When We Were Dreaming
Summary: This story is about that awkward moment when two insanely powerful individuals realize they have technically grown up together despite their births being a millennia apart and one was practically born to be the other's enemy. Needless to say, NO ONE was expecting THIS. The Fates really liked their games, it seemed.
The dreams continued well into his tenth year of life when Satoru first wondered if daytime naps could possibly take him to his most precious dream to visit Ryou during the day. The older boy - a teenager now, practically all grown up; he towered over the ten year old Satoru due to a recent growth spurt and his long, gangly limbs were quickly filling up with muscle, unlike when he was fourteen and reminded Satoru of a newborn calf, which really annoyed the teen, much to his further amusement - was looking a bit wrung out as of late and Satoru figured his visits to Satoru's temple weren't really helping matters. In fact, more often than not in the last two months, Ryou would just walk into the shrine where Satoru was waiting for him and cuddle up to the younger boy before falling asleep cushioned by his tails or, back when it was still winter, on his lap while his six tails acted as blankets for them both. Or he'd drape himself over Satoru's back, acting as his personal heater, while Satoru's fox tails wrapped around the older boy.
Satoru knew going on exorcising missions can be tiring. He'd gone on a few of them all alone during the last year, except with a 'Window' who was only there to put up a Veil and arrange a clean up if it was needed. Satoru's reputation was slowly getting out of hand. By the time he gets to sign up for Jujutsu Tech, he'll be practically a legend. A lot of that is thanks to Ryou. Their training sessions have intensified ever since that promise (or was it really a binding vow? Neither of them could tell) made on Satoru's sixth birthday and they were both definitely way stronger than anyone had thought it possible for two kids.
Ryou's reputation was preceding him, too, which is why he and his friends were getting so many missions and why he was tired.
So Satoru figured he could at least try to visit during the day. He knows he won't be able to do it every day. Even if he was now one of the biggest decision makers in his family, he was still considered too young to fully take over the clan, despite there being only one elder left who was now relying on their last female fighter and one of the two remaining active male ones to lead the clan. Age had taken the other elders and an attack by curse users had taken most of the lives of the remaining Gojo sorcerers. As it was going, Satoru will become Clan Head maybe even before he joins Jujutsu Tech for formal education and training as a jujutsu sorcerer and he wasn't sure how he felt about that. The Gojo family was still incredibly influential and rich, more so than even the stingy, greedy Zen'in, but they were dwindling in numbers. Even their servants have thinned out. There was not a single guard or servant who'd had a hand in raising Satoru left, all of them having bravely given their lives in an attempt to protect or hide him, despite him being perfectly capable of protecting them all along with himself. Satoru had demanded that a monument be built for all the people who had so loyally served them and the remaining Gojo had not had a ground to stand on to oppose him.
Satoru didn't have the time to laze around, but he was sure even he could have a nap here and there. Everyone knew he was hardworking and that he wants to live up to the prediction of him becoming The Strongest, so they'll probably let him act as a normal kid for one afternoon nap.
And so Satoru went through with that thought, that theory, and so he opened his eyes to the familiar forest painted in spring colors, as opposed to the autumn ones he'd seen painting his childhood home's surroundings and he was elated that it had worked! It seemed to be late morning, as opposed to the afternoon in the real world, but this discrepancy in seasons and time were things Satoru had long since gotten used to and knew to expect.
'If it's late morning, then perhaps Ryou is finished with his lessons!' He knew his friend's schedule by heart, as Ryou often complained to the change that had happened last year, when another sorcerer had come and taken over their training from that priest who'd all but raised him and his friends. They now had an early start, which was why Ryou was often so exhausted even when he didn't have many missions. But now that Satoru knew he could visit during the day, too, maybe he can make things easier on his friend!
