Day 12: "Left to Suffer"
Whumptober 2024 Prompt: Isolation / Confinement / Helplessness
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Gojo Satoru had always prided himself on his strength. The strongest sorcerer. The man who stood at the top, untouchable, unrivaled. His whole life, he had walked with confidence, a quiet arrogance in the way he carried himself because he knew—no one could challenge him.
And now, that same man sat in the endless dark of the Prison Realm, his eyes half-lidded, staring into nothing. Time had no meaning here. Days blurred into weeks, weeks into months, but it could have been years for all Gojo knew.
He had lost count.
The silence was maddening. The isolation was suffocating. There was no sound, no sensation, no movement in this void. Nothing but his own thoughts, which turned against him more viciously with each passing moment.
𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘐 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦?
𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦?
𝘋𝘪𝘥 𝘐 𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮?
Gojo closed his eyes, leaning his head back against the invisible barrier that confined him. He couldn't feel the outside world, couldn't reach it, couldn't even break free. The limits of his power—the power he once thought to be limitless—had never felt so painfully clear.
He could still remember the moment it happened. The look on Suguru's face—the face of the friend he had lost and the enemy he couldn't defeat. He had been so certain, so sure that nothing could trap him. But the Prison Realm wasn't something he could overpower. It wasn't something he could shatter with brute strength or precision technique.
It was inescapable. A cage meant for 𝘩𝘪𝘮.
Gojo pressed his lips into a thin line, his chest tightening as memories flashed through his mind. He thought of his students—Yuji, Megumi, Nobara. He thought of Nanami and Shoko, the colleagues who had always stood by him, even when they doubted him. He thought of all the people who had counted on him, who had trusted him to be there, to protect them.
And now… he was gone.
He could still see their faces in his mind's eye, the way they had looked at him with a mixture of awe and trust. The way they had relied on him to lead them, to guide them. What would they do now? What were they doing? Had they survived without him?
Gojo's fists clenched in his lap, the feeling of helplessness washing over him like a tidal wave. It was a foreign sensation, one he hadn't felt in years. But here, in this endless prison, with no way to break free, he was powerless.
And the longer he sat in the silence, the more his mind betrayed him.
They've forgotten you by now, a voice whispered in the back of his head. They've moved on. You were always a little too much for them, anyway.
He shook his head, trying to dispel the thoughts, but they clung to him like shadows. The isolation was doing something to him, something he couldn't control. It was breaking him down, piece by piece, until there was nothing left but the doubts he had never allowed himself to entertain.
𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦?
𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺'𝘷𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳?
Gojo bit down on the inside of his cheek, the sharp pain grounding him for a moment. He wouldn't believe that. He couldn't. His students… they were resilient. They were strong. But they still needed him. They had to.
But the longer he stayed trapped in this void, the harder it was to hold on to that belief.
He had always been surrounded by people, always in the spotlight, always at the center of everything. He had grown accustomed to it, to the noise, the chaos, the constant buzz of life around him. And now, without it, the silence was unbearable.
For the first time in years, Gojo felt small. Insignificant. Alone.
The weight of it pressed down on him, suffocating in its intensity. He had always been the one to push others away, to keep them at arm's length. But now… he craved their presence. He wanted to hear Megumi's quiet sarcasm, Yuji's bright laughter, Nobara's sharp tongue. He wanted to hear Shoko's deadpan remarks, to see Nanami roll his eyes at him one more time.
He wanted to be out there, with them.
But he couldn't be.
Gojo swallowed hard, his throat dry as the reality of his situation settled over him like a heavy blanket. This was his fate. This was his punishment. The strongest sorcerer in the world, reduced to nothing more than a prisoner in a realm with no escape.
And the worst part was… no one was coming for him.
𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺'𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶.
The thought was cold, brutal, and it cut through him like a knife. He had always been the savior, the protector. But now… there was no one left to save him.
Gojo's chest tightened, a wave of sorrow and guilt washing over him. His students. His friends. He had promised to protect them. He had promised to be there for them.
And he had failed.
He had failed them all.
A single tear slipped down his cheek, the first he had shed in years, and he didn't bother wiping it away. There was no one here to see it, no one here to judge him. In this endless void, in this infinite isolation, he was nothing more than a man stripped of everything that made him who he was.
𝘐𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘪𝘵 𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴?
Gojo closed his eyes, the weight of his failure pressing down on him until it was almost too much to bear. He had always thought he could handle anything, that no cage could hold him, that no one could defeat him.
But now… in this prison… he wasn't sure anymore.
He wasn't sure of anything.
And in the suffocating silence of the Prison Realm, Gojo Satoru—the strongest sorcerer in the world—was utterly alone.
Forever.