches the sky with his lips trembling, and blood gathering over his palm. “I got this!” He exclaims and suddenly bends his feet before he claps his hands to shoot out piercing blood.
“Piercing blood’s initial velocity is its top speed,” Kenjaku interjects before he dodges the strike. “So if you dodge it once even if the trajectory is altered, it’s not so scary.”
He keeps dodging, making the ground he left behind explode as it gets hit with piercing blood instead.
Choso doesn’t get discouraged though, instead, he fills with more confidence, or so it seems, and tries something different it seems. It’s nothing you’ve seen him do before. This technique is different, graceful in a way, whereas his other techniques are rougher.
With this new technique, a blood circle forms behind him, and multiple wings form around it. When Choso strikes with blood, it grows out from the circle like ribbons and strikes Kenjaku in the shape of a giant crimson wing that he of course swerves. But Choso…he sprints at him in a magnificent form.
Or does it only seem that way because of how mouth-watering he looks at the moment with his hair down, and his torso and muscular arms exposed?
In your time spent living together he’s never been shirtless, he’s shown his arms, but he’s never been without a shirt, and now that he is. Now that you see how his toned chest and muscles glisten with sweat, you grow hot and excited.
Your fear for his life still does linger, it mixes with your pleasure, and quickens the pace of your already racing heart, especially because Kenjaku blocks his vision with a curse to rush to the tree and wait there as Choso gets attacked by long curses with blades on their heads he can’t escape from
Choso gets hit and his arm gets stabbed, causing you to nervously clench your fists and step forward.
Thankfully though, he excorizes the curses with his technique and proves to his father that he’s a lot stronger than he’s giving him credit for by using something different once again. It leaves you even more awe-struck.
“Like Eso, I must fight with grace! Like Kechizu I must fight freely!” He shouts, growing chills down your spine, especially as he rips her forearm out from his arm and uses his blood to shoot it out and finally grab Kenjaku by the collar.
“Yes!” You celebrate out loud and clap your hands together, earning the attention of Yuki, and when you peer back you see Satori look up from the movie she was watching on your phone.
You don’t apologize though, you smirk as you watch Choso yank his father toward him and then slam him on the ground.
“And like Yuji, I must fight with power!!!” Choso cries out, and you realize that perhaps you celebrated too early because after Choso connects his arms back together and swings his fist, Kenjaku blocks him using a curse.
“Are you finished?” Kenjaku retorts, seeming completely unfazed.
“What do you think?!” Choso exclaims, but Kenjaku escapes from under him and responds as he’s running back.
“As I said, it lacks the requisite speed and force.”
If that was you fighting him now and he kept averting you, you’d be beyond pissed. You can already imagine how Choso must feel.
“How disappointing,” Kenjaku spats, going unaware of the blood trail surrounding him and parts of it rising until it reaches his eye level.
“Supernova!” Choso triggers his technique, making all the blood explode around Kenjaku. Only none of the blood hits him, the blood explodes and destroys almost all the slab of cement he was on except for a small piece he’s on. That piece of cement has puncture holes, but he’s unharmed…how?
There’s no explanation to Kenjaku’s trick except for…a different cursed technique. He didn’t use curses, and there’s no technique you know that can do what he just did. So the bastard is using a different technique!
“You just used something besides cursed manipulation!” Choso realizes what you just did.
“It’s time to go y/n,” Yuki finally announces the next step of the plan.
You don’t argue, you peer over your shoulder and throw Satori a quick comment over your shoulder. “I’m going now. Tengen will keep you safe. And remember what you have to do, okay, Chipmunk?”
Satori's eyes water now but she tries to be brave and nods in comprehension. “I love you, Mommy,” she warms your heart.
“I love you too,” you leave her with that sweet reminder before you follow Yuki out into the arena.
“I may be an only child, but good work big brother!” Yuki announces her entrance. And you just shoot Kenjaku a menacing smirk.
“Tsukumo,” Choso mutters. “Y/N.”
You snap your eyes over to him and feel your face soften even if you hear him panting and see how exhausted he looks. “Good job, you put up a good fight, Choso,” you praise him and steal a glance at his exposed torso, causing yourself to swallow thickly.
“Now leave the rest to us,” Yuki adds for you and throws him a thumbs up and a wink.
