It's Thursday, May 12th, 5: 45 pm when Satoru knows they found him.
When he beamed away, he struggled for a bit on where to go. The particles in his body splitting and conjoined as he made stop after stop. He couldn't go to Suguru's he was reading a story to his kids. Nanami was working late, again. Yaga was never was a good talker. Meimei would just make it worse and home hasn't felt like home in ages.
So he just keeps making stop after stop, blimping in and out of existence until he's to tired to stand.
He ends up at Megumi's grave, the last place anyone would ever think to see him. He hasn't visited in years, purposedly doesn't visit. His own key to the gate was still polished, barely used.
So why come here? How could she know he would come here.
"Go away", Satoru mumbled, not even glancing up from his crouched position as he felt her curse energy get closer and closer.
He wishes she would listen, he prays she would listen.
But when he feels her cursed energy shyly entangle in his, when he hears her breathing get louder and louder, he knows she didn't.
A pity, and here he thought she might be his favorite fan.
He snaps his head to glare at Tsumiki when she sits down. Still in her same outfit from the day before she looked exhausted as she smiles up at him.
He doesn't meet it, his body already glowing, ready for his next beam.
Tsumiki rushes to stop him, her small hand immediately gripping his shoulder, "Please, don't leave. It took me a whole three-hour bike ride to get here and I'm way too tired to chase you down again. I'm sure your six eyes can tell but nobody else is here. Mr. Kusakabe and Miss Utahime are still in Kyoto with Mr. Gakuganji, I- just.. I want to talk".
Satoru frowns, she's not lying, no one else is here. Not a soul since it is private property and not a curse since he put a barrier.
But still, what was there talk about?
"I don't want to hear it", he mumbles, keeping his voice low and uninterested.
Tsumiki sighs," Yeah I kinda figured that", she mumbles picking at the grass as she fumbles for her next words, "But I also think the things we don't want to hear are probably the things we need to hear the most".
Satoru grimaces, he needs to hear it? What could she possibly say that he would need to hear? He can already guess what she's going to say.
'Sorry if it brings up old wounds but please let us dig up your dead child'.
Or maybe she'll say a different sorry.
Sorry our mistake.
Sorry for your loss.
He's not sure if he can hear that. Not again.
His train of thought is cut as Tsumiki fishes her cell phone out of her pocket, a black-haired child immediately showing up on the screen. Satoru doesn't want to look at it, he doesn't mean to, but the second he does, his heart nearly stops.
The kid is Satoru's spitting image, same nose, jaw, lips, eyes. God, those are his eyes, a bright electric blue that seems to pop and sparkle. On top of the kid's head is a mess a raven locks wild like Satoru but dark like Utahime's.
A present scowl is painted on the kid's face too, a scowl Gojo swears he's only seen on one other person.
No.
It's gotta be fake.
They must've photoshopped one of his childhood pictures. Or maybe the kid's technique is to shapeshift.
It's gotta be fake, there's no way.
"He looks just like you", Tsumiki starts, glancing at the photo herself with a soft serene smile, "I thought that ever since Kusakabe first brought him to me".
"It can't be", Gojo whispered, still not taking his eyes completely off of the photo. This kid, he looks just like him, just like them. But did that mean anything?
Could it mean anything when he literally found a piece of Megumi?
When he's standing at his child's grave.
Satoru sighs once more, rips his eyes away from the photo to glance back down at the single tombstone in the lot. The granite had recently been polished, lilies were placed down, next to ribbons, stuffed animals and toy cars.
Utahime had always taken such good care of her baby's resting place. Decorating the area like she used to Megumi's crib.
Ugh. Unfair all of it.
Gojo's eyes begin to water, the first full tears he's allowed in years."I don't even know why Hime's believing you guys, it's all so stupid", Satoru grumbles, his lips set in a pout, eyes still focused forwards on the grave in front of him.
Even as his vision begins to blur with it.
Still, next to him, Tsumiki says nothing, silently staring at the grave as well, her phone now black.
Finally, after seconds of just sitting and silently watching the sunset, Tsumiki places her arms over Gojo's shoulders, a full-on hug not interrupted by infinity, "I don't think it's stupid", she murmurs, then pauses as if she's unsure of her next words, "I've lost someone close to me before….and if there was a chance, even the smallest one that I could have them back, I would take it. I would believe in it", she finishes, her eyes still fixed at the sky, staring at memories that even six eyes couldn't see.
Not that Gojo tried. His mind and focus are still occupied with his own troubled thoughts.
He wishes it was Megumi, he wishes so much that it was. But he knew it wasn't and he thought it was so unfair for them to even let him wonder if it could be.
He was upset, angry, sad, and bitter.
He was so bitter, so very resentful that he wasn't strong enough. That he couldn't save his family.
Tsumiki was wrong, believing was stupid. So very stupid.
"What if you were wrong? What if all the hope was for nothing?"Gojo asked, his voice unsure, and spiteful.
A pressing glare etched on his face, piercing eyes staring right into Tsumiki's very soul.
But instead of wavering, instead of lying, Tsumiki just smiles, "Then at least I have the closure of knowing" she calmly chirps, humming as she to adds another flower to Megumi's grave.
So that brings Satoru to where he is now, in Shoko's infirmary a needle mark present on his left arm and a fidgety ex sitting to his right.
"It shouldn't be taking this long right", Utahime nervously asked as another second ticked by.
It had been fifty- seven minutes since Shoko retrieved the samples. Twenty- eight since she first announced she was starting the DNA test.
