FLASHBACK: Rinami Senju Jujutsu High Year 2


Rinami Senju and Suguru Geto stood outside, leaning against the railings of the bleachers, watching Satoru Gojo training and showing off with Ieri Shoko. Rinami turned to Geto and rolled her eyes. "You know sometimes I wonder if the Six-eyes chose Saturo specifically because it could sense that he would be full of this next-level arrogance, or if this arrogance is simply a side effect of him having the six-eyes… Seriously, I don't think I'll ever meet someone as full of themselves as Satoru Gojo." She dropped her head in feigned disgust and then stared at Geto, shaking her head in pity. He grinned at her in return, a soft charming grin that always warmed her. "Honestly Suguru, how do you deal with him? The two of you… sometimes I think you must be a saint."

"Satoru isn't so bad. It's true, he thinks a lot of himself, but he does have some redeeming qualities."

Rinami leaned in front of his face and dropped her jaw wide in exaggeration.

Geto laughed softly. "Don't be so hard on him Rin."

Rinami straightened up and sighed. "Yeah, I know. He's agreed to help me with my touch training," She said seriously. "and that's a really big deal. I know he's busy with all of his assignments, so I do appreciate that he'd take the time to help me…"

She noticed Geto staring at her intently from the corner of her eye. She turned to him and he quickly faced forward, a small flush creeping up his neck. Rinami raised a brow.

"Are things okay with you Suguru? I know with Satoru so busy you've had to handle more missions on your own lately…"

She hesitated. Rinami wasn't incredibly close with Geto, but they talked often, and she did consider him a friend. However, recently he'd seemed a little 'different'. It had been hard for her to put her finger on just what it was though. "…you seem like maybe you've had something on your mind, or weighing on you maybe?"

Geto abruptly turned to look at her, his eyes widening. "You…see that…?"

Rinami nodded. "Something like that. Do you want to talk about it?"

Geto faced forward again, his eyes flitting in deep thought. As he turned to her with mouth opened, Gojo suddenly popped up between them. "Hey, so did you two see what I did there with the limitless technique? I've been practicing that and I think I've finally perfected it. Pretty amazing huh?" Gojo leaned in from the other side of the railing and smiled expectantly at the two of them.

Rinami cut her eyes coldly at him. "You're interrupting."

Gojo's expression didn't falter, and Rinami huffed at him. "You've got to be kidding. You're not seriously looking for an answer, are you?" When Gojo responded with a raise of his eyebrows and small shrug, she scowled at him. "You already know it's amazing Satoru, you don't really need me to say it and feed that beast of an ego of yours." Turning her head slightly, she muttered under her breath, "It's already bursting at the seams as it is…"

Geto looked at her and gave a light chuckle.

"Eh. I suppose. Amazing might be an understatement anyways…" Gojo seemed completely unfazed by Rinami's remarks. Shaking his head, he pulled out his phone and took a look at it. "Well…Sorry Suguru, I'm going to borrow Rin for her training now! We'll catch up with you in a bit, okay?" Without waiting for an answer, Gojo stuffed his phone back into his pocket and then grabbed Rin's hand- ignoring her involuntary flinch at the touch- and zipped off with her.

Geto frowned and stared at the area where they had disappeared. He was tired. So very tired. He sighed. Time to go prepare for his next mission.

Rinami always had mixed feelings about her training sessions with Satoru Gojo. On one hand, Gojo was the only one who could touch her without sending her into convulsions. She relished that. The intimate connection of physical touch was something that she cherished and enjoyed. On the other hand, she hated that it had to come from Gojo. She wasn't kidding when she'd told Geto that he was the most arrogant guy she'd ever met. She didn't actually hate him as a person, but dealing with him was such a pain.

Gojo had a god complex that often made her want to go into convulsions just so she wouldn't have to listen to him talk about how great he was. One time it had gotten so bad that she had even tried to do it. She'd actually attempted to throw herself into Geto's arms in order to induce her own convulsions. It was the time when Gojo had finally figured out how to run his Limitless technique non-stop and had then followed it up by refusing to stop talking about the awesomeness of it NON-STOP. Of course Geto had stopped her with his soft smile and calm words, and then led her away to cool off until Gojo's ego had deflated enough that it was safe to return. She often found herself wishing it was Geto with this power that could help her out instead of Gojo.

