CH. 19 'You shouldn't have been so reckless' OR 'Did you know?' ? *

It hadn't been planned and was a spur of the moment decision for Gojo, but as things had gone south in their talk, he felt like he'd lost Rinami. While he could have lived with that if he had to, he couldn't live with her going back to Sukuna, or the force that it may have taken to try to stop her any other way. He'd be damned if she followed the path of Suguru, and whether Sukuna really did love her or not, one thing was certain: if something wasn't done, he would still drag her into the dark with him. Gojo would die first before he just sat back and watched it happen.

He brought Rinami back to the high school and took her to one of the nicer cells used to hold jujutsu sorcerers. These cells were fortified with barriers that nullified all cursed techniques and powers. Even his. He thought this would be necessary since he had no clue just what the extent of her power was and he didn't want to be blind sided by it.

He laid her down on the bed in the room and watched her while she slept. He knew she would be furious when she woke but at the moment she looked like an angel. How many nights had he spent watching her sleep? Their time together had been somewhat unorthodox. They had never officially labeled themselves as a couple but he'd found himself at Rin's place or her at his, more often than not.

Once they'd began seeing each other seriously and they'd decided to stop trying to hide it, unless one of them was on a long-distance mission, they spent almost every night together. They had never crossed the intimacy line into sex, but it wasn't for lack of desire. Rin had made it clear to him that she wanted to. He recalled kissing her and touching the softness of her body, wanting desperately to get closer to her, but every time they would get close, a thought of Geto would pop in his mind and he would drop her like a hot potato.

It was only Rin. He'd had plenty of women before her (and a few after), but this issue had only ever come up with her. He'd realized that it was hurting her feelings and making her feel like something was wrong with her, but he couldn't stop it. The guilt in his conscience had kept blocking him from being able to be fully intimate and cross that line with her no matter how badly he wanted it.

Gojo ran his hands through his hair in frustration. It's what had made Sukuna's words to him so much more vile. To think that it had been him to get to her first. It actually made Gojo shake in rage when he thought about it. After their first conversation, Gojo had been blinded with fury and had done so much damage to the training ground that it had been rendered completely unusable and unrepairable.

Even now when he thought about the two of them… Sweat broke out on his forehead and anger gripped his chest like a vice. Sukuna of all people. Sukuna. Sukuna. Gojo looked down, realizing that he had destroyed the arm of the chair that he was sitting in. Trying to steady his breathing, he looked up to see Rinami still laying down but with her eyes wide open staring at him quietly.

Gojo jumped up. "Look Rin, I know you're probably upset, but let me explain-"

"Don't bother." she said blandly, sitting up and taking a look around the room.

"How long do you plan to keep me here?"

Gojo slumped over. "I don't know. To tell you the truth this wasn't planned or particularly well thought out."

Rinami snorted and pulled her legs under her chin, wrapping her arms around them. "Yeah, you don't say - I bet it wasn't. Did you stop to think about what Sukuna will do when he finds out?"

Gojo sat up. "What do you mean?"

Rinami looked at him quizzically. "I mean, whether you believe it or not, he does care about me. Even as angry as I was, he won't believe that I ran off on him, and when he realizes that I've been taken he's going to burn the whole city down to find me and make you pay."

Gojo gave her an odd look. "Is that what you want Rin?"

She lowered her brows at him. "Don't be stupid Gojo. Of course not. I'm just stating facts. You shouldn't have been so reckless."

"Well, we both know if he does, then I'll just stop him. I can definitely kill him." He stopped talking and looked at her. "Are you okay with that?"

Rinami met his gaze, understanding the hidden meaning behind the question. Whose side are you on? That's what he's really asking she thought. She didn't intend to choose sides, not unless she was really forced to that is. Still, a direct answer was needed.

"No. No, I'm not okay with that."

Gojo blinked and sat back "I kind of figured that. I was hoping it wasn't the case, but at this point…" He shrugged. "I figured, how could it not be…?" He leaned back in the chair and kicked his feet up on a nearby table.

"I guess the next question becomes what to do about that then?"

Suddenly the alarms in the cell began blaring. Gojo dropped his feet back to the ground and sat up straight looking over at Rinami.

"Wow, well whaddya know? Do you suppose he's already here?"

She shrugged nonchalantly, her eyes fixed on him. Gojo moved to get up towards the door, but Rinami stopped him. "Stay here with me... please." She looked at him with gently pleading eyes. "I really doubt he's arrived this fast, but let's face it, if he did, then he'll find his way here- you won't need to go looking for him"

Gojo looked at her, he wasn't sure he really understood the reasoning behind the request. Was she worried that he would kill Sukuna if he left? Did she want to make sure that he couldn't? Either way, he didn't see the harm in sticking around for now.

