To say that Gojo Satoru struggled with self-esteem issues would be an understatement. There weren't many people around him that noticed it, especially since their life descended into a state of constant madness, but even before that, he saw himself differently than others, and not necessarily in a good way.

It was a bad side of his immense power, the alienation from others that he felt constantly, but it had only grown larger when he started to surround himself with mere teenagers who were brand new to the world of curses and all things related. But still, he could never truly show the others how he saw himself, no matter how hard he wanted to sometimes.

However, he felt things somewhat change as soon as his old friend came back into his life. The way someone with such immense power was so close to him, rivaled him in many aspects brought him back to Earth and he was happy, even if it meant that it caused him more difficulties in how to handle all the curses. Getou Suguru had never been someone to know how to stay in one place for long periods of time and how to not disturb others, but Gojo had always appreciated that because it meant that he could concentrate on that.

The more energy he consecrated to trying to keep the world safe from the different pranks Getou decided to pull on it, the less time and energy he had to think about himself and put himself down.

"You know, there are better things to do than to chase after me," laughed Getou as Gojo approached him from behind.

The two were on a rooftop where Suguru was sitting on the edge, looking at something in the distance and Gojo had to stop himself from looking for that thing that captured his attention so well.

"Why do you think I'm doing this? It's so you don't destroy the entire city and maybe even more things along with it." Gojo was quite satisfied with his own answer, but he knew that Getou wouldn't stop so easily.

They had been friends for longer than they could remember, but they still had their differences, most of those differences being incredibly big. For example, Gojo would never agree to Getou helping out several curses that tried to profit from a little kid just to be able to get back at everyone and because he was bored. But beyond that, they were still friends and it was moments like those that truly reminded them why they were friends in the first place.

Getou laughed at Gojo's response, even though he somewhat liked the attention. "You know, you really have to stop being so nice to me, Gojo. One could start to think that you have more than friendly feelings for me;"

Gojo stopped for a moment. Getou was teasing him, but still, he was afraid that something would come out of it, something that he couldn't shake off easily. "What are you talking about? You put my students in danger on a regular basis and so I came here to put a stop to that. Except if for some reason you don't want me to do that and want to just destroy everything without anyone keeping you in check."

"Well, I would certainly like to be able to do anything without you trying to control me, but I'm afraid that's not a possibility as long as this version of you exists. You care too much."

The last words took Gojo by surprise. ' You care too much ," certainly seemed endearing, but Gojo was aware that Getou meant to tease him. "I do not care too much."

"Sure you do. You care too much about your students, too much about me, yet not nearly enough about yourself."

There were a few moments of silence as Gojo Satoru tried to process the information with which Getou had just hit him. He apparently did not care for himself enough, which was the closest thing to the truth that would probably ever escape Suguru's mouth. But certainly, it felt almost too direct, almost too true to not be a prepared attack from him. "What do you think you know about me?"

"Enough to know that you don't care enough about yourself, Gojo." Getou turned around to face Gojo and a small smile appeared on his face. "But you should start caring about yourself because I would prefer to have an enemy who not only takes care of himself but knows how strong he is."

"I think that's your job. The self-confidence that your hopes becoming true would require is only something you would be capable of possessing. So I'm afraid I cannot fulfill your request."

"Oh, what a shame," laughed Getou as he stood up and approached Gojo. The man took two steps backward, not in fear but in caution. "I thought you would finally become my equal, both in spirit and in power."

Gojo couldn't help but laugh a little. They definitely weren't equals in power or in spirit, but it was just like Suguru to make jokes about that, even if the jokes often appeared extremely serious. "I don't think we could ever truly be equals in either of those things. But bold of you to assume that you're more powerful than I am."

Gojo seemed quite confident, but in reality, he knew that his power wasn't the thing that defined him. What truly defined him were so many other things besides that, and he hoped that Suguru wouldn't be able to notice it, but he knew that he could never truly fool his childhood best friend. And even though a part of him was terrified of Getou finding out everything, another part of him somewhat wanted for others to know, because knowing that others have the same information would help him not feel as alienated from others.

"I know that you say you're powerful, but do you think of it as a curse or as a gift? Because that changes everything."

Gojo smiled a little, but truly he knew that Getou was correct. He could never know if the power he had was truly a bad thing or not because he could never truly determine how different his power was from that of other people. "I don't know what it is, but I know that I have it. And I know that it makes me a whole lot powerful than most others."

"Sometimes I wish you were confident enough to say that your power makes you stronger than everyone else, but I think we all have our wishes that will never truly be granted."

There was a moment of silence as Gojo had to stop himself from telling Getou everything. He knew that Getou would listen, would maybe even comfort him, but there was a very high chance that he would turn around and then use it against him at some point when he had to or wanted to."

That was the problem with them. They always used things that they told each other as a weapon against one another at some point, even if they didn't want to do it. They were always on the edge of truly becoming allies and joining their powers to defeat others, but their differences always ended up being too big for them. Their differences made it impossible for them to see the power they could possess if they came together.

"Sometimes I wish you knew how to pick the moments to say things better than you do," stammered Gojo, crossing his hands on his chest. " But then again, I think we all have our wishes that will never truly be granted. "

"You at least know how to defend yourself. Both verbally and otherwise. I just hope there was a way to convince you that it was better for you to use your entire power for yourself."

"We can't all be selfish."

Getou nodded and smiled. "That's true, but the ones who are selfish end up at the top in life. That's just the way it is."

Gojo paused for a few moments before he answered. "I would much rather end up somewhere in the middle with all my friends than end up at the top with everyone perceiving me as the villain."

"And that is probably the biggest of our differences. And although I wish we could see eye to eye, I like that we aren't the same. The world couldn't handle two of me." He smiled, touching Gojo's shoulder softly. "Or two of you, of course."

Gojo wasn't sure what to answer. In truth, there was nothing much he could answer. All he could do was wait and make sure that he wouldn't let Getou do anything dangerous. He was careless, but still, he knew better than to let Getou Suguru get away that easily, especially if he didn't know what he had planned at all.

"I have some advice for you, Gojo. As your friend, I am telling you that it wouldn't hurt you to use your power to help yourself. Actually, it would help others in the meantime because you being more mentally stable would make the others not worry for you."

"Nobody worries for me," said Gojo and as he said those words he realized that he somehow made it sound like a cry for help, even though he didn't want to do that. "Or at least nobody shows it."

"I would tell you that they don't show you that they care for you, but actually it's because you're too blind to see it."

Gojo laughed. "Well, since you've become so smart, why don't you tell me who cares for me?"

"I care for you. Probably not like you want me to, but I care for you. Because even though you try to stop me most of the time, I can tell that life would be bland without an equal."

I'm not your equal, thought Gojo, but smiled. Maybe it somehow balanced out. The higher self-esteem that Suguru had canceled out the superior power that Satoru had. "You sure don't show it."

Getou shook his head. "That's because you wouldn't accept someone caring for you even if I did. But I hope that you'll accept it someday. It'll be nice to have an equal."

And with that, he walked off, his long hair carried behind him by the wind.