While Rinami typically found Gojo's lack of humility and constant posturing to be reminiscent of a gigantic flickering neon sign with no off-switch, she also couldn't deny that she had finally seen the Gojo that Geto seemed to know. The Satoru Gojo that was actually a decent person.

She'd had a small glimpse of him in Okinawa last year as she 'd briefly joined Nanami and Haibara on their mission to assist Gojo and Geto while they guarded the Star Plasma Vessel, Riko Amanai. While there, Rinami had taken a day to spend at the beach with them. It had been a beautiful day and she would forever remember it as the day that she finally realized that Satoru Gojo did in fact have a heart.

She remembered watching in quiet wonder as Gojo had gone out of his way to ensure that Riko's last day had been memorable and fun. She saw the toll that it took on him to keep his guard up and to keep that cheesy smile on his face in spite of it. When the young girl had expressed disappointment at the day ending, Rinami had watched in silent admiration as Gojo had been the one to press Geto to stay another day even though it meant that Gojo himself would spend yet another full day without sleep and forcing himself to exhaustion by continuously employing his limitless technique while watching over her. He had done that out of selflessness- for the sake of another person. It truthfully went against almost every single thing Rinami had ever thought about him.

Later, concerned about the fate of Tengen's young vessel, before Rinami departed she had hesitantly brought up her concerns for Riko to Geto. He'd then discretely advised her that Gojo had already brought the same concerns up to him, and assured Rinami that Gojo had promised they would personally make sure the girl was taken care of and wouldn't be forced to do anything she didn't want to. Rinami had left Okinawa with a vastly different outlook of Gojo and the hidden depths of his real personality.

She sighed thinking about it. Everything seemed to have changed after that day though. Shortly after Riko had died, both Gojo and Geto had become different. She wasn't certain if it was due to the fact that they had faced an opponent that had been able to best them -something that neither of them was familiar with- or if it was the loss of the girl that they had been charged with protecting, but it was easy for Rinami to see that something within both of them hadn't been the same since.

Gojo, who had been only mildly irritating before, had become full-on unbearable. His powers seemed to have increased exponentially and along with them so had his ego. He had become so full of himself now that he literally almost talked about nothing else. As for Geto… Geto's changes seemed to be internal. He was still kind, but Rinami felt overwhelming sadness, emptiness, and distance from him now. He'd smile at her the same, but it seemed to be missing something that it once held.

Yes, the changes between the two of them had been evident after the Tengen vessel incident, but now that Haibara had recently died… Rinami felt like nothing was the same for ANY of them, but Geto seemed to have really taken a turn for the worse. Yu's death has affected us all, but Suguru is definitely the most changed by it…

Rinami tried to pull herself back into focus. She needed to focus on training and getting stronger. Maybe if she had actually been able to help... As she was now, she was basically useless for most missions. Her control of cursed energy was extremely good and that made her somewhat useful, but unfortunately her issue with touching also made her a liability. She frowned wishing that she could be something more than a hindrance to her comrades.

Shaking off her negative thoughts, she looked up at Gojo who looked rather impatient at having his time wasted while she stood around spacing out. He's probably late for a dinner date, shopping, or something else just as insignificant or ridiculous she thought, rolling her eyes.

As she moved towards him, Rinami gave him a once over. There was no denying that Gojo was incredibly good looking. Nice build, handsome face, great smile, and those eyes of his of course. Those were beautiful whether he was using his Limitless technique or not. On top of his looks, he was crazy talented, and for all of his idiocy and foolish antics, he was actually a pretty smart guy. And not to forget- stupidly, excessively rich. It was really just too damn bad that he also happened to be a total ass.

She shook her head. Yeah, maybe she had found out that he did actually own a heart, but wrapped around it was still an ego-centric, over inflated, self-consumed, obnoxious, know-it-all, jerk, with entirely too much power.

She harrumphed as she reached him and gave him a 'whatever' shrug. Still, she thought, there are much worst people on earth to have this power than Satoru Gojo. He might be an arrogant asshole, but she felt certain that at least he wouldn't burn down the world just because he could. There were many others on this planet that she knew the same couldn't be said of.