In The Galaxies Above, I Can Only See You.

Nanami had returned to the world of fighting Jujutsu tech recently. Getting to know the students who know came to the school and…

Meeting you all over again.

You had gone to Kyoto Prefecture back then, so seeing you hadn’t been too common. And you were slightly older so the meetings had been sparse but well received.

You’d been a much better upperclassman in comparison to the likes of Gojo after all. Smart, mature, friendly. It wasn’t hard for people from his own school to notice the crush he had for you, the slightly sadder look to his expression when you’d return with your school.

When he left, he’d wondered how you would have felt about it.

When he returned, he knew how you felt about it.

You knew Nanami, you knew being overly touchy wasn’t his sort of thing. So when you saw him again after all this time, you greeted him with that same smile.

“Nanami!” You had greeted him that day. “I’d heard rumours but I was worried I’d never see you again. Have you been readjusting to being back?”

It was basic niceties but fuck it made his chest tighten. He glanced away, mumbled his own greeting and quickly departed. Not that you ever questioned his stand offish personality. You’d only ever see him be the same, you could tell he did care in his own strange way.

Gojo watched the whole thing, with clenched teeth. He just wishes he could shove the man, make him actively say something.

Weeks pass, and you see each other far more frequently. The taller man being… completely lost on how to deal with it. He’d grown infatuated in occasional school visits but now… now that you were both grown up, and had all these assignments. It’s a little suffocating, but he feels almost addicted to the way his heart squeezes and beats harder every time you get time to talk, every time he gets to see you fight.

And he refuses to talk about it.

Much to Gojo’s dismay.

He can’t figure out why he’d want to actually act on his feelings. To maybe establish that connection with you. He’d rejoined to protect the people who can’t protect themselves, knowing full well an ordinary life would be hard to achieve. Nanami feels that strange longing in his whole being to take you to that life. Knowing that establishing a connection could just put both of you more in a dangerous spotlight.

He can’t help but imaging it, that vacation he’s always wanted. You by his side, a family maybe. As long as you’re by his side, it would probably feel like heaven on earth. Closing his eyes makes him imagine the idea of you up against his chest as you slept in.

Domestic daydreams that he knows wouldn’t be achieved anytime soon. Maybe not in this lifetime.

Maybe he should take that risk? Just for a taste of the life he’d wanted?

You could both protect each other.

Nanami knows. He knows if he wants a chance in hell of feeling normal again he has to talk to you.

But seeing you, bathed in sunset as you both enjoy the quiet before a mission?

He wants to feel that tightness at least one more time.

One more time before he reaches out to pull your hair out of your face.

“Hm?”

Nanami types away on his work laptop, sending all the twilight emails that realistically Gojo should be doing. Alas… the joys of working underneath the, as the problem described himself, “The greatest sorcerer that is, was, and will be.”

Nanami grunts in response to hearing the shrill bring of Gojo’s phone, accompanied by a arriving busy tone. Looking behind his shoulder… for once the man looks truly troubled.

“…Ah? Nanami, is something wrong?” The distraction asks softly, parting his ear and phone for a mere moment before harshly tapping at the small screen.

“Yes,” Nanami responds curtly. “You. I’ve never seen you be so desperate to have anyone talk to you. What’s wrong? One of your flings stop responding?”

There’s a long pause, Gojo staring down at his dimming screen. His lips pursing ever so slowly, slight changes that make Nanami raise an eyebrow in response.

All tension is dropped as Gojo goes up an octave with a dramatic sigh.

“I’m wounded! I’ll have you know I’m a sensitive man~!” Gojo exclaims, leaning back into his chair that leans with his body movements.

Nanami simply grunts in response, huffing to himself before returning to Gojo’s work. The man would never be serious with Nanami, and he’s well aware.

As Nanami’s attention swiftly returns to work, Gojo stares straight out of the large windows. The sun sets slowly in summer and even with his eyes covered, he can’t help but squint ever so slightly in response to the light.

His expression sours ever so slightly as he returns to the phone. You weren’t answering.

You hadn’t answered him.

For about a week now.

You both hadn’t been seeing each other for very long, not at all really. Just long enough that he felt hooked. Just long enough that this discrepancy felt just that tiny bit painful.

Actually… he would say more devastating.

Glancing over his shoulder to Nanami, Gojo is well aware of his reputation. Well aware that glances and light hearted flirts had become rumours that he was a womaniser who took any woman who would give him the time.

Of course, he knew it to be a lie. He was the greatest man, the strongest man. Why would he settle for just anyone? The flirting, the wry smiles, they were all fun but that was all it was.

The want to open himself to anyone, an ordinary person of all things? Pretty much unheard of.

Until he had met you.

It was something out of an awkward American romcom, the lame ones he’d watched back in the day. The ones he rolled his eyes at for being far too cheesy and fake for any real couple to get wrapped up in.

Until he had met you.

He harshly placed his phone on the wood table below him. How stupid to get involved with someone like that, how predictable they wouldn’t be able to handle him!

…

How oddly… charming in your mundane little ways.

How brave to disappear from the face of the earth from the one man who could easily track you down.

And yet?

He didn’t want to.

It was laughable really, he had faced horrors far greater than seeing your face again. Yet the whole concept of running into you, not knowing how you would react? It forced a pit in his gut that he’d never really felt before.

He felt sick.

He felt cold under the summer sunset.

Looking out again, watching the sharp shadows slowly make their way to the night… he can’t help but wonder. How are you feeling right now?

Do you not realise that you were a significant bump in the road of his life?

He inhales, imagining your scent for just a moment. Standing up, he forces those thoughts back as he lands a hearty pat on Nanami’s shoulder, causing the man below him to jump ever so slightly.

