In the Year 2005
"Can we leave already?" Gojo whined.
"Awww. Are you questioning your existence because Utahime Senpai left?"
"Bullshit," Gojo grumbled, giving his cup full of warm flat coke a push with his fingers. The table was already so sticky it wouldn't have made a difference but he caught it before it spilled over, finding the soft squishiness of the plastic disgusting.
"Just have a drink, chill, relax," Shoko purred, so drunk she was a little cross-eyed.
"You're not funny," Gojo complained.
Non-sorcerers gave him the creeps. A whole penthouse full of loud, drunk non-sorcerer humans was bordering on terrifying. There was so much unchecked cursed energy! He was not having fun at this party.
"Always so rrrrrresponsible, our Gojo Satoru," she giggled. "You're a paragon of virtue, god bless."
Responsible? No, he just didn't feel like poisoning himself. The mission tomorrow was on, whether he had a headache or not. The ones in charge had no mercy. They'd put him in a car even if he were comatose and would just dump him at the mission location for him to do his thing. Or die.
"Hiiii!" A blond woman appeared in the door frame to leer at him. She was a foreigner from the looks of her, pretty, long legs, her big, round breasts almost popping out of her skimpy dress.
"Hiiii!" Shoko smiled back enthusiastically.
"My friend and I were wondering: Are you alone?" The blond woman ignored Shoko completely. Rude.
"No," Gojo pouted. "I'm not alone."
"Shaaaame," the blond pouted back, fluttered her eyelids at him, then staggered back into the living room when he did not start to signal any interest.
"Oh no, you chased another one away," Shoko giggled. "Dummy."
Gojo's irritation increased. He was not in the mood for flirting and he was definitely not in the mood for sex with a human. Non-sorcerers were touchy-feely, every single one of them, and he was obliged to turn his Infinity off when interacting with them so they wouldn't notice something about him was ... different. He felt naked and vulnerable without his Infinity even before getting naked. The worst? When they removed his glasses (and they all eventually did to fawn over his eyes). The type of cursed energy horny non-Sorcerers emitted felt like hot nails in his skull.
"I want to leave," he repeated.
What if he just went by himself? He was too exhausted to trust his teleporting skills. But they were somewhere in Tokyo, so it couldn't be that hard to take public transport back to school? He'd just have to ask someone for the fare money, no big deal.
"Bah," Shoko grabbed a bottle of Baileys from the kitchen counter to refill her cup. "Wait till Geto gets back. We can discuss our further plans then. It's Saturday and much too early to go back already!"
Where was Geto? Gojo craned his neck but there were so many people in this apartment, his Six Eyes could not make sense of anything.
"He's busy," Shoko added gravely. "Don't look."
Busy? With...? Oh. With somebody.
"Ah," Gojo pulled a face. There were things going on in the bedrooms, he had noticed that earlier. As if there weren't enough humans in the world yet, they always had to rut like animals at every opportunity.
Geto had recently told him he wanted to try and suck cursed energy off excited or overly emotional humans directly before a curse could manifest. They should spend some more time thinking about prevention, Geto had mused, to reduce their horrendous workload. It was intriguing. Gojo had tried to eat a curse, but in vain, and Geto had almost died of laughter when he had thrown up. At least Gojo could say with some authority now that curses tasted even worse than Geto had told him. Even just the memory made him gag.
"Don't tell me you are jealous?" Shoko fished a cigarette from her tiny black bag and fumbled around with the lighter. Her hands were shaking, she almost dropped it.
Jealous? Nah, Geto just knew how to have better fun than anybody else, that was something to admire, not be jealous of. Surely, it was because he had been brought up by non-Sorcerers, with none of that bullshit about "being important" Gojo had gotten hammered into him from the moment he had left his mother's womb.
It was funny, for weeks after school had started, he expected one of his uncles or aunts to appear and take him back to the Estate with them. Surely somebody had told them about the "bad influence" he was deliberately and enthusiastically subjecting himself to? But apparently, they were glad to be rid of him. They never visited. He never wrote, never called. He lived in the dorms and felt free for the first time in his life.
And still, his upbringing and lineage were like shackles he couldn't shake. Whatever he did, at the end of the day, he was still Gojo Satoru. The Heir. The Miracle. The One Whose Birth Had Changed the World.