"This is why I would've rather we used the doctor I recommended", Kuskabe grumbled, exhaling as he once again glared Gojo's way. Unfortunately, the white-haired man doesn't bother mimicking the glare instead he sticks out his tongue and his middle finger.
Utahime stops her fidgeting just to sigh.
God, not again.
Satoru and Atsuya were clearly not seeing eye to eye
.
The two had been fighting ever since Gojo agreed to do the test. Both of them making demands and stipulations to one another.
If Gojo wanted Shoko to investigate and distribute the results. Then Kusakabe wanted Shoko to sign an NDA and be monitored.
If Kusakabe wanted Shoko monitored by one of his agents, then Gojo wanted Fushiguro to be tested without himself or Utahime present.
Tit for tat, if you will.
Provisions necessary for both of their cause, they swear.
Utahime thinks it's stupid, just boys measuring their control and power along with their dicks.
Gojo thinks she's better off not seeing what the kid looks like especially after she gets these results.
If they ever get the results.
He's not sure what's taking Shoko so long, is the monitor getting in her way?
Megumi's autopsy didn't take nearly this long, Shoko usually works faster.
Finally after what feels like hours of sitting, and fidgeting, and waiting, the doors to the lab open. A bulky guy in a suit trailing after a tired, slouched, and tear-heavy Shoko.
Oh no. Shoko never cries.
Gojo has never seen her cry.
Utahime falls the second she sees Shoko's eyes, her knees making a harsh crunch drowned out only by sobs.
No! No! No! No!
"I'm sorry. I'm so so sorry Uta", Shoko sniffed, wiping her face as she rushes over to Utahime. The black-haired beauty doesn't move, her own eyes glazed with tears and regret.
She thought it was Megumi…..she wanted it to be so bad.
Utahime sobs don't stop as she buries her head into Shoko's shoulder, mumbling about how could she be so stupid. How could she do this to herself again? Beside her Kusakabe curses.
He thought it was Megumi too. He really did.
As Atsuya talks to the side with his companion, Gojo peers over at Utahime. She looks destroyed, as pitiful as when she first found out Megumi had passed. Her eyes were puffy, face red, body hot, cursed energy swirling.
He wonders if this closure was worth it. If he hurt her more than helped her.
He wonders if he knew Megumi was gone, since he knew, why does it hurt more to know it again.
Why is he hurting from a fact that he himself had shouted.
Maybe Tsumiki was wrong, closure was stupid.
Believing too.
He sighs, rubs his eyes, and tries to steady his heartbeat. It's best to at least act like he isn't affected. Shoko then turns her teary eyes to him and pulls him into a dreadful hug along with Utahime. He staggers, and pushes at the both of them, the body heat and his own anger just too much.
It doesn't take a lot of strength for him to distance himself, doesn't even take a lot of time.
That next second he is a foot away, his own face colored red, headache pressing, eyes shut.
He hates this so much.
He wishes he never agreed to it.
He hates this.
And then Shoko's words hit his ears.
And then believing suddenly doesn't seem as stupid.
"It's my fault I should checked harder, I didn't think he survived. When I found a bit of him in the curse's stomach, I thought he was gone. I'm so sorry guys, so sorry".
Time paused. The Earth stopped spinning. Oceans became deserts and the sky fell into the pits of both Utahime and Satoru's stomachs.
Utahime shakes her head, she's almost sure she's hearing things, her mind desperately pitching words she wants to hear. "Sho, are you saying-
"I ran the test eighteen times, it's not a doubt in my mind that kid is Megumi", Shoko asserted, forcefully pushing the file she had onto the floor and both of her friends back into her arms.
This time Satoru doesn't fight the hug, still puzzled and amazed and upset as he glances down at the file. Eighteen test, all of them positive, every single one. The ones against his blood, against Utahime's, against Megumi's jaw.
Positive.
He was wrong. He was so fucking wrong.
He hears Utahime choke out a sob, a full-on crybaby wail that he would've teased her about if he didn't echo it.
Megumi was alive. He was alive. His perfect little angel, their blessing.
Satoru couldn't fight his tears nor his grin.
Their baby was alive, he was just in this very room.
Wait.
In that second Gojo didn't even think, his body morphing and fazing as the two women beside him still wept. Kusakabe had no time to react, his immediate yell for Gojo to stop was cut as the white-haired man disappeared in a beam of light.
His bright wide smile, the last piece of him to leave their sights.
Yaya New Chappie Alert!
And it's a shortie, sorry about that lol. It just felt right to end it on another teleportation lol. So far every chapter has ended with Gojo beaming away though I'm not sure if he'll really be able to run away like this much in the future lol. He's gotta responsibilities again! Speaking of which was anybody surprised Megumi was the Suns of Shiro captive? I mean not much of a shocker that he's alive right, but I do hope I did make some of y'all sweat with the back-and-forth anticipation.
Also, I really enjoyed writing the budding friendship of Gojo and Tsumiki. Tsumiki is just a ray of sunshine character that I love to incorporate. Though to be clear for the purpose of this story she is clearly not related to Megumi in any way. She literally is just the owner of the orphanage he is being kept at, a foster mother if you will. Though I'm sure you can probably guess that's gonna be an issue now that his bio mama knows he's alive as well as our ever so lovable bio dad.
The next chapter is exciting cause I'm officially introducing Megumi to his parents. Already writing it because I've been dying to write some of Megumi's point of view. I can't wait till y'all read it.
Anyway though, please do let me know what you think of chapter 3. Thanks once again for reading!