Of course, Ryou wouldn't know to expect Satoru this early in the day, as the earliest he'd ever come to visit Ryou was just before dusk and not a moment sooner due to his regular sleeping schedule. So that means Satoru would have to go to him, which brought a new problem to the forefront, one that Satoru had never expected to encounter in his dreams: he couldn't go out among ordinary people looking like he did. Humans would no doubt, indeed, hunt down a kitsune if they were ever to see one, even if this was Satoru's dream and he should be able to control things like that. But he can't control time or the weather, so it made sense he can't control people, either.
'What should I do, then?' He could try disguising himself, but there was too much of a chance that anything he would put over his ears would fall off of his head and there's just no way he can hide his tails without looking suspicious. 'Wait, kitsune are shapeshifters, right? Could I turn fully human or fully fox if I just focused?' It's not something he'd ever considered, but now he has to try it.
Turns out, he can, for both forms. The fox form would be useful, if it wasn't as white as his hair, meaning that he would never look like a normal fox found in Japan. Animals with albinism were always seen as bad omens, so if he were ever to appear near a human as a white fox, he was more likely to get killed than as a kitsune. He'll probably get weird and scared looks for his usual appearance, too, what with his white hair, white eyelashes and white eyebrows, not to mention his eyes, but walking around perfectly with a blindfold would weird people out even more and he'd be declared a witch or something. Or was that something only the westerners did? He couldn't remember and didn't care. Besides, he'll draw attention no matter what. His attire is something way more expensive than can be found in a small village like Ryou's and he'll be a stranger none of those people have ever seen before. In small communities like this, people were always wary of strangers. It's something Satoru learned from his own few lone missions.
But he wasn't going to let that stop him from visiting his dear friend. The rest of the world can go to hell, for all he cares. He focuses on Ryou's familiar cursed energy and lets it guide him without an ounce of hesitation, even when he breaks through the tree line to, for the first time ever, properly see Ryou's home village. It actually kind of reminded him of the villages he'd see in movies, but also very much different from what movies did, making it all exaggeratedly dramatic or filthy or clean. It actually didn't look all that much different from some of the smaller villages he'd visited in the real world, except there was no electricity or cars or all that twentieth - and soon to be twenty first - century technology. Satoru didn't care. He wasn't here for the chickens and goats on the road or the toddlers chasing after puppies and piglets down the street. He wasn't here for the houses or the people who were obviously staring at him.
Or his expensive kimono, thinking he had money to spend on their wares or to steal from him.
He could see all of five bigger buildings in the village. One looked like a prison, one looked like a private residence - probably belonging to the feudal lord of this area or something - one looked like it was used to store food and one looked like some sort of armory or something. It was the fifth that he cared about, as it was a decently-sized temple. Satoru's temple - because it was his at this point - was way bigger, but in a wild sort of beauty. These temple grounds were obviously carefully maintained, as there were sakura trees shedding their petals in a way Satoru had always honestly thought was possibly only in anime. It was really pretty.
But he wasn't here to look at pretty flowers.
No, the reason why he was here was just walking out of the temple. Satoru beamed and didn't care for all the eyes on him as he sprinted towards his friend. He completely ignored the two people with him - probably his friends; one looked like neither a boy nor a girl or could be seen as both, they had short, evenly cut platinum blond hair with what looked like a random splotch of blood red while the other had long black hair tied back in a half-bun with a pair of hair chopsticks - focused entirely on Ryou, dressed in a by far finer yukata than he used to visit Satoru in, probably because it was expensive and he didn't want to ruin it. Satoru was thrilled to see it was white with blue details. Clearly, Ryou thought of him often, because the blue looked like a cheap attempt at imitating Satoru's eyes. That thought, for some reason, sent the infamous butterflies fluttering in his stomach, but it was at that exact moment that Ryou looked up and spotted Satoru.
Seeing this, the ten year old brought up a hand to wave, shouting. "Ryou! Ohayo~!"
"What are you doing here?" Ryou suddenly looked as pale as Satoru, all color absolutely draining from his face even as he effortlessly caught Satoru in a hug. He sounded scared and the way his red eyes flickered all over the place, Satoru realized Ryou really was very worried about him. "And why do you look like-"
"I figured I could visit you for a change~!" Chirped Satoru happily, grinning up at his friend in a way the other had often fondly called utterly foolish. "And I figured I shouldn't draw too much attention to myself."