"Man, you're gloomy as shit tonight," Shoko complained. "What is going on, Pretty Face? The last mission?"
People had died during the last mission, that's what she was alluding to. Gojo shrugged. No, he didn't care about normal humans and their pompous existence - they were all the same to him. But his performance had been the worst ever - and yes, that irked him. He might be called "the Strongest" by everybody but what good did that do if that title felt empty and underserved? Others like Geto grew every day, only he stood still.
"Don't push yourself so hard because of the reversed curse technique," Shoko reached forward to pat his hand, doing it enthusiastically when she found his Infinity off. "I worry about you. People have died because of it, okay? You're already wacko enough without frying your brain any further."
"Thanks," Gojo murmured sourly.
"And if you're in a bad mood because of Utahime Senpai... Yeah, she's pretty serious about that boyfriend of hers, get over it. She's not interested in you, Pup. Never was, never will be. Utahime Senpai has style!"
"I don't care," Gojo snapped but Shoko just lifted her eyebrows and tsk-tsked.
Yeah, okay. Maybe he did care. There were not many people in the world he liked to look at: Utahime was one of them. Everything about her was so soothing, like the chaos of the world stopped swirling when she was in front of him, she was balm for his soul. Her aura was a calming dark purple and he wanted to bathe in it.
The mystery of Utahime's covered up body haunted many of Gojo's nights. She probably didn't know that her prudish, traditional attire drove men wild. And that demure, correct attitude with a temper that simmered underneath like a volcano...? It was so fascinating when she got angry. Then, her aura turned from dark purple to vivid pink and he wanted to bathe in it even more.
Why did a splendid person like her choose to go out with a non-sorcerer? He just couldn't understand. He was a student, Geto had said after talking to him. Of electrical engineering. Why? Why was that interesting to her? Why did she let that ugly, powerless creature touch her?
"Humans are cute," Shoko sighed. "I really don't understand why you despise them so much!"
"I don't despise them," Gojo grumbled. "I just don't like them. They're weak and pathetic. And..."
His head snapped up. Geto was back! With a blond mooncalf man half his size who looked up at him like he was worshiping a god. Which technically... he was.
"Can I see you again?" The urgent question was accompanied by desperate clinging to Geto's arm.
"Of course," Geto's soothing voice was full of fake warmth as he gently disengaged his arm from the young man's grip. "Bye for now. I have your number."
He rolled his eyes as he sauntered towards Gojo and Shoko and let himself fall into an empty chair at the kitchen table.
"Uh boy," he sighed. "They're so excitable."
"Did it work?" Gojo asked.
"Please spare me the details," Shoko groaned, "I don't want to listen to your sexual exploits, it's disgusting."
"Now, now," Geto smiled at her. "It's about love and nothing about love is disgusting. You should try it sometimes."
"No, I wasn't asking about that," Gojo tried anew. "Did you try to suck cursed energy off him?"
"I did suck something off," Geto winked. "It was a little flabby but eventually, we got there."
"Gross!" Shoko complained again. "I said no details!"
"No," Gojo shook his head. "You misunderstand. Geto said he'd try to..."
"You don't have to be jealous, Shoko," Geto cut him off with an even broader grin. "I really don't discriminate. I told you before, if you want to sleep with me, just tell me!"
Shoko's eyes narrowed. "Like you could handle it."
"Oh yeah?" Geto's eyebrows moved up. "Why don't we try?"
"How desperate do you think I am? Have sex with you? Never!"
They stared at each other like they were seizing up an enemy before a fistfight. Gojo hated it when they stopped acknowledging his presence. He hated it when Geto began to tease Shoko about having sex with him (which he did quite frequently of late). It made him feel excluded. Besides - it would be so weird.
"I want to leave," he whined.
Geto looked at him, tilted his head. "What, you didn't score? You really need to relax, man. Being this tense has to be a medical condition."
"He's in a mood," Shoko sighed, their earlier feud forgotten already so she could side with Geto against Gojo. His friends were bullies and traitors and he didn't like them one bit.
"Oh," Geto scrunched up his face in sympathy. "You wanna try... this?"
He pulled a small plastic bag from his pockets and put it on the table. There were four red pills in there.
"What is..."