Choso hums and glances at you one more time to offer you a soft nod before he can’t help but shut his eyes and lose balance. Instead of hitting the ground though, Tengen pulls him out of the arena and you watch him until the moment the ground transforms back to what it was, and every trace of the portal Choso fell through is gone.
“I like the rough type,” Yuki announces because it's some kickstart to her motivation. Or so you assume, she tends to announce that sometimes before she fights—“you on the other hand I’ll have to beat into shape!” She exclaims and clenches her fists to the point the veins on her arms pop out.
“You,” you sneer and point your chin at Kenjaku. “How dare you use my daughter. Who do you think you are?”
A smirk tugs on his lips, making you curl your lips to a scowl and narrow your gaze to a cold deadly glare. “I’ll enjoy killing you,” you growl and fist your hands, making the dragon mark on your arm glow brightly as the flames lick your flesh and veins before fire leaks out from both arms and basks them completely, adding to your intimidating anger.
“I think I’ll keep you both at a distance,” Kenjaku shares and raises his hand as a portal rips open behind him, letting out a large special-grade curse, and telling you what to attack with first.
“I bet that cursed spirit isn’t from around here,” Yuki unveils information from Kenjaku, while you slowly stalk around him to get into the perfect position.
“It’s an Asian divine curse for removing obstacles,” Yuki adds, and Kenjaku nods.
“Yes, it’s a special grade cursed spirit that uses concepts against cursed technique targets,” he of course doesn’t hesitate to share. “Let’s see what you got.”
It has four large arms and towers several feet above Kenjaku. It’s fucking huge, which only surprises you because Kenjaku really wasted no time collecting such threatening curses, and Suguru spent all his life trying to collect them.
“You know,” you interject as you come to a stop at his left side. “It’s a shame you never loved your children Kenjaku.”
Said man rolls his eyes and scoffs as if you just said something completely stupid.
“If you did, you would know how great they really are.” Your voice grows colder and more threatening as a burning fever rushes through your veins. “You would know that you can learn a thing or two from your children.”
“Please,” he tries to brush you off, but in the blink of an eye, an immense amount of cursed energy explodes out of you and basks you completely as if you were caught on fire. Which is the same way you saw Hakari do it a few times.
“Supreme Art,” you announce and slowly show off a menacing smile. “Hellspawn.”
Kenjaku’s face twists with surprise before he shifts his body right away to prepare for an attack.
Yet all that happens is the breeze turns to speeding winds that start to cut his flesh. The ground begins to tremble, making cracks form on the ground. And water begins to leak out from the cracks.
“Is that it?” Kenjaku scoffs.
His question gets answered right away with the sound of a rageful roar erupting in the sky, causing Kenjaku to stiffen and fix his glare on the clouds behind you.
Since Suguru never knew of your Supreme Art Technique, Kenjaku is caught off guard by the giant frightening dragon that descends from the clouds and quickly darkens everything around you with its shadow as it flies towards Kenjaku’s cursed spirit.
He quickly tries to counter using his curse, but without getting close, the dragon rains fire down, passing over you without fear and consuming everything in its path with flames, leaving nothing but smoke from the cursed spirit.
Unfortunately, Kenjaku was quick to use other cursed spirits to protect himself from flames that could have killed him or left him severely crippled.
Yet no curses save him from the multiple-headed sea beast that forms from water on the ground, and water born out of nothing. It doesn’t even get to finish forming before its thick slimy tail wraps around him and throws him up to blast him with heavy piercing water that shoots him up into the sky, leaving him dazed due to the water that finds its way inside his lungs and drowns him from the inside.
Much to your misfortune though, he doesn't drown to death, he quickly recovers before it all goes dark. But he’s then welcomed by the sight of the dragon flying at him with its jaw open to show off the fire filling its mouth, so Kenjaku quickly summons a flying curse that gets him out of your dragon's aim and returns him to the ground.
Albeit when his feet hit the ground he’s met by another beast. This one stands tall and growls like an aggressive dog. He tries to look back to see what is breathing down his neck, but he only gets a peek at six piercing green eyes before a large tail made from rocks and dirt slams into him and slings him across the arena right to Yuki.
“Scared to get near an unknown technique?” Yuki spats as she reels her fist back. “Then I’ll fill you in. Its mass,” she reveals and meets Kenjaku's face with a heavy hit that sends him flying back through a barrier.