"A bit late for that," commented the pale-haired person of the trio. Satoru ignored them.
"My my, Ryou. I didn't realize you knew such a pretty little thing," the long-haired one said. Ryou stiffened. "Since when do little girls like you, anyway? You usually scare away all the children." It sounded teasing, but not the way Satoru teased Ryou or the way Ryou teased him. Satoru narrowed his eyes at the tallest of the group, who only chuckled. "Such pretty eyes. I've never seen anything like them. She must have many suitors already lining up at her father's doors."
"Toru's a boy," replied the red-eyed boy stiffly. His hands gripped Satoru a bit harder, who blinked up at Ryou, a bit confused by the sudden nickname. Ryou never called him anything other than Satoru, if he wasn't annoyed at him and chose 'brat' or 'fool'. Ryou always said he was honored Satoru trusted him enough to tell him his true name, so that's why he'll always treasure it and say it with fond reverence.
"With that pretty face, I wouldn't care," said the black haired one with a grin that honestly unsettled him. Limitless within him stirred and he could feel Infinity trying to come to the surface, but Ryou was holding him and Satoru never wanted to put a barrier between himself and his friend. Besides, using Infinity would exhaust him and maybe even give him a headache, as he had nothing to cover his eyes to reduce the strain of the sensory input using Infinity demands from his eyes. So far, the longest he could maintain Infinity with a fresh mind was seven hours and he already used Infinity today when some of their usual merchants came to the compound to sell their wares so they can resupply their food stock. It's normal practice for him, to keep Infinity up for as long as strangers visit the compound. One day, he'll get strong and skilled enough to hold Infinity all day long. Until then, he'll contend with saving up the freshness of his brain for truly important moments. "I bet you look even prettier when you cry."
"I don't cry," sneered Satoru, bringing his nose up and managing to look down on the much larger boy.
"Well, we'll see about that," said he before Ryou elbowed him hard in the head, making him fall over. "Ow! Chill out, Ryou! I was just joking."
"Joke with someone else," growled his friend before he looked back down at Satoru, his face softening. "Sorry about that idiot. As you can guess, because of his behavior, it's hard for him to find a woman willing to put up with him."
"Yeah, I can definitely see that. The Zen'in treat their women better."
The androgynous one snorted unattractively at that while Ryou just grinned. The black haired one gave him the stink eye and Satoru, in all of his ten year old maturity that he'd learned to ignore because people find him too intimidating - something about his eyes - stuck out his tongue at the creepy guy. He didn't like him. He had a feeling not even Ryou liked that friend of his too much.
"I like this one," the platinum-blond haired one said, a smile still stretched over their thin lips. "Are you going to introduce us, Ryou-san?"
Ryou sighed, clearly not all too pleased to do so. Satoru was of the opinion that Ryou needs to relax. Satoru was perfectly safe. "Toru, these are my friends, Uraume," he pointed to the short-haired one before gesturing to the bad flirt. "And Kenjaku. They train and study with me at the temple. Uraume, Kenjaku, this is my childhood friend, Toru. He lives quite a ways from here, but I guess he's here for a visit."
"And how, exactly, did you meet?" Kenjaku asked with a raised brow while Uraume gave a polite bow and a 'Nice to meet you'.
"He mistook me for a curse when I was taking a nap in the forest," Satoru said at the same time as Ryou claimed to have saved him from a curse in the forest during a mission some years back. Satoru smirked at the raised eyebrows the two sent their third companion. "Don't listen to him, he's just embarrassed."
"Brat," hissed Ryou and Satoru wriggled out of his grip with a bit of help from Infinity, dancing out of his reach with a giggle. "Don't go around slandering my good name!"
"There's nothing to be embarrassed about, Ryou-kun~! Anyone would be scared of things that make noise in the forest at night~!"