A few moments later the alarm stopped and an announcement came through. It was simply a false alarm. Everything had now been checked and was under control. Odd, Gojo thought to himself. Not like we get a lot of those. Could it really just be coincidental?

Gojo looked over at Rinami, but she was staring blankly into the room, seemingly lost in her own thoughts. Suddenly she called out to him. "Satoru…"

He looked up. Slowly she stepped down from the bed and walked over to where he sat.

"I said I didn't want to hear your story. I still don't. But… tell me the truth about one thing…" She swallowed and looked away. "Your conversation with Sukuna, he said some things that I didn't understand… Will you…" She bit her lip and Gojo could see that iit was trembling slightly as she paused and turned her head towards him, her eyes still downcast. "..Will you tell me truthfully… how you felt about me, then and now?"

Her eyes drifted around the floor, unable to come up and meet his. Gojo took a deep breath of air. He really didn't want to. He couldn't see any good that could come of it at this point. However maybe this was supposed to be his penance for all the shit that he'd done to her. Maybe it even brought her one step closer to one day forgiving him for it, or at least maybe just one small step away from Sukuna. Any of those possibilities would be justification enough. He reached up and removed his blindfold, then delicately grasped her chin with his fingertips and tilted her face towards him, allowing her to see his eyes as he spoke.

"I love you Rin. I loved you then but I was too stubborn and foolish to just come out and say it. In truth, I've loved you far longer than you know. I never stopped and I still continue to love you now, even knowing that you're supposedly in love with that reawakened nutjob." Gojo shrugged. "Like I said- I'm stupid. I'm not an easy guy to love. Hell, as I've been told, apparently, I'm not even that easy to like. I had someone as amazing as you and I made some really dumb choices and gave it all up. So I get to live with that. It is what it is, I guess. But that's your answer." he looked her straight in the eyes, determined that if nothing else she deserved to at least see the truth in his words.

Rinami stood quietly as he finished talking. She chewed on her lip as she obviously considered her next words. Finally, she looked back to Gojo. "Did you know?" She asked quietly.

Gojo frowned. "I don't follow. Know what exactly?"

Rinami took a deep breath. "That day at the office...with the soup… I'd just kind of realized it myself… I'd told myself that I would tell you but…" She trailed off and dropped her gaze to the floor. "I never had the chance. Though I wonder if maybe you already knew? … How I felt about you?" She lifted her head to look at him as he stared at her without comprehension.

Rinami took a step forward and reached out a hand, lightly placing the pads of her fingers on one of his cheeks. "Will you tell me? At the end - Did you know that I had already fallen in love with you?"

Gojo's eyes widened and he didn't bother trying to play it off. So he really was stupid. Now the level of her fury with him made a lot more sense. Sukuna was right, he actually had thrown it all away and he didn't even know he'd had it. Gojo gave a short shake of his head. "I didn't." Yeah, this one really hurt.

Rinami nodded. "Thank you Satoru." She hesitated and then cupping his face in her hands she leaned in and kissed him deeply on his mouth. Gojo momentarily flinched back in surprise. It was unexpected, but the taste of her mouth and the feel of her lips was exactly as he last remembered it. He closed his eyes and tried to ease the newly resurfaced pain of losing it all so long ago.

Slowly Rinami broke the kiss. She looked deep into his eyes, her own eyes sad as if what she was doing was painful for her. "I'll be honest too. I do love Sukuna, but I also still love you. I've tried so hard, but I haven't been able to stop. I wish I could, but nothing works." She took a small step back and began to slowly undress.

Gojo froze. What exactly was going on? "Rin. Look-" She silenced him with another kiss, taking his hand and placing it gently on her body, asking him silently to help undress her. Gojo hesitated, unsure of what to do. He could feel Rin's mouth on his and her slender hands touching his body, carefully undressing him as well. This seemed like a bad idea. Was he somehow taking advantage of her?

His hand moved on its own, sliding its way across the body that it hadn't touched in so many years, remembering the shape of her hips and the curve of her breasts. She moaned in his mouth as he touched her and the rest of his hesitance dissipated. Moving with swift ease, he undressed her then waited as she finished undressing him.

He carried her to the bed and laid her down. He didn't care if he wasn't her first, that didn't matter to him. He'd waited a long time to be with her, so if she was willing, he didn't want to wait any more. He'd never again let his guilt or his conscience keep him apart from her. He kissed from her ankle up and across her body, his hands exploring her as he went, enjoying the sounds of pleasure she made as he moved. As he looked into her eyes, he briefly thought he saw a shimmer of something that he couldn't quite make out, but she brought his mouth down and kissed him, and all other thoughts and reason left his mind.