“Yep!! That’s my technique!” Yuki adds proudly. “I give myself virtual mass and call it Star Rage! And my technique turned the Shikigami Garuda into a cursed tool! It’s Star Rage’s only target besides me!”
You creep towards the gap in the barrier, and the dragon and three-headed hound born from your Supreme Art technique follow close behind like guardians.
“I see!” Kenjaku’s voice echoes out before he emerges out of the dark-covered gap completely healed and with his clothes ripped thanks to you.
“Mythical Beasts born from each element is your supreme art, hmph,” he chuckles and quickly studies each of your beasts; The Hydra with beautiful glimmering deep blue scales, and nine heads with long slithering necks. The majestic dragon with a long red body and a jaw with hundreds of sharp teeth. And lastly, he looks at the only beast actually made out of its element, the three-headed hellhound. There’s only one missing though.
“One beast is missing.” He points out.
You smirk and retort, “I’m right here.” Before you throw out wind shaped in a sharp line that cuts through the ground, but only scrapes his side as he swerves your move and pisses you off.
Why can’t he fight back? He keeps dodging!
“Fucker,” you grimace and send every beast in tune with your rage to run at Kenjaku as you keep you throwing razor-sharp wind at him.
However, he doesn’t move or try to clash your beasts with his curses, he dodges your moves as he stays where he is and looks between you and your master standing nearby in silence. Which means nothing good. Nothing good at all. He's too quiet, too still.
He can’t be thinking of opening his domain, could he? It’s too soon. Way too soon...
So you have no other option, you break into a sprint and follow your beasts towards him with a howling wind gathering to your hands. You don’t get close but you get ready to shoot.
Nevertheless, when his eyes snap to you and you lock eyes, he interlaces his fingers together and proves you right.
“We find each other's cursed techniques to be tricky,” he breaks his silence. “But neither of you have opened your domain. Perhaps you lack confidence in a clash of domains.”
Shit, shit, shit!
You come to a skidding stop, and make your beasts disappear to focus on one thing. A countermeasure.
“Tengen!” Yuki bellows.
The timing is off, but you have to adapt.
“Domain expansion, womb profusion,” Kenjaku chants, and right away multiple cursed spirit heads grow out behind him like a messed up tree.
“Secret art, Falling blossom emotion!” You counter his domain and get basked by a blue hue and protected by a secret art that only the three big families are taught. You’ve barely had to use it throughout your years. Mostly you’ve kept it in the back of your head to be forgotten, but you’re glad you never actually forgot it, or else right now who knows what would be the repercussions of being hit by Kenjaku’s domain.
Yuki though, you see that she isn’t as lucky. She uses a simple domain, but that’s too weak and not as fortified as your technique. Kenjaku notices that.
“Do you think that technique can withstand my domain?” He remarks.
“Hurry the hell up Tengen!” You shout as you see how much more of Yuki's domain is eaten away.
You’ll attack him…
Albeit that will barely do a thing in his domain, and it won’t spare Yuki from getting hurt, plus you’ll risk losing your protection—But Tengen is taking too long. Damn!
You don’t have a choice, you continue to run at him and prepare your fists with fire and air, while you start breaking a piece of the ground.
“Ah, I see,” Kenjaku comments nonchalantly as his domain begins to slowly break apart. “An old maneuver from a shut-in.”
“Tengen I'm not like you. I have lived,” Kenjaku roars and starts to cackle. “A thousand years! Of conflicts! And alliances! A cursed world!”
You get closer to him so you hop off your feet to jump towards him. But it’s too late, Yuki's hit and you’re thrown back by the ground erupting because of his domain seconds before Tengen finally dispels the domain and the empty barrier.
However, thanks to your last-minute technique you’re protected. You can’t say the same for Yuki when you see her splayed on the ground with blood staining her body, and an arm twisted and crushed. She almost looks dead and that stops you from acting or moving for a second out of fear until you notice Garuda still active above her.
“But it’s too late!” Kenjaku’s voice booms, making you look over and see him heading to Yuki without batting an eye your way. Which is logical, she’s the heavy hitter, but you came out unscathed, you’re his threat while she recovers.
“A fight with your domain may have not led to such a poor conclusion,” he goes on whilst you get up on your feet and trudge towards him without him hearing. “You shouldn’t have relied on him. Tengen has hidden something from you. The culling games—“
He cuts himself off as he finally notices Garuda in all his yapping, and figures out that Yuki isn’t unconscious like he thought she was as he just casually passed her. So he turns to look at her, but instead, he finds you now behind him completely unharmed by his domain.