"When I get my hands on you-!" Ryou started chasing him around the temple's courtyard, much to the other two's amusement while the other villagers started whispering about them like the gossips that they are. Figuring he should give them something to truly gossip about, Satoru turned towards them when he was passing by the gate while running from his friend and gave them his most charming grin that made everyone believe him to be an innocent, unassuming boy of ten and not the child that bears the Six Eyes and the Limitless techniques, the child meant to be The Strongest, a child who already has more blood - of curses and people both - on his hands than the three sorcerers in training with him.
As expected, half the village swooned while the other half cooed, all irrefutably charmed by his good looks and the childish charm he will have to continue honing if this is the result. He has a feeling such a skill will do him much good in the future.
It was at that exact moment that Ryou managed to snatch him up and he was quickly put on his strong shoulders with a squeal. And wow, the ground was rather far from this vantage point. He liked it! Could he maybe use Limitless to fly? He can already teleport certain distances, so surely flying or levitating, if nothing else, should be possible! He'll have to experiment with that once he wakes up!
For the moment, though, he focused on the hair he'd grabbed onto in a brief moment of panic so he wouldn't fall should Ryou's grip around his hips falter or he loses his balance. "Wait, your hair is pink!?" In clear, soon to be midday light of the sun, with no tints of dusk or dawn coloring everything, after six years, for the first time Satoru could see his friend's true, accurate hair color. "What the hell!?"
"You didn't know my hair was pink?" Asked Ryou in confused amusement as he looked up at him.
"I thought it was peach-colored!"
"How could you possibly- Oh, yeah, I guess it can look a bit orangish at sunset," mused Ryou. "And you wouldn't really see my real hair color at night, or near a fire."
"Just when did you two hang out?" Urauma asked with a sweatdrop, but neither friend dignified that question with an answer.
"How long do you even know each other?" Kenjaku asked next and that at least got acknowledged by Satoru and Ryou.
"Around, oh, nona," Satoru said far too casually. Ryou choked on his startled laughter, already knowing where this was going, as he was used to Satoru's antics.
"Nona?" Repeated Kenjaku, frowning, clearly confused. "What's nona?"
"Nona yo business." Uraume-san actually choked and had to crouch down to suppress what seemed to be guffaws of laughter, judging by their shaking shoulders, while Ryou had to cough a few times if he wanted to keep control of himself. Kenjaku, in turn, was glaring at the smug little Satoru. The Gojo heir just grinned at him, all innocent and sweet. People still watching them, but too far away to hear what they were talking about, cooed again, which only made Uraume-san and Ryou let out little almost squeals as they tried not to wheeze
"That big mouth of yours will get you in trouble one day, boy," warned the long haired teen, but Satoru only rolled his eyes. Ryou had adopted his arrogance while Satoru had adopted Ryou's sass and personality. It would seem neither of their surroundings appreciated the exchange, judging how some of the outsiders reacted to Satoru sassing them while Ryou had plenty of stories about how some people did not like the 'cockiness' in his recent behavior. Kenjaku certainly didn't seem to like Sastoru's version of the combination.
"Wow, threatening a ten year old kid? You must be so strong. I'm shaking in my slippers."
"Why you-" Kenjaku reached out to grab him, but Ryou reacted as fast as Infinity partially forming around Satoru to protect the targeted area. Ryou's hand grabbed Kenjaku's wrist in a strong grip, strong enough that Satoru's naturally enhanced senses picked up on the sound of the bones beneath skin straining as Ryou threatened to snap them. Kenjaku winced, clearly feeling the pain. And then he winced again when he saw whatever expression was on Ryou's face.
"You don't touch him," whispered Ryou in a very serious, very dangerous voice that Satoru had never heard from him before. It sent an excited shiver up his back. Ryou was actually ready to seriously fight here and Satoru kind of wanted to be his opponent, just to test the power he knew his friend possessed. Just because he didn't get any challenges in real life. Was that why he'd ... well, invented Ryou? Because he needed a challenge?