“What is it…?”

“I think we can leave the rest of this work till tomorrow.” Gojo responds with his usual grin, smile not reaching his covered eyes.

A thought in the back of his mind.

Times in the inner circle of Jujutsu sorcery was incredible, it felt like being in an entirely different planet than any other human being.

And ironically enough?

It was the largest curse you’d ever had to carry the burden of.

Growing up in a larger family, having the privilege of learning from your very birth… it’s a prestigious place to be. Even as a child, you knew this. It was hard, and you grew in every single way possible. As a woman? It was almost as if you had to work twice as hard to prove yourself.

Especially in the shadow of your at the time fiancé.

Suguru had always been a kind man, he was never the one you had to prove yourself to. In fact he had welcomed the engagement with open arms when it was announced to you both as teenagers. It almost felt like a classical romance story, he had never touched without asking. Never yelled, never even furrowed his eyebrows at you. He had been perfect, a daydream of a short lived relationship.

Then Riko Amanai happened.

Did you blame her? Not at all. No one was to blame, it had been a gut wrenching process to digest as your former fiancé explained everything to you in a new light. In a new, devastating way that made both of your lips curl ever so slightly in response to what had been aired out.

“Join me,” He stated calmly, no expression. Not even that smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “I trust you, we’ve known each other for a decade now. Even before our engagement, I know how vital you could be.”

A pause.

A long pause.

“…” A glance away from his eyes as you consider everything. The danger, the fact you will always… always be avoiding either of your families. The fact that this could be a new start.

A normal woman.

No fight for power, your problems could now become meaningless.

And that…

That made your chest feel lighter.

He hadn’t taken your answer with anger, you had told him should the time come? You would return, for him. However? You wished to become a phantom, to slink away into a new life that could perhaps grant you some happiness. True peace, perhaps.

He gave you a real smile, one last time before wishing you luck with this new chapter.

And then you were both gone.

Unlike Suguru, you moved away. Far, far away. Out into the countryside. It was peaceful and quiet, religious, yes but it was a town full of the elderly. They took a liking to your politeness, something you’d learned to turn on masterfully with your family. You took up a simple life, working from home and gardening on weekends.

And this year was no different.

And you hadn’t even been told of what happened to Suguru.

~ ~ ~

Kenjaku had been feeling a memory from Suguru’s body, a familiar scent that awakened a thought into a new entity. He knew it was important, as it sent a shiver up Suguru’s spine. It drove him crazy sometimes, fleeting reminders of your memory would make the body he’d taken feel all fluttery and strange. Unsure if it was a positive or a negative emotion… he decided to investigate in the small amount of Suguru’s belongings he had kept.

Rifling through the small box, (he always kept mementos of his victims lives) his hands accidentally cut themselves against a small polaroid photo. The body flinches, but his face doesn’t react.

Picking up the photo… he can feel what’s left of the man react to what is a photo of the two of you as teens, sitting together.

“Oh.”

~ ~ ~

The spring had settled into your village quickly, the late morning sun basking your features as you smile softly. Small wrinkles forming under your eyes as your mundane life continued to give you such small pleasures. The small garden around your property beginning to bloom with colour as your bare feet pad against the wooden flooring.

The screen door left open as the scent of herbal tea wafts through the home.

Meanwhile the town below your home, at the base of the little hill that sprawled across the country side had felt shrouded in darkness in comparison. The older folks mumbling amongst themselves that they couldn’t help but feel something was going to happen. Simply superstition, that’s what you would have probably told them.

Suguru Geto holds a thin sheet of paper between his finger tips. Eyes roaming past the cosy town and its wary people to see your home, or at least what the information he’s tracked down to be your home.

His geta clicks softly against the aged stone stairs that will lead him to you. Expression blank as even Kenjaku feels a strange sense of… anxiety. It’s only because he wants this feeling to end.

No matter the cost.

He can’t help but chuckle as he sees the open screen doors, reckoning you’d grown too comfortable thinking no one would ever find you. Or perhaps you’d have thought yourself too clever to be tracked down?

The smell of herbal tea briefly hits his nose, and that’s it.

That’s you.

He openly lets himself onto your property, careful of the intricately planted flowers blooming around his feet but not quite careful enough to bother with another route.

The home feels like what he had expected. Stepping up onto the wood panels your bare feet had just recently sprinted from to ensure you had that same tea he could sense before him. Willingly walking through the open doors, he sees the colour of your hair. Nothing had changed, only the very slight aging of your features. It made you look more mature from what small memory Kenjaku had access to.

He watches quietly at the grip on the tea pot in your hand strengthens for just a moment. Wide eyes taking in his vision. Almost as if he were a holy figure, though…

Suguru perhaps certainly thought himself as one.

“…I…” Comes a quiet stammer as you slowly approach, placing down the teapot gently. “it’s been-“

“About ten years.” He answers without much thought, he could feel the core of the soul he’d hijacked quake with the memory.

You falter for a moment, not even questioning his features. His new aura, the scars across his forehead.

You can’t help but fall for the fact your ex fiancé now stands before him, willingly throwing yourself against his chest. He almost falls, surprised by your reaction but feigns a delighted expression as he wraps his arms around you. It would almost be sweet, almost.

“…I’ve missed you.” He said quietly, as he feels your body move just a little bit slower.

You take a step back, regaining your composure as eyes run up his body. Almost like your judging his attire, but then.

Your eyes fixate on his forehead.

It’s like watching the gears turn in your pretty little head, like your logical side is very slowly pulling back your emotions. It’s fascinating really.

“…Why are you here?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” He asks, feeling the core of his body try to resist the dark urges Kenjaku forces upon it. Feeling the soul fail to control any remaining sense of self.