“I told you that you’d pay,” you grimace, and claw your hand on his face to slam him on the ground and scrape him along the cement as you manipulate the air to let you hover a few inches off the ground and fly forward at a quick speed.
He does quickly squirm, and tries to kick and hit you, but you push him further down into the ground and move faster along the ground. It’s not until he throws a curse at your face that you let go because you didn’t expect it. However, you envelop your fist with fire and punch right through it as Kenjaku is pushing himself to his feet.
Thus before he can collect himself and counter, you strip off a piece of the ground and hurl him back with it. You then proceed to catch him by surprise as you crush through the slab of the ground to grab him from the back of his head and by his face to once again run him against the ground.
He tries to distract you by pulling out a curse from a portal under his palm, but you do something you don’t really like doing because it stings, you blow fire out of your mouth and exorcize the curse instantly, leaving Kenjaku a bit surprised, but not enough to keep his mouth shut. It’s hanging off a thread because of the cement tearing at his flesh but he still attempts to talk.
“You know—”
“Shut up,” you hiss and pull the fire to your hand to burn his face and hopefully weaken him or kill him. Not for the sake of protecting Tengen, or their plan, but because Kenjaku used your daughter, he tricked her. You have a thirst for revenge because he locked your brother away in a prison realm, and because he’s using Suguru’s body. You need to kill him—no, want to kill him because he’s the reason why Mimiko and Nanako are dead. He’s the reason Nanami died.
He’s taken so much from you, he’s given you so much pain and changed your life completely. You can’t let him take more, you can’t let him live, and you won’t know true peace until he’s dead.
He needs to die. He has to die.
“Just die already!” You cry out with your voice quivering in anger and despair and stop scraping him along the ground to start punching him in the face over and over again with your fists imbued with flames.
Yet perhaps your blinding rage was a mistake. You acted out the needs of your heart instead of also listening to logic, so he finds a small opening and presses his hand on your stomach. And you’re so lost in your anger that you don’t feel his touch, you only catch his actions when you feel sharp teeth shredding at your skin.
When you let go and stumble back just like he wanted you to do, you look down and see a curse trying to eat its way through you to demolish your source of cursed energy.
“I got to say,” Kenjaku sounds muffled whilst he heals the wounds you made him. “You surprised me there.”
You wrap your hand around the curse and easily burn it to smoke before it can start tearing through your flesh.
But that was his plan, wasn’t it? Distract you to get away?
But that’s where he’s wrong, he might’ve escaped you, but he walks back right into Yuki struggling to stay on her feet.
Which is pretty stupid, she should heal herself at least a bit so he doesn’t have the chance to finish her off. But she stays as wounded as she is and greets Kenjaku with a knee to his face as her Garuda wraps around his waist and holds him in place with its strength.
You expect her to quickly follow with another hit, but she falls on one knee and pukes out blood.
“Yuki,” you mutter between pants.
“You must’ve thought you surprised me, Tsukumo,” Kenjaku interjects as he finishes healing his face and his side that you completely obliterated on the ground. “But isn’t there a better way of doing this?”
As if to answer his question, Choso finally emerges and catches Kenjaku off guard, making you and Yuki grin mischievously before she adds to Garuda’s mass and pulls Kenjaku down.
The ground beneath his feet crumbles due to the heavy mass so you manipulate the pieces and wrap them around his legs to trap him in place, while Choso lands in front of him already in position to strike.
“Are you watching, my little brothers? It’s parent-killing time!” Choso exclaims and manages to shoot his piercing blood right in the center of Kenjaku’s head.
Albeit, it’s not enough…it’s not fucking enough! His stitches just rip apart and his skull cap spins over his head.
“Damn it!” You sneer and step back as he snaps his eyes up and taunts all three of you.
“Don’t sweat it!”
You clench your jaw and he flashes a malice smile as he stitches his skullcap back on.
“Things are getting interesting, fallen warrior!” Yuki shouts before she swings her leg and slams her foot across his face, causing him to stumble back toward you, so you quickly follow by throwing him a right hook with a sharp blast of wind.
Yuki then tries to kick him again, but he blocks her attack. In doing so, letting Choso slam his elbow right on his hands. You proceed to not waste any time or let him think, you swing your leg and slash him with fire, making him groan and stumble back towards Yuki’s swing.