He found he didn't really care, in the end. Ryou was Ryou and Satoru just never wanted to stop dreaming of him.
"There's no need to be like that, my friend-"
"Let's go, Toru," Ryou cut in before Kenjaku could make any excuses, just running around with Satoru on his shoulders and walking away. Satoru turned around enough to wave at Uraume but stuck his tongue out at Kenjaku. The black haired man looked really ticked off, which just made Satoru snicker. Maybe he's more kitsune than he thought, considering their mischievous nature. "Seriously, though, what were you thinking, coming into the village like this?" His friend asked when they left the other sorcerers in training and made some distance between them and the crowd that had stopped to watch him mess around with Ryou and his friends in the temple courtyard. "Features like yours aren't exactly normal, even if you don't have certain ... additions. And speaking of which, what happened to those?! I'll be really upset if you lost the tails, you know."
Satoru snorted. He himself is always a bit upset every morning when he wakes up to find his tails gone, so he understands Ryou's feelings perfectly. "I figured out I can do this if I just focus. I can even turn into a full fox!"
"Oh, that's awesome. Though I'd figured you'd be able to enter full fox mode or something, but I didn't know you could look like a normal human. Well, an exceptionally pretty normal human, but no fox ears and tails and that sort of shit. There are a lot of stories talking about kitsune disguising themselves as pretty humans, seducing actual humans or falling in love with them, for better or for worse. I should have figured you'd be able to do it, too. But why haven't you done it before?"
"Didn't really think I'd need to," he replied with a shrug. In truth, he was prepared to, any day, every day, go to sleep and wake up in the morning having not dreamed of Ryou ever again. He'd never thought to go to his village or interact with other humans. All he'd cared about was spending as much time with Ryou as possible. "I'm not sure how long I can stay, though."
"Oh, you must be sensitive to the negative energy coming from humans," the pink haired teen mused. "Like all those nature spirits that live at your temple, right? They weren't really happy until we exorcised the curses there, right?"
Satoru hummed, not really wanting to tell another lie to his friend. In truth, Satoru was a bit bothered by the cursed energy one would usually find in a populated place, because his eyes have been getting more powerful by the day as he grew up. He's gotten a better hand at controlling almost all of his powers, but he can't really control Six Eyes. It's not like Limitless, whose techniques he can turn on and off. Six Eyes are always at work, always feeding him stimuli from the outside world. The only 'control' one can have over them is to cover one's eyes to reduce at least the visual input, even if the other senses remained as sharp as ever, or to focus on something specific, which then in turn gives one a more detailed picture of that thing.
He'd gotten used to being in a forest with only Ryou, nature spirits and animals, occasionally curses, roaming around in his dreams, so this was a bit of a shock to his system, a divergence in his routine he wasn't overly eager to repeat.
"Well, one more reason why you shouldn't come back here," Ryou said with a shrug of his shoulders that shifted Satoru as though he weighed nothing to his older friend. "It would make me feel better if you didn't needlessly expose yourself to danger like this, you know."
"But I just wanted to surprise you and make it so you don't have to come visit me at the temple tonight when you looked so tired," grumbled Satoru with a pout. He'd really only wanted to make things easier for Ryou while still getting to spend time with him. He wanted, as the saying goes, to have his cake and eat it. Perhaps that's not really possible, after all? He pouted harder.
"... You're really growing up so fast, huh," commented Ryou, looking up at him as Satoru bent so he can prop his crossed forearms on the older boy's head, leaning his own chin on them. "You shouldn't worry so much about me, Satoru. It's just a few busier weeks. We've been given a break, starting today, so I'll have plenty of time to rest up and won't be as tired. So please don't do this again. I'd rather be tired as all hell and have permanent eye bags and dark circles under my eyes than have you endangering yourself like this. You may have charmed them today, but if you make your visits a regular thing, someone will eventually start asking questions. Or, worse yet, follow you to see where you come from. What if someone sees you in your true form?"