As he settled himself between her legs, he looked at her one last time.

"Rin, I don't really want to, but I have to ask – are you really sure about this?"

Another shimmer across her copper eyes. Her lips slightly parted, her breathing shallow but rapid; those eyes locked with his as she gave a quick, firm nod, and he pushed forward into her. Her head rocked back at the impact and Gojo kissed her neck gently. He wasn't quite sure how they'd gotten here, but he wanted to savor it.

Pushing deeper, he placed his hands on the sides of her head and lifted so that he could see her face. Her eyes were squeezed shut as he moved deep inside her, her beautiful red-tinted hair was spread haphazardly around the bed in a way that he found so sexy it actually made him even harder. He closed his eyes and grunted at the feel of her clenching around him as he moved, he found her spot and her eyes flew open, her arms clutching his back as she arched into him crying his name out.

It crossed Gojo's mind that anyone could come in the cell at any time, this wasn't exactly a private room. The cells were guarded by at least two sentries who kept watch over the facility and should be making regular rounds, even now. Intersecting that thought he also subconsciously wondered about her use of the name 'Gojo' as she screamed out for him. How strange, he thought briefly, that in this moment she wouldn't use my name and call me Satoru. His focus quickly shifted back to more important matters as he felt Rinami's nails scraping across his back, the pain driving him mad with lust and pushing him into a frenzy. Pulling himself further up and pressing his body against hers, he began to fuck her with wild abandon on the bed.

Finally, he could hear her gasps in his ear and he knew she was getting close, he changed his angle and sped up his pace, drilling into that spot he'd located before and hitting it with everything he had until he felt her climax against him. As soon as she hit her peak and came down, he pushed in hard and came deep inside her. He realized there might be some serious repercussions for all of this, but he didn't care in the slightest. He'd personally deal with whatever came up, later.

Trying to catch his breath he looked back down at Rinami and again noticed the shimmer in her copper eyes. This time he saw a copper tear stream from one. Puzzled he pulled back a bit.

"Rin, are you good?"

'I'm sorry…" She sounded like she was crying but he didn't see any other tears. "Satoru I really am so sorry…". She was definitely crying. "I hope you'll understand and forgive me one day."

Gojo was now genuinely confused. Her mouth wasn't moving as she spoke to him and her voice sounded like it was surrounding him. What the fuck was actually going on? As he looked, Rinami herself began to shimmer, everything began to tilt before him, and… wait.. he wasn't on his hands, he was… sitting up…?

Blinking again, Gojo's eyes re-focused and he found himself staring at the ceiling of the cell that he'd been in with Rinami. A feeling of vertigo overcame him and once it passed, he realized he was in a chair, his head tilted back, with his hands behind him. Bound, behind him. Rinami sat nearby, tears streaming down her face, looking at him. He lifted his head and turned to train his blue eyes directly on her.

"Okay, what the actual fuck Rin?"

Her voice was shaky, and she sniffled as she tried to explain it to him. "I'm leaving Gojo. Well technically, I left, but I couldn't. I had to come back and apologize in person. I felt like absolute shit."

"What the hell are you talking about? What's going on?"

Rinami looked at him and then peered around the room.

"I don't know. Apparently whatever barriers you have in here don't seem to affect my powers.."

Gojo's eyes widened.

"When I was laying here earlier I could still sense your feelings. You were incredibly angry about something. I could feel it clearly and I realized that my powers were still active. I decided to test it with the alarm first…"

Gojo looked completely lost, and Rinami knew that his knowledge of her power was still limited to only the little that he'd known before and whatever scraps of information Sukuna had recently thrown to him. She decided that at the very least she owed him an explanation.

"My technique- I've almost fully mastered it now. I can manipulate other people's senses. What they taste, smell, hear, see, touch, and… feel..". She paused, looking uncomfortable.

"There wasn't actually an alarm going off. I sent the sound of one to your ears just to test if my powers were really working in here or not…" Rinami trailed off. Gojo was incredibly smart and she knew that it wouldn't take him long to figure out the rest.

He looked at her, disbelief splashed across his face.

"You've got to be kidding me. You can actually do that with your technique?"

Rinami nodded "That and a bit more- I can push those senses outwards to other people, but I can also pull those senses in from others as well. It's how I could see and hear what Sukuna did during your meeting."

Gojo dropped his head, understanding beginning to dawn on him. "So after the alarm…. That whole… thing… with you and I… none of that…?"

Tears again began to drop from Rinami's face as she shook her head.

"I'm so sorry! I needed to get your guard down so that I could bind you and disable the sentries."

The guards at the cell. No wonder no one had come to bother them or follow the noises. The only actual noises coming from the room would have been his, but the guards had already been taken care of anyways. Concerned, Gojo turned to Rinami.