"No!" Shoko slapped Gojo's hand away and whisked the bag from the table. "Geto, you are so irresponsible, don't offer this stuff to him!"
"This stuff?" Geto laughed. "You don't even know what it is."
"I know it's going to hit him like a freight train, no matter what it is! Remember last time?"
"Some freight trains are gooooood," Geto grinned. "Give that back to me, I worked so hard for it."
He moaned the word 'hard' in an exaggerated manner and winked.
"Disgusting," Shoko hissed and threw the bag at Geto who caught it in midair. "Just get out of my sight!"
"Turn around then," Geto fished one pill out of the plastic and popped it into his mouth. "Where were we?"
"You were going to tell me whether you can drink cursed energy from the source before it manifests into an actual curse?"
"Ah," Geto drank from Gojo's cup, large, thirsty gulps until it was empty. "Nope. It doesn't work."
"Shame."
"Haha, Gojo," Geto laughed. "Don't sound so disappointed. Who cares."
"I just thought...," Gojo shrugged, "... that it would be nice to know how to stop curses from manifesting instead of having to exorcize them?"
"Yeah," Geto stretched. "I'm sure there's a way. But man, what would we do? We'd be out of a job! Don't you think that would suck?"
Gojo didn't think it would, no. He could imagine much more pleasant pastimes than exorcism to protect humans who weren't grateful for what was being done for them because they were so fucking clueless.
"You could work for one of my companies," Gojo offered.
"Ha!" Geto looked up at the ceiling for a bit. When he turned his eyes back at Gojo, his pupils were strangely dilated. "As what? Your assistant?"
"Uhm," Gojo had no idea how running a company worked. Other people in his family took care of that. His job was to be the Prodigy Heir.
"I could bring you coffee and keep you company," Geto exclaimed. "And didn't you say you had a huge manga collection? I want to read it all!"
"Yes, and we could..."
"Utahime Senpai!" Shoko sprang up so suddenly, Gojo got quite the fright.
"Hey, Shoko," Utahime smiled from the door.
Was she real? Gojo blinked his eyes but yes - Utahime. The most beautiful he had ever seen her. She was wearing a slightly out-of-fashion black sequin dress now and - Gojo's eyes felt like they were going to jump out of his skull - she had an hourglass figure, perfect tits, and lovely legs. Now his nights would be blessed by images of this.
"Why are you back?" Shoko exclaimed, holding on to the table so she wouldn't sway too much. "I thought you were going to go to the theater?"
"Haruhisa lost his phone," Utahime sighed. "Must have been here, so he's looking for it. I hope we can still get in even after it starts!"
"Gojo will help!" Geto grinned ferally and elbowed Gojo in the ribs. "Won't you?"
"Oh?" Utahime's brown eyes were cool and distrustful.
"Y... y... yes," Gojo stammered, "I can use the Six Eyes?"
"Ah," Utahime sniffed. "Thanks."
Only he couldn't really. Swallowing hard, Gojo tried to concentrate. He didn't even know what an inanimate object would look like in the great swirl of the universe? And one as small as a phone...? He took his glasses off, the onslaught of visual information started a low buzzing in his head.
"How do they work?" Utahime asked curiously.
She was standing so close he could smell the scent of her soap. Yuzu and jasmine. It did things to his head. And even if he had known the answer to her question (he didn't), Gojo couldn't have told her. His tongue was a useless piece of meat inside his mouth. Never before had she spoken to him like this. Like... like she actually wanted a conversation!
After what seemed to him like an agonizing eternity of crippling speechlessness, Utahime turned away and shrugged just as that boyfriend of hers burst through the door, waving a silver phone: "Uta! Uta, I found it! We can leave again."
"Ah, good!" She smiled. "Bye everyone! See you at school."
And that's how she disappeared a second time this evening.
"You can close your mouth, you idiot," Shoko slapped Gojo on the back. "Nobody would believe you're actually quite capable seeing you like this!"
"That was a failure," Geto giggled.
Gojo sat down on the white plastic chair abruptly and buried his face in his hands. This was now the worst night of his life.
"Don't worry," Geto's hand was warm and solid on his shoulder. "She might never love you, but I do, man. More than anything in the world."
"Leave him alone," Shoko snorted. "You're high as a kite."
"I want to leave," Gojo got up, pulling Geto to his feet too. "Can we please go now?"