Albeit he blocks that, but leaves himself open to you throwing him an uppercut with a piece of cement you ripped off the ground.
“Tsukumo, heal up!” Choso suggests—no he demands her while Kenjaku is dazed due to the chain of hits you all gave him.
But—wait!
“Yuki!” You try to warn her, but you caught on too late, she heals and Kenjaku finds the right moment to escape out of Garuda’s hold while Yuki is using RCT, and backflips away from the cage the three of you made with your bodies.
“You won’t win!” You snap at him and throw your hand down to form a water whip in your hand.
Kenjaku flashes you a smirk, and you respond by smacking him across the face so hard teeth fly out of his mouth and a gash forms on his cheek. You proceed to be relentless and form another water whip on your other hand to wrap it around his throat and give yourself stability to jump and use your feet to shove a whirlwind at his torso.
“Garuda!” Yuki proclaims and follows your move by swinging Garuda's heavy body on the ground so hard it crumbles beneath the four of you, and throws Kenjaku in the air.
Choso notices and shoots another blood arrow, however, Kenjaku serves by using his gravity technique, or so you predict that’s what it is because there’s no other explanation for him suddenly landing on the ground so fast and so hard.
“Get around him!” Choso tells you.
You spare him a glance and manage to meet his eyes burning with rage, and can’t help yourself from smirking. It’s such terrible timing, but seeing him be so enraged, and seeing every perfectly carved muscle gleaming with sweat, you just can’t help yourself, your desire burns for him. Even more so now after your realization.
But you also know your place at the current moment, so all your emotions are conveyed in a smirk that he catches and returns.
“You’ve done spectacular,” he finds the need to tell you in the rush of the moment.
“You too,” you quickly redirect and let your gazes linger on each other a second longer before you rush around Kenjaku, and Choso lunges at him; while Yuki pulls Garuda back again, and swings down with all her might, and with great mass behind her swing…
Nevertheless, Kenjaku uses his gravity technique and manages to yank Garuda out of Yuki's grasp to pin it down, whilst he also slams Choso to the ground beside his feet. Leaving both indisposable.
You on the other hand, you seem to have been away from his radius, you missed being brought down, so you’re left with an opening to pull off something that will wear down your technique for quite some time, but you have to do it. You can’t let him win, he plans to spread too much evil, he’s taken too much…
Suguru’s body, Nanako and Mimiko, Nanami, and Satoru. He’s hurt you too much.
“Choso is right…” you mutter between pants as you start to manipulate the wind to spin around your legs and pick yourself off the ground little by little as the wind spins rapidly, forming a tornado. “…you are the root of all unhappiness. You’ve taken so much from me.”
Kenjaku watches you float up as the tornado gains height and width. He sees fire gleam under your skin as it pours out of your palms and fingertips and then spins around you. He watches the water from the ground slither up like a snake lost in a trance before it too begins to spin around you. Lastly, pieces of the ground shoot up and add another spinning ring around you, letting him know right away what you want to do thanks to Suguru’s memories.
“You’ll die,” he points out smugly.
“You first,” your voice booms.
Kenjaku can’t escape this wrath, so he prepares himself instead by reaching into his belt before your tornado consumes him.
“This…won’t…be my…end,” Kenjaku strains to say as the high winds of the tornado make it hard for him to breathe. “You…gah,” he grunts as sharp pieces of rock cut him. “Will…not…be…my…end!”
You smirk. “We’ll see about that,” you sneer before you furl in a deep breath and bring the spinning wind, water, fire, and earth toward your palms to blast it all out at him with a cry fueled with rage and agony.
He tries to use the simple domain technique, but all your elements quickly demolish that, making him try to protect himself with curses. He wishes he didn’t have to waste them on you, but his skin is burning even if he uses multiple curses to take the impact, his bones are breaking and crumbling, and his eyes are shredding leaving him blind.
He has a small window of time to counterattack, at least with something that will make you drop this technique.
He could also wait for the blood to run down your nose as you grow weak, but you add more pressure and your fire burns hotter so you’re not dying out anytime soon. Thus, while you’re blinded by your motivation and rage, he pulls out a higher-grade curse he didn’t want to waste just yet, but it takes the impact of your elements just enough to sneak around you and surprise you by piercing something sharp through your back.
“What,” you murmur and lose control of your elements right away, bringing forth a stillness that fills with a deafening silence before Yuki's voice rips through the arena.