"The guards… You didn't…?"

She shook her head emphatically. "Of course not. They're fine, I gave them visions too, and sent them on vacations ordered by Yaga.

Even Gojo had to grin. "Vacations? Really?"

Rinami gave a small smile through her tears "Yeah, I convinced them they were fully paid vacations. They're going to be so pissed when they get back…"

Gojo's smile fell. That meant she had ran two completely different illusions at the same time on three different people. "I had no idea you could do something like that. Sukuna said that you were really powerful, I just thought that he…" His face flushed. "That all felt so real. I mean all of it. I would never have guessed that… I mean even the..." His face colored bright red. "Just- none of it was real?"

Rinami's face also turned crimson, "Yeah, even that moment was part of the illusion. If it has to do with the senses I can control it." She didn't want to tell him exactly when the illusion had actually started though…

Gojo blew air up into his face. "So I guess that's what…like mental masturbation? How do you even use your power for that?"

Rinami's face went hot and she shot out of her seat. "I honestly just let the scenario play out. I didn't have any specific plan other than to distract you long enough to do what I needed to escape." She stammered.

Gojo looked her steadily in her eyes. "and yet… You're still here?"

Rinami looked back at him, the odd tear still occasionally falling down her face, but she wasn't bothering to wipe them. "Yeah. I was almost gone, but I had to come back and say it in person." She looked down and stumbled over the words. "I don't know if or when I'll ever see you again, so I had to do it now." She looked up at him again as she rose up. Giving him a sad smile she placed her hand on his cheek. "This was crummy and I feel like scum. I really am sorry Satoru, I hope you can forgive me for tricking you this way."

Without waiting for his response, she turned and left. She didn't have the backbone to tell him that she had only started the second illusion after she had kissed him and confessed her current love for him. It was probably for the best that he'd assumed it had all been an illusion. She had no intention of correcting that error and was perfectly content to let that bit of information stay buried.

Closing the door behind her, Rinami sprinted down the hall and out of the campus cells. She knew better than to underestimate Gojo. Even in that room and with those bindings, he wouldn't be held helpless for very long.

*8*8*8*

After Rinami left the room, Gojo sat for a moment, still reeling from everything she had said. He wasn't sure how he felt about any of it. Angry? He supposed. It was a really nasty trick to play on him. Though he had to hand it to her, it was probably one of the best possible ways to really distract him and redirect his focus. Was he disappointed? No doubt. He'd been dreaming of that moment forever and now it hadn't actually even happened. Talk about a let down. Awestruck? Most definitely. He'd assumed Sukuna was just trying to talk big and scare him off, but it turns out he actually hadn't been exaggerating Rin's power. Depending on how she used it, that technique could be terrifying. Which brought him to the last emotion. Fear. He hated to admit it, but he was wrestling with fear also. A power like that was dangerous. She claimed she hadn't mastered it, but he couldn't imagine how much more there could be. If that wasn't mastery, then yeah, he worried about what it just might be capable of once she had actually achieved that goal.

He had touched her body, smelled her hair, tasted her mouth, heard her moans, saw her under him, and literally felt her body tighten up around him as he moved inside her. For all intents and purposes she had been there, when in truth there had actually been no one. She had basically created a reality that only impacted him. She hadn't used it to hurt him, but he was sure that it could just as easily have been used to inflict pain instead of pleasure.

The uses of a technique that could do something like that seemed endless. It definitely shouldn't be in the hands of someone like Sukuna. But that's where it was currently on its way back to right now. She said she loved Sukuna but what did that mean? What lengths would she actually go for someone she loved? Gojo shook his head as he also shook the binding from his arms, stretching his arms out as he stood.

Once upon a time he'd had a chance to maybe be someone she could have loved. He had a feeling that if he'd given her that chance, and he'd somehow have been lucky enough to have been deemed worthy, she would've gone to the ends of the earth for him. It's just who she was. How did Sukuna describe it? "Painfully Loyal" That realization hurt him. Now would she instead go to the ends of the earth for Sukuna, the devil himself, who was bent on destroying everything he could touch? If so, after getting a first-hand glimpse of what she could do, Gojo now believed that she could definitely grant him the extra power he needed to actually do so.

He flopped down on the bed. He really didn't want to, but he knew it was time to look at worst-case scenarios. If Rin was going to ride or die with Sukuna, would he actually be able to kill her if that's what it came down to? It wasn't a question that he was prepared to answer. He hadn't been able to kill Geto early on and many suffered because of it. Rin and Sukuna together could do damage hundreds of times worse than anything Geto could have dreamed. Could Gojo really still stand idly by again?