"No one can sneak up on me," insisted the Six Eyes user, which was the absolute truth. Even with his eyes bound and covered, he still sees cursed energy, nature energy and things that stand out against it like objects that don't have any and act as empty voids to his vision. "But if it makes you feel better, I promise not to come to the village again unless it's an emergency or if you ever don't come to the temple at night without forewarning me."
"Heh, you've got yourself a deal," Ryou promised and Satoru nodded, pleased. "Now, I'll take you to my house for now. It's at the edges of the village, so you can more easily sneak out when no one is looking."
"I can teleport, you know." Ryou did. Satoru liked to practice during their spars, using it as a means to avoid Ryou's slashing attacks or strong punches. "It's more subtle."
"Regardless, I still have some errands to run before I can relax. Not sure how long it will take, so it's best if you go back to the temple and I'll come visit you tonight like usual-"
"You should sleep tonight and just come visit me tomorrow," tried to argue the younger of the two, but Ryou was having none of that.
"What if someone does get suspicious of your unique looks and sudden appearance and disappearance from the village and somehow connects the dots to the old temple, hmm? I don't want to risk it. Kenjaku already put me on edge enough as is."
"Yeah, what's that guy's problem, anyway?" He didn't like Kenjaku. There was something creepy about his cursed energy. His Six Eyes didn't like it and his Limitless had desperately wanted to put a barrier between them, even with Ryou there to keep him safe should the other teen try anything.
"Honestly, I don't know. He's always been like that. He comes from a non-sorcerer family like me but he doesn't seem to have any specific cursed technique. At least not one we've discovered yet, anyway. But he seems to attract curses in a way that other curses do, not humans or powerful sorcerers. He also has some weird philosophy about sorcerers not creating curses, unlike humans, so if everyone could control their cursed energy, curses wouldn't appear as much."
Satoru snorted. "That's bullshit-"
"I really need to start minding my language around you. Kids with a face as cute as yours shouldn't be saying such crude words."
"Curses can be born of a jujutsu sorcerer's negative emotions just as much as from an ordinary human's and they can even be stronger than those born of a human's negative emotions. It's just that it's rarer, not more unlikely. Like, if you saw Urauma or Kenjaku get killed in front of you and got super angry, you'd probably create a special grade curse all on your own."
"Kenjaku would take your words as confirmation for his belief, you know."
"It's not the same as what he's saying," insisted Satoru. "As long as humans exist, be they ordinary humans or jujutsu sorcerers, so will curses. And as long as curses exist, so will jujutsu sorcerers. And as long as jujutsu sorcerers exist, humans will continue existing as well because someone will be protecting them from the curses trying to kill them. It's a fucked up circle of life-"
"I really need to start minding my language around you."
"And there's nothing anyone can do to stop or alter it."
"That so?" Ryou asked without really meaning it as a question. Satoru nodded, either way, and the older boy must have felt it because he hummed in agreement. "Guess all we can do is make the best of that fucked up system, huh."
Make the best of the system? Could Satoru do that? Yes, he's the strongest and already people bend over backwards to do the things he wants, but others don't exactly have such luxuries, do they? He still remembers that guy, the one without cursed energy. He's never seen him again and he's actually forgotten his face, if he's honest. It's been four years and that had been only one glimpse, back then. He doesn't go with the Zen'in anywhere and Naoya commented, when Satoru had mentioned it, that he'd left, probably because those stupid traditionalists were treating him like he's worth less than nothing. In a system relying completely on strength, where people are seen as weapons and tools, can Satoru truly just live his life and 'make the best of it'?
"I would change it," he says, more to himself than Ryou, but his friend hears him and makes a questioning noise. "I will change it."
Ryou laughs. "Yeah, if you were one of us, I bet you would. You'd probably make a far better future for us all."
'If I were human, huh?' He mused in his thoughts, only humming in reply, the rest of their journey to Ryou's house spent in silence, contemplative on Satoru's side and content one on Ryou's. 'Only if I were human ...'
Why do those words resonate so much?