It seems death wasn't for him. The Six Eyes opened up to the world of new possibilities and chaos. Now he needs to find a path to go back. If only he could stop collecting these kids along the way. Hence his over-dramatic heart. But he will do it. After all, he is The Honored One.
As if on cue, Satoru teleported to the spot where the bleeding boy had fallen and crouched slowly.
Did he injure himself while I was away? When I first found him there were only scratches on his body. Satoru thought, a thin line formed on his face. He didn't smile. No sign of his previous levity remained visible.
I had become overly excited about my new freedom, and it ended with me overlooking something so obvious? I got too preoccupied investigating my reason for popping up here. Satoru reflected, feeling the disappointed faces of his friends on the back.
In truth, it was the first time in a long time that he felt free to do as he pleased, 'Guess being out of THAT place made me a little careless.
Immediately after leaving the Prison Realm, he had to act against the fake Suguru and the King of Curses. Later after the fact, the higher-ups expected his immediate crackdown on Sukuna when the opportunity presented itself. That reminds me. I wasn't able to figure out how to free Megumi. He hoped his students would end the job and defeat Sukuna. The Curse King isn't unbeatable. That fight was the proof of that.
Gojo Satoru knew that best, wounding him greatly before his demise. Sukuna was a very strong Curse User. But foremost, he was a trickster using various methods to bring Satoru to the ground.
"Are you watching me now Suguru?" He wondered aloud, muttering while taking the kid into his arms.
Satoru watched the boy's chest slowly rise and fall, too slowly. The pulse gradually slowed down. He took in the sight before him and was upset that he couldn't teleport to Shoko. Everywhere there is fire. It would take too much time to look for a hospital as it is now.
The boy was, after all, an average human being without a shred of Cursed Energy in him. It wouldn't bring any good for Satoru to fiddle with his non-standard methods. He was the strongest, but even he had trouble using the Reverse Cursed Technique on another.
Not to mention that even with Six Eyes, I find it difficult to maintain control over this excessive energy. If Gojo Satoru were to release all the Cursed Energy stored in his body at this moment, the effects would result in greater harm to the city than the present.
"You." Satoru pointed his finger at the man in the coat before making a beckoning gesture, "Come here." No longer in the mood as he needed to rely on a man.
"I was about to do that." The man grumbled with annoyance, blood escaping his mouth as he spoke. The one he fought moments ago was still trying to stand, "If you didn't stop m—"
"Shut up," Satoru cut him off. He ignored the useless ramblings, not caring one bit, "You wanted to do something before I came around, didn't you?" The Sorcerer still recalled how these golden sparkles formed from the man's chest, "Take it out and get to it."
These ominously glittering mystical eyes prompted the man to move. He limped on his feet, glaring at the white-haired man with lethal intensity.
Satoru hardly felt threatened by this, having previously witnessed everything the man could offer in a fight.
He was surprised as the man made a motion with his hand and pressed it against his chest as his palm seemed to take out the golden light. The Six Eyes expanded as the object revealed itself in all its glory, previously the Sorcerer could only perceive it as a concentration of energy.
Positive Energy!? Satoru's brows rose with no small shock, Seeing the mass of concentrated energy swirling within. And in such quantities? What kind of Cursed Object is it to cause this aura? No, hold up.
His cursed eyes penetrated even further, intent on unraveling the secret. Concluding this is not Cursed Energy in the first place. "What is this?" He asked.
"Magical artifact," The black-haired man replied curtly and without much emotion, though Sorcerer already expected that. Even then, Satoru felt the man wasn't telling the whole truth. Magical, he tasted the word as the puzzle slowly but steadily formed a picture.
This thing was filled with similar foreign energy as was in the second abomination of the man's circulation. "Can it heal him?" Satoru gestured towards the boy.
"It has a healing factor but only for some time. I don't know for how long so we should hurry up." The man said as his coal eyes narrowed, "That being said, who are you? You were surprised when I mentioned it was 'magical', weren't you?"
It appeared he was more attentive than Satoru gave him credit for, "Ho~ You noticed?" The man stood warily, "I'm a Sorcerer. Gojo Satoru as I said before."
"Sorcerer?" Now it was the man's turn to look surprised. It was also the first time he lost composture during their talk.
"Yep~!" What Gojo Satoru didn't know was the context of what being a Sorcerer means.
It was nothing less than an equivalent for the title of True Magician.
Even for Kiritsugu Emiya, whose focus is on assassination rather than magical research and teachings, it's clear as day.
And it did make at least a good excuse for him to point it out, "That explains teleportation and things around you. Which one are you?"
"The strongest out here!" Satoru cheered like that explained everything, "Now heal the kid."
The man grunted in pain and attempted to do just that before his eyes suddenly rolled upwards, causing him to stumble and lose consciousness.
Satoru had no way of waking him up after that, nor did he have time to slap him repeatedly back to consciousness in the face. Seeing that he had no choice, the Sorcerer grabbed the edge of the mysterious artifact followed by the sensation of a tingling pull.