“Y/N!”
With nothing holding you up, with no strength to manipulate any element to soften your blow, you hit the ground fast and hard while Kenjaku uses a curse to land softly on the ground.
“Y/N?!” You hear Choso cry out.
You can’t die yet. Not yet…
But you can’t reach back to pull out the blade pierced through your back either, so you can’t heal. No matter how hard you try you can’t feel that technique rushing through your veins.
All you do feel is warm and thick blood oozing out of your wound.
“Heartsbane,” Kenjaku reveals what was lodged through your back. “It was given to you by your father so you could kill Suguru Geto 11 years ago—“
“What did you do?!” Choso demands to know as he watches you paralyzed on the ground. “Y/N?”
“I’m getting there,” Kenjaku sasses Choso while you hear him walk toward you. “Anyway, you didn’t kill him, obviously. And then you tried to use it on me, but you failed. I took it that day when I saw what it was and now,” he chuckles. “How funny is it to see it stabbed through you? The very weapon you were supposed to kill Geto with is killing you.”
You slap your hand on the ground and crane your head up, seeing him start to heal himself from the wounds you inflicted on him.
He won’t heal completely, but it’s enough to still fight.
“It’s poetry really.”
You grimace, and he counters with a sly smirk before he stops before you.
“No! Y/N move!” Choso yells at you desperately.
But you can’t. You want to, you’re straining yourself, but you can’t.
“Noritoshi Kamo!” Choso growls.
“Pathetic, you really are human,” Kenjaku remarks to Choso nonchalantly, but he still means it as an insult.
You then muster all the strength you can and look back at Yuki to ask her for one thing using only one shaky word. “Please.”
She didn’t need elaboration, she knew you pleaded for her to protect Satori until she could get Satoru out.
“I will,” she mouths to assure you.
You let out a shaky sigh and manage to tug on a faint smile.
“Y/N?!”
You drag your head up and meet Choso’s angry but pleading eyes, and give him a warm smile before Kenjaku uses his foot to push the knife deeper into you to the point the tip punctures your heart, bringing forth darkness.
This one is a lot more different than the one that took you when Kenjaku snapped your neck in Shibuya. This one was quick and didn’t leave you lingering hope that you could live. This darkness brought forth a quick sharp pain before death was finally given what it was owed, your life.
It’s not something that Choso accepted though, he saw your chest fall when death robbed you of your life-giving breath and refused to accept the cold truth because your eyes are still open.
“Y/N?!” He calls out desperately and fails to give a crap about his father right now. He waits for you to move. “Y/N?”
He watches your fire-kissed eyes to see them flicker, but you seem to be ignoring him.
“Y/N?” He calls out again and this time he doesn’t wait where he was left, he doesn’t have a lot of strength, and his body aches, but he uses all the strength he can gather and desperately crawls over to you while Yuki and Kenjaku fight.
When he reaches you he doesn’t think before he pulls the knife out of your back to be able to flip you around ever so gently and cradle you in his arms.
“Hey, y/n, I’m here. I’m right here, you’re okay. Just heal all right?” He talks to you not wanting to accept you’re merely a corpse now. “Just heal. Please,” he pleads shakily as tears fill his eyes and his heart is hit with something he’s never felt before, something agonizingly painful; despair. He’s tormented by it.
“We have to fight,” he whispers as he wipes the dirt off your face before he cradles your cheek to look into your eyes that had given him the beautiful gift of hope when his world was dark and empty. “You have to get out, your daughter will be waiting for you. Please. There’s something I have yet to tell you. Just please,” his voice quivers.
“Y/N,” he calls out and wants to reach over and feel your heart with hopes he’ll feel it beat, but his attention is then stolen by the fight across from him.
——
“Y/N.”
It’s dark, but you don’t need to see to recognize that voice. It’s soft, soothing, and not strained.
Can it be?
You peel your eyes open and immediately gasp when you see him…
.
.
.
.
A/N- Rest in peace love, rest in peace baby cakes, it’s a real shame you never got to see Henry Cavil’s Geralt of Rivia, it’s a real shame, you would have loved him. ALSO, DO YOU REALLY THINK WE'RE DONE WITH DESPERATE, GRIEVING, CHOSO?? *tucks hair behind ear* NO *IN DEMON VOICE* you have a week to prepare yourselves, that’s a warning!
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