This thing, He stirred as though electrified, experiencing the drain on his power. It started feeding off my Cursed Energy. He thought, nearly dropping the said item. What made him keep it in hand was the reminder of its usage.
Swiftly acting he did the opposite of what the already unconscious man had done. Placing the artifact, Satoru was pleased to see how it fulfilled the intended effect and vanished in a golden light.
"Huh." Six Eyes scrutinized as the boy's wounds began to patch up in tiny bursts of bluish fire reflected in his cursed eyes. So the healing factor was true. It was fascinating to see how something other than RTC was at work. Satoru wondered what was hiding behind the radiant object.
It all spiraled wrong from there.
The boy suddenly began to convulse, squirming and twisting in the Sorcerer's arms. The sudden overflow caused Satoru's eyes to widen, This is!? Cursed Energy!? Not only that, it was something that man had as well. Did it awaken just now?
Cursed Energy began to fight for dominance over the body, filling it and ensuring that these points couldn't produce foreign energy.
He is dying.
Did it happen because my Cursed Energy was not accepted? Still adding to the second circulatory system, I didn't notice. It wasn't active at that time?
Satoru smiled despite the drop of sweat on his forehead.
"Man, I screwed up a big time Suguru. With what's going on, it won't be long before it finishes his body."
He needed to stabilize the output of Cursed Energy.
"I guess there is no choice." If he chooses to do nothing now, the kid will lose his life. And the Sorcerer called Satoru cannot accept the end of the game where someone dies because of him.
There is currently only one way to make it right. A pact made by Gojo Satoru's Cursed Energy itself.
Reaffirming this decision, Satoru concentrated his vast pool of Cursed Energy within and conveyed the message. With a surge of energy, Satoru joined it with the redhead.
"Now they just need to rest. Good work for bringing them here Gojo-san." The doctor then added, "Although what puzzles me is how the man had so many fractured ribs as well as a dislocated shoulder. It's like someone whacked him across the chest with a metal rod." He wondered.
"I wonder too~" Satoru said while making a pose to think about the possible circumstances, "Maybe he was crushed by the falling debris? Sounds like the only possible explanation."
"It does seem plausible enough." The doctor nodded tiredly with bugs under his eyes, eventually coming to the same conclusion.
"Leaving that aside, we didn't find matching blood samples in the database. Someone has to fill out the paperwork as well. It's basic stuff, unfortunately."
The man elaborated, "Someone has to testify for them. Anything will do. Whatever data is enough with the mess that the Fuyuki Fire has caused. Are you a relative?"
Satoru recalled seeing several fake IDs in the black-haired man's coat then a broad grin grew on his lips.
ㅤ
The boy woke up with weak movement, feeling something covering his body tightly. Forcing his muscles to move proved to be very difficult.
His vision adjusted to the brightness. The silhouette of a familiar white-haired man was revealed.
"Sa...toru-san." He rasped weakly. It was such a long time that he barely remembered how to speak.
"Satoru-san... did you defeat... that man?" The boy asked with a somehow still sleepy and tired expression. That was expected, considering what he came through and his injuries, "Are we safe?"
"Yep!" Satoru replied proudly, "I totally kicked his ass! Look, look at him!" He pointed at the shadow of the man lying in an infirmary bed bandaged.
Said man grunted something that suspiciously sounded like curses, "Could you stop talking about me? I told you I didn't have bad intentions. What was that meanless brawl for?"
"Jikes," Satoru looked far too innocent, clapping his hands together, "Now we can put everything behind us, so it's okay!"
Did he just ignore the question completely? Both boy and man thought as the weird man named Satoru Gojo started to jog to the nearby window before opening and letting light into the room.
Too bright!
"Now, now! No acting like shut-ins and wakey-wakey!" The Sorcerer called out, clearly taking pleasure from the way they covered their eyes.
He then walked near the currently sitting up redhead who looked at him with a quizzical expression, "So kid, are you feeling fine? You don't feel some stomachache or similar stuff? No feeling like your body is about to pop? Or that you're about to explode?"
The boy shook his head and wondered what the feeling of exploding was like. He didn't complain about anything alarming except maybe the empty feeling accompanying his stomach. What exactly does his savior have in mind? Overall, he couldn't name any issue.
"Hmm." The mystical man watched him silently with those blue eyes for a while, "Well, that's a good thing. I was worried for nothing. Your body seems to have stabilized." He nodded to himself thoughtfully before returning to his more cheerful mood.
"That being said guess we should figure out how to call you." Satoru clapped his hands, "After all, you don't remember anything, correct?"
Name.
He had it one, right...?
With that, a lost piece of memory, one that was gone forever seemed to nudge him.
"Shi..."
"Huh." The man heard his words, "Shi~? Is this how your name starts? Hmm, let's see. Shion...Shinsuke...Shinji..." Satoru tasted these names but none of them seemed to evoke any reaction from the boy, "Shinra...Shiro."
Amber eyes widened with a sudden rush of shattered recollection, "Shi...rou." For the first time since he forgot, there was a genuine emotion coming from them.
"Shirou!" A feminine voice called out, a shadowy figure showering him with human warmth.
The boy, feeling like years passed from that point, had shed fresh tears.
Shirou felt as if he had gotten back something lost a long time ago.
"Thank you Satoru-san." Words simply cannot describe the chaos of emotions the boy was experiencing internally, "C-can I hug you?"
"Kid, how can I refuse when you make a face like this?" Satoru gave up, feeling an arrow hitting him in the heart despite having Infinity constantly, "But only on one condition! Stop calling me '-san', it makes me feel like these old geezers." He shivered at the image of himself having a long beard.
The redhead had no idea who 'these geezers' were. If Satoru feared them, then Shirou agreed.
"Can I call you Satoru-niisan then?" Shirou asked.
Gojo Satoru's smile couldn't be wider at that moment. He deactivated Infinity and let himself be embraced by the boy.
ㅤ
"Do you know that when you slept I had to change your names in the registry because they were nowhere to be found in the medical data? Especially you Ki-ri-tsu-gu~!" Satoru battered every part of the name, grinning like the devil himself. It would take a fool not to notice that the man has done something mischievous.
His words made the man - Kiritsugu - alert.
"What are you talking about?" To say Kiritsugu had a bad feeling was an understatement. It felt like something big was about to drop. Cold sweat began to drop down his back, "What did you do?" His voice had an edge to it.
The newly-named Shirou was also curious, but unlike Kiritsugu he felt something tugging at his heart that wouldn't let him lie still, "What is it Satoru-niisan?" The Sorcerer smiled at him more lightly, ruffling his hair with what almost seemed like affection.
"Heh," Satoru didn't hesitate to drop the bomb right here, right now, "You two! Be proud to call yourselves members of the Gojo family now!"
"Gojo Kiritsugu and Gojo Shirou! Welcome to the Gojo family!"
"WHAT?!" The first to react was Kiritsugu who almost broke the bed by how much he was shaking from sheer fury. The only things keeping him from lashing out were the bandages his body was wrapped in.
"Jezz, I know you were going to be happy but well." Satoru blushed shyly, though Shirou thought it looked a bit fake, "I never thought it would bring that reaction. You should tone it down a little you know, otherwise I won't be able to save you from being taken to psychiatric wards." He winked to the nurses in the hallway who reddened at being addressed by him.
"I'm going to kill you."
"Hey!" Satoru took a step back, hurt, "I thought we were friends~!"
"I'm going to kill you." He repeated, already thinking about how to bomb Satoru.
The deathly threats coming from the Magus Killer himself were disregarded by Satoru sticking out his tongue, "Is it something you should be saying near the kid?" He spoke with a far too guiltless voice, "By the way, what are you going to do from this position?"
Kiritsugu appeared to gain some additional veins on his forehead while Gojo Satoru...
"Hehehehe!"
...was laughing in the background.
"Satoru-niisan." Shirou decided to voice the question that haunted him for a while, "Um, where are we going to live after this? Most of the city is destroyed."
"Now that's an excellent question Shirou-kun!" Satoru praised, rubbing his hands together with a secret smile behind it, "Of course, we will murder criminals and take their money to buy a mansion." Not a house, a mansion!?
"I see." Shirou nodded without much thought to it.
The Sorcerer grinned at that.
He proceed to do a fist bump with the boy before the voice from the corner of the room made its opinion known.
"Stop talking nonsense and corrupting him." Kiritsugu addressed the clown, showing his distaste while trying hard to keep a cool head, "Go away now. He is tired after everything that happened, don't you see?"
"Okay, Mr. Grumpy, destroyer of good fun! Children's smile killer." Before Kiritsugu could call him out on that, Satoru jumped through the window, "See you later! Have to do some sightseeing!" He waved and disappeared.
ㅤ
As Satoru-niisan left, the newly named Shirou was wondering about all that happened to him. Since the fire began and upon meeting the man with glowing blue eyes.
He couldn't remember anything of his previous surname except a single mention of his name, the source of one's identity. And while everyone was dying he was the one who survived.
Shirou turned to the illuminating light coming through the window. He stared at it without much change in his expression.
He is the sole survivor of this hell. To be the last one alive is the worst feeling, after all.
And yet, even in that place, a miracle occurred.
Under the glaring black sun, the boy accepted this vow. That he won't let such a tragedy happen ever again.
He will strive to become like the person who saved him, the strongest.
But for now – Shirou felt his eyelids forcefully closing – he must sleep.
Edit: Btw can someone tell me why the reviews don't show XD? Oh yeah, you can't because it's blocked (at least party, some are showing). Maybe it will unlock